"That's it! I am way past due with you. I hate to break it to you, oh impotent one, but you're not the big bad anymore, you're not even the kind of naughty. You're nothing but a waste of space – my space! And as much as I always got a big laugh watching Buffy kick your shiny white bum, as much as I know I can give you a little bum-kicking myself right now, I'm here to tell you something. You're not even worth it. - I'm out of here."

Spike stumbled down the street cursing as he heard those words eco over and over again in his head. That stupid whelp Xander had been right in his view on him. He was nothing more than a pathetic shell of a man who he had once been. Even that bloody Angel with his hair that does not move was more dangerous than him even with his soul. He was no deadly than the Easter Bunny and about as dangerous as Santa Claus. Still, he would show them! He would show them all! Grinning to himself as he looked around the dead of night carrying a small plastic petrol can. Setting the slayer's old house might not hit the heights of Angelus but it would nonetheless send the slayer a message that a big bad was still in town. Plus, it was just the start! Oh yes! He had big plans… well he really didn't other than do this, but he would think of some plans, and they would be big!

Inside her house unaware that it would soon be up in flames thanks to a bleached blond vampire Joyce Summers started the dishwasher and wiped her hands as she surveyed the kitchen. Spic and span. She looked over the dining room, everything was properly stowed. She peeked into the living room and sighed at the rumpled blanket heaped on the couch and the lone water glass leaving a ring on the coffee table. She folded the blanket, put it away, and wiped up the ring, which, on further inspection, didn't seem too bad. "This is a highlight," she thought sadly. Her life at the moment was not that exciting at the moment. Simply juggling running the gallery, her book club, and the odd social invite. Hardly thrilling or as exciting as she had hoped.

Deciding to engage in a bit of adventure and take the trash out Joyce opened the back door only to be surprised by who she found there. "Spike!" The vampire in question looked up like a deer in headlights as he was just about tossing the petrol onto the house.

Quickly nudging the petrol can in the bushes out of her view he gave a warm smile. "Joyce!" he said with fake happiness. He had forgotten that she was here. "How wonderful to see you!"

"What the hell are you doing here?!" She asked him before adding. "And standing on my roses!" She added warningly. "And what on earth are you wearing?" She asked in total confusion looking at Spike who was still wearing one of Xander's knee-length shorts and a Hawaiian shirt.

Quickly jumping out of the way before he did anymore damage Spike was a loss for words for a moment. There was a time he would have simply snapped her neck, set fire to the house, and tossed her body into the flames watching it burn but now thanks to that bloody chip in his head he had to play this thing differently. The last thing he needed was her to get word to Buffy about him and have her kick his ass up and down the street. "Umm… well I don't know if the slayer told you this, but I am back in town and found myself in the mood for a cup of coco and some of those little marshmallows. And who do I know who makes the best cuppa in the state!" He said charmingly.

Joyce frowned. "Buffy didn't mention that you were back in Sunnydale."

"What?" asked Spike puzzled. "The slayer didn't tell you to be careful as one of her mortal enemies in town and its not safe anymore?!" He couldn't help but be a little miffed and hurt by that. He really had fallen to the depths of hell. The slayer didn't even see him as a threat to warn her mother over… oh god this was just embarrassing.

"Why should I even let you in?" Joyce asked him crossing her arms at him. "From what Buffy told me you are evil, tried to kill her on several occasion and would have killed me last year!"

Spike scoffed at those remarks. "Oh, come on now love! Let's let bygones be bygones! Since the slayer hasn't bothered to tell you the story let me give you an update. Since I got here, I got kidnapped by some shady people and they stuck a chip in my head which prevents me from hurting any humans!"

"A chip?" Joyce repeated in disbelief. "In your head?"

"Yeah, a microchip or something I don't know I didn't get consulted by the surgeon when it happened!" Spike fumed mostly to himself. "But I'm as helpless as a kitten in a tree and about as deadly." He said bitterly before getting an idea. "Here watch!" He bent down and picked up a stone and raised it to throw it at Joyce before he recoiled in pain as the inside of his head lit up like it was on fire.

