"We're gonna change things" Angel told his group of friends as they stood around him in his office "We came to Wolfram & Hart because it's a powerful weapon" he reminded them as he picked up an envelope from his desk and began to open it, "We'll deal with whatever comes next" he said, noticing the contents of the envelope had fallen to the floor.

The gang all looked down to see an amulet, one that Angel recognised, but before he could say anything it seemed to activate somehow, a whirlwind erupting from it and spiralling upwards, grey and black. The group were hypnotised as sparks flew within the raging wind and a shape was being formed.

Suddenly the smoke cleared and there was not one member of the old AI team whose mouth was not wide open with shock, as they observed what appeared to be two people in a heated embrace.

"Spike?" Wesley frowned, staring at the man.

"Buffy?" Angel realised, unable to believe his eyes.

Faith ran up the stairs with the last few new Slayers, leaving just Buffy and Spike alone in the Hellmouth. The amulet the vampire wore shone brightly, sending rays of powerful light out into the Hellmouth, dusting all the Turok-hans within.

"Go on then" he told her, wanting her to get out of this apocalypse alive, even if he couldn’t. She meant the world to him, and more.

"No. No, you've done enough" she shook her head, "You could still-"

"No" Spike argued "you've beat them back. It's for me to do the clean up"

The walls continued to crumble around them and time was running out if either or both of them wanted to make their escape.

"Spike!" Buffy cried in fear for both their lives, unable to believe it could end like this. They’d won the battle and yet the likelihood was even if she managed to hold on to her own life, she was going to lose him.

"I mean it! I gotta do this" he said holding up his hands to stop her from making him leave. Swallowing hard and fighting tears, Buffy reached out her own hand, lacing her fingers through his. They both watched as flames burst from their hands, hot but not burning them at all. Spike looked up at her face then, a slight smile breaking through his pained expression as she spoke.

"I love you" she said softly, the three words he’d waited so long to here, and yet he was certain it was all just to make him feel better about his certain demise.

"No you don’t, but thanks for saying it" he said a quiver in his voice that he wasn’t sure was caused by the pain, or having to deny what he so wished was true.

"Enough of this noble crap, Spike" Buffy yelled over the sound of more rock falling around them. She kept hold of his hand as she stepped closer to him, some of the powerful light from his chest engulfing her, stinging a little, but bearable "When are you gonna get that I really need you with me" she told him, tears pouring from her eyes as she reached her other hand up to caress his face "that I love you so much it hurts"

"I don’t..." Spike wasn’t sure what he was going to say but he didn’t have to say anything as Buffy leant in further and touched her lips to his. The kiss was short but sweet and undeniably full of love.

"I love you, really I do" she swore as she pulled away ever-so-slightly.

"I love you too pet" he told her, smiling like an idiot because he really knew she meant what she said now.

Their moment was interrupted by a loud almighty crash and they both turned to see the staircase, the only escape route, finally give in and crumble to dust.

Buffy looked at Spike, his face full of concern. There was nowhere to run now, their fates were sealed. He opened his mouth to speak but she silenced him with another kiss. If she was going to leave this plain of existence for the final time, this is how she wanted to go. Spike’s declaration of love, the last thing she heard, his face the last thing she saw, and his lips on hers, the last thing she felt.

There they stood in the crumbling Hellmouth, kissing each other and with light shining down on them from above. Flames started to rise up around them, consuming their forms, but they felt no pain, as the Hellmouth crumbled in around them.

"Buffy!" Angel repeated somewhat angrily when his ex and his grand-childe continued to kiss, seemingly unaware of what was happening around them. Finally they parted and Buffy gasped as she turned in her lovers arms.

"What...what happened?" she asked worriedly, looking back at Spike who shook his head.

"Bloody damned if I know" he told her, his eyes trying to take in where they were and what was going on.

"What the hell are they doing here?" Harmony demanded to know until Wesley hushed her.

"This is Spike? The Spike?" Gunn didn’t looked happy in the least.

"Wait a minute" Fred shook her head, trying to understand "This is Buffy?" she gestured and the girl looked at the point of either tears or violence as she clung tightly to Spike. The vamp growled at their audience and Lorne tried to calm him down.

"Easy, slim, easy. No one's gonna hurt you, or your girl" he promised.

"She is not his girl" Angel mumbled angrily.

"I still wanna know what they’re doing here!" Harmony shrieked and Wesley rolled his eyes.

"And I still don’t think I understand who I’m looking at" Fred threw in, "or how they got here" she added not knowing what to think.

Angel seemed unable to give an explanation and so Wesley filled in what he knew.

"It’s William the Bloody, a vampire with a reputation second only to...well, Angelus" he explained, "The woman is Buffy, the Vampire Slayer...but they were both presumed to be dead"

As Buffy finally let go of Spike and turned around at the sound of Wesley’s words, Angel stepped forward to hug her. The real shock came when his arms hit nothing solid and he stumbled clean through his ex-love.

The Slayer gasped with surprise as she watched the vampire pass through her body and Spike reached out his hand to her shoulder. It stopped there, not passing through at all, as if she were solid as ever.

"Peaches? What the soddin’ hell is going on?" he demanded to know.

"I don’t know, I..." he shook his head, completely at a loss for words once again and Buffy looked horrified at what had just occurred.

"You tell me what’s happening, you stupid poof!" Spike raved angrily, moving towards Angel with his fist raised, "Or so help me I’ll..." he made a swing at his grand-sire who dodged out of the way as the bleached blond passed straight through the side of the desk.

"Oh my God" Buffy couldn’t believe what was happening, as Spike looked down, frowning when he noticed he was standing in the desk, his legs disappearing through the top.

"Bugger"

Spike looked down with some concern at his body that was half inside a desk.

"What? What's happening to us?" he wanted to know, looking between Buffy, Angel and the gang.

"Well, I'm no doctor" Gunn shrugged "but I’d say you're ghosts"

"We can’t be" Buffy said a little worriedly as she reached out a hand and watched it pass through Angel’s arm "Can we?" she shared a look with Spike who also looked bemused.

In the background, Harmony screeched something almost indecipherable about Spike and Buffy together being disgusting and gross, before storming out of the room and back to her desk.

"Where'd they come from?" Fred eyed the pair of what seemed to be ghosts as Spike stepped out of the desk and reached for Buffy’s hand.

"From this" Wesley explained, picking up the amulet from the ground and watching it twirl in the light. Angel stepped forward for a closer look.

"You gave that to me" Buffy realised, turning to her ex-love "for the battle with the First...oh God" she suddenly gasped "did the others get away?" she panicked as Spike pulled her close.

"I heard from Willow" Angel told her, not wanting to turn around and see the Slayer in his grand-childe’s embrace "they’re all okay. Dawn, Giles, Xander, Faith...they lost Anya, and they thought you two" he said, finally turning around. It had hit him hard when he’d heard that Buffy had passed away for the third and final time, at least it had been assumed to be her last exit. Now, here she was again but completely untouchable, except by Spike, and that was the worst part.

"Where are they?" the bleached blond asked, "The Nibblet and the Scoobies..."

"Europe, last I heard" Angel told him, retreating back to his desk and sitting on the edge as Buffy, Spike and the gang had their own discussion.

"We have to see them, call them" the Slayer said firmly but Fred shook her head.

"That could be a little complicated...in your condition"

Buffy look set to cry and Spike instinctively held her tighter, kissing the top of her head.

"When I saw you I thought this was heaven" he whispered into her hair "then I saw him" he gestured towards Angel with his head "reckon it must be hell" he said grumpily.

"Uh, no. L.A." Lorne pointed out "but a lot of people make that mistake" he really had no idea what was going on, and he wasn’t alone in that.

"So Spike and Buffy are...?" Fred turned to Wesley and Gunn, and the Englishman shook his head.

"They were, um, allies for some time" he tried to explain as the group looked over at the apparent ghosts as they held each other close "at least that's what Angel told me. That's all Angel told me" he said pointedly. The older vampire didn’t really hear, he was too busy concentrating on looking like he wasn’t looking at Buffy and Spike.

"So he's a good-guy vampire?" Gunn gestured towards the bleached-blond, "Like Angel?"

"He's nothing like me!" Angel snapped indignantly, wanting that point to be abundantly clear. Spike was half way to kissing Buffy when he heard what was said and was quick to point out the differences between himself and his grand-sire too.

"Got that right" he said sternly, "I’m not some Poofter like Angelus!"

Buffy rolled her eyes as she mumbled to herself;

"Oh good, more jealous vampire crap"

"I have nothing to be jealous about!" Spike yelled indignantly "And anyway, what have you done to us!" he continued loudly, looking around the room, seeming as if he’d just suddenly remembered his situation "What is this place! Who are you people? What the bloody hell is happening!"

"Spike, calm down" Buffy urged, hands on his arms to stop the wild gesturing "We’ll figure out what’s happening but in the meantime, can’t we just be grateful we’re still together?" she said with a soft smile as he took her back into his arms.

"Why did you stay luv?" he sighed, running a hand through her hair, grateful that despite their ghostly appearance they could still touch each other "I told you to run"

"I couldn’t lose you" she shook her head slightly "not after everything...I meant what I said before" she said in all but a whisper, the other occupants of the room seemingly forgotten now. He smiled as he remembered exactly what she had said - that she loved him.

"Me too, Slayer" he promised right before their lips met and they kissed passionately.

The gang all looked away, a little embarrassed by the turn of events, and Fred couldn’t help thinking just how cute they looked. Angel pushed himself up from the edge of the desk and headed for the door.

"I think I’m gonna be sick"

"You’re not the only one" Harmony replied as he arrived outside the office and closed the door behind him. The blonde was back at her desk, staring through the glass of the window and trying not to cry as she watched her ex kiss the Slayer all but senseless, "It’s perverted and gross! A vampire being with a Slayer like that..." the blonde’s voice trailed away to nothing as Angel looked daggers at her, "Oops, sorry boss" she mumbled, turning to her computer and trying to look busy. She still couldn’t help stealing glances up at the window that separated the lobby from Angel’s office, however painful it was to see her Blondie Bear in the arms of another.

"Honey of a story" Lorne commented as Wesley leant over a microscope in the science lab.

"Story?" the Ex-Watcher quirked an eyebrow at his demon friends words and he was quick to explain, with dramatic gestures as only he could.

"Yeah, the Vampyr and the Slayer, sacrificing their lives for each other in a moment of fire and glory" he enthused "Oh, I could sell that to any studio in a heartbeat. I see Kiera Knightley and Orlando Bloom" he continued dreamily until it became clear that Wes thought he might just be crazy "But then I see them a lot, sorry...hazard of running the entertainment division. Gotta get out more" he mumbled walking off towards Fred who was walking around Buffy and Spike with some kind of scanning machine.

"So what are you then?" the vampire asked her "Scanner girl?

"I'm Fred" she smiled nervously as she ran the device over the pair "I head up Wolfram & Hart's Science Department"

"Wolfram & Hart?" Buffy frowned thinking the name sounded familiar.

