Buffy sat in the front seat of Spike’s car, unable to move as she stared at the expensive car in front of them. She saw Dawn leaning forward from the backseat. Her whisper was shaky. “Buffy, what is he doing here?” The blonde just shook her head, unsure herself.
“I don’t know Dawn, we didn’t even try and tell him where we are.”
Spike watched as both sisters turned their heads to find a man standing on their front porch. “What the bleeding hell’s going on?” Though, deep down Spike had a feeling he knew who this was.
Faith answered for the two sisters. “It’s their dad.”
“He has to be around to be considered a dad, Faith,” Buffy said coldly.
Spike looked at Buffy closely trying to figure out what was going on through her head.
“Do you want me to call Uncle-G?” Faith asked, pulling out her cell phone. Buffy just nodded, unbuckling her seat belt. “Dude you should totally take Spike up there with you if you really want to tick Hank off,” Faith told her.
“Faith!” Buffy scolded.
“It’s true. No offense B, but we all know your dad is probably not going to like the thought of you boning the hottie right next to you.”
Buffy looked at Faith in horror. “We’re not boning.” She gave Spike an embarrassed smile who sat behind the wheel trying not to chuckle. Dawn sat back, giggling.
“I’m flattered Faith,” Spike said, glancing at Faith briefly before turning back to look at Buffy. “Oh just admit it pet, you know you like my sexy body.” He waggled his eyebrows at her mischievously.
“Fine I admit it, you have a sexy body but that is not my problem right now.” She cocked her thumb towards the passenger window reminding the others what they had to focus on.
“Do you want me to go up with you and the nibblet?” Spike asked, turning serious. He reached over to intertwine his fingers with hers on the leather seat bench, giving her reassuring strokes on the back of her hand with his thumb.
Nodding her head, the four of them got out of the car. Faith was whispering on her cell phone, probably to Giles before hanging up. Buffy and Spike walked through the grass and onto the porch. Stopping, Buffy looked down at the man sitting on the steps with the coldest look she could muster.
“Hello Hank.”
February 1992 L.A.
“I can’t believe this, even though I knew I shouldn’t be surprised. This is just like you!!” The screaming, angry voices could be heard faintly through the door that was barely cracked open. It traveled all the way up the stairs from the living room and into the room of a young eleven year old Buffy Summers. The little girl snuggled deeper under the sheets, trying to block out her mother and father’s angry fight. The ominous atmosphere in the house seemed to fit with the angry storm going on outside. Rain hit Buffy’s bedroom window hard, like rocks hitting the glass panels. “How old was she this time Hank? What...this is secretary number four!!”
There was a loud slam followed by a shatter of glass breaking, and Buffy guessed it was probably her father’s glass of scotch.
“Don’t talk to me like that!” Hank screamed at Joyce. “If you were more of a willing wife I wouldn’t be going to more of them bitches!”
As Buffy lay there she knew deep down things were never going to get better. They had tried separation a year ago after her father’s first affair already. Now it was mostly left to just screaming. This had been going on at least once a week for almost two months now. Tonight was the worst.
“It’s not my fault you can’t keep your dick in your pants. And, don’t go saying if we had sex more often then you wouldn’t be doing this. Admit it, your first affair had nothing to do with that!”
It was almost like they had a routine, her father and mother. He’d come home late and after being questioned and accused by Joyce they’d start arguing. Though, this was the first time in a long while that he had willingly admitted it.
“Buffy?”
Buffy’s head shot up to find Dawn standing in the now open doorway, her little doll tucked under her arm, tears streaming down her cheeks. Quickly, Buffy moved the sheets on her bed allowing Dawn to run in and jump in the bed, burying her head against Buffy’s chest. Buffy placed her hands over Dawn’s ears, shielding and protecting her parents’ screams from her little sister.
The screams continued to go on but Buffy wouldn’t let up her hands. Her sister didn’t need to hear this, because some of the things they were screaming about were related to Dawn and Buffy themselves, but Buffy could take the harsh words her father had said about how if they hadn’t had kids he would have been gone a long time ago.
The fighting continued for almost an hour until she heard the hard sound of a slap followed by her father stomping up the staircase, finally slamming their master bedroom’s door shut. Dawn had finally gone back to sleep but Buffy still held her close. It was quiet for almost another hour and Buffy had sighed in relief thinking that it was over for the night. When another slam of the door came and the stomping sounded again going down the stairs, Buffy began to cry.
“I’m leaving,” she heard Hank say.
“Whatever. I’ll call the lawyer to write up the divorce papers by Friday” There was nothing else said except for another loud slam. It was the front door this time.
Buffy scrambled out of bed, trying not to wake Dawn and ran to her window. She watched as her father walked agitatedly, suitcase in hand and got into the car. Silent tears slid down her face as she watched her father leave, finally breaking up their family. She watched as her father drove away in the rain and all Buffy could now see from her window were the soft glow of his taillights. She would always remember that whenever she thought about her father for the next few years.
Buffy desperately tried to push the memory of that night out of her head.
Hank Summers, the man who had helped give her life sat on the porch steps in front of her. He didn’t look any different since she had last seen him, almost five years ago. It had been the final visit she and Dawn had before Hank had left for Paris on business for two months. Now here he was sitting on her porch of her new house in her new town.
Hank stood up and smiled. “Hello dear.”
