A/N This is how Older and Far Away would have been in this universe. So in case i haven't made it obvious enough, we are now around 2 months since Spike's transformation. Thanks for all the feedback. I'm glad Sarah is as irritating to read as she is to write. Oh, and Chapter 13 will be some light and fluffy Spike & Buffy & Dawn friendship. Make way for the Spuffyness!!!

Chapter Twelve – It's My Party

Buffy nervously ran her fingers through her hair. She flashed a worried smile at her reflection as she smoothed her skirt. She looked good as far as she could tell, a little on the skinny side, but not too bad at all. She glanced at the clock. In little more than quarter of an hour, her birthday party would start. Dawn had convinced her to arrange one after the success of the first video night. Buffy had been so happy that they were both having fun in her company that she'd readily agreed to make it a permanent fixture. She had been reluctant to have the party this week instead of her quality Dawn and Spike time. It was going to be tough. The whole gang was going to be together, plus Sarah was going to be there. As much as she had tried, she still hadn't managed to get her head round her being with Spike.

Buffy's thoughts were interrupted by the door bell. Well at least she could stop worrying that nobody would turn up. She ran down the stairs as if she was 12 instead of 21 and opened the door. Xander, Anya and… somebody she really didn't know had arrived.

"Happy birthday, Buff. Where shall I put the beer?" Xander said with a grin.

"In the kitchen would be great. Thank you for coming, guys."

"This is Richard. Richard, this is Buffy." Anya introduced the stranger.

"Hi, I work with Xander. Sorry to crash your party, but I had to see for myself the Buffy that Xan-man spends so much time talking about." Richard said with a shy smile.

"You talk about Buffy more than you talk about me?" Anya asked huffily.

"Time to crack open the beer!" Xander said enthusiastically and walked into the kitchen, closely followed by Anya, who was still griping about Richard's compliment to Buffy. The doorbell rand again and Buffy opened to Spike and Sarah.

"Happy birthday!" They said together.

"Thank you." Buffy said quietly. She quickly introduced them both to Richard, Sarah seemed a little too pleased to meet him. Or maybe that was wishful thinking on Buffy's part. It had been hard to invite Sarah as Spike's girlfriend, but she'd swallowed her pride and done it. See? She could be friends. No problem. Now where was that beer Xander brought?

Willow found Buffy in the kitchen obviously psyching herself up to go back out to where the crowd had congregated in the living room. She stiffened up when she saw Willow coming towards her.

"Hey Buffy." Good start, Will.

"Hey Will."

"You okay?" Way to make with the kindergarten conversation.

"Yeh, good. You?" Man, this was awkward.

"Yep, good." Come on Willow, words aren't that hard.

"Good."

Ok, here goes. "Listen Buffy, I wanted to talk to you, to apologize for those awful things I said to you at Spike's party."

"It's ok, Will, I understand. I totally deserved it."

"No you didn't. it was really unfair of me, but I want to make it up to you. I'll do anything."

"I'm just happy you came tonight." The two girls hugged and the several week long tension between them finally disappeared.

As Willow left the kitchen Xander dragged Richard in with him, determined to get Buffy talking to him if it killed him. Buffy looked the guy over appraisingly as he walked towards her. He was a little taller than Spike, with medium brown hair, lovely brown eyes and a sweet smile. Sure he was no Spike, but he seemed like a nice guy. Still, after a few minutes of obligatory small talk, Buffy made her excuses and slowly walked into the hall.

"He seems like a nice guy." Spike commented, making her jump at his unexpected presence.

"Yes he is." Buffy said casually.

"If you want my advice, I'd go for it. You could to a lot worse. You could be really happy, like me and Sarah." With that Spike returned to the party in the living room. It was enough to get to Buffy though. She turned on her heel and went back into the kitchen with a fake smile plastered on her face. Within ten minutes Xander was walking into the living room with a huge grin on his face. He'd had his reservations when Anya had suggested hooking the two of them up, never imagining they'd hit it off so well. Dawn wondered briefly what he was smiling at as he remembered leaving her sister in Richard's embrace. She shrugged it off as people started talking about leaving. Already. It was only 10pm. Why didn't anyone want to spend time with her?

As Buffy shut the door on the night she thought would never end, she pulled Dawn in for a tight hug. For all her efforts to get close to her sister, she'd had no idea that she'd been feeling neglected. It hurt that she'd been the one to make her feel that bad. After all, everyone had stopped talking to her because of what she'd done to Spike; Dawn had just got caught up in it without any choice in the matter. No wonder she'd started stealing things as way of escaping it all. Buffy knew she'd have to help her little sister through this, but she also knew that it wasn't about having the things, or even about the stealing. This went much deeper.

Buffy started to clean up, remembering the revelations of the night. Announcing the slayer gig to Richard had been pretty easy being trapped in a house with a demon. He seemed to understand, but then bleeding from a deep wound was funny like that. At least they had arranged a date in a couple of weeks' time. Then there was Willow and Tara. Buffy felt privileged to have witnessed the sweet reconciliation that had followed Willow's refusal to do magic. It had been so hard for her with pressure all around to help them get out of the house-prison, but she'd stayed true to her promise to Tara. Things looked good for them. In fact, judging by the low moans that were reaching her from upstairs, things felt good for them too. These nicer memories were what Buffy was determined to take from this birthday, all the time writing a mental note not to celebrate her birthday next year.