Things Change
Chapter Six

"Spike, this is Edward Thorpe," Buffy said, thankful that Edward had entered before the tense silence she sensed was able to fall. "Ed, this is Spike. He's Chrissy and Todd's father."

Shaking himself out of his trance, Edward smiled and extended a hand, pushing Chrissy slightly to one side. Xander stepped forward and put an arm around her.

"Call me Ed," Edward said. "Everyone else does."

"Uh, yeah," Spike said distractedly, glancing at the twins. Todd watched him impassively, but Spike noticed how Chrissy shrunk back against Xander. To make a decent impression, Spike looked at Edward and opened his mouth to answer properly. He frowned, he knew this guy, he looked a little different, his hair light brown where Spike was sure it had once been black and his face somehow… weedier, less sinister. He shook his head a little; he didn't know this guy. When you were as old as he was, faces bled into one another. But there was something so familiar about him… "Do I know you, mate?" Spike asked finally.

"N-no," Edward stuttered. "I think I would have recalled meeting you," he gave a harsh laugh and glanced around at the members of the Summers' inner circle. "I can see you're busy, I'll let you get on, I have some work to do on that new training programme. May I just say that your children are an absolute delight, Spike."

He nodded at everyone, turned, and practically ran up the stairs.

"Yeah," Spike said. "Uh," he glanced at Todd. "You mentioned something about some incident at school? Coupla of rebels, are you?"

"Why do you care?" Chrissy asked, a hard edge to her voice.

"Chrissy," Willow said gently. "Of course he cares."

"Willow," Xander said, glaring at Spike. "If she doesn't feel ready for this, we shouldn't force her, should we, Buffy?"

Buffy stared at Xander, then looked at Spike. The hurt look on Spike's face cut into her, but she had to agree with Xander.

"No," she said softly. "We shouldn't push her."

"Well, I'm glad I get a say in this!" Chrissy shouted and whirled around to face her brother. "How are you ok with this, Todd? We've never met the guy and suddenly here he is and Mom's all like, 'Hey, kids, this is your dad!' Big deal, Mom! I don't give a damn!"

With that she whirled around and marched toward the staircase and climbed them, stomping to emphasise her bad mood. Xander moved to go after her, but Dawn jumped up from the couch and ran over to him. She positioned herself between Xander and the staircase.

"No," she told him in a low but firm voice. "I'll go, she can have the true story without any of your embellishments to make it worse than it is."

"I wasn't going to say anything to her," Xander protested.

"Like you said you weren't gonna keep the yellow crayon story going, but you still dust it down and feed it to us every Christmas when there are much better things on TV."

"Hey," he said. "That's a classic!"

She glared him into silence and went up the stairs to talk to her niece.

"Does anyone want a drink?" Willow asked brightly. "Lemonade? Mineral water? Oh, Spike, want a hot chocolate? Buffy has marshmallows."

"Yeah, Red," Spike smiled. "That'd be nice."

"You like hot chocolate with marshmallows?" Todd asked, talking for the first time since Chrissy's outburst.

"Yeah," Spike glanced at Buffy. "Your mum's mum made it for me a coupla times."

"I like that too," Todd smiled shyly and Buffy did a double take when she realised how alike they were, both smiling at each other, both smiles hovering halfway between shyness and excitement.

"D'ya like spicy buffalo wings?" Spike asked as the two of them followed Willow into the kitchen.

"The ones from the Bronze?"

"Yeah. You go to the Bronze, it's still here?"

"Yeah, me and Chris go sometimes after patrol."

"Why'd you wanna go there? The music's crap."

"It's all right. What music do you like?"

"Punk rock," Spike answered proudly.

"That's 'cause your English," Todd observed.

"That don't mean anything!" Spike protested.

"Guess not," Todd shrugged.

"Chrissy likes English punk rock," Willow told Spike. "She's got a big yen for the…"

"Buzzcocks," Todd filled in, getting the marshmallows.

"Yeah," Willow nodded. "She's got posters and CDs..."

