Chapter Thirteen

Buffy and Spike entered the Bronze. Their patrol had gone well, but there weren"t many vamps out for them to dust. Spike leaned his lips down to Buffy"s ear and whispered to her. "I"ll be at the bar if you need me, luv."

"You"re not going to come sit with us?"

Spike shook his head. "No, you go and have fun. You haven"t been out with your friends in a long time. If I get bored I"ll go hustle some pool."

Buffy waved her finger at him. "Don"t steal money from the college students!"

Spike popped a cigarette into his mouth and lit it up. "What? It"s not stealing! I beat them fair and square!"

Buffy crossed her arms in front of her and tapped her foot. "Uh-huh, "cause you having over a century"s worth of experience with the game doesn"t give you an unfair advantage."

"Enough! Run along and play with your friends, all right?"

Buffy held out her hand to him. "Give me some money."

Spike rummaged through the inside pockets of his duster to find his money clip. Buffy had pretty much turned the finances over to him. He reminded her when to pay the bills and taught her how to budget until the next support checks arrived. And since she seemed to never want to carry a purse anymore, she forced him to carry the money along with all sorts of ridiculous things in his pockets. He had drawn the line at the feminine hygiene products, however. She could tuck that in her boot!

Spike handed her fifty dollars. "Here you go pet, now go dance or something."

"You"re Mr. Pouty Vampire tonight! What"s the matter?"

Spike smiled at Buffy and reached out to caress her cheek, but stopped himself as soon as he saw Xander Harris enter the club only a few feet away from the two of them. Spike knew Buffy didn"t want to share the fact that she and Spike were in a romantic relationship with the Scooby gang yet. Whenever they were around, Spike had to pretend that he wasn"t bedding Buffy every night. He was beginning to feel like her dirty little secret, and for some reason, which he could not comprehend, it actually bothered him.

"Nothing"s the matter, luv. Just come and get me when you"re ready to go home, all right?"

"OK." Buffy smiled sadly at Spike as he left her to go sit at the bar.

"Hey, Buffster! Good to see you out and about at the Bronze again." Xander put his arm around his friend and gave her a squeeze.

"Hi Xander! Anya said you weren"t coming tonight. She said you were remodeling the Hell God"s condo."

"I finished up the spackling early. I think it came out really well; you should see it. It doesn"t look like Wonder Bitch ever lived there at all."

Xander led Buffy over to the table where Willow, Tara and Anya were sitting. Buffy decided to question Xander about his fiancée"s new best friend. "So, I hear Anya made a new friend."

Xander smiled. "Oh yeah, Alex. I really think it"s been good for her. Anya"s always trying to fit in better and Alex, well she"s got a lot of the same issues. They have a lot in common, plus Alex is a great bowler. I can"t help but like a girl who can knock back nine beers and still pick up every spare."

Buffy was amazed at how easily Xander and the whole gang were accepting this demon girl as their buddy. "So, you guys hang out with her a lot?"

Xander could sense a twinge of jealousy in Buffy"s voice. "Well, not a lot. Just Anya really . . . and Giles "cause he"s been picking her brain for demon information. And I think Willow and Tara went roller skating with her once or twice."

Buffy furrowed her brow. "Roller skating? Willow?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Yeah! Roller skating!" Willow giggled as she recounted the field trips to the roller rink with Alex. "It was a little difficult at first, but the music is so retro and we fell on our butts and all these weird guys were hitting on us . . . which is really funny "cause when I was straight no guys ever hit on me."

Tara nodded with enthusiasm. "It"s totally hilarious, especially when Alex like morphs into all these different girls all night long and keeps messing with the same guy over and over again. And he thinks she"s a different girl, but she"s not and, well, it"s kind of evil, but not really."

"Oh she just does that to see how many drinks she can get out of them. Remember we didn"t have to pay for one drink that night she kept hitting on those Merrill Lynch guys?" Anya added.

Willow melted into laughter. "Oh Buffy! You have to come with us next time!"

Xander nudged Buffy a little. "Yeah, they"ve even talked me into tagging my very clumsy feet along for the ride."

Buffy was confused. Had she been completely ignoring her friends for weeks at a time? "Oh yeah! Guys, I"m so there! I"ve gotta start getting out more." She was beginning to think she should really keep in touch with the gang a little more and stop being so, so . .. . Spike obsessed.

