Sorry, I noticed there was a missing part, because the site doesn't read a certain font, but now I added it... it's just a single sentence, but maybe it makes sense! ;)
sorry again

SOMEONE UP ABOVE IS ROOTING FOR US
Author: Lu
Main Characters: Buffy/Spike (of course!) + Xander/Anya (just hinted)
Disclaimer: I know these characters don’t belong to me
Setting: Post “ Chosen”
Thanks to : Jill and Maribel for their help, you’re great as always, girls!
Feedback: I’d like it

Summary: Guess who comes back, with the help of the last person he expected it from?

PART 1

Los Angeles, Sept 5 2003

“ I’m not gonna open a damn book!” Dawn shout resolutely.
“ First, watch your mouth, Missy!” Angel reproached her.
“ Then, you * have* to do your homework. School will start in two weeks, you can’t go there like that!”
“ Why should I? It’s totally useless! Sure, it’s my new school, but I’m sure that sooner or later a demon will destroy it, so why should I bother to study?”
“ Nice try, Dawn, but it’s not a good reason to ignore your school-duty!” he insisted.
“ Anyway, I won’t need it if I die. And I will soon, everyone keeps on dying here…”
Angel’s eyes softened and he approached the girl.
“ Please, don’t talk that way. I’m here to protect you, Nib.. “
“ DON’T! You have no right to call me that. Only one person could… and it’s not you!” she snapped, departing furiously to lock herself in her temporary room.

After the battle against the First; Angel, Cordelia and the others had gently offered to accommodate Buffy, Dawn, Xander, Willow, Kennedy and Andrew provisionally at L.A. with them.
Robin and Faith had decided to travel away for a while to restore their forces after the combat.
Giles had preferred to go to Cleveland to examine the other Hellmouth, escorted by the other Potential Slayers, craving for a new adventure.
But for now, that place didn’t give any big worry.

It was hard to establish who felt the worst between Xander and Buffy: they barely ate, rarely talked, preferring to retire in long silences and trying to isolate as much as possible.
That was what Buffy was doing in that moment, while the two were arguing, but the sharp reaction of her sister had forced her to approach the vampire.
“ I apologize for her. Believe me, she didn’t mean to be so rude, she likes you and she is very thankful to you for what you have done, as every one of us is. But she has some points, after all…” she said, touching her hair nervously.
“ It’s like if you called me… Goldilocks… or.. * pet*… “ she explained, making a huge effort to say the last words without breaking down and cry.
Angel’s eyes hardened.
“ Well, it seems she is not the only one mourning him!” he muttered coldly.
“ You can’t understand…”
“ Exactly, I can’t understand how you can feel something for Spike, for God’s sake! So, you had suddenly forgot his past, just because he’s got back his soul. Well, I did it first, he just copied me!”
Buffy gave him an icy glaze.
“ Are you done with this * crap*?”
“ What?”
“ First; it’s not just because of his soul, it started before, but I’m not gonna discuss *that* with you. Second; it’s not that I forgot his past, but I forgave him, just like I’ve forgiven you… * twice* actually! And third; just ‘cause you like so much talking about souls… have you ever wondered how he got his back? Well, I’ll tell you: he went to God knows where to find a demon, which, after making him face terrible tests, granted him a wish… and guess what his wish was? Angel, you got your soul because you were cursed with it, Spike got his because he earned it: yours is a malediction, his is a reward! Think about it!” she retorted and then she ran upstairs.
Angel tried to follow her to prevent her from locking herself again in her room.
“ Buf…” but another voice, coming from the room in front of them, captured Buffy’ s whole attention and that strong emotion startled her.

