Chapter
2.02
Thursday, May 16th, 2002
Spike looked in the rear-view mirror. "Where
to, Red?"
"I guess it'll have to be the Motor Lodge."
Spike nodded and put the car in gear, preparing
to drop her off before taking Giles to his hotel. The drive was
completed in an awkward silence. At the Motor Lodge, Spike got
out of his seat and made his way to the trunk, opening it up before
he said anything, just in case the Watcher could lip-read.
"You got enough money for this? Buffy owe you
any rent money back?"
"Probably less than I owe on my share of the
bills," the witch admitted.
"Right, then. I'll say my piece and let you go.
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for you,
Red. There's not many as I would offer to turn. I'm kind of picky
that way, unlike some folk. That doesn't matter, 'cause I also,
as you may have noticed, have soft spots for the slayer, her sis
an' your ex, an' right now they're all hurtin' 'cause of that
stunt you pulled tonight. That makes me a mite pissed off with
you and that pissed off is not goin' to go away until they all
feel better about things. When you make things right with them,
then you'll be right with me, but for now I'd give Revello a wide
berth unless you know for a fact that Glinda, Bit and the mutt
are all out of the picture."
"Tara? But—"
"We asked Tara if she would stay. Having her
around'll be good for her and good for the Niblet. And you're
goin' to give her all the space she needs to make a clean break."
"And if I don't?"
"Then, you'd best be prepared to deal with someone
who's pissed off and invulnerable, cause you won't catch all of
us on the hop."
"Are you threatening me?"
"I'm stating a fact. You harm any one of us,
in any way, and whoever is left will come after you. Well, maybe
not Glinda, but I'd lay bets on me and Bit and I've got a feelin'
Buffy will only give so far.
If you take my advice you'll let things lie between
you an' Bit, an' you an' Tinkerbell for a while."
Willow hardened her mouth into a sneer. "I'll
never want your advice, Spike." She snatched her bag from his
hands without touching it, using her power to levitate it, so
that she needed only the lightest grasp on the handles to fool
the clerk into thinking she was carrying it as she entered the
motel.
"Tara?" Dawn knocked on the door of Buffy's room.
"Spike said I should bring you some hot chocolate and let you
know he's taken Willow away. Can I come in?"
There was just a small sniff before the Wiccan
answered. "Sure, sweetie. The door's open."
The teenager made her way into the room followed
by her canine companion. The dog immediately stood in front of
Tara and pushed her nose under Tara's hands, which had been resting
in her lap as they mangled a semi-soggy tissue.
"I brought a friend. We've all been sitting downstairs
trying to come up with a name for her." Dawn handed over one mug
of chocolatey goodness and took a seat next to the witch while
she took a sip of her own.
"Buffy says if we don't name her soon, the way
Spike's going, she'll think her name is Mutt."
Tara's lips curved up into the slightest of smiles.
"So, who's still around?" she asked.
"Well, Spike was going to drop off Giles and
the hag, and then he was going to swing past The Bronze and get
mine and Brandon's jackets and helmets from last night, but he
shouldn't be long. Wes seems to be hovering for some reason. I
kinda think he wants to talk to Spike, but I don't know why. He
keeps coming up with prissy names. Things like Calliope and Persephone
and stuff. Having said that, I think Callie quite suits her.
Do you like that, girl? Want to be called Callie?"
Dawn lapsed into baby talk as she reached across to fondle the
puppy's ears. The dog meanwhile had succeeded in getting Tara
to scratch at her head with one hand but now seemed intent on
getting her nose under the blonde's other hand, as well, the one
with the cup in it. Tara was having quite the time trying to stop
the puppy from tipping hot chocolate over her nose.
"What about Buffy? What did she suggest?"
"Well, first she was wanting Byron, even though
she's a girl and then she got all witty and decided we should
call her Creed. 'Cause of that song of theirs. My Sacrifice. Then
she said Deefer, like D for dog. We could use some sensible ideas."
"From the person who called her cat Miss Kitty
Fantastico? What did Spike say?"
"He said since she was a bitch we could call
her Darla, but that seemed kinda cruel... to the dog, I mean, plus
if Angel and his son end up coming up for the wedding not very
tactful."
"What about Rogue? Like from the X-men but 'cause
she looks sort of like a rogue, too?" Tara suggested.
"That's cool." Dawn turned to the dog again.
"Rogue? You like Rogue, girl?" The puppy ignored her completely.
There was a crash from downstairs as the front
door slammed closed and the dog turned and went running downstairs.
This was followed by a muffled, "Bloody hell!" before Dawn was
summoned.
