Disclaimer: I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Any recognizable characters/locations belong to Joss Whedon and (apparently) Warner Bros. Author's Note: I'm so sorry it's taken me so fracking long to get out another chapter. I've been super busy and on top of that I had massive writer's block. I want to thank anybody who is still remotely interested in this story for their patience. I am still without a beta so if you find any mistakes, please point them out

"What are you doing?!"

"Playing tennis," Spike said, lighting the end of his cigarette.

"Put that out!"

"No."

"Right now!"

"No."

"Yes!"

The conversation continued back and forth like this for another few minutes.

"Don't make me turn this car around!"

Spike deliberately blew a smoke ring in Xander's face.

"If you don't put that out right now, so help me, I'll—"

"You'll what?" Spike challenged, raising an eyebrow in mocking expectation.

Xander's brow furrowed as he tried to think of a decent threat. Realistically, Xander knew he couldn't take Spike in a fight. However, the lit cigarette dangling from the other man's lips was stinking up his new used car so he knew he had to think of something. His eyes lit up when it came to him. "I'll sick Anya on you."

Spike let out another puff of smoke. "You would really send your missus to do your dirty work? That's low."

"The woman's got a dark side that I just can't compete with."

Knowing that to be true, the blonde man conceded and took one last drag before tossing the cigarette out of his window. He knew it was bad form to smoke in somebody else's car but he'd been having a craving and, more importantly, he knew how much it would annoy Xander.

Xander had invited Spike out to get lunch with him this afternoon. It wasn't so much an effort to socialize—they could barely stand each other—but a chance to make sure that Spike's cold feet weren't running for the hills. Spike might be a giant pain in the ass but Buffy loved him, which meant that Xander was going to do everything he could to keep him on track for her sake.

"So... still feeling the impending doom that is your wedding day?"

Spike shrugged. "Not as bad as I was," he said. "She's still making plans but I'm staying out of the way."

Xander nodded. "Good. That's probably best for both of you."

He pulled into the drive-thru of the local Doublemeat Palace, which his favourite place to eat when he wasn't brown bagging it. He rolled down his window and the garbled voice over the speaker asked to take his order. After ordering two doublemeat burgers with fries, he drove up to the window.

"That'll be 15.23, please."

"Buffy?" Spike said, looking up at the girl manning the drive-thru window.

"Spike? What are you doing here?" Buffy asked, leaning out the window.

"We could ask you the same question," Xander said. "What's on your head?"

Buffy reached up, grimacing. "It's a cow... and a chicken. It's a part of my uniform." She looked at him pointedly. "Don't start, Xander."

So many jokes flooded Xander's mind, the urge to mock overwhelming him. Unfortunately before he could get a word out, Spike started talking, throwing off his comic timing.

"You're working here? Since when?" Spike asked, struggling to unbuckle his seat belt.

"Three weeks now."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Finally freeing himself from his seatbelt, he leaned across Xander to talk out of his window. "Better question: why are you working here at all?"

Xander balked and tried to shove him away but Spike wasn't budging until he got all the answers he was looking for.

"We need the money," she said, lowering her voice so as not to be heard by her co-workers.

Xander was becoming more and more uncomfortable, being quite literally stuck in the middle of this. "Could this maybe wait?"

"Since when?" Spike asked, completely ignoring Xander.

"Since I looked at the budget for the wedding," she answered. "I figured if we cut corners and I take a second job then we can have some extra money set aside for it."

"And you're working here? You hate this place."

"No, I don't," Buffy said, nervously.

"The hell you don't! The smell makes you nauseous."

"I don't know what you're talking about. I love it here!" She said through gritted teeth, giving him a warning look.

Buffy's anxious expression made Xander realize that her co-workers were now huddled behind her, eavesdropping.

"You know what?" Xander said loudly. "I love it here too! The food is terrific! So maybe I could get—"

"Shut up," Spike told him, before turning back to Buffy. "I don't want you working here!"

Buffy heaved a great sigh. "Well, I'm sorry you feel that way but this is my choice. I mean I'm doing this for our wedding, for crying out loud!"

"I don't care about the bloody wedding!" Spike shouted.

Xander gave him a panicked look. "Spike..."

"What?" Buffy leaned even further out of this drive-thru window, as if preparing to reach into the car a throttle Spike. "You don't care?!"

"Not enough that I want you slaving away here!"

"It's our wedding! The most important day of our lives, remember? It's going to be magical! If that means having to be greasy and smell like fries until then, so be it," she said firmly. "That's my decision!"

"No, it's not! Now you turn around and march down to the boss' office—"

"Guys!" Xander interrupted before Spike could make it any worse. "Hit the pause button and save this for later. Perhaps, when I'm not running low on gas."

"Stay out of it, Xander!" She gave Spike a dark look. "You're telling me to quit?"

"Yes!"

"No way!"

"Yes way!" Spike rebutted pathetically.

"Just because we're getting married doesn't mean you own me!" she spat. "You have no right to order me around! You're my fiancé not my father!"

"Oh here we go again!" Spike groaned, throwing himself back into his seat.

Xander's bulged out of his head. The idiot just kept digging this hole deeper and deeper. Cars honked behind them. He really needed to get Spike out of here before Buffy or one of the other drivers got violent.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Buffy pulled herself back inside the window, her demeanour shifting to an eerie calm.

Xander frantically pulled out a twenty from his pocket and shoved it into her hand. "Nothing! It meant nothing! He's just delirious because he's so hungry! So if I could just get my order, we can fix that immediately."

Buffy gave him his food which was no doubt cold by now.

