Chapter 2

The next day, when Buffy awakes, she finds herself in the arms of her muscular British boyfriend. He lies there next to her, not breathing, as usual. The non breathing aspect of the man was one of the many things that scared her about him. She had been dating him on and off for quite a while now, but she still had not gotten used to it.

She rises to her feet and puts on Spike's long, black, button up, silk, shirt. She slowly opens the door to the hallway and steps out. Walking down the stairs, she looks at her sloppy self in the mirror by the front door. She has "sex" hair and is just as tired as could be. She walks to the couch and flops down onto one of the big puffy cushions.

Moments later, a very sloppy Spike appears at the top of the stairs. He is about to enter the living room when he stops at the second step from the bottom. He stares at the sunshine on the floor in front of him, and then he turns his gaze to Buffy on the couch. She just looks at him confused.

"Something wrong," she asks him with a smile.

"Oh! No dear. Nothing is wrong at all. Would you like to go to bed with a big pile of dust tonight, or a handsome British bloke?" he replies sarcastically.

Getting his oh so obvious hint, she rises to close the curtains behind her head. The sunlight had been pouring into the living room and across the front entry because it was nine in the morning. When all the light is gone, Spike enters the room.

"So….how did you two sleep?" asks Giles coming into the room. He grins at Spike, who is now sitting on the couch, with Buffy curled in his lap.

"We slept quite well, thank you. How about you, Rupert? How is Olivia doing?" says Spike jokingly.

Giles had been dating Olivia for a while now and he found himself at her place quite often. He found it easier to go to her Flat rather than bringing her over to his now full house. With Buffy, Dawn, Willow, and now Spike, living there with him, it was quite crowded.

"Not that it's any of your business," snaps Giles to Spike, "but, Olivia is doing just fine. And I better not find her some night with bight marks in her neck!"

"Look Giles…I would never touch Olivia, because I know that if I did Buffy would never speak to me again…and would probably would dust me in a heartbeat. And besides, if you ever do find her with bite marks in her neck, you'll do good to remember that this is Sunnydale, California, home of the Hellmouth and all Demon Spawn. I'm not the only vampire in town."

Giles simply glares at Spike and sits down to sip at his tea. What he really wanted to say was, "I only tolerate you because you are dating my daughter." But instead, he just kept quite.

Ever since Buffy's mother, Joyce, had died two years earlier, he had been very lonely. He had found Olivia from his past. He had loved Joyce but never had the courage to tell her. (Although he had slept with her on accident, one time when they were under the spell of Bewitched candy). She had been a great woman, and Giles had been glad to take Buffy and Dawn as his own children, since he had never had any of his own.

Buffy nuzzles her head under Spike's chin and closes her eyes. Wrapping his muscular arms around her thin ones, he kisses the top of her head. They both let out a long sigh as they sink into the couch.

A sleepy Dawn enters the room, with her hair in a pony tail and her feet nuzzled into fuzzy pink bath slippers. She plops down next to the Spuffy (Spike and Buffy as one person) puddle of flesh, and groans. She scrunches her knees up to her chest and sips at her hot chocolate.

"How is it, Dawn?" asks Giles with a smile. "Not too hot I hope."

"Not too hot at all. I quite like it. There is nothing like a warm cup of hot chocolate to start your Saturday." Dawn says with a loud sigh as she too sinks into the comfy couch.

"So what are your plans for today, kids?" Giles asks, turning to Buffy and spike now, who appear to have fallen asleep again.

"Well," says Buffy, "I promised Spike here a ride in your new hearse, Giles. If that's okay with you," she pauses a moment. And then, batting her eyes, "Daddy!"

Giles groans and sighs at her, while rolling his eyes. "Do you know what that does to me?" he asks with another sigh. "You know I can't say no when you call me that!"

Buffy smiles up at Spike, then at Dawn. At that moment, Willow and Xander, both still in their pajamas, shuffle into the room and fall to the floor in another puddle of flesh and robes.

"So I guess the plan is to take everybody for a ride in the hearse; take the old couch over to Spikes crypt; take Xander home to get some clean clothes….and a shower….; drop Dawn off at Marissa's for the day; come home in time for lunch and a nap; pick up Spike and Xander for a quick patrol; then we'll all go to the Bronze for some fun this evening." Says Buffy, stating the facts rather than asking for permission from her newly acquired father.

Giles smiles and nods his approval. The gang being busy for a whole day was a rare thing. But it meant that he had time to get some work done without being pestered by the loud music, or the loud laughing that Xander often came to when Willow was anywhere in the immediate proximity.

"Buffy, before you take the hearse out for a spin, there are a few things I have to tell you," says Giles rising from his seat. "First of all, I don't want you driving it, and not buts. I want Xander, Spike, or Willow to drive it. We all know how your driving is. And second of all, I want to show you some of the things that I had done to this new car of mine."

Rising to their feet, Giles leads the gang outside to the hearse which is shielded from the morning sun by an overhanging roof, so that spike can examine it without becoming a pile of dust.

Giles opens the back of the hearse to reveal a spacious trunk and curtained windows. He stands aside as the gang stares in awe at the fabulous car. Then he begins to explain what he had done to it.

"Ok, first of all, I want you to notice the curtains on all of the windows in the back. They are there so Spike can ride along and not blow up. Or they can be used to hide each of you in here and surprise your enemies. Then I want you to see something else," he pauses and opens a trap door at the back of the hearse. Inside is a compartment filled with wooden stakes, crossbows, flare guns, crosses, flame throwers, and many other assorted weapons and ammunition for slaying vampires and demons.

"How in the world did you get a hold of all of these weapons, Giles?" Xander asks, not really wanting to know the answer. Giles replies with the typical spy movie response of, "You don't want to know."

"OH!" Giles exclaims, acting as though he had just remembered something important. "One more thing to show you," he says, crawling into the hearse on all fours. He stops at about the middle and pulls up yet another trap door. Instead of revealing weapons and ammunition, the trap door reveals a hole leading to the ground below