CHAPTER NINE/ EPILOGUE
 
Willow’s early morning wake up knock, found them still wrapped up in each other, although temporarily sated and just dozing. She followed her knock by opening the door, only to slam it again with an “eep!” when she caught a glimpse of the two naked bodies entwined on the bed.
 
Buffy groaned and pulled the sheets up over them.
 
“It’s okay, Wills. Come on in. We’re … well, not decent, but we’re covered.”
 
Willow opened the door slowly and peered in to the room without actually looking in their direction.
 
“So… you guys are… okay then?”
 
Buffy looked at Spike, a question in her eyes. “Are we? No more hiding-from-Buffy Spike?”
 
He shook his head. “No, love. You’re stuck with me now.”
 
Buffy looked back toward Willow and her red face. “We’re good. We’ll be better, but we’re good now.”
 
“Well, that’s… good then. ‘Cause we might have a teeny problem…”
 
“Is this about the soldiers and our girls?”
 
“Okay, then, maybe we have two teeny problems….”
 
Buffy sighed. “Sounds like we need to get dressed and come out into the real world.  Give us a few minutes to shower and get dressed and we’ll meet you in the lobby.”
 
“We’ll meet her in the kitchen. I need to eat. Expended a lot of energy recently,” Spike said a leer.
 
“Kitchen it is. Later!” Willow slammed the door again.
 
When the door had closed, Spike put his arms around Buffy and pulled her down with him. 
 
“I thought you were tired?”
 
He sighed and dropped a kiss on her shoulder. “I am, truth be told. I just hate to leave this and go face the real world.”
 
“Right there with you,” she said with a grimace. “But welcome to my life.”
 
“I remember, sweetheart.”  He stretched and moved his legs experimentally.  “Looks like I’ve recovered enough to walk myself to the shower. Care to join me?”
 
XXXXXX
 
Somewhat longer than the few minutes she’d asked for, Buffy and Spike left their room and walked to the kitchen, mostly ignored by the few slayers lolling around the lobby.  Buffy tossed Spike a bag of frozen blood and while he warmed it up, she fixed herself some cereal. Willow came to join them as they sat at a small table to eat.
 
The first thing she did was study Spike intently, then smile. “You look like you’re pretty much recovered,” she said. “I didn’t really expect you to crash that badly when I gave you the boost. I’m sorry.”
 
“Nothing to be sorry for, Red. Without that boost, I’m not sure we could have outrun those ugly buggers as far as we did. No harm done that good rest didn’t cure.”
 
“‘Rest’, huh? Is that what they’re calling it these days?”  Willow smirked at him.
 
He looked at Buffy. “She’s getting sassy in her old age, isn’t she?” he said with a grin.
 
Willow pointed a finger at him. “Vampire – toad. Could still happen.”
“I don’t want warts, Willow,” Buffy said, her laughter joining theirs. They were quiet for a few moments, smiling and content. “This feels good. Like we’re almost us again. All we need is—” She stopped, not sure what to say about the missing members of the old Sunnydale Scoobies.
 
“We’ll have a big reunion thing when everybody’s home,” Willow said. “Right now, we have a few fires to put out.” They looked at her expectantly, and she sighed, pointing to Spike. “Your little groupie girl has taken her mistake to heart. To the point where nobody wants to go out with her because she’s so reckless. I don’t know if she’s trying to atone by being a one-girl slaying squad, or if she’s so upset with herself that she’s hoping for suicide by vampire. It’s hard to tell because she won’t talk to anyone.”
 
“So that’s my problem to fix,” Spike said, staring into his mug. He raised his eyes to Buffy and began, “If I had….”
 
“Bullshit,” she cut him off. “Your soulless state has nothing to do with this. Just go find her, explain… explain… something that doesn’t make her feel like an even bigger idiot for thinking your flirting meant anything besides you can’t help yourself around women.”
 
