Title: Let that be a Lesson to you…part 11/11
Author: Sweetdoggie
Disclaimer: No permission has been granted to use the characters. They are owned by their creator, Joss Whedon, Twentieth Century Fox, UPN, WB, and Mutant Enemy. This story is non-profit and is intended solely as entertainment. No copyright infringement is intended.
They dropped the children off the next morning at daycare and went to the courthouse to obtain a marriage license. The clerk didn’t blink. “Normally, I’d just mail this to you, but it’s slow this morning so I’m just going to type it up.” She entered their data into the computer and watched while the printer spit out their license. “That will be eighty dollars.”
“Is there a waiting period?” Giles asked as he handed over the money.
“No. You’re free to find a J.P. or a cleric of your choice to perform the ceremony. The license is good for three months.”
They walked out of the courthouse and sat down on a bench under some trees. “Where do you want to do this at?”
“I occasionally use that Episcopalian church over on 4th Avenue for holy water,” Giles told her. “I’ve become somewhat friendly with the priest. He might be willing to do it for us.”
She nodded. “Good plan. Let’s go.”
The Reverend Dr. Stone was delighted to perform the ceremony, but demanded that they do a pre-marital interview so he could be satisfied as to their commitment. He asked about their religious convictions, their church attendance, their plans for children and the future. They tried to be truthful without revealing too much information and he was eventually satisfied though his last question left them blushing. He wanted to know if pregnancy was the reason for the marriage.
“No!” Buffy told him. “We decided to wait to, um, you know—till after we were married.”
The priest smiled at them. “A commendable goal, chastity is highly underrated.”
Buffy and Giles exchanged glances but said nothing. They were chaste because they had four kids to tend, not because they had devout principles about extra-marital sex.
Dr. Stone led them to his church and performed the ceremony. He had pulled his wife and his curate in as witnesses. The actual marriage took about ten minutes. Giles looked down at his bride and kissed her softly.
He paid the priest and shook his hand. “Thank you very much, Reverend Stone. You’ve made us very happy today.”
“I hope you have a happy and loving marriage, Mr. Giles,” the man replied. “Something tells me I don’t need to worry too much about that.”
They went back to their car holding hands. Buffy looked up at him with a soft smile. “We still have four hours that we can leave the kids at daycare. Want to go home and have a really, really quick honeymoon?”
He looked down at her. “There is nothing quick about what I want to do with you, love. Four hours would barely give us time to get started. Why don’t we go pick up the children, take them somewhere to tire them out and then put them to bed early?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
They decided to change clothes before picking up the children. “I don’t want to ruin my good dress with sticky little hands,” Buffy remarked.
Their plan was a resounding success. They decided that they would go over to the small carnival that had come to town for a week. They played the games and rode the kiddy rides. Buffy wouldn’t get on the merry-go-round. She said the up and down motion made her sick. She and Willow sat on a bench and watched Giles as he monitored their other three charges.
“Mommy! Hi! Mommy! Look at me, Mommy!” She waved at them happily.
Xander was in his accustomed place riding Giles shoulders and Tara and Anya were safely tucked under his arms when they came to fetch Buffy. They were laughing and happy. Giles bought them cotton candy and Buffy groaned at the mess it was going to make. Xander ate the sticky confection, a hot dog, a small box of popcorn, an ice-cream cone, and drank a small soda. He promptly threw up. Ten minutes later he was complaining that he was hungry. After three hours, the children were so tired they could barely stand. Buffy had won several prizes by knocking over bottles and let the girls carry them back to the car. All in all, it was a good day.
They got home, bathed the children in less than ten minutes and quickly tucked them up in bed before heading off to their own bedroom. They stepped inside and closed the door behind them. Now that the actual moment was upon them, they felt unaccountably shy. Giles felt his chin. It was bristly. “I need a shave. Um, I’ll be a few moments.”
He decided to have a shower at the same time and Buffy thought that was such a good idea, she went to her old bathroom and took one as well. Instead of slipping her nightgown on, she simply wrapped her robe around her and hurried back to their room in time to see Giles step out of the master bathroom.
“You look beautiful,” he told her softly. He led her to the bed. “Are you ready?”
“Oh, yes.”
They made glorious love that afternoon and ended up falling asleep holding each other as they had for so many nights before. The children, refreshed by the long night’s rest woke them at six the next morning, running into their room and jumping on the bed. Buffy pulled the sheet around herself carefully before setting up.
