Man of the House

Dawn was dreaming fitfully in her sleep . . .

She was on the beach again, sitting on a blanket as the waves crashed onto the sand. She could tell it was high noon by the way the sun was positioned in the sky. She was enjoying the feel of the ocean's breeze blowing on her skin and the sun's rays warming her body.

Just then a black sports utility vehicle pulled up right next to her on the sand. The passenger side window rolled down and Buffy stuck her head out the window. "Dawn! I told you to come home for lunch by noon and you're late, as usual. Your father and I are very disappointed."

Dawn was surprised. "Daddy's here? He came home?"

The driver's side door opened and her father came around the car to greet her. "No you silly girl! I never left."

It was Spike and he was walking in the sun! His hair was light brown and he was wearing khaki pants and a navy blue polo shirt! He looked like a Gap ad! "Come on, Dawn sweetheart, your mother and I have been waiting for you."

"But, Spike, you're not my father. I've never really had a father. And Buffy's not my mom."

Spike picked up the blanket off of the sand and handed Dawn her towel and sandals. "What are you talking about, Dawn? We've always been your parents. Now get in the car and lets go eat."

Dawn obeyed Spike and the next thing she knew she was back in her bed getting tucked in by Buffy. Her sister who still thought she was her mother smiled down at her. "My little girl is so grown up now. Pretty soon we'll be taking pictures of you at the Prom and graduation and then sending you off to college. I can't believe it. You're the best daughter I've ever could have wished for."

Dawn's eyes teared up. She knew this was a dream, but it felt so real. It was like she'd dreamed herself into the perfect world! Buffy kissed Dawn's cheek and got up to walk towards the door.

Spike was at the door watching with a smile on his face. He then walked over and sat on the edge of the bed next to Dawn and kissed her forehead lightly. "Sleep tight . . . don't let the vampires bite."

Right before her eyes, Spike's face changed from the living man with the brown hair to the Spike she knew so well. His hair reverted to its bleached out white and his clothing changed back into his black leather. Even his fingernails changed back to the standard black nail polish he always wore.

Dawn started to cry and Spike held her close. "Shh, luv, don't cry."

Dawn shook her head. "This is all a dream. Just a dream."

Spike laughed at her softly. "Sometimes dreams come true." Spike reached over and turned off the light on her bedside table and the room went black.

In the darkness Dawn could feel a presence near her bedside. Now that this dream was starting to resemble more of a nightmare than a "perfect" dream world she was getting scared. Dawn took a deep breath and whispered. "Spike? Buffy? Are you there?"

She felt the bed shift under the weight of another body laying itself next to her. Oh my God!

"Who's there?"

Two strong arms wrapped themselves around her body and pulled her tightly to an obviously male body.

"Shh, Dee, it's just me."

Dawn turned around to face him. "Brian? Why are you here?"

"You told me to come, so I did."

"I didn't tell you to come over and even if I did I wouldn't have asked you into my bed."

"But you did."

Brian leaned in and kissed her fully on the mouth, lightly licking and sucking on her tongue. Dawn couldn't believe this was happening, even if it was only a dream. A very hot and sexy dream all of a sudden. Brian felt so good kissing her. She remembered what he'd looked like on the beach yesterday in nothing but his wet bathing suit. She'd thought the way it hung so low on his hips was very erotic. She began to feel a very tingly sensation in her stomach.

She could feel his body pressing tightly into hers as Brian's fingers gently ran through her long hair. A small sigh of pleasure escaped from Dawn's mouth as his lips kissed her neck. "Oh my God, Brian."

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

It was three o'clock in the morning and Brian was up the tree outside Dawn Summers' window watching her sleep. He didn't know why he was here. He just felt better sitting up here near to Dawn rather than all alone at home in his crappy studio apartment above the auto body shop.

What wasn't commonly known about him was that Brian was an emancipated minor who'd been on his own since the age of fifteen. He very rarely let on about his lack of family to anyone except those who absolutely needed to know it, like teachers, guidance counselors, police officers and social workers. He never talked about it with his friends; he never had to, he didn't let too many people get that close to him.

He'd never known his father. Daddy was gone before he was even born. Hell, Dad didn't even know he existed, whoever he was. And his mother died only four days after he was born. At least he'd had his Grandma; she'd raised him. Although she told him everything about his Mom, his grandmother didn't know much of anything about his father except that he was originally from France and his name was Steven. Mom hadn't known him for very long. She'd met him while she was attending UCLA back in 1984. She'd fallen head over heels for the guy; they had a three-month fling and then one night he disappeared. Mom had told Grandma that the police had found his car parked near an abandoned warehouse and traces of blood, but no body was ever discovered. The Police department wrote it off as an unsolved homicide. Then Mom found out she was pregnant with Brian two months later and she decided to keep her baby even though she was still only nineteen. Grandma had always said that his mother really did miss Steven and wished he could have been there to see his son.

