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a/n-I hope the shifting back and forth between present and Buffy's memories wasn't too confusing! I was trying to do a "filler" chapter here, so I could advance the plot a bit, because I don't want this to be an epic fic! next chapter will see some action, I promise!


Chapter 4

Spike stepped into the demon bar and cast a cursory glance around the joint. He noticed little to set it apart from countless other demon bars he had frequented over the years. Settling himself onto a bar stool, he ordered a beer from the timid weasely man working behind the wooden slab.

"So...uh.. just passing through?" Willy asked nervously. The very nature of his business was fraught with peril, but this stranger exuded an exceedingly dangerous vibe and Willy wisely decided to tread lightly. He glanced behind him at the mirror that took up the wall behind the bar and his suspicions were proven correct. No reflection. Another damn vampire.

Spike pinned a penetrating stare on the little man, not replying to his question. "The Slayer. Tell me about her."

"Oh.. uh.... the Slayer, huh? Uh, well, she's kinda bad for business."

Spike growled his irritation and Willy hurried to supply him with a better description. "Uh, she usually hangs at the Bronze. Can't miss her, she's a looker all right. Short, blonde. "

Spike gulped the rest of his beer down and slammed the glass down on the counter. He walked out of the bar without another word to the bartender who was just getting ready to impart the rest of the gossip about the Slayer. She was one of Willy's favorite topics and a constant thorn in his side.

Outside the bar, Spike grabbed a fellow vamp by the collar of his shirt and growled menacingly. "The Bronze. Which way?"

The young vampire pointed down the street, trying to shrug his way out of Spike's grasp. He was let go, only to have his neck snapped mere seconds later.

"Thanks for your help, mate," Spike muttered, stepping over the newly gathered pile of dust on the ground. In the last two years, he had earned even more of a name for himself among the demon community. He was deadly, lethal, quick, and in possession of nothing that resembled a sense of humor. Humans hadn't suffered at his hands nearly as much as the demon population had and it had been rumored that William the Bloody had a severe ax to grind. But nobody knew what it was, most just tried to stay out of his way. Most demons that crossed his path didn't live long to tell the tale.

As for Spike himself, if asked, he would not have been able to define his reasons for taking things out on the demon community. And if he did know, he would never admit it to himself. Never admit that getting clocked over the head with a telephone had made him want to cast war on demons everywhere, when he knew the demon deserving of such harsh punishment inhabited his own body. No, whenever thoughts of that night tried crowding his head, he would shove them away and go out to do some killing.

So it was a very on edge vampire that stalked towards the Bronze. His latest challenge to himself in an attempt to divert his restlessness came to him after hearing some vampires talking about the current Slayer and how they had barely escaped with their lives. As a killer of two such Slayers, this had piqued Spike's interest. He needed a challenge and it sounded like the current Slayer might be able to provide just that. So without further delay, he set off for the town called Sunnydale where the girl apparently lived.

Spike didn't expect to engage her in combat just yet, he wanted to study her first like he had the first two. This was something he could drag out as long as he needed to. Tonight, he just wanted to get a looksee at her. He paid the cover charge at the door and walked into the dim lit hazy interior of the Bronze. He headed straight for the bar and ordered a beer. When he had his drink in hand, he turned around and leaned against the bar as he surveyed the joint.

Buffy was enjoying herself, there was no doubt about it. Her self reflection earlier had resulted in her making a few realizations about herself and how her life was going, and she was happy. And now, she was here with her friends, listening to a good band, and just enjoying some time to be Buffy. Not the Slayer. Not a mom. Just... Buffy. Those moments were rare and Buffy was determined to enjoy every moment of it.

"OOhh! I love this song!" Willow squealed as she grabbed Buffy's hand. "Come on, let's go dance!"

"You two crazy kids go ahead. The Xan man will stay and guard the table. With my life, if necessary," Xander announced.

Buffy allowed herself to be dragged onto the dance floor, losing herself in the rhythm created by Willow's boyfriend. She felt a niggling in her stomach and the scar on her neck tingled a bit, but she ignored it as she swayed and gyrated to the song. Then suddenly, it was as if her eyes sprung open on their own accord and her attention was forced behind her. Buffy spun slowly around, and her heart skipped a few beats.

Oh god, no. Please god, no. She blinked her eyes, hoping when she reopened them, the man at the bar staring intently at her would be gone. But he was still there. Oh god, he had finally found her.

Willow noticed the weird look on her friend's face and touched her arm. "Buffy?"

Buffy jumped at the contact, and looked at Willow. "Sorry," she mumbled. "I, uh, need some air." Not bothering to wait for a response, Buffy pushed through the dance floor crowd in the opposite direction of the monster and slipped outside into the alley. Bending over at the waist, arms wrapped around her, she drew ragged breaths in an attempt to calm herself.

