Chapter Twenty

After months of haunting the cemeteries, staking fledgling vamps as soon as they emerged, Buffy had pretty much had it with the Anointed One’s attempts to rebuild his army of minions and she announced that she was going to “settle his annoying hash” once and for all.

“I think that’s certainly wise, Buffy, but I do hope you will take Angel with you when you go in.  In fact, it might be a good idea if we all went.  We don’t really know how many minions may have managed to get back to him in the last few months.”

Buffy frowned at his suggestion that Angel accompany her.  She had tried to establish some sort of relationship with the soulled vamp that didn’t involve any romantic activities, but she knew he was still hoping for more.  She rarely asked him to patrol with her, but couldn’t bring herself to reject him when he “accidentally” showed up as he did more and more frequently.

She really would have preferred to take on the Annoying One (Spike sure got that nickname right,   she thought to herself)  alone, but to avoid hurt feelings she agreed to take Angel with her and to let Giles and the Scoobies who wanted to be there provide backup.  Taking Angel with them meant they had to wait until sunset to approach the lair, even though she would have preferred to hit them while they were asleep.

Angel had moved from his apartment near the Bronze into the old mansion that Angelus had lived in during her time line, and they agreed to meet there before approaching the vamp lair.  The Slayer had to stifle a shiver as she approached the familiar building and had flashes of memory of all the things that had taken place there.

Angel watched her with interest as she walked around, gently touching familiar things, frowning at some places, smiling slightly to herself at others.  When she stood in the big room leading to the garden, she closed her eyes in pain briefly and he moved toward her without thinking.

“Buffy?  What is it?  Is something wrong?”  He looked at her with genuine concern, wanting to take her in his arms, but knowing the new Buffy wouldn’t necessarily welcome his embrace the way “his” Buffy did.

“Huh?  Oh, no, I’m fine, Angel.  Just reliving some memories.  No biggie.”

“Anything you’d care to share? I miss the way you used to tell me everything.”

She shook her head and gave him a sad smile.   “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

He almost growled with frustration, but swallowed it and nodded his head in agreement.

“All right, Buffy.  I don’t want to push you.  You’ll tell me when you’re ready, I guess.”

He completely missed her look of surprised indignation as he turned toward the door and the arriving Scoobies.

(What the hell?  Has he not listened to me at all?  He really doesn’t get that “no” means “no”.  I wonder how come I never noticed that before?)

She shrugged off his assumption that he could have pushed her into it if he tried and turned to greet her friends.

To Buffy’s surprise, the whole crowd showed up, eager for some slaying action, and she realized with a guilty start that she hadn’t been involving her friends or watcher the way she had before.

(Maybe I should be letting them help more.  If and when I really need them, they won’t have the experience they need to stay alive.)

Her face broke out in a genuine smile as she greeted her friends and admitted that she was glad to see them ready to come out and do battle with the forces of evil.

“Oh, yeah, we’re all about the battling forces of evil,” Xander enthused, as he glared at the brooding vampire leaning against the wall.  “Can we start with Deadboy, here?”

Angel’s eyes flashed yellow for just a second as he heard the hated nickname, but he controlled the demon before Buffy noticed and contented himself with glaring back at the youthful annoyance.

“Xander…” Buffy’s warning made Angel smile and he moved closer to the blond slayer as much to aggravate the boy as to be close to her warmth.  He breathed in her scent, enjoying the closeness which she seemed less inclined to reject just now than she did when they were alone.

Buffy smiled up at Angel apologetically and he smiled back and nodded to show her he was more than willing to tolerate her friends as long as she was letting him be a part of her life.  As they gathered up weapons and talked about the plan, he went out of his way to include everyone in the conversations, even Cordelia who had shown up with Xander to Buffy and Willow’s astonishment.

“What?” she said when they looked at her in shock.  “I can be helpful.  And I didn’t have anything more interesting to do tonight, anyway. It’s not like you three have the market cornered on being heroes, you know.”

To break the crashing silence that greeted the tall brunette’s remarks, Oz offered quietly, “I just thought Willow might want some support.  I can drive the van and we’ll only have to take one vehicle.”

“Thank you, Oz,” Buffy said with a smile. She had forgotten how helpful and full of common sense the werewolf was, and she was enjoying his company even more than she had the first time around.  Her heart ached for Willow and the pain she knew was probably coming, but to see how her friend was coming out of her shy shell now that she had a devoted boy friend made up for it.

They agreed that Angel and Buffy would go into the lair themselves and check out the numbers.  Angel was going to pretend to be Angelus, and have Buffy over his shoulder.  He would get as close to the Anointed One as possible before setting her down.  With luck, they would be able to stake most of the minions before any of them caught on that Angel was not on their side.

Giles would be outside with the rest of the Scoobies – all armed with crossbows and ready to dust any vamps fleeing the lair.  Oz would also be using his enhanced senses to keep track of the fighting and let them know if Buffy and Angel needed assistance.

When she was sure everyone was as prepared as possible, Buffy led them to Oz’s van and the beginning of the end for the Master’s chosen successor.  With Willow in the front with Oz, Giles, Buffy, Angel, Xander and Cordelia were crowded into the rear.  To keep the peace, Buffy deliberately placed herself between Angel and Xander, trying to ignore the flash of hopefulness on the vampire’s face when she sat down next to him.  She knew he was deliberately not moving over so that their hips and shoulders would be touching, but she didn’t pull away, letting herself enjoy briefly the physical contact that she was missing in her life at this time.

While she had no intention of sleeping with the older vampire and thereby releasing Angelus again, she couldn’t deny the affection she still felt for him and it felt good to lean against his large body.  She was sure that she had finally made him understand that there was not going to be anything romantic between them any more and once he knew what caused his soullessness in her time, he’d agreed completely.  Or seemed to.

They drove to within a block of the old warehouse where what was left of the Anointed One’s minions were living.  Angel and Buffy moved silently toward the building while Giles positioned everyone else around where they could see the exits without being seen.  At a nod from him, Angel smiled at Buffy and asked, “Ready?”

She nodded, grumbling the whole time about how she hated to appear weak and beaten, as he scooped her up effortlessly and draped her over his shoulder.  A position which put her plump little sixteen-year-old ass right beside his face.  As much as he knew he shouldn’t think about her in a way that could cost him his soul again, he found it very hard to concentrate while the center of her sex was so close to his nose.

He could hear her heart rate accelerate as they approached the room in which the Anointed One could be heard berating his minions for their lack of initiative and couldn’t help wondering what it would be like to know that he was once again the cause of that excitement.  He shrugged off the memory of the brief seconds he’d been on top of her as Angelus and how good it had felt to press his erection in between her strong thighs.  Telling himself to pay attention, he pushed away thoughts of sex with Buffy and concentrated on convincing the suspicious vampires glaring at him from across the room that he was once again Angelus.

Which wasn’t all that difficult with his demon being so excited by close proximity to the slayer’s ass.  He sneered at the fledgling vampires gathered around the child-like “master” of the lair and snarled, “Got an armful of Slayer here.  Anyone interested in a taste?”

Before they could break ranks and run to him, the small leader held up his hand and said suspiciously, “You first.”

“Shit,” he heard Buffy hiss as she tensed her muscles, preparing to drop off his shoulder.  He quieted her with a slight squeeze to her thigh and shifted her weight so that she would be dropping straight down onto her feet when he let go.  “Trust me,” he whispered into her ear as he let her slide down his body and grabbed her hair, tilting her head to expose her throat. 

As soon as his fangs approached her neck, she felt Spike’s now-invisible marks tingle and she shoved Angel away with a frightened, “No!”

Surprise, shock, and finally anger flared across the vampire’s face as he reeled back.  The other vamps, not realizing why he was so angry, moved toward the Slayer at a gesture from their leader.  Although she had shoved the large vampire away fairly vigorously, they assumed she was weakened by whatever he’d done to capture her.  Their lack of concern and caution was just what Buffy needed and she had dusted three of them before they could grasp that she was just as strong as ever. 

The rest of the minions retreated slightly and peered at the small blond through the dust of their companions.  Buffy had shoved her stake back into the waistband of her pants and now held a long wooden pole with which she was attacking the remaining minions.  She appeared to have the situation under control, so Angel remained quiet and watched the fight, ready to step in if necessary, but having learned from cruel experience that this Buffy neither needed nor wanted to be saved by him.

He saw the dawning comprehension grow on the small boy’s face as the leader watched his minions being decimated by the tiny Slayer that Angel had brought into their lair and his face twisted in anger.

“You!  You are of the Master’s line!  You should be bowing before me, and instead you bring this…this…thing! into my home.”

Angel moved toward the small boy and grabbed him by the neck, lifting him up so that they were eye to eye.

“I don’t bow to anybody,” he said coldly.  “Least of all children who think too highly of themselves.”

Buffy had finished dusting all but two of the minions that had bolted out the doors.  She trusted that the waiting Scoobies would take care of them and turned to approach Angel.  She looked at him curiously as he dangled the angry, evil child in the air.

“Angel, why are you playing with him?  I had no idea you were so fond of children.”

He let his face slid back into it’s human features as he shook the little vampire and answered, “Well, you know men and toys. Sometimes we just can’t resist…”

The small would-be master was in complete game face and hung from Angel’s large hand snarling and snapping and screaming threats.  The two warriors for good looked at each other and shrugged.

“You said in your time Spike killed him?  Do you know how he did it?”

“Not exactly, but I’m pretty sure it had something to do with putting him in the sun.”

