oooo

“I love you.” She said, at last telling him her true feelings before he died.

There they were. The words he had longed to hear for almost three years now. Maybe he’d known before this, he’d suspected. But she never said it. And now she had.
But why now? At his last moment? Because he knew that was what it was; his last moment. He would die in a few seconds.

Oh god, and if she didn’t get out of here, she would too. As a last resort, he looked her in the eyes and smiled a little. “No, you don’t. But thanks for saying it.” He said, denying her love for him, even though he knew she did.

There was another earthquake. She had to get out, now! “Now go!” He yells, and she left. “I wanna see how it ends.” He said to himself, not really convincing himself, but knowing it’s what he had to do. For the world. For Buffy.

Then the light on him was burning so badly, his entire body was combusting. His skin began to crumble, and finally, as the town was starting to implode, Spike turned to dust.

oooo

Darkness. Everywhere around him, was nothing but big black darkness. He still felt as though he was himself, but at the same time, not. He tried to look around, but there was really not an ‘around’ too look. Must be hell. He though to himself.

Suddenly a light appeared in the distance. As he drew closer to it, he could hear faint sounds.
He got closer, and he recognized it as music. He squinted his eyes, and could distinguish figures in the image that was appearing.

Suddenly he was right in front of it all. He immediately recognized the place. The Bronze. Why the bleedin’ hell am I seein’ the Bronze? So is this what the afterlife’s like? He looked around, obviously confused. Then he saw a very familiar person in front of him. The same hair, same coat, same…bloody hell, he was looking at himself.

Out of curiosity he followed himself through the crowd, literally passing through the dancing people. He saw himself stopping near a table, looking at the dance floor, circling around it. Spike followed the gaze of his own image, and gasped when he saw her. Dancing.

She was swaying to the music in a sort of sensual way, but in the same time laughing with her friends. But there was something so familiar about this scene. Wait a minute…This was the night when he and Buffy first met. He recognized the way she danced, and the way he was prowling around her, observing her.

Why am I seeing this?

“Let’s just say…it’s a second chance.” He startled when he heard her voice right beside him. He turned, and had to gasp again. It was her, the way she had been at that last moment. He was about to speak, when she held up her hand. “Don’t get all excited, this is just a form.” She told him sternly.

“Right. Knew that.” He said, and cleared his throat. He glanced at himself by the dance floor, saying something to a bystander to get Buffy’s attention. “Uh, you were saying something about a second chance?”

“Exactly.” The Buffyform said. “Why don’t we put this on pause for a minute.” She said, and snapped her fingers, and suddenly it was dead silent, and all the people stopped moving. Spike snapped his head back to her. “Good, now I’ve got your undivided attention. We’re sending you back.”

Spike frowned. “Back to what?”

“Back to the beginning. To where you first met the Slayer.”

“I don’t understand…Why?”

“That’s what I was gonna tell you, if you’d be patient.” Buffyform said, raising her eyebrows at Spike, who nodded a bit. “Right. Now see, it all wasn’t supposed to happen. Well, not really. The First was never supposed to be able to get that powerful. In fact, all the things that happened in the last six or so years. All that, lead to the powerboost the First got. From Willow going evil, down to Angel losing his soul. Of course, the First was defeated in the end, so when you look at it, it didn’t really do that much damage.”

Spike raised an incredulous eyebrow.

“Well yeah, lotsa people died and all, but all in all, the world still rotates and everything. But what we’re trying to do here, is see if it could be better. That’s why we’re sending you back to where you two first met, so you can change it, just by being on her side from the start.

“Now we don’t expect you to do this big heroic, life-altering, damsel in distress act…again, or anything. You just have to…you know, make her fall in love with you.”

“What?” Spike asked with big eyes.

“Well you see, that’s what makes everything different. If Buffy doesn’t sleep with Angel he would never lose his soul, Acathla would never be raised, and all that stuff wouldn’t happen. And come on, it’s not like it’ll be that hard, you’ve done it before.”

“Yeah, and it only took me two and a half years to finally get there. And besides, send me back to this time, and she’ll be droolin’ all over Peaches.”

The Buffyform sighed. “Look, you love the girl right?” Spike nodded. “And wouldn’t this be better than what would happen if we didn’t send you back?”

“What would happen?”

“You come out of the amulet in Angel’s office as a ghost, you get your body back eventually but you stick with Angel’s team instead of going to Buffy and after a year you die again in a big battle.”

“Right then.” Spike nodded. He wasn’t too sure how he felt about going six years in the past, erasing everything that happened between him and Buffy, and starting all over again. But it sounded better than sticking with Angel and his chums.

“So you’ll go?” She asked, receiving a curt nod from Spike. “Good. Now you’ll remember everything that happened in the last few years, just so you know which side you’re supposed to be on. Also, you’ll still have your soul.
You can tell Buffy about all this if you want, who knows, maybe she’ll admire you for it. But, it’s not reversible, so if anything happens that you don’t like, that’s just too bad.

“Remember, this thing is just to see what might have happened, had you been there to prevent all of it. If it turns out to be with the same end result, or maybe even worse, we’ll turn everything back to the way it happened now, okay?”

“Yeah.” Spike said, still a little confused about what exactly was going to happen.

“Okay then.” The Buffyform said with a bright smile. “Good luck!” She snapped her fingers, and everything started moving again and the sounds came back. Only now he wasn’t watching himself anymore, he was himself.

He saw the younger Buffy hurrying outside. He took a deep, shaky breath. God was he nervous. He went after her, just in time to see her lunge the first kick at the vampire in front of her. If he remembered correctly, after she had staked this vampire, he had come out of the shadows clapping, and telling her he was gonna kill her on st. Vigeous day. Not this time though, this time…what was he going to do this time? Walk up to her, introduce himself like ‘Hi, I’m Spike, the guy who will be helping you out from now on, and oh yeah, I have a soul too like that nancy-boy you fancy. By the way, I’m very much in love with you.’? Yeah that’d come over real well. He thought sarcastically.

“Spike! Gimme a hand!” The vampire yelled, and he snapped out of his thoughts. Well, it’s now or never. He took a deep breath, and just as Xander came out of the building with a stake for Buffy, he stepped out of the shadows and grabbed the vampire by the throat, delivering two punches before grabbing his head, twisting it and tearing with all his strength to pull the head off the vamp, causing it to turn into dust in his hands.

Buffy, Willow and Xander all stood frozen at their spots, staring at the leather clad man who had just come out of the shadows and violently killed that vamp.

Spike looked up, and his unbeating heart did a little back flip when his eyes met Buffy’s. She looked way younger. Not six years younger, but a lifetime. She was still carefree and full of spirit now, not having faced everything she had later on. “Hi.” He said lamely. Hi!? That’s all you can come up with? He thought, mentally kicking himself.

“Who are you?” Buffy asked curiously. Whoever this guy was, he was hot. He had that whole, cheekbone, leather, bad boy thing going on. Only hope he’s not an actual bad boy.

Bollocks, this bites. He silently chuckled at his lame pun. Figures she doesn’t know who I am. He was trying to choose between straightforwardly telling her who he was, or being the mystery guy and keep her curious. “Name’s Spike.” Balls!

Xander chuckled a bit. “Spike? What kind of a name is that?” Then his eyes grew big, and took a small step back. “Unless you’re here to kill us all, in that case, great name!” He said lamely while holding up two thumbs.

Spike rolled his eyes. That Xander would never change, would he? “Let’s just say, I’m on your side.” He said, still trying to save the mysterious act he had wanted to go for.

Buffy just couldn’t tear her eyes away from this strange guy. There was just something about him that made her want to …do stuff she wasn’t supposed to know about. Well at least he’s one of the good guys…or so he says.

“See you around, Buffy.” Spike said, and turned around to disappear in the shadows, hoping he left an impression on her.

Buffy turned to Willow and Xander with big eyes. “How does that guy know my name?”

“I don’t know but he was all…” Willow shuddered a little. “Wasn’t he?” She asked with a sly smile at Buffy.

“Oh yeah, definitely. Totally with the hotness.”

“Oh please! That guy? He was no big whoop! His hair was all bleachy, and I bet ya, that accent? Toootally fake.” Xander said with a nod, feeling the need to reassure himself of his own manliness.

Buffy just shared a knowing smile with Willow, and went back inside, wondering about the hot stranger who she’d just met.

oooo

Spike wandered aimlessly through the cemetery. He still wasn’t exactly sure about what he was supposed to do, now that he was sent back, about which he was still confused too. Okay, yeah, he could change the entire future, but even the Powers weren’t sure if that was going to work out.

And how was he going to make her choose him over that bloody poofter? She and he were probably already a big, fluffy couple right now.

Out of frustration he kicked a gravestone to shreds. It wasn’t just that she was now in love with Angel, but their entire history, their memories together…it was all gone. She had no idea who he was, and he still had all the memories of everything they did together for six years. Six years were just erased, like it was nothing.

He was about to head to his crypt when a thought struck him. Dru. The factory. The Annoying One. He still had that all to take care of. The Anointed was easy, just put him in a cage and fry him like last time, but Dru…She was still sick now, he couldn’t just leave her…could he? Sure, he didn’t really love her anymore, but she was still his sire. She had been his mate for over a hundred years.

With a deep sigh he decided to just go to the factory first, kill the Anointed One and his minions and go from there.

oooo

He entered the factory, looking around warily. He had almost forgotten where it was, let alone what it looked like on the inside. Voices were coming from the room ahead, so he slowly walked up to it.

“Spike.” The small vampire boy called Collin, the Anointed One, called when he saw Spike enter. “You’re late. Have you killed the Slayer yet?”

Spike stepped forward, unsure how to handle this. “Well, not exactly. I thought about it, but I changed my mind.” He said, and looked around for a piece of wood. Spotting a chair nearby, he casually walked over to it. “I’d rather,” he broke the chair roughly and took one sharp piece. “be killing you.”

At that the three minions that were standing about, watching him, growled in outrage and went to attack. But Spike had been expecting them, and killed them all easily, seeing as they were just dumb minions. Then he walked up to Collin, who showed a little fear in his usually expressionless eyes. “And now, my boy, for you. Now I usually don’t like repeating myself…but last time I killed you it was just too darn fun, so…” Spike suddenly yanked him out of his chair and threw him in the same cage as last time, and hauled him up to meet the sun that would rise in a few hours.

“Spike?” A weak voice suddenly came from behind him. He turned around to meet Drusilla standing there with a stranger look in her eyes than usual. He walked up to her. “Oh my Spike, what have the bad fairies done to my sweet Spike?” She asked, running her hands over his cheek. Suddenly she gasped and stepped away from him as though he was something disgusting. “You reek of it, the sparkly tinker. It stinks.” She whimpered, and grabbed her head in remorse. “Mean stars put some of their light inside you. And her. Her light shines all over you.” She didn’t have to have met the Slayer to know who the girl inside Spike’s head was.

“I’m sorry, love.” Was all Spike could say. He sort of felt sorry for her. Now she was all alone, no one to take care of her. Wouldn’t it be better if he just put her out of her misery…? But he knew he could never do it.

So instead he led her to her bed, she too weak to object. If she’d let him, he’d take care of her…for now. Not too long, for it would definitely stand in the way of getting Buffy.

oooo

“Spike. That’s what he called himself? That’s a little unorthodox, isn’t it?” Giles asked later that night, as they were all gathered in the library, Buffy just having told him about the strange guy she met before.

“Maybe he’s reformed.” She said with a shrug.

“Perhaps he went by another name in…times past.”

“Well, whoever he is, he totally ripped that vampire’s head off with his bare hands!” Willow said, looking impressed.

“So he’s probably got some sort of supernatural powers…” Jenny Calendar suggested.

“Oh, maybe he’s a vampire with a soul, like Angel.” Buffy said cheerily, the thought that he might be just a regular vampire who’s pretending to be good never crossing her mind.

“He’s nothing like me.” Angel said, who suddenly appeared behind Buffy. They all looked at him a little startled.

“You know him?” Buffy asked eagerly.

Angel narrowed his eyes slightly at her, she seemed a little too interested to his liking. “Yes, he’s very vicious. Once he starts something he doesn’t stop until everything in his path is dead.”

At their crestfallen faces he saw that that was not what they were hoping to hear. “Don’t let him fool you just because he put up an act once, next time you see him he’ll be more obvious about his actual intentions. He’s not very patient when it comes to killing.”

“Hm, so he’s thorough, goal-oriented.” Xander said, and suddenly felt better, the so-totally-not-hunky-male out of the way. On second thought, he felt worse, as it appeared there was a vicious vampire on the loose.

Buffy was momentarily distracted with Angel’s presence. “We were at the Bronze before. Thought you said you might show.”

“You said you weren’t sure if you were going.” Angel retorted with a small smile, feeling slightly disappointed at having missed a chance to ‘hang out’ with Buffy.

“I was being cool. C’mon, you’ve been dating for, what, like two hundred years? You don’t know what a girl means when she says ‘maybe she’ll show’?” She asked incredulously.

“Wow, two centuries of dating.” Willow said. “If you only had two a year, that’s still, like, four hundred dates with four hundred different…” She trailed off as Buffy gave her a look, and looked at the table for help, finding a mace lying there. “Why do they call it a mace?” She asked for distraction.

“Uh, we do have slightly more urgent matters to discuss.” Giles said with a stern voice.

“Yeah, like keeping my mom away from Principal Snyder tomorrow night?” Buffy said, referring to parent-teacher night tomorrow.

“And, also, the guy who you thought was the big strapping hero a minute ago turning out to be a brutal killer.” Jenny said with pulled up eyebrows.

“Angel, do you know if this Spike fellow goes under any other name?” Giles asked, and they all looked up to where Angel was standing, but all they saw was an empty spot and still-clapping library doors.

“Okay, that’s it. I’m putting a collar with a little bell on that guy.” Xander said, always trying to find a good moment to bash Angel.

Buffy sat down with a frustrated sigh. “I can’t believe it. He seemed so totally a good guy.” And hot too…no, wait, not hot! Bad Buffy!

“Who, Angel?” Xander asked.

“Spike.” She said in a ‘duh’ tone.

“Oh right. Yeah, he just screamed good guy with the black leather clothes, and the bleached hair…”

Ignoring Xander, Willow sat down in front of Buffy, trying to look comforting. “Maybe, Angel’s wrong? Maybe we’re not talking about the same Spike here, or maybe he’s changed since Angel last saw him…”

oooo

To be continued...please let me know what you think!

ooooo

Spike sat impatiently on a headstone, waiting for Buffy to show up for patrol. He examined the chipped black polish on his nails. Why did he ever stop painting them? Because Buffy didn’t like it, or because he stopped caring…?

He heard a noise behind him and immediately turned around. A freshly risen vampire, getting ready to attack. Might as well get in a spot of violence. He thought with a shrug, and got out his stake. He landed a few punches and kicks, then staked the vamp.

He turned around, and suddenly stood face to face with Buffy. He startled a little, but relaxed immediately. She on the other hand, held a defensive stance and looked at him with squinted eyes. “I know what you are.” She said icily before he could say anything.

Oh bloody, buggering hell. “You do, do you?” He said, trying to keep his voice even. He sighed. “Look, I know what you think, but it’s not like that.”

“So you’re not an evil vampire, who apparently doesn’t stop until he killed everyone within range?” She asked sarcastically, secretly hoping that he really wasn’t. She didn’t know why she wanted him to be good so badly. Okay, yeah, he was really cute. But she had Angel…or at least, they were sort of together…but they were in love with each other, so there was no reason for her to be interested in Spike…right?

Spike sighed deeply. How was he gonna explain this to her. “Yeah, that’s what I was like, ‘n the old days. I’ve changed.”

“Changed how?” Buffy asked with a frown, and took a small step closer. “Did you get cursed, like Angel?”

Spike shook his head. “No, not cursed. I went and got my soul on my own free will.”

“So you do have a soul?” Spike nodded. “And you fight demons and stuff?” He nodded again. “Then why did Angel think you’re evil?”

“Because…well, we ‘aven’t seen each other in about a hundred years. Things change. We both did since then…” Spike said, remembering that in this time he and Angel actually hadn’t seen each other. Wouldn’t it be suspicious if he knew about Angel’s soul already?

Buffy nodded, and studied his face for a moment while he was staring in space in thought. He had clear blue eyes, razor-sharp cheekbones that were just to die for, and in his eyebrow a scar, that was just about the sexiest thing she had ever seen. Shaking her head, she tried to rid herself of bad thoughts. Think Angel! He’s the one you love! Angel is waaay sexy, and he’s sweet and thoughtful, and mysterious and Spike really looks hot in that coat – No! Angel’s coat is way hotter!

“Somethin’ on your mind, love?” Spike asked, pulling her out of her thoughts.

“What? No!” She said quickly. “Uh, no, just…nothing. Wanna patrol?” She asked, hoping to see him fight some more.

“Sure.” Spike answered with a nod and a small smile. They started walking through the cemetery, throwing glances at each other every once in a while.

“So…if you have a soul, how come you’re nothing like Angel?” Buffy then asked.

Spike chuckled. “That’s like askin’ how come every person in the world isn’t the same.”

Buffy smiled. “I know, I meant, why aren’t you all…broody, and guilty about your past and stuff?” She looked at him curiously, wondering if maybe he was just acting tough.

Spike shrugged. “’s not like I don’t feel guilty, just…I dunno, I guess I just accepted that what’s done is done, and I can’t change who I used to be. Angel is all about redeemin’ himself, and payin’ for his wrongs and the like…he really has a nack for makin’ himself suffer as much as possible.”

“When did you get your soul?”

“Uh, ‘bout a year ago I guess.” He said, although it was actually more about five years in the future now.

“You said you went to get it willingly, why? You seem like someone who’d like being evil and stuff…” She asked hesitantly.

He raised an eyebrow. “Do you always ask this many questions?” He asked, effectively avoiding answering the question. He didn’t exactly know how to tell her that.

She blushed slightly. “No. I’m just curious…vampires with souls don’t exactly come in herds, you know?” Buffy remembered him saying something about Angel, and squinted her eyes a little and looked at him suspiciously. “How do you know so much about Angel if you haven’t seen him in a hundred years?”

Spike was stuck there. “I uh…” Luckily, a vampire attacked before he had to answer.

ooooo


An hour later they were still patrolling. They were just walking aimlessly through the cemetery, Spike listening to Buffy talking about parent teacher night and how her mother had totally wigged after talking to Snyder and she was grounded for like two weeks. He looked at her from time to time, smiling at how she was chatting happily, not yet having faced to true burden of being the Slayer. He really loved seeing her happy, he hadn’t really seen much of her like that the past few years.

“…and my mom came out like ‘in the car, now!’ and Snyder came out looking all smug and I just wanted to kill him, but of course I couldn’t because you know, human…or at least that’s what he says...”

Man she sure can talk. She never did that in the past –or, uh future. What was that about her mum? Oh god, Joyce. She was still alive in this time. A feeling of sadness washed over him. He’d always liked Buffy’s mother. She’d treated him like she would any man. Well, this time she’s not gonna die. Not if he could do anything about it. He’d get Buffy to check up on her earlier, make the doctors check again after the operation…

When she saw his occupied stare into nothing she stopped talking. He looked like he was in pain about something. He’d sometimes gotten these pained looks during patrol, like he was thinking of painful memories. “I’m sorry, am I talking too much?” She asked apologetically.

“Huh? Oh no, ‘s fine, really. ‘M just…thinkin’.” He shook his head, he had to stay focused. Those memories were the future now, and he could still change it.

“About what?” She asked, hoping he’d share it with her. She didn’t know what it was, but she had a feeling like she knew Spike longer than just a day…

“Nothin’ important.” At her disappointed look, he knew she was really starting to get interested in him. “I’ll tell you ‘bout it someday.”

