Just Human, Epilogue: FAMILY AND OTHER ANNOYING CREATURES
Joyce Finn closed her eyes in disgust for a moment, before she continued
flipping through a magazine she wasn't really reading. Looking up she sighed
seeing the packed boxes standing around her bed, she lay sprawled on her
stomach. Her family would move to a new house the day after tomorrow.
Family, she snorted. What a family? Her "family" was two younger siblings who
didn't understand a thing, and a mother who was busy with her new lover, who
happened to be an ex-vampire.
Of course calling it busy was the understatement of the century. They were all
over each other.
All the time.
Was it really surprising that she felt like throwing up most of the time?
How could her mother let this... this thing touch her? Especially after
she'd been with her father for so long. Of course Angel had been her
mother's first lover, but Joyce quickly put that piece of information away,
not willing to even go there.
They were in the bedroom again. Of course they were in the bedroom most of
the time, so it wasn't a surprise. Did they do anything besides screw each
other, she wondered? But silently she'd been asking herself again and again
if it was really that good. She couldn't remember ever having seen her
mother that crazy with her father. Part of her hated it. The other part was
immensely curious. They only had to look at each other, in that special, and of
course thoroughly disgusting, sort of way and then it was, like, 'we'll be busy
for a while, Joyce. Can you take care of Marlie for the next hour?'
Hadn't she already said they were *busy* most of the time?
And now they had even announced they were going to have a baby. Sheesh. Her
mother was forty for goodness' sake. Wasn't there an age limit for that kind
of behavior? Forty-year-old women didn't get pregnant. There had to be some
law. Certainly there was a law that forbade ex-vampires to have kids. Of
course, there was still that tiny little problem that they would probably
lock her up, Joyce thought. In some asylum for mentally disabled.
Nobody had believed vampires were real when they were around all the time, who
would believe it now, when most of them had left Sunnydale for good.
Of course, Ben and Marlie were ecstatic about the news, Ben already planning
how to care for his little brother. Gee, one would think this was the
greatest news this side of the Pacific Ocean. Her mother and Angel certainly
thought it was. He couldn't stop touching Buffy, Joyce had more than once
found him touching her mother's belly, and there had been that silly look on
his face. That dreamy smile. He was almost nice when he smiled that way.
Stop it, she told herself firmly, no way she would get all mushy now and
forget that she really despised Angel.
True to her word, she was behaving well around him. She even talked to him,
but she would never like him. Not ever. Of course he had a nice smile,
especially when he was with either Marlie or Ben and when they were beaming
up at him as if he'd hung the sky. Hadn't she said it? Disgusting.
Suddenly there was a muffled groan and another, deeper voice shouting
something. Joyce was almost certain it had been her mother's name. Groaning
herself, she let her head fall on her bed. Her stepfather had been a
vampire. The man her mother was married to and was doing the nasty thing
with. Could her life get worse?
*****
"This time you were the loud one," Buffy scolded, but smiled at her husband,
who was lying beside her, one of his hands stroking her belly in lazy
circles.
"I couldn't help it," he said, but there wasn't a hint of apology in his
voice. "Besides, Joyce is the only one around and she already knows what's
going on when you tell her we'll be busy for an hour."
"What?" propping herself up on an elbow, she stared at him. "You are talking
about my underage daughter you know."
"Besides," he went on, ignoring her comment with a grin, "you're pregnant,"
he said, emphasizing the last word by resting the palm of his hand over
their unborn child. His hand was so large it almost covered the whole space
between her hipbones. "Joyce had sex Ed in school. You told me that. She has
to know where babies come from."
Rolling her eyes at Angel, Buffy fell back on the pillow, "Still, it's kinda
embarrassing don't you think? To know that she might be sitting in her room,
trying to cover her ears. Girls at her age don't think of their parents as
sexual people. I clearly remember when my mom was dating Ted."
"Who?" he asked, but then he remembered, "Oh, the robot guy. The one you
couldn't stand."
"Yeah, you said I should give him a chance." She sighed, "Anyways. The
mere thought of my mother being with a guy, any guy, who wasn't my dad... It
was hard to accept. I hated Ted, even before I knew he wasn't what he seemed
to be. And when I found out he was a robot, I was really glad."
"So what you're telling me with this walk down memory lane, is, that you
understand the problems Joyce is having with you and me? Buffy, I know it's
still a long way, maybe she won't ever accept me completely. But she'll
arrange herself. In a few years she's going to live her own life. She can't
expect her mother to live the rest of her life on her own, just to please
her. And I think she's realized that already."
"Yeah," she leaned towards him, and kissed him softly. "I know. But-"
The very same moment the doorbell rang and Buffy returned Angel's raised
brow with a certain panic in her eyes.
"What?" he asked.
"Spike," she yelped, slipping from the bed and searching for her clothes.
