Yellow Was Desolate Without Stripe

By Chris

Epilogue: As Time Goes By

She followed him around the pavilion, finally catching up when he stopped near the iron fence. She reached out a hand to grab him by the shoulder, startling him into a fighting stance before the first finger touched him. When he whirled to face his attacker, distorted features melted from enraged demon to displeased human, both expressions among those she'd come to know and love.

"Bit. You shouldn't be here."

Dawn squared her shoulders, reminding herself how much honesty had come to mean to her. There was an edge to her voice that made him flinch. "Oh, right. Just let you crawl off into the scenery again. Leave without saying hello, much less goodbye. Tell me again how much you love me, Spike. Tell me how much you love her."

Angry blue eyes fixed on the blond. She was far from finished with her diatribe. "Heard this tune before," she mimicked his British accent. "Sing me another, luv." Her voice changed again, becoming low and mean. "Tell me what a noble thing it is you're doing, leaving us for our own good. Tell me how little I understand about love and how terribly, terribly complicated things are. Tell me, Spike. Tell me what a coward you really are."

She took a step back, having said her piece, the tension in her frame making it clear that she was ready to pounce again at the excuses she knew would be forthcoming. Hands on hips, she waited.

Spike stared at her, an array of emotions rushing across his face as she threw each of his noble reasons for departure back in his face, exposing the fallacy of his sacrifice with every sentence. There was no way for him to win -- none at all. His shoulders slumped in defeat. "And just what is it you think I need to do, Ms. Arbiter of All that is Good and True? I could stake myself. That'd fix it right and proper. Maybe we could use Xander to test the New-And-Improved-Chipless-Vamp." His shoulders straightened, and his eyes narrowed as he leaned towards her and hissed, "Oh, that's right. There *is* something you don't know about." He advanced on the teenager, soliciting the response he knew would come. Instinct would kick in at some point, and the fear would give her flight.

When he'd reached a spot less than an inch from her face, she reacted. With a laugh. A loud, full-bodied, out-and-out belly laugh. Confusion held him in stasis, trying to process her nonsensical reaction.

"Oh Spike. How can you think the Big Bad act would fool me now? How many years have you been living with the chip? Do you really want to get out of changing that desperately? You're as bad as Buffy. Just how long are you going to keep up the ostrich act anyway? Ever hear of Pavlov? You're a bad, bad dog, alright." Dawn's laugh faded to a snort. "Pull the other one. How many folks have you killed since you got the chip out?"

A voice emerged from the deep shadows to their left, turning Spike's bowels to water with its deadly serious tone. "Yes, Spike. Tell us how many. And Pavlov -- is he that guy in the gold shirt who calls the cute one on Star Trek 'Keptin'?" Buffy stepped out of the shadows, facing her sister and the vampire full on. Spike turned slowly to face her, bracing himself for the judgment and hatred in her eyes.

Buffy enjoyed watching him squirm through the long seconds it took for him to raise his head to meet her glowing green gaze. What he saw when he gathered enough courage to face her shocked him to his very core. She was laughing at him. Her body shook with it from head to toe. He began to work up a righteous indignation, when she at last lost control and let sound escape. Not mocking, malicious laughter as he'd expected, but the mellifluous tones of pure joy -- she was laughing in happiness.

He turned to glance at Dawn and found that she'd disappeared. Buffy took a step in his direction, a new glint appearing in her eyes. Delicate fingers pushed a lock of hair away from her face as she moved closer still. "You have a lot of explaining to do." A final step brought her close enough to touch, and she reached up to slide her hands under the duster and up his back. "When I'm finished with punishing you for your sins."

He stiffened at her touch -- the burn of her hands on his skin, the silky whisper of her hair on his arm, the pulsing rhythm of her heart next to his, the murmur of her breath on his neck. All things he'd steeled himself never to know again. He began to pull back from her embrace, music from the band floating on the breeze to surround them. Electricity ruled the moment the words penetrated his consciousness:

You must remember this ..
.A kiss is still a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh ...
The fundamental things apply ,
As time goes by ...

And when two lovers woo ...
They still say, "I love you" ...
On that you can rely"

Brightness flooded his features as the message left its mark. His shoulders fell and his chin took on a characteristically wry tilt as he looked into the magnolia tree spread out overhead, hiding who knew what in its branches.

"Oh Bloody Hell. I know when I'm beat. Stay away, Sam. I hear you." Bowing to the inevitable, he reached for Buffy's chin, tilting her head up to be sure she didn't miss a word of it. "I love you Buffy Anne Summers. For the good or the bad, it's all that I am. Yours."

And with that, he swept in for a kiss, almost missing her words in the quickening ring that filled his ears.

"And I'm yours."

~Fin~