Joyce watched this strange scene in front of her as Spike dropped the stone and muttered a few choice words about his state. Shaking his head as he fought a wave of dizziness that came with the chip flaring up Spike took a bow. "See as helpless and as soft as a baby… now how about that cup of coco?" He asked politely.

XXXXX

Joyce Summers is clearly insane. It's amazing really, how normal she looks-there's none of the eye-rolling or wiggly hand movements he used to get with Dru. A fair amount of babbling, yeah, but that's almost cute. And yet she's daft as a brush, completely off her trolley, and stark raving bonkers with a cherry on top Spike decided. Because there she is, running around the kitchen, fetching him snacks. Fetching him snacks. Doesn't she remember hitting him with an axe? Or is that all bygones-be-bygones, you've-helped-save-the-world-often-enough-now, or maybe it's just at-least-you're-not-that-Angel-fellow? Because here she comes, back from the pantry, with a box of saltines and a bowl. He had expected the door slammed upon his request for coco, but it seemed she was bound by some higher power to offer him a shoulder to cry on and a comforting look.

"Ah that hit the spot!" He announced putting his now empty cup down.

"Still the best in the state?" Joyce asked him playfully. That was another thing she was being all friendly and playful forgetting that he was an evil blood sucking vampire… maybe he should wear a badge to remind people.

"Still the best!" Spike confirmed. "Good to see somethings haven't changed around here. Was weird the first few days to be honest. I first stopped at the mansion looking to give Captain Broody a right good kicking and he had gone. Last I saw him he was running a private investigation place in LA… bloody wanker." He muttered. She purses her lips and gives him this conspiratorial smile, as if he's said something wicked. See? Utterly mad. He wonders sometimes how she'd react if he told her of the sheer carnal pleasure he feels when he thought of killing her daughter. Who knows? The bint might just laugh it off.

"Just one of many changes," Joyce said to him as she took a seat. "Buffy is now in college. Studying there and living there. I barely see her at all. She must have come round maybe once or twice since it started." Ah loneliness that explains it all Spike muses to himself. The daughter has flown the nest and left her dear old mum all alone. No wonder she was happy to host the company of an enemy of her daughter's and supply him with crisps.

"That little group of muppets who cares what they think of me!" Spike declared but Joyce could tell it was half hearted giving him a stern look demanding the truth Spike caved. The last of his dignity finally leaving him he started to explain his feelings. "I've been beaten and shamed before but this… I've been robbed almost raped. I am a vampire! I destroy! I hurt people! I kill! If I can't even do any of that, what am I? What is my purpose now?"

"I am sure it is not as bad as you are making it out to be," Joyce said, and Spike looked at her like she was clueless which she really must be. Because really, what sort of a mother doesn't notice that her kid's the slayer? For three years? Just barmy! Mad as a hatter! And he's eaten a few milliners, so he should know. Sensing he didn't believe her Joyce continued. "You are in the middle of a period of adjustment. You just need to get use to the idea and the change that has been forced upon you. When Hank, Buffy's father said he wanted to divorce me… I didn't know what to think or how to feel. I was in shock that after all our years together he just wanted to walk away but now I have come to understand that it was for the best. We were too different people. It would never have worked out for us. If we were still together right now, he and I and worse still Buffy would have been miserable."

Spike looked at her almost with sympathy at hearing her open up to him. She didn't need to and yet was being very honest with him. It was refreshing and somewhat sweet he felt. "In any case," Joyce continued. "Give it time. You don't know what is around the corner or what might happen in the future." Spike considered this for once not thinking that the woman next to him was crazy. It sounded like there was some sense to what she was saying but still he was as useless as that prick Xander at the moment what could possibly be his pot of gold at the end of the rainbow? Or his silver lining? He left thanking her for the coco and the talk soon after… deciding that it was all too much, and he would simply stake himself when he got back to Xander's basement.

XXXXX

The banging on the door went on and on and on. Joyce swore under her breath. She'd been in the middle of a wonderful dream involving palm trees, golden beaches, delicious food, and a sexy male body to eat it off. She must stop reading 'How Stella got her Groove Back' before bed. Glancing at the clock on her bedside table she huffed as she put on her wrap and went downstairs. "Who is it?" She called through the door.