"Spike?" Angel sat up in bed when it hit him. "Spike." With a pained groan
his head fell back on the pillow. "God, I think I'm doomed."
*
"Tell me, slayer," Spike drawled from his position on the sofa, "Are you
feeling happy, all married and living with soul-boy?"
"What do you think?" Buffy asked back, not bothering to look at him. She was
standing in the kitchen to get some coffee ready, while Spike had already
found his favorite place.
"You look good," he commented, "So I'd say it's a safe bet, that you're all
over the moon."
She grinned when she came back to the living room, holding a tray loaded
with cups, coffee, some cookies and Spike's favorite marshmallows. His eyes
lit up at the sight of them, "Oh, the little white ones. I'd like to kiss
you, slayer. Maybe we should. It would annoy the hell out of my grand-sire."
"Yes, or you could just be dust in a second," Angel said casually when he
joined them in the room. Buffy noticed he'd been particularly careful with
his clothes tonight. It was the first time he and Spike met after the
wedding, the first time they met in close quarters, so to say, and she
couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about it. Granted, most of the stuff
was already in boxes, as they would soon move into the new house they bought
near Willow's, but the furniture was almost new and Buffy didn't care for
crashed tables or broken cups.
"Empty threats," Spike grinned at his grand-sire, not quite sure if he
should be pissed because Angel had managed to get back into the slayer's
pants or glad that Buffy looked that much better and hadn't touched so much
as a drop of alcohol over the last four months.
"You think?" Angel raised a brow and there was something in his eyes that
made Spike frown, Joyce noticed when she came to the living room as well.
"Can I have some hot chocolate?" she asked her mother.
"Sure, sweetie," Buffy replied and turned for the kitchen again. "You too,
Spike?"
"Thanks, Slayer. Yeah." Then he suddenly tilted his head, and his eyes
widened. "I didn't notice it before, with all the noise in the room, but I
could swear I heard five heartbeats."
"Mom's pregnant," Joyce told him. "Don't you think she's too old for another
child?" she asked the vampire.
"Joyce!" came Buffy's sharp voice from the kitchen.
The girl rolled her eyes and caught Spike's gaze. "Don't ask me, kid," he
said. "I might look younger than your mother, but I hardly am. So I'm not
really the age-expert around. Maybe we should ask if it's allowed that some
250 odd years old guy should father a child."
"Careful," Angel warned softly, oh so softly, and Spike felt a shiver run
down his spine. Damn, if Angel hadn't just sounded exactly like Angelus.
Obviously by turning human you didn't lose your ability to threaten innocent
vampires. But then, he was hardly innocent, Spike thought with glee.
"Your step daddy," he said, grinning at Joyce, ignoring that she didn't
really like him, even hated him, "went all soft at a certain point, you
know. While me and Dru," he sighed deeply, "Well, you could say that we were
feared allover this planet. We had quite a reputation."
"God save me from a vampire with an attitude," Angel groaned, turning away
from his annoying grand-childe.
"Oh, and that coming from the master of the attitude. That's rich," Spike
shot back, not backing down.
Joyce looked back and forth between the two men, inwardly wincing at calling
the vampire a man, "You don't like each other a lot, huh?" she asked,
sensing an unexpected ally in Angel. She didn't like him, she reminded
herself quickly, but if she had to choose she would take him any day. Her
father had hated Spike, and Joyce would never forget that.
Spike had no problems following her train of thought, "Don't even think it,
kid," he said. "He made me. He's responsible for what I am."
"I never *made* you," Angel bit back. "No vampire in his right mind would've
chosen this sorry excuse for a poet as his childe. Angelus might have been a
crazy bastard, but he had his standards after all. Only someone like Dru
could be blind enough not to see that you wouldn't make an impressive
vampire."
"WHOA!" Buffy shouted coming back from the kitchen, holding the two cups of
cocoa in both her hands. "Time out. I don't want this here. I might not be a
slayer anymore, and for that can't kick your ass, but you stop it now.
Spike, Angel will be in my life, so you better get used to him," she turned
to her lover who gave his grand-childe a smug grin, "and Angel, Spike is my
friend. You have to accept that."
"Some friend," Angel muttered. "An evil, bloodsucking-"
"Not one more word," Buffy warned and when she caught Spike grinning this
time, she glared at him. "And I mean both of you."
"I'm not saying anything," Spike chirped.
"You better. My teenage daughter is in the room. She doesn't need this
testosterone competition."
The teenage daughter in question had followed the exchange with a growing
interest. And especially her mother's forceful reaction had been something
Joyce would've never expected. "Uh... actually... I thought it was kinda...
cute."
"Huh?" Three voices said unison while three pairs of eyes shifted in her
direction, making her feel uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"Gee," she rolled her eyes. "I never saw two vamps have a fight before. I
was really looking forward to it." Plus she made a definite mental note that
Angel really didn't like Spike. You never knew when you could use that sort
of knowledge.
