A/N: Once again I would like to comment on the FANTASTIC review response, all of you who took the time and effort to review are just the best kinds of people in the whole world.

Disclaimer: I have always dreamed of this day... the day when I can say 'I own something!' Woohoo! So Kreckov is all miney mine mine. Shame the rest isn't though.

Dawn looked up at the large demon that was standing in front of her in the doorway. She dropped the bag of rubbish in her hand and screamed. "Buffy! Spike! Demon!"

Buffy and Spike looked at each other for a split second and then jumped up grabbing there clothes and dressed in record time. They tore up the stairs and burst open the door. Buffy went to the counter and grabbed a large knife and followed Spike who had already gone in. She was surprised however to bump into Spike who had stopped dead partly because of the sunlight streaming in, but mainly because of the large scaly demon at the doorway.

"Kreckov! What are you doing here? I said eight o'clock!" Spike shouted at the demon.

"Did you? Well I'm afraid I must have heard you wrong, I could have sworn you said three thirty" the demon replied shocking everyone with a perfectly clear English accent.

"Oh I get it! It's Giles right? But why did you call him Krecko or whatever you just said" Dawn said looking extremely confused.

"It's not Giles, it's one of my mates I told him to come round" Spike explained glaring at the demon.

"You INVITED a DEMON to MY house???" Buffy shouted mouth open.

"Relax, young woman I am not a threat to you, you can let go of the steely grip you have on that sharp metal object" the demon assured her politely

"Kreckov is a friend; he's here to help me with something"

"Oh is he like Clem?" Dawn said brightening at the thought.

"I don't care if he helps old ladies across the street I am NOT letting him into my house" Buffy seethed

"You are very aggressive aren't you? Ah, you must be the slayer then hmm? So that makes you Spike's…" Kreckov paused unsure, like everyone else was about there relationship.

"Spike's what? Wait you told him about us!!" Buffy turned her anger Kreckov to Spike who winced.

"I had to tell him! He's here to help me with a project"

"And what exactly is that?" Buffy said crossing her arms and glaring at Spike.

"Perhaps I can explain" said Kreckov taking a step forward

"You take that step and you won't have feet to walk with" Buffy shot at Kreckov who had the sense to back away.

"Your Christmas present" Spike mumbled.

"My what?" Buffy asked knocked off balance by that response.

"He's here to help me with your present alright?" Spike snapped angry that she had found out like this and quite possibly ruined the surprise.

"I am a spirit demon; I travel between dimensions to attain certain things for people or demons." Kreckov calmly explained.

"Is that supposed to stop me killing you?" Buffy asked eyebrows raised.

"Isn't it hard to travel between worlds with that thick scaly skin?" Dawn asked curiously, the danger now passed. She wasn't scared of the demon now; any friend of Spike's was a friend of hers. Plus this demon kind of reminded her of Giles.

"My skin is like this so that my body can withstand the walls between dimensions, they can be quite explosive" Kreckov said, his head slightly cocked to one side at Dawn.

Dawn was scared now; if this demon knew a lot about dimensions, then could he possibly know that she was the key? She had, like everyone else, assumed that she had somehow stopped being the key when they had defeated Glory, now she wasn't so sure, especially with Kreckov looking at her like that. But Dawn wasn't the only one who was thinking that, at that moment the same thought was running through Buffy and Spike's mind. Buffy's answer was to attack the demon, however before she got a chance, Spike's hand shot out to stop her.

"Look Kreckov's OK, he'll only be here for a little while" Spike tried to defend his friend.

"Yes, what you requested Spike shouldn't take too long, although having a witch would help, you wouldn't happen to know any witches do you?" Kreckov asked.

All of them looked uncomfortable.

"Absolutely not" Willow said firmly arms crossed.

"Oh come on Red, do a guy a favour will you? It's for a good cause I swear" Spike pleaded.

"I'm sorry Spike, I would really like to help you but I can't use magic again. Especially not with a demon" Willow snorted.

"Look I promise you it's not heavy stuff, he just need's a spark of magic to set it off" Spike whined.

"Stop moaning, I won't do it and that's that" Willow crossed her arms, resolve face in place.

"What's going on? Why is there a demon in the living room?" Tara asked in a worried tone as she came into the kitchen where Spike and Willow were.

"Tara! You'll help me wont you?" Spike begged. He needed this to work; it was his only shot at getting Buffy the best Christmas present ever.