"It's Spike!" The blond vampire said full of energy. "Come on love and let me! Need to finish our conversation from earlier! Been a few developments!" She sighed and opened the door she was going to regret this; she was sure. The vampire came in almost bouncing clearly in far better spirts than he was hours before. He held up some flowers which no doubt had been stolen from garden given the roots and the soil dropping on the ground. "Here for you!" he said with a beaming smile passing the flowers to her. "For helping me out earlier!"

Joyce raised an eyebrow but took the flowers moving to the kitchen to put them in some water. "I am guessing things have taken a turn for the better?" She asked him as he followed her.

"Too bloody right they have!" Spike proclaimed proudly. "I have discovered that I can at least punch and hurt demons and vampires despite this chip in my head!"

"Ummm… well I guess that is good," Joyce muttered as she washed away the dirt from the flowers and put them in a vase.

"Damn right it is!" Spike all but yelled as giddy as a schoolboy. "You don't know how bad it has been missing out on the violence! A good fight and good kill. I might not be able to kill humans but at least this way I still can engage and indulge on something. I was beginning to lose my mind!"

Joyce smiled slightly uneasy at what he was suggesting. She didn't really know what to do was a bloodthirsty violent psychopath. That was something her daughter had more experienced in dealing with it would seem. "Look Spike, I don't want to be unfriendly, but... it's late and I want to go back to sleep."

"Aww come on! Celebrate with me just one drink!" He said plucking a bottle of whiskery from a pocket in his long leather coat and holding it up like a trophy.

Joyce huffed a little but caved. "Okay just one but then I really need to get back to sleep. I have work tomorrow." Reaching into a cupboard and producing two glasses.

"That a girl Joyce!" Spike beamed pouring them a glass. "Don't be so stuffy and boring like your daughter. All work and no play is no way to live!"

He gave her a glass and she sniffed it a little before asking him. "So, what are we drinking to? Violence? Death to demons?" She asked him slightly bemused despite the late hour.

"To your words!" he replied which caught her by surprise. All she did was say few comforting words of advice from her rather naïve side. Seeing her confusion Spike spoke up. "I was about to end it all and add to the dust problem in the Harris basement. Then I got robbed into stopping the hellmouth and next thing you know I'm beating up some wannabe big bad! You spoke of second chances and adjustment and lady luck decided to take pity on poor old Spike. Might not be able to suck on some necks but at least I can break them now!" He replied knocking back his drink with relish.

Joyce smiled politely and drank hers coughing as the liquid hit the back of her throat. She hadn't drank anything like that in years. Spike chuckled a little at her antics before she spoke up again. "It was nothing I was just happy for the company," she said downplaying her help at empowering a vampire's lust to kill again.

Spike looked at her a little before he spoke up again. "May I ask you a personal question?" asked Spike as Joyce put down her drink. His expression was an odd mix of brash and cockiness.

"Probably," said Joyce with a smile, "But it depends on the question."

"Were you ever planning to admit you're attracted to me?" Spike's tone was almost smug, and Joyce looked at him in surprise like a rabbit in lights. "Vampires' senses are more acute than humans' love," he said.

Joyce tried not to cringe in embarrassment. It was true she had a thing for the bleached blond standing the other side of the kitchen counter. here was no way. It just couldn't happen. It was wrong, all wrong. Okay, so he was definitely no innocent, but in fact that made her crush even worse. He was a vampire, in reality hundreds of years older than she was. It had all started that night a year ago, when Spike appeared on her doorstep, nursing a wicked hangover. Joyce had taken one look at him and couldn't helped but be a little hot. He was dirty, cranky, drunk, and ill-tempered but still good looking enough to turn her head. She had ushered him into her kitchen to sober him up a bit and offered to listen to his woes. He drank the hot chocolate and proceeded to tell her the abbreviated version of his life story. As it was quite a long life, it was rather a long time before he got to his current troubles. She couldn't help but be taken in by some of adventures… she always had a thing for bad boys. "Ummm… I don't… I mean… I have never… I mean…" She couldn't help fumbling her words out unsure what to say or do.

