UH.I dunno exactly what I'm supposed to be saying, but I guess it is that
all or most of the characters used in my story are fictional characters of
the writers and creators of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", and are in no way
owned by me or have anything to do with me, except for the fact that they
are in my story! Thanks to everyone for reading this! ~*~Rinn~*~
By the way, this story begins right after the events of the SERIES finale, after Sunnydale is destroyed!
The yellow school bus bounced slightly as it made it's way through the moonlight covered roads of California. A small group of people sat inside, most being rocked to sleep by the bouncing bus, or just sleeping because they were exhausted from the huge battle that occurred earlier that day. The only two people awake inside the bus were Buffy Summers, and her former watcher, Rupert Giles who was driving the bus. Buffy couldn't get to sleep no matter how hard she tried, because all she could think about was Spike and how he spontaneously combusted right in front of her eyes. She couldn't fathom how something like that could've happened. What she also couldn't believe, was that he didn't believe that she meant it when she told him she loved him. She said it with her heart and soul, and told him the truth, but for some strange reason he didn't believe her.
"Awake Buffy?" Giles asked sarcastically since he already knew the answer to his question. "Yea. After all that happened today, I don't think I'll be able to sleep for quite a while." "I can completely understand that." Giles chuckled. "Why do you think I chose to drive the bus? I knew I'd be awake anyways and I needed something to occupy my mind." "Darn. Now's the time I wish I had gotten my license when I had the chance!" They both laughed. "God, I hate being here when I know Anya and countless others aren't. It just eats at me. I can't believe she's gone." Tears welled up in Buffy's eyes as her thoughts went back and forth from Spike's death to Anya's. "I know how you feel Buffy," he said as he glanced back at Zander, sleeping peacefully in his seat. "I have no idea how Zander's taking it so well. They were almost married for goodness sakes. How is he able to sleep, while we're not?" Giles asked rhetorically. "I don't know, but I'm exhausted, so I'm gonna at least attempt to get in a little sleep before we get to Cleveland. Goodnight Giles." "Goodnight Buffy. Try to get some sleep." He advised her in his usual fatherly way.
The next morning, Buffy and the gang awoke to find themselves stopped at a rest stop somewhere between California and Las Vegas.
"Buffy, you're up! Ok, which one do you want? Cap'n Crunch or Froot Loops? Seeing as you're the last one up, well aside from Giles anyways," Buffy looked over to see an exhausted looking Giles sleeping on the steering wheel. "you get the last available cereal!" Dawn held out two mini-cereal boxes. "I'll go for the Froot Loops. They give justice to the term 'sugary goodness', which is exactly what I need right now!" Dawn threw her the box and then sat down on the bus seat across from her. The bus had become a sort of home for them overnight. In the area behind the last seats, and in the aisle that separated the two rows of seats, Xander had set up a bunch of opened sleeping bags to create a soft floor for anyone to sleep on. Then, there were pillows and blankets strewn all over the place that everyone had used the night before. Buffy plopped down onto the poofy sleeping bag floor and opened her Froot Loops.
"Oh damn. No milk." She heard Faith say from the back. "Well, you can't always have your way Faith. Especially after you've just left a completely destroyed city, which I don't think still has a fully operated grocery store." Wood said to her, trying to make a joke out of the situation. Faith of course laughed at her new honey's attempt to make her laugh.
"Andrew, I'll trade you for the Cookie Crisp. Come on! Honeycombs are way better, so why don't you want them?" Zander begged Andrew for a cereal exchange. "Zander, shouldn't you be looking for the Cap'n Crunch? I mean, he is a pirate.well.kinda.." Andrew retorted. "Oh, so we're back to the eye patch jokes now are we? I see how it is." Zander said back to him sarcastically, starting a chain of constant bickering that was sure to go on for hours.
"Hey Will, want some of my Cheerios? I know they're your favorite." Kennedy said as she offered cereal to her girlfriend. "No, it's ok. Thanks anyway though. I'm just not that hungry." Willow replied.