Willow glanced over towards the bar with concern. "Um, why is Spike all the way over there by himself? Shouldn"t we ask him to come over and sit with us?"

Xander groaned. "Do we have to?"

Willow poked Xander in the ribs. "Xander! He"s all alone over there. Do you think he"s all right, Buffy?"

Buffy bit her lip. "Um, I think he"s OK. Um, unless he"s not."

Anya sighed heavily and yelled over the music to get the vampire"s attention. "Hey Spike! Come over here!" Anya pulled out an empty stool for Spike to sit in.

Spike grabbed two drinks off of the bar and walked over to the Scooby gang. He sat next to Anya and then slid one of the drinks over to Buffy.

"Thanks, Spike." Buffy took a sip of the drink and made a weird face. "Whoa, Spike, what is this?"

"Ginger ale, luv."

"This is not ginger ale."

Spike took a sip of his own drink to test it. "You are correct. This is ginger ale and you"ve got my whiskey."

Xander scowled. "So, Spike, trying to wear her down with alcohol? That"s not very original."

Spike rolled his eyes at the young man. "Yes, Harris, that my evil plan." Spike maniacally rubbed his hands together and cackled in an obviously mocking tone. "Yes, I will get the Slayer so inebriated that she will instantly fall into my clutches where I will do unspeakable things to her! Ha-ha-ha-ha! Sod off!" Spike got up off the stool and stalked back over to the bar.

Willow kicked Xander under the table and gave him a hard stare. Xander winced. "Ow! Willow! What did I do? You said act normal around him! Wasn"t that normal? Uh . . . oops."

Buffy gaped at her friends and then turned her attention on Willow. "Will? You told them?"

Willow got a very guilty look on her face and started to stutter out her confession. "Um, uh, well, what happened was . . ."

Anya sighed in relief. "Well thank God that"s over! I was getting so sick of pretending we didn"t know."

Buffy turned to Anya. "What exactly do you know?"

"That you have been sleeping with Spike and this time it"s really you and not a robot."

Buffy put her head down on the table and started to bang her head lightly against the wood. "Oh-My-God! Oh-My-God!"

Willow reached out her hand and tried to calm her friend down. "Buffy, it"s OK. With all you"ve been through . . . and no one"s judging you."

Buffy lifted her head and looked at the group staring at her. "Why do I feel like I"ve just been "outed"?"

Xander put his arm around Buffy and hugged her. "Because you have. The cat"s out of the bag or in this case the vampire"s out of the bag and guess what? The world didn"t end and we still love you."

"No matter what you do or who you"re with." Willow added.

Buffy hugged Xander back. "Xander? You"re cool with this? Really? "Cause I thought you"d try to stake him when I wasn"t looking."

Xander nodded. "I admit the thought crossed my mind. But I have no right to tell you who you can and cannot date. Even if he"s an undead, evil, soulless . .. ."

Anya snapped at her fiancée. "Damn it Xander! We talked about this! Why do you have to do that all the time?"

Xander hung his head in shame. "Sorry, An."

Anya sighed and shook her head. "Every time I think we"ve gotten past this issue, you keep bringing it up! Why can"t you remember that every time you bash that fangless vampire you"re insulting me?"

"That"s weird, I thought he was insulting Spike." Buffy stated.

Anya got up from the stool and started to pace before the group. "People change! Even demons can change! Look at me. I was Ms. Evil Vengeance girl for over a thousand years and I changed. Spike"s only been evil for a little over what? A hundred years?" Anya"s face contorted as she tried to hold back her tears. "That"s nothing! Even if he was a compulsive over-eater as a vampire, the amount of people he"s killed would only be a drop in the bucket compared to the amount of horrible deaths I was the cause of."

Buffy got up from her seat and put her arms around Anya. For the first time ever since she"d known her did she really feel a connection with Anya. "Anya, please don"t cry."

Anya sobbed on Buffy"s shoulder. "I"m sorry. I"m so sorry. You don"t understand what it"s like. When you"re a demon, you just don"t care about anyone. That"s why what Spike does is so amazing. He"s a demon, but he cares about you like I care about Xander."