"You said you were grateful for the company love," his eyes all blue as ice and currently focused on her. "Well, I am more than grateful for your help in reinspiring me and helping me while I was down." His eyes were wandering over her and she couldn't help but find it unnerving. She wasn't used to this being the subject to someone's object of lust.

Oh god! She thought was he really suggesting what she thought he was suggesting? No this had to be a mean trick! That's right he was evil and evil people do evil things! He was just playing with her. Despite all the thoughts running inside her she was mesmerized by the way his body moved like a barely controlled predator as he walked across the room. She shouldn't stare, shouldn't want him, she knew better but no matter how hard she tried she couldn't look away. It was almost as if her eyes had a mind of their own. "Spike," His name fell from her lips with a sigh of pure feminine appreciation. Damn! Why do all the hot men have to be so young?

"Joyce?" Liquid heat spread through her body as his voice like warm honey washed over her. She couldn't speak if she wanted to. "Don't you want me?" he asked knowing full well the question.

Her breath hitched in her throat at the innuendo she couldn't help but hear. But of course, he couldn't mean it that way. How could he? She was in her forties... She was a grown woman while he was a... He was a vampire. There was no reason why she couldn't have what she wanted. A slow seductive smile began to spread slowly across her face as she stared into ocean blue eyes. He moved so fast. He had her pressed up against the counter, narrow hips firmly planted between her startled thighs before she had time to react. His kiss was on the edge of savagery, his tongue sliding cool and silken into her mouth, his lips swallowing her protest. She tried to push him off by reaching up, but he lay on her cold and heavy as stone. His lean, muscular form pressing up against her own. One part in particular was doing the majority of the pressing. She had a thin nightie under her thin robe, so her body registered the faint chill of his flesh with the immediate peaking of her nipples.

Joyce could feel her face flame again. He felt her nipples hardening; with the way he was slathered up against her, there was no way he couldn't have felt it. He had a wonderful mouth, pliant and demanding at the same time. While she let him drive the pace of the kiss, she also drew her out, demanding more. She felt his hand move from her cheek, down her neck to graze lightly over her breast before settling at the small of her back. Gasping for air she broke the kiss looking at him startled. When the fog from her eyes finally lifted, she got a clear reading on his expression. It had been a long time, but she recognized that look.

Lust. A lot of lust.

Maybe more lust than she was safely equipped to handle… but there was major part of her that wanted to find out.

Hungry for her mouth, he took it with his own again. Ice over fire, they clashed with eager need. Lips pulling at hers, swiping firmly across tender curves. A sharp tug followed at her bottom lip, teasing its inner flesh with the tip of his tongue. Demanding a response instantly given. Opening up, their tongues duelled in a sudden struggle to taste, tease, possess. Surrendering to her desire Joyce gave into kissing him back with gusto. Spike palmed her ass, filling both hands with taut curves. Holding her tight against his awakening arousal, he moaned deeply at the pleasurable ache. She was almost exactly his height, and all their respective parts fitted together way too well. An echoing moue sounded from Joyce's throat as she clutched him tighter, arms looping around his neck.

He slipped one hand between them to cup her full breast, catching her hard nipple between his fingers. Panting for air, Joyce didn't want to be separated from those deep, wet kisses as she sucked on his tongue. All thought evaded her. Sensation took over. Head spinning, heart thumping, a delicious throb between her thighs. More kisses. Teasing fingers. Her growl of approval at his eager touch. Broad shoulders, muscle beneath silk, controlled strength, a hard bulge to grind against, all for her. Her leg slid along the outer edge of his denim pants, winding around to link them together. Writhing instinctively, she let out a whimper of protest as his lips left hers to travel across her cheek. He sucked her earlobe into his mouth earring and all flicking his tongue across it. "Do you want to be naughty, Joyce?" his wicked voice rasped in her ear. "Do you want me to do naughty things to you, luv?" He muttered as he pushed off her robe leaving her in just her nightie.