Brian had been born with great difficulty and his mother died from complications during his birth. But the strangeness of his circumstances did not end there. He was born a freak. He had discolored eyes - very large pupils and red irises. The defect was caused by an unusual blood disorder that the doctors had never seen before. At first they thought he was an albino child, but when his skin pigmentation and hair color turned out to be normal they were puzzled. DNA tests revealed an abnormal genetic structure. The doctors had wanted to do all sorts of research on him, but Grandma insisted that since Brian seemed otherwise healthy she would not allow him to become a guinea pig just because he looked different. She took him home, raised him and loved him, as she would have any other baby.

When he was four years old she had him fitted with colored contact lenses so that he would be able to fit in with the other children better at Pre School. She had chosen blue lenses for Brian because his mother's eyes had been blue. When they put them on him for the first time they noticed that because of the red behind them they looked a bluish purple color instead of a proper blue. Well the optometrist and his grandmother agreed that violet eyes were close enough to normal and left them that way.

So, he grew up just like any other child except for a few eccentricities. Like when he came home from second grade one day and asked his grandmother why all the other kids got to stay home because of a thing called the chicken pox. Why couldn't he stay home because of the "chicken disease"?

If he ate more chicken, could he get it too? Grandma explained that he just never got the illness. She didn't know why. But she assured him that if he ever got it he could stay home just like all the other kids. But he never got sick, ever, not a cold, not the chicken pox, nothing.

And then when he was in fifth grade and he had fallen off his new bike and skinned his knees almost down to the bone, Grandma had taken him to the emergency room and had his wounds cleaned and stitched up. He'd been so happy because he knew he was finally going to stay home "sick". But the next morning when she checked his bandages he had been completely healed. She took out the stitches and sent him back to school. He had been so disappointed.

Other disappointments followed as well, like whenever he played football with the other boys, they always seemed to get hurt whenever he tackled them. And we're not talking just cuts and bruises but broken bones, lacerations and concussions. The other boys' parents would complain about Brian's roughness to his grandmother. He felt so bad that he had accidentally caused their pain, he stopped playing sports all together. Grandma tried to explain that he needed to be gentler and then he could play with the others, but Brian just gave it up.

By middle school, he decided to try his hand at music instead. Grandma paid for piano and guitar lessons and Brian was really good at it. He could imitate everything the teacher taught him with minimal practice, finally he stopped the lessons and played for himself. He could pick up any instrument and learn it in a matter of hours. Unfortunately, being a marching band geek was very un-cool, that's when he started his first punk rock band. He loved that music because it was stripped down to its bare minimum. The philosophy that less was more applied very well to the music and it got any and all aggression he might have had as a prepubescent boy.

Then Brian hit puberty and things got even weirder, if that was possible. When he was thirteen he woke up one morning from a nightmare and noticed that his sheets and comforter were ripped to shreds. Overnight, he had grown claws! So scared that his grandmother would be mad and see that he really was a freak. He closed his eyes and tried his best to will them away. Go away! Go away! I'm normal! I'm normal! I look completely normal! He'd looked down at his hands and they were back to "normal". That's when he discovered that he could alter his appearance with just his thoughts. He spent every free moment in front of the mirror changing his appearance in subtle ways and then not so subtle ways. He was able to stop wearing his contacts all together, but he kept his eyes the same violet blue color. He'd change the color of his hair whenever he felt like it. He could even change his clothes if he concentrated hard enough.

He finally felt comfortable with his new found "magic tricks" that he'd decided to share it with his grandmother. And then his world fell apart.

He came home from school one afternoon to find her dead on the kitchen floor. She'd had a heart attack and died earlier that day while making lunch. He was devastated. He'd loved her so much, and he never thought that she would just die on him.

