Buffy knocked on Giles' door.  "I have to pick up supplies and then we'll go.  I'm down to my last few stakes."

"Don't forget the holy water," Willow said.

"Oh right," Buffy said, giving her purse a quick check.  "Is there anything else you can think of?"

"Um," Willow started but Cordelia interrupted impatiently.

"Oh for God's sakes, let's not stretch this out any longer than we have to."  She reached between them to rap on the door again.  "I'm tired of being the chauffeur just because I have a car.  I have a life, you know, and you're seriously cutting into it."

In a nonchalant tone, Buffy asked, "And there's no other reason why you want us to hurry up here?"

"Buffy," Willow said.

Cordelia suddenly glanced over their heads.  "It creeps me out when you do that *lurking* thing, not that it isn't, well, cool."

Buffy blinked and whirled around to find Angel standing at the corner of the building.

"Angel," she said, a wide smile crossing her face before she had time to stop it.

"Hi," he said, looking into her eyes.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, breaking the moment when Willow fidgeted beside her.

"I have a book for Giles but he has people over.  It sounds like they're in the back."

"Is that why he's taking so damn long?" Cordelia pounded the knocker so hard that both Buffy and Willow jumped.

The door opened and Giles peered at the four on his doorstep.  "What is it?  What's wrong?"

"Nothing.  It's Cordelia's subtle way of saying we're here," Buffy said.

"Buffy needs supplies and then we're going," Cordelia told him.

At her words, Giles put a finger to his lips and glanced behind him.

"What?" Cordelia asked when Angel cleared his throat.

"That makes it sound like it's drugs," he said.

He was cut off by a small voice.  "Do blocks!  Do blocks now!"  A little girl peeped around the side of Giles' leg.  After a glance at Angel, he unobtrusively moved her back but the message had been clear enough.

"Maybe this is a bad time," Willow started but Giles stepped away from the door in order to let them in.

"I'd rather not let Buffy go without…..what she requires," Giles said.  He bent to the child and said, "Go start the tower.  I'll be right there."

She ran back down the hall.  "There are some acquaintances here, from London, whom I haven't seen in many years," Giles said.

"We'll wait here," Buffy said.

Giles went up the stairs.  From the living room, they could hear two people's voices and the little girl's.  Something crashed and the girl laughed.

Buffy caught Willow's eye and they exchanged a smile.  "She sounds like she's having a good time," Willow whispered.

A wooden block tumbled to the floor within sight of the hallway.  A woman came into view, bending to pick it up.  She saw them and straightened.  "Oh, hello," she said.

Buffy and Willow murmured hellos in return and glanced up the stairs.

"Are you waiting for Rupert?" the woman asked.

"Yeah, he's getting something for me that I left here," Buffy said.

"Why don't you wait in here instead of in the hall?" the woman said.

The four exchanged looks before moving politely down the hall.

"I'm Jean," the woman said with a smile.  She pointed at a man on the sofa and said, "My husband Phillip and our daughter Allie."  Her British accent was more pronounced than Giles and she looked like she'd just gone horse riding.

"I'm Buffy and this is Willow, Cordelia, and Angel."  Introductions over, Buffy silenced and stood awkwardly, hands clasped in front of her.

Allie came over, holding a block to Willow.  "Do blocks?"

"Ok," Willow said with a grin.  She sat on the floor and started making a building.  Unexpectedly, Cordelia sat down as well, drawing her knees up under her and handing blocks to Allie to give to Willow.

"Now I am going to count bats!" said an exuberant voice punctuated by a rumble of thunder.  Buffy glanced curiously at Angel who was looking at the television with a peculiar expression.  He answered her look with a perplexed shrug.

"Oh, there's a Sesame Street marathon on PBS!  I remember Xander told me about it!" Willow said, shifting so she could build her house and see the television at the same time.

Buffy stepped forward in order to see the screen.  The Count, his purple arms waving, was trying to add up a bunch of bats flying around him.

