Part One

The silence was deafening.

He had barely any life left in him to move. It wasn’t as if his heart was pumping to keep his body from going numb. The room was clean with darkness. The smell of stale blood and burnt cigarettes filled the air like a deadly plague. He moved his head briefly to stare out the window at the pale moon shining in on him. It seemed no matter how dark the sky got; the moon could always shadow it with light. He paid more attention to the moon now that he was alone most of the time. There was rarely anyone to talk to except the guys down at the bar where he spent ninety percent of his time.

He sat restlessly on an old worn out and tattered couch with a bottle of whiskey in his left hand and a cigarette in the other. This is what filled his nights. The moon, the small room he called home and alcohol along with a pack of cigarettes. He smoked more now than he had before, ever before. It was because they were the one constant in his life. He could depend on them to never leave him. He leaned back, tilting his head upward, to stare at the ceiling where small pieces of concrete were located and painted over. The sound of Bob Dylan’s “Love Sick” played next door and he closed his eyes to pay attention to the lyrics even though he was sure by now he knew them all by heart.

It was only seconds later that a loud rapping noise was cast upon the door. He turned his attention to the other side of the room lowering the bottle of whisky and placing the cigarette between his lips, then blowing smoke before he stood up. The knocking became louder as he approached the solid door painted white for comfort. “Who is it?” he asked, his voice signaling that it didn’t really matter. Any contact with anyone was better then none at all. The voice that answered was familiar and once he opened the door half way, he couldn’t help but smile slightly at the green tinted friend that stood in front of him. “Lorne”, he said opening the door all the way, then stepping away from it to let Lorne enter.

“Spike”, the sound of his voice was lukewarm. It held less emotion then Spike had remembered but he imagined it was to be expected after what he had done, what they all had done to save themselves, to be the heroes they never chose to be. “You look how I feel”, Lorne said, his eyes glancing around the room at the worn out couch and the emptiness of the small kitchen, mostly filled with empty bottles of alcohol. Spike sighed then returned to his spot on the couch, the one that had become embedded with his body print. “Nice to see you too,” Spike responded taking a chase of whiskey then another drag of the cigarette. “I’m here on business”. Lorne walked over all the newspapers and postcards that cascaded everywhere. “What can I do for you?” Spike’s tone was insensitive to Lorne’s otherwise serious one.

Lorne breathed in, slightly afraid that what he would have to say would cause an eruption of emotions from Spike, emotions Spike obviously wasn’t ready to deal with or even face. He had been hiding from them in the dark room some might call an apartment. Spike might even call it home but Lorne knew that Spike’s home was across the ocean. It was the place Spike was most scared to go but the only place he wanted to be.

“She’s in trouble.” There was no need for Spike to ask questions or to grasp the fact of whom he was talking about. He spent most of his time trying to forget the woman he loved and forget all the questions he had. Did she know he was alive? Would she care? “How do you know this?” Spike placed the bottle of whiskey back down staring at Lorne. “I read someone who was on their way to Italy and is somehow connected to it”. Spike stood up. “Why didn’t you do something?”

“It wasn’t my place. It isn’t my place anymore” Lorne paused. “That’s why I came here”.

“Can you tell me anything?” Spike’s voice became wild with concern. He made fists of his hands as if to contain the emotions that were about to spill out of him. He couldn’t bear the thought of Buffy being in any sort of trouble. Lorne looked around the room again, though never focusing on anything in particular. He wasn’t even lost in thought, just simply afraid of what the answers were and how Spike would react. He knew Spike was the person who should know. He didn’t know very much about his and Buffy’s history except that it was real history that he could feel it without having ever met Buffy. “It’s big. Something is going on in Italy that is big, maybe end of the world big”. It was the only answer he could give without giving away all the details. Too many details wouldn’t calm Spike’s nerves.

Spike nodded his head again, turning his body towards the window to look at the moon, wondering if she had ever stared at the moon and thought of him. He closed his eyes in an attempt to forget his love for her and remember what he would have to do now because of that love for her. “I’m going to leave you a list of details you’ll need for the trip. My friend has a plane that will get you there safely. It’s vampire safe and will get you back if you need to.” Lorne moved across the room towards Spike handing him a sealed envelope. Spike took it without any further questions or instructions. They didn’t say goodbye since it was uncommon to say goodbye to anyone you had been through any emotional time together. Goodbyes were final and nothing was ever truly final.

