Day 1

Xander and Anya:

"You know what happened when I woke up this morning?" Anya asked Xander

Xander groaned

"I went to pick up the phone to call Buffy when I remembered, that she wouldn't pick up, so I went to the phone book to find Spike's number, then I discovered that Vampires don't have phones"

"You woke me up to tell me that?"

"Yeah"

"Honey, Spike lives in a mausoleum he's not gonna have a phone" He handed her a piece of paper, "Call Dawn's cell"

"Xander I don't want to talk to Dawn, I want to talk to Buffy."

"Anya, Buffy's dead, you can't talk to her. She's not coming back, you're never going to talk to her again, none of us are" He put his left hand over his eyes, "I'm sorry, but you're just gonna have to suck it up and move on"

"Xander you are in no place to tell me to suck it up, here you are pouting and trying to act like Mr. Macho all at the same time"

Spike and Dawn:

"Dawn get out of my coffin, it's daylight, go bugger off, bother some other people"

"Fine Spike, thanks for letting me stay over last night, I didn't want to go home after you know, without Buffy there to keep me safe"

"Whatever, just remember, tonight at 9 we burry her body"

Dawn nodded and walked off.

Willow and Tara:

"Will? It's quiet here." Willow and Tara were in the Magic Box, "Normally Giles and Buffy would be training. But Giles has no reason to come here any more, no one does" she switched the open sign to closed

"I guess," Willow was sitting on the counter crying, "With Buffy gone we might as well hang ourselves, all the demons are gonna attack and Sunnydale will implode"

"You could fix Buffybot, you could put her head back on and the underworld would think it was really Buffy"

Giles:

"I never planned to see her die" Rupert Giles had called Angel, "We're burying her tonight, meet us at the Sunnydale cemetery. It would mean a lot to her if you were there"

"Buffy's dead?" Angel asked, "I'll catch the first trip over to Sunnydale possible"

"See you then" And he hung up.

Scooby Gang Breakfast:

Dawn, listen to me. Listen. I love you. I will always love you. But this is the work that I have to do. Tell Giles ... tell Giles I figured it out. And, and I'm okay. And give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other. You have to be strong. Dawn, the hardest thing in this world ... is to live in it. Be brave. Live. For me.

"Dawnie, we have waffles" Xander tried to coax Dawn out of the corner, "By the way you've stuck to shadows and darkness, we might get the idea Spike sired you, you wouldn't want that would you?"

"Buffy wanted me to tell Giles she figured it out, and to give her love to you, all of you" Dawn told them and then sunk back in to her corner

"Dawn eat something" Spike pulled a blanket off his head, "Starving yourself won't help anything. You don't want the Summers' line to be cut off completely? Then we would have to burry two friends"

Then like it was planned The Reason blasted over the radio Dawn hadn't even noticed:

I'm not a perfect person
There's many things I wish I didn't do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I'm sorry that I hurt you
It's something I must live with everyday
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
That's why I need you to hear

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is You x4

I'm not a perfect person
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know

I've found a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you

I've found a reason to show
A side of me you didn't know
A reason for all that I do
And the reason is you

"That's a shout out to a lucky Buffy Summers, from someone who wishes to be addressed by 'A Scooby'" The radio man blasted, "Good morning Sunnydale…"

And with that Xander turned off the radio, "Well we know who that Scooby is even though he isn't a Scooby"

"Spike?" Dawn asked, "You loved her didn't you?"

"There's no past tense about that, I did then and still do." He whispered

"Aw wittle Spiky has a cwush" Xander rebutted, "Buffy could have done better than you low-life"

"Like you or Angel?" he glared, "I know she didn't love be back, I never expected her to, but she was so beautiful, graceful, she made me feel like a human, not like a monster, of which she should have been treating me as."

