Chapter 23: Clash of the Scoobies

Okay, here's a short chapter. I thought I'd get this one out to you even if it is short. It is unbetaed at the moment, but I have someone who says they will look at the story. When it is betaed, I'll repost.

There's yet another poll on my profile. It is recycled, but I'm trying to get votes from different people. I noted on the last two polls, the votes were very different from those who read my A Brand New Start story.

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"Well," Xander said, clapping his hands together, "that's going to be fun to explain."

"Won't it though," Joyce said fondly, as she stroked the vampire's hair.

"Let's get him to the 'house'," Xander said reluctantly. He still wasn't sure if he wanted the man to have that kind of access, but the trusted Joyce so on they went.

So, Sal lifted the wounded vampire with a spell, and floated him beside him. Nicolas waved his want to keep… vitals. Or something. Joyce led the way. When they got there, she raised her eyebrow at Xander, who sighed.

"Spike, I invite you in," he said with great reluctance. He knew it would work on the unconscious vampire. They had done it a few times in his old world.

Joyce beamed at him and led the way to the room they had created for the blond. It was as in newly created the basement away from the rest of the family.

At least it was a nice basement, not like it had looked in Joyce's old house. It was just like a bedroom, with plastered walls, cream carpet, and a window, which looked over the lake. The 'basement', itself, was on the fifth floor, two floors below the 'house'. Magic made it so it was really only a step through a door in the kitchen to get in, but you had to climb stairs to get out. The door at the top of the stairs led to the 'house' and that was the only way out, besides the window. There were no locks on the door, from the outside, but Spike could lock people out if he chose.

Sal floated him down and laid him on the bed. Nic checked his spell, shrugged, like he wasn't sure it was working, then removed it. Spike seemed to be coming too, and his eyes showed movement. The two men moved back.

"He's coming too," Nic said, waving to the prone man.

"Great," both Joyce and Xander said, albeit in different tones. The one Xander used made Joyce glare at the man.

Spike's head turned towards Xander. He opened his eyes then blinked. He closed his eyes, took an unneeded breath and the opened them again. "Lovely, first I get heaven, now I'm in hell," he mumbled then sighed again. "Harris, what happened? I was fighting a right nasty bugger, now I'm here," he asked, sitting up and patting his pockets for a smoke.

"Ask her," Xander said, waving to Joyce.

"Oh no you don't, mister," Joyce said, "You're the one who had the idea. I just provided the transportation."

"Joyce?" Spike said, turning her way. "I thought it was a dream," he added with a confused smile.

"No, no dream. Different reality," she assured him softly, taking his hand to show it was real.

"Seems about right, wot with you two being here. Last I heard you were missing, Harris. And Joyce, we thought you died. Buffy went through a bit of a rough time, yeah," his still confused voice said with a bit of chastisement. Like it was mean of her to put her daughter through that.

"I know, I did die, I was just offered a chance to be reborn here. It was a good thing I did, or some things might not have happened the way they should have," she offered as an explanation.

"I guess, I can see that," he thoughtfully stated. "Still, would have been nice to know you survived, such as it is." He finished his search for smokes, pulled one out of the pack and went to light it up.

"Not in the castle. Especially, not in my house," Xander said, snatching it away. "You can puff away outside, but inside, no smoking."

"Bloody tyrant," Spike grumbled. Putting his pack away.

"Here, I got you these. They'll fix your oral fixation," Xander said, reaching into his pocket and pulling something out. Then handed him what looked like lollipops.

"Wot are these?" the vampire said, taking the red lollies and scrutinizing them.

"They're Blood Pops, made especially for vampires. As far as I know they are made with real blood. You can have as many as you want, but no smoking around the kids. This is a school, you know," the Head of Security stated, folding his arms across his chest, looking menacing.

"Bloody buggering hell. You brought me to a school? With little tiny little rug rats running amuck, and such?" the vampire demanded, falling back on the bed, like it would save him.

"No," disagreed Joyce, "they're all over eleven. And I will have you know, my kids are well behaved, mostly," she said with a bit of pride. The children had been very polite this year. She still felt they were a bit afraid of Xander's temper. Especially, after seeing him run around with an axe.

