Chapter 28 - Epilogue - Saturday, Standard Buffy and Spike

Spike climbed in through Buffy's window. It was nearly dawn. He took off his jeans and T-shirt and slipped back into bed. Without waking, Buffy sensed his presence and moved towards him, spooning up to him, her back against his stomach. Spike groaned in pleasure. She was asleep, and she could make him feel like that. He considered waking her, but thought better of it. There would be plenty of time later.

When she had eventually fallen into an exhausted sleep, he had gone out. He had been around Sunnydale, checking out the current situation. As far as he could tell, things looked good. A few demons had already left the cave complex and returned to their lairs. It would be a while before everything returned to normal, but it was a start.

Putting his arms around the woman beside him, Spike pulled her even closer and buried his face in her hair. He was home. With a sigh of total contentment, he felt sleep claim him.

The shrill sound of an alarm clock caused Buffy to start awake. Now, why had she set that? She froze for a second. Spike had recognised that she was awake, and had started to nuzzle her neck. She started to lose herself in the sensation, when it hit her. The alarm was set. She tensed, and Spike pulled back, surprised. What was that? She jumped out of bed. "It's Willow!" she shouted, grabbing a wrap and pulling it around her. She turned to Spike who was looking a little bemused. "We're back!" she added before running out of the room.

Spike lay and listened to the excited voices in the hallway. He took a deep breath. Some habits die hard. Buffy was obviously delighted to be back. She and Willow were joined by and Tara and he could just picture the scene. Hugs and tears. The voices he could hear. The noise faded slightly as the girls headed downstairs. He'd always suspected this would happen. Whatever had shifted them into the other reality did it for a purpose. Now the purpose was complete, they were back. With a heavy heart, Spike got out of bed, and dressed. He looked at the bed he had just left and sighed. Waking beside Buffy was special. But waking beside her in her own bed, that was the best. He was glad he'd been able to do it just once.

He crept downstairs, listening to the exclamations now coming from the lounge. They were catching up on the news. Someone, Willow by the sound of it, was talking to Xander on the phone. Spike spotted a blanket close to the front door. His other self must have left it there. Pulling it over his head, he quietly opened the front door. He had a measure of shade there on the doorstep, and he silently closed the front door behind him before sprinting for the manhole.

He made his way back to his crypt with a heavy heart. He had known it would happen. Hell, she'd told him. 'Here and now, I love you.' 'I can't promise forever.' He heard the words replayed in his mind. She was back. She had her friends. She no longer needed him.

Reaching his crypt, he wasn't surprised to find it didn't look as if it had been used recently. Good, at least his other self had managed to hold his ground against the gang. But he had been there first. In this reality, it was Spike who was the newcomer. The new kid on the block who would never be part of the team, never be part of her life.

Stifling an urge to kick something, he started to pack. He was damned if he was going to stay around to be the extra in her life. The bit player. He'd had it all, and the scraps simply wouldn't do anymore. He definitely wouldn't be around when she found someone else to share her bed. Another Captain Cardboard. Or worse.

There wasn't really a lot he needed to pack. He had just about everything he couldn't bear to leave behind, and it was all in a small bag. There was just one more thing. He dropped to the lower level of the crypt and moved to the dark corner, on the opposite side to the tunnel entrance. There he found the box he used to put odds and ends in. There was only one thing he wanted from there. Rummaging through it, he found the silver skull ring. Funny, he hadn't thought about it in a long time. It was the ring he gave to her when they were engaged, after that stupid spell Willow did. He looked at it for several minutes, remembering. "Funny," he thought, "must be dusty. My eyes're watering." He put a fist up to his eyes to wipe the tears away. "Who'm I fooling? I'm just such a poof." This last was said out loud.

Buffy had crept down the ladder silently. She had told her friends about the changes in her life while she had been away. Xander had heard on the phone, although she still had to face him. She had told them about Spike. They hadn't been happy, but she made it clear it was non-negotiable. Having heard that Dawn was due back later, she had gone back to her room to find him gone. Confused, she had run most of the way to his crypt. She came closer to him. She had expected him to notice her. He always did. She looked at him. He was kneeling in front of a box, rummaging through it for something. After a while, he pulled something out of it. She recognised it immediately. It was the skull ring. She smiled at the memory. He played with the ring, rolling it between his fingers. She watched him, then her eyes dropped to the bag at his side.

" Who'm I fooling. I'm just such a poof," she heard him saying to himself.

"Spike," she called, quietly.

He span around, surprised to see her. Self consciously, he wiped his eyes again, checking for any remaining moisture. "Dusty in 'ere," he said by way of explanation.

Buffy looked pointedly at the bag. "Going somewhere?"

Spike followed her gaze, shrugging his shoulders. "It's for the best, pet."

"What?"

"I'm going to get out of Sunnydale. Should have done it a long time ago. Overstayed my welcome."

Buffy was baffled. "Why, Spike?"

How could she be so dense? Didn't she know how he felt about her? Hadn't he told her often enough? He was suddenly angry. "Look, love, it's been good, but I'm not going back to the way things were. I'm not going back to being on the reserve team. I've had you. All of you. And I won't stay around and watch you from the sidelines again. Don't ask me to."

He picked up the bag and started to walk away.

"Is that what you want?" she asked.

"Did I say it was what I bloody want?" He twirled around, shouting. "What I want, and what I should do are two separate things. For once in my life I'm going to do what I should do. What I should've done before. Before I got in too deep."

"What do you want, Spike?" Her voice was strangely gentle, almost tearful.

"You know what I bloody want, woman. I want you. All of you. Forever. But it won't work now. Your friends won't let it work. You won't let it work."

"Spike, I'm here. All of me. If you want me." Her voice was a whisper.

He turned, looking into her eyes, waiting for the rest of it, the part that would break his heart all over again. Nothing came.

"What do you mean, 'if I want you'?"

"Spike, come home with me. Please." Her voice was definitely tearful. Hell, he couldn't stand to hear her upset.

"I can't, love, you said it yourself. You loved me there. It won't work here."

"Spike, please, I love you. Now. Here." Her voice was breaking, willing him to believe her.

He took a step closer to her. She held out her arms to him. The last few steps he took at a run. He pulled her into his arms, and kissed her hard. When she broke away so she could breathe, he looked into her eyes, still trying to see if she meant what she said.

"I love you, Spike. I can't imagine my life without you. Not now. I need you in my life, in all of my life. I need you in my bed. And if my friends can't cope, well, they'll just have to. They know, I told them. I am not giving you up, William the Bloody. Forever may be short for a slayer, but for what it's worth, I'm willing to have a go at 'forever', if you'll have me?"

"Of course I'll bloody have you!" His voice was cracking under the emotional strain of the last few minutes. "But," he groaned, "could we make it my bed for the moment? I'm not sure I can wait till we get back to yours."

Buffy smiled, a genuinely happy smile. "Ok," she told him, her grin turning wicked. "We can start in your bed, but we definitely end up in mine, deal?"

She never actually got an answer. Not in words, anyway, and not until much later.