Notes: Wow! Thanks for all of the feedback! I'm glad that so many of you like this little story of mine. Keep reading and reviewing… I'll try to have chapter 3 out soon. Enjoy!

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"Mommy!" Maggie shrieked, as she saw Buffy faint and hit the floor in the foyer. Spike panicked, not knowing if he could go into the house to help her, or if he'd been uninvited again after he left 5 years ago. He gently put Maggie down.

"Pet, you go sit on the steps, and let me see if I can help your Mum. I'll be right back." Maggie gave him a hard look, but then wandered across the porch to sit on the steps. Spike decided it was now or never. He reached out his hand, and let out a sigh of relief when his hand did not meet an invisible barrier at the threshold. He rushed in, and immediately fell to the floor beside Buffy, gently gathering her into his arms.

"Buffy, love, wake up. Please, wake up." Her eyes began to flutter. "That's it pet, wake up." He looked out onto the porch, and called for Maggie. "Maggie, come here, pet. Your Mum's waking up."

Maggie ran over to where Spike and Buffy were sitting, and touched her mom's face gently. "Mommy, what happened? You fell down like me!"

"Maggie?" Buffy's eyes opened, and she looked at her little girl's face. "Maggie what happened to you?!" She pulled away from Spike, and shrieked at him "What did you do to my little girl?!"

Maggie started to cry again. Spike never knew a child could start and stop crying so quickly. Buffy gathered her daughter in her arms and began rocking her back and forth. "Sweetie, don't cry. Come on, calm down, try not to cry."

The little girl placed her hands on either side of Buffy's face, and looked at her. "Are you mad at me Mommy? Please don't be mad. I know I'm not 'sposed to walk home with out you and I know I'm not 'sposed to talk to strangers but I fell down Mommy, and I was hurt and he helped me and please don't take my party away 'cause what if Daddy's coming to it?"

Buffy's heart skipped a beat. She looked back at Maggie and brushed her tears from her face. "No, sweetie, I'm not going to take your party away. And I'm not mad at you, but you scared me. I didn't know where you were. Never, ever again go anywhere without telling a grown up where you're going, Ok?"

"Ok, Mommy. You aren't mad at me for letting Will-yum bring me home?" Buffy contemplated Spike, how he was just calmly standing there, taking in the sight of a Mother and Daughter, reunited.

"No, sweetie, I'm just glad he was there to help you." She grinned to herself at how Maggie pronounced Spikes real name. Buffy looked up at Spike and he hoped that she just might give him that chance to explain that he was hoping for.

"You know what Mommy? Will-yum said he used to have a friend that lived in our house. And he was coming to see her, but she doesn't live here anymore, 'cause we live here now."

"Is that so?" Buffy asked her daughter. "Well, why don't we go into the kitchen and fix up your cuts and scrapes and William can tell us about his friend. Maybe we can help him find her."

Buffy and Maggie started down the hall to the kitchen while Spike just stood in the doorway, amazed at how calmly Buffy was reacting to his return. He was sure he'd catch hell later, though, once Maggie was out of sight. Maggie turned around and noticed that Spike was not following them. She ran back and grabbed his hand, and tugged him down the hallway with her. "Come on Will-yum! You can tell me a story while Mommy fixes my cuts!"

Once in the kitchen, Spike lifted the little girl up to sit on the counter, while Buffy retrieved her first aid kit from the drawer. She got out the antiseptic, and Maggie winced and drew in a sharp breath before Buffy even got the bottle open. Buffy smiled at her, "Sweetie, I haven't even opened it up yet, so it can't hurt already." Maggie opened one eye and looked at her mother warily.  Buffy turned to Spike "Um, William, why don't you talk to her, and maybe it will take her mind off of getting her cuts cleaned."

"Ok." Spike was suddenly at a loss on what to say to the child. I mean, he couldn't just start telling her stories of his past like he used to tell Dawn…too much blood and guts for the bitty-Buffy sitting in front of him was definitely not the way to win Buffy over. Luckily, Maggie saved him,

"Will-yum, you talk funny. Why do you sound like that?"

