Summary: Very AU. Everyone is human. Every town has a house with a story, with a past. Sunnydale was no different. But Crawford Manor was much more than just a house. It's alive and events that were set in motion over a decade ago are finally come to ahead. And it's all because of one platinum blonde bad boy, William Giles.

Spoilers: None.

Pairings: Buffy/Angel, Willow/Tara, Cordelia/Riley, Wes/Fred, Cordelia/Angel with hints of past Darla/Angel and Xander/Anya and future Buffy/Spike. It will be a Spuffy story eventually, just fair warning to all those that aren't Spuffy fans. It's officially a Spuffy story.

Author's Notes: Here is a very long, new update because I'm terribly sorry about the ahem two month long wait. That was completely unintended. I hope you will all forgive me and enjoy this chapter. There is more Buffy in this chapter, with a brief cameo from Dawn. So I hope you all enjoy this chapter and that it makes up for the two month wait.

It Ends Tonight

Angel rolled his eyes as Riley's answering machine kicked in once again. "Riley, it's me. Again. Listen, has it occurred to you that maybe I'm a little concerned? You missed school and practice. I know Cordy dumped your sorry ass, which by the way you deserve, but seriously pick up your phone. Call me back." He sighed and hung up with another eye roll of disgust.

"He's still not picking up?"

The quarterback's eyes flickered up to see Cordelia standing over him with a worried expression. He sighed. "No. He's not answering and neither is Darla."

"And Darla would never miss your call," Cordelia shook her head, sitting beside him on the porch steps. "She would hang up on her own mother for you. So if she's not answering it means something is wrong."

"Or it means that she and Riley know they've screwed up."

"Or the house ate them."

"Which would not be your fault," Angel pointed out. "You didn't tell them to go back in that house, Cordy. They went in on their own free will and for a stupid reason, might I add. So none of this is your fault. And that's assuming something bad did happen. For all we know, those two idiots are sitting around somewhere laughing their asses off because they know we're worried about them."

He was rewarded with a hint of a smile before she turned her face towards the night sky. "I shouldn't have left them there. I know the house is bad. I believe it. They don't and that makes them even more vulnerable. I should have stayed with them. I should've ….."

"Cordy," Angel took her hand in his and squeezed it lightly. "No one in their right mind could blame you for reacting the way you did. They put you in a really rough situation. Your reaction was perfectly natural. And if something did happen, then it's not your fault. I don't blame you. You shouldn't blame yourself. It's not your fault."

She nodded her head but he could tell that the words hadn't helped her much. With a sigh, he put his arm around her shoulders pulling her close, resting his chin on top of her hair. "I wish I could make this better for you."

"I know," Cordelia replied in a quiet voice. "I wish you could too. But we're not little kids anymore, Angel. You can't just give me all the red gummy bears and let that take away all the badness. Somehow or another we wandered straight into a horror movie, only thing is its very real. Our lives are in danger and our friends could be dead."

"Do you regret it? Helping Spike? Helping me?"

The cheerleader pulled away from him to look him in the eye. "No to both of those. It's funny, if you told me a month ago that I would be more concerned about Spike than my own boyfriend, I probably would have laughed in your face and called you crazy. But I've seen what that place is capable of. It wants him. And I don't think its going to stop now that it's had a little taste of him. That can't happen. Spike is too nice, too good, for that place. It will swallow him alive and kill everything that makes him who he is."

"Well that's what we're here for," Angel grinned.

"You're going to swoop in and save the day and be the big fat brooding hero that you always wanted to be, huh, Dark Avenger?"

He snorted, eliciting a giggle from his companion. He gave her a dirty look. "I was eight! Okay. And as I remember you wanted to be my trusty sidekick Vision Girl."

Cordelia rolled her eyes. "That was only because you wouldn't stop whining about how every good superhero needed a sidekick. That and Faith turned you down and pushed you in the dirt. I felt sorry for you. I didn't want you to start brooding."

"I don't brood!" he said, his voice coming dangerously close to whining.

