Title: Their Buffy Anne (Ch. 25-30)
Author: Shawna
E-mail: smkraus1@juno.com
Couple: Willow/Tara, Xan/Anya, Buffy Harris/Ross, Giles/Buffy--Much, much later in the story...Want to know how? Gotta read all of this story!
Summery: Story takes place right after "The Gift" season 5. Buffy dies. Xander and Anya marry and to honor Buffy's memory names their daughter after Buffy. Interesting things happen....
Rating: PG13
Distribution: Want. Take. Have. Just let me know about it....
Disclaimer: Don't own....Everything is owned my Joss Whedon and everyone else who isn't me...
Feedback: Oh, YES!!! Please!!!
Note: I bow to the greatness of my beta...Thank you, sweetie...

A year later...

"She's a good Slayer and a wonderful daughter. Drives me crazy sometimes. But she's a good girl. You'd be proud of her. Very proud. Hell, Buffy, you would love her! I...um...I wish you could see her. Know her. "

Xander looked at the tombstone of one of his dearest friends. A strong gust of wind blew his way, making him quickly zip up his black jacket. He then continued in a gentle sad voice...

"Yesterday, was your birthday. I forgot all about it. Sorry, about that, Buff. I know it's been years since you passed away but...Still...I want you to know I remember...You are still in this heart of mine. Even when I forget things like your birthday. Though if you had lived, I'm sure I wouldn't have forgotten something so important. For I'd be too afraid of you kicking my ass."

"Giles still loves you, Buffy. It's amazing, that I never realized that when you were alive. But even after all these years he still loves you. Only you. Those are pretty flowers that he set upon your grave. You'd like them. They are small pink roses...I should have stopped and gotten you something also. Again with the sorry. Willow told me she had stopped by yesterday. She waited for Giles to leave before coming to talk to you. She said she waited a good hour, before getting to talk with you. She says it's sad at times because you never answer back....We all miss you. Damn, how we miss you."

Xander stopped and took a shaky deep breath. A tear rolled down his cheek. He wiped it away impatiently...

"About a week ago, my baby nearly died. These evil bad guys put her in a cage. She was suspended over a large deep pool. The chain broke and she...Oh, Buffy...She nearly drowned. Spike and Ross saved her. But she has been kinda distant since that has happened. I've been trying to get her to talk about it but..."

"I wish you were still around to talk to her about what happened. I mean, who else would be an expert on drowning? I really think she needs to talk about it, Buffy. Not hold any Slayer rage in. Maybe I should buy her a sledge hammer? Plus, some jerk gave my little Buffster her first broken heart. Steve Manners, is his name. He found out that she was a super power girl and said he didn't feel comfortable with her powers or the fact she didn't tell him about her being a Slayer. That she dared keep that a secret from him. Idiot! Hello! That's what having a secret identity is about! If I tie him up and put him in a cave with some hungry vampires, that wouldn't make me a killer, would it?"

"Oh! We have a new face in our group now. Cindy. Moved here from L.A. recently. Buffy saved her from some vampires and Cindy said she would really like a friend and she would also like to help that said friend. You'd like her. She's interesting. Her hair is pink and purple. She wears chains and has four nose rings. But she's young. Nice, girl. Is willing to research. I just hope she doesn't try to talk Buffy into dyeing her hair, ya know? My daughter has beautiful hair. Though I guess she'd look beautiful in green hair too, but...."

Xander sighed. He looked up and saw the beautiful awesome stars that twinkled in the black velvet sky. He felt at peace standing right here. He looked back at the tombstone and moved a little more closer.

"Everybody's fine. Dawn moved with her family to Cleveland. Before she moved she gave Buffy your diaries. I hope you don't mind and even if you did, it's not as if you will go all zombie and come out of the ground. Um...That's not going to happen, right?"

Xander gave a nervous laugh. He waited for a moment. Slowly he smiled a sad and regretful smile. "Bye, Buffy." He waited for a second as if he was waiting for a response. He turned around and walked away. Never looking back.

Buffy Anne Harris stepped out from behind the tree she'd been hiding behind. She waited for her Father to be long gone before she walked to the old Slayer's grave.

