Now and Forever

A/N: I'm sorry for the lack of updates. RL and exams followed by writer's block, the idea that this story might not be going anywhere, a complete despair of ever completing anything ever again and some other stuff made me sad enough not to write. Again, sorry. Alright, so, with the AU-ness. Dru doesn't know that Spike and Buffy are together or ever were. Angel and Cordelia are together, Connor is about five (no Holtz, just not ever). I fully understand that this chapter totally sucks, that there is very little plot action and that I never did say where Willow and Andrew and Dee were but um… think happy thoughts that I posted it?

Angel, Buffy had long ago decided, could be the most aggravating person on the face of the earth when he wanted to be. But, he played by his rules, one of those rules, she had learned, was to avoid Spike at all costs. So, when a bit more than six feet of drenched vampire had shown up at her door half an hour ago, the last thing she had been expecting was to be shunted to the living room while the two vampires locked themselves up in the library.

Another of Angel's rules was to never, ever explain anything to anyone, especially her, before the world depended on it. So, when he'd swept in side her house the moment she'd invited him and the first words out of his mouth had been a command to get Spike, she hadn't been surprised. She hadn't obeyed, but she hadn't been surprised. What had surprised her was when her vampire did appear he gave one look to his grandsire, took one deep breath, nodded and they were both up the stairs. The only sounds she'd heard after that were the locking of the library door, followed by the unlocking of the liquor cabinet that Spike kept in there.

She had tried to eavesdrop, but one or the other of the vampires had heard her and Spike had come out, wrapped his arms around her waist, and told her to bugger off, he'd explain everything later. She had grumbled a bit, and Spike had told her it was family, that he loved her, and that she might do well to call the hotel where Angel was staying and have Cordelia and his son come somewhere vamp's needed an invite to get into. That was when she'd gotten worried, the apocalypse she could have handled, but she knew very well that the only family Spike and Angel had in common any more, mostly thanks to her, was Drusilla.

The idea of Drusilla actually terrified her, she knew that Spike the man loved her and the demon had, kicking and screaming, gone along with what the man asked. But Dru was the vampire's sire, and she knew that meant obedience, and complicated rules. And it meant she was in the same country as the bitch who'd hurt her man, which never meant anything good.

Sighing heavily, Buffy picked up the phone and dialled the number her boyfriend had given her.

"It's just Dru, Peaches," Spike shot at his grandsire from his chair behind the oak desk, his feet planted on it, while Angel stood at the window, looking at Spike with a practiced air of annoyance and grudging affection.

"I'm telling you, she has a plan," Angel replied.

"And I'm telling you that she's not half sane enough to make a plan and stick with it."

"She turned half a coven, you're telling me she that just for kicks?" Angel retorted to his insolent grand-childe.

"You're the one who told her pure things are the best," Spike told him, "took everything you said to heart."

"I know that," Angel snapped, "but Dru's always hated witchcraft, or at least last time I talked to her-"

"More than one way to skin a cat," Spike said, apparently randomly, and noticing the look from his grandsire, he elaborated. "Dru hates magic 'cause of the soul- or souls, she should know- and she knows how you lose yours, either you've gotten around that or you're a hell of a lot brighter-"

"I hurt your girl, I'm sorry. Can we not?" Angel interrupted.

"Doesn't mean I'm not pissed, but anyway. Let's say you're right, and Dru has found someone else to make her plans or she's made her own and turned a coven for a reason, she's done it to get one or the other of us back to ourselves. And I'm betting it's me."

"Egotistical much?"

"You sound just like your girlfriend, you know," Spike said, "then, again, assuming you're right- which would be weird- I'm her childe, the only way I can attack her is if she tries to hurt my mate-"

"So, she wants to get to you, we both know she has to go through Buffy first."

"Are you that out of touch with your demon, man? I claimed the Slayer, 'cause I knew Dru wouldn't notice, minions used to get away with it under her nose all the time and I never told her, but if we were mated, that'd be something she'd notice."

"Buffy let you claim her?"

"Yeah, when we got engaged, it's none of your business, Peaches," Spike replied, knowing that this conversation was going to spiral completely of topic very shortly, and it was either going to be hell or very, very funny. He was hoping for funny.

