Dawn and Garri, tiptoed through the open front door and Garri led the way to Robert’s study, where they could hear sounds of movement.

Dawn’s heart almost stopped, when she saw what was happening and she wished she‘d thought to leave Jennifer Anne somewhere safe.

Buffy was on her knees, feeding a vampire - Lily? - from her wrist. Spike was just standing still, a dead look in his eyes. The slayer scythe lay on the floor. Dawn wondered, briefly, if she could edge past and retrieve it.

All thought died, as Lily let go of Buffy and, looking up, thralled Dawn and Garri. She breathed in, deeply; scenting the air.

Standing up and leaving Buffy, Lily walked to Dawn and sniffed at Jennifer Anne. She smiled, Buffy’s blood still staining her teeth and lips.

“Give.“ She said to Dawn.

With a terrible despair but unable to resist, Dawn found herself about to hand over Lily and Spike’s baby to a monstrous vampire version of Lily.

Jennifer Anne stirred in Dawn’s arms and her eyes opened wide. Light spilled from them and radiated out until it filled the room.

Spike felt every hair on his body stand up, as though from static electricity. The light was so bright, flaring through every colour of the rainbow, that none of them could see the room. The sound of screaming filled their ears.

In her mind, Buffy was transported back to the Hellmouth, watching Spike, as he radiated light to every inch of the cavern, on the worst day of Buffy’s life.

The screaming stopped and Jennifer Anne closed her eyes.

They all blinked, trying to adjust to the sudden drop in light levels and the disorientation that followed the thrall. When they could see again, they found that Robert was unconscious on the desk and vampire-Lily was dust.

“Bloody hell.” Spike breathed, holding his hand out to Buffy.

“Sums it up.” Buffy said, weakly, equally stunned by what they had just witnessed.

“That was so cool.” Dawn said, smiling at her new sister. “You OK, Buffy?”

“A little freaked, I haven’t been thralled like that, for a long time.” Buffy said, picking up her scythe.

Feeling it tingle, she turned her wrist over and watched as the bite mark faded as if it had never been. None of the others noticed.

“Spike, where’s our Lily?” Garri asked, weakly.

The look in Spike’s eyes told him what he needed to know.

“Oh.” Was all he said, a tear slipping down his face, as he felt the loss of his best friend.

“I’m sorry,” Buffy said, “She was gone, before I got there.”

“She thought she would die.” Garri said. “But she risked it because she knew nothing bad would happen to her baby. She hoped she could rescue Spike and get back here before Jennifer Anne came. When she didn‘t come back, I started trying to track you down, Buffy. Those watchers don‘t make you easy to find.”

“I need to find Andrew.” Spike growled.

“What do you need that closet case for?” Garri asked.

“He opened the portal. He needs to die. Slowly.”

“He killed seven slayers?”

“No.” Buffy said. “He used blood samples from slayer medical tests. A step up from last time.”

“Huh?”

“The last time he tried to open something, he used the blood of his only friend.” Dawn said.

“Harsh. Obviously more messed up in the head than I realized.”

“Not as messed as he’s gonna be.” Spike said, his voice low and menacing.

“Spike,” Buffy said, trying to distract him. “We need to get Robert somewhere a bit more comfortable. Does he need an ambulance?”

“I don’t think so, his heart sounds strong, I think he’s just passed out from the shock of the thrall breaking, when Lily dusted.”

Together, he and Buffy carried Robert to his bedroom.

“I’ll stay with him,” Spike said, as they lay him on the bed. “I need to talk to him, when he wakes up.”

“OK. I’ll go check the rest of the house - see if anyone else is hurt.”

* * * * *

The rest of the house was empty. Evidently, Robert had given the servants some time off. Buffy smiled, he probably figured they’d end up seeing stuff that he couldn‘t explain…

She found Dawn, in the kitchen, warming up soup.

“Where’s Jennifer Anne?” Buffy asked.

“Sleeping on the sofa, in the little family room, down the hall. Garri’s watching her. I figured we’d all want food, ‘specially you bite-ees.”

“I feel OK.” Buffy said, putting her scythe down on the kitchen table. “I healed.” She continued, showing Dawn her wrist.

“That was fast.”

“I think the scythe did something.”

“Healed you?”

“Yeah, maybe. The Guardian said… she said I can’t be killed. She said because I pulled the scythe out of the stone… was the first to touch it… the first slayer to touch it I mean…”

“I wonder…” Dawn murmured.