"So, how ya holding up?" Dawn asked her older sister. "I don't know. I guess not too bad. But it still doesn't all seem real to me yet. When it hits me, I'm sure I won't be as ok as I am now." Buffy answered.
"Wha-, hah-, who-!?!" Giles jumped up out of his peaceful slumber. The Scoobies all laughed.
"Giles, are you ok?" Willow asked him. "What? Oh, yes Willow, I'm fine thanks. Just a bad dream I guess."
As the next few days went by, they knew that they were growing nearer to Cleveland, and their happy moods were slowly decreasing.
"Woo Hoo. We're approaching another Hellmouth, and I can already feel the evil calling from hundreds of miles away." Faith told the crew. "Don't you feel that B? It's gotta be some sorta slayer intuition or something, because I can feel this thing. So much evil and terror. I can feel it just as much as I can feel this drink in my hand." " Wow. Now that you mention it, this force is really strong. The evil.I can feel it." She shivered. How she wished she could be held by Spike right at that very moment. It always felt good to be held in his arms, and right now it was just what she needed. "Well Buffy, I hope you're feeling strong enough to get in there and fight whatever this evil is. It can't be as bad as the First or anything we just came from." Giles said, snapping her back to reality. Spike was never coming back. He couldn't. How was it possible? Tears welled in her eyes. "Buffy? Are you ok?" Giles asked her. "Huh? Oh, yea. Sorry, something in my eye." She lied, putting her fingers to her eye pretending to figure out what was in there. "Well, we're stopping for lunch soon. Is Taco Bell ok for everyone? Wow, I can't believe I'm eating such American filth." The British inside of him was beginning to peek out from behind his glasses. "Hey! Anything that involves a Chihuahua, a gordita, and a bunch of mild sauce is NOT American filth! Don't diss the foods of my homeland!" Zander fought back.
Two days later, they were only a few miles outside of Cleveland and the mood had grown tense on the bus. Everyone was worried that they would lose yet another one, or many of their group, or even die themselves. They had stopped for the night at an actual hotel, rather than a rest stop, because they were pretty much where they were supposed to be, and could stay in the hotel for longer than just one night. The rooms were split up, and 2 people shared each room. Wood & Faith, Buffy & Dawn, Zander & Andrew, Willow & Kennedy, all shared rooms, and Giles slept on the couch in Zander & Andrew's room. Having an actual shower for the first time since they had left Sunnydale a week earlier was Buffy's favorite part of staying in the hotel. She finally had the chance to wash all of the dried blood and dirt off of her body. As she got undressed for her shower, she folded her dirty, ripped jeans and something fell out of one of the pockets. She reached down to retrieve the shiny gold object from the floor, and saw that gold wasn't the only beautiful part of what she had found. It was a ring, covered in diamonds. There was a 1.5 carat diamond in the center above part of the gold, and many small diamonds creating a strip around the base of the gold ring. In the inside, it was engraved, "To Buffy: My love forever, Love William". How did this get into her pocket? That was the question that bugged her the most. The conclusion she came to was that he must have slipped it into there before he died. She cried when she saw it, and couldn't make herself put it on, because she couldn't bear to think of him being gone forever, and any reminder of him made her think of that.
"Wow, who would've thought to build a bank, over a Hellmouth?" Zander said four hours later as he watched people and demons run from the Suntrust bank that was now bursting into flames. "Darn, all that money. Maybe we can save some of it!" He ran to the safe in the bank trying to salvage whatever was left. "That was fast. I mean, it took us longer to kill the Mayor." Willow said, causing Faith to flinch at the thought of the Mayor, since he was almost like a father to her. "And there were more fatalities." She said in a kind of cheery way, seeing as not even half as many people died today as they did before. "Oh yea! Who's up for dinner?" Zander said, pulling out a huge bag filled with cash he had stolen from the now, burned to the ground bank. They all turned and looked at him. "Zander!" The whole group exclaimed as he gave them a smirk, and they all ran into the remains of the bank to get whatever money they could salvage.
