Chapter 5.03
Friday, May 10th, 2002

Her sister and her future brother-in-law's heads spun in her direction. Spike started repeating a little mantra inside his head, 'Not her father. No right to interfere. Not her father. No right to interfere. Not her father.'

Buffy began the interrogation. "Not yet, you haven't. If you want this guy to take you to the prom then we have to meet him first, and I don't mean for five minutes before he drives you away in his car on the night.

What's his name? How old is he? And how do you know him?"

"His name is Brandon Michaels. His dad's the new English teacher and he just transferred from San Diego. He's in my year and he sat next to me in Art. And he's a hottie. And he gave me a ride over here tonight," Dawn supplied.

"Okay. You can ask him over for dinner, Tuesday night. If he's human and he's not an asshole you can go with him," Buffy conceded.

"Well, he might be at the Bronze tonight."

"In that case you'll be able to introduce us. After which you can sit with him. You can dance with him. At the end of the night if you haven't blown it, you can kiss him goodnight, but we will be seeing you and Janice safely back to her mother's. You will at no point leave the building and we'll be keeping an eye on you and if you do anything that isn't appropriate for a first date you will be home so fast you won't believe it.

Now go through to the bedroom and get changed. I brought some sweats and stuff for you. We're going to make a start on that training you were wanting."

"Really?" Dawn squeaked.

"Really. We're going over to the Magic Box. We've got a good few hours before our dinner reservation."

Fifteen minutes later, the threesome headed out, taking the old DeSoto to the Magic Box. Spike was once again enveloped in the oversized sweatshirt and this time he simply parked the car at the front door, the three of them walking in as a group. Spike checked around the room for customers, but found the place empty.

"Hey, kitten, got any spells we can use to keep a teenage boy from thinking about sex?" Though Spike was speaking to Anya, his intent was more to tease Dawn.

"If we had, don't you think we'd have used it on you," Xander offered, still making the most of his last day off work.

"Very witty. Anya, pet, come show me how these thingies over in the corner work." The vampire took the former vengeance demon by the elbow and escorted her over to the far corner of the shop.

"So what did you really want to not talk about in front of Xander? Because I think it would take a lot more than a fertility symbol or two for you to get Buffy pregnant, and from what I've heard Buffy has no complaints about your performance as regards any other aspect."

"What're you doing July twentieth, pet?"

"As far as I know we don't have any plans."

"I was wondering, pet. Would you be an usher at our wedding?"

"But isn't that normally a man?"

"Yeah, well I happen to like you and Glinda better than any men I-"

The rest of what Spike had to say was lost below Xander's exclamation, which caused the two former black-hats to look over at the counter, where Buffy was trying to calm him down slightly.

"Ringbearer! Do I look like a hobbit or something?"

The ex-evil duo looked at Anya's husband protesting. "Buff tried to get me to ask him, but I told her if she was getting Dawn I wanted both my other favourite Scoobies."

"Well, in that case, how can I refuse?"

Spike picked her up by the waist and twirled her round, taking care to ensure no merchandise was broken. "Thanks, pet," he said gently before putting her down on her feet again. "Why don't you give us a couple of those symbols anyway. It's not like they can do any harm, is it?"

Anya picked up a couple of the small ornaments from the shelf and the two made their way back to the counter, where Anya discreetly wrapped up the overly endowed and very erect male figure and the heavily pregnant female figure before Dawn could look at them too closely.

As they were crossing the room, Buffy called across, "I take it from the twirly thing that you got a yes."

Spike nodded. "Take it your best friend isn't so keen to share your special day with you?"

Buffy turned her pouty lip on Xander. "You would think I asked him to wear a dress or carry a bouquet or something, instead of wearing a tux and carrying a cushion."

"Couldn't I give you away or something in-"

"Giles," chorused Dawn, Buffy and Spike altogether.

Spike dropped a couple of bills on the counter, before pulling Dawn away toward the training room "Platelet, why don't you go warm up. Kitten, I don't suppose somewhere in that filofax of wedding stuff you had, you've got your measurements handy. I thought I might go and see old Mordecai, get him to work on the suits."

Anya's eyes widened. "Ooh. Very classy. It's in the office. Come on through. I hope he's not too heavily booked up."

"Never is the prices he charges. And he'll like as not make sure he can do them rather than miss out on the money for making all five. 'Sides I used to put a lot of business his way when I was still with Dru. She always had to have her pretty dresses and corsets and everything.

"Which five?" Anya asked.

"Well, there's you and Tinkerbell are the ushers. Rupes is givin' Buffy away and then there's me and Clem's best man."

"So you're not getting Xander's there?"

"No he's Buffy's worry and I don't think he'd take it too well anyway. Mordecai may be the best tailor in Sunnydale, or California for that matter, but, no offence to you, all your husband would see was a dwarf, and you know how temperamental the short one can be. One Snowhite joke and we'd all be going to the church nude. No, thank you."

"It's not like you can take Clem into Brooks Brothers," Anya agreed. She rifled through stacks of books and paperwork on the office shelves before pulling out the organiser she had used for the wedding, flicking through until she found the page with all her measurements on and pulling it out. "I should have Tara's here as well." She flipped over a couple of pages before pulling out a second page. "There you go."

