And We Have Found Our Crumb Of Hope

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Hope you like this chapter, I'm starting in on a Spuffy All-Human right now, hopefully, so updates will be less frequent from now on. But the A/U should be fun!

Disclaimer: I know Joss owns it all, I just wish I did... I mean, then we could have a Spike spin-off, with a heavy side of Spuffiness.

Buffy didn't know how he managed to do these things. Dee had still been getting over the deep slice to her hip last night, so Spike had volunteered to run a quick patrol. Operative word: quick. He'd promised to be home in time for Friday video night with Dawn. As a gesture of thankfulness Dawn and Dina had let them have one Spike-friendly video- something ridiculously gory none of them wanted to watch. But the quiet patrol had gone wrong and Spike had gotten trapped in a crypt in an extremely old cemetery until the sun went down. She thought she could at least be thankful she'd thought to force her cell phone on him before he'd left so he could phone them.

"I'm not going to primp for you..." Buffy swore she could hear him cocking his eyebrow at her, "ok, maybe I am."

"Right, love you too." And she hung up rather harder than she'd meant too.

"Problems in Buffy-and-Spike-land?" Dee asked casually from the table, where she was flicking through a teen magazine and sipping coffee.

"He's an idiot," Buffy declared, sitting down with her own coffee. "He got himself trapped outside in daylight, which means my anniversary dinner is totally delayed."

"The anniversary dinner he's been obsessing about for the past week?" Dina asked, "I think he's going to pop the question." Buffy opened and closed her mouth several times.

"Which question is that, exactly?" Buffy managed to ask her charge finally.

"The big one. Diamond ring and all. I mean, was I the only one who didn't buy the excuse about needing to take Dawn out to get blood from the butcher's because he'd forgotten where it was?"

"Spike... ask me too..." Buffy trailed off, fantasies she'd had, if she wanted to be completely honest, since he had returned to sanity, playing wildly through her mind. "I doubt it, I mean we play normal and all, but we're not. I'm a Slayer, he's a vampire. We can be together, in the real sense, but married? I doubt even Spike's that much of a romantic..."

"I don't know about that, he's pretty intent on giving you everything you want, Buff," Dee said, "I kind of wish I could find someone like Spike. I mean, he wants you to be happy, and he would do anything for you, you know

that. But he's just so-"

"Loving," Buffy finished as Dee floundered for a word, "and I don't deserve it for a second. We were engaged once before, and it was amazing- I remember that, even though I think I treated him a bit more like shit after that."

"You were engaged?"

"Yeah, before the soul, though. It was a spell Will did that went just a little bit wrong," Buffy explained, as the witch in question entered the kitchen.

"You talking about the incident that had me making cookies twenty-four seven for a year? Not to mention figuring out some really funky herbs to put in Spike's blood, which he still hasn't thanked me for..." the redhead said, ignoring entirely the two shocked looks.

"Thought you were going to go see Kennedy," Buffy said, wondering whether her day could get any worse. First Spike pulled a disappearing act, and now it looked like they wouldn't even get the house to themselves.

"She, well, let's just say I phoned her last night and she didn't exactly seem like she was going to make with the welcoming so I decided I'd rather stay here." Willow looked over her shoulder at Buffy, "stop giving me that look. I'll clear out so you and Spike can still have your flowers and romance night in. Where is the Bleached Wonder, anyway?"

"Got himself trapped outside in the middle of the day, currently hiding out in a crypt," Buffy explained. "And thanks, Will, if you need to talk about anything... my love life is angst-free enough at the moment to pay some attention to yours."

"Kinda a first," Willow joked, sitting down beside the two Slayers.

"What can I say? I date jerks, and pigs."

"So the calm currently is?"

"Goofed up somewhere, ended up with a nice one," Buffy smiled dreamily. Willow still found it weird to see Buffy in such a normal relationship, well, normal by their standards. She was sure there were a lot of people who wouldn't consider a couple who had met by trying to murder each other normal. She just didn't happen to be one of them.

"Nah, we've been on the rocks a while, to tell the truth, this visit would have ended with this anyway. And I promise, no bad-engagement spells this time. I mean, let's say I hit you and Andrew this time. Doubt Spike would be as understanding as Riley was," Willow grinned as Buffy made gagging motions.

"Like they need a spell, am I the only one who thinks they'll be married by the end of the year?" Dina asked the two older women.

"I think they will, Spike's obsessing way too much over tonight for it not to be more important than just a romantic thing," Willow nodded in agreement. "Plus, the man knows the city like the back of his hand, needing Dawn, who couldn't find her way out of a paper bag, to take him to the butchers?" She waved a hand dismissively. "They were doing something else. I'm saying buying Buffy a big, pretty rock."

