Chapter 28
 
 
For the first time, Spike could see the sun-drenched town clearly through the DeSoto’s newly cleaned windscreen and open windows.
 
The streets were full of people. Normal people doing normal things. Mothers with small children strolled along, shopping bags on their arms. They stopped to gaze into shop windows or to chat with their friends.
 
Men and women in smart business suits went in and out of buildings.
 
Delivery vans drove up and down the street, occasionally pulling in to allow a uniformed driver to dash into an office or shop with a package.
 
It was all in marked contrast to the dimly lit streets, sparsely peopled with nervous scurrying figures, to which he was accustomed.
 
He was suddenly assaulted by the warm, heady aroma of fresh baking, chocolate and coffee. He instantly experienced an unaccountable wave of hunger and an image of Buffy walking along, chatting to Tara and pushing Annie’s stroller. He swerved into the kerb, blinked, and it was gone.
 
Weird. He knew it wasn’t his own hunger he’d felt. He’d filled up with blood before leaving the mansion. On top of the incident outside Annie’s room the previous evening when Buffy had responded to his thoughts as though he’d spoken aloud, his nebulous notion now became a distinct theory. The effects of the claim were beginning to make themselves felt.
 
They were definitely going to have to speak to the watcher about this. Spike wasn’t particularly looking forward to that conversation. Meanwhile, his slayer was hungry and she was only a short walk away.
 
A few minutes later, Spike shouldered the Magic Box door open and swept in. “Afternoon,” he said. “I come bearing gifts.”
 
Giles looked up from his book and eyed the big brown paper sack, bakery box and tray of take-out cups. “Is it lunchtime already?”
 
“It is if we decide it is,” Spike said with a shrug. “As soon as I passed that deli on Thousand Oaks, I figured that Buffy was hungry and decided to get her a cheese sandwich. My idea was to get lunch for her and the bit, ‘cos they’re gonna be here in a minute. But there was a bloody queue and while I was waiting, I had a momentary lapse of sanity and ended up getting enough for all of you.”
 
Giles quickly moved a few books to make room on the table.
 
Once Spike had set everything down, he settled on a bench. “So what’s the topic of the day?” he asked, gesturing at the books.
 
“Take your pick! The issues keep accumulating.” Giles indicated the separate mounds of books in turn. “We have books which might be able to tell us about Dawn as the key. These might have information about the biologically impossible child that you and Buffy have produced. And last but not least, it’s possible that any of these might contain references to the magical items you found.”
 
“Fair enough,” Spike said. He impulsively selected a fat book from the miracle child pile, flipped to the index and looked for any mention of slayers or vampires.
 
Giles’ eyebrows shot up and he asked, “You’re going to help research?”
 
“Yeah. She’s my daughter, isn’t she? I need to know. You have a problem with that?”
 
“Uh, no. Not at all,” Giles said, pushing a pile of books towards Spike. “Feel free to carry on. Please!”
 
 
~*~*~*~
 
 
Buffy’s pace faltered for a second and her stomach rumbled loudly.  Recovering her momentum, she turned to Tara in confusion. “Did you smell that?”
 
“What?”
 
“I could have sworn I just caught a whiff of that mouth-watering smell of the deli on Thousand Oaks.” Buffy gave a confused little shrug. “It’s gone. I guess it was just a smellination brought on by extreme hunger.”
 
Tara giggled. “Smellination?”
 
Buffy pretended to be serious, but couldn’t suppress her smile. “That’s like a hallucination, only you smell it instead of see it. You didn’t know that?”
 
“I can’t say I did. I’ll have to add it to my vocabulary.”
 
Ten minutes later, Tara pushed the Magic Box door open and held it so that Buffy could wheel Annie in.
 
“Daddy! Annie cried. She instantly struggled to free herself from the safety harness. “Mine daddy!”
 
Buffy chuckled as she bent to unbuckle the straps and lift Annie out of the stroller. “Hi Spike. Look out, your number two fan is on her way!” She hovered behind Annie as she navigated the steps, ready to catch her if she tumbled in her eagerness.
 
