AN: This is only part of a chapter, so it ends on a cliffhanger... sort of. :) But, I think you readers have waited long enough--Enjoy.
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DECEMBER 22, 2005- LOS ANGELES-

Willow could hear Spike calling her name, and she called back, “We’re up here, Daddy. Everything’s okay…” she could hear the fear in his voice, and she wanted to assuage it, for Joni’s sake, “No need to…”

Before she could even finish the thought, Buffy and Spike were standing, silhouetted by the light that filtered into Joni’s darkened room, “…worry,” she finished, chagrined at the look of distrust that she saw flash in the vampire’s eye.

“Rather see that for myself, if you don’t mind, Willow,” Spike said.

Joni could hear it in her Daddy’s voice. He was scared, like the time she’d gotten lost in the snow. She had wanted to surprise him because he always seemed so sad. But, how was she going to surprise him with the flowers she found, if he saw where she went to find them? Daddy was always telling her about bad things, but…and anyway, she was big.

So, one day, while he was sleeping, she snuck out. By the time he found her, she was so cold that her teeth were chattering, and when he called her name his voice was soft and scary, like it was now.

“We were just talking, Daddy,” she said, “I think I know what to do.”

Willow could see the fire in Spike’s eye, even from the doorway, and Buffy wasn’t much more promising. She was looking at her with suspicion, and maybe just a little fear. That was something that she supposed would always be there now. That fear would never go away.

Not since she’d tried to kill Dawn, and destroy the world.

“Joni,” Willow said, giving her glowering parents a wary look before focusing her attention on the little girl, and smiling her warmest smile, so as not to alarm her, “why don’t you tell your Mommy and Daddy, just for fun, what it was we were talking about. Okay?”

“Okay,” she said sweetly, sensing the tension that was in the air, “Don’t be mad. It was my idea, not Aunt Willow’s,” Joni looked down, trying to find something that could make this better. She didn’t like it when her Daddy looked like that, especially when she thought that she might be the reason why he did, “I just thought that, if you won’t let me go back, then maybe I can find a way to bring Papa here, again. He’s not gone.”

Willow nodded, encouragingly, “And how were you going to do that, Joni?” she asked, glancing toward the doorway.

“I was going to ask Willow to show me how to bring Papa back. But now, I don’t know what to do. Mommy,” Joni turned to look at Buffy, her eyes shining with earnest intent, “ there’s so much, and I’m so little. Tell me what to do, Mommy. Please…tell me what to do.”

Buffy could feel the air vibrate with tension, and it frightened her. It was as though the night had swallowed Joni when she began to tremble.

It was as though someone had stepped on her daughter’s grave.

And, perhaps someone had.

Buffy could sense Spike’s muscles tightening as Joni spoke, she could almost feel his despair as she stepped past him, and into the little room, to comfort her daughter, “Joni, sweetheart,” she said as she knelt to meet the eyes of a child, “if only it were that easy…”

“But, it is!” Jonina insisted, her brown eyes growing cold and steely with determination, not like a child’s eyes at all. The tiny Slayer cocked her head, and it was all Buffy could do not to gasp. The gesture was so familiar to her that it left no doubt who had taught her, and raised her during her formative years,“ I’ve seen you. You told Willow to do it, when you were fighting the other…” her voice trailed off briefly as her gaze flitted to her Daddy again before coming back to focus on her mother’s face, “… and the big stone monster opened up, and he went away,” Jonina sighed, and her whole body shuddered, as if something had touched her.

Buffy had no idea where to start. So, Jonina asked a question that did break her heart. With a certainty that chilled even Buffy, Jonina asked, “If Daddy won’t let me go, is he going to die?”

Buffy’s breath caught, and she blinked. She heard Spike trying to contain something that sounded like a growl, or was it a sob, within him. It didn’t matter what it was. It might have been a little of both, whichever it was, it was difficult to hear.

She looked at him, at a loss as to what to say, and then at Joni, “I don’t know, Joni,” she said. And it was the truth. She didn’t know. There was no reason to lie to her. She’d know the truth anyway.

“Dove, this isn’t…” Spike tried to comfort her, gently coming into the room and kneeling beside his wife, his eyes shining with a father’s love.

“That’s not true, Daddy!” Joni shook her head, and reached a hand out to touch her father’s cheek, “This is my fault, Daddy. I know it,” she gave a sad giggle, and looked at her father from under her lashes, “It’s funny. Monsters, saving the princess from the dragon, just like the fairytales you told me. I understand now, Daddy.”

“No…” there was a fierce denial in his voice even as it broke, and Buffy wondered if this is what Spike had felt like as he watched her plummet off a tower and into that terrible light, because, right now she would do anything, anything to keep him from dying.

And all she could do was watch.

“You saved me from the monsters, Daddy,” Joni was smiling the kind of smile that told of a special secret she’d just found out about, and saying, “Aunt Willow says I know things, things I shouldn’t, because of the headache. I think it hurts because my head’s too small. But, I know things now, Daddy. And, one day, when I’m big enough, I’m gonna save you. I promise,” her angelic face set and she said again, “I promise, Daddy. One day, I’ll reach into Heaven, and save you from the monsters.”

Spike smiled at his little girl, and taking her into a hug, he whispered in her ear, “You already have, Dove. You already have,” tears laced his words, for saying them brought him more happiness and sorrow than he thought he would ever know.