"Gee, I thought my Dad would *never* leave! Has he always been a such a talker?"

Suddenly, Buffy saw a vampire. Whipping out her stake, she fought him. In a matter of seconds she was spreading vampire ashes all over Buffy Anne Summers' grave...

Buffy dropped down to sit Indian style, she looked at the old tombstone in front of her.

"Okay, where were we before Dad so kindly interrupted us? Oh, yes, I remember. My short life flashed before my eyes and my last thought was, I'm going to die! Let me tell ya, I'm glad I was wrong! So, why does my Dad want to buy me a sledge hammer? I guess I haven't gotten to that part of your diaries. Right now, I'm on you burning down the school gym in L.A. You were a wild woman in your day, weren't ya? Man, I would get into so much trouble if I did that! And why is your diary written in want to be code?...Well, anyway, back to the story...Short life...Blah, blah, blah..."

Of course, another year goes by....

There was genuine warmth in Buffy's smile. Even covered in dirt and slime, she looked as if she just saved the world. Which not surprisingly, she had.

"You did it, Buffy! You did it!" Cindy shouted, giving her best friend a well deserved hug.

Buffy shook her head with a smile. "No, my friend, we all did it."

"Well, you were the major player in the battle of good and evil...You kicked evil's ass!" Cindy said with excitement filled eyes.

"Thanks. But, as I said, my family and best friend were right beside me fighting the good wacky fight!"

"Cindy?" Xander tapped her gently on the shoulder. Cindy turned around to face Buffy's father.

"Yes, Mr. Harris?"

"Don't be saying "ass"."

"Oh, right." Cindy looked at her mismatched shoes and shifted her feet. "Sorry about that Mr. Harris."

When she slowly looked up at him. Buffy's Dad gave her an encouraging smile. Cindy blushed and found herself wishing once more that she could have had a Father like him. Yeah, he thought girls should act and speak like Ladies but other than that he was, well, nice. Not a loud drunk who was never around to care about what she did. And when he was....No, she wasn't going to think about it....Sometimes she was envious of what her best friend had. She once told Buffy that. That day Buffy had put an arm around her shoulder's and said, "I'm a lucky girl and I know that. But Cindy, I don't mind sharing my family. With you, I don't mind at all." That day, Cindy knew she had finally found a place where she belonged and she liked that.

Anya started to dance around her daughter. Throwing her arms around Buffy and spinning her around and around. When the spinning stopped. Anya started to talk excitingly and look around at members of the Scooby Gang...

"Did you see that!?! Did you see my baby kill those big twenty foot fire breathing bunnies?!? And you people made fun of me all these years for being afraid of bunnies! SEE! I've been saying for years that bunnies were evil! All bunnies are evil! Especially, fire breathing ones! First they try to look cute, then they try to take over the world! Soon the small ones will gather and just watch, they will try to take over the universe! Just watch I tell ya! Bunnies are evil! They always have been and they always will be!"

"Don't freak Mom. I will continue to make the world safe from fire breathing bunnies and the small ones. Especially, those trying to end or take over the world. 'Cause trying to end the world is just plain wrong!"

Ross laughed and put a gentle yet strong hand upon her shoulder.

"You did good, Buffy."

"Thank you, Watcher-mine." Buffy looked around at her family. "You know what? I say it's party time...Pizza...Soda...Movies...Popcorn that has some weird funky smell to it..."

"Sounds fun..."

"We will all get together and hang! Sleep over at Buffy's!"

Giles came up to Buffy and said quietly..."Can I speak with you for a moment?"

"Sure, Uncle G-man!" Buffy let the gang go on ahead of her.

Giles gave a small smile. He looked at her for a long moment. They stood in motionless silence for a time. Suddenly, she was being hugged. She happily and lovingly returned it. After they finished hugging. Giles continued to stare at her.

Her face glowed with joy, happiness and excitement. She was also proud, as she should be. For he was very proud of her...

"I'm very proud of you, Buffy." Giles whispered. Emotion making his voice raw...

Buffy nodded. She gently placed a hand on his arm and gave it a squeeze...

