A/N: I thank you all! It's been great feeling so welcome when entering a new realm. I really hope these last two chapters will be to your liking and just so you know, I am working on a "sequel" or a "continuance" or what you will. :) Anyways, it has been a great ride and taking it with you guys has been quite thrilling. *hats off* *if I had a hat* *I'll borrow a friends* *there, it's so very off to all of you*

Hope you'll enjoy!

All My Love - Annie.




All at Once





Spike observed the vampires, his hold on the stake hardening. At least he hadn’t had his face bashed in as much as the last time. Seemed Sykes had brought his most muscle of his muscle men to the retrieval of the memory, and these were skilled fighters, but not nearly as developed. Well, at least the four he had just dusted hadn’t been. He could only hope the six remaining followed the same pattern. They sure looked pissed, though.

Suddenly the space behind them was lit up and one of them began to glow before turning into dust. Spike raised his eyebrows.

“Neat,” he commented. “Can you all do that?”

Then Willow came into sight, and he smirked as Xander showed up right behind her. There they were. Was this how Buffy felt when her friends came to the rescue?

Ah, but they’re not my friends, he corrected himself. Oh, no, he added as he suddenly saw Buffy halt behind them, her eyes big with all they had to take in. Oh, no.

Three of the vampires turned with harmonized growls to the newer addition to the room, Willow’s hands already firing up. Xander raised his sword, looking like he’d gotten a new speck of self-confidence. Two of the vamps turned to Spike and he smiled.

“Fellows, why must we fight when we can settle this in a friendly manner?” They exchanged a glance with each other, then looked back at him. “Of course, I’m joking,” he said, moving forward and they met him, one getting a hit in his side as he avoided a punch to the face.

“Do the thing! Do the thing!” Xander encouraged Willow.

“I’ll do the thing to you if you don’t shut your yap!” she exclaimed, releasing the fireball and hitting one of the three vampires.

“What’s wrong with their faces?” Buffy’s voice was heard.

“Sorry if I’m nagging,” Xander apologized to Willow.

“No, no, I think it helps,” she said and smiled. “Better raise your sword,” she added and he did so when a vampire moved closer.

“Do the thing! Do the thing!”

Spike backed away from his attackers, making them split up and he looked from one to another, trying to get a game plan into his head.

Stake through heart, that’s all I need.

He nodded. That was all he needed.

“Spike!”

He turned around at the sound of Giles’ voice. The Watcher had come through the same side door he had and looked utterly frazzled.

“What?” the vampire asked.

“The dagger,” Giles said. “You have to destroy it.”

“What?” he repeated.

“Destroy it! It’ll restore Buffy’s memory!”

Spike turned his head to Sykes, who looked like he could strangle Giles before spinning the wheelchair around and starting for the second backdoor.

“Oh, no, you do not!” Spike exclaimed, running after him and being tackled by one of the vampires.

“Jesus!” Buffy said, Willow having just burned her way through the last of the vamps blocking their way.

Buffy ran across the room, but the vampire not wrestling with Spike stepped in her path and made her come to a screeching stop.

“Hi,” she said.

“Slayer,” it growled.

“Oh... wow. Um. Mix-up and so actually, I think, no. Not the Slayer. Whatever that is. Big, huge, fat, old mistake. So, excuse me while I...” she ended the sentence with a yelp as the demon grabbed her by the neck, did a spin with her and thrust her into a nearby wall. “Ow,” she said, grabbing her head as her ears were ringing from the impact.

“Buffy!” Spike yelled.

The vampire he had on him put an elbow between his shoulder blades, holding him down, but there was the sound of a fist on wood as Giles’ foot connected with its jaw and got it off him. He got to his feet, seeing Xander raise his sword in defense as three vamps surrounded him. Willow was charging her batteries once more, eyes fixed on the two vampires slowly circling her. Spike turned his head to Giles.

