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Future Childe by Ariel Dawn
 
The Lady’s with Me
 
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Disclaimer: Joss said we could, right?

Author’s note: Thanks to all my reviewers! Quotes from the episode Becoming part 2
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Spike sat uncomfortably in the living room of the Summer’s home.

“Have we met?” Joyce asked.

“Um... you hit me with an axe one time. Remember?” Spike held his hands like he was holding an axe “Uh, 'get the hell away from my daughter.'“

“Oh.” Joyce laughed. “But you weren’t trying to kill her?”

“No, ma’am. It was a put on, to fool the other vamps.”

“And you’ve known my daughter for how long?”

Buffy took that moment to re-enter the living room, fresh from her conversation with her friends.

“I-is Willow all right?” asked Joyce.

“Yeah. She's fine.” Buffy turned to Spike “All right, talk. How are we going to do this?”

“Simple. You let me and Dru skip town, I help you kill Angel.”

“Angel? Your boyfriend?” Joyce asked confused, “Sorry, ex boyfriend”

“Forget about Drusilla. She doesn't walk.”

“Dru’s my sire, Goldilocks, I can’t kill her. It’s the most heinous of crimes a vamp can commit.“

“She killed Kendra.”

“The bint that put me in that soddin’ wheel chair for months? Dru bagged a Slayer?” Spike chuckled “She didn't tell me! Hey, good for her!” Spike looks up at Buffy and loses the smile. “Though not from your perspective, I suppose.”

“Well I wasn’t happy that she almost killed you either, but I didn’t resort to murder! Dru didn’t even suck her blood!“

“So you didn't kill that girl,” sighed Joyce, very relieved.

“Of course not,” said Buffy.

“Did she explode like that man out there?” Joyce questioned.

“She was a Slayer, Mom.”

“Like what you are.”

Buffy smiled and nodded

“Look. This deal works for me one way. Full stop. Me and Dru for Angel,” said Spike seriously.

“Honey, a-are you sure you're a Vampire Slayer?” interjected Joyce, still very confused.

“I'll take her out of the country. You'll never hear from her again, I bloody well hope.”

“You’ll take her out of the country? Will you come back? What if she calls you again? What if she decides to end the world again?“

“Buffy...“

“Fine. Don’t have time to play what if. Get back to the mansion. Make sure Giles is all right.”

“I-I mean, have you tried not being a Slayer?” continued Joyce.

The vampire and the slayer turned to look at Joyce.

“Mom!”

Spike sighed in exasperation. Bloody woman doesn’t get it.

“Be ready to back me up when I make my move. If Giles dies... she dies.”

Spike believed her. Possibly this was the first time that he was actually afraid of what his Goldilocks could do. Spike took Buffy’s hand and pressed it to his lips.

“See you in a bit then love.“ He turned to leave.

Buffy pulled him back for a moment.

“I’m sorry. You usually don’t see this side, you see the whole, ‘guess how fun my week was,‘ part. I do love you,” she whispered.

“I know Goldilocks. And I have seen this side of you before, ended up in the wheel chair remember?”

Spike gave her short kiss on the mouth and headed out the door. Leaving Buffy to deal with her mom.

“It's because you didn't have a strong father figure, isn't it?” continued Joyce once Spike was gone.

“It's just fate, Mom. I'm the Slayer. Accept it.”

“We should call the police.”

“No. We're not calling the police.”

“Well, now that we know that you're innocent, it's...”

“What? You thought I was guilty? Jeez, feelin' the love in this room!”

“No, I didn't think that. It's just... now we have proof.”

“We have my word, Mom. Not proof.”

“Look, I am sure that they will understand.”

“Get them involved, you'll get them killed.”

“Well, you're not gonna hurt them, are you?”

“I'm a Slayer, not a postal worker.”

Joyce picked up the phone only to have Buffy slap the switch hook

“Cops can't fight demons.” Buffy took the phone from her mom “I have to do it.”

“Do what? Buffy, what is happening?”

“Just have another drink,” mutttered Buffy as she turned away from her mother.

