TITLE: Christmas Day in the Morning
SERIES: Ice and Fire (Part 7/12)
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! :-)

"Please." Giles sank into a chair across the table from her, looking grateful for the support.

"Are you okay?" Dawn asked as she passed a steaming cup of tea across to him.

"He had a busy night," Buffy said wickedly. "I'll have a cup too, please," she added as she dropped into a seat beside Giles.

"Ewwww," Dawn said firmly. "Say no more." She passed across the tea cup.

Buffy took a grateful sip and laughed at her sister. "Because you always sleep the lonely sleep of the innocent and pure?"

That was, of course, the instant that Spike walked into the kitchen. He was, Dawn was pleased to note, fully dressed in the clothes he had been wearing last night. She wouldn't have put it past him to show up in considerably less, just to stir up trouble.

Then he looked at her and smiled, and she realised she was wrong. He might like to shake things up, but he'd never do anything that would hurt or embarrass her. How could she help herself? She smiled back.

Buffy saw it.

"Oh, please, tell me no," she wailed.

"No," Spike answered obligingly. His gaze, which had flicked to Buffy, went back to Dawn. "What am I saying 'no' to?"

Dawn suddenly found she felt like doing a little teasing of her own. "Buffy thinks we slept together last night." She grinned at him. "Shall we give her all the lurid details?"

Spike was staring at her like she'd just gone insane. Buffy was opening and closing her mouth like a stranded fish. Giles, wisely, was drinking his tea and refusing to get involved.

Dawn gave her sister an exasperated look. "If you must know, the most lurid thing that happened was the shadow bunnies on the wall. I am not having sex with Spike." Her expression hardened. "But let me tell you something, Buffy. When the time comes that I am, it will be absolutely _none_ of your business."

She stood up and turned to Spike. "Come on, let's go and get our stuff out of the car. Looking at the weather, I don't think we're going to see any sun at all today, but I'd rather be safe than sorry."

"The sun isn't going to be up for at least an hour," he pointed out. "We've got light, but dawn hasn't actually arrived yet." He shook his head. "I don't understand why people get up so disgustingly early at Christmas. It's unhealthy."

"Well, duh." Dawn slipped an arm around his waist. "It's for the presents, stupid." She started to tow him towards the door. "And all of mine, as well as my clothes, _and_ my toothbrush, are still in the car."

"What are you doing?" Buffy asked behind them, and for a second Dawn almost kept on walking. She didn't. She turned back to the kitchen instead.

"We're going out to where the car broke down last night to get my stuff. If you want a Christmas present - _ever_ again - you should stop complaining and let us go."

Buffy's eyes dropped and she stared at her teacup. "I don't want you to get hurt," she whispered.

Dawn's hard expression softened. "I know that, Buffy. But you still have to let me make my own decisions."

"Look," Spike interrupted. "Why don't we _all_ go out to the car? Get this sorted out once and for all on the way."

"Let's do that," Giles agreed firmly. He stood up, and pulled Buffy gently to her feet. "Come on, love. An early morning walk will be good for us all."

"Did I just get set up?" Buffy asked her husband plaintively.

He chuckled. "Actually, you didn't. But it does rather feel like it, doesn't it?"

It had stopped snowing some time in the night and the air was crisp, sharp and cool. It was heavily cloudy, the promise of more snow clear. It was surprisingly light, considering that sunrise was still about an hour away, what pre-dawn light there was reflecting off the piles of snow. Spike seemed very safe from a sudden sunlight dusting, as Giles doubted they would see the sun at all during the course of the day. He did note, however, that the vampire had a blanket draped over one shoulder. He wasn't taking any chances.

They slogged through the snow in the driveway to the road and turned left, heading in the opposite direction to the one Buffy and Giles had come the night before.

"How far's the car?" he asked, more to break the silence than anything else.

Dawn shrugged. "Haven't got a clue. I just put my head down and kept walking."

"Two or three miles," Spike offered. "We were already on this road, so we just have to keep walking until we reach the car."

They walked a little longer in silence. Finally, Buffy couldn't stand it any more and burst out abruptly, "Are you going to break Dawn's heart?"

"Buffy!" Dawn stopped in her tracks and turned to glare at her sister. Since she was rather lost in the borrowed winter clothing she was wearing, the glare didn't have its usual power. Buffy got the message all the same.

"Okay, so I'm not Mrs Tact, but I'm serious."

"Can't you just stay out of this?" Dawn asked. "You sound like you're my mother."

"I was, for a lot of years after Mom died," Buffy pointed out. "I can't help it."

Dawn sighed and nodded and started walking again. "I know that. All the same..."

Buffy took a deep breath and said something she had never intended to tell her sister. "Dawnie, after Frank left you, I was afraid I was going to lose you. You were hurting so much I was terrified you might do something stupid." She hesitated, then finally added, "I asked Willow and Tara to put protection spells on you. That's how scared I was."

Instinctively, Dawn moved closer to her sister. "I didn't know that," she whispered.