Grandma had been his only living family and the state took custody of him. A series of group homes, foster parents and court appearances followed. He'd been thirteen when she died and he spent most of the two years that followed running away from social workers and truant officers. He found himself living on the streets of Los Angeles. This is where he had his first run-ins with vampires and other demons. He defended himself against these demons with deadly efficiency and although he was scared shitless of them, he was happy to know that he wasn't the only freakish creature out there in the world. He finally decided to get the hell away from LA and he ended up making his way to Sunnydale with a short-lived punk rock band called Dead Ringer. Once here in Sunny D, he was immediately arrested and brought before a sympathetic judge who decided that if "this obviously intelligent and gifted young man" attended school daily, counseling sessions weekly and found part time employment he could live on his own with assistance from government funds. So that's how he ended up here at sixteen with his own car, apartment and band. But he was still alone, no Mom or Dad, no Grandma or any other family. Sure, he had friends; he'd even confided a little of his history to Kevin who was a really cool guy to hang around with. But generally he just kept his secrets to himself. There was no need to get close to people when you can lose them so easily.

Then one day last year he saw Dawn for the first time at a school dance. She looked so sweet, like a piece of bubble gum all dressed up in a pair of rhinestone-studded blue jeans and a stomach revealing tee shirt. Then Kevin pointed out the same girl to him and he said, "There she is, man. I'm so gonna get her to go out with me this year." Damn!

He tried to forget about her, she was just a girl like any other, but just a little different, more interesting. Being around her drove him insane. He'd been sexually attracted to lots of girls before but not like this. He could swear sometimes he could actually feel what she was feeling. More often than not she was worried or sad, but on occasion he could tell she was fantasizing about sex, just like he was. He didn't think that girls thought about sex at all, but she did; he could smell it on her. He just wanted to drag her out to his car and do unspeakable things to her right there in his back seat. But Grandma had always told him that "young ladies were not put on this earth for your pleasure, it is your job to do as they please." The old lady may have been long dead, but he still listened to her.

What stopped him from ever trying to ask her out was that not only did Kevin think she was all that, but Dawn was all hot for Kevin also. It wasn't until that day at the beach when he could feel Dawn looking at him in his bathing suit did he understand that this time she wasn't just fantasizing about just anyone, she was fantasizing about him. He didn't understand how he knew it, but he just did. For a brief second he could see inside her head and get the picture that she wanted him to take that bathing suit off and let her see him. He now had a glimmer of hope where Dawn was concerned. And then later that night he saw Kevin with his tongue down Dawn's throat. That had pissed Brian off immensely, but then when he realized that Kevin wasn't really Kevin anymore, he knew he had to get her away from him.

So he stepped up to the plate and did the best he could at the hero gig, but in the end, she ended up in tears. He'd killed the vampire Kevin had become, but Dawn still lost her hope for a normal boyfriend. And Brian wasn't any where near normal.

His life sucked.

So there he sat up in a tree when he should be home in bed, hoping and wishing for a chance with her. He had had about enough of trying to ignore the very obvious sounds of love making coming from Dawn's sister and her vampire lover.

He was just about to climb down and go home when he heard the softest sigh come from inside Dawn's bedroom.

"Brian . . ."

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

Dawn could feel a cold breeze brush past her face as the shades of the dream of her and Brian making out in her bed faded from her view.

Then her bedside light clicked on and she jumped in fright. Unable to scream, Dawn simply gasped in terror as Brian's finger came up to her lips to silence her. "Shh . . . Dee. It's only me. I'm so sorry to scare you like that."

Dawn hauled off and punched Brian in the arm as hard as she could. "Brian, you jackass!" She hissed at him in a whisper. "What the Hell are you doing here so late?"

"I couldn't sleep. I wanted to . . . um . . . ask you something."

Dawn was flabbergasted. She'd just been dreaming that intense dream about him and now here he was, really here. "Brian, my sister and Spike are just next door!"

Brian shook his head. "No, they're downstairs getting it on in the shower. There's no way they can hear a thing right now."

"Oh, eww! I didn't want to know that!"

Brian laughed softly. "Sorry."

Dawn rolled her eyes at him. "So, what did you want to ask me?"

Brian took a deep breath and tried to get the words out of his mouth. "Um, well, I wanted to know if . . ."

"If what?"

"I wanted to know if you really wanted a normal boyfriend."

Dawn was fiddling with her new necklace when she put two and two together. "Brian?"

Brian gulped for a second. "Yes?"

"Kevin didn't really buy this necklace for me did he?" Dawn held the little key out for Brian to see.

Brian couldn't speak, he was only able to shake his head no.

Dawn needed to know the answer as to why one of her friends would lie about something so important. "Why, Brian?"

Brian hung his head in embarrassment. "Because he totally loved you and he was the lucky bastard who saw you first."

"So you bought the key and wrote the note?"

"Yeah, I did, but Kevin would have, if he'd had the chance to. Believe me. He would have."

"So this means that you, um, like me too?"

"No."

