It was dark, wherever he was he didn't know all he knew was that it took even his heightened perception awhile to adjust to the darkness.  He shifted on the bed that he was laying on.  <Where the bloody hell am I? >  He looked around the small room and took in his surroundings.  They didn’t consist of much.  There was a small rickety nightstand by the side of the full sized bed.  The neon light of the digital clock told him that it was 7:00 p.m.  He lifted himself further up on the bed until he was leaning back resting on his elbows.  A few feet from the foot of the bed there was a dresser, the tarnished mirror that sat atop it had been broken and all that was left of it were a few loosely clinging shards.  Other than a chair by the corner of the room there seemed to be nothing else in the room to behold.

He stayed there for a moment a thousand thoughts rushing through his head each one fighting for dominance.  Where was he, how did he get there and did he smell bacon?  He was almost sure that that was the smell that permeated the room but it had been so long since he had smelled it that he was unsure of his judgement on the matter.  There was also another smell in the room, vaguely familiar, but its origin escaping him.  He chanced getting up off the bed and searching the rest of the apartment.  He walked out of the bedroom but just as he was making his way through the archway he glimpsed at the chair in the corner of the room once again.  Slung across the seat in a carefully placed manner was a long leather jacket.  From the looks of it, it had been clearly heavily worn and the scent that it gave off called to him.

He went to it taking the supple leather in his hands. <It can't be. >  He brought it to his nose and inhaled the lingering scent of lavender and vanilla.  He inhaled it in so deeply that his head began to buzz.  He was dizzy with the smell of her.  It had been so long since he had been so near anything that she had touched that the mere feel of his old duster sent him reeling. <Could it be possible?  Can she really be here? >  Flashes of her danced in his mind, this and the euphoria that her aroma brought him were almost too much for him to handle. He had to sit down, collect himself.

He sat on the chair still holding the jacket up to his face.  He was stunned into place.  After looking so long could this really be possible?  His mind had played tricks on him before.  He had thought that he had found her on so many different occasions that the doubts controlled his mind.  He couldn't move.  He was afraid to search the rest of his habitat for fear that he would be disappointed, yet again, and curse his mind for being so foolish.

He was so taken by his thoughts that he was unaware of the figure that had silently crept into the room.  She leaned against the doorway looking at him wondering what had become of him.  When he finally looked up at her it was as if he had seen a ghost of someone that he had known long ago.  She seemed an apparition to him.  He saw her, the long flowing looks of her auburn hair; they ran down the length of her framing the perfect lines of her form.  She wore a pair of worn jeans and a bright green tube top that exposed the pale flesh of her midriff.  He took her in purposefully avoiding her eyes, leaving them for last.  When he finally looked up and saw the sparkling green orbs it was all the confirmation that he needed to tell him that she was indeed there with him.

"Willow?" He asked still needing to hear her say that it was truly she.

She said nothing to him.  Just bore into him with her gaze.  Finally after what seemed an eternity she spoke.

"You hungry?"  The soft sound of her voice was enough to take him over the edge.  Literally over the edge of the chair.  The next thing he knew he was sprawled on the carpeted floor with the leather dust twisted in his grasp.  For a moment her eyes gleamed in amusement, but then the all too brief moment was gone and she was once again looking at him blankly.

He brought himself up from the ground slowly careful not to make any sudden movements for fear that she would once again disappear from his life.

They stood in front of each other looking into each other's eyes.  Disbelieving blues eyes searched out cold and emotionless green eyes and locked.  He began to walk to her, needing to touch her.  Needing to feel the warmth that he had been too long deprived.  As he neared her she turned from him and made her way out of the room.  He stopped, staring after her retreating form.

"If you're hungry there is some blood in the fridge.  I've got things to do."  She grabbed a leather bag from a corner table in the next room and took her keys from a hook by the door and then she was gone.

Spike could do nothing but stare in silence at the door that she had closed behind her.

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He didn't know what to do.  Should he go after her?  Should he just wait to see if she would return?  He had been chasing her shadow for so long that now that he had finally seen her his mind could not comprehend a single clear thought.  <I'll go get her. >  He had decided that he wasn't going to spend another minute without her with him.  He went to grab the duster that he had bought several months before and slid it onto his shoulders.  Before he had it fully on he was out the door following the path that Willow had taken.

<Damn she's fast. >  He searched around the street where she should have not been too far ahead of him but she was nowhere to be seen.  <Why must she keep doing that? >  He huffed to himself and began to walk down towards the north end of the sidewalk.  He searched around the corner, still no sign of her.  He moved to the south end only to get the same outcome.  <Damn, chit and her disappearing acts. >  He needed to break something, to invoke some good old-fashioned violence to release the tension that he was beginning to feel.  Most of all he needed a drink.  He came to the conclusion that the latter was pretty much off limits unless he found some nasty demon of which there were none in sight.  So he resigned himself to the sooner scoping out the street for a liquor store.

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Willow was beside herself.  She didn't know what to make of the recent turn of events.  She should have never brought Spike to her apartment but no matter how much she wanted to steer clear of him she wasn't about to let him become dust with the morning sun.  So she had taken him.  And now she would have to deal with the consequences, however unpleasant they may be.

<Why is he in Louisiana? >  She still couldn't believe that she had literally stumbled across him on her way home from one of her many meditative walks.  At first she had not recognized him, she had thought him just another one of the towns many bums.  But when she had looked closer there was no mistaking those high set cheekbones and the prominent scar on his left eyebrow.  <What happened to him? >

She wondered what could've possibly driven him to such an end.  It couldn't have been her leaving, that was impossible.  He had never reacted that way when Drusilla left.  Sure he was a broken vampire to say the least but at least he had emanated some semblance of togetherness.  This was not the man that she had come across the night before.  Reeking of alcohol and too many cigarettes, unclean and disheveled.  Something really bad must've happened for him to become what he was.

The rational part of her hoped that he would be gone when she returned from the market.  But the remains of Willow that still lingered inside of her hoped against hope that he would be waiting for her.  There were so many things that she wanted to ask him, and just the promise of hearing him talk to her in the loving way that he used to was enough to make her hurry back.

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"Spike?" she whispered sticking her head in through the doorway.  She was answered by only the silence of the empty apartment.  She made her way completely inside and put the bags down on the table in the makeshift dinning room.
"Spike?"  She asked again louder this time.  She walked further into the apartment to find that he was no longer there.

"Oh well.  There goes that."  She raised her arms in defeat and let them fall back to her side again.  She began to tremble and let herself fall to the floor.  She curled herself up in a ball and let the loss take over her senses.  She did not cry.  She had done enough of that to last a lifetime and it had been months since she had even found the tears to do so.  The last time had been when she had stupidly called the mansion.  She really wasn't planning on saying anything she just wanted to hear a familiar voice.  When she heard the pain that Cordelia's voice carried it had been enough to send her face first into self-pity.  No more she had promised herself.  She wasn't worthy of shedding tears for all that she had lost, especially when she had taken from others so much more.

She pulled herself together convincing herself that this was the way that things should be.  That Spike should go and get on with his life or lack there of and she should just get on.  She got up and went to her bedroom to begin packing the few things that she had acquired.  Now that Spike knew where she was she wasn't going to take a chance at running in to him again, and she didn't want to be there in case he told the others where they could find her.  She had to run again.

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She was ready to go.  She had packed all of her meager belongings and was looking around the small one bedroom apartment that she called home.  Its walls had afforded her much comfort in the short time that she had taken residence within them.

She pulled her duster on and collected her bags from off the floor.  She had to go downstairs before she left and let Lou know that she was quitting her job.  She knew that the burly ill-mannered man would be none to happy that she was leaving with such short notice but she had to give him the courtesy of at least telling him that she wouldn't be in for her shift the next morning.

Just as she was making her way to the door she heard a small thump come from the hall outside.  She tried to recognize whether she had really heard it or if her mind was playing tricks on her again. <Only one way to find out Will. >  She went to the door and opened it, as she did so the fallen form of Spike fell halfway in through the doorway and at her feet.

She knelt down to inspect him closer and concluded that he had passed out.  From another self-induced Vodka drowning no doubt.  She grabbed the fallen vampire from beneath his armpits and dragged him completely into the apartment.  As she did so he stirred and mumbled something that Willow couldn’t make out.

This time she didn't even bother to take him into the bedroom.  She released him in the middle of the living room and let his head fall to the carpeted floor with a muffled thud.

"Ow." He mumbled and then fell back into his state of unconsciousness.

"What the hell am I supposed to do now?"  She asked herself as she looked down at the vampire.

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"Wake up."  She said to the form that had lain on her floor for the past four hours.  She nudged at him with a boot-clad foot.  "Spike, wake up!"  She said louder nudging him harder.  He stirred slightly but continued to sleep.  "Wake up you lousy excuse for a vampire!"  She yelled punctuating her frustration with a well aimed kicked to his midsection.

That got Spike's attention.  He jumped awake ready to kick whoever's ass had disturbed his sleep.

"What the fuck?"  He growled.  When he saw Willow standing over him anger clearly on her face, his attitude took a different turn.  He rubbed his stomach where she had roughly kicked him and looked up to her.  "Is this your way of saying 'Nice to see ya'?  Cause if it is you have a lot of things to learn about manners."

"Oh yeah, and is passing out on someone's doorway is considered proper etiquette Miss Manners?"

"You left, what was I supposed to do?"

"I don't know let's see.  How about wait for five minutes?  No, not for Spike he has to go out and get hammered a lot of good that did you."

"Your one to talk.  At least I didn't get up and leave in the middle of day.  At least I didn't turn my back on all the people that loved me."  He began to feel an old familiar feeling rise up in him.  It had been so long that he had been numbing everything with alcohol that it felt good to finally let everything out.  She would listen to him, and he would make her.  His rage swam up to the forefront and allowed itself control of his faculties.  "At least I didn't go off and keep myself hidden for almost a year, leaving all of my friends to wonder where I was.  Or if I was all right or even alive.  I didn't do that, you did.  So don't sit there and lecture me about the evils of alcohol.  You have no right to admonish anyone about anything."  He calmed down having let it all out and the next part came out almost in a whisper, but Willow heard it.  "At least I didn’t run away."

"I can't die."  Willow said quietly barely audible to him.

"What?"  He snapped at her.  He didn’t mean to but he couldn’t stop it.

"I can't die.  I know all of you knew that, so there is no reason that anyone should've worried about whether I was dead.  I can't."  She finished allowing reason to guide her.

"That's it?  That's all you have to say?  Some bloody babble about not being able to die?  Figures."  He let out a deep unneeded sigh.  "Women, I tell you after all the time I have spent around them you'd think I could figure them out, but noooo everyday they do something more out of whack."

"Spike why are you here?"

"See there you go again.  The question is pet, what are YOU doing here?"

"I live here."  She said as if it should've been completely obvious to him.

He chuckled; it escaped him before he even had time to think about it.  Was he going mad?

"Well you see red, I've always wanted to see Louisiana.  I had been here once a few decades ago but I had to leave, Dru didn't take too kindly to Creole blood."  He saw her wince slightly at the mention of Drusilla's name but he ignored it and continued.  "So here I am.  Does that answer your question luv?"

"Okay so you just up and decided that you would come here, looking like a Yeti no less?"

"What, you don't like the new look?  I thought it was rather becoming.  I'm hurt luv."

"Why are you being such an arrogant bastard?"  She asked clearly hurt by the way that he was reacting to her.

He thought about it for a moment, wondering himself what had taken hold of him.

He shrugged his shoulders and answered simply, "Needed a change."

She rushed towards him and shoved him.  He stumbled back slightly surprised at her strength and her actions. "Get out."  She yelled. She shoved him again before he could recuperate from the last one.  "Leave, now."  She went to shove him again but he caught her hand at the wrist before she could manage.  She wasn't about to let him know that he was hurting her but by the way that he squinted his eyes and moved his hands to block the pain in his head she knew that he was already aware it.

He regained himself after the pain had shot through his forehead.

"Your not getting rid of me that easily, luv.  Now sit down," He pointed to a chair by the dining table. "I have a little story to tell you."

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Willow sat down.  Not because she was intimidated by him, after all he couldn’t hurt her.  Not physically anyways.  She sat down because she felt that it was the least that she owed him.  She felt that it was the most that she could do for him after she had left him so suddenly with his heart on his sleeve for all to see.  But mostly she sat down because she was tired.  Tired of running.  Tired of hiding from the things that she knew she had to face head on.  And she needed him.  Needed him more than she had ever needed anything in all her life.  And considering that she was pretty self-sufficient the fact that she even allowed herself to admit that showed how truly she felt it.  So she sat and waited for him to tell her all that was tumbling around in that enigmatic mind of his.

Spike took a deep breath.  He needed it.  Not to fulfill any physical need that he felt but to alleviate himself of the burden of having held it in for so long.  For eleven months he had held his breath and his insides burned with the need to release it.  He looked at her as she sat by the dining room table, her eyes shining with such emotion, waiting for him to be free of that breath that he held.

"Let me see, how should I begin?"  He thought for a moment. "Yes, I know I'll start the way all good stories do.  Once upon a time in a ragged hell hole we like to call Sunnydale there lived a young girl.  Now this was not just any girl, no this one she was special.  She had ravishing red locks that shone with the fury of the brightest of suns, and deep green eyes that held the knowledge of a thousand lifetimes.  For years this exasperatingly beautiful young girl lived in a daze.  She went through life, going through the motions as she felt that she had to only to find that she was missing something."  He looked to her to make sure that she was following him.  When he saw that he had her full attention he continued. "In another part of the world far away from the day to day drudgery that was the hellmouth.  There was a not so young man.  This man was devastatingly handsome.." he was interrupted by her laughter. "Now pet, let me finish the story, as I was saying this man was handsome in way that could not possibly be anything but godlike."  Again his comment received another chuckle from her, he continued spurned on by her laughter.  "He too went through life or unlife, if you want to be accurate.  He spent his days…well he spent most of them asleep, but when he wasn't he was searching for something.  What it was he was not quite sure.  For a very long time he was under the spell of two very wicked sorcerers, they made him believe that all there was to life was what they had shown him.  And after years and years he had come to accept their life as his own.  And he liked it but not really, there was still something missing.  Deep down in the places where men do not dare search he was empty.  Then one day the two crossed paths and it were as if the world itself had stopped turning on its axis.  At first they were unaware of it, he was under the spell of the wicked sorceress and she was under a different spell forged by the occurrences of her life and a rather ungodly furry little fella.  As time went on, the spells were broken and the two were thrown together and finally their eyes were opened to the possibilities of what life could be.  At last they had found what they had sought for so long, one of them longer than the other had.  They found fulfillment in each other and they were finally complete."  He paused for a moment.  Her eyes on him were spellbinding, he wanted to stop talking to take her in his arms and let the past eleven months melt away within them.  But he knew that he couldn't do that.  He knew that she would have to be the one to make the move or else all may be lost again.

"Then what?"  She asked engrossed in the melody of his accented voice.

"Well then you would think of course would come the happily ever after part of the story.  But alas something went wrong.  The girl was scared, she felt as if she alone could bare her burden and she left him to his emptiness once again."
"What did he do?"

"What any self respecting man that was madly in love would do.  He went after her."  Her eyes opened wide at his revelation. "For almost a year he searched far and wide.  He looked for her anywhere and everywhere that he could think of.  But as the months wore on and still he did not find her, he began to fall deeper and deeper inside himself.  He became unrecognizable even to himself.  But as fate would have it she found him and she did recognize him even over the thing that he had become and the rest….well…..that is up to you.  You're the only one that can give it the happily ever after that it deserves."

"I'm sorry."  She breathed to him.  The tears that had knotted her throat as she heard his story finally melted and formed into the trails that ran down her face.

"It's alright baby we all do things that hurt people especially ourselves.  The trick is learning that we are not our mistakes but our triumphs.  And you, you are triumph.  You managed to take a self-loathing, arrogant, bastard and turn him into to a loving creature.  That is a hard task for anyone."

"I didn't mean to hurt you.  I didn't want to hurt you."  She told him between sobs.

"Don't you think it's time for you to forgive yourself?"

Willow sat silently pondering his suggestion.

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Spike watched her roll over his words in her head as he watched her in silence he became hyperaware of his own appearance.  <She must think I've gone bloody mad.  How could she possibly take me seriously when I look like a grizzly bear? >  He cursed himself for allowing desparity get the better of him.  This is not how he had chosen to face her.  He wondered if she could see in him any semblance of the man that she loved.  Luckily, his outward appearance was nothing that a good shower and a very sharp razor could not fix.  As for the bleach for his hair he'd have to go without it for the moment.