Buffy led Anya into Xander"s waiting arms. She watched as Xander whispered his apologies to his bride-to-be. Buffy tapped Anya on the shoulder and held out a glass to her. "Want Spike"s whiskey?"

Anya laughed as she wiped her face with a napkin. "Yes, please."

Buffy sipped on her ginger ale and sighed with relief. "Well, I feel better now that all this is out in the open. It"s going to be a lot less stressful not having to keep any secrets. I"m going to go dance. Who"s coming with me? Will?"

Willow smiled at her best friend. "Um, sure, I"ll be there in just a sec."

As Buffy bounced over to the DJ booth to request a song Willow bit her lip and looked at the rest of the group. "Shouldn"t we tell her that Giles doesn"t know yet?"

Willow"s question was met with an uneasy silence.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Spike sat at the bar and eyed the bartender with anticipation. Finally the young man decided to come over and take his drink order. "I"ll have a pint of the Sam Adams and a shot of Makers Mark."

"Wow a vampire with a drinking problem, surprise, surprise!"

Spike turned to see a young woman with dark hair and blue sunglasses smirking at him. He recognized the succubus immediately and so did the bartender. "Hey Alexandra! Girl, you look fabulous tonight, as usual. What"ll you have? The usual?"

"Ralphie, sweetheart! I think I"ll join my friend here in a boiler maker."

Ralphie winked at the demon girl and grabbed the bottle of whiskey. "Two Sams, two Marks, coming up."

Alex blew the young man a kiss and sat next to Spike. "Thank you, gorgeous!"

Spike pulled out a cigarette and lit it up. "So, do you flirt with every human male or just those that give you alcohol?"

Alex pulled Spike"s cigarette out of his mouth and put it in her own. Taking a long drag, she blew the smoke in the vampire"s face as she replied to his question. "Yes, I flirt with anyone who brings me drinks, makes the whole experience more enjoyable. Plus, I"m a real good tipper."

"Let me guess, you"re going to give Ralphie there more than just a tip later?"

Alex began to laugh sarcastically at Spike"s assumption. "Hey, just "cause I"m a sex demon doesn"t mean I"m a whore, Blood Brother! And besides, I think Ralphie"s boyfriend might get jealous." Alex sighed with resignation. "What a waste of good sperm!"

Spike shook his head in disgust. "That is way more than I needed to know about the bloke. Bloody poofter!"

Ralphie set the drinks in front of the two arguing demons and went on about his business. Alex took her shot of whiskey and plopped it into her beer. "Oh stop it! Homophobia is so last century! When the Hell were you born? The Victorian era?"

Spike followed Alex"s lead and dropped his shot into his beer as well. "Yes, actually." He replied as he drained the pint dry in one full swallow.

Alex was just finishing her drink as Spike was and they both slammed their glasses down at the same time. Alex giggled at the vampire and stole another one of his cigarettes out of his pack sitting on top of the bar. "Victorian England, eh? You have my sympathies."

"Sod off, Succubus!"

"You"re in a stellar mood this evening! What"s the matter? Still mooning over your slayer?"

Spike laughed at the irony of this conversation. He was very happy he had finally achieved a romantic relationship with Buffy, but he was very put out about the fact that he had to hide it from everyone. He decided not to dignify the sex demon"s question with any sort of answer at all when he saw her jaw drop in astonishment.

"Oh my God! You lucky bastard! You scored with the Slayer? I don"t believe it! You said she hated you! Oh my God! Come on, tell me, how"d you do it?"

"Shut up, you bloody Hell Whore! You want the entire town of Sunnydale to know? And how the Hell did you know I "scored" with her?"

"Fuck you, blood sucker! Again, I"m not a whore! I"m sexually liberated, there"s a big difference, you know. As for knowing you"ve been boning Buffy, it"s as plain as the fangs on your face!"

Spike turned and looked around the club. He spotted Buffy dancing with Willow. "Well, her friends don"t know, except maybe the witch and she"s not talking. I hope."

Alex looked over in the direction Spike was facing. She could see the Slayer getting her groove on with her best friend. Alex was glad to see the slayer had finally decided to come out of hiding and go out with her friends. Every time Alex went out with the gang they spent half the time bitching and moaning that Buffy wasn"t there. Now Alex knew exactly why Buffy had been so curiously absent.