Someday? Sounds like he’s staying. She thought hopefully. She liked him – not in a like like way, of course. But he was so different than Angel. She didn’t know why she thought he’d be the same, just because they both had souls. But Angel was always so brooding, and mysterious. She never really could read how he was feeling, and it frustrated her sometimes. Spike, on the other hand, was totally honest about how he felt about things, although she could see there was a past he was hiding…and not just like the death and destruction past Angel was keeping from her, to ‘protect’ her.

Speaking of Angel, they both felt a familiar tingle, indicating the vampire they knew and loved – or in Spike’s case, loathed. “Angel.” Spike said when they both turned around to face him. “What brings you to this neck of the woods?” He asked casually.

“Might ask you the same thing, Spike.” He spat.

Spike sighed. That stupid git would never change would he?

“Calm down Angel, Spike’s not like you said he’d be. He’s good.” Buffy said, taking a step towards him.

Not willing to trust Spike as easily as she apparently had, he eyed him suspiciously. Spike straightened his back to meet his eyes just as challenging, but Angel could see the change. He slumped his shoulders in defeat, and looked at Spike with surprise. “You have a soul, don’t you?”

Spike nodded. “I’ve a soul, yeh. But unlike you, I was already different before I got mine.” He said cockily.

Angel took a small step towards him. “Really, and why’s that?”

“Fell in love with a girl.” He said, and glanced at Buffy quickly before setting his eyes back on Angel’s.

At that Buffy felt a slight pang of jealousy. She didn’t know why she felt it, she had no reason to be jealous. It wasn’t like she like liked Spike or anything…she loved Angel, so, no danger. But still, he said he only got his soul a year ago, so that must mean he’s still with that girl he fell in love with. Somehow disappointed, Buffy averted her gaze from him to the ground. No big. So he’s taken, who cares? Not me. No siree…now, focus on Angel.

“Someone other than Dru?” Angel asked incredulously. “Not possible.”

“Well ‘s possible, mate.” Spike sighed. “Unfortunately, the bird and I ain’t together anymore, an’ I had to take Dru with me to SunnyD. She’s sickly you know.” Hm, that sounded convincing enough.

“What happened?” Angel asked, not really caring about Dru or anything, but she was still sort of family.

“Mob attack in Prague.”

Feeling slightly relieved over that fact that Spike wasn’t together with that girl, Buffy wondered who this Dru was. They both seemed to know her, so she must be a vampire too. “Who’s Dru?”

Spike turned his attention to Buffy. “Drusilla. My sire and ex. We were together for over a hundred years, until I met yo- this other girl.” He almost slipped up there. Gotta be more careful ‘bout what I say to these people.

“Must’ve been some girl, to break up such a long relationship.” She said, trying to sound casually.

“Yeah, she was really special.” Spike said, staring into her eyes intently as if trying to tell her she’s that girl. And also, was that jealousy he detected in her voice?

Angel looked at the two staring at each other, and felt a small pit of jealousy rising in his stomach. He could see in Spike’s eyes he was definitely interested in Buffy. And what was with that story anyway? It sounded like half of it was missing. No way that Spike would exchange Drusilla for some girl, and get a soul for her. It just wasn’t how he was.

“Buffy, can I talk to you for a minute?” He asked, distracting her from staring at Spike.

She smiled at him. “Sure.” She looked at Spike. “See you tomorrow?” He just nodded with a small smirk playing on his lips and then he took off. He knew he was getting to her.

Or, he pretended to take off, and hid in the shadows a few meters away, so he could spy on what they were doing.

“I’m not sure about him, Buffy. Something about his story seemed off.” Angel said as soon as he thought Spike was gone.

“What do you mean?” She asked with a frown.

“Getting a soul and dumping Drusilla? That’s not like Spike, at all.” Spike clenched his jaw when he heard him say that. How would he know? He didn’t know anything about him anymore. And now he was probably making Buffy suspicious again.

“Maybe he’s changed. He said you haven’t seen each other in hundred years.” Buffy reasoned.

“Yeah. Maybe. But I still don’t trust him. Something’s up, there’s something he’s not telling us, I’m sure.” Spike smirked. Like what, being from the future?

Buffy just shrugged. “I guess we’ll see.”

Angel looked at her for a few seconds. Did she like Spike? She sure looked like it. “Buffy,…” He was about to ask something about it, but changed his mind, knowing he was only gonna sound jealous and she would deny it. So instead he leaned in, and kissed her.

Buffy was both pleased and shocked, butterflies flying all over the place instead of just staying in her stomach. This was the first kiss after their first kiss…and that was months ago. Shrugging it off, she happily kissed back and wrapped her arms around his neck as his hands went to the small of her back.

Spike’s jaw twitched in anger as he watched the two. This felt just like the time he saw them kissing after she killed Caleb, only worse, because this time there were obviously tongues involved. Feeling his heart sting, he turned and took off. But he wouldn’t let himself be defeated. He knew it looked like he lost now, but they weren’t there yet. He could still win her over.

ooooo

I know some of you don’t really like the Buffy/Angel stuff, but come on, be realistic here, this is after all season two, where Buffy was totally smitten for Angel. But do not fear, this isn’t a Spuffy story for nothing! Please review!

Thank you so much for all your reviews! I loooove reviews! Oh they are just so wonderful, they’re the sunshine in my life and my god am I pathetic that I don’t have anything else going on in my life to enjoy besides getting reviews? :P Nah, just kidding, I also like reading stories…ahem, right.
Anyway, here’s the third chapter, hope it doesn’t suck, kinda wrote it on a whim.

ooooo

“You and Angel kissed?” Willow asked excitedly as she, Buffy and Xander walked down the hall, on their way to the library as always.

“Yeah.” Buffy said with a dreamy smile. “It was so amazing, my knees went totally non-existent and it was like my entire body was made out of tiny itchy little insects…in a good way.” She said, getting that happy feeling even thinking about it.

“Don’t you think you’re overreacting just a little? It was just a kiss, no big. It’s not like you haven’t kissed anyone before.” Xander said, jealousy overtaking him. Okay, so he said he was over her, but deep inside he really wasn’t. And he wasn’t doing a good job hiding it either.

They reached the library and were met with a distressed looking Giles. “Giles, you agree right? This is not a good thing!” Xander said.

“I believe it might be even worse than we originally thought.” Giles said, and walked into the library, followed by the group of teens.

“What’s wrong Giles?” Willow asked worriedly; a distressed Giles was never a good sign.

“Is it that Saint Vigorous thing you told us about, coz I don’t know, I haven’t seen any over the top vamp-activity yet.” Buffy said as she put her bag down on the counter.

He walked over to the table and picked up one of the books he had been looking into last night. “Saint Vigeous,” Giles corrected, “and no, that’s not the problem here, although I think we should get into that later on.” He went through the book until he found the right page. “I-I looked into that Spike fellow you met, and I’m afraid it turns out Angel wasn’t exaggerating.”

“Oh Giles you didn’t have to do that.” Buffy said carelessly, causing him to look up at her with a confused expression. “I patrolled with him last night for like hours and he was totally nice. Plus, you know, he has a soul.”

Giles put his book down and took off his glasses. “A-a-a soul you say?” He asked with a frown. Surely this wasn’t mentioned anywhere in his books.

“Uhuh, yeah, he told me he got it about a year ago. That’s why Angel didn’t know about it and all, but he saw it too.”

“So, in between parent-teacher night and patrolling with that Spike guy, when exactly did you have time to make with the smoochies with Dead Boy?” Xander asked.

“Er, Buffy, despite this surprising news of him having a soul, I think you really ought to be aware of who Spike truly is.” Giles said, trying to stay on topic and reached for his book once more.

With a sigh Buffy sat down at the table. “Why?” She then asked.

Giles frowned. “Excuse me?”

“I mean, he’s good now, and if last night was any indication, he wants to help us. So what does it matter what he has done in the past?”

Giles merely gave her a stern look, and Buffy knew he’d tell her about Spike’s past if she wanted to hear it or not. Frankly, she didn’t really care about all the bad things he did in his past, she could see he was good now, and that’s all that mattered to her. She was curious however about the girl he said he got his soul for. She must have been one hell of a woman to get a soulless demon to fall in love with her and to even willingly get a soul for her.

After last nights kissage with Angel she’d been completely on cloud nine, but now that she was thinking about Spike again, she couldn’t keep her thoughts from wandering off to things like how sexy his voice sounded with that accent. And then she’d scold herself for thinking it, because, hello, she was with Angel!

ooooo

Spike stepped into the bedroom the see what Dru was up to, and saw her playing with her dolls. “Dru, love, you’ve been in here for three days now, are you gonna come out?” He asked, a hint of exasperation in his voice.

She lovingly set down one of her porcelain dolls and stood up to face Spike with a sad expression on her face. She raised her had and let it hover over his cheek, almost touching him. “What happened to my Spike? Why has he left to where I can’t follow so suddenly?” She wondered to herself. She really didn’t understand what had happened, one day he was hers, and hers only, and then the next he was lost to her forever, without reason.

Spike smiled sadly, and caressed her dark hair. “Don’t think you’d understand, love.” He took her chin into his hands and looked straight into her eyes. “You’re still my dark goddess. You know I’ll always love you, pet.”

Drusilla took a step back, away from his touch. “You love her too. The Slayer. Just like Angel. Both of my boys love the Slayer, and who’s left for me?” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m cold Spike, will you keep me warm?”

He smiled slightly. What ‘m I gonna do with her? He took off his coat and gently draped it around her shoulders. Then he took her hand and walked her out of the room. “Come on pet, let’s go for a walk.”

ooooo

“God that movie was lame.” Buffy said as she and Willow walked out of the movie theatre, both slurping a milkshake. She frowned. “Come to think of it, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a good movie in here.”

“I think I saw a good one once…but that was when I was eight and still thought The Little Mermaid was the scariest movie ever.” Willow said, and Buffy laughed.

“Yeah I…” She trailed off when something caught her eye. Across the street Spike was walking hand in hand with a beautiful (in a sort of creepy way) brunette in a white dress.

“What?” Willow asked and looked at where Buffy was looking. “Oh, hey, it’s Spike.” She said, feeling slightly nervous. Giles had told them the terrible things Spike had done, and it wasn’t exactly pretty. But Buffy said he had a soul, so he wasn’t going to attack or anything…right?

“Yeah, with a girl. Who do you think she is?” She asked as she observed the way they were walking together as if they were old lovers.

Willow glanced at her friend, wondering if that was jealousy she’d heard in her voice. “Uh, his sister?” And why was she trying to make her feel better about the fact that Spike was with someone? Willow was taking in this Spike-figure, until she suddenly realized Buffy wasn’t beside her anymore, but walking up to the vampire and the pretty lady.

“Hey.” Buffy said, trying to sound as casual as possible. Yesterday, when Giles had told her about his killing two Slayers she’d been angry despite what she’d said about her not caring about it. And she’d had all means to confront him about it, but now, standing before him it was completely erased from her mind as she tried not to drool over his tight shirt that showed just about all the muscles on his abdomen.

“Buffy.” Spike said a little surprised. He tried to release his hand from Dru’s, but she gripped his harder in a vicelike grip and Spike tried not to wince when he felt her sharp nails dig into his skin. “What eh, brings you out ‘n about at this hour?”

“It’s eight thirty.” Buffy answered with a smirk, but returned her gaze to the woman beside him, who glared back with eyes that gave Buffy major wiggins.

“Right, so it is.” He then noticed Willow had finally come up to them and smiled at how young she still was, a bit skittish, but she still had that innocence that the darkness of magic had stolen from her. He hoped he could keep it this way, or at least keep her from getting into magic too deep. “Hey red, how’s it goin’? He asked her, and she looked startled.

“Uh, fine, I-I guess.” She said, feeling a bit awkward. It seemed as if he already knew her or something, with the way he was smiling at her.

“So, are you going to introduce us, or what?” Buffy asked, still keeping her eyes on the brunette.

“Right. Buffy, Drusilla. Dru, Buffy. Oh, and Willow, of course.” He said hastily. He had no idea why he felt nervous all of the sudden, maybe it was because if Buffy would just be fine with him being with Dru (not that he was), he knew she didn’t really like him.

Drusilla took a step towards Buffy, still holding onto Spike’s hand. “You reek of flowers an’ peaches.”

“Uhm, thanks?” Buffy said with a frown.

She giggled insanely and swayed a little. “Naughty Slayer, stolen my poor Spike’s heart and left nothing for the princess in the picnic basket.” She really wanted to scratch this girl’s eyes out for interrupting her nice walk with Spike. At least before she could still pretend he wasn’t in love with the Slayer, but now with her standing right here, Spike’s looks and thoughts were for her only.

Bloody Dru! Buffy didn’t need to know about my love for her yet, and now Dru has gone and bullocksed it up. Spike groaned, and hoped Buffy wouldn’t be able to understand Dru’s crazy talk. He cleared his throat. “Well, excuse us ladies, we’ve got to get to the butcher’s shop before it closes.”

Dru looked at him with disgust. “To eat the butcher you mean?”

Buffy was about to protest against that, but Spike merely smiled a bit. “Sorry love, ‘m afraid not. Don’t worry, you’ll get used to pigs blood.”

Dru whimpered, wishing she wasn’t so weak so she could get herself a nice toddler. Spike winked at Buffy and Willow and walked off, dragging a reluctant Dru with him.

“Man she’s really creepy.” Willow said with a shiver as she and Buffy looked at the two vampires walking off.

Buffy didn’t respond as she remembered that Drusilla was the one Spike had spent over a hundred years with. Were they back together now? They sure had seemed cozy, holding hands and all. ‘Stolen my poor Spike’s heart…’ She remembered her saying. What did that mean? Surely not what she thought it did…And why does part of me hope that it does?

ooooo

The minute Spike entered the factory he sensed someone was there. The feeling was familiar, so it could only mean that that someone was none other than his annoying Sire. Oh great, here comes what is sure to be another lecture from the great Poof. With a sigh he reluctantly dragged Dru with him to the main room, where he put down the bag filled with pigs blood.

He heard Dru’s surprised gasp as her grip on his hand loosened. “My Angel.” She whispered in awe, and Spike looked up, pretending to be surprised by his presence.

“Oh it’s you.” He said. He stepped up to Angel, leaving Dru swaying and singing a song about lambs behind him. “And to what do I owe this great pleasure Peaches?”

“You know why I’m here Spike.”

Spike cocked an eyebrow, faking innocence. “Oh really, an’ why’s that then?”

“You didn’t think I’d actually believe that story, did you? Buffy may not see it, but I know you’re hiding something.” Angel said with a menacing tone.

Spike snorted. “Oh, and is this the part where you tell me I’d better come clean if I know what’s good for me?”

“No this is the part where I tell you to get the hell out of town if you’re going to keep lying to her. You’re up to something, and I don’t care if you have a soul or not, boy. If you hurt her in any way I’ll-“ Angel’s angry threat was interrupted by insane laughter coming from Dru.

“Daddy and William, looking into the shiny eyes of the girl. Shiny like stars in the drowning sea.” Suddenly she gasped and fell to the ground. She whimpered and let out a low ‘ooh’ sound.

Spike furrowed his brow, knowing this was the part where she got a vision. He gently grabbed her be her arms and pulled her up. “What is it pet, what do you see?”

Drusilla grabbed her head with both her hands, feeling incredibly sad and lost by what she had just seen. “My little Spike, my darling little boy, he’s goin’ to leave the princess in pieces for the wind to save his little Slayer. Doesn’t love me anymore. Only her, only her.” She let out another whimper. “Ashes to dust, dust and bones.” She started mumbling more incoherent words, but Spike wasn’t really listening to her anymore.

From what he’d made out of her crazy talk, and he did have hundred years of practice, he was going to kill Dru to save Buffy. He looked at Angel, and could see that he had got that as well, if the way he was staring at him narrowed eyed was any indication. Bloody hell. Can’t be true, can it? I’d never kill my Dru, my dark princess! But to save Buffy… He shook his head, not wanting to think of it just yet.

“Do you love her?” Angel’s voice sounded incredulous.

Spike sighed, and made an attempt at playing dense. “Look, mate, I don’t –“

Angel grabbed him by the lapels of his duster and looked at him fiercely. “Do. You. Love. Her?” He gritted.

Looking him in the eyes as if to challenge him Spike let out a clear, “Yes.” And was shoved against the wall as a reward. He chuckled at his Sire’s obvious anger. “Love her with every fibre of my being. My soul. My demon. Hell, even my bleedin’ fingernails love her!”

Angel began to pace at this, his whimpering Childe cowering on the ground completely forgotten. “How!? You don’t even know her! Not like I do. You can’t know her, you met her four days ago!”

Spike rolled his eyes and smirked, loving the way Angel was always so easily jealous. “I do know her, you ponce. Probably know her better than you.”

Angel took a threatening step closer to him. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“That’s for me to know, an’ for you to get your high forehead wrinkling in tryin’ to figure out.” He pushed himself off the wall and began sauntering over to Dru. “Now, if you’ll be so kindly to bugger off, you’re trespassing private property.” With that he took Dru and led her off to the bedroom and slammed the door behind him before Angel could protest.

ooooo

Well that was it for now. Hope ya liked, and please review!
Review pleaaase! Shameless begging here! Sorry, no, I don’t really need reviews, it’s cool…no wait it’s not, reviews are teh life elixxirrrrr…or something.

OOOO

The three friends entered the library, chatting happily. Willow and Xander sat down at the table as Giles came into the room from his office, carrying a book. “Ah, good morning you three.” He addressed them. “Buffy, how was patrol last night?”

She shrugged. “Was okay. Staked a couple of vamps, nothing special.”

Giles nodded in acknowledgement before looking back down into the book he was reading. He was still looking into Spike; the fact that the vampire had a soul was still a complete mystery to him, since he was unable to find anything written anywhere that mentioned anything like that. A picture fell from the book.

Buffy leant down and picked it up. “This is Drusilla.” She realized.

Giles looked at the picture. “Ah yes, Drusilla, a sometime paramour of Spike’s. She was killed by an angry mob in Prague.”

“Well they don’t make angry mobs like they used to, coz she was very much alive when Will and I ran into her with Spike on Saturday.”

He looked taken aback. “Alive? With Spike?”

“Hey, wasn’t he supposed to be a good guy?” Xander asked.

“He is.” Buffy said just as Cordelia entered the library.

“Do you have any books on those Inca people? We’re supposed to make a report on that museum trip from yesterday, like I don’t have anything better to do with my time!” She said, not really caring about the book, but needing an excuse to justify her being here. She sat down at the table when she didn’t get a response.

Buffy and Willow rolled their eyes at the transparent excuse, but said nothing of it. Instead Buffy continued to answer Xander’s previous question. “Spike is good, he said he was just gonna take her to the butcher’s to get blood. But that Drusilla was a real whackjob.”

“Yeah, plus, really creepy.” Willow said.

“But you know what’s strange, I have a feeling like I already know Spike. Like, longer than a week or something.”

Willow nodded, having felt the same thing when she met Spike, but Xander narrowed his eyes in suspicion. “Is that right?” Not another souled-vampire crush! Is she gonna want everyone before she notices me?

Buffy, not having noticed the sort of jealous tone in Xander’s voice, shrugged and tried to put her feelings in words. “I mean, when he talks to me it’s like he already knows me. And it’s really easy to talk to him. Plus my spidey sense is doing this strangely familiar tingle when he’s nearby.”

“Talkin’ ‘bout me, love?” She heard very close by her ear, and she made a little jump. She turned around and looked directly into the smiling eyes of Spike.

She gave a nervous smile and tossed her hair a bit. “Spike, hi! Uh, no, I wasn’t talking about you.” She said in a dignified tone, even though she obviously had been talking about him, and he had probably heard every word of it.

“’s alright pet, I’d talk about me too if I were you.” He said with a smirk.

Man is he cocky. Buffy rolled her eyes, but couldn’t keep the smile from creeping up. “Conceited much? I was talking about the exchange student that’s coming to stay with me tonight.” She said in a ‘duh’ tone.

He held up his hands in mock surrender. “Alright, love, have it your way.”