Later that night, they returned to the hotel and to their rooms. Buffy again took out the ring and looked at it's beauty. It was entrancing to her. She looked at it and was almost taken to another world. But each time she saw it, she cried and became more drawn to it. She wanted to wear it, but was too afraid of what would happen if she did. She didn't want the constant reminder that Spike was gone, but the power of the ring was beginning to overcome her. She put it on and immediately felt different. She felt like something was rushing in her blood that was making her stronger. She fell to the bathroom floor on her knees and was shaking. Then she passed out.
"Buffy? Buffy? Wake up pet. Please wake up." Buffy heard the familiar voice of the person kneeling over her. "No, it couldn't be." She thought to herself. "Could it?" She opened her eyes to see Spike's pale face with an expression of worry washed over it. "Love? Can you see me? Buffy?" He asked her. "Spike? Is it you? Is it really you?" She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. "Yes love. It's me. Calm down or you're going to pass out again pet." He said to her as he wiped her forehead with a damp washcloth. "SPIKE?!?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Dawn shouted as she opened the bathroom door to see what was going on, but instead discovered Spike kneeling over her sister's body. "Hullo bit. I have NO bloody idea what I'm doing here. The last thing I remember was hearing Buffy tell me that she loved me, and watching Sunnydale collapse. Now I'm here and I have no idea why. I just opened my eyes and I was standing over there." He pointed towards the wall. Buffy sat up slowly and put her hand on the large bump that had begun to form after she fell to the floor. She became dizzy and swayed a little from side to side. "Buffy." Spike said as he put his arms around her and picked her up. "You need to lay down on something that's not solid as a rock, and tile falls under that category." He carried her to her bed and laid her down gently. "Do you want me to get you anything? Maybe water would be good. I should get you some water. Yes, that's what I should do." Spike said, showing his concern and worry for Buffy. He went to the mini-bar and got out a bottle of cold water. He then brought it to her and helped her drink it slowly so she wouldn't choke. "Spike, what's going on? Why did I pass out? Oh, and most importantly, WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD?" She said, angered by how much she was confused about the whole situation. She had loved him, but then he was taken away from her. Her heart had broken because she had believed him to be dead. "Well, first love, I don't know what's going on. Second, I think the first answer gives you the answer to the second question. And third, I have no idea why I'm not dead Buffy. What was the last thing you remember doing? That may answer some of your bloody questions." "All I know is that when I put on this ring," she lifted her hand to show Dawn and Spike, "I felt a surge of power. I suddenly felt really strong, but then I felt the power being grabbed out of me and I fell to the floor, and that's when I must've passed out." She paused. "Wait a minute. Maybe this is all from the ring." They all looked at it. "Everything started the second I put it on." She took it off of her finger and Spike disappeared. "Where did he go?!? Spike? Where are you?" Buffy said, frightened she lost him yet again. Her eyes began to well up with tears, but then she put the ring back on and he reappeared. "Well, that was an unpleasant experience." He said as he sat down on the edge of her bed. "One second I was in here, and the next I was in some empty room with all white walls. Oh, and there also was this really annoying noise that bugged the bloody hell out of me." " I guess it's whenever I put on the ring, that you somehow appear, and when I take it off, you disappear." Buffy said as she realized what was going on. She couldn't take it anymore. She needed to tell him how she really felt. "Dawn, can you go and get some sodas and snacks from the machines down the hall please?" Buffy told her sister who obviously realized she wasn't wanted in the room when she replied with a smile, "Sure. I'll make sure to stop to get some ice while I'm at it." She got up and left the room.
