Family Man
Disclaimer: I own nothing! Joss and his peeps and the people from "family man" and their peeps are all to blame/worship here, ok?
Feedback: Yes, please!
Spoiler/Summary: If you've seen the movie and like b/s fluffy/teary stuff, you'll fall in love with this!
*A/N* Enjoy! I nearly cried when I read this done! LOVE YOU NOTE WRITERS! (MY CATNIP SUPPLIERS!)
Spike took a long drag on his cigarette. Well, things were certainly somewhat back to normal in Sunnyd. Buffy was back to being her regular bitchy self.
He stormed out of the Bronze angrily. It was so like her to deny her feelings just after they had shared something special.
Why couldn't she just admit it? She did feel something for him, he knew it. And he wasn't joking when he'd said that he was through being her whipping boy. He was done. They were done until she decided where her loyalties-and her heart- lay.
From behind him, he heard a female scream.
Instinctively, he turned to see a dark form struggling near where he had just exited.
He crept stealthily to where the figure had turned to see two men who were leaning over a young girl. She looked terrified.
"Please," she whimpered, "Please, don't hurt me...."
One of the men sneered and began to unbutton her shirt roughly. Spike crept up behind them and knocked their heads together. Both men were unconscious.
The girl looked up at Spike, and their eyes locked.
"Thank you, Spike."
Spike's eyes widened, "How do you know my name?"
"Oh, I call all of you guys Spike." she brushed it off as he helped her up.
"Right." Spike faltered, then backed away, "Well, you get home, ok?"
"Yeah. Thank you."
"No problem." he called as he began to walk away.
"Spike?" she called after him.
He turned around, "What?"
"It's your own fault. Make a difference, ok?"
"What?" he was bewildered.
"Make a difference!" she called.
And then she was gone.
"Make a difference..." he muttered to himself as he walked home, "Make a difference...."
*The Next Morning*
Spike opened an eyeball sleepily, expecting to see the ceiling of his crypt. Instead, he saw a crystal chandelier.
He felt breathing on his stomach. He looked down at his chest to see a head of silky brown hair laying on it. She groaned slightly, "Just five more minutes..." she whispered, and he looked out the window to see the sun rising. Only....
The rays hit his chest....his hands....his arms....his neck....his face.....
And he didn't burn.
He remembered the faint memory of a heart beating inside him.
Th-thump. Th-thump. Th-thump.
I'm alive, he realized.
He heard a sudden noise from the doorway of the beautiful, old fashioned room.
The door swung open and two children rushed in.
"Father! Mother! It's Christmas!" the exclaimed. The small boy jumped onto the bed and kissed the woman on Spike's chest. The older girl, who had striking green eyes that looked familiar to him, rushed over to him.
"Merry Christmas, Father!" she kissed his cheek.
The woman with whom he'd woken up with looked at him and kissed him groggily. Once he'd had a chance to register the familiar eyes and original nose, he felt his heart pound.
"Buffy?" he whispered, and leapt out of the bed.
She hadn't noticed his murmur, "William, I need tea. Now."
Her voice was different, it was an English accent, like his. And her hair was it's natural colour...and she had called him William.
He looked around the room, then down at himself. A pair of glasses were sitting on the bedside table and a candle was beside it.
"I don't believe it," he whispered hoarsely, "What is this?"
Nobody had heard him, however.
"I wonder what Father Christmas brought us this year?" said the dark haired boy.
Father Christmas, said Spike inwardly, What twenty first century kid would say-
And then he realized.
He was in his life. When he was alive, back in England in the nineteenth century.
But how could it be?
"Alright, er, children." Spike said, surprised to hear that his voice was a soft, kind one, "You go off and get dressed and then we can see what San-er, Father Christmas got you."
"Yes, Father!" smiled the girl. She looked so much like Buffy that it was amazing. She had to be at least fourteen.
"Merry Christmas, William." Buffy smiled at him.
"Buffy-" he started, but stopped off the look she gave him.
"Buffy?" she repeated dully.
