__________________________________________
Buffy woke up with Spike’s arms wrapped around her. Her eyes were crusty from crying.

“Good morning” Spike said into the dark room.

“How do you feel?” she asked propping herself up on her elbow.

“Better, hands seemed to have healed well enough. Leg still hurts like a bitch. Face too, though doesn’t hurt to talk. Hungry mainly.”

“Ok, blood. Must pee,” she said lifting herself up off the bed.

Buffy stumbled out into her living room. It had to be 6 am. Giles and Dawn were asleep in Dawn’s bed. Xander and Andrew were on the floor. Must Pee, Buffy thought.

The small bathroom was a mess. It was worse than her bathroom in Sunnydale when the potentials lived there. Various male bathroom products littered the sink and tub. She stared into the toilet, someone hadn’t flushed, yuck. She was glad that her new house would have more than one bathroom.

Things to do today: sign lease on house, take Giles and Xander to Airport, take care of Spike... Buffy felt another tear fall down her face.

Buffy padded out into the kitchen for blood. They were getting low on the stuff again. She shhhhhed the microwave as it beeped.

Need to buy Spike new pants and a washing machine and a dryer. Buffy hadn’t found time to do any laundry since she arrived. Laundry room was in the basement. Buffy made a mental note to do laundry today.

Back in her room with the door closed she slid in beside Spike and put his hands around the mug.

“It was my fault you know,” he said between sips. “Bloody not used to going in for the kill. Waited too long. Wanted to make him pay. Taking my things. Taunted him. Could have been over in a flash, neck snapped, could’ve had a quick drink too.”

“Spike...”

“I know you don’t like to be reminded of Spike the Big Bad, just cause I got this soul now doesn’t mean I can’t think nasty things.”

“Spike, I went to kill him, for you, last night...”

“Buffy...”

“I didn’t, oh but I wanted to, in the worst way. I wanted to hurt him, like he hurt you. I couldn’t”

“Because he’s human?”

“Because I won’t let the demon control me. I saw it in my head you know, like I was watching myself. He still thought I was a vampire too. I got Holy water in my face. Then I remember a sick smile coming over my face, the kind you used to get before the soul, when you were gonna kill something. It scared me.”

“Think he should be the one who should be scared. Four or five days to heal up and I’ll be back out there seeking my own vengeance.”

“Spike,”

“Don’t deny me payback, luv”

“I won’t, I just don’t want you to get hurt again. I need you at my back, make sure this demon inside me doesn’t get the upper hand.”

“Never you mind about that Luv, I’ll not be leaving you of my own accord.”

She kissed his burnt face.

The alarm sounded. 7 am. Sounds of the latest N’Sync song filled the apartment.

Buffy heard sounds of people waking in the next room. Buffy looked down at her clothes, the same ones that she had worn the night before. Buffy started looking around in boxes for clothes to wear.

“Tell me what you’re doing luv, it gets awful dull just sitting here.”

“I’m looking for clothes to wear, clothes that aren’t dirty. Hmm,” she said as she found a pair of black pants and a red v-neck sweater.

“Hmm?”

“I’ve found what I’m going to wear,” she said.

Buffy knelt on the bed beside him, took his hands and put them on her hips.

“I want you to undress me,” she whispered in his ear.

Spike slid his hands up under her shirt and let his fingers worked their way up to her shoulder touching her skin. Buffy raised her arms and let Spike pull off her top. Next she took his hand and placed them on her hips once more. He found the waist of her pants and started undoing the buttons on her fly. Buffy lay back and let him slide the pants over her butt and down her thighs. Buffy kicked the pants off and faced him again. His hands instinctively rose to her breasts and then around to her back to undo her bra. The silky garment fell away, but his hand lingered. His hands slid down her body until he felt silk again. Buffy raised herself up to let him remove her underwear. Flinging them aside he moved his hands up and down her body trying to touch every part.

“Buffy!” called Dawn through the door, “Are you awake?”

“Hold on, I’m getting dressed!” replied the slayer rolling her eyes.

“You’re getting dressed with Spike in there!!!?” exploded Xander.