"I don’t know, Spike.  I don't know what to think anymore."

She had stopped crying the gravity of the situation had dried her eyes and she just needed to think.  She needed everything to settle in.  She looked at him and searched through all the hair trying to find him in there.  She had done that to him.  She had driven him on a torturous ride and he had done it all for love.  She never thought that it was possible for little old plain Willow to bring out these sort of emotions in anyone, let alone a killer.  But then again she too was a killer and it didn't make her feelings any less strong.  If anything they helped to heighten the importance of them.  That she could have savagely killed someone that she loved and was still capable of feeling love with such fervor was a puzzle to her.  She had always equated killing with being heartless and cruel, yet there they were two killers who loved each other more than their own lives.  It was irrelevant the numbers or the circumstances in which they had done it the outcome was still the same.

"I'll tell you what Red.  I'm going to go into your bathroom and wash that bum right out of my hair.  You think about things.  All I ask is that you stay.  At least until I get out.  No more disappearances for the time being."

"I promise."  She said hanging her head, not wanting to look into those all too revealing blue eyes of his.

"Good.  This may take a bit luv, I've got a lot of months of wanderer to wash out."

She nod her understanding.  "There are towels in the closet in the bedroom."

He went to go towards the bedroom to retrieve the towels when his eyes fell on her bags on the floor.  He picked them up and began to take them with him.

"You won't be needing these for now luv.  So I'm just going to put them in the closet for you."

He didn’t wait for her response, he took them into the bedroom and put them in the bare closet.  He grabbed one of the towels that she had obviously felt were not necessary for her to take with her and then made his way into the bathroom, leaving Willow to her thoughts.  Which could be a very dangerous thing.

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The feel of the warm water over his body was a welcomed hello to him.  He found a pair of scissors and razor and began the task of reclaiming himself.  It was not easy considering that he could not see himself as he did it and he suffered a few knicks and cuts along the way.  But to him they were well worth it.  When he felt satisfied that he had done the best he could do under the circumstances he turned the shower off and got out to begin to dry himself off.

He realized that he had nothing to change into and he was not about to put on his smelly discards.  He wrapped the towel around his waist settling with himself that it would have to do for the time being.  He paused just inside the bathroom door and braced himself for what wait for him in the other room.  He turned the knob and walked out into the cool air-conditioned living room.  He felt like jumping for joy when he saw that she was still there waiting for him.  But as he inspected himself barely covered in the small towel he thought better of it.

She didn't look up when he finally entered the room.  Which considering the way that he stood in front of her she would later realize was a big mistake.  He stood in front of her for a moment wondering if he dare break into her revelry.  Finally he decided that something needed to be said and realizing that she was not going to be the one to break the preverbal ice he would have to.

"It's good to be back."  He said stretching his arms out.

With his words she finally looked up and when she caught the site of him she was frozen into place.  <My goddess he is a vision.  And he's standing in my living room with only a towel separating his perfect nakedness from me. >  She sighed deeply letting in the mere sight of him.  Several beads of water still ran down his sculpted bare chest and made their way down the towel carefully wrapped around his waist, taking residence in it.  She could make out the brown hairs that ran their path just below his belly button and shivered imagining where the rest of them led.  She felt herself physically harden and if she were a man she would have a hell of a time hiding her arousal.

He stood in front of her waiting for a response.  As he saw the way that her eyes lustfully took in his almost naked form a smile came to his lips.  Still she said nothing.  Then her eyes finally swept to the satisfying grin on his face and she visibly blushed at the knowledge that she had been ravishing him with her eyes.  She turned her gaze and her flushed cheeks from him.

"It seems that I have a bit of a clothing issue.  The issue being that I have none to speak of."  He said to her smirkly.

<Damn wet, sexy, half-naked vampire.  Damn him! >

"In…in one of my bags there are a pair of jeans that should fit you and some shirts that should work."  She wasn't sure how she had managed to get the words out because the sight of him had left her mouth painfully dry.  As if she had a thirst that was impossible to quench.

He quirked an eyebrow up and looked at her inquisitively.  "The last I checked luv, I couldn't possibly fit into your clothes."

"They're not mine."

He felt the anger rise inside of him and his demon fought for dominance.  He couldn't imagine that she had shared her bed with another man.  Could it be possible?  He had thought that it was time and time again.  That she had moved beyond him and found someone to warm her bed, he had always let the thoughts leave his mind.  To keep himself sane if for nothing else.  But now the thoughts made their appearance again and left him visibly shaken.

Willow realized his silence and she looked to him to see what was wrong.  He was mad, oh boy was he mad.  If there was one thing that she had learned from living with Spike for so long it was how to read his emotions just by the look on his face.  And what she saw there spoke volumes.  She concluded what he must be thinking and hurried to remedy the situation.

"No,..no it's not what you think at all.   The clothes..well..the clothes are yours."  He looked at her confused but obviously more relaxed then he had been a moment before.  "I took them when I left.  I wanted to feel you near me."

He smiled at her words.  "You’re a regular little thief luv.  Oh and we'll need to have a serious discussion later about you taking my duster.  It's not nice to leave a vampire without his calling card."

He began to walk towards the bedroom but was stopped by her words.

"Spike I'm scared."

"I know luv."  He said without turning back to her.

"I don’t want to hurt anymore.  I don't want to run anymore."

"So don't", He said still not turning to her.

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."  He said this time turning to meet her eyes.  What he saw there waiting for him was enough to make him be at her side in one swift motion.  He knelt before her and took her hands in his.

"Hold me.  Just hold me and make it all go away."  He didn’t hesitate.  He lifted her with his strong arms and brought her down to him taking her in a soothing embrace.  He lifted her chin so that her face was level with his and he kissed her.

And with that kiss they were both one again.
 

~Part 14~ Sweet Surrender

Sparks flew with their long awaited kiss.  The world disappeared around them all that existed for either of them was the form of the other, trembling with passion and need.  Spike felt Willow surrender to his kiss and deepened his hold on her lips.  He traced his cool tongue along the tender flesh and parted them gently delving inside the warmth of her mouth.  She moaned softly at his intrusion and leaned further into him so as to feel him fully.  She gave a little jump when she felt the full force of his arousal straining against her backside as she sat on top of him.  She felt her own arousal begin to pool between her legs and she wrapped her arms around his neck.

Spike could smell her.  Her arousal was making him dizzy with want.  He dared not release her.  He dared not break their kiss for even a moment for fear that it would break the spell that they were under.  His hands began to make work of tracing the curves of her magnificent body.  He found the delicate mounds of her breasts and felt the hardness of her nipples pushing through the thin material of her tube top.  He passed his thumb over one then the other applying a gentle pressure over each as he went.  He was rewarded for his efforts by another small moan that escaped Willow's lips.

<Oh Goddess, his hands are on me.  Spikes hands are all over me. >

<Satan she feels like an angel in my arms. >

Spike expertly brought Willows shirt down to reveal the creamy white flesh of her breasts to him.  Still he did not break himself free of their lip-lock.  His hands trailed the small of her back while hers dug possessively into his thick mass of hair.  Gooseflesh began to pop up on Willows arms as he passed the tips of his fingers ever so softly over her bare back and finally took seat cupping her firm ass.

<Too much clothes. >  Spike began to unbutton and unzip Willows jeans and slid them off of her in one swift motion.  His cock twitched as he realized that she wore no underwear and thanked whoever was listening for that blessing.  He finally released his mouth from hers and brought her to a standing position.

He allowed himself to take in the perfection that was her form.  Tight and svelte with curves in all the right places.  Breasts that fit perfectly in the palm of his hand.  His eyes trailed down her long toned torso to the flatness of stomach before settling on the auburn curls of her sex.  His sight rested there for a moment before moving to the milky flesh of her thighs.  He licked his lips at the sight of the moisture that had already begun to collect itself on the surface of her skin.

He wanted to taste her.  He wanted to be overwhelmed by everything that was she.  He wanted to nestle his face into the auburn of her nether area and loose himself inside of her for days.  He looked up to her face and noticed that she had her eyes closed to him and he smiled to himself as he saw the familiar blush cover her flawless body.

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Willow felt the heat rush up in her and eclipse all of her senses.  She was extremely aware of the fact that he was inspecting her.  She felt as if she were on display and as she opened her eyes to see the lust with which his held for her she realized that she liked it.  He continued to watch her with a satisfied grin on his face and she took the opportunity to do the same to him.

Her eyes swept over the lines that formed his impressively sculpted chest.  She followed the rips of his six pack and her vision landed fully on the tent that the towel around his waist now became.  She felt another wave of moisture flood her and make it's way down her already slick thighs.

"Less towel, more naked."  She said pointing to the towel that strained to keep his erection hidden.  She motioned for him to remove it and he silently obliged, revealing himself fully.

<Goddess, he is massive.  So thick and so long. >

She breached the gap between them and took him in a savage kiss.  She dug her nails into his back and he moaned with a mixture of pleasure and pain.  She darted her tongue aggressively into his mouth searching for his and fighting it for dominance.  She took his tongue with her mouth and sucked at it languidly before going in and repeating the motion.  Her blunt teeth bit into the flesh of his lower lip and she could taste the acrid lead of his blood in her mouth.

They fell to the floor tightly embraced in each other's arms and continued to do battle with their tongues.  He positioned himself over her and opened her legs to him.  As he did so the full force of her arousal attacked his senses.  He wanted to take her, take her hard right there on the carpeted floor of her dining room.

He brought his hand along the path of her chest, then her stomach and then he passed a finger through the soaking folds of her slit.

"Ah…Oh.."  She arched her back and leaned her pelvis into the feeling that his finger was bringing her.  He passed it through her once again, collecting as much of her as he could and then brought his finger into his mouth.  When he finally tasted her it took all his will power not to explode his seed all over her awaiting body.  He moved his finger in and out of his mouth savoring every drop of her.

When he finished sucking his finger clean of her juices he brought his hand back to her mound.  He took her swollen clit in between his thumb and forefinger and squeezed at it.  She convulsed with his touch almost allowing her release to take shape but stopping it just in time for him to repeat his previous action.  She gripped his arms with all the strength that her body offered and braced herself for the feel of him taking her clit again.
"Spike!  I want you.  I need you.   Fuck me!"  She managed between moans.  He needed no more encouragement from her to do as she said.  He swept his right hand under her, cupping her buttocks and brining her cunt to the point where it touched the head of his cock.

He ran the tip of his member through her folds before finding her core.  He circled it around the awaiting crevice and felt her legs tighten around his waist.  She brought herself forward trying to swallow him with her cunt.  He took that opportunity to ram himself fully into her.  She yelled out in surprise and in ecstasy.

"Willow, you feel so good.  So warm," He said as he felt her walls tighten around him adjusting to his girth.  He pulled out of her fully, teasing her hole once again with his head and then delved back into her.  He began a torturous rhythm of deep languid thrusts into her.  She brought her hands up to his chest and took his hardened nipples between her fingers and twisted them eliciting another pleasured moan from him.

They looked into each other's eyes both of them seeing only primitive need in the other.
"Make me cum, Spike."  She yelled as he thrust into her again.  Her words were enough to make him want to loose it but he held himself trying to time everything perfectly.  He used his thumb to manipulate the sensitive knob of her clit and he continued to ram into her.

"Cum for me baby.  Only for me."

"Oh God..Spike.  Only for you."

He brought himself down to her lips and kissed them with the full force of his passion.  He ran his tongue down the creamy arch of her neck and traced her pulse with it.  He felt his game face appear as the smell of her blood flowing inside of her battered his senses.  His fangs circled the delicate skin just above her lifeline gently as if not to break it.

"Bite me."  She whispered into his ear.

He paused when he heard her speak.  Did she know the full magnitude of what she was asking him?  Could she possibly be aware of what it meant if he were to give in to her and bite her?

Concerned yellow eyes looked into understanding green ones.  She traced the ridges of his forehead with her fingertips and looked bravely into the eyes of his demon.

"Mark me, Spike.  Make me yours."  His demon needed no more coaxing.

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Willow screamed out as she felt his fangs tear into her flesh.  The pain was quickly replaced by a pleasure that she had never felt before.  She tangled her fingers into his hair pressing his mouth harder onto her bleeding skin.  She could feel the currents of her orgasm pleading for her to release them.

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The sweet taste of her blood mixed with the feel of her as he slid in and out of her sent Spike into a euphoric daze.  It had been over two years since he had fed in this manner and the fact that his lovers blood was now the one that flowed through him quickened his pace.

He felt his chest tighten and her walls clenched against his penis, signaling to him that she was near.   Willow shook with the full force of her orgasm yelling Spikes name as she came.  As soon as he felt her convulsing and heard his name escape her lips he released his seed deeply into her.

He pulled himself away from her neck licking her wounds free of the blood that he had drawn and allowed his human face to find its way back.  He brought her up so that she was sitting on him making sure not to allow himself to slip out of her as their waves of passion ebbed.

She circled his neck with her arms and allowed him to settle his head in between her breasts.

"Wow!"  She said breathing heavily and wiping the sweat from her brow.  He pulled her sweaty body closer to him.  They were on fire.  Spike had never felt so hot in all his life or unlife.  It was as if her warmth had become his.

He finally allowed himself to slide out of her and he lifted them both off the ground on shaky legs. He cradled her full weight in his arms and began to make his way to the bedroom.

She passed her hand through the tresses of his thick hair and studied it for a moment.

"I like the brown.  It's different but I guess I can get used to it."

He chuckled at her remark.  "Don't get too used to it Red.  As soon as that blasted sun goes down I am headed to the nearest market to find some dye."

"Oh."  She said a look of disappointment crossing her beautiful features.

"What's the matter luv?  You didn’t like the blond?"

She shook her head as he lay her gently on the bed and then joined her in it.

"It's not that.  It's just that I thought we'd be doing other things when the sun came down."  She said looking at him mischievously.

"It can wait."  He said understanding her completely. "What's another day or so when you have an eternity ahead of you?  I can do with the brown for the time being."

"Good." She said cradling her head on his chest.  He began to stroke her hair lovingly.  "Spike."

"Yes luv?"

"Sweet dreams" she said before allowing the exhaustion of the last year to overcome her.

He yawned and replied, "From now on they always will be."

He closed his eyes and allowed the feel of her breath on him to lull him to sleep.

That is how they slept.  Intertwined with each other so that no one could tell where she ended and he began.  Outside the sun began to peak above the horizon, as the two lay asleep soundly with satisfied smiles on their faces.
 

~Part 15~ And So The Story Goes…

Willow awoke from her dreamless slumber.  It was the first time in 11 months that she had not been haunted by visions of a dying Tara and all the lives that she had changed in it's wake.  She smiled to herself as she recalled the events of several hours before.  She finally had Spike and now they could go about making their lives together.  In the back of her mind she could faintly make out a muffled thumping sound.  She strained to place the origin of the rhythm but dismissed it as her imagination.  Still the sound would not cease.

She lifted her head off of Spike's chest to inspect her surroundings to see if she could figure it out.  As she moved further away from him the sound seemed to disappear.  She looked down at the peacefully sleeping vampire below her.  He seemed to not have moved from the position that he had fallen asleep in.  He too was at peace.

She continued to inspect him realizing that he looked different to her.  She couldn't quite place the change but it seemed to her that he was not as pale as he used to be.  <Must be a lighting trick. >  She shook off her confusion and began to untangle herself from him.  He was still warm to the touch and she paid no mind to it knowing that it was her warmth on him that lingered.  She stood off of the bed and began to walk to the bathroom.  Before she walked out of her room she took one last look at her sleeping lover.  She smiled to herself as she saw his bare chest rise and fall in rhythm and then walked out of the bedroom.

<What? >  She stopped in front of the bathroom door, not really believing what her eyes had seen before she had left him. <It's not possible. >  She shook her head to free her mind of the delusions.  <Willow your definitely loosing it.  Spike breathing, ha. That's a good one. >  She tried to convince herself that it was all some sort of waking dream, that she was still groggy from sleep.  But the back of her mind continued to nag at her to go back into the room.

She made her way hurriedly to the bedroom and stood by the side of the bed looking down at him.  Then she saw it again.  His chest rose smoothly upward as he inhaled breath and made its way back down with it’s release.  Before she could even manage a clear thought he did it again, and then again.  Willow felt as if the room was going to collapse in on itself.  Her heart raced and her breath was coming out it shorts gasps.  She dared to move in closer to him and touch his chest.  It was still warm.  Everything began to spin and the room became a blur of images.  <What the hell is going on? >  Her hand rose and fell with the movement of his chest.  She moved in closer still, bringing her head to him.

