February 15^th, 2000:

Spike was still sleeping when Buffy woke the next morning, her head ached from the Champagne she’d consumed the night before. When are you gonna learn? Alcohol and Buffy are not mixy, she thought to herself as she trudged down the hallway to the bathroom.

As she approached the bathroom, she could hear the distinct sounds of love making coming from the bedroom across the hall. Well, someone’s up early! She covered her ears and quickly ducked into the bathroom, turning on the shower immediately to drown out the ever increasing moans and groans coming from Faith and Angel.  Of course, she knew they were sleeping together, hell, they’ve been together a year, but she didn’t need a blow by blow of it in her head.

Buffy took a long time in the shower, long enough to make sure that all the noise from across the hall had subsided, before coming out.  She pulled on her old sweats and peeked in on Spike, but he was still asleep, so, she headed down stairs to make some coffee and get an aspirin.

Entering the kitchen, she found Angel heating up a mug of blood in the microwave, coffee was brewing in the coffee maker on the counter.

“Didn’t think you drank coffee,” Buffy commented.

“Things change,”  Angel replied without looking at her.

That's the understatement of the century, Buffy thought.

“Angel, can I ask a favor?”  Buffy was suddenly serious. At the change in her tone, Angel turned around to face her.

“Of course.”

“Angel, if anything happens to me, promise me you’ll help Spike with Annie, keep her safe.” Buffy met Angel’s eyes, her face solemn.

“Buffy, you know I’d do anything for you, but I don’t think Spike’s gonna want my help.  And, anyway, he won’t let anything happen to you.”

Buffy sighed. “You don’t know that – I’m the Slayer, anything could happen to me at any time.  If Spike doesn’t want your help, just . . . just pull rank on him or something, make him let you help.”

Angel snorted at the thought. “Make Spike do something?  Buffy, YOU are the only one that can make Spike do anything.  I haven’t been able to ‘pull rank’ on him since . . ." that night, he thought to himself, but instead said,". . . well, for a long while now.”

“Just promise me you’ll try.  If he comes to you for help, tell me you’ll help him.”

“Buffy, I’ll always love . . .”Angel started but was cut off by Buffy holding up her hand.

 “PLEASE don’t finish that sentence.”

Angel sighed and rolled his head back to study the ceiling before meeting her eyes and starting again. “I just meant, yes, I’ll do anything I can, for you, for Annie, because I’ll always care about you, Buffy.”

“Angel, I know that you loved me, or at least, I have to believe that you did, otherwise it . . . well, it just hurts too much to think that you didn’t.”  Angel opened his mouth to protest but Buffy stopped him by holding her hand up again.

“But I’m not the same person now and neither are you. What about Faith? Do you love her?”

Angel lowered his eyes. “I care about Faith.”

“You should let yourself love again, Angel.  Let me go. Faith deserves better.”

Angel nodded, unable to meet her eyes.

“Good.  So, how about a cup of that coffee . . . I hope Cordelia didn’t teach you how to make it.”  Buffy smiled at him as she headed towards the cupboard to retrieve a mug.

**~**

July, 2000:

“I don’t understand why you won’t just tell me where we’re going.  I mean, the blind fold, plenty fun in the bedroom, not so much in the car, Spike,”  Buffy whined for the hundredth time since they’d left Sunnydale at sunset.

“Then it wouldn’t be a surprise, would it?  You do know the meaning of the word, don’ cha’, Slayer?” Spike stole a look at her to make sure she hadn’t moved the blindfold off her eyes while he steered the Desoto down the highway.

Buffy sighed and sat back, putting her hand out the window to wind-surf as they sped down the road.   Spike smiled at her and turned his attention back to the traffic, it wouldn’t be long now.

“We’re getting near the beach,” Buffy stated.

“How d’ya figure, pet?” 

“I can smell the ocean!”  she replied triumphantly. “You aren’t the only one that can smell things!”

Spike chuckled as he pulled into the empty parking area and cut the engine.  “Well, you would be right, luv.”

Spike pulled the blindfold off so Buffy could see where they were.  “Spike!  It’s our beach!”  She looked at him. “How did you know where our beach was? Could you tell from the dreams where it was?”

