A year after the big showdown in LA (and she was so not over stupid sacred-calling-stealing vampires letting her find out about apocalypses in the last minute) things were what they seemed to call 'normal'. Angel was off in some different dimension on a mission that he made sound way more important than it was (and really, if you're not taking on a hell god or a whole army, why are we even mentioning it?). Spike was currently working for the Council and was off in Spain (and didn't he used to hate Watchers and institutions and pretty much everyone that tried to tell him what to do?). And she herself, the oldest Slayer in history, was stuck in her small apartment in London, in the middle of what she was convinced was a monsoon season but Gils claimed was just normal English weather, pretending that she wasn't waiting for the phone to ring. The way she jumped in the air once it did kinda shot her façade in the face though. It wasn't him, it was Andrew. But he said Spike needed some back-up and asked if she was available. Her current biggest mission was to make sure she didn't forget to buy milk again but she could pretend that she wouldn't have dropped anything and everything even if the situation was different.
He needed her.
Two years after the big showdown in LA (which she still wasn't over but being mad after so long made you look petty so she pretended she was) things were looking (dare she say it out loud?) good. Almost everybody seemed to be gathering in London after being spilled all over the globe for so long. The party was big and she had never danced so much in her life. She danced with Faith (calling them friends might be pushing it but Buffy thougth she'd risk it), with Willow (did all best friends talk to each other once a year?), with Dawn (grown up looked good on her), with Xander (and wasn't it a relief that he was still Xander?). And with Spike. He said almost nothing and touched even less but desire was not something you just chased away into a dark corner.
He wanted her.
Three years after the big showdown in LA (which she couldn't exactly remember why she had been so mad about) things were finally falling into place. If only someone had told her sooner that all she needed to do was go patrolling.
"Yeah, well, that might be 'cause I'm in love with you, you daft bint!"
She didn't even remember what she had said to get the words out of him. But she remembered freezing in the middle of the cemetery with her eyes wide and her mouth hanging open. And him looking confused and then saying something about her knowing that. She hadn't! She had thought… Well, she had thought a lot of things but they all seemed kind of stupid now.
He loved her.