Title: Summer Vacation

Summary: Buffy's dad is going away for the summer, and with no other place to go, her and her younger sister, Dawn and left at their aunt and uncle's ranch. There they meet new friends and new enemies. But when the summer's over, the two have to leave, and hearts are broken. Spuffy.

Disclaimer: All the BtVS characters belong to Joss Whedon.

.:a/n:. Spuffy it is.



The stable smell filled Buffy's nose as she walked inside, causing it to scrunch up in disgust. It had been a while since she had been in a barn, and forgot what the smell of it was like.

"I'm gonna go grab the tack pet," he said, walking away from her. He stopped and turned. "Do you ride English, or Western?"

"English."

"Right then. By the way, names Spike," he said, before disappearing.

Buffy just smiled at him before she started to explore the barn. It was one long hallway, each side consisting of twelve stalls. However, the last two were used for tack and feed.

An appaloosa mare stuck her head out of her stall, causing Buffy to jump in surprise. She took a deep breath and let out a small giggle before walking over to her.

"Hey," she said, carefully petting the mare's head. "Don't I know you?"

"Might not want to be doing that luv," Spike said, walking over to her. He was carrying a saddle over his arm, a bridle in the other hand. "She's not exactly the friendliest horse. Thought you might wanna start off on Rocket."

Buffy just nodded before turning away from the horse slowly, trying to think of why she seemed so familiar to her. Shaking it off, she followed Spike down to the fourth stall on the right. Inside was a chestnut horse, with a white blaze.

"'Ere. Let me get him saddled up for you," Spike said, placing the tack on the floor. He went to unlatch the stall lock, but Buffy grabbed his arm.

"No, I can do it." She opened up the door and walked inside. Rocket came right over to her, and Buffy ran her hand along his neck and down his side. "Hand me the saddle, would you?"



Buffy stood outside the barn, holding two sets of reigns. She was waiting for Spike to come back from inside the barn. 'Why do we need water?' she thought. 'Its not like we're gonna be gone that long.'

"Sorry bout that pet," Spike said, appearing in front of her. "Ready to get on?"

"For the past ten minutes I've been waiting," she said, handing him his reigns and walking over to the left side of Rocket. She put one foot in the stirrup, her reigns gathered at the top of the saddle in one hand, her other hand on the back of the saddle, and pulled herself up onto him.

Once Spike was on his horse, he looked over at her. Gently, he squeezed his heels and the horse started to walk. Buffy did the same and quickly caught up to him.

"Don't tell me this is as fast as we're riding?" Buffy asked. "I walk faster than this."

He laughed. "If you think you can handle-."

He didn't even get to finish his sentence before Buffy squeezed her legs harder, Rocket taking off in full gallop. Spike hesitated a minute before joining her.



Spike had stopped their horses just before they reached a field full of emptiness. He dismounted his horse, Black and waited for Buffy to do the same before proceeding. He led Black over to a tree and tied him there, protected by the shade. Buffy was a little unsure of what he had planned, but handed him the reigns.

Once the horses were safely tied up, Spike started to walk into the woods, signaling for her to follow.

"Where are we going?" Buffy asked, pushing aside a branch that was blocking her path.

"'S a surprise."

"Have I mentioned I don't like surprises?"

Spike stopped, causing Buffy to run into his back, pushing him forward a bit. He turned around and asked, "You don't like surprises? What's wrong with you?"

"Nothing wrong with me," she said defensively. "I just don't like them."

"Well you'll like this one pet. I promise."

He began walking again, and Buffy let out a loud sigh before following.



Many trees and bushes later, Spike stopped. "This is it," he said, moving aside so Buffy could see.

Stepping forward, Buffy took in the scenery before her. A small lake rested at the end of a rocky waterfall, as tall as a two-story house and the sunlight gave the water a sparkling look.

"How can something so beautiful be hiding in these woods?"

"Maybe ti doesn't want to be found," Spike said, walking over to the water. "Do ya like to swim?"

"Here? I don't have a suit."

Spike smiled, removing his shirt. He started to undo his belt when Buffy realized he wasn't fooling around.

"You're kidding," she said.

"No, I'm not." Left in only his boxers, Spike looked down into the water before diving in. "C'mon in luv. The water's great."

Buffy hesitated a minute. 'Oh c'mon Buffy. You know you want to,' she thought. 'How can you let an opportunity like this just pass on by?'

"You better be telling the truth," she said, gripping the ends of her shirt and pulling it off over her head. "I don't want to get in there and be freezing cold."

Spike smiled at her before diving under the water. He didn't want her to feel uncomfortable with him watching. Seconds later he could feel a break in the water, and knew that she had came in.

Surfacing, he quickly swam over to where she was. "So how is it?" he asked.

"Warm. I guess you weren't lying after all." She looked around awkwardly, not sure what to say. she had hoped he would strike up some kind of conversation, because she had no idea how.

"I 'aven't seen you around here," he said. "Don't you think you made an effort to come see your uncle? He could die anytime."

"We aren't that close. If you're so keen on family, why aren't you with yours?" she asked, but regretted it when she noticed how hurt it made him. "Sorry," she said, looking away. "Its none of my business."

"'S alright pet. Lost 'em a long time back. Four, maybe five years. Car accident. Your uncle was kind enough to take me in, treat me like 'is own."

Buffy nodded. She wanted to apologize again; she knew how much it hurt her to talk about her mother's death. Although she had accepted it, she hadn't forgiven. She hated and blamed the doctors for not finding the tumor sooner. Maybe if they had, she'd be sitting at home now with her mother.

"Something a matter luv?" Spike asked, snapping her out of thought.

"It just- Reminded me of my mother."

"You miss her already? You just saw her a few hours ago, not even," he said, clueless.

'But how would he know?' Buffy thought. 'I guess Larry didn't even care enough to tell anyone my mother had died. Or maybe dad didn't care enough to tell him.'

"That would be Andrea," she said. "She's not my mother. She's only twenty- eight years old. Can you believe that?"

"Your dad must be 'appy," he said. "She the evil-step-mom type?"

"No, but that's the hard part. At least if she was I could hate her. At the beginning it just felt like he was trying to replace mom. It wasn't even a year yet, and already he was marrying again."

"Some people just feel its best to move on. The sooner the better."

"He didn't even care enough to ask me or Dawn how we felt about it. He just up and marries her like its no big deal."

"I'm sorry," he said, touching her arm gently. "Seems like you were close to your mum."

"Yeah well death is a part of life right? We all die sometime," Buffy said, shrugging it off and sniffing back her tears. "Nothing you can do about it."

"If I hadn't gone down that rode before pet, I'd say that was believable. It's all right to mourn the loss. But some time or other, you need to let go. Know that your mum'll always be a part of you, and be 'appy. I didn't know your mum, but I'm sure she'd want you to be 'appy. Rather than sulk about her for the rest of your life."

'He makes sense,' she thought. 'Little does he know just how much he's making me happy.'

Buffy smiled before splashing him. Wiping his face off, he looked at her confused. "What are you doing?"

"Being "'appy".'