Buffy sighed, "Joyce, Angel isn't a vampire anymore, meaning he doesn't
vampire-strength anymore. So he wouldn't be able to fight Spike." She saw
the blond vampire grin smugly and went on, "And Spike has a chip in his
head. He couldn't beat Angel even if he wanted to. He's," she shrugged,
"neutered. Sort of."
"HEY!" Spike's head jerked around and he glared at her. "No insults please.
And besides. You even married the jerk who put this thing in my head." The
moment the words had left his mouth, he knew it had been a mistake and he
already groaned inwardly at the reaction that of course came instantly.
"Really?" Joyce smiled broadly at him. "Dad put that thing in your head?"
"Not in the strictest sense," Buffy amended Spike's words. "But yeah. He was
part of the team that captured Spike and brought him in so that they could
implant the chip."
"Wow," the girl looked at the vampire in awe.
Spike narrowed his eyes and was about to give her a reply, but he caught
Buffy's warning gaze and gathered that telling Joyce about some gory details
of her father's past, like his preference for vampire whores, wouldn't be a
wise move at the moment. He shut his mouth with a loud click and cursed
inwardly when he saw his grand-sire grinning smugly again. Darn slayer. Why
on earth did she have the hots for someone like Angel? God, he hated the
bugger. On the other hand, "Did you ever tell Buffy about the way you went
groiny with Darla?" he asked, looking his grand-sire straight in the eye.
He looked back the same way, "Buffy knows what happened with Darla."
Joyce, who had been on her way to her room, stopped in the doorway and
turned around. Darla? Another woman? That might have possibilities.
"Yes, she does," the ex-slayer interrupted, "and she's in the room, so you
can also speak with her."
"Oh really?" Spike raised a brow, ignoring the blond, "And does she also
know that your sire filed a paternity suit against you?"
"WHAT?" Buffy asked stunned. A paternity suit? Darla? Against Angel? But
Angel was-
"How do you know about that?" she heard her husband ask his grand-childe.
"I was traveling around. Came across Dru again. She always liked to talk."
"I see," Angel narrowed his eyes at Spike and for a moment the blond vampire
considered the possibility that he was going to leave this apartment tonight
in a nice little urn. Angel sighed, and turned towards Buffy, who was watching
him expectantly, but in her eyes he saw nothing but trust and it warmed him
deep inside.
"Darla came back a while after she'd left," he said. "She was a vampire
then, but she was pregnant." When he saw Buffy's eyes widen in surprise, he
nodded, "Yeah, I thought the same. It wasn't possible. Boy, did I look funny
when one day a paternity suit landed on my desk. It was of course filed by
Wolfram & Hart who were - surprise, surprise her lawyers again."
Buffy nodded. She remembered Angel telling her about the evil law firm, and
also Darla's connection with them.
"After a little bit of research, we found out that the baby she was carrying
was human. A little bit more research told us that some wizard had used a
spell to make the pregnancy possible. We also found out that the father of
the baby was a human lawyer who had once been with Wolfram & Hart. We tried
to find him, but we failed."
He sighed again, smiled when Buffy took his hand, "I offered to take care of
the baby, but refused to be called its biological father. To make a long
story short, Darla disappeared when the paternity test proved I wasn't the
father. She actually believed I was the father, but the wizard obviously
betrayed her. He couldn't make a vampire fertile. We never found out how the
baby survived the fact that Darla had syphilis, but where magic is involved
it's always hard to know what's possible or not.
"Later we found out that Darla had given birth to the baby, then killed it
right after," he had to take a deep breath to continue his story. Everyone
had forgotten about Joyce still standing in the doorway, but she was
listening intently. "When I met her again, I staked her and made sure that
nothing of her was left to resurrect her a second time.
"The good thing in all this, however, was that by searching for Darla we
came across information that resulted in the downfall of Wolfram & Hart.
There were several disks and we gave them to a friend of ours who has a
computer company in L.A. His specialists - you could call them hacker -
planted a virus in Wolfram & Hart's system and like magic all their files
disappeared. Their stocks were worth less a penny within a day."
"That's quite a story," Buffy said and squeezed his hand.
"She... she really killed her own baby?" Joyce asked suddenly from the
doorway.
Her mother gasped only now realizing that her daughter had heard everything.
Squeezing her hand, Angel turned towards the girl, "Yes, she did. But she
was a vampire. A demon controlled her body at that time. It was her nature
to kill."
"Joyce, honey," Buffy walked towards her daughter, but the teenager held up
her hand.
"No, it's okay," she said, taking a deep, steadying breath. "And you killed
her?" she asked Angel.
"Yes, I did."
"He killed her before. To save my life. But some people resurrected her with
magic," Buffy added.
