Time Line:
November, 2004
**
History:
Joshua "JJ" Harris was born on April 21st, 2004
The twins (Danielle, "Dani" and William, "Billy") were born on February 12th, 2004
Annie turned five on February 14th (she was born in 1999)
Spike and Buffy have been married five years in February. (seems longer, doesn't it?)
Buffy turned 23 on January 19th.

All the Potentials were endowed with full Slayer power in February 2003.
Buffy and Spike learned of the other dimensions in May, 2003.

**~**

Friday, November 26th, 2004:
 
Spike knocked lightly on Tara and Willow’s door and waited. After a few moments, Anya opened the door and peeked out to see who it was.
 
“Oh, it’s just you …” Anya observed, opening the door wider to allow Spike to enter.
 
“Who’d you think it’d be, the bloody Easter Bunny?” Spike asked as he brushed past her.
 
“Oh my God! Why would you say that!? Are you out of your mind saying things like that today? Don’t you know it’s bad luck to talk about bunnies on a wedding day!?” Anya exclaimed as Spike walked in.


 
Spike smirked. He loved getting under Anya’s skin and bunnies always did the trick. Ever since the ‘orgasm’ incident with Annie, he’d done his best to push her buttons every chance he got. Buffy had vetoed the ripping out of her tongue, so agitating her at every opportunity was the next best thing…
 
“I closed the Magic Box early today, the biggest shopping day of the year, for this wedding … and you have to curse it with talk about bunnies?!” Anya continued as Spike walked further into the room.
 
“Be a pet and check on your husband,” Spike urged Anya. “I think he’s having a spot of trouble with his tie.”
 
Anya sighed, rolled her eyes, and looked at Tara. Tara nodded and Anya went off to find Xander and help him with his wardrobe.
 
Spike stopped short and drew in a sharp breath when Tara turned around. She was dressed in a floor length, strapless, flowing, satin pagan wedding gown. The ivory and rich purple that she and Willow had chosen as the colors for their wedding (yes, they were calling it a wedding – regardless of what the state of California thought) complemented her complexion perfectly and the cut of the dress suited her body equally well – she looked stunning in it.


 
 
Tara’s hair was pulled up into a bun on top of her head with just a few wisps of dark blonde curls falling down to frame her face. Baby’s breath adorned her hair and her make-up was light and natural. She gave Spike a crooked smile and ducked her head, turning back around to face the mirror as she checked her dress one last time.
 
Tara hadn’t seen her family in years. Although she kept in touch with them through letters and the occasional phone call, she was always careful to not include anything with her actual address on it when she wrote (using the PO Box at the university rather than Crawford Street for the return address on letters) and she only used a cell phone to call them. They knew she was in Sunnydale, of course, attending college, but they would never understand her life now. They would never give their blessing for this marriage or for her living with the group of people that occupied the mansion, people that she now considered her family, or for her embracing her powers as a witch.
 
Her family had stopped paying for her college courses after the first four years – nearly every letter and phone call from her father or brother centered on them saying that she needed to come home, but she simply ignored their pleas, saying that she was still attending college and working towards a higher degree, which was true. Tara had gotten a partial scholarship and some grants and taken out student loans to pursue her master’s degree in psychology, and Willow used money that her parents gave her to support them and help Tara pay some of her bills, as well. Of course, living rent-free at the mansion helped a lot, too.
 
Both Willow and Tara wanted to combine parts of a traditional marriage with those of a Wiccan handfasting, after all, they’d grown up dreaming of this day – what girl hadn’t? Being walked down the aisle by their father was something girls grew up dreaming of, even practicing – humming “dum, dum, de-dum” and walking in that slow, “step, pause, step, pause” rhythm that they’d seen on TV and movies. So they both decided that, even though it wouldn’t be a traditional marriage, that part of the old dream could still come true. Since she couldn’t ask her actual father to do it, Tara had asked the one man she felt closest to in Sunnydale if he would walk her down the aisle and ‘give her away’. Spike, of course, agreed without hesitation.
 
“You look absolutely radiant, pet,” Spike breathed as he started moving again and stepped up beside her as she stood in front of the mirror.
 
Tara blushed and looked at Spike. “You look pretty dashing, yourself…” she told him with a shy smile.
 
Spike had on a black tuxedo with a black bow tie and a purple cummerbund that matched the purple that Willow and Tara had in their dresses.
 
“All ready to jump the broom, then?” he asked with a soft smile and Tara nodded nervously.
 



“You don’t look ready,” Spike said, looking her up and down with a worried look on his face.
 
“I don’t?” Tara asked with concern, turning back to the mirror to check again.
 
Spike shook his head solemnly. “Nope. You’re missin’ some things…”
 
“What? What am I missing?” Tara asked, looking back at him with near panic on her face.
 
“Sumthin’ old, sumthin’ new, sumthin’ borrowed, sumthin’ blue, a silver sixpence in your shoe…” Spike rhymed with a smile.
 
Tara blew out a long breath and tried to calm her racing heart. “God, Spike – you scared me to death…”
 
“Sorry, pet. Let me make it up to ya,” he said, holding out a blue cameo ring to her. “It was my mum’s … it’ll cover the old and blue bits,” he said with a soft smile.


 
“God, Spike…it’s…it’s lovely. And it’ll cover the borrowed, too!” Tara exclaimed, taking it and sliding it on her finger.
 
“No, it’s for you to keep,” Spike started.
 
“Oh no, Spike, I couldn’t! It was your mom’s … it should go to Buffy or Annie – stay in the family,” Tara argued.
 
“You are family, pet,” Spike told her. “I want you to have it. It suits you. You have an old soul, a kind soul – you were a Victorian lady once, I can see it in you. This ring belonged to another kind, Victorian lady and it would honor her, and me, if you’d accept it,” Spike told her, his accent fading from the rough cockney drawl to the smoother, more refined accent of his youth.
 
Tara nodded slowly as she admired the ring and tears stung her eyes. When she left her family in Alabama and came to California, she didn’t know what to expect. She was alone, shy, unsure of herself, and had powers that she didn’t fully understand. She didn’t really know where she fit in in the world … but she knew it wasn’t with her family in Alabama. They didn’t understand; they’d never understand. She felt so lucky to have found a new family that loved her and respected her, accepted and understood her, as well as a woman that she loved who loved her back just as much.
 
“Thank you,” she said softly as she looked back up and met Spike’s eyes. “For everything.”
 
Spike shrugged and looked down at the floor, running his hand across the back of his neck, suddenly feeling a little self-conscious. He loved Tara like a sister. She hadn’t known him before he had his soul, but she’d been here with them and helped them through many a tough situation. She’d never been afraid of Spike, she never hesitated to stand up to him or tell him when he was wrong – it was like she knew he wouldn’t hurt her, and she was right.
 
Spike stuffed his hands down in the pockets of his trousers and suddenly looked back up with wide eyes. “Bloody hell, I almost forgot the rest!”
 
Spike pulled out Buffy’s diamond and ruby heart necklace and held it up for Tara. “Sumthin’ borrowed,” he explained and she turned around for him to fasten it around her neck.
 
When he’d finished, Tara ran her hand across the necklace and looked in the mirror. The love and devotion that Buffy and Spike had for each other seemed to radiate out from the gemstones and combine with the love she felt for Willow, making her heart soar.


 
When Tara turned back to Spike, he held up a silver coin, a 1787 half-shilling, or sixpence. Tara tilted her head and looked at him with confusion. “Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue … I’ve never heard the shoe thing before,” she told him as she reached out and took the old silver coin from his hand.
 
“Sumthin’ old,” Spike started, “honors the past; represents continuity of the past moving to the future. You don’t leave the past behind, it is what makes you you …
 

“Sumthin new,” Spike continued, “represents optimism for the future and the new life you’ll have together.
 
“The sumthin’ borrowed is best borrowed from someone who is truly, madly, deeply in love, and happily married. You’re borrowing their passion, devotion, and good luck to help you through the hard times,” Spike explained further.
 
“In the past, blue was the symbol of faithfulness, purity, and loyalty. The sumthin’ blue tells your love that you’ll always be true…”
 
“True blue,” Tara muttered softly, looking down at the cameo ring Spike had given her and Spike nodded.
 
“The silver sixpence is to bring you luck with money – financial well bein’,” Spike explained.
 
Tara snorted softly and rolled her eyes as she looked at the coin. That would be the day…
 
She grabbed onto Spike’s arm as she reached down, slid one shoe off, and dropped the coin into it before slipping her foot back in. She was thankful she and Willow had opted for comfortable shoes instead of high heels … in keeping with the pagan theme, of course.
 
“Am I ready now, kind sir?” Tara asked with a smile, as she spread her arms out from her body and turned in a slow circle in front of him.


 
“I believe you are, Lady Tara. …You are … effulgent,” Spike replied with a soft smile as he held his bent arm out for her to take and they headed out of the room to meet her destiny.
 
**~**
 
“Oh God, I’m gonna be late for my own wedding!” Willow exclaimed as she changed her hair for the fourth time. She’d tried it up, then down …. then up again … now she was taking it back down.
 
“You can’t be late for your own wedding – they can’t start without you,” Buffy assured her as she helped Willow take the combs and flowers out of her hair and let it back down.
 
“God, my hair’s a mess! Why does the universe pick my wedding day to give me bad hair?! I’m gonna look like something the cat dragged in…Oh, God, this is horrible!” Willow continued ranting nervously.
 
“Wills…” Buffy started.
 
“I mean, seriously! Couldn’t the gods smile on me just this once? One day in my whole life that I’d like my hair to look nice!” Willow interrupted her.
 
“Will…” Buffy began again.
 
“Look at this!” Willow exclaimed, picking her hair up and letting it fall limply down to her shoulders.
 
“Willow!” Buffy yelled, grabbing Willow by the shoulders and turning her away from the mirror. “Calm down. Everything will be fine.”
 
“Oh sure, easy for you to say – you’re not the one with limp hair!”
 
“Willow – I was nine months pregnant when I got married …” Buffy reminded her.
 
“Sure, but your hair was perfect!”
 
Buffy let out a long sigh and let go of Willow’s shoulders.  “I could've shaved my head bald and no one would've noticed, their eyes were drawn to my giant stomach. Hair is a much easier fix.
 
“Why don’t you just … you know, magic it up?” Buffy asked her, waving her hand at Willow’s hair.
 
“You can’t just ‘magic up’ your hair ‘cause it’s the most important day of your life! That’s against the rules …”
 
“I didn’t know there were rules. Is there a user guide for witches that I don’t know about?” Buffy asked, looking at her curiously. “What can it hurt?”
 
Willow shook her head. “You start down that road and you never know where it will lead, Buffy. It’d be like you or Spike using your strength to … I don’t know, make a million dollars playing football or something…” Willow explained.
 
“A million dollars? Seriously? Playing a game?” Buffy asked, suddenly interested.
 
“You’re missing my point, Buffy …”
 
“Right – ‘cause that would be wrong,” Buffy said, nodding her head solemnly. A million dollars?
 
“Exactly,” Willow agreed. She turned back to the mirror and picked up the curling iron and started curling a section of her hair around it – again.
 
“Ok, let me go get some of that super-hold hair spray that eats away at the ozone layer and is causing global warming and the destruction of the planet … that’d be ok to use, right?” Buffy asked with a tinge of sarcasm.
 
“Oh! Do you have some of that? Yeah, that would be perfect!” Willow exclaimed, completely missing the sarcasm in her voice as she held the curling iron near her scalp and waited for it to perform its unmagical-magic. Buffy rolled her eyes and shook her head before heading out to get some of the hairspray for Willow.
 
**~**
 
Willow’s parents had met Tara many times, but her mother always thought that it was just a phase Willow was going through and that it would pass. When Willow announced their engagement, she thought her father was going to have a stroke; her mother had reassured her that they would support her decision, although it was obvious that she was on the verge of turning to some self-medication herself.
 
When Willow told them that the wedding would be the day after Thanksgiving, the night of the full moon, her mother told her that they couldn’t attend – they were going to New York to visit relatives for Thanksgiving and wouldn’t be back until the next week. They did offer to cover the expenses, though – which Willow accepted. It was typical of them, paying for her wedding, but not attending, was a type of passive-aggressive behavior meant to make her feel guilty, and it usually worked. Willow was disappointed, but she and Tara had their hearts set on getting married under a full moon in the fall, and that day just happened to fall on the Friday after Thanksgiving this year.
 
Willow knew that she’d disappointed her parents with her choice of a woman as her partner and felt guilty for not living up to their expectations, but in her heart she knew that what she was doing was right – she loved Tara more than life itself; Tara was her soul mate, she was sure of it. And so, here she was with her adopted family; a family that understood what it meant to love someone that much; a family that didn’t judge you for following your heart; a family that she loved and who loved her just as much.
 
**~**
 
After another twenty minutes of fussing and curling and spraying her hair with the ozone killing hairspray, Willow was finally happy with it. Buffy helped her get the wreath of flowers back on and Willow turned to look at her friend.
 
“How do I look? Am I ready to get married?” Willow asked, holding her arms out to the side.



Her floor length, ‘Maid Marion’ dress was simpler than Tara’s, but in the same ivory with purple piping that matched Tara’s dress. Willow’s hair now fell in curls around her shoulders and her head was adorned with a wreath made of dried flowers and herbs.
 
“Almost,” Buffy told her with a soft smile.
 
Buffy retrieved a small box from the dresser and handed it to Willow. “This is for you … something old, something blue,” Buffy told her.
 
Willow opened the box and pulled out an old fashioned hair locket made in silver with blue porcelain inlay.


  
“Buffy …it’s … wow!” Willow exclaimed as she handed it to Buffy to hook around her neck.
 
“It was Grandma Gordon’s,” Buffy explained as she hooked it. “Now it’s yours.”
 
“What? Your mom’s mother? No, Buffy,” Willow said as she started to take the necklace off.


 
Buffy stilled her hand. “Yes – I want you to have it. You’ve been like a sister to me for so long; we’ve been through so much together. You’re my best girlfriend, you’re family – you helped Spike and Annie when I was dead … you even brought me back from the dead…”
 
“I snatched you out of heaven and dropped you back here in purgatory with the regular folks, you mean,” Willow reminded her despondently.
 
“Well, there’s that …” Buffy rolled her eyes. “I don’t think I ever really thanked you for that, did I?”
 
Willow snorted softly and rolled her eyes. “For dragging you back into the battle so you could get kidnapped and tortured by the First and almost torn apart by those ubervamps and shot by Finn and nearly drowned by Spike and …”
 
“Thank you,” Buffy interrupted her, pulling Willow into a tight hug. “Thank you for giving me Spike back. Thank you for giving me the chance to see Annie grow up. Thank you for Dani and Billy. Thank you, Willow.”
 
“Buffy, this should go to Annie or Dani, not me,” Willow continued to object when Buffy released the hug, but Buffy just shook her head.
 
“This is something I want to do … don’t make me beat you up on your wedding day, Rosenberg,” Buffy threatened sarcastically.
 
“Wow … I don’t know what to say,” Willow muttered, as she turned to look at the antique necklace in the mirror.
 
“I’ve been told that ‘thank you’ is the generally accepted response to giftiness,” Buffy teased as she watched Willow in the mirror.
 
Willow met her eyes in the mirror and smiled. “Thank you.”
 
“You’re beyond welcome.”
 
“Buffy? Do you think I’m…disappointing?” Willow asked, turning around to look at her friend.
 
Buffy tilted her head and furrowed her brow in confusion. “Disappointing? … No – what do you mean?”
 
“I mean this,” Willow elaborated, spreading her arms out. “Marrying Tara … being gay, embracing Wicca – it’s not what my parents really had in mind. I mean, I should be marrying a Jewish Urologist, who was, coincidentally male, and living in Reseda … or somewhere equally milquetoasty.”
 
“Awwww, Wills … no, you’re not disappointing at all,” Buffy assured her. “You love Tara and she loves you – I couldn’t imagine either of you with anyone else.
 
“You want disappointing, try being a pregnant, unmarried, teenage Slayer who’s been kicked out of high school and under investigation for murder.” Buffy smiled and took Willow back into a hug. “You can’t live your life to please your parents. They’ll be happy if you’re happy – trust me, I’m a mom, I know these things now. They just need some time to realize that you really are happy. You are happy, right? I mean, even though Tara’s not a Urologist…”
 
Willow laughed lightly and nodded her head against Buffy’s shoulder.
 
“Well, there you go,” Buffy assured her again as she released her from the hug and met her friend’s eyes, “that’s all any parent dreams of.”
 
Buffy pulled off the ring that Spike had given her on Labor Day, the four rubies in four hearts wrapped in diamonds, and held it out to Willow. “Something borrowed,” she explained as Willow looked at her with confusion.
 
“Wow, this is better than Christmas! Especially at my house, since … duh! Jewish!” Willow teased as she slid Buffy’s ring onto her right hand.
 
“I love you, Buffy,” Willow said softly as she hugged her friend.
 
“I love you too, Wills,” Buffy replied, returning her friend’s hug. “Whatta say we get you hitched? I’m tired of being the only old married woman in the house.”
 
Willow laughed, pulled out of the hug, and nodded.
 
“I’ll go get Xander and meet you outside…” Buffy told her as she turned and left the room.
 
Since Willow’s dad wouldn’t be at the ceremony, Willow had asked Xander to give her away and he agreed immediately. It seemed somehow fitting and hugely ironic, given her childhood … and even teenage, crush on him.


 
“Wow, look at you,” Xander said as he entered the room and saw Willow in her wedding attire. “All grown up and getting married.”
 
“Yeah – when did that happen?” Willow asked with a smile as she hugged Xander.
 
“I keep wondering that myself,” Xander told her as he returned her hug. “You look beautiful … as beautiful as any bride ever dared.”
 
Willow blushed slightly and looked back at the mirror as she adjusted the necklace Buffy had given her and the flowers in her hair. She’d dreamt of this day since they were young … but in her dreams it was Xander she was marrying. Funny how life seems to know where to lead you, even if you don’t always know where you’re going. A Zen saying flashed through her mind, “No snowflake ever fell in the wrong place.” She was sure that, on this occasion at least, she was a snowflake and in the exact right place.
 
“Ready?” Xander asked, extending the crook of his arm towards her.
 
“Yep …” Willow replied with a smile and took his arm and they headed out of the room and to her destiny.
 


**~**
 
All their guests, which included all the Scoobies, Faith and Wesley, as well as friends from college and their Wicca group, gathered in the garden for what Willow and Tara had simply called “a joining of two hearts” in the invitations and the announcement they’d put in the local Wiccan newsletter. It would be a combination of a traditional wedding and handfasting that they’d partly written themselves and partly taken from other handfasting ceremonies they’d attended.
 
The garden was lit entirely with banks of white pillar candles and the full moon and twinkling stars that shone brightly above. There were bouquets of purple hued wildflowers around the altar, which matched the flowers that both women had in their bouquets.


 
They had chosen purple because it combines the stability and pureness of blue and the energy and passion of red. It represents the Crown Chakra … wisdom and spirituality and the knowledge that all things in the universe are connected – we are all one – pull one thread out of the tapestry of the universe and the rest will unravel. That’s very much how Tara and Willow felt about each other – like they were as one – one soul that was lucky enough to find it’s other half.
 
At about thirty minutes before midnight on the night of the full moon in November, with all their guests in the garden and spilling through the double doors into the great room, the music they’d chosen for their processional began playing. It was the theme from “Braveheart” …

{{Click here to hear ‘Braveheart’ by The Highland Orchestraon YouTube }}

All the guests quieted and those lucky enough to have a seat stood up as Buffy started the processional, leading the way down the stairs from the street and into the garden. There were candles burning in weighted-down, white paper bags on each step to light the way as Buffy walked slowly down the stairs. Anya followed a few steps behind Buffy; both matrons of honor held bouquets of fragrant lavender to symbolically cleanse the path for the brides.

Willow and Tara had chosen a simple dress for their matrons of honor and flower girl. An ivory colored, floor length, sleeveless dress made of organza with a purple sash that matched the color in Willow and Tara’s dresses.

As Buffy reached the bottom step she saw Spike standing to one side waiting for Tara to come down the steps. His eyes were glued on her and met hers as she walked slowly towards him. He looked so handsome in his formal wear, it made her heart melt. She remembered her wedding day, when she’d walked this same path to him and tears stung her eyes, remembering her mom and Giles giving her away and the love she saw in Spike’s eyes as she stood by his side and they took their vows – she never got tired of seeing that look in his eyes.

I love you, you shirty Slayer, Spike sent her through their bond and gave her a little wink as Buffy passed by him.
 
I love you, too, you handsome vampire, she sent back with a soft smile as she turned and started for the altar, forcing herself to break eye contact with him.


 
Annie followed the two matrons of honor. She walked slowly down the stairs, just like Buffy had shown and practiced with her, sprinkling purple rose petals on the stairs as she went, being careful not to spread too many at first so she wouldn’t run out before she got to the altar. She was dressed in a simple flower girl dress that matched Buffy and Anya’s. She had the same dried flowers in her hair that Willow had in hers, and a wicker basket full of the fragrant rose petals.
  
Willow followed Annie down the stairs, a bouquet of wildflowers in all shades of purple in her hands. When she reached the bottom, she took Xander’s arm and he escorted her to the point where the aisle turned towards the altar and they stopped.
 
Willow looked up the stairs and watched Tara descend them. She thought Tara had never looked lovelier than that moment, bathed in candlelight and moonlight, she seemed to float down the stairs like an angel. Willow swallowed a lump in her throat … Buffy’s question rang in her head, “Are you happy?” ‘Happy’ couldn’t begin to describe what she felt at that moment. Euphoric, ecstatic, exultant … effulgent … her heart felt so full of love she thought she might actually float away at any moment.
 
As Tara reached the bottom of the stairs, she took Spike’s arm and he led her up next to Willow. The two brides on the inside of the aisle, side by side, with their handsome escorts at their sides, began to walk slowly down the aisle towards the altar as one.
 
When they reached the Wiccan Priestess who was performing their ceremony, the music came to an end and all the guests that had chairs took their seat… the guests in the back and in the great room remained standing. The garden, even though filled with people, was a quiet as a church – it was a cathedral of nature, under the moon and stars. The only sound was the light trickling of water from the fountain; the fragrance of rose petals, lavender, and night blooming jasmine filled the air as everyone waited for the Priestess to begin.
 
“Blessed be all who attend this glorious celebration, and blessed be those about to be united in the bonds of love,” the Wiccan Priestess began and all the Wiccans in the garden replied with “Blessed be,” in one voice.
 
The Priestess looked at Willow and asked, “Do you come of your own freewill and accord – led only by the love in your heart?”
 
“Yes, I do,” Willow replied, looking at Tara with all the love she felt in her heart.
 
“With whom do you come and whose blessings accompany you?” the Priestess asked, still looking at Willow.
 
“She comes with me, her lifelong friend, and is accompanied by all of her family's and friends’ blessings,” Xander responded as Willow released his arm and he stepped back to the side next to Anya.
 
The Priestess turned to Tara and asked, “Do you come of your own freewill and accord – led only by the love in your heart?”
 
“Yes, I do,” Tara replied as her eyes held Willow’s across the aisle.
 
“And with whom do you come and whose blessings accompany you?” the Priestess continued.
 
“She comes with me, she is the sister I never had, and is accompanied by all of her family's and friends’ blessings,” Spike responded, his cockney accent fading to the more refined accent that his mother would’ve recognized, as Tara released his arm and he stepped back to the side and stood next to Buffy and Annie.
 
Tara and Willow moved slightly closer together as their escorts stepped aside until they were standing in front of the altar and the Priestess, their shoulders not quite touching, as they both held their bouquets of wildflowers and listened to the blessing the Priestess recited…
 
“Blessed be this union with the gifts of the East.
Communication of the heart, mind, and body,
Fresh beginnings with the rising of each sun.
The knowledge of the growth found in the sharing of silences.
 
“Blessed be this union with the gifts of the South.
Warmth of hearth and home,
The heat of the heart's passion,
The light created by both to illuminate the darkest of times.
 
“Blessed be this union with the gifts of the West.
The deep commitments of the lake; the swift excitement of the river,
The refreshing cleansing of the rain;
The all encompassing passion of the sea.
 
“Blessed be this union with the gifts of the North.
Firm foundation on which to build,
Fertility of the fields to enrich your lives;
A stable home to which you may always return.
 
“Each of these blessings emphasizes those things which will help you build a happy and successful life, yet they are only tools. Tools which you must use collectively in order to create what you seek in your life together.”
 
Willow and Tara both turned to face the east, their backs to the Priestess as they started their vows.
 
“Here do I promise you communication, laughter, imagination, and hope,” Willow began as they faced the direction of the rising sun.
 
“And all this do I promise you,” Tara responded.
 
They both turned as one to face the south. “Here do I promise you love, passion, desire, and warmth,” Tara continued.
 
“And all this do I promise you,” Willow replied.
 
The couple turned again to face the west. “Here do I promise you healing, compassion, honesty, and understanding,” Willow continued.
 
“And all this do I promise you,” Tara replied.
 
Finally, they turned to the north. “Here do I promise you stability, solidity, dependability, and strength,” Tara finished.
 
“And all this do I promise you,” Willow replied.
 
They both turned back to the Priestess and all the Wiccans at the ceremony said in unison, along with Willow and Tara, “So mote it be.”
 
After a moment, the Priestess continued, "Everything the world does is done in a circle. The sky is round, the earth is round, the moon is round, and so are the stars. The wind in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nests in circles ... The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always coming back again to where they were.
 
“By exchanging rings, you are committing yourself to each other for eternity with no beginning and no ending to your love. Do not take this step lightly, for it is a leap that only faith and true love can temper. Are you prepared to make this commitment to each other?” the Priestess asked them both.
 
Willow and Tara looked at each other, their eyes locking for a long moment before they both nodded slowly.
 
Anya and Buffy took Willow and Tara’s bouquets and Xander handed Willow the simple gold band that she and Tara had chosen to represent their commitment to each other.
 
“I give you this ring to wear with love and joy. As a ring has no end, neither shall my love for you. I give you my heart to hold and keep this day and forevermore,” Willow vowed as she slipped the ring on Tara’s finger.
 
“I will keep your heart safe within mine from this day until the sun and moon no longer shine,” Tara replied.
 
Spike handed Tara the other wedding band and she made the same vow to Willow and Willow the same vow to Tara to keep her heart safe until the end of time as Tara slipped the ring on her finger.   
 
The Priestess picked up a long, red ribbon from the altar and held it up. “If anyone has any objection to, or reason why, these two souls should not be joined in love for eternity, speak now or forever hold your peace.”
 
“It’s blasphemy … unnatural – a crime against all things pure!” came a male voice from the back of the room and everyone gasped as they turned around to see who had spoken.
 

A man in his forties walked through the middle of the crowd from the great room, through the double doors towards the altar as the people parted to let him pass. When he got in view of Willow and Tara, Tara’s face fell, the blood drained from her face, and her heart raced in her chest. “Oh my God.”



“I was worried about the demon, but you’ve turned into something much worse!” the man continued as he walked up the aisle towards Willow and Tara. “I knew I should’ve come for you sooner … this is over. You’re coming home now, young lady.”
 
“Who the bloody hell are you?” Spike spoke up, stepping between Tara and the man.
 
“Tara? Have you’ve forgotten your manners, too? Why don’t you introduce me to your friends?” the man asked as he came within a couple of feet of Spike.
 
“Oh God…” Tara repeated before grabbing Spike’s arm and stepping between him and the man. “D-Dad…How? What…what are you doing here?” she stammered.
 
“Saving you from burning in eternal hell with the rest of these … these … heathens.” Tara’s father announced to the whole room. “Did you cast a spell to get them to accept you?” he asked, looking at Tara.


 
“W-what? N-n-no. Dad, please, can we talk about this somewhere else?”
 
“Is this the best you could do?  This bunch of deviants, when you had a family that loved you back home, who could’ve helped you?” her father continued in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear.
 
“D-D-Daddy, please,” Tara pleaded with him as she tried to steer him back down the aisle towards the stairs.
 
“What’s the matter, Tara, don’t want all your little friends knowing what you really are?” Mr. Maclay asked her as he stood firm in the center of the garden. “She’s a DEMON!” he yelled out so even the neighbors could hear. “A dirty, filthy demon who’d just as soon eat your brains as look at you!”
 
“D-Daddy!” Tara begged him, pushing with all her might to get him to move.
 
Spike had had just about enough of this man … Tara’s father or not. Tara hadn’t told Spike much about her family, and now he could understand why. Spike stepped up next to them and took the man by the back his collar, physically lifting him up so his feet were off the floor, and half dragged, half carried him back down the aisle and into the mansion, through the great room and into the training room. Tara, Willow, Buffy, Xander, and Anya all followed quickly behind. Buffy told the Priestess to just wait and asked Faith to stay with Annie until she came back.
 
Spike tossed Tara’s father against the padded wall and waited for him to stand back up. “What the bloody hell is your problem, you nit?” Spike asked him as Tara rushed in and put herself between Spike and her father again. “Can’t you see you’re ruining your own daughter’s bloody wedding?”


 
“Oh, is that what this is? A wedding? Between two women?” Tara’s father asked incredulously. “An abomination, is what it is!
 
“Is that really the best you could do, girl? Not even good enough to get a man,” her father accused. “You’re coming home where we can fix you … get you back to normal.”
 
“N-n-o,” Tara stammered, her voice shaking as tears stung her eyes.
 
“What did you say to me, young lady?” her father asked, his voice threatening as he moved towards her.
 


“I-I’m n-not going. N-no,” Tara stood firm as she shook her head. “I don’t need fixing...”


 
Mr. Maclay looked at the group in the room. “She’s a disgusting demon!” he informed them, pointing his finger at Tara.
 
“Just what kind of demon is she?” Anya asked as Spike snorted and Buffy and Xander rolled their eyes.
 
“Didn’t you hear me? An evil, disgusting …” Mr. Maclay started again.
 
“Yes, I heard that – but what kind of demon, specifically?” Anya pressed, stepping forward next to Tara. “I mean there are lots of different kinds of demons …Some are very, very evil. And some have been considered to be useful members of society. I haven’t noticed any horns or fangs … no bloodletting or ritual sacrifices, have you, Willow?” Anya asked, looking back at Willow.
 
Willow stepped forward on the other side of Tara. “No, nothing.”
 
“Evil is evil…” Tara’s father persisted. “She’s coming home with me.”
 
“I believe the girl said ‘no’,” Spike reminded him, stepping up next to Willow.
 
“Oh, tough guy, are you?” Mr. Maclay asked sarcastically. “You won’t be so tough when she’s got you hung up on a meat hook by your heels cutting pentagrams in your flesh.”
 
“Well, long as it ain’t crosses, I reckon I’ll survive,” Spike smirked as he morphed into game face and growled at Tara’s father.
 
“Holy shit!” Mr. Maclay exclaimed, holding his index fingers up in a cross in front of himself and stepping back from Spike. Spike stepped forward until Tara’s father was pinned between him and the wall at his back.
 
“The girl said ‘no’. If she’s a demon, I’m Bugs Bunny,” Spike told him as he leaned close to his neck, a deep rumbling growl emanating from his throat.
 
“Oh, God, Spike! Why do you have to do that!? I told you no bunny talk on their wedding day! See what you’ve done!? This is your fault! Geez!” Anya exclaimed, covering her ears and turning away from Spike and Mr. Maclay.


 
Spike laughed…he hadn’t actually intended on pressing Anya’s buttons again, but he’d take that freebie.

“Well, you better get some carrot juice, Bugs … ‘cause she’s a demon – her mother was a demon and so is she. Her mother hid it well. I expect she’s done the same,” Tara’s father insisted.
 
“Bollocks!” Spike exclaimed, backing up from Mr. Maclay and turning back to Tara. Spike took Tara’s hand and pricked her index finger with his fang.
 
“OW!!” Tara exclaimed as blood began to flow from the end of her finger. Spike covered her wound with his mouth, pressing his tongue against it to stop the bleeding. After a few moments, he pulled off and looked at Mr. Maclay.
 
“Tasty,” Spike started. “AB positive – all human with a touch a’ nutmeg ‘n cinnamon. Just how much pumpkin pie did you eat yesterday, Glinda?” he asked with a smirk, turning back to Tara.
 
Tara blushed and ducked her head. “I was nervous … I eat when I’m nervous,” she explained. "Pumpkin is my favorite..."
 
Spike morphed back into his human face and moved dangerously close to Mr. Maclay again, putting one hand on the wall next to his head. “This is her family now. You need to go back to Podunk … crawl back in yer hole and forget ‘er. This is her home – she’s loved and she’s accepted – demons, witches, Slayers, humans, mangy cats. Only thing we don’t take in are bigots.”
 
“You’re all sick, twisted sons-of-bitches!” Tara’s father yelled as he slid to the side away from Spike and started towards the door. “Mark my words! You’ll burn in hell one day, young lady,” he called back, pointing an accusing finger at Tara. “You and your deviant, perverted, second-rate demon family – every last one of you!” he continued, waving his arm to encompass everyone in the room.
 
Mr. Maclay opened the door to the training room and stepped out into the great room where the wedding guests were milling around talking and waiting, unsure what to do.
 
“All of you, too!” he started screaming, waving his arms at the guests. “You’ll all burn! You’re all…”
 
Tara’s father was stopped short as Spike’s fist connected with his jaw and knocked him out cold. Spike caught the man before he hit the floor and hoisted him over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry.
 
“No worries,” Spike told the guests as he carried Tara’s father out. “Just a short intermission and the festivities will resume.”
 
Spike carried Mr. Maclay up the stairs to the street and located a pickup truck with a camper on the back with Alabama tags. As Spiked started to open the door to the camper to drop her father inside, it suddenly swung open and a younger man with a beard stepped out.


