Chapter 21: The ‘We hate Kennedy Club’

“So can we go now?” asked Kennedy the next afternoon.

Everyone except Dawn, Ariel and Oz slept in. Oz had driven them to school, in Angel’s convertible. Angel didn’t know that yet, but would find out the moment he got into his car again and found the radio stations changed.

“Driving through the Thanksgiving migration?” said Gunn, “I am not looking forward to that.”

Buffy looked anxiously at Xander and Spike. She knew it was polite to ask them to stay. But she really hated Kennedy. And Willow was coming for Thanksgiving too. Only bad things were going to happen if she let Kennedy stay.

The LA crew looked back at Buffy, half expecting her to provide a solution to their problem. If they stayed, that meant that Dru had more time to talk to Spike, it meant that Ariel and Cat would get to spend time with the crazy vampire. On the other side of the coin, there was Kennedy, Angel’s disapproving stares, and well Kennedy.

Buffy knew that Angel had been told by either Willow or Kennedy that Spike was back. At first she had been glad that when he had shown up that he didn’t make a big deal about it, but it irked her that he was staring or glaring at her and Spike all the time.

Buffy bit the bullet. “I guess you can stay here for Thanksgiving. But you are going to have to squish more, Anya and Willow are teleporting in.” Buffy glared at Kennedy as she said Willow’s name.

Say something bad about Willow, thought Buffy. I dare you
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They were packed in like sardines. Ariel had moved into Cat’s room, Fred with Dawn, Angel in the training room with Dru, Wes in Ariel’s room, Gunn in the office, Kennedy on the couch, cause Buffy didn’t like Kennedy, leaving the attic free for Willow and the guest room for Anya.

“Why do I have to sleep on the couch?” whined Kennedy. “Willow and Anya aren’t even gonna be using their rooms, they’ll be in the basement shacking up with their fuck buddies.”

“I’d put you in a room with someone else Kennedy,” said Buffy sickly sweet, “But then I’d probably find your dead body in the morning.”
__________________________________________
When Willow arrived Oz was there to catch her and carry her up to her room. Anya took one look at Xander and started yelling.

“Was that all I merited? Huh? You couldn’t be a little more excited about the fact that the woman you almost married was not dead? Did you even cry? Am I not worth mourning? I died Xander, I think that deserves something more than: Wow, that’s great, and then the hanging up of the phone.”

“I...I was in shock,” replied the stunned wannabe watcher.

“For two months? When does the shock wear off enough for you to talk to me?”

“Uh...”

“Grannie Anya!”

Xander made a small prayer to the powers that be for two year olds.

“Kitty Cat!” said Anya, immediately changing her tone of voice and demeanour, because Cat walked into the room. “Did you miss me?”

Cat nodded emphatically.

“I missed you too sweetie. But guess what? The next time I come back, I’ll be staying!”

“Huh?” said Xander.

“Willow and I are transferring here to complete our higher education,” said Anya matter of factly.

“Why?”

“To get away from Kennedy.” Kennedy walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. “And look, Kennedy’s here. Well isn’t that just wonderful. Did you note the sarcasm? Willow tells me I’m getting very good at it.”
__________________________________________
“I invited Gable for dinner,” said Xander coming into the kitchen.

“Ya, kinda expected that,” said Buffy as she stuffed the turkey. “I just hope we can find enough chairs to seat everyone around the table.”

There was something inherently gross about stuffing the inside of a dead bird with bread. The fact that this particular cook regularly had her hands covered in dead demon slime, made no difference to that statement.

“We might have to have a kiddies table,” said Dawn as she peeled potatoes. “Of course now that I’ve said that, I’m gonna be at the kiddies table...aren’t I?”

“Most likely. So will Ariel, Cat and Kennedy. Don’t envy you there,” snickered Buffy.

“We could have a demons table and a humans table,” offered Xander.

Buffy looked harshly at her friend.

“Kidding?” he backtracked.

“Would I be with the demons or the humans?” asked Dawn, “As a point of reference...”

“Would you want to be at the same table as Kennedy?” asked Buffy. “As a point of reference...”

“Are we considering Kennedy a human or a demon?” asked Xander.

“I think she’s in a category all by herself,” said Anya coming into the kitchen. “I’d much rather be seated at an all demons table,” continued the vengeance demon, “They are much more interesting people. Don’t you agree Buffy?”

“I’m so staying out of that argument right now,” said Buffy.

“But Buffy you’d be at the demon table,” said Dawn.

“Ya, and so would you...and Anya, and Spike, and Angel, and Willow, and Oz, and Ariel, and Cat, and Drusilla...”

“Please tell me we aren’t having the crazy vampire at the table,” said Xander.

“You try telling the two year old that her Grannie Dru can’t come to dinner,” explained Buffy. “Relax Xander, she’ll be tied up.”

“A tied up vamp at the table for thanksgiving...So strange, yet so familiar,” supplied Xander.

“At least this time you don’t have the funny syphilis,” said Anya happily.

“Thank you for pointing that out Ahn.”
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Sixteen people around the dinning room table was something that Buffy simply couldn’t accommodate, so a smaller table was set up in the living room, at the end of the dinning room table.

Truth be told Buffy just wanted to get the holiday over and done with. She wanted the LA crew to be gone. Especially Kennedy, who was currently in the back yard, practicing her slayer moves. She had been the only one who hadn’t offered to help with dinner and had been making a point of saying that she wanted to be anywhere but there.

Spike situated Dru, tied to a chair with one arm free at the end of the mammoth table.

“Are we going to have tea and takes?” asked Dru innocently.

“Maybe after dinner Dru,” said Spike.

“Has Mrs Darlington made crumpets?”

In the kitchen, listening to the exchange, Buffy held her breath.

“Dru, I don’t know what you are bloody talking about.”

“You do! Mrs Darlington knows too. Scared little Slayer, scared you’ll leave her.”

“Prattling on about Buffy as Mrs Darlington isn’t gonna get you cut loose Dru.”

“Daddy’s taking me, Miss Edith and I, belong to Daddy. You don’t belong to me anymore. Mrs Darlington owns your heart.”

Spike sighed and crouched down beside his sire.

“Why don’t you just tell me what you are no doubt are going to be blathering on about the whole evening. Why are you calling the Slayer Mrs Darlington?”

Dru giggled. “My boy’s not ready.”

“Not ready for what, Dru?”

“Nasty Pixies, Little Dru needs a Daddy and a Mummy. Pretty families in a row.”

“Gannie Dusilly!” cried a distraught Cat from upstairs.

Dru tried desperately to get out of her bindings, but merely upset her seat and ended up lying on her side. Unfortunately for her, Spike had run off to fetch his daughter.

Buffy had heard the thump, and knowing that Spike went after Cat, Buffy walk into the dining room to upright Dru.

“My boy’s not ready,” said Dru forlornly.

“You tried Dru,” said Buffy hoisting the vampire up from the floor.

“Bloody buggering poofter,” muttered Spike as he came into the room with his crying toddler cradled in his arms.

“What’s wrong?” asked Buffy.

“Stupid bloody poofter telling Kitty Cat that her Grannie Dru was a bad bad vampire who killed little girls like her,” said Spike.

“It was true,” said Drusilla sadly. “But Daddy won’t allow it now. Nasty Daddy.”

“Dry your tears, Pumpkin,” cooed Buffy, and wiping the tears from the toddler’s face. “Angel won’t let Dru hurt anyone else, ok?”

Cat nodded.

“I think Anya was waiting to get you all dressed up pretty for dinner...Where is Anya?” asked Buffy.

“Oh she’s fulfilling her vengeance duty on Xander,” came Willow’s voice from the kitchen.
__________________________________________
The look on Gable’s face when he was introduced to two more vampires with whom he was about to share dinner was priceless.

“So do they have souls too?” the vampire hunter asked.

“Angel does, but Dru, not so much with the soul having,” answered Buffy, passing the stuffing.

“So what’s stopping her from eating us all?”

“She’s tied to the chair, mate,” offered Spike.

It did little to allay Gable’s fears. There was a look of panic on the man’s face as he watched Dru feed Cat some peas. Dru turned to face the vampire hunter and gave him a sickly sweet smile.

“Don’t worry dear hunter,” said Dru. “I’m not destined to eat you, probably get stuck in my teeth.”

Spike and Angel chuckled.

“God, I wish I was in the Hamptons with my parents,” muttered Kennedy.

“Wish granted,” said Anya, between bites of mashed potatoes.

There was a flash of light and suddenly Kennedy’s chair was empty.

“Holy Shit!” screamed Gable.

“Anya...” sighed Buffy. “You’ve scared Gable.”

“Sorry, I just wanted her gone so much,” shrugged Anya.

Ariel started clapping. Oz joined her. Followed by Cat, cause she didn’t understand.

“You are going to bring her back, correct?” asked Wesley.

“Do I have to?” asked Anya.

“She is a member of our team,” continued the ex watcher.

Anya rolled her eyes. “Ok, but only after dinner. She was giving me a sour stomach.”
__________________________________________
Anya teleported to where she had sent Kennedy. Standing in an immense hallway, that echoed, Anya looked around for Kennedy.

“About time,” muttered the ex Slayer. “My parents aren’t here, they went to the Riviera for the Holiday.”

“I only came back because the scruffy watcher guy...”

“Wesley.”

“Yes, Wesley, he wants you back.”

“So teleport me back.”

“It doesn’t work that way. You have to make a wish.”

“Well I certainly don’t wish to go back to that house, ever.”

“You can find your own way back to LA then,” said Anya turning. “I certainly don’t relish giving you what you want. I’m just glad that it works up your vengeance credits.”

“Excuse me?”

“You feel wronged because your slayer powers were taken from you, that equals one vengeance wish. You feel wronged because Willow chose Buffy’s family over you, that equals another vengeance wish. Sending back will use up you vengeance credits.”

“You mean I actually had a vengeance demon coming to me to grant me wishes?”

“Perhaps, although, most vengeance demons have a well developed sense of self preservation, so maybe they were just going to ignore your desire for vengeance...”

