Title: Dedicated to the One I Love
Author: AnastasiaMarsters
Summary: Buffy Summers is sent to live with her Uncle Giles, agent to various recording artists. Dingoes Ate My Baby wants a contract, and Buffy wants to help. But when she meets lead singer, Spike, will her feelings change? AU, B/S (and others).
Rating: PG at the moment, but subject to change as I see fit.
Feedback: Is nice.
Distribution: Ditto, but please give credit to AnastasiaMarsters.
Disclaimers: This is my first fanfic. The situations are mine, the characters are not. Buffy, Spike, etc. are intellectual property of people luckier than me. I do not intend to quote material from Buffy, but so much of it is in my daily vocabulary that there might be some, and I recognize that it wasn't written by me. The title is from "Dedicated to the One I Love," by the Shirelles. Watch out, that song may also appear somewhere in this fic. :)
Chapter 1: One Night A Day
Buffy Summers looked past her reflection to stare at dreary gray clouds from the car window. The clouds gave her a modicum of satisfaction - if she was depressed, at least the rest of the world was, too. No great loss comes without some small gain, Joyce always said.
Buffy cringed as her mother's name came to mind. The greatest loss Buffy had experienced in the 17 years of her life happened exactly one week earlier: Joyce's aneurism and sudden death.
'The greatest loss of all,' Buffy thought, 'and where the hell is my gain? A car trip to L.A. in the backseat of Uncle Giles's POS, with Dawn's most prized possessions shoved all around me. Great. Just Great."
Buffy flopped against the car seat with an annoyed sigh, attracting the attention of Rupert Giles. Rupert smiled sadly while watching Buffy in the rearview mirror. Her life was going to be so difficult. his, too, for that matter. He never spent a large amount of time with his nieces other than the occasional holiday, and he certainly wasn't used to having any children in his home.
Work, however, was another story. As a talent agent with numerous connections in the music business, Rupert dealt with children all day, from the factory-produced rock band to the blubbering pre-teens with stereotypical stage moms.
Everything was stereotypical in Los Angeles, he realized. These naïve and emotionally fragile girls from Sunnydale would need extra care.
***
Dawn gasped as they turned into the driveway of Uncle Giles's house - no, mansion. Buffy glared at Dawn, annoyed that she would show any sign of liking their new situation. Dawn ignored Buffy, and her gaping expression turned into a huge smile as Uncle Giles drove up a long, curved driveway, each curve revealing more about the property. At first glance, the massive white home seemed foreboding and stark, but as the car traveled closer, the welcoming pool, volleyball courts, and stables behind the house changed the girls' first opinions.
At sight of the stables, Buffy forgot her annoyance and joined Dawn in a look of utter shock.
"What's that barn thing, Giles? Do you have animals here?"
Giles cringed at Buffy's addressing of him with just his last name, but he smiled at her interest in his home.
"It's a stable, with horses. I remember that Joyce told- rather, um, I remember that, ah, you took riding lessons one summer, is that correct?"
Buffy flinched as her uncle mentioned correspondence with her mother, but she really had taken riding lessons at a camp in Sunnydale. It was before her father left them, and therefore when they had been able to afford camps for whatever she and Dawn had been interested in.
"Yeah, I took lessons." Buffy thought for a moment. "Do you think that. um, that I could go check out the horses?"
Horses meant freedom and better times when both of her parents were with her.
"Sure, Buffy, I'll let you out now and you can go investigate whatever you'd like. I'll have Angel put your things in your room, come in whenever you're ready."
Dawn interrupted, "Can I come, too? Who's Angel? We have our own rooms?"
After Hank Summers left the girls, they always had to share a rather small room, so Dawn was growing more excited by the minute.
"Uh, no, you can't come, too. Go help Giles and. Angel? Who's Angel?" Buffy repeated Dawn's question.
"Well, ah, Dawn, there are many things inside the house you can see, and I'll even let you pick out which room you'd like to have as your own. And Angel is my assistant, mostly with work, but after I told him about you girls, he was insistent that he meet you and help me get you settled."
'Him? A guy? With a name like that?' Buffy thought. 'And who would be insistent about meeting a couple of motherless teenagers? Sounds like a psycho to me. Probably an ancient old dork like Giles who wants to pat our heads and bug us about Mom. What does Giles do that he needs an assistant, anyway?'
"Umm, yeah, I think I'll get out here, Giles, I'll walk to the stables," Buffy confirmed.
As she left the car and started on the footpath to the stables, Buffy shook her head in amazement. 'Here I am,' she thought, 'checking out horses in some huge stable behind Uncle Giles' gigantic house, while Dawn picks out probably a suite of bedrooms for herself, when she's never even had one to herself since before she was old enough to appreciate it. Well, I appreciate it, at least. Maybe this place is the small gain. Mom really was a huge loss...'
Buffy, lost in her thoughts and starting to feel really depressed again, pushed open the stable's side door, and came face to face with the most gorgeous man she had ever seen.