"Bit, get your arse down here an' take your mutt
away before she slavers all over the leather, will you?"
Dawn laughed as she made her way down the staircase,
with Tara behind her. The puppy was leaping all over Spike, obviously
delighted that he had returned without Willow.
"Just wait till she's big enough to put her paws
on your shoulders and lick your face," the teenager taunted, as
the vampire tried alternately to back away and to push the excitable
dog back down without hurting her.
"Guess who's going to be a daddy's girl?" Tara
teased the vampire.
"Don't start." He turned to Dawn. "D'you leave
any of that for me?"
"In a mug, in the microwave, with the monkey
brains already in."
Buffy's voice sounded from the kitchen. "Already
heating it up for you."
"Excuse me, ladies. Duty calls." Spike grinned
and pulled his duster off, draping it over the banister in preparation
for making his way through the dining room to the kitchen.
"What's up, Spike? Cramp?" Tara asked.
A twinkle appeared in Spike's eyes, and he turned
back to kiss the Wiccan on the forehead before he went looking
for his fiancée. "Maybe, Tinkerbell... If I'm really lucky."
"Okay," Dawn turned to Tara as the pair made
their way through to join Wes. "Why did that last conversation
sound like it was in code? And how come my dog is following
him?"
"You two are pathetic. You know that, right?
He was only away for twenty minutes and we can all see you from
here."
"And that's why the G rated greeting, Bitlet."
"Can you two physically be in the same room without
holding hands or something?"
Buffy looked down at where their hands were clasped
together as they joined the others in the living room. "Guess
not."
The teenager gave a snort. "Well, I guess that's
kinda cool... just so long as you do keep it G rated in public."
She grinned at their surprised faces. "Caught ya! Now, give me
back my dog."
"I'm glad you like her, but isn't it about time
you were getting ready for bed, platelet?"
"No point. Way too excited to sleep."
Buffy stepped in at this point. "Excited or not,
go get washed up and changed and no letting the dog lick you after
you've washed." The teenager headed upstairs with obvious reluctance.
Buffy then smiled at Wes. "What about you, Wes?
I'm not too sure where everyone's going to be sleeping tonight,
but at worst there's the sofa. Then, come morning, you'll have
sobered up enough to take the bike back.
We'd normally offer to walk you back, but we
don't want to be too far from Dawn. Spike could give you a ride,
though, if you'd rather."
"The sofa's fine."
"I'll get some sheets and stuff."
"Don't go to all that trouble. All I need is
a blanket or two to keep the draughts off."
"Pet, why don't I take the mutt for a tour of
the block, while you sort out where you're puttin' everyone and
every... thing? An' aside from Dawn gettin' her dinner at biker
boy's, nobody else has eaten. Maybe you could order somethin'
up before everywhere shuts for the night."
"Mm-hm. Chinese? I'm getting near my weekly pizza
limit."
"Didn't know you had such a thing. Don't mind
what you get, just so long as you get me something sort of spicy.
You and Tinkerbell work it out between you. Just make sure you
all eat something. If you skip any more dinners you'll disappear."
Wes looked vaguely embarrassed as he almost stuttered.
"Em, well, I could do with stretching my legs a bit... if you don't
mind the company?"
Spike gave the former Watcher a curious glance.
"Sure... More the merrier."
Friday, May 17th, 2002
"Here, grab this a minute." Spike passed the
dog's chain to the other man, freeing up both his hands for the
task of lighting a cigarette. Once he had returned his lighter
to his pocket, he took the dog back from the Watcher.
"So, what's up that you don't want to mention
in front of the slayer?"
"What? Well, nothing really. It's not that I
don't want her to know, it's just sort of personal and if I'm
wrong..."
"If you've picked up some unfortunate disease,
it's really a doctor you need to talk to, mate."
Wes was about to protest, when he saw the laughter
in Spike's eyes and gave a wry smile instead. "If I had, according
to what she told the assistant in the bike shop yesterday, your
future sister-in-law would have it as well."
"You what?"
"Dawn said it was her boyfriend that owned the
bike. The salesman jumped to conclusions, which she then proceeded
to pander to in a quite outrageous fashion."
Spike shook his head. "That's the Bit, alright."
He took a long draw at his cigarette, releasing the smoke slowly
before he continued. "But that's not what brings you out here
to walk round in circles until this beast craps out what should
have been our dinner."
"It's Lily, actually."
Spike gave the man an appraising look. "What
about her? She been doing her Madame Zelda routine for you?"
"If you mean has she been handing out advice,
then yes. The problem is I don't think it was entirely unbiased."
"In what way?"
"Well, there's this girl in LA—" Wes started.