Joyce gulped, suddenly seeing Angel with new eyes, "I once read about Sires
and their childer," she said then, "quite a lot actually. In one of Giles'
books. I was there with Mom and got bored so I went through his stacks. It
said that their bond is... unbreakable."
"Not bloody likely," Spike muttered, thinking about Dru who had dumped him
without mercy, and about Angelus, the vampire he had admired like a God and who
abandoned him with his loony Sire and Darla, whom he despised.
"It's very strong," Angel replied, ignoring Spike's muttered comment.
"Turning against your sire isn't something that usually happens with
vampires. But I wasn't vampire like she was when I killed her. I had a soul.
That's different." He spoke slowly, his voice gentle. It was the first time
that Joyce had asked about him being a vampire, and he wasn't about to let
the opportunity pass to get closer to her. And if Spike intervened, well,
he could always stake him. And not lose a second of sleep over it.
"I was an evil vampire before," he continued, "but when I got my soul back,
everything changed. I cared. I couldn't kill somebody, and just live on as
nothing had happened. It's not so easy when you still have a raging demon
inside of you. A demon you have to fight every step of the way."
Joyce nodded, and her eyes flickered towards Spike, then back to Angel.
Swallowing hard, she tried a tiny smile, "Maybe," she said after a moment,
"we could talk some more in the near future?"
"I would like that," Angel replied and smiled as well. It wasn't much. She
wasn't throwing her arms around him and welcoming him in the family, but for
a first step, he thought, it wasn't bad. He smiled when Buffy took his hand
and pulled her in his arms, and grinned when he saw Spike roll his eyes.
"Some more cocoa?," he asked him with a wink.
*
"You are a wicked man," Buffy said an hour later, after Spike had left, they
were sitting on the sofa, the blond curled up in Angel's lap.
"You think?" he asked and raised a brow.
"You know what I mean. You don't have to tease Spike that way. He doesn't
have it easy."
"Buffy, chip or no, Spike's still evil, he can live with it. He won't break
because of it," Angel replied, kissing the tip of her nose.
"One day I want to know why you both hate each other like that," she said
suddenly, and leaned her head on his shoulder. "There is a lot I want to
know of your life."
"No way," he retorted firmly. "And as for Spike hating me. It's more
complicated, more twisted. I think most of all he hated the fact that I
suddenly had a soul and couldn't be what he wanted me to anymore. His Sire.
Someone he could look up to. He never got along with Darla. And Dru," he
sighed sadly, "Angelus made sure she hadn't one sane marble left in her
mind. I should've staked her, but I could never bring myself to."
"Here comes the guilt again," Buffy said, kissing his jaw. "But we have both
learned to live with it."
"Yes, we have," he agreed and tilted her head up to kiss her properly. "And
soon," he placed his hand on her stomach, "we'll have a baby to care for.
And I really liked the way Joyce was opening up just before."
"I'm glad," Buffy smiled, "She's been really difficult, thanks to Riley's
narrow-minded view of things. That's one thing we never agreed on. If it was
for him, we could've staked Spike on the spot."
"Maybe we would've been friends after all," Angel muttered and his wife
slapped him playfully. He grinned, "Spike is annoying," he said.
"Yes, he is. But he helped a lot. He's family in a twisted sort of way. And
he'll be thrilled by the baby," she went on, missing the slightly panicked
look in her husband's eyes, "He loves kids. He's a great babysitter, and-"
"No way," Angel interrupted her firmly and made her look at him. "I'm not
going to let him care for my baby. No way. Uh-uh. Absolutely not."
"But, Angel-"
"No way," he said again, planting a hard kiss on her mouth. "I love you, but
not ever."
"Come on, Angel," she drawled and began to unbutton his shirt, while she
planted a kiss on his throat.
He groaned, "Buffy," he hissed, feeling the heat spreading through him like
a fire, "I won't give in. Spike is not going to watch our baby."
"We'll see," she said with a throaty voice that made his head spin. "Kiss
me, Angel."
"If you think you can persuade me, that Spike is harmless, by seducing...
God Buffy," he yelped, when her hand traveled down and inside his pants.
"Is it working?" she asked, tracing his lips with her tongue.
"No," he replied, but his voice was weak. He sucked in a sharp breath when
he felt her hand closing around his shaft. Forgetting about Spike and
everything, he pulled her mouth to his and claimed her lips in a passionate
kiss. "Buffy," he managed.
"What?"
"Stop talking," he growled.
In response she giggled, glad that Marlie and Ben were spending the night
with Xander's kids. And that Joyce was old enough to know when to stay in
her room.
*
Joyce closed her door firmly when she heard the moan coming from the living
room. She shook her head at the images that were rushing through her mind.
But for the first time, a smile played around her lips.
END
That's it. The end. For now. Well, if you want a sequel, that is. Tell me what
you thought of the story and if you would like to read more in that universe. I
would love to hear what you think.
