The Tunnel Just Got Longer

(Tunnel series, Part 2)

Totally absorbed in conversation, the Scooby Gang patrolled one of Sunnydale‘s twelve cemeteries.

It had been a slow night so far. The only ’fledgling’ they’d encountered had been a baby bird that Xander had put back into the nest it had fallen out of. It was near midnight, but the long shadows and darkness around them were something that they were used to.

Chattering among themselves, they were totally unprepared when the demon jumped out at them from it’s hiding place in the bushes, and they froze like deer caught in the headlights.

‘Great‘, thought Buffy, as she began to fight the demon with all her might. ‘Here we are all loaded for vampires and something else shows up!’

Her fellow ’slayerettes’ leaped into action, as well. Or at least as much as possible. Stakes and water pistols filled with holy water were tossed aside as everyone tried to regroup and figure out what to do.

Willow looked around for a weapon.

Anya tried to talk it to death.

And Xander just tried to keep from being knocked to the ground as he did his best to help Buffy. As it turned out, he was tossed into some bushes, instead.

Buffy found herself half expecting Spike to come charging into the fray at any moment, to rescue them, or at least to rescue her and Willow. If Xander wanted help he’d have to bark up a different tree.

But the Slayer would have to save the day on her own because Spike couldn’t come to the rescue on this particular night. She had sent him on an errand with Tara, to the Magic Box. With Glory a constant threat, none of the gang went anywhere alone after dark.

Irritated that she had picked this particular night to reduce their numbers on patrol, and even more irked that she couldn’t blame it on Spike, she fought even harder.

She landed a kick to the beasts’ midsection and as it doubled over in pain she chopped it hard on the back of its’ thick neck and stunned it. It dropped to the ground in a heap of slimy, ooey gooey stuff. (Buffy’s thoughts, not the authors’) With a grimace of distaste, she finished it off.

Xander, meanwhile, had problems of his own.

As the first demon had knocked him backwards into the bushes, a second one popped it’s head out right beside his and for a moment they both stared at each other.

It was even uglier than the first one, if that were possible. Its’ color was baby shit green and something in a shade that didn’t match was dripping from its’ snout.

"Yuck!" Xander yelled, and swung at it with all of his strength, but missed, creating a whoosh of air which in turn caused the things’ odor to envelop him making his eyes water.

Anya, who was still screaming obscenities at the first demon in it’s own tongue, finally shut up long enough to realize that it was dead and Buffy was staring at her.

Buffy looked pointedly in the direction of the second battle which Anya had been having too much fun to even notice, and the ex-demon nearly ran over her to get to Xander’s side.

Willow ran up to Buffy and brandished her trashcan lid which had been all she could find lying around on short notice.

When she saw that her friend had already dispatched one threat, she looked over to where Xander and Anya were putting on some kind of a crazy comedic show in the bushes.

Anya was screeching in the demon’s face and Xander was trying to hit it but both the combatants’ arms were tangled up in the bushes, which, it seems, were full of thorns.

Buffy calmly took the trashcan lid from Willow, walked to the scene of the ’battle’, pushed Anya aside, and brought the heavy lid down on the demon’s head with all of her strength.

Too much strength, as it turned out. The demon’s scull squashed and blobs and bits of brains and goo flew in all directions, but mostly in Xander’s face.

Willow came running in concern and was knocked aside by Anya, who was back-peddling away from the mess that was her boyfriend.

When she herself beheld the sight that was Xander Harris, Willow stood her ground, having seen much in her years as a Scooby, but she couldn’t suppress the gagging sounds, much to the distress of Xander.

"Sorry Xand" she mumbled in apology.

Xander struggled for a minute, the bushes tearing at his clothing some more, and finally broke free of the branches and began wiping at his face, trying not to gag as Willow had.

Then he noticed that his friends were all still staring at him. At first he thought it was just the goo on his face, and then he felt a draft.

Following the directions of the stares he discovered a particularly large gaping hole in his jeans. The entire crotch had been torn out and had taken most of his underwear along with.

He turned several shades of red as everyone but Anya averted their eyes, as he attempted to cover himself with his hands.

Anya stepped up and stood in front of him, turning to Buffy and Willow. "What are you all looking at? It’s just Xander’s penis. I see that every day. It’s no big deal!"

