Disclaimer: Not mine at all. I think you know who they belong to by now, but if not, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox…..
"I know I'm a monster, but you treat me like a man, and that's-" Spike cuts himself off, looking up at Buffy with his eyes full of love and adoration. No one's ever looked at her like that before. And that's when she realized, that's when she knew.
She loved this man in front of her. Sure, he'd pulled some messed up stuff on her before; that disgusting robot, the chains the night Drusilla was in town… But she couldn't help but think of all of the moments, brief moments they had shared together that weren't so horrible. The night she found out that her mother was ill, it was Spike who had sat with her for hours in the backyard. Most of that night was spent in silence, he just sat with a tentative hand on her back. But he waited, and when she was finally read to talk, he listened intently. And after the surgery when her mother was upstairs babbling and she fought the demon that had infiltrated her house, Spike helped her up, and for that brief moment when he held onto her hand, she felt like everything was ok. And he did so much more. He was tortured by a god just to protect her family. I had never seen anyone beaten so badly, but he withstood it, for her. And when the Knights attacked the Winnebago and the sword came down through the roof, he grabbed the sword, hands bleeding profusely and held it there, it had to hurt, but he did it nonetheless. He watched her mother and sister when she needed him to, she didn't leave them with Spike because he was the strongest, honestly he would be of little use if the Knights of Byzantium came along, and with Willow's powers she could probably handle Glory better than Spike. But she knew that she could count on Spike to protect them, no matter what, and by any means. It's just who he is.
And there were times when he looked at her and her heart swelled. Spike has always worn his heart on his sleeve, all of his emotions were displayed on his face, and in those eyes. And she would catch the way he looked at her and she could feel how much he loved her. He hadn't quite gotten the moral compass thing down yet, but he tried so hard, and one thing she knew about Spike was that he never gave up. She didn't want to accept it, Spike had been such a pain for so long, and after all, soulless vampires aren't supposed to love. And slayers certainly aren't supposed to love them back.
But here she was. And it was too late. They weren't all going to survive this night. Death is her gift, after all.