Alex motioned to Ralphie for another round of drinks and tapped Spike on the shoulder. "Gotta light?"

"Oh, sure." Spike fished his Zippo lighter out of his pocket and lit up the demon"s cigarette.

Alex accepted the light and smiled at the blond vampire. Just as she was going to thank him she noticed Buffy eyes shooting daggers over in their direction. *Oooh! She"s turning green!* "Check out your girlfriend, Spike. She"s really into you. You"re totally on her mind!"

Spike took a sip of his beer and then turned his attention back to Alex. "I am? Really?"

Alex playfully punched him in the arm. "Oh my God! Yes! Hello!"

Spike lowered his voice to a whisper. "Can you read her mind?"

"No, not really. I just get impressions from people. In order to get into human beings" heads I have to touch their minds in an invasive way. It takes quite a bit of energy, so we only do it when we want to . . . you know."

Spike nodded. "Get it on with a human?"

"Exactly! So I don"t know Buffy"s specific thoughts, but I do know that right now she"s fuming because I"m sitting too close to you." Alex leaned over and whispered into Spike"s ear. "How much you wanna bet she"s over here in the next two minutes?" Alex waved at Ralphie again. "Ralphie? Can I get a Sea Breeze over here, too?"

Spike waved his hand and dismissed Alex"s assumption. "Nah! She"s with her friends. She"s busy dancing." Spike glanced over and saw Buffy walking towards the bar with a determined look on her face. "She"s coming over here!"

"See! Love will do that to a girl."

Spike laughed out loud. "Love? You think she really loves me?"

"Oh come on, Spike! Like that girl would sleep with you every night if she didn"t love you? I don"t take her for the casual sex type."

Buffy walked right up to the two demons at the bar. "Hey, Spike. Hey, Alex, I thought you were in Malibu."

Alex smiled at Buffy and handed her a mixed drink. "I got back early. Anya said you guys would be here tonight." Alex motioned to the drink she just handed Buffy. "Sea Breeze is your favorite, right?"

"Yeah! How"d you know?"

"Demon"s intuition."

Buffy took a sip of her drink and eyed Alex and Spike. "So, what were you two talking about?"

Alex dropped her shot of whiskey into her beer. "Actually, we were talking about you."

Spike shot Alex a wide-eyed look that unmistakably said, "Shut the fuck up!"

But Alex just kept on talking without missing a beat. "Spike was saying that there was no way that I could take you in a fair fight. And I was saying sure, a slayer can always win a fair fight, but demons are demons and we don"t usually play fair, do we?"

Buffy nodded in agreement and poked Spike in the arm. "You got that right! This one here never plays fair!"

Spike laughed nervously. "Well, Buffy, I was trying to kill you at the time."

Buffy turned back to Alex. "Oh, Alex! That reminds me, Willow was telling me about that teleportation spell you were teaching her and how that if I studied enough, I might be able to do it too. Do you think I could, ya know, open up a portal and kick box a few vamps into another time zone? "Cause that would be so neat!"

Alex bounced enthusiastically at the prospect of actually getting to know the slayer instead of hearing about her constantly. "Oh, of course you could learn! All it takes is a little concentration and the correct pronunciation of the incantation. Anybody can do it with some practice."

"Great! Can you come over tomorrow before I go on patrol? I"d like to start learning before I have to start fall semester."

Alex pulled out her day planner. All Buffy could think was *Why does a demon need a day planner?* Alex flipped through a few pages. "OK, tomorrow, I"m free after 7 p.m. Is that good for you?"

Buffy nodded in agreement and then started to tug at Spike"s arm. "Seven? That"ll be fine, Alex. Spike? Do you want to play pool with me, Willow and Xander?"

"Yeah, sure, Slayer."

Spike and Buffy grabbed their drinks and started to leave when Buffy turned back to Alex. "Oh and Alex? I could so take you!"

Alex began to laugh and shake her head at the slayer. "Probably, Buffy, but I bet I could still give you a run for your money."

"I thought you sex demons were lovers not fighters."

"We prefer to be lovers, but we"re fighters when we have to be." Alex said as she raised her glass to the blond couple. *That lucky son of a bitch! I"m alive and I can"t find a decent human relationship. He"s dead and he"s gettin" it every night!* Spike and Buffy nodded their goodbye to the succubus and headed off toward the pool tables.

