Chapter Twenty-one
His first stop was Willie’s bar to pick up the latest news. The entire demon community knew that the Slayer’s eighteenth birthday was imminent; one quiet, young-looking female vamp insisted she’d been a student at Sunnydale High and that she knew that the Slayer’s birthday was, in fact, that very day. There was some discussion of forming a group to wait outside the designated building and watch to see who or what emerged, but the possibility that there would be muscle from the Watchers Council surrounding the house discouraged all but the hardiest or drunkest demons.
The youngest ones still argued for forming an audience to cheer the victor, one claiming he’d heard the Watchers Council had picked, “Some real badass vamp this time. Name’s Kralik. Turns out he was already a torturing murderer before he got turned. Not their usual tame newbie. They must not want this Slayer to win.”
Spike did his best to seem casual and mildly interested, commenting only that, “I’ve always figured this bint was going to be my third Slayer. Guess I should wander over there and see who’s trying to steal my glory. Anybody know where they’ve set this up?”
Directions to the abandoned rooming house firmly fixed in his brain, Spike threw the last hundred dollar bill on the bar and bought a round for the house before easing out the door and sprinting to his car. Five minutes of frantic driving and he was pulling into a driveway beside a large house that showed no signs of life except a black van in the driveway. A broken sign proclaiming The Sunnydale Arms dangled from its remaining hook.
One look at the van, one sniff inside, and Spike shifted into game face, growling softly. The scent in the van was not Buffy’s, but it was close enough to leave him worried. He got back into the Desoto and moved it around to the rear of the house, parking it carelessly in the middle of the yard. He sprinted to the back door of the building, easily breaking the flimsy lock and entering what appeared to be a kitchen. The sight that greeted him did nothing to soothe his rattled nerves.
Two bodies lay sprawled across the table – both with gaping holes where their throats had been. The size of the men and the now-useless weapons beside them told him they were Council muscle and he wondered briefly what kind of vampire, other than a master, could take out two armed and experienced Council workers.
Tradition had it that the Council tended to choose newly-risen, less than dangerous vampires for the Cruciamentum. It was not, after all, in their best interest to have their Slayers lose the battle to remain alive. One that could not defeat a fledgling vamp using just her wits and the weapons provided, was incompetent and therefore expendable. There was no way that Buffy fit that description and Spike frowned as he moved away from the dead men. He remembered the mocking words from the demon at Willie’s about the Council not wanting Buffy to win.
Got to be a pretty canny vamp to get the drop on experienced soldiers like that. And a powerful one to get them both at the same time. Almost looks like Buffy’s being set up to fail.
He moved silently through the house, glancing impersonally at another body, this one clearly a Watcher or one of their many flunkies. Following the trail of bodies and blood, he made his way to the top of stairs clearly leading to be basement. He listened carefully first, detecting the racing heart beat of an extremely frightened human, but no other sign of life. When he heard footsteps approach the stairs, he stepped back into the shadows until a newly-turned vampire still bearing the bloody wound that had killed him came into view.
The fledgling was no match for a master vampire with an agenda and soon found himself helpless and unable to speak as he was hustled from the house. When Spike felt they were far enough away not to be heard, he removed his hand from the vamp’s mouth and whispered, “One chance, wanker. What’s down there and who does he have?”
“The…the Slayer’s mother,” the trembling fledgling squeaked. “He’s using her to get the Slayer here. He’s a serial killer, turned vamp. The Council keeps him drugged so that he’s controllable, but he got loose and---“
“And they’re sending the Slayer in there with him? Without her powers?” Spike’s snarled whisper was filled with pent up rage and the unfortunate fledgling whimpered in fear.
“She’s been…difficult. The Council wants a new Slayer to guard the Hellmouth. This one is too unpredictable.”
“Her Watcher agreed to this?”
“No, he thinks it’s a regular Cruciamentum. Easy kill if she keeps her wits about her. He doesn’t know what’s waiting in there. No one counted on Kralik getting loose, though. Now he’s free and there isn’t any Slayer to stop him. I’m lucky I got killed quickly because he needed me to help him. Others aren’t going to be so lucky.”
