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Author's Chapter Notes:
A/N: I am so sorry it has been so long since I've updated! This is actually the second chapter for the day, though if you read this on any other site the first chapter has been up for a while.
Work and grad school have been monopolizing my time and I haven't found much time to work on this. (Though as a random side note- I am concentrating on fan fiction in one of my classes, just not on my own. LOL I recently completed an essay on introducing fan fiction into the classroom) Hopefully I am now back into a groove and will be able to get updates out a little more frequently. :) I already have a short interlude to be posted after this chapter, so be looking for that in the next few days. Hope you enjoy and be prepared. Things are going to pick up soon. ;)
"Surprise!" a sea of voices exclaimed as Spike & Buffy walked through the door to the meeting room. Buffy jumped in astonishment, backing into Spike who quickly put an arm around her waist to hold her steady. Looking around, the couple saw that the room was full of skaters and staff from the rink. The room had been decorated with streamers and paper bells. Standing in the far corner of the room next to a table that held a simple, but beautiful cake was Buffy's sister Dawn. The tall, lanky blonde was grinning from ear to ear as she watched her sister and new brother in law. Tears suddenly filled Buffy's eyes. Everyone she cared about was in the room, and they were all happy and excited for her. She was suddenly overwhelmed by the reality of what she had done. She and Spike had really gotten married. All these people believed that they had romantically run off and eloped. A sudden feeling of shame hit her as she realized that eventually the truth would have to come out. What would they think when they found out the truth? Buffy turned her face up to look at Spike, desperately trying to hold onto her tears. Somehow sensing her differing emotions Spike bent down to place a quick kiss on her lips, then let his lips drift along her jaw to rest near her ear.

"It's okay, kitten. They're happy because you're happy. No reason for them to ever know any different right now is there?" he whispered.

"But," Buffy began to mumble, and then she looked at her friends again.

"No buts sweetheart, just go with it. We'll suss it all out together when the time comes."

Buffy nodded and turned towards Tara who had quietly approached her.

"We wanted to do something special for you guys," Tara explained, gesturing towards the crowd. "When Willow spread the news everyone wanted to have a chance to congratulate you."

"Thank you," Buff told her giving the other woman a warm hug.

"Yeah, thanks, Tara. Really means a lot to us, 'specially Buffy." Spike said his voice gruff, himself not being used to the attention he was suddenly receiving.

Buffy pulled away from Tara and eyed Dawn who was still standing next to the cake beaming. Surprisingly the girl hadn't attacked her big sister the second she walked into the room. Buffy started to walk towards her but was suddenly stopped by one of her students.

"Miss Summers," the young girl said. "I mean… Mrs. Pratt."

Buffy grinned at hearing herself called Mrs. Pratt. "Yes, Jen."

"Come see what we made for you." The young girl replied anxiously.

"What did you make?" Buffy asked following the young brunette over to a nearby table. Spike followed close behind, unwilling to let Buffy get far from his side.

"Well, it was really Miss Willow's idea, but we all helped put it together." Jen informed her pointing to the large picture frame on the table. Much to her surprise the frame was a collage of pictures. There seemed to be no specific theme except for Buffy & Spike. There were pictures of them at various stages in their careers, and random candid shots that had been taken over the years at the rink. It surprised Buffy that they had even managed to find a few of the two of them together.

"Thank you, Jen." Buffy's voice caught a little, as she was truly touched by what they had done.

"It's great, Jen." Spike said giving the young girl a genuine smile. Jen giggled and blushed when Spike gave her a quick wink.

"I think it's time for the newlyweds to cut the cake," Tara said shooing Spike and Buffy towards the table that was being carefully guarded by Dawn.

"Dawnie," Buffy said as she approached her sister. With a loud squeal Dawn launched herself into her sister's arms.

"Oh my gosh, Buffy, I can't believe you ran off like that. And got married! To Spike! I mean it's so awesome I just can't tell you how awesome it really is. I mean you're my sister and he's always been like a big brother to me…though of course not when he was gone, but that's all water under the bridge now and…"

"Dawnie…slow down," Buffy said unable to keep up with her sisters rambling.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" Dawn squealed again, this time throwing herself at Spike. Buffy watched as Spike wrapped his arms around her sister and placed a brotherly kiss on her head.

