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Author's Chapter Notes:
Thank you so very much to all of you for reading and especially those who left a review. This story is outside my comfort zone and it means a lot that you’re with me! (Since updates on this story may be irregular, if you want me to let you know when I post, you can e-mail me at ssddgr@yahoo.gr)



Thank you Tina for being so awesome and making time to beta this. I owe you a lot, boo, and I love you!!! Thank you Andrei for reading this through, and cheering me on when I felt I’d screw up. I love you, baby!
From the previous chapter


Standing in front of the heavy wooden door, Spike and William flanking her, she reluctantly raised her fist and knocked, before reaching out and holding both her men’s hands, praying it would be one of the girls – preferably Willow – and not Giles or Xander that opened the door.



She should have known she didn’t have enough credit left for another wish so soon after being granted Spike and William back.




Chapter 2




Sofia made sure to have the cook send a platter of oysters to the lord of the castle and retired to her rooms to ready herself for the night to come. She prepared her bath, tested the temperature and slid gracefully into the warm water, making sure to soak long enough in the perfumed essence she knew he preferred, so that the scent would linger on her skin. Washing her long hair was always a ritual; she took the time to untangle it and soak it before gently rubbing shampoo into it from root to end one strand at a time. She massaged her scalp, loving the cooling effect the mint in her herbal shampoo had on it, rinsed thoroughly then repeated the process. The next and final step was using her conditioner, again running it with her fingers along the entire length of her tresses. She never washed it out afterwards, preferring to let the cream work on it until her next bath. There was no need to shave her legs or pubic region. Adalberto, the Immortal, liked his women hairless, so she waxed on a regular basis, and was completely smooth everywhere.


Having finished bathing, she stood up while the water drained and took a long, approving look at her body in the mirror facing the tub. Her stomach was flat, her waist thin, her breasts heavy and round, and her hips perfectly curvy leading to long and shapely legs. She had a killer body and she had to keep it that way. Had to keep her hair silky. Had to apply the oil she was now pouring on her skin to keep it soft, or Adalberto might change his mind about wanting her around, and then…