"Um..." Spike cursed himself. How did he know what her name was? They weren't in Sunnydale anymore.
"William, I thought we'd agreed that you'd never call me that.....that's what Bruce called me and I hated it." she raised her eyebrows.
"Right. I'm....I'm sorry."
"Good." she ducked behind a dressing stand and he could see her silhouette getting undressed and dressed again. She looked....thinner. Less muscular somehow.
Once she emerged again, Spike was breathless. The dress she wore was plain, but it made her look so beautiful. She looked like a mother.
She didn't notice his awed expression as she opened the window.
"It's warm in here." she said, and then she pulled him towards her. She looked into his eyes and kissed him softly on the lips.
"See you downstairs." she whispered and shut the door behind her.
Spike began to look for clothing, and as he pulled a nice suit out of the closet, his eyes zeroed in on the golden band on his left hand.
"Oh, boy." he muttered as he headed down the stairs.
*
"Thank you for all the wonderful gifts, Father and Mother!" said Bitty Buffy, as Spike had nicknamed her in his head.
"You're welcome." Spike smiled at his daughter.
Whoa, mate! You're a daddy...and Buffy, or whatever her name is, is a mummy! And also, noticeably, not a Slayer.
This is getting too weird!
He looked down at the unwrapped presents and saw one labelled:
To Elizabeth, All My Love, William
"Hey, did you open this?" Spike handed a present wrapped with gold to his wife.
"I didn't." her eyes twinkled in a way that Spike had never seen before as she began to tear carefully at the edges.
He was anxious to see what he'd gotten her. She opened a very small box and gasped.
"William, it's beautiful!"
Spike smiled at her and then took a peek of the inside of the box. It was a gold necklace that had a charm of a heart and an arrow through it. It was small and delicate...just like her.
As he reached around her neck to do the clasp, she smiled secretly at him.
"Thank you." she whispered and kissed him softly again.
"You're welcome." Spike choked.
He needed to know....what was going on? Why was he back in his life again, only to be wed to a Buffy look alike and have two children that were the most polite he'd ever met?
"Oh darling! I just remembered, I forgot to go next door and borrow the eggs for the eggnog!" Eliza-Buffy said, looking worried.
"Next door, you say?" Spike said, finding a perfect chance to go out and see what was going on, "I'll get it."
"You're a dear." she said, and ran a finger through his hair before he stood. Spike self consciously patted himself on the head. He was back to the brown, poofy hair from the times.
Great, Spike smirked to himself as he headed out the door.
As he stepped out, he shivered. He'd forgotten how cold England got in the winter time.
As he squinted up at the house next door, he felt a pang of familiarity. They lived next door to his old home. He looked at the other side of the house, knowing what he'd see.
Cecily's home.
"Having fun, Spike?" said a voice from behind him. He whirled around to see a woman dressed in fine robes. She was smiling at him. He recognized her after a moment as the honey haired girl from behind the Bronze.
"What have you done to me? It was you, wasn't it? You did this!" he shouted at her, earning strange looks from people passing by.
"I only sent you back here to see a glimpse. And you can call me Eternity."
"A glimpse! A glimpse of what, Eternity!?"
"If you had stayed at Cecily's party, you would have met her cousin, Elizabeth." she smiled sadly at him.
"Eliza-Elizabeth? The one who I'm married to, the one who looks like Buffy?"
"The very one. If you had stayed and not stormed out, you could have lived a normal life and then died. Peacefully. Happily. Fulfilled with every memory, every dream and every wish that came true for you and your family."
Spike smacked himself in the forehead, "So, you're giving me a glimpse to see what? To see what I've been missing? To see that I should have stayed at the party where everybody made jokes at my expense? I've never been one for crowds, girl!"
"You are now. Here."
"Yeah, well, how long am I here for?"
"As long as you need."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"You'll understand soon enough."
And then, with a wisp of snow, she was gone.
She had left him with a bag of eggs.
As the day went by, Spike was getting more and more used to life back where he came from.
He tucked the children into bed (he had learned that their names were Anne and Alexander).