"Heard of that" Spike nodded "Thought it was a law firm"

"It is, among other things" the Texan explained vaguely as she wrote some figures down on her clipboard.

"I thought Angel told me before that they represented the worst evil in the universe" Buffy realised with some alarm as she stood in Spike’s arms, she’d pretty much spent the whole of the day there and seemed to have no intention of moving.

"I did" the dark vampire replied, coming over to join the conversation "but it’s different now. I'm in charge.

"Are you now?" Spike tilted his head and observed his grand-sire. What exactly was ‘Peaches the Champion of the World’ doing running an evil law firm?

"Weird" the little science girls voice broke his train of though and took everyone’s attention "I'm getting electromagnetic readings consistent with spiritual entities, but there's no ectoplasmic matrix" she told her mini audience. The blank looks she saw amongst them made her explain further.

"Ectoplasm is what makes ghosts visible to the human eye" she told them all "If they are ghosts, technically we shouldn't be able to see them...and I'm detecting brainwave activity" she noticed

"On Spike?" Angel chuckled half-heartedly "That is weird"

"Angel" Buffy managed to reprimand him and make him feel so bad with just the one word. How could his girl have ended up like this, and in the arms of his unworthy grand-childe!

"Also, ghosts generally absorb light and heat energy making the area around them a few degrees cooler" Fred continued "These two are radiating heat"

That got a smirk out of Spike as he turned to Buffy.

"Always knew we were hot stuff, luv" he told her, giving her a quick kiss as she smiled.

"Actually, lukewarm" Fred told them with a smile of her own, excited by the scientific opportunities of this if nothing else "Just above room temperature"

"So if we’re not ghosts" Buffy asked, suddenly serious as she looked between Fred and Wes who seemed to be there two people most likely to know "what are we?

"Whatever you are" Wesley sighed "you’re clearly tied to this amulet" he told them and the group, holding the item by it’s chain and making the light pass through it, casting pretty patterns up the walls and people’ faces "Your essences, for lack of a better term, must have been held within it. Do either of you have any memory of a strange sensation when it released its energy?" he asked putting down the amulet and turning back to a clipboard and pen.

Buffy shifted awkwardly almost blushing as she glanced at the gang and then up at Spike.

"There were sensations" she admitted "but I don’t think it was all about the amulet"

Her vampire lover gave in to the smile that threatened and kissed her with some passion, much to Angel’s disapproval. He turned his back on the pair as he spoke to his people.

"Okay, they’re connected to the amulet" he repeated "Last I heard it was buried deep in the Hellmouth. How did it end up here?" he wanted to know.

"Maybe they're here for a reason" Fred suggested, not knowing what else to think right now "Y’know, some higher purpose or something they're destined for. Sent to us by the powers that be to help us or to..."

"Soddin’ Powers and their bloody tricks!" Spike interrupted loudly. Clearly he and Buffy had broken from their kissing at some point when no-one was paying attention, "You do your bit, save the world in a moment of fire, glory, and love, and they just-"

His sentence ended abruptly as he began to fade before disappearing completely, leaving Buffy standing alone.

"Spike!" she said warily looking around. It was so weird, one second he was there and the next...? The rest of the gang also looked bemused as they glanced around. Fred moved to quickly scan the area beside Buffy where Spike had been standing but didn’t seem to be able to detect anything different.

"Now what?" Angel asked her.

"Where the hell did he go?" Buffy added, clearly a little panicked and her old lover longed to hold her. Knowing he physically couldn’t killed him inside.

"I don't know" Fred answered with a worried look "He just...what did he mean by ‘saved the world’?" she asked suddenly, looking at Angel and then Buffy when he walked away from her. Clearly he’d been keeping things from them and that was not appreciated.

"We closed the Hellmouth, well actually mostly Spike..." the Slayer was just explaining when she felt something strange behind her, as she turned she came face to face with the very vamp she’d been talking about.

"What?" he said as she looked at him like he’d just come back from the dead (again) and threw her arms around him delightedly "What?" he asked the others over her shoulder.

"You took the ‘what’s’ right out of our mouths" Lorne told him, making the vampire frown.

"Where'd you go?" Gunn was eager to know but the look on Spike’s face said he either didn’t know or wasn’t willing to tell.

"I was, er..." Buffy pulled back to look at him and the worry in her eyes made him feel awful, "You!" he yelled suddenly, pointing a finger at Angel across the room. "This is your fault" he announced as he strode over towards his grand-sire who also moved forward to meet him half-way, right in the centre of everyone.

"My fault?" Angel couldn’t wait to hear this theory.

"Here we go again" Buffy rolled her eyes, making Fred smile a little. Seemed the Slayer was used to being argued over by the pair of vampires, but it was starting to look as if they argued this way over just about every little thing.

"You brought that bloody amulet to Sunnydale!" the bleached blond raved, waving an arm emphatically "You would have been the one to use it, until you chickened out!"

"What did you...!" Angel couldn’t believe what he was hearing, but Spike didn’t mind explaining it at all.

"You heard me! You left town in the nick of time, didn't you! Before the death and mayhem? Abandoned the woman you claimed to love..."

"Buffy would you tell him, it wasn’t my choice!" Angel pleaded with her, but she threw her hands up in a ‘keep me out of it’ way as Spike carried on.

"And this bloody hell wasn't my choice either!" he pointed out "I'm not you. I don't give a piss about atonement or destiny. Just because I got me a soul doesn't mean I'm gonna let myself be..."

"Excuse me?" Fred interrupted, as she glanced up from her clipboard in astonishment at his words.

"Did you just say...Spike has a soul?" Wes asked his boss who looked decidedly uncomfortable "You never said"

"Didn't seem worth mentioning" he mumbled and Buffy felt like screaming. For vampires who’d been in the world for decades, even centuries more than she had, they could be such kids!

"Seems to be a lot of that" Gunn commented, with a shake of his head.

"Or maybe Captain Forehead was feeling a little less special" Spike smirked, walking back towards Buffy "Didn't like me crashing his exclusive club, maybe? Another vampire with a soul in the world"

The older vamp couldn’t help but take the opportunity of getting right up in Spike’s face then.

"You're not in the world, Casper" he pointed out with a nasty look and if either could have thrown a successful punch at the other, everyone in the room knew they would’ve.

"You gonna start calling me that too?" Buffy’s voice made them both turn away from each other and pay attention to her.

"Of course not, Buffy, I..." Angel’s expression softened immediately as the Slayer stood before him, eyes glowing furiously as she did her best to hide the fact he’d hurt her with that comment.

"No, Angel" she stopped his sentence mid-flow, holding up a hand as if to block his words "You wanna make fun of Spike you do the same to me" she told him firmly, reaching for her lover who gladly took her back into his arms "We’re in this together" she continued "We fought, we died, and now we’re back, all of it together. You have a problem with him being here then you have a problem with me, so maybe the both of us should just leave" she said, taking hold of Spike’s hand and heading for the exit.

"So long, Peaches" the younger vampire smirked, throwing a little wave over his shoulder as he was happily dragged toward the door.

"Buffy, you can’t just..." Angel tried to stop them but apart from pleading with her to stay, he couldn’t physically force her to stay in the building, not when she and Spike had he ability to pass through walls!

"So you’re gonna stop me, huh?" she challenged, stopping right by the door and turning back, arms folded over her chest "Oh, but you can’t can you" she said with fake realisation "I’m just another Casper, not really in the world at all" the pain and tears she’d been trying to hard to quash spilled forth then and Spike pulled her close to him, one hand rubbing her back soothingly.

"Ssh now pet come on" he comforted her, and Fred couldn’t help thinking how sweet and remarkable it was, especially when one considered he used to be such a vicious vampire, and she was the greatest Vampire Slayer the world had ever seen "You’re in my world" Spike told Buffy, lifting her chin to make her look at him "you’re the centre of it, always" he promised her and she sniffed as he wiped her tears away.

"I wanna see my friends" she told him "I wanna see Dawn and Giles and..." she glanced over her shoulder at Angel "I just don’t wanna be here"

"Then we’ll go" he said, copying her and throwing a look at his grand-sire before he continued "I don’t care if we have to walk from here to Europe, we’ll do it" he said firmly, taking her hand as they went straight out the door together this time.

"You handled that real well" Gunn told Angel, a hand on his shoulder. The vampire shrugged it off.

"Shut up"

"We have to get them back" Angel paced the science lab frantically, to the point where Fred was worried he might wear a groove in her nice flooring.

"How?" Gunn’s voice made the vampire pause for a moment "It’s not like we can physically force them" he reminded him of Buffy and Spike’s apparently ghost-like existence "Unless you plan on mojo-ing them into a bottle like a genie or something" he smiled and Angel turned to Wesley and Fred.

"Could we do that?" was his question. Wes shook his head.

"Angel, I think Gunn was making a joke" he said gently, but the boss didn’t want to hear it.

"Well, we have to do something!" he yelled, slamming his fist on a desk, almost causing the whole thing to collapse, and everyone in the room to jump so much they nearly hit the ceiling.

"I’d love to be of service Angel-cakes" Lorne sympathised as he backed towards the door "but I have a meeting in five and, well, see ya later" he gave a little wave as he departed.

"I got a court appearance in a couple of hours" Gunn realised as he checked his watch "I should be going too" he said as he followed on out of the door.

"But guys" Angel called behind them, "we have to..." he gave up when he realised they’d already gone.

"Fred, Wes" he turned to his two companions that remained "you guys know science and magicks, there has to be some way to fix this"

"Well" Fred considered "it might be possible to re-corporealise them if that’s what they want" she said making him smile, but then frown again when she continued "but it could take days, weeks, months, even years to figure out the right formulae for that kind of process, I mean we’re talking about reintegrating matter into physical form at a molecular level and..."

Folders and papers flew from the desk as Angel’s arm swept them off angrily. Fred backed up a couple of steps, disliking how violent he was getting. She wasn’t really afraid, she knew he’d never hurt her but she still didn’t like to be around when Angel got one of his angry-boy moods on.

"Fred, perhaps you could..." Wesley gestured to a point across the lab, hoping she would take his hint and leave so he could talk with Angel. They’d been through a lot together, known each other longer than any of the rest of the group. Perhaps he could get to the bottom of the problem once they were alone.

Fred nodded in understanding, and walked away still analysing figures on the clipboard she carried.

"Angel, what is the real problem here?" Wes asked as soon as she was gone.

There was a long pause before Angel answered.

"They never let her go, Wes" he breathed unnecesarily deeply "She fought enough, she should be at peace. Now she’s stuck between two places, it’s not fair" he shook his head as he studied the desk that he leant on.

"Not fair for her, or for you?" Wesley asked, understanding more where this anger was coming from now, when the vampire turned round and gave him a look "Angel, Buffy chose to let her life end and in Spike’s arms" he said carefully "They profess love for each other which cannot be denied, and I know it probably hurts you to hear that but..."

