Spike carried Buffy up the flights of stairs to her rooms. He quickly crossed the living room, up the marble staircase and set her down on her bed. She made a noise of disappointment when he let go of her and stepped away.

"Where are you going?" She asked, sounding like a small pouting child. "I didn't say you could go anywhere!"

He turned back to her and grinned at the plaintive sound in her voice. "I'm just going to run you a bath so you can warm up."

"I guess that's ok then." He turned and walked into the bathroom. He studied the tub for a moment wondering just how the damn thing worked before her voice called in to him. "Just turn the knob on the left to start the water, it takes about a couple hours to fill, but it sounds a little bell when its ready."

He just shook head. Technology. He turned on the water and found he didn't even need to adjust the temperature. He debated lighting some of the candles in the room, but decided to wait until the tub was filled, no sense wasting the wax.

A very lurid image that popped into his mind when he thought of candle wax and his Slayer as he straightened and walked back into her bedroom. She had moved off the bed and was standing at the windows looking out at the forest in the early morning light, her back to him.

Suddenly he felt choked by fear, afraid he wasn‘t worthy of this gift he had been given, afraid that now in the light of day she would have changed her mind, afraid of losing her, afraid of the emotions that were running so strongly through him he felt like he may drown in them.

"You know," he said quietly, so she couldn't hear the shakiness in his voice. "They said the bond isn't permanent until..."She had turned when he started speaking and just watched him as his voice trailed off, no expression on her face. "If you don't want to do this we can find a way to reverse it." He finished quickly and put his head down, he didn't want to see the relief in her eyes.

Buffy could feel the fear and insecurity running through their bond. She knew he was hurting. She was mad at herself for not taking the time to talk to him like her friends advised her to. She thought that her actions would clear up all the misunderstandings between them. Instead, even though they were almost bonded together for eternity, he was still so afraid.

He heard her cross the room, but didn't look up to watch. He could fell the regret inside her, and he didn’t know what to say. He felt her hands take his lightly.

"Spike?" He didn't look up, he didn’t want to see her face as she told him it was all a mistake.

“Right. I should just go then.” He tried to sound tough, like it didn’t bother him that she was again pushing him away.

“You’re not going anywhere.” She told him.

He gave a short laugh. “I can feel your regret, Buffy. That’s the neat thing about this little temporary bond we have. You can’t lie about what you are feeling.” He turned and walked quickly down the stairs, Buffy ran after him.

She caught up with him and spun him around. “Would you please just listen for a minute. Yes, I have regrets, but they aren’t about what we did, just in the way I did them.” She sighed and let go of him. She sat down on one of the couches and motioned for him to join her.

He watched her, not sure of what was going on. Seeing his confusion she continued.

“Look, I could feel that you were struggling with something. You seemed so tormented and at the same time it felt like you were slipping away from me. I didn’t want to lose you again, I didn’t think I could take it.

Willow, Xander, they told me I needed to talk to you. They said that would be the best way to figure out what was going on.

But I’m so not good at the talking thing. I didn’t know what to say or how to say it. So instead,” Buffy looked down, sheepishly. “Instead of actually talking, I just jumped on you and bit you.”

Spike tilted his head to the side not sure what to say here.

“I’m sorry, Spike. I guess I was looking for a quick magic fix, because I didn’t know how to deal with communicating.”

He sat down next to her on the couch reassured by her opening up to him. She did mean it when she marked him and she didn’t have any doubts about loving him. The rest they could work through.

“So what happens now?” He asked her.

Buffy didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she jumped up.

“Wait, I know. Stay right here, don’t go anywhere.” She ran off into her kitchenette.

When she came back a few minutes later she had to steaming cups of hot chocolate in her hands.

“What’s this then?” He asked her with a laugh.

She sat down on the couch next to him and smiled at him. “I propose we drink hot chocolate and do something we’ve never done before.”

“And what’s that, luv?” He asked her seductively.

“Talk things out.” Buffy said.

His smile grew as he took the offered cup. “I’d like that.”



Downstairs in an office, a telephone call was made.

“I would like to speak to Isaac Milton, please.”

There was a pause, then a voice came over the line.

“This is Isaac Milton.”

“Mr. Milton, it seems the worst case scenario had occurred. She mated with the vampire last night.”

“Yes, we were aware, thanks to the reality storm.”

“Reality Storm?”

“Yes, when something that big occurs there are echoes that ripple out through reality. Hence the large storm you witnessed, only it occurred all through the known universes.” Mr. Milton gathered his thoughts before continuing.
Are you ready now to take the necessary action?”

“I am. Just tell me how you want it done.”

“The true assassin is already in place within the school, although it isn’t currently active. We didn’t want it prematurely setting off the houses defenses. You will need to activate it with some key phrases.”

“That shouldn’t be too hard. Are you sure it will be enough to take out both of them?”

“This creature is a human golem, its strength would match that of a real golem, only it can blend in easier. A Slayer, even one as experienced as Miss Summers is no match for it, and her vampire should go down even easier.”