Dawn was not expecting that answer. "Oh, OK, so . . ."

Brian's mouth moved too fast for his brain to stop it and he blurted out. "I'm in love with you."

Dawn's eyes nearly popped out of her head. "Oh, wow! All this time I thought you were just super nice to me because of Kevin, when all along you wanted . . ."

Brian ran his hands through his hair and started to pace the room. "I am such an idiot! I just wanted to know if you could ever you know, look at me that way."

"I already do." Dawn whispered.

Brian's heart leapt into his throat. Did he really hear what she just said? She already liked him like he liked her? "What?"

Dawn got up out of her bed, walked over to her door and shut it all the way. She turned and stood in front of the exhausted boy in her bedroom. "I said I already do, uh, look at you that way."

Brian smiled widely at her. "Dee, I've got one more question. If I told you I wasn't a normal guy, would you still date me?"

Dawn looked at him with confusion. "You're not an evil vampire who wants to kill me and make me your eternally undead girlfriend are you?"

Brian chuckled at her response. "No. I can say this, I am definitely not a vampire."

"Well, I'm not normal either so . . . "

Brian reached out and took a hold of her hand. "So, wanna go see a movie after you get paroled?"

Dawn smiled at him. "Yeah, that'd be really cool."

Brian stepped closer to her. "I want you to come to our next gig, will you?"

"I will."

Brian wrapped his arms around Dawn's waist and pulled her a little closer. "I want you to be my girlfriend, Dee. Will you?"

"Maybe if you're nice, I will."

He smirked at her. "Oh come on, I'm always nice." Brian stopped thinking about what he was doing and just leaned in and kissed Dawn's lips softly. She closed her eyes and her arms instinctively went around his neck pulling him closer until their bodies touched.

As Brian kissed her, his minds eye could see a flash of images from a dream Dawn had had about the two of them. It was just a moment, but in that moment, Brian knew everything he'd wanted to know about what Dawn's fantasies were. He broke the kiss and pulled her in for a hug. Brian kissed Dawn's neck and sucked lightly at her tender flesh as he held her tight. He whispered to her. "I want to make your dreams come true."

Dawn blushed in his arms. She didn't want this to end just yet, but she knew that if Buffy and Spike caught her up here with a guy in her bedroom she would be grounded until she turned thirty.

Brian knew that she needed him to take off. "Hey, I better get out of here, now. Your parents will kill me if they find me in here."

"They're not my parents."

"They might as well be, though right?"

Dawn smiled. "Yeah, you're right."

Brian kissed her quickly again and headed for the window. "I'll call you tomorrow, we'll talk, OK?"

"Sure, goodnight Bri."

"'Night, Dee."

Brian disappeared down the trellis on the side of the house and Dawn watched as he quickly made his way down the street to where his car was parked.

Dawn crept back into bed and prayed silently to be let back into the dream she'd been having about Brian. She had so much more material to add to it now!

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

Buffy collapsed in a heap on top of Spike. She buried her face in his neck and panted heavily on him. "That was so . . ."

Spike gulped an unneeded breath and finished her sentence. "Amazing!"

Buffy rolled off of Spike and retrieved her pajamas off of the bathroom floor from where Spike had yet to move. She stared down at her very exhausted and very naked lover. He really is just gorgeous when he's naked. I guess the robot wasn't lying about that.

Buffy handed him his jeans. "Come on, you're not that dead, Spike. Let's go to bed."

Spike slowly got up off the floor and put his jeans back on. He yawned and stretched a bit as Buffy watched his tee shirt go over his head. "I think you've tired me out, luv. And it's not even sunrise yet."

"Yes, well an old man like you can't keep up with a young nubile Slayer like me." Buffy joked as she yawned even louder than he had.

Spike picked her up in his arms. "Well this old man is going to put this beautiful, young and astonishingly nubile Slayer to bed right now."

Spike carried her up the stairs and as he passed Dawn's door he noticed that it was shut all the way. Dawn never slept with her door shut all the way. The poor girl may say she's not a kid but she still needed the light from the nightlight in the hallway coming through the crack of her door. It was so that she would feel secure enough to sleep. Spike deposited Buffy in bed and went to check in on Dawn.

Very quietly he opened her door and peaked inside. All was well. Dawn was sleeping soundly in her bed and nothing looked wrong to his keen night vision. But something wasn't right; something didn't smell right. If he didn't know better, he would have sworn that he smelt that boy, Brian. Very slowly and quietly he examined the room for any signs of entry. He looked under her bed and in the closet, but no kid. He checked the dark corners and under her desk, but again nothing. Then he felt a small draft coming from the window. Her window was open about two inches and when he approached it that's when the smell grew stronger. That bloody wanker has been in here! Damn it!

