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Author's Chapter Notes:
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Joyce was a nice lady. Spike had always know that, she’d treated him decently; even with the axe incident in their history she'd always treated him with respect, accepted him for what he really was. And now Spike was under the impression she was even nicer.

She’d managed to get him a bottle of JD and an envelope, said he had to look at the envelope later, which was good ‘cause all he could think about was the JD.

He was one happy vampire, sitting in his room getting drunk. It was the first time since he’d been here he’d had a proper drink, and he intended to get drunk. He’d hidden away from all the sweetness and light that surrounded him, he just couldn’t take it anymore. His demon couldn’t take it any more, not even a good fight here, and sex was only supposed to be between soul mates and with permission. He was one lonely, bored vampire, well until today and his bottle of Jack.

He opened the letter she'd given him: it had photos of both Dawn and Buffy, all of them from Sunnydale. The two of them laughing in the sun, playing at the beach, practising fight moves. It did his heart good to see them. He hadn't dared look into the crystals that could show what was happening on Earth. He couldn't face what he might see. He wanted them to be happy but even the thought of Buffy with another man was far too much for his heart to bear, it was true purgatory for him.
He hoped Dawn was happy, his niblet should be happy, but not with any tosser or wanker. They could keep their hands off until she was at least thirty five, or even better forty; fifty sounded like a good age to start dating. Spike smiled at the thought of his girls, his beloved girls, and that brought him back to Joyce and Anne.

Now that was a situation that was getting dangerous. They were getting on far too well. It was all baby stories, late night giggles and sudden silences when he went into a room. Very strange; then there were all the times they kept going over to the cheerleader’s house to see someone, someone who made them coo and glow; whoever it was, he was well out of it.

A lone man couldn't face those three. He would prefer to face a dozen fungus demons than those three giggling and chatting about him.

The empty bottle of JD slid from his hand and onto the thick carpet with a thunk. His mind floated in a happy drunken haze so much so that he didn't notice the light float into his room and cover him. All Spike knew was that he was well asleep, and dreaming: he could smell Buffy all around him, smell her hair, her perfume, damn, even her arousal. It was too much for his befuddled brain and he forced himself awake. He had to: it was all too real.

‘You could have it all back you know,’ a voice said from the doorway.

‘Ugh? Wha?’

‘You could have it all: Buffy, the life you dream of, everything.’

‘Yeah right, tell me the other one.’

‘No I’m not joking, you could have it all.’

‘What’s the catch?’

‘You couldn’t come back here. You would have to stay with her, whatever happened, your lives would be tied together for eternity.’

‘Sounds like a good exchange,’ Spike answered.
‘Very well then.’ The mysterious visitor went over to the semi-conscious man and put his hand on Spike's head. Spike struggled, shrugging off the hands that held him.

‘What the bleeding hell are you doing?’

‘Seeing if you meant it. If we are going to let you go back we have to be sure that you will be faithful to our cause.’

‘He will be,’ came another voice from the door. There stood Joyce, in full radiance. ‘He's ready.’

‘Good: it should be soon, the Great Witch and her Apprentice are preparing the spells as we speak. We need to warn them to preserve the new memories; they have the blood?’

‘They do,’ Joyce answered. ‘They will be ready. Are you ready, Spike?’

‘Ready for what?’

‘To go back, back to the life you knew.’

Spike started to get frightened. Master Vampire, in heaven, and he was scared to go back to Earth. He couldn't live there without Buffy again, and she was sure to have moved on since he’d been gone.

‘It will be well my son, all manner of things will be well,’ were the last words he heard.

Willow was reading everything she could find about all the spells she had to do. She wasn't scared of the spells, or of doing them. The only thing that really scared her was making the wrong choice. With the great power came great responsibility, and that was what scared her. She had finally grown up.

‘Yes you have,’ Cordy said from inside the bright light, ‘you all have. You have all found balance in your lives, or you will very soon,’ she said with a smile. ‘Now will you please get on with your tasks, ‘cause I really need that new wardrobe.’

Willow smiled. All Cordy ever wanted was clothes, or so it seemed, but Willow knew better: it was all show.

‘Now we need to talk.’ Cordy became all business. ‘You are going to have to move quickly. But when you do, you need to preserve everyone's memories of what has truly happened since the Great Battle. You need to ensure that the friendships that have formed stay formed. You will need the blood that Mary stole, or is it re-stole, as Giles took it without permission? That should give you the link you need, but don't forget Sam and Riley. They simply MUST remember.’

‘Ok,’ Willow answered slowly, ‘but what spell?’

‘This one,’ Cordy handed Willow a scroll. ‘It’s from our library up there, so whatever you do don't lose it. You were supposed to have a copy here but it was destroyed in the great fire in the library at Alexandria.

‘Give my best to Xander and tell him to hang on, happiness is on her way, and tell him not to fuck it up this time.’

‘I will, and thanks.’ Willow was already looking at the scroll in her hands with anticipation.

‘You're welcome,’ Cordy smiled to herself. Once a geek always a geek, but she had to go back, she was due for a fitting for a new robe, one that actually fitted, she thought happily to herself.

Willow started to look through the scroll properly, barely noticing that Cordy had left the room. She wrote herself a note to ask Martin in the morning to get blood from Riley and Sam, she had everyone else’s.

There were the spells they needed: one to make the travel through portals easier, a portal that wouldn’t close the minute Buffy stepped through: that was good. Meant she could go with them. One to free the ‘held spirits’, well they’d used that one already to rid everyone from Giles’ influence; one to preserve memories after a change, and one to strip slayers of their powers. That would be useful if they had a rogue slayer, or several. Rumour had it that some of the girls still supported Giles.

They were ready. The spells were deceptively easy, and she was making the right choice.

The day after tomorrow. That would be the day.





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