Then she heard it.  This time the sound was unmistakable and there was no doubt anymore of where it was coming from.  She froze, her head on his chest listening to his beating heart.  Spike stirred and moaned lowly in his sleep.  Still Willow could do nothing.  She was stuck in place, hypnotized by the sound of his heartbeat.

"Spike," She somehow managed to say, still unmoving.  It had come out of her in a low rasp.  Her mouth was too dry to even form words correctly. She allowed the saliva to collect in her mouth and tried again.  "Spike."  This time it came out of her clearly but the man continued to sleep.  She finally found the momentum to pull her face off of his warm chest.  She sat next to him on the bed and placed a hand to his cheek.  She marveled at how their skin tones which only hours before had been a shocking contrast even with the paler of her own now made an almost even match.

"Spike, baby.  You need to wake up now."

He tossed in the bed and let out a groan. "No.  Sleep good, dreams pretty."  He said still in a half-unconscious state.

"Spike!  Wake up dammit!"  This time all the patience had left her tone and she was almost yelling at him.  He turned his head to her and blinked into the waking world.

"Red?  Where's the fire?"  He asked groggily lifting himself on his elbows.

"Spike, I think we…well you have a problem."

"What could possibly be wrong?  It’s a new day, I have the woman I love at my side," He brought his arms around her and brought her close to him,"Things seem perfect if you ask me."

She looked at him puzzled that he still did not realize that anything was different.

"Don't you feel…well, don't you feel a little weird?"

When she asked him he thought about it for a moment and realized that something was a little off.  But since he saw no immediate danger in the vicinity he resigned to stroking her bare shoulders.

"The only weird thing I see, is that we are in bed naked and all we're doing is talking."  With that he brought his lips to hers.  When he pulled away from her he noticed that she was still looking at him oddly.  "Is it the hair luv?  Because I already told you that I was going to take care of it."  She shook her head at him.  "Then what it is Red?  It's a little too early for…."

"You're breathing you idiot."  She yelled at him letting frustration win it's battle over patience.  She pushed herself off of him as she spoke and stood before him.  "You are breathing.  Did you hear that?  And not only that your warm and..and..well."  She took his hand in hers and brought it to his chest just under his left peck.  "Feel that."

Spike did as she said and his mouthed dropped open at what he felt.  She was right something was definitely wrong.  There was no other explanation, no other possible reason why he could feel his heartbeat.
"Your heart is beating."

"I think I'm up to date on that."  He said when he finally managed to find his voice.

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They both sat in silence.  Neither one of them had even made an attempt to leave the room since they had discovered that for some strange reason Spike was alive again.  Minutes turned into hours and outside the bustle of the downtown street as people went about their day to day was the only sound that penetrated the awed solitude that Willow and Spike were now sharing.

Spike listened to the sound of his heart.  The frenzied thump of his fear running through it did nothing for his uneasiness.  But the sound was hypnotic.  It was not so long ago that sound of a human heart beating with the irregularness of so much fear was enough to send his demon into sensory overload.  But now, now that it was his own heart that beat in such a manner it had lost all of it's novelty and only succeeded in driving him further into maddening silence.

The feel of his breathing was another thing that unnerved him to no end.  The way that his chest rose and fell in a physiological dance with his lungs made him want to hold his breath till he was blue in the face or least until he woke up from this nightmare that he was now living.

The most frightening thing of all, the thing that had blanched his face and shocked his senses was that he could not feel his demon.  The familiar companion that he had housed for over a century was nowhere to be found.  It was as if the moment that he had taken in his first breath the demon had died with the toxicity of it.  Even during his ever-present identity crisis during the past few years his demon had been one of the only things to keep him anchored, to show him what he truly was.  Now it was gone and though the void that he had felt when Willow had left was now filled, there seemed to be an ever expanding one in its wake.

Spike was taken out of his revelry by the sound of Willows concerned voice.

"Spike, what are you going to do?"  He turned to her to find her eyes seeking him out for comfort.  She was as scared as he was.  What did this all mean?  Was he human now?  Could he die?  So many questions that they both had that could only be answered by the never-ending waterfall of days to come.  "Honey?"  She stood up from her place on an old green velvet armchair that she had placed in the far corner of the room.  She walked to him slowly, her naked skin reflecting the light of the candles and making it look like polished ivory in the darkness of the room.  She gracefully knelt before him as he perched off the side of her bed.  He was hunched over resting his elbows on his bare knees and cradling his chin in his hands.  Had he placed one arm behind his back he would have looked like a replica of Rodin's The Thinker in his naked contemplation.

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Willow could see and the smooth curves of his muscles as she looked at him from her position on the floor.  Every single muscle in his body seemed to be baring the tensions of the world all at the same time.  Each one of them clenched as if of their own volition.

For the first in all the years that she had known him, he looked uncomfortable in his own skin.  Even hours before when he had been hidden by the massive growth of hair and stench that he had accumulated over the months and even with the burden of a couple of bottles of Stoli on him he had never seemed so out of place.  She placed a hand hesitantly on his knee only to snap it back as she felt the warmth of it.  She couldn't hide the fact that what was happening scared the shit out of her and she noticed him flinch when she had pulled her hand away from him as if it had physically hurt her to touch him.

It hadn't but it had frightened her.  It had taken her by surprise.  Even now after they had spent the day in silence, each one attending to their own thoughts, she had expected him to be cool to her touch.  As if the morning that they had spent in opposite ends of the room had been enough to remedy their predicament.    She tried again this time successfully placing her hand on his knee.  She looked up at his tortured face and blue eyes that held the thoughts of a lost child in them.   She wanted to cry when she saw them.  She wanted to wallow in his loss, feel his pains, thereby somehow releasing him from it.  But she knew that it was impossible.  This was his burden to bear.

She noticed something different in his cerulean eyes as he gazed at her.  The edge that he had always held in them even in times when he was the most loving was now gone.  His demon was gone.  She could sense it, almost smell the difference in him carried in the air of the room.

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They watched each other.  Two beings from different worlds brought together by circumstance, thrown into each other's arms by fate and bound to each other's hearts by love.  They watched each other.   Each wanting to soak in the others love to put out the fire in the others soul.

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Spike looked to his love at his feet and all the current confusion took second place to the burning that he felt for her.  He thought back to the ache that just the day before he had been feeling for her.  He remembered how he hurt.  Hurt from her absence, hurt from missing the color of her voice, hurt for the need of her presence by his side.  How the winter hurt, how the summer hurt, how time was poison to him when she was not near.  It had pained him to be alive; it had pained him to be dying in such a way in which it tortured even the soul that he had long ago lost.  He remembered how the mornings ached, how the nights bled from the need to see her.  Mostly he remembered the pain in his lips.

Oh how his lips had ached, had fed the pain to the rest of his body.  His body disregarded and in solitude.  It ached to feel on his lips her phantom caresses her ever absent lips on his own.

He wanted to drown himself in her fragrant thighs love her until he crawled out of his very skin and flew away into the approaching mornings and neither one of them were aware where the sky and the ground were.  He wanted to melt away in her.  Penetrate her to her very heart.  Plant himself in her; nestle himself in her forever until there was nothing left of them but their intertwined souls.

He looked at her the beautiful child of his love.  With his eyes he pleaded with her to loose herself in his oceans to swim in all his recesses to take permanent residence in his dreams.  She moved up to him as if she could read everything that he was thinking and took his mouth in a kiss.

This time it was less desperate, less savage than the need that they had previously had to fulfill.  This was not about relieving themselves of the sexual tension that had clouded their days and nights for so long.  That had hung over them like an anvil waiting to drop.  This was about love, about comfort and about assurances.  Assurances that no matter what the world brought them neither one of them would ever be lost again.  Because all they had to do to be found was to retreat into the others arms and there they would discover all that they were.

They made love.  Made love in a way that only they could.  Touched and kissed all the pain away.  Moaned and groaned all the hurt from their lives.  Lost each other in the pulsating rhythm of their lovemaking.  And for the first time in over a century Spike felt every aspect of what it was to be loved.  He felt the quickened pace of his heart, the ragged desperation of his breath and the sticky pearls of moisture that accompanied such an activity.  He was alive and he knew that she had done it to him.

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Willow lay encompassed in the warm arms of her human lover.  She made lazy circles with her fingers over the tight flesh of his chest.  She looked at him from her place nestled in the crook between his arm and shoulder, she saw none of the fear and confusion that she had seen before.  She saw only acceptance.

"Are we going home?"  She asked him not tearing herself away from the constant presence of his eyes.

"Yes, Willow.  We're going home."
 

~Part 16~ Homecoming

Buffy was distracted by the thoughts that were competing in a marathon in her head as she stared down at the musty volume that she was 'reading'.  She missed Riley, she missed Willow and though the thought sickened her beyond belief she even missed Spike.  <Okay the verdict is in the Slayer had officially found the deep and fallen head first from it. >   The past few months had been particularly hard on the blonde.  She continued to patrol and keep the streets of Sunnydale relatively safe.  In fact, since she found herself alone and frustrated most of the time the demons didn't know what hit them.

She mentally berated herself for letting things fall apart with Riley.  She had pushed him away. <You pushed him so hard he fell into another state you idiot! >  But she had not done it intentionally.  She had been a bit lost since Willow had left, they had all been and she was aching for a good old fashion battle of wits with Spike.  Things had been hard, they had tried to keep some semblance of togetherness and the only one's that seemed to be managing it had been Angel and Anya.  She was still surprised at how the ex-demon had stepped in and tried to be the glue that held them together.  Of course, she had not done all that great a job at it but Buffy had to give her credit for at least trying.  She cared for them, all of them, and so did Angel.

With time things had begun to become a little better.  After Riley had left Buffy began to open her eyes to the total bitch and not to mention space case that she had turned into.  She had even attempted to get in contact with Riley to apologize to him for her behavior but he had done a good job of distancing himself from her and she wouldn't blame him if he decided never to see her again.  <Well Summers it seems that your man repellent has begun to take affect again. >

This was torture.  She looked at the remaining members of the Scooby gang.  Angel and Cordelia were sitting off to the far corner of the room, Cordelia sitting comfortably on his lap, and they were engrossed in a conversation no doubt about how much they loved each other.  <Blah, blah, blah.  Makes me want to puke.  Even though they do look good together.  Still feelings are gross.  Great, 6 year old much Buffy? >  Giles sat on the floor in front of the coffee table carefully turning the pages of his antiquated book.  Every once in a while he would adjust his glasses and lean into the book for a better look before deciding it wasn't what he was looking for and then continuing.

  Xander and Anya sat on the couch, you could fit an elephant in the space that separated them.  <Well maybe not an elephant but definitely a large dog. >  It seemed that way more and more often.  Everywhere they went they held a space between them.  Buffy was sure that the emotional distance that breached them was a far deeper chasm than the physical one.

It made her sad to see their ever-growing distance.  They had once been so strong, so happy together, never being able to go for more than a second without touching each other casually.  And now it seemed as if they rarely even talked anymore.  She knew that they still loved each other, she wasn't sure that their kind of love could ever really fade, but the loss of Willow had been too much for Xander to handle.  Anya had patiently stood by him quietly giving him the support that she felt he needed, but even when he looked at the girl it was if he was looking just beyond her and not really at her.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts as the sadness of the situation threatened to compromise her tough exterior.

"That's it.  I'm sick of reading this fucking book.  It's not like I'm going to find anything anyways."  Xander yelled angrily tossing the book into a pile at his feet.

"Xander do be careful with those they are very old."  Giles said to the frustrated boy.

"Whatever."  He stood up from the couch avoiding Anya's concerned gaze.  "I need some air."  He rushed out of the living room grabbed his coat from the rack by the door and slammed out of the mansion into the awaiting night.

"Well someone forgot their Cheerios this morning."  Cordelia commented.

"He's just tired."  Anya said quietly not removing her line of sight from the door that her lover had disappeared out of.  "I need a drink.  Anyone want anything?"  She asked standing and heading towards the archway that led to the kitchen.  The others silently shook their heads.  "Suit yourselves."  She said before she was gone.

Buffy knew where she was going and it had nothing to do with being thirsty.  Anya had been doing the same thing for so long now that she recognized all the points leading up to it.  She knew that the girl was going off to hide herself as she cried. She did it often especially when Xander was in one of his moods, which was more and more lately.  Buffy couldn't blame the girl, her whole world was falling apart around her and least she had been courteous enough to hide it from the rest of them.  She and Xander had not been quite as tactful.

When Anya finally returned holding a can of Diet Pepsi, Buffy could see the red rimmed orbs of her eyes clearly.  The girl slumped back into her seat and began to flip through the pages of the book lying on the couch next to her.  Buffy could tell that she was not really reading it, none of them were.  They had all become lost in their own thoughts, except for Angel and Cordelia who seemed to be lost in each other.

The frustration that Buffy felt finally made her crack as she looked around at her down trodden group of friends.

"Okay.  That's it.  I'm sick of this bullshit."  All the eyes in the room swept to her in utter confusion.  "I've had enough of this.. this mourning.  It's got to stop.  We're killing ourselves.  This is not who we are.  We all look like someone strangled Santa Claus.  I for one am not going to take it anymore."  She stormed to the door and opened it to find Xander outside leaning against one of the pillars in front of the house, cradling his head in his hands.  She grabbed him by the arm before he could say anything and began to drag him inside.  "You get your ass in here and sit down."

"What?"  Xander asked dumbfounded.

"I have something to say and I'm not going to say it twice.  So sit down, shut up and let me talk."

He hurriedly did so knowing that the last thing that anyone wanted was a pissed off Slayer on their back.  He knew Buffy well enough to know not to argue with her when she was in her 'you better listen to me' mode.

All of the people in the house waited expectantly to hear what the Slayer had to say to them.  They were all shocked by the way that she was behaving but they figured that since the girl had spent most of her time either quiet or hitting something they should all listen to her.

"We can't do this anymore.  It's been almost a year.  A year.  Do you know what we could've accomplished in a year?  Lots, but did we bother to do anything?  No.  Instead we decided to sit here and wallow in our self-pity.  Getting on each other's nerves, pushing the people we love further and further away."  She managed to say the last part with a hint of regret in her voice.

"This is not what Willow would have wanted for us.  And it sure as hell isn't what we are.  We are Slayers for Christ sake.  Each and every one of us, forget that Chosen one bullshit.  We deal with the nasties in this place everyday.  Shit we've managed to survive more than one ascension, countless Armageddon's, and a plethora of slimy meanies and here we are dead.  We're dead all of us and we are doing it to ourselves."  She paused for a moment to catch her breath and then continued.  "So Willow, picked up her bags and selfishly took off.  It's not as if one or two of us haven't done it ourselves before."  She pointedly looked at Angel when she said that.  "But nobody lost it when I left or when Angel left, okay well I lost it a little but that's besides the point.  Yes we all love Willow.  Yes we miss her and it's hurts that she's not here.  And Spike let me not even get started on that rather unpleasant subject."  Angel could not hide the smile on his face as he realized that Buffy missed his headstrong childe.

"It's hard, I know.  But Willow will come back, she won't be gone forever and I for one think that we should loose the self induced crap-fest that we've been living in and try to get back to some form of normalcy.  That way when they do get back, we won't just be some pathetic, sniveling little lot of fools."  She finished putting her hands on her hips to emphasize how serious she was.

"I think it's a little late for that Slayer I'd say that pathetic, sniveling lot of fools, did you say?"  He didn't wait for her to answer.  "Anyways I'd say that about sums all of you up."  They all looked towards the familiar voice and they saw Spike leaning against the opened doorframe casually smoking a cigarette.

"Spike?"  Buffy blinked her eyes to make sure that she was not dreaming.  When she was sure that she wasn't she did something that she would never be able to live down.  She ran to the door and threw her arms around a very confused and very surprised Spike.  "Oh god, Spike I'm so glad you're back we were so worried about you."  The Scoobies didn't know what shocked them more, the fact that Spike was back or the fact the Buffy had voluntarily slung herself at him and was now hugging him with every ounce of strength she possessed.

For a moment Spike lent into the hug but as he realized that the others were staring with their jaws halfway to the marble floor he began to squirm against her.

"Come on Slayer.  The door is open.  If anyone sees me my reputation will be gone to hell."

