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Spike was still in a little shock about the whole thing hours later. All through dinner and Spikes favourite ‘telly time’ he and Buffy were shooting each other furtive looks, and smiling in an almost insanely happy way. Dawn was not stupid. She knew something had gone on. The bite marks on Spikes neck, which he had made no attempt to cover, were a pretty big clue.


They both seemed ridiculously pleased with themselves so she just enjoyed the warm feeling of the house, trusting that when Spike had gone Buffy would fill her in. Not if the details were too sordid though, cos, eww.



All too soon it was time for Spike to go. He had stayed long past sunset in his reluctance to leave them, but his legs had been twitching and his girls could tell he was restless.


Dawn gave him an emotional, and entirely too dramatic, goodbye. Spike had gotten a lot less awkward at giving hugs over the years, but after Dawn had been hugging him for over five minutes he had to give an uncomfortable cough and pat her on the head until she let go.



Buffy walked Spike out to his car (which completely dominated her driveway and had not been, as she’d cockily assumed, ‘easy for her to drive’).



She held his hand for a moment, her eyes were downcast and she wasn’t sure how to voice the particular worry that had surfaced in her mind.


He saved her the trouble, and did his usual mind reading trick. “Buffy, luv, I will claim you in return if you want me to. I’ll claim you right here and bloody now if you want me too, but I’d rather wait til I get back, make it as special for you as my claiming was for me.”



Buffy felt unwelcome tears building and she threw her arms around his neck. She nuzzled her marks and kissed them fervently. In her mind she was chanting ‘mine mine mine’, out loud she said “I’m yours Spike, always yours. Whenever you want to claim me I’m yours.”



Spike pulled her into him and wrapped his duster around them both. “Bloody hell pet, you’ve got no idea what your doin to me. You bloody Summer’s women have tamed the Big Bad and he’s not even complainin. You’re some hell of a slayer. You’re one hell of a woman too.”


Buffy was actually crying a little, though she tried not to show it. “Then come back to me yeah? If you don’t I’ll hunt you down and dust your ass.”



Spike grinned and wiped her tears away with the pad of his thumb. “As I’d much rather be here, looking at your ass, then away protecting my own, I’ll come back. Promise. And through the claim you’d know if anythin happened to me, and me you, so you’re not alone alright? I’m like a blood stain on a nice shirt...really hard to get rid of.”


Buffy giggled and ewwed at the same time. She gave her claiming marks one last kiss and then she reluctantly let him go.



Of course, she didn’t realise then that Spikes un-life was nearly at an end.





For Buffy, and to a lesser extent Dawn, that month was the longest passage of time she could ever remember. She missed him every day. All day every day. She wished she didn’t. She wished she could be the strong, powerful woman she tried to pretend she was, but she missed him, and she needed him and it sucked.


It was nice to hang out with her friends a bit more, to really notice what was going on in their lives for a change though.



Willow and Tara had gotten over a pretty rough patch, after Willow had started relying on magic more then was healthy. They seemed to be in a really good place now, for which Buffy was incredibly glad. After her resurrection things between Buffy and Willow had been strained to say the least. Lately, thanks mainly to Tara, things had been almost the same as they’d been before. Buffy wasn’t sorry for the changes that had stuck, they had both grown up a lot, and their friendship was a more mature and less reliant one.




Being married didn’t seem to have changed Xander and Ayna one bit, apart from Anya’s insistence that people still call her Mrs Harris a whole year after the event. According to Xander Anya had started having even more emotional out bursts then he was used to. Buffy suspected she knew the reason for this hormonal change, and wished Spike had been there, he would have been able to tell for sure.



Buffy had even had a couple of phone conversations with Giles. Since he had moved to England contact between them had been sporadic. He hadn’t really gotten over her relationship with an un souled vampire, and she hadn’t really gotten over him leaving after she was brought back.



Things between Spike and Giles had changed in the past few months however. Buffy had been having some money problems, and, determined that she shouldn’t have to work at some dead end job on top of all her other commitments, Spike had been supporting her. He’d surprised her, as he seemed to do constantly, by being a shrewd investor, and had more money than Buffy had thought possible for someone of Spikes impulsive nature. She took money from him, because she had no other choice, but she hated doing it. And Spike knew that.


