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Xander watched as Anya went into his closet, pulled out a wad of sheets and a pillow, and deposited them on the couch. "Ahn, what are you doing?" he asked.

"You're sleeping on the couch."

"Huh?"

"I said, you're sleeping on the couch. I don't much feel like sharing a bed with you tonight."

"Then go home."

"No. I want you to sleep on the couch. It's a time-honored punishment for men who have upset their wives or girlfriends. Once, I cursed this guy to sleep on the most uncomfortable couch in the world for all eternity."

Xander blanched. "This is insane!"

"So is you being all mean to Buffy and Spike."

"What?! Anya, Buffy's letting Spike bite her. And doing other things with him that I can't even begin to think about."

"Then don't think about it. It's none of your business. And he isn't feeding off her, Xander. It was a claiming bite."

"A bite is a bite! There's only one reason why a vampire would sink his fangs into a Slayer!"

"Oh, so you're a vampire expert now?" Anya asked sarcastically, her hands on her hips.

"I've been fighting them for five years. I think I know a thing or two about them!" Xander exclaimed.

"A thing or two, maybe. But everything? No. I've known quite a few vampires in my time, and I know from personal experience that there is more than one kind of vampire bite."

"I don't want to hear that."

"You don't want to hear a lot of things. But that doesn't make them any less real. Buffy and Spike are mated. If you want to be Buffy's friend, then you're going to have to learn to live with that."

"I can't do that! It's disgusting, her doing that with a demon."

Anger flared in Anya's eyes, and she slapped Xander hard across the face.

"Ow!" Xander cried out, reaching up to stroke his sore cheek. "What was that for?"

"Is what we have disgusting, Xander? Is that what you think of our love?"

"No! But we're different. You're not a demon anymore."

"So if I was still a vengeance demon, you couldn't love me? If I'd never become a human again, you couldn't still love me for the person I am?"

Xander stared at her. The phrase "you wouldn't be a person" was on the tip of his tongue, but he stopped himself before he said it. He'd never thought of that before, where he'd be if Anya had stayed a demon. Would he have fallen in love with her? Part of him wanted to say no, he could never love a demon, but at the same time he couldn't imagine Anya not in his life. "I don't know," he said finally.

"Then maybe you should figure it out," Anya snapped before going into his bedroom and locking the door behind her.

Xander sighed and started fixing himself a bed on the couch.

*** *** ***

Spike woke up to the sound of Buffy crying. They'd decided to stay there at her mother's that night, and while she'd gone to bed in a good enough mood, Spike had felt her anxiousness coming through the claim. It infuriated Spike that her friends would do this to her and then have the nerve to call him evil.

He leaned over and kissed her shoulder. "Sweetheart?" When she didn't respond, he pulled her closer to him, her back to his front. "Buffy?"

"What?" she said, obviously trying to keep the tears out of her voice, though Spike could still hear them. "I told you I didn't want to have sex with my mother in the house."

"Not pushing for that, kitten. You're upset. Thought you might need a little comfort."

Buffy turned in his arms then, burying her head against his chest. Spike held on to her, and her cries turned into sobs. "He couldn't look at me, Spike," Buffy said, the pain in her voice making Spike's heart break. "Giles couldn't look at me."

"Shh. Watcher didn't mean that, pet. He was just upset."

Buffy looked up, her face stained from crying. "Yes he did. Giles hates me. I disgust him."

"No. There's not a bloody thing disgusting about you. He's the one in the wrong here."

"But it hurts, Spike. It hurts so much."

"I know, baby," Spike said, guiding her head back down to his chest. He stroked her hair and back, murmuring softly to her until she fell asleep again.

He glanced over her head at the alarm clock beside her bed. He still had a little time before daybreak, although he'd be pushing it. Still, it was worth the chance that he might get stuck somewhere for the day. His girl was hurting, and he needed to fix it.

