Chapter 6: A Day with His Girls

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Their day was spent fairly pleasantly. After the hectic morning, they'd all had some breakfast; Spike and Dawn were delighted to find that, once shown what to do, Buffy could feed herself.

He sent the girls up, instructing Dawn to help Buffy get washed up while he did the dishes from breakfast. He would have preferred to help Dawn, but he figured that when (not if, when! ) Buffy got back to her normal self she'd prefer it if he didn't.

Spike caught a few more hours of sleep while Dawn and Buffy played out in the sun.

Later, he watched them from inside - envious, but enjoying the view of Buffy in the sunlight. She really was a creature of light, he reflected. Almost... effulgent. Oh, hell, not that bloody awful poetry again!

The girls came back in, and Spike fixed them a nice lunch. After a summer of living with Dawn, he'd learned how to make a few things. Cooking kept his mind off.... other matters, when his usual outlet of violence wasn't available.

Normally, he would have turned to alcohol or suicide, but with Dawn as his responsibility, these weren't viable options. So he'd turned to more mundane activities during the daytime, unleashing his violence in the night.

The rest of the day was spent indoors, with Dawn and Spike talking or playing cards while Buffy watched on, interested. They tried to involve her as much as possible, but it was difficult to do so with her apparent inability to speak.

Spike would have been more than happy to just spend the whole day staring at Buffy. It still felt unreal to him, that she was actually back.

He wasn't certain about how Dawn was doing, either. Obviously, she was overjoyed to have her sister back. But he suspected she was in shock, much like he was. They'd spent the past summer grieving for Buffy - and now, thanks to Willow, ::poof!:: here she was! To say that it was a shock was putting it mildly.

Once the sun set, Spike walked with Buffy a bit, and let Dawn have some time to herself. Their stroll was mostly silent, but it was a comfortable silence, Spike felt. Buffy stuck close by his side, grabbing onto him when cars and dogs scared her. He reassured her quietly.

After they returned, he saw Buffy and Dawn to bed before he took off on patrol.

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Spike headed back, rather beat from having to take a vamp nest out on his own. When he arrived home, he saw the Wiccas sitting in the living room. Something wrong? was his instinctive reaction. Then he vaguely remembered them saying they'd be back after looking into a spell of some sort. Spike had been much too wrapped up in Buffy to pay attention to them.

He was about to tell them he'd fetch some blood and be right back when he realized there was another in the room.

"Rupes! I wasn't expecting you quite so soon," he greeted the Watcher, a bit surprised he'd gotten to Sunnydale in less than 24 hours.

"I thought the circumstances warranted my haste," the Watcher responded dryly.

"Yeah, well -" the phone rang, interrupting Spike. "Damn!" He leapt for the phone, stopping it after the first ring in an effort to prevent Dawn and Buffy from awakening. He could tell by the stirring he heard from above him that hadn't worked.

"Yeah?" he half snarled into the phone.

There was a brief pause, and some static. Then- "Who is this?"

"You're callin' me and askin' who I am? Think you got that a bit backward, mate. Who th' hell are you?"

"Spike?!" the voice from the other end of the phone shouted disbelievingly.

Spike winced at the loud noise. "Yeah, got me in one."

"What the hell are you doing there? I can't -"

"Ah. Captain Cardboard. Shoulda guessed by the scintillatin' convo we've had so far."

"I'll find out what you're doing there later," Riley warned ominously, with a pitiful excuse of a growl.

He masterfully ignored Spike's response ("ooh, White Bread, I'm real scared now!") and continued on. "I heard that... well, that Buffy was d-dead. Is that true?"

"She was, yeah," Spike responded, deciding that the truth would be the most fun here.

Another pause. "What do you mean, she was?"

Annoyed, Spike answered, "Whaddaya mean, what do I mean? I mean, she was dead. She got better."

"She... got... better?" Riley repeated disbelievingly.

"Yeah," Spike replied simply, grinning.

Furiously, Riley spat, "Listen, hearing about her death is hard enough without having to deal with you! I want some answers NOW, or I swear I'll be there tomorrow and you'll wish you were never - "

Tired of this pointless talk when more important things were to be done, Giles snatched the phone away. "Riley? Yes, look, it's Giles. What happened was this..."

Bored, Spike turned away, seeing the witches and his girls looking at him with varying expressions.

Spike walked over to Buffy and Dawn. "Sorry about all the ruckus."

"It's ok, we weren't sleeping too well anyway," Dawn told him, indicating with a nod towards Buffy that the Slayer had been restless.

"Right, well, how 'bout some hot cocoa, then?" he suggested. Spike led the Summers girls into the kitchen, telling Willow and Tara that he'd be back in a bit to talk to them. They sat back down, feeling oddly chastised by his harsh tone of voice.

Dawn and Buffy sat at the counter as they watched Spike prepare the hot chocolate, the Summers' panacea. Buffy watched him curiously as Dawn prattled on. "So, that was Riley on the phone?" Spike grunted an assent. "Geez, picked a great time to call, huh. Guess he just found out about Buffy being dead... well , except she's not... anyway, wonder why he just found out now? Maybe the news got out some how. Man, I hope that Angel doesn't come rushing over, brooding even more than usual."

Spike smirked at her as he served them their drink - with marshmallows, of course, and a few ice cubes in Buffy's so she didn't burn her tongue. How he remembered these things was beyond Dawn, especially since he didn't really feel the temperature himself.

When all three were sitting, happily sipping their hot chocolate, Spike explained, "I think th' ruse with th' Buffybot might've been found out. That'd be why we got those bikers in the other day."

"But now we've got the real thing back!"

"Yeah, but they don't know that yet. As far as the demon world knows, Buffy's dead."

Just then the front door was flung open. Spike rolled his eyes (a habit he'd picked up from Dawn). "What now?"

He marched back into the front hall, Buffy and Dawn following behind him. When he saw who it was, he had just enough time to say to Dawn, "You realize this is your fault for mentioning him," before Angel leapt towards him, intent upon his attack.

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A/N: Sorry it's been so long since my last update! No, I actually didn't drop off the face of the earth, I was just away for a week.

Thanks again to all who've reviewed so far. Several people mentioned they hoped the Scooby gang get punished for what they did to Buffy - just wait. That's all I'm gonna say for now :-)

I truly do appreciate all the comments/critiques you guys give me - thank you all so very much.

As always, reviews are what keep me writing, so please R&R!