Willow took a less cautious peek. "I think it's one of those harmless Gracchus demons who trade stuff with Anya sometimes. They're overgrown imps or something." "Harmless? Are you sure?" It was Xander's turn. He tried to exceed Buffy's efforts at stealth, pulling a baseball cap down low before casually stepping out of the alley. Buffy pulled him back immediately. "Why did you wear that Hawaiian shirt? Setting aside the fact that a chicken suit would be less of an attention-getter, don't you think Spike will recognize something he used to wear himself?" "He only wore it once," objected Xander. "Buffy, you know, I'm not sure this is a good idea. I keep thinking about what you'd say if your mom was following your boyfriend around. And we've been doing this for over a week instead of patrolling for the demons we know are making with the evil doings." "What is this, a sudden attack of male solidarity? First Giles won't help me, and now I can't depend on you?" Xander looked hurt. "You can depend on me. It's just--Spike's chipped. That other demon is harmless. What nefarious plot do you think they're plotting?" "I don't know. But I'm going to follow him until I find something that will make Mom come to her senses. I'd just stake him, but--" She stopped. It was obvious why she couldn't stake Spike. It would hurt Mom. Of course, it would hurt Mom too if she found out the nasty, mother-seducing vampire was doing something really evil. But then it would be Spike's fault for doing the evil thing, not Buffy's, and-- She interrupted this train of philosophical thought to peek around the corner again. This time, she saw a small object change hands. Some money went in the other direction. "Spike bought something from him!" "Maybe the Gracchus is offering a special on pigs' blood today," suggested Willow. Buffy shook her head. "No! It was too small and the wrong shape. I'm going to--" As she said the words, someone strolled past the entrance to the alley. She reached out an arm, grabbed Spike by the collar of his duster, yanked him into the alley, and slammed him into a wall. "Hey!" He had fists up to strike back when he saw who had him. He was barely able to check his first blow in time to keep from activating his chip. "Oh, this is brilliant. Slayer's here to beat me up again for daring to remind her that her Mommy is more than just her Mommy. Or have you decided to stake me to preserve the family honor?" "Don't tempt me." Buffy let go of his collar and began rummaging through his pockets, ignoring his curses and complaints. "I'm going to find out just what kind of creepy deal you're making with that Grinchy-gus, and show Mom you're still--" She found the small, rectangular object she'd seen from a distance and held it up with an exclamation of triumph. It glinted silver in the dim light. "What's that?" asked Xander. The triumph in Buffy's voice faded. "Callard & Bowser Licorice Toffee." "Okay," said Xander. "Not to repeat myself, but what's that?" "Horrible nasty stuff." Buffy's next words were spoken even more quietly. "It's Mom's favorite. But she could only ever find it in this one shop in LA, and last time they said it wasn't made any more--" Spike broke the pause that followed. "The Gracchus found a source." Buffy fought hard against this information. "So it's not some kind of spell or something you're using to make Mom--" She couldn't say what he was making Mom do. "Except," said Willow in a soft voice, "maybe in a kind of way it is. Or explains it, at least." Buffy glared at Spike. But instead of thinking of him, she was trying to remember the last time she'd done something special for Mom, looked for something Joyce would enjoy, given her a surprise-- She couldn't remember. She threw the package of candy back at Spike. He straightened the set of his coat and gave an annoying smirk as he prepared to stroll off to her house and-- she still couldn't think about that. "Don't think you can get away with anything because of this, Spike." Her voice sounded almost whiny to her own ears. "I'm going to keep an eye on you. And if you do anything to hurt her--" "Yeah, yeah. You said. Every time you've seen me the past two weeks. You'll stake me, flush my ashes, and beat me to a pulp. You might want to work on the order of that, by the way. But hurting your mum isn't what I have in mind, and I think you know it, Slayer. So you can stop these little ambushes any time you're ready to get over your snit." "Snit!" Buffy objected. "Snit," repeated Spike. "Face it, Slayer. You're really angry because she's not all yours any more." "She's not yours either!" "No, she's hers. Belongs to herself again, now you're grown. Maybe you should act like it." Before Buffy could think of a retort to this, his face broke into a real smile. "But I will say this, you've given me the chance to say something I never thought I could." "What's that?" Suspicion oozed from Buffy's voice. He almost purred with satisfaction. "You can't hit for toffee." And he was gone.
I'm linking these stories to
each other in chronological order, not the order in which they were
written. All the Spike/Joyce stories posted so far are listed
together on the fiction page.
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Please send feedback to: missmurchison@mchsi.com
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