"Buffy?"
"Giles! Hi! God, we haven't heard from you for ages! How`d everything go? You know, with Spike. Is it over? Is he okay? I want details, Giles."
"Yes, it's over. It took a while, but Spike is now, um...an un-vampire."
"It worked then." She took a deep breath and let it out hard. "So, no more evil demon. That has to be good. In fact, that's amazing. How - how's he liking it?"
"He has discovered the joys of sunburn."
"He can sunburn? Wow."
"He can burn, and I happen to know for a fact that he can vomit."
"A peeling nauseous Spike. Oh my."
"It was quite amusing."
"I bet. What about you? Everything good with my old Watcher?"
"Not so much of the old, if you don`t mind. I'm better than good, Buffy." He hesitated. "I`m married."
There was a silence. "What?" Another silence. "What was that? What! When? Who? Olivia, right? Why wasn`t I invited?"
"It happened last night and yes, I married Olivia. It was very rushed, Buffy, I`m so sorry I couldn`t tell you. There was no time. We made the decision, Michael arranged a registry office, we did it. From start to finish, less than a day. Or several decades, depending how you look at it."
Buffy sounded pitiful. "But - but I could have been a bridesmaid! I`ve never been a bridesmaid! I could have given you away! Oh, Giles! I could have thrown you down the aisle at her! Like a baseball!"
Rupert started laughing. "Buffy, slow down. Spike gave me away - err - was my best man. Now listen. We`re going to have a confirmation."
"You're...you're gonna have a what?"
"A confirmation. Well, that's what we're calling it, anyway. It's really nothing more than an excuse to have a party with all of you. We've always disliked the official marriage service - so stuffy - so we`re going to have another one written entirely by Olivia and I. It will be in Sunnydale, and you are invited to be bridesmaid this time. But only if you really want to."
Rupert jumped and held the receiver away from his ear as Buffy screamed. When he listened again she was thirteen years old and babbling.
"Ohmygod! I gotta tell everyone! I have to get ready. I must do the buying of presents and clothes and stuff. Ohmygod, and more presents."
"And more clothes?"
"Yes! And, and more things and stuff! But why the rush, Giles? Tell me."
"Oh, well...m-many things were about to-to happen fast. Extremely fast. We wanted to get married before it all began. Oh, and I am now an unofficial member of the Council, in a way."
"Huh? Here I am again with the what? Unofficial? Why unofficial? Did you get the sack again? Wait a minute - what was that you said about Spike? Your best what? Oh god, too many whats. I`m getting a headache."
"Spike was my best man because out of all of them here he`s the one I know best, sadly. You should have seen him in a suit, Buffy. It was priceless."
"Oh. My. God." Buffy closed her eyes. "Does he show up in a mirror now?"
"Yes. He's spent a very long time admiring himself."
"Well, you better have photographs, Giles, that's all I'm saying. Okay. Okay. So what`s with the unofficial bit?"
"It has to be unofficial. Be-because of what happened just after our wedding."
"If you hedge any more I`m gonna reach down the line and pull off one of your balls."
Rupert coughed nervously. "All right. I-I`m not sure you`ll like this bit, Buffy. Olivia and I..." He took a deep breath. "You know Olivia is dying. Was dying. We - we wanted to get married as normal people, Buffy. Afterwards, Mera...oh, bloody hell!" Rupert ran out of breath and steam. He couldn`t say it, but he didn`t need to. She knew.
In Sunnydale Buffy held up a finger and said, very brightly: "Excuse me just one moment."
Rupert heard a clatter as she dropped the receiver.
*
Three days after Rupert and Olivia were married - and turned - Mera arrived at Little Eden with a stack of papers.
"I need signatures, and lots of 'em." She looked at Spike. "Yours too, gorgeous." She spread the papers out on Rupert's dining table. "Put your paw-prints here, and here. And there."
"What's this for, Mera?"
"Accounts."
"What accounts?" asked Spike, pricking up his ears.
"Your accounts. To enable you to access the mind-boggling fortune that Path and I have built up."
Rupert blinked. "I beg your pardon?"
"As members of the family you're entitled to the money."
"A-are we? Oh."
Spike grinned. "Did you say Mind-Boggling?" Mera nodded and his grin grew wider. "Yeah, thought you did. So..." he leaned forward with an intent look on his face. "Just how much would that be? 'Cos I'm out of smokes."