Alex looked up towards the ceiling and addressed the Powers that Be. "Ya know, the irony is not lost on me! How "bout sending me one too?"

Buffy squeezed Spike"s arm, hard.

"Ow! Buffy!" Spike whined. "What the Hell was that for?"

Buffy smiled. "For making me all jealous!"

Spike rubbed his arm. "Of who? Alex? I wouldn"t touch that over sexed succubus with Xander"s dick!"

Buffy laughed. "I know, but I just didn"t like how close together you two were sitting. It made me all sick inside. What were you two talking about really?"

Spike placed his hand on the small of her back and lightly stroked her exposed skin. "You, luv, and how much I bloody love you."

Buffy smiled widely. "You better."

"I do."*And maybe some day you will too. I hope that Alex"s demon intuition is right! *

It was midnight when Giles opened the door to his apartment. Buffy and Spike had come to collect Dawn.

Buffy smiled at her watcher as she entered his home. "Hi, Giles."

Spike leaned up against the doorframe and nodded to the man with expectation. "Rupert."

Giles wasn’t expecting both of them to come and fetch Dawn. "Oh, hello. Dawn is asleep on the couch."

Spike crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at the doorway. "Well?"

Giles put his reading glasses back on his face and looked at the blond vampire questioningly. "What is it, Spike?"

Buffy put her hand on Giles shoulder and whispered. "Do you want to invite him in?"

Giles had completely forgotten that he had Willow revoke Spike’s invitation a while ago. Giles mentally debated with himself for a moment and decided to invite Spike in again. "All right, Spike, come in."

Buffy walked into the living room and found her sister curled up underneath a knitted afghan. She looked so young just then, like when she was little and Mom used to let her stay up to watch Saturday Night Live, but she could never keep her eyes open long enough to make it through the opening monologue. "So did she make you eat cookie dough and talk about boys again?"

Giles sighed with relief. "No thankfully. But she talked to every other teenaged girl in Sunnydale for about four hours."

"Yeah, she does that." Spike said as he sat down next to the sleeping Dawn and quietly tried to wake her. He put his cold hand on her forehead and her eyes fluttered open. "Spike?"

"Come on, Princess, time to go home."

Dawn smiled up at him, stretching and yawning. "Carry me?"

"Of course." Spike easily lifted the teenager into his arms.

Buffy rolled her eyes at Dawn’s apparent regression into a four-year-old girl. "Spike, don’t spoil her, she can walk!"

Spike smiled as Dawn snuggled into his leather duster. "I don’t mind; she’s as light as a feather."

Dawn stuck her tongue out at her sister and Giles. "She still gets to play the baby, so not fair." Buffy hissed under her breath.

Spike gave Buffy a knowing smile. "I’m going to get this gangly thing into the car." He lightly bounced the girl in his arms. "Come on, Nibblet."

Dawn waved at Giles. "G’night, Giles. Thanks for the cookies."

"Good night, Dawn."

"Rupert." Spike nodded to the watcher again as he carried Dawn out the door.

Buffy grabbed Dawn’s backpack. As she headed for the door, Giles touched her shoulder. "Come and see me at the shop tomorrow morning? I’d like to finish our talk."

Buffy nodded with resignation. "Sure, I’ll be there. 10 o’clock OK?"

"10 o’clock."

From his window, Giles watched as Spike opened the car door for Buffy. The vampire performed this action as if it were second nature to him. As if he’d never been her enemy, as if she’d forgotten and forgiven his former deeds. Dawn had been right about that. It was sweet really, the way she smiled softly at him as she slid into the passenger seat. It was endearing how she looked at this demon as he got into the driver’s seat and started the car. And it was down right romantic how his right arm was held out inviting her to sit closer to him. Then it was frighteningly horrific as Giles could see Buffy’s silhouetted form glide into Spike’s embrace as the vampire drove away with the two girls in his car. Giles’ brain raced with the implications of what he’d just witnessed. His eyes glazed over as he made the deduction. "How have I been so blind? She’s in love with him! God in Heaven! I need a drink." Rupert Giles spent the rest of his evening climbing into a really big bottle of Merlot.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Anya signed for the Fed Ex package early the next morning, a box from England. Giles put it on the reading table and Xander sat looking at it with anticipation. He hated seeing an unopened package. It reminded him of Christmas mornings when his parents were sleeping off their hangovers and he had to wait until they were awake to get his presents. Correction: make that present, as in one. "What is it?"