"Well, love, I'm from a place called England. Do you know where that is?"

"Uh-huh! It's where Giles lives! Giles is funny. He wears these glasses, and he's always taking them off and cleaning them. Mommy says he's always done that!  He says there are real princesses that live in England. Is it true, are there really princesses there?"

"There sure are. There's even a Queen and castles and palaces. Quite the fairytale land, it is."

Maggie was so enraptured with Spike that she hadn't even noticed that Buffy was finished cleaning her knees and had already put band-aids on them. She did notice, however, when Buffy touched the peroxide-soaked cotton to the cut over her eye. Maggie screamed immediately. Spike, without even thinking, took her little face in his hands and started to blow gently on her cut to soothe the sting. Buffy just watched in amazement at how tender Spike was being to her daughter.

Maggie closed her eyes and giggled, "How come your breath is cold? It tickles."

"Just a little trick I learned once" Spike replied as he gazed at the child.

"So…" Buffy interrupted the tender scene, "Do you want to tell me how this happened, Maggie?" She gently placed a small band-aid on her daughter's head and placed a kiss on the bandage.

"Will-yum knows. He can tell you." Maggie was clearly trying to avoid telling her mother that she'd bitten little Alex Harris, causing him to push her down on the sidewalk.

"No, I think I want to hear it from you. I promise I won't be mad at you, just tell me how this happened."

Maggie began her tale again, about how she'd gotten mad at Chloe and left, and then ran into Alex on the way home. "…And he was so mean to me, Mommy, and he said he was gonna tell you and Auntie Anya that I was out and get me in trouble, and so I -bit –him-and-he-chased-me-and-pushed-me-down-and-that's-how-I-got-hurt." She rushed out the last part, hoping Buffy had missed the biting part.

Buffy had not missed the biting part. Spike was intrigued by the "Auntie Anya" part. *I guess the Whelp and the Vengeance Demon worked things out after I left…* Spike thought.

"You BIT Alex? Margaret Anne Sinclair how many times have I told you that you are NOT to bite people? No matter how angry you are or how much you think it will fix things??"

"I know Mommy, but he's such a meanie, and he wouldn't leave me alone. I hate him sometimes! I would hate him all the time if you didn't like Auntie Anya and Uncle Xander!"

"Margaret…" Buffy warned. Maggie knew she'd gone to far- her Mom had used her real name twice already.

"I'm sorry Mommy. I will try very hard to never bite Alex again. But I won't try to like him any better. He's just a mean old  yucky boy and I'll never like him, never, never, never!"

"That's it Margaret Anne. Go to your room while I start dinner. And no TV while you're there. You can play with your coloring books but no TV. Now go."

She hopped down from the counter and ran to the doorway. She looked up the stairs, and saw that the upstairs hallway was totally dark. She turned her slightly frightened gaze back to Buffy. "Mommy…it's dark up there."

Buffy sighed, remembering that the lights weren't on upstairs yet. "Ok, I'll walk you up. Come on."

"Can Will-yum take me?" she said hopefully, knowing that she could probably con him into turning on her TV.

"Fine. He can walk you upstairs. But then I want him to come back. I need to talk to him about this friend of his that used to live here." Maggie grinned and grabbed Spike's hand, tugging him out toward the stairs.

Buffy called after them. "Sp-William…" He turned to face her. "She's afraid of the dark, so turn on the light as soon as you get upstairs. And no matter what she says to you, do not turn on her TV."

"Sure thing, love. Be right back."

Maggie led Spike up the stairs, gripping his hand tighter as they ventured into the darkness. She stopped when they almost reached the top of the stairs, now fully cloaked in the darkness of the hallway. Spike reached down and picked her up. She put her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, until he reached over and switched the light on.

