Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a great end of 2015 and an even greater start of 2016! And to celebrate the new year, new chapter of TMS!
Big hugs and kisses for everyone and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Reviews are very much appreciated, I want to know what you think about this fic! Constructive criticism can help me improve and give you better quality content! One of my resolutions for this new year is to 1) Finish season 7 of BtVS/season 3 of TMS, 2)Write seasons 3 & 4 for my YNWA Supernatural fic, 3)Stop procrastinating so much (HarriettWithTea! We're in this together!) and many more.
Tell me about yours! I'd love to get more ideas and write them all down in a notebook. I'll probably take a photograph if I get enough and post them in my facebook page (Lacey Solane, for anything related to this fanfics!).
Rock 2016!
Demona Evernight: I'm so glad you like it! Oh, lots of things are going to happen in the near future, so stay tuned!
bwburke94: I will sing Barry Manilow! God, that was so fun to watch in AtS, I want it on repeat! OOh, overthinker here too! But yeah, I wanted Ally to have some experience with vampires before Spike too, so it would be too new for her. You know, cold hands and all that :P
HarriettWithTea: Thanks! I'm so happy you liked that part, I just had to mention Mandy somewhere! I love to watch that scene, it's so much fun. Specially with Cordy and Wes' faces.
Lee out.
The two master vampires eyed each other cautiously, none of them daring to go against Ally's wishes. The Slayer, on the other hand, observed their countenances, trying to understand more about their relationship as grandsire-grandchilde. They were obviously not too fond of each other, but they did have a family kind of bond, the kind that would have Angel willing to help him just because he was his grandchilde.
"Okay, I think it's enough with the stare down, you two sit and talk." Ally ordered when she got tired of their behaviour.
"You leaving?" Spike immediately turned to look at her, his hand holding on to hers a bit tighter.
"Wouldn't you two be more comfortable without me in front? You know, talk about ensoulled vampire issues?"
"No." His eyes flickered to the other vampire for a brief moment, clearly not willing to be left alone with him.
"Alright, then." She glanced at Angel, shrugged and moved toward a set of boxes to one side, dragging Spike behind her.
"Wait." Angel called before she could sit, catching her attention once more. "You've been staying here?" He asked Spike, looking around with his brow furrowed.
"Yeah. Had nowhere else to go. Kinda got used to it."
"You really aren't the sharpest knife in the drawer, are you?" The eldest of the vampires mocked, getting a death glare from his ex in return. "Hellmouth. Dark forces. Demonic energy. Not the best to be exposed to when facing a restored soul and its many complications."
"'m not leaving Sunnydale, Peaches, but good try. Might be insane, but not that much." The bleached blond scoffed, standing possessively next to the brunette, her hand in his.
"Didn't mean leaving town, but the basement. Hellmouth underneath the high school? Remember?" His voice got condescending once more, yet he controlled it again after another look from Ally. He was pissing her off, and it was the last thing he needed.
The brunette turned toward her boyfriend once more, her thumb rubbing the back of his hand to keep him calm and in the moment. "Come home, you'll be better there. We'll get a mattress in the basement so you don't have to worry about the sun."
"What's big sis gonna say?" The punk vampire sighed, knowing the other Slayer wasn't going to be happy to have him around.
"Big sis can suck it up." Ally hissed in return. "Besides, Dawn will be on my side. I'm sure she misses her babysitter." She smirked, getting an eye roll from her boyfriend. "And you have to get better. She can't deny we need you whole and sane, what with the sudden… decrease in the number of Scoobies in Sunnydale."
"I still don't understand how Buffy and Dawn are your sisters." Angel intervened again, face scrunched up in thought, trying to figure it all out. So much about Ally had changed since he'd last seen her… He felt hurt, specially after living together for three years, spending so much time together.
"Destiny thing. I am the link, the middle ground, third sister, blah, blah, blah. I'll tell you some other time. So we should get out of here, right? Away from the Hellmouth?" Her gaze moved from one vampire to the other, the eldest one nodding in response before she tugged at Spike's hand to guide him toward the stairs again.
"Who called you, anyway?" The blond asked his grandsire, still tense and ready to fight any moment.
