Chapter 2
He loved this part. Not as much as the other part, of course. But this part wasn't too shabby. Spike lay peacefully on his back, Katerina's warm body snuggled against his. She was tracing pictures on his chest with her finger, her long fingernail scratching against his alabaster skin.
"Not drawing any demonic symbols there are you, love?"
She laughed. "Would it matter?"
"Not much."
"I'm writing, Spike & Katerina 4eva," she said in a shrilly, adolescent voice. Then she burst into giggles.
Spike watched her laugh with a glint in his eye. He loved it when she laughed. It was like a waterfall. He'd never get enough of it. Impulsively, he bent his head and captured her lips with his own.
Her laughter silenced, Katerina returned his kiss, slipping her tongue into his mouth and exploring gently. She rolled on top of him and her hands roamed hungrily over his chest. "Ready to go again?" she asked as she kissed her way down to his navel.
"You bloody well know it," Spike growled, flipping them over so that he was on top.
But when he looked down at Katerina's face, it was wet and swollen with tears. "Why did you leave me?" she asked and the pain in her voice wrenched his heart.
Her beautiful face suddenly contorted in pain and Spike scrambled away as she began to choke and blood poured from her mouth. Her olive skin was white and shriveled. Her dark eyes vanished from her skull. "Why did you leave me?" she screamed. But her voice was deep and raspy.
What had gone wrong? So horribly wrong? He screamed her name over and over again.
The slap woke him up. He stopped his thrashing on the sofa bed and blinked at the face above him. "Buffy?"
"That must've been some dream," she said. "I could hear you all the way upstairs."
Spike sat up amongst the tangled sheets and looked around at the basement. It was bare except for the washer and dryer and the foldout couch that he'd been sleeping on. "Yeah…some dream."
"Who's Katerina?" Buffy asked as Spike rubbed the sleep out of his eyes.
"What?"
"You were screaming her name in your sleep."
Spike sighed. "She's Rebecca's mother."
"Oh," Buffy said quietly.
"Daddy?" Rebecca's tiny, cultured English voice called from the top of the stairs.
"What, munchkin?"
Two little feet pattered down the wooden steps. "Are you all right?" She clambered up the side of the bed to sit beside her father.
"Yeah, noodle, I'm all right."
"I heard you crying and calling mummy's name."
"I was dreaming."
Rebecca nodded. "Mummy used to cry your name in her sleep, too."
Spike felt an icy chill and a sharp pain in his heart. It must have shown in his face, because Rebecca's little hand patted his shoulder comfortingly. "Don't be sad. Mummy said that you had to go away. But she knew you loved her. She said she had to go away too. And then she sent me here. But she said I'd see her again, someday. But she gave me this to keep until then." The child unclasped the necklace hidden under her blue T-shirt and held it out to Spike.
He took the familiar locket and opened it, finding a picture of he and Katerina on one side and on the other side a picture of Katerina holding Rebecca as a baby. "That's me when I was little," Rebecca explained. "And that's you and mummy at the fair. She liked that picture."
Spike couldn't stop the tears that swelled in his eyes. But he did manage to keep them from spilling over onto his cheeks. "This is a very special locket, munchkin," he said when he found his voice again. "It's very old. It belonged to your grandmum- my mother." He replaced it around Rebecca's neck. "Keep it safe."
"OK. Are you getting up now?"
"Yeah, chitlet, I am. No use trying to sleep anymore today." He swung his legs over the side of the sofa bed and made to stand when Buffy suddenly cleared her throat. Spike looked down and remembered his lack of clothing underneath the sheet that covered him. "Right. Give me a minute, huh?"
"No problem." Buffy ushered Rebecca up the stairs and as she closed the door behind them she heard the vampire below muttering about 'investing in some knickers'.
*****
When Spike came upstairs, fully dressed with his white hair slicked back neatly on his head, he found Dawn and Rebecca in the living room, surrounded by a mass of Barbie Dolls.
"My God, I'm in hell," he muttered.
"Hi, daddy!" Rebecca called with a wave from the middle of the sea of pink bows and ruffles.
"Hey, puppet."
"Come play with us!"
"Yeah, Spike," Dawn jeered, holding a naked doll out to him. "Come play with us." The vampire eyed the nude Barbie with interest until Dawn quickly pulled a frilly pink dress over her head and velcroed it on. "Sicko," she muttered.
Spike laughed. "I think I'll pass on the dolls for now. You two have fun. Call me when you decide to play dress up." He heard Rebecca's mad giggling as he went into the kitchen, and couldn't help but smile.
"They're cute aren't they?" Willow said when Spike came in.
"That they are." He began searching the fridge for a blood packet.
"Dawn's been itching for an excuse to bring those old Barbies back out, I think. But they've come in handy…seeings as Rebecca doesn't have any toys of her own…wink, wink, nudge, nudge."
Spike sighed. "Yeah, I get the point, red. Just another thing on my very, very long list of things to do." Finding a bag of blood, he bypassed heating it and vamped out and drank it straight from the bag, making a face at its coldness.
"Can I have some?"
Spike hadn't heard Rebecca's approach. He stared down at her with his feral yellow eyes and ridged forehead, expecting the child to scream. But she merely stared at him expectantly and repeated her question. "Can I have some? I want some!"
His features shifted to their human planes and he smiled. "Sure, munchkin."
"Spike!" Willow admonished. "You can't give her blood!"
"Hey, she's half-vampire. Maybe she likes it," he said with a shrug and handed the almost empty packet to his daughter. "And if not, she'll never mess with it again. I guarantee that."
Willow watched in horror as the little girl dipped her finger into the bag and licked it tentatively. Her face screwed up in disgust and she shoved the bag back into her father's hands. "Ew! That's nasty!" she squealed.