"Goodnight, Papa." Alexander whispered to him as Spike stood over him awkwardly.
"Goodnight, Alex." Spike half smiled. The kid actually looked like him...the deep set blue eyes and the brown hair that stood up at every angle...and the cheekbones that he had always prided himself on.
This is my son, he realized with a pang, This is my son.
Spike leaned over and kissed Alexander on the forehead, "Sweet dreams. Merry Christmas."
Spike blew out the candle by his son's bedside and continued into the joint room of Anne.
"Papa." she smiled at him as she looked up from a thick, leather bound book. She held a quill in her hand.
"Anne." he smiled back. She was really beautiful. Just like her mother.
"Did you have a very merry Christmas, father?" she asked quietly, looking down at her book which she had closed delicately.
He watched her closely, "It was the best Christmas I've ever had." he said honestly.
He leaned over and hugged her. She leaned back, and he could see a twinkle of a tear in her eye, "Are you...are you quite yourself today, Father?"
Spike smiled to himself, "Not quite. I feel very festive this year. I've let Christmas find me."
Anne smiled, "That's nice. I remember when you used to say such sweet things to mother."
Spike frowned, "Don't I anymore?"
"Not that I've- but it's none of my business, really. I should really get to bed. It's late now." she wiped her eye inconspicuously and he couldn't help but feel a bit worried as he blew out her candle and kissed her forehead goodnight.
He walked quietly into he and Elizabeth's bedroom. He didn't know if she'd be asleep.
She wasn't.
She sat on the bed in a silken gown and her hair was down in golden brown tresses.
"Love, are you still awake?" he smiled at her, and she smiled back.
"William, what's gotten into you today?" he could see a happiness in her eyes, "You've been so different."
Spike sat down on the end of the bed and put a hand on her bare foot, "I don't know. I suppose I caught the Christmas bug."
He could see her smile, but he also recognized the wet look of her twinkling eyes. He looked at her seriously, "Darling...is something wrong?"
"No. No, William. Everything is just so right now." she wiped her eyes as he moved to lay beside her, "I'm just....overcome with how much one night changed you. You used to act this way.....speak of love and romance.....and then you just stopped one day and I couldn't figure out why. It seemed as though you had just gotten up one day and decided that you didn't love me."
Spike was staring at her now. What had happened to his old self?
"What....tell me more. I need to know more about....you and your feelings, sweetheart." he whispered, putting his hand over her heart and laying on the pillows. It was a comfort to him, laying here with her and feeling her heart and his beat synonymously.
"Well, William, you really know more about than I-"
"But I want to know what you're feelings are. Then I can explain."
"Well.....it's like you tripped into this dark, bleak hole and found your way out.....but you never forgot what you saw. You looked haunted, you were distant and cold to me....you changed everything about us....you wouldn't be soft anymore when we were intimate....you would be rough and demanding. You would never tell me what had happened to make you change your ways so." she looked at him. It was a deep, searching look. Like she was afraid he's explode.
"Oh....darling." Spike said sadly, "I'm so sorry. I don't know what happened. I suppose.....I think I may have blocked it from my memory, because where that would lay lies a dark spot, full of nothingness and filth. I'm sorry I've treated you this way, and I'm sorry that Anne feels that it's none of her business, and I'm sorry that our son had to grow up with parents who were so distant. I just know one thing now, Elizabeth." he leaned over to stare into her deep green eyes, which were glistening, "I love you. More than words or life can say. I've just been given a new chance at life, and if you'll ever forgive me I will have a reason to love it as much as I love you. If I couldn't have you....hold you....may the moon not shine and the sun not rise. May the wind whisper sweet sorrows in the ears of lost loves and the lake glisten for only those who choose to let it in. Elizabeth....I need you. You're everything to me."
She was crying freely now, but tears of joy were cascading down her delicate cheeks as she pulled him into a deep kiss.
He pulled back, breathless.
"I love you, Elizabeth. Let me make love to you...tender and sweet. A way that I've never had. Please, let me worship you, every inch."
