Angel saw Darla pounce on Buffy right after she managed to beat Spike away with the chain, but he couldn't reach her before Spike was back on his feet, rounding on him with a snarl, the side of his head covered in blood. "YOU!" he bellowed, lunging at Angel. "You're the reason this always happens to me!"

"Pretty sure that has less to do with me and more to do with your inability to take a hint," said Angel, dodging Spike's incoming fist and elbowing him in the chest.

"You left her!" said Spike, blocking a kick from Angel. "What right do you have to get all territorial now?"

Angel kicked again, and this time it connected. "Just because I left doesn't mean I stopped loving her. I came to protect her from Darla, but I can rid her of the creep who won't leave her alone and makes sexbot copies of her while I'm at it."

Spike leapt back to his feet and kicked the stake out of Angel's hand. It clattered along the floor and out of sight. "Met the Bot, did you?" he said. "That Warren bloke did an excellent job, don't you think? Maybe you should get one yourself, because that's as close as you'll ever get to—"

Angel sank his knuckles into Spike's face.

Buffy had known Darla fought dirty when she brought a pair of handguns to a crossbow fight, but her hand-to-hand was just as bad. With all the hair-pulling and fingernail swipes, it was turning into the deadliest catfight Buffy had ever been in, and it didn't help that Angel was locked in combat with Spike just a few yards away. Finally, she managed to get her legs up between them and kick Darla off of her. She put her hands down to boost herself back up, and her fingers brushed the stake. She grabbed it and bore down on Darla. Darla looked from the stake to Buffy, then over to Angel. With a furious growl, she turned and fled at top speed.

Angel and Spike were so focused on their fight that they didn't seem to have noticed the outcome of Buffy and Darla's. Spike had just gotten his hands on the chains and was winding up to whip Angel over the head with them, just like she'd done to him. "Angel!" she cried. He looked over, and she threw the stake. In one fluid movement, he snatched it out of the air, ducked the swinging chains, and plunged upward. Spike stared down at the few inches of wood protruding from his chest in shock, and then the chains fell to the ground as he crumbled into dust.

Feeling that it would've saved them a lot of trouble if they'd only done that the last time Spike brought hostages here because he couldn't get the girl, Buffy ran forward and threw herself into Angel's arms. He hugged her back tightly, but he was still alert. "Where's Darla?"

"She ran off as soon as I got hold of the stake. Think she'll come back?"

"She might. She doesn't usually pick fights unless she knows she'll win them, but she also doesn't like coming in second over anything, particularly me." He tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear and smiled at her. She kissed him. She poured everything left from the adrenaline of the fight into it, along with quite a lot of the jumble of emotions she'd felt ever since the vision quest. He matched her intensity, kissing her like he hadn't in years. Being kissed breathless by someone who didn't need to breathe was something else, but he was still the first one to break away.

"I love you," she said, hands still on his shoulders. It didn't feel weird to say at all this time, even though she hadn't said it to him in nearly two years. Maybe the First Slayer had been onto something.

"I love you too," said Angel, giving her a strange look, as if he wasn't sure why she'd needed to say it out loud.

"So, you coming here twice in under a week?" said Buffy, stepping back. "You're going to spoil me. Not that I'm complaining." No, she definitely wasn't doing that.

"I'm sorry," he said. "The stuff I deal with doesn't usually spill over to Sunnydale."

"Yeah, about that. I think there's a lot more we need to talk about before you head back this time."

He shrugged. "I'm not in a hurry."

"Starting with why I'm pretty sure I heard the word 'sexbot' come out of your mouth a minute ago." She began to head for the exit, and he fell in step beside her. "And what Darla meant when she said you two recently spent a night together."

He winced a little. "I guess it's a good thing you already kissed me."

"That bad, huh?"

"I didn't think the other day was the best time to unload it on you. It's been a rough few months. Let's just say my whole team is pissed at me and they have very good reasons."


Not sorry about killing Spike off, just that the fight scene leading up to it is kinda short. As far as I'm concerned, he either should've been killed off in "Lovers Walk," just popped in occasionally for random cameos in the later seasons (like Drusilla) instead of becoming a series regular, or else the writers should've come up with a much more solid excuse to keep him around than the stupid chip. Once he has his soul, it's fine to keep him alive, but he's fair game in S3-S6, and nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

More specifically, it's insane to me that "Intervention," the same episode with the very sleaziest of Spike's stalking, is also the first episode where Buffy kisses him. I don't care that he didn't give Dawn up to Glory; that seemed incredibly out-of-character for her, not to mention a dangerous thing to do with her creepy soulless vampire stalker.

So hopefully this fic is cathartic for anyone else who dislikes these developments in canon as much as I do.

One more chapter to go before we're caught up to the pre-written stuff.