Chapter 6.02
Friday, May 10th, 2002

It was a very nervous slayer who waited at the apartment door along with her sister and her fiancé. The sight of Clem's friendly face did a lot to restore her, before she realised, it might not necessarily be Clem at all. It could be a relative of some sort. It would be kinda embarrassing if she was wrong, but she didn't know how you could tell whatever type of demon Clem was apart from others of the same type. Oops, Giles would not be proud of her research skills. She'd never even asked Spike what breed of demon he was.

Spike led the way into the apartment chatting to the demon who held the door open as he moved down the hall, at least until he was distracted. "Hey, mate. D'yer mum get the message we were running a bit late?"

"Yeah, s'okay, Marie's working late anyway so we're still waiting..." The demon paused to watch as a small pink and black missile impacted with Spike's legs. "...For her," he finished off, as Spike swung the missile up into his arms.

"Unker Will. Gramma says I forgotted you, but I didn't."

"I knew you wouldn't, pixie." Spike brushed away stray strands of jet-black hair from the little girl's face and gave her a quick peck on the end of her nose. The girl settled comfortably with a leg either side of Spike's hip and her arms round his neck, while Spike supported her with an arm under her bottom.

Spike turned around facing back toward the front door. "Rosa, I want you to meet some very special people. The lady with the flowers is Buffy. Buffy and I are going to be getting married soon, and the other lady with her is her sister Dawn. And your Uncle Will likes them both very much."

At first all the girls could see was a curtain of glossy black hair tied with a pink bow, but when the girl raised her head from where it was buried in Spike's neck they found themselves looking into the sweetest, pair of chocolate brown eyes they could imagine. Everything about the little girl, from her Barbie pink jeans and T-shirt to her white high-tops, looked hundred percent cute-as-could-be human, except for her ears, which flopped forward just like Clem's. If Xander could have seen her he might have been putting two and two together about the father of Anya's daughter in his visions.

Dawn waved at the little girl. "Hi, Rosa."

Buffy, meanwhile looked across from the child to the demon she was now fairly certain was Clem, a decision mostly based on the clothes he was wearing, her eyebrow raised. Clem, or his look-alike just shook his head, crossing and uncrossing his hands to indicate his lack of paternity.

"Hello," answered the girl before burying her face once more against Spike's neck. "They're pretty," she whispered into his ear.

"Yes, pet. All Uncle Will's girls are pretty. Let's go take them to meet your gran." Still carrying the girl on his hip he made for the main room of the apartment and once there, pushed aside an ajar door to enter the kitchen. Clem and the girls stayed back in the living room not wanting to crowd the chef.

"I hear congratulations are in order," Clem said to Buffy, preventing her from listening to the hushed conversation in the kitchen.

"Yeah, it looks that way."

Clem looked at Buffy just a little awkwardly. "Do we hug? ...I mean, is this a hug type situation?"

"Yes, Clem. We hug." Passing her bouquet to Dawn temporarily, she moved forward to hold Clem around the waist as best she could with her small arms.

"So who's the little cutie in pink?" Dawn asked as Buffy extricated herself from Clem's arms.

"Rosa? She's my niece."

"I never heard you mention any brothers or sisters," responded the younger Summer's.

"Yeah, well, Rosa's dad passed away nearly two years ago now." Clem shuffled and looked uncomfortably around the room, looking at everything except Buffy. "But she's got her mom and me and her grandma to look after her. She misses him sometimes, but she's fine."

Buffy found herself trying to do a mental review of all her patrols around that time. The thing is, patrolling generally consisted of killing demons who attacked her, or who she caught attacking someone else. She thought it was unlikely that any brother of Clem's would fall into that category. What was she doing two years ago? Mom was still alive. She was in college, living in a dorm, dating Riley... The Initiative. She just knew that this little girl's father had been killed in one of Maggie Walsh's science experiments, or maybe in that final battle, trying to escape, to get back to his family. Suddenly the fact that she had ever had anything to do with the Initiative made her feel like Mengele's accomplice.

"She seems to like Spike, anyway," Dawn tactfully steered the conversation away from the sensitive subject, knowing what a touchy topic loss could be.

Clem smiled his agreement. "Sure. She loves the accent. And he always reads to her. You should hear him do Billy Goats Gruff, 'course we had to tell her that trolls don't really live under bridges, or at least not all the time, but it's worth it when Spike does all the voices. Quite the Hans Christian Anderson, he is."

"Hey, Clem. How 'm I ever goin' to convince 'Bit's new boyfriend that I'm the Big Bad, if you keep tellin' her things like that she can pass on. She'll make him think I'm a right poofter." Spike was coming back out of the kitchen, still carrying his young admirer and being followed by a petite female horned demon who didn't look too much older than her son.

Dawn made a motion as if to zip her lips closed. "Your secret's safe with me. At least until I have a Bite Size or two of my own that need read to. Then we'll send for you."

Buffy couldn't place it at first, but eventually she realised who Clem's mom reminded her of. She was smaller of course, and apparently younger and of course female and her eyes were more like Clem's, but his mother reminded her of the demon who had tried to sell the books of ascension to her and Faith. The demon Faith killed, as Buffy had later realised when she found out Faith had been working with the black-hats.

