Title: Born To Be My Baby (4/14/06 – completed 11/20/06)
Author: Slaymesoftly
Rating: NC17 (eventually)
Disclaimer: Joss Wheden’s characters; my story.
Author notes and summary: The sequel to A Mother’s Plea, my only vamp Buffy story to date. (oops, now there are two!) More has changed than just Buffy’s status as a human…
Born To Be My Baby
Chapter One
Settling into the life of a teen-aged vampire who was also the resident Vampire Slayer turned out to be trickier than anyone could have predicted. Joyce was able to withdraw Buffy from high school, getting no argument from Principal Snyder when she said her daughter would be better off finishing her senior year on her own and taking the required test to get her GED. As many times as he’d tried to expel the Summers girl from his high school, he chose to view her voluntary withdrawal as a victory of sorts, and his knowing smirk had Joyce fighting to restrain herself.
She left his office and went immediately to the school library where she spent the next hour ranting to Giles about his employer and what she would like to do to him.
“I’m tempted to ask Spike to turn him, just so I can watch Buffy drive a stake through his evil little heart,” she grumbled as she ran out of names to call the man.
“I sincerely hope you are not serious about that threat, Joyce.” His voice held a trace of panic as he looked at the angry woman. “You cannot use William the Bloody as your own personal--”
“Oh, relax, Rupert. I’m not serious. That was a one-time thing, to save my daughter. I don’t plan to make Spike a hired assassin.”
“You do understand that most people would not consider having a vampire drain and turn a girl to be ‘saving her’, do you not?” Giles asked with a frown. “I am quite certain the Council of Watchers would not see it that way at all.”
“You haven’t told them, have you?” Joyce’s voice climbed to a higher register and her eyes widened.
“No, Joyce,” he sighed. “I haven’t told them. I felt it was more appropriate that I give Buffy a chance to become accustomed to her new… lifestyle and to decide for myself what seemed the best way to handle this situation. I am hoping they will not notice, as long as she continues to meet her obligations as the Slayer.”
“She’s been going out every night and patrolling, just as she did before,” Joyce said loyally. “And she’s trying to find out more about the Mayor and his plans….”
“Yes, yes. I think we’ve pretty much worked out what we can do to prevent the Ascension. The problem may lie in getting Buffy in to the ceremony now that she is no longer a graduating senior.”
“I think Angel and Spike are going to help with that,” Joyce said quietly. “Although no one actually tells me anything. I have to guess what’s going on from bits and pieces of conversations.”
Giles interrupted her rambling complaint to ask, “Spike and Angel? They are working together?”
“Well, not so much together,” Joyce admitted. “For one thing, I will not have the man—vampire-- who killed my daughter in my house; so whatever conversations she has with Angel take place over the phone or elsewhere. And Spike gets very…testy when Angel’s name is mentioned, so Buffy tends not to discuss her plans in front of him.”
“I must say, I am impressed and surprised that Spike has remained in Sunnydale so long. I did not expect him to take his responsibilities so seriously.”
“He takes them VERY seriously,” Joyce said, nodding her head. “Buffy is the only childe he has ever made and he is very concerned that he handle it well. I believe it is one of the issues between him and Angel.”
“He never made a childe before?” The ex- watcher had not realized that Buffy was Spike’s first childe. The Watchers’ Diaries were not very clear about just what was involved in siring a childe as opposed to simply creating a minion, but he knew there was a difference and that there were duties and obligations to be met on both sides.
“No. Until recently, he apparently felt his life was quite full with his relationship with his own sire. He said he had no desire to create another vampire just to enlarge his family or to replace Darla. And the fact that the one he did create is the Slayer and has retained her soul apparently complicates the situation tremendously.”
“I would think that Angel would be the expert on being a souled vampire,” Giles said mildly. He had made no attempt to discourage Joyce in her dislike for the old vampire, having his own difficulties with Angel’s continued existence; however, he recognized that the other souled vampire would be the one most able to help his Slayer understand and cope with her new status and he tried to refrain from adding to her unwillingness to allow him anywhere near her daughter.
He did try to discourage her obvious affection for Spike, repeatedly assuring her that the unsouled vampire was inherently evil and could not be trusted. His astonishment when Joyce shared with him the number of times Spike had visited her home – unbeknownst to the Slayer – and done no more damage than to accidentally drop a mug of hot chocolate, was overwhelming. The idea that a vampire, even one that was old and therefore in control of his demon, could and would willingly spare the life of a trusting human was counter to everything he’d been taught in his years with the Council of Watchers. He vowed silently to try to see Spike through less prejudiced eyes, if for no other reason than for their shared dislike of his grandsire.
The next time Buffy came to his apartment to discuss the final plans for Graduation Day, he mildly suggested that she might want to have Spike present also; just to be sure they were all on the same page. The Slayer gave him a surprised smile and nodded eagerly.
“Sure, Giles. He’d like that. It’s been hard having to make plans with nobody speaking to anybody else except me. I guess Angel should be here too, huh?”
