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a/n- Special thanks to BeanMommy for looking over this chapter for me, and to Jeni70 and Maidenro for giving me direction!

chapter20

Entry into the Summers house during daylight hours always proved noisy whenever Spike was involved. Since it was almost noon, Joyce was more than prepared when the door was thrown open and a smoking vamp burst through, her daughter trailing behind, quickly shutting the door on the harmful rays. Both were still decked out in the prom attire that had looked so elegant the night before, but now appeared grossly out of place in the daylight hours.

"Mommy! Daddy!" Blake cried, jumping off of Joyce's lap where he'd been watching TV and ran over to throw his little body around their legs.

Spike leaned down to pick him up, giving him a big sloppy kiss on the side of the neck that caused his son to erupt in a fit of giggles. "Were you good for your grandmum, eh?"

Blake nodded emphatically, his face a study of seriousness, blonde curls bouncing. Spike couldn't help but run his hand along the soft hair, still gob smacked every time he laid eyes on the boy. That he was worthy of fathering such a innocent delightful child. He knew he didn't deserve it, and could only work at being worthy now, but it was enough. It was sappy and not just a bit scary to have rattling around his brain, but he was right serious about it. Especially in light of Buffy's special gift to him the night before. His feelings towards this family, HIS family, were growing so much that sometimes it threatened to choke him.

Buffy leaned in and gave Blake a kiss on the cheek, ruffling his hair. "Missed you," she whispered to her son. His immediate smile dazzled across his face, threatening to light up the room with its keen voltage, and she sent a loving smile back in return. Turning to her mom, Buffy said, "Thanks for watching him last night, mom. I'm going to go take a shower. then I think we're going to go to the mall, if you want to go."

"The mall?" Joyce asked skeptically, looking at Spike after Buffy had gone up the stairs.

"Underground parking. Bloody brilliant."

"Ah." Joyce sat back down, and gestured for Spike to sit. He settled in the side chair, Blake sprawled on his lap. "So, Spike, how was the prom?"

He couldn't help the snort that escaped. "Completely ridiculous, if you ask me. But it made Buffy happy." Giving Joyce a pointed look, he added, "And you... you are a wicked woman, Joyce Summers."

Feigning innocence, Joyce replied, "What?"

"You know what. Buying your daughter a knickers set like that. You ought to be ashamed of yourself." He teased.

A conspiratorial smile slid over Joyce's face. "Did you like it?"

He tipped one scarred eyebrow in her direction. "You're joking, right? What do you think?"

"I think you want to know where I got it."

Spike's rich laughter filled the room, with Blake joining in, even though he had no idea what he was laughing at. Sending a look of admiration her way, Spike announced fondly, "I do like you, Joyce."

"And strangely, I like you, Spike."

++++++++++++
After Blake's afternoon nap, they headed to the mall, Buffy in the front, Joyce in the back with Blake. Spike was glad he had given in and thoroughly cleaned out his car after that first episode with Buffy. He didn't want to admit to being slightly embarrassed by the thought of Joyce being in the back seat surrounded by all that trash.

They took Blake for a couple rides on the giant Merry Go Round, then Joyce told Spike she was borrowing Buffy for a while. He looked puzzled until Joyce offered him a saucy wink, then he had to hide the grin. Joyce was quickly endearing herself. Gotta love a woman who let her daughter sleep with a demon and then turned around and bought her sexy knickers for said demon. At the stirring in his groin, he pushed such thoughts aside and concentrated on Blake.

Turning to him, Spike commented, "Your grandmum is quite a woman."

"Ice Kweem?" Blake asked hopefully, his eyes wide with faux innocence. He learned which ploys worked and which didn't.

"You haven't had supper, you young scrap."

"Pweese?" The word was filled with such sad longing that Spike felt his resolve crumble into fine powder.

"Fine." He grumbled, ignoring the whoop of delight from his boy. "You realize your mum is going to stake me good and proper when she finds out I've fed you dessert before your supper?"

He stopped in shock when Blake pantomimed holding a stake and shoving it in the directions of Spike's heart. How did did the boy know about staking through the heart? Spike was just about to question him on it when Blake said frantically "ice Kwwweeeeem!!!!"

"Ok, ok. We're going to have a talk about that little staking job you did, son." Spike told him as they came upon the Food Court. He ordered Blake a child's chocolate, and was handed the cone. "Don't make a mess of this, ya hear me?" He threatened, wrapping the bottom of the cone in a thick cocoon of napkins and placing it into Blake's pudgy hands.

With a neatness that was frightening for his age, Blake began eating the ice cream methodically and precisely, never allowing one area to melt and spill. "Well, that's a bit of all right, I suppose." Spike conceded as he picked Blake up carefully and turned to return to where he was supposed to meet up with Buffy and Joyce.