“And what are you doing here anyway, it’s daytime. Aren’t you supposed to be all sleeping, and staying away from sunlight?”

“Took the tunnels. Had to visit the famous library, didn’t I? Where all the researchin’ an’ all that happens?” He started looking around the place Buffy thad talked about so often, not always to him of course, and right away decided it was overrated. Just a stuffy library with stuffy books that went right along with the stuffy librarian he was now looking at. The whole Scoobygang - missing a few members he knew weren’t around yet - was practically frozen to the spot, staring at him with curiosity and a little anxiety. “Mornin’ Rupes.”

Hello salty goodness. Cordelia thought, not for the first time upon seeing an attractive male.

Giles just stood gawking at the leather clad vampire in front of him, who had just greeted him as casually as he would someone he’d known for years. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times before he finally snapped out of it. “Er, h-hello erm, S-Spike, I assume?” He stammered, quickly putting his book and the picture of Drusilla away, and felt like a bloody fool, standing there like that.

“’s right mate. Hello all.” He said to Xander, Willow and Cordelia.

“Uhm, you’ve already met Willow, this is Xander, and that’s Cordelia…and apparently you already know Giles?” Buffy said, and looked questioningly at Spike.

Damn, must’ve slipped up there. “Uh, I wager you mentioned ‘im during patrol. No mistakin’ the layers on layers of tweed, right?”

Buffy smiled. “Right, Giles in a nutshell.”

“I resent that.” Giles muttered, somewhat insulted. So what if he wore a lot of tweed? “I’ll have you know that tweed is…timeless.”

Cordelia stood up and put on her most flirtatious smile as she walked over to Spike. “Well I for one have heard nothing but good things about you.” She said, even though she had no idea who Spike was up till now. She held out her hand, which Spike shook warily. “I’m Cordelia Chase, nice to meet you.” She said, holding eye contact.

“Uh, Spike.” He said, looking at her a bit strangely. Was the cheerleader flirting with him? Last time he saw her she was aiming at him with a crossbow. Of course that was when she knew him, and he was still evil.

“Hey Cordy shouldn’t you be picking up the nice Swede you’re having over?” Xander said, keeping an innocent look on his face. “You know, the handsome one you were really looking forward to have in your home?”

Cordelia looked at him angrily, her ‘moment’ with Spike ruined. “No you moron, he’s not coming until this afternoon.” She turned back to Spike, putting on her smile once again. “It’s just an exchange student thing. Don’t wanna be stuck with someone ugly, I always say.”

Spike smirked at her. She kind of reminded him of Anya with her bluntness. Then he remembered that she and the whelp used to date, so maybe he was into the type that says everything on their minds.

“I just wanna know what to expect, you know? Not like Buffy, she doesn’t even know what her guy looks like. She’s just a little insane you know?” Cordy continued, and cast a nasty glare at Buffy.

Spike turned his attention away from Cordelia and focussed on Buffy with suspicion in his eyes. “You’re sayin’ some poncy teenage hormone bomb boy is gonna be stayin’ in your house?” She merely shrugged. “You sure tha’s a good idea, love? Boys like that never know how to keep their grubby paws to ‘emselves, ‘f you know what I mean.” Shut your gob! Now! You’re soundin’ like the jealous bugger Peaches is, and she doesn’t need to know yet! He winced at his own stupidity. He was revealing way too much of his feelings for her.

“Boys like what? You don’t even know what he’s like.” Buffy said with a frown. What’s his problem all of the sudden?

“Way I hear it, neither do you, pet.”

Xander was nodding emphatically, sharing Spike’s exact sentiments. “I agree Buffy, this is not a good idea!” Suddenly he caught up with what he was saying and quickly stood up and regarded the vampire he just agreed with. “So. Spike.” He said with a gesture at him. “The ‘other one with a soul’.” He said while making air quotes with his fingers.

Spike raised his eyebrow in question.

“What’s your story? You upset one of those gipsies and they got all curse-happy like with dead boy?”

He snorted. “No.”

This caught Giles’ interest and he stood straight from his position against the table. “Oh? You haven’t been cursed? Buffy never told the exact origins of your soul, but I-I only presumed it was given through the same methods as Angel.”

Spike rolled his eyes and started retelling the somewhat true story he’d told Buffy of how he got his soul.

OOOO

“I think he likes you Buffy.” Willow said as she and Buffy exited the library a half an hour later, on their way to their first class. It was a good thing they occasionally (as in, it rarely happened) showed up at school early to recap last night’s patrol or something, or otherwise they would definitely have been late.

“Who, Spike? What makes you think that?” Buffy asked curiously.

“Well, coz of the way he reacted at hearing about the exchange student. He thought the same way about it as Xander did.”

“He didn’t think the same about it, Xander just…happened to agree with him.”

“Yeah, but do you also remember why Xander agreed with him?”

Buffy thought for a moment, and remembered to crush Xander had on her. “Well…that doesn’t mean Spike likes me. Maybe he just …doesn’t like South-American people.”

Willow smiled and gave her a pointed look. “It’s not just that, I’ve seen the way he looks at you, it’s all, you know, puppy-dog-eye-ish and stuff. Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed.”

Buffy looked at her friend with uncertainty. Was she right? Did Spike really like her? She actually couldn’t deny what Willow said, there had been looks and stuff he said that made it seem like...But even if he did like her, it shouldn’t matter right? It doesn’t. I’m with Angel now, and Spike’s feelings are not my problem. But despite what she tried to tell herself she couldn’t help the fluttery feeling she got in her stomach as she thought of Spike liking her. And speaking of Angel, she wasn’t even that sure she was actually with him. She hadn’t seen or heard from him since their kiss last Thursday. And that was five days ago, so what did that mean?

“What are you thinking?” Willow asked, pulling her out of her reverie.

She sighed. “I don’t know. I mean, Spike is a major hottie and all, but I already have Angel, and I’m not even sure what the deal with that is…”

“Wow, the only two vampires in the entire world that have souls, and both of them fall for you, the Slayer. That’s, I don’t know, kind of ironic.” Willow said, a little impressed.

Buffy looked up in alarm. “Fall? Who said fall? There’s no falling! I-I mean, I thought you said we were only on a liking base here? Not even liking, acknowledging, is more what it is. Remember? Spike already loves that girl he got all souly for.” She nodded as if having convinced herself, even though she had no idea of what she was feeling about this, let alone what Spike was feeling.

OOOO

Angel watched Buffy, as he often did to look out for her, as she and her friends hurried to the bus station to pick up the exchange student and were met with a girl instead of the boy they thought it would be. He hadn’t spoken to her since their kiss. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to, quite the opposite. He knew he was in love with the young Slayer and that was exactly the problem. She was so young, while he was 242 years old. Plus he was a vampire and she was a Slayer, she didn’t need another abnormality in her already abnormal life. They couldn’t be, so that’s why he needed to distance himself from her, no matter how much he wanted her.

But he also knew that if he didn’t do anything about it, Spike would try to make a move on her. And that was something he could not allow. He knew his Childe was selfish and arrogant, and would probably end up hurting Buffy.

He took one last look at Buffy when he was satisfied there wasn’t going to be any trouble for her tonight, before he turned around and headed to the cemetery for one last sweep before he returned home. If he’d been paying better attention, he might have noticed that the girl that had arrived that evening, was not exactly…alive.

OOOO

“Spike! Gimme a hand!” The vampire yelled, just as Xander came running out of the Bronze.

“Buffy!” He called her attention and threw her the stake he got her. She caught it and with one swift movement she had the stake plunged into the vampire’s heart.

As it combusted into dust, they heard clapping coming from a shadowy part of the alley. A leather coated, bleached blonde man came out. “Nice work love.” He drawled.

“Who are you?” Buffy asked with a frown.

“You’ll find out on Saturday.” He said, suddenly deadly serious.

“What happens on Saturday?”

“I kill you.”

With a flash Buffy was inside the school building, on parent-teacher night, just as the lights went out. Everyone looked confused for a moment, but then the windows crashed and a group of vampires jumped inside. The leader of the gang was the bleached vamp called Spike, now in full game face. “What can I say? Couldn’t wait.” He said with a smirk.

Then with another flash she found herself fighting Spike. “Now that hurt!” He said, after he’d punched his hand into the wall and she’d kicked him in the neck. He ripped his arm out, pulling a stud out with it and swung it hard into Buffy’s face, sending her across the room and onto the floor. “But not as much as still will.” He walked at her threateningly, wielding the stud to attack her again.

Several more flashes and she was shown more scenes where she fought Spike, either verbally or physically, until the last one where he knocked out a cop and came standing before her. “Hello cutie.” He said with a cocky grin, and that was when Buffy woke up with a shocked gasp, bolting upright. She was breathing heavily, as if she’d actually been fighting, instead of just dreaming it. She frowned confused. Okay…what the hell was that about?

OOOO

Mwahahaha now ain’t that fun? Hm…I’m not really sure I should have chosen to do that…oh but what the heck, maybe it’ll be funner this way…Well anyway, please review, tell me what you think!

“And you think it was a Slayer-dream?” Giles asked as he took off his glasses to clean them. He leaned against the table in the library, looking thoughtful at what his Slayer had just told him. Surely he was a bit concerned about this new Souled-Vampire, but he had no idea what to make of this dream.

“I don’t know, I think so. I mean, it sure felt like it. It was so real, I could feel every punch I threw and received, I could even feel all the emotions I was feeling.” Buffy said, pacing in front of Giles. “I don’t get it, because the first part was about the night we first met, only it went differently, so it couldn’t be like a future-dream, right?”

Giles sighed. “I don’t know Buffy. Perhaps it was trying to show you something about Spike’s true nature.”

She stopped at that and looked at her Watcher. “You think he’s lying to us?”

He shrugged. “It is possible. After all, we know very little about him, as he doesn’t release all too many details about himself. And the books do all tell about his wretched nature, and the Slayers he’s killed. It is indeed possible this is all just some elaborate scheme to get to you.”

Buffy thought this over a few moments before frowning. “No…no that can’t be it. I mean, Angel saw the soul in him, right?” She continued without waiting for an answer. “Maybe the dream was just to warn us about something that’s to come. You think I should talk to him about it?”

Giles opened his mouth to tell her that that was not exactly a wise idea, when the doors to the library opened and Willow, Xander and the exchange student Ampata entered. Buffy sighed to calm herself and tried to focus on the girl she’d temporarily ditched to tell Giles about her dream. “Giles, this is Ampata.”

Giles stepped up to her, smiling. “How do you do?” he asked while shaking her hand.

“Hi.” She said shyly.

“I was, I was wondering if you could uhm, translate this?” Giles asked as he brought forth the broken seal they’d got from the museum last night.

“That was in no way awkward.” Buffy said sarcastically with a roll of her eyes.

ooooo

Buffy sighed as she entered one of the many cemeteries in Sunnydale. Restfield Cemetery was one of her ‘favourites’, if you could call it that, because it was closest to home, and it usually saw the most activity. Last night had been crazy. The kind of special slay-y crazy it sometimes got when her friends got strangely involved, like say, hyena’s or robot boyfriends. Or mummy girlfriends, like Ampata had been.

So due to the craziness that was last night, she hadn’t patrolled, and had thus not had the possibility to run into Spike, who she’d had the weird dream about, which she wanted to figure out, by talking to Spike. Okay, did that thought make any sense? My brain must be fried or something.

She idly twirled her stake around as she made her way to the cemetery, stopping once, twice to stake some dumb fledgling. She halted as she heard the loud clink of a heavy door, and she turned to see a figure stepping out of one of the larger crypts. She slowly walked closer, until to her surprise she recognized the form of none other than Spike. What was he doing in there?

“Spike.” She called, and watched as he quickly twirled to face her, obviously surprised.

“Buffy, hi. What brings you out ‘n about?” He asked as he stepped away from the crypt and towards her.

“Well I heard there’s no place like a field full of dead people for a party, so I thought I’d give that a try.” She said while crossing her arms and looking at him sceptically.

Spike frowned slightly at what she said. Somehow that hadn’t sounded like a regular sarcastic remark, but the kinds she preserved only for those who ended up at the wrong side of a stake. “You alright, love?”

“Peachy.” She said before realizing that if she was going to get anything from him, she’d probably have to be a little more conversational and less slayer-y. She relaxed her stance and took a step towards him. “What were you doing in there?” She asked, pointing to the crypt behind him.

“Jus’ catchin’ up on some old memories. Used to live there.” He said and chuckled at her incredulous look.

“A crypt? You lived in a crypt?” She somehow got this vision in her head of Spike living in a crypt filled with old furniture, candles all over the place and oriental rugs on the floor. Okay strange…but it could work. Could be…comfy, somehow? “Well, to each his own, I guess.” She frowned. “So you, lived here before? In Sunnydale?”

Spike couldn’t believe how stupid he was being. Slipping up all over the place, not watching his words careful enough. Bollocks, now he was gonna have to lie to her again. “Uh, yeah. Some years back. When I was still the Big Bad…long before you were born.”

Buffy inwardly high fived herself. Perfect! This was the perfect opening for her to very ‘casually’ start questioning him about the stuff she’d seen in her dream. If he looked at her as if she’d grown two heads, she’d just write it off as crazy Buffiness, but if he’d start twitching or slipping up somehow or whatever, she’d know something was up. “So what were you like? When you were still the ‘Big Bad’?”

He smirked. “I’ll have you know I’m still as Big and Bad as ever, pet.” He said wiggling his eyebrows, and smiled when he saw her blush slightly. “But in all seriousness, I s’pose I was pretty much the same I am now, only with the slight tendency to be more evil. You know, lovin’ the kill, the hunt, the fightin’. Bein’ my own vampire. Comin’ up with brilliant plans, that somehow never managed to work out ‘cause of my bein’ impatient.” Though that last part’s pretty much still the same, innit?

“Like on parent-teacher night when you crashed in ‘cause you couldn’t wait for Saturday to kill me and ended up getting whacked over the head with an axe?” She interrupted, looking and sounding completely innocent.

“Yeah, exactly like that yeah. But you have to admit, that mother of yours was a might fierce lady, Buf –“ Only then he caught on to his mistake. It was the way she’d said it. So casual, as if she was merely talking about a fond memory. It had made him somehow think he was talking to the old Buffy for a fraction of a second. And, hang on, she wasn’t supposed to know about that. He frowned deeply in surprise, and saw she was slightly surprised herself, and perhaps a tad…disappointed? “Buffy?”

She couldn’t believe it. He’d replied in exactly the way she’d hoped he wouldn’t. Like he knew what she was talking about, even though she didn’t. So what did this mean? Was he evil somehow? Okay Buffy, let’s not jump to conclusions right away, let’s hear what he has to say first. She crossed her arms. “Care to explain that, Spike?”

“Wh – I – how did you…Where did that bit come from, love?”

“You tell me. I had a dream last night. And not the kind of dream where you’re running to catch the bus naked, but a glorified detailed and vivid Slayer-dream. It showed me all kinds of scenario’s about you and me fighting. The first one being how we first met, only with the outcome slightly different. Maybe you can even tell me how it went?”

God, what do I do? Is this the ‘cat out of the bag’ moment? Should I tell her? He racked his brain for an explanation that could possibly sound plausible but wouldn’t give away the truth, but he couldn’t come up with anything. Oh sod it, worst thin’ that could happen is that she locks me up in the barmy-house. He took a step forwards and readied himself for the moment of truth. “Let me guess. I step out of the shadows, applaudin’ you for a job well done an’ tell you I’m killin’ you on Saturday?”

She narrowed her eyes almost dangerously. “Somehow I’m thinking that wasn’t just a lucky guess.”

He sighed and let his hand go through his hair in frustration. How was he going to explain this? “Might be right there, Slayer.” Right, procrastination it was. Maybe he could buy some time to think this through. Lighting up a cigarette he glanced over at her and saw her looking rather anxious. “Love, this is going to take a bit of explaining. Shouldn’t you involve the Watcher in this, so I won’t have to repeat myself?”

So he knew exactly what was going on, eh? Somehow this disappointed Buffy even more, because it meant he’d been lying all along. Not that, ‘all along’ was really that long, since she only knew him for like a week, but still. She’d started trusting him and everything, but now it turned out it was all a lie. “Alright, I guess. Let’s go to the library, he’s probably still there.”

ooooo

The ten minute walk from Restfield to Sunnydale High hadn’t given Spike enough time to think this through. He had no idea whether he was making the right decision here or not. What would telling her do? Well, first of all, she’d think he was nutters. And when finally after a lot of repeating and explaining she’d believe him, then what? Okay, the truth would be out there, and he wouldn’t have to lie to her anymore. But would she feel weird, being around him? Because he knew her far better than she him? And maybe he would even screw something up on a cosmic scale.

But then again, that spokesperson for the PTB had told him he could tell Buffy if he wanted to, so it probably couldn’t hurt anything, except for maybe him. And while on that subject, what was up with the dream she’d had? Were the Powers giving her the memories of the old Buffy? Or was this just something to get him to fez up?

Of course it would make changing things easier. He could just warn them about the dangers coming, and they wouldn’t have to be all suspicious about how he knew it. And maybe he could change their lives this way as well, he could keep Red in check with her magic, telling her how bad she got. He could…well, Xander didn’t really need changing. Except maybe with his parental issues. But that wasn’t going to be a problem for another few years.

He sighed. Whatever the outcome would be, it was too late now. He’d told her he would tell her, and he couldn’t back out now. God knew how bad a liar he was, mostly because he hated doing it. The truth was always better.

I miss Buffy…The thought came out of nowhere, making him frown. Buffy was right beside him, but somehow he missed her. But this wasn’t…his Buffy. This wasn’t the Buffy who shared their memories, who knew him at his best and worst, who was…He stopped thinking. Of that, at least. Thinking like that only made him wish he was still in his own time, but then he’d be dead, and, apparently, working with Angel. And he was sure that if he’d intentionally screw up so he could go back, he would not keep the memories of this so he could remember not to be a stupid git and stay away from Buffy.

So stop this wishful thinking and just make the best of what you have here. At least it is Buffy.

They arrived at the school and Buffy went inside without looking back to see if he was following her. She wasn’t entirely sure of what to think of what Spike was about to tell them. Either he was going to lie, because in her dreams he’d been decidedly evil. Or he would tell her something that was entirely wiggy, something big.

She opened the swung open the door of the library. “Giles?” She called, and he appeared from his office with a cup of tea in his hand.

“Buffy, back so soon? How was patrol?” He asked, before noticing Spike following her into the library. “Ah. Spike.” He said, putting the teacup down.

“Rupert.” He said in greeting and walked up to the counter and seated himself upon it.

Giles took Buffy to the corner of the room and whispered to her “You told him about your dreams?”

Buffy gave him a look. “Giles,” She said, not bothering to whisper. “do you not remember the whole vampire hearing thing? He can hear us just fine, and yes, I told him.”

He stood up straight and took of his glasses to clean them. “I see. And I trust he’s here to…find out what it is about?”

“No.” She said with a sigh. “He is here to explain himself. Apparently he knew exactly what the dream was about.” At Giles’ surprised expression she merely nodded in confirmation before turning around to face the supposedly good vampire.

Giles replaced his glasses and took a moment to let the meaning of this sink in, before too turning around. He crossed his arms and leaned against the table. “I understand you have something to explain?” He said, his tone suddenly cool.

Spike looked from Giles to Buffy. Both were watching him with expectancy, making him gulp. Right, the moment of truth. But how to begin? Just blurting it out there would make him sound crazy…er. No, a thorough explanation was probably due here. But how was he to give details when he himself wasn’t even sure of them?

Heaving a deep sigh, he looked at them both before settling his eyes on Buffy’s. “Alright, I s’pose I should start at the beginnin’, yeh?” They both nodded. “What ‘m ‘bout tell you, is goin’ to sound crazy, but I jus’ need you to hear me out before interrupting or askin’ questions.” He paused for a moment to get his thoughts straight.

