Buffy just stared at Giles in shock. "What?!" she almost yelled.
"I think I'm your father," Giles repeated, still disbelieving.
"I heard you the first time," Buffy said loudly. Then she began rapidly shaking her head back and forth. "No. No! This isn't happening to me. You are *not* my father! I refuse to believe it!"
"Buffy, listen to me." When Buffy only crossed her arms and turned away from him, Giles got out of his chair and went to her. When she once again turned away from him, he stood there dejectedly for a moment, then simply started speaking to her back.
"Erin-" his voice quavered a bit when he said her name, but he forced himself to continue, "Erin's middle name was Adalard. She told me it was her mother's maiden name. And, and Daniels, that would have been from her father's first name. And what about the name Erin? By some stretch of the imagination it's not hard to see Kathryn becoming Katherine and then becoming just Erin. You said it yourself Buffy. She left clues for those who loved her, it was just up to us to fit together all the pieces."
"No," came the muffled sob from the Slayer.
"Buffy, look at me," Giles entreated the girl. To his surprise, after a moment's hesitation she did turn around, and it was then he saw the tear tracks running down her face. "Oh Buffy," he said sympathetically before he gently pulled her into his embrace as she began to sob uncontrollably.
He tried to make comforting noises to soothe her wounded soul, but the truth was he had next to no experience in this area. He had no idea how to be a father, or how to do fatherly things, such as comfort his daughter when her heart was breaking.
God, he couldn't believe it. Buffy was his daughter. The thought was still enough to send him reeling. He knew he could never understand the odd twist of fate that had reunited them; he could only be grateful for it. And somehow, this felt...right. Yes, very right indeed.
As Buffy's sobs subsided into hiccupy gulps for air, another thought occurred to Giles. This also meant he was Lydia's father. Although he didn't have quite the bond with Lydia that he did with Buffy, he had still felt an instant connection with the girl and had already figured that given a bit of time, he would come to care for her as he did for Buffy. It just looked as though now that time was going to come a bit sooner than expected.
When Buffy's hiccups subsided into simple sniffles, she pulled away from Giles and gave him a watery smile. He felt his own smile begin in return and then led her over to the couch, this time sitting down beside her.
"Buffy-" he began, but was quickly cut off by a shake of Buffy's head.
"Giles, I- I'm sorry for that. It's not that I don't want you for my..." she couldn't yet bring herself to say the word, and Giles understood, "but this day has been overwhelming. I was in shock when I found out about my mother, and now to discover this, well, I'm really off balance. It's different from when I found out about Lydia. Lydia's existence just fit in very well with my life, and seemed to make it right. This is something completely unexpected. I just couldn't have fathomed this, not even in my most wild stretch of the imagination. It's...it's going to take some getting used to."
Giles shook his head in understanding. "Buffy, what I was going to say is that this is just as much a shock for me as it was for you. But in a way, it also brings closure for me. Now I know what happened to Erin, to your mother."
"Are you, are you sure that you're...I mean, is it absolutely certain that you're my-" Buffy began.
"Yes, I believe so. Your birthday is," Giles did some quick mental calculations, "almost exactly nine months after I first met her."
"Willow said from Lydia's and my birth records that it looked like we had been born about a month premature."
"Which would again fit in perfectly with, uh, our relationship," Giles said, almost blushing.
The two fell silent until Giles accidentally spoke his thoughts aloud. "I wonder if she left because she knew she was pregnant?"
It was at that moment that the full impact of what Giles must be going through right now actually hit Buffy. The whole time, she had really been only thinking of herself, but Giles was just as torn about the whole thing as Buffy was. He had just discovered that the woman he had spent a good portion of his life loving was now dead, but only after having given birth to his children, who he had not even known existed up until this point in time. Whoa, Buffy thought, harsh.
"I'm sorry you had to find out this way, Giles, I mean about...Erin."
Giles sighed deeply before answering. "I think, in some remote part of my mind, I think I've known for a long time that she was dead. I may never know why she left me or why she never contacted me to inform me of your impending existence, but I truly believe that she loved me just as much as I loved her. I suppose she had her reasons, but they don't matter anymore."
"Do I- I mean, do we, me and Lydia, do we look like her?" Buffy asked tentatively.
Giles stared at Buffy for a moment and then raised his gaze to look somewhere beyond her. "No, not really. Maybe the hair color is the same, and I can see some similarities in the shape of the eyes, but that's it. You must have inherited a strange set of genes," Giles said, chuckling.
"Well, I don't look like you either," Buffy said, joining in Giles' light laughter.
That stopped Giles cold. "No, I suppose not. But..." Giles said, suddenly turning back to look at Buffy, "but we have the same color eyes."
Buffy just stared back at Giles and noted the truth for herself. "You're right," she said quietly.
They just sat like that for a long while, father and daughter side by side on the couch, not saying anything. It was only when Buffy heard the clock chime six times that she finally spoke.