She hesitantly released him and smiled at him.  "What reputation?  Oh you mean the one where you are an unbitey fang boy?"

"Oh Slayer.  I did so miss the urge to kill you.  In fact now that it's back I don't know how I lived without it."  He smiled wickedly at her as he lit another cigarette.

Angel slid Cordelia off of his lap once he was able to move again and made his way to Spike with his hand outstretched.  "Spike.  It's good to see you again my boy."  The two shook hands and then Angel figured the hell with it and pulled the other vampire to his chest.

"Peaches, your smothering me."  Spike choked out.

"Sorry."  Angel said pulling himself away.

Cordelia finally got hold of her physical abilities and ran to Spike.  She too hugged him fiercely and then quickly pulled away from him.  She stood several steps in front of him and looked at him with confusion filled eyes.  Spike's lips curled up into a grin as he realized what the girl had discovered.  The others had been so caught in the surprise of him being there that no one had noticed the change in him.

When Angel took note of the way that Cordelia was looking at Spike he too began to contemplate him.  What he saw in Spike at his second inspection of him was enough to send his mind swerving.  Before anyone could do or say anything Angel fell to an unconscious heap on the floor.

"I thought that was Chubs' job."  Spike said inspecting his fallen sire.

"I can’t believe it."  Cordelia said.  "It's not possible."

"And here I thought you would be the last to notice."

"Would someone like to tell me what chapter we're on?"  Xander asked finally breaking free of the shock-induced daze he had fallen into.

"He's….he's…."  Cordelia couldn’t bring herself to say the words.

Buffy's eyes widened as she finally comprehended what was happening.  "Alive."  She finished for Cordelia.

"I would say that this is the part in the soap opera where they put the cliffhanger."  Spike said clearly amused by the reaction that he was getting from everyone.  Just because he no longer had his demon didn’t mean that he had lost all appreciation for a good game.

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"But how?  Why?  When?  Oh too many questions, head hurts, need to sit."  Buffy said moving towards a chair to keep herself from doing an encore to Angel's performance.

"This is most certainly an odd turn of events."  Giles said taking off his glasses and rising from the floor.  He moved to where Spike stood in the center of the room and stretched out a searching hand towards him.  He poked at Spike wanting to confirm that he was actually there.

"I'm not a bloody science project Watcher.  Stop poking me like some freak."

"I must say this is the last thing that I expected."  Giles said more confused than he had been in a very long time.

"Is someone going to take care of Angel?"  Anya asked pointing to the unconscious vampire at their feet.  Everyone had been so caught up in the 'new' Spike that they had failed to even bat an eyelash at his passed out form.

"I think that maybe you should just leave him there.  I may be joining in him in a few seconds so he won't be wanting for company."  Xander said trying to control the dizzy feeling that he had begun to have.

"Well, Spike it certainly is nice to see you again."  Anya told him giving him a hug for good measure.  Spike was not hesitant about returning the girls affections after all if anyone could relate to what he was going through it was definitely Anya.  "Wow, alive is a good color on you.  Brings out your well..skin tone."

"Thank you Anya.  I was worried that after all that pale for so long color would just look all weird on me."  They both laughed at each other's attempts at lightening the situation.

Xander stood in front of them waving a shaky hand in the air.  "Hello!  I am so sorry to interrupt this lovely conversation on skin tones and highlights but doesn't anyone else find this a bit…wacky?"

"I'll say."  Cordelia agreed finally collecting enough saliva to verbalize a thought.

They all looked down at Angel as he began to stir.  He let out a few groans and then batted his eyelids open.

"Welcome to the world of the conscious dead boy."

"What happened?"  Angel asked.

"Oh nothing particularly interesting.  The slayer was giving a hell of a spirited pep talk, I walked in hugs were given, good times had by all, you passed out and now here we are one big happy family." Spike said filling his sire in on the present events.

Angel stood up dusting his black slacks and gray long sleeve shirt.  He approached Spike a little frightened by what he would find when he reached him.  Before he was even close enough for visual confirmation his heightened senses smelled his blood raging through the air.  His ears picked up the even thumping of his heart.  He felt like passing out again.  This could not be possible.  Spike was alive, and not in the undead sense of the word but in the 'I need oxygen or my lungs will collapse sense of the word'.

"How?  When?  Why?"  Angel was finally able to make out.

"Sweetheart I think that Buffy already covered that part of the conversation.  You really should be more careful about when you choose to pass out."  Cordelia said to him, taking one of his large hands in her small ones.

"Yes well I would hate to repeat what Buffy and Angel have so eloquently asked but I am interested as to the answers."  Giles asked Spike.

"Well, Rupert I was kind of hoping that you would be able to help me out on that front.  It all came about a little suddenly, I mean one minute I am all vampire without a bite and the next I am all sodding working organs and not to mention that annoying little feeling you get when you have to relieve yourself.  I have yet to explore the world of bowel movements but I can only assume that it is as unpleasant as the peeing was."

"You peed?"  Angel asked him in shock.

"Yep, pints of it.  It’s a wonder that I have enough water left in me to meet the necessary human requirements."

"Yeah, as much as I would like to hear about all your umm…functions."  Buffy said.."By the way fun topic remind me to bring it up at my next dinner party.  I think there is still the question of what the hell happened to you."

"I told you, you sodding twit, I don't know."

"So how was your trip?  Where'd you go?  What'd you see?  But mostly did you bring me anything?"  Anya asked cheerfully leading the man to the couch.  It had been months since she felt this good and she wasn't going to let her new found elation go to waste.

"As a matter of fact, now that you mentioned it, I did bring a little something back."  He answered her with a mischievous grin on his face.

"Ooh, Ooh what it is?  Chocolate?"  She asked like a giddy child.

"Better."  He said with eyes gleaming.

Anya's face turned down in a pout.  "What’s better than chocolate?"  She asked sadly.

"Wow, Spike I'm impressed.  Better than pizza I would expect, better than ice cream I could've hoped but better than chocolate not in my wildest."  Came a sultry voice from the direction of the door.

This time it was Xanders' turn to pass out.  He hit the floor before Willow could make her way fully into the mansion.

"You people have got to stop doing that."  She said. "It really is rather unbecoming to have all the men dropping like flies.  Giles any plans of unconsciousness in your near future?"

Giles shook his head still wide eyed from her appearance.

"Good. Then I don't need to start covering the floor with pillows."  Spike stood and walked over to her, giving her a peck on the mouth before putting his arm possessively around her shoulder.

"I'd say we surprised them pet.  What do you think?"

Willow and Spike looked to everyone's slack-jawed looks of awe.

"I say stunned into silence is more like it."  She said not be able to contain her laughter.

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"W-willow?"  Buffy asked squinting her eyes at the petite redhead.  It seemed that with all the excitement of the past few minutes Buffy's vision had become a little blurry.  She blamed her dizziness for the fact that she now saw her best friend standing in front of her, laughing of all things.

"Yes.  You Slayer she Willow."  Spike said doing his best to imitate Tarzan.  "Luv I see nothing has changed since we left.  Your friends still have a firm grasp of the obvious."

"Spike, play nice.  They're just a little confused is all.  It is a little much for them to take all at once."

Cordelia had already broken out in tears by the time she found her footing and was able to throw her arms around Willow.  Willow accepted her embrace relaxing into the girl's arms.  She allowed the girl to sob in her arms for a moment and then walked her to a chair where she could sit down with her.

"Don't hog her Cordy."  Anya said to the girl and went to give Willow her welcome home embrace.  Willow couldn't help but laugh at the glee that the ex-demon was showing at her arrival.  "Anya I may have some chocolate in my bag if you still want some?"

"Nope.  Spike's right this is much better than chocolate."

"Wow, twice in one day. Within the same five minutes no less.  It definitely does a lot for my ego."

"Willow, it is damn good to see you."  Giles said before going to hug the girl.  He placed a kiss on her cheek and Willow felt herself blush at his affection.  They heard Spike growl from where he stood.  "Oh sod off.  That growl wasn't intimidating when you were a vampire and it's even less now that you're not."

"Keep your lips off my woman watcher."  He said with a smile on his face.

"Oh yes and I suppose if I don't you'll have to go and pee on her to mark you territory."  Giles said rolling his eyes and stepping away from Willow.

"Angel?"  Willow asked looking up at sad chocolate eyes.  "You haven't said anything."  She finished timidly.  She was afraid that he would hate her.  She feared that they all would but she was set at ease by the warm welcomes she had received so far.  Still the three most important people had not really acknowledged her.  Well except for Xander but he was out cold for the time being.

"I'm just a little shocked is all."  His eyes brightened a bit and Willow smiled at the change in them.  "I've missed you Willow."  He said.  She stood up from next to Cordelia, the girls sobs had subsided considerably.  Willow reasoned that Cordelia had definitely been spending too much time with Angel and had discovered her sensitive side.  This time it was Willow that did the hugging.

She nestled her face into the strong lines of his chest and she could feel his cold skin through the thin cotton of his shirt.  She could feel her own tears coming on.

"I missed you too."  She said brining a pale hand to caress his cheek.  He brought his lips to her forehead and planted a lingering kiss there.  Their tender moment was broken by the sound of Buffy getting up and running out the door, slamming it behind her.

Willow turned her head sadly and began to stare at her feet.

"Maybe I shouldn't have come back."  She said in tears.

"Nonsense."  Giles said putting his arm over the girl's shoulders and leading her to a seat where she would be comfortable.  "She's just a little shocked is all.  She'll get over it.  Now tell us where you've been and what you've done."

"Nothing special really.  Saw a lot of the US mostly moved from here to there.  Spent a lot of time in Louisiana.  There are a lot of vamps down there and not the Anne Rice kind either.  They were very primitive, cave manny even."

"Interesting.  You'll have to tell me all about it some time."

There was a sound of someone clearing their throat and everyone turned to a forgotten Xander looking at them from the floor.  "Sure everyone forget about insignificant Xander all passed out and unconscious-like on the floor."  He said sounding annoyed but the smile on his face betraying his words.

Anya rushed to him and put her arms around him.  The electricity of their touch could be felt by both of them instantly and they looked into each other's eyes realizing that this was the closest that they had been in months.  "Honey.  I'm sorry it's just that we're a little used to you doing that."  She said to him smoothing his ruffled hair.

He took her hand in his and looked at her seriously.  "I'll forgive you, if you forgive me."  He said quietly to her.  "I've been an idiot."

"Yes, you have been.  But I'm sure you'll make up for it in new and interesting ways."  She said her smile the only forgiveness that he needed.  He took his girlfriend in an embrace before remembering what had caused all the commotion to start with.
He got up off the floor taking Anya with him and stood in front of Willow.  He searched her green eyes and saw the sorrow that they held and the regret that was reflected off of his.  He grabbed her in what could only be described as a bear hug.  When he let her go he grabbed onto her shoulders and looked at her seriously.

"Don't ever do that again young lady."  He said.

She smiled at his acceptance of her. "If you never wear that shirt again we have a deal."

Everyone laughed at her joke and Xander looked at them as if he were offended which he clearly was not.

"What’s wrong with this shirt?"

"It looks like a clown threw up all over you." Cordelia said adding her two cents.

"Fine.  I'll take it off then."  He began to lift the shirt up over his head but was stopped by Willow.

"On second thought maybe I can grow to like it."  The others laughed letting the pain and frustration of the past months melt away with their joy at finally having their family complete again.

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Outside in the cool autumn night Buffy heard the joyous ruckus seeping through the walls of the mansion.  She heard all her friends laughing and joking welcoming Willow and Spike back home.  She had wanted so much to do the same but when she had seen how accepting they had all been.  How they just let her walk into their lives after so long and let her take up where she left off, she felt betrayed.  They had all suffered so much when she had left.  Did they all forget about that?  Could they possibly let it wash away so easily?  She couldn't.  She felt as if she had lost all of them.  First she lost her best friend then she lost her lover, not just her lover but the man that she had loved.

Tears stung her face and the cold breeze rushed over them instantly chilling them.  She needed to hurt something, she wanted to break something, tear something to shreds make someone pay for all that she was feeling.  She found a fragile looking tree and began to take out all her frustrations on it.  She kicked at it, punched it, teared at it, kneed it in the end there was nothing left of the defenseless weakling but a few dangling branches and a still intact trunk.  Once she had completed her little tantrum and some of the adrenaline left her body she felt the ache in her hand.  She looked at it and saw the blood dripping from it onto the ground.  The surface of her wounds were littered with splinters and leaves.  She cradled the injured hand to her stomach and leaned against the tree that moments before had been her worst enemy.  She slid to floor allowing her sobs to come to her in waves.

That was how Willow found her when she went outside.

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Willow looked at her friend sitting on the ground against a tree, or at least what looked like a tree, weeping in a hunched position. She felt the all to familiar lump on her throat as if it were an old adversary that she had thought long ago dead. She began to walk back into the mansion deciding that maybe it was better if she left her alone when she caught sight of the blood.

Without hesitation she was at her friends feet.

"Oh my god Buffy are you okay?"  Willow asked trying to get a better look at the girl's injuries.  Buffy ignored her attempts.  "Buffy please.  You're hurt let me help."

The blonde looked up at her in hatred, the pain was clear to see in her teary blue eyes.

"Help?  Help?  You want to help me?  I don’t need your help.  Is that what you thought you were doing when you just up and abandoned us?  Huh, did you think you were helping?"  She waited for the redhead to answer.

"Yes."  Willow whispered.

"Ha!"  The girl on the ground let out a maddening laugh.  Willow cringed at the sound of it.  "Then no thanks.  I don't need your brand of help.  I can take care of myself.  I don't need the likes of you and don’t you ever forget that."  She pushed Willow out of her way sending the girl flat on her ass, then she rushed past her and disappeared into the darkness.

Willow sniffled as the tears broke free from her eyes.

"She hates me."  She said knowing that Spike had come out of the house shortly after her and had witnessed what took place.  Spike stepped out of the shadows and flicked his cigarette against the ground before leaning towards the girl.  He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"She's just hurting Willow.  She'll come around."

"No Spike.  I saw it, the hatred in her eyes.  She doesn’t want anything to do with me."

"Listen to me luv.  You knew this wasn't going to be easy.  You left a lot of broken hearts and unanswered questions in your wake.  She's in pain.  Before I came out Anya told me that Riley left.  She must be feeling very lost right now.  But she's strong she'll survive."

"Are you sure?"  She said looking up at him.

"Willow I'm complimenting the Slayer.  Do you think that I'd really say it if I didn’t mean it?"  He said seriously.

"Spike, just hold me, okay?"

"With pleasure, Red."  He took her in his arms and rocked her in the warmth of his embrace until she had finished crying.

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Buffy ran as far away from the mansion as she could.  The night air began to smell of the forthcoming rain and still she ran.  When the fat droplets of water began to fall and drench her shivering body, she did not stop.  When her lungs began to burn from overuse and her legs began to cramp still she pressed on.  She did not know where she was going.  She wasn't even sure what she was running from.

She knew that her words had hurt her friend and that was more than she could handle.  She did not hate Willow, far from it.  But she had come to blame her absence for the turmoil that had overturned her life.  She had blamed her for her misery.  She had blamed her for the loss of Riley.  Now that she was back, there was no one left to blame.  No one left to bear the burden that she had been denying herself.  No one but herself.

So she ran.  Realizing that it was not the presence of Willow that had inspired her to do so but the epiphany that she had been the one to dig her own grave.  She had been the one causing her own pain.  Now that her mistakes had come full circle and she was forced to sit face to face with them, she did not want to stop trying to leave them behind her.

What had she done?  Who had she become?   When did she allow herself to become such a hate filled creature?  She couldn't pinpoint the exact moment she only knew that it had come shortly after Willows absence.  But she knew that it had been a long time coming.  Of all things she felt as she ran through the rain filled streets of Sunnydale, the guilt was the most heart wrenching.  All of it was her fault.  Everything.  The fact that Willow left, the fact that Spike had lost her, the fact that Riley couldn't even stand to be in the same place with her anymore.

She had done it all.  And she had placed the blame willingly on her friend.  It should've been her that had to go up against Bartos.  It should've been her that killed Tara.  She was the Slayer it was her burden to bear.  But she had dragged Xander and Willow as well as the countless others into her morbid world.  She had changed them forever.  Constantly putting them in harms way simply because of their association with her.  If she had never befriended them maybe they would have had the chance at a normal life.  The chance that she herself would have never been able to get.  If they had not been exposed to the life that she led, they would've been saved so much pain.