"Thanks, pet. I'm glad I got you." He popped a kiss on her cheek and almost bounced out of the door and into the training room.

Buffy was teaching Dawn some defensive moves, while she played the role of attacker. Spike secured the sheets of paper into a zip pocket in the sweatshirt before taking off both it and the T-shirt underneath. He kicked off his boots and socks and lit up a cigarette while he was waiting for a break in the session between the two women. They were still busy with moves and countermoves when he finished, so he pulled out his phone.

He hit speed dial and waited. Soon the phone was picked up, the muted sound of a child's cries audible in the background.

"Hello. Who's there?" came a woman's voice.

"Lily? It's William."

"William, where you been? 'S been three weeks now since you been here? Rosa, she no know you no more when you come back."

Spike held the phone away from his ear a little and rolled his eyes. "I've been busy. Haven't you heard the news?"

"I hear." Spike winced when he heard the spitting sound that followed. "I hear, but not from you. You too scared to ring Lily, tell her that you let this girl break your heart all over again. Lily tells you that this girl, she no good for you. That she no treat you like a man. You her dog. You worse than dog. People they go to jail if they treat dog like she treat you."

"Lily."

"No, she say heel, William, he say 'woof'. When you last play poker?"

"Ehm, la-"

"I bet you no even can tell me 'bout latest big scandal in Harmony?" Lily asked about events in Passions.

"Been tap-"

"See. You no live own life no more. You run 'round after human girl. You 'shamed to be seen with decent demons like us."

"Lil-"

"Or maybe you think your girlfriend, she try slay us. Maybe you think nasty little girl, she break Lily, like she break William."

Spike began to back out the training room door. "Lily!" Behind the counter, Anya's eyes widened in alarm.

"What? You want to speak now. No just go 'woof'."

"Lily, I'll be over for dinner and I'll be bringing two guests, okay, love. Now, why don't you congratulate Anyanka on her wedding?"

"Anyanka, she get married? I thought the monkey boy, he run away?"

"Anyanka get married last Saturday. Here she is." Anya backed away as Spike approached with the phone, but finally when she was cornered snatched it, sticking her tongue out at him as she took it.

"Lily, how lovely to speak to you."

Spike sidled back through the training room door just in time to hear Anya feigning problems.

"What?! What was that?! I think Spike's battery must need charging."

"What was that all about?" two pairs of eyes looked at him coldly as he turned into the room.

"Em, we might have to leave here a bit earlier than I thought," Spike answered.

"Why?" Buffy asked.

"We're going for dinner at a friend's house before we go to the restaurant."

"Shouldn't that be instead of going to the restaurant," Dawn asked.

"You haven't tasted her cooking yet," said Spike.

At this Anya walked in the training room and slapped Spike on the back of the head, before handing him his phone, in two pieces.

"Your battery is broken. I suggest it stays that way at least until morning ...and Xander says you should keep your semi-naked undead body in the training room where customers can't see it, though I must admit I think it could potentially attract customers rather than discourage them, so ignore what Xander says." She turned and walked back out into the main shop.

"Buffy, why don't I take over with Bit for a while and you can pop out and get a good bottle of wine and some nice chocolates. We can go see my favourite florist on the way, so that'll be okay." Spike suggested.

"Eh, we're with the gift-getting, now?" Buffy asked.

"It's traditional ...and I think Anya may just have put her in a bad mood. And you really don't want to go there without a gift." Spike sounded suspiciously nervous.

"What do you mean? The way you said you there you made it sound weird. What's going on?" Dawn asked, picking up on the anxious vibe the vampire was giving off.

"Don't worry, Niblet. You, she loves, or she will. She's never heard anything but good about you, pet."

"And me? What have you told her about me?" Buffy countered.

"Haven't actually told her anything, not since you came back. Not since there was anything to tell." Spike shuffled his feet and looked embarrassed. "See, heard isn't technically the correct phrase when you're talkin' about Lily. She's an empath, a very talented empath, one I've been around at some of the worst points over the last year.

Clem got just enough to make him a good listener, maybe give him a bit of an edge at poker. His mum she's got it in spades."

"Oh ...o-o-oh!" Buffy panicked as she realised the implications behind Spike's words.

"We're going to have dinner with Clem's mom? Cool." Dawn bounced on her toes.  

"But, you're happy now. She's going to know that you're happy now. Right?" Buffy asked hopefully.

"It would be nice to think so, but I suspect nervous is going to be a bit higher up there."

"Does she really hate me?" the slayer asked.

"When I got hurt, just before your birthday, Clem took me back there. She looked after me for a week, until I was back on my feet again. She'll be okay once she works out you love me and that you were hurting nearly as much as you hurt me. It'll be fine in the end, but I still recommend taking her a nice big bouquet, so scoot, while I attack your big sister."

"Hey, not my big sister," Buffy quibbled.

Spike just raised an eyebrow, "Younger? Maybe. Little?" He shook his head.

Buffy's mouth set in a line as she grabbed her purse and stomped out of the training room, throwing dirty looks at her fiancé.

Dawn flinched visibly. "That'll probably keep her mad all the way to the liquor store and back," she observed.

"Then she won't have time to worry about meeting Lily, will she?" Spike said with a smirk.