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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you for reading and the lovely reviews.
There are a few more chapters to go here!
Chapter 18: ‘Yes!’


Summary: Spike asks Buffy to marry him again. Okay, so the title of this chapter gives it away!

Joyce Summers gets a visitor to the farm; someone who has some warning for her and her family.


“So,” Spike murmured softly, tenderly placing a kiss on Buffy’s plump lips. He never broke his gaze from her green eyes as he repeated the question from just seconds before.

“Will you marry me, Buffy,” he asked, trying to cover his nervous insecurity. “As soon as we can find a preacher, or I guess, really I should say a priest?”

“Of course!” Buffy exclaimed gleefully, tiny tears of joy spilling from her eyes. “I mean, yes! I’ll marry you Will!”

She rolled them both over, so he’d be on his back, and began to assault her man’s face and lips with her fiery, passionate kisses.

“Damn, Buffy,” Spike chuckled lustily, “one thing is for sure. Our life together is never going to be dull, eh?”





‘Meanwhile, back at the Summers’ farm……’


Joyce Summers sat on her front porch, staring out at the vast, lonely plain in front of her. Dawn, her youngest daughter, and her only son, Hank Jr., sat next to her.

“Mama,” Dawn mumbled, breaking the silence between the trio, “there’s a rider coming.” The young girl pointed off into the distance, alerting her mother to the lone rider on a dark horse.

Mrs. Summers stood and straightened herself up to her full height of 5’5” (pretty tall really for that era). She cupped her hand over her eyes to try and figure out exactly who was riding towards her home.


“It’s Mr. Johnathan Levison!” Little Hank Jr. cried in delight. “I can see it’s him. I can tell, even from here Mama,” the boy squealed happily.

“Indeed,” Joyce mumbled, a little confused at this point. “It is Mr. Levison.”

As the general store owner neared, Joyce began to feel rather anxious at heart. Why would Johnathan Levison come here, to the farm? Now?


“Good day to you, Mrs. Summers,” Johnathan tipped his hat in deep respect for this beloved woman. Joyce noted, not for the first time, that she nearly towered over this small, but well-liked young man.

“Good day to you, Mr. Levison,” Joyce stammered, still taken aback by the young shop owner’s sudden appearance. It was true, Johnathan Levison and his lovely wife, Amy, were pillars of the community. Just as Hank and Joyce Summers were, but they had never been really close; not really.

“I’ve a need to speak with you, Mrs. Summers and…..” Johnathan began with a blush. The diminutive man glanced over at the two Summers’ children, another slight blush on his cheeks.

“Dear God, Johnathan,” Joyce sighed in exasperation. “We’ve known each other for years, boy. Can you not call me Joyce? I belong to your dear wife, Amy’s, sewing circle, for the love of Pete!”

“So sorry maam,” Johnathan mumbled with yet another blush. “I’m just, well…..” his sentence trailed off as he glared at the two youngsters on the porch steps.

“Dawn,” Joyce began carefully, “take young Hank into the house. I need to speak with Mr. Levison privately, I think,” she finished with a scowl.

“Thank you maam,” Johnathan sighed in relief. “It’s true,” he continued benevolently. “I think this discussion; regarding Mr. Caleb Montgomery is best kept between you, Joyce, and myself.”

“If this ‘discussion’ is about that fool, Caleb Montgomery,” Dawn spat, “then it’s about my sister. So,” she continued smugly, “it involves me too!”

“Dawn,” Joyce barked impatiently, “take your little brother into the house, girl. Do not come back out here until I say. Do you understand?”

“Yes, Mama,” Dawn murmured, stung that she was being exiled into the house. Dawn hurried into the house, her little brother in tow behind her.

“What brings you here, Johnathan?” Joyce Summers asked the little man, cautiously. It was true, she belonged to Amy Levison’s sewing circle, but that was about the end of it. However, to have Johnathan come out here, now? It was a little more then bizarre.

“I need to talk to you, Mrs. Summers, I mean Joyce,” he added respectfully. “A situation has arisen and I felt it my duty to ‘warn’ you about it,” he mumbled, unable to look the older woman in the face.

“Go ahead,” Joyce followed the short man out into the front yard of her home.

“I believe we should go as far from earshot as possible, Joyce,” Johnathan whispered, secretively. “I wouldn’t want the children to hear what I have to say,” he finished with a frown.

“Of course,” Joyce mumbled nervously. Whatever was bothering Johnathan was something real and unnerving; that was for sure.

When they had reached the tiny garden that Dawn and Buffy had thrown together, just months before, Johnathan turned and faced Joyce, reluctantly.

“Tell me,” Joyce ordered Mr. Levison. “There’s something evil here, Johnny,” she muttered knowingly. “So tell me and…..”

“It’s about Caleb,” Johnathan began carefully. “Let me start at the beginning, please Joyce,” he added quietly.

Joyce nodded, encouraging Johnathan to continue.


“Mr. Lorne Deverson, he came to my business this very morning, Joyce,” Johnathan began with a hot blush on his pixie face.

“The whoremaster!” Joyce gasped in shock.

“Well, yes,” Johnathan muttered, stunned that a fine woman like Mrs. Hank Summers would even know who Lorne was.

“I, well, I’m sorry,” Joyce began shyly. “I should not have said that word and…..”