"One bat," the Count said.  "Two bats.  Three!  Three lovely bats!  Ha ha ha ha!"  He opened his mouth wide in order to laugh, showing two white fangs, as thunder sounded again.

Giles entered the living room and paused at the scene.  It took him a moment to get his bearings before he was able to turn to Buffy and say, "Your school books."  He handed her a backpack.

"Oh, good.  Thanks, Giles," she said, fumbling for it.  She was aware of Jean and Phillip watching the exchange with a well-bred courtesy overlaying speculation.

"I see you've met my goddaughter and her friends," Giles said.

"I didn't know you had a goddaughter, Rupert.  How nice," Jean said but quieted when the backpack in Buffy's hands made an obtrusive clink sound.

Buffy's face shot up to Giles.  After a beat, he said, "Your thermos."

"Right.  I forgot about that too.  It's a good thing you found it, Giles, because I wanted to take soup to school tomorrow and I can't without my thermos," Buffy's sentence trailed off when Willow glanced over apprehensively.

Just then Willow's edifice that Cordelia had been adding onto tumbled over.  Blocks scattered and Allie shrieked happily.  On the television, the Count cried, "Ten!  Ten wonderful flying bats!  Ha ha ha ha!"

Angel abruptly moved, pacing to the doorway so that he could no longer see the television, and said, "Giles, I have that book."

Giles said, "Excuse us," to Jean and Phillip.  He and Angel went into the kitchen and Buffy, afraid to move the backpack for fear of more sounds, stood stock still while Willow retrieved blocks and Cordelia and Allie started another tower.

"You can't have a roof, Allie," Cordelia said when the little girl tried to balance some blocks overtop of the walls she'd just built.  "It makes it fall."

"But people get wet," Allie said.

"Maybe you could pretend they have umbrellas," Willow said as she made two lines of blocks away from the tower.

"What's that?" Allie asked.

"The driveway," Willow said.  "And the garage."

"I want a roof," the little girl whined.

"A rock garden," Cordelia said, sticking a block out in the middle of nowhere.  "And the summer house.  Where do you want the servants' quarters?  By the north wing or over the wine cellar?"

"I wouldn't suggest over the wine cellar," Phillip said.  "Jean and I have had terrible luck that way."

"I hear you," Cordelia said sympathetically.  "North wing it is."

"Buffy, Angel said he would meet you at the Bronze," Giles said as he came back in.

"That's our cue," Buffy said.

As she stood, she noticed the little girl poking at something under one of the couch cushions.  Allie pulled the something free, held it up, and exclaimed loudly, "Two umbrellas!"

In her hands she held a bra edged with golden lace.

Willow clapped a hand to her mouth.  Buffy's eyes shot to Giles.

He was staring at it as if he'd never seen it before.  In a slow-motion silence in which Buffy could have heard a pin drop and all the angels on it scatter, she saw Giles' face go from shock to the first stab of realization and then to mortification.  He glanced at Cordelia before realizing what such a look would signify, pulled his gaze away, and, with a swift step forward, adroitly removed the undergarment from Allie's hands and disappeared into the kitchen with it.

Jean and Phillip were so floored not even their upper-class breeding masked it.  Willow looked like a rabbit just as a tractor-trailer wheel nears.  Cordelia, building the north wing without missing a beat, said casually, "The old guy gets more fun than we thought.  Allie, do you want stables or a greenhouse?"

"Horsies!" Allie said happily, returning to the blocks until her attention was caught by Grover singing his alphabet.

Giles returned as far as the doorway and leaned against it, looking mutely at the floor.  Cordelia glanced up at him and asked, "Giles, what do you think of Allie's house?"

He swallowed before saying, "Uh, it's impressive."

Cordelia stood and brushed off her skirt.  "I'll leave you to finish the stables.  She needs room for at least eight horses.  Don't put any roofs on it, though.  It makes it fall."  She looked around at Willow and Buffy.  "Coming?"

