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Buffy sat at the table in the Magic Box feeling depressed, angry and utterly confused. Two weeks had passed and Spike still hadn't returned. She should have known that something like this would happen. She tells him she loves him and then he takes off. It seems that's the story of her life. She should have known better than to fall in love again. After all, a pattern had formed in her life in which every man she loved ended up leaving her. Why should he be any different? How could she be so stupid?

Buffy looked across the table where Xander and Anya were sitting. They were looking at the bridal magazines that Anya would force Xander to read on a daily basis. After leaving her at the alter he figured the least he could do was go along with her detailed planning which involved over a dozen wedding catalogs.

"Uh guys, I really hate to break up the wedding bliss but I really do need help researching this Lorac demon. I don't want to get kabobed again." Buffy said.

"Sorry Buff." Xander said. "Anya just wanted to look for last minute wedding ideas."

"But isn't the wedding tomorrow? What could you possibly find in any of those magazines that you could accomplish in one day?" Buffy let out an exaggerated sigh.

"There's no need to get huffy." Anya said, putting the magazine away. "You can never be too prepared. I just want everything to be perfect. You'll understand someday when you get married."

Buffy frowned and turned back to her research. She knew, because she was the slayer, that she would probably never get the chance to have a wedding or to do any of those traditional things that the average person does. Maybe that's why she finally accepted her relationship with Spike. She did love him even though it was far from a normal conventional relationship.

After all this time she finally realized how true his feelings for her were. She knew deep in her heart that he would risk his own life to protect her. Her life had an expiration date and she knew that Spike would constantly look after her to make sure they got to have as much time together as they possibly could. That's why his leaving had hurt her so much. She had been so close to death but he left anyway. She was angry that he had left her lying in the hospital alone but at the same time she was afraid. She was worried that he hadn't returned yet and terrified that something horrible had happened to him that prevented him from returning.

Willow sat at the counter researching the demon for Buffy. She tried to concentrate but she couldn't help but be worried about Spike too. She saw how torn up he was after Buffy was hurt. He was so terrified that he would lose her again. She couldn't understand what could possibly be so important that he would leave her when she needed him the most. Buffy was in pain and needed to be nurtured and cared for by him but he just took off without any explanation.

Willow knew Spike well enough by now to know that he wouldn't have left her like that unless it was an emergency of some sort. There was no way he would have left unless it was a life or death situation, which worried her even more. She just hoped that Spike was all right. He became such a good friend to her that she was starting to miss him too.

Every head in the Magic Box turned toward the door as they heard the sound of the bell announcing that someone was entering.

Buffy's eyes widened when she saw a battered Spike walk through the door. She wasn't sure if she should go to him to tend to his wounds first and ask questions later or if she should walk angrily toward him to demand an explanation.

She started to head toward him when she noticed that he continued to hold the door open as if he were waiting for someone else to join them.

Buffy paused and she stared in confusion. Willow stood up from her seat at the counter to try and get a closer look at what was going on.

Willow gasped loudly as the person Spike was waiting for finally decided to make an appearance.

"Tara?" Willow looked at her as if she didn't believe her eyes.

Willow couldn’t believe it. Her mind wouldn't let her process the information. She was convinced that she was hallucinating or just having another one of her wonderful dreams.

Xander and Anya stood and studied Tara closely as if they were trying to make sure that they weren't hallucinating as well.

Willow walked slowly and cautiously toward Tara as if she were afraid that if she moved too fast Tara would just disappear before her very eyes.

Willow stood in front of Tara and looked into her eyes which were as full of love as she remembered.

"Hi, sweetie." Tara greeted with a smile.

Willow was stunned at the sound of her voice. It gave her some confirmation that she was actually there. She was sure she was going crazy. How could this be possible?

Willow brushed her hand against Tara's cheek to prove to herself even further that this was actually real. Tara leaned into her touch and smiled. Willow gasped at the feeling of her warm skin. She was really there. She had come back to her. She was alive.

"What happened? How did this happen? How are you here?" Willow asked, her eyes filling with tears.

"It was Spike." Tara answered, then glanced over at him. "He brought me back."

Tears of joy started to fall down Willow's flushed cheeks. She attempted to calm down and catch her breath. She couldn't get over the fact that the one thing she wanted the most in this world was actually happening.

Willow ran up to Spike and wrapped her arms around him. She sobbed into his chest and he slowly lifted his arms around her and started rubbing her back.

"Thank you!" Willow cried. "But, How?"

"I went back to Africa to see the same demon who gave me my soul." Spike answered.

"But that's impossible. After you told me about getting your soul back, I did some research on that demon. I read that you are only allowed one thing from him. How is it possible that you were granted a second wish?" Willow asked with a bewildered expression.

"I already knew about that before I left for Africa." Spike admitted. "I offered him a deal. I had to pass another set of tests and if I did, I would trade my soul for Tara's life. Obviously I passed. By the way, I see you have the books out. If you are researching about the Lorac demon there's no need to worry. Killing that monster was part of my tests and I couldn't have been happier to do it."

