Part 5

Spike stubbed out his cigarette as he spoke."You know mate... she's a handful. Nearly married her meself once courtesy of a botched spell." Spike inspected his nails, "But she's not a bad sort I suppose. Mind you I only have wench barmaids to compare her with."

Dick chuckled. "Not thought of that comparison before." I slapped his arm. "What? He's only trying to get a reaction."

"True enough. I think I should thank you Spike. I know! I'd thank you if you left."

"Spike?"

Spike took an exaggerated sniff of the air in the direction of the voice. He grinned and then nodded at Cass. "Can't say I've had the official pleasure love."

"Uh, Cassandra. Cassandra Cain," she smiled, extending a hand for shaking.

Spike kissed her knuckles then asked, "As in David Cain? Met you when you were still in training. Thought you smelled familiar in Metropolis. Good to see you're free of that letch."

"You know him?" Babs asked.

"Met him. Wouldn't drink from him if he was the last source of blood in all the hellmouths. He's a bad sort that one, even by my standards. So pet... what do you do with yourself in your spare time?"

Cassandra blinked. "I don't have spare time. I train or I'm dragged out of the house by Buffy or Babs or someone."

"They've been remiss in your education love."

"They have?" Cassandra asked, confused.

"Let me tell a few things pet..." Cassandra and Spike walked away.

"Why am I more worried about his safety than hers?" I ask before we all join in the game with Roy and Lian.

The night wears on and the next thing I know I'm waking up in my bedroom. I feel like I've only slept about an hour. Haven't done that since High School. Apparantly not too many people made it home last night. I came down the stairs to get myself breakfast at nine-ish and nearly tripped over Superboy on the stairs. Made it to the kitchen without injuring either myself or any of our unexpected guests. I had anticipated giving Alfred a quiet morning off but I should have known he'd be busy in the kitchen.

He smiled at me. "Good morning Miss. I didn't expect anyone to rise before ten."

"Like your charges, I'm used to the odd hours," I shrugged. "Are you preparing to cook for *every*one?"

"Indeed Miss... even Spike and Cassandra if we can untanlge their limbs from each other and get them off the sofa."

I blinked twice. "Spike and Cass?"

Alfred nodded and I think I saw him trying not to smile.

"You're serious!"

"When referring to vampires I am always serious Miss. I assume Miss Cassandra invited him in last night."

I shrugged and looked out of the kitchen and into the living room and sure enough there they were. Bleach blonde and ebony black, leather on leather. Well at least they were still dressed. I think though that Spike is somewhat trustworthy but I'd still like to see Cass kick his ar-.

"Get. Up!"

My thoughts are interrupted by Bruce Wayne, dressed and looking immaculate though if his glare in the direction of the sofa is anything to go by, he woke up alone, got out of the wrong side of his gigantic bed, stumbled over Superboy asleep on the stairs and stubbed his toe. He's not a happy bunny.

Spike groans, sniffs and blinks his eyes open looking quite surprised to see Cass in his arms. "Love... your boss is awake."

"'m m'own boss," Cass muttered as she effortlessly untangled her legs and arms from Spikes and sat up with her back to the vampire. "Hometime," she mumbled, stood up and walked out of the living room and out the door.

"'Mornin'" Spike said as he stood up, eyeing Bruce warily. "Nothin' happened mate. I'm many things but I'm not an exhibitionist," the Brtish vampire said, indicating the rising bodies strewn around the room with a nod of his head, "and we both know she can take care of herself. Slayer? Is there a wine cellar in this archaic edifice Brucie calls home?"

"This way Spike," I say holding the door open for him. As he passes I hiss at him, "Dangerous game Spike." He shrugs and saunters past me and into the room Alfred indicates.

"To the office on a Sunday Sir?" Alfred asked.

"No. I'll be back."

"He do that often?" I ask Alfred.

"Only when he is troubled as regards his promise to his parents Miss, and when he takes the inclination to be stubborn."

"So the short answer is yes."

Alfred nods and continues preparing breakfast.