“You’re about to be lucky again,” Spike said absently, already thinking about ways to defeat the vampire inside the house as he wrenched off the unfortunate former watcher’s head. He brushed the dust off his hands and moved back toward the house until his attention was distracted by the tingles that indicated a Slayer was in the area.
A peek around the corner of the house showed him a panting Buffy, running up the driveway, her Watcher behind her begging her to wait for him and not to do anything rash.
“That sonofabitch has my mother!” she shrieked back over her shoulder as she threw open the unlocked front door. “If she dies, it’s your fault!”
Spike quickly slipped in the back door and ran to the basement stairs, hitting the bottom with one graceful jump. He took in the scene at a glance, a pretty blond woman tied to a chair, clearly frightened out of her wits but with a defiant tilt to her chin.
Glancing around quickly, he saw no sign of the other vampire; then he heard the Slayer’s enraged voice upstairs and heavy footsteps moving in her direction. With a slash of his fangs, he ripped through the ropes holding Buffy’s mother, quickly sliding back into his human face as she cringed away from him. Before he could explain that he was there to help, she had picked up a pitcher from the nearby table and clocked him on the head.
“Hey! That was bloody ungrateful!” He glared at her briefly, then his voice softened as he explained, “I’m here to help you and your stubborn bint of a daughter. Stay behind me and when we get upstairs, I want you to go out the front door and lock yourself in the Watcher’s pathetic excuse for a car. Are we clear?”
Something about the urgency in his voice and the worried looks he was shooting toward the upper floor triggered a thought and Joyce looked at him carefully before responding.
“Wi-William?” she gasped. “Spike? Are you Spike?”
“Pleased to meet you,” he growled. “Let’s GO!”
Grabbing her by the arm, he raced up the stairs almost pulling her off of her feet. He shoved her in the direction of the front door, hissing, “Run!” while he followed his ears toward the sound of breaking furniture.
Satisfied that Joyce was safely outside, he moved quickly toward the sound of Buffy’s pounding heart, allowing his howling demon full rein. When he burst into the room where the insane vampire appeared to have Buffy cornered, he slid to a halt and watched her with admiration. She held a bottle of pills in one hand, pills for which the demon was shrieking and reaching as the Slayer danced around the room, always keeping a piece of furniture between herself and the raving monster. Just before she ran out of barricades, she threw the pills across the room, running in the opposite direction while the vamp pounced on the bottle, frantically tearing at the top.
She ran straight into Spike’s chest, stiffening when she felt herself caught by arms too strong to belong to anything human. Before she even looked up at him, she brought her knee into his groin; even without her slayer powers, she brought him gasping to his knees, tears filling his eyes. Only then did she see who had been holding her and she dropped beside him, babbling apologetically.
“Spike! I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was you. I don’t have my powers and I can’t sense…What are you doing here?”
“Came to save you, didn’t I?” he managed to grit out. “Although if that overgrown troll attacks right now, I don’t know how much help I’ll—“
“Shhhh. Just watch,” she whispered.
He followed her gaze to where the enraged monster was using the glass of water from the table to wash down the pills he’d just swallowed. The lumbering vamp, a vicious and maniacal smile on his face, turned and began stalking toward them. He made it only a few steps before stopping and beginning to shake. Pain, outrage, and fear chased themselves across his face just before he roared and burst into a cloud of dust.
Spike raised an eyebrow at the girl still kneeling beside him, and she grinned wickedly.
“What did you do, pet?”
“I cheated,” she said smugly.
“Goes without sayin’,” he grinned back at her. “But how?”
“I put holy water in all the water glasses.”
“Good on you, then,” he responded, getting painfully to his feet and pulling her up with him. “Should have known you wouldn’t need my help for one ugly vamp.”
They stood staring at each other, neither one making a move to get closer together or further apart until Spike finally burst out, “Bloody hell! It’s been too long.”
He pulled her into his body, lifting her off her feet as he dipped his head toward the lips he’d thought never to see or taste again. The kiss was tentative at first, the vampire not sure what his reception was going to be; the girl wondering if he came back only to save her and would walk out of her life again now that the crisis was averted.