- - I thought I told you to piss off with this bloody…- -

She sprang the door open, screaming his name, to realize with an infinite sadness it was just a recording: Andrew was showing Cordelia the videocassette with the filming he had done at Buffy’ s house, before the great final battle.
“ She wanted to watch my video, but I suggested watching ‘ Star Wars ‘ instead!” the boy justified.
“ Seeing Luke Skywalker wouldn’t have the same effect on you! I’m sorry!”
Buffy was silent for a while, fighting against the tears that were about to fall from her eyes.
How could she be so mistaken? He was gone and he would never come back: she had to accept it.
That videocassette was the only tangible memory left of him.
“ Could I…” she asked shyly, her voice trembling.
“ See the video? Sure! And if you want, I’ll make all the copies you want, Buffy!” Andrew said, glad to be useful.
Cordelia watched the two of them perplexedly.
“ Why would you want to see that? The house was a mess, there isn’t a single telegenic person, and every Potential’s hair style is horrible, not to mention their clothes, eewww!” the brunette exclaimed.

After all, no one had ever told her about Buffy and Spike.
She thought she was upset due to the destruction of Sunnydale and the several deads before and during the battle, but not because of the lack of that vampire.
Andrew dragged her out of the room.
“ C’mon, Cordy, let’s go!”
“ Why? I ‘m not finished watching it…” she complained.
“ I said LET’S GO!” he repeated, closing the door and leaving Buffy alone in the room, in front of the video recorder.

No one dared to disturb her, but after a while, Xander got in, maybe he was the only one who could understand how she felt.
He observed her for several minutes, as she watched, stopped, and re winded the only two minutes where she could see and hear Spike, even risking to spoil the videotape.
And then, the girl noticed his presence.
“ Xan! Maybe you wanna see..”
“ Don’t worry, Buffy, watch it as much as you please! After all, I have lots of pics with Anya and all the gifts she gave me… while you have got only .. that!” he replied, sitting beside her.
“ See?” she said, pointing at the screen.
“ It’s so typical of him: being all rude and pretending to hate the video camera, when I know he liked being shot, vain as he was!” she commented with a ghost of smile.
“ Xan, I miss him so bad!” she confessed, throwing herself in her best friend’s arms and crying her eyes out.
Xander let her cry it all on his shoulder.
“ I’m also sorry for you, about Anya; just when things were going to be fine between you two, it’s not right, nothing is right! At least, you had the chance to show her your love, so she died knowing you loved her.. Instead, although I had lots of chances with Spike, I’ve been so stubborn and bitchy I wasted them all. So, when finally I found the courage to admit my feelings and tell him I loved him he didn’t believe me!” the blonde confessed to Xander, which had lost the strength to react and to amaze himself at a revelation like that
“ Buffy, I’m sure he understood that!” he confined himself to say.
“ No, Xander, I saw it in his eyes: he thanked me for saying that, but he didn’t believe my words. And I can’t blame him, he saw me kissing Angel when he came back…”
“ You kissed Angel?” Xander interrupted her, more surprised this time.
“ Yeah, but it was an innocent kiss, a goodbye one, without passion, feeling, nothing. All I thought was that he was cold just like Spike, and I did the opposite when I kissed Spike, but only at the beginning…”
“ And you didn’t explain it to Spike…” the boy guessed.
“ It was too late. I entwined my fingers with his and our hands went on fire, but I didn’t care: I knew the end was near and I’ve got only few seconds to talk to him before the explosion, I would have liked to stay with him ‘till the end; but he would never forgiven me for that, I know. So, I use that moment to tell him something important, something I really meant! There wasn’t time to clarify things about Angel…” she cried.
“ So, using your words, I have this painful hole inside. And I’m the idiot who dug it out!”
“ Buffy, do you think I’m better? Do you think you are the only one who wasted all the chances? I hadn’t even had courage to marry the woman I loved! I had the chance to bring her to the altar, to have children with her, to spend my life with her, possibly dying very old! Instead, I ran, scared by God knows what! So, she became a Vengeance Demon again. Maybe, if that hadn’t happened she wouldn’t feel that sense of guilty that brought her… to sacrifice herself… to save Andrew…” and this time he was the one who cried.