“Hello, love. Number two, huh?” Spike grinned. He put his book down and swivelled around on the bench, holding his arms out to catch the toddler dashing towards him. “Hello, Moptop. I’m happy to see you too.” He settled her on his knee and quickly pushed the ancient book away from her reaching fingers.
 
He looked up at Buffy, a teasing twinkle in his eye. “So who’s number one, then?”
 
“Need you ask?” Buffy simply stood there for a second, smiling fondly. Then she frowned and followed Tara forward. “You’re researching? Really?”
 
“You too?” Spike affected a hurt expression. “I’m not stupid, I can read, you know. In more than one language too, unlike a certain slayer of my acquaintance.”
 
“Okay, okay,” Buffy said, wrapping her arm around his shoulders and giving him a quick kiss. “Don’t get all offendyvamp. I was just surp—” She spotted the food containers. “Ooooh! Lunch! Yum!” She reclaimed Annie, hoisted her up onto her hip and headed for the cloakroom. “Time to wash our handies for lunch, Jellybean. You hungry?”
 
Annie nodded her head emphatically. “Uh-huh.”
 
When they emerged, Spike was standing, taking an individual wrapped package from the paper sack and placing it in the middle of the table. He looked around. “Where are the builder and his bird? I expected them to be here.”
 
“It’s always slow Monday morning so Anya took the morning off, but since Xander can’t go to work, she said they would both…”
 
Buffy settled Annie on a chair next to Spike, and sat the other side of her. She cleared a space in front of them, and waited to see what weird and wonderful creations Spike had brought.
 
Annie’s eyes followed every package as it appeared, her fingers twitching expectantly.
 
The shop bell rang to announce a new arrival. “And here they are,” Giles concluded with a wave towards the door as Anya ushered Xander in, his left arm still held out in front of him in the weird sling.
 
“Excellent!” Spike said. “Now I know nothing will go to waste. I got a selection. They wrote on the paper what’s in them. You’ll have to fight among yourselves for what you want. Same with the drinks.” He tapped the box. “Cakes and pastries.”
 
Giles and the scoobies scrabbled for their favourites, and Spike ruffled Annie’s curls saying, “What about you, Moptop? You ready for yours?”
 
“Uh-huh!” Annie said with an excited smile, holding her hands out eagerly. “Peese!”
 
“Well, have we anything left in here?” Spike teased, rummaging about in the bottom of the bag. After a moment he produced a smaller package than the others. “For our mini slayer, we have a lovely peanut butter and banana on a soft roll.” He looked up at Buffy. “That okay, love?”
 
“Perfect, honey,” Buffy said. She helped Annie unwrap her sandwich, and spread out the wrapper to catch the inevitable crumbs. Annie immediately took a Herculean bite, leaving a smear of peanut butter across her cheek up to her ear.
 
“And finally,” Spike announced, “we have a slayer special.” With a flourish, he handed Buffy a package, considerably larger that the others. He dug a wad of paper napkins out of the bottom of the brown sack, dumped them on the table, and sat back down.
 
“It’s huge!” Buffy cried. “I can’t eat all that!” When she saw the disbelieving expressions around her, she shrugged and reluctantly admitted, “Well, okay. Maybe I can.” She noticed that the wrapper was only marked with a cryptic SS and asked Spike, “What’ve I got?”
 
“Well, what did you fancy?” Spike asked.
 
Buffy thought back to the deli-smell incident. “Cheese,” she said. “On the way here I thought I smelled the deli for a few seconds and decided the perfect sandwich definitely featured cheese, but I couldn’t decide which kind I wanted.” She carefully opened the tightly wrapped package. When the fat sub was revealed, she turned it to see the side. “Cheese salad!” she said with a happy grin. Then she looked closer. “Lots of different kinds of cheese.” She glanced up at Spike’s smug smile.
 
“I just told them to stick in some of every cheese they’d got. Is it okay?”
 
Buffy responded by squishing the roll so she could get the end in her mouth, and biting down. With spicy pepper jack melting on her tongue, she hummed her pleasure and nodded her thanks at Spike, who had claimed a cup of hot chocolate and between sips, had resumed studying the old book.
 