“I came to Sunnydale, to the Hellmouth, to cure my Sire, Dru, who was sickly, and…to kill my third Slayer.”

He saw Buffy looking shocked and reaching for her stake, and Giles looking not too happy, and about to protest. “Hey now, I said no interruptin’ didn’t I? Right, now let me continue.” Spike said, hoping he made the right choice in telling them the story like this.

ooooo

Hm…Anyone disappointed? Yes? Alright, if you are, please be sure to tell me in your review (btw, that was a not too subtle hint to get you to review...not that you HAVE to of course but it'd be nice if you would, really nice you know and of course it's...I'm ranting, let's put that little round closing-mark-thingy here...). I’m still not too sure about letting the truth out already…well if ever I decide to change it, I could always repost it…

oooo

Heaving a deep sigh, he looked at them both before settling his eyes on Buffy’s. “Alright, I s’pose I should start at the beginnin’, yeh?” They both nodded. “What ‘m ‘bout tell you, is goin’ to sound crazy, but I jus’ need you to hear me out before interrupting or askin’ questions.” He paused for a moment to get his thoughts straight.

“I came to Sunnydale, to the Hellmouth, to cure my Sire, Dru, who was sickly, and…to kill my third Slayer.”

He saw Buffy looking shocked and reaching for her stake, and Giles looking not too happy, and about to protest. “Hey now, I said no interruptin’ didn’t I? Right, now let me continue.” Spike said, hoping he made the right choice in telling them the story like this.

“I’d thought it would be easy. I’d kill the Slayer, cure Drusilla and be on my merry way. But then, I actually met her, and my unlife’d never be the same. We fought, on many occasions, but neither ever came out the winner, an’ it frustrated the hell outta me. The dreams you had, Buffy, were real. All that really happened.”

The frown that marred her face deepened. “H-how?”

Spike gave her a small smile. “Gettin’ to that, love,” He said. “I tried to kill ‘er on so many occasions, but never succeeded. Then through a misfortunate series of actions, Angel went and lost his soul.” He sneered momentarily, thinking of the event that led to that. “At first I thought it’d be great. Me, Dru an’ Angelus – Thank God minus that bitch Darla – the scourge of Europe, back together. But of course, things didn’t exactly turn out the way I hoped. The bastard not only stole Dru from me, but also undertook serious plans to destroy the world.” Spike snorted in disgust. “Bloody pillock.”

“E-Erm, f-forgive me, for interrupting,” Giles said, the tiniest hint of sarcasm noticeable, “and here I try to ignore the absolute ludicrousness of what you’re telling us, but what exactly did you mean by ‘Angel lost his soul’?”

Spike sighed, these people were truly uninformed. If they’d known about the curse, Angelus probably wouldn’t have been released. “Well mate, as you well know, Angel’s soul was cursed ‘pon him. However, those lovely gypsies put in a tiny loophole. He gets a moment of pure happiness, presto, no more soul.”

Giles looked stunned, and seemed to be itching to go consulting his books or cleaning his glasses. The latter of which he decided upon moments later. Buffy looked worried. “But…what would’ve caused him to get…pure happiness?” She asked.

Spike raised a suggestive eyebrow at her. “Think very hard, love. What is the only time you’ve ever seen ‘im remotely less broody?” He looked on as realisation dawned on her, knowing they’d want to know more about it, but not feeling exactly keen to discuss this particular topic any longer. “Anyway, we’re gettin’ a bit sidetracked,” He said, quickly continuing before they started asking more questions. “So, Angel lost his soul, an’ went evil. He an’ Dru decided the world wasn’t nice enough for ‘em anymore, and planned to raise the legendary Acathla. Not so legendary after all, as it turned out. I wasn’t really lookin’ forward to livin’ in hell, an’ I mean this literally, so undertook some action to put a stop to it. I aligned m’self with the Slayer, an’ together we went out to stop him.

Well, uh, actually she did most of the work, ‘m ashamed to say. I jus’ hit Angelus over the head a couple o’ times, took out Drusilla and left.”

“Wait, wait a minute…” Buffy suddenly said, looking terribly confused and a little disturbed. “What exactly are you talking about? I mean, what you’re talking about…is it like, stuff that’s gonna happen – or stuff that’s already happened, but then again how could it be with me in it you’d kinda think I’d remember all that happening an-“

“-Buffy!” Both Spike and Giles stopped her, and she looked sheepish, but still determined to get some answers. Giles turned to Spike, expecting him to give her some kind of answer to her…ramble.

Spike sighed. He knew what he was telling wasn’t making any sense to them now, if they’d just bloody well stop interrupting me! He needed to give ‘em the cliff notes version of what happened in the years he spent in Sunnydale, and how he finally got sent back in time, or it would make even less sense than it already did.

“Alright, for the last time. None of your questions ‘re gonna get answers if you keep asking them!” Buffy frowned at that, but wisely stayed quiet. So Spike proceeded to tell of how he’d come back to Sunnydale after a while, completely drunk, trying to find a way to get Dru back. Then coming back, half a year later for the ring of amara. Then returning again, only to get captured and get the chip stuck in his brain. He didn’t give too many details about it, he kept it all very vague because even though he knew it would really make things easier for Buffy to know all that was to come, he decided that it would be better if she did it on her own. He already knew she could do it - and hey, she didn’t become the best Slayer in history by getting easy outs all the time. So he told them not much about the how’s, just that he was unable to harm humans, and that was how he reluctantly started hanging out with the Scoobies.

He could often see on their faces that they wanted to interrupt with a question, but he just gave them a look and continued. When after what seemed like hours of narrating, he came to the part where he sacrificed himself to save the world. “Then, one second I was burnin’ up from the inside, going through agonizing pain, then suddenly, I’m gone. I see nothin’, when a scene appears before me. A scene from the past. Buffy, or actually, not Buffy, but someone of those Powers that Be dressed up as Buffy, she appeared beside me. Proceeded to tell me that the past two years or so were a fluke. Said they wanted to see ‘if it could be better’.” He snorted. “So next thin’ I know, I’m bein’ sent nearly six soddin’ years into the past, to where Buffy ‘n I first met.” He sighed and shook his head. Then he jumped off the counter, and clapped his hands once. “Well, there ya have it. The whole story. I know it’s probably a bit hard to believe, but ‘s the truth.”

A long silence followed in which Buffy and Giles, who had long since donned his glasses, tried to process what exactly they just been told.

“So, erm, if I understand you correctly, the Powers that Be sent you into the past, to…change history?” Giles spoke slowly, baffled by the information he received and still trying to decide whether or not he should believe it.

“That’s right.”

“Well isn’t that profoundly dangerous? A-Altering timelines – The very shape of the future lies in your hands! I-If what you’re saying is true, then – then –“

“-I know what you’re thinking, mate,” Spike said, the hint of a threat underlying in his voice. “But I think I made it quite clear I’m on your side here. ‘m not about to lead any of you in any danger. At least not any you couldn’t handle.”

Giles’ eyes narrowed. “What exactly do you mean by that, Spike?”

“I could help you,” Spike started. “I could line out exactly what Big Bad’s you’re goin’ to be facing and have you all knowin’ exactly what’s to come. But, I’m not goin’ to.” Giles looked as if he wanted to protest. “Buffy didn’t become the Slayer she was by havin’ it easy, an’ you know it! She’s been handling for years without knowing what lies ahead, so she will now, too!”

“He’s right, Giles.” Buffy stopped whatever protest lay on Giles’ lips. “I may not like it, but he’s right. If I want to become a better Slayer, then I’m going to have to fight my own fights.”

Giles of course knew they were right, he should probably even have been the one to have suggested such a thing, but he couldn’t help but want Buffy to at least still have something of a Slayer-free life. But, so be it, and he couldn’t help but feel proud at the knowledge that Buffy was going to be the best Slayer in history. If, of course, Spike was telling the truth. Even though the story had seemed very convincing, he couldn’t be sure. Despite everything he’d seen, time travelling still seemed a bit too farfetched.

“Alright, say we take what you’re saying at face value, what’s to say history’ll be changed for the better?” Buffy asked, even though she was starting to believe what Spike was telling them. It was just way, way wiggy to take in exactly what it meant. I’m the one he got is soul for! The thought couldn’t be stopped from repeating itself over and over in her head, and would definitely be dealt with later.

“Well that’s where the Powers come in with their bent up logics. They said that if the outcome turns out be the same, or even worse, they’ll just do their mojo an’ turn it back, ‘s if none of this ever happened.” Spike said with a shrug, finding that part a bit weird too. He didn’t really get the point of it all, though he did feel as if when done right the future could be a hell of a lot better.

“Okay,” Buffy scrunched up her nose in confusion, “then why would they even bother?”

Spike raised an eyebrow, “What, you don’ trust my future-changing abilities, pet?”

She shrugged. “Remains to be seen,” she said only half serious. She knew this was big. way big. Guy from the future here! He knows stuff, stuff about me, about what’s gonna happen! But somehow she didn’t feel as if he was lying. She felt like she could really trust him, and now she also knew where that strangely familiar feeling she got from him came from. Obviously it was something left over from when they turned back time. Even though she knew she should be wanting to have more proof for his story, the absolute unlikely-ness of it just about forced her to believe it against her better judgement.

Giles was having a similar problem. Despite the fact that he did not trust Spike, entirely, there was something inside him telling him that this was true. And despite what he tried to tell himself – that it was absolutely insane to believe him – he had believed the story from the moment it was finished. He sighed, and resigned himself to his own foolishness. “Spike, erm, despite the fact that I am forced to believe your story, I’ll still be wanting to know more about this time-lapse.”

“You ‘n me both, mate,” Spike mumbled.

“But perhaps, this could be reserved for another night? I, for one, need a good night’s rest to take all this in.”

Both Buffy and Spike agreed, and they each said their goodnights before heading home where they would try to process, and wonder about what would happen next.

oooo

Later that night Buffy was lying in bad, unable to sleep. She kept thinking of everything Spike had told her, especially the part where he fell in love with her and got a soul for her. She just couldn’t fathom the fact that Spike was from the future, and had already known her for six years. Part of her was way wigged about that fact, like he knew just about everything about her, and she knew nothing of him. Hell, she’d only met him two weeks ago. And from what she could tell Spike had had some sort of relationship with her, and probably knew all the er…intimate parts of her.

But then another part of her felt strangely excited at the idea of a total hottie as Spike having such a deep devotion for her, ordinary Buffy. It was beyond flattering. She felt as if she needed to do something in return, something to show him that, even though she didn’t really know him, she was grateful for his love.

She frowned. But what if he didn’t love her, but only the older, more mature Buffy? What if he thought of her as just some sniffling little kid who had no experience with men apart from a few kisses here and there? Well she had some experience. The few months she’d been with Pike (and hey, what a coincidence, Pike and Spike, and both total hot bad-boy types) they’d done some er, exploring of each other. Just not the actual deed.

Then again, did she even want Spike to love her? Wasn’t she supposed to have Angel for that? If she was so totally in love with Angel, then how could she be gushing over the fact that someone else possibly loved her? How could she even consider being with someone else? And hey, what was the coincidence of – as far as she knew - the only two souled-vampires in the whole world, both loving her? Or maybe Angel didn’t love her?

“Aaargh!” She let out a frustrated grunt and turned over in her bed for the millionth time in the last hour. Stupid questions! Get out of my head I wanna sleep! Ugh…

“Trouble sleepin’, love?”

Buffy jumped about a mile high at the voice that suddenly invaded the quiet room. She sat up and looked over to the window where she could see Spike perched outside, sitting there on the rooftop and casually smoking a cigarette like he didn’t have a care in the world. Had she left the window open?

“What…uh, what are you doing here?” She asked bemusedly while discreetly checking if her blanket and pyjamas were properly covering her more womanly parts.

“Just wanted to see if you were alright. What I told you tonight was probably a lot to take in…” He then looked at her insecurely, “You do believe me, don’t you?”

“I…I think I do. It’s weird but, for some reason I feel like…like what you’re saying is true. Like there’s something familiar about it,” Buffy said hesitantly, as if trying to find the right words for what she was feeling.

They looked at each other for a while, both wondering what would happen next now that the truth about Spike was out. Slowly Buffy got out of bed and walked closer to the window. “Spike? In the, uh, future…were we, you know, together?”

He smirked, “Why do you ask, love?”

She blushed slightly, “Well you know, you said that you got your soul for me and everything, so I was just wondering.”

“We weren’t together. At least not really,” Spike said, and somehow Buffy felt disappointed. “The time we did have some sort of a thing, it was mostly just about her usin’ me for shagging.”

Buffy scrunched her nose up confusion, “Whatting?”

“Sex.”

Buffy’s eyes went wide and she blushed furiously. “Oh.” She squeaked.

At Buffy’s new brightly red colour, Spike was once again reminded of how much younger this Buffy was. Bloody hell, she’s only sixteen! That’s as old as Nibblet! He cleared his throat, “Right so uhm, s’pose I’d better get going,” he said, suddenly feeling a bit awkward.

Feeling disappointed that he wanted to leave already, Buffy nodded, “Right…” she flashed him a shy smile, “goodnight.”

“Night,” He said and in a blink he’d disappeared from behind her window and into the night.

Buffy sighed. “Yeah…” She climbed back into her bed and closed her eyes. And yet once again, she was unable to fall asleep, but this time for a different reason, as fantasy (or maybe not?) images of her and Spike in passionate embraces invaded her mind.

oooo

London - 2003…

Buffy yawned for what seemed like the millionth time in the last twenty minutes as she flipped the page of her book. Her boring book. The book she’d only chosen because anything vaguely mentioning romance or sadness had her bursting into tears all over again, and she’d just told herself that she would not be crying in front of any of her friends again. Willow and Xander understood, on some level. They’d both lost loved ones as well. But they didn’t understand just how much she’d loved Spike; they kept trying to comfort her by saying that it was for the best, and that at least he died to save the world. And then there was Giles, she just knew he thought she should just get over it, that Spike wasn’t worth all this grief.

Dawn and Andrew were the only ones who really cared. They were both mourning the loss of the vampire as well, Dawn a little more than Andrew.

So here she sat, reading a book about demonology that she’d picked out of the collection of Giles’ miniature library. Why? She didn’t know. But at least it kept her mind off certain things…

She was just going through the section about feeding patterns of the Pox demon - which was by her opinion the lamest name of demon species she’d ever heard – when all of the sudden a flash of memories went through her. New memories, that seemed like they were trying to overwrite other memories.

She bolted upright with wide eyes and rushed to the living room where she found Willow and Xander, who had been playing a card game but were now wearing confused expressions. They looked up at her, and she knew they’d also seen something like she had.

Moment later Giles rushed into the living room, his glasses in his hand, and a bewildered expression on his face. He came to a halt when he saw the three of them.

“You guys…I think Spike is in the past,” Buffy said.

oooo

Muhahahahahahahahahhahahaha-cough cough...…okay, remind me not to do that evil laugh again with a mouthful of cookies…
Anyway, what’d ya think???

Oooo

“I think Spike is in the past,” Buffy said.

A long silence followed in which everyone contemplated the truth of that one statement. Xander was the first one to speak, surprising everyone with his question. “How do we get him back?”

“Now hold on, we’re not even sure that Spike is actually in the past,” Giles protested.

“Giles, you got the new memories, didn’t you? We all did.” Both Willow and Xander nodded at her in conformation.

“Yes, but it could also be something or other playing tricks on us.”

“What could anyone possibly get out of making us think Spike is in the past?” Buffy asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Well, er, uhm…” Not being able to come up with anything, Giles sighed, resigning himself to the fact that no matter what he was going to say, all Buffy’s time and energy would now be put into finding a way to get the vampire back.

“How do you think he got there?” Willow asked.

“I-I don’t know. But it must’ve happened after…after he – you know.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I mean, I think I remember him telling us something about the Powers That Be?”

Giles frowned, “Yes, he told us that they sent him back to change things.”

“Things like what?” Xander asked.

“Everything. Even if it’s intentional or not, Spike’s very presence in the past will change everything.”

They all looked a bit overwhelmed with that knowledge. “But – But seeing as we’re getting the memories and all, you think that eventually it will erase all the old memories?” Buffy asked fearfully.

“I think so, yes.” Giles said contemplatively.

Buffy shook her head. She didn’t want things to change. Despite how horrible some of her past had been, it had made her who she was now. Giving her new memories would make her become someone else, someone she didn’t know, and that frightened her more than anything.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that Spike was in the past, proving that he was actually alive, she probably would have let it happen, hoping for a chance that the new future would bring Spike back. But now she knew there was a chance that she could have her Spike back, she was determined to do everything in her power to find him and take him home.

“We have to get him back.” She said determinedly.

Both Willow and Xander nodded in agreement. “I’m not exactly sure how much I like the idea of changing my past. I-I mean, a lot of bad things happened and stuff, but our memories are kind of what makes us, you know, us.” Willow said.

“Exactly, we wouldn’t know who we’d be changing into if we let this happen.” Buffy said. She fastened her eyes on Willow. “Will, I’m thinking we’re gonna need magic to do this.”

She nodded, “Right. I-I was thinking some sort or time-travel spell.”

Giles eyes grew wide. “Time travel!? Even if there is such a thing, it – it is incredibly dangerous!”

“Isn’t there a way to sort of pull him back to this time?” Xander asked, not liking the idea of doing something so risky. He’d seen Back To The Future.

Willow shook her head. “There’s no way. He’d need to be pulled into a body, and his body is, well, kinda dusty. Also we couldn’t be entirely sure we’d be taking him from the right time-line. We have to go back ourselves and determine the situation from there.”

“But…time travel, is it even possible?” Buffy asked.

“I didn’t think it was. But when I was all, you know, addicted, I found all these rare and advanced spells, including one to go back or forth in the folds of time. I put it away to try some time later, but when I came a bit more to my senses, I realized I couldn’t risk something like that, knowing I could change everything with the tiniest thing.”

“But since everything’s already being changed, it couldn’t do that much extra harm, right?” Buffy asked hopefully.

“I think so.”

Xander frowned. “But Will, you sucked up all the dangerous books when you were all evil, that means the spell is probably gone too.”

Willow grimaced at the memory of that period in her life. “Not gone, Xander. Inside me. All the information and power that was in those books now lives inside me.” She saw his eyes growing wide when he was once again reminded of exactly how powerful she was.

Buffy stepped forward, drawing Willow’s attention. “So can you do it?”

Oooo

The next evening everyone was gathered in the library, including Angel, Cordelia and Jenny Calendar. After hearing the cliff notes version of Spike’s story, everyone was sort of just staring dumbfounded at Spike, Buffy and Giles.

“So basically what you’re saying is that…Spike’s from the future?” Xander asked sceptically. At their nods he started laughing unsurely, hoping they would join him. When they didn’t he stopped, “So…you’re not in any way, kidding?”

“Look, I know it’s hard to believe, but –“ Spike started, but was interrupted by Angel, who up until now had been listening quietly.

“You’re lying.”

Spike rolled his eyes and sighed dramatically. “Am I now?”

“You really expect us to believe this crap?” Angel took a threatening step toward him.

“Angel, what could he possibly gain by making up a story like this?” Buffy asked in a tone that wasn’t too sarcastic, since she was talking to her sort-of-boyfriend, but enough to let him know she wanted him to shut up and believe it.

“I don’t know, but this is Spike, there’s always something.” Angel narrowed his eyes when he turned them back to Spike who was looking at him with an annoyed expression, “They may believe you, but I know you’re planning something, Spike, and I’m going to find out what it is.”

“Knock y’self out, pops,” Spike said in the most sarcastic voice he could muster. He couldn’t care less what Angel thought of his story. It was, after all, the truth.

Xander was about to voice his agreement to what Angel said, when he stopped and blanched at just who he was about to agree with. If there was one thing he didn’t want to do, it was agreeing with Angel, or acknowledging he’s right. Besides, Buffy and Giles seemed to believe the story, and Giles was the smartest one around. So he chose to go with it for now. “What I wanna know is, whether in the future I’ll date any hot girls.” He said with a grin, and got a lot of rolls of the eyes in response. Oh yeah, Xan-man, ever the jokester.

