CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
 
When they found Giles, he was sitting on the couch with an icebag on his head, insisting he was fine. As Spike had predicted, he staggered to his desk to make a note that magic did not necessarily work on demons from alternate dimensions.
 
Spike listened carefully to Giles’s heartrate and breathing and assured Buffy he heard nothing to indicate any physical distress—aside from the dizziness. Giles was more than willing to follow their advice to go to bed and stay there until he could sit up without the room spinning around.
 
“I’ll come back sometime late morning tomorrow to see how you’re doing,” Buffy said with a worried frown.
 
“I appreciate your concern, Buffy, but it’s not the first time I’ve been knocked out, and I doubt it will be the last.”
 
Buffy and Spike exchanged glances that didn’t go unnoticed.
 
“Shall I assume that is a correct prediction on my part?” Giles sighed.
 
“Well, I’ll try to prevent it, but we thought we had this one covered, and—”
 
He waved his hand around. “Please don’t worry about it. I’m beginning to think the theory that only certain things can be changed may be correct.”
 
Buffy said what they were all thinking. “If that’s true, I hope to hell getting rid of Glory before she can open that portal isn’t one of them!” They were all silent as they considered what that would mean for Buffy and Spike’s mission to prevent the rise of the First.
 
Spike’s growl was deep and went on for a long time.
 
“The hell-bitch was dead before you jumped, wasn’t she?” Buffy shot a look at Giles, then nodded.
 
“Yes. I beat her down with the troll hammer, and then she turned back into Ben and I ran off. But he didn’t live.”
 
“So, if she didn’t live in our time, then gettin’ rid of her before she can open the portal shouldn’t be a big deal. It’s not like that portal had time to have an effect on anything before Buffy closed it. So if it never gets opened, it never has to close, Buffy doesn’t have to jump, and all is well.”
 
Giles and Buffy stared at him in disbelief.
 
“What? It could happen that way!  ‘S what we’re here for, isn’t it?”
 
“Right. It could work out like that,” Buffy agreed loyally.  Giles just rolled his eyes.
 
“I haven’t experienced any of the events you have yet, and even I know it can’t possibly be that easy.”
 
“Maybe it will be,” Buffy said, putting on her stubbornly hopeful expression.
 
“We can hope so.” With that diplomatic response, Giles stood up and started toward his bedroom.  “Please see yourselves out. I believe I have some serious sleeping to indulge in.”
 
 
XXXX
 
They’d barely shut the door of their apartment behind them, when Buffy tackled Spike to the floor and began kissing him.
 
“Not that I’m complaining, love,” he murmured between kisses, “but want to tell me what’s going on?”
 
Buffy sighed and started to roll off, but he tightened his arms.
 
“Oh no, you don’t. I like you right here.” He flexed his hips up to make sure she could feel how happy to have her lying on him.
 
“I thought you wanted me to talk?”
 
“I can listen from here. I can do lots of things while I listen. I am a multi-tasker.”
 
She giggled as he slid one hand under her shirt to unhook her bra, raising herself up just far enough that he could help her get her shirt off.  When he pulled her up so he could take a nipple in his mouth, she sighed her appreciation.
 
“Nothing’s ‘going on’,” she said, squirming around so as to reach his zipper. “I just got a little freaked about what might happen next year and thought we should make love as often as possible while we can. Just in case….”
 
“Gonna be no ‘just in case’,” he growled, taking a little nip at her breast. “But it’s a brilliant idea.  We should start now.”
 
“I thought I already had,” she said, trying to sound offended, but giggling anyway.
 
“You did. But now it’s time to take it up a notch.” He cocked his head at her. “Here or the bed?”
 
“How about… both?” She popped open the top button of his unzipped jeans and slipped down his body to take him in her mouth.
 
“Both it is,” he groaned, arching into what she was doing with her lips and tongue. “Ah, Buffy …”
 
She lifted her head for a second. “Tell me you love me,” she demanded. She went back to her task with his litany of “I love you”s mingling with his moans and gasps as she brought him to a quick conclusion. She sat up and licked her lips, smiling at him with satisfaction. He gazed back with more warmth than a vampire should have been capable of, and reached up to touch her lips with a finger.
 
“I love you, Buffy Anne Summers. I have always loved you and I always will love you.”
 
“And I love you. And that’s not going to change, no matter what.” She kissed his finger, then stood up. “Bed now?”
 
“Bed it is,” he said, holding his pants closed with one hand as he kipped to his feet. “At your service, love.” He put one arm around her bare shoulders and played with one nipple as they walked to the bedroom.
 
“At my service, huh. I think I like the sound of that.” 
 
She turned and raised her face for a kiss that lasted long enough for him to unfasten her jeans and begin to push them down her legs while she did the same with his. They broke the kiss long enough for Spike to shed his own tee shirt and kick his boots and pants off while Buffy removed the rest of her clothes and jumped onto the bed. She flopped onto her back and spread her arms and legs.
 
“Here I am! Waiting to be serviced.”
 
With a growl, he left the floor and landed on the bed, his knees in between hers and his arms keeping his weight off her.
 
“If you didn’t look so delicious right now, I might take offense at that remark,” he said, running his eyes and then his tongue down her torso.
 
“You said it first… guh!... I wouldn’t tell you to do… that! Do that again!”
 
He stopped his vigorous licking to glance at her. “You would tell me, you just did. And it’s fine. I am at your service, love. Always will be. And you know bloody well there’s nothing you can think of for me to do that isn’t going to be just as good for me as it is for you. Take that guilty look off your face, and tell me what you want. Was it this?”  He went back to licking her clit just hard enough to be sure she felt it, but not so hard as to give her the release she wanted.
 
