Chapter 13
“We don’t want anyone to mind us
So we play the roles they assign us”
-Fugazi
“Oh, look at you all graduating girl,” Buffy squealed helping her daughter put her graduation cap on.
“Mom, it’s eighth grade, it’s no big,” Madison replied.
“I’d say it’s a big deal. Next year you’re going to be in high school. You’ll have dances and-and all kinds of high schooly things,” Buffy said.
“But, just so you know, I will eat any boy that tries to date you before you’re thirty,” Spike joked.
Madison stomped her foot, “Don’t do that!”
“Do what, pet?” Spike asked.
“Don’t-don’t joke about eating people. You’re always doing that and it’s weird. No one else’s dad jokes about eating people!” Madison exclaimed.
“Well that’s probably because you’re the only lucky girl with a vampire for a father,” Buffy answered.
“It’s not luck, it’s freaky,” Madison muttered.
“Hey!” Buffy said, “Knock it off, that’s not nice. Now what’s going on here? Where’s this coming from?”
Madison huffed and folded her arms over her chest. “It’s not coming from anywhere, okay? I’m just tired of being the only kid in school with freaks for parents.”
“Oi, your mother and I are not freaks!” Spike was almost yelling.
“W-why would you say that?” Buffy asked.
“Oh, come on, you pretend that no one has noticed that Dad never goes out during the day. You think people really buy that he has a skin allergy? Jennifer said that her mom said that the reason Dad is never around during the day is because he has another family he’s hiding from us.”
“That’s not true and you know that, Madison Joyce,” Buffy said sternly.
“Yeah, but-but everyone else’s dads show up for softball practice and stuff and-and their dads are gonna be a graduation today, and my dad has to watch it on a video camera! It’s not fair! I hate this! I hate that I can’t tell people that my parents are, like, superheroes that save the world, and I hate that I have to lie to my friends about why my dad can’t go out in the day and I hate that you adopted me and forced me into this life of lies. Because that’s what we live in, lies.” Madison turned and ran up the stairs.
Spike watched his daughter disappear up the stairs and out of sight. He was frozen to the spot.
Buffy came up next to him and slid her arms around him. “She-she didn’t mean it. She’s just upset that you can’t go to graduation.”
Spike shoulders slumped. “No, she’s right. Can’t do a lot of things that fathers should do with their daughters. Can’t take her to softball or soccer. Can’t take her to the park or on picnics. She’s got a bloody useless git for a father.”
“No! Spike,” Buffy ducked her head so that he was forced to look in her eyes. “You are an amazing father.”
“No, ‘m not. She deserves better. She deserves some one who can take her out in sunlight-“He was cut off by the slap of Buffy’s hand across his face.
“Don’t you dare say that! Don’t you dare say that in my presence.” Buffy grabbed his face between her hands and pulled him in for a bruising kiss. “You are my reason for living and for fighting. You are my everything and don’t ever forget it.”
XXX
Angelus rolled off of Drusilla and let her curl up in a ball around him, purring her contentment. He grabbed the hand that was sliding up his thigh and held it to the light. The red ring glittered and danced in front of his eyes.
“So what do you think about taking your ring out for a test drive? See what it can do?”
“Can we use it to kill more people?” she asked sleepily. “It makes such lovely designs in their skin. It calls to me.”
“What does it say when it calls to you?”
“It wants us to rule the world. Bring up the demons and do away with the humans. Not their time anymore. Demon time now. Pretty demons with their pretty horns coming to topple the humans,” Drusilla whispered. She clawed her way up his body and scratched a bloody line across Angelus throat. He moaned as she licked it clean. “We’ll be a family again.”
Angelus growled and pinned her back to the bed. “There will be no more talk of family in this bed or I will have to punish you.”
Drusilla squealed in delight as Angelus rammed himself back into her body.
“The ring…it calls to me…wants us to raise its army,” she moaned.
“Suppose we could…do an apocalypse…just for fun, like old times,” he grunted.
“Two days!” Drusilla screamed.
“As the princess wishes,” Angelus growled and bit into her neck.
XXX
Spike lay awake for a long time after Buffy had fallen asleep. He wondered if she had noticed the difference in him, and then realized that she barely registered anything outside of the fact that he was back with her. He started to slide out of the bed, but Buffy’s grip tightened on him.
“Shh, luv,” Spike whispered, brushing her hair out of her face. “’M just going to the bathroom.”
Buffy’s grip released, but the second he stood up, Buffy grabbed his pillow and clutched it to her. He sighed and closed his eyes. Tomorrow he was packing up the few salvageable items in their house and getting her out. Too many bad memories now and Spike felt her sorrow all the way through his newly acquired soul.
XXX
“Hey, I’m back. Have you been sitting here this whole time? What have you been doing” Buffy tossed her purse on the table and leaned over to ruffle Spike’s hair.
“Being bloody bored, I hate this town,” he answered.
“Oh, come on, it’s not that bad,” Buffy countered. “I mean, it’s got lots of pretty things to look at like…ooh, trees and, um, hills and woodsy stuff.”
Spike glared at her.
“Oh, fine, it is boring,” Buffy conceded.
“When you said that you wanted to escape the city life, I thought you meant a vacation. You know, me, you, cozy little room for two, but instead you decided to buy a bloody house in the middle of bleedin’ Saskatchewan.”
Buffy sighed. “Well, we’ve never lived in Canada before and I thought you wanted to be adventurey.”
“Pet, I wanted to be adverturey with you, not in a forest,” Spike muttered. “…bleedin’ twenty miles from the nearest pub.”
“I heard that,” Buffy pouted. “You’re just mad because there’s no pub for you to go to, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m mad because you bought a house in the middle of the woods and didn’t consult me.”
“I didn’t buy a house, I rented and only for a few months.”
“And that makes all the difference,” Spike rolled his eyes.
“Fine, if you wanna sit here and be all pissy, then I’m not gonna give you your surprise.”
“What surprise? There’s a surprise?”
Buffy resisted the urge to roll her eyes at him settling for a saucy glide over to where he was sitting. “Like I would drag you out to the middle of the woods with no surprise.” She sat on his lap and nibbled on his ear.
Spike groaned and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I love surprises, pet.”
Buffy sucked on his neck, “Do you? Because you’re not acting like you do? All whiny,” she paused to bite down on his neck. He moaned and thrust his hips up at her. “And complainy,” she nibbled her way across his chin. “And not once have you looked around yet. ‘Course, if you had, you would have ruined my surprise.”
“Don’t plan on looking around right now either, luv. Got other things on my mind,” he whispered huskily, gliding his hands under her shirt.
Buffy playfully batted his hands away, jumped out of his lap, and ran out of the room. Spike growled and raced after her into the living room. There, hanging from the ceiling, was a big banner that read “Happy Birthday, Spike!”
“H-how…what’s this, luv?” Spike asked, stunned.
Buffy threw her arms around his neck. “Today’s your birthday. I looked it up.”
Spike stared at the banner and the small pile of presents resting next to a large cake. He couldn’t remember ever having a birthday party.
“Thank you, luv,” he whispered.
“Surprise,” she whispered back.
XXX
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