The rest of the visit was nice. Buffy got to watch Sam and Spike work on the deck together. It was coming along quite nicely. It made Buffy long for a day where Spike and her could have a house together and have a deck and children.
With that thought, she sighed suddenly aware that she was substituting Spike for the name of her husband and children wouldn’t be possible for a vampire.
From what she learned from her previous watcher, vampires were considered dead and didn’t have enough of a life source to father children but perhaps she could adopt. Adopting was an option right?
The rest of the visit was spent with Candy telling her stories of how Sam and her at met at high school and fell in love and the struggles of marriage.
Overall, Buffy enjoyed herself. In the car heading back home, Spike paused at a light and looked over at Buffy and said, “Tis around 4 am. About two hours till sunset. Would you be terribly upset if we stopped at another friend’s house instead of patrolling tonight? Most vamps are probably sleeping away anyway.”
Buffy shook her head that she wouldn’t and was curious to see where he was taking her.
Spike drove to the store and picked up a few grocery items: Milk, bread, sandwich meat, hamburg, buns, and cream as well as a few other items.
Buffy didn’t say a word waiting to see if he would explain himself and he didn’t but instead paid for it and drove to a big house.
He took a key out of his pocket and unlocked the door and let himself into the kitchen.
Buffy was surprised he didn’t need an invitation but looking around, it was a small but true house.
Pictures hung on the wall of an elderly woman with three children who were adults.
A few young pictures of kids covered the walls and she heard the sound of footsteps saying, “William if that you?”
Buffy was surprised to hear someone call Spike, William but turned around to see an elderly woman with gray hair, who was defiantly getting up in the years, dressed in a little robe covering a nightgown with little slippers on her feet.
She smiled at Spike and gave him a hug saying, “You always know just when I need new food. Thank you" as she handed him a few dollars to pay for the food.
Buffy knew he had spent almost 30 dollars on the food but instead she only handed him a ten-dollar bill.
He didn’t correct her and instead with a smirk across his face said, “Mrs. Dudley, I even got those little cream puffs you like so much.”
She giggled and said, “Oh William, you are always so good to me. I made some fresh cookies last night, would you like one? Would your friend here like one?”
Buffy looked at Spike who spoke for her and said, “We’d both like one, thanks Mrs. Dudley.”
She took out three cookies from a fancy cookie jar before saying, “I remember the day you first helped me carry in my grocery bags. It was nice of you to get that Dalton fellow to do it while you were away touring Europe for those five years. You always did make sure I was well cared for. How is Dalton?”
Spike smiled a gentle smile and said, “Just fine. He’s still practicing doctoring once in a while. He stills asks about you sometimes. Want me to tell the wanker to get over here some day to visit?”
She chuckled saying, “Now William such language but yes I’d like to see him again. Think he could see about getting me some new medicine for my cough? I’m running a bit low.”
Spike nodded understandingly remembering how much his mom suffered at the end with a cough, “Yes’ sum I’m sure that I could.”
She smiled as they all finished their cookies and she yawned, “Well I’d best get back to bed. It’s still early yet. My granddaughter arrives today. I get the pleasure of watching her for a week.”
Spike put his hand over the old woman’s and said, “That sounds wonderful. Here let me help you get back up those stairs. Don’t want you falling and not being able to take care of her. Thankful you let me put that second rail on the steps for you. Makes me feel a tad bit better but I still wish you’d move into the lower level bedroom.”
The lady shook her head saying, “Now William. I told you I like my bedroom upstairs. It reminds me of Patrick, God rest his soul.”
With that, Mrs. Dudley accepted Spike’s hand and they walked up the stairs together before he closed the door to her bedroom letting her go back to sleep.
Spike tiptoed down the stairs careful not to disturb her and took Buffy’s hand turning off the lights and re-locking the door to take her to the car.
Buffy was quite the rest of the way home noticing that the sky was lighter and figured Spike would rush to get home as to not to have any more burns on him.
The others were and had been completely healed. They healed within a day thanks to her slayer blood.
It really was a miracle drug for vampires or so Spike had told her.
She and Spike had been working a bit on closing off the link sometimes in order to not have the feelings get overwhelming and so they could respect each other’s thoughts.
There are just times where you want to think about something and not have a third party comment on it.
You want to be able to analyze things and enjoy life without worrying about someone’s reaction.
They had turned on the television and she kept hearing him talk to himself and she couldn’t enjoy the show.
He apologized and they worked hard on closing off the bond. Surprisingly it wasn’t too difficult but it took effort.
The bond wanted to be open all the time and to close it, you literally had to imagine it being closed in your mind and seal it and if closed too long, it would just simply reopen if you didn’t constantly remind it to stay closed.
She didn’t mind so much though. Other than sometimes when she liked quiet, she liked the idea that Spike was only a mind thought away.
When they arrived home, Spike got a message from Dalton that the wizard had arrived and was waiting for him in the back room.
Spike asked Buffy to wait in their room and to go ahead and find some food for breakfast if she wanted and to heat him up a mug of blood.
She sighed a little sad they didn’t have a stove or oven. She would have loved eggs but eggs in the microwave made her stomach turn in rebellion.
She didn’t think that sounded very good.
She though about asking Spike if he could possibly find even one of those grills that had stove tops on them so she could have eggs some morning and perhaps a waffle maker for waffles.
She smiled at the idea of a vampire’s lair having a stove and waffle maker.
It was sweet if he would give in to her.
She instead grabbed a pop tart from the box and frowned realizing there were no toaster.
She made another point to ask him to pick up one of those too.
She ate her pop tart and drank her strawberry milk and waited for him to return.
She flipped through the channels on the television for a bit and got bored so she walked over to the bookcase that had been brought to him by Dalton the night before.
She browsed through it looking for something to look it and perhaps read. What she found on the bookcase amazed her.
There were poetry books, journals, biographies, history books, as well as books she remembered reading in school such as The Great Gatsby and Withering Heights.
Who would have thought Spike would have these kinds of books to read.
She had been told to read Withering Heights in school but never did so she picked it up and curled up in the bed under the covers to read waiting for Spike.