Disclaimer: I am not Joss Whedon, therefore I can’t say I own them, but I play with his toys a lot.

Thanks and hugs to Bloodytearsoflife, without whom you would have been reading less than stellar fic.

Thanks to Opal, Bubble_blunder, wildwomen, romero, Marzbar and Tasha for their fab reviews!
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Chapter 6: Words

Joyce held open the door for her undead daughter and her similarly life challenged boyfriend to run through, coats over their heads.

“Do you have much homework?” Joyce asked, closing the door and walking to the kitchen to fix Buffy an after school snack.

“Yeah, a bunch. I did miss a few days,” said Buffy hanging up her coat.

With a sigh she turned to face her lover and mate and sire.

“We have to talk,” she said quietly.

“Buffy? I heated up some blood for you,” called her mother from the kitchen.

“Meet me in my room?” Buffy asked.

Spike nodded and headed up the stairs.

In the kitchen Joyce was puttering around. Buffy’s glass of red liquid sat standing out from the white counter top of the island.

“I won’t allow you to have sex in this house Buffy,” said Joyce straight off. “I know you sent him up to your room. There have to be certain rules...”

Buffy cut her mother off. “Mom! I didn’t bring Spike here to have sex. We have some issues that need to be talked out. Things we didn’t get to say at school. We have to resolve a lot of things before we can move on.”

“He expects you to live with him doesn’t he? I don’t know if I like that Buffy. You are still just a teenager. You don’t know...”

“I know mom. I know. I lived with him for most of the summer. I lived the life he’s gonna want me to live again. I couldn’t do it before...”

“And what makes you think you can do it now? I don’t know how vampires are supposed to live Buffy. But I do know that you were so unhappy when you came home, what your father told me...”

“Dad knew nothing,” Buffy snapped. She took a deep breath and continued on in a quieter tone. “ Yes, I was unhappy. I want us to be able to work out. I love him mom.”

Joyce looked softly at her daughter.

“If he hurts you again, I have an axe where I can get to it if I need to.”

Buffy smiled up at her mom before giving the older woman a hug.

“Now, finish up your blood and go talk to your boyfriend.”

Buffy picked up her glass of blood and guzzled it down. “Chicken?” asked Buffy.

“Turkey actually,” said her mother. “We’re having cow for dinner.”

“We?”

“Well you and William, cow blood. I’m having steak.”
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“We need to talk,” she said as she closed the door to her room behind her.

“That we do love,” said the figure lying on her bed, his hands behind his head.

“You aren’t happy with me,” she whispered sadly. “I’m not what you expected. Maybe Drusilla was right; maybe I did come back wrong. I just know that I don’t want to have to give up my life, because I gave up my life.”

Spike sat up, a furious look on his eyes.

“You’re right I’m not happy. Do you think I’m happy that you run away, leave me wondering if you’ve gone and gotten yourself staked. Do you think I wanted to have a Childe that doesn’t know her place?”

“My place? My place is by your side as your Mate Spike!”

“That’s right, once you’re all trained up. A fledge cannot be mistress over a clan Buffy!”

Buffy looked at her lover shocked.

“Get out!” she yelled.

“What? What did I say?” he asked, standing up from the bed.

“Get. Out,” she seethed. “Get out before I have to find a stake...”

“Hold on just a bleedin’ minute love, I don’t know what’s gotten into your pretty little head. I said nothin’ that isn’t true.”

“That makes it so much better Spike! Get out!”

“Goldilocks, love, be reasonable.”

“Reasonable? Be reasonable? Be reasonable to the man who just old me that I’m too young to do what I did all last summer? You are gonna let Drusilla lord it over me aren’t you? You aren’t going to do a ‘bloody’ thing.” Buffy’s tone turned more sad than angry. “I’m just some fledge, some fledge you are gonna let the minions step all over. Hey you know what? Maybe they can fight over me again, this time maybe they can fight over who gets to bed me while Drusilla’s keeping you all satisfied, instead of who gets to kill me!”

Spike stepped forward, grabbing onto her tightly and pulling her close to him.

