Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns all the familiar things, the set, the characters.
A/N: Thank you to all my reviewers. I am so sorry that this took so long to come out but I was updating my Harry Potter stories which I hadn't updated for 4 months so I gave that priority.
Chapter 6: The Steps and the Tears
Dawn walked in from the dazzling sunlight, having just returned from school. She was extremely glad that it was Friday. She shut the door quickly behind her incase Spike was around, he wouldn't be able to get out of the way before he ended up looking like a chain smokers leftovers.
"Buffy, Spike? I'm home. Willow? Tara!!"
"They're all out niblet." Dawn heard from the kitchen. She went in there to find Spike in his wheelchair next to an open fridge, rummaging around for some blood or food. He was a complicated vampire.
Dawn removed her school bag and coat and settled herself onto the island tabletop, grabbed a cereal packet and started munching loudly and annoyingly.
Spike turned his head to look at her, a face full of disgust. "And they told me that ladylike behaviour was dead. You could try to be a little less gross bit."
Dawn rolled her eyes and spoke around a mouthful of cereal so some of it managed to escape the confines of her mouth. "This coming from the vampire that likes to crush Wheat-a-bix in his blood to give it texture?!" Dawn snorted, also very unladylike. "How are your legs Spike?"
He shrugged, "They feel bruised but the pain is less and I can move them somewhat. I guess that my spine is repairing itself. It didn't take this long to heal last time. I was mostly pretending to still need that wheelchair."
Dawn nodded and set the cereal box down and then jumped off of the island. She walked around the back of his wheelchair and proceeded to wheel him into the living room, much to his protestations. "Yeah, but last time, a church organ fell on you, thanks to our favourite slayer. She does seem to be bad for you Spike."
Spike ripped open his bag of blood. "Yeah, but that means that I get to spend more time with you." Spike grinned at her. Dawn slapped him on the side of the head which just made Spike laugh.
"How much can you move them?" Dawn asked, looking pointedly at his legs.
"A lot more than before. At least the pain is less that it doesn't make me pass out anymore. I can stand this kind of pain."
"Have you tried standing up yet?"
Spike shook his head. "I don't want to push it. What if everything that has healed reverses?"
Dawn shook her head. "Everything needs exercise and I'm sure that you need it too. Blood helps, yeah, sure, but you also need to get the muscles moving or they'll heal but they'll forget how too.
I broke my arm once when I was little. I didn't exercise it so when the cast came off, it was all floppy and it stayed like that for a week before my mum blackmailed me into exercising it. You can lean on me and we can try to help you walk."
Spike laughed. "You talk way too much. And besides, I doubt that you could hold up Willow and she weighs barely anything so what makes you think that you can hold me up?"
Dawn put her hand on her hip and glared at the neutered, blond vampire. "Try me." She growled.
Ok. "Spike smirked, but if you get crushed to death, it's your own bleeding fault."
Dawn nodded once. "You can do the first part on your own."
Spike complied and used his well toned arm to push himself up from the wheelchair. Dawn got down moved his feet rests to the side while muttering "I don't know who you stole this wheelchair from."
Dawn kneeled in front of him so he could put his weight on her shoulders. He did, while pushing the chair a little bit back and lowering first on foot, then the other onto the carpet. Dawn stood up straight and quickly put her arm around his waist to give him the extra added support and something to lean on. She let out a cheer.
It was all going well until Spike decided to lean on Dawn. That was when she realised that he had spoken the truth. She could not hold his weight up and lost her footing. With Spike's weight on her, the fall was going to be very painful. Just before she hit the carpet, she closed her eyes and waited for the resounding thud because it was going to be her head that hit first. She wasn't the slayer and she doubted that it would stop hurting after a little while. She let out a glass shattering squeal.
Dawn was pulled to a halt before she hit the ground. Strong hand on her arms had stopped her descent. She opened one eye, and the another. She was barely a centimetre from the carpet. Letting out a sigh, she turned her head to see Spike supporting her, on his feet! He stood her up and let go of her. "I told you didn't I niblet?"
Dawn groaned but turned it into a squeal when she saw that he was standing on his own. "You did it Spike! Look! You're standing!" She screamed and then started dancing around the room. It was safe to say that Spike was more than a little bewildered.
He took one, step and the two. The pain was still there. He seemed to be doing fine until…"Oh bloody hell."
He lowered himself onto the couch. Dawn stopped her dance and joined him. "What's wrong?"
He looked at her and scowled. "My bloody legs feel like jelly not to mention the pain." Dawn smiled. "But at least I can walk. Give me a few days and I'll be out of your, and big sister's hair."
Dawn smile dropped. "You'd just leave? Just like that? After you've been here for so long. Gotten to know me and Buffy and Tara and Willow? You're the only one who can bring testosterone into this house."
Spike glared at her. "Don't use that bleeding word pigeon. Besides, I already knew you, the witches and the slayer."
Dawn grinned, "Yeah, but now you've seen us in our PJs."
Spike carried on glaring. "I've seen Buffy in less."
Dawn's eyes widened.
"Well not technically, but when I showed her what Riley was up to last year, she wasn't wearing anything under her duvet."
Dawn looked grossed out. "She may be the woman you love Spike, but she's still my sister!!! So will you kindly not let me into all these sordid details of your mind PLEASE!?"
Spike laughed quietly and lay back on the couch and closed his eyes. Dawn mock glared at him. "I'm going to do homework now because if I don't, evil people will take me away from Buffy." Dawn got to the bottom of the stairs and turned back to Spike. "Spike?"
He raised his eyebrows to show that he was listening but kept his eyes closed.
"Could you please think before you leave because Buffy might not need you…but I do, and I want you to stay here."
