This story takes place in the year 1880, shortly after Spike is made a vamp, as per the ep "A Fool In Love", from season 5... Spike goes back to see the folks after he's been turned...

William had been a good boy. He had always been clean and neat, always kept to his studies. Handsome, thoughtful, kind. Shy, loving. Always respected and obeyed his mother.

That had been his problem.

Whether Death had a tendency to bring out the best or worst in people was a matter of opinion. Spike tended to think the former, but his victims certainly thought the latter, he was sure.

He hadn't even thought of his mother in months. Not until he ran into an old friend.

Well, more like aquantaince. Friend of the family, really.

"WILLIAM!" The woman had cried, her eyes wide with the shock of recognition. Then again, Nana Ann had always had a wide-eyed look about her, as if everything in the world was a shock and a horror to her. Spike mused that she hadn't seen anything yet, but she soon would, something that would finally make her mask a valid face.

"Don't you pretend you don't know me, young William! Do you know what you've done to your poor mother? She's been worried sick, the poor dear, certain you were killed, and near death herself over it!" The woman managed to successfully navigate a street full of muddy potholes and horsedung without tripping in the dim light and never taking her eyes off him once. He had to admire her grace; she moved almost as smoothly as a vampire. His father had always called her "Sister Bloodsucker". He just barely managed to keep the grin off his face.

When she reached him, she gave him a sound slap. Ooooooh, he was SOOO going to enjoy this...

"Well? What have you to say for yourself?"

He stared at her with a look of false incredulity, rubbing his stinging cheek. "Are you blody inSANE, woman?"

Her eyes bundhes in fury. "You watch your language, young William!" She raised her hand to strike him again.

He grabbed her wrist and held it tight. "I think you have me confused with someone else. Kindly restrain yourself, Goodwife. I am not in the habit of hitting women, but I'll not stand by and be abused by a stranger, either."

Dru, Angelus, and Darla walked up to them , having finished the bit of shopping they'd come to the square for. Shopping consisted of dragging hapless victims into an alley and stripping them of their valuables. Of course she would grab a quick bite in the process. Angelus had told him to gaurd the mouth of the alley. he's been doing just that when Nana Ann had spotted him.

"Spike! I leave yeh alone for five minutes, an' already y've found another dance partner!" She pouted, hands on hips, pearls dangling from one wrist. Angelus and Darla came up behind her, their own prizes less conspicuous. Other than that Darla was sporting a new, slightly crumpled hat.

Spike let go off Nana's wrist and wrapped his arms around his lover. "Now, now, pet, yeh know yer the only one fer me, luv! Can' 'elp et if the ladies can't keep their 'ands off me, now can I?"

Drusilla purred, smiling like a vixen. She cupped his face in her hands, pearls clacking as they sweng gently. "Of course no', my 'andsome. I can't keep MINE off yeh..."

Darla rolled her eyes and muttered "Pleeease.." Angelus laughed outright.

Nana regared the newcomers with visible distaste. "William, what are you doing with these.. trollops? And that ruffian? And why are you talking like that? Really, I insist you stop these silly games at once!"

Spike winked the eye Nana couldn't see at Dru and the others. She smiled delightedly, giggling like a small child waiting for a treat.

Not letting go of his lady, he turned to face the woman. He spoke in gentle, placating tones, like she was senile and overdue her medication. He held up a hand in surrender. "Really, goodwife, this is growing tiresome. I don't know who this 'William' is, but 'e doesn't sound like the type t' be 'anging out around 'ere. Y' better run along yerslef, there's a good gel. This aint no place for a morsel like yerself to be at this time o' day. And don't be calling a chap's love nasty names, either, less y' want te get yerself inta trouble."

Nana just stared for a long, hard moment. "You... really DON'T remember, do you?" Her wide eyes brimmed wth tears. "Oh, William, what's happened to you? Have you amnesia? Has this evil woman cast a spell on you?"

She didn't know the half of it. "THIS WOMAN saved my LIFE!" He pushed Dru behind him and threw an arm out in front of her protectivley. "I was hurt, cold and lost and sick, and she took me in when other people like YOU spit on me! SHE was the only one 'o would 'elp me! I DON'T know 'o I was, but if I WAS this bloody William, I'm better off NOT bein' 'im, if y'ask me!"

