This is a Spike and Joyce fic which I wrote for a Mother's Day challenge on MM..It was my very first complete fic. Un beta'd so forgive the crap grammer and punctuation.
The characters don't belong to me..They are Joss Whedon's and Fox's treasures.

Happy Mothers Day....Mum... By Mrs Tigger..

Buffy and Dawn had gone to stay with their father in New York, for a long weekend. Giles had agreed she needed a short break. Of all the weekends to pick it had to be this one.He looked around the living room, before going into the kitchen.No cards, flowers,chocolates, nothing to show what day it was.To show they cared one day out of a whole bloody year. Well he would. He had come to like and respect Joyce Summers a lot over the past couple of years.
"Thank's Joyce...your really spoil me sometimes", Spike said with a smile, as he looked up from his hot chocolate covered in marshmallows.

Joyce smiled at him. She had really come to like Spike.For all his I'm the Big Bad, he really wasn't at all.Spike put his hand inside his Duster and bought out a crinkled envelope, handing it to Joyce.
"Whats this?" She asked, putting down her coffee and taking it.
"Happy Mothers day"...he mumbled, staring intently at a marshmallow as it melted and ran down the side of his mug.
Joyce was surprised to say the least.."Why thankyou Spike, what a lovely gesture".
"S'nothing just a card," Spike replied.Joyce looked at the envelope, her name "Joyce had been written in a beautiful script.
"Can I open it now? or would you like me to wait until your gone"...
"S'upt to you , don't mind either way",but secretly hoped she would open it now, he wanted to see the look on her face when she read the inscription inside.Joyce opened the envelope took out the card and read the inscription......It was a poem..
My Mother, the queen of my heart,
Reigns in my sky like a moon,
Pulling the tides of my senses,
Lighting the paths of my dreams.

Never can I visit the garden,
Where I once lay wrapped in her arms,
The doors of the past will not open,
Though I live 'neath a dome of pure Joy.

Joyce read the card then read it again..."Spike this is beautiful, did you write this?"
"Wrote it for my mum, back when I was human."Spike looked at her. "I wanted to thank you."
"Thank me why?" Joyce stirred her coffee slowly.
"For treatin me like I belong somewhere, for making me feel like (he paused).......someone, not just a monster."
"Do you remember your mother?"
"Yes very much so. Would you like to see her?"
"What! she's here? joyce looked around wildly."
"No spike grinned..he put his hand in his duster again and pulled out a faded sepia photograph.It's all I have left of her."
"Joyce took the photo carefully and studied it.There were two people in the picture, an elegant woman seated and a young man with brown curly hair and glasses standing behind her, with his hand on her shoulder.
"This is your mother I take it?"..Spike nodded, and the young man....is that you? If a vampire could look sheepish, then Spike did.
He nodded again...
"I can't believe thats you, you look...."
"Human,"Spike answered for her.
"What was she like? "If...If you don't mind me asking that is."
"She was beautiful, genteel and poised. She could play the piano and did the most elegant embroidery.She never said a bad thng about any body even when she"...Spike stopped himself, and took another sip of his chocolate.
"When she what? Spike look at me, when she what?"
Spike sighed. "Oh God! He would have to tell her the whole sorry tale now", he chewed on his bottom lip. "When she was treated so badly by people who she thought were her friends."

"Mum was a Governess to the children of Sir William Wynard-Scott, a wealthy Industrialist, in the North of England. He made his money from woollen and cotton mills. Anyway, he decides to seduce my mum and she becomes his mistress.
Not many months later she finds out she's pregnant." Spike pursed his lips together and looked at his empty mug.
"Refill?" Joyce says quietly as she takes it from him.
"Yeah," Spike stretched his back.. "Thanks."
"Then what happened?" Joyce coaxed.
"Well she couldn't stay there could she, after all, he still had a wife and a position to up hold. So he sent her to London to have the baby. Set her up with a small house and a modest income. Kept it real quiet like. It wasn't enough to live on comfortably so she started to teach piano lessons...She built up quite a clientele and made a respectable circle of friends." .
"Didn't they ask questions...these friends?" Joyce enquired.
"Course they did..The ladies circle wanted to know everything".Spike sighed."Gossipy old hags."

Joyce nodded and smiled, nothing ever changed. Women could never resist gossip, especially if there was even the slightest whiff of scandel. Spike continued.
"She told them that she'd been widowed, when I was just a few months old, her husband had been a struggling playwrite who had always dreamed that the play he just written would be the one that would make him famous."
Spike stood up and took off his duster, draping it over the back of his stool.They both sat in silence, drinking.
"Are you hungry?" Joyce spoke, breaking the silence."I don't have any blood, but I can cook something for us."
"Tell you what." Spike got up and walked round to where Joyce was sitting. "Why don't I cook something for us, and as do I'll carry on with my tale of woe."
"You can cook?" Joyce sounded surprised.
"I am a demon of many talents," Spike wiggled his eyebrows,
"So I am finding out" Joyce chuckled. Spike became serious again.
"Mum hated lying to people, but she did it , she said to protect me." Shrugging his shoulders. "Told the old biddies her husband had died of consumption, which got her the sympathy vote. Anyway after few years we were able to move to slightly larger house in better area. Mum taught me at home. One of her pupils, his father was a teacher of Latin and math. He would come and teach me a couple of hours a week for free, and mum taught his son for free. Everything went well for years. We had a happy life. Just me and her . I was a junior accountant at a small office, not a big wage , but adequate. We'd go for walks in Hyde Park, and in the summer we'd sit on a bench and I'd read my latest poem to her". He sounded whistful.
"You don't have to tell me any more if you don't wan't to." Joyce laid a hand on Spikes shoulder.
"S'ok might as well finish it now, got this far." He went back to what he was doing. Memories came flooding back to Spikes mind..
"We had been out to one of her social evenings, mingling with friends, chatting and laughing..when she heard some one call her name.