Mera waved a hand. "Oh, we're positively rolling in it, dear. Like little fat pigs in shit."
*
On the twenty-ninth of April, Rupert received the phone call that he had been waiting anxiously for.
"Giles?"
"Buffy, oh thank heaven."
"Oh god, Giles, I'm so sorry. I-I was just - stunned, I think. I just couldn't imagine it. Couldn't picture it, not with you. It was very...freaky. But, but it's all right. I'm all right because this morning I thought of something and it made me laugh. You know what that was?"
"What?"
"Spike. You're his brother now!"
Rupert's mouth fell open. He listened to the noise coming down the line from Sunnydale, and then he held up a finger. "Would you...would you excuse me for one moment, Buffy?" He dropped the receiver and walked blindly into the kitchen, where the tiny sound of Buffy's laughter couldn't follow him.
*
On the sixteenth of June the sun was shining, as usual. Merry bunting fluttered in a light breeze. Willow also fluttered, having apparently regressed to the age of sixteen. She clung to Tara`s arm and jiggled in excitement. Xander nudged her.
"Better slow down, Will. The ground`s cracking."
"But it`s a wedding!" Willow burbled. "Giles' wedding! It's a wedding!"
Tara laughed. "She`s been like this since she woke up. It`s not really a wedding though, is it? It`s a party. The wedding`s been done."
"Oh, but it`s like a wedding and they even have bridesmaids! And they`re having it here! With us!" Willow went into superior mode. "And if I want it to be a wedding, it`s a wedding." She jiggled again.
Anya began to laugh.
Xander looked around at the guests. "Woah. To coin an English phrase - bloody hell. Look at Spike."
Anya turned. "He`s here finally? I thought he wasn`t going to show, what with not seeing anyone since he got back. Where is he - oh. Oh my."
Willow spotted him and squealed."Oh my god! In the sun! In a suit? He's in a suit! And sunglasses! Oh my god!"
They watched him come toward them.
"Can`t stand these bloody suit things," said Spike as he joined the group. Uncomfortable and nervous, he pulled at his collar. "I like the shades, though." The gang stared at him and he looked around, clearing his throat. "Well, this is nice."
"Yes, you`re lovely," said Tara, and winced. She gave herself a mental slap. "Ah, I mean - your suit, actually. You look really good. Oh, and welcome to the sunshine."
Catching his eye, Anya grinned and wiggled her fingers at him. "Look at you."
"Yeah, great. Everyone's looking at me."
"I'm not," said Xander.
"Harris. Didn't miss you at all, mate."
"Got my passport?"
"Nope. Burned it."
Unaware that with the exception of Spike`s mother she was probably the only human female to have ever voluntarily done so, Willow gave him a tight hug. His eyes grew wide.
"Spike, you look so fine! And the glasses, yes, they`re so cool! And your face is tanned - Buffy`s so going to freak when she sees you!"
"What, again?" Spike felt a little shaky.
"Oh, she means in a good way," said Tara.
"Yeah," Xander piped up. "We`re fairly sure she`ll only hit you the once."
Spike looked him up and down and grinned. "Well, look at you in your monkey suit."
Xander nodded calmly and the slanging match got under way. "So Spike, what are you now? What do we call ya? Still dead? Proof you don`t need a demon to be a pain in the ass? What`s the medical term? And I`m asking purely for irritation's sake. I want you to be clear on that one."
Spike opened his mouth but at that moment the music started. "Later," he said.
"You betcha."
They hurried to their seats in the front row. Becoming more nervous by the second, Spike picked up a prayer book with distaste. "Oh, sod. Have we got to do this stuff? Please say it isn`t so. I hate this god-bashing rubbish."
"Don't bother with them, Spike," said Xander. "I hate to think what would happen if you actually said one of those."
"Oh, bugger it all to hell."
"Stop whining."
"Sod off."
Unable to sit still, Willow turned in her seat and looked at the quests. "Oh, hey. Isn`t that Quentin Travers? There`s a guy with him. He looks ill. That must be that poor Michael guy Giles was telling us about," She turned and saw Spike gingerly holding the prayer book in forefinger and thumb. "Oh, don't worry. This is Giles, remember. Oh!" She flapped her hands. "They`re coming!"
It was a nice, romantic ritual with sunshine and quite a few laughs, the scent of flowers and many a loud and exaggerated "Aahh" from the dangerously emotional Scooby Gang. The prayer books, merely Rupert's way of getting a rise out of Spike, weren`t used at all.