"Spike, I need to talk to you. I can't take it anymore, holding all of this in. It's too hard trying not to love you and to pull of this façade for all of my friends trying to make them believe that I don't love you. Why did you say you didn't believe me? I need to know so my mind can stop racing with reasons that I just can't fathom." By now she already had tears streaming down her face. Spike moved closer to her and put his arms around her. "Buffy, at the time I didn't know how to believe you. I don't know, I guess while I was spontaneously combusting I couldn't exactly think straight. I do love you Buffy, more than you will ever know, and if you truly love me, then.well.." He was cut off when she put her lips against his and they engaged in a passionate kiss which started out small and became bigger and bigger. Within minutes, clothes were flying across the room as Buffy and Spike began to do, well.more than just kissing. Dawn, knowing her sister wanted some quality time with Spike, asked Willow and Kennedy if she could room with them for the night. When asked why, all that Dawn said was that Buffy needed some time alone to think about the events of the past two weeks or so. Willow agreed of course to letting Dawn sleep in her room, and Spike and Buffy got their night alone.
The next morning, Buffy woke up in Spike's arms, where she had been longing to be for two weeks. It may not sound like a long time, but to her it seemed like a lifetime. She pulled herself closer to him and felt his smooth, cool skin on hers. He was still sleeping, being a vampire he was accustomed to sleeping during the day. Then he moved a little bit, and she could tell he was awake. "I love you Buffy." He told her as he kissed her forehead. "Same to you." She laughed, being happy that she was with him and had a second chance to be with him. "So, I see that you found the ring I gave you. Like it?" "Like it? I love it! This ring will NEVER leave my finger, as long as I am alive. Besides, if it did, I wouldn't have you anymore, so why would I do a stupid thing like taking off the ring?" "It's been in my family for generations. Before I turned, my mother gave me this ring and said to give it to the woman I love. I had hid it in a small box that I placed somewhere in the walls of my house. After I became a vampire, I completely forgot about it, and I'm happy I did, or I would've sold it for cash or other..ahem.services." Buffy gave him a look of disgust. "What? I was a horny vampire. You can't blame me. The soul- less usually are." She laughed at his words. "So when I had my soul back, I knew I had to give this ring to you. I returned to my old house, which was somehow still standing, and I found it to bring to you." "And I'm happy you did, because if you didn't, I may not be here with you right now after one of the most amazing nights of my life." She couldn't bear to think of not being with him a second longer.
By the way, this story begins right after the events of the SERIES finale, after Sunnydale is destroyed!
The yellow school bus bounced slightly as it made it's way through the moonlight covered roads of California. A small group of people sat inside, most being rocked to sleep by the bouncing bus, or just sleeping because they were exhausted from the huge battle that occurred earlier that day. The only two people awake inside the bus were Buffy Summers, and her former watcher, Rupert Giles who was driving the bus. Buffy couldn't get to sleep no matter how hard she tried, because all she could think about was Spike and how he spontaneously combusted right in front of her eyes. She couldn't fathom how something like that could've happened. What she also couldn't believe, was that he didn't believe that she meant it when she told him she loved him. She said it with her heart and soul, and told him the truth, but for some strange reason he didn't believe her.
"Awake Buffy?" Giles asked sarcastically since he already knew the answer to his question. "Yea. After all that happened today, I don't think I'll be able to sleep for quite a while." "I can completely understand that." Giles chuckled. "Why do you think I chose to drive the bus? I knew I'd be awake anyways and I needed something to occupy my mind." "Darn. Now's the time I wish I had gotten my license when I had the chance!" They both laughed. "God, I hate being here when I know Anya and countless others aren't. It just eats at me. I can't believe she's gone." Tears welled up in Buffy's eyes as her thoughts went back and forth from Spike's death to Anya's. "I know how you feel Buffy," he said as he glanced back at Zander, sleeping peacefully in his seat. "I have no idea how Zander's taking it so well. They were almost married for goodness sakes. How is he able to sleep, while we're not?" Giles asked rhetorically. "I don't know, but I'm exhausted, so I'm gonna at least attempt to get in a little sleep before we get to Cleveland. Goodnight Giles." "Goodnight Buffy. Try to get some sleep." He advised her in his usual fatherly way.
