Series: The Hellmouth Chronicles
Title: Winter Of Discontent 22/?
Author: Gileswench
Contact: gileswench@yahoo.com
Date: 11/08/02
Spoilers: AU from beginning of S5 on Buffy and end of S1 on Angel.
Summary: Fallout and a few new complications.
Rating: PG-13 for hormonal Slayer foo, some very mild sexual suggestions. I promise we'll get to more smut soon, though. I need to make my naughty quotient soon.
Pairing: Buffy/Giles, W/T, X/Anya, Joyce/Crystal
Distribution: If you've had my permission in the past, you have it now. All others, ask and ye shall receive.
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome. Praise abjectly sought.
Disclaimer: It all belongs to Joss, Mutant Enemy, etc., etc., etc. I just let them have all the fun Joss won't. I own nothing except my twisted mind which you really don't want. Please don't sue.

Leo sighed and shook his head.

"And here I thought you might have come back to say you'd made a mistake."

Gertrude smiled back.

"You've no idea how many mistakes I've made," she said ruefully.

"And now you're here to convince your brother he's made one?"

"I'm here to see whether he's made one or not. Father is certainly convinced he has, but I make up my own mind, as well you know."

There was a brief, awkward silence. At last Gertrude raised one eyebrow and spoke again.

"So, may I see him?"

"Rupert?"

"Having traveled halfway across the world for the purpose, I rather think I'd like to."

Leo guided his guest to a chair.

"How about a cup of tea first?" he asked eagerly. "We could talk over old times."

"Perhaps later."

"I really think it would be best to give him a little time, first."

"Why?" Gertrude demanded. "Leo, what the hell's going on here?"

"Leo?" came a voice from the staircase, "do we have any...oh." Crystal stopped and regarded the newcomer warily. "Sorry. I didn't know we had company. Never mind."

She turned to go back up stairs when Gertrude stopped her.

"Hello," she said. "It's nice to meet my sister in law at long last."

Crystal looked back at her, puzzled.

"Sister in law?"

"No, no, Gertie," Leo said hastily, "This isn't Buffy. This is Crystal. Crystal, this is Gertie - er - Gertrude Giles. Rupert's sister."

Gertrude looked from Leo to Crystal and back again. She looked the girl up and down. At last she turned back to Leo.

"Precisely how many pregnant teenagers have you got living with you, Leopold Baird?" she demanded. "And please tell me this isn't my brother's doing as well."

*****

Buffy slipped into her mothers' room quietly. She didn't want to take the chance of waking Joyce if she were asleep. She wasn't.

"Buffy!" she exclaimed happily. "It's about time you came to visit your poor, sick mom."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Buffy teased back. "I better build up my mom karma now before my kid gets old enough to neglect me." She sobered suddenly. "I'm sorry I haven't been around more. It's been a little tough what with the insanity that is my life and a couple close calls and everything. But I'm going to do better. I feel bad that Crystal keeps getting sort of stuck on Mom patrol. She's just as expecting as I am and she's not even your kid."

"I don't think she minds..." Joyce began.

"No, Mom, I really feel like I'm letting the team down. And it's not her responsibility. She's been great, but we can give the poor kid a break now. I know, I'll see if the gang will take her along to The Bronze next time. Who knows? Maybe she'll even meet some nice guy there. Y'know? Someone cute and hunky and maybe on the football team or something. Don't you think she's earned a little happiness? After Daddy."

Before Joyce could answer the question, Buffy hopped off the bed and began to move about the room, straightening this, adjusting that and carrying on a monologue about the sort of man Crystal needed to find. Someone young and handsome and funny and emotionally open.

"I think that would be just the ticket to ride for her, don't you?"

Joyce hesitated.

"Honey, I don't think it's up to you, or anyone to tell Crystal what sort of person she should be with."

"Of course not," Buffy agreed wholeheartedly. "It's totally up to her. I'm just doing a little creative mental meddling. Y'know, sort of going over the list of single guys I know and seeing if anyone looks like a good match for her. 'Cause introducing her to someone nice isn't telling her to settle down and have two-point-five kids and a dog with him. It's...giving her a little nudge that just because Daddy wasn't husband of the year doesn't mean she has to give up on men altogether. There's lots of good guys out there if you know where to look."

"But Rupert and Wesley and Xander are all very much taken, I believe," Joyce joked a bit stiffly.

"Sure they are. But there was this really cute guy in my trig class last semester who I think might really like Crystal. Maybe I'll invite him to The Bronze with us one night and they can meet and see if they like each other."

"Don't you think this might not be the time, Buffy? Not many men are going to be that interested in a girl who's four months pregnant and married to a vampire."

"It's not like I'm setting them up on a blind date at a honeymoon resort in the Poconos, Mom," Buffy laughed. "I just thought...they could meet with the gang all there to keep things safe and casual and non-datelike. Y'know, get to know each other without a lot of pressure or anything. And if they click, it's up to them what the next move is. Do you think I should do it? Oh! I know! I can invite him to my birthday party next month."

"The way your birthdays go?"

Buffy frowned in thought for a moment.

"You're right," she agreed at last. "Not my birthday. How about New Year's?"

"That's less than two weeks away."