 
“What did you do to my dad? You’ll pay for this!” he started as he saw his father unconscious on Spike’s shoulder.
 
Spike grabbed Tara’s brother by the throat with one hand, still holding her father over one shoulder. “I’ll tell you like I told ‘im. If ya know what’s good for you, you’ll get the fuck out of my town and ya won’t come back. Glin…Tara’s stayin’ here. Forget ‘er.”
 
“Or what?” her brother choked out past Spike’s grip as he reached back behind him into the camper and pulled out a wooden baseball bat.
 
Spike dropped Tara’s father on the pavement and in one quick move yanked the bat out of her brother’s hands and brought it down against his own thigh with both hands, breaking it in half. Spike held the two halves up. “Or else this is you …”
 
Tara’s brother’s eyes got as big as saucers. He gulped and backed up away from Spike, feeling his way along the side of the truck, not taking his eyes off the blond. “Sure … yeah, whatever…” he stammered as he continued to back towards the driver’s side of the pickup truck.
 
“Tosser,” Spike muttered under his breath as he picked Mr. Maclay up off the pavement and shoved him unceremoniously into the back of the camper, slamming the door closed and kicking a deep dent in it just before his son put the truck in drive and took off.
 
**~**
 
When her father was out of the room with Spike trailing after him, Tara sank to her knees as tears rolled down her face. She could hear him still screaming horrible things at all their guests and friends out in the great room – then suddenly everything went quiet. She was too upset to even think what that might mean … she was so thankful that the obscenities and accusations had stopped.
 
Tara covered her face and sobbed as Willow knelt beside her and put her arm around her shoulders. “It’s ok, honey … shhhhhh. I think he’s gone,” Willow told her softly as Tara’s body shook with sobs.
 
“I’m so sorry … I never, I never thought he’d find me. I’ve ruined everything – God, Willow, I’m sorry,” Tara offered through her tears.
 
“What? You didn’t do anything, baby. That wasn’t you – that was him. You can’t control your family any more than I can control mine,” Willow advised her as she rubbed Tara’s shoulders with a strong hand.
 
 “I don’t know how he found me … how did he know? God, our wedding is ruined – our friends must think … I don’t even know what they must think … this is the worst day of my life,” Tara moaned as she looked up at Willow with a tear streaked face.
 
Willow shook her head slowly. “It’s the best day of my life …”
 
“How can you even say that?” Tara asked as tears continued to roll down her face.
 
Willow held her hand up that had her wedding band on it. “Because I married the love of my life today, my best friend has vowed to keep my heart safe forever and I’m a snowflake …”
 
“Oh, Willow … I love you so much,” Tara sobbed as she hugged Willow tightly.  Then her brows furrowed in confusion and she questioned, “You’re a snowflake?”
 
Willow laughed lightly and pulled back from the hug as she wiped the tears from Tara’s face with the pad of her thumb. “I’m exactly where I’m meant to be… with you and with our friends who understand us and stand up for us,” Willow explained, waving her arm back towards Buffy, Xander, and Anya.
 
“What do we do now?” Tara asked quietly, hanging her head and thinking of all the people waiting out in the other rooms.
 
“We get married …” Willow told her simply.
 
“But what must everyone think? God, this is a nightmare…” Tara moaned.
 
“Tara, I don’t care what any of those people think. There’re very few people whose opinions are important – and they’re all here in this room. Besides, if we give ‘em enough booze at the reception, no one will remember anyway…” Willow teased as she stood up and offered Tara her hand.
 
Tara laughed lightly, took a deep breath, and wiped the rest of her tears away before taking Willow’s hand and standing up. Willow took Tara into a hug. "I love you," Willow whispered to her.



"I love you so much, Willow," Tara whispered back.
 
“So, we doin’ this or what?” Spike asked, clapping his hands together and rubbing them enthusiastically as he re-entered the training room. “C’mon then … got a broom to jump out ‘ere.”


 
Tara and Willow laughed lightly and headed out of the training room. The crowds parted to allow the bridal party to make its way back to the altar where the Priestess had waited, as Buffy asked.
 
When everyone was back in their places, the Priestess began again, holding up the red ribbon, but skipping the part where she asked for objections.
 

As she began to wrap the ribbon around Tara and Willow’s joined hands, she spoke. “As this knot is tied, so are your lives now bound.


 
“Woven into this ribbon, imbued into its very fibers, are all the hopes of your loved ones and of yourselves, for your new life together. With the fashioning of this knot do I tie all the desires, dreams, love, and happiness wished here in this place to your lives for as long as the earth rotates around the sun.
 
“May this ribbon draw your hands together in love, never to be used in anger. May the vows you have spoken never grow bitter in your mouths.  May you give each other happiness, understanding, friendship, and love now and forevermore.
 
“In the joining of hands and the fashion of a knot, so are your lives now bound one to another. You are now joined in love. You may now seal your bond with a kiss,” the Priestess concluded.
 
Willow and Tara turned to face each other and kissed … tentatively at first, then with the passion and love that they felt for the other as the full moon above bathed them in a heavenly light, making them look like angels from heaven.  Their left hands, still joined by the ribbon, were trapped between their bodies, so they hugged the other tightly with their right hands as the kiss went on and their hearts soared into the clouds.




Everyone in the audience cheered and began throwing dried lavender blooms, which rained down on Willow and Tara in a fragrant shower of purple, bringing them back down to earth. As their kiss broke, the music that they’d walked down the aisle to began playing again and Buffy handed Annie the symbolic broom.


 
It was a small, straw broom decorated with the same dried flowers and herbs that Willow had in her hair. Annie stepped forward and laid the broom on the floor just behind Willow and Tara then stepped back next to Buffy.
 
Willow unwound the ribbon from their hands and draped it around Tara’s neck, then the newlyweds joined hands and jumped across the broom together before ducking quickly back down the aisle amid the storm of lavender and into the great room, followed by Spike, Buffy and Annie, Anya and Xander, and the rest of the guests that had been in the garden.

The food and drink for the reception was being set out by some of Lorne’s wait staff and chefs, who they’d hired for the occasion at a discount price. Their original plan had been to kiss at exactly midnight, but, as the saying goes, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” Apparently, that saying applied to women, too. No one seemed to mind the late hour (except for Annie) and the reception continued into the early morning hours without any further interruptions or tribulations.
 
Everyone enjoyed the food and drink and they danced in celebration of the life that Willow and Tara were starting together on this night. A life that would, no doubt, be filled with challenges – but just like their wedding day, they knew they could face and defeat any naysayer and meet any challenge with a brave heart and the help of their friends and adopted family.
 
**~**
 
About 2am, Spike found Annie curled up on a chair near the fire, fast asleep still in her flower girl dress. She’d tried so hard to stay up, resisted the urgings of Buffy and Tara to go to bed earlier, but ultimately even the excitement and music of the reception, and the promise of another dance with her father, couldn’t keep her awake.
 
Spike carried her upstairs to her room and laid her down gently on her bed. He pulled the flower wreath from her head and laid it on the nightstand and removed her shoes before he tucked her under her covers, still in her dress. Spike sat next to her for a long while and watched her sleep as he wondered who she would become.
 
The hurt in Tara’s eyes as her father raved and ridiculed her was forever burned into Spike’s mind. Certainly he and Buffy had dreams for Annie, but the only really important thing is that she be happy. He vowed then to not put her choices down – he never wanted to see that hurt in her eyes.
 
As a child, they’d raise her the best they could, teach her to think for herself, keep her safe, and make sure she knew she was always loved. As an adult, he’d give advice if she asked and try to steer her away from bad choices, but in the end, only she knew what made her happy and her happiness was the most important thing. He knew that it was the bit in between the child and the adult … too young to fully understand all the ramifications some decisions could have, and too old to willingly accept or ask for help from her parents, that would be the hardest years for all of them.
 
Spike dropped a kiss on her forehead, stood up, and turned to leave. “Good night, Niblett,” he whispered. “Sweet dreams.”
 
As Spike reached the door he heard her stir and turned around. “Papa?” she asked softly, her voice rough from sleep.
 
“Go back to sleep, Niblett,” he advised her as he took a step back towards her.
 
“Papa, what was wrong with that man?” Annie asked, looking at him with innocent eyes. “What’s an ‘ott’?”

Spike smiled softly and sat back down. “Where’d you hear that, pet?”

 

“You – I could hear you from the garden, even through the door. You said we didn’t take ‘big otts’ … what’s an ‘ott’?”
 
Spike chuckled lightly and brushed her hair back from her face with a gentle hand. “A bigot, pet … we don’t take bigots. It means someone who … someone who can’t accept other people for who they are.”
 
Annie furrowed her brow and considered that a moment. “He doesn’t like us…” she observed.
 
“No, well, I reckon the feeling was mutual,” Spike told her.
 
“But he’s Aunt Tara’s papa …” Annie pointed out.
 
“Yeah, well, not everyone’s lucky enough to have a cool father like you have, Niblett,” Spike told her with a smile.

“He’s like Mr. Anderson from T-ball …” Annie offered. “Did you beat the sh…. heck out of him?”

“Naaaaa …” Spike smiled at her near slip. “Just sent him on his merry way. I doubt we’ll see him again, pet.”


 
“Ok … good,” Annie sighed as her eyes started to flutter closed.
 
Spike stood back up as her eyelids closed and he started again for the door.
 
“And Miss Kitty’s not ‘mangy’,” Annie muttered, half asleep, defending her beloved, four-legged companion.
 
Spike laughed and looked down at the cat, curled up at the foot of Annie’s bed where it had slept since it was a kitten. “No, I reckon you’re right, pet…” he agreed as he slid out of the room and closed the door. “Not half as mangy as that bigot…”

Monday, November 29th, 2004:
 
After all the planning, work, and stress that had gone into Thanksgiving and Willow and Tara’s wedding over the last few weeks, Buffy and Spike took a day off just for themselves. Willow and Tara had gone on a weeklong honeymoon to Acapulco, which Spike and Buffy had given them as their wedding present, the witches would be back on Friday, and they hardly saw Lorne around the house anymore, he seemed to live at the Bronze … when he was home he was sleeping. So, they dropped Annie off at school and left the babies in the capable hands of Anya and Giles at the Magic Box and took off for a ride along the coast on the Harley. Giles said he’d pick Annie up after school, so they could have the whole day without any worries about what time they got back.
 
It seemed like forever since they’d gone for a ride on the Harley, and Buffy still loved how it felt to be holding onto Spike as they rumbled down the twisting, scenic road with the wind in their faces, the sun on their skin, and the fresh, salt air refreshing and energizing their souls.
 
It turned out to be a beautiful, warm day. Folks up north might call it an “Indian Summer” … in southern California, they just called it “fall”. Warm (but not too hot) during the day and cool at night. Buffy had packed them a picnic snack with some fresh, crusty French bread, grapes, cheese and a nice bottle of sparkling wine. They stopped at a ‘you pick’ strawberry field alongside the road and picked a few pints of the sweet, fresh berries to add to their picnic spread.
 
They found a scenic overlook that had a staircase that led down the cliff to a rocky beach, and spent two hours feeding each other sweet fruits and savory cheeses, drinking the sweet, bubbly wine, talking and laughing and enjoying the beautiful weather and each other’s company.


 
After they ate, Buffy dared Spike to catch her as she jumped from one large boulder to another with Spike on her heels – one wrong move would dunk either of them into the cold water below – but that was what made it fun. The one time Buffy nearly lost her balance and started to fall, Spike had been there and caught her hand, pulling her back up onto the boulder.
 
“I gotcha,” he breathed, as he pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her.


 
Buffy got her balance and set her feet underneath her again as she pressed against him and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Yes, you do,” she whispered to him as she pulled his head down to take his lips in a soft kiss. Just as Spike started to deepen the kiss, a particularly large wave came in and crashed against the nearby rocks, sending a geyser of cold water raining down on the lovers.
 
Buffy screeched when the cold water hit them and instinctively jumped back, which pulled them both off the boulder and down into the cold water below, which just made her screech louder. Spike, on the other hand, simply laughed … he was really glad he hadn’t worn his beloved duster today – just a white tank top and jeans … and they’d both kicked their shoes off long ago and left them by the blanket where they’d eaten lunch.
 
“What’s so funny!?” Buffy yelled at him as she shivered – her body covered in goose bumps as she tried to climb back up onto the rocks and out of the shallow, but freezing cold water.
 
“You … you scream like a little girl,” he informed her as he watched her tried to climb out of the waist deep water.
 
“I am a girl! Help me up!” she demanded as she continued reaching up, but the smooth rocks had no handhold to grab onto.
 
“What do I get if I do?” Spike asked with a smirk.
 
“Not beaten up …” Buffy countered as she tried jumping up, but another wave came and knocked her off balance and she ended up getting dunked under again.
 
“Uh-uh…need more than that, pet,” Spike laughed as he grabbed her arm and helped her get back to her feet.
 
“Aren’t you cold?” she asked, still shivering as she wrapped her arms around her body.
 
Spike shrugged – cold didn’t really bother him, it wasn’t like he had a body temperature to maintain.
 
“Well, I’m freezing …” she informed him, her teeth starting to chatter.
 
“Maybe I could … warm you up,” Spike suggested, wagging his eyebrows suggestively and raking his eyes down her body.


 
“Wellll…” Buffy drawled with a coy smile. “That might be acceptable…”
 
Spike went under the water and came up between Buffy’s legs, picking her up on his shoulders. When he was standing again, Buffy started climbing up onto the nearest boulder and Spike helped her get up on it by pressing up on her feet with his hands. When Buffy was up, she turned around, still laying on her stomach, and offered a hand to Spike. He leveraged one foot against the boulder at his back and pushed up as she pulled, until they were both lying on top of the smooth rock.
 
Spike stood up and gave her a hand up and then they both started making their way back to the small area of sand where their blanket was. Spike picked up some dry driftwood that had wedged between the rocks and brought it with them as they jumped from one rock to the next.
 
Back on the small beach that was wedged between the rocks and the cliff, Spike set all the driftwood in a pile and took some of the paper wrappers from their lunch, stuffed them under the wood and lit them with his lighter.
 
“Let’s have your clothes, then …” Spike said to Buffy when he had the fire going, pulling his own wet shirt off and starting to unfasten his jeans.
 
“What!? Here?” she asked, looking around nervously. It was still early afternoon – anyone could come down the staircase and see them.
 
“Unless you want to ride home on the bike in those wet clothes … C’mon, pet - I promised to warm you up,” he reminded her, holding his hand out for her clothes, “and you know I always keep my promises.”
 
“Yeah, but …” Buffy started to protest as Spike dropped his jeans and laid them and his shirt out flat on one of the boulders to dry.
 
Buffy watched him as he turned away from her, his bare back and ass damp from their unfortunate mishap, glistened in the sun. The hard muscles of his back and arms rippled and seemed to just beg to be touched as he reached out and spread his clothes out to dry in the sun on the smooth rock.
 
Buffy looked back up at the stairs … they’d been here for nearly three hours and hadn’t seen anyone yet, she reasoned, as she looked back at Spike. He was walking slowly towards her with that sexy swagger and smoldering look in his eyes that he knew she couldn’t resist. Droplets of water fell from his blond curls and sparkled like diamonds as they fell to his shoulders and rolled down his chest … down his hard abs and … oh, man.


 
“You gonna stand there n’ freeze or are ya gonna get outta them wet clothes, pet?” Spike asked in a deep voice as he came within arm’s reach of Buffy. He curled his tongue over his teeth and swept it slowly from left to right and Buffy thought she might melt into a puddle of goo right there on the beach.
 
Buffy’s eyes darted between the staircase and Spike’s eyes then back again. Oh, God, Buffy thought, looking back at Spike. The wind off the ocean was cutting through her wet clothes, what had felt refreshing earlier suddenly felt chilling against her wet skin and she shivered involuntarily. She wasn’t really sure if the shiver was from the cold or from the excitement building in her body as Spike moved closer to her … or a combination of the two.
 
Spike pulled the bottom of her t-shirt up and over her head and Buffy didn’t resist. The warm sun felt good on her skin, even though she was still wet. Spike wrung the shirt out and laid it atop another boulder nearby. Buffy wrapped her arms around her body and hopped up and down on her toes to try and get warm. When Spike got back, he unfastened her jeans and slid his hands under them, pushing them down her thighs and to the sand. The cold air on her wet skin sent more goose bumps racing over her body before the sun started to warm her lower body, as well.
 
Buffy kicked while Spike pulled the legs of her wet jeans until they were off, and he wrung them out and laid them out to dry with her shirt. Spike could see that Buffy was still cold, even with the wet clothes off, so he picked up the blanket they’d had on the ground and shook the sand off of it. He took her hand and led her near the fire he’d started, which was burning strongly now, and he wrapped the blanket around his back, then wrapped his arms and the blanket around her, holding her back to his chest as she faced the fire.
 


Buffy tugged the blanket closed around her body and pressed back against Spike with a moan. He’d warmed up some from the sun and was nearly dry already – the feel of his hard body against her back warmed her core just as surely as the fire he’d built warmed her skin.
 
Spike let go of the blanket since Buffy was now holding it, and ran his hands down her shoulders to her upper arms, then across her chest to unhook her bra from the front. He slid the straps down her arms and Buffy shrugged one arm then the other out of it, never completely letting go of the blanket that was wrapped around them. Spike pulled it out from under the blanket and tossed it with the other clothes up on a boulder to dry.
 
Spike dropped his lips to her neck and sucked softly at her skin as his hands roamed back around her, finding her hard nipples and circling them with silky touches of his fingers. Buffy moaned and tilted her head to the side, letting her wet hair fall away to give Spike better access to the damp skin of her neck. Spike sucked and licked and kissed her neck, running his mouth down from her ear to her shoulder and then back again, as if he were trying to lick off all the cold, salty water.
 
“So amazing you are, luv,” Spike murmured against her skin. “Taste like saltwater taffy, you do,” he told her and Buffy could feel a smile form on his lips as he continued his exploration of her neck with his mouth.


 
“Sweet, salty goodness?” she asked, her breathing beginning to get shallow as her body responded to his touches and the chill bumps on her skin stopped being about the cold.
 
“Mmmmm … a nummy treat,” he confirmed as he started pinching her hard nipples lightly with his fingers, causing Buffy to draw in a sharp breath and press her ass back against his hard cock.
 
“Hmmm…I think I’d like a taste of that,” Buffy breathed as she pressed the ends of the blanket she was holding into Spike’s hands and turned in his arms, dropping down to her knees in the sand in front of him.
 
Spike held the blanket tightly around them as Buffy took his cock in her hands and stroked gently up and down its hard length. When he felt her warm tongue lick the pre-cum from his cum slit, he moaned and his eyes fluttered closed. Buffy licked down the underside of his cock to his balls, taking each of his precious jewels into her mouth as she ran her tongue ‘round and ‘round them.
 
“Bloody hell,” Spike muttered as she sucked his balls into her mouth. He put both ends of the blanket into one hand as he lowered the other hand to tangle in her wet hair … he needed to touch her – he had to feel her in his hands.
 
Buffy slid her mouth back up Spike’s cock to the mushroom head and circled it with her tongue before dropping her mouth down on him quickly – taking his rod into her mouth with one hard stroke until his cock hit the back of her throat.
 
“Fuck!” Spike exclaimed as he tried to resist thrusting forward with his hips, but failed. Buffy grabbed the sides of his hips, her fingertips digging into his ass cheeks to control his movements as she sucked up and down his hard length. When Spike’s body tried to take control back from her, she dug in harder with her fingers and forced him to match her rhythm and depth.
 
Spike loved that she could control him – that she wasn’t afraid to take control and make his body do what she wanted it to do; no more and no less. It made him crazy with desire when her mouth slowed down and took only the head of his cock in and out of her heat, teasing him with her tongue and lips, not letting him press in further.
 
“Mmmmmm,” Buffy moaned as she held his hips perfectly still and began nibbling lightly with her teeth around the swollen head of his cock. “It does taste like saltwater taffy,” she confirmed with a grin. The fact that anyone could walk down the staircase at any moment and catch them had been completely driven from her mind, just like the cold had been driven from her limbs, by her body’s desire for Spike.
 
“God, Buffy … need you,” Spike moaned as he tried to push her head down further on his cock with the hand he had in her hair. Buffy pushed against him, still not allowing him control, and continued her slow exploration of his glans with her teeth, lips, and tongue.
 
She needed him, too. Her body was screaming at her to push him down and ride him like a stallion, but she so loved teasing him, making him crazy with desire, making him moan her name and plead for more. Maybe there was a little bit of a dominatrix deep down in her somewhere … maybe it was just Slayer.
 
Buffy released his cock completely and dropped a soft kiss on his left hip bone, just above where her right hand was still holding his hips still, then slid her mouth down below her hand and trailed her tongue down his thigh, leaving a trail of fire on his skin in its wake. Spike’s legs began to quiver as her tongue and lips licked and kissed the soft skin on his left thigh then moved over to do the same on his right. If she was trying to make him insane, it was working perfectly.
 
Spike felt like a Christmas cracker being pulled in two … her soft mouth and tongue on his skin in sharp contrast to her fingers digging into his flesh as she held his hips still. The two opposing factors would soon rip him apart with a loud ‘bang’, of that he had no doubt. He didn’t so much mind being ripped in two, but he definitely wanted to be buried inside her hot, wet quim when the ‘bang’ … uhh … came.
 


Buffy had pushed Spike to the limit and beyond. Spike growled deeply and dropped the blanket as he reached under her arms and pulled her up off the sand until her body was pressed against his and his lips were devouring hers. As the blanket fell away, the sun bathed them both in its warm rays and Spike wrapped his arms around Buffy, pulling her against him with all his strength, as if he could stop the world and melt into her right there.
 
Buffy moaned against his mouth, at first fighting with him for control of the kiss, then backing down and letting him take over. As much as she loved having the control, she also loved that he could take it away from her if she pushed him too far, made him too crazy, which she did every chance she got.
 
Spike lifted her feet up off the sand and carried her a few steps back and to one side of the fire until her back hit one of the large, smooth boulders that surrounded the small patch of sand, never breaking the kiss. Spike set her feet back down as he ran his hands down her body, hooked his thumbs under the sides of her thong and pressed it down her thighs.
 
Buffy broke the kiss to breathe and help him get her underwear off. She took over from him and pushed one side down her leg as she lifted her foot up and pulled it free of the lacy undergarment.

Spike thought she smelled heavenly before, but that was nothing compared to the sweet aroma of her desire that assaulted his senses when she raised her leg. As much as he wanted to be inside her, he just had to have a taste of her sweet nectar first.
 
Spike dropped down to his knees in front of her and lifted her leg back up, draping it over his shoulder as he spread her pussy lips with his fingers, revealing her hard clit and dripping quim to him.

Spike leaned in and touched her clit lightly with the tip of his tongue and Buffy’s knees nearly buckled. She leaned against the rock at her back as she put one hand on his shoulder to steady herself.
 
“God, Spike…” she moaned as he ran his tongue around her clit, teasing her as she’d done him.
 
Her pussy juice tasted sweeter to him than anything he’d ever known … perhaps even sweeter than her blood at that moment. He slid his tongue up and down her pink slit, from her clit to her throbbing hole and back again, teasing and tasting her as she moaned in ecstasy.
 
“Yes, baby … God, Spike – make me cum, baby … God, need to cum,” Buffy begged him. He wanted terribly to tease her within an inch of insanity as she’d done him … but the sound of her pleas, the way she moaned his name and writhed under his touch broke his resolve instantly.
 
Spike sucked her clit between his lips and nibbled on it with his teeth and Buffy’s hips jerked against his face. Spike began flicking his tongue rapidly against her sensitive nub as he pressed his thumb into her aching hole.
 
“Oh, Spike! Fuck, yes!” Buffy screamed as he began pushing in and out with his thumb while his index finger found her ass and teased against her puckered hole.
 
“Do it! God, Spike - yes, give it to me!” Buffy demanded and Spike sucked hard against her clit as he pushed his finger in her ass and his thumb into her pussy.
 
“Aaaahhh …Fuck! Yessss!” Buffy screamed as Spike entered her tight hole with his finger and pressed back with is thumb, nearly touching them together through her pussy walls, causing the most exquisite sensation to explode through her as he continued to suck feverishly on her clit.
 
Buffy’s pussy and ass both tightened and quivered around Spike’s fingers as she came. Her cum coated his hand and ran down her thigh as her hips bucked against him and she fought to remain upright.
 
When Spike felt her begin to relax again, he pulled out of her tight holes and stood up, placing the one leg that had been over his shoulder around his waist to open her quim to him. Buffy wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled his lips down to hers as she pulled his body against hers with her leg. She could taste her cum on his mouth and that just made her want his cock inside her even more.
 
“Fuck me … Fuck me hard, Spike,” she moaned against his lips. Spike smirked…that had been his plan, but to hear her begging him for it just made him want her more.
 
Spike bent his knees and tilted his hips as he guided his cock up into her heat, pressing in slowly then grinding his hips in a slow circle so his pubic bone churned against her clit. Buffy leaned backwards, her back arching as she pressed her hips against him and tightened the leg around his waist until her heel was digging into his ass cheek.
 
Spike continued to swivel his hips in firm, slow circles against her as he leaned down and sucked one hard nipple into his mouth. Buffy tangled her hands in his wet curls, pulling his mouth down against her breast even harder as she moaned in pleasure. Having Spike inside her always made her feel like she was floating on air and today was no exception. She’d stopped feeling cold long ago, and now the heat of the sun tingled on her skin as a thin sheen of perspiration took the place of the cold salt water that had been there before.
 
Spike’s hands roamed over her body – her soft skin, her firm muscles felt so good under his palms. His hands slid over her rib cage then to the swell of her supple breasts. He cupped them in his hands, squeezing lightly as he trailed his mouth up to her neck and nibbled at her shoulder with his blunt teeth.
 
“God, Spike … please,” Buffy begged him again as he continued his slow rhythm with his hips.
 
Buffy felt like heaven to him – his cock buried in her wet heat, her body pressed against his, her soft skin and full breasts under his hands, her salty skin against his lips – there couldn’t have possibly been anything better in the entire world than this. Spike began pulling in and out of her tight hole, slowly at first then building faster and harder as his control waned again and his body demanded more.
 


Buffy screamed at him to give her more, harder, faster as her own control floated away on the waves. She wanted to feel his cock slamming into her, feel it surge and pulse as his cum erupted up from his balls and flowed into her – filling her with his sweet nectar. She wanted to feel that explosion that starts in her core and spreads out over her whole body like ripples in a pond – she wanted to dance in heaven with her husband and float happily back to earth in his arms.
 
Spike couldn’t get any more leverage standing up in this position … and her demands for more, along with his own need to be buried deeper in her heat, forced him to change their position. He reluctantly pulled out of her, but before Buffy could even protest, his hands were on her hips, turning her around. Buffy understood instantly and spread her legs wider as she bent forward against the rock that a moment before she’d been leaning her back against.

Spike slid his wet cock down the crack of her ass, pausing momentarily at her puckered hole. Buffy moaned and pressed back against him, taking just the head of his cock into her tight ass. “Oh God,” she murmured as her back arched and she shivered in anticipation and excitement.
 
Spike moved his hips ever so slightly, just enough to fuck her ass with the head of his cock, popping it in and out of the tight ring of muscles there. He reached one hand around her and found her clit and pressed down hard. Buffy gasped and her body jerked like she’d been shot when he touched the bundle of nerves – his fingers sending bullets of fire down her legs and up her body.
 
Spike kept his shallow rhythm in her ass going as he fingered her clit. He could feel her climax building … feel her body tense and her muscles contract as she soared higher and higher. He loved making her cum … she was so primal, so passionate, so fiery – he never tired of hearing her scream in pleasure and knowing that he brought her there.


 
Buffy held onto the boulder in front of her with all her strength as she felt the tidal wave of bliss growing and expanding within her. Spike’s cock sliding in and out of her puckered hole and his fingers on her clit and pussy were combining to send her soaring, gliding across the ocean atop the wave of the pleasure within her.
 
As the blissful wave crashed down over her, Buffy’s body convulsed and trembled, her back arched and that primal scream that Spike loved so much escaped her throat. She had no control over it … to control it meant controlling her body and that would be like trying to harness the oceans, stop the tides, keep the earth from rotating – it was impossible.
 
Buffy felt as if she was gliding effortlessly across the water, like a hovercraft racing over the waves, as her orgasm reverberated through her body. It seemed to bounce off her bones and skin and muscles and collide back upon itself, propelling her faster and higher…raising the tidal wave within her to seismic proportions.


 
Spike stilled his hips as her muscles contracted around him so tightly that it was actually painful. He pressed down hard on her clit when the scream escaped her throat and Buffy bucked her ass against him as her back arched, her head tilted back, and her hair fell like a golden waterfall across her back. When Buffy’s legs began to quiver and tremble under her, Spike grabbed her hips and supported her weight as she soared and glided and surfed across the waves of pleasure.
 
When Spike felt her coming back down and her body finally began to relax again, he pulled out of her ass and almost immediately slammed his cock into her dripping pussy.
 
“Oh God yes! Spike, yes!” Buffy screamed as the new sensation thrust her body back up atop the wave of pleasure that she’d been riding.
 
Spike pulled her hips back against him as he drove his cock into her, flesh slapping against flesh, his hard cock being engulfed by her strong, supple pussy walls.
 
“Oh God, Buffy … so hot, so tight! God, woman! Bloody Christ!” Spike exclaimed as he thrust into her heat. She felt exquisite, her body responded to him like a fine instrument – tuned exactly to the key of ‘Spike’. He’d never known anyone so perfectly matched to him before, so perfectly in tune with his own desires and needs. Maybe it was the bond, maybe it was because of how much they loved each other, or because she was the Slayer and he a vampire. Whatever it was, it was perfect, she was perfect; they were made for each other, he was sure of it.


 
Spike sent Buffy sailing across the ocean again – rocketing even faster than before. She could almost feel the wind in her face as she glided along, rising higher and higher with the building wave of ecstasy within her body. Spike’s cock pistoned into her, stretching her, filling her, playing her body like a Stradivarius that had been custom made just for him. There were places within her that only he could touch, places that only he knew about, only he could fathom – not just physical places, but spiritual ones, visceral ones, and he knew them all.
 
“Cum for me, Buffy…scream for me,” Spike demanded as he continued to lift her higher and higher. He sent her riding the crest of that wave until she was so high she couldn’t even see the ocean below her any longer. As the wave broke and came crashing down within her again, Buffy’s mind let go and her body took control. The scream that Spike demanded came from her beautiful lips as her body quaked and shuddered and convulsed under him.


 
Buffy’s scream slashed through the last shred of control Spike had and he thrust into her one last time as his balls tightened and his cum shot into her quivering pussy. Suddenly, he was caught in that tidal wave with Buffy as it crashed over him and tumbled them both down into the deepest depths of the ocean.

Buffy took Spike’s hand as they swam effortlessly, twirling in slow circles then gliding side by side through the warm, crystal clear water. Spike took Buffy in his arms as they drifted slowly back towards the surface. It was a dreamy, underwater dance; they spun in leisurely circles in each other’s arms as they ascended from the deepest depths of their souls and back to their bodies.
 
Buffy gasped for air, feeling as if she had actually been underwater, as she came back from the blissful ride that Spike had taken her on. Suddenly, her knees wobbled and gave out. Spike had been struggling to remain standing himself and when she went down, he tumbled down with her – both of them landing like a tangle of wet noodles on the sand.
 
Spike pulled her against him, her back to his chest, wrapped a strong arm around her body as he kissed her neck and shoulder. Buffy wrapped her arm over his and snuggled back against him as a low, satisfied purr came from her throat.
 
“So primal, so passionate … You are amazing, luv,” Spike whispered to her.


“You aren’t so bad yourself…” Buffy murmured, closing her eyes and just letting the sensation of his body against her back, his strong arm across her middle, and the sun warming her front engulf her.
 
“Did you get…warmed up?” Spike asked with a smirk as he traced a line from her ear to her shoulder with his tongue.
 
“Mmmmm,” Buffy moaned, wriggling her ass back against him. “Ya know, there might be one or two spots that are still cold … you may have to just start over …”
 
“Are there, now? Well, we can’t have that,” Spike agreed.
 
“Not worried ‘bout Peepin’ Toms anymore?” he asked, looking up at that staircase that led to the scenic overlook above them.
 
Buffy shrugged. “It is California … they’ve probably seen worse on Saturday night at Hollywood and Vine…probably wouldn't even notice us ...”
 
**~**
 
It was late when Spike and Buffy got back to Sunnydale. Anya had taken Annie, Dani, and Billy home with her and, after some discussion on the cell phone, they decided that Buffy could just pick Annie up in the morning and take her to school from there and Anya would bring the babies back to the Magic Box with her and JJ when she went to work and Buffy could pick them up after she dropped Annie off.
 
Even though Buffy and Spike missed seeing the kids, they were both happily exhausted from their “day off” and appreciated Anya and Xander letting all the kids stay at their house for the night. Xander loved having more kids in the house and hoped that Anya might change her mind about having another baby … but so far having sleepovers with Buffy and Spike’s kids was as far as that mission had gotten. However, Anya had informed Xander that if he would pull his bottom lip up over the top of his head and hold it there for about four hours, then she would think about it… so far, Xander had opted to not try that approach.
 
Spike and Buffy were still talking and laughing as they walked in from the garage when Buffy suddenly stopped. “Angel,” she announced as she felt the familiar tingle down her spine.
 
Spike rolled his eyes. “Bloody hell,” he muttered tiredly; it had been a perfect day … up until Buffy uttered that one word. “Haven’t we disinvited the wanker yet?”
 
“I don’t think we can, Spike. You’re a vampire, therefore, this is, technically, a vampire lair – vampire’s can’t disinvite other vampires,” Buffy explained to him.
 