Part Two

Italy was as he remembered it, even as it had been while he was there with Angel searching for Buffy. The streets were filled with tourists late at night, loud music coming from the clubs. Pretty girls with dark tan skin, dark everything. He remembered some Italian. Pieces of it from all the time he had spent there, enough of it to engage in conversation but not enough to carry one all on his own. He stared at the piece of paper in his hand. It seemed like scribbled gibberish, words put together to form something he couldn’t understand. There was an address of a street, a street he wasn’t sure he would find and if he could, he wondered if she would be there, in danger and of course not waiting for a knight and shining armor to swoop in and save her.

He knew that if he did have a heart it would be beating out of his chest at that point. He couldn’t remember being so scared, so frightened. It wasn’t just the fact that she was in danger and he was scared for her. He knew she could handle her own but sometimes she was too proud to ask for help and so the danger would remain in silence. The danger he could always pick up on before anyone else because he knew her. He knew the side of her no one else had had a chance to see. He could feel the suspense of it all building up inside of him. He hadn’t known what to do for months. If he should see her, tell her what had happened and then hope for the best. He had been a coward and had stayed in LA moping around in his dark room afraid of what the future held. It was seeing her at all that frightened him the most.

There was a loud crash on the ground next to him. Glass broke and pieces of it shattered against his leg. He looked up, cranking his head back to stare up at a woman hanging out of a three story building, screaming at the top of her lungs in Italian at the man that stood near him. He screamed back at her, kicking the broken pieces of glass. Spike shook his head shaking the shattered chunks off his pants. “Good job mate” he commented but the man didn’t regard the comment, except with a slight nod and held his panicked angry expression while Spike walked away. He shifted his body around as he moved through the crowded sidewalk, digging into his pocket for his pack of cigarettes. It didn’t take long to light one up and pretend to breathe one in, blowing out circles of smoke that floated up into the sky. He knew his nervousness didn’t show. He walked so slowly; he could barely feel his own movements. From another’s eye he was sure he looked cool, calm and collected. It was a lie.

He stopped again for a moment. His eyes ran over the paper once more, ready to ask someone, anyone who might know what the letters and numbers meant, where the exact address was and how fast he could get there. But he caught a whiff of a scent he knew and his eyes darted behind him. It was a scent he didn’t know well but still a scent of someone he remembered. He managed to shut out all the noises around him and quickly survey the crowd, looking for the owner of the aroma. It took a few moments for his eyes to find the culprit but there she was. Her hair was longer, maybe even darker but her swagger was the same. Her clothes even looked the same, black tank top and jeans. “Faith” he said underneath his breath. She didn’t see him. She was engaged in a conversation with a girl who he assumed was another slayer; a slayer in training maybe. He moved backwards, pressing his body against the brick building behind him. He threw his cigarette to the ground, letting the crowd stomp the smoke out as they passed.

Spike watched her silently, thinking of what to say, or how to approach her without getting punched or even staked. He closed his eyes for a moment contemplating whether or not to approach her at all. He ran the palm of his hand over his face before opening his eyes to a shocking surprise. In the brief time he had closed his eyes, she had caught view of him out of the corner of her eye. “You look like someone” was all she said. Her eyes flickered over him, up and down with a bewildered expression that mixed with worry. He coughed slightly while pressing his hand into a fist. He looked over Faith’s shoulder at the girl she had been talking to. Her expression was sour and her skin was so white he thought for a moment she might herself be a vampire but the thought quickly faded as he turned his attention back to Faith. “It’s me,” he stated in a sullen tone. She stared at him without flinching. “I thought so.” She moved away from him, giving him room to move around.

“What do you mean?” he fumbled again with the pack of cigarettes in his pocket, frightened to look back up at her because tears were forming in his eyes. The past few months and even year passing through his mind like a brutal rampage. Questions began to fill up inside his head never taking a breather. He felt overwhelmed with emotions he had been fighting away for so long. Suddenly everything he had been hiding from was about to hit him not so delicately in the face. He could feel it as much as he could feel anything. He knew there would be more to come, more to feel.

He finally placed the cigarette to his lips and watched Faith as she lit it for him. He mumbled a somewhat silent thanks and rested his eyes on anything but her. She was watching his every move, the hem of his clothing, the way he leaned against the wall and for a moment she wanted to tell him to leave but she wasn’t sure why. She wasn’t sure if it was because she felt a certain protection over Buffy’s emotional well being now or if she knew her relationship with Buffy, whatever it may be might digress completely if she saw Spike was alive and kicking. She contemplated her response, although there was nothing that could change the reality of what was in front of her.

