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"What you did for me and Dawn. That was real." Then Buffy turned to face me, "I won't forget it."

I watched her walk out of the crypt closing the door behind her. I lifted my hand and touched my swollen lip. I hurt all over and suddenly the pain was more bearable, all because of a gentle sweep of pink lips on mine. She didn't recoil from my battered face, she simply kissed me.

I told her once I was drowning in her and after that kiss, I'm going under again. It wasn't passionate like the bots kisses. but it was real and it was sweet and full of soft thank you's. It was Buffy Summers kissing me - me, Spike, William the bloody. And there was no spell and no chains involved.

As I lay on the makeshift crypt bed I had made for the buffybot. I still hurt but I can stand the pain now, it seems worth it. She knows, she knows I love her now. I told her the truth, I would rather die then see her in pain. Glory can throw whatever she wants at me, I can handle it. I can handle it for her. She kissed me.

An hour later she comes in quietly. Only waking me when she sets down the bag she is carrying. I open my good eye and peer at her, "Buffy?"

"Yeah, it's me. Don't try to sit up. I've brought the first aid kit." She says softly as she begins to pull things out her bag.

I watch her through as she pours a bottle of water into a small bowl and dips the edge of the cloth into it. She raises her small hand to my face and gently wipes the dried blood from my face. Her touch is gentle and reminds me of my mum cleaning up my scraped knees as a boy. She gently cleans around my eye and uses butterfly bandages on the worst of the cuts. She rinses the cloth out with water from the bottle and begins to clean my lip. It hurts but I don't complain, instead I close my eyes and concentrate on how her soft lips felt against mine just an hour ago.

"Lets get rid of this shirt, okay?", she asks as she gently tears whats left of the shirt and eases it off of me.

She winces at the sight of the puncture wound and the long knife wound. She gingerly cleans the wounds and adds an antiseptic that burns. I hiss slightly and she leans over and blows on the wounds, her soft breath eases the burning. She applys gauze and tape. "You really would have let her kill you, wouldn't you?" Her voice seems full of wonder that I would do that for her.

"Yeah, I would have." I tell her softly, "I told you I love you."

"I know what you told me, it's just that I didnt' really believe that you... " She searches for the right words.

"You didn't believe I could love you." I finish for her.

She shakes her head, "No, I didn't ... not until now anyway." She is chewing on her bottom lip and I can see her mind working trying to take in and make sense everything that happened tonight.

"I can and I do." I tell her simply as my eyes begin to close, I am so tired, I need to rest so I can heal. She realizes this and pats my arm. "We'll talk later. Just rest."

I nod and close my eyes as she packs her first aid kit up. "We'll talk later," those have to be some of the sweetest words I've ever heard. I don't open my eyes as I feel her lips once again graze mine ever so slightly.

I smile slightly as I give my self over to sleep.

The next morning I wake up and I'm surprised to find I'm not alone. Buffy, the real Buffy, is lying on the crytpt bed next to me she is balanced precariously near the edge. I smile and try to move her sleeping body closer to me so she won't fall. Despite the fact that I havent' healed completely I manage to move her over several inches. I place one arm around her and in her sleep she snuggles closer to me.

She may decide to stake me when she wakes up. But for now she's here and she's real and she kissed me.

The End