Joyce threw her glass, breaking on the floor.

“Don't you talk to me that way! You don't get to just dump something like this on me and pretend it's nothing!”

“I'm sorry, Mom, but I don't have time for this.”

“No! I am tired of 'I don't have time' or-or 'you wouldn't understand.' I am your mother, and you will make time to explain yourself.”

“I told you. I'm a Vampire Slayer.”

“Well, I just don't accept that!”

“Open your eyes, Mom. What do you think has been going on for the past two years? The fights, the weird occurrences. How many times have you washed blood out of my clothing, and you still haven't figured it out?”

“Well, it stops now!”

“No, it doesn't stop! It never stops! Do-do you think I chose to be like this? Do you have any idea how lonely it is, how dangerous? I would love to be upstairs watching TV or gossiping about boys or... God, even studying! But I have to save the world... again.”

“No. This is insane. Buffy, you need help.

“I'm not crazy! What I need is for you to chill. I have to go!”

“No. I am not letting you out of this house.”

“You can't stop me.”

Joyce grabbed her daughter “Oh yes I...”

Buffy shoved her mother back into the island, making her knock over several things. She headed for the door, opened it and stepped out.

“You walk out of this house, don't even think about coming back!”

Buffy stared at her mother. She really means it. Buffy turned and left.
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Spike returned to the mansion, and wheeled himself into the watcher’s torture chamber just in time to hear Angelus call for a chainsaw. Spike snickered a little that the last time Angelus had the pleasure of a good bit o‘torture, it was the days before gas powered appliances where invented.

“Now, now, don't let's lose our temper.” Spike patronized.

“Keep out of it, sit 'n' spin.” threatened the pissed off vamp.

“Look, you cut him up, you'll never get your answers.”

“Since when did you become so level-headed?”

“Right about the time you became so pig-headed.” Spike shot back “You have your way with him, you'll never get to destroy the world. And I don't fancy spending the next month trying to get librarian out of the carpet. There are other ways.”

“Enlighten me,” ordered his grandsire.

“Hmm. Drusilla? Sweetheart?” he called to Dru.

Dru entered the room from behind his chair with a curious look on her face.

“Do you want to play a game?” asked Spike gently.
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Spike watched with a mixture of delight and apprehension as Dru started macking on Buffy’s watcher.

“Blood. Of course. The blood on my hands must be my own. I am the key that will open up the door. My blood. My life. Okay. Kill him.” spouted Angelus intensely pleased with himself.

“Uh, but what if he's lying?” asked Spike before the minions could get to Giles.

“Yeah. Good point. Alright, don't kill him.” Angelus leaned down to eye level with Spike, “You know, I kinda like having you watch my back. It's kinda like old times.”

Spike looked over at Dru who was still swapping spit with the watcher.

“Uh, Drusilla...” Spike tried to get her attention.

“Honey...” Angelus tried too.

“We are finished here, ducks.”

Drusilla stopped and looked back sheepishly at the two other vampires.

“Sorry. I was in the moment.”

Spike rolled his eyes and chuckled to himself.
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Her mom had kicked her out. Angelus was going to end the world and was torturing her watcher. Her boyfriend, newly back from the dead and recently over a fight with her, had just told her he was taking Dru and leaving once this whole thing was over. Willow was in the hospital. Buffy felt like crying. She wanted to be snug in her bed, clutching Mr Gordo, being held by Spike. Xander, who was walking behind her was going to get Giles out. She would take care of the vampires. Even if one of them happened to be her vampire.
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Spike watched with interest as Angelus began the ritual. He really didn’t want the world to end. He was actually starting to wonder if Buffy was going to show up. There was no way that he could take both of them together. He just hoped that she wasn’t backing out on him. She was the slayer, she had to save the world, it was what she did.

Suddenly Spike’s attention was diverted from his poofter of a grandsire to one of the minions, who was crumbling into dust before him. Nasty luck that, decapitation was a bitch.

“Hello Lover” Buffy greeted the room. Spike couldn’t determine exactly to whom she was saying it to. The idea that it wasn’t him... His fists balled at his side.

