Disclaimer: Didn't create the characters, but i treat most of them better than Joss...so don't complain...I'm not making any money out of this so please don't sue me.

Beta'd by AtheneHahn, with special thanks to Maryperk for her advice and help.

by Jackofspikes

Chapter 31

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Joyce sat up abruptly. The echoes of her dream replayed over and over again. Swiftly climbing out of bed, she headed in the direction of her youngest daughter's room. A mother's need to check on her child overwhelmed all other thoughts.

In Dawn's room, she sighed in relief as she looked down at the face of her baby. Lightly brushing the hair from Dawn's face, Joyce pulled up the covers and settled them around the shoulders of the sleeping child before leaning forward to leave a soft kiss on the brunette's head and quietly leaving the room.

Making her way downstairs, Joyce grabbed a pad and pen from a drawer in the kitchen and sat at the counter to write down everything she remembered from the dream.

In the two years that she had known about the supernatural world, Joyce had learned a lot. She knew how important Buffy's dreams were. She knew what her own dreams were normally like. This one was unlike anything she had dreamed before. It had been in colour and so real in feeling and content that it was more like a memory than a dream, but Joyce knew that wasn't quite right. Something from very deep inside her told her that this was pre-knowledge of an event that could happen. On the same level as her awareness that this was an event that had not yet happened was the innate insight that this was a warning of something that could happen within the next couple of days. Now- thanks to her dream- she had the power to change the outcome of a potentially disastrous situation.

Joyce was elated. She had been given a gift from the Powers; a gift that would allow her daughter, the Slayer, and her personal saviour, the vampire, to be forewarned about coming events. She was being given the opportunity to help, to play a larger part in her daughter's supernatural life. She had to talk to Rupert first thing in the morning.

~*~*~

Spike barely waited for Xander to close the door to the spare room before he gathered Buffy into his arms and kissed her with all the pent up passion he had been saving since he woke.

Buffy melted into his embrace, their lips meeting eagerly in an erotic dance as old as time.

Pulling her mouth away as the need to breath became an urgent consideration, Buffy gasped as if trying to bring as much air into her aching lungs as possible. She was overwhelmed with the feeling of completion that Spike gave her. Tears flooded her eyes as she remembered how helpless his unconscious form had made her feel. Desperation coloured her words, "You can't leave me. I need you to be here. Don't ever scare me like that again." She punctuated her statements with kisses all over his face.

Taking in the anxiety of the beautifully demonstrative girl in his arms, Spike was overjoyed to realise that her words spoke of deeper feelings than he had thought possible. He didn't know if she loved him, he didn't know if he'd ever be able to gauge that emotion in another being, not after what happened with the other two women that he had loved. His judgement on that subject was definitely skewed. But it was clear she felt something strong for him, something so strong that it made how Drusilla had cared for him pale in comparison. He rushed to reassure the vulnerable girl. "Not goin' anywhere, luv. Why would I want to leave heaven?"

No one ever made her feel like he did. She felt her affection for him well up inside her. When her rational mind asked the question, 'could you love him?', she honestly thought that she could.

She smiled at him in response to his beautiful words.

"Stay with me tonight? Just let me hold you while you sleep?" Spike whispered his question. He was afraid that she would say no, but equally afraid that she would say yes.

~*~*~

"Rupert, it's Joyce," she informed him when he answered the phone. She was excited at the prospect of sharing her news with someone, but the fact that the first person she had thought of to share this news with was a man she had once thought of as a 'stevedore' was not lost on her.

"Is everything alright?" Giles rushed to ask, his heart hammering wildly.

"Well, I suppose that all depends on how you feel about me having prophetic dreams?" Joyce grinned. She couldn't help herself, she felt as giddy as a child.

"I beg your pardon?" His shocked response indicated that this was probably the last thing he had expected.

"You heard me correctly, Rupert," she smiled indulgently, not considering that the smile was wasted on someone who couldn't see her. He'd be able to hear it in her voice. He was an intelligent man.

"Prophetic dreams, you say?" Giles desperately tried to wrap his mind around the concept. "Er, perhaps it would be best if we were to speak directly. May I visit you?"

"Of course. I'll start the tea."

~*~*~

"We have to tell Buffy about this, Tara." Willow was hesitant in her approach to the subject. She knew how much her mother's death still affected the dishwater blonde, but as mindful as she was of Tara's feelings, Willow was sure that Buffy needed this information. She'd learned that coincidences were more than they seemed to be when they happened on the Hellmouth, and this bordered on the freaky.

"I know," Tara agreed. "But I c-c-can't help thinking that we should take it to M-Mr. Giles or Penny first." She hated how her stammer got worse when she tried to offer an opinion or mentioned a male authority figure. Nineteen years of subservience was a hard habit to break.

Willow had to agree. The information in the note book was way out of her league. It smacked of equal amounts of supernatural and human interference and that should be right up the ex-watcher's alley, what with his experience with the council and all.

"You're right," Willow told her. "We should show it to Giles."

~*~*~

Buffy woke first. Her initial reaction was to wonder where she was. As the confusion left her waking mind, she snuggled further into the embrace of her boyfriend. She carefully repositioned herself so she could study his face in repose. The angular lines of his cheekbones seemed to soften in his sleep.

He really was beautiful.

Unlike his waking self, Spike in sleep looked innocent. She thought for a moment before deciding that awake was definitely better, that way she got to see his incredibly expressive eyes. Twin pools of blue that mesmerized and then held you, making everything else disappear. Eyes that were the epitome of sexy, especially when he looked at you through his eyelashes when he first woke up. Eyes that were looking at her right now.

"Morning," she said as she smiled at the waking vampire.

~*~*~

When Buffy walked in through her mother's front door, she was surprised to find her watcher happily ensconced in her kitchen, having an in-depth conversation with her mother. And ewww! Was her mother flirting?

"Ah, Buffy, I am glad you are here. It appears that your mother has some news." Giles smiled warmly at his slayer. He was extremely happy with most of what Joyce had shared with him, but the idea of actually telling the volatile slayer that her mother was now an instrument of the same Powers that had made her the Slayer was something he would rather avoid. Joyce had far more experience in dealing with her capricious daughter anyway.

Joyce gave the apprehensive watcher a wry smile. Trust a man to pass off this little job.