I don't know how I managed not to read this story last year. I have been completely hooked from the first chapter but had to review (despite it being so belated and probably obsolete) as it is the best yet. I love Spike's flash-back in this chapter, your Buffy and her self-realization despite her fears is fantastic.
I can't wait to keep reading. I feel spoilt that I don't have to wait for updates and I know I am not going to be able to do anything until I have finished the whole thing . . . Thanks for writing such an engrossing,  wonderful story.

"The blood of the others, made them tireless. They'd won ...they careened out of town in a dark green roadster. He could feel the car around him, the rattle of the gearshift under his palm, but that was all, driving off into an abyss of absence. Memory cut off like a reel of film, flapping useless. "

I know I've left comments--I apologise for putting in another bit, however, I excuse myself becos this story is RICH--and whenever I re-read chapters I get that wonderful feeling that the words produce---the smells, the sights, fills my chest from words.  That line above is so tasty, which of course you already know since you wrote it.  His whole remembering of this time this spot of his life is so intense--good thing that James Marsters is the actor he is--saw one of the commentary things that Mr. Whedon was talking about how he could change so drastically and how well he worked.  You have skill with the voices as well and so Thanks again and I'll try to "read to myself".  Thank you Miz Herself.

As usual, your writing is like slipping into a dream. I find I have read chapter after chapter without being conscious of the time that has passed.
I love your Spike, the aura he carries of brevity and isolation, the economy in his observations. They leave me feeling a sense of loss that lingers beyond the reading of the tale.
Your writing is the reason I first felt the urge to write myself and it remains beyond anything I could hope to aspire to.
So glad to see you have not abandoned this verse.

Poor Spike remembering his past in strange bursts like that! More horrible things about himself that he discovers out of context. Love that he already wants to keep Dawn smiling and happy! Hope more memories are on their way!

God your good , i've read all your stories and have loved them all. Reading this chapter my heart was speeding up with anticipation at what jerko Xander was going to say, and the flashback to the dance hall i felt like I was there. I see you've posted chapter 25 i'm going to read that one now,but one thing ,i'm on your email list but didn't get word of this fic, what's up with that?

The memory flash takes me back there with him; almost like I can see the dance hall; I loved Xander's comparison of Spike to Jesus; amazing; absolutely love this story; please please more!!!

Miz Herself, you are so scaring me--I'm afraid for Spike/William to be hurt--scared too that he's going to harm himself or someone. Willow is a little edgy, feels like her when she was safe before, just not totally safe now. Will she be a friend to Buffy or the spoiler? Xander needs both sex and regulation therapy. How long can he be angry? Love what you write, sweetpea, loved loved loved the remembrance--It came to him then, sudden as a trap-door opening under his feet, and he was there, in the moment the blatting band fell silent, the collective moaning sigh of the crowd that gave way to a hum of chatter, shuffling feet, complaining voices, a woman sobbing, the air stinking of human sweat, coffee, Irish stew, home-brewed gin, hair burnt on curling tongs, an amalgam of different cheap perfumes, colognes, oils and tonics, an undernote of urine. A hall, wooden floors, wooden walls, no windows, a mirror-ball overhead, ceiling fans slowly twirling, somewhere in one of those warm Southern places, Mobile or Baton Rouge, an all-night dance, no, not just a dance, not just one night, a marathon, young couples competing to keep going for days, the last ones down taking the prize, cash money tantalizing in that first year after the big crash. He'd been there with her, his dark princess,sucked me right out of the castle in Scotland to my hometown Mobile, and what would have been then. so POTENT--I was very much as Spike, seduced and besotted of the imagery--I could feel it all over me, in my brain my body--smelled and tasted it so fine. Felt it lingering like Spike, had to really work to get from under a memory so lush and cruel, hardest to shake off. Good Powers That Be--that was inspired--truly. So to be so long winded, but I'm jazzed up from that passage--it's also very sexy very compelling when you make these simple "his cock in her cunny" statements absolutely shocks and gets me on task. I can so see Spike's mind working around this image, that he would have been hard from the remembrance...you are a laser with this chapter, just burning away all that not Spike and Buffy and Dru as it turns out. Hot and compelling--a lovely combo from you.

Intense chapter, what with prime Xander hatred and Spike barely keeping it together. Brilliant. The fighting is not a good idea!

Please keep posting this story. All your stories are so compelling!

"A variation in kind of the brute in the watcher's books, a little dandy of despicability. He wanted to slither free of all that, like a snake"

NICE - wonderful lines and description, they make me think of a bizarre contrast image of Lucifer and the snake - Spike/Eve/Lucifer elements of the fall and resurrecton of a new being.

Thank you so very much for this update - Love this piece - it seems like it could become a wonderful long work - So many things that could evolve from this circumstance -

I feel bad trying saving the same thing each time "Great Story" but I just feel like I want to acknowledge how very much I am liking your new work.

loving it so far and why is xander being such a jerk. but worried is spike really gonna be mad at buffy or like blow up for a minute and then feel like a jerk. cause lets face spike's about his slayer.

I can't tell you how much I'm loving this story, I check for updates constantly! It's so well done!

Seems that he might remember.. not wanting to .. Wants to be more William than Spike.

Wondering if the Spike persona will take over Or ?

Enjoying.