Disclaimer: Joss Whedon owns Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Rob Thomas owns Veronica Mars, sadly not me.
Summary: Keith Mars and his household(Veronica(18), Wallace(17), Logan(17), and Darrell(7)) merge with his new wife Joyce Summers and her family(Buffy(20), Dawn(16), Faith(19), Spike(140+), and Willow(20)) and wackiness ensues.
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The Gallery, Sunnydale, California
"Hello Ms.Summers, I'm Keith Mars." Keith smiled charmingly shaking the hand of the attractive gallery owner Mars Investigations had been hired to assist in retrieving stolen items.
"Call me Joyce" she smiled looking into his friendly blue eyes. It had been a while since she had last found a man interesting, at least a man that didn't turn out to be a robot. Not one of her finer moments.
"Well Joyce" Keith liked the fill of her name on his lips "I reassure you that I will do everything in my power to get to the bottom of this case." He walked beside her through the recently damaged wing of her business.
Joyce looked him over for a second then finally came to a decision "I hope this doesn't seem to forward but would you like to get a cup of coffee with me?" she stopped trying to still her nerves.
"I would like that." Keith grinned clearly pleased.
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"Your what?" Buffy yelled at her mom following her into the kitchen her face panicked at the bombshell her mother had just delivered on her.
"Are going on a date." Joyce grabbed her beige jacket of the counter turning to her oldest daughter "Make sure Dawn is in bed before eleven and have either Spike or Faith stay with her if you plan on patrolling tonight."
Faith had been released from prison over a couple of months ago by the Council to help them defeat Glory and protect Dawn.
When it came down to it though Spike had been the one to stop Glory from bleeding Dawn and as a reward the Powers had made him human, sort of. He had still retained his vampire strength, speed, healing, and senses.
Both Faith and Spike had moved into the Summers house at Joyce's, and to a lesser degrees Buffy's, urging. Faith sharing a room with Buffy and Spike moving into the basement.
A couple weeks after Tara had died from a heart disease she had kept secret and Willow had accepted Joyce's offer to become a member of the ever growing family, sharing a room with Dawn who was determined to learn magic from the practicing Wicca.
Joyce said this all as she was leaving, a shocked Buffy behind. Honestly, her daughter killed monsters for a living but she looked terrified at the thought of her mother dating.
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"So does this Summers woman check out fine?" Veronica asked her dad in the front room of their new house. A necessary when Wallace and Darrell came to stay with them.
Alicia Fennell's car had been hit by a drunk driver and after over four hours of surgery and two days in a coma had died.
Because she had no other family when her will was read it was revealed that she had left custody of her two sons to her boyfriend Keith Mars, a man she trusted to care for and protect the most important things to her.
The court had refused to grant Logan's emancipation request and Keith had intervened taking custody of the teenage boy.
The new house was more like a mansion, being down the street from Duncan's, in the 09er district and had 7 bedrooms and 3 baths, and they were just getting settled dealing with the chaos of 3 teenagers, a P.I, and a 7 year old still grieving over the sudden death of his mother.
"Veronica!" Keith warned his nosy daughter "stay out of it."
"Sheesh" she held up her hands "Sorry." She still looked at him expectantly "So what's her deal?"
Before her father could reprimand her she reminded him "You've been dating for almost five months now and I have yet to met her. If it's as serious as I think it is I need to know a little about the woman that has my dad all ga-ga."
Keith studied his eighteen year old daughter for a second then seeing she wasn't going to back down relented. "Joyce is 43, runs a gallery, and has two biological daughters, two adopted daughters, and an adopted son. She is very successful and is completely fine with my job."
"So what about the kids?" Veronica questioned relentless and her Dad once again caved giving her the information she needed.
"Buffy is 20 and Dawn is 16, her children. She has adopted 19 year old Faith Lehane, 20 year old Willow Rosenberg, and 23 year old William Barlet. Buffy, Willow, and Faith attend UC Sunnydale. Dawn is a sophomore at Sunnydale High School, and William helps her at the Gallery and works part time at a small shop owned by Rupert Giles."
"That's a lot of kids." Veronica muttered still suspicious of the woman dating her father and tried to remember where she had heard the name Willow Rosenberg.
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"So what's up with this Keith Mars guy?" Faith asked Willow as they gathered in the basement.
Spike was reclining on the bed listening intently, Buffy sitting beside him. Willow and Dawn sat cross legged on the floor, and Faith stood tense between the two pairs wanting the dish on the guy making time with the woman she viewed as her mother.
Everyone's favorite hacker rattled off what she had learned going through the less legal networks. "Keith Mars is 40, divorced, was sheriff of Neptune until he was removed from office for bumbling the Lily Kane murder. He then opened up Mars Investigations and last year success solved the case that had gotten him removed as Sheriff. He has an 18 year old daughter with his ex-wife, Veronica. Over 5 months ago his girlfriend died and gave him custody of her twos sons, 17 year old Wallace and 7 year old Darrell. Recently he has also gotten custody of 17 year old Logan Echolls, the son of the movie star that killed Lily Kane."
Buffy took that all in then asked "So is he a demon, warlock, robot cause we are not going to repeat past history and I would really hate to kill another of my mom's boyfriends."
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"The kids are going to hate this." Joyce smiled happy tears glistening in her eyes.
"So is that a yes?" Keith asked hopeful sitting across from her at the romantically lit restaurant table.
"It's a yes." Joyce told him and he slipped the diamond ring on her finger sealing their engagement.