Categories: Pre-Series, Season 1, Season 2, Season 5, Time Travel, Baby/Kid Fic, Claim
Characters: Buffy, Dawn, Spike
Summary:
The monks send baby Dawn to Spike long before S2. If the monks drop the baby off with a vague explanation or just poof! baby appears, is entirely up to you.
Okay, so Spike realises that Dawn is somehow, someway, HIS baby, though he has no idea who the mother is cause it ain't Dru. This can be either because the monks give Dawn to him with a vague explanation that she is his to care for and God and the Beast and destiny and blah blah blah that we all know Spike wont give a monkeys about, or if a random baby just suddenly appears one day, he realises she is his because Dawn is the spitting image of his little sister as a baby (I always thought Dawn and Spike looked more alike than Dawn and Buffy), or because Drusilla sees something, or because he tries to find out where the kid came from and a witch tells him that the baby is his. Or, Dawn has nothing to do with him biologically at all, but is still HIS to protect no matter what, he just knows it, just as he somehow knows her name is Dawn.
If Dawn IS related to Spike, she must also be related to Buffy, like in canon. Absolute must. Whether this is because the monks knew Buffy would one day become the Slayer or because they created Dawn during S5 then sent her back in time to further protect her rather than using fake memories, is up to you. But her relation to Buffy must be discovered somehow (dying monk explains like in canon S5?).
How this affects everything is anyone's guess. Does Spike go after the Gem of Amara years early so he can be a proper father to Dawn? Is he already in Sunnydale when Buffy arrives? Does he go to Sunnydale with Drusilla in S2, like in canon, because she asked for his help after her attack in Prague?
Realistically, Spike and Drusilla can't stay together because Dawn is just not safe around her and Dawn is Spike's priority. How Spike comes to this decision and how it affects him is up to you, but it can't be glossed over unless there is a significant time skip involved because Spike isn't the type of guy to just 'get over' his relationship with the woman he loves ending.
MUST NOT HAVE:
- Rape - not actual, not implied, not even vaguely hinted at. NO rape. UNLESS it is in reference to Angelus's victims, as that's kinda his M.O. But none of the main characters can suffer that way. Absolute no.
- Bangel - if they are together in S1 before Spike and Dawn appear in Sunnyhell (if your story is set in S2), Buffy must end it with Angel soon after. NO Bangel sex. If your story is set in S1, Buffy and Angel never get together at all, despite his best efforts.
- Spike being a bad parent. I think Spike would seriously tow the line with inappropriate parenting, such as teaching Dawn poker and how to pick locks and hot wire cars, and telling her stories of kids in coal bins (love that little scene in the show!), but he is still a good father to her. He looks out for her, comforts her, tucks her in at night, helps her with her homework, argues with her over her allowance, etc. But he wouldn't be a bad parent; he would know where she was at all times, wouldn't leave her on her own, wouldn't get drunk around her, wouldn't ever raise a hand to her, etc. I think Spike would try to be every bit as loving and supportive to Dawn as Anne was to him, and he would hope to make his mum proud with how well Dawn has turned out, with how close they are.
- Spike being Buffy's doormat. No matter how he feels about Buffy, Dawn is his priority and always will be. Buffy will never be the most important person is his life, just as Drusilla stopped being the most important person in his life. Dawn is and always will be, as any parent knows firsthand. He loves that girl 'from eyeballs to entrails' and that will never change no matter how he feels about anyone else. Buffy respects and admires that. He is and always will be Love's Bitch, but there is more than one way to love someone, and his love for Dawn will always take priority over his love for anyone else.
- No fake memories.
- No Giles/Joyce relationship but a friendship would be cool, especially if Giles, Joyce, Jenny and Spike all bond.
MUST HAVES:
- Buffy and the Scoobs don't believe Angel's 'the soul is all that matters' crap, or the Council's teachings, when unsouled, Big Bad Spike is right there in front of their very eyes raising a little human girl who clearly adores him and vice versa.
- By the time Spike meets Buffy, Dawn must be old enough to; have complex conversations (though she still has that wonderful Kid Logic that makes absolute sense in a way that makes no sense); know every word to every Ramones song; play and flawlessly cheat at poker; have more sass and snark than even Cordelia (this kid was raised by Spike, after all). So she must be at least nine years old, but no older than twelve.
- Daddy!Spike. Gotta show Spike actually raising Dawn, looking out for her, changing her nappies, threatening to eat her if she doesn't eat her greens, etc. Spike would without a doubt be the coolest parent ever, but he's still a parent. This can be limited to the first few chapters as the story is set up, or seen in flashbacks, but you can't skip straight from Dawn showing up to meeting Buffy in Sunnyhell with nothing in between, and Spike can't suddenly stop parenting Dawn when they get to the Hellmouth, either.
- Dawn calling Spike 'Dad.' I think it's weird when kids call their parents by their first names. I think it might be because I have too much respect for my mum to ever do that unless I'm being deeply sarcastic (and possibly because I'm slightly terrified of my mother and dare not speak her name. Like Voldemort).
- Dawn hating Angel and refusing to call him anything except Peaches, Grandpa, Captain Forehead, etc. It's just too funny.
- Dawn defending Spike and Spike defending Dawn. They are thick as thieves even when they're in a snit with each other, and won't have outside influences coming between them, especially trying to take Dawn away from Spike (I can see Giles, Joyce and Jenny wanting to do this because Spike IS a vampire and not exactly a GOOD influence, but they change their minds when it becomes apparent just how much the two love each other and how devoted Spike is to protecting her).
- Dawn is made from Buffy. If she's also made from Spike is up to you, but she has to be made from Buffy. How this affects Buffy is up to you, if she sees Dawn as her daughter given that she's dating Dawn's father, or if she sees her as a sister as they're very close in age.
CAN HAVES:
- Dawn teasing Spike and Buffy about their crushes on each other. Maybe teasing Spike about his Slayer fetish, and Spike clutching his metaphorical pearls that Dawn even knows what fetish means.
- Claim.
- Spike bonding with Joyce and/or Giles over raising stubborn, headstrong daughters that don't listen to a word they say.
- Buffy comparing Spike and Angel and Angel coming up short, even on the whole white hat thing because while he's been brooding for a century, Spike has been raising a child and killing demons for his spot of violence and feeding off of rapists and paedophiles and the like.
- Dawn/Cordelia friendship of sass and sarcasm. The image alone makes me laugh.
- Spike/Oz friendship. I honestly think those two would get on like a house on fire if Spike wasn't hurting innocents.
- Angelus. Angelus would make a good secondary villain if Glory shows up much sooner, or a villain in his own right, but it CANNOT be because Angel and Buffy get groiny. If Angelus is involved, find a different way for him to lose his soul.
- Sam Lawson. No idea how he'd fit, but I love him and I want more of him. Preferably as Spike's surrogate Childe and friend and Uncle to Dawn, maybe he and Spike have a friends with benefits situation going on (that would be so hot!), and a potential love interest for Faith when she shows up, depending on how long your story is.
Throw in Jenny and Joyce thinking Spike is 'such a sweet boy,' and lots of 'Good Lords' and frantic glasses polishing from Giles.
Happy Spuffy ending!