Joyce heard Buffy's bloodcurdling scream in the kitchen.  She ran to the
front hall to find her daughter on her knees in tears crying with a
recently opened package in her lap.  She looked into the box and saw it
contained dust and ashes, a necklace that looked like a small sword and a
few rings.

A note was nearby:  "Here is your traitorous boyfriend. ~ Spike"

Buffy was rocking back and forth, crying.  "Angel, oh Angel" was all she
would say over and over.  Joyce knew by these actions that these ashes must
be Buffy's boyfriend Angel's ashes.  Why he was ashes, and why they would
be delivered like that, she had no idea.

Joyce went to the phone, and dialed Willow's number.  "Willow. Come over
immediately.  Buffy just got a package from someone named Spike, and it
contains ashes...  She thinks they are Angel's."  A gasp was all she heard
and Willow hung up.  Joyce went back to Buffy and assisted her up off the
floor.  Buffy wouldn't let go of the box, but curled up with it on the
couch and continued her mourning.  Joyce looked at her daughter.  She had
obviously been very much in love with the boy--man, she corrected herself.
She was well aware there was a lot in Buffy's life she didn't know.  She
decided that being left out ended today.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Giles arrived at the Summers home to find a hysterical and distraught
Slayer and an enraged Mother.  Xander and Willow came up right behind him.
Joyce explained to them all the delivery of the box and Buffy's response to
it.  Buffy just cried, rocking back and forth on the couch with the box.

"Mr. Giles," Joyce's voice was cool, "I need to speak with you."  She
motioned toward the kitchen away from Buffy's keening and Xander and
Willow's attempts to soothe her.  Giles knew very well this was when Joyce
would need to be told.  He took a deep sigh and followed.

"What the hell is going on?" Joyce erupted at Giles the moment he stepped
into the kitchen.  "Why is someone named Spike mailing Buffy her
boyfriend's ashes?  Why the hell am I the only one surprised about it?  And
why are you so involved with my daughter?"

"Well, it is a bit hard to explain..."  He glanced at Joyce's eyes, which
said 'try me,' and continued.  "In every generation there is a chosen one.
She alone will stand against the vampires, the demons, and the forces of
darkness.  She is the Slayer.  Buffy is the Slayer and I am her Watcher"
He definitely looked uncomfortable.

"Are you telling me my daughter is some kind of superhero?" Joyce asked.
This was not the answer she expected.

"Well, not precisely...  Well, uh... Yes," Giles fumbled.  He never thought
of it that way.  "Buffy is the Vampire Slayer.  She has saved the world
several times.  Spike is the leader of the local vampires."

"So he was the one who killed Buffy's boyfriend Angel, and mailed him to
her?"  The pain Buffy must be feeling enraged Joyce.

"Well, uh, apparently so."  Giles looked out toward the living room where
Buffy's crying could be heard.

"What is it about Angel?" Joyce asked quietly.  Giles looked at her: she
had accepted so much.  Buffy would need support and help to face the coming
days.  He wasn't up to lying anymore.  They would need Joyce to help keep
the Slayer sane in the time ahead.

"Angel is--was--an ensouled Vampire.  He was 242 years old and he saved her
life several times.  They were deeply in love."  Giles felt like he was
betraying Buffy's trust and Angel's.  But then Angel was dead and Buffy was
who mattered now.  Looking at Joyce's eyes he saw that she did indeed
accepted the unacceptable.  She was a remarkable woman.

"Oh God!" was all Joyce could mutter.  The entire situation was becoming
clearer to her.  She had the final piece to the broken puzzle that had been
her life for the last two years.  The problems in L.A., burning the school
gym down, the constantly missed curfews.  All the evasions and the obvious
lies Buffy had been telling her.  It all made sense now.

"Giles, don't you think we should go over to Angel's and check on him... in
case this was just a big hoax?"  Xander blurted as he ran into the room.