Angel glanced around the lair and spotted the cage in which the vampires obviously held their victims until they were ready to eat them.  He looked at the chain and pulley that could carry the cage all the way up to the open roof and nodded his head.

“I see Will’s gotten creative in his old age,” he murmured as he carried the protesting demon over to the cage.  “But the sun isn’t out now and we can’t take the chance he’ll escape before it comes up.   Sorry, boyo,” he said as he twisted the child’s head and snapped his neck, “ Guess it’s not going to be as fast for you this time – but then, I’m not as impatient as Spike is…”

He threw the now paralyzed small demon into the cage and begfan pulling it up to where the first rays of the sun would hit it and turn the little master into a pile of ash.  He missed the small frown that crossed Buffy’s face at his casual cruelty, but he didn’t miss the fact that she reached into the rising cage and put her stake through the small demon’s heart.

Without comment, she began looking around the large room, searching for any minions she might have overlooked, or any weapons they could use.  When she saw the partially put together body parts and recognized them, she gasped.

“What is it?”  She heard her Watcher’s voice as he cautiously entered the room to see how it was going.

“It’s the Judge.  They were trying to put him together.”

When she got puzzled looks from both Watcher and vampire, she sighed and said,  “I’ll explain it when we get back.  Right now, all I want to do is take him apart and destroy the pieces.”

She took an axe she found lying nearby and began to hack the death-dealing machine apart.  She didn’t waste time trying to destroy the pieces, knowing the man-made axe wouldn’t have any effect on them, but she did manage to turn the partially completely being into many small body parts.  Signaling the rest of the Scoobies to pick up the pieces, she led them out of the building and into the waiting van.

After she explained to Giles and the Scoobies the danger presented by an intact Judge, the watcher determined to send the head to the Council for safekeeping.  At Buffy’s disbelieving look, he explained that, regardless of her feelings toward the Council and their treatment of Slayers, they were the most qualified to keep something like that safe and away from evil forces that might try to use it.

“If you don’t count the Council as an evil force, I guess that’s right,” she grumbled, but agreed to let him have the head.  Privately, she vowed to keep at least one major piece herself and hide it somewhere only she knew about.  As much as she trusted Giles, she could not bring herself to trust the Council to keep such a potentially dangerous being safe from anyone who wanted to use it to their own ends. 

(Especially since Xander doesn’t have his Halloween military experience to fall back on this time) she thought with a mental grin.

With Angel promising to take the torso out to sea and drop it into the deepest part of the ocean, and Oz taking a leg with him on his next road trip to leave in an unknown place, Buffy felt comfortable leaving the arms hidden in Sunnydale. The extra leg, she took with her to dispose of later.  By moonlight, she went into a cemetery and dug into an old grave, burying the extra parts as deep as she could get them. 

She allowed Xander, who was feeling left out and useless, to come with her to help dig and to watch for vampires while Buffy worked.  They were still not completely comfortable with each other, as the boy refused to give up his idea that both Angel and Spike should have been dusted when she had the chance; and Buffy’s older eyes allowed her to see his stubborn narrow mindedness for what it was.  It didn’t take a psychology degree to realize that in her time, her friend had taken his unrequited love for her and turned into an unhealthy distrust of the men in her life.

She was able to understand that he hadn’t been threatened by Riley because he knew, subconsciously, just as Riley himself had, that she didn’t really love the big commando and therefore he was no threat to Xander’s place in her affections.

(At least this time, I know better than to pretend my life is ever going to be normal.  Should be able to save Riley and myself a lot of grief.)

When she thought about how she had treated Spike in her time, based, she had to admit, in large part because she worried about Xander’s reaction much more than anyone else’s, she cringed and vowed she would not let his obvious jealousy interfere this time. 

(Assuming there IS a this time) she thought with a sigh. (Where are you, Spike?  Are you thinking about me? Has Dru started cheating on you yet?)

She absently rubbed her fingers over the invisible scars on her neck where his teeth had just scraped her skin and wondered if the partial claim he’d initiated was exerting any pull on him.  The reminder that she was his (not that I need one!)  brought on when Angel’s fangs got near her throat had surprised her.  Spike had been so sure the claim would fade as soon as he was gone.  She hoped that he was feeling some residual effects from it too.

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

The vampire in question was having a good time, dancing the tango with a curvaceous and fiery brunette that he had already decided would make an excellent vampire.  He was just biding his time, enjoying the music and the heat from her body until he was hungry enough to take her somewhere private for dinner.  Dru was sitting quietly at a table with some tourists she’d met and smiling indulgently at him while he danced.

As much as she enjoyed twirling around with her pixies under the stars, the ability to dance to actual music, especially the pounding Latin rhythms found in their chosen country, completely escaped her stodgy English sensibilities. But she didn’t object to watching Spike dance with human women; in fact she enjoyed watching his graceful movements and seeing how all the unsuspecting humans in the bar envied the woman he’d chosen for his partner this night.

She was actually looking forward to his turning the lush beauty he was practically making love to on the dance floor.  Dru also thought the woman would make a good vampire, and was eager to teach her about sire’s and grandsire’s rights and privileges.  She giggled as she pictured herself sinking her fangs into the newly made vampire’s full breasts and rounded belly.  This one looked like she would be a lot of fun – and she bore no resemblance to the tiny blond Slayer that still haunted her William’s dreams.

Thinking about the Slayer ruined her good mood, and she abruptly got up and grabbed one of the men by the hand saying coyly, “I want to go talk to the stars.  Please come with me.  I need a big strong man like you to make me feel safe.”

Beaming with pride, and eyes gleaming with lust, the unsuspecting man waved to his friends and followed the strange, but exotic woman out of the club to his immediate and bloody death.  Without her usual babbling, the angry vampire grabbed the still oblivious man and drained him within seconds, dropping the body to the dirty ground and stepping over him to wander off looking for a demon bar.

Inside, Spike had noticed Dru’s disappearance, but didn’t worry about it.  The last few months had gone very well, and he was sure they had put the ugliness that was Sunnydale behind them.  And if he occasionally still thought about silky blond hair falling over his face, and a warm mouth bringing him to ecstasy, he told himself it was only natural to remember a sexual encounter with a Slayer.  After all, it certainly wasn’t something the average vampire was ever likely to experience.  To his reputation for killing two slayers, he could now add that he was the only vampire to have shagged one.

(At least I could add it, if I didn’t know Dru would get hysterical about it.  Not that she doesn’t know somethin’ happened, but I don’t think she knows what I did with the Slayer.  Was too busy shagging Angelus to worry about what I was up to, wasn’t she?)

He carefully ignored the fact that even if Dru would have been fine with it, there was no way he would have been bragging about his night with Buffy as though she was some slut off the street.  His inner William was too aware that he’d been gifted with something precious, something given out of love, and he would never allow the demon to sully it.

He pulled the woman’s willing body into his, rubbing his erection against her and reveling in the warmth.  It did no good to close his eyes and try to pretend she was Buffy – to a vampire, scent and taste were at least as important as vision and there was no way he would mistake this woman’s essence for the Slayer’s unique taste and smell.  But he could enjoy the warmth of her body and the sound of the blood rushing through her veins. 

He’d just decided it was time to take his evening’s meal choice outside and add her to the ranks of the undead, when a jolt went through his body and his concealed fangs suddenly itched.  It was gone as quickly as it came, but he couldn’t deny what had happened.

(Bloody hell! That claim’s still there!  And something jus’ happened to the Slayer to make it flare up. She’s alright, though.  Got to be.  If it’s strong enough to jolt me after all this time, I’d know if anythin’ happened to her. I’d have to be able to feel it. I’d have to.)

In spite of his assurances to himself, late the following afternoon while Drusilla dozed next to the exhausted new fledgling he’d brought home, Spike found himself holding a cell phone and dialing a number he swore he’d only written down for purposes of having more information about the Slayer.  He stared at the phone as it began to ring, and had almost decided to put it down when he heard Joyce’s voice.

“Hello?”

“Uh…I mean…bloody hell!  Is the Slayer there?”

“Spike?  Is that you?”

“No!  It’s not me –him!  It’s just a phone call for the Slayer.  Need to know if she’s…if anythin’s wrong.”

He could hear the smile in her mother’s voice as she said, “Buffy’s fine, Spike.  I understand they removed a nest of vampires last night, but everything went well and she is OK.  In fact, she’s out with her friends and Angel.  I believe Willow’s boyfriend’s band is playing at the Bronze tonight and they’ve all gone to have a bite to eat before helping him set up.”

Relief at her mother’s reassurance fought with a gut-wrenching stab of jealousy at the idea of Buffy being out with Angel.   When he didn’t say anything for several minutes, Joyce asked anxiously,  “Spike?  Spike, are you still there?”

“Yeah, ‘m here, Joyce.  Just got sidetracked for a minute.  I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.  I’m glad you called.  I just wish Buffy was here to talk to you.  She’ll be sorry she missed your call.”

“I’d rather you didn’t tell her,” he said quietly.  “I don’t want to talk to her.  Jus’ needed to know she was all right, that’s all.”

“She’s fine,” Joyce responded.  “She’s looking forward to her birthday next week and trying to decide if she’s going to be seventeen or twenty-three.”

“What day next week?” he couldn’t stop himself from asking.

“Wednesday.  I think we’ll all be here, at least early in the evening. I’m doing dinner and cake. So if you wanted to…”

“No!  No, I won’t be callin’ again.  I was jus’worried and…I shouldn’t have done this.  ‘M sorry, Joyce.  Don’t tell her about it.  Let her go on and have a good time with her…friends.”  He couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice as he thought about his grandsire being with her while she celebrated her birthday.

