Feedback and Archiving: Yes to both, though I ask that you e-mail a request to me before this is archived anywhere.
He burst into the church, bringing the ceremony to an abrupt halt. Everyone turned to look at him, but he kept his own eyes on the young woman kneeling before the altar. She turned slowly, her green eyes opening wider with recognition before she jumped to her feet and ran to him.
Her face shone with joy as she leapt into his arms, and he caught her, holding her tightly for a passionate kiss, heedless of where they were or what he’d interrupted. “Oh, Buffy,” he gasped as broke away from her lips. “I know I probably shouldn’t have come here, but…”
“No, Spike,” Buffy said, putting her finger against his lips. “I’m so glad you came. I was only going to become a nun because I knew no other man could ever satisfy me. But if you’re alive… Oh, Spike! I love you so much!”
“I love you, too, Buffy. I love you so much…” He lowered his head, ready to kiss her again, and…
Spike sat up straighter in the back seat of a cab. Okay, so that probably wasn’t going to be how it happened… For one thing, if Buffy was about to be a nun, Andrew probably would’ve mentioned something when he’d given Spike the address. He didn’t even know where his mind would come up with something so lame.
“Probably all Peaches’s fault,” he muttered to himself, slumping back again.
No, Spike doubted this reunion would involve him saving Buffy from a life of chastity. If anything, it would probably be more like…
Buffy opened the door slightly, peeking out, her hair tousled, a sheet clutched around her breast. “Spike? Is that you?”
“Yes. I’m back, Buffy. See, it turns out that amulet I wore in the…”
“That’s great, Spike. Could you maybe come back later? I’m kind of busy right now.”
“Oh, Buffy! Darling, come back to bed!”
“Is…is that the Immortal?” Spike asked, even though he didn’t have to ask. He’d know that bloody voice anywhere.
“Yeah. We’re…um… Look, just come back…” Buffy stopped. “On second thought, I’ll call you. I don’t know how long this is going to take. I thought five hours was a long time, but boy, can he just keep on going… It was nice seeing you again, Spike.”
“Buffy, wait!” Spike called out, though the door slammed in his face.
Still in the cab, Spike frowned. Okay, maybe that was a bit extreme, too. Buffy would at least take a short break from shagging that immortal wanker if Spike showed up on her doorstep, right?
At least he’d like to think so…
Yet Spike still couldn’t see this going particularly well for him. But maybe Buffy would let him down gently, with something a little less wounding than ignoring his resurrection completely so she could go shag the sodding Immortal…
Buffy led Spike over to her couch, a serious expression on her face that told him without a doubt this wasn’t going to go well for him. She sat down with him, taking his hands in hers.
“Spike, I don’t really know an easy way to tell you this, so I’m just going to come right out and say it. In the past year, I’ve done a lot of soul searching, looking for my place in the world, and I’ve realized that I’m a lesbian.”
Okay, no. Spike was stopping that one right there. It was completely insane. He knew for a fact Buffy enjoyed sex with men way too much to ever switch teams.
Or so she’d seemed to with him…
Maybe he was just worrying too much. Maybe it would go well after all. Maybe it would go really well…
Waves crashed along the beach as Buffy ran to him, arms outstretched, her long, white skirt flowing in the wind. Spike grabbed her, scooping her up, her hands clutching to his bare arms as he kissed her, pouring all the love and devotion he felt into her, wanting to tell her…
Okay, he was just going to stop that one right there before Graham Chapman stepped into his daydream and declared it “silly.”
Maybe something a little more subdued.
She took his hand, smiling shyly, her eyes lowered as she led him into her home. “I knew you’d come back to me,” she told him, her words barely more than a whisper. “I knew.”
“I could never stay away from you, lamb,” Spike replied, just as softly, one hand slipping from hers to caress her cheek, wiping away the tear he found there. “I love you too much…”
“You had to come back to me. We fought too hard for this, Spike. We…we went through too much not to get our happy ending.” She lifted her eyes to meet his, and he could see nothing but love radiating from her. “We’re like a fairy tale, you know.”
“I know,” Spike replied, his voice choked with emotion.
She kissed him, tenderly at first, though it grew in passion, their bodies moving closer, until there was no gap between them. Her hands traveled under his shirt, caressing his back, making him moan into her mouth. He lifted her into his arms, desperate to…
The cab driver slammed on his breaks, honking his horn and yelling at the cars in front of him. Spike frowned. That had been a nice one. He could’ve stayed in that little fantasy for a while…
However, he also knew that wasn’t going to happen. As much as he’d like to think he still had a chance with Buffy, the odds that she’d spent this past year waiting for him to return when she’d had no reason to think he was anything but dust were pretty much zero.
She was a beautiful, intelligent, strong woman. She wouldn’t have stayed lonely for long…
Spike stood nervously outside her door, resisting the urge to pace. He heard someone moving around inside, his breath catching as he watched the doorknob turn.
