Summary: Set in Season six prior to OMWF. Spike, Buffy, and
Dawn enjoy a little family time.
Author's Notes:
Written for Spikesdeb who wanted a Spuffy and Dawn family interaction.
I hope this is what she wanted. Betaed by Tasha
Chapter 3
“What on earth are you talking about?”
Giles looked at the Summers’
girls with a growing suspicion. He had already told Willow that she was
a rank amateur, but now he was even more concerned.
Buffy ignored Giles in favor of her sister, sparing Spike a worried
glance before she replied, “Yes, sweetie, it does mean exactly that.”
“Buffy!” Dawn cried out. She dropped the blanket, and she rushed to
give her sister a big hug. “I’m so sorry, Sis. I would have stopped
them if I had known. No matter how glad I am that you’re back, it isn’t
fair to you,” she whispered into Buffy’s ear.
“Me, too,” Spike whispered into Buffy’s other ear. He gave the Scoobies
a wary look before he enveloped his girls with a hug of his own.
“Willow!” Xander bellowed.
Dawn broke away from Spike and Buffy, and she glared at Xander. She
marched over to him, and with a forefinger poked him repeatedly in his
chest as she growled, “Who the hell do you think you are, Alexander
Lavelle Harris? Buffy’s happy for the first time since she had to dig
her way out of her grave, and you want to stop that?”
“I’m her friend. It’s my job to make sure she doesn’t make the mistake
of boinking the undead again.” Xander tried to out glare Dawn, but the
young woman had every ounce of her teenaged angst and hormones going
for her. He didn’t stand a chance.
“You know, Buffy has not once commented on your dating choices,” Dawn
replied. “Not even when she’s had to kill them. She hasn’t thrown it
back in your face that you’re dating an ex-demon who caused pain and
torment for over a thousand years either.”
“She doesn’t do that now,” Xander protested.
“Neither does Spike, you idiot!” Buffy didn’t care if it was the chip
that originally kept the vampire from killing people. She knew he
wouldn’t go back to killing now unless it was to defend himself or her
family. “You are not our brother or our father, Xander. Let us make our
own mistakes.” Buffy grabbed Spike’s hand. “He makes me feel good,
which is more than I can say for the rest of you guys right now.”
Dawn leaned in to whisper in Xander’s ear. “You may not remember trying
to rape Buffy while under the hyena influence, but I’ve read her diary.
I’ll always remember. So, you better be on your best behavior.”
Xander’s face turned white when he heard that Dawn knew about his
deepest darkest secret to date. Then, he heard Spike’s menacing growl.
Xander looked up to see fierce yellow eyes staring at him. He realized
that Spike must have heard Dawn, and he doubted that the guilty look on
his own face helped to hide anything. “Do something, Giles,” he hissed.
“Pray tell, what am I supposed to do exactly?” Giles said in a hostile
voice. “You’re the ones that took it upon yourself to rip the poor girl
from heaven.” Watching Buffy, Spike, and Dawn’s interactions had made
the Watcher realize that maybe the vampire was the best thing for the
two Summers females. It hadn’t slipped past his notice that Dawn had
mentioned earlier about Buffy getting a job that day. He stepped
towards Buffy.
“You do remember what happened the last time, don’t you?” Xander’s face
turned red in anger. “Ms. Calendar died and Willow lost her goldfish.
If it happened once, it’ll happen again.”
Giles gritted his teeth in anger and annoyance. “I think I know better
than almost anyone here what was lost before,” his snarled at the
younger man.
Spike tilted his head in anger. “You’re such a jealous little shit,
aren’t you, Harris? You were jealous of Angel when he was here. I could
smell it on you. The only reason you didn’t protest about that prick
Parker and Captain Cardboard was because they were human. You thought
if Buffy could date them that she’d eventually see you as dating
material too. You make me sick.”
“Do you really believe that, Spike?” Anya asked sadly.
“Demon girl, if Buffy looked at him cross eyed, and waggled her dainty
little fingers, he’d drop you like yesterday’s garbage.” Spike raised
an eyebrow. “Not even that pretty little ring you keep hidden away
would stop him.”
“Ring? What ring?” Dawn asked. She gave Xander a long scrutinizing
look. “Did you ask Anya to marry you?”
Xander stumbled over his words. “B-Buffy was dead. I didn’t want to
upset anyone by announcing it.” He gave Anya a pleading look. “Right,
An?”
Anya looked around at the Scoobies with an unhappy look on her face.
She had nothing against Buffy dating Spike if she wanted to. She
considered Spike’s revelations about Xander’s feelings towards the
Slayer despite Buffy having never given Xander any hope of a
relationship outside of friendship. She gave the others a tightlipped
glare before she marched up to her fiancé, and she slapped him
soundly
across the face. “I love you, Xander Harris. Don’t think that I don’t,
but either I start coming first in your life or we’re completely
through.” She turned and stalked away.
“Honestly, Xander, I think you need to worry more about your love life
than mine.” Buffy flicked her hair back with the hand that didn’t have
a hold of Spike’s leash. “Now if we’re done with this intervention I
need to do a quick patrol before I have my slave boy here cater to my
every whim.”
“This is so wrong,” Xander spluttered. He grabbed Willow’s arm, and he
started to drag the witch away. “We’re gonna find out what you did
wrong with that spell. Then, we can get Buffy back to normal.”