Spike quietly returned to he and Buffy's bedroom. Spike disrobed and got into bed with the very sleepy Buffy. She rolled into his arms. "Where'd you go?"

Spike replied in a harsh whisper. "I was checking in on Bite Size and I swear . . . Buffy, I think that Brian kid was in her room tonight."

Buffy snapped to attention. "What? How can you tell?"

"I smelled him."

Buffy tried to rationalize Spike's accusation. "Couldn't it just be on her clothes from when she hugged him this afternoon?"

Spike began to doubt himself. His sense of smell was very well developed and he could have just been smelling a residual scent. "Maybe, but . . ."

Buffy hugged him tighter. It was so cute how protective he was being of her little sister. "I think you're being paranoid."

Spike growled softly. "Have you not noticed the way he looks at her?"

Buffy smiled. "No, I was a little on the blind side at the time, but I get it. He likes her. I think it's cute."

"Cute? He bloody looks at her like a fledgling who has yet to make his first kill."

"I think you're exaggerating."

"Oh am I? OK then, how old were you when you snuck your first boyfriend into your bedroom?"

Buffy fell silent as she remembered sneaking Angel into her bedroom right under her mother's nose when she was sixteen. Dawn was only a year younger than she was then. "Oh, God."

"Uh huh. Makes you think doesn't it? You see, luv, inside every `nice teenaged boy' there is a raging sex demon just fighting to get out. Believe me, I know."

"OK, I understand, Spike. If she is sneaking him in then we will punish her, but I am not going to tell her she can't see him."

"Why the Hell not?"

"Because it worked so not well with me when everyone told me to stay away from Angel."

Spike shivered in disgust. "I am going to have nightmares all day. Just stake me if the screaming gets too loud."

Buffy snuggled the vampire in her bed. "Spike, stop it. Let's have a good long nap and we'll obsess about this tomorrow." She planted a long and very reassuring kiss on his mouth.

Spike returned her kiss desperately. He wanted everything to be all right with the three of them. He didn't want to think about some snot nosed kid trying to boink his little girl. And he sure as Hell didn't want any Buffy - Angel flashbacks.

The kiss ended and she laid her head down on his chest. She was asleep within two minutes. Spike stroked his lover's hair that was cascading over his bare chest. Quietly he whispered to the dreaming woman. "I love you, Buffy. And I love her, too. That's why I'm so paranoid. I don't want anything to happen to my girls."

Buffy dreamily mumbled back to Spike. "Don't worry, Spike. I'll always be your girl."

Spike smiled at Buffy's response to him and silently added. Oh, my Slayer, you will always be my girl.

Man of the House

Buffy entered the Magic Shop and spotted Giles at the reading table transcribing some notes into his new lap top computer. Buffy sat down next to her Watcher and gave him a hug. "Whatcha working on there?"

Giles gave Buffy an absent smile and patted her shoulder. "I'm finishing up the last chapter of the translation of those ancient texts I was working on."

"Wow! You did that fast."

Giles smiled and nodded his head. "Yes. Well, I did have a little help. How's your little sister behaving? Good, I hope?"

Buffy opened her backpack and started emptying its contents onto the table. "Well it's been one week and her prison sentence seems to be going by without any incidents of her boyfriends trying to eat her. She's been spending all her time either on the computer, watching television or talking on the phone, except of course when Spike is cramming the books down her throat."

Giles laughed at the thought of "William the Bloody" as an evil schoolmaster. How fitting! "How ever does he keep her focused? And would the same techniques work on Slayers?"

Buffy took out her course sign up sheet from UC Sunnydale and waved it at Giles. "Hey! I'm signing up for classes as we speak! And I'm focused!;It's just that usually the demon slaying and the dying to save the world gets me a little distracted."

Giles peered back at Buffy from behind his reading glasses. "Touché."

Buffy winked at Giles. "As for Spike and Dawn, he's been going light on the Shakespeare lately and giving her novels that he thinks she would enjoy like Pride & Prejudice, Jane Erye and Wuthering Heights. He calls it `girlie stuff', but they're still considered literary classics."

"I'm just surprised he isn't making her read Bram Stoker."

Buffy giggled. "Spike would rather try to impale himself with a toothpick than let her read that piece of `blasphemous rot'. Or so he says."

Giles' tone then became a bit more serious. "Buffy, speaking of Spike, I've been meaning to ask you about your current living arrangements."