"Here," Willow quickly filled the child a glass of water and Rebecca drank it frantically. "Wash the taste out. There you go. I can't believe you, Spike." The vampire was laughing. "Is that your parenting technique? Are you going to let her figure out she doesn't like smoking that way? Or drinking? How about breaking her arm? 'Just let her bloody fall out of the tree. She'll never bloody do it again!' I can see it now."
"I do not talk like that," Spike asserted at Willow's faux accent. "And I wouldn't let the girl fall out of a tree! But what's wrong with letting her learn from her mistakes?"
Rebecca looked between the two older people as they bickered back and forth about her as if she wasn't standing there. She didn't like it when people did that. She frowned and crossed her arms over her chest, then stomped out of the room.
Her stomping ceased Spike and Willow's bickering and both turned their heads to look at the child as she sauntered from the room. They shared a bewildered look before bursting into laughter.
*****
"Can't we go back to the toy store?" Spike whined. "Rebecca wants to go back to the toy store. Don't you, poodle?"
"No!" the child declared as she peeked out of the rack of clothing she was hiding in. darted in and out of the racks of clothing.
"Traitor," he muttered.
The four women shot him silencing looks.
"Isn't this just the cutest thing you ever saw?" Willow held up a tiny pair of overalls to a chorus of 'aw's from Buffy, Dawn, and Anya.
"My girl is not dressing like Howdy Doody."
"Well, Spike, if we left it up to you she'd be wearing black," Buffy shot.
"And what's wrong with black?"
"Nothing. If you're going to a funeral."
Spike frowned and grabbed a little black t-shirt from a near-by rack. "Rebecca? Come here. What do you think of this?" The child didn't appear but Spike heard a rippling giggle from the clothes rack behind him. "Gonna get a bloody leash for this kid…"
Dawn stopped him as he went for the rack where Rebecca's shoes were protruding from. "Gee…I wonder where Rebecca went," she said loudly, winking purposefully at Spike. Another giggle came from the clothes. "Spike, have you seen Rebecca?"
"Why no, Dawn, I haven't. Wonder where she's gotten off to."
"Rebecca? Rebecca?" Dawn called with a grin. Willow and Buffy watched with amused grins on their faces as well. Anya looked confused.
"What are you two talking about? She's right the-" The ex-demon was silenced when Buffy nudged her none-to-softly in he ribs. "Ow! Why'd you do that?"
"Oh well. I guess we'll just have to go for ice cream without her," Spike said, starting to walk away.
"I'm right here!" Rebecca exclaimed, scurrying out from her hiding place. She caught on to the edge of Spike's duster and he turned with a surprised look.
"Well, there you are!" He lifted the giggling child into his arms.
"I was right there the whole time!"
"Really? Imagine that."
The four women watched the father and daughter with misty eyes. "Adorable!" "How cute!" "Look at that!" "Aw!"
"OK, give it up before I heave," the vampire said gruffly. "Let's get this shopping done so we can get that ice cream, eh?"
"Yeah!" Rebecca agreed enthusiastically.
*****
When the clothes they'd bought were all laid out for inspection on Rebecca's bed later that night, Spike eyed them with distaste. He'd been allowed to pick out one outfit for the little girl. The others were various miniatures of each Scooby woman's style.
Dawn had chosen a tiny pair of blue jeans with a pink shirt that said 'Princess' in silver, glittery lettering. Originally she had chosen an identical shirt that read 'Angel' but that was quickly vetoed by Spike.
Willow had picked a purple flowered skirt and white blouse with matching sandals. Anya selected a frilly pink dress and Buffy had gotten a tiny pair of shiny white leather pants and white boots with a blue sweater.
The slayer's he liked most next to his choice- black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a tiny black leather jacket. He grinned as he looked at it though he knew that most likely, Rebecca would never get to wear it if the women of the house had anything to say about it. But he'd bought it just the same.
Rebecca trotted into the room she now shared with Dawn. "Look at my new pajamas, daddy!" she exclaimed, twirling in the little red footsie pajamas.
He chuckled. "Cute, munchkin. But time for you to get some sleep, eh?" He quickly cleared the clothes off the tiny bed while Rebecca slowly inched towards the door. "Oh no you don't. Get back in here."
"Don't wanna."
"Too bad."
"But you're staying up!"
"I'm a vampire. It's what I do."
"I'm a vampire, too! Grr!" Rebecca showed her blunt white teeth in a fair immitation of a snarl. Spike couldn't help but laugh.
"OK, you can stay up," he caved, picking the child up and tossing her over his shoulder. She giggled wildly.
When Spike came down the stairs with the wiggling and giggling Rebecca over his shoulder, he was met with reproachful looks from the three women in the living room.
"Might as well send her to the jungle now. She's gonna be wild as an Indian," Buffy muttered.
Spike flipped the child over and sat her on her feet. "Hey, she was good today. She deserves a reward."
"Mmm-hmm, whatever," Willow mumbled.
Rebecca waddled over to where Dawn was sitting cross-legged in front of the tv. "I'm a vampire!" she exclaimed.
"You're half-vampire."
"No! I'm a vampire!" the girl insisted, making her snarly face for the teenager.
Buffy sighed and rose from her seat. "As entertaining as watching the corruption of a child is, I've got to make with the slaying."
"Need any help, love?" Spike offered.
Buffy seemed to consider it for a moment until Dawn let out a strangled cry. "Ow! She bit me! The little monster bit me!" Rebecca merely danced about and laughed as Dawn clutched her finger.
"I think you're needed here."
TBC…
Author's Note: Thanks for the reviews guys, keep 'em coming! Tell me what you thought was funny and what was just plain cheese. I'm having so much fun writing this. But just so you know, there's an actual plot coming not just fluffiness. Although I do enjoy the fluffiness.