"I could deal with knowing she was dead" Angel interrupted, shaking his head and walking a few steps away, as if not hearing Wesley’s words would stop them being true "if she were in a better place, but this...how can I move on when I know...?" he trailed off not wanting to say it "How can I?" was his final question, but he didn’t wait for an answer, just swept out of the room and disappeared.

Wesley looked over at Fred laughing with her colleague, Knox and he sighed.

"You just have to" he told the empty space where Angel had been standing, knowing only too well how hard it really was.

"I can’t believe Angel would act that way" Buffy seethed as she and Spike stormed down the last flight of stairs, towards the doors at the front of Wolfram & Hart. It was unbelievable enough to think that her ex had taken over an evil law firm but the things he’d said to her and Spike, she thought he had more humanity than that.

"I can bloody believe it, stupid ponce" Spike cursed his grand-sire that he’d hated for so long, fully prepared to launch into a huge anti-Angel speech before he realised Buffy looked uncomfortable.

Seemed it was okay for her to take a pop at her ex, but he was less entitled right now. He didn’t mind holding his tongue to keep her happy, point was she loved him and he loved her and nothing could stop them now.

"Let’s not talk about him, eh?" he said, squeezing her hand which he still held in his as they reached the bottom of the stairs and turned towards the doors, "You never have to see him again if you don’t want to"

"I just wanna see Dawn, and Xander, and Willow, and...oh" she stopped suddenly, two feet from the door, frowning hard.

"Oh, what?" Spike didn’t understand until he followed her eyeline outside.

"The sun" Buffy pointed out "I mean, we’re ghosts, or equivalent of but...you’re still a vampire" she realised.

Spike tilted his head thoughtfully before letting go of the Slayer’s hand and stepping towards the protective-glass door. Steeling himself against possible pain he thrust his hand through and consequently into the streaming sunlight. His eyes were tight shut when he did it but soon opened again when he realised there was no sensation of burning, no fire, not even smoke.

"Well, would you look at that?" he grinned at Buffy who’s face also broke out into a smile "Guess there are advantages to the see-through status" he said, passing through the door and letting the light pour down on him.

To be honest it didn’t feel like much, barely warm on his semi-existent body but at least he would see Buffy in the daylight for the first time since he’d fallen in love with her.

"You look good in the light" she smiled up at him as they stood on the sunnier side of the doors and he lent down to kiss her soundly, "Not the you didn’t look great in the dark" she was quick to add when he finally stopped kissing her, "but this is good too"

He smiled at that, before taking her hand again, as they walked down the street.

"There are some disadvantages to the whole ghost thing though" Buffy sighed after a few minutes of comfortable silence "Which reminds me, where did you go before?"

"Before?" Spike echoed, pretending not to know what she meant, though in reality he just didn’t want to think about it.

"In the lab" Buffy reminded him "You faded out and then came back, but you never told us where you went"

Spike looked thoughtful for a moment and looked the other way entirely when he finally answered her.

"I dunno" he shrugged half-heartedly and Buffy stopped walking, bringing him to a halt also.

"Spike, don’t" she said sternly "I know you too well, you can’t lie to me"

"Slayer, for soddin hell’s sake" Spike complained when she looked up at him with those wide and innocent eyes. She was right, he was a lousy liar when it came to telling her untruths, but this was not something he wanted to worry her with, not now.

"Can’t you just be glad we’re still together?" he asked less loudly, running his fingers through the length of her hair "I thought it was what you wanted now. Despite everything you and me have come through this, more or less intact"

"You know I want to be with you, Spike" she said solemnly, covering his hand with hers when it came to rest on her cheek "I gave up my life proving it" she reminded him "but you have to be honest with me. Tell me where you went"

At first it was just plain curiosity that made her ask, now though she was starting to worry. Spike may have been evil and kind of untrustworthy before but he didn’t lie to her, not since he first professed his love for her. If he seemed to be dishonest there had to be a reason and she was starting to panic that something bad was happening...again.

"Why do you think I even know?" Spike glanced away again when he spoke, unable to look her in the eye, "This bloody ghost thing’s all new to me too y’know"

"Spike..." her tone and expression told him now was confession time or else there was about to be a serious falling out between them.

"Don’t give me that look, Slayer" he warned, pointing a finger at her "or I swear to..." he paused when he noticed the hand in front of him was flickering like a flame on the wind, and that it wasn’t just his hand but the rest of him too.

"Hey wait a minute..." he said, glancing at Buffy who reached out her hand to his. She seemed equally surprised to find her own form wavering and becoming unstable.

In a sudden flash of light they were gone, leaving a couple of passers by blinking in confusion. Surely two people had been standing there, just a fraction of a second ago?

Despite what Wesley had said, Angel would not give up. Although he had to agree that his main reason for wanting to free Buffy from her ghostly status was to get her away from being touchable only by Spike, he was also determined that she would still have at least a semi-normal life like she deserved. He had several volumes from the W&H collection piled on his desk and one in his hands as he continued to pace up and down, unable to be still til he’d figured this out.

Beside the books, on the desk lie the infamous amulet that seemed to have started all this off, and Angel only wished the folder of information that came with it had been saved from the Hellmouth too, it seemed though that they were not that lucky.

Rapidly he turned pages, noting any instances where amulets, ghosts, and the such like were mentioned. At length he came to one page that seemed particularly relevant, as it bore a picture that appeared to be the very bauble that Lilah had handed him the day he took over Wolfram and Hart. He picked it up buy the chain and dangled it in the light, comparing it’s shape to that in the illustration.

"The Amulet of Fire" he read aloud to the empty room, "spoken of in the Prophecies of..." the name escaped him as a sudden gust of wind blew the pages of the book over, causing him to lose his place. Angel looked up in surprise to find no-one had opened the door to enter - so where was the sudden burst of air coming from?

Light began to swirl in front of him and he took a step back just as it began to mould itself into a form.

"What the...?" was all he could say as a pair of familiar figures appeared out of nowhere just as they had a few hours ago.

"Not a-bloody-again" Spike complained, closing his eyes and wishing himself away from here - anywhere but here!

"Buffy, you’re back" Angel looked startled as he spoke to her.

Indeed the Slayer herself looked equally shocked as she glanced around the room. Her eyes eventually landed on Spike and she sighed.

"I’ll say it for you" she said seriously, and he wondered what she meant until she yelled the phrase, "Bugger this"

"So what you’re saying is Wolfram & Hart own the amulet so they own us?" Buffy scoffed, "An evil law firm owning the Slayer, yeah that makes sense"

"It actually makes a great deal of sense, Buffy" Wesley pointed out, knowing he didn’t have to worry about offending or annoying her. Any swings she took at him would pass straight through, "The amulet was given to us by Wolfram and Hart for purposes unknown. Perhaps it was supposed to trap the two of you and bring you here" he considered, glancing between her and Spike who stood a couple of feet from her.

"Well, here’s the kick, Percy" the ghostly vampire shot at the ex-Watcher, "Maybe me and the Slayer don’t wanna be tied to this soddin’ place, nevermind be bloody owned by it!" he yelled angrily.

"Yelling about it won’t solve anything" Angel pointed out.

"Then what do you suggest, Peaches?" Spike asked, turning to him with tilt of his head, "Stand around here saying ‘oh well, bloody shame we’re ghosts but hey could be worse’"

"I suggest you let Wes and Fred try to help you and quit complaining in the meantime" Angel said shortly, "I’m even less thrilled to have you stuck here than you are, Spike, but you have to give us time if you want an escape route"

"Believe me when I say, really do" Buffy snapped, before turning to leave the room, her lover obediently following her.

"Hey" he caught up to her and touched her arm. When she turned he put his lips to hers and kissed her, wrapping his arms around her body and pulling her close, "We will get out of here, Slayer" he promised her, "Find your mates and maybe even get that happy ever after thing that’s so popular" he smirked.

"I wish you could promise me those things" Buffy sighed, comforted to a degree at least by the feeling of his arms around her, "but you can’t, Spike, no-one can. We have to accept this could be it for us, stuck at this incorporeal level of here-ness, tied to an evil empire, with only each other for company"

"Would it be so bad?" he asked, suddenly looking much less confident about his worth in his Slayers eyes, "I mean, I know it wouldn’t be your perfect scenario but, would an eternity alone with me be so terrible?"

"I didn’t mean it that way" Buffy assured him, one hand caressing his cheek, "I want my life to be with you, you know that...but I need more" she admitted.

"I understand, pet" he told her with a nod, making her smile.

"You always do" she said softly as they kissed again, "Just one of the many reasons that I love you so much"

In his office, Angel watched through the internal windows as his ex and his grand-childe got impossibly close to each other. It made him nauseous to see it and yet at the same time, when the couple pulled apart and Buffy smiled brightly his heart felt a little lighter.

When the brooding vampire had left his love the day of her High School Graduation, he’d told her before it was because he wanted her to be happy with a normal guy. Okay, so Spike wasn’t normal, far from it, but he made Buffy so happy, that much was obvious. There had to be a reason why the Powers had brought them back this way, and together, though that wasn’t necessarily their plan. Buffy hadn’t had to stay with Spike in the falling Hellmouth, she’d chosen to. That might just be the thing that hurt Angel the most.

"I think we should head back to the lab" Wesley said to Fred, ushering her out of the office when he noticed Angel wasn’t listening to anything they were saying, his eyes glued to the pair beyond the window.

"You think he’ll be okay" the Texan asked quietly as they left the room and passed by the kissing couple.

"Angel has a lot of issues where Buffy is concerned" the ex-Watcher sighed, "She was essentially the love of his life, or perhaps unlife would be more accurate" he considered as they walked along together "It is very difficult to let go, to see someone you hold so dear in the arms of another" he said sadly and Fred was not stupid enough to not realise he spoke from experience on that subject.

She liked Wesley a lot, and sometimes she thought there might be more between them than friendship, but making the first move was really not something she did, besides Knox was being such a sweetie and she kind of liked him too, and then there was her history with Charles to consider. Could love never be simple?

Back in the lobby, Buffy and Spike’s kissing session was becoming increasingly heated. They needed to be close to each other right now, needed to know they were not alone in a world where they could not touch anything or effect change at all.

The ding of the elevator bell and the shudder as the doors opening caught there attention, causing them to finally break apart. Spike smirked as a couple of lawyers walked past whispering about the floorshow. Buffy tried to hide her face in his chest, clearly embarrassed.

"I think we should do this other-where" she told him and he led her towards the stairs, her hand held tightly in his. They headed right for the top of the building, because Spike had an idea. He stopped outside a pair of large wooden doors with Buffy at his side. The couple shared a glance before stepping forward and passing through into the bedroom that belonged to Angel.

"Wow, for an evil place they have good taste in decor" Buffy noted as she looked around, "and oh my God, check out the view" she continued, dragging Spike over to the window to see.