PART 2

***************************************************** (= Meanwhile)
Sunnydale, 5 Sept 2003

The whole town was just a mound of rubble, especially the school.
Under the scrap heap there was still the medallion, covered by a pile of ashes.
Suddenly, the wind blew, arising those ashes. They made a vortex, which took the form and the features of a certain person: Spike.

He took a look around, agitated and puzzled, not realizing how he had come back to life (well, in a manner of speaking!), where he was (he hadn’t figure out that was the place of the final battle, a battle he had won) and most of all why in front of him there was nonetheless Nikki, the Slayer he had added to his list in the 70’s at NY.
“ Ok, I got it: this is Hell, so you got to torture me for eternity. C’mon, have fun!” he exclaimed, touching himself to assure he had really come back in flesh and bones.
“ This isn’t the Hell, neither Heaven or Purgatory, relax! It’s just Sunnydale; well… way much different from how you used to know it!” she explained, confusing him more.
“ What the hell does it mean? And why the bloody hell are you with me?”
“ Well, it’s not a very nice way to greet your savior!” she commented, crossing her arms.
“ My.. m. my w-what?!”
“ You heard me. You know, after all the Apocalypses we prevented and the Hell we lived through; when we die, we Slayers have a kind of influence with the ‘Highest Powers ‘. So, very often, we get what we want… And guess what I wished?”
“ You wished me back! How can it be?”
“ You know, the Highest Powers appreciate sacrifices a lot. The bigger the sacrifice is, the more they are willing to … close an eye!” she explained.
“ Close an eye?! They have brought *me *, a demon, a killer, back; just because of a good deed I did. But one good deed doesn’t tip the scale!”
“ In the last two years you’ve done more than a good action! Anyway, listen: how many people did you kill? Hundreds?” she exclaimed.

Spike, or rather his demon, gave her a ‘ Hey-you-are-talking-with-the-Scourge-of-Europe ‘ look.
“ Ok, thousands! But how many ones did you save? Every single person in the whole world, which means millions and millions of humans, so many more than the ones you killed. I guess this kind of good deed can tip the scale!” she smiled.
“ But why are you, just you, helping me? I killed you, for God’s sake!”
“ It was just your instinct against mine: one of us had to die and you came off better. If you hadn’t killed me, someone else would have done it soon anyway! Besides, you were right: I really had a death wish…” she admitted.
Spike couldn’t believe what he had heard; but neither that made him feel better.
“ Anyway, it’s not just about me. You did something I’ll be eternally grateful to you for: you didn’t kill my Robin. Although he tortured you like hell. You know, just seeing his ‘ sanctuary’ made me sick for you! Spike, you had free will and no chips and yet you didn’t kill him, thank you!”

Spike was puzzled more and more, but he smiled to her.
“ He’s not a bad guy after all… bloody good fighter, too! And I understand his reason… all of us have a mom we love…. I should kill myself (again) for what I did to mine…” he confessed, almost crying.
“ You tried to save her. Ok, it wasn’t the right way, but you turned her because you loved her, just to prevent her from dying by her terrible disease. Not to mention that you were just a soulless demon then and all vampires mostly like destroying their own parents; yet you had a human feeling towards her, it’s incredible! I’m sure your mother, the real one, not her demon, understood you and also forgave you…”

