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Xander huffed impatiently and began tapping his fingers on the steering wheel in front of him. He had been astounded at Buffy’s reaction to his statement that he’d told the vampire to get out of her house. Then Buffy had stalked out, leaving him in the clutches of her younger sister, who had wasted no time in telling him what she thought of him. Dawn regaled him with the story that Spike had saved their mother’s life. What crap! As if a soulless, evil vampire would care if a human lived or died. He’d just got lucky, that was all.

She seemed completely won over by Spike’s actions. So, the vampire had dusted his skanky ho – so what? Said skanky ho had been torturing him for hours, anybody would have done the same. The fact that he’d saved Buffy was just a by-product, surely.

Xander admitted to himself that he’d been shocked by the injuries that the vampire had sustained – but he’d got that vampire healy thing going, hadn’t he? It had to be said that Spike hadn’t looked any better when Xander given him his meal tonight, but that was probably part of some plan to get the Slayer to keep him around.

The look that Buffy had given him, just before she left, jolted him. That and the constant nagging from her sister.

“Xander, Buffy can’t manage to get him here before sunrise without help. We have to go and pick them up.”

He’d reluctantly loaded Dawn into his car and driven to the cemetery. He glared at the crypt’s door again, why was it taking so long? Surely all she had to do was to grab him and haul him out of there?

When they finally appeared, Spike looked so out of it, Xander felt a stab of pity for him, which lasted as long as it took to load the vampire into the car.

“Evil dead taken to bathing in alcohol?” Xander grimaced and made a show of flapping his hand in front of his face.

“No, I think most of it ended up inside of him.” Buffy said resignedly. “Come on, let’s get him home – he can sleep it off there.”

_____________________________________

Bugger! It must have been some bender, Spike thought, when the vice-like pain in his head registered. Hold on, though, his body seemed to be beat up too. A bit of rough and tumble followed by an extreme consumption of alcohol – sounded a perfect night. The vampire groaned and attempted to open his eyes. When the spinning and the bleariness had more or less cleared, he stared in confusion. What the hell? All he could see was the top of the Slayer’s head. She was half sitting on a chair and half lying on the bed next to him, her breathing slightly snuffly. He grinned, and then suddenly the events of the last couple of nights came slamming into his memory, like bullets from a machine gun.

Bloody hell! He’d dusted Dru. Would he ever be able to come to terms with it? He groaned again, louder this time, and the Slayer sat up suddenly, looking confused and extremely embarrassed.

“Spike!” she yelped.

“Yeah, I know. Been Spike for a long time now.”

She shot him an annoyed look, but was secretly relieved that he’d gone for sarcasm and not innuendo.

“I, uh, fell asleep.” She said weakly. Then, before he could reply, she ran up the stairs. “I’ll go get you something to eat.”

He watched her in amazement. The last conversation he’d had with her was a bit hazy, but he was sure it hadn’t been friendly. What had happened to the ol’ “kick the Spike” attitude that he was used to, and knew how to deal with? He shook his head in bafflement; he never knew what she’d do next. Mind you, that was all part of her charm.

Buffy seemed all business when she came back, she handed him his blood and retreated to the other side of the room while he drank. He watched her over the rim of the cup, trying to gauge her mood.

______________________

Buffy had managed to get Spike down the stairs and into his bed without too much trouble. She had even managed to force some blood down him. But then she found that she couldn’t just leave him there, something made her pull up a chair and watch over him.

Buffy’s mind was conflicted. The “slayer” part of her wanted to shove Mr Pointy into this monster’s chest. Evil, soulless vampire! her mind was shrilling. She was after all, his only natural enemy and it was what she was made for. The other “human” side wanted to get to know him better, find out why and how he had done what he had done. The result was inner turmoil.

She sighed and leaned back, studying him – really looking at him – for the first time. Oh, she’d seen him loads of times before, of course, but now she registered him in a completely new way. He was hot! How had she not noticed that before? Perhaps it was because when he slept, the hard faced killer look dropped away and left this vulnerable, good-looking man in its stead. If an ordinary guy had done what he had done, Buffy thought, she would be on her knees thanking him

Meaning to only stay for a short while, she must have dropped off to sleep. It had been a shock to see him looking at her from only a few inches away, and she’d retreated as fast as she could.

By the time she’d warmed the blood and taken it back down to him, she was a little calmer. But she thought that staying on the other side of the room was the better option – maybe he wouldn’t hear her wild heart beat from over there.

There was an awkward pause.

“I’m going to visit mom this morning.” Buffy blurted, just to fill the void.

“Give her my best.” Spike smiled at her.

“Um, we – Dawn and me – will visit her again tonight. Want to come?”

The expression on his face was almost comical in its astonishment. “You want me to come?”

“I’m sure mom would like to thank you and I know Dawn wants you to come with.” Buffy said casually, leaving out what she wanted.

Without waiting for his reply, she took the cup and left the room rapidly. Spike gazed after her, shaking his head in bemusement.


______________________________________



The Summers girls hugged and kissed their mother, while the vampire stood uncertainly outside the door.

“I didn’t think you needed an invite, in a public place like this.” Joyce smiled over at him.

He looked down and shuffled his feet. “Uh, no, invite not *needed*…..”

Joyce’s smile broadened and she raised her hand to beckon him over, “well then, what’re you waiting for?”

Spike grinned and, stepping into the room, caught her hand in his and brought it to his lips. “Looking a whole lot better, luv.”

“Thanks to you.” Joyce said softly.

He ducked his head again, “ah, ‘s nothing.”

“You’re looking better, too.” Joyce scanned his still bruised, but less battered face.

“Yeah, your two girls are looking after me good.” He said awkwardly, not used to this family-style interaction.

Taking pity on him, Buffy changed the subject and soon Spike was talking to Joyce and Dawn about the antics of some characters in a soap they enjoyed.

Buffy watched them from her vantage point at the end of her mother’s bed. Her sister, mom and this strange vampire. She was having to keep reminding herself that he *was* a vampire. It was so much easier to think of him as a man. A man who had done so much for them in the past few days.

She looked at him more closely, he seemed different somehow. Then she realised what it was. He was (well for Spike anyway) subdued and sad looking. He must be missing Dru so much and the knowledge of what he had done must be eating into him. She knew what that was like – she’d killed Angel. She remembered her reaction; she had run away and tried to live another life. Her thoughts were interrupted by Dr Isaacs who put his head round the door.

“Mrs Summers, you’ve progressed really well, and if you keep up the meds, you should be okay to go home in the morning.” He smiled as Dawn squealed, jumped up and hugged her mom, closely followed by Buffy, who was grinning hugely.

Spike watched enviously. Well, all good things must come to an end – he was sure that they wouldn’t want him there when Joyce came home.

“Right then, I’ll start looking for a new place tonight.” He muttered and then quailed as three pairs of female eyes swung to look at him.

Joyce and Dawn spoke together,
“Oh, no Spike you can’t leave…..”

“I won’t hear of it…..”

But it was Buffy’s voice he heard.

“Do you want to go? We could fix the basement up, you know, get you a TV and things.”

He felt a warm glow fill his chest and he swallowed a large lump that appeared to be blocking his throat.



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A/N Aww! I wanted to give Spike a break (not too mushy was it?) There are some bad times acoming, so he’d better make the most of it.





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