“So I could wish anything? And you’d have to grant it? Fine, I wish I was the Slayer, Chosen one, the one girl in all the world...”

Anya started to laugh.

“What’s so funny?”

“You think I have that kind of power?”

“You grant wishes!”

“I’m not a genie! Vengeance demon. I grant wishes that make people feel bad. I’m evil.”

“You sent me here!”

“Yes, but you didn’t see the look on Willow’s face when you left. It caused her pain, granted she’s getting over it.”

“Won’t making me the Slayer cause Buffy pain?”

“God no! Do you think she wants to live for like ever? She’d be ecstatic that she wasn’t the slayer anymore.”

“Oh, so how will me being back in Cleveland bring pain to any one?”

“Kennedy, Kennedy, Kennedy. Do you not realise that they all despise you?”
__________________________________________
Kennedy arrived back in the Pinehill street house seconds before Anya, only to have a dish towel thrust into her hand.

“We’ve decided that you need to help do the dishes,” said Wesley.

“Why?” protested Kennedy. “I didn’t get to eat dinner.”

“No, but you did the most moronic thing I have ever seen you do. You made a wish in front of a person you knew was a vengeance demon.”

Kennedy rolled her eyes.
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“I can’t believe you did that!“ shouted Xander. He was pacing her basement bedroom, waving his hands at his ex fiancée.

“I can’t believe you are yelling at me about it,“ said Anya.

“You granted a vengeance wish at the dinner table.”

“I’m a vengeance demon Xander Harris.”

“That’s no excuse to popping people away.”

“Why not, I have these powers, shouldn’t I use them?”

“No.”

“Oh, because you are all watcher boy now, you have the right to tell me what to do with my time? The righteous Xander Harris, telling everyone how to live their lives?”

“That’s not how it is and you know it!”

“You know what Xander, I’m glad that I don’t have to listen to your righteous humans are better talk anymore. I’m not engaged to you anymore. I’m my own demon now.”

“Demon...Anya”

“Yes, I’m demon. I’ve been a demon for a millennia. I don’t have to pretend that I’m human anymore. It’s quite liberating. And I don’t have to listen to you patronise me for not getting the whole human thing.”

“Anya...”

“Nope, not going to listen to you., she said sticking her fingers in her ears.

Anya thundered up the basement stairs.
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“Anya told me something fun, while we were at my parents place,” Kennedy said to Willow after she had finished drying the dishes.

“Is that right?” asked Willow.

“She said it caused you pain to see me teleported away,” whispered Kennedy, reaching out to touch Willow’s arm.

Willow flinched as Kennedy made contact with her skin.

“What are you talking about?”

“You know...”

“I know that I want you to leave me alone.”

“Oh you don’t want me to leave you alone. You didn’t want us to break up.”

“You were the one that did the breaking Kennedy.”

“Ya, I did. I had to make a stand. I wasn’t being appreciated enough.”

“Not everything is about you Kennedy.”

“And the fact that I was always the last person you thought about? It was always save Buffy, remember Tara, nothing for Kennedy.”

“That’s enough Kennedy!” shouted Willow.

“I don’t think it is.”

“I do,” said Oz, punching Kennedy in the jaw.

Oz shook his hand. “Ow,”

“I think it’s time you left, Kennedy,” said Buffy, with her arms crossed, coming from the kitchen, Angel right behind her.

“You can wait in the car,” said Angel.

Kennedy grabbed her bag from behind the couch and trudged outside.

“The problem with this house, is that you can’t have an argument without everyone knowing about it,” said Anya, “Buffy, didn’t you take that into consideration when you signed the lease?”

“Well the thing was Anya, I didn’t know I’d have this many people living with me.“
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tbc...
 

Chapter 22: Academia

Buffy waved happily as a convertible, loaded up with Angel, Wesley, Gunn, Fred, Kennedy and Dru pulled away from her house.

Wesley had spent the last hour apologizing for Kennedy. Which Buffy decided that was time that could have been better spent driving Miss Kennedy Hornhouser away from Cleveland.

Buffy turned from the front door and headed upstairs to collect linen to be washed and prepared for the next time she had an army descend upon her house. It was only a month away. Christmas.

Except the next time Anya and Willow came to visit, they were coming to stay. All the scoobies, except Giles were going to be housed at her house.

Some how she expected an intervention on that alone.
__________________________________________
“Anya Christina Emanuella Jenkins?” called the professor from the front of the lecture hall. “Please see me after class.”

Anya nodded and returned to her lap top and her notes. Whatever could he want? Anya asked herself. Her history paper had been returned last class, the final exam was next week. She was at a loss. Anya shrugged her shoulders and waited for the end of the class.

Anya had found that these university courses of hers had been a true test of her ability to contain her need to do vengeance. There was always some poor girl in one of her classes that just had been dumped or cheated on.

At the end of the class, Anya headed down to meet the professor.

“Ah, Miss Jenkins.”

“Mr. Slattery.”

“I understand that you’ll be transferring to Ohio state next semester. Can I ask why?”

“My friend was recently separated from her partner. Let’s just say that this girl, is a vile, disrespectful brat and is making my friend feel every uncomfortable. We have other friends who live in Ohio and it will take my friend far far away from the nasty bitch,” explained Anya.

The professor had a dumbfounded look on his face.

“You could have just said, personal reasons,” he said finally.

“Right, personal reasons,” agreed Anya.

“I only asked is because you bring a refreshing view to the material. Your paper on the New Deal, pure genius, something that I would expect from a graduate student.”

“Why thank you Mr Slattery. That’s very nice of you to say. Could you write that down? So I can show my ex fiancé?”

“Huh?”
__________________________________________
Anya skipped with delight towards her home, or the dorm room that had served as her home since she returned from the dead.

She had never been praised for her academic achievements before and was feeling very bouncy.

Her bouncing stopped, however, when she saw her roommate from 2 doors down in tears before her ex boyfriend. The boyfriend looked directly at Anya or rather Anya’s breasts, before leering.

So she gave him the evil eye. The boyfriend walked off, leaving his distraught ex standing hunched over sobbing in the middle of the hallway.

“What did he do now?” Anya asked before she could stop herself.

“He...*hic*killed my fish.”

“What?”

“My goldfish, that were living at his house, he killed them, on purpose.”

“That’s terrible!” said a shocked demon.

“He said his new girlfriend hated them. I didn’t even know he had a new girl friend.”

“He’s a stupid man, deserves to have bad bad things happen to him.”

The girl nodded.

“Don’t you wish something terrible would happen to his pets?” asked Anya.

“Yes!” said the girl angry. “I wish...”

“Anya!” yelled Willow. “What are you doing?”

“Nothing...” said Anya innocently.
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Buffy walked into her kitchen and stared at her fridge door. Some enterprising person had put up Buffy from the future’s letter about the kids and a piece of scrap paper on which was written:

Blood of light, Blood of dark,
Blood of Blood,
Blood spilt to cover up the evils of blood’s evil,
Undercover of darkness blood is hidden,
Three times blood is split, three times evil rises,
Blood of light, Blood of dark,
Cycle begins anew.

The prophecy that Xander had found about her and her descendants. Buffy only wished she knew what it meant.
__________________________________________
The shipments of all the various bits of Willow and Anya’s lives started showing up at the Pinehill street house mid December.

Willow’s room was to be the attic, and Buffy had no problem enlisting Oz, Xander and Spike to carrying Willow’s stuff up to her new room.

Anya was to be housed in what was being referred to as the guest room but Buffy really wanted it to be a TV room. It wasn’t looking like it was going to be a TV room for a long time. Besides no one wanted to have bedroom on a floor where there was no bathroom.

Buffy cringed to think that she was going to have to squish even more people into her house.

Ok, so, Andrew in the office, Giles on the couch. Catherine and Ariel in Cat’s room, Dad and Valery can have Ariel’s room.

Buffy pushed the vacuum cleaner around her living room. She laughed as the scene that she was making made it’s presence on her brain. The chosen one, she who hangs out in cemeteries, was a stay at home mom at 22. Of course she still spent three hours in cemeteries every night.

It certainly wasn’t how she had expected her life to be, not at 22 anyway.

And what was Spike doing right now? Well seeing as it was 2 pm? He probably was just getting out of bed.

Buffy shut off the vacuum and sat heavily on the couch.

What am I doing?

“Mummy?” came Cat’s voice from the hallway.

Buffy exhaled and turned to look at her daughter and smiled.

“Hey kitty Cat, what’s up?”

“Sad Mummy?”

“Little bit.”

“Why?”

Buffy reached out and Cat walked towards her. Buffy gathered Cat up in her arms.

“Mummy’s unhappy staying at home all the time.”

“Go out!” she said happily.

“Ya I wish it could be as easy as that Kitty Cat.”

“Love you Mummy,”

“Love you too baby.”

While Cat was napping Buffy stole into the office and to the computer that Oz had set up for the household.

With little difficulty Buffy found herself perusing the sites for the local colleges and universities.
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On December 20th Buffy rolled over in bed and held Spike tighter than usual. She didn’t want this day to start.

Today her father was coming.

Today the step thing was coming.

Spike could tell she was nervous. She had had the threat of her father and Valery taking Dawn away for months now. Now they were on their way and the day that Buffy and Dawn had dreaded was upon them.

“Is it wrong to just wish that Christmas was over and that I didn’t have to see my Dad and the step thing again?” Buffy asked clinging tight to him.

“No, just don’t be wishin’ that in front of demon girl when she gets here.”

Buffy rolled her eyes. “And pull a Kennedy? Never!”

Oz had been delegated to retrieve Giles and Andrew from the airport early that morning. In fact Buffy thought she had already heard them arrive. Andrew was probably snoring away in the office as she lay there.

She had to go to the airport to retrieve her dad and Valery at 2:24pm.

Buffy snuggled closer to Spike and planted little kisses along his collar bone.

“Keep me in bed as long as possible?” she whined.

Spike smiled.

Spike’s hand travelled down Buffy’s arm and along her naked hip.

“I think that can be arranged pet,” he said in a deep tone.

Buffy smiled and rolled on to her back, giving him more access.

“Mmm, show me,” she whispered.

