I Love You

“I love you.”

“No, you don’t. But thanks for saying it.”

Stupid vampire, always thinking he knew everything; she said left, and he said right. But she did – she knew it, even if he didn’t believe her. So she gripped his hand tighter, watched the flames lick their skin without burning. Her eyes were wet, and she met his gaze evenly, the little half-smile on her lips growing.

“I do, Spike,” she told him again. “I love you.”

His gaze was soft, and he jerked his hand away, held it out to ward her off.

“Go, Buffy.”

She turned to look at the staircase of earth and stone, started for it. But before she could take a step the ground shuddered violently beneath her feet, and debris of plaster and wood and half the school filled the hole, blocking her exit. There was no way out.

He was watching it, his face full of fear suddenly. Not for himself- he’d planned to stay for the finish. But now Buffy was stuck here, too. She turned back to him, and he didn’t object when her arms wrapped around him. She buried her face in his shoulder, felt the sharp edges of the amulet press into her chest, right above her heart.

“I think I’ll stay here with you.”

His arms wrapped around her, his face bent low over her head as the Hellmouth crumbled around them. He was warm, she realized, infused with the power of the necklace. Her arms tightened around him as she realized she was about to die. She looked up at him, tears coursing down her face, and smiled.

“See you on the other side?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

The power of the amulet seemed to blow out like a candle, its warmth depleting. The last Buffy knew, her tears had dried and she clung to Spike, waiting for the end and the dark.


******

Dawn stood at the lip of the crater that had once been her home. She smiled a bit, as the ‘Welcome to Sunnydale’ sign wavered and gave up, falling into the mass of rubble. Buffy hadn’t made it, she kept thinking. Buffy hadn’t made it, again.

She felt Xander’s hand on her shoulder, and Willow’s fingers slipping into her warm palm. The tears refused to come - she’d grieved for her sister once already. Instead, a warm sense of peace pervaded her body, knowing her sister had died for her again.

“We’ll go tonight,” Giles’ voice crept up behind them, weary with exhaustion. “Before the government and Lord knows who else has time to come. We’ll bring her back.”

“No,” Dawn whispered. “I think she’d like to stay there, with Mom and Tara and Anya and…and everyone else.” Spike. She didn’t want to say the name, but she liked to think Buffy wanted to be buried there, with the people she’d fought so hard to protect.

“Where to next, y’think?”

“Well, I heard Cleveland has a Hellmouth…”