DISCLAIMER: I own no rights to any recognizable characters, nor Buffy the Vampire Slayer or anything related to it. No profit is being made by me and no copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: For the purposes of the story, everything canon that happened after Something Blue - the fight against Adam, Joyce's death, Glory, The Nerd Trio, The First - didn't happen. I just couldn't kill of Joyce, she's too sweet a person. I have twice forgotten to mention that the spell I used in Chapter 6, the one that Willow uses to track demons, is the very same in the episode "Same Time, Same Place." I'm sure everyone gathered that, but I want to properly give credit where credit is due. Lastly, I want to thank once more all of you who have read and reviewed so far – you guys make my day and motivate me to continue writing! :)

Betaed by musesinbasement.

Something New by itsayamsham

Chapter 8

Retreating to her room after saying goodnight to Giles, Buffy found herself staring at her bedroom ceiling, consumed with worry. She had tried to assure Giles that she was alright, and, viewing Buffy's red-rimmed eyes, Giles had hesitated, but bid her goodnight, making internal plans to return in the morning, after she had gotten some rest, for a proper answer.

Wrapped up in the comforting safety of her bed, Buffy couldn't help but think about what could have prompted Spike to return to Sunnydale. For four years she hadn't heard a word about him, and rather than wasting time wondering where he ran off to, she preoccupied herself with ensuring that no demon in Sunnydale came into contact with Joan. It was impossible to hide her pregnancy and the fact that she had a child from the demon world around her, but she and her Scoobie gang held it within their power to prevent any harm in coming to her daughter. Willow and her girlfriend, and fellow witch, Tara, enshrouded her home with protection spells regularly, and Buffy made sure that Joan didn't go anywhere without her cross necklace.

Having recently turned four, her daughter wasn't aware of the lengths her family went for her, or the reasons behind them. She just thought her cross necklace was shiny and pretty, and that Auntie Willow and Tara often smelled like Christmas trees and the flowers her grandmother liked to plant in the backyard. Buffy, having been deprived of a normal childhood after she had turned fifteen, was adamant that her daughter not lose a second of hers, or a shred of her innocence, and had decided to keep her in the dark for as long as she could. So patrolling became "Mommy's working another night shift," and Scoobie meetings became "Mommy's friends and Grandpa Giles are coming over to talk about grown-up things." Joan was aware, however, that, because her mom worked out a lot and ate all her vegetables, she was really strong.

Despite that, the Scoobies pitched in once in a while to patrol for her - but had done so more often during and right after her pregnancy - and they and Joyce often babysat for her when she performed her Slayer duties on her own. Buffy'd left school, being the Slayer and a mom leaving little room for her studies, and she'd gone through several entry-level jobs, the last being a waitress for a local cafe. Unfortunately for Buffy, they didn't appreciate her constant unavailability for night shifts and frequent "family emergencies," and had let her go.

Under no circumstances, however, not even for the sake of keeping a job, could she shirk her calling, now more than ever. If she had been lax or apathetic about her duties before that fateful spell four years previously, now she was downright rigorous and ruthless. Before she was fighting for the safety of the world, and now she was fighting for both the world and for Joan. The sheer power of a willful Slayer is nothing to be messed with, but the power of a mother fighting for her child is a force to be reckoned with. Adding the two up, Buffy was what Xander liked to call a "double whammy." Occasionally a vamp or demon would escape her grasp, more so than four years ago, because of her inability to patrol every night, but no one dared threaten her daughter. Ever.

Drilling holes into her ceiling, however, Buffy wasn't so certain the double whammy was prepared for this new foe, if Spike's intent was to become hers again. Thinking about the way he'd spoken to her – as he had the first time she'd met him in the hallway at Sunnydale High, she wasn't so certain that he didn't intend to. Buffy's instincts as both the Slayer and as a mother were screaming for her to be cautious and to keep her guard up.

Turning over in her bed, Buffy resolved to make plans for another "grown-ups" meeting the next morning and tried to will away thoughts of her encounter with Spike. Shutting her eyes, attempting to get some rest, she also tried to will away the knowledge that, amid all of her fear and worry over her would-be adversary, she felt a sense of…disappointment.

xXx

In the morning Buffy awoke to find a pair of twinkling blue eyes staring her down.

"Mommy, Grandma told me to wake you up so you can come eat breakfast with us."