"Dawn. She just told me to come, that it was important. I thought it was about Buffy. Didn't even know Ally was here." He shared a look with the brunette, one that told her they'd have a lot to talk about at a later time. Probably some scolding too. "And the surprises just keep coming."
"Nibblet sure knows how to hold a grudge." Spike shook his head, his voice already softer when talking about the teen.
"She wants to help you." Ally defended, hugging Spike's arm to her side. "By the way, you told her about getting a soul before you left?"
"No." He frowned, looking down at her in bewilderment. "Why?"
"That's weird. She told me you did. I mean, first thing when I went back after that night with the Sluggoth demon, she asked me if you'd told me anything special, then said you told her before you left. But… I don't know, it felt strange that you did."
She vaguely noticed the way his eyes widened slightly before he schooled his expression, trying to avoid looking at her while they walked up the stairs. That was certainly suspicious. And judging by the look she got from Angel, walking behind them, he was thinking the same. Once he was home and settled, she would ask him about it. She didn't want to discuss it in front of Mr. Broody.
Buffy was out patrolling when they got home, so it was just Dawn helping her get an extra mattress to the basement while Angel and Spike talked outside. She would often catch glimpses of them standing on the porch while they moved blankets and pillows down the stairs, but they still hadn't thrown a punch, so she was not going to intervene yet.
"How is it going?" Dawn asked her once she was down in the basement again. The teen was arranging the pillows and blankets to make Spike a comfortable nest, while Ally fetched some more bed sheets.
"They haven't started fighting or shouting, so I say it's going ok. You know you and I are gonna have to talk too, right?" She arched an eyebrow as she dropped the sheets onto the mattress, watching Dawn shift a couple feet from her.
"I know. But I only wanted to help Spike, I swear! Angel is the only other vampire with a soul, so I thought…" The youngest brunette started to ramble, her hands moving on their own accord around her.
Taking pity on her baby sister, Ally interrupted her with a soft smile. "I know. But you should have told me."
"You wouldn't have let me." Dawn pouted, hands falling to her sides as she fidgeted.
"I mean you should have told me before he came. Give me a heads up. I mean… it's Angel. I think Buff would have liked a warning too." She approached her sister and wrapped her arms around her. "But thanks. I would have been too stubborn to call him myself, but I think he can help Spike."
"Anytime." Dawn whispered, hugging Ally back.
When the two sisters made their way back upstairs, they found none other than their dear big sister facing the two master vampires at the entrance, arms crossed over her chest and a pissed of expression on her face. Angel and Spike, on the other hand, stared at her with arched eyebrows and slightly amused demeanours –'cause getting a fully amused look from Angel was a real challenge.
"Huh, you're back already." Was all Ally said when she found the three of them standing there.
"You brought both of them back." Buffy observed, gaze travelling from one vampire to the other.
Copying her big sister's stance, Ally crossed her arms, stepping a bit closer to her vampires. "Yeah. Oh, and Spike's staying in the basement."
Her arms dropped, eyes went wide and her jaw clenched, all in just about two seconds. "What?!" She shrieked, not even bothering to look at said man standing right beside her sister.
Trying to stay calm and collected, Ally leaned her head on the bleach blond's shoulder. "The high school is just above the Hellmouth. Angel says it is worse for Spike, so he's staying here."
Buffy briefly looked at Angel before averting her eyes, apparently avoiding his gaze like the plague. "You could have told me."
"I'm telling you now."
Glancing at the men once more, her eyes narrowed and she gave Ally the sharpest look she could muster. "Can we go upstairs and talk? Privately."
"Sure." Ally nodded, showing off a confident façade while her insides trembled. She could feel another argument coming, and they were becoming way too common for comfort. She missed sharing a laugh with Buffy, watching TV, patrolling together. She missed her sister.
Dawn watched her sisters leave and moved her gaze toward the master vampires on her front porch, standing right in front of each other and following the two Slayers with their eyes. "Uh… hungry?" She asked, catching their attention as they arched their eyebrows and tilted their heads –and creepily did it all at the same time. "Ally bought some blood for you, so I guess there's enough for both. And we've got those Weetabix you like, too."