She smiled at him and kissed him again, "I shall, William."
*
The Next Morning
Spike smiled to himself as he felt himself awaken.
It must be still night, for I would feel the sun through the window if-
Wait. This bed is cold. And hard.
His eyes flew open and he sat up as fast as he could.
He was back in his crypt.
Had it only been a dream?
"Hey, handsome." said a voice from beside him. He jumped as he saw the blonde sitting in his armchair watching the television, "You missed Coronation Street!"
"Eternity! What are you doing here? What am I doing here?" Spike hissed, standing up. She looked at him with surprise, "Well, you got it through your head that you would have been better off alive, Spike. That's where you glimpse ended."
"Send me back!" he shouted madly, and she laughed, "Glimpse is, by definition Spike, an impermanent thing. You went for what you needed and came back with the info. And well done, I must say!"
"How.....Elizabeth! Anne! Alex! What's to happen to them?"
"They're from the past that never happened, William. Elizabeth joined the nurses hospital and worked there until she met a doctor that she fell in love with. They lived happily ever after, she died in nineteen twenty seven a wife, mother and grandmother. She never knew what she lost from not meeting you, because she never really did. Anne and Alexander were never born."
Spike could feel the hollowness in him. Literally.
That night, as he walked around the graveyard, he half hoped he wouldn't see the Slayer. So soon...it would just be too painful.
"Spike." said an irritated voice from behind him. He rolled his eyes to the heavens and said a quick and sarcastic thanks, then turned around to face Buffy.
"Slayer." he said casually.
"Are you gonna move out of my way this time, or am I going to have to make you?" she said dryly.
"Be my guest," he leaned on a gravestone.
She eyed him, warily, "What? No fight? No sexual comments or taunts about how I'll crave you?"
"No. Not in the banter mood, I guess."
"What's up?" she said concernedly, then looking embarrassed.
"Never mind." she said quickly, but still leaned on a gravestone next to him. She was watching him try and fight off the urge to say something to her.
"Spike, you're having a fight with yourself in there. Look, I don't care. Just say what you want to say."
He looked at her searchingly.
She wouldn't have remembered last night. But he did.
He started, staring into her green eyes.
"I had a dream last night. I can't really explain how real it was. It seemed as though everything I thought I knew what faded away and I was sent to live a life that I had missed living when I died. I was married to a girl....a raven, a stark beauty. She was you, Buffy. Her name was Elizabeth, and she was the sweetest girl to walk the earth. We had two children. Anne, who was fourteen. She looked so much like you, and was so quiet. You could tell that she knew much more than she led on, but didn't like to pry into other's lives. She wrote in her diary every night. Alexander, he was nine. He had my cheekbones, my hair and my eyes. But your spirit. I could hear it, calling out from him. We weren't the richest, but we weren't the poorest either. We owned a beautiful home that was rarely clean, but it was ours. We lived next door to my mother. We borrowed eggs from her for Christmas Eggnog. I gave you a necklace with a golden heart on it. We were a family, and we loved each other. I don't know how to describe how I felt when I woke up this morning and realized that it was only a dream. I just know that I have to tell you exactly what I'm thinking right now. I love you. More than words or life can say. If you'll ever forgive me I will have a reason to love life as much as I love you. If I couldn't have you....hold you....may the moon not shine and the sun not rise. May the wind whisper sweet sorrows in the ears of lost loves and the lake glisten for only those who choose to let it in. Buffy....I need you. You're everything to me."
She was staring at him, her eyes full of, shockingly, tears.
"Spike.....did you make that up just now?" she choked, and he nodded.
"Well....I'm glad you told me. I guess, inside, you're still kind of a poet, huh?"
"In the human in me? Yeah. I guess that's what takes away the demon."
"What?"
"The love. It takes away the demon in a person's soul, and leaves only the peace and the memories."
Buffy smiled at him, the first true smile he had seen in many months.
"Yeah, I think so too."
"Will you let me kiss you, Buffy?"
"I.....I shall."
FIN