“Actually, I asked your Mum,”  Spike admitted.  “Com’on then, time for the real thing!”

“I don’t have a suit . . .”  Buffy complained.

“You won’t need one, luv.”  Spike leered at her, running his tongue along his teeth.

“Ooo, you rat!”  Buffy smiled and hopped from the car.  Spike grabbed the cooler and blanket from the trunk and followed her down to the surf. 

Buffy stood at the edge of the waves, letting them tickle her now bare feet and closed her eyes to breathe in the salty air and just listen to the waves as they crashed against the shore.  She loved that smell, that sound; it was one of her favorite places in the world.

Spike had toed off his boots and left them next to hers, along with the blanket and cooler. He stepped up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.  Settling his chin on her shoulder he listened to her breathe, felt her heartbeat and smelled the shampoo in her hair as he nuzzled his mouth against her neck, sucking lightly at the tender spot behind her ear and sending chill bumps up and down her body.

“It’s the best surprise ever, Spike.”  Buffy raised one hand up to caress the side of his face as he continued his exploration of her neck with his mouth.  Leaning her head to the side to give him better access, Buffy moaned as he licked and nibbled down her neck.  Pulling herself away from his embrace, she turned around to face him and pulled her shirt off, and then his, and tossed them towards the blanket.  She reached for his belt buckle and he let her unfasten it, then the button and zipper of his jeans.  Sliding her hands down the sides of his hips, the jeans slipped down his hard body and he kicked them back in the direction she’d thrown their shirts. 

She took his erection in her hand and slowly stroked up and down the hard shaft, leaning in to take his mouth in a hungry kiss.  Pulling back from her, Spike unbuttoned and unzipped her shorts and dropped them around her ankles before sliding his hands under the sides of her panties and pushing them down over her hips to join her shorts on the sand.

Kicking her shorts towards the rest of their clothes on the beach, Buffy took his cock back in her hand, leaning in for a kiss, she murmured, "Catch me if you can,” and suddenly turned and ran into the surf, diving beneath the first wave before it could hit her and swimming away from him.

Spike laughed and was on her heels in a heartbeat, following in her wake as she swam out past the breakers.  When she had gotten to an area of calm water, she turned to see where he was.  The moon was nearly full and high in the sky, she should be able to easily see him in the water, but he was nowhere to be seen.  Still treading water and turning in a slow circle, Buffy squealed as something came up from under her and lifted her half way out of the water, tossing her off balance so her head dunked under.

“SPIKE!  No fair!” she yelled after she’d regained her balance and spit out the mouth full of salty water that she'd gotten when she went under. She continued treading water and spinning around in one spot trying to find him. 

He surfaced a couple of feet from her, grinning. “All’s fair in love and war, pet.” 

“Oh, you!  No fair with the not breathing!  You breathe all the time! NOW you decide you don’t have to breathe!?”

Spike just laughed and dove under again, coming up from below her, he grabbed her feet. She thought he was going to pull her under and she took a gulp of air, but instead, he lifted her legs over his shoulders and settled his mouth against her warm pussy.  Spreading her outer lips with one hand he started a slow twirl around her clit with his tongue. He wrapped one hand around her hip to hold her to him as he teased her with his tongue. Buffy let out a moan and leaned back in the water, spreading her legs wider. Half floating, half supported by Spike under her, she looked up at the stars and the moon. The ocean waves teased at her hard nipples and Spike’s expert tongue flicked over her most sensitive spot taking her to an immediate climax as her hips bucked against his mouth under the water.

Spike continued his ministrations through her climax and, as he felt her coming down from the first small orgasm, he increased his efforts. Sucking and nipping hard at her clit, he slid two fingers into her slick channel, causing her to push harder against him.   She moaned his name as he slid his fingers in and out of her, never taking his mouth off her burning nub, increasing to three fingers and quickening the tempo with each thrust into her, he could feel another orgasm building within her and slid the hand holding her hip further back to settle on her ass cheek, where he could dip one finger into her tight asshole.  As he pressed that finger in, her moans rose to screams of pleasure, her breath fast and ragged and she pulled his head to her harder, with her fingers tangling in his hair, as she bucked against his mouth and hands.

