Please update soon! It has been over two months! The waiting sucks! :(

wonderful read, thank you.

You're welcome.

Awww, Black Jack is a mess, but an adorable mess. Update soon!

LOL, thank you.

Wonderful chapter!! Loved BlackJack being all messed up that was great! I'm glad Dawn knows what they are up to with the claim and all now. Will she be telling them who she is and about the keyness soon??

I recently had to give my daughter one of my pain pills for really bad cramps. She was higher than a kite and giggling her head off. I just had to write it in.

Yes she will, I just have to figure out how I'm going to do it.

Great chapter, it explains a lot.

Thank you. I had hoped that it would make sense.

Oh, personal opinion here: The episode where Tara's family came to town, Spike hit her, rather lightly, to prove that doing so would set off the chip and that she was fully human. This, plus his drive to protect Dawn pre-soul, and the way he never harmed Joyce even before the chip, makes him a perfect Example A for "Even evil soulless monsters can love and choose NOT to hurt people."

LOL The scene I had in mind was Spike going all protective over Black not hurting Dawn and Jack jumping in telling Spike not to pick on his brother. Spike has always been the big brother to Dawn regardless of his evil, not evil, can't be evil but wants to be, status. I think that makes him the perfect person to really understand that Black really does love Dawn and is willing to prove it. Everyone else is thinking that it is more Jack that she is involved with rather than both of them.

I really do wonder what a "normal" family would make of the vampire inside their brother/uncle. Heck, I wonder what they'll make of the apparently thirty-something(?) Jack and his not yet twenty girlfriend.
Actually, how does Dawn, as "the girlfriend," come to terms with Black's feeding habits? And, how did we get from Faith's chapter, where Dawn either did not notice or was unsure about Black Jack's feelings beyond friendship, and the current state of affairs? When did she notice or get confortable enough with him? We know Black Jack is trying to coax her into marriage/claim/lifetime commitment, but how serious is Dawn about the relationship?

I haven't decided yet how the family is going to react just yet. It's going to be interesting figuring that out though. At least I only have two characters to deal with.

Dawn deals with Black's feeding habits as a girlfriend by remembering two things. One, Black is a vampire and its either this or him going around killing people. Two, Jack is no longer um, involved in picking out the meals, shall we say? They used to hunt together.

There have been several time jumps. Otherwise this story would have been dragging on forever, lol. This chapter happens about six months after the first.

Right now Dawn is seeing Black Jack as her boyfriends and not much more. She hasn't even gotten to the point where she's seriously thinking about dealing with her virginity problem. That will change, but not just yet. She's going to figure out how serious they are when they meet Spike, at least I hope so. The muse can take off in different directions on me and I might end up who knows where, with my road map in tatters on the ground. lol

Is Black Jack considered a Master vampire? I know when he is human he can walk in the sun and all. Is he a day walker like Blade in a sense? I was curious. Thanks.

Yes Black is considered a Master, mostly because he's not - a minion answering to someone else or shall we say mentally impaired? Cannon fodder aren't known for their intelligence. ;)

While Black is considered a Master vampire, Jack is not. This is because they are two separate people. As far as the daywalker bit, not really....although Jack does have some of Black's abilities given to him through their merge, it's mostly things like being a little bit tougher, heightened senses and the immortality. He doesn't have the full package of vampire gifts, but he doesn't have their weaknesses either.

I think I would have been upset with Dawn, if it had been me, even though she did everything right. She really is a genius. I don't think she could've handled that situation in a better way. Anyway, glad you updated, and looking forward to more! :)

Oh thank you. It was really hard to figure out how she could deal with that situation. As she said, it's not like his family has to deal with a newly Called slayer. They should have some say in whether or not their world gets turned upside down and turned inside out, but there is Jack who has to be able to have a say as well..... I'm glad that you think I worked it out as best as it could be done. Thank you.

Your story goes from strength to strength – witty, funny, sentimental in the best sense of the word, and full of human (and supernatural) interest. Also, very well written. There is very little that even the most captious critic (me for instance) could carp at.

That said, I do have one very tiny carplet: childer.

The plural of child these days is children, of course, but in older times the plural was childer. Yes, really. Then for some reason childer got pluraled again, hence children. Seeing childer used as though it’s a plural jars somewhat.

Thank you very much.

In this instance it is neither. Childer is the term for a vampire who has been sired as a potential master vampire. Angelus is the childer of Darla, Drusilla is the childer of Angelus and so on. It is both plural and singular. A minion is a vampire who has been sired for the sole purpose of being cannon fodder. In this case, while Dawn has no idea who sired Black, she does know that there is no way that he was sired as a minion - thus he was a childer of some master vamp of that particular line of vampires.

