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Home is Where the Heart Is, Epilogue
By *~Rachel*~

For disclaimers, summary, notes, etc. please see the first chapter.

Well, this is it! The final (un-beta-ed) part! Thank you everyone for all of the support of my story, I didn't expect this great a reaction at all, so thank you! :) It means the world to me, it really does. Sorry for the long wait...RL problems...

 
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Two weeks after that rainy night, Buffy had packed up and moved back home, dragging her gallery back with her. Amazingly, she managed to set up a new shop that was only three streets away from Spike's restaurant.

Willow, Tara, and Oz remained in LA to finish school, but the three had promised to come back and help out in the summer and when their semesters were over. In the meantime, Buffy hired Anya to help out at the gallery, who was only too eager to earn some extra money.

Buffy moved back in with Spike in their old apartment, yet made him promise not to try and force her back into their old relationship without making some changes first. The two were taking it slow, and things were working out for the better.

Nightly, the couple shared long talks about how to work out the challenges in their busy relationship and actually talk things out instead of bottling everything up inside of them until it burst like it had last time. After all, they had already missed enough time apart, and neither of them wanted a repeat of what happened as a result of their last argument.

Through their discussions, the pair had worked out a compromise for their hectic businesses. Spike had gone back to opening "The Silver Spoon" only Monday through Saturday, and Buffy had started to close her gallery a couple hours earlier than she used to. It had taken only two weeks, and Buffy and Spike were talking and acting as if the last two years had never happened and there were no secrets between the two of them any longer.

 
~~~


Friday night, after she had closed up the gallery for the evening, Buffy walked over to Spike's restaurant and sat at the bar, watching her husband and best friend, Xander, work. Afterwards, after the last group had cleared out, Buffy helped clean off a few of the tables in the cafe area and throw away bits and pieces of trash. This is gross, she thought. He seriously needs to hire some more help for closing time, and not let his wife clean up after his visitors.

She picked up a salt and pepper shaker to wipe off the table underneath them when she noticed a small, black, velvet box resting behind the two shakers. "Spike, someone left this here," she called out, entering the main room where Spike was working.

Spike turned to face her and curiously looked at the object in her hands. "Why don't you open it up, love?"

Buffy did as he suggested and opened the box. Inside, rest a small three-diamond engagement ring. "Oh, how sad," Buffy exclaimed. "Some guy left his ring here. Poor guy...he’ll propose to her and then won’t have the ring with him."

That was when she looked over the edge of the box and concentrated on what Spike was doing. When she focused on him, she noticed that he was kneeling on the floor in front of her. "What are you doing, Spike?"

Nervously, Spike looked up at her with worry mixed with love in his eyes. "I know that it's only been a couple weeks, but...I wanted to do things right this time."

Knowing what was going on, Buffy blinked back quickly surfacing tears and sent a shaky smile in his direction. "Spike, it was perfect the first time."

"Buffy. I, uh, I love you. I've always loved you. Even through those years that...well, I know we've gotten over that. I've loved you since that very first day I saw you," Spike nervously stuttered. "Marry me."

At once, the memory that he had asked her the exact same thing the first time appeared in her mind. Buffy's smile grew as she asked him, "Is that a request or a demand?"

"C'mon, love," Spike began. "I know you--"

"Yes," Buffy seriously told him. "Yes."

Spike sighed, looking relieved that the pressure was finally off. "Oh, goodie." He stood up on his feet and slid their old ring off her ring finger and slowly placed the new wedding ring on her hand. "Maybe this time we can have an actual wedding -- not run off to Vegas this time."

Buffy cracked a small smile as she looked at the sparkling ring on her finger. "Spike," Buffy whispered, before leaning up and kissing him. "I love you."

"I love you too."

And then, continuing to mirror their first engagement, Spike picked her up and spun her around in a circle, pressing warm kisses against her face as their laughter rang out in the empty building.


~~~


Later that night, Buffy and Spike lay in bed with their arms wrapped around each other as they tried to drift off to sleep. Buffy slowly rolled over onto her side, causing her hipbone to unexpectedly hit something. At the foot of their bed, the television came on, immediately lighting up the dark room. Buffy jumped up and reached for the remote that she landed on to turn off the television before it woke up Spike.

Buffy glanced over at the alarm clock resting on the side of the bed blinking 12:05 AM before starting at the TV screen, and watching as the opening credits for ET came on. Gotta love NBC for re-airing the night's ET.

