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Chapter 9
 
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Disclaimer: Joss Whedon’s vampires, not my vampires. Or Slayers. Or assorted other folks.
 
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Chapter 9
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Dawn slept until eleven the morning after the wedding. She woke up feeling strangely content. Her sister was married. Spike would stay around. No one would leave. For the first time in forever, she felt like her caregivers were actually going to stay, not run off with a secretary, or die, or break up. The idea relaxed some deep knot of worry inside her that she hadn’t even realized was still there. She bounced out of bed and down the stairs.
 
Tara had been up for a while, reading in the living room. “Morning, Dawnie!” she said brightly. She smiled at the teen’s obvious good mood. “Thought you were going to sleep all day!”
 
“Well, someone had mentioned pancakes last night,” Dawn hinted.
 
“Regular or funny shapes?” Tara asked with a grin. They made their way into the kitchen to whip up some of Tara’s specialty. After breakfast Dawn worked on some homework for the weekend, grumbling that weddings should entitle one to a get out of homework free card.
 
“Sorry, Dawn, but given that it wasn’t your wedding, I don’t think the teacher will buy it,” Tara sympathized.
 
Dawn was just finishing up when the doorbell rang. Tara looked up from a spellbook she had been reading and glanced at Dawn. “Who could that be?” Dawn asked.
 
Tara went to the door and looked out. There was Giles on the front porch, with his hands in his pockets, looking ill at ease. Tara opened the door and said, “Giles? What can we do for you?”
 
The Watcher shifted awkwardly. “I had hoped to talk to Buffy,” he said.
 
Dawn came up behind Tara. “She and Spike are away on their honeymoon. You know, that traditional thing you do after you get married?”
 
“May I come in?” Giles asked. “I would like to understand the situation better. I’m rather at a loss.”
 
Tara looked closely at him. Giles had always carried a quiet air of authority, but at present that seemed to have temporarily vanished. In its place was a deeply puzzled and hurt man, trying to figure out how things had gotten to this point. Tara made up her mind. “Come in, Giles. Would you like some tea?”
 
“Thank you, I would,” he replied. He followed them into the kitchen and sat down. Dawn sat down next to him, torn between wanting to hug him because he was back and wanting to sock him one for leaving in the first place. In the end she did neither, and just waited for him to speak.
 
After a few minutes Tara served the tea, and sat down as well. Giles took a sip, then said, “I’m having trouble understanding how this all came about. Did you know about the claim?”
 
Tara shook her head, but Dawn said, “I did. They explained it to me.” Both adults turned to the teen, listening intently. “Spike got hurt pretty bad trying to send Buffy back to heaven. Xander burned his face with holy water – he couldn’t see out of one eye for nearly a week. Buffy gave him some of her blood to heal. Then when Xander tried to kill Spike again with a crossbow, Buffy gave him some more.”
 
“Buffy allowed him to drink from her? But how could he do that without triggering the chip in his head?” Giles asked.
 
Dawn shrugged. “The chip doesn’t work on Buffy anymore. Works on other humans, but something in the resurrection spell must’ve done something weird to Buffy.”
 
Giles found himself growing alarmed, “But then he could hurt her, or drain her if he was badly injured! How could she let him live here if he is capable of harming her?”
 
“But that’s why they claimed each other, Giles,” Dawn said, wondering why someone so educated about demons was so dense sometimes. “The way they explained it, a demon can’t harm his mate. They claimed each other partly because then Spike never would lose control.”
 
“But surely there were other, less drastic ways of preventing Spike from harming her!”
 
Tara spoke up at this point. “Giles, you’re forgetting one key thing. They love each other.”
 
“But demons can’t love!” said Giles, exasperated.
 
“I don’t think I believe that anymore,” said Tara with conviction. “Spike would face anything to protect Buffy. He would have sent her back to heaven, even though it was breaking his heart to do it. He paid off all her bills and her mortgage, and he keeps her grounded. Buffy’s been a mess since she got back. She goes through panic attacks, she has nightmares – she needs him.”
 
“You don’t see them every day, Giles,” added Dawn. “They are barely ever apart. They are constantly doing that telepathy thing, which is really annoying sometimes, but it’s not like Spike is giving her evil ideas. They patrol together, cook together, train together – they’ve become a total unit.”
 
Giles did his best to process this information. “But for the Slayer to be depending so heavily on a vampire, that just can’t be a long term solution to her problems. She needs to stand up on her own feet.”
 
“But she is, Giles!” Dawn insisted. “She’s been dealing with social services and my school and bills and all that. She’s just doing it with someone to support her. I mean, jeez, don’t married couples, like, do that all the time? If other adults have people they rely on, why can’t she? Just because she’s the Slayer she has to do everything alone?” Dawn couldn’t believe how obtuse Giles was being.
 
“You saw her yesterday,” Tara put in. “You saw how happy she was. Now tell me – do you remember the last time you saw her that happy?”
 
Giles once more felt a deep sense of shame. She had been happy. And truthfully, he had never, ever seen that unbridled joy before. Not even when she had been in love with Angel before everything went south. Could he really deny her that, for the sake of some Watcher related sense of propriety? “I don’t know if I remember when she last looked like that,” he admitted finally. “I just feel like I’ve failed her somehow.”
 
“Giles, I know that you were hurt that she wouldn’t confide in you,” Tara said gently. “But she’s been struggling, daily, just to get back onto solid ground. She’s happier with Spike than she’s ever been. She’s afraid that you and the others are going to wreck that, so she’s keeping her distance. If you ask her to choose between the group and Spike, she’s going to choose Spike, every time.”
 
