A/N : I know this isn't the next fic that should be updated in the proper order of updating and everything, but sometimes you just have to go where the inspiration takes you. Thanx so much to the latest reviewers; Moonjava, ness345, Mony19, Brunettepet, demonica mills, and Moluvsnumber17. Hope you like this.
(For disclaimer, etc.- see chapter 1)

Chapter 4

Location : Over the Atlantic Ocean
Time : 23rd October 2005, 19:26

"Spike, please do cease and desist with your wriggling" Illyria pleaded with him, "You make me wish to do violence upon you!" she told him sternly and the ex-vampire answered her through gritted teeth.

"I am not a child, Illyria, and I'm easily your equal in a fight" he reminded her, "You'd do well to be careful how you speak to me today"

She shook her head as she glanced out of the plane window and then back at her companion.

"You have been impossible ever since I told you of my latest vision" she said with annoyance evident in her tone.

Spike opened his mouth to answer but soon changed his mind. She was right of course, it was one fairly irritating habit that she had. Ever since the words 'vision' and 'Buffy' had been uttered in the same sentence he'd been a mess, and the addition of the words 'engagement ring' had done nothing to help at all. His precious Slayer was getting married? How could she do that? Of course he had no real reason to blame her, she didn't even know he existed nevermind that he was now alive and lacking a demon he once possessed.

When he had appeared in Angel's office from the amulet that had saved Sunnydale and destroyed it at the same time, Spike had wanted to go straight to Buffy's side, a pleasure denied by the amulet that tied him to Wolfram and Hart. By the time he was given the gift of solidity, he had begun to realise it would be to everyone's benefit if he left the Slayer well alone.

Things had only changed when he was facing his final battle, alongside Angel, Gunn, Wes and Illyria. He couldn't leave the world a second time without seeking forgiveness for the lie he'd told her. All those promises he'd made about always watching her back, and yet he had stayed away when she might have needed him.

When the gift of life had been imparted to himself and Illyria upon their death, Spike had decided it was definitely too late for he and Buffy to be together. She had a chance of a normal life now, whilst he had been Chosen for great things, as she had been before. He couldn't drag her back into a world of demons and darkness, besides she was dating the Immortal at the time, and she believed he was dead...again.

It had taken hours of soul-searching and one rather large fight between himself and Illyria before he'd even agreed to track down Buffy again. His first reaction had been to save her from what ever Big Bad might be gunning for his girl, but when the harm that befell her was told to be an engagement ring, it only brought home to Spike how much life had moved on.

Buffy had a boyfriend, a fiancé so it would seem. It was over two years since he'd last stood before her and she'd told him it was him she loved before he left the world in a blaze of glory. Now she was marrying some other git who may or may not be evil. Spike was thankful at least that his Slayer no longer spent her time with the Immortal. There was no way in the world he would be offering to marry her, so there must be another. He should have expected it really, she was a beautiful and incredible woman, what man could resist? And she needed a man in her life, always needed someone to lean on however much she tried to deny it to everyone else.

"Spike!" Illyria repeated, as she poked him in the side, finally managing to drag him from his thoughts.

"What? What's up?" he asked, trying to shake all previous thought from his head and concentrate on the here and now.

"Your eyes had glazed over in a most disconcerting way" Lyri told him, "I wish you to talk to me if you will, I am finding the sensation caused by this altitude quite concerns me" she shifted uncomfortably in her seat and Spike smiled a little. She really did hate to admit that anything scared her, and yet there were a few parts of modern technology that bothered her intensely, planes being one of them.

"No need to worry, luv" he told her, taking hold of her hand in a comforting gesture, "Few hours and it'll all be over"

"Do not presume that I am afraid" she snapped half-heartedly, knowing inside that she was petrified but refusing to show even Spike to whom she head become greatly attached over time.

"Never would think such a thing of you, Lyri" he tried not to smirk but found it almost impossible, "Let's talk about other things" he suggested as they began to do just that, though in the back of his mind Buffy was still there, haunting him as she always did. Heaven only knew what she would say when she realised he was alive.

Location : Rome, Italy
Time : 24th October 2005, 08:29

"Earth to Buffy! Hey, Buffy!" Dawn tried waving her hand in front of her sisters face and finally gained the Slayer's attention.

"Sorry, Dawnie" she said, turning to look at her, "I guess I kinda zoned out"

"Zoned out?" Dawn giggled, "You were hypnotised by that rock on your finger" she smiled.

"I guess I was" Buffy smiled back, glancing at the engagement ring on her hand once more, "I just can't believe it's mine y'know, that someone loves me so much that they want to be with me forever...how is that even possible?"

"But you love him that way too right" Dawn asked worriedly. Her sister was always weird about the love, and though it was kind of understandable when her dating bio was considered, Dawn really hoped that Buffy wasn't about to break Davy's heart and her own by ending things with him.

"Of course I love him, Dawnie" Buffy told her, though maybe not as firmly as she should have. When she was with him she was so sure of his feelings and her own, but when they were apart, it was so strange but she started to worry about it, "Anyway, right now I have to get the kids ready, drop them off, and head over to the cafe" she realised as she checked her watch.

Even Slayers had to have something to live on and in the absence of a Doublemeat Palace in Rome (one thing everyone could be thankful for) Buffy had managed to get herself a few shifts at La Bella Cafe, just a couple of streets from the apartment.

The owner there had told her she reminded him so much of his own daughter who had sadly passed away and though Buffy could see no resemblance at all between herself and the picture of Gianni's daughter Maria that hung on the wall, she was grateful for his kindness. He let her work around her kids needs and her own occasional need for slayage, despite the fact he did not know about the second one. He accepted every lame excuse she gave him, though she was fairly certain he always knew when she lied.