Before their brains could process the emotions being stirred, their bodies were already responding and the kiss deepened almost by itself as they let their instincts free to make the decisions. By the time a breathless Giles and a stubborn Joyce Summers had burst through the front door, crossbows at the ready, Buffy and Spike were oblivious to anything but each other.
It took a large amount of throat clearing by the Watcher and an indignant, “Buffy! William!” from Joyce to penetrate the pleasant, lustful fog into which the two blonds had fallen. With a loud sigh, Spike reluctantly set Buffy back on her feet and relaxed his grip. When she moved away with a sheepish smile at her mother, he let go completely, standing uncomfortably with his arms at his sides.
“Are you all right, Mom?” Buffy asked anxiously, feeling a sharp twinge of guilt that she had temporarily forgotten that her mother had been a captive. “How did you get loose?”
“William untied me and sent me outside. And Rupert, here, expected me to stay out there while you were locked in with that monster!” she finished with a glare at Buffy’s watcher.
“Did he also tell you he’s the one responsible for makin’ Buffy lose her powers and settin’ up this little test?”
There were matching gasps from the two women and they turned identical wounded looks on the mortified Watcher. The scowl Giles shot at the glaring vampire promised a staking as soon as he could arrange it, but when Spike’s expression evolved into an equally deadly promise of retribution for his putting Buffy in danger, the older man backed down immediately.
“Buffy…Joyce…I cannot begin to tell you how sorry I am about all this. I had no idea they were using such a formidable vampire for Buffy’s Cruciamentum. It is almost as though Quentin was TRYING to get her killed…”
“He was,” Spike said flatly. “The flunky told me so before I dusted him. She was never meant to walk out of here. And you set her up for them,” he finished quietly, unconsciously reaching for Buffy’s hand and pulling her closer as though to protect her from her own Watcher.
Giles’ face was a study in confusion, dismay, horror, and finally a quiet anger. “I see,” was all he said in response, but there was no sign of the gentle bookworm in the man’s demeanor as he ushered them out the door. “Let us be gone from this unpleasant place. I will be needing to make some phone calls immediately.”
Buffy and Spike turned down his offer of a ride, the vampire pointing out that his own car was hidden in the back yard and needed to be moved before the rest of the “Council wankers” showed up to pick up the bodies. Joyce looked back and forth between the two superbeings holding hands so tightly, then sighed and nodded. The glimpses into Buffy’s life that she’d had over the past year had given her an unwelcome but very clear understanding of exactly how not normal her daughter’s world was, and she had no doubt that her disapproval of the girl’s relationship with a much older vampire would be met with the scorn it deserved.
When Giles appeared about to argue, she poked him and said, “Leave them alone. You have enough to deal with explaining to me why I shouldn’t ask Spike to kill you for endangering my daughter like that. If I don’t like the explanation, I may do it myself,” she added, waving the crossbow in his face.
Spike’s laughter as he and Buffy went around the building to find his car drifted back to them and they heard his chuckled, “Looks like you’re a bit of a chip off the old block, pet.”
They walked quietly for a few seconds, savoring the joy of being together again, before Buffy spoke suddenly.
“Did you really come back to save me?” she asked quietly.
“Well, yeah. As soon as I heard the story about this barbaric test and that your birthday was coming up, I took off. Got here as soon as I could, but it almost wasn’t fast enough.” His eyebrows came together in a frown as he considered how close she had come to dying and he squeezed her hand a little tighter.
“And now?”
“What do you mean, ‘and now?’ “ he asked with genuine bewilderment. “Jus’ got here, didn’t I? I don’t really know what now. I guess that depends on you, love,” he said more softly, looking at her out of the corners of his eyes.
Dropping his hand, she marched toward his car, not turning to look at him as she responded, “So, you’re not going running back to wherever you were?” She tried to keep her voice even and not allow the fear or hope to show through, but she couldn’t control the way her heartbeat sped up.
“Not unless you tell me to, Slayer,” he answered quietly. “There’s nothing for me there. Everything I care about is right here in this miserable town.”
“I’m not a Slayer right now, Spike. Will you still want me if I don’t have my powers? Giles promised I’d get them back pretty soon, but what if I don’t? What if I’m not the Slayer anymore? What if my blood couldn’t heal you? What if I can’t keep up when you want to---mmmmmph!”