“What are you kids doing in here?”
“Want bweakfass,” Xander chirped.
Anya and Tara had thrown themselves on Giles and were petting his furry chest in amazement. Daddy was furry! He was red as a beet with embarrassment. “You children go back to your room and Mummy and I will be along shortly.” He put them down on the floor. They ran with squeals of joy to the door.
He turned to Buffy. “And the truly damnable part of this is, we know they never did learn to knock! Good morning, my heart.”
She leaned over and kissed him. “Good morning. I love you.”
He returned the kiss with interest. “I love you as well.”
They both sighed, wishing they could continue with this very appealing procedure, but knew that the children couldn’t be left unsupervised. Buffy pulled away and grabbed her robe. “I need a shower. Would you watch the kids till I’m dressed?”
“Of course. I shall shower whilst you are preparing breakfast for the hungry hoardes.”
They smiled at each other and went about their business. In very short order they were all seated at the kitchen table, bowls of cereal topped with sliced strawberries in front of them. Buffy and Giles talked about their plans for the day. She was going to swing by the campus and return some library books and Giles intended to research a couple more texts about the rock.
Buffy withdrew Willow and Tara from their classes. She told the boss at the construction company where Xander worked that he wouldn’t be coming back for a long time. They were sorry to lose him and said that if his family problems ever got resolved they would be happy to take him back on. She thanked them. She went to Willow and Tara’s apartment and packed their things. The girls helped but Xander fell asleep on the couch. Buffy watched them carefully as she put away their possessions, but she didn’t see even a flicker of recognition in their faces as they handled their own stuff.
Over the past month, Giles had moved most of his own things to Buffy’s house. Now, he decided to finish and formalize the process of moving out. He packed everything and arranged for a mover to come take it to the house on Revello Drive. He contacted the apartment manager and cancelled his lease. He would miss this little place, he thought. It had been his home for almost seven years and had known good times and bad. He looked around one last time and slowly closed the door behind him. He had a new life now with Buffy as his wife.
School ended and Buffy made arrangements for daycare over the summer. Every Wednesday they visited Giles at the shop for lunch. It was a shadow of their former Scooby lunches, but it was better than nothing. Giles spent many of his evenings reading to the children and helping them learn things like colors and numbers and even, in Anya and Tara’s cases, the alphabet.
“They are all very intelligent children,” he told Buffy one evening after putting them to bed.
“I know. Xander is learning new things everyday and I can hardly keep up with Tara and Anya’s questions about everything. Why is the sky blue? Why are ants so tiny? How come birds can fly and people can’t? It just goes on and on, Rupert! Is this normal do you think?”
“Oh, yes. I’ve been reading up on child development. I would say our children are very bright and curious and the best thing we can do is to answer their questions honestly and as completely as they can understand.”
“I think Willow may be trying to talk.”
He sat up looking deeply interested. “Really?”
“She was making ‘ma, ma, ma,’ sounds all morning. When you came home last night, I think she said ‘da-da.’ Our babies are making some progress, Giles.”
They put the baby on the table between them and played with her for a few minutes. Sure enough, little Willow reached out and grabbed Giles’ finger. “Dada.”
He looked as pleased as if she had recited Shakespeare. “Good girl, Willow!”
Anya and Tara were old enough to know that no horseplay was allowed in the shop, but Xander was still given to periodic outbursts of exuberance. Buffy looked around noting that the girls were reading to each other. She didn’t see Xander. Alarmed, she stood up and looked around the shop. He had gotten behind the counter and was holding the rock in both his hands. “Xander, put that down, right now,” she told him sternly.
The boy was startled and looked up. He got a gleeful look on his face and tossed the rock like a ball across the room away from Buffy. She dived for it, but didn’t quite make it. The rock shattered on the hard wood floor of the shop. There was a burst of light and Buffy felt herself pushed backward across the room by the explosion. She sat up, dazed, her first thoughts for her children. She looked around the room and blinked. Where her four babies had been were now four adults, stark naked and shocked almost speechless. Xander, standing behind the counter, looked at her in amazement. “What the hell is going on?”
Buffy looked at Giles and he looked back at her. They walked towards each other and Giles wrapped her in his arms before turning back to their little family. “Well, it’s a long story.”