Epilogue

He couldn’t believe this day was finally happening. After seven years of
watching the two of them grow closer and finally falling in love, his
daughter was marrying the man that she loves. Not his blood child, but the
child of his heart, was finally getting everything that she deserved out of
this life. The man that makes her happier than most people would ever get a
chance at being. The man that has sworn to protect her life with his own if
necessary. And he has, many times over. He’s watched her grow from a shy
young girl who was unsure of her place in the world into a beautiful young
woman who knows what she wants out of life and is more than willing to go
out and get it.
My, how much has changed in those years. When he first came to Sunnydale,
he had thought it would only be the normal Slayer/Watcher gig. But that had
changed. He had come to care about the people that he had come in contact
with. Allowed the Slayer to change the rules of the game. To bring in her
friends and to allow herself to have a life. Her friends that became his
family and his children, even though he now had two of his own also.
That was just one of many changes in his life. A life that has seen danger
and love. He was now married to a wonderful woman in the shape of one Jenny
Calender Giles, the daughter of the gypsy clan that had originally cursed
Angel with his soul. The woman that given him two gorgeous children. A son
and a daughter, Rupert and Janna. He had never been happier than the day
that their twins were born. Where once he had been content with working in
a stuffy museum, now he was a successful business owner who had everything
that someone could possibly ask for. Granted, he was no longer the Watcher
that his family had always wanted him to be, but he was content with the
curves that life had decided to throw him.
Even his Slayer went against the traditions that had been held up for
centuries. Buffy was the longest living Slayer, having recently celebrated
her twenty third birthday with a huge party hosted by her fiancee. That’s
right, for once, a Slayer has lived long enough to actually meet someone to
love. It was the first time in recorded Watcher history that a Slayer was
engaged. And the best part was that she had met someone in Riley Finn that
was her match in every way. He never let her get away with anything when
her stubborn side appeared. He made sure that she thought all of her
options through before rushing out to do battle. And, most importantly, he
had helped her truly close her life with Angel. Before Riley, Buffy still
harbored feelings for the souled vampire, even if she did nothing to act
upon them, but Riley gave her another reason to live. To love, and for that
he was eternally grateful. And Riley was even willing to accept the fact
that vampires would now be part of his family.
And speaking of vampires, his eyes focused on the best man. Spike. He
still couldn’t believe that the blonde vampire had made a place for him in
his heart, but he had. At first, he thought that Spike had been using
Cordelia for some reason, but when Spike had followed her and her family to
the islands and waited for her to get old enough to finally move out on her
own, he knew that it was true love. Now the two of them live in Los
Angeles. Cordelia was busy in her new life as a popular actress on a soap
opera while Spike spent his time protecting the city from the demons that
wanted to run it. He had spent many a night listening to tellings of their
adventures throughout the City of Angels and was amazed at the changes in
the two most unlikely members of his extended family.
His eye caught on another unlikely member of his family. His oldest son,
again son of the heart instead of blood. The boy who he was proud to say he
had a hand in making into a man. A man that was now a family man himself.
The father of a handsome four-year-old son named Alexander Jr. He smiled as
he pictured the changes that had taken place in Xander’s young life. The
only boy in the Scooby gang and the only one with no particular talent, he
was also the one who had the biggest heart. He would do anything for his
friends and family. His wife, Amy, often said it was one of the main
reasons she had fallen in love with him in the first place. Xander had
spent most of his life playing the fool, living down to his parents’
expectations, but now he lived up to his friends. Xander never went to
college, instead working a construction job to help Amy through Sunnydale U
and support his growing family. Now he was one of the highest paid and most
in demand workers in town. Xander had turned his life completely around and
he couldn’t be more proud of him even if he was his own son.
He finished his walk up the aisle and handed the man standing there the
hand that had been nestled so securely in his arm. He lifted the veil and
looked into the sparkling emerald green eyes of the bride, honored to be the
one to give her away to the man that loved her. He couldn’t believe that
Willow’s parents refused to even attend the wedding of their only child but
was pleased that she felt so strongly that he was her father that she had
instantly asked that he be the one to give her away, telling him that she
had never even thought of asking her real father for that honor. And it was
an honor to him. He didn’t know why the Rosenbergs couldn’t understand the
choices Willow had made. Instead of taking up one of the many offers she
had from Fortune 500 companies that would have entitled her to be making a
six figure salary already, Willow had chosen to remain in Sunnydale, working
with the Scoobies and teaching at the new high school, occasionally do some
side work for a computer company that was starting up. It didn’t give her
the kind of life that her parents had envisioned for their daughter, but it
did make her happy.
As he went to join his wife, Giles looked over his extended family,
gathered together one more time and smiled. He had been given a second
chance at life, as had they all and they were all making the best of it.
And as the High Priestess began the ceremony that would bind Willow and
Angel together, he smiled and knew that, no matter what life threw at them,
the Slayer and her friends would be able to handle it because they were
together.

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