A/N : I plan to wrap this up in one more chapter. In the meantime, hope you all enjoy this one.
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)

Chapter 22 - I Fell In Love

"Really, Joyce, I don't know what it is that you want me to say" Giles implored her, "Would it not be best for you to wait until Buffy returns home and ask her..."

"I'm tired of asking her, Rupert, so sick and tired of asking" she admitted as they sat down on the couch together, the gang having left not long after Buffy and Spike on Mrs Summers insistence, "There is something going on here, and I want to know what it is" she told the Watcher as he removed his glasses and polished them on his handkerchief, "I'm not naive, I've heard the rumours about things that happen in this town, I've seen things that I can't explain. I need someone to tell me what it is I'm missing, for the sake of my daughter, Rupert" she was begging him with her eyes to understand her predicament and help her out of it. Her baby girl was mixed up in something, possibly something dangerous, and nobody wanted to tell her what it was, not even Buffy herself. There was a time when mother and daughter told each other everything, but that seemed like a lifetime ago now.

"Exactly how much do you want to know?" Giles enquired, knowing as he did that everybody had their limit as to how much they could cope with all at once, especially when it came to explanations of the supernatural. He knew Buffy's mother to be a strong, confident woman who could handle most situations that were thrown at her, after all she'd faced a divorce and single parenthood, she ran the gallery near single-handed...

"Everything" she said suddenly, startling him from his rambling thoughts, "I want to know everything, right from the beginning"

"Very well" Giles nodded, replacing his glasses on his nose and clearing his throat as he got to his feet and paced a little, "Into every generation a Slayer is born..."

"So, basically, vampires and demons and ghosts and all that supernaturally stuff is real, and in Sunnydale, and Buffy is the Slayer who fights all the evil supernaturally stuff" Willow explained to her bemused boyfriend as they sat in his van a couple of streets away from Buffy's house, "Are you really freaked out?" she checked, since by now she was quite used to the fact that Oz's expression seldom changed regardless of what he was thinking or feeling.

"Actually, not so much" he admitted with a look that bordered on thoughtful, "Kind of explains a lot of weird stuff that was less explainable before" he told her, "Like how I thought I saw you walk through a wall on Halloween" he said suddenly smiling as he recalled it.

"You saw me?" she frowned, "How come you never asked if you thought it was weird?"

"I just figured I was so hung up on you I was hallucinating you when you weren't around" he admitted, causing Willow to blush a pretty pink, "Kind of a shame it's not true, I thought it was cool"

"But you don't have to hallucinate me now" she smiled shyly, "I'm right here"

"Yeah, there you are" he smiled as he leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips.

She sighed as they parted and gazed at the boy who had so quickly become her world. Already she felt like she was falling in love, and Oz was just so cute and cool and everything she could want in a boyfriend. She still had some residual feeling for Xander, or so she'd thought, but when Spike had suggested her best friend and Cordelia had been making out, it didn't bother her on a jealously level, only in an ick factor kind of a way.

"What're you thinking?" Oz asked her as several emotions seemed to pass over her face simultaneously.

"Tonight, all the revelationy news" she told him, "First Spike's back from the dead, or from the dust at least, and he's dating Buffy, and then he says Xander and Cordelia are together and that's beyond wiggy"

"Makes sense to me" he admitted, making Willow frown, so he explained, "Seems to me that Xander and Cordelia fight to hide what they really feel for each other. I didn't know if I was right until that Spike guy said what he did but it's a classic love/hate scenario"

"It's an icky scenario" Willow grumbled, "Xander and me, we were the We Hate Cordelia Club, how can he be all over her?"

"Things change, sweetie" Oz told her, pushing her hair behind her ear for her, "You can't stop it"

"I know" she forced a smile, "And hey, if they're happy I guess that's cool, but it's just weird is all, and now Buffy with a vampire..."

"Yeah, can we go over that part again?" Oz asked her, "I'm a little fuzzy on the alive but dead deal"

"Oh, well, it's like this..." Willow began her explanation.

Oz was just happy to sit and listen to her talk so animatedly about a subject. She was smart and beautiful and he already loved her, that was for sure.

"It's insane that's what it is, completely crazy, and bad, and wrong!" Xander yelled, arms waving emphatically and almost clocking Cordelia in the face as he walked her home from Revello Drive. His sole topic of conversation from there to here had been Buffy and Spike, and in all honesty Cordy was sick of it.

"One track monologue, much?" she snapped when he actually paused to draw breath, "My God, it's like Little Miss Slay-All is the centre of your entire universe!" she said angrily, not wanting to come off sounding jealous but actually feeling a little green around the edges if she was completely honest with herself.

"Hey, I'm just looking out for my friend" Xander snapped right back at her, "Not that you'd understand about having friends, you only have followers, lackeys, people who you hang with for status and popularity"

"Oh, you are so going to pay for that!" Cordelia yelled, "How dare you get judgmental on me, Mr My-Only-Friends-Are-Misfit-Girls-That-Date-Freaks"

"You leave Will and Buffy out of this" he warned her, pointing a finger, "And if anybody in our little group is dating a freak, it isn't them" he said with a look that Cordy ignored.