"Why, yes..."  He never thought it could have been a hoax.  Angel just may
be sleeping in his bed as they freaked over his 'death'.  He looked at
Joyce who grabbed the station wagon's keys and motioned for him to proceed
her.  They all went in Joyce's station wagon.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Joyce looked at her daughter, eyes red and puffy.  She had stopped her loud
crying and sat dejected in the front seat with silent tears rolling down
her face.  It hurt her to see her daughter hurting so badly.  Joyce's heart
broke for her daughter.

They stopped at an apartment building near the Bronze, and Giles led them
to a basement apartment.  Buffy produced a key and they all went into the
apartment.  Joyce frowned, she didn't want to look too closely at why her
daughter had a key to a man's apartment just right now...

Devastation was inside.  A table had been knocked over, and a lamp smashed.
 Signs of a fight and a struggle were evident.  Buffy ran over to a pile of
ashes near the bed, which had been partially scooped up and dropped to her
knees crying again.  Willow and Xander just stood beside her as she cried.

Giles walked around and looked at the apartment.  Joyce's artistic eye saw
incredible works of art in the room.  Angel had good taste in art, and
obviously the ability to buy originals.  The apartment was well designed
and obviously well cared-for.  The blocking of the windows were not missed
by Joyce.

"I'm sorry Buffy" Giles said to the mourning Slayer on the floor near the
ashes.  "I was hoping.."  He drifted off realizing his words fell on deaf
ears.  Buffy was beyond words in her pain.  Giles softly assisted her to
stand, and led her out of the apartment.  Xander and Willow followed
uncharacteristically silent.  Joyce shut and locked the door.  Angel had
died, and he was gone.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy lay on her bed, motionless.  It broke Joyce's heart to see her that
way.  She sat next to her daughter and softly brushed her hair off her
face.  "I am sorry about Angel," she told her daughter softly.  "I realize
how much he meant to you.  You loved him, didn't you?"  Buffy nodded, tears
slowly running down her cheeks.  "Giles told me about the Slayer business
and Angel's true nature.  I understand why you didn't tell me.  It makes
everything so much clearer now.  All those nights you were out past
curfew...  You were vampire slaying weren't you?"  Buffy nodded.  "With a
vampire boyfriend, it is obvious that some nights you were with him, also."
 Buffy made a low moan and turned to her mother and cried as her mother
held her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy was devastated and heartbroken.  She walked through her life with
tears in her eyes and a sigh in her heart.  Joyce watched closely and tried
to cheer her at times, but knew the love she had felt for Angel had been a
true love, and only time would eventually dull the pain.

Giles came and picked her up every night and they went off doing whatever a
Slayer does.  She would return home, listless as she was before she left
and would immediately go to bed.  Joyce and Giles would sit in the kitchen
and drink tea and talk.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Giles came to enjoy his little tea time with Joyce.  She was an alive and
bright woman, very proud of her daughter.  Giles told her of Angel and
Buffy, of the times he saved her, and she him.  He told her of the times
they worked well together.  Joyce finally asked the question to which she
needed to know the answer: "How long do Slayers live, Rupert?" she asked
one night.

It was a question he knew would come up eventually, but he wasn't happy
about it.  "Uh..  they, ah, average about, um, 19 years.  Some do retire,
but very few..."  He hated the look of pain in her eyes as the reality sank
in.

"She would have lived longer with Angel in her life, wouldn't she?  You
told me how he has saved her numerous times."  Joyce looked down at her tea
cup.  When she looked up to his face, all he could do was nod.  Tears
spilled down her cheeks when she realized that, in addition to her daughter
losing the man she loved, she had probably lost her best chance to be able
retire from the Slayer business.

Giles stood up and came around the table and hugged her.  It felt so good
to be held in a pair of strong caring arms again, as she melted into his
embrace.  That night he didn't go home.  Buffy was very surprised to find
her mother in bed with her Watcher the next morning when she walked into
her mother's bedroom.  Giles was horribly embarrassed, but it raised the
first smile anyone had seen on her lips in days.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
One Friday night, Giles and Buffy were out Slaying about three weeks after
the incident with the mailed ashes.  Joyce heard a knock came on her front
door.  Now in the know, Joyce was very afraid of any night visitors.  Joyce
fearfully looked out the door and into the eyes of a haggard and very tired
looking Angel!