"Thanks, nibblet." Spike replied his voice, perhaps, more telling of his emotions than he would have liked.

"You guys have to cut the cake! It's chocolate!" Dawn suddenly pulled away from Spike and grabbed both their hands pulling them closer to the cake. She thrust a wicked looking knife into Buffy's hand and quickly reached for a camera she had sitting nearby. Buffy looked down at the sheet cake in front of her. Congratulations Spike & Buffy was written in red icing, with red roses on white frosting decorating the rest of the large sheet cake.

"I don't…"Buffy started to say, unsure what to do next. She had been to numerous weddings; she didn't know why she felt so lost as to what to do.

"Just have to give it a quick cut, love. Then I get to feed you a nice little piece of this sweet tasting confection." Spike winked at her and she blushed, and then looked up at him indignantly.

"William Pratt you are not going to smear frosting all over my face," she said pointing the knife at him. Spike quickly raised his hands in defeat.

"Not gonna do anything of the sort, love." He said a wicked gleam in his eye.

Buffy turned back towards the cake. She jumped slightly when Spike came up behind her and placed his hand over hers on the knife. Together they cut out the first piece of cake. Spike fed Buffy the first bite, teasingly placing a dot of icing on her nose before kissing it off. Buffy grinned then did the same thing to him. After that everybody seemed to get involved with talking to friends and eating cake, leaving Buffy and Spike to mingle around and chat.

"Buffy!" Willow called out to catch Buffy's attention and motioned to her friend to join her at a nearby table.

"Hey, Wills." Buffy plopped down into the chair closest to Willow, relieved to finally have the chance to sit down. "Thanks for working on that collage. I love it!"

"Anytime! It was really fun to do, thought I feel bad we didn't have more pictures of the two of you together. You guys just never were...well…really together before now." Willow smiled and quickly changed the subject. "Hey, you remember Darrell, right?"

Buffy looked to the chair on the other side of Willow and instantly recognized the dark haired man as her current boyfriend.

"Hi, Darrell." Buffy gave the man a smile. "Thank you for coming to this. I'm sure it's not the most happenin' party you've been to."

Darrell shrugged. "Congratulations on your marriage, Buffy. I have to admit I was pretty surprised when Willow told me."

"Thanks, Darrell." Buffy jumped when a hand suddenly landed on her shoulder. Looking up she saw Spike standing next to her. "Spike!"

"Sorry to startle you, love."

Buffy just shook her head and mentally chastised herself for being so jumpy. "Spike, this is Willow's boyfriend Darrell. Darrell, this is my husband Spike."

"It's nice to meet you, Darrell." Spike said reaching out to shake the other mans hand.

"Likewise," Darrell replied, but said nothing further.

"Sweetheart, Giles wanted to speak to you for a moment." Spike told Buffy, relaying the message that had him searching her out.

"Oh, where is he?" Buffy looked around the room but saw no sign of Giles.

"He headed back to his office. I'll meet you there in just a moment. We should probably head out of her for the day pretty soon. Looks like things are starting to wind down a bit here."

"Sure," Buffy said a quick goodbye to Willow and Darrell and went off in search of Giles.

"Hey," she said poking her head inside his door and peeking around to see if he was there.

"Ah, Buffy, good you found me. Please come in." he replied gesturing for her to take the seat she had shared earlier with Spike.

"What's up Giles?"

"I just wanted a moment alone with you to talk." He admitted. "I've been worried about you and wanted to see how you were doing? I feel bad for pushing you into this. I just…Well at the time it just seemed the right thing to do."

"I'm doing great, Giles." Buffy assured him. "In fact I think I should be thanking you."

Giles looked surprised. "For what, dare I ask?"

"For everything." She told him. "I know last week I was really against this…like majorly. But now I'm glad that I did. I know you have my best interests at heart and if this works then major bonus. If it doesn't then no harm done; at least it's given Spike and me a chance to get to know each other again."

Giles was speechless. What had happened between Spike & Buffy over the past week? "Buffy, I don't know what to say. I take it the two of you had a good trip."