Spike whipped off the covers, revealing her naked form. It seemed regardless of what she decided to wear to bed, she always ended up naked in the morning.

Not that he minded at all.

Spike leaned over and began planting whisper kisses along her chin, neck, collarbone, down her shoulders and over her pert breasts. Spike’s tongue crept out of this cool mouth and began to circle her nipple on her right breast. At the same time his right hand crept further down her body, tracing a path down her chest, between her breasts, circling her navel and still lower.

Buffy bent her head to graze her teeth against Spike’s neck, the stuck out her tongue to lick a slick trail up his neck to just behind his ear.

Spike turned his head to look at her and smiled. “You know what that will do to me.”

“You bet I do,” said Buffy with a smile. “I was hoping you’d take the hint.”

Buffy clasped his head in her hands and titled his neck a little giving her better access to his neck

Deliberately she bit down on his neck with blunt human teeth.

“Mine,” she whispered.

Spike stiffened beside her.

“Mine,” she said again more forcefully.

He disengaged from her hands and rolled to the side of the bed.

“I thought you said you weren’t going to ask me to do that, that you would let me decide when and where.”

Buffy exhaled a loud sigh. “I didn’t ask you to do anything Spike. I didn’t ask you to claim me Spike. I wanted to claim you. Very different things.”

“No it’s not Buffy.”

“I don’t understand Spike! Why are you not happy about this? I want to be yours. And for all intents and purposes, I just made you mine. True there’s supposed to be a little bit of an acceptance thing, and ...”

“Just leave it alone pet.”

“No. I won’t leave it alone Spike. I know Dru told you it was ok to claim me. She told me herself.”

“What did you do?”

“Trying to make things easier for us Spike.”

Spike sat up and looked hard at the woman who just tried to make him her mate.

“It’s not supposed to be easy for us Buffy!”

“And what the hell is that supposed to mean?” yelled Buffy bitterly sitting up to face him.

Spike jumped out of the bed and threw on his clothes.

“Where are you going?” she asked.

“Away.”

Buffy gulped, clutching the sheets to her naked body.

“Will you be back?” she said in a very small voice.

“Don’t know.”

“No.” Buffy leapt out of the bed and blocked his path to the door.

Spike threw his duster over his shoulders and stepped towards the naked Slayer blocking his path.

“Out of the way Slayer.”

“Not until you promise me that you are coming back.”

Spike stared at her for a moment.

“Promise me!” she cried.

Spike watched a lone tear trickle down her left cheek. Before he knew what he was doing, Spike reached out and wiped the tear away. Stepping towards her, Spike gathered her into his arms.

“Don’t leave me,” she sobbed into his tee shirt clad chest. “I need you.”

Spike planted a kiss on the slayer’s blond tresses.

“I love you,” she whimpered.

“I know pet,” he mumbled.

He took a step back from her and raised her chin with his thumb and forefinger. “I love you too, but I can’t stay here right now.”

A loud sob echoed through the room as the door closed behind him.
__________________________________________
tbc...
 

__________________________________________
Chapter 23: Being Bad

Spike walked down the stairs and out the door without a look to any of the people loitering in Buffy’s house.

He didn’t stop when Ariel called out “Da!” to him.

Holding his coat up over his head, Spike ran to the nearest sewer entrance and hopped down.

Down in the sewer, Spike started to let out his frustration on the sewer wall. Each blow to the wall brought forth it’s own string of curses and expletives.

The problem was he didn’t know why he was so angry anymore. Shouldn’t I feel happy that she wants to be my mate? he thought.

Still there was that niggling feeling in the back of his head. Only bad things could happen if he took a mate, like last time.

But Buffy said that Dru had told her it was ok.

Spike shook his head to clear it.

Could he trust Dru? Should Buffy trust Dru?

Spike let his hand trail up wards to the imprint of Buffy’s bite mark. She hadn’t broken the skin, it wasn’t a real claim, but her intent...

He knew that she wanted commitment, wasn‘t living in her house and sleeping in her bed day after day enough?

Spike gave one last kick to the cement and took off down the tunnel.
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“What did you do!?“ screamed Ariel flinging open her parent’s bedroom door. “He left! You made him leave!“

Buffy looked up from her place on the bed, her face red and splotchy. Sometime between Spike leaving and Ariel opening the door she had managed to put on a bathrobe and fling herself onto the bed.

Buffy took a look at her daughter and started to cry again.

“If you make him leave us I’ll hate you forever!” screamed Ariel, slamming the door again.

Dawn peered out of her bedroom to see and hear Ariel scream and slam Buffy’s door. The words Ariel spoke instantly reminded her of something that she had said to Buffy during their parent’s divorce.

Dawn crept into Buffy’s room and lay down beside her.

“He *sob* left, Dawn,” cried Buffy. “It’s all my fault.”

Dawn hugged her sister.

“I just wanted *sob* him to be *hic* mine.”

“He is yours Buffy,” soothed Dawn.

“No, he won’t let me,” Buffy wailed.

“He’ll be back Buffy. He can never stay away from you for long.”

“He’ll be back, Dawn. But he won’t be mine.”
__________________________________________
Dawn managed to get Buffy into the shower and headed for Ariel’s room. Ariel was supposed to have cleaned up her room so that Hank and Valery could stay in it. When Dawn entered the tween’s room, to find that Ariel had thrown a classic Dawn temper tantrum. There were clothes strewn all over the room, books and papers decorated the bed and desk. Ariel was lying on her bed stomach down.

“Go away,” mumbled Ariel.

“Looks like you inherited the Dawn temper tantrum,” said Dawn crossing her arms. “Your parents named you right.”

“Whatever, go away.”

“Nuh uh, I need to tell you something first. And you are going to listen to your crusty old Aunt Dawn.”

There was no response from the prone figure on the bed.

“What you said to Buffy, I said that to her when our parents got divorced. I thought that her being the Slayer and staying out all night was making our parents fight.”

“Are you saying that my parents are going to get a divorce when they aren’t even married yet? Thanks Aunt Dawn.”

“No! Grr, I’m not saying that at all. What you said to Buffy was mean. That’s what I’m trying to say!” Dawn was getting angry now.

“So? She made him leave! He’s my Da!”

“And he’ll be back Ariel!”

“How do you know that?”

“Cause he’s Spike, Ariel, he always comes back.”

“He didn’t even look at me when I called him.”

“They had a fight, you’ve lived with them for twelve years and you don’t know how they fight?”

“It’s never been that bad before.”

“I’ve seen worse. Don’t worry about it.”

“Do you know what they were fighting about? It was something she did wasn’t it?”

“I don’t really know Ariel.”
__________________________________________
Wet hair and clad in denim shorts and a tank top, Buffy sniffled a few times before putting on her own personal resolve face. Her dad was arriving in a few hours and she had to clean.

General Buffy arrived at the bottom of the stairs. Dawn was drafted for vacuuming. Oz for Cat duty. Ariel was still not talking to her, but Buffy barked through the door for her to clean up her room. Andrew made the mistake of showing his face and was delegated to dish duty. Xander was made to dust and Buffy cleaned the bathroom.

From her location in the Bathroom Buffy couldn’t help but hear every single crash and bang from Ariel’s room.

“Maybe we could put Cat in with me and put Dad and Valery in Cat’s room?” muttered Buffy to Giles, who had just come down from Willow’s room, having had a morning nap.

“What happened?” asked the Watcher.

Buffy exhaled. “Spike and I had a fight. He left. She blames me.”

“She doesn’t seem to know Spike very well then does she?” said Giles wiping his glasses. “Spike always comes back.”

“He told me he’d come back Giles, I just don’t think we’ll be the same when he does,” she said sadly.
__________________________________________
Buffy was helping Willow up to her room to lie down, after the witch’s spectacular teleportation into the house, ending up upside down over the couch, when she heard the back door open and shut.

Her heart started to flutter thinking it was Spike, back just like he said he would be. She continued up the stairs with Willow, and set her friend down to rest, promising to send Oz up, once he was finished with Cat and the toddler’s garden that she was constructing in the back yard, in the snow.

Buffy raced down the stairs and nearly ran right into Spike who was coming up.

“Hey,” she started, putting her hands in her pockets and looking down at the floor.

“Hey,” he responded.

There was a pause.

“You came back,” she said finally.

“Told you I would.”

“So did Dawn.... and Giles.”

“Guess the whole lot of ‘em know I’ll never be able to leave you alone then.”

“I like it that way,” she said softly.

They stood silently for a few seconds.

“I’m sorry Spike,” whispered Buffy.

Spike stepped forward and wrapped her up in his arms. “There’s nothing to be sorry about Buffy. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Didn’t I?” she sniffed. “I told you I wouldn’t push. I pushed. I’m a pusher.”

Spike bit back a laugh and scooped her up into his arms, carrying her up the stairs and into their room.

He set her down on the bed and turned to close the door. Standing in the hallway was Ariel looking quite angry at the pair in the room.

Spike locked eyes with her for a moment before the tween turned with a huff and took off down the stairs.

Spike closed the door.

“She was really angry. Guess she still is,” said Buffy.

“Angry about what?”

“That you’d leave us, her really. You didn’t talk to her when you left.”

“Oh.”

“Ya.”

The room filled with silence.

“I don’t want to be another Drusilla for you,” she said bringing her fears to the forefront. “I don’t want to be the girl who brings you out of what you think is a bad phase of your life. I don‘t want to be someone you have to leave a hundred years down the road because you fall for someone else. You once told me that I was the one, for you. Isn’t it fair that you should be the one to me?”

Buffy scooted off the bed and walked towards the statuesque vampire. “I don’t want to be your second ’insert adjective here’ princess, Spike. What I want what you didn’t have with her.”

“What do you want pet?” he finally asked.

“I want you, as my lover, my partner, my friend, my mate, the father of my children, the one I turn to when life gets sucky. What I want is to spend the rest of my days on this earth with the vampire who knows me inside and out, who gets me hot and who believes in me like I believe in him.”

Spike stared in silence processing her words.

“Seventy-six trombones led the big parade,” she started to sing. “With a hundred and ten cornets close at hand.”