“This should work out nicely then.”

“It has also come to our attention that we should get rid of the former ‘rogue’ Slayer as well. She is too independent and I don’t think she would be too receptive to our ideas.”

There was a slight pause on the line.

“That isn’t a problem for you is it?”

“No, not at all, Mr. Milton.”

“Good.”


Two hours later, Buffy sat on her couch in absolute amazement. She and Spike had finally straightened out their confused emotions and had moved on to comparing notes on what they had been up to while away from each other.

That wasn’t the amazing thing, however. The amazing thing was she was falling head over heals in love…with Spike. She had loved him before, she knew she had, but this was something else.

She loved him when he laughed. He got these cute little crinkles around his eyes and the way in ran through his chest made he giddy. She loved the intent way he looked at her when she told him a story, as if she were the most important thing in the world. She loved his intuition, how he seemed to hear the things that she didn’t say as well as the things she did.

Spike was currently telling her the story of how Angel had been turned into a puppet. Inside, Spike was almost certain that the Powers didn’t let him come back. He almost believed that they had let him move on to the Higher Planes, because this sure felt like heaven.

He was leaning up against the armrest of the couch, Buffy had settled herself in between his legs and was leaning up against him, her face half turned so she could watch him tell his story. The early afternoon light was filtering in through the windows and seemed to light up Buffy’s eyes, which were wide with amusement at his tale. The best part was he could feel her love for him deepening and it was creating this warm glow within him.

“So, in the end, puppet Angel kicked your ass?” She asked him. “How could you let a puppet, much less puppet ANGEL, kick your ass?”

Even though he loved her more than anything she could still be annoying.

“Well, you see, puppets are smaller than anything I’m used to fighting with. Its not as if I make a habit of beating up things that are smaller than me, so I wasn’t used to those kind of fighting techniques.”

Buffy just looked at him doubtfully.

“Oh, all right, Angel made a vicious wee puppet man and he kicked my arse fair and square. Happy now.”

Buffy burst into laughter. Spike couldn’t stay mad at her, in fact he found her laughter contagious and joined her in her hysterics.

As their laughter faded their eyes locked on each other and he felt the heat inside him build into a flame of desire. They moved closer to each other, their lips almost but not quite touching, just enjoying the pull between them.

“Spike.” She whispered, her breath tickling his lips.

“Yes, Buffy.”


"Make love to me...please."

He closed his eyes and inhaled sharply. Emotions overwhelmed him, it was too much. Buffy, his Slayer, sitting practically in his lap wearing nothing but his shirt, asking him to make love to her. He had dreamed of this so many times, but he never thought it would actually happen, even once it did, and he never thought it would feel this sweet. He felt her lips on his cheeks kissing away tears he wasn't even aware of falling. He opened his eyes and immediately got lost in hers as they captured him.

"Buffy." He whispered.

"I love you." She answered. He still didn't move to touch her afraid if he did, she would disappear.

"Are you going to make me beg?" She asked, amusement in her eyes and voice pushed him into action.

"Not quite yet." He said flashing her a cocky grin before bringing his mouth to hers.

As soon as their lips met all the everything melted at the taste of her and he knew any fears he had were gone for good. Her tongue wrapped around his sensuously as her hands ran over his chest causing him to moan. He moved his hands down to clutch her hips as he pulled her closer to him. The feeling of her pressed up against him driving him wild.

She whimpered into his mouth as his hands moved to start pulling the shirt over her head purposely moving over her breasts on the way up. Her nipples were already hard, but he could feel them tighten even more at his light caress. He broke their kiss as the shirt went over her head onto the floor somewhere.

She turned so she was now straddling his lap on the couch. She moved her hands down and started undoing his pants.

As soon as he had her shirt off he moved his mouth to those nipples that were almost in front of him. He pulled one into his mouth, sucking lightly while he used his fingers to lightly pull on the other one, mimicking his sucking.

Buffy moaned at the feelings he created in her. She gave up on trying to undo his pants, unable to think at all while he did that, and proceeded to just grind against his jean covered erection. He growled deep in his throat, as a surge of lust ran through him at the wetness he could feel through the denim of his pants.

He pulled away from her breast and reached down in between them to undo his pants. Buffy’s hands quickly went to work at pulling them down as soon as he had them unfastened.

She looked down at him, naked for the first time in so long. God, she missed him. She ran her hand up and down his length, familiarizing herself with his size and feel again.

Meanwhile, Spike ran one hand down her stomach to the curls in between her legs. He ran one finger in between her lips, just to verify for himself how wet she really was.

“God, Buffy, you are just dripping wet aren’t you.” She whimpered and ran her hands up to the head of his erection, smearing the precum around the tip. He moaned at the feeling of her hands and pushed the finger he had between her legs up into her.

Buffy threw her head back in ecstasy and Spike thought he would burn up.

“Christ, luv, you’ve never been this soft and wet before. God, I can’t wait to be inside you.”