“No, its fine, Joyce,” Johnathan stammered, still a little put off by this refined woman’s use of ‘that’ moniker.

“Anyway,” Joyce began for her companion. “What does Lorne Deverson have to do with you, or me and my family for that matter?”

“I don’t quite know how to put this, maam,” Johnathan began again, even more unsure of how to relay this disdainful message.

“As I said, Lorne Deverson came to my place of business this morning. At the first thing, actually. He shooed my Amy off and demanded to speak with me, alone. I was shocked, of course, but after noting the sincerity in the man’s eyes I had to hear him out.”

Johnathan glanced down at the pebbled path that he and Mrs. Summers walked upon. He was more then sure that Hank Summers, Sr. had set that path there, lovingly, for his wife and children.

“I think I should start by saying, Joyce,” Levison began cautiously, “that your family, Buffy included, of course, is very well thought of here. We all care about you, Mr. Summers, your children and all,” he continued. “Heck, even a despot like Lorne Deverson cares.”

“Lorne Deverson,” Joyce groaned, “the Red Garter whoremaster? He cares about my family and…..”

“Please, Mrs., let me finish,” Johnathan grimaced. “Mr. Lorne Deverson is a whoremaster that much is true. However, he is also the son of a Kentucky land owner and considered a genteel sort by his peers ‘there’ and all. I know,” the shaggy haired man continued, “that it is hard to believe that a man of Mr. Deverson’s reputation, here in Redemption, might be a gentleman in other parts. But, it’s true. Again, that’s not the point, is it?”

“I suppose not,” Joyce stuttered, a little stunned by this revelation. She, Joyce, and her female friends of the surrounding area had discussed Mr. Lorne Deverson and his endeavors, numerous times, at their functions.

“Mr. Lorne, he respects you and your family’s reputation, Joyce,” Johnathan went on. “He felt it best that a Summers’ family friend would be the best emissary to come out and talk with you, about Caleb Montgomery,” he finished with a sour frown.

“What is it?” Joyce asked, a little frightened by what this small man might tell her.

“Caleb,” Johnathan paused for a brief moment, “he did something real bad, to an employee of Lorne’s. I have to say, Joyce that it was not over a bad card deal and all. It was over a…..”

“A whore?” Joyce asked her blue eyes half shut in horror. “Did Caleb hurt a whore in Mr. Lorne’s employ?”

“Yes,” Johnathan Levison rasped in reply. “He did something awful to a young blond whore by the name of…..”

“Harmony Kendall,” Joyce supplied the rest of the sentence.

“Oh, don’t look so shocked, Johnathan Levison,” Joyce cooed. “The women of Redemption are farm women, mothers, grandmothers, daughters and sisters. Do you think we sit around at sewing circle meetings and just discuss the weather and babies? Grow up,” she spat somewhat impatiently.

“Do I want to know exactly what Caleb Montgomery did to that Harmony woman?” Joyce drawled out the question, her eyes still half closed in disgust.

“No maam,” Johnathan sighed unhappily. “I wouldn’t tell my own beloved Amy what that monster Montgomery did to the girl. How could I……”

“So be it,” Joyce whispered as she crossed herself. Joyce Morris-Summers had been raised in the Catholic Church and she still practiced some of its rituals

“Lorne Deverson has sent the girl, Harmony Kendall, away, to recuperate. Out to Kansas City, I believe,” Johnathan offered in a harsh voice.

“Good,” Joyce sighed sadly. “I hope the poor girl stays away, permanently. It would probably be best for her. As for Caleb,” she grimaced yet again. “He’ll get his due, someday,” she hissed.

“Here’s hoping to that maam. However, Lorne was worried, about Buffy and all. He was concerned that when your daughter came home, that Caleb might, well, make things difficult for her and such.” Johnathan blushed bright red again.

“I’ve got news for you and Caleb,” Joyce stated evenly. “Buffy made it clear, to me, before she was taken. There is no way in God’s green earth that my daughter, Buffy, will ever marry Caleb Montgomery. She does not love him and she does not trust him any longer. When and if she returns to Redemption? I will make sure that my child knows exactly what kind of man Caleb Montgomery truly is.”



“Well, you two certainly were in that barn a while,” Cordelia chuckled wickedly at her nephew, Spike and his lady love, Buffy.

The blond couple had entered the Quinn house, arm in arm, and entirely way too ‘happy’ for words. Cordelia Quinn grinned at her brother-in-law, Rupert Giles, mischievously.

“And you thought they were killing each other, eh Angel?” Rupert asked his tall, dark-haired nephew, with a smirk.

“Guess not,” Angel grunted at his uncle. “I guess they were……”

“That’s enough cousins,” Spike spat at Angel. “Besides, we’ve got an announcement to make,” the blond outlaw grinned happily.

“An announcement?” Cordelia asked with wide brown eyes.

“Yes,” Buffy giggled girlishly. “Will and me, we’re going to, well, you tell them,” she whispered to her lover.

Spike pulled Buffy into his embrace and beamed at his immediate family. “Buffy and me,” he began proudly. “We’re going to get married. As soon as we can find a holy man to do the ceremony.”


A/N: That was a really short, short chapter for me. I’m trying to stay focused with my fics and continue with my new one.

Thanks for reading and please review, spufette.





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