"She buys blood for you?" Angel looked over at his grandchilde as they followed the teen into the kitchen, face almost permanently set into a scowl. "Huh, she used to do that for me." He taunted, watching the blond go rigid at the mention of his previous relationship with the brunette Slayer.
"And then she left." Spike shot back, hands clenched into fists.
The dark haired vampire's brow furrowed even more, although he avoided looking at Spike then. "Because I told her to."
"Shows how much of a poofter you can be." The English vampire retorted, mocking, but he could feel the sting when he thought about how Ally could have easily stayed in L.A. with Angel and he would have never gotten to know her like he did then, that they could have easily never fallen in love with each other.
"You two shut up and eat." Dawn cut in, getting a couple bags of blood from the bottom drawer of the fridge. She'd come a long way since the days when the mention of blood for sustenance disgusted her. Mainly due to the time spent with her dear babysitter.
Meanwhile, in Joyce's old room, then Willow's and now Buffy's, the two eldest Summers girls stood before each other, arms crossed over their chests, having their longest stare down to date. Buffy was battling between shouting and crying, having her ex back and the miserable state her relationship with Ally was at the moment getting her extremely sensitive. She wanted the days when Ally was her support system back. Her sister, the other Slayer, the one who understood her duty and shared it with her, the middle ground between her and Dawn, the one who would always fight by her side. But there was always something –someone- between then those days. Be it Dawn, be it Spike, be it Angel… She felt like she was losing her and it was getting harder and harder to get her back.
She felt alone. Dawn would usually side with Ally, Xander didn't have to get involved in their quarrels and her best friend was gone, as was her Watcher, and she had no one else to support her. No one else to vent to. In the past, it was Ally she did it to when Xander or Willow couldn't help her, as she did when mom died and Dawn was skipping school, or Glory wanted to take the Key, as she did when the social services wanted to take Dawn away.
She was so lonely.
"We need him, Buff." Ally spoke up finally, her face softer than the blonde's. It was a mixture between tiredness and despair. She just wanted her sister to agree with it, to not have to fight with her because of Spike again. She was so tired of their feud, she just wanted to go to bed and sleep for a thousand years. But she couldn't, because Spike needed her help, and Dawn, and she had her Slayer duties to fulfil. "We need help. Something is coming, and the Scoobies are down to a minimum. We need all the help we can get, and Spike is a valuable asset. And I need him. I can't leave him alone now, Buffy. I need to know he is safe. I need him to get better." She was pleading by then, begging. She needed him there, with her, safe. She needed to know no harm would come to him in their house.
Buffy could feel her anger diminish while she heard Ally speak, her voice, her tone, tugging at her heartstrings. "I need you to talk this things with me, Alls. You can't just get a vampire in our basement and expect me to be happy about it."
"It's Spike." Ally insisted, 'a vampire' sounding far too dangerous for what it really was.
"I know. But it's still… Spike. And he has a soul now, like Angel, and it's… confusing, because he doesn't act that different."
"Have you ever met Angelus?" Ally asked as she sat in bed, jumping from one subject to another.
"Yes. And I don't want a repeat of that." The blonde answered as she sat beside her sister, hands on her lap and posture still quite tense.
"Yeah, I know, but… What did you expect? For Spike to change as drastically as Angel?" The brunette tilted her head to look at the senior Slayer, trying to catch her gaze. "I don't think Spike was ever as bad as Angelus. I know I never met him without the chip… Spike was already on our side without his soul, he was already… good, more or less. Angel had a lot of room to improve when he got his soul. Spike doesn't have that much. The demon is still inside, and it will always be a part of him, as Angel's is. And he still loves fights, and violence… but he is not evil, Buff. He hasn't been for a long time. He is paying for things he's done in the past, but he has much less red in his ledger than Angel did."
"You really are head over heels for him, huh?" Buffy smirked, taking in the passion with which Ally spoke about her boyfriend. It would be adorable if the object of her attentions wasn't the bleach blond nightmare that had been bothering her since she was sixteen.
"Irrevocably so." The brunette smiled, her face lighting up at the thought.
"Captain Peroxide can stay. But you will have to take care of him." Buffy stated as she stood from the bed, walking toward the bedroom door.
"He's not a dog, you know." Ally reminded her sister with a soft smile, shaking her head as she made to follow her.