Deciding the best way to show her he would still want her, powers or no, he pulled her in for another lengthy kiss, one that went on until she was whimpering and clinging to him with both legs wrapped around his waist. Gasping unnecessarily, he pulled his mouth away and fought to get the back door of the car open.
He stumbled into the car’s wide backseat, pinning Buffy to the upholstery while he tried to fit a hand between them. Her own hand was trying to get his jeans unfastened but having no more success than he was squeezing between their two tightly-glued bodies. With a frustrated growl, he lifted himself up on his arms and pushed her skirt up, ripping through her underwear before popping the snap on his own jeans and yanking down the zipper.
As soon as he was free, Buffy yanked him back down, using her heels to pull him into her in one quick move. She wriggled her hips until he was as deeply seated as she could get him, then she stopped moving and sighed in happiness.
“I missed you,” she whispered against his mouth. ”Missed you so much.”
“I missed you, too, love. You have no idea how badly I wanted to come back here.”
“What did you do with Dru? Did you bring her back too?”
“No, pet. That’s done. She’s never forgiven me for letting you take away her precious ‘daddy’. She doesn’t want me… and I don’t want her anymore.”
While they talked, he began rocking his hips gently, letting the sensations build slowly for both of them. He buried his nose in her neck, inhaling the scent he’d tried to keep fresh in his mind for almost a year. Taking the soft skin of her neck in his mouth and sucking on it, he pulled the sweet smelling blood to the surface, carefully keeping his demon under control. Buffy arched her neck, moaning softly as his lips pulled gently on her skin. All she could think about was the way she had felt when he pulled blood from her while they were making love and she unconsciously pulled him in tighter, forcing his teeth against her throat.
“Ah, no, love. Not now. Not here. Not like this.”
“You don’t want to bite me if I don’t have my powers?”
The pain and uncertainty in Buffy’s voice tore at his heart as he realized he was behaving just as she been afraid he would.
“No, sweetheart, please believe me, that’s not it at all. But it’s been so bloody long, and I’ve dreamed of this so often – I’m afraid, love. Afraid of how badly I want to taste you again. I came so close to taking too much the first time…”
“I trust you,” she said softly. “I know you won’t hurt me. Especially not now, while I’m not…” She gasped as he touched the spot she’d never thought anyone would find again and she unconsciously squeezed him tightly.
“Guh! Are you sure you don’t have your powers, love? Because that didn’t feel like…”
“No, I still feel weak – I just…I missed you so much…Please, William, please…”
As she approached her orgasm, she clutched him and begged for the ecstasy that he could provide with his fangs. He could feel his own release building, unable to control himself after a year of dreaming of the very liquid being offered so willingly. With a groan, he sank his elongated fangs into the soft skin, unerringly finding the faded scars from his first bite. With a cry, she arched against him, shaking and sobbing as waves of pleasure washed over her.
Spike exploded into her, the taste of her warm blood adding to the incredible sensation of having her warm body around him again. Other than a faint trace of the drugs her Watcher had been giving her, Buffy’s blood tasted and felt no different than what he remembered from the year before. He took only a few deep draughts, enough to leave them both trembling as they recovered.
As he carefully licked the tiny wounds closed, he murmured against her throat, ”I love you so much, Buffy. Want you to make you mine forever.”
“I don’t have forever,” she murmured back, curious about the odd sensation that had shot through her body at his word. “But I’m yours if you want me.”
When Spike’s body trembled against her and there was no mistaking the magic flowing around them, she heard him mutter, “Bloody hell. I am a soddin’ idiot.”
He pushed up on his arms again, leaving their bodies still intimately connected.
“I’m sorry, love. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“You didn’t mean for what to happen?” she asked, her lower lip coming out in a pout. “And what do you mean, you’re an idiot? For what? For—for…loving me? Is that why you’re an idiot?” Her eyes began to swim with unshed tears as she thought she heard him say that he was sorry they’d made love.
“Not sorry for loving you. Could never be sorry for that, sweetheart. I’m sorry I opened my big mouth and said it at the wrong time, is all.”
“So,” she said, making a shrewd guess, “that strange tingling I felt wasn’t just because you’re so good at sex?”