"We did. And I took what you said to heart. I never thought that Spike might actually care about me. When he left 2 years ago I was devastated. You know that. The fact that he never called or communicated with me at all really hurt. I'm not going to say that I'm not still hurt by that, but I think I understand now that something happened with him. I'm trying to trust that someday soon he's going to share with me his reasons for leaving. In the meantime I think this is a good opportunity for both of us to start fresh. Granted it would be nice if it weren't all because some crazy stalker dude decided to have some fun with me."

Giles stared at Buffy amazed at the insight she was displaying. "I'm very glad you see that Buffy. I know that Spike has not always been my favorite person, but I can see how good the two of are and could be together. I wouldn't have pushed this if I didn't think that being a couple would be something the two of you could pull off. I only ask that you keep an open mind and not let petty things come between the two of you."

"What could come between us, Giles?" Buffy asked, wondering if Giles knew something about what Spike had been up to the past couple of years.

"I just," Giles paused to remove his glasses and stare thoughtfully at Buffy. " I don't want you to get caught up in the moment and get hurt when this is all over and this guy is finally where he belongs behind bars."

"Way ahead of you, Giles. I so don't want that either. That's why Spike and I are just going to take this day by day and see where it leads. It's a risk that I have to take."

"Yes, it is." Giles agreed nodding his head. "I must say I am very proud of how you are handling this and I think your mother would have been too."

Buffy's eyes misted as she thought about her mother. Her mom would have been so supportive of her and Spike. It was then that Buffy realized that her mom had really liked Spike. There was no denying it. The few times Joyce had met Spike she had shown true interest in him. She was shaken from her thoughts by a knock on Giles' door.

"Come in," Giles called out, relieved when it was Spike that walked in.

"Read to head out, pet?" Spike asked leaning against the doorway.

"Yeah," Buffy replied standing, eager to get away from the rink for just a little longer.

"I will see you both at dinner this evening correct?" Giles asked before the two blondes could escape.

"I'll make sure we're there, Giles." Spike said with a nod. "Wouldn't want the nibblet coming after us if we decided to stand her up."

Giles nodded in agreement knowing full well that Dawn could be a force to be reckoned with if crossed.

"Good. Buffy, if you're serious about wanting to do more administratively here at the rink I will have Tara make sure one of the desks in the front office gets cleared for you. Then at least you would have a workstation should you need it."

"That sounds great, Giles. We can talk more about what I can do tomorrow."

"I would be agreeable to that. Now you two get on out of here. I will see you at dinner this evening."

Spike grabbed Buffy's hand and led her out of the office.

"I already put the stuff from the party in the car," he informed her as he gave Tara a quick wave as they passed her on their way to the door. Buffy just nodded and allowed him to lead her to his car. The trip back to the house was spent in silence. Buffy sat huddled near her door, staring out the window lost in thought. Spike sensed the change in her attitude back at the rink prior to leaving, but he wasn't sure what could have happened to make her so sullen. He wondered if perhaps it had something to do with her initial reaction to the party. Back at Spike's Buffy walked quietly into the house ahead of him, slipping her shoes off at the door she walked silently over the couch and sat down, curling up on one end. Spike kept his eyes on her as he sat down the few packages he was carrying on a nearby table.

"Buffy, love, what's wrong?" he finally asked, crossing the short distance to the couch and kneeling down in front of her. Buffy shot him a quick look then quickly averted her gaze. "Tell me, pet."

"I just," she started, and her voice wobbled a bit. "I feel so bad about all of this."

Spike's heart clenched. He had been waiting for this moment; the moment when she would push him away. It no longer mattered that he knew deep down this stemmed from her earlier upset over deceiving her friends about the truth of their marriage. All he could focus on was the idea that she was starting to show signs of regret. He could only hope that he could talk her out of it. They had come so far already; it wouldn't be fair to lose everything before they really had the chance to make it work.

"Bad about us, love?" he asked, holding his breath as he waited for her answer.

Buffy snapped her head around to look at him and she felt her heart miss a beat when she saw the uncertainty in his eyes. She hadn't meant for him to think she was upset with him.

"No!" she quickly reassured him, smiling when he let out a sigh of relief. "I just feel bad deceiving everybody. We aren't really married, Spike. Not the way people think we are. They think we're some happy young couple in love that ran off on some romantic whim and got married. Dawnie was so excited today. I hate lying to my sister, Spike!"