“Go!” the Watcher yelled, grabbing an old, broken board and raising it as he ran toward the vampire crowding Buffy.

Spike scrambled after Sykes, who had disappeared out the door. The demon hadn’t gotten far, but had received backup in the form of six new vamps. Sykes stopped the wheelchair, spinning it around to face the vampire.

“Soon she’ll be here, and then all is lost,” Sykes smirked.

Spike felt a new wave of wrath rise at those words, and he was about to run forward when he heard Buffy calling his name. A moment later she was in the doorway he had just come through.

“What are you doing?” he growled. “You stay inside!” he added, putting a hand at her shoulder and making her walk backwards in through the doorway again.

Her hand went to his and she stopped him from walking back outside.

“I can’t remember why, exactly, but it feels like there’s something... I wanna tell you...”

He eyed her.

“You can tell me when this is over.”

“No, I have to tell you now.”

He smiled at her petulance, then pulled himself away from her, knowing that what he had to do was more important than anything. She took a step after him, trying to hold him back but losing her grip as he walked outside.

She leaned against the wall as Giles came up beside her.

“Is he out there?”

She nodded. He didn’t hesitate before he proceeded outside.

Xander kicked one leg out and hit one vampire on the shin, making him stagger as he spun around to locate Willow. He could see her strength was waning. The fire wasn’t as strong, their shape lessening in size.

“It’s enough,” he said as she stopped the new one she was making, her arms falling along her sides. She met his gaze, grateful but regretful. He shook his head. “It’s enough,” he repeated.

There was one vamp left, but it was almost knocked out as it was. Xander grabbed a tighter hold on his sword and stalked up to it, raising the heavy blade and bringing it down hard, cutting the vamp’s head off and having its ashes spread across the floor. He drew a slight breath before walking up to Willow, grabbing her around the waist, supporting her as they made their way over to the spot he had seen Giles disappear.

Buffy closed her eyes as she heard the fighting begin. Her heart was pounding, but her insides were numbed with fright. For their lives, for hers. Her mind was reeling from the things she had seen in the past twenty minutes.

“Buffy,” Willow said softly.

“What’s the use of this?” she whispered, and the pain in her eyes when she opened them went straight into the Wicca.

“I wish I knew,” she mumbled.

Xander moved forward and disappeared out the doorway as well. Buffy could tell Willow was completely spent.

“Rest here,” she said with a small smile before sliding to the doorway as well, peeking around the doorframe and having her eyes grow at the fierceness of the battle.

Everything happened so fast. Xander got into the fight, swinging the sword too high and just missing a vamp’s head as it ducked and delivered a kick to his side, making him loose his breath and drop the sword. As the vamp grabbed him, Spike kicked it in the knees, having it loose its balance and fall on the ground still holding Xander. But the mortal managed to roll away just as Spike got the sword onto one of his feet, kicking it up into the air and grabbing it before bringing it into the chest of the vampire. It was dust and Spike offered Xander back his weapon. The mortal took it with a nod of gratitude. Spike kicked up a leg and hit a charging vampire in the throat, then at the side of the head before spinning around and placing a stake in its heart.

Giles was fighting his own vampire, but found a way to reach Sykes and did so successfully, hitting him over the jaw and making him loose grip of the dagger, which tumbled to the ground. He yelled for Spike to break it to pieces, and the vampire spotted it, hitting a vamp on the chin as he ran for the weapon. But he didn’t see the kick coming from another vampire, and it brought him to his knees with its sheer force. He found his balance with one hand on the ground, facing the doorway and his eyes met Buffy’s just as the point of the dagger pierced its way through the skin of his chest. Buffy’s eyes widened with shock and then she was running towards him.

He tried to make her stop, tried to make her go back, but the hurt which pulsated through him was blinding. He felt her warm hands on his face as he lost his balance and tumbled to the side. The dagger was torn out of him again. He didn’t know pain could travel that fast.