"Least one of ya got taste," Spike said and grinned at Todd.

Chrissy ran her finger along the CDs crammed onto her shelf and pulled one out. She put it on, turned it up and threw the case like a frisbee onto her desk. Then she threw herself onto her bed and beat her pillow before shoving it under her head. The music stopped abruptly and Chrissy looked up to see her Aunt Dawn leaning against the wall watching her.

"You're creasing my poster," Chrissy snapped.

Dawn moved away from the wall and looked up at the poster of the Buzzcocks. She smiled at Chrissy and sat on the end of the bed, hugging Buffy's old Mr Gordo to her chest.

"You and your dad have something in common," Dawn told her.

"Don't say that," Chrissy hissed and sat up, scooting back to the wall and hugging her knees to her chest.

"Say what?"

"You and your dad," Christina repeated.

"Why not?"

Dawn and Chrissy looked up to see Buffy standing in the doorway.

"What?" Chrissy asked.

"Why not?" Buffy repeated, coming to sit beside Dawn on her daughter's bed. "Why shouldn't she call him your dad? He is."

"But… he… I," Chrissy stuttered and eventually gave up.

"He doesn't feel like your dad?" Buffy asked quietly.

Chrissy nodded.

"Of course he doesn't," Dawn said. "You've only just met him, but you haven't given him a chance, at least Todd has."

"Last I saw," Buffy said. "Him and Spike were discussing music over hot chocolate and marshmallows."

"Well, Todd always was the good cop," Chrissy muttered.

"And we all know you're not a bad cop," Buffy said.

"What happened, Mom?" Chrissy whispered, leaning her chin on her knees.

"I think I should tell you and Todd at the same time," Buffy answered. "But it's not pleasant, Chrissy. We both hurt each other a lot, but I think we're better people now."

"But you loved each other?" Chrissy asked quietly.

"He loved me," Buffy told her. "And I did care about him…"

"Are you gonna make me go downstairs now?" Chrissy asked, smirking.

Dawn and Buffy glanced at each other, both noting the Spike-ish smirk.

"Not straight away," Dawn said. "But you'll have to later."

"Ok," Chrissy conceded.

Buffy stood up and hugged her daughter around the shoulders, kissed her hair and went to leave. Xander met her at the bottom of the stairs.

"What's wrong?" Buffy asked.

"Look, Buffy, this is hard for me. You know I hate Spike, I know I hate Spike, but if you decide you want him to hang around, I'll support you."

"Huh?"

"Don't make me repeat it, Buffy, I think you heard me."

"Yeah," Buffy smiled. "Thanks, Xander, it means a lot to me.

Dawn reached over and picked the CD case off the desk.

"Music," Dawn said.

"Huh?"

"You and Spike, you both like English punk rock," a dreamy smile came over her face. "I remember I used to go to his crypt and he'd have this playing in the background while we talked."

"How old were you?" Chrissy crossed her legs, put her bent elbow on her knee and her chin in her hand; the position she assumed when she was intently interested in what someone was saying to her.

"When we first started really talking, it was just after I found out I was the Key, I was fourteen. I loved being with him, everyone else was treating me differently and he didn't, he didn't care that I was the Key, he just saw me as Dawn. He had all these names for me, L'il Bit, Niblet, Platelet. He was so cool. Then, when Buffy was away, I hung around with him a lot more, I sorta felt that 'cause he loved her, he would be the only one that understood. I used to hang out at his crypt before Buffy went away, then he came around here to baby-sit me all the time and after a while he started bringing his CDs. For ages the only way I could sleep was if he was there in my room with some of his music playing somewhere in the house."

"You really loved him?"

"I still love him. Sure, I hated him for a while after he left, but the longer he was away; the more I stopped hating him. The thing with Spike is he tries to be the Big Bad vampire - you knew he was a vampire, right?"

"Yeah, I guessed when I saw him on the doorstep the other night, I told Todd and he said he figured he was one of Angel's friends though."

