Title: Body and Soul (2?)
Rating: PG-13 this part
Spoilers: none
Summary: Buffy/Spike.
Feedback: Yes, please!
Disclaimers: Buffy the Vampire Slayer characters belong to Joss Whedon, & Mutant Enemy. I'm just borrowing them for my fic.
Date: 9/18/01

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Body and Soul
part two
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A lot of things had changed in the three years since the whole Glory incident. Buffy seemed different after her second death, calmer more mature somehow.

Xander and Anya had gotten married not too long after Buffy's return. Willow tested out of a lot of her core classes and got her degree in Computer Science and was the proud founder of Red's Bane, the hottest and newest software company. In spite of their incessant bickering, Willow hired Anya to increase her profit margin. Unfortunately, as Willow's Wiccan powers got stronger, she and Tara started drifting apart. Giles was not only the owner of the Magic Shop, but he also taught an Internet Literature class at Sunnydale University. He'd finally gotten the hang of that 'darn machine.'

Spike took Buffy's death really hard. In the weeks after Buffy's death, he only did three things: look after Dawn, seek and destroy demons, and get pissed off his rocker. The majority of the time Dawn forcefully reminded him to come inside before sunrise. Spike decided that his Nibblet needed a spot of normalcy in her life so they started the Sunday night dinner tradition. To everyone's surprise, Spike could actually cook and since the flow of people through the house was pretty constant he made enough for leftovers.

When Buffy finally returned, things between them started to change as well. Spike came by to have Sunday night dinner with Nibblet, more often than not Buffy joined them. Long hours of patrolling and watching each other's backs cultivated a very close friendship between the two. Due to his seek and destroy attitude towards the evil demon population, Spike was forced to move from his crypt to a house. Buffy, in a moment of niceness, even helped him pick out some furniture for his new bachelor pad. To her surprise, they actually had fun and made it a point to occasionally hang out together.

One night, after a close call with a large ugly demon, as Buffy dragged an unconscious Spike back to his house she realized that he had somehow become very important to her and that she needed him. Unfortunately, Spike had just started dating a half-demoness by the name of Leah O'Kelly, so Buffy couldn't even begin to pursue her romantic feelings for Spike. In spite of Spike's romantic involvement with Leah, Buffy and Spike remained as close as ever. Dawn hated Leah with a passion after a shopping spree incident. The rest of the Scoobies weren't too fond of her either, but no one hated Leah as much as Buffy.

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When the reinforcements arrived at Spike's house, they found the front door kicked in and the house ransacked. While Anya went after the home security tape, Xander scouted the perimeter. Giles and Willow started setting up to do a locator spell. Leah drove up not too long after the Scoobies had arrived. She started screaming hysterically when she found Spike's lighter in the upstairs bathroom.

'Shut Up! You bloody bint! What does he see in her?' Dawn thought as she took great pleasure in slapping the shock out of Leah.

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Buffy realized two things as she struggled to regain consciousness. The first was that her head was killing her and the second was that the buzzing she heard were actually people talking. Buffy caught a few words before she felt a stinging in her arm and blessed oblivion.


end part two.