A/N: Again, I wish to thank everyone who read and especially those who reviewed. I had to compete with a certain boy wizard this weekend, so thanks from those of you who took the time to review! This story is pretty much at it's midpoint, and I'm having fun with it. Hopefully you're all still there with me!

Disclaimer: I don't own 70S SHOW nor BUFFY. But if I owned Spike, well….. I'd be one happy camper!

A hockey rink near the elementary school was the destination, and Jackie laced up her skates as Spike tried balancing on his. He hadn't skated since he was a teenager, so it had been a long time indeed. Plus the new designs were very different from his old pair.

"Are you about ready?" he asked, holding onto the fence. She stood, and glided to him with ease.

"Yep!" she said. She held out a gloved hand. "Need some help?" He groaned, and accepted her hand. She smiled, and he skidded a little bit. She laughed, and held him up.

"You're strong for a twig," he said.

"I'm not a twig! And I was a cheerleader, I had to hold other girls up! I'll help you skate, you just relax and move like a ballerina," she coached.

"I feel like a fairy."

"Fairies are graceful too! They have wings, way to think positive!" He was doing a pretty good job, and she let his hand go. "Look at you! You're skating!" He chuckled, and then slipped.

"Bugger!" he said, and hit the ice.

"Omigod! Are you okay?" she asked, holding out a hand to him, though she giggled. He took her hand, and then playfully pulled her down. She shrieked, and hit the ice next to him. "Oooh you creep!"

"Oh, so sorry, love," he said, and laughed. She huffed, but laughed too.

"I bet you are," she said, and sat up. "Ugh, I'm gonna have a bruise on my ass."

"Shall we try this again?" he asked. They stood, and she held his hand as they skated. "This is a very different date than I am used to."

"What kind of dates do you and your girlfriend go on?" she asked. He smirked. He and Dru didn't really date. They had sex and killed people, and that was about all there was to their relationship.

"Oh, we go to clubs, go to dinner, go to movies," he said, as it wasn't a total lie. They did those things…. "Dru isn't really the dating type."

"Is she nice?"

"… Well, she's nice enough for me," he said. "But I'm not very nice."

"Oh puhlease."

"You'd be surprised, love." He skated wobbly to her, and she sort of caught him as he skidded a little.

"I doubt it," she said. "You know, people don't think I'm nice either."

"Really? I think you're pretty nice."

"Maybe we're so mean we think each other as nice."

"…Maybe." He tipped forward, and she pushed him upright again. She skated backwards, and began to belt out 'Dancing Queen' at the top of her lungs. "You certainly stick out in this town, don't you?"

"Oh yes, and you blend in with your Shaft jacket," she retorted. "Look, you just needed practice. You've got it now!" She was right, he was skating fairly well now. She took his hand again and had him skate with her.

"You're certainly touchy feely," he said.

"If I let you go, you'll fall," she stated.

"Har har." She giggled, and put an arm around him. Hello, what's this? He thought, and looked down at her in the moonlight. She was smiling at him. Oh bloody hell, he thought, my charms are working on her and I didn't even mean for them to. What am I supposed to do now? Sure, she's cute, and fun, and I feel less like a crazy murdering vampire and more like a man…

Fuuuuuuck, he thought. The fact is I AM a crazy murdering vampire. And she has no idea.

"You know, it's getting late, and-."

"Stay the night with me," she said, abruptly. He raised his eyebrows at her.

"ExCUSE me?"

"I don't mean in a sexual way, but I don't want you driving this late. We can play cards or something, we can watch TV, just… stay the night with me."

He looked down at her, and she looked so earnestly up at him.

"You can go in the morning," she said.

"No I can't," he said.

"Why not?"

"I can't travel by day," he said, softly. She tilted her head, and he sighed. "I know it sounds weird, but I can't."

"Then you can spend all day at my place, I just… I can't be alone tonight," she said. "I'm not going to make a move on you, or take advantage of you. I need someone next to me while I sleep. Because I'm going insane." He couldn't believe that he was doing what he was about to do, but he found himself nodding.

