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Lovers Walk

Prologue

Willow is upset. She has just gotten her SAT results back, and she doesn’t like them. “This is a nightmare. This is…my world is spinning.”

“It’s not that bad, Willow, really,” says Xander.

“740? Verbal?” asks Willow. “I’m pathetic! Illiterate! I’m Cletus, the slack-jawed yokel!”

“That’s right,” says Xander, “And the fact that your 740 verbal closely resembles my combined scores in no way compromizes your position as the village idiot.”

Willow sits on one of the benches lining the walk up to the front of the school, and Xander sits beside her. He puts a comforting arm around her shoulder. He tells her that she did terrific.

Oz and Cordelia come down the walk toward them, and Cordy asks if they got their scores.

Xander instantly jumps away from Willow and goes to check out Cordy’s results. She did pretty well. He’s afraid it may hurt his standing as a campus stud if people find out he is dating a brain.

Cordy pulls her results back from him. “Please. I have some experience in covering these things up.”

Willow hands Oz her results, and he glances at them. “Well, I can see why you’d be upset,” he says.

Willow snatches the paper back and frowns at Oz.

“That was my sarcastic voice,” says Oz.

“You know, it sounds a lot like your regular voice,” says Xander.

“I’ve been told that.”

Oz suggests that the four of them should go out together to celebrate. Xander thinks it’s a great idea, despite Cordy’s reluctance.

Buffy arrives, and Willow asks her if she got her SAT results back. Buffy gives her a stunned nod.

“By the look on your face,” says Xander, “I’m guessing you and I are going to be manning the drive-through window side by side.”

“They’re just test scores, right?” asks Buffy. “What do they really mean, anyway?” She hands her results to Willow.

“1430!” exclaims Willow. “Buffy, you kicked ass!” She hands Buffy’s results off to Xander, who has them taken from him by Cordelia, who clearly doesn’t believe what she has just heard.

“Buffy, this could, like, change your whole future,” says Willow.

“The thought had occurred to me,” says Buffy.

“Then why the sour puss?” asks Xander.

“I don’t know,” says Buffy. “I guess: my future. I never really thought about it. I wasn’t even sure I was going to have one.”

“Well, I think this is great!” says Cordelia. “Now you can leave, and never come back!” Everyone looks at her. “Well, I mean that in a positive way. Get out of Sunnydale. That’s a good thing. What kind of moron would ever want to come back here?”

That evening on the outskirts of town a 1959 DeSoto runs over the Welcome to Sunnydale sign. The driver’s door opens and an empty bottle falls out, and smashes on the pavement. Spike falls out right behind it.

Spike tries to sit up. “Home sweet home.” He laughs drunkenly, and falls back onto the ground.

Act I

Spike wanders through the burnt out remains of the factory, singing My Way. He skips down the stairs into the basement bedroom, carrying a nearly empty bottle of scotch with him. “Drusilla, I’m home!”

Spike giggles. The giggles turn to sobs when he finds the charred remains of some of her dolls. “Why did you do it, baby?” he asks himself. “Why did you leave me? We were happy here.”

Spike switches from maudlin to enraged, vamps out, and starts smashing things around him.

Xander invites Cordelia to go bowling with him, Oz and Willow. She doesn’t really want to go. She was hoping for something a little classier. She opens her locker while they talk.

Xander is surprised to see what Cordy has taped to the inside of her locker door. “There’s pictures! Of me! In your locker. I never knew I was locker door material.” The inside of her locker door is covered with photos of her and Xander taken at the pier.

Cordelia closes the door. “Well…just barely. Besides, I look really cute in those pictures.”

Oz and Willow join them, and ask if Cordy’s in for the bowling. She reluctantly agrees to go along.

Oz and Willow continue on to her locker. While Willow is getting her books Oz presents her with a gift, wrapped in newspaper: a little Pez witch.

Willow is very happy with her gift. She thinks that she should find Oz a little Pez werewolf to match it. Oz thinks that they may have to settle for a wacky cartoon dog.

Willow tells Oz that it’s a very thoughtful gift, but she’s disappointed that she doesn’t have anything for him.

