Disclaimer: Buffy and other characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer are the property of Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy, etc. and I receive no money or compensation of any kind for my use of the characters.
Standing at the edge of the crater that had been Sunnydale, she struggles to breathe as her mind catches up with her body. She's waiting for him to climb out of that hole and smirk as he has a hundred or a thousand times before. She's waiting and she'll wait until nightfall if she has to. Because this isn't the end. That wasn't her last moment with him and a burn scar on her left palm isn't all she'll have to remember him by. Last night won't be the last time his arms are around her while she sleeps. His only response to her confession of love can't possibly be, "No, you don't."
So she waits for a glimpse of his platinum hair. She waits to see his sparking blue eyes and impish grin. She waits for minutes that stretch into hours and the Scoobies are getting restless.
"Buffy, what are we doing?" Willow asks gently.
"We're waiting for Spike," she replies, heedless of the tears streaming down her own cheeks. "I have to wait for him."
She waits while Xander carries her onto the bus. She waits as Giles drives toward Cleveland and Dawn nervously plays with her hair. She waits for hours that stretch into days and weeks until no one else knows that she is still waiting. She waits on the plane to Scotland. Because it wasn't the last time.
She is waiting when they tell her about Angel's battle against Wolfram and Hart. She is waiting when she lies next to Satsu, sweat cooling on their bodies. She is waiting in the distant future with Melaka Fray. She is waiting in Tibet with Oz. She is waiting in the horrible moment when she thinks that Twilight might really kill her and she realizes that she doesn't want to die at all. She is waiting and then she is not waiting.
His blue eyes sparkle and she smiles her first real smile in years and it is not the last time.
