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Love Sanctioned by slaymesoftly
 
Thirteen
 
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Chapter Thirteen

His demon-enhanced senses having told the Bracken half-breed that Buffy was in the house and that his interruption would not be appreciated, Doyle took his crackers and cheese, along with a bottle of beer, out to the main room. He dragged a comfortable-looking chair from the furniture storage area and settled down near a window to amuse himself until the two blonds woke up. As he dozed off, warmed by the rays of the sinking sun, he idly hoped that Spike would sense his presence before he or the slayer emerged from the bedroom wearing only their happy smiles.

Only his demon half allowed him any warning when the front door burst open and several fledgling vampires tumbled into the room, their eyes lighting up when they spotted what appeared to be an easy meal. Doyle was on his feet immediately, holding the bottle by the neck in what he hoped was a threatening manner as he bellowed, “Spike! Get your undead ass out here!”

Hoping for a moment of demon solidarity, Doyle allowed his face to change as he stammered, “Hey there, boys. Nothing tasty here. Nope. No nice sweet human blood—okay, really didn’t mean to mention blood….Spike! Slayer! Now would be a good time to---“ He was cut off as one of the fledglings launched itself at him, carrying him to the floor. Thinking quickly, Doyle shoved the beer bottle into the open mouth hovering over his throat and shouted again.

In a gratifyingly short amount of time, he was coughing at the vampire dust coating his face and staring up in surprise at an annoyed-looking slayer clad only in what was clearly one of Spike’s shirts. Wearing only his barely-zipped jeans, her companion had just finished tearing the head off the last of the other two vamps. He turned to glare at Doyle, then asked gruffly, “You alright, mate?”

“Uh, yeah. Turns out he was only here for the Bud Light,” Doyle said cheerfully, holding up the broken bottle and pointing to the glass littering the floor. “Hi, Buffy,” he added. “Thanks for the hand there. Not that I didn’t have it under control…” He trailed off when Buffy just rolled her eyes with a “Shyeah, you did.”

“Spike?” she continued, looking over at the clearly-angry vampire. “How did that happen? How did they get in?”

“House is owned by a vamp, pet. Nothin’ here to keep them out just now. But we’re going to fix that,” he growled, reaching for the phone that he’d had installed. He pulled a card from his pocket and dialed a local number, explaining that he needed some paperwork drawn up immediately. Before he could get any further, Doyle shook his head and gestured for him to hang up. Spike narrowed his eyes, but swallowed his argument and ended the conversation with an “I guess it can wait until tomorrow. Thanks anyway, mate.”

He dropped the phone and glared at the demon.

“What?”

“I know what you’re thinking – and it’s a good idea; but right now it would be a dead giveaway. Those papers would have to be filed at City Hall and as soon as the evil mayor sees that William the Bloody has deeded his house over to the Slayer, or her mother, or her Watcher or whatever other human you had in mind, your cover is blown sky high.” Doyle stopped speaking and folded his arms across his chest. “You can’t do it until this is all settled.”

Spike snarled and threw the stake he’d been holding across the room.

“I won’t have her endangered in her own fuckin’ house!”

Buffy stared at him, eyes wide as she realized what he’d been about to do. “It’s your house, Spike,” she said softly. “You paid for it.”

“Got it for you, didn’t I? What do I need a bloody mansion for? Wanted you to have some place nice to live—“ He stopped, the expression on her face telling him that he probably hadn’t chosen the best way to broach the subject of cohabiting. “Never mind,” he finished gruffly. “We can talk about it later. I want you to feel safe here – I want you to be safe when you’re here. And you won’t be as long as I’m the owner.”

“It’ll be fine,” she soothed, running her hand up his arm. She could feel the knotted muscle as both man and demon fought the anger brought on by having his home invaded. “We were okay here before – and we didn’t even have doors that locked, or a roof. This was just a flukey thing- probably a couple of newbies that didn’t know most of these houses are empty. It’ll be all right.”


Doyle looked at the still-furious vampire and ventured, “Maybe you need to let the word get out that you live here. Dust a few vamps or tear into a few demons and let it be known that they were lingering around your property. If your rep is what you say it is…” He stopped to grin when Spike snarled at him. “If it is, then it shouldn’t take you long to remind everybody that you’ve got a nasty temper to go with your…uh…possessiveness.”

“That could work!” Buffy agreed quickly. “It’s mostly gonna be daytime when I’m coming over, so they won’t see me going in and out. If I get caught outside after dark, I’ll just act like I was hunting something to slay.”

