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Buffy knocks on the door of Giles house. The door swings open and she comes face to face with a crossbow. "Chill Giles," Buffy says inching past the crossbow.
"Oh sorry," Giles replies, "Come right in Angel, Mrs. Summers." Joyce enters hesitantly, followed by Angel. Giles living room is sparsely furnished with a couch and arm chair that face each other, two lamps, and a large desk in the corner covered in books and scattered papers. When Joyce enters, she sees everyone from the pictures waiting in the living room. Willow sits on one end of the couch, Xander and Cordelia sit side by side on the floor between the couch and the armchair, Ms. Calendar sits in the armchair, and Buffy stands behind the couch with her back to her mother. Angel leads Joyce over to the couch and sits her down next to Willow. Ms. Calendar comes and sits on the other side of her, clasping one of her hands in friendly support. Angel and Buffy stand together while Giles sits down.
"Here you go, Giles," Buffy says handing the note and pictures to him, "I can identify all, but one, of the pictures to have been taken while the assassins were here." Buffy's mother gasps. Giles gives Buffy a short warning look before nodding for her to continue and returning his eyes to the letter. "There is at least one of each of us," she continued "The note basically says we are all ax-murders, and that Angel's the leader. It goes into much more detail, but it's all lies. The note was intended to turn Mom against me. Whoever sent the note, also sent a flunky to kidnap Mom if she didn't seem so anti-Buffy. She saw his true face Giles, time to tell Mom about the vampires and the slayers." Everyone turned towards her startled as she delivered this short and quickly delivered speech.
"Vampires?!?" Joyce repeats incredulously.
"Yeah, Vampires, demons, and mean, ugly things roam Sunnydale. Buffy's the slayer, so therefore she slays all evil things," Cordelia says bluntly.
"Cordelia!!" Willow and Buffy chorus.
"What??"
"You're being so blunt. Besides you left out the part that we help and Buffy being superstrong," Willow adds trying to comfort Joyce and completely failing.
"Can anyone say subtlety here," Xander says exasperatedly.
"Vampires and demons?! Look you may have fallen for that but I want the real story," Joyce says turning to look at her daughter, her eyes filled with distrust, anger, and a little fear.
"Well we can prove it. Angel, why don't you show her your a--OOWW!!" Xander said as Willow kicks him and Cordy hits him cutting off his sentence.
"Rupert, I think this needs help from an expert," Ms. Calendar says shooting Xander an evil look.
"Yeah, you were trained to break the bad news to me. Just use the same technique on Mom," Buffy says a little sarcastically remembering how Giles had confronted her about being the slayer. Giles looks up with a hint of pain in his eyes. "I'm sorry Giles. This really needs the help of the expert explainer, just try to make sure it's all in English o.k.?" Buffy says in her sweetest voice.
"Right, I would just like to ask you if this ... uh...lovers business in the letter is true?" Giles asked as a chorus of gasps emerged from around the room. Ms. Calendars head snaps round to stare at the two.
"No!" Buffy and Angel reply, Angel exashperatedly and Buffy with steel in her voice.
Joyce looks at Buffy with a look of disbelief before turning her attention to Giles who was beginning his speech. Buffy hears Giles begin, but pays no attention to the words. She can only think of escape from the judgment around her. She flees into the dark hallway. Angel comes up behind her and wraps his arms around her comfortingly. She turns around and cries quietly into his shoulder, thankful for the surrounding darkness. He whispers comforting words into her hair. Slowly she finishes crying and they talk in the darkness. They comfort each other and share a passionate kiss. They remain encircled in each other's arms and listen as Giles tries to convince Buffy's mother of the truth. They even laugh when the hear Giles mumble about knowing where Buffy got her stubbornness from. Finally they come out of the darkness. Buffy's mother is sitting with her stubborn disbelief etched on her face. Ms. Calendar is now standing over Giles, trying to calm him down. "Is there anyway I can help prove I'm the slayer?" Buffy asks.
"Yes," Giles replies hopefully, "you can show your unnatural strength. Wait just a minute." Giles rushes into the kitchen. Joyce looks around at Buffy and Angel (who has his arms around Buffy's waist) with daggers in her eyes. This only causes Buffy to pull Angel closer. With her mother turning on her, she feels like he is all she has to cling to for total love and support. Giles comes back with a long metal bar. "I was going to use this to reinforce the dummy you keep breaking," Giles says handing it to her. Buffy takes the metal bar and slowly pulls it out longer and thinner. Then she slowly bends the metal into a complete loop. Her mother first looks on with disbelief. Slowly her eyes get bigger and bigger. Buffy hands her the loop of metal. Joyce tries to bend it without luck.
Joyce looks up with amazement in her eyes as she realizes what this piece of metal means. "Oh my," she says, "I'm not sure I understand, but I'm convince. I still don't like him though." Joyce gives a mean look to Angel.
Buffy moans, but changes the subject to finding out who's behind the note and who's trying to pit her and her mother against each other. Giles begins mumbling and pacing. talking about books he'll need and where to start. He stops in a moment of inspiration and looks up at Angel. "Angel, could you possibly tell who sent the note by the handwriting, or perhaps the wording?"
"I can try," Angel says, taking the note from Giles. As Angel
takes the note, a growl escapes from his throat and a pained look covers
his face.