After a few minutes, Buffy had to take a break from her sandwich to give Annie a hand reassembling hers, which had disintegrated in her hands, and she had a chance to look around at her team. She felt a sharp twinge of regret at the all-too-obvious gap in the group, but then she was distracted by a puzzled look from Giles and speculative glances from Anya.
 
When Anya nudged Xander and tilted her head towards Buffy and Spike, swivelling her eyes to attract Xander’s attention to Spike’s throat, where there was a clearly visible imprint of human teeth, Buffy strove for a distraction from the inevitable questions, and said the first thing that came into her head.
 
“So, has anyone seen or heard from Willow recently?” She pointedly looked at Tara and Xander, the people whom she thought most likely to have been in contact with the missing scooby.
 
“No, and I don’t want to, thank you very much,” Anya said immediately. “An absent magic-crazed witch is a good magic-crazed witch, as far as I’m concerned.”
 
“Me neither. I did call the other night, and I left a message when she didn’t pick up, but she never called back.” Xander frowned. “She must be feeling so lonely.”
 
Spike looked up from his book. “And something tells me that’s probably not a good thing.”
 
Tara swallowed her mouthful and shook her head. “No, probably not. I haven’t seen her either. But then, I’ve been deliberately avoiding the places I usually see her around college. That’s why I’m not having lunch on campus. Are you still worried, Buffy?”
 
“Yes, I am.” Buffy fingered the amulet bound to her wrist and voiced a thought that had been niggling at her for a couple of days. “I can’t help wondering whether instead of shunning her, we should be keeping her close. You know…”
 
“You mean in order to monitor her behaviour,” Giles said.
 
“Kinda, yeah.”
 
“Well, perhaps I can set your mind at rest,” Giles said. “I’ve made contingency plans in case your concerns turn out to be valid.” He took a slip of paper from the breast pocket of his shirt and held it up. “Since there was no way to guarantee we’d all be together should it become necessary to act, I’ve prepared this variant of the spell Tara found, which I can perform on my own to temporarily bind her. All I’ll need to do is utter the trigger word for it to take effect.”
 
Anya looked over his shoulder and rolled her eyes. “I hope you don’t think you’ll hold her for more than a couple of minutes with that. Have you any idea how powerful she is? She’ll be free and squishing you like a bug before you know it.”
 
“And that’s why I have made other arrangements, Anya. This would only need to hold her for a minute.”
 
Buffy regarded him thoughtfully. “And these… other arrangements?”
 
“Are not something which I intend to go into at present,” Giles said in a tone which discouraged further discussion. Tucking the paper away again, he said, “Just rest assured that experienced assistance is available at a moment’s notice.”
 
Trusting that her watcher knew what he was talking about, and the experienced assistance he spoke of could be relied upon, Buffy gave him a little nod and took another massive bite of her sandwich. She couldn’t hold in a small moan of pleasure as the perfect combination of salty sharp cheddar, juicy sweet tomato and crunchy lettuce hit her taste buds.
 
“I trust you know what you’re talking about, watcher,” Spike said. “We’re all relying on you and your experienced assistance.”
 
Startled at the echo of her own thoughts, Buffy shot a glance at Spike. With her mouth full of food, Buffy was helpless to comment when Anya crowed and pointed between her and Spike.
 
“I knew it! Spike just said exactly what you were thinking didn’t he? That proves it! You’ve done it, haven’t you?”
 
Accepting that now there was no way of getting out of the dreaded inquisition, Buffy reached out and took Spike’s hand. As well as she could while still chewing, she gave him a fond smile then nodded at Anya.
 
Anya prodded Xander and said gleefully, “I told you they would, didn’t I?”
 
Xander chuckled and hugged her with his only operational arm. “As I remember it, I told you they were going to, Ahn.”
 
Giles stared around in confusion as Xander and Anya stood and came around the table, and Buffy found herself enveloped in a double hug which drew her up out of her seat.
 
“Congratulations, Buffy!” Anya cried. “I’m so happy for you!”
 
Xander broke off to give Spike a hearty pat on the shoulder. “Congratulations, man. Just a friendly warning, if you do anything…”
 
“Yeah, yeah. No need to say it. I know how lucky I am,” Spike said, standing to awkwardly accept Anya’s stiff hug and then Tara’s soft hug and kiss on the cheek.
 