Anya sat down next to Xander and bounced with curiosity. "Yes, is it something we can sell?"

Giles walked over to it with a box cutter in hand. "No. It’s some information I requested from the Watcher’s Council." He sliced it open and peered inside. "I think they hit the jackpot." Giles pulled out a large accordion file about five inches thick. It read: Spike a/k/a William the Bloody f/k/a William Edward Bennett, IV.

"Wow! All that’s about Spike? What’s in there? A list of all the people he’s killed?"

Giles opened the file and pulled out an envelope labeled photos. "No, it’s his life."

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

When Buffy and Dawn entered the Magic Shop the first thing they noticed was Xander’s face staring at a small pile of papers, which appeared to be photographs.

Dawn sat across from Xander at the reading table and stared at all the papers strewn about. "What’s all this?"

Xander looked up briefly at Dawn. "Spike." - was all he said.

Buffy peered over Xander’s shoulder. "What about . . . Spike?"

Xander held the picture up for both Buffy and Dawn to see.

Dawn’s jaw dropped for a moment as she gaped at the computer scanned photograph.

Buffy’s reaction was similar as she gasped and put her hand over her mouth. "Oh my God!" She whispered into the palm of her hand.

There was Spike - only it wasn’t Spike at all. They were looking at a man in his late twenties who appeared to have light brown hair, although it was difficult to tell because the picture was only in black and white. His eyes were obscured behind a pair of old fashioned spectacles. He looked like something straight out of a Merchant-Ivory film – a stuffy, Victorian Englishman with a shy and gentle smile. There was virtually no trace of the sarcastic bleach blond vampire they all knew.

Buffy snatched the picture away from Xander and sat down with it. She studied it intently looking for any resemblance between this long dead man and the demon with whom she now shared her life. As she looked at his slightly crooked smile she could see the similarity between the two. That was just how Spike looked every morning when she rolled over to kiss him hello. It was the same sweet smile he always gave her, just before he pulled her back into his arms to beg for her affections one more time before she left him for the day.

* I wonder whom he was thinking of when this picture was taken. *

Buffy shook her head in disbelief. "This is so, so, so . . ."

Xander nodded in agreement. "Trippy isn’t it? I mean look at the guy!"

Dawn gently pulled the photo away from her sister and studied it herself. "I think he looked sweet! Like a real nice guy. . ."

Giles entered the room carrying what appeared to be a glass of Scotch. "Yes, apparently, he-he was a nice fellow and a smart one at that."

"Giles? Are you drinking?" Buffy asked in disbelief.

Giles snorted slightly. "I really needed this!"

"At 10 a.m.?" Dawn asked.

Xander flipped through some more of the photos and answered Dawn’s question. "Well, it is Happy Hour in London, right Giles?"

Giles frowned at the young man. "Do shut up, Xander."

Xander opened his mouth for another witty comeback, but then thought better of it. "Shutting up."

Dawn shuffled through some of the papers on the table reading bits and pieces of them. "You said he was smart, right Giles?"

Xander laughed. He just couldn’t contain himself. "As in Dr. Evil smart?"

Giles took another swallow of his drink. "No. I mean as in Oxford educated, degree holding, treatise writing – smart."

Dawn smiled at Buffy. "I knew it! No wonder he’s been torturing me with the literature all summer. It’s what he studied."

"So you’re saying he was Mr. Book Worm? Spike? Excuse me, I’m gonna lose it." Xander burst into hysterical laughter once again.

Dawn put her hands on her hips and pouted. "Xander! Not funny!"

"Oh yes it is! Between these pictures and his former geek status, he’s going to wish he was dust in the wind!"

Buffy mirrored her little sister’s body language and turned to her friend. "Xander! No! You are not gong to make fun of this! It’s not fair."

"Fair? Oh I think it’s very fair, Buff. All those years of him calling me a loser when the whole time he was covering up the fact that he was just as nerdy if not more? It’s payback time, baby!" Xander rubbed his hands together in excitement.