“I agree,” Willow said. “Let her grovel and apologize, just don’t go feeling all sorry for her and go with the comforting hug. You know she won’t see that for what it really is.”
 
Spike looked at Buffy’s carefully neutral expression and snickered. “Know better than that, don’t I? Even if I was the hugging type, which I’m not.”
 
He finished his blood and went to the sink to rinse the mug out. “So where do I find this death-seeking slayer?”
 
“She’s with Rachel. In the meeting room.”
 
“Got it. See you in few, Slayer.”
 
“You’d better….”
 
 
 
Buffy watched Spike walk out, then looked her own question at Willow. “And the other teeny problem is….?”
 
“Some of the girls think they want to join the Army.  You’ll have to talk to Rachel about it. Most of them were her girls, but a couple of ours too.”
 
Willow looked surprised when Buffy just shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe it’s not such a bad idea…”  She told Willow about Spike’s observations about the newer slayers, as well as her own doubts about how good a job she was doing preparing them for the real world.  “Maybe, for girls who want to be told what to do all the time, it could be a good thing? They’d ace the basic training stuff, and even if they didn’t like it and got out after a year or so, think of all the weapon experience they’d have.”  She bit her lip. “I’ll talk to them, but I’d like to talk to Graham first. Did he leave?”
 
Willow nodded. “Yeah. They did spend the night here… and don’t think that wasn’t fun, making sure any girls who were hooking up were old enough to do it legally….”
 
Buffy made a face. “I’m glad I slept through that.”
 
“You should be,” Willow grumbled. “You owe Rachel and me… big time!”
 
Buffy laughed. “You know you’re a much better mother hen than I am.”
 
“Well, those are the two issues. If the girls wanting to be soldiers doesn’t bother you, we might as well go see how Spike’s doing with his problem.”
 
 
 
They entered the meeting room just as Spike was facing off against Jess, who was clearly battling tears.
 
“I’m not trying to myself killed! And I’m not asking anybody else to come with me, so I’m not getting them killed either.”
 
“So what the bloody hell are you doing then?”
 
“I’m trying to make up for… for….” She lost her battle and the tears came.  “I almost got you killed! Because I was too stupid not to know that you’d never treat me like you did Faith until I was that good of a slayer.”
 
“Like Faith?” Spike stared at her with wide eyes, then at Rachel, whose eyes were just as wide.  “Trust me when I tell you you don’t want me treating you like I’ve treated Faith.”
 
“But… but you… weren’t you… I thought you and Faith….”
 
“Let me tell you something about me and Slayer Number Two. We were a bit alike in a lot of ways. Not all of them good ones. So yeah, we flirted and snarked, and shared innuendos that most of you are too young to even understand. Just braggin’ at each other.”  He took a deep breath and went on. “And we were part of the same team that saved the world the last time the First thought it was going to take over up here.  We might have bonded a bit back then. When we weren’t punching each other about something...  But fighters on the same side against the forces of evil is all we ever were. Don’t know what you thought you were seeing here, but even if you were stalking us, I know too bloody well that you never saw anything that might cause Slayer Number One to take it out of my hide.”
 
“Who? Wha—” She looked up as Buffy entered the room. “Why do you call them Slayer #1 and Slayer #2? And why would she care what you did with Faith?”
 
“Because I was here first, and Faith came after me. So to Spike, who already knew me from when I was only sixteen, I’m Slayer #1 and Faith, who came around later, is Slayer #2.  Once there were hundreds of you, he stopped giving out numbers.” Buffy gave Spike a “fix this now” look as she walked up to him.
 
“So, the numbers have nothing to do with how important you are to him.” Jess beamed as if she’d just won the lottery.
 
Buffy rolled her eyes. “I thought you were handling this?” she muttered.
 
“I was workin’ on it.”
 
“Did you really fight Faith?” Jess brought their attention back to her.
 
“Once or twice. Short fights is all they were.”
 
Jess nodded. “What about her?” She pointed at Buffy.
 