The door opened, and they looked at each other, twin expressions of shock on their faces.
“Spike!” Buffy exclaimed after a moment, before hugging him.
He hugged her back, though it was difficult with the large bulge of her pregnant stomach between them.
“Wow. I…I can’t believe you’re here. I mean, when Andrew told me you were alive, I hardly believed it, but here you are. Standing on my doorstep.”
“Andrew told you?”
“Yeah. Sorry, I didn’t call or anything, but…” She gestured to her stomach with a sheepish expression. “I’ve been a little busy.”
“I can tell,” Spike replied, hoping his heartbreak didn’t sound in his voice.
“Buffy? Honey, who is that at the door?”
Spike could hardly believe his ears, and he hoped for once his senses were lying to him. But then, there he was, standing right in front of him, and Spike couldn’t deny what he was seeing.
“Hello, Xander.”
“Oh, hi, Spike,” Xander said, his face impassive as he put a possessive hand on Buffy’s belly. “Didn’t expect to see you again.”
“Yeah… I guess there’s a lot of that sort of thing going on today,” Spike replied.
“Spike, I know this has to be a shock,” Buffy said, putting her own hand over Xander’s and displaying her wedding ring in the process. “But over the past year, Xander and I, well… I learned that it’s been him all along, I just couldn’t see it before. But I know now in my heart that it was always meant to be.”
Yeah, he was going to cut that one short, too…
Spike wondered just how masochistic he really was to conjure up that little scenario. Buffy and Harris “meant to be.” It would be laughable if it didn’t make him queasy.
The cab came to a stop, and the driver turned around, barking the amount of the fare at Spike. Spike shoved a handful of bills at him before getting out, standing still on the sidewalk as the cab drove away.
This was it. The Moment.
He could run through an infinite number ways this could go, but Spike knew how it would really be. It was what had kept him in Los Angeles for so long, what had kept him from running to her side as soon as he was flesh and blood again.
She’d let him down gently. A sad smile, maybe a kiss on his cheek. She’d tell him he meant something to her, that she was glad to see him alive and well, but…
But she’d never really loved him.
She’d take back the words that meant so much to him, even though he’d known at the time they weren’t true. He’d lose that moment forever, lose the perfect good-bye they’d shared.
Still, he couldn’t let that keep him from her anymore. Even though he knew he was only setting himself up for heartbreak, he had to see her. It would most likely be one last time, but he still needed it. Especially now that he was…
“Spike? Spike, is that really you?”
He looked up sharply, squinting in the sunlight as he caught a glimpse of her in the partially open doorway. He stepped closer, into the shade, as she moved out of the house.
“Hey, Buffy,” he said softly, looking down.
“How… I… Just…how?”
“The amulet. It got sent to L.A., I popped out. It’s sort of a long story after that, but here I am.”
“Wha…when?”
“Uh…a couple weeks after the Hellmouth closed.”
“A couple…”
Suddenly, she was the Buffy he remembered. All fire and anger, her hands on her hips. “You bastard! You’ve been around for a year and you didn’t tell me? How could you!”
She marched over to him, grabbed him by the lapel of his coat. He winced, waiting for the blow.
Instead, she kissed him.
Spike’s cry of surprise was muffled, his eyes growing wide as he froze for a moment. Then, he realized it really was Buffy’s lips on his, and his shock turned to elation as he kissed her back.
“You have so got a lot to do to make this up to me, mister,” she said, her voice almost a growl as she pulled away from him. “Seriously, you can’t just feed me that ‘no you don’t, but thanks for saying it’ crap and then play dead for a year. Not cool, Spike. You better be damn glad I did mean it, or you’d be a greasy spot on my lawn right now. Which consequently, you’re standing on in the middle of the day. Mind explaining that one to me?”
Spike scratched the back of his head. “That’s sort of a long story, too. Wait…did you just say you meant it?”
Buffy threw up her arms in exasperation. “Of course I meant it! Geez. And it’s not like I wasn’t finding other ways to say it for months. ‘I’m not ready for you not to be here yet,’ best night of my life, sleeping with you the night before the big fight. I mean really, did I need a neon sign?”
Spike looked sheepish. “I’m a little slow to catch on sometimes, pet.”
“Noticed,” Buffy said with a snort. “But that’s okay, because…” Suddenly, her anger was gone, and she was crying. “Oh god, you’re here. You’re here, Spike.”
She threw herself into his arms, and Spike stumbled back before regaining his balance and holding her. “Yeah, I’m here. And I’m not going anywhere else unless you tell me to.”
“Not gonna do that,” she promised, reaching under his coat to grab hold of him. “Never gonna do that. Never gonna be ready…”
Spike held her against him, his heart thudding madly in his chest.
He felt better than he ever could’ve imagined.
This is just a little one-shot, but feedback would still be lovely. I’d really like to know your thoughts on this one.