Ellie and Chloe were looked after by the di Luigi's when Buffy worked school hours and Dawn couldn't do it. The brunette herself actually found that she liked her education in this new country, and life in general was a lot brighter than it had once been.

Despite all this there were nights when both young women would cry. After dreams of Sunnydale and their friends who had been taken from them or chose to go their separate ways. So much loss, it was impossible to forget and though it hurt to remember sometimes, neither would ever part with their memories. It was all they had left of some people.

Location : Rome, Italy
Time : 24th October 2005, 20:29

"Well, I've been in worse dives" Spike decided as he dumped his bag on the bed of the hotel room. It was the cheapest place for miles and even then it was fairly pricey compared to some places they'd frequented in America.

Illyria seemed hypnotised by every new thing she saw, the different styled buildings and overly friendly people. America had been her only modern home and Europe seemed to be unsettling her.

"You alright, pet?" he checked as she looked around uncertainly.

"I shall be perfectly fine" she nodded once, "I must simply adjust to my surroundings" she told him, putting her own bag down on her side of the bed and sitting down beside it, "I strangely assumed that the world would be the same from every angle" she told him, "and yet it is not so as it once was"

"Don't fret, luv" Spike told her, though in truth he was grateful to have her to worry about, it gave him less time to fixate on certain Slayers and their engagement rings, "This lot might talk a bit different and live in different shaped houses but they're still humans, like you and me"

It still felt strange to call himself a human and even more so to refer to Illyria that way. He was certain she was less fond of hearing it than he was, but she bore it well enough and he'd found his time spent with her to be reasonably pleasant. She was his kind of woman, wouldn't take bull from anyone and yet needed him at the same time. The world was still a foreign place to her, whilst he'd had over a century to learn it's ways and had grown along with the changes that it went through.

"I am uncomfortable" Illyria admitted, "I think some violence would be of use to me"

"Can't argue with that, pet" Spike smirked, glad to let the whole Buffy issue go for a while longer. A part of him was so desperate to see her again it physically hurt, whilst another was just petrified of the reaction he might receive.

As the pair got up and headed for the door, Illyria smirked in a frighteningly similar way to Spike.

"I know you wish to delay our finding of your Buffy Summers" she told him, "I am not so foolish as you would have me be"

"Shut your gob, you" he snapped half-heartedly, surpressing a smile. She really had gotten to know him too well these past months.

"Hey Dawnie, are you and Andrew okay watching the kids for me tonight?" Buffy asked her sister as she pulled on her jacket.

"Sure, no problem" Dawn nodded, "Where are you going?" she frowned a little at her sister's outfit - definitely not something one would wear for a date with the fiancé. Less frilly, more killy.

"You're gonna think I'm crazy" Buffy winced, "I'm going on patrol" she said at length and Dawn shook her head.

"Not so weird" she shrugged, "but, well, you haven't done that since, well not for months and...are their even vampires in Rome?" she asked.

"Evil is everywhere, Dawnie, you know that" the Slayer reminded her as she put her foot up on the chair beside her and fastened a sheathed knife to her leg, before rolling the leg of her pants back down over it. She put a couple of stakes in the inside pockets of her jacket and pulled her hair back into a ponytail.

"Well, er, I was gonna say have fun" Dawn giggled, "Sounds kinda silly though"

"I just need a little mindless violence" Buffy told her with a shrug, "I dunno why suddenly now, I just need to go be the Slayer and do what I do best, y'know?"

"Sure" her sister nodded, giving her a hug, "Just be careful, okay?"

"I promise" Buffy smiled before she kissed both Ellie and Chloe and left the apartment.

The nearest cemetery was just a few streets away and it didn't take Buffy long to get there. It felt wonderfully familiar to walk amongst the tombstones and hone her senses to find anything evil lurking in the shadows. It didn't take long till she felt something, that strange tingling sensation that meant only one thing - vampire. She found the spot in seconds, a grave with two arms scrambling for freedom. As a head and chest followed Buffy grabbed her stake and lunged at the fanged creature. Senor Gianfranco Portellini (Deceased) was nothing but dust before his legs had even cleared the dirt he'd been put to rest in, but still the sensation remained, like someone was watching her. It was feint and different to the normal, but it was familiar, so much so that Buffy felt sick when she realised why. There were only two people's presence that she could pick out without actually seeing them. One was Angel and the other was...

"Spike" she whispered, half a statement, half a question. Though she knew it was madness, he'd been gone for over a year now, it didn't stop her heart skipping a beat in anticipation of seeing him step out of the darkness and into the moonlight that engulfed herself.

A silent tear crept down her cheek as the feeling of his closeness went away and she rationalised that she was just being ridiculous. She'd gotten too nostalgic, out in this graveyard, slaying like she used to. Plus her head had been so full of Spike, ever since Davy had proposed. As wrong as it was she often compared them and their love for her. She hated herself for it but she just couldn't help it. Spike was the father of her children after all, however crazy that was...and he would never know.

With a determined look, a large sniff, and a shake of her head, Buffy straightened and headed out of the cemetery. She had a real life now, a fairly normal life with two normal but beautiful children, a normal guy that loved her, her sister and a younger brother figure she loved too. Spike was gone, she had to accept it before she drove herself insane.

Illyria decapitated the vampire that she'd been fighting and watched as it turned to so much ash before her eyes.

"Vampires are so fragile" she observed with that strange tilt of her head, "I wonder how they live as they do, so many centuries when death could come so easily" she became aware that Spike was not paying any attention to her at all and she turned to see him staring off in the opposite direction.

Following his eye-line, she saw the back of a blonde-haired woman headed out of the cemetery gates.

"Buffy?" she asked softly, but all Spike could do was stare.

To Be Continued...