“I don’t know why the bloody hell not … That doesn’t seem right. Are you sure?”
 
“Totally,” Buffy sighed, rolling her eyes as she started walking again.
 
“I’ll have to bring that up at the next BASVA meetin’,” Spike muttered to himself.
 
“The what?” Buffy asked, stopping again and looking at him.
 
“The BASVA …” Spike told her as if she should know what that meant.
 


Buffy raised her brows, shrugged, and shook her head, silently asking him to explain further.
 
Spike rolled his eyes and sighed. “The British-American Souled Vampire Association.”
 
“Oh, of course… ‘basva’, of which you are a member,” Buffy concluded sarcastically.
 
“President,” Spike announced with a smirk as he started walking again. Buffy rolled her eyes as she followed him.
 
Buffy and Spike walked into the great room to find Angel sitting at the research table flipping through one of the books as he waited for them to return.
 
“Don’t people in L.A. own bloody telephones?” Spike asked as he and Buffy walked up to the research table.
 
“Spike … love the new ‘do…the curls are just adorable,” Angel retorted sarcastically, closing the book on the table.
 
“Sod off,” Spike shot back, running a hand back through his hair. He’d forgotten about his hair being ‘au naturel’ after their day at the beach.


 
“Nice to see you looking so… tan and freckly,” Angel remarked as he stood up and moved around the table towards Spike and Buffy. “And without the ring …” Angel continued with a furrowed brow, looking at Spike’s hands.
 
Spike smirked. “Don’t need the bloody ring, wanker – got the Shanshu in the other dimension,” Spike told him.
 
Angel narrowed his eyes at Spike. “Really? Then why do I only hear one heartbeat?”
 
“Because you’re bloody deaf, old man. Probably got swimmer’s ear from all that time you spent communin’ with the fish,” Spike suggested, putting his hands on his hips and glaring at Angel. “I think they got some drops for that now - maybe you should go check it out, Aquaman.”
 
Angel sighed and rolled his eyes. He reminded himself that he hadn’t come here to argue with Spike … although it was like a magnet – some invisible force that just drew them into squabbles, it seemed like it had always been that way – oil and water.
 
“Right, that must be it,” Angel acquiesced and Spike looked at him suspiciously. That was too easy…
 
“Hi, Buffy,” Angel forced a smile as he turned his attention to her.
 
“Angel. How are you?” Buffy asked, thankful the argument over the ring had ended without a brawl.
 
“Good … well, pretty good, considering,” Angel started.
 
“Vision Girl kicked your sorry ass out!” Spike accused. “You ain’t staying here, no bloody way.”


 
“Spike,” Angel breathed as if speaking to an insolent child. “Cordy did not kick me out … in fact, we’re engaged – we’re getting married.”
 
“Oh, Angel, that’s great news!” Buffy beamed as she stepped forward and gave Angel a hug. “Congratulations! When’s the big day?”
 
“Thanks … well, that’s what I wanted to talk to you…to both of you, about,” Angel stammered slightly. He really would’ve preferred to just talk to Buffy, but…
 
“No – you ain’t having the bloody wedding in our garden!” Spike started. “Got yer own garden at that flea-bag hotel … you can have it there.”
 
“Spike, would you shut up for once in your life and just listen?” Angel reprimanded him, his agitation growing again – this really wasn’t quite going as he had hoped.
 
Spike folded his arms across his chest and glared at Angel. He looked at the weapons chest at the end of the table … locked. Damn it! Any other time he’d have a stake in the waistband of his jeans… then he remembered the promise he’d made to Buffy.
 
Bloody hell, can’t stake the wanker … I wonder if I just poked one eye out if that would be breakin’ my promise… Spike mused silently as he continued to glare at his grand-sire.
 
“What’s going on, Angel?” Buffy asked, moving slightly in front of Spike to put herself between him and Angel. She wasn’t so sure that Spike’s promise to not stake Angel was one that he could actually keep…
 
“Well, the thing is … I’d like to give Cordy a nice wedding – not, you know, Robin Leach worthy, but, nice,” Angel started.
 
“And you need money…” Buffy guessed, based on what Cordy had told them the last time she was there.
 



“No! No … nothing like that – I had some stashed away, kind of off the books, enough to get things fixed, get the past due bills paid, and get us a little start until I can get the agency running again,” Angel clarified immediately. In fact, he still had the money that he’d hidden in the hotel in the early ‘50s – money that had been stolen from the City Trust Bank of Salina, Kansas by another guest at the hotel at that time.
 
“Then … what do you need?” Buffy asked, confused.
 
“Guests…” Angel said simply.
 
“You’re inviting us to your bloody wedding?” Spike asked, incredulous.
 
“Yeah … you, Giles, Willow – all the Scoobies, actually, and anyone else you can think of that knows Cordy. I want it to be a big gathering for her,” Angel explained as he handed Buffy several envelopes containing formal invitations.
 
“I know that it’s short notice … she wants to get married the Saturday before Christmas, but I really hope you can come,” Angel told Buffy sincerely. "So does Cordy."
 
“You just want more bloody gifts …” Spike accused, looking over Buffy’s shoulder as she opened one of the invitations.
 
Angel folded his arms over his chest and glared at Spike, suddenly regretting his decision to not bring a stake with him. Of course, if Spike had the ring on him somewhere, a stake wouldn’t do any good … Where the hell is the ring, anyway? Angel wondered as he looked Spike up and down.
 
“You needin’ something other than guests, pet? Vision Girl not taking care a' things? ‘Cause the way you’re looking at me, makes a bloke wonder …” Spike pointed out with a smirk.
 
Angel rolled his eyes and let out a long sigh. “Spike, have I told you lately how much you annoy me?”

 

Spike smirked. “No, but thanks … can’t hear compliments like that often enough.”
 
“We’ll be there,” Buffy interjected before Angel could respond. “Can the kids come?”
 
“Sure – I’d love to see them. I know Cordy would, too,” Angel confirmed, turning his attention back to Buffy and away from Spike.
 
“Don’t we have a thing that day?” Spike asked, nudging Buffy in the ribs from behind.
 
“Noooo, we do not have a thing that day, Spike,” Buffy said slowly, turning her head around, meeting his eyes with hers and giving him a look that made it clear that any further discussion should be shelved, at least for now.
 
Spike rolled his eyes and sighed.
 
“Great!” Angel exclaimed enthusiastically. “Just hand those out to anyone you can think of from high school that Cordy knew – I really want it to be a big party for her.

"I'll try to find Harm - she mighta survived the soldier boys...I'm sure she'd love to see..." Spike started and Buffy elbowed him in the ribs.

"I'll take care of it,"  Buffy assured Angel with a forced smile.

"Is Lorne around? I’d like to invite him myself …” Angel asked Buffy.
 
“He’ll be at work at the Bronze until after two – I’m sure you can find him there,” Buffy told Angel. “I’m know he’d love to see you … but I’m not sure how hep he’ll be about coming to the wedding. Cordy and Gunn were pretty crappy to him while you were… umm...gone.”
 
“I know,” Angel agreed. “Cordy told me about it. I’ll talk to him and see … it’d be great to see him, either way.”
 
“Well, better get to it. Ta ever so for stoppin’ by – try the phone next time – gets better gas mileage,” Spike advised as he ushered Angel towards the door.
 
“See you on the eighteenth,” Buffy called after Angel as Spike closed the door behind his grand-sire.
 
“You didn’t have to be so rude,” Buffy chastised him as they both started up the stairs.
 
“I wasn’t rude … he’s not a pile a’ dust, is he? Still had both eyes, all four limbs and his entrails when he left. I think I was quite civil and displayed a great measure of self control,” Spike retorted with a smirk.
 
“You didn’t even ask him to join your club…” Buffy pointed out.
 
“My club?”
 
“Yeah, the British-American Souled Vampire Association. I’m sure he would’ve jumped at the chance…” Buffy quipped.
 
“He don’t qualify …” Spike pointed out.
 
“Why not? He’s a vampire. He has a soul. He’s British …”
 
“Pleease! Not British! Irish!” Spike clarified.
 
“And the big difference is...?” Buffy questioned as they reached their bedroom and headed in.
 
“First of all, football isn’t the national sport,” Spike informed her with a smirk.
 
Buffy just laughed and shook her head. Apparently, the BASVA was destined to have just one member.

**~**

{{Click here to hear ‘I Melt With You’ by Modern English on YouTube }}

I Melt With You – Modern English


Moving forward using all my breath
Making love to you was never second best
I saw the world thrashing all around your face
Never really knowing it was always mesh and lace

I'll stop the world and melt with you
You've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time
There's nothing you and I won't do
I'll stop the world and melt with you
(You should know better)
Dream of better lives the kind which never hate
(You should see why)
Dropped in the state of imaginary grace
(You should know better)
I made a pilgrimage to save this humans race
(You should see why)
What I'm comprehending a race that long gone by
(I'll stop the world)
I'll stop the world and melt with you
(I'll stop the world)
You've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time
(Let's stop the world)
There's nothing you and I won't do
(Let's stop the world)
I'll stop the world and melt with you

The future's open wide

(Let's stop the world)
I'll stop the world and melt with you
(Let's stop the world)
I've seen some changes but it's getting better all the time
(Let's stop the world)
There's nothing you and I won't do
(Let's stop the world)
I'll stop the world and melt with you

The future's open wide

hmmm hmmm hmmm
hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmm
hmmm hmmm hmmm
hmmm hmmm hmmm hmmm

I'll stop the world and melt with you
(Let's stop the world)
You've seen the difference and it's getting better all the time
(Let's stop the world)
There's nothing you and I won't do
(Let's stop the world)
I'll stop the world and melt with you
(Let's stop the world)
I'll stop the world and melt with you
(Let's stop the world)
I'll stop the world and melt with you
(Let's stop the world)

Wednesday, December 15th, 2004:

“Ok,” Buffy started, kneeling in the center of the group and drawing out her strategy in the sand at their feet. “As soon as the portals open and we get in, Willow and Tara will go to the left … get as far away from ground zero as possible and create a diversion.


“Spike, you go to the left with them, but then turn and make your way down one of the side passages; I’ll go right and do the same. We need to do this without magic … and no fists or fangs – be we need to get it done, this will be our one and only chance … get in, grab the bounty, and get out fast,” Buffy concluded, standing up. “Everyone know what to do once we get in?”


“Yer talking like we’re going to another bloody dimension, Slayer … it’s just a Toys “R” Us for Christ sakes …” Spike pointed out.


“You’ve never been to a Toys “R” Us in December on the day of the last shipment of Elmo dolls – it is another dimension!” Buffy contended as she checked her watch. 4:45am … the doors were supposed to open at 5:00am … “Ok, positions everyone…”


Spike rolled his eyes, they had been trying to get this Elmo doll for Annie for three weeks, since the Saturday after Thanksgiving … but every store was sold out as soon as the toys came in. The stores had announced that this would be the last shipment of them before Christmas and Annie had her heart set on one.


Spike had suggested they just break in before the store opened and get one – they could leave the money for it even, but Buffy vetoed that. “We’d be cute spending Christmas in jail for breaking and entering! That would be a nice memory for our daughter!”


Then Spike suggested that Willow could just freeze all the other customers … but Willow refused saying that wouldn’t be for the ‘greater good’ and could have serious repercussions later.


So, they were stuck doing it the hard way – with a game plan worthy of the invasion of Normandy – except they were battling other mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles … and their goal was a red, cartoon creature that laughed and talked. Their mission was slightly less notable in the annals of history … but apparently nearly as dangerous. More than one person had been taken to the hospital from injuries sustained in “toy stampedes”.


“Ok, we can do this! We just need one …. just one! You guys know what to do! Let’s get in there and get that irritating, fluffy, red laughing monster!” Buffy encouraged them as they moved forward towards the doors which would be opened shortly.


“We few, we happy few, we band of buggered…” Spike muttered as he took his place in the crowd waiting to get in the door. Spike kept edging forward through the throng, turning sideways and sliding between the other mothers and fathers who were pressed as one against the locked doors of the toy store. When one woman tried to block him from moving past her, he reached around to the side opposite him and pinched her ass – when she jumped and looked accusingly at the man on the other side, Spike slipped ahead with a smirk.


Buffy was making her way up through the crowd, too, but hadn’t made it as far up as Spike when the doors suddenly swung open and the whole swarm of people pushed into the store like locusts in a cornfield. Everyone took off running down different aisles, heading towards the center of the store where the toys were supposed to be.


Spike passed the other parents, dodging and hurtling toy displays as he easily outran the other combatants. When he got to the display in the center of the store where all the Elmo dolls were waiting, he grabbed two of them easily. “Child’s play … like another dimension my soddin’ ass…” he smirked as he turned around to start back to the cash registers.





He no sooner got turned around that he was ambushed by the mob that he’d outrun a moment ago. The stampede of desperate parents knocked him down and suddenly one of the Elmos was gone out of his hand and the other was being pulled away. He grabbed onto it with both hands as he wrestled on the floor with three women who were trying to take it away from him.


“Oi! Get yer own … this one’s mine, you barmy birds!” Spike yelled at them, but they paid him no heed as they all fought to get the toy away from him. Within moments, the box was torn to pieces and Spike was wrestling just to keep the doll itself.



Then he heard someone yell, “There’s more! More Elmos over here!” He recognized the voice immediately as being Tara’s … that was apparently the distraction Buffy had talked about. Two of the three women he was wrestling with jumped up and ran towards Tara’s voice … along with about half the people that were still fighting to get one of the dolls and get out of the melee with their coveted prize.


Spike growled dangerously at the last woman as he tugged harder on the fluffy, red doll – but she growled back just as dangerously as she tugged against him. Who knew a mother in search of a Christmas gift could get such superhuman strength? He’d heard of mothers lifting cars off their children – powered by fear and adrenaline … who know that a battle for Christmas toys could have the same effect?


Finally, Spike got back to his feet and yanked on the toy with all his strength, but when he did that, the toy ripped in half – sending white, fluffy viscera into the air all around him and his opponent. “Bloody hell…” Spike muttered as he turned around with his half of Elmo to see if he could get another one – but they were all gone. Not one box, not one toy remained. “Bugger …”


Spike looked around for Buffy, but didn’t see her, so he started back towards the door with the other defeated parents, trying to think of reasons that Santa couldn’t get his daughter the one thing she had told him she, “really, really wanted most of all” when Buffy had taken her to the mall for the obligatory “sit on Santa’s knee” trip.


Spike was soon joined by Tara and Willow as he walked back towards the car. “Did you get one?” Willow asked expectantly – surely Spike would’ve gotten one with his vampire speed and strength. Spike held up the half of Elmo that he had won and rolled his eyes. Willow and Tara both frowned at the decapitated doll.


“What happened?” Tara asked, taking the ripped doll from Spike’s hand.


“Bloody women attacked me … sixpence short of a shilling, they are!”


“You let some mothers beat you? How many?” Willow asked with a barely contained smile.


“Dozens of the barmy bitches …” Spike defended. “Buffy said no fists or fangs… I was at a disadvantage,” he continued as they reached the DeSoto.


Buffy was leaning against it waiting for them with a shopping bag in her hand. “What took you so long?” she asked with a smirk as she saw the decapitated Elmo in Tara’s hand.


“Spike let a girl beat him…” Willow explained.


“Pffffttt! Not a girl! Dozens of Mum-monsters! Attacked me, they did … I didn’t wanna hurt them …” he began. “Hey! You got one!” he exclaimed gleefully, finally seeing the bag in Buffy’s hand.


“I did … I told you before we went in to get in and get out fast … but you couldn’t listen. You just had to stand there and gloat!” Buffy laughed as she climbed into the passenger seat.


“Wasn’t gloatin’ … just, well, it seemed unfair for me to use my speed to get an advantage over the gits … so I was giving them a fair chance…” Spike defended.


“Oh, of course … I should’ve known. You’re known for your lack of gloatiness and not using every trick in the book to get an advantage…” Buffy laughed as Spike slid into the driver’s seat and Willow and Tara climbed in the back.


Spike snorted softly and rolled his eyes. He’d be more prepared next time … it really was another dimension through the Toys “R” Us portal.


**~**

Saturday, December 18th, 2004:




Buffy, Spike, Willow, and Tara, along with Annie and the twins entered the lobby of the Hyperion from the underground parking garage around 1:30 in the afternoon. Angel and Cordelia’s wedding was set to begin at 2:00.


Xander begged out, saying he had to stay home with JJ since Anya and Giles didn’t want to miss another day of sales at the Magic Box before Christmas. Even Spike threatening to tell Anya his stamina wasn’t from the ‘wings and beer’ diet wouldn’t persuade Xander to come with them, which disappointed Spike. Above all else, a loathing of Angel was something he and Xander had always had in common and Spike was looking forward to some help double-teaming the poofter. If he couldn’t dust the wanker, he could at least annoy the hell out of him…


Faith and Wesley had also abstained from the festivities for obvious reasons … although Wesley asked Buffy to ‘say hi’ to Fred for him.


The parking garage was nearly full when they arrived and the lobby of the hotel reflected it – there had to be a hundred or more people packed into the lobby and another fifty or more of A.I.’s demon friends and associates were up on the balcony on the second floor. If Angel had wanted a big party for Cordy, he had succeeded.


Buffy and Willow took the twins, along with Annie, over to the table piled high with gifts and added theirs to the stack while Spike and Tara went in search of alcohol. Spike figured he needed to drink at least $300 worth to break even today, counting the gifts and the gas to drive up to L.A. and back to Sunnydale. He might need to nick a couple of bottles of Johnny Walker Blue Label just to be sure…


The lobby of the Hyperion was decked out to the nines for Christmas. There was a large Christmas tree in one corner decorated in all rich jewel tones. It wasn’t a traditionally decorated tree, but instead had a peacock theme … and the rich teal of the peacock feathers blended perfectly with the deep reds, greens, and purples of the ornaments and lights. There were large glass ornaments in the same colors hanging down at different levels from the ceiling of the lobby and all the handrails on the staircase and second floor balcony were draped in fir garland that was decorated with small twinkling lights in the same rich colors and had more of the peacock feathers interspersed throughout and shiny, purple tinsel woven in, too.


“Wanker musta killed a whole bloody flock a’ peacocks to get all these feathers …” Spike commented dryly when Buffy and Willow rejoined him and Tara.


“Peacocks molt every year, Spike …you don’t have to kill them to get the feathers,” Willow informed him as she took her drink from Tara’s hand.


“Pfffft,” Spike snorted. “Bet the ponce didn’t know that…”


“Spike, please try to be nice,” Buffy admonished him as she took a sip of the drink he had gotten her. “I think it looks lovely – very rich and elegant – very Cordy.”





“Yeah, if you like dead poultry…” Spike muttered under his breath before he downed his drink and headed back for another.





Buffy sighed and shook her head as she looked around the lobby. There were a lot of people from Sunnydale there … more than she thought would come after all the time Cordy had been gone – especially considering what a stuck-up bitch she’d been in high school. Buffy guessed the promise of free food, free booze, and a free room for the night drew more people than might’ve normally attended.


Buffy, Tara, and Willow took the kids and found some seats at the back near the door – just in case the babies started crying, Buffy wanted to be able to duck out quickly. The lobby was set up with rows of white folding chairs arranged in a large circle, all facing the middle where the ceremony itself would take place, like a theatre ‘in the round’.


As they took their seats, a harpist up on the second floor balcony began playing Pachelbel's Canon in D and all the other guests that were milling around found seats or stood lining the walls of the lobby.

{{ Click here to hear Cordy's wedding music YouTube

It is a compilation of all the music for the wedding. It's about seven minutes long. You can watch and listen, or just play it as background and keep reading.
Pachelbel's Canon in D
Bach's Sheep Safely Graze
Wagner's Here Comes the Bride (Lohengrin's Bridal Chorus)
Mendelssohn's Wedding March}}




Spike slid in next to Buffy, another drink in his hand as everyone took their seats. Angel, along with his best men, Charles Gunn and Lorne, and the Justice of the Peace took their places in the center of the room to await the bride.




The harpist started new music and everyone quieted as all eyes turned towards the stairs. Fred, dressed in a simple but elegant, off one shoulder black gown, began to slowly descend down into the lobby. She held a bouquet of shiny Christmas ornaments in the same rich purple that adorned the rest of the lobby in her hands as she made her way gracefully down the stairs and up the aisle to the altar at the center of the room.




When the harpist paused then began playing ‘Here Comes the Bride’, all the guests stood and all eyes turned back to the top of the stairs. Annie reached up at Spike for him to pick her up – she couldn’t see over the other people in front of them, and he picked her up and held her against his hip with one strong arm under her bottom.




Cordy was a vision in an antique-white dress with sparkly white snowflake designs embroidered on the tight bodice and on the lace which covered the lower part of the dress where it flared out about mid-thigh. The long train of the dress trailed behind her as she stepped slowly down the stairs.


Annie thought Cordy looked like Cinderella at the ball. Most of Cordy’s long, dark hair was twisted atop her head with just enough falling down her bare back added a graceful elegance to her movements. She held a bouquet of multicolored, jewel-toned Christmas ornaments in her hands, which were a sharp contrast to the white of her dress but matched the rest of the lobby perfectly.





Annie envied the rest of her family with their blonde hair, in fact she kind of felt like the odd man out sometimes with her dark curls. But seeing Cordy look so beautiful with her chestnut mane made Annie feel special … like she had something the rest of her family didn’t; something beautiful and unique to her. Annie watched in awe as Cordy made her way gracefully down the stairs.


Annie leaned next to Spike’s ear and whispered, “She’s bee-uutiful,” exaggerating the word to match how beautiful she thought Cordy looked.


Spike smiled and met Annie’s eyes before he leaned back against her ear. “No more than you, Niblett. You’ll be a lovely bride one day. A raven beauty, you are,” he whispered back to her, brushing a wisp of her dark hair back from her face.


Spike dreaded the day Annie would walk down the aisle and become someone’s wife – no longer his little girl. In his heart, she’d always be his little girl, no matter how old she got. He knew that would be one of the happiest and saddest days of his life – happy for his daughter to have found someone worthy of her love, but so sad to lose her, to let her go – to let her fly on her own.


Buffy turned back and met Spike’s eyes and gave him a small smile. She had been thinking pretty much the same thing about Annie. She took Spike’s free hand in hers and gave it a light squeeze before turning her eyes back to Cordelia who had made it to the bottom of the stairs and was starting up the aisle towards Angel.


Buffy’s eyes moved ahead and settled on Angel. His eyes were glued to Cordy and Buffy saw the same look of awe and love in his eyes as she had seen in Spike’s on their wedding day, which gave Buffy hope that what he and Cordy said was true – they were really in love; he had really let Buffy go.


Buffy studied Angel as Cordy came up next to him at the altar and all the guests took their seats again. He looked good – he’d gained weight and had his muscle tone back; he looked like he did the very first night she met him all those years ago. She remembered it clearly; he’d given her a necklace, a cross, that first night.


“Who are you?” she’d asked him.

“Let's just say... I'm a friend.”

“Yeah, well, maybe I don't want a friend,” Buffy had retorted.

“I didn't say I was yours,” he’d shot back before disappearing into the night.


Buffy snorted softly … perhaps she should’ve taken him at his word that first night. Of course, if not for all the drama of their relationship she may have never met Spike. A quote that she’d heard in school popped into her mind, she couldn’t remember it all … it started, What a tangled web we weave. She thought that her life was definitely a tangled web – crisscrossing this way, then that, complicated by being a Slayer in love with a vampire and by prophecies and the PTB…it definitely hadn’t been a smooth road that had led her to this place.


She looked over at Spike, who had sat down with Annie on his lap, then at Dani who she had in her arms and Billy who was resting peacefully against Willow’s shoulder. It had been a long, broken road and certainly the challenges of their life were far from over, but at that moment everything was perfect. Her family was healthy, she and Spike had worked everything out and both vowed to make sure no secrets came between them again, she was working on being a better partner to Spike, on being a wife first and a Slayer second, Angel had let her go – he was marrying Cordy, and they had an Elmo doll for Annie for Christmas. At this moment in time everything was exactly perfect. That realization filled her with a feeling of contentment and a tinge of fear – because that moment of ultimate perfection rarely lasted very long on the Hellmouth.


So lost was Buffy in her own thoughts that she completely missed the vows. When she came back into the moment, she heard the Justice of the Peace proclaim them “husband and wife. You may kiss the bride!”




Angel took Cordelia into his arms and kissed her with a passion Buffy had rarely seen in him, even for her. Angel leaned Cordy back into a low dip as he wrapped his arms around her, supporting her weight, as he kissed his bride.




The harpist began playing Mendelssohn's Wedding March and all the guests got to their feet and clapped and cheered as sparkly, jewel-toned confetti in the shapes of snowflakes, hearts, and stars began raining down softly on the whole lobby as if being scattered from on high by actual angels.


As Angel and Cordy broke the kiss, their heads and shoulders now covered in the sparkling colors of the confetti, Buffy thought that neither of them had ever looked happier. She hoped that looks weren’t deceiving and that his obsession with her was truly over. Now, if they could just keep him from going to work for W&H or trying to take down the Circle of the Black Thorn, everything might actually work out well for all of them.


As Angel and Cordy started back down the short aisle, the catering crew began moving chairs and bringing in tables to set up the buffet that the invitations said would ‘immediately’ follow the ceremony. The caterers worked around the guests and rearranged the chairs into small groups and added some tables, as well – they worked quickly and soon the lobby had been transformed from a theatre in the round to a dining room with white tablecloths and centerpieces made of the same jewel toned ornaments as decorated the rest of the lobby.


It was like a well orchestrated symphony as the catering crew got everything ready – no note out of key, no chair was out of place. Buffy thought that Cordy must’ve had them rehearse that a hundred times to do it that well. Before long, everyone had gotten their food and all their guests were sitting or standing around, talking, eating, and drinking as the harpist played Christmas music in the background above them.


The Weckerly group took up residence at one table and Lorne, Gunn, and Fred had come by to say hello and chat with them as they ate. Buffy remembered to pass on Wesley’s ‘Hi’ to Fred when she asked where he was. Buffy noted that Fred’s look of disappointment when she found out he hadn’t come turned to a nice smile when Buffy passed his regrets on to her. Buffy thought that Fred and Gunn were an item, but the more she watched them interact, it was clear that they weren’t together any longer. She’d have to remember to pass that bit of information back to Wesley when she got home…


When Cordy made her way to their table, Buffy held her breath. She had no idea what Cordy may come out with. Buffy hoped that in the interest of decorum at her own wedding, that Cordelia wouldn’t start an argument here.


Before Cordy could even say anything, Annie jumped up and ran over to her. “You look soooo beautiful!” she exclaimed, wrapping her arms around Cordy’s waist. “I want to be just like you!”


Buffy rolled her eyes and sighed … if Annie only knew what a bitch Cordy could be she wouldn’t be saying that.


“Awww, sweetie! Thank you,” Cordy replied, kneeling down to Annie’s level. “We brunettes have to stick together, huh?”





“Papa says I’m a ‘raven beauty’! So are you!” Annie gushed as she looked into Cordy’s eyes, her own eyes dancing with excitement. “You could be a movie star princess! You could be Cinderella or Belle!”


Cordy laughed lightly. If the child only knew how hard she had tried to be a movie star when she first came to L.A. “Well, I’m just playing hard to get – waiting for the right part to come along,” Cordy told Annie.


“Yeah, too bad Cruella de Vil had already been cast,” Willow muttered under her breath and Buffy poked her in the ribs and gave her a stern look as she tried not to laugh herself.


“Where’s Xander?” Cordy asked, standing back up and looking around the table.


“Couldn’t come, sends his best to you and the poof,” Spike answered her.


“Wow, I didn’t think anything could keep him away from free food,” Cordy retorted dryly.


“Yeah, well, Peaches has a way of dimming even the staunchest of appetites,” Spike smirked as he downed another drink and stood up to go get another one.




Cordy rolled her eyes, but before she could say anything further, Buffy chimed in. “It was a lovely ceremony, Cordelia – and I’ve never seen the hotel look more festive.”


Cordy looked at Buffy and bit her tongue. She was still angry with her for what she’d done to Angel, but at least, in the end, Buffy did help him get home. Angel insisted that Cordy should forgive and forget – let bygones be bygones, turn the other cheek, and all that horseshit and she was trying, really, really trying.


“Thank you,” Cordy finally managed. “Did you like the vows? I wrote them myself.”


“Oh – ummm, yeah, they were very touching,” Buffy hedged. She had been zoned out and hadn’t heard the vows.


“Which part did you like best?” Cordy asked her.


“Uhhh…” Buffy’s eyes went wide. “The same part Tara liked best – tell her which part it was, Tara,” Buffy said, looking at Tara with a desperate look on her face that Cordy couldn’t see.


“Oh, I know! I know!” Annie exclaimed, jumping up and down. “It was the part where you said ‘Angels come in all forms and you were so glad the heavens had sent yours to you in the form of Angel’!”


Buffy nearly gagged and picked up her drink to keep from choking on the schmaltziness of that line. She was glad she’d missed the rest of the vows…


“Yep, that was it,” Buffy finally agreed with a fake smile. “Just ..” Buffy shook her head slowly from side to side as she kept the smile plastered on her face, “… chokes me up,” she finally managed.


Buffy was relieved that someone from the catering crew came and got Cordy at that moment … it was time to cut the cake. Buffy was afraid her face would freeze in that fake smile and she’d never be able to unfreeze it if she had to hold it another second.


“Ya know, Red,” Spike started, leaning in near her conspiratorially after he got back to the table, “you could just flick yer little finger a bit … just at the right moment, and smear that cake all over the poof’s face…”


“Spiiike,” Willow whined, “you know I can’t do that.” Willow watched as Cordy and Angel cut the cake and fed each other the first bite. Spike was right, she could just … arrrghh … no! No, that would be so wrong … sooo funny, so deserved … and so wrong. Just one little flick of her finger … damn! It sucked being so good sometimes!


The cake, just like everything else in the lobby, was decked out in peacock feathers (made out of icing) and decorated with deep purple and teal colored Christmas ornaments.





The topper looked more like a sculpture than a cake topper, it was elegant and simple … a man and a woman embracing.


After the cake had been served to their guests, Angel stopped by the Weckerly table and took the seat next to Annie that Willow had vacated when she and Buffy went to change the twins.


“How’s the cake?” he asked Annie, ignoring Spike’s contemptuous glare.


“It’s ok - it’s not chocolate,” she pointed out, taking another bite.


“No, it’s angel food,” Angel told her. “Get it? ‘Angel food’?”


“Yeah, ‘cause you’re an angel, I get it. I like devil’s food better,” Annie insisted.


“Pffffttt,” Spike snorted. “Angel my soddin’ ass,” he muttered under his breath. “If he’s an angel, I’m Pee-wee bloody Herman.”


Angel rolled his eyes, but ignored Spike, keeping his attention on Annie. “So, what’s Santa bringing you for Christmas?” Angel asked. Cordy had coached him on talking to children and asking what they wanted for Christmas was a sure-win question.


Annie brightened as she started listing off the things she’d asked Santa for and explaining them to Angel, beginning with the Elmo doll and ending with “a pony.”


“A pony?” Angel asked with a smirk, glancing over Annie’s head at Spike.


“Yeah, but Papa said Santa couldn’t bring ponies ‘cause it was too cold at the North Pole for him to keep them…” Annie explained.


“Spike! You must’ve missed the news, pal!” Angel started with an evil twinkle in his eye. “Santa put in a huge heated stable up there – he’s got all kinds of ponies now. Welsh ponies, Shetlands – alll kinds of ponies!”


“REALLY?” Annie asked, her expression brightening.


“You bloody tosser,” Spike drawled, his voice low, but he knew that Angel could hear him.


“Yep - so, I’d get ready if I were you … Did I ever tell you the story about the time Spike spent a whole day in a stable with a bunch of horses?” Angel asked Annie.


“OI! I think I hear your Snow Queen calling ya,” Spike announced, standing up and lifting Angel up out of his chair.


“Wait! What happened with the horses? Tell me!” Annie begged, grabbing onto Angel’s hand.


“He has to be goin’ now, Niblett … so many guests, so little time,” Spike contended, pushing Angel away.


Angel just walked around the table and sat back down on the other side of Annie, away from Spike. “I can’t be rude to my grand-daughter, Spike – the other guests can wait,” Angel insisted.


“Excuse me!? She ain’t no kin to you, you nit!” Spike seethed, moving back towards Angel.


“Now, Spike, don’t get your knickers in a knot,” Angel smiled. “We’ll just go with Uncle, then…”


“We’ll just go with ‘gormless tit’!” Spike countered.


“What about the horses?” Annie interrupted, pulling on Angel’s arm. “Did Papa ride horses?”


“Oh yeah, your father used to ride horses all the time,” Angel answered, looking back at Annie with a solemn nod. “Of course, he fell off them a lot, too…” Angel laughed. “There was this one time, we were leaving London in a bit of a hurry, for some reason – do you remember why we were leaving in such a hurry, Spike?” Angel asked, looking up at the blond who was standing behind Annie.


Spike glared at him, folding his arms across his chest. “Sod off.”


“Well, doesn’t matter,” Angel started again, turning back to Annie. “We were in a rush, me and Spike, Darla and Dru – got about halfway to Yorkshire and Spike fell off his horse!” Angel continued.


“Didn’t fall off! Bloody miserable beast scrubbed me off on a soddin’ tree!” Spike defended as Annie listened intently. She loved hearing stories about her parents from ‘before’ – and Angel seemed to know a lot of them.


“So, after he fell off,” Angel continued, “Dru made me go back for him.”


“Dru prattles,” Annie supplied, remembering the doll that she had named ‘Dru’ after Spike said it ‘prattled on like Dru’.


“That she did…” Angel agreed, looking at Spike quizzically, but Spike just rolled his eyes.