“Andrew told me when I was in London”. She bit her lip and for a moment he was sure he saw a sliver of blood trickle from her lip to the tip of her tongue. He crinkled his eyebrow with a question rising in the air as he blew triangles above Faith’s hair. “She doesn’t know,” she replied, looking into his eyes, through to his beating soul. He nodded his head, looking down at the rocky sidewalk. There didn’t seem to be any more questions to ask. Some people knew and some others didn’t and the one person he felt should care had no idea at all. Maybe it would make what he had to do easier. He wasn’t sure. Spike could feel his soul warming inside of him at the thought of their reunion and yet he felt the desire to throw up. Though he knew he couldn’t. He sighed, pulling out a bit of burnt tobacco from his top lip.

“What are you doing here?” Faith’s question was interrupted by another crash down the street. The same woman screaming out the window at the same angry dishelmed man. Faith and Spike both looked at each other and laughed. “That shit goes on every night with those two” and she laughed some more, settling into a smile. He shook his head. It was as if for a few moments he had forgotten the reason why he was there and why he needed someone’s help. The girl that had been with Faith had disappeared. “Where did she go?” Spike signaled with his cigarette. Faith’s body turned around evenly as her eyes surveyed the street. She shrugged her shoulders. “Girls are always running off around here. Probably got scared of you. Never met a soul-ed one before.” She winked.

“Buffy’s in trouble”. The tone quickly changed and at the exact moment the moon hid behind the clouds causing people to moan at the audacity of it to erase any of their light. Faith ran her coarse hands through her dark hair, tilted her head back and quickly grabbed the cigarette out of Spike’s mouth and took a drag. She didn’t bother handing it back to him. He hadn’t expected her to. His fingers were already pressing against a new one. She moved her body closer and took the butt of his old cigarette, pressed it against his new one as he sucked on the butt, the light flickering. Spike watched her as she contemplated what he had said. Faith smelled like olives and vanilla. The combination didn’t seem strange to him mostly because nothing was strange in his world. She went through a number of reactions in their silence. Her eyebrows creased up several times then fell back. Her eyes barely left the one, roaming, dark cloud in the sky. “She said she’d be okay”, her voice was soft and honest. It was in its purest form and it was then he realized that something had been leading up to this all along. Something no one had bothered to talk about or even contact him about.

Spike moved closer to her, flicking the ashes of his cigarette to the ground below them. Faith closed her eyes, moving her head back down. “The Immortal”. It left her lips like a thousand pieces of crystal falling to the floor. The noise was deadly. Her eyes opened and watched his expression.

Part Three

“I knew it! I knew it!” he began to scream at the top of his lungs. Faith watched him, her expression changing every few seconds as she tried to keep control of the situation with her eyes. People had stopped to stare at him. “Spike.” She said nodding to the people around them. He looked up for the first time noticing what his outburst was causing. “Calm down” her hands signaled for the crowd to move along. “C’mon move along people” she rolled her eyes. “They’re always looking for a good flare-up here.” She paused looking up at him while he fiddled with a new cigarette. “You smoke more than me”. He nodded, slipping the stick between his lips. “I can’t help it,” was all he could say. “Can’t help what? The smoking or the outburst over Buffy’s new beau?” there was a hint of laughter in her voice.

Spike tilted his head up looking over the crowd. “They’re still dating?” he questioned, shocked. “Well…” and her voice trailed off. “They weren’t but…”. He scratched his head, looking utterly confused, waiting for the rest of the story. “I’ve been gone—I was in Mexico rounding up another slayer, you know shitting around, wasting time. I come here in June and she’s shacked up with this guy.” She paused, looking around at nothing particular. “Then, here’s the kicker. This guy is the fucking Immortal. I mean I know Buffy like’s em old and shit, but this guy is old!”

He takes in the story like a glass of water letting it trickle down with no taste at all. He spits out a piece of tobacco from the cigarette and continues listening. “I don’t say anything because you know how B and I are and I know she wouldn’t listen to me anyway. Not like I have the best relationship advice to give.” Faith slants her eyebrows up and frowns a little as her own thoughts begin to take over. “Anyway I leave again for another trip, this time to South America. So while I’m there I almost get killed. This guy put some sort of hit out on me. So I get trapped in this bar where there’s a good twenty something vampires and a bunch of demons I’ve never seen before.” She pulls out a cigarette from her pack and plasters it to her lips, flicking the lighter gracefully, in a way Spike watches with a certain desire. It wasn’t sexual but the connection was there, an understanding between them that they were alike.

