Author's Chapter Notes:
So long since I updated this or anything. I hope you all will read and please review.
THE WORLD IS MINE


Chapter 5: ‘Reunions…..Of A Sort’


Summary: More revelations about Xander and Franklin Harris and their parents’ deaths.

Dawn and Connor’s characters are introduced into the story; via storytelling.

Spike gets his ‘courage’ up where Buffy is concerned and a good time will be had by our Spuffy duo!


Chapter 5:


“It comes down to this,” Buffy began with careful hesitation. “Larry and Connie Harris died; in a car accident a few years ago. They were on their way, presumably, out of Sunnydale, after a disastrous reunion dinner with Xander and Frank.”

“The autopsies, as I recall Uncle Rupes telling me, found high traces of alcohol in the Harris’ blood. Couldn’t the accident really have been just that Buffy? An accident?” Spike frowned at the dubious look Buffy had just given him and realized that she was about ready to spill all of her suspicions in the next few moments. At least her suspicions regarding Lawrence and Constance Harris and their ‘accidental’ demise from the human world.


“I have a younger sister,” Buffy blurted out suddenly. “She lives in LA now, with her husband, Connor McClain. But….” She paused and studied Spike’s handsome face, briefly. There was an odd look on her companion’s face; something ‘off’ in his expression.

Spike didn’t have the heart to tell Buffy that he knew ‘all’ about her. He knew all about her family and friends and yes, everyone that orbited her; the sun that was Buffy Summers.

“What is it?” Buffy asked innocently when she noted that Spike seemed to scowl, briefly.

“Nothing,” he muttered quickly, motioning for Buffy to continue her tale.

“Anyway,” Buffy began again with a weary sigh, “Dawn lived here, in Sunnydale up until a few years ago. With Mom and me,” she added wistfully. “Connor and Dawn started dating at Sunnydale High School and they stuck around Sunnydale; attending the University together.”

“Dawn got a job at a swanky restaurant, The Blue Lagoon, down by the ocean. Connor worked there first; they were both barely twenty-one,” Buffy seemed to just babble out her words.

“The night of the ‘Great Harris Reunion Party’ Dawn and Connor were working at the Blue Lagoon. Dawn was a waitress; Connor was a bus boy.” Buffy continued without seemingly taking one single breath.

Spike decided, immediately, that he’d better let her go on; not interrupt her at all. He would ask questions later, much later.

“Larry and Connie Harris had moved out of Sunnydale a couple of years before all of this,” Buffy explained quietly. “They came back; at the insistence of Xander and Frank, to have this supposedly happy family reunion. I guess Xander thought if he treated his folks to a fancy meal at the best place in Sunnydale; that they’d maybe finally ‘see’ that Frank and him had made something of themselves. Even if ‘their something’ was of the very bad.”

“It didn’t go to bloody well then I guess?” Spike asked Buffy, his left scarred brow was raised in question.

“No, it didn’t go well at all,” Buffy sighed sadly. “Dawn was the waitress that handled Xander’s table. Xander had brought Anya to the dinner as his date. Frank brought Faith and well,” the blond hesitated briefly. “I guess you could say that Larry and Connie Harris had second guessed their sons’ choices in partners.”

“I think the whole thing started off okay,” Buffy continued, “and it seemed, to Dawn anyway, that Larry and Connie were on their best behavior. However…..” her voice trailed off into silence.

Spike decided to say nothing; he just gazed at Buffy with an inquiring expression in his blue eyes.

“By the time the main course arrived,” Buffy began again, “Dawn noticed that the jovial mood at the table had changed. She told me later that when she brought the Beef Wellington, she swore she heard Larry Harris say something about both Anya and Faith. Something not very nice,” Buffy nodded, her green eyes were somber.

“Dawn says that Larry mentioned something about Anya and Faith reminding him of Connie Harris, his wife,” Buffy looked pensive for a moment. “I think Larry said something like ‘I see you boys have a weakness for whores; like me. Dawnie practically dropped the platter of beef; even she was humiliated for Xander and Franklin. Then my little sister high-tailed it back into the kitchen area. She babbled on to Connor about how she couldn’t go back out there and face anyone. The whole thing had practically made her physically ill.”

“ When Dawn returned, after a safe amount of time,” Buffy continued evenly. “The Harris party had vacated the secluded table. There was five hundred dollars on the table to cover dinner, drinks and a tip,” she finished with a shrug.

“So, Harris left the eatery? His folks and the birds in tow?” Spike grunted.