Groaning, Buffy laid her head back down on her pillow and playfully dragged a giggling Joan down to lay next to her.

"I don't wanna." Gathering her daughter into her arms and dropping a sloppy kiss onto her forehead, Buffy asked, "How about we sleep in today, Joanie?"

"But Grandma made pancakes!"

She relented.

Not even the evilest of evil could resist the manipulative ploy of that pouty face.

xXx

Stabbing at her pancakes and twirling pizza-slice-shaped bits around a pool of sticky maple syrup, Buffy found her emotions interfering with her appetite.

After Joan retreated into the living room to play, she took the opportunity to speak to her mother and relayed the events of the previous night to her in detail. Joyce expressed as much, if not more, concern as Buffy had, and promised to keep Joan entertained upstairs while Buffy called Giles and her friends over for a Scoobie meeting.

Fifteen minutes later, her living room was filled and five faces were raptly glued to her own as she retold her story for the second time that day.

"That son of a bitch." She figured Xander would be the first to damn Spike on her behalf.

"Buffy, why didn't you inform me of this yesterday?" Giles cut in.

She looked away from his inquiring eyes. "I…kinda wanted some time to think, you know, let it sink in. I didn't want to talk about it yet," she admitted.

"Ah."

"Buffy, I - I can't imagine how that must have felt. It's like, four years he's gone off to who-knows-where, then - poof! – back in Sunnydale, and he's all 'grr, I'm still the Big Bad, I'm coming after you…'" At everyone's pointed looks, Willow paused, "I – I just mean it must feel weird."

"Yes, and the French thing is very off-putting and strange, although must be indicative that he's well-read and quite intelligent despite his repeated failed attempts to kill you." Anya did have a point, there.

"Yes, it's all weird and strange and what the hell are we gonna do about this?"

"I don't know, Xand. I figured we could bulk up the protection spells around the house, even though he can't come in anyways…We could do some patrolling, see if anything seems off, beat up Willy for info - that kind of thing." Buffy figured he might have encountered Spike since he'd been back.

"Well, I'm always up for beating Willy, er, beating up Willy."

"Then Xander and Anya'll do that, and Will, Tara, you'll do some protection spell bulkage?"

Willow nodded, "Of course, we'll swing by our apartment and come back with the supplies."

"But Buffy, why would Spike feel compelled to return to Sunnydale now, or ever, for that matter? It seems incongruous that he would return to the very place that is responsible for planting the chip in his head, and – and has been – "

"The place of many of his ass-kickings by you. Giles does bring up another good point, though, Buff. He still has the chip in his head, doesn't he? He can't really hurt you."

"I don't know, Xand. We didn't exactly fight yesterday, so I can't really know." Buffy chewed on her lip, worrying. The grown-ups meeting seemed to Buffy to just be building up her existing anxiety. "As for why he's here now, I have no clue."

"Buffy, do you think maybe…maybe he knows?" Tara asked softly.

"No. He kind of insinuated that Joan was Parker's, so I really doubt it." Buffy herself had worried constantly during her pregnancy that it wasn't Spike's, and that she had suffered a severe lapse in memory. Maybe it was some mystically-induced demonic pregnancy, or an alien fetus, or maybe she'd passed out at some party at school, and…They hadn't ever found a reason behind the impossible conception, despite Giles' constant researching, and until Buffy finally became witness to her daughter's replica blue eyes, proof that she wasn't crazy, she was consumed with anxiety.

"That she was who's?" Right, Giles hadn't known about that…

"No one, Giles! Some random guy, it's…nothing."

"Giles!" Her thoughts were interrupted by the four-year-old running through the living room doors and promptly projecting herself into Giles' arms.

"I'm sorry, Buffy, she just flew down the stairs." Joyce walked in after Joan, sending a tight, apologetic smile to the group.

"It's alright, Mom, we're pretty much done here for now. Meet back in an hour?" Tara and Willow left for their apartment, Xander and Anya left for the bar, and Buffy plopped down next to Giles on the couch. She'd patrol that night, and Giles seemed unable for the life of him to extricate himself from the heap of over-exuberant four-year-old.

In an hour, her team of groupies would return and they'd get down to business, but until then, Buffy held down the fort, silently rooting for Xander and Anya in their conquest for information.

Thirty minutes later, however, they walked back in, Xander with bruised knuckles, and professed that Willy knew nothing.

Go team.

xXx