"Texas belle, yeah?"
"Does everybody know?"
Spike shrugged. "Seemed obvious to me. Can't
say I've discussed it with any of the others."
"Anyway, Lily told me that I should make a clean
break of it, move up here and forget about her. She told me I
should be looking for a wife, a woman to start a family with,
not a little girl."
"Sounds like the sort of advice that's all very
sensible, but the heart doesn't necessarily work on logic. She
told me to give up on Buffy at one point, too. It all depends
how much you want something and how much you're prepared to go
through to get it."
"Yes, well, that's not really the problem. The
problem is, I have a feeling that she wasn't just talking about
any woman and I think the family she had in mind is at least partially
ready-made."
"Oh!" Spike smirked as he raised his cigarette
to his mouth.
"That's it? Oh?"
"Well, I don't know that there's much else I
can say... other than 'Congratulations'."
"That's not very comforting."
"You want comforting or you want the truth? If
Lily's picked you out to be the father of her grandchild, at least
I assume Rosa's the ready-made family you were talkin' about rather
than Clem..." A look of distaste crossed both men's faces. "Then,
you might as well go out, buy the ring and enjoy the ride, as
fight her on it."
"And Marie? And Rosa? I know nothing about children,
well, except those few weeks when Connor was a baby."
"Well, I don't think the old bat'd be pushin'
the idea if she didn't think Marie was ready to be seein' someone
and no first-time father knows what he's doin'."
"Did you... When you were human, did you have any
children? I mean... People married younger then."
"No." The vampire's tone turned serious and he
stopped walking, turning to look Wes in the eye as he addressed
him. "No, I didn't. Look, mate. I don't know what the deal is
with you, whether in a few years time you'll be like Rupert an'
get a yearning for England's pastures green and go home to the
family manor and find somebody called Deirdre with another double-barrelled
name. Maybe bein' the demon hunter is just a game until Daddy's
ready to pop his clogs an' leave you the whole shooting match
an' you can go raise the eighth generation of Wyndam-Pryce watchers."
He cast an appraising eye over the man beside
him. "I don't think that's who you are any more, but if it is,
then just stay the hell away from them all. If, on the other hand,
this is where you choose to be, an', if you can look at Rosa for
who she is, not what her father was, then I think what you'll
find is a wonderful but a lonely little girl. A little girl who's
more than willing and able to return any affection that happens
to come her way.
Marie? Well, she's the kind of special that doesn't
come along too often, an' more often than not it's gits like Hank
Summers that snatch them up. Any man would be lucky to end up
with a woman like that.
Neither of them would fit in if you tried to
take them back to the home counties and the polo-playing prats
and afternoon tea in the drawing room. They'd be stifled to death,
but I figure any man worth his salt as they would include in their
lives would have more sense than to leave.
An', of course the fact that Marie happens to
be the sort of drop dead gorgeous that means she'd stand out in
a room full of women doesn't hurt a bit."
Spike took one last draw on his cigarette before
he flicked it away across the street, the orange glow splintering
into pinpricks of light as it impacted with the asphalt.
Wes fell into step beside him again as the vampire
resumed his promenade.
"So, was that your way of commiserating with
me, encouraging me or warning me off?"
"That was my way of saying that if Lily gets
her way, I think you would be a damn lucky man, but if you can't
make a commitment for whatever reason, then just stay away because,
well, Marie can make her own choices, but, if you hurt that kid,
let's just say I wouldn't be happy."
"But do you think Marie's in on it? Do you think
she likes me?"
Spike frowned. "Let's say, I don't think she
finds you unattractive. I'd say she's noticed you, but I wouldn't
count on a lady like that doing any of the running... Probably,
without Lily stickin' her oar in, you'd both play coy an' nothin'
would happen or Rosa would be age for goin' to college by the
time it did. Does that help?"
Wes glanced across at the vampire. "I really
don't know. Ask me again on Saturday night."
"What's Saturday night?"
"Apparently, you, me and the girls are to be
invited to a dinner party. Lily's efforts on behalf of the Sunnydale
welcome wagon."
"Balls!"
"I didn't think it was that bad."
"For you, it's not. For me it's torture."
"I don't understand."
"First time I went there, Clem warned me it was
probably best not to let slip that I ate human food, well, food
that was for humans rather than food that was humans. A tip for
which I have frequently been very grateful, given what I've seen
of Lily's cooking, but Lily doesn't cook at the weekends. Marie
does, and it all looks and smells bloody gorgeous."
"Well," replied Wes with a smile. "If I'm going
to spend the evening as Lily's prey, at least I know I won't be
suffering alone."
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