Anya looked disconsolately into the flatbed of the large glossy black truck that masqueraded as Giles' rental car. Again, he had surprised her with his thoughtfulness and had booked ahead to make sure he had a vehicle that would be suitable for helping her move, even though it was so patently not something he would normally choose. Everything she owned fitted in the back with room to spare. A computer, a chair, several bags of clothes, a few CDs, a blender and a couple of boxes of odds and ends. There was no major furniture, nothing really that gave any feeling of permanence or of having roots. That all either belonged to Xander or had come with the apartment.

Despite the fact it was a work day, Xander had been home when they had gone to pick up her things. His mouth had opened as if to say something when she pushed the door open, but when he had spotted Giles at her shoulder, he'd simply stomped into the kitchen, fetched himself a beer and then parked himself in his favourite lounger to watch every armful that they had taken from the apartment with suspicion. Anya had been careful to avoid taking anything he might cause a fuss over. Not only did she feel a tiny bit sorry for him, due to the painful looking swelling around both eyes and his possibly no longer straight nose, but she didn't want to fight and she wanted this to be a fresh start. She didn't want reminders of Xander scattered around her new home.

"It looks sort of pathetic, doesn't it?" she asked.

Giles didn't try to argue the point. He simply pulled her into a hug. "It'll be fine. We'll take this lot over to the apartment, find homes for them and then we'll do a shopping trip and pick up the rest of the essentials."

It was a couple of hours later and the back of the truck was stacked with bedding, tableware, pan sets and all sorts of things that Anya had been missing, though no doubt they would find they had forgotten some, along with one very large box that Giles had appeared with after what he had claimed was the urgent search for a toilet.

She was still running over a mental list in her mind, trying to be certain that she had covered everything. "A can opener. I didn't get a can opener. I know most of them have ringpulls now, but—"

"Relax. I bought a can opener."

She peered curiously at Giles, who now she looked at him more closely, looked rather pleased with himself. She slid open the window in the back of the cab and was unfastening her seat belt so that she could lean out to investigate the large box further when Giles slid the window shut again.

"It's a surprise," he told her firmly in his watcher-knows-best tone of voice. "You'll see in a few minutes."

"Gi-iles. I don't like waiting. If it was going to be a surprise then you shouldn't have told me about it until you were ready to give me it. Now I have to wait and I don't like it because I don't know whether when the surprise comes I'm going to be all happy and then I could sort of enjoy the waiting even though it's still pointless... Or maybe it'll be a big disappointment and I'm going to get all excited and then I'll be grumpy when it turns out to be something like a can opener and a really big beanbag. So gimme."

The truck pulled over next to the kerb and Anya realised she was in an unfamiliar area of town. She looked around and spotted a sign saying 'Sunnydale Animal Shelter'. "Giles!" Her arms were around his neck and even though the parking brake made it a rather awkward embrace, she couldn't help but press kiss after kiss to his cheeks and forehead.

"I rang them this morning. They said there was a young border collie with a pup that might be half black labrador. He's too young for them to be separated so unless you want to wait, you'd really need to take them both, but I thought it might be nice to have sort of a family... Of course, if you happen to see something else that you would prefer."

"You want to get me a dog... Two dogs?"

"I-well, you said last week that you felt you had lost your best friend, and even though I hope I can fill that role when I'm here, I didn't want you to be alone when I'm in England. There are times when it would be nice to have someone there to hug. I thought perhaps you'd like a couple of extra friends who can be there all the time. Though you will have to make sure you keep an eye on the puppy when you take him to the shop."

Anya popped the button on Giles' seatbelt and grabbed his hand, pulling him across the truck's bench seat and out the passenger door after her. "Let's go get my dogs," she announced with tears of happiness in her eyes.