Buffy’s eyes were blurred with tears, but she got to her feet with a new emotion burning in her stomach and the revenge she needed traveled into her limbs. Before she could react she had kicked out one leg, hitting the vampire who had driven the dagger into Spike, square on the cheek and sending it stumbling to the side, the dagger flying through the air and landing, point stuck in the earth, only a few feet away from her.

“Destroy it!” Giles shouted at her, ducking to avoid a blow. “Buffy, take the dagger and destroy it! Do you hear me?!”

She stared at Spike, feeling how her insides came to a slow stop and then somehow began to run in reverse. She wasn’t thinking anymore. She merely listened to Giles’ voice and did as it instructed. She reached forward and grabbed the dagger.

“No!” someone screamed, but she discarded it, drawing her arm back and turning toward the mansion.

In one fluid movement she then threw the dagger straight at the stone wall and the next moment it was smashed to pieces against it. They fell glittering into the grass beneath it and she felt threads begin to pull their way through her head. An ache started with them and soon it turned into a beating of her brain. She went down on the ground, hands to her head.

“No!” Sykes screamed again. “I can’t believe it,” he breathed. “I cannot believe it.”

Suddenly Buffy was on her feet, her eyes finding his.

“Believe it,” the Slayer said.

She took the steps parting them, Xander tossing her his sword and she caught it easily, swinging it once tryingly, the second swing being aimed at Sykes. It cut its way through his throat with ease and lodged itself there for a dragged out second before the weight of it severed the head from the neck. She backed away from him. His whole body was quaking, and then he began to rot, his flesh falling apart. The wheel chair toppled over from his movements and in another few seconds there was nothing left of him but his clothes.

Giles turned his eyes in the vampire’s he’d been fighting, both of them having been staring at the scene. The vamp looked at Buffy, then back at Giles, and then it turned and began to run for all that it was worth. Buffy cocked an eyebrow.

“Good fight,” she commented and Giles smiled.

She kneeled next to Spike, moving his duster to the side and checking the wound. It was clean, it would heal nicely. She smiled a little, moving her eyes to his.

“All this for me?” she wondered.

He smirked.

“Don’t let it go to your bloody head, Slayer,” he muttered.

“Admit it. You’d miss me if I was gone,” she teased, grabbing his arm and helping him get to his feet, proceeding with placing the arm around her shoulders for support.

He smiled a little, rather unable to take his eyes off her face.

“Know what?” he then said. “I think I would.”

¤

Glory stopped in the middle of the large room, looking around at the burn marks decorating the walls. She raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t do this,” she commented.

“Oh, but you could have, you most magnificentness,” one of her minions said immediately, bowing in reverence.

“Shut up,” she muttered, leading the entourage through the room and to the short hall taking them to a backdoor.

She stepped through it, spotting the overturned wheel chair and walking up to it.

“Great,” she sighed, making one wheel spin slowly with a well-manicured nail. “Guess that’s that for his plan.”

“But, naturally, a plan such as this was yours, most splendificated!”

She hit the minion over the mouth, frowning.

“My plan wouldn’t have backfired, you moron!”

“Of course not, oh, my holiest of holinesses.”

“Of course not,” she agreed, looking at the scene detachedly. “So then. We go back to the apartment,” she ordered. “And pick me up a snack on the way.”

“Male or female, most wondrous Glorificus?”

She gave a shrug.

“Either.”

¤

“No, mom, everything’s fine. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to call earlier.”

“I’m just happy everything’s alright.”

“Me too. I’ll stay here tonight. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Okay. Sleep tight.”

Buffy smiled.

“I’ll try.”

She hung up, turning to Willow and Xander, who were sitting staring into space. She smiled, walking into the living room and up to the couch, where Spike was lying. She had bandaged his wound, no matter how much he protested that she needn’t bother. Now she looked down at him questioningly.

“You ready to go home?”

