Buffy Summers was running for her life. Her feet pounded the ground, and her lungs burned as she ran faster that she ever had before. She was getting closer, and she could hear the thumping of helicopter blades as they began to rotate. Finally, she burst through the clearing to see a young man climbing into the helicopter. Fearing that she was too late, she let loose a scream. The men in the copter, hearing her, looked up in surprise.
But only one man mattered to Buffy. That man stopped climbing into the copter and was instead striding toward her, a dumbstruck look on his face. He stopped a foot short of her, and they stood, facing each other in silence. Then Buffy opened her mouth, and pouring all the feeling she could into one word, said, "Riley."
The man, Riley, found his voice at last and whispered to her, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm doing exactly what you told me to. I don't want to have you leave for some jungle without me. I don't want you to leave at all. Stay here, stay here with me."
"Buffy, I-"
"I know. I know you thought that I wouldn't come, and I'm sorry. I was so afraid that I wouldn't make it, and you would leave without hearing me. I'm sorry, Riley. For everything I said before."
"But it's true isn't it? You don't love me, not how you loved Angel."
"Who are you to tell me who I do and don't love? It's true that I loved Angel, and he will always have a place in my heart, but that doesn't mean that I can't love someone else." She grasped his hands and looked into his eyes so that he would know she meant every word that she said, "I love you, Riley Finn."
A look of disbelief crossed Riley's face for a split second, but then it was gone, replaced by a look of relief. He withdrew his hands from hers, and instead took her into his arms and kissed her with all the passion of their very first. "I love you too, Buffy."