He was contemplating the story while she inhaled thick smoke into her lungs and began to speak again as the smoke tilted outwards. “So I’m standing there thinking I can get the ones to my sides, grab a leg from the table and stab the ones in front and as I’m about to move fast enough to grab the table, flip it over and break the leg right,” a cloud of smoke billows out from her lips, “Buffy shows up right at that moment with a few other slayers. Not a lot. Three at the most. So we get all of them and we’re standing there in a pile of ash and Buffy tells me she found out what was happening because she heard The Immortal on the phone with someone. And who actually calls themselves “the immortal”?” Faith flung her fingers into quotation marks.

Spike frowned. “That’s what I keep saying”, he shook his head, leaning his body against the brick wall behind him. “Get this… Buffy comes up with the idea that she’s going to pretend she has no idea about the whole thing. She flew back right away and left me and the other slayers to hide out for a little while. She wanted to make it look like she’d been in London. She flies back to London, meets him the next day in Italy. He acts like everything is just five by five so she does too. In the meantime she’s sleeping with the enemy”.

Faith watched Spike’s face as it twisted into disgust and then resentment. He began to think his death never really mattered to her or even his undead life for that matter. Faith, sensing his questions and even stupidity said, “She still loves you.” It wasn’t a lie and although she had been avoiding bringing it up at all, she knew it was the truth.

The air was thick with emotions that were being disguised with coldness and as bodies melted by them every few seconds, he felt himself become more panicked by the minute. And in a fit of dread his lips opened and his tongue moved. “Stop. We have to find her”. She closed her lips and threw another cigarette to the ground. This time lifting the heal of her boot to smash the smoke out. He threw the cigarette he had been sucking on as if it were candy and slid it behind his own heel. He placed the palms of his hands against his face hoping to gain some sort of clarity. If only his eyes could see straight, if he weren’t so blinded by his jealousy along with his love. He stuck his hand in his duster pocket, once again bringing out the piece of paper that Lorne had given him. “I have this”, he said handing it over to Faith. She unfolded the page looking it over. “It’s on the other side of town. C’mon lets get a cab”, she said, rushing for the next red cab that came shuttling down the street. She stepped in front of it without any concern of causing an accident or killing herself in the process. He couldn’t help but smile a little, at how much her love for Buffy had changed in a year.

Part Four

Spike had spent practically every waking moment for the past few months thinking about Buffy.

The months he had been in LA wondering about her, wanting to see her. He would’ve been happy with seeing her face on the sidewalk as she turned to look up at the moon. He knew he would have settled for anything, a glimpse was a world more than what he had been getting.

As he stared out onto the sidewalks of Italy, on his way to reach her, he felt his chest tighten up. His thoughts went back to their last night together, the way her hand had fallen against his chest and when Buffy kissed him, it was as if heaven was kissing him. He had spent all this time trying to forget that night, trying to forget that she had said “I love you” because he knew he never really had a chance. He always felt that she was right when she had told him he was beneath her. But he would never forget their last night together. His memories never left him and whenever he got a sniff of her delicate, flower like perfume, he would feel the recollections peak their glorious head out and made him regretful even burn with pain and frustration.

The taxicab stopped and Faith handed the cab driver a wad of money without waiting for change. She jumped out of the car as he opened the door and placed his black boots onto the cobblestone road. He closed the door and avoided getting hit by a passing car. “Bloody Hell” he pushed the door in and walked to the back of the car, eventually to the sidewalk. This was the Italy he remembered, dark and dank. His eyes roamed across the buildings; drug dealers gaining the respect of more clients. Not much had changed since the last time he had been there. The buildings still looked the same and people were always just people. The only thing that had changed, was the clothing the people wore. “Over here,” Faith yelled, breaking him out of his never-ending thoughts. She ripped through the crowd of people on the sidewalk and soon enough she stopped in front of a building.

They were in front of a building that stood out from all the rest. It was white while all the other buildings were red and brown and old in style. This one looked new, as if it had been built a few months ago maybe in even less time than that. “Have you been here before?” he questioned, his eyes treading over the area around them, worrying if Buffy was inside. She shook her head no. “No”. She turned to him; her eyes filled with worry and said, “Will you be able to get in?” He stepped forward, “Only one way to find out”. He began to step towards the building, knowing full well that The Immortal welcomed any Vampire, any demon, without any sort of spell keeping them out and before he even had to worry whether or not his thoughts were right he saw a sign saying, “all are welcome” and he couldn’t help but smile. “Look luv,” he smiled pointing at the sign. Faith turned her attention away from him and then laughed. “Well then” and they both proceeded into the open doors.

