Buffy halted at the library doors and said, "We don't have any reason to feel embarrassed, right?"

"I don't have any reason to feel embarrassed," Willow said, adding softly, "but I still do."

"I mean, it's entirely his concern and it's just a bra.  It could have happened to anyone."

"I've never known anyone else to have a…..well, a you know, under their couch cushion," Willow said.  "Sometimes I find quarters and popcorn."

Buffy frowned.  "But how could it have gotten there?  On top I could see or down the back….."

"I-I think we can guess.  Buffy, maybe we're not ready to go in the library just yet."

"Maybe you're right."

They turned to go but paused when Cordelia's voice sounded through the doors.  A look crossed Buffy's face that had only ever been seen before by the Master.  She whirled and went into the library.

Cordelia and Oz stood by the table, their backs to the doors.  Giles, scanning returned books at the counter, looked up at Buffy and Willow's arrival but dropped his gaze a second later.

"I'm going to bounce!" said someone Buffy didn't see.  She moved around the table when a series of jiggling noises started.

Willow rushed forward.  "He's so cute!" she cried, reaching for the wobbling stuffed toy on the table.  "It's Tigger!"

"It's Bouncing Tigger," Oz said, smiling.

Willow returned Tigger to his feet.  "How does he work?"

"Push his head down."  Oz demonstrated.

"I'm going to bounce!" Tigger repeated and did so, striped tail wiggling.  He hopped towards Cordelia and added, "Bouncing is what Tiggers do best."

"Where did he come from?" Buffy asked, enjoying the toy until Cordelia answered her question.

"Allie forgot him.  Her father's going to pick him up here."

Buffy lost her smile.  Suspiciously, she asked, "How do you know that?"

Cordelia's answer was an insinuatingly-raised eyebrow.  Oz raised his head at the tension before reaching for Tigger and sending him hopping towards Willow.

Buffy paced to the counter.  "Giles, is there anything I need to know before I go on patrol tonight?"

"Not that I am aware of," he said.  "Everything seems quite as usual."

"I wouldn't go that far," Buffy mumbled.

Giles finished scanning one pile of books and started on the next.  "Did you do any training over the weekend?"

"We had that nasty stuff Saturday night.  I figure that must count."  She waited for the inevitable lecture on duty and responsibility, but it didn't come.  Giles finished the second pile of books and went into the stacks.

Concerned, she followed him.  From the table, she heard another, "I'm going to bounce!"  The rattle of energetic hopping ensued.  She listened to it, watching him as he moved from shelf to shelf.

"You and me, we should be able to talk about stuff, right?" she asked.

She saw his brow crease.  "Yes," he said.

"And, normally, I would say that the particular undergarment that was extracted from your couch is completely your business."

"Which it is," he said.

"Of course," Buffy said.  "Except, what on earth were you thinking?  You're supposed to be the steady one of our duo.  You're supposed to be Churchill, not Big Bird."

"Sir Winston Churchill and Big Bird were not a duo," Giles stated, his voice getting more and more clipped with each word.

"That was Cordelia's undergarment.  My God, it's you and *Cordelia*!"

He eyed her.  "How did you know that?"

"She's not denying it."

"She's not?"  Giles asked in surprise.

"So all I want to know is, is this a mid-life crisis thing?  Is something else going to happen?  You're worrying me, Giles."  Her concern was marred when she continued, "It wouldn't bother me if it was Willow or, or…..someone else, but why does it have to be her?"

Unsure how to respond, Giles was about to invoke the this-is-private-not-up-for-discussion clause when Buffy said, "Not that I can disagree with her point that being my Watcher takes up so much of your life, you don't have time for friends."

Giles stopped reshelving.  "Cordelia said that?"

"And the few friends you do have probably think you're depraved because we're hanging around you all the time."

"Buffy, my duty and concern as your Watcher are far more important than what anyone I haven't seen for years thinks."

She looked relieved but it only lasted a moment.  "Giles," she asked.  "Do you, sometimes, just get tired of it?"

"No," he lied in a firm tone.  "Not at all."

He was, at that point, about to invoke the *clause* when Cordelia appeared around the corner of the stacks and said, "Some girl wants the text for freshman history."

She and Buffy eyed each other as Giles put the remaining books on a cart.  As he went to go past them, Cordelia glanced down and commented, "The front of your fly is frayed, Giles.  Have you been rubbing it on something?"  The last word was accompanied by a significant look in Buffy's direction.

