TITLE: Puppy Love
SERIES: Ice and Fire (Part 3/12)
AUTHOR: Kerry Blackwell
DISCLAIMER: All things Buffy belong to Joss Whedon, UPN, the WB, FOX and Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox Film Corporation. I own only my genius (yeah, right!)
FEEDBACK: Well, I'm certainly not going to complain! :-)

Buffy and Alex were in the kitchen doing, as Buffy called it, 'the whole Christmas food thing'. Alex had pulled coffee mugs out of cupboards and placed them on a tray. Buffy had been set the task of finding milk and sugar, and piling Christmas cookies onto a plate.

Buffy paused at the sink, looking out the window at the falling snow. She turned back again and smiled at her host. "This is a beautiful house, Alex. And now that I'm safe and warm inside, I love the snow. We don't get many white Christmases in Sunnydale."

"All the more reason for the occasional change of scene," Alex answered with a chuckle.

Buffy smiled ruefully. "Has Rupert been talking to you? It isn't that I didn't want to spend Christmas with you, it's just that I love having everyone come to our house and I'm used to that and I didn't want this year to be different and I'm talking too much, aren't I? I just made it all worse."

Alex tried not to laugh at the rambling attempt at an apology. "It's all right, Buffy. I understand."

"It's a beautiful house," she repeated, still a little red in the face, and this time he did laugh.

"Thank you. Cordy will probably give you a tour later. She loves it."

"So do you," Buffy accused.

"I do," Alex admitted. "I remember my grandmother talking about this place when I was a boy, but I was never even sure if it was really real until after everything got fixed. I thought maybe she was making it up. Or dreaming."

Alex Williams was everything Cordelia Chase could ever have wanted in a man. He was tall, dark, handsome and rich. The irony was that he had only qualified for the tall and the dark when Cordy had met him, fallen in love and married him. The handsome and rich had only come later when Angel Investigations, with a little help from Giles and Willow, had managed to break an old family curse.

Alex's great-grandfather had been unlucky enough to have offended a neighbour a bit over a century earlier - a neighbour who just happened to be a powerful warlock. From a powerful, charismatic dynasty, the Williams family had been reduced to poverty and obscurity. Three years after Alex and Cordy had married, the curse had finally been broken and the family returned to health and prosperity, not to mention the good looks for which they had once been famous.

Cordelia still laughed about it, agreeing that the joke was on her and the Powers were clearly laughing at her expense. But all her friends knew she wouldn't change a single moment. _Happiness_, someone had once said, _is a by-product, not a goal._ If anyone was living proof of that, it was Cordelia. And when Alex looked at her, anyone watching could see that he felt exactly the same way about her as she did about him.

Buffy picked up the tray of cups, leaving Alex to follow with the tea and coffee. "Let's take these through to everyone before I'm even ruder."

"All part of your charm," Alex told her wickedly, and was immediately grateful he was carrying two steaming pots of hot liquid when she rounded on him with a dangerous expression on her face. She was less likely to consider hitting him under the circumstances. He had never known Buffy Giles when she was still the Vampire Slayer, but he'd heard enough stories from Cordy. _Don't piss her off_ seemed to be the bottom line.

A moment later she laughed and was a mother and grandmother again, rather than a champion against evil. "I'm all charm. Just ask my family. Come on, Williams, let's serve the beverages before they get cold."

Looking at the steam still coiling lazily from the pots, Alex didn't think that was going to be a problem.

Angel was pouring out second cups of coffee for anyone who wanted one - except for Brianna, who pulled a face at his firm 'no' and took Miri off to the kitchen to find them both lemonade - when the front door banged open.

There was a swirl of cold air, the sound of boots stomping in the hallway and then Dawn marched into the room, her face looking like a thunderstorm about to break.

"Hey, Dawnie," Tara began, and stopped when she saw the younger woman's expression.

Dawn glared at the group as if they were all personally responsible for whatever her problem might be. "It's snowing mountains out there," she declared unnecessarily. "The car broke down and we've just slogged miles through the bloody stuff. It's freezing, all my things are back in the car and I've got my little puppy following me around like a shadow as usual." She looked up at Cordy and Alex, sitting together on a small sofa. "Would one of you _please_ go and let him in?"

"Uh, sure." Looking a little uncertain, Cordelia stood up and headed for the door.

Buffy stopped her in mid-stride. "Wait up, Cordy." Her gaze went back to her sister. "Dawn, what _are_ you wearing?"