It was a pure nonsense: a vampire that was going to cry because he repented for doing to his mother what he had done, and even more absurd a Slayer, one of the two he had killed, trying her best to comfort him.
And she succeeded.
“ Oh, I almost forgot! The Highest Powers liked your so heroic and altruistic choice so much that they wanna reward you: they will grant you a wish!”
“ Are you kidding? I mean not only you, or they, brought me back, but they also give me a prize? I don’t deserve it; I didn’t deserved to come back; I am bad, I hurt so many people, I deserve to be punished!” he insisted.
“ Believe me, you suffered enough: you have been through so many troubles before, during and after winning back your soul; and this is something you chose willingly to do, no one forced you, no one cursed you. Besides, you did what you did for love, it’s not the chip, and maybe… neither your soul: you have changed for love, for the love of that girl and it’s something beautiful, unbelievable… and also kinda moving!” she admitted.
“ In a word, I couldn’t let everything end up so bad, not after what she had told you. As you can see, I’ve been watching you for a long time… and I root for you two! So now, stay on this Earth, come back to your existence and tell me what your wish is; or I will personally ask to let you burn in Hell, you, stubborn vampire!” she snapped.
“ I’ll do it, don’t worry! It’s just that I’m kinda surprised, I didn’t expect all this caring for me. It seems that I can make my biggest desire come true on my own, so, if I have to choose another one… sun. I’d like to stay in daylight, without heavy covers of course!”
“ So, it’s the sun…” she said, putting a finger on her chin, in a thoughtful way.
“ Well, you’re asking a little bit too much. You have to renounce something for such a request…” she informed him.
“ Sure, I knew there was a hook! I’m ready to renounce anything, no… wait, except for two things: my memories of her… and my soul…. Please, do not take any of these two …” he begged her, afraid to pay a too big price for his wish.
She smiled mysteriously, alarming him.

“ I’ve already decided what you’ll have to renounce!”

*************************************************
After comforting Xander for a while, Buffy let him alone to watch that videotape.
She looked for someone else, someone she had to apologize with.
She found him in his office.
“ Angel, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be so mean before..”
“ Don’t, Buffy, there’s no need. After all, there was some truth in your words..”
“ No, Angel! It’s not true. It’s only that I have so much anger inside and sometimes I take it out on someone who has no faults. Truth is that the only person I really loathe… it’s me. God, sometimes I can be such a horrible person and..”
“ Stop this nonsense! Buffy, you’re a wonderful person, with a great heart and everyone loves you, especially I do..” he said, looking into her eyes seriously.
“ Angel…” she exclaimed wavering and unsure.
“ I know. You don’t love me anymore. I realized that when I kissed you…” he commented, a bit upset.
“ Angel, I loved you, God only knows how much! And a part of me will always do. You taught me to love..”
“ But then I left you, no matters if I only did it for your own good…”
“ Yeah, so I’ve closed my heart to anyone since then, even Riley…”
Angel spurted rolling his eyes, hearing that name.
Although he had met him just once, he couldn’t stand that guy.
“ Question is… Buffy… did you love Spike?”
Buffy didn’t know how to answer: she knew it was a huge effort for him to ask her that question, and also that she was going to hurt him, but she had to be sincere with him.
“ With him I was beginning to unlock my heart… so.. yes, I loved him and still do, but now… he is gone… and I’m afraid my heart is going to be locked forever. Love is pain and I’m tired of being hurt!” she explained, almost crying.
“ I just need to be alone for a while. That’s why I’m leaving!” she informed him.
“ Where are you going to go?” Angel confined him to ask her.
He knew it was useless trying to stop her: if Buffy got something into her head, nothing and no one could make her change her mind.
“ I’m going back to Sunnydale…”
“ But there’s nothing left there!”
“ It’s exactly what I need: nothing!”

< Nothing that can remind me of him… >

“ When do you leave?”
“ Tonight. I’m telling just you; the others would never let me go… Please, say goodbye to them for me… Maybe one day I’ll come back!”

TBC

PART 3

2 Days Later

Buffy didn’t know why, but something within her heart told her it was right to come back to Sunnydale, although the only place that was still whole was the beach.
In fact, she had stopped there to have some rest, after arriving at the nearest station to Sunnydale the night before.
“ You are very much the egoist, don’t you know? You saved the world all alone…” she exclaimed, speaking to Spike as he was there with her, crouching at the shore, throwing stones into the water.

***************************************
Spike was taking his first steps in sunlight: his wish had been granted since the very first day, but he, dreading it wasn’t true, had decided to try only that morning, really, really cautiously.
When he had finally assured there were no flames on his body, he had chosen to take a walk in the beach.
He still couldn’t believe he had come back to his existence, he still couldn’t believe that now he could stay in sunlight as much as he pleased… and he couldn’t believe that Nikki had prevented him from leaving Sunnydale.
He began kicking the sand nervously.

