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Spike hesitated in the hallway just outside Dawn’s door. Even without his vampiric hearing he could hear her sobbing softly inside. Perhaps it would be better if he just left the house rather than stirring up more trouble, he thought as he stood facing the door. He hadn’t meant to stir up more strife between the Slayer and her sister when he had made the deal with Hallie. He had simply wanted to remove the excuses that had made up such a huge roadblock for their relationship. Of course, he hadn’t really thought the Slayer would fall right into his arms the moment she discovered his newfound humanity. Oh, it had happened in his dreams, but it was time to be a realist. It just didn’t happen that way, and now Dawn was even more hopeful than he had been. She was hurting because of him, and he couldn’t just leave and let her to suffer.

“Bit?” he rapped on the door softly. Hoping the storm of emotions that had erupted just before she had come upstairs had calmed down; he turned to knob and slowly pushed the door open. He carefully poked his head into the room, all the while wishing he had a hat to poke in first like one of those cowboys on those horrible westerns he watched on Sunday mornings for lack of anything else better.

“What do you want?” Dawn growled sounding every bit as vicious as any vampire Spike had come across. “If Buffy’s with you, I don’t want to speak to her!”

Dawn was sitting on the middle of her bed clutching her pillow to her chest. Her eyes were red and puffy, but Spike was glad to see he had missed the brunt tearfest. It was hard enough trying to be the responsible one; her tears would have been his undoing. She sat on the bed her slender frame trembling slightly, her breath catching every now and then as she tried to calm down. She looked every bit like a normal teenage girl. No one would have ever expected her to have stood up to a hellgod or befriended a vampire.

“Don’t worry, Niblet, I’m alone,” he replied. She still held the pillow to her chest, so he took that as a sign that it was safe to cross the room and join her on the bed.

“Figures!” she snorted her brown eyes throwing the door an evil glare.

“What figures?” he asked.

“Figures, you’d be the one to come up and talk to me,” Dawn replied, “and she’d stay downstairs. Probably watching TV or trying figuring out the best way to slay a demon and still make it to the Bronze by nine. She never gives a crap about what I think.”

“That’s not true,” he sighed brushing a strand of chestnut hair from her cheek, “I told her I wanted to talk to you first…”

“Why? So you could keep me from yelling at her?” she snorted. “It’s not fair Spike. You go to all this trouble for her, and she doesn’t even care. She doesn’t even care that having you here makes me happy. It’s almost like having mom around again. Well, except that you’re not really the mom type, but you know what I mean. I mean, it kind of felt like having a family again. Not that I don’t care about Willow and the others, but it’s not like, well, like…”

“I know, Bit,” Spike smiled at her fondly. “I feel the same way about you, but I think we’re going to have to give Big Sis some time. It’ll just take some time for her to get used to the idea of me being around in the day time.”

“But what if she never gets used to it?” Dawn voiced the thing he feared most.

“Well, we’ve just got to hope she does,” he sighed. “You know I love her, and I know it. Your sister is a smart girl—we’ll leave Captain Cardboard out of the equation—it’s only a matter or time before she starts to see it herself.”

The little joke was enough to elicit a small smile from Dawn. He knew no matter how bad things seemed he could at least get Niblet to smile for him. Now if dealing with the Slayer could only be so easy.

“Don’t you ever get tired of picking on Riley?”

Spike looked towards the door to find the Slayer standing in the doorway. Her arms were crossed over her chest, but she there was a smile on her lips. He wondered just how long she had been standing there listening in on their conversation.

“Nope,” he smiled back at her. “It just never seems to get old, luv.”

“Well, maybe one of these days you’ll think of getting a new hobby,” Buffy sighed taking a few steps into the room. “Would you mind if I talked to Dawn alone for a little bit?”

He was slightly caught off guard. It was rare that the Slayer would ask him to leave the room rather than simply telling him to get out—okay, it never happened. “Sure, luv,” he replied throwing a hopeful looked over his shoulder at Dawn as he rose from the bed and headed for the door. “Just let me know if she gives you any trouble, and I’ll help you hold her down.”

“Yeah right,” she laughed. “Like Xander couldn’t kick your butt now.”

“That hurt, Slayer,” he laughed as he pulled the door shut behind him. “That really did.”

He stood outside the door for a moment wishing he still had retained the vampire hearing. He had insulted the ex, and instead of giving him the usual glare she had actually joked with him. He could only hope that meant that she was finally willing to give him a chance. Deciding it would probably be better that Buffy didn’t open the door and find him outside eavesdropping, he started for the stairs and headed for the kitchen in search of a nice relaxing cup of hot chocolate.





*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*





“Mind if I sit down?” Buffy asked nervously. After Spike’s departure the air in the room suddenly started to feel heavy.

“Sure,” Dawn replied.

She sighed as she sat on the edge of the bed. It shouldn’t surprise her that Dawn wasn’t going to make this easy on her. You would think after all they had been through together talking should have been easy for them, but not when the topic was Spike. They always seemed to come up at odds when he was concerned.

“Look, Dawn, I’m sorry,” she started out slowly, really not sure what to say and afraid anything she did chose to say would just spark the fight all over again. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”

“Well, you did,” she growled stubbornly looking down at the pillow. “Why do you always have to be so mean to him? We were having a good time before you showed up. No worrying about money or demons or social workers…”

“I know, and I am sorry, Dawn,” Buffy repeated. “I shouldn’t have blown up.”

“He only made the wish because he thought it would make you happy,” she pushed, “and you won’t even give him a chance.”

“Once again, I know,” she sighed. “I know you want to give him a chance, but we can’t forget he did make a wish. We have to keep an eye out for the after effect.”

“I know,” Dawn rolled her eyes towards the ceiling remembering the birthday party. How much longer was it going to take for her to live that one down? “But couldn’t we at least enjoy the peace and quiet until then? Couldn’t you just be the littlest bit nice to him?”

“Well, since he’s not a vampire anymore, I promise I won’t try to put a stake through his heart anymore,” she replied hoping to lighten the mood. Having a serious discussion about Spike with anyone made her extremely uncomfortable.

“Very funny,” Dawn groaned, but she did smile. “Come on, Buffy, can’t he stay, for a little while at least?”

“Fine,” she answered throwing her hands up in a sign of surrender, “he can stay. For a little while, and he will have to sleep on the couch. I doubt Willow would want to share mom’s room.”

“He could always…”

“Stop right there,” Buffy interrupted knowing exactly where her sister was heading. “I said I would be nice to him, but that is as far as it goes. He sleeps on the couch. Happy now?”

“Very,” Dawn giggled tossing the pillow aside. “Do you think that we could order a pizza? I’m starving.”

“Sure,” Buffy sighed as she followed her sister out of the room. She dreaded the thought of what she had just gotten herself into, but at least Dawn was happy again.





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