"I love ya, Uncle G...And Uncle?"

"Yes?"

"Thanks."

"For what?" Giles asked curiously.

"For being here for me. For loving me. For being you...For...For being my hero. Showing me what a true hero is."

Giles looked at her in dazed disbelief.

"You're my hero, Uncle G. Surely, you know this, don't ya?"

"No, Buffy." Giles shook his head in denial. "I'm...I'm no hero."

Buffy could see that her Uncle Giles really believed this to be a fact. There was disbelief in his green eyes that stated this fact.

"Why do you still fight the darkness? The evil?" She asked gently and seriously.

"Because someone has too."

Buffy nodded as if that was the answer she was expecting.

"Do you *want* to fight the good fight or do you *have* to fight the good fight?"

Giles looked at her in true puzzlement. For no one had ever asked him that question before.

"W-What?"

"I *have* to fight because I'm the Slayer. I *have* too, Uncle G. You fight because you *want* too. Even back when you were fired you stayed and fought with your Slayer. Even when you didn't need too. You stayed. If Buffy Summers hadn't shown up in Sunnydale when she did I have a feeling' you'd have stayed and fought the evil in this hellish city. Because, *YOU*, Rupert Giles is a hero. You always will be. I just hope one day, I can be a true hero like you." Buffy reached up and kissed his cheek. She turned and quickly ran to catch up with her Watcher...Who was walking slowly with her family.

Giles watched in stunned silence as Buffy placed a hand upon her Watcher's arm and said something that made Ross laugh. With a shaking hand, he pressed his hand up against the cheek Buffy had just kissed. He could still feel the softness and the warmth of the light pressing of her lips against his cheek. His green eyes began to water. He heard a crunch of dry leaves being stepped upon behind him. He turned and looked.

At some point Xander had stayed behind. He smiled and nodded as he came beside the old Watcher.

"Aren't you coming? The we-saved-the-world-party, wouldn't be a party without you."

Giles slowly nodded. "I'm coming...Xander?"

"Yeah?"

Giles placed a hand upon the other man's shoulder.

"That's one hell of a daughter you got there."

Xander and Giles shared a smile. Xander placed an hand upon Giles' shoulder and gave it a pat.

"What? Are you just figuring out that my baby is a wonderful girl?"

"She's one of a kind, Xander." Giles' eyes sparkled.

"Yeah, that's the truth. Life is so much better because Buffy's in it..."

"That's the truth...That is indeed the truth."

Side by side they walked following their Buffy Anne from a distance...

Once again, time goes by...

Buffy Anne Harris put all the power she had into the punch. The dummy's straw head snapped off. She watched it hit the floor and roll. Without much thought she kicked the dummy's head. Smashing it against the training room's brick wall.

Buffy ran a hand through her dark silky, slightly wet hair and took a deep breath.

She didn't know her Uncle G was in the room until he spoke behind her. "Want to talk about it?"

Buffy gave a small jump and turned around.

"Uncle G! Don't you know you never sneak up on a pissed off Slayer?"

"I really shouldn't have been able to sneak up on you, as you put it. Now why is that?"

Giles walked slowly over to the old green sofa that had seen better days and sat down. Taking off his glasses he looked at Buffy. Waiting patiently for her answer.

Buffy came over and flopped down next to him. She looked down at her battle wrapped hands...

"I'm now nineteen." She said softly.

"Yes." Giles nodded and said just as softly.

She sighed and gave him a weak smile. "I haven't died, yet..."

"Thank God." Giles said with relief.

"I believe and hope that I get to live way past twenty-five."

She became quiet. Deep in thought. Giles knew that she was trying to find the right words to say...To try to explain what was really bothering her. Finally, she said reluctantly...

"When did you know you were in love with your Slayer?"

She turned her head to get a good look at him. To see his reaction. To judge it. To try to read the emotion that she knew would be there. To look into those beautiful green eyes for something that she longed to see in her own Watcher's eyes. Eyes so like Ross'. Uncle G's eyes looked so much like his...Even the slightly brown patch in one eye. Those sexy green eyes...Her Watcher. Her friend. A man she loved with all her heart. All her soul.