He laughed. “It’s about bloody time.”

“That I sussed out what I wanted? Ya, I think so too.” She smiled.

“It’s good to hear pet.”

“Then why aren’t you kissing me?”

Spike smiled and leaned down to capture his lips with his own. Buffy let her fingers walk up his arms and pushed his duster off of his shoulders, letting the leather slide to the floor. She slid her hands up under his black shirt feeling ever indentation of his abs, then raking her finger nails down the unblemished skin.

Spike hissed as she scratched hard and she giggled into his mouth. Grabbing his shirt and pulling him towards the bed, Spike noticed an evil smile on the face of his lover. She crawled onto the bed, still pulling him closer.

“I want you, all of you,” she murmured. “And I want you inside of me.”

Spike moaned happily, following her onto the bed and covering her with his body. Buffy pressed her hands to his ass, and ground her pelvis into his.

Buffy pushed Spike off of her and began to undress him, first pulling off his pants, then his tee shirt. Starting at his neck, Buffy licked a slick, slow trail with her tongue down his smooth chest, past his abs, stopping at his navel and heading on to lick down his semi erect shaft, causing the appendage to twitch.

“Slayer...” Spike moaned.

“Not the Slayer, Spike,” she said taking time between laps of her tongue to his cock.

“Love...”

“Better.” Buffy ran her tongue up Spike’s now hard cock slowly, then, reaching the top, enveloped the tip with her hot mouth.

Spike groaned in delight, burying his hands in her hair and holding her head fast.

“So hot, love, yes, love your hot little mouth,” he grunted.

Buffy pulled away, and smiled up at her lover.

Spike whimpered at the loss.

“You didn’t think I was gonna let you cum this soon did you?” she said with an evil glint in her eye.

“Evil, pet,” he said reaching out to bring her closer.

“What can I say, baby, I’ve always been bad,” she giggled.

“Show me,” he said.

Buffy straddled his thighs, avoiding his cock which was at attention, begging for contact. Buffy let her hands cup her breasts and then trail down her front and into her jeans.

Spike watched mouth open, as Buffy started to get herself off with her tiny hand, deep in her jeans where he couldn’t see.

Her moans started to get louder and louder as he watched. Finally he couldn’t take not being an active participant and he grabbed her upper arms and flipped her onto the bed, tearing her jean shorts off her frame. Spike gazed at her uncovered wet and ready centre. He pushed her nimble fingers away and dove in tongue first.

Buffy smiled as Spike licked and nibbled like he was a hungry animal between her legs. She wrapped her legs around his head as she got closer and closer to orgasm. Buffy fisted her hands into the comforter on the bed, and let out a primal scream as she came hard against his mouth.

Panting and spent, Buffy had no opportunity to recover before she felt Spike mounting her.

“Want in, Buffy,” said Spike, positioned at her entrance.

“Come in, William.”

Buffy gasped as his girth was slammed into her.

Spike held her hips and started thrusting with a slow rhythm into her core.

“Not William,” he grunted.

“Yes, and Spike, both.”

Spike slammed harder into her, causing the head board of the bed to bang loudly into the wall.

“Who’s fucking you Buffy?” he grunted.

“You, love you,” she gasped. “Oh Spike, my Spike.”

“My Buffy.”

“Yes, god, harder Spike,” she begged.

Buffy forced herself up off the bed and captured his lips with hers. Playfully biting his lip, she moved down to his neck and started sucking on the marks she had made earlier that morning. Holding herself up by wrapping her arms about his neck, to steady herself against his powerful thrusts, she began to nibble the marks.

Without warning she felt Spike slip into his demonic face and slide his fangs into her neck. Buffy smiled and sighed with relief as she heard the words she had longed to hear for months.

“Mine,” he barked.

“Yours,” she answered.

The moment his fangs were out of her neck Buffy bit him back, this time hard enough to draw blood.

“Mine,” she said forcefully.

“Yours,” he answered.

Pulling back from each other’s neck, they looked into their mate’s eyes.

“Forever,” they murmured simultaneously.
__________________________________________
tbc...
 

__________________________________________
Chapter 24: Moody Teens

Buffy trotted down stairs and into the kitchen, hungry, due to her earlier exploits.

You are supposed to eat something after you’ve given blood right?

As she closed the fridge door she was confronted by the dour expression on her sister’s face.

Buffy smiled. “Dawn! What can I do for you?”

“How about not screaming bloody murder when you are getting boned by Spike?”

Buffy’s hand flew to her mouth.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry!”

“Sure you are. I had to send the kids outside, Willow’s trying to sleep. Giles left to visit Gable. I had to listen to Andrew go on and on about the beauty of love.”

“And Oz and Xander?”

“Who called?” asked the one eyed watcher, coming up from the basement.

“That’s one basement dweller accounted for,” muttered Dawn.

In the silence that followed, while Buffy gulped down her juice, the trio were suddenly aware of a new set of moans and banging from above.

“You aren’t....” Dawn trailed off looking at Buffy.

“Not the Buffster this time Dawnie,” supplied Xander.

They all turned to look at Spike who was coming down the stairs and into the kitchen. He smiled at Buffy and kissed her head as he passed the trio on his way to the fridge.

“But if you are both here....” began Dawn again.

“Sounds like wolf boy and the witch have finally resolved their differences,” said Spike helping himself to left over egg rolls.

The trio standing in the doorway to the kitchen looked up at the ceiling.
__________________________________________
They were all in the living room, well the adults who were still in the house anyway, when Willow came down stairs, Oz following close behind, holding her hand.

Buffy raised an eyebrow, unknowingly mimicking Spike’s expression.

“Oh goddess, they know!” whispered Willow.

“Duh!” said Dawn.

“Willow, I need you to do a little spell for me,” said Buffy. “Soundproofing.”

Willow blushed. “Hey!” she said suddenly. “Not entirely the only guilty ones here! Guilty ones!” Willow pointed at Spike and Buffy.

“I think it is entirely unfair that Buffy and Spike and now Willow and Oz are getting orgasms, and not me. And don’t you dare think that is a come on Xander Harris!” said Anya, her arms crossed. “I have had no luck finding a fuck buddy here in Cleveland.”

“Dawn the kids are still outside right?” asked Buffy worried that impressionable young ears had heard the word Fuck buddy.

“In the back yard, away from Anya’s foul mouth,” agreed Dawn.

“Hey!”

“I tell it like I see it,” explained Dawn. “Buffy don’t you have to go pick up Dad and the step thing?”

Buffy snapped her head to look at the clock on the mantel piece. “Oh god, I do. I have to get dressed!”

Buffy ran up stairs.
__________________________________________
Buffy arrived at the airport with time to spare, She had changed her tee and jean cut offs for a smart pair of pants and a long sleeved blouse. She hadn’t really talked much to her Dad or Valery for a month or more, certainly not since Ariel and Cat showed up.

She predicted badness once they got back to the house.

A week of badness. Just until they left.

“Buffy!” gushed Valery, enveloping her step daughter into a hug.

Buffy stood stiff as a board waiting for the unasked for hug to subside.

“Valery. How was your flight?”

“Lovely.”

Is it just me or is the step thing overly cheerful? Buffy asked herself.

Her dad reached over and patted her back.

“Buffy. Where’s Dawn?” her Dad said looking around for the youngest Summers.

“She’s at home.”

“She didn’t come to greet us?”

“No. Let’s get your bags.”

The truth was that Dawn had refused on the principal that Valery wanted her to come back with them to LA. Dawn was bitter. Bitter Dawn just made the impending week of doom even more fun to look forward to.
__________________________________________
Mr Summers’ white sedan pulled into the drive way of the Pinehill street house and Buffy leapt out of the back seat wanting to be the first into the house. Her dad had insisted that he drive, despite his unfamiliarity with the city.

Buffy grabbed her dad’s bags and headed in through the front door.

“Oh you are back,” said Dawn sardonically. “What are we having for dinner?”

“It’s Oz’s turn to cook, ask him.”

“He’s all mushy with Willow, you think I want to get in the middle of wolfy love? Think again.”

“Is Giles back?” Buffy asked, as she moved out of the doorway to let in her father.

“Ya, they are in the office.”

“They?”

“He brought Gable back with him, and Anya is being all flirty.”

“With Gable?”

“No, Giles.”

“Dawn!” said her father happily.

“Dad, Valery.” Dawn nodded in their direction.

“Dawn can you assemble the troops? So we can have introduction time?”

Dawn shrugged and headed up the stairs.

Turning to her father and Valery Buffy sighed.

“Um, sorry about her? Anyway we are putting you in a bedroom up stairs...”

Down the stairs came a line of people. Dawn, Giles, Gable, Anya, Willow, Oz, Spike, Ariel, Cat, all headed past the three in the hallway and into the living room. It was all very Brady bunch.

“Xander! Andrew! get your butts up here!” shouted Dawn into the kitchen as she passed.

“There are more of them?” asked Valery in awe.

Andrew and Xander scrambled up from the basement.

“Sorry we were playing play station,” mumbled Andrew.

Looking into the living room Buffy noted two things, first that she had way too many people in her house, second, that she needed another couch.

“K, introductions,” said Buffy moving past the French doors to the living room and making room for Valery and her dad to follow. “Starting on the couch...Anya, Vengeance Demon, don’t say ‘I wish’ while you are in the house, k?”

“I’m free lance, so I don’t have to grant your vengeance wish, but I could!” said Anya happily.

“She’s in the room off the dinning room. Next to her,” continued Buffy, “You know Willow, Witch. Lives in the attic.”

Willow waved.

“Then Oz, Werewolf, musician, bedroom down stairs.”

“Hey,” said the stoic wolf.

“Then, standing, Gable, he doesn’t live here, Demon Hunter. Giles, my watcher, head of watcher’s council, lives in England, sleeping in the office for the duration. Xander, I think you met him in LA, he’s a watcher now too, lives in the basement. Andrew, another watcher, kinda, lives in England, on the couch for the duration. You know Dawn of course, mystical green key person. And Spike, he drove Dawn here. He’s my mate.”

Buffy waited for the words to sink in.