So, after they’d averted yet another apocalypse, Spike had (unbeknown to Buffy) rung Giles and demanded that he sort out with the council some sort of wage for her. He pointed out that Buffy had done as much for Giles in the past, and it was time to return the favour.


Giles was shocked and more than a little outraged at first, but then he talked to Willow and found out that without the money Spike had been giving her Buffy’s situation would have been desperate indeed. Giles must have gone a little ‘ripper’ on the council, though Buffy never knew for sure, because she started getting a regular, if not massive, wage.


Giles still didn’t like Spike, or his closeness with Buffy, but he respected him more, which was a start, and it led to Buffy and Giles tentatively renewing their friendship. Buffy hadn’t actually realised that she’d missed him so much until she started to get him back. It was nice.



Despite this, despite all that she had going on in her life, Buffy wished Spike was back more than anything. She could feel the connection to him through the claim, could feel the constant pull towards him and the comfort of his presence, but she wanted him back.





Buffy knew it was foolish of her to think Spike would be back exactly a month to the day that he’d been gone, she knew it was silly to hope that she’d come home from patrol and he’d be there. She’d made Dawn stay at Janice’s for the night though, just encase.



After all, he had said he’d be gone a month ‘at most’. And a week ago the feeling of the claim had changed, though not in a bad way. If anything it seemed to become more intense, more brilliant, which surely meant he was on his way home.



She didn’t want to get her hopes up. She’d decided to go out on patrol to stop herself going completely insane at home.

She gave one graveyard a half hearted glance and then ran all the back.



She knew he was there as soon as she got onto her street. She ran even faster, practically jumping up the steps to the front door and got in as quickly as she could.



He was there, standing in the hallway waiting for her.



It was him, but it was not him.
He was different somehow.



He was covered in a host of healing cuts and bruises, but, though Buffy’s heart burned in anger against whatever had got to him, that wasn’t what had changed.



Physically he looked the same. He had his crooked smile on his face, and was looking at her shyly, as though desperate to touch her, but unsure of the welcome he’d get. She decided to let him know it was a good one. She threw herself at him, and clung on fiercely. He returned her embrace with equal intensity, and Buffy laughed when she heard the unison sound of deep inhalations as they each absorbed the others scent.



Suddenly Buffy became aware of something. A deep thrumming. A very familiar and yet entirely new sound. A heartbeat. Spikes heartbeat. Buffy felt faint and drew back from him in shock. His smile faltered a little.


“Spike?” Buffy’s voice was incredulous, “What- How? I don’t understand. Are you human now?”



Spike gave a wry chuckle “Not quite”. He went into game face. It was not the same game face he had worn before, it was a softer version, more human, but the fangs were very much still there.



Buffy shook her head, “What happened?”



“Kinda a long story pet, du think we could maybe sit down an talk about it?”



Buffy nodded eagerly and pulled him towards the sofa. To his obvious delight she sat on his lap and put her head on his chest, listening to his heart. “It’s amazing” She murmured. “But I don’t understand?”



Spike started playing with a lock of her hair. “Well, I’ve been thinkin for a while now that Rupes was, for once, right-when he said I wasn’t what you deserved”.
Buffy shook her head violently. “He wasn’t right, he wasn’t at all. And he said that ages ago. His opinion of you has totally-kinda-changed. A bit.”



Spike snorted. “Yeah, well, it still got me thinkin. I’d heard of these things a while back, called demon trials. Run by some nut job shaman in Africa. If you do the trials and survive them then you get a reward, anythin you wish for.”


Buffy quelled a little at the use of the word ‘survived’ and noticed yet more fading cuts and bruises on his body. She was going to tell him off for doing something so reckless and dangerous, but she wanted to hear the rest of the story, so she settled for glaring and pinching his hand. He understood and carried on. “Well, it took me a while to track the ponce down, and when I did there were a lot more trials, and they were a lot more trial-y then I’d expected, but I did them, and I got my wish.”





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