Author Note: This chapter is set in the spring of 2011, meaning roughly five years have passed since we last caught up with the gang.

Brief recap of the journey so far: Spike became human after the Big Battle in LA, while retaining some of his vampiric abilities. Buffy found out he was alive and went to him. They got back together and moved to London where, after a while, they got married and completed a Claim. Also around that time the Slayer discovered she was pregnant. One loss and retrieval of a soul and a return to the States later, Jay Summers was brought into the world. Although there were no prophesies about him, Spike and Buffy soon discovered that didn't necessarily mean he had no supernatural abilities. At the end of the last chapter Willow was pregnant via the use of Xander's sperm donation, Xander already had one child, Dawn was in college, and Giles had announced his plans to marry Olivia.

Epilogue: Entropy Monsters

After a few years of celebrations not getting any worse than having a stray Andrew Wells randomly turn up on her doorstep uninvited, Buffy conceded the supposed curse that had been over her birthday was gone. Now with four kids, birthdays seemed to happen all the time, so it came as no surprise that the Slayer had to push back celebrations for her thirtieth several weeks just purely out of being busy. And to that end she was thankful Spike wouldn't tell her exactly when he was born. Heck, half the time he even got the year wrong. Though Buffy thought that might be on purpose.

Anyway, Buffy's birthday party was finally happening – better late than never – and the old gang had flown in for the occasion. Despite Xander and Willow each bringing along a child to the gathering, the Slayer found it refreshing not to be outnumbered by youngsters for a change. Even so, the ratio was close: eight adults to six.

Olivia and Caitlin were in the dining room lodged in deep conversation about something or other – most likely how they coped being normal while also being married to someone that was part of the supernatural world. Spike was upstairs putting the baby down for a nap, the rest of the kids were running around playing rescue the dinosaur, and Buffy sighed a contented breath as she slumped into a chair beside one of her best oldest friends.

"It's been too long," she said.

"Totally!" Willow agreed.

"Can you believe this craziness? I swear the house was tidy twenty minutes ago."

"Oh, yeah. I know what it's like. Got my own little Entropy Monster."

Giles' ears picked up, "Entropy Monster?"

Buffy smiled, "Also known as a toddler. You know, with the making things fall apart. Seriously Giles, get your head out of the Hellmouth."

"Ah. Quite right," he muttered before going back to his self appointed task of alphabetizing Buffy's bookshelf and pretending not to be jealous of Spike's collection of first edition poetry volumes.

The girls laughed.

Buffy said, "You think one's bad? Try having a child prodigy who floats when he gets bored, a four year old with the fighting skills of a black belt ninja warrior, plus a mouth on him like a sailor, a little girl who gets jealous and tries to find all kinds of crazy things to see if she's got powers of her own. Did I tell you? Last week she launched herself off the top stair to see if she could fly."

"Oh my goddess! What happened?"

Buffy shrugged. "Spike caught her, of course. The best bit? An empathic baby who is constantly upset every time Christina gets a "bobo" and mixes that grief in with the agony that is teething."

Willow gulped and thanked her lucky stars she'd only had one child. "Don't you think it's weird that Christina's the only one without any powers?" she asked.

Buffy laughed and shook her head. "Nah, she's also the only one out of all of them with an actual prophecy written about her."

"Really? What's it say?"

There was another shrug of the shoulders as Buffy admitted, "I haven't read it, but Giles says it's not bad, and it doesn't kick in for a few years. We haven't told her."

"Haven't told who what?" the little girl in question demanded as she approached.

"Nothing you need to worry about." Buffy assured her daughter, as she swiped hair out of her eyes. "Why don't you show me where you got that chocolate?"

Buffy was greeted with an Oscar-worthy imitation of an innocent face. "What chocolate?"

"The one your innocent face is covered in!"

"Oh," said Christina, as she wiped the evidence all across her white sleeve and scampered off.

"Tina!" Buffy called after her, as she followed.

Xander took the now empty chair next to his best friend. Based on the beer bottle and nachos he was carrying, the carpenter had raided the kitchen.

"Hey, Wills," he greeted.

A boy turned around to look at Xander and Willow, then decided they weren't talking to him and went back to playing tag with his older brother.

"His name is William," said the Witch, in explanation.

"Right," Xander nodded. "Of course."

