Chapter One

A breezy and jovial atmosphere ricocheted off the walls of the living room in the Summers house. It's blend of tasteful art and practical furniture was the recipient of many a light hearted gag and double entendre, but it did little to soothe the nerves of a certain bride-to-be who was panicking over flowers, accommodating distant relatives she had assumed were dead and last minute seating re-arrangements.

"So if we have your father sitting on the top table, where the hell are we going to put my sister? She still has that rash that she's not sure is contagious or not", said the worried voice of Miss Calendar, peppered with the usual per-marital anxiety she had once pledged not become a slave to.

"Well don't put her anywhere near me", butted in Faith as she put her arms around Buffy's lithe form as the blonde snuggled deeper into the embrace of her girfriend. They relished being able to be so open with their affection in front of both their friends and families and, ignoring the occassional gagging sound from Dawn, they couldn't be happier. Despite having to restrain themselves in such company.

"It's ok, you'll still be on the top table with us. We have to pick up the dresses tomorrow...now don't give me that look, Faith. As a bridesmaid you have to wear it", Jenny stated before she could get into yet another argument with the brunette.

"But it's all long and silky and shit. And the heels are gonna be a bitch to dance in"

"Don't worry baby, besides I'm wearing one too. We'll look awesome, I promise you", enthused Buffy trying to get her love to match her infectious level of excitement. Weddings always brought out the more extreme measures of girliness in Buffy and, ever the romantic, she couldn't wait for the sacred vows and weeping of joy that were almost demanded on such occassions.

"I guess I ain't got much choice. As long as we get to dance to some decent music", said Faith trying to bolster her indifferent facade, but whenever Buffy's soft fingers slipped between her own she couldn't help but feel a slight jolt of exhilaration.

"Can't wait to cut the rug with someone, anyone in fact, I'm no longer looking for the girl in a million, the lowest common denominator will do me", grinned Xander as he waited for a laugh. But not even a titter was to grace his joke as a reward.

"You stupid boy", said Giles but as soon as the words left his lips he knew that no-one present would understand his little quip.

"I'm just glad we have a good DJ, and not you choosing the music", said Jenny with a smirk.

"Why not...ow, B watch it", hissed Faith as Buffy slid back on her lap a little more and accidentally snagged the brunette's new belly button ring which was taking it's sweet time to heal.

"Sorry baby, are you ok?", asked the blonde as she wanted, more than anything, to kiss it better. But now was so not the time nor the place to be dropping feather light kisses all over the smooth body of her girlfriend.

"Yeah I'm fine", said Faith and gave Buffy a quick peck on the cheek before resuming the conversation, "So anyways, why can't I choose the music?"

"Remember that time you played that 'nice English band' to us?"

"Cradle Of Filth? Heh-heh, yeah", chuckled Faith, "I thought Dad was gonna have a stroke"

"I can't even begin to describe my feelings to that music", replied Giles.

"Who don't love Cradle?"

"Well me for one", Jenny said flatly as she flicked through the mountain of paperwork trying to find the phone number of the photographer for their big day. It was only three days away now and even though Faith and Giles had tried to help, she was single minded about the whole affair and wanted everything to be just-so.

"Yeah, I thought they were horrible too, how did Spike refer to them?", asked Buffy as she pulled off of Faith's lap to try and help Jenny only to be swatted away by a hand that smelt of almonds.

"Like two iron plated ninja dwarves battling to death in a skip whilst the singer sounded like Gollum being arse raped by a velociraptor", interjected Xander with a grin showing off his attention to detail.

"How the hell do you remember that?", asked Faith with a chuckle.

"It was the first thing I heard when I came round after our little incident"

"Oh...that", the Bostonian responded a little sheepishly. Though she and Xander had bonded instantly once she arrived in their sun drenched town, once he cheated on Cordelia, Faith had wandered straight up to him in the cafeteria and headbutted him, cracking his nose and loosening a tooth or two. She had got suspended for three days for that one. It was long forgotten now, but she still felt badly that her emotions had overtaken her so easily but she was a girl who despised the mistreatment of women. On the positive side though, Faith and Cordelia had bonded over her chivalry.

"It's all cool though, still not sure why Spike was in the school anyway", he shrugged back as he stole the last of the mini pizza's from Willow's plate.