Joyce waited until he finished, then said softly, “All right, Spike, I won’t tell her you called if you don’t want me to.”

“Thank you, Joyce.  ‘Preciate it.”

“You’re welcome,” she said.  “And, Spike?”

“Yeah?”

“She’s not seeing him.  They’re just friends this time around.”

“Didn’t ask,” he mumbled.

“I know you didn’t, but I thought you ought to know.”

He snorted and shook his head.  “You’re quite a woman, Joyce. ‘S no wonder your daughter is one of the longest lived slayers in the world.”  He heard the sounds of laughter from upstairs and knew that Drusilla and his newest minion were awake and looking for him.  “I’ve got to go. Good bye, Joyce.  Take care of yourself…and her.”

“Good bye, Spike.”

Chapter Twenty-One

He stared at the phone for a full minute, then with a muffled curse, threw it against the wall to shatter into useless pieces of plastic. 

(I don’t care what she’s doin’ or who she’s doin’ it with – jus’ don’t let it be the bloody poofter! She told me – well she didn’t exactly tell me, but she might as well have – she told me she loved me. She said she was mine.  Don’t want him touchin’ what’s mine.)

As he walked back upstairs, easily covering the steps two at a time, he tried to put the blond slayer and her warm body out of his mind.  By the time he got to the door of the bedroom, he thought he’d done a pretty good job of erasing all thoughts of blond hair, golden skin, and powerful blood from his mind.

He came in, unzipping his pants as he entered, and threw himself onto the bed between the two eager female vampires waiting for him there.

“There you are, you bad puppy!  Where have you been?”

“Nowhere important, my ripe, wicked plum,” he growled, pulling her onto his body, but she twisted away from him and reached for the newly awakened fledgling beside him.

“I want to watch you play with your new toy again,” she purred into his ear.  “Show me how happy you are to have her.” 

She ran her nails down the other woman’s bare back, eliciting a growl and a shiver.  Spike did his best to appear interested in the new family member he’d created, but now that her body was as cool as his own, and the heated blood no longer pulsed through her veins, he found himself unable to respond to her rough caresses.

When he pushed her toward Dru and suggested that they entertain him by enjoying each other, the new one’s eyes flashed with anger and she gave a small growl.  Immediately, he was in game face and had his fangs fastened in her neck.  He shook her fiercely, snarling the whole time, until she whimpered and quit fighting him, lying submissively between the two master vamlpires; one angry and one laughing and clapping.

“Oooh, my Spike IS a bad doggy!  Shouldn’t make the doggy mad, you know.  He will bite you and eat you all up!”

When the fledgling had stopped fighting and he could see the fear and submission in her eyes, Spike let her go with a final snarl and again shoved her toward Dru.

“Here, pet.  You enjoy her if you want her.  If you don’t, we’ll get rid of her.”

The dark-haired vampire cocked her head and studied him closely, her eyes narrowing.

“You’re thinking about her again,” she said flatly, sounding more lucid than normal.  “The Slayer is floating all around in your head and you don’t want us.  You want her.”

“Don’t talk crazy, Dru,” he blustered, even as he recognized the rare moment of sanity in her voice.  “I don’t want anybody but you.  Never have, never will.  Just not interested in this silly bint at the moment, tha’s all.”

“Don’t lie to your dark princess, William.  It makes me sad,” she replied as she got to her feet, tugging the other vampire up. “Come, Rosa, we’re going out to play under the stars.”

She grabbed her dress and pulled it over her head, gesturing for the other woman to do the same.  The curvy brunette cast one more longing glance at her sire’s naked body, then joined Drusilla in her venture into the night.

Spike remained on the empty bed, staring up at the ceiling in frustration.  He vowed to kill the new minion as soon as Dru tired of her, telling himself it was because she was rebellious and disobedient and not because he was disappointed that she wasn’t still warm and breathing.

Eventually his stomach growled at him and he allowed the hunger pangs to drive him out into the warm night.   Instead of his usual search for an attractive woman or pretty girl, he cruised the gay bars until he found an American tourist who was flashing a lot of money.  One look at Spike’s muscular torso, flat stomach and bulging jeans had the visitor willing to follow the blond Brit anywhere and it was a simple matter to get him into the alley behind the bar.

When he pressed his body up against Spike’s and tried to put his arms around him, he suddenly found himself held in place by arms that felt like steel bands.  He just had time to begin to wonder how someone so slender could be so strong when Spike’s face shifted and he buried his fangs in the man’s neck.  He drained him quickly, then dropped the body and pulled out the wallet, removing all the American money and shoving it into his pocket.

He strolled back through the club, debating about whether to eat another tourist before heading home.  He saw the curious looks the others gave him when he came back in without their friend and he just grinned and winked at them before leaving the bar.

On the way home he ran into a drunk Faryl demon that wanted to fight, so he obliged with a major ass-kicking before generously leaving the unconscious demon battered, but alive.  He was feeling pretty good as he strolled toward home.

(Good meal, got some dosh if I need it, had me a bit of violence and got two ladies waiting for me at home.  Unlife is good.)

His good mood lasted all the way until he got into the house and caught the scent of another demon.  He made his way silently up the stairs and followed the sounds he was hearing to the door of the bedroom.  There on his bed, Drusilla and Rosa were entertaining a chaos demon whose antlers were dripping mucus all over the pillows.

When his outraged snarl finally penetrated their lust-induced fog, they  ooked up at him with various expressions of surprise.  Except Drusilla, who looked triumphant and proud of herself.

“What the bloody hell do you think you’re doin’, Dru?”  He ignored the frightened fledgling who was just figuring out that she might be in trouble with her sire.

“Rosa and I found someone who wants to play with us. Someone who isn’t thinking about the nasty Slayer all the time.  Go away, Spike.  We’ll let you come back when we’re ready to give you another chance.  You can go play with the other bad doggies until then.”

She turned her back on him and began stroking the chaos demon’s huge, furry cock, ignoring the hurt, angry look on Spike’s face.  Rosa gave him an apologetic look, but as soon as Drusilla touched her face with a blood soaked nail, she turned away and fastened her mouth on her grandsire’s eager lips.

Spike stared at the writhing bodies on the bed, then whirled and left the house, grabbing his leather coat as he went out the door.  His feet move without any conscious thought on his part, carrying him away from the latest humiliation his lover had poured on his head. 

(It’s one thing to shag her soddin’ poof of a sire, but a chaos demon!  That’s just disgustin’.  And to do it on our – my – bed.  If she thinks I’m gonna hang around here waitin’ for her to decide I can come back to my own house…)

His feet had carried him toward the airport, and he took a quick glance at the plane schedules, seeing that he could leave for California the following evening and be safely on the ground in LA before dawn.  Using the money he’d taken from his earlier meal, he bought a ticket for an aisle seat and left to find a safe place to spend the day, hoping his righteous indignation would last long enough for him to get out of the country before he made a fool of himself waiting around to be allowed back into his own home.

Buried in the anger and hurt he felt at Drusilla’s infidelity, was a little bubble of joy that he had a reason to leave the city he’d been hiding in and go back to the only place he was sure to be welcomed

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

Buffy strolled home from school, enjoying the unusually warm day and trying to compute the odds against her actually having a happy birthday this year.  With no Judge parts to worry about, and no Angel sex happening, she wondered what the PTB would do to make this birthday suck.  She had no doubt that it would.  Eight years of experience as the Slayer told her that something bad would happen on her birthday every year.  Like clockwork.

“I guess I’ll just have to wait and be surprised,” she said out loud to herself.

As her friends gathered at her house for a small party, and gifts were opened, examined and commented on, she began to relax slightly.  There was no reason to expect a sword demon to appear, no soul losing for Angel, no zombies anywhere to be seen, things were looking good.  She still couldn’t decide if she was celebrating her seventeenth birthday, or her twenty-third, but after her second bowl of chocolate ice cream, it didn’t really seem to matter and she began to really enjoy herself.

As the party wound down and her friends started to depart, Buffy stood in the doorway to receive her birthday hugs and kisses as well as to thank everyone for their gifts.  Giles and Jenny were the first to leave.  The younger guests teased them for being old and not able to stay up late to party, but Buffy’s more mature sensibilities could see that they were just eager to leave the teenagers behind and be alone.  She hugged them both tightly, delighted that she’d been able at least to save her Watcher the grief that had accompanied his love for the gypsy woman the first time around.

Xander and Cordelia were next, rejecting Oz’s offer of a ride in favor of Cordelia’s car.  Buffy briefly wondered if they would stay together in this time line, with the chances of Spike kidnapping Willow and Xander together now much lower and therefore chances of them being caught kissing much less.  She shrugged and told them both “good-night”, deciding that keeping Xander and Cordy together wasn’t much of a priority and she would just watch nature take it’s course.

As she was saying good-night to Willow and Oz, she thought she heard the back door open and she turned her head slightly.  She saw Angel straighten up at the sound of her mother’s voice and frowned slightly at the look on his face.  She hugged the werewolf and his witch girlfriend and closed the door behind them, intending to walk into the kitchen to see who her mother was talking to.

Just as she started past Angel, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into his chest saying, “Don’t I get a birthday hug and kiss?”

In the kitchen, Joyce was greeting a tired looking Spike and offering to make him some cocoa while he waited for Buffy to finish her good nights.  He thanked her and sat on a stool by the counter.  He could sense his grandsire in the living room, and knew that the older vampire must know he was there.