Buffy groaned inwardly. Oh God! Here it comes - the lecture. Buffy smiled and took a deep breath. "Um, OK, what about my living arrangements?"

"Well, while I think that having Spike living with the two of you on a short term basis has been helpful . . ."

Buffy nodded in agreement. "Yes?"

"But-but, I truly think you and Dawn need to get back to a normal life. It cannot be healthy for Dawn having a vampire as a member of the household, however 'harmless' he may be right now. I would be happy to help him find a place of his own on a more permanent basis. Maybe a newer crypt or perhaps he can even find an apartment, or . . ." Giles stopped his speech and watched in amazement as Buffy's face took on a look of sadness that he rarely saw her wear. He suddenly felt very guilty for even broaching the subject of "vampire relocation" for Spike.

Buffy put her head down slightly and sighed. "I know, Giles, but it's just that I, we, Dawn, um . . . It's just that things are going along just fine right now and I don't want to do anything to upset Dawn. She is doing really well and Spike is far less annoying and much more helpful and . . ."

Giles was beginning to think that there really was something more to this situation than Buffy was telling him. "But Buffy, really, think about this rationally for a moment. Spike is de-fanged for now, but I have full confidence that one day that piece of machinery in his brain will either malfunction or simply wear out. Then we will all be dealing with a homicidal maniac again. What would happen if that occurred while he was alone with Dawn or while you were sleeping?"

Buffy's face began to flush with anxiety. How could she justify herself to Giles without giving herself or her feelings away? How could she convince him that Spike would never hurt her or Dawn or would he? "Giles, I really don't think Spike would be so stupid as to actually try to . . ."

Giles took his glasses off and crossed his arms in front of his chest defensively. "Why is that, Buffy? Is it because you think that since Spike is still in love with you that he'd never hurt you? That is where you could be very wrong. If he suddenly lost that chip, how long would it be before both you and Dawn woke up one evening soulless and eternally damned to be his `family'?"

Buffy was about to counter Giles' argument when the doorbell jingled and Willow and Tara entered the shop. At the same time Anya emerged from the storage area at the back of the shop. Giles put his glasses back on and bit his lip. Whispering to Buffy, Giles hugged his slayer to him. "I'm sorry that I am being so harsh about this, but I am concerned for your safety. We'll talk again later, all right?"

Buffy nodded in agreement. "Sure, Giles, later."

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

Dawn was on the phone again.

Spike was amazed that her tongue didn't shrivel up and fall out of her head from the amount of time she spent speaking with her friends. Mental note: if we ever ground her again, I'm putting a clause in that limits her phone time to one hour a bloody day!

Spike stood at the teenager's bedroom door and waited for her to take a breath or look over at him so he could interrupt her.

Dawn lay on her bed with the phone cradled against her shoulder and her ear as she read through the liner notes of the latest NSYNC CD. "So he said he wanted to take me to a movie and I was like `Sure' and he was like `Cool'. But I don't know what we should go see. What's a good first date movie?"

Spike shook his head. She was too young to date! She only just turned fifteen!

Dawn continued her conversation. "A.I? You really think so? I heard the ending was lame."

"Psst! Nibblet!" Spike hissed at Dawn.

As she motioned for him to leave her alone, Dawn mouthed the words, "Not now!"

"Get off the bloody phone!" Spike growled.

"Hey Mindy, hang on a sec." Dawn clapped her hand over the receiver. "What? Can't you see I'm on the phone? Why can't you sleep all day like normal vampires?"

"Do you want to meet with me for one hour and discuss "Pride and Prejudice" or do you want me to tell Buffy that you're not doing your lessons and suggest that you not be allowed to go out on your date with Brian?"

Dawn rolled her eyes at Spike and returned to speaking with Mindy. "Mindy? I have to call you back or else my sister's demon of a boyfriend will suck all the fun out of my life. I'll call you tonight. Bye."

Spike approached Dawn and held out a copy of "Pride and Prejudice" to her which she accepted begrudgingly. Spike hissed again. "Do you have to make this more painful than it needs to be? I mean that's usually my job. You can babble with your girlfriend all you want tonight."

Dawn took the book from Spike and flipped through the pages. "What part did we leave off at again?"

Spike smiled and sat down on the bed. "Elizabeth just told Mr. Darcy where he could stick his marriage proposal. What a bitch!"

Dawn laughed. "She wasn't a bitch. He was a complete moron! He treated her like crap and then just expected her to kiss his snooty aristocratic butt. He was totally condescending."

Spike nodded. "Yeah, he was a bit of a git wasn't he?"