"What are we going to do about this?"
"Just take it one day at a time, I suppose."
"Should we tell people?" Buffy asked, honestly not sure how she felt about that.
"For now, I would have to say no. Lydia maybe, since this concerns her just as much, but I'll leave that decision up to you. I think you've been through enough lately, and trying to explain this will just be too hard with everything else going on. There's plenty of time to tell people in the future, if we so choose."
"Yeah, you have a point," Buffy said. Then, realizing that her mother would be expecting her home for dinner, Buffy stood up and said "I have to go."
Giles stood too, and there was an awkward silence as each wondered what to do now.
The hug seemed to happen of its own accord, with each taking a step into the other's arms. But this time it was different. Instead of a hug between a young woman and her trusted mentor, it was now the embrace a father gives his daughter when he wants to protect her from all the evil in the world.
Buffy was the first to break away, and she gave Giles one last look before she headed for the door.
"Buffy," Giles called, just as she was opening the door.
Turning around, Buffy paused in the entryway. "Yeah?"
"Hannah was my mother's name."
Buffy's smile was beautific. "Thank you," she said, before softly closing the door behind her.
* * *
Buffy had almost a whole day to mull things over before Lydia came back from her visit with her foster parents, and had decided not to share everything with her just yet. Lydia would probably be mad at her for keeping it a secret once she found out, but she would get over it. For the time being, Buffy just wanted to enjoy the newfound sense of belonging she felt, and call her selfish, but she just didn't want to share that yet.
Lydia came in and flopped down on Buffy's bed as soon as she got in. For once, it was Buffy who was working at her desk and Lydia who was sprawled across the bed, and not vice versa.
"How was your weekend?" Buffy asked, taking notes from her History text.
"Great. They're not mad at me for running away. After they met you yesterday morning, they said they could understand. I'm still going to see them a lot."
"I'm really glad to hear that," Buffy said sincerely. It was good to know that Lydia had her own little branch of extended family to comfort her until she knew the entire truth about their past.
"What about you? Do anything interesting?" Lydia inquired.
"Just homework," Buffy said, putting her pen down and turning to face her sister.
"Since when do you think homework is interesting?" Lydia asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Since it has to do with our mother."
"Oh," Lydia replied, getting off the bed and starting to walk toward the door.
"Lydia wait," Buffy called, and Lydia turned back to face her sister. "She's dead. She died giving birth to us."
"I know."
"You *know*?" Buffy asked incredulously.
"I looked it up when I found out about you," Lydia said, unfazed by Buffy's raised voice.
"You mean to tell me you've known all this time and you didn't tell me?"
"Buffy, would it have made a difference? I knew it was something you just had to do for yourself. You had to see the proof with your own eyes. I don't think there ever would have been any closure if I had just told you straight out, do you?"
Buffy ignored Lydia's question and responded with one of her own. "How could you be so sure that I would be able to find what I needed to know? What if I hadn't been able to?"
"Buffy, you don't have enough faith in yourself. Besides, why do you think I told Willow how I had accessed the hospital's system? I knew that sooner or later you'd go to her for help and I just figured that I'd give her something to help speed up the whole process."
The phone rang just then, but both girls ignored it.
"You're very devious, you know that Lydia?"
"Yeah, but you love me anyway."
"You're right," Buffy said, and then got up to give her sister a big hug.
"Buffy, Lydia!" they heard Joyce calling up the stairs. "The phone's for you!"
Buffy was the closest to the extension so she picked up. "Hello?"
"To whom am I speaking?" came the elderly voice, tinged with a faint Southern accent.
Buffy looked at Lydia to convey the sudden weirdness which had pervaded her world, and then said hesitantly, "This is Buffy Summers. Who is this?"
"Oh, I'm sorry for not introducing myself, Dear. My name is Claire Phelps and I-"
But Buffy didn't hear the rest of the woman's sentence. All the breath whooshed out of her body in a sudden gasp and she nearly collapsed on the bed. Lydia was at her side instantly, holding her hand and giving Buffy looks that implored her to tell her what was going on.
But Buffy ignored her twin for the moment. She tried to focus back on what Mrs. Phelps was saying.
"-out of the country for two weeks, so we hadn't seen any of the news reports. As soon as we got home we got a call from our daughter Olivia telling us to turn on the news. We did, and there you and your sister were, pretty as peaches."
"But how did you know?" Buffy asked, still not believing that she was talking to her grandmother.
"Oh, Dear, you're the spitting image of our Elisabeth at that age, and since she most definitely did not have any children 17 years ago, we knew you must be Kathryn's. You see, our Kathryn disappeared over 18 years ago, and we hadn't heard anything about what had happened to her until now."
"I- I can't believe this," Buffy said.
"Oh, you most certainly can, Dear. You know, your grandfather and I are very keen on meeting you two young ladies, if you wouldn't mind."
"Mind? I think, that...we'd like that very much."