*** *** ***

"You know, leaving your door unlocked in a town like Sunnydale, not the brightest idea. All sorts of monsters could just wander right in here."

Giles looked up, his eyes narrowing as he saw Spike standing in his doorway. "Most monsters don't have an invitation."

Spike took another step into the apartment, wrinkling his nose. If the empty bottles and glasses weren't evidence enough of what Giles had been up to since he'd left the Magic Box earlier, the stench of too much alcohol rolling off the Watcher certainly was. "Well, I do. And we're going to have a little conversation."

Giles grabbed a stake that was on his desk, standing up shakily as he pointed the weapon at Spike. "The only 'conversation' I want to have with you, Spike, doesn't involve words."

"You're gonna want to put that down, Watcher," Spike said, his tone icily calm. "You know what that'll do to Buffy."

Giles let the stake fall to the ground. "I should've pushed you out into the sunlight the moment you came to my door seeking help. I never should've let you get this close to Buffy."

"Wasn't your call. You didn't let her do anything. Buffy made the choice to let me close."

"And you wasted no time in taking advantage of that error in judgment, did you?" Giles sneered.

"What are you on about? I didn't take advantage of Buffy!"

"You most certainly did!" Giles tried to advance on Spike, but wobbled, clinging to the side of his desk for support. "That book, it did something to her. Messed with her mind. And you…you took advantage of that. Put a claim on her for who knows what sick purpose."

"I claimed her because I love her. I claimed her because I wanted to make sure she knows that I will stand beside her until I'm dust. What could I possibly gain from tying myself for all eternity to a woman I didn't love?"

"You'll only hurt her."

Spike narrowed his eyes. "I'm not the one who's hurting her. What you said to her today… She was sobbing tonight. You broke her heart."

"She acted with very poor judgment. She…"

"No! Bloody hell, are you seriously that blind to what Buffy's feeling? It doesn't matter what you think of her actions. The point is you turned to a girl who sees you as her father and told her you couldn't stand to look at her. That she's a disappointment. Do you have any idea how cruel that is?"

"Well, I guess you'd know about cruel, being a demon and all. You don't love Buffy. You cannot love Buffy. You're not capable of it."

Spike forced himself to refrain from acting violently. Wouldn't exactly do to prove the other man right. "Look, personally, I don't care what you think. You can spit back the tripe the Watchers' Council fills the heads of its girls with all you want, doesn't make a damn bit of difference to me. I know more about vampires and what we're capable of than all your books put together. But it matters to Buffy. You matter to Buffy. And that makes it important to me. If someone hurts her, then it's my duty to make it right."

"So you're what, going to threaten me? Tell me you'll find a way to enact horrible tortures on me if I don't give my blessing to this unholy union?"

"No. And not just because the chip won't let me either. My mate sees you as family, which means you're under my protection. I'll never lay a finger on any of you so long as you're dear to Buffy. What I'm saying is you might want to think about what you're doing. You don't have to like me. Hell, I don't like you. Think you're a right git. But what Buffy and I have, it's forever. I don't expect you to know all the reasons why Buffy and I decided on a claim. That's private. Just between Buffy an' me. And you don't have to approve of it. Your opinion doesn't change what it is. But I won't have you treating Buffy that way. She doesn't deserve it. For whatever reason, your opinion means something to her. And I know you care about her. You don't approve of what she's done, but you still love her. So bloody act like it. Don't turn your back on her because she's trying to find a little happiness in this hell of a life she lives. Girl's suffered enough without you adding to her pain."

"I don't need advice from you, Spike."

"Fine. But keep in mind that you're the one who's going to be missing out when you lose Buffy from your life."

Spike walked out of the apartment, leaving Giles alone with his thoughts and his scotch.

*** *** ***

Spike ran in through the backdoor of the Summers' house, narrowly missing the first rays of the morning sun.

"Cutting it a little close?"

Spike looked up sharply, surprised to see Joyce awake. "Yeah. Made it though. Mornin', Joyce."