"Yeah, he was!" Dawn stopped and thought a moment. "What's a git?"

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

Back at the Magic Box, Willow was whining and begging at Buffy. "Oh come on Buffy! We haven't gone dancing in so long, please?"

"Um, I don't know, Spike and I have to patrol and I don't like leaving Dawn home alone at night."

Willow pouted a bit while she thought up alternative options. "Well, you could drop Dawn off at Giles' or Xander's for the night. It's just the Bronze for a couple of hours after patrol. Or send Spike home to Dawn-sit. I really miss having you around when we go out."

Buffy thought it over for a moment. "I really want to give Spike the night off from Dawn duty, he spends all day with her and he's been really stressed lately."

Willow giggled. "Stressed? Buffy, he's like Mr. Immortal Dead Guy! What does he have to be stressed about?"

Buffy pulled Willow aside. "He thinks that Dawn's too young to have a boyfriend and she's got one."

Tara couldn't help but overhear the conversation her girlfriend was having with Buffy. "Re-really? Dawnie has a boyfriend?"

The three women huddled into a quiet corner of the shop and Tara and Willow listened as Buffy relayed the story of how Spike suspected that Dawn might have been sneaking Brian into her bedroom at night. Willow and Tara gasped and then Willow started to laugh.

Buffy crinkled her forehead. "Will? It's so not funny!"

Willow tried to stop her giggles unsuccessfully. "But it is Buffy! Remember back in high school when you totally pulled the wool over your mom's eyes and snuck Angel into you bedroom?"

"That's exactly why it's not funny! I mean, it's not like this Brian kid's a demon, but he's still an adolescent boy who could totally try to take advantage of Dawn."

Tara ventured a piece of advice. "Sometimes the best way for kids to learn is for them to make mistakes. Maybe you shouldn't leave her alone right now, but then again she does need some space to grow as a person. I say keep doing what you're doing and keep an eye on her, but don't worry yourself to death about it either."

"I don't have to, Spike does that for me. He's really on edge about it. I think he's really scared something bad will happen to her. He's making me all paranoid. Added to that, Giles thinks Spike's going to eat Dawn and me if his chip malfunctions. God! I'm tired of being responsible!" Buffy plopped herself down on top of the weapons trunk and sulked a little.

Willow lightly punched Buffy in the arm. "And what better way to forget your responsibilities than to go out and dance with your best friend?"

Buffy got a determined look on her face. "You know what? You're right! I'll go out with you guys tonight. I'll meet you there at 10:30, OK?"

Willow jumped up excitedly. "That's the spirit!"

"But what about Dawn?" Tara asked.

Buffy thought for a second. "Giles?"

Giles looked up from his computer. "Yes?"

Buffy put her best smile on for her watcher. "Can I ask a big favor?"

"Yes, I'll watch Dawn. But just for a few hours while you're out with your friends, all right?"

Buffy ran over to him and hugged Giles around his neck. "You are the best!"

Anya looked up from her daily receipts. "May I come dancing, too? Xander has to work late tonight and with Alex out of town, I don't have anyone to hang out with."

Buffy was surprised to hear Anya mention the sex demon's name. "Alex? The succubus is still in town?"

Giles answered for Anya. "Well, yes. She was coming in twice a week to help with my translations and she and Anya struck up quite a friendship."

Anya smiled and nodded with enthusiasm. "She's helping me plan the wedding. She doesn't have much experience with weddings, seeing as sex demons don't get married. But she's planned some really fancy baby showers. She's real excited for me - and Xander."

Giles took his glasses off and rubbed the bridge of his nose at the mention of the two women's new found friendship. "Yes, they jabber all day long in between customers in some strange demonic tongue. I never know when they're talking about me. It's very disconcerting."

Anya immediately got defensive with the Englishman. "We speak Sardephic with one another. It's a primary demonic dialect that's been spoken for millennia. It's been around a lot longer than the English language thank you very much. And anyway, if we wanted to say something about you we'd just say it to your face."

"Oh, well that's very reassuring, thank you." Giles rolled his eyes and shook his head at the ex-demon shop girl.

Anya continued. "Anyway, Xander is doing some remodeling work on her new apartment tonight while she's gone back to Malibu to pick up a few things."

Willow interrupted. "Buffy, you'll never guess what apartment Alex moved into."

"Why? Where?" Buffy asked curiously.

Tara shivered a little. "She moved in-into Gl-Glory's old place."

