A/N : Here's the last chapter and the epilogue to this story. I know I probably could've made this way longer, but this fic has served it's purpose for me, and I have many more other story ideas I want to write more than I want to carry this on. I hope the ending does not disappoint anyone, and I want to say a big thankyou to everyone that has reviewed any or all of the chapters of this fic - you all rock, and never fail to make me smile.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 8

"Thanks so much for this, Fred" said Buffy as they came into the apartment together, "I promise I'll pay you back as soon as I can"

It was the day after Team Angel had managed to re-corporealise Buffy, leaving just Spike in a ghostly form. The Slayer couldn't bear the thought of staying in any room Angel offered her at Wolfram and Hart, not now she had the choice of leaving. Still, going any further than a few streets away was impossible for her, knowing that Spike was still tied to the evil law firm and consequently to central LA.

Fred had felt so bad for not doing a thorough job, i.e. not bringing both of the couple back to solid form, and had quickly offered Buffy to come and stay with her as long as she needed. She also loaned her a little money to buy a few clothes and essentials.

"It's just money, Buffy" the Texan told her, "and not even all that much...'sides I could use a little female company. The guys are great but..." she rolled her eyes to convey her meaning and Buffy nodded her understanding.

"I think Xander used to feel like that sometimes back in Sunnydale" she told her new friend, "When Giles went back to England it was pretty much just him and all us girls...except for Spike" she went silent as soon as she mentioned his name, hating it so much that they could no longer touch each other. She felt like crying and he wasn't there to hold her, she wanted to kiss him but could only do so briefly since it took all his concentration.

"We will find a way to help him, Buffy, I swear" Fred promised her, putting a comforting hand to his arm.

"I know" the Slayer nodded, forcing a smile, "It's just...it's not easy seeing someone you love suffer the way he is. Spike's just one of those guys that needs to be doing something. Feeling useless drives him insane"

"Oh I know that feeling" Fred sighed, sitting down on the couch heavily as Buffy joined her, "After five years in a place where human's are treated like cattle, it's so great to be back here and be able to do what I want"

"All I want is for things to go back to the way they were, like the night before the big fight in Sunnydale" she sighed, "Me and Spike talked for hours...I didn't think I'd be able to sleep I was so ready for the battle. He told me I should try anyway, to get some rest, he held me in his arms and right before I fell asleep I heard him whisper how much he loved me, and how no matter what happened to either of us that love would last forever"

"That's beautiful" Fred commented, feeling almost as emotional as Buffy looked, tears collecting in her eyes and threatening to spill over.

"I was such an idiot denying how I felt for so long" the Slayer realised, "Spike's the one person who never judged me, ever. He loves me in a way I can't begin to understand...it's like, he puts everything he has into being in love, like it's the most important thing in the whole world"

"Isn't that how it should be?" her friend asked her, "I mean, shouldn't love be the most important thing"

Buffy smiled at that and nodded.

"Yeah, I guess it should"

"In that case isn't it time you called your friends and told them you're here?" Fred suggested, "I mean, they oughta know you're back and stuff. They love you and they think you're...gone"

"I know, I should call Dawnie and Giles" Buffy nodded, "but what do I say? Hey guys, it's me. Thought I was dead, huh? Guess again"

Fred frowned.

"Maybe something a little less...sarcastic and breezy?"

Buffy cracked a smile at that and rubbed her temples with her fingers as if she felt a migraine coming on.

"Why is life never simple?" she wondered aloud and Fred put a hand on hers, patting it gently.

"It'll get better, sweetie" she promised as she got up from the couch.

"How do you know?" Buffy asked with a disbelieving look, but Fred was smiling as she stood in the doorway to the kitchen looking back at her friend.

"I have three kinds of ice-cream in the ice box" she grinned as Buffy scrambled from the couch and speeded after her. Nothing aided a depression or a complicated situation like Rocky Road, Cookie Dough, and Double Chocolate Chunk.

