Epilogue:

A week later.

The sheets ruffled as Wesley turned to the woman who was lying next to him. He placed a light kiss upon her cheek and her eyes fluttered open.

'How are you?' he whispered, and her lips parted in a wide, happy smile.

'Very nice,' she murmured, her smile tingeing her voice. Wes could not help but smile back.

'So am I,' he answered. Allowing his shoulder to sink back against the mattress, Fred turned onto her side so he was only inches from her face and her fingers brushed over his chest in a path of strange formations.

'So,' she purred. 'What should we do now?'

x

He had found a desolated table, which had been placed appropriately in a shadowy corner where the soft glow of the bar's few lamps did not quite reach. Empty glasses and bottles littered nearby tables, their former employees chatting informally at the bar's desk and a gentle tune was spreading from invisible speakers into the room.

He closed his eyes and sighed, allowing his muscles to relax and his mind to go blank. Just sitting.

'Looks like someone's havin' a party.'

Angel did not open his eyes. 'Go away, Spike.'

Spike slumped down in the chair opposite him, completely indifferent to Angel's request. Somehow Angel was not surprised. 'They got too noisy for you to finish your brooding in your soddin' office?'

Angel slowly opened his eyes but failed to answer. Spike downed a good portion of his beer in one swig.

'Do you still have the dreams?'

Spike's dark eyes locked with Angel's and for a moment he sat without answering. 'Yes,' he finally said and placed the bottle hard down upon the table.

Angel nodded, dimly wondering what had made him ask.

'So,' Spike began, having cast a disappointed glance at Angel's empty glass. 'What d'you dream?'

'None of your business.'

'No need to get defensive, Peaches. Interested, that's all.'

'What do you dream?' Angel shot back with a glare.

Spike gave a small shrug and placing his booted feet upon the table, he rocked the chair back on its hind legs. 'It changes slightly every time, but the outcome is always the same. You know the deal, darkness, fire, walls that close in aruond you. Sometimes, I'm blind too. But the point of it all being that I'm back in Hell.'

Angel sat for a while in muted shock. 'Damn, you weren't supposed to answer.'

Spike flaunted that arrogant smirk at him. 'An eye for an eye, Peaches.'

Angel ran a finger round the top of his glass. 'Mine are nearly always different...' He trailed off.

'You never dream of being back?' There was none of the usual brash tone in Spike's voice.

Angel met his eyes fleetingly. 'Sometimes.'

'But it's her,' Spike concluded with assurance.

The gleam from the pale lamps danced across the curving surface of the glass in strange formations of light and shadow. 'I lose control,' Angel said quietly, 'or I'm not there...when she needs me. I hurt her.'

'I dream of her, too, but I never see her, just feel her close by. I can feel she is hurting, but I can't find her.' Spike leant forward in his chair, placing his elbows upon his knees. 'Then there's the one,' he said, 'where I'm running and it's dark all around, like a tunnel or something. There's light at the end of it but no matter how hard I run, it doesn't get any closer. And suddenly it disappears, and the light seems to come from behind, but when I stop, I find I'm burning and falling...falling...' Spike's eyes grew distant.

'Yeah, I burn too,' Angel said. He gave a mirthless chuckle. 'Not very confident in ourselves, are we?'

Spike downed the rest of his beer. 'I don't think they'll ever go away.'

Angel watched the ever-thinning formations of humans at the bar. 'No,' he answered quietly, 'I don't think they will, either.'

'Bloody demon. He gets in your head and he clings onto your brain forever.'

'I thought maybe they would go away when we sent him to Hell.' Angel gave the glass a subtle push that made it glide a couple of inches along the table's surface. 'That he would lose his hold...'

'Nah,' Spike said. 'He is no further from us where he is now. Between heaven and hell. Sod it; we're between heaven and hell right now, always have been, always will. Bleedin' thing will never be truly gone.'

'No,' Angel acknowledged. 'He probably won't.'

For a while they sat without either speaking, before Spike realised that his bottle was empty. He got to his feet.

'You fancy a Bad Guy safari?'

Angel did not ponder this for more than a second or two. 'Why not?'

'Have noticed you're not much into the suit lately,' Spike said, as they stepped into the virtually abandoned street.

'So have I,' Angel said wryly.

'Feeling rebellious?'

They turned down a gloomy alley littered with overturned rubbish bins. Angel cocked his head. 'A little bit.'

'Or was it my dress sense that rubbed off on you?'

Angel pulled a face. 'Gee, I hope not!'

Spike laughed. 'Can't see why that would get your knickers in a knot, with your record and all.' He changed subject. 'So, petite blonde is paying a visit.'

Angel smiled at the thought. 'Yes. She will drop by next weekend.'

'Of course,' the younger vampire smirked sarcastically. 'Because she just so happened to be in the neighbourhood.'

'Does it bother you, Willy?'

Spike grumbled. 'Shut your gob.'

Angel laughed. 'Issues?'

'At least it's better than 'Angel'...and you even chose that one yourself. And it's a girl's name by the way.'

''Spike' is not even a name.'

'I'm a sucker for originality.'

'So I've heard.'

THE END

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Author's thanks:

First and foremost to all my wonderful reviewers. You have all been absolutely wonderful! I started off writing this for myself, believing nobody else would bother reading, but you did and you told me so. Thanks so much for your support and your comments and criticisms, all of which made this a better story than it would have been had you not been there.

Thanks to Tariq, nimwen, DDuck, shahid, AngelicDreams and legolasgal who have been with me since the first chapters of part one. You made all the difference for me!

Massive Thanks to Wesfan1234, a2zmom, Gwenyer, AlwaysHoldingOn, Ares, Edgechick816, spangelover, CF, UberWicca, stephanierb, Lynn, Omar Mahmood, Leni, Violet SS, liliaeth, kargrif, David Morris and urangel.

You have all been brilliant and I really, really appreciate your support throughout this project!

Also thanks to my sister. You have been great with helping me out of the blind alleys I wrote myself into a couple of times!

I really hope to see you all again, and have got some support (thanks sooo much a2zmom, kargrif, Omar Mahmood, UberWicca, stephanierb, nimwen, Tariq and Gwenyer :-) for turning this into a trilogy. Would the rest of you still be interested? If so, what would you like me to improve on from this? More Wes, Gunn and Fred action would be a given :-)

Let me know :-)

Thanks so much!

Love,

Khim