Jenny stepped to the fore, “You said you were sent by the Powers that Be to change things…what things, exactly? Things that will happen soon?”

“Well for starters, I’m supposed to stop Buffy from shaggin’ the poofter, ‘cause it makes ‘im lose his shiny soul.” He said and smirked when Buffy turned a deep scarlet, Angel narrowed his eyes even more, as did Xander’s, and Willow shot up looking exited.

“You mean Buffy and Angel are gonna – ow!” Buffy had kicked her in the shin, “Sorry.” She said sheepishly.

“What do you mean, lose his soul?” Jenny asked. She knew about the curse, of course, but this was something she’d never heard of.

Spike heaved a deep internal sigh and prepared himself for a long evening of having to explain things…again. Bloody Scoobies with their bloody questions. Although of course he couldn’t really blame them, it was a lot to take in, and having someone know the future was bound to bring up a lot of questions.

Oooo

Later that evening Buffy and Spike were slowly walking across the cemetery on a late night patrol. The evening had been chaotic, to say the least. After everyone had sort of accepted Spike’s story or gone along with it (except Angel), they had all bombarded Spike with question after question about what the future would bring. Many of those questions had been left unanswered, because Spike didn’t want to risk changing things that didn’t need changing. Finally Buffy had managed to put a stop to it by pointing out the late hour and promptly inviting Spike for a patrol.

So now they were walking, mostly in silence, and Buffy was burning to ask something that had been plaguing her mind ever since Spike’s little visit at her bedroom last night.

“Spike, I-“ She paused, slightly embarrassed over her question.

“Yeah?” Spike looked at her and raised his eyebrow in question.

“It’s just - about, you know, what you said last night…” She trailed off.

“Buffy.”

“About the uhm, sex thing. You said she, me – in the future – that she used you…”

Spike stayed silent, waiting for her to finish even though he wasn’t sure if this was a subject he wanted to discuss, especially with this young and innocent version of Buffy.

“I was just wondering…I mean, it just doesn’t seem like something I would ever do and, you know, why would you let her do that?”

Spike didn’t say anything for a while, thinking of how to answer this. “It’s not something that, under normal circumstances, you would have done. It was a really bad time for her, you know? Made her feel all depressed-like and…being with me seemed the only thin’ that made her feel remotely better, or at least I’d like to think so. An’ as for me letting her…I loved her. An’ I thought if I’d let her do…what she needed to do, eventually it would help her. Didn’t really work out as well as I’d hoped, ‘f course.” He smiled ruefully.

“But what happened that was so bad to make me all depressed like that?”

“I…I think it’s better ‘f I didn’t tell you. It do’n’t happen until a few years from now, an’ I’m hoping that I’ll be able to prevent it.”

“But wouldn’t it be easier to prevent it if I knew what it was?” Buffy argued, beyond curious now, and also a little scared.

“Not this thing, Buffy. It would only freak you out.”

“But-“

“Let it go, love. I don’t wanna talk about it.” Spike said abruptly and continued to walk at a faster pace.

Buffy widened her eyes. Geez what got into him? “Spike, wait!” She jogged to catch up with him and he slowed down his pace. “So uhm…tell me about future-us.”

“What do you wanna know?” He asked without looking at her.

“Well I mean, it got better between us, right? After the – the using? I mean I started treating you better, right?”

Spike could hear the anxious tone in her voice and he could tell she was scared of what the future held, what sort of a person she’d become. “Yeah, love, we were right close toward the end.”

She stopped walking, making him follow her lead. She stepped a little closer to him, “So, we were together, like, a couple?” Oh God, I’m totally flirting with him! But she couldn’t help herself, he was so hot and really nice and his voice was just so…sexy, especially with that accent. What about Angel? He’s supposed to be your boyfriend, remember? Yeah, but she got the feeling like Angel thought their kiss from last week was a mistake. He seemed to be avoiding her, so why shouldn’t she flirt with this incredibly hot guy – vampire – who just happened to love her – or was that just her older version?

Spike gazed down at her and despite her so young age and innocence, it was still Buffy and he couldn’t help but feel the pull toward her. “No, love, we weren’t together. Too many things were happening; apocalypse, me dying.”

“But you wanted to be together.”

“God, yes.” Spike answered honestly.

“So…does that mean, you want to be with me, too?” Buffy asked hopefully, trying to sound innocent but sultry at the same time while she stepped even closer to him, looking up in his eyes through her eyelashes.

Even when he didn’t think he was able to answer that question entirely the way she hoped he would, his body was reacting to the closeness-of-Buffy. He leaned forward so their lips were nearly touching. “Wouldn’t you like to know?” Came the evasive answer.

She looked a bit disappointed and the moment that pout appeared on her luscious lips, he was gone. He crashed his lips on hers and she responded immediately. He devoured her lips and when she opened her mouth a little he thrust his tongue in and passionately let it glide over hers. He groaned at the taste of her, he’d missed it desperately. He brought his hands to her back and pressed her flush against him, while her hands were clutched to his shoulders as if she were afraid she’d fall if she let go.

When he sensed her need for air he slowly broke away and touched his forehead to hers. “Buffy,” He breathed.

Buffy shivered at the way he said her name; no one had ever said it to her in such a way, so intimate and erotic. Like she was desperately desired. “Wow…” She gasped for air as she recovered from the most amazing and passionate kiss she’d ever had.

Spike was on the verge of telling her how he’d missed kissing her when he remembered himself, and who exactly he was kissing. It wasn’t like he didn’t want to be kissing Buffy, it wasn’t that at all. He just wasn’t able to get used to the fact that she was so young, and that she was practically a stranger to him and he to her, and this Buffy had never kissed him before. But he supposed he was just going to have to get to know her all over again.

He took a step back and smiled at Buffy who was still looking a bit dazed. “Alright, pet?”

She blinked, and a bright, lazy smile appeared on her face. “More than alright.”

Spike smirked. “C’mon kitten, I’ll walk you home.”

The walk to Revello Drive was made in a comfortable silence, in which Buffy was still basking in the afterglow of their kiss. When they reached the tree in front of Buffy’s window they stood still.

“So…I guess, I’ll see you?” Buffy said and leaned forward a bit, hoping he would kiss her again.

She was a little disappointed when he merely tucked some hair behind her ear, his hand trailing over her cheek and he smiled, “G’night, love.” And with that he turned and disappeared into the night, his duster blowing in the wind behind him.

She deeply sighed in a way that was almost a swoon. “Goodnight.”

Oooo

Buffy couldn’t help herself; she was just lying on the grass, looking at the stars above her, feeling incredibly giddy. After so many weeks of grieving, she felt like a heavy load had been lifted off her shoulders. Spike was alive. He was really alive. Granted, he wasn’t exactly in this timeline, but it was her Spike, and they could get him back, she just knew it! How would he react? How would she react to seeing him again? She got the strange feeling like she might feel like fainting. The least she would do is jump into his arms and tell him she loved him.

No you don’t, but thanks for saying it.

Stop it! He didn’t mean that! He was just saying that to get her out of there…Right? But what if he really didn’t believe her, how could he not believe her? He had to know she wouldn’t just say that if she didn’t mean it…well, either way, she’d just have to convince him.

Her brain fell silent for a moment and it allowed a new stream of freshly-made memories to enter her mind. The last one made her bolt up straight with wide eyes. Oh, my god. That filthy, slut-bag hussy was shamelessly trying to steal Spike! Only days after kissing Angel! She jumped to her feet and hurried into the house and searched out Willow. She found her in the living room.

“Will, I know you said you needed more time to research and stuff, but could you please hurry it up? That dirty ho is macking on Spike!”

“Buffy, that dirty ho is you remember?”

“…Oh yeah, and also – hey!”

Willow grinned at her, “Said it yourself. But in all seriousness, I think I almost got it down. But I still gotta get all the ingredients, so I’m thinking two days tops. And we’ll still need to fly to America and drive to the Sunnydale-crater.”

“How is that again?”

“Well I just think that when we go back in time – by the way stop and marvel at that concept – it’d be handier if we ended up in Sunnydale, and not back here in London.”

“Right, makes sense.” She fell silent and stood there a little awkwardly.

Willow watched her friend squirm and smiled. “Something wrong, Buffy?”

Buffy let out a huff of breath and plopped down on the couch next to Willow. “It’s just that – I just got a new set of memories about…Spike was kissing her – me.”

“He was?” Willow asked with wide eyes.

“Yeah and it was this totally hot, amazing kiss and mini-me was being all swoony and thinking it was the best kiss she’d ever had and…” She paused and slumped further into her seat. “What if he’d rather be with the younger version of me than…me?”

“He doesn’t.”

Buffy looked at the redhead, surprised at how assured she seemed of that. “How do you know?”

Willow smiled, “Okay, forget the fact that Spike used to be evil the first time you met him for a moment, kay? Who would you rather be with, the Spike you’ve known for six years, who shares a lot of history with you, who got a soul for you; or a Spike who has no idea who you really are, but thinks you’re kinda hot?” Buffy wanted to say something, but Willow seemed on a roll now.

“And say you got sent to the past, without any option to get back to your own time. Would you rather try to build a new relationship with the Spike who doesn’t know you, or just stay alone and missing the older Spike?” She raised her eyebrows as if Buffy daring to contradict her.

“Well when you put it that way…” Buffy grumbled. That did kind of make sense, but that didn’t mean she had to like it. “How do you know so much about Spike’s situation anyway?”

Willow smiled sheepishly. “I don’t, I just sort of guessed.”

Oooo

To be continued...please review!!!

Oooo

Buffy rushed through the halls of Sunnydale High in a flurry of excitement, searching for her best friend. She hadn’t been able to sleep for a long time, lying awake, thinking of that earth-shattering kiss. And when she’d finally fallen asleep, her dreams were filled with sizzling images of them together that went beyond her imagination. Had it maybe been more images of the future? If so, then oh. My. God!

“Willow!” She screeched as soon as she spotted the redhead alone at her locker. “I gotta tell you something!” She said with a big grin when she stopped in front of her.

Willow had just enough time to let an excited grin form on her lips before she was hauled away to the nearest ladies room. As soon as the doors had closed behind them they faced each other in gossip position. “Oh my God you are not going to believe what happened last night!”

“Well then tell me, I can’t take the suspense!”

“Last night, you know Spike and me went to patrol?” Willow nodded quickly. “Well we were just sorta talking, and then I guess I got a bit flirty and then…he kissed me!”

“Wow!”

“I know! And it was just so amazing and intense, you know? He kissed me with so much and fire and passion, I swear I almost fainted.”

“Wow…” Willow looked at her amazed. “So was he better than Angel?”

“Oh Will you couldn’t imagine – So much better! I mean, don’t get me wrong, Angel’s really an amazing kisser, but with Spike it’s like…he put all of what he is into it, I could feel it.”

Willow’s eyes widened, “A - And to think you got all knee-weak-y with Angel, that’s gotta really say something. Maybe it’s just, coz they’re both so old and they have so many years of kissing-experience that they – “ She stopped talking when she earned a glare from Buffy, so she quickly moved on, “So what happened next?”

Buffy rolled her eyes, but smiled anyway. “Well he walked me home and we said goodnight?”

“With more smoochies?” Willlow asked with a grin.

“Alas, no.”

“So uhm…” She trailed off, looking almost afraid to pose her next question. “What about Angel?”

Buffy sighed as she hopped onto counter. “I guess, nothing about Angel.” At Willow’s confused frown, she continued, “There wasn’t even anything going on before the Spike-kissage. I mean, after the out-of-the-blue kiss last week, I feel like he’s completely been giving me the cold shoulder. I’m thinking he probably thought it was a mistake or something. So that’s just too bad for him, and lucky for Spike…I hope.” She added with a frown; maybe she should wait for what Spike would do next before she jumped to conclusions of the ‘he’s my boyfriend’ kind.

Oooo

That night there was yet another meeting of the gang about the future-Spike phenomenon. Angel had also been present again, and had been keeping a close eye on Spike, and the way he interacted with Buffy. He definitely didn’t like the way Buffy blushed every time he called her ‘love’, or another one of those nicknames. And was it him, or did they seem to be standing close to each other all night? He also still didn’t trust Spike’s story.

Giles had been doing a lot of research, but had mostly come up with nothing, since nothing like this had ever been recorded of happening. So he had to settle for asking Spike as much detailed questions about his experience with the PTB-spokesperson as possible. Much to the annoyance of Spike, since he wasn’t able to answer at least half of them.

After the meeting Buffy had suggested to Spike that they patrol, and Angel had decided to tag along. Buffy had very subtly tried to make it clear that they did not need three strong people for what would probably be just one or two fledgling vamps. Spike had been blunter about his protest, saying that they didn’t need his poncy brooding brow to get in the way of their fighting. Still, Angel had come along, so Spike had deliberately been shamelessly flirting with Buffy every chance he got. The fact that she actually flirted back, and didn’t punch his nose, was an entirely new and liberating concept to him.

When Spike returned to the factory he found the place eerily quiet. “Drusilla?” He called as he made his way to the bedroom. He slowly pushed open the door and found her sitting on the bed with her knees drawn up to her chest, her arms wrapped around them and her head down. “Dru?”

She didn’t look up, so he walked over to the bed and gently sat down. “Look at me, love.” Slowly she lifted her head. He was surprised to see tears trailing down her beautiful face; in all the time he’d known her he’d only seen her actually cry once or twice and it had never had anything to do with him. “Pet, what’s wrong?”

Her eyes darted away from his, “Nothing’s the same.” She whimpered softly. “It’s all different, turned upside down. I want my Spike back. The red always mixed with the milk an’ tea so prettily, now I shall never have it again.” She looked at him, “You want to leave me, leave princess all alone.”

Spike moved up to sit next to her and gathered her in his arms. “Hush now, kitten. You’ll be alright.” He felt her move into his embrace, her head coming to rest on his chest.

“Yes,” She said slowly as she stared straight ahead, “soon it’ll all be right again and we shall sing and drink all the tea we please.” A small smile appeared on her lips as she closed her eyes and let herself take comfort in Spike’s embrace.

Oooo

A day and a half later, Buffy was going crazy of waiting. She knew Willow needed time to prepare, and she didn’t want her to rush it, but she just couldn’t wait anymore!

Last night Dawn had come home from staying over at a new friend’s. She hadn’t seemed to have any new memories, which was probably because technically she hadn’t been there at the time. So Buffy had told her about the resent events and how Spike was alive and kicking in the past and they were bringing him back. Her first reaction had been disbelief, next had come the shrieking and exclamations of ‘Oh my God!’ and next she’d started to beg if she could come with them. When Buffy had told her that was impossible, she’d stomped up the stairs, slammed her door and hadn’t come out of her room as of yet.

“Done!” Buffy looked over at Willow was perched at the head o the table, looking very accomplished.

“Done?” She walked over and looked at whatever it was that Willow had spread out over the table.

“I’m finished with the last of the preparations. See there was this spell-ingredient that had to be conjured and, presto! Here it is.” She held up some squiggly looking ball-thing that Buffy couldn’t really identify.

“So, you’re finished? Already?”

“Yeah it went faster than I’d thought. Now all there’s left to do is get a ticked to LA and we’re off to the past!”

“Willow you’re the best!” Buffy hugged her friend tightly before suddenly bolting upright. “Oh my God, what do I wear?!” She ran up to her room, leaving an amused Willow in her wake.

Oooo

Buffy was just about to turn into bed, when she heard a knock on her window. Surprised, and hoping it was Spike out there, she pulled back the curtain and found she was slightly disappointed to see Angel perched there, where just two weeks ago she’d be overexcited. She opened to window. “Hey Angel, what’s up?”

“Can we talk?”

“I guess, come in.” She stepped back, suddenly becoming a little nervous and fluttery at the thought of him in her bedroom. She quickly checked the room to see if there was no underwear lying around. “What is it?” She asked when Angel had fully entered the room.

“What’s going on between you and Spike?”

She frowned, he sounded jealous. Her heart involuntarily fluttered at the thought. “What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean, Buffy; you two were flirting constantly tonight, right in front of me.”

“Jealous?”

“No - well, yes. I mean –“ He paused. “You know how I feel about you, Buffy.”

“No, actually I don’t.”

“Well I thought you and I had…you know? I mean, last week – “

“-Yeah, I did too, right up until you started giving me the brush off, and you know what? A girl can only be ignored for so long until she takes the hint and moves on.”

“Buffy I, I’m sorry for that. It’s just I wasn’t sure we should be getting involved, with me being…-“

“So we can’t be together, but I can’t be with anyone else either?”

“Spike would be just as bad for you as me. Worse, even, for you can’t entirely trust him.”

“Well I can’t entirely trust you either, so maybe I should decide here.”

“I’m just trying –“ He sighed, “what I wanna say is, I want to be with you. If you want, that is. Just – start slow, you know. Maybe we could uhm, go out on a date?”

He looked so hopeful that she fought to bite back the smile. The truth was, she didn’t know who she wanted anymore. Before, the choice had been simple, Angel was so dark, mysterious and handsome. But now Spike was there, and she could actually talk to him, laugh with him, and he was gorgeous to boot. Great kisser too. But she was still sort of in love with Angel. She sighed dramatically. “I don’t know, Angel. I’m just….really confused right now, I need to think about it for a while, okay?”

Angel gave her a small smile. “Of course. I guess I’ll go.” He carefully leaned in and kissed the corner of her lips. “I’ll see you.” And with that he turned and climbed out the window.

“G’night.” She mumbled with a sigh.

Oooo

She had no idea how it happened, but somehow Cordelia had managed to rope her into going to a frat party the next evening. She supposed her soul-y-vampires-confusion had gotten to her and she felt she needed some time out with some slightly less old and more alive boys. Ignoring Cordy’s warning of not wearing black, she’d gone with a cute short black dress and headed to the party with the cheerleader who hadn’t even worn black.

And of course, as was the way of Buffy, trouble had managed to find her, or vice versa. Angel and her friends had come to the rescue – or rather, to do the clean-up.

Anyway, that had been an eventful evening, and now once again Buffy and Spike were patrolling, and this time the subject was on Halloween, which was the next night.

“I just don’t really get it, Giles says Halloween is like a ‘night off’ for baddies, but shouldn’t it more like the night to get extra crazy ‘n evil?”

“’s what it used to be, but it jus’ became to clichéd so the tradition changed to not goin’ out at all.”

“Huh…so anyway, tomorrow night after we drop the kids off, we’re going to the Bronze for this big Halloween party. You should come.”

Spike smirked when he remembered the Halloween of this year. Buffy’d been in some bulky dress, which had turned her into a scared 18th century duchess. He momentarily thought about warning her about what would happen, but since he hadn’t ever really found out who was behind it, plus there’d been no-one who’d seriously gotten hurt, he decided to just let it happen. It had been pretty funny, after all. Well, if you didn’t count him trying to kill Buffy that is…

“On one condition, love. You go dressed as some kind of action hero-type.”

Buffy raised an eyebrow at that, but decided not to comment. She nodded, “Alright. So you’ll meet me at my house at about 6:30?”

Spike agreed and they kept on walking.

It was a while later when a breeze started up. Add that to the late October midnight weather and you had a chilly night, so Buffy shivered.

“Cold?”

She shrugged and wrapped her arms around herself, not wanting to seem too whiney. “Just a little.”

Immediately Spike shrugged off his duster and draped it over her shoulders, “Here, pet.”

She smiled up at him and gratefully put her arms through the sleeves. “Thank you.”

Just then a vampire came from some bushes, snarling and looking angry. “It’s your turn,” Buffy said cheekily as she buried her hands in the coat pockets and leaned against a tomb in a relaxed pose.

Spike merely grinned at her and jumped to attack the fledgling.

