A/N1 : Finally, I think this may be the chapter you've all been waiting for. Fasten your seatbelts and prepare for a major Spuffy experience! lol I hope it's as good as you expect it to be, I really enjoyed writing this chapter a lot.
Thanx so much for all the great reviews - you are all so nice and you say such great things about my fic. To Caitlin, no Angel's not coming into this one, sorry, I have different plans for this fic, thanx for the review. To everyone else who left reviews just a big thankyou cos it means a lot :-)
Hope you all enjoy this latest chapter, there will be an update again quite soon since I am writing another short chapter that is W/X and that will be 'Finally...(2)'.
I think I've rambled enough now, here's the new chapter...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
(Extra disclaimer : Couple of lines in this chapter were stolen from episode 6.11 Wrecked and 5.17 Forever - I think that's all - those recognisable lines don't belong to me!)
Chapter 21 - Finally... (1)
Around one table in the Bronze, four young people looked at each other uncomfortably.
"Buffy, hi" Spike greeted, ignoring Xander, as usual.
"Hey Will" Buffy said to the red-head, avoiding Spike's gaze.
"Hi" Willow nodded in response to the Slayer "Hey Xander" she smiled a little at her other friend.
"Hi Will" he smiled, ignoring Spike, as usual.
Then there was silence.
"So..." Buffy said eventually, drawing out the word, hoping to have thought of something else to say by the time she'd finished, but she hadn't. Spike had.
"Er, Buffy, don't you need to patrol?" he asked "Because I was thinking I could come along, y'know help out"
"I guess so" she shrugged. She did need to patrol and Spike was pretty useful to have around for the vampire slayage. She was still mad at him but she'd missed him hanging around all day.
"Hey, we could come too..." Xander suggested but Willow drowned him out.
"NO!" she yelled, knowing Spike wanted to get Buffy alone "I mean, no" she said more calmly as all three of her friends looked shocked at her outburst "er, Xander, I kind of need to talk to you" she said as quietly as ever.
"Okay Will, we'll talk" Xander nodded, a little confused.
A silent look passed between Spike and Willow as the bleach blond stood up from his seat. A look that said a thousand things but the main thing was 'good luck'.
"Let's go, Slayer" he urged and with a quick 'see you later' and a small wave to her other to friends, she followed him out of the club.
Spike's notion that he might be able to use the slaying as a good excuse to get Buffy alone to talk was a stupid one when he thought about it and he soon realised his error in judgement. Every time he plucked up the courage to open his mouth and say something clever, a vampire attacked and the fight was on. After this had happened three times Spike was getting agitated.
As the Slayer began to walk off after brushing her latest slayee off of her clothes, he called her name to her, in an attempt to get her to stop and turn back, but she didn't.
"Buffy, pet, I sort of wanted to talk to you" he almost whined, and she stopped, but still would not turn back.
"Save it Spike, I don't want to know" she called over her shoulder, making to walk away again but he was behind her in a second, his hand on her shoulder, pulling her back.
"Well, you're going to!" he protested, truly sick of all the games and mix-ups and lies "I love you, damn it" he yelled, his voice echoing through the graveyard "not a bloody buggerin' thing I can do about it and it's driving me crazy" he complained as he stormed up and down in front of Buffy, who was quite shocked by his outburst. This was the first time she'd heard those three words from a guy since Angel "I know you feel something for me" Spike told her, suddenly all in her face "what with the kissing when I first moved in and then..."
"That was just..." Buffy started but then began to flounder as no plausible excuse came to mind "I don't know what it was" she admitted "but it wasn't love"
"Maybe not" Spike conceded "but you feel something for me Buffy I know you do"
"It's all in your head" she scoffed, waving it away with a gesture of her arm and trying to walk away, but he wasn't finished yet, he had one more piece of ammunition, one thing that couldn't fail him. He didn't need to physically stop her walking away from him, there was another way.
"What did you dream about the night you got drunk Buffy?" he called, causing her to stop dead in her tracks as he knew it would.
"I...I don't remember" she stammered not daring to turn around and face him. She knew she couldn't lie when she looked into those crystal blue eyes of his.
"Well, I bloody do" he told her, all of a sudden right behind her once again "You made it pretty obvious..."
"That was just the alcohol" she interrupted, turning but keeping her eyes to the ground "and...and..."
"And what?" he demanded to know, getting increasingly annoyed by her determination not to feel anything for him "What are you afraid of Buffy?" he asked, his hands on her arms, dipping his head to see her face, urging her to look at him "What, you afraid I'm gonna...?"
That's as far as he got with his sentence as Buffy made the fatal mistake of looking up into those eyes she'd been trying to avoid. She couldn't hold up the pretence any longer, instead she pushed herself toward him and kissed him all but senseless.
This wasn't like before, they'd kissed before but this was different, that flicker he saw in her eyes just before it happened, he saw the feeling, the love? There wasn't time to wonder as the moment was all to quickly broken.
Buffy felt a strange sensation and it wasn't coming from the kiss. The shiver that went down her spine was not from the wonderment of the kiss as it should have been, it was her Slayer sense warning her of vampires.
By the time she figured it out and pulled herself from Spike's grasp, there were three vamps surrounding them. She kicked two, one after the other, away from herself and the young man beside her, he himself managed to land a punch on the third bringing him down, momentarily.