As her climax eased back down to slight shudders, he pulled out of her and slid up her body, pulling her to him and capturing her mouth in a hungry kiss.  The taste of salt water and her own juices mingled in his mouth and Buffy deepened the kiss, probing his mouth with her tongue as he slipped his own tongue within her warmth. She wrapped her arms around his neck, her legs around his hips as he tread water, keeping both of them afloat.  She slid her hips down to capture his erection in her burning center, both of them gasping as he entered her, still floating in the cool water. 

“God, I love you in me,” she murmured as she buried him deeper in her burning cunt.  He had no argument with that, at all. 

They stayed that way, floating in the ocean, kissing, intertwined – him within her, for what seemed like forever before she pulled off, grabbed his hand and swam back to shore.  Leading him by the hand, they made their way back to the beach and the blanket Spike had spread out.  Turning to face him, Buffy slowly lowered herself onto the blanket, pulling Spike down with her until he was captured again by her legs around his waist, her arms around his neck, her hips tilted up to accept his cock into her core. 

“Make love to me, Spike,”  she murmured in his ear and he dipped his hips and pressed his hard shaft into her heat.

“I love you, Buffy,” he whispered back to her, “more than you’ll ever know.”

She gasped as he entered her, squeezing tight around his shaft as he slid in slowly, then pulled back out just as slowly. He increased the tempo as she raked her fingers up and down his hard back and arched into him, silently begging him for more.

She felt that familiar burning start in her center where Spike was thrusting hard into her now, her breath quickened and she let her mind go blank, concentrating on nothing but the feeling of her lover, his body hard under her hands and his cock driving into her. Pleasure built like a crescendo in her body until she couldn’t control the scream that came from her and her whole body seemed it would burst from the ecstasy of it. 

“Yes, Slayer, scream for me, God yes, Buffy, Christ . . . Buffy . . . YES!” he thrust hard one last time as he spilled his cum deep into her, her muscles tightening hard around him as she climaxed and her body quivered uncontrollably under him, the scream escaping her mouth completely primal, unbridled and unrestrained.

Spike collapsed down on top of her; Buffy held him to her with her thighs tight around his hips. She struggled to get air, but didn’t want him to move from atop her, either.  She closed her eyes and just took in the feeling of his hard body on hers, encompassing her,  his hands now tangling in her wet hair, his cock still within her.  The breeze off the ocean caressed their bodies and the soft spray from the breaking waves sprayed them with a cool mist. She wanted to remember this moment, this feeling, forever.  

“I love you, Spike,” she whispered in his ear.

It was definitely the best ‘day’ at the beach she’d ever had.

**~**

September, 2000:

Buffy was finally getting a much needed break.  Between chasing around the mansion after an active toddler and the normal day to day Slayer duties, she had also taken on a few more classes this semester at UC Sunnydale, plus, Willow hadn’t helped matters when she started casting "my will be done" spells willy-nilly when Oz left. 

Besides making Giles blind and Xander a demon magnet, Willow had wished that "Buffy and Spike just get over each other already!" That wish made it so anytime Buffy and Spike were in the same room they started fighting. They physically couldn’t stop beating the shit out of each other.  Spike had to stay with Xander in Xander’s parent’s basement for two days until Willow finally ended the spell.  It had definitely been a strange time. 

But now, the house was empty. Her mom had taken Annie shopping and Spike was on one of his missions with Angel and wouldn’t be back until that night.  She was all alone and wanted nothing more than a nice, long, uninterrupted sleep.  Settling down onto their bed, Buffy was asleep before her head hit the pillow.

Buffy was jerked awake by JLo screaming at her to Get Loud. Trying to focus, Buffy realized it was her cell phone singing at her and she fumbled to pick it up from the nightstand and press the talk button.

“Yeah,” she croaked into it.

“Buffy!  Is that you?”  It was her mom.

“Yeah,”  Buffy replied, still half asleep.

“Buffy, we’ve got a problem. It’s Annie.”

Buffy was suddenly wide awake.  “What? What is it?”