“He can’t see Xander, relax,” said Dawn.

Buffy kissed Spike on the cheek and hastily on her clothes. Buffy couldn’t help but notice Spike’s particular delight from his part in Buffy’s undressing. Buffy spread a blanket over him.

“Little excited?” she whispered.

“Cock tease”

Buffy laughed. She opened the door to find Dawn smiling and Xander furious.

“Good morning Buffy,” said Dawn with a wink. “I’m off to school, unless you want to drive me?” she said hopefully.

“Not really. Don’t want to leave Spike alone too long,” said Buffy.

“Hey, it’s ok. I’ll see you when I get home. Maybe we can order in Chinese?”

“Sure Dawn.”

Dawn turned and gave big hugs to Xander and Giles, their plane left that afternoon.

“Have fun in England. Send me cheap chocolate, ok?” she asked Xander.

Dawn was out the door with hardly a tear.

“Buffy,” said Xander, after Dawn had left. “I was thinking maybe I should stay here with you. Instead of the big nerd here, I’m not great with the recording but I’m good with the protecting and the taking care of Dawn.”

“Xander, I don’t need you here to look after us, we will be fine. I don’t even know why Andrew’s staying. I think he’s crushing on Dawn, which creeps me out a bit.”

“Its not Andrew I’m worried about.”

“Spike.”

“Captain Peroxide”

“Xander, I get the protecting me bit, I get that you can’t stand him, he’s proven himself over and over to us all, he deserves your respect.”

“I respect him, I do, as a scooby, ya he’s fought along side us, not eaten anyone recently. I get that, what I don’t get is why he’s in your bed right now, after all he’s done to you.”

“It’s called forgiveness Xander. I forgave him, because he forgives me. Just like we forgave Willow for trying to end the world after Tara died, or we forgive Angel for the nasty stuff he did without his soul. I forgave him Xander, a long time ago.”

“But, it’s Spike.”

“Yes, Spike, Big Bad with a soul, who loves me Xander, loves me and I love him,” she whispered.

“No,”

“Yes, please Xander, I need your friendship, I don’t want to...It’s important to me that we are friends Xander.”

“He’s wrong for you Buffy, he’ll leave you like the others.”

“No he won’t Xander and isn’t it my own choice to risk my heart again? Please Xander tell me you are ok with this.”

“No...I’m not ok with this...but if this is what you want to do, who am I to try to change your mind , just some poor sap with no magic or other worldly talents, who has loved you since the first day I saw you.”

“I know, you’ve been the most wonderful friend a girl could ask for.”

Buffy planted a kiss on Xander’s cheek and pranced off to the kitchen, where Andrew was making himself breakfast. One down, three to go, she thought, or is it four? Should she tell Angel too?

Giles was just getting out of the shower four hours until they had to be at the airport.

“Buffy!” said Giles in greeting, “How is Spike this morning?”

“Better, his face is still burnt and he’s leg is still broken but otherwise he’s a happy vampire,” she said far too cheerfully.

“Buffy about last night...” he started to say.

“Ya, I know, I went all protective mama bear, I’m over it, ok? I was just madder than...well I was very mad.”

“Which is understandable. I just hope that nothing happened last night that you will come to regret.”

“Like what? I don’t think Mr Grumpy Gable will look at me the wrong way again.”

“I was referring to the law, he could charge you with assault.”

“It’d be his word against mine Giles.”

“That didn’t work so well with Ted,” interjected Xander coming out of the bathroom himself.

“Until they found the bodies...” replied Buffy.

“I’m just saying that you should watch your step with him, he’s not really in the same...”

“What? reality?”

“I was going to say world view. He knows nothing about Slayers and watchers, to him it is all very likely that he believes the law works in our line of business.”

“Speaking of business, who do I start to see a pay check now that I’m a watcher, doomed to be held in a box for all eternity?” asked Andrew.

“Once you have done something constructive for the council, pray let it be soon.”

“Pay check? Why does Luke Skywalker get a pay check?” asked Buffy.

“Watcher’s have always been paid by the council,” said Giles.

“Why not me? Huh? Haven’t I saved the world enough? Don’t you think that I deserve to be on the payroll too?”