"On a better subject" Willow added, "We need to think of a way to keep the underworld believing Buffy is still alive, Tara suggested Buffybot, open to anything else" When no one said anything she added, "Well then it's unanimous after we burry real Buffy I'll put fake Buffy's head back on"

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence, on exception on groans coming from Dawn's corner, where she remained even after Spike showed, an occasional, "Pass the syrup" and of course snorts coming from Spike showing his obvious disapproval.

After the meal everyone dispersed, except Spike and Dawn, "Stay Spike" She begged, "I don't wanna be alone"

He swallowed and followed her to the basement, "Dawn, I love your sister, burying her is gonna be the hardest thing I've ever done, in all 120 years"

"Me too…" She drifted off, "Look Spike, a photo of the group, cept you, wait never mind. Buffy looks so happy, she's hugging you, well the air where you should be"

"I remember, Buffy made me take that photo, I told her I wouldn't show up, but she didn't care" He closed his eyes, "Buffy and I had just taken down something really important, my first good fight"

"I remember too, Buffy came and made us all pose for a photo, I was sick but she made me be in the photo, when it developed I was really surprised, Buffy was hugging air, then she explained vampires don't show up on film." Dawn smiled, "Then I flipped cause Buffy loved a vampire"

"That was when I fell in love with her too" he sighed

"Come on Spike, you seem really mopey, where's that flair we love?"

Spike chose not to reply to that other than to ask Dawn to go out and buy him some food.

She came home an hour later with a bag full of glass jars, "Fresh from the cemetery" She edged closer to him, "Cause you can't get it yourself," she pointed at his head, "Is there enough?"

"Bloody Hell, how many kittens did you cut up?"

"None"

"Where did this come from then?'

"Around" she replied

"Dawn, you cut up some living humans!" He realized, "Why?"

"So you could have the best, and to show you what I'd do for you. I thought you'd like some of the good stuff for a change"

"Dawnie!" Willow walked in with Dawn basically sitting on Spike, flirting , "What are you doing? You're flirting with Spike"

Dawn moved away from Spike, and took Willow out of the room, "Don't tell anyone what you saw, please!" She started crying, "He's all I have left now, and if anyone else knows they'll take him away from me" By then it was a full flood down her face, Willow helped her to the couch where she cried on Willow's lap for what seemed like hours, until the others walked in, in which she stopped so no one would know what had happened that day, "Remember, you promised"

"Lunch break" Xander walked in with Taco Bell, "Bean Burritos for the princess, and Chalupas for the others" He handed Dawn her normal four Bean Burritos and she sat them on the table, and told them she'd be right back.

"Spike, stay down here for a while and sleep ok?" She commanded in question form, "That's an order" He agreed and Dawn walked up stairs.

She sat at the table and opened her first Burrito and everyone smiled at her, sort of in a mocking way, "Willow! You promised!" She grabbed her meal and ran toward the basement and locked her self in, crying. "Spike if anyone knocks don't make any noise or move to the door. If they find you, they're gonna send you away, for good. I don't mean out of Sunnydale away, I mean dust in the wind away, if you catch my drift. They only tolerated you because Buffy wanted them to, now they don't have anything to stop them from dusting you"

He, if possible, got paler, "they're going to kill me?" He looked worried

"No, I wont let them kill you, I'll kill them if they try, then you could have Scooby blood, does that sound nice?"

All Xander heard was, 'I'll kill them…, then you could have Scooby blood, does that sound nice?' And ran to the others, "Dawn is going to try to kill us, I just heard her tell Spike she'd feed him some 'Scooby blood'

Dawn walked up the stairs and in to the room, while Xander and Anya were holding crosses, Willow a stake, and Tara with holy water, "Hi, lovely just stand there until I get a sculpture maker and then I get a statue made," she pushed the cross out of Xander's hand and got a bottle of water.

"We know what your plan is." Anya yelled, "You're going to kill us then feed our blood to your love, Spike! Well you've got another think coming!"

"Why would I even think of killing you? And why would you call Spike my love?" Her innards squirmed, "Willow told you, didn't she even after she promised me she wouldn't"

"Yes Willow told us, but only after I heard you tell Spike you'd kill us" Xander replied angrily, "And we let you live!"