"Help you with what?" Tara asked suspiciously, moving to stand next toWillow.

"My friend Kreckov in there is a spirit demon, he's here to help me with a present for Buffy but he need's a magical catalyst." Spike explained anxiously

"A spirit demon? I've heard of those, they normally help…" Tara stopped and looked at Spike in wonder.

"Oh" was all she said.

"What? What do you know about spirit demons?" Willow asked confused.

"Go in and tell him I'll do it, just give me a minute to explain to Willow" Tara said firmly.

Spike felt like kissing Tara "Thank you so much, I'll make sure Buffy knows how much you helped this"

Spike turned and ran into the living room.

"OK, now do you want to tell me what's going on?" Willow turned and asked Tara.

"There is no way in hell I am going in a room with that thing, I'll kill it" Buffy almost shouted.

Tara came into the room. "Buffy, if you don't trust Spike, can you at least trust me? I know what I am doing and I think that if you knew what was going to happen, you wouldn't have such a problem with it"

"Well then why don't you just tell me what's going on?"

"It's a surprise pet" Spike added

Buffy looked at the demon who was standing in the middle of the room looking calmly at her. She then looked at Tara and finally at Spike.

"Fine, but if we do it, we do it in here. And I'm taking a weapon"

Spike visibly relaxed and nodded at Kreckov who then nodded at Tara. Spike shut all the doors in the living room bar one.

"I'm right here if you need me" He then disappeared out of the room. Buffy wondered for a fleeting second why he had said that, but she decided to worry about that later. She walked over to the weapons chest and picked out an axe. She stepped in front of the demon.

"Let's get this over with"

Kreckov merely nodded and Tara shut all the curtains, leaving the room dark. She quickly lit some candles. They all stood in the flickering light and then both Kreckov and Tara closed their eyes. Buffy tightened her grip on the axe and fought the urge to cut Kreckov's head out of sheer curiosity of what was going to happen.

Kreckov started to chant in a language Buffy had never heard before, and he held out his hands to the space in front of him. After a minute or two, bright light came slipping from his hands, snaking its way to make a portal. When the portal was as big as Buffy herself he stopped and Tara glowed slightly. Little balls of green energy escaped from her skin and made there way to the portal. Slowly, as if forming a sculpture the portal's mass began to change and show the form of a woman. Kreckov then shouted again in the strange language and the portal flashed a light so bright that Buffy closed her eyes. When she opened them her face was etched with shock and the axe could be heard clattering to the floor.

"Mommy?"

Spike paced outside which was difficult as there were spots of sunlight everywhere but right now he was just trying very hard to keep calm. What if she didn't like it? What if this just upset her even more? All of these questions ran over Spike's mind a million times. Willow just watched as she sat on the stairs.

"Spike would you sit down? You're making me nauseous"

"I can't sit I'm to wired, I mean what if this was a terrible idea? What if she stakes me? What if she hates me?"

"Wow, you're so stressed your rhyming"

Spike snorted.

"Look, it will be OK, this is a great present and frankly I don't know how you did it, but Buffy will love it" Willow tried to reassure him.

"Did you check on the nibblet? I don't want her to walk in till Buff's finished"

"I told her you and Buffy were having a grown up moment in the living room, that should keep her away for at least 5 hours"

Spike let out a nervous laugh.

"Spike, are you sure it's such a good idea to let Dawn see her? I mean she's been through enough this year"

"Joyce was Dawn's mum too. It's not fair to only let Buffy see her. Besides, when Buffy tells her what happened,Dawn is hardly gonna be happy is she?

"Still it might be a bit much. I don't know if Dawn would get over it."

Spike shrugged. "That's not our choice to make" They both went silent and looked at the closed doors.

"You got a hug for your old mom?" Joyce smiled at her daughter.

Buffy threw herself into giving her mom a hug. She squeezed her so tight that Joyce coughed a little but.

"I see you haven't lost any of that slayer strength" Joyce managed to get out.

Buffy pulled back but still look completely shocked. "Are you… real?"

"I'm as real as you are. For the time being anyway, I'm sorta taking a little vacation at the minute" Buffy just stayed with her mouth open.

"How?"

"That would be your demon friend over here's influence. He's moved me from where I was so that I could pop in and say hello, but I can't stay long"

"What? But there's so much that I…"

"We'll have enough time don't worry" Joyce interrupted " Come, sit down with me"

Joyce led Buffy over to the sofa and they both sat down neither of them noticing the small wisp of silver smoke that was floating where Joyce had been standing.