Xander shot her a look. "Thanks a lot, Anya!"

She glanced at Willow. "But, on second thought, you just look at something else, Missy!"

Willow rolled her eyes. "Fine by me!"

Buffy tried not to giggle but the tension from the fight needed an outlet and this was just too funny. She clapped a hand over her mouth and turned away from Xander, trying not to hurt his feelings, her shoulders shaking with mirth.

Xander, using Anya as a shield, examined himself for scratches in important places.

Anya peered down at him. "Well? Are you ok? Are we good for sex later?" Her voice could have been heard in Los Angles. She reached downward. "Here, let me see it!"

"Anya! Please!" Xander backed them both away for a little private talk.

Willow stood grinning as Buffy sank to the ground and lay there, tears streaming from her eyes. She hadn’t seen her friend this happy in a long time.

Then she noticed that Buffy had stopped laughing and was crying softly.

Willow dropped down beside her and tentatively patted her on the shoulder. "Buffy……are you ok? What is it?"

Buffy sat up, wiping at her eyes and nose. Somehow, during the emotional outburst her troubled thoughts had snuck in and took advantage. She hated it when that happened.

"I’m alright, Wil." She got to her feet and Willow rose with her. She managed a smile. "Really, it’s nothing, maybe just a little ‘post Riley’ syndrome. It’s no big."

Buffy knew exactly what was troubling her, but wasn’t sure that Willow was ready to hear it. It was still too knew, and too big, and……oh hell…….no time like the present.

She looked at her friend. "Wil….there’s something I need to tell you……a bunch of things, actually."

Willow had guessed as much. "Is he bigger than a bread box?" She grinned.

"Oh I’d say so." About coffin sized, actually, she thought.

"Bigger than Dawn being the ‘Key’?" Willow whispered.

Buffy glanced furtively about her. "Shh! Careful where you say that!"

Willow looked abashed. "I’m sorry, I didn’t think. Big bonk on the head for me. But there’s no one around but us, Buffy, so it’s ok……..what is it that you need to tell me?"

The tiny blonde looked at Willow, and made up her mind. "We can’t talk here, not now. I’m not ready to share this with anyone but you." She looked worried, biting at her lip.

"And one other person knows, and that’s too many for ‘my’ piece of mind. I just hope ‘he’ keeps his trap shut until I figure this all out. And with my luck, that will take about nine million years. Which is OK for ‘him‘, cause he’ll probably still be around, but ‘I’ll’ be long gone…."

Willow tapped her on the shoulder. "Buffy, you’re kind of……. babbling!"

Buffy turned and grabbed the red haired witch by the shoulders. "Willow, meet me at my house tonight in about an hour." She realized how hard she was gripping her friend and released her.

Willow rubbed one of her shoulders.

"But Buffy it’s after midnight and as much as I wanna hear this, whatever it is, I’ve got classes tomorrow, and a ’lot’ of homework that still needs doing." She had her colored pens all laid out at the dorm awaiting her return.

"Blow it off. You won’t regret it. This is big, Wil. In fact, I need to tell everyone, at least a part of it, just for safety’s sake, but I have to tell you all of it."

She grabbed Willow’s arm. "Please, Wil, forget about meeting me, just come home with me now, before I lose my nerve!"

Willow glanced at Xander and Anya, who were walking in their direction. Concern for her friend out weighed her duty to her studies, as it had many times before.

"Sure. Don’t worry! Whatever it is it won’t seem so big when you share it with me." She smiled.

Buffy smiled back. ‘Ignorance is such bliss‘, she said to herself.

"Great! We can call Tara and explain where you are from my house. She and Spike should have finished at the Box long before now. I don’t want her to worry."

As Anya and Xander came to join them she spoke in more normal tones.

"Let’s walk these two home in case there are more things going ‘bump’ in the night, and then you can come on over and help me with that study thing."

Willow nodded vigorously.

Xander looked sideways at Buffy as they walked out of the cemetery. She looked nervous.

Something was definitely up. He looked down at Anya’s hand, which was covering his exposed anatomy as they walked, and grinned.

The Scoobys exited the silent graveyard.

***************************************************

Buffy opened the front door, and she and Willow entered the house, and quietly shut the door behind them.