"Guess that means I'd better get out the invites, doesn't it? That's a great idea! I'll get right on it, Mom." Buffy said. She was out the door almost before she'd finished talking. Joyce sighed.

She knew this was going to lead to disaster. But she also knew the hormone surges of early pregnancy, combined with the manic streak that the urge to be helpful often brought out in Buffy made it inevitable that something like this would happen eventually.

Now if she could just figure out how to stop it before she, Crystal and Buffy were all publicly humiliated.

*****

Cordelia sighed contentedly and nestled her face against Wesley's chest.

"This is much nicer when I can reach you," she laughed.

"I prefer it this way, too," Wesley agreed as he ran a hand through her hair. "When I know what you're thinking - more or less. I like to be able to reach you, too."

He pressed a kiss to the crown of her head, then pulled back and took her hands. He led her to the bed and sat them on it.

"What?" Cordelia joked. "Feeling frisky already?"

"Not precisely."

"Then what? Knees giving out? Short of breath? What is it?"

Wesley looked at Cordelia as if he was deciding something important.

"I think there's something about me that you should know," he said quietly. "Something I ought to have told you about a long time ago."

*****

When Buffy got back to her room, she found Giles awake.

"Hey," she said as she lay down next to him on the bed, "shouldn't you be getting some rest?"

Giles shook his head and pulled her closer.

"I'm fine," he said. "Where were you?"

"Unwigging Xander and visiting Mom, in that order."

She snuggled closer to her husband. He stroked her hair gently and smiled at her.

"Unwigging? What was Xander...wigging about?"

"You so don't want to think about it tonight. I might tell you later, though, if you decide you still want to know in the morning. Right now it'll only give you nightmares."

Giles chuckled silently and kissed Buffy softly.

"I believe I have enough material to keep me in bad dreams for some time to come," he assured her.

"Then I better do something to make sure you have some sweet dreams, too," she murmured against his lips.

Her kisses were gentle at first, but soon grew more passionate. When her tongue begged entry to his mouth, Giles opened to her. A few kisses later, he pulled back slightly.

"I'm not entirely certain I'm up to this right now," he confessed. "It's been a fairly trying day."

"S'okay," Buffy replied cheerfully as she rubbed his chest in a comforting circular motion. "I wasn't expecting much of anything in that department tonight. Just wanted to let you know I still love you. You know me, always better with the physical demonstrations than the verbiage."

Giles smiled and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

"You know a word like 'verbiage' and you expect me to believe you can't speak eloquently?"

"Shh. Don't tell the others. I have a reputation as an airhead to keep up."

"Why would you want that reputation?"

Buffy shrugged and kissed his cheek.

"Because then it throws people when I know big words and stuff. If they already know I know, they're not impressed when I know. And there's lots of times when I don't know and if people know I know other stuff, they'd get all disappointed when I don't know. Sort of like if you didn't know about some beastie I'm going up against and you don't have something about it in your books. We all expect you to know this stuff - or at the very least know where to look to find out. Nobody expects it out of me. I can coast when I feel like it."

"It makes people underestimate you, Buffy."

Buffy sat up suddenly.

"Are we arguing about this?"

"No, not precisely," Giles said. "You're an intelligent girl..."

"Girl? I'm a girl, now?"

"Well you're hardly a boy," Giles joked in a futile attempt to soothe her.

"Yeah, I know," she said. "And I guess sometimes that's a big ol' disappointment, isn't it?"

"You know it isn't," Giles said. Buffy could see the hurt in his eyes, but she couldn't seem to stop herself.

"I'm never going to be good enough, am I? I'm not smart enough or grown up enough or - or anything! Giles, I'm only me. If I'm not good enough for you, then I don't know what to do."

Giles sat up, shaking his head in confusion.

"Who said you weren't good enough for me?"

"You did. Just now."

"Of course I didn't say that. I would never say that."

"Even if it was true?"

"It isn't true. And I'm not in the habit of lying." He took Buffy's hands in his own and kissed them gently. "I love you. I'm in love with you. I don't...give myself easily, Buffy. But I am yours, body, heart and soul. Don't you believe me?"

She looked into his eyes. Her own were shining with unshed tears.

"I - I want to," she said at last. "But when you called me a 'girl', all I could think was 'little'."

Giles smiled humorously.

"You are little," he said, "as in petite and slender. But you're not a little girl. You're a lovely young woman with a heart and mind of more than adequate proportions. I never meant you were a child; just that you're...compact."

"So...is 'compact' good or bad?" she asked. Giles knew the argument was over when she slid back into his arms and rubbed his chest.

"'Compact' is simply what you are, love," he said quietly. "And you are very, very good." He pressed a kiss to her forehead. "In fact, if I might be allowed to use a truly dreadful cliché, you're the best thing that ever happened to me."

Buffy smiled and reached up for another kiss.

"Ditto right back at you, sweetie."

Giles chuckled softly and held her closer. He couldn't resist plundering her lips again.

"You *are* feeling better, aren't you?" Buffy giggled.

A knock came on the door.

"Rupert? Are you in there?"

Giles sat up and stared in disbelief. Buffy pulled herself up beside him and looked at him in concern.

"What is it?" she asked.

"Gertie...?"

Giles got to his feet and hurried to open the door.

"Good lord," he breathed, "it *is* you!"

He grabbed his sister in a crushing embrace.

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