"Buffy! Buffy!" Xander's panicked voice rang out across the clearing as he ran up on the closing of the evening's dramatic events. "Angel," he gasped out, coming to a stumbling stop in front of Giles, who was standing at the edge of the clearing, staring out across it with a pensive, sorrowful expression. "Giles -- Angel's..."

"Dead," Giles supplied quietly, distractedly, his attention focused on Buffy and Spike rather than on the frantic young man before him, now bending over with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath.

"Oh!" Xander froze, his eyes widening in surprise as he stared at the older man for a moment, before following his gaze to the kneeling, embracing couple in the middle of the field -- and the still, lifeless body of the defeated Slayer beside them.

"Oh," he repeated, his tone heavier, as he began to piece together at least parts of what had happened, based on Giles' words and the scene that now stood before his eyes. One thing was clear, though he had missed all the action, and you couldn't exactly tell it by looking at the victorious heroes.

They seemed to have won.

The sound of her friend's voice drifting toward her ears reminded Buffy that someone besides herself and Spike actually existed, and she looked up to where Xander stood, carefully ignoring Giles as she did. Some part of her mind knew that her Watcher had intended well with his misguided actions, but his decision to sacrifice Spike's well-being, his dignity, without his consent, for the sake of victory, was something that she was not able to forgive.

She looked back down at the vampire in her arms, who had become quiet and still, and now just clung to her in silent need. She pulled gently away from him, to see his face, as she whispered his name cautiously, "Spike?"

He looked up at her, his eyes red and still wet with tears, but clear and sharp as ever, as a shaky smile rose to his lips. "It's over, pet," he told her, with a sense of awe in his words. "It's really over. We stopped them." He paused, lowering his eyes, as he added softly, "Maybe now they can rest easy."

She frowned slightly; it took her a moment to realize what he meant. Then, a lump rose in her throat and fresh tears to her eyes as understanding hit her. He was talking about Drusilla -- and her mother. They had both avenged their loved ones this night -- leaving them free to move on with their lives, though they would never be forgotten.

She returned his smile, slowly rising to her feet and taking his hands to pull him up to his. She glanced back over at Giles, and her expression darkened. Spike gave her a questioning look before following her gaze, surprised to see such a dark anger focused on her Watcher.

Then his eyes widened as he realized that she must know more than he had thought -- more than he had wanted her to. When her eyes turned suddenly back to him, smoldering and intense, he looked away, uncomfortable and ashamed.

"We need to talk, Spike," she said softly. Her face was gentle, compassionate, but very firm. He knew there was no way he was going to talk his way out of having this conversation.

It was the last thing he wanted -- but he knew that she deserved to know the truth that both he and the Watcher had kept from her. Giles had deceived her because he had known that she never would have allowed it had she known what he was planning, while Spike had done it to protect her. Still, he knew that he could not keep it from her any longer -- no matter how painful the telling would be.

He nodded slowly, his eyes still downcast. He felt a vague sense of unease settling over him, dreading the coming conversation, and what her reaction might be to the truth. He would not be surprised if she wanted nothing to do with him once she knew the extent of the deception he had at the very least allowed -- not to mention the things that had happened that night at Faith's mansion.

He would not blame her if she never wanted to touch him again once she knew.

He was surprised and utterly caught off guard when she suddenly reached out to pull him close to her, kissing him deeply, thoroughly, without regard for the situation they were facing or the fact that her Watcher and her friend were openly staring at them. When she finally pulled back, her eyes were still troubled, but she gave him a reassuring smile, trying to let him know that his fears were unfounded.

"No matter what," she whispered, her face still mere inches from his. "I still love you, Spike."

He was speechless. Breathless. Utterly disbelieving of the words that had been the last thing he had expected. The negative, pessimistic part of his brain that had too many times been the victim of love's more painful side was quick to remind him that she had not yet heard the truth, and might feel differently about him once she had.

But one look into her eyes silenced that inner voice, and he felt his fears begin to melt away as she took his hand in hers and headed toward their observers standing at the edge of the woods.

As they reached the spot where Xander and Giles stood, Buffy still made a point of ignoring the older man, addressing only Xander as she asked, “How did you know about Angel coming here? How did he get away?”

“Willow did it,” Xander was quick to reply, his own irritation clear in his voice at his friend’s careless actions that had almost ended in disaster. “She was saying something about how he wanted to help you – and Spike was planning to kill you…” His voice trailed off as he glanced down at their joined hands. “Obviously not,” he added.

Buffy did not even smile. “So she just believed him and let him go.”

Xander felt a little twinge of fear at the dark expression in her eyes, terribly relieved that he was not the cause of it, and hoping that Buffy would remember that and save her anger for the one who was actually guilty.