As they turned to go into the living room, they were startled by a sleepy Giles, who was standing there in the low lamp light from the other room.

A sleepy Giles with a baseball bat clutched in his hands.

Willow let out a small shriek, her eyes as wide as saucers.

Buffy took in the Watchers’ disheveled appearance. He sometimes slept in a chair in her living room when he babysat Dawn, but she was clueless as to why he was there now.

"Giles! Good grief, you nearly got punched out! What are you doing here?" Buffy’s eyes widened in concern. "Is everyone ok? Is Dawn…..?"

Giles put the bat aside, took off his glasses, and began cleaning them with the edge of his shirttail. They had steamed up. "All is well, Buffy. Your mother was a bit concerned at the late hour, phoned me, and I came over to await your return. Was there trouble tonight?"

Buffy examined his glasses. "Why are they all steamed up like that? You haven’t been thinking naughty thoughts about my mother again, have you?" She grinned at him, her relief that all was well making her feel witty.

Giles wasn’t about to admit that he had heard talking outside, and it had scared him to the point that he’d hidden in the shadows with the bat.

"You shall never drop that subject as long as you live, will you?"

"Nope."

"Torture me with it at every turn, won’t you?"

"Always." She grinned.

"Then may we please change the subject back to what it was before?" He nodded to Willow who had come out from behind Buffy and stood grinning at him. She nodded back, still amused by his rumpled appearance.

"Sure. Ok, there was trouble on the patrol."

"Vampire?"

"Demon of another color this time. Literally. Two of them. We kicked their asses, and all I broke was a nail. But Xander will be in the shower for hours!"

Buffy got Willows’ attention, and slid her eyes to Giles and then back towards the front door. "We took care of it, and it didn’t seem any weirder than a lot of others we’ve seen, so there’s no need for a lot of research, or any further discussion about it tonight. Right Wil?"

Willow looked slightly disappointed that there would be no research. "Right Buffy."

Giles had the feeling that he was being gotten rid of, but he was actually relieved. Tara had come by earlier in the evening, in the company of Spike who had waited sullenly outside the house, and put new and improved protection spells on the Summers’ home, to warn against Glory. Powerful spells, by the sound of them.

He’d been half afraid to have an evil thought while he was under this roof, for fear of being vaporized. And seeing Spike’s smug face peeking in the windows at him had given him a few. Well, at least the bugger couldn’t get in, could he? That much was comforting.

Even though Buffy had decided to use Spike for protection, even after he’d chained her up and endangered her with Drusilla, Giles didn’t trust the vampire. He had a new confidence of late that worried the Watcher.

Buffy yawned loudly, snapping him out of his thoughts.

"Oh, yes, quite. Well! I’ll be going along home then. Do keep alert, Buffy. I know I don’t have to tell you that."

She gave him a look that said, ’why did you, then?’

She nearly had the front door closed on him when the Watcher stopped and turned again. "Isn’t Willow leaving as well? Can I drive her somewhere?"

"Sleeping over!" said Buffy.

"Studying!" said Willow at the same time.

"Both. Night Giles!" Buffy all but shut the door in his face, and watched as he stepped off the porch and walked to his car.

She turned to her friend and motioned up the stairs with a jerk of her chin, and they ran as quietly as possible up to Buffy’s room.

They entered her bedroom and she quietly closed the door. Buffy knew that Joyce was used to all kinds of strange noises in the night and probably wouldn’t hear them talking, but she wanted this to be private.

Her mother wasn’t ready for a revelation of this magnitude. It was nearly as big as when she told her that her daughter was the Vampire Slayer. Well, almost. There ‘was’ that whole ‘I lost my virginity to a vampire’ speech. And Joyce hadn’t even known about the ‘vampire’ part yet and was ‘still’ wigged by it.

As Buffy sat on the edge of the bed, and Willow got comfortable in her big chair, Buffy began to feel that maybe this wasn’t going to be so hard, after all.

But how to begin? She opened her mouth to speak but all that came out was a squeak.

Willow prodded her, gently. "Go ahead. Just tell me. Look, I’m wearing my ‘listening face’."

Buffy thought that Willow’s ‘listening face’ looked a lot like her ‘resolve face’. She knew that she could tell this woman, this powerful budding witch that was her best friend, ‘anything’. She hoped.