She could read surprise, regret and a longing sadness of things never met to be.

"One day, I just knew. I can't give you an exact date or time. But a part of me felt as if she was always a part of me. A part of my heart. A part of my soul. The other half that made me complete."

Buffy nodded, taking his hand and said gently...

"I understand, Uncle G."

Giles squeezed her hand.

"I believe you do, especially since you are a Slayer who is so much in love with her Watcher she can't stand it. I believe she yearns with all her being to be with him...To tell him of her love, yet is afraid of her love being rejected."

Buffy once again nodded and sighed. Then she realized what he had just said and now she wore an shocked expression.

"How did--"

"I know?" Giles finished the sentence for her and grinned mischievously at her..."Because, I'm a retired Watcher, who knows these things. For I've been there, bought the tacky orange T-shirt."

For the first time that night Buffy smiled. Then it faded.

"Do you think he could love me?"

"Yes, I believe my nephew could."

Buffy bit her lip hard. Wondering. Hoping. Still unsure.

"How? How do I ask him, Uncle G?"

His hand gave her yet another gently squeeze. A loving caring look was upon his face. He leaned forward to whisper.

"You'll find a way."

Buffy sucked in a shaky breath before admitting...."I'm scared. What if..."

"Buffy." Giles looked deeply into her brown eyes. "I fell madly in love with my Slayer. When she died a part of me died with her. I felt as if my whole world ended that terrible night. I still feel as if my heart is missing a very important piece. I-I deeply regret never telling her about my feelings. I just knew that I'd get an 'Eeew' out of her. I was sure she'd reject my love and my heart. But there's a part of me that was always whispering, 'what if'. What if she loved me back? What if she returned my kisses? 'What if..." Giles chuckled sadly. "Damn, Buffy. Being scared of the unknown is a normal human emotion. But sometimes you have got to over come that fear and see what happens. 'Cause just maybe...Just maybe you won't have to go through your life asking yourself 'what if' or regret, like your good old Uncle G, never telling that special someone that you love them."

Wonder sparkled from Buffy's eyes as she nodded.

"I should ask Ross if he can find love for me in that tweed-clad heart of his."

She reached over, hugged Giles and quickly kissed his cheek. Suddenly, she was up and gone from the training room. Giles sighed and weakly closed his eyes.

"I love you, Buffy Summers. I really do. I can say the words, I'm just saying them too...Too late." Giles said in a hoarse, tight, whispery voice.

Opening his eyes, he slid his glasses back on. He leaned back and stared at nothing. There was a distant, withdrawn look in his eyes as he thought about his 'what if's'...Mulling over thoughts of the woman he still loved...That he would always love...Knowing that she'd never know that she was forever in his heart, even after all these long empty years with out her...His Slayer would never know this old Watcher's heart belonged forever to his Buffy...

A year later...

Giles paced in the small waiting room. Anya watched him as she held her husband's hand tightly. Willow did the same with Tara's hand.

Cindy sat close to Mrs. Harris. Her eyes red with tears she had shed. Once and in a while Anya would place a comforting arm around her daughter's best friend and whisper words of encouragement. She would whisper that Buffy was going to be just fine. That everything would be alright. Cindy would nod, as another tear of worry fell down her cheek. She knew that Buffy's Mom wasn't just saying the words to convince Cindy that she'd be alright, but to also convince herself that everything would be okay. Spike held Cindy's hand and watched the pretty, neon purple haired girl sitting beside him.

Willow watched in silence as Ross also paced the room with Giles. The Watcher stopped for a moment and pulled out a pink handkerchief to clean his glasses. Willow smiled weakly. That silly pink handkerchief. It was pink because Buffy had 'accidently' washed her red panties and brand new red jeans in with some of Ross' whites.

No one in the family believed it was an accident. No matter how many times Buffy said it was. Mostly, because it was just like her to pull a prank. Especially, if she was a little mad at her boyfriend. Okay, furious with her boyfriend. About two months ago one of Ross' ex-girlfriends came to town and well...Let's just say, Buffy was *not* happy when the ex tried to take back her old boyfriend.