It wasn’t long before they were walking down a long hallway; their eyes wide open, looking for any sign of her. Then they heard a scream, a scream they both would’ve known in their sleep. “Buffy” they both said in unison and began to run towards the noise. But there was just a dead end. Spike became infuriated as he heard more screaming and began to punch a hole through the wall. They both squeezed through the puncture that had become larger each second he had placed his now bleeding fist through it. He could smell her now. It was faint, but he could smell her and he began to pick up pace and something told him Faith could smell her too because she had picked up the pace along side him. His duster looked like a black cape, very vampire-esc. “That way,” he said pointing to a break in the hallway. “I know,” she said and although the situation called for seriousness he couldn’t help but smile.

There was a door that was sealed shut but Spike wasn’t convinced that he couldn’t get in. The screaming was coming from inside and his patience were wearing thin. “Buffy!” Faith screamed her voice sounding panicked. There was silence on the other side of the door. “Faith?” Buffy answered somewhat calmly. “Yes, it’s me” and it was then that Spike knew there had been a change in their relationship. There was tenderness in both their voices and Buffy sounded relieved. “Oh my god! Don’t worry about me – there’s a door at the end of this hallway. He’s been building some sort of bomb that will kill every human being but keep every undead, demon alive you have to stop the bomb!” her voice rang in fear. Faith pressed the palm of her hand to the door feeling it brought her closer to Buffy. “How do I stop it?” It took Buffy a few moments to answer. “There’s a switch on the left side but you can’t flip it unless you cut the blue wire,” she answered.

Spike had been afraid to talk but he needed to ask, “Is there anyone else in the building?” Buffy silently gasped but believed she was only hearing things and that it was one of Faith’s boyfriends. “No, everyone left because of the bomb even if they couldn’t get hurt”. He shook his head and turned to Faith, his eyes wide with anticipation. “I’ll go—“ and she pointed to the end of the hallway. “Yell if you –“ he started. She cut him off, “I know” and she twisted around to give him a smile. “You just save the girl, will you” and she started to run. He began pounding at the door with his boots but it wouldn’t budge. So he looked around for anything that would get her out. It wasn’t until he looked straight down to the bottom of his boots did he see a key. He bent over, picked it up in between his fingertips and laughed a little, silently of course. The Immortal didn’t want her dead. He wanted her scared. He placed the key into all four locks and the door swung open.

It took him a few seconds to adjust to the fact that she was laying there, chained to the floor by heavy metal. Her eyes looked towards him and shock slid against her face. She moved her body but fell back to the floor. “Spike?” she said questioningly. Buffy couldn’t believe her eyes. She thought her mind was playing tricks on her. She couldn’t remember how long she’d been there, how long she had been chained to the ground. Spike moved closer to her without saying anything, not knowing what to say. He knew for sure now that if he had a heart it would be beating so fast it would jump out of his chest and scatter to the floor. “It’s me Luv,” he whispered while unchaining her. Her hand was free and she moved it away from him. He tried to keep his cool while unchaining the rest of her. “It can’t be. You’re dead” the words fell like splinters in the room. He sighed pulling her left ankle out of the chains. “Well I was always dead, undead you know.” She watched his every move as if she was seeing a stranger and he knew their reunion wouldn’t be as sweet as he had hoped or even imagined. But to his surprised once she was unchanged she looked into his eyes and said, “It is you.”

Her hand flew up in the air and reached for his face. He closed his eyes as she ran her fingers against his cheekbone and he kept his restraint and urge to touch her under wraps. He could smell her now, close up the scent reminded him of paradise and he wanted to buckle down and cry in her lap. Tell her all the things that had happened and what he had done but instead he touched her hand and slowly moved it away from his face. She looked at him, worried, maybe even confused. “But how?” was all she managed to pant out in the moment. He took her hand in his and helped her up. It was then he began to put pieces together. The Immortal had intended to kill her just as he had intended to kill him and Faith as well. He turned to look at her. She hadn’t taken her eyes away from him. “Who told you it was the blue one?” and he waited for the answer knowing full well what it would be. “The Immortal. I heard him talking. He said it was the blue one”. Spike was filled with rage and dread. “C’mon on” he said pulling her along as he ran out of the dark, damp room and towards the end of the hallway screaming, “Faith don’t cut the blue one” at the top of his lungs.

