Disclaimer: So, I don't own any of these characters. Buffy, Spike, and everything else, belong to the genius, Joss Whedon.
Summary: Just a little Spuffy, the way I think things could have and should have been. Set sometime after Chosen. Spike still ends up at Wolfram and Hart, but the circumstances change a bit.
Chapter One: The End
Sunnydale, the only place the slayer had called home for seven years, had been reduced to a pit of rock. The past two days had been a blur- her own sister had kicked her out of her home, she had battled a Hellmouth full of ubervamps, and she had lost Spike. That last part hurt the worst. She looked at the new slayers, at her sister, and at her friends and tried to feel victorious. She couldn't. The people surrounding her had been her family, but knowing how they had treated Spike had tainted them forever in her eyes. Spike, who moments before had given his un-life for them, so that they might live.
Buffy was unaware of the tears streaming down her face, but Willow wasn't.
"Buffy, why are you crying? You saved the world again. We saved the world again."
"God, Willow, don't you understand? We didn't save anything! We're here, we're fine. Spike saved the world. He died so that you could live, but you can't spare one thought for him, can you?" With that, the petite blonde slayer turned and ran, hoping that she would never see The Scoobies again.
Willow began to run after her, but a warm hand on her shoulder stopped her, "Wil, dude, she just lost someone she loved. You should know what that feels like," said Faith.
"What are you talking about? Buffy knew that there would be casualties and, yeah so she had sex with Spike a couple of times. They were only"- Only what? Only friends? If they had really only been friends would Buffy have searched for him like she did when he was captured by the First? Would he have cared for Dawn the way he did when Buffy was dead? Would he have been in that house for as long as he was, surrounded by young, innocent girls without even trying to bite or seduce one? "Oh, man! They were only SOUL MATES! How could I never have realized how much he meant to her? I'm such a doody-head!" Willow declared.
The next day, Buffy arrived in Los Angeles, right at the front door of Wolfram and Hart. She knew Angel would never understand her pain over losing Spike and she knew that she didn't love Angel anymore, but somehow she felt like she needed to be by Angel's side for a little while. She cared for him and had fought beside him so many times that she believed they could be friends.
"You'll never be friends." She heard a whisper from her past-"You'll fight and you'll shag and" She shook the voice away. Spike was all she could think about and she knew that he was wrong about her and Angel. She believed in her heart of hearts that she would never be more than friends with anyone again.
Angel opened the door to his office to let Buffy in. He had expected her. He had also smelled her. Angel had spent enough time with Buffy in the past to know that she needed to talk to him about something big. He also knew that he wasn't going to be one bit happy about what she was going to say.