"Stunning" he rolled his eyes, not really caring for the rows of buildings and rooftops, "but not as stunning as you" he told her, pulling on her hand and spinning her into his arms where he kissed her thoroughly.

Buffy found that in her ghostly form she didn’t have to worry about breaking for air and so the kiss could go on forever if they wanted it too, a thought that pleased them both immensely. She was equally thrilled that despite their incorporeal status, she and Spike could still touch and feel each other. He wanted her, that much was evident and she wanted him too, but something made her pull away when he pushed the jacket from her shoulders and ran his hands up inside her shirt.

"No, Spike, stop" she said, squirming away from him.

If she didn’t know any better she’d say the look in his eyes right now was pure fear and it took her a moment to realise why. He was getting a flash-back to that night in her bathroom at Revello Drive. The night he’d wanted to prove his love to her and again she’d told him no. Every other time she’d protested it’d been a lie and they’d ended up doing it anyway. This one time she’d meant her refusal and he hadn’t realised, continuing with his efforts to get close to her until she’d kicked him away. The words she’d spoken now echoed down through time from that night. The guilt he’d felt had led to his getting his soul, and more than one serious conversation last year, with so much repentance that Buffy had almost broken down in tears as she offered her own apologies for the terrible way she had treated him before.

"Spike" she said softly now as she stepped towards him, but he backed-up sharply.

"I’m sorry" he said, looking so petrified he’d done wrong. It seemed that one night haunted him more than it did her. She’d come to realise that, although what he did was not completely excusable, she had to take some blame for his moment of insanity. She’d treated him appallingly, used and abused him when all he’d ever wanted to do was be allowed to love her, as she found she could let him now. She loved him too, they’d come so far and now it was all getting screwed up again.

"You don’t have anything to be sorry for" she promised him, taking another quick step forward and putting a hand to his face, making him look at her when he tried to turn away, "I wasn’t...I mean, I do want to be with you, be close to you again. Honestly Spike, there’s nothing I want more" she promised him, "but not like this"

"I don’t understand" he admitted, finally able to look her in the eye again. Buffy sighed, feeling a little silly about what she was about to say. She turned away from him and took another look at the view outside.

"I want it to be special, like it was that last time in Sunnydale" she explained, hoping he understood. She felt his arms wrap around her from behind and she leaned back into his embrace.

"I get it" he told her, kissing the top of her head, "but y’know, every time we make love, it’s going to be as special as the first time for me...because it’s you, Buffy" he said softly, "and you mean everything to me"

She turned in his arms then, the sincerity in his words and in his eyes making tears form in her own. He loved her more than she ever deserved, more than anyone ever could deserve. Spike loved with his whole being, body, heart, and soul, he knew no other way, and she so admired him for that. He also counted their first time together as their actual last time, all those terribly damaging days before all forgotten, and she loved him for that as well.

Despite her earlier words, she put her lips to his. Passion took them over and it was more her than him that moved them towards the bed. He turned as they reached the edge, planning on pushing her gently back onto the bed, momentarily forgetting that they were not as solid as they might be.

Her body passed straight thorough and he went with her, through the floor too and the next and the next, free falling the entire drop of the building through every floor and ceiling. They landed with an unfelt thud on the final level, the basement, as an untidy tangle of limbs.

"Well, that was a rush" Spike smirked as he got to his feet and gave Buffy a hand up too.

"Not exactly what I planned on happening" she admitted, as they glanced around and tried to get their bearings, "So I guess this is the basement, huh? Not exactly a romantic spot but..."

"Ssh!" Spike shushed her suddenly, walking a couple of steps down the dark corridor they found themselves in. The room opened up just a few feet in front of them, and Spike was glad his vampire-sight was just as good now in the dark as when he was corporeal, "You hear that?" he asked Buffy who followed him on tip-toe, before realising she made no sound when she walked anyway in her present ghostly state.

"I don’t hear anything" she frowned as they continued carefully along.

It was then Spike spotted the back of a man, as he sat at the table working away at something out of view. The vampire was startled when the disfigured face turned to look at him and it became clear he’d been slicing at his own hand, several bloody fingers laid out on the table as proof. He recoiled, about to speak when suddenly the man, the fingers, the blood, all of it was gone.

"There’s nothing here" Buffy shook her head as she walked around the empty table, "You can’t have heard anything"

"You didn’t see?" Spike checked, staring at the chair that the disappearing figure had been sitting in moments ago.

"See what?" the Slayer frowned finding it a little ironic that he looked as if he’d seen a ghost.

"Er, nothing" he lied, forcing a smile and offering his hand to her, "Reckon I need some kip, going a bit insane" he smirked as she rolled her eyes and put her hand in his.

"We need to get out of here" she said firmly as they began to walk towards the steps that led upwards, "You’ve spent enough time in basements to last an un-life-time!"

"Yeah" he agreed absently, glancing back over his shoulder at the empty table before following his Slayer up the stairs. Maybe he really was going insane, or maybe he should accept the fact that hell wanted him for a resident after all.

It was one week since a magical amulet had arrived at Wolfram & Hart’s LA branch. Seven days since it had released the essence of a souled vampire and a Slayer that died nineteen days before. Tied to the amulet they used to save the world, Buffy and Spike were forced to roam the halls of the evil law firm until Fred, Wes, and their respective teams could find some kind of spell or ritual that would release them.

As if it were not bad enough being trapped as ghost-like figures, unable to effect change or interact properly with anyone but each other, things were getting steadily worse. Spike was disappearing on a semi-regular basis, fading out to nothing, only to reappear moments later just a few feet from his original spot. Mostly his unwanted trick went unnoticed. He liked to be alone, unless he was with Buffy and he did his upmost when he felt the pull to get away from her or distract her attention so she wouldn’t notice he’d momentarily gone. The few times she had noticed she’d panicked and made him report back to Fred and Wes about it.

Spike could deal with it at first, in all honesty he hadn’t known why he was disappearing or where he was going. Since then it had become apparent as people only he could see talked in riddles until he understood. It took a lot to scare a vampire but some of these other ghosts were starting to get to William the Bloody. Still, he knew he couldn’t tell Buffy. She’d make a big deal, everyone would find out he was afraid and he couldn’t handle that, especially the git Angel.

What Spike needed was someone he could trust, and who wouldn’t freak out about him being in some kind of danger. The likely candidate seemed to be Fred. She was a sweet girl, trying to help everybody as best she could, and smart too. She almost reminded Spike of Willow, especially when she was sitting at a computer or reading from a book about some complex theorem or other.

He needed her help right now, and only hoped she’d be able to give it. If he was right, and if the haunting he was getting was anything to go by, hell was trying to claim him, and it was getting bloody impatient.

"Hey sweetpea" Lorne grinned as Buffy went past his office door, "You all on your lonesome?"

"Yeah" she sighed as she entered the office, not noticing that half of her missed the doorway and passed through the wall, "I have no idea where Spike is, he keeps disappearing on me" she complained, concentrating so she could sit down in the chair opposite the desk.

"Disappearing like wandering off, or disappearing like shazam he’s gone?" the green demon was interested to know.

"Both" Buffy admitted, "I can deal with the wanderage but the shazam is giving me the wiggins" she explained, "Like it’s not bad enough we’re a pair of ghosties, now the one person I can actually...Lorne, what if he just fades out one of these times and doesn’t come back?" she asked sadly. She felt she could talk to Lorne, like he might understand. It was weird since he was the least human looking amongst the gang, but he wasn’t so involved in the business of the evil empire of Wolfram and Hart, at least that’s how it seemed to Buffy. He was entertainment guy, and sweet listeny guy. It was Angel and Gunn who seemed to be all lawyered up.

"Oh come on now, my little peach-pie" he sighed, walking round the desk and sitting on the edge in front of her, "You know Blondie Bear will fight tooth and nail to stay with you anyway he can" he assured her, "So turn that frown upside down and go find your good old fashioned lover-boy"

Buffy cracked a small smile at that.

"Are you trying to get rid of me?" she asked suspiciously as she got up from her seat.

"Never in this world!" Lorne exclaimed, hand on his chest like he was in total shock she would suggest such a thing, "Although" he admitted when she gave him a look, "I do kinda have a lot of calls to make"

"It’s okay, Lorne" Buffy smiled, "Call your important celebrity types. I’ll go see if I can find Spike"

"See you later, honeybun" Lorne called behind her, before picking up the phone and going back to his long list of calls to be made.

"This truly is a fantastic item" Wesley commented as he stared down the microscope. The formation of the amulet he studied was baffling in the extreme, and this was the seventh day he’d spent in the lab trying to find something in it that might help his and Fred’s quest to releasing the essences that were captured by it.

"Is it fantastic enough that it talks and tells you how to free Spike and Buffy?" Fred smiled sadly, tossing her pen across the desk and putting her head in her hands, "God, this is hopeless"

"I think it’s about time we went to bed" Wesley said behind her as he got to his feet. Fred spun around so fast she sent a bunch of files crashing to the ground.

"What?" she asked, his closeness not helping how stunned and over-whelmed she felt.

"Er, I meant we need some sleep" Wes pointed out, thoroughly embarrassed, "We need to retire to our own separate beds" he said carefully, taking a couple of definite steps back.

Fred nodded dumbly as he headed for the door, not looking entirely where he was going and knocking into a desk. He didn’t realised the amulet had dropped onto the floor as he went past, cursing himself for being such an idiot. Fred sighed as she reached down to pick up the fallen bauble, holding it by the chain and letting the light pass through each sparkling facet.

"Pretty little pain in the ass, ain’t it?" Spike commented as he walked into the lab via the wall. Fred jumped violently, putting her hand to her chest.

"Y’know if I had no other reason to want to make you corporeal, solving the creeping up thing would be inspiration enough" she joked, still breathing heavily.

"And here was me thinking you just wanted the chance to get your hands on my body" the ex-vampire told her with a look and a tilt of his head. Fred just smiled and shook her head.

"I don’t think Buffy would appreciate that" she commented, "Even if it was a joke"

"Jokes about all I got right now, luv" Spike shook his head sadly as he circled the desk he might just as easily have passed through, "I know me and Buffy being here together is great and all but...what if it doesn’t last?"

"No relationship is guaranteed forever" Fred shrugged, but Spike shook his head once again.

"No, pet, you’re missing the point" he explained, looking around to make sure they were alone before continuing, "Buffy won’t need to leave me if I leave her" he said softly, "And I’m not gonna do that if I can stop it, but I’m gonna need your help for that...Seems Satan wants me for a play-mate" he said at last.

"You mean...?" Fred began, unable to say the rest.

"Every time I ‘disappear’" he confirmed, "I’m slipping...sliding down into a world of fire, and torment, and I’m losing my grip"

"Spike, why didn’t you tell us before?" Fred asked him with a frown, reaching out a hand to his before remembering she couldn’t touch him at all.

