“Did you know there’s a horse on your driveway?” Jenny asked as Buffy opened the door for her and then scooped William out of her arms.

“Bugger!” Spike exclaimed from the living room. “Come on, Watcher, grab your keys and lend us a hand.”

“You do realise he’s only just turning one, don’t you?” Jenny asked as Spike stopped to tickle William and press a kiss to the top of Buffy’s head on his way past. “He’s just as likely to play with the wrapping paper.”

“’s not the point, is it?” Spike responded. “And this’ll last him years,” he added over his shoulder.

“It really is a beautiful piece of workmanship,” Giles agreed, kissing his wife and son and following Spike out the door to help finish loading the rocking horse into his SUV.

“Books are in the trunk and the pizzas are on the front seat,” Jenny called out to the two men before turning with Buffy and heading for the main living room. “So what’s the emergency?”

“We are,” Buffy chirped. “Or more like, more us-es, Other me and Spikes, or is that Spike and I’s?” she added with a frown.

“Parallel dimension...like Sliders,” Dawn said, reaching for the baby. “I’m looking after him, remember? You have slayer stuff you’ve got to do.”

Buffy looked for a moment like she was going to protest, before pouting and handing William over with a last kiss to the soft brown curls.

“Can I take him down to your room? We’ll stay in the living room,” she added quickly. “It’s just that you guys are using the one upstairs, and my room doesn’t have a couch or a TV...”

“Or a Playstation?” Buffy added.

“That too,” Dawn agreed.

“You’re meant to be watching William, not playing computer games.”

“But he loves watching Spiro... And I wasn’t gonna just play computer games. I’ve got some books,” she wiggled them for emphasis, “and I’m taking his toys down too.” She looked pleadingly at her sister. “I promise not to mess anything up or go in your bedroom.”

“Okay, but don’t forget to eat.”

“I won’t,” Dawn promised, snagging William’s bag from Jenny and heading off before Buffy could find a reason to stop her.

“That is okay with you, isn’t it?” Buffy asked as she and Jenny watched the teen disappear through to the kitchen and downstairs.

“It’s fine. She’s right, he does love watching the games...it’s all the bright colours.”

~*~

After they’d eaten, and Spike and Buffy had told their tale, they’d split off into two groups; the research party had cleared off the dining table and pulled out box loads of books, while Jenny had grabbed her laptop and asked Buffy to join her the living room.

“Do you remember anything about the spell they used?” Jenny’s brow furrowed slightly while her mind raced through possible flaws in the Iemlenu amulet.

Buffy shook her head. “Just lots of chanting and incense waving,” she answered. “Spike and I were mostly doing other stuff while they got the amulet ready. But I know the chant that makes it...you know, do the jumpy thing.” Removing the amulet from around her neck and placing it on the table, Buffy spoke the words slowly and carefully as Jenny jotted them down. When she was finished she settled the amulet back into its usual place.

“The words won’t do anything unless the amulet is activated,” Jenny said with an amused smile.

“Yeah, I know. But just in case...” Buffy responded. “If it is broken, who knows what it might do.”

Jenny gave a non-committal ‘hmmm’ in response, but was already busy studying the incantation and scribbling notes.

“So,” Buffy said after what seemed like an eternity of sitting in silence watching Jenny writing and muttering to herself, “you named your son after Spike?” She was intrigued by the way that Spike was accepted, and even liked by her friends in this world, even if she wasn’t yet ready to try to get her mind around the fact that her counterpart and Spike were together and very obviously happy.

Jenny smiled, and holding one finger up to her lips, she looked through into the dining room where everyone was poring through the piles of books looking for any references they could find to do with P’Lontus demons. Drawing Buffy into a huddle, she said in a hushed voice, “After Rupert’s grandfather, actually. They were very close. But it makes Spike happy to think that he’s named after him.”

“He’s... you guys really like him, huh?”

“You don’t?” Jenny asked, confused.

“Oh, no... I mean, yes, I do. But...” Buffy shrugged, not knowing how to explain the complexities of Spike’s relationship with her and her friends.

“I take it he’s not as accepted in your world,” Jenny stated. “Things weren’t always smooth sailing for you guys here, either,” she continued when Buffy dropped her gaze to the hands folded neatly in her lap. “But in time... well, you’ve seen. Spike is as much a part of the group as anyone. Buffy, our Buffy, was very...adamant about not allowing anyone to interfere in their relationship. Spike’s a good man; it took us a little while to see that, but eventually we did. He loves Buffy and Dawn, and I like to think he cares about the rest of us, too.”

“But he doesn’t have a chip?” Buffy asked, remembering the watcher’s reaction when she’d mentioned Spike’s chip.

“A chip?”

“Yeah, a micro-chip thingy. Spike, my Spike, was captured by this secret military group...”

“The Initiative?” Jenny asked, interrupting Buffy’s tale.

“You know about them, then,” Buffy said, shrugging. “They put this chip in his head...he can’t bite—or hurt—anyone without causing himself major pain. Anyone human, that is. He can still hurt demons. That’s how we... It’s why he started helping us—for money.”

“That’s awful. Can you get it out?”

“Get it out? Why? He’s... I don’t know what your Spike is like, but ours was really scary before he was chipped. He tried to kill us a heap of times.”

“Do you think he’d try to kill you now?” Jenny asked.

“I... I don’t know.” Buffy frowned, thinking about how much Spike had changed in the last year or two. “I don’t think so,” she said eventually. “Not me, anyway. Or Dawn.” She glanced over at where the two vampires were engrossed in their research, platinum heads bowed and the same furrows creasing each of their brows as they studied the pages. They were practically identical, except the other Spike wasn’t quite as thin, and he didn’t have the same pinched, guarded look as her Spike. He smiled more readily too...not a smirk, or a grin, or a leer, not even the shy little half-smile that only she, or Dawn had ever seen, but a real, genuine smile. She’d seen him bestow them on this world’s Buffy and her friends, and been the recipient of one when he’d told her and Spike that they’d do everything they could to help them find Dawn.

Her head hurt, she needed to get away from Jenny and her questions. Questions that made her think about things she wasn’t ready to deal with right now. “I should go help,” she told her former teacher, nodding towards the research party. “And let you work on fixing the amulet.”

“Yes,” Jenny said, frowning again as she remembered the breakthrough she’d been on the verge of when Buffy had first interrupted her. “I think I might know what the problem is. I just need to check...” She reached for her laptop, barely noticing when Buffy got up and moved into the other room.