Oz smiles at Willow. “Yeah, you do.” He rests his hand on her shoulder for a moment, and then leaves.

Buffy shows Giles her SAT results while he’s preparing to leave for a weekend retreat in Breaker’s Woods. He has quite an impressive pile of camping gear piled on the library table. Buffy wonders if he is planning to settle there and start growing crops.

“What?” asks Giles. “Oh, my gear. No, no, this is, this is basic necessities.”

“Giles, you pack like me,” says Buffy.

Giles hands back Buffy’s SAT results. He imagines that her mother must be quite pleased with them.

Yeah,” says Buffy. “She saw these scores, and her head spun around and exploded.”

“I’ve been on the Hellmouth too long,” says Giles. “That was metaphorical, yes?”

Buffy tells him it was. Joyce was very happy with Buffy’s scores. She is already making college plans for her. Joyce wants Buffy to go to school somewhere far away from the Hellmouth. “I know. I know, I said that you were gonna have a goat. Responsibilities and all. I know the drill.”

“She may be right,” says Giles.

“Yeah, I know, I figured you’d…” What Giles said registers. “Okay, be kind, rewind.”

“With scores like these, Buffy, you could have a first-rate education,” says Giles. “I’m, I’m not suggesting that you ignore your calling, but, um, you need to look to your future. And with Faith here, it may be that you can…move on. For a time, at least.” They can talk about it more when he gets back. In the meantime he doesn’t want her doing anything rash.

“‘Anything rash’, meaning…” asks Buffy.

“Are you planning on seeing Angel?” asks Giles.

“Yes. Actually, I am,” says Buffy. “Look, but there’s not going to be any rash. Anywhere. Okay. We’re, we’re friends. That’s all either of us wants. Nothing’s going to happen.”

“Something’s going to happen!” Willow tells Xander. She is starting to have second thoughts about the double date with Oz and Cordy. Bowling is a mistake. Oz and Cordy are going to find out.

“What are they going to know?” asks Xander. “That we’re friends. Old, old friends. And maybe we’ve had one or two indiscretions, but that’s all past. Look. We’re just very good friends who like to hang out, and can I kiss your earlobe?”

“No!” says Willow. She reconsiders. “Well, okay.” Xander starts to lean toward her. Willow suddenly jerks away from him. “No!” She holds up her present from Oz to ward him off. “Pez!”

Xander realizes that Willow’s probably right. He wishes that they could make their feelings for one another go away.

Buffy makes some popcorn in the microwave in her kitchen, while Joyce suggests colleges to her, the further away from Sunnydale the better. Buffy is getting a little tired of people telling her she can go away.

“It’s time to think about your future, Buffy,” says Joyce. “About your whole life. I mean, honestly, is there anything keeping you here?”

Angel is alone in his house reading. Spike spies on him through the boarded up garden doors. He’s drunk.

“Yeah, you.” Spike says to himself. “You think I’m afraid of you? We were happy! You brainwashed her. I could just…” He stops to take another drink from his bottle, emptying it. He throws it away. “Yeah, I’ll show you who’s a cool guy. You’re going down.”

Spike starts to leave, but trips and falls into one of the flower beds. He passes out in the garden.

Spike wakes up when a beam of light from the rising sun hits his hand and sets it on fire. He douses the flames in the fountain and runs up the back stairs from the garden, shielding himself from the sunlight as best he can with his coat.

Spike jumps into the back seat of his car, and pulls the door shut. The painted over windows shield him from the worst of the sunlight. He grabs another bottle of scotch, pulls the cork with his teeth, and pours it over his burnt hand to cool it off. He cries out from the pain, and returns to taking the scotch internally. “This is just too much!”

Spike enters Uncle Bob’s Magic Cabinet through its back entrance. He tells the girl working there that he is looking for a curse. “Something nasty. Boils. I want to give him boils all over his face. You know, dripping pustules. Let’s really go for the gusto here.”

The girl doubts if they have what Spike’s looking for. She leaves him browsing the books while she goes to serve another customer who has just come in through the front door. It’s Willow.

Willow reads off the list of ingredients that she’s looking for. To the shop keeper it sounds like Willow’s planning to do a love spell, but Willow tells her that she’s really planning a de-lusting. The ingredients are pretty much the same. The shop keeper suggests a couple of substitutions, and Willow leaves with her supplies.