They could've had the life that every person deserves.  A normal teenage existence where the only things that worried them were what grade they would get on their finals.  They did not deserve the life that they had found.  That had aged them and twisted them far more than they had a right to.
So she cried for them, for Angel, for Riley, for Amy, even for Cordy and Spike.  She ran as fast as her legs could take her hoping that with that she could turn back the clock.  Before she knew it she had run back to the mansion.  She hadn't realized that she had gone in a circle and was back to the very place where her quest had begun.

Through the thick sheet of falling rain she saw the two figures holding each other on the wet ground.

She stopped running.

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Willow and Spike were so caught up in comforting each other that they did not notice the figure that stood behind them, looking at them with torment in her eyes.  They didn't hear her walking up behind them through the pounding of the thundering rain.  They didn't hear her until she spoke.

"I'm sorry."  She belted through the noise of the torrents that fell around them.  They looked from each other up at her.  Her eyes were red from the tears that she had shed and her breath was uneven from the journey around town she had made.  Willow looked at her not knowing where the drops of rain ended and her tears began.  She stood and ran to her friend taking her in the fragile limbs of her arms.  Soothing her with her touch.  "I'm sorry."  Buffy said again.

"Shhh.  Buffy you have nothing to be sorry about."

"I do.  I have so much to ask forgiveness for; I have so much penance to pay.  All of this is my fault.  All the pain that you have felt in your life since I came here.  It was all me.  You would have been better off if you never met me."  She said crying into her friends comforting shoulder.

"No!"  Willow said her words coming out in almost a yell.  She grabbed her friend by the shoulders and shook her, trying to release her of her punishing thoughts.  "Don't ever say that.  Don't ever even think that.  If it weren't for you I would've never discovered that there was a life out there for me.  That I had a purpose and that I could love so many people with such magnitude.  You did that for me.  Never feel guilty for that, never."

"It should've been me Will.  You should never have had to kill her.  It should've been me."  She said regretfully.

"Buffy, it had to be me.  Any way you want to look at it, it would have always had to be me.  And had you not been there, here for me, I probably would not have ever found my way home."

Buffy looked into the green eyes of her friend, her sister.  She saw the love and sincerity in them.  But mostly she found the acceptance that she had spent all her life searching.  To her, to all of them she was more than just the slayer, she was a daughter, a sister, a lover and a friend.  She was all the things that she had hoped and never thought she would have the chance to be.

"Welcome home Willow."

At her words Willow smiled from ear to ear.  She hugged Buffy tightly to her and whispered in her ear.  "You too Buffy, you too."

They stood like that, in each other's arms until the rain began to pound harder upon them.  Spike led them into the house and they closed the door to the storm of the night.
 

~Part 17~ Splendor In The Grass

"Are you sure about this luv?"  Spike asked as Willow took his hand and led him out the French doors at the back of the mansion putting them right in the center of the opened patio.  He looked up at the sky that was slowly turning from a dark nighttime blue to the magenta of the morning.  He stopped for a moment not really sure if he should proceed.

"Spike, you heard Giles and Anya."

"I know but they have been known to be wrong."  He tried to reason with her as she quirked one of her cute little eyebrows at his pessimism.

"Don't be such a big baby.  Your not afraid of a little old sunrise are you?"

"No, not all pet, it's the pooffy feeling that usually follows said sunrise that I am not too comfortable with."

She grabbed his hand harder and pulled him further into the yard.

"Come on you fraidy cat.  Nothing is going to happen.  You can't stay inside during the day forever."

"Why not?  I've managed it for some time now and I was really growing quite accustomed to the idea.  Besides how can we be sure that I won’t turn to dust?"  He asked her still not convinced by the little speech that the Watcher and the ex-demon had given him.

"Listen to me Spike, if I have to live on this earth for an eternity than so do you.  Got it?  There will be no dust and no poofiness.  You are like me now and I've managed in the sun quite well thank you very much."  She switched her resolve face on and waited for his response.

"Are you sure?"

"Arggh!  Do really think that I would lead you into the sunrise if I thought it would kill you?"

"I don't know pet.  I've heard I can be a bit of a pain in the ass sometimes.  How do I know that you just don't want to get rid of me?"

She hit him square in the chest in response to his comment.

"Oww."  He whined.

"Oh for God sake Spike act your age.  Besides if I wanted you dead I would've come up with a more fun and creative way to do it."  She looked at him with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

"I'm going to give you about a five second head start and then I am going to run after you.  And because of that comment I will not be held accountable for my actions when I catch you."

"You wouldn't."

"One"

"Spike!"

"Two, better hurry along luv your time is running out."  He grinned at her.

She took off running away from him and the safety of the house.

"Three, Four, Five."  He said quickly and then took off running after her.

"That's not fair."  She shouted back to him.  "You went too fast."  Before she cold run any further she found herself tumbling onto the dewy ground, his arms around her waist.  Both of them started laughing like children as they rolled on the ground in each other's arms.  When they stopped rolling Spike had pinned Willow against the soft grass.  They could not control their laughter as they lay there.

"Cheater."  Willow managed to make out between giggles.

"Not a cheater, just impatient to be in your arms, luv."  He broke her laughter with a passionate kiss.  Willow released herself to the heat she felt at his touch and opened her mouth to invite him in.  Around them the sky began it's colorful dance with the sun as it became lighter and lighter.  The deep magenta of moments before began to take a pinkish hue as the lovers on the ground fulfilled their hunger for each other.

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Spike deepened the kiss, allowing the length of his tongue to explore the regions of her mouth.  They fought, tangled in each other's arms to see who would win dominance of the other.  Willow easily gave in to his attentions and let herself get lost in his kiss.  He began to place feather light kisses on her earlobes making her shiver against him.  He then brought his tongue to the small ridges of gooseflesh that had formed on the gentle slope of her neck.  He made quick work of removing the buttons of her dress and cupped her pert breasts in his hands, kneading them gently through the thin silk of her bra.  He brought his warm mouth down onto the soft material soaking it through with his tongue to the awaiting flesh beneath.

Willow closed her eyes and moaned at the feel of him at her breasts.  She brought her hands to his head taking the strands of platinum blond in between her fingers.

With his tongue Spike moved aside the material of the bra and made contact with the sensitive pebble of her left breast as he cupped the right one.  He circled his tongue teasingly around the rose colored flesh, taking the peak in his mouth and sucking at it.  This action caused another moan to come from Willow beneath him.  She pulled at his shirt and bringing it over his head exposed the pale flesh to her.  The feel of his skin against hers, warm and pleading, caused a small gush of fluid to escape her.

She ran her fingertips up the length of his back and then down again in a sensuous rhythm.  Spike grabbed onto the material of her dress and brought the rest of it down and off of her hips until it was thrown next to them on the ground.  He took a moment to look at her body flushed and lying in the plush grass beneath him.  His groin raged for release in the tightness of his jeans.  He removed Willow's bra and panties and threw them to join her dress on the ground before stripping himself buff as well.

His eyes made their way to the auburn mound of her aching sex.  He brought his mouth down to it and blew softly into the curls causing Willow to arch her back and grind her pelvis towards him.

"I want to taste you."  He said to her.   That said she opened her legs to him.  He could see the pink flesh that awaited him just underneath the neat mass of hair.  He lowered himself into her burying his face in her and inhaling her scent deeply.  He spread her lips open with his hands and ran his tongue down the length of her sex.  Willow squirmed and moaned underneath him, the heat in her was enough to make her combust and the feel of his tongue on her made her want to release herself.  But she waited, wanting to feel the pleasure that he was going to bring her.

He ran his tongue up and down her length several times soaking her in a mixture of both of their juices.  He then made his tongue into a point and circled the hard knob of her clit with it.  It was almost more than Willow could take but she continued to brace herself.  He took the small organ into his mouth and suckled at it lovingly and then circled his tongue around it once more before delving further down her slit.  He darted his tongue in and out of her opening until she was pleading for him to make her cum.  He flattened his tongue and swept up her until he once again had her clit in his mouth.  Her alternately sucked and licked at her, with each motion bringing her closer to ecstasy.

Willow began to grind harder and faster against his face rubbing her flowing juices all over him.  She pulled at his hair savagely taking as much of it in her fists as possible.  She came hard and fast, screaming his name and shuddering against his face as he continued to lap at her.

Before she could finish her satisfied spasms he thrust into her with his full length.  She snapped out of the haze that her release had brought her and focused on the new sensations that were quickly coming to her.

Spike could feel her walls tighten against his aching cock and began to drive himself in and out of her in a fast and desperate motion.  He had spent so much time on her that he had almost come when she had yelled out his name.  But he did not allow himself to; he wanted to fill her with him.  Just as he felt his release well up inside of him he felt her walls clamp on to him and then shudder as she called his name again.  Feeling her come again was enough to drive him over the edge and he thrust into her one more time before filling her with his warm seed.

She broke his cry with her lips as she felt him release himself in her.  He lowered himself onto her and then flipped them over so that she was now on top of him.  They held each other as the sun finished to make its appearance into the morning sky.

"You missed it."  She said against his chest.

"Missed what luv?"  He asked taking a lock of her hair and twirling it between his fingers.

"The sunrise.  You missed it."

"That's okay.  We've got an eternity of those to look forward to."  He said closing his eyes and bringing her closer to him.

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Inside the mansion, safely hidden from the intrusion of the sun Angel and Cordelia watched the couple in their lovemaking.  They too had quickly disposed of whatever clothing they were wearing.  Angel stood behind Cordelia his straining cock rubbing against her round buttocks.  He trailed kisses along her neck and back and he cupped her firm breasts in his hands.  She closed her eyes and arched her head back to rest it on his shoulder bringing her body closer to him.

His right hand made a trail down to her already wet cunt and he began to tease her hard clit.  She moaned with pleasure and brought her hand behind her to grab his member.  She began to rub it with slow languid motions.  They could hear the screams of the couple outside as they found their release and it spurred them to move faster with their hands.

Cordelia came first calling out his name as she allowed the top her body to fall forward against his hand on her.  She did not release his cock as she came but squeezed it gently and the pressure of her action brought Angel to his own release.

"Delia," He called as he too leaned forward until his chest was once again flush with her back.  They both stood there shuddering with ecstasy their hands still firmly in their places.

Once Angel had composed himself he swept her off her feet and carried her quickly up the stairs to the refuge of their bedroom.
 

~Part 18~ At Last, Redemption

The stench of the sewer invaded Willow’s senses and sent her into a spiraling frenzy of nausea. Her breath caught in her throat forbidding it self to attack her defenseless lungs again. The humidity clung to her forehead and the thick invisible sheen matted her fiery locks to her head making it seem as if she were donning a cheap toupee. She paused and searched around her for a clean spot to lean against.

Willow bent over and rested her hands on her thighs while she fought with her body to allow herself to continue despite the rankness of the air surrounding her. She ventured a glance ahead of her and noticed Cordelia walking as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She seemed to be oblivious of their malodorous surroundings not to mention the fact that her new Steve Madden boots were caked in a thick layer of what could only be called gook. For some reason it seemed that Cordelia felt right at home in the dinghy Los Angeles sewers that they had been maneuvering for the past hour and a half. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that they had spent the last hour of that time lost Willow would have thought that Cordelia had them mapped out in her head.

She signaled to Cordelia ahead of her that she needed to stop once again. Cordelia stopped with a small huff and a trademark arch of the eyebrow and waited for her friend to get her bearings. The radiant locks of her chestnut hair fell down past her waist in cascading torrents of finely sheened silk, the tight muscles of her tanned skin relaxed with an almost poetic fluidity that could only be seen in a person with such grace. She was magnificent, even the sensual twinkle in her eyes was not paled in the wake of their location. She was almost angelic amidst the dark tunnels of this underground hell. Willow marveled at how even in the worst of situations Cordelia managed to look as if she had just walked off the cover of Vogue. It also amazed her that she was in no way affected by the smell or even the less than tidy condition of the sewers. In days of old Cordelia would’ve been ranting about dry cleaning bills and frizzy hair, it was just one of the many subtle signs that Cordelia, much like the rest of them, had grown up.

She had grown into a woman worthy of Willow’s undying friendship and the eternal devotion of a suffering soul. Angel’s soul. He had given it to her without a second thought; he had been the first to see the change in her. The way that she complained less and less of the narcissistic nuances of life. The way that her eyes dropped ever so slightly at the sight of any malady. The way the she followed him even into the mouth of hell, all for the sake of a redemption that was not her own. And now, she was the bravest of them all. She was now the only one that had everything to lose. She had no supernatural powers, no tie to immortality, no slayer quick healing abilities, just the need to help and the drive to make us all proud of the woman that she now was. Even Xander had his semi-realistic military training to fall back on, Anya simply lived in a world where bad things happened and you flowed with them. And Giles had his brain to get him through the drudgery. But Cordy was not made for this kind of life.

She was made for Hollywood parties and designer bo utiques and had it not been for the twist that fate had dealt her she would be off enjoying them oblivious to the love and friendship that awaited her here. Willow had often wondered if all of it had been predetermined. If all that had happened to Cordelia’s family had just been incidental to getting her here to this point in time, to where she was the key to why Angel continued this seemingly endless fight for his redemption.

“Delia, I don’t understand how you can stand this stench.” Willow said to her trying not to gag as she did so.

“It’s not so bad after a while.” Cordelia said nonchalantly. Willow threw her a look that clearly asked ‘Are you insane?’ Cordy broke into an amused smile, “Okay so maybe it’s bad but not as bad as all that. I mean come on Will, we’ve dealt with demons smellier and slimier than this.” Cordelia threw her arms in the air as to present her surroundings.

That was enough to make Willow finally release her stranglehold on her lunch. She turned h erself around so that she was no longer facing Cordelia and allowed herself release of the offending food that had made her stomach churn from the moment she had lowered herself into the sewer.

Delia made her way to her ailing friend as quickly as she could and placed a soothing hand on her shoulder. She pulled the long red strands of hair from Willow’s face and waited patiently for her to finish, without so much as a disgusted cringe or a clever Cordelia-ism.

Finally, the reflex stopped coming and Willow was at the point where she could breath without wanting to lurch. Cordelia continued to stroke her back quietly waiting for her friend to make the first attempt to talk.

“Well that was somewhat unpleasant.” Willow said trying to keep an air of lightness around them. She pulled a handkerchief from her pocket and wiped her mouth with it and then discarded it without a second thought.

“Are you okay?” Cordelia asked concerned.

“Yeah, I’m great. Nothing that a little unsch eduled vomiting couldn’t cure, oh wait I did that already.”

“Are you sure that you’re okay? I mean this isn’t like you at all. It’s not like this is your first adventure into the wonderful world of the septic.”

“I know but for some reason everything is magnified. It’s like the good things, not that there are any here, seem more pleasant and that bad things, which,” she motioned around her, “big smelly bad thing, seem overwhelming.”

“You think that it is another side effect of the whole you can’t die thing?”

“I don’t know. Maybe it is something we can look into.”

“Good, Giles will be so happy, more research, it’ll be like an early Christmas.” Both girls laughed at the thought of Giles’ eyes lighting up at the mere mention of research. “So you ready to keep going?”

“Yes, do you think maybe you can get us unlost?” Willow asked.

“We are not lost.” Cordelia scowled. “Unlost, is that even a word?” She stood up and led Willow by the hand.

“Since when d id you become little miss grammar?” Willow joked.

“Since you started using words like unlost.” Delia retorted.

“So, if we’re not lost where are we?” Willow asked stopping and putting her free hand on her hip.

Cordelia was stopped by Willows motion. She looked around her trying not to look confused as she did so.

“We’re almost there.”

“Yeah, that’s what you said an hour ago. Oh, now I get it you decided that I might enjoy the scenic route.” Willow said sarcastically.

“My, isn’t someone little miss irritated today. You asked me to take you to the oracles I am taking you to the damn oracles, now quit your bitching and get moving.”

“Yes, sir.” She said saluting Cordelia as she did so.

“Funny, ha, ha.”

“Trying to be amusing.”

Cordelia rolled her eyes jokingly at her friend. “So why are you so desperate to see the blue veiny ones anyways?”

“I have a few things I would like ask them is all.” Willow said not wanting her friend to sense any tension.

“Fine, don’t tell me. I didn’t want to know anyways.”

“Good, cause I am not going to tell you.”

“Five much?”

Cordelia stopped once again and glared at Willow, if anything was capable of killing Willow, which at this point they were well aware that nothing could, Cordelia’s angry stare would probably be the thing to do it.

