Chapter 8: Family Reunion

Lacking anything to do, and realizing that wearing holes in the carpet with his pacing would probably not be helpful, Spike decided to make dinner for his girls. Dawn and the witches should be home soon, though he wasn't sure when Buffy would wake up.

He let his mind wander to the problems at hand while he cooked. Spike was both looking forward to, and dreading, the impending reunion with his grandsire.

The door slammed. "We're home!" Dawn yelled.

"Dawnie, Tara said Buffy was sleeping!" Willow reprimanded her.

"But it's dinner time! She should wake up anyway," Dawn whined.

After a short whispered conference, Tara went up to check on Buffy, while Willow and Dawn headed into the kitchen.

"Mmm! Smells good," Dawn sighed appreciatively. She tried to stick her finger in the sauce to get a taste, but Spike was too fast for her, and grabbed her hand.

"Uh-uh, Nibblet, you'll just hafta wait till we eat."

"But Spike!!" She tried, giving him her 'puppy dog eyes.'

"Nope!"

Willow laughed at their antics as they danced around the kitchen, Spike holding the pot with the sauce just out of Dawn's reach.

A few minutes later, Tara came downstairs with a sleepy Buffy in tow.

"Hey sis, sleep well?"

"Hmm...? Oh... yeah... Spell, y'know."

"Right..." Dawn muttered, frowning at her sister.

"I-I think she's not quite awake yet," Tara explained.

After a fairly restrained dinner, filled with small talk about their days, the group headed over to the Magic Box to await the arrival of Giles, Angel, and Angel's friends. Dawn was excited to be included with the rest of the Scoobies.

The little bell jingled as they entered the store. Xander and Anya were already there.

Xander jumped out of his chair as he saw Spike.

"Hey! Keep him away from me!" Xander shouted.

With an evil grin, Spike started prowling slowly towards the scared man.

Xander yelped and tried to back away. He fell over his chair and ended up on the floor, scuttling backward on his hands and knees.

Dawn burst out laughing at the sight, knowing her vampire was just playing with Xander. The witches were struggling to contain their giggles as well, while Anya and Buffy just rolled their eyes.

"Xander! Get off the floor, you're going to ruin your new pants," Anya scolded.

"But- but -" Xander protested as Spike went into game face, frightening him even further.

Anya sighed. "Spike, would you stop scaring my fiancé?"

"Ohhh, but it's such fun!" Spike gave an evil leer towards the man still on the floor.

"Yes, well, my boyfriend happens to be a bit stupid and doesn't understand you're simply joking."

"Hey!" Xander objected, now back on his feet. "I'm not stupid! There's an evil, unleashed, undead murderer in this room, and it's only sensible to be alert!"

Anya gave another impatient sigh. "Xander, really. I don't know if Spike would truly go out and murder someone anyway, but he certainly wouldn't do so right in front of the Slayer, two witches, Dawn, and an ex-vengeance demon."

Xander opened and closed his mouth, finding no answer to that. Finally, he muttered something about going downstairs to do inventory.

Spike was about to begin mocking Xander as soon as he left the room; however, with his fiancée the ex-vengeance demon there, as well as the Slayer, he managed to refrain.

"So, we know when the Poof is comin'?"

"His name is Angel, and they'll probably be leaving L.A. around sundown, so sometime after that," Buffy said, fiddling with some stuff on a shelf, trying to hide her nervousness.

Tara gently took the objects from her hands and put them back. "Buffy, perhaps you should be careful when you handle things in a magic store."

Buffy gave her a sheepish grin. "Thanks, Tara, glad it was you and not Anya that caught me."

Tara returned the smile. "Anytime. Listen.... you going to be all right with the impending reunion? Tensions are going to be high, from what I understand."

Buffy took a shaky breath. "I don't know... it might be a bit much for me," she admitted.

"If it does get to be too much, maybe you could leave the room for a bit? I'll make an excuse for you, if you like."

"Thank you, Tara, that'd be great. I... I'm really glad I told you."

"Me, too. Though I still think you should tell the others..."

Buffy shook her head emphatically, and Tara let the subject lie.

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An hour later, Angel and co. showed up.

Luckily for Anya and her precious store, Spike was outside 'havin' a fag' when Angel attacked him.

The two rolled around viciously, taunting each other to a frenzy. Everyone was trying to get them to stop, but most were worried about getting in the way. Buffy tried to grab Spike from behind and stop him, but failed. Willow was planning on separating them magically, till Tara indicated she shouldn't.

While normally fairly well-matched, Angel's knife gave him the upper hand. After a blow which stunned Spike, Angel pulled out a stake and went in for the kill.

"NOOO!" Dawn cried, and leapt in between the two men.

Angel saw her too late; the stake descended.

For a few moments, time slowed, eyes opened wide in horror at the scene before them.

But with his vamp reflexes, Angel was quick to pull the stake away from Dawn. She received a bad scratch on her shoulder, but other than that was perfectly fine.

Dawn and Spike were rushed to the training room by Buffy and Tara, respectively. While they were being bandaged, Buffy spoke up.

"Dawn, I can not believe you did that!!" she said sternly.

"But-" Dawn protested.

"Big sis is right, Bit."

"But I was trying to save you!"

"Yeah, I know, and I 'preciate the thought, pet, but it still was a dumb thing to do."

"Well, I'd do it again anytime," Dawn stated stubbornly.

Seeing that Buffy was losing her temper, Tara took her out to the main room, and let Spike deal with Dawn.

"What if th' Poof hadn't been able to move away the stake in time, huh? What if you'd been killed?"