"Still in the room here!" Buffy interrupted, "and I still don't think Spike would propose."

"Why not?" Dina asked her Watcher.

"He's Spike, the man who likes to believe he's the Big Bad, wears all black, has the smallest, fastest, most irritatingly showy car in existence, and likes to flex his muscles just for the hell of it. He abhors romance when it doesn't end in him getting some or isn't on Passions." Buffy explained, "he won't ask me to marry him. He's still... insecure about taking big steps for us. Why wouldn't he be? If I ever want to marry him, I'll have to ask."

"Do you?" Willow asked her.

"Maybe, someday," Buffy said, "but I'm happy where we are now. And that's saying something. I mean, it's Spike and me, we love each other but we're, how did Dawn put it that time we kept her up half the night screaming at each other? Volatile. Plus, I'm still flying high on the fact that he came back to me. I don't think I could ask any more than that."

"You thought he wouldn't? You two both know the guy better than me, but Buffy the man loves you. In a very big way."

"Big, scary way," Dawn added, coming into the room.

"True or false, Spike knows exactly where the blood butcher's shop is?" Dawn fidgeted at Willow's question.

"Can't answer that without getting my head bitten off," she replied, edging out of the room.

"Should Buffy be expecting to get anything shiny tonight?" Willow asked the younger girl.

"I wouldn't know," Dawn replied, "in fact, I don't really understand your question in any way shape or form. So I'm going to leave and... be gone."

"Definitely something very fishy going on here!" Dee crowed, just as the doorbell rang.

"I'll go get that, try not to make any other totally impossible suggestions while I'm gone," Buffy threw over her shoulder as she left the room in her sister's wake. Though she'd never admit to anyone that a thousand different images of Spike asking her to be his wife were flitting wildly through her head . But she was sticking to her guns on the fact that no matter how much they pretended to be normal, they would never be able to do something so... perfect. But she wasn't getting her hopes up, the man couldn't even do what his body was programmed to do- get the hell inside before the sun came up- so how was he going to guess that he could take an absolutely huge step in their relationship?

She sighed, the events of that night in the bathroom, while firmly in the past they tried to let interfere with their present as little as possible, still had huge repercussions. But they were getting smaller, he was getting used to being able to actually, really be with her. And she was slowly but surely getting used to getting taken care of, sometimes. Though he was going to have to get used to the fact that when she was on patrol, things that came up behind her and didn't breathe got a stake in them, she'd almost dusted him twice in the past year and didn't ever want to come that close again.

She couldn't lose him, she knew that now. It would be impossible for her to lose him, her man, her monster, her everything. Buffy had always been afraid of that, of letting someone totally consume you, because then, when they left, you did too. You simply ceased to exist, as you had been with them, without them. She'd almost let it happen with Angel, kept far away from it with Riley, and then there was Spike... After he'd died, she'd realized that she'd fallen in love with him in that scary, all consuming way that she'd always avoided. And then he'd come back, and she'd given in. So that now, when he'd been gone for less than twelve hours (sadly she was counting), she actually missed him. These were the thoughts running through her head as she opened the door, expecting it to be her ever-intrusive elderly neighbour who she didn't like. The woman was totally enamoured with Spike though, who had introduced himself to her as 'William' for some obscure reason.

"Buffy," the man at the door said, and Buffy was abruptly taken from her romantic reverie.

"D-dad?" Buffy asked Hank Summers, who was standing at her front door

Fifteen minutes later a very shell-shocked Buffy was playing some fast improvisation games to explain their living situation. She would be the first to admit that it was ridiculous, and Spike was going to have a fit when he found out that he was now Andrew's brother-in-law, not to mention Dee's brother. And she highly doubted that anyone believed that Willow was their live-in maid. But, since her father knew nothing about what had really happened in Sunnydale (they all got a good laugh out of the 'freak earthquake' stories), she couldn't really explain the absence of Spike when they had spent a week with him two years earlier on the path to Europe. So, with that one, she'd stuck as near to the truth as she could.

"Spike was in the high school when it collapsed- it was one of the first buildings that did- and we all thought he died. He showed up hear a year ago, he had been-" Buffy made eye contact with Willow, who looked back as if to say 'yeah, well, you got yourself into this sweetie'. "Very ill. He didn't want to cause us any more pain." Dawn was looking at her sister oddly, though, after her father had arrived, she hadn't been much better off than Buffy.

"So, Dad, what brings you to this continent?" Dawn asked, eager to get the topic off of who was living in their house and why.

"A big meeting, then I remembered that my two girls are living here and I thought I'd stay an extra week or two and see you- it seems like we never talk any more," Buffy, with strength normally reserved for swan-diving into portals, stopped herself from making a snarky retort or retching. "I didn't realize I was coming to such a... full house, you got room for your old man?"