Buffy had another bad feeling. His apartment had been near the bus station, just as they were near the bus station, now. She found herself hoping he wasn't another of Clem's relations. No wonder Clem acted nervous around her.

Spike noted Buffy's discomfort, and slipped his free arm around her shoulders pulling her to his side. The gesture felt better than Buffy would ever have imagined. It announced to all the people in the room that she was his. His to love, his to support, his to hold and his to protect even from well-meaning friends who had every reason to hate her. Suddenly feeling more comfortable, Buffy transferred the flowers to one hand so she could slide the other under his duster and into the far back pocket of his jeans. She smiled as their eyes met, knowing he'd be able to read her gratitude and love in her expression as plain as if she'd said the words out loud.

"So William," said the diminutive demon, "you going to introduce us, or you going to forget you gentleman and stare all night like puppy dog?"

"I can't do both?" Spike turned to the older demon, head tilted and eyebrow raised, eliciting a small giggle from the child in his arms. "Lily, this is my fiancée, Buffy."

Buffy temporarily withdrew her hand from under Spike's coat holding it out towards her hostess. "It's very nice to meet you."

Clem's mom made a small grunting noise as if she knew that it was anything but nice for Buffy to meet her, but then took the proffered hand shaking it firmly. "Seems like you wise-up. You make him happy, that good. You treat him like dog, you make him no happy, you no more welcome here. Understand?"

Buffy gulped and nodded. "I understand. These are for you." Buffy held out the bouquet to her hostess, her nerves returning despite Spike's reassuring arm around her. Slaying demons, she could do. Interacting with demons who could read her emotions, not so good.

"Thank you." replied the woman before turning to give them to her son, requesting that he put them in a bucket with some water until she had time to find a vase.

"These are for you, too." Dawn handed over the box of chocolates she had been carrying. The demoness's face softened visibly as she turned to the younger Summers.

Spike obliged with the formal introductions. "This is Dawn, Buffy's sister. Dawn, Lily."

Dawn was surprised to find herself enveloped in a hug. "Those who are true friends to our true friends are always welcome in this house. You good for William. He go poof if you no here last year."

"Hey, less with the poof comments. I know your English is good enough to know better," Spike protested.

"Thank you. It's nice to meet you, too. You're very kind to have us all," Dawn responded.

"Sit. Sit." Lily pointed toward the three-piece suite occupying one end of the spacious living room. "I go watch food. Fix flowers. Clem, he stay." With that she bustled off in the direction of the kitchen again, depositing the chocolates on a side table as she left. "Marie, she Rosa's momma, be home soon. Then we eat."

Spike put his charge down on the floor when he reached the sofa, but once he had taken a seat she immediately climbed into his lap. He turned to Clem. "So, mate, did Buffy tell you why I was actually trying to ring you in the first place, or are you still in the dark."

Clem shrugged and looked at Buffy and then back to Spike. "So, what's the news?"

They were still discussing things to do with the wedding, suits and fittings when they heard a key in the front door. Rosa scrambled off Spike's knee in a mad rush for the door.

"Momma, momma. Unker Will's here with some pretty ladies."

"Why doesn't that surprise me?" came the wry reply from the as yet unseen woman in the hall.

"Are you casting aspersions on my character, amiga?" Spike responded, turning in his seat to see the woman who entered the room.

"Wouldn't you have to find some first, amigo?" the woman teased. She leant over the arm of the sofa and kissed Spike on the cheek, and Dawn and Buffy caught their first glimpse of the tiny, beautiful Hispanic woman. Buffy felt distinctly underdressed in comparison to the impeccably made-up woman in her navy business suit. "I'm just going to say hi to Lily and go get changed. You can do the introductions when I get back, though I think I can guess." She blew a kiss to Clem as she turned to leave, chatting to the excited Rosa about her day with her grandma as she went.

"Your brother doesn't seem to have shared your objection to tight-skinned women, then, Clem?" Buffy asked.

"Oh, he did. It's just when you meet someone like her, looks don't matter. You can't have everything," the wrinkly demon replied, and Buffy didn't have a clue whether he was being serious or having a joke at her expense. She also wondered if he was nursing a bit of a crush on the woman himself.

"Yeah, when you meet the right one you just have to grin and bear it if she looks like Salma Hayek," Dawn made use of her best sarcastic voice.

"Hey, Bit, can the sarcasm till you get to know the lady. Then, you can be sarcastic to her face. Till then, behave." Spike interceded on the absent woman's behalf.

Buffy began to think if Spike called Marie 'a lady' and objected to Dawn's comment, then probably Clem's remark had been no more than the truth. In which case, she really didn't feel comfortable having Lily able to compare the two of them. She wasn't even sure she liked Spike comparing the two of them.

"All the cutlery and stuff in the same place?" Spike asked rising from his chair and taking off his duster, slinging it over the back of the sofa where he'd been sitting.

"Sure," answered Clem. "I'll get the table-cloth."

