Series: The Hellmouth Chronicles
Title: Winter Of Discontent 23/?
Author: Gileswench
Contact: gileswench@yahoo.com
Date: 12/13/02
Spoilers: AU from Early S5 on Buffy and end of S1 on Angel
Summary: Tensions build yet higher among the gang.
Rating: PG, pathetically enough.
Pairing: Buffy/Giles, W/T, X/Anya, C/Wes, 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.

Giles finally pulled back and took a good look at his sister.

"I don't believe it," he breathed. "My God, Gertie, it's good to see you."

"And you, Rupert," she agreed. "I think California has done you some good. At least you aren't wearing tweed anymore."

"He's mostly tweedless, these days," Buffy piped up. To her surprise, both Giles and their visitor had to make an obvious effort not to laugh. She looked uncomfortably from one to the other. "What? What did I say?"

"I'll explain it to you later," Giles said. "In the meantime, Buffy, I'd like you to meet my sister, Gertrude. Gertie, this is Buffy. My wife."

"Hi," Buffy said. "So you're Rupert's sister."

"And you're my brother's Slayer."

"Yeah, that, too."

The women eyeballed one another warily. Giles began to wonder if he should intervene. At last Gertude nodded and turned to her brother.

"Well, this is a lovely family reunion," she said, "but I'm dog tired after my flight and I'm certain I'll say or do something unforgivable if I don't get some sleep. Leo said I could commandeer Crystal's room. Would you show me where that is?"

"Where's Crystal gonna sleep?" Buffy wondered.

"She's offered to double up with Joyce," Gertrude explained. "Just for the record, Rupert, Joyce isn't another pregnant young girl, is she?"

"She's Buffy's mother," he supplied. "She and Crystal seem quite fond of one another. I'm sure it's no trouble to them."

"That's a relief," Gerturde said. "On both counts. Not that - I'm sorry, Buffy. I didn't mean to imply anything about you by that. I have a very bad habit of saying the first thing that comes to mind, which, sometimes, is not precisely what I mean. I'll have better self control when I've had a shower and some rest. Rupert, could you show me which room of this old mausoleum I'm meant to be in?"

Buffy hopped off the bed.

"I'll show you." Giles shot her a questioning look. "You've had a long day, Rupert. I want you to lie down and take it easy. One flight of stairs I can handle. I'll be back in a jiffy." She reached up and kissed him briefly, then turned to Gertrude. "It's this way."

As they headed out the door, Giles shook his head and sighed. Buffy and Gertrude seemed likely to be a volital combination.

He prayed there would be no explosions just at present.

*****

"Wait a minute," Cordelia said in a dangerous tone, "you have a secret you didn't tell me? And you think you have any right to almost leave me because I had one?"

"I didn't tell you because by the time our relationship had progressed to a point where I felt you needed to know it, you were busily throwing me out for not wanting to get a vasectomy without any discussion of the matter," Wesley explained huffily. "I wasn't in the best mood to tell you my darkest secrets when I didn't know from day to day whether you'd be speaking to me."

Cordelia looked daggers at Wesley for a moment. Then she looked thoughtful for another. At last she shrugged her shoulders and gave a small laugh.

"What a pair of dweebs we are!" she said. "All this keeping secrets really has put a lot of unnecessary strain on us, hasn't it?"

Wesley joined in the laughter.

"It has at that," he agreed. "So, do you want to hear this now or start fresh in the morning?"

"I won't be able to sleep if I know there's a big, bad secret looming over us," Cordelia decided. "You should probably tell me now."

Wesley nodded.

"Now it is," he said quietly. "But first, I need to go get something. Like you, I have a visual aid for my confession."

He gave her a small, but heartfelt, kiss on his way out the door. He prayed it wouldn't be the last he'd be able to give her.

*****

Willow looked up with huge, guilty eyes when Tara walked into the room.

"I messed up really bad this time, didn't I?"

"You sorta did," Tara agreed reluctantly. "I know you didn't mean to, but maybe it's not a good time to be doing magic. The last couple spells you cast have had really weird effects on stuff."

"Do I want to know what was going on with Giles when I went by his room?" Willow squeaked.

Tara climbed onto the bed and held Willow gently.

"He went into labor," she said.

"But he wasn't even pregnant, really," Willow protested.

"I know that and you know that, but the magic convinced his body otherwise. Sweetie, I know you didn't mean this to happen, but he could have been seriously hurt. Any of the guys could."

"What are you saying?"

Tara took a deep breath. She knew this was not going to be a popular suggestion.

"Maybe you should take a break - for a little while. Y'know, not do magic for a couple weeks or so. Just until we figure out what's making your spells go...blooey."

Willow's eyes narrowed.

"But you and Anya and Giles can cast?" she demanded. "I'm being punished because a couple spells went a little wonky?"

"This wasn't a little wonky, Willow. This was incredibly dangerous."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I don't know about the rest of us," Tara said. "We haven't been casting so much lately. If one of us does a spell that goes wrong, then I guess that person should stop, too. You're the only one I'm suggesting it to, because you're the one who's been having trouble with spells."

Willow's cheeks grew scarlet. She knew she was going to regret the next words out of her mouth, but she couldn't seem to stop them from coming out.

"I guess that means you should have had to stop casting when you made us all not able to see demons, then."

Tara looked as if she'd been struck for a long moment.

"Maybe I should have," she said at last. "But at least I didn't cast again the next day and do something that was going to cause at least as much damage."

"And how about the time you lied about the spell I was trying to cast so we could find that Polgara demon that time. If you'd just done the spell right maybe we would have found out about Adam faster and maybe not so many people would have died. Did you ever think about that?"

"Can you really think I don't?" Tara asked in a stunned voice.

"Then why does everybody want to punish me when my spells go wrong? They don't punish you."

"This isn't about punishment," Tara explained. "This is about...being more cautious now we know something's not going right for some reason. Please, Willow, at least think about not doing any magic for a couple days."

Willow grabbed her jacket and headed for the door.

"Where are you going?" Tara asked.

"Out," Willow said sharply. "Maybe I can find some place where people uderstand that sometimes magic just...goes wrong and it's not my fault."

Before Tara could protest, Willow was already out the door. She made a small, frustrated noise and sat on the bed, unsure what to do next.

*****

"Here we are," Buffy announced as she opened the door to Crystal's room. "All the comforts of...not exactly home. The bathroom's down the hall that way," she said as she pointed in the proper direction, "and my Mom's room is through that door, if you want to meet her and say hi. But I wouldn't right now. She just got out of the hospital."

"I hope it's nothing catching," Gertrude said distractedly.

"No, it wasn't," Buffy said. "It was a tumor. But they got the whole thing, they said."

"Good," Gertrude nodded. She stopped pacing the room and regarded Buffy quizzically. "Why Rupert?"

"Okay," Buffy said slowly, "that was a smooth transition. Not awkward at all. Why Rupert what?"

"Why did you marry my brother?"

Buffy rolled her eyes and sat on the bed.

"Why does everyone need me to spell this out?" she complained. "Look, I'm sorry if you don't like it, but we're married, and we're happy - or we would be if everyone would just leave us alone about it - and that's not gonna change. We love each other, okay?"

"I never said you didn't."

"Then why the twenty questions?"

Gertrude sat next to Buffy on the bed.

"Because I don't understand how the two of you could take a chance like this."

"Funny," Buffy said. "We didn't know it was gonna be a chancey thing until everybody decided our business was their business."

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