Buffy and Willow followed Cordelia to her car and got in without a word.  They were several blocks away when Buffy said, "That was your bra, wasn't it?"

Cordelia snorted.  "He's not my type.  You have quite the dirty imagination."

"Willow and I didn't imagine finding you and Giles asleep on his couch Sunday morning."

"Buffy, please don't bring me in," Willow pleaded from the back seat.

Cordelia gave Buffy an appraising look.  Buffy could almost see her switching through several mental gears.

"Jealous?" she finally asked.

"Hardly," Buffy retorted.

"That's not how it looks from over here," Cordelia mused, unruffled.

"He's old," Buffy said too quickly as she realized that Cordelia had landed the ball adeptly in her court.

"He's not old," Willow said, also too quickly, and subsided into abashed quiet.

"Jealous because I got something you didn't, Buff?"

"I don't want it, Cord."

"Are you sure?" Cordelia asked and smiled as the expression on Buffy's face, fleeting as it was, answered her question.  "After three years diligent effort, you've gotten, what, a romantic handshake?  I only need five minutes and he's lost his underwear on the back trails."

"It wasn't his underwear that got lost," Buffy said, having regained her footing.  "Poor Xander.  If he'd known it would only take a popsicle to get you to open your wares, he could have spent a dime at the variety store and had his happy a year ago."

In the back seat, Willow made a stifled noise and tried to find something interesting out the window.

"We're not talking about Xander," Cordelia said, ignoring the bait.  "We're talking about Giles.  You don't know a thing about him, do you?"

"I don't know the things you do."

"You don't even know the first things.  You can spend hours in the library and never once look across the table.  All you see is yourself and Angel."

That struck home.  "This coming from the queen of awareness," Buffy muttered.

"What did you see tonight?" Cordelia challenged.

Buffy glared across the car seat, trying to figure out the intent of the question.  Finally Cordelia chuckled.

"I saw two people on the couch, a little girl playing blocks, and *your* bra flying across the room," Buffy said but the barb went wide.

"I saw a lonely guy who has no friends because he's so busy catering to you.  The few adults he can dredge up to visit him think he's some kind of pervert because young girls are traipsing through his living room.  Goddaughter!"  Cordelia shook her head.  "Like they bought that!"

"You were in that living room too," Buffy said, her tone covering over a sudden pit that had opened in her stomach.

"We were in that living room because you have to have what you want right when you want it."

Buffy indicated the backpack.  "We're talking about Slayer stuff."

"We're talking about any stuff," Cordelia replied calmly.  "If Giles and I want to do the cuddly thing, it's no one's business but our own and if you don't like what you see on couches, then stay out of the water."

"The only reason you got a cuddle out of him was because that bang on his head resulted in a major concussion."

Cordelia took the hook.  "Oh?" she shot.

"Oh," Buffy returned.

"Oh *NO*!"  Willow, in the back, finally snapped.  "I can't take anymore.  I don't want to hear one more word about couches or cuddles or popsicles!  This is inhumane.  This is a rock-bottom ocean scavengers don't reach.  This is childishness not even Allie would stoop to.  Giles is not the prize in a dart throwing contest like, like some goldfish in a bag.  He is a man who tries really hard and puts up with an awful lot and…..and….."  She glared at Buffy.  "He is your Watcher and he doesn't deserve this!"  She took a shaky breath and sat back in her seat.  "And now I'm finished so I'm just going to sit here."  She realized the car had stopped and both Buffy and Cordelia were looking at her.  "I said I was finished," she told them.

"We're at the Bronze," Cordelia said.  "Did you want to get out?"

"I'll get out when I feel like it," Willow said emphatically.

"Suit yourself."  Cordelia shrugged and grabbed her purse.  But, as she got out, she looked a little too thoughtful to Buffy's eye.