love this one plz update soon luvs tina

GREAT CHAPTER!!! I CAN'T WAIT FOR MORE. PLEASE DON'T MAKE US WAIT FOR THE NEXT UPDATE.

Oh Ashlee, this chapter just had me bawling my eyes out. The finallity of every moment, every step just tore my heart out. When Buffy walked away from her mother and friends to leave town and looked at Spike memorizing his face, I just broke down. This story has emotionally affected me more than any of your previous stories. That is a true testament to your ever improving storytelling abilities and talents. You have humanized these charaters to the point that I hurt when they hurt. This story is just fantastic. I know many will say they just want Spike and Buffy to be together, but that's not realistic. The portrayal of these flawed characters you have given us in this story is completely real. Excellent work hon. :)

Author's Response: Now that's not fair, you got me all tear- that's not the way it's supposed to work :-) Thank you so much for the sweet compliments and I'm glad you think I'm improving in the storytelling department. I'm actually feeling the same way (to the point where I'd like to re-write Fire and Ice at some point in the future). I'm glad the characters are realistic, that's what I strive for because life is angsty and dramatic a lot of the time. Thank you so much!

Awesome chapter! Well done :)

oooh where is she going? please hurry and update again soon, i need to know where this is going :)

Excellent chapter! I know it's a new beginning for Buffy, but please let Spike find her...somehow!

Yay! But now we got ta wait for another chappie to find out what happens.:(

Great chapter! Can't wait wait for the next update ;-)

Well, I'm glad she didn't cave at anything he said like she has in the past. Hoping he'll get over the shock of it soon, hopefully before the child graduates from college! LOL! Great chapter, btw!

thanks for not doing that happyy family thing!

No offence, but I've read several of your stories and I'm wondering why Spike is such a creep in so many of them.

Author's Response: I had a similar review on another site, so I'll post the same response: I've only written Spike as a complete jerk in "Fire and Ice" and "Desire." "Buffy the Vampire" he was under a thrall and "Beyond" is season 2 Spike who is evil. "Secrets" could be perceived as a jerk depending on your point of view, but he was also doing it for her own good (established in the summary). He's had his moments in other fics (much like in the show) but Buffy has had her moments, too (much like in the show). "Enemies" and "Matters" Buffy gave as good as she got and based on the reviews, I kept it evenly dispersed. In the show, they were never perfect and I try to keep that in mind when writing. I've written many fics and I have to have conflict in them if they are going to be long, otherwise I'd end up with ten chapters each and mostly fluff. I like to give both him and Buffy human qualities, because no one has a perfect relationship with no conflict.

Well... if she's graduating and Joyce doesn't throw a fit, then they could be together. The probably should move and go to another town or something. Or the staff at the high school could just suddenly be ok with everything. Hmmmm... it'll be interesting.

Whoa. Wait just a sec. Did he really say: what are YOU going to do? Did he really LEAVE? Or did I just have a temporary moment of insanity and I missunderstood something? Ok, I'll have to read what happens in the next chapter cause right now, my warm feelings for Spike just got dramatically cold. I don't mind Spike being a jerk once in a while, but you don't get a 18 year old pregnant and do nothing unless you're the worst asshole in the world. You're a great writer cause you get really extreme reactions from me hon. I'm still in shock.