Human?

By PassionFish

Epilogue

Joyce sighed and dumped her bags in the hall, promising herself that she would deal with it all tomorrow. It was four in the morning and she'd just gotten off the last flight from New York. She had intended to return on the ten O'clock flight. Her latest purchase turned out to, sadly, belong to a rather eccentric elderly gentleman who had insisted on meeting and taking out to dinner his buyer. Unfortunately, said eccentric elderly gentleman was more eccentric then most and only ate after the twilight hour.

She was glad to be home. She'd received a phone call from a rather harried Giles, who had explained the goings on of the last twenty-four hours. The whole flight home all she had been able to think about was how her baby was dealing with the latest turn of events.

Her lover whom she'd sent to hell had returned to her, only to have to dump him. Then to have Spike, a recent confident and as Joyce had suspected, who had become a lot more than just a friend, to unexpectedly turn back into a vampire on top of it all. She knew how strong her daughter was, but she also knew that inside she was still a little girl, who could have done with someone there to have been strong for her instead.

Feeling extremely overburdened she silently trudged up the stairs. She looked over to the slightly ajar door of her daughter's room and smiled. All these late nights were worth it if it meant she kept her little baby comfortable. She walked to the door, pushing it open, swallowing a shocked gasp at what she saw.

Her daughter was apparently naked but under a thin sheet. Next to her, a fully dressed peroxide blonde vampire lay. Joyce watched as the vampire, who had yet to notice her, continuously ran his free hand through her daughter's unbound, golden hair. His eyes were solely focused on her face, and his features formed a gentle, loving countenance.

After a few minutes of simply watching them Joyce found her voice, "I take it she's feeling better."

Spike jumped, his hand stilling as his eyes jumped to Joyce. A sheepish look crossed his face as he replied, "I think so." He responded, a small, satisfied smile on his face. When Joyce didn't respond he spoke again, "I was gonna go in a minute."

Joyce considered this for a moment, along with the look on the vampire's face a few minutes ago. "Would you like some hot cocoa. I just got off a killer flight but I'm not tired." She offered. *Suddenly, not tired at all.*

Spike smiled gratefully, "That sounds lovely Joyce, but I ought to get going. Sun'll be up in a minute; I'm cutting it close as it is."

"Tomorrow night perhaps?" Joyce suggested.

"Tomorrow night it is."

Joyce nodded then smiled slyly, "I'll let you let yourself out."

Spike chuckled quietly as she shut the door and turned his eyes back to the slayer. His slayer. He looked up at the clock; sunrise in twenty minutes. He pressed a tender kiss to her forehead and whispered something to her before climbing out of the window into the last minutes of the night.

Buffy gently opened her eyes with a deep breath. A slow smile spread across her face as she answered him, turning over to fall back asleep.

"I love you, too."

The End

Comments are always good – and help me get the next chapters out quicker…hint, hint!

Is this your favourite fiction of mine? Let me know!

Return to the world of Spuffy!