"You gave up your soul for me?" Tara asked in a shocked and bewildered tone.

She never knew the exact details of how she was able to be there. Tara was touched beyond words by Spike's actions. He was the last person she ever expected to do something so completely selfless for her or anyone else.

"Well, yeah." Spike replied. "You didn't deserve to get killed by that wanker and Willow didn't deserve to lose you. She's been so good to me since I returned. I just couldn't stand to see someone I cared about so unhappy. Willow deserves to have the love of her life back."

"Did you pull her out of heaven like Willow did to Buffy? We all saw how well that turned out. This could be bad." Anya said.

Willow turned to Tara with a frightened expression on her face. No matter how much she wanted Tara back, she didn't want her to be as unhappy as Buffy was about being taken out of heaven.

"Don't worry, sweetie." Tara said and she smoothed back a lock of Willow's red hair. "I'm not upset. He did pull me out of heaven but any heaven is pure hell if you're not with me. I would have given up anything to be back here with you."

Willow cupped Tara's face with her hands and started placing soft kissed over every inch of her face while tears continues to escaped from her eyes.

"All right Spike. What's the deal here?" Xander said. "What's in this for you? You would never do something like this without getting something out of the deal."

Willow angrily turned to Xander gave him a look that scared him even more than seeing her expression right before she killed Warren.

"I can't believe you Xander!" Willow screamed. "Spike is getting nothing out of this! He sacrificed his soul to bring Tara back to me. His soul, Xander! The soul that he left Sunnydale to get so he could be a better man for Buffy! Giving up his soul must have been the scariest thing he's ever had to do and he did it without knowing if Buffy would still want to be with him when he got back! That is the most unselfish thing I have ever seen anyone do!"

Xander lowered his head in shame knowing that Willow was right. He was happy and touched in his own way by what Spike had done. He realized that he was just searching for some reason to make him look bad mostly because he didn't want to have to admit that he had been wrong about Spike all along.

Buffy looked over at Spike still expecting him to go completely evil and decide to kill her and all her friends. She just couldn't bring herself to accept the fact that there was a gray area when it came to demons. After Angel lost his soul he became a pure evil that she had never seen before. For the longest time she compared every vampire to the way Angel was and always assumed that each one held the same evil that Angelus had. She realized how wrong she was as she watched a sweet and tender smile appear on Spike's face as he watched Willow and Tara engage in a loving embrace.

Spike looked over at Buffy to see an unsure expression on her face. He had no idea how she would react. Part of him was expecting her to run up to him with a stake in her hand and dust him now that his soul was gone. The other part of him was silently wishing that it wouldn't make a difference to her.

Buffy suddenly started running toward him and his first instinct was to duck out of the way in fear of meeting the pointy end of a stake but he stayed put instead. Buffy reached Spike and wrapped her arms around him, almost knocking him to the floor. She placed the most passionate kiss he had ever felt upon his lips. She cradled the back of his head and savored the feeling of his soft lips against hers. She pulled away from him and stared into his sparkling blue eyes as tears escaped her own.

"I never thought I would ever meet anyone as wonderful as you! I love you, Spike." Buffy said, then continued to kiss him with all the love she had.

Spike pulled away from her and Buffy stared at him with her brow furrowed in confusion. She suddenly had the disturbing thought that maybe something had changed when he lost his soul. Maybe he didn't love her anymore.

"What's wrong?" Buffy asked while looking at his baffled expression.

"I didn't think you would want to be with me anymore. I knew how important having a soul was to you. You made that point perfectly clear to me last year. What made you change your mind?"

"Spike, I loved you before you got your soul. I just didn't want to admit it to myself or to my friends." Buffy admitted as she looked around the room at the friends she had always considered to be her family.

"After what happened with Angel, I couldn't deal with the fact that I could actually fall in love with someone who had no soul." Buffy continued. "I was convinced that there was something terribly wrong with me. I thought that loving someone without a soul meant that I was a bad person no matter how many times I saved the world. I realize now that not everything is black and white or good and evil. You disprove everything I've ever known about vampires and demons. You are one of the most sensitive and caring people I have ever met even without a soul and it scares me how little that makes sense."

"Does that mean you forgive me?" Spike chuckled.

"I'll always forgive you." Buffy sighed happily.

Spike smiled in recognition of the words that he had once said to her.

"I can't believe the one person I feel that I can trust with my life is a vampire." Buffy chuckled.

Spike could have shouted in celebration at her words. He couldn't believe that she finally trusted him. He knew that she could never love without trust. It felt amazing to feel the love that he had for Buffy finally returned to him. He grabbed Buffy and held her close to him as happy tears fell down his cheeks.

"Come on, let's go home." Willow said to her friends as she continued to hold Tara close. "We've got a wedding to attend tomorrow."

To Be Continued......





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