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Author's Chapter Notes:
Here's the last part of chapter 32. I have got to learn how to write shorter chapters someday. :)
Reunions 32B

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“Oh My Goddess!!” Willow blurted out. Kar-Hool could see that someone finally understood. Willow looked over at him with her eyes opened widely as if in shock or surprise, it was probably both. The others were looking at her, not understanding at all, except for Joy, who was watching her reaction. “A Champion of the Dark who fights for the Light” Willow mumbled. “Why didn’t I see it sooner? His sacrifice? Oh Goddess! That means…..” Willow trailed off as she looked around at her friends and then over at the little room that Buffy and Spike had been inside for the past couple of hours. At first thought a look of fear crossed her face, and was then dismissed with a shake of her head. Willow whipped her head around at everyone and could tell that they still hadn’t figured it out. “Oh My Goddess!”

Giles became exasperated and snapped out “Willow would you please stop calling to your goddess and explain yourself? You have obviously figured out something that the rest of us have missed. So would you please tell us what it is and stop going on about it.”

Willow looked around at everyone else and could see that they too were waiting for an explanation of what she had figured out. Hesitantly, as if trying to find the words, she started speaking in an awed tone of voice. “Spike ….. he’s a Champion of the Dark ….. demons trust him ….. but he fight for the light. Don’t you get it? He’s a demon, of the dark, and he fight for the light, for the good of humans and demons. He made a sacrifice …… at the Hellmouth. It burned up when he did …… and when he came back …… it was gone. His soul, he sacrificed his soul …… and it’s gone. Spike doesn’t have a soul.”

Tears started running from Dawns eyes as soon as she understood. She bent her head and rested it on Joys shoulder as she cried quietly. The pain she was feeling for Spike made her heart ache with every beat it made in her chest. Joy reached back and tried to sooth her, but Dawn shook her head instead and lifting her head she straightened her shoulders. She told herself that she was not going to cry for the loss of Spikes soul. She had loved him before he ever had a soul and she loved him just as much now.

When it finally got through to Giles what Willow had just said, his eyes widened and he looked over at the little room with fear on his face. He immediately started to rise to rush over to the room to protect Buffy from Spike.

Before he could get his feet under him, Dawn kicked out with her foot and knocked him back on his seat. “Don’t even think about it Giles” Dawn said in a dangerous tone of voice. While she was speaking she deftly moved Joy off her lap and out of her way. “You even try to interfere I’ll kick your ass. Just sit tight and start using that brain of yours.”

Giles had been completely taken by surprise by Dawns kick and further surprised by her tone of voice and her words. For several moments he was speechless, which was probably for the good, because it gave him time to start thinking instead of just reacting.

Dawn was keeping her eyes on the others too. She figured that she had a fairly good chance of taking Giles and Xander, but doubted that she had much chance against Robin. If Faith got into it with her she knew she’d get her ass kicked. Willow was the only one she didn’t feel she had to worry about trying to harm Spike. She had seen the shock on Willows face and the sadness and sorrow that soon followed. The idea that she might have to do something to protect Spike from her friends made Dawn sick. But she remembered with perfect clarity that Giles and Robin had tried to murder him once and Xander had never been shy about his hatred of Spike before the Hellmouth was destroyed and Spike was thought to be dead. She sat there with a knot growing in her stomach, waiting to see who would make the first move toward harming Spike.

It was Faith that broke the tension. “Damn girl, do you really think were all going to charge over there and attack Spike? Personally, I got to kinda figure that if he hasn’t tried to kill anyone in the past eight years he’s not going to start today. Especially Buffy. You know he can’t really hurt her, and so do we.”

Faiths little speech broke the tension and even Giles relaxed as he realized for the first time that Faith was perfectly correct. There wasn’t any way that Spike could hurt Buffy physically. The only thing to worry about was emotional damage and whether or not when Buffy walked out of that room she was going to want to live or die.

They were all sitting there, not talking, waiting for something to happen. When Spike suddenly walked out of his room and headed for the door they all froze. Joy was on her feet and in front of the door before he could get there. Spike did not try to force his way past Joy, he just reached down and picked her up in his arms. As soon as she was in his arms she must have started communicating with him, because he stopped in place and looked over at the others still sitting on the floor. A look of intense pain seemed to flash across his face for just a moment as his eyes touched on Dawn. But then his face smoothed out and he walked from the room without looking back.

As soon as Spike was out the door everyone turned to the doorway of the little room where Buffy was still inside. As they watched Buffy pushed the blanket that acted as a door to one side and stepped out of the room to where they could see her. Buffy’s eyes were red and puffy from a lot of crying, but she wasn’t crying now. Instead her eyes were open round and she seemed to have a faraway empty look.

Dawn was across the room in seconds and was standing in front of Buffy looking at her with deep concern. “Buffy, are you okay?” Dawn asked with a voice stressed with fear.

Buffy slowly turned her eyes to Dawn and with the emptiness in them seeming to grow, she barely whispered. “He thinks I only loved his soul Dawnie. He thinks I can’t love him because he doesn’t have it anymore.” Tears started running down her face as her emotions finally broke through the shock she was in.

Dawn stepped up and wrapped her arms around Buffy and while holding her tight she spoke quietly, but forcefully into her ear. “You’ll just have to find a way to convince him Buffy. I know he loves you, he just doesn’t know how to make himself believe that you feel the same way. He’s been telling himself that you couldn’t love him for so long he can’t believe that you do.”

In a weak whisper that Dawn could barely hear, Buffy mumbled over and over, “find a way, find a way, find a way ……”

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