Though Buffy knew Ross loved her, but when she caught the ex trying to seduce her man by taking her clothes off. Buffy caught the ex kissing her Watcher in the nude. Though Ross was fully clothed and told Buffy he was *not* at any moment kissing his ex back... Buffy saw red. The Slayer had been furious. The dangerous kinda furious. Willow was surprised her wrath didn't turn the skies red with the anger radiating off of her. Buffy could have seriously hurt that woman. Luckily, Buffy didn't. For she left Ross' apartment in a hurry..

For a long time, she punished him with her silence. Hurting them both. But still she refused to say a word to Ross. That was when she turned all his handkerchiefs, shirts, and underwear pink. Willow fondly remembered what had happened a few days after Buffy did that. Ross was furious that she didn't trust him, that she refused to talk to him...Giles got mad at them. "You two *children*, come down with me to the basement, now!" Willow could still hear his stern voice...As he lead them to the Magic Box's basement. By the look on their faces, they knew they had pissed off the old Watcher royally. They had watched in stunned disbelief as Giles ranted at them. Saying that they were *NOT* acting as a Watcher and Slayer should be acting! Not even acting like a man and woman in love would act. To stop being bloody children! He told them that he was locking them down in the basement for a while, and to sort things out!

Willow smiled at that memory. When he come back up, into the shop she and Anya just looked at him.

"There's sewer access down in the basement, and my daughter can break down the door with her fist." Anya said in puzzlement, wondering if Giles had some how forgotten that.

Giles looked at the two women...Then he said quietly...

"If those two really love each other. If they really care about one another. They will work things out. Sometimes two people are just stubborn, and need a little push in the right direction. And if being locked together in a basement helps them talk to each other, is a push...Then I'm pushing like hell! They love each other, damn it! And they are staying together even if I have to dip them both in super glue and hold them together!"

Giles didn't have to dip them in super glue, the Watcher and the Slayer got back together. That same day...

Willow noticed that long after Ross placed his glasses back on, his hand toyed with the pink handkerchief. He was looking at it as if he himself was also remembering...

Willow leaned over and whispered in Tara's ear.

"My love, what time is it?"

"Ten minutes have past since you have last asked."

"Oh. What was the time ten minutes ago?"

Suddenly, the Doctor stepped into the waiting room. Everyone stood and faced the doctor anxiously. Holding their breath.

The Doctor looked at them. "Mr. and Mrs. Harris?"

"Yes! Yes..."

"Your daughter is going to be fine."

"Yes!"

"Alright!"

Cheers and hugs went around the waiting room. When the room quietened down some, the Doctor looked at Buffy's parents.

"It was a very serious operation that we performed. The girl is very lucky to be alive. Everything is good. She's resting and if you wish to see her, go ahead but please only one at a time."

He then turned and walked away. Stopping to talk to a nurse.

Xander looked at his dearest and long time friends...His true family.

"Come on, *everyone*."

"Um, Xander..." Willow said gently. "The doctor just said..."

"Little Buffy will want to see all of us, so all of us she'll see. No matter what the doctor says."

"Oh, Okay." Willow nodded. "Lead the way!"

And that is exactly what Xander did.

"Why are you making up that bed?" Buffy asked the other woman in the sunlit room.

The woman smiled and placed a wrinkled clean sheet upon the bed. She pulled one edge of the sheet over the mattress. She titled her head and looked over at Buffy.

"'Cause, it's *my* bed, Little Buf. I have to make my bed. I have too."

Buffy knew she was dreaming. She also knew that many times her dreams came true in some since or another. But this dream? This dream couldn't be prophetic. This dream was just weird. Kinda like the time she dreamed that a vampire wearing a pink tutu asked her to the prom. See that was weird. Yes, a guy that asked her out to the prom, before the date was turned into a vampire and tried to wreak havoc. Except, he didn't wear a pink tutu. But this dream was weirder then anything she'd ever dreamed.

Here she stood, in her hospital gown, in a room she'd never seen before. Looking at an unmade bed and the blonde that was trying to make it.

