Disclaimer: Can I at least have Spike? Pretty please? With sugar on top? I'll be Joss's best friend forever…sigh, never gonna happen!

A/N: Thank you for the reviews, I'm much more cheerful now! Just wanted to point out that the title Pretty Maids in the last chapter was, for those who didn't know, a reference to the book pretty maids all in a row about Spike and Dru – fitting ne? Just some useless trivia for you! Love you all!

Chapter 5: Moving in

What Spike expected when he answered the apartment door was not what he found on the other side. From the voice on the phone he had expected sex on legs – a blonde with long legs and a figure hugging outfit, of course his hormone addled brain hadn't quite realised that nanny's rarely fit this description outside of the movies. Instead of this vision he had built in his head, he found himself faced with a very petite woman – she did have blonde hair tied in a sloppy pony tale, but the jeans and baggy sweater she wore gave him no indication as to her figure. Her smile seemed somewhat hesitant as she looked him over, and it didn't take him long to realise that she must not be especially impressed with what she saw. He mentally shrugged, not particularly concerned. Yeah she was kinda pretty he supposed, even with the glasses obscuring her eyes, but he had stopped paying attention when he saw she wasn't his usual type – she wasn't all over him for one thing.

Buffy studied the man who held the door open and repressed a sigh when she saw his smile falter slightly as he casually looked her up and down. She'd seen that look a thousand times before. She called it the 'Oh hey…Where's your prettier friend?' look. Typical! She had been right in her assumption that he wouldn't recognise her from that party although she remembered him instantly – you didn't forget eyes like that in a hurry, even if she had only had a small glimpse of them before. He'd obviously not neglected his physique in the time since she had last seen him. His tight black jeans and blue long sleeved T-shirt left little to the imagination and she knew should she look hard enough she would be able to make out the definition in his well toned torso and muscular arms. But she wasn't looking. She wasn't blind of course, any sane woman, and a few men for that matter could easily appreciate the body in front of her, but everything about him screamed arrogant womaniser – something she found to be an instant turn off, so her smile of greeting was decidedly forced.

"Mr Giles?" She asked, although she knew the answer already. When he nodded she continued. "I'm Buffy Summers. We spoke on the phone."

"Nice to meet you." Spike replied, his tone cool but not unfriendly "Come in, I'll grab your bags." He quickly moved past Buffy into the hall picking up her two suitcases, missing her eyebrows rise in surprise – she'd not expected manners. Walking into the apartment she looked around appreciatively. There was a large living room tastefully decorated in cream and blue – she'd half expected everything to be black and chrome like your average bachelor pad! Off from the living room she noticed three doors which she assumed were the bedrooms, and on the other side an open arch led into a large kitchen which looked like it had never been used, save for the central island where she spotted a small girl sitting one of the stools eating cereal. This must be Jenny, she assumed. There were of course areas of the apartment she couldn't see, but she was eager to explore! So immersed in her looking around she failed to notice immediately that Spike had come back into the apartment with her bags and was now watching her from one of bedroom doors.

"You want to take a look at your room?" Spike called when it became obvious she was in a world of her own. He knew his apartment was impressive but it didn't usually send people catatonic. She jumped a little at the sound of his voice and he suppressed a chuckle. This should be an interesting working relationship!

"Of course." Buffy muttered, cursing herself for not paying attention. "You have a nice place." She felt the need to explain herself.

Spike shrugged, looking around disinterestedly. "It suits me." He answered cryptically before opening a door and taking her bags through it. Buffy followed him, assuming this was to be her room. Now this was more like what she had expected – plain cream walls and little to no furniture. In fact the only things in the room were a bed and a bedside table. She saw that there was also an open door leading to a connecting bathroom.

"You want to meet Jenny?" Spike asked, unsure of what else he could say to her since his usual conversations with women usually involved him flirting, and he didn't think that would be appropriate right now. When she nodded he led her back to the kitchen. As they came through the arch Jenny looked up from her cereal, a look of resigned apathy on her face that made Buffy's heart clench and Spike that little bit more guilty. "Jenny, this is Miss Summers. She's going to be looking after you while I'm working."

"Buffy." Buffy amended. "Please call me Buffy. It's nice to meet you Jenny."

For her part, Jenny tried to smile but it still felt so forced. "Hi." She said at last, realising something was probably required.

"Right…" Spike started when they had spent a minute in uncomfortable silence. "I've got to get going – important meeting." It was a lie of course. He was meeting someone, but he wasn't sure brunch with friends constituted important. "Jenny, You can show Buffy around can't you? Tell her where everything is?"  When she nodded Spike grabbed his duster from its resting place on one of the island stools, casting one last nervous look over his shoulder as he left.

Buffy stared after him for several moments, baffled that he could leave someone he met not five minutes ago alone with a child. And she could guess what his important meeting was – she'd heard the stories from Willow about his having a different girl on his arm every night. She shuddered to think that he would bring his skanky date back here. She could not believe this man.

"It's not his fault."

Buffy was pulled out of her wonderings by the quiet voice of the girl who was now putting her breakfast bowl in the dish washer. "What do you mean?" Buffy asked, confused.

"I saw the way you were looking at him." Jenny replied, walking into the living room to sit on the couch, Buffy following dumbly behind. "It's not his fault. He just doesn't know what to do with a kid, and this was all put on him kinda suddenly. He does feel bad about it though. I think he feels guilty that he and my dad were fighting when my parents…" Jenny trailed off, the subject still too painful for her.

Buffy stared at the girl for several seconds as she processed what she had said. "You're rather insightful for a nine year old." She said at last with a hint of amusement.

Jenny simply shrugged and switched the television onto cartoons. "I'm a genius." She responded, and Buffy had a feeling she might not be exaggerating. As if reading her mind Jenny continued. "I skipped two grades at my last school. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to here. Guess I'll have to take the tests again."

"Wow." Buffy replied, impressed. "Never known a genius before." Jenny smiled slightly at the compliment but turned her attention back to the television – she'd done enough talking for one day.

They sat in silence after that, but it wasn't uncomfortable. While Jenny was immersed in cartoons Buffy was taking the time to think about all of the information she had received over the last half an hour. It was obvious that Jenny and Spike weren't close, but it seemed more that neither knew what to do around the other rather than any particular ill feeling. She had little doubt that once they become comfortable in their new roles they might actually get along, especially if Spike realised that Jenny wasn't your average nine year old. She hadn't asked for many details from Willow about her employer so she knew nothing of this 'fight' between he and his brother, but she had a feeling it was one of those things she would find out about eventually. Then there was Spike himself. On the surface he appeared to be everything his reputation stipulated, and other than the words of his niece who hadn't known him longer than a week she had nothing to contradict her initial impression…but she hoped she was wrong about him, otherwise things were gong to be very awkward in the Giles residence.

A/N: I know not much happened but now she's moved in things should move a long nicely – It just wouldn't have been right for them to instantly love each other – then we couldn't have had lovely snarky spuffy arguments and they're just too much fun!