She meant to tell about the dangerous part first, but with a school-girl-like glee, the words came tumbling out of her mouth.

"I think I ‘like’ Spike!" She knew she was wearing a goofy grin, but as she said the words, she knew them to be true.

Willow sat, stunned, for a full minute, watching Buffy as she stood up and began pacing around the room, grinning like an idiot and obviously waiting for some kind of reply from her.

This was insane.

After all the trouble Buffy had gone to, to make sure that Spike couldn’t get into her house, even asking them to try to keep him out of the Magic Box at one point, to just turn right around and accept him like this?

Willow chided herself for not smelling a rat when Buffy had allowed Spike to ‘work’ for them again. She caught herself wondering how he was being ‘paid’.

All she could think of was that something had gone wrong and the spell she had unwittingly cast so long ago had somehow reactivated!

She spoke hesitantly, "Buffy, I think we need to go to my dorm, and maybe get Tara to help, and…and….can a spell just pop back into effect like this? And how do we get rid of it? And Giles is gonna stroke out, and…"

Buffy went and sat on the arm of the chair, took Willow’s hand and looked her straight in the eye.

"Wil, this is not a spell. Not yours, or anyone elses. Well, except maybe Spikes’ in a way, cause’ I’m certainly under ‘that’ kind of spell…….did you ever notice how blue his eyes are?"

Willow snorted in exasperation.

"And did ‘you’ notice how ‘dead’ he is?! Buffy, are you on the level here, or is it April fools’ day, cause I could have sworn that it was earlier this month, but maybe I just lost track of time, or…That’s ‘it’!!! It’s spring, and you’ve just gone all nuts or something! I ‘knew’ you weren’t over Riley! We should all have paid more attention…or Hey! More Angel fallout?"

Willow stopped talking as Buffy gripped her hand so hard her knuckles cracked.

"Ouch! Buffy, gee, I’m sorry, but what did you expect me to say to that, something like ‘oh cool, when’s the first date? Or how about ‘have you got to first base yet?’"

Willow grabbed her friend’s other hand. "Tell me you haven’t got to first base yet!" But she knew the answer to that by the look on the Slayer’s face.

"Oh my gosh, Spike kissed you?!"

Buffy, her face turning beet red, squeezed Willow’s hands again, more gently this time, and spoke, haltingly, "I kissed Spike first. And then he kissed me later, and there was major sparkage!"

"Not to mention some definite action going on at his end" she finished, nodding her head and smiling.

Buffy noticed a kind of blank expression on Willow’s face, and releasing her hands, she got up and resumed wearing a hole in the carpet, shooting anxious looks at her red headed friend. At least her buddy was still in the chair, and hadn’t run from the room in horror.

Willow couldn’t rise from the chair. She thought she might just sit here for the rest of her life, and let Buffy throw her dirty clothes on top of her until she was covered up and everyone forgot where she was.

Buffy gave up pacing and sat down on her bed again. She grabbed a pillow, put it on her raised knees and put her face into it. Then she raised her head and sniffed an odor, and looking at her jeans, noticed a sticky greenish slime.

"Eeeyew! Demon goo!" she said, and walked to the closet, shedding her jeans along the way.

Willow, watching Buffys’ mini striptease in a daze, quipped, "Oh Yeah? You’d better get used to demon goo because if Spike finds out you ‘like’ him, you’ll be seeing more of it!" She wasn’t sure just what she’d meant by that, and wondered if she was spending too much time with Anya lately.

Buffy could hardly believe that Willow had a dirty mind, but she kept the comment to herself and chucked her shirt as well, changing into soft sweatpants and a tank top. Then she flopped onto the bed and faced Willow again.

"There’s more to tell. But now I’m not too sure that you can handle it."

Willow took one look at Buffy’s suddenly serious, grim face, and swallowed. This was gonna be bad.

"Spill it. You’ve already got my attention, big time, and I can take it." Ok, that was a big lie. Attentive face!

Buffy took a deep breath and hoped she wasn’t making a very big mistake. "Spike’s chip is deactivated!"

Now Willow knew that she would never leave the chair. Because if what Buffy had just said was true, it wasn’t ‘safe’ to leave the chair. She’d have to just move in with Buffy and never leave the house!