"Angel!" she cried as she opened the door.  He looked tired and worn.  His
clothes were wrinkled and torn in places.  He seemed surprised that Joyce
knew who he was.  "You're alive!"  He looked at her, totally confused.  He
wasn't used to people calling him "alive".  Even more, he was surprised to
find Mrs. Summers at home.  She usually worked late Friday evenings at the
Gallery.

"Is Buffy around?" he asked tentatively.  He had searched for her when he
got back in town, and hadn't found her.  He was frantic in his need to see
her and make sure she was okay.

"She's out doing the Slayer thing with Giles"  Joyce saw the shocked look
Angel had at her words.  "Yes, I know all about her being the Slayer.
Enter if you are able."  She stepped back as he stepped into the home.
Only after he entered did the precise wording of her invitation sink in.
To the undead it would not have been an invitation.

"Where have you been?" Joyce asked.  She was going to be very angry if this
whole episode with the ashes was some sick prank of Angel's.  She looked
into his eyes and saw pain.  No.  That thought had been unkind.  "We
thought you were dead!"

"Uh... I was taken prisoner by Spike.  I just got loose and got back to
Sunnydale tonight."  He looked at Joyce.  She seemed quite knowing and
accepting of him.  He felt really weird.

"Do you know what he did?" she asked softly.  He shook his head no.  "He
mailed Buffy ashes with a note saying they were yours.  There was some
jewelry she knew was yours.  We went to your apartment and there had been a
battle of sorts and ashes on the floor"  He stared at her.  Buffy thought
him dead?  "Buffy has been in mourning for you since that day.  She is a
ghost of the girl she usually is.  She will be so glad to find out you're
alive!"  Joyce reached out and hugged him tightly.  He just stood there
dumbstruck.  Joyce hugged Angel tightly, thankful that her daughter's lover
and protector was back.  Her head stayed a moment on his chest.  No rise
and fall of the chest with breathing.  No heartbeat.  She slowly realized
how cold he was.  Yes, this was her daughter's Angel.

Angel was uncomfortable.  He didn't know what to do.  He hugged her back
slightly and she disengaged and looked into his eyes.  "I don't know if I
approve of my daughter seeing an older man, never mind one centuries older.
 But I have to accept it because she does truly love you."

Angel stared at Joyce.  *Centuries older!  She knows!*  He looked around
for a quick escape, but Joyce had taken him by the hand and was leading him
into the living room.  She motioned for him to sit and she smiled.

"Buffy should be home soon.  She hasn't been staying out as late as she had
been when she is with you.  In fact she has been nearly impossible to pry
out of the house except to go slaying with Giles.  Tell me about yourself."
 She smiled.  There was time, and she was going to find out about her
daughter's mysterious man now!

"What do you want to know?" Angel asked.  The fact that Buffy's mother knew
about everything was a bit unnerving.

"Where are you from?  How did you become what you are?"  Joyce stared into
his face.  Handsome was too gentle of a word for him.  Downright gorgeous
worked.

"Ah...  I was born in Ireland in the late 1730's.  I was the oldest of a
large family.  I was changed at 24 in 1753 and was like all the other
vampires until around 1918 when I crossed paths with some Hungarian Gypsies
who took offense at my actions and cursed me with my soul.  I have not..."
He was very shy to talk about this and his voice faded off.

"You haven't killed since the curse.  Is that it?"  He nodded.  Joyce
continued.  "Rupert told me your history.  I just wanted to hear it from
you.  What I really want to know now is, what is your intentions for my
daughter?"

"I love her," was all Angel could say.  "I want to be with her.  Share with
her."  Angel was shy to tell this woman what he feared to admit to himself.
 He knew he had better tell her the truth.

"Do you want to turn her into a vampire for her to live forever?"  She
asked the question she feared most.

"NO!"  He stood up and he paced.  "I never want that.  It wouldn't be her,
just a demon in her body with her memories."  He slumped down in the chair.
 "I couldn't do that to her... ever!"