“Oh!” said Anya happily, “Is that what you two were doing this morning? Then I forgive you the loud sex.”

Buffy’s eyes went wide and Spike covered Cat’s ears. Ariel’s face went bright red.

“Traumatised for life now Granny Anya! Thanks ever so much!” said Ariel.

“Oh, please, you aren’t even born yet!” said Anya. “They still have to have sex to conceive you!”

Buffy turned to her father and Valery who were taking this all in.

“So your mate, is that like what, engaged?” asked Valery.

“It’s marriage for vampires,” supplied Anya.

“Vampires?” asked Mr Summers.

“Spike is a Vampire,” stated Dawn.

“A Vampire?” gulped Valery.

“Cause the werewolf and the vengeance demon didn’t scare her....” muttered Dawn to Anya.

“And then we have Ariel, with the trauma and Catherine,” said Buffy ruffling Cat’s curly locks.

“And they are what? Pixies?” said Valery regaining her sense of sarcasm.

“No, they are my children, from the future, Spike’s their father.”

Buffy watched as her father’s mouth hung open.

“Congrats Dad, you are a grandpa.”

“Is introduction time over?” asked Dawn rudely.

“Dawn...” warned Buffy.

“So, who’s up for Chinese for supper?” asked Oz.

“We had Chinese for dinner three days ago,” moaned Ariel.

Ariel walked up closer to her grandfather.

“Mum told me once that I had your ears, I don’t see it.”

“Ariel!” hissed Buffy. “Don’t be rude.”

“Crusty old Aunt Dawn can be rude but I can’t?” asked Ariel.

“Yes, she has gripes, you have never met these people before!” Buffy began to raise her voice.

“I am so out of here,” said Xander darting for the kitchen and the basement.

“Wait for me, nuclear meltdowns don’t agree with me,” added Andrew, following.

“Please continue with the family turmoil,” said Anya happily.

“Gah!” Ariel threw her hands up in frustration.

“I don’t understand, how is she, what is she, twelve? When were you pregnant?” asked Mr Summers.

“Not were, Dad, going to be. Gah!” Buffy raised her hands in confusion.

Dawn snickered. “No they aren’t alike at all...”

“What joy is mine,” said Spike whimsically.

“Eleven of them Spike, you have eleven of them to look forward to...” said Willow.
__________________________________________
tbc...

 

__________________________________________
Chapter 26: Screaming Matches

The holiday festivities continued the following day. Willow was floating baking ingredients around the kitchen while she and Cat baked Christmas/Hanukah/Winter solstice cookies.

In the living room Ariel and Oz were puzzling over how to put together the tree that was recently purchased from Wal-Mart. The debate in the house between the pro real tree and the pro fake tree camps were heated. Spike and Anya, the pro fake tree camp expressed the financial benefits of not having to spend every year for a tree. Buffy and Dawn, the pro real tree camp wanted the authenticity, the tradition. In the end it was the loud declaration by Ariel that she thought she was allergic to the sappy stuff that inevitably came with the tree that decided the argument.

That was why Ariel was now trying to put this monstrosity together. It was Buffy’s thinly veiled retribution for losing the argument.

Buffy watched on while filling out Christmas cards which admittedly were a bit on the late side.

“Here, sign this,” said Buffy more ordered than requested of her mate, who was sitting at her feet attempting to untangle a set of Christmas lights that had been out of the box for less than a day.

“What is it?” he asked casually, looking up at her smiling face.

“Christmas card.”

“To whom?”

“Your Grandsire,” she said finally.

She knew he didn’t want to be signing anything that was addressed to Angel, but she really thought he should sign the card, he lived with them now.

“No,” he said defiantly.

“Spike...”

“No.”

“Please?” she begged sweetly.

“Not bloody doing it!” he protested, breaking a bulb on the string of lights in the process.

“Spike! Dawn and I send him a card every year, you are part of our family now, and you always were his family...”

“No.”

“Fine!” she said in a huff, “I’ll sign it for you.” Buffy got up out of her seat and walked up the stairs to her office, leaving Spike gaping on the living room floor.

“Slayer!” protested Spike, setting down the tangle of lights and making to follow her up.

“You won’t win Da,” said Ariel from the half put together tree. “You two have this same argument every year. No matter what you do, Angel will still get a Christmas card with all our names on it.”

Spike pouted. If you had asked him if he was pouting, of course he was pouting, but the big bad would have denied it. But the pouting Big Bad, fangs and bumpies, pouting in the living room was what Valery walked in on. Dressed like a Holt Renfrew model, the step thing strode into the living room like she owned it.

“Where is Dawn?” she asked, no hint of politeness in her voice.

“The Bit’s going thought Red’s spell books. The witch agreed to teach her a glamour,” said Spike brushing past Valery in the doorway, smiling a fangy smile in her direction.

“And...and where would she be doing this thing?” asked the step thing nervously.

“In the witch’s room, third floor,” said Spike over his shoulder, on his way into the kitchen.
__________________________________________
Up in Willow’s room, Dawn was indeed looking through books. When Valery approached, Dawn visibly flinched.

Valery sat down on the bed beside the teen.

“So I thought that you and I should talk. I have this feeling that you think we abandoned you when the mess with the green fire happened.”

“Excuse me?” asked Dawn looking up from a spell book.

The green fire? Oh that’s rich, thought Dawn. Clearly she’s repressing.

“The green fire, the voices, the men,” Valery tried to explain. “When your father was being questioned by the police.”

Dawn finally nodded.

“We didn’t want to send you away, it was just safer when you were away from us. Now that its over, you can come home, with us to California. I want you to feel like you belong there.”

“I belong to Buffy,” exclaimed Dawn, slamming her glowy green hands down on the book she had in her lap. “I don’t belong in LA or anywhere else. I am not your step daughter, I am a bundle of green energy made to open gates between dimensions. I was made from Buffy’s blood and this human form was given to Buffy to protect. There is no way I’m going back to LA when I can stay with my protector, my sister.”

“Dawn, that’s nonsense, these people who live in this house, they’ve corrupted your mind!”

“Oh really, well you know what Valery, I like how they’ve corrupted my mind, I wish...”

Dawn paused as Anya suddenly appeared at the door, demon face and all.

“Are you seeking vengeance?” asked Anya. “I know you are, cause I was in the office, with Giles and I could feel it.”

“Anya!” screamed Dawn.

“Well vengeance? Yes or no, cause I think I’m making progress with Rupert.”

“You are calling him Rupert now?” asked Dawn.

“Of course! You don’t expect me to call him Giles when we are intimate, do you? I wonder if he likes to be called anything else while in bed with a woman?” she asked no one in particular.

“Anya!”

“Well if you don’t want vengeance,” Anya flounced away.

“You don’t know just how lucky you are Valery,” said Dawn snidely, getting up off of Willow’s bed, taking the spell book she had and carrying it in her crossed arms.

“Dawn!” said a shocked Valery, that Dawn was leaving, not truly understanding what was going on.

Dawn pushed past the woman and headed down the stairs to the second floor.

“You will not ignore me like that young lady,” shouted Valery.

Dawn turned to face her step mother. The yelling had begun to draw a crowd on the second floor landing.

“And what are you going to do to me Valery?” asked Dawn. “Are you going to take me away from Buffy? Are you going to lock me up in my room in LA and not let me out for year. News flash... Child Abuse!”

“Of course not Dawn, you respect me and I’ll respect you. I think I’ve earned the right to be respected.”

“How? My marrying my father? Ooh good one there, Val.”

“You deserve to be in a loving home, where you can grown up in a normal way away from your freak sister and her friends.”

“Cause this glowy thing...That’s not freakish at all,” said Dawn forcefully.

“That’s not real, Dawn, even I can see that.” Valery rolled her eyes in a very Dawn like way.

Dawn looked over to the various people standing in doorways. Buffy in hers, Giles and Anya in the office, Hank from Ariel’s room.

“It’s real. I’m the key. And...and I’m gonna be a watcher. I’m going to Oxford, I’m studying languages. I'm useful. Buffy needs me.”

“Buffy doesn’t need you. She’s gonna want her own family, not to be saddled with her kid sister,” explained Valery in calm manner, countering Dawn rising hysteria.

“Buffy needs me,” said Dawn again. “You need me, right?” Dawn turned to look at her sister in the master bedroom doorway

“I need you Dawnie. I need you as much as I need Ariel and Cat. You are a little part of me. I died to save you. I’m not ever giving you up.” Buffy smiled.

Spike came up the stairs at that moment, his hand clutching his still warm mug of blood, game face on.

“Bit?” asked Spike.

“Valery wants to take me away,” whined Dawn.

Of course she knew that Buffy and Spike would never let that happen, even if they had to spend all their money, and fight their way through hell itself to get her back.

“Over my dead body,” declared the vampire.

Dawn rolled her eyes. “Spike you are already dead,” said Dawn. “Buffy, the prophecy!” she whined again.

Giles’ voice cut through the silence.

“Blood of light, Blood of dark,
Blood of Blood,
Blood spilt to cover up the evils of blood’s evil,
Undercover of darkness blood is hidden,
Three times blood is split, three times evil rises,
Blood of light, Blood of dark,
Cycle begins anew.”

Ariel and Oz thumped up the stairs, followed by Willow, carrying Cat, adding to the large congregation of audience members for the Dawn versus Valery stand off.

“The prophecy doesn’t matter Dawn,” declared Buffy.

“You died before, because of a prophecy. Only someone who caries your blood, Buffy!”

“Dawn you aren’t going to kill me!”

“Mum’s right” said Ariel suddenly, breaking the back and forth exchange between the sisters. “I will, I have.”

Ariel turned and ran down the stairs pushing past Willow and Cat.

“What do you mean, you have?” asked Buffy following her daughter down the stairs, Spike following closely behind. The others left up on the second floor decided it was best to leave them alone.

Down in the living room Ariel was sitting beside the now assembled but bare Christmas tree.

“Ariel?” Buffy queried.

“I did it, two years ago. I was ten...”

“What happened?” asked Buffy soothingly crouching beside her.

“Mum told me not to tell.”