"Hey that was mine", she snapped back playfully. To be honest the redhead didn't really care as she was too wrapped up in the contagious excitement radiating from everyone who had been there so long they were on the verge of being classed as squatters, loiterers or faffers.

"Spike? Is Spike coming?", asked Buffy a little put out.

"Yes, my errant nephew will be coming in tonight, if all goes to plan", said Giles with a wipe of his glasses.

"Cool, is Dru coming too?"

"Yes, I believe she will be accompanying him"

"Sweet, Dru's fun", said Faith with an wide grin.

"She's weird", stated Buffy as she really didn't get on with Spike's fiance.

"No she ain't", pouted the brunette.

"Is too"

"Is not, and I do think Dru is better than Spike"

"That's like saying a car crash is better than a housefire", Buffy snipped back.

"Girls, please. We have a lot to discuss", chided Jenny with a touch of humor, "Have you finished the cake Faith?"

"Almost, Just gotta do the frosting and made the little flower things.... I still think you should've gone for 'Jaws Eating The Boat', or the 'Darth Vader Smoking A Cigar' design, but I guess it's your choice", she shrugged back, "Most of it's in the kitchen"

"Thankyou again Joyce for letting her bake it here, we really didn't want another thing in our house as my mother will no doubt be bringing eleven suitcases for just a long weekend. Oh god, what time is it? I said we'd pick her up at the station", squeaked Jenny as she rooted round for Giles' sterling silver pocketwatch that hung from the pocket of his waistcoat.

"We have plenty of time, fear not my dear", he said in his calm, unflappable manner as he flipped his watch shut, but not before smiling softly at the engraving on the inside; 'Happy Birthday Dad, love F'.

"Ok, that's ok, panic over. Yes, thankyou Joyce, I know she can be quite the despot when it comes to kitchen activities"

"It's no problem Jenny, I like having her here, you know that", said Mrs Summers with a warm smile as she brought in yet another tray of snacks to feed the army of wedding preparers, "Who would've thought that she would be so good at cooking"

"Hey, sitting right here yo", snipped back Faith. She was proud of the chocolate creation that was forming in the Summers' house, she was certain it would be her black album.

"I'm sorry sweetie, but when you said you wanted to join the CIA, well it took us all by shock", said Joyce in that saccharine motherly tone that the brunette secretly admired and couldn't help but smile every time she heard it.

"Me too, I wasn't expecting it", said Buffy not wanting to be reminded of the slight misunderstanding on her part the first time she had heard her girlfriend's plan.

"Well you can't judge a cook by it's lover", Faith purred as Buffy blushed and tried to hide her face behind one of the Beantown native's speciality muffins."Besides, when they're on honeymoon we can make snoo-snoo"

"Faith, I know what that means", interrupted Giles as he wiped his glasses for the fortieth time in the last hour and cursing the fact that he now had his senses assaulted by cartoons and punk rock on an almost daily basis, "While we're away and you're staying with Mrs Summers there will be no...er, snoo-ing of any kind"

"But Daaaaad", Faith whined in her best Buffy imitation.

"No, Joyce's rules are the same at ours, so none of that, er...you know", he finished with a slight blush as the thought of the two girls sitting opposite him submitting to their carnal desires was one which make him shiver. Giles was still of the mindset that both Faith and Buffy were little girls and any kind of sexual activity, if he had his way, wouldn't happen for another twenty or thirty years.

"Oh, you suck, and not in a good 'Harmony-Kendall-in-the-alleyway-behind-a-porno-theater' kind of way, more in a....", Faith moaned but was cut off mid crudity. A habit that her soon-to-be stepmother had become adept at.

"Oh, Joyce, who are you bringing as your plus one?", asked Jenny as she victoriously waved about the phone number she had been looking for.

"I...I'm not sure", stammered Mrs Summers.

"What about Roy, he was nice, or ooh what about Daniel from the courthouse, you liked him didn't you?", gushed Dawn. She wanted only the best for her mother and felt guilty about her being so single, so alone, especially when both her daughters were dating.

But Buffy had noticed something a little off about her mother in recent weeks. Her demeanor had been changing, she had laughed more than in recent memory and her eldest had even caught her trying on some of her wardrobe which, as you may have summised, freaked the hell out of Buffy.