"She knows what that means?"

"We went over it, yeah, it was nothing that wasn't there already. She's mine," ah, hell. Why did it have to be hell?

"And you're…"

"Hers, body, demon and soul."

"But she…"

"Can't claim me in return, because I don't much fancy Dru pulling her heart out of her chest."

"You would have said that was poetry."

"Dear God, Liam, you know me. I'm not about to hurt the woman I love."

"Hasn't stopped you in the past. And don't call me Liam."

"You called me William for twenty-odd years, payback's a bitch. And that is absolutely none of your bloody business. It's different now, alright? She trusts me."

"It's not, my business, I mean," Angel concedes, shocking the younger vampire. "It's just, I worry about her. Actually, about both of you," Spike's only response was a quirked eyebrow. "You are family, you know."

"That wouldn't have mattered to you," Spike echoed Angel's words.

"Never killed you, did I?"

"'S only 'cause you wouldn't keep stakes around, 'case Dru got out of hand," Spike mumbled under his breath, but decided not to say anything his sire could hear, because he couldn't imagine the Slayer would be happy if he started a fistfight.

"You aren't the only one with vampiric hearing, or smelling. And why do you let her cook?" Angel said, slightly angry, but not enough to bring it up. Even if they had gotten phenomenally sidetracked, it was quite probable they'd be working together until they could figure out what Drusilla was doing. "So, with Dru, you can't fight."

"It'd be awkward if I did, what, with the demon obeying her, can't say as I'd be much use to anyone."

"The demon…"

"It's no wonder you didn't know how the curse worked," Spike groaned, "the demon is subservient to Dru, I don't give a damn one way or the other, I'd follow my Slayer to hell and back, have a couple times, but that's not the demon. Demon loves the girl, but it knows who made it, who it owes life too."

"So what you're saying is you couldn't fight off the demon to hurt Dru?"

"Probably not, or at least couldn't keep the demon from killing whoever was trying to get to Dru while I was trying to get the deed done myself. How is it you don't know these things?"

"How do you know them? I've never seen you reading something that wasn't poetry or porn. Do they have vampire-lore poetry now?" Angel asked, "or is there a handbook?"

"Watcher. We know everything, or that's what Buffy told me before she gave me the big lecture on vampires with souls. God knows what possessed her to find out, literally, probably. And no, no handbook. Plus, earned it, knew what I was in for," Angel looked at the Englishman oddly for a moment.

"She really loves you, doesn't she?" It was quite, and a horrible thing to say. Angel did have Cordelia, and Connor, but Buffy had once been his salvation. The idea that she could love another man as completely as she loved Spike was strange and terrifying for him. Even if he had left so she could find someone else, he had never expected her to actually do so.

"She loved you once, too," Spike said, sensing through a bond that had almost no right to have survived his relationship with the other vampire, that it was the first time Angel had really admitted it, and not being able to let him hurt. As Angel had said, it was family.

"Once," Angel said, sullenly. "What makes you long-haul guy material?" Spike avoided about three obvious comebacks to Angel's question by getting up and walking over to the door and breathing in deeply.

"You're right, she is cooking, and she's probably right pissed off by now," Spike groaned, "you know I'm going to tell her everything you've told me about Dru, right? What I know, she knows, it's just how it works with us."

"All of it?" In the past hour or so, they'd rehashed every bad thing either of them could ever remember the other doing, briefly resorted to making things up and called a few hesitant truces. Spike cocked his head to the side, thinking.

"Yeah," he said, "I'm not worried about what she thinks of me. Lesson you should've learned, she never wanted a redeemed you, or a human you, just you. And I've stopped trying to fight my way through to heaven."

"You don't want redemption?" Angel asked, even as Spike put his hand on the doorknob and began turning it.

"Don't know that I believe in it," was the only reply he got before Spike was out the door. The younger vampire was halfway down the stairs by the time Angel had turned to go to the liquor cabinet.

Later that night, Cordelia, Angel and Connor had been settled into Dawn's room (Dawn was spending a few weeks in a friend's dorm to see if she liked it), Buffy silently slid into her own bedroom, where Spike was already in bed, lying on his back, which was unusual for him, and staring at the ceiling.