“ ‘Fraid not, pet.” He grinned in spite of himself. “That was a claim. The demon…no, not the demon, me – I said the words that would bind you to me while we were still---“ he wriggled his hips against her to emphasize what they were “still”--- and with having my mouth on your neck like that… I’m sorry, love. I really didn’t mean to do that to you.”
“Why not?”
Her forthright question took him aback a bit, and he struggled to answer it thoroughly without frightening her.
“Because a vampire claiming ritual establishes a bond that lasts for life. It only goes away when one of the mated pair dusts. And usually, so I’m told, the one left behind walks into the sunlight soon after. You’re only eighteen years old, Buffy. Barely old enough to be legally married, never mind shackled to a demon for the rest of your life. Even if I thought it was a good idea, I would never intentionally do anything like that to you without talking about it first and giving you a chance to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’.”
“Not to mention the back seat of an old car isn’t the most romantic place for a lifelong pledge,” she said dryly.
“That too,” he agreed sadly, waiting for the anger he was expecting to see when she fully realized what had happened to her.
The anger didn’t materialize, although she did nudge him hard enough that he took the hint and reluctantly pulled out of her warmth, tugged her skirt down and helped her sit up. He zipped his pants and backed out of the still-open door, saying gruffly, “Let’s get out of here, pet. We can sort this out when we don’t have to worry about a squad of tweed-wearing Council wankers showing up any minute.”
Nodding her head in agreement, Buffy slid across the seat and out the door, only to get right back into the front through the door Spike was holding open for her. She slid across the large seat just far enough to let Spike in behind the steering wheel, putting her hand on his thigh possessively as he started the car and drove out of the yard.
Chapter Twenty-Two
The ride to her house was quiet, the vampire worried that he might have done something to irreparably damage their relationship, the Slayer trying to absorb the idea that she could be “mated” for life to this man she really hadn’t known very long. Only the fact that sitting beside him, touching him, feeling his spendings on her inner thighs felt so very right and special kept her from wigging out.
The Watcher’s car was still in the driveway when they arrived and Buffy pushed open the front door to find her mother holding a finger to her lips for silence and Giles yelling at someone on the phone, “I don’t care what kind of a meeting you say the bloody bastard is in, you tell him Rupert Giles wants to speak to him right now! “
When he turned around to see who had entered, Buffy and Spike could see that he had the beginnings of a black eye, as well as blood on his lip, to which he was holding a piece of ice.
While Buffy stared at her mother in wonder, Spike gave the embarrassed woman a grin and a thumbs-up behind the Slayer’s back. They stood awkwardly in the hallway until with a murmured explanation to Spike, Buffy hastily went up the stairs to her room to find some underwear and clean off her legs. If her mother wondered why Buffy didn’t just use the downstairs bathroom, she didn’t say so, just gesturing for the vampire to come in and sit down.
Apparently the person to whom the Watcher wished to speak had been found as he was now using large amounts of British-flavored profanity to berate the unseen person.
“I don’t care how ‘undisciplined’ you think she is, you bloody pillock. She has already outlived most Slayers and was able to take care of your intended assassin as well. If you ever,” his voice dropped to a flat, cold murmur, “attempt to harm my Slayer again, I will make you pay in ways you will wish you had never learned. Do we understand each other, Quentin? And you can take that half-baked apology and shove it up your arse!”
There was a short pause, then Giles said clearly, “I bloody well can talk to you like that. I am no longer your employee. I quit. Do you hear me you miserable wanker? I no longer work for you and neither does Buffy. You would do well to keep your employees out of Sunnydale from now on. After,” he added, “they pick up the bodies left behind by your less-than-tame vampire.”
He hung up the phone decisively, turning around just in time to see Buffy come into the room and run to hug her mother. When his surrogate daughter turned to face him with eyes that managed to express rage, pain and incredible disappointment all at the same time, he could only hang his head in abject apology.
“I will understand if you choose not to forgive me, Buffy,” he said quietly. “But I would hope that you will give me another chance to prove to you how extremely sorry I am and how truly important you are to me.”
“Did you just quit the Council?”
