At first he thought his eyes must be deceiving him. He tried blinking a few times...all of this light, perhaps his mind was playing tricks on him. Or maybe he wasn't dead after all...maybe Illyria had been wrong about his wound being mortal. Maybe he was dreaming, and he would wake up in a hospital bed, back inside his empty existence.

"Wesley."

He stood still when he heard her voice. That sweet, kind voice with just a hint of a Southern accent. He looked at her again, standing only about ten feet away from him, her brown hair cascading over her shoulders in soft waves, wearing a simple white, flowing dress. Her gentle smile and big, brown eyes...those eyes that he could get lost in for hours. She simply stood there before him, her expression unreadable.

Not knowing what else to do, he closed the gap between them, stopping only inches away from her. Hesitantly, he reached out, and was almost shocked when he felt the smooth skin of her arm beneath his hand. "Fred?"

"My dear Wesley," she said, reaching out to touch his face. He noticed tears glistening in her eyes.

He just stared at her, still unsure of what was happening. "Fred...where am I? Is this a dream?" In his final moments, when the imitation of his love had said that they would finally be together, he knew she had been lying, it had just been kind words to make him feel better. He knew it was impossible. Even that had been taken from them by a chain of events set in motion thousands of years ago.

She shook her head. "It's not a dream Wesley. It's heaven."

He suddenly withdrew his hand from her arm, stepping back out of her reach. "No, it's not real. If this heaven, you wouldn't be here...your soul, they said your soul was gone. Gone forever."

She took a step closer to him. "No. I'm not gone, I'm right here! I've been waiting for you. I've missed you so much." She placed a hand on his chest, gazing up into his eyes.

Wesley felt himself retreat inside the walls he had constructed in the weeks since she had left him. "No. This isn't real, I heard them, I'm never going to see you again...Illyria? Is that you? Please stop lying to me now."

She looked sad, wounded even. "Wesley, no, it's me. It's your Fred, I'm here. You should know that a person's soul can never be destroyed, that thing took my body but she could never destroy my soul."

"But...the fires of resurrection," he argued, not giving in.

"My sweet Wesley. A person's soul isn't tangible. It's not made of molecules and atoms. It's pure spirit. When I died, Illyria took my body, but she could never destroy me. I came here, and I've been waiting for you..."

He shook his head fiercely. "No, this isn't real. I wish to God it was but I know it's not..."

"It is! Wesley, listen to me. Did you ever really think that fate could be that cruel to us? We only had days together, days Wesley. But now we have all of eternity, we can finally be with each other," she insisted passionately.

He stared at her desperately. "Fred..."

"Yes! I'm Fred, Winifred Burkle, the woman who loves you. I've been waiting for you, I thought it would be much longer than this but you didn't survive the battle..." she traced her fingers over the sealed wound on his chest.

"I died. But my death was different from yours, I was killed by Cyrus Vail. Your being was infected by Illyria," he said, slightly less forcefully.

"It doesn't matter how someone dies. When I got here, they told me that it didn't matter that my body was taken, a body doesn't mean anything, it's your soul that makes you who you are. All good people end up here," she said, gesturing around at the white light which stretched on as far as he could see. "And I know you'll love it here, it's beautiful."

He felt like his heart was being torn apart yet again. The cold, rational side of him was protesting that this wasn't real, it had to be some sort of illusion. But the sight of her had awakened a heat within him...almost as if part of him that had died with her had been resurrected. "Oh Fred...I can't trust this. I mourned you, I had to go on without you."

"Wesley, listen to me. Does this feel real?" Without warning she reached out and kissed him on the lips, with the same desire and passion that she had back on Earth, in his office, when their mutual feelings had finally been acted upon after so long. He encircled his arms around her waist, clutching the filmy fabric of her white dress. When they broke apart due to need of oxygen he felt a tear escape his eye.

"F-Fred?" he asked hopefully.

"Yes, it's me," she sobbed. She threw herself into him, resting her head on his shoulder. "It's really me. We're finally together."

He felt the disbelieving part of him start to fade away, as the overwhelming sensations of her touching him took over his mind. He had dreamed of her before, every night since her passing, and he had felt Illyria's touch while she attempted to act in her place...but this was different. Then he considered what she had said about the soul being the only important part of someone's being...if that was true, then he had died with her. There had been more than one shell left behind when she had passed.

He wrapped his arms around her, allowing his doubts to slip away. "I thought I was never going to see you again..." He suddenly thought of something. Wesley pulled back slightly so he could look into her eyes. "Could you...did you see us, on Earth?"

She nodded sadly. "I watched you, I saw you all think that I was gone for good. I tried so hard to find a way to tell you that I was here, that I was waiting for you, but I couldn't find it."

"I'm so sorry," Wesley said suddenly. "I'm sorry that I couldn't save you."

She immediately shook her head. "It's not your fault. It was meant to be." She hastily wiped away her tears. "We don't need to be sad anymore. We can finally have what we deserve."

He reached out and kissed her again, this time not holding anything back. She melted into his arms. "There are so many things we never got to do..."

"We have all the time in the world," she said, glowing with happiness. She reached out and took his hands in hers. "Let me show you. Cordy's here too!"

He walked with her through the white light. "Cordelia...when I saw you waiting for me, I thought it must be her at first. I didn't know who would be waiting for me."

"But I'm here. I'm here, and you're here, and everything is fine now," she said, babbling slightly in her trademark way.

He smiled for the first time in what seemed like forever. "You're right."

"And guess what? They have tacos here!" Fred bubbled excitedly.

Wesley laughed, remembering his silent question of if they had beer in heaven...that seemed irrelevant now. "Fred, you know, we never got the chance to...to make love." He ran a finger gently over her cheek.

She placed her hand over his and closed her eyes. "I know. When I was...dying, that was one of my biggest regrets."

"There are so many things we never got to do together," he said.

She smiled at him. "Well then we'd better get started!" She began to walk a little faster, holding his hand as he followed behind her. After continuing in silence for a few minutes, the white light gave way to reveal an ivory gate that extended as high as he could see. "We're here now," she said, turning to face him. "We're finally here."

"What are we waiting for?" he asked, a smile spreading across his face. She grinned back before kissing him passionately.

"Come on," she said, her voice breathy. "We have a lot of wasted time to make up for. Why did it take us so long to figure it out anyway?"

He shook his head. "I was just asking myself that same question. But it doesn't matter now." The gates opened slowly, and she looked into his eyes.

"Are you ready?" she asked seriously.

"Oh, yes," he replied without hesitation. She led him through the gates, and they took the first step towards their new beginning.

The End