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Joyce sat on her chair warming her hands on her rapidly cooling mug of hot chocolate and taking great pains to not look at the blonde couple sitting on the couch. The couple sitting way too closely together. Their clasped hands were resting comfortably on the thighs that were pressed together where they sat as close as they could get without actually being on top of each other. She very determinedly kept her mind away from recognizing the fact that they had been much closer the night before.

Mated.

Her teenage daughter, barely recognized as an adult by the laws and customs of their time and still recognized as a child to be protected and sheltered by the frustrated and confused mother they faced, was mated to an incredibly old vampire. A vampire who had always brought naughty thoughts of straining bodies twisting and rubbing on each other to Joyce's mind. Only now she knew that one of those bodies was her daughter. The daughter who, despite facing and defeating evil on a nightly basis, still exuded an air of innocence and naiveté. Especially when it came to the opposite sex that she had so assiduously avoided after her one disastrous romance.

A romance with a vampire.

A romance which had ended in death and murder and resulted in putting a dark knowledge in Buffy's eyes that had not dimmed her aura of innocence, but had put bleak spots on her soul if you only looked closely enough.

Of course, Joyce had never really liked that vampire anyway. He made her feel uneasy and she had never liked the dark look in his eyes when he looked at Buffy.

Yet Joyce had always felt comfortable around Spike, aside from that first meeting when he had been towering over Buffy, preparing to kill her. The next time they had met, that horrible night when she had learned the truth about her daughter and the dark edges of the world that she lived in, Joyce had learned the truth about Spike and what he was. She had screamed in fright when his features shifted and bumped out, showing the demon hidden inside. Yet, despite the fact that he exuded sexuality and proudly admitted to being a soulless evil creature of the night, Joyce had felt comforted to learn that he was on Buffy's side in their battle against Angel.

Or Angelus, or whatever the hell he happened to be calling himself at any particular time.

Joyce had seen something hidden in his eyes and demonstrated by the steady way he met her gaze, something that Angel had never done. She had seen something that night that comforted her.

She had since heard the whole argument about Angel's soul, and how he was good with it, and evil without it. Having met Spike and seen how heartbroken he was when that other vampire cheated on him and kicked him to the curb, Joyce was not so convinced about the importance of the soul.

After all Hitler was human. At least, she was pretty sure he was, she'd have to ask Mr. Giles later. So was Ted Kaczynski, and Jeffrey Dahmer. All of those monstrous creatures were technically human and had souls, but that had not stopped them from doing horrifying and evil things.

Joyce felt certain that the good versus evil debate really had nothing to do with having or not having a soul. She was certain that it had more to do with something more ephemeral and less considered. Something that she knew Spike had in abundance, and Angel was severely lacking in.

Heart.

She had read the Watcher's diaries. She'd read them far more extensively than Buffy ever had, wanting to know as much as she could about the dark life her daughter was leading, and she knew that the man Spike was before he was turned had had plenty of heart. Perhaps even too much, seeing as that was what had led him to accept Druscilla's offer of a new life with new rules.

She could see that heart in Spike's eyes, and the fierce passion that he displayed when he spoke of something important to him. Knowing that that fierce passion was now directed towards her daughters life and safety was a huge relief to Joyce. This man would not let anything stop him from achieving his goals and Joyce was happy that his main goal now was the continuance of Buffy's life.

When it had been explained to her that Angel's goal was to protect and help Buffy with her calling, Joyce had felt no comfort at all. The man he had been before being changed was nothing short of an alcoholic scum with tendencies that leaned towards child molestation if the reports from his parents servants were to be believed.

Joyce was far too aware of her daughters youth and how her innocence would call to such a man. She didn't really care if he had a soul or not since the man he had been with a soul was really only a tiny bit better than the murderous bastard he became without one. If allowed to continue in his life instead of being changed, Joyce wasn't certain he still wouldn't have eventually fell into murderous activities, soul or not, and there was nothing she had liked about the thought that he was the one chosen by the powers to aid and champion her daughter in her calling.

She was quite certain, in fact, that the powers had likely made a huge mistake by choosing a vampire that had soul instead of heart and she liked that they were obviously taking steps to correct that mistake.

But still...

Mated...

Surely there was a better way to go. One that didn't involve the awful thought of her daughter mating, with anyone or anything.

Ever.

The more she thought about it, the more certain she was that perhaps the powers should consider including abstinence in the package deal of calling Slayers.

"It's sort of like a marriage, Mrs. Summers." Spike interrupted her brooding. "Except that the whole till death do us part is a lot more serious." He had a good idea, based on the dark frown that was gathering on her face where her thoughts were heading, and he really didn't want her thinking about that while he was still near.

Just because he had tossed the axe outside didn't mean she didn't have anything else laying around. Like another axe perhaps.