“Bit size, you can’t just tell you mum that kind of thing and then not tell all,” said Spike.

“You said you weren’t going to push!” Ariel screamed, standing up and rushing out the front door.

“Ariel!“ shouted Buffy, following out after her. “Spike!“ Buffy motioned for him to follow as well. Unfortunately he was stopped by the sun beating down on the snowy Cleveland afternoon.

Buffy followed Ariel across the street into the cemetery.

“Ariel!” Buffy chased after her daughter.

She found her standing in a bare patch of ground, not in use, the cemetery hadn’t grown to capacity yet.

“She’s not here...” said Ariel sadly.

“Who?” asked Buffy coming to rest by Ariel.

“I want to be a Potential you know just like her.”

“Her?”

“Niki.”

“Huh?”

“I never met her, died way before I was born but she was a Potential, the daughter of a Slayer and the granddaughter of a Slayer.”

“Who?”

“Niki Wood.”

“Robin Wood’s mom?”

“No, Robin Wood’s daughter.”

“Faith’s kid?”

“Ya, she’s buried here, or will be. She was kinda like an inspiration for me.”

“I can see that. Ariel?” Buffy questioned, still wanting answers.

“Please don’t ask,” said Ariel. “Mum, told me not to tell. You hate me. I kill you, I start the prophecy.”

“No! Ariel you...The prophecy, it doesn't mean anything!”

“I started it, before I killed you, there was only you, my mum, the First Slayer. Then there were two, and the First Evil came back. I caused it.”

“No, baby. It was the First, not you.”

“That’s why I want to be a Potential, to fight the First. Cause I started it. But now the First came before I could grow up enough to find out.”

“Ariel, I don’t want to you be a Potential. I don’t want to lose you before you get to grow up and have a family.”

“I wanna make a difference though.”

“And you will, in your own special way. Whether you are all slayery or not.”

“I’m not like Aunt Dawn, you know. I don’t want to be a Watcher.”

“And that’s fine. It really is.”

“I wanna be like Aunt Faith.”

Buffy’s eye went wide for a second.

“I wanna fight evil.”

“Oh,” Buffy relaxed.

There was a pause.

“I feel like cookies, you want cookies?”

Ariel shrugged her shoulders. “Sure.”
__________________________________________
tbc...
 

Chapter 27: Kissmas

By the time Buffy was able to coax Ariel back to the house, another shouting match was on in the upstairs hallway.

Valery and Hank were having a spat.

And Spike was livid.

“You can bloody take your soddin’ bickering elsewhere!” steamed Spike.

“Oh excuse me if I don’t get all flustered by a man who thinks he’s a vampire, living with a little girl who has delusions of being a super hero,” taunted Valery.

“Valery,” warned Hank.

“No! I’ve had it! She lets them get away with murder! They need discipline, they need a mother’s love, not some teenager who can’t take care of herself!”

Dawn snorted loudly.

“That is such a crock!” muttered the teenager. “For one, Buffy’s not a teenager, she’s all discipline, and Buffy loves us to death, and I mean literally,” countered Dawn.

Willow hitched Cat further up her hip, and moved to Dawn’s side.

“You can’t blame her for thinking this Dawnie, Valery’s not a Scooby and for all her visions, and the fact that she once told me she knew about Slayers and Vampires, she’s a big faker.”

“Harsh!” said Dawn with a smile.

“Valery?” asked Hank. “Is it true, you knew about all this and you didn’t tell me?”

Valery looked slightly revolted. “Of course not Hank! You’d believe these crazy people or your wife, whom you love?” she said with puppy dog eyes.

“A couple of those crazy people are his daughters and granddaughters, Val,” said Buffy coming up the stairs with Ariel in tow. She and Ariel had been listening downstairs for a few moments.

“You let my baby die!” screamed Valery, sinking to the floor.

The house and all the occupants in it stood still and silent.

After a moment Buffy crouched down on the floor beside her step mother.

“And so your revenge is to take my babies away from me?” asked Buffy.

“It’s been done before of course,” said Anya knowingly, “I’ve done it myself once or twice, the desired results never come though, the children resent you, you don’t love them, it’s a vicious circle really.”

Everyone stared at the Vengeance Demon for a moment.

“What?” begged Anya.

“Perhaps, Anya, we should take a walk,” said Giles, taking Anya’s hand behind him, and leading her down the stairs.

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief when the Vengeance Demon she called a friend left the house.

Hank gathered up his wife and brought her back to their assigned room. And with some pause, the rest of the house hold resumed their holiday activities. Willow and Cat went back to cookie making, Ariel and Oz decorated the tree, Xander and Andrew had never left the basement or the Playstation, but Buffy found herself locked in an embrace by Spike’s strong arms, his soft lips kissing away the tears that she didn’t know had fallen.
__________________________________________
Hank and Valery took a hotel room for the rest of the holiday. Ariel was delighted to get her room back. Valery couldn’t bear to be back in the house again. Her embarrassment was too great. It was Hank alone that returned for Holiday festivities.

And Buffy was just fine with that. She didn’t want anything or anyone to ruin her Christmas with her family. They were happy and healthy, no one was dead, and there was no imminent apocalypse looming.

Plus, Buffy had the dread, that soon, and much sooner than she actually thought, Ariel and Cat were going to have to return to the future. She didn’t want them to go, but if she could just have a Christmas with them, take lots of pictures, maybe the parting would be a little more bearable.

The house smelled like Willow’s cookies, it was decorated with magic lights and mistletoe, leading to much smooching in hallways and doorframes. Buffy had even caught Anya and Giles going at it in the upstairs hallway. It was what Buffy dreamed for her first Christmas away from Sunnydale. Not Giles and Anya smooching, but the closeness of family. Cleveland was home now, and would be for a long time, according to Ariel.

Buffy woke up on Christmas morning to see Spike smiling down at her.

“Happy Christmas, Love.”

Buffy moaned happily.

“Do I get my Christmas present now?” she asked coyly.

“You didn’t get enough Christmas presents last night?” he asked with a grin.

“Well....”

Buffy shifted in bed, and pressed herself up against the naked torso of her lover and mate.

“I want you to bite me,” she whispered against his skin.

With a smile Spike leaned down towards her neck and nuzzled his marks there.

Buffy let her eyes roll back into her head as she gave in to the pleasant sensations coming from her neck. Yes, she wanted him to bite her, she wanted him to mark her, like she had marked herself that he was hers and she his when he was gone.

The thing was that even after all this time, of them sleeping together, sharing the same bed, exploring each other’s bodies, he had never mentioned her tattoos.

Earlier that morning, just as the sun was coming up, she had woken up with her tattoos on her mind. Why hadn’t he said anything? She had pulled back the covers from her nude form and convinced herself that, yes, they were still there.

The railroad spike was still prominently adorning her bikini line, and around her ankle was still written “Spike’s Girl.”

“Spike?” she moaned as his hands spread out over her breasts, pinching just in the right spots.

“Ya, love?” he asked between kisses.

“I love you,” she whispered. She could feel her tears edging over her lashes.

“I know, pet.” Spike stopped his attentions to her lips.

“But how do you know?” she asked very seriously.

“I do know pet, I can feel it through the claim.” Spike looked into her eyes, which were glistening with tears. “Buffy, I know that you love me, I‘ve known since you those words that I thought I’d never hear in the hellmouth. I know because I’m not getting punched in the nose on a regular basis.”

Spike grabbed her wrists and pressed them to the mattress.

“I know because of the way you look at me, the way you defend me to your friends and father, I know because you are you, Buffy.”

“But then... Why aren’t you all observey? You can’t honestly say you haven’t...I mean they are right there...”

Spike smiled smugly. “You mean your tats?” he asked.

Buffy nodded. “You didn’t say anything.”

“The spike? It’s inspired love, and the fact that you’ve got ‘Spike’s Girl’ on your body. Was honoured when I first saw it love.”

“But you didn’t say anything!”

Spike flopped back on the bed.

“Didn’t know I was expected to.”

“Well I expected you to, at some point.”

Spike pounced back onto Buffy’s prone form on the bed.

“You belong to me, Buffy, Slayer. Long after I’m dust and trapped in some hell dimension for all my crimes, I’ll still have your body memorized to distract my tortured mind.”

Buffy tried to smile.

“Cause that makes me feel so much better,” she said. “Kiss me,” she begged.

Spike leaned down and pressed his cool lips to her hot ones, only to interrupted from going any further by a screaming toddler in the next room.

“Kissmas!” screamed Cat, her clapping could be heard as well.

Buffy sighed. “Rain check?” she asked.

“You know it,” responded her mate.
__________________________________________
It wasn’t a bad ‘Kissmas’ after all, despite the serious twinge of guilt Buffy felt for Valery who was sadly spending Christmas morning by herself in a hotel room. Ariel and Cat were spoiled beyond all expectations.

Buffy had come to the conclusion that she was old now, and couldn’t really expect spectacular things from gift giving occasions. Clothes and appliances seemed to be the theme of the holiday. But the present that she got from Giles was freaking her out. It was a small box, didn’t make any noise when she shook it, and Xander, who had been donning the Santa cap and passing out the presents refused to give her that one until the very end.

Sitting on the floor of her living room, with her fifth appliance, a juicer, piled at her side, at last Xander passed her the illusive present. The card was slightly cryptic too.

Buffy raised an eyebrow at Giles who was looking on from Spike’s lazy boy.

After a moment Buffy ripped into the package, drawing out a cleverly wrapped set of keys.

“Keys?” asked Buffy curiously.

The whole room looked at her waiting for her to clue in.

“Car keys!” she finally said bouncing up off the floor and whipping open the front door. There in her driveway was a black convertible.

“I love it!” Buffy gushed, running to hug her watcher.
__________________________________________
Buffy was truly sad when Christmas was over. Hank and Valery left, Valery without any intention of coming back and Hank with a promise of frequent phone calls and invites for the summer holidays. Buffy just smiled sadly. She had a feeling that Hank would never see his grandchildren again. They left the city taking with them their white sedan, heading for California, but it didn’t seem to phase Buffy, or anyone living at the Pinehill street house much. Buffy had a fun new car to drive around, well as soon as Spike taught her how to drive without taking the side view mirrors off the car. She didn’t want this car to meet an untimely fate.


