I know it's really short but I promise there will be a longer chapter next time. Hopefully, there will be some fighting between Angel and Spike. : )

Buffy's eyes opened wide at the sight before her. Spike was there. He was real, not dead, and not a fiery ball of flames. Buffy choked on the words trying to rise up in her throat. All she could utter were hushed noises of disbelief and then no noise at all. Spike could see Buffy becoming paler. Her mouth had stayed open but there seemed to be no air coming out.

"Buffy breath!" cried Spike hoping Buffy wasn't in such immense shock that she would hurt herself.

Buffy took a big gasp of air in and then leaned against Spike for support.

"I...I...you...you're alive," Buffy almost couldn't support herself. Way too much was reeling through her head and her slayer abilities were escaping her. She needed a place to sit down and straighten everything out. Spike led her inside Angel's office where he immediately led her to a seat. Buffy sat there while Spike went to get her a glass of water.

When Spike returned he tried his best to be as cautious and careful with her as possible.

"I'm sorry love," he said gently "I didn't mean to frighten you." At those words he reached out to stroke a hair behind Buffy's ear. She immediately looked up at him, tears swelling in her eyes.

"I left you...you were...you," Buffy kept choking on each word she tried to say. She felt as if she had been stabbed in the chest one to many times.

"Shh, shh, I know love. You left me for dead but I'm not. Blimey, I'm sitting right here in front of you," he placed his hand on top of hers trying to calm her down. She really didn't want to think about that day. It was something she had moved on from, or at least she thought.

"How did you know I was here?" asked Buffy silently. She had managed to form her first sentence since she saw Spike and was working on her next.

"I didn't," Spike replied "I stopped by to have a chat with Angel."

Buffy wore an expression of confusion on her face. "I thought you hated Angel?"

"Well, I do," Spike replied and then thought twice. "Or I did. He and I still have our bloody disagreements sometimes...quite literally, but he and I get along alright lately."

Buffy then realized that they had both gone to see her in Rome. She didn't know why she hadn't made the connection before but now it all seemed to make sense.

"What are you doing here Buff?" asked Spike, mostly wanting to get off the topic of himself.

Buffy was surprised at his question as she was still trying to figure everything out in her head.

"Oh," Buffy snapped up. "Xander is getting married this month."

"Really," asked Spike genuinely surprised at Buffy's announcement. "Is he actually going to get married this time?"

"I don't know," Buffy sighed. "Let's hope."

There was an awkward silence between the two before Spike spoke up again.

"Well that's all right and good love, but what are you doing here?"

"Here?" Buffy asked. She could understand that Spike and Angel probably get along now but she knew that the tension between them probably existed over her. She didn't want to disappoint Spike and tell him she was there for Angel, but then again she was just there to move on; right?

"I came by to see if Angel was here. I wanted to tell him that I'm doing fine and not to worry about me. You know how he gets sometimes." Buffy figured that was the safest answer and not that far from the truth.

"Yeah," mumbled Spike "that I do."

There was another awkward silence between the two. Neither of them new what to say and neither of them wanted to be the next to speak. Buffy sat there contemplating the question she wanted to ask from the beginning but was afraid that it was a touchy subject.

She decided to ask anyway.

"Spike," Buffy began "When you were...well you know... and I reached out to you to tell you that I loved you... and you said that," Buffy swallowed hoping to ease the pain of her dry throat "that I didn't...what did you mean by that?" There she said it. Now all she had to do was wait for his answer; perhaps an even worse predicament.

"Oh, Buffy" began Spike "you knew what I meant then and I have feeling you know now in your heart. That is something that I can't experience, that I can never be a part of. But you shared that feeling with someone else and perhaps...never let it go."

"What?" asked Buffy. "I shared that feeling with you...I..."

"No," Spike spoke quickly. He placed his hands gently on either side of Buffy's face. "All we shared was a bed. It wasn't love Buffy, it wasn't purely lust either. Well, maybe in the beginning. It grew to something so twisted that not even I or the darkest demon in hell could describe what it was." Spike drew closer to Buffy his eyes never leaving hers. "The entire time we were together there was always someone else in your heart. No matter how much I loved you...or how deeply you believed you were in love with me, there was always someone else."

The tears began to flow freely from Buffy's eyes. She didn't want to give Spike the satisfaction of being right. She knew somewhere inside her that she herself couldn't deny what he was saying but she hated him for it. Suddenly Buffy grabbed Spike's hands on either side of her face. She wanted to torture him, to make him sorry for being so...right.

She moved her hands up across his arms and then to his neck playfully skimming the bottom of his chin. Buffy leaned in closer, the warmth of her breath mingled with his. She brought her hands up into his hair and touched her lips to his. She began timidly but it quickly turned to hunger; that was just the way Spike liked it. Buffy knew that it was wrong but she wanted to make Spike pay.

Spike wasn't sure what to do. Why was Buffy kissing him? He wanted to pull away, and he should have pulled away, but he couldn't stop himself. The taste of Buffy's lips on his was something he could say he truly missed, even if it wasn't out of love.

Damn her! She is the slayer for Christ sakes. I killed girls like her and now I find myself wanting her rather than eating her. She's not doing this for love. She's doing it to torture me. She knows how to manipulate my every move. Bloody hell, why do I know her so well? I would have been better off in ignorant bliss. I should never...

Spike's train of thought was interrupted at Buffy's hushed words.

"Angel."

"Jesus, I'm not him what are you trying to do to..."

"No," Buffy interrupted. Buffy quickly fixed her gaze on Angels. His was already fixed on Spike. "I mean...Angel."

Spike turned and saw the fury in Angel's eyes as he looked between the woman he loved and the demon he wanted to kill.