~*~
Epilogue
~*~

Buffy was in a reflective mood on this bright summer’s day. That morning Dawn had packed up her brood and was well on her way home now, leaving Buffy thinking about all the years of memories that having her little sister visit brought freshly to mind.

She decided to call Willow and Tara as soon as the dinner hour was past in Devon. The two witches now lived there and taught magic to promising acolytes. She missed their quiet wisdom and gentle humor.

Xander and Anya were off on a long delayed road trip across America with their teenagers. It was a last family trip before their William would be going off to college. Buffy had spoken to them all just before they had headed out for their adventure.

Giles and Jenny were still in Cleveland helping the new active Slayer, Vi, adjust to the trials and tribulations of keeping a lid on a Hellmouth. Their eldest son was with Jenny’s family, catching up on his gypsy heritage and learning to be a proper Romipen. Stefan and Nadja were currently annoying their Uncle Spike by keeping him from his sleep. Buffy knew that Spike only pretended to be irritated by the two adolescents who had spent as much time with them as they had with their own parents over the years.

Buffy smiled at the flood of memories and gave thanks, not for the first time, that Spike had made that wish all those years ago. She couldn’t imagine what sort of person she might have become without his love. They’d had their arguments over the years, as do all couples, but she was certain the woman she would have been without him would be anything but the contented woman she was now and had been for so long.

After they defeated and destroyed the Master, Angel had tried his hardest to convince Spike that he was selfish to romantically tie Buffy’s life to a vampire. He had tried to rally her friends and family to insist that she deserved a "normal" life with a "normal" man. It had taken much time and many instances of Spike being the sole reason for Buffy’s survival before Angel finally gave up and butted out of their lives. He was now happily involved with his own far-from-normal life with Cordelia in LA, or The City of Lost Angelus as Spike liked to call it. They all worked together from time to time when true Big Bads made an appearance.

The current active slayer, a sweet girl named Vi, was tending the Cleveland Hellmouth since Buffy and Spike had more or less subdued the one in Sunnydale.

Really, who wanted normal when they could have a life with Spike? Buffy’s thoughts happily ambled back to the start of her joy, her fulfillment.

Buffy had given the Gem of Amara back to Spike that very night, the night they took fate into their own hands. Spike had looked awe-stricken as she took his hand and slipped the ring back where it belonged in a way that mirrored Spike’s own actions days before. "Can’t have my boyfriend all dustable, now can I?" she had asked slyly. As she wrapped her arms tightly around her vampire, she whispered, "I’m not going to lose the best thing that ever happened to me, my own wish come true."

Spike had gifted Buffy with a promise ring that showed his intentions to the world, her mum and, more importantly, to Buffy herself. He didn’t want to rush things with Buffy; they were going to have a long life with plenty of time to explore ways to pleasure each other. After all, there were many ways to make Buffy’s nerve endings sing in joy without having Joyce discover her hidden talents with an axe.

They waited for Buffy to graduate from high school before consummating the passion they had lived with for three years. Spike referred to that time as the longest foreplay he’d ever engaged in.

Spike had been all things tender and loving when the time came, revealing to Buffy her innermost self. They had gone to San Francisco on a short honeymoon after her graduation and at a small, pseudo Victorian bed and breakfast, Buffy learned all about physical love from her genuinely Victorian husband.

To appease Joyce, Buffy and Mr. William Edwards had exchanged vows at a local Justice of the Peace. The simple service was attended by the Scoobies, along with Buffy’s surrogate father, Giles, and his lovely fiancée, Jenny Calendar. A surprise guest in the form of a three-foot tall fairy/demon with a beaming smile caused an alarmed Spike to demand that no one utter the word 'wish' until Fuamnach had departed. Before she left, she made her own wish that the couple always stay as happy as they were at that moment.

The really important ceremony happened on the honeymoon.

Buffy had read all the lore she could hunt down about vampires, their families, and their mating and claiming rituals. She knew that was the sort of bond that she wanted and Spike deserved.

Spike had been stunned when, on the second day of their honeymoon, just as he was nearing climax, Buffy sank her blunt teeth into his neck and drew a small amount of his blood, declaring him to belong to her with a firm ‘Mine.’

Spike had been far too surprised to answer at first. For a moment, Buffy feared that she had started something the vampire didn’t want. When he saw her face fall at his seeming lack of acceptance, however, he quickly replied ‘Yours. Never any doubt of that, love. Always yours.’

Buffy smiled as she remembered the look on Spike’s face when she asked, "So, aren’t you interested in making this more than just me claiming you?" He had cried later when he admitted that he’d never expected her to want to bond formally with him in vampiric tradition. "Dru never wanted to do a claiming, much less a mating. Least not with me." Buffy needed no further proof of just how insane Dru had been.

"Well I’d better be the only one, buster," she’d said with a smile. Buffy had never imagined an orgasm like the one that accompanied Spike’s fangs sliding into her neck as he made his claim. She gently rubbed the scar as she pictured the look of awe he still got whenever he looked at his mark on her neck.

There would be no fat grandchildren for them, but
there would be scads of nieces and nephews, just as was the case for Willow and Tara. It was enough. How could a love like theirs ever be less than enough?

~fin