"Yeh, okay," he said. She smiled, and they skated back to the side of the rink. Spike, you're being a dumbass, he thought. How do you explain away your inability to see the sun? But he decided to worry about it when it happened. For now, he was going to be there for this very confounding and captivating girl.

"Slumber party!" she squealed, and Spike rolled his eyes. Confounding, captivating, AND ridiculous.

She walked into the apartment, laughing and talking, and Spike had to wait for her to invite him in. After all, as a vampire he wouldn't be able to enter without an invite. She continued chatting, and he stood there, hands in his pockets. She finally noticed his hesitation, and put her hands on her hips.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Well you haven't invited me in," he said, dryly.

"Are you all of a sudden Victorian now?" she asked.

"Hey, I'm just trying to be polite," he said, lying through his teeth. She stood on the other side of the door, and smiled.

"Spike, won't you PLEASE come in?" she asked, and he sauntered through the door.

"Certainly," he said, and someone burst from one of the bedrooms. They both jumped in alarm, and turned to see her roommate. It was a man, he looked Latino but Spike couldn't be sure, and he was fuming.

"Where have you been?" he demanded. "You're never out this late! I was worried sick about you!"

"Oh Fez, calm down," Jackie said. "I was out with Spike." Fez put his hands on his hips, and scrutinized the punk.

"Who is this?" he asked.

"This is a friend," Jackie said.

"A friend, or a LOVER?" Fez threw back.

"It's not really your business!" Jackie exclaimed.

"So you move on to him?" Fez asked.

"Fez, we've been over this, and you dumped me, in case you forgot," Jackie said, and Spike sort of chuckled a little bit. "Besides, Spike is just a friend. We're going to my room now."

"Oh sure," Fez said. "You go to your room with friends but not ME when I was you boyfriend."

"Oh knock it off," she said, taking Spike's hand and tugging him with her.

"Well, night, mate," Spike said, and followed her into her room, leaving Fez shocked and bemused.

"Make sure you shut the door all the way, he likes to peep," Jackie said.

"Lovely."

Fez went for the phone, and dialed the Foreman house.

"Yeah?" Hyde answered.

"Hyde, I have a problem!"

"Fez, it's almost two!"

"There is a strange man with Jackie in my apartment," Fez said.

"…. Why should I care?"

"I'm scared! He looks like a Sex Pistol."

"Fez, I have enough on my plate right now, okay? Not only is Jackie going out with that thug, but Sam is refusing to go to sleep because she's convinced that a vampire is outside our window wanting to kill her! In fact, she thinks that Jackie's THUG is the vampire!"

"…. Is she a dumb dumb?"

Jackie went into her walk in closet, and put on pajama pants and her old Led Zeppelin tee shirt. Spike craned his neck subtly so he could catch a glimpse of her while changing. Pervy, he knew, but he was still a guy and she was a gorgeous little thing. As she put on her pajama pants, he saw bright red cuts on the backs of her thighs. He yanked his head back in surprise, wondering how depressed this girl really was, and wished he hadn't looked. He liked the ignorant bliss of thinking she just liked to drink. Cuts pointed to a more serious problem. She walked into the main room, and Spike whistled.

"Sexy," he said, and she curtsied and grabbed a deck of cards from her desk drawer. "How often is that desk used?" She shrugged.

"When I'm writing letters to people," she said. "Eric and I had been keeping in touch. And I write in my journal from time to time. You can be sure that YOU are going to be the next thing I mention, with glowing reviews I might add." He nodded, and she began shuffling the cards.

"Any school work?" he asked. She shook her head. "Why not? You're at college age."

"I just didn't go to college," she said. "I was supposed to get a job in Chicago, but, as you know, that fell through. And now I'm here, kind of drifting." She dealt the cards, and he looked at his hand. It wasn't too good, but then he remembered he hadn't asked what they were playing.

"What game?"

"Go fish."

"Psh. Fine. Got any fours?" She snorted, and handed him two fours. "Heh. Got any threes?" She shook her head, and he went fishing.