I wonder if Angel has announced our break up yet? Buffy thought sarcastically as she listened to the announcer talk about what would be on tonight's show. She glanced down at her left hand resting on the bed and smiled as her new diamond ring glinted in the moonlight, thinking about how better this one looked on her finger as compared to the one she had quickly chosen with Angel.

Buffy tuned out the fast-paced talking announcer as she turned and looked down at her husband, sleeping at her side. Buffy smiled to herself and knew, without a doubt, that she had made the right choice. However, she quickly glanced back up at the television just in time to catch an image of Angel and a brown-haired woman whose back was towards the photographer flash across the screen.

Who is that? Buffy wondered, now wide-awake with curiosity. Has he moved on *already*?

"Angel O'Connor, the star of the upcoming movie, 'Confronting the Sun' is the topic for tonight's one of our two Cover Stories. Is he married? No longer married? Cheating? Or has he been merely dating this whole time and the news that he was engaged just a lie to fool the media? Find out after this commercial break."

What the hell is going on? Buffy asked as she turned the volume up a notch and waited for the show to come back on.

Less than five minutes later, ET returned and began talking about her ex-fiancée. Blah, blah, blah, Buffy thought, clearly bored. I already know all of this and more. Then, the photo of Angel and the mysterious brunette appeared on the screen. Who is that? Buffy asked herself again, trying to think if she recognized the woman.

"Angel O'Connor. It turns out that the news about his recent engagement was true, but sources are now saying that he's no longer taken." Someone that Buffy had never seen on ET before was explaining the entire story as past footage and images of Angel ran across the screen. "Regardless of this, however, why was it that five days ago, not even two weeks after he announced his engagement, that he was caught at the premiere of 'Take a Chance' entranced with this young brunette?

"We finally managed to track down Angel O'Connor at the premiere of 'Take a Chance,' the upcoming New Line Cinema movie starring Reese Witherspoon, and this is what our cameras managed to catch. Maybe this explains the rumors of why he's no longer engaged?"

Buffy straightened in their bed and watched the screen, watching the camera shakily pan around the tall brown-haired man and the smaller brunette in his arms. The woman stepped back and smiled up at him, revealing her profile.

Angel and...FAITH?! Buffy screamed in her mind. "That ho!" she cried out.

At her side, Spike groggily awoke at the sound of his wife's angered tone. "What's wrong, love?" Spike called out, wrapping his arms around her tighter.

"HER!" she shouted, pointing at the screen. "Faith making out with Angel at a premiere less than a week ago."

Spike slowly sat up and stared at the screen to see what Buffy was talking about. "Oh."

"Yeah, oh! Angel acted all prince-like and noble to let me go while he was secretly making time with his co-actress," Buffy complained, shaking her head back and forth in disbelief. "Unbelievable. And I actually bought his act."

"And you are honestly surprised, pet?"

Buffy let out an unlady-like snort. "Not the slightest. I knew there was a reason he was acting so calm and collected about me leaving him." She let out another string of unlady-like curses before turning the television off and throwing the remote to the other end of the bed in anger.

She settled back in bed, stretching and turning to face her husband. "Oh well, I definitely got the better deal," Buffy said, tossing her hair back over her shoulder and lightly kissing him on the lips.

"Is that right?"

Buffy relaxed against his bare chest and pressed a kiss on his neck. "Oh yeah," she sighed before softly murmuring, "I love you, Spike."

"I love you, too, Buffy," Spike immediately answered. I’m never going to tire of hearing her say that.

"I'm sorry I woke you," she apologized.

"It's all right, love," he assured her. "You sleepy?"

Buffy grinned and winked up at him. "Not anymore," she joked, pressing her body against his as the two met in a passionate kiss. Spike wrapped his arms around her waist, quickly turning her over on her back as his lips seared a path down her neck, her shoulders, and then back up to recapture her lips.

As the couple lost themselves within each other, the words that Spike had spoken to her quickly crossed Buffy’s mind. “Home is where the heart is, pet.” Well, if that was true, then Buffy definitely knew that she was back where she belonged -- home.


~~~


OK, it was hokey, but it was happy, and I wanted a happy ending!

Thanks for all of the support and feedback throughout this story. I'm so glad you've enjoyed it (I've never written AU before). Thanks for all the people that helped me out (You all know who you are) and the people that stuck with me through the lack up updates and struggling writers block. Special thanks to Sandy for being a great beta for 80% of this story. :P

I am considering starting another AU fic...I've got an idea and some notes scribbled down on paper, and it's not based on a movie! So...keep an eye out for me, but don't expect anything for a week or so while I gather my thoughts.

Thanks again!

 





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