1880 "Anne Keats .Well, well. who would have though it,after all these years." Anne turned around.Standing there before her very eyes was the face of someone she hoped she would never see again. Lady Charlotte Wynard-Scott!
"Lady Charlotte, a pleasure to meet you again." Anne smiled.
"You think so.Tell me," Lady Charlotte took a breath and smiled back." How is your son, William isn't it?"
"He is well thank you. In fact he's here".
Lady Charlotte looked about her." Then I should very like to meet him."
"Anne!, You didn't tell us that you knew Lady Wynard-Scott!". Sophia Her friend of many years exclaimed with joy.
"Why Anne, didn't you tell them your little secret?". Anne sighed, "Sophia we have been friends for many years,I have something to explain to you but not right".......
"Mother is everything ok?" Willaim pushed through the small crowd that had gathered around his mother and another woman. He saw the strained look on her face. Are you not feeling well, do you wish to go home?
William, his mother looked at him. May I introduce Lady Wynard-Scott. William turned from his mother to the woman, he had only ever been told about.
"Ahh William let me look at you. How gracious of you Anne to call your son after his father."
"I don't wish to be rude your Ladyship, but this is niether the appropriate time or place. If you wish to call upon my Mother at a more convenient time I'm sure"...William could see where this was leading."
"Oh but this is quite appropriate....Now let me see..Ah yes, quite the handsome young man, take off your glasses. It was a command not a request.
"Please don't do this." William whispered as he did what she asked.
"Oh yes, the same blue eyes, curly hair and sharp bone stucture.The exact image of his father. Wouldn't you say Anne?" Everyone was staring at William, he felt himself blush.
"You know Anne. It wasn't the affairs that bothered me, she slowly fanned herself. "He had been doing that for years. No my dear ,you were different. He was in love with you, that's why I made him send you away to have his bastard child. Anne was shocked, he had loved her, really loved her.
"In fact I don't think he ever got over you."
"Anne is this true?"Juliette another of her friends queried..".What about your husband. Did he know?"
"I've never been married"...There were gasps from the small circle of people.
"Oh my, oh dear, never married, but all the things you said...Your husband and his writings". Sophia was astounded.
"All made up, I'm afraid." Anne turned to William. "I'm so sorry my darling. No one was ever meant to find out."
"No matter Mother. I'm sure our good friends here will understand." He smiled at them.
"I think I should like to go home now."
"Of course mother, I'll get your wrap."
Anne turned to Sophia,Juliette and the other ladies of her circle. "Lunch tomorrow as usual?" They all looked at one another,
Evelyn spoke first.."I'm sorry Anne, I have another engagement, maybe another time."
"Oh I've just remembered, so do I..Silly me." Elizabeth coughed nervously. One by one the ladies of her circle recalled previous engagements, that had up till then been forgotten.
"I see , Anne responded with dignity. "Very well then, we will take our leave of you."
"Hold your head up William," Anne spoke gently to her son."You have nothing to be ashamed of." They walked out of the front door and into the smog filled streets of London.

Present Day
"Spike I don't know what to say," Joyce put her fork down."Your poor Mother, what happened to her?"
"All her friends shunned her, no one came to the house any more." Spike sneered biterly. "We became social outcasts. Mum developed a cough. It got worse and she got weaker, bringing up blood most of the time. A few months later she died in my arms. On Mothers Day to be precise. You know what? At the funeral, they were all there, her so called friends. I spoke to Cecily who I had known all my life, If I could call upon her the next week. Spike sniffed as a tear ran down his cheek."Want to know what she said to me?" He bit back a choke, as he said it.
*"Oh no! William you cannot.You and I have nothing in common.You are nothing, you are beneath me."* He clenched his teeth as his spoke. Joyce could hear the anger in his voice. "I killed them all you know."
"What! All of them?" Joyce wasn't sure what to say.
"Yep every last one of them. After I was turned. Made them all suffer. And I rejoiced in it. Shocks you I suppose, but this is what I am , this is what I do." He sighed, "I'll never be free of the demon. I want you to understand that Joyce."
Joyce put her warm hand into Spikes cold one."I'm not judging you don't ever think that. I still find it a bit difficult to get used to, you know the Vampire, Demon , Slayer thing."
Spike smiled at her."Your very much like her you know."
"Am I? Thankyou, Spike. I'll take that as a compliment." Spike nodded.
"I need to ask you something?" Go on you pratt," Spike thought to himself. "It's now or never."
"Ask me? Well ok I guess so. Is it about Buffy? Because I'm not sure if I can or should help you with that.She is my daughter after all."
" What oh no,no not about Buffy. Its about me. Could I, would you?" Spike paused, shaking his head, "maybe this isn't such a good idea."
"I won't know unless you ask me,"
"Spike closed his eyes,and put his head down. He didn't want to see the look of horror on Joyce's face when he said it." Would you mind if I called you mum? When Buffy and Dawn aren't around that is. Buffy would kick my arse up and down this road if she found out. I'll understand if you say no.
Joyce was taken by surprise."I've been asked many things in my life Spike, but I've never been asked to be a surrogate mother to a vampire.I don't know what to say." Spike looked up."Yes would be nice."Joyce saw it in an instant. The sadness in his eyes, he had never got over the loss of his mother" I can't see any reason why not, but there will be no smoking in this house and..... Joyce stopped and looked at the clock.
"Oh right it's getting late I better be going then." Spike got up to put his duster on.
"Oh no! You can't go yet, Passions is on....It's a Mothers Day Special."
Spike nodded and grinned,following her into the living room. "Can't be missing that then can we...............mum."

Complete.