Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters of BtVS or AtS.

Rating: PG-13 for some language.

Pairing: Hints of C/A, B/S in this chapter.

Feedback: Only one answer to this question: yes, god yes. Feedback = quicker updates. Yes, that's a THREAT!

Author's Note: I just wanted to note the whole Drusilla scene last chapter. I know it sounds like I'm belaboring over something that most other people took no notice of, but there was a point to her being OOC. I've noticed that in all this Morphy business, the people Spike has been seeing (at least in the show) have been more a voice of Spike's own guilt and fears rather than themselves. I wanted Drusilla to state directly what Spike secretly thinks without all of her usual craziness. Also, I have no tolerance for her craziness. Hence the somewhat lack of craziness. Just my little insecure-don't-take-criticism-very-gracefully-rant. Oh and one more thing (I like to cram a lot in my ANs as you can see): I've just started the sequel to "Fortunate Son" (I know, it's complete, isn't that the kick) called "Summer Sanctuary" and I've posted the first chapter up. Now on with the story!

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Chapter 4: Revealed

"Bloody hell!" Spike yelled, struggling against Conner's iron grip. Conner just clenched his teeth and let the stake break through his shirt as Spike began to groan in pain.

"I could smell the blood," he growled darkly. "I could smell your hunger for it. You thought you could fool everyone about what you are?"

Spike glared at him through the hurt. "Well I'd venture to say no, followed by a resounding duh."

Buffy panicked and barreled for Conner. "Conner stop! Let go of him!"

He loosened his grip on Spike and stared at Buffy as if she had grown two heads. "But he's a vampire."

Buffy nodded, still on edge. "He's of the non-staking variety. So why don't you hand me the stake and back away from him?"

Astounded, he gazed at Buffy, then back at Spike. At the moment, he didn't look much like a vampire. He looked too tired to be predatory. So reluctantly, he let the stake clatter to the floor. This was unbelievable. This was just like L.A. People acted the same, lived with vampires just the same, it was too much.

Buffy heaved a sigh of relief and scrambled to grab the stake as a cautionary measure. Xander, Dawn, Anya and Willow filed in to observe all the uproar.

"What happened?" Dawn asked, immediately wary of the pool of blood on the floor and the stake in Buffy's hand. She quickly jumped to a conclusion and shot daggers at Spike. "Did he try to hurt you?" Spike gazed back at her sadly.

"No." Buffy sighed and returned to cleaning the mess. "Spike didn't try to hurt me. It was all just a misunderstanding."

"Misunderstanding?" Conner repeated incredulously. He pointed at Spike. "He's a vampire!"

Everyone stared at him blankly. "Ummm . . . we know," Xander said. No one was getting it.

They were looking at him like he was crazy. Helplessly, he flailed his hands. "Vampires kill people!"

"You're father's a vampire and he doesn't kill people," Anya pointed out.

He grew dark and stony-faced. "That's different. My fathe-----He has a soul."

"Well Spike has a soul too."

Conner gaped at the strangers with intense disbelief. This was bordering of ridiculous. He should have never come here. Not even for Cordelia. At the moment, he wasn't a noble, begrudgingly faithful lover, he was pissed-off and confused. He didn't expect to find out so much about these people in only the first day, but he didn't think there was that much to find out. He had almost trusted his father when he said that these people were good and safe and sane. He could see now that it had been a big lie. What a mistake to let your undead, blood-sucking father judge what's sane.

"You're lying" was all he said.

Buffy shook her head solemnly. "It's true. Spike umm . . . gained a soul a little while ago."

They never stopped. He widened his eyes. "Gained?"

Buffy sighed. "Okay, I can see this was a mistake. I was dumb to think we could take you in without giving you details about all of our backgrounds."

Xander nodded. "Yeah we forgot to give him the Hellmouth Primer. Scooby 101."

Conner just continued to look upon them blankly and Buffy sighed, leading him to the kitchen table to lay out the whole story.

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He understood many things. He understood that Willow, although she looked quite harmless and book-wormy in the Fred-ish fashion, was in fact a recovering Wiccan junkie who once tried to end the world. He understood that Anya was an ex-ex-vengeance demon who was trying to regain her humanity. He understood that Dawn existed for years simply non-existing as a mystical, glowy key to dimensions. Hell, he even understood Buffy dying two times. It's not like he had a world of normality back home to boast about. He'd seen worse in Quartoth.

What he couldn't understand was Spike. Spike, this dark, sharp vampire that irkingly reminded him of his own father except for the bright blond hair. He couldn't understand what seemed like whole world's preoccupation with souled vampires. They weren't so great. They had killed a lot of people and then felt sorry for it. And they were accepted. And he was the one who was an outcast. Life never failed to be nonsensical.

And to make it worse, Buffy cared about him. He could tell. He could tell as soon as he saw them together. It was obvious even now. The atmosphere returned to its palpable, concentrated state when they were in the same room. Why else would she want live with him?

He would never get it. In Quartoth, he was raised to believe that all vampires were merely creatures of death and destruction, regardless of their intentions. They were just killers when you came right down to it. So what did these killers ever do to gain the love of beautiful women? He burned like a forest fire inside when thinking of his father with Cordelia. He hated this Spike just for reminding him of it.

Spike looked up and saw the boy glowering at him with vague abhorrence. He squinted his eyes right back, but Conner didn't alter his steady glare. Buffy uneasily noted the exchange between the two and put a hand on Conner's shoulder. He still had his teeth clenched in Spike's direction.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you all this sooner. I was just afraid that if we . . . told you all of this stuff, you would have left."

