Disclaimer: Joss is god. I am a lowly plebe in the world of Spuffy.
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Chapter 29: Changes

January also saw the return to classes of Willow and Anya, providing Xander with Anya free time between the hours of 10 am and 5pm Monday thru Thursday. The Watcher’s Council had even set Xander up with a job as Dawn’s high school librarian. Buffy just figured it was Giles’ revenge for all the jabs Xander sent his way over the years.

Buffy herself, though she had started to look into it, had never actually signed up for courses for the winter semester. In someway, her subconscious wanted to continue to be exactly what she had been doing with her life since October. Buffy Anne Summers wanted to be a stay at home mom, she wanted to have her children, all eleven of them. She wanted to have that family that she had always thought she’d never have.

Now she didn’t have the kids anymore.

There was a way to fix that though. Buffy cast a furtive look at her lover. He was trying to convince Oz that he should ditch the other Werewolves on a Merry-go-round and join up with him and a demon named Armus and form a band.

Buffy rolled her eyes. Armus she had met; he had 4 arms and was blue. No way would this new potential band be able to play any venue other than demon based.

“Buffy!” screamed Anya from her new room.

The screaming was accompanied by the thundering footsteps of a demon on the run. Sure enough, Anya ran down the stairs and into the kitchen where Buffy was sipping milk and watching her lover debate the points of demon bands with Oz.

“Buffy!” panted the demon. “I found...She left...Here.”

Anya thrust something into Buffy’s hand. It was from Ariel. Anya had been clearing out most of Ariel’s stuff and depositing it in the attic until such time as Ariel was born.

Carefully Buffy opened the sealed envelope, as the rest of the household gathered in the kitchen waiting to hear what Ariel wrote to her mother.

Mum and Da,

I know that I’ve been way cryptic with all the stuff I’ve been telling you two about the future, and really that’s the way it has to be. When I go home, to the future, I know I’m going to leave a lot of questions unanswered for you.

I know that the thing that’s gonna bother you the most is that Vampires can’t have kids. I know Mum jokes a lot about cold dead seed, I’ve had the sex talk, and lets just say ewww to the extreme. What I can tell you is that you won’t get pregnant until 2 years after you get married.

Does that help? I don’t know if it will. Makes me wish that I’d stick around to be a bride’s maid at my parents wedding. Odd isn’t it?

With all the craziness that’s been going on, holidays and such (and bollocks I just sounded like Da) I know it’s hard to realise the big picture sometimes, especially when there is the demon versus human war going on in the dinning room. Here’s the big picture as I, a twelve year old see it.

Uncle Xander needs us, he’d be lost without the mess that is the Scooby Gang. Auntie Dawn needs to prove to herself and the rest of the Scooby Gang that she is a Scooby. And she will do it, and do it well. You’ll be proud of her Mum.

Grandpa Giles, he’s impressive, but he’s lonely as of right now...that changes soon. I’ve heard so many stories about Grandpa Giles my whole life that it’s hard to believe that the man I met was in fact Rupert Giles, restorer of the Watcher’s council, Warlock and mentor. I can certainly see how a woman could be devoted to him so many years after his death. Grandma Anya, I don’t know what she’s like as a human, I’ve heard she was one for a while. She gets over the vengeance thing eventually, which is good, cause I remember making a few wishes against my sisters that I got spanked for that I regret saying now.

Auntie Willow is the most powerful creature living in that house. You all know it, and yet you hide from it. I’m glad I met her. Uncle Oz can’t really be understood, by me anyway. Do not let Da form a band with the werewolves, this leads to badness of massive proportions.

Grandma Dru is a pure soul trapped in a villain's body. Yes she’s done bad things, and she will continue to do bad things. Please don’t hurt her, or dust her, she plays a larger part in our family’s history than anyone but D can know.

What Drusilla said was true. D and Dru are connected somehow, but you have years to figure that out. I’m sure you will, cause there are things that you won’t tell me in the future.

Mum, and Da, you need each other, no matter how hard you fight each other or nasties in graveyards, you are each other’s strength. Some kids say that their world ends when their parents divorce. I know for a fact that if mine ever did, it honest to god would. And that’s what scares me.

The future is rough, even before I showed up. It’s not going to be easy knowing that you outlive your children, or that two of them are turned into full fledged vampires. But I think you should be proud that along with the vampires and the bratty kids, my sisters are a remarkable group of women who from time to time get up off their lazy rears and save the world, cause that’s what this family does.

We save the world.

We should have a coat of arms or something.

Your loving daughter,
Ariel Dawn Summers-Graves.

Buffy looked up from the letter with tears in her eyes. That a twelve year old could see them so clearly was amazing.
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Spike threw open the front door of the Pinehill Street house. He’d been stuck all day in the cemetery hiding from the sun. Bloody Wanker Sithol Demons. He’d stumbled on a nest of them while he was alone. It had taken practically all the dark hours to kill them and track down the ones that ran. Would have been nice to have help.

Buffy had been acting all strange for a week. At first he had thought that she was having issues with her demon again, but wouldn’t that make her want to fight and be violent? No, he reasoned. Another though flitted through his mind. His birthday was today. He couldn’t believe he had actually given that info up when she wanted to know. Ok, she was teasing him without mercy, got him hard and then refused to follow through until he told her. Fuck, he could deny her nothing.