“So, I went back for him, gave him a hand up behind me and we rode double all the way to Yorkshire. We just barely escaped that one with our skins … remember that, Spike?”


“Nothing wrong with m’ memory, old man.”


“Who were you running from?” Annie asked looking between Spike and Angel.


“Well, Spike wasn’t always as … calm and level-headed as he is now, Annie – he’d managed to start a bit of a brawl … got a few of the townspeople mad at us,” Angel supplied. “It’s one of his true natural talents, along with falling off horses.”


“Just looking for a little fun …if you're looking for fun, there's death, there's glory and sod all else, right?” Spike asserted with a shrug. “What can I say, I was young,” he defended.


“So, you saved him?” Annie asked Angel with wide eyes. “You saved Papa?”


“Yeah – a time or two, as I recall…” Angel confirmed, looking up at Spike. “Plus, if not for me, he would’ve never met your mom, so maybe he could cut his old grand-sire a break – maybe call it even…start fresh,” Angel suggested.


“Pfffft,” Spike snorted softly, glaring at Angel. Even my soddin’ arse.


“Of course, I could just keep going with the stories … there must be hundreds of them, whaddya think Spike?” Angel suggested, looking up at Spike from his seat next to Annie.


Spike just glared at Angel. If only he hadn’t promised Buffy he wouldn’t dust the wanker…


“Did your dad ever tell you the one about swimming in the fountain in Rome – buck-na …” Angel started as Spike grabbed his arm and pulled him to his feet and away from Annie.


“Leave the story tellin’ to Dr. Seuss, wanker,” Spike demanded in a low voice when they got a few feet away from Annie.




“Truce?” Angel asked, extending his right hand.


Spike looked down at Angel’s hand and sighed heavily, then looked back up and met his grand-sire’s eyes, his hands on his hips. “I’m not a fledge anymore, wanker. If not for Buffy, you’d be dust-bin material right now …”


“I know that, Spike,” Angel said, lowering his hand. “I came to a few epiphanies under the waves…one is you’re Buffy’s destiny – you’re the one she loves and I know you love her too; the other is I love Cordy … I don’t know why I couldn’t admit it sooner, why I fought it so much …” Angel started.


“’Cause she’s a bloody bitch,” Spike offered, interrupting him.


Angel rolled his eyes. “You don’t know her like I do … she’s strong, she’s smart, she’s honest to a fault sometimes, and she believes in the mission – she’s felt the pain of the world and she wants to take that pain away if she can. I can help her do that – I want to help her do that. It became clear that my mission, my destiny, is here with her – not with Buffy, just like yours wasn’t with Dru.


“Spike, we’ve both traveled a broken road to get where we are with lots of detours, wrong turns, pain, suffering, setbacks, and spilled blood along the way,” Angel asserted. “I think we both made it – I know we can’t forget the past, but can we leave it in the past?”


Spike rolled his eyes and his gaze drifted back to the table where they had just been sitting. Buffy and Willow had returned with the babies and Annie was relating a story to them – no doubt the ‘Spike fell off the horse’ story Angel had just told her.


Buffy looked up and met Spike’s eyes and smiled at him. Just like the first night he’d laid eyes on her, her smile seemed to light up the whole room and touch his soul. He always thought that Angel was the PTB’s favored son, but Spike was the one with the family, with his soul-mate at his side, with friends and family surrounding him. Friends that cared enough to butt in when he was acting like a stubborn mule, a wife that loved him so much that she’d rather die than go on living when she thought she’d lost his love, and three beautiful, healthy children that he never dared dream of only a few short years ago.


Their life wasn’t perfect, but whose was? Perhaps Angel was right, the broken road they’d traveled had led them straight to their destinies – maybe they just had to go through all that first before they could truly embrace what they had now.


Spike looked back at Angel and extended his hand. Angel took it in a firm handshake and nodded knowingly. It hadn’t been easy for Spike to do that, he knew, but Angel hoped they could put their past and their differences behind them and start fresh.


“Now, let’s see,” Angel started. “Do you think Annie would like the story of the skinny-dipping in Rome or the submarine story?”


Spike took Angel’s hand, which was still in his grasp, and pulled and twisted until he had spun Angel around and had his arm twisted up behind the larger vampire’s back. “Neither.”


“Joke, Spike … just a joke,” Angel laughed and Spike let him go. "Geez ... get a sense of humor."





“You’re still a magnificent poof,” Spike informed him as he walked back to their table. He still had about $50 worth of liquor to consume before he reached his ‘break-even’ point.


**~**


Later that night, Buffy and Spike tucked Annie into her bed. It had been a long day, but she still wanted a story at bedtime.


“Tell me about Grandpa Angel,” Annie asked, looking at Spike. “Did you live with him?”


Spike pursed his lips together and Buffy covered the smile on her face with one hand. “First, not bloody grandpa, not uncle … just call him the ‘Magnificent Poof’,” Spike started. “‘Captain Forehead’ works, too,” he informed Annie.


“Did you live with him? Did he raise you when your mom died?” Annie asked innocently.


Spike sighed and looked at Buffy who just shrugged. Spike looked back at Annie before answering her. “Yeah, I guess you could say that. He taught me …” Spike started and stopped.


What could he say? He’d told Buffy that Angelus had taught him how to be a monster – and that was true. He taught him what it meant to be a vampire, how to kill, how to terrorize … how to inflict the most pain. He never wanted Buffy to know those things – but she had gotten a guided tour of them thanks to Dru’s thrall in the other dimension. As much as he didn’t want Buffy to know those things, he didn’t want Annie to know any of that even more.


“What he taught me makes me value you and your mum and the little bits even more. You’re all the best things I’ve ever had, more than I dared dream of,” Spike told her at last.


Annie smiled. “I think he’s nice … and handsome, too,” Annie gushed. “Like Prince Charming.”


Spike rolled his eyes. What did women see in the wanker? “I always thought of him as more of a Shrek – a big, lunkhead ogre who sits alone in his swamp and broods…” Spike countered. “And now he’s found his ogress, I reckon … bloody brilliant.”





Buffy laughed. She was sure Cordy would be thrilled to be called an 'ogress'… of course, she supposed it was better than ‘bloody bitch’ … although, knowing Cordy, she'd probably much prefer the 'bitch' moniker.


“Good night, Sweet Girl,” Buffy told Annie, dropping a kiss on her forehead and Spike did the same before they headed out of her room and into the hall.


“Why do girls always have ta turn everything into a bloody fairy tale? Prince Charming my arse… There’s no such thing as Prince Charming,” Spike groaned as they walked down the hall to their room.


“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong,” Buffy countered with a coy smile.


“Am I, now?” Spike questioned, stopping outside their door and turning to face her with a quizzical look on his face.


“Uh-huh … I found my handsome Prince Charming,” she whispered as she wrapped her arms around his neck and lifted up on her toes to take his lips in a soft kiss.





Spike reached down and picked her up in his arms, one arm under her knees and the other around her shoulders, and carried her into their room.


“And they lived happily ever after…” Buffy murmured against his lips. “Or at least until the next apocalypse…”


**~**


{{Click here to hear ‘Bless the Broken Road’ by Rascal Flatts YouTube }}


“Bless the Broken Road” by Rascal Flatts

I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you

Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like Northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

I think about the years I spent just passing through
I'd like to have the time I lost and give it back to you
But you just smile and take my hand
You've been there you understand
It's all part of a grander plan that is coming true

Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart they were like Northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

Now I'm just rolling home
Into my lover's arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you

That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you.

Friday, December 24th, 2004 (Christmas Eve):
 
Mid-morning …
 
“Annie!! … C’mere a minute, Niblett,” Spike called as he jumped up from the computer at the research table and intercepted his daughter coming down the stairs.
 
“Mama’s callin’,” Annie objected, pointing towards the kitchen. “It’s time to bake Santa’s cookies!”
 
“I know … that’s what I want to talk to ya about. Now, I know that you and your mum love chocolate … but you don’t want to make Santa chocolate chip cookies this year, pet.”
 
“We don’t?” Annie asked him, looking at him with confusion. They always left Santa Nestles Toll House cookies…
 
“No …”
 
“Why not? He always ate them all up and left lots of presents…” Annie argued. In fact, Buffy had always eaten them all up … but they weren’t Spike’s favorite…
 
“Yeah, well, here’s the thing – I have it on good authority that, after all these years, Santa’s tired of Toll House … Now, you don’t want to make him sumthin’ he’s tired of, do ya? Plus, not everyone knows this – only really special people like me have been given this insider info – so, if you make him his new very favorite cookie, you’ll stand out from the crowd and he’ll really know how much you love him.” Spike explained, his voice conspiratorial as he kept an eye on the kitchen door for Buffy. “You do love Santa, yeah?”
 
“Of course! What kind of cookie does Santa want?” Annie asked, a look of worry on her face. She definitely didn’t want to make something Santa was tired of … she wanted to make his new favorite.
 
“Here …” Spike said, handing her a piece of paper with a recipe written on it in longhand.
 
Candy Cane Cookies
 
- 1 cup soft shortening (half butter)
- 1 cup sifted confectioners' sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 1/2 tsp. almond flavoring
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 1/2 cups sifted flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. red food coloring
 
Heat oven to 375° (quick moderate).
 
Mix well shortening, sugar, egg, flavorings. Mix flour, salt and stir in.
 
Divide dough in half. Blend red food coloring into one half. Roll 1 tsp. each color dough on lightly floured board into a strip about 4" long. Place strips side by side, press lightly together and twist like a rope. Put on ungreased baking sheet. Curve top down for hand of cane.
 
Bake 9 minutes, or until lightly browned. While still warm, sprinkle with mixture of 1/2 cup crushed peppermint stick candy and 1/2 cup sugar.
 
Makes about 4 dozen. Success tip: Make complete cookies one at a time. If all the dough of one color is shaped first, the little rolls become too dry. Best if dough is refrigerated overnight.



 
“Candy Cane Cookies,” Annie read the heading slowly, then looked back up at Spike. “This is his new favorite, for sure?”
 
“Definitely … now, you tell your mum that you want to make these fer Santa…not Toll House, ok Niblett?” Spike asked her, still keeping an eye out for Buffy.
 
“Maybe we can make both, just in case…” Annie suggested.
 
“Brilliant! That’s m’ girl … ok, run along now,” Spike told her with a smirk, waving his arm towards the kitchen where Buffy was waiting for her. He knew if Annie insisted on making those cookies … which were his personal favorite, Buffy would have no choice.
 
**~**
 
“Spiiike!!” he heard Buffy yell from the kitchen a few minutes later and he sighed heavily and rolled his eyes.
 
“You bellowed?” Spike asked with a smirk as he sauntered into the kitchen.
 
“Santa’s ‘new favorite cookie’ requires ingredients that I don’t have … and I won’t have time to make these and the Toll House, so I’ll just make a double batch of Santa’s favorite,” Buffy informed him with a look that said he’d be paying for that later. She handed him a small piece of paper with “almond flavoring” and “red food coloring” written on it in her hand, then “carrots” written under that in Annie’s writing.
 
“There are no carrots in those cookies, luv,” Spike pointed out.
 
“They’re for the reindeer …” Annie explained.
 
“The reindeer?” Spike asked, looking from Annie to Buffy.
 
“Your daughter is worried about how hungry and tired Santa’s reindeer will be by the time they get here … and she doesn’t think Santa will share his cookies with them…”
 
“Cookies aren’t good for reindeer…” Annie explained further. “They like carrots.”
 
Spike nodded and stuffed the paper in his pocket. “Right. Be back in a flash…”
 
“Don’t forget the carrots!” Annie called after him.
 
“No worries…” he called back as he made his way to the garage … a shopping trip was a small price to pay to get Candy Cane Cookies and he was sure he could handle any additional ‘punishment’ Buffy may mete out later.
 
He hadn’t had any of those cookies in ages – not since he nearly ate a confectioner in Milan that one Christmas…lucky for the confectioner, Spike saw and ate the cookies first and spared him. They were exactly like the ones his mum had made when he was a boy – he remembered the wonderful aroma of the cookies as they baked – he’d waited patiently as his mum and their cook, Nellie, mixed the ingredients and rolled out the dough and carefully shaped them into the little candy canes – he got to help sprinkle the crushed candy canes on top of them at the end. They tasted like heaven to him at the time … they still did all those years later.
 
Spike liked the cookies so much, he went back to the same sweet shop several Christmases in a row just for them (during one of Dru’s many absences from his life). Once, he even ‘helped’ the baker make the cookies … well, Spike drank brandy and talked and watched as the confectioner mixed and baked them – but still, that counted. He’d been able to piece together an actual recipe for Buffy from ones he found on the internet and by adding in the baker’s (and Nellie’s) secret ingredient … the almond extract.
 
**~**
 
Later, Christmas Eve evening…
 
Spike and Buffy had finally finished wrapping all the presents ‘from Santa’ … well, Buffy wrapped them and Spike ‘helped’ by handing them to her and taking them away and hiding them in the pantry when she’d finished. Between Santa and all her ‘Aunts’ and ‘Uncles’, Annie was making out like a bandit this Christmas, as usual. Dani and Billy weren’t doing too badly either, and between them all, it was a wonder they could even see the Christmas tree for all the gifts piled under and around it.

 
Willow and Tara had taken Annie to the Christmas Eve production of the Nutcracker Suite at the local amateur theatre/dance troupe. Buffy and Spike were supposed to have gone with them, but they begged out, saying they had too much yet to do before morning.   Lorne was still at work at the Bronze; even though it was a slow night, there were some lonely souls that showed up on this night and he liked to make it as festive for them as he could. Faith and Wesley had both gotten their own apartments not far from the mansion; they, along with Giles, were having Christmas Eve dinner at Anya and Xander’s. Christmas day would be spent at the mansion, with the entire gang gathering here by midmorning.

 
But now all the presents were wrapped and the stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nickolas soon would be there… but, until he showed up, Buffy and Spike were alone in the house except for the twins, who were sleeping soundly in the nursery, oblivious to all the hubbub that Christmas brought.

 
Buffy went up to check on the babies while Spike went to the kitchen and fetched them some ‘spiced up’ eggnog (he might’ve tasted a few of Candy Cane Cookies, as well, while he was there – just to make sure Santa wouldn’t be disappointed). As Buffy came back down the stairs, she couldn’t see Spike, he was lying down on the couch, which had been turned away from the TV and now faced the fireplace and the Christmas tree which was next to it, waiting for her, just out of sight of the stairs. All the lights had been turned off on the first floor, the whole great room was now just lit by the crackling fire and the twinkling lights of the Christmas tree.

 
As Buffy got to the end of the couch a devilish grin spread across her face. Spike had changed clothes and was decked out in a Santa suit … and it wasn’t a mall Santa … it was a Chippendales Santa…
 

{Manip by Tazi} 


“St. Nick sends his regrets, luv,” Spike started as he handed her a glass of eggnog. “St. Spike, at your service.”

 
“Oooo, do I get to sit on your lap and tell you what I want?” Buffy asked with a sly smile before taking a sip of her drink.

 
“You most certainly do …” Spike replied as he sat his own drink down and motioned for her to join him.

 
Buffy sat her glass next to his and climbed onto his lap … facing him, her hips straddling his as he lay back against the arm rest. 
 

“Have you been naughty or nice this year?” Spike asked her with a smirk as he ran his hands over her jean covered thighs.

 
“Oh, naughty … very, very naughty,” Buffy breathed as she ran her hands over his bare, hard stomach and up to his chest.

 
“Have you, then?” Spike’s eyes danced with amusement. “You’re in luck; St. Spike is just for girls who’ve been naughty.”

 
“And what do naughty girls get from St. Spike?” Buffy asked him as her hands continued to travel lightly over his muscled body.


“Their just deserts,” Spiked breathed as he pulled her body down against his and captured her lips with a hungry kiss.

 
“There will be desserts involved? What kind? Chocolate ones?” Buffy asked with wide eyes, breaking the kiss, sitting up, and looking around the area for sweets.

 
Spike laughed. She was so damn cute, even when she wasn’t trying to be.

 
“What’s funny? Dessert isn’t something to kid about!” Buffy informed him, looking back down at him with a frown, her hands going to her hips as she sat atop him. “It could be very dangerous for you…sexy Santa suit or not.”

 
Spike laughed again. “‘Just deserts’, pet, means you get what you deserve … not that you get dessert.”

 
“Oh. That’s disappointing,” Buffy lamented, rolling her eyes.

 
“What can I do to make it up to ya?” Spike asked her with a smirk.

 
“Hmmmm… For starters, I think you need to kiss me again,” Buffy suggested as she leaned back down against him.
 
 
Spike wrapped his arms around her body and dropped soft kisses all over her face, on her eyelids and the tip of her nose before kissing her mouth so softly with his that it felt like a soft cloud was caressing her lips. Buffy let her body melt against him … how he could, at times like this, be so gentle, so tender and at other times be so fierce and powerful boggled her mind. She loved that he could be everything she needed; that he could ignite a fire within her with just a look, just a touch … just a soft kiss, a tender caress.

 
Buffy pulled back from the kiss and turned her head, revealing her neck to him. “Maybe some kisses here would help me get over the disappointment…” Buffy murmured and Spike kissed a line of fire up from her shoulder to the spot behind her ear that made her whole body tingle.

 
“Mmmmm,” Buffy moaned as Spike twirled his tongue over her sensitive skin, sending sparks out in all directions.

 
“What else can I do to make it up to ya?” he asked breathily as he slid his hands up and down her back and twirled his tongue in slow circles up and down the side of her neck.

 
Buffy moaned in pleasure and reluctantly pulled away from him and stood up before offering him a hand up, as well. When he was standing, she ran her hands along his shoulders, under the open Santa suit top and slid it off his body, dropping it to the floor at their feet.



 
Her fingertips danced softly down Spike’s chest … God, she loved his body. The spot where the Gem of Amarra had been embedded could barely be seen now – if you didn’t know it was there, you’d never be able to tell. He’d gotten a good start on a tan before the weather turned cooler and he sported small freckles on his shoulders now. The only place his skin was still alabaster white was hidden under the bottoms of his Santa suit. Buffy slid her hands down his sides and under the elastic waist of the pants and kept going, dropping them down around his feet and Spike stepped out of them.

 
She stood back up slowly as her hands traveled up his body; caressing his thighs and flowing over his hip bones and back up to his slim waist. Spike’s cock jumped as her hands came within inches of it, but she detoured to the side along his hips instead. He longed for her touch, but he knew they had time … not all night, but plenty of time for easy touches and gentle lovemaking by the fire before anyone else got home.

 
“Now me…” Buffy breathed.

 
Spike lifted Buffy’s t-shirt over her head and dropped it on the floor before running his fingertips lightly over her bare shoulders, down her arms, then back up again. Buffy watched his face, his eyes, as he ran his fingers over her skin. His blue eyes seemed to smolder with desire and passion and love as they caressed her skin just as surely as his fingers did. She loved that look – it was the one that made her feel like the most beautiful woman in the world. He looked at her like he’d never seen her before, like every time was the very first time – with awe and wonder and a reverence that sent her heart soaring and fanned the flames of her desire.

 
She wondered if he saw the same thing in her eyes when she looked at him. She hoped so; his body was perfect and she was always amazed at just how beautiful he was. ‘Beautiful’ might be an odd word to describe Spike … but he truly was beautiful in the strictest sense of the word: Pleasing to the senses; very pleasing and impressive to look at, listen to, touch, smell, or taste. Spike was all those things … pleasing and impressive to look at, to listen to, to touch, to smell, to taste…

 


 
Spike’s body was like that of a Greek god sculpted in marble – smooth skin covering the hard muscles beneath – perfectly chiseled, perfectly proportioned, perfectly amazing – perfectly beautiful. Buffy well remembered the first time she’d seen that body and how awed she’d been by it. Nothing had changed since that first day, except that now she really knew the heart, the soul, the man within the body … and that made it just that much sweeter.

 
Spike unfastened her bra and dropped it off her shoulders then continued the feathery touches of his fingers over her full breasts, circling her hardening nipples before laying his left palm, the hand that held not only his wedding band, but the scar from pulling the amulet off her neck in the Hellmouth, against the matching scar she had on her chest. Other wounds healed and the scars faded with time … but not these – not on either one of the warriors.

 
Buffy laid her hand over his and met his eyes with hers. That scar seemed to symbolize their life … their love. Spike’s words from the night he’d made her face all her scars and perceived imperfections rang in her head, “That scar is your heart – that is who you are at your core – The Slayer.” If that symbolized who she was at her core, then surely Spike’s did too – he was the one who wouldn’t let her walk alone, the one, the only one, that could save her from herself, who could understand and temper the demon within her – the only one that could touch her soul and make her want to be a better woman, a better wife, a better mother, a better friend – not just a better Slayer.

 
Buffy lifted his palm to her mouth and pressed her lips lightly to the starburst scar there. Spike moved his hand and cupped her face gently, bringing her eyes back up to his. There was no mistaking the love that each held in their hearts as they each held the other’s eyes locked with their own for many long moments.

 
“I love you,” Buffy said at last as she reached a hand out and touched his face, trailing a finger across his scared brow and down to his cheek. She longed to dive into his crystal blue eyes and drown in him … be engulfed in his love and never set free.

 
Spike took her hand from his face and dropped a soft kiss on her palm. “I love you, too,” he whispered against her skin. The light from the fire danced across her golden skin, making her seem to glow like an angel from above. He’d never be foolish enough again to think himself her equal … but he was thankful for the chance to stand near her, to be bathed in her light, thankful for her love and the family she’d bore him and the love he saw in her eyes. He was grateful for the chance to be her willing slave. He knew he’d never be free from those chains around his heart and soul that tied him to her; he felt fortunate to be bound so securely to such an amazing woman – they were shackles that he treasured … he’d never fight against them again.

 
Spike released her hand then skimmed his hands down her skin, starting on her bare shoulders and running down along her sides to the waistband of her jeans. He unhooked them with practiced ease, sliding the zipper down slowly before running both hands down the sides of her hips and taking her jeans and thong down with him. Spike knelt in front of her as his hands traveled down her tanned, shapely legs until her jeans were on the floor. Buffy stepped out of them and Spike slid them away to the side with the rest of their clothes.

 
Spike ran his tongue across his lips as he gazed at her body … raking his eyes up from her feet all the way to her face where his eyes met hers again. She was heaven … she was his heaven, perhaps the only heaven he’d ever know, and tonight he wanted to savor every moment of his time with her and he wanted to make sure she was in heaven, too.

 
Buffy went down to her knees in front of him and wrapped her arms around Spike’s neck as she dropped a soft kiss on his lips. Spike wrapped his arms around her body and pulled her against him as they knelt on the soft rug in front of the fireplace. The warmth from the fire felt good on their skin, but was nothing compared to the heat building within their bodies.

 
Spike pushed her back until she was lying on her back and he supported himself on strong arms over her as he began exploring her body with his lips. Buffy could feel his erection pressed against her abdomen as he began licking and sucking and kissing her skin, beginning on her neck near her ear and traveling slowly down her body, sending chill bumps racing across her skin and fanning the fire burning within her.

 
When Spike twirled his tongue around and over one hard nipple, her back arched into him and she moaned his name like only she could. Her hands ran up and down his hard back and sides … she was always in awe of how soft his skin was; such a contrast to the hard muscles it covered. Buffy could feel his cock jump and stiffen against her body as he savored her nipples – moving his mouth from one to the other, licking and sucking and nibbling at the hard nubbins, and she longed to have him inside her.

 
“Tell St. Spike what you want, pet,” Spike murmured against her skin as she writhed and moaned under him.

 
Buffy put her hands on both sides of his face and pulled his lips to hers as she wrapped her legs around his hips and pulled his whole body down against her, his cock still trapped between them. “Want what I always want,” Buffy murmured against his mouth. “You.”
 

“Your wish is my command,” Spike smirked as he pushed himself up and back onto his knees, her legs still wrapped around his slim hips. When he was no longer supporting himself with his arms, Spike ran his hands down her body slowly – his palms and fingers seemed to touch every inch of her skin on their way down, igniting small wildfires all along their path.

 
When his hands reached her mound, he skirted it, going instead down her hips to her thighs before circling back up from her knees and kindling more flames on the sensitive skin of her inside thighs. His hands on her body felt like paradise, but the hunger she saw in his eyes as he moved them down her body along with his hands sent the fire within her burning nearly out of control. Buffy’s breath quickened, her heart raced, and her body tingled in anticipation as he teased her golden skin with velvet touches.
 

Spike tickled his fingers across her mound and Buffy moaned as her hips thrust against his hand, demanding more. Spike loved how she responded to his touches, how passionate and eager she was, how she could let her body just enjoy everything that he gave her without hesitation – how she could let her mind go and just let her body feel.

 
Maybe it was that bit of demon in the Slayer that he touched and drew out of hiding in these moments, maybe it was just the woman – just Buffy … whatever it was, he loved it and he loved giving her what she desired. Sometimes wild and frantic, other times soft and loving, or playful and fun – it was all good, he loved it all.

 
Spike slid one finger between her pussy lips, touching her clit ever so softly before trailing down her wet slit, across her throbbing hole to her ass, then back up.

 
“God, Spike … please …” Buffy begged as she grabbed onto his thighs and tried to pull his cock against her, he was driving her crazy with desire.

 
Spike slid a finger in her throbbing hole, turning his hand one way then the other as he pumped his finger slowly in and out of her. “That what you want, naughty girl?” Spike asked her in a deep, rumbly voice.

 
“No…” Buffy moaned, she wanted more than that.

 
“No?” Spike asked, stopping the movement of his hand.

 
“Yes!!” Buffy corrected. “More… need your cock.”

 
“Mmmmm….you are a naughty girl,” Spike teased as he withdrew his finger and lifted her hips up to his. Buffy tightened her hold on him with her legs to hold her butt up off the rug in a bridge and pull his hips against her at the same time.
 

Spike released her hips and pressed the tip of his cock against her clit, then slid it down her slit and back up again, repeating the tantalizing torture several times.  Every time his cock got near her aching hole, Buffy jerked her hips towards him and pulled against him with her legs.
 

“Ah, ah …. “ Spike warned. “The naughtier you’ve been, the longer you have to wait … and you’ve been very naughty this year, haven’t you?”

 
“Fuck, Spike!” Buffy exclaimed, lifting her head up and looking at him. His eyes seemed bluer than she’d ever seen before as hunger and desire and a little glint of evil danced in them. He was enjoying this way too much … and so was she. Just as she loved to tease him and bring him to the brink of insanity, he loved to do the same to her … and he did it so well, too. She felt like she would explode at any moment … be consumed by all the fires he’d started on her skin, in her body … in her heart, if she didn’t have him soon.
 

“Say the magic word …” Spike continued to tease her.

 
“Now!” Buffy yelled at him as she sunk her nails into his thighs and tightened her legs around him even further.

 
“That’s the magic word…” Spike agreed, as he stopped his cock at her dripping hole and finally, thankfully, wonderfully pressed into her.

 
Spike used the thumb of his left hand to press down on her clit at the same time he pressed his rod into her heat, and Buffy screamed out as all the pent-up desire exploded through her body. Her back arched, her fingers dug even deeper into his thighs and her pussy quivered and trembled around him as he filled her, stretching her tight hole as he slid his thick rod deep into her – so deep he may have actually touched her soul.

 
Spike loved watching her cum …her body writhing under him, completely taken over by the orgasm, as she screamed out in utter bliss … he never tired of seeing and hearing and feeling her cum. Sending her soaring into the heavens was something that never got old – he loved bringing her up to the clouds time and time again.

 
Buffy held so tightly to his thighs, and her legs were wrapped so hard around his hips that he couldn’t move. Spike relished the feeling of her sugar walls squeezing and pulling him into her as he continued to finger her clit and keep her soaring as long as humanly … or demonly, possible. When he felt her body start to relax as she came back from her tour of the galaxy, Spike tried to pry her legs loose, but they wouldn’t give…then he tried her hands, but she was still holding him in an iron grip, not letting up.
 

Spike leaned forward, going to his hands over her and her ass went back down onto the floor. “If you want more, you’re gonna haveta let me loose, pet…” Spike whispered to her.

 
“Oh, God!” Buffy exclaimed as she opened her eyes and realized how tightly she’d been holding onto him – she wondered if she’d drawn blood on his thighs. “Sorry…”

 
“No need for apologies, luv. So passionate you are … never known such an animal as you,” he whispered to her as her grip loosened and Spike began moving his hips, pulling slowly in and out of her heat, grinding his pubic bone down against her clit with each downstroke.





Buffy wrapped her arms around his neck and raised her head up so her mouth was near his neck. “Grrrrrrr,” she growled low against his skin as she lifted her hips up to meet his on each stroke before sinking her teeth into the flesh between his shoulder and neck – not enough to draw blood, but enough to leave a mark.

 
Spike growled back at her and increased his pace and force when she did that – combining the pleasure with some pain was an intoxicating mixture.
 

“Yes! God, Spike … yesss. God, baby …more, more …. Yes! Fuck yes!” Buffy screamed at him as his hips slammed against hers as his hard rod pistoned in and out of her. She felt that familiar ignition in her core … the one that would launch her into the atmosphere, out of the earth’s orbit, and up into the heavens.

 
“Cum for me … God, Buffy! So fucking hot … cum for me, Buffy! Christ, woman!” Spike screamed back at her as he felt his own release building.


 
“Cum with me! Spike … now, Spike, NOW!” Buffy screamed as she felt herself lift off.

 
Her words were replaced by a scream that she couldn’t stop … words had no meaning as she watched the world recede from view until all she could see was the vastness of space – the sun, the moon, and the stars. Then Spike was with her and he pulled her against him and twirled her around with utter joy as their souls floated into the Milky Way and danced among a million twinkling stars while their bodies did their very best to melt into each other – to become one. Spike led her in a slow dance, gracefully tripping the light fantastic with the Milky Way as their dance floor and the universe as their ballroom.

 
Spike kissed her as they started floating back down to earth … past the sun, past the moon, then, ever so slowly … like a leaf falling in autumn, back down to their bodies.
 

Spike was still kissing her gently when they regained control over their bodies and Buffy pulled him down so his full weight was against her. Spike could feel her heart pounding against his chest, her arms and legs, warm and supple, encircled his body, his cock still buried in her pussy, all holding him tight – he felt like he was still surrounded by heaven. He broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers to allow her to breathe as he savored being held so strongly by this beautiful, fiery woman that he was lucky enough to find in this vast world – his soulmate, his destiny.


 


When Buffy’s breathing returned to nearly normal, she lifted her mouth to his and tickled a feathery kiss against his lips. “I love you, St. Spike … remind me to be extra naughty next year,” Buffy teased, her eyes dancing with amusement.

 
“Be my pleasure to make sure you're naughty all year long, luv …” Spike smirked back as he dropped a quick kiss on her lips before hugging his arms around her and holding her just as tightly as she was holding him. As much as he loved his children, there were times like now that he would be perfectly happy with nothing more than this – her love, her smile, her body against his – it truly was his heaven.

 
OH! Speaking of heaven …. “C’mon, pet … get up! Gotcha sumthin’!” Spike exclaimed suddenly, jumping up and pulling her by her hands up to her feet to join him.

 
“Spike! I was just getting all cozy there… can’t it wait?” Buffy whined as he pulled her up.

 
“No … can’t wait, luv … you get to open one present early …” Spike explained, pulling her by one hand towards the garden door.


“Spike! Where are we going? I don’t have any clothes on … and neither do you, by the way!”




 
“Huh? Oh … right,” Spike stammered, looking down at his own body and then at her. He left her standing alone halfway to the door and ran back to the couch and grabbed a blanket off the back of it before rejoining her and tugging her with him out the door.

 
“It’s cold out here!” Buffy complained, wrapping her arms around her body as Spike pushed her further out into the garden.

 
Spike directed her to the south side of the garden and turned her back towards the north before standing behind her and wrapping the blanket around both of them, pulling her back against his front and crossing his forearms over her collarbone.

 
“Look up,” Spike directed her, and Buffy looked up at the stars and nearly full moon above them. “See the big dipper … up there,” Spike motioned with one hand to the north sky, pointing at the big dipper.


“Yeah …” Buffy answered, unsure where this was going.

 
“See the two stars right between the two that form the side of the cup away from the handle?” Spike asked her, pointing with one hand at the star while still holding the blanket around them with the other.

 
“Yeah…” Buffy said slowly, still not understanding where he was going with this.
   




“That brightest of those stars is named Buffy … Buffy Summers-Weckerly,” Spike informed her.

 
“Huh?” Buffy asked, turning her head to the side to look at him.

 
“You have a star named after you, pet … …” Spike told her softly.


“You’re serious…” Buffy realized, looking back up at the star he had pointed out.

 
“As a heart attack. Got the paperwork for ya inside … that’s you, luv. You are my heaven, Buffy … and now you’re part of the heavens above us – watching over us for all eternity.”

 
“Spike … that’s so sweet,” Buffy said, her voice full of love as she turned in his arms and wrapped her arms around his waist before dropping a soft kiss on his lips.

 
“What’s the name of the star next to me? Spike? William?” Buffy asked him, her eyes dancing with excitement.

 
Spike looked into her eyes – so full of love and happiness, and that made his heart soar. “No … you’re the only one that belongs in the heavens, Buffy,” he told her softly. “I’ve done a lot of bad in my life … I hold no illusions that the Powers will ever let me into heaven when I dust, but every day I spend here with you is like heaven to me. You really are my heaven.”

 
“Awwww, baby … I love you so much,” Buffy whispered as she laid her head on his shoulder, her arms still wrapped around him. “I’ll beat the PTB within an inch of their lives if they don’t let you into heaven with me … I’ll make them so miserable, they’ll have no choice but to let you in. And that star up there next to me will always be you …”

 
Spike laughed lightly and nodded, he could picture Buffy doing that. “You’d do that for me?”