"After the earthquake it made us all realize our priorities, family was definitely one of mine," Buffy said, "that explains the house, I suppose."

"Uh, Buff?" Willow interrupted, "Dawn's kinda the only one here related to you." Buffy shot her a death glare. "In the technical sense, of course, but doesn't this house feel like a family? One big happy non-murdered family!" Willow looked peppy for a moment, before leaving, tugging Andrew, who had been lounging with his camera on one of the counters with her. "Come on, Andrew, let's go see your wife. Hope you live through this one."

"Yeah, I'm gonna go do some schoolwork, k? You two should chat, catch up, Dad and I'll find something to do together later," Dawn said, exiting the kitchen before her sister or father could protest. She only felt a little bit guilty about it, after all, he wasn't technically her father, and technically they'd never met before. Dawn cringed and could swear she heard Spike's voice saying 'and that's a reason to put your sis through hell with that wanker, love?' in her head. She honestly hated the part of her mind that spoke in his voice. At least when it was Buffy's voice it wasn't using annoying pet names.

Buffy had spent the rest of the afternoon with her father, and at five when the sun went down enough for Spike to be able to get home, she had developed a habit of running to the door whenever she thought she heard a car. Her father had been horrid and unreachable and patronizing and at that point she would have done anything to have Spike to back her up.

When she heard his key in the lock on the front door she didn't even bother to excuse herself as she dashed for the front hall. Burying her face in Spike's neck before he had even stepped into the actual house.

"I take it you missed me, love," Spike greeted, not particularly disappointed with the welcome. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissing the top of her head.

"That's part of it," Buffy said, "and you know I worry about you. And, well, you know how it's supposed to be our anniversary tonight?"

"Yeah, love, had a faint bit of a clue after all the nagging about what I was giving you and the almighty scolding I got this morning." Spike said, pulling back and assessing her outfit of a loose white shirt and a pair of well-faded blue jeans, her cross necklace was balled up in one fist, a wooden one today. He noted the severed edges of string protruding from her fist before she set it down on the table as she pulled him into the house. He assumed she must have ripped it off before hugging him, and was thankful that she'd remembered for once. They both forgot from time to time what they were, and made these little slip-ups. But the cross-shaped burns were something he could live without.

"Well, it's kinda off," Buffy said.

"Apocalypse?"

"Worse. My father."

"That bloody wanker?" Spike said, clearly angry. "You didn't let him stay here, did you? Because if so than God help me Buffy. I know I've done some horrible things in my day- but what that man did to you, Joyce and the Bit is unforgivable."

"I know that Spike, but he's my father. I can't just turn him away," Buffy sighed and rested her head on his chest again, "please, just back me up on this one?"

"I've always got your back, Slayer, you know that." Spike placed a chaste kiss on her shoulder. "I think this is only going to end in you and the bit in tears, and I think it's one of the most monumentally stupid things you could do. But I've got your back."

"I'm not deluding myself by playing happy-families, Spike. I'm very firmly in the shiftless-absentee secretary-screwing sperm-donor Daddy world. But if he's trying, even a little bit- doesn't Dawn deserve that?" She looked up into his eyes, "don't I deserve a little bit of fantasy?"

"You deserve the world, pet," he smiled at her, "but the man gets on your nerves and you must have done some damn good footwork to explain Dee, the boy and Red."

"Your sister, her husband and our maid. I think Andrew's the only one who's remotely happy with the

arrangements."

"I would never let any sister of mine marry Andrew."

"She eloped then. Fabricate all you want. Fantasyland until Daddy dearest leaves. Besides, Spike, what was I supposed to say 'Daddy, get the hell out of my house, my evil-undead boyfriend holds grudges'?" Buffy asked him, "I couldn't just kick him out."

"You know the invite thing? Should work with everyone. Run into a solid wall if they don't want you, always gave me a quick tip-off." Spike grumbled. "I'm going to go get changed, set myself up for the whole meet-Daddy gig. But if he tells me to take care of you I cannot be held responsible for my actions."

"Just don't turn him. I hate it when I have to kill close family members," her eyes fell slightly and Spike pulled one of her hands to his lips, pressing a soft kiss on it to distract her from what he did quickly to the other one.

"Don't want to keep that man alive longer than is strictly necessary," Spike said, before placing a quick kiss on her lips and leaving the room, making his way down the hall. Buffy raised her hand to run it through her hair, which she'd left hanging loose. She was surprised when something caught in it, she knew she'd gone totally jewellery-free today. She pulled the hand down to see if she'd snapped a nail and then she saw it.