“Buffy? Bloody hell yes. Back when I was evil, fighting with her was one of my favorite things.” His eyes lit up.  “I was called the Slayer of Slayers.  A good fight with a slayer used to make my night….  When I was all evil and whatnot,” he added as Buffy’s eyes narrowed and even Rachel looked like she might be reaching for a stake.
 
“But you didn’t kill her or Faith.” Jess frowned her lack of understanding.
 
“Was a bit handicapped by the soul the times I got into with Faith. And before that, I was a bit handicapped by the fact that Buffy usually handed my arse to me… eventually.” He sighed. “All of which has nothing to do with nothing. What we’re talking about here is that you’re going out there taking chances you shouldn’t. And if you think you’re going to prove you’re just as tough as either of the two older slayers…. That’s not going to happen. Not now. Maybe not ever.”
 
“You don’t know that!”
 
“I do, luv. Trust me. I spent most of my unlife studying slayers, fighting them when I could, killing them when I got lucky…. You’re talking to the expert.”
 
“Then you should fight me.”
 
Spike growled. “Did you listen to a thing I said?”
 
“You said you’re an expert on fighting slayers. I’m a slayer. Fight me. Maybe I’ll surprise you.”
 
Instead of answering her, he glanced at Buffy. “What do you think, sweetheart? Do you think I have my strength back yet?”
 
Buffy shook her head. “Maybe you were working on it last night, but not now you don’t.”
 
“An’ why’s that?” he said, a trace of a grin on his face.
 
“Because if you do, I’ve really lost my touch,” she said back at him, sticking her tongue out.
 
“Oh, I think your touch is still there, love. My aching body can vouch for it.  And if you stick that out again, I’m going to bite it.”
 
“Promises, promises…”
 
The playful banter, the obvious sexual tone to the conversation, as well as the heated and affectionate looks passing between Buffy and Spike did more to bring Jessie down to earth than anything anyone had said up to that point.
 
“You. She. When? What?” Her brow wrinkled in bewilderment and dawning understanding.
 
“Those two have a history that goes back to almost before you were born,” Willow said. “Faith wouldn’t have touched Spike even if he was willing, because then she would have had to answer to Buffy. And that didn’t go well for her the last time it happened.”
 
Suddenly looking very much her youthful age, Jessie looked back and forth between the three older people in the room, and then to Rachel. “Did you know this?”
 
Rachel shrugged. “I’ve heard about them. And Buffy was the first person he wanted to talk to when he woke up from his coma—” 
 
“I was just resting!”
 
“Right. From his three-day ‘rest’. He wanted to call her. But yeah, I already knew a little bit of their history from Faith.”
 
“Why didn’t we—I— know?”
 
“Because it wasn’t any of your business! I was here to help you fight a war, not entertain you with the sad story of my love life.” Spike sighed. “I’m sorry you misunderstood my… the way I am with women. Don’t know how you didn’t notice that I flirted with all you birds exactly the same way… including Faith. It was all talk. Never touched anyone did I?”
 
Jessie stared at Buffy, unable to avoid seeing that she had a possessive hand on Spike’s arm, a hand which he raised to his lips and kissed before dropping it to his side, linked with his.
 
“So, are we done here?  You’re going to behave like a regular slayer and just work on keeping the vampire population down and getting older and smarter?”
 
When Jessie looked like she might be going to argue, Rachel spoke up. “That’s not negotiable, Jessie. You’re on kitchen duty for a while anyway, but you won’t be going back out until I know you’re not going to put any of my other girls in jeopardy with your recklessness.”
 
Jessie continued to stare at Buffy, finally saying, “Did you really beat Spike when you fought him?”
 
“Most of the time, yeah. We used to be pretty evenly matched, but I usually kicked his ass in the long run. Why?”
 
“Why isn’t he dust?”
 
Buffy shrugged and looked at Spike. “I thought he was one time. But it turned out his… another vampire had carried him out of the burning building.”
 
