Six: TO BE MY WIFE
Buffy was on the phone when Dawn and Willow came into the kitchen.
"Yep. Just a night out with the girls."
"Are you ready to go?" mouthed Dawn to her sister pointing in the direction of the door, as Willow tucked stakes into her pockets.
Buffy nodded and rolled her eyes. "No-no. We'll be fine." She paused to listen to the voice on the other end of the line. "Maybe we'll stop by later... if we don't hook up with any good looking guys-"
"Ah-hem," Willow cleared her throat and smirked.
"People. If we don't hook up with any good looking people while we're out." Buffy returned her friend's look then turned away. Hunching slightly over the phone, she lowered her voice, "I love you too... Yep. Bye."
"So Spike's checking up on you again, Buffy?" Willow teased.
"I think it's sweet," defended a grinning Dawn.
"He's just been a little over protective lately. He seems to have forgotten that... I don't know," she said sarcastically, "that I'm the Slayer, and I've been kickin' demon ass since long before he had any claim on mine." She looked at the wide-eyed faces of the other young women and her defiant tone slumped to embarrassed, "I can't believe I just said that."
"Buffy," Willow interjected, "I agree with Dawn: it is sweet. He's concerned about you, just wants to know you're alright... and he wants you to know he's thinking about you."
"And he wanted to hear you say you love him," Dawn added melodically in a 'nana-nah-nana-nah' manner, poking fun at her sister's attempt to hide that part of the conversation from them.
------- o -------
"So the invitations have gone out. Caterer's been arranged. The flowers and cake have been ordered," Buffy reviewed her to-do list as the young women wandered through the cemetery.
Dawn and Willow were only half listening to her --- they were more concerned about actually finding any hungry vampires before the vamps' fangs found them.
"The dresses should be in soon at April Fool's. Fittings next Wednesday?" Buffy paused to look up from her notebook for affirmation that Dawn and Willow would be available. "Justice of the Peace is arranged. Spike's looking after his tuxedo and the license. I'll pick up his ring from the jewel-"
Suddenly from behind a large headstone, jumped a newly risen vamp hungry for blood --- what else? The two other girls startled slightly, but quickly readied their stakes.
Buffy just gave the vamp a "Do you mind? Bride-to-be. Important planning going on here," then ran him through with her pencil. "Damn. Broke the lead. Anyway... where was I? Right, chairs..."
TO BE MY HUSBAND
Spike sat staring at the computer screen. Determined to do everything right and proper, he had asked Willow to help him research "legal marriage in the State of California". It all seemed straightforward enough to begin with: get a ring, ask the girl to marry you, trot over to City Hall (since Spike still wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of a church wedding --- or a church anything else for that matter) and get the thing done. Live happily ever after and what not.
But now, he needed names, dates, and all manner of legal documents. Why hadn't this occurred to him before? If only he'd gone to the trouble of getting himself the appropriate papers earlier --- like when he was looking for a job. Back then he'd used a green card he'd "acquired". He just hoped that his prospective employer wouldn't look too carefully at the card and asked that his paycheques be directly deposited to Buffy's account. Seemed good enough at the time, but now, wanting to truly be the responsible and legal family man, he needed more than that. He needed a real name, birthdate... a history!
"Sod it!" he grumbled at the glaring screen.
"Trouble, Spike?" Willow wandered in from the kitchen. She'd been looking much better in the past few weeks.
Spike couldn't help noticing how much good a little California sunshine had done for both of them, remembering how he looked his first night back --- the first time he'd really studied himself in the mirror in over a century --- and how pale Willow had been when he'd come home from work to find her sitting in the living room after her return from "detox". "Just tryin' to suss all this out." he mumbled nodding at the monitor. "Such a bloody lot of fuss for somethin' that should be so simple."
"Well, you have to admit, yours is a... a unique situation. For most people, stuff like that is simple," the redhead said smiling. "Besides, consider how far you've already come. You're not going to let a little government red tape get in the way of your happiness, now are you? Doesn't sound like the anarchical Spike we all know and-" She stopped abruptly.
Willow had come to accept Spike as a housemate and a friend, even as the man Buffy loved, but she still couldn't bring herself to say she "loved" him, not even in jest. Her struggle back to the "real world" had been an immense challenge --- still was, every day --- and she found it difficult to let people into her heart. Even with Buffy and Xander things weren't as they had been, once...
"Let me see..." Willow sat down and proceeded to research the legal ins-and outs. "Seems straight forward enough if you can get your hands on a birth certificate."
"Now how'm I going to get a birth certificate?"
"You can get anything on the internet." A wicked gleam came to Willow's eyes. "You just have to know where to look."
Spike sat in amazement watching the young woman work with an ease he could only describe as "magic" but which was in fact only the result of a wealth of knowledge of the technology at her dexterous fingertips.
After a few minutes, she sighed and asked, "So... what'll it be?"
"Sorry... What'll what be?"
"Your name? What name would you like on your birth certificate?" she clarified. "I can't very well put 'William T. Bloody, now can I? Hey, while I'm at it, do you want a passport? How 'bout naturalization papers?"
"Believe if or not, I'm quite happy as a British subject thank you very much," he declared with his chin held high. "Between your beer and that blasted game you people refer to as 'football', I just assume stay loyal to Queen and country."
"Suit yourself." Willow shrugged. "Name?"
"Right then, William... ah... William Edward Stewart." Spike looked over Willow's shoulder as she typed. How strange it seemed to him to have said his name, to see it. "Ah... Red. That's S-T-E-W-A-R-T not U-A-R-T."
"Sorry." She quickly corrected. "Place of birth?"
"Camden Town, London, Middlesex, England."
"Yikes, that's quite a mouthful."
Spike rolled his eyes.
"OK, date?" she paused, curious about the response.
"Honestly don't recall," he remarked distantly. "Not that you could put down the real date anyway."
"Well..." she pondered some meaningful possibilities, "do you know about when you... ah... became human again?"
"There's an idea. Ah... Should think it was the middle of July."
"How about the 19th? That would put your 'birthday' six months after Buffy's," she noted. "Year... let's see... how 'bout 19... ah... 1970? Nice even number..."
"That would make me... 32! Do I look 32 to you?!" Spike scowled, taking great offence.
"Not a day over a hundred and f." She smirked at his vanity.
He just sneered.
"OK then, how about 27. Better?"
He could live with that. "Right then." He watched as she typed in "1975".
"Father's name?"
"George Richard."
She tapped several keys. "Mother's maiden name?"
"Margaret Whyte... That's with a Y."
More typing then, glancing over the marriage license application, Willow inquired with another smirk, "Previous marriages?"
He glared. "None."
"Just curious." She snickered.
He was not amused. "Anything else?"
"Nope, that should about cover it. Let me print out a copy so you know the details for your marriage license," she offered. "Once you and Buffy are married, there shouldn't be much to getting yourself a real green card. I hear there's an interview process and that. They'll want spy on you, see if the relationship's for real." Willow winked.
Spike's demeanour changed dramatically at the notion of getting to show off his relationship with Buffy. He smiled proudly.