“What?” Willow asked shrugging.

“You are not going to tell me.” It was more a statement to reassure herself that her friend was not going to reveal her intentions than an actual question.

“I told you….”

“Yes, you did, you told me that you had to ask them something. Something very important and that in time you would tell me what it was. Time has passed, I definitely think it is in time now, wouldn’t you say?”

“Look, Delia. I need you to trust me with this. I am not dragging you through the sewers just so I can sit and have a cozy little chat with the Oracle’s. I have a plan to do something and I need to know from them if the consequences will make it worth it.” Cordelia began to protest again but Willow stopped her with by putting her hand to her mouth. “No, I am not going to tell you what it is, not until I know that I can do it. Do you trust me?”

“With my life.” Cordelia answered without hesitation.

“Good. So stop asking questions and get me to the Oracle’s before I grow old and die.” She finished with a mischievous grin.

“Very funny, as if that will be happening anytime soon.”

The two girls continued to walk hand in hand. Not another word was spoken between them but both of their heads were a buzz with millions of unanswered questions. Time would set their doubts to rest for now they had to satisfy themselves in the silent comfort of the other’s company.

-----------------------------------------

It was odd. The feeling that had made it’s way to temples of Willows’ forehead. Like a pressure, a steady pulsating rhythm, that reminded her that even though she saw nothing but ominous wisps of fog around her there was something waiting for her. That someone or something knew that she  was there and had disturbed whatever netherworld it resided in.

Lights flashed around her as if they were lightning searching for the perfect place to crash. She felt the small tug at her that had begun when she entered through the doorway slowly release its grasp on her and lead her with a faint impulse in to the room on the other side. She walked through a large Romanesque archway only to find herself surrounded by several archways that appeared replicas of one another. They formed a circle around her and she searched from one to the other trying to find some signs of life, finding none she resigned herself to stand in wait. Somehow she knew that she was not to go further, not to pass beyond the invisible barrier that the circle of archways formed. So that is what she did, she waited in controlled anticipation for the oracle’s to make their appearance and ease her mind. She only wished that that was what they were going to do.

She recited a small prayer to the Goddess underneath her breath, that she would receive the answers she sought. Willow had already decided long ago that she was going through with the plan that had started churning in her head since the beginning of this entire ordeal. The circumstances that she had found herself in only gave her an advantage and the means by which to achieve her goals. One of them had been inadvertently fulfilled when she and Spike had shared they’re first night together. What transpired as a result had set her mind at ease. It had also sent it spiraling into motion once again. Finally, after searching for so long that small twist of fate had given her the solution that had evaded her. And from that her plan had taken shape. Now she just needed to know if it would work and other mind consuming questions.

She had spent hours upon hours of her time away form Sunnydale pouring over Occult books trying to find some way to reverse the ‘curse’. She ransacked the stacks JJJJJJJJNot the curse that the Roma had condemned Angel with, that one had already been reversed once and let’s just say, though Angel looked stunning in skin tight leather, the whole ‘I am going to kill you and your little friend’s too’ thing was just not Willows’ cup of tea. She wanted to find a way to take the demon permanently out, not only that, she wanted to make them human again, both Spike and Angel so that they would be free to live the life that they should’ve lived. That they deserved to live. That they would’ve lived had Darla not set their whole afterlife into motion. But Darla was not to blame either, she too was a victim, she too had once had a life. She was once like Buffy, determined to rid the world of that which she became.

Of course Willow knew that humanity had its drawbacks and now that she was somewhere between human and god only knew what she was hyperaware of the drawbacks of her previous life. Not that immortality was totally devoid of them with either; they were just a lot shittier when you feel like some fragile menagerie piece. But she wanted to give them that gift, especially Angel. Angel who had fought so long and hard to redeem actions that he had no control over, Angel who loved with as much fervor and passion as he had once hated. Angel who wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his days in bliss with Cordelia. She wanted him to have that and she didn't want to wait.

She didn't want to bide her time while Cordelia grew older and older before their eyes, before Angels eye, until finally they lost each other. She didn't know what the Powers that Be had planned for Angel and even though she was aware of the prophecy her recent conversations with Wesley
only assured her that it could be several lifetimes before Angel had his redemption. She could wait that long, so could Spike and even Angel, but
Delia couldn't and this was as much for her as it was for Angel.

It was time for her family to be happy.

She was startled out of her revelry but the hairs that stood up in the back of her head. She was not alone anymore, someone or something had made it presence known and it was time for her to face the music. She took a deep breath and began to turn towards the awaiting beings that looked on her with a child-like curiosity.

<Here goes nothing>.

-----------------------------------------

She had to admit to herself that it was hard to watch them.  They were so happy all the time.  Smiling and holding hands.  Running and playing
outside, in the middle of the day, as if they were children without a care in the world.  She wanted that.  She wanted to watch the brilliant sun
bounce off Angel’s dark brown locks as they took a walk through the park, buzzing with life and excitement.  Of course, Cordelia was fully aware of
the fact that it was not possible.  They were consigned to stalk the night, it was part of Angel’s curse as a vampire and because she loved him she had to deal with it as well.

That didn’t mean that it didn’t hurt, especially to know that Angel longed for it just as much as she did.  She had seen the downtrodden look on his
face as he watched them from behind the safety of the light filtering shades.  He wanted to be out there with them, with her, he wanted to be
them.  But he couldn’t.  At least she had the opportunity to go out during the daylight hours, though she rarely did these days.  What good was it to take a walk in the sunshine when she couldn’t share it with the one person she wanted to?

No, she didn’t need the sun.  Angel and Spike had both done without it for over a century, she could do without it for her short time on this earth.
Therein lies the bigger problem.  She was aging by the second and Angel, Spike and Willow would never do so again, at least that is what they had
concluded from their extensive study on Spike and Willow’s current situation.  So where did that leave her.  They would share the rest of their lives together, Willow and Spike as lovers and Angel as their trusted friend and she would not be around anymore.

Eventually, as time wore on even Angel would forget her.  Slowly, he would begin to lose the memory of her touch, the feel of her kiss, the smell of
her hair, the finely smoothed contours of her face until there was nothing but the echo of her name.  It wouldn’t be intentional and she couldn’t blame him for the inevitable but time had a way of reeking havoc on memories, even the good ones, especially the great ones.  The ones that, as they are happening, you swear to yourself you will never forget and then find them reduced to residual dejavu sparked off by an old song, or a familiar smell.

She didn’t want to become that.  She was more than that, worth more than that.

It had been consuming her thoughts lately.  It was becoming harder and harder for Angel to watch Spike and Willow and she could barely stand to be in the same room with them without crying or throwing a hissy fit.  It wasn’t fair to them, she knew that, it didn’t make it any easier to deal
with.  Everyone had noticed the change in her and in Angel, it was taking it’s toll on their relationship and they had begun to fight more often then
they would like to admit and neither of them wanted to acknowledge the real reason.

They were both struggling she with her mortality and he with his immortality.

Cordelia was now all too aware of the reason that he had let Buffy go.  He and Cordelia had thought that their love was stronger, could deal with the adversity that their lives held.  For a time it could. It would. But they’d run head first into it soon enough and if, the way time was flying by lately was any indication it would be much sooner than later.

But still love blossomed and bloomed around them.  Anya and Xander had each other, both bonded by their own mortality and not caring about the finality of it, except for the occasional outburst from Anya that she was dying and there was no way stop it, they were pretty much stable in the knowledge that they were both destined to the same aging process.

As for Buffy, she and Riley had reconciled and were off to a shaky but stable future.  Not that she was all that fond of either of them God knows
she had major issues with Buffy and still did. As far as she was concerned it would be her own personal hell to be stuck with either the bionic Barbie
Doll or her AWOL G.I. Joe but they were perfect for each other.  Both annoyingly perfect and both settling into their Batman and Robin repartee
with considerable ease.  Even so, she was glad they were stuck with each other and pissed off to the core that even they had a better chance of
making it then she and Angel had these days.

Then of course there was Willow and Spike.  The epitome of what it was to be in love.  Love all consuming, love eternal, they had had their scare, their challenges, that moment when they both thought that there was no hope and all was doomed for their happiness <Much like you’re having yourself now Delia? Exactly>, and now they were free to be together forever, and forever had a longer lasting meaning for them.  The classic story of boy meets girls, boy wants to bite girl, girl changes boy from a blood-sucking demon to a first class immortal do-gooder, <okay so it’s not so classic but it still works>.
 

They looked so happy she wanted to puke.  They were constantly cuddling and kissing and Spike; who ever thought that he could possibly be that
sickeningly sweet?  And ever since she and Willow had returned from their impromptu trip to the Oracles, Willow had become the chirpy little high
school, ‘I am on sugar high and life is grand’, little girl she used to be.

It was disgusting.

It was beautiful and dammit she wanted it.

She wasn’t being selfish, she loved them, she loved the fact that they both had the happiness that they deserved, but she deserved it too. <Alright so I am being selfish, but it’s been a while so I’m making up for lost time>.

She knew that one day Angel’s redemption would come she just hoped that she was still around to be a pivotal part of it.
 

Willow looked into the mansion where she saw the hunched over form of Cordelia watching them through the French doors.  Her eyes seemed as if they far from the place where she stared.  She had been doing that more and more lately.  She would be watching them or doing anything really and one minute she would be completely there and the next she was gone, lost in her own thoughts and sadness.  This was not a Delia that she liked to see, she had even refused to go shopping with Willow on more than one occasion.  And if Willow knew anything it was that when Delia didn’t salivate at the mention of Ralph Lauren all was not right in the Chase universe.

Cordelia snapped out of her thoughts and noticed Willow watching her as if she had seen her for the first time.  She gave Willow a weak smile, an
unsatisfactory attempt at her famous teeth-full grin, and walked away from the windows into the shadows of the giant house.

Willow looked up towards the second floor where the drapes were shut tight from any intruding light, somewhere up there Angel was asleep, as usual.  It seemed that all he did lately was sleep.  They saw less of him everyday and it was a rare sighting to see Delia and him in the same room at the same time.  It was unnerving to know that the events that had changed her and Spikes lives forever and had brought them together were the same ones that were now tearing Angel and Cordelia apart.  Willow hated to admit it but she knew that Spike and her new found bliss was affecting them badly.  At first they had all just been happy that she was back and safe and that they had all found their respective loves.  It was good and they were all like the 3 musketeers <only four, whatever we were inseperable>.

But gradually things began to change.  Delia had become more irritable with each passing day and there were hints of the old Delia popping up every once and awhile.  And no one wanted to see that happen.  Then there was Angel. The transformation that Willow had seen when she returned was incredible to her.  It was amazing to watch him, he smiled, he actually smiled and not just an ‘I’m humoring you so that you’ll get off my case’ smile, no, at times it was damn near laughter.  Laughter coming from Angel was far more rare than pigs flying, it just did not happen.  At least until several
months ago when she and Spike had been stunned to hear the sound of his laughter echoing down the hallway from he and Delia’s bedroom.

They say Willow is the magical one but Delia has powers all her own. She made the broodiest of brooders, loneliest of the lonely actually laugh….out
loud…with feeling.   Not even Buffy had accomplished that feat and the most Willow had gotten out of him was a lopsided smile at one her ever present ramblings.  But she had brought it out of him and for some time, he had forgotten the curse and his sins and he was genuinely happy.  But all that had changed, Delia had lost her spark to the ever-widening expanse of depression and Angel had fallen right down with her.

Something had to be done and soon.

-----------------------------------------

“A penny for your thoughts?” Spike asked leaning over and kissing Willow’s furrowed brow.

“Do you think they know?” She asked him, concern painting her delicate features.

“Luv, do you really believe that if they had the slightest inkling they would be walking around as if someone had strangled their grandmother? Mind you there would’ve been a time when I would have been ecstatic to see them moping about like this, in fact I probably would’ve done the strangling but now it’s just down right pathetic. And if anyone knows anything about being pathetic it’s me.”

“You are not pathetic.”

“Sure, not now. Now I am my old manly, secure self…..” Willow began to giggle, “Hush, luv I am making a point.”

“Point on.”, Willow said containing her laughter.

“As I said there was a time, as you may recall, when I was a useless shell of a demon, but now,” he continued with a mischievous smirk, “ I am the whole sexy, egomaniacal, bad ass package that used to make all the girls gaga.”

“Sexy Huh.?”, She asked playfully as if he weren’t.

“Not as sexy as you are Red, granted, but I can hold my own.”

“How about if I want to hold your own?” Willow asked saucily.

“I am sure that can be arranged, “ he replied grabbing her and straddling her legs over his thighs. He wrapped his left hand forcefully around the nape of her neck and pulled her lips to his penetrating them with a searing kiss. Willow could feel the pressure of her lovers’ arousal against the bare flesh of her inner thigh. Just the thought that she had done that to him with little effort was enough to make her sex drive kick into high gear and she could feel the juices of her lust begin to accumulate within her. He kissed her long and hard; He kissed her until they were both burning for breath and then he continued to kiss her. He began to grab at her tank top wanting to remove the offending garment and release the warm flesh underneath it. He felt her nip his lips with her teeth and then take his bottom lip in her mouth as if it were a lollipop, this only made him madder for her. She pushed him away slightly to catch her breath, her eyes still closed from the fervor of her passion.

“What were we talking about?” Willow managed to rasp out sexily as Spike continued to explore the arch of her next with his tongue.

“Were we talking?” He breathed huskily into her ear.

“I could’ve ohh…” She moaned as his hand made it’s way down her back and he nibbled gently at her earlobe, “…sworn that we were….ahh,” It seemed as if his hands were everywhere all at once. “..talking about Delia and Angel, yeah that feels good.”, She said as she began to grind her pelvis against his straining groin.

“Red.”

“Yeah?”

“Forgive me for being a bastard but,” He grabbed the front of her tank top with both hands and ripped it easily off her exposing the flushed flesh of her erect nipples. Letting the tattered top fall to the floor he took her right nipple into his mouth and wrapped his warm tongue around it over and over. His free hand grabbed the unattended to breast and tweaked at the nipple until Willow moaned with unbridled excitement. He pulled his mouth from her breast and looked up to her awaiting face,”fuck them.” He finished.

She could not help but smile as she read the need for her in his gaze.

“That’s not what I had in mind.” She replied with a sexy smirk before effortlessly disposing of his black shirt in the same manner he had ravaged her tank top. His eyes grew wide in disbelief at the force with which she had ripped off his shirt. She shrugged her shoulders and simply said, “Immortality has its privileges.” Then she attacked his mouth with hers with a reflex that was purely animalistic.

He responded to her kiss with the same ferocious need, making quick work of continuing his tactile exploration of her body. He wanted her so bad he felt that he would explode before he was inside of her.

As if she could read his thoughts she stood before him and released his aching cock from their denim prison. She then pulled down her shorts and panties in one motion baring her moist triangle of auburn curls; her arousal was as evident as his.

He grabbed onto her wrist and brusquely brought her to him fearing that if she continued to look at him with her dreamy bedroom eyes there would be no stopping the rush of his release. He had never felt this way. This enflamed, this passionate about anyone the only thing that had come even remotely close was the adrenaline overload of the hunt. He had often been so overwhelmingly aroused by the chase, the fear, and the hunger that he had come with the abandon of a schoolboy as his victims’ blood had flooded his mouth. But this was different, this was a whole new experience, this was right and better than the sweet torture of the hunt had ever been.

Willow gasped loudly as she felt him enter her swiftly, she arched her back and bit her lip to stop the cry of pleasurable pain that she was holding in. She began to pump and grind on top of him, each thrust taking him deeper into her and closer to ecstasy.

He cupped her ass in his hands as his mouth began to tease her breasts hungrily. Willow ran her nails up his back, breaking the surface of the tender flesh as she did so. Spike felt the residue of the animal within him rise and he growled into the breast that he held in his mouth.

“Give it to me Spike,” Willow moaned, feeling the tension in her lovers’ body. He wanted to be free of the strain of his passion and she was at the verge of breaking. As she thrust herself down on him, fast and hard, one more time, she felt the rush of heat from his fluids entering her, it was enough to take her over the edge. She came in a series of shudders on top of him and fell onto his chest.

They both breathed heavily trying desperately to redeem the breath that their passion had stolen from them. The sweat on their bodies glistened in the waning sun and clung to them like a second skin.

They both closed their eyes and wrapped their arms around each other, basking in the after-glow of their lovemaking, until their breath began to regain some semblance of normalcy.