"Is this supposed to mean something?" Buffy asked curiously.

The other woman turned to face her. Her blue eyes sparkled with mischief and...Something else...They held a challenge....She was actually challenging Buffy to understand...To get this...But Buffy didn't understand she stood still, gazing at the strangely familiar figure before her trying to understand....

"You tell me, little Buf." The long-haired blonde asked. The woman let go of the blanket she was holding and slowly sat down on the bed. Buffy looked at her for a long moment. The blonde wore a white sweater and blue jeans. Buffy suddenly felt herself go cold, yet she wasn't sure way. Buffy took one step back.

"I can't tell you what I don't know."

The woman nodded as if she understood. She sighed...

"I used to have prophetic dreams and many times they had this bed in them. *My* bed in *my* room...Me and Faith, we made up this very bed together. She bled onto my clean sheets. I had to remake it. I still have to remake this bed." The blonde Slayer rubbed at a spot that only she could see.

Buffy took a hasty step forward and looked at the spot that the woman was rubbing.

"I never knew Faith."

The woman's eyes seemed to darken into a true saphire...They were sad eyes. Eyes that had seen heartache. Pain. Misery...Those blue eyes weren't just staring at Buffy, they were staring into her very soul.

The woman stood and walked up to her. She lightly caressed Buffy's cheek and whispered..."No, you never did."

"Just...Just as I have never known you."

A brilliant smiled lit up the other Slayer's face. "That's where you are wrong."

"But you're dead."

The blonde woman shook her head. "Nope, still wrong."

"Okay, see...I'm having a serious problem with this dream. Because, you, Buffy Summers are dead. Very dead! Six feet under the ground pushing up the daises dead."

"True. At *this* time I'm dead. Very dead, as you so graphically put it. But there is another time. Another path and when this time comes, you and only you, will know what to do."

"Do? I have to *do* something?" Buffy Harris looked at the other Slayer in confusion. "Do what?"

"You will love. You will reveal that love. For you, Buffy Anne Harris, are full of love. You know the *true* path."

"True path?"

"Love chooses it's own path. You see that path and you choose to walk it and one day soon you will show me that same path."

"It sounds like you already know that path."

"I have never walked the path with the one love chose for me. But I wish too. I long too. And *you* must show me."

Buffy Harris took a deep breath.

"Okay, even though you are making no sense. I had to go into surgery, 'cos the bad guys got me good. Maybe it was the drugs those doctor's gave me..."

Buffy Summers laughed and shook her head.

"No, Buf, it's not that. It's because we are Slayers. Chosen...Chosen to slay. Chosen to fight the good fight. Chosen to love...Please, Buf, show me the *true* path. The path that was meant to be."

"How?...How do I do this?"

"It will be revealed soon."

"Soon?"

"Yes, now come and help me make my bed."

"Why should *I* help you make *your* bed?"

"Because it's also *YOUR* bed. It will always be your bed."

Buffy Anne Summers leaned forward and took a blanket off the bed and handed it to Buffy Anne Harris...

At that exact moment, Buffy woke up to see her family staring down at her, as she lay in the hospital bed.

"Hey..." Buffy whispered to her loved ones.

"Hey, sweetie." Xander leaned over his daughter and gently placed a kiss upon her forehead. Then he caressed her cheek.

Buffy smiled and said softly..."I'm sorry."

"Sorry?" Ross asked as he picked up her hand to place a kiss onto her palm.

"I-I..Should...H-have been...M-more c-careful."

"You're alive that's *all* that matters!" Anya told her daughter with tears running down her cheeks.

"Uncle G?" Buffy asked looking over at Giles.

"Yes?"

"Do you know *why* the prophecy hasn't c-come to pass?"

"We are looking into it, Buffy." Giles said knowing exactly what the Slayer was talking about. "I-I'm not sure why...Maybe it's not...."

"A true prophecy? In the great book of prophecies? Every prophecy has been true." Ross said, raising his eyebrow at his uncle.

"Except Manya isn't a vampire, like the prophecy says she'd be. She's human! A Slayer! An evil Slayer raised by vampires to one day be their queen!" Buffy said sharply. Strength started to overcome her earlier feelings of weakness as rage filled Buffy.

