Joyce stood in Giles’s living room giving the three capturers a lecture. She had lost her daughter and now had gotten her back. She was pissed, “Buffy belongs home with Spike and I. We are a family. Spike loves her and is willing to care for her always even when I’m not here. He helped her through some tough times that she didn’t even trust us to help her with. I can see why. I told her to leave when she needed me the most and you guys acted like this. You blame her for things going wrong, you blame her when she can’t do everything perfect. She’s still a 17-year-old girl who does things I can’t even imagine. How were you guys handling the work she does without her?” Willow looked down at her feet and whispered, “There were four of us and we still weren’t killing all the vampires.”
Joyce nodded, “Well Buffy handles this all, is a good daughter and a good student. She does the best she can and now she will have support. So when Buffy has a paper due, she can have Spike help her. When Buffy gets hurt while on patrol, she will have someone who can pick her up and carry her home while killing whatever it is that hurt her. He would die for her and would die protecting her. Can any of you say you would do that?”
Giles wiped his glasses, while Willow shuffled her feet and Xander kept his head down not looking at anyone feeling very ashamed. Buffy frowned as she whispered quietly, “Don’t I deserve happiness and a chance to love?” Xander started to talk but Buffy cut him off, “I have a right to choose who I love. Willow, you are with a werewolf. Don’t get me wrong, Oz is great but that wolf lives in him dormant every day but is in complete control three nights out of the month. Yet I help you and support you. I’ve never once planned to kill Oz and in fact even protected him against others who tried to kill him. Don’t I deserve the same respect? And you, Xander you are with someone who you claimed to hate. She’s high and mighty, insults everyone around her. She makes fun of others and is shallow. She hurts people’s feelings, judges them causing tears, and makes them feel like they are not worth living in this world. Yet you date her and do any of us try to stop you? Do any of us chain you to a freaking floor and demand you stop loving her? No of course not. Friends don’t act that way. I had to kill my boyfriend, I had to watch him kill people, and I’ve had to save the world. Hell, I died saving the world and this is the thanks my friends give me? With friends like this, who needs enemies…”
She then turned to Giles, “You are like a father to me so I’ll excuse this but please understand Spike is my mate and I want him. I need someone to protect me and who is my equal. He is both.” Buffy then turned to Joyce, “Dinner will be done in 20 minutes. We’d better hurry home.” Everyone looked at Buffy wondering how she knew that and watched as she walked out of the door with Joyce.
Joyce looked at her while walking together home, “How do you know about dinner?”
Buffy shrugged as she admitted, “We have telepathy. It helps us find each other no matter where we are, and helps us protect each other.”
Joyce looked amazed, “So you guys can talk to each other without being near each other and without saying a word?” Buffy nodded. Joyce whispered, “Amazing.”
Buffy nodded in agreement, “Now you know all we know. I don’t think I’ll be telling my so called friends that.”
Joyce shrugged, “Personally I think it’s great.”
Buffy nodded and then seeing the house close by she rushed through the door and within seconds she was being felt down and held, “You’re okay. I got you, you’re okay now.”
Buffy nodded and asked, “15 minutes left? It smells delicious. Do I have enough time for another shower? I feel gross after being held there so long.”
Spike nodded, “Make it fast, pet.”
Buffy smiled at him giving him another hug and ran up the stairs to shower. Joyce smiled, “You cook? You eat food? I thought you ate blood which is why my bottom shelf is full of bagged blood.”
Spike replied, “I do eat food, drink blood and can cook. Also can do basic housecleaning skills, and cut the lawn at night just not during the day.”
Joyce smiled and made a decision there and then, “Welcome to the family, Spike. You have earned the trust of me and therefore you may be with my Buffy. I only ask you marry her properly.”
Spike smiled and said, “Of course I will Joyce but let me ask her so it’s a surprise.”
Joyce grinned liking the feel of young love in the house.
Twenty minutes later, they were all sitting around the kitchen table digging into delicious green peppers and homemade corn muffins. Joyce commented Spike, “These are delicious. Can you make many things?”
Spike chuckled, “I used to watch the cooking channel sometimes when I was bored in my crypt. I had nothing better to do so I took up cooking as a hobby when I was alone.”
Joyce smiled, “Well anytime you’d like to cook, you are welcome to it.”
Buffy quietly continued to eat her pepper. Usually she didn’t like green peppers but he had it stuffed with tomatoes, rice, cheese and beef. It tasted dreamy.
Joyce turned towards Buffy, “I’m letting Spike stay and live with us. But I have one thing I need as an agreement from you.”
Buffy looked up at her mom curiously as Joyce continued, “Well two things actually. First I want you to finish high school and think about college. Spike and I both agree we want you to have the opportunity to hold a great job someday and he told me he graduated from Oxford so he can surely help you if you need the help. I never got the opportunity to go to college but I want you to someday, Buffy. The second is more for my sanity than anything else. I want you to promise me you will always take Spike with you while patrolling. I’d sleep better knowing if you were sneaking out to kill whatever it is you kill, that you at least had Spike by your side in case something went bad.”
Buffy smiled at her mom, “Ok on both conditions. But I have a question for you. Can we sleep together?”
Spike and Buffy both looked at Joyce curiously and Joyce sighed knowing her daughter was growing up, “One rule, if I hear it, it stops.”
Buffy and Spike looked at each other and then nodded agreeing to the rule. It seems as though everyone had found their home and they would be a family after all. Buffy had found her reason for living and a way to survive. Spike had found the family he had always wanted along with a mate who loved him as much as he loved her. Joyce had found her daughter and now found her daughter the perfect guy so she would never have to worry about her again.