Joyce Finn closed her eyes in disgust for a moment, before she continued
flipping through a magazine she wasn't really reading. Looking up she sighed
seeing the packed boxes standing around her bed, she lay sprawled on her
stomach. Her family would move to a new house the day after tomorrow.
Family, she snorted. What a family? Her "family" was two younger siblings who
didn't understand a thing, and a mother who was busy with her new lover, who
happened to be an ex-vampire.
Of course calling it busy was the understatement of the century. They were all
over each other.
All the time.
Was it really surprising that she felt like throwing up most of the time?
How could her mother let this... this thing touch her? Especially after
she'd been with her father for so long. Of course Angel had been her
mother's first lover, but Joyce quickly put that piece of information away,
not willing to even go there.
They were in the bedroom again. Of course they were in the bedroom most of
the time, so it wasn't a surprise. Did they do anything besides screw each
other, she wondered? But silently she'd been asking herself again and again
if it was really that good. She couldn't remember ever having seen her
mother that crazy with her father. Part of her hated it. The other part was
immensely curious. They only had to look at each other, in that special, and of
course thoroughly disgusting, sort of way and then it was, like, 'we'll be busy
for a while, Joyce. Can you take care of Marlie for the next hour?'
Hadn't she already said they were *busy* most of the time?
And now they had even announced they were going to have a baby. Sheesh. Her
mother was forty for goodness' sake. Wasn't there an age limit for that kind
of behavior? Forty-year-old women didn't get pregnant. There had to be some
law. Certainly there was a law that forbade ex-vampires to have kids. Of
course, there was still that tiny little problem that they would probably
lock her up, Joyce thought. In some asylum for mentally disabled.
Nobody had believed vampires were real when they were around all the time, who
would believe it now, when most of them had left Sunnydale for good.
Of course, Ben and Marlie were ecstatic about the news, Ben already planning
how to care for his little brother. Gee, one would think this was the
greatest news this side of the Pacific Ocean. Her mother and Angel certainly
thought it was. He couldn't stop touching Buffy, Joyce had more than once
found him touching her mother's belly, and there had been that silly look on
his face. That dreamy smile. He was almost nice when he smiled that way.
Stop it, she told herself firmly, no way she would get all mushy now and
forget that she really despised Angel.
True to her word, she was behaving well around him. She even talked to him,
but she would never like him. Not ever. Of course he had a nice smile,
especially when he was with either Marlie or Ben and when they were beaming
up at him as if he'd hung the sky. Hadn't she said it? Disgusting.
Suddenly there was a muffled groan and another, deeper voice shouting
something. Joyce was almost certain it had been her mother's name. Groaning
herself, she let her head fall on her bed. Her stepfather had been a
vampire. The man her mother was married to and was doing the nasty thing
with. Could her life get worse?
*****
"This time you were the loud one," Buffy scolded, but smiled at her husband,
who was lying beside her, one of his hands stroking her belly in lazy
circles.
"I couldn't help it," he said, but there wasn't a hint of apology in his
voice. "Besides, Joyce is the only one around and she already knows what's
going on when you tell her we'll be busy for an hour."
"What?" propping herself up on an elbow, she stared at him. "You are talking
about my underage daughter you know."
"Besides," he went on, ignoring her comment with a grin, "you're pregnant,"
he said, emphasizing the last word by resting the palm of his hand over
their unborn child. His hand was so large it almost covered the whole space
between her hipbones. "Joyce had sex Ed in school. You told me that. She has
to know where babies come from."
Rolling her eyes at Angel, Buffy fell back on the pillow, "Still, it's kinda
embarrassing don't you think? To know that she might be sitting in her room,
trying to cover her ears. Girls at her age don't think of their parents as
sexual people. I clearly remember when my mom was dating Ted."
"Who?" he asked, but then he remembered, "Oh, the robot guy. The one you
couldn't stand."
"Yeah, you said I should give him a chance." She sighed, "Anyways. The
mere thought of my mother being with a guy, any guy, who wasn't my dad... It
was hard to accept. I hated Ted, even before I knew he wasn't what he seemed
to be. And when I found out he was a robot, I was really glad."
"So what you're telling me with this walk down memory lane, is, that you
understand the problems Joyce is having with you and me? Buffy, I know it's
still a long way, maybe she won't ever accept me completely. But she'll
arrange herself. In a few years she's going to live her own life. She can't
expect her mother to live the rest of her life on her own, just to please
her. And I think she's realized that already."
"Yeah," she leaned towards him, and kissed him softly. "I know. But-"
The very same moment the doorbell rang and Buffy returned Angel's raised
brow with a certain panic in her eyes.
"What?" he asked.
"Spike," she yelped, slipping from the bed and searching for her clothes.
"Spike?" Angel sat up in bed when it hit him. "Spike." With a pained groan
his head fell back on the pillow. "God, I think I'm doomed."
