A/N: Okay yes, this chapter is completely named after the James Blunt song. It's sort of sappy music, but I like it when in a sad mood. And plus, as I worked on this chapter I listened to the song a lot, because I think that it fits how Spike views Jackie totally and entirely. So after this there is a short epilogue, but tonight Spike leaves Point Place. Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed and read. I'm glad that this story worked out, and I'm also happy that it even entertained those who don't watch Buffy. Spike as a character is cool that way.

Disclaimer: I don't own 70S SHOW, James Blunt's music, Pete Townsends's music, nor Spike (but I agree with Illyria and wish to make him my pet).

Yes she caught my eye as she walked on by. She could see by my face that I was fuckin' high. And I don't think that I'll see her again, but we shared a moment that will last til the end. You're beautiful, you're beautiful, you're beautiful, it's true. I saw your face in a crowded place, and I don't know what to do. Cuz I'll never be with you.. – James Blunt

They drank the beer and looked up at the stars in the winter sky.

"It's cold up here," he said, though it didn't bother him.

"It's Wisconsin, it's cold everywhere," she said. "You want my scarf this time?"

"It's pink."

"It's cashmere."

"Cashmere comes in scarves?"

"… It may, but this was specially made. Michael gave it to me as a sweater, and when he left me for California I cut it up and made it into a scarf." He laughed, and looked at the pot leaf that was painted on the tower.

"You and your friends find ways to have fun, that's for sure," he said. She nodded, and leaned against the rail.

"I love winter moons," she said. "I know it isn't really winter until it's snowed, but the air is so cold. Oh no! I think my nose is frozen!" The beer was certainly getting to her.

"Yeh, it's alright out here I suppose," he said.

"So when are you going back to New York?" she asked, playing with her scarf.

"I don't know. Probably tonight once we're done here," he said.

"You shouldn't drive after you've been drinking," she said. "So what did you think of Steven?" He didn't like him, and knew that Jackie could do better, but knew she still cared for him, so there must have been something good in him if she did. After all, she saw the good in Spike.

"I think he's a fool for dumping you for that twat."

"Wow! What does that mean?" she asked, and waved as she threw a beer can to the ground below.

"It's a rude word."

"That's good enough for me," she said. "I've been wondering. What's your real name?"

"Couldn't Spike be my real name?" he asked, opening another can.

"Oh puhlease, did your mother really write 'Spike' on your birth certificate?" Jackie asked. He chuckled, and shook his head.

"No. It's William," he said. "My name is William Pratt." Was William Pratt….

"It's nice to meet you, William Pratt."

"And I you, Jacqueline Burkhart." She nodded, opened another beer for herself, took a drink, and coughed a little.

"I hate beer," she said. "At least this gross macrobrewed crap. William, can you-?"

"Spike."

"Ugh, fine. SPIKE, can you tell me how to get over him?" she asked. "You're older than me, more mature. How can I forget him?" Spike groaned. Giving advice to a teenager now?

"Burk, love, do you actually want to get over him?" Spike asked, looking at her. She crossed her arms.

"I don't know. What I do know is that I just want to move on," she said. "But I'm stuck."

"Fine, I'll give you some advice, I suppose. For one thing, stop drinking your problems away," Spike said.

"Does this count?" she asked, pointing at the beer can.

"Oh no, this is social drinking with a friend," he said. "It's if you drink alone then it becomes an issue. So don't do it. Or you'll be that drunken old hag in the bar."

"Ew! Thanks a lot!" she snapped.

"Well it's true!" he growled. "And… Look, I know you've been cutting yourself." An embarrassed pall fell over her face, and she looked away.

"I don't know what you're talking about," she lied.

"Yes, you do," he said. "I saw your legs."

"When?"

"Last night."

"You saw me in my panties?!"

"It was an accident!" he lied. "Dammit, just stop with the cutting, okay? I know it feels like you have control over it, more control than your fucked up life, but you don't."

"You don't know that," she snapped. He'd obviously hit a nerve.

"Burk-."

"No! You don't know!" she exclaimed. "You don't know how this feels!"

"Sure I do! I've been kicked around by cupid just as much as you have!" he threw back. "I'm just trying to help you because…. I…. I caaaare about you." Getting that out felt odd, and his voice lilted a little bit. She looked at him questioningly, and then raised her eyebrows a little bit.

"You do, huh?" she asked. He pursed his lips in a small scowl, and nodded.

"Don't go spreading it around," he said. "Can I continue with my patented ways to get over a spouse?"

"Well since you're still with that Drusilla girl they don't sound like they work too well."