Spike was paralyzed for just a moment. The last thing he had expected to find in this small beach town was HER. Experimentally, he had reached out and tried to connect with her. Thing had been hazy after he had woken up naked, alone, and bleeding, but he seemed to recall mumbling a few choice words in latin at just an opportune time.

He saw how she stiffly turned around to face him, her eyes going wide with terror at the sight of him. Oh yes, it was her, all right. Bloody hell, she looked amazing. It took him a moment to realize that she had bolted and with his face settled in grim determination, he followed after her. Pushing his way through the crowd on her trail, he didn't notice the redhead with the curious face staring after him.

Buffy slowly stood up, still doing her deep breathing exercises as she stood against the dirty alley wall next to the Bronze. Suddenly, she had the breath knocked out of her as something solid slammed against her and her body became pinned against unforgiving brick.

"Well, well, lookee what I found."

Buffy didn't need to look up to know who that accented voice belonged to. It was a voice that lived in both her dreams and nightmares. She stiffened in his tight hold, gasping when he pressed his erection into her.

"Let me go," she demanded in what she hoped was a confident voice. It was as if all of her Slayer training and strength had left her, by mere shock alone.

"Oh, I don't think so. I've got something I need to check out first. I need to make sure my property has been a good little girl."

Before Buffy could even think to question what he meant by that, she had a pair of razor sharp fangs tearing through her skin, right over the scarred marks he had left before. She could feel him take a deep drink, swiveling his hips against hers.

Suddenly he thrust her away so hard she fell to the ground. Slapping her hand to her bleeding neck, Buffy looked at him in confusion.

"Bloody fucking hell! You're the SLAYER!!" Spike shouted.

Suddenly, that knowledge alone gave her back her confidence, as it had done before. She allowed herself to giggle at his horrified discomfiture. "Well, DUH," she said to him, rolling her eyes in juvenile response as she watched him pace back and forth in front of her. He stopped and glared at her, his amber eyes shooting venom in direction.

The back door of the Bronze was thrown open, and Willow and Xander came rushing through it. "Buffy!" Willow called, seeing Buffy sitting on the ground with her hand at her neck. She didn't see the dangerous looking blonde stranger who had shifted back to human form at the interruption, but Xander caught a glimpse of him out of the corner of his eye.

As Spike stalked away, he turned back to Buffy and threatened, "This isn't over. You belong to me."

By all appearances, Buffy seemed to ignore his parting words, but they slammed into her with the impact of a freight train. Willow helped Buffy to her feet, and she waved off their concerns, refusing to answer questions, just saying it was a vamp attack. They tried to coax Buffy back inside, but she demurred, the urge to get home to Blake overwhelming. Oh god... Blake...

Buffy burst through the front door, frantic eyes searching for him. She found him asleep in her mother's arms and let out a pent up sigh of relief. Her worst nightmare was coming true. Will had found her and he was just as terrifying as she remembered. She looked down at the sleeping form of her son and vowed to do anything in her power to keep him safe. Even if it involved staking her son's father.

Spike's mood was foul, and he was in a dangerous frame of mind. By a cruel twist of fate, he had found her again. And the kicker? She was the slayer he had come to town to kill. The myriad of emotions seeing her again had stirred up inside of him angered the evil part of Spike, he couldn't stand this constant tug a war between his retained humanity and his demon. Looking up into the sky, he shouted "Will you make up your bloody mind already!!" But he knew it wasn't that simple, and never would be.

He found himself in one of this town's many cemeteries and an evil grin crossed his face. Well now, violence was always good for soothing the beast, figuring he'd give that a whirl. Extending his senses, he quickly picked up on a skirmish not too far away.

When he arrived on the scene, he was amused to find a human battling a minion, who was apparently waiting for a new fledgling to arise. Since the human seemed to be somewhat holding his own, Spike settled against a tombstone and watched. His interest piqued however, after a comment made by the vampire.

"So.. where's your Slayer, Watcher? She leave you to do her work?"

"Gave her the night off, thank you for asking."

But that was where the human ran into a spot of trouble, because the fledgling had risen from his grave while he had been occupied with the minion. Now it was two against one, and the human wasn't faring as well. Stepping in, Spike made quick work of the fledgling, then just as the minion had the human pinned down and was just going in for the kill, Spike ripped his head clean off.

Giles, suddenly littered with a deluge of vampire dust after being fully prepared to feel the vampire's fangs, looked up in surprise at his unlikely savior. He saw a man with bleached blonde hair, dressed all in black who wore an amused smirk on his face. He looked slightly familiar, but Giles was unable to place him.

"Nasty piece of work there," Spike commented, pulling a cigarette out of his leather duster and lighting it up.

Ah, fellow Brit, Giles noted. "Quite." He got to his feet. "My thanks for your timely assistance."