Remembering that Buffy said she could always tell when he was around, he was slightly puzzled and a little hurt that she hadn’t come running into the kitchen to see him.  He stood up and moved to the entrance to the living room, just in time to see Angel fold her in his arms and lower his mouth to hers in an extended kiss.

Without a sound, he whirled and ran through the kitchen and out the door.  Without saying a word to Joyce or bothering to close the door behind him, he ran out into the night.

Buffy had initially welcomed Angel’s kiss and embrace, but just as he started pushing his tongue against her teeth, trying to force an entrance, the tiny scars on her neck tingled and she pushed him away before he could deepen the kiss.   She spun around and flew to the kitchen just in time to see the screen door swinging shut and a flash of platinum going by the window.

The silent, anguished question in Buffy’s eyes was easy to interpret and her mother nodded, glaring at the dark vampire as she did so.
Before Buffy could bolt out the door after Spike, Angel grabbed her again and tried to keep her in the house.

“What are you doing, Buffy?” he said angrily, holding on to her struggling body and trying to get her to look at him.  He wasn’t planning to tell her he knew Spike had been there unless he had to.  He wasn’t sure if she knew the blond vamp had been in the kitchen or was just worried about her mother.  Joyce hadn’t said anything and he’d missed the look exchanged between the two women.

“Are you all right, Joyce?” he asked with too much sincerity.  “Was there someone here?”

Buffy, meanwhile, had quit struggling to get away from the big vampire and was staring at the still vibrating screen door and fighting back tears.

“What happened?” she asked her mother in a shaky voice. “Why did he leave?”

“I don’t know, Buffy,” she replied sincerely.  “He started to go into the living room to you and then he just turned and ran out.”

Realization dawned as Buffy remembered what she’d been doing when she felt the tingles and she remembered how Angel had grabbed her and initiated the kiss as she headed for the kitchen.

“You knew!”  She fixed him with her deadliest Slayer glare and he flinched in spite of himself.  “You did that on purpose,” she ground out between clenched teeth.

“I just wanted to remind him who you belong to,” he said, releasing her arm with a growl.  “I didn’t think you’d mind.  It’s only Spike.”

Completely at a loss for words, the Slayer did the only thing she could do and punched him so hard he sailed across the kitchen and into the stove, shaking it loose from it’s place against the wall.

“Sorry, Mom,” she threw over her shoulder as she ran out the door. “I’ll put it back later.”

With anxious tears streaming down her cheeks, she ran into the night searching frantically for another glimpse of bright hair and dark leather.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Buffy raced through the streets of Sunnydale until she was exhausted, searching for any sign of the blond vampire.  She prowled through the cemeteries, pausing occasionally to sniff the air for cigarette smoke and extending her Slayer senses as much as possible hoping to pick up some trace of Spike.

Willie swore he hadn’t seen him, the Bronze was half-empty as it usually was on a week-night, and she found nothing in the cemeteries except some vampire dust here and there.  When she found the body of a Grtxak demon lying near the entrance to Restfield, and saw the fang marks on it’s broken neck, she smiled through her tears, knowing Spike was somewhere around.

She couldn’t feel him anywhere in the cemetery, though, and sat down on a bench to rest and catch her breath.  Suddenly she realized it was the same bench they had sat on months ago when she told him why she knew him so well.  Putting her face in her hands, she sobbed quietly, wondering if he’d stay around long enough for her to explain that he hadn’t seen what he thought he saw.

Buffy was so wrapped up in her own misery, she didn’t register the warning signals her Slayer senses were sending until the vampire had tackled her over backwards, temporarily stunning her and pinning her to the ground.  While Buffy struggled to regain her senses and focus her eyes, the vamp reached for her throat with his mouth, only to encounter the weak signal from Spike’s marks.

He flinched back momentarily, then shook his head and snarling something about “half-assed claims”, he ran his tongue up her neck, licking the spot he intended to bite.  Buffy was gradually regaining her awareness of the danger she was in, but the large vamp had her thoroughly pinned down and all she could do was try to buck him loose.

When an outraged snarl from behind caused him to lift his head, she took advantage of his momentary distraction and butted the side of his face with her forehead.

(ooooh, Buffy. So not a good idea… ) she had time to think before she briefly lost consciousness again.

Somewhat to her surprise, she didn’t wake up bleeding and dying. She was still lying on the ground, but instead of being bitten by the vamp, she was treated to the sound of a familiar voice. Raising her aching head, she stared blearily toward the two vampires now circling each other and snarling threats. 

The one that had been trying to bite her was insisting that she was his meal, and that the other could just “go find your own stupid blond”.  Spike stopped his snarling long enough to ask in amazement, “Do you really not know what you have there, you stupid git?”

“I have dinner.  Looks like somebody got a piece of her once before, but the claim isn’t strong enough to keep me away,” he bragged.  “I say finders keepers – the vamp that claimed her should’ve stayed around to watch his property.”

Spike visibly flinched at his words and he shot a glance at Buffy to see if she’d heard, before turning back to the other vamp to ask in a deceptively mild tone of voice, “What’s makes you so sure he didn’t?”

Shifting into game face, he leapt at the other vampire, the demon taking over completely once Spike released it.  He grabbed the larger vampire by the throat and easily lifted him with one hand until the other’s feet were off the ground.

“D’ ya really think anything but a master vampire could’ve laid claim to the Slayer, you ignorant pillock?”

The other’s eyes widened in understanding as the girl he’d thought was down for the count, jumped gracefully to her feet and came to stand beside the angry, and obviously much, much older, vampire holding him in the air.

“You want to do the honors, pet, or can I rip his head off?”

“If you want him, you can have him, just make it quick.”

Spike cocked an inquisitive eyebrow at her, but obediently tightened his hand around the other vamp’s neck and squeezed until the head lolled to one side and he could use his other hand to twist it off.  He watched the dust drift away with some satisfaction, although he was disappointed that he wasn’t allowed to take his time making the unfortunate vamp sorry for having touched his Slayer.

When he could no longer see the remains floating away, he turned reluctantly to find Buffy looking at him anxiously.  Now that the danger was gone, he remembered why he’d been away from her in the first place and he stiffened, trying to ignore the pleading in her eyes.

“What the hell were you doin’ out here at this time of night, anyway?” he asked gruffly.  “Shouldn’t you be doin’ some more birthday snoggin’ with the great poof?  There’s nothin’ left out here to slay tonight.”

“So I noticed,” she said softly, moving closer to him.

When he stepped back, maintaining the distance between them, her eyes filled with tears again and she reached out to touch his arm.  The heat from her hand felt like it was burning him even through the leather of his coat.

“Yeah, well, I had some…I was bloody pissed off.  Took it out on any sorry wankers that crossed my path tonight.”  He tried to ignore the effect her touch was having on his body.

“You didn’t answer my question, pet,” he continued when she all she did was look apologetic.  “What were you doin’ out here?”

“Do I really need to answer that?  Don’t you know?”  Her steady gaze dared him to deny that he knew she was looking for him.  “Why did you run away?  I was on my way to the kitchen to see who Mom was talking to when…”

“When you stopped to have a snog with Angel?” he asked, unable to hide the hurt in his voice.

She flinched again, then raised her head and said clearly,  “He grabbed me as I went by.  He knew you were there, but I didn’t.  Not until the marks tingled.  I…I wasn’t expecting to see you yet and I thought I was just feeling Angel’s signature when you came in. 

“I was already pushing him away when you ran out, and he stopped me from following you.  As soon as Mom told me it was really you I felt, I left to find you.”

“And the poof?  What’d you tell him?”

“Uh, I didn’t…I just kinda…hit him.  I’m gonna have to fix my mom’s stove when I get home.  I think I broke it.”

She peered up at him from under her eyebrows and was relieved to see a reluctant smile come over his face.

“Any chance you broke him too?” he inquired hopefully.

“I didn’t stop to check,” she said, trying once again to move closer to him.  “I had something more important to do.”

“And what’s that, pet?” he asked, stepping toward her.  He kept his hands jammed into his pockets to prevent them from touching her the way he wanted to.  His pride, which had been already injured once when Drusilla kicked him out for the Chaos demon, had taken another hit when he saw Buffy with Angel and it kept him from following his inclination to kiss her senseless.

“This,” she whispered, going up on her toes to brush her lips across his. 

“You have Angel, breath,” he muttered, even as he leaned toward her to maintain contact with her mouth. 

“Make it go away,” she murmured back, running her tongue around his lips and touching it gently to his sensitive teeth.

With a groan, he conceded defeat and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his body as he began to kiss her in earnest.  Buffy almost cried with relief when she felt him give in, and she melted against him, letting her tongue and lips tell him how much she’d missed him.

Her arms went up around his neck and he lifted her off the ground, holding her against him in a way that would have crushed the ribs of an ordinary human woman.  But Buffy was not an ordinary human, and she clutched him back with equal strength as she lost herself in the sensation of being once more wrapped in his arms.

With each of them being the other’s favorite kisser, it wasn’t long before their lips and tongues had the inevitable effect and Spike’s hard length was pressed against her stomach while his nostrils flared at the scent of her arousal.   He pulled one leg up to his hip and she quickly brought the other one up so that her legs were around his waist and her warm, damp crotch was pressed against him.

She began to whimper when he pushed his hips forward, increasing the contact between them and setting up the need for more friction between her legs.  He slid his hands down to her ass and pulled her tightly against him, grinding his erection into her. 

Words he never intended to say to her flew out of his mouth as he moved it down her throat, leaving a trail of kisses and small bites.