“He can stay here tonight,” Giles said, taking a mouthful of tea from the cup in his hands, coming down from upstairs.

Buffy gave him a surprised look.

“It’s okay, I’ll take him,” she said.

“But then you’ll have to go there and then back and, though it is a little bit closer than your home, you’re sleeping here anyway. All of you stay. There’s plenty of room.”

“Sounds good,” Xander said, apathetically.

“I’m in,” Willow agreed, as lethargic.

“Willow, Buffy, you can take the guestroom. Xander can sleep on a mattress. Spike looks comfortable where he is,” Giles directed.

“And where will you sleep?” Xander asked.

“Fun,” Willow commented. “I’m so tired I only said fun when I was supposed to say funny. Going now,” she added, getting to her feet and dragging them through the short hall leading to the guestroom.

“Right behind you,” Buffy said, glancing down at the vampire, feeling torn.

She had felt safe tonight, when she finally remembered everything again and saw that he was there – she had felt protected by a strength which measured her own. It had been a good feeling. A really good feeling. She hadn’t felt it in a very long time.

Xander followed Giles, moaning with every step, to the upstairs closet to get the mattress stuffed in there. Buffy looked at Spike, who was studying her.

“You said you had something to tell me,” he reminded.

She raised her eyebrows.

“I don’t remember,” she said, sinking down on her knees on the floor next to the couch, folding her arms under her chin and resting it on the cushion right by his shoulder.

He smiled slightly.

“Had a feeling you wouldn’t,” he murmured.

“You doing any better?”

“Doesn’t even hurt anymore,” he assured, moving a little, and she smiled.

“That’s good.”

They rested their eyes in the others for a while longer, and then she cleared her throat silently, sitting up and getting to her feet.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said, turning to leave when his fingers graced hers and made her stop.

The simple touch sent a current through her, making her body feel heavy with slow longing.

Couldn’t it have gone away?

She turned back to him, sinking down on the edge of the couch as he sat up, his hands moving into her hair. Shivers scurried over her shoulders. This was him. Really him. Not a thought, not a memory, not a fantasy or a dream, but him. Her hands rested on his upper arms, eyes in his, but they slid up as they both moved their head forward, their lips meeting and the kiss deepening almost instantly.

Her arms went around him as she moaned quietly, his taste the same, but more intense. She pressed herself closer to him; her hands straying from his neck to his shoulders, down his arms and up again; taking in the coolness of his skin, feeling her own kindle beneath his fingertips.

She couldn’t believe that he was actually able to instill these emotions in her. She didn’t know how she’d be able to bring herself away from him. She was ready to share the couch with him. She needed his nearness.

Her hands slipped down his chest as she deepened the kiss once more, and then he flinched, pulling away from her. Her hands had reached the bandage. She looked remorseful.

“I’m sorry. You okay?”

He smiled. It was odd to have her wear that expression because of him.

“Better than ever,” he replied.

She smiled back, but then it slowly disappeared and she grew solemn, taking her hands away and placing them in her lap.

It didn’t matter how much she wanted to be close to him; nearness was all she could want, and it wasn’t right. She couldn’t take it, it would be stealing. It wasn’t hers to own.

He could sense how she was fighting against herself and he wanted to grab her and hold her until she couldn’t do anything but give in. But then determination fought off everything else and she was out of reach.

Her eyes were asking his forgiveness as she got to her feet. He wanted to stop her, but Xander’s voice splintered the silence, Giles answering him, and the moment was lost. She turned and headed for the guestroom.

She felt like she was fleeing. Crawling under the covers the feeling didn’t go away and she forced her eyes closed. It would be unfair to him to pursue this, she wouldn’t feel what he felt, she knew it. The longing she felt for him wasn’t the beginning of something, it was the need for something that she didn’t have. He wasn’t the answer to that need.

It’d be unfair, she told herself. You can’t lead him on. You have to stop.

So she decided, and fell asleep.