That night, the twins lay awake in a small twin bed in their Uncle Xander's guest bedroom. They could hear Xander on the phone with someone. He said the name "Nancy" a few times, so the twins assumed it was a girl with that name.
"Nancy's my middle name!" Jennifer whispered to Jesse, as if this was the most exciting fact known to man.
"I know, you idiot." Jesse whispered back, in true five-year-old-boy fashion.
"Hey, it's supposed to be Kennedy we're mad at, not each other!" Jennifer whispered to him. "And Mom is also optional." She added, as an afterthought.
"Oh yeah, sorry." Jesse whispered, "This drama is too confusing for me and I'm losing track. It's making my brain hurt." He said, rubbing his head.
"It's ok." Jennifer whispered, "Do you think Mommy is?"
"What, hurting my brain?" Jesse asked, still whispering,
"No! I mean do you think Mommy's ok?" Jennifer asked, also still whispering.
"Well everyone keeps saying she is." Jesse whispered back,
"And you believe them?" Jennifer whispered, raising an eyebrow despite being in total darkness.
"Yes. No. Maybe. I dont kn- shut up!" Jesse stammered.
"So he doesn't want them, then?" They heard their Uncle Xander say from the living room to somebody on the phone.
Jesse and Jennifer stared at each other -or what they could make out of each other in the dark- and read each other's minds.
'It must be Daddy saying he doesn't want us!' Jesse thought to Jennifer.
Jennifer made that noise that kids make where they scrunch up their eyes and open their mouths just before they cry. Jesse slapped a hand over her mouth as they heard their godfather stop talking and beginning to walk up the stairs.
They both quickly pretended to be asleep, Jennifer lay horizontally across Jesse, something she often did in her sleep. Or she must've, because when their Uncle Xander opened the door and saw it, he chuckled lightly to himself and shut the door, before saying to the caller on the other end of the line "Yeah, they're asleep."
~
The next day, Giles arrived at Xander's apartment.
"Hey, come in." Xander said, gesturing for him to enter, "Can I get you anything? Let me guess, tea?"
"It's as if you know me." Giles said sarcastically, but there was no real heat to it.
His gaze softened when he saw the twins sitting on the couch, getting in a kiddie-fight over the toy firetruck. So far, Jennifer was winning.
"Give it!" Jesse demanded.
"Why should I?" Jennifer said, yanking it away from him.
"Because I'm a boy and you're a girl!" Jesse said, as if this logic made any sense to anyone that wasn't him.
"So!? You got first go of Mommy's makeup last week!" Jennifer yelled.
"Yeah, but-" Jesse stammered.
"Good morning, children." Giles said, tiredly cleaning his glasses on his shirt.
The twins suddenly paused and turned to face them, not even putting the object down or in Jennifer's case, get off the couch. "Hi Giles!" They said together, before getting back to their mini-World-War-Three.
"Are they like this all the time?" Xander asked, "Because, if Wil had to put up with this every day for almost five years-"
"I'm pretty sure their chaos caused her disruption even before they were born, Xander." Giles added, laughing lightly.
"Oh yeah! Remember that one time, like a week or two before the twins were born, but Willow was so dedicated to her learning, and during Willow and Buffy's class, when they were taking a silent exam and-" Xander began, laughing.
"Xander, do you..have a minute?" Giles asked Xander, gesturing to the spare room that the twins had 'slept' in the night before.
"Yeah, of course." Xander said, following Giles into the room.