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Author's Chapter Notes:
Please keep going after this chapter. Oh, and the Harmony boinking never happened in Destiny. Canon is unchanged, otherwise.
Chapter 5

There it was again. That feeling that she hadn’t been alone in the room while sleeping. Charlotte sat up in bed, her heart pounding, and fumbled for the light. A large hand pressed her back down. She tried to scream, but a hand covered her mouth before she could make more than a peep.

“Usually, I like a screamer, but I’m not keen on you drawing the attention of the entire building,” the man hissed. She felt fangs penetrate the bite on her throat, and reached blindly for the lamp. Charlotte managed to grab it as the vampire lapped slowly at her blood, crashing it over his head. He rolled off of her, moaning, and she ran for the door and into the hallway to Spike’s room.

She rapped frantically on the door.

“Spike? Please open up!”

“Yeah…just a moment.” He opened the door a minute later, surprised to see her awake, and in a nightshirt. She shot into the room and closed the door behind her. “God, pet, you’re bleeding. What happened?”

“There’s a vampire in my room! He bit me and I hit him with the lamp.” Spike started to charge out the door to take care of the problem. “No! Spike, don’t go, please…I don’t feel safe alone.” She wrapped around his arm with a death grip.

“Okay, luv. I won’t go. Can you tell me what happened?” He gently guided her into the bathroom and turned the light on so he could tend to her wounds. Her neck was bleeding, and there was glass in her hair from the lamp.

“Well, I-I woke up from a dream, feeling like someone was watching me…and I reached for the light, only to be pushed back down on the bed, and I tried to scream, but he put a hand over my mouth…a big hand…and told me not to scream, and then he bit me, and I reached for the lamp and eventually got it a-and hit him in the head as hard as I could. He rolled off me, and I ran for your room. I couldn’t see anything…it was so dark…and I’ve never been so scared in my life, Spike…” Charlotte was crying by now, and he paused the clean-up to brush the tears off her cheeks.

He felt like a complete wanker for thinking she looked gorgeous right now, with her wavy hair tousled around her face and blue eyes glistening with the remnants of her tears. It didn’t help that she was only wearing a sleep shirt, and it also didn’t help that she was looking at him like he was the answer to all her prayers. He murmured comforting sounds as he stroked his thumbs along her jaw-line, cradling her face.

“I think, luv…whatever nasty decided to creep into your room is probably gone. I want to get a good whiff of the scent before it dissipates, alright? You can stay in here and lock the door, or you can come with me…”

“I’d rather come with you,” she answered immediately. “I’d feel safer if I wasn’t alone.”

“Okay.” He pressed the washcloth he’d been cleaning the blood off with to her neck and lifted one of her hands to hold it there. “Keep pressure on that for now.”

She nodded, and followed as he pulled on a shirt and picked up his favorite ax, just in case.

“Stay behind me, kitten, and at the first sign of trouble, go running for the Slayers downstairs, alright?”

“Got it.”

He walked silently down the corridor to her room, and eased the door open, senses at full alert. The room was empty, but the window was wide open, curtains flowing in the breeze. Spike stepped closer to the bed to catch the scent of the center of the room.

“Spike? Do you know what it was?” Charlotte asked, whispering.

“No…smells like family, though,” he muttered. “Come in and close the door.” She obeyed and came to him immediately, questions in her eyes.

“Spike?”

“Do you trust me, Charlotte?” he asked, looking so serious.

“Of course. Why?” She gazed up at him, trying to read his face.

“I’m going to protect you, alright?” She nodded, waiting for him to explain. “Good. Get your things. You’ll stay in my room until we can find you some place safer.” Too tired to argue, Charlotte stuffed a couple things in her bag and followed him back to his room.

Once inside, Spike locked the door, took her bag from her and tossed it in a chair, and pulled her into his arms. She was grateful for the comfort of the embrace, thinking he was worried about possibly losing a friend to harm. She didn’t expect him to nuzzle her neck where she had been bitten, or for the area to tingle in a pleasant way. He placed feather-light kisses up and down her neck until she was a puddle of goo, then sucked on the wounds just enough to bring blood to the surface again, which he lapped away with his tongue.

