A/N : Thanks to; Amandamanda3, kargrif, Chris, Lucky-112, pixiecorn, Mr Lennox I pressume, Bridge, Slayergirl1212, reesa, Screeching Dragon, Freezyboncoolipants, PltnmDancer, Moluvsnumber17, Spuffyfan4eva, spuffy4eva, Lindsay, for the latest reviewers. As to the glamour issues, the glamour ages Spike at the same rate that Buffy ages and when she dies the spell breaks - apologies if that wasn't clear. Hope you like the new chapter :-)
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 7

"Rough day at the office, pet?" Spike asked as Buffy came in the front door and sighed heavily.

"Not really" she shrugged, "I'm just tired" she told him as she came to sit beside him on the couch and he put his laptop down on the coffee table so he could hold her.

"S'all that talking you did last night" he told her, putting his arms around her kissing the top of her head, "Can't miss out on your sleep, not at your age" he joked and she swatted him in the chest.

"Hey, no age jokes from the guy that remembers the Industrial Revolution" she complained, but she was smiling anyway, "Isn't Becky home?" she asked, checking her watch. Her daughter should have got back just a half hour before her, she always did when Buffy worked early.

"She went straight to her room" Spike told her, "I was gonna go up, see if she was okay, but I thought maybe being a bloke issue she might fancy a chat with her Mum instead" he suggested.

"You're kidding me" Buffy rolled her eyes as she got up, "Like she'd ever choose anyone over you, she is such a Daddy's girl" she smiled, though she had to admit sometimes she was a little jealous.

"She loves her Mum, and you know it" Spike gave her look and she sighed.

"I know" she agreed, leaning down to kiss him, "See what we have in the kitchen for dinner, would you? And I'll go see what's up with the Bit" she smiled, using his term for their daughter. He was about to reply when Rebecca herself came thundering down the stairs.

"I was just coming up to see if you were okay" Buffy told her and her daughter smiled.

"I'm fine, I swear" she promised both her parents. Neither looked especially convinced, "Yes, okay, school was a little tough. Ryan's telling people that I'm both a tease and a maniac, but I can deal"

"Little sod" Spike seethed, "I'd like to rip his lungs out"

"Spike, please" Buffy gave him a look that shut him up, "The boy might have done wrong but he's not evil in the real sense, he's just a dumb teenager with way too many hormones"

"She's right Dad" Rebecca agreed, "Besides, I kinda like that some people are actually scared of me now" she giggled as she came to sit beside her father on the couch.

"Feels good, don't it, pet?" Spike smirked and she nodded.

Buffy rolled her eyes as she took his place on the couch and he went to find something for dinner like he'd said he would.

"Mom, if I get all my homework done" Becky asked, "Could I go patrolling with Dad tonight?"

Buffy considered it. She and Spike had been training Rebecca for years now, teaching her how to fight and be a Slayer. They always gave her the option of how much she learnt and never forced her into anything. For the most part she seemed to enjoy it all and a few months ago they'd allowed her to go on patrol with Buffy. She did so well and was always careful, and most times when she asked she was permitted to join her parents or the other Scoobies when they went out to stake the undeads of Sunnydale.

"You don't wanna stay in and eat ice-cream?" Buffy smirked, "That's what your average teenage girl is supposed to do when a guy messes her around y'know"

"I'm not an average girl, Mom" Becky smiled, "and neither were you. Personally I like a little violence before bedtime to get over a stressful day" she told her before heading off to the kitchen to find her Dad.

Buffy shook her head and almost laughed as she got up and followed her. She may look like her, but there was no mistaking that Becky was Spike's girl too.

- - - - - - -

Rebecca stepped back, breathing heavily from the exertion of the fight but also smirking with satisfaction as she watched her opponent fall at her feet as so much ash and dust. She turned to see her father smiling at her as he smoked his cigarette.

"Y'know I've fought some Slayers in my time" he told her, walking over from the tree he'd been leaning on "but I wouldn't fancy being on the receiving end of the punishment you dole out, luv" he said as they resumed walking through the cemetery, Spike ever mindful to blow his smoke away from his daughter.

"Well, I have you and Mom to thank for that" Becky reminded him and he nodded, throwing the butt of his spent cigarette to the ground and crushing it under his boot.

"You enjoy it though, don't you?" he was pleased to realise, he was fairly certain she mostly earned that attribute from him.

"What's not to enjoy about the slayage?" came her answer "Fighting evil, guaranteed stress relief, good work out for the body - all of the good" she counted on her fingers and Spike shook his head.

"Makes me wonder why we were ever worried about telling you that you were a Slayer..."