Buffy and Dawn watched as without any prompting, the two men cleared away Rosa's crayons and colouring-in books and set the table ready for dinner, working around each other as if they'd done it many times before. In fact, when Buffy offered to help they just waved her away, saying they had things under control.

Before they had finished Marie came back into the room, carrying Rosa piggy back. This time she wore a pair of faded blue jeans, sneakers and a Miami Hurricanes football top, and her once elegant coiffure was scooped up into a sloppy ponytail. Now that Buffy could see her closer up, she realised that she was probably only a year or two this side of thirty, a good seven or eight years older than the slayer.

"Hey, Spike. Ready to do the honours or should we just introduce ourselves?" Marie called over.

The vampire gave a snort. "Like I'm going to leave you lot unattended to swap secrets. 'Bout as much chance of that as there is of Clem here winning the Miss Sunnydale pageant."

Spike bustled round, rapidly finishing his share of the chore before he came back to the end of the room where the women congregated.

"Marie, Buffy, Dawn. Happy now?" he asked, looking at Marie.

"Not yet," answered the brunette. "Say, Buffy, what would you say is the most embarrassing thing you've seen Spike do?"

Spike rolled his eyes and headed for the kitchen.

"Guess it must be time for Clem to dust off his swimsuit," Buffy commented dryly. "And I think I'd have to go with dating Harmony. Or getting thrown through a window for propositioning a robot. You?"

"I quite liked it that Thanksgiving when he was bouncing round tied to a chair going, 'You made a bear. You made a bear. Undo it. Undo it,'" Dawn responded, imitating the blond vamp.

"Knowing Spike, I'm not going to ask why he was tied to a chair to begin with. It would probably be unsuitable for small ears," Marie remarked.

"You think that was bad. I spent the rest of that week chained up in the watcher's bath tub with Missy feeding me through a straw," Spike complained as he brought through a casserole dish and put it on the table. Lily followed behind him carrying dishes filled with potatoes and vegetables.

"Only because Buffy wouldn't do it," retorted Dawn. "She said he kept trying to look down her top."

"Yeah...so. I was chipped, not neutered, pet," the vampire acknowledged, going through to the kitchen. This time when he returned he was carrying a mug of steaming sanguine goodness.

"Sit, everybody. Food is ready." The family matriarch took her seat at one end of the table. As the man of the house Clem sat opposite her. Spike sat down next to a bare place setting, drawing Buffy into the seat next to him, leaving Dawn, Rosa and Marie to sit at the other side of the table. Knowing they still had to eat wherever they were going and observing that Spike wasn't eating at all, Dawn and Buffy took only sparing portions of the tuna casserole and overcooked vegetables. Buffy realised the same could be said of Clem. Was this the explanation for all the junk food he ate? Could his mother's cooking be that bad? After one mouthful, she knew. It was.

Somehow Buffy made it through the meal. With everyone eating except Spike there wasn't much in the way of chatter. Buffy was glad. She felt decidedly uncomfortable whenever she was in the same room as Clem's mom. It was the same sort of uneasiness you get when confronted with a policeman. Even if you're totally innocent, you feel guilty. In Buffy's case it was worse because she, Lily and Clem knew she was guilty. They had seen Spike's broken body and mutilated face. They knew that she was the monster, not Spike.

Spike forgave her before she'd even left. It was as if he felt he deserved no better. Those of her friends that she'd told forgave her because she was Buffy, they were her friends and that's what friends did. If some of them thought Spike didn't matter because he was evil and soulless then that just made it easier for them. Now for the first time she had to face up to what she'd done through the eyes of people who cared about Spike and knew he deserved better. They weren't predisposed to forgive her. To them she was Spike's abusive partner. Buffy looked into the mirror of other people's opinion and realised that if she had to put a name to the girl she saw reflected back, it wouldn't be Buffy. It would be the slayer, or maybe even Faith.

Maybe she had stared too long into the abyss, and that was who she was now. Or maybe, just maybe she could change again for the better this time. Her spirit guide had said that she was full of love, that she would only lose it if she refused it. If she let him, Spike would teach her to give her love freely. In her mind, that was the bravest thing Spike did. However often, and however much he was hurt, Spike never hid behind emotional walls and barricades. He gave of himself freely and without reserve. After Angel hurt her, she had never opened herself to that intensity of feeling again for fear it would lead once more to that same pain.

'Crummy time for an epiphany', she thought, as she struggled her way through lumpy custard and super-sour rhubarb crumble. When they were sneaking around, they never seemed to have a problem finding time to be alone. Now, it seemed that there were always others around, that there were always things to be done, places to be. At the end of the night, though, he was hers and hers alone. Tonight, after they saw the others, after the Bronze, after patrol she would tell him. For now, she made do with letting her hand rest on his thigh. Cool fingers covered her own and her eyes flicked to his face, only to be trapped yet again by the love in those irresistible cobalt depths.

Buffy still didn't know how she came to find herself in love with the blond vampire. Maybe she'd already been in love with him before he cast the spell to have his will done. Maybe she fell in love with the side of him she saw under the spell. Or maybe it just fell into place as soon as she stopped guarding her feelings against him, but she did know that the look in those eyes was at least part of the reason why she fell.