"Thanks." He looked between the two angry blondes and forced out a little laugh, trying to ease the tension. "You know this is actually kind of funny."

"How?" One of Buffy's co-workers asked.

Xander glowered at the pimply faced teen. "You have to really want to see it."

Behind them people were getting out of their cars, yelling at them to hurry up.

Xander shoved the food into Spike's hands, forcing him to take it. He sighed and looked up at Buffy once more. She was clearly upset.

"Look, Buff, he's ju—"

But Buffy fixed him with a hard look and slammed the drive-thru window shut. He watched her take off her hat and throw it on the ground as she stomped away. Xander faced forward and finally drove off, forgetting that Buffy hadn't given him his change.

That had been a disaster, to say the very least. He wanted to give Spike the riot act but stayed silent. There was no need since Buffy would be tearing him a new one later anyway.

Still, Xander was tempted to crash the car into oncoming traffic just for the sake of spiting the asshole beside him.

The first thing Spike did when he got home from work was rush to his office/her gym. Dawn had called him to let him know Buffy was staying over at her mother's house tonight. He was a little glad of that fact as he wasn't quite ready to face her right now. He was still pretty frustrated with her.

He was even more ashamed of himself for how he'd handled things. He'd lost his temper and acted like a real wanker. He plopped down tiredly into his desk chair. He wished he hadn't made that comment when she'd mentioned the word "father". It had been an automatic reaction that he hadn't censored. He knew Buffy's father was a sore spot for her. He was constantly reminded of it in her wilful independence. She had trouble trusting men and Spike knew that Hank Summers was at the root of that problem. Spike hated that prick for hurting her but also because it felt like he was constantly paying for Hank's betrayal.

Spike contemplated for a while longer but finally pulled open the top drawer of his desk and pulled out his notebook. He turned to the page where he'd written his list. He'd added a few things over the last little while. In the pros column he'd added obvious things like smart, beautiful and funny. But he'd also included things like loyal and determined.

That last word managed to rile him up again. There was a big difference between determined and obstinate. Spike reached for a pen intending to add stubborn to the cons list. Pen touched paper and when he'd finished, he'd written something totally different.

Daddy issues.

It was harsh but Spike wanted to be honest. Xander said this list would remind him that all this anxiety that the wedding was giving him would be worth it in the end. He loved her. He really did and as mean as this list might seem, he needed it to help him through this transition. It was a good thing, he told himself.

"Not that I don't love having you here but when exactly are you planning to leave?" Dawn asked snidely from across the coffee table.

"I don't know." Buffy's response was non-committal.

Since her fight with Spike the other day, Buffy hadn't gone home. Instead she'd spent the last few days at her mom's house. She wanted to kiss and make up but was still too angry to face him just yet. He'd been such a jerk to her, picking a fight and getting her fired from work. Thinking of the way he'd ordered her around, made her all the more mad. What was even worse was that he hadn't even called or stopped by to try to apologize. He seemed just as angry at her as she was at him, which made absolutely no sense because he was the one who'd been wrong.

"Please don't tell me you're moving back in," Dawn said.

Buffy sighed and gave Dawn an annoyed look. "No, I'm not. But I'm not ready to go home yet, okay?"

"It was such a stupid fight, though!" Dawn persisted. "And how are you supposed to make up if you're busy hiding over here?"

"Dawn enough!" Buffy snapped.

Mom came into the room and handed Buffy a cup of cocoa. Her mom was convinced there was no problem so bad that cocoa couldn't fix, especially when she added the mini-marshmallows.

Spike loves the mini-marshmallows, Buffy thought forlornly, before reminding herself that she was still mad.

"Sweetie, I need a moment alone with your sister," Mom said to Dawn, sitting down next to Buffy on the couch.

Dawn rolled her eyes and left the room, muttering something about mollycoddling. Buffy took a sip of her drink, nearly burning her tongue in the process. She sat the cup down onto the coffee table to let it cool and picked up the pad of paper and pen.

"She's not wrong, you know," Mom said, picking up Buffy's mug and placing it on a coaster. "Nothing's going to get resolved if you stay over here."

Buffy sighed. "I know. I just want to cool my head so that when I do go back over there I don't rip his off."

Her mom nodded, understandingly.

"It wasn't pretty, Mom," Buffy continued. "If you had heard some of the things he said to me... I'm still really mad at him. And I guess he still is too, which is weird because I don't know where he gets off being mad at me! He was wrong! He deserves an award for being so wrong!"

Buffy wasn't aware that she was raising her voice until her mom put a placating hand on her shoulder.

"You're right," Mom said. "He had no right to talk to you that way."

Buffy crossed her arms over her chest. Damn straight!

"But I can understand why he was upset with you."

"What?"

"You're getting married. You're going to be husband and wife, meaning that you're going to be making your decisions together from now on. You got a second job without talking to him about it."

Uncrossing her arms, Buffy tried to see Spike's side of things. He'd overreacted but maybe she should have told him. She'd just thought she'd be able to handle the budget issues without having to bother him about it. However, her mom had a point. She was going to have to start trusting Spike not to wig out on her when the stressful stuff came their way. Spike trusted her and she'd kept her new job hidden from him. Buffy's grip on her grudge began to weaken.

"Alright, I get it. Communication is key. I'll talk to him tonight."

"Good girl," Mom said. "Now maybe we can concentrate and finish this guest list."

Buffy picked up her cup and took a sip of her cocoa. "Let's get to it."

They were about halfway finished when her mom finally broached the subject.

"What about your father? You are going to invite him, aren't you?"

Buffy looked down at her empty cup in her hands, miserably. I'm gonna need more cocoa.

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