Spike himself, however, suffered the jitters throughout the ceremony and had never before felt so nervous. He was the only guest who didn`t turn to look as, clad in a glistening deep green gown, Olivia came down the aisle with her two bridesmaids behind her. He sat rigid in the front row as Rupert and his wife turned to face the guests and the bridesmaids took position on either side of them. Hardly daring to move lest it drew attention to him, Spike spied on them from the corner of his eye.
Dawn was closest to him, wearing a deep blue gown and a huge grin. She looked as though she was about to laugh. Becoming bolder, Spike looked along the line and felt a shock go through him. There she was standing next to Rupert, dark red gown, flowers in her hair and a wide smile as she moved her head forward slightly and looked toward the Scoobies. Spike jerked his head down and wondered if he was going to vomit. Rupert and Olivia were speaking, but Spike didn`t hear a single word.
The ceremony ended unceremoniously when Rupert looked to his right, nodded, and a band banged into life. The bride, groom and the two bridesmaids linked arms in a line and led the laughing and clapping guests across the grass to the paved dancing area. The gang made their way to a table under a tree and dropped their jackets and bags, looking around the crowd for Buffy and the others. They saw her waving at them to join her and Dawn by the buffet and they made their way over.
"Hey!" said Xander. "Huge food!" He grabbed a plate and began heaping it on. "So, Buffy. Dawn. You`re both looking like this table. Very edible. Having a good time?"
"Having a great time," said Buffy. She laughed. "Giles was so out of it before the ceremony. I thought he was going to faint."
"He was really funny," said Dawn. "Olivia was really laid back, though. I like her, she`s cool. It's so good she`s not dying any more."
Anya looked around. "Where are they, then? Why aren`t they here? With us? All happy?"
"Doing the photograph torture thing." Buffy nodded to her left. Rupert and Olivia were seated on the grass smiling self-consciously at a photographer. "We`ll have to join them in a minute. Oh yeah - he wants us all to go visit him in England soon and we're not to worry about the cost 'cause he'll pay. So I told him we'd need a few weeks to think about it." She laughed. "Oh, and it must be all of us together. For as long as we like. Before autumn. He was very specific. He said something about sitting in the sun in his garden and there was mention of wine, cake and strawberries. Personally, I'm already there."
There was a loud burst of conversation and Willow began to jiggle again.
"Will," said Xander as they calmed down. "I swear you`re gonna wet yourself sometime today."
Tara looked over at the photographer. "Has Giles showed you the pictures of their other wedding yet?" she asked Buffy.
Buffy nodded. "Yeah. Funny to see Spike standing there all stiff."
"Stiff`s the word," said Xander. "In more ways than one. Hey, where is he anyway? Not that I care. I'm just...you know. Curious. In a bored way."
Tara saw Spike sitting at their table looking very alone. He`d taken off his jacket and tie, undone the top few buttons of his shirt and pushed up his sleeves, but he didn`t look any more relaxed.
"Poor Spike," said Willow. "He`s so nervous, Buffy. I think it took real courage to come here at all. Please go say hello to him?"
Buffy looked across at Spike sitting in the sun. The sun...she still couldn`t get her head around the fact that he had a right to do that and not burst into flames. She`d had a full report from Rupert about the unpleasant ritual he`d gone through and his traumatic week following it, and she felt uncomfortable knowing that he`d voluntarily gone through hell for her. Again. But Buffy had already made up her mind about Spike. "I tried to catch his eye earlier, but he wouldn`t look at me," she said.
"I don`t know why," said Xander around a mouthful of food. "I told him you`ll only hit him once." Buffy slapped him on the arm. "Ow."
"Olivia`s waving at us," said Dawn.
"Tell them I`ll be a minute."
Willow whispered in Buffy`s ear. "Go get him." Buffy grinned at her.
She made her way through the crowd on the dance floor. Spike saw her coming and felt an overpowering urge to run. He stood up quickly, sat down and knocked over his glass. When Buffy reached him he was trying to mop up with a paper napkin. He kept his eyes on the spilt wine, thankful to have something to look at.
She slid into the seat next to him. "Hi."
He glanced sideways at her. "Oh. 'Lo Buffy."
She smiled "That's a nice tan you`ve got there."
"Um." He continued to mop, although the napkin was falling to pieces.