*
"Tell me, slayer," Spike drawled from his position on the sofa, "Are you
feeling happy, all married and living with soul-boy?"
"What do you think?" Buffy asked back, not bothering to look at him. She was
standing in the kitchen to get some coffee ready, while Spike had already
found his favorite place.
"You look good," he commented, "So I'd say it's a safe bet, that you're all
over the moon."
She grinned when she came back to the living room, holding a tray loaded
with cups, coffee, some cookies and Spike's favorite marshmallows. His eyes
lit up at the sight of them, "Oh, the little white ones. I'd like to kiss
you, slayer. Maybe we should. It would annoy the hell out of my grand-sire."
"Yes, or you could just be dust in a second," Angel said casually when he
joined them in the room. Buffy noticed he'd been particularly careful with
his clothes tonight. It was the first time he and Spike met after the
wedding, the first time they met in close quarters, so to say, and she
couldn't help but feel a bit nervous about it. Granted, most of the stuff
was already in boxes, as they would soon move into the new house they bought
near Willow's, but the furniture was almost new and Buffy didn't care for
crashed tables or broken cups.
"Empty threats," Spike grinned at his grand-sire, not quite sure if he
should be pissed because Angel had managed to get back into the slayer's
pants or glad that Buffy looked that much better and hadn't touched so much
as a drop of alcohol over the last four months.
"You think?" Angel raised a brow and there was something in his eyes that
made Spike frown, Joyce noticed when she came to the living room as well.
"Can I have some hot chocolate?" she asked her mother.
"Sure, sweetie," Buffy replied and turned for the kitchen again. "You too,
Spike?"
"Thanks, Slayer. Yeah." Then he suddenly tilted his head, and his eyes
widened. "I didn't notice it before, with all the noise in the room, but I
could swear I heard five heartbeats."
"Mom's pregnant," Joyce told him. "Don't you think she's too old for another
child?" she asked the vampire.
"Joyce!" came Buffy's sharp voice from the kitchen.
The girl rolled her eyes and caught Spike's gaze. "Don't ask me, kid," he
said. "I might look younger than your mother, but I hardly am. So I'm not
really the age-expert around. Maybe we should ask if it's allowed that some
250 odd years old guy should father a child."
"Careful," Angel warned softly, oh so softly, and Spike felt a shiver run
down his spine. Damn, if Angel hadn't just sounded exactly like Angelus.
Obviously by turning human you didn't lose your ability to threaten innocent
vampires. But then, he was hardly innocent, Spike thought with glee.
"Your step daddy," he said, grinning at Joyce, ignoring that she didn't
really like him, even hated him, "went all soft at a certain point, you
know. While me and Dru," he sighed deeply, "Well, you could say that we were
feared allover this planet. We had quite a reputation."
"God save me from a vampire with an attitude," Angel groaned, turning away
from his annoying grand-childe.
"Oh, and that coming from the master of the attitude. That's rich," Spike
shot back, not backing down.
Joyce looked back and forth between the two men, inwardly wincing at calling
the vampire a man, "You don't like each other a lot, huh?" she asked,
sensing an unexpected ally in Angel. She didn't like him, she reminded
herself quickly, but if she had to choose she would take him any day. Her
father had hated Spike, and Joyce would never forget that.
Spike had no problems following her train of thought, "Don't even think it,
kid," he said. "He made me. He's responsible for what I am."
"I never *made* you," Angel bit back. "No vampire in his right mind would've
chosen this sorry excuse for a poet as his childe. Angelus might have been a
crazy bastard, but he had his standards after all. Only someone like Dru
could be blind enough not to see that you wouldn't make an impressive
vampire."
"WHOA!" Buffy shouted coming back from the kitchen, holding the two cups of
cocoa in both her hands. "Time out. I don't want this here. I might not be a
slayer anymore, and for that can't kick your ass, but you stop it now.
Spike, Angel will be in my life, so you better get used to him," she turned
to her lover who gave his grand-childe a smug grin, "and Angel, Spike is my
friend. You have to accept that."
"Some friend," Angel muttered. "An evil, bloodsucking-"
"Not one more word," Buffy warned and when she caught Spike grinning this
time, she glared at him. "And I mean both of you."
"I'm not saying anything," Spike chirped.
"You better. My teenage daughter is in the room. She doesn't need this
testosterone competition."
The teenage daughter in question had followed the exchange with a growing
interest. And especially her mother's forceful reaction had been something
Joyce would've never expected. "Uh... actually... I thought it was kinda...
cute."
"Huh?" Three voices said unison while three pairs of eyes shifted in her
direction, making her feel uncomfortable all of a sudden.
"Gee," she rolled her eyes. "I never saw two vamps have a fight before. I
was really looking forward to it." Plus she made a definite mental note that
Angel really didn't like Spike. You never knew when you could use that sort
of knowledge.