The shop keeper returns to Spike, to see if he has found the book he was looking for.

“Forget the book,” says Spike, in full vamp face. He grabs and bites her. After he has fed he drops her body. “I just got a better idea.”

Act II

Mayor Wilkins practices his putting in his office. It isn’t going well. He misses another putt. He gets down on his knees to examine the carpet. It’s not its fault, it’s his.

The Mayor hops back to his feet. “I swear, I would sell my soul for a decent short game.” He looks at Allan Finch. “Of course, it’s a little late for that. I don’t suppose I could offer your soul, huh? Really help me on the green.”

Allan looks a little scared. He isn’t sure if his boss is joking. The Mayor tells him to relax, and returns to business. They have a Spike problem.

Allan tells Mayor Wilkins that Spike has been spotted back in town. “There was an incident at a magic shop in broad daylight. The police had a hell of a time covering it up.”

The Mayor laughs. “Well, yes, y’know, he was up to all sorts of shenanigans last year. We had a world of fun trying to guess what he’d do next. But I guess we’re past that now. This year is too important to let a loose cannon rock the boat.”

Allan suggests that they have Mr. Trick send a committee to deal with Spike.

The Mayor doesn’t seem to notice the suggestion. His mind has wandered off on another tack. “Loose cannon. Rock the boat. Is that a mixed metaphor?” He thinks about it for a bit. “Boats did have cannons. And a loose one would cause it to rock. Oh, honestly, I don’t know where my mind goes these days. Why don’t you take care of that Spike problem?” he tells Allan. “A committee, like you said.”

“As good as done.” Allan leaves the office.

“That’s swell,” says the Mayor. He takes another putt. “Fore!” This one is right on target.

Buffy tells Angel about her SATs and college possibilities. She tells him how her mother is busy making plans for her. She had trouble sneaking off to see him. Buffy still hasn’t told Joyce that Angel is back, and that they’re friends again. She asks Angel what he thinks she should do about college.

Angel thinks Buffy should leave too. It is a good opportunity for her. That wasn’t really the advice she was hoping to hear from him.

Buffy starts to pack up her stuff, and thanks him for the advice. He asks where she’s going. It’s still early.

“Yeah, well, my mom starts worrying a lot earlier these days,” says Buffy. “I’ll stop by soon.”

Xander arrives in the darkened school chemistry lab and finds Willow preparing the ‘experiment’ that she has asked him to come and help her with before they go on their bowling date with Oz and Cordy. He is a little puzzled about what he’s doing there. She tells him that this will help his grade.

Xander takes another look at the ingredients Willow has assembled, and recognises that this isn’t normal chemistry that Willow is preparing for. He accuses her of doing a spell. Willow tries to deny it, but Xander picks up the book she has been working from and shows her the Witchcraft title on the cover. He also recognises the ingredients. This is love spell stuff.

Willow tells Xander it isn’t a love spell. It is a de-lusting spell for the two of them. She thought it would go better if he didn’t know about it.

“Are you nuts?” asks Xander. “Or have you forgotten that I tend to have bad luck with these sorts of spells?”

“But you said you wished that these feelings could just go away!” says Willow.

“Yeah, I wish for a lot of things! I told you I wished I was a fireman when we were in sixth grade, but you didn’t follow through on that!”

“I can’t do this anymore, Xander! I mean, this whole ‘us’ thing is… bleagh!”

“So, do you really need to resort to the black arts to keep our hormones in check?”

“At this point, I’m thinking ‘no.’” says Willow.

Xander goes to turn on the lights, so that they can get Willow’s spell stuff cleaned up before Oz and Cordy arrive and start wondering what’s going on.

Spike grabs him. “I need to borrow the little girl. You don’t mind, do you?”

Xander struggles against Spike, but it’s hopeless. Willow grabs a microscope off the bench and tries to hit Spike with it. Spike takes it away from her and uses it to clock Xander, knocking him out.

Spike takes Willow and Xander to the factory basement. Xander is still unconscious, with a bloody gash on the side of his head.

