So, the next day, Buffy dragged Giles out to Sunnydale’s major hub of suburbia, a shopping center across the street from the mall, home of the only Starbucks and McDonald’s in the town, as well as several chain stores, including one of those massive baby superstores.
Ok, not the most creative place to go, but definitely large.
Dawn hopped out of the car first, practically vibrating with energy at the prospect of “cute baby stuff!!!” Giles was the last out, and he was regarding the store with undisguised horror already. She’d seen him look at mucus-y demons with more affection.
So she just grabbed his arm and tugged, dragging the poor guy along in pursuit of her sister.
“Come on, Giles, it’s not that bad.”
“I... don’t think I can do this,” he said, weakly.
She rolled her eyes.
“See, this is why men don’t have the babies. You know, I think I explained my policy on this subject a few years ago.”
Then they were walking in the door, feeling the rush of the building’s climate control wash over them. Giles froze on the spot.
“Dear. Lord.”
“Breathe, Giles. This is supposed to be fun.”
His look ranked an 6.5 on the skepticism scale.
“Fun?”
“Yeah. I mean, it’s exciting! You’re shopping for stuff for your baby! Your offspring! You should be experiencing awe and joy, and going completely unnecessarily gooey over stuff like--”
At that moment, Dawn ran up to them, clutching a teeny-tiny yellow jumpsuit with rabbits all over it.
“--that,” Buffy finished.
“Isn’t it the cutest thing ever?” Dawn was gushing. “It’s so little! And it has bunnies on it! We could totally traumatize Anya. It’d be funny!”
Giles’s gaping lack of response apparently didn’t slip Dawn’s notice, because she flipped the jumpsuit around and frowned at it.
“What? You don’t like the color?”
Years of training with him had Buffy fairly attuned to how Giles telegraphed his movements, and right now, his body language was screaming that he was plotting to bolt off in the direction of the exit any second now. Concern broke through her amusement.
“It’s great, Dawn. Why don’t you go see what else you can find for a minute.”
Dawn gave Buffy a look, and Buffy looked back more firmly, and then Dawn frowned again, but obediently, for once, headed back to the clothing racks.
Buffy turned her attention back to Giles, who was eyeing the high rafters of the store as though in awe of its size.
“Hey... this is really bothering you, isn’t it?”
“Hmm?” he said, then looked at her. “Oh. Well. No more than any, um. Expectant parent, I suppose. Well, possibly a little more... It’s all just... a bit overwhelming. More than a bit, actually.”
And then she realized something. She’d been so caught up in the rather amusing novelty of a man, pregnant, that she’d never even really thought about it in terms of just a person, pregnant.
“Yeah,” she said, sobered now, “I guess it would be.”
They stood together for a few minutes, then Buffy said, “Well, here’s what we could do. We can look around a little, no actual purchases. Focus on the fun stuff. Not think about the whole issue of, like, cribs and diapers and stuff. You know, we look at, like, cute yellow suits with bunnies on them. And... baby booties! And, you know, stuff like that. Baby blankets.”
And for some reason, though he’d been looking doubtful up to that point, something seemed to shift in his expression at that last bit. He relaxed a bit, enough for her to see, at least, and said, “Well. I suppose... I could handle that.”
So they started towards the clothing department, with Giles looking only slightly panicky.
“So... do you know if it’s a girl or boy?”
“Uh, no. Not yet. I was thinking of calling Ben today or tomorrow, actually.”
“Cool. Which do you want? I know you’ve gotta have a preference.”
He smiled, then, a real smile, and stopped in front of the first rack of baby stuff, little sleepers in pastel pinks and yellows and greens.
“A girl, I think.”
“Hey, all right. You could name her after me.”
He’d picked one of the sleepers off the rack, a pink fuzzy number, and had cocked his head to the side to eye it uncertainly. At her words, though, he grinned.
“Believe or not, the thought crossed my mind.”
“Really? Wow. I’m touched.”
He put the fuzzy thing back, and said, straight-faced, “Well, of course, I then came to my senses and realized Buffy was no name fit for a human child.”
She punched him, and he said “ow” between chuckles.
“Loser,” she said, then noticed a little purple shirt with pictures of various sweets under the title ‘Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice.’ She snagged it off the rack.
“Ooo, look, Giles, I think that’s a jelly donut. How appropriate.”
“Oh, so you two dorks did decide to join the party after all, huh?” Dawn said, walking up with her arms crossed. “Hey, Buffy, did you give him the thing?”
“Thing?”
“Yeah, you know. Willow’s thing.”
Giles did an odd twitchy thing at the mention of... one of those words. Willow, or thing, or possibly the combination of the two. Whatever it was, Buffy quickly dug into her purse and found said thing.
“Oh, yeah. Willow asked me to give you this. Told me to tell you that she did this... ‘before.’ Something. She didn’t say what. Said you’d know. Anyway. It’s a charm.”
He took it from her and looked at it uneasily. It was a small stone, polished and green and veined, woven into a hemp bracelet.
“See, apparently you told her about the whole baby thing before us. We’re hurt, by the way. But, anyway. This is supposed to make it so anyone who doesn’t know you are... you know... can’t tell.”
He pulled his head back in mild surprise, and then looked more closely at the stone.
“Oh, and, since you two are apparently so buddy-buddy now... did she tell you why she broke up with Tara? ‘Cause she just won’t tell us at all.”
“She *what*?”
“No way you didn’t know,” Dawn broke in, “It was like, days ago. She didn’t tell you?”
He looked way more shocked than the situation warranted, Buffy thought, although it was kinda weird.
“No... No, she... why?”
“Uh, Giles. That’s what I just asked you.”
“Yeah, it’s totally weird how much she’s not talking about it. I mean, like, remember Oz? And how she made you blind, and made Buffy marry Spike, and made me into a five-year-old? That was so annoying.”
Giles had folded the bracelet into his hand.
“Is she all right?”
“Yeah, actually. I mean, not great, but... she’s coping a lot better than that other time.” She paused, then added, “And how about we don’t talk about depressing breakups. And ugh, marrying Spike. We’re supposed to be shopping.”
But he still seemed off. He even spent a little while talking about, of all things, Spike’s redeeming features. Finally, in desperation, Buffy did the only thing she could think of to cheer him up.
She found the book department.
And then stood back and nodded with satisfaction as he dove in like a fish out of water suddenly finding the sea.
“Good call,” Dawn said. “Shall we go and squeal over the cute little booties now?”
“He’ll be here a while, so... let’s shall.”
***
She’d just moved back to the dorms today, after all the administrative stuff had been sorted out. Her roommate seemed like a nice girl, but resentful, because for the first few weeks of the semester she’d had the room to herself.
Also, her major decorating motif seemed to be... crosses. And it didn’t seem like she was going for the vampire-repelling aspect. So, yeah, that might be a bit awkward. On the other hand, though, it might make going easy on the magic and the Wicca stuff a bit less of a challenge.
Right now, said roomie was away, at her bible study group, and Willow had the place to herself.
It was quiet. And empty. And she was... lonely. Just lonely.
She sighed and looked back down at the big book she’d bought at the Magic Box yesterday, when Giles was out on his lunch break.
“Magical Atrocities: A History of Magic From An Ethicist’s Standpoint”
Tiny text, pretentious tone, dense language. She groaned, and her eyes hurt. But she forged onwards. She had to.
Because she had to get him back.
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