Her eyes darkened, but it wasn’t in fear and it definitely wasn’t out of lust. Shaking her head to drive thoughts she shouldn’t be having away, she left the bathroom and went to her bedroom to blow-dry and brush her hair to his liking. She itched to cut it, maybe even a la garcon, but knew that wouldn’t go down well. She didn’t bother with make up; he didn’t like it in bed and she appreciated that because she never saw the use of putting some on, only to have it smudged on the pillow. With a final look at her reflection, she left the room completely naked, and went to his bed to wait for him.



~~~~~*~~~~~



Xander had had a hard time coping with everything that had gone down in Sunnydale. With Sunnydale going down. With his childhood and the woman he loved being buried in a crater on a different Continent than the one he currently lived on. Numerous times he’d considered seeking solace in alcohol, something he had more than a mere suspicion Giles did regularly, but he decided that he’d be brave, for himself and for Anya. It would be an insult to her if he became like his drunkard of a father, when fear of becoming like his old man was what had made him walk out on her on their wedding day. He wouldn’t try to drown her memory on a daily basis, he would pay it the respect it was due; respect he regretfully knew he’d failed to pay his woman while she was alive.


He really did think he was coping rather well.


He embraced his loss, didn’t avoid talking about it, or her and the time they had together, and he didn’t hide the tears that welled in his good eye at the most emotional of moments, which at least at first were constant.


He’d even started looking at women appraisingly again, something he’d thought impossible a year ago, and they actually looked back. He attributed that to the hours he spent every day training with the Slayerettes and the physical labour he’d put into their house and The Manor that helped shape his now muscular physique. The eye-patch and permanently unshaven state didn’t harm his looks one bit, and the ladies liked what they saw… even though many of the ladies were jailbait and he would never take advantage of their attraction to him.


Xander was growing, and he was coping, and he had even stopped seeing Anya in front of him all the time, and he was darned proud of himself. So, when he heard a knock on the door and answered it only to see Buffy and doubles of the vampire who he thought was long dusted – even though he had to strain to recognize the version of Spike that stood on the Slayer’s right – he only said, “Buffy. Spike. Spike,” nodding to each of them in turn, then left the door open to go back to the couch, lie down, close his eye and call out, “Willow! Dawn! Someone wake me up, please! I’m dreaming of Spikes!”


Willow was the first to hear him and enter the living room. “Spikes? You’re dreaming of-” Something caught her eye. “-Spikes. Right outside our front door… holding hands with Buffy!” She started waving her hands frantically in the air. “People! Buffy is here.”


Seeing her friend was one breath away from hyperventilating, Buffy tried to calm her down, never letting go of her lovers. “Wills, honey, it’s okay. It’s my Spike, I mean, they both are.”


“How did you… how did they… Two?”


Buffy shrugged. “It was a wish. I’ll explain.”


“But… two?”


“Yes, Willow, and I’m keeping them. Both. I love them and they love me, and I won’t give up either of them. Not again.” Buffy’s voice never wavered as she added, “Don’t make me choose.” She didn’t mean choose between the two vampires.


Taking in a breath and a big decision simultaneously at the look of silent plea mixed with constrained hope in her friend’s eyes, Willow said, “Come in Spike…s.”


Right as the trio crossed the threshold, Dawn came in from the kitchen. All caught up in her pain for so long, Buffy hadn’t noticed how much her sister had grown after Sunnydale. She was taller and slimmer than she remembered, and she had last seen her only a couple of months ago. Maybe three. And when did she get the sophisticated haircut that ended right below the ears? Only the way she dragged her feet – still in her pyjamas – hadn’t changed. Without looking up from the bowl of ice cream she held, she said, “Xander, I told you eating and sleeping right after is bad for you.”


“Dawnie-” she started, but Spike cut her off.


“Nibblet?”


Buffy heard the tears in his voice and tightened her grip to his hand reassuringly. He, just like William, had full memories of the scorn and disappointment in Dawn’s eyes after what had happened, or almost did, with her sister all that time ago. She also noticed William taking half a step back and slightly behind her, as if to hide from the younger girl’s view, so she squeezed his hand gently, too. They were all in this together, and whoever couldn’t accept that would be out of her life, even if that meant her own flesh and blood.


As it turned out, their joined hands was what kept Spike from toppling over when Dawn shrieked, “Spike,” tossed her dessert on the coffee table – where it slid across the surface, landing unnoticed on the floor – and jumped on him, squishing him with enough strength to crush a human man’s lungs. “It’s you! What happened? God, you haven’t changed a bit,” she exclaimed between squeezes. “Not that you’d change, you’re a vampire. What happened? Weren’t you dusted? Where have you been? I’ve missed you!”


“God, pet, it’s so good to see you again.” Spike returned her hug with only slightly less fervor, and was all out weeping now.


“Dawnie?” Buffy tried to get her attention, but failed. “Dawnie? That isn’t the Spike we thought was dead.” But was that right? He was the same man, only sooner, if that made any sense.


The girl kept ignoring her. Lowering her feet to the floor, she started touching Spike’s face as if to make sure it was really him, while he still held on to her. Buffy’s heart constricted in her chest at the look of awe in Spike’s eyes that became deeper with every feathery touch of her sister’s fingers on his features. She pulled William forward and that was the first time Dawn noticed him. “Dawnie, this is the Spike we… left in Sunnydale.”


