Thank you all so much for your great reviews. I apologize for the big delay in between chapter, but it's hard to write romantic reunion fic when your feeling more angry and angsty. This is the last chapter, but I will post an epilogue soon. Again, thank you so much for your kind words and great reviews!

He had answered her without thinking, so it surprised him when she let out a small sob. The images and emotions that had been rolling through his mind had come to a sudden stop and he didn't have time to process that Buffy was there...with him...and he knew her. The gravity of the situation finally hit him. He was here with Buffy. Fate must really have a hand in his life because the timing of this moment was almost laughable. It was something made of fiction. Ex-vampire with a soul, turned human suddenly remembers his past, just as the love of his un-life arrives at the scene.

It was amazing really. Spike really didn't know how to react. The whole scenario seemed like a very vivid dream, and he knew that if he turned around to look at her it was going to fade and disappear. The simplicity of the resolution was just too...simple. There had to be a catch. Nothing ever turned out right for him, and now that his future was laid out before him, it was almost too much. He could be with Buffy. Really be with her. Grow old, have children, have a life. Okay, forget the almost...it was too much.

"Spike?"

Buffy's voice brought him back to reality and he quickly turned around and looked at her. The tears in her eyes and voice were heart breaking. Especially when he realized that they were for him. Looking at her again with all his memories intact was something special. Something he could have only dreamed about. It surpassed the moment when he saw her that night after she came back to life, and every other moment during those years in Sunnydale. It was his affirmation that everything he'd felt and every dream he'd had were true. She was the one. The only one. His shining goddess, and his reason for being. He couldn't help but smile up at her. God, he was such a sap.

Buffy stopped breathing. He had never smiled at her that way before. It was beautiful. She quickly walked to the edge of the boulder and sat down next to him, but she couldn't look at him. It was almost awkward. She was so happy to be here with him, and that she had the opportunity to talk to him again. Buffy had been wishing for a moment like this since she got back onto the bus and drove away from the Sunnydale crater. Now that it was here she couldn't face it.

That was it. Once she was back to civilization, she was getting a therapist. Here she was at one of the happiest moments of her life, and she had problems with it. Damn her issues with emotional intimacy. Well even if she couldn't look at him, she could touch him. So, Buffy stuck out her hand and searched frantically for his. It wasn't hard to find, since Spike basically grabbed it. She let out the deep breath she had been holding. This was nice. She'd work up to looking at him in steps. First the hand. Concentrate on the hand. It was actually one of the most intimate things she had ever done with Spike. They had never really held hands. Sure, they had helped each other up, and those last few nights in the basement had led to hand-holding, but back then it had been so new and so fast, that it was hard to remember the feelings associated with it. But this was different. They were holding hands, and there was no apocalypse in the background, no house filled with teenage girls and disapproving friends, it was just Buffy and Spike. Holding hands. Together. Buffy fought the urge to giggle.

When Buffy grabbed his hand, Spike felt a huge weight lift off his shoulders. You'd think he'd be happier that he had his memory back, but with that memory came all the doubts that Buffy had really loved him. Then when she sat down next to him, and avoided looking at him...he thought for sure that it was true. She had never really loved him, but then a second later she grabbed his hand and Spike remembered that she was just a silly girl who was probably just as nervous as he was. He knew Buffy, though, and he would have to make the first move.

With his free hand Spike reached out and caressed her cheek. She leaned into it, and he could feel the tears start to run down her face, and the breath from her sigh warmed his skin. He couldn't take it anymore; he had to look at her. Really look at her. Spike turned her face toward his, but her eyes were closed. He didn't know how else to prove to her that he was really there. That he was alive. That he still loved her. So he followed his gut. Following his gut gave him about a 50/50 chance of being right or getting clobbered, but it meant he was being true to himself. So he followed his instincts...and he kissed her.

