title: Marriage, Sunnydale-Style
author: Heather (heather@hella-good.org)
rating: R
spoilers: none...completely an au/fantasy fic except for things borrowed from the Buffyverse (season 1-7) that are twisted to fit in this universe.
disclaimer: If I actually owned anything, I probably wouldn't be doing this :)
summary: After almost 10 years of dating, Buffy and Spike finally find themselves in the midst of planning a wedding and remembering the long journey that got them there.

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Chapter 9

"Luv. Don't wanna pick the bloody picture. Won't pick the right one, y'know. Shouldn't really be leaving this up to me." Buffy heard him say as she made her way to their bedroom. She snickered to herself and closed the door. She picked up the cordless phone from where Spike had thrown it earlier that morning and quickly dialed Angel's home phone number. She searched around for a pad of paper and pen while waiting for Angel to pick up.

"Buffy?"

"Wow, that's creepy."

"Caller I.D.," Angel told her, a hint of laughter in his voice. "You calling about the name?"

"Yeah, we're finally about to pick out an invitation and I wanted to be able to say hey guess who you are..."

"Well, I'll ask again. Are sure he wants to know who he is?"

"Honestly, Angel, his parents aren't something that we spend a lot of time discussing. Sometimes on his birthday...which we're still not even sure if that's his actual birthday or not...but it's just not something we do. All I can say is I don't think he wants to use his generic name for the rest of his life. I don't think he wants to give me that name to have and he is dead set against taking my name or Giles'."

"Speaking of Giles, he told me the original place Spike was dropped off at before he was transferred to the orphanage for the older kids. I had Cordy contact them and they wouldn't tell her anything."

"That's not good. So the lead went nowhere? I thought you sounded a bit optimistic this morning, guess I read that completely wrong."

"Let me finish, Buffy. Since I couldn't go running over to England, I sent Wesley. He went to the place, gave them the probable date of abandonment, explained that he had only recently discovered that he had a half-brother on his mother's side and desperately wanted to find him. I think he may have even shed a few tears because before you can say real identity, the woman handed Wes ten folders with names and information on the male babies that had been brought in during the month of November."

"And? You know by dragging this out, you run the risk of me dragging you out, Angel."

"It's Young."

"What's young?" Buffy asked, thoroughly confused.

"His last name. Wes called a few hours after I got off the phone with you and told me that he narrowed it down to two boys named William who would fit a baby Spike's description-"

"Wait, how could he be so sure? I mean, what if there were others named William that didn't come in November? Or if there were other William's and Wes got the description wrong? Or-"

"Buffy, calm down. Wes is very good at these things. It's why I hired him. We know for certain that Spike was born in November. The day may be a few days off but according to the first orphanage's records, he was no more than a week old when he was dropped off. So from November, there were three boys named William. One did not fit Spike's description at all. Coloring was off...black head of hair, brown eyes, and he had a scar on his stomach from when he was born."

"Which Spike doesn't have."

"Right. Wesley took the two remaining William's records and brought them to the Davies Orphanage, gave them the same story he gave the first place and soon enough we have a name and a birth certificate. By the way, his birthday is the fifteenth."

"That's fantastic!" Buffy screamed in excitement, mentally hoping that Spike didn't hear her. "Oh my god. William Young. Spike Young. Buffy Young..."

"Mr. and Mrs. William Young. I get it, Buffy," Angel said a bit more tersely than he meant to.

Buffy didn't notice at all. "I can't believe this. Really, Angel. All this time of looking, searching for anything...this is the most wonderful thing in the world. I can not thank you enough."

"One more thing, Buffy. As far as we can tell, Spike's parents are dead. We can't find anything on them besides their names. Martha and Patrick Young. Wes said he'd be happy to look into their records, if you want..."

"You know what? I'll let Spike decide that. All I wanted was to be able to give him his real name. Thanks again, Angel. I will probably say that a billion more times over the course of our lives and it will never be enough." She quickly said good bye and hung up. She stood in her bedroom for a moment and suddenly began to jump up and down in excitement. She finally stopped and breathed in and out, trying her best to regain some composure. She could not go back out there, grinning like a fool. He'd instantly know something was up and she didn't want to spoil the news. It was going to be hard enough not to run in there, jump on his lap and scream "Your name is Young!" at the top of her lungs. She wanted to do this right. It needed to be done a certain way. Making a decision, she took a few more calming breaths and went back into the living room.

"Hey, how'd the picture choosing go?" she asked as she flopped onto the couch, throwing her legs on his lap. He handed her the pictures. She barely looked at them and said, "Great. We'll just have to pick one."

"So who were talking to?"

"Oh, Mom. I wanted to tell her the new plan about the invites."

Why in the bleeding hell was she lying about talking to fucking Angel? "And what she think?"

"You know, great idea. Really original, yadda yadda. So, now that we have that figured out, we need to decide how we're going to word it. The names, you know. Like I would prefer that we have William..."

"That's fine," Spike answered her, his voice full of tension. She saw the muscles in his jaw line clenching and she couldn't help but wonder why. "People might not know who the hell is getting married with William Smith and Elizabeth Summers on the invite."

"Uh...why Elizabeth?"

"That's your name, isn't it?"

"No. We went over this two nights ago. My name is Buffy."

"It's not short for Elizabeth?" Buffy gave a small laugh and shook her head. "All this time..."

"And you didn't even know my real name. I'd be offended if I actually wanted to sit and think about it."

"Didn't mean to offend, luv. I jus' didn't think Buffy was a name someone would actually give someone."

"Ask my mother about it," Buffy said with a smile. "I think it may have had something to do with thirty-six hours of labor and lots of pain killers. Can't be certain, though." She took a deep breath and looked at him. He was staring straight ahead, jaw still clenching and for the life of her, she didn't know why he had his pissed off face on. "So the invites will say William Young and Buffy Summers, okay?"

"Sounds goo...wait, did you say Young?" Spike asked, eyebrows raised in confusion.

Buffy got off the couch, parted Spike's legs and kneeled in between them. She took his hands in hers and breathed in deeply, letting it out slowly. She knew he was waiting and none too patiently. "Okay, um...well, I kinda lied about who I was talking to..."

"'Kinda'? You did, pet. You said your mum and you were talking to Angel."

"You know what? I'm too happy right now to even confront you on how you knew I was talking to Angel. After you asked me to marry you and after that happy yes I'll marry you sex session we had, you said you wished that you could give me a proper last name. Not the name the orphanage gives the kids when the parents request not to have their name given. So I called up Angel and asked him to look for me."

"You did what?" Spike asked, eyes wide in shock.

"Please don't be mad. I wanted to give you something tangible. Something that I knew you needed even if you pretend like you don't. I know you're probably angry that I went to Angel of all people but he's good at what he does, at finding out information that doesn't want to be found." She looked at Spike, who was still staring at her in amazement. "Spike? Say something. Anything. Talk to me, yell at me for doing it but please say something."

She watched as his eyes welled up with tears, his hands squeezing hers so hard, she thought he was going to break them. He suddenly let go of her hands and grabbed her by the upper arms, dragging her body up to his, laying her against his chest. She could hear his heart beating so fast, could hear his breath hitching in his chest, could feel his shaky hands stroking her hair and she heard him very quietly say, "Thank you, Buffy. Thank you so much."

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