“She has so little respect for my judgment – she is so convinced that she knows what’s best for everyone around her more than they do – that she would set my mother’s killer free so he could come here and try to kill me, too. She almost ruined everything and got all of us killed.” There was a cold disgust in Buffy’s voice as she summed up – bluntly but quite accurately – just what Willow had done.

“We – we need to see about getting the girl some help,” Giles broke in tentatively. “I have connections with a coven in England. If she could spend some time there…she needs to learn how to deal with her power – how to respect it and manage it…”

“*You*,” Buffy suddenly interrupted, whirling on him with eyes blazing with fury, so quickly and angrily that he flinched back a bit. “need to stop talking about what *Willow* needs to learn and start thinking about your *own* disrespect of magic! Who are you to try to teach her anything after what you’ve done? You call that respect? You used your power to violate someone else’s rights – because you *could*, and you *thought* it was for the best! So you just made the decision for everybody, without even considering that there might be another way!”

She paused, letting go of Spike’s hand and stepping closer to her Watcher in a way that could only be described as menacing. “You don’t get to *decide* what’s best for me, Giles,” she informed him in a cold, soft voice. “You’ve helped me a lot; you’ve been there for me through a lot, so I’m cutting you a break. But the next time you do anything to hurt Spike – the next time you do *any* magic whatsoever anywhere near him – I’m going to forget all about the no-hurting-humans rule.”

She stepped back, easing the pressure of her powerful presence, and shrugged. “You have to qualify as a supernatural being anyway, as powerful as you are.” Her eyes narrowed as a new thought occurred to her. “In fact, if you’re so incredibly powerful, I don’t know why you couldn’t just kill Faith like that,” she snapped her fingers, “instantly. If you *had* to make with the life-altering magic. Instead of putting Spike through all that.”

Giles’ eyes were downcast, as he answered quietly, “I couldn’t. I – I had certain – limitations – placed on my power. I can’t use it to kill anyone. I thought that if I had the power to kill, I would be capable of too much damage…”

A cold smile came over Buffy’s lips as she interrupted, “And look how much damage you managed to accomplish, anyway!” She paused. “I hope you’re proud.”

She was through talking, through dealing with Giles completely.

With those words, she turned to take Spike’s hand again, turning away from her Watcher with a finality that told him that he would be wise not to press the issue, though he clearly did not want to let it go at that. But the Slayer was obviously barely reining in her fury.

Giles thought it wise to let the matter go for the moment.

She looked back to Xander and asked, “So where’s Willow now?”

Suddenly Xander looked sheepish. “Um…I was kind of panicked…when I saw that she’d let Angel go. And she was all trying to pull me back, trying to keep me from leaving. She kept saying that Angel was going to help you, but I really think she was just scared for you to find out what she did.” He paused, meeting Buffy’s eyes for a moment before looking away again uncomfortably. “She actually tried to get in my way and keep me from leaving the house – like, blocking the door…and for all I knew, Angel could have been trying to kill you right then…”

“He was,” Buffy inserted with a matter-of-fact nod, looking at him expectantly.

“So…I hit her,” Xander admitted. “So that I could leave. I had to get here and – and let you know. I – I didn’t mean to hurt her, I just panicked, thinking about you being in danger, Buffy, and she wouldn’t let me past – it was the only thing I could think of to do – I’m sorry…”

His voice trailed off, and a frown of surprise came over his face at the looks on the faces of the blonde couple. They were exchanging odd glances, and it almost looked as if they were trying to keep from -- *smiling*! Before he could even ask them about their odd reaction, Buffy looked back at him, her eyes wide and innocent.

“Is she okay?” she asked in a voice of false concern so obvious it was laughable.

Spike nearly *did* laugh.

“Well,” Xander grimaced. “I – I guess I hit her pretty hard. I – I think I knocked her out. She was – unconscious when I left.” He winced, expecting that surely *someone* would reprimand him for his act of violence against the defenseless little redhead.

The defenseless little redhead who had nearly killed Spike before, and nearly killed all of them tonight, with her foolish, selfish actions.

No one seemed terribly troubled by what he had done.

In fact, his statement seemed to be the last straw for the Slayer and the vampire, who were struggling desperately not to laugh. It was just that final thing that broke their resistance, and they *did* laugh, aloud and nearly hysterical before they were finally able to regain their composure.

After the unbearable tension that had built throughout the evening’s events, they desperately needed a release. The thought of Willow, thinking she knew what was best for everyone, as always, trying to block Xander’s exit through the front door, and getting decked for it, was simply too priceless.

It was exactly what they needed.

