A/N : Thanx to; vanillagigglez, Moonjava, Xtremely-Canadian, OnlyHaveEyesForYou, katie, Demonica Mills, Celestia Nailo, SlaYeRGiRLkaL, Brunettepet, bella-lover, sheilamarie, Marian, pixiecorn, Mita427, Moluvsnumber17 for the latest reviews. I'm glad you all like this so far, and I hope it continues to be a popular story, I have big plans, but I don't want to give anything away yet...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 3 - Laughter and Tears

"Wake up, sleepy head" Buffy smiled as she ruffled her cousins hair.

"Huh?" Xander said into the pillow as he began to stir, "Just five more minutes, Mom"

Buffy laughed at him as she sat on the end of the bed. Xander could sleep for his country. If it was an Olympic sport he would have medals she was sure, but trying to wake him up was always a fun game...

"It's not your Mom, it's Buffy" she said before continuing, "I had a nice walk, met some people"

"Uh-huh" came the mumbled reply.

"Oh yeah, a bunch of guys, all big and muscley" she lied like a pro, Xander made no sound or movement, "So they asked me to go back their place with them and we watched TV and ate ice-cream and...then we had an orgy with their next door neighbours on the front lawn..."

"That's nice" Xander replied as he began to wake up properly. Buffy bit her lip to keep from laughing as he sat bolt up right with a look on his face that was pure shock.

"What! How! What!" he exclaimed and Buffy collapsed into a fit of giggles.

"Oh my God, you are so totally gullible!" she choked out as laughter shook her body. Xander just watched her for a while til she calmed down.

"That was a mean trick to plan on the Xan-man" he said grumpily, playfully shoving her with his elbow, "but it is nice to see you laugh like that" he added with a smile as the pair hugged each other.

It was true, there really hadn't been a lot to laugh about in Buffy's life. She'd be thirty later this year, and what had she got to show for it. Apart from Xander, the blonde really couldn't think of anything. There were only things she used to have and had now lost.

"What did you really do whilst you were out?" Xander asked her as they pulled away from each other again.

"Oh I actually did meet some people" she told him, "There was a couple, Willow and Daniel Osbourne, and this guy they work with called Spike Giles"

"Spike? That's a weird name" the brunette frowned, wondering what sort of people his cousin had been mixing with. Even as old as she was, he still worried about her as if she were a child.

"His real name is William" she remembered, "he's a widower"

"That's gotta be tough" her cousin sympathised, he couldn't imagine loving someone so much and losing them that way. In this serious moment he suddenly starting laughing.

"You trying a new tie-dye affect on your shirt, or did you just miss your mouth with your coffee?" he asked Buffy as he noticed the huge stain on the front of her white top.

"Oh, that was Spike, we kind of met in the coffee shop when we crashed into each other" she laughed, "It's no big, but I should probably change..." she trailed off as she headed for the bathroom between Xander's room and her own.

"When do I get to meet these friends of yours?" he asked just before she disappeared.

"I dunno" Buffy stopped in the doorway of the bathroom and turned back to answer him, "I only spent a half hour with them, I probably won't even see them again"

Spike was watching the clock. It seemed he'd been more nervous about Dawn's first day at high school than even she was. She was his little girl and since they'd lost Dru they'd come to depend on each other even more, though Dawn had always been more of a Daddy's girl, truth be told. It didn't matter that she wasn't a physical part of him or Drusilla, she was as much his daughter as any child ever could be. He could tell that by the way he worried so much about her.

As soon as the clock said it was time to go, he raced out of the door and was down the stairs in a flash. Willow and Oz saw just a blur of black and leather as he swept past.

"He worries so much" she said somewhat sadly "Drusilla meant so much to him, Dawn's all he has left now"

"Don't get upset, honey" her husband put an arm around her shoulders and squeezed her to him.

"I'm okay" Willow assured him with a small smile, "It's just such a shame that he doesn't have a woman in his life now. Dawn's at an age when she needs a female influence...I mean, Spike does his best but..."