< Since when the bloody hell do I take orders from a Slayer .. well.. * another* one? Bugger what she had told me! Why wish me coming back here if I can’t go to her? I’m gonna leave, I’ll sniff the air and I’ll find her, no matter how much time… >

-- You are very much the egoist, don’t you know? …. --

Spike started: that voice.
That voice he would have been able to recognize among thousands of other ones.
It was *her * voice. And she mustn’t have been far from him.
He followed the sound, until he saw her from far, approaching her bit by bit, without making her notice his presence.
Buffy laid there, sitting in front of the sea, her arms wrapping her legs, and she had an absent gaze, staring at a dot on the horizon.
And she was talking to him, nonetheless.
“… I should have been the Champion, not you! After I jumped into a whirlpool of energy from a very high tower, what could have been for me burning alive? Instead, you have sacrificed yourself for all of us, it’s not right!”

Spike couldn’t resist any longer: he wanted to show up.

“ You know what? We have no memories here, we had lots in my house, in your crypt, at the Bronze, at the cemetery… but now all those places are just a mound of rubble… We hadn’t ever had a chat, an argue… or a fight, here. Spike, did you like the sea? I don’t even know, there’s so much I don’t know ‘bout you; but now you’re gone and I miss you so much it hurts, I..”

“ I’m here, pet…”

Buffy started, risking a heart attack.
She turned as slowly as she could, afraid to see no one standing behind her.
Yet, she couldn’t have just imagined it: that was his voice!
When she finally saw him, she got up, not to run into his arms, as he expected.
In fact, the girl gave out a hysterical, sad and empty laughter.
“ Here we go again with the hallucinations! This must be the thirtieth time in two months. I’m seriously going crazy!” she exclaimed.
“ Buffy, it’s me. I’m real…”
“ I don’t know why, but the fact that you are in full sunlight doesn’t convince me that you are real. You are not. You can’t be here. And if I hug you, if I touch you… you’ll fade out…”
“ No, I won’t!”
“ You always do. And I don’t want to delude myself once more. I couldn’t stand it… not this time…” she sobbed, backing off, ready to run away.

But he was faster and he prevented her from doing it, taking her hands.
In her green eyes, now reddened and swollen due to the weeping, he could read all the amazement, the incredulity and most of all the joy she felt, feeling him holding her hands without fading out, as she dreaded.
They stayed that way, without a word for a very long time, but that silence was worth more than thousands words.

“ Buffy, do you believe in miracles? Now I do!” he exclaimed, letting a hand flow through her soft hair.
“ I missed you so much, my Goldilocks!”
“ Spike!” she exclaimed once she regained the ability to talk and utter the words.
“ How can it be? You should be dead, you were dead…”
“ Well, you know me, don’t you? I didn’t stay dead the first time I was killed; why should have I done such a thing the second time?” he smiled, but her expression made him realize that wasn’t the moment to joke.
“ Buffy, I’m here, with you, and I’ll never leave you again! Does it really matter how I managed to come back? Or why I am in the sunlight without burning?”
This time she was the one smiling, shaking her head slowly.
“ No, nothing matters anymore!”
“ Fine, ‘cause you wouldn’t believe me anyway: I have still trouble believing it myself! Let’s just say that …someone up above is rooting for us!” he explained, skimming her hand.
She passed a trembling hand (she was still shocked by the strong emotion) through his hair, going down to his face.
“ Ninety-nine!” she exclaimed, half closing her eyes.
“ Ninety-nine what?”
“ The days you were gone: ninety-eight yesterday, ninety-nine today, except that today doesn’t count, does it?” she said with a sweet smile, quoting purposely the same sentence he used when he had seen her again, after her resurrection.