Buffy sighed, "Joyce, Angel isn't a vampire anymore, meaning he doesn't
vampire-strength anymore. So he wouldn't be able to fight Spike." She saw
the blond vampire grin smugly and went on, "And Spike has a chip in his
head. He couldn't beat Angel even if he wanted to. He's," she shrugged,
"neutered. Sort of."
"HEY!" Spike's head jerked around and he glared at her. "No insults please.
And besides. You even married the jerk who put this thing in my head." The
moment the words had left his mouth, he knew it had been a mistake and he
already groaned inwardly at the reaction that of course came instantly.
"Really?" Joyce smiled broadly at him. "Dad put that thing in your head?"
"Not in the strictest sense," Buffy amended Spike's words. "But yeah. He was
part of the team that captured Spike and brought him in so that they could
implant the chip."
"Wow," the girl looked at the vampire in awe.
Spike narrowed his eyes and was about to give her a reply, but he caught
Buffy's warning gaze and gathered that telling Joyce about some gory details
of her father's past, like his preference for vampire whores, wouldn't be a
wise move at the moment. He shut his mouth with a loud click and cursed
inwardly when he saw his grand-sire grinning smugly again. Darn slayer. Why
on earth did she have the hots for someone like Angel? God, he hated the
bugger. On the other hand, "Did you ever tell Buffy about the way you went
groiny with Darla?" he asked, looking his grand-sire straight in the eye.
He looked back the same way, "Buffy knows what happened with Darla."
Joyce, who had been on her way to her room, stopped in the doorway and
turned around. Darla? Another woman? That might have possibilities.
"Yes, she does," the ex-slayer interrupted, "and she's in the room, so you
can also speak with her."
"Oh really?" Spike raised a brow, ignoring the blond, "And does she also
know that your sire filed a paternity suit against you?"
"WHAT?" Buffy asked stunned. A paternity suit? Darla? Against Angel? But
Angel was-
"How do you know about that?" she heard her husband ask his grand-childe.
"I was traveling around. Came across Dru again. She always liked to talk."
"I see," Angel narrowed his eyes at Spike and for a moment the blond vampire
considered the possibility that he was going to leave this apartment tonight
in a nice little urn. Angel sighed, and turned towards Buffy, who was watching
him expectantly, but in her eyes he saw nothing but trust and it warmed him
deep inside.
"Darla came back a while after she'd left," he said. "She was a vampire
then, but she was pregnant." When he saw Buffy's eyes widen in surprise, he
nodded, "Yeah, I thought the same. It wasn't possible. Boy, did I look funny
when one day a paternity suit landed on my desk. It was of course filed by
Wolfram & Hart who were - surprise, surprise her lawyers again."
Buffy nodded. She remembered Angel telling her about the evil law firm, and
also Darla's connection with them.
"After a little bit of research, we found out that the baby she was carrying
was human. A little bit more research told us that some wizard had used a
spell to make the pregnancy possible. We also found out that the father of
the baby was a human lawyer who had once been with Wolfram & Hart. We tried
to find him, but we failed."
He sighed again, smiled when Buffy took his hand, "I offered to take care of
the baby, but refused to be called its biological father. To make a long
story short, Darla disappeared when the paternity test proved I wasn't the
father. She actually believed I was the father, but the wizard obviously
betrayed her. He couldn't make a vampire fertile. We never found out how the
baby survived the fact that Darla had syphilis, but where magic is involved
it's always hard to know what's possible or not.
"Later we found out that Darla had given birth to the baby, then killed it
right after," he had to take a deep breath to continue his story. Everyone
had forgotten about Joyce still standing in the doorway, but she was
listening intently. "When I met her again, I staked her and made sure that
nothing of her was left to resurrect her a second time.
"The good thing in all this, however, was that by searching for Darla we
came across information that resulted in the downfall of Wolfram & Hart.
There were several disks and we gave them to a friend of ours who has a
computer company in L.A. His specialists - you could call them hacker -
planted a virus in Wolfram & Hart's system and like magic all their files
disappeared. Their stocks were worth less a penny within a day."
"That's quite a story," Buffy said and squeezed his hand.
"She... she really killed her own baby?" Joyce asked suddenly from the
doorway.
Her mother gasped only now realizing that her daughter had heard everything.
Squeezing her hand, Angel turned towards the girl, "Yes, she did. But she
was a vampire. A demon controlled her body at that time. It was her nature
to kill."
"Joyce, honey," Buffy walked towards her daughter, but the teenager held up
her hand.
"No, it's okay," she said, taking a deep, steadying breath. "And you killed
her?" she asked Angel.
"Yes, I did."
"He killed her before. To save my life. But some people resurrected her with
magic," Buffy added.