- - - - - - -

"...and I know you didn't mean it but Becky, sweetheart, we went over this before, fighting isn't cool"

Spike caught the tail end of what Buffy was saying to their daughter as they came in the front door and he winced. Another fight at school or so it seemed, and with Becky being a Slayer, a bit of playground rough and tumble could easily result in some nasty injuries when she was involved. It was getting more and more difficult to deal with and as Buffy came into the living room she gave him a look that said now was the time to tell their daughter the truth.

At the age of four Becky had been told that Mommy went out at night to keep the world safe by fighting monsters and that Daddy sometimes did the same. Last year she'd taken the fact that Spike was in essence half-monster fairly well but still they had not imparted the truth of her own destiny.

Buffy wanted to wait until she was older, so she said, though Spike was fairly certain that, as ridiculous as it was, Buffy was hoping if they waited long enough they wouldn't have to deal. That like some illness or something the Slayer powers their daughter possessed would just be cured and disappear.

However, since the little girl had started school there had been two incidents of fights in which a couple of kids had got hurt, just because the mini Slayer did not know her own strength. The only way to teach her the kind of control she must have was to explain why she possessed such power and how it should be used only for good.

"Hey Bit" Spike smiled as his little girl ran to him and was gladly lifted up onto his lap, "Don't tell me you've been scrapping with your mates again"

"Joey said a mean thing" she defended herself, looking thoroughly ashamed as she always did when Daddy looked at her that way, "I told him to stop but he wouldn't so I pushed him and he hit the wall across the room" she admitted. Spike shared a look with Buffy, thinking perhaps the little one was exaggerating, but Buffy nodded that her daughter spoke the truth.

"Several feet into solid brick" the older Slayer sighed as she sat down beside Spike, "Thankfully nothing got broken, which is kind of a miracle"

Tears came to Rebecca's eyes as she saw her parents share another serious look. She worried what would happen next, the teacher had yelled at her a lot and Joey's mother had yelled at Buffy, she didn't want anyone to yell at her anymore.

"I didn't mean to be so bad" she sniffed, "I didn't mean it, Daddy"

"You're not bad, baby" Spike told her, pulling her close and rubbing her back as she cried. Buffy moved closer to the pair and ran her fingers through her daughter blonde hair.

"It's not your fault, sweetie" she promised her, "It's just...well, me and your Dad have something we have to tell you"

Rebecca looked up from Spike's chest at her mother, still sniffing.

"Becky, you remember how we told you that Mommy has a special job" she said gently and the little girl nodded, rubbing at her watery eyes with her hands, "Well, to do my special job I have to be very strong, and because you're my special little girl, you're strong too" she tried to explain, hoping she was making a good job of it.

"Am I supposed to fight monsters too?" she asked Spike and he smiled down at her.

"Maybe one day, luv, when you're all grown up" he told her gently, "but even then only if you want to"

"The point is" Buffy continued, calling back Becky's attention, "when you get mad at the other kids at school and you push them or something, they're not strong like you and they get hurt, even when you don't mean for them to"

"See, that's the bad part of being special" Spike tried to help, but it was difficult to explain such things to a small child, "You have to be extra careful and you also can't tell anyone just how special you are"

"It's a secret?" she checked, "Like Mommy being a superhero and you have a beast inside?" she said with a tilt of a head that was all Spike.

"That's right, sweetie" Buffy nodded, so worried that the child would not understand or worse hate what she was being told. She was relieved when Becky smiled and reached to hug her mother.

"When I grow up, I'll be just like you Mommy" she grinned and tears came to Buffy's eyes. Her child actually wanted to be like her, and though she knew the likelihood was such feelings would not last forever, she revelled in them now. There had been too many times in her childhood when even Buffy herself had not wanted to be her.

"Hey" Spike complained, tapping his little girl on the shoulder with semi-fake irritation, "What happened to a hug for dear old Dad, eh?"

Both Buffy and Becky were smiling to the point of laughter as they turned and flung themselves at Spike, knocking him back onto the couch.

Far from his past of killing Slayers, Spike was elated to have these two in his unlife. They were all he needed.

- - - - - - -

"I don't blame Mom for my being a Slayer" Becky told her father as they continued their patrol "it's not her fault she was Chosen or the Scoobies fault that their spell went wonky and I got the power too...Sometimes no-one is to blame" she shrugged "Sometimes stuff just happens"

"You didn't always think that way" Spike told her, the recent nostalgia amongst the family had him recalling some less pleasant events as well as good ones. Becky looked at him strangely, her expression telling him she didn't understand at all. Spike smirked to himself.

"You forget so easily, luv" he said, glancing over at her "things that you'd rather not remember"

It was the way he said it and the look in his eyes that finally triggered something in her head and Rebecca felt awful just thinking about it. She stopped walking and looked at him seriously.

"Oh, Dad, that was..." she began but he interrupted.