Spike was more than joyful: not only she had showed him how bad she had missed him and how much he was in her thoughts; but she had also counted the days of his absence.
“ Take two from ninety-eight!” he smiled.
She questioned him with her eyes.
“ The mysterious someone I mentioned before brought me back three days ago and this someone also ordered me not to go looking for you… and now I understand why: you were already coming here!” he explained.
She had said nothing, stroking his face with an unprecedented sweetness.
He had heard her heart racing madly since he had started holding her hands. This news had accelerated its rhythm again, and he was going to increase it even more.
“ Pet, from now on you’ll have to count the years, too!”

TBC

PART 4

“ What do you mean?”
“ That someone granted me a wish, so I chose to stay in the sun. But my savior said I was asking for too much and that I had to give up something for it… Guess what she took from me?”
“ Your eternal youth!” she gasped with the brightest of smiles.
“ Exactly. So, I’m planning to grow very, very old with you, sweetie!”
“ So, how old are you? You’ve never told me!”
“ Almost 130 yrs as a vamp… 28 yrs as human!” he confessed.
“ So, finally the big mystery is unveiled! Mm… 28 yrs? I don’t know if this could work between us… you’re too old for me…” she joked.
“ Yeah, you’re right: only 108 years of age difference are ok… but six … that’s too much!” he joked.
“ Spike, I would love you even if we had 10000 years of age difference!”
The vampire’s happiness was huge.
“ Did you really said ‘ would love ‘ or I just imagined that?” he smiled, wrapping an arm around her waist.
Her only answer, she brought her lips close to his and she gave him the sweetest kiss.
“ Have you imagined that, too?”
“ I don’t know, let me try again…” he whispered, kissing her once more, with all the passion and the love he was capable of.
But after a while, he tasted something salty in his mouth, and he parted from her, to find her in tears.
“ Wassup, pet? Have I become such a bad terrible kisser?” he wondered a little bit insulted.
She punched his shoulder playfully.
“ Silly! These are happy tears!” she said, mingling the laughter with the tears.
“ I love you, Spike; do you believe me now?” she said, pulling him to her.
“ Listen, luv: do you think I died with a very large smile on my lips because the flames were tickling me?” he smiled.
“ But you… you said… and you were… so serious…” she stuttered puzzled.
“ I had to do it: you would have stayed there with me if I hadn’t told you that… I’ve failed once trying to save you, couldn’t fail twice!” he justified.

There was too much tension between them; he had to do something to slacken it.
“ What can I say? I’m an excellent actor!” he exclaimed with one of those smirks she had terribly missed.
The girl threw herself in his arms, holding him tight.
“ Stupid, stupid vampire! Never ever try something like that again! There can’t be life for me without you!” she said, wetting his coat with her tears.
“ Buffy, no more crying, let’s forget the past: now I’m here with you and I won’t leave you anymore!”
The girl’s sobs stopped and the smile came back to enlighten her face.

“ Anyway, the answer is yes!”
“ What was the question?”
“ You wondered if I like the sea: I do. I like the way it changes: sometimes it’s calm and surrendering and it seems to invite you to play with it; sometimes it’s wild and stormy and you’d better not deal with it… well, it reminds me of you!”
She shoved him, making him fall on the sand.
“ Hey! You can be the savior of the whole world, but you’re still so annoying and impossible sometimes!”
“ And that’s why you love me, baby!” he laughed, tugging her ankles and dragging her onto the sand with him.
She laughed, as she hadn’t done for ages.
“ So, how do you see me now? Wild and stormy or calm and surrendering?”
“ Why don’t you tell me?” he said, pulling her to him.
After a never-ending kiss, they got up.
“ Spike, there’s something important you must know…” she exclaimed.
“ What?”
“ I don’t love you..”
“ Hey, stop, stop! I don’t like the beginning of this sentence! Plus, before you said..”
“ If only you let me finish talking once in a while, my silly eager vampy!” she smiled, covering his mouth.
“ I don’t love you just because of your soul…” she explained.
“ It started before… it’s just that I didn’t realize it, or rather I was too afraid to figure it out! I began to see you in a different way since Glory tortured you. I saw you as a friend and maybe more… but I died before you knew it! Then, I came back and the feeling between us was stronger day by day; but we, or rather I, because it’s only my fault if you became exasperated, spoiled it all and you left. Then, you came back with your soul, but you weren’t yourself at all until you set yourself free from the trigger. And the night we have spent together when I ran away… well, there wasn’t kisses, or sex… you only held me tight… but believe me, that night it was like we had made love!” she exclaimed and the vampire’s eyes flashed yellow for the surprise, hearing the last words.
Buffy still held her hand on his mouth; she hadn’t finished yet her speech.
“ Then Angel came back, and you misunderstood that kiss, which was only a goodbye… I wanted to let you know, but I didn’t and then it was too late, ‘cause at the end you decided to do what you did and you… died!” she carried on, grieving at the memory.
“ But now I’ve been given another chance with you and I won’t waste it! I love you, Spike, I love you so much! I just wonder how you can love me after I had been so bitchy with you! I don’t deserve your love…” she blathered, withdrawing her hand from his mouth and parting from him.
He interrupted her with a kiss.
“ No more talking, let’s just enjoy our chance! Buffy, I love you, no matter what you do, I can’t stop loving you, I don’t wanna stop!” he said, deciding that maybe his kisses could convince her even more than his words.