Half-heartedly disentangling herself from the bleached vampire’s arms, the brunette went to William and thoroughly examined his face using both her eyes and her fingers like she had with Spike. Finally certain his characteristics were the ones of the Vampire who had treated her like a little sister, and whom she thought dead, she took off his glasses, handed them to Willow, and… slapped him in the face. “Where were you all this time? Do you know how much I cried over you?” She pointed at Buffy with her thumb. “How much she cried over you?” She wasn’t shouting, and somehow that made her words cut him even deeper.


“I’m sorry, Nibblet, I’m so sorry! I didn’t think you’d want me back.” His voice cracked and Buffy let go of his hand to wrap her arm around him, sensing he needed her. “Either of you.”


Dawn pinched his arm. “Well we did, and you could have asked.” She narrowed her eyes. “You’ve been alive all this time?”


“Yes, although incorporeal for the first few months,” William admitted in a resigned voice and she pinched him again. “Oi! How come he got a hug and I keep getting that?” he asked indignantly while Spike chuckled, even though his tears had yet to dry on his cheeks.


“It was coming to him, if Buffy hadn’t told me you were the Spike whom I’ve been mourning for so long. You don’t sound like that Spike, by the way. More like Giles.” She scrunched her nose, showing her disapproval, but her eyes were laughing now. “And who is he?” she asked her sister tilting her head in Spike’s direction.


“Past Spike. From about a year or so before…” Buffy’s voice trailed off as she tried to think of how to put it. “Before the Sunnydale… exit. We call him Spike.” She tilted her head towards the vampire Dawn was standing in front of, “And he now goes by William. Had to tell them apart somehow, and Spike-one, Spike-two wouldn’t really-”


“I have full memory of how everythin’ went down for you, tho.” Spike interjected. “And not just stuff William knew.” He paused to let that sink in. “Guess it was a perk. Ponce got me caught up an’ all.”


“It was a wish!” Willow had been silent for way too long and thought she’d share the only bit of information she had about the situation at hand, as if it explained everything – or anything, really.


Buffy nodded and opened her mouth to explain further, but the only one paying attention to her was the redhead, whose mind was running a mile a second over the possibilities behind the presence of the second Spike in her living room.


“Can I get a hug, too, before we tell you all about it?” William asked timidly and got an extra helping of Dawn in his arms. He let his own tears go as he kissed her cheek. “Never thought you’d forgive me after…” He couldn’t say the words. “Didn’t dare to.”


“Buffy told me all about how it was with you two. The sex, the pain, the mutual hurt. What a bitch she was,” she snorted, glaring at her sister. “I forgave you a long time ago.” Her fingers were in his hair as she tried to reconcile the look and feel of the soft honey coloured curls with the memory of his platinum blond hair the last time she’d touched it. She hadn’t touched his hair in years, hadn’t messed up the painstakingly gelled back locks in order to make him growl and mock attack her so that the two ended up on the floor in a giggling heap, since before the incident that had made him leave town. Thinking back at how she’d treated him after he returned, how she shunned him along with the others, tears welled up in her own eyes. “Can you forgive me?”


“Nothing-” He corrected himself, remembering her teasing about his proper accent, “Nothin’ there to forgive. You were lookin’ out for your kin. Wouldn’ expect any less of you.”


She flashed him a smile and burrowed in his arms again. Spike joined their embrace, already loving this young woman as much as the teenager he only got to see grow up in borrowed memories, pulling on a dazed Willow to include her in the hug. In his book, Red was good. His added memories let him know how she’d helped stop The First and made sure Dawn adjusted to her new life when her sister – crippled by grief – couldn’t be there for her as she should.


Buffy was extremely relieved at how her sister and friend received the two vampires. She had wished for things to go down that way, but didn’t really believe they would. For a moment, though, she dared actually hope that for once in her life she’d be allowed real happiness; that she wouldn’t have to sacrifice anything or anyone for her Calling and that nobody would try to make her give up the men that made her feel whole. Her hope didn’t last long when she remembered she still had Giles and Xander’s reactions to worry about, and she was more than a little nervous that the latter hadn’t said a single word since greeting them at the door. He hadn’t even moved a muscle or opened his eye.


At that exact moment, as if he’d read her thoughts, Xander sat up and cleared his throat. “I guess it wasn’t a dream then?” he asked nobody in particular. When Buffy just shook her head, lower lip trembling, he grinned and said, “Welcome back, deadboy junior. Guess death doesn’t stick to you.” He stood and approached the others, holding his hand out to William, who pulled out of the group hug to reluctantly take it and got the shock of his un-life when the one-eyed carpenter pulled him in for one of those partial hugs men share some times. If someone had told him a few days ago that that might happen, he’d tell them there was a better chance of Buffy actually loving him. “And we got a buy-one-get-one-free deal. Hope you don’t bite either,” Xander went on, reaching for Spike’s hand this time and repeating the gesture. “Now will someone tell me-”


“What on Earth is going on here?”
“What the fuck? Now she’s cloning them?”





Tbc.


Chapter End Notes:
Please let me know if you liked!! Pwease? *puppy eyes*



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