"So sweetie tell me what's been going on with you"

Dawn paced up and down in her room. She could tell something was going on, she could almost feel it. She really hoped that Willow wasn't doing magic again, because she had this tingling in the back of her neck that told her magic was definitely going on. However, when the gang went to this much trouble to keep you out of it; it was usually because it was dangerous. Dawn sighed, when were they going to stop treating her like she was a baby?

Xander pushed his foot down on the accelerator. It was really bugging him that Spike was alone in the house with some of the most important people in his life. He wasn't going to lie though, the idea of Spike and Buffy together in the house was what really made his skin crawl. He gripped the steering wheel.

"You're going to break that you know, and I won't give you any of my money to get it replaced." Anya scolded him.

"I'm sorry, I just wanna get there to keep the guys safe"

"From Spike? Xander he's got a chip in his head! And even if he didn't do he wouldn't do anything because he is head over heels in love with Buffy"

"And that doesn't bother you? Anya, its Spike"

"But that's exactly my point it's Spike. Big and incredibly old Spike, any fool can see through his big bad image. You're just overreacting because Spike threatens your incredibly fragile male ego"

"That's not it! Look, Spike's bad for Buffy. Her and vampires always end badly; usually with one of us getting hurt"

"So you're masquerading as being concerned about Buffy's welfare when really you are just concerned for yourself. That's really comforting Xander"

"Can we just get there please?"

They drove the rest of the way in silence. For the second time that day, Xander gripped the steering wheel.

"So work's a nightmare, Dawn's a clepto and I have this completely messed up relationship with Spike" Buffy finished after an hour of explaining to her mom how screwed up her life was.

"Buffy you've always done this, made things complicated when they're not"

"See, everyone keep's saying that, but I swear I'm not " Buffy protested

"It's simple really. OK let's start with work, why did you go to work in the Doublemeat anyway?"

"It's the money, there are so many bills's to be paid and stuff that I had to take the first thing that came along"

"Well what about what I left you for your college fund?"

Buffy looked confused. "What? We spent all the money you left us in the insurance and from your will if that what you mean"

Joyce shook her head "No I mean for your college education, me and your father had been saving since you were little for college, and when you dropped out we just left it for when you decided to go back"

Buffy looked confused. "So you mean to tell me that all this time I've had thousand's sitting in the bank?"

Joyce looked at her sternly "Young lady you are not to spend any of that money on shoes"

Buffy laughed "Don't worry, it'll be enough of a relief to not have to go into that awful place again"

"There's enough there for college and for your accommodation, but if you stay at home with Dawn you can use that money for bill's. Then you can go back to school and get a real job"

Buffy's eyes welled up and she gave her mother another crushing hug.

"Thank you so much mom"

Buffy broke apart from the hug "I missed this, how you could come in and make everything OK"

Buffy sniffed and Joyce stroked her hair. "Now about you and Spike…"

"Oh please mom can we not go into that?"

"Buffy Summers, you are not running away from this. I know that you have some issues as you kid's call it when it comes to men but that is not excuse for the way you have been treating him"

Buffy stayed silent and started picking at the couch. Joyce sighed.

"Spike loves you. And I know that you are confused over how you feel about him, but you need to stop treating him like he's the enemy, because let's face it, how many evil things has he done recently?"

Joyce looked at her mother's concerned but stern face and realised that her mother's mere presence was living proof of how much Spike had changed. Maybe it was time she started giving him credit for that?

"You're having one of those moments where I don't have a clue what you're thinking, does that mean you'll consider what I said?"

Buffy laughed "God I missed you mom, sometimes I just wanted you to hold me and tell me it's was gonna be alright"

Joyce tucked a stray hair behind Buffy's ear. "And it will be, but you have to stand on your own now, I know it's hard but it's what you have to do. Be my big strong girl." Joyce smiled.

"I love you mom, you know that right?"

"Of course I do sweetie, and I love you too"

Joyce pulled her daughter in for a hug and Buffy rested her head on her mother's shoulder. For the first time since she came back, she felt like everything was going to be good from now on.

OK people, so the brief reapperance of Joyce was one of the two main twists in this story, and possibly the one I was most unsure about..... So review! Tell me what you think! All comments are welcome!