Dawn glanced down at the black leather duster, still carrying faint traces of snow. "Spike's coat," she said, as if the answer was self- evident. "I'm alive, he's dead. I get cold, he doesn't. Ergo, I get the coat." She looked back up at Buffy. "I _said_ the car broke down and we had to walk."

"You _didn't_ say you were with _Spike_," Buffy said stiffly.

"Did so," Dawn protested. I asked Cordy or Alex to go and invite him in." She glanced over at her host and hostess. "He's still stuck outside. Would some go and let him in please?"

"You said you'd brought a _dog_," Buffy pointed out tightly.

Dawn shook her head. "No, I didn't." After a second her eyes widened in realisation. "Oh, I see what you mean." She smiled, all the frustration gone. "He just follows me around like a little puppy." She gave her older sister a wicked smile. "Spike's officially stalking me."

"He what?" Buffy gasped.

"Dawn," Giles broke in warningly before any blood could be spilt.

She frowned at her brother-in-law and relented. "Chill, Buffy. It's really kinda sweet. I think we're courting."

"Sweet?" Buffy shrieked. Then Dawn's last word sunk in. "Courting? What do you mean, courting?"

Dawn smiled, suddenly looking twenty years younger. "All old fashioned like. He sends me flowers and writes me poems and stuff."

"And stalks you," Buffy added pointedly.

"Yeah," Dawn agreed. "But he gave me fair warning when we got to that stage." She walked over to her sister and took Buffy by the arms. "Okay, so it's kind of weird, but it's serious. Buffy, he's been my best friend since I was fifteen. When Frank dumped me after eight years together, he was the one who picked up the pieces." She chuckled. "Hell, he even offered to kill the jerk for me, chip or no chip." At Buffy's worried look she added hurriedly, "Of course I said 'no'. And he knew I was going to say 'no' when he asked."

For the first time since Dawn's bombshell had dropped, Buffy managed a smile. "He made me a similar offer once. I said 'no', too." The smile grew a little. "But I did consider it for a moment."

"So did I," Dawn admitted. "Frank was an ass and I don't know why I fell in love with him."

"Because he wasn't so bad at first?" Giles suggested gently. "Dawn, are you serious about this?"

She nodded. "We haven't made any long-term decisions or anything, but I want to see what happens. We both do." She gave the room in general a patented Summers' glare. "Now would _someone_ please go and invite my boyfriend in out of the snow."

Cordelia managed to pull herself together enough to close her mouth, which had been hanging open since Dawn's revelation. "Face it, Buffy, it's a family thing," she told her friend firmly. "You had this thing for vampires before you got sensible and married Giles. Your daughter is married to an ex-vampire and now your sister is dating a malfunctioning one. Just get used to it." She walked across the room, patting Dawn on the shoulder as she went past. "I'll go and ask him in." In the doorway, she stopped and turned back. "But if he tries anything, Willow and Tara are uninviting him again. Get it?"

"Got it," Dawn agreed cheerfully. She raised her voice a little. "Got it, Spike?"

"Got it, luv." Spike's voice floated in from outside, still slightly cocky and definitely amused.

Buffy glared at her sister, who shrugged.

"I left the door open," Dawn admitted.

Angel laughed, reminding Buffy for the first time that there were more people in the room than just her and Dawn. "Vampire hearing," he offered almost apologetically.

"Too right," Spike called from his position out on the porch.

"So come in, already," Cordelia yelled, walking back to sit down beside her husband again. "And shut the door behind you before those of us who are _alive_ freeze to death. And don't get snow on my carpet."

Spike appeared in the lounge doorway, smiling the same cocksure grin he'd had for a century and a half. "Whatever you say, pet. You're the boss."

Cordelia gave him a steady look. "And just you remember that, bucko."

"Yes, ma'am," Spike agreed ironically. He helped Dawn out of his duster without another word and with plenty enough care to cool Buffy's ire at least a little. He went back to the hall to hang it up with all the others and was back again moments later.

Dawn had claimed the last available chair in his absence, so he dropped to the floor beside her, settling his long legs comfortably. He glanced around the room, amused by the range of expressions on everyone's faces.

There was conspiratorial smugness on Joy's; she'd found out when paying a surprise visit to her aunt at Thanksgiving and it was actually her idea for Spike to accompany Dawn today. The overprotective big sister look on Buffy's face had barely changed from the one he remembered from over thirty years ago. Willow looked dubious, while Cordelia seemed apparently unconcerned.