“Missed you, Slayer.  Never stopped thinkin’ about this; about you and what you do to me.  Want you so much, luv.  Need you…”

Buffy continued to grind against him, desperate for both the release she craved and the need to feel him against her from head to toe.  She whimpered with unfulfilled desire, wanting to stop and tear their clothes off and too caught up in what they were doing to let go.

When he suddenly lifted his head with a snarl and dropped her to the ground, she almost cried out in disappointment, but her Slayer training forced her to overcome her feeling of deprivation and to fall into a fighting stance at his side.  Spike had whirled to face the gate of the cemetery and went into game face as soon as his grandsire appeared.  He’d felt Angel’s presence before the older vampire was close enough to see what he and Buffy had been doing and his earlier rage came flooding back as the dark haired vampire strode up to them.

“Buffy! There you are!  I’ve been hunting all over Sunnydale for you.  Are you all right?  Did he hurt you?”

He turned to Spike and growled dismissively,  “I don’t know why you came back here, Spike, but you’re not wanted or needed, so go back where you came from.  If you leave right now, I won’t kill you.”

“I’m here because I want to be, you arrogant wanker, and I’ll stay till somebody worth listenin’ to tells me to leave.”  He stepped forward.  “And anytime you want to try…”

“Spike.”  Buffy’s soft voice and touch on his arm stopped him immediately and he dropped his vamp face to look at her.  He tried to read her expression, vowing to himself that if she looked worried about Angel he would leave Sunnydale and never return – dreams of warm, loving kisses be damned.

All he saw in her eyes was the warmth and affection he’d been seeing there since he first came to Sunnydale, along with just a touch of sexual frustration and anger.  Relaxing his shoulders, he shrugged and said softly, “Alright, pet.”

Angel blinked at them in confusion as Spike moved away to sit on the bench.  He noticed that the younger vampire never took his eyes off the Slayer, not even to cast a threatening look at his grandsire and he looked back and forth between them with narrowed eyes.  He could smell Buffy’s arousal on the air and suspicion began to work it’s way into his self-centered brain.

“Buffy,” he growled, “I think you need to tell me exactly why you are in a cemetery at this hour of the night with a vampire whose only claim to fame – except for his awful poetry - is killing slayers.  How can you possibly trust him not to-“

“I trust him because I know him, Angel.  Just as I know you…and Angelus.”

“You trust him because he helped you put my soul back?  You know he just did that to get Dru away from me- er, Angelus.  Not because he cares what happens to you.  He has no reason not to kill you now.”

“Actually, I have a…” Spike started then broke off at a glare from Buffy.  “Right, shut up, Spike. Got it.”  He settled back on the bench, sending his grandsire a smirk.  “Still waitin’ to be thanked for that whole soul thing, by the way, Peaches. Or are you not so happy about having it back…Angelus?”

“If it weren’t for this soul, I’d have killed Buffy AND you a long time ago,” he growled, turning his back on the annoying blond vampire.

Turning around put him face to face with a very angry slayer and he suddenly remembered that she had sent him across a room with one punch, and kicked him into unconsciousness when he’d lost his soul.

“I didn’t really mean that, Buffy.  You know I wouldn’t ever hurt you. I want you to be happy and safe, that’s all.”

“If that’s really true, Angel, then you need to leave now.  Because I am perfectly safe here.  And I was working on being very happy before you interrupted!”

As soon as the words left her mouth, Buffy knew she’d made a mistake.  The anger that flared in the suddenly amber eyes of the old vampire reminded her that he still viewed her as his just-turned-seventeen-year-old virginal ideal to be kept on a pedestal. 

Through the angry haze her words created, Angel remembered what she’d said to him when Angelus was threatening to take her virginity, and he stared back and forth from the girl he idolized to the grinning vampire on the bench.  With a roar of outrage, he launched himself at Spike, fully intending to rid himself of the younger vampire forever.

However, Spike hadn’t lived as long as he had without learning to read Angelus and his moods very well, and he was already on his feet and moving before the older vampire had covered the distance between them.

Suddenly Buffy felt the limitations of her younger, less trained and fit body as the two master vampires she cared about fell to the ground in a snarling tangle of fangs and claws.  She watched anxiously, hovering around them, ready to step in if it looked like either one was going to be dust.

After the initial flurry of fangs, the two demons split apart and began to exchange punches and kicks, leaping from the tops of crypts to the ground and hurling tombstones at each other.  Feeling slightly less worried that they were going to kill each other, Buffy perched on top of a mausoleum where she could see the course of the fight and step in quickly if needed.  The two powerful creatures fought until they were both exhausted, pausing by mutual consent to inhales large gulps of unneeded air and rest their weary arms.

Before they could begin again, Buffy stepped between them and held out her hands to keep them apart.

“If the testosterone levels have dropped to reasonable levels, can we agree that this was a tie and go home before the sun comes up and fries you both?”

“This isn’t over, William,” Angel said with a deadly glare.  He looked at Buffy sadly for a minute and said coldly,  “And you’re not what I thought you were.”

“I’m not WHO you thought I was, Angel.  I’ve been trying to get you to see that for months. “  She looked at him sympathetically.  “I know it was a shock to find out that your innocent little Buffy was gone and a much older, bitchier one had taken her place, but that’s just the way it is.  I’m here, and unless we can find out how I got here and reverse it, I’m not going anywhere.  Get used to it or leave town.”

“Could leave town anyway, used to it or not,” came from the vampire who had moved up to stand behind the Slayer.  “Ow! Slayer. What the bloody hell was that for?”  He bent over holding the tender spot on his stomach where Buffy had elbowed him.

With a final glare at them both, Angel turned around and left them standing in the early morning dampness.  Buffy cast a glance at the lightening sky and pulled Spike with her toward the crypt they’d hidden from the Faryls in.

“Come-on, let’s get you out of the sun.  We’ll take the sewers to my house and I’ll clean those wounds up.  You can stay in the basement for the rest of the day.”

Chapter Twenty-three

They ducked into the crypt that Buffy seemed to know so well and Spike went into vamp face so that he could see the way for them just as he had before.  He stopped in the middle of the crypt to look around and commented, “You know, this wouldn’t be too bad if it was cleaned up a little.  And with that downstairs area available for a bedroom…”  He stopped when he heard Buffy giggling and cocked an eyebrow at her.

When she didn’t respond to his unspoken question, he realized she couldn’t see him and he said “What?  Is it funny that I’d want to live in a crypt?  I AM a vampire, you know.”

“No, that’s not what’s funny.  It’s just that you…never mind.”  She waved her hand in the air and added, “I think if you put down some soft oriental rugs and got a nice bed, the downstairs could be quite…comfy.”

“Why would I want orient…” he stopped and threw up his hands in sudden understanding.  “Bloody hell, woman,” he growled, “why don’t you just tell me what furniture to get and what part of the room it goes in?  I’m guessing that would save me a lot of time.”

Buffy’s shoulders were still shaking with laughter and she moved closer to him and slipped her arms around his waist.

“I’m sorry, Spike.  But you had to know there was a reason I knew about this crypt.  It’s not like I make a habit of learning the ins and outs of all the crypts in the cemetery.”

He gave her a reluctant grin and looked around again.

“So, this is where I Iived when we…”

“Yeah, most of the time.  I mean while we were… but then you lived in my basement for a while too.”

“I lived with you?  How’d that go over with Mum?”   The instant he felt her stiffen, he remembered her reaction to the mention of her mother’s future when he’d brought it up before and he pulled her against his chest more tightly.

“Ah, I’m so sorry, luv.  I’m a stupid git.  I forgot…”

“It’s okay,” she mumbled into his chest.  “I’m not going to let it happen this time.  At least I hope not.”

“ ‘M sorry, anyway.  Seems like I keep openin’ my big mouth and remindin’ you of things I’m supposed to know about.  Maybe I should just stop talkin’.”

“Oh, yeah, like that’s gonna happen,” she sniffed with a smile.

“Hey! Tryin’ to be nice here, Missy.  Jus’ watch it.”  His gentle smile belied the threat in his words.

Buffy nuzzled his chest with her face, getting blood on her cheek in the process and she was instantly reminded that he was injured.

“Come on, Big Bad.  Let’s get you home and cleaned up.  You’re getting blood all over me.”

“Mmmmmm,” he said, obediently leading her toward the open entrance to the lower level.  “Could lick it off for you if you’d like…”

“Later,” she said as she followed him down the hole and into the arms she knew would be there to catch her.  “Definitely later.”

With a sigh, he released her and looked around for the exit.  Buffy gestured in the general direction of the tunnels leading to the sewers and he prowled around, sniffing and using his enhanced night vision to find the way out.

“Do you know how to get from here to your house?” he asked curiously.

“Oh, shit!” she groaned in dismay.

“I’ll take that as a ‘no’?”

“I didn’t even think about that.  You – my Spike – knows the way so well…Damn!”

“Don’t worry, pet.  We’ll suss it out.  Jus’ stop and think for a minute. Tell me what you do know about these tunnels and which direction you think your house is.”

Buffy frowned and tried to picture the landscape above them.

“Okay.  There’s a manhole right outside the cemetery gate, which is in that direction,” she gestured toward her right, knowing Spike could see her hand motions.  “And my house is that way from the gate,” she added, pointing to the left.

“Right, then.  Off we go.”  He took her hand and led her out of the cavern and into the tunnels.  As soon as he realized there was room for them to walk side-by-side, he linked their fingers and they splashed along together as though strolling through a park on a lovely spring day.

He paused at the manhole, looking around at the branching tunnels and sniffing the air.  Buffy climbed up the ladder and nudged the cover up just enough that she could look around and get her bearings.  When she felt Spike right behind her on the ladder, she started and gasped.