Buffy sneered at his behavior. The man was acting as if he had done nothing wrong. I think not being a dad and taking his kids in after the death of their mother would be considered wrong.
“How did you find us?”
“You’ve really grown up haven’t you? You too Dawn. Wow. You’re both just as beautiful as the last time I saw you,” Hank told them, completely ignoring her question.
“Yeah well that's what normally happens if you ignore your daughters for five years,” said Buffy with annoyance. She stepped past Hank, intending to go inside the house but Hank called after her.
“Buffy. Can we at least have a conversation like civil adults?”
“Oh you want to be an adult now huh? You want to be an adult rather than running away from your family, leaving your wife to take care of two daughters and then later acting like a spoiled rich bastard and not wanting to take care of them when their mother died? Fine, let’s be adults. Hi dad how are you? Not like I really care.” Buffy sneered at Hank, practically looking at him with disgust. It wasn’t like she had any actual respect for this man. “Who refused to come to the mother of his children's funeral? And then ran off with his secretary...again by the way to Spain leaving both his daughters alone?!” The more she went on, the louder she became until her voice was cracking from screaming so loud.
She didn’t let this bastard have a word in edge wise and ceased to care that their new neighbor Mrs. Edgewood was looking over her hedges, trying to see what the ruckus was about. Buffy saw out of the corner of her eye that Spike was staring at her with admiration in his eyes.
“Buffy I am still your father! Don’t talk to me like that.”
The seventeen year old blonde rolled her eyes. “No, you stopped being our dad when you left us.” Without another word she spun around on her heels and walked up the porch and into the house, not bothering to see if anyone was following her.
Hank stood there dumbfounded, surprised that his eldest daughter had actually spoken to him like that. Buffy had changed a great deal along with his youngest daughter Dawn, who was currently standing next to where Buffy had stood, sporting an equally hateful look at him. Did both his daughters hate him that much? The expression on the girl standing next to Dawn that Hank recognized to be Buffy’s old friend Faith confirmed that they did.
“Dawnie-” Hank began but was cut off when Dawn’s eyes flashed angrily.
“Don’t even begin, Hank,” Dawn spat menacingly. She too did not like seeing this man here. The use of his name caused the older man to be taken aback. “Buffy’s right. You’re not our father anymore. Giles is more of a father to us than you were, than you ever will be. Whatever you wanted by coming here was just a waste of your time, not to mention ours.” Like her sister, Dawn spun around and marched into the house, her posture rigid. Faith seemed to be chuckling, her arms crossed over her chest. She gave Hank an incredulous look, leaving Hank to feel stupid, as he deserved to be.
When Faith sauntered into the house to follow the sisters, Hank just stood there feeling even more dumbfounded. The man had expected his wonderful daughters to be happy to see and welcome him with open arms. He’d thought that, now that their mother was gone they would be happy to see their real father, have someone to call family. That was such a joke, though, wasn’t it? Hank Summers turned his head at the sound of a lighter clicking and the scent of cigarettes soon wafted past his nose. For the first time, Hank noticed the dangerous looking man standing there.
Decked out in black, bleached blond hair, leather, and currently smoking a cigarette, Hank stared at the boy with disgust, thinking this bleached boy was below him. The boy stared at him with amused eyes as he exhaled a stream of smoke, cocking his head to study Hank.
“Who are you?” Hank asked condescendingly, his voice dripping with disgust, which just seemed to cause the boy to smirk even more.
“Name’s Spike,” he replied shortly with a heavy British accent. Figures! Hank thought of the boy’s choice in name. Hoodlum. Hank figured he was one of Faith’s boyfriends. That girl always was a big flirt even as a kid. She’s just like her mother. Though what came out of the boy’s mouth next made him cringe. “ ‘M dating your daughter.”
Hank’s eyes just grew wide with surprise. He couldn’t believe this punk would ever treat his daughter right. “You’re no good for Buffy.” The words just slid out of Hank’s mouth.
Spike just chuckled. “Says the man whose daughter hates his bloody guts.” Spike took another pull of his cigarette, this time blowing the smoke in the direction of Hank’s face, leaving the older man to cough and wave the smoke out of his face.
“I don’t want you going anywhere near my daughter ever again. You...criminal.” His feeble attempt to threaten didn’t sound so convincing with him practically dying from just a little cigarette smoke. Spike took a step towards him and Hank hastily backed away from him.
“Look here, since my girl doesn’t find you that important in her life anymore, I really don’t think your opinions will be taken into consideration, you ponce.” By now Spike was standing in Hank’s personal space. The eighteen year old stood a good three inches taller than Hank built with a little more muscle, lending another dangerous edge to Spike’s advantage. “However I suggest you take my threat into consideration, seeing as if you don’t, I won’t have any problem going back to jail.” Spike saw a sliver of fear slip into Hank’s eyes and he reveled in it. He was finally setting free his bad side, a side of him that he hadn’t really released in a long time. “If you come anywhere near Buffy I’ll hear about it. She’s my girl and I will do anything to protect her.”
Spike stepped back and stomped the cigarette out with the toe of his heavy boot, all the while glaring ominously at Hank. The man was left speechless again.
Spike just walked towards the house following the girls. Before stepping through the door he smiled at Mrs. Edgewood and then closed the door, shutting Hank Summers out.
A/N: What did you think? Please Review.
Spuffy_obsessed