At that Buffy pulled up away from his fingers and released her hold on him with one hand. Using the remaining hand to hold him steady she looked into his eyes as she lowered herself down onto him.

They both threw back their heads at the feeling.

Buffy could feel his cool, hard length stretching her, filling her. It had been so long it almost felt like it had the first time he entered her, but this was so much sweeter.

For a long moment neither one moved. They both knew that they wouldn’t be able to hold back once they got started. They stared into each others eyes, enjoying their connection together, feeling the pleasure echoing through their bond and amplifying it.

Spike reached up with shaky hands and cupped her face.

“I love you, with every part of my being.” His eyes were flickering between blue and gold.”

Buffy smiled at him. “I love you.” That was all it took to break their control.

Buffy started moving up and down against him unable to be still any longer as the pleasure built and built inside her. She felt like soon her body wouldn’t be able to hold all the pleasure she felt inside her.

She tilted her head to the side and brushed back her hair as Spike changed into game face. They dove for each other’s necks at the same time.

At the sensation of teeth against skin the wave of pleasure that had been growing within the two crested. Only instead of then ebbing downward, it exploded farther into rapture, leaving their bodies behind.



Down in the kitchen, Xander, Faith, and Dawn were arguing about who was going to take the tray of food up to the newlyweds.

“Well, we can’t just leave it outside the door. They won’t know its there.” Dawn was saying.

“Fine, then you take it inside, if you’re so worried they won’t hear a knock.” Faith told her.

“Ewww, no. That’s my sister, besides I’m way too young to see what’s going on between those two.” Dawn answered back quickly.

“Shouldn’t they be upstairs in her bedroom anyway?” Xander asked.

“They should be.” Dawn said considering. “You should take it up Xander, since you are certain they won’t be downstairs.”

“No thank you. I walked in on Spike once before doing naked push ups. I don’t want to see him doing anything else naked ever again.”

“Naked push ups?” Dawn and Faith exchanged a disbelieving look.

“Yeah, I went to his crypt when Buffy went all invisible, to see if he had seen her…” Xander stopped. “I’m an idiot.”

“Pretty much.” Faith told him. “So does that mean you’ll take the tray up.”

“NO!!” Xander said emphatically. “It was your idea so you should take the tray up.”

Just then the strange waiter came in the kitchen with his tray of cheese.

“Here’s our answer.” Faith said. She walked over to the waiter. “Hey, buddy, we’ve got a job for you.”

“Cheese.” The waiter asked shoving the tray in her face.

“Um, no thanks on that. Hey shouldn’t you refrigerate that at some point?” The man just looked at her as if he didn’t understand.

Faith took his cheese tray away from him and gave him the covered tray with the food and blood for Buffy and Spike.

“You need to take this to the 5th floor. The first door you, at the top of the stairs you knock real loud. If no one answer’s you go inside and put the food on the coffee table, then leave.”

“I don’t think he’s going to follow all that, Faith.” Dawn told her.

“Fifth floor, first door, knock, then go in, put tray on table.” The waiter repeated back to them.

“Ok, maybe I was wrong.”

With that he took the tray and left the kitchen.

“Giles really needs to stop hiring the cheapest staff he can find.” Faith said watching him move down the hall.

“If he was just here for the party why is he still here?” Dawn asked.



The rapture gave birth to an awareness in Buffy. She could no longer tell where she left off and Spike began. They weren’t two beings any more. There were no more demon parts, souled parts, human parts. There was just the one entity, in control of two bodies. The entity floated, feeling complete.

It could feel the combined strength running through both of its bodies. The power with in would make any demon an easy mark.

All of its senses were heightened to a level it had never thought existed. It could sense all the other beings in the house. It could hear their heartbeats even from this distance away.

Slowly the entity broke apart as the two beings separated and returned to their respective bodies.

Buffy and Spike sat staring at each other in shock.

“I guess that was some of those powers they were talking about.” Spike said unnecessarily. “Does that mean we have sex while we’re on patrol?” He then asked hopefully.

Buffy gave him a look. “I think we’re supposed to learn how to do that outside of sex.” She told him.

“Yeah, but it’s a lot more fun with the sex.” He said pulling her close to him and kissing her.

When they pulled back Buffy studied him closely. “That’s what I thought heaven was.” She said quietly.

“I know. I recognized it through your memories.” He answered her. They didn’t say anything for a few moments.

“I love you.” She said.

“Damn right you do.”

She rolled her eyes as she stood up off of him. “Here comes the ego.”

He just laughed.
“So you think we should work on that joining thing?” He asked her as she took their hot cocoa mugs to the kitchen.

“Not today. There are other things I want to work on with you.” She gave him an evil smirk before she disappeared into the kitchen. “Besides its not like we’re going to need it today.”


On the third floor the waiter stood attentively while a man spoke in Sumerian to him. As he finished the waiter’s eyes glowed a silver color.

“I await your orders, Master.” It said.