She leaned her arms on the table. "So why didn`t you come see me and Dawn? We were expecting you all week. Giles didn`t know where you`d gone. And you weren`t at your crypt - I checked."
"Oh, well - didn`t want to intrude. You know. You and Dawn getting ready and everything. I booked me into a hotel suite." He grinned at the table cloth. "S'nice, being rich."
Buffy blinked. "Rich? Oh! Path's money, right."
"Yeah. Never be short of smokes again."
Buffy laughed. "Are you gonna stay in the hotel or go back to the crypt?"
"Dunno. Don't think it'd feel right now, going back to the old place."
"Hey!" Buffy faked a sudden thought. "What about moving in with me and Dawn for a while? Yeah, good idea! We`ve a spare room. Only if you want to, though." She looked at him, grabbed a bottle of wine and filled his glass. "Drink this, quick."
Dropping the sodden remains of the napkin, Spike lunged for the glass and took a big gulp. He opened his mouth and found that his voice didn`t work. From the corner of his eye he could see Buffy smiling at him and he blinked.
"Giles told me about your, ah, cure," said Buffy. "Sounded nasty."
Relaxing a little, he found his voice and shrugged. "Yeah, well. Wasn`t that bad."
"Giles also told me you`d say that."
Spike rode his emotional rollercoaster all the way back up to self-concious. Dying by degrees, he cast around for something to say. "So, you`re okay with Giles being what he is now?"
"Yeah. It shocked me, but I should have seen it coming when I had that call from him about, um, you know...my origins, and he told me about Olivia's illness. I always knew those two had something special." She looked across at Rupert, who pointed at the photographer and waved them over. She ignored him. "I'm okay with it. I mean, look at what I am. Even if I wanted to I couldn't criticise them. There's no evil wigginess involved and that's all that matters. Strange to think of them living forever, though." She looked closely at Spike`s face. "You seem the same. I`m glad. I`d have hated for you to change in some way. I was worried about that."
Embarrassed, Spike shook his head and changed the subject. "The ceremony was good, I thought."
"Oh, you saw it then?" Buffy took a sip of his wine and grinned slyly. "With your head down like that I thought you were asleep."
Spike stared at the lip-print she`d left on his glass.
"You didn`t look at me at all, I know that," she continued, pouting. "Still haven`t."
"Oh, I did." He straightened up and looked directly at her at last. "You - you looked really nice. Still do."
"Thanks."
"Really nice. Like the sun." Horrified at what his mouth had just said, he clamped his lips shut. Where had the Big Bad gone? He felt as though he`d left all his cool back in that terrible little room in England.
"Like the sun? Wow. You're looking pretty cosmic yourself." Looking at his face, Buffy took pity on him and changed tack. "It`s good you came today, Spike. We needed all the gang together for this."
"Yeah. Um, you`re welcome."
"You do know you`re one of the gang, don't you? You were a Scoobie long before you left for England."
"Uh, yeah. All right." He shrugged. "I suppose."
"You`re sure you know that?"
"Yeah. Okay."
"Right." Shocking him rigid, she leaned in and kissed him hard. "So what are you doing all the way over here?" She stood up and pulled him to his feet. "Get your ass over with us."
She slid an arm around his waist and guided his suddenly unstable body around the dance floor toward the patch of grass where the rest of the gang was sitting waiting for them.
As they walked, she looked up at him and spoke seriously. "There`s food, you know. The kind you can eat now, too."
She nodded solemnly at him and sudden amusement made Spike`s lips jerk into his familiar smirk. A laugh bubbled up and he felt his cool returning.
Buffy waved her free hand and continued: "Yep. And dancing together reeaaly close. Lots of that. There is also much talking to be done, and presents to be giving." She was on a roll now. "And later there will be drunkeness and tone-deaf singing. I`m ashamed to tell you this, but you'll probably have to carry me home. Oh, and please listen carefully - one of the bridesmaids must be kissed repeatedly or she'll just, you know, go totally out of control, and that...well, wouldn`t be pretty, that`s all I'm saying. It`s important, see? And there`s photographs to be taken, for God's sake - hi, gang."
"Just sit the fuck down in front," said Rupert, channelling Ripper once again.
Full to the brim now with utter cool, Spike grinned and turned to the
photographer. "Wotcher. So where d'you want us then, mate?"
****************
EPILOGUE.
The bell above the door of Mitchings' single shop rang lightly as Rupert, hefting a carrier bag, stepped out into warm August sunlight. He turned and strolled up the road, looking around at the pretty little village.
