Title : A Candle In The Dark

Rating : G/PG

Summary : 'Missing scene' from the seventh season, shortly after 7x13 'Killer In Me'. It's Spike's special day and at least one person cares enough to mark the occasion.

Disclaimer : They're Joss' toys in Joss' world, I'm just playing!

A Candle in the Dark

It should just be another day like any other, Spike knew that, but it wasn't just any other date in the calendar. Today was the day that, should he still have been alive, Spike would be celebrating his 150th birthday. Of course he'd been dead for the vast majority of those years, but he'd existed enough to walk the Earth still, a century and a half beyond his birth.

Spike sighed and glanced up at the ceiling as he heard the pounding feet and pointless chatter of too many young girls. As little as four years ago he'd have killed the lot of them, given half the chance. To the other extreme, over a century ago when he was the poet William he'd have been much more afraid of these females than they were of him. He'd have stumbled over his words, blushed, and possibly run away to cry as they laughed at his inability to cope with the simple situation.

A hundred and fifty years, and so much had changed, both in the world at large, and in Spike's own. He'd gone from man to monster to... whatever the hell he should be classified as now. Buffy said he was a better man but Spike wasn't sure he even knew what that meant anymore. His stomach suddenly lurched, a reminder that he hadn't eaten in quite some time.

'Lots of tasty titbits up there' his demon quietly taunted, till his newly restored conscience kicked in, flooding his mind with name and faces, all the other innocent young girls he'd hurt, maimed, abused, killed.

Though the guilt never completely went away, and neither should it, these particular bouts of pain and torment were almost unbearable when they struck. Spike put his head in his hands, feeling his brain might explode from the pressure of too many memories, too much guilt overloading him.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry" he muttered to no-one in particular since nobody was there to hear his apologies.

A few moments later he regained his composure, sniffing hard as he wiped a stray tear from his cheek. Though he ought to feel pain for all the terrible things he'd done, he knew things were different now. He'd never harm anybody here, not the Scoobies, certainly not the Bit or Buffy, not even the Potentials. Some of them were sweet girls, if not a bit thick, he smirked to himself as he climbed the basement stairs and reached the door that led to the kitchen. He paused there, frowning slightly as he bent down to pick up a small blue envelope with 'Spike' scrawled on it, in what he guessed was supposed to be someone's best effort at calligraphy or some such fancy style.

Someone moved in the kitchen, he heard, smelt, even felt the person there before he opened the door and faced her. The poor girl almost jumped out of her skin, as she turned and looked back from half way to the stairs.

"Hello, pet" he half smiled at her.

"H-Hey" Vi replied nervously, "I was just..."

"Leaving notes outside my door?" Spike filled in for her when her sentence trailed away to nothing.

Poor bint was a little bit scared of him, he could smell it on her, as well as the attraction which was ever present too. Women were the weirdest creatures, Spike observed, fancying things and people that were bad for them, even that scared them a bit. Didn't stop the situation being somewhat flattering though.

"It-It's not a note" Vi shifted awkwardly, "I... It's a card, a b-birthday card" she admitted, worrying when she saw the frown of Spike's face, "Was Dawn wrong? Cos she said it was today and... well, Happy Birthday?" she tried hopefully, wishing he'd just answer then go away so she could too. This was so embarrassing!

Spike was amazing to her, the vampire that had overcome his demon, fought for his soul in honour of the woman he loved. It was so romantic and Vi hated Buffy just a little bit for being the aforementioned woman. She herself would do anything to be loved by such an amazing, totally hot guy like Spike.

She watched as he carefully opened the envelope in his hand and pulled out a card with a brightly coloured birthday cake and balloons on the front. It looked like something you'd buy a colour-blind seven year old but it touched Spike's heart and soul none the less as he opened up the first birthday card he'd had in decades and read the words inside.

'To Spike,
Happy Birthday! I hope all your wishes come true this year.
With love, from Vi, and all the girls'

"Thanks, luv" he said huskily, feeling stupidly emotional as he glanced at her, "'S very sweet of you, Vi" he smiled as she blushed a pretty shade of pink.

She was a decent sort, of that he was fairly certain. Always polite and thoughtful he'd noticed as he watched the girls together; training, eating, chatting, learning. She wasn't a mighty warrior yet, but she could be. She had the heart for it, and the balls it seemed since she'd come down here in the dark all alone to do something that had a fifty-fifty chance of severely pissing off a recently unchipped vampire.

"It was nothing" she shrugged, feeling ridiculously warm and mushy inside as he smiled at her, "Everybody deserves at least one card on their special day"

"S'pose they do at that" Spike nodded as he came towards her and Vi's heart-rate skipped up a few notches. She wasn't sure what to expect and wasn't at all disappointed when Spike leaned in and kissed her lightly on the cheek.

"You're a good sort, luv" he told her, "Don't let anyone ever tell you different" he said, having heard a few of the other girls before now telling her she was too soft, too weak to be a real Slayer.

"I-I won't" she answered him, turning to run away immediately after.

As thrilling as it was to be so close to Spike it was extremely scary too. Still he'd boosted her confidence just enough and she knew she'd never get another chance so she spun back around and called his name, catching him just before he opened the basement door.

"Mine's May 22nd" she said quickly, "My birthday, I mean, if you wanted to... y'know, return the favour" she said nervously, making Spike smile once again.

"Got it logged in now, pet" he told her, tapping the side of his head with two fingers, "May 22nd, Vi's special day. I'll not forget"

With a huge grin on her face and a bounce in her step, Vi finally headed back to bed, leaving Spike standing alone in the kitchen.

"May 22nd" he said softly to himself, glancing down at the card he held between his fingers, and the pretty girlish writing inside, "Hope you live to see it, luv, really bloody hope you do"

The End

A/N : This was kind of two ideas I had smooshed together, one of which spawned from an interview I read a while back in which Felicia Day (who played Potential Vi) told of how much she enjoyed filming the scene in the ep 'Potential' when James Marsters, as Spike, had to grab her and hold her close! Well, who wouldn't love that? Hope you liked the story and that you'll write a nice little review for me!