Pain of death by tickling, he warned if she ever told anyone else especially a Watcher.

Spike cringed as he walked into the living room half expecting a surprise party.

What he found was the room lighted by candles and Bryan Adams playing the background. Buffy was standing in the middle of the room dressed in a silk slip dress of a wine colour. Her hair down about her shoulders. A fire cackled in the fireplace.

“Buffy luv, what’s all this?” he asked before Buffy could shush him.

“Spike, please just let me say what I have to say before I muck it up.” Buffy took his hands. “You have been my enemy, my unwanted ally, my lover, my friend and my counsellor. You’ve protected Dawn and I, through terrible torture and emotional torment. You’ve saved the world, you’ve saved my life. I’ve hated you, feared you, failed you. I love you Spike, I don’t deserve you, yet I know you love me too, I need you, forever in my life. I never want to be without you again.” Buffy got down on one knee. “William John Graves, will you marry me?”

Buffy was smiling so big looking so hopefully up at him it crushed him. In a flash he was down on his knees too.

“Yes, Buffy I’ll marry you, if that is what you want.”

Buffy caught him up in her arms.

“Yay!” she said weakly.

They kissed, holding each other tightly. Spike could hear the thumping of feet on the stairs as Dawn came running out of her room. The teenager flew to the couple and gave them both a hug.

“That was beautiful,” she sniffed. She turned to the fireplace. “And we can watch and re-watch all we like.”

Dawn turned around to reveal a video camera hidden on the mantle.

“Just one of the annoying habits of Andrew that rubbed off on our Dawnie,” said Xander coming down the stairs in a quicker fashion. “Congratulations you two,” he continued offering a hand to Spike who took it looking surprised.

“Come on Xander, you loved it, all teary eyed just like me,” said Buffy.

“And the emasculating continues,” said Xander. “Please just tell me that I’ll wear a tux at your wedding, rather than a dress.”

“Absolutely Xan, no frilly dresses for you,” said Buffy.
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The wedding was planned for the summer, the day that Sunnydale sank into the crater to be exact. Buffy wanted new memories for that day. She still had nightmares, about Spike burning and now, knowing that it would happen again, it was bringing the old fears to the surface once more.

The invitation list was extensive, demons, former potentials, AI crew, Scoobies, Watchers and distant Summers family were all invited to what Dawn dubbed as the wedding of the century.

The ceremony itself was held in the Pinehill street cemetery, at dusk. Willow had put up wards so that anyone not on the invitation list would be bounced back from a barrier.

Buffy knew that times were changing. Despite the fact that the Scoobies had all moved themselves back into her house didn’t change that. Nothing was going to stay the same forever. Dawn had graduated high school and was going off to Oxford in the fall. Anya was giving up higher education, her new Magic Box store was taking up so much of her time now. Xander was being cycled back to England, Andrew was coming back to stay. Willow had finally earned herself some letters after her name. Willow Rosenburg, B.A. Willow was off to England too, to earn some more letters at Cambridge.

Buffy looked sadly at the emptiness of her house as she prepared for her walk across the street and down an aisle decorated with night blooming flowers. Her white Victorian style dress made swhooshing noises behind her as she travelled down the stairs of her home.

“Are you ready for this?” asked Dawn who was standing at the bottom of the stairs, dressed in a burgundy dress, her brown hair in ringlets.

Buffy nodded with a smile. Her sister had grown up in the past year. A year that had seen an apocalypse but little else. The powers that be had decided to give Buffy some well deserved time off.

Dawn fiddled with Buffy’s veil and handed the bride her bouquet.

“Damn, you look fine B,” said Faith, also a bride’s maid, who was standing behind a decorated stroller, in which slept Richard Nicholas Wood, her son, and the ring bearer for the occasion.

Buffy had been a little disappointed that Faith hadn’t had a girl, like Ariel said she would, but then Faith and Robin still were together. Robin was somewhere being an usher in the cemetery right now.

The three month old baby had no idea what was going on.

There was a flash of light. Anya appeared in their midst.

“Ok, they are ready for you Buffy,” said Anya with a smile. “Xander has Spike shackled in place so he doesn’t run off.”

Buffy rolled her eyes.

“Mrs. Graves?” inquired the last remaining person in the hallway.

“Yes Dru?” asked Buffy.

“Miss Edith is angry she didn’t get a dress,” whined the vampire.

“Then Miss Edith should have remembered that it’s not nice to play with my swords,” said Buffy sternly.

Dru had broken into the training room and scared the living daylights out of Giles the night before. As punishment, Buffy refused to let the doll come to the ceremony.

Dru nodded and headed out the door, taking her place behind Faith and Richard.

“I don’t get why she calls you Mrs Graves..” muttered Dawn.

Buffy smiled.

“You aren’t Mrs Graves, at least you won’t be for another half hour”

“Yep,” said the Slayer with a smile. “Mrs William John Graves.”

“And here I thought that Mrs the Bloody was going to be your married name.”
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The end, for now.

Author’s note: There will be a sequel, how could I not? Thanks to everyone who has been following this story and the very encouraging reviews you have written. *hugs*