Buffy waited with anticipation as the parents started arriving for Back to School Night. Giles, Cordelia, and her mother all knew their roles. This time they would protect the parents. All of them.

Buffy had once again been placed in charge of refreshments with Sheila and once again Sheila had failed to show. The blonde had to admit to feeling guilty. If history had repeated itself, Sheila had already become a victim of Drusilla and the idea that the slayer was planning on letting the vampiress live meant that people would die. But if she staked Dru now, Spike would hate her and there would definitely be a confrontation that they so didn't need. She really hated moral ambiguity. She knew she couldn't save everyone, but that didn't make her feel any less with the guilt.

The anticipation of the expected arrival of Spike and his minions fizzled out to nothing when the blond vampire didn't show. It was the first time that a major change in events had occurred and Giles had urged her to be careful.

As Buffy and Joyce made their way home, enjoying the rarity of an evening stroll in Sunnydale, Buffy felt the familiar tingle of warning that Spike was around. "We've got ourselves a blond stalker," she quietly informed her mom with a grin.

Spike glared at the two women as he followed them at a distance.  He could see them speaking and smiling, but because of the distance was unable to clearly hear their quiet conversation.

As he watched a fledgling jumped out at them, only to be dusted in the blink of an eye. They just kept walking. Neither one of them had flinched or panicked, not even the older woman with the blonde slayer. Confusion marred his features; he was totally unprepared for this type of acknowledgment. He would have assumed that the older woman was the girl's watcher except for the fact that they smelled so much alike. But that didn't make any sense to him. All his research had slayers being taken from their families when they were young and were then raised by their watchers. Nothing about this bint fit the mold.

The more Spike worried about the inconsistencies that he was being faced with, the more strident his William side became. He wheedled and cajoled to be released. He sited Drusilla's need and his experience with humans. After more than a century of being in control, the demon was reluctant to relinquish his hold. As always, Spike suggested a compromise, William's face would be shown and his knowledge drawn on, but he would remain in control, allowing access from both the being's that, together, created him.

"Come sit on the back porch, Spike," Buffy called out to the shadowing being.

Spike's eyes widened as his active mind processed the ramifications of what the Slayer had said. Obviously he'd underestimated her slayer senses, but how did the bint know it was him?

For a moment he just stood there, watching as the older woman entered the house on Revello drive. As the young blonde made her way around the side of the house, Spike followed reluctantly. William wanted to talk to her, the demon wanted to kill her, and all the while Spike had to remember that Drusilla needed her cure. With a deeply put upon sigh, Spike stepped out of the dark.

"Spike this is my mom, Joyce Summers. Mom, Spike," Buffy spoke over her shoulder to her mother, who was standing inside the open back door, while she focused her grin on the flummoxed vampire.

Joyce smiled pleasantly at the blond her daughter loved. "You look like a chocolate man, dear. Can I get you a hot chocolate? I have little marshmallows," she tempted.

Spike frowned at the women, his eyes flitting between them quickly. "Are you both completely nutters? I'm a bleedin' master vampire! Does that not worry you at all?" he asked incredulously.

"Does that mean you don't drink hot chocolate?" Joyce started, deliberately misunderstanding what he was trying to say. "I mean, I know that ghastly Angel doesn't, but you seem to actually have a personality, so I just assumed..." She deliberately left the comment open. She knew her friend, and she was very happy to have her knowledge proven correct with his next comment.

"Luv, how could I ever say 'no' to a woman with such an accurate perception?" He chuckled in appreciation.

Joyce gave him a conspiratorial grin before moving away from the door to prepare the drinks.

Buffy watched him avidly as he spoke with her mother, careful to avert her eyes when his gaze returned to her. She hated being so close and not being able to do anything about it. Her mind twisted and turned, looking for solutions as they waited in an uncomfortable silence for her mother to return. Neither seemed willing to start a conversation that would include anyone but the other.

When Joyce came out of the house to hand him his drink, Spike could do nothing but stare at her in awe. She patted his cheek affectionately before moving back towards the house, a stray comment was thrown over her shoulder as she went. "Buffy was right; you are gorgeous."

"Moooooommm!" The young blonde laughed in response to the audacious statement as her mother disappeared.

Spike smirked at the blushing slayer. "So, think I'm a bit of alright then, do ya, Slayer?"

"Oh, please, like that's news to you," she snarked in disbelief. "Be thankful you don't have a reflection, you'd end up starving like Narcissus."

Spike's demon sat up and paid attention. 'Ooh, I like her!' he telegraphed in appreciation of her feisty response.

Buffy lifted an eyebrow in amusement when his body automatically showed the same attraction and the blonde returnee inwardly wondered when Levi started working with the heavy duty zippers.

"Much as I'm enjoying the bonding, I'm guessing you're here for a reason, Spike." Buffy took the opportunity to steer the conversation away from things the vampire was not ready to face.

"Dru's sick," he offered abruptly, steeling himself for her reaction to his request. "She say's you know the cure."

Buffy forced her face to remain expressionless. Her underlying hatred of the vampiress was hidden from him completely. She needed his trust and he wouldn't trust her if he felt any threat towards his paramour sire at all.

She hesitated, giving herself time to come up with something he would accept. Once she came up with a solution that she knew would work, she realised that healing Dru this quickly might just ensure that they left the Hellmouth and never came back, which was the very last thing she wanted. But he'd come to her, and even if it meant that this might delay him falling in love with her, she knew that fate was on her side.

Standing up she faced him. "I do, but it will take me a week to get it organized."

"What do you need to organize?" he asked desperately.

Buffy walked to the back door and placed her hand on the doorknob. "She's gonna need at least five litres, Spike. I can't give that much all at once. Come back in a week and I'll have it ready to go."

Spike's eye's widened, then narrowed in disbelief. She couldn't mean what he thought she meant. "What are you planning on giving her, Slayer," he demanded.

"My blood," Buffy offered quietly as she entered the house. Had she chosen that moment to look back she would have been floored by the look of awe on the face of the vampire.

And even more so by the first flickering of love.