Spike tells Willow that he wants her to do a love spell for him, to make Dru come back to him. He picks up a bottle and takes a swig. “I’m going to get what’s mine. Teach her to walk out on me.” He empties the bottle, and turns back to Willow. He asks her if she can do it. Willow tells him she’ll try.

Spike grabs Willow by the hair. “What are you talking about, trying? You’ll do it!”

Willow is terrified. “Yes, I’ll do it!”

Spike breaks the bottle and holds the jagged edge to Willow’s face. “You lie to me, and I’ll shove this through your face! You want that?”

“No!”

“Right through to your brain!”

“No, please, no,” pleads Willow. Spike pushes her away.

Spike starts to calm down. “She wouldn’t even kill me.” He sits down beside Willow. “She just left. She didn’t even care enough to cut off my head or set me on fire. I mean, is that too much to ask? You know? Some…little sign that she cared?

“It was that truce with Buffy that did it. Dru said I’d gone soft. Wasn’t demon enough for the likes of her. And I told her it didn’t mean anything—I was thinking of her the whole time—but she didn’t care. So, we got to Brazil, and she was…she was just different. I gave her everything: beautiful jewels, beautiful dresses with beautiful girls in them, but nothing made her happy. And she would flirt! I caught her on a park bench, making out with a chaos demon! Have you ever seen a chaos demon? They’re all slime and antlers. They’re disgusting.”

Spike starts to stroke Willow’s hair. She cringes away from him. “She only did it to hurt me. So I said, ‘I’m not putting up with this anymore.’ And she said, ‘Fine!’ And I said, ‘Yeah, I’ve got an unlife, you know!’ And then she said…she said we could still be friends.” He starts to cry on Willow’s shoulder. “God, I’m so unhappy!”

Willow pats Spike on his knee. “There, there.”

“I mean, friends! How could she be so cruel?” Spike lifts his head from Willow’s shoulder and looks at her neck. “Mm. That smell. Your neck…” His face moves toward her neck. He vamps out. “I haven’t had a woman in weeks.”

Willow pulls away and jumps to her feet. “Whoa! No! Hold it!”

“Well, unless you count that shopkeeper,” says Spike.

“Now, hold on!” says Willow, “I’ll do your spell for you, and, and I’ll get you Drusilla back, but, but there will be no bottle-in-face, and there will be no ‘having’ of any kind with me. All right?”

Spike grabs her. “Alright.” His face transforms back to human. “Get started.”

Willow can’t promise that the spell will work. Spike isn’t worried about that. “Well, if at first you don’t succeed,” He points at Xander. “I’ll kill him and you try again.”

Willow looks through the box of supplies that Spike has brought, and tells him that they don’t have all of the ingredients she’ll need for the spell, and that they don’t have the spell book she’ll need.

Spike wants to know where to find it.

Buffy is working out in the library when Cordy and Oz run in and report that Xander and Willow are missing. They take her to the lab where they were all supposed to meet. Buffy sees the remains of the struggle, and Willow’s de-lusting spell. She sends Oz and Cordy off to find Giles. She tells them he’s in the clearing in Breaker’s Woods. Oz knows where it is, it’s a 45 minute drive away.

Buffy returns to library to pick up some weapons. The phone rings, and she answers it, hoping that it might be Giles. It isn’t. It’s her mother. She wants to schedule another college talk. Buffy tries to tell her mother that now is not a good time for this conversation.

Buffy hears Spike’s voice in the background. “Hello Joyce!”

Buffy doesn’t even bother hanging up the phone. She sprints out of the library.

Act III

Spike sits in the Summers’ kitchen telling Joyce all about how Dru left him, while Joyce makes hot chocolate. “So I’m strolling through the park, looking for a meal, and I happen to walk by, and she’s making out with the chaos demon! And so I said, ‘You know, I don’t have to put up with this.’ And she said, ‘Fine!’ So I said, ‘Fine, do whatever you like!’ I mean, I thought we were going to make up, you know.”

Joyce brings Spike his cup, and sits down beside him. “Well, she sounds very unreasonable.”

“She is,” says Spike. “She’s out of her mind. That’s what I miss most about her.”