"I'm going to throw you off the water tower-."

"Okay okay okay," she said. "Continue. I appreciate the advice, and I caaaare about you too." She mocked his intonation, and pat him on the shoulder.

"Cheeky strumpet. Next, start dating again," he said.

"Spike, I tried that."

"So try again," he said. "You need to get out there, find some nice guys. Don't just date anyone you see, and don't throw yourself at anyone. Just go out there, and be yourself."

"Myself doesn't work."

"It does, you nit, it attracted me, didn't it?" he asked, reluctantly, and she grinned from ear to ear.

"Awwww! Really???"

"Shut it."

"Well I already got step two down, cuz I dated youuuu."

"Shut. It. Three, when you're ready, try to be friends with him again."

"Why?"

"Because it's closure," Spike said. "If you can interact with him normally again, you will be able to move on." She sighed, and rested her head on his shoulder.

"But the most important thing is that you have to live your own life and not worry about his," Spike said. "You can do so much with your life, love, you just need to try." She nodded, and nuzzled her head into his shoulder.

"So you have to leave?" she asked.

"Yeh." She took his hand in hers.

"Why?"

"I'm not cut out for the Midwest."

"You're so cool, though! Can't you just stay a little while longer?" she asked. He shook his head. "Why not?"

"You don't want a guy like me in your life for too long, Burk."

"Why not?"

"It's a complicated situation. I'm not very safe."

"You seem pretty safe to me, William."

"SPIKE."

"Okay okay okay," she said, and looked at him. "But if you stay, every day can be like this." He smirked, and shook his head.

"As tempting as that is, it can't be done," he said.

"Why not?" she asked. "I have so much fun with you. You helped me smile. Oh my God. I just figure it out. YOU can be my white knight."

"Wait, what?"

"You are my savior!" she exclaimed, the epiphany hitting her. "Destiny brought us together last night, I just know it. I know it because you make me feel so good! I haven't felt this good in a long time, and I can tell that you haven't either, so don't even try and deny it." Of course she read him like a book. She always had. He was so flattered it almost disgusted him. He was no one's white knight. He was the dragon the knight fought. He was the predator, not the hero. And this naïve girl had it all mixed up. Poor thing.

"I'm no prince," he said, firmly. "And you should have a prince."

"You can be! You will be!" she said, and he growled. "Why won't you just stay one more night? I bet I could convince you. You and me-!"

"Because frankly, Burk, if I stay any longer you WILL convince me and I may not want to leave!" he snapped. She was surprised by the frustration in his voice, but not afraid.

"Why is that a bad thing?" she asked, her frown heard in her voice. He stood, and paced the water tower a little bit.

"You are a great girl and I would fall for you hard. Very hard. Love's slave, remember? And I think that we could probably make each other pretty happy for at least a little while, until my circumstances interfere. Look, I would love to stay, or take you with me, because you HAVE given me something. REAL happiness. Happiness that I thought I'd left behind me YEARS ago, and I mean YEARS. But I can't stay for reasons that you can't understand."

"Can't you help me understand?" she asked. He smirked, and shook his head.

"God I wish I could, Jackie," he said. "But you wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"…. Oh," she said. She was very sad to hear this, but she knew that he was set on leaving, and that it was probably for the better in the end. "Okay." He nodded, and looked at the beer she'd stopped drinking.

"Sides, your whole fixation on me? That's the beer talking," he said, sitting next to her again, but she shook her head, and laid it back on his shoulder. "You have to believe me when I say this. You're the best thing that's happened to me in a long time. And though it's hard to understand, I'm leaving because I feel this way." She huffed in frustration, and crawled so she was behind him. She hugged him from behind, wrapping her arms around the front of him and nuzzling her neck against his. He was going to pat her head, when he realized that his neck hurt like the Dickens. He pulled away, swearing, and put his hand to it. He then noticed that her choker with the cross on it was smoking a little bit. She looked at his neck, and pulled his hand away gently. Oh fuck me, he thought. There was a cross shaped burn, red and blistering.

"What's that?" she asked, softly. He didn't answer, and she touched it tenderly. He closed his eyes, mortified and ashamed. Plus, it hurt. "You're burnt…. My necklace… Oh my God..." Would this change anything? Of course it would! How couldn't it?

She made him move his face to look at her. He opened his eyes, and gazed into hers. They were filled with a kind of knowledge that he'd only seen in those who understood that the supernatural walked among them.

