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Chapter Thirteen



Buffy eyed her reflection in the mirror carefully. She’d already changed six times since Spike had called to let her know he’d be coming to see her around lunchtime. Dawn had offered to take Sarah downstairs to the hotel pool for lunch, and Buffy was grateful. She wanted to see how Spike felt about her before he knew he had a daughter, and if he got a good look at Sarah he’d know for sure she was his. Sarah might have looked like Buffy from afar with her blonde hair and petite body, but up close she was a spitting image of her father with his sharp cheekbones and intense blue eyes.

Now she was onto her seventh outfit, which also happened to be her first: a pair of dark denim jeans that fit her just right, a casual pink halter top and a pair of her black boots. Buffy moved onto the bathroom to apply a little bit of make up. As she was coating her lips with gloss, she heard a knock at the door.

Buffy froze. With all the preparation she’d done on her outfit she’d forgotten to prepare what she was going to say to him At the second knock, Buffy threw down the container in her hand and rushed to answer the door.

Spike looked the same as she remembered him that day in the bookstore so many years before, except now his suit was Armani instead of Macy’s. She felt incredibly underdressed next to him.

"Just came from breakfast with clients," he explained his attire walking into the room.

"And I thought you got all dressed up for me," she joked, feigning disappointment.

Spike gave her his traditional smirk. "That too." He looked around the empty suite. "No kiddies around?"

"No, they’re down at the pool. I wanted to give us some time to talk, which is pretty impossible with them around." She walked further into the suite and sat on the arm chair across from a sofa. "Sit down," she offered. "I thought we could order room service and eat while we catch up." She paused. "Unless you’re not hungry, since you just came from breakfast."

"You know me, always hungry," he kidded taking the menu from her. "What do you want?"



Buffy and Spike spent the afternoon eating lunch and talking about their lives over the past few years. They steered clear of the more awkward subject of the past and were acting instead as if they were nothing more than old friends catching up, instead of two people who had once been in love with each other.

"Your daughter’s beautiful." Spike took a sip from his soda. "She looks just like you."

Actually, she looks just like you. "Thank you."

Spike couldn’t think of a single sensible thing to say to the woman sitting in front of him. Well, that was a lie. He could think of many things he wanted to say, but couldn’t bring himself to. Most of them revolved around Sarah and her father, and if her father or any other man was in the picture. But he decided to play it safe. "How long are you in town for?"

"Another week," she answered. "Then we go back to Miami."

"Right, Miami. You mentioned that before didn’t you."

"Yeah, I’m studying to be a teacher at the University of Miami and Dawn attends the local high school. She’ll be a senior next year," she told him with a smile, proud of her younger sister. "My friend Tara owns her own day care, so she watches Sarah for me while Dawn and I are at school."

"Sounds like you’ve got a lot going on there." Buffy remained silent at that and Spike tried not to look as disappointed as he felt. Their lives were so different now compared to five years ago. They lived on opposite sides of the country for heaven’s sake Right now, he couldn’t imagine how they could make a relationship between them work and he knew that Buffy was thinking the same thing.




"Dad called ahead and made a reservation for us, so we shouldn’t have to wait that long," Dawn said as they walked into Luce, an expensive Italian restaurant. "And it’s on him, so make sure you eat up!"

"Don’t worry about that," Xander assured her. "I wore my stretchy pants tonight."

Faith groaned. "This is, like, the nicest restaurant we’ve ever been to and you have to say something like that?"

Buffy chuckled at her friends. After Buffy had Sarah, Faith had come to Sunnydale for a visit. Buffy introduced Faith to Xander who was just getting over a break up with Cordelia. What had started out as something casual for them both, had turned into much more and Buffy had been the maid of honor at their wedding last year.

"I’ll see how long ‘til our table is ready," Buffy offered, walking past her friends to the maitre’d.



"Five minutes."

Buffy thanked the maitre’d and turned to walk back to her party. "Spike?"

Spike had just walked into the same restaurant on a date with Drusilla. He had been about to inquire about his own reservation when Buffy appeared before him. "Buffy, hi."

"What are you doing here?" she asked, still in shock.

"Uh, planned on eating, how about you?" he replied with an awkward laugh. Buffy didn’t crack a smile, but he noticed her gaze had drifted from him to Drusilla. "You here alone?"

