A/N : Well, here we are at the end of this fic. It's actually been almost a year since I started it, but then I did take a little break in the middle. Anywho, thanks so much to all the reviewers of this story, whether you reviewed one chapter or every chapter, you all rock, and I really appreciate the support you have given me on this story which was all a little different for me. Without further ado, here's the last chapter, and also the epilogue.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 22

"Buffy!" Riley yelled as he slammed through the front door.

In case of such an emergency Buffy hadn't locked it properly. She had hoped they could avoid a confrontation like this with Angel, the guy seemed capable of anything, but now he'd found the wire and they'd just have to deal with the consequences as best they could.

Buffy was equal parts stunned, grateful, and frightened half to death when she realised Riley wasn't alone as he entered the room.

"Spike" she gasped as Angel dragged her off the couch and turned her around, his arm round her throat as he held her back against him.

"Let her go you bastard" the bleached blond demanded, stepping forward. Riley put an arm out to stop him as O'Connor smiled evilly and pulled the gun from inside his jacket.

"You might wanna stay back there, William" he sneered, holding the barrel of the gun to Buffy's head. To her credit she didn't scream or cry, just stared at Spike trying to tell him with her eyes alone that it was okay, that he needed to stay back for both their sakes right now.

"You don't wanna do this O'Connor" Riley told him.

"You giving me orders..." Angel mused, "I'm fairly certain it's supposed to be the other away around, what with me being your superior and everything"

"A title doesn't make you superior" Buffy told him, "Riley's a better man than you"

"Is that so?" said Angel, tightening his grip on her throat just a little to make her panic, "And what about Blood here, you think he's a better man than me too?"

"He's the best man I ever met" she yelled, hiding the fear she felt expertly, "You're nothing but a disgusting low-life murderer"

"Really, Summers" he tutted, "Do you not listen to anything you're taught. See you can't go around accusing people without evidence, good solid evidence" he told her, "Innocent til proven guilty, remember?"

"You son of a..." Spike started but Angel cut him off.

"Now, now Willy" he scolded him like a child, "That's no way to talk in front of a lady"

"Just let her go, damn it!" the bleached blond yelled, pushing Riley aside to advance on the man that held the gun to his girl's head. The weapon clicked as Angel readied it for firing and held it firmly to Buffy's temple.

"You think you can stop me?" he laughed, "Even if you could save yourself, you couldn't save her, just like you couldn't save Dru"

Spike felt tears in his eyes of both anger and pain as he realised how close he was to losing another that he loved. He had no choice but to back off and Buffy fought valiantly not to cry and show the terrible fear she was feeling.

"Finn" Angel snapped, "Go and get the tape"

"Tape?" Riley pretended not to understand, but that only made Angel angrier.

"The tape recording of tonight, the one connected to the wire, dumb-ass!" he shouted and Riley shared a brief look with Buffy before going out to the car to fetch the tape as instructed. It wasn't worth another life being lost.

He returned a moment later and Angel instructed him to spool the tape out from it's plastic container. In the process the tape became so mangled it wouldn't be of any use anymore and anything even slightly incriminating Angel might have said in the past hours was destroyed.

"Now what?" Buffy asked barely breathing, "You just gonna shoot me for the hell of it? You know you can't Angel" she told him, in tears by now.

"She's right, O'Connor" Riley chipped in, "You found us out, the tapes destroyed, it's done. If you kill us now you'll definitely go down for murder, no matter what really happened with the Walker case. You can't cover this up"

"The Walker case" he echoed, looking at Spike, "Sounds cold and sterile, doesn't it? Not fitting for our girl"
"She was never yours" Spike ground out, "She never was and she never wanted to be"

"Is that what she told you?" Angel smirked, "You should no better, Spike"

"What the bloody hell do you mean by that?" the bleached blond wanted to know and Angel took great delight in explaining.

"You think it was all me coming onto her?" he said, "You really think she never encouraged me, that she didn't enjoy me chasing her, wanting her til it drove me insane"

"No" Spike shook his head, "No, it was you that drove her insane. She deserved to be happy, deserved a good life, with me"
Angel laughed at that.

"A good life with you" he scoffed, "Living in a nasty little apartment on the bad side of town, shut up in that place all by herself whilst you were out sleeping with whores" he said nastily.

Spike saw red, but managed to be sensible and not attack Angel physically. Buffy meant too much him. He couldn't screw up now.

"I never cheated on Dru" he said firmly, "You set me up with that Amy bint, make me think I did, make me feel guilty enough that I'd blame myself for...for what you did"

"Yeah, and it worked like a charm" Angel grinned evilly, "If it hadn't been for our Miss Summers here having trouble keeping her panties on it might even have worked"

"You asshole, son of a bitch..." she screamed, struggling to get away but the gun back at her head made her stop and Angel's other hand over her mouth kept her quiet.

