Oh my god. Thermometer? HILARIOUS. Poor Spike. That was so freaking funny!

Haha, they can't call each other bf/gf, or lovers, or s/o... that's priceless. :)

Haha, I was wondering about whether the Lord of the Rings thing was a part of the fic or just a nerdy reference. :) Because I was enjoying them immensely, haha. Cool fic, interesting idea, reading on right away!

So uber-strong Giles is being explained-- scary, much? Reminds me of Stephen King's "Desperation"-- fabulously freaky book, if I do say so myself. :) Enjoyed this chapter immensely, and glad to see an update! Can't wait for more of this great fanfic!

WOW! This story was... fantastic! I feel bad for not reviewing throughout, but everytime I reached the end of a chapter I couldn't resist clicking onto the next. :) Seriously, I have no idea how you can come up with so many fantastic story ideas-- they're intricate and realistic (at least for the Buffyverse, haha), and I enjoy every second of them. This story was superb, for its very rocky start and believable path that their relationship progressed upon. There wasn't a moment that I felt had any real stretch to it-- this story went perfectly with its characters, and had a great conclusion that tied things in quite nicely. You're an amazing writer!!!

Wow... scary punishment. I have grandmother issues as well, but I can't imagine someone doing that to anyone let alone their granddaughter! Evil. Great fic.

Beautiful.

Okay, I kind of disliked everyone's reactions in this chapter. Yes, Buffy made a mistake in keeping Spike's impending fatherhood from him for so long, but did she really deserve her mother's rather cruel chastisement, blame, and anger for being afraid? Joyce seemed uncharacteristically harsh with Buffy-- after all, she told him (and although it wasn't exactly of her own free will at the time, she really was going to tell him!).

And also, when she and Spike finally spoke again on the back porch, he said she "did a cruel thing." Really, is that exactly cruel? Irresponsible, unfair maybe-- but there was in no way maliciousness intended on Buffy's part.

And Dawn? I understand that she's upset. But this comment just made me go "WHAT?!"

Dawn knew Buffy was the main cause for all the badness that had happened so far tonight....

Buffy told Spike, like they all had wanted her to do so-- and after she finally does, they abandon all their support and basically get with the you got what you deserve.

I'm not trying to criticize your fanfiction, but I just felt really bad for Buffy in this-- she was upset enough at what I felt was an unfair jumping to conclusions at Spike's part (assuming that she felt she needed to protect her baby from "demons like him," not merely to keep it from those that she slays) and her own self-ridicule at keeping things from him. It felt to me that her mother should not have retracted her support-- and more importantly, her understanding of her daughter's fear and prior motivations-- so quickly.

Again, not trying to criticize-- just sharing my thoughts. :) Did enjoy, just a little "blehh" about what went down event-wise (and characterization-wise) in this chap.

Author's Response: I'll have to disagree with you, Joyce hasn't withdrawn her support of her daughter. And I don't think she was being curel with her either. I mean she had one pissed off vamp in the kitchen a upset teen crying her eyes out, and she had no clue as to why. So she wanted Buffy to get over there so they could talk everything out, find out what went wrong that night. Well for me I thought it would be a cruel thing for a woman to do. So I asked the hubby as well as my best friends hubby and they both agreed, this is why I went that route ^_^ Some men may not think it's cruel, maybe cowardly or irresponsable of the woman's part for not telling. So to each their own, I guess you can read it the way you want, lol. Let's put it this way. Dawn knew that everything that transpired that night was a direct result of Buffy's not telling Spike. If Trinity didn't exist when Dawn made her wish then none of this would have come out in the open until Buffy was ready to take that step. So even though Buffy dug herself into this hole, Dawn still feels she played a small role in it. If she could have kept her wish to herself. Nah, I don't feel that, no one said "You deserved this Buffy," no one withdrew their support of Buffy either. But if you do think Joyce was acting harsh to her it will be explained you just have to wait, lol. No worries, I have you feeling bad for Buffy, you're having emotions reading what I wrote, this is good. I acomplished my job, lol. Now my beta she totally disliked Buffy in this chapter. She thought she was self absored and not really caring about Spike's feelings. So here are two people with two different views and emotions to the same chapter. And I on't think Spike is over reacting either. All he's asking for is some space and time, he needs to ajust. I am gla you shared your thoughts with me, this is great and lets me know what you think. When I read fics I got through a range of emotions from good to bad, from hating Buffy to wanting to stake Spike. But that's why I love reading fic. ^_^ Thanks for the review/comment.

When I saw that you'd updated, it seriously made my day. :) Great chapter. Ugh! If only things could have been simpler... That police siren thing scared me, I was like "omg, William is going to be arrested for being a prostitute!" Then I hurriedly read through the rest of the chapter and gave a sigh of relief. :) Can't wait for more, and I hope you had a happy holiday with your husband! (Awesome alliteration!)

Author's Response: Oh that's great, I love being able to make someone's day, hell you make mine everytime I see your lovely reviews, big cyber hug. I LMAO when you said you thought the police siren was for him. Oh no, I couldn't do that to him, that would be cruel. I had an awesome holday time with my hubby, thank you and thank you so much for the lovely review, you've made my week sweety.

Great chapter-- poor Giles, he never likes feeling helpless! :( But really, I hope what he said was true--that Spike will be able to show Buffy how to live in the darkness. Can't wait to see where this fic goes!

Wow... I am hooked on this fic. I'm hoping to pull an all-nighter and get all that's been written read. Fantastic plot premise! Can't wait to find out who's doing this to Spike!

Hoho. That was the sound I was making when Buffy said "good" to Anya's reinstated status as vengeance demon. :) She's vicious. I can't wait to see the revenge.