“What are you doing?” she whispered, although there was nobody out yet in the early dawn light.

“Jus’ had to follow that luscious rump, pet,” he laughed as he nipped her on one cheek with his blunt human teeth.  “Bet it tastes as good as it looks…”

“There will be no discussion about tasting any of my body parts, mister.  Not while you’re in game face, anyway.”

“Not wearin’ m’fangs just now,” he purred, running his mouth up to the bare skin exposed as she held the manhole cover open.  He licked and nibbled his way around to her side, smiling when he smelled her arousal and felt her heart rate pick up.

“You need to stop that,” she murmured, even as she leaned back into him.  “There’s no place here to—“ she stopped with a little shriek as he ran his hands up to her breasts and cupped them both.  She felt him moving up the ladder and he was soon pressed against her body, his cool fingers still on her aching breasts.  He slid his thumbs over the lace-covered nipples, smiling as they hardened in his hands.

“There’s always a place, luv.”  He ran his tongue down the side of her neck, thrilling at the way she shuddered when it touched his marks.  The way his tongue tingled told him the connection was still working for him too and he almost frowned at the idea that such a small amount of blood could establish such a long-lasting claim.

(Got to look into that one of these days.  Maybe it’s ‘cause she’s the Slayer or somethin’.)

Buffy turned around as far as she could and craned her neck so that she could reach his mouth with hers.  The matching moans from the partially open manhole would have startled any early morning joggers had there been any.  Fortunately, most residents of Sunnydale knew better than to go out running until the sun was completely up and all shadows had been banished for the day.

Surrendering to the sensations the eager vampire was creating, Buffy allowed the cover to drop back into place as she turned around completely to meet Spike’s kiss and wrap her arms around his neck.  He put one arm through the side rail of the ladder and used it to hold them in place while he ran the other one under her shirt, stroking her warm, silky skin and leaving heated trails everywhere his cool fingers touched.

The need to touch him became overwhelming and Buffy brought her hands down to push his tee shirt up and run them over his smoothly-muscled back.  When she started to wrap her legs around his waist again, he stopped her, smothering her complaining pout with another kiss.

Jus’ a second, luv,” he coaxed, reaching down between them and undoing his jeans.  He groaned with relief when his erection sprang out, then hissed when she immediately wrapped one warm hand around it.  While she stroked the hard column of flesh, imagining what she couldn’t see in the dark, Spike was undoing the fastenings on her own pants and sliding his cool fingers into the waiting warmth.

Buffy moaned and arched against his hand, wishing for one of the few times in her life that she’d worn a skirt instead of pants.   She almost growled in frustration as he struggled to push them down far enough to spread her legs.

“Don’t know why you have to wear such bloody tight pants, pet,” he gasped, almost losing his grip on the ladder.

“Note to self,” she panted, “Always wear a skirt around Spike.”

They stopped their frantic pushing and rubbing for a second, laughing softly at their mutual frustration.  Reluctantly, Spike pushed himself away from her and let her shimmy her pants down her legs.  She held the cuff with one foot and pulled one leg off to dangle in the air while she immediately brought the freed leg up to catch on his bare hip.

With a growl, he grabbed her smooth, bare ass and pulled her closer, rubbing his now completely exposed cock against her.  She mewed as he allowed it to slide up and down her slit, the moisture pooling there making it glide smoothly over her clit.  When he slid back down, she jumped up and wrapped her other leg around his hips, dropping onto his ready shaft. 

Spike grabbed the ladder with both hands as she wrapped her arms around his neck and allowed her full weight to settle his cock deeply inside her heated walls.  He felt himself shudder with the effort it took not to come right then and there.  Feeling her warmth wrapped tightly around him banished any lingering memories of or longing for the former love of his life.  He closed his eyes and reveled in the rightness of the feelings pouring through him.

Buffy sighed with relief when she once again felt him buried inside her.  The sheer pleasure of feeling him filling her up temporarily made any other activity unnecessary.  Tears prickled her eyes as she lost herself in the comfort of his presence.  She wondered briefly if he could feel the love flooding her heart and if he could, what he would make of it.

As soon as Spike felt he had himself under control, he began rocking his hips against hers and setting up the friction he knew she was craving.  In only a few seconds, she was gasping and panting as she clenched around him, a small orgasm ripping through her body.  She felt him smiling against her mouth and she smiled back as she broke the kiss to murmur, “Pretty proud of yourself, huh?”

He laughed softly, releasing one hand from the ladder to hold her hips in place while he pushed into her.

“Do you always cum that easily, luv?” he asked.  Her quick response had both thrilled and surprised him.

“I do for you,” she answered, suddenly embarrassed and shy, remembering that to this Spike she was not the familiar lover that her Spike had brought to ecstasy over and over again, but, in many ways, a complete stranger.

Spike almost choked as he found himself suddenly incredibly grateful to his other self for causing this amazing woman to fall in love with him.

(Don’ know what I did, or why I did it, but I’d do it again in a minute jus’ to have her here makin’ those sounds and movin’ around me like this.)

Without the use of his hands to guide her hips, Spike was dependent on her Slayer muscles to help her move up and down on him.  As her pace increased and he felt his release approaching, he slid back into vamp face so as to be able to watch her face.

“Come with me, love,” he begged, twisting his hips to nudge the spot inside that was making her gasp and whimper.  “Come on, Slayer,  come with me…Buffy!”

When he cried out her name as he jerked his hips and spurted into her, she clenched around him and sobbed into his neck, murmuring, “Spike, Spike, Spike.”

For seconds, the only thing preventing them from falling off the ladder and into the filth below was the arm Spike had threaded through the railing.  Their bodies were limp; Buffy’s being held up by the vampire’s other arm as she continued to cry into his neck.  Spike’s legs were so weak, he could barely maintain his balance on the thin ladder.

As he got his equilibrium back, he realized that the Slayer was still crying and he pushed her away gently so that he could see her face. 

“Got say, pet, all this cryin’ isn’t doin’ a whole lot for my ego.  Want to let a bloke in on what’s wrong?”

“No…nothing…” she sobbed.  “I’m just ha… happy.”

“Oh,” he waited for a few seconds, then pulled her close again.  “Think you could find some other way to show it, love?  I can’t really say I fancy making you cry – and seems like I’ve done nothing but since I got here.”

“I’m okay,” she said, letting out a deep, shuddering breath.  “I’m sorry.  I’m not always this emotional.  I promise.”

“ ‘S alright, pet.  Have to say I was pretty gobsmacked by that too.”  He ran his tongue over the marks on her neck again, causing them both to catch their breath.  “I can’t even imagine what we’d be like together with some privacy and a real bed.”

“You have no idea, vampire,” she growled, grabbing his shoulder in her blunt little teeth and biting just hard enough to get his attention.  “No idea at all.”
 

Chapter Twenty-four

Once their clothes were back in place, and Buffy had taken another look out of the manhole, they were on their way through the sewers to the house on Revello Drive.  A quick dash from the manhole near the Summers’ house to the sheltered front porch, and the two were back inside, safe from the rapidly rising sun.

When Joyce came downstairs for breakfast, she found Spike and Buffy in the kitchen.  Buffy had the first aid kit out and was cleaning the wounds left from Spike’s battle with Angel.  One eye was swollen partly shut, but his vampire healing had already kicked in and most of what Buffy was doing was as much to make her feel useful as it was to help him.

At her mother’s questioning look, Buffy began to stammer something about “demons” and “vampires”, but Spike just looked at Joyce and said calmly, “Had a bit of a disagreement with the Poof.  Think he’s got it sorted out now.”

Joyce nodded, noticing the relaxed and happy expression on her daughter’s face.  While Buffy had not had anything to really cause her any trouble since they restored Angel’s soul, she had gone through the long, boring days with a look of wistful longing on her face and a lingering trace of sadness in her voice no matter what she was doing.  That look of sadness and longing was gone now, and her mother rejoiced to see her daughter happy again.

The fact that several months ago she hadn’t known that vampires and demons even existed, let alone that her daughter was born to protect the world from them, didn’t stop her from being grateful to the vampire whose arrival had given Buffy some measure of happiness.  Although Buffy had not told her mother everything that had happened to her and the people around her, she’d said enough that Joyce knew how rare happiness was in her daughter’s life and if an undead, soulless creature was what it took to provide it, then he had her complete blessing.

She left for work, fighting back the automatic “Mom” comments about behaving themselves while she was gone.  As hard as it was to give up her hopes and aspirations for her young daughter, she’d talked with Buffy enough to be very aware that the young woman wearing her teen-aged daughter’s body was a full adult and not likely to concern herself with meeting her mother’s expectations of proper behavior.  Instead, Joyce sighed for lost innocence and told them to “have fun and be careful” as she let herself out the door.

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



Somewhere and somewhen else:



Giles glared at Willow with an expression that could only be called thunderous.

“What do you mean, you only wanted her to be happy?  Where is she?”

“I, um, I don’t exactly know…” the powerful witch swallowed hard and suddenly felt very young again as Buffy’s former Watcher demanded she tell him what had happened to his surrogate daughter.

Willow had awakened that morning, content to know that she’d improved Buffy’s outlook on life, only to find an empty bed when she went into the Slayer’s room.  After searching the entire house and grounds without finding a trace of the Slayer or even a note, she had begun to get an uncomfortable feeling in her stomach. 

She put off telling anyone her suspicions as long as she could, but by dinner time when no one had seen or heard from Buffy all day, Willow was forced to conclude there might have been a problem with her spell.  Steeling herself for what she knew would be a very unpleasant encounter, she knocked on the door to Giles’ office and entered timidly.