Spike lightly touched her chin and tilted her head so she was looking him in the eye. His other hand grasped one of hers tightly. "Buffy what they believe about us is their business, and it's important that they think this is the real thing, remember? But the most important thing is what we believe. We may have started out with this just being some crazy plan, but I'd like to think we've moved past that a bit, yeah? This past week has been somethin' special, pet. May be a bit unconventional how we started out, but we are together right? All this between us this past week hasn't been just a bit o' cold comfort has it?"

Buffy vehemently shook her head. "No, Spike, never! This past week has been more than I could have ever asked for."

"So we're not really lyin' yeah? We really are married, got the paper to prove it too." He reminded her with a grin. "And we're together, so what's the problem?"

Trust Spike to reduce all her worries to nothing, Buffy thought. She gave him a soft smile. "Nothing, I guess. Just me being all worried Buffy."

Spike grinned. "Have an idea 'bout somethin' to make you smile. I brought in the gifts from the party this afternoon. Still have a few unopened ones to check out."

"Presents?" Buffy asked, quickly perking up. She hadn't noticed anything beyond the photo collage. "I didn't notice presents."

"Really?" Spike gasped in teasing surprise. Buffy playfully smacked at him.

"Bring them here, we can open them together."

Spike stood and retrieved the stack of presents, placing them carefully on the couch next to Buffy. Returning to his place on the floor at her feet he watched as she picked up one of the boxes. It was small, wrapped in shiny gold paper, but no card.

"Curious," Buffy commented as she carefully unwrapped the package. The plain white box aroused her curiousity even more. She gasped when she opened it and found a box full of broken red crystal. Spike looked up in surprise at her gasp.

"What is it, pet?"

"It's broken," Buffy told him frowning, her bottom lip pushing out to form a bit of a pout.

"Sorry, love. I thought I was careful with it all."

"It's not your fault." Buffy said pushing aside some of the crystals to get to the card she saw at the bottom of the box. "Don't know how it happened. I mean look at this- the box doesn't look beat up or anything, everything inside is just smashed."

"Maybe it was extra fragile."

Buffy shrugged and pulled the card out, careful not to cut her finger on any of the crystal shards. "Oh, it was really pretty, look." She said flipping the card around to show Spike the picture of the red crystal heart. To Spike's surprise before he got a really good look at the card Buffy had gasped and dropped it to the ground.

"Love?" he asked questioningly. She had suddenly paled, her earlier excitement over the gifts immediately gone. Buffy said nothing as Spike picked up the card from the floor to see what had her so spooked. Flipping it over he saw the writing on the back:

You've broken my heart; perhaps now I will have to break yours

"Fuck!" Spike exclaimed reaching for the box still in Buffy's hands. "The wanker was there! I don't believe this. Just wait til I get my hands on him."

"Spike, please, don't shout." Buffy said quietly, looking up to see him looming over her.

"Sorry, sweetheart, I just…I know this is what we wanted, but it just bothers me to think that he was there and nobody knew it."

"They'll figure it out, Spike. We can take this with to Giles' tonight, and maybe he can have somebody look into it."

Spike reached down and pulled Buffy to her feet, wrapping her protectively in his arms. "Yeah, I just…Wish you didn't have to be reminded of this today of all days. Was supposed to be a fun day for you."

"It was a fun day," Buffy assured him, pulling back far enough that she could look up at him, yet keeping her arms wrapped tightly around his waist. "A little weird gift isn't going to ruin it for me."

Spike was proud of the brave front Buffy was putting up, but he knew better than to think she wasn't upset or worried over the gift and note. But he was willing to play along for now. "Why don't you go get ready, pet. Promised Giles and your lil sis we'd be there by 6, that's not too far off."

Buffy nodded and extricated herself from Spike's embrace the rest of the gifts forgotten for the time being. She gave him a quick smile before heading towards the stairs and their bedroom. She sighed once she was out of sight, grateful not to be under his watchful eye. Tears formed in her eyes, as she fought the anger that was rising in her. How dare her stalker come in and ruin this for her. It was as if he knew that she had been happy and not thinking about him. That she had forgotten for just a moment that some crazy guy had his sights set on her. Wiping at her eyes she headed towards the bathroom where she could take a quick shower and hopefully get her emotions under control. There was no way she was going to let Spike or her sister see how shaken up she was. That just wouldn't do. It wouldn't do at all.





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