Trying very hard not to express how completely distasteful he found that idea, Giles nodded his curt permission and Buffy went out happily to meet her sire and tell him the good news.
~~~~~~~~~
“What do you mean, you won’t come if Angel’s there?” She glared at her sire, her lower lip going out in a pout. “Could you be more immature? We need to make our plans and I’m tired of running back and forth between Giles and you and Angel. You have to do this, Spike! I’m…I’m ordering you to!”
The vampire squeezed his eyes shut, stretched and cracked his neck as he fought to keep his fangs from descending.
“Goddammit, Slayer. Could you try to act like a childe for one soddin’ minute? You don’t give me orders, you stupid bint. You take them! From me! I’ll be buggered if I understand what you’re findin’ so difficult about that concept.”
Before Buffy could respond, the sound of Angel’s laugh had them both whirling to find her great-grandsire walking towards them. While Buffy frowned in confusion, Spike went into game face as he realized that Angel had heard every word he’d said.
“What’s the matter, boy?” the older vampire asked with a sneer. “Not sure how to train a childe properly? Maybe you need some lessons.”
Buffy could feel the underlying tension between them, including her sire’s fury, but had no understanding of the source. Spike’s relationship with her had been nothing but respectful, even when he lost his temper at her refusals to behave like a “proper vampire” and she had no idea what sort of upbringing he had suffered at the hands of Angelus. She sensed an underlying current of fear in Spike’s demeanor – something she had never expected to see in the vampire who had been one of her toughest opponents.
“Don’t even think about it, Angelus,” he snarled, stepping between the Slayer and her sometime boyfriend.
With a start, Buffy realized that the fear was not for himself, but for her, and she stared at him in shock. Surely he didn’t think Angel was going to hurt her? He had apologized over and over for his actions the night he'd drained her and left her for dead. While the two vampires glared at each other, she went over what Angel had said when he walked up to them, and the contempt with which his voice dripped when he said it. Cold anger replaced her confusion when she understood that he was sneering at her sire for not being able to control her.
Stepping around Spike’s protective body, she walked up to the much larger vampire and asked softly, “I suppose you think you could do a better job of “training” me, Angel? Would you like to give that a try? Right now, maybe?”
The soft tone of her voice was contradicted by the look on her face. It was not a fledgling vampire staring at him, but the Slayer; her stony glare augmented by the fangs she was baring as her demon responded to her urge to do violence upon Angel’s body. She bounced on her toes, waiting impatiently to see if the souled vampire would be as eager to discipline her as he had implied. Instead of taking up her challenge, Angel adopted an air of superiority and stepped back from the clenched and deadly fists in front of him.
“This foolishness just proves that Spike is not setting a good example for you, Buffy. You should never challenge a master vampire like that. You should treat me with respect; after all, I am your great grandsire,” he finished with a righteous look on his face.
“You’re also the bloody wanker who killed her in the first place,” Spike growled, admiring his childe’s actions even as he got into position to defend her if need be.
“At least I didn’t turn her,” Angel snarled, more willing to take on his grandchilde than the lethal looking, vamped-out Slayer in front of him.
“No,” Buffy interrupted the potential battle. “You didn’t turn me. You left me to die in front of my mother with nothing more than a ‘sorry, Joyce’. Do you think she hasn’t told me what happened? How you just dumped me in a busy emergency room and left? If Spike hadn’t been there, and hadn’t been willing to do what she begged him to do, I’d be nothing but a decomposing body in a grave somewhere. Is that what you wanted, Angel? Do you think that would be better for me?”
With a long-suffering sigh, he dropped his head onto his chest. “No,” he whispered. “I don’t think it would have been better. I’m not sorry you’re here, Buffy, I just—“
“You just think you can treat me like any other fledgling vampire – and you want to take it out on Spike when you can’t,” she replied with sudden insight. “You’re not angry that he turned me, you’re angry that he made me so strong, and that I kept my soul. You’re sorry I’m still the Slayer.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” he snorted, turning away so that she couldn’t read his eyes. “I’m just trying to teach you how to be a vampire. I know you already know how to be the Slayer.”
“Well right now I don’t need to know any more about being a vampire. I need to be the Slayer until we’ve prevented the Mayor’s Ascension. Then, maybe, I’ll worry about learning to be a better vampire.”
At Spike’s look of heightened interest she added quickly, “Or maybe not.”
“Knew you didn’t mean it,” he snorted, falling into step beside her as they turned toward the Watcher’s apartment. Angel followed morosely behind them, trying to ignore the easy banter between the two younger vampires and mulling over the idea of leaving Sunnydale after the battle.
The atmosphere in the apartment quivered with tension as the two old vampires, the newly-vamped Slayer, her watcher and her best friends all went over the last minute details of their planned battle against the Major and his minions.
“All right, Xander’s in charge of weapons and mobilizing the people he thinks will be able to handle them. Willow will do a cloaking spell so that Principal Snyder doesn’t know I’m there until it’s too late. Angel will guard Willow until it is safe for her to leave and Spike will guard Giles while he sets up the explosives. I’ll get as close as I can to the podium and be ready to lead him into the school.”