"Slayer" Spike grinned when he saw her enter the building with Fred, "S'been a long night without you" he pouted as she came over to him.

"Tell me about it" she sighed, "but on the up-side, Fred has a great apartment, and we've been spending some quality time with two very fine gentlemen" she said seriously. Spike's face was an absolute picture until the Texan put him out of his misery.

"One is named Ben and the other one is Jerry" she told him as Buffy burst into a fit of giggles.

"That was a dirty trick, Slayer" Spike howled as he followed her down the corridor, passing through the wall as she went through the door and arriving in Angel's office momentarily before she did.

"Spike" Angel greeted coolly, "And Buffy too"

"Angel" she nodded, "I just wanted you to know I called Dawn and Giles last night. They're coming over in a couple of days and they'll be staying at a hotel for a while, I don't know how long yet but I won't be going anywhere until Spike can go with me" she told him firmly.

"Okay" her ex lover nodded, knowing better than to argue with her on this, "Y'know you're welcome to stay here, Dawn and Giles too, I mean we have plenty of..."

"No, Angel" Buffy cut him off in frustration, "I already told you, I can't be here, not all the time"

"But Buffy..." he tried, she was having none of it.

"Angel, please" she sighed, "Will you stop with the whole 'changing things from the inside' speech. I already had it from Fred, Wes, Gunn, hell even Lorne tried a short and slightly musical version and I still don't care" she told him, "You couldn't beat evil so you decided to join it, that's your perogative, but I won't be jumping into a Hell Incorporated hot seat any time soon"

With that she turned on her heel and sped out of the door, Spike following her, though the ex-vampire stopped just briefly to give his old grand-sire a self-satisfied smirk before he left.

"That's tellin' him, luv" he was still smiling when he caught up to Buffy in the corridor, "Should've seen his face after you...Pet?" he checked when he realised she was crying.

"I'm sorry" she apologised as she turned away from him, "I don't know what's the matter with me"

"Yes you do" Spike told her gently, so wishing he could hold her right now and having to settle for a momentary touch of his hand on her shoulder, "Come on, tell Spike all about it"

"It's so stupid" she almost laughed at herself except she couldn't stem the flow of tears enough to make it convincing, "I just, I loved Angel so much, even still do though not in an in love way obviously just in a friend kind of way or whatever, y'know?" Spike nodded along although she'd very nearly lost him in the middle of all that rambling, "He meant so much to me and he said such awful things about you being evil and everything...I can't believe I came so close to ruining any chance of us being together by clinging to my relationship with him" she told her love, as she brought her red-rimmed eyes up to meet his.

"You can't ruin what's between us, luv" Spike promised her, "My love for you sustained much worse than that snog you had with Peaches the night before the big fight" he reminded her, "And the old bugger's been insultin' me to my face for decades, never bothered me then, doesn't bother me now"

"Well, it bothers me" Buffy pointed out, "He can't treat you like that anymore. You proved to everyone, to the world what a great man you can be, what a great man you really are" she said solemnly with so much love pouring out of her eyes for him that Spike knew he wouldn't be able to breathe even if a vampire-ghost needed to.

"That what you're gonna tell your Watcher and Lil Sis when they get here?" he asked, glancing away, "Gonna tell them I'm this great person and you just have to stay in LA on the off chance I suddenly get re-solidified somehow?"

"I already did" Buffy told him, "When I called last night, I explained what happened with the amulet and us coming back together. I told them about Pavayne and how you saved me...again" she smiled, "I said to them just what I said to Angel, that I'd be staying here until I could leave with you at my side...cos it's where you belong"

"Been tryin' to tell you that for years enough" he sighed, "Now it's finally sunk in and it's bloody impossible for us to..."

"Ssh" she told him, putting a finger to his lips though she couldn't actually touch him, "You will get re-corporealised" she promised him, "Fred and Wes will do everything they can and I'm gonna try too. There has to be some way to bring you back"

"Bloody hope so, luv" Spike agreed, "Just about killing me not being able to touch you"

"Not so great from here either" she told him sadly.