"Then when do you call it?"

"Contemplative silence," he retorted. His own grin grew as a warm smile spread across her face. He loved her smile. It took him a minute to realize that he said that out loud as an eyebrow quirked upwards and her smile grew bigger. He flushed slightly and ran a hand through his hair sheepishly. "Well I do."

"You know if I didn't know better, I'd think that you were flirting with me, Mr. O'Connor."

"And if I was, what would you say?"

"Don't you already have a girlfriend?"

He motioned with his head towards the window behind them. Her brow furrowed as she didn't see anything that would answer her question. It was just Buffy looking down at something. When she mentioned that to Angel he simply nodded his head. She stood up and found her answer. She found that Buffy was sitting on the couch with Spike. His head was resting her lap and they were talking to each other quietly. The way Buffy was brushing her fingers through his hair was all the answer she needed.

"Oh, so now I'm just second string?"

Angel's eyes widened and he shook his head vehemently. "No! That's not what I meant. This is coming out all wrong. I mean obviously I shouldn't even be doing this. Buffy is your best friend and we only broke up like a couple of days ago. This is so not how I imagined this going. But it's just that…."

Cordelia put a finger to his lips silencing him. She then replaced her finger with her lips. Their kiss was brief but still Angel couldn't help but feel that it was perfect. And again he really needed to work on that internal dialogue problem he seemed to be having lately. The cheerleader shook her head. "You're a dork, you know that, right?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "But you like me anyway."

"For some reason, I really do. Wow I'm a freak," her smile growing wider as he narrowed his eyes playfully. "I really do like you, dummy."

"And I really like you too, princess," Angel lifted one of her hands and kissed it softly. "We'll get through this Cordy. You've been my best friend since we were kids. I don't think I would have survived loosing Faith without you." His eyes darkened as he thought about his lost sister and the life she was now forced to live. Cordelia brushed a hand over his cheek.

"We will find a way to save her. We're going to save her and Spike. We're getting a happy ending, damn it."

Angel nodded his head slowly and moved closer to her once again. Just as they were about to kiss, Xander stuck his head out of the window. "Hey, you two, Willow found something." He paused for a moment obviously listening to someone inside the house. "And Buffy said that it's about damn time you guys got together."

"She would," Cordelia shook her head. Angel rose and pulled her up to stand beside him. Hand in hand the couple walked into the house and joined the others who were now gathered around the redhead.

"What did you find out, Wonder Brain?" Xander asked, slipping into the seat next to her. She glared at him out the corner of her eye. A pleased smirk crossed her lips as Tara smacked him on the back of the head.

"Ahem, my life on the line here," Spike cleared his throat. "Some of us would like it if you put the Xander bashing on hold so that Willow can tell us what she found. After I'm safe and sound do whatever you please to the whelp."

"Thanks for the love and support, jerk," Xander muttered.

"Anyway, as I was saying," Willow snapped everyone back to reality. "I found something. I was looking on the internet for the history of the house, beyond what already know. We all know that Michael Crawford bought the house sixty years after it had been built. We all know that his wife was responsible for the gardens on the property and that they all went to waste after she died. And of course we all know about the tragic deaths of the Crawford children."

Buffy arched an eyebrow. "We do?"

"Oh yes, it's a very interesting read. You see the oldest, Michael died in an accident on the docks he worked at. The supposed youngest child, Jacob tried to take over as the apple of his father's eye and failed miserably. He disappeared for two years and then he came back and killed himself right in the parlor of the house with his two sisters watching. Lydia, the younger of the two girls, drowned herself in the fountain after she suffered a miscarriage, which would have been the only child she and her late husband would have had. He died two months after they were married. As a matter of fact, the only Crawford child that didn't suffer from some form of tragic ending is Elizabeth. She just disappeared one day without a trace."

Wesley paused taking in the looks of the people assembled in the room. "What?"

"You really need to get a life," Fred muttered under her breath although it was loud enough to bring a smile to Spike's face.

"Excuse me for being the only one here who was considerate enough to investigate the history of the family that is currently trying to eat one of my friends."

