DISCLAIMER: I don't own the rights to Buffy: the Vampire Slayer, Angel: the Series, or the people and places therein. I also do not own the character of Lucy Hannover. I've borrowed them to write this fiction, which is just that and not a way to try to steal money from Joss and company.
Last night

"Willow…"

The red haired witch snapped awake at the sound of her name. She looked around the room, searching for the source.

Her eyes found the ghost of Lucy Hanover and she smiled. "Lucy, hi!" she whispered, careful not to wake her girlfriend.

The ghost smiled in return. "It has been some time Willow. It is good to see you again." She sighed. "I need your help."

The witch shrugged. "With what? I'll help however I can."

"First, you have to promise not to tell Buffy until we're done…"
Last Night

Willow silently thought over what Lucy had asked for her help with and decided that the 18th century Slayer had finally gone insane after all her years on the Ghost Roads.

"It should be simple enough for a Wicca of your power," she had said.

And maybe after resurrecting Buffy a year and a half ago, and activating all the Slayers in the world, it would be. But it still sounded completely insane, and Lucy had a hard time convincing her to do it. Finally the ghost Slayer had taken the young Wicca to the Ghost Roads themselves to convince her.

She had known where they were going--to see Spike. And the sight of the Ghost Roads didn't surprise her with their grey monotony; she'd been there before. But when they reached their destination, the sight that greeted her, rocked her to the very core of her being. And Willow understood why she had to help the ghost Slayer in this quest.

Spike sat on the mist shrouded ground, holding the faint outline of another person's spirit. After a moment, Willow recognized Buffy, her spirit broken and lifeless as she'd been after her leap from Glory's tower. Tara knelt just behind him, a comforting arm around his shoulders and tears glistening in her own spectral eyes.

"Oh, Goddess," Willow whispered. "Tara's lost." She thought the sight of her lost lover comforting Buffy's would rip her heart from her chest.

Tara heard Willow's whisper and looked up. She smiled briefly at the woman who had been her lover in life, then bent to whisper to Spike. The vampire didn't even acknowledge the Wicca as she got up to join Lucy and Willow.

"I'm not lost, Willow." Tara was a beautiful as Willow remembered her. "I help Lucy now. I help lost souls leave their baggage so that Lucy can lead them to their destinations."

She turned back to look at the soul of the vampire who had been her friend so long ago. "That's what's wrong with Spike. He latched onto the shadow of Buffy that our spell left behind and won't let go. He just stares at it like he's waiting for it to open its eyes and be her."

"Maybe he is." Willow's voice was choked with emotions that she'd thought she was long past. She bit her lip and tried to stop the tears that leaked from her eyes. If it was her in Spike's place and that was Tara's spectral shadow--Kennedy or no--she knew she'd be doing the same thing.

Tara waited for her former girlfriend to pull herself together before continuing. "He loves her so much, Willow, that he can't make himself let her go. But if he doesn't he can't move on to his reward--and he does have one."

Carefully Tara wrapped her hands around Willow's. "Help us to help him."

Willow knew she was lost as soon as Tara asked. She would still do anything for her lost love--even if it cost her life. And this wouldn't, she knew. Even if the Powers That Be stripped her of all her powers and forced her to walk the Ghost Roads alone for eternity, she would do this for Spike--and Buffy. She would give her friend back the love she'd had but been too blind to see until the end.

"All, right. Let's do this."
After Willow and Lucy left the Ghost Roads, the ghost lead her to a book shop that was open late, specialized in the occult, and had the tome they needed. According to the spell, the only component they'd need was something that had belonged to the deceased.

It seemed odd to Willow that one little personal item held the power to remind the dust of a vampire what state it was supposed to be in, but magic wasn't always what you expected. But she knew that Buffy had Spike's lighter. Where she'd gotten it, she didn't know, but Buffy fidgeted with it when she was feeling lonely.

After paying the shopkeeper for the book, the ghost and the witch headed back to the Hyperion.

By two AM she'd employed Dawn's long dormant thieving skills to lift the lighter from Buffy's bedside table while the Slayer slept. Dawn told her that Angel had seen her sneaking back out, but the two really didn't care--this was much more important than his anger.

Angel, of course, chose that moment to walk into Dawn's room and demand to know what was going on.

At two forty-five he was helping the girls cast the spell that would reconstitute Spike's body from the rubble of Sunnydale, and bring some measure of happiness to the girl that had been --impossibly--the one true love of two very different vampires.

A few minutes before four AM the souled vampire was sneaking the lighter back into Buffy's room with tears in his eyes. He knew he'd be missing his Slayer forever after Spike came back.

"Goodbye, Buffy." he whispered. "I'll always love you."

The Slayer had murmured in her sleep, but hadn't woke.