They came to the end of the hall and Buffy put aside her discomfort and confusion and ran to Faith who was standing in what reminded Spike of Fred’s lab at Wolfram & Hart. Faith was hovering over what was the ticking bomb. She looked up at the two of them. “I see you two have reunited,” she muttered looking back down at the bomb. “So don’t cut the blue one.” She put the paperclip down that she had formed into a long straight line to cut the wire. “No. He said that so that Buffy would think it was the blue one”. Buffy looked at him feeling rather ashamed for believing anything “The Immortal” had said. “We have five minutes,” Faith stated quite bluntly. “Take a gander” she moved away from the bomb, letting Spike move in. The red wire popped out like red blood and he knew that would be the obvious answer because red and “The Immortal” went together. It was too obvious. The only other color left was yellow. He looked back up at Buffy who was watching him with disbelief and he knew that he had to save her. That he had to stop the bomb from going off. “The way I see it. We have two choices. I cut this yellow one and hope it doesn’t go off or I cut the yellow one and we run”. Faith laughed. “Not loving the choices but I’m five by five either way it goes down,” He turned to Buffy to see her reaction. “Okay” she nodded her head.

Spike pulled the paper clip from the side of the table and began to slice the wire as best he could; eventually it was cut in half. “The switch. There has to be another switch Buffy”. She looked around the room. “I don’t know” Buffy crinkled her eyebrow looking for something that would signal the switch of the bomb. Then it caught her eye. It wasn’t even near the bomb. It was off to the side in the corner of the room. She ran to it. It was black with a light switch except the switch was sliver. “I think this is it” and without any reaction from the others she turned it off. Spike watched the bomb. It kept ticking. “It’s not turning off” he began to shake his leg. “I’m going to cut the red one.” And with a sharp movement and whisk of the hand he cut the red one with the torn up paperclip. It stopped. “Did it stop?” Buffy asked her eyes filled with questions. He nodded his head yes. “Now we have to get out of here. I have a feeling there’s something else in this building”. He grabbed Buffy’s hand as he flew out of the room. He knew Buffy would need help walking, running, and he knew he was the one to give it to her. Faith ran in front of them. The hallway seemed to get smaller and smaller as they made their way to the doorway.

He could feel her hold on him and his pull on her and he knew the bruises on her had been given to her by someone he disliked more than Angel. And that felt nearly impossible. They flew out into the open doors and stumbled onto the sidewalk. “Run” he screamed and they kept running. Buffy was having a hard time keeping up, having had her legs chained to the ground for so long. They were weak. The night sky was lit up with the moon’s gaze and he wanted to tell her it was for him, it was for her. It was for them. As they got farther and farther away from the building he realized he hadn’t told anyone else to run and he knew something was going to happen to that building. He stopped in his tracks. “Buffy” and he still held her hand in his and was well aware of how close their bodies were. She didn’t look confused anymore, concerned, worried even, but no longer mystified. Her questions faded each moment more she was with him. “I have to go back”. Buffy squeezed his hand before he let go. “I’m going with you,” she answered following suit as Faith stood back. “No,” he blurted out without thinking. “You’re a mess. You can’t run all the way back with me. Stay here” and he began to walk away. She followed. “I am not letting you do all the dirty work Spike. I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know why you’re here. All I know is that you’re here and I can see you and touch you and you just saved whatever of my life is left and you want me to let you go.” She paused grabbing his arm pulling him around to face her. “You are not going back without me” there were tears in her eyes. He didn’t have to answer. He shook his head and they began to run back with Faith following suit.

A crowd had gathered around the building that had changed its color from white to red. “What the…” Faith trailed off staring at the building. Buffy looked equally confused. The night sky had grown from dark to pale, almost white. Spike watched the clouds fade away and turned his body to look in any direction where the sky might not look that color. He looked around at the people crowding around the building. “Buffy” he said pointing to the vampires who straggled behind the people. “You up for it B?” Faith asked. Buffy nodded looking up at the sky. “How many times do we have to save the world?” She laughed and moved forward following Faith to the crowd. Spike still stood watching the sky change color and grumbled with disdain. It felt like rain except it didn’t smell like rain, the way it always smells before raindrops to the ground. “Shit” he whispered gathering more pieces of the game. It was a game; everything was a game to “The Immortal”. He grabbed his silver lighter out of his pocket and looked around for something he could burn. He spotted a garbage can filled with newspapers. He grabbed a newspaper from the messy pile. Twisted his body around and found a liquor store.