"Aw, we're just kidding you, Percy," Cordelia tapped him on the shoulder. "Suck it up."

Wesley started to retort but Giles held up a hand preventing him from saying anything. "Before this continues on its inevitable headache inducing path, please let's just look at the information that Willow has found out."

The Wicca in question smiled although she kept her eyes trained on the computer screen. "Well all the history aside, I found some information about the land. The land was inhabited by a group of Native Americans. That is before the Spanish settlers arrived trying to convert them."

"I knew it!" Xander interrupted loudly. "Everything bad that happens in horror movie situations happens because someone pissed off the Indians."

"Native Americans."

"Same thing."

"Anyway, again as I was saying, very few of them were willing to actually convert. The missionaries wiped out those that were unwilling to see things their way. The legend says that before the very last of the Native Americans died they cursed the entire land. The land we call Sunnydale. But eventually they were forgotten and those that had converted were assimilated into the settlement. No one believed in the curse anyway. That is until they built the church."

"What happened with the church?"

"The men working at the construction site reported hearing weird noises and seeing things moving. Then ten men on the site were killed. One man went mad. He exhibited odd behavior at work and then went home and killed his family before killing himself. He wasn't the only suicide either. Three other men killed themselves in rather brutal ways. Despite this they still continued to build the church. During the first mass the wine was mysteriously poisoned and the entire congregation was killed. After this the settlers were ready to admit defeat and they fled back to Spain. But not before leaving the land the church stood on with a neat little nickname."

"Something tells me I'm going to regret asking but what was that nickname?" Cordelia asked hesitantly.

"La Boca Del Inferno," Spike whispered. All eyes were on him and he shrunk back from the look on their faces. "The hellmouth. The land they stole from the India... from the Native Americans was really a cover for the mouth of hell. They could control it. They could keep it closed. But the Spanish took over, upset it and now Elizabeth Crawford wants to use me to open it."

Giles opened his mouth to protest but the words died on his lips. It was true. Somehow his son was the key to opening this Hellmouth thing. And based off his son's description it didn't sound like something terribly pleasant to have opened. He saw the lost look entering his son's eyes and moved quickly to pull him out of the pits of his despair.

"I want everything you can find about this hellmouth. I'm going to go through Elizabeth's journal and see what I can get from there."

"And how are we supposed to do that with only one computer?" Fred asked, arching an eyebrow. The eyebrow dropped as the first real smile Giles had given since this whole ordeal had started spread across his face and motioned with his head towards a bookcase in the far corner of the room. From where they sat the assembled teens could see that the books that sat on the dusty shelf were thick and bore lengthy titles that promised nothing but headache inducing boredom. "Sorry I asked."

"Wow, there really is someone who is a bigger nerd than Wes," Xander shook his head in awe.

"Hey!" Wesley and Giles protested in unison.

Two hours later found the group exactly as they had imagined, bored out of their minds and lacking in concrete answers. They found very little about the hellmouth outside of the information that Willow had looked up on the internet. And so most of them were passed out, drooling over the heavy texts. The only survivors of the research party, as Xander had called it, were Spike, Buffy, Xander, Tara, and Giles. Although it was clear that Spike was hanging on out of sheer stubborn will and stark refusal to sleep. When he slept, he was the most vulnerable to the house. And if he was willing to keep it up then Buffy, Xander and Tara were willing to as well despite the fact that the words on the pages had long since ceased to make sense.

Giles was pouring over Elizabeth's journal, trying desperately to find a way to save his son. But he didn't see one. Finally he slammed the book shut with a sneer, startling the conscious members of the group. Tara slid the book away from him before he decided to take out his anger on it. "What did the journal say?"

"A whole lot of nonsense really," he replied, wiping a hand over his face. "Her journal is ambiguous at best. It isn't until the middle that she starts to make reference to the events that led to the end of her family. She knew almost a year before that her mother was going to be pregnant with the son that she died giving birth to."