At the same time she felt like Cordelia.

She wanted to grab a phone and call everyone she had ever known, but especially the rest of the Scoobys!!

"Buffy…..are you sure? I mean, how do you know this? Maybe it’s just a mistake!"

"Spike told me."

Willow scoffed, "Well, ‘now’ I believe it, because Spike would never lie!"

Buffy fought a flash of temper and the urge to stick up for Spike. She controlled the temper, but the new-found loyalty to the blonde vampire was gaining strength and it scared her a little. Make that a lot.

She came and stood right in front of Willows’ chair. "I not only believe that, but also the part where he loves me."

Willow resisted the urge to put her fingers in her ears and go ‘Lah Lah Lah’ to drown out what she was hearing.

She was way too close to ‘Lah Lah land’ as it was!

"Buffy! I don’t think I can listen to any more of this right now. My brain is kinda’ spinning in my head, and I’m feelin’ kinda’ dizzy….."

"You think ’you’ are dizzy? Try being the frigging Slayer in love with another Vampire!!" She realized what she’d said when Willow’s mouth dropped open even further.

"Ooops. My bad. I meant to say, a Slayer thinking of dating a Vampire, maybe??"

"Goddess, this is huge, Buffy. Are you absolutely ‘sure’ that Spike’s chip is pffft?"

"Eventually it will be more junk floating around in space. Yes, it’s bye bye. He punched me out and he didn’t need an aspirin after."

"He hit you? You mean just a little hit, like when you guys play around sometimes, or a biggie?"

In answer, Buffy went to her clothes basket and dug out the shirt she’d been wearing the night her life had changed forever. (Again) She shoved it under Willow’s nose.

The stunned red head looked at all the dried blood on the front of the shirt. "Yours?" she squeaked.

"No, Mike Tyson’s’! Of course it’s mine. My nose felt like it was broken. And, I guess, now I know how Spike feels nearly every time I see him." She fingered the bridge of her nose and glanced into her mirror. No bump. Lucky for a certain vamp…….

Willow got out of the chair and wiped her suddenly sweaty palms on her jeans.

She was having unpleasant flash-backs of she and Spike, on a bed, with the vampire hovering over her, his fangs bared. And if that were to happen now, Spike could finish what he had started, couldn’t he?! She gulped.

"Buffy, I think that we have to go to Giles with this."

"Not yet. Not now." To her surprise she felt a sudden fear, and a need to protect Spike.

"But why?" Willow tried to put aside her own fears and understand, for Buffy’s sake. For the first time in years, her friend looked almost happy. Worried, yes. But happy worried.

Then a horrible thought occurred to her.

"My God! Tara!" Willow ran for the phone beside the bed.

Buffy put her hand on it and spoke in soothing tones. "Wil, it’s ok. Spike wouldn’t hurt her. Do you think I’d have sent him with her if I thought he was dangerous?"

"How do you ‘know’ that, are you insane?" Willow saw Buffy’s lip quiver and relented a little. "I’m sorry, I mean, that was maybe uncalled for, but I’m scared!"

Willow had been traumatized enough by finding her dead fish that time, and the mental picture she was having of Tara at Spike’s mercy was no less terrifying.

He wasn’t Angelus. But he was damned close.

Buffy took both of Willows’ hands again. "You have to trust me. I just ‘know’ that none of us are in danger. I have to have you on my side in this before we tell Giles."

"We?" Willow said in a tiny voice.

"Oh yeah. We. And maybe some paramedics."

Willow squeezed Buffy’s fingers. "I won’t let you be alone in this, but I may still try to talk you out of the whole ‘possible boyfriend’ thing. The last vampire you dated nearly killed the lot of us. Oh! I didn’t mean to bring that up….well, yes I did too, but….."

Buffy suddenly hugged Willow, and then put her lips to the witch’s ear, and whispered "Spike’s chip has been croaked for several days now, or even longer. Why are any of us still breathing?"

Willow hated to break the hug, and the temporary safety it offered, but she pulled away and spoke, her voice louder than she meant it to be. "DAYS?!"

The bedroom door opened and Dawn stuck her head into the room. "Could you guys, like, speak up a little? I missed out on some of the dialogue after Buffy told Willow that she has the hots for Spike."