"Not exactly somethin’ to be proud of, is it luv?" he said sadly, looking down at his boots, "Save the world, get the woman I love loving me too, but it can’t make up for what I did before...I know I’m destined for that place" he said honestly, looking up and into her eyes now, "but not yet, not now" he practically begged her, "Please luv, you gotta use that clever little noggin of yours, find a way to keep me here, here with Buffy"

"Of course, I’ll try" Fred assured him, "but we should tell Wesley, and Angel..."

"No" Spike interrupted loudly, "No, not a chance, no way in hel..." he stopped when he realised what he was saying, "Fred, the last person who’d want to save me from the fire and brimstone is Angelus" he reminded her, "Probably be glad to give me the final shove into oblivion if he could"

"If Angel wanted you dead he’d have done it by now" she said crossly, but Spike knew better than to believe that.

"Known the bloke a little longer than you, luv" he smiled a little, "He couldn’t get rid of me so far, what with the amulet tying both me and the Slayer here. Like you said the other day, destroying the bauble frees the pair of us but frees us right off this plane of existence and he couldn’t do that, not to her"

"How do you know that Buffy doesn’t...go where you go?" she asked carefully.

"Why would she?" he shrugged, "She’s not evil, not a bit of it. Last time she...heaven had her before, it’ll claim her back when her time comes" he explained, "Meanwhile yours truly is takin’ a tumble into damnation" he told her with a distinct look of panic albeit mild, "It’s getting worse, Fred, I’m losing my grip, slipping further and...I don’t want to go" he said, looking so much like almost little boy. It made Fred feel just terrible for him.

"I’ll help you, Spike" she promised, "Anyway I can...I think me and Wes are getting close"

"Saw that right before I came in" he smirked, "Something about going to bed now wasn’t it?"

"He didn’t mean it the way it came out" Fred told him, looking red-faced as she turned back to her note pad and checked over the daily readings she’d been taking from Buffy and Spike as well as all Wes’ notes on the amulet.

"Oh, I think he meant precisely what he said" the ex-vampire smirked more, as he leant on the edge of the desk, falling straight through. Fred yelled after him but her voice soon faded out as he passed through each ceiling and floor all the way to the basement. He hit ground level with a familiar feeling of nauseous fear.

"Had to be the bloody basement again" he mumbled as he pulled himself to his feet, yelling to whomever could hear him.

"Still down here hacking at your feelers, mate?" he called to the man he’d seen down here before, though it wasn’t clear yet if he would be there when Spike turned the corner, "Or is it one of your ladies?" he checked, "The charming one with the distinct lack of upper limbs perhaps, or...?"

"It’s coming" said a low voice in the dark. Spike immediately stopped walking when something moved on the table beside him - the dismembered fingers of the man he’d seen before.

"What the bloody hell...?" he asked, before he felt a rush like a breeze blowing through a window, the world spiralling out of focus. He closed his eyes against it and when he opened them again he was standing in a corridor, several floors up in the building, "What...?" he began again just as Buffy came around the corner and found him.

"Geez Spike, disappear much?" she complained, hands on her hips, "I’ve been looking for you for a couple of hours"

"Sorry, pet, I was..." he looked around with a confused expression, still wondering what was going on. Of course his girl had no idea how accurate she was with her phrasing, disappear was most definitely the right word.

Buffy moved towards him cautiously.

"Something wrong?" the Slayer checked, "You look all...frowny" she settled on as his eyes finally landed on her again. He shook his head to clear the confusion and to wave away her suggestion.

"I’m fine" he assured her, "Just, must’ve got turned around I guess. Whole bloody building looks pretty much the same top to bottom" he complained, rolling his eyes.

"We’ll be out of here soon" Buffy said positively, going into his arms and hugging him. Spike hugged her back, gripping her tight as he dare. She might be the only thing keeping him here right now and he couldn’t let go.

"Wes?" Fred called several feet before she reached his office.

"Fred, is everything alright?" he checked. He had planned on going straight to bed when he left the lab and had thought she would do the same, but work had distracted him and apparently her too.

"Not alright yet, but could be soon" she said, scribbling on a piece of paper before thrusting it toward him, "How fast can I get these?" she asked.

"The Magdalene Grimoire, Necronomicon des Mortes, Hochstadter’s Treatise on Fractal Geometry in 12-dimensional Space...Fred, why do you need all these?" he wanted to know.

"I think I figured it out" she grinned, proud of her achievement, "I think I know a way to re-corporealise Spike and Buffy"

Spike didn’t feel comfortable and he wasn’t certain exactly why. The ghosts that had been haunting only him seemed to be gone and he hadn’t faded out for hours, which was an improvement. He fancied that was what made him so nervous, the fact it was all going too well. Life, unlife, existence in general was never that kind. The moment it all seemed to be perfect something was guaranteed to go horribly wrong.

Buffy spotted the frown that had re-appeared on his features.

"You’re doing it again" she said as they walked down the corridor towards Angel’s office. He really was the last person Buffy wanted to see right now but they needed something to do and hearing about the gang’s latest adventure was better than nothing when one was a ghost.

"Doing what, Slayer?" Spike asked her and she gave him a look.

"Frowning" she told him, "Like something’s bothering you...Spike, you have to tell me what it is" she said firmly, stopping walking and turning to face him.

"Nothing more than you already know" he lied, "Bein’ a damn ghost, unable to affect change and all that rot. Doin’ my bleedin’ head in"

"There’s something else" Buffy shook her head, just knowing it, maybe sensing it.

"I don’t know what you...mean" Spike’s sentence was disjointed as he looked past her and saw not one but two or three of the horrifying figures that had been following him around for the past week, "No...No, I don’t!" he yelled back away from them and consequently Buffy. She followed his eyeline and found he was staring at nothing. When she turned back he was striding down the corridor, stopping here and there to yell at people she couldn’t see at all.

"Spike!" she called, hurrying after him. She frowned when he turned and walked through the door of Angel’s office, but she followed anyway, "Spike, what the hell is going on!"

The maniacal laughter that escaped his throat made her shudder involuntarily. He was really starting to scare her, even more than crazy-in-the-basement Spike had.

"That’s right ain’t it" he laughed, "Hell is going on, right here and now"

"What is wrong with him?" Angel wanted to know but Buffy shook her head not knowing yet herself.

"Spike, talk to me, tell me what’s happening?" she said, moving forward and putting her hand to his arm.

"Buffy?" he said, squinting his eyes like he was trying to see her through some kind of fog, "Why are they doing this to me?" he asked and she looked around for the people or things he referred to - but they weren’t there.

"Who are they Spike and what are they doing?" she checked as Gunn and Lorne came in to see what all the noise was about.

"Ghosts, but not like us" he told the Slayer, "Real hell types and they want to take me..." his voice grew softer from the rest of the gang’s perception as his form faded out to nothing.

"Spike?" Angel called and though the ghostly vamp answered, his grand-sire could neither hear nor see him, "Where’d he go?"

"He’s right here" Buffy said like her ex was stupid, "Standing right next to me, Angel, quit screwing around"

"You can see him?" the vampire checked. The blonde nodded.

"You can’t?" she asked and the three people confirmed they couldn’t see or hear him at all.

"Buffy, I don’t know how long I can...No, dark soul? What? No, not yet! You’re not taking me yet!" Spike’s sentence started off aimed at her but soon switched to the woman beyond with the shard of glass sticking out from her face.

"He’s coming to get you" she sing-songed like a taunting child. Spike backed up a step and Buffy followed, reaching out to him again. She was shocked when her hand passed straight through his arm.

"Oh God" she gasped, realising how bad things were getting. He really was slipping away, out of sight of the gang and now untouchable to even her.

"I have to go" Spike shook his head, "Can’t do this to you" he said looking pained as he ran, leaping through the wall and disappearing completely. Buffy called after him but to no avail. She looked halfway between angry and terribly upset. All Angel wanted to do was hold her and make it better, but the only way to really improve her mood, he guessed, was to save Spike.

"Buffy, tell us what’s going on" he urged her, "Tell us and we’ll try to help"

"He’s gone" she began to explain, "He saw something, maybe someone and then he left...he said something about a dark soul?"

"Wish I’d told you what was happening sooner, pet" Spike sighed as he watched Fred working away in the lab, "Startin’ to wonder if it’s all too late now"

"Carry the quotient load across the remainder...support the imbalance with Lumirea's fourth constant..." the scientist mumbled to herself, frantically scribbling down equations and referencing texts and charts. She of course had no idea anybody was there, watching her.

"I know what they are" Spike continued as he circled around her "the things I’m seeing. They're the welcoming party...Guess hell’s getting impatient to have me move in" he said, shaking his head, "I don’t want Buffy getting dragged down by the current, trying to stay out of her way but..."

"I’m a genius!" Fred’s joyous cry made him stop and listen "Just cancel out the radical..." she paused considering it before sighing with frustration "Which causes a feedback wave that liquefies half of Los Angeles" she said throwing her paper across the desk "I'll never figure this out!" she complained, and Spike winced, seeing his possible only chance of salvation slipping away.

Fred left to go and find Wesley. She wasn’t quite out of ideas yet, but she was going to need his help if she was ever going to solve this.

"Not long now" a male voice chuckled in the emptiness making Spike shiver with it’s deathly tone.

"Spike?" Buffy called as she appeared through the wall, "Why did you run off like that?" she said in frustration, "I’m the only one who can still see and hear you, you idiot" she said quite angrily as she came towards him, "You have to tell me what is happening"

"Don’t want you near me, pet, not now" he said backing up fast, "This thing, I can’t control it, and I don’t want it getting you too"

"What is going to get me, Spike? I don’t understand" she said exasperated by the whole thing. She was losing him again and this time she couldn’t go with him, he wasn’t going to let her. The least he could do was explain what was happening and why.

"Making my final trip, luv" he said with sad smile from beyond a couple of desks he knew she could pass through anyway, but at least wanting to fool himself he was putting safe distance between them, "Fire and brimstone won’t wait forever, sending it’s people round to fetch me"

"No" Buffy shook her head in disbelief, "No, you’re a champion, you’re not going...there" she said, almost in tears by now.

"I saved the world for you, luv" her reminded her, "Not for the glory, not to atone. I did it because I needed the world to keep on turning so you had a place to live on" he smiled, "Kinda buggered that plan by hanging on and letting yourself burn in my arms, but...doesn’t change the fact, you might be saved yet"

"What good is my being saved if you’re gone?" she cried.

"You don’t need me, pet, you never did" he told her, so wanting to touch her again, just one last time before he had to go forever.

"You just said you saved the world for me" she snapped, "You did it to save me, and now I want to save you, and I’m going to whether you like it or not"

"That’s what she thinks" said a voice that only Spike could hear.

"What are you...?" he asked the ceiling, "Who are you?"

"He is death and hell and everything you fear" said the armless woman he’d seen before as she appeared in the corner and came towards him, blocking Buffy from his view, "Reapers gonna take you" she laughed maniacally and then she was gone.

"Reaper?" Spike frowned, "Is that what this is about, the bloody Reaper?"

