Wanted to thank everyone for the reviews of the last chapter.

Chapter 7

Dawn looked from her sister to the stranger on the doorstep. "What's the oh god for?" she asked in confusion.

"I er…um…" Buffy was finding that she was having trouble forming words.

"What I think Buffy, your sister right?" asked Spike, Dawn nodded and he continued "What I think your sister is trying to say is that she forgot to mention that I could stay here for a while. See I'm all the way from England, and I have to leave my current digs. Buffy said I could hole up here until I found something else,"

"Yes…er...I…how careless of me. Let's go check out that spare room right now," said Buffy as Spike walked through the door and into the hallway.

Dawn shut the door behind him, watching as Buffy led him up the stairs.

"Don't do anything I wouldn't do," Dawn called up to them.

Buffy's foot almost faltered on the stair at her sister's teasing.

Spike chuckled behind her. "I like your sister,"

"Most of the time she is an unbearable brat," said Buffy, a little shamed at her words, almost the moment they were past her lips.

She took him towards the room at the end of the hall and opened it. Spike dumped his stuff on the bed; Buffy closed the door behind them. She turned to face him, her arms folded.

"Ethan said you were going to explain what was going on here," she demanded.

"Okay, give a bloke a moment," he replied as he took his cigarettes from his pocket and flicked open his lighter.

"I have a no smoking policy in this house, especially around Dawn. So you may as well get used to it," said Buffy.

Spike sighed and put the pack away. "Fine. The situation is this, Ethan has been found out for his little arranged marriages gig. They sent some under cover immigration officer to pose a person needing a quickie wedding. Ethan got wind of it and did a runner,"

"Why am I not surprised?" asked Buffy sarcastically. "What I don't get is why you have to live with me,"

"Simple, any recent marriage that Ethan has been within a hundred yards of, is under investigation. Seems he wasn't too good at covering his tracks…so for you to avoid the state pen and for me to avoid getting shipped back to merry old England, we have to play a little getting to know you game, play the happy newly weds and that sort of thing,"

"Spend time together, learning each others habits and stuff?"

"Now you're getting it, that's the girl I married," he grinned.

"Sssh," Buffy hissed.

"What? Lil sis doesn't know of your matrimonial bliss?" he asked.

"I told you no one does, especially not Dawn. Now we need a cover story…" Buffy paced the room nervously. "You are a friend of Faith's boyfriend Angel, and you want a place to stay for a while, three was becoming a bit of a crowd. I agreed to take you in, as I needed the extra rent money. So far so good?" asked Buffy.

"Sounds like you have it covered, might need to call Angel and bring him up to speed." Spike took out a cell phone, dialled Angel's number, and explained the situation to him.

Buffy watched him while he talked on the phone to his friend. For the first time, she noticed that he was left-handed. The breath caught in her throat as she saw he was still wearing his wedding ring. Her hand unconsciously when to her neck and she played with the gold chain that held her own wedding band. She had not removed it since that day six weeks ago.

Spike looked up at her as he said goodbye to Angel, seeing where her gaze rested. He felt a little uncomfortable. He held up his hand. "Yeah I know, it's just the day we got er married, your friend Faith saw the ring. I was a stupid ass and forgot to remove it. She thinks I am a married man, which of course technically I am," he smiled.

Buffy didn't return his smile. Hadn't Willow warned her that trouble came in threes? First, her mom had died and Dawnie had gotten sick and now she had to play happy families with Spike in tow. She sighed. The fates must really hate her.

"So how do you want to play this with the little bitty Buffy?" asked Spike

"Little bitty who-ey?"

"The nibblet, Dawn," Spike replied, rolling his eyes.

"Better not call her that, she gets mad easily,"

"She looks a little sickly," Spike observed.

Buffy felt defensive at his words. "She was sick, but she's getting better," she replied airily.

"If you don't want to tell me…" Spike trailed off.

"Look, I didn't ask to have you here, so while you are here can you please not pry into things that are none of your business?" asked Buffy.

Spike stood up, and although he wasn't overly tall, she felt at a distinct disadvantage at the height difference between them.

"Look luv, I have already explained what is going to happen if we don't work together on this. You go to the pen, where is it going to leave little sis? Faith told me about your mother. Sorry about that, but you have to be realistic here. Dawn seems a good kid, who deserves better than ending up in a children's home due to her sister's stubborn pride,"

Buffy sat down sharply on the end of the bed. Her shoulders slumped in defeat. Spike was right, as much as she loathed admitting it. He studied her white face, hating to be the bringer of bad news. He had often thought of her those six weeks apart and had found himself hanging on every word that Faith had said about her friend. It hadn't been much, because she and Angel were always either on their way out to some party or another or occupied in Angel's bedroom.