"Yes," she moaned helplessly, crumbling under the onslaught of his tongue and his body. "Yes," she cried, giving in to him, giving into the desires of her body. She wanted him, he wanted her, and this was going to happen. Spike's hands slid down to the hem of nightie, sliding it up past her hips. She had on no panties underneath allowing him full access to her pussy. At the feel of her skin against his fingertips, she bucked hard causing him to moan. "Ah, ah, ah, not so prim and proper, now, are we?

It was Joyce's turn to moan as those fingers slipped between her thighs. She opened her legs wider for him and his fingers slid past the thatch of hair guarding her core, into sleek wetness. Joyce's breath caught in her throat and her hips arched again violently up towards him.

"Been a while, pet?" he murmured, kissing a path down her neck. Embarrassed, she nodded slightly. His teeth flashed in a quick grin. "Good." The parts of her that were still solid melted into a warm liquidly puddle at that grin. It was unfair. No man should be that irresistible. But he was, Joyce mused as he shrugged his thick leather coat off and let it drop to the floor. He was kissing her again, the fingers of his right hand coming up to caress gently across her breast pulling and teasing her nipple. The scent of her, the smell of her blood under her skin, it was so hard to resist taking what he wanted. Just a bite. Just a few sips of the precious ambrosia that was Joyce's lifeblood. But he knew if he so much as bared his fangs the chip would be screaming in his head. He would have to satisfy a different kind of craving tonight.

Picking her up and moving he sat her down on the kitchen table. She knew she should stop this or at the very least she should protest and tell him they should go upstairs to her bedroom, but she was too far gone to care. Let the neighbours see! Spike's grin widened as he saw how much fire was in her eyes as she unbutton his shirt. Soon his shirt was discarded, lying in a forlorn heap at the foot of her bed. Her eyes greedily taking in the temptingly male chest in front of her. Then, to her delight she heard the distinctive thud of more clothing hitting the floor and looked down to see that he taken off his pants… somehow, she just knew he didn't wear underwear. Her pussy was throbbing! Mother of god did this man look good.

His hands moved to the bottom of her nightie, and she could feel her heart pound in her chest. She was so wet she could feel the moisture coating her inner thighs. He raised it up slowly and she moved up from the kitchen table to allowed it to be taken off her. She was now as naked as he was and from the look in his eyes, he liked what he saw. No sooner had the vampire undressed her than his mouth crashed down onto hers with a rumbling moan. There was no waiting for a sign of consent, just the coaxing coolness of his lips against hers. The firm swipe of his mouth demanded entry and Joyce quickly responded by parting her lips and pulling him closer. Lust was driving her, pushing her, and pumping inside her as made out with this creature of the night but she didn't care one bit. Then they were kissing hotly. Hungry, desperate kisses of loneliness and rising passion. She loves the grind of their bodies.

He lower his mouth down her neck, kissing and savouring the taste of her skin before moving lower. The man was talented she thought as he attacked her breasts with his lips and tongue. It had been years and years since someone looked at her and made her feel so desirable. Who had it been? Hank, maybe, back in the early days, when there was still some spark there, however dim and wavering. Gasping as he slightly bit one nipple Joyce scolded herself for not living in the moment and enjoying this. Looking down the sight of Spike's dyed head against her chest brought another rush of heat to her loins. Reaching down to massage her fingers through his hair, Joyce traced her nails along the nape of his neck. She shuddered again when Spike sucked hard on her another nipple before he raised up bringing himself level with her as he rubbed his cock against her pussy.

"Condoms!" She gasps as he kisses her shoulder.

"Don't need them luv," he chuckled "vampire remember!" And with that he slid into her, and Joyce buried her head into his mouth to stop from groaning. was so big. Broad. Pushing her inner walls apart, claiming the space as his own. Her head fell back as he filled her completely, a long-forgotten soreness radiating from her loins. Joyce took a moment to absorb the fact that she was at that very moment being fucked by Spike, then the vampire in question pulled back and slammed into her.