When she felt his hand on her face, she lost all control. It finally hit her. Spike was alive. She could feel the warmth of his skin, hear the sound of his breathing...he was there with her. Not in the collapsed cavern of Sunnydale, not dead like Angel, but alive...and here, with her. It was too much for her to handle, and she let the tears just fall. Even with the realization that he was really there, Buffy still couldn't open her eyes. There had to be something wrong with this. There was no way that this was real, but when she felt his lips touch hers, all doubts disappeared.

She kissed him back with all that she was and time stopped. She had always wondered if that could really happen, and it had once before. That one moment down in the cavern when their clasped hands had burst into flame, it had seemed that everything stopped. That the world revolved around just the two of them. Buffy thought that something that special would never happen to her again. She had been wrong. She never wanted the kiss to end. It was new, it was the same, it was Spike, and that's all that mattered.

For Buffy, it ended before it began. One minute she was lost in the moment that she missed the most, and then it was over. She decided right then that more kissing moments were a must. But the kiss gave her the courage she needed, and she finally looked up at his face. Buffy felt the final vestiges of fear float away. It was Spike, and two things occurred to her in that moment. One, that she was a huge idiot for even worrying about it, and two, that his eyes were what she missed the most. Those gorgeous blue eyes that expressed every thought, emotion, and feeling that he had. Buffy let a little laugh escape. Eat your hearts out romantic poets everywhere. She had just surpassed them all. Spike gave her a confused look.

"What are you laughing about?"

Buffy gave him a happy smile. "Just this, us...everything that led up to this. I can't believe that for once everything is perfect."

"I don't know about perfect. My hair is brown, if you hadn't noticed...and curly," Spike said with distaste.

Buffy snorted, threw her arms around his waist, and leaned into his chest. She could hear his heart beat. Buffy decided that it was the most beautiful sound in the world, and that she could listen to it for the rest of her life. She laughed again. "I'm cookies."

"You're what?"

"I'm cookies. It was an analogy I gave to Angel once. I wasn't baked yet, and now I am. I'm cookies!"

Spike leaned his head back and let an outrageously loud laugh. "So that's what Captain Forehead meant by all his muttering about cookie dough!" The mood sobered a little, with the mention of Angel, and Spike frowned, remembering the past.

Buffy hugged him a little harder. She was dying to ask him why he hadn't come and found her, or at least tell her that he was back, but she figured it wasn't exactly the time. She really didn't want to ruin the whole reunion thing with a fight, but she did want to know what he had been up to. "What did happen that year you were with him?"

"It's kind of a long story, luv."

"Well I'm not going anywhere." And she really wasn't.

They had talked for the rest of the night. Spike telling stories about Fred, Wesley, Angel, and the rest of the Los Angeles crew. She could tell that it was helping him adjust to the idea that he was the only one alive out of the group. They laughed, she hugged him hard while he had mourned for them, and then laughed a little bit more. They kissed a bit more...sweet, tender kisses that whispered of the many possibilities that lay before them. Then she told him about Dawn and the rest of the Scoobies. But mainly they just were.

Eventually the sun came up, and the real world intruded. Even with that realization, Buffy wouldn't have missed that moment for anything in the world. It was one thing to see William in the sun, but this was Spike and he was sitting in the sun with her. Watching the light hit his face, and feeling the same heat that he was feeling, was amazing. She leant against him again, so that she could enjoy the moment.

Spike looked down on her hair, which appeared lit up from the sun, and leaned down to place a kiss on the top of her head. If someone had told him ten years ago that he would be sitting on top of a boulder in Las Vegas, watching the sun come up, he would have laughed at them. If they would have added that he would be human, and sitting with the slayer, he would have killed them and then laughed. Fate was an interesting thing. That it could take a failed Victorian poet, make him an evil vampire, and put him on the path to redemption, so that he would ultimately gain a soul and become human was just so...amazing.

He looked off into the horizon and smiled. With all the evil things he had seen and done. With all the good he had accomplished and all the wonderful things he had experienced...this topped it all. Sitting next to the woman you loved with your whole future ahead of you, was what counted. This is what poetry was written for, arias sung about, and paintings created for. Love. Acceptance. Joy. Life. His heart was near bursting. This is what he had been working toward his whole existence. This moment. This day. This life.