AN: Italicized wording is talking about what has happened in the past few months, while present time exchange and thoughts are in regular font.

Epilogue

"Spike!" Buffy hollered out mid morning, "Get your ass out of that chair, and eat! I am not going to have blood just for you!" She picked up a pillow from the couch, and threw it at him, pegging him square in the chest.

"Bloody hell, slayer. I'm not hungry yet." Spike gave her a sardonic grin, and went back to watching Passions. It had been nearly three months since they had told the watcher, and had since taken to living together.

At first, Buffy had been dead set against have the bleached vampire living in her apartment, but the two were so connected by then, that neither could stand the distance for much longer then a day, before it became painful.

Giles had done his bit, and the research came up with precious little. Physically, they felt everything the other felt now, but remained two separate people. If one was hurt, however, the other inevitably had a matching wound. They had learned that the hard way when Buffy got slashed on the upper arm by a nasty demon. The upside of it, however, is that the combined slayer-vampire healing caused any wounds to heal in a matter of hours.

"I don't care if you are, I feel hungry for that… stuff. Now go eat!" Spike grumbled before disappearing into the small kitchenette, and pulling a bag of blood from the fridge. He liked giving her a hard time, but really, he just wanted her to be happy.

There had been a few times in the beginning when he had woken in the night to feel the gut wrenching tears she still had now and then for her lost family, but they had quickly learned how to adapt to the feelings, and bring comfort to the other.

Buffy had never thought that she would care what the vampire was feeling, but every once in a while; she would feel the lost and lonely emotions tearing at him. The sadness that overcame her shocked and surprised her at first, when the feelings were rare, but now, they were getting to be so common place, she knew how to deal with them better.

Spike returned from the kitchenette with a warm mug of blood, and tossed a granola bar towards Buffy. "Eat up, luv, got a nasty demon to oust tonight."

It hadn't taken long for them to come to a compromise on Spike feeding from a living being. They decided that he could feed from any suitable demons, while helping her kill them, so it worked out best for the both of them. There were still times when Spike came home, and Buffy knew before he got in the door that he had fed from a human, but those times were few, now.

Buffy had found that she was angrier that he tried to hide it, than anything. She abated when he helped with the demons, however, and he was able to get in one or two good bites a night, if he didn't mind watered down, hardly adequate demon blood. Most of it wouldn't sustain him, but it served to cure the ache his jaw would get when the need to bite came over him.

"Yes, I know, you and Giles hardly let me forget anything but the whole, 'lets go kill another demon' thing." Buffy grumbled as she opened her granola bar, and quickly ate it. Her eyes were drawn to the TV; Spike had turned her into as much of a Passions addict as he was.

Things were still rough from time to time, they both had their ups and downs, and neither really wanted the situation, but they were stuck with it. They just had to adapt, and figure it out in their own time. Spike kicked back in the chair again, and slurped his blood quickly, knowing that Buffy still wasn't used to the sharp biting hunger pains of blood thirst.

He had grown more accommodating for her, while she had stubbornly done the same, though loudly protesting the entire time. In truth, though, her protesting was more for show, than anything, and they both knew it. It still irked her to know that anything she said and did was potentially heard and felt by Spike. There had been a quick lesson in humility when she had gotten herself worked up in the shower one day. To her acute embarrassment, she came out of the shower only to see Spike glaring at her with a distinctive bulge in his jeans.

"'ey, might want to watch those high kicks tonight, slayer. This guy has a thing for going in low, n one of those kicks would give him the right place." Spike remarked as he paid attention to Passions. Buffy smirked and downed the last of her snack, then stood up to throw the wrapper away. On her way by, she tossed a quick smack to his head.

Spike hadn't looked at her after that for nearly an entire day, and kept pissing about her lack of common courtesy. She had balefully regretted that day, and nothing had happened since. They both steadfastly ignored what had happened at the house in the basement, but at the same time, it was there, hanging over them.

Truth be told, neither would have tried hard to stop it, but Buffy wanted Spike to make the first move, while he wanted her to prove it to him and herself that she did indeed want him just as much. The standstill was going to end soon, though, because neither was able to handle it when one of them had a sexual dream, thought, or fantasy.

"Oi, now, no messing with my hair!" Spike tossed the pillow back at Buffy, and grinned.

To the best of their figuring, it was easier to 'exchange' feelings when one was feeling extremely emotional, though smaller emotions still slipped through at times. Spike knew every time Buffy cried, and Buffy knew every time Spike felt alone, or hurting. She had even picked up on his inclination to over do things to compensate for his 'Inner-William', as he called his conscience.

"Oh, like it would move with the gallon of gel you dump in it!" Buffy teased as she made her way back into the living room.

Overall, things were working out, albeit, slowly. Spike was getting comfortable in his new life, and Buffy was adjusting well.

"I do not own any such device!" Spike retorted indigently.


"Yeah, I know, you steal mine!" Buffy cracked back with a laughing smirk on her face. "Don't think I don't know why it disappears so fast, buddy."

Spike chuckled while neither admitting nor denying the accusation. He looked over at Buffy, and smiled with true affection for her. It came to no surprise when she returned it.

Final Note: I would like to thank everyone for sticking with this story for so long. I know it took forever to complete. Before you start asking about a sequel, I doubt there will be one right away, if at all. My mind is just not on writing, so I don't want to commit myself to another story while not even being able to finish the ones I have.

I plan to work solely on Flat Mates next, and finish that one off fairly soon, and then move on to That Summer. 1 story at a time, however.

In the mean time, small plug: If you write Spike/Original stories, I run an archive with Zarrah called Reckless Passions, Forbidden Loves. It's all about the forgotten, or under publicized ships with Spike. Any Spike ship is acceptable, with the exception of Spuffy. We love Spuffy with the best of you, but they have 1001 websites already. Anyway, we are looking for submissions, so please, look us up at: http://www.recklesspassions.com

And again, thank you! You've been a wonderfully patient and loving audience!