Gypsy 4: Baggage

Buffy looked around the Giles's house. It was apparent that two men had moved in; the place was stark, lacking color, and had an over all disorganized feeling. It seemed hopeless too Buffy and she wondered why exactly her mom felt that she needed to be there.

Buffy stood in the in the family room close to Dawn as Joyce and Rupert put the brownies Joyce had made in the kitchen. Buffy wondered what was taking Spike so long to get down stairs; he had been called like ten minuets ago. What a waste of a perfectly good Friday.

It had been a week since the cook out and all Dawn had thought about was when she was going to see Spike again and now she was standing in his living room. Her heart was in her throat as she waited for him to join them. She was fidgety and Buffy kept telling her to stop touching things.

Spike didn't know what was waiting for him down stairs but he was certain he wasn't going to like it. He made his way down the stairs slowly, a far cry from the bounding decent he would have once made.

Dawn's attention had been drawn to a picture on the fireplace mantel; it was of a lovely young woman. The thing Dawn liked most about the picture was the pretty beads that were draped over the frame. She was about to touch them when she heard Spike on the stairs.

Buffy huffed at Spikes smug appearance. Who did he think he was making his "grand" entrance? She crossed her arms in front of her and preyed that Dawn didn't do anything too embarrassing.

"Elo." Spike nodded to the girls as he shoved his hands deep in his pockets. Dawn replied with a timid hello, Buffy's reply held a bit of annoyance. The awkward silence that followed was rather painful and Buffy sought to fill it. "This is a nice house."

Spike nodded "Yeah, it's nice." Spike looked around for his dad and noticed that Dawn was reaching up towards the picture on the mantel. "Don't" Spike said softly. Dawn jumped back "Sorry." Buffy pulled Dawn back and told her to go sit on the sofa. "She's pretty" Dawn squeaked from her seat "I like the necklace."

"Yeah, my mum." Spike sat down on the other side of the sofa. "And it's not a necklace, it was her rosary." Dawn nodded her head with an "oohhh" Buffy knew she didn't understand. She'd probably have to explain it to her sister later.

"Hi, William." Joyce and Rupert came back into the living room. "Morning." Spike acknowledged the adults.

"Sorry about the mess ladies. We've been working on getting all the boxes unpacked with little luck." Rupert removed and cleaned his glasses. Spike sunk a little lower in his seat. "Well that's what we're here for." Joyce said with a cheery smile. Buffy's head flew up and Spike put his hand over his eyes, both knowing it was going to be a long painful day.

"I know can you believe it my mom dragged us over there this morning to help them unpack there boxes it was totally weird. First we got there and it was forever before he came down like he wanted to be fashionably late or something. When he finally came downstairs I was stuck all alone with Dawn and him before our parents came in to inform us that we were going to be unpacking stuff. And that was totally weird." Buffy laid on her bed flipping throw a magazine as she talked on the phone to her best friend. "What was so weird about it?" Willow wanted to know everything that happened. "Well Mr. Giles wasn't too bad he was real particular about were things went, but Spike was the real weird one. It was like he didn't want us to touch anything especially if it belonged to his mother."

"Well that's understandable."

"Yeah it is but that doesn't make it not weird. We got through pretty much everything downstairs and he was asking his dad if he'd seen a box of books and things he was missing. So while Mom and Dawn were putting things away in the kitchen the rest of us were searching for this box. I found in the garage way in the back behind this wheelchair."

"Wheelchair?" Willow questioned.

"Yeah, I assume it was the mothers. Anyway I brought the box in and it was full of all this big old books and CDs."

"What kind of books?" Now Willow was really interested she hadn't taken Spike for much of a reader.

"I don't know. Some of them were History books, I also saw like The Once and Future King and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight."

"Wow do you think he read them?"

"I think your guess would be as good as mine. Anyway I totally brought the box in and he didn't take it up stairs or anything. He just left it where I set it and ran off somewhere. I don't know it was weird I don't know where he disappeared to but his dad took the box upstairs. I really like to know what it is he's done to get his dad to spoil him like that."

"You think he's spoiled."

"Everything I've seen really points to him being a spoiled brat. He seems to get to do what ever he wants go where ever he wants. I mean he even got to skip out on helping use un- pack." Buffy was really irritated the boy and didn't know what to do about it.

"And the best part is they're coming over for Dawns birthday party Sunday."

To be continued...