Awe this chapter made me sniffy!! It really shows how much Dawn cares for them both. I do wish Black had some information on who he was, before or after being sired, but like the real world it doesn't always work out.

I can't tell you how much i love this story. Beautiful work as always!

Can't wait to see Buffy, Xander, and Spike meet BlackJack!

I'm glad that you see it that way, because I do to. :)

Unfortunately those are the breaks. Not many actually keep track of who has sired who unless they make a name for themselves - ie. the scourge of europe.

Thank you.

Heh heh heh,

Ooo Jack was a professor! Coolness! So are Black's clan worshipers of Connor then? Or is there a whole bunch of info you aren't sharing yet? hehe Pretty cool that Nikki was the one to stop the evil mage! So Spike's on his way huh? hehe Oh this will be priceless!! Great work as always!

Yes, he was a newly hired professor of medieval history.

Yes, that is the clan that Black belonged to. As he has said, he is no longer interested in Connor and is planning on spending his unlife worshiping Dawn. lol

Of all the slayers we've heard about, Nikki is the one that I find most interesting as she was a mother. Of course, her Watcher was a pompous windbag like the rest of them and didn't really do a good job of raising her son after her death but that's just my opinion.

Yep, Spike is on his way. Let's see, Master Vamp meets baby vamp and finds out that baby vamp is dating his protected human. LOL

Hello dragonfan, you asked when was Spike's chip removed? It was removed in the episode The Killer in Me in the seventh season. The reason it was even considered was because the chip was malfunctioning and threatening to kill Spike. Buffy contacted the former heads of the Initiative and was given a choice, either repair the chip or remove it. She chose the latter because she trusted and believed in Spike and in her own words stated to him "You are a good man William." Tara is mostly correct in her reasoning of curses and evil vampires. There was one major difference though with Spike's chip being removed and him not reverting back to evil. Spike had a soul that he earned and won for going through the demon trials in Africa. He was not cursed like Angel. His soul could not be removed through a moment of happiness or any other circumstance. What was unique about this was Spike as a soulless demon seeking out a soul and willing to endure the suffering and torment to better himself in Buffy's eyes and prove to her he could be a good man and a hero.

Ah, I missed that episode. Thanks for the information.

Well one psycho protective scoobie down, two more, possibly three if you count Spike, to go! lol Great chapter! Loved Dawn calling Willow out on her past relationships! And LOVED the first kiss!!! :D

I've been going back and forth on whether or not to include Spike. On the one hand, I've got the perfect confrontation, on the other - that's all I've got, lol.

Oh yes. There's nothing like calling someone out who is being really hypocritical.

I'm glad you liked it. The last part of this chapter was really hard to get. I think I rewrote it about five times, so I'm happy that the kiss was good.

Great chapter! Love the romance between them and Dawn stood up to Willow! You go girl! (lol) I had one question though, Tara mentioned in her thoughts that Spike was still chipped at this time. If this is mostly following canon with the exception of Tara being alive then Spike won back his soul and the chip was removed. I know you are not following the comics which is fine so I must assume he still in LA working with Angel. Is this right?

In hindsight Spike was not that bad of a vampire compared to Angel's demon side. He never was as depraved as Drusilla or Darla and he never wanted to end the world like Angelous did or other demons out there. There were many times he actually helped the Scoobies starting in the latter half of the fourth season until the very end. He wasn't perfect but he was unique in his ability to love as he did Buffy even before he got his soul. Something unheard of among vampires. He kept his promise to Buffy to protect Dawn until the end of the world after she died and fought with the Scoobies even though they never wanted him there. At the very end of the final battle with The First he achieved his redemption and went out as a Champion.

Yes, but Tara was thinking about what held vampires back from being, well, vampires in general and Angel and Spike in specific - which was Angel's soul and Spike's chip for a long time. Are you sure it was removed? I thought that after he had his soul, it was still in there because it couldn't be removed.

Yes, I am ignoring the last ep of Angel. As far as I am concerned as a writer, Angel and co are still fighting in LA.

Nope, Spike really was a great character, and one that I particularly enjoyed, although I'm not to fond of his 'loving' the slayer. It always seemed to me to be a bit out of character. Now, falling for Dawn, no problem. She was his 'bit'. And I loved his transformation into a Champion.

Angel/Angelus, now that's a real shudder worthy vamp. I really hate seeing him get loose, which is why I had the girls tack his soul on tight. lol