Giles and Andrew left for England just before New Year’s. Apparently the Watcher’s Council had a big formal to do every New Year’s Eve. Anya was in a big huff that she couldn’t go, she had become quite attached to Giles since he had come back to the States. Sure, it had started because she was mad at Xander, and a little because of the Grannie Anya thing, but now it seemed that Anya was in definite ‘like’ with Giles, as Dawn so charmingly put it.

So Anya pouted, until Willow reminded her that she was a Vengeance Demon and could teleport anywhere she wanted.

Without Anya, New Year’s was dull. Buffy, Spike, Oz and Willow went out to a posh club, leaving Xander at home to baby sit. Dawn went to a party with some friends from school.

Xander intended to use this alone time with Ariel to find out exactly what it was that Ariel was keeping from him. Like all the others in the house Xander had asked her not so subtle questions about who he ended up with in the end, how many kids he had, how he died, etc. But every time that he had asked her, she had simply responded that she wasn’t going to tell him, and that he wouldn’t believe her even if she did.

Xander had already surmised that Anya ended up with Giles, and he was ok about it. He was convinced that somewhere out there, there was the perfect woman out there for him, and he would find her eventually, it was just that he wanted to find her first, so that he could make a good impression instead of subjecting her to the spazmoidal first impression that he knew he was going to make.

In the end though, the evening was a bust. Ariel kissed Uncle Xander on the cheek at midnight and headed off to bed, without telling her secret.
__________________________________________
Walking home, little bit drunk, Buffy and Spike held hands in the biting cold wind.

“I miss California,” Buffy complained.

Spike sighed. “We can take the bits and go back, Goldilocks, if that’s what you want.”

Buffy shook her head. “No, Cleveland is home now. I just don’t like the cold.”

“From what it sounds like, love, we are going to be here for a long time.”

“A long time and a lot of children from now.”

Spike nodded.

“Eleven little half slayer half vampires,” continued Buffy with a smile.

“Two of which get turned.”

Buffy’s smile disappeared. “I was hoping that I hadn’t actually heard that,” she said defeated.

Spike sighed and wrapped an arm around his mate’s shoulder. “Love we have to let our lives be our lives. If we start second guessing everything, we’ll end up keeping the lot of them at home.”

“I know, it’s just that, I don’t want my children to be vamps.”

Spike frowned.

“I mean it’s not like I’ve even had these children we are talking about but, I don’t want them to die Spike. I want to be able to have my children and grandchildren around me went I die.”

“Right now it seems that the only what that’s going to happy, Slayer, is if your children achieve immortality like yourself. Being vamped isn’t so bad, if you got the right Sire.”

“Oh like you had the best siring. Drusilla’s a loon and you know it. I’m sure that Angelus wasn’t the caring Grandpa that Giles is looking forward to being. Do you honestly want what you had for our kids Spike?”

Spike knew when he was defeated. “No, I suppose not, Love.”

Buffy smiled. She squeezed his arm. “I know what you mean, all vampires aren’t evil, but what if they end up like Angelus? Or Dru? Or Darla? I don’t think I could dust my kid Spike. Do you?”

Spike shook his head.

“I didn’t think so.”
__________________________________________
tbc...

Chapter 28: Goodbyes

New Year’s day, complete with fancy dinner and resolutions was interrupted just after sunset, by a knock on the door.

Great Mrs Morganson from down the street still thinks Giles is here, thought Buffy.

Buffy opened the door to reveal what she could only describe as her sixteen year old self looking at her.

“Holy crap,” muttered Buffy. “Spike!” she yelled, causing the girl at the door to cringe.

“Ouch,” said the girl at the door, “Could you tone down the decibels?

Buffy looked hard at the girl. She was getting vamp tinglies from her.

“Bloody Hell! It’s another one,” said Spike from behind her.

“This one’s a vamp,” said Buffy.

The girl at the door rolled her eyes. “I guess it’s comforting that you two never change. I’m here to pick up Ariel and Cat.”

“And you would be?” asked Buffy.

“Oh right, sorry. I’m Victoria Jennifer Graves.”

“Vicky!” squealed Ariel coming down the stairs.

Ariel rushed past Buffy and Spike and flew into Vicky’s arms.

“Hey Ari,” said Vicky with a smile.

“It’s all over right? We can go home home now?” asked Ariel tearfully.

“Ya Ari, it’s over. We can’t go home though. You remember seeing the Sunnydale crater?”

Ariel nodded.

“Well there’s a Cleveland crater now. We’re going to go to England, that’s where the next hellmouth is.”

“What about all my stuff?”

Vicky smiled.

“We shipped it to the new house. Mum’s done this before.” Vicky looked into the face of her mother’s younger self. “You need to pack up the stuff you want to take back with you. The gateway is only going to stay open for a short time.”

Ariel nodded and rushed back upstairs.

“Come in,” said Buffy at last.

“Thanks,” said Vicky. “And thanks for taking Ariel and Cat for us.”

“No problem at all,” murmured Buffy.

Vicky entered the house, making sure to not lock eyes with Spike. Buffy thought it a bit odd that Vicky wouldn’t look at him at all. Buffy closed the door.

“He burnt again didn’t he?” asked Buffy suddenly, her voice wavering. “That’s why you won’t look at him.”

Vicky sniffed. “Ya, happened a lot like last time you closed the hellmouth, potentials died, Da saved the world, again.”

“He’ll come back thought right?” asked Buffy, grabbing Spike’s hand.

“That’s what Mum says.”

“97 days,” murmured Buffy.

“Ok, I’m ready,” said Ariel, carrying what seemed like half her room.

“Where’s Catherine?” asked Vicky.

“She’s off with Anya,” said Buffy.

Anya had come back from her New Year’s party at the Watcher’s Council mad at Giles, and full of tales about how a girl watcher in England had the hots for Andrew. From what Anya had told Buffy, Giles had done the unthinkable and had only danced with her once during the course of the evening.

“It’s prejudice,” Anya had said in a huff. “He’s all ‘I’m the leader of a secret organization that protects the world from demons’ and he’s refusing to be seen with a demon, that he has known and previously kissed I might add too, in public.”

Buffy had just rolled her eyes at the whole tirade.

“She has to come too,” said Victoria of Cat. “I think Mum would have a conniption if I didn’t bring Cat back. Or maybe not, but then Bianca wouldn’t be able to lord it over all us underlings that she was first born,” said Vicky.

Ariel laughed.

“Which reminds me,” Vicky pulled a stack of envelopes from her inside jacket pocket and handed them to Buffy. “Each envelope holds the name of your kids, you aren’t allowed to open them until that kid is born. Rowan put spells on all of them. See this one?” said Vicky holding up an envelope, “This one is me, but you won’t be able to open it until I’m born, go ahead, try to rip it...”

“I’ll take your word for it,” said Buffy.

“Mum said that you’d probably name us kids the names in the envelopes anyway, but she didn’t want Ariel to have a fit.”

“Hey!” protested Ariel.

“Buffy! Do you know where Andrew’s video camera is?” yelled Dawn from the second floor.

“Andrew?” asked Vicky.

“Don’t ask, he is strange,” said Ariel.

Vicky nodded.

“But the person yelling? That’s crusty old Auntie Dawn.”

“No, way!” said Vicky, rushing up to go see her aunt. Buffy let her eyes follow the mysterious third daughter.

There was a scream.

“Help! I’m being hugged!” shouted Dawn.

“Ya, Vicky’s like oh so old, but she still acts 17,” said Ariel wisely.

“She was turned at 17?” asked Spike

“Ya,”

“She’s Aurelian,” said Spike.

“Yes...”

“And I’m not telling you who turns me Da,” said Vicky as she came back down the stairs. “I won’t have you hunting down my sire.”

“Did you take care of your sire when you were turned?”

“No, she’s still out there somewhere. She wasn’t too pleased when I went and got myself a soul.”

Spike chuckled. “They never are pet.”

Vicky smiled. In the silence that followed, Ariel, Buffy and Spike all looking at Vicky with curiosity, the back door opened.

“I have a toddler that really needs to pee back here,” said Anya from the back door.

The family at the door turned and looked toward Anya’s voice. Buffy rushed a little to make sure that Cat got to the bathroom in time.

Standing covered in snow and her pink snowsuit that Buffy had purchased for her after the first snow, Cat clapped happily.

“Is that another one?” asked Anya, tugging at the zipper to Cat’s coat.

“I’m Vicky, Grannie Anya,” said Victoria shyly.

“Hello,” said Anya removing Cat’s hat and scarf.

“Vicky!” said Cat happily.

“Hey short stuff.”

“Gacie too?” asked Cat expectantly.

“No, honey, Grace couldn’t come. We are going back through the swirly vortex again.”

“She was asleep for the last one,” said Ariel.

“Oh,” said Vicky. “Potty?”

“Potty,” agreed Cat.

Vicky scooped up her sister and headed to the bathroom on the second floor.

Ariel hitched her bag up over her shoulder and stared at her parents, or their younger versions of themselves.

“Thanks, for you know, stuff,” said Ariel finally looking at the floor.

Buffy smiled. “No problem, Ariel.”

“Oh, could I ask you a favour?” asked the tween.

“Sure,” said Buffy with a smile.

“When I take the scythe for show and tell when I’m 6, can you not be so harsh next time? Cause, I don’t think that a six year old should have to polish weapons.”

“Clearly you were very traumatised by the incident,” observed Anya.

Ariel nodded.

Vicky and Cat interrupted the confessions by coming down the stairs, the toddler all packed up and carrying her Hello Kitty back pack.

“Don’t let her guilt trip you Mum,” said Vicky with a smile. “Ariel has a talent for getting into trouble.”

“I do not!” protested Ariel.

“Whatever Ari, we have to get back. I promised Mum, we’d be quick,” said Vicky.

“I don’t want you to go,” said Buffy quietly.

“You will see us again Mum, course it will be a while, but we will see you again,” said Ariel with a smile.