"Reaper?" Buffy echoed, "The dark soul is the Reaper?" she guessed, "Spike!" she called as his form began to flicker and fade. In a second he was gone.

"The Reaper" Buffy repeated as she turned and ran for Angel’s office. She was going to save Spike, she had to, and with the gangs help she would.

"Hello William" said the male voice again as a figure stepped out of the shadows, "I believe you’ve been expecting me"

"You, you’re the Reaper?" the ex-vampire asked, looking him over, "Don’t look like much to be afraid of"

"Looks can be deceiving" the old-fashioned English spectre grinned evilly, "Your own as well as mine. Why your friends do not see you...and your girl" he added, staring after her.

"You leave her out of this" Spike snapped, "I deserve hell, I know it, she doesn’t"

"Not part of the plan, dear boy" the man shook his head, "Only the tainted souls will keep me here. You go and I shall stay"

"Not tonight mate" the bleached blond said with a shake of his head, hastily striding away through the wall.

"Have your fun, vampire" the apparent ‘Reaper’ smirked, "It will not last for long"

"The Reaper" Buffy yelled as she came into Angel’s office through the wall, causing Lorne to jump so violently he threw a sea-breeze all over the carpet, "Cross-reference Dark Soul with The Reaper" she told them, finding it strange that after all the running she’d done she wasn’t at all out of breath.

"Got it" Gunn nodded, "Matthias Pavayne, dark soul number one-eighty-two"

Wesley flicked pages in the refence book until he found what he was looking for.

"Matthias Pavayne" he read from the text "European aristocrat, eighteenth century. He was a doctor, nicknamed ‘The Reaper’ for performing unnecessary surgery on his patients. There's a file on him in internal archives, classified histories"

"He worked for Wolfram & Hart?" Gunn frowned and Wes shook his head.

"Not exactly" he replied before reading allowed from the book in his hand "‘Word spread of his unorthodox practices, and he fled to California. His arrival coincided with a rash of brutal, ritualistic murders, and pieces of the victims placed in a manner suggesting an intimate knowledge of the dark arts’" he went on "‘The slaughter continued for the better part of twenty years, but the perpetrator was never caught...at least, not by the authorities’"

"Wolfram & Hart took this guy out" Angel guessed, "but why? Aren’t they supposed to employ evil like this Pavayne"

"They needed his blood" Wesley realised as he read on through the text, "Representatives from Wolfram & Hart were looking to build a new branch in what would eventually become Los Angeles. Unfortunately a Spanish mission was already resting on the site their seers recommended, and they needed an appropriate sacrifice to deconsecrate the grounds"

"So this place was built on the blood of a mass-murdering psychopath?" Gunn said thoughtfully, "That actually explains a lot"

"It does" Angel nodded thoughtfully, "That text said Pavayne knew about the dark arts. Maybe he knew enough to figure out a way to stick around"

"But how would he do that?" Buffy threw in. She’d been listening to the three guys discussing this til it made her head spin. She just wanted to find a way to save Spike, the rest was irrelevant.

"I have a suggestion" Lorne piped up, "Spike’s seeing ghosts that no-one else can, speaking from a mystical point of view, maybe they’re not really here" the green demon suggested.

"They’re here enough that Spike can see them" Buffy reminded him.

"But neither Spike or you are running on the same wavelength as the rest of us, honey-pie" he told her, "If this Pavayne guys whats to stick around, chances are he’s using the life force of other evils to do it, kinda munching on their essences to stay here in limbo-land"

"If he’s doing that, Spike could be next" the Slayer said, eyes and voice full of worry.

"He won’t be" Angel assured her, "We’re not gonna let it go that far"

Whilst he knew he was agreeing to save the unruly grand-childe he’d quite happily see dead and gone for good, Angel knew he had to help him. If Buffy lost Spike she’d probably blame the LA crew and he couldn’t bear to be any more firmly in her bad books. Besides if Pavayne was successful in taking Spike, there was nothing to stop him making Buffy his next target.

"Pavayne!" Spike yelled in the foyer, "That you is it, mate?" he called to the man who had threteaned him moments ago, "They know who you are now, found out before you dragged me too far"

"They will not help you" Pavayne chuckled as he came into view walking down the stairs towards Spike, "You are under my control"

"Under no-one’s bleedin control you stupid wanker" he countered, trying to hide the fact he was truly scared.

"Think you know vampire, you have no idea" his nemesis grinned, "I control all here, whether they see you, feel you..."

"You" Spike snapped, "You made it so they couldn’t see me" he realised, "and Buffy, can’t touch me anymore"

"More than that" Pavayne chuckled, "So much you don’t understand...Reality bends, my desire" he said with a gesture and suddenly they were back in the basement.

"So what now then?" Spike asked, jutting out his chin, determined to look strong even if he was feeling less so, "More of your friends coming to play or you just gonna stand there talking til you bore me to return-less death?"

"Now" Pavayne smirked dangerously, gesturing with a hand that opened up a swirling black portal a few feet away, "You make your final journey, William"

"Yes!" Fred called triumphantly as she swung out the door of her office and down the steps, "Angel, I think I’ve got it!" she said with a grin as she reached the gang that were all still researching in various parts of the lab.

"You have a way to stop Pavayne getting Spike?" Buffy checked hopefully and Fred nodded.

"Better, I have a way to recorporealise both Spike and you" the scientist told her and the Slayer would’ve smiled if she were not so worried about her love, "If you two are back to solid form Pavayne can’t harm you"

"And it’ll work?" Angel asked, making the grin fall a little from Fred’s face.

"Well, I had to extrapolate a new variation on interdimensional plasma dynamics on the fly, but if the math holds..."

"Okay" the souled vamp nodded "First we'll try to get Buffy and Spike corporeal, then we'll deal with Pavayne"

"Wait" Wesley interrupted as he looked over the calculations Fred had made "Surely for this to work, it's going to require a massive surge of dark energy to catalyse the process"

"How massive?" Buffy checked, looking worried, already considering letting them just corporealize Spike to save on needing so much power.

"The equivalent of nuclear evil" Fred admitted.

The gang looked thoughtful before finally Gunn spoke up.

"I might have an idea..."

"Think you’re so grand and mighty" Pavayne sneered, holding Spike’s arm up behind his back and preparing to throw him into the black portal that writhed in front of them, "The vampire who sought out his soul. Doesn’t undo what you did, boy, how much you must suffer to atone"

"Didn’t do it for the glory, you stupid son of a bitch" Spike growled, trying to get free of the other ghost’s grip and finding it impossible.

"Ah yes, the girl" The Reaper grinned evilly, "All for love, so you say. Now you find it makes no difference, hell still wants to take you. My wish to feed you to the fire, allows me the privilege" he laughed as he made to push the vampire forward.

Spike dug his heels into the floor, struggling to keep away from the mouth of hell. Pavayne’s words rang in his ears, the image of Buffy was burned into his mind. He had to fight to stay for her at least, if he wanted her enough surely he could... He stopped mid-thought as realisation dawned. Concentrating hard he found he could shrink the portal which would swallow him whole, decrease it’s size until it disappeared altogether and with all the force he possessed he pulled himself free from Pavayne at last.

"You dare!" the evil spirit yelled and Spike grinned.

"Quite a bit actually, mate" he told him "Reality bends to desire. That was it, right? That's why Buffy and me could touch each other all this time, why she saw me when no-one else did. All we had to do was want it bad enough" he glared "And guess what I want to do now, you prissy son of a bitch!"

"Make sure it's calibrated to minus .058" Fred told Wesley as he fiddled with some controls and Angel put the last piece in place to make the circle on the ground. Buffy paced up and down hating feeling so useless. As a ghost she couldn’t help at all with building the machine that would re-corporealize herself and Spike, she only hoped it’d work so they could be together again, and that Pavayne wouldn’t take Spike before they had a chance to save him.

Gunn returned from the White Room with a flask of black liquid, Buffy could only assume it was the dark energy the gang had been talking about. It reminded her of the evil beings that ran Wolfram & Hart and the terrible things the company was capable of. She so wanted this process of Fred’s to work so she and Spike could get out of here, she just hated being stuck at Evil Inc, and she hated Angel a little bit for making the decision he had in taking over such a place.

"I think we're almost ready" Fred interrupted the Slayer’s thoughts and she turned to her.

"How do we let Spike know?" she asked and it was Wesley that answered her.

"We won’t have to, the power this releases will be enough to attract any spectre’s attention" he explained, encouraging Buffy to stand next to the circle, ready for Spike’s arrival. They would have to get into the ring together at exactly the same moment or one would be left behind, incorporeal whilst the other would gain their solidity once again.

As Fred flicked the switch and lights flickered all around Buffy closed her eyes and concentrated, hoping maybe Spike could hear the words she spoke within her head. The amulet had tied them together, maybe they had a mind link or something. She had to hope, it was all she had right now.

"Come on Spike" she whispered, and thought he didn’t hear her, he was trying as hard as he could to be back at her side.

"You bloody wanker" he yelled as he smacked Pavayne across the face once again.

"The vampire wishes to fight" the enemy gasped, as he reeled back, "Then fight we shall" he grinned, coming back at Spike with gusto. With no blood to spill, injury was not apparent on either ghost but the strikes hurt as much as if they were both solid. They crashed silently through the door of the lab and Buffy opened her eyes when she sensed Spike’s presence in the room.

"He’s here" she told the gang, so happy to know she could see him now, "And so is Pavayne" she added, running from the edge of the circle to join the fray. Without thinking she swung a fist at the enemy and made contact with a sickening crunch.

"Concentration, luv, ’s all it takes" Spike told her joyously as they pummelled the evil spectre. The vampire threw the Reaper across the room but he never landed, instead disappeared.

"Think you’re clever, do you, boy?" his voice chuckled from an unknown space as Spike stepped forward into the space where Pavayne ought to have been.

"No" Buffy cried as he appeared behind her and grabbed her in a choke hold that even the Slayer couldn’t get out of.

Spike looked panicked as he watched, only reacting when Fred called to him.

"Spike, Buffy, get into the circle, and hurry!" she urged, "We've only got one chance at making you corporeal again!"

"Well then, time to make a choice" Pavayne grinned, "Your girl, or your flesh?" he asked.

"’S not a choice" Spike shook his head, running full pelt at Pavayne and Buffy, throwing them both into the circle, "Was always going to be Buffy" he added softly as a huge flash of light made everyone in the room turn away.

A moment later Buffy stood up from the circle, stumbling as she tried to get out. Angel reached to catch her and did so with ease, confirming she was indeed corporeal again.

"No! Defilers!" Pavayne screamed as he scrambled to his feet "I’ll cut you into nothing! I'll feast on your brains. I'll swim in lakes of your own blood!"

"You'll shut the hell up" Buffy snapped, finding her strength was back as she spun kicked him into a cabinet across the room.

"Don't kill him" Spike called as he came back into view and Angel strode angrily over to the ex evil spirit, pulling him up by his shirt "If he becomes a spirit again, we'll never stop him.