“She’s ok. We’re ok, Buffy. But these people . . . they’re like crazy people and they started following us and wouldn’t stop.  They keep trying to get close to Annie and talking about a green light.”

The day they brought Annie home from the hospital flashed in Buffy’s mind. She knew that was more than just a crazy person prattling, as Spike had thought.

“Ok, are you ok now?  Where are you?”  Buffy was up and pulling on her shoes as she was talking.

“We’re ok now, I locked us in the bathroom at the mall.  I can still hear them outside the door, though.  They haven’t tried to get in, but I don’t know what they want.” Her mom sounded really upset, Buffy realized.

“OK, Mom, it’s ok, I’m on my way.”  Buffy was out the door and climbing into her car before she had even hung up with her mom. 

Buffy was really glad at that moment that Spike had insisted on teaching her to drive. Not that his driving was all that stellar, but it was better than hers, which was nonexistent. He still wouldn’t let her drive the Desoto though, but had got her a used compact car that was easier to handle and park, and her favorite part when she saw it was, “Ooo, pretty blue! It matches Spike’s eyes!"  She squealed the tires as she pulled out of the drive and turned on Crawford, heading for the mall.

**~**

As she neared the mall bathrooms Buffy could see the people her mom had been talking about wandering around aimlessly up and down the long hall that lead to the ladies room.  They seemed to be muttering to themselves, in their own little worlds.  Every town had homeless people, crazy people, but she didn’t recall this many of them in Sunnydale, and certainly not all in one place. 

Buffy frowned and started walking down the hall. They parted to allow her passage, none of them confronted her.  She started shooing them, pushing them out of the narrow hallway back into the mall and they didn’t fight her.  When most of them were out of the hallway, Buffy surveyed the few that remained, picked out one that didn’t seem quite as smelly as the others, and steered him by the elbow towards the ladies room.

“Mom!?  Mom, are you in there?”  Buffy yelled at the locked door.

“Buffy?  Yes, we’re here.” Her mom sounded like she had calmed down a bit.

“Ok, Mom, I need you to help me a minute, come and unlock the door, then I want you to hold Annie and back up about five feet away from it, ok?  Don’t freak out when I open the door, I won’t let anything happen, ok?”

“What are you going to do, Buffy?”  She could hear her mom walking towards the locked door.

“Gonna try and get some answers. Don’t worry, just open the door and step back,”  Buffy replied.

When the door was unlocked, she heard her mom move back away from it and Buffy pulled it open. Buffy wedged her foot against it to keep it open before she pulled the crazy man into the doorway to face her mom and Annie.  The man immediately became agitated and tried to pull out of Buffy’s grasp, but she held him firm.

“What do you see?!” Buffy demanded of the homeless man, shaking his arm.

“Green light, such pretty green light . . .” the man started, reaching his hands towards Annie and her mom.

“What else!?  Tell me what else you see!”  Buffy shook him harder.

“Ancient, shiny, green light . . . the Key.”  The man lunged towards Annie but Buffy pulled him back.

“Who wants the Key?”  Buffy demanded.

“Shiny, pretty, green light . . .”

“YEAH, I GOT THAT PART!! WHO WANTS THE SHINY GREEN LIGHT? Who wants the Key?!”  Buffy shook the man harder.

The man looked at her wide-eyed. “The mighty Glorificus . . . the Key, ancient Key . . . shiny green light . . ."  

Letting the bathroom door close behind her, Buffy pushed the man back down the hall towards the mall’s main concourse.   After getting all the crazies out of the hallway, Buffy went back to her mom and Annie. “Ok, let’s go.” 

Taking Annie from her mom, Buffy headed towards the emergency exit at the end of the hall, ignoring the alarm that sounded when she pushed the door open, she held it open for her mom before letting it fall back closed with a crash. 

“Where are you parked?”  Buffy asked her mom.

Her mother pointed in the opposite direction of where Buffy was parked. “Ok, go to your car and then come back to our house. I don’t think any of the crazies will bother you, not without Annie. We’ll meet you there.”

“Buffy, be careful.” 

“I will, Mom.”