She was just enjoying watching the fight when she noticed something sitting in the left pocket of the coat. She pulled it out and gasped at what she saw. It was a picture of her, but the way she looked was not something Buffy recognized. She saw the mature and slightly sarcastic look she was giving whoever took the picture, and her eyes widened when she realized this must be the future-her. She looked at the picture in wonder; she looked so glamorous! Even wearing just jeans and a brown top, she seemed very classy, and she really liked the long hair. Suddenly struck with an idea, she sneaked a look at Spike to see if he hadn’t seen her holding the picture, and quickly slipped the photo in the back pocket of her pants. She couldn’t wait to see the look on his face…

Oooo

After nearly another two full days, Buffy and Willow finally arrived at the LA-airport. A ticket had only been available for a day later in the middle of the night, and the flight had taken nearly 14 hours. Plus they’d had to hire a car to drive to the Sunnycrater, which had taken a while. Now, if everything went fine, they should arrive there just before they had to start the ritual at sundown, and they’d be in the past around nightfall on this warm Halloween.

Buffy watched the scenery roll by from the passengers seat of the hired car. Everything looked so familiar, she felt like she was going home, though that home was no longer there. Her nerves were wreaking havoc in her tummy, like bats flying around constantly. She’d been getting some new memories, so she sort of knew what was going on in the past right now. She still had no idea how that whole time-space-continuum thingy worked; in all the movies the future usually changed right away, but she was just grateful that it was not the case.

She just hoped that her younger self wouldn’t try to get in her way of taking Spike with her, or she’d have to fight herself, which would just be confusing. All she wanted was to jump in Spike’s arms and never let go, but she had to wait a few more hours for that.

Oooo

Buffy looked at herself in the mirror and smiled widely. It was almost identical – apart from the younger look. She wore black boots, hip hugger jeans her mom got out of the attic for her, a brown top that she’d altered slightly to fit the look, and of course as la piece de…resisting – or something – the wig she’d bought at Ethan’s. She’d cut the long blond locks a bit shorter and with some layers in the front, at the top of her head she’d brushed a lock back and fastened it with a clip. Her make-up was lighter than usual, as future-Buffy wore less. “Perfect,” she mumbled. “Okay, Willow, come out. You can’t hide in there all night.”

“O-okay, but promise you won’t laugh?” came the nervous reply.

“I promise.” Buffy said with a smile.

Willow opened the door and came out wearing boots, a short black leather skirt and a dark red midriff-baring top. The expression on her face screamed discomfort and as soon as she was out she stepped over to grab her ghost-costume.

“Wow! You’re a dish!” Buffy said. Willow still tried to hide herself with the sheet, but Buffy took it from her and tossed it aside. “I mean, really.”

“But this just isn’t me.” Willow protested as she tried to cover herself with her arms.

“And that’s the point.” She walked around Willow to show her the mirror. “Look, Halloween is the night that not-you, is you, but not you, you know?”

Willow squirmed uncomfortably and turned back around to face Buffy, hoping to change the subject. She looked Buffy up and down to criticize her costume. “I still don’t get what you’re supposed to be – not that you don’t look pretty, coz you do – really.”

With a grin Buffy held up the picture, “I found this in Spike’s coat.” Seeing Willow’s frown as she looked at the picture, she clarified, “It’s me from the future.”

Willow gasped, her eyes widening, “No way! You look so…grown up. Oh! So you’re dressed up as that for Spike?”

“Exactly!”

“So where’re you meeting him?”

“Here. After trick-or-treating. Mom’s gonna be out.”

“Does he know about your costume?”

“Nope. He said to dress up as an action-hero-type-person. In a way I am, I mean, the Slayer could be called a sort of action hero…or something,” She scrunched up her nose as she momentarily envisioned herself wearing tights and a cape and acting all heroic as she did her daily slayage. She shrugged the image off. “Call it a blast from his…future. I’ll show him I can be all mature Buffy.” She said with a grin.

Just then the doorbell rang. “Oh! That’s Xander, are you ready?”

“Yeah. O-o-okay.” Willow said, looking extremely nervous.

“Cool! I can’t wait for the boys to go non-verbal when they see you!” Buffy exclaimed and rushed down the stairs to open the door.

Xander came in, saluting with his toy gun in his hand. “Private Harris, reporting for…” He trailed off as he saw Buffy in her costume. “Buffy! Wow who’d have thought a hippie could ever look so sophisticated.”

Buffy frowned. “I’m not a hippie.”

“You’re not?” Xander scratched his head in confusion.

“No! I’m me from the future! Okay, I guess some of these clothes are kind of…but I guess that’s the style in a few years.” Buffy once again held up the picture.

Xander’s eyes bulked out. “Yowzer. Gimme some o’ that!” His eyes widened and quickly recoiled. “I-I mean uh, you know, uh…” He cleared his throat.

Buffy rolled her eyes. “Sure, Xander. But wait till you see…” She started to say excited but then they turned to look up the stairs at Willow, who came down the steps, dressed in her ghost costume with a big BOO! On the chest. “…Casper.”

“Hey Will! That’s aaa fine boo you got there.”

Oooo

Buffy looked around the vast space of the crater that was once her home town. The ground was littered with soda cans and food wrappers of sorts. On the ground nearby she spotted a folder. She picked it up, her eyebrows shot up at what she saw; it was a tourism folder praising the ‘Sunnycrater’ as a miraculous freak of nature, and therefore ‘the’ attraction to go when visiting California.

Apparently it was a good thing they’d arrived this late in the evening, otherwise the place might have been filled with tourists and it wouldn’t have made for a good place to perform the ritual.

She walked closer to the edge and tried to discern where the high school could have been. She couldn’t see much into the piles of rubble, but she did see what seemed like a broken door and other kinds of things that belonged to houses or buildings. Somewhere in there lay Spike’s ashes. The thought made her shudder and a wave of sadness washed over her. Had it only been three weeks ago? It seemed like she’d been missing and grieving for Spike for an eternity now.

Tears threatened to well up in her eyes and she quickly blinked them away. It won’t be long now and I’ll have him back. The thought brought an excited feeling to her stomach, and she glanced over at Willow to see if she was done setting up the spell so they could get cracking.

The redhead caught her gaze and gave a nod. Buffy walked over, “So, what do I do?”

“Not much really, just sit down in the circle, in front of me, and hold both my hands. I’ll do the witchy-magic part.” Willow gave a nervous smile. She’d only twice before performed a ritual of this magnitude. The first time being Buffy’s resurrection, and the last one being three weeks ago, activating hundreds of Slayers. So butterflies were not an uncommon thing.

Buffy sat down and did as instructed. “Okay.” Willow took a deep breath and shifted into a slightly more comfortable position. “Comfy? Coz, this might take a while.”

Oooo

Please leave some feedback and let me know what you think!

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Oooooooo

Oooo

Buffy was pacing nervously in the living room. It was now 6:22, she’d dropped off the children back at school ten minutes ago and arrived home, before seriously starting to rethink her costume. At Xander’s advise she’d put a thin band around her head to let Snyder think she actually had dressed up as a hippie, so he wouldn’t bug her about not wearing a costume. Of course he had bugged her about her costume being exactly right for her because according to him, she was the same kind of anti-social, good for nothing bum as those hippies.

But what if Spike wouldn’t even notice just what she’d dressed up as? Or what if he’d be mad that she stole his picture, or he’d be upset because she looked like this? She was already halfway up the stairs when there was a knock on the door. “Damn!” She softly cursed. Well, too late now, he’d see her either way.

Walking up to the door she ran a hand over her wig to see if it was still on correctly. With a swing she opened the door.

Spike, who had been about to say something, froze the second he caught sight of her. For a long moment he really thought it was her; his Buffy. The one who, despite the presence of the younger version, he’d been dreaming about every night. But then he came to his senses and actually saw the differences. She had done an amazing job at looking almost exactly like her older version, and the clothes, he noticed, were just like the ones on the picture he carried around. He felt his pocket, and indeed, it was gone.

“Buffy,” he breathed out, “you look…it’s exactly…” Then he exhaled and a wide smile spread his lips. “Amazing Slayer costume you got there, kitten.”

Buffy smiled in relieve. “You like? I uh, stole your picture, couldn’t resist,” She said sheepishly. “Surprise.”

“I am, love, very pleasantly surprised. Not that you don’t look just as gorgeous as your present self.”

She blushed. “Well, shall we?” She asked with a motion to the outside.

“We shall,” he held out his arm for her to take when she closed the door behind her.

“Though I should probably scold you for not wearing a costume,” Buffy added as an afterthought.

Oooooooo

The walk over to the Bronze was filled with comfortable chit-chat and just a dash of playful banter. Spike was happy to conclude that talking to Buffy still went as easily as it had with her more mature counterpart. That is, before the badness had started and they could barely speak to each other without her punching him or it being very awkward.

He sighed. Really gotta stop comparing the young one with the older one. He was really trying to get in the right mindset here, and get acquainted with this sweet, sixteen year old Buffy, but it was getting to be really hard on him. Especially now, with her looking the way she did.

They were about two blocks away when Spike noticed a change in the air. Magic. As soon as he had smelled it, Buffy faltered in her steps, pressing her hand to her head. “You alright, love?”

“Yeah, I…” She trailed off. Then, right before Spike’s very eyes, she changed. It wasn’t a monumental change, it was more subtle. She suddenly got slightly thinner, the tiniest of lines appeared in her face and her hair looked a lot more real. When she looked up, he gasped. It was her eyes that gave it away the most, that showed years of experience and knowledge that hadn’t been there before. And he knew. “Spike? W-what happened?”

Buffy took in her surroundings and realised they were in a street close to the Bronze. When did we get here? The last thing she remembered was Dawn making funny faces at her behind her camera, trying to get her to laugh for the picture and then…blankness. And now she was suddenly here. She looked at Spike, who was staring at her oddly, like he couldn’t believe she was standing there. He looked different. Younger somehow. But that’s crazy, vampires don’t get older…But still, he seemed thinner and his hair was shorter. His scar was a lot more prominent. “Spike?” She repeated when he didn’t say anything.

He blinked a few times, as if in a daze. “You’re…Buffy – you…” He stumbled over his words, for once unable to form a coherent sentence. This was the Buffy from the future, he was sure of it. But then, it wasn’t really her, was it? It was because she’d dressed up like that, and then the spell had transformed her into…what was he supposed to do now?

“Spike, are you okay? What happened, did I black out somewhere? I don’t actually remember getting here…” He kept staring at her, and it was getting kinda weird. Unless…she narrowed her eyes, “You’re not the First, are you? Coz – “

Just then someone came running past them and bumped against Buffy, sending her crashing into Spike’s arms with and ‘oompf’. He still has that nice Spike smell…suddenly she realised she’d lingered in his arms and awkwardly stepped away. “So…I guess, uhm, you’re not the First then, with the touching and the…Okay Spike, please say something, this is getting weird!”

Spike shook himself, “Right, yeh, no ‘m not the First. Actually, Buffy, somethin’s goin’ on that – “

Suddenly a car alarm went off and two girls in costumes came running by screaming, followed by a large, hairy sasquatch-like-being. Buffy was about to run after it when she was held back by Spike. “Better not kill it, Slayer, that’s not really a demon in there.”

“Huh? What do you mean?” She asked him with a confused frown.

“Well see, pet, ‘s like this: Whole bunch of kids dressed in Halloween costumes actually got turned into their costume, but as soon as the spell or whatnot is over, they turn right back into little kiddies.”

“What? No way, that happened again? When did this happen?” Buffy looked at him in bewilderment. “I didn’t even know it was Halloween.”

“Buffy!” Both of them turned to the voice and saw Willow dressed in ‘slutty’ attire and Xander holding a very real rifle running towards them. “Buffy, are you okay?”

“Willow!?” Buffy looked in amazement at both her very young looking friends, then at Spike. “Okay, what the…?”

“Did you get turned into your costume too?” Willow asked, her face full of worry.

“I...” She looked down at herself but she was just wearing the clothes she had on before. She turned pleading eyes at Spike, “What’s going on, how did I end up in the past? Or you, for that matter?”

Willows eyes grew even more, “Oh! Oh you were wearing older-Buffy costume! So – so you’re like…Buffy, only older!”

“Who’s Buffy?” Asked Xander, but he was ignored by the rest.

Oooooooo

“Okay, so let me get this straight,” Buffy said as she opened the door to her house and entered, followed by Spike, soldier-Xander and ghost-Willow. She turned around and crossed her arms, while Xander went to look out the window of the door. “My sixteen-year-old self was somehow dressed up in a costume of me, and now with this spell going on, she turned into me, making me …me, only in the past…for me? And Spike’s here because, the Powers that Be thought it was fun to make him relive the past six years and see if they could do better?”

“In a nutshell – or, well, a very compact and confusing nutshell.” Spike said and shrugged apologetically at her confused expression. “’s a very long story, an’ there’s not really time to tell it now.”

Buffy sighed and then shrugged, deciding just to go along with it all. “Well I guess it’s a nice change from dealing with the First all the time. Wait, but – you’re still Spike, right? Er, my Spike? What happened, did the world end? Is that why you’re here?”

Ignoring Willow who was yelling at Xander not to shoot at the people-demons, Spike tried not to smile at the ‘my Spike’ comment. “No the world didn’t end, it’s uhm…I tell you what, if there’s some more time before the spell ends, I’ll tell you, alright?”

Buffy frowned. He knew what had happened, obviously, and if the world hadn’t ended they must have defeated the First. Shouldn’t she know this stuff? But she supposed he was right, this wasn’t really the time.

Xander came crashing back inside with Cordelia in tow after having run out to rescue the cheerleader from the same Sasquatch as before.

“Cordelia!” Willow exclaimed.

“Wait a…what’s going on?” Cordelia asked in bewilderment.

“Okay, your name is Cordelia, you’re not a cat, you’re in high school and we’re your friends. Well, sort of…”

“That’s nice Willow, and you went mental when?”

“You know us?”

“Yeah, lucky me. What’s with the name game?”

“A lot’s going on.”

“No kidding. I was just attacked by Jo-Jo, the Dog-Faced Boy. Look at my costume!” She cried, gesturing at the torn sleeve of her cat-suit. “Do you really think that Partytown’s gonna give me my deposit back? Not on the likely.”

Xander took off his over-shirt and put it around her shoulders, “Here.”

“Thanks.” Cordelia said with a surprised frown.

Willow rolled her eyes at the display and turned to Buffy who was looking very amused at Cordelia. “Buffy, since I guess you’re from the future – sort of – and already know what happened, maybe you could, like, tell us what to do?”

Buffy shrugged. “Yeah, it’s this weasel called Ethan that did the spell. Go to Giles, he goes all Ripper-mode when you mention his name, I’m sure he’d want to take care of this by himself.”

Willow frowned. “You’re not going to help him?”

“No need really. Ethan may know some nifty black-magic, but Giles always easily kicks his ass. I think he might actually get off on it or something.” She scrunched up her nose at that thought.

“Alright, so I’ll go to the library to get Giles.” Willow said with a frown at the careless attitude this older Buffy was showing. She disappeared through the wall.

“What’s that riff?” Cordelia asked with a frown at Buffy. “Since when did you become the all-knowing?”

“I’m from the future.” Buffy said with a grin. She actually still didn’t understand what in the hell was going on here, but it was kind of funny to see all these younger versions of her friends.

“Oh no not another one of those, ‘from the future’ stories! Hello, in case you hadn’t noticed, this isn’t a movie, and you’re not Michael J. Fox. And you,” She said, turning to Spike, “Are way too young- and hot-looking to be as old as that Doc guy, so just save it.”

Spike and Buffy shared an amused look at this.

Then Angel came from the kitchen, “Oh good! You guys are alright. It’s total chaos out there.”

Xander stepped forward, his rifle ready. “Who are you?” He demanded.

“Okay.” Angel drawled with a frown. “Somebody wanna fill me in?”

Buffy smiled widely, “Aww he’s so cute.” She cooed. For some reason Angel seemed absolutely adorable to her; she guessed it was because to her it was like he was sort of a ‘teenage’ version of himself just as everyone else.

Angel looked at her surprised, and Spike tried to keep from laughing. “Okay, uhm, Buffy I’m kinda lost here. You…what’s up with your hair?” Angel asked. He looked her over, and everything about her was slightly different. She didn’t look like the teenage girl he knew, but like a woman.

“Well they both think they’re from the future, Xander doesn’t know who he is, everyone’s turned into a monster. It’s a whole big thing.” Cordelia said and then put on a flirty smile and hooked her arm through Angel’s. “How are you?”

The vampire looked at Buffy with question in his eyes. “The future?” Just then the lights went off.

Xander stepped forward, and motioned to Angel and Spike, “You two take blondie and secure the kitchen. Catwoman, you’re with me.” He then took off with Cordelia following.

“No, wait, I like the man with the musket!” Buffy said with a laugh as she remembered how she’d acted when she’d turned into the 18th century girl. They went to the kitchen, where the door stood open.

“I didn’t leave that open.” Angel said suspiciously.

“No that’s because a vampire came in.” Buffy said. Angel turned to her in confusion. “Yeah, without an invitation, because he’s not really a vampire, but a regular guy.” Said regular guy in vampire guise came from the basement door and attacked her. She punched him and sent him flying towards Angel who then went to fight him. “Don’t stake him!” Buffy said, “he’ll turn back to normal after the spell.”

With Spike’s help, they held the ‘vampire’ down and continued to tie him up outside against a tree. “He’ll be kinda confused when he changes back, but it’s better than being dead.” Buffy said with a shrug. She turned to Angel. “Uhm, could you hit the streets and do damage control? Make sure no one actually gets killed and all that?”

Angel nodded and after giving her a last once over he took off.

“Well that got rid o’ him.” Spike said from behind her with a slightly teasing tone.

She turned around to him with a shrug. “Hey it’s a legitimate reason to send him off. Besides, I figured we should talk about this here, while we still have time. I figure once the spell ends I’ll be young-me again, so…” Spike nodded and shoved his hands in his pockets. “So what happened. Did we win?” She asked hopefully.

Spike gave another nod. “We won.” He frowned. “Or, at least, I think we did. Wasn’t exactly able to see the end result.”

Buffy looked at him in alarm. “W-what do you mean, you weren’t able?” She was afraid she already knew the answer.

He sighed, reluctant to tell her this part. “I won’t go in details, since even if I told you now, it wouldn’t matter in the outcome. But I had a device that worked through m’ soul and eventually burned me from the inside out. So I s’pose I died, but since right after that those wanker Powers decided it wasn’t time yet, I didn’t exactly feel the effects apart from the pain of burning.” He gave the horrified looking Buffy a small smile. “But I know you came out alive, which is the important part, yeh?”

She shook her head, the thought of Spike actually dying terrifying her. The past few months they hadn’t really talked, apart from a few hurtful barbs and then awkward pleasantries. “B-But we talked, right? I mean we didn’t just leave it like it was, between us?” She stepped closer to him.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it, love, it’s all in the past now…or, uh, the future.”

Buffy frowned at his casualness. “How can you just say that, I-I mean isn’t it important to you? Coz it is to me, I don’t wanna go out there knowing I let you die without you even knowing…” She paused and looked down.

“Knowing…what?” Spike asked carefully reaching out and gently raising her chin up so she could meet his eyes.

“That I forgive you…for what happened, before you left.” Spike nearly jumped away from her and was about to protest, “And I’m sorry.”

At that Spike’s mouth snapped shut and he frowned. “Sorry? Love, you don’t have anythin’ to be sorry ‘bout.”

She sighed, “Don’t give me that, you know that’s not true. The way I treated you last year – no matter what happened in the…bathroom – you never deserved that. I was horrible to you and, I’m really sorry.” He looked at her in amazement, and even though he wanted to protest at what she was saying, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. She reached out and laid her hand against his cheek, much like she had right before they went down into the Hellmouth.

With love in his eyes he ran a hand over her long blond hair and gently pushed a stray lock behind her ear. “Buffy I –“ Then, much like before, he felt the tingling of magic in the air, and Buffy blinked. Just like he remembered the first time he lived this Halloween, her hair suddenly felt like thin nylon threads.