“What?”

“Well, when you first brought it home, Faith was badly hurt. We thought she might not make it…?”

“You think that when she held the scythe..?”

“Maybe. It’s probably a slayer thing.” Dawn said, putting a large mug of soup on the table in front of Buffy. “I’m going to hand out these,” She indicated the other steaming mugs, on a tray. “You coming?”

“No, I need to think.”

“You’re gonna brood about Spike, aren’t you?”

Buffy shot her a look.

“OK, OK, I’m going.”

Buffy sipped her soup. Dawn was right, of course; she was brooding. For two years, she’d been missing Spike. For two years, she’d fantasized about what she would say to him, if she were given the chance. Now, here he was and here she was… and she had no clue what to say.

Oh, they’d talked. How he’d survived, what he’d done, since the Hellmouth… but there was something unreachable about him. In the two years since she’d last seen him, he’d made a huge effort to move on and, made a good show of succeeding.

Buffy was sorry about Lily, she really was but deep down inside, a nasty, cold, hard part of her, was glad that Spike wouldn’t have to choose. He still wanted her - he’d said as much - but, for the first time since they’d been together, Spike had a life. He had lived here, for the best part of a year, in this beautiful house, with these lovely, well balanced people. He had friends. Humans, demons, it didn’t matter. Here, he was accepted.

Buffy had never offered him that. If his life hadn’t fallen apart, would he ever have loved her? Before his chip, he was feared and respected, as a master vampire should be but after? Even when he’d been helping her, she’d let her friends despise him. Endless, casual insults - mostly from Xander - disapproval and mistrust from the others.

Tara, along with Dawn and Buffy’s mom, had treated him like a person but, even though Spike had once said to Buffy that she treated him like a man, it hadn’t been true. He’d been a monster, an ally, a shoulder to cry on, a sex toy and a punching bag but, to Buffy, he hadn’t been a man; until it had been too late.

The night before the final battle with the First, they had held each other and, unable to sleep, they had made love. For Buffy, it had been a revelation. No violence, no using, just tenderness and mutual pleasure. She had ached to tell him she loved him but, it had gone so long unsaid, that the words just wouldn’t come. He hadn’t said them either. Instead, they had held each other and slept.

The next day, they’d gone to the Hellmouth, pretending that everything would work out but he knew and she knew that he knew, when she’d handed him the amulet, he was accepting his death.

What would have happened if she’d worn it? There was probably a dimension where that had been the case; she’d have to ask the Guardian. God, there was probably one where they’d lost.

She couldn’t get the images of that last night, out of her head. The feel of him, smooth and sensuously firm, under her fingers. The look of surprise on his face, so like that look of awe, back when she had first taken him. The way her body had melted into his, just from the gentleness of his kiss. The way he watched her face, as he slid into her, gauging her response and tempering his movements to match. The way she had murmured his name, over and over, as this gentle lovemaking took her higher and he filled her with his cool seed…

And, all the while, the hateful necklace under the pillow, its chain coiled around it; waiting, with its promise of death.

What if she had worn it? She had no problem with sunlight and, once all the turok-han were dust, she could have taken it off and gotten out…

She sighed, Spike would never have let her. Deep down inside, he was still a Victorian gentleman…

“Buffy?” Dawn’s return interrupted her thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“I thought you should know, we’re sleeping in Spike’s room, with Jennifer Anne. Garri’s gone home and Spike’s still in with Robert; I think he’s told him… it’s gone really quiet, in there…”

“Best not to disturb them - Spike’s upstairs room, yeah?”

“Yeah. We didn’t think he’d want us in his basement room…”

“No.” Buffy wondered, briefly, why Spike needed a basement room, when he had the Gem of Amara… “I’ll sort out some baby formula, before I come up.”

* * * * *

Giles was concerned.

Buffy and Dawn had both disappeared - Buffy a day and half ago, Dawn just this morning - and, even more worryingly, so had the slayer scythe.

It had been in the safe, in his locked office. The CCTV, which Andrew had installed, showed that no one had been in.

Maybe it had melted, he thought, with a wry smile.

He sighed, everything was going tits up. Lily and Spike had both vanished - Spike through the portal that formed the centre of the stone circle - Lily, in an attempt to rescue him. The baby was due soon; damn them both for screwing this up.