Buffy and Faith moved the crowd of people away, breaking into a fight with the vampires who had then crowded around them. Piles of dust began to add up with a few more bruises for Buffy and some new one’s for Faith. Spike ran into the open liquor store and grabbed the first bottle he saw of vodka. “Sorry mate” and ran out of the store. He moved closer to the building, punching a vampire on the way. He wrapped the newspaper around the bottle, tucking in the end pieces to the other end chunk. Then flicked his lighter on and lit the top of the bottle and threw it into the building. The fighting stopped as the building began to go up in flames. The vampires that were left, ran, and the people who had been crowded around the changing colored building, started to run as well. “What are you doing?” Buffy asked throwing her hands in the air. “What’s going on?”

Spike shook his head. “See fire. Bad fire. Run.” He said. The street had grown quiet except for the flames quickly engulfing the building. It took Buffy a while to process what was happening but Faith had already started running up the street and as soon as Buffy started running Spike ran behind her watching the sky as he went. The sky was turning back to a normal blue-black color. The pale white, fading away as if it had never existed. As soon as they were safely away from the building, they turned back and watched the flames erupt and the building crash and then fade away. Buffy looked over at Spike. “So what happened?” her hands placed on her hips. “There was something else in there. Some sort of device that was having an effect on the sky. If I didn’t burn it then we sure as hell would’ve seen the world end”. She shook her head. “I still don’t get it”. “Me either” he said. “How did you know?” Faith questioned, pulling her hair back from her face. “Instinct, I guess, and the building changing color sort of represented all the levels of hell”. Spike looked back up at the sky. “The sky always looks a certain way when hell is about to be unleashed. You should both know that by now.” He winked. “And that building was changing bloody colors” he said again. “Now that just isn’t right.” Buffy smiled for a moment forgetting the weirdness of the situation and the questions that were slipping and sliding in her mind. “Well we just saved hell from being released” she paused, “once again”.

“Do you think it will ever stop? Or that those other slayers can start taking on the role?” Faith asked half joking. “I don’t think it will stop but we’ll get old someday” Buffy pushed her lips together looking up at the sky, watching Spike from the corner of her eye. “What happened B?” Faith crooked her neck to the side of her, glancing at Buffy. Buffy tilted her head away from the sky. “I walked into a trap, obviously. It was stupid”. Spike looked her over. “It happens”, he said with a small smile. “I just thought it was a dinner thing but I guess he found out about South America and me. He wasn’t too happy.”

The story began to sprout out of her. She had gone to his apartment, which was on the other side of town, close to her own apartment and she thought that she had everything under control, that he had no idea about her saving Faith but as soon as she got to his apartment he grabbed her and knocked her out. When she woke up she was in the building, chained up. He was staring at her with a gleeful expression and all she could think was, this is it. I’m going to die. He’s going to kill me. She had known about the bomb for sometime, but hadn’t known where it was located. She had heard him speaking of it numerous times on the phone while he thought she was in the shower or bedroom. But she didn’t know exactly what the bomb would do until two nights prior. She had called Giles for back up but hadn’t known when exactly it was going to go down. So she was just going to play it cool, which almost cost her her life. He didn’t tell her how he found out or if he had known all along and the only thing she had gotten from being chained up was that the bomb was going to go off while she was still in the building. She had come to the conclusion that she wasn’t going to live. She hadn’t told anyone where she was going and wasn’t expecting any type of help.

“When I heard Faith’s voice I knew that if she didn’t go turn the bomb off we had no hope of surviving along with most of the world, which was what he wanted in the first place.” Buffy finished. “I found a key though so he couldn’t have wanted you dead,” Spike blurted out, thinking out loud. Buffy contemplated the thought for a moment. “I don’t think he left it. There was this girl. I heard her voice and then I heard something drop and I’m assuming that was the key.” Spike immediately turned to Faith, becoming more consumed by the story. “That girl you were with. The slayerette” He said without question. “What about her?” Faith asked. “Who?” Buffy questioned. “Natalie” Faith turned to Buffy and then Spike with questioning eyes. “Who?” Buffy raised her eyebrow. “Natalie, you know. I got her in South America, brought her here” and then it hit her. “Oh shit.” “She was working with him” Spike said what they were all thinking. “She left the key”. “But why would she leave the key if she was working with him?” Buffy looked up at Spike. “She liked you” he shrugged. “Beats me”. “We really have to do more of a back check on these girls,” Buffy shook her head. They all turned away from the disintegrating show of smoke and began to walk away from it.