"I don't care! I still would have done it, to save you!" Dawn shouted, angry at her surrogate big brother for seeming to reject her sacrifice on his behalf.

"My unlife is hardly worth yours!"

"Is to me," Dawn sniffled. Spike wrapped her in a hug as she continued. "I don't know what I'd do if you were gone, Spike... I don't think I can handle losing anyone else."

"Shh, s'ok, Bit, it's all right... I'm not goin' anywhere, and even if I did, you'd be fine; you got plenty of people that love you."

"Yeah, but they're not you!"

"Platelet, listen here," Spike said sternly in his no-nonsense voice. "You are much too important to go risking your life on... on anything!! That's why Buffy doesn't want you to go on patrols, you know. It's not 'cause she doesn't care; just the opposite, in fact. And I'm the same - I don't want you gettin' hurt, not matter what."

"But if I hadn't done that, you would be dust."

"Nah, I'm pretty good at gettin' myself outta scrapes. Let me worry 'bout me, 'k, Sweet Bit?"

Grudgingly, Dawn nodded. Spike pulled her in for another hug, then they both headed into the main room.

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.....Meanwhile.....

Buffy and Tara walked out from the training room. Xander immediately counted heads and went hysterical.

"You just left Dawn in there with a killer!"

He expected them to recognize this fact with horror, and race into the other room to save her. But the girls just exchanged a glance and rolled their eyes. Even Buffy, with all her paranoia, knew Spike would die before he would harm her sister.

Xander began running towards the back room, Angel just behind him.

Willow decided enough was enough! She halted both men in their tracks.

"Wha-? Willow!" Xander shouted. "Let me go!" Both he and Angel began struggling furiously, futilely.

"Oh, stop it!" Anya snapped. "Xander, you know perfectly well Spike would never hurt Dawn."

"B-but his chip doesn't work anymore!"

"That doesn't change how he feels about Dawn," Tara reminded him softly.

Angel growled. "You all don't know him! He's probably just been acting nice to get in your good graces, get you all comfortable around him before he turns on you!"

To everyone's surprise, Buffy burst out laughing. "Oh, sorry, it's just... can you see Spike trying to pull off something like that? He wouldn't last a day undercover, much less several years! No, whatever the truth of the matter may be, I won't believe that, Angel."

"Sounds more like something Angelus might try to pull, gettin' in close with folks, gettin' 'em to trust 'im before torturin' and killin' 'em all." Spike sauntered into the room, Dawn in tow.

Angel growled again and strained against Willow's magical bonds, holding him in place.

"Hey!" Dawn piped up. "Aren't you gonna apologize for nearly staking me?"

"What? Well, of course I didn't mean to! I was aiming for Spike," Angel spat the name with disgust.

"Yeah? Well anyone who wants to hurt Spike will hafta go through me!" Dawn stated belligerently.

"Nibblet... what did we just talk about?"

To Buffy's surprise, Dawn glanced away guiltily. "I know, I know... but I don't want him to hurt you!"

"Don't worry, Platelet, he won't," Spike assured the girl, caressing her hair.

"Nibblet? Platelet?!" Angel repeated incredulously. "Oh, sure, he doesn't plan on eating her, right."

In unison, Spike and Dawn rolled their eyes. "Oh, gimme a break!" "Don't be such a stupid git," the two said at the same time, then grinned at each other.

"Where is everyone?" Dawn finally asked, just now noticing the relative emptiness of the room.

"Giles took Angel's friends out to eat... wait, was that Cordelia I saw? And Wesley?" Xander asked.

"Yeah, they're here," Angel told him, seeming resigned to being immobile for the time being.

"Uh, why?" Buffy questioned.

Angel explained about what they did in L.A. The news of Cordy as a receiver of visions from the powers came as quite a shock. As did the fact that she was now part demon.

"Wait... so does that mean that every girl Xander's ever dated either was, had been, or would be a demon?" Dawn laughed.

"Uh, I thought he was with that girl over there...?" Angel asked.

"Oh! I guess we haven't been introduced. I'm Anya Emmanuel Jenkins, Xander's fiancée."

"And you're a demon?"

"What?! No!" Xander exclaimed angrily.

"Not anymore," Anya explained to the confused Angel. "I used to be a justice demon."

"Justice demon?" Angel wondered.

"Vengeance demon," Willow whispered. " 'Justice demon' is the P.C. term, I guess."

"Ah."

"Look, I want to get down to business. Do we need to wait for Angel's group before we start?" The Slayer asked.

"Yeah, we probably should. There's some stuff I want Giles and maybe Wesley to look over with me... there's a part of the spell we're having difficulty translating," Willow told her.

"Trouble?" Buffy worried.

"Could be, we're not sure. Oh, and that other demon, the green guy...?"

"Lorne," Angel provided.

"Is he here also to help with the spell?"

"On the off chance I actually agree to do the spell... yeah."

Just then, Angel's friends and Giles entered the Magic Box.

"So!" cried Lorne, zooming in on Spike. "You the cute lil' sugarplum I'm here to hear sing?"

Dawn giggled at the green demon's nickname for Spike. "Hey there, toots, who are you?"

"Hi, I'm Dawn!"

"Why, hello, Dawn, lovely name for a lovely girl... now, you, my friend," he turned back to Spike. "What would you like to sing?"

Spike replied, "Huh?"

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A/N: Sorry, sorry, sort of a filler chapter, no Spuffy, I know... Bit of Spike/Dawn friendship, which I like. Singing will be coming up in the next chapter, I promise!

Please, please, please review!


I know Cordelia doesn't turn into a demon till a few episodes later, but oh well.

Steph - thanks for the excellent song recommendation! I've already got the lyrics :)