“No Slayer has ever lived long enough, in an era when it was acceptable for girls to live on their own. Most slayers have lived with their watchers until their deaths. They never needed an income.”

“Times change, Buffy need money, or I’m gonna have to get me a job, again. I need to furnish my new house and I’m badly in need of training again, look, flabby everywhere,” said Buffy lifting her shirt to expose her tummy rock hard that it was.

“Right, I’ll look into it.”

“Look into it?” asked Buffy.

“I thought we were the council? asked Andrew, “Can’t we just vote and give her the money?”

“Yes, I suppose...”

“All in favour of Buffy getting paid for slayage and saving the world?” asked Andrew.

The three men raised their hands and said “Aye”

“Motion carried” said Xander, “let’s eat.”
__________________________________________

“You bitch! How could you do that to me? Its all I ever wanted! You took it away from me!” screamed Kennedy.

“I had to make the killing stop. The spell that I did, was wrong. I know that now, the powers wouldn’t let it continue. People were dying,” countered Willow.

“People? What about all the people that are going to die now, because there aren’t slayers to protect them, in LA, in Washington, London, Paris, all over the world? How can you decide to let them face demons and vampires alone?”

“I didn’t decide Kennedy. The original watcher’s council decided, not me. Even if I hadn’t done it some how the legacy would have been put back, the way it was. Buffy would have died, again.”

“You didn’t even try to stop it Willow. You found out what they were doing and you went right along with it. You didn’t even try.”

Willow was silent. Kennedy was right, she hadn’t tried.

“You are right, I didn’t,” she said quietly, “I took the safe route, I didn’t even bother to fix it with magic, I helped them and now everything is back the way it was.” It was what Tara would have done, she thought.

“You knew how important being a slayer was to me and you didn’t even try Willow!”

Willow got angry. “You know what? I’m sick of this being all about you Kennedy. People were dying. I took the only path I had at the moment. There was no possible way I was going to let anyone hurt Dawn or Buffy again. So you aren’t a slayer anymore, boo fucking hoo. You can live Kennedy, unlike Amanda or any of the other potentials who died. Maybe there was a reason there had to be only one slayer, who am I to tamper with the legacy Kennedy, who am I? Just a powerful witch with a knack for doing some weird shit. If you don’t like it, there’s the door,” said Willow opening the door by magic.

Kennedy walked out and slammed the door behind her.

“Tara would have understood,” cried Willow.
__________________________________________
It was a few days later that Willow ran into Valery at the open air market. The slender brunette was even more thin than Willow remembered her. There was anger in her face until she caught Willow in her eye.

“Willow!” said Valery, “It’s good to see you”

“Valery, hi! How are you?”

“Ok, healing slowly, got out of the hospital yesterday would have stayed home, but there’s no food in our new place. Hanks been very busy with his job and dealing with the police. They still think he might had done it. How are Buffy and Dawn?”

“Good, Dawn’s in school, Buffy’s leased a very nice house, the apartment was far too small for them both.”

“A house, goodness, won’t she be lonely when Dawn comes back to LA. I mean once Hank’s police problems are over?”

“Dawn isn’t coming back, Valery, Buffy has custody.”

“Buffy decided that Dawn should stay in LA,” declared Valery, “Buffy decided Dawn needed to have a stable environment Willow. How can Buffy possibly provide a stable environment for her sixteen year old sister? Buffy’s a child herself. She could die at any time.”

“Dawn is sixteen Valery, she knows what she wants to do and right now she wants to stay with Buffy. You are just going to have to accept that.”

“No, I don’t and neither does my husband. I know what Buffy is now, and Dawn will be much better far, far away from her sister’s influence.”

“No Valery, you are wrong” said Willow walking away from the woman.
__________________________________________

Buffy looked through the mail with hope. Bill, Bill, Junk, Bill. She frowned, no letter from Xander about her money. She’d spent far too much on new things since she got the insurance money from the Sunnydale house.

“Bloody Hell,” came a cry from her bedroom.

He’s awake.