“I take you under my protection, Charlotte, as friend and family. I promise swift retribution to any that would harm you.” He lifted his head to gaze into her hazy eyes. “Do you accept?”

“Yes,” she replied, nodding.

Spike leaned in and lightly kissed her lips, sweeping his tongue across them, entreating for entrance. She granted it, tasting a small amount of blood on his tongue as she swept over it with her own. It was a gentle kiss that spoke only of shared reassurance, though both felt flooded with warmth when they parted.

“What was that?” she whispered, their foreheads pressed together.

“A blood oath,” he murmured. “One I hope that will be respected by others. Are you…upset, that I didn’t ask you first?” The vampire was suddenly feeling shy and unsure, now that his wave of protectiveness had subsided.

“No, no…you didn’t hurt me at all…and I get the feeling I should feel…honored? I like that you’ve got my back, Spike. Thank you.” She hugged him again.

Don’t think about the warm, beautiful woman pressed against you, mate. She’s a friend. Spike rubbed his hands comfortingly up and down her back, murmuring reassurances. His lower brain was having no problems responding to the warmth of her nearness and the blood he had tasted, and he tried desperately to think of revolting things guaranteed to kill his libido. But bloody hell, it’d been a year since he was this close to a woman, and it didn’t help that she was very attractive. That’s it – I have to get some distance. Spike gently pushed her back and stepped away. Charlotte offered him a soft smile.

“So, this is your mark, now?” she asked, grazing her fingers over the sealed bite.

“Pretty much, kitten. It doesn’t mean I own you, or anything,” he hastened to add.

“I get it, Spike. Really, I’m glad that this thing can mean something good, instead of something scary. Speaking of which, you didn’t say who was in my room?” she said softly.

“I’d rather wait until I’m sure of what’s going on, pet. If I’m right, this is going to be a delicate situation.”

“Okay. Do you mind if I go back to sleep? All this has been exhausting,” she declared.

“You can take the bed, luv. I don’t mind the floor.”

“No, no, no…I’m not stealing your bed. This floor will do horrid things to your back.” She stomped her foot twice to demonstrate. “See? No padding.”

“It’s fine, pet, really. I’ve slept on much worse,” he replied.

“Don’t be stubborn. There’s plenty of room, and I’ll feel terrible hogging the whole thing,” Charlotte insisted.

He sighed in exasperation. “Fine…get under the bleedin’ covers, and I’ll turn out the lights.”

She chose her side, and quickly snuggled in. “Spike?”

“Hmm?”

“The pants stay on.”

“As if I would risk offending your delicate sensibilities! I was raised a gentleman, you know,” he replied, sounding affronted.

“I didn’t, but I could have guessed. You’re always opening doors for me.”

He slid in under the sheet, jeans still on. Charlotte rolled to face him.

“Goodnight, Spike,” she said with a smile.

“’Night, kitten.”
~+~
The next time Spike awoke, he had a petite female draped over him. Her head was pillowed on his chest, one arm across his waist, and her leg over his thigh. If she moved her knee much higher, she’d be pressing on sensitive territory. He brushed the dark hair away from her face, and she hummed contentedly. Spike tightened his arms around her, and buried his face in her hair.
~+~
Charlotte felt her body awakening all too early. She tried desperately to will it back to sleep, comfortable in the embrace – wait…embrace? She opened her eyes and looked down at the arm around her waist – pale skin, long fingers – Spike. Stretching carefully so as not to disturb him, she became aware of the typical morning male condition. Charlotte scooted her body a little farther from his to give him space, only to have him follow her in his sleep. His face was buried in her hair, and he was breathing, slowly.
Breathing, huh? Somehow, she doubted most vampires breathed at all, unless they wanted to pass as human somewhere. Just another unique aspect of her friend.