He noted the dark circles under her eyes, highlighted by the pallor of her skin. His fingers itched to take her in his arms, but he knew that it would be wrong. He didn't want to be thrown out after he had just gotten here. Buffy seemed a real survivor who had unfortunately had a lot heaped on her shoulders in a very short time. Maybe if she learnt to trust him a little, she would let him take on some of her burden…he wondered where this seep seated need to take care of her came from.

"Ok, just give me a few days to get used to the idea of your being here and we can work from there. What do you do for a living by the way? I need to know a few basics so Dawn doesn't rumble us," Buffy replied.

"I'm a writer, I also dabble in a bit of poetry when the mood takes me,"

Buffy's eyebrows shot up in surprise. She didn't know what he would say, but she hadn't been expecting that for sure. He didn't look the writer/poet type. Well what did they need writer tattooed on their forehead her inner voice spoke up.

"Ah, is that another word for unemployed?" she asked.

"I'm not broke if that's what you think," said Spike, a little stung by her condescending tone. "Besides can't do anything until my green card comes through. Before I forget, I have something that Ethan wanted me to give you,"

Spike reached inside one of his holdalls and took out what looked like a photo wallet. He handed it to her. She eyed it suspiciously before opening it. She looked at Spike as she removed the photos from inside. She let out a surprised gasp as she looked at a picture of her and Spike kissing just after they had been declared legally wed. She flicked through them quickly, going several different shades of red.

Both heads turned at a tentative knock on the door. Buffy started guiltily and dropped the photos on the floor.

"Dammit," she groaned as she dropped to her knees to quickly scoop them up. Spike joined her on the carpet and had just managed to shove them under the bed when the door opened.

Dawn looked at her sister and their new boarder, both red faced and out of breath on the carpet together "It was awful quiet, I wasn't disturbing anything was I? I can always come back later," a huge grin splitting her face as she watched them both.

"Your sister dropped something, I was just helping her to pick it up," said Spike smoothly.

"Ya, right. Gonna introduce me properly?" asked Dawn looking at her sister.

""Er, yes this is Spike. He's a friend of Angel's," said Buffy as she tried to get her breathing under control.

"Oh, I've met Angel a couple of times at the diner. He's pretty cool," said Dawn.

Spike snorted, before he extended a hand to her and she shook it. "Hello Dawn,"

"Why don't we let Spike here, unpack his things," said Buffy brightly, as she ushered her sister out of the room.

"It's okay, wanna keep him all to yourself huh?" asked Dawn, as she walked off.

"Dawn!" Buffy groaned, hearing her sister's laughter.

"Ever have one of those?" asked Buffy motioning to where Dawn had gone.

"No, I'm an only child actually," Spike replied, absentmindedly rubbing his hands down his jean clad thighs.

Buffy's eyes followed his movements, blushing as he caught her looking at him.

"There's clean linen in the cupboard at the end of the hall, we're having lunch around one-ish if you want to join us then?" she said before closing the door on him.

Finally, alone he let out the big sigh he had been holding in. "Well that put me in my place," he mumbled to himself, as he walked over to one of the windows that overlooked the yard. The grass was nearly a foot high and was in desperate need of mowing. The leaves from a couple of the trees were thickly scattered in the overlong grass. The whole garden had a feel of long-term neglect about it. He opened the window and breathed in the air. It was cleaner here in the burbs, away from the town. He took out a cigarette and lit it, leaning out of the window. Well it wasn't in the house exactly if he was half hanging out of the window now was it? He reasoned to himself.

He heard the sound of shoes on the wooden porch, and pulled in a little as not to be seen. It was Buffy; she walked down the steps and sat on them. She rested her elbows on her knees and stared off at some unknown point. Spike leaned out of the window to observe her a little better. She pulled out her gold chain from beneath her sweater and fiddled with it dreamily, Spike was arrested by the site of what dangled on the necklace. She still wore his ring, okay not on her finger like he had to, but she still carried it with her. He would have thought that she would have flushed it down the loo, at the first possible chance, but no she had still kept it…

Buffy sat up straight, why did she have the feeling she wasn't quite alone? She looked behind her to see if Dawn had snuck up on her on the off chance of making her jump, but no, the porch was deserted except for her, but there was this strange smell, that smelled a lot like someone smoking. Buffy looked up into a pair of blue eyes that were looking down at her…she quickly stuffed the necklace down the front of her sweater, but she had the distinct impression he had already seen her looking at it. She felt angry, and out of sorts at this new addition to her home.

"I thought I said no smoking in the house," she snapped to hide her discomfiture.

"Yeah, but technically I am not in the house see," he said holding up his cigarette and leaning further over the sill to emphasise his point.

"I'm going to make lunch," she huffed, slamming the kitchen door behind her.

Spike chuckled to himself, not really knowing why he like to goad her so much, she just seemed to bring out the devil in him. One thing he did know, that living under her roof, things were going to be far from boring.

TBC