Spike sat up noticeably. Buffy's eyes flickered to his face and then back to Giles. "Do you think she was psychic or something?"

"Or tuned into the house," Tara said, drawing everyone's attention suddenly. She blushed slightly and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "What I mean is that houses have their own energy to them just like humans do. When a person lives in a house they leave behind a footprint. Almost like a psychic footprint in the house. The house reflects that footprint, which is where we get the idea of ghosts and such. Sometimes if so much negative energy builds up in a house like in Crawford Manor, the house can seem to be alive. Crawford is built over the mouth of hell. I don't think it gets anymore negative than that."

"So the house really is alive?" Xander asked, skeptically. "It's not just Elizabeth and the hellmouth. It's the actual house?"

"It makes sense. In her journal, Elizabeth says that her mother longed for another child but found out after Jacob she couldn't have anymore children. Suddenly four years later she is pregnant, a year after Elizabeth first mentions it in her journal. She said her mother cared for the house as if it were her child. It could be that the house's energy manifested itself in Rebecca in the form of a child."

"So it's kind of like William was the house in human form?" Buffy picked up Giles' train of thought. "And Spike is his descendant?"

"I dare say its pretty safe to say he is William's reincarnation," Giles frowned, looking at his son. Spike lifted his gaze from the table to meet his father's gaze. "It's too much of a coincidence that his mother was named Rebecca and that he is William. Both women are identical and the pictures of William as a child are exactly the same as Spike as a child."

"Except for the eyes," Xander pointed out, earning a couple of glares. He held up his hands defensively. "I'm just saying, you might be part of this whole mess with the Crawford's, but don't forget you're still part Giles. They only have so much of a hold on you."

The corners of his mouth lifted as Spike stared at his best friend in wonder. "Sometimes I get why we're friends," he commented. Xander punched him lightly on the shoulder. "So fine, I'm the house. Now we got that part clear what do we do about stopping me from you know opening the gates of hell?"

"Well I found some obscure reference in this book to something called a Key," Buffy pulled the book she had been looking through closer. "It's supposedly this mystical dimension opening ball of energy."

"So we could use that to close the hellmouth after I open it?" Spike asked, hopefully.

"If you open it," Xander corrected. Spike fixed him with a look. However, Xander was well versed in all looks Spike and merely shrugged it off. "I just don't think we should base our entire plan on something that isn't definite. So anyway," he held up a hand silencing Spike's protests. "How do we find this thing and exactly how do we use it if the Hellmouth is opened?"

Both Buffy and Tara had to grin at the put out look on Spike's face, while Giles was left with a mild sense of envy. He had yet to figure out how to silence his son in such a way. Clearing her throat Buffy brought them back to reality.

"That's the problem. Who knows if this thing is even real or what form it's in? Hell, for all we know it could be a random annoying teenager in Sunnydale." Buffy's tirade ended as her phone rang. She rolled her eyes recognizing the number on her caller id. "Speaking of annoying teenagers in Sunnydale…… Yes, Dawn? ... Mom already knows I'm sleeping over at Cordy's." she paused, her eyes widening. "What do you mean that's not true... what do you know you little weasel….. What's it going to cost me?"

Tara flashed Spike a knowing look which he chose to ignore pointedly. The witch grinned. She knew all about having annoying younger siblings or in her case, cousins. She turned back to Buffy who was becoming increasingly more frustrated by her sister. "You want to hang out with my boyfriend? What kind of weirdo request is that? Anyway you hate Angel…. Spike?" her eyes widened further and her face turned a variety of shades of red. She turned in her seat in order to gain a small sense of privacy. "How do you know about that? You know what? Never mind. I really don't want to know. Just keep this a secret and I might let you meet my boyfriend. Maybe… jerk. Yeah, bye to you too."

She hung up the phone and refused to turn to meet Spike's gaze. She could sense his eyes on her. She knew that infuriatingly adorable smirk was on his face. As it was she could see Xander, Tara and Giles grinning broadly. Suddenly she wished the hellmouth were open and that it would swallow her up at that very moment.