“Well, Spike, sometimes even when two people seem right for each other, their lives just take different paths,” says Joyce. “When Buffy’s father and I—”

“No, this is different. Our love was eternal. Literally.” Spike looks at his cup. “You got any of those little marshmallows?” Joyce gets up to get some for him.

Angel looks in through the open kitchen door from the back yard. He sees Spike in the kitchen with Joyce. He tries to rush to her defense, but without an invitation he bounces off the invisible barrier at the door. He asks Joyce to invite him in.

Joyce is more afraid of Angel than she is of Spike, and won’t. “He’s crazy! He’ll kill us!”

“Not while I breathe,” says Spike. “Well, actually, I don’t breathe.”

“Joyce, listen to me,” says Angel.

“You get out of this house,” says Joyce, “or I will stake you myself!”

“You’re a very bad man,” says Spike.

“Joyce, you can’t trust him,” says Angel. “Invite me in.”

Spike is standing behind Joyce, taunting Angel by miming biting Joyce’s neck.

“You touch her, and I’ll cut your head off!” says Angel.

“Yeah? You and what army?” asks Spike.

“That would be me.” Buffy grabs Spike by the throat and tosses him onto the kitchen island. “Angel, why don’t you come on in.” Angel walks through the door.

Joyce retreats to the opposite corner of the kitchen. “Oh no! Okay, I’m confused again.”

Angel takes over holding Spike down on the island, and Buffy picks up a wooden spoon. She raises it to stake him with it’s handle.

“Willow!” shouts Spike.

Buffy stops. “You took Willow?”

“You do me now, you’ll never find the little witch,” says Spike.

“Willow’s a witch?” asks Joyce.

“And Xander?” asks Buffy.

“Him, too,” says Spike.

“What, Xander’s a witch?” asks Joyce.

Angel grabs Spike by the lapels, lifts him off the island and demands to know where they are.

Spike shakes Angel off, and tells him it doesn’t work that way. First Willow is going to have to work a little magic for him. “And when did you become all soul-having again? I thought you outgrew that.”

Buffy isn’t inclined to take Spike’s word that he will just let Willow and Xander go when he’s done. That’s okay with Spike. She and Angel can tag along if they like.

Oz and Cordy drive towards Breaker’s Woods in his van while Cordy worries about all the horrible things that may be happening to Xander. Oz suddenly stops. He can smell Willow nearby, and she’s afraid. It’s a residual werewolf thing that they both find disturbing.

Spike leads Buffy and Angel to the magic shop to pick up the ingredients he needs. He’s starting to sober up, and he doesn’t like the feeling.

Buffy offers to put Spike out of his misery. Angel stops her. They need Spike to find Willow and Xander.

“Need him?” asks Buffy “He’s probably just got them locked up in the factory.”

“Hey!” says Spike. “How thick do you think I am?”

They continue on toward the magic shop. Along the way they pass a bus stop bench and Spike starts reminiscing about how he and Dru had killed a homeless man on it once. He laughs at the memory. “He begged for mercy, and you know, that only made her bite harder.”

“I guess you had to be there,” says Buffy.

Buffy kicks open the door to the magic shop, and they go inside. She pulls aside the yellow crime scene tape. “Your work?” she asks Spike.

They start collecting the ingredients on the list supplied by Willow. Angel asks Spike why he’s even bothering to try to get Dru back. She is kind of fickle after all.

“What do you know?” asks Spike. “It’s your fault, the both of you! She belongs with me. I’m nothing without her.”

“That I’ll have to agree with,” says Buffy. “You’re pathetic, you know that? You’re not even a loser anymore, you’re a shell of a loser.”

“Yeah. You’re one to talk,” says Spike.

“Meaning?” asks Buffy.

“The last time I looked in on you two, you were fighting to the death,” says Spike. “Now you’re back making googly-eyes at each other like nothing happened. Makes me want to heave.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” says Buffy.

“Oh, yeah. You’re just friends,” says Spike.

“That’s right,” says Angel.