Giles drank some more tea and contemplated for a while. “Tell me,” he said after a moment. “Do you feel comfortable with their relationship?”
 
“Of course,” Dawn said. “For the first time in, like, ever I have two adults in the house who aren’t fighting, who pay attention to me, and who help me out and all that. My sister isn’t all stressed out and bitchy, and I have a cool brother in law. What’s the problem?”
 
“Giles, it doesn’t really matter if we feel comfortable with it,” said Tara. “She’s an adult. It’s her life. She knows vampires, and she has seen the way Spike cares for her. He’s changed for her. She could really use some support, but she really doesn’t need interference. Like she said – I think you just need to leave her be when it comes to Spike.”
 
Giles sighed, and then stood up. “You’ve given me a lot to think about. When are they returning?”
 
“Tomorrow night,” said Dawn.
 
“I’ll try to call Buffy sometime next week then,” he said. They walked him to the door. As he turned to go, Dawn said, “Giles?”
 
“Yes?”
 
“Please, could you just… let her be happy?” Dawn pleaded.
 
Her simple request tugged once more at Giles’ heart. “I’ll try,” he responded. Then he turned to go.
 
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It was with great reluctance that Buffy and Spike left the little cabin on Sunday after sundown. “We’ll have to come back here again sometime,” Buffy said as they climbed on the bike. They had reveled in each other’s presence, making love hour upon hour, talking about life, the baby, and anything other than slaying and Sunnydale. It had been a perfect honeymoon, despite its simplicity.
 
“That we will, pet,” Spike agreed. He started the motorcycle and they headed back toward Sunnydale.
 
Do you think Giles will still be there? Buffy wondered, switching to telepathy once the road noise kicked in.
 
Probably, pet. You really should talk to him you know.
 
I know, she sighed. It was just such a shock, seeing him t”here. I’m just so tired of the ‘disappointment face’. Between that, and Willow’s ‘forgive me, even though I fucked up your life with magic’ face and Xander’s ‘kill the vampire’ face, I just want to tell them all to take their faces and…
 
Bugger off?
 
Yeah. Although I don’t have the colorful British slang, that’s exactly how I feel sometimes.
 
What about the other times? Spike probed.
 
I do miss them. I want them back, but I’m just so tired of fighting them and justifying myself to them. Not to mention that I keep having panic attacks about them staking you.
 
Never happen pet. And now they know we’re claimed, so they’ll let me be, if only to keep you alive.
 
Let’s hope so, Buffy thought doubtfully. They’re going to freak about the baby.
 
You don’t know that, Slayer, Spike thought. You really should give them a chance. You’ve got to admit that we are no closer to figuring out what happened to us.
 
Buffy sighed again. Can we just wait a little longer? At least until after my next check up?
 
Ok, love. Don’t fret. Spike drove on, trying to figure out how he was going to reconcile his desire to support Buffy in her continuing struggle to readjust to life and his utter fear of losing her. Despite his reassurances, he could feel that something was going to come to a head soon.
 
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In a deserted alley in the seedier part of Sunnydale, the air shimmered oddly for a moment, like heat above a highway. Then with a rush of air, a figure appeared out of nowhere, frightening a stray cat who hissed and fled. The Kratash demon had taken on the appearance of a nondescript man in his early thirties, with short brown hair, wearing jeans and a short black leather jacket. He looked like any one of a dozen similar men, who could be found haunting bars and clubs at night in Sunnydale. If you looked into his eyes for too long, you would start to feel ill at ease, and sometimes black clouds seemed to flit across the brown irises. But at first glance, he seemed like just another guy.
 
The Kratash was one of several who had been sent to scour the human world, trying to find the pregnant woman sought by their unknown client. The Controller who had met with the client had been sworn to secrecy, so the agents were only told that they were looking for a couple, a human female joined to some sort of demonic mate, who was expecting sometime in midsummer, and who lived near a hellmouth. The agents had first gone to Cleveland, but after several weeks of searching it seemed as though they were at a dead end. This agent was the first to leave Cleveland to start scoping out Sunnydale, but the rest would follow soon.
 
He made his way out of the alley, trying to get his bearings. This part of town seemed the right place to start looking for demons that might have a human mate. He continued on, keeping a watchful eye on his surroundings. He passed a couple of homeless people, a vampire whore slinking off to her dive, and a stray Lei-Ach demon who saw the Kratash, nodded, then vanished into the shadows. After a few blocks he noticed a vampire heading into a bar – ‘Willy’s’ it said on the door. The Kratash went in and took a seat at the bar. “What’ll it be?” asked the proprietor.
 
“Do you have any Chorago spirits?” he asked. The bartender dug out the bottle from the back – not many of his customers could stomach Chorago spirits – and poured a shot. The Kratash thanked him and turned partially around to survey the room.
 
“You’re not from around here, are you?” The vampire who had come in before him was now sitting to his left, drinking beer and eyeing the Kratash with curiosity.
 
“Just got in tonight,” he said. “Anything I should know about this place?”
 
The vampire shrugged. “It’s a Hellmouth, so that’s always a good thing. But we’ve got a Slayer in this town too, which always sucks.”
 
“She any good, this Slayer?”
 
“She’s been at it a few years, far as I know. Not sure what she looks like, but I’ve heard stories about her taking out five, six vamps at a time. She used to date a vampire, believe it or not – Angelo? Something like that. But that was a while ago. Someone said that she died at one point, but there’s been a lot of vamp dust flying lately, so I don’t know if I believe that.”
 
“Thanks for the warning. I’ll try to keep my head down,” said the Kratash. A Slayer with a thing for vampires? Now that would be worth looking into. He turned back to the bar and finished his drink while making his plans.
 
TBC
 
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