Her entire body trembled in reaction, and he repeated the motion, jackhammering into her, goring her flesh with his own. Her arms and legs tightened about him, clutching him as tightly as possible. His hands swept down the curve of her back to grasp her hips guiding her to move against him. His hands aided his thrusts, pulled her onto his cock. He leaned forward devouring her mouth as Joyce rocked against his hard cock. Whenever Spike let her up for air, she sounded out her escalating pleasure. She squirmed around him, even as her world began to darken around her. The cold feeling of him slipping inside didn't hurt her in fact it did rather the opposite. It felt impossibly good. So good. She wanted more. Wanted to touch him everywhere, needed his skin on hers.

"Do you want come, Joyce?" At the sound of his voice, rough and guttural and so mind-numbingly sexy, she did. Her back arched, her breasts pressed into his chest and her moans filling the room. And she shrieked his name, her inner walls clasping him greedily. Not giving her a second to come down from that high, he continued his thrusts, pounding into her wet core, coaxing more and more from her willing body. Joyce keened his name, pleading, begging for surcease.

Spike's muscles were tense, screaming for release, but he needed her with him. Mindlessly, he thrust wildly a few more times, nearly sighing in relief as she tightened and arched around him once more. He felt his own orgasm begin to boil up from inside him, and he yelled hard as he came inside her, filling her with cold semen. Oh god! This shouldn't feel so good! Joyce's mind screamed as she came again her breasts heaving against his chest as he pumped into her.

The collapsed pair against each other the air thick with their combined scents.

Xxxxx

"It goes without saying that you can't tell anyone about this," Joyce said as she pulled on the sheet trying to gain some sense of what happened the previous night.

Spike took a long drag on a cigarette - Joyce had been surprised when the bleached blonde man had pulled out a packet of Marlboro from his jean pocket but made no comment when Spike lit up. Well, she could hardly claim to be the virgin Mary given what they had gotten up to downstairs and later in her bed. She had all but tore his arm off dragging him upstairs to continue their sex filled antics.

He looked over at the woman. The single mother was partially covered by the rumpled sheets, long hair spilling over her breasts like a whore in one of those French paintings or something. Just as pretty, the same air of corruption. "You think I would brag about it?" Spike's lips formed a smile picturing the slayer's reaction to knowing him of all vampires bedded her mother and Joyce just gave him a stern look. Spike grinned like a naughty schoolboy and exhaled slowly. "Yeah, you're right, I would. But I won't."

He would have said more, a few teases here and there but he was interrupted by Joyce taking the cigarette out of his mouth and putting in hers. He looked at her curiously and she shrugged as if it was nothing before speaking up. "I need you to promise me, if any of the gang or Buffy find out..."

"Relax, Joyce," he said leaning over and fishing another cigarette out of his back. He decided to let her keep that one as he enjoyed learning that she smoked plus she looked very hot smoking it. "I will keep my secrets if you keep mine. I have a reputation to maintain you know. Can't let the world know that William the bloody likes a hot chocolate and soap operas." Joyce chuckled at that leaning against him.

Spike stubbed out the cigarette into a former coffee cup now ashtray it would seem, making Joyce frown a little. "Besides do you trust me?" the vampire asked generally interested.

Joyce considered that for a moment, taking into account everything they'd been through together, from marshmallows to well sex. She nodded. "Yes. I do." Deciding the housecleaning be damned followed his lead she stubbed out her cigarette in her own coffee. She hadn't smoked in years not since college and that was one bad habit, she didn't want to pick up again.

"Then I promise," Spike smiled pulling at the sheet covering Joyce. "Cross my heart and hope to die." He pulled at the sheet and was encouraged by the bare flesh he uncovered. First her foot, then her knee and now more and more of her tight. She couldn't help but grin slightly as she saw his eyes light up at the bare flesh being revealed.

Joyce swallowed. "You, um, wanna do this again some time?" she asked as Spike reached out, fingers sliding into Joyce's still mussed hair.

"You mean like now?" he joked as he pulled Joyce's face towards his own.

The sharp scent of smoke hung around Spike, in his hair, on his breath and Joyce relished it. "Must've read my mind," she managed to say before Spike crushed their lips together in a hungry kiss.