"We'll do something." Willow quickly assured her.

"Yes, we will." Tara said, still holding Willow's hand.

"Nothing you can do will make Manya not be a Slayer. She nearly killed me tonight. She could still hurt..." Buffy stopped for a moment. Her eyes becoming furious black stones. "She's *not* laying a hand upon *any* of you."

"We are more worried about you." Spike said, his hand upon the cold silver railing. "You had *two* very open chances to--"

"To what? Kill a human being?" Buffy said harshly. Her eyes cold and determined. Her facial expression screamed that she was a Slayer.

"Buffy sometimes you have to--"

"To what, Uncle Spikey? Become a murder? A killer?"

"She's *EVIL*!" Spike screamed at her.

"She's *human*!" Buffy yelled back.

"Buffy, honey, don't go getting excited." Anya said gently caressing her daughter's forehead. "We'll deal with Manya some how. So no need to worry, okay?" With that said, Anya shot Spike a glare that made him keep his mouth closed for awhile.

"Okay..." Buffy responded with a grin as she watched her Mom intimidate the chipped vampire. She then turned her brown eyes toward Ross. Then she looked down at the blanket covering her still form. She started to trace a pattern into the woven blanket.

"Ross?"

"Yes, sweetheart?"

"Did you...um...I mean...Did you mean what you said to me when there was a huge chance that I'd you know...Die?"

Buffy was painfully aware of the sudden dreadful silence. Ross' hand tightened on hers.

"Do you really have to ask?"

"Yes." Buffy looked up to meet Ross' green eyes. "Yes, I do, Ross! A lot can be said in haste when you think someone is dying!"

Ross' expression became hooded as he asked..."Are you saying that you agreed to marry me because you thought you were dying?"

"No, damn it! I'm saying that you asked me because you thought I was dying and with me dead you wouldn't have to go through with it!"

Ross smiled...

"Don't say damn." He said before Xander could say anything. "You're crazy, you know that? I asked *you* to marry me because *I* love you and I want to live my life with you--Buffy Anne Harris. I want you to be my wife and one day even be the mother of our children...I want you beside me...To be with me...I asked you to be my wife not because you were going to die but because you were going to live..."

"Oh..." Buffy sighed with love shining in her eyes. "Kiss me, Watcher-mine."

"I don't know if I should, Buffy, you're weak and in a hospital bed--"

Buffy suddenly grabbed his shirt and twisted it with her fist, she moved him closer and placed his lips onto hers. Ross kissed her right back.

The gang looked at each other and shared some smiles. They quietly moved to leave except for Xander and Anya.

With love and tears of happiness sparkling from Anya's eyes she watched her daughter and the man her little baby loved. Anya's arms went around her husband and she hugged him tight.

"I remember the day you asked me to become your wife."

Xander slipped an arm around his wife and held her tight against him.

"Yeah, so do I. Kinda hard to forget with you slapping me."

"I only did that because I thought you were asking me because the world was ending and you wouldn't have to go through with it."

"I wasn't." A small smile of remembrance filled Xander's face.

"No, you weren't."

"I never regretted you saying yes."

"Me neither."

Xander leaned down and lovingly kissed his wife of many years. Then he looked up at Ross and his baby. They were still passionately kissing.

"Ross, remember, if you hurt my baby I own a construction company. I can hide your body under tons of cement. But not before I'd have some demon eat your eye balls and boil your flesh. I know some demons, Ross. Heck, I've met a cousin of Spike's that is married to a demon that would do all those things for free!...Oh, by the way, welcome to the family." With that said, Xander lead his wife out of the room.

A second later, Ross lifted his head. He gave his Slayer a wide-eyed look. "Did your Dad just say..."

"Yeah, he welcomed you into the family."

"B-But he said..."

"Ross, that's his way of saying that he approves..."

"Damn, I would hate to hear what he says to someone he disapproves of!"

"Sweetie, don't say damn." Buffy said smothering the urge to giggle. With that said, she reached once more for her Watcher's lips...

NEXT