By now Lydia was going crazy wanting to know what was going on, and therefore kept trying to steal the phone from Buffy's ear, but Buffy kept shooing her hand away.
"And you know, your aunts want to meet you too. I've already talked to them, and they want to bring their kids along as well."
"We have cousins?" Buffy asked, hardly daring to believe that all this was happening.
"Oh my, yes. Elisabeth has five and Olivia has four, all of them cute as a button and smart as a whip. And Emma, she's Elisabeth's oldest, looks quite a bit like you girls. You must be pretty close in age as well."
"We'll be 17 in a couple of months," Buffy added helpfully.
"Well, Emma's 15, going on 40. You'll like her."
"I'm sure we will," Buffy said.
"Well Dear, I think that's enough for one night. I'll call back again tomorrow when Daniel and I have made our travel arrangements. Maybe I can talk to your sister then."
"Yes, yes, I'm sure," Buffy said, glancing at her twin, who had taken to pacing the room. Just as her the old woman was about to hang up, Buffy realized there was a question she still wanted to ask her.
"Mrs. Phelps?" Buffy interjected hurriedly, before the woman could hang up.
"Yes Dear?" she responded politely.
"I was wondering if...if you knew that, that your daughter, Kathryn, was...dead?"
"Oh yes, Daniel and I have known for years. She may have run away, but we knew that if she were alive, she certainly wouldn't have stayed away."
Buffy heaved a huge mental sigh of relief at knowing she hadn't been the one to break the news to this poor old woman.
"Okay, Mrs. Phelps, just checking. Good night," Buffy said, starting to hang up the phone.
"Oh, Dear?" Buffy heard the woman's voice and quickly put the phone back up to her ear.
"Yes?" she queried.
"Call me Grandma. All my other grandkids do."
"Okay...Grandma. Good night."
"Good night, Dear."
As Buffy hung up the phone, Lydia was nearly going crazy with curiosity. "What was that all about?" she asked excitedly.
With the grin beginning to spread itself across her face, Buffy started her story.
* * *
The following Friday afternoon found Buffy, Lydia, Xander, and Willow eating lunch under one of Sunnydale High's numerous palm trees. It offered little shade, but that was okay with the teens. This was Southern California, after all. What fun was shade?
"So, the fam's coming out to visit tonight?" Xander asked, his mouth once again full of food.
The girls just rolled their eyes at each other.
"Yeah," Lydia said, "we're meeting their plane at 8:00."
"How many are coming again?" Xander asked, by now having swallowed.
"15. Our grandparents, our two aunts and their husbands, and the nine cousins. Thank God they're staying at a hotel," Buffy said.
"Wow. That has to be costing a small fortune," Willow said, eyes growing wide.
"Yeah, well from what Lyds and I have gathered, our grandparents are rather wealthy." Buffy supplied.
"Loaded is more like it," Xander said.
"Xander, show a little respect. This is my family you're talking about," Lydia chastised Xander and lightly slapped his arm. She had quickly joined in Buffy's and Willow's daily castigation of the poor boy.
"And your mom's really okay with all this?" Willow asked Buffy, concern in her voice.
"Yeah, I think so. It was a bit much at first, but I think she's glad that Lydia and I are finally going to have some more family. Both my parents are only children and their parents died a long time ago, so I've never had any grandparents *or* any cousins. Lydia has, at least with her foster family, but this is going to be different."
"Definitely," Lydia added. "But I'm excited."
"Dad's driving down tonight so he can meet them too. This next week is going to be just crazy," Buffy said.
"Tell me about it," Lydia declared before taking a bite of her sandwich.
"You know," Willow began, "it's kind of scary to think that we have all these preconceived notions about our lives, and then in an instant we can find out none of what we believe to be reality is actually true."
"Thanks Will, that was a real upper," Xander said.
"Sorry," Willow said, ducking her head sheepishly.
The group was silent for a minute as everyone ate some of their food.
"Do you realize what a bizarre month this has been?" Xander asked to no one in particular. "First Buffy goes all wiggy on us, then Lydia shows up, then right after our lives become a media parade Buffy and Lydia figure out that their real mother is some long lost Slayer who has a horde of filthy rich family who is now coming to visit."
Everyone laughed at Xander's ramblings, but then he added in one last comment, directed at Buffy and Lydia "I honestly don't think that things could get any weirder for you two."
Buffy just smiled to herself. She hadn't told any of the others yet, including Lydia, but she had a feeling she'd be breaking the news to them all very soon. She wanted Giles to be able to meet the family of the woman he had loved, and she wanted him to be able to do it with them fully knowing who he was.
But for now, the secret was still hers, and she was content to keep it that way. But she had to laugh at Xander's last comment. Things could definitely get weirder. Things *would* definitely get weirder. Nothing ever stayed normal for long when you lived over the Hellmouth.
This *was* Sunnydale, after all.
FIN
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