"Fine" Angel conceded, "No killing. Just a whole lot of bruising" he grinned as he punched Pavayne in the face, sending him unconscious with ease.

Buffy glanced back at the destroyed equipment that had brought herself and the enemy back to solid form, than she glanced at Spike. Everyone was aware of the sacrifice Spike had made, to save his woman and everyone else. The pair needed to be alone now, that much was obvious, and the gang slowly dissipated taking Pavayne’s beaten form with them.

"Look at you" Spike smiled when they were gone, "Not a ghosty anymore, Slayer" he said pointlessly, "Not tied here to this bloody awful place...or to me" he added somewhat sadly, scuffing the toe of his boot on the ground.

"Spike" Buffy sighed, moving to stand in front of him, "Don’t you understand that I want to be tied to you" she told him before making a face, "Okay so that came out way more bondage than I meant but...you know what I mean"

"What life can I offer you, pet?" he sighed, "Even less now than I could as a vampire"

"I don’t care" Buffy shook her head, "We’ll find a way to bring you back, we will...and even if it’s not possible, I still love you, and I always will" she promised him.

"Love you too, Slayer" he reminded her, "’S why I saved you instead of my own worthless hide, cos you mean more to me than life itself"

Tears ran down Buffy’s cheeks at the sound of his beautiful words and part of her wished she were still a ghost, at least that way they were solid to each other.

"I so wanna touch you right now" she cried and Spike hated to see it.

"’S not impossible" he told her gently, concentrating so hard as he lifted a hand to her cheek and wiped away a tear.

Buffy closed her eyes, wishing the slight contact could be more but loving anything she could get right now.

"Like I told you, pet" he explained, "You want it bad enough you can make it happen"

"Here she is then, big brain herself" Spike smirked as he found Fred alone in her office sometime later. He’d convinced the Slayer to get some sleep, the effect of the re-corporealisation had really taken it out of her. He felt the need to thank Fred for her part in bringing back the Slayer and for trying to help him too.

"If my brain were big enough I could have brought you back too" the scientist sighed, "I’m sorry" she apologised.

"Don’t s’pose there’s any chance of you building another of your fancy machines then?" Spike asked her as he walked around the desk.

"Most of the pieces I used on this one were practically non-existent to start with. Even if I could replace them, the chances of finding another power source..." she trailed off feeling terrible for the vampire-ghost who she felt deserved so much better than this.

"Don't worry about it, luv" he told her "I made my choice, saved Buffy. Wouldn't change it for the world" he assured her.

"How’s she doing?" Fred asked after the Slayer and Spike sighed.

"Not much better than me" he admitted, "Got used to being close to her, closer than I ever really got before and now...might as well have an ocean between us"

"I really am sorry" Fred apologise again and Spike rolled his eyes.

"Will you stop bloody apologising" he complained good-naturedly, "It’s not your fault, okay? ‘Sides, I picked up a little trick amongst all the fun and fighting" he demonstrated by connecting and picking up her coffee mug, handing it to her.

"’S not much" he shrugged, "Better than nothing though. Probably the one useful thing that Pavayne ever did was teach me that little wonder...speaking of, what happens to the git now?" he checked.

"Oh, Angel took care of it" Fred assured him, "We have a kind of...storage facility under the building. It’ll hold him in a kind of stasis forever, which is icky really" she considered, "but we can’t let him die again"

"Buggers never stay dead" Spike shook his head, "And believe me, I should know" he smirked.

"You’re not a bugger" Fred told him, "Whatever that is" she frowned when she realised she had no clue, "You’re a good man, Spike. You put Buffy and all of us before yourself"

"What can I say pet" Spike shrugged, "Must be goin’ a bit soft in my old age"

"Thanks so much for this, Fred" said Buffy as they came into the apartment together, "I promise I’ll pay you back as soon as I can"

It was the day after Team Angel had managed to re-corporealise Buffy, leaving just Spike in a ghostly form. The Slayer couldn’t bear the thought of staying in any room Angel offered her at Wolfram and Hart, not now she had the choice of leaving. Still, going any further than a few streets away was impossible for her, knowing that Spike was still tied to the evil law firm and consequently to central LA.

Fred had felt so bad for not doing a thorough job, i.e. not bringing both of the couple back to solid form, and had quickly offered Buffy to come and stay with her as long as she needed. She also loaned her a little money to buy a few clothes and essentials.

"It’s just money, Buffy" the Texan told her, "and not even all that much...’sides I could use a little female company. The guys are great but..." she rolled her eyes to convey her meaning and Buffy nodded her understanding.

"I think Xander used to feel like that sometimes back in Sunnydale" she told her new friend, "When Giles went back to England it was pretty much just him and all us girls...except for Spike" she went silent as soon as she mentioned his name, hating it so much that they could no longer touch each other. She felt like crying and he wasn’t there to hold her, she wanted to kiss him but could only do so briefly since it took all his concentration.

"We will find a way to help him, Buffy, I swear" Fred promised her, putting a comforting hand to his arm.

"I know" the Slayer nodded, forcing a smile, "It’s just...it’s not easy seeing someone you love suffer the way he is. Spike’s just one of those guys that needs to be doing something. Feeling useless drives him insane"

"Oh I know that feeling" Fred sighed, sitting down on the couch heavily as Buffy joined her, "After five years in a place where human’s are treated like cattle, it’s so great to be back here and be able to do what I want"

"All I want is for things to go back to the way they were, like the night before the big fight in Sunnydale" she sighed, "Me and Spike talked for hours...I didn’t think I’d be able to sleep I was so ready for the battle. He told me I should try anyway, to get some rest, he held me in his arms and right before I fell asleep I heard him whisper how much he loved me, and how no matter what happened to either of us that love would last forever"

"That’s beautiful" Fred commented, feeling almost as emotional as Buffy looked, tears collecting in her eyes and threatening to spill over.

"I was such an idiot denying how I felt for so long" the Slayer realised, "Spike’s the one person who never judged me, ever. He loves me in a way I can’t begin to understand...it’s like, he puts everything he has into being in love, like it’s the most important thing in the whole world"

"Isn’t that how it should be?" her friend asked her, "I mean, shouldn’t love be the most important thing"

Buffy smiled at that and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess it should"

"In that case isn’t it time you called your friends and told them you’re here?" Fred suggested, "I mean, they oughta know you’re back and stuff. They love you and they think you’re...gone"

"I know, I should call Dawnie and Giles" Buffy nodded, "but what do I say? Hey guys, it’s me. Thought I was dead, huh? Guess again"

Fred frowned.

"Maybe something a little less...sarcastic and breezy?"

Buffy cracked a smile at that and rubbed her temples with her fingers as if she felt a migraine coming on.

"Why is life never simple?" she wondered aloud and Fred put a hand on hers, patting it gently.

"It’ll get better, sweetie" she promised as she got up from the couch.

"How do you know?" Buffy asked with a disbelieving look, but Fred was smiling as she stood in the doorway to the kitchen looking back at her friend.

"I have three kinds of ice-cream in the ice box" she grinned as Buffy scrambled from the couch and speeded after her. Nothing aided a depression or a complicated situation like Rocky Road, Cookie Dough, and Double Chocolate Chunk.

"Slayer" Spike grinned when he saw her enter the building with Fred, "S’been a long night without you" he pouted as she came over to him.

"Tell me about it" she sighed, "but on the up-side, Fred has a great apartment, and we’ve been spending some quality time with two very fine gentlemen" she said seriously. Spike’s face was an absolute picture until the Texan put him out of his misery.

"One is named Ben and the other one is Jerry" she told him as Buffy burst into a fit of giggles.

"That was a dirty trick, Slayer" Spike howled as he followed her down the corridor, passing through the wall as she went through the door and arriving in Angel’s office momentarily before she did.

"Spike" Angel greeted coolly, "And Buffy too"

"Angel" she nodded, "I just wanted you to know I called Dawn and Giles last night. They’re coming over in a couple of days and they’ll be staying at a hotel for a while, I don’t know how long yet but I won’t be going anywhere until Spike can go with me" she told him firmly.

"Okay" her ex lover nodded, knowing better than to argue with her on this, "Y’know you’re welcome to stay here, Dawn and Giles too, I mean we have plenty of..."

"No, Angel" Buffy cut him off in frustration, "I already told you, I can’t be here, not all the time"

"But Buffy..." he tried, she was having none of it.

"Angel, please" she sighed, "Will you stop with the whole ‘changing things from the inside’ speech. I already had it from Fred, Wes, Gunn, hell even Lorne tried a short and slightly musical version and I still don’t care" she told him, "You couldn’t beat evil so you decided to join it, that’s your perogative, but I won’t be jumping into a Hell Incorporated hot seat any time soon"

With that she turned on her heel and sped out of the door, Spike following her, though the ex-vampire stopped just briefly to give his old grand-sire a self-satisfied smirk before he left.

"That’s tellin’ him, luv" he was still smiling when he caught up to Buffy in the corridor, "Should’ve seen his face after you...Pet?" he checked when he realised she was crying.

"I’m sorry" she apologised as she turned away from him, "I don’t know what’s the matter with me"

"Yes you do" Spike told her gently, so wishing he could hold her right now and having to settle for a momentary touch of his hand on her shoulder, "Come on, tell Spike all about it"

"It’s so stupid" she almost laughed at herself except she couldn’t stem the flow of tears enough to make it convincing, "I just, I loved Angel so much, even still do though not in an in love way obviously just in a friend kind of way or whatever, y’know?" Spike nodded along although she’d very nearly lost him in the middle of all that rambling, "He meant so much to me and he said such awful things about you being evil and everything...I can’t believe I came so close to ruining any chance of us being together by clinging to my relationship with him" she told her love, as she brought her red-rimmed eyes up to meet his.

"You can’t ruin what’s between us, luv" Spike promised her, "My love for you sustained much worse than that snog you had with Peaches the night before the big fight" he reminded her, "And the old bugger’s been insultin’ me to my face for decades, never bothered me then, doesn’t bother me now"

"Well, it bothers me" Buffy pointed out, "He can’t treat you like that anymore. You proved to everyone, to the world what a great man you can be, what a great man you really are" she said solemnly with so much love pouring out of her eyes for him that Spike knew he wouldn’t be able to breathe even if a vampire-ghost needed to.

"That what you’re gonna tell your Watcher and Lil Sis when they get here?" he asked, glancing away, "Gonna tell them I’m this great person and you just have to stay in LA on the off chance I suddenly get re-solidified somehow?"

"I already did" Buffy told him, "When I called last night, I explained what happened with the amulet and us coming back together. I told them about Pavayne and how you saved me...again" she smiled, "I said to them just what I said to Angel, that I’d be staying here until I could leave with you at my side...cos it’s where you belong"

"Been tryin’ to tell you that for years enough" he sighed, "Now it’s finally sunk in and it’s bloody impossible for us to..."