"Can't travel by day," she said, almost a whisper. "Have to be invited into my home…"

"Jackie," he muttered, allowing himself to step into the personal world that he had denied for so long. "I can't really explain-." But she put her hand to his mouth, as she'd done so many other times before, and looked at him seriously.

"Spike. I… I understand," she said, smiling compassionately.

Those two words never felt so good on his ears. He exhaled, and smiled back in relief. You underestimated her, old boy, he thought. She understands, and she doesn't care. He took her hand, and chuckled a little in spite of himself.

"You understand?"

"Yes." He chuckled a little more as the giddiness poured into him. It hadn't changed anything. It really hadn't. Though, it may have changed his perspective a little bit.

"You understand," he repeated. "God, you've just made my week. I never thought you would, but you do." She nodded, and smiled widely, and they hugged each other tightly.

"Spike, will you miss me?" she asked. He nodded. He WAS going to miss her. "I'm gonna miss you too. I wish you could stay. I know why you get me so well."

"Oh yeh? And why's that?"

"You get me so well because we're soul mates." The power in those words was almost unbearable. For the first time since he was sired, he wanted to be human again. He didn't know it then, but almost twenty five years down the road he'd feel that longing again. For now, though, it stung him hard, especially since he was falling for her more and more by the minute.

But it wouldn't work. She may have understood him, but he wasn't her soul mate, and he knew it. Her soul mate was back at that record store. Spike could tell by the way they looked at each other, no matter how bitter the eyes were, there was still love. Love that he could never understand because he didn't have that vital component that created love. Without his soul, he couldn't give Jackie what she wanted. Even if he wanted to.

"….. Soul mate, huh?" he asked, letting her believe her lie. "That's mighty flattering, Burk. Maybe on some level…"

"Wait one minute!" she exclaimed, pulling from their embrace. "Sam! She said that you were… How did she… What did you do?" He grinned evilly.

"Let's just say I gave her a good scare last night when I told you I'd left my lighter in Donna's kitchen."

"Oh you're BAD!" she exclaimed, swatting his shoulder and laughing. "That's not very nice, Spike."

"Like you care! Don't get all judgmental on me now, Burk."

"Oh I'm not, that made my year."

A light snow began to fall from the night sky. They both looked up, and Jackie began to smile so wide she almost gleamed.

"It's snowing!" she exclaimed, and she stood up. He stood up with her, and lit a cigarette. "It's finally snowing!"

"Hm, so it is," he said. She looked up at him, and smiled.

"You brought the snow," she said, wistfully. "You brought what I'd been hoping for."

"Don't be ridiculous," he muttered, shuffling his feet and feeling very uncomfortable. "I didn't do anything, it's bloody November, the snow comes on it's own. It's Wisconsin for Christ's sake!"

"You're the man who brought the snow," she said, and threw her arms around him once again. He huffed, and rolled his eyes, she was ridiculous. But adorable. "Oh Spike!" He found himself smiling, and laughed a little bit.

"I didn't bring you anything," he insisted, but she planted a kiss on his lips anyways. He was surprised, but kissed her back. He was never going to see this bird again, and he had better make the most of it while he still could.

"I will always remember you as the man who brought me snow," she said, and he rolled his eyes, but continued hugging her.

"Soul mate or not, you still confuse the hell out of me."

She stood by his car, after they drove back to the Foreman's neighborhood where her car was parked, and began digging through her purse as he started the engine.

"What are you doing now?" he asked. She pulled something from it, and handed it to him through the window.

"I always have a few extra pictures of me in my wallet," she said. "So I want you to have one. Just so you remember the fun we had." He smiled a little, and put it on his dashboard.

"Seems fair to me," he said. He then pondered, and took his obsidian ring off. "Here."

"What?"

"You can have this ring," he muttered. She took it, and smiled at him.

"But, it's your fearsome ring."

"It's not fearsome, it's feminine, and I want you to have it," he said.

"Thank you! You're giving me a friendship ring! It symbolizes how we'll always be friends through thick and thin, and how our bond will be eternal!"

"Oh God, HOW do you make everything sound so bloody GIRLY?" he asked, and she slipped it on her thumb. She leaned into his window, and smiled at him. "Well Burk, it's been a great night. You really put a smile on this old bloke's face."

"You put one on my face too. And thank you for the advice."

"Well… thank you for understanding," he stated. "Not many do."

"For the record," she said, in full seriousness. "To me you'll never be a monster."

"…. You have no idea how important that is to me." He winked at her, and revved the engine.

"Tell Steven I say 'bye, mate'," he continued, and she giggled.

"You know I will," she said, but then frowned a little as tears began slinking down her cheeks.

