Giles took the opportunity to glance briefly at the faces of his audience. Joyce gently smiled at him, ensuring him of her forgiveness at least. Cordelia's expression was hard; she was clearly deep in thought. Buffy just looked confused.

"So, what? You all pleaded guilty to screwing with my life and now you have to do what exactly?"

"Not only your life, Buffy. Our actions affected you, Spike, and Angel directly, and indirectly the entire world. We faced our guilt and have been given the opportunity to recant our previous behaviour. Supporting you as we should have done initially is only a part of it." In an earnest attempt to ensure that she understood, Giles focused all of his attention on the girl he had so badly wronged in his previous incarnation of this time line.

"Choices bring consequences, Buffy. I believe that I was sent to this particular moment in time because the choices I make now are vital. Willow and Xander will be sent back to the time when they can make the difference. But as this is my time, I can only surmise that something about the situation that we now find ourselves in has the potential to go horribly wrong."

"But you're all on board the Buffy loves Spike train, right? You're gonna be support-o guy when I have to bring him over from the dark side?" she asked suspiciously.

"And, I believe, therein lay the problem." He noted her mutinous expression and rushed to clarify. "Not your relationship, dear. I think you will have to tread very carefully in your pursuit of him. In our timeline he reached his champion status at terrible cost to himself, and while I do believe that together we can make his transformation easier, the last thing we want to do is rush him or we stand the very real chance of negating his opportunity of fulfilling his destiny. There are other factors that need to be taken into consideration and problems that we need to find a way around."

Joyce handed Giles another cup of tea and then joined him on the couch. She felt a surge of relief go through her; the comfort that she felt from having her destined mate on side and on the job eased her concerns as much as his commentary relating to the possible pitfalls elevated them.

Cordelia took the opportunity to make an observation of her own. "I think the Powers were a little harsh in blaming you for Angel's actions. His ego was always gonna get him into trouble. He has an over inflated sense of his own worth."

"While I would agree, in principle, I must take responsibility for the fact that I never made the effort to disabuse him of that belief. My conscience is far from clear, Cordelia."

"None of us did, Giles," she replied with gentle insistence.

He gave her a thankful smile.

Buffy waited for a moment, before asking the question that bothered her most. "What factors and problems do we have to face, Giles?"

"Buffy," he spoke with soft sadness. "You're going to have to fight him. Your battles were what started his focus of attention moving from Drusilla to you. I would suggest that you tease rather than snipe. Perhaps even show him the same reaction as you showed Dracula. Furthermore, you must not be derogatory towards Drusilla, regardless of how much you may want to be. As much as it may pain you to hear, at this point in time, he is in love with his sire and extremely protective of her. This, of course, leads to another, larger, problem."

Giles watched his slayer pout with displeasure. "The start of Spike's relationship breakdown began with..."

"Angelus," Buffy finished, her voice laced with disgust. As the importance of that fact struck her, she groaned in despair. "How do we get 'round that, 'cause I am so not gonna be giving a happy to Angel! Clem has a better shot than Mr Elastic Soul."

"I don't know, Buffy. But as the prophecy has the two of you together, I can only assume that destiny will assert itself in some way. However, that may mean that you will have to wait until Spike is chipped. But until that happens we have no way of knowing so we must ensure that our interactions with him til that point are not too damaging. I would hasten to add that it may not be prudent to inform Angel of your destiny with Spike. Given Angel's tendency towards jealousy, I would be fearful for not only Spike's safety were Angelus to reappear, but also his reaction if Angelus were to tell him of his destiny at this point in time. He is not ready to know yet."

"Oh, yeah, definitely with you on keeping Angel in the dark. Oooh!" She exclaimed with a giggle as a thought struck her. "I'll just be returning the favour for all the times he kept me in the dark."

The group chuckled along with their happy slayer.

Over the summer, Buffy, Joyce, Cordelia, and Giles worked as a team. Giles and Cordelia informed Angel of his demoted status, while Buffy and Joyce tackled Willow and Xander. Angel was disinvited from the Summers home and Joyce had the tree outside Buffy's window laced with garlic and hosed down with Holy Water.

To Xander's delight, Buffy had begun to punch Angel in the nose on a regular basis after he had interrupted a dance she was having with the teen at the Bronze in a jealous rage. Her screams that the vampire stop stalking her reached an amazing and ear-drum-shattering pitch. Xander's happiness factor had gone down somewhat when she 'accidentally' broke three of his ribs while giving him an enthusiastic hug. Giles' mirth at his condition and mild comment that his injury was precisely why slayers didn't date humans left the boy with food for thought and a miraculous cure to his crush.

As the new school year approached, the news of Giles and Joyce's engagement was met with unanimous congratulations from all but the ever-broody vampire that flitted around the fringes of their lives. Even Jenny Calendar joined their celebrations after Buffy and Giles had approached her to speak to her about the curse.

Jenny's shocked reaction to their knowledge of her mission was answered with the ever faithful 'slayer dream' excuse. The techno-pagan Gypsy was encouraged to spend time with the brooding vampire so that she could see first hand the effect her clan's curse had on him. It was hoped that by discovering the depth of his guilt she could be persuaded to research and even alter the curse enough to remove the loophole. The thought of the possibility of Angelus making an appearance not something any of the group of returnees relished.

With the return to school, Buffy quietly dealt with the reanimated dead football hero and patiently but sadly waited for the arrival of the eternal mate that hated her.