“And then what?”

“And then I’ll slay them,” she said cheerfully. “Problem solved.”

Spike cocked his head at her and shrugged. “Fine. I’ll kick some demon arse and let it be known that I don’t like visitors. Do that tonight, after I meet the wannabe Big Bad.”

Buffy’s face clouded as she realized that he would be going out among the demon population again without her.

“I have to go home for awhile,” she said quietly. “Will you have time to come with me?”

“Sure, pet,” he responded just as quietly. “Nothin’s gonna be happening at Willy’s until later. I’ll go see your mum and maybe drop by your Scooby meeting.” He glanced over at Doyle. “Did you get the Watcher set straight?”

The other man shrugged. “I did what I could. I think he’ll be okay with it, once he gets used to the idea. He called the Council’s seers and got them on it. Now you just need to hope they see the same things I do.”

“Oh, that’s reassuring,” Spike drawled. “Nobody in the bloody world sees things the way you do.”

Doyle grinned unrepentantly. “And that’s why I’m such fun to be around.”

Buffy rolled her eyes at their banter and started back towards the bedroom. Spike immediately followed her, telling Doyle, “Jus’ wait here for a minute and we’ll take you with us to meet the Slayer’s mother.”


Joyce was her usual cordial self when Spike introduced Doyle as “some bloke what thinks he needs to hang around and tell me what to do.” She smiled warmly and said in a stage whisper, “Well, it’s time someone decided to.”

While the others laughed at his disgruntled expression, he growled, “Oh, like I don’t get enough orders from you and your bossy bint of a daughter.”

Buffy had already shared with Joyce Doyle’s reason for being in Sunnydale with Spike, and she had hinted about the Powers being all for a relationship between the vampire and the slayer. However, she hadn’t actually gone so far as to tell her mother about the full ramifications of being mated to him. All Joyce knew was that Spike had put some sort of mark on Buffy that protected her from being bitten by other vampires, and she had no quarrel with anything that kept her daughter safe. Although mildly disturbed at the idea of Buffy’s boyfriend having drunk her blood, she pushed that image aside in favor of remembering how it had given Buffy a precious few more seconds when Kralik was trying to kill her.

With a heavy sigh, Buffy resigned herself to the idea that she was going to have to be much more explicit in her explanations if there was any chance of her mother’s not going off at the thought of Buffy and Spike living together. Joyce shot a shrewd look at the visibly bothered slayer, but refrained from saying anything in front of the men.

“I guess we’d better get going,” Buffy said finally. “There’s another meeting tonight – although I don’t know what we can tell them that they don’t already know—“

“We need to be sure the watchers are willin’ to hold off at least one more night and give me a chance to get my meeting with the Mayor. With a bit of luck, I can take him down and no one else has to risk getting’ hurt.”

Joyce’s grateful smile almost made up for the anger he could feel rolling off the slayer and he ducked behind Doyle as he continued, “Not that I don’t know that the Slayer is more than capable of winnin’ this thing all on her own, but why risk the damage to her new clothes, right?”

Completely unmollified, Buffy muttered, “That is so lame,” as she brushed past him and out the door. With a cheerful wave, Doyle followed her to the darkened car, chuckling to himself even as he reminded her, “He’s just trying to do what the Powers sent him back to do, you know. Keep you safe.”

“So, I’m what? Fired? He gets to kill everything evil and I get to sit on the sideline and admire him like a good little girlfriend? I don’t think so!”

Spike slid into the driver’s seat, asking quietly, “You don’t think so, what, Slayer?”

“That the powers mean for me to sit around watching you be all heroic like some…some…girl!”

The fact that both men were laughing again did nothing to improve her temper and she rode the rest of the way to Giles’ apartment glued to the door with her arms folded tightly. When they arrived, she grabbed the door handle and yanked it open before Spike could stop her, jumping out and striding quickly to the Watcher’s door.

“I hope the old man isn’t smart enough to have this apartment watched,” Spike muttered to himself as he climbed out and extended his senses. “That’d be all I need-- being seen givin’ the Slayer a ride.”

Satisfied that he couldn’t sense any other demons in the area, and that all the heartbeats he heard were coming from nearby apartments, he followed Buffy to the door and waited for Doyle to join them. At the last second, he felt the distant presence of another vampire and he growled at the watcher to “bloody well let me in before you blow my cover.”

Somewhat reluctantly, and taking his time about it, Giles finally said, “Come in, Spike,” and stood aside.

 
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