Kicks and punches flew in all directions until finally Buffy managed to stake two of the enemy. It was as she turned she saw Spike was having more than a little trouble with the third. A female vampire, but a strong one, she had the bleach blond pinned down and was moving in for the bite.
Buffy was upon her in one movement, pulling her off Spike and raining an unnecessary amount of punches on the demons face and body before finally grabbing her stake and plunging it into the heart of her friends attacker.
"You stay away from my boyfriend, you freak!" she practically screamed as the vampires face contorted and quickly exploded into dust, along with the rest of her.
The Slayer moved back toward Spike and helped him up from the ground.
"Are you okay?" she asked, genuine concern in her voice and on her face.
"Just fine, pet.." he smiled slightly "..er, when you...? What did you just...?" he shook his head, wondering if he'd dreamt it and if so how much had been an illusion? The kiss? The vampires? The 'stay away from my boyfriend'? Right then, he wasn't even sure whether he cared or not.
"Spike, you were right" Buffy told him, tears behind her eyes "about everything" she admitted "I do care about you, I do...I think I might...love you"
"Buffy..." he began but she shook her head.
"No let me finish, please" she said, helping him to sit down on a nearby headstone, he'd been pretty shaken up by the vamp attack "I haven't been fair to you" the Slayer said, in a soft quiet voice he'd never heard her use before "I got scared, which is stupid because I fight demons and vampires and stuff all the time and when it comes to relationships I'm petrified" she laughed at herself but her heart wasn't in it, and she stood before Spike looking so small and lost. He smiled as he reached his hand out to touch her face.
"Look, I don't know exactly what happened with that Angel bloke you dated..." he started but again she laughed and interrupted.
"He wasn't a 'bloke'" she explained "he was a vampire"
Shock dawned over Spike's face.
"You dated...but..." he stumbled over his words.
"Thought that might shock you" Buffy said, looking back down at the ground.
"How?" came Spike's one word question.
"He had a soul" Buffy gave as explanation "he helped me, he said he loved me and I think he did" she smiled at the memory of him "but it wasn't meant to be" she added, solemnly.
"What happened?" Spike asked, his vocabulary coming back to him gradually.
"That's not important really" Buffy told him, shaking her head "point is it made me weird about guys and boyfriends and stuff. My relationships with everybody are strained because I'm the Slayer" she turned her back to him as tears spilled from her eyes and her voice cracked "Everyone I get close to, I cause them so much pain"
"What are you going on about?" Spike asked her gently, standing up behind her.
"Don't you see?" she sobbed as she turned around "If I wasn't the Slayer, Willow and Xander would have normal lives, so would you!" her voice got higher and more strained and her tears flowed faster as she continued " Giles never would have left your Mom, you could've had a happy childhood. My Dad left, Angel left...all the bad stuff happens because of me, me being the Slayer" by the end she was practically hysterical and she fell into the bleach blond's arms.
"Hey now, come on. Sssh now Buffy," he comforted her, rubbing circles on her back and kissing the top of her head, "you've got nothing to cry about and certainly nothing to feel guilty about" she pulled back a little to look up at him as he continued "First off I don't know much about your Dad but I don't see how you caused him to leave your Mum, you told me you were just a kid when that happened. Second, I did have a happy childhood" he told her honestly "okay so I was a little late finding dear old Dad" he smiled "but I was just fine with my Mum. As for your friends, they love you and no-one forced them, or me, to help you fight the good fight, we all chose to do it because we want to"
She sniffed and smiled a little.
"You make it sound so simple" she said quietly "and...better, somehow. I never thought of you as the optimistic type"
He laughed at that.
"Can't say as I did either, pet" he turned serious very quickly and his voice became softer as he continued "but I've changed, since I came here" he looked into her eyes "since I met you"
She glanced away from his gaze.
"You sure it's not meeting your father that's changed you?"
"Giles is a decent bloke" Spike admitted "he makes my Mum happy and I reckon as father's go he'll be just dandy..." again he turned deadly serious as he caught her gaze again "but I've changed because of you Buffy, because I fell in love with you"
"Oh Spike, I love you too" Buffy finally admitted, all the emotion of the night taking over "Just now when that vampire..." she couldn't even say it "oh God I thought...I couldn't bear to lose you" she went further into his embrace and hugged him tight and began to cry again.
"Hey, come on" he smiled, despite her tears. She'd finally said what he'd been waiting to hear. "You didn't lose me, I'm right here" he comforted her "I'll always be right here. Hey," he grinned, pulling back to see her face "if I'd have known a near death experience was all it took to get you to see sense I'd have thrown myself to the vamps a long time ago"
"Spike, that's not funny" she said seriously, pulling away from him.
"Sorry, luv" he said, looking toward the ground, he was turning into Harris, making jokes at important moments "but seriously, I'll be here as long as you want me to be" he promised her.
She smiled at that and went back into his arms again.
"How about forever?" she suggested "Does forever sound good to you?"
"Sounds just perfect to me" he said in a whisper, before their lips met again, in a real kiss of true love.
To Be Continued...
A/N2 : I could end it there, a happy ever after Spuffy-type ending, but I think it's only fair that I sort out Willow and Xander too, and tie up a few other lose ends before we reach the end of this story, so you can expect a few more chapters yet. In the meantime, reviewing would be of the good ;-)