"Weren't baby Slayers enough for you, Harris?" the blond man asked the man he never really like.

"Hey, I didn't ask to come here. I was drafted," Xander protested, crushing the cigarette in his hand.

"You were needed," corrected Joyce.

"Fun as this all is, we need to check your friend," Sal said, moving to do just that. He pulled out his wand, which made Spike leery.

"He's not my friend," Xander grumbled again. Oh yeah, now that Spike was awake, it brought back all the reasons he couldn't stand the vampire in the first place. Still, he might be a great asset, if only they could tolerate each other.

"Wot, are you goin' to do with that?" he asked. No vampire he knew would let anyone with a pointy stick near him.

"I'm going to do some magic on you to see if you'll… live, or survive, or whatever," the man answered, waving his wand to do just that, only for Spike to dodge the spell by sitting up.

"Mojo," Spike sneered in disgust, and a bit of fear. Mojo never worked well around Harris and he didn't want to turn into a newt. Or worst fall in love with the jerk.

He still had nightmares on Dru's tangent when she came out of that spell. Something about kittens being naughty. If she had been talking about stringing him up, he'd have been all for it. No, she was talking about turning bloody Harris and keeping him as a toy. The last thing he wanted at that time was for Dru to have a new toy.

Not only that, but dreams of Sweet still haunted him as well. If it hadn't been for that King of Hell, singing and dancing demon, he might have never gone through the damaged relationship he had with Buffy. That was Xander's fault too.

"Don't worry, Spike, it's completely normal in this reality," Joyce assured him, patting his arm, breaking him from his thoughts.

"It's a pointy stick. Don't see myself getting used to that," he countered, pushing himself up off the bed, to the opposite side of Sal. "I've spent over a hundred years avoiding them," he stated.

"Oh, yeah," Xander said with great glee. "They do look like mini stakes," he expounded. "Is Spikey Wikey afraid of a wittle stick?" he teased, watching Spike move further away from Sal.

"Sod off, Harris. I'd like to see how you'd react to something that can kill you. Asshat," Spike exclaimed, trying not to show that he was indeed wary.

"Boys," Joyce chastised, grabbing Spike's arm to hold him still.

"Wot? He is an asshat," the vampire stated, tugging at his arm. He didn't want to hurt Joyce, but he wasn't letting that stick near him if he could help it.

"What? He started it," Xander said at the same time, still with his ridiculous grin. He was enjoying watching Spike squirm.

"Oh, for Merlin's sake," Sal said as he once more cast and missed. "Hold still, you bloody fool."

"Not on your live, wanker!" Spike yelled, avoiding another spell.

"If you don't let us do this, something might be wrong and we won't know until you… die, or whatever vampires like you do," Sal said, chasing the vampire around the room.

"Goody, a big brother," came an airy voice from the doorway, complemented with the clapping of hands.

All the adults spun around and saw Luna standing there.

"Luna, honey, what are you doing here?" Xander asked as he rushed to her side as if to protect her.

"I wanted to meet my big brother," she said airily as she sidestepped him and went towards Spike.

"I'm not your brother," the vampire stated, looking at the girl with a dreamy expression. "I was an only child," he added on as an afterthought.

"He's so not your brother," Xander agreed, with a nod of his head. "I only have one son." He wasn't going to claim Spike, of all people, as family.

"Don't be silly. You'll be my brother, like you were Dawn's," she said upon reaching him. She was just about to lay a hand on his arm when she was tugged away by Xander. "Phooey," she said, turning towards her father figure and gave him the cutest little glare.

"How did you get here?" was what was asked.

"I popped here. Just like Harry does," came the 'of course' answer. "The nargles told me I was needed," she said, slipping around Xander again.

"You're a bit mad, aren't you?" Spike asked, looking at her like she was off, but interesting.

"I'm afraid so, but let me tell you something, the best people usually are," was her reply.

"You're a bit of alright," the vampire laughed.

"What did I miss?" Xander asked, still pulling her gently away.

"It's from a book. Not that you've ever read one," came Spike's acerbic comeback.

"Hey, I read," was the defensive answer.

"Yeah, but it's not like you understand," the vampire stated as if it were fact. "You don't have Red around to tell you what the big words mean," he taunted.