“You’re not friends,” says Spike. “You’ll never be friends. You’ll be in love till it kills you both. You’ll fight, and you’ll shag, and you’ll hate each other till it makes you quiver, but you’ll never be friends. Love isn’t brains, children, it’s blood. Blood screaming inside you to work its will. I may be love’s bitch, but at least I’m man enough to admit it.” He turns back to the shelves, and finds what he’s looking for. “Hmm!” He picks up a bottle. “Eye of rat.”

Willow tries to break open the door at the top of the stairs, but she can’t. Xander finally wakes up, but he is still too woozy to sit up. Willow tells him that Spike has them locked in the factory basement.

“Why didn’t he just kill us?” he asks.

“He wants me to do a love spell,” says Willow.

“What?”

“Drusilla broke up with him.”

“Gee, and we had all hoped those crazy kids would make it work,” says Xander.

“He’s out of control,” says Willow. “I mean, not that he was Joe Restraint in the old days.”

Xander wants to know what their options are. The way Willow has it figured either she doesn’t do the spell, and Spike kills them. She does the spell, and Spike kills them. Or maybe if they’re lucky Spike will get so drunk that he forgets about them, and they starve to death. That seems to be their best option.

Xander hopes that if Spike is really that drunk he will make some kind of mistake that will allow him to make a move. He tries to get to his feet, but he can’t. Willow catches him and they fall back onto the bed together, face to face.

“We’re not supposed to.” Willow reminds Xander.

“Exemption for impending death situation,” says Xander. They start to kiss.

The basement door opens and Oz and Cordy come down the stairs. They stop dead when they see Xander and Willow together.

“Oh god!” says Cordelia.

Oz doesn’t say anything.

Willow and Xander break off the kiss and look toward them. “Oh god, Oz!” says Willow.

“We have to get out of here,” says Oz.

Cordelia turns and runs back up the stairs. The stairway collapses under her and she falls. Xander rushes to the hole in the stairway and looks down at her. A piece of rebar pierces her abdomen.

Buffy, Angel and Spike leave the magic shop. “Okay, Spike, we got the stuff. Where are they?” asks Buffy.

“What’s your hurry?” asks Spike.

“My hurry is my intense desire to get you out of my life,” says Buffy. “You tend to cause trouble.”

“I’ll be out of your life in a few short hours,” says Spike. “No trouble at all.”

They find themselves surrounded by a gang of vampires. “Hello, Spike,” says their leader.

“No trouble at all,” says Buffy.

Act IV

The welcoming committee’s lead vampire—Lenny—used to one of Spike’s flunkies, and Spike isn’t going to take any guff from him now. Lenny is willing to let Buffy and Angel walk away, but Spike reminds her that if anything happens to him her friends will die. Angel doesn’t think they have much of a choice.

Buffy looks at Lenny. “Sorry. We’re staying.” She throws the bag of magic supplies she’s carrying at one of the vampires and attacks. Angel attacks the vamps on the other side of them. Spike jumps up on the roof of a parked car, and starts playing king of the castle with the vampires who attack him.

Buffy’s fight carries her into the patio of the Espresso Pump, where she breaks a mop handle to create a weapon for herself. She uses it as a quarterstaff to fight the two vampires that attack her, until she beats them into a position that lets her run both of them through with it. The vampires explode into dust, but Buffy, Angel and Spike are still badly outnumbered.

Buffy, Angel and Spike regroup in front of the magic shop, with the vampires cutting off any hope for escape. They retreat back inside the shop. Spike and Angel barricade the front door and windows with bookcases. Vampires start pounding on the door, and pulling on the metal grate covering the windows. Buffy breaks up a chair to make some stakes for them all, and passes them out. They stand and wait for the inevitable breaking down of the barricade.

“This should be a kick!” says Spike.

Buffy glares at Spike. “I violently dislike you!”

Lenny and a couple of other vampires break in through the back door. Angel closes and holds the door against more vampires, while Buffy and Spike fight the three that got in.

Xander climbs down to be with Cordelia. Willow tells her not to move. Oz has gone to get help.

Buffy stakes one of the vampires in the shop with them, but the vampires pounding on the back door manage to break it down. Two more vampires trample over Angel on their way into the shop, pinning him under the heavy door.

Lenny confronts Spike “Yeah. I heard you’d gone soft. Sad to see it, man.”

“Soft?” asks Spike.