Afraid to hear the answer, Buffy asked, "Was I wrong?"

"No," Dawn answered almost inaudibly. "No."

Buffy stopped walking. "Oh, God," she said softly. "Oh, God."

Dawn managed a small chuckle. "Hey, it's okay." She gave her sister a shake. "I'm okay, I'm here. I had someone to look out for me and tell me what a wanker Frank was. It's all right."

"Wanker?" Giles repeated thoughtfully. He and Spike had fallen behind and were walking together, both sensible enough to let the sisters work this through together. He looked at the vampire. "So that would have been you, right?"

"Yeah," Spike agreed. He gave Giles an amused look. "What gave me away?"

"Your distinctively British vocabulary," Giles answered unnecessarily.

"You can talk."

Giles chuckled. "I don't know that I like you, Spike. But I know how you love. Dawn's as safe as a person can be with you. I'll support you in this."

"I want to marry her," Spike said unexpectedly.

There was a long silence. "I beg your pardon?" he managed finally.

"You know, church, flowers, wedding. Preferably no crosses, though. And I thought we could skip the holy water part, too."

"You want to _marry_ Dawn?" Giles managed. "In a _church_?"

"She won't feel married unless it's in a church. So yeah, in a church."

Giles began to laugh. "You're a brave man, Spike. And please, let me be there when you tell Buffy about this."

Spike shrugged. "Gotta ask Dawnie, first. She's not ready yet."

"I'm a Watcher," Giles said with a sigh. "How is it that my family is being overrun with vampires?"

"Luck, mate," Spike told him with a grin. "Or maybe the universe hates you."

Giles looked at Buffy, walking ahead with her sister, their heads bent close as they talked. "No," he disagreed. "It's just making sure I appreciate my blessings."

Buffy was at a loss for words, more unsure of what to say to her sister than she had been for years. "Dawn..." she started, and immediately ran out of ideas.

Dawn smiled a little. "I'm okay, Buffy. Really, I am. I wasn't ever going to tell you, but you asked."

"Yeah," Buffy agreed. "Me and my big mouth."

That made Dawn laugh. "Don't change now, big sis. I wouldn't know who you were."

Buffy laughed too. "Are you sure about this thing with Spike?" she asked seriously. "I just don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"Yes," Dawn said softly. "I am." She turned her head to catch her sister's gaze. "You do realise that he's been looking out for me since I was fourteen? All because you asked him to. If this is anyone's fault, it's yours."

Buffy shook her head. "No, I didn't..."

"Didn't mean it to be a lifetime commitment?" Dawn asked. "That's how Spike works. That summer... That summer you were dead, he was always there, protecting me like you'd asked him to. I felt like I was in prison. I used to come up with creative ways to kill him and make it look like an accident. But if anything had happened to him, if I'd lost both of you, I think I would have died, too. He made me his personal, lifetime project, all out of love for you. _That's_ how Spike loves. And somewhere along the way, he started to love me for _me_. All of me, the weirdness and the badness and all the good."

"You're sure?"

"Very," Dawn answered. "And even if I wasn't - you're the one who taught me that life is full of dangers, but we have to take the risks and _live_."

"It took me a long time to learn that," Buffy said soberly. "I almost destroyed myself and Giles and you and... well, everybody, while I learned that lesson."

"Well, you were getting over being dead," Dawn reminded her. "I think that counts as extenuating circumstances."

"Maybe. It was a hard time."

"And Spike helped you through it," Dawn reminded her. "He's loved us all - Mom, you, me. I think he's doomed to love Summers women."

At that, Buffy laughed out loud. "And we are a doom, aren't we?" She stopped walking and turned back to see Giles and Spike about twenty or thirty feet behind them, talking animatedly. It was only as they got closer that she realised they were having an impassioned argument about the relative merits of rugby and soccer. Since Buffy had never 'got' either game, she was more than willing to interrupt them.

"Aren't we, Rupert?" she called.

"Aren't you what?" he asked cautiously.

"A doom to the men who love us."

Her looked at her standing there in the snow, laughing at him. "A doom we go to willingly," he told her seriously.

She smiled at him, making him feel like his heart might stop. He crossed the last steps between them and swept her into his arms, lifting her feet of the ground and swinging her around. She laughed in delight and threw her head back.

"Acting like a pair of teenagers," Spike complained, but there was a wistful tone in his voice. "I don't suppose you want me to throw you around?" he offered hopefully.

Dawn laughed and shook her head. "No." She leaned against his side, her arm sliding around his waist. "Just stay with me?"

"Always," he promised.

"Good," she said softly. "That's very good."

She looked at her sister and brother-in-law, kissing now, unmindful of the snow that was starting to fall lightly, dusting their hair with glistening flakes.

"Shall we just leave them there and pick them up on the way back? I can see the car from here so we should be back before they freeze in place."

Spike chuckled. "Good plan, pet."

They walked on through the snow, arms around each other, leaving Buffy and Giles to their Christmas kiss.

NEXT