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Author's Chapter Notes:
a real update...I've had time to write and my beta is home for a few days
The next day saw Buffy and her mother making their way into the exclusive area of Sunnydale. Crawford Street was full of expensive, over-large houses, the sort that Buffy and Joyce used to live in prior to the divorce. Joyce slowed down her paces as they reached the front door of the building. The small buzzer seemed innocuous and out of place amongst the grandeur of the house itself. Joyce wasn't sure what they were about to face, she just hoped it would be friendly.

The door was opened by a tall blonde woman, in her late twenties if Joyce was any judge, who seemed to know them. She smiled a welcome and stood back allowing Joyce to see into the house beyond.

'Come on in folks, we've been expecting you,' she said in a soft Irish accent. There
was something about the woman that seemed to soothe Joyce's fears over coming to this place.

The door opened into a huge entrance hall, a hall dominated by dojo mats and weapons displays on the walls. Buffy was in heaven, well as close as she ever wanted to get. She walked over to one of the displays, one that had over forty different kinds of bladed weapons from sabres to scimitars, daggers to weird oriental umabari. She drooled over the blades, longing to feel their weight and balance in her hands.

'We can spar later pet, if you want,' Spike told her as he approached The Slayer.

'I'd like that,' Buffy replied. Giles was OK to practise with, but she was always terrified of hurting him too badly. It would be fun to spar with someone who could take the blows and match her speed. 'Where did you get all these from, and are they all yours?' Buffy knew she was babbling, but she couldn't help it, she was excited to see the arsenal spread out for her delight.

'The collection has been put together over years, and they're not mine: they're yours, officially,' Spike explained with a smile.

'Mine?' Buffy's eyes brightened at the thought of all these shinies being for her use. They were gorgeous and she couldn't wait to try them out.

'Yeah, yours. They are for the use of the Slayer and her squad. There are crossbows, knives, stakes, everything your well prepared and active Slayer could possibly need.' Spike told her as he walked slowly down the display. Part of him wanted to just rip the throat out of the woman-child in front of him, but another, quieter part seemed soothed just by her presence - and Olivia's influence, of course.

'And this?' Buffy held up a silver blade that looked more like a stake than a knife that was resting on the table itself.

'That's special: it's hollow and is used during a particular ceremony. There's a matching stake as well.' Spike pointed to an identical weapon lying in an ornately carved wooden box. The thought of a stake made him shudder, that and holy water. Ugh. He needed to go out and kill something, soon.

'What ceremony?' Buffy asked curiously, as she felt the weight of the two stakes. One was a lot heavier than the other. The solid silver one felt awkward and clumsy in her hands but the wooden one felt like it belonged. Even in the dark she'd know this weapon.

'Not my place to tell you, pet. Now: what can I do for you today?' Spike asked, taking the weapon from her hands and putting it back on the table.

'I brought my mom, she had some questions and I'm not as well up on the book learning stuff, so I thought you might be able to, like, help?' Buffy seemed almost embarrassed by her own reply to his question. What was it about this man that made her so tongue tied?

'And you should be in school young lady, but I felt this was more important. Mr Pratt, could you please tell me about Buffy and what's expected of her, why she has to be the Slayer, how she hands over the job?' Joyce said, making her way over to the blond couple. She still wasn't happy about all this... stuff... wishing it was nothing to do with her daughter.

'So what questions have you got, Mrs Summers? I'm sure we can help you out.' A voice behind her asked. Joyce hadn't noticed Giles: he was already there sitting at a table that had been stacked high with books. His interruption caught her by surprise at first. He seemed so normal to be amongst these people.

'I'm not sure I know where to start,' she answered honestly. 'I want to know how this affects Buffy now and in the future: will she marry, have children? And what about school?'

'I'll start with the last one first,' Spike said. 'Despite the looks and the fangs, I'm actually, heaven help me, a fully qualified teacher. Buffy is going to need extra help, but only because she won't have enough time to study if she stays strictly within the school system.' Spike had the good grace to look at Buffy as he spoke, but the young woman's attention was back on the weaponry. She was playing with the stakes that were lined up along the long table. Buffy had already fitted the holster around her waist, fitting it with a mahogany stake that seemed to fit her hand perfectly.
Kate was showing her various items of interest, leaving Giles and Spike free to talk to her mother.

'A qualified teacher? Forgive me if I find that hard to believe,' Joyce said, looking at the being that had terrified her so much the night before.

'I have a degree from Oxford, madam, a little dusty, but a First in English Literature and history nonetheless.' Spike let his accent of birth shine through and it shook Joyce to the bone.