Buffy and Willow looked at each other and sighed. They were always forgetting that the Slayer had a little sister. Apparently, so had the post office, because the only mail that Dawn ever got was addressed to ‘occupant’.

And in the hallway, his back pressed up to the wall so that Buffy and Willow wouldn’t see him, stood Spike.

Dawn couldn’t remember when she’d had such fun. She knew that her face wore an angelic expression that she’d spent hours in front of the mirror perfecting, and that her sister and Willow would never guess that the blonde vampire was right beside her.

Spike, on the other hand, was thinking of sweating. He was pretty sure that he was near enough to the Slayer for her to sense him, and not yet confident enough in her trust of him to be caught in her upstairs hallway, not to mention in the Nibblets’ room, which was where he’d been most of the evening after seeing Tara to the dorm.

He remembered a little speech the Slayer had given him, only recently, something about ‘risking all his parts every time he came here’. He swallowed, ill at ease. ‘Should have stayed in Nibblets’ room‘, he thought, ‘but it was too hard to hear what they were sayin’ in there!’

Dawn ducked her head out and glared at him. She whispered, "Thinking out-loud much?"

"Shit!" He said, not thinking. He’d said that last part aloud, hadn’t he? He turned and began sneaking toward the stairs that led to the front door.

Dawn jumped backwards to avoid her as Buffy came barreling out the bedroom door, slamming it against the wall, oblivious to the noise it made.

She stopped in the middle of the hallway, and said in her most commanding voice, "Freeze, Turkey!" She stood there, her hands on her hips, feet slightly spread, with an icy glare that did not bode well for somebody.

Spike had been half way down the staircase, but when he heard what he’d been called, he turned and fairly leaped back up it again, stalking to where Buffy stood, waiting.

"What the bleedin’ hell did you just call me?"

Buffy smiled with her lips, but her eyes remained frosty. "I meant that for Dawn, but if the beak fits….."

Dawn had made it to her room and now stuck her head out the doorway and put out her tongue at her sister. Then she chickened out, ducked back into her room, and slammed the door.

Spike chuckled. "What is it with you Summers gals and abusing doors?"

Buffy had turned to yell at Dawn again, but came back to Spike. "Excuse me?" She hadn’t decided whether or not to just boot him down the staircase. The thought was giving her some pleasure.

"Only one thing wrong with slamming doors in the middle of the night, Slayer." Spike pointed a few doors down to where Buffy’s mother stood in the hallway, her face and posture a replica of what her daughters’ had been moments before.

"If my ass is grass, at least I’m not getting mowed all alone, now am I?"

Buffy’s eyes narrowed. "You are ‘so’ dead!"

Spike smiled, smugly. "Be nice to me, Slayer. I can get you out of this. Your mum just happens to fancy me, y’know."

"Not enough to want you sneaking in and out of my bedroom in the middle of the night!"

Buffy didn’t care if her mother was standing there, or maybe she’d forgotten. She hadn’t noticed that Willow was standing in her bedroom doorway, watching, either.

This was what she and Spike did best. And they both proceeded, uncaring if they had an audience.

"Oh, really?" Spike roared. "I wasn’t sneaking out of ‘your’ bedroom, I was sneaking out of the Nibblet’s!!"

There was a loud groan from behind Dawn’s closed door, and a thumping sound, as if someone were beating their head against it.

Joyce had had enough by now. She marched to where Buffy and Spike stood at a stalemate, glaring at each other, and pointed her finger at the stairway and the front door.

"Out!" She barked.

Buffy blinked. "Mom?"

Spike just tried to look abashed and as innocent as he possibly could, and wisely said nothing for the moment.

Willow screwed up her courage and stuck her head out of Buffy’s bedroom at last. "Mrs. Summers? I can see that you have some things to discuss with Buffy, and so, I, um,……guess I’ll just be running along." She tried to do just that.

Joyce rolled her eyes. What the hell was going on in her house? "Willow, stop! You come right back here!"

The red haired witch hurried to do just what she was told. She came to stand beside Buffy who gave her a look that said ‘nice try’.

Spike resisted the urge to whistle the tune from ‘The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. It seemed to fit the scene, somehow.