“She put me in a wheelchair that time,” Spike added. “Lucky for me she didn’t come looking to finish the job.”
 
“Lucky for me,” Buffy said, leaning into him. “You were around to help me save the world from Alcathla.”
 
“Lucky for us,” he said, putting his arm around her. “The more time we spent together – even if it was fightin’ – the more we—”
 
“And that’s really none of your business either,” Rachel said firmly. “You know all you need to know. Spike isn’t interested in you and never was because he’s Buffy’s, and you aren’t ready to go out by yourself and be Super-Slayer to try to make up for your mistake during the battle. Now we’re done here. Go to the kitchen and see what you can do there to help put some food on the table tonight.”
 
Giving Rachel a murderous glare, Jessie began to stomp out of the room. As she got to the door, she turned around and said, “When I think I’m ready, I’m coming for you, Spike. Be watching for me.” She flounced out leaving silence behind her.
 
Moving faster than the eye, Spike had Buffy wrapped up and off the floor before she could follow through on her obviously lethal intentions. He held her until she stopped squirming and muttering threats, finally letting her put her feet on the floor but keeping his arms around her.
 
“I should have killed her,” Buffy said as she shook him off. “Dumb bitch.”
 
“She’ll get over it, love. By the time she’s even close to being strong enough to think about fighting me, she’ll be smart enough not to.”
 
“She’s stupid, Buffy, but I don’t think she’s that stupid.” Willow glanced at Rachel for confirmation. Rachel shrugged.
 
“I don’t think so, but that was pretty dumb right there. I’m sorry, Buffy. Maybe I should—”
 
Buffy shook her head with a sigh. She smiled at Spike. “I guess I should thank you for keeping me from killing one of my own slayers.”
 
“Oh, you wouldn’t have killed her,” Spike said. “But it probably would have been a while before she was out of the hospital.”
 
Buffy snorted her agreement.  She smiled at Rachel.  “I’m going to leave you a squad of my girls to help out with the cleanup. But I think Spike and I should probably leave with Willow tonight.”
 
Rachel nodded. “I understand that.  I can’t thank you too much for coming and helping us out,” she said. “I think I was way out of my depth.”
 
“If Faith hadn’t been killed, you’d probably have been okay between her and Spike, I—what?”
 
Spike was shaking his head. “We needed you here, love. Needed that off-the-wall thinkin’ that goes on in your little slayer brain.”
 
“Well, I’m glad you finally called for me. Even if you were trying to do it without me at first.”
 
“I’m glad I called you too. But to be honest, Faith and I had already been talking about calling in reinforcements – and yours was the first name she thought of.”
 
“She thought of? Not you?”
 
“Your name is always on my mind, Buffy. Didn’t need a crisis to bring it out.”
 
“Apparently it needed a crisis to get you to pick up a phone,” Buffy said, giving him a mock glare.
 
“I was ready to come home,” he said with a shrug. “Just needed a good enough excuse.”
 
As he pulled her closer and nibbled on her neck, Buffy rolled her eyes at Willow.
 
“Are you buying this, Willow?”
 
“I will if you want me to, but if he was faking not wanting to be back in your life, it was a damn good act. He fooled me.”
 
“Yeah. That’s what I was thinking. ‘Ready to come home’ my ass!” She put her hands on her hips and glared at him, her expression softening when he just smiled at her and touched her cheek.
 
“It was worth a shot. Just because I was stupid is no reason not to try to look smarter.”
 
“You were stupid.”
 
“I was. Are you going to let me make it up to you?” He pulled her close again, neither of them noticing that Willow and Rachel were still in the room.
 
“Maybe. Are you going to forgive me for never telling you I didn’t need the soul to love you?”
 
“I wonder if we have enough time before our plane leaves to start making it up to each other?”
 
“No! Start packing!” Willow’s emphatic order startled them apart. “I want to go home.”
 
“Home. We’re going to your home.”
 
“Home. Our home.”

The End