“Delia and Angel who?” Willow asked a contented grin on her face.

Spike laughed and bent his head down to kiss her forehead. “We’ll do it tomorrow night. No sense in torturing them any longer.” He said.

Willow brought her head up to rest her chin on his perfectly sculpted chest. “We are doing the right thing?”

“Having second thoughts, luv?”

“No. It’s just that we are not giving them a choice, they might not appreciate that.”

“Most of the times the things that happen in life, happen without our voice in the matter. The Oracles said that it was the right choice…”

“Yes, but not without it’s consequences.” She stopped him, her cynicism getting the better of her.

“What choice is?”

“Your right.”

He grinned knowingly, ”Never forget that and we’ll always be alright.”

She hit him playfully on the side. “Spike, I am serious, this is big. What we're doing is something major and we are doing it behind our best friends' backs. I don’t see where Delia would object but you know Angel. He’s bound to resent us for taking this decision out of his hands.”

“It was never in his hands to begin with. It was always someone else’s choice. Some one else’s prophecy or the fate that someone else lay before him. It was never his.”

“Which is precisely why he might resent us.” She objected once again.

“Need I remind you that I did not have a choice either and I am perfectly fine with the way things turned out.”

“Yes, but I didn’t deliberately do it behind your back. It just seems a bit too sneaky and conniving for my comfort.”

“Now, we’re talking something I can relate to, sneaky and conniving is my middle name.”

“I thought your middle name was The.”

“Cute.” He said his voice oozing with sarcasm.

“I try.”

“But seriously…”

“That’s my line.” She interrupted.

“Willow.” He chastised.

“Sorry.” She said kissing his now tan chest.

“Whatever hang ups King of the Brood will have about this at first, he will undoubtably kiss our extremely stunning asses for it later.”

“I hope your right.”

“Ah, ah, ah, what did Daddy tell you about that.”

“Okay, okay, your right.”

“I know.” He said matter-of-factly.

“Your such an egotist.” She said rolling her eyes at him.

“What does that make you?” He asked goading.

“In love with an egotist.” She answered, knowing exactly what he wanted hear.

He popped her rewardedly on the lips and playfully smacked her ass.

“Am I the only one aware that we are still naked?” She asked feeling the breeze of the approaching dusk tickle her backside. As a response to her question she felt him begin to harden beneath her. She looked up at him and could not control her laughter, “I guess that means no.” She managed in between her girlish laughter.

-----------------------------------------

The large, marble, dining room table had been carefully set with dozens of glowing candles that shone like a Norman Rockwell memory. There were four glasses of red wine set in front of heaping plates of turkey, stuffing, and all the traditional fixings. Willow & Spike stood at the head of the table
wrapped in each other’s arms, admiring the work that they had done. It had been a stressful day of cooking and playful food fights in the kitchen but finally they had put their efforts together and come up with a Thanksgiving meal fit for a king.

“That smells absolutely delicious.” Spike said taking a deep breath, allowing the wonderful smells in the room to fill his senses. “Darling we make an excellent team.”

“Well, duh.” Willow said giving him a peck on the lips.

“Well there goes a romantic moment.”

“Sorry, baby did I ruin the mood?” She asked, an innocent look overcoming her.

“Just a little”, Spike said almost whining.

“I’ll make up for it later, promise.”

“Good.” He said patting her on the bottom as she walked towards the living room where Cordelia and Angel had been waiting.

“Hey!” She called back at him, “Watch it.”

“Oh believe me baby I am watching it.” He gave her a devilish grin before she disappeared into the other room.

She giggled as she made her way to alert the others that dinner was ready.

The scene before her was even more depressing than she had anticipated. Neither one of them turned to acknowledge her as she walked in to the room. Angel stood by the open French doors staring out into the empty courtyard. Looking at, but not really seeing, the gloomy gray stones that covered the relic of Sunnydale history in which they lived. He seemed more intent on a scene playing in his head. She didn’t know what it was but she knew that it ended in the same way all his internal scenarios did, he was alone, utterly lost to everything that he had allowed to enter his world. Willow knew what it was like to feel lost and Angel had lived with the torture for far too long. Sometimes you are not so alone as when you are surrounded by people. That is what Angel was, alone in a world buzzing with life and energy, but none of it was for him, or so he had led himself to believe.

Angel’s eyes took in every cranny and dark nook that marred the dirty limestone of the vine covered piazza. Once, in it’s prime, that courtyard had been a marvelous spectacle of the finest the far reaches of the world had to offer, so too had he. He had been an incredible creature. A master of the harsh night, in the hunt he had been magnificent, a stealthy thief of life with the flare of a mastermind. Only in his death had he found something that he was truly good at, he was unencumbered by the burdens of guilt and a soul that had kept him bound in life. He was evil and he had loved it, but now. Now he was cursed with the memory of his wanton demon, and the realization that those moments that he had felt the happiest, the most free, were those in which he had caused strife upon others. Sadder still was the realization that the happiness that he had found with Cordelia would be short lived, it would come to an end eventually and he would be left with nothing more than his guilt and his memories. So he would not allow himself to be taken in, to be veiled by the fleeting mask of contentment knowing that it would not last.

He knew he was hurting Cordelia by pushing her away, any fool could see she was suffering, but in the long run, she would thank him for setting her
free, for allowing her to have the life she deserved. Full of long sun-filled days and dreamy nights, he could not give her that kind of life and eventually she would find someone that would. He looked towards her allowing his eyes to trace every inch of her so that his mind would not forget her. Tonight he would leave, he would let her go and pave his way elsewhere. He had allowed himself to forget his mission, his destiny, he had been sidetracked by love and until he rid himself of the haze that it left him in he would never receive his redemption.

-----------------------------------------

Willow watched Angel as he stared lovingly at Cordelia, she had never seen him look at her with such sad longing. It tore at her to see the pain in
his chocolate eyes, any doubts that she had about what she was going to do were wiped away by the look on his face. He burned for the slender beauty that sat on the edge of the marble fireplace, staring into the flames as they held her salvation and Willow would see to it that he had her, forever.

The rift between them was far bigger than they had imagined, they had once been inseparable, granted she had missed most of that time, but the way that the others talked about it, it had been as if they were one person. They had fed off of each other’s strengths and worked through their weaknesses. Even Buffy couldn’t help but admit that they were exactly what the other needed, and as hard it was for her to accept it Cordelia was the love that she could never be to Angel. Cordelia was the love that would finally set his soul free, it just needed a little push and that is just what Willow would provide. <More like a big push, actually it’s like a head first shove into eternity, but hey, when fate knocks, you swing that door wide open>. Willow would no longer watch them throw their love away.

Angel felt the small red head watching him from the archway leading into the dining room, he quickly looked away from Delia and his brown eyes were met with understanding green ones. Those young green eyes that held lifetimes of wisdom had seen right through him; still burned deep into his soul and read every page of his pain. He dropped his gaze to his nervous hands, not really knowing what to do with himself.

“Is it time for dinner?” He asked shakily, attempting to keep her from confronting him with a plethora of concerned questions.

“Yes.” She answered him calmly, apparently letting him go unscathed. He quickly rushed past her into the dining room making sure that he did not
brush against her, afraid that the contact would draw further attention to him, and at that moment he wanted nothing more than to disappear. Hide away from Willow and Spike’s looks of pity, make himself invisible to the long, painful, sighs of the woman that he loved as she remembered happier times.

Angel took his seat next to Spike who had comfortably sat himself at the head of the large marble dining table.

“Looks good huh big guy?” Spike asked patting Angel roughly on the shoulder.

“I don’t eat.” Angel answered dryly.

“Yeah, well, technicalities were never my strong suit.” Spike said popping a cranberry nonchalantly into his mouth.

“Technicalities, is that all?”

“Hey don’t get snippy with me brood boy, just because you aren’t getting any doesn’t mean you have to take it out on me.”

“Always the sensitive one aren’t we Spike?” Angel spat a low growl escaping his throat.

“Hey sensitivity is not on my resume.”

“Are you boys behaving?” Willow asked as she walked into the dining room Cordelia in tow.

“As usual.” Spike said a wicked grin on his face.

“We all know what that means.” Cordelia said with an unamused chuckle.

“What?” Spike asked insulted.

“Spike, behave.” Willow scolded.

“I wasn…..”

“This is thanksgiving damn it and we are going to be thankful and civil to each other if it kills us.” Willow managed to say through clenched teeth.
She forced herself to smile and led Cordelia to her place next to Angel. Cordelia sat without so much as looking at him and Angel seemed too amused playing with his bread roll to even acknowledge Cordelia.

Willow made her way to her seat next to Spike. She raised her red wine glass with one hand and took Spike’s awaiting hand with the other.

“I would like to make a toast to family. And to remind us on this day of thanks that there is one word that frees us of all the weight and pain of
life and that word is love. Something that we all share and feel in abundance, even when we find reason to deny ourselves it.” She finished and
drank from her glass; Spike did the same squeezing her hand serendipitously as he did so.

They both looked up from their glasses and noticed that neither Delia nor Angel had touched theirs.

<This is never going to work if they are going to be so difficult about it>. Willow fingered her glass nervously waiting for them to drink. She looked
at Spike her eyes pleading with him to do something.

Spike quickly went into action.

“I am bloody sick and tired of this brooding and down trodden pathetic little crap that you two are pulling. We slaved all day in that kitchen, trying to get the two of you to stop feeling sorry for yourselves for one minute and enjoy a nice home cooked thanksgiving meal.” Angel and Cordelia both slumped down in their chairs and crossed their arms across their chests guiltily. They both averted their eyes from Spike as he continued to ream
them. “Do you think that it is possible for the both of you to stop being so damned self absorbed and partake in the beautiful toast that Willow so
graciously made? Is it too much to ask?” He didn’t get any answer from either of them. “Well?” He shouted.

“Alright.” They both echoed at once and reached for their untouched wine glasses.

Willow and Spike shared a triumphant grin. In about five minutes all hell was going to break loose but after that all would go back to normal again,
at least that is what Willow hoped for. They waited anxiously as the pair brought the wine glass to their lips.

But just as he was about to drink Angel hesitated, he wafted the glass in front of his nose and took in the aroma. It was unmistakable, he smelled
it, but how? Then he understood, the dinner, the secrecy, the smell of Willow that permeated from his wine glass. He looked over to Cordelia, just
as he saw the thick elixir touch her soft lips Angel batted the glass away from her. It landed with a crash against the wall and shattered to pieces
against the floor. The sound of it boomed through the empty corridors of the giant house.

“What the..?” Cordelia asked surprised by Angels’ sudden outburst.

“Did you drink it?” He yelled at her.

“What?” She asked still in shock. “What is wrong with you?” She couldn’t believe what he had done. She knew that he was walking a fine line these
days but this was the last thing that she expected from him.

“Did you drink the wine?” He raged.

“Some of it, at least what I could before you ripped it away from me, savagely I might add. Have you lost your fucking mind?”

When Angel turned to Spike and Willow, who had slowly shrunk back into a corner hoping to remain unnoticed, he was in full game face. The yellow of his eyes were focused squarely on Willow, she took a deep breath and bravely stepped forward. It was a stand off and Willow was prepared for all that he could dish out. She had anticipated this, afterwards, neither she nor Spike had thought that he would discover what they were up to before hand. They had forgotten what he was, they had forgotten that his senses were not that of a mortals’, they had underestimated him, but she was ready for him.

-----------------------------------------

“How could you?” He growled at her, keeping his game face firmly in place.

“Because you deserve it.” She answered calmly without blinking.

“ I deserve to be deceived, we deserve to be deceived?”

“That is not what this is about.”

“What are you doing then? What did you hope to accomplish with this?” His features began to soften and she saw his familiar brown eyes make their way back to the forefront.

“Does someone want to tell me what is going on?” Cordelia asked completely oblivious to what they were talking about.

“Did she drink enough?” Angel asked.

Willow silently nod her head.

“It only takes a drop.” Spike said coming forward and grabbing Willows’ hand.

“What? What? What?” Cordelia banged her clenched fists against the table. “What the hell just happened?”

“You are like them now.” Angel said. Finally looking at her.

Cordelia looked at him also for the first time that evening and she was more confused than sedated.

“I don’t understand.”

“They made you like them. Willow’s blood was in that wine. The wine that you drank, and now you are…”

“Immortal.” Cordelia finished for him finally understanding what was happening. She let the shock of it sit her down in her chair once again and she resigned herself to pondering silently, her hazel eyes wide and round with disbelief.

“Am I going to get an answer? What was your plan, to trick us, make us like you and then think that we would happily go along with everything after you deceived us?”

“That’s about the gist of it mate.”

“Just because you can’t die doesn’t mean it won’t hurt when I kick your ass.” Angel threatened.

“Oh I’d like to see you try, redemption ranger, don’t forget I am souled now, it’s against your little mission to hurt me.” Spike returned moving
towards Angel.

“You may be souled but you are far from an innocent.” Angel said also moving towards Spike, they were almost nose to nose now both steaming with anger.

“That’s enough.” Cordelia belted out. “Why don’t you two just whip them out and we’ll see who’s is bigger? You men and your damn macho crap. Get over it.”

Willow brought her hand to her mouth to cover the proud smile on her lips. This was the Cordelia of old, the Cordelia that had gone into hiding, slowly allowing her fragile heart to break. She was strong again and ready to take back what was hers.

“This isn’t about who can kick who’s ass and why. Shall we get back to the topic at hand?”

Angel shook it off and stepped away from Spike. Spike stepped back to his place next to Willow. Silence filled the room as they all thought about the next move, Willow was still determined. She had accomplished half of her task, now all that remained was to get Angel to drink the wine and they would be done. But before she could say anything he grabbed his glass and spilled the wine all over the floor until the glass was empty.

“What are you trying to do?” Angel asked Willow softly. “What is this about?”

“Redemption.” She answered plainly.

Angel was confused.

“And love.” Spike said.

“And Love.” Willow concurred smiling at him.

“What do you mean love?” Angel asked.

“The love we have for you, the love you have for each other. You were letting it go, letting your guilt, your mission, get the best of you and I was not going to let it happen not again, not this time.”

“But why like this?”

“This was the only way that I could think of. I knew that I would never talk you into it, but I figured if you drank my blood without knowing it, then what’s done is done.”

“You can’t do this.”

“Why not?”

“Because this is my life. You can’t play powers that be with my life. It’s not time yet, I haven’t earned it yet.” He fell back on to his seat and took his head in his hands. “I haven’t earned it yet.” He repeated hunching over with the weight of over 80 years of guilt and suffering.

Willow went to him and knelt at his feet, she pried his hands away from his face and lifted his chin up, but he averted his eyes from her. She could
see the blood red pools that had formed in his eyes and a single blood tear broke free and trailed down his cheek.

“Angel look at me.” He continued to look away. “Look at me.” She said more sternly. This time he looked straight into her eyes, his obvious pain, made the tears well up in her own eyes. “When are you going to stop punishing yourself?”

“It isn’t time, yet.” He whispered.

“Says who?”

“The prophecy said that…”

“Forget the damn prophecy. The Powers that Be have forgiven you, we have all forgiven you, society has forgiven you, all that is left is you. You
are a good man, Angel. Forget what the demon did to you, you are not the demon it does not control you anymore and if you forgive yourself, it never will again. Be free Angel. Let it go, be free, to be the man that you always longed to be, that you truly are, be free to laugh and live and
love.” She looked towards Cordelia who looked on in stunned silence, and she looked back to Angel. “Look at her Angel. Look at how beautiful she
is, remember how she makes you laugh, look at her. She needs you, she’ll always need you and always is an eternity for her now. You need her. Look at her.”

Angel looked at Cordelia as he did so he was flooded by the memory of her gentle touch, her warm skin, the soothing power of her voice and the moist feel of her lips against his. It had been so long since he had felt her, kissed her, too long.

“Don’t push her away anymore Angel, she is your love, your redemption.”

He continued to look at Cordelia who had now allowed her tears to break free as well.

“She deserves more.” He said sadly.

“Yes, she does. She deserves all of you. Forgive yourself Angel.”

“I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“What if this goes against their plans, their prophecies?”

“It doesn’t.” Willow answered.

“This is why, isn’t it?” Cordelia asked snapping back to attention. “This is why you went to the Oracles?”

Willow nod.