Buffy looked back at him, clearing her mind of the millions of questions running around. "No," she answered finally. "I’m here with my friends." As she said it she noticed they were standing right behind her along with a host who was waiting to show them to a table. "Uh, you remember Faith?"

Spike nodded, noticing the calming hand Xander placed on Buffy’s shoulder. "Nice to see you again."

"Same here," Faith replied giving him a thin smile.

"And this is Xander." Spike extended his hand to Xander, who took it but glared at Spike the whole time. "My sister Dawn, and this is my daughter Sarah," she finally introduced them thankful that Sarah was tired and cuddled in Dawn’s arms.

Spike smiled at them and then felt someone shift next to him. He’d completely forgotten about Drusilla! "This is, Drusilla." He paused, not wanting to say what he was about to. "My girlfriend."

"We really should be getting to our table, Buffy," Dawn interrupted. "Nice meeting you, Spike."

Buffy nodded, now in complete shock. How had he forgotten to mention that he had a girlfriend? "Enjoy your dinner," was all she managed to say.

"You too, Bunny," Drusilla called after her with a glare. She was fuming that all it took was Buffy’s mere presence to make Spike forget all about her. Latching herself onto his arm as he walked further into the restaurant she tried to forget about Buffy. Just like she planned on making Spike forget about Buffy after dinner.



"Bunny? Who does goth bitch think she’s talking to?" Faith seethed angrily.

"Faith." Buffy hissed, looking over to where her daughter was coloring in the books Buffy had brought with them.

"I’m sorry, but if I ever see her again, she’s gonna get a major a-butt kicking." Faith quickly censored herself.

"Who cares about her?" Xander asked taking a sip of his beer. "What about Captain Peroxide? Mr. I’m too much of a B-A-S-T-A-R-D to even say hi to my kid."

"Xander!" Buffy scolded.

"What? I spelt it out," he defended himself. "She can’t spell yet can she?"

"No, I mean Xander! He doesn’t know she’s his daughter yet."

Dawn looked up from the picture she was helping her niece color. "What? Buffy, when are you planning on telling him this crucial piece of information?"

Buffy played with her napkin. "I just want to know how he feels about me before I tell him," she explained. "I mean what if he doesn’t have feelings for me anymore, but finds out about Sarah and decides to be with me just because it’s the ‘right’ thing to do? He’d end up hating me."

"I think you’re getting a little carried away," Dawn said. "Who says he’ll even do the ‘right’ thing when he does find out?" Buffy shot her a glare. "All I’m saying is most guy saren’t like that. There’s all that shared custody, weekends and holidays crap."

"What’s crap?" Sarah asked, looking up from her coloring book for the first time.

Buffy was now shooting Dawn a death glare. "She said wrap, honey. Like wrapping paper for the holidays." Sarah didn’t look convinced, but went back to coloring anyway. "I’m going to tell him. Soon."

"So, what are you having, sweetie?" Xander asked Faith, understanding from Buffy’s tone that the conversation was over.

"I’m thinking I’m gonna start off with some Minestrone soup, then I’ll have the cocktail shrimp..."

Buffy tuned out her friends and looked over to the table she’d seen Spike and Drusilla be seated at. She definitely had the worst luck in the world. After five years of not knowing how to get in touch with Spike, she finally finds him and he has a girlfriend. Buffy slumped back against her seat dejectedly. Suddenly she didn’t have much of an appetite.



"Sorry pet, what did you say?" Spike asked Drusilla for the hundredth time since they’d been seated.

Drusilla fought the urge to sigh and roll her eyes. "I asked how old Buffy is."

"Well, she was eighteen when I met her so she should be about twenty three now," he answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Well, she looks younger. Too young to have a daughter that age."

Spike shrugged. "She must have got pregnant shortly after we broke up." No need to tell his new girlfriend, that Buffy had left him high and dry.

Drusilla started talking again, this time not about Buffy but about a new movie that was coming out that she wanted them to see together. She noticed Spike’s gaze drifting across the room, and was inwardly fuming. The only time he wasn’t thinking about Buffy was when he was talking about her! "What do you think?" she asked.

Spike’s head shot back to Drusilla. "Sorry, what did you say?"





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