Without a word, he got up from the table and headed for the stairs. Everyone exchanged looks and Buffy followed him hurriedly. "Conner, what are you doing?"

"Leaving."

"No!" She grabbed his hand and he turned around indifferently. "You can't leave! Your father told me that I'm responsible for you and I have to live by that."

His lips tightened into a firm line. "I'm eighteen. I'm not a kid. I can take care of myself."

Spike caught Dawn looking at Conner with a new sense of admiration and sympathy. He inwardly groaned. Trust the Littl' Bit to fall for any punk pissant who played the independence card.

"I don't care," Buffy replied a little harder. "Your father said---"

"Fuck my father!" he yelled and everyone widened their eyes, a little jarred. "He's practically not even my father! He's just a freak!"

If he wasn't in the same boat as the Poof, Spike would have added, "Hear, hear."

Buffy softened. "Conner, please. Give us a chance."

"Why should I?" he sneered.

She looked a little sad and pressed his arm quietly. "Because you have no one else."

He paused, uncertain and falteringly for a moment, but he continued walking up the stairs. The whole clan followed him in a massive group.

"To be fair," Anya pointed out as they crammed into the tight hallway. "He is of legal age. If he wants to carry on his surly, broody adolescent-y ways somewhere else, he should be able to. This is America."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Not helping, Anya."

He entered his room and picked up his knapsack immediately, stuffing the contents back in. Buffy looked on in dismay.

"You don't want to do this."

"You don't know me. You don't know what I want."

She sighed, resting against the doorframe. Like father like son indeed. He was just as stubborn as Angel. "Why do you want leave?" she murmured tiredly.

He whipped her head up at her. "Why do you think? I don't live with vampires."

"You don't live with your father then?" Dawn asked innocently and she was rewarded with the same fierce stare. She fidgeted and he looked away.

It suddenly occurred to Buffy how estranged Conner and Angel really were. Angel hadn't said very much about it in his phone calls, but that was because he never said much. She could see now how much Conner was really hurting, despite his efforts to conceal it. And she felt for him even more. She didn't want him to leave. "Spike won't hurt you," she affirmed. Spike didn't comment. He probably wouldn't, but that's not to say he didn't have the impulse to at the moment. This kid had undeniable attitude.

Conner snorted. "I'm not worried about that. I've staked my share of vampires."

"Well good. If Spike ever gets out of line, you know what to do."

"Thanks for the assurance of safety," Spike cut in acerbically.

He stood up again, leveling the bag on his shoulder. "I'm still leaving."

"But why? I'm afraid I'm going to need a reason if your father ever asks me." Buffy was just as resolute now.

"Because . . . because . . ." He waved his hands as if it should have been painfully obvious. "Just because!"

"Uh-uh. If I have Angel on my case, I need a stronger defense. I don't want to have to deal with him unless I have to."

"Because . . ." he finally broke in hardness. "Because it's all the same."

She frowned a little. "What's the same?"

"You. Him. Everyone. It's the same thing, just a different place. Secrets, vampires, I'm sick of it."

She softened. "Conner, it's not . . ."

"Right. From what I see, it is. Souled vampire, the girl who loves him"-----Buffy blushed uncontrollably here and Spike turned away----"Demons, monsters, slaying. How can you say it's not the same?"

Buffy was speechless. When he noted that she indeed had nothing to say, he shrugged on his knapsack. But before he could walk out of the room forever, Dawn approached him and put a soft hand on his arm to stop him.

"Don't go," she said softly.

Surprised, he furrowed his brows at her. He was obviously going to leave despite all Buffy's protestations, this girl thought she could just walk up to him, whisper "don't go" and he'd fall into line? "What?"

"I said don't go," she repeated more forcefully. "I mean, I didn't really know if you staying here would be cool but . . . it would . . . suck if you left. You know." She shrugged. " . . . For you. You'd have nowhere to go and Sunnydale real estate doesn't exactly come cheap."

His eyes pierced into her. "I don't care. I'm going back to L.A."

"Yeah, but then what was the point of leaving?"

Squinting now. He didn't know what to say, so he just snarled lamely, "None of your business."

"Well umm, okay. But still, it's pretty obvious that L.A. was suckly too if you can't stay here just because it reminds you so much of there. That's like . . . pentagonal reasoning."

"Circular," Buffy corrected, amazed with her sister. It looked like Dawn was getting to Conner where she herself couldn't.

"Whatever. Point is. L.A. sucks, Sunnydale sucks, everywhere sucks. Everywhere you go there are monsters and demons. So yeah, okay, this household isn't exactly the 2.5, picket white fence American Dream, but what is? And you haven't even been here for a full day to really know. How do you know it's any worse than L.A.?"

It was his turn to be silent. " . . . I don't."

"Yeah you don't. So why don't you stick around and find out? And hey, we're getting pizza tonight. Stay for some dinner, have a nice pizza pie. See if you want to leave in the morning. By the way, I hope you like anchovies. You don't, then you're left to muddle in a sea of deliciously smelly fishes yourself." She smiled impishly and waved her chestnut hair around.

He stared at her. She was crazy. In a couple seconds, she had him so muddled that he had already forgotten about leaving. He just scratched his head, still scrutinizing her confoundedly.

She smiled carefully, grabbing the bag that he was now limply holding, taking it away from him. Satisfied, she sighed with relief. "Stay," she repeated.

TBC…Didn't want to introduce the D/C so soon, but this is just a small smattering to satisfy my imagination. Don't expect the full ship to come immediately, I like taking things slow and drawing them out for tension.