Spike never knew he could feel so nervous in his entire life - he was all about staying cool at work, but this was different. This was one of the Big Life Moments with his love and he knew that the double surprise he had planned for her was nothing short of awesome.
Still, he was thankful he had his cop's training as it helped him fib his way through his afternoon with his love, as he watched her brush her hair in the mirror on the back of their bedroom door. At first that had creeped him out until he'd figured out that if they kept the door shut during sexy times, Spike could still see her face if he entered her from behind. Once he'd confessed that little naughty secret to her, she'd just whacked him with a pillow and told him they all had their little kinks and apparently that was his. He knew too that she was planning on giving him 'cheer-up' sex later that night from owing to the fact that it was also Lou's birthday which never failed to make him feel down.
Spike was feeling anything but down right now, and Winnie didn't know it yet but he planned to make love with her for an entirely different reason.
'You sure you feel up to this, babe?' she asked him, catching him looking at her in the mirror. 'It was a pretty disappointing week.'
'Hey, none of that. The house we get will be amazing.'
'I know, I just really like that one.' Winnie waited a beat. 'Really really liked it. What if we upped our offer? I can-'
'Win, it's done, okay? Trust me, we will get our house.' A small part of Spike felt bad about the way he was making her pout, the larger part was trying to keep from spilling all right there in their rental home's bedroom. 'Now, you wanna get out of here so we don't miss our reservations?'
'Sure.'
Winnie knew she was acting like a stubborn child but she couldn't help it. A solid month of house hunting, sometimes multiple appointments in a day and then they'd come within inches of getting their dream home only to have it snatched away. Still she knew that wherever she and Spike did end up they would make it their dream home because they had each other.
And besides, fireplaces could always be installed into family rooms, she reminded herself as they stepped out into the crisp early-December air. That was why they'd set up the joint account in their names, so their home would truly be theirs with those added little special touches. Forcing herself to focus on that part instead, she blinked in bafflement when she climbed into Spike's truck and he passed her the sleep-mask she usually saved for being on planes.
'What's this?'
'I've got a little surprise for you, something I know will snap you out of that funk you've been in since Tuesday. Go on.' Spike waggled it at her, breathed a little sigh of relief when she complied with a shrug.
'Last thing I wanna do is upset you when you've clearly gone to this much trouble,' she said on a little shrug, and slipping it over her eyes, she settled back against the seat as she let Spike work his Spike-magic on her.
By Winnie's estimation, they'd been driving for what felt like an eternity when they finally came to a stop; when she went to lift the mask off her eyes, she felt Spike's delicate touch on her hand.
'Not yet. First, hold out your hand.'
She did so, then frowned in confusion as something dropped into her waiting open palm. It was small, metallic but too durable to be jewellery. Then she felt the smooth grooves on one side, the jagged line on the other of the slim stick.
'A key? To what, the universe?'
'Sort of. Open your eyes.'
Winnie took off the mask, blinked rapidly to clear her vision. They were nowhere near a restaurant but on a residential street and...no, no it couldn't be, she thought with a little burst of numb shock. They were sitting in front of the house on Redcar Avenue, the sign out front with a bright orange SOLD sticker on the top.
'Michelangelo, what are we doing here?'
'Welcome home, my love,' he replied, finally allowing the grin to spread.
'Home, but...' Winnie's hand trembled once as she lifted her fingers to see the neatly printed tag of the key in her hand. 44 R-Car Ave F Door. 'Home? Home?'
'I wanted to surprise you. Demetria called me this afternoon at work, the other offer fell through so Jason is taking ours.' Spike gave a happy laugh. 'We got the house, Winona.'
'We...we got the house?' Winnie said it softly, as though anything louder might reveal the lie of his words. 'We got the house?'
'We got the house.'
'We got the house!' Now she gave a jubilant shriek of mirth, throwing her arms around Spike's neck. 'Oh my god! Oh my god! So...what about paperwork and escrow and the money and-'
'We've got an appointment at Demetria's office Monday morning to settle the paperwork and the money and all that shit. Tonight, let's just celebrate.'
'We got the house,' Winnie said again in an awestruck voice as Spike got out of the truck to open her door. 'It's ours, a beautiful little spot to call our own.'
'We've got the key for the weekend, so we can take photos for renovations in the kitchen or anything else we want,' Spike went on as they headed for the front door, his heart thundering in his chest.