The next morning, Buffy and the gang awoke to find themselves stopped at a rest stop somewhere between California and Las Vegas.
"Buffy, you're up! Ok, which one do you want? Cap'n Crunch or Froot Loops? Seeing as you're the last one up, well aside from Giles anyways," Buffy looked over to see an exhausted looking Giles sleeping on the steering wheel. "you get the last available cereal!" Dawn held out two mini-cereal boxes. "I'll go for the Froot Loops. They give justice to the term 'sugary goodness', which is exactly what I need right now!" Dawn threw her the box and then sat down on the bus seat across from her. The bus had become a sort of home for them overnight. In the area behind the last seats, and in the aisle that separated the two rows of seats, Xander had set up a bunch of opened sleeping bags to create a soft floor for anyone to sleep on. Then, there were pillows and blankets strewn all over the place that everyone had used the night before. Buffy plopped down onto the poofy sleeping bag floor and opened her Froot Loops.
"Oh damn. No milk." She heard Faith say from the back. "Well, you can't always have your way Faith. Especially after you've just left a completely destroyed city, which I don't think still has a fully operated grocery store." Wood said to her, trying to make a joke out of the situation. Faith of course laughed at her new honey's attempt to make her laugh.
"Andrew, I'll trade you for the Cookie Crisp. Come on! Honeycombs are way better, so why don't you want them?" Zander begged Andrew for a cereal exchange. "Zander, shouldn't you be looking for the Cap'n Crunch? I mean, he is a pirate.well.kinda.." Andrew retorted. "Oh, so we're back to the eye patch jokes now are we? I see how it is." Zander said back to him sarcastically, starting a chain of constant bickering that was sure to go on for hours.
"Hey Will, want some of my Cheerios? I know they're your favorite." Kennedy said as she offered cereal to her girlfriend. "No, it's ok. Thanks anyway though. I'm just not that hungry." Willow replied.
"So, how ya holding up?" Dawn asked her older sister. "I don't know. I guess not too bad. But it still doesn't all seem real to me yet. When it hits me, I'm sure I won't be as ok as I am now." Buffy answered.
"Wha-, hah-, who-!?!" Giles jumped up out of his peaceful slumber. The Scoobies all laughed.
"Giles, are you ok?" Willow asked him. "What? Oh, yes Willow, I'm fine thanks. Just a bad dream I guess."
As the next few days went by, they knew that they were growing nearer to Cleveland, and their happy moods were slowly decreasing.
"Woo Hoo. We're approaching another Hellmouth, and I can already feel the evil calling from hundreds of miles away." Faith told the crew. "Don't you feel that B? It's gotta be some sorta slayer intuition or something, because I can feel this thing. So much evil and terror. I can feel it just as much as I can feel this drink in my hand." " Wow. Now that you mention it, this force is really strong. The evil.I can feel it." She shivered. How she wished she could be held by Spike right at that very moment. It always felt good to be held in his arms, and right now it was just what she needed. "Well Buffy, I hope you're feeling strong enough to get in there and fight whatever this evil is. It can't be as bad as the First or anything we just came from." Giles said, snapping her back to reality. Spike was never coming back. He couldn't. How was it possible? Tears welled in her eyes. "Buffy? Are you ok?" Giles asked her. "Huh? Oh, yea. Sorry, something in my eye." She lied, putting her fingers to her eye pretending to figure out what was in there. "Well, we're stopping for lunch soon. Is Taco Bell ok for everyone? Wow, I can't believe I'm eating such American filth." The British inside of him was beginning to peek out from behind his glasses. "Hey! Anything that involves a Chihuahua, a gordita, and a bunch of mild sauce is NOT American filth! Don't diss the foods of my homeland!" Zander fought back.