She twisted under his arm to her back so she could look at his face. Oh, my gosh, he has curls! That’s so cute. So, that’s what it looked like when it dried naturally… Relaxed in sleep, he looked younger, and the tough-guy mask was gone. Her eyes examined the scar in his left brow, wondering how it got there; the long, dark lashes that were disgusting for any man to have – it so wasn’t fair – over the straight nose, defined cheekbones, and down to his slightly parted lips. The bottom lip was slightly fuller, and they both carried a natural pink tint. Between his sweet and snarky personality, and the gorgeousness, Charlotte couldn’t understand how that blonde Slayer could give him up. She certainly wouldn’t, in the same place.

He must have sensed the prolonged scrutiny, for one eye opened lazily to look at her.

“What’s up, pet?” he asked, his voice husky from disuse.

“Nothing. My body just decided to wake up, though I didn’t want it to. I guess it was too much to ask it not to follow my normal work schedule,” she replied softly.

“So you’ve just been starin’ at me in your boredom?”

“Something like that. It’s a rare moment when you’re still,” she teased.

“Well, go back to sleep. It’s way too early.” The eye closed.

“You just don’t want to lose my warmth in the bed.”

“Yeah, what of it? It’s comfy.”

Just then, her stomach grumbled, and she realized she was starving. “Well, you’re going to have to suffer, for I’m hungry, so I’m getting up.”

He grumbled, and removed his arm, letting her up. Spike rolled over and pulled the covers over his head for complete darkness.

“Sleep well. And thanks again.” Charlotte picked up her bag and went into the bathroom to get ready for the day.

~+~

Dawn spotted Charlotte coming out of the kitchen with an apple to go.

“Hey, Charlotte! Wait up.”

“Oh, good morning, Dawn.”

“Mind if I tag along? I won’t get in the way, but my sister is kind of driving me nuts right now,” the teen admitted.

“Sure, I guess. I’m just going to be looking for a new place…”

“Great. Let’s go, before we’re spotted.”

They walked around to the parking lot. Charlotte’s car was empty, now, so Dawn slid the passenger seat back a little to give herself more leg room.

“How tall are you, Dawn?”

“5’8”, in bare feet. I basically gained 7 inches in 3 years. We have no idea where it comes from, though Buffy is shorter than most of the family.”

“Do you and your sister get along?” Charlotte asked, navigating through traffic.

“Depends on the day,” she replied, laughing. “We weren’t close at all, for a while, but being in Rome alone together forced us to communicate if we were going to have any relationship at all. You have no idea how many issues we had to settle!”

“So, it’s better now?”

The teen chattered on. “Yeah…though it was hard to get her to open up. My sister has had a hard time expressing her feelings out loud since our parent’s divorce, when she was 15, which also coincided with her becoming the Slayer. Being a Slayer made her secretive, since hey, who’s going to believe you, you know? Mom and Dad didn’t. They even sent her to a hospital for a few weeks when she insisted vampires and demons were real. Of course, I didn’t know that until much later. It explained a lot, though, you know?
She clammed up about everything after that, afraid that the truth would make her unlovable. Now…well, she won’t just come and tell me something, but I can get it out of her, ‘cause she’s not burying things so deep under the mask anymore. I think she finally talks to Willow more again, too.
And Rome has been fun, despite the language barrier. I went to a high school with mostly American kids abroad, so that helped. Buffy has a boyfriend there, though I don’t really like him. He’s too…smarmy…”

“The overly charming type.”

“Exactly. He typically has no problem bedding women, by what everyone says, and he knows it. I don’t get Buffy’s attraction, but maybe it’s that he takes her dancing and shopping all the time. Those are her two favorite things to do, so I guess it works. She’s never spent all night at his place before, so I don’t know if they’ve done anything.” Dawn shuddered. “That thought is just gross! You can’t have sex with that many women and stay disease free, can you?”

“I highly doubt it,” Charlotte agreed, chuckling.

“That’s what I thought. The lectures in school every year always said that. So…Spike seems to be doing okay here…” she prompted, fishing for dirt.

“I guess…you know him a lot better than I do, obviously. I can only go by what he’s told me of his life, compared to now…and the emotions that cross his face, of course.”

“I just mean that it’s nice to see him have a friend. As far as I knew, he only had one friend in Sunnydale; at least, Clem was the only one I saw. Probably the only one that wouldn’t eat me. He and Mom were friends, I think, but she’s been gone for a while,” Dawn added.