“Yes,” he replied shortly. “It would appear that I am now unemployed - except of course, for Sunnydale High School’s library. I suspect however, that the buffer provided by the Council between Principal Snyder and myself is going to be gone by the time we get back to school, so that job may also be gone quite soon.”
Buffy and her mother sat on the couch while her former Watcher stood uncertainly by the phone, wondering if he was ever going to be welcome in this house again. His eye was rapidly swelling shut and turning a darker shade of purple while he stood indecisively. With a resigned wave of her hand, Joyce gestured to the chair not occupied by a vampire and told him, “Sit down, Rupert. I guess we are all going to be in this together.”
She perked up and asked him suddenly, “Does this mean that Buffy is no longer the Slayer? That she can quit and have a – a normal life?” She looked at the man hopefully, trying not to see the pained look on Spike’s face when she expressed the wish for her daughter to have a normal life.
“I sincerely doubt it, Joyce. The Council does not choose the Slayers, nor are they responsible for giving them their powers. Buffy will be a Slayer for the rest of her life. And since you live on the Hellmouth, chances that she will not have to continue to slay are very slim. The vampires and demons will not care who she is employed by – it will still be a battle of good versus evil with Buffy as the lone warrior for good.”
“Not alone.” Spike’s growl reminded everyone of his presence and Buffy gave him a grateful smile as the Watcher stared at him in surprise.
“You are staying here, then?” he asked curiously.
“For as long as she’ll have me,” the vampire answered, moving to stand near the Slayer. “I figure with two of us to contend with, most big bads will choose to move on to someplace safer.”
“And the ones that don’t?” Joyce asked quietly.
“Then they’ll have a chance to take on a Slayer and a master vampire at the same time. Should be fun,” he added with a wink at Buffy.
“Are you saying you intend to assist Buffy in her slaying duties? To fight at her side against your own kind?” Hope and disbelief were both clearly audible in the ex-Watcher’s voice.
“Well….” Spike seemed to suddenly realize what he’d just said. “I’m not saying I’m going to be all soul-having and redemption bound like Peaches. Still a vampire, here, you know.”
Buffy stood up and walked over to him, standing just close enough to look him in the eye and ask, “What ARE you saying, then, Spike?” She shook her head, her long blond hair hiding her face when she looked down. “I can’t let you stay here and hunt in Sunnydale. We’ll be right back where we were last year.”
The sadness in her voice tore at his heart and he stepped closer, lifting her chin so that she was looking into his eyes again. They seemed to forget the other two people in the room as they stared at each other, the Slayer’s face reflecting the same sad determination that it had the last time he was in Sunnydale.
“What I’m saying, love, is that I don’t know what I’m gonna do. All I know is that I can’t leave you again. If you want me gone, you’ll have to dust me. And I won’t stand by and watch you risk your life every night without being there to watch your back. If that means it turns out I’m fighting on the side of the white hats – well, I guess…I guess I’ll just have to learn to live with that.”
“Can you do that? You don’t have a soul. When Angel lost his soul, he was—“
“I’m not Angelus, pet. I control my demon; it doesn’t control me. I don’t need a soul, I’m gonna have a built-in conscience.” He stroked her hair lightly, his meaning perfectly clear. Then he leaned down and whispered into her ear, “Maybe even a live-in conscience, if I’m lucky.”
Buffy blushed and pushed him away just hard enough to show she heard him, before turning to look at Giles and her mother. She took a deep breath, and said clearly, “Spike is going to stay here. With me. We…we’re going to be together. He’s my—“ she was at a loss as to what to call the vampire to whom she was apparently mated for life. “…my boyfriend,” she finished lamely, with an apologetic look at his happy face.
“I believe we received that message quite plainly when we found you together at the boarding house,” her watcher said dryly.
Joyce fought down the urge to insist that Buffy was too young for the kind of commitment she seemed to be making, although she couldn’t control a small sigh as she said, “I suppose pointing out the difference in your ages would be a waste of time?”
Buffy moved over to kneel in front of her mother and look up at her earnestly.
“Mom, I know this isn’t what you want for me. I know that you want me to go to college, get married and give you fat grandbabies. There’s a part of me that wants all that too, but I know it will never happen. I’m already one of the longest-lived Slayers in centuries; most of them don’t last long enough to have a Cruciamentum. But with Spike to help me, I might be able to set the record. Maybe I’ll be the first Slayer to live long enough to retire!”