Buffy, her face now returned to it’s youthful self, blinked up at him with wide eyes. “Wow…that was weird.” She mumbled.

Spike smiled softly at her, “Honey, you’re home,” He said, much like she had, the first time around. And while she raised her eyebrows at the joke she didn’t get, all he could hear in his mind were her words. I forgive you.

Oooooooo

Later that evening Spike strolled into the library to find Giles sitting at the table, a cup of tea in his hand and a pensive expression on. “Evenin’ Rupert. How did the kicking of Ethan Rayne’s arse go?”

Giles looked up at him and stood up. “As far as things go, it went considerably well.” He crossed his arms and leaned against the edge of the table. “Might I ask how you knew about him?”

“Didn’t Red tell you? Buffy was dressed up as her future-self, ‘n just like everyone else she too turned into her costume.”

“Yes, Willow did tell me about that.”

“Oh. Well it was Buffy who knew ‘bout Ethan. I’ve never actually met the bugger, but I have been around during two of his magical splurges an’ I have to say, for someone who worships chaos, he does have a sense of humour.” Spike said with a smirk. Giles merely gave him a deadly glare. “But seriously, though, Buffy knew it was ‘im that was responsible for this whole thing, an’ she figured you might like to beat him up yourself.”

Giles blinked in surprise and removed his glasses, “Yes, erm, quite, er, quite right. Where is she now?”

“She went home to change, then she’s comin’ here.”

The doors to the library opened and the voices of Buffy and Willow drifted in, by the sound of it they were excited about something. Spike turned around and the moment he clashed eyes with Buffy she froze to the spot.

Spike frowned slightly at her appearance. “Thought you were goin’ home to change, pet?” She didn’t respond, just stood there, staring at him with wide eyes filling up with tears. His eyes flicked to Willow and was shocked at what he saw. This wasn’t the young, timid Willow, this was the mature, full-blown witch Willow. He looked at Buffy again in amazement when he started to realise what this meant. “Buffy?” He whispered.

She let out a watery laugh that was filled with her awe. “Spike.” She breathed.

Oooo

Oooooooo

Oooo

To be continued…

PS, the future-Buffy-but-not-really was from in between The Killer In Me and First Date. Please review and let me know what you think!!

Ooooooo

Ooo


She didn’t know how long they’d been sitting there, how long it had been since they’d started the ritual. All she knew was that she was floating. The air around her was thick, like swimming in a pool of yoghurt or jell-o or something. Time had ceased to exist, had no meaning since it didn’t seem to move in any direction anymore. Somewhere in the back of her mind she could still hear Willow’s muttering of the words of the ritual, over and over, but it was as if hearing it through a wall of cotton.

Suddenly she was harshly pulled back to herself by a loud noise. Long seconds later, it registered as the honking of a car as it rushed by them. As the fog lifted from her brain she realised that a car shouldn’t be able to drive anywhere besides into a giant crater. Her eyes connected with the exhausted witch’s sitting across from her. “Did it work?” She gasped.

Buffy shrugged and got to her feet, extending an arm to help Willow up as well. As one they turned and gasped at the sight in front of them. “Oh, Buffy, it’s…”

“Home.” Buffy breathed. She took slow steps toward the sign that just a little while ago had been knocked over forever, but was now greeting all incomers to the town of Sunnydale. Slowly a smile formed on her lips. With a swift twirl she turned around to her friend, and as if on queue they both let out a shrieking ‘squee’ and flew in each other’s arms, jumping up and down just for the hell of it. Buffy broke away with an excited grin, “Come let’s go the library! Giles’ll probably be there,” She sing-songed before they both broke into a run to see who could reach it first.

The little race grew tired after the first minute, and they instead took their time ‘aww-ing’ and getting all sappy over every town thing they met on their way to the high school. After a good ten minutes they got there, and stood outside for a while, admiring the view.

“Isn’t it just beautiful?” Willow said in awe as she took in the building she had spent her teen-years in.

“Way better than the new school. I didn’t much like that whole modern, multi-techno look they tried to go for.”

“Hey, I just thought of something,” Willow piped up, “if you count the gym of your school in LA and UC-Sunnydale, you were at least partly responsible for the burn-down and/or collapse of four schools. Think you might have some issues?” She teased.

Buffy rolled her eyes, but giggled, “You are too funny. Well, come on, let’s go inside.”

They made their way to the library with a little detour to some of their favourite, memory-holding Sunnydale High places. Buffy lovingly patted the doors that lead to the library, “Oh how many times I must have passed through these doors, I…” That’s when she felt it. That familiar tingling that could only mean one thing. He was here.

“Buffy?” Willow asked when she didn’t continue.

“He’s here, Wills,” She whispered.

“Well then what are we standing out here for, let’s go get your fella!” Willow said with a funny grin and swung open the doors and gave a dazed Buffy a little push to get her to move inside.

Buffy’s eyes immediately fell on the vampire in the room. Oh wow. He’s here, he’s really here. All in his non-dusty, non-burning-amulet-wearing glory. He’s so beautiful…Then his eyes connected with hers and she nearly collapsed right there. He was just so…really here. He didn’t look too surprised to see her there and he said something to her about changing, but all she heard was his voice, talking!

She knew the second he realized just who she was, because his eyes turned from surprise, to shock, and finally to amazement. “Buffy?” He whispered.

She let out a watery laugh that was filled with her awe at him saying her name in the way only he could. “Spike,” She breathed, the name falling from her lips like a prayer.

As one they crossed the room towards each other and met in the middle, where they stood close, staring each other in the eyes. Buffy was radiating happiness at the sight of her thought-dead love, while Spike could only stare on in awed confusion. “How?” He managed to croak out.

Buffy shook her head and a tear escaped her eye. She smiled up at him and reached out to touch his cheekbones, jaw line and lips, gasping at the contact. “I’ll explain later. Right now I just need to know you’re real,” She whispered shakily. Then they flew at each other, fusing their lips in the kiss of long lost lovers, oblivious to Giles’ confused sputtering and Willow’s happy smile at their reunion.

Ooooo

“It was just so weird, I mean it was like I was me, but older-me at the same time, only she got to drive. I don’t really remember everything about it, but I do remember feeling like, these way intense feelings for Spike, like a total connection with him.” Buffy fell silent and glanced at Willow as she went through the entrance of the school.

“So, how do you feel about him now?” Willow asked.

Buffy took a deep breath, “Well, I …- and this is so not residue feelings from my trip to the future, but I, I think I’m falling for him.”

“Really? That’s so…I mean, wow, you know?”

“I know! But the thing is, especially after tonight’s whole thing, I feel like I can’t compete with my future-version. Like, Spike will always rather be with her, coz they share all this stuff…”

“Oh Buffy, that’s not true. I mean, I-I don’t really know him all that well of course, b-but if he loves you, it’s about who you are, not what you remember…I think.”

“You think so?” Buffy stood still as they came at the library doors.

“Yeah I –“ Willow paused when her eye fell on the round window in the door and her eyes widened. “Buffy,” She said in a low warning voice.

The Slayer’s curiosity had definitely been raised now, “What?” She peered through the little window. With a sharp gasp she tore away from the window as if burned.

“W – wait, no, Buffy maybe i – it isn’t what it looks like!” Willow tried to reassure her fiend, but when she looked again at what was going on inside the library, it was unmistakable. Spike was kissing a blond girl whose face she couldn’t see like there was no tomorrow. There was another, redheaded girl with her back to the door and Giles was there looking really confused. “Why is Giles just standing there? Who are those people?” Willow turned to Buffy with a concerned look. The Slayer looked absolutely devastated. “Buffy, a-are you okay?”

“I don’t understand…just seconds ago I said I was falling and now…”

“Oh hey, they’ve stopped!” Willow exclaimed.

Buffy rushed to the door to see through the window again, but now it was only worse, because Spike was looking at that blond bimbo with love written all over his face. “That bastard,” She mumbled, “I can’t believe he lied to me!”

“I – I’m sure there’s an explanation…” Willow tried, but her words fell on deaf ears.

Spike was now hugging the redhead. “Okay, that is it. I’m going in there!” Buffy put on her most determined face and pushed the doors open.

Oooooo

Slowly Spike took his lips from Buffy and moved back just enough to be able to look at her. A soft smile played his lips while he gently stroked her hair. With his thumb he wiped a stray tear from her cheek. The way she was looking at him right now was something he’d never seen on her, like he was the Holy Grail she’d been looking for all her life and she was afraid he’d disappear if she looked away.

A throat was cleared behind them, interrupting their moment. Spike and Buffy both turned to face the redheaded intruder, who was smiling at them. “Say, can I get a hug from our latest world-saver?”

Spike smiled at her and moved to hug her. “I take it you’re responsible for this whole thing?”

“You could say that,” She mumbled back when they disengaged.

Giles coughed as he finally put his glasses back on. “Alright,” He began, a little miffed. “Now that we’ve all had physical contact, might anyone explain to me what the bloody hell is going on?”

Before anyone could answer, the double doors were slammed open and a pissed off looking Buffy stormed in. She stopped dead in her track when the two newcomers turned to face her. “Oh my god,” was echoed by identical voices.

Willow and Spike shared an ‘uh-oh’ look, both realising this could never go anywhere good.

Just then a younger Willow entered the library, her eyes wide and trained her own older image. “Y-You’re me! I – I mean, I’m you! Uh…”

“What the hell is going on here?” Buffy demanded in harsh tones, interrupting Willow’s shocked babblings.

“Yes, that’s what I’d like to know.” Giles chimed in, hoping to finally get an explanation for this odd situation.

The two more mature versions of Buffy and Willow glanced at each other and shrugged. “Well, it’s kind of a complicated story, but the gist of it is, we’re from the future and we’ve come to take Spike,” Buffy said, smiling lovingly at Spike and shyly lacing her fingers through his.

Young-Buffy’s eyes narrowed to dangerous slits when she saw the gesture. “What does that mean, ‘take Spike’?”

“It means we’re taking him back home with us to our time, where he belongs.” Buffy replied with a sharp defiant tone.

Spike raised an eyebrow at her. “Do I get any say in this, pet?”

“Nope,” She smiled brightly at him, which he couldn’t help but return. Her face turned a little unsure when the possibility of him not even wanting to come back with them ran through her mind, “I mean, I’d rather we talk about it alone, okay?”

“Hey, you know what?” Y-Buffy interrupted what she was sure was about to turn into another gut-clenching exchange between the two, “I think I’ve had just a little too much people saying they’re from the future right about now, I’ll just call it a night.”

“B-But Buffy, don’t you think you should be here while we deal with this situation?” Giles sputtered.

The young Slayer gave a none too subtle sneer in her older version’s direction when she gave her answer, “What d’you need me for when you got the more experienced one of me right there? You can fill me in tomorrow.” And with one last glance at Spike she spun on her heels and marched out.

“Sh – should I, maybe go after her?” The young Willow asked timidly, visibly wigged out by seeing her own future-self standing right in front of her.

“Nah, I think she’d rather be alone. Don’t think she likes me too much.” Buffy said, unable to hide the tiny smirk that formed on her lips.

“Right then, should we now perhaps discuss the situation?” Giles suggested, sounding a little aggravated.

“Uhm, if you don’t mind, I’d like to talk with Spike alone now,” Buffy said and already began to pull Spike along towards the exit.

“Yeah, you just wanna get on with the smoochies,” Willow teased.

Buffy rolled her eyes but that didn’t stop the grin from forming. “You can fill Watcher-man in, right Wills? You know more ‘bout the details anyway.”

“Right then, let’s go,” Spike said, and the two of them left the library.

The door to the dark, empty classroom across the library hadn’t yet closed behind them or they were all over each other. Spike had Buffy pressed against the aforementioned door, their lips locked in a dance that burned with their need for each other after being apart for so long. “Missed you so much,” Buffy breathed before reclaiming Spike’s lips.

His hands momentarily stopped their roaming all over her body to softly wipe at her cheeks, without breaking contact with his lips. “Don’t cry, love.”

Buffy hadn’t even realised she was crying, until she felt Spike wipe away her tears. “Happy. Happy tears,” She mumbled as they slowly broke apart. She raised a trembling hand to let it run over his face and through his hair. A short, happy laugh escaped her. “You’re just so…really here.”

Looking at all the emotions displayed on her face in wonder, Spike couldn’t help but lean in for another kiss; this time slow and sweet. “Kinda noticed, pet,” He said once they pulled apart, “that you’re here as well. Mind tellin’ a bloke how that came about?”

She slowly shook her head and smiled, “Can’t we do the talking thing later? I just wanna bask for a while.”

Spike grimaced when he couldn’t help but remember the last time he’d heard her say those words. “You mean like with Angel?” He’d tried to go for light and teasing, but it came out just sort of bitter.

Her smile softened. “No. That one comes nowhere near the amount of basking that needs to be done here.” Her face grew more serious. “I’m sorry. For kissing Angel.”

“In general, or just that night?” Spike said, fighting a smirk.

“You know what I mean. I was just…I don’t even know what I was thinking. I think maybe…like, somewhere I thought I’d never see him again, and I was kind of saying goodbye. But I shouldn’t have kissed him, especially not after we’d talked before.” She turned visibly sad then, “I guess I’d never considered the possibility that you’d be the one who…” She broke off with a small sob.

“Hey now, none of that.” Spike held her head in between his hands and waited until she looked at him with tears in her eyes, “’m here now, see? Not dead, just…misplaced,” He tried a smile which she struggled to return. He softly kissed her forehead, cheek, chin, until finally her lips, where he lingered.

“You done basking?” Spike asked after a while.

Her smile widened, “Told you, it might take a while. We’re talking days, here. Why?”

“Well, ‘m kind of itchin’ to know how you got here, pet.”

“What, you don’t want me here, or something?” Though Buffy’s tone was teasing, Spike could still detect the slight fear of rejection in her eyes.

“I’ll always want you with me, love,” He reassured. “Jus’ really curious.”

She sighed in mock exasperation, “Well I suppose I’ll have to tell you, then.”

Oooooo

Buffy rounded the corner the hall that held the library, after returning from her locker. Had she been a fraction of a second later, she’d have missed it. Even now all she saw was a flash of platinum mixed with a swirl of black leather followed by the slamming of the door of one of the classrooms.

Her curiosity peaked, she crept up to the door and peered through the window, and immediately wished she hadn’t. Half the view was blocked by a head full of long blond hair, but the little open space showed all too clearly whose lips her future-counterpart were glued to, and whose hands were all over her body. Despite herself a blush crept up her cheeks at the sight of their groping.

Finally she forced herself to tear away from the door. With one hand over her stomach, willing the nausea away, she fled the hallway and raced to the exits.

Just as she’d burst through the doors, she crashed into someone, making them both crash to the ground. “Sorry,” She mumbled before she raised her head and got a look at her tackle-victim. “Angel? What are you doing here?” She asked in surprise.

He let out a small chuckle, “Looking for you, actually.” His smile faded when he saw the distress on her face, “What is it?”

Buffy looked away and scrambled back to stand up, followed by Angel. “It’s nothing,” She mumbled, wiping at her face to remove the stray tears. She looked up into his obviously concerned eyes and realised that while Spike might not want her, Angel still did. Or at least, I think he does. It wasn’t that long ago that he’d been the only guy for her; it shouldn’t be so hard to forget Spike. Right?

She smiled shyly, “Could you walk me home?”

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To be continued…Please let me know what you think!
PS, just so everyone knows and doesn't you know, hook off 'coz they don't like Angelus showing up or whatever...there will be NO Angelus, in case anyone was wondering:P

PPS, Merry Christmas everyone, and a Happy Newyear!

PPPS, I'm saying the above in advance, since there's a very big chance I won't update til after the holidays...sorry

Et voila, it’s chapter eleven! Ooh! Finally!


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“So first you turn into yourself from the future, and then that same you shows up here?” Angel asked. They’d been walking in the direction of Buffy’s home, while she filled him in on what had been happening that evening.

“I don’t know if she was exactly from the same time, but yeah, pretty much.”

“Why aren’t you back at the library, then? Don’t you wanna know how and why she came here?”

“I think I already know,” She answered grimly, the image of her and Spike in each other’s arms flashing through her mind. “Besides, I was feeling kinda beat. Thought I’d call it a night.”

Angel took a doubtful glance at her, but said nothing.

Finally they arrived at Buffy’s house. She turned to look at him. Would Spike be jealous if he saw me and Angel… She shook the thought off. Of course he wouldn’t be jealous, he has who he really wanted all along now. Maybe she really should just give dating Angel another try. She still liked him very much, and he was caring and sweet to her. She did remember what Spike had told them about what would happen if she and Angel ever slept together, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t still just be together, right?

Her mind made up to try and forget about Spike, she smiled up into Angel’s eyes and took his hand in hers. “Angel? You know how you said you wanted to go out on a date?”

He smiled a little smile, “Of course I remember.”

“Well, I was just thinking…a date sounds really nice.”

“Yeah? You’re sure?” He asked hopefully.

“I’m sure,” She replied. Carefully she leaned in and pressed her lips to his in a chaste kiss, all the while trying to block the feel of another souled-vampire’s lips from her mind. She purposely let the kiss linger a little longer before she pulled back and bade Angel goodnight. Yup, Spike’s as good as forgotten. In fact, it’s more like ‘Spike who?’ now. Getting those soft kissy lips and that sexy accent from my mind will be as easy as…something that’s…easy.

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Willow had just finished telling young-Willow and Giles about how they had gotten these new memories and about the spell she used to go back in time. Her younger self was gaping at her with wide eyes and Giles had once more taken off his glasses and was now cleaning them with great concentration.

“Giles?” She prodded, when he still hadn’t said anything after a minute.

“Hm?” He looked up, as if startled. “I’m sorry, I’m trying to adjust to this all. You’re so…I – I mean, it’s – it’s a rather big, erm, change, to – to, uhm…” He trailed off, not quite sure knowing how to say what he wanted without making the Willow of this time feel inadequate in some way.

“I – I just can’t believe it,” Y-Willow said, “You’re really me? Y – You’re so confident a-a-and all…witchy!”

Willow gave her a smile that had a sad little twist to it. The image of her younger self reminded her of all that had happened in her life, how it had scarred her, changed her…”Don’t worry, I’m still me – or, you – only, you know, older,” She said, wondering to herself if that was actually true.

Giles regarded her with a curious expression, seeing the doubt of her own statement reflected in her eyes. He saw how different she actually was. There was a maturity around her that was way beyond her years, and he wondered about all the trials she’d had to endure in her life alongside of the Slayer.

“Uhm, do you think Buffy – I mean, the older one, and Spike will be gone long?” Y-Willow asked, wanting to change the subject; the topic of her own future unsettled her a little for some reason.

The older Willow shrugged, “Who knows. I mean, from what I’ve heard, those two can be going at it for several ho – “ She trailed off when she saw the shocked looks on their faces, “Ehh, I mean, uh, they’ll probably be back soon.”

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“One question though, love. How’re you plannin’ on getting’ me back? My body kind of dusted ‘n all,” Spike commented after hearing Buffy tell the tale.

Buffy looked a little taken aback. “Oh. Well, uhm…eh…we kinda didn’t think about that part,” She said with a frown. “Our focus was more on the getting here part.”

“Hm hm…” Spike nodded, but sounded a little doubtful.
“What is it?”

“’s just, the reason I agreed to go back in the first place was so I could try ‘n give you a life tha’s a bit less hard…”

“Spike, I don’t care about that. I don’t even want that.” Spike’s head shot up in surprise. “I just want you to be with me, and I don’t need a different life for that. Hell, changing the past might not even give me you.”

“But, love, that’s the point. You won’t mind then, coz that shiny new ‘n improved life’ll be all you know.”

“Spike, didn’t you hear what I said? I don’t want a so-called better life. I just want you.”