Unlocking the door, he led her inside and immediately saw her brain go into what he thought of as design mode, it was the same look she got when she was planning a trip for them, or a fancy dinner menu for a get together, or his favourite, when she was concocting a seriously saucy bedtime story to tantalize him as their foreplay. Spike loved when she did those, when they were both exhausted from work and wanted to make lvoe but weren't quite sure if they had the energy.
It was one of the many reasons he loved her.
'I'm thinking the kitchen is what would take the most work before we move in,' Winnie told him, 'because I don't know about you but I'm not interested in moving into a place that will be partially under construction.'
'Agreed.'
'Why don't we have a look around the rest of the place, or do we have time before our reservations go to waste?'
'We have a little time. Wanna go have a look upstairs?'
'Sure.'
Spike went to take her hand, then with his heart in his mouth, tugged her to where he wanted her, in the archway between the hallway and the kitchen. 'Hey, look at that.'
'What?'
'That.'
Winnie craned her neck up, laughed when she saw the mistletoe hung above their heads, then squinted. There was something glittering in the little bunch of artificial twigs Spike had undoubtedly put up to have their first kiss in the new home; she had to admit she felt the romance of a new home with him even more now that it was a real thing.
Then, everything seemed to go blank when Winnie reached up for whatever it was catching the light from the kitchen, tugged it off the loose string where it was attached to the silly little decoration and she realized it wasn't just any shiny thing - it was a ring.
An engagement ring.
Lips moving silently, Winnie stared at it in her hands unable to believe what she was holding. Then her eyes flicked up and she saw that Spike was kneeling before her, still holding her hands.
'Oh my god.'
'Winona Michelle Camden, you are the best thing that ever happened to me, and I know there are a thousand fancy things I could and probably should say but for me the simplest ones always work best with you. I love you and I want nothing more in this world than to spend the rest of my life loving you and making you as happy as you've made me. Will you marry me?'
'Yes, oh god, yes, of course I will Michelangelo!' Winnie could hardly get the words out in her utter shock of delight and surprise. 'Oh, my god, baby! Oh my god! Oh, Mike, oh...oh wow.'
Not even bothering to wipe at his eyes as tears of joy streamed down his face, Spike rose to kiss Winnie long and deep, felt her shudder and tremble for him as he helped slide his family ring onto her hand. 'I love you so much,' he murmured to her as he held her close.
'I love you more.'
'Not possible,' Spike retorted on a watery laugh, as Winnie stroked her palms over his cheeks to brush away the tears. 'I was so scared you might say no.'
'Never to you, my beautiful angel. Never.'
'Hey, we should call everyone.'
'Team One,' Spike decided. 'We're already going to see your folks and Aaron tomorrow for dinner after shift to tell them about the house.'
'You planned that too,' Winnie giggled, admiring the ring winking and shining away on her finger.
'Nah, but we should tell them that news in person. I happen to know too that Team One minus us was going for beers tonight. They knew we had plans,' he explained on a cocky wink, his confidence returning as he fished out his phone and dialed Ed's cell which connected on the third ring. 'Hey, Ed? Where are you guys? Put me on speaker phone!'
There was a general shushing and he could hear the movement of people before Ed's voice came through strong and a little distorted from the loud speaker.
'Yeah, Spike what's going on?'
'I've got someone here who wants to say hi.'
'Oh yeah, who's that?'
'The future Missus Michelangelo Scarlatti,' Winnie trilled, and she heard the cheers in the background mixed with 'way to go' and congratulations!' 'You guys were in on this weren't you?'
'We knew Spike had a plan just not when that plan would go down.' Leah's voice was warm and rich with love. 'Were you surprised?'
'Did you cry?' Jules added. 'I did, and Sam told me how funny he thought it was that I didn't shed a tear over getting shot but a diamond ring made me fountain.;
'Get down here and come have a drink with us!' Now it was Moise who piped up. 'We wanna see that ice!'
'How about tomorrow, we've got reservations at eight and we don't wanna miss those,' Spike told them, subtly giving the signal for the next part of his plan.
'You got it, buddy, and congrats again,' Ed told him, then hung up as he looked around - he was not in a noisy packed bar but his own home with some very important VIPs. 'Alright troops, Operation Surprise Number Three is now officially in its final execution stages. Let's roll.'
