Chapter 5

Spike was bouncing Dawn on his lap, delighted in the sound of her giggles. A throat being cleared had him turning his attention to the staircase, his jaw nearly dropping at the vision before him.

“Is this okay? It’s been a while since I’ve actually dated.”

He nodded, seeming to have lost the ability to speak. She was wearing a red halter top, with a black skirt that left little to the imagination. Her hair fell around her shoulders in golden waves, light make up adorning her features, and she looked absolutely breathtaking. “Bloody hell,” was all he managed to get out.

Buffy smiled shyly. “I’ll take that as a good reaction, then. Okay, you know where everything is. I should be back around eleven. Thanks again for doing this, I really appreciate it.”

Spike waved his hand in the air. “Think nothing of it, you may be the Slayer, but you deserve to have a night off once in a while. Go, have fun, the nibblet will be fine.”

She gave him a quick hug, then pressed a kiss to the baby’s forehead and with one more smile, made her way out of the house.

Spike watched her go, wondering yet again just what he was getting himself into.


* * * * *


“So, how’s Dana doing?”

Buffy rolled her eyes, but plastered a smile on her face. “It’s Dawn, and she’s doing fine.”

Riley nodded. “That’s good; I still can’t believe Parker won’t even help you out. He gives all men a bad name.”

She shrugged. “I’ve been able to manage fine without him. I have my mom and my friends, not every child needs a father. Sometimes they’re better off without one.”

Riley took a deep breath, figuring it was time to get to the point. “There’s actually a reason I asked you out tonight, Buffy. I know all about you. Well, I know that you’re pretty strong. I saw you take out three vampires the other night on your own. With your strength, I almost thought you might be a demon or something, but then I figured if you were, you wouldn’t be fighting your own kind. I’ve been curious about you ever since.”

Buffy didn’t know what to think about this new bit of information. “How do you even know about vampires?”

“Come on, you live in Sunnydale long enough, you see things. I’m actually a demon hunter myself; I’m part of this secret organization. We’re not supposed to tell anyone, but I knew you were someone we could trust. I told my boss all about you and she’s really interested to meet you, maybe do some tests to see how strong you are. We could really use someone like you on the team.”

She took it all in, shaking her head. “Let me get this straight, the only reason you’ve been interested in me at all is because I’m strong? So, all of this was just to get me to join your squad of demon fighters?”

“I know I may have gone about it the wrong way, but I wouldn’t have told you about this if I didn’t think it was really important.”

Buffy nodded and stood up. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m really not interested.”

He watched her walk away, a look of confusion on his face.


* * * * *


Buffy found the living room empty when she got home, heading upstairs to the nursery and stopping at the sight in front of her. Spike was standing over Dawn’s crib, singing a soft tune to the infant.

He turned when he felt her presence in the room, giving her a warm smile.

Buffy smiled in return, moving out of the way as he left the room, shutting the door behind him.

They headed back downstairs, neither saying a word, until Spike broke the silence.

“I wasn’t expecting you back so soon. Date not go well?”

Buffy laughed humorlessly. “It really didn’t. In fact, I wouldn’t even call it a date. It was more like a business meeting.” When she saw the confused look on his face, she decided to clarify. “Riley is part of some secret demon organization. He was only out with me because he saw me fighting vampires and wanted to learn more about me. Apparently, he was trying to get me to join the organization, but I turned him down. God, I feel so stupid. I didn’t have any real feelings for him, but I was flattered when I thought he was actually interested in me. I should have known better.”

Spike shook his head, taking her hand and pulling her down on the couch. “He’s a bloody idiot, love. It was his loss, and I wouldn’t trust a demon operation as far as I can throw them. Something doesn’t seem right about that. They need to leave the demon hunting to the professionals. I bet you could give them all a run for their money.”

She gave him a genuine smile. “Yeah, I suppose we should look into it. I don’t want amateurs thinking they can kill demons in my town, but I have a really bad feeling that they do more than just kill them. I’ll talk to Giles about it tomorrow. Right now, I just wanna sleep.”

He nodded. “Right, I’ll get out of here, but just think about what I said, Buffy. I know you well enough by now to know that you’ll start doubting yourself because of this. It’s not your fault that he’s such a bloody moron. The man had a chance to date you and he didn’t even appreciate it. You deserve someone that knows how amazing you are. I don’t want you to ever doubt yourself, all right?”

Buffy gazed deeply into his eyes; once again in awe by how much he’d changed. With that thought in mind, she leaned in to press a tender kiss to his lips. It was supposed to last only for a second, but Spike had other plans and turned the kiss more passionate, slipping his tongue in her mouth. She pulled away when it started to get to be too much. “Wait, we have to stop.”

He obeyed, even though stopping was the last thing he wanted to do.

Buffy cupped his cheek when he turned away, forcing his gaze back on hers. “The only reason I even bothered to go out with Riley is because I knew it wouldn’t lead to anything, but with you, there’s a pretty big chance it would. And I’m just not ready for that yet, William. I hope you can understand.”

His eyes widened at the use of his given name, not expecting to hear it from her. Spike nuzzled the hand that was still resting on his cheek, giving her a smile. “I’ll wait forever, even beyond that if I have to. I’m not going anywhere.”

She was very relieved to hear that, and knew that he was being sincere. Spike was the one that never left, and even if he did, he would always come back.