A/N: "One night a day" is a song by Garth Brooks, and I think that it really fits the mood at the opening of the chapter, and gives a little insight as to how I think Buffy and Dawn are feeling on the car ride to Giles's. Listen to it, it's a great one! :)
Author: AnastasiaMarsters
Summary: Buffy Summers is sent to live with her Uncle Giles, agent to various recording artists. Dingoes Ate My Baby wants a contract, and Buffy wants to help. But when she meets lead singer, Spike, will her feelings change? AU, B/S (and others).
Rating: PG at the moment, but subject to change as I see fit.
Feedback: Is nice.
Distribution: Ditto, but please give credit to AnastasiaMarsters.
Disclaimers: This is my first fanfic. The situations are mine, the characters are not. Buffy, Spike, etc. are intellectual property of people luckier than me. I do not intend to quote material from Buffy, but so much of it is in my daily vocabulary that there might be some, and I recognize that it wasn't written by me. The title is from "Dedicated to the One I Love," by the Shirelles. Watch out, that song may also appear somewhere in this fic. :)
Chapter 1: One Night A Day
Buffy Summers looked past her reflection to stare at dreary gray clouds from the car window. The clouds gave her a modicum of satisfaction - if she was depressed, at least the rest of the world was, too. No great loss comes without some small gain, Joyce always said.
Buffy cringed as her mother's name came to mind. The greatest loss Buffy had experienced in the 17 years of her life happened exactly one week earlier: Joyce's aneurism and sudden death.
'The greatest loss of all,' Buffy thought, 'and where the hell is my gain? A car trip to L.A. in the backseat of Uncle Giles's POS, with Dawn's most prized possessions shoved all around me. Great. Just Great."
Buffy flopped against the car seat with an annoyed sigh, attracting the attention of Rupert Giles. Rupert smiled sadly while watching Buffy in the rearview mirror. Her life was going to be so difficult. his, too, for that matter. He never spent a large amount of time with his nieces other than the occasional holiday, and he certainly wasn't used to having any children in his home.
Work, however, was another story. As a talent agent with numerous connections in the music business, Rupert dealt with children all day, from the factory-produced rock band to the blubbering pre-teens with stereotypical stage moms.
Everything was stereotypical in Los Angeles, he realized. These naïve and emotionally fragile girls from Sunnydale would need extra care.
***
Dawn gasped as they turned into the driveway of Uncle Giles's house - no, mansion. Buffy glared at Dawn, annoyed that she would show any sign of liking their new situation. Dawn ignored Buffy, and her gaping expression turned into a huge smile as Uncle Giles drove up a long, curved driveway, each curve revealing more about the property. At first glance, the massive white home seemed foreboding and stark, but as the car traveled closer, the welcoming pool, volleyball courts, and stables behind the house changed the girls' first opinions.
At sight of the stables, Buffy forgot her annoyance and joined Dawn in a look of utter shock.
"What's that barn thing, Giles? Do you have animals here?"
Giles cringed at Buffy's addressing of him with just his last name, but he smiled at her interest in his home.
"It's a stable, with horses. I remember that Joyce told- rather, um, I remember that, ah, you took riding lessons one summer, is that correct?"
Buffy flinched as her uncle mentioned correspondence with her mother, but she really had taken riding lessons at a camp in Sunnydale. It was before her father left them, and therefore when they had been able to afford camps for whatever she and Dawn had been interested in.
"Yeah, I took lessons." Buffy thought for a moment. "Do you think that. um, that I could go check out the horses?"
Horses meant freedom and better times when both of her parents were with her.
"Sure, Buffy, I'll let you out now and you can go investigate whatever you'd like. I'll have Angel put your things in your room, come in whenever you're ready."
Dawn interrupted, "Can I come, too? Who's Angel? We have our own rooms?"
After Hank Summers left the girls, they always had to share a rather small room, so Dawn was growing more excited by the minute.
"Uh, no, you can't come, too. Go help Giles and. Angel? Who's Angel?" Buffy repeated Dawn's question.
"Well, ah, Dawn, there are many things inside the house you can see, and I'll even let you pick out which room you'd like to have as your own. And Angel is my assistant, mostly with work, but after I told him about you girls, he was insistent that he meet you and help me get you settled."
'Him? A guy? With a name like that?' Buffy thought. 'And who would be insistent about meeting a couple of motherless teenagers? Sounds like a psycho to me. Probably an ancient old dork like Giles who wants to pat our heads and bug us about Mom. What does Giles do that he needs an assistant, anyway?'
"Umm, yeah, I think I'll get out here, Giles, I'll walk to the stables," Buffy confirmed.
As she left the car and started on the footpath to the stables, Buffy shook her head in amazement. 'Here I am,' she thought, 'checking out horses in some huge stable behind Uncle Giles' gigantic house, while Dawn picks out probably a suite of bedrooms for herself, when she's never even had one to herself since before she was old enough to appreciate it. Well, I appreciate it, at least. Maybe this place is the small gain. Mom really was a huge loss...'
Buffy, lost in her thoughts and starting to feel really depressed again, pushed open the stable's side door, and came face to face with the most gorgeous man she had ever seen.
A/N: "One night a day" is a song by Garth Brooks, and I think that it really fits the mood at the opening of the chapter, and gives a little insight as to how I think Buffy and Dawn are feeling on the car ride to Giles's. Listen to it, it's a great one! :)