"No, you're right" she agreed, "Because that would be me"

"No way" Xander yelled, "Because for that to be true you'd actually have to be a part of the Scoobies!"

"Sometimes, I hate you!" Cordy practically screamed.

"Oh yeah!" Xander yelled back, "Well, sometimes I love you!"

Cordelia had her mouth half open to yell back when she'd realised what he'd actually said. Realisation seemed to dawn on his own face at the very same moment and they stared at each other in shock.

"You... Did you just say...?" she asked, though the whole question wouldn't actually come out of her mouth, it was just too bizarre.

"What? No, I didn't... did I?" he checked, since he was having trouble accepting his own words. Had he really said that sometimes he felt that he loved Cordelia Chase? Surely that was impossible. Just a few short years ago he was President of the We Hate Cordelia Club, and yet he knew as he stared at her now, wide eyes beginning to water like jewels in her beautiful face, he knew he'd meant what he said.

"Xander" she said shakily, "Do you love me?"

"Kind of, yeah" he admitted after a pause.

There were just a few seconds hesitation before they moved, stepped in closer to each other and their lips met in a searing kiss. Far from the simple lust and passion that had been there before, they both felt something deeper, a brighter fire, a stronger pulsing feeling in their hearts. When they were eventually forced to part in order to breathe Cordelia gasped in oxygen so she could speak.

"Oh God, I'm totally screwed" she sighed, causing Xander to frown, "I kind of think maybe... I love you too" she admitted, her own sad expression shifting to a smile.

Despite the fact they both knew this was crazy and wrong, what they felt had developed into something so strong, it could no longer be denied. They were in love and in that moment they didn't care who knew it, a fact they proved as they stood on the street corner with their arms around each other, joined firmly at the lips.

"Wow" Buffy sighed as she lay beside Spike in the bed, her whole body still humming and fizzing from the experience of making love for the first time, "So, that's what that's like" she said, feeling so many beautiful things all at once that her brain was completely scrambled.

"Yeah, that's pretty much it, luv" Spike smirked as he pulled her body close to his and held her tight, "You okay?" he checked and she glanced up at him, smiling brightly.

"I feel... perfect" she told him happily, "and a little weird, but in a totally good way" she assured him.

"Take that as a positive response then, shall I, pet?" he said, head tilting to one side as he stared down at her. Buffy's response was to lean in closer still and crush her lips to his, kissing him hard and long.

"Does that answer your question?" she whispered, a glint in her eyes when she eventually pulled away to breathe.

"Not nearly" he told her, a similarly wicked look on his face as he claimed another kiss from her, his hands wandering over her body, thrilling her all over again, making her want to repeat what they'd just done.

"Spike" she gasped, as his lips travelled from her own, down her neck to her shoulder, "I love you" she told him, meaning it completely, but also needing to hear him say it back. He didn't let her down.

"Love you too, pet" he promised her, between kisses, "You got no idea how bloody much" he said as they proved their love once again.

The feeling was indescribable to Buffy. The way Spike could make her feel with just a kiss had gone beyond anything she'd ever known, and now as they got as close as two people physically could it was heaven, ecstasy, beyond words or explanation.

"Can we stay here like this forever?" she asked as they snuggled up together afterwards.

"Suits me, luv" Spike agreed, dropping a kiss on top of her head, "but I think you'd get a bit bored after a while"

"I don't think so" she protested, looking up at him, "We have each other, we don't need anybody else"

Spike looked down into her eyes and saw what her real problem was. Her expression gave her away so easily, and her little fantasy wasn't all about them being together forever. She wanted that, just like he did, he was sure, but her real issue was her family and friends.

"Y'know your mates will come around" he assured her, "and your Mum, she'll understand when you explain, she bloody loves you"

"You don't know her, or my friends Spike" Buffy said sadly, laying her head back down on his chest, "They're never going to understand about us. The gang never even got how I could be friends with Angel, and me and you... I've given everything to you, all that I have to give" she said, still not looking at him, "They're never going to understand that. Honestly I'm only just starting to make sense of it myself"

"Hey" Spike put his fingers under her chin and brought her head up til he could see her face, "I love you, more than anything else on this Earth" he swore to her with such intensity in his eyes it make her shiver even moreso than she already was, "If your mates can't accept us, stuff them. I'll take you out of Sunnydale, anywhere you want to go. I'll treat you like a Queen, you'll not want for a thing, pet" he promised her, "but honestly, I don't think you'll be happy anywhere but here"

"You don't know that" Buffy said softly as tears of both joy and sadness combined filled her eyes.

"Bloody do" Spike smirked, "Been around just a bit longer than you, pet, I know people better than most. You have to give your Mum and your friends a bit of time. You never know, daft lot might just be able to find away to accept me and you"

Buffy forced a smiled a placed a soft kiss on her boyfriends lips, before cuddling up as close to him as she could get, planning to get some sleep.

Maybe he was right, maybe in time her mother and Giles, and the gang could all learn to deal with her and Spike being together, and if they couldn't, there was always that pretty little fantasy where her lover took her away to some other place, where they could live happily ever after. She fell asleep and dreamed of a hundred different ways her situation could turn out, and woke the next morning wondering which might be the most likely to come true.

To Be Continued...