"I'm sorry, honey. Did the pictures bother you?"

"Willow and Spike aren't getting over it, Mom. The others are starting to move on but..."

"They're taking it hard," Joyce said. She put down her Cloud Ecstacy drink and got up to come sit next to her daughter.

"You should go visit them, honey."

"I should, huh?"

"A visitation. I did it a few times after my funeral. You spend a half hour or so with the loved one so they feel that you still love them and you're okay. Not a corporeal appearance... Galadriel said that's too traumatizing to the grieving loved one. A spiritual visitation."

"I knew it! I felt you a few times..."

"Yes, honey. That was little old ghost me." Joyce stroked Buffy's hair, which was back to being its natural medium brown. She looked so beautiful. Why did she have to use bleach back on Earth?

Buffy sat up resolutely. "Tell me what to do," she said.

****************************************

Spike's crypt was a mess, just as Buffy had seen on the EarthCam. Spike lay on his side wearing only his black jeans and a t-shirt he hadn't changed in days. He smelled. She couldn't smell the odors but she could see them rising from his body in little brown waves. Ewww.

She sat weightlessly on the bed and stroked his hair. Tears welled up in his eyes. "Buffy" he said.

"Yes, it's me," she whispered. He couldn't hear her, but her words echoed in his head as his own thoughts.

"Buffy." He turned his face into his black pillow and groaned in despair. Buffy was tempted to appear corporeally so she could hug him and tell him everything she was thinking and feeling but she had to listen to Joyce. She mustn't make his suffering worse.

"Spike, you have to stop lying here all day and all night. Dawn needs you. She loves you."

"I have to stop lying here," Spike said. "Dawn needs me. She..." he couldn't finish. He didn't believe it.

"Only my body was killed, Spike. My spirit lives on. I'm happy with Mom in this lovely afterworld where it's always sunny and we get all the slushy mixed drinks we want... with no drunkenness. And chocolate cake doesn't make you fat. And the shopping! ... Not the point. My spirit lives on right here, too, if you keep me in your heart."

"Her spirit lives on in my heart," Spike whispered. He smiled a little. Then his face crumpled in agony. "But she doesn't want to be there. She never loved me, never could. There is no place in my heart for her." He was on the verge of weeping again.

"No, Spike. I cared about you. I did. And at the end... at the end I loved you. I couldn't say it, and I'm sorry... but I did. Remember my eyes? How I looked at you when I invited you in? My eyes told the truth. I loved you. I still love you."

Spike sat up suddenly. "No, she loved me," he said. "She couldn't say it but... I saw it in her eyes... when she invited me back in. And wherever she is... she still loves me." Buffy saw joy and relief sweep over him. She caressed his tousled curls, enjoying the feeling of her finger passing right through the hair. She leaned forward and pressed her invisible lips to his soft, corporeal ones. He was so damn sexy. Too bad she was dead.

"Now get up. Dawn needs you."

"I gotta get out of this bed and go see Dawn. She needs me." Spike jumped up, his strength and resolve revived. Buffy smiled, kissed his cheek, whispered "I love you" and departed. She had to visit Willow and she didn't have much time.