He had taken about five steps when his hackles stood , and he looked around for what had triggered it. Coming towards him, with the same predatorial look in her eye, was the barracuda bint from the night before. The one who accused him of being Buffy's paid male escort. She'd make a helluva vampire, he thought fleetingly as he braced himself for her onslaught. And her bloody friends were with her. Bloody fabulous.

"OH MY GOD!!" Cordelia announced loudly, unable to believe her good fortune. Here before her was that major hottie from the night before, the one she hadn't been able to get off her mind all damn night, and he looked even more lickable than the night before! Oh, she liked the bad boy thing he had going on. Black leather coat? Check. Ok, it was a bit tattered, but that was easily fixed. It's not like he couldn't get a new one. Something nice and tailored, yet that still screamed 'I'm bad'. Tight black jeans? Check. Ok, so she preferred Armani, but she was willing to slum a little if it meant she could have this hunk wrapped around her. Oh gawd, his boots would so have to go. 80's much? The t-shirt she was willing to deal with because she could see some yummy muscles outlined nicely underneath. Oh yeah, this was major yum, just needed a little fine tuning.

Spike couldn't help but be flattered at the admiring look she gave him, but when it turned calculating, it just plain pissed him off.

"Sorry, not really into the God thing, luv." Spike commented as he moved to brush past her.

It was then that Cordelia's eyes let her see the other accessory he was sporting. A little boy. She allowed her face to soften even though she was cringing with horror, and cooed "Oh how sweet! You baby-sit!!"

She ignored the look of disgust he threw her. "I'm not a sodding babysitter."

"He's my daddy." Blake said proudly, taking a long lick of ice cream, still doing a remarkable job in keeping it unmessy.

The shock was revealed on Cordelia's face, as she added this newest revelation into the tally she had going. Well, it was a total negative, but not a complete disaster. This was still doable. Cordelia stepped forward and slipped her arm in the one that was not supporting an ice cream eating child. "Wow, things must be rough. A single dad. I have so much admiration for you, you have no idea."

He disentangled his arm, cursing the fact that he couldn't just kill this girl to shut her up and sent her a glare that seemed to bounce right off her thick hide.

"It's ok to let it out, you know." She patted his arm, discreetly feeling the muscles that were hidden behind the jacket. "You don't need to be ashamed of it."

Spike looked over at the bint's friends, who seemed to have the clue that Cordelia was sadly lacking, then shook his head incredulously. "Look, little girl, I'm not available ok? I'm.."

He was interrupted by his son's harsh intake of breath. "Daddy." Blake choked out, his youthful voice full of fear.

Spike turned his attention away from Cordelia to look anxiously into the panicked face of his son. "What is it?"

"Mommy." Just as Blake said that, Spike could feel a cold sense of foreboding hit him through his possession of her.

"Do you know where?" Spike bit out, not even questioning why he was so sure his son held the answers. Buffy had said that she had noticed some weird things about their son, and one more thing had just cropped up.

Blake turned and pointed at the other side of the mall, the next level down. "Down dere" he whispered. "Bad men twy to hurt mommy and gwanma. Lots." He turned to look at his dad, his big blue eyes wide with fear and urgency. "Hurry!"

At the mention of Buffy being in danger, Spike slid into game face without realizing it. He dumped Blake into Cordelia's startled arms and growled "I need you to take care of him for me."

"Go daddy, hurry!" Blake cried. Sending one last look into Cordelia's terrified face, Spike gave her one last warning. " Anything happens to him, I'll hunt you down." Turning away from the terrified teens, Spike used his preternatural speed to launch himself at the railing that would take him to the level below. There were several loud shrieks as people witnessed the flash of black topped by bleached hair throw himself over to fall to his almost certain death below. There was a rush of bodies who ran to the railing in time to see that black flash speeding around the other side of the mall, using speed that was not normal. Nobody who crossed paths with the fleeing figure got more than a blurring glimpse of his face, so the shrieks of terror were kept to a bare minimum.

"Ok, what the freak was that?" Cordelia asked, holding Blake stiffly in her arms. She didn't even notice that her friends didn't want to get anywhere near the demon spawn.

"Daddy." Blake announced unnecessarily, returning to his ice cream in a distracted manner.

"Are you going to do that? Go all ugly like that?" Cordelia asked.

"Daddy's not ugwy!" Blake suddenly yelled, his face scrunched up in anger.

"Coulda fooled me." Cordelia muttered.

"You're not very nice."

Before Cordelia could respond to that comment, Harmony and the others hesitantly approached. "Um, we gotta motor. See you later."

"What? you can't leave me here all by myself!!!" Cordelia cried indignantly.

"Well, he asked YOU to watch him, not us. So bye." And like that, Cordelia found herself alone with an upset little boy. The child of.. what the hell was his dad?

"Hey, what's your name?"

"Bwake." came the sullen reply.