“Yes,” Buffy replied quickly. “This is where Connor comes in,” she continued. “Connor went out to the Lagoon’s parking lot to have a smoke with his co-worker, Vic. While they were outside, Connor saw Xander, Frank, Anya and Faith crowded around Larry and Connie’s Cadillac Seville. Larry loved Caddy’s,” Buffy added for no apparent reason. (This added twist will be explained later).

“There was a lot of shouting and screaming going on, according to Connor,” Buffy whispered. “I guess it got pretty ugly between the Harris group,” she mumbled half-heartedly.

“So you think that this Larry and Connie drank too much; took off in their big car and crashed into a ditch outside of….” Spike’s theory was cut off by Buffy.

“That’s just it,” Buffy murmured, “the ‘drinking’ part,” she stammered. “Dawn was the waitress that night, like I said. She swears that Xander’s folks arrived sober to the Blue Lagoon and that she never served an alcoholic drink to either one of them. The Harris party was at the restaurant for at least two to three hours,” Buffy scowled in remembrance.

“If Harris’ folks hadn’t had a drop,” Spike began quietly.

“Then how do you explain the drunken crash in a ditch, just minutes after they must have left the Lagoon?” Buffy added before he could finish. “Dawn swears that Larry and Connie Harris were stone cold sober when they left that parking lot. The accident that killed them couldn’t have been more then a few minutes later,” she finished in a harsh whisper.

“So you think Xander and Frank slipped their ma and pa a deadly micky?” Spike asked; a bit shocked himself at this turn of events.

“I know they ‘must’ have,” Buffy rasped in response. Her huge green eyes reflected the horror in Spike’s blue ones.


‘Elsewhere, in good old Sunnydale…..’


“So where is ‘Mommy Dearest’ baby?” Xander asked his fiancé, Anya, warily. Anya was unpacking her overnight bag; carelessly tossing her expensive clothes into the huge walk-in closet of their penthouse bedroom.

“Nepal,” Anya replied non-chalantly. “Apparently mommy is trying to find inner peace through religious practices,” she snorted sarcastically enough.

“Your mother is trying to find spiritual peace? Through…..” Xander grunted nastily, until he saw the murderous look his lady love gave him.

He noticed that his soon to be wife looked sad, almost pensive for a moment. This was certainly new to him, so he decided to play it safe and try for ‘compassion’ instead of sarcasm.

‘Great,’ Xander hissed under his breath, ‘Anya’s other woman antennae just kicked in I bet.’

“Is Sylvia going to make it for our wedding?” Xander asked in his most reverent tone. He would try for the ‘waffle’ on the subject ploy he had perfected.

“Yeah,” Anya whispered in reply. “She’ll be here. The question now is; will you?” The young woman turned and surveyed her lover with a suspicious glare.

“Of course baby,” Xander sputtered in a confused manner. “Why wouldn’t I be here for our…..”

“Nevermind,” Anya sighed with just a hint of sorrow in her voice. “I just thought that a question of ‘faith’ on your part might make you re-think everything,” she mumbled under her breath.

‘She knows,’ Xander thought, suddenly frightened at the prospect that his lover/fiancé might suspect he’d been less then faithful to her. ‘Anya knows about Faith and she’s going to fucking leave me!’ He suddenly felt like the walls about him were going to close in and crush them both…..together…forever and…..

“I love you Anya,” Xander murmured sincerely as he stood up from the silly little silk covered couch that Anya had insisted they put in the bedroom. He reached the trembling woman in seconds and wrapped his massive arms about her trim little body.

“I love you and I always will,” he whispered honestly. “I…..”

“I know you do,” Anya sighed as she laid her head back against her soon to be husband’s huge chest. “It’s just….” She left the sentence unfinished.

“It’s just that we’ve had so much shit in our lives; our relationship,” Xander finished for her. “That’s gonna’ change Ahn,” he promised in a hoarse whisper. “I’m gonna’ make everything perfect for you and me,” he added earnestly. “When our first baby is born,” he continued in a hushed tone, something so foreign to the couple. “When he or she is born? We’ll be a million miles from this fucking town and all of this shit that’s brought us down before this.”

“So, our wedding should be a real mother/child reunion, huh baby?” Xander asked as he tenderly kissed Anya’s warm, soft right cheek.

“Yeah,” she sighed against his neck, “it should turn out a hell of a lot better then the last one, huh?”