When she saw Dawn glaring at her from the couch, she almost turned and ran out.  One look at Willow’s frightened face and the former key whirled on the older man to demand, “Look at her!  Don’t tell me she didn’t do anything!  I can see it in her face.”

Giles sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose as he removed his glasses.

“Willow, is there any chance you know where Buffy has gone? Or that you had anything to do with it?”

His patient question brought her mumbled response of, “I only wanted her to be happy again,” thereby eliciting the display of temper.

“I knew it!” Dawn threw up her hands and began to pace the room on her long legs.  “Where did you send her?”

“I…I didn’t send her anywhere.  I just did a little spell that was supposed to make her feel like she did when she was sixteen.  Before Angel lost his soul, before her mom died, before she died and…”

“And before you yanked her out of heaven,” Dawn snarled.

“She was happy then.  I just thought if she could recapture that feeling, she’d be able to go on with her life and stop mourning for Spike.  I don’t know what could possibly have gone wrong.  I swear!”

Giles could see from the tears in Willow’s eyes that she was sincere and he tried to control his temper.

“All right, Willow.  I believe you didn’t intend to send her anywhere – but clearly that has happened.  I’m going to consult the coven and see if they have any ideas how we can locate her.”

It was several months later that Giles, Willow and, at her own insistence, Dawn, were gathered in a large room with several of the seers from the coven that worked with the Council of Watchers.  They were holding one of Buffy’s sweaters, hoping to be able to trace its owner.

Silence settled over the room as the smell of incense and wax candles pervaded the air.  The small group of seers closed their eyes and concentrated on following the faint path of Buffy’s essence.  They communed with each other silently, occasionally nodding or shaking their heads, and once twitching in surprise.  Just when Dawn felt she would explode with impatience, the lead seer opened her eyes and slumped with a sigh of relief.

Not giving them time to recover at all, Dawn immediately demanded, “Well?  Did you find her?  Where is she?  How do we get her back?”

Shaking her head at the girl’s impatience, the lead seer addressed Giles to report, “She has been sent to another dimension that is several years behind this one.  However, we’re not sure how the portal was opened.  No one here has that kind of power.  Only the PTB can manipulate dimensional time portals like that.”

“So I didn’t do it?” The relief in Willow’s voice was palpable.

“We don’t believe so.  It would appear that the Powers That Be used your spell as a catalyst to open the portal and send the Slayer back to her early days in Sunnydale.  To what purpose, we can only speculate.”

Willow exhaled and leaned back in her chair, sighing with relief.

“So, she’s happy, then?  Is it before or after Spike came to Sunnydale.  Has Angel lost his soul yet?”

“It appears that William the Bloody is indeed in Sunnydale, although he does not appear to be trying to kill her.” 

The older woman flushed and quickly moved on. 

“As for Angelus, it seems he lost his soul only briefly and now has it back again.  Albeit, he does not appear to be in a very good mood at this time.”

“So…that’s it then?” Dawn’s voice trembled.  “Buffy’s gone?  We can’t get her back?”

The gentle witches looked at her with sympathy.

“It does appear that is the case.  If it is any comfort, she seems quite happy now.”

All three seers blushed and cleared their throats simultaneously.  When she saw Dawn’s devastation, the older one offered, “You are the key, you know.  If anyone would be able to move between dimensions, it would be you.  We can work on that for you and see if we can find a way to harness your power and direct it.”

Dawn nodded her head and looked at them pleadingly.  “Yes, please. Even if I can just see her…”

“We will work on that.”

Nodding at the profuse thanks offered by Giles and Willow, the three powerful witches took their leave.  Buffy’s remaining family and her best friend went back upstairs and sat in the living room, each lost in his or her thoughts.

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

Spike came to his senses gradually. At first all he was aware of was that he was alive and seemed to be in more or less one piece.  Which was something of a miracle in and of itself, as the last thing he remembered was being swarmed by too many demons to count as Angel and the dragon flew into the side of a building and exploded into flames.

He recalled Illyria standing in front of Gunn’s lifeless body and tossing demons away with both hands.  Although the numbers facing her were as large as those attacking Spike, she appeared to be doing her time-warping thing and slowing them down so that she could pick them off one at a time.

(Good on Blue.  I hope she took a thousand of those blighters with her before she went down.)

The aching vampire tentatively tried to sit up, only to find himself groaning and dropping back on the peculiar surface beneath him.  He would have sworn he was lying on a cloud, if it weren’t for the fact that it was semi-solid and he wasn’t falling through it.

(Maybe I’m a ghost again?  Ghosts can sit on clouds, can’t they? Bloody hell, can’t I just be dusted and get it over with for once?  What do the soddin’ PTB want from me now?)

No sooner had that thought crossed his mind, then two very strange-looking people appeared and stood over him.

“This is he?  This is the one we’ve gone to all this trouble for?”

“Yes, there is no mistake.  This is the One.  And we’re not going to all this trouble just for him.  You know that.”

“Yes, yes.  Quite right.  Different dimensions, different outcomes, reward the Slayer, I’ve got it. I still say he doesn’t look like much.”

“Hey!  Standin’…er…lyin’ right here, wankers!”  Spike struggled to his feet and faced the shocked brother and sister defiantly.  They recoiled when the dirty, smoke and blood covered vampire approached them.

“And what’d you two say about the Slayer?  Where is she? She’s alright, isn’t she?”

The two oddly dressed beings looked at each other and then back at him.

“She’s all right.  We’ll let you see her shortly.  But first we need to explain a few things…”


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

After Joyce left, Spike and Buffy remained in the kitchen. She tried to ignore the way they obviously felt uncomfortable with each other, and busied herself putting away the first aid supplies.  She avoided looking at the vampire; suddenly unsure of herself and wondering why he’d come back so soon.

She was running out of busy-work to keep her occupied when she sensed his presence behind her.  He slipped a cool muscular arm around her waist and pulled her back against his chest, nuzzling her neck as he did so.

“Havin’ second thoughts, luv? Wishin’ you’d left me that crypt for the day while you suss out how you feel about havin’ me back?”

She turned in his embrace and reached up to fasten her lips on his in an extended kiss that promised things he wasn’t sure he wanted.  When she finally broke it off, she pulled away slightly and gave him a small smile.

“No second thoughts.  I’m just wondering why you’re back so soon and how long you’re going to stay this time.”

“I’m back because…I…bloody hell!” He released her and turned away growling in frustration.  “Dru kicked me out for a Chaos demon and I came back here because I knew I could.  I knew you’d want me.”

“So you’re here, not because you want me, but because you know I want you.  You needed some ego stroking?” 

Even as she said the words and felt the hurt and anger building, the parallels to her own life with Spike continued to work their way into her consciousness. 

(This has to be somebody trying to teach me something.  It isn’t even subtle, for God’s sake.  Do they think I’m stupid?)

Buffy looked up at the ceiling and shocked them both by yelling, “All right, already!  I get it!  You don’t have to hit me over the head!”

When the vampire stared at her in complete bewilderment, she blushed and looked at the floor, mumbling to herself.

“What the bleedin’ hell was that all about, Slayer?  Who were you talkin’ to?”

“I don’t know,” she mumbled. “But it needed to be said.”

Spike shoved his hands in the pockets of his coat and kicked the side of the counter.

“Look, Slayer.  I’m sorry if this isn’t what you thought or what you wanted.  I jus’ thought…If you don’t want me here, say so and I’ll leave.”

His stomach clenched as he watched her stricken face and he found himself moving closer to her even as he told himself he didn’t care if he hurt her.  She was just a warm body to use until Dru was willing to take him back.

“You…you want to leave already?”

“Didn’t say that, pet.  I said if you don’t want me here.  If me being here is gonna cause you pain…don’t want to hurt you, luv. Never want to hurt you.  I jus’ don’t know if I can be what you want…what you deserve.”

To his dismay, instead of making her feel better, his words caused tears to spring into her eyes and he growled and shook his head.

“Bloody hell, woman.  You see?  Only been her a little while and I’m already makin’ you cry again.  What did I say?”

“Nothing,” she shook her head, laughing and crying at the same time.  “You didn’t do anything except to remind me that at your unsoulled, evil worst you’re a better person than I am.”

“You are completely daft.  You’re startin’ to make Dru look like a poster girl for sanity.”  He put his arms around her and planted a kiss on her forehead.  “See if any of this sounds familiar. You – Chosen One, saves the world, keeps it safe for puppies and…whatever.  Me – evil vampire, kills and eats innocent people.  I don’t know what the hell this thing is between us, but it hasn’t changed who or what I am.”

“Not yet,” she sniffled, her words muffled by his leather coat.

“Oh yeah, I almost forgot.  You know me.” He growled into her hair, the vibrations sending shivers all through her body.  She slid her hands around his back, under the soft leather and tee shirt onto his cool skin.  When she had pushed the tee shirt up as far as she could, she fastened her mouth on one nipple and worried it with her teeth and tongue.

The vamplre groaned and ran his hands down over her ass, pulling her into his rapidly hardening cock.

“Ah, now, that’s cheatin’, luv.  We were having a serious conversation here and you’re tryin’ to distract me.”

“Is it working?”  She moved her mouth to his other nipple and pulled it into her mouth to suck on it before dropping soft kisses down over his rib cage and into the little hollow beside his hip bone.