“Yeah, I heard, love, but jus’ –“

“Oh god,” She gasped and looked at him with hurt in her eyes, “I didn’t want to believe it, but it’s true…”

“What?” Spike frowned.

“You really didn’t believe me. I’d hoped you were just saying that to get me out of there, but you didn’t…”

“Buf –“

“No. You have to know, I mean why else would I go through all this trouble to find you?” She searched his eyes, “I love you. Okay? I. love you. You think I’d just say it if I didn’t mean it? These past few weeks, knowing you were gone forever...I don’t think I would have survived if it hadn’t been for this.”

Spike looked at her with amazement. Never before had Buffy talked to him so openly, telling him words as wonderful as these. “Buffy, sweetheart, I did believe you. I promise. I just had to get you out of there. But ‘s just, I wanted to help you, for a change. Try ‘n make yer life a bit better.”

She smiled and laid a hand on his cheek, “I know. But just being able to do this,” she kissed him softly, “has already made my life better.”

Spike let out a joyful laugh, “God, I love you woman.”

“Love you,” She replied before their lips met all over again. He pulled her as close as was humanly possible, bringing every inch of their bodies in contact. “God you feel so…” Buffy whispered breathlessly in between kisses. “Do you have…some place we could go?” She then asked.

“But what about er, the two Reds an’ all? Shouldn’t we suss this out first?” Spike asked, Sod it, why did I say that?

She frowned at him and jutted out her lip, “I don’t want to. I just need you, need to feel you,”

He groaned at the sight of that lip and couldn’t resist from sucking it between his own once more.

“But I guess you’re right. We can’t leave Willow all alone with the two juniors.” Buffy said with a resigned sigh, and reluctantly turned to open the door, leaving Spike to follow her, mumbling what sounded like a good natured “bloody tease,” under his breath.

They crossed the hall and re-entered the Library, where they found the others, seemingly waiting for them. “Hey guys, everything okay?” Buffy asked.

“It’s fine,” Giles said, “Willow here er, told us about the spell. Though I’m still curious as to how it was that you received new memories of what was going on here. I-I’d presume with er, time travel, the future would immediately be altered.”

Buffy shrugged and shared a look with Willow, “We didn’t really understand that either. I was just happy that I did get them, otherwise I wouldn’t know Spike was here,” She said and gave Spike’s hand a little squeeze. She turned her attention to Willow, “Wills, Spike just came with a very good point…we haven’t thought about how to get Spike back with us.”

Willow frowned, “Well not extensively, but it did cross my mind that that would be a problem. But seeing as you were in such a hurry I focused more on getting us here,”

“Yeah that’s what I said.”

“But I mean, we could do the research over here just as well.” She frowned, “Although, with how slow I remember the internet being, the computer-research might take a bit longer. And less resources…”

“But this school has one of the newest versions of Macintosh!” Y-Willow exclaimed.

Willow smiled indulgently at her, “Well let’s just say, a few years from now? It’s pretty much ten times better.” The younger one pouted slightly at that.

“Good lord, it’s as I feared: The world gets taken over by the idiot-box.” Giles sighed under his breath.

“Uhm, as fascinating as this all is, shouldn’t we be thinkin’ of what to do now?” Spike interrupted with a raised eyebrow at the two redheads.

“He’s right,” Buffy said, “Okay first of all, where are we going to be staying? We can’t exactly go to our parent’s homes coz with the confusion, and explanations…it’d just be chaos. Uhm, we could go to the Sunnydale Inn?” She suggested with a grimace.

“Xander’s not moved into the basement yet, has he? Otherwise we could’ve stayed there.”

“Erm, how bout you two stay over at my place? I have a guestroom. I-It’s not large, and only has one bed, but I suppose we could improvise,” Giles suggested.

“Really, you sure? We wouldn’t wanna impose,” Buffy said, only out of politeness.

“Yes, yes of course it’s fine. You’re both welcome,” Giles said with a smile. Not only was he more than glad to provide shelter for his Slayer and her friend, but he was dying with curiosity to know about them, and how they, especially Buffy, managed to survive as long as they had. Spike had told them some things, but didn’t go into full detail about it.

“Great, thank you,” Buffy said with a smile. “I’m thinking it’d be better if we continued to research-y parts for later, like tomorrow. I know I’m beat, and I’m sure everyone here’s had a pretty eventful night, right?”

“Yes, that might be a good idea,” Giles said, “Erm, Willow,” He started, looking purposely at Y-Willow, to let her know he meant her, “if you want I can give you a lift home,” He offered, which she gratefully accepted, especially since Y-Buffy had gone home.

Buffy looked at Giles and Willow, “You guys uh, mind going ahead of me?”

They both looked questioningly at her, so she made a very telling gesture with both an inclination of her head and slightly holding up the hand that was joined with Spike’s, indicating she wanted to be alone with him some more.

Willow nodded knowingly and smiled, “Sure Buffy, I guess we’ll see you over at Giles’ place later on,” She ended the sentence with sort of a question mark.

Buffy gave her a meaningful look, that only the two Willows caught on to, meaning she wasn’t entirely sure of that fact yet.

They said their goodnights, and soon Giles and both Willows had left the library, leaving Buffy and Spike to each other. “So, now that you’ve got me alone, what’re you plannin’ on doin’ with me, love?” Spike asked with a mischievous glint in his eyes.

“Well,” Buffy drawled while fondling the lapels of his duster, “how ‘bout we continue where we left off,”

Spike raised his eyebrow, “An’ where was that?” His hands went to her waist and pulled her closer until she was pressed against his body. He lowered his head and his lips went to her neck, trailing kissing from her pulse line to her jaw.

“I believe,” Buffy breathed out, and a soft moan escaped her, “I was just suggesting something…” Her hands ran through his hair while she arched her neck to give him better access. “You think we could go to your place, wherever that is?” She finally managed.

He suddenly drew back, looking a bit uncomfortable, “Uhm, don’t think that’d be such a good idea, love.”

“Why not?” She asked, pouting at the lack of touching.

“Well see, uh, I’m currently staying at the factory,” He said. She looked incomprehensive at why that would be a problem, so he added, “With Dru.”

Her hands fell from their place on his shoulders. She felt jealousy shoot through her, though somewhere she knew him staying there with Dru didn’t have to mean anything. “Oh,” She let out, and she cringed at how she could hear the jealous tone in her voice.

“But I’m not…I mean, we’re not together or anything, if tha’s what you’re thinking,” He rushed to explain, having heard the jealousy. On the one hand he was amused by her reaction. But on the other, he didn’t want her to get mad at him for supposedly being with Dru, when that was in no way the case. “’s just that she’s sick, as you might remember, an’ she needs someone to take care of her.”

“No, no, it’s okay, I understand.” She said, but Spike wasn’t entirely convinced. “One question, what exactly were you planning on doing with her? I mean, you weren’t going to cure her, right?”

“Hadn’t exactly figured that one out yet. Can’t exactly cure her, what with the ritual that’s required…” He paused thoughtfully, “though I never did like Angel…” At her raised eyebrow he shrugged, “but I wouldn’t, of course, ‘coz you wouldn’t like it. Either version of you. But what then, do I jus’ let her wither away ‘til she’s dust? Don’t think I could stand to see that,” He said, looking down.

“You still love her.” It wasn’t a question, though somewhere Buffy hoped he would contradict her. But she knew he did, on some level. A hundred years of loving someone didn’t just go away like that, no matter how much she knew he loved her now.

He looked her in the eye, letting her know he was being honest, “Think part of me will always love her, even jus’ a little. But you know you’re it for me, right? I’ve never loved anyone, not even Dru, as much as I love you.”

Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears. “I know,” She whispered with a happy smile. “I feel the same way.” She tilted her head, and their lips met in a slow and tender kiss.

“So, is there anywhere else we could go? I mean, we can’t go to your place, and I don’t exactly want to go back to Giles’ just yet.” Buffy asked, when they pulled apart.

Spike thought for a moment, then a slow smile started on his face. “I think I know a place.”

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To be continued. Please let me know what you think!!

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Spike hadn’t told her where they were headed, but somewhere on the way there she started to get a sneaking suspicion. Especially when they came by one of the cemeteries on the oh-so familiar route, and he made her wait outside the gates for a minute. A little while later he returned with a pile of folded blankets in his arms. When she asked where he got them, he told her he nicked them from the cemetery keeper’s house.

Her suspicions were confirmed when Spike led her through the gates of Restfield cemetery. “We’re going to your old crypt?” She asked dubiously.

Spike stopped walking and turned to look at her, suddenly feeling a little uncertain. “That was the idea. But I’d understand if you don’t want…I jus’ thought – “

“No, I mean I thought with, you know, all the memories and all…I just didn’t expect it, I guess.”

“Not all of ‘em were bad memories,” Spike mumbled with his head down. “‘sides, it was my home for almost three years. There’s not really anywhere else to go if we want…I mean,” He was stumbling out the words, worrying if he, for some reason, had misunderstood her reason for wanting to leave, and had made the wrong decision in bringing her here.

“Spike,” Buffy interrupted him warmly, “It’s okay. I’m okay with going to the crypt. In fact, it might just be a bit of perfect.”

“You sure?”

“Definitely. Maybe we can make a good memory for us both in there, for once.” She smiled at him and brushed a soft kiss to his lips. Then she took his hand that wasn’t holding the blankets and they took off towards the crypt.

“Forgot how dusty this place used to be ‘fore I moved in.” Spike observed once they were inside. The place was almost pitch dark, and covered in cobwebs and dust.

“As opposed to the slightly-less-dusty state you used to keep it in?” Buffy quipped with a smirk. Her expression soon turned serious when she saw the heated look he was giving her. Stepping closer to him, she tilted her head in an invitation he greedily took, smashing their lips together.

“Hold on, love,” Spike murmured against her lips. Reluctantly he pulled away from her warm body and moved to where he’d dropped the blankets earlier.

Unfolding them, Spike spread the blankets out over the dusty sarcophagus. Next he pulled out two thick candles from both pockets of his duster, which he’d also taken from the keeper’s place. He placed them on a ledge against the wall and searched for his lighter. When the candles were lit, the room was engulfed with a soft glow, making it seem more cosy than cold. He turned around to find Buffy watching him with a warm smile. Smiling back, he slowly walked up to her. Hands finding her waist, he pulled her against him and kissed her. Then he turned her around, pressing her against the sarcophagus.

For a while they just stood there, sensuously kissing, hands gently roaming. Then, as if on cue, they both slowly started undressing each other, making sure to keep eye contact. While Buffy reached up with her hands, bringing Spike’s face closer and kissing him, Spike let his hands slowly glide down her now nude body. When he reached her soft hips, he lifted her up until she was sitting on the blanket-covered stone slab.

Caressing her inner thighs softly with one hand, he gently nudged her legs apart. He stepped in between them and brought one arm around her small waist, bringing her closer against him. The other hand slid slowly from her thigh to the apex between her legs. One finger traced her dripping slit, until he came at her opening. In one smooth movement he had his index finger buried inside her.

Moaning, Buffy whispered his name as she thrust her hips forwards. Her hands buried themselves in his hair. Lips left wet, open mouthed kisses on his neck.

A second finger quickly followed, and his thumb pressed against her clit. Moments passed by with Spike leisurely pumping his fingers in and out of her sopping heat, his cheek grazing hers as he whispered in her ear how much he’d missed her, missed this. Finally he pulled completely out of her. Bringing his hand up, he almost challengingly stared her in the eyes as he licked her arousal from his middle finger. Taking the finger from his mouth, he held it up to hers, prompting her to do the same to his index finger. After only a moment’s hesitation, Buffy sucked his finger into her mouth, figuring he’d never let her do something she wouldn’t like before. It was strange, tasting herself. It was warm and slimy, but oddly sweet and Buffy couldn’t help but be a little turned on by the thought of licking off her own essence.

Spike moaned at the sight., his cock hardening even more. Releasing his finger, Buffy leaned forward to nip at his lips, the taste of her arousal mingling with Spike’s as their tongues swirled. Her hands went down from their place at his shoulders and started caressing his chest. One hand flicked and pinched a nipple, while the other traced a path further south. Reaching his soft curls, she teasingly rubbed the area around his cock, until finally closing her hand around his length.

His eyes were trained on hers, his mouth slightly open, as her hand pumped up and down. “What do you want?” He whispered hoarsely.

“I want you,” She answered, “I want you inside me.”

Grinning slightly, he kissed her intensely. “Lie back,” He breathed into her mouth. She complied, scooting back until she was far enough up the stone to lie down. Spike followed, crawling up her body with the grace of a feline until his eyes were level with hers. His hips placed themselves between her legs as he lowered himself, the tip of his cock nudging at her opening.

Suddenly serious, he stared down at her. “I love you.”

A smile graced her lips, her body shivering at the intensity of the moment. “I love you too, Spike. So much.” He kissed her one more time before, finally, he thrust inside her with one easy move. He brought his arms underneath her, so he could press her closer to him. Holding on to each other, they started moving in a slow, sensual rhythm. Their soft gasps, moans and whispers filling the air.

Neither of them noticed the passing of time. They were the only two in the world, the rest was unimportant. Buffy’s breathing became heavier, faster, as she felt her orgasm approaching. The movements of her hips became faster, prompting Spike’s to do the same. With a soft cry of his name, she felt her release take over. Spike fought to hold back his own release as he felt her shudder and clench around him. As Buffy rode out her climax, Spike kept up his pace.

The wake of her first orgasm and Spike’s cock sliding in and out of her soon had her body tensing again. It wasn’t long before she was overcome with another climax, stronger than before. Finally Spike couldn’t take it anymore. His movements became erratic until he tensed. With an animalistic groan he came, almost violently. Thrusting once, twice more, he fell slack on top of her.

For a while all was heard was their heavy breathing. Then Spike lifted his head so he could look at her. They smiled lazily at each other. “That was bloody amazing, love,” He mumbled softly.

“It was. It really was,” She caressed his back and gave him a soft peck. “It’s never been like that before, with us.”

Spike nodded, “I know.” He didn’t say more, not wanting to ruin the moment by pointing out that it was her that never allowed them to actually make love like this. He lowered his head and they kissed passionately.

Buffy felt his cock starting to harden inside her. A mischievous smile formed on her lips. Bringing her legs around him, she rolled them over. After the intense, long-overdue love making, there was room to start round two at a more playful note.

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“I was thinking,” Buffy started. They lay cuddled up on the sarcophagus, hours later, with another blanket wrapped around their nude bodies. “Since it might still be a while until we figure out how to get you back to our own time, maybe we could, like…install a bit of furniture here. Like say, a bed? Or, at least a mattress. You know, for when we just wanna be alone. I mean, if you want…” She lifted her head from its position on Spike’s muscular chest to look at him. “What do you think?”

As his fingers continued curling into Buffy’s long blond hair, he frowned a little, “You reckon it’ll take that long?”

She gave a little shrug, “Who knows. With all the research that needs to be done, finding the right spell and all…I mean, sending a person into the future where your body doesn’t exactly exist anymore, that’s gotta be kinda tricky, don’t you think?”

“I suppose.”

Buffy frowned at him and pushed herself up so she was leaning on her elbow. “Is something wrong?” He looked questioningly. “You’ve been all…I don’t know. It just seems like…don’t you want to come back with me?” She asked timidly.

Pushing himself upright, Spike brought his hand to her cheek, softly stroking her soft skin with his thumb as he looked her intently in the eye. “Buffy, you know I love you. You know there’s nothing I want more than to be with you.”

A tiny tremor of fear ran up her spine as she looked up into his serious face, “I’m sensing a ‘but’, here,” She said, trying to keep her voice even. In all the ways she’d imagined she and Spike would be reunited and start their lives together, in her own time where they both belonged, it had never occurred to her that Spike might not want to come with her.

“But,” he heaved a sigh, “I can’t help thinkin’ this is too great an opportunity to just give up like that.”

Sitting up straight, Buffy tried to remain calm. “So, what, has your life been so bad the past few years that you just need to erase them completely?” She tried to keep the accusation from her voice, she really did, but still a little of it managed to seep through.

Spike frowned at her, seeing how upset she was getting. Didn’t she understand that this was all for her? “No, love, you don’t understand. I want this for you. Life here in Sunnydale hasn’t been exactly easy on you, an’ I wanted to do somethin’ good for you, for a change.

Pursing her lips, Buffy got off the make-shift bed and stood with her back turned. “So I guess what I want doesn’t matter at all, then?” She swirled around, her eyes filled with tears. Spike was sitting upright now, looking slightly confused. “The fact that I’ve told you I don’t want my future changed is just completely meaningless, right? ‘Coz, God forbid Buffy gets to make her own decision for a change!”

“Buffy –“

“No! You know what? If you were doing all this to change it for the sake of the entire world, or even yourself for that matter, I could have understood. Maybe even agreed with you a little, if I wasn’t scared for what it would mean for my own life. But you say you’re doing this for me, because it would ‘make my life better’! Shouldn’t I be allowed to decide what happens to my life? Huh? What about all the good things that happened for the last seven years? And what if I don’t want to forget the bad things, because it allows me to appreciate what little good I do have all that much more.” She shook her head, muttering, “Well I guess this was all a mistake then. Stupid Buffy, thinking anything can ever go right for a change.”

Angrily she started picking up her clothes, trying to put them on. Spike was off the sarcophagus and across the room in a flash, gently grabbing her arm and turning her towards him. “Buffy, stop, love. I’m sorry.” He ducked his head, “I thought I was helpin’, is all.”

She softened at seeing him look so shamed, “I’m sorry too. I shouldn’t have gotten so mad. It’s just I’m tired of people trying to run my life, and I always figured you were the one person who’d let me think for myself.” She placed her hands around his shoulders, “I know what you were trying to do, Spike, and I love that you care so much. Hell, if I hadn’t been so sure there was a way I could still have you in the life I already know and have, I probably would have welcomed it.” She kissed him softly on the lips. “If you still really want to stay here and change everything, then I guess I can’t stop you. But…if you were really just trying to do this for me then…will you please come back with me? I can’t live without you in my life.”

Spike’s hands pushed through her hair as he pressed his lips to hers in a passion filled kiss. “Of course, Buffy. I’m sorry I was bein’ such a wanker, I’m no better than bloody Angel.” He smiled, “Should’ve known you wouldn’t want anyone messin’ with your life, no matter how hard it’s been on you.” He kissed her again and pulled her back to the sarcophagus with him, where they lay back down with Buffy sprawled over him.

After a moment of silence, Buffy’s unsure voice once again spoke up, “Spike? You don’t…you know, want the young and unscathed version of me more than…me?”

Spike raised his head with an amused look, “You jealous of y’self, pet?”

She blushed a little, “Well it’s just that…back in the future, I got all these new memories of what was going on here, but it wasn’t like it was entirely me that had lived it, so it seemed a little like you were with someone else and…well, you were all, talky and fun with her – me, and stuff, and – “

She was silenced by a quick peck on the lips. “Buffy, kitten, I’ll tell you that I do love any incarnation of you, so yes, also your younger version. But, in all honesty, I missed you. You an’ me, we’ve seen the absolute worst an’ the best of each other, an’ that’s why we know each other so well. Makes the fact that you love me all the more amazin’…so yeah, if I had to choose, I’d prefer you with your memories fully intact. Like you are now.” He smiled lovingly at her and stroked her cheek with his thumb.

Buffy gave him a watery smile and blinked away the tears. “So then why with the changing of it?”

Spike groaned and rolled his eyes, “I was tryin’ to do the right thin’, you know? Be all noble, an’ put aside my own wants so you could live all happily an’ whatnot.”

“Right,” She scoffed, “Like that younger-me wasn’t totally catching on to you wishing she was me,” She said teasingly.

“Gettin’ confident now, are you?” He said, raising his eyebrow.

“The truth is what it is,” She chirped cheekily.

He leered at her, “We’ll just see about that,” She squealed as he rolled on top of her, and they started yet another round of love-making.

Ooo

Oooooo

Ooo