Author's note: I know i said i'd wait for ten reveiws, but then i got out of my rut and now i'm a little happier and i wanted to update! hahahaha also, that last chappie wasn't a very commentable one, i don't really think this one is either, but that doesn't mean i don't want reveiws. bring them on!

Chapter XXIV - Spike Makes A Decision

Still in The Cortenay's House somwhere near Prague:

It was perhaps a week later, Buffy, Alex and Miranda were out shopping to replace everything that they needed to leave behind in Prague. Spike felt rather badly about being left behind due to the sunlight, but the shops weren't open at night and they needed to go. Besides, there was no telling Buffy that she couldn't go; the slayer was excited at the prospect of shopping at designer stores. Alex, Spike's daughter to the bone-just wanted to get out of the house and get rid of some pent up energy. He couldn't really blame her; he rather wanted to get a change of scenery himself. However, it was light out so Spike couldn't follow. That, of course, didn't hinder him, he gave Alex explicit orders to get him a couple of black t-shirts and socks, the basics, and nothing coloured.

He watched them go and just sat around the house, staying to the wing that housed William, Alex, himself and the slayer.

He was far from bored, though. He had been around the minion and the slayer twenty four/seven for way too bloody long, for once he needed sometime alone, or at least with a semblance of being alone. For the first time in a while, he wanted to do nothing and brood.

That's a laugh.

Bloody hell, if only Angel could see him now.

He had tried to stay in his own room and contemplate everything. They couldn't very well stay with Cortenay forever. He practically wore a hole in the floor, trying to figure out what to do next, and still after all this time, he still drew a blank.

So he left his room and walked down the hall to little William James the fourth, his son.

The wood paneling and parquet floors gave it away as a room intended for an adult, but prepared last minute to house a child, with a cradle, a mobile, some toys and bottles and other things were present along with a cabinet and a few light coloured couches. Spike decided against these and opted for the easy chair on the far side of the room, it afforded him a perfect view of his son, asleep in the crib.

He had a child-in fact he had two.

So much had happened in the last year and a half.

He had fathered a little boy. He was running from a government agency and being sequestered by his best friend's family, Edward Cortenay's.

So this was Edward's family? Spike smiled and shook his head. He never would have guessed.

They had been friends at the university, one of the few friends William was actually sad to leave behind when he changed, when he turned into Spike.

He glanced at Little William and smiled gently.

"Edward would have loved to see you, m'boy." he said more to himself than to his child. He chuckled lowly to himself, shaking his head. "In fact, he would have loved to see me with a wife and kids." a pause. "Or rather, with two kids and a slayer."

He walked over from the easy chair that he had been sitting on to the well made cradle. He crossed his arms and leaned against the frame.

"Hell, one year ago,I would never have believed it." another pause. "Not that its possible." he cocked his head to one side. "Bloody wishI could find out what caused these things, not that I regret for one second anything to do with you and your... sod it,I suppose she's your sister."

William suddenly woke up and yawned.

Spike was worried that the little boy would start screaming and Buffy would come in and yell at him for disturbing William's nap.

Instead the little boy looked up at his father thoughtfully, and grinned a wide toothless, completely innocent grin. The vampire reached down and tickled him under the chin, the same spot where he was ticklish. Will giggled and his hand clamped down around his father's finger in what promised to be an impressive vice grip, which made Spike swell with fatherly pride.

"Got to hand it to the slayer." he muttered under his breath. "She's hard-ass but she's a good mum."

He studied his son's features. His namesake peered right back at him. Probing with identical blue eyes.

"You're so tiny." he said. "And you look just like me, don't you? Lucky boy." he pulled his finger back and smiled at it, knowing that one day his son would be a big bad just like his dad. Fighting alongside his Mum and the Scoobies.

Well, he wouldn't be a big bad per se, More like hewould be just as kick ass as his dad.

"Like that little sod from that Austin Powers rubbish. Minime, I think his name was." William made a giggle like burble. "You're going to have to beat the ladies off with a stick, little midget."

The baby wriggled and laughed. He reached out to grasp his father's finger again and try and put it in his mouth, Spike wondered why he found the grip of his son to be exceptional, with a parentage like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and William the Bloody, this boy was going to be bloody good looking and bloody strong. Especially because it seemed like William was going to be a carbon copy of his father.

"Edward wouldn't believe whoI am now." Spike said after a few moments, the thought coming to him from no where. "Not in a million bloody years."

He smiled a rare genuine smile.

"Don't you go cussing like your old dad, hear me, Midget?"

The boy seemed to comprehend what his father was saying, but after a moment began to fidget, the beginning of a screaming fit flitted across his angelic features. Spike saw this immediately and began humming softly to sooth him, the song his own mother had sung once, perhaps a hundred and fifty years ago.

Little William quieted down, turned on his other side and fell asleep.

Spike got up and walked back to his seat. It was time to get back to the original reason he needed solitude. He needed to come up with a way to protect his little pseudo-family.

He was going to need to keep them moving.

He would talk to Cortenay as soon as he possibly could. Maybe transfer to a summer house somewhere else.

He glanced one more time at William and then stepped out of the room.

Who would've thought sitting alone with your child would be so conducive to brainwaves.

"Thanks for the help," he said. "I promise, I'll figure this out."

He closed the door as softly as he could. He still had some money from the assassins, he was also pretty sure that they could rack up more. He had some arrangements to make.