"Boyfriend, eh, pet?" Spike finally broke the amused silence that fallen over the group. "Didn't know we were at that stage yet."

"You didn't?" she retorted, daring to look his way. This proved to be the right move as his face suddenly flushed. He cleared his throat.

"Right, well life on the line, remember? Did anyone else find anything real that could help?" he barely managed to dodge a punch from Buffy. His eyes landed on his cousin. "How about you, Glenda? You've been pouring over that book practically all night. You find something?"

"No," Tara said, shrugging her shoulders slightly. "I guess we have to keep looking."

It was that moment that she related the most to Buffy. Because younger siblings/cousins were created to know when you were hiding something unpleasant. And it seemed like they lived to expose that something unpleasant. Especially when that something unpleasant was something pertaining to them. She knew when she saw that look enter his eye and he knew that she knew. Which was why what needed to happen was going to be all the more painful for them both.

"Give me the book," Spike ordered keeping his voice calm and quiet.

"No," Tara replied, her tone matching her cousin's. She stared him down but managed to keep her cool. "There is nothing to see in here. It's just a bunch of boring old book crap."

Giles protested somewhat but he went largely ignored by the feuding cousins. By this point the remainder of the group was starting to stir as if they noticed the tension that had suddenly fallen over the table. "If there is nothing in there, then why won't you let me look at it?"

"Because you could be doing something actually productive and going through another book, but you want to waste time looking through a book that has nothing in it."

Spike's eyes narrowed. Now he knew there was definitely something in there. "Tara, just give me the damn book."

"No, Will. I'm not giving you the book. Now shut up and move on."

Before Spike could formulate a very colorful reply, Giles decided it was time to intercept. His son and niece were infamous for their tempers and on the rare occasions that they really fought, it got very ugly. He reached for his niece's hand. "Tara, if you know something, anything, then we all need to know. It's important."

"But…" she trailed off, sighing deeply. After a brief moment of hesitation, she shoved the book across the table to her cousin. "I'm hope you're happy, brat." With that said, she stormed out of the room. Willow followed after her wordlessly.

Spike pulled the book closer not bothering to revel in his victory. If Tara was trying to keep it from him this badly, not to mention obviously, then it was something that he probably was better off not knowing. Still they couldn't afford to not have all the options laid out for them. And that's why he flipped the page back to the one he had seen her stuck on earlier that evening. After a few tense minutes, he looked up and pushed the book away.

"Oh."

"After all that, all you have to say is oh?" Angel asked, skeptically. "What did the book say?"

"That the only way to close the hellmouth once it's open is to destroy the thing that opened it in the first place," Tara replied for her cousin. She leaned against the doorway of the room watching him with Willow standing at her side. "That book is saying that the only option we have is to kill Spike."

Giles shook his head words of protest already forming on his lips when Spike finally snapped out of his light daze. "Okay then, well that's an answer."

Buffy scoffed and looked at him. "That is not an answer."

"You mean an answer you feel comfortable with," Spike corrected. His gaze drifted around the room sweeping over every surprised and disbelieving face. "None of you saw what I saw. Once the hellmouth is open, its game over for Sunnydale. You think Faith has a raw deal? Well that's nothing compared to what's going to happen when that thing opens. If the only way to stop it is to kill me, well then so be it."

"Spike, you're seriously telling us to kill you," Tara snapped. "Have you even thought this one through? You think that anyone in this room is going to even consider that idea?"

"You don't get it do you? This isn't a joke. This thing kills people! It's going to wipe out this entire town. This is a way and you're just brushing it aside like it's not even important."

"If it involves you being dead then it's not something worth considering," Xander stated matter-of-factly. He crossed his arms over his chest and attempted his best resolve face. Though not as effective as Willow's it did serve the much desired purpose of calming the angry teen to a slow simmer. After another tense silence he turned on his heel and marched towards the door.

"Spike?" Wesley called after him. "Where are you going?"

"Outside! Don't worry, I promise not to hang myself by my shoelaces while I'm out there!" he snapped as a reply, letting the door slam behind him.