"Which room is yours, love?" Spike inquired of the child. She pointed toward the door that used to be Buffy's old room. Spike took her to the room, and smiled to himself when he took in the décor of the room. The walls were painted purple, with a lavender border around the wall, about waist high, and the sesame street numbers and letters stenciled in the border. In one corner of the room sat stuffed toys of each and every Sesame Street character, except for one, which resided on her bed. On the bed was the missing character; The Count. In fact, there were several versions of the count scattered about the room. The biggest one sat in the middle of the bed, smiling back with his fangs and cape billowing. Another, smaller stuffed toy Count lay on the floor beside her dresser, and looked as if she had carried him everywhere with her. All of the pictures on her walls were of the Count. He smiled at the irony of it all. She apparently loved The Count, yet had no idea that she had a real live vampire in her room.

He put Maggie down and she ran over to a little table and pulled out some coloring books. "Will-yum, do you like The Count?"

"Well, pet, he seems nice enough. I'll bet you like him a lot, huh?"

"Yeah, he's my favorite. He's all fangy and 'grr'" Spike chuckled at her use of Buffy's old phrase. "Will you watch him with me on TV?"

"Now, love, your Mommy told me specifically not to turn on your TV. Seems that's your punishment for biting young Alex."

"Yeah, I know." She whispered in defeat.

"I'll tell you what. I need to back downstairs and chat with your Mum. So why don't you sit here and color a nice picture of our friend the Count and I'll see if I can talk her into letting you watch some TV before you go to bed tonight. Does that sound like a good deal?"

Maggie grinned and said "Ok!"

"Right then. You stay here and be good then, and your Mum will be up in a little bit when your dinner's ready."

Spike walked back down stairs and found Buffy humming and making dinner. She sensed when he walked in the door, and turned around to smile at him.

"Did she get settled in her room?"

"She did. We chatted about The Count, and she explained to me how he was all 'fangy and grrr'. She's coloring a picture of him as we speak."

"Did she try to con you into letting her watch TV?"

"Of course. But I told her no, just like you instructed. But I sort of promised her that I'd ask you if she could watch a little while before her bedtime."

"Well, we will just have to see about that. Spike, I really want us to sit down and have a nice, long chat. Why don't you stay for dinner with Maggie and me and then you and I can talk after she's asleep?"

"Ok, Buffy. I think I can handle that. There's so much I need to tell you." He seemed lost in thought again before continuing, "Ah, Buffy, you're being a lot more rational about me showing up out of the blue than I had expected."

"Spike, don't start. We can both behave like adults here. And after Maggie's asleep, we'll sit down and talk. But for now, why don't you tell me how you managed to find my wayward child this afternoon."

Spike smiled and sat down at the counter to talk to Buffy, much like he had done before with Joyce. "Well, love, I was coming to town to see if I could find you, and while I was walking through your neighborhood I saw this little angel of a child crying by the sidewalk. I stopped to see if I could help her, and we became instant friends. And she wasn't quite feeling up to walking, so I brought her home and now… here we are."

"But how did you know she was my child?"

"Um, I didn't Buffy. I didn't know to which home she belonged until she spouted out her address for me. In fact, I was more than a little sad when she told me where she lived, because I thought that you had moved on." He looked away from her, trying to hide the emotion in his eyes.

Buffy watched him intently as he described his encounter with Maggie. He sounded like he was genuinely concerned for the child, even before he knew whose child she was. Buffy wanted to tell him the truth right away, but was afraid of his initial reaction. She knew he wouldn't believe her at first, but once she proved what she had to tell him, she didn't know if he'd be happy or sad or angry, or indifferent. She decided to just plunge in and tell him.

"Spike, was there nothing that seemed the least bit familiar about her before you knew she was mine?"

"Actually, yes. I mean, there was something familiar about her when I first saw her, but then when she told me her name, it hit me. I never told you this, Buffy, but I had a little sister named Margaret. She reminded me so much of my sister, their resemblance is uncanny. I've never seen another child that was as beautiful as she was until I met your little Maggie today."

"You met OUR little Maggie today, Spike."

"Pardon me, love?" Spike sputtered out, thinking he misunderstood Buffy's statement.

"Spike…Maggie is your daughter. Yours and mine."

(TBC)