“Let go of me, Xander.” Willow jerked her arm out of Xander’s hand.
“You need to go after Anya if you expect to salvage your relationship
with her. Another thing, Dawn’s right. Buffy ‘s not once tried to stop
us from dating who we want, no matter what her personal thoughts are on
the matter. Even when her personal thoughts on the matter didn’t agree.
Maybe it’s time that we do the same for her.”
“And the witch grows up,” Spike muttered in Buffy’s ear. “Wonder if the
Watcher’s very far behind.” He nodded his head in Giles’ direction.
“Back me up, Giles,” Xander grunted. “Tell Buffy that we’ll only get
hurt if she boinks Spike.” His anger escalated when he saw that the
Watcher wasn’t squarely on the anti-Spike train anymore. “Well, maybe
we should just call her Buffy the Vampire Layer. It seems like that’s
all she wants to do. First it was Angel, then Dracula, and now Spike.”
“You’ve gone too far, Xander,” Buffy said. Beside her Spike growled
menacingly, and she put a calming hand on his sleeve. She looked up
into the vampire’s gold tinged eyes. “Settle down, baby. Your growling
is making me all tingly, and we can’t take care of that here.” She knew
Spike was half a second away from tearing through Xander’s throat, even
if it would give him the mother of all migranes.
Xander raised his hands in defeat. “Don’t come running to me when he
turns on you, Buff. I’ve had enough of this. I’m outta here.” He
stormed away muttering under his breath.
“I thought that went well,” Dawn said brightly. “Only two stalked off
in a huff, and only one of those because of Buffy macking on Spike.”
She turned to Tara. “You wanna come over for ice cream while Buffy
patrols. I so don’t want to be in on whatever they do afterwards.”
“Um, s-sure, if that’s okay with your sister,” Tara said softly. She
glanced briefly at Buffy. She too had caught on to where exactly Buffy
was while she was dead, and Tara felt even more guilt for her part in
the spell that had brought the Slayer back from the dead. She was
worried about Willow’s constant magic usage, and she’d been leery of
doing the spell in the first place.
Buffy looked at her remaining friends for a few moments. “You know, I’m
glad you’re all looking out for me, but I have to do what makes me
happy. I’m tired of trying to be what everyone else wants me to be.”
She looked directly at Giles. “Before I died, I told all of you that I
loved you. Spike was included in that statement, Giles.”
“Buffy?” Spike whispered hoarsely.
Buffy turned her attention to the flabbergasted vampire beside her. “I
know you’re not perfect, Spike. Who is? Certainly not me. I’m sure
you’re gonna backslide sometimes, but I probably will too. We haven’t
seen the last of bitchy Buffy.” She cupped his face with her hands.
“You deserve the chance to prove you are just as much my man as you are
my monster.”
Spike smirked at the Slayer, his tongue curled behind his front teeth.
“Personally I like bitchy Buffy. She’s fun to rile up.” He stroked
Buffy’s arm with one cool finger, and he was delighted to see her
shiver.
Giles sighed in defeat. “If I want you to act like an adult, I suppose
I must treat you like one. If you want to date Spike, that’s your
prerogative.”
“Thanks, Giles!” Buffy dropped the leash, and she engulfed her Watcher
in a tight hug.
“He needs to breath, pet.” Spike chuckled when Giles’ face turned red
from a lack of oxygen.
“Oh, right. I always forget that. Another point for the boinking Spike
train, he doesn’t have to breathe.” Buffy stepped back from Giles.
“Good Lord,” Giles muttered and shook his head.
Buffy turned to Willow. “How about you? Are you satisfied that I’m
serious? Intervention over?”
“Yeah.” Willow nodded with enthusiasm. She was ready for everything to
go back to normal or at least as normal as it could be in Sunnydale.
Willow did wonder about Xander though. Would he ever that Buffy just
wasn’t interested in him? “I get it. I really do. I’m sure Xander’ll
come around,” she continued with more confidence than she felt.
“Maybe.” Buffy looked skeptical. “Anya has a point though. He really
does need to put her first.”
“Okay, I’m ready to go home,” Dawn said through a sudden yawn. “There’s
a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream calling my name.”
“We need to patrol.” Buffy returned to Spike’s side. She grabbed the
leash he had been twirling. “Tara, it’s just fine with me if you stay
with Dawn while I’m out. She shouldn’t be alone anyway.”
“You’re really planning on patrolling?” Willow asked.
“Well of course we are, Red. I heard a couple of schemes at the concert
we need to take care of.” Spike checked his pockets for weapons. “You
need a stake, Slayer?”
“Of course not.” Buffy gave a wily grin. “I have six of the suckers on
me right now.”
Spike stepped back to study Buffy. “Where?”
“That’s for me to know and you to find out.” Buffy gave Spike a saucy
wink.
Dawn grabbed Tara’s arm. “Let’s get out of her before they get too
mushy.” She dragged the Wicca away from the flirting Slayer and
vampire. She picked up the blanket she had dropped earlier as they
went. “I so don’t need my sister to be the main event in my sex ed.”
Giles and Willow trailed behind Dawn and Tara, unsure of Dawn’s
acceptance of their presence. The teenager hadn’t been happy to see
them earlier, but they both hoped that their acceptance of Buffy being
with Spike had at least made Dawn happy enough not to ban them from her
company.