Five minutes later, they all were seated at the dining room table, with the exception of Dawn, whom Joyce had told to stay upstairs and await a lecture on having vampires and grown men in general, in her bedroom. Besides, she had a feeling that something was up between her eldest child and Spike. And if it was what she thought it might be, Dawn had no business hearing about it.

And if it ‘was’ what she thought, Joyce feared she might resort to foul language which Dawn had enough of a grasp on as it was.

She needed answers, such as how was Willow involved, and did Rupert Giles know what was going on, since he’d been here when she’d gone to bed? It was all a confusing muddle.

So the best way to get to the bottom of things was to sit them all down at the table, have a nice drink, and a pleasant, or unpleasant, chat.

She took them all in at a glance. Spike looked a bit smug, but just sat playing with a chip in the black polish on one of his fingernails.

Willow kept looking at Spike with a worried frown on her face, and a thoughtful expression, all at the same time. Willow had a way of doing that.

Buffy had her arms folded to her chest and a stubborn look that Joyce knew very well, from prior experience, was going to be hard to get past and get to the truth.

Joyce reached her hand across the table and touched one of Spike’s, lightly. "Spike, will you please go into the kitchen and make us all some cocoa? You know where it’s at, and the marshmallows too, please."

Spike, looking a little flummoxed by her request, complied and got up from his chair.

"Oh, Spike?" Joyce said quickly.

"Mrs. Summers?" ‘Keep it formal, Spike, and maybe she won’t just rip off a table leg and drive it through your heart‘, he thought.

"Could you also bring me something a bit stronger than cocoa? Thank you, you’re such a dear."

Spike nodded, wordlessly, and went to do as bidden, wishing he’d remembered his own flask. He could use it about now!

As soon as Spike was safely out of hearing, Joyce looked at her daughter. "Ok, quickly now before he gets back, I want a replay of what just took place upstairs!" She looked Buffy in the eye. "The truth, please."

Buffy leaned and placed her forehead on the tabletop and banged it softly for inspiration. She looked quickly toward the kitchen as she heard cups and saucers rattling, and then back at Joyce who was giving her a ‘we are on the clock so spit it out’ look.

She glanced at Willow who suddenly found the ceiling extremely fascinating.

She was on her own, and there was just too much to tell, and too little time to tell it in.

So much for breaking it gently.

"Ok….you want it, you got it." Her voice was low enough not to carry to the kitchen. "You can relax about Spike. He isn’t a threat to us. He isn’t going to go all psycho and stalk me to death, or anything. In fact, in a way, I think that ‘I’ have been stalking ‘him’."

Joyce continued her steady unblinking stare at Buffy.

The Vampire Slayer, Savior of the World, gulped and continued.

"I know you were worried that he’d do something unhealthy when I told him we’d never be together, and actually he kind of did, but now, well, that’s all in the past and I discovered that I kind of like Spike, too."

Joyce was not surprised. She’d seen that ‘look’ on Buffy’s face a lot lately. One day she’d watched her daughter put the milk away in the cupboard instead of the refrigerator and walk off all glassy eyed. And every time she turned around Buffy was ‘going to Spike’s for info’. Uh huh.

But she hadn’t ‘led Spike on’, or given him any reason to think that she had feelings for him. Nope. Never that.

"Buffy," Joyce began, "I think you’ve known your feelings for Spike for a long time now, but just wouldn’t admit it to yourself."

"I’ve seen it myself, and so would anyone else who looked for it! I think you’ve been kidding yourself, and I think that you are in love with that young man."

Joyce frowned thoughtfully. "I guess he’s much older though, and not a man, isn’t he?" Of course that ground had been covered with a previous boyfriend, but it looked as though everything old was new again!

Willow had been fidgeting in her chair and couldn’t take it any longer. Buffy might never forgive her, but she had to say it. "He’s not harmless either! He told Buffy that the chip quit working and if that’s true, and it is, because when he slugged Buffy in the nose he didn’t get zapped, then…."

"Buffy Anne Summers! You told me that you ran into a door!"

Buffy groaned. More like a wall. A huge immovable wall. With a ’you are so gonna get it later’ look at Willow she continued.

"I do ‘not’ love Spike! Please! As if! And as for the chip not working, I, uh, well he hasn’t completely convinced me of that yet." She knew that sounded lame but she was at a loss for anything else to say.

