After tucking Dawn into her own bed at the house, Buffy walked up to the attic and knocked on Spike's door. There was a grunt that almost sounded like come in, so she walked from the already dark hall into the pitch black room and at once tripped over something and landed on him, since he slept on a mattress on the floor.
His grunt this time was pained and was followed by a few more as she tried to get up again. Finally she settled for sliding off to sit on the edge of the mattress. Some rumply noises and a match strike later a golden glow haloed him turning his yellow hair bright neon. She suppressed a giggle.
"I'm glad you're amused. Need something, love?" He asked as he fell back on his pillow.
"Got Dawn home and tucked in. Don't know what to do now."
"I don't think she's lying down anymore. I hear her strumming that guitar I got her a couple months ago. She's butchering My Way at the moment." He sighed. "Tara needs to suffer; the witch made me quit smoking, and it's all I ever want to do now."
"I like that you don't reek like an ashtray anymore." Buffy curled into his side, resting her head on his chest. "I want to sleep."
"Right." He reached over and pinched the candle out, and then wrapped an arm around her, feeling like a fool because this was better than any fantasy he'd ever had of her.
Willow sucked up an entire room of demons at one time with a heavy soul. It still wasn't enough, but she slid into two more rooms and syphoned enough to go home and see her family for an hour with any luck.
She touched the Travix stone and appeared in the living room of the house as Giles was letting Anya and Tara in. Willow took a step toward Tara but then checked herself and waved lamely instead.
Tara waved back. "Hi, Willow."
"How'd it go? And be quick, I don't have much time."
"There's a fix, but I don't think you'll want to use it."
"Why not?"
Anya pulled out the notebook they wrote the spell Osiris gave them and flipped to the right page and showed it to Willow.
"No! This can't be right! I can't do that!" Willow collapsed in tears on the floor after shattering a ceramic vase against the wall. And no one could touch her to comfort her without getting absorbed by her. "Why?"
Tara knelt as close to Willow as she could and ached to touch her. "To force you to understand that too much power isn't a good thing. That there are consequences. But Osiris still wanted you to have the protection you asked for."
Willow gasped as she convulsed with a final sob. She forced herself back to a composure where she could talk again. "I'm going to talk to Buffy."
Giles, Anya, and Tara watched Willow walk up the stairs and out of sight. Anya turned to Giles and saw his resignation. "How long have you known how this would end?"
"I had my suspicions when Willow needed to feed more for the same results." He limped across the room to sit on the couch and wait.
Anya sat on the loveseat while Tara sat in the overstuffed chair. Uneven guitar chords drifted down the stairs.
"Oh dear lord, Dawn's decided to slaughter Behind Blue Eyes. Someone please go stop her. I don't think I can handle this today." Giles rubbed the livid red scar on his lip.
"I'll go," both Tara and Anya said as they stood up. "We'll go."
They whispered as they ascended the stairs following Dawn's untrained guitar playing. Tara opened the door and said, "I'll bet Spike could teach you how to play that."
"Tara! Anya!" Dawn shrieked and jumped up to hug them both, almost dropping her guitar. "I missed you both so much. These guys are idiots without you two!"
"We missed you too, Dawn." Anya said as she patted Dawn's head.
Too happy with the return of her temporarily displaced family members, Dawn didn't even complain. "You two have to tell me everything." She grabbed their hands and dragged them over to her bed.
Xander answered the phone only because the receptionist told him it was Anya. He took a deep breath, but that didn't stop the mist forming in his eyes as he picked up the phone. "Hello?"
"I see you finally figured out that sex is better than booze."
He smiled at the receiver. "I did. Kinda hard not to get the picture when my future wife is so far away."
"I love you, too. And I miss you, but you're staying there until you're cured or whatever."
"Got it. I know I made that speech last year, but then I continued to try to fit you into the cookie cutter mold of average people. While I still might ask you to not talk about our sex life in public because it embarrasses me, you can hit me if I ever try to shove you in that mold again. Beat me senseless even. I love you and I never want to be without you again." Xander smiled as Anya told him all about her trip. He was happy that Anya and Tara not only got along but became real friends, not just 'Scooby girlfriend friends.' He laughed when she told him how she beat up a hamburger oracle, and that they needed to find and burn every copy of Multiplicity in existence, including the negatives. He was so happy to hear her voice.
"You need to forgive Willow. Not for her, but for you. And before you try to deny it, you've always been bigoted against demons. I know it's because you dusted Jesse, but it's time to get over that one bad experience and allow good demons into your life and stop being a closed-minded jerk."
"I'll start working on that now. Is she there?"
"She is but she can't come to the phone. But I can hand you over to Buffy, who's got her hand out for the phone and glaring at me because I've taken so long with you. Here she is."
"Xander?"
"How goes things with the Buffster?"
Willow sat in the corner of Spike's room, not wanting to be alone but afraid that she'd accidentally kill him if she got too close. She could feel him watching her and she knew he had a slew of scathing comments; he was just waiting until they'd hurt the most to unleash them.
"Thank you, Red."
Her head shot up. "What? I mean, for what?"
"Giving me a chance to prove that I'm not the monster I used to be to Buffy. Still a demon mind you, but no longer that monster. I owe you."
"Well, considering one day I'm going to kill you even though I don't want to, it sorta means you don't owe me anything." Willow felt too awkward to keep sitting there with him so she stood up. "I hope you aren't in love again when it happens."
His eyes followed her out the door, and he heard her go to her room. They would spend a few hundred years connected to each other, and all he could think was that at least he'll go out by the hand of a friend. Not in betrayal but as a consequence for being a man, for being William, again for an hour. He wouldn't change a thing because it turned out that William wasn't so bad. Not that he wanted to be William again, but because he'd made peace with still carrying him inside.
Giles sat next to Buffy on the couch, with her head on his shoulder as they watched an old Fred and Ginger routine from Top Hat. The one in the gazebo Buffy claimed as her favorite movie moment of all time. It surprised him that she had that much taste buried under the layers of bubble gum, hunky Hollywood stars, and the senseless noise she usually liked. Sitting with her now, watching such a classic and it being her idea, was a secret dream he'd had for years.
The squeals drifting down from Dawn's room as Tara and Anya finished telling her about their trip, added that extra perfect layer to the dream. Xander would be home in a couple months, and he'd be sober. The town could heal. And he got to have this immaculate moment with his Buffy, his daughter he admitted to himself. She wasn't like a daughter, she was his daughter. They were all his children. Except Spike, he was just an add-on that worked out for now.
"I love this part. Where they dance up and down the steps and hold their hands out to catch the rain." She sighed as the number finished. "I can fight better than Bruce Lee, but I could never dance that in time with anyone. I never worked that well with others."
He kissed the top of her head. "I think you work with others just fine. When they do what you want anyway."
She laughed and elbowed him in the gut. "Hey!"
"What did you and Willow decide?"
"She's being stubborn. I know I'm right and yet she continues to argue."
Giles grasped Buffy's hand. "She made the choice to bring you back. And this is her choice as well. No one can make it for her."
Tears filled Buffy's eyes. "I know."