"Ssh" she told him, putting a finger to his lips though she couldn’t actually touch him, "You will get re-corporealised" she promised him, "Fred and Wes will do everything they can and I’m gonna try too. There has to be some way to bring you back"

"Bloody hope so, luv" Spike agreed, "Just about killing me not being able to touch you"

"Not so great from here either" she told him sadly.

"So, just the two of your mates coming over then is it?" he asked, desperate to change the subject before he bawled like baby in front of her.

"Yeah, seems Willow and Xander went to do their own thing after Sunnydale" Buffy explained as they walked down the corridor together, "Wills went to Brazil with Kennedy and Xand headed for Africa. They need time to be themselves I think after so long of being my back-up"

"They never minded y’know" Spike told her honestly, "We all wanted to be together with you, fighting the good fight. You inspired people to wanna help, Buffy, hell you inspired me to be the non-evil souled being I am now"

"It wasn’t all about me" she shook her head but he wouldn’t hear her denial.

"Can’t speak for the others of course" he told her, "but for me, yeah, it really was all about you. Always will be I reckon" he said as they stopped walking and he concentrated just enough to put his lips to hers for one painfully brief kiss that meant the world to her.

Three days passed and Buffy’s sister and Watcher were due to arrive at any moment. She was bouncing on her heels in the main foyer of Wolfram and Hart as she awaited their arrival and Spike equated her behaviour to that of a little kid at Christmas. It was kind of cute really but also a little annoying after a while as she constantly checked her watch and the clock and asked him to pass through several walls to check the clocks in other offices in case the first one was wrong.

"Really, luv, could you sit down or something" Spike begged her, "All that pacing about and such, it’s making me knackered just watching you"

"I can’t help it" the Slayer complained, "I can’t wait to see them"

"Oh to be bloody corporeal" Spike muttered, "I know a few choice ways to take your mind off things" he smirked suggestively and Buffy rolled her eyes.

"When you two have finished being gross" Harmony snapped from behind her desk, less afraid of the Slayer than she might be given her vampiric status, "There’s a package here for Spike"

"Who the hell would send post to a..."

"Ghost?" Buffy smirked in similar fashion to her lover as they both walked up the counter and looked own on the package that bore his name courtesy of Wolfram and Hart’s LA branch.

"You mind doin’ the honours pet?" he asked Buffy and she leant over the counter.

She pulled a knife from the sheath on her leg, something she went nowhere without on the W&H premises, and cut open the box in front of Spike so he could see as she opened it. A bright flash of green engulfed the room and the Slayer blinked awkwardly as she tried to get her focus back a moment later. The box appeared now to be empty.

"Well" Spike said with a look, "that was a slap and a tickle, I wonder..." he stopped short when he realised he needed to breathe to get the next few words out and there was a strange pounding feeling throughout his body, "Er, what the bloody hell is going on?" he checked, putting a hand to his chest. His heart seemed to be beating under his palm and Buffy frowned at his strange behaviour, not yet understanding, and becoming even more confused when her lover wobbled slightly and stuck out a hand to steady himself. His fingers hit the top of Harmony’s desk and stayed there, not passing though.

"Spike?" Buffy said warily reaching out to him and loving the fact she could feel the leather of his coat beneath her fingers, "Oh my God" she grinned, throwing herself into his arms and hugging him tight.

"Slayer, I..." he said uncertainly, "I’m breathing and I think...is my heart beating?" he checked, wondering if this was just some weird kind of dream. Buffy put her ear to his chest and grinned when she heard and felt the steady thump-thump of a human heart beat.

"Oh God, Spike" she almost squealed with delight, "I think, I think you’re alive" she said as she stood up straight and looked into his eyes.

"Buffy" he breathed, the feel of her so close to him driving him crazy. He dipped his head and kissed her with some considerable passion right there in the lobby, not caring who was watching as his hands roamed her body and he lifted her right off the floor.

"Oh Spike" she gasped, pulling away for air, "I can’t believe this has happened" she told him, so thrilled that it actually had. Better than just being corporealised somehow whatever was in that box that arrived for him had made Spike human, living and breathing just like her, "How did this...?" she started to ask but he soon stopped her talking as his lips descended on hers once again, kissing her til they were both breathless and their heads spun from lack of oxygen.

"Don’t bloody care how or why" he told her, "Just soddin’ glad it happened, cos God Slayer I want you so much it hurts"

They were back to the fevered kissing and groping within moments, promises of love expressed in muffled words as well as every touch of lips and hands. They were seconds away from doing things unfit for a general audience when the elevator doors pinged open and three stunned people stepped out, eyes wide at what they were seeing.

"Woah guys, keep it PG-13, huh?" Dawn said, pretending to hide her face behind her hand, but peeking through the gaps between her fingers anyway.

"Dawnie?" Buffy gasped as she finally seemed to notice she and Spike were not the only two people present, "Oh my God" she laughed and cried at the same time as she ran from Spike’s arms to hug her sister tight. Giles was next for the hugging and joyful tears were shed by all three. The third arrival who had so far stayed back to remain unnoticed walked over to Spike instead.

"Hey you" Willow smiled, reaching to hug him.

"Red, what the bleedin’ hell are you doin’ here?" the ex-vamp asked, a little startled but hugging her back none the less.

"You really think I’d risk sending a spell like that via the mail?" she rolled her eyes a she pulled away from him, "Tut-tut Spike, you know me better than that"

"You...?" he trailed off, glancing between the open and empty box on the counter and the smiling red-head before him, "Willow Rosenburg I could bloody snog you!" he declared, picking her up from the floor and spinning her around twice before setting her back on her feet grinning like an idiot. Dawn soon came running into his arms hugging him tightly, so pleased to have big brother back in her life. They’d made their peace a few weeks before the final fight of Sunnydale and she’d missed him almost as much as she’d missed Buffy these last few weeks.

"You’re alive" she cried as he held her tight, so glad to see her too.

"Looks that way, Bit" he agreed as Buffy looked on.

"The witch did good, huh?" Willow commented, hugging her friend and Buffy could barely answer as the emotion overtook her.

"I don’t know how you did it Will, but thankyou so much" she said solemnly.

"To be honest, I was pretty certain the whole solid thing would happen" she explained, "but the human part, that was kind of a bonus that could’ve gone either way"

"I’d have loved him anyway" Buffy admitted, "As a ghost, a vampire, it didn’t matter. He’s the one for me, Will"

"I know" the witch nodded, "We all knew, that’s why Fred and Wes called me and asked for my help"

"Fred and Wes?" Buffy said with an astonished look. She’d lived with the Texan, spent all her free time with both her and the ex-Watcher and yet they’d never told her that they’d called Willow about all this.

"She was the only person I could think of that might be able to work this" Fred explained as she and Wesley appeared in the now quite crowded foyer.

"Thankyou" Buffy cried all over again as she hugged first one then the other member of Team Angel.

"You lot have done me a huge favour" Spike smiled as he walked over to Buffys side and took her hand tightly in his, "I dunno where to begin" he admitted as he glanced around at the three brains.

"It’s no problem" Fred told him, looking a little embarrassed, "Like me and Buffy were sayin’ the other day; love’s the most important thing. Nothin’ should get in the way of that"

"I’ll second that" Willow agreed with a grin.

"Gotta say I agree" Spike added, "and with that in mind" he said, giving Fred a serious look, "Do me one more little favour would you, pet?"

"What?" the scientist asked warily and Spike grinned.

"Bloody snog your man Wesley here before you both grow too old to remember how!" he told her in frustration. Both her and Wesley looked at him with some shock and Buffy batted him across the arm for being that way with people who had just done him such a great favour.

"I’m sorry, luv, but watching these to ponce around each other, both avoiding the obvious feelings they have for each other has been driving me round the soddin’ bend!" he complained "And on top of that I..."

"Er, guys?" Willow interrupted his rant and stopped Buffy from retorting, signalling for them to look at Fred and Wes who had apparently done exactly what they’d been told to and stood not five feet away, joined at the lips.

‘Today may just have been the best day of my life’ Spike thought to himslef as he lay on a large towel on the warm sand with Buffy wrapped in his arms. They’d spent the past few hours finding out if making love on the beach was as beautiful as it sounded. The conclusion was it was even better than they could’ve imagined, but then they both suspected that had a lot more to do with who they were with than where they were.

Spike sighed and pulled his woman tighter to him as he realised she’d fallen asleep in his embrace. God she was beautiful, he could spend hours just laying at her side gazing contentedly at her. He had no idea she did the same thing some nights, watching the wonder of him breathing.

Right now, Spike wasn’t the least bit sleepy and so he began cataloguing all the perfect days from the past month. The day he’d become human, all thanks to Willow who he was certain he’d love for all time, though of course not in the same way he loved his Slayer. That same day he and Buffy had told Angel they were leaving and never planned on setting foot in his evil law firm ever again, that’d made for a perfect day all by itself.

Then there was the first day when they arrived back in England and they’d finally got a chance to prove feelings they’d had for so long by making sweet love together. Spike was fairly certain the walls at Giles’ house weren’t quite as thick as the Watcher would’ve liked, though the poor bloke never said anything.

Spike, his Slayer, and the Little Bit had since travelled across Europe, having the time of their lives on a large chunk of the insurance money received for the fall of Sunnydale. Italy had charmed Buffy and Dawn, and Spike knew they’d be happy never to leave. The day of their flight back to England he’d surprised them by telling them he’d got the money back on their plane tickets and put down a deposit on an apartment by the beach.

Now every day was perfect, or close enough and Spike often spent time like this, counting blessings he wasn’t even entirely sure he deserved.

"Hey" Buffy said softly as she woke from her slumber, "How long was I alseep?" she asked as she shifted and rubbed her eyes.

"Not long, pet" Spike told her, kissing the top of her head absently.

"What’re you thinking about?" she asked as she looked up and realised he was looking all pensive.

"Just things" he shrugged, "Life, love, nothing heavy" he joked.

Buffy reached up to kiss his lips, smiling when she pulled away.

"Every time I wake up, I wonder if I dreamt all this" she admitted, "I can’t belive how happy I am, how well everything worked out"

"Know what you mean, sweetheart" he agreed, "Doesn’t get much more perfect than this, does it?"

"Maybe it does" Buffy said softly, looking down and then up again into his eyes, "Spike...how would you feel about being a Daddy?" she asked him.

"You’re...You’re pregnant?" he stammered almost unable to believe what he was hearing.

"Pretty certain" Buffy admitted, a little worried what his reaction might be. They’d breifly talked about marriage being a thing they’d do one day in the future but the subject of children had never really come up, "Spike, say something" she urged him, and he suddenly seemed to realise how worried she was.

"Oh Slayer, you have no idea how much I love you" he told her with a smile, "Or how much I adore the idea of us having a kid together"

He kissed her then leaving no doubt in her mind that he was indeed thrilled and that he loved her unequivocally as he always said he did. There was no denying anymore that she loved him equally as much too, and that love would last an eternity.

The End