Wiping tears of laughter from her eyes as she finally managed to regain control, Buffy shook her head. “Well,” she sighed wearily. “I guess you’d better go make sure she’s okay.” She looked at Giles, the laughter fading completely from her voice again. “And while you’re at it, tell her to pack her things. I think it’s a good idea for her to go to England, like you said, Giles.”

Her voice became cold as she added, “And I think you should be the one to take her there. I don’t think it would hurt *you* to spend some time learning to respect the use of magic – not to mention learning to respect other *people* -- too.”

Giles stared at the Slayer, absolutely stunned by the reaction she was having to what he had done. He had done it all for her own good, to help her, to defeat Faith. He had never expected her to reject him so completely because of it. But the look in her eyes was unyielding, and he knew that she meant every word. She was not about to back down.

And if he really admitted the truth to himself – he knew that she was right.

“As you wish, Buffy,” Giles said softly, realizing that there was nothing more to be said at the moment, on either side. And with that, he turned toward the path leading back to town.

Xander stared after him for a moment, then back at Buffy, confused. He had no idea what had happened to make Buffy so angry with Giles. But when he looked to her for an answer, he found that she was already focused on Spike again, the tenderness and concern in her eyes stunning.

He had never wanted his best friend to get involved with another vampire, especially not after the way everything had turned out with Angel – and especially not Spike, the vampire that he had seen as responsible for all the horror of the past year.

At least – he had thought so, until recently.

He had begun to wonder when Spike had seemed to be genuinely wanting to help them, to defeat Faith. And now, though he did not know exactly what had happened, the battle was over, and they had won – and Spike appeared to have been truly on their side, after all. Though the Slayer’s blood he had consumed had already mended his wounds to a great extent, most of them were still visible.

It was obvious that the blonde vampire had taken quite a beating – and he had done it for Buffy.

Xander had a lot to think about.

“Well, um, you guys look like you need a little time, and – and I *really* don’t feel good about the idea of heading home alone, so – I think I’m gonna catch up to Giles. I think if I’m gonna run into any vampires in the dark, I’d rather be with Mr. Wizard when I do.” He paused, thinking, before he added, “Unless of course there’s some reason why I should be more scared of him than the vamps – because you’re kind of acting like *he’s* the enemy.”

His last statement caught Buffy’s attention, and she looked at him again, a little sadly. “No,” she said softly. “He’s not gonna do anything to hurt you. Go ahead and catch up with him. I’ll explain everything later, Xander.” Her eyes turned back to Spike, solemn and serious. “We’ve got some things to take care of.”

Xander nodded silently, taking in her expression before making his decision and taking off after Giles.

Shifting awkwardly on his feet, *really* not wanting to have this conversation, Spike looked away from her. “Right, then,” he said, his tone brisk. “Things to take care of. What say we go back to Faith’s mansion, let the vamps know there’s a new Slayer in charge, yeah?”

“Spike…”

“It’s about time somebody put ‘em in their place. They’ve been ruling the streets around here,” he went on, his voice too fast, and agitated, still not meeting her eyes. “My adrenaline’s flowing, Slayer, after all that. Let’s go do some major patrolling, take back the town so to speak, shall we?”

“Spike,” she tried again.

“Right,” he nodded decisively, as if she had agreed with him, and took off down the street toward the mansion.

She stood there watching him, unsure if she should press the issue or not.

He stopped a few yards down the path and turned to look at her, giving her an inviting smile. “Come on, then, Slayer, what’s the problem? Let’s get moving!” His voice was almost cheerful – almost. It would have been, if not for the note of desperation she heard in it, just below the surface.

He was desperate to avoid this.

She would let him – for now.

He had been through a nightmare, most of which she did not know about – although she intended to. But she would not push him, she decided. She would give him time to deal with what had happened. He was right, she knew. Their work was not done.

Now that Faith was defeated, her gangs would be easily slain and dispersed. Buffy really was looking forward to “taking back the town”. And then there was the whole problem of Willow and Giles, and figuring out what to do about them, and what Xander was going to do now, and bringing Dawn home. All of that was very important, things that absolutely had to be handled.

So was the conversation with Spike – too important to be rushed.

She would wait until the other matters were taken care of, until they could be alone, and take their time, and get everything out in the open.

“Ain’t gonna let me show you up, are you, Slayer?” Spike called back, from several yards further away, she noticed. “First come, first serve,” he warned her playfully, turning to face her but still moving away, backward, down the path. “Might not be any vamps left to slay by the time *you* get your bloody arse moving!”

A smile rose to her lips in spite of her serious thoughts.

No way was she letting Spike show her up.

She took off at a run to catch up to him. Maybe a good “spot of violence” was just the thing for the moment.