"You're in trouble now, mister," she said, arching an eyebrow in determination.

"What do you want to do with your life?" he asked.

"Are you a guidance counselor now?"

"Just curious."

"Well… I don't know," she said. "I don't really want to stay here for too much longer. It gets harder and harder every day. Got any queens?" He handed her a queen, and she smiled. "Why, what would I do anyway?"

"Well, you could go to college," he said.

"Why would I want to do that?"

"Because school is important," he heard himself saying, and wondered what this was all about. Spokesman for the education department now, William old boy? "Just apply around, see where you get in. It could give you an ego boost anyway." She shrugged, and they continued their card game.

After she won twice in a row, he gave up and they were now just lying on the bed, talking. She had told him about her parents, who sounded awful, and her troubles with her self esteem.

"My therapist says that I just don't feel like I have any self worth unless I am with a guy," she said. "Is that pathetic?"

"Actually, when I'm without a girl I am pretty lost," he said, and could tell her eyes were beginning to fall into sleep. It was pretty late, and it had been a long night for her. "See, this first girl I loved, Cecily, she was prim, proper. Very old fashioned. And I wanted her to like me so much, I wrote her poetry, and-."

"YOU wrote POETRY?" she asked, laughing. He glowered, and shoved her shoulder a little. It WAS the Victorian Era at that time after all, why should he get any grief? "Ow, easy. Can you recite me something?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No!"

"Why not?"

"I was a pretty bad poet, okay?"

"Well the fact that you actually made the effort should have swept her off her feet," Jackie said. "I know if someone wrote me poetry, it would be magical! Well, Michael wrote me a dirty limerick once, but that wasn't really pretty. And it may have involved Barbarella, I just don't remember."

"Sick. Anyway, I tried to be the perfect gentleman because she was the perfect lady. But she had none of that. And now, I'm with Dru."

"What's she like?" Jackie asked. "Besides sounding like a cheating bitch."

"Oh, you know, Burk," he said. "She's… wild. She's raw, and just a little bit crazy. Check that, a LOT crazy. And now look at me. I'm a punk in New York and I'm rough and tough and mean too."

"You're not mean," she said, eyes losing the fight to stay open as she pulled her legs to her chest. "You try to be hard, I can tell that, but you aren't. You care about those around you. You've just been told too many times that you're a monster. That you're worthless. I understand that. But you aren't." She tapped his nose with her finger on 'aren't'. He smiled, and put a blanket over her.

"We're alike in a lot of ways," he said, starting to feel tired himself. "We're hopeless romantics who want approval in any way, shape, or form."

"Hear hear," she murmured. "Spike, do you think I could go to college?"

"Yeh, I do," he said. "You're bright. You'd survive fine. You'd get in."

"Huh," she said. "Maybe I'll do that. Maybe I'll go to college." She was almost asleep. "Spike, why can't you travel during the day?" He turned so his back was to her, a sad scowl on his face.

"It's complicated," he muttered.

"What, are you a vampire or something?" she asked, and laughed a little to herself.

"Actually…. Yeah Burk, I'm a vampire." What are you doing? He wondered. What on EARTH possessed you to tell this human that you were a vampire?

"You're such a weirdo," she yawned. He smiled sardonically. God if only that were the case, he mused. But of course she wouldn't believe him. No sane person who hadn't seen it first hand would believe him.

"Night, Burk," he said.

"Night, Spike." He turned over, and watched her sleep for awhile, brushing her brown hair from her eyes a little bit. She just screamed innocence. Normally I would make my kill move when she is this vulnerable, he thought, but instead just brushed her hair from her eyes continuously, and she snuggled closer to him in her sleep. He put his arm around her. Is this the whole 'acting like the woman I want to love thinks I should act' thing I was waxing poetic about, he wondered, and sighed. I'm not used to being this mushy. She affects me like few can. And it was never this quickly. He knew that he needed to leave the next day, for her own good. And it pained him to think about it as he fell into a restless sleep.