“What happened?” Charlotte asked sympathetically.

“Complications from surgery for a brain tumor. She was recuperating fine, and then she had an aneurysm. It was very sudden. They said she didn’t feel anything. After that, it was just Buffy and me, and my sister is not the caretaker type. She tried to mimic Mom-things, when she wasn’t dealing with her own crap…did Spike tell you she’s been brought back from the dead?” Enough time had passed that Dawn could tell the story without getting upset, now.

“Yeah, he did, and he said things weren’t good for anybody that year. I can’t imagine how it must have been for you to grow up amidst all that chaos. Spike didn’t elaborate, but the tone in his voice suggested that it was a constant maelstrom for your group.”

“Heh…that describes it pretty well. I was acting out because I felt neglected, Buffy was majorly depressed, Willow was on a magical power trip, which led to girlfriend issues with Tara, Giles left town, and Xander and Anya were trying to plan for a wedding that never happened. He left her standing at the altar. And Spike? He was trying to hold my sister together, and she sucked him down with her. He couldn’t come by the house anymore because her secret might come out, and that made things even more sucky for me. The two of us had been a team during the summer Buffy was gone, and then we just…weren’t. In the end, he left town, Tara died, and Willow tried to end the world. Giles and Xander saved the day. It really had nothing to do with my sister, for once,” she elaborated.

“Wow…I’m impressed that you seem so well-adjusted now,” Charlotte said genuinely. “I’ve known people that would have been babbling at the wall for far less.”

The teen shrugged modestly. “Summers women are built tough. Or maybe it’s the thousands-of-years-old Key part of me. Either way, I carpe diem with the best of ‘em.”

The conversation halted as they pulled up to the first potential apartment complex.
~+~
“No way! I can’t believe you did that! I’d be seriously scared!” Dawn was saying, as they walked back into the Hyperion later.

“At that age, I was too fascinated to think about being scared, as long as it was that far away.” Charlotte was relating a story from her childhood.

“That is so cool! I wish we’d traveled like that when I was a kid.”

“You’ve been to Rome at 17, Dawn! That’s nothing to sneeze at. I haven’t even made it outside the continent, yet.”

“Dawn Summers, where have you been?!?” Buffy was standing up on the landing, hands on her hips and glaring daggers at Charlotte.

“Out with Charlotte, what does it look like? Geeze, Buffy, chill…I’m going to be 18 in a month, and I can take care of myself,” Dawn replied, bristling.

“The point is that you didn’t tell anyone where you were going, and you’ve been gone for hours.”

“And yet, you didn’t think to call my cellphone, which I happen to have on me at all times? And look, all 5 bars, too,” the teen shot back, crossing her arms over her chest and looking very satisfied with her point.

“Fine! Get eaten, for all I care!” The blonde stomped back the way she’d come, towards the bedrooms.

Dawn turned to Charlotte, looking apologetic. “Sorry. Sometimes, I think monkeys raised her. Her bad manners do not reflect the rest of the family.”

“Ah, she’s no worse than my students. My high school boys are still trying to sneak peeks down my blouse.”

“Can’t blame them, luv. I’d be doin’ it, too,” Spike interjected, coming out of the kitchen. He kissed Dawn on the cheek. “Hey, Niblet. Have fun today?”

“Do you realize how cool she is? Can I trade her for Buffy? I think I got the wrong sister,” she gushed.

“Now, now, Bit…your sister means well. She’s just looking out for you.”

More like she’s jealous of whom I was with, Dawn thought. “I know, but she can be such a Neanderthal about it.”

“Well, now that ‘lazy boy’ is up, why don’t we think about dinner?” Charlotte suggested.

“Didn’t you eat while you were out?” Spike asked.

“Yeah. So?”

“I think she has a tape worm,” Dawn teased.

“I’m not the one who ordered an extra basket of fries,” the brunette shot back.

“They don’t make fries anywhere else like here! McDonald’s outside of America is just weird.”

“What’s up, guys?” Willow greeted.

“Dinner discussion,” Dawn replied.

“I could eat,” she replied. “Where we talkin’?”