“Didn’t you have to leave your old school because you burned it down?” Xander inquired innocently. “Is this going to be, like, your MO?”
“It was only the gym, not the whole school, and I’m not burning this one down, I’m blowing it up!”
“Makes all the difference,” Spike agreed with a grin before turning to look at his childe with admiration. “Burned it down, huh?” he said happily. “That’s my girl!”
“She’s NOT your ‘girl’,” Angel snarled, glaring at his grandchilde.
“Figure of speech, Granddad,” Spike grumbled. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist over it. It’s not like she’s your girl anymore, either,” he muttered just loud enough for Buffy and Angel to hear.
“Could you stop baiting Angel?” Buffy hissed at him. “We’re trying to prevent an apocalypse here!”
“Spoil sport,” he grumbled even as he subsided into silence. He caught Angel’s sneer in his direction as he obeyed the Slayer’s command to stop baiting the other vampire and was poised to lunge when he realized that Buffy had also seen it. Before Spike could move, the Slayer had grabbed Angel by the throat and was squeezing his neck with one hand while she punched him with the other.
“I. Told. You. If you wanted to try disciplining me, you should. Let’s start now, huh, Angel? Give me an order to follow and let’s see what happens. Do you want to do that, Angel? Do you? Huh? Do you think since you killed me, you should have the right to say what kind of vampire I am? Is that what you think? Do you think Spike is too nice to me? Is that the problem, Angelus?”
Each snarled word was punctuated by a fist to the vampire’s rapidly bruising face and body as the Slayer allowed the pent-up anger she’d been carrying to explode onto the one responsible for her current condition.
There was shocked silence in the room as her watcher and friends saw the familiar body wearing a demon’s face pummel the master vampire until he was lying on the carpet feebly trying to protect his face and head from the now out-of-control Slayer. At a nod from Giles, Spike stepped across Angel’s inert body and gently put his arms around Buffy, pulling her back against his chest and murmuring into her ear while Giles stood over the souled vampire protectively. The Watcher had no real interest in saving Angel’s life, but he knew they would need all the help they could get against the Mayor and he also did not want his Slayer doing anything for which she would be sorry later.
“Buffy,” he said urgently. “I understand you are angry at Angel – as well you should be – but I believe if you continue to punish him like this, you will find yourself regretting it. And, as you so correctly pointed out to Spike, we have an apocalypse to prevent; Angel’s help will be needed.”
Buffy’s vampire face gradually faded as she regained control of herself and realized what she had done. She looked over her shoulder into her sire’s eyes and said softly, “I’m okay now, Spike. You can let go.”
“Do I have to?” he whispered, nuzzling her ear and squeezing her gently before loosening his arms.
Buffy rolled her eyes at him, recognizing the attempt to make her smile for what it was, and whispered back, “You do. For now, anyway.”
“Gonna hold you to that, pet,” he responded with a grin as she stepped away from him. “We’re gonna be discussin’ this again once we’ve sent that old man to hell where he belongs.”
She rolled her eyes again and then looked down at the groaning vampire at her feet.
“You could have just told me to stop it, like you did him,” Angel growled, hissing with pain as he tried to sit up.
“I’m sorry, Angel,” she said, doing her best to sound sincere. “I guess I just kind of lost it. Spike’s trying to teach me to control my demon but sometimes I just forget how.”
Pulling himself into a chair with a groan, her former boyfriend slumped against the back of the overstuffed chair and glared morosely at his smirking grandchilde. He didn’t miss the fact that the smack Buffy administered to the back of Spike’s head was a gentle warning rather than an actual attempt to hurt her sire, although it did cause the blond vampire to wipe the smirk off his face and drop his eyes in apology. Angel’s demon snarled at the other vampire’s easy acceptance of the Slayer’s disrespectful behavior, even as the souled vampire admitted that he himself had no desire to test Buffy’s new-found strength.
Buffy didn’t miss the look that flashed across Angel’s face, but instead of confronting him about it again, she simply moved closer to her sire, effectively sending the message that while her behavior might not be that of a typical fledgling, Spike was now the most important vampire in her life.
squawks
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!
05/18/17 04:16 am
pj! I remember wishing one of your stories would be finished seriously about a decade ago. Amazing. I just tried an old password I used to use and amazingly got in too. Memories!
pj
03/20/17 01:20 am
10 yrs later, i finally rem my username and password. Pari, you rock. Hope you are well.
Rabbit_moon1
12/23/16 01:12 pm
I donate every month. Please donate to keep this site up!
AudryDaluz1
10/06/16 08:34 am
Great post.
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:45 pm
And anyone else who loves this site, it's worth mentioning there's a nifty little "Donate" option just below the shout box here! ;)
Chrissel
08/31/16 03:43 pm
Just wanted to take a moment to thank Pari and all the mods for maintaining such a great site!