"So, just the two of your mates coming over then is it?" he asked, desperate to change the subject before he bawled like baby in front of her.

"Yeah, seems Willow and Xander went to do their own thing after Sunnydale" Buffy explained as they walked down the corridor together, "Wills went to Brazil with Kennedy and Xand headed for Africa. They need time to be themselves I think after so long of being my back-up"

"They never minded y'know" Spike told her honestly, "We all wanted to be together with you, fighting the good fight. You inspired people to wanna help, Buffy, hell you inspired me to be the non-evil souled being I am now"

"It wasn't all about me" she shook her head but he wouldn't hear her denial.

"Can't speak for the others of course" he told her, "but for me, yeah, it really was all about you. Always will be I reckon" he said as they stopped walking and he concentrated just enough to put his lips to hers for one painfully brief kiss that meant the world to her.

Three days passed and Buffy's sister and Watcher were due to arrive at any moment. She was bouncing on her heels in the main foyer of Wolfram and Hart as she awaited their arrival and Spike equated her behaviour to that of a little kid at Christmas. It was kind of cute really but also a little annoying after a while as she constantly checked her watch and the clock and asked him to pass through several walls to check the clocks in other offices in case the first one was wrong.

"Really, luv, could you sit down or something" Spike begged her, "All that pacing about and such, it's making me knackered just watching you"

"I can't help it" the Slayer complained, "I can't wait to see them"

"Oh to be bloody corporeal" Spike muttered, "I know a few choice ways to take your mind off things" he smirked suggestively and Buffy rolled her eyes.

"When you two have finished being gross" Harmony snapped from behind her desk, less afraid of the Slayer than she might be given her vampiric status, "There's a package here for Spike"

"Who the hell would send post to a..."

"Ghost?" Buffy smirked in similar fashion to her lover as they both walked up the counter and looked own on the package that bore his name courtesy of Wolfram and Hart's LA branch.

"You mind doin' the honours pet?" he asked Buffy and she leant over the counter.

She pulled a knife from the sheath on her leg, something she went nowhere without on the W&H premises, and cut open the box in front of Spike so he could see as she opened it. A bright flash of green engulfed the room and the Slayer blinked awkwardly as she tried to get her focus back a moment later. The box appeared now to be empty.

"Well" Spike said with a look, "that was a slap and a tickle, I wonder..." he stopped short when he realised he needed to breathe to get the next few words out and there was a strange pounding feeling throughout his body, "Er, what the bloody hell is going on?" he checked, putting a hand to his chest. His heart seemed to be beating under his palm and Buffy frowned at his strange behaviour, not yet understanding, and becoming even more confused when her lover wobbled slightly and stuck out a hand to steady himself. His fingers hit the top of Harmony's desk and stayed there, not passing though.

"Spike?" Buffy said warily reaching out to him and loving the fact she could feel the leather of his coat beneath her fingers, "Oh my God" she grinned, throwing herself into his arms and hugging him tight.

"Slayer, I..." he said uncertainly, "I'm breathing and I think...is my heart beating?" he checked, wondering if this was just some weird kind of dream. Buffy put her ear to his chest and grinned when she heard and felt the steady thump-thump of a human heart beat.

"Oh God, Spike" she almost squealed with delight, "I think, I think you're alive" she said as she stood up straight and looked into his eyes.

"Buffy" he breathed, the feel of her so close to him driving him crazy. He dipped his head and kissed her with some considerable passion right there in the lobby, not caring who was watching as his hands roamed her body and he lifted her right off the floor.

"Oh Spike" she gasped, pulling away for air, "I can't believe this has happened" she told him, so thrilled that it actually had. Better than just being corporealised somehow whatever was in that box that arrived for him had made Spike human, living and breathing just like her, "How did this...?" she started to ask but he soon stopped her talking as his lips descended on hers once again, kissing her til they were both breathless and their heads spun from lack of oxygen.