After all, the Slayer did live here.

There were likely weapons hidden all over the house, not to mention those holes in space and time that Buffy apparently had access to and where she hid extra weapons.

"Her safety and happiness is now my one priority in life…er, existence. It's absolutely crucial in fact. The saying, happy wife happy life takes on a whole new meaning when you can feel everything she's feeling." he said definitively.

Buffy couldn't stop shooting little glances at him out of the corner of her eyes. He was still talking like Giles did, the same rhythms, accent and cadences, and Buffy wasn't entirely certain what she thought about it.

On the one hand, she liked the way he seemed so intelligent and sophisticated, it was kind of a turn on and made her want to get him some of those half glasses and pretend to be the teacher's pet. But then she would remember that he sounded like Giles and would feel totally squicked out about being turned on.

That whole thought process was just all full of the gross, and she probably needed another shower now, but then she thought of Spike in glasses again and once more with the turned on.

Spike was feeling itchy and twitchy from the rapidly changing and entirely opposing feelings coming from his mate and wanted nothing more than to get out of here and away from the possible threat of an upset mother. He would also like to know what thoughts could possibly have Buffy feeling aroused one moment to suddenly switch to disgusted and then right back to aroused, but she had closed the bond down just a little. Enough to keep her thoughts private and drive him absolutely mad with curiosity about the emotions she was sending out.

"I'm happy to hear that Buffy has a strong partner in her fight now, especially since it's you and she no longer has to rely solely on Angel for extra muscle," Joyce decided she would ignore the low growl Spike let out at the mention of Angel, "but I think what I need now is some time alone with my thoughts," and her liquor cabinet, "so I can try to come to terms with this my own way. Maybe we should further discuss this tomorrow."

Hopefully after she recovered from the huge hangover she planned to have.

"That's okay," Buffy said, eager to escape, "it's about time for me to patrol anyway. So we'll come back tomorrow afternoon around when you get back from the gallery." Spike was barely able to contain his groan. Was the chit trying to get him dusted?

"Tomorrow? You'll be…staying out again tonight?" Joyce asked hesitantly. 'Don't think about a seedy motel room!' She thought frantically. 'Don't think about mating, don't think about motels. God, I really need a drink.'

"Oh! Well, um…" Buffy was really uncertain about how to go about this. Damn, she should have just kept her mouth shut!

Just because the whole situation felt kind of natural and maybe even inevitable to her didn't mean anyone else would see it that way. Especially not her mother. Fortunately for her, Spike was eager to get the hell out of there too, so he stepped in to save her and extricate them from the house that he was beginning to feel certain would witness his end if he didn't get his mate and her verbal diarrhea the hell out of here.

"The thing is, with the claim being so new and all, it's actually painful for us to be separated, and until we can work out new living arrangements…" he just kind of let the thought hang, much to the relief of both women in the room.

"Of course. It would probably be more comfortable for all of us then if you stayed…out…" don't think about the seedy motel room…" until we can work something else out." Joyce quickly agreed. She really wanted to get to the liquor portion of her evening. "So…be careful on patrol you two, and I will see you tomorrow evening."

They quickly made their goodbyes and left, eager to get outside. Buffy felt certain that she would rather face another apocalypse than ever discuss this situation with her mother again, but since it was unavoidable, she was more than happy enough to put it off for another day. She was also eager to go work out all of her tension on some evil baddies. Too bad she actually had to patrol, it would be a lot more fun to work out her tension with her evil baddie, but oh well. She'd make do with what she had. Didn't mean she couldn't mess with him though.

"Never thought I'd see the Big Bad skittering away from my mother. Especially since you never skittered away from the one who was chosen to slay your kind and repeatedly whupped your butt back in the day." she teased.

"Wasn' the only one skittering away in fright back there though, was I Pet? You know as well as I do that your mum is damn frightening when she wants to be." he reminded her. "Wonder if she was a potential Slayer that never got called." he said thoughtfully.

"It wouldn't surprise me if she was." Buffy admitted honestly. "I haven't met the person yet who's not afraid of Mom when she gets like that. You should have seen Giles when she went after him and blamed him for me being the Slayer. First I thought he was going to polish his glasses into dust and then I was sure he was going to resign as a Watcher and try to enter a field that was less life threatening. I'm sure he thought about it anyway. She was over there every day for weeks grilling and questioning him about everything. She probably knows more about being a Slayer than I do. Maybe even more than he does by now."

"She's definitely fierce when it comes to you Luv. Haven' been that scared of dusting since I was turned." he admitted. Buffy laughed lightly and opened her mouth to tease him some more but she was interrupted by the last voice either of them cared to hear just then.

"Why doesn't it surprise me to learn that you're afraid of a middle aged woman when you never had the sense to be wary of the truly dangerous things in life Spike?"





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