"Hi," she said, sliding her clothes off and grabbing one of his shirts before sliding into bed beside him and wrapping her arms around his torso. When Spike didn't respond she started talking, "Connor's sweet, isn't he? I was surprised something cute could come out of Darla, or Angel, actually. And I can't believe Angel and Cordy are a thing, I mean, she had a crush on him way back in the when, but then there was Xander, and some demon guy or something," Buffy grinned and curled closer to her fiancé. "I'm happy Angel's got somebody, you know. I kind of always thought he'd stick around pining for me forever, which is stupid, because he's not the type. To, you know, mope around in love with someone for like, more than three minutes," Spike gave a weak smile and Buffy congratulated herself.

He'd played with Connor for hours and avoided the 'grown-up' conversation, as he'd referred to it. Through the conflicting haze of thoughts about Drusilla ('that bitch won't lay a hand on him') and what a good father Spike would make ('dear God, did he actually just take him to brush his teeth?'), she had noticed that he was keeping an ear on the conversation, just not joining in. And Buffy had known that no matter how well he was hiding it, he was hurting, which had to be stopped. She knew that no matter what happened, he was hers and not Drusilla's, she wasn't jealous, not really. Just wanted to watch Drusilla die. That was all.

"I know you're worried about what'll happen with Drusilla," she offered, "I trust you. And if you don't fight, you don't fight. One of the reasons I love you, you can let me go be a big girl, Angel and Riley tried to… I don't know, pick my battles. You never did that, just ready to fight beside me when I asked. And, yeah, sometimes when I specifically told you not too," that last part elicited a noise that Buffy decided could be identified as a chuckle, and she cuddled even closer to her fiancé, burrowing under one of his arms, resting her head in the spot that wasn't neck or shoulder where it fit perfectly. After a moment of comfortable silence, she spoke again. "I never loved Angel the way I love you, you know. I always thought that no matter what, nothing could ever hurt him. Even after I killed him, he was, I don't know, solid. And with you, God, half my time is spent worrying about you. But at the same time, I know that if it's at all under your control, you'll come home to me at night," she reached up and kissed him on the cheek.

"It's my fight, with Dru," he said finally.

"If she tries to hurt you, it's mine," Buffy said, sitting up to look him in the eye. "And I know you can't fight her unless we…"

"We don't know that she knows about us, sweetheart, and I'm not risking her finding out, alright?" Spike said, still quiet.

"If she does?"

"We talk options."

"Which are?"

"I don't know, sweetheart, I honestly don't know," Spike sighed. "You're right though, I'm worried. Dru's, well, when she gets something into her head…"

"We'll make it through this," she looked down at him, "we're us. It's just what we do."

"Love you," he said, pulling her close and burrowing his face into her hair. "More than Dru, God, more than anything. Always, I promise."

"Do you think she really wants to take your soul?" Buffy asked, quietly, despite her efforts to be strong for Spike, her own fear was coming through in his embrace. "I know you'd still love me without, but Will, I love you, all of you. Demon and man, and if one left…"

"Won't happen," he cut her off.

"Promise?" Buffy asked him, softly.

"Promise." He affirmed, kissing the top of her head and pulling the blankets tighter around both of them.

Outside, a dark haired vampire looked up as the lights in the large Victorian house went out.

"Soon," she giggled, "soon I'll have my boys back. And it will be just like old times, we'll paint the town red, and they'll take their sunshine… yes, my prince will have his Slayer." Drusilla swirled around, her full-length black dress following in her wake.

"Hush, Drusilla, they'll hear you," said the tall brunette man standing beside her, hands shoved into his slacks, short hair perfectly cut and brushed. "We want to surprise them, don't we?"

"Yes," she sighed, "and we'll have a party, Miss Edith says it will be the party I missed." The man barely restrained the roll of his eyes before he looked over to the room where he could faintly hear moans sliding into the night air through the open window. "And you will have your reward," she promised. "Yes, when we're done with her, it will be your turn. Such a merry little game we'll have."