Spike snorted, his lips twitching with amusement. "Quite all right."

"Rupert Giles." Giles held out his hand.

"Will." Spike grabbed his hand, watching his face carefully for any sort of reaction. There was none, except curious interest.

They began to walk out of the cemetery. Giles lived a block over from this particular one and he was more than prepared to end patrol for the night.

"I was just headed home to indulge in a spot of brandy. Could I offer you one as a thank you for saving my life?" Giles offered. It wasn't often he ran across a fellow countryman, and the thought of sitting home alone drinking was not very appealing.

"Sure."

Giles unlocked his front door, and Spike remarked casually, "This your place?"

"It is. Come on in." And like that, the barrier was lifted, and Spike passed over the threshold without hesitation. That was almost too easy. It was on the tip of his tongue to lecture the man about inviting strangers in. Especially with him being a Watcher and all, Spike figured he should know better. But, he didn't want to tip his hand too soon.

Giles handed him a drink and they settled down in the living room, making small talk. Spike got up at one point and began wandering around the room, looking at the pictures. He came across a picture of Buffy and asked casually, "Is this your daughter?"

"No.. she's almost like it though. Her name is Buffy."

"I heard the vampire in the cemetery refer to you as a Watcher."

Suddenly, Giles eyes finally began to narrow with suspicion. Good lord, was he really such an idiot? He had been so relieved at having another chance at life, he hadn't given this stranger much thought beyond giving him his profound gratitude. Now, he was beginning to wonder if there was perhaps a hidden agenda here.

"And what business is that of yours?" Giles asked, his voice now business like and clipped.

Spike shrugged. "None. Just curious." He continued his inspection of the Watcher's pictures, finally coming to one that had him stumbling back in shock. "Who.. is this?" he turned to Giles, and showed him the picture in question.

Giles gave him a curious look. "I already told you, that's Buffy."

Spike shook his head. "No, the baby. Whose baby is this?"

Giles eyes became hard at the tone the other man was using. "I don't see how that is any of your business."

With a snarl, Spike prepared to fly at Giles, desperate for confirmation. "Tell me."

Both men were too engrossed in their little pissing contest to notice that the front door had opened and both started when a voice broke through. "So, Giles, is it common practice these days to invite vampires into your house?"

Giles looked at Buffy, then at Spike with some akin to horror. Spike smirked in his direction before turning his attention to the petite blonde by the front door. Holding the picture up, he ordered, "Explain this."

Buffy crossed her arms in front of her chest and replied defiantly, "No."

Spike growled, then charged Buffy, slamming her up against the wall, pinning her there with his body as he had done earlier that night. But Buffy now remembered she was the slayer and wrenched Spike away from her and knocked him to the floor. She straddled him and punched him angrily in the face. "I don't owe you ANYTHING, do you hear me?"

With a savage snarl, Spike slipped into game face and flipped them, knocking over a chair in the process. "You will tell me, damn you."

At her defiant face, he growled and sunk his fangs into her once more as she cried out and struggled against his iron hold. As quickly as he had bitten into her, he flung himself off and scooted himself back in shock along the floor.

"It's mine. No one else has touched you."

Buffy got up angrily off the floor and punched him in the face again, which surprisingly, Spike let her get away with. She looked over at Giles, who was standing before her frozen in mute horror. Boy, sure glad her Watcher was on the ball, she thought bitterly. He sure had her back with that one. 

Turning her attention back to the vampire on the floor, she announced coldly, "Get out."

His game face had retreated and his face was a whirlwind of confusion, and oh god... tenderness? At her harsh words though, his face hardened and he smirked at her. "Oh, I don't think so, my little Buffy."

"Get out, or I'll be sweeping you out."

Sauntering up to her, he leaned right into her face. "No. See, I believe I told you that you belong to me? Well, that hasn't changed."

All of the emotions of the last two years seemed to ball up and fling themselves at Buffy at once, and the source of it all was standing right in front of her, a smug shit eating grin on his face. And Buffy's anger flared. Drawing her arm back, she punched him in the face again, unable to control the impulse. Even when he lay laughing at her on the floor, wiping the blood from his nose, Buffy wanted nothing more than to go over and rain blow after blow on him. How could he DO this to her??? Her life was JUST finally going right. Oh, she had gotten over the fact that her virginity had been taken by a monster. She couldn't call it rape, she wanted it and knew it. But she been violated by his demon all the same.

And oh god, her son. Now her son was potentially in danger and the cause of it all was still on the floor laughing at her.

Finally, Giles roused himself out of his shocked stupor and attempted to assert some authority. "Leave, and do not come back."

That had Spike howling with laughter. Wiping tears from his eyes, he looked over at the enraged and confused Watcher and said, "Well now, perhaps you should explain to your slayer the definition and meaning of Claiming Rights? She might take it a bit better coming from you, and all."





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