"Doesn't matter now, baby" he told her, pushing her blonde hair back off her face affectionately "I'm not still bent out of shape about it, but it's not the kind of thing a father forgets..."

- - - - - - -

"How was your day honey?" Buffy asked as her daughter came into the kitchen after school. Rebecca shrugged her shoulders as she put her bag on the counter and sat down.

"It was okay" she said vaguely, and Buffy knew immediately something was wrong. Becky was usually so animated about what she'd done in her day, or at least irate about something bad. She was never so without feeling.

"Okay, what's up?" Buffy sighed, wiping her hands on a dish towel and coming to sit opposite her daughter.

"We have to do this assignment for English class" Rebecca admitted, "Everyone has to give a talk about one or both of their parents and the jobs they do"

"Oh" Buffy, looked down at her hands and Becky felt bad.

"I know it's not your fault" she said with a shake of her head, "With the whole Slayer deal it meant college was a lot harder and you can't get the best job cos you don't have all the fancy qualifications...but you save the world, and even if I can't tell anyone about it, that makes it okay"

"So, why so grumpy?" the Slayer frowned, not understanding.

"Beth's Dad is a lawyer" Becky sighed, "Sandy's Dad's a doctor, Theresa's is a fire-fighter...mine's a freak" she said bitterly and Buffy snapped.

"You do not talk about your father that way!" she said sternly, face getting redder by the second as anger rushed through her veins "He might be different, but..."

"Different?" Becky almost laughed at that, "How do I even begin to explain to my friends that my father has a sun allergy, fear of crosses, and oh yeah, he also drinks blood"

"Rebecca Joyce Blackwell" Buffy snapped, knowing if it was anyone other than her thirteen year old daughter speaking this way about Spike, she'd be tearing them limb from limb right now, "Spike may be different but he's still your father and my husband and..."

"No he's not!" the young girl raved, "You can't even get married cos he doesn't exist!"

"Funny" said a voice from the door, "but I feel very much here for someone who doesn't exist"

Both Buffy and Rebecca turned to look at Spike who leant casually in the doorway.

"Oh, I'm sorry" he feigned an apology, "Did the freak interrupt your little argument?"

Though he appeared fairly nonchalant about his daughters comments, Buffy knew it must have killed him inside to hear those words.

The pain in his eyes was visible to Becky, though he'd tried to hide it. It had seemed okay when she said it, called him a freak, but now he was standing here repeating it back to her, it sounded so much worse. She felt sick.

"Daddy, I'm sorry, I..." she began but he cut her off sharply.

"Oh it's Daddy now is it?" he snapped, "Think that makes it right, do you, pet?"

Tears filled Rebecca's eyes at his cold tone. He never spoke to her this way, so icy like he really meant to make her suffer. Not even when she'd misbehaved as a little kid and needed a stern telling off had he been like this with her.

"I didn't mean it the way it sounded" she cried and Buffy did the same.

If his daughter's words had hurt him, her tears as well as the Slayers was worse. He closed his eyes so he didn't have to see it and expelled a breath he didn't need.

"I know that" he said calmly, "but, sweetheart, you don't know what it's like for me" he tried to explain as he walked across the room and came to sit on the stool beside her. Buffy watched the whole thing, trying to keep herself from sobbing.

"Y'see pet, all I've really got is you and your Mum" he told her, "You two being in my life, needing me, loving me, it's what keeps me going. If I thought I'd lost you, if you didn't need me or didn't want me around anymore..."

"I do" she dared to interrupt, "I don't even know why I said those things"

"You said them cos they're true, luv" he told her gently, putting his hand on hers on the counter, "I know what I am, what I was too which is even less pleasant. I don't need you to remind me. And believe me, pet, I'd love to be a proper Dad like your mates have got. I'd love to go to the beach with you when it's sunny, and have a fancy job so you could be proud of me, and a flash car that'd make all your friends jealous, but I can't"

"None of that matters" she cried, more tears falling down her cheeks, "You're the best Dad in the world and I wouldn't trade you for anything"

It brought a lump to Spike's throat as she flung herself forward into his arms and hugged him tight. He hugged her back and blinked back a few tears before turning to Buffy who smiled and cried at the same time.

- - - - - - -

"Felling better, honey?" Buffy asked her daughter as she returned from patrol with Spike.

"Definitely" Becky smiled as she removed her jacket, "but I think I should go get some sleep now" she moved toward the stairs but paused half way up and turned back.

"I love you guys" she told her parents solemnly, "You know that right?"

"Course pet" Spike was quick to answer.

"We love you too" Buffy added with a smile.

Becky just nodded before disappearing up the stairs to her room.

To Be Continued...

A/N2 : Please review and give your opinions, I do love to read them. More coming soon :-)