“Not going to bloody happen,” he said quietly, his eyes staring her down. She was his, and his alone. He wasn’t going to share her with anyone, let alone those idiot minion. “You are mine! Anyone that touches you will find themselves without a head.”

“I lived it Spike, I know how it works,” Buffy replied coolly, pulling herself out of his grip.

Spike threw up his hands in frustration. “If you didn’t want this unlife...then why?”

Buffy looked up at him, green eyes glistening.

“Because a Slayer and a Vampire is wrong. It was killing me.” Buffy put her hand to her heart. “It was killing my soul. I love you so much. I just wanted to be with you. Just you. Not Drusilla, not your minions. You, William the Bloody. My Spike. I was willing to give up my soul to be with you.”

Suddenly she was wrapped in his arms, and sobbing on his shoulder.

“Why does life have to be so complicated?”
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Hours later, free from the emotional turmoil for the moment, Buffy was roused from her lounging position on her bed with Spike, who had been muttering sweet nothings in her ear, by her mother.

“I thought I said no sex in this house!” said the slightly irate mother.

“Mom!” protested Buffy. “We didn’t do anything, just talking!”

“Xander is down stairs. He wants to talk to you, Buffy,” informed Joyce, her arms crossed standing in the doorway.

Buffy placed a small kiss on Spike’s cheek and extricated herself from his arms. She passed her mother on her way down the stairs.

Joyce turned to Spike who was still longing on the bed.

“We need to talk.”

The master vampire had a feeling that this was going to be one of those days where he wished that he had a dollar for every time some one said that to him.

“Fire away Joyce,” he said, sitting up on the bed.

“I want her living here with me,” stated the figure in the doorway. “And I want you to tell her it’s ok.”

“It’s not bloody ok, Joyce. She belongs with me,” he explained.

“She’s been hurt, by you, William. She needs time to learn to trust you again.”

Spike looked up curiously at the mother of his mate. Interfering woman.

“I need to be able to trust you again too William,” continued Joyce.
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Buffy trod downstairs lightly, to see Xander standing nervously in her front hallway.

“Xander?”

“Buffy,” gulped the boy as he shifted from foot to foot. “I...I had to come. I’m sorry about the deal in the library. It’s just...you’re a vampire!”

“I got the memo Xander.”

“All this time, with the wackiness of the slaying, vampires equal bad, you know?” he continued on as if she hadn’t said anything.

Buffy nodded.

“Jesse was evil.”

“Jesse wanted to snack on you Xander. He wanted acceptance from his sire. And yeah he was evil. It doesn’t mean I am.”

“I want you not to be evil Buff.”

Buffy smiled at her friend.

“I don’t think I am. Soulless sure, have cravings for blood and yeah I have a sunlight issue, but I don’t think I’m evil. I don’t want to snack on you.”

“And the Sire thing?” asked Xander hesitantly.

Buffy cast a glance up at the second floor of her house. “He’s currently getting the third degree by my mother.”

“Beware mad moms,” joked Xander.

“Oh god yes,” smirked Buffy.

“Willow said...”

“I wasn’t gonna kill Jonathan,” she denied. “Spike’s not too happy about that, but it’s the truth.”

“Faith...”

“Faith is not my favourite person right now,” said Buffy. “Have you talked to Giles?”

Xander looked down at his feet.

“It’s ok if you haven’t. I just...I’d like it if he didn’t want to stake me on sight, you know.”

Xander nodded. “It’s gonna take me a while, you know, to get used to...this.”

“I understand.”
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Buffy returned to her room expecting Spike to have vacated in the face of her mother’s demands. She had had a pretty good idea about exactly what her mom had wanted to talk to Spike about.

What Buffy found in her room though, was her mate, sitting with his head in his hands waiting for her to come back. He looked up at her with worry in his eyes.

“She didn’t scare you too much did she?” asked Buffy sitting beside him.

“No love. Talking with her put some things into perspective though.”

“How’d she do that?”

“It wasn’t what she said, it was that she knew so bloody much...”