Anya waved her hand at mention of the dead Hell Goddess. "Oh stop it! It's not that creepy. Alex and Xander have almost completely renovated the place. It's not anywhere as tacky as it used to be. Plus it was such a great bargain. Although they did have to replace the carpeting."

Buffy cringed. "Let me guess, they couldn't get Spike's blood stains out of the carpet?"

"Well, we don't know that all of the blood was Spike's." Anya said.

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

Dawn got up from Giles' couch where she had become very bored from flipping channels. She didn't understand why Buffy and Spike had to treat her like a baby all the time. What did they think was going to happen to her at home alone? Just a few weeks ago Buffy had let her stay home by herself on a regular basis. What the Hell was different now? Maybe they just wanted to torture her for the entire two weeks of her "punishment".

Dawn wandered over to where Giles was sitting with one of his notebooks. "So, what are you reading?"

"Oh just my notes from my interviews with Alex. I think I may have enough material for a book from all the information she has given me on the Succubae and Incubi."

Now this was way more interesting than watching "The Weakest Link". "Really? What did she tell you? Is it all about demon sex? Is it gross?"

Giles got a little flustered at the mention of that word - sex. "No, not really. It's very interesting from an anthropological standpoint. They are truly a sub-species on the brink of extinction."

Dawn groaned with disappointment. "OK, now you sound like a professor from the Discovery channel or whatever."

Giles chose this opportunity to try to explain what he had discovered about the so called sex demons. "What I mean, Dawn, is that they are hybrids or-or half breeds who are completely incapable of reproduction within their own group. In order to survive as a species they have developed their demonic powers to suit their primary need. In response to their need to procreate with human beings, they have created a culture that revolves primarily around mating, reproduction and child rearing."

Dawn was confused. "But they're still demons right? They're still evil?"

Giles took off his glasses and began to clean them. "Yes, they are demons and capable of great evil. However, they have developed a sense of respect for humanity that is rare among other demons. They respect us because without us, they cease to exist."

Dawn leaned over and began reading over his shoulder. So one of Alex's parents was human?"

"Yes, her father. She says that he was a scholar and a monk, of all things who later became the abbot of his monastery."

"But aren't monks not supposed to have sex?"

Giles chuckled. "No they're not, but apparently Alex's mother was rather, uh, persuasive."

"So, if Alex is part human, does that mean she has a soul?"

Giles was taken aback by the teenager's innocent question. "That's a good question. Strange, I never thought to ask that of her. I suppose she might."

"Then she and her people can't be any more evil than humans are."

"No, I suppose not."

Dawn bit her lip as she debated whether or not to ask the question forming in her brain. "Giles?"

"Yes?"

"Do you think that somewhere deep down inside some vampires their souls are trapped there waiting to get out? And the reason they can't get out is because the demon is keeping them suppressed?"

Giles put his glasses back on and paused thoughtfully for a moment before even attempting to answer. "Dawn, Spike does not have a soul, you know that."

"But he used to."

"He used to be human, but now he is not. You need to remember that."

Dawn slumped down on the floor next to Giles' chair. "I know, but he's so good to us. Giles, you can't understand, he like, takes care of Buffy and me. It's so easy to forget what he is. I wish you could just see him . . ."

Giles shook his head at the pouting girl. "I do see him, Dawn. I have seen him commit unspeakable acts of violence and cruelty, most of them against your sister."

Dawn put her head down and sighed heavily. "And I've seen him do the nicest and bravest things, most of them for me and my sister."

"I'm sorry, Dawn, I just cannot forget who and what he is."

"I don't want you to forget what he is. I want you to realize that he's doing his best to be good. If he's just a soulless demon then I'd say that's a pretty big accomplishment and if you'd stop being such a git, you'd see that!"

A git? Well, now that's just lovely! That bloody vampire is teaching her more than just literature! Giles was shocked at Dawn's analysis of the Spike situation. "And I'm supposed to do what? Forgive him completely and invite him over for tea and biscuits?"

"No, but you should try and remember the good things he's done and try to forgive him for what he did before. If Buffy, of all people, can forgive him, why can't you?"

Just then the telephone rang and Giles got up to answer it. "Hello? Oh yes, she's here. May I tell her who's calling?" Giles held out the phone to Dawn. "It's Cheryl."

"Oh! Cool!" Dawn snatched the cordless phone out of the watcher's hand. "Hey Cheryl! What's up?"

Giles attempted to go back to reading his notes, but his thoughts were elsewhere. As he sat staring blankly at the pages in front of him, he made a decision to pay a visit to Spike and clear up this issue of him living with Buffy once and for all. It was time for Spike to be relocated.