Her hips coming off the bed, she gasped her yeses out, as she tried to get closer to his magic tongue. When her whimpers turned to actual cries of distress, he pulled her clit into his mouth and turned the cries into a scream.  He sat back on his heels with a satisfied smile as he waited for her to stop trembling and relax.
 
“Feeling properly serviced are you now?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.
 
“Shut up.” She focused her eyes and gazed at him, the love he’d not allowed himself to believe for so long fully visible and warm.  “And c’mere.” She reached a hand toward him and he grasped it, letting her pull him up to rest just enough of his body on hers to be touching head to toe.
 
“Your turn,” she said, nibbling on his shoulder. “I know what you like.” She pushed him off and began nipping her way down his body, never biting hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to hurt. She’d hated doing it when they were in Sunnydale, sure that it was sign of her own degradation and his evil nature, but now she just accepted it as something he liked that she could do for him.
 
“Ah! That you do. Know just where and how to put those sharp little Slayer teeth. Bloody hell, I love you, woman. Gonna make me spontaneous combust, you are….” When Buffy put her mouth on the head of his cock and ran her teeth lightly over it, he thrust his hips up with a growl. She nipped her way down to the base, back up and then used her teeth to pull the foreskin into her mouth. With a snarl, he leaned up to grab her shoulders and pull on her until she was centered over his cock and could lower herself on to it.
 
As soon as he was seated deeply, he rolled them over and began moving his hips, smiling when she immediately fell into rhythm with him.  They made slow, sensual love, steadily increasing the speed and force of their hips until they were shaking together, their cries of completion coming simultaneously.  Without separating, they rolled to their sides and he pulled the covers over them. They fell asleep, face to face and murmuring their “I love you”s.
 
XXXX
 
Firmly secure in their mutual feelings, they found it very easy to meet the rest of the problems they were expecting that year. In fact, they hardly knew of Ethan’s visit, with Giles simply saying “He was here. I am not a demon, and I do not believe he will be back.” Buffy glance at Winston, but he shrugged and shook his head that he’d had nothing to do with it.
 
“You’re not going to tell us what you did?” Buffy sounded offended, but Spike just studied Giles’s face and nodded his approval.
 
“No. I am not. And that’s an end to it.”
 
“You’re no fun, Giles,” Xander complained.
 
He blanched when Giles looked at him and said, “Something you would do well to remember.”
 
Xander moved next to Buffy and whispered, “Why does he look so scary?”
 
“I think he went all Ripper on Ethan,” Buffy said. “And he’s still kinda feeling the vibe.”
 
Giles began to speak, his face as angry as they’d ever seen it, but when he spotted Winston and Spike smothering grins, Buffy beaming at him proudly, Anya nodding in agreement, Willow smiling, and Xander still looking much more respectful than he normally did, he sighed and shook his head. 
 
“There is something very wrong with a group that is so enthusiastic about learning that one of their members may have physically harmed another person,” he said, but Buffy was sure she saw his lips twitch as he turned his back.
 
XXXX
 
Buffy did visit the hospital’s long term care wing and spent some time staring at Faith, but there was no way to tell from looking at her if or when she might wake up.  Buffy was, however, able to convince one of the nurses who cared for Faith to give her a call if she saw any sign of potential awakening, or if Faith actually woke up and try to leave. The woman looked at Buffy as if she was not very bright.
 
“You know she’s in a coma, right? And has been for a good long time. Could she wake up? Of course. We hope she will. She gets physical therapy every day to keep her joints and muscles working, but she will still be extremely weak when she wakes up. The idea of her leaving the hospital is ludicrous.”
 
“Well, okay….” Buffy decided this wasn’t the time to talk about Slayer strength and healing.  “Just let me know if she wakes up, okay? Then I can come and… and … take her home with me. As soon as she’s allowed to leave, I mean,” Buffy added quickly when it appeared the nurse was about to repeat her spiel. “But of course when she wakes up, I want to be here for her right away.”
 
Under the guise of giving Faith a hug, Buffy leaned down and whispered “I hope you get well, we might need you in a couple of years, but don’t try using that thing the Mayor left you. Things are different this time around. We know about it.”
 
After getting more assurances that the nurse had her cell number and would let her know if there were any changes, Buffy left, after taking one last look at Faith.
 
Not sure if Faith would have been able to hear her or not, Buffy figured she’d done all she could to change that particular episode in her life. She went back to ordinary patrolling and slaying duties, confident that she’d done what she could to make the rest of their time go smoothly.
 
“Until the skank shows up,” she muttered to herself.
 
“What’s that, love?” Spike emerged from the shadows where he’d pursued another vampire and fell into step beside her.
 
“I just was thinking we’ve pretty much taken care of everything we can right now, at least until the skank shows up.” She smiled at him. “I guess I might have said that part out loud.”
 
“It’s still months from now,” he said, putting an arm around her. “As long as the bad Slayer doesn’t do any body-swapping, we should have plenty of time to rest up for what’s coming.”
 
Buffy looked up at him. “You think it’s going to be that bad?”
 
“I was talking about Dawn and dealing with her hormonal tantrums, but yeah, the hellgod figures into it I reckon.” He laughed when she shoved him hard.
 
“Don’t talk about my sister like that!”
 
“Ah, you know I love the Bit almost as much as I love you, Buffy. But you’ve got to admit, she was something of a handful.”
 
“I’m admitting nothing,” Buffy said, her lips twitching as she smothered a smile.
 
“That’s my girl. Denial is always the way to go.” 
 
“Hey! Was that a crack? I think that was a crack. You’re in trouble now, vampire. I might have to discipline you.”
 
“Looking forward to it, Slayer,” he leered. “Race you home?”