“You won’t tell us, just exactly when I get to be a grandma?” asked Anya.

Vicky laughed.

“Course not. It’s fun having a secret or two from you, Grannie Anya, it’s hard to find something that you actually don’t know. I mean you are ancient. More so than Da or Grandpa Angel.”

Anya nodded. “I could make you tell me you know, you are just a vampire.”

“And you are just a Vengeance Demon,” said Vicky with a glint in her eye.

“And when the posturing is over, can I hug you?” asked Buffy.

The idea that she wouldn’t see Ariel and Cat for a long long time was causing the Slayer to tear up. She wanted to hug them, she wanted to not let go.

Dawn and Xander appeared just as Buffy was pulling away from her hug with Ariel. Ariel waved at her Uncle and Aunt.

“Bye Uncle Xander!” said Ariel with a smile. It was a forced smile. “She’s gonna love you forever, even when she becomes someone else,” offered Ariel.

“Ariel Dawn!” barked Vicky.

“What I’m not giving anything away!” whined Ariel.

“Chrissy wouldn’t want you to announce that, she’s getting married next month!”

“She doesn’t love him!” said Ariel. “She loves Uncle Xander!”

Xander watched the exchange with interest. Too much interest Vicky decided.

“Look, you don’t marry someone called Chrissy. It’s a thing, a reincarnation thing. I still won’t tell you who you marry,” said Vicky resolutely.

“The idea that he marries anyone at all boggles my mind,” sniped Anya.

“You get married before he does Grannie Anya,” said Ariel, putting a smile on Anya’s face.

Before they could get into yet another side bar conversation, Vicky picked up Cat and grabbed Ariel’s hand. She exited the hallway and the house producing a flash of light.

Buffy stared out onto the front porch, where Victoria had disappeared with Ariel and Cat, dumb founded.

“They’re gone,” she said sadly.

“Yes,” said Anya. “Does that mean I can have Ariel’s room?”
__________________________________________
Buffy looked longingly at the front door of her house. It had been 2 days since Ariel and Cat had just walked out of that door and out of her life. She was left with more questions than she had answers for and a stack of envelopes that she couldn’t open.

Anya moved her stuff into Ariel’s room the same day the tween had left the house. Buffy hadn’t the energy to protest, she merely flopped down on the couch in the living room and sobbed at the loss of her children.

They all had tried to console her. Willow with cookies, Anya and Xander with spontaneous hugs. In the end nothing worked, because the one person they all knew would be able to stop her crying was himself just coping with the situation.

Dawn tried to diffuse questions from Ariel’s school about her absence from classes once the school year resumed. January continued along, without realizing that the house on Pinehill street was in a sort of mourning. Giles and Andrew were informed of the change of population in the house.

Buffy even received a sympathy card from Drusilla, who was still in Angel’s custody in LA.

Magic Tea? thought Buffy upon reading this cryptic note.
__________________________________________

Chapter 29: Changes

January also saw the return to classes of Willow and Anya, providing Xander with Anya free time between the hours of 10 am and 5pm Monday thru Thursday. The Watcher’s Council had even set Xander up with a job as Dawn’s high school librarian. Buffy just figured it was Giles’ revenge for all the jabs Xander sent his way over the years.

Buffy herself, though she had started to look into it, had never actually signed up for courses for the winter semester. In someway, her subconscious wanted to continue to be exactly what she had been doing with her life since October. Buffy Anne Summers wanted to be a stay at home mom, she wanted to have her children, all eleven of them. She wanted to have that family that she had always thought she’d never have.

Now she didn’t have the kids anymore.

There was a way to fix that though. Buffy cast a furtive look at her lover. He was trying to convince Oz that he should ditch the other Werewolves on a Merry-go-round and join up with him and a demon named Armus and form a band.

Buffy rolled her eyes. Armus she had met; he had 4 arms and was blue. No way would this new potential band be able to play any venue other than demon based.

“Buffy!” screamed Anya from her new room.

The screaming was accompanied by the thundering footsteps of a demon on the run. Sure enough, Anya ran down the stairs and into the kitchen where Buffy was sipping milk and watching her lover debate the points of demon bands with Oz.

“Buffy!” panted the demon. “I found...She left...Here.”

Anya thrust something into Buffy’s hand. It was from Ariel. Anya had been clearing out most of Ariel’s stuff and depositing it in the attic until such time as Ariel was born.

Carefully Buffy opened the sealed envelope, as the rest of the household gathered in the kitchen waiting to hear what Ariel wrote to her mother.

Buffy looked up from the letter with tears in her eyes. That a twelve year old could see them so clearly was amazing.
__________________________________________
Spike threw open the front door of the Pinehill Street house. He’d been stuck all day in the cemetery hiding from the sun. Bloody Wanker Sithol Demons. He’d stumbled on a nest of them while he was alone. It had taken practically all the dark hours to kill them and track down the ones that ran. Would have been nice to have help.

Buffy had been acting all strange for a week. At first he had thought that she was having issues with her demon again, but wouldn’t that make her want to fight and be violent? No, he reasoned. Another though flitted through his mind. His birthday was today. He couldn’t believe he had actually given that info up when she wanted to know. Ok, she was teasing him without mercy, got him hard and then refused to follow through until he told her. Fuck, he could deny her nothing.

Pain of death by tickling, he warned if she ever told anyone else especially a Watcher.

Spike cringed as he walked into the living room half expecting a surprise party.

What he found was the room lighted by candles and Bryan Adams playing the background. Buffy was standing in the middle of the room dressed in a silk slip dress of a wine colour. Her hair down about her shoulders. A fire cackled in the fireplace.

“Buffy luv, what’s all this?” he asked before Buffy could shush him.

“Spike, please just let me say what I have to say before I muck it up.” Buffy took his hands. “You have been my enemy, my unwanted ally, my lover, my friend and my counsellor. You’ve protected Dawn and I, through terrible torture and emotional torment. You’ve saved the world, you’ve saved my life. I’ve hated you, feared you, failed you. I love you Spike, I don’t deserve you, yet I know you love me too, I need you, forever in my life. I never want to be without you again.” Buffy got down on one knee. “William John Graves, will you marry me?”

Buffy was smiling so big looking so hopefully up at him it crushed him. In a flash he was down on his knees too.

“Yes, Buffy I’ll marry you, if that is what you want.”

Buffy caught him up in her arms.

“Yay!” she said weakly.

They kissed, holding each other tightly. Spike could hear the thumping of feet on the stairs as Dawn came running out of her room. The teenager flew to the couple and gave them both a hug.

“That was beautiful,” she sniffed. She turned to the fireplace. “And we can watch and re-watch all we like.”

Dawn turned around to reveal a video camera hidden on the mantle.

“Just one of the annoying habits of Andrew that rubbed off on our Dawnie,” said Xander coming down the stairs in a quicker fashion. “Congratulations you two,” he continued offering a hand to Spike who took it looking surprised.

“Come on Xander, you loved it, all teary eyed just like me,” said Buffy.

“And the emasculating continues,” said Xander. “Please just tell me that I’ll wear a tux at your wedding, rather than a dress.”

“Absolutely Xan, no frilly dresses for you,” said Buffy.
__________________________________________
The wedding was planned for the summer, the day that Sunnydale sank into the crater to be exact. Buffy wanted new memories for that day. She still had nightmares, about Spike burning and now, knowing that it would happen again, it was bringing the old fears to the surface once more.

The invitation list was extensive, demons, former potentials, AI crew, Scoobies, Watchers and distant Summers family were all invited to what Dawn dubbed as the wedding of the century.

The ceremony itself was held in the Pinehill street cemetery, at dusk. Willow had put up wards so that anyone not on the invitation list would be bounced back from a barrier.

Buffy knew that times were changing. Despite the fact that the Scoobies had all moved themselves back into her house didn’t change that. Nothing was going to stay the same forever. Dawn had graduated high school and was going off to Oxford in the fall. Anya was giving up higher education, her new Magic Box store was taking up so much of her time now. Xander was being cycled back to England, Andrew was coming back to stay. Willow had finally earned herself some letters after her name. Willow Rosenburg, B.A. Willow was off to England too, to earn some more letters at Cambridge.

Buffy looked sadly at the emptiness of her house as she prepared for her walk across the street and down an aisle decorated with night blooming flowers. Her white Victorian style dress made swhooshing noises behind her as she travelled down the stairs of her home.

“Are you ready for this?” asked Dawn who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in a burgundy dress, her brown hair in ringlets.

Buffy nodded with a smile. Her sister had grown up in the past year. A year that had seen an apocalypse but little else. The powers that be had decided to give Buffy some well deserved time off.

Dawn fiddled with Buffy’s veil and handed the bride her bouquet.

“Damn, you look fine B,” said Faith, also a bride’s maid, who was standing behind a decorated stroller, in which slept Richard Nicholas Wood, her son, and the ring bearer for the occasion.

Buffy had been a little disappointed that Faith hadn’t had a girl, like Ariel said she would, but then Faith and Robin still were together. Robin was somewhere being an usher in the cemetery right now.

The three month old baby had no idea what was going on.

There was a flash of light. Anya appeared in their midst.

“Ok, they are ready for you Buffy,” said Anya with a smile. “Xander has Spike shackled in place so he doesn’t run off.”

Buffy rolled her eyes.

“Mrs. Graves?” inquired the last remaining person in the hallway.

“Yes Dru?” asked Buffy.

“Miss Edith is angry she didn’t get a dress,” whined the vampire.

“Then Miss Edith should have remembered that it’s not nice to play with my swords,” said Buffy sternly.

Dru had broken into the training room and scared the living daylights out of Giles the night before. As punishment, Buffy refused to let the doll come to the ceremony.

Dru nodded and headed out the door, taking her place behind Faith and Richard.

“I don’t get why she calls you Mrs Graves..” muttered Dawn.

Buffy smiled.

“You aren’t Mrs Graves, at least you won’t be for another half hour”

“Yep,” said the Slayer with a smile. “Mrs William John Graves.”

“And here I thought that Mrs the Bloody was going to be your married name.”
__________________________________________
The end, for now.