Two days later, they were only a few miles outside of Cleveland and the mood had grown tense on the bus. Everyone was worried that they would lose yet another one, or many of their group, or even die themselves. They had stopped for the night at an actual hotel, rather than a rest stop, because they were pretty much where they were supposed to be, and could stay in the hotel for longer than just one night. The rooms were split up, and 2 people shared each room. Wood & Faith, Buffy & Dawn, Zander & Andrew, Willow & Kennedy, all shared rooms, and Giles slept on the couch in Zander & Andrew's room. Having an actual shower for the first time since they had left Sunnydale a week earlier was Buffy's favorite part of staying in the hotel. She finally had the chance to wash all of the dried blood and dirt off of her body. As she got undressed for her shower, she folded her dirty, ripped jeans and something fell out of one of the pockets. She reached down to retrieve the shiny gold object from the floor, and saw that gold wasn't the only beautiful part of what she had found. It was a ring, covered in diamonds. There was a 1.5 carat diamond in the center above part of the gold, and many small diamonds creating a strip around the base of the gold ring. In the inside, it was engraved, "To Buffy: My love forever, Love William". How did this get into her pocket? That was the question that bugged her the most. The conclusion she came to was that he must have slipped it into there before he died. She cried when she saw it, and couldn't make herself put it on, because she couldn't bear to think of him being gone forever, and any reminder of him made her think of that.
"Wow, who would've thought to build a bank, over a Hellmouth?" Zander said four hours later as he watched people and demons run from the Suntrust bank that was now bursting into flames. "Darn, all that money. Maybe we can save some of it!" He ran to the safe in the bank trying to salvage whatever was left. "That was fast. I mean, it took us longer to kill the Mayor." Willow said, causing Faith to flinch at the thought of the Mayor, since he was almost like a father to her. "And there were more fatalities." She said in a kind of cheery way, seeing as not even half as many people died today as they did before. "Oh yea! Who's up for dinner?" Zander said, pulling out a huge bag filled with cash he had stolen from the now, burned to the ground bank. They all turned and looked at him. "Zander!" The whole group exclaimed as he gave them a smirk, and they all ran into the remains of the bank to get whatever money they could salvage.
Later that night, they returned to the hotel and to their rooms. Buffy again took out the ring and looked at it's beauty. It was entrancing to her. She looked at it and was almost taken to another world. But each time she saw it, she cried and became more drawn to it. She wanted to wear it, but was too afraid of what would happen if she did. She didn't want the constant reminder that Spike was gone, but the power of the ring was beginning to overcome her. She put it on and immediately felt different. She felt like something was rushing in her blood that was making her stronger. She fell to the bathroom floor on her knees and was shaking. Then she passed out.
"Buffy? Buffy? Wake up pet. Please wake up." Buffy heard the familiar voice of the person kneeling over her. "No, it couldn't be." She thought to herself. "Could it?" She opened her eyes to see Spike's pale face with an expression of worry washed over it. "Love? Can you see me? Buffy?" He asked her. "Spike? Is it you? Is it really you?" She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. "Yes love. It's me. Calm down or you're going to pass out again pet." He said to her as he wiped her forehead with a damp washcloth. "SPIKE?!?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Dawn shouted as she opened the bathroom door to see what was going on, but instead discovered Spike kneeling over her sister's body. "Hullo bit. I have NO bloody idea what I'm doing here. The last thing I remember was hearing Buffy tell me that she loved me, and watching Sunnydale collapse. Now I'm here and I have no idea why. I just opened my eyes and I was standing over there." He pointed towards the wall. Buffy sat up slowly and put her hand on the large bump that had begun to form after she fell to the floor. She became dizzy and swayed a little from side to side. "Buffy." Spike said as he put his arms around her and picked her up. "You need to lay down on something that's not solid as a rock, and tile falls under that category." He carried her to her bed and laid her down gently. "Do you want me to get you anything? Maybe water would be good. I should get you some water. Yes, that's what I should do." Spike said, showing his concern and worry for Buffy. He went to the mini-bar and got out a bottle of cold water. He then brought it to her and helped