"Look, you bleached…" was as far as Xander got, when Joyce waved her hand and separated the two.

"That's quite enough from you two. Is it really too much to ask that you get along?" she inquired, exasperated.

Xander nodded, since he was silenced, and Spike just glared.

"Spikey, you really need to let Uncle Sal check you," Luna said from Spike's side. "I feel there's something he might have missed. Do it, for me?" she asked with big puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, right, let the man point the sharp stick at my heart," the blond grumbled as he sat on the bed. He took one of the Blood Pops, unwrapped it and popped it in his mouth. He groaned a bit at the taste of human blood. It had been so long.

Sal stated, "Finally," and waved his wand. The test came back that there was something off, but they didn't know if it was because the test was for the vampires here or if there was something really wrong.

"It's just something Mum gave him," Luna stated, petting Spikes arm, making him look at her queerly again.

"Ah, right, Spike, since you already have metaphysical strength and such, I've given you the sunlight," Joyce said proudly. "You won't burn in the sun. You can't stay out indefinitely, but you do have about two or three hours to frolic as you will." She smiled at the look of pure astonishment that came over the hundred and thirty-year-old vampire.

"The sun," whispered Spike, his eyes drifting to the window.

"Rule time!" Xander exclaimed, wanting to keep Spike here for the moment.

"Yes, we'd better get those out of the way," Joyce concurred.

"Rules, I don't follow sodding rules," the vampire stated, folding his arms, though his eyes still drifted towards the window, which showed a lovely view of the sun setting over the lake.

"You're going to want to hear these, Spikey," Luna said, still petting his arm like it was a kitten.

Spike sighed and waved them to go on. He wasn't sure how to take this girl, she was like a partially sane Dru.

"Rule one, stay out of the castle during the day. Since you sleep during that time, you can do that here, or pick a spot in the castle," Xander started, ticking of his index finger, and hoping for the latter.

"Rule two, no killing, or turning any one we know. If you turn a magical, you're giving them power they don't need. If that person is a bad guy, you might just start a war. There's a Dark Lord going to be running around soon, and we don't want him to have extra power," Luna said the second rule. "Not only that, we have spells that will dust you fast than a stake," she added, without her usual airiness.

The bit about the Dark Lord, made the other pay attention, they'd have to ask her what she knew, later.

"Rule three, no feeding from the populace. There's potions here for that, and I can guarantee that they are better then pigs blood," Joyce took up the count with a reassuring smile.

"Lastly," Xander said, holding up four fingers, "we'll give you jobs, for which you will be paid. These are mostly scare tactics, stuff like you used to do during your chip days."

"Sounds fair, bit of blood or dosh, and I'll scare anyone you want," Spike said, standing and going towards the window. "Oh, and more of these lollies," he added, taking the one he'd been sucking on out and holding it up, then promptly put it back in his mouth.

He then looked out the window and seeing a balcony directly below, he braced his hand on the sill and vaulted. He'd be back, but he was going to enjoy the pressie that Joyce had given him.

"Well, that went well," Xander said, looking at the running vampire. It looked like he was going to go skinny dipping in the lake. He turned away, right as Spike shucked his pants.

"Better than I expected," Joyce said, watching Spike swim in the water. It wasn't hard to see him; he was so pale and was in complete contrast to the dark water. Like a white fish swimming about.

"Everything will be fine," Luna said with authority.

"Don't think for one moment you aren't in trouble, young lady," Xander said, turning to his pseudo daughter, making sure she stayed far from the window and the view of the naked vampire.

"Phooey," was all she said.

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Okay, short chapter. I think, I'm going to be doing further apart updates. I've expanded one of my one-shots, Reclaiming the House of Black, to a multichapter story. My muse won't let me go on that. So, here's this chapter with a bit of a warning that updates might be further apart.

I have 26 other stories on my profile, one-shots to epics, plus a favorites list over 1000 long. In addition, I have a community that has I think about 300 stories listed. Go to my profile and find something to read while you wait. It'll be fun.

I did want to note that a few things from this chapter were inspired by reviews. Like Spikes reaction to Xander and Luna.