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Reunions / Part 3

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When Vi fainted and slumped to the floor Spike stood there staring at her for several long moments then started laughing. “Bloody hell, I’ve had a bird or two faint on me when I’ve changed into a monster, she the first to faint when I’ve changed back. What kind of fighters are you raising up Red?”

Willow knelt down next to Vi and took her pulse to be sure she was alright. Without thinking she said “Don’t laugh at her Spike. It’s Vi, she always was more afraid of you than even the First.”

“Vi? That can’t be right” Spike said with a puzzled look on his face. “This girl can’t be more than seventeen. Vi would be somewhere in her mid twenties by now.”

Willow realized that she had said something she probably shouldn’t have said and covered it up with a white lie. “It’s a glamour, all of the older Slayers use them so that they don’t stand out as to much older than the other Slayers.”

Spike bent his head and tilted it a little to one side, staring down at her as if he could read the truth if he looked hard enough. That look brought back a hundred memories from years gone past and made Willow blush profusely. Spike seeing her blush, let a smirk twist his smiling lips. “You too Red, using a glamour to make you look younger for the little girls?”

Willow blushed again and stammered out “All the time. Most of the time. I spend most of my time with the slayers and it would look strange for a thirty year old to be hanging out with them. I would draw questions I don’t want to answer.”

The other three slayers hadn’t dropped their guard for a moment, but all of them were puzzled by the conversation between Willow and this vampire she seemed to know so well. Spike seeing Willow blush so much assumed she was telling the truth about a glamour and he had to admit she didn’t look a day older than the last time he’d seen her eight years ago.

When Vi started to revive Spike squatted down to get a better look at her. When she opened her eyes and saw him directly over her Vi’s eyes got very big and a tiny “eep” slipped out. When Spike smiled at her she said in a whisper “Your dead!”

“Bloody damn right, I am” he said and started laughing again. When Spike stood up he turned his back on Willow, Vi and the rest of the slayers and called out into the dark. “Come on children, it’s safe to come out and play. The mean old Witch won’t hurt you, she’s a friend of mine, of a sort, anyway.”

As Willow looked out into the dark she could hear the sounds of people moving around. The first ones she saw were young men and women in their late teens and early twenties. The next ones to come into the light were younger teenagers and behind them, not coming all the way out of the dark were even younger children. Suddenly, from out of the dark a small figure came racing across the floor and launched herself into the air directly at Spike.

Spike caught the little girl in midair with one arm and tucked her up close to him as she wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck. She buried her face in his neck and a soft cooing sound could be heard coming from her. Spike handed his sword to one of the older boys and wrapped his other arm around the little girl, hugged her, kissed her cheek and started cooing into her ear. For several moments it sounded like two doves were talking to each other. Willow, still kneeling next to Vi, stared at Spike with her mouth hanging open.

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Spike led Willow and the slayers through the warehouse, down two flight of stairs, along an underground passage and through a steel door. Once they were past the door the area was well lit with candles and lanterns. Willow could see pallets of bedding arranged in several areas around the large room. One area looked as if it were for the smaller children, another area was for most of the other boys and girls and one area off to one side had blankets hanging from the ceiling to provide some privacy and bedding big enough for two people to share. There was one place off in one corner that had two walls made out of scrap wood and cardboard that provided the most privacy. Spike led the way to that corner and pulling back a blanket that acted as a door he carried the little girl inside.

Willow stopped at the doorway and watched Spike unwrap the little blonde hair girl from around him and lay her down on a pallet. He pulled a blanket up over her and bending down he kissed her cheek. The girl sighed happily and closed her eyes. When Spike stood up he saw Willow watching him and the smile disappeared from his face.

When Spike stepped out of his little room he jerked his head at Willow to indicate he wanted her to follow him and led the way back over by the steel door. Vi and the other slayers had been standing in the middle of the room staring at all the children. The older ones were helping the younger ones get into bed and off to one side a girl of fourteen or fifteen was reading a story to a half dozen boys and girls that looked like they might be ten or eleven years old. When Vi saw Willow following Spike she followed after them. The other three slayers followed after her. All of them were still carrying their weapons, but the ones with crossbows had removed the bolts for safety sake.

When Spike got to the door he flopped down on a cushion with stuffing coming out of several rips and leaned back against the wall. He motioned to Willow and the others to make themselves comfortable on the floor, or stand if they wanted too. When Willow sat down on the floor in front of him he stared at her for several long moments then let out a sigh. “Okay Red, what are you doing here?” Spike asked suspiciously.
“Looking for you, actually” Willow replied calmly.

“A little late, don’t ya think” Spike replied coldly.

Willow was disturbed by Spikes coldness but tried to hide it. “We thought you were dead. Angel told us you died with the rest of his people seven years ago.”

“Angel?” Spike gasped out as he leaned forward quickly. “He’s alive? I’ll be bloody well damned. Where’s he at?” Spike asked, then changed his mind. “Never mind, it doesn’t make any difference anyway.”

Willow was feeling very confused by Spikes quick changes. At first he seemed pleased that Angel was still alive and in the next breath he seemed totally indifferent. “Spike, Angel contacted us after the battle with the Senior Partners forces. He’d been badly wounded and it took him a long time to recover enough to get to a phone and call us. He was down in the southern tip of Baja Mexico hiding out in a barn and trying to recover. He was a real mess when we got to him and got him out of there. He told us that he hadn’t seen you die, but since Illyria had only brought him out of the battle he assumed you must have been killed. We had fifty slayers and the whole Coven looking for you for over a month, but we couldn’t find any trace of you. We finally had to give up. We thought you were dead.”