"Hey, is this all about Spike?" Oz asked with a slight frown, slightly panicked by his wife's fascination with this topic suddenly. Was she trying to tell him something?

"Yes and no" she admitted, though it wasn't what he thought, "Sometimes I just think, what would we do without each other? I couldn't stand to lose you the way Spike lost Dru, I couldn't..."

"You won't lose me" Oz silenced her with a finger on her lips, "And I won't lose you, not ever" he promised, leaning in to kiss her briefly. Their love was forever, they could not imagine being apart, they never would be.

"My turn for the bathroom!" Xander announced dodging in there as soon as Buffy came out. She'd been in there a while, soaking in the bath, washing her hair, and everything, just trying to relax. It wasn't easy.

"You cannot be that desperate Xan" Buffy wasn't sure whether to laugh or be slightly grossed out til he called back.

"I just want to shower Buff, we're going out"

Buffy frowned as she walked across the room and peered out of the window at the aptly named Sunnydale.

"We can't afford to go out" she reminded him, a slight sadness in her voice, although the money issue really wasn't that big of a deal for her. All that mattered was finding the girl she missed so much...She got lost on her thoughts until her cousin returned.

"We can't afford to go out in a going out sense" Xander explained from the door, having just had the quickest shower known to man, "but there has to be, I dunno an ice-cream place or something in this town"

"I did see one" Buffy remembered, "and I gotta admit, a dish of Cookie Dough sounds appealing right now"

Xander smiled when she did, he knew her so well. You want to get Buffy smiling, you offer her ice-cream, it'd been that way since they were kids. Some things never changed.

Spike sat in his black 4x4 outside of Sunnydale High School, waiting for his little girl to come out. He remembered so clearly her first day at kindergarten, how she'd been in tears when he and Dru had dropped her off, seemingly petrified they wouldn't come back or something. By the end of the day she'd been grinning and skipping along with a couple of new friends.

Spike felt both angry and heart-broken when he saw her now, looking like she was close to crying as she exited the school and walked towards the car alone.

"What's up, Sweet Bit?" he asked as she climbed into the car.

"Nothing, really, it's fine" she said bravely, focusing on the view out of the windshield. Spike was having none of it.

"Come on now" he frowned slightly, "I know when there's something up with my girl" he reminded her, "just tell me"

"Really, it's not that big a deal" she shook her head, "It's just, we were talking, me and Janice, about maybe trying-out to be cheerleaders. There were some juniors, girls I used to know actually. They said some stuff about us never being pretty enough or good enough" she knew how silly she was being. A few stupid comments from air-headed girls, but it still hurt.

Spike sighed as he reached out and lifted her chin, turning her head til she was looking at him again.

"You are prettier and more talented than the lot of them put together" he assured her, "So don't you let those silly bints get you down, okay?"

The smile that broke out on her face was genuine and bright as she reached over and hugged her father.

"I love you, Dad" she told him as he hugged her back.

"I love you too, baby" he replied, kissing the top of her head, "Now, get yourself back in that seat and belted up, cos I feel a trip to Gino's coming on" he smirked, knowing what reaction that would get.

"Oh, I could so go for one of their triple chocolate-fudge sundaes right now" she said, bouncing in her seat.

Spike smiled as he pulled the car onto the road and headed for the other side of town where the ice-cream parlour resided.

"So, tell me about your first day" he urged her, "Just leave out the part with the stupid bitches, okay?"

Dawn smiled widely as she told him all about her new school, some new friends she'd made, her classes, and of course the all important who's dating who now the Summer's over. Regardless of the fact Spike was less than enthralled by the fact that RJ had dumped Nina, and that Stephanie's sister was pregnant, he just loved to hear Dawnie talk so animatedly to him about everything.

Who would have thought that this girl was the same one that was almost in tears when she'd come out of the school building. But Spike knew there was always a guaranteed way to make his girl smile. The magic word was ice-cream and it always had been, since she was a kid. Some things never changed.

To Be Continued...

A/N2 : I know it's a v. short chapter, but there will be more soon, and possibly faster if you all review and say nice things!