Willow smiled. "It's good to see you! How is married life?"

"Y'know? It's not as scary as I thought it'd be," he admitted.

Elsewhere, Spike finally got Seth to settle. It wasn't easy, seeing as the child was picking up on all the residual excitement flying about. He came down the stairs and separated Alex and Jay who where play fighting too close to an enchanted urn.

"Oi, take it outside," he instructed, before whispering to his son that his stance was sloppy, and that if he really wanted to get the other child on his ass he needed to aim for the lower legs.

"Thanks, dad!" said Jay, as he took off after the older boy into the garden.

Unbeknownst to Spike, Buffy had overheard him and was shaking her head as she approached him from behind.

"You're a bad influence," she said, as she wrapped her arms around his waist and propped her head on his shoulder.

The ex-vampire grinned unashamedly. "No harm in it."

"Tell that to William's teacher," Buffy retorted.

"Happen I will."

Just then William was walking past them and looked up at what he thought was the mention of his name. He stamped his foot. "Why do people keep doing that?!"

"Hush now," Spike soothed, as he swept him up in his arms. "You'll make Seth all agitated."

"Sorry daddy. Who is everyone?"

"Well," the ex-vampire began, as he carried his son around the place and pointed out each guest in turn, telling little stories about all of them as he went.

Buffy resumed her hunt for chocolate by attempting to track down her daughter again, and Xander turned just in time to see Dawn enter. His eyes lit up, and it was then that he really realized for the first time that she wasn't a girl anymore.

"You look amazing!" he said.

"Thanks," she replied, as she smiled back. "I like how you've gone for a stylish green and orange eye patch, it's very you."

The carpenter looked bashful as he admitted, "I know the colors clash, but Alex made it, and I don't have to look at it."

"Very fetching," the guy on Dawn's arm assured him.

"And who's this?" Xander asked.

"Oh, you remember Zach. We met in college, I introduced you like two years ago."

"Right, right, and with the wedding pictures on Facebook. It's all coming back to me."

Dawn shook her head good-naturedly at her friend, then caught sight of her sister and dragged Zach off into the other room.

"Hey! You made it!"

"Yup. And we even brought presents, bought with actual money."

"I hear that helps."

They grinned at each other, then Dawn leaned in close, like she was looking for something, or about to tell a secret.

"So, uhh, any news?"

Buffy crossed her arms. "I'm not pregnant again, if that's what you mean. You're gonna have to pay up on that bet with Willow you think I don't know about, because four really is where we're stopping."

"Didn't you say that after two?"

"Who was I kidding? Spike wasn't gonna go without for long, and birth control couldn't keep up. Plus, there was no way in hell I was putting him through being sterilized, no matter how many times I threatened it."

Dawn pulled a face, and shot a look of apology over at her husband who had paled substantially. "Enough with the TMI. What's changed?"

"Willow did a non-dangerous mystical equivalent of the sterilization thing."

Zach almost passed out at the thought of it, and Dawn looked pissed. "I've been fleeced!" she said, as she went off to find the Witch and make her pay up on the bet for cheating.

Buffy chuckled to herself as she looked around. "I've got the best family in the world."

End Notes: it was really difficult to get the balance between showing and telling right in this chapter, and I think I've probably failed in places. It's just hard to cover five years when such a lot has happened. And, yeah, that's my fault for setting the epilogue five years from the end of the last chapter, but I wanted to give a glimpse at what life is like for everybody now. I hope I've done that, and I hope you like it. Thank you to everyone who's been following this story. It's been quite a ride!

Specific details, for anyone who's wondering:

Xander's son, Alex, was the firstborn of the Scooby babies – coming into the world sometime in 2004, making him about seven at the time of the epilogue.

Jay was born November 1st 2005, meaning he's five in this chapter.

Willow's baby, Aria, was born March 2006, making her almost five.

Giles got married in May 2006.

Buffy's baby #2, William, was born late August 2006, so he's four here.

Xander married Caitlin in 2007.

Buffy's third child, Christina Joyce, was born February 2008. She just turned three.

And Buffy's fourth, Seth, was born in July 2009 and is therefore one and a half.

Dawn got married in 2010 and has no intention of having children – ever. (Though she's prophesied to have twin baby girls in 2016. They, together with Christina, will form the first wave of the next generation of Slayers, but that's a different story.)