Title: Summers Residence
Name: Joy
Email: SleepingBeauty2@ziplip.com
Spike woke up in his new home quite confused. He had the worst feeling he was back in his wheelchair days. But as he turned he saw Buffy walking out of the room, having left a cup on the table with a bandage around her wrist. "What'd you do pet?" he said slowly.
She didn't turn around. "I left you your lunch."
"Buffy…" She still didn't turn around but stood in the door. "Please look at me, luv."
Buffy moved toward him timidly. She moved her arms behind her back in a small attempt to hide the fact she bled herself for him. "Yes…"
"You keep that up I'll have more of your blood then you do," he whispered to her.
"Drink it… You don't want it to clot," she offered.
He averted his eyes, "Not in front of you…" She turned to leave. "Wait for me though… in the living room out there." She nodded and shut the door.
Spike started to drink his love's blood from a cup with 'Spike' written on the bottom. He smiled… The girls did not want to drink out of the same cup his blood was in. Why did I ask Buffy to stay? he thought. His heart answered, Because you do like to be with her…you like talking to her. You want her comfort. Spike growled at himself, That kind of thing is going to tear me up inside. Once again his heart responded, You heard Tara…Buffy really loves you.
Spike finished his blood and stared into the cup. Buffy knocked gently on the door before opening it. "You obviously want to be by yourself…so I'm just gonna go…" she said.
"No…" Spike stated firmly. He had no clue what he was doing. "I'm done… Thanks for the cup," he said trying to be jovial. Buffy continued to stand at the door. "Come in," he whispered. Buffy took a few steps in and shut the door.
Dawn and Tara who had been peaking from the stairs both smiled when they heard Spike invite the slayer into his room. "Alright ladies… Enough spying," Gunn smirked at them.
"But it was cute," Dawn said with a smile.
"But its rude," he countered. She started to pout at him. Gunn couldn't resist, so he picked her up off the floor to meet him face to face for a kiss.
Willow chose that moment to walk into the kitchen. "Okay… Not what I was expecting to see," she said slightly uncomfortably.
Gunn slid Dawn back to the floor. "Sorry… Didn't realize this was a PDA free zone," he responded.
"Sorry…its just…. Sorry…" she said shaking her head and left the room.
Tara followed after her, "Willow?"
The redhead looked at Tara with hooded eyes, "I'm sorry… I know you know that but…"
"What does that have to do with Gunn and Dawn?" the blond asked.
Red looked at her straight on, "That used to be us… We were the cute couple kissing in the kitchen. We were the ones with the public displays of affection… It's just hard when I want you back so badly…" Willow's eyes dropped, "I… I needed you to leave… I needed to lose what meant the most to me to make me see… But god this is hard without you."
"Willow… Please… I'm playing facilitator to help create this very strange and strained family unit. This is how I'm focusing my energy right now… This is what's getting me through all the hurt with you," Tara stated.
"Tara I love you…I need…"
The blond witch cut her off, "You took away my memory twice…both times you did it on purpose. The first time I told you it was a violation. The second time I left… You may be off magic, but I don't know that the same manipulative tendency isn't just under the surface… Gunn is here to help with Spike so I don't have to be here. That is how little I trust you right now. Do you understand?"
Willow was in tears, "Will you ever trust me again?"
Tara sighed, "I don't know… I'm seeing good examples of trust being gained… Lets leave it at maybe." The redhead nodded.
Dawn heard the end of the conversation Willow and Tara were having. She may have been mad at Willow but she wanted things to go back to the way they were with the witches. "What's the matter, sweets?" Gunn asked.
"Once trust is lost…its really hard to get back.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Buffy sat on the edge of Spike's bed as they shyly avoided looking at each other. Buffy wasn't going to move any closer then where she was at without an invitation. Spike glared at the ceiling arguing with himself. "Bloody hell," he finally muttered. Buffy cringed getting ready to bolt. "Buffy," he said quietly getting her to slowly look at him. "Come here," he said opening his arms a little to her.
She stared for a moment then crawled close to him. He settled her head on his chest. Buffy clung to him like he was a life preserver. Spike hugged her back with on arm and petted her hair with the other. "Thank you," she whispered being to close to tears to do anything else. "Thank you for letting me be close to you."
He sighed deeply, relishing the feeling of her in his arms. Nothing more then holding each other, that was what he wanted right now. Spike kissed the top of her head and said, "Thank you for your patience."
"You waited for me for over a year… I can wait too," she said quietly, "especially if you let me hold you…you let me love you. Something I know I never let you do for me… I messed up so…"
"Don't pet…Don't," he interrupted. "We both screwed up… I just called it quits for real before you did. You would have eventually… We probably hurt each other a lot more before we got there."
"But you tried to save me… from myself," she whispered into his chest.
"And I also pushed you to be in the dark because I wanted to keep you with me… and away from your friends," he said stroking her hair. "I was being the evil thing you thought I was." Buffy began to cry. "Hey now… none of that. I don't know what to do when you cry."
Buffy chuckled, "No man does…"
Spike pulled her face up to his, "Yep… No man knows how the handle the tears of the woman he loves." She gulped at his admission but mainly at his delivery. Very sweetly and gently Spike leaned in and kissed her lips. One kiss…very brief but it meant so much. Buffy didn't push and Spike didn't continue so she snuggled back into the crook of his neck.
"I love you," she whispered.
"I love you too pet."
"Can we stay here for a while? Just like this?"
"Yes… Nap would probably do us both good," he suggested.