"What's wrong, love?" he asked, softly. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve, and exhaled sharply as if trying to regain some control. As they both knew, she hated losing it.

"I don't want you to go." He nodded, and set his lips in place. He touched her face, and she put her hand on his hand as it held her gently.

"I don't want to go either," he said. "Just know that I won't forget you."

"I know," she said, her voice breaking. "I couldn't ever forget what you've done for me. You… You've changed me." He squeezed her hand, and kissed it.

"Me too," he stated. She leaned in, and they kissed each others cheeks. She touched his face, stepping back onto the curb.

"Goodbye, Spike," she said. "I'll miss my vampire." He smirked a little, and winked.

"Goodbye, Jackie," he answered, and pulled away from the curb, watching her through the rearview mirror as he drove away from her. She waved, and jumped up and down. He was sorry to leave her, but knew that she would be okay. Even if he wasn't sure he would be.

Jackie watched his car drive, and turn the corner, towards the road out of town. She waved until he was out of sight, and then sighed heavily. While she knew that it would never work, he'd made her life as great as it was when she was with Steven. She bit her lip, and walked towards her blue Camero, holding out her hands so the snow would fall into her arms, as if the snow could hold her and tell her that it was going to be okay. She wept bitterly, and the snow flakes mixed with her tears as she cried into the air. She sat on the curb next to her car, and held her face in her hands.

Spike huffed, in a mood because of having to leave the one person who really understood him, and feeling extremely guilty and alone. He wasn't about to cry, as he never cried for anyone or anything, but he had to stop the car to stop his shaking. And he stopped his car outside Grooves. He saw Hyde and Sam in the window. She was reading a magazine and he was looking ever so broody. Kind of like how Angelus used to get. Spike stopped the car, and did all he could do for his friend he'd never see again and the one person who didn't care what he was. He got out of the car, and walked into Grooves.

Hyde was already in a bad mood, being called into Grooves on a Sunday night after that AWFUL dinner, when he looked up to see the punk he wished he'd never set his eyes on again. He groaned, and Spike walked up to the counter. Sam looked up from her magazine, and saw him. She then bolted from the main room into the back room. Hyde rolled his eyes, and Spike gave him a look of condescending scorn.

"Still thinks I'm a vampire?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Heh, I get that a lot."

"What are you doing here?" he asked.

"Maybe I want some music."

"I doubt that."

"Well, yeah, you're right," Spike said. "Listen up, mate, and listen good. Frankly, I don't think you deserve a girl like Jackie. For you to choose…" He gestured to the back room, and wrinkled his nose, "THAT… Over a lady like Jackie Burkhart… It blows my mind. For some reason, she still cares about you. But then, she cares about me too… But you don't seem to give a hoot in hell about her. Of course, then I just look deeper."

"Yeah, and what do you see?" Hyde snapped.

"I see a guy who is trying so hard to forget her he'd throw his happiness away," Spike said. "Hell, I'm in that boat too, mate. And I've only known her for a day. For you to know her all those years….. No wonder you're so far gone."

"Do you love her?" Hyde asked. Spike paused, and then smiled.

"We'd known each other a day," Spike said. "Is that even possible?"

"Do you love her?" Hyde repeated, more forcefully.

"…. No," Spike said. "I honestly don't know if I CAN love. And I'd be lying if I said your ex didn't make me want to try. But don't get all bent out of shape, cuz she'll never love me. Like me, she's loves bitch and holds out hope for the person who treats her the worst. Maybe that was all it was between us. I wouldn't know. I'm stepping aside, mate, for my own reasons. But I suggest that you suss out if you want her or not. Because she shouldn't have to wait forever, and I can guarantee you that she won't." With that, he saluted snarkily, and left the record store, and Point Place, for good.

As he drove, he turned on the radio, scouring the highway for the nearest truck stop. When faced with feelings you weren't used to, it was best to go on a rampage, that's what Angelus always used to say. Somehow, Spike knew it wouldn't work this time, but still. Besides, he was hungry.

"I don't mind other guys dancing with my girl," Roger Daltrey sang. "That's fine, I know them all pretty well. But I know sometimes I must get out in the light. Better leave her behind with the kids, they're alright. The kids are alright." Spike smiled ruefully.

"Sing it, mate," he stated, and sped up in an attempt to escape the fact he'd never felt so hollow in his life.

A/N 2: I'm so sad to be done with this story. Well, there is an epilogue, don't forget, but still. And as you who've read my other Manhattanverse stories, it takes Hyde TEN YEARS to suss out what he wants… But still.