Mitching in summer was a chocolate-box photograph with flowers cascading over walls and around doors, and deep green secrets under bushes and trees. In the surrounding fields the crops approached harvest, and Rupert saw that overnight a joker had spent some time creating an unusual crop circle. Looking at the shape of it, he had a strong suspicion that he knew the culprit.
The heady scent of roses came to him on a small breeze and he breathed deeply, relishing the thought that next August he would smell it again...and the next, and the next for a hundred years, or a thousand. Would he ever grow tired of it? Would there ever come a year, far in the future, when he would walk through a rose-garden and not notice?
"Remember the scent of roses," he told himself. "Always remember."
But if there was one thing Mera had taught him it was that only the forgettable became forgotten; the wonderful remained wonderful for all time. He'd seen her in her garden with her nose in a flower and a smile on her face. He didn't think he would forget.
He strolled on, thinking of Mera's promise to visit sometime this afternoon. He was looking forward to her arrival. He grinned and swung the bag, making it clank a little.
A lazy summer cat sauntered into the road and lay down without a care in the world, it's tail slowly swishing on the warm asphalt. It fixed yellow eyes on him and then, to show him how unimportant he was, yawned with cool contempt and turned it's head away as he walked past and turned into his drive.
"Come on, Rupes!" The pesky ex-vampire stood at Rupert's open door and waved him on impatiently. "We're dying of thirst here!" The lithe figure turned and disappeared into the house.
It was close, thought Rupert as he shut his front door. It was very close, he could feel it. He walked through into his lounge. Any moment now it would happen. He went to the french windows and paused, watching, then he walked down the steps onto the lawn and bowed in response to the languid cheers that greeted the bottle of wine he took out of the bag.
"At bloody last. Give me that."
"That's my Watcher, that is. I'm so proud of him."
"You're the man, G-Man."
"Hey! This is sodding warm!"
"You're the one who was dying of thirst," answered Rupert calmly. "I'll put the others in the fridge."
"You know this bloke's got three fridges in his house? Three! And not a drop of booze in any of 'em."
"That's because you have once again drunk it all."
"Hey! What do you mean - once again?"
"Did you really think I didn't know, Spike?" Rupert gave him a withering look. "I was just too tired to stake you at the time."
Spike grinned at him.
The doorbell rang and Buffy looked up at Rupert quickly. "Mera?" she asked.
Rupert nodded and hurried back up the steps, but stopped before he entered the house. It had to be now; Mera hadn't been present in his vision.
He turned and looked back at his guests lounging on the colourful blankets and chatting and laughing as they drank from the crystal glasses that he'd gone all the way to London to find. Olivia took a sip of wine and looked up at him with a smile, knowing what he was waiting for.
"Here you go," said Willow as she reached across a prone Xander and handed Buffy a plate.
"Why thank you, kind witch," said Buffy. "Woah. Could you fit any more cake on here?"
"Not without magic," replied Willow, cutting a huge slice for herself.
Spike drained his glass and stretched out his legs with a sigh. He leaned back on his elbows, raising his face to the sun.
Dawn watched his foot tapping and nudged it with her knee. "What's the song?"
"Nothing you'd know, young bit," he answered, his eyes closed. "Way before your time."
"Don't you think it's interesting," said Tara. "How a song can run all day in the back of your head, even if you don't want it to?"
"Yeah," said Spike lazily. "Drives me nuts sometimes."
"Why's that?" asked Dawn.
"Get Puff the Magic bleedin' Dragon stuck in your head and you'll know why."
The roses nodded in the breeze and...yes, there went the blackbird, flying across the garden to settle on the sundial.
"Hey, An," mumbled a drowsy Xander. "Some of those strawberries would make me a happy man right about now."
"Coming right up, honey."
With a feeling of closure, Rupert watched Anya pile strawberries into a glass dish and pour cream over them. From his position between Willow and Buffy, Xander opened one eye to watch the process.
"Bit more," he said. "And a little bit more. Aaaand...thank you, An." He sat up and took the dish, dipping a finger in the cream. "I am now yours for life."
"You say the nicest things." Anya settled her head on his feet and closed her eyes. "Now don't move for the rest of the day."
"Not a problem."
Four quick rings on the doorbell told Rupert that Mera's patience was running out. He took one more look at the scene in his garden, then turned and hurried inside to let her in.
END