Buffy padded into her room to find Spike and her bed covered in blood. She would have gasped at the sight, but she knew better. Spike had been getting restless just sitting in her bed all day. Buffy had done everything she could think of to make him comfortable, brought him blood, signed out books on tape from the library for him to listen to, but he was clearly unhappy about being cooped up. Buffy hoped that he would be up and about in a few more days, he was healing a lot slower than she thought he would.

“Buffy?” said Spike, “ I know you are here, I can smell you.”

“I’m here, Spike, she answered walking towards him, “How do you get yourself into these messes?”

Buffy started pulling off his clothes, his black t-shirt was soaked in blood, his new black tear away pants she had bought him (cause they were easier to get on and off with the broken leg) had splashes down both legs.

“Up you get,” she said hoisting him from the bed and onto a chair in the corner of the room, which until moments ago, held a neatly stacked pile of clothes.

Buffy set to work to gather up the blood coated sheets. She took a peek at her naked vampire. His leg was till in a splint, his face had healed from the burns but he still couldn’t see. She wanted to hold him in her arms forever. He didn’t deserve to be like this.

Buffy put new sheets on the bed and helped him back to his side of the bed. They had slept together in this bed for almost a week, just touching he hadn’t wanted to do anymore than that. Buffy covered him up with the sheet and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

“Buffy...” he said apologetically.

“Don’t worry about it Spike, accidents happen, sheets needed to be washed anyway.”

He groped for her hand and held it.

“I don’t want to be a burden. I should go.”

“No! You shouldn’t. Spike, he still could be looking for you.”

“You haven’t been patrolling, you haven’t been training, because of me. I will not be a burden.”

“You aren’t a burden Spike. I need you to be safe.”

“I can’t help you the way I am,”

“You won’t always be like this Spike.”

“The leg will heal up fine, I don’t doubt that, but what if I can’t see again?”

“Spike, of course you will see again. Give it time. Rest and blood are all you need. Would you like for me to get you another mug full?”

He didn’t answer but turned away from her. Buffy padded out into the kitchen and opened the fridge. Way at the back was something she had been saving for a day like today. She opened the bag and poured some into a new mug. She slipped it into the microwave.

She recalled the weird look on the nurse’s face at the blood clinic, when she asked if she could have blood taken and then keep it herself. Surely other people did this too? Buffy thought.

Buffy presented the mug to Spike.

“Don’t want anymore bloody pig blood,” he whined.

“Spike!” she said angrily, “ Drink”

Reluctantly he took the mug. He inhaled and a smile crept over his face.

“Where did you get this pet?” he asked.

Buffy smiled, “Drink up, I’ll tell you when I get back from putting the sheets in the wash.”
__________________________________________
Giles surveyed the assembled watchers. These were all that remained in all the world, a mere hundred when there had been 5 times as many.

Xander stood to his left, his one eye taking in the weird faces before him.

“So the legacy has been started afresh?” asked a curious sandy haired blonde in the centre of the room.

“Yes, so it appears,” said Giles.

“Will the consequences be the same? as it was with the first slayer?” asked another watcher, a man this time.

“All indications are that indeed consequences will be the same for Buffy as was for the First Slayer, which should give us time to recruit new watchers train them and return our numbers before the need becomes necessary to send watchers out to observe and train potentials.”

“Giles do you really think it is wise to go so long without training potentials? What if the legends is not true? There could be a mad panic to find the next chosen one should the slayer die.”

“Perhaps a school for potentials, where our resources would not be as stretched, as they would if we were all assigned potentials,” offered another.

“I concur”

Xander felt Giles sigh.
__________________________________________

Buffy returned from laundry duty to find Spike standing up on his own.

“Spike!” she said happily, “You can walk!”

“I guess that spot of human blood did the trick. Are you going to tell me where you got it?”

Buffy put her laundry basket down and walked up to him. She put her arms around his neck and whispered into his ear.

“It was mine.”

Pressed up against him as she was she couldn’t fail to notice his reaction to her words. She led him by the hand back to her room.

Closing the door behind her she led him to the bed and sat him down.

“Undress me,” she purred in his ear, taking his hands and placing them on her hips.