-----------------------------------------

Now Cordelia understood everything. She had spent so much time blaming Willow’s happiness for her misery that she hadn’t been reading all the
signs. She had tuned everything out but the feeling of her own pain. But now she felt her dear friends blood coursing through her, she felt the power that it held and the promise that it whispered. Willow had returned hope to her heart and had breathed life into her again. She was reborn, this was a start of a new life for her, she could feel her strength growing, her senses began to overwhelm her all at once. She smelled the delicious scent of the turkey, she felt the smoothness of the marble that she leaned against, she heard the even tempo of her beating heart. She looked first to Spike then to Willow in amazement, they both looked at her knowingly.

“You’ll get used to all the stimuli in time.” Spike said. “It’s just a matter of siphoning out what you do and do not want.”

“It’s incredible.” Cordelia said. “It’s like I’m...” She couldn’t find words adequate enough to describe the feeling that she had.

“Super-human?” Spike asked, knowing the feeling that she was trying to put words to.

“More than that, much more. It’s like I am alive for the first time.” She took a deep breath and stretched out her arms, inspecting them, inspecting
herself. “It’s as if I have spent all of my life asleep and now, oh my god, now all of my body is wide awake.” She looked at every part of herself,
taking it all in as if she had never seen herself before. And she hadn’t, not in this manner, she was as a phoenix rising from the ashes of her former
self. Willow knew how she felt, she had felt the same way once, she never had the chance to relish it, her grief had not allowed it and Spike, his
shock at the feel of his heart beat had been enough to overwhelm all other feelings. It was incredible to watch her rediscover herself.

Cordelia walked to Angel, she knelt by him next to Willow and took his hands from the red head and made him look at her. Willow slowly rose and faded behind Cordelia, allowing her to take over, allowing her to win him back.

“Angel, this is what I want for you. This feeling, this rebirth, it is what you have worked so hard for. What you have risked your neck for so long to
achieve, and Willow can give it to you.”

“You can give it to him.” Willow corrected.

Cordelia looked up at her, not understanding what she had said.

“You have it in you now, it’s just like the demon, you carry it in your blood now, my blood.”

“My blood?” Cordelia asked.

Willow nod and turned her attention back to Angel.

“Let it go Angel.”

“How? I don’t know if I can.”

“Just hold me baby.” Cordelia said.

She stood up and lifted him up with her. Cordelia wrapped her arms around him and hugged him to her. He buried his head in the groove of her neck and allowed himself to weep. He trembled with tears and weakened himself in her embrace. He felt her shift and Willow and Spike moved into the shadows to watch their embrace. She pulled the hair away from her neck and arched it to the side offering herself to him.

“Delia, please.” Angel pleaded with his lips pressed against the graceful, ivory, bend of her neck.

“Angel, don’t be afraid. You don’t have to be afraid anymore. I know that you think that if you give in you will have nothing left to fight for, nothing left to keep you on the right path, but you will. You’ll have me. You’ll have us and the world will always need you.”

“I love you Cordelia.” Angel whispered, he could sense the strong aroma of her blood, it was like an aphrodisiac calling out to him. He lifted his head and stared at the smooth, flesh in front of him. Her blood beckoned him to drink, to make himself truly immortal with the delectable taste of her. “Drink.” She said to him. A flicker of yellow passed through his brown eyes.

“I can’t.” He said but his eyes did not move from the tender nape of her neck.

“Drink.” She said to him again.

His demon raged inside of him, fighting to break free, needing to taste her. He fought with it but the battle was over before it began, in the end he
let it win. He was tired of fighting, tired of denying himself every pleasure that he longed for and deserved. So he gave in to his demon and bit into the awaiting neck of the woman that he loved, the woman that promised him eternity.

Cordelia moaned with a mixture of pleasure and pain as she felt his fangs pierce her skin. She felt him suckle at her and his hold on her became
tighter, she could see Willow and Spike watching them out of the corner of her eye. She heard Spike sighing, becoming aroused by the familiarity of
the scene before him. The room began to spin as she weakened and Angel could hear the slowing rhythm of her heart, and at that moment he forgot that she could not die. He thought he was going to kill her if he continued and it only made his demon grip her harder and bite deeper. This time the moan that Cordelia let out was only one of pain.

They fell to the floor in a heap of passion and carnal hunger but still Angel did not release his hold on her. She began to push at him but at the same time she didn’t want him to let go. The spinning in her head got worse and worse and the corners of her visions began to blur as her mind began to give in to unconsciousness, she welcomed it, allowed it to come until she thought no more and her sight went black. Only then did Angel release her, only then did the yellow glint leave his eyes.

He was dizzy with the with the power that her blood had infused into his demon and he too welcomed the rest that sleep would bring him, and so he
cradled her in his arms and succumbed to the fatigue that had overwhelmed him.

Willow and Spike watched the couple asleep, in each other’s arms, on the floor. Spike took Willow’s right hand in his and brought it to his lips,
placing a wistful kiss on her delicate knuckle. His hand still holding hers, he silently led her out of the dining room. Before leaving Willow took one last look at Angel and Cordelia. She looked at his motionless chest in anticipation and strained her ears to the surrounding sounds. She waited for it, would not leave until she had confirmed that it was done. Then she heard it, low and erratic at first but then slowly it evened out to the tempo that nature had provided for it. And, as if taking a cue from his heart she saw the gentle rise and fall of his chest as it lay pressed against Cordelia’s back.

Soon he would hear it and see it too.

And with that she followed Spike out of the room and up to their bedroom.
 

~Epilogue~

It was Christmas. There was no denying it, the crisp, gentle breeze waltzing in through the open windows and the euphoric smell of pine that seemed to be everywhere at once was evidence enough of the season. The fact that Xander was spouting forth his fascinating idioms while still managing to maintain his face stuffed full of Joyce’s’ fruitcake only cemented the notion. Not to mention the 10’ foot tree in the center of the room, aglow with tiny sparkling lights, that Spike and Angel had gotten tangled in only a few days earlier. There were also remains of eagerly shredded wrapping paper, strewn about the floor like confetti left after a parade.

<Oh yeah, it’s Christmas>.

Yes it was. And even though Willow had been raised in the tradition of ‘Christmas was invented by Hallmark’ and the mere notion of a Christmas tree
was sacrilege, she felt a thousand miles away from her upbringing, a family that she had never found comfort in, and the person that she had been in the midst of it all. This, this moment in the comfort of her home, surrounded by her new, ever expanding family, seemed right somehow. It would always seem right as long they kept it all together.

Buffy and Riley sat cuddled in an arm chair listening with amusement as Anya and Amy continually shifted the blame over a spell that had gone wrong and somehow managed to turn Graham blue. Graham, in all his smurfy glory, watched Amy adoringly as if he were unaware of the fact that he resembled something out of ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’. Xander continued to fight with aforementioned fruitcake, apparently attempting to fit the whole thing in his mouth at once. <Don’t ask>. Giles curled up in an antique rocking chair by the fireplace, his legs covered with an afghan throw, that Delia and Angel had graciously given him, reading a rather large book. From time to time he would peek over the thin, gold rims of his glasses to scowl disapprovingly at the others and then he would secretly smirk to the part of himself that still held the heart of the mischievous Ripper.

Delia had pranced up the stairs to her bedroom to attend to the mountains of new clothes that Angel had splurged on her. Occasionally she would come down to the living room, beaming, radiant and fishing for compliments on how everything looked as it had been made for her alone. <Some things even immortality can’t change>. Then there was Spike and Angel sitting cross-legged on the marble floor in front of the 52’ inch projection
television that Cordelia had gifted to the both of them, fighting over who got the blue control and who got stuck with the plain gray control on the
Nintendo system. Bickering like children< business as usual at the mansion>.

“Gray is boring and bland that is something you can identify with, so you take it.” Spike said as if logic was his guide.

“How about you take the gray, and save yourself that ass whipping I have planned for you.” Angel responded.

“Poof.” Spike huffed.

“Whiner.”

<One big, happy, family>. Willow couldn’t help but smile to herself. The past couple of years had done a number on all their lives yet here they were, laughing and enjoying themselves, it was proof positive that their bond could withstand the harshest of conditions, the farthest of distances
and the most hopeless of circumstances. They were all okay as long as they had each other. <Corny, much Will? >

Willow turned her attention away from the group as she heard Cordelia gliding down the stairs again. She looked magnificent in a pair of form fitting, red leather pants and a red matching cardigan that hugged her curves as if it had been sewn in place. Angel forgot about the game control and looked up as she entered. His eyes opened in awe of her and he straightened his back proudly indicating to all that the gorgeous creature walking down the stairs was his. Delia made her way to him, waited for him to smile his approval, which he quickly did, motioned for him to sit and she made herself comfortable on his lap. She then proceeded to grab the blue controller, much to Spikes’ protests and commenced to crash the computerized
racecar into oncoming traffic.

“It’s okay babe, at least here no one has to go to the hospital afterwards.” Angel teased.

“Hey, that was not my fault. That old lady was looking for trouble.”

“Yeah, her and her walker were out looking to make trouble and in a school zone to boot. She was probably peddling stale candy, Cordy, you saved those kids from a fate worse than death.” Xander added tiny brown crumbs falling from his chin to the floor as her did so.

“I can’t control it if she jumped out in front of my car.”

“Onto the crosswalk, as the crossing guard waved for you to stop.” Spike interjected.

“So, my driving leaves something to be desired at least I know how to color coordinate, unlike some people.” She said looking to Xander, in his red and green plaid shirt and something akin to mustard colored pants, oblivious that the conversation had turned against him.

<This is the perfect time. They’re all happy and laughing. There’s no time like the present>.

Willow cleared her throat trying to get everyone’s attention but no one heard her.

She did it again, louder, this time all the heads in the room turned to her in anticipation.

“Well…”she shuffled her feet nervously. <Maybe this is not the right time>

“Wait!” Spike yelled. She was glad that he had interrupted her, she felt as if she were about to faint with all the eyes on her. “Don’t go anywhere.”
He scrambled off the floor and ran out of the room. A second later he popped his head back in a looked towards Angel. “Helloooo!!!”

“What?” Angel asked oblivious to what he wanted.

“Think.” Spike said simply. When he realized that Angel didn’t understand what he wanted, he began to look from Willow to Delia then to Angel again, raising his eyebrows in some sort of code that was only understandable to himself. Before long he lost his patience, “Just get your ass over here.” He said in between clenched teeth. “I need you to help me get the last of the gifts.”

Finally, understanding dawned on Angel and he swiftly brought himself to his feet, almost dropping Delia on the floor in the process. He gave her a
quick peck on the cheek told her not o move and he disappeared into the other room with Spike.

“What other gifts?” Cordelia asked her suspicious mind already 10 steps ahead of the game.

“I dunno.” Willow said shrugging her shoulders.

“There are more presents?” Anya asked giddily. Her face perked up and she positioned herself at the ready to receive more gifts.

“We didn’t get anything else.” Cordelia said not taking her eyes from the room that Angel and Spike had disappeared into.

“No more presents?” Anya’s expectant expression changed into disappointment.

Suddenly the lights in the room went out but the one’s on the Christmas tree. If it weren’t for the tree, some strategically placed candles and the
glow of the roaring fire they would have been thrown into complete darkness.

“Would someone like to tell me what is going on?” Buffy asked rising to her feet and taking on her patented ‘Slayer at the ready’ stance as she
inspected the room suspiciously.

The other’s also stood up and began to look around them as they heard the sound of music coming from another room further into the mansion.

“Is that the righteous brothers?” Riley asked.

“Sounds liked unchained melody.” Graham replied.

“Are we all going to stand here or is someone going to go see what’s going on?” Anya asked.

“I vote for stand here, all in favor…” Xander waited but no one responded to him. “I’m not up to fighting some big bad right now, I think the fruitcake is settling.”

“And what big bad would that be Xander?” Cordelia asked annoyed. “The demon of corny old love songs?” She finished sarcastically.

“Okay, so maybe we should go see what it is.”

Anya decided to take it upon herself to ignore the bickering and inspect for herself. She walked out of the room and towards the music. The others
watched as she disappeared into the darkness of the old house.

”Oh my god.” They all heard Anya shriek and they were on the move to go to her aid in an instant. None of them really knew what to expect or where exactly they were going but nothing could prepare them for what they saw when they arrived.

The first thing they saw when they entered the room was that it was filled with candles. There wasn’t a shadow in the room that was not occupied by a thick ivory candle, either on a pillar or beautifully arranged on sterling candle garden platters. Once their eyes adjusted the new lighting they
noticed the multi-colored rose petals carefully strewn all over the floor. Anya stood in the doorway to the room, her eyes watered over with tears and her hands to her semi opened mouth. As they walked further inside for an unobstructed view of the room they all realized what had gotten her
attention. In the middle of the room, clad in black double-breasted tuxedos, were Angel and Spike. Both of them bent on one knee, holding a
gorgeous bouquet of white roses in one hand and a small black, velvet box with a brilliant diamond ring, in a stunning platinum setting, embedded into the velvet.

“This is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.” Anya squealed once she finally found the movement to take her hand from her mouth. She turned to Xander, balled up her fists into small white balls of anger and hit him hard just below the shoulder. “Where were you when they were planning this?” She asked him with a scowl.

“I…I...”

“Excuse me, but this is growing rather tiresome.” Spike said getting everyone’s attention again. “I am, after all over 150 years old I’m not a strapping youngster anymore.”

The rest of the group took that as their cue to step back into the shadows, leaving Willow and Delia in the center of the room in front of their
lover’s.

“Ladies,” Angel began, “We have lived a VERY long time and our journey has not been easy.”

“But whatever pain we have endured, or inflicted,” Spike continued with a satisfied smirk, “has been more than worth it because it has led us to you.”

“And though our journey is far from over. And there are many more years ahead of us, one thing is for sure.” Angel took over were Spike left off.

“We want to live the rest of those years with you, happily ever after.” Spike finished.

“Will you marry me?” They both echoed stretching out the rings in their hands towards their respective loves.

Willow and Delia were both shocked into silence. But the tears that straggled down their cheeks were indication enough of the emotion they carried with them. They had both dreamt of this moment for as long as they could remember but neither of them had expected it. Tears ran down their
cheeks and they ran into their lovers’ arms in acceptance. They ran into their lover’s arms and buried their cries of joy into their shoulders.

“Is that a yes?” Spike asked.

“Gods, yes. Of course I’ll marry you.” Willow said showering his face with kisses.

“Well?” Angel asked.

“As if you had to ask.” Cordelia said wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him passionately.

“This is great. I’ve never been a part of anything so romantic.” Anya cooed.

“Hon, we’re not really a part…Ow.” Xander grabbed his arm where Anya, once again, planted a well-aimed punch on him. “I’ll shut up now.”

Amy went running to Spike and Willow and gave them a big hug, making them all almost topple to the ground.

“I am so happy for you. This is so perfect.” She continued to hug them, her grip become tighter by the second.

Spike began to squirm uncomfortably and Willow needed to gasp for some air.

“Amy.” Spike said, “I am happy that you’re…well… happy but your hurting us, luv.”

“Oh I’m sorry.” She loosened her grip but didn’t let go. “It’s just that”, she began to sniffle as tears swelled up in her eyes, “It’s so perfect, and
beautiful and it’s Christmas and you guys all deserve to be happy so much and now you’re getting married and soon the baby will be here and you’ll
all,” Amy continued to babble blind to the fact that she had said something that triggered every head in the room to snap to attention in her direction. Everyone was so caught up in looking at Amy that no one noticed the red flush that had entered Willow’s cheeks, “be such a wonderful and happy family. I couldn’t have wished it to happen to greater people.” Amy finished and inhaled deeply to regain the breath that she had lost in her ramblings.

Everyone in the room was stunned to silence, not really sure that they had actually heard it but knowing that they must have.

“Baby?” Buffy was finally able to find her voice and ask.

“Yeah, Willow’s baby…and by the looks on your faces you didn’t know.” Amy strung together as the realization that they had not been so keen to the signs as she had been. “You know what I was just babbling. It would be nice if it were true but it’s not, just crazy old me, batty Amy. Don’t pay any attention to anything that I said. I was overcome with emotion, lost in the moment…yeah that’s it. There is no baby on the way and Willow is definitely not pregnant.” Once again she sighed deeply to regain her breath.

Amy looked to Willow and mouthed ‘I’m sorry’.

This time all eyes in the room were on Willow. But Willow could only bring herself to concentrate on a pair of confused crystalline blue ones.

“Pregnant?” Spike asked in disbelief.

“Surprise!!” Willow shouted raising her hands up in the air.
 

End Series
 

read the sequal 'Immortal Beloved Series II'

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