"When I want your opinion, I'll ask" he whispered in her ear and she felt sick having to be so close to him. How she'd managed to keep up that charade before she had no idea, and the worst part was it seemed like it was all for nothing, she might be dead before the night was over.

"You admit it" Riley said suddenly, "You killed Drusilla Walker, and set up Blood to cover your tracks"

"Wow, Finn, we might just make a detective out of you yet" Angel smirked, "Took you long enough to catch on, didn't it?"

"You make me sick" he spat, "And you're going down for what you did"

"And you really think anybody's going to take the word of a criminal, his slut of a girlfriend, and the guy that follows her round like a lost puppy dog, over a respected superior officer?"

Buffy bit his fingers to make him move his hand, which he did, distracting him just long enough for Spike to run over and grab the hand that held the gun. Buffy twisted away from her attacker as her lover fought to get the gun away from him. Spike was no stranger to scuffles such as these though never with guns that were likely to go off at any moment. He'd had a few fights where knives were out before though and he'd never lost yet. In moments it was him who had Angel in a headlock, the barrel of the gun pressed to his temple.

"Proper sod you, aren't ya?" he said, shaking with anger, "Think you're so damn smart messing with people's heads" he yelled in his ear, "Well how does it bloody feel having a gun pressed to your own!"

"You think you scare me? You're an idiot" Angel laughed, and Buffy began to wonder if he truly was insane.

"Spike, don't" Buffy begged him, knowing she'd be only too happy if Angel died right now, but not like this. Misplaced guilt had almost killed Spike, the real kind was something neither of them could bear to live with.

Pure rage was in the bleached blond's eyes as he tightened his arm around Angels' throat, slowly crushing his wind-pipe.

"Killing me won't solve anything" he squeaked, "Dru will still be dead, I'll still have got away with it" he forced a chuckle but Buffy was to have the last laugh.

"You really think I'm that stupid, Angel" she spat in his face, "You really think I'd risk myself with just a wire when I know what a perverted jerk you are?" she asked him, "Look around" she gestured and Spike allowed the git to move just enough so he could do as he was told, "The vase, the picture frame, the VCR, I got microphones rigged everywhere I could hide one"

"I destroyed the tape, Buffy" Riley told her sadly.

"Only the one you knew about" she shook her head, "You know that nice, quiet guy back at the station, Daniel Osbourne?" she said smartly, looking right at Angel, "He happens to be a friend of mine, and he's back there at the station right now, taping every little thing you say"

"You bitch" Angel raged, trying to get free of Spike to come at her. Buffy took a step back as Spike cursed and squeezed the air from Angel's body once again.

"That'll be the back-up" Riley commented as he heard sirens in the distance. Buffy frowned, not understanding. "You're not the only one who's not stupid" he told her, "When I had to go out to the car for the tape, I radioed in, figured we might need some help"

"Only sod here who needs help is this evil bugger" Spike sneered, sheer fury and adrenaline making him much stronger than Angel right now.

As officers burst into the building he finally gave up his grip in the killer of his former love as Angel was dragged away and hand-cuffed, his rights being read as he was pulled out the door.

"Spike" Buffy cried, falling into his arms and sobbing as he fought not to do the same. They'd been so afraid for each others lives, lived through so much pain, now it was almost over. Riley watched the pair embrace and sighed. How had this all happened, it made his head spin to try and work it out.

William Blood suspected murderer, now practically crying in the arms of the officer sent to frame him for his crime, whilst the chief officer in charge of the case was being dragged kicking and screaming out the front door in shackles by several armed soon to be ex colleagues.

"You won't get away with this!" he bellowed and Buffy and Spike were holding onto each other's hands as they went to the door and watched the guilty man be frisked for further weapons.

"No, you're the one that's not getting away with it" Buffy told him.

Angel laughed at her, a maniacal, crazy laugh that made her shudder.

"Doesn't change anything" he told her, "Drusilla's still just as dead, and that pathetic boy you're with is still the biggest loser ever to crawl out the gutter!"

Lightening fast Buffy grabbed the gun that Spike still held and levelled it at Angels' head.

"Buffy, no!" her lover told her as soon as he realised what she was doing, but it was too late she'd already pulled the trigger. The bang of the gun firing shattered the night, but Angel didn't fall, just laughed.

"You think I'd risk another body on my hands?" he told her as he was bundled into the car. The gun had been filled with blanks.

Angel O'Connor was clearly crazy as well as evil, but that didn't matter now. One way or another he was going to pay for what he did, locked up where he could never hurt anyone ever again.

"I could've..." Buffy began but was too much in shock to finish the sentence. She might've killed a man then, without a moments hesitation, and all because she couldn't bear to hear one more foul-mouthed lie from that bastard about her man.

"But you didn't" Riley told her as he took the gun from her hands and went over to his colleagues.

Buffy fell into Spike's arms once again, holding him so tight he could hardly breathe, but he barely noticed. The nightmare was finally over and whilst neither of them could ever forget the torment they had gone through, they had a chance to move on from it now and make a new life together.

The End, almost