Spike slid his hands up under her shirt, taking the garment with him. Buffy raised her arms up to help him. Once the shirt was clear she planted a kiss to the top of his head. Spike had started to pepper her tummy with light kisses. He dipped his tongue into her navel and slid his hands lower, to take off her pants.

Spike made short work of the button and fly on her pants and was pushing them down, while letting his tongue trail down her thigh. Buffy kicked off her pants and moaned as his attention returned to her undergarments. Spike had hooked his thumbs into her panties and was sliding them down now too. This time though, his attention was caught not by her soft skin but by the smell of her arousal.

Spike picked her up and tossed her on to the bed. He spread her legs and began to kiss up her thighs, only stopping once he made to her moist centre.

It was only after her orgasm shook her body that Buffy thought about how she could take his blindness to her advantage.

Buffy flipped her lover so that he was spread eagled on her bed, facing the ceiling. Buffy tore off his tearaway pants, earning a smile and a secret prayer to the powers thanking them for whoever invented the things.

Buffy began her torture, kissing her lover in random places on his body, sometimes, they were harsh pecks, sometimes moist and open mouthed. Spike moaned when she gave a long languorous lick to the underside of his cock, standing at attention.

Buffy grabbed his hands as they attempted to give himself some relief from her teasing.

“Bloody hell woman! What are you doing to me?” he whined.

“Tsk tsk, Spike. You should know better than not let me have my way.” Buffy resumed her merciless teasing.

Buffy let her tongue bathe his cock, before taking him in full into her mouth and deep throating him a few times, before pulling him out and blowing on his moist cock.

Spike shivered.

“God, please Buffy...”

“Please what?” she asked.

“Fuck me Goldilocks, please,” he begged.

Buffy smiled and placed his restrained hands on her breasts. Slowly she straddled him and lowered herself so that her entrance was poised only a hair’s width from his cock.

Spike tried to buck against her to achieve contact.

Buffy giggled.

“Ah luv, I‘m gonna dust if I can’t be inside you soon.”

“Well we can’t have that.”

Buffy sank ever so slowly onto his hard prick, earning a grateful groan from the vampire. Even more slowly Buffy started sliding herself up and down on him, while he massaged her breasts.

Finally Spike couldn’t take it anymore more and overpowered the Slayer for a moment and flipped her over and began to pound into her.

Buffy screamed her orgasm to be followed shortly by Spike, who collapsed next to her on the bed.

“Cock tease,” he whispered.

“Next time I’ll tie you up, cheater.”
__________________________________________
Buffy was roused from her exhausted and spent state by the ringing of the telephone. Weakly she picked up the phone.

“Hello?”

“Buffy, it’s Willow”

“Willow, hey, how’s Willowland?”

“I bumped into Valery today, she more or less threatened to take Dawn back. She says as soon as your Dad is cleared of suspicion they will be taking her back.”

Buffy snapped to her senses.

“They can’t do that. Dawn’s mine. I have papers.”

“She doesn’t care, she’s angry. I just thought I would warn you what she’s up to.”

“Thanks Will.”

“So anything other than Evil Stepmom...How’s Buffy?”

“Good.”

“Just good? As in ‘I’ve had a great piece of cheesecake’ good or good like ‘fantasizing about sex’ good?”

“Willow!”

“Just asking, want to know what’s up with the Buff.”

“Buffy good, in the ‘I don’t have to fantasize about sex cause just had some’ kinda way.”

“Buffy! Spike?”

“No Andrew, of course Spike.”

“Good job Buffy, oh wait I didn’t interrupt did I?”

“No Willow, I wouldn’t have picked up the phone if you had”

“How is he? I mean in the non sex way, injuries.”

“He’s walking, broken leg, healed, face, no scars. He can’t see yet though,”

“That’s too bad, you want me to do a spell?”

“No Willow, everything will heal with time. Heard from Giles or Xander lately?”

“Xander called yesterday. I think he’s overwhelmed boy. Watcherness is ‘daunting’ I think he said.”

“Sounds Giles-y”

“Our dear Xander, he hasn’t a chance.”
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tbc...