"Agreed."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Dawn spent the afternoon dragging Gunn from place to place and friend's house to friend's house. Gunn soon tired of the inane repetitive questions he was given. He saw some of the mother's cringe when he held Dawn's hand or kissed her head. Adults were much easier to read prejudice in for some reason.
One mother asked him if he worked on cars or attended a vocational college. He said no that he worked for a private investigating company in LA. He handed her his card at which time she seemed to loose the ability to speak.
Dawn was playing the perfect fifteen year old. Completely oblivious to her surroundings and the discomfort Gunn was experiencing. She was giggling and whispering to her friends. At some point he was done. "Dawn… I'm going to let your friends catch up," he said sweetly and kissed her cheek before heading for the door.
"Wait…" Dawn called. Her brow wrinkled as she came to talk to him. "Why are you leaving?"
"Your friends mother is afraid to have me in the house for fear I'll steal something and your friends and you are just talking to each other… I don't feel like being's the pretty bird in the gilded cage anymore." Dawn just stared at him for a minute. "I know you haven't seen your friends so you have fun and I'll see about getting that stuff for Spike," he offered.
"We were going to do that together," she complained.
"Then I'll go for a walk then head back to your house."
Dawn thought it over for a moment. "No… I can see them at school. I've only got you for a few days," she stated. "I'll just go say goodbye." Gunn nodded.
When she told her friends she was leaving Emily said, "What's the matter? Tall, dark and handsome isn't comfortable?"
Dawn got pissed, "No Em…he's not. When your mom acts like he has an underdeveloped brain because of the color of his skin, yeah I think he has a right to want to get the hell away from here… Bye to the rest of you. I'm going to spend time with my boyfriend where people won't think he's going to steal something."
Gunn heard her little tirade and was touched. Fifteen years old and already regarded as a freak. She didn't need to be creating waves when she had two more years of high school to endure, and yet there she went slamming her friend's mom for her attitude. When they got outside Gunn caught Dawn up in a big hug. "What was that for?" she asked sweetly.
"For coming to my defense."
"Hey… Her mom's an idiot."
Gunn smirked at her then looked up to see the mother standing by the window watching. "Dawn, I'm going to kiss you heavily to entertain your friend's mother, okay?"
"Sounds like a plan to me." Gunn caressed her face they proceeded to kiss her thoroughly. When he looked up the mother was gone. "Wow," was all Dawn could mutter. "If I get kissed like that, bring on the idiot moms." Gunn laughed and walked his girl back to her house.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Summers residence," Spike said answering the phone.
"May I please speak to Buffy? This is Emily's mother!"
"Is Dawn hurt?" he asked quickly.
"No…May I please speak to Buffy!"
"I'm sorry she's asleep. But if this is about Dawn you can talk to me."
"Who are you?"
Spike thought fast and said the first plausible thing that came to mind. "I'm Buffy's husband, William."
"Husband?"
"Yes… We eloped in LA. That's why we've all been gone," Spike stated. What the hell am I saying?!
"Well fine… I don't know what kind of example you're setting for Dawn but she brought some guy into my house, she insulted me and my daughter, then proceeded to make out on my front lawn," the mother fumed.
"You didn't like Charles? He's a very nice and likable guy," Spike said simply.
"I didn't talk to him that much."
"Oh… I was under the impression that all the girls brought their boyfriends to your house," he said smoothly.
"Normally they're from the school. I didn't know him."
"I see… How did Dawn insult you?"
"What?"
"How did she insult you? I'm trying to get all the information here."
"She just did! And she made out with that… guy… on my lawn… in broad daylight."
Spike clicked his teeth, "Ma'am, I seriously doubt Dawn will ever be visiting your house again so you needn't worry."
The mother seethed, "I want to know what you're going to do about what happen!"
Then he just chuckled, "I'm not going to do anything… From what you've told me so far, you have a problem with the fact that Charles is black. Any display of affection that was committed on your front lawn was probably as a result of frustration over their time with you… Dawn will continue to date Charles until they see fit to break up and not because some narrow-minded people give them a hard time… I hope for Emily's sake she learns to see outside the boxes you've established for her. Have a nice day." Spike hung up the phone before the mother could say anything.
He heard clapping at his side. He turned his head and saw Buffy smiling at him, "Way to go 'dad.' Way to stand up for your little girl."
Spike smirked then suddenly realized he was going to have to share his lie with Buffy. "Um… Did you hear the whole conversation?" he asked.
"No," she said yawning. "Just from Dawn wouldn't be going over there anymore."
"Well see…she wanted to talk to you, but you were sleeping…" Buffy gave him a curious look. "So I told her I was your husband."
"You did what?" she said with huge eyes.
"It was the only way she would talk to me," he said with a slight whine.
Buffy started laughing, "When did this happen supposedly?"
"This week… We eloped in LA, that's why we were gone."
"So… Do I get the skull ring back?" she asked playfully.
"You're not mad," he said quietly.
"I've been engaged to you before… Marriage doesn't seem that hard, especially with you living in the house," Buffy commented lightly touching his arm.
"You know this might screw things up with Social Services," Spike said firmly.
Buffy's eyes went big, "I hadn't even thought about what they'd say about a guy living here."
"Cross that bridge when we come to it," he said kissing her head. "If worse comes to worse, we can have Angel forge a Marriage License for us."
Buffy bit her lip. "Lets just get that done incase we have an unannounced visit soon."
"See there… Compromise… Working together… We'll make this work," Spike said holding her to his chest again.
"Yeah… sure."
TBC…