"You didn't let me live, the Powers and Buffy did, and my exact words were , 'No, I wont let them kill you, I'll kill them if they try, then you could have Scooby blood, does that sound nice' you can ask Spike, he'd tell you, I over heard you last night Xander, you were talking about Spike, saying you were gonna kill him, so I told him and promised him I'd kill you before you killed him." She glared at Xander, "why were you eavesdropping in the first place?"

"We were worried about you, you just got up and ran in to the basement for no reason" Tara replied, "Then Xander went to get you, the door was locked so he sat and listened to you and Spike talk, he didn't know it was Spike, until I heard you were gonna feed 'Scooby blood' to him and the only blood sucker I know that knows we're the Scoobies is Spike. And then Willow told us about you and Spike"

"Willow, promised me she wasn't going to tell anyone!" And that set her off again, she ran up to her room and packed a suitcase, then ran to the basement again.

Dinner for the Scoobies:

"Should we go check on her?" Willow asked, "I mean, it's my fault she's in a basement with Spike and has been for five and a half hours"

"Will, the doors locked, we can't just go busting in"

"Yeah, who knows what they could be doing!" Anya added, "There's only one bed down there"

"Anya!" Xander yelled

"What, he has a six pack and a hot butt! I wouldn't blame Dawn for wanting him to be her first!"

"Hello, engaged, you know gonna be married, to me" Xander glared at her.

"I bet if Willow wasn't gay she would agree with me"

"And since I'm not I will not agree with a word you said!" Xander looked angry

Dawn and Spike:

"So they over heard your threat, and now they think you're a vampire?" Spike asked for the third time, "And they think I sired you? Even though I have this chip in my head?"

"This is gonna be a long time"

"What is luv?"

"Until we all die off, cause that's how long it's gonna be before we see Buffy again. Unless she was really sent to Hell, and the rest of us aren't"

"She was swallowed up by dark energy, who knows where she could be" He replied thoughtfully, "I wish I could pull her out of it and bring her back, I'd give everything for that. 'Cept yours or her souls, the others wouldn't think twice "

"So would I, maybe not the soul part but still, I should have been the one in Hell not Buffy she never did anything wrong" Dawn continued, "All she ever wanted was a normal life, with a normal boyfriend, and a collage degree, but she had no choice once she was chosen she was chosen, She couldn't go back. I wish she could have gotten out another way though"

Dawn and Spike sat in silence for several hours until Dawn's watch went off, "Spike, it's 8:50, we need to go get the coffin and headstone"

Spike stood up and he and Dawn walked upstairs and out of the house toward the cemetery.

The Funeral:

"Here we are to burry Elizabeth Anne Summers better known as Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Spike said as he placed the coffin in the ground, "Who wants to go first?"

"I think Dawn should she's family" Willow whispered

"Ok, Buffy was always there for me and saved my life tons of times, I can't stress enough how much I miss her already, I should be there in the ground rather than Buffy, but she wouldn't let it happen, she died for me"

"Buffy was my best friend and she saved me numerous times" Xander choked

"I loved Buffy more than anything and I should have been quicker, she left Dawn in my hands and if I had done my job she'd still be here right now killing the forces of evil and kicking the crap out of me on a daily basis, rather than being put in a hole never to be seen again"

Soon everyone but Angel had gone so he started, "Buffy, I'm sorry none of this would have happened if I hadn't left you. I messed your life up while I was with you and made it worse when I left, I'm sorry, I never should have thought that leaving could give you a better life, but I did and now I regret that more than I can say."

Spike and Angel both started to cover the coffin up when Spike left and picked up the headstone they had carved:

Buffy Anne Summers
1981-2001
Devoted Sister
Beloved Friend
She Saved the World
A Lot

"Goodbye luv" And with that Spike walked off with Dawn close behind carrying a suitcase.