**~**

Spike walked in to find the entire Scooby gang gathered around the research table.  Willow had her laptop open, typing furiously, brow furrowed as she scanned the screen for whatever it was she was looking for. Even Buffy at least appeared to be reading a book while Joyce was on the couch entertaining Annie.

“New Beastie in town?” Spike leaned over to give Buffy a kiss.

“Yeah, our daughter,”  Buffy sighed, filling him in on the day’s adventure. 

“So, how’s L.A.?” she asked when she’d finished her story.

“Angel’s cheerleader got knocked up,”  Spike said matter-of-factly.

“Faith?” Buffy questioned.

“No, the cheerleader. Cordelia,”  Spike clarified.

“Angel knocked up Cordelia?”  Buffy looked confused.

“OH, PLEEAASE!” Spike drew the word out across his tongue. “Like the ponce could knock anybody up!”

“So Cordelia’s pregnant . . . by Wesley!?”  Buffy exclaimed.

Spike rolled his eyes. “Noooo,” he drew the word out for emphasis. “The cheerleader got knocked up by a Haxil Beast.”

“So, Cordelia is having a demon baby?”  Buffy looked worried.

“No, we killed the Haxil . . . big, nasty, beastie that was!”  Spike explained.

“So, Cordelia’s gonna be a single mom, then?  With a demon baby?”  Buffy looked even more worried.

“Buffy, are you listening to me?”  Spike took her by the shoulders like she was a small child, trying to get her to focus on him.  “Cordelia is not preggers any more – kill the beastie, kill the baby.  Don’t you know anything after all this time on the Hellmouth?”

“Huh. So do you think Wesley will take her back after she slept with the Haxil demon?”  Buffy tried to hold back a smile as Spike rolled not only his eyes but his whole head up to the ceiling and let her go.

“Wesley and Cordelia are NOT a bloody couple . . .” Spike stopped when he looked back at Buffy, her smile barely contained. “You’re playin’ me, Slayer.”

Buffy crinkled up her nose and held her forefinger and thumb up close to each other, unable to contain her laughter. “Little bit.”

“You wench!”  Spike grabbed her up and swung her in a circle, her feet coming off the floor before burying his mouth on hers.  “I’ll teach you to play me.”

Buffy laughed, and slapped playfully at his back. “We have guests, honey.”

“Don’t we bloody always have guests?!” he growled low.

 She smiled and whispered, “Later,” into his ear as he set her back down.

Just then, Willow spoke up, “OH, OH, I think I found something . . . it says here in the Middle Ages there were these sweeping plagues of madness. People were losing their marbles everywhere. But then it would suddenly subside . . . not sure why though.”

“Wait,” Xander piped up, “I just saw something about that  . . . yeah, here it is.” He read from the book, “‘Primitive people used to believe that the moon was a cause of insanity. Sometimes they would pray to the moon to send a special meteor to fix the problem the moon had caused. These meteors were expected to quell the madmen.’”

 

“Meteors? Ok, let me check on that.”  Willow typed on the laptop, “Ok, there’s a ‘Queller’ impact in the twelfth century; it landed just outside of Reykjavik in Iceland. OH! Look, every time there is one of these increases in madness one of these meteors would land and then the madness would subside!”

“So something about the meteors . . . quelled the madmen?” Giles proposed to the group. “But what is causing the madness in the first place?”

Buffy had a theory on that. “I’d lay my money on this ‘Glorificus’ that the crazy guy mentioned. If it wants the Key and the crazy people can find the Key, then it would make sense that it would be the one making the crazies to find the Key for it – the more the merrier.” 

“What about the demon Glorificus?  Any info on it?”  Buffy addressed the room as a whole.

“No, it doesn’t appear in any of our reference material,”  Giles replied.

“What about the Council of Wankers?  Think they might have somethin’ on it?” Spike joined the conversation.

“Perhaps,”  Giles conceded. “I’ll call them tomorrow.”

“Well, it’s pretty clear that we’re gonna’ have to be super careful if we go out anywhere with Annie now. Apparently the Beast is here, somewhere, and it only takes one crazy person to ID Annie as the Key.  Since we have no idea what kind of demon this Glorificus is, what it looks like or anything, we have no idea how to fight it,” Buffy concluded.

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