 
Buffy nodded against his shoulder. “And Mom would help me…”

 
“Ah, well, no worries then … with you two swinging your axes, the Powers would ‘ave no choice but to open the gates and let a git like me in …” Spike smiled as he hugged her against him, still holding the blanket wrapped around them both.

 
“Of course, that’s assuming they’ll still let me in after being so naughty…” Buffy added with a grin, pulling back and looking at Spike with mischief gleaming in her eyes.

 
“Ah, well … yeah, there’s that,” Spike agreed before capturing her lips in a tender kiss. If neither of them were getting into heaven, they might as well make their own right here on earth for as long as they could.

 
**~**

 
Spike and Buffy had gotten dressed and were sitting on the couch, she was tucked under his arm, her body leaning against his, as they talked softly and watched the fire and the lights on the tree twinkle and wink when Annie, Tara, and Willow got home.

 
“Mama! Papa!” Annie exclaimed, running to them and wedging herself between them on the couch. “You should’ve come with us! There was this girl and she got a nutcracker that looked like a little soldier, but her stupid brother broke it but she put it in bed and then later on it grew up life size! And then the Mouse King attacked the gingerbread men and started eating them but the Nutcracker soldier and the girl ... her name was Clara, helped them and then the Nutcracker turned into a handsome prince!” Annie rambled excitedly … finally stopping long enough to take a breath before starting again.




 
“Then Clara and the Prince went to the Land of Sweets! I want to live there! It was ruled by the Sugar Plum Fairy she was so happy that Clara helped save the Prince and the gingerbread men from the Mouse King that she brought out all these sweets and they all DANCED! I want to be Clara! Do you think I could be Clara one day? She and the Prince were crowned King and Queen of the Land of Sweets forever and they danced and lived happily ever after!

 
“You should’ve come! I loved it! Do you think I can be Clara one day? I want to dance like that! Her prince was soooo handsome! Can I?” Annie asked them, looking expectantly from Buffy to Spike.
 

“Of course you can, sweetie … you just need to keep practicing and going to your classes – you can do anything you want,” Buffy assured her.

 
“Yay!” Annie squealed, clapping her hands excitedly.

 
Willow and Tara had joined them by now and they both smiled at Annie’s excitement over the ballet as they listened and watched her tell her parents about it.

 
“So, did you guys have a good time?” Buffy asked them and they both nodded.

 
“It was really good – especially for being an amateur production, they did really, really well,” Willow told her.

 
Buffy started to ask Willow something else when Annie suddenly screamed like she’d been shot and jumped up off the couch – pointing her finger at the fireplace. Buffy and Spike jumped up behind her, not sure what had scared her so.

 
“Papa! Papa!” Annie yelled, turning momentarily back towards Spike then back to the fireplace with panic in her eyes. “Santa can’t get down the chimney with my toys! Put out the fire! It’s too hot! Put it out!"


The adults in the room let out a relieved breath when they realized her panic was unfounded … well, Annie didn’t know that, of course, and didn’t understand why no one was putting the fire out.
 

Spike picked her up and settled her against his hip. “No worries, Niblett. Santa is a superhero … flies over tall buildings, travels ‘round the world in one night, eats millions of cookies, drinks gallons of milk and eggnog and can come down even the hottest of chimneys – walks right through roarin’ fires, he does,” Spike assured her.

 
“Really?” Annie asked, looking from her father’s eyes to the fire crackling in the fireplace.

 
“Would I lie to you?” Spike asked her, before setting her down. “But, you better get ready for bed now, Santa can’t come if you’re awake … throw his whole schedule off if he lands and finds out you’re not snoozin’, it will. Wouldn’t want to make him late for his Hawai’i run, would ya?”

 
Annie shook her head solemnly and turned towards the stairs. About half way up them, she turned back. “Are you sure about the fire?” she asked again.

 
“As sure as Sugar Plum Fairies and the Land of Sweets,” Spike assured her with a nod.

 
“Ok…” Annie sighed, as she turned and started back up the stairs before stopping again. “OH! What about the cookies and milk and the carrots!?”

 
“I’ll take care of it, pet, no worries – you get ready for bed,” Spike offered.

 
“Really? Thanks, Papa!” Annie called back as she ran the rest of the way up the stairs and to her bedroom.
 

**~**
 

Spike and Buffy sat on either side of Annie’s bed a little while later, tucking her in for the night so they could go back down and bring all the hidden presents Buffy had wrapped earlier out and put them under the tree.
 

Spike read from a Christmas book, his voice lilting and melodious as he read the classic Christmas poem to Annie as her bedtime story this Christmas Eve.





“‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

“The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap.

“When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

“The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer.

“With a little old driver, so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment it must be St Nick.
More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

"‘Now Dasher! Now, Dancer! Now, Prancer and Vixen!
On, Comet! On, Cupid! On Donner and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch! To the top of the wall!
Now dash away! Dash away! Dash away all!’

“As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky.
So up to the house-top the coursers they flew,
With the sleigh full of toys, and St. Nicholas too.

“And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I drew in my head, and was turning around,
Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound.

“He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of toys he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a peddler, just opening his pack.

“His eyes - how they twinkled! His dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow.

“The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth,
And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath.
He had a broad face and a little round belly,
That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly!

“He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf,
And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself!
A wink of his eye and a twist of his head,
Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread.

“He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the stockings, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his finger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

“He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle,
And away they all flew like the down of a thistle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
‘Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!’"
 
 
Buffy listened intently to Spike as he read the age-old poem. Annie’s eyes had closed nearly six stanzas ago, but Buffy was mesmerized by his voice and didn’t stop him. Memories of her own father reading the very same poem to her as a child filled her mind. She wondered briefly where he was now – as far as she knew he didn’t even know about his grandchildren. She had tried to find him when her mom died, left some messages at the numbers she had for him, but he never called back.

 
Buffy looked from Annie’s face to Spike’s ... there was no mistaking whose daughter she was, she looked so much like him and was so smart … it seemed the only thing she got from Buffy was her love of chocolate and that pout. Buffy’s heart filled anew with love for Spike as she watched and listened to him read to their daughter. She knew that Annie would never experience the hurt of her father leaving her – not as long as there was a single star left in the sky – Spike would never abandon his family.

 
When Spike finished, he looked at his sleeping child, then up at Buffy, who was looking at him with adoration and love in her eyes, which glistened with unshed tears. He looked at her quizzically … that poem didn’t normally elicit tears… Buffy gave him a soft smile as they both stood up and left Annie sleeping soundly, no doubt dreaming of Sugar Plum Fairies and handsome Princes.

 
When they were in the hall, Annie’s door closed behind them, Spike turned to her and asked, “What’s the matter, luv? You didn’t like the story t’nite?”

 
“I love the story,” Buffy assured him, wrapping her arms around his neck and looking into his eyes. “I love the story and I love the storyteller. You’re the best father, the best husband, the best friend I could ever want.”

 
“Even though I’ve lured you over to the dark side… into naughtiness?” he questioned with a smirk.


 


“Especially because of that, St. Spike…” Buffy confirmed with a grin as she dropped a quick kiss on his lips. “C’mon now … you’re filling in for St. Nick, time to get to the real work …” she informed him taking his hand and dragging him towards the stairs so they could get the ‘Santa’ presents out and put under the tree and fill the stockings.

 
“OI!” Spike objected, pulling against her. “My work ‘ere is done … you forget, I just do naughty!”
 

“Yeah, yeah … I know, St. Spike, Patron Saint of Naughty People …. Tonight you do nice, too.”
 

“Why should I?”
 

“’Cause, when we finish the nice, then we’ll have the whole rest of the night to be naughty again…” Buffy supplied. “Plus … there are Candy Cane Cookies in it for ya.”
 

“Ah, well, since you put it that way…” Spike laughed as he let her drag him back down the stairs. Being naughty was a hard job, but someone had to do it … he didn’t tell her that he’d already eaten all the Candy Cane Cookies – he left her the carrots.



**~**

{{Click here to hear “Let’s Be Naughty and Save Santa the Trip” by Elliott Yamin on YouTube }}


“Let’s Be Naughty and Save Santa the Trip” Elliott Yamin
♫Well they say he knows who’s been naughty or nice
And if I have my way baby after tonight
We'll be one couple he can scratch off his list
Let's be naughty
And save Santa the trip

Such a long sleigh ride from the North Pole
And he's already got so many places to go
We've got each other don't need another gift
Let's be naughty
And save Santa the trip

Santa's face
Would turn red
If he could only see
What we'll be unwrapping
Underneath our Christmas tree
This year all I'm asking for
Is one little wish
Let's be naughty
And save Santa the trip

When St. Nick comes home early tonight
Mrs. Claus will surely be surprised
They'll get to snuggle
Cuddle up just like this
So let's be naughty
And save Santa the trip

Let's be naughty …♫

Saturday, December 25th, 2004 (Christmas Day):

6am …
Annie lay in bed, wide awake, and watched the digital clock on her nightstand tick slowly ahead … every minute seemed to take an hour as she waited …and waited … and waited. It was Christmas morning, there were tons of presents waiting for her under the tree and it was 6:01…6:02…6:03 … She’d been warned sternly not to wake the house up before 8:00 …and not to go downstairs on her own this morning. 6:04 … 6:05 … this was going to take forever!

She lay awake and wondered if Santa had brought her everything she’d asked for… Elmo was first on her list, but some pretty dresses and some frilly outfits for ballet class would be nice, too. Video games were always fun – plus Papa could use those, too … coloring books and story books, Barbie dolls and baby dolls were all on the list. She wondered if Santa might’ve brought her a pony … Angel said Santa had them now, she would name him ‘Sunshine’ and could keep him in the backyard and ride him to the park and feed him carrots… Speaking of carrots, she wondered if Rudolph and his friends liked the carrots she’d left them. To pass time, she tried to remember all the reindeer’s names … Dancer and Prancer … Donner and Blitzen … hmmm, Comet … Cupid – shoot! Something that rhymed with Blitzen… Sitzen…Ritzen…no. Drat! Annie eventually gave up - she’d have to ask her father later … she turned her attention to the cookies they’d left Santa. She wondered if he liked them and if any other houses had left him his new favorite or if they were the only one that knew about it. 6:11 … 6:12 …

Annie sighed heavily, got up out of bed and padded quietly to the bathroom … listening intently up and down the hall for any sign of life out of any of the other rooms, but she didn’t hear anything…no one was stirring, not even a mouse. After washing her hands and brushing her teeth, she tiptoed past her parents’ door to the top of the stairs and looked down. Oh wow! There were even more presents under the tree than she’d imagined. She didn’t see a pony, but it might be in the garden…

“And just what do ya think yer doin’?” came a deep voice from behind her and Annie nearly jumped out of her skin as she spun around with wide eyes.

“Papa! Look!” she exclaimed, grabbing Spike’s hand and pulling him towards the stairs. “Look at all the presents! Santa must’ve really liked the cookies!

“I didn’t go down! I swear!” she defended before being accused as she gazed down in wonder at all the colorful packages stacked under and around the tree.

Spike laughed and picked her up. “You weren’t supposed to be up until eight, yeah? Wasn’t that our deal?”

“I tried! I really, really tried …but LOOK!” Annie explained, pointing at the tree down by the fireplace.

“That’s not all yours, ya know…” Spike started as he carried her away from the stairs and back to her room. “The little bits have some, too … You aren’t the only bit in the house anymore.”

“I know…” Annie whined as the tree and presents disappeared from sight.

Spike set her down on her bed and Annie crawled back under the covers. 6:20…

Spike sat down next to her on the bed and straightened her covers over her. “Ya know, the littlebits are gonna depend on you to show them the ropes, pet. Can you help them unwrap their presents?”

“Sure! I’ll help them!” Annie agreed enthusiastically – a huge grin on her face.

“And then you can help them write thank you notes …” Spike continued and Annie frowned, sticking her bottom lip out in a classic Summers pout.

Spike chuckled at her. “Your face is gonna freeze like that one day, pet. It’ll be bad for you – none of the little gits will wanna kiss ya…On second thought, you just keep that look…it’s very becoming.”

“You’re silly…” Annie told him, rolling her eyes. 6:23 …

“Too true…” Spike agreed. “Now, if you go back to sleep, it’ll be time to get up quick like a rabbit…but if you lay there and watch that clock it’ll take years ‘fore it’s time to get up, yeah?

“So, close your eyes, Niblett…” Spike told her and Annie reluctantly closed her eyes. When her eyes were closed, Spike began singing the old lullaby softly to her as he stroked her hair gently…

♫ “Early one morning, just as the sun was rising,
I heard a maid sing in the valley below:
"Oh don't deceive me, Oh never leave me,
How could you use a poor maiden so?

Before long, she had fallen back asleep. Spike sighed as he watched her sleeping…she looked like an angel with her dark curls framing her sweet face. Spike thought that all his Christmas wishes for the rest of his life had all been answered – and they all lived here with him: Buffy, Annie, Dani, and Billy. There was nothing left in the world to ask Santa for that he didn’t already have.

Spike left Annie sleeping and went down the hall to the nursery. Dani and Billy were still sleeping soundly – the excitement of their first Christmas totally lost on them. They’d be a year old in February … Annie would be six. Sometimes it seemed like only yesterday that he came to Sunnydale with Dru … had it really been that long ago - over seven years? Of course, sometimes it felt like he’d been here forever … he’d been through so much during that time – so much had changed.

Spike picked Dani up and sat down in the rocking chair with her in his arms. She opened her eyes, looked up at him and gave him a happy smile. Her eyes were just as blue as Annie’s, her hair fair and soft, but straight. She definitely looked like Buffy to him … the older she got the more sure he was that she would be just as lovely as her mother and she certainly was a fireball. She was much more outgoing and vocal than Junior and not afraid of anything; if she could see it, she would reach for it; if she could reach it, she would grab it; if she could grab it, she would pull it; if she could pull it, she would put it in her mouth … well, unless it was bananas – in which case she’d toss them back at you.

“Who are you going to be, Sweetbit?” Spike asked her softly and Dani giggled and reached out for his face with a small hand. “You a ‘want, take, have’ girl? Lord help us…” Spike half joked as he thought of Faith and what her parents must’ve gone through when she was younger. “Are you a Slayer? Ya kinda act like a Slayer, pet,” Spike pointed out to his baby daughter and she reached her other hand out and grabbed the collar of his t-shirt and pulled on it. “Yeah, just like yer mum … always tugging at my clothes,” Spike laughed softly.

He knew that Buffy didn’t want either of the girls to be Slayers, and he understood that – to a point. But there was still something about Slayers that intrigued and fascinated Spike … it always had from the moment Angelus had told him about them. Yeah, it was dangerous and fraught with downsides, but for a girl to be a Slayer meant they had something special within them – to keep that hidden, to block it, as Buffy wanted to do, seemed like a bad idea to Spike. On the other hand, he certainly understood that it only took a vampire or a demon having one good day to end a Slayer’s life… one good day, while the Slayer had to have a good day everyday to survive. It was a dilemma he had no answer for … losing any of his children would be heartbreaking beyond comprehension for him and Buffy … but to block their natural power seemed wrong – perhaps even dangerous. Not allowing them to be who they were meant to be seemed to Spike like it was cheating them out of their destiny …

“Well…got a few years ‘fore we’ll know, don’t we Sweetbit?” Spike asked her as she pulled harder on the collar of his shirt. “We can burn that bridge when we get to it, pet – but no worries, you’ll never walk alone, no matter what,” Spike said softly as he stood up, took her back to her crib, and laid her down gently, covering her back up with her little pink blanket.

Spike turned and picked Billy up and sat back down in the rocker with him. He enjoyed spending quiet time with the babies … usually he did it late at night, when the house was still and everyone else was asleep. His vampire timetable still hadn’t fully adjusted to sleeping through the night … it was a century old habit and not easy to change.





“And who will you be, Junior?” Spike asked his baby son as Billy woke up and looked up at him with the same blue eyes of all his siblings. Strangers had a hard time telling Dani and Billy apart if they were dressed alike, but everyone in the ‘family’ could see the differences … even without looking ‘under the hood’. Billy definitely was looking more and more like Annie and Spike as he got older. His hair, although a light, golden yellow, was wavy, just as Annie’s had been when she was a baby, and it was starting to become apparent that his facial features were more like Spike’s than Buffy’s … with high cheekbones and a strong jaw.

Billy was the more demure and cautious of the twins, though…often letting Dani take the lead on things, then following when things seemed safe. He wasn’t easy to upset, unlike Dani who had a hair trigger, and seemed to take things more to heart than his slightly older twin sister. Spike wondered if he would be more like him or Buffy … unfortunately, it seemed that he was taking after ‘William’ more than ‘Spike’ or Buffy. Spike thought back on his own childhood – he’d been bullied and pushed around his whole human life … it was only after becoming a vamp that he’d found the strength and stones to stand up for himself and transform into ‘Spike’.

He definitely didn’t want that to be Junior’s fate – he wouldn’t wish that on any child, and certainly not his own son. He’d make sure that Billy had the self-confidence and skills necessary to protect himself, to stand up for himself, if he needed to. Spike had grown up most of his life without a father (who had died when he was young) and his mother was a lady, in the strictest sense, and gave him no guidance on such barbarous affairs. Spike vowed to make sure Billy never faced those challenges … or if he did, that he had the tools and skills to handle himself like a man.

“No worries, William … they’ll be no gits tossing your books in the mud … nobody poking fun at you, I’ll see to that,” Spike told his son softly as he rocked slowly in the chair and cradled him in his arms. Billy gurgled and cooed and grabbed hold of Spike’s thumb in a firm grip. “See there … strong boy, you are … no worries at all.”

**~**

Buffy stepped into the nursery nearly an hour later to find Spike had fallen asleep in the chair, his son still cradled firmly in his arms … also sound asleep. She stood in the doorway and just took in the scene. She knew that Spike spent a lot of time in here with them at night … she’d wake up to find him gone sometimes – whenever she went looking for him, he’d either be in here or in Annie’s room – just watching them sleep.

Buffy smiled softly as tears stung her eyes. It had been a really long year … a year that nearly claimed their lives … which was par for the course, but also a year that had nearly claimed their love, their marriage, their family. Buffy looked down at the ‘promise ring’ Spike had given her on Labor Day … and her resolve to keep that promise, to never give up again, was strengthened as she watched ‘Big Bad’ holding his son … both sleeping soundly in the rocking chair. The fact that Spike could go from ‘Big Bad’ to loving father to passionate lover to best friend - that he had all that within him, made her heart swell with love and pride and it made her thankful for the life she had. Even with all the challenges and bad times they’d faced, it was times like these that made all those unhappy moments disappear from view.

Buffy moved silently into the room and gently pulled Billy from Spike’s arms … trying hard not to wake either of them, but, of course, Spike woke up immediately when he felt Billy move.

“Sorry …” Buffy whispered as she picked Billy the rest of the way up and Spike released him.

“’S ok,” he muttered, closing his eyes again. He hadn’t intended on falling asleep…it was just that old clock … sunrise was approaching, time to take cover, time to sleep.

“Why don’t you come back to bed?” Buffy suggested after she’d laid Billy back down in his crib. “You can sleep another half hour before Christmas officially starts…”

“Yeah…” Spike muttered as he stood up and followed her back to their room. Maybe Annie would oversleep … yeah, right!

**~**

At exactly 8:00am on the dot Annie began banging on her parents’ door. “It’s Christmas!!! It’s Christmas!!” she called excitedly as she ran to the top of the stairs to look back down at the tree and all the presents piled high around it.

Spike moaned and covered his head with a pillow. Getting up before noon should be a criminal offense…

“C’mon, Papa… you knew this was coming,” Buffy teased as she pulled the pillow off his head and pushed his shoulder lightly.

“Your daughter is very punctual…” Buffy informed him as she got up and pulled on some clothes.

“Your daughter is bloody early … up at six, she was,” Spike told Buffy as he rolled up to sitting on the edge of the bed and rubbed tiredly at his eyes – still in the jeans and t-shirt he’d had on earlier.

“Well, she gets that from you. Patience is a virtue, it’s just not one of yours … or hers,” Buffy laughed as she opened the door just as Annie was starting to bang on it again.

“It’s Christmas!!” Annie exclaimed again as she jumped up and down in her red and white “Frosty the Snowman” PJ’s before turning for the stairs.

“Don’t touch anything until we’re all down there!” Buffy warned Annie as she went to get the babies up and changed – she gave Tara and Willow’s room a knock as she went by, too – no sense in them missing all the fun.

**~**



When everyone was settled in the great room around the tree, Annie started passing out the presents … one to Buffy, one to Spike, Willow, Tara, Lorne … and one for her. When everyone had opened that round, she’d pass out another round of gifts … the next time including Dani and Billy and ‘helping’ them open them. By the time the twins had gotten their third gift, they had started to get the idea that tearing off that pretty paper was fun and contained more fun inside. Although some of the presents themselves were lost on them, since there were lots of new clothes mixed in with the toys, they were having fun with ripping the paper up on all of them and soon were helping Annie rip hers open, too.



So far, their favorite things were the “WalkerBuddy” and the “Start Walker” … they’d pull themselves up on them and hold on tight as they walked as far as they could in the cramped area (which was cramped due to the overload of Christmas wrapping paper debris and boxes). They’d been sharing Annie’s old ‘walking helper’, but these were more fun, more colorful and they could each have one of their very own.







They looked adorable in their red and white striped Christmas PJ’s – Buffy tried to keep Santa hats on them, but that usually only lasted about five seconds before they’d pull them off. She finally got them to hold still long enough for Lorne to snap some pictures. Buffy ran and grabbed Spike’s Santa hat that he’d worn the night before and plopped it on his head and Lorne got some great shots of all them in their ‘Christmas best’… before Spike and the babies had enough of that nonsense and pulled the hats off again.

Billy was digging into a present that Buffy didn’t recognize … it wasn’t her wrapping to be sure, in fact, it looked like Annie or Spike had wrapped it. She watched as he pulled out a large (as in, it would’ve fit Spike perfectly), red Man-U football jersey with the number “17” on it and his name, “Weckerly” above it, then came out some Man-U bibs and ‘onesies’ and an official Man-U soccer ball…errr football.





“I don’t think that jersey’s gonna fit him,” Buffy pointed out to Spike who had gone down onto the floor next to Billy to help him get all the Manchester United bounty out of the package.

“It will one day…” Spike posited. “I’ll keep it for ‘im ‘til it does,” he offered, slipping the jersey up over his head and pulling it down over his t-shirt. Spike rolled the soccer ball back and forth on the floor between Billy and Dani until they both got tired of that game and went in search for more paper to rip up.

“You don’t think Dani would’ve wanted one?” Buffy asked with a teasing smile. “I could’ve kept it for her…”


Spike’s eyes went wide as he turned around to see if Buffy was really upset that he hadn’t gotten her one – she never showed anything but a passing interest in football except to ask why they wore such baggy shorts. “I think they could run faster in spandex, frankly…” she had suggested with a shrug one time. “It’d draw more women fans, too, I bet…” Spike was relieved to see that she was kidding about the jersey – he’d gotten two bibs and two onesies, so both the twins could have them – he could’ve just as well gotten two jerseys.

“What number would you want, luv?” he asked as he raised himself back up off the floor and onto the couch.

“Hmmmm…well, my favorite number, seventeen, is taken I see. I guess I’d go with seven then,” she told him with a nonchalant shrug.

“Seven…” Spike thought for a moment. “Bloody Beckham?!” he exclaimed. “Traitor, he is! Going to bloody Real Madrid… ponce!” he declared, shaking his head. He got mad every time he thought about Beckham jumping ship.

Buffy shrugged. “He’s cute.”

“Cute my soddin’ arse…” Spike mumbled under his breath as he rolled his eyes. She’d never make a Man-U fan with that attitude – not in a million years – cute did not win football games.

They were interrupted by Annie’s shrieks of joy as she opened the package that contained the Elmo doll. And, as Buffy had predicted, the laughing and talking red demon-doll soon started getting on the nerves of the adults … but Annie couldn’t get enough of it, laughing and giggling along with it over and over again. The only thing that got her to stop playing with it was Spike sliding a huge box out from one corner of the room and announcing that it was a present for Annie from Uncle Giles.

Annie’s eyes got wide – the box was as big as she was! She ran over to it and began ripping the paper off and Spike helped her get the box open … inside she found a large, old-fashioned rocking horse. It wasn’t a pony … but it was pretty close to one and almost as big! She happily climbed aboard it and started riding as soon as Spike got it out of the box and sat it down on the floor.



It was the best Christmas, ever! Annie had gotten her beloved Elmo, plus two new Barbie dolls, lots of outfits for the Barbies from Santa, several new ballet outfits from Tara, some new books from Willow, and a gorgeous, frilly princess dress and a whole new Princess Make-up kit with new barrettes, bows, lipstick, and nail polish from Lorne! She couldn’t wait to paint everyone’s fingernails … including Spike’s, with the new shades of polish in it!

On top of all that there were more video games and some board games … ‘Chutes and Ladders’ and ‘Candyland’ and ‘Monopoly’, and Faith and Wes had each given her a card with ten dollars in it! Anya and Xander (and JJ) had given her a $50 US Savings Bond … which she wasn’t quite sure what that meant, but wow! $50!? Plus there were numerous presents with new school and play clothes and the obligatory jacket and underwear, socks and shoes, and other stuffed animals and dolls – but none nearly as fun and annoying as Elmo – which was her new very favorite doll. He could ride with her on the rocking horse – it would almost be like Tonto and the Lone Ranger … only on one horse and with a laugh track.

Dani and Billy had done pretty well too – although a lot of their bounty was in the form of more sensible things like new (larger) clothes, socks, and shoes, they both loved the walking-helpers they’d gotten and those would get some good use over the next months as they started walking more. They’d also gotten lots of stuffed animals and teething rings and toys that taught shapes and colors and some books made especially for small hands.

But at the moment, Dani and Billy seemed more interested in the big box that the rocking horse had come in than any of the actual toys they’d gotten. They crawled in and out of the box, playing peek-a-boo with each other and everyone else in the room. Before long, Annie, Elmo, and Miss Kitty joined them crawling in and out of the box as it lay on its side at the end of the couch. The box soon became a submarine … then a truck…then a cave … a fort… a castle – the only limit was the imagination of the inhabitants.

“We could’ve saved a fortune and just gotten them all big, empty boxes…” Buffy commented dryly as the kids all laughed and played together crawling in and out and around the box as Miss Kitty sat atop it and swatted at their hair every time they poked their heads up within range.

Annie had gotten so distracted that she’d stopped handing out gifts, so Spike retrieved Buffy’s present from under the tree and handed it to her as he sat back down on the couch next to her. Buffy smiled as she started to unwrap the gift … she knew what it would be - the paperwork for the star he’d given her last night – she loved it and couldn’t wait to show Tara and Willow her star, but instead what she found inside was something totally different.




When she opened the box there was a full size chocolate shoe … real chocolate, as in an edible shoe! Buffy looked at Spike quizzically as he watched her. The look on her face was priceless, he knew she was expecting the star paperwork … which was in a different gift box still under the tree.

“Go on then,” Spike urged her. “Open it up.”




Buffy lifted the shoe out of the box and broke a piece off and tasted it… Mmmmmm, it was heaven – no doubt, Ghirardelli’s. Underneath the shoe was an envelope, she lifted it out and pulled a card out of it ...


Bearer entitled to one free day on Rodeo Drive:

Half day at the Beverly Wilshire Day Spa, including massage, pedicure, manicure, facial and shampoo, cut, and style followed by lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant, Spago Beverly Hills, then a few hours of shopping at Jimmy Choo’s. Pick out any three pairs of shoes and they’re yours. Of course, transportation via limo to and from and around Beverly Hills is also included…

You’re a star, and so you shall be treated.

Merry Christmas!

With all our love,
William, Danielle, Annie, and Spike

“OH. MY. GOD!” Buffy exclaimed as she set the shoe down and dove atop Spike, wrapping her arms around him in a fierce hug and knocking him onto his back on the couch. She captured his lips with hers and gave him a sloppy, chocolaty kiss, keeping him pinned down on his back under her.



“What?! What is it?” Willow and Tara asked excitedly. Lorne already knew – he helped Spike set it up. If there was one thing Lorne knew, it was how to do luxury … he couldn’t afford it himself, but he was happy to help Spike give Buffy the ‘star treatment’, at least for one day.

“Wow!” Willow and Tara both exclaimed as they retrieved the card from her hand and read it. They could live a month…maybe three, on the money Spike would drop on that one day. Still, they were happy for Buffy – if anyone deserved a day as a star, it was her.

“I think she liked it!” Annie exclaimed as she left Elmo, Miss Kitty, her siblings, and the ‘box castle’ and ran back over to the couch, climbing up on top of Buffy’s back as Buffy laid on top of Spike.

“Oi! Bloody hell!” Spike exclaimed in mock displeasure when Buffy released his lips so she could breathe. “You bloody women are killin’ me ‘ere! Uncle! I give up!” he yelled and Buffy and Annie laughed as they sat back and let him up. “Remind me to never give ya anything like that again if I’m gonna get squashed like a bloody bug for m’ efforts…”

“Oh, you poor baby,” Buffy cooed, wiping chocolate off his mouth with her thumb.

“I think she liked it, Papa!” Annie exclaimed again, climbing over Buffy and depositing herself on Spike’s lap.

“Yeah… reckon so. I’da hate to’ve seen her if she didn’t like it… I think my back is broken…” Spike teased, reaching behind himself as if checking his spine for breaks.



“Annie – go see if you can find the rest of Papa’s gifts … I think they’re the blue ones over there,” Buffy directed her daughter, pointing to some gifts still piled behind the tree.

Spike smirked as he opened the first package and pulled out a “Kiss the Cook” apron, followed by one that read, “English Yardman, let’s get dirty!”

“Maybe I should’ve given you a bloody microwave … or a hoover,” Spike teased, but he could tell by the look in Buffy’s eye that the aprons weren’t for work… well, not entirely for work, anyway. He looked forward to modeling them for her very soon.

From the second box, Spike pulled out a pair of white, “Nancy Sinatra” go-go boots and a white mini-dress with white fringe on it. He cocked a brow at Buffy. “Thanks, pet, but I don’t think it’s my size… and white’s not really m’ best color.”





“It’s not for you, silly!” Annie chimed in. “It’s for Mama to wear to sixties night … she said ‘those boots are gonna walk all over you’ and that you’d love it!” Annie offered, repeating what she’d heard Buffy say about the outfit.

“Did she now?” Spike pursed his lips together as he looked at the outfit again. “Well, I reckon that’s right…” He laughed as he put the outfit back in the box – sixties night was looking better already.

Buffy gave Spike a quick wink that Annie didn’t see and laughed. Oh yeah, those boots would do some walkin’ alright …

“One more…” Buffy announced as she got up and retrieved the last present wrapped in the same blue paper. She would’ve sent Annie for it, but it was heavy and she definitely didn’t want it dropped, not after all the time and money she’d spent getting it shipped over from England.

Buffy checked on the babies…who had fallen asleep inside the big box that Annie’s rocking horse came in – apparently Christmas morning had taken its toll on them, before setting Spike’s last present down on his lap. He looked at her with a furrowed brow … it smelled old, even through the wrapping, but oddly familiar, and was pretty heavy.

Spike tore open the paper, but Buffy stopped him from ripping into the cardboard box, instead offering him a pair of scissors to carefully cut the tape.

“Bloody hell,” Spike muttered when he opened it and peered inside. It was a set of old…very old, leather-bound books with gold gilding … books that contained the complete works of William Shakespeare.



“They’re from 1771,” Buffy offered, watching his face for what she hoped would be excitement and joy – or at least happiness.

“Bloody hell…” Spike muttered again, picking one of the books up out of the box and flipping it open with a look of shock and wonder on his face. They were Second editions of Sir Thomas Hanmer’s “The Works of Shakespear” (sic). Six volumes in all, published in 1771.


“’Bloody hell’ good or ‘Bloody hell’ bad?” Buffy asked, still unsure if he liked them or not.

Spike looked up at her, his mouth slightly ajar; she was still standing in front of him, half holding her breath, on the verge of biting her fingernails, as she waited for his reaction. “How…how did you know?” he asked her, looking at her with unbelieving eyes.

“You helped me with it when I took that British Lit class in college – you actually liked it, and you quoted that Shakespeare stuff at the school … with the principal, remember?” Buffy asked, still not sure if he liked them or not.

“But how did you know to get this particular edition?” Spike asked, holding the book up that he had taken out of the box.




“I…I didn’t … it just seemed like the one to get… Is it wrong?” Buffy asked, worry creasing her features. She’d spent a lot of money on them – and then had to arrange for them to be shipped, with insurance, from the bookseller in London where she’d found them online.

“Wrong? No…no! Not wrong! God, Buffy! This is the very edition my father had in his library…it’s unbelievable – it’s… it could be the very same set!” Spike exclaimed, looking back at the book in his hand and flipping through it. His father’s set had been pristine … but that was over a century ago; this set was certainly in good enough condition to be the very same one. Spike, or William at the time, had spent many nights reading from them to his mother, it had been her favorite thing for him to read to her; it always reminded her of her husband and was one of the things that had inspired young William to try his hand at writing and poetry.



“Oh, God…really? I … I don’t know,” Buffy stammered, her own eyes going wide with wonder. Then it dawned on her. “The thrall…Spike! I must’ve seen you with them when I went through your memories… I don’t remember them, but subconsciously maybe…”

“God, Buffy …they’re… they’re perfect,” Spike said softly as tears stung his eyes. He closed his eyes and brought the old leather to his nose … it smelled just the same as they had when he was a human. He’d never forget that smell, never forget how the heavy pages felt in his hands or the feel of the leather, never forget how much his mother had loved those books and loved him reading from them.