'I speak French, Spanish, Latin, Greek, some German and Italian as well as half a dozen demon languages, and can read Sanskrit, Phoenician and Aramaic.'

At that Giles looked up from the pile of books in front of him. 'But the Council said you were a minor thief from Liverpool!' he blurted out loudly.

'And the Council have it wrong, again, there's a surprise,' Spike drawled, his accent sounding cultured, and his voice sounding thoroughly bored.

Kate left Buffy looking through the armoury and headed for the kitchen. They were all going to need a break. She returned in a few minutes carrying a tray of tea, coffee and sodas, placing it on the low table before taking a cup for herself. She could smell Joyce's agitation and she really didn't want any trouble tonight. She allowed her pheromones to build slightly, not enough to bring on a mating frenzy, but just enough to calm everyone down a little. Spike sniffed appreciatively, and Buffy scented the air as well. It smelled like freshly mown grass and summer days.

'You're not human?' Buffy asked accusingly, looking at Kate.

'Not exactly, no.' Kate told her as she sipped her tea. 'I'm mostly human.'

'I doubt that,' Giles mumbled from across the room. 'You're female and no female is part human.' That was the wrong thing to say. Joyce gave out a disgruntled noise, Kate shot him a death glare and Buffy, well Buffy just grinned and shouted, 'Catch!'

Giles did just that, he held out to hand to catch the object flying through the air towards him, only to find himself fending off one of the wooden practise knives Spike used against Kate.

'Next time I'll use a real one,' Buffy said quietly and smiled at the other two women.

Spike kept well out of the conversation. He wasn't stupid. 'The more women in the room, the quieter a wise man is,' he whispered to Giles as he walked past him, returning his empty mug of blood to the tray.

Kate and Spike spent the rest of the day showing Joyce and Buffy around the mansion. It had been set up as an ideal headquarters for anything a slayer could need. There was a huge library, a computer suite and even a small operating theatre. Joyce looked at all the equipment. It looked like an army field hospital. There was even an IV stand with a pump attached sitting in one corner.

'When Buffy knows us a little better we'll start collecting her blood and storing it. Giles has been given a spell that will preserve it almost indefinitely' Kate told an anxious Joyce.

'I hope she never needs any of this stuff,' Joyce said, a little nervous at all the preparations that had obviously taken place.

'Better safe than sorry,' Kate told her bluntly as they left the room. 'This isn't something that Buffy has chosen to do, nor can she just drop the whole thing because she has school. This is what she was born for. To protect mankind from the things that go bump in the night. The things you try to pretend you haven't seen.'

'But why my baby, why not someone else?' Joyce almost wailed out the question.

'Is there anyone else you would trust to do the job properly?' Kate asked, stopping the older woman dead. If Joyce was honest there was no one else. No one who could be trusted the way Buffy could be. This was their life from now on.


As Buffy made her way downstairs she looked out of the stained glass window on the stairs. The sun was almost down, she had about an hour before she had to head out on patrol. She sat down on the stairs and looked out over the gardens that were turning gold in the last of the light. It was beautiful, but she could feel the power begin to race in her veins. However sleepy she felt during the day, the night made her feel alive.

Spike heard Buffy's pulse start to quicken. He could hear the blood pump through her veins and felt his fangs itch. There were times when he longed to let his demon take control, longed to let rip with fang and claw, to remind these people who they were dealing with. It was when the blood lust was at its worst he felt the soothing influence of Olivia's soul, helping him regain the equilibrium that kept him undusty and safe from passing stakes.

Kate watched him. She could feel his demon's rise and wanted to help, but this was Spike' battle.

'Right: while we're all here, there is a nest of vampires setting themselves up on the edge of town, near the old warehouses. I suggest we use it as a training session and Buffy and I take them out. Giles, you and Kate can watch and film us to see where we can improve our technique.' Spike really needed a good fight. He was hoping the girl in front of him would be slow and he could get some violence in. Otherwise he was going to blow.

He ran his tongue around his mouth. Buffy was 16 but the smell coming of the Slayer was delicious: he wouldn't mind practising other techniques on her. 16 was legal in England...

Kate gave him 'the look' and Spike knew she'd guessed what was on his mind. He'd pay for his thoughts later; last time Kate had been cross with him, she'd spiked his blood with rat. It took him days to get the taste out of his mouth.

'Buffy?' Kate called, 'you want to pick out some weapons for tonight? We've stakes, crossbows and holy water in a nap-sack ready for you, but if there is anything else you want?'

Buffy headed over, oblivious to the looks the vampire was giving her. It was going to be a long night for Spike.


Chapter End Notes:
more when I can.

reviews feed my muse



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