“I don't have time for you.” Angelus deadpanned.

“You don't have a lot of time left.

“Coming on kind of strong, don't you think? You're playing some deep odds here. Do you really think you can take us all on?”

“No. I don't.”

With a kind of grin, Spike raised himself up out of his chair, grabbed an andiron and began beating his grandsire with it. Even after Angelus started fighting Buffy, Spike kept pounding away with the iron rod.

“Painful, isn't it?” Spike asked his grandsire, with a look of glee on his face. Served the poofter right, he thought, too bloody over confidant.

Suddenly, though, he is forced to deal with his sire jumping on his back and taking him down to the floor. Rising from the floor, Sire and Childe, faced off..

“I don't want to hurt you, pet,” Spike warned.

Undaunted, Dru grabbed him by the throat and shoved him into the wall. Spike slapped her arm aside and punched her in the face.

“Doesn't mean I won't,” he continued.

Spike looked over at Buffy who was battling one of the minions. Unfortunately, Drusilla, used that moment to use those damned long fingernails of hers, and Spike suddenly found himself sporting four bloody scratches on his cheek. He looked up stunned, only to see a punch flying towards his face.

A blindingly bright light permeated the room. Spike looked up from the floor, to see that Angelus had pulled the sword from the garden gnome.

Dru turned towards the light. “Oh... Here he comes.” she cooed.

Spike rolled his eyes and hit her on the back of the head, incapacitating her. Spike caught his Sire as she slid to the floor.

“Wish there was another way,” he said regretfully to the form lying on the floor.

Digging through his pockets, Spike found the roll of duct tape he was saving for a special occasion and began to wrap Dru’s hands and feet. Finished with his task, Spike looked up to see how Buffy was getting on with Angelus.

“God, he's gonna kill her,” he realised.

Spike looked around for his trusty andiron that he had dropped after knocking Dru unconscious.

Spike walked towards Angelus who had backed Buffy into the wall of the garden, playing with is sword like he was one of the bloody three musketeers. Spike had never seen Buffy more frightened since he had known her.

“Now that's everything, huh? No weapons... No friends... No hope.” taunted Angelus. “Take all that away... and what's left?”

Angelus drew his sword back and was about to thrust the sword at her, when Spike hit him with the andiron, directly on the top of the head, much like he had knocked out Dru. Angelus crumpled to the ground.

“You forgot about something, mate,“ Spike spoke to the body of his grandsire, “the lady is with me.“

Buffy let out a relieved breath.

Spike groaned, “I’m turning into a bloody nancy boy! Did you see that? I hit him like a soddin’ poofter!“

Buffy stood next to him with a smile on her face.

“Thank you,“ she whispered.

Buffy turned and picked up her sword that she had dropped during the course of her fight with Angelus. Then, wandering back over to Angel’s side, she crouched down and stroked his cheek.

“You know, this is all my fault,” she whispered to the body. Buffy stood up and wiped a tear that had begun to trickle down her cheek. Buffy exhaled slightly, and then thrust her sword into Angel’s body.

Buffy crumpled in a heap before his body.

Spike picked up his grandsire’s body, and carried it to Acathla, dropping the body, unceremoniously before the gnome and heading back to Buffy.

By the time he reached her side, she had begun full blown sobbing. Spike gathered her into his arms and let her cry.
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Buffy climbed out of her bedroom window, for what she thought would be the last time. Clutching Mr Gordo and the bag of stuff she had taken from her room, Buffy climbed down the tree and headed over to the black Desoto that was parked in the street.

Buffy opened the door and slid across the seat. She dropped her bag at her feet and curled up against the driver.

Spike smiled down at his Goldilocks and leaned forward to push a tape into the stereo system. Suddenly the car was filled with the sounds of the Sex Pistols. Spike slammed his foot down on the gas.

Spike absently tapped his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat of the music. Everything had turned out alright. Buffy was curled up next to him, Dru was tied up in the back seat. He had his Sire and his future childe with him. He didn’t need anything else.
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tbc...
 
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