Spike came from the kitchen walking swiftly and carrying a tray loaded down with assorted goodies.

He sat it down next to Joyce and then went back around to where Buffy sat, eyeing him nervously. It was obvious that he’d been listening.

He reached out and pinched her so hard on the back of the arm that it bruised instantly and she cried out in pain.

"OW! Eavesdrop much?" She rubbed her arm and glared at him.

Spike went back to his own seat and sat down refusing to look in her direction.

Joyce and Willow had watched him sit down, and now they both looked at Buffy again.

She shrugged, helplessly. "So OK, the chip might be on the blink just a little." But she wasn’t about to admit aloud what she hadn’t admitted to herself and still wasn’t convinced of. That she was in love with Spike.

Joyce noticed that Spike was upset about something but her worry about the chip was foremost on the list.

Things were changed now, and Dawn’s lecture was going to include serious warnings, even though she felt deep down that he was fond of all of them.

The thought that he could, right now if he wanted to, get up from his chair and kill them all savagely, was more than daunting. It was terrifying!

And a very real possibility, unless he truly did care enough about all of them for it to override his natural urge to make dinner out of the lot of them!

Spike had been silent, unwilling to look at the Slayer and had unwittingly been thinking thoughts along the same lines as Joyce’s.

He glanced over at Buffy, quickly and to his surprise caught her looking back at him with something like longing in her expression. She quickly masked it, but not before he was sure of what he’d seen.

Willow, sorry for her earlier outburst but glad it was ‘on the table’, had seen Buffy’s face, also.

It looked a lot like the face she’d worn when moping about Angel a long time ago. ‘Hoo boy’, she thought to herself.

Spike scooted his chair back and got to his feet.

"Joyce, I want to thank you for allowing me to sit here and talk with you, especially now that my little secret isn’t a ‘secret’ any longer." He shot a ferocious glare in Willow’s direction that caused the red head to shrink down in her chair.

"But, now that you know, I want you to be sure of several things. Bloody well sure!"

He glanced at Buffy quickly and then held Joyce in his steady blue eyed gaze.

"I would die to protect the members of this household. I love your daughter, and I think of ‘Little Bit’ as my friend and, oh bloody hell, I love her too." He paused, as to his surprise, Joyce was beginning to smile.

"So, then," Spike continued. "I think you can guess that my feelings extend to you, as well. You’ve been a good friend to me in the past, and I don’t forget that sorta’ thing." He looked again, at Willow.

Willow’s eyes were huge, and she gulped. But she managed to send him a smile, albeit a shaky one.

Spike smiled back, all traces of anger gone. "As for you Red," he said, His smile had become a teasing grin.

"As much as I’d like to see what you taste like at last, I think we’ve gotten past that, don’t you?"

"Oh yeah! Way past that! So far into the past it’s barely a horrible frightening memory!" Her own teasing grin matched his. She was suddenly not at all worried about Tara.

Spike backed away from the table. He didn’t look Buffy’s way at all, and she didn’t look at him.

"It’s time for me to go home, and let all of you lot get some sleep and mull things over. I’m sorry if it’s all a bit hard to swallow, but think how hard it’s been for ‘me’!"

He turned and strode to the front door, his leather duster billowing out with the speed of his exit.

At the sound of the front door softly clicking shut, Joyce looked at Buffy and Willow.

"Well, at least ‘he’ didn’t slam the door."

Buffy sat, silent. She knew she should go after him, and talk to him, sort things out, but she was so sleepy her brain just wouldn’t command her to rise.

The weight of the secret had been like a lead anchor, and now that she was free of it, another had taken it’s place.

Willow had a sudden, hideous, thought. She looked at both Joyce and Buffy, and managed a grin.

"Who’s gonna tell Xander? He’ll shit bricks!"

"Willow!" Joyce burst out, then began to laugh so hard that tears came to her eyes.

Buffy was enjoying her mother’s laughter until she remembered that someone also would have to tell Giles.

Better have those paramedics standing by.

Just around the corner, Dawn was sitting at the foot of the stairs with a huge smile on her face.

This was getting good. No one had remembered to mention just who it was who had invited Spike back into the house again. They would have his protection in the future, to help with Glory.

And it was too late tonight, for her lecture.

Bonus!

THE END….for now.

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