"I'm Cordelia. Come on, let's go sit down, don't know how long your dad is going to be."

"Ok." Cordelia carried him to a table, setting him on top of it while settling herself in a chair. Finding herself with nothing to say to the little boy, Cordelia studied her nails, holding them out in front of her as she pondered the need for a manicure.

"Mommy ok?" She finally heard Blake say. Oh great, his ice cream was melted all over the place. She was so never having kids, Cordelia firmly decided as she stormed over and grabbed a wad of napkins.

"Mommy ok?" Blake asked again hopefully, his big blue eyes wide.

How the hell am i supposed to know? Cordelia thought bitterly. I just get threatened by whatever the freak that was to watch his kid, get dumped by my friends, and that major hottie I was trying to get my hands on turns out to be some monster. Plus the prom sucked. She finally looked down at her reluctant charge and saw the flood of tears pooling up in his huge blue eyes.

"No way, you're so not going to start that sniveling thing." Cordelia told him, scooping him off the table, hoping that a change of scenery would chill him out. Bouncing him on one hip, she began walking out of the food court. What the hell did she know about little kids? Nothing. Hello, that's what nannies were for.

Her distraction tactics didn't do the trick, and Cordelia was soon treated to a fully crying toddler. "Oh great, now what do I do." She muttered, shifting him so he could bury his head against her neck. She could feel his sticky face smearing god knows what all over her Versace top, and her temper began to boil. The temptation to set him down on a bench and walk away like she didn't know him was strong, overwhelming actually, but then she thought of the freak's last parting comments to her and rethought that plan.

"Hewlp dem" the little boy sobbed into her now ruined $200 blouse. Ok, kids were so not cute.

Then she caught sight of the poster children for bad taste coming towards her, which on normal day would prompt quite a different reaction than it did at this given moment. So instead of giving them a wide berth as if their hideous lack of fashion sense were a contagious thing, Cordelia found herself giving them a warm hearted greeting, the hint of panic making her voice more shrill than usual.

"Xander! Willow!"

"Cordelia." Xander acknowledged suspiciously. "With a brat." He added, taking in the sobbing child that was clinging to Cordelia's neck.

The wailing suddenly ceased as Blake turned his head and glared as only a toddler can do. "Not a bwat, Dander!"

"Blake?" Willow and Xander said simultaneously, their eyes wide, then narrowing with distrust. "Cordelia, what in the wild world of sports are you doing with Blake?" Xander asked.

"You know him? Thank GAWD!" Cordelia announced dramatically, trying to pry little grubby arms from around her neck to fork him over to the school's ultimate fashion victims. She was so out of here. "Here. Take him."

But then Blake opened his mouth and changed those plans. "Dander, bad men hurt mommy and gwanma."

"Where?" Willow asked Cordelia, suddenly going from nerdy geek girl to... Cordelia couldn't even put a name to it. Even Xander dropped the goofy doofus routine. "Is this like the Twilight Zone marathon or something? What is going on?" Cordelia demanded.

"Where are they?" Xander repeated the question, scanning the level they were on for any disturbances, not seeing anything amiss. "WHERE, Cordelia?"

"Daddy go help." Blake added, his eyes big and fearful, fast filling up with tears once again.

"Oh great, thanks a lot. Got him sniveling again." Cordelia announced disgustedly, hugging Blake to her once more.

"Cordelia, for the last time, where did they go?" Xander asked, his voice betraying his anxiety. He knew Buffy and Spike had planned a mall outing together, and Xander and Willow had hoped to meet up with them for a bit. But the fact that Blake had been left in the care of CORDELIA of all people was so not of the good.

"Oh, you mean Grampa Munster? The hottie from the prom?" Cordelia dished back snottily, as she pointed to the level below them in the big circular mall. "He jumped down there."

Before the words had even left her mouth, Willow and Xander had sprinted away towards the escalator that would take them to lower level. "Oh... my god." Cordelia announced dramatically, as she watched them go. "What is this? Oh wait... I know this." She said, forehead furrowing in concentration. "Candid Camera!" She looked around vainly, taking one hand of Blake to primp her hair as she tried to figure out where the cameras were set up. "Helloo... I figured it out...." She commented as she walked in a circle. "Isn't this where you're supposed to come out and tell me I'm on Candid Camera and I'm supposed to like, be totally embarrassed and stuff?"

But Alan Funt failed to make his dramatic appearance, and Cordelia began to get pissed. Again. Blake was silently sobbing against her chest, further sending her blouse into complete ruin. With an irritated huff, Cordelia stalked off towards the escalators that Willow and Xander had just descended, determined to get to the bottom of things. Like why the brat's mother had bad guys chasing after her, for one thing. Briefly, Cordelia considered Buffy in this, then immediately tossed it aside. There was no way, and she refused to even further consider it.

tbc.





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