Dawn got up and poked Xander in the arm. "Xander! That is so childish!"

Xander’s expression changed from gleeful to serious. "I know. Dawn, you’re right, it is childish and wrong."

Dawn nodded with satisfaction for a moment, until Xander started to snicker again. "It may be wrong, but it doesn’t mean I’m not going to still do it!"

Dawn and Buffy surrounded Xander menacingly. Dawn looked to Buffy for a moment and then spoke sweetly to Xander. "So, you’re going to what? Make fun of Spike for being a book worm like Giles or Willow and for being a total spaz with girls, like, like you were?"

Xander clutched his chest as if he’d been wounded. "Ouch! Dawnmeister?"

Dawn shrugged her shoulders at him. "Well, it’s true. Right, Buffy?"

Buffy nodded in agreement. "You were kinda, well, you know and then you went out with Cordelia."

Xander put on his best puppy dogface. "Buffy?"

Dawn stuck her finger in her mouth at the mention of Cordy’s name and started to gag herself. "Ack! Ack! Evil May Queen! Ack!"

Dawn and Buffy’s giggles were cut short by the entrance of Giles holding a small leather bound book with handwritten pages. He seemed very agitated and he started to quickly pack all the papers on the table back into the accordion file. Giles snatched a photo from Xander’s grip and stuffed it into the file. "Where’s the fire, Giles?" Xander asked.

Giles looked up at the three young people and shook his head. "I, just-just need to read these in a quiet place without all the dis-distractions. Tell Anya she’s got the shop to herself today." And with that Giles hurried out the door not noticing that one of the photos had fluttered to the floor behind him.

Dawn retrieved the photo from the floor. It was a picture of Spike with a young lady; a teenager no older than Dawn. They were both smiling softly in that proper English sort of way. The handwritten note underneath the scanned photo read: "William, aged 27, Grace (sister), aged 14. "This is Spike’s little sister . . ." Dawn whispered.

Xander and Buffy looked over Dawn’s shoulder at the picture. Xander shook his head in disbelief and Dawn sighed. "It’s wiggy ya know? He was a human, just like us."

Buffy nodded in agreement as Dawn continued. "It’s getting harder and harder to see him as just a soulless demon."

Xander shrugged his dissent. "Well, yeah, until he starts sucking down a pint of pig’s blood or running around town with a tarp over his head. Plus the fangs – dead give away."

Dawn looked at Buffy with a thousand unanswered questions on her face. "I wonder what happened to his sister, his family, ya know, after he . . ."

Buffy opened her mouth to respond, but Xander interrupted. "He probably ate his family, like Angel did. Or maybe he fed them to Angel."

Dawn and Buffy shot disapproving glances at Xander. "I’m just saying. He was evil – er, eviler, back then."

Later that evening at the Summers’ home, Dawn pushed start on the dishwasher and shuffled herself into the living room where Spike was sitting with the remote control. She plopped herself down next to the vampire and looked at him with her innocent blue eyes.

Spike raised his eyebrow at the girl. "What?"

"I’m soooooo bored."

"Well, Anya and Alex are coming over in a bit. You can play with them."

Dawn snorted. "Blah! They’re so boring. All Anya ever talks about is the wedding and Alex spends all her time trying to teach Buffy the correct pronunciation of ancient Greek or Sumerian or whatever. Like she’s ever gonna learn that anyway."

Spike flipped the channel to the Soap Opera network. "Well, you’re grounded little girl so you’ll just have to deal."

"But I’m going stir crazy! Can’t we just go out and do an errand or something? Don’t we need milk or bread or cow’s blood or something?"

Spike rolled his eyes at her. "No."

Dawn whined in Spike’s ear and started to whimper into his shoulder like a wounded puppy. "You’re so mean! Can’t we at least just go for a walk? It’s not like I’m asking you to let me go out with my friends or anything. Just you and me, we’ll leave Buffy at home."

Spike pulled Dawn in for a hug. She could make him turn into a sorry excuse for a demon with one look at her pleading blue eyes. * I am such a bloody poofter! *

"All right! Fine! You win, Platelet, I suppose we could go get some ice cream or something. Would you like that?"

Dawn looked up into the vampire’s face and smiled softly at him. "Yes. Thanks, Spike."

"Go get your coat."

TBC......