The group jumped slightly at the noise before turning incredulous looks on the elder Giles. The man was rubbing his glasses carelessly on the tail of his shirt. Tara put a hand on his shoulder and leaned down so that her head was resting on top of his. "He's just scared."

"I know," she whispered. "Doesn't change the fact that he's a little ass and he totally broke rule number five."

He arched an eyebrow and glanced up at his niece. "I'm going to regret this… rule number five?"

"No suicide threats in the face of a crisis."

Giles blinked looking between an ashamed Wesley and a nonplussed Tara. It wasn't too hard figuring out which one of them came up with that particular little rule either. He was really going to have to monitor what those three did together.

She knew that she was sort of overstepping her boundaries as the new girlfriend, but she couldn't help it, she was worried. He had been out there on the porch for over an hour and he showed no signs of abandoning his post anytime soon. So she quietly slipped out of the room and out the door.

"I know it's the only way. I know what I have to do."

Buffy stopped in her tracks at hearing his soft voice. His back was still to her and his head was tilted slightly as if he were listening to someone. Someone who couldn't be seen. She gently cleared her throat causing him to jump.

"Buffy? What are you doing out here?"

She raised an eyebrow and sat down beside him. "What does it look like, stupid? I'm checking on you."

He mustered a weak grin. "I told you lot that I wasn't going to hang myself."

"Yes, but you failed to mention that you would be talking to yourself," she pointed out, lightly. "Spike, I know you're desperate to find a way, we all are but killing you…. it's not an option."

She inwardly gasped at the sight of the haunted blue eyes locked onto hers. "Buffy, you didn't see what I saw. I would rather die then let that thing open and do what it wants. I saw what would happen to this town. I saw what would happen to my father, Tara, Wes, Xander… you. I can't let that happen, not to you."

Buffy took his hand in hers and moved closer to him on the steps so that her head was resting against his. "You have to let us try to find another way. I know it's hard for you. But I can't lose you. Not when I just found you."

Spike closed his eyes and sighed. "You always had me, love. One way or another, you always had me."

"When I think about all the time I wasted ignoring you, ignoring this, I want to smack myself," she whispered. "If you think that I'm about to let you kill yourself for this town without a fight, you're out of your mind." She pulled away from him slightly so she could look him in the eye. "Besides, I hear New York is great this time of year."

Spike couldn't help but laugh as she unknowingly echoed his father at the beginning of this whole mess. He was really starting to give the idea some thought. Especially when he thought about her being by his side. He put a hand to her face and rubbed her cheek softly with his thumb. "Buffy," he started to say before trailing off. She reached up and placed her hand over his.

"I don't want to lose you," she repeated. "Promise me that you'll give us time to find another way."

Spike dropped his hand to his lap and looked down at the porch steps. "I can't promise that, love. Please don't make me."

Tears welled in her eyes as she watched him sitting beside her. The thought of losing him made her feel sick inside. She thought she knew what love was while she was with Angel but the one good thing this whole ordeal had shown her was that this was love. What she felt for Spike was love. The idea of being apart from him was hurting her. The thought of him dying to save her was killing her. Without hesitation or even thought, Buffy placed a finger underneath his chin, raising his face to meet hers.

"I love you," she said. She stared him in the eye daring him to contradict the statement. But to her surprise he smiled a little brighter and leaned closer to her again.

"I know you do," he whispered in return. "I love you too." No more words needed to be spoken as his lips brushed against hers. She put a hand behind his head guiding him towards her and deepened the kiss. They parted for air and rested their heads together. "I love you," he said it again. He needed her to know. He needed her to know why he had to do what was going to do. It was because he loved her and everyone else in that house, Angel and Cordelia included, that he had do this. One way or another, he thought, this ends tonight.

I know people wanted to see a little more Buffy but that part with Cordelia and Angel in the beginning just wrote itself. I promise Buffy will be taking on more in this story. I hope the Spuffy at the end was enough to appease some people. Hope you liked. Until next time….