"Angel and Spike? Friends? They're relations, Spike's his Grandchilde, but there's no love lost between them. Anyway, he tries to be the Big Bad, but he's so sensitive. When Buffy was away -"

"Aunt Dawn?"

"Yeah?"

"She was dead, Aunt Dawn, we both know it. You can say it, she's alive now, that all that matters."

"Fine, when Buffy was… dead, he fell to pieces, drinking and playing chicken with sunrise. He stopped coming round and that hurt the most, he thought it was his fault she died so he figured I wouldn't want to see him. He finally came to see me and that was it, we were friends again. I couldn't have gotton through it without him. So, don't be too hard on him, k?"

"Ok. And thanks, Aunt Dawn."

"That's ok, just remember you can't make a fuss when it comes to my wedding, you're wearing that dress, got it?"

"If you've convinced Anya, I'm not gonna subject myself to the same torture you used on her."

Spike studied the blue haze of smoke that curled upwards from the end of his cigarette. He flicked the ash out across the lawn and watched the fierce orange recede back into the cigarette. He sighed and looked up at the sky.

He really shouldn't have expected the bloody Brady Bunch, but he hadn't exactly expected the Arctic shoulder. He smiled, he saw himself in Chrissy, the hasty decisions and hot temper, and she seemed the stubborn type too. Yep, definitely his daughter. His son was more like Buffy, also stubborn and Spike guessed he had a hot temper similar to Buffy who held it in check as well as his mother.

"I wouldn't mind Chris."

"Oh?" Spike twisted and looked at his tall, dark haired son. "Sit down."

Todd settled beside him and watched as Spike flicked the cigarette down and crushed it beneath his boot.

"She's got an attitude," Todd continued. "She can be irritating, frustrating, stubborn, impatient, bad tempered and hostile, but she's ok. Yeah, she can be all that, but she can be kind, generous and she's a good listener. You just have to get to know her. The problem with Chrissy is she doesn't take well to new people. She still hasn't gotton to like Ed and he's been here almost over a year."

"And you? Do you like Edward?"

"He's all right, bit English -"

"Nothing wrong with that."

"I didn't mean that, I meant he can be uptight, you're a lot more… fun."

Spike turned to Todd and smiled.

"Thanks. But how'd you know that?"

"C'mon," Todd laughed. "Aunt Dawn was always telling us stories about you, about the fights you helped Mom win. She never said your name, but I'm not stupid."

"No, lad, you aren't. You and your sister go on patrols, right?"

"Yeah, Ed stopped Mom going a few days ago, she told him he couldn't stop her forever and she's started going again."

"Sounds like the Slayer I knew," Spike muttered.

"Yeah, according to Aunt Dawn she hasn't changed much, but I think she was just saying that, I think she has changed, but Aunt Dawn doesn't like to say how. Chrissy and I tried talking to Aunt Willow and Uncle Xander about it, but they don't like talking about anything pre-twins."

"You like Red and Harris?"

"They've always been there. They're fun, mom loves 'em and I do. Chrissy adores Willow and Xander's funny and cool."

"If you like that sort of thing," Spike snorted.

"He can be a bit dumb sometimes, but everyone has their faults."

The creak of the back door halted their conversation and they turned to see Chrissy leaning against the door and cradling a mug in her hands.

"Blood?" Spike asked, sniffing.

"Yeah," she answered. "Mom keeps a store of it, gets new every week."

"Why would she do that?" Spike frowned.

"Just in case," Chrissy shrugged. "Sometimes Angel comes here unexpected and needs something to drink, feed, whatever. So she keeps some, she says you never know who might drop in."

Even as she said it, Chrissy realised that the blood her mother replenished weekly wasn't kept for Angel - who more often than not called to warn of a visit - but for the vampire who sat stooped over on their back porch. And she had thought the only vampire her mother knew as a friend was Angel.

"Here," she handed him the mug and sat beside him, the opposite side of him to Todd. "You look underfed."