Annie looked up at Buffy then back at her father. “Your Papa had those same books?” she asked Spike hesitantly.

Spike opened his eyes and blinked back his emotions. “Yeah … I used ta read to my mum from them, pet. Now I can read to you from them … Would you like that?” Spike asked her.

Annie smiled. “Yeah! And Mama? You can read to her, too!”

Spike looked up at Buffy and smiled. “Yeah … I can read to her, too.”

Buffy leaned down and feathered a soft kiss on Spike’s lips. She had hoped he’d like the books – she had no idea that they’d hold that much meaning for him when she bought them, though.

“Thank you…” Spike whispered to her as she pulled away.

“Merry Christmas,” Buffy replied with a smile as she laid her hand gently atop his hand that was holding the book and met his eyes with hers. She hoped to find joy and excitement in his eyes when he opened his present, what she saw now was so much more – like a window in his heart had been opened – a window that tied the long ago past with the present and the future … from his father, to him, to their children; it was more than she could’ve hoped for.

“Now open mine!” Annie exclaimed as she jumped up and retrieved another present from under the tree. “It’s for both of you! Tara helped me!” she explained as she excitedly gave the haphazardly wrapped gift to Buffy.

Spike put his Shakespeare books down on the floor as Buffy sat down on the couch next to him, pulling her legs up under herself and leaning in close to him before they both ripped at the bright paper on their present. The removal of the wrapping revealed another book – but definitely not an old one, it was clearly new – a scrapbook. Everyone gathered around to see the book – of course Tara had already seen it, but she and Annie kept it hidden from everyone else in the house.

On the outside cover and binding it read, “The Weckerly Family - 2004” in neat writing – obviously Tara’s, when they opened the book, it was filled with drawings done by Annie chronicling the year just past … and what a year it had been.

“Wow, Annie, you did all this?” Buffy asked in amazement.

“Tara helped me with the words and stuff …” Annie started to explain.

“Annie did most of it … it was her idea and she drew all the pictures…” Tara told them – clearly proud of all the work that Annie had done on it.

Buffy turned the pages slowly as their year in crayon drawings and simple words was laid out for her and Spike….

{{Play the Video to see the scrapbook:}}

{{Click here to hear “Stand by Me” by Ben E. King AND SEE ANNIE’S SCRAPBOOK on YouTube }}

Stand By Me - Ben E. King

When the night has come
And the land is dark
And the moon is the only light we'll see
No, I won't be afraid
Oh, I won't be afraid
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
So, darling, darling

(Chorus:)
Stand by me
Oh, stand by me
Oh, stand
Stand by me
Stand by me

If the sky that we look upon
Should tumble and fall
Or the mountains should crumble to the sea
I won't cry, I won't cry
No, I won't shed a tear
Just as long as you stand, stand by me
And, darling, darling

(Repeat chorus)

Darling, darling

(Repeat chorus until fade)

**The scrapbooK ...

** Last year, Christmas had come in January … because Spike had been in jail in Arizona on Christmas and then Annie had gotten kidnapped right afterwards … they had celebrated Buffy’s birthday and Christmas on the same day.

** Next came Dani and Billy, born on February 12th… two days before Annie’s birthday – Tara had made foot and handprints of the babies and included it in the book, and Annie had drawn pictures of the two blond bundles … one dressed in pink, the other in blue.

** Then Buffy was in the coma and didn’t wake up - Annie showed her only waking up when Spike sang their old lullaby, ‘Early One Morning’ … what she called ‘Papa’s song’.

** Then Lorne moved in and the babies came home and cried all the time.

** Then Dani got sick and had to go back to the hospital and everyone was very scared, but she got better and finally the twins stopped crying all the time when Dani got home.

** Then Minnie Mouse came to live with them … Annie loved her new pet!

** Then Annie drew her chocolate dream world and Buffy and Spike visiting her dreams from the other dimension to say goodbye … They hadn’t meant to scare her, but it had. They just wanted to make sure she knew how much they loved her and how proud they were of her, just in case they didn’t make it back from the other dimension and that Angel’s grand plan to take down the Black Thorn.

“What’s that there, pet?” Spike asked, pointing to what looked like mushrooms in the chocolate world.

“Cupcakes!” Annie explained. “Those are chocolate chip cookies and chocolate kisses and chocolate cake…” Annie clarified the rest of the items on the drawing.

“Ahhh, of course, I see it now,” Spike agreed with a smile. “Ya know, we didn’t mean to scare you, Niblett … just wanted you to know how much we love you and how proud we are of ya. I’m sorry we scared you,” Spike told her, pulling her up onto his lap as Buffy held the book out of the way.

“I know…” Annie said softly, her eyes down on the book.

“Hey – look at me,” Spike said softly, lifting Annie’s chin up with one finger. “We. Love. You. We won’t leave you – never again, neither one of us, got it?”



“Do you promise?” Annie asked, looking Spike in the eye.

“We do – we both promise,” Spike assured her, pulling his daughter into a hug and looking over her head to meet Buffy’s eyes, which were glistening with unshed tears. “We promise to stand by you and by each other forever … until not one star lights the night sky.”

Buffy laid a hand on Annie’s back as she blinked back the tears. They had put Annie through hell … and she wasn’t even six yet! How in the world could she grow up without having major ‘issues’ was beyond Buffy. This is why Slayers shouldn’t have kids… but the idea of not having her or the twins broke Buffy’s heart – she couldn’t imagine life without them. She and Spike would have to do a better job at being good parents … that definitely needed to be their New Year’s resolution for many years to come.

Spike released her and turned her around so her back was to his chest and Buffy laid the book across her knees as they continued flipping through it…

** Next was a picture of Spike with Mickey Mouse ears on and Buffy laughed aloud.

“You looked so cute in those! What happened to those ears, anyway?” Buffy asked him and Spike rolled his eyes. Those ears had been tossed in the dustbin before they even left Disneyland.

** The next page showed a sad Minnie Mouse … or Hallie Rat, she’d gotten out of the cage and run away. They still had never found her …

** The next page was one big angry scribble of colors across the page … Buffy and Spike’s eyes met – they knew what it was, the only way a nearly six year old could express the confusion and anger and sadness of their fight over her helping Angel and their month-long separation. And Annie didn’t even know about the divorce papers or Buffy trying to commit suicide by vampire…

Buffy sat the book down on the couch on the other side of her and motioned for Annie to come and sit on her lap. “C’mere, I want to tell you something…” Buffy said to Annie and Annie climbed off Spike’s knees and over to Buffy’s, still facing out, her back to Buffy. Buffy picked up the book and flipped back to the picture Annie drew of their family just after Dani got home from the hospital and Lorne had told her how to get them to stop crying. It was a happy picture – everyone smiling, everyone happy and together. Annie looked down at the picture her mother had flipped to, her expression sadly serious.

“I can’t promise that I’ll never make a mistake again, honey, but I promise that this will be us from now on. Papa and me, we made a mistake – we both made mistakes and it hurt you, and neither of us ever wanted to hurt you. I made a promise to Papa and I’m making it to you right now – I’ll never leave, I’ll never give up no matter what and he’ll never leave, either. We’ll be together from now on – what happened in this picture,” Buffy continued, turning back to the scribbled page, “won’t happen again. We love you very much. Do you believe me?” Buffy asked softly, wrapping her arms around Annie and leaning the side of her head against her daughter’s.

“You promise, too?” Annie asked softly, her eyes glued on the book in her lap.

“Yeah … we both promise, cross our hearts,” Buffy assured her.

Annie nodded her head slowly. “Good… I missed you when you were gone … and I got tired of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches…”

Buffy smiled and looked at Spike who just rolled his eyes. He knew Buffy was right, though – they’d hurt Annie with their selfishness, and he knew he was more to blame than Buffy. He’d handled that all wrong from the beginning … she’d been wrong to lie to him, but his stubborn pride had trumped her mistake in spades.

“I’ll make sure you never have to suffer through endless peanut butter and jelly again…” Buffy assured her again. “I love you, Anne Joyce,” Buffy told her softly as she pressed a kiss to her daughter’s cheek.

“I love you, too,” Annie replied as she turned the page in the book – leaving the sadness and worry of that time behind – she believed their promises. She still worried about her parents – she knew what they did was different than other grownups, but she felt sure now that neither of them would leave again if there was any possible way to help it…as long as there was one star left in the sky, they would be standing by her and by each other.

** The next picture showed Annie on the beach in the sun with Spike … Spike had a green dot on his chest, symbolizing where the Gem of Amarra had been embedded next to his heart.


** Next came Willow and Tara’s handfasting/wedding … it showed the two witches being showered with lavender, their hands joined together with the red ribbon as well as the broom they’d jumped and the purple flowers they’d carried in their bouquets.

** The next drawing was obviously Cordelia in her wedding gown standing next to a huge peacock feather … Spike thought Angel had never look so good…

** Spike moaned at the next picture, though – obviously Angel, telling the ‘Spike fell off the horse’ story … one time, one time he fell off a bloody horse – and it didn’t even count ‘cause the miserable beast scrubbed him off on a bloody tree, and now it was forever memorialized in Annie’s scrapbook.

“Did you really ride horses lots when you were young?” Annie asked, looking over at Spike from her perch on Buffy’s lap.

“Yeah … rode my share – bloody miserable beasts, they are…” Spike grumbled. He’d never gotten on really well with horses … they made him nervous, too unpredictable and too big for him to control. He was one happy vampire when the automobile was invented…he gladly swapped out stealing cars or motorbikes for stealing horses. Cars might leave you stranded, but they didn’t kick or buck or bite or scrub you off on trees and if you told them to go left, they bloody well did.

“Not Black Beauty or Flicka or My Little Pony …” Annie pointed out. “They’re nice.”

“I reckon Mr. Ed was nice, too … don’t mean I want to ride him around town, pet. Trust me, cars are much better than horses…” Spike argued.

Annie scrunched up her face like she didn’t agree with him, but didn’t say anything more about it. Some people just didn’t know a good thing when they saw it … next year Santa would bring her a real pony and then Papa would see how great they were… until then, she could practice on the rocking horse Uncle Giles had given her.

**The final picture was one of the whole family … the whole extended family …including Lorne, Xander, Anya and JJ, Wes and Faith, Giles, Tara and Willow as well as Buffy, Spike, Dani, Billy and Annie and Miss Kitty, with her one blue eye and one green eye. Spike was happy that she hadn’t included ‘grandpa Angel’ or Cordy in the picture…

“Annie, I love it! Thank you so much!” Buffy told her sincerely, hugging Annie against her and dropping a kiss on the top of her head.

“Brilliant, Niblett,” Spike agreed, taking the book from Buffy’s hands and flipping through it again from the beginning.

A lot had happened to them this past year … of course, that wasn’t anything that unusual, but it was kind of shocking to see it all brought together in one place like that. Plus there were things not in there – things that Annie didn’t know about, like the huge battle with the armies of hell in the other dimension, like the thrall Dru had put on Spike and the fight in the pool when he nearly killed Buffy. What they had been through this last year, if chronicled thoroughly, would fill a bloody Encyclopedia Britannica. Spike hoped that next year’s scrap book would be full of happy memories … of picnics and bike rides and beaches, chocolate cakes and candy cane cookies and happy stories at bedtime and babies’ first steps and first words and that there was no need for a page with angry, frightened scrawls ever again.

“Thank you, Anne Joyce,” Spike said sincerely, looking up from the book and meeting Annie’s eyes. “I love it too. You’re a special girl…one in a million, you are, pet.”

Annie smiled proudly as Spike passed the book to Willow and she and Lorne began looking through it. Annie looked up at Tara who was still standing nearby. “Thank you for helping me, Aunt Tara,” Annie told her, still beaming with pride that her parents had liked it.

“You’re welcome, sweetie… Next year we’ll start sooner so you don’t have to do it all at the end…” Tara suggested, giving Annie a crooked smile and ruffling a hand through the top of her hair. Tara had worked hard to get the book done by Christmas. To get it bound and help Annie with writing the words she wasn’t sure of ... but it was worth it to see the pride on her face and to hear Buffy and Spike both make promises to never act so stupidly again.

Tara watched as Spike grabbed Buffy and Annie into a strong hug on the couch… Annie giggling as she got lightly smooshed between the two warriors. Tara knew that Buffy and Spike had vowed to stand by each other - that they had learned a hard lesson during that time they were apart, but it was good to see and hear them assure Annie of the same thing. The dark worry that she’d seen in Annie’s aura since that happened seemed to lift as Spike and Buffy hugged her between them.

Annie started tickling Spike’s sides and he yelped and wiggled to try and get free of Buffy’s hold or still Annie’s hands. Annie squealed in delight as Buffy kept Spike from escaping her tickle torture and before long they’d all tumbled off the couch onto the floor and collapsed in waves of laughter among brightly colored shreds of paper and boxes and toys …

The ruckus woke the babies up and they crawled over to see what was going on. Soon there were shrieks of laughter coming from all the Weckerlys as a round-robin tickle-fest ensued on the floor under the Christmas tree. Even Elmo couldn’t hold a light to the never-ending giggles that seemed to fill the whole mansion with joy and glee this Christmas morning.

Tara laughed as she watched them – she felt sure everything would be alright now; maybe not easy – ‘cause life on the Hellmouth would never be easy, but it would be alright – they were standing together again and that would make all the difference in the world.

**~**
More Christmas Day to come ….the rest of the gang will be here soon…

Saturday, December 25th, 2004 (Christmas Day):

Late morning:

Giles, Faith, Wesley, Anya, Xander, and JJ, and Clem arrived bearing food for the big Christmas feast at the mansion. It had become a tradition for all of Spike and Buffy’s friends to gather here on holidays. They had the most room – plenty of space for the kids and adults to mix and mingle or just relax. Plus, they had the only dining room that would accommodate their growing circle of friends and the double oven in the kitchen helped to get everything cooked for the hungry mob. They didn’t often use the large, formal dining room – Spike, Buffy and the kids usually just ate in the kitchen, but it was put into use on special occasions, and Christmas day certainly qualified.



Everyone brought a covered dish (or two or three) … usually their ‘specialty’, depending on the occasion. For Christmas, Anya and Xander brought pies… one of each: apple, pumpkin, cherry, and pecan; Giles usually brought the rolls, but Buffy had asked if, as a surprise for Spike this year, he could make a traditional English Christmas pudding … so he ordered one and had it shipped over from England (since that wasn’t something you can just whip up like tapioca). He also got enough Christmas crackers for everyone and brought a bottle of brandy to use to light the Christmas pudding ablaze…there may be enough left for him to have a sip or two after dinner…



Faith lucked out and got to bring the rolls in Giles’ stead, Wesley brought three bottles of wine and a bottle of Peppermint Schnapps and Clem brought appetizers, also known as chips and dip, they were his specialty.

Buffy, Willow, and Tara cooked a turkey and stuffing and warmed a honey-baked, spiral cut ham, along with candied yams, mashed potatoes, gravy, peas, and green beans. Lorne got the table set and was in charge of cleanup, Spike was in charge of keeping the kids out of everyone’s hair.

For Christmas, Buffy and Spike had given Faith and Wesley gift cards to Bed, Bath, and Beyond to help them furnish their new apartments; they gave JJ some toys and books (which they had sent home with Xander and Anya so he could open them this morning); they gave Xander and Anya a certificate for a ‘romantic long weekend at Big Sur,’ including a cabin at the same place Spike and Buffy loved, meals at the best restaurant, and free babysitting for JJ for whatever weekend they wanted to go and they gave Tara and Willow the same – sans the babysitting.

Buffy was always at a loss when it came to Giles. He got the usual – ties and a bottle of scotch from her, but Spike had a different idea …

“Santa left this ‘ere for ya, Watcher,” Spike explained as he handed Giles a small, brightly wrapped box.

Giles furrowed his brow as he took it from Spike. He’d already gotten his normal gift from Buffy … what in the world could this be? Buffy stood in the doorway of the kitchen, leaning on the jamb, as Giles sat down on the couch and opened Spike’s gift. She wasn’t too sure about it herself…but Spike wanted to do it, so, of course, he did.

Giles pulled the paper off carefully as Spike stood over him and watched.

“An iPod?” Giles asked with confusion as he pulled the box out. “Uhhh…thank you …but…” Giles started to object – he wasn’t really an iPod type person … he was a vinyl person.



“Come into the twenty-first century, Rupert,” Spike insisted, sitting down next to him and pulling the silver music player out of the box, attaching the earphones and sticking them in Giles’ ears before cueing up The Who’s ‘Who’s Next’ album for him. Spike had charged it and pre-loaded the iPod with every classic ‘60s album he could think of.

Giles frowned when Spike stuck the earphones in his ears …this wasn’t how music was supposed to be heard – it was sacrilege!

“Spike …” Giles started to object and he began pulling the earphones out of his ears when the music started. It was clear and crisp – almost like Roger Daltry was standing right there singing. The guitar licks were sharp – you could hear every note that Pete Townsend played. Still – where was the album? Where was the cardboard you could hold in your hands? The liner notes? The pictures?

“I know it ain’t the same, Rupe,” Spike told him, as if reading his mind, “But you’ve got all the music at your fingertips … hundreds of bloody albums right ‘ere,” Spike informed him, holding the small player up and waving it in front of his face. “It’s bloody amazin’.”

“I don’t know,” Giles droned … he still wasn’t completely convinced. “How do you get the music beamed into that thing?”

“I’ll show ya’. If I can do it, you can bloody well do it. Hell, Annie can do it for ya if you feed ‘er chocolate,” Spike assured Giles … but Giles had stopped listening to Spike – he’d closed his eyes and began singing softly along with The Who … “♫ No one knows what it’s like to be the bad man, to be the sad man, behind blue eyes…”

Spike smirked and pressed the player into Giles’ palm … he knew he’d like it if he’d just give it a bloody chance. Giles took one of the ear buds out and soon Spike was showing him how to work the iPod … how to choose an album, a song, an artist, a playlist, adjust the volume, etc.



Spike looked up at Buffy and smiled triumphantly. Buffy smiled and shook her head before turning and going back into the kitchen, she would’ve never believed it in a million years – Giles moving away from tradition. Next thing you know he’d stop wearing ties and drinking scotch, then what was she gonna get him for Christmas?


**~**

Anya and Xander came into the great room a little while later after putting their offerings in the kitchen to find Spike sitting on the floor entertaining JJ, Dani, and Billy. The ‘cousins’ were all intently watching as he turned the handle on a jack-in-the-box. The toy played “Pop Goes the Weasel” on the tinny music box as he cranked it.

Spike stopped when they came in and waited for Anya and Xander to sit down on the couch near him and the babies before starting again.

“Got this for the Whelp,” Spike told them. “He really likes it. Here – give it a go,” he said to Anya as he stood up and let her slide down off the couch and sit in his spot on the floor.

“Did you know ‘jack-in-the-box’ in French is called ‘diable en boîte’ … ‘boxed devil’?” Anya pointed out as she sat down. “That’s weird … I never understood where they got that…”

“It’s ‘cause Sir John Schorne cast the devil into a boot to protect the village of North Marston in Buckinghamshire in the 1300s - that’s where jack-in-the-box started… you weren’t there?” Spike asked her with a smirk. She always seemed to have been at every other historical event over the last thousand years.

“Huh…” Anya thought a minute. “Nope – I was in Scotland … they beat you Brits and kept their independence … they kicked ass with their longbows. I turned one of those archers into a bull’s-eye as I recall … he was poking his ‘longbow’ in places it shouldn’t be…ahhhh, those were fun times,” Anya reminisced with a sigh.

“Babies love jack-in-the-boxes,” Xander said enthusiastically, trying to change the subject – he hated it when Anya started talking about her vengeance days and all the wars she’d been to – she collected wars like normal people collected concert t-shirts.

Spike smirked as he watched Anya start to turn the crank. Spike added the lyrics to the music box music as she turned the handle …

“♫All around the mulberry bush
The monkey chased the weasel;
The monkey thought 'twas all in fun,
Pop! goes the weasel.”

When the ‘Jack’ popped up out of the box, all three babies laughed and reached for it … but Anya shrieked in terror and jumped back, crawling backwards on the floor away from the hideous creature. The “Jack” in this box was a cute bunny rabbit.



“Xander! Get JJ away!” she screamed at her husband as if the devil had actually just jumped out of the box.

“Are you crazy!?? I can’t believe you!” she screamed at Spike, standing up as Xander picked JJ up and handed him to her. She held JJ close to her chest, turning her back and putting herself between him and the devil in the box.



“He’s lost his soul again! Check him for a soul!” Anya demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Spike.

Spike laughed. “What? He likes it…they all do,” Spike pointed out, motioning to Dani and Billy who were laughing and waving their arms up and down, urging the bunny to do it again.

“Geez, Spike …” Xander moaned and rolled his eyes as Anya huffed and stomped out of the room with their son.

“What?” Spike asked innocently as he moved back over to where the twins were waiting for someone to make the rabbit pop again.

“Ok – what do I have to do to get you to stop? Anya didn’t know Annie was listening … can’t you give her a break?” Xander asked, stepping in front of Spike to stop him from sitting back down. “C’mon, man – you’re killin’ me here.”

Spike pursed his lips together and rolled his eyes to the ceiling in thought. Xander was already doing all the maintenance on all the cars and the Harley… hmmmmm.

“Buffy wants a redo on the upstairs bath … get rid of that lime green, pink, and black tile; says its ‘pukey’. How ‘bout for ‘er birthday, I buy new tile and you take that old bit out and pop in the new…” Spike suggested.

“And you’ll quit with the bunnies?” Xander asked suspiciously, still not trusting Spike to stop.

“Yeah – no more bunnies,” Spike agreed.

“No rabbits, no Peter Cottontail, no Bugs Bunny, no Roger Rabbit… absolutely no pictures, discussion, toys, books, songs, games … videos – nothing,” Xander clarified. “Starting now.”

Spike rolled his eyes and stuck out his right hand. “Deal.”

Xander shook Spike’s hand – he’d rather spend a few of his weekends redoing their bathroom than the rest of his life listening to Anya complain about Spike and his evil bunny fetish.

“Can you please put that up now?” Xander asked, motioning his head towards the rabbit-in-the-box.

“It’s JJ’s… he likes it,” Spike reminded Xander.

“JJ said to donate it to some toy starved child in another country – far away from here,” Xander told him as he turned to go find his wife and settle her down. Xander turned back before entering the kitchen to see if Spike was getting rid of the toy. “‘Starting now’ means starting now …” Xander reminded him, waving his hand at the box that was still sitting on the floor.

“No worries,” Spike assured Xander as he picked it up and pushed the bunny back down in the box and closed the lid. “See? All gone!”

“Spike! ‘Pukey tiles’ … remember? Do you know how to lay tile?” Xander asked him.

Spike sighed and took the toy and put it up on one of the bookshelves and pulled some books in front of it. He’d gotten his point across to Anya anyway – he would’ve probably stopped with the rabbit talk soon regardless…now he got new bathroom tile for Buffy’s birthday out of the deal. Wasn’t that what Christmas was all about, after all? He’d made Xander happy, Anya would be happy, Buffy would be happy – even Willow and Tara would be happy with a remodeled bathroom … brilliant!

**~**

Xander got Anya calmed down and told her that Spike wouldn’t bring up the ‘B’ word or the ‘R’ word anymore.

“How did you manage that? Did you tell him you weren’t gonna stand for him terrorizing your family anymore? Did you threaten him? Oh! Did you rough him up with your big, rippling construction muscles?” Anya asked him, running her hand down one of Xander’s arms.

“Uhhh…sort of,” Xander hedged.

“Oh, Xander! You defended us from that evil lunatic vampire … God, that’s so sexy! I want to take you home right now and give you lots of orgas…uhhhh,” Anya stopped and looked around the kitchen – everyone was looking at her, including Annie who was helping Buffy mix the stuffing for the turkey.

“What I mean is…later, we should go home and play hot, sweaty Scrabble…all night long,” Anya amended.

“Hot, sweaty Scrabble?” Buffy asked with a smirk, looking from Anya to Xander.

“Yeah – Scrabble’s very… very hot and sweaty when played right,” Anya defended.

“Who knew? We’ve been doing it wrong all this time,” Buffy laughed and rolled her eyes. Wait until Annie asked Spike how to play hot, sweaty Scrabble.

**~**

The meal, made up of everyone’s contributions, was perfectly wonderful. The Christmas Pudding was a huge success … everyone applauded when Spike set it on fire … Annie was enthralled with it! It was the neatest edible thing she’d ever seen … if it had only been chocolate, that would’ve sealed it as her favorite thing ever.

“Why do you put that holly on there and then set it on fire?” Buffy asked later. “I mean, who wants to eat the part with the holly ashes on it?”

“It’s tradition, luv,” Spike assured her.

“It’s a dumb tradition – who made that tradition up? The Devonshire Holly Growers Cooperative?”

“Actually,” Anya started and Spike rolled his eyes … Here we go again…



“The holly on the top of the pudding is a reminder of Jesus' Crown of Thorns that he wore when he was crucified,” Anya continued.

“I suppose you attended that function, did you? Along with the last supper and the parting of the Red Sea? Front row seats, was it?” Spike suggested with a smirk.

Anya rolled her eyes. “I’m not that old! Xander, do I look that old?” she asked, turning to her husband.

“No, snookums, definitely not,” Xander assured her.

“If my memory serves from vacation Bible school, Jesus wasn’t burned … plus – not crucified on Christmas. So, again – dumb tradition,” Buffy insisted.

“Well, in fact, Christmas pudding does have some traditions relating to Easter,” Giles reluctantly came to Anya’s aid. “In addition, during the Middle Ages, holly was thought to bring good luck and to have healing powers. It was often planted near houses in the belief that it protected the inhabitants, so, perhaps you’d rather go with that theory…” he suggested as he began serving the pudding.

Buffy snorted softly but didn’t say anything else … why wouldn’t you put the holly on it after setting it on fire? English customs were so…oddly English. But, the fire bit was neat, Spike seemed to have enjoyed it, and she didn’t have to make it, so that was all that mattered.

About halfway through the traditional dessert Tara hit something hard in her pudding with her spoon. “What the heck is this?” she asked, picking something out of her plate.

“It’s a silver six-pence, pet,” Spike offered.

“And it’s in my pudding because…?” Tara asked, cleaning the coin off.

“It’s probably a tradition,” Buffy posited, rolling her eyes.

“Indeed. It is tradition,” Giles explained. “The coin brings luck to the person that gets it.”

“There was money in the pudding?” Anya asked, suddenly looking closely in her plate for any sign of a coin. “No one told me there’d be money in the pudding…”

Suddenly, everyone started looking in their plates for silver coins…well, everyone except Spike and Giles. “There’s only one, you nits! Ya can’t all have good luck … Glinda got it – you all lose.”

Everyone else sighed and went back to eating the brandy soaked pudding. Buffy definitely thought that the brandy was the whole reason Christmas pudding was so popular – well that and the lighting on fire thing, that was pretty cool, too. Too bad there wasn’t chocolate involved … that would’ve made it perfect. She wondered if it would be breaking tradition if she drizzled some Hershey’s syrup over it…

**~**

“Welcome to the First Annual Crawford Street Christmas Review!” Lorne announced later that afternoon from the small stage that had been set up in the open area of the great room between the research area and the garden doors and everyone in the audience clapped and whistled.

Lorne had had a hard time convincing everyone to start a new Christmas tradition … a private talent show performed by and for Spike and Buffy’s extended family, but finally everyone had agreed, some more reluctantly than others. Giles and Spike were easy to get onboard – after all, they’d performed onstage at the Bronze before, this would be nothing for them. Even Buffy wasn’t too hard to convince, especially when Lorne pointed out how much Annie would enjoy it. Faith and Wesley were the hardest, insisting that they didn’t really have any talents – well, Faith actually said her best talents weren’t “G” rated, but in the end, everyone had bought into the idea.

Lorne had the low stage set up and a portable karaoke system brought in for background music for those who wanted to sing – but any talent was welcome. This was the kind of thing he loved … performing and showing others the joy of it – especially the children. JJ, Dani, and Billy were too young to really get much out of it yet, but Annie would. If he had a family of his own, it's what he would do for them, and he loved his adopted family just as much as if they’d been his own. This was why he left his home dimension, his actual family, and everything he knew behind him and made a new life here, where singing was not only tolerated, but encouraged and enjoyed.



Lorne kicked the show off with one of his favorite Christmas songs…White Christmas.

{{Click here to hear “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby on YouTube }}

Everyone applauded enthusiastically as Lorne finished. He took a deep bow before handing the stage over to Giles, who had volunteered to go next.

Giles brought his guitar with him as he took the stage and sat down on a stool there.

“Some of you may know this song … for those of you who don’t know it, come back with me to the twentieth century…”



Giles began playing his guitar softly, but shortened the intro of the song (as he did the instrumentals in the middle to bring a nine minute song down to something that wouldn’t challenge the attention span of his overstuffed, and perhaps slightly tipsy, audience) before starting to sing “Freebird”…


{{Click here to hear “Freebird” by Tony Head as Giles on YouTube }}


Annie sat on the floor in front of the stage captivated by Uncle Giles – who had transformed into a rock star of sorts right in front of her. She looked around the room, no one else seemed surprised by it – but she’d never seen it before. When and where had he learned to do that? It wasn’t the lyrics that held her captivated; it was his voice, melding with the notes coming from his guitar, that mesmerized her … it was almost magical.

Lorne watched Annie as she watched Giles and he knew immediately that he’d done the right thing by badgering everyone into this. Annie was enthralled by the music; music coming not from an iPod or a radio or the TV, but from the instrument itself. Even the babies were quiet and listening intently as Giles played and sang. The line from “The Mourning Bride”: Music has charms to soothe the savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak, came to Lorne’s mind. It was true – music seemed to have an otherworldly power – as if it were sent down from the gods. He was sure this tradition would be something Annie, and later JJ, Dani, and Billy, would carry in their hearts their whole lives.

Everyone clapped enthusiastically as Giles played the last note. He stood up and took an exaggerated bow before relinquishing the stage to Tara. Tara really wanted to get this over with so she could enjoy the rest of the show, but she didn’t want to go first, so she’d asked to go second. She was in the choir at her church back home when she was a kid, but had never had the confidence to sing anything solo before, so she was really nervous.

Everyone applauded as she hesitantly took the stage. Spike caught her eye and gave her a confident nod, “You can do it,” he mouthed to her and Tara smiled and nodded back at him – she could do it. She picked out a song to sing especially for Willow, she focused on her wife, her soul mate, as she sang, letting her heart come through and fill the whole room with warmth and love.



{{Click here to hear “Under Your Spell” by Amber Benson as Tara on YouTube }}

I lived my life in shadow
Never the sun on my face.
It didn't seem so sad, though
I figured that was my place
Now I'm bathed in light
Something just isn't right.
I'm under your spell
How else could it be
Anyone would notice me?
It's magic, I can tell
How you set me free
Brought me out so easily.

I saw a world enchanted
Spirits and charms in the air.
I always took for granted
I was the only one there.
But your power shone
Brighter than any I've known.
I'm under your spell
Nothing I can do
You just took my soul with you
You worked your charms so well
Finally, I knew
Everything I dreamed was true
You made me believe.

The moon to the tide
I can feel you inside

I'm under your spell
Surging like the sea
Pulled to you so helplessly
I break with every swell
Lost in ecstasy
Spread beneath my willow tree
You make me complete!
You make me com-plete
You make me com-plete

As Tara finished, Willow stood up and joined her on stage, wrapping her arms around her dropping a soft kiss on Tara’s lips.

“That was amazing…” Willow whispered to her as everyone else applauded.

Tara gave everyone a crooked smile and curtsied before she and Willow stepped down off the stage; Tara felt on top of the world! She did it! She actually did it!

Clem was next up…. he had a magic act.



“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls … prepare to be amazed!” Clem announced dramatically.

“Nothing up my sleeves …” Clem pointed out, showing his bare arms to the audience.

“Pffft…nothing up his sleeves my sodding ass,” Spike snorted quietly to Buffy. “He could hide a fifty-seven Chevy in the bloody folds of his skin!” he continued in a whisper.

Buffy laughed as they watched Clem pull a big, fluffy red ball out from behind Dani’s ear and hand to her as she laughed; he pulled a quarter out of Anya’s ear, which Anya grabbed immediately and pocketed, then he turned a red scarf into a bouquet of flowers for Buffy. He had planned on pulling a (fake) rabbit out of a hat as the finale, but Spike stopped him – he didn’t want to be accused of instigating it and lose his tile man, so instead, Clem pulled Elmo out of the hat and Annie shrieked in amazement as he handed it back to her – it had been right next to her on the floor a minute ago – Clem could do magic!

“Ta-da!” Clem announced at the end and everyone applauded him. Clem smiled and took his seat near Spike and Buffy. Spike gave him a fist bump – the Elmo thing was brilliant … even though just about everyone except Annie had seen him when he picked it up with one hand as he was pulling the ball out of Dani’s ear with the other. But, he didn’t have the advantage of scantily clad assistants to draw the audience’s attention away from him for tricks like that…

Clem was glad that he’d met Spike at the kitten poker games at Willy’s and they’d become friends over the years. It wasn’t easy for him to make a lot of friends – most demons were just a bit too demony for him … and most humans were afraid of him. Spike and Buffy had welcomed him into their family without reservation; it really made Clem feel less like an outcast and more like a regular guy – a regular guy with lots of skin, floppy ears, red eyes, and less than ideal dental insurance.



Faith was up next – since she couldn’t display her best talents with the “G” rating this show required, she settled for one further down the line … drinking shots while standing on her head. Faith got her balance, standing on her head as her lovely assistant, Wesley, handed her shot after shot of Peppermint Schnapps, which she downed in quick succession as everyone cheered her on. After her twelfth shot, Faith rolled down gracefully from her headstand and sprang up to her feet, throwing her hands in the air and everyone applauded and laughed.



