He wasn't entirely used to thinking of the Summers house as his home, despite the fact he'd moved in barely a week after Joyce died. Hank Summers had, as usual, had better things to do than care for his daughters, so Giles had quietly stepped in, allowing Buffy to continue her studies and Dawn to live as normal a life as she could considering the fact she wasn't a teenage girl at all, but an ancient energy matrix being hunted by a psychotic Demon Goddess.

But now Glory was defeated, and Giles and Buffy, overwhelmed by emotion in the aftermath, had finally decided to tell one another how they truly felt.

And so it was that he woke to find Buffy still in his arms. He tightened said arms around her slightly and kissed the top of her still sleeping head. A misty-eyed smile spread across his features. The girl stirred.

"Morning." She reached up to kiss him. "I need some coffee and about a three week shower. Wanna come with?"

"Only if I can have a cup of Darjeeling instead of the coffee."

"I think that could be arranged."

They leaned in and kissed deeply, tongues mingling, hands beginning to wander when the door swung open.

With a mutual shriek, both pulled the bedding up to cover themselves.

"Felicitous morrow to you, Master. I bring sustenance for you and your most entrancingly scented lady fair." The bumpy minion scurried to the bed bearing a large tray loaded with food.

Giles massaged the bridge of his nose. He'd no idea why Dreg had insisted on following him home and swearing fealty to him, but he was thoroughly sick of the state of affairs less than twelve hours later.

"Dreg? What the hell do you think you're doing?"

The demon blinked and drew himself to his full, if not terribly impressive stature.

"Have my unworthy efforts offended, oh tall and impressive one? I beg thy indulgence for the ineptitude of my actions."

Buffy sniffed the air.

"Is that bacon?"

"It is, most glowy and beauteous one. Also, there are eggs, toast, marmalade, coffee, tea, freshly squeezed orange juice, and individual moist towlettes for your sanitary convenience."

"Okay, then. You're forgiven. But Dreg? If you ever walk into this room without knocking again I'll knock you into next week myself."

The minion bowed and scraped his way out of the room, shutting the door behind him.

That evening, the Scooby gang and Spike were all gathered at the Magic Box to discuss their usual post destruction of this year's Big Bad celebration.

It wasn't that they wanted Spike there. In fact, most of them felt pretty vehemently that they wanted him elsewhere. As elsewhere as possible, Buffy thought. Unfortunately for majority rule, Dawn had taken such a liking to the biteless vampire, that the others allowed him in for the party.

"I vote we go to the amusement park. There are many safe rides designed to give the impression of great danger and anxiety. This raises the adrenaline and leads to more satisfying sex."

"Anya, my little sister is here. She doesn't need to know about the joy of sexy adrenaline."

Privately, though, Buffy filed away the thought of taking Giles on a roller coaster and seeing what it would do for their sex life.

"Anyway, we can't go there. Spike would get burned up. We could rent a bunch of movies, maybe."

"NO!"

Buffy, Giles, Xander, and Willow were quick to veto Dawn's suggestion. They were all still recovering from the last time they'd done that.

"We could go to The Bronze." Willow suggested. "Y'know, bust a few moves in honor of our kickassness."

"But we do that all the time, Will. We should do something different. Besides, Giles doesn't dance. What would he do?"

The others looked hard at the Slayer.

"What?"

Xander's eyes flitted from Buffy to Giles and back again. They hadn't said anything, but their matching blushes made guesswork easy.

"Aha! So the Watcher's not watching from the sidelines anymore. Finally. It's about time. This needs to be celebrated, and nothing says celebration like two words: Road and Trip."

"Oy! I'm not going on a drive with you lot. What, we're all gonna pile into Giles' car? First time he lets the top down I turn to dust, an all."

Buffy cocked her head and smiled.

"A plan with no downside whatsoever. I say let's roll."

"We will not! I won't have Spike dust all over my upholstery. And what about the shop? What will become of it while we're gone? Not to mention there are still vampires and demons that need slaying. Who will do that while we're all on progress like Good Queen Bess?"