"Don't bloody care how or why" he told her, "Just soddin' glad it happened, cos God Slayer I want you so much it hurts"

They were back to the fevered kissing and groping within moments, promises of love expressed in muffled words as well as every touch of lips and hands. They were seconds away from doing things unfit for a general audience when the elevator doors pinged open and three stunned people stepped out, eyes wide at what they were seeing.

"Woah guys, keep it PG-13, huh?" Dawn said, pretending to hide her face behind her hand, but peeking through the gaps between her fingers anyway.

"Dawnie?" Buffy gasped as she finally seemed to notice she and Spike were not the only two people present, "Oh my God" she laughed and cried at the same time as she ran from Spike's arms to hug her sister tight. Giles was next for the hugging and joyful tears were shed by all three. The third arrival who had so far stayed back to remain unnoticed walked over to Spike instead.

"Hey you" Willow smiled, reaching to hug him.

"Red, what the bleedin' hell are you doin' here?" the ex-vamp asked, a little startled but hugging her back none the less.

"You really think I'd risk sending a spell like that via the mail?" she rolled her eyes a she pulled away from him, "Tut-tut Spike, you know me better than that"

"You...?" he trailed off, glancing between the open and empty box on the counter and the smiling red-head before him, "Willow Rosenburg I could bloody snog you!" he declared, picking her up from the floor and spinning her around twice before setting her back on her feet grinning like an idiot. Dawn soon came running into his arms hugging him tightly, so pleased to have big brother back in her life. They'd made their peace a few weeks before the final fight of Sunnydale and she'd missed him almost as much as she'd missed Buffy these last few weeks.

"You're alive" she cried as he held her tight, so glad to see her too.

"Looks that way, Bit" he agreed as Buffy looked on.

"The witch did good, huh?" Willow commented, hugging her friend and Buffy could barely answer as the emotion overtook her.

"I don't know how you did it Will, but thankyou so much" she said solemnly.

"To be honest, I was pretty certain the whole solid thing would happen" she explained, "but the human part, that was kind of a bonus that could've gone either way"

"I'd have loved him anyway" Buffy admitted, "As a ghost, a vampire, it didn't matter. He's the one for me, Will"

"I know" the witch nodded, "We all knew, that's why Fred and Wes called me and asked for my help"

"Fred and Wes?" Buffy said with an astonished look. She'd lived with the Texan, spent all her free time with both her and the ex-Watcher and yet they'd never told her that they'd called Willow about all this.

"She was the only person I could think of that might be able to work this" Fred explained as she and Wesley appeared in the now quite crowded foyer.

"Thankyou" Buffy cried all over again as she hugged first one then the other member of Team Angel.

"You lot have done me a huge favour" Spike smiled as he walked over to Buffys side and took her hand tightly in his, "I dunno where to begin" he admitted as he glanced around at the three brains.

"It's no problem" Fred told him, looking a little embarrassed, "Like me and Buffy were sayin' the other day; love's the most important thing. Nothin' should get in the way of that"

"I'll second that" Willow agreed with a grin.

"Gotta say I agree" Spike added, "and with that in mind" he said, giving Fred a serious look, "Do me one more little favour would you, pet?"

"What?" the scientist asked warily and Spike grinned.

"Bloody snog your man Wesley here before you both grow too old to remember how!" he told her in frustration. Both her and Wesley looked at him with some shock and Buffy batted him across the arm for being that way with people who had just done him such a great favour.

"I'm sorry, luv, but watching these to ponce around each other, both avoiding the obvious feelings they have for each other has been driving me round the soddin' bend!" he complained "And on top of that I..."

"Er, guys?" Willow interrupted his rant and stopped Buffy from retorting, signalling for them to look at Fred and Wes who had apparently done exactly what they'd been told to and stood not five feet away, joined at the lips.

The End...almost