The blonde wasn't worried about the slight weight loss that had tightened her mother's over aerobicised-thighs, nor that Joyce was was currently snacking on Fruit Loops and vicodin, but there was something else. Her mother seemed...happy. Really happy. Not the kind of emotion one would expect from a woman who was now on the wrong side of forty, with two demanding daughters and a shy bladder.

Buffy knew the signs. Her mom had met someone. It would explain the constant 'art evaluations' she would have to give in LA, the flowers that appeared around the house and the pile of dead batteries that gathered in the waste paper basket in her mother's bedroom, though she vehemently denied any romantic entanglements.

But Joyce was a liar. She HAD met someone two months previously on one of her art jaunts to the city of angels. Someone she felt really connected to, something she hadn't felt in a long, long time. She was sick of all the sneaking around and clandestine meetings but she was too scared to tell her family or her friends. Something which puzzled even her.

"I just thought", started Faith with a little shock, "Are you gonna take his surname? 'Cos I still ain't, 'Faith Giles' just sounds shit, remember our little disagreement about that one"

"Vividly, I was quite impressed by your rather articulate way of protesting, despite the four letter words you used, some of which I'm sure you made up", replied the bespectacled man with a grin.

"I ain't changing shit now, it took me long enough to call him Dad instead of G-man"

"Faith, language please.....and, yes, I was most grateful to lose such a charmless monicker", he said with a smile at his daughter. He had missed a great deal of her life but in the last few months she had opened up so much. It had taken a while for Faith to truly settle in as part of the family but now he could barely recall a time when she hadn't been one of the two women at the center of his life. He still smiled tearfully whenever he thought of the first time she had called him 'Dad'.

"Joyce, please. I need to get these seating arrangements done, who are you having accompany you?"

"I...you see...I think maybe...no-one", she said a little sadly as she folded her bolero jacket and placed it on the end of the sofa. She had worn it the last time she had been to LA, the simple and cliched evening of dinner and dancing had meant so much to her. And she relived the night often in her head, but she felt so ashamed at lying... to everyone.

"Oh come on Mom, aren't you gonna tell us who the mystery man is?", butted in Dawn as she finally joined in the conversation after texting her boyfriend all evening, much to her mother's chagrin.

"Mystery man?", asked Willow through a mouthful of pineapple, risking her mild allergy.

"Yeah, she's been getting flowers and things for the last few weeks now. And then there's all the late night phone calls..."

"Dawn, those were...from...potential clients of mine. You know how it is"

"But who is it?", asked Jenny, her fingers gripping the ballpoint pen, aching to fill in the last blank space on the name chart.

"I...", Joyce started but before she could get into her bluff, the doorbell rang, saving her, "Excuse me"

Her mind circled within itself and she even turned back to the crowded room to tell them the truth but upon seeing the happy and carefree gathering, she knew she couldn't tell them now. But one day she would, she just didn't know when. Joyce hated feeling this way, like she was somehow protecting her extended family from the truth, but in her heart she knew it would hurt them all the more when she finally had the guts to tell them.

Joyce opened the door and her mouth fell open, for there before her, clutching a bunch of roses and wearing the widest smile imaginable, was her secret lover. The person she had done nothing but think about and masturbate furiously over since the start of their relationship.

"Babe? Are you okay?"

Joyce stood still and tried to force some words out, any words in fact, but she came up blank. She wasn't ready for everyone to meet like this. Not here, and certainly not now.

"Mom?", said Buffy came up besides her. Joyce flashed a look to her eldest and then back to the person at the door. Her words still elusive.

"Sorry about her, she's just all kindsa weird tonight. Hi, I'm Buffy Summers.....Joyce's daughter"

"Hi, I'm Bette Porter.....Joyce's girlfriend"

(To be continued)

......

(Author's notes - Oh yeah, this is a slight crossover with The L Word. The way I see it, Joyce and Bette are about the same age, both into art, and both total MILF's, so it made sense for them to try to get together. I also think that Giles would be a fan of Dad's Army, don't enough quotes from 70's sitcoms in fics these days.

As for the questions I imagine you have, fear not for all will be explained in good time.)