The bell above the door tinkled merrily, albeit annoyingly, as Dreg scuttled into the shop, bowing and scraping his way toward Giles.

"Most intellectual and sarcastic one! I bring a missive in my scabby and unworthy hand into your well-nigh divine presence."

He bent nearly in half as he handed the scroll to the Watcher. Giles grabbed it with a snort of impatience and unrolled it.

As he read, his eyebrows shot up nearly to his hairline in an amazing feat of mobility. He whipped off his glasses and sat with a tiny thud at the tarot table. The Scoobies clustered around in mild panic. When Giles acted like this they could never be sure whether is was the end of the world, yet again, or whether he'd just remembered he was out of laundry detergent.

"Oh dear Lord."

"Giles? What is it? You're wigging me, sweetie."

Buffy took the opportunity to rub his shoulders comfortingly as Giles sat with a distracted air for some moments. Finally, he patted Buffy's hand, sat up straighter, and seemed to refocus on his companions.

"It would seem that we're going on a trip after all."

All the Scoobies began to talk at once, until Giles held up his hand for silence.

"This isn't just a road trip. It's a mission. A mission from ...God, in fact. It would appear that the Holy Grail has gone missing and He has asked...well...ordered that we find and return it to Him."

"God lost a cup and he wants us to go after it? Didn't King Arthur or somebody take care of this a while ago?"

Buffy sounded as annoyed as she did perplexed.

"You're thinking of Indiana Jones, Buff. He saved it from the Nazis way back in the times before even Giles was born."

Xander's grasp on history was somewhat distorted, albeit colorful.

"God apparently doesn't wish to go to Los Angeles. There are some neighborhoods He's afraid to enter. Besides, Buffy is a champion of the light and as such must prove herself worthy to Him. This is how He chooses to test her."

"Again with the tests. Look, I didn't choose to be the Slayer, but all anybody ever wants is to make me prove I'm good enough for it. I wish, just once, somebody would take my word for it."

"Well, if you lot are off fighting evil and bringing light and joy and fluffy lambs into the world, I'm off."

Spike sauntered to the door.

"You can't leave, Spike."

The Watcher sounded tired and irritated.

"Why the bloody hell not?"

"Because God has specifically requested that you accompany us on our journey. Something about redemption and your essential purity of heart, or some such lunacy."

"Redemption? Who does God think I am? The Great Poofini?"

"I'm sure it's some sort of misunderstanding. Nevertheless, I believe we must stick to the letter of the message until we are told otherwise. God does work in mysterious ways. I suggest we all go home and get a good night's rest. We'll leave tomorrow at sundown."

With that, the group went to their separate homes to prepare for their journey.

"So Cordy's old homies are coming here to look for the Holy Grail? Man, that's beyond stupid."

Wesley didn't even look up from the tome he was researching in.

"What's so stupid about it? The Grail must be somewhere, it might as well be in Los Angeles."

"Naw man, not that part. The part where they all come and drag us into their little Deity-induced mission. You said there's a bunch of 'em. Why do they need more bodies?"

"Because God wants us on the team. Wesley, hand me my battleaxe."

The Englishman barely raised his eyes above the page as he pulled down the blade and handed it smoothly to the vampire.

"God? Now is this God the same thing as the Powers That Be? 'Cause if so, why didn't they just send a vision-gram like they usually do?"

The vampire and the former Watcher shared an indulgent smile.

"Actually, Cordelia had a vision about an hour after Giles called. She's in the back with an icepack and an industrial sized bottle of Tylenol."

Angel kept packing weapons. Gunn shook his head.

"Girl shoulda got call waiting."

"So when we find this Grail thingie, do I have to kill anything to get it?"

"That would depend on where it's being hidden and how it's being guarded."

"Okay, so how will God get it from us? I mean, will He just walk up and say 'thanks, Buff, I'll take it from here'? Or will it go POOF in a flash of lightning, or what?"

"I'm not entirely certain, Buffy."