Her mother looked at her hopefully, smiling at the optimism on Buffy’s face, but Joyce’s face fell again as Buffy continued, “Or, maybe not. Maybe some demon or some vamp is going to get lucky—if not tomorrow night, then the night after. Or six months from now. I don’t know. I just know that I want to spend however much time I have with the man I love. All those other things just aren’t in my future – no matter who I’m with. I’m sorry, Mom. I really am, but this is what my life is – it’s slaying and fighting and saving the world - and I want to do it with Spike.”
Joyce looked up at the vampire who was wearing an expression that could only be called joyous. She was puzzled about the look on his face until she thought back over Buffy’s words and realized that it was probably the first time he’d heard Buffy admit that she loved him. She tried to catch his eye, but he was firmly focused on the girl still kneeling in front of her, staring at her as though afraid she was going to vanish any minute.
The older woman sighed again, then stood, pulling Buffy to her feet with her. She walked over to the vampire, bringing Buffy with her and taking Spike’s hand in hers. With Buffy on one side and the vampire on the other, she asked him clearly, “Do you love my daughter?”
“With all my heart,” he replied immediately, looking not at her, but at Buffy. Then he turned his head and looked at Joyce.
“I know I wouldn’t be your first choice for your daughter, but I promise you I will do everything I can to keep her alive and happy. That’s all I can do.”
Joyce nodded sadly. “I suppose it’s all I can ask.” She moved her hands together until she could let go and leave Spike and Buffy holding hands. Then she gave the vampire a stern look and said firmly, “If you ever make her unhappy, I will personally remove your head with an axe.”
With a quick glance at the battered ex-watcher, Spike grinned and said, “I don’t doubt it for a minute.”
The three of them stood quietly for a few seconds, each lost in his or her own thoughts until Giles cleared his throat, breaking the spell and asking meekly, “Is there any chance an extremely humble and apologetic ex-Watchers Council employee could add his approval to this apparent union?”
Three pairs of eyes turned on him with varying degrees of warmth, gazing long enough to cause him to drop his head and begin to turn away before Buffy said, “Do you really mean that, Giles? You’re okay with this?”
“I would have to conquer a lifetime of training in order to be ‘okay’ with it,” he admitted quietly. “However, I can argue with neither your assessment of the likelihood of your living a normal life nor the fact that having a master vampire of Spike’s reputation and abilities increases that likelihood tremendously. Not to mention,” he said wryly, “you rarely listen to my advice anyway.”
Quiet laughter at his expense broke the tension and Joyce went to get drinks from the kitchen while Giles sat down to talk to Spike and Buffy about Kralik and how they had defeated him. When Spike proudly told him that Buffy had done it all by herself, the man breathed out a sigh and slumped back in his chair saying, “Those prats have been underestimating you from the beginning. Let us hope that this time they finally understand what a treasure they have lost.”
An hour later, Joyce was yawning and even Spike was looking tired. There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone stood up. Buffy had been sitting on Spike’s lap, and they were still holding hands as Joyce said pointedly, “It’s time to say ‘good-night’, Buffy.”
Buffy looked at Spike anxiously, asking, “Where are you going to stay? You can’t spend the day in your car.”
Giles cleared his throat and offered quietly, “You may stay with me if you like, William. Until you have had time to make other arrangements.”
“’Preciate that, Rupert,” Spike said, genuinely touched. “I’ll get out of your hair as soon as I can. Get a place of my own tomorrow night.”
Giving Buffy a chaste kiss on her lips and shaking hands with Joyce, he followed the Watcher out the door to their separate vehicles and drove off into what was left of the night.
Joyce and Buffy stood at the bottom of the stairs and looked at each other before Joyce said with a sigh, “I’m not going to be able to keep you two apart, am I?”
Buffy shook her head and blushed, but met her mother’s eyes firmly.
“No,” she said simply.
“Oh well,” Joyce said as she turned to go upstairs, “At least he can’t get you pregnant.”
“Moooom!”
Laughter drifted down the stairs as the Slayer glared after her mother.
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