Joyce gulped, suddenly seeing Angel with new eyes, "I once read about Sires
and their childer," she said then, "quite a lot actually. In one of Giles'
books. I was there with Mom and got bored so I went through his stacks. It
said that their bond is... unbreakable."
"Not bloody likely," Spike muttered, thinking about Dru who had dumped him
without mercy, and about Angelus, the vampire he had admired like a God and who
abandoned him with his loony Sire and Darla, whom he despised.
"It's very strong," Angel replied, ignoring Spike's muttered comment.
"Turning against your sire isn't something that usually happens with
vampires. But I wasn't vampire like she was when I killed her. I had a soul.
That's different." He spoke slowly, his voice gentle. It was the first time
that Joyce had asked about him being a vampire, and he wasn't about to let
the opportunity pass to get closer to her. And if Spike intervened, well,
he could always stake him. And not lose a second of sleep over it.
"I was an evil vampire before," he continued, "but when I got my soul back,
everything changed. I cared. I couldn't kill somebody, and just live on as
nothing had happened. It's not so easy when you still have a raging demon
inside of you. A demon you have to fight every step of the way."
Joyce nodded, and her eyes flickered towards Spike, then back to Angel.
Swallowing hard, she tried a tiny smile, "Maybe," she said after a moment,
"we could talk some more in the near future?"
"I would like that," Angel replied and smiled as well. It wasn't much. She
wasn't throwing her arms around him and welcoming him in the family, but for
a first step, he thought, it wasn't bad. He smiled when Buffy took his hand
and pulled her in his arms, and grinned when he saw Spike roll his eyes.
"Some more cocoa?," he asked him with a wink.
*
"You are a wicked man," Buffy said an hour later, after Spike had left, they
were sitting on the sofa, the blond curled up in Angel's lap.
"You think?" he asked and raised a brow.
"You know what I mean. You don't have to tease Spike that way. He doesn't
have it easy."
"Buffy, chip or no, Spike's still evil, he can live with it. He won't break
because of it," Angel replied, kissing the tip of her nose.
"One day I want to know why you both hate each other like that," she said
suddenly, and leaned her head on his shoulder. "There is a lot I want to
know of your life."
"No way," he retorted firmly. "And as for Spike hating me. It's more
complicated, more twisted. I think most of all he hated the fact that I
suddenly had a soul and couldn't be what he wanted me to anymore. His Sire.
Someone he could look up to. He never got along with Darla. And Dru," he
sighed sadly, "Angelus made sure she hadn't one sane marble left in her
mind. I should've staked her, but I could never bring myself to."
"Here comes the guilt again," Buffy said, kissing his jaw. "But we have both
learned to live with it."
"Yes, we have," he agreed and tilted her head up to kiss her properly. "And
soon," he placed his hand on her stomach, "we'll have a baby to care for.
And I really liked the way Joyce was opening up just before."
"I'm glad," Buffy smiled, "She's been really difficult, thanks to Riley's
narrow-minded view of things. That's one thing we never agreed on. If it was
for him, we could've staked Spike on the spot."
"Maybe we would've been friends after all," Angel muttered and his wife
slapped him playfully. He grinned, "Spike is annoying," he said.
"Yes, he is. But he helped a lot. He's family in a twisted sort of way. And
he'll be thrilled by the baby," she went on, missing the slightly panicked
look in her husband's eyes, "He loves kids. He's a great babysitter, and-"
"No way," Angel interrupted her firmly and made her look at him. "I'm not
going to let him care for my baby. No way. Uh-uh. Absolutely not."
"But, Angel-"
"No way," he said again, planting a hard kiss on her mouth. "I love you, but
not ever."
"Come on, Angel," she drawled and began to unbutton his shirt, while she
planted a kiss on his throat.
He groaned, "Buffy," he hissed, feeling the heat spreading through him like
a fire, "I won't give in. Spike is not going to watch our baby."
"We'll see," she said with a throaty voice that made his head spin. "Kiss
me, Angel."
"If you think you can persuade me, that Spike is harmless, by seducing...
God Buffy," he yelped, when her hand traveled down and inside his pants.
"Is it working?" she asked, tracing his lips with her tongue.
"No," he replied, but his voice was weak. He sucked in a sharp breath when
he felt her hand closing around his shaft. Forgetting about Spike and
everything, he pulled her mouth to his and claimed her lips in a passionate
kiss. "Buffy," he managed.
"What?"
"Stop talking," he growled.
In response she giggled, glad that Marlie and Ben were spending the night
with Xander's kids. And that Joyce was old enough to know when to stay in
her room.
*
Joyce closed her door firmly when she heard the moan coming from the living
room. She shook her head at the images that were rushing through her mind.
But for the first time, a smile played around her lips.
END
That's it. The end. For now. Well, if you want a sequel, that is. Tell me what
you thought of the story and if you would like to read more in that universe. I
would love to hear what you think.