“ Can’t wait to come back to the others. Dawn will be so happy to see you!”
“ I miss my Nibblet, too! Hey, wait; she threatened to burn me in my sleep after all. It doesn’t sound like a person who would be happy to see me…” he commented worried.
“ That was the past, a past that shouldn’t have ever been. Now, things will be different, and believe me, she adores you! I wouldn’t give so much importance to something she said in the heat of the moment. I know she didn’t mean it and you should know it, too!” she reassured him, holding his hand, putting her head on his shoulder, raising her eyes to look up to the sky.
“ Whoever you are, thank you so much, mysterious someone!”
***************************************************
“ You’re welcome, my darling!” Nikki said, seeing the whole scene from that place where also Buffy had stayed for 147 days.
“ I wonder how you can be so happy for them! After all, he was your enemy,… ours!” Kendra muttered, reaching her.
“ Funny! Words coming from the one who has helped the girlfriend of the guy you fancy! Not to mention that she used to be a Vengeance Demon!”
“ Ok, you won! I guess we are crazy as well!” the younger Slayer laughed.

“ If only you had seen his face when I told him that not only he could stay in sunlight, but that he could also age again! He was so happy that he wanted to give me my coat back… can you believe it? But I refused, after all.. it suits him better!” Nikki chuckled.
“ So, what about you, Kendra? Did the Highest Powers accept your proposal?”
“ Yes, it went fine. They granted my desire, I guess her sacrifice to save that guy impressed them!” the girl answered enthused.
“ Still wonder why you did it!”
“ You know, I owed it to Xander. He was the first guy who was so gentle with me; plus, I couldn’t stand anymore to see him like that. If you love someone, you want just his happiness, and there’s only a person who can make him happy again. That’s why I talked the Powers into sending her back to Earth. Probably, she’ll be already at L.A. by now, in front of Angel’s door. She was beside herself with joy when I told her everything, you should have seen her: she was just carrying on and on babbling about her and her… wait, .. what did she call him? Oh, yeah… ‘ Sexy Pirate ‘ having to make up for lost time and do lots of… well, maybe you don’t want to hear about this stuff!”

**************************************************
Los Angeles, Sept 7 2003

Although everyone was upset due to Buffy ’s escape, they had to go on living their own lives. After all, they were relieved ‘cause Angel assured them she would come back one day. Hers wasn’t a goodbye.
Now, Angel and his crew were out of town, because of an investigation; Willow and Kennedy were out for their business; and Andrew had finally managed to get a date with Dawn, which wasn’t indifferent at all to that guy.
So, Xander had remained alone, caring about the Office, while he was watching TV absently.

Suddenly, the bell rang and he approached the door, ready to open it.
He couldn’t even begin to imagine who was waiting at the threshold: Xander was going to receive the most beautiful gift of his life.
--
THE END.
TBC