The prophesy had been clear, there would be a child and the child would be crucial to the future of the slayer line. The parents had to be Lily and Spike, no one else qualified, not in this dimension. Giles had done all he could to help it along, short of artificial insemination. He shuddered - as most of the girls at the slayer college would say - don’t go there.

Lily’s father had stopped calling. Was that a significant development? Either Lily had come back or… he’d found someone else to help him.

Buffy. He’d managed to track down Buffy, told her about Spike and she’d gone to England. Giles carefully rolled this theory around, in his mind. Would Buffy have sent for Dawn to join her? Unlikely. Unless, of course, she wasn’t planning on coming back…

He phoned Andrew.

* * * * *

Buffy was exhausted. The sun was coming up and she’d been awake half the night, watching Jennifer Anne. That baby was totally unnatural. Well, duh! Obviously she was unnatural - she was a slayer vampire hybrid who could dust vampires by shining light from her eyes - but and here was the kicker, she didn’t cry.

Yeah, she’d been crying in Lilith’s room, that was how Buffy had found her but, as soon as Buffy had reached the room, Jennifer Anne had fallen silent. Since then, she hadn’t been left alone. Buffy was fairly certain that this remarkable child only cried when she was alone and needed to attract attention.

A baby who didn’t cry should be every parent’s dream but, Buffy, totally freaked out by the lack of crying, had spent a lot of the night awake, making sure that Jennifer Anne was still breathing.

God, she was so beautiful. She already had hair - short, glossy and dark - and her eyes were the deepest blue that Buffy had ever seen; darker blue than Spike’s but they had that same, knowing way of looking at her. There was a definite intelligence, behind those eyes - again: duh - she was already dusting vampires and, more importantly, choosing which vampires not to dust…

So, Buffy had sat up half the night, working out which little Jennifer Anne sound meant she needed feeding, which meant changing and which was just for cuddles. Finally, they had fallen asleep, Buffy on her back with Jennifer Anne snuggled on her chest.

That was how Spike found them, a few hours after daybreak. Dawn was already up and using the connecting bathroom.

“Buffy?” He whispered, gently shaking her arm.

“Hmm?” Buffy murmured, blinking up at him.

“Sorry to wake you but Robert’s made a huge breakfast. I think keeping occupied is helping him…”

“We’d better do it justice, then.” Buffy said, sleepily sitting up and handing Jennifer Anne to Spike.

“How’s she been?”

“Amazing. She doesn’t cry, she just sort of squeaks when she needs something.”

“That’s why you look so tired?” Spike said, smiling.

“Yeah. I stayed awake, just watching her.”

Spike looked in awe at his peaceful, sleeping daughter and felt a surge of warmth towards Buffy. Without even thinking about it, he had left Buffy to care for his baby daughter; the baby he had had with another woman. It had never occurred to him, as he watched over Robert and, later, told him the bad news about Lily, that Jennifer Anne wouldn’t be welcome in Buffy’s arms.

It had been a rough night. He and Robert had ended up consoling each other, in the time honoured way - drinking large amounts of good scotch, talking about Lily and sobbing, manfully.

Spike had woken up, alone; sprawled in a ‘comfy’ chair, his back screaming its protest and the tip of one finger, on fire. Swearing, he had flapped the flames out, ducked out of the sunshine and swiftly retrieved the Gem of Amara from his pocket, sighing his relief as, once back on his finger, it made all his physical pains subside.

God, it had been a while since he’d got that drunk. Sunnydale, in The Poof’s bloody garden. He’d handled that all wrong, he thought, remembering. He should have built on the tiny bit of trust he had established with Buffy but noo, he’d gotten drunk and hurt her friends. Ignoring how good fighting with her had felt, he’d pushed off back to try again with Dru and that had gone soo well, he thought, sarcastically.

Now, here he was again, feeling wrecked until he put his ring on, whereas Robert was already up, laying waste to the kitchen as he fixed a breakfast that could feed twenty.

‘God.’ Spike thought, as he carried Jennifer Anne downstairs to meet her grandfather, ‘I must be getting old.’

* * * * *

(TWELVE HOURS EARLIER)

Andrew was excited - he had a mission. Mr. Giles had phoned to say that ‘Slayer Zero‘, ‘The Key’ and ‘The Triple S’ were all missing. He, Andrew - special watcher agent - had been deployed.

OK, reality check; what Giles had actually said was that Buffy, Dawn and The Sacred Slayer Scythe had gone missing - possibly to Lily’s place.

If that was, indeed, the case, Andrew Wells was going to fetch them back…