“Only Faith,” Buffy whispered to Spike as Faith took a deep bow and then did a pirouette before leaving the stage.


“Bet her blood tastes like hundred-proof candy canes…” Spike mused and Buffy elbowed him in the ribs.

“You’ll never know,” she informed him with a sideways glare.

Spike laughed – Buffy was so cute when she was jealous.

Anya and Xander were up next … they were showing off what they’d learned in their dance classes with a sexy tango. But, of course, Xander had to add some levity to it by dancing to the ‘Masochism Tango’ …

{{Click here to hear "Masochism Tango" by Tom Lehrer on YouTube }}

I ache for the touch of your lips, dear,
But much more for the touch of your whips, dear.
You can raise welts
Like nobody else,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango.

Let our love be a flame, not an ember,
Say it's me that you want to dismember.
Blacken my eye,
Set fire to my tie,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango.

At your command
Before you here I stand,
My heart is in my hand. Ecch!
It's here that I must be.
My heart entreats,
Just hear those savage beats,
And go put on your cleats
And come and trample me.

Your heart is hard as stone or mahogany,
That's why I'm in such exquisite agony.
My soul is on fire,
It's aflame with desire,
Which is why I perspire
When we tango.

You caught my nose
In your left castanet, love,
I can feel the pain yet, love,
Ev'ry time I hear drums.

And I envy the rose
That you held in your teeth, love,
With the thorns underneath, love,
Sticking into your gums.

Your eyes cast a spell that bewitches.
The last time I needed twenty stitches
To sew up the gash
You made with your lash,
As we danced to the Masochism Tango.

Bash in my brain,
And make me scream with pain,
Then kick me once again,
And say we'll never part.

I know too well
I'm underneath your spell,
So, darling, if you smell
Something burning, it's my heart.
Excuse me!

Take your cigarette from its holder,
And burn your initials in my shoulder.
Fracture my spine,
And swear that you're mine,
As we dance to the Maso-chism Tango.




Everyone hooted and hollered at each dramatic pause in the dance, which just made Xander ham it up even more. They finished with a flourish … with Anya in a deep dip, leaning down nearly to the floor in Xander’s arms and everyone whistled and applauded as they held the pose at the end. Still holding hands, Xander bowed deeply and Anya curtseyed to their audience; she was beaming – the spicy wings and beer diet, along with the dance lessons, really seemed to be paying dividends now! Maybe they could get on one of those talent shows and win some money…

Willow was up next. She had insisted to Lorne that she not only could not sing, but would not; in fact she had no talents to put on display …



“I can read, write, do arithmetic … hey! I could work out a calculus problem on a blackboard for everyone!” she’d suggested to Lorne when he approached her about it, but he just shook his head. “A dry-erase board?” she amended hopefully, but Lorne just rolled his eyes.

“Break down a sentence into its elements … nouns, verbs, adjectives…you know,” she suggested next and he shook his head again.

“I can do magic…but you already have a magic act…” she sighed. “Why don’t you let the witch do the magic and Clem can do something …‘Clemish’?”

“Because you do magic all the time, that’s not something challenging or new – it’s almost like your job,” Lorne explained. “Tara’s singing … why don’t you just try?”

Willow sighed. “How about I play a song and lip-sync?” she begged, her shoulders slumping.

Lorne rolled his eyes. “Just try, Sugar Plum – you’ll be surprised what you can do if you just put your fears aside. C’mon, it’ll be fun!” Lorne encouraged her.

Maybe she could write a magic spell that would make everyone just think that she’d sung …

But, in the end, of course, she couldn’t write a spell to use magic for personal gain, that would be wrong. As she stood behind Spike, who was seated with Buffy on the couch, waiting for Xander and Anya to finish, she muttered to herself, “I could sure use some courage…” as she tried to calm her nerves and steady her breathing.

Spike lifted the half empty bottle of Peppermint Schnapps that he’d confiscated from Wesley up over his head so she could reach it.

“Thanks,” Willow whispered as she took the bottle, removed the cap and gulped down a big swallow of the hundred proof, liquid candy cane. At least she’d have fresh breath as she ruptured everyone’s eardrums with her singing.

Willow took one more swig of the sweet liquid as Xander and Anya took their bows and then she handed the bottle back to Spike … Oh Goddess, I hope that courage kicks in soon…

Willow had chosen a song that she could sing for Tara - Willow hadn’t known when she’d picked it that Tara had chosen a song to sing just for her, but now her choice seemed serendipitous. She had to change a couple of the words to make it work for them, but she loved the song and it reflected exactly how she felt about her girlfriend…

Willow took the stage, her eyes met Tara’s and the courage kicked in just in time – was it the Schnapps or the love she saw in Tara’s eyes that gave her the courage?

{{Click here to hear "Grow Old Along With Me” by Mary Chapin Carpenter on YouTube }}

Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be
When our time has come
We will be as one
God bless our love
God bless our love

Grow old along with me
Two branches of one tree
Face the setting sun
When the day is done
God bless our love
God bless our love

Spending our lives together
Lovers and friends forever
World without end
World without end

Grow old along with me
Whatever fate decrees
We will see it through
For our love is true
God bless our love
God bless our love

When the song was over, Tara joined her on the stage and hugged her tightly as everyone applauded Willow’s efforts – she’d done really well – not a ruptured eardrum in the house.

Willow grinned as Tara released her and Willow took a bow – she’d done it and it felt great! Lorne had been right – she could do it and, now that it was over, it was fun! Or was that the Schnapps?

Lorne took the stage as Willow and Tara stepped down. “There will be a short intermission before our next act …” he announced. “Ten minutes – but don’t be late – you won’t want to miss this one!” he informed them as everyone stood up and headed back towards the kitchen to refill their glasses and stuff a little more pie or turkey into their overstuffed bodies.

Spike and Buffy headed in the opposite direction, into the training room to get ready for their duet…

When everyone was back in their seats, Buffy and Spike emerged from the training room … as Sonny and Cher.





They both had on wigs – Buffy had long, straight, black hair and bangs; Spike had shoulder length brown hair and a small, furry rug, also known as a fake moustache, glued onto his upper lip. Buffy was dressed in ‘70s style white, bell bottom hip-huggers and a tie-dye, midriff baring halter top; Spike had on a long sleeved, white peasant shirt, a faux fur vest, and bell bottom jeans that sported lime green and black stripes.

Everyone broke out laughing and cheering as they walked, in character, from the training room to the stage – Buffy swung her long, straight hair like Cher would, flipping it back over her shoulder when it fell forward and pressed her tongue against her cheek as she walked hand in hand with Spike, who pursed his lips and dared anyone to say anything to him. If anyone said one word about the costume, he’d rip their heart out and feed it to them.

The Sonny and Cher thing had been Lorne’s idea – everyone knew Spike and Buffy could sing and dance, but doing an impersonation while singing would add an extra challenge to it…Buffy had loved the idea, but Spike was harder to convince.

“Right then – you get to be tall, dark, and sexy and I get to be short, dumpy, and dead,” he’d objected at the time.

“You are dead, so that kinda works out …” Buffy pointed out with a smile and Spike rolled his eyes. “Aww, c’mon, honey – it’ll be fun – being all rock star retro and stuff.”



“Pfffft,” Spike snorted. “Sonny was not a bloody rock star! Cher was the bloody talent, she’s the star - he just lucked out there for a while, getting to stand in her spotlight…” Spike’s voice trailed off and he pursed his lips together – isn’t that exactly what he’d told Buffy about himself – she was the star, he was just lucky enough to stand next to her, to be bathed in her light?

Buffy wrapped her arms around Spike’s neck and pressed her body against his. “I’ll bet Cher rocked Sonny’s nights … I’ll bet she’d rock yours. Tell me you never had the hots for Cher and we won’t do it,” Buffy whispered seductively against his ear.

Spike pulled back and arched one brow at her … an image of Buffy as Cher rocking his night flashed in his mind and his blood abandoned his brain and flowed quickly south of the border. “Bloody hell,” he muttered and nodded his acquiescence – he never could resist Buffy in a costume.

Lorne had placed a small box on the stage and Buffy stepped up on it so she’d be slightly taller than Spike, just to keep in character. Buffy continued to swing her hair dramatically as the music started, the audience quieted, and the warriors began singing “I Got You Babe” as Sonny and Cher.

Spike endeavored to sing like Sonny, through his nose and with an American accent … which was asking a lot. As he looked into Buffy’s eyes, half veiled with dark bangs, and watched her move like Cher, smile like Cher … sing like Cher – it got easier and easier for him to get into character and become Sonny. Their audience seemed to be enjoying the show, hooting and hollering and dancing – maybe being a dead almost-rock star wasn’t so bad, after all.

They each sang more to each other than their audience as they got more and more into character; so many of the lyrics still held meaning for them as Spike and Buffy – it wasn’t hard to put their hearts into the performance.

{{Click here to hear "I Got You Babe” by Sonny and Cher on YouTube }}


♫I got flowers in the spring
I got you to wear my ring
And when I'm sad, you're a clown
And if I get scared, you're always around
Then put your little hand in mine
There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb

I got you to hold my hand
I got you to understand
I got you to walk with me
I got you to talk with me
I got you to kiss goodnight
I got you to hold me tight
I got you, I won't let go
I got you to love me so
Babe, I got you babe
I got you babe♫


By the time they’d gotten to the “I got you babes” at the end of the song, everyone, even Annie, who’d never heard the song before, joined in with them. And it was true – they all had each other. This group of misfits, ne’er-do-wells …kooks, had come together and suddenly found where they fit, a place that they did do well, even if the rest of the world never knew it.

Everyone laughed and cheered and hugged as the song came to an end. Buffy wrapped her arms around Spike and took his lips in a sweet kiss.

“I love you, babe,” she whispered to him as their lips parted – laughing lightly as his fake mustache tickled her nose.

“I love you, too, you retro rock star,” Spike replied before leaning in for another kiss. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tightly, picking her up off the box she was standing on and setting her down lightly on the stage in front of him.

Spike and Buffy finally broke their embrace and took their bows, pulling their wigs off as they bent down and waving them at the audience before sitting back down in their places on the couch to await the final act – Annie.

Lorne had worked with Annie on her act – it was going to be the finale and was a surprise for everyone, well, except Lorne and Annie.

“Now for our final act to conclude this First, what I hope will be Annual, Crawford Street Christmas Review … Miss Annie Weckerly performing the Hokey-Pokey!” Lorne announced and everyone clapped as Annie clambered up onto the stage with Lorne.



Everyone had cameras flashing off and on through the whole show, but everyone’s came out at once when Annie took the stage – plus Willow had the video camera going, as well. Buffy and Spike could use this for blackmail when Annie was about fifteen … they could get all kinds of chores done with this hanging over her head.

Lorne started the music and he sang the words along with her as she did the dance…

{{Click here to hear "The Hokey Pokey” on YouTube }}


♫ “You put your right foot in, you put your right foot out, you put your right foot in and you shake it all about. You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about!” Lorne sang as Annie put her right foot in and pulled it out, put it in and shook it all about then danced around in circles, swinging her hips and waving her arms in the air as she did the ‘hokey-pokey’.

Everyone laughed and cheered as she went through the left foot, right hand, and left hand… then Lorne announced, “Ok, everyone on your feet … audience participation time!”

“Bloody hell,” Spike moaned, rolling his head back and looking up at the ceiling – he had been enjoying it up until now – Annie was doing brilliantly. Wasn’t it bad enough that he was dressed like a ‘70s reject? No way was he doing the Hokey-Pokey, too – that was just more than Big Bad could handle in one day.

All the girls, and even Xander and Clem, jumped up and joined in with Annie as Lorne started the song over. Buffy picked up Dani and Tara picked up Billy so they could be part of the act, too, while Spike, Giles, and Wesley stayed on the sidelines and simply watched.

Buffy and Faith noticed the lack of participation by their Watchers and deemed that unacceptable, so they each retrieved their respective Watcher, pulling them by the hand into the circle of slightly tipsy, happy people in the middle of the floor who were doing the hokey-pokey, and before long Spike was the only observer.

Buffy handed Dani to Willow and hokey-pokeyed over to her husband as he sat on the couch.

“No bloody way,” Spike objected, shaking his head adamantly as she got to him.

“Yes way,” Buffy replied, taking his hands in hers and pulling him to his feet. “Come dance.”

“That’s not a bloody dance…that’s…that’s a child’s game. Perfect for children and over-the-hill shopkeepers, not century old vampires with reputations to protect.”

“Awww, Big Bad can’t hokey-pokey?” Buffy teased as she pulled him closer to the circle of dancers.

“No, I can not. Got no rhythm … don’t know m’ left from m' right, and turning in circles makes me dizzy,” Spike explained, pulling against her.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Buffy sighed in mock sympathy before leaning in against his ear and whispering, “‘Cos I was thinking that later … when everyone’s gone, we could have some private, naked hokey-pokey time. But, if you’ve got no rhythm and it makes you dizzy and all…well, I guess not.”

Spike pulled back and looked at her with narrow eyes and pursed lips. “You’re shameless … rotten to the bloody core, Buffy Anne Summers-Weckerly,” he informed her.

Buffy shrugged and leaned back in near his ear. “♫ Put your hard body in, put your hard body out… do the hokey-pokey and shake it all about…” she sang softly with an evil glint in her eye and a sly smile as she ran a hand down his chest and settled on his belt buckle.

“Bloody hell…” Spike moaned, rolling his eyes and letting her pull him into the circle … Thank God Angel wasn’t here to see this – he’d never live it down if he lived to be a thousand. Now all he needed was his fingernails to be painted a new shade of pink and he’d look a right ponce…Would he always be love’s bitch? Apparently so.

Annie squealed in delight when Spike joined the group and ran over to stand next to him as Lorne continued the song …

♫ You put your head in, you put your head out, you put your head in and you shake it all about. You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about!

You put your whole body in, you put your whole body out, you put your whole body in and you shake it all about. You do the hokey-pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what it’s all about!♫

Spike had to laugh in spite of himself as he did the hokey-pokey and turned himself about … Slayers and Watchers, demons and witches – the occasional ‘regular Joe’ … even Miss Kitty came awake to see what was going on and sat in the center of the circle twitching her tail and trying to make sense of all the commotion. Everyone was laughing, everyone was dancing … some were having a hard time figuring out their left from their right and some had to lean on the person next to them after turning all about. But that was okay – they were all accepted, they were all family – even the mangy cat.



What if the hokey-pokey is really what it’s all about?

**~**

{{Click here to hear "What if the Hokey-Pokey Is All It Really Is About?" by Jimmy Buffet on YouTube }}


The universe is runnin' away
I heard it on the news just the other day
There's this new stuff called dark energy
We can't measure and we can't see
It's some elemental mystery
Train that we can't catch

But our heads are in the oven
And somebody's 'bout to strike a match

Meanwhile back on our big round ball
Things are getting serious as cholesterol
Permutations, calculations,
Greedy piggies at the trough
Arrogance and ignorance
Just to top it off
I just can't keep up with the NASDAQ
Who got sold and bought
I've got to take my lunch break
But I'll leave you with a little for thought

Maybe it's all too simple
For our brains to figure it out
What if the hokey pokey
Is all it really is about

What if life is just a cosmic joke
Like spiders in your underwear or olives in your coke
My life can get as messy as a day old sticky bun
So I arm myself with punch lines and a big ol' water gun
They say it's not that simple but just maybe it should be
It's time to change the subject, would you join me in a cup of herbal tea?

Maybe it's all too simple
For our brains to figure it out
What if the hokey pokey
Is all it really is about

I still believe in rock 'n' roll
It pays my bills and soothes my soul
There really really isn't
A whole lot more around
Except for Frank Sinatra and the Big Band sound
I want music in the music
I want chicken in the soup
I want caffeine in my system let's revive the hula hoop

Maybe it's all too simple
For our brains to figure it out
What if the hokey pokey
Is all it really is about?

Sunday, December 26th, 2004:
 
Lorne was still working on cleaning up from Christmas Day (he’d definitely need to ask for more help with this chore next time) when Spike and Buffy came downstairs about mid-morning.
 


Lorne put the last stack of dishes into the sink as he waited for Buffy to get her coffee fixed and Spike to get his blood warmed up – they both looked tired, like they hadn’t gotten much sleep the previous night.
 
“You guys ok?” Lorne asked with genuine concern. Maybe they’d gotten called out late to handle some kind of emergency demon slaying.
 
Spike looked up at him from his seat at the kitchen table and smirked. “For the record,” he started, looking over at Buffy, “Cher is a bloody tiger. The Energizer Bunny’s got nuthin’ on her.”
 
Lorne laughed lightly and looked over at Buffy who tried to act nonchalant but was turning a deep shade of crimson. “Cher just likes the hokey-pokey – not my fault that Sonny overindulged at the party and had a rough time keeping up with her later,” Buffy defended with a shrug.
 
“We are talking about dancing, right?” Lorne asked with a knowing smile.
 
“Of course! What else?” Buffy assured him, taking a long swallow of the caffeine and sugar rich coffee in her mug. “Sonny better get rested up – there’s hot, sweaty Scrabble in his future later…”
 
Spike and Lorne both looked at her funny. “Never mind – just a little Anya humor,” she clarified as she sat down at the table with Sonny … uhhh … Spike.
 
Lorne sat down with them and studied them both carefully for a minute. “If ya tell me what yer lookin’ for, maybe I can help you find it,” Spike offered as he finished his blood.
 
“It’s just that … well, it’s strange,” Lorne started.
 
“Not that strange – Buffy could knacker bloody Superman,” Spike defended, resting his chin in one hand. “Turns into kryptonite after a few hours, she does.”
 
“No, that’s not what I mean,” Lorne began again. “Could you … sing a few bars of something?” he asked Spike.
 
Spike looked at him with a furrowed brow. “Why?”
 
“It’s just – strange,” Lorne repeated. “When you sang yesterday, I got nothing.”
 
“Nothing’s good, isn’t it?” Buffy asked. “I mean, nothing means that nothing bad is happening, or gonna happen, right?”


 
“No, not that kind of nothing … Nothing as in – nothing. Like you weren’t even there. Maybe it was because you were singing as someone else …” Lorne clarified.
 
Spike took a deep breath and blew out a long sigh. “♫Lullaby baby blues,
Time to kick off your walkin' shoes, and hug the pillow on your bed,  and lay down your sleepy head,” Spike sang tiredly, never lifting his chin up off his hand.
 
Lorne frowned, pursing his lips together in thought. “There’s still nothing … I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
 
“Maybe your radar’s on the fritz. Too much brandy, I’d wager,” Spike suggested as he got up and refilled his mug, crumbling up some Weetabix and berber weed in with the blood before popping it in the microwave.


“Try something else …” Lorne suggested.
 
Spike hung his head down, his chin hitting his chest for a moment before turning back around and singing dramatically, as if singing for the Queen herself, “♫ God save our gracious Queen, Long live our noble Queen, God save the bloody Queen…”
 
“Anything?” Buffy asked Lorne, looking between her husband and the green demon.
 
Lorne nodded slowly. “Yeah – a glimmer, not enough to really see much; I’ve really never seen anything like it before.”
 
“Maybe Spike’s right – a little too much libation and frivolity,” Buffy suggested with a shrug.
 
“Yeah, maybe …” Lorne agreed, standing back up and resuming his chores, but he wasn’t convinced of that.  He’d clearly seen happy times in the future for Willow and Tara when they sang … nothing was blocking his ‘radar’ on them.
 
He never got specific details of events – just impressions of the future; he really didn’t know what to make of Spike’s reading. Buffy’s was a bit vague too, but not like Spike’s – which was just blank – a huge black hole of nothing. Until he could figure it out, there was no sense worrying everyone about it – it was probably just an odd combination of sleep deprivation, over indulgence, and dishpan hands…
 
Wednesday, January 5th, 2005:
 
Everyone in the mansion came running when they heard screaming coming from the great room. When Spike, Buffy, and Lorne got there, they found Tara and Willow holding hands, turning in circles, and jumping up and down in the middle of the room. The screams were shrieks of happiness.
 
“What the bloody hell!?” Spike demanded – he’d been downstairs practicing his Chinese … he was determined to beat his daughter at that bloody game at least once in his life.
 
“I got a job! I got a job!” Willow exclaimed, waving a letter in the air as she released Tara and grabbed Buffy, then Spike, and then Lorne into quick hugs as she continued bouncing nonstop around the room like one of those crazy super bouncy balls they sell in the gumdrop machines at the supermarket.


 
Spike grabbed the paper out of her hand and read aloud,
 
“Dear Ms. Rosenberg,
 
“It was a pleasure to meet with you at the Job Fair on the UC Sunnydale campus in December.
 
“At this time, we would like to extend a job offer to you, contingent on your graduation in June with your Masters in Computer Science and Information Technology. As we discussed, we believe you would be qualified for one of our many Software Engineer positions with a starting salary of $85,000 annually, to be reviewed and eligible for a merit raise in ninety days and annually thereafter.
 
“I have enclosed our benefits brochure, which includes company funded health, dental, and vision insurance, two weeks of paid vacation per year, five days of sick time and/or personal days and flexible work hours.
 
“I look forward to hearing from you in the next few days. I know that you will be a great addition to the Microsoft family.
 
“Sincerely,
 
“Janus Danielson, Recruiter”
 
Spike let out a long whistle … and looked up from the paper. “Eighty five thousand a bloody year … to start? What did you promise them, Red? Gonna cast a spell to rot Apple?”
 
“Spiiiike!” Willow whined. “Of course not! I got a job! I got a real job!” she exclaimed, grabbing the letter back from Spike and continuing to dance around the great room.
 
“What happened to ‘big, fascist corporations are ruining the country – they’re pushing out the little guys and not leaving room for entrepreneurs’?” Buffy asked, quoting concerns she’d heard Willow voice more than once.
 
“That was when they weren’t payin’ her eighty-five thousand a bloody year…” Spike pointed out. “Plus benefits.”
 


“Oh, they aren’t so bad, Buffy …” Willow defended. “Look at all the people they employ and all the charities they support and they have a ‘going green’ initiative … they encourage you to ride your bike to work – you can even bring your dog in!”
 
“You don’t have a dog,” Buffy pointed out.
 
“She could get one with that eight-five thousand a bloody year… and The Dog Whisperer to train it,” Spike suggested.
 
“Wait!” Buffy exclaimed, the reality of this finally dawning on her. “Ride your bike to work? Isn’t Microsoft in …” Buffy grabbed the letter out of Willow’s hand and read the letterhead at the top. “Redmond, Washington!? That’s a long bike ride from Sunnydale…”
 
Willow and Tara stopped dancing and looked at each other guiltily. “Yeah …well, that’s the thing, Buffy,” Willow started, looking back at her friend.
 
“You’re moving …” Buffy filled in sadly.
 
Willow shrugged. “Buffy – I can’t keep sponging off you and my parents my whole life. This is a great job – a real opportunity for me… for us!” Willow amended, taking Tara’s hand. “I’m sorry… you know if you need us, we can be back in just a few hours.”
 
Buffy smiled sadly at her friend and drew her into a hug. Of course Willow couldn’t just hang around here waiting for them to need a locator spell done or need someone turned into a rat or brought back from the dead… “I know – you’ll do so great there, Wills. You’ll be in charge of the place in no time.”
 
Willow laughed as tears stung her eyes. There always seemed to be a downside to change – no matter how good it was, you always had to give something up in order to move forward. They were excited to try living in the ‘real world’ with their own place, their own money, their own everything, but at the same time, they would miss their adopted family terribly.
 
**~**
 
Saturday, January 8th, 2005:
 
5:30am:
 
Buffy dropped a soft kiss on Spike’s lips as he slept. “Hmmm?” he muttered, half asleep.
 
“I’m going now,” she whispered to him.
 
“Going?” Spike groaned, trying to focus.
 
“To L.A. … the limo will be here any minute,” Buffy explained, keeping her voice soft.
 
“L.A.?”
 
“The shopping trip and day spa – you knew I was going today.”
 
Spike tried to will himself more awake … what day was it? What bloody time was it?
 
“I’ll see you tonight. I’ll have new shoes to model for ya, so get some rest,” Buffy teased, dropping another kiss on his lips before turning and leaving their room, closing the door softly behind her. Spike moaned and gave up on trying to wake up – he was back asleep before the door even closed.


 
Buffy had set her alarm clock to get up at 5:00am, but in truth, she hadn’t needed it – she was as excited as Annie on Christmas day and had hardly slept the night before. This was gonna be an awesome day – the shopping trip and spa treatment that Spike had given her was one of the best Christmas gifts she’d ever gotten.
 
Nothing strange or unusual had happened since Lorne’s strange reading, so they decided to go ahead and schedule her day trip to Beverly Hills. Spike would stay home with the kids while she was pampered and treated like a star for the day.
 
The driver of the black Hummer stretch limo introduced himself as Kalani. He was nineteen or twenty, Buffy guessed, with blond hair that was long on top and short underneath - a modern bowl cut, and soft brown eyes. He had small stud earrings in both ears and was about Spike’s height and build - he looked like he'd rather be 'hanging ten' than driving a limo.


 
Kalani opened the door for Buffy and extended a hand to help her get in. “If you need anything, just buzz me on that intercom,” the young man told her, pointing to the intercom on one side of the limo.
 
“Got it,” Buffy told him with a smile and settled into a seat before he closed the door and went to take his place behind the wheel.
 
The limo was huge inside – really kind of a waste for just one person to be in here. She made a mental plan to have the whole gang come out and ride around Sunnydale in it when she got back tonight – everyone in town would wonder who the movie star was that had come to town.


 
The windows were mirrored on the outside, no one could see in, but she could see out. There were small, twinkling fairy lights on the ceiling, a well stocked bar with snacks, two TVs, a stereo, miles of bench seats, and a sun/moon roof that, when closed, was like a mirror above her, reflecting the dancing fairy lights and everything inside the limo, and when opened gave a great view of the night – or early morning, as it were, sky.

   
Buffy opened the moon roof and laid down on her back, looking up at the stars as the limo rolled up the interstate towards L.A. She suddenly wished Spike was with her, that she was lying in his arms looking up at that stars. She sought out the big dipper and smiled when she found the star he’d given her and the one next to it that she (unofficially) named for him.
 
She had been looking forward to a day all on her own – no husband, no kids, not even any friends – just a day to do what she wanted, pretty much when she wanted and not have to worry about what anyone else wanted to do. She could almost feel a physical pull from her soul to Spike’s when she was away from him, and the further away she got, the stronger it seemed to be. She guessed that’s what Lorne had meant that one time when he explained to her about soul mates … the two halves of one whole always trying to find the other. She wondered if it was just her or if Spike felt it too. She looked at the clock on the TV … it was still early, Spike would still be asleep...
 
Buffy closed her eyes and let the rhythm of the limo speeding down the highway lull her to sleep…
 
Buffy was standing in front of some kind of building she didn’t recognize – some people came out of the doors and held one open for her and she entered. When she got inside, the smell and sounds were unmistakable – it was a bowling alley. There were lots of lanes – pretty much as far as the eye could see, and tons of people bowling, laughing, and drinking. A jukebox played in the food court/bar and half naked girls in various types of costumes, all of whom looked eerily like her, danced on tables or on the stage to the left of the bar.
 
“Yep, this must be where he is…” Buffy muttered as she watched herself in a cowgirl outfit draw two six shooters and aim them across the expansive walkway that separated the bar/food court from the bowlers. Buffy looked where the cowgirl aimed and saw Spike and three more versions of herself (in costumes), along with Xander and Anya, bowling.
 
Buffy shook her head as she walked over to them and watched as Spike threw a bowling ball that looked a lot like Angel’s head, down the lane and knocked all the pins down.
 
“Ha! Bloody strike!” he exclaimed, turning back around with a triumphant grin. “Beat that, Harris!” he challenged as the three costumed Buffy’s jumped up from their seats, surrounded him and began hugging and kissing him – there was one dressed like Cher – and not in jeans and a halter top – but rather one of those sheer cat-suits she wore later that had sequins placed in strategic spots, one dressed like a French maid, and one dressed like a Dallas Cowboy’s cheerleader.
 
“You can’t beat a strike,” Anya pointed out. “You can only tie. Unless you knock down all your pins and the pins in the next lane, too … Do that, honey!” Anya instructed Xander.


 
“There’ll be Scrabble in your future if you do!” Anya offered enthusiastically as Xander picked up a ball from the return – one that looked like Cordy’s head, and prepared to try and beat Spike’s strike.
 
Buffy stood back and watched as Xander tossed the ball down the lane, it went perfectly straight until it got almost to the pins, then it made a hard right turn into the gutter and missed everything. Buffy laughed and shook her head – of course Xander wouldn’t be beating Spike in Spike’s dream – even at bowling!
 
Spike turned around when Buffy laughed and his eyes went wide with surprise. “Buffy!” he exclaimed. “Uhhhh … it’s not what it looks like, luv,” he stammered as everyone disappeared – including all the other costumed Buffys.
 
“It’s not you with lots of girls hanging all over your hot, tight little body?” Buffy asked with a smile as she walked up to him.
 


“Well…yeah, I reckon it is what it looks like…” he admitted sheepishly, rubbing a hand on the back of his neck as he looked down at the floor.
 
“I didn’t know you bowled or that you were a Dallas fan,” Buffy teased, as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
 
Spike looked up and smiled at her as he settled his hands on her hips. “Not really a fan of the team so much as the birds.”
 
“I’ll keep that in mind,” she assured him as she dropped a kiss on his lips.
 
“Yeah?” he asked hopefully.
 
“There could be Scrabble in your future … lots and lots of Scrabble – with cheerleaders, and French maids,” she promised with a grin.
 
Suddenly, the manager of the bowling alley came up behind them. “Mrs. Weckerly, we’re here. The Beverly Wilshire.”


 


“Huh?” Buffy asked, turning in Spike’s arms to face the man who was suddenly not the manager of the bowling alley but Kalani, the limo driver. “Oh! Already?”
 
“I have to go, lover … I’ll see you tonight,” Buffy said, turning back to Spike and kissing him deeply before vanishing from his arms as she woke up.
 
Buffy opened her eyes – the sky above her was light blue and she could see buildings on each side – she felt like she’d only been asleep a minute, but apparently it had been much longer. She sat up as Kalani opened the door; she grabbed her purse, and exited the huge, black limo. No one gave her a second glance here on Wilshire Blvd… in Sunnydale, someone getting out of a stretch Hummer would’ve drawn a crowd – here it was just ho-hum.
 
Kalani handed her a card. “Just call this number when you’re ready and I’ll meet you back here.”

 


“Great! Thanks.” Buffy put the card in her purse as she smiled at him and then headed into the Beverly Wilshire Day Spa for her pampering – a Balinese massage, facial, manicure, pedicure, wash, cut, and style … ah, the life of a star.

The receptionist at the Spa said she had been expected and her room was ready… right this way…
 
Buffy was shown around, then taken to a private room and provided with a soft, fluffy, white robe which would be her wardrobe for the half day of over indulgence.



 The day started by warming up in the Aromatherapy Crystal Steam Room, then cooling down in the Ice Fountain and Experience Shower. From there she was pampered by the well qualified and friendly staff – her muscles massaged, her skin exfoliated and hydrated, her nails trimmed, and buffed, and painted a sexy red, her hair shampooed, trimmed, and highlighted, then blown dry and styled like a movie star, and finally a makeup artist gave her a look that could’ve easily passed muster on the red carpet at the Oscars … with smoky, sexy eyes, pink lips, and a light, rosy blush to her cheeks.


 
Buffy felt like a movie star as she summoned her limo from her dressing room … she giggled at the absurdity of it – she could see herself as a stunt person – maybe, but she’d never make a movie star in a million years, but it was fun to play one for the day.
 
It was nearly one o’clock and she was starving … getting pampered really works up an appetite! She’s was looking forward to lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s restaurant, Spago Beverly Hills. She definitely needed to recharge her batteries to get ready for the shoe shopping scheduled for the afternoon! Who knew being a star could be such hard work!?
 
Buffy stepped out of the Beverly Wilshire with her purchases … of course there were purchases! The shampoo and conditioner were to die for … and the hydrating lotion they’d used on her skin made it feel like a baby’s bottom … or, well, something similarly soft but also sexy. She couldn’t wait for Spike to see her and feel her skin … the thought of his hands on her skin made her sigh happily – she really couldn’t wait to see him. God, had she’d turned into one of those sappy, love-struck girls from high school that could talk and think of nothing but their boyfriends? Certainly not! She could spend the whole day on her own and not think of Spike at all! Starting now, she wasn’t going to think about Spike the whole rest of the day. She was a modern woman – a Slayer, in fact! She didn’t need a man to make her feel …
 



“SPIKE!” she screamed as she found the stretch Hummer parked about halfway down the block – Spike was leaning against the fender, thumbs tucked over his belt, waiting for her. He had on black dress slacks and a satiny, long sleeved, maroon red, button front shirt. He’d even traded in his normal Doc Martens for his ‘special occasion’ dress shoes.
 
Buffy ran the last few feet towards him and he caught her in his arms as she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. Spike laughed when she released him. He wasn’t sure if he should come – if she’d rather be alone for the whole day, but he missed her and when Wes said he was riding up to L.A. to see Fred today,  Spike couldn’t let that opportunity pass. (Well, Wes actually said he was coming to see ‘Cordy, Gunn, and Fred’ …but Spike knew better. No one in their right mind would make a special trip to see the Ice Queen…and since he was pretty sure Wes wasn’t a Nancy Boy, he deduced the real person he was driving all that way was to see was Fred). Spike got Tara to watch the kids and bummed a ride to L.A. with the Watcher.  Apparently he’d made the right decision.
 
“Look at you!” Spike exclaimed, taking in the new and improved, freshly pampered Buffy. “That’s a bit of all right, innit?”
 