The Slayer slumped in her seat and looked out the window at the picturesque freeway slipping by.

"Great. I hook up with Brain guy and he doesn't know squat."

"I know a great deal more than, er...squat, Buffy. The details of this mission, however, have not been made clear to us. I don't know how you expect me to know the answers God has chosen not to reveal to us. He..."

"Works in mysterious ways, I know, I know. Is that gonna be your stock answer for this whole trip?"

"Sorry; it's the only one I've got at present."

Buffy slumped back in her seat, arms folded across her chest. Just then, Anya poked her head into the cab of the camper they had rented for the trip.

"Xander sent me to ask, are we there yet?"

Since Giles was driving, Buffy was the one to glare at the former demon.

"Does it look like we're there?"

"Xander wanted me to ask," the girl grumbled as she returned to her seat.

Despite the fact that the trip took a mere two hours, most of the Scoobies were no longer speaking to one another by the time they arrived in front of the Hyperion Hotel.

Anya was angry with Xander for making her ask questions of Buffy and Giles every five minutes and getting her yelled at. Buffy and Giles were both ready to throttle Xander for the same reason, but both also wanted to slap Anya for being so gullible as to fall for the trick seventeen times. Buffy wanted to pummel Giles for not having the answers to her questions while Giles was itching to scream at his girlfriend for asking him every question in the book that would make him look unprepared and stupid in front of the gang. Willow and Tara were no longer speaking because Tara had told Willow that it would be cheating to simply use a locator spell to find the Grail since God wanted them to Quest for it. Dawn was mad at Buffy for getting all kissy-face with Giles like a total loser, and nobody was speaking to Spike on principal.

Eight tired, disgruntled people piled out of the camper and gazed on the hotel for the first time. Buffy spoke for all of them.

"So this is where Angel lives now. Gee, I didn't think it would be this big. Or this...House of Usher meets House of Pancakes."

Xander looked around himself.

"Hey, aren't we missing someone?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Xander."

Giles failed utterly to look innocent.

Dawn assumed the look of steely determination all Summers women wore when they knew they were being lied to.

"What happened to Dreg?"

As Giles attempted to stutter his way through an explanation in the face of matching glares from his girlfriend and her little sister, the hellspawn demon himself came racing up the street, his hands fluttering wildly.

"Oh your most lissome suppleness! At last I have found you!"

Buffy continued to stare down a blushing Giles as she spoke to Dreg.

"Where ya' been? I thought we were a minion shy around here."

The scabby demon collapsed at his master's feet. Between the words of his explanation, he attempted to slip off the brown oxfords so he could kiss Giles' toes.

"Most radiant and effervescent one, I behaved in a most unworthy manner. When my glorious and tweedy master pulled off the road that we might all...eh...avail ourselves of the sanitarieness of the lavatorial facilities provided by the corporate goodness of Shell Oil, I, unfortunately, managed to cause a most grievous jamming of the doorframe. I have only now managed to catch up to your wonderfulness."

Buffy's eyes grew even colder. Giles was so not getting lucky that night.

"You locked him in the men's room at the Shell station?! Somebody might have needed it."

Giles shrugged sullenly as he kicked the minion away from his feet.

"It seemed a good idea at the time."

"So it's agreed, then? We split into teams to find the Grail."

Giles watched eleven heads nod in assent. He also noticed one that did not.

"Spike? We are agreed, yes?"

"On one condition: I'm not going anywhere with Peaches there."

He used his cigarette to gesture at Angel.

"Like I'd want to go with you, either."

After much consultation, the teams were divided thusly:

Team 1: Buffy, Giles, Dawn, and Spike with Dreg as Squire.

Team 2: Xander, Anya, Angel and Wesley.

Team 3: Willow, Tara, Cordelia, and Gunn.

It was further agreed that the one team sans vampires would leave in the morning, the others following when night fell. Angel led them all to their individual bedrooms for the night. Later, when he passed Buffy's door, he heard the unmistakable sounds of a Watcher being forgiven for locking his minion in the men's room of a gas station.