Buffy snapped back, "Only on your--"

Giles grabbed her and pulled her after him to the main floor.  Willow, still bouncing Tigger between her and Oz, said, "I got that girl her book, Giles."

"Thank you."  He retrieved his briefcase from his office and said in a tight tone, "I'm leaving.  Willow, would you lock up please?"

"Sure."

He left in two steps, the doors banging behind him.  Cordelia smiled snidely at Buffy before picking up her knapsack and strolling out.

To Oz, Willow said, "It's getting weird.  I'll tell you about it later."

"I think I got it," he mused, tugging at Tigger's tail.  "Cordelia's setting her sights on Giles."

"She can set all the sights she wants," Buffy muttered in an undertone.

"He is responding to her," Oz added.

Willow frowned.  "How can you say that?  She was here but he was way over there."

"That's what I mean."  Oz set the toy in motion again as Buffy lifted her head to regard him curiously.

"I'm going to bounce!" Tigger exclaimed and promptly did so.

---

"Bronze tonight?  It's Friday, the night the Dingoes always play," Willow said.

Buffy sighed.  "My mom wants to do endless-errands-at-the-mall-mother-daughter-bonding."

"The mall closes at nine.  You could come after," Xander said.

"After the mall *and* after patrol," Buffy grumbled.

"Sorry, Buffster, if I find a girl who's just been dumped and is feeling fat, I'm out of there," Xander said.

"I'll wait for you, Buffy" Willow said.

Buffy smiled at her.  "At least one person here is my friend.  If you were a guy, Will, I'd date you."

Willow blinked.  "Oh."

"I meant it as a compliment," Buffy said.

Quickly, Willow said, "I know.  I was only thinking that I'm glad I'm not a guy."  At Buffy's look, she flustered, "I mean, because of what's going on with Giles, not because you're not dateable, because you are, I mean….."

"What do you mean, because of what's going on with Giles?" Buffy asked.

Willow faded off into discomfort.  Xander said quietly, "Because of the fallout from the way you and Cordelia are…..showing interest in him."

Buffy looked between her two friends.  Finally Willow said, "I know that you like Giles.  We both do, you know, kind of, in certain ways…..and around him you've always acted like you have no interest…..that way.  Which is probably the best way."

 "Ok," Buffy said uncertainly.

Xander cut in.  "What Willow's saying is that your teeter-totter was balanced until Cordelia the tarantula decided she wanted to…..share popsicles with him.  Now the two of you have turned the library into an arena and the rest of us have been ducking shrapnel all week, poor Giles included.  And the really crappy part of it is that neither one of you is going to take the prize, should you win.  And don't think Giles doesn't know this.  He's been trying to act like nothing's going on."

Buffy eyed Xander uncertainly.  "It's not like that."

"I don't think you or Cordelia realize that Giles wouldn't let himself get involved with a student anyway," Xander said, feeling sick at the look on Buffy's face though he was determined to finish what he'd started.

"He's been involved with Cordelia," Buffy said.

"I don't know," Willow said.  "When we saw them on the couch Sunday morning, they were both dressed."

"Cordelia's bra was in the couch," Buffy pointed out.

"Which I can't explain," Willow said, "but she took him to the hospital because we didn't want him to drive, not because she offered.  When we saw how much he was bleeding, we made her take him.  After that hit on the head, I don't think he'd have been much in…..the mood."

Buffy quieted.  Willow exchanged a look with Xander, then said, "Buffy, we know Cordelia ticked you off.  She does that with everyone.  But it's put Giles in the middle and it's starting to take its toll.  You know, there's already something between you and Giles that the rest of us don't share in.  I used to think it was a Watcher-Slayer thing but I've seen the way Faith reacts to how the two of you are together.  There's something more.  I don't know what it is but I don't think Cordelia or anyone else can get in on it."

Buffy was silent for several minutes.  "Buffy?" Willow finally prodded.

"Do you think I should apologize to Giles?" Buffy asked.  At the look on the other's faces, she sighed and said, "I guess I'd better."

Willow glanced at her watch.  "Cordelia's probably in the library now, waiting for the next round.  Maybe you shouldn't go there until later."

Buffy took a long breath.  "Mall, patrol, Bronze, library.  Sleep?  Never."

"Sleep is for wusses," Xander said.

"Spoken by the guy who slept through health this morning and biology and study hall this afternoon," Buffy said.  Xander glanced at her but she was smiling.

"And proud of my wussiness am I," he declared.

"Come on, guys.  My mom's probably waiting."  Buffy gathered her books.