“I talk to my mom Spike.”

“You told her about the minions?”

Buffy nodded.

“How could I not? Spike...”

“She wants you here, with her.”

“I know.”

“Is it what you want?” he asked defeated.

Buffy paused for a moment, feeling out just what she wanted. “Yes and no.”

Spike gave her a look of confusion.

“Hold on, before you start yelling, let me explain. This summer, was difficult. I have to know that it’s going to be different. Not just different in the sense that I am one with the drinking of blood. I have to know that you’ll put me first, above the minions, above Drusilla, above all the macho vampire crap. If you can’t do that then the best place for me, is to stay here, with mom.”

Spike exhaled an unneeded breath. This was going to be difficult.

“I can’t let you.”

Buffy’s calm demeanour changed in an instant.

“What do you mean you can’t let me?” she raged.

“Nothing’s changed Goldilocks! You are still a fledge, and my Childe! I won’t let you be away from me. The other vamps will think I’m weak, can’t control my own Childe! All that macho vampire crap? Well it‘s not going away. You‘re a bloody vamp now, Goldilocks. Whether you like it or not, the vampire crap stays, Drusilla stays, the minions stay.”

Buffy snorted.

“Since when do you care what the other vampires think Spike?”

“I don’t. I care what I think. I think that a fledge that doesn’t obey their sire is an embarrassment.“

“I embarrass you?“ she sniffed.

“You’re a fledge that doesn’t listen, hasn’t fed, properly, and goes to soddin’ school! If Angelus were here, you’d be a bloody mess on the floor.“

“Don’t talk about him,“ she ordered.

“See, that’s what I’m talking about. You still think that you’re the almighty Slayer. News flash Buffy. You’re dead. You better start internalizing that particular fact. You aren’t the slayer. You aren’t even human anymore. You are a vampire Buffy. Not on the side of good, not this town’s guardian angel. You’re a fledge, my fledge and you will do what I say.”

Spike shook his head softly as he smelled her try to hold back her tears. His words were harsh but they had to be said. Spike rose from the bed and walked towards his mate, carefully putting a hand on her shoulder.

“Look, love, I know what you expected. I had the same expectations when I was fledged. Wanted it to be bloody paradise, do what I want, to whom I wanted with my dark wicked princess by my side. The illusion was shattered when she introduced me to Angelus and Darla. I had it much rougher than you ever will, that I promise you.”

Buffy shrugged out of his touch and moved away towards the window of her room, a tear rolling down her cheek.

Silence filled the room occasionally interrupted by a sniffle from the former slayer.

“Is it going to take twenty years before we have the unlife I want?” she finally whispered, breaking the silence.

“Twenty years?” he asked a little confused.

“You had almost twenty years before Angel got his soul, before you and Dru could be together. Am I going to have to wait that long?”

Spike crossed the room in a swift motion and gathered her up into his strong arms, resting his chin on her shoulder.

“No, love. It won’t be anything like I had. I won’t be sharing you and you won’t be sharing me. Not even Drusilla can make me leave you.”

Her useless breath hitching, Buffy nodded. Slowly she turned to face her Sire and mate, planting a kiss on his lips chastely.

“I’d like to think that if I still said no, that you’d respect my wishes,” she whispered sadly, her fingers tracing the line of his face. “Reality Buffy knows that it’s not going to happen though.”

With a sigh she started going through her drawers. “I may be a fledge, Spike, I might be your childe, but I won’t be pushed around, not by you, not by Drusilla.” Buffy turned, her hands gripping the edge of the dresser and stared her mate down. “You are mine, Spike. Any woman puts their lips on yours and they loose them, got me?” she threatened. “And I still go to school.”

“Bloody hell,” he exclaimed, before pausing to consider it. “Any other conditions then love?”

Buffy cocked her head to the side, thinking hard. With a coy smile she turned her eyes back on her sire. “So just how long do you think it will take us to get together again?” she asked lust in her eyes as she reached for Spike’s duster.

“How fast can you get those knickers off pet?” he countered his fingers running over her arms sensually.
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tbc...