Annie gazed happily up at the outpouring of affection around her and raised her arms, making kissy noises and looking expectantly for hugs and kisses of her own.
 
They chuckled and obliged in turn, until they were all embellished with smears of peanut butter.
 
Giles stood and cleared his throat. “Am I to understand that something…?”
 
The shop bell rang to interrupt him, although nobody had been paying him any attention anyway.
 
“Mom!” Buffy cried. “You’re early!”
 
Joyce approached the happy scene and Giles gave up and slumped back down into his seat.
 
“I haven’t come for Annie, honey. I just need to speak to you and William for a minute.” She gestured at the animated group and said, “But from what I can see, can I assume that you’ve done it and celebrations are in order?”
 
Buffy suddenly felt guilty. She had this momentous good news, and she hadn’t told her mom first. And Dawn was going to kill her. “Well, kinda, yeah,” she said. “Sorry, we should have told you yesterday but what with the treasure and the experts and everything…”
 
“I understand,” Joyce said, giving her a hug. “It was a little frantic, wasn’t it? Congratulations, honey.” She turned to Spike and gave him a hug too. “Congratulations, William. I know you’ll do everything you can to make them happy.”
 
Released from Joyce’s arms, Spike looked down and shuffled his feet. His voice was hoarse with emotion when he said, “Thanks, Joyce. You don’t know how much that means to me. Know I don’t deserve her. Them.”
 
“Now, now, none of that,” Joyce said in her ‘mum knows best’ voice. “You’ll do just fine.” She took a deep breath and, in a more serious tone, went on, “But I do still need to talk to you both.” She sent the scoobies an apologetic glance and added, “In private.”
 
“We’ll go into the training room,” Buffy said, pointing the way. While Spike ushered Joyce towards the rear of the shop, Buffy turned to Tara and gestured at Annie. “Tara, could you…?”
 
“Of course, Buffy.” Tara moved around and took Buffy’s place at Annie’s side, picking up a napkin to dab at the worst smears of peanut butter on the little girl’s face and hands. “I hope there’s nothing wrong.”
 
“Me too,” Buffy murmured as she followed her mother and her mate.
 
As she closed the training room door behind her, she heard Giles explode with, “Now, will somebody please have the common decency to tell me what the bloody hell is going on?”
 
Buffy gave a guilty little smile that she wasn’t going to have to face her watcher when he learned how she’d claimed, and been claimed by, a soulless vampire. Albeit her own very special soulless vampire. Hopefully, he’d have calmed down enough to be reasonable by the time they returned.
 
Spike settled her mother on the little couch in the corner, and Buffy walked forward to join them. “What’s wrong, Mom?”
 
Joyce looked down and fidgeted with the hem of her skirt. “Wrong, Buffy? Why would you think there’s something wrong?”
 
Buffy merely raised her eyebrows and gave her mother the classic ‘are you kidding me?’ look.
 
Joyce looked up at her then sighed deeply. “I don’t want you to worry, Buffy.”
 
“Too late, Mom.”
 
“Yeah, Joyce,” Spike put in. “The we need to talk thing is never about hugs and puppies.” He cocked his head to one side and went on, “Is this by any chance anything to do with what we talked about yesterday?”
 
Buffy looked back and forth between Spike and her mom in bewilderment.
 
“Yes, William.  It is. And before I forget, I need to thank you for talking me into going. If it wasn’t for you….” She shuddered. “Well, let’s just say you might just have saved my life.”
 
“Mom? Really scaring me now.” Buffy said, kneeling in front of her mother and placing a trembling hand on her knee.
 
Joyce squeezed Buffy’s hand and smiled. “It’s okay, Buffy. Or at least, thanks to William it shortly will be. This morning I had an appointment at the hospital for a check-up and they discovered I’ve developed an aneurysm at the surgery site. I need to check in this evening and stay overnight so I’m ready for the surgery first thing.”
 
“Another operation?” Buffy became aware that she was beginning to hyperventilate and made a conscious effort to try to control her breathing.
 
