Buffy awoke to find herself lying on the couch, a pillow
under her head. Giles was sitting on the coffee table beside her, holding her
hand. Spike walked in from the kitchen holding a cup of tea on a saucer. Buffy
pulled herself up slightly, somewhat disoriented.
"So it's real." She said softly.
"Quite real.' Giles assured her.
"She gonna be all right?" Spike sounded concerned.
"I'm fine." She took the cup and saucer from Spike's hands, suddenly
overcome with shyness. "Thank you." She glanced at him, then took a
quick sip. "Ooh, ah ah. Hot!"
"Sorry. I'll take that." Spike reached and took the cup from her. His
hands touched hers. They were warm.
Buffy gazed up at him with wonder, then looked to Giles. "How?" She
had so many questions she couldn't quite begin to form them.
"Well, I told you how he was brought to the Watchers, but I haven't told
you why. The Powers had been presented with a demon that didn't want to be a demon.
He couldn't be punished and he couldn't be rewarded. Finally they..." He
glanced over at Spike, then back to Buffy, "they decided to give him a new
life, and... and a chance to live it on his own terms."
Buffy looked over at Spike sitting in the chair beside the couch. She was at a
complete loss for words. Giles cleared his throat as the two younger people
gazed at each other. "Now, if you'll both excuse me, I need to take care
of some business. I will leave you two alone for a while to... to get reacquainted."
Neither responded as Giles rose to take his leave. With one last look back, he
left the house.
Buffy finally broke the silence. "So... how does it feel?"
"Bein' alive, you mean?" He considered this for a moment. "Not
too bad actually. Took a little getting used to, feeling the heart beatin' and
the whole in-out breathing thing. I think I've got that down now." He gave
her a little grin.
"How long were you gone? How long have you been back?"
"I can't rightly tell you how long I was gone. Other-dimension wonky time
and all that. It seemed like a few hours, but I was presented to the Watchers
two months ago. They handed me over to Giles after about a month."
"You're why he couldn't come back for the wedding." He nodded.
"You look... different."
"I'm sure you mean the darker hair." He gestured toward the top of
his head. "I got my body back in its pure unadulterated form. The Watchers
weren't big on buyin' me my hair dye. They didn't find it dignified." He
smiled slightly, finding the idea amusing.
"And your scar, it's gone too."
He nodded again. Another uncomfortable silence followed. Finally, Spike
grinned.
"What?" Buffy wanted to know what he was thinking.
"This just reminds me of the first time you invited me into your house.
You left me sitting out here with your Mum. We had trouble finding things to
talk about too."
Buffy smiled wistfully at the memory. "I don't know why I wasn't afraid
that you'd try to eat her."
"Me neither. I didn't really think about it though. I never did with your
Mum."
Buffy smiled again. "So that really is you in there? You are... "
"What?"
"Well, who are you exactly? You're not a vampire, but you were human
first..."
"I'm me. I'm not that sissy William."
"Sissy? You told me you had always been bad."
"And you've always believed everything I told you?" He smiled,
shaking his head. "I'll have to tell you all about poor William some day.
The git didn't have much going for him. His memories are all that are left in
here. The rest is me, just not a demon any more."
"So, do you... have a soul now?"
"Comes with the human package, don' it?"
"I guess..." The conversation was suddenly uncomfortable. "Look,
can I get you anything?" She remembered something. "Oh! I have
something that's yours!"
She ran up the stairs. After she left the room, Spike rose and looked around
the house, reacquainting himself with his surroundings. Buffy, meanwhile, was
in her room. She pulled open the drawer by her bed. She reached in and touched
Spike's lighter, lying next to her diary. She wrapped her fingers around it,
smiled softly, then ran back downstairs. He was not in the living room. She
walked down the hall. He wasn't in the kitchen either. She looked out the
kitchen door and smiled again. She opened the door and walk out to the porch to
join him in the sunlight.
"There you are." She sat to his right on the top step.
"Here."
She handed him his lighter. His eyes flickered again for a moment. Again their
hands touched, and lingered.
Spike pulled away reluctantly. "My lighter. Funny. I won't really be
needing it anymore."
"No?"
"Tried to light up my third day back. Coughed so hard thought I was going
to lose a lung." He smiled and shook his head. "Bloody things will
kill you!"
"So I've heard." There was another silence, comfortable this time.
"Spike?"
"Hmm?"
"What are your plans? Do you have to find a job or a place to live?"
"Giles didn't tell you?" Buffy shook her head. "Well then, it
seems I get to bear the happy tidings. I'm a Watcher now Buffy. I'm your
Watcher."