“You like?” she asked coyly, turning in a circle on the sidewalk in front of him. She just had on her normal clothes – jeans and a button down, white, long sleeved oxford shirt, but underneath she felt like a million bucks.
 
“I love,” Spike replied with a look of awe in his eyes as he tilted his head and took her in. She seemed to glow from within – it reminded him of when she was pregnant. There was just a ‘je ne sais quoi’ about her – a certain something, indescribable but there, nonetheless.
 
“Is that for me?” Buffy asked, seeing a dusty pink, long-stemmed rose in Spike’s hand.
 


“Oh!” Spike snapped out of his trance and handed her the rose. He had something romantic he was gonna say to her when he gave her the rose … what was it? Bloody hell! C’mon blood, get back to my soddin’ brain! Think! Oh, yeah…
 
“J'aime deux choses, toi et la rose. La rose pour un jour, et toi pour toujours,” he told her, taking her hands in his and staring into her eyes … so green, like bottomless pools of shimmering emeralds.

“Oh, baby … that’s so sweet,” Buffy replied softly, brushing a kiss on his cheek. “What does it mean?”
 
Spike laughed. He was going to have to get Buffy down in the Bat Cave playing that language game with him and Annie…
 
“It means, ‘I love two things, you and the rose. The rose for one day, and you forever’,” he told her softly, lifting her hand to his lips and dropping a kiss on the tips of her fingers.
 
“Awwww … it’s even sweeter in English.” Buffy felt like she was going to melt right there on the sidewalk … maybe she had turned into one of those sappy, love struck girls, after all.
 
“You ready for lunch, pet?” Spike asked her, opening the door of the limo for her.
 
“Oh yeah, I’m starving!” Buffy agreed, as she stepped into their ride.
 
“When aren’t you starving?” Spike asked with a laugh as he followed her in and closed the door. Spike knocked on the divider between them and Kalani and the Hummer started moving. It wasn’t far to the restaurant, really just around the corner – within walking distance – but why walk when you have a sweet ride like this?  Plus, who walks in L.A.? Hell, if she had this sweet ride all the time, she'd take it to the mailbox and back!
 
Buffy talked all the way to the restaurant, telling Spike about the spa and how much she loved it – it was one of the best Christmas presents ever – right behind the ruby and diamond heart necklace and the star he’d given her. Spike listened intently as she gushed about the spa and the people there and how great she felt – he loved making her happy, making her babble like a six-year-old on Christmas morning – it made his own heart giddy when she was like this.
  


They were seated promptly at the restaurant … Buffy requested a seat out on the terrace where they could watch the people go by – they might see someone famous, but all Spike could see was her. And it seemed that he wasn’t the only one – more than one passerby stopped to ask her for her autograph … they were all disappointed and surprised when she told them she wasn’t anyone famous.
 
For the first course, Buffy ordered Slow Braised Short Rib Tortellini with wild Maitake mushrooms, pea shoots and red wine-mushroom sauce; Spike ordered Russian Imperial Gold Osetra Caviar with Toasted Brioche.
 
“Just try it …” Spike urged her, holding a piece of the brioche bread with a smear of caviar on it up to her lips.
 
Buffy made a face like he’d just asked her to lick a slime demon, but eventually opened her mouth and let him it to feed her. Buffy rolled it around in her mouth a moment before chewing … it was salty and a little fishy and it felt like little balls of Jello in her mouth … but it wasn’t bad – she actually liked the bread better, though. Ok, she could check that off her list of things to do before she died … Eat fish eggs – CHECK.
 
For the main course they both got the Grilled Prime Ribeye Steak with Braised Swiss Chard, Armagnac-Peppercorn Sauce, and “Pommes Aligot.”
 
“What’s aligot?” she asked Spike in a whisper before they ordered. “I know pommes – that’s potatoes … ‘pommes frites’ is French fries … what’s an aligot?”
 
“It means, they put 'all they got' on the spuds … 'all-i-got',” Spike informed her, trying to keep a straight face.
 
Buffy frowned. “Not the caviar, too, I hope…‘cos that would just be wrong.”
 
Spike laughed. “Actually, it’s mashed potatoes with garlic and cheese.”
 
“Oh - very funny, ‘all-i-got’,” Buffy moaned, rolling her eyes and looking back at the menu.
 
Spike shrugged, he thought it was funny. “I need to take you out more often, luv – Menu Readin’ 101, it’ll be the next class given by Professor Spike…”
 
Buffy liked the sound of that! She could get used to going to restaurants with menus she couldn’t understand. “Is that a credit course?”
 
“Definitely – at Spike U ... at this rate, you’ll have your certificate in … fifty years!” Spike informed her with a smirk.
 
Buffy laughed … she’d already passed the “How to be Slutty” class with flying colors and she was currently enrolled in the “How to Be a Better Friend and Wife” course … she could handle two classes at once, especially if one involved eating. Eating was one thing she’d always been good at.
 
For dessert, Buffy ordered the Chocolate Soufflé – as recommended by their waitress, and Spike got Wolfgang’s take on the traditional Austrian dish Kaiserschmarrn (A light, caramelized soufflé made from a sweet batter; baked, topped with powdered sugar and served with organic strawberries and strawberry sauce).
 


By the time they had finished their meals, they were both stuffed. Buffy was feeling less like a movie star and more like the Goodyear blimp as they left the restaurant and started walking back towards the shops on Rodeo Drive. Even though the limo would’ve come and picked them up, it was only a short walk and she felt like she could use it after that meal.
 
They walked hand in hand along the busy sidewalk…stopping from time to time to look at something particularly pretty or gaudy or pricey in a store window or at a particularly cherry vintage car parked on the street.


 
They continued walking, going through the quaint looking (but not quaintly priced) pedestrian zone as Buffy continued window shopping and enjoying the envious looks she got from the other women as they gaped at her handsome escort. That blimpy feeling was going away and she tucked herself under Spike’s arm as they walked and talked and laughed – she had no idea where they were going, or even where Jimmy Choo’s exactly was, but she was enjoying this too much to ask anyone.
 
 


They stopped at the Chanel store and a salesperson dabbed a bit of their most famous fragrance on Buffy’s wrist … Nº 5. Buffy rubbed her wrists together and then rubbed a bit on her neck before holding one wrist up for Spike to smell. Spike nodded his approval; it was a classic scent, one he’d always liked… well, since it came out in the ‘20s in Paris, at any rate. He remembered a famous quote from Marilyn Monroe … when asked by a reporter, she replied, “What do I wear in bed? Why, Chanel Nº 5, of course!”

 

Buffy’s rendition of Marilyn’s Happy Birthday song ran through Spike’s mind and before Buffy knew what he was doing, he’d bought a one ounce bottle of the expensive parfum for her … nearly $300.

Buffy just shook her head and smiled as he handed her the package and whispered, “Happy Birthday,” against her ear. Her birthday had come early this year apparently –but she wasn’t complaining.
 
After walking a ways further and turning a couple more corners, they suddenly emerged back out onto Rodeo Drive itself – right in front of number 240, Jimmy Choo …
 


Buffy’s heart suddenly started racing with anticipation – here it was, one of the shoe meccas of the world … and she was going in. Spike smiled when he heard her heart speed up … she was so easily excited – like a kid standing outside a sweet shop.
 

Buffy felt like Julia Roberts in ‘Pretty Woman’ … the second time she went shopping. As Buffy and Spike entered the store, they were greeted warmly and invited to look around. If they found anything that interested them, simply let their ‘personal assistant’, Fabrice, know and he would fetch them in her size and place them in a private fitting area until she was ready to try them on.

There were very few shoes that Buffy didn’t like … in fact, it would’ve been much easier to list the ones not to bring out… There were no prices on anything … which was scary. Buffy remembered a famous quote – she wasn’t sure who said it, but it went, “If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it.”
 
“There aren’t any prices on anything,” Buffy whispered to Spike when they were alone.
 
“No worries – you’re worth any price,” Spike replied softly.
 
Buffy wasn’t so sure about that…she knew Jimmy Choo shoes could run into the thousands of dollars and her shoes normally ended up getting some kind of blood or demon slime or sewer muck on them. That would just be sacrilege for that to happen to a thousand dollar pair of Jimmy Choos.
 
Buffy tried on pair after pair … modeling them for Spike and getting his reaction to them. Spike didn’t really have a shoe fetish – he just liked how they made her legs look, but with jeans on, it was hard to tell. Too bad she hadn’t worn a skirt… a mini skirt….hmmm.
 
“Be back in a jiff, luv,” Spike said, standing up and heading out of the room.


 
“Where ya going? I’ve got lots more to try…” Buffy objected with a whine, waving an arm at the stacks of shoes still left to try on.
 
“No worries – you keep trying ‘em – narrow it down to the top ten and I’ll be right back,” Spike assured her as he hurried out of the store.
 
Buffy sighed – she’d never completely understand him if she lived to be a thousand. She kept trying on the shoes, setting her top picks off to one side… she had it narrowed down to the top nine by the time he got back with a shopping bag in his hand.
 
“Here …” he said, handing her the bag.
 
“Nieman Marcus?” Buffy asked, peering inside.
 
“Sumthin’ to make yer shoes look better…” Spike clarified.


 
Buffy pulled out a black, form fitting, long sleeved minidress with jewel studded shoulders. “Wow …” she muttered, holding it up in front of herself and turning to face the mirror. “You’re the fastest shopper in L.A.,” Buffy teased.
 
“I see what I want and I take it,” Spike explained matter-of-factly. At her wide eyes and worried expression he added, “Figuratively speakin’, of course … didn’t just take it, luv.”
 
Buffy let out a sigh of relief that the Neiman Marcus fashion police wouldn’t be crashing in on them at any moment. “Guard the door,” she instructed Spike as she began to change.
 
When she was done, she stuffed her jeans and shirt into the Neiman Marcus bag and Spike came back in to give his expert opinion on the shoes she’d chosen. Spike sat back and watched her model the shoes for him, turning this way and that – walking back and forth in front of him like a model on a runway as she looked at the shoes in the mirrors. Spike couldn’t keep the grin off his face as he watched her … she was a kid in a sweet shop … and he was enjoying every minute of it.



**~**
A SHORT INTERMISSION ...

Ok - help Spike and Buffy choose three pairs of Jimmy Choo shoes to buy ... Leave a review (if you're shy, you can just leave the numbers...) and let me know the number next to the pairs of shoes that you think she should buy. You get three choices.

In a few days, I'll post the rest of the shopping trip (and the limo ride home!) and let you know which three she got. No fair peeking at their website to see the prices! She doesn't know what they cost ... and you really don't want to know, trust me on this!

Saturday, January 8th, 2005:


 
With Spike’s ‘expert’ advice, Buffy eventually narrowed it down to three pairs … it had taken all afternoon. She was sure Fabrice and the rest of the salespeople were happy to see them go – she didn’t know if taking all afternoon to pick out three pairs of shoes was normal for Rodeo Drive or not. None of the people in the shop seemed put out by it, but it was half an hour past their closing time when Buffy walked out of the shop with her selections in hand… or two pairs in hand and one pair on her feet, still dressed in the Nieman Marcus dress that Spike had bought her.

 
Spike stayed inside and paid the bill as she went outside and called the limo from her cell phone. She never did know what any of the shoes cost and Spike insisted that she not ask, even after they’d been paid for.
 
As she waited, she wondered if it would be a Beverly Hills faux pas to run through a McDonald’s drive-thru in a Hummer stretch limo wearing Chanel No. 5 parfum, Jimmy Choo shoes, and a Neiman Marcus dress… she was starving again.
 
Spike emerged from the shop just as the Hummer pulled up to the curb in front of them. Kalani came around and opened the door for the pair, letting his eyes wander up Buffy’s body from her red toenails peeking out from her new sparkly, stiletto-heeled shoes, up her shapely legs to her new dress and then to her newly highlighted hair and smoky eyes. She definitely looked like a different woman than he’d picked up in Sunnydale that morning.


 
Spike patted the lad’s cheek as he followed Buffy into the back of the limo. “Sorry, mate, she’s taken,” he informed the young man with a smirk and Kalani blushed slightly and averted his eyes – he didn’t realize he’d been so obvious.
 
Before the door was even closed behind him, Spike heard Buffy exclaim in glee, “Food! There’s food! Kalani got us food!”
 
“Surfer Boy got us what I told him to get, luv,” Spike informed her with a smirk.
 
“Oh – you got us food! I love you!” Buffy gushed, giving Spike a hug and a quick kiss as the limo began to move slowly through L.A.’s rush-hour traffic.

Spike laughed. She really was so easy to please and got so excited over some of the simplest things... it was one of the many things he cherished about her, so vibrant, so full of passion for life.

Buffy began pulling out containers of food from the take-away bags from a restaurant called “The Stinking Rose.” “We season our garlic with food!” the bag exclaimed under the name, “Have a stinking good time!” There was popcorn calamari, garlic French fries, garlic encrusted baby back ribs and garlic fish and chips.


 
Buffy had to laugh. “I swear, you’re the only vampire I’ve ever known that garlic not only has no effect on, but who actually seeks it out in massive amounts…”
 
“What can I say? I’m a rebel,” Spike explained with a smirk, as he popped one of the calamari bites into Buffy’s mouth before taking one for himself. Spike poured them both a glass of Dom Perignon and handed one to her before holding his up and making a toast, “To you, you are my sun, you are my light, my world – I’ll love you forever.”



 
Buffy smiled softly at him, looking deeply into his crystal blue eyes – his handsome face was so full of love that it took her breath away. How had she gotten so lucky to have his love?
 
“I’ll love you forever, too,” Buffy whispered as she clinked her glass against his and took a sip of the sweet, bubbly liquid.
 
They both dug into the food with ravenous abandon – each feeding the other as much as they fed themselves. Buffy got rib sauce on her face and Spike kissed it off before holding up two garlic encrusted French fries for her. Buffy nibbled down the fries, taking several small bites, until she got to Spike’s fingers, then she licked the salty garlic off his digits with her lips and tongue. Every bite turned into an erotic encounter … the food suddenly becoming an afterthought as they kissed and touched, teased and stroked, and whispered words of love and desire to each other.
 
Buffy couldn’t remember ever being this happy before. She had new shoes, a new dress, new perfume – she had garlic encrusted ribs and French fries, bubbly champagne, and Spike. She couldn’t think of a single thing in the world that she could add to that list that would make this moment any better… well, maybe chocolate.
 
As if reading her mind, Spike opened the last bag of food from The Stinking Rose and pulled out a container with Chocolate Truffle Mousse Cake, another with a Chocolate Walnut Brownie, and a third that contained two huge servings of Tiramisu. Buffy thought that she might faint from sheer happiness. Of course Spike wouldn’t have forgotten the chocolate!


 
Buffy stood up and grabbed the container with the Mousse Cake in it, then turned around and straddled his legs with hers, sitting in his lap and facing him as he sat on the expansive bench seat. Buffy took a small piece of the cake between two fingers and held it up to his mouth and Spike wrapped his lips around the chocolate treat and her even sweeter fingers. Spike gently sucked and licked the moist, chocolaty goodness from her fingertips, using his tongue to get every morsel. Buffy watched him make love to her fingers with his mouth and couldn’t stifle a moan – his lips and tongue felt so good – it didn’t matter where they were touching her, they were always a little piece of heaven on her skin.
 
When Spike pulled his mouth off her fingers, Buffy got another piece of the cake and put it into her own mouth, sucking and licking every bit of the mousse icing from her fingers, just as he had done. Spike’s cock jumped and twitched in his pants as he watched her luscious mouth engulf her fingers … he wanted that beautiful mouth touching him, that tongue curling around his, those lips teasing his cock and balls with their velvety softness.
 
Buffy took a swipe of the fluffy, whipped frosting on the cake with one finger and slid down one of Spike's sharp cheekbones with it, ending at his luscious lips before setting the container down beside them. She wrapped her arms around his neck and gently licked the line of chocolate off his cheek then took his lips in a gentle kiss, nibbling lightly on his scrumptious, chocolate covered lower lip like it was part of her meal. Spike wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her body against his. She tasted like champagne and garlic and chocolate and ‘Buffy’ and it was beyond measure - heavenly. Her body felt so good against his, her heart pounding in her chest, her blood racing through her veins, the sweet aroma of her desire escaping from her thin panties and filling his nostrils with her ambrosia all combined to break down the last shred of willpower he had left.


 
He’d wanted her all day – in the dream bowling alley when she’d promised him cheerleader and French maid Scrabble, on the sidewalk outside the spa when she’d kissed him so passionately, in the restaurant when her lips touched his fingers as he fed her the caviar, at the perfume shop when she’d offered him her wrist to smell, in the shoe store, dressed in that little black dress, as she modeled her selections for him, and now – now most of all. Her lips against his, her tongue dancing with his, her teeth lightly grazing his skin, her body pressing against his – it was more than he could take.
 
“God, Buffy, need you,” Spike moaned against her mouth.
 
She needed him too. She needed to feel his palms on her skin, his mouth on her breasts, his hard body against hers, his manhood buried in her heat. Buffy sat back and began to unbutton Spike’s shirt. Every place her fingers touched his skin seemed to sizzle … Spike thought that he’d see smoke rising from his chest at any moment. He was already on fire and she was fanning the flames with every move, every touch, every kiss, every look.
 
Buffy finished unbuttoning his shirt and ran her hands down his hard chest, across his six-pack abs and to his belt – then lower, pressing a palm against his erection through the thin fabric of his dress pants. A deep rumbling moan escaped Spike’s throat as his head lolled back against the seat and his eyes closed. Buffy squeezed his cock and fondled his balls through the fabric – he was so hard for her. It made her feel like a star again … his undying desire for her always made her feel sexy and vibrant, no matter what.
 


Buffy slid down off his lap onto the floor of the limo and undid his belt as well as the hook and zipper of his pants, freeing his cock from its fabric veil.  Spike’s hands tangled in her hair as Buffy flicked her tongue over the tip, tasting his pre-cum then teasing him with butterfly kisses up and down his hard length. Spike raised his ass up off the seat and Buffy pulled his pants completely off – turning them inside out as she tugged them over his shoes, pulling them off with his trousers, and tossed it all on the floor behind her. She ran her hands over his well muscled thighs, from his knees to his groin … carefully avoiding his ticklish spot. There was a time for tickling, but this wasn’t it – she wanted him to moan, she wanted him to scream her name and tell her she was his heaven … that she was his everything.
 
“Talk to me…” Buffy whispered as she took his cock in her hand and brought it to her lips. She began swirling her tongue around the sensitive glans; teasing and tasting him, then wrapping her lips around his thick rod and nibbling her teeth lightly up and down his length.
 
“God, Buffy … feel so good, you do. Fuck! Yes!” he exclaimed, his hips jerking, as she dropped her mouth down fast and the tip of his cock hit the back of her throat.
 
Spike ran his hands up and down her arms, through her hair, across her shoulders as she licked and sucked his cock and fondled his balls with her hand … and he talked, his voice sounded like liquid gold to her, rich and fluid and hot...
 
“So hot you are, luv… Buffy, God, pet – what you do to me! Make me crazy, you do! Christ, woman … fuck! Yes, Buffy … Heaven, you are! God, Buffy – Jesus Christ! Oh God! Oh, Bufffffy!” Spike exclaimed, as she sent him over the edge. Unable to hold back, his body tensed and his cum boiled up from his balls and exploded into her mouth, sending stream after stream of his nectar against the back of her throat – so much that she couldn’t swallow it all fast enough and it spilled out of her mouth, covering her lips and chin as she continued to bob and lick and make love to his cock with her mouth.
 
Buffy smiled around his cock – she loved the way he screamed her name … she loved how she could make him lose control and that she could take him to heaven. It was her second favorite thing to do … the first being going to heaven and dancing among the stars with him.
 
Spike pulled her up his body, his hands on her upper arms, and captured her mouth with his. His jizz covered her mouth and mingled with all the other flavors that were there to create a hot, sweet ambrosia the likes of which he’d never tasted before. Spike pulled her against him as he devoured her mouth with his, licking his cum from her skin as his hands wandered down her body, feathering light touches down her sides, across the swell of her breasts and down to the flare of her hips before finding the bare skin of her thighs. Spike slid his hands under her dress and started back up – lifting the dress up her body as his hands roamed over her soft skin underneath.


 
Buffy broke the kiss and sat back, raising her arms as Spike lifted the dress off her and tossed it on the floor with his slacks. Spike fingered her hard nipples through the white lace of her bra and Buffy’s back arched, her head fell back and she moaned loudly. But she wanted more – she wanted his skin on hers, his fingertips feathering around her hard nipples, his palms stroking her smoldering body.
 
Buffy reached behind her back and unfastened her bra, letting it fall down her arms before tossing it away, as well. Spike’s mouth engulfed one nipple as his fingers caressed the other. “God, Spike … so good,” Buffy moaned as she ran her fingers through his hair and loosened the hold of his hair gel …releasing his soft curls from their prison.


 
“God, Buffy … so beautiful, pet. So bloody beautiful,” Spike declared as he kissed up from her breasts to her collarbone, then her neck, twirling his tongue in slow circles as he went higher and higher until he reached her earlobe. He nibbled lightly on her ear and his breath tingled against her skin, sending chill bumps racing over Buffy’s body and fire coursing through her veins.
 
“Spike…” Buffy moaned. “Need you.”
 
“You have me, luv – forever. You are my everything, Buffy – my world,” Spike murmured against her ear before gracefully turning her and lowering her down on her back onto the bench next to him. Spike shrugged the rest of the way out of his shirt and then hooked his fingers under the sides of her thong and slid it down her golden legs and off – leaving her new Jimmy Choos on.

Spike lifted her legs up, then started moving his hands down slowly from the sparkling stones on her new shoes to the heaven that awaited him at her core. He wanted to touch every inch of the golden skin on her strong, shapely legs with his hands and lips and he took his time doing so, kissing and licking and stroking her soft skin with his hands and mouth as he worked his way towards paradise.

Every soft touch of his lips and hands sent fire burning up and down Buffy's quivering legs and he continued to fan the flames of her desire until she thought her whole body would burst into flames at any moment. Buffy's moans fueled Spike's own desires, making him want her even more, making him ache for her. He loved every inch of her, from her Jimmy Choo clad feet to the shimmering green pools that were her eyes and her golden halo - she was an angel, she was his angel.
 
When he reached her apex, her scent washed over him like a wave of desire and hunger as he lowered her lovely legs over his shoulders and settled between her thighs. Buffy’s back arched and her whole body tensed as Spike’s tongue found her clit – twirling and licking and lavishing her sensitive nub with his heavenly mouth.
 
Buffy’s hands went to her nipples, pulling and stroking them as she felt the edge of heaven approaching … “God, Spike … please, baby!” she begged him and Spike slid one, then two fingers into her dripping hole and sucked down hard on her clit.
 
“Fuck yes!!!” Buffy exclaimed as her body convulsed and her spirit soared off the cliff and directly into heaven. Wave after wave of undiluted bliss washed over her as Spike stroked his fingers in and out of her heat and licked and sucked her clit until the scream that he so loved escaped her throat as the ecstasy became more than her body could hold inside without exploding.
 
Buffy’s body thrashed and convulsed under him, her pussy walls tightened around his fingers and her cum flowed onto his hand and covered them both as Spike licked it from her slit and pussy lips and his fingers. She was heaven … she was his heaven and everything about her turned him on and made him love her more every single day – the way she laughed, the way she ate, the way she looked at the world – her passion, her desire, her spirit. Buffy was like no one he’d ever known before and would never know again – of that he was certain. He still wondered what he had done to deserve the love of this Slayer … this goddess, this passionate woman.
 
As Buffy drifted back down from heaven and her body relaxed under him, Spike slid her legs down his sides and moved up over her body, supporting himself on strong arms above her as he dropped soft kisses over her face with silky lips until she opened her eyes.
 
“Hey, handsome,” Buffy whispered to him, the love he saw in her eyes as she looked into his would’ve surely made his heart melt if not for the Gem of Amarra protecting him.
 
“Hey, cutie,” Spike replied just as quietly before taking her lips in a gentle, sensuous kiss.


 
When Spike pulled his lips away and trailed his tongue down her cheek to her neck, Buffy wrapped her arms and legs around his body and whispered, “Make love to me, Spike.”
 
Suddenly, they heard someone clear their throat … it was Kalani on the intercom. “Sunnydale in fifteen,” he announced.
 
Buffy’s hands covered her mouth and her eyes went wide. She’d totally forgotten he was up front driving the limo. “He could hear us!” she whispered to Spike.
 
Spike laughed. “Reckon so – doubt it’s the first time, pet,” he assured her. “I doubt we’ve sullied his virgin ears.”
 
“Oh God, how embarrassing…” Buffy moaned, covering her face with her hands and shaking her head back and forth in denial.
 
Spike smiled at her – so cute, she was, still so much like a girl at times – but very much a woman.
 
“Hey, look at me,” Spike challenged, going down on his elbows and resting his body against hers. Buffy opened her eyes, looking at him through spread fingers, as if watching a gruesome scene in a horror movie that you didn’t want to see, but couldn’t look away from.
 
“You are a beautiful, sensuous woman with fire in your veins – it would’ve been embarrassing for me to be back here with ya and he not heard anything, yeah? You don’t want him to think I’m a Nancy Boy, do ya?” Spike asked her as she continued to look at him through her fingers.
 
Buffy laughed lightly, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. When she opened them the panic was gone, replaced by a look of love – it seemed to flow out of her soul, through the windows of her eyes and directly to his heart. “Say that one part again…” Buffy requested, wrapping her arms back around his chiseled back.
 
“Uhhh…not a Nancy Boy?” Spike teased and Buffy slapped him playfully.
 
“Nooo, the other part – something about beautiful,” Buffy reminded him.
 
“Ahhhh …” Spike nodded, as if just realizing what she was talking about. “You are a beautiful, sensuous woman, Buffy Anne Summers-Weckerly. Where other people have blood in their veins, you have fire … desire, passion. You are my heaven, my earth, my everything.”
 
Buffy raised her head up and kissed his lips softly – how did he always know the right thing to say to make any situation better?
 
When the kiss broke, Spike reached over and pushed the intercom button. “Hey, mate, drive around another hour … got a Benjamin in it for ya,” Spike said to Kalani.
 
“Take your time … make it two,” Kalani replied – he didn’t have anywhere else to go tonight anyway; he could handle an extra fifty bucks for driving around aimlessly for a couple of hours – he didn’t have to pay for the gas this thing sucked up.
 
Buffy smiled and tightened her thighs around Spike’s waist … two more hours of heaven.
 
Spike caught a glimpse of Buffy in the mirrored ceiling of the limo – with the fairy lights reflecting all around her, it looked like she was floating in the stars – which was exactly where he planned on taking her.
 
Spike kissed her again, his tongue probing deeply into her mouth, swirling around her tongue – first giving, then taking, as her tongue joined his in the silent dance. Spike shifted his hips and guided his hard cock into her tight, wet channel, never breaking the kiss. He slid in slowly; fighting his own urges to go fast, to be buried in her heat with one hard stroke… he wanted her to enjoy every delicious inch as he pushed into her.
 
Buffy fought her own urges to keep from thrusting her own hips up against Spike – he was going slowly – his cock stretching and filling her bit by naughty bit and driving her completely insane with desire. The fire that Spike said was in her veins seemed to escape and burn over her whole body … then chill bumps sprang up and raced up and down her sizzling skin making her feel alive with contradictions; hot and cold, sweet and sour, good and wickedly impish all at one time.
 
Buffy moaned as he pressed deeper and deeper into her core until Spike’s cock was buried to the hilt in her and he stopped moving. Spike brushed some stray hair back from her face with his fingertips as their eyes bore into each other – down past their brains and conscious thoughts, past even their hearts and directly into the other’s soul – into their life force, their spirit. Had they been one person eons ago and had Zeus actually severed their soul in half? Had they been searching for each other since then? How many seemingly random circumstances had to converge to bring them together in this lifetime? How many lifetimes had their souls lived before this without finding each other? Neither could fathom that now, now that they knew what it was to be one, living without the other would be worse than death.
 
Spike began to move his hips, pulling out just as slowly as he’d pressed into her. Her body felt like nirvana – like a physical manifestation of joy and elation and rapture all wrapped into one beautiful package. But it wasn’t just that, he knew – there were many beautiful women in the world – it was Buffy’s heart and spirit that made her so different than all the rest. Her physical beauty was breathtaking, but her inner beauty was what captured his heart and completed his soul.


 
Spike and Buffy kept the slow, unhurried rhythm of their lovemaking going for what seemed hours … it felt so good, so right. The feel of skin against skin, soft against hard, body against body continued to lift them both higher and higher as their muscles worked, flexing and relaxing … pushing and pulling – lifting their souls to the sky. Whispered words of love and longing flowed easily from their lips … there was no thought to them, just feeling – no one else existed in the world in these moments, just their love.
 
As the desire in their bodies grew and bloomed, their rhythm quickened until their hips were slamming together, flesh slapping against flesh as Spike drove his cock hard and deep into Buffy’s hot channel. Buffy’s hips rose up to meet him as she clung to his back with her arms and the sharp heels of her new shoes dug into the flesh of his ass and thighs, which only made him thrust into her harder.
 


Spike roared like a lion as he slammed into her with all his strength and his cum coated Buffy’s pussy walls as her body convulsed and tightened under and around him, her body engulfed in the flames of her own orgasm. Their whispers changed to cries of rapture … shouting each other’s name and screaming in bliss as they both reached the peak of the highest mountain and soared off. They flew without wings – dipping and diving then riding another wave of pleasure up, up – up past the clouds until they were one with the deep blue sky above. They clung to each other as their spirits climbed and fell and then rose back again – soaring above the earth, above the noise and the clamor of life, up into the heavens where there was nothing but warmth and golden light and each other’s love.
 
Spike collapsed down onto Buffy’s body, unable to support himself above her any longer, as their spirits floated softly back down to earth. She was breathing hard, trying to find enough air to keep her body going one more minute as she clung to Spike, wrapping her arms tightly around his back and pulling him against her.


 
Neither one could think or talk or even moan for the longest time as they lay in silent contentment, listening to the sound of the highway play a steady rhythm under the wheels of the limo. Finally, Spike lifted up enough to look into Buffy’s eyes … she moved her arms up from his back and folded them gently around his neck.
 
“I love you, Spike,” Buffy whispered to him and Spike dropped his forehead gently against hers.
 
“I love you too, Buffy,” he whispered back before dropping a sweet kiss on her lips.
 
As they both regained use of their limbs, Buffy reached towards her champagne glass, but couldn’t quite get it, so Spike reached across the aisle for her … but in his weakened state, he lost his balance and tumbled down onto the floor between the bench seats and the bar, pulling Buffy with him.
 
“Bloody hell…” he muttered, unaccustomed such a graceless dismount.
 
Buffy laughed as she landed on top of him – she could reach her glass now, so that was a plus! She turned over, still on top of Spike, putting her back against his chest, and took a deep drink of the sweet, bubbly liquid. Spike looked up and saw her reflection in the mirror above them again … to him she looked like an angel coming down from heaven – a very sexy, slightly rumpled, and thirsty angel.
 
Buffy looked up and saw it too … but frowned because she couldn’t see Spike in it. Buffy poured more champagne and offered it to Spike then pushed the button that opened the roof. Soon, they were traveling under the stars and moon. Buffy laid back against Spike’s chest, her head resting on his shoulder, her soft hair fanned out across his hard chest, and he wrapped his arms around her as they both gazed up at the night sky.
 
This is what she’d wanted from the beginning of the day … to lay in Spike’s arms and watch the stars pass by. Wasn’t it funny how life seemed to make full circles? Sometimes the circles were long and the road traveled was hard; other times, like today, the circle completed quickly with only good times and laughter along the path.
 
Neither knew what lay ahead for them – what obstacles they would face, but it was a comfort to think that, no matter how long the road, no matter how steep the mountain they had to climb, that eventually the circle would complete and they would find their little piece of heaven again – under the stars in each other’s arms, in each other’s hearts and souls forever.

** The End ** 

**~**

{{Click here to hear "I’ll Be Loving You Forever" by Westlife on YouTube }}


I'll be loving you forever,
Deep inside my heart you'll leave me never,
Even if you took my heart,
And tore it apart,
I would love you still, forever,

You are the sun,
You are my light,
And you're the last thing on my mind,
Before I go to sleep at night,
You're always round,
When I'm in need,
When trouble's on my mind,
You put my soul at ease,

There is no one in this world,
Who can love me like you do,
That is the reason that I,
Wanna spend forever with you,

I'll be loving you forever,
Deep inside my heart you leave me never,
Even if you took my heart,
And tore it apart,
I would love you still, forever,

We've had our fun,
We've made mistakes,
But who'd have guessed along that road,
We'd learn to give and take,
It's so much more than I could have dreamed,
Cause you make loving you, so easy for me,

There is no one in this world,
Who can love me like you do,
That is the reason that I,
Wanna spend forever with you,

I'll be loving you forever,
Deep inside my heart you leave me never,
Even if you took my heart,
And tore it apart,
I would love you still, forever,

And girl I pray you leave me, never,

Cause this is the world, where lovers often go astray,
But if we love each other, we won't go that way,
So put your doubts aside,
Do what it takes to make it right,
I love you, forever, no-one can tear us apart,

I'll be loving you forever, (forever)
Deep inside my heart you leave me never,
Even if you took my heart, (took my heart girl)
And tore it apart, (you tore it apart now)
I would love you still, forever,
And I'll be loving you forever, (forever)
Deep inside my heart you leave me never,
Even if you took my heart, (you took my heart girl)
And tore it apart, (you tore it apart now)
I would love you still, forever,
I'll be loving you forever,
Deep inside my heart you leave me never,
Even if you took my heart,
And tore it apart,
I would love you still, forever