Joyce nodded.  This was as she expected.  "What about other things...?"
She wasn't sure how she should go about asking a 242-year-old vampire about
his intentions with her daughter... if there had been one.

Angel knew instinctively the question in her mind, and the information she
needed from him.  He decided to be frank about his intentions regarding her
daughter.  "Buffy is young, Mrs. Summers.  I am a patient man.  I can wait
years or decades for her to be ready for a full relationship.  The choice
will always be hers.  She may never want a full relationship with me, and
may wish to find another.  If she wants to end our relationship to gain a
more normal one, I will kiss her goodbye.  I will do it if that is what she
needs from me.  It is her choice."  Joyce smiled at his words.  "I see her
at night because I have to see her at night.  Not because I have ulterior
motives."  He was totally embarrassed with the way he spoke.  But he felt
she needed to know the truth.

Joyce looked at Angel thoughtfully.  Here was a very handsome man,
obviously very much in love with her daughter.  He seemed honest and
truthful, and Rupert thought so too.  Rupert told her a lot about Angel:
his love for Buffy, his tortured soul.  Rupert told her Angel had, and
would again, walked through hell for Buffy.  Not everyone finds that kind
of love.  Joyce smiled at Angel.

"She should be back soon.  Why don't you go up to her room and wait for her
there?"  He looked into Joyce's eyes, shocked.  Was she saying what he
thought she was saying?  "Pull the curtain and the drapes.  That should
keep the sun out."  With the last statement, she got up and walked into the
kitchen, leaving Angel in the living room.  He got up and went upstairs.

Joyce smiled.  She knew it was a tad risqué sending her daughter's lover
upstairs.  But Giles had been frantic about the loss of Angel.  He had told
her of the numerous times Angel had saved Buffy's life.  He probably hadn't
meant to, but he had driven into her how much she really owed Angel.  In
fact, without him, she realized would have buried her daughter a long time
ago.  With his return, Buffy had her love, and Joyce had her daughter's
guardian angel back with her daughter.  She smiled as she made tea for
herself and Giles, and awaited the Slayer's return.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Angel tentatively walked into Buffy's room and looked at the table next to
her bed.  A large glass vase sat prominently on the table with his necklace
and rings draped over it.  Spike had removed the jewelry from him when he
had been captured.  He cursed Spike under his breath for causing Buffy such
pain.

He looked again at the vase.  It was obviously some sort of shrine for him.
 He wondered briefly whose ashes they really were.  He knew that she had
thought they were his.  Anger boiled up in him.  He looked closer, and
realized just how strong her feelings were for him.  His heart broke for
Buffy.  She thought he was dead!

He looked around her room.  Mr. Gordo was on the bookshelf.  He picked him
up and held him.  How much Buffy must have suffered thinking he was ashes!
He remembered Joyce's words: "I don't know if I approve of my daughter
seeing an older man, never mind centuries older.  But I have to accept it
because she truly loves you."  He realized that her mother knew Buffy loved
him...  It was that obvious, enough for her mother to accept the fact he
was a two-hundred-plus year old vampire.  This was too much.  He sat on her
bed and thought of Buffy.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Buffy and Giles came in the kitchen door.  Joyce was sitting at the table
with freshly made tea and a big smile on her face.  Buffy looked at the
expression on her mom's face and started to wonder what her mother was up
to.  She did bizarre things when she had such an expression on her face.

"Buffy, I have a surprise for you in your room!"  Buffy looked at Giles and
shrugged: another one of her mom's attempts to make her happy.  She slowly
walked upstairs.

Waiting until Buffy was out of earshot, she whispered to Giles.  "Rupert,
Angel isn't dead.  It was all a game of Spike's"  He stared at her in
shock.  "Angel is in Buffy's room.  That's my surprise!"  She walked over
to him and said softly into his ear, "Wanna come keep me company so I don't
have to listen to them all night?"  She bit softly at his ear and he
nodded.  He followed her toward her room when he heard Buffy's delighted
scream of "ANGEL!"  They both smiled...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
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