Much later that morning after we had all had at least another hours sleep after the previous nights revelry and fed on the incredible breakfast that Alfred prepared, I showered and dressed and began my studies of my predecessors, ignoring the noise of our remaining guests. Dick knocked on my open bedroom door.

"Buffy... I wanted to discuss this with you before I did it... I mean, now that we're going to be married and everything..."

"What's up honey?" I asked, looking up from the giant book in my lap. I swear that Giles chooses only the largest and heaviest books for me to study from.

"I want to take the exams to wear the badge-in Bludhaven."

Hoo-boy. An honest cop in Bludhaven. And I thought vigilantism was an extreme sport. But I'm not against either. "You need to do what you feel is right. I'm with you whatever you decide."

He grinned. "Thank you." He knelt down beside me and hugged me, then sat and stretched his long legs out in front of him. "What are you reading?"

"A Giles assignment. He brought it with him last night because he figured it would save on the courier costs. It's in a runic text. See the dictionary," I said holding up the short, fat book.

"Interesting... it is interesting isn't it?"

"Yeah. It's Watchers Journal for one of the earliest Slayers."

"Catching up on the past?"

"Well... to defeat the Initiative, Willow cast a spell that gave me the power and strength of all the past Slayers, or something. I've been reading about them almost from that time. This Slayer, Freja, predates the norse gods. She was about seventeen when she died but she fought so much."

"Predates? I didn't know records went back that far."

"They don't usually but this record was passed down through the Watchers family by word of mouth until records were begun and thus we have the record of Freja and her Watcher Od."

"Od?"

"Uh huh. The norse goddess of love, fertility, wealth and war is called Freja whose husband is called Od. Wiggy huh?"

"Yeah. Sounds very interesting Buffy."

"It is and yes Oracle has this information," I smiled.

He chuckled. "Am I that easy to read?"

"Sometimes."

"Roy is making noises about games in the garden. Do you want to join in?"

"Sure," I shrugged and stood up. "Are Willow and Xander downstairs?"

"And Anya and Dawn and Giles."

"Training will do them good."

"Here they come. Are we on?"

"We're on," I smiled at Roy who began to usher people out of the house through the kitchen.

We took the tennis net and the posts down and put up the basketball hoops. Anya complained that she didn't understand the game and stood with Jesse and Wally on the sidelines. The speedsters had been banned from competing by Roy because of their speed advantage. The ruling was loudly protested but was eventually upheld by Alfred, and no one argues with him. He also upheld the exclusion of Superboy because of his... well hovering, so Superboy and Lobo and some of the other YJ team decided they'd teach Dawn some self-defense but underestimated her. I laughed when she made them fall flat on their backs.

"Dinah can be on Bruce's team cause the old guy might get distracted," Roy laughed, then groaned when Bruce's aim with the ball hit his shoulder. Xander and Willow decided to cheer with Giles for my team rather than play. Xander commented on it looking like it could become a full contact sport and he was too much of a wuss for that.

"I'll be referree!" Secret announced. "Buffy and Dick are team captains!"

I chose Roy, Dick chose Donna. I chose Lois, he chose Clark. I was beginning to see a pattern so I chose Dinah and he chose Garth. I would have expected him to choose Bruce. My last choice was Tim, so Dick got Bruce.

"The team with the most points after an hour of play wins." And so the game began.

"Remember, no powers people!" Lois shouted as she received the ball from Roy and passed it to Tim who took it half way to the goal only to be intercepted by Donna. He passed the ball back to Roy.

"He shoots he scores!" Roy chanted and began a little dance as is customary in male sport. Donna and I just shook our heads.

Dick took the ball and passed it to Clark, then to Garth. Garth dribbled it for a bit, evading Tim and Dinah and passing it to Bruce who aimed for the hoop.

"You have to chant about scoring, Bruce," Lois chided when Bruce just walked back down the makeshift court.

"And you have to do a little dance. You know, shake that damn fine ass of yours," Dinah continued.

Bruce blushed but ignored them.