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Unchecked by Xela
 
Chapter 1
 
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“Anne Kendra! Get in here RIGHT. NOW!” Buffy yelled, trying to convince little William to eat something. He had a stubborn streak that put hers to shame. Spike would have loved the challenge. As usual, her heart clenched thinking about Spike, gone almost four months now. She missed him so much it hurt, especially when he wasn’t there to share in his children’s big moments.

“Mama!” a giggling voice called out, a small weight falling onto her leg. Buffy looked down through bleary eyes at her smiling daughter, bending over and giving the little imp a kiss. “Mama love!”

***

“Angel, you’ve got a package!” Harmony sang, grating on his nerves. The last thing he needed was that ditz making noise. Angel sighed, resting his head on his desk as he tried to summon up the energy to deal with…that thing. God he hated her sometimes. Most of the time. OK, all the time.

“Angel, you’ve got a package!” she sang through the intercom, her voice louder than before. He was a vampire, he’d hear her particular whine if she was five miles away.

“Angel—“

“YES. Thank you, Harmony, bring it in.” He seriously considered flinging the stupid intercom across the room. Angel thought he was going to vomit when Harmony traipsed in wearing a bright pink dress with frilly little unicorns prancing on it. He could feel his eyes burning.

“Is there anything else I can do for you, Boss?” Harmony asked, blinking her eyes coquettishly.

“No, Harmony, there really isn’t,” Angel said through gritted teeth. This day couldn’t possibly get any more annoying. He pulled the box apart, surprised to see the amulet he’d given Buffy to fight the First. The one she hadn’t let him wear. That had been a rather crappy night, finding out the love of his life was mated to his worthless grandchilde…and pregnant to boot. With her SECOND child. She said it was Spike’s, but that was a naive impossibility; he could only surmise that she’d gotten pregnant through some means—in vitro or some other person—but through her ‘relationship’ with Spike had decided it was his. The best thing that had ever happened to her had been when the Hellmouth had swallowed Spike, freeing Buffy from the claim she couldn’t have understood.

With a sigh, he tossed the amulet onto the table, wondering if he should fly to Rome and see how Buffy was doing. A bright flash and screaming interrupted his train of thoughts. Angel threw his arm up, shielding his eyes against the bright light. When he dropped his arm, he really wished he hadn’t.

“Peaches?” Spike asked in disbelief. “What the bloody hell?”

“Fuck me,” Angel growled, banging his head against the desk.

***

“So…this is Spike?” Fred asked, looking at the growling, frustrated ghost-vamp who was stalking around the room.

“Yes! I’m Spike! William the Bloody, Slayer of Slayers, mate of Buffy”—he glared at Angel when the older vampire growled—“and I want to talk to her NOW!”

“Yeah, well you’re just out of luck there Willie,” Angel sneered.

“What’s so wrong about that, we could just call—“

“NO!” Angel roared, startling them all. Spike watched him with narrowed eyes; he could practically see the jealousy rolling off of his grandsire. “You don’t know what he’s capable of, Fred. If he tricked Buffy into a mating claim, then we can’t let him near her. No telling what he could do to her head. Spike doesn’t have any outside contact, understood?”

“But—“ Fred protested.

“He tortured Angel, terrorized Sunnydale, and at last check was trying to kill Buffy, not…mate her,” Wesley told the soft-hearted Texan. “While I’m not ruling out the possibility of some sort of redemption, given the nature of vampires it is highly unlikely.”

“Sod this! I have children!” Spike yelled, shifting into gameface. The humans shrank away from the incorporeal vampire.

“Vampire’s can’t have children, boy,” Angel snarled, his accent shifting into a light Irish brogue. Spike whirled on him, and Angel had to fight not to take a step back from the obviously irate man. He did not back down from SPIKE.

“ANYTHING is possible if you’re willing to pay the price,” the blonde snarled dangerously, “even anchoring a soul.” With that, Spike dramatically walked through the door, knowing full well that Angel would be stewing in his own juices. Well sod this! If they wouldn’t help him, he’d just sodding walk to wherever Buffy was. He was a ghost, it should be fairly easy.

“Blondie Bear?!” Spike froze, his entire body shuddering at the sound of that grating voice. No. No no no no no no fucking NO. “It is you, my Blondie Bear!” Spike decided that maybe, just maybe, it was totally worth it to see Harmony fly through him and crash head first into the wall. Angel’s Merry Band of Worthless came running out to see what had caused all the noise.

“Spike, what did you do to Harmony?” Angel demanded. Spike rolled his eyes—of all the lows, defending Harmony was a pretty impressive pit—and flipped them the bird, ready to get out of this hell hole of a law firm.

***

Buffy settled next to William, rubbing his back as he drifted off to sleep. She could barely let him out of her sight, and since she couldn’t stand to sleep in a bed alone…

She was walking down a hall, her footsteps muffled by an expensive feeling plush carpet. She was wearing a flowing red dress that moved in an invisible breeze. She felt like there was something she was supposed to be doing, some meeting she was late for. A dark shadow walked out of an office at the end of the hall, disappearing around the corner.

“Spike?” she whispered in disbelief. “SPIKE!” She took off down the hall, running as fast as she could. She took the turn too fast, crashing into the wall, but she could see him just up ahead, opening the door of an office. She had to get there before he went in, she just knew it.

“Spike!” She reached out to grasp his shoulder, but her hand went through him, dust blowing away in the nonexistent breeze.

Buffy woke up with a gasp, covered in sweat and shaking. She glanced at Will, safely ensconced between two pillows so he wouldn’t fall off the bed, before slipping away to get herself a glass of water. She caught her reflection in a mirror, grimacing at the dark circles under her eyes, but resigned to knowing that she wouldn’t be getting any more sleep for the rest of the night.

***

Spike screamed in frustration as he found himself pulled back to Angel’s office—again. He could get maybe half a block away from Wolfram and Hart before he found himself right back where he started. He growled, storming down the empty halls in his rage. He couldn’t even hit anything (or anyone) to release his emotions. He did an entire lap of the floor, finding himself, once again, in front of Angel’s office. And evil smile made its way across his face. He could, at the very least, try to find out some of Angel’s dark dirty secrets while he was bored; this whole walking through inanimate objects things had to have some benefits.

He’d just reached for the doorknob when a shiver went up his spine. A familiar scent tickled his nose, and he spun around looking for its source.

“Buffy?” he whispered hopefully. He found nothing but the faint scent of his love behind him, a whisper of a dream.
 
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