her drink it slowly so she wouldn't choke. "Spike, what's going on? Why did I pass out? Oh, and most importantly, WHY AREN'T YOU DEAD?" She said, angered by how much she was confused about the whole situation. She had loved him, but then he was taken away from her. Her heart had broken because she had believed him to be dead. "Well, first love, I don't know what's going on. Second, I think the first answer gives you the answer to the second question. And third, I have no idea why I'm not dead Buffy. What was the last thing you remember doing? That may answer some of your bloody questions." "All I know is that when I put on this ring," she lifted her hand to show Dawn and Spike, "I felt a surge of power. I suddenly felt really strong, but then I felt the power being grabbed out of me and I fell to the floor, and that's when I must've passed out." She paused. "Wait a minute. Maybe this is all from the ring." They all looked at it. "Everything started the second I put it on." She took it off of her finger and Spike disappeared. "Where did he go?!? Spike? Where are you?" Buffy said, frightened she lost him yet again. Her eyes began to well up with tears, but then she put the ring back on and he reappeared. "Well, that was an unpleasant experience." He said as he sat down on the edge of her bed. "One second I was in here, and the next I was in some empty room with all white walls. Oh, and there also was this really annoying noise that bugged the bloody hell out of me." " I guess it's whenever I put on the ring, that you somehow appear, and when I take it off, you disappear." Buffy said as she realized what was going on. She couldn't take it anymore. She needed to tell him how she really felt. "Dawn, can you go and get some sodas and snacks from the machines down the hall please?" Buffy told her sister who obviously realized she wasn't wanted in the room when she replied with a smile, "Sure. I'll make sure to stop to get some ice while I'm at it." She got up and left the room.
"Spike, I need to talk to you. I can't take it anymore, holding all of this in. It's too hard trying not to love you and to pull of this façade for all of my friends trying to make them believe that I don't love you. Why did you say you didn't believe me? I need to know so my mind can stop racing with reasons that I just can't fathom." By now she already had tears streaming down her face. Spike moved closer to her and put his arms around her. "Buffy, at the time I didn't know how to believe you. I don't know, I guess while I was spontaneously combusting I couldn't exactly think straight. I do love you Buffy, more than you will ever know, and if you truly love me, then.well.." He was cut off when she put her lips against his and they engaged in a passionate kiss which started out small and became bigger and bigger. Within minutes, clothes were flying across the room as Buffy and Spike began to do, well.more than just kissing. Dawn, knowing her sister wanted some quality time with Spike, asked Willow and Kennedy if she could room with them for the night. When asked why, all that Dawn said was that Buffy needed some time alone to think about the events of the past two weeks or so. Willow agreed of course to letting Dawn sleep in her room, and Spike and Buffy got their night alone.
The next morning, Buffy woke up in Spike's arms, where she had been longing to be for two weeks. It may not sound like a long time, but to her it seemed like a lifetime. She pulled herself closer to him and felt his smooth, cool skin on hers. He was still sleeping, being a vampire he was accustomed to sleeping during the day. Then he moved a little bit, and she could tell he was awake. "I love you Buffy." He told her as he kissed her forehead. "Same to you." She laughed, being happy that she was with him and had a second chance to be with him. "So, I see that you found the ring I gave you. Like it?" "Like it? I love it! This ring will NEVER leave my finger, as long as I am alive. Besides, if it did, I wouldn't have you anymore, so why would I do a stupid thing like taking off the ring?" "It's been in my family for generations. Before I turned, my mother gave me this ring and said to give it to the woman I love. I had hid it in a small box that I placed somewhere in the walls of my house. After I became a vampire, I completely forgot about it, and I'm happy I did, or I would've sold it for cash or other..ahem.services." Buffy gave him a look of disgust. "What? I was a horny vampire. You can't blame me. The soul- less usually are." She laughed at his words. "So when I had my soul back, I knew I had to give this ring to you. I returned to my old house, which was somehow still standing, and I found it to bring to you." "And I'm happy you did, because if you didn't, I may not be here with you right now after one of the most amazing nights of my life." She couldn't bear to think of not being with him a second longer.