Giles was watching him steadily, his thoughts unreadable. Hell, old Watcher-man had to know he'd never hurt Dawn. And if Giles could take Angel for a son-in-law, he'd just have to get used to the idea of Spike as a brother-in-law, cause he was going to win Dawn, come hell or high water. Or both.

As for Angel, he was just plain glaring, a fact that amused Spike greatly. Twelve months human, and the ponce had the whole holier- than-thou routine perfected already. However, Brianna seemed to have everything well under control because she thumped her husband on the arm as she sad down again. "Relax, Angel," she whispered so softly only the man next to her - or a vampire - could hear. "Like Mom's going to let anything happen to Aunt Dawn. Besides, it's only Spike."

"I know Spike better than you do," Angel hissed back, trying to sound calm and failing utterly.

"You're just prejudiced by old sins, you are, mate," Spike offered helpfully. "I've turned over a new leaf, didn't you know?"

Beside him, Dawn choked suddenly and leaned over the arm of the chair to punch him solidly on the shoulder. "Shut _up_, Spike."

"What've you been doing with my sister?" Buffy demanded, the overprotective look back in force.

"Anyone want more coffee?" Joy offered desperately into the tense silence.

It was the look of the kid's face that stopped Spike from saying something else annoying. She'd been so delighted at Thanksgiving, to see her much loved aunt laughing again after too long either alone or unhappy, and had declared herself firmly on Spike's team. In fact, she'd been a fountain of good ideas on the whole stalking-courting thing and had had even more lurid suggestions on how to deal with Frank the asshole-ex than Spike had thought of himself.

It still made him furious that a man who had broken his Dawnie's heart so completely five years ago thought he could waltz back into her life and expect her to take him back. The fact she'd finally recovered enough to pursue a tentative courtship with anyone had delighted Spike. The added bonus that it was _him_ after he'd waited so long for her to wake up and smell the vampire just made it so much better.

And then her jerk of an ex thought he could come along and tear her apart again. No bloody way. Spike repressed a grin at the memory of the scare he and Joy had given the prat when he'd had the gall to show up _again_ at Thanksgiving. Dawn didn't even know about it, never would, but he and Joy were now allies forever in the 'make Dawn happy' club.

So he wasn't going to upset the kid at Christmas by teasing her mother. Besides, Buffy had never really quite 'got' his teasing, and it tended to earn him a punch in the face. Brawling at Christmas time with the woman he planned to have as a sister-in-law wasn't really a good look.

Instead of making a typically smart-ass comment, he stood up and grinned at Joy. "I'll help you with the coffee, kiddo. Where's the kitchen?"

"This way." Joy pointed, looking grateful and relieved both at the same time, and he followed her out after exchanging a look and a shrug with Dawn.

Behind them, he could hear Buffy's voice, silenced a moment later by Giles' deeper tones. The conversation eddied around for a few seconds until Dawn cut across it, her voice firm.

"Spike's my guest. Leave him alone."

And, believe it or not, it was the cheerleader Vision-lady who ended the potential argument.

"It's my house and I invited him in," Cordelia said firmly. "He's my guest and he stays." There was a pause. "Until _I_ throw him out."

Spike chuckled and grinned at Joy. "A woman after my own heart."

She pulled a face at him. "I bet that means you tried to kill her once."

Spike thought about it and then shrugged. "It was a long time ago. I can't remember. Probably."

Joy nodded in sudden understanding. "That's what they remember, isn't it? The killing bit. While we don't. Me and Aunt Dawn and the twins, we remember the not-killing Spike and we're less biased."

"Bloody chip," Spike muttered. "You'd think the damn thing would have failed by now."

Joy loaded him up with a new pot of coffee and a plate of shortbread. "Just remember, without the chip you'd probably have snacked on Aunt Dawn years ago and Mom would have staked you. With it, you're still here and you're getting smoochies from her instead." She whirled around from the counter where she was fixing another pot of tea. "Aunt Dawn, I mean," she clarified hurriedly. "Not Mom."

Spike grinned again. "Don't worry, pet. I know what you mean. Besides, to quote your mother, Buffy and me and kisses tend to be exceedingly unmixy things."

Joy made a point of shuddering. "That is a story I _so_ do not want to hear."

Spike steered her back towards the sitting room. "You're right. You really don't want to hear it. And besides, your old Dad would probably stake me on the spot if I tried anything - or brought up any unwanted old history."

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