"Good morning. And, um, where were you exactly?"

"Had to go talk to Giles."

"About Buffy?"

"Yeah. He didn't take to the whole claim thing very well."

"Oh." Joyce looked pensive for a moment before asking, "Would you like a cup of hot chocolate?"

Spike knew there was more coming that just hot chocolate. Joyce had something on her mind. But he also decided it was best to go along with it. She was his mother-in-law now, after all… "Sure, Joyce. That would be lovely."

Joyce smiled as she got up to put the pot on the stove. Spike sat at the kitchen island as she fixed them both a mug. After she finished, she handed the drink to Spike, who took it graciously. "Thanks."

Joyce sat across from him, wrapping her hands around her own mug. "Can I ask you a personal question?"

"I figured you were getting to that. Go ahead. Can't promise an answer, but I'll do what I can."

"Can you explain this claim thing to me a little more? What does it mean for my daughter?"

"Means she's mine."

Joyce frowned. "You own her?"

"No, not like that. Buffy's not my possession. She's mine. But I'm hers, too. Forever."

"Forever? Buffy won't live forever, Spike. She's human…isn't she?"

"Yeah, she is. But she's tied to me now, and I'm not. Claim won't make her a vampire, but it'll keep her with me. Binds us together. I live, she lives."

"And if you die?"

"She wouldn't fall right to the ground. Don't worry about that. She wouldn't be immortal anymore, but it wouldn't kill her right out."

"And if Buffy dies?"

"I walk into the next sunrise."

Joyce blinked a little at that. "You love her that much?"

"I love her with everything that I am. Buffy's my everything. Vampires don't claim mates very often. We're not exactly a species known for monogamy. But when we do make that choice, it's sacred. Protecting for and caring for his mate becomes the top priority for that vampire. And for me, that's Buffy."

"I suppose you didn't have a claim with that other woman then, did you? The one you were upset about the time you came here?"

"Drusilla? No. She wouldn't allow it." Spike looked down. "I tried, but she wouldn't reciprocate. Got mad at me for trying to erase her connection with her 'daddy.'"

"Daddy?"

"Angel. He was Dru's sire—the vampire that made her. He held a place in her heart that I could never fill."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

Spike looked up again. "I'm not. If Dru had let me claim her, I couldn't be with Buffy now."

"And you love Buffy more?"

"Yeah, I do. Never thought I could love anyone more than I loved Drusilla, but Buffy… Your daughter's really something special, Joyce. The things she can make me feel with just a smile…it's bloody amazing."

Joyce reached across the island, placing her hand on top of Spike's. "Thank you."

"For what?" Spike asked, his brow furrowed.

"For reassuring me. For letting me know my daughter is going to be loved and cherished for the rest of her life. There's nothing a mother wants to know more than that."

"No reason to thank me for that. I'm honored that I get to."

"Still, I'm…"Joyce patted his hand. "I'm glad to have you for a son-in-law."

"Thanks, Joyce. Couldn't have asked for a better mother-in-law myself."

Joyce smiled and took a sip of her hot chocolate.

*** *** ***

I've had a couple of people ask how long I intend for this fic to be. I honestly can't answer that. I intended for it to be over a while ago, but I've yet to reach a point that I feel is a satisfactory ending. I wanted to thoroughly address the issues that arose from Buffy and Spike's time in the book. I do, however, feel that the story is winding down. It could end in the next chapter, or it could take a couple more. I'm not sure. I'll end it when I feel that the story has been fully told.

Also, a few people were displeased with the way I portrayed Giles in the last chapter. Personally, I think there is plenty of precedent for his reaction. Think episodes like "Revelations" and "Lies My Parents Told Me."

If anyone's interested, I've started a sort of companion piece to my fic "Daylight." It's from Angel's perspective, so obviously, I can't post it here, but if you would like to read it, here's the link: http://adultfan.nexcess.net/aff/story.php?no=544193968


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