"Oh William! I'm so sorry!" Her eyes spke of pity, or rather the peity she felt in trying to help. "Please come home with me, you're mother is dreadfully ill! And if this... kind woman helped you, I'm sure she would be welcome there!"

He scoffed at her. "Why should I care 'bout a woman I don' know? If she's anything like YOU, I daresay I wouldn' wanna spend one minute in 'er comp'ny!"

She burst into tears. "Oh! Oh, to hear you say such things of me! I, who helped your mother take care of you, who changed your swaddling clothes!!"

Angelus laughed again, and Darla smirked.

"'Is 'e rich?" Dru asked curiously.

The woman managed to still her tears, eyeing the younger girl speculatively. "Yes, his family owns a sizable shipping fleet."

Spike knew the woman was fibbing; his family was decently off, but they were by no means rich. He was counting on her to recognize the same money-grubbing qualities in Dru that she had in herself.

"I'm sure they would reward you handsomely for saving their son's life..."

They had her, hook, line, and sinker.

Now to reel in the prize...

"Margaret! Margaret, I have a surprise for you!"

Spike flinched at Nana Ann's peircing screech. Dru was too busy taking in their surroundings to care much. He saw her slip a few of his mother's favorite knicknacks into her pocket. He smiled. There was no point in reminding her that soon they would have the run of the house.

Angelus was eyeing the suroundings with a nod, a look that said "Not bad, not bad at all...". In spite of himself, Spike felt a surge of pride. Never mind that these surroundings were indicitave of his former life, and a weaker self he's just as soon forget.

Darla seemed less impressed. She was testing anything gold to see if it was plated, which, of course, it always was. She scowled in distaste why she ran a finger across a shlef and it came up dusty.

Spike felt a flash of hot anger. His mother had been sick, she hadn't been able to look after the place. A bad business deal by his father had seen to it that they had to let most of the help go.

Then he remembered what he was. This place wasn't his to be proud or defensive over anymore. He smiled at the relief the thought brought.

"Come here! Come, now, quickly!" Nana Ann gestured at him from the door to his mother's room.

Nervousness flooded him. Why? William was dead; he was Spike now. Why should he care what a dying mortal thought of him, of what he'd become? She wasn't his mother anymore; in a sense, Dru was. He didn't need Maragret's approval anymore.

If he'd been breathing, his breath would have caught at the sight of her. She looked so... old. So frail. He inhaled to speak. She WAS dying, he could smell it, was choking on it.

"H-hullo..."

She apparently couldn't see him well, was squinting hard at him. "William?" she called, her voice crackling like dead leaves. "Is that you, my boy?" Tears fell from her eyes like rain, but her smile was like the sun. When was the last time he had seen it? The sun OR her smile? It seemed to him he had seen neither for a long while, even before he had died.

How could his dead heart be breaking now?

He gathered her in his arms, wanting to hold her tight but terrified of crushing her in his newly-found strength. He realised with a start that he hadn't really planned out what would happen with this little reunion; now he knew. He would make his mother strong like him. She wouldn't need to be afraid of her husband anymore. Spike realised something else then, too. He was dying to see his father.

"William, your'e so cold! Where have you been, my son? I was so worried! Sit! Sit by the fire! Warm yourself and tell me what adventures you've been having!"

He smiled at that. It had always been a private joke of theirs. Whenever she let him out to play, she would ask him to tell her evey detail when he returned. He would tell her the most outlandish stories, of rescuing damsels and fighting monsters, of sailing the oceans like his father and fighting pirates and sea monsters. So why was he finding it so hard to lie to her now?

He ushered his undead companions in, introducing them, and slowly spinning a tale of being robbed and rescued. He claimed to have had amnesia, which was why he had been gone so long, but told her that he had remembered everything upon seeing her.

The small silence at the end of Spike's tale was shattered by the slamming of a door from the downstairs. He could hear the plod of his father's heavy boots as the man made his way up to them. If his blood had been fresh and warm, it would have run cold at the sound, just as it had when he was a boy, and later as a living man.

When his father reached the door, the man filled it completely. Thadeus was everything his son was not, and nothing he was. He was strong, massive, and thick as a brick both in body and brain. Spike realized for the first time, smelling this man's scent as he now could, the truth of why father and son were so different. A truth the man probably half suspected and had punished his wife and William over every day that he spent with him- which, thankfully, hadn't been often.

Thadeus had not been William's father.