Part Five

Spike flicked his lighter open while placing the leg of the cigarette in between his lips and then lit it and sucked in, the smoke penetrating into his dead lungs. Buffy watched him as you would watch someone you remember, but no longer know. It was as if she were seeing him for the first time. Hours had passed and they still had only been polite, walking around her apartment as if they were both on eggshells. Neither one of them knew what to say or where to begin.

The time that had been displaced between them felt like big gaping holes and in her heart she knew the questions she wanted answers to didn’t matter as much as knowing that he was there in front of her, smoking a cigarette and letting the smoke filter out into the early morning air before the sun rose. She wanted to tell him so many things, all the things she had been telling him in her head but she didn’t know where to begin or even if he would care. She couldn’t ask him how he came back because in so many ways it was too surreal for her to even wonder. He looked the same to her except he had new scars and looked more tired then she remembered. But to her he was still Spike, still the man she loved. Her love for him filled her at that moment as they sat outside on her balcony, watching the stars and the sky.

“Spike,” she was the first to speak, to break the silence that had become comfortable at times and then uncomfortable at others as if to keep the balance between the situation.

Spike turned to her grunting a little to signal he heard her. He watched her. Her hair had grown longer, longer then he had remembered and he felt the urge to reach out and touch it but he kept his free hand to his side and looked back up at the sky. It was bad enough he could smell her and had hours before been holding her hand in a way only two people who cared about each other would. He knew that nothing would ever be as it was. He wasn’t even sure he wanted it to be. He loved her. It was the realest thing he felt but he didn’t want her to feel obligated to be with him now that he was there next to her, undead, walking with the living.

“It’s good to see you,” she whispered smiling up at him and he felt all his nervousness fade away because those were the words he needed to hear. He knew there would be questions to answer and even things he wanted to ask but for right then it was okay. It was okay just being next to her, smoking a cigarette after a hard night of saving the world once again. If there was anything he had learned was that redemption was hard to come by and if he could find any moment in time that he could rest his thoughts and even be silent in he was the better and more content for it.

“It’s good to see you too, pet,” he said, in-between sucking and blowing out smoke. She smiled softly and it was then he felt a shift, something happening between them he had never expected.

“Can I have a drag?” she asked somewhat innocently and he turned to her with disbelief.

“What?” he asked staring at her then back at the cigarette. Buffy didn’t need to repeat herself so she cocked her head to the side and gave him a sneaky smile. He handed her the cigarette and she took it in between her fingertips and held it the way a professional smoker would, with so much clarity and understanding that he found himself completely and utterly intrigued. “When?” was all he could say as she placed her lips to the cancer stick and sucked in deeply only moments later letting the smoke escape. She handed it back to him and looked like she had savored every moment of it.

“When we moved here, when you were gone.” She answered looking back up at him. He looked at her with certain lucidity, maybe even understanding but he knew things were different now and yet somehow better. She moved her hand next to his on the armrest of the flimsy plastic chair and he became even more aware of the fact that she was near him. He had been waiting and hoping for this moment since he had been brought back from the bottom of the hellmouth. She placed her hand on top of his and wrapped her fingers in between his own and he watched their hands melt together and become shaped as one.

“I have questions,” she said softly. “I got some of it from Faith, bits and pieces”. He nodded his head pushing the cigarette against the buildings brick wall that was next to him, putting the trickle of smoke out.

“I have answers,” he whispered, stroking her thumb with his own, feeling the goose bumps rise all over his body.

“But not now, Spike.” She paused turning to him. Her eyes washing over his features, every new scar that appeared on his face and hands and she knew there were answers. She knew it was him. That he was real and nothing else seemed to matter. “I just want to sit with you.”

And they sat together till the sun came up.

The end... for now.

Authors Note: I say the end for now because I actually really enjoyed writing this piece and decided that I wanted to write a prequel and another five or more parts for this. But as I’ve learned that I enjoy writing everything altogether it might be awhile. I am working on finishing it up or at least five more chapters along with the prequel but in the meantime I think this is a sufficient ending with the large possibility of the things to come.

Thank you for reading!