Chapter 7

“Spike, you don’t have to be here.”

He shook his head. “I’m not leaving you alone with that wanker.”

She rolled her eyes. “I can take care of myself, you know.”

“Still, I’m staying.”

Buffy figured there was no sense arguing with him about it. There was a knock on the door, she went to answer it and gave Parker a small smile. “I’m surprised you actually came.”

“I told you I would,” he commented, walking into the house, his eyes widening at the sight of Spike, who gave him a grin.

Buffy looked between them, clearing her throat. “Okay, I’ll just go get Dawn. Be nice,” she told Spike firmly, then headed upstairs.

Spike looked the boy up and down, delighted in the scent of fear that was coming from him. “Let’s get one thing straight, I don’t like you, but for some reason, Buffy thinks you deserve a second chance. You do anything to hurt them, and I’ll make sure no one finds your body.”

Parker gulped, taking a step back. He sighed in relief when Buffy returned, a small bundle in her arms.

She took a deep breath, handing the baby over to Parker, who looked like he would rather be doing anything else than that.

Spike growled. “You’re not holding her right, support the head.”

Parker did as he said, fearing for his life otherwise.

Buffy gave Spike a grateful smile.

He smiled in return, pulling her aside. “You sure you can handle him? I have something to do, but I should be back in an hour.”

“Yeah, we’ll be fine.”

Spike nodded, even though he didn’t want to leave. He gave Parker one more seething look, then left the house.

Once he was gone, Parker chose that moment to speak up. “Are you sure you can trust that guy, Buffy? I think he might be in a gang or something. He doesn’t exactly strike me as someone that should be around kids. Do you know what he did to me?”

Buffy rolled her eyes for what felt like the millionth time. “Yes, and I told him not to pull anything like that again, but I can’t exactly blame him for what happened. Spike’s a friend, one that happens to be very overprotective. He loves Dawn, there’s no one else I would trust her with more.”

Parker saw the determined expression on her face and decided to drop it, for now.


* * * * *


Spike wasn’t happy to find Abrams still at the house when he got back; even more so at the gooey look he was giving Buffy. With that thought in mind, he strolled over to her, a smile firmly in place. He pulled her closer, planting a passionate kiss on her lips, and only ending it when she was good and breathless.

“Sorry I’m late, baby. How are things going here?”

Once she broke out of her daze, she slapped him lightly across the chest. “It’s going fine, but Parker was just leaving.”

The brunette boy nodded, giving Buffy a nod and receiving a scowl from Spike. “I’ll just see you in school,” he said, then headed out the front door.

Buffy glared at Spike after he left. “What was that about? It felt like you were marking your territory or something.”

He shrugged. “Just making sure the boy knows where he stands, I didn’t like the way he was looking at you.”

“Spike, we talked about this. Whether he’s giving me looks or not, I have no plans to ever get back with him. Parker is only my baby’s sperm donor, that’s it. I’m only bothering with him at all because for some reason, he wants to be in her life. You don’t have to be jealous.”

Spike scoffed. “Please, I’m not jealous. I don’t get jealous, especially not of some pansy college bloke.”

Buffy nodded. “Of course you don’t, but I’m just saying that you don’t have to worry about him.”

That made him feel relieved, and even though he told himself that he wasn’t jealous, he couldn’t help it. Parker had a part of Buffy that he could never touch. The wanker was able to give her a child, something that Spike never would be able to do, no matter how much he wanted to.


* * * * *


She ran through the cemetery, glancing quickly behind her to see that the soldiers were still chasing her. She had to get away from them, never wanting to go back to that place. She shuddered at just the thought of it. She got distracted trying to see how close they were, and tripped over a branch. She knew it was all over as she shut her eyes, opening them at the sound of a commotion going on. She saw a bleached blond man attack the soldiers, putting up a pretty good fight against them. She heard one of the men yell something to the others, then take off in the opposite direction, sighing in relief once they were gone. The blond man turned back to her, just in time for her to notice his face morph back to that of a human and God, he was gorgeous.

“Hey, you all right?” he wondered, knowing this girl was a vampire, but for some reason not wanting them to get a hold of her.

Oh, he had an accent, too, she thought to herself as she licked her lips. “I am now, I don’t know what I would have done if you didn’t show up. I was trapped in some sort of compound, I only managed to escape because I tricked them into thinking I drank their poisoned blood when they let me out of my cage. That place was so horrible. They do all kinds of experiments on other vampires and demons, some are even harmless. I’ve only been a vampire for a little over a year, but I must have been in there for months. I lost track of time.”

Spike’s eyes widened, realizing this was the secret organization that Buffy talked about, and was relieved again to know that she didn’t join up with them. He definitely didn’t like what he was hearing. “You should come with me; they probably won’t stop looking for you. Is there anything else you can remember about that place?”

She nodded and followed him out of the cemetery. “I can tell you anything that you wanna know,” she replied, somewhat flirtatiously.

He felt a bit uncomfortable under her stare. “I’m Spike, what’s your name?”

She flashed him a bright smile, wondering just how he got a name like that and very determined to find out. “Harmony Kendall, it’s nice to meet you.”