Maybe it was because he was dead, but Spike's brain was having a very difficult time absorbing what his heightened senses were telling him. His mother, the prim and proper, god-fearing woman he had adored to the point of worship all his life, had been... an adulteress?

Not that he could blame her, what with his father being gone so often and being brutal when he wasn't. But now the afternoons William had spent outside thinking up new adventures to tell her took on a whole new meaning. A more sisnister one, as he pictured her spending the afternoons in the arms of one lover after another. Afternoons that he had spent alone with his books in his favorite tree because she didn't want him playing with the rough-and-tumble neighbor boys. A dark truth that it took his new dark side to see. She had coddled him, kept him prisoner to her own insecurities, and cast him aside for a few hours evey day while she escaped everything, including him.

He was seeing red now, but it was the kind from anger. The kind he wanted to see was her blood.

"So, you've come back, have you? And brought some friends!" Thadeus bellowed. "Street rats, by the look of them. I suppose it's too much to hope you grew a backbone out there, eh? Heheh, I mean, it obviously was too much to hope you'd DIED there, and save me from having to feed your worthless hide!"

He laughed, a guffaw that turned into a gurgle as Spike rammed the object that was his nomiker through the man's throat.

"Yes and no, 'father'..."

Angelus silenced Nana Ann's scream before it began with a kiss to the woman's neck. Dru and Darla giggled appreciatively at the antics of their male companions, then began to feed on Thadeus' corpse.

Spike had been the only one who hadn't goten a chance to eat so far that evening, but still would not share in his kill. He had rejoiced to learn that Thadeus' blood was not in his veins; he wasn't about to change that now.

"William? William, what is happening?!?" Margaret's eyes were too weak for her to see more than vague shapes. Seeing her fear, her weakness, Spike forgot his anger at her. He had spent his anger on the man he'd called father, the anger built over a lifetime. "Don't fret, Mama. Father just had too much to drink; my friends are seeing to him."

He sat next to the woman he'd called mother and cradled her, soothing her with soft words, smoothing her hair, kissing her brow.

"I'm so tired..."

"Then sleep, Mama. I will be here when you wake up."

"No! No, I must tell you now, before he wakes up! You are not a little boy... you can take the truth. You know I am dying. I need you to know, before it's too late to tell you... Thadeus is not your father. Your real father, whom you were named for, was his business partner. Days after your father and I were married, his ship was lost at sea. Your father had not changed his will yet, and Thadeus got his share of the business. He asked me to marry him; I had nothing, and could not refuse. I did not know I was pregnant with you at the time. Thadeus has always thought you were his; I was afraid of what he would do to you otherwise. I tried so hard to make sure you didn't turn out like him... I think... maybe I tried TOO hard... I feared I had killed you when you disappeared, that I had made you too soft to face the dangers in the world... but you are strong, I can see that now. You can take care of yourself, and that is why I can go now... and be with your father..."

He realised sadly that he really wasn't connected to Margaret now, any more than he had ever been to Thadeus. She really had lost her son all those nights ago. It didn't really matter to him anymore what her past had been, any more than it should what she thought of the man her son had become. If anything, he was feeling paternal towards HER now. Which fit, since he was about to bring her into his world.

He lifted her neck to his lips and kissed her in the way of his kind. It disturbed him to feel her life fade as he drank, but he only drank deeper. He wanted back the connection he had lost. He wanted her to give him the life she had denied him. She was right, she HAD killed him.

And now he had returned the favor. She was drained. She was dead.

He'd killed her.

He was a fledgling himself, hadn't ever made one of his own before. He hadn't understood when to stop until it was too late. She would never open her dead eyes again.

"Oh, well done, my Spike. Ate all your dinner loik a good li'l boy!" Dru purred in his ear.

He watched his vamp companions as they fed on his handywork. These were his family now, and he had provided for them. That was something Thadeus had always told him he was too soft-hearted and weak to be any good at.

He looked at the empty vessel in his arms. That's all it was now, and emptied glass, fragile and pointless.

He looked in Dru's eyes. This was his mother. She had given him this new unlife, in which he was far more alive than in the life Margaret had given him.

Angelus had finished feeding, and patted Spike on the back.

"This'll make a sweet nestingplace! Well done!"

Spike felt that surge of pride again. He'd never felt while he was alive, but he knew it for what it was. It was the pride a son felt at being told by his father that he'd done well.

He looked at the smile on Margaret's face. He hoped, wherever she was now, she found her William-- both her husband and her son.