“Oh, yeah.  It’s workin’” he growled, picking her up and heading unerringly for the stairs.  When he reached the top of the stairs, a giggling Slayer nibbling on his neck the whole time, he was just able to grind out, “which one?” before following her pointing finger into her bedroom and falling onto the bed with her.  While Buffy writhed beneath him, he shoved the stuffed animals off the bed with one arm and began tugging at her clothes with the other.

Chapter Twenty-five

Spike stared into the pool of clear water, watching himself offering to leave Sunnydale if Buffy wanted it and he could barely keep from jumping into the vision in front of him.

“Are you completely off, you stupid git?  She doesn’t want you to leave!  She wants you to love her.  Argh!”

His inarticulate snarls of rage had the PTB backing away from the furious vampire.

“What the fuck’s the matter with me?  Him?”

“He is in a different dimension where things are happening in a way they did not in the one you came from.  This Spike is still in love with Drusilla, has no chip, no soul, and barely knows the Slayer.  He’s intrigued that she loves him, or her version of him, but he doesn’t know how to reciprocate yet.”

“That’s my Slayer in there?  My Buffy?”

He looked at them for verification, even though they had explained several times what he was going to be seeing in the vision pool. 

“Yes, as we told you, she has been sent into an alternate dimension with the memories of her own life intact so that she can perhaps alter things and have a happier life.”

“Since when do you lot worry about anyone’s happiness?” he asked suspiciously.

There was a whispered consultation between the two beings before the girl turned to him and said, “An effort is being made to reward the heroes of one dimension, while at the same time preventing some of the same problems from arising in this one.  It was determined that the Slayer, if she had someone equal to the task at her side, could make that difference.”

“So, you want us to save the world in the water and if we incidentally make each other happy doin’ it, that’s our bonus?”  His lifted eyebrow and the smirk that accompanied it clearly indicated he expected nothing more from them than more manipulation.

“Something like that, yes.  It would be a crude way of putting it, but it is essentially correct,” the boy said stiffly.

“Well, I’m a rude, crude vamp, so don’t be getting’ your knickers in a twist about it.”

He looked into the pool again, watching himself carry Buffy up the stairs and into her bedroom.  He looked back at the two oddly dressed beings again and asked quietly, “If it’s all about makin’ her happy this time, why isn’t the great poof in there instead of me?”

The girl made an annoyed face and hissed at him, “Would you pay attention? That is not the sixteen year old Slayer.  It is – for lack of a better term – YOUR slayer.  She does not want Angelus.  She wants you.  She has been mourning you for over a year.  Until now, all we could do was offer her the version of you occupying this dimension.  However, now that you have…changed planes again-“

“That PTB speak for died again?”

She looked momentarily uncomfortable, then said quickly, “You are neither alive nor dead at the moment.  Until you decide what you wish to do, you are between planes.”

“I get to decide?”  Disbelief was obvious on his face.

“Yes,” the boy broke in angrily.  “You can choose to join her in that dimension and assist her to meet whatever dangers may come up, or you can go on to another plane and leave her with that version of you.  You must decide soon.  We have other matters to attend to.”

Spike looked back down at Buffy’s room, watching himself pulling roughly on her clothes, and running his hands over her body.  He watched her touching his face gently, marveled at the love he could see in her eyes as she stared at the Spike pressing her body into the bed.

“Touch her, you stupid git,” he whispered.  “She wants you to touch her now.  And kiss her.  She likes being kissed.  Come on you bloody wanker, make it good for her.”

He watched in frustration as his doppleganger made love to his Slayer, knowing she was enjoying it, and yet confident it wasn’t what it should be for her because the blond vampire with his mouth on her clit didn’t know her body the way he did.

“Send me to her,” he said firmly, never taking his eyes off the couple on the bed.  “Send me to her now!”

“Very well,” was the last thing he heard as his world went dark again.

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

Buffy moaned as Spikes talented tongue stroked along her outer folds and teased her into arching off the bed into his mouth.  When he fastened his mouth around her clit and began to suck on it, she screamed his name and let the orgasm flow through her body.

Before she had completely recovered from that experience, a new one for this body, the vampire had surged up her torso and buried himself inside her tightly clenched warmth.  She brought her legs around his back and pulled him into her body until she thought they might melt together. 

Suddenly his vigorous thrusting was augmented by a slight twist at the end of each stroke.  A twist that hit a little bundle of nerves only one man had ever located.  As each touch on the spot only Spike knew about brought her closer and closer to another release, she threw her head back and made a keening noise.  She ground her pelvis into his, not sure if she was keening from pleasure or from something else.

All she knew was that this felt like her Spike and the emotion that  was bringing to the surface threatened to overwhelm her.  Squeezing her eyes closed, she surrendered to pure sensation and let the emotion pulse through her, taking her someplace safe and wonderful.

She felt Spike begin to quiver as her muscles tightened around him and knew he was about to join her in a mutually explosive release. Reaching up with her mouth, she fastened her small little teeth on the skin of his throat and bit down as waves of pleasure washed over her.  She heard Spike shout, “Buffy!” as he plunged into her, sending his cool semen to batter against the entrance to her womb.  Then his fangs were on her neck and he sent her spiraling into another orgasm as he pulled long draughts of her rich blood into his mouth.

He soon stopped drinking, but remained inside her, cock still buried in her warm wetness and fangs still embedded in the skin of her throat.  Slowly withdrawing his fangs and fading back into his human face, he whispered, “Mine,” as he laved the wounds closed.

“Yours,” she agreed, licking the droplets of blood coming from where she’d bitten his neck. “And you are mine.”

“That I am, love,” he said, raising his head and looking down into her surprised eyes.

“I love you,” she said, holding his gaze and preparing to hear him  tell her he didn’t love her.

“Not as much as I love you,” was the totally unexpected answer.

“Wha-?”  Buffy stared at him, taking in the softness of his gaze and the…soul?…she could see in there.

“Sp…Spike?”  hope battled with hard-won experience as she watched his eyes fill with tears.

He began to slowly rock his hips, never taking his glistening blue eyes from hers and the slow comprehension growing there.

“It’s me, Buffy.  I’m here.  An’ I’m not leavin’.  Not for Dru, or the poof, or the soddin’ Powers That Like to Mess With People. I’ll never leave you again.  Be here till we’re both dust in the wind.”

“Did I die again?  Am I back in Heaven?”  She whispered in genuine bewilderment  “Aren’t you already dust?  Or ashes? Or something?”

“If I’ve got it figured out right – this is about as close to Heaven as either one of us is getting’ for awhile.  Seems our talents are needed in this world and the PTB thought we’d do a better job if we were together.”

“You’re real?  You’re really here and you’re my Spike?” 

She ran her hands over his face, stroking the scar on his eyebrow, running her fingers down his cheekbone and touching his full lower lip.  He pulled her finger into his mouth and sucked on it as he assured her,  “ ‘M as real as somebody who keeps not dyin’ can be, love.  And I’m definitely your Spike. Always was, always will be.”

He gently licked the claim he’d placed on her neck.  “And you’re mine, Slayer.  No half-assed marks this time.  Want the whole world to see those.”

Throughout their conversation, he’d never stopped the gentle rocking of his hips and that small bit of friction had set up the inevitable urge for more.  Suddenly Buffy flexed her muscles and flipped them over so that she was straddling him and squeezing her Slayer muscles around his cock.

“Oh, god, pet, I love it when you do that,” he gasped, thrusting up into her.

“I know you do,” she whispered back, as she slid up and down on him. 

When he reached his hands forward and began kneading her breasts while she rode him, she moaned and leaned toward him.

“I missed you so much,” she breathed.  “I missed your hands on me, missed the way you kiss me, the way you love me…”

“ ‘M here now, love.  I’ll always be here; holdin’ you, touchin’ you, lovin’ you.  Never let you go…”

His hands on her waist held her down while he pushed up with his hips, watching her face as she gasped and whimpered her way to her climax.  When she collapsed on his chest, her ragged breathing signaling her inability to continue just then, he wrapped his legs around hers and pinned her to his body while he continued to thrust in to her. 

The angle of his hips put more friction on her clit and she moaned in his ear as he whispered to her, “Come with me, love.  One more time.  Come with me, sweetheart.”

“Oh, Spike I can’t…I…”

“Yes, you can, love.  I know you can. Come for me, love.  Come with me, Buffy.”

“No…I…can’t…couldn’t… possibly…mmmmm…ooooh….Spike! “

His answering shout as he found his release in her, sent another small thrill through her exhausted body before she went limp on top of him.  He held her boneless body cradled in his arms, his breathing as fast and ragged as her own.  When he could move again, he shifted her off to the side where she stayed, one leg thrown over his and her head resting on his chest.

For long minutes they were silent, lost in all the possible ramifications of where they were and how they got there.  The vampire was immersed in the scent and feel of his Slayer.  The physical closeness they’d just begun to work their way back to when he’d had to use the power of his soul and the amulet to close the hellmouth had in no way prepared either of them for such a reunion.

“If the PTB are expecting us to save this world, they’re going to have to give me some time.  I don’t think I could stop Xander from eating a doughnut right now.”

The deep chuckle that shook his chest sent a bolt of joy through her heart.  She closed her eyes and gave silent thanks to the PTB for allowing them this second chance.

“I’m serious,” she said, with as much energy as she could summon. “I couldn’t stop a minor traffic accident right now, never mind an apocalypse.”

“Yes, you could, love.  If you had to, you could.” He spoke with absolute certainty.

“Oh yeah?  How do you know that?  I might just be limp little Buffy for weeks.”

He chuckled again and pulled her up so that he could plant light kisses on her face and mouth.

“Because I know you, my love.  I know you.”


The End