“Oh, Buffy! Don’t panic, honey! They assured me it’s a much simpler procedure than the tumour. They know exactly where it is and can get to it easily, so it’ll be a quick in and out to clip the damaged blood vessel. Then less than a week in recovery, an angiogram just to double check it worked, and I’ll be home again, all fit and well and with no more sneaky ticking time-bomb in my head.”
 
 
~*~*~*~
 
 
“I still say we should take you straight home to rest,” Buffy said mulishly as they moved into the shop.
 
“I told you, I don’t have time for that, Buffy.” Joyce patted her on the arm. “I have too much to get done. I’ll explain to Dawn when she gets home from school, and then after dinner, William can give me a ride to the hospital to get settled in. Nothing will happen until morning, so there’s no need for anyone to hover.”
 
She turned to look up at Spike. “You’ll look after my girls for me, won’t you, William?”
 
Spike noted her earnest expression and understood that her request didn’t simply concern the period while she was in the hospital. She was checking that Buffy, Dawn and Annie would have support if something went wrong the next day.
 
He didn’t even have to think about it. He gave her a similarly solemn look and said, “You have my word, Joyce. Until the end of the world.”
 
Joyce gave him a grateful nod and turned to address Giles, who was sitting with his arms crossed, glaring at them. “Don’t give them a hard time, Rupert. They’ve followed their hearts, as should we all. Plus, William’s actions have probably saved my life. You should know that for that, among other things, he has my wholehearted support.”
 
Without giving the spluttering watcher a chance to respond, Joyce gave Buffy a quick hug and said, “Please try not to worry, honey,” and left.
 
Tara got up to return to her previous seat and Spike put his arm around Buffy and steered her back to her place beside Annie, then sat down himself.
 
In his practiced, long-suffering tone, Giles began, “Buffy…”
 
“So there is something wrong, isn’t there?” Tara asked. Your mom’s going back into the hospital?”
 
“Yeah,” Buffy sighed, absently picking at the remains of her sandwich. “She needs another surgery. They found an acronym in her brain where the tumour was.”
 
Spike turned his badly timed chuckle into a cough. “Aneurysm, love.”
 
“Yeah. One of them.”
 
“Oh, dear lord,” Giles said. “I’m sorry to hear that. Is there anything I can do?”
 
“Thanks, but no. There’s nothing any of us can do. This is one of those things you can’t research and I can’t slay.”
 
Spike didn’t like Buffy’s despairing tone and sought to distract her. “There is one thing you can research,” he said. He glanced at the mounds of books which had been pushed to one side during lunch, and corrected himself. “That is, one more thing.”
 
“So I gather,” Giles said, his tone resigned. “Buffy, you couldn’t have consulted me before you entered into a vampire mating claim? I could have helped you…”
 
Buffy pouted. “You’d have been all disapprovey and tried to talk me out of it.”
 
“Very possibly. Do you think I’d have succeeded?”
 
“No way!”
 
“So then…”
 
“I didn’t want to disappoint you,” Buffy said in a very small voice.
 
Giles shook his head. “I seem to remember having told you once before that all you’ll get from me is my support and my respect. Nothing has happened to change that. As your mother said, you have followed your heart, as you invariably do. I can’t fault you for that.”
 
“So you don’t hate me?”
 
“Oh, Buffy, I could never hate you, my dear.”
 
“So, that’s all settled then.” Spike said with relief. “You gonna help us find out what’s gonna happen to us? Never came across a vamp mated to a human before, let alone the soddin’ slayer.”
 
“I don’t know very much either,” Anya said. “Although the book I showed Buffy set out a few likely possibilities.” She got up, fetched a slim burgundy coloured book from the restricted section and plonked it in front of Giles just as the shop bell announced the arrival of the first customer of the afternoon.
 
“Thank you Anya.” Giles took a small, leather-bound notebook from his pocket, unsnapped the elastic holding it closed and withdrew the attached pencil from its loop. “Now then, Buffy, Spike, I need you to tell me any changes you’ve noted since you performed the claim. Even the most insignificant-seeming thing could be critical. Oh, and please don’t forget to keep me informed of any new developments.”