“Don’t know. We’ve only established that we’re hungry,” Charlotte replied.

“What about the Slayerettes?” Spike reminded them.

“Eh, they can fend for themselves. I don’t want to have to shout to be heard in the restaurant,” Dawn replied.

“We better leave soon, then.”

“What about Buffy and Angel?” Willow asked.

“Peaches doesn’t eat food, and the Slayer didn’t seem in a company mood,” Spike stated. Dawn nodded in agreement.

“Okay, then. Let’s head for the car and decide where we want to go,” Charlotte decided.

Once they were in the garage, Spike looked wistfully at the Viper.

“Too bad it only seats two, Spike,” Dawn said, catching where his attention was. “Can you take me for a ride in it before I leave? Please?”

“’Course, luv. You know it’s only the best for my Niblet,” he replied, slinging his arm over her shoulders.

“I admit that it’s less than drool worthy, but my car’s over here, guys,” Charlotte teased.

The reunited best friends took the back seat, leaving Willow to ride shotgun. Charlotte turned to the others before starting the car.

“I’m up for anything but Mexican. How about you guys?”
~+~
Vi knocked on the door to the elder Slayer’s room. “Hey, Buffy? We’re going on patrol, then getting food. Wanna come?”

Maybe I do need to let off a little steam, Buffy thought, as she opened the door.

“Sure, Vi. I could use the workout. Did you ask Angel? His leg should be healed by now.”

“He’s already gone out. Said he was meeting somebody named Connor.”

“Huh. Doesn’t ring a bell. Well, more for us, then. Let me just change my shoes.” She walked over to her suitcase and rooted around for a pair of sneakers. She wasn’t used to patrolling in heels anymore.

Buffy greeted the rest of the girls once they were downstairs. They looked over the map for where to go tonight. Vi had her Council charge card, as always, to pay for food later.

“Anybody seen Willow and Dawn?” Buffy asked.

“They left with Spike and Charlotte a while ago,” one of the girls replied.

My sister, my ex, and my best friend? “Oh,” she said aloud. “I’ll just call Willow and tell her I’m going out with you guys.” Buffy stepped into the office for some privacy.

“Hello? Hold on, it’s really noisy…Hey, Buffy, what’s up?” Willow said, upon answering. She’d had to move outside the restaurant to hear.

“I’m going out with the girls for patrol and food, so don’t wait up, if you get in before we do. Where are you?”

“Chinatown. Spike knew of a good restaurant, and Charlotte raved about it. You know how hard it is to find one in London, at least by our tastes.”

“Right…is the area safe? I don’t want Dawn on any dark streets she doesn’t know…”

“Buffy, she’s with a powerful witch and a master vampire. Nothing’s going to happen. Besides, it looked perfectly safe when we walked in. I gotta go. They’re bringing our food. Have fun. Bye!”

“Bye,” Buffy returned, but Willow had already hung up. She looked out at the hyper teens, feeling old. L.A. sucks.
~+~
Willow was updating Spike on her life since Sunnydale, and Dawn was catching up with the last few months.

“So glad you dumped Kennedy!” the teen responded, after hearing the news.

“Well, it was more like a mutual dumping, but yeah…I was definitely on the rebound with that one. And I was pretty tired of Brazil by that time, too. I’ve been a lot of places for the Council, but splitting my time between the Coven and London has been the best decision I could have made. I even have my own place, for the first time, and Giles really needed my help. I’m really happy you’re going to come visit, Dawnie. We’ll go to all the museums and touristy stuff!”

“Well, I’m pleased you’re appreciatin’ the home country, Red. Knew I liked you for some reason, and Rupert could do with a compassionate influence.” His dislike for the Watcher was clear in his tone.

‘Story later?’ Charlotte mouthed to him. He winked discreetly, then tuned back in to what Dawn was saying.

As Dawn told Spike about things that she’d experienced at school, Willow and Charlotte ended up in a science discussion, finding they’d read the same article recently. From there, the group shifted to recounting old demon encounters, and Charlotte was regaled with Sunnydale history, the Scooby version. It was late by the time they got back to the Hyperion.





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