“Yeah!” says Lenny. “Like baby food.”

Spike looks around and sees a second vampire behind him. “Well, then, let’s give baby a taste.” He kicks out at the vampire behind him, and punches Lenny.

Buffy pounds on another vampire. She disables it long enough to go lift the door off Angel, and helps him back to his feet. He still isn’t in shape for this sort of fight. The bookcase they used to barricade the front window is about to give way. Angel spots a shelf full of bottles of holy water.

Spike pounds Lenny’s head against a table. “Baby like his supper? Baby like supper?” He flips Lenny over onto the table. “Why doesn’t baby have a nap?” He plunges a stake into Lenny’s heart.

The bookcase gives way, and Buffy shouts at Spike to get down. The vampires who rush through the window are greeted by a hail of holy water bottles, which shatter on impact. Spike ducks away from a few drops that splatter his way. The vampires retreat in disarray.

Spike straightens up. “Now, that was fun!” Buffy and Angel look at him in disbelief. “Oh, don’t tell me that wasn’t fun!” He laughs. “Oh, god! It’s been so long since I had a decent spot of violence. Really puts things in perspective.”

Angel staggers, and Buffy quickly goes to support him.

“Oh, yeah. You two. Just friends. No danger there,” says Spike.

“Could we just do the damn spell now?” asks Buffy.

“Oh, sod the spell.” Spike waves her off. “Your friends are at the factory.” Buffy and Angel look at him in more disbelief. “I’m really glad I came here, you know? I’ve been all wrongheaded about this. Weeping, crawling, blaming everybody else. I want Dru back, I’ve just got to be the man I was, the man she loved. I’m going to do what I should have done in the first place: I’ll find her—wherever she is—tie her up, torture her until she likes me again.”

Spike starts to go, but pauses when he reaches the door. He turns back to Buffy and Angel. “Love’s a funny thing.”

Xander reaches Cordelia. “Cordy, Please hold on.”

“Xander?” says Cordelia weakly. “I can’t see you…” She passes out.

“Cordy?” Xander calls out to her, but she doesn’t respond.

Epilogue

The funeral is being held on a sunny morning, with a couple of dozen people attending. Buffy and Willow walk by.

Willow tells Buffy that Cordy is going to be okay. She lost a lot of blood, but nothing vital was punctured. Xander hasn’t been able to see her yet. She hasn’t been allowed visitors until today.

“And Oz?” asks Buffy.

“I never knew there was anything inside me that could feel this bad,” says Willow. “For the longest time, I didn’t know what I wanted. I wanted everything. And now…I just…I just want him to talk to me again.”

“Just give it some time,” says Buffy. “And be prepared for some groveling.”

“Oh, I’m ready,” says Willow. “I’m all over groveling.”

“Good,” says Buffy. “Because, you know, I hear sometimes it works.”

Xander knocks on the door of Cordelia’s hospital room, and asks if he can come in. Cordelia is looking away from the door, and doesn’t say anything.

Xander enters the room, places a big bouquet of flowers on Cordy’s bedside table, and sits in the chair beside her bed. “Cordy, I want you to know that I—”

Cordelia turns to look at him. “Xander.”

“Yeah?”

“Stay away from me.” Cordelia turns her head back to face the wall.

Buffy visits Angel. She tells him that she isn’t going to be coming back. “We’re not friends. We never were. And I can fool Giles, and I can fool my friends, but I can’t fool myself—or Spike, for some reason. What I want from you I can never have. You don’t need me to take care of you anymore. So I’m going to go.”

Angel doesn’t want to accept that. He asks Buffy if there’s any way they can still see each other.

“There is,” says Buffy. “Tell me that you don’t love me.”

Angel can’t say anything. Buffy turns and walks away. He doesn’t follow her.

Willow sits alone on the floor in her room leaning against the side of her bed and holding her Pez witch.

Oz sits alone on a pool table in the Bronze holding his guitar.

Xander files books alone in the library.

Cordy lies alone in her hospital bed.

Buffy sits alone in the school quad, not looking at the students walking around her.

Spike drives south in his car. He is singing along with the Sid Vicious version of My Way on his car radio.

Death Toll