Without waiting for a reaction from him, Dawn went into her room.
* * * * *
Spike stayed in the position with thoughts racing through his mind. He wanted to get out of the Summers women, and the witches hair. It was plainly obvious that Buffy didn't want him there. Red and Tara and always been nice to him during his stay there but they weren't around a lot. He hadn't given much thought to what Dawn might want and now she had said that she didn't want him to leave.
He knew that she didn't have a very sturdy father figure around, her dad was, to put it nicely, a jackass. Giles was back in England and Xander was always with Anya, planning their wedding and such and he doubted that the whelp would be much help anyway.
His thoughts were still swimming when the door opened again, this time admitting the oldest Summers, Willow and Tara. It seems that they had come home together. Buffy was laughing at something Willow had said. Spike opened his eyes when he heard his name and a question directed at him.
"Spike, has Dawn come home?"
He turned his head to look at the three women and nodded. "She's upstairs doing her homework."
"Good, I'll go up and check on her." She started up the stairs.
Spike called out to her. "She's not a kid anymore you know, I'm sure she's fine."
Tara smiled a little, Willow stretched and Buffy carried on up the stairs, but not before throwing Spike a sarcastic look.
"I'm hungry." Willow commented, before entering the kitchen. She didn't ask Tara if she was because Tara would get her own food if she wanted it, or follow Willow. Tara joined Spike on the couch instead.
"How're you feeling?"
Spike turned his head so that she could see the witch while he spoke, his head was still against the back of the chair. "Are you afraid of me?" he drawled.
Tara looked confused. "No, why?"
Spike let out a tiny bark of a laugh. "Because my way of saying hello was to punch you in the nose."
Tara's confusion deepened but then the memory dawned on her. "I should have thanked you for that. If it wasn't for you, my family would have taken me away."
Spike shrugged. "You're welcome. The pain in the head wasn't. I was just doing my daily dose of good deeds."
Tara smiled again and it struck Spike that they had never really talked much at all. He barely knew her but she seemed like a very nice person. She was very quiet though so it was no wonder.
"I should go and help Willow with the food preparation."
Spike closed his eyes and nodded. Tara took it as her queue to leave.
* * * * *
Spike had just about drifted off to sleep when he felt the couch depress a little, that was enough to wake him up. He had always been a light sleeper. He shook his head slightly to get the sleep put of his head and opened his eyes. He saw Buffy staring at him.
"Dawn says that you can walk now…or something."
Spike took a moment before he answered. "A bit. Then my legs feel like rubber and I feel the need to fall flat on my face just to make sure that the ground still exists.
She made me stretch my legs out. Said that exercise was the only way to go for a neutered vampire whose legs are shot."
Buffy didn't know what to make of it. She was glad that her burst of self righteousness had not made him permanently paralysed but she had gotten so used to him being around, annoying her, caring for her, as best he could. She hadn't had that since Giles had left and she was just beginning to realise how she craved it but she stopped those thoughts when she realised how selfish she was being. She wanted Spike to stay for selfish purposes. Buffy didn't love Spike, she just needed him and that was unfair.
Buffy decided to ignore her feelings, swallowed hard and looked him in the eyes, those clear blue eyes that had once looked on her with malevolence and hate but that look had been dead for a long time now. "So what are you going to do when they can hold you up for prolonged periods of time?"
Spike shrugged. When he spoke, his voice was of forced calm. "Go back to my crypt and relieve Clem of housekeeping duties. I miss my bed and not having to run from sunlight at every open door."
Buffy kicked herself mentally after what she said next. "Dawn doesn't want you to go you know. She's miserable up there."
Spike leaned in closer to her and looked into the slayers eyes. When he could see nothing but walls, he once again rested on the back of the couch and said simply. "She'll get over it."
"Yeah," Buffy said bitterly. "Because I'm such a good father, mother and sister figure to her."
Spike sighed "I wouldn't say father but you are a good 'mother' and sister. All you need to know is that she's doing well and most of the is down to you."
"And Willow and Tara, because I can't do this on my own Spike! Without them I'd be lost."
Spike put his finger under her chin and spoke softly to her. "Without them, you would have the opportunity to say that you cared for her all by yourself and she turned out great. That besides killing all the evil in the world and saving countless lives, you are a good person who can cope, someone who can love her sister and have that be enough." Spike smiled and relaxed on the couch again.
He didn't see the slayers eyes swimming with tears of happiness. That in all the time since Willow had bought her back from the grave, Buffy actually felt good about herself and it was all because of a vampire. The vampire that she was supposed to hate.
Spike did fall asleep and this time, he wasn't woken up…until dinner.
* * * * *
"Dawn!!!" Buffy called up the stairs. A minute later, Dawns head poked out above the banister. "Buffy?"
"We're eating now, everyone's ready so get down."
"Okay, but I have to finish my last question on trig so I'll be there in two minutes."
Buffy nodded and returned to the kitchen where Willow and Tara were just about finished making the food.
"Spike's at the dining table." Willow said, through a yawn.
"Give him a bit of blood, that'll keep him happy for the rest of the day." Buffy grinned.
Willow snorted. "He eats normal food too you know? He asked us if we could do an onion flower too but we ran out of onions."
Someone laughed from the doorway, Dawn had arrived. "They aren't good for you either you know?"
Tara nodded. "But he's already dead."
* * * * *
Through all the hustle and bustle, it took another hour before they were all done eating and to keep Spike happy after the onion incident, Tara made Spike some buffalo wings.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
I hope you people liked it. Thank you for all the reviews that I have already received. I'll post the next chapter after I've written it.
Review and please, please don't flame. Thank you.
Pure-HP