“So, Blue got him out, huh” Spike said distantly. “Wonder why she never told anyone where she left me a lay’n?”

“Oh Goddess Spike” Willow said as a tear ran down her face. “She couldn’t tell anyone anything. She died before Angel woke up.”

Spikes head snapped up from where he had been looking down at the chipped black polish on his finger nails. He stared at Willow hard as if he were burning holes right through her with his eyes. He moved quickly and got to his feet. He stood there looking down at Willow and the others and said to them in a cold distant voice “You’ll have to stay here till near morning, just before the sun comes up. Can’t have you leaving in the middle of the night. To much chance of a vampire seeing you leave and wondering what you were doing inside the warehouse. That’s why we hotwired your car and brought it inside. Couldn’t let anyone see it outside in the open. Find an empty pallet and get some sleep, or don’t. I don’t care either way.” With that Spike walked away from them and entered his little room where the little blonde haired girl was sleeping in his bed.

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In the early morning when the older teens and young adults got up Willow went over to join some of them and see if she could get any of them to talk to her. The night before, or earlier this morning, when they had arrived all of the older kids had avoided them and had kept the younger ones away from them too. It wasn’t that they acted badly toward Willow and the slayers, it was more like they didn’t have anything in common to talk about.

Willow was determined to find out more about Spike and the past seven years. She had to find out more, if for no other reason than to have something to tell Buffy. She knew that Buffy would have to be told, and soon. At least Willow wouldn’t have to be the one to do that part. Giles would have to be the one to talk to Buffy and Willow needed to be able to give him some useful information to give to her.

For a half hour Willow tried to start up conversations with the different older kids and the young adults, but no one would talk to her. They were all polite, but whenever she asked any questions about Spike they all told her that she really needed to talk to Spike about those things. When she tried to get them to talk about themselves they said even less. Everyone had something else they needed to be doing and left her standing with her mouth open and no one to talk too.

Feeling frustrated Willow gathered up her backpack and sat down in the middle of the floor. She spread some of her vials and packets around her and started mixing up simple concoctions for fun. The Coven had been doing things like this for years to entertain each other and to entertain guest who came to visit. When she had a half dozen little packets ready she started the entertainment.

First thing she did was to make a glowing blue butterfly fly around the room and hover over the heads of the smaller children who were just waking up. When they started following the butterfly around it led them back to Willow. The older children stood back and didn’t interfere, but they watched from a distance. Her second trick was to make coins appear and disappear from her hands. She then put the coins into the hands of some of the children telling them to hold on real tight and making the coins disappear anyway and fall from the ceiling. The children were very impressed by that trick because they knew the coins were real and solid when they put them into their hands and squeezed them tight and no one could figure out how she made the trick work. Of course none of the children, neither the young ones or the older ones had ever seen real magic.

Her next trick was to make a small yellow canary appear out of thin air and sit on her finger and sing. As the canary was singing Willow noticed that the little blonde girl that she had seen with Spike earlier in the night was watching the singing bird closely and had a small shy smile on her lips. Willow motioned to the girl to come over and let the bird sit on her finger. At first the girl wouldn’t come near Willow. But the attraction of the singing canary was to much for her and she finally moved a little closer and stretched out her arm. The bird flew over to the little girl and landed on her finger and sang its song. The little girl stood there smiling as she watched the bird sing. When the spell finally ended and the bird flew up into the air and became a puff of glowing sparkles the girl sighed sadly, but didn’t leave.

Willow next made a ball of glowing light appear and hover in the air. She then handed a little cup to one of the children and told him to whisper his name into the cup. As soon as he finished whispering his name the glowing ball started moving through the air and spelled out his name in a glowing trail. A half dozen children had whispered their names into the cup and had their names spelled out when Willow offered the cup to the little girl. All of the children became very quiet and stood there looking at each other and at Willow and then the little girl. The little girl wouldn’t take the cup and put her hands behind her back. Willow wasn’t sure what was going on and was afraid she had done something she shouldn’t have done, but she didn’t know what. Willow saw one of the older teens walk over to Spikes room and stick his head inside for a few moments. Willow held the cup out to the little girl again and said to her “It’s okay sweetie, you don’t have to say it out loud, just whisper it, that will be enough.”

From the corner of her eye Willow saw Spike step out of his room, look the situation over and start walking toward the little girl. Just before he got to her the girl made a little dove coo into the cup. The glowing ball hovered in the air for a few moments and then started spelling out the name Joyce. When Spike saw the name being spelled out he bent down and picked the little girl up in his arms. The girl wrapped one arm around Spikes neck and waved at her name floating in the air with the other. Spike kissed her on the cheek as he held her close and Willow could see that he had tears in his eyes. The girl wrapped both arms around Spikes neck and kissed him while he hugged her back and kissed her kiss for kiss.

Willow decided that she had done enough magic for now and gathered up her things and placed them back into her magic bag. None of the small children made any fuss over her stopping and they all started gathering around Spike and the girl. When Spike finally set the girl back down on the floor the other children led her off to play.

Willow got up off the floor and stood there with her magic bag in her hand. Spike walked up to her and reaching out hesitantly and touched her on the shoulder. “I don’t know how you did that” he said with an emotionally choked voice “but thank you for doing it anyway.”

Willow hesitated for a moment and then blurted out the question “Spike who is that little girl and what is she to you?”

Spike looked at Willow with tears clearly visible in his eyes and said “Her name is Joy, she’s my daughter.”

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