‘I’m never going to fuck Faith Evans again,’ Xander made a silent promise to himself. ‘That fucking slut is totally dead to me now. Only Anya matters from here on in,’ he thought as he planted a tender kiss on his fiancé’s warm, soft head.


‘Back in Buffy’s Condo…..’


Spike sat on Buffy’s plush sofa; still kind of in shock at the revelations he’d just heard from her. Of course his Uncle Rupert had always kept him up-to-date on the Xander Harris case over the years. Uncle Rupes had made it clear that everyone had suspected foul play in the older Harris couple’s ‘accidental’ death.

However, to hear it actually verbally explained by this mere slip of a girl and to see how it still affected her? Buffy looked as if she was shell-shocked by her own words. Even Spike’s hardened heart and his own toughened police psyche was sickened by the thought that Xander and Franklin Harris could have murdered their own parents. No matter how bloody fucked up as parents Larry and Connie actually had been.

‘Bloody odd,’ Spike thought, still a bit out of it by all this. ‘Buffy acts as if Larry and Connie Harris were more to her then Harris’ bent pop and mom.’

“There’s something else,” Buffy began quietly, “something that’s not too well known, even here in the Peyton Place that is Sunnydale.” She looked as if she was going to be sick or something and Spike instinctively reached out and took her tiny hand in his.

“Go ahead, luv,” Spike whispered tenderly as he gently stroked the back of her soft little hand.

“My mom,” Buffy stammered in a strained, hoarse voice, “she had a more personal stake in the Harris disaster.”

Spike frowned, slightly, in confusion and gazed into Buffy’s beautiful but serious green eyes. ‘What is it?’ He silently asked her, his left brow quirked up once again.

“Connie Harris was my mom’s first cousin.” Buffy nearly choked out the revelation, appearing to be ashamed of the fact that her family was somehow blood kin to the bent Harris clan.

“Bloody hell!” Spike heard himself gasp before he could stop.

“Yeah,” Buffy chuckled derisively, “Xander and Frank Harris are my cousins. Pretty fucked up, huh?” She looked into Spike’s blue eyes with trepidation. Buffy would hate it if Spike suddenly disliked her because the psycho Harris brothers were related to her family. For some reason that thought just made her very sad.

“We never much talked about it,” Buffy continued nervously. “Mom and Connie had parted ways long ago and…..”

Spike took a deep breath and pulled Buffy close into him, his arms wrapping about her tightly in comfort.

“Buffy, Princess, it’s alright,” Spike purred soothingly into her warm little ear. “We can’t choose are relatives, believe me I know that,” he added with a quick laugh. “I’ve got a cousin, Peter, he’s a bloody shady politician back in England. Now there’s something to piss on about,” he chuckled wickedly.

“Piss on about?” Buffy asked Spike cautiously, unaware of what that particular Brit slang meant. She smiled, slightly, at the thought of it though.

“It means to complain or feel bad about,” he offered quickly. “You know; like to piss and moan about something?”

“Oh,” Buffy began to giggle at the visual, causing Spike to laugh along with her.

Spike stopped laughing and watched the little blond in his arms as she continued to giggle merrily at his use of British slang. He felt the urge to kiss her, again, even though the previous conversation had been anything but romantic.

Remembering last night and how Buffy had been more then interested in some serious snogging with him, even if she was smashed, falling down drunk at the time. Spike bravely leaned in to give her a passionate kiss on her delectable little pouty pink lips.

He felt a great sense of sorrowful loss of contact when Buffy pulled her face back from his mouth. She stared at him with a mixed expression of shock, confusion and maybe a bit of anger.

“Buffy,” Spike began apologetically, “I’m sorry sweetling, just wanted to…..”


“I thought you wouldn’t try to take advantage of me Spike,” Buffy whimpered just a little bit. She tried desperately not to allow the smile that was threatening to break forth on her mouth.

“Last night you were drunk Princess,” Spike explained evenly; although he did not release his hold on her. “You’re stone-cold sober this mornin’ pet. I don’t consider this takin’ advantage of you,” he finished with a wicked little smirk.

“True,” Buffy ventured to admit vocally; her mouth turned up in a mischievous grin. “I am stone-cold sober and you are definitely not going to take advantage of me now!”

With that, Buffy yanked Spike’s head down, very un-gently like and crashed her lips against his passionately.


A/N: I’m going to be naughty and bow out of this chapter right here (hehehehe). I want to leave the Spuffy loving to the next chapter so I can concentrate on it!

Thanks for reading and please review, spufette.





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