Pangs Hush

Something Blue


Prologue

Willow stops by Oz’s room. She looks at his stuff, and sits on his bed. She picks up a T-shirt he left behind and smells it. She clutches it to her chest.


Buffy enters a student lounge and finds Riley helping some girls hang a banner for the Lesbian Alliance. “Is there something you want to tell me?” she asks.

“What?” asks Riley. Buffy looks toward the banner. “Oh. Yes. I am a lesbian.”

“Well, it’s good that you’re so open about it.”

Riley suggests a location for the picnic that they had been talking about having. The only problem is Buffy doesn’t remember ever talking to Riley about going on a picnic anywhere. Riley realizes that the picnic conversation wasn’t one he had actually had with Buffy. He’d just been practicing it.

“Practicing?” asks Buffy.

“Okay, yes,” says Riley. “I have been known to do a little prep work before our conversations. It’s not easy, you know, talking to you sometimes. It’s like an aural exam.”

“Boy,” says Buffy, “that’s just what every girl longs to hear.”

“Well, you’re tricky!”

“Like an exam?”

“I never know how you’re going to react to something. That’s why I like you so much, You’re a mystery.” Riley stops and considers what he just said for a couple of seconds. “Probably every beautiful girl in the world has some jerk telling her she’s a mystery, but I swear, you really are. There’s a lot about you that needs puzzling out.” He notices that Buffy doesn’t seem to be paying attention. “I lose you somewhere?”

Buffy smiles at him. “Right around ‘beautiful.’”

“Say!” says Riley. “Don’t you just love a picnic?”


Buffy tells Willow about Riley’s picnic invitation while they walk through the cemetery that night. This is new territory for Buffy. Among other things it’s a date in daylight. She really likes Riley, but she feels there’s something missing.

“He’s not making you miserable?” asks Willow.

“Exactly,” says Buffy. “Riley seems so solid, like, he wouldn’t cause me heartache.”

“Get out!” says Willow. “Get out while there’s still time!”

Buffy knows that she has to get away from the “bad boy” thing and the pain that comes with it, but she has doubts. “I can’t help thinking, isn’t that where the fire comes from? Can a nice, safe relationship be that intense? I know it’s nuts but, part of me believes that real love and passion have to go hand in hand with pain and fighting.” A vampire jumps out of the bushes at them, and Buffy stakes it without any of the usual preliminary pummelling. “I wonder where I get that from?”


Act I

Spike sits in Giles’ bathtub with shackles on his wrists and ankles. Buffy is questioning him about the guys who’d captured him.

Spike isn’t being much help. He can’t describe them beyond the fact that they were human, and he can’t (or won’t) be any more specific about the location of the lab than it was underground. He claims that he escaped through an air vent, but he doesn’t remember where he came out. He wants Buffy to turn on the TV that has been moved into the bathroom for him.

Giles comes in carrying a “Kiss the Librarian” mug of blood with a straw. He hands it to Buffy who holds it for Spike to suck on. Spike drinks eagerly, while Buffy looks away in disgust.

“I don’t know why you’re so dainty all of a sudden,” says Spike. “You’ve done this for Angel. You must have.”

Buffy pulls the cup away and tells Spike that’s all he’s getting until he tells her something useful. Spike isn’t really anxious to talk. He figures that once Buffy has learned all she can from him, she’ll kill him.

Giles tries telling Spike that they have no intention of killing a helpless creature, but until they learn what was done to him and how, they have no way of knowing how long he will remain impotent. Spike does not like his choice of words. Buffy suggests maybe “flaccid” would be a better choice.

“You are one step away missy!” says Spike.

“Giles help!” says Buffy in a little girl voice. “He’s going to scold me!”

Spike lunges toward Buffy, but his chains hold him back. He struggles against them, but they’re too strong for him to break.

Buffy tells Spike that maybe they have made things too comfy for him. He doesn’t really want them to let him go.

“Comfy?” asks Spike, “I’m chained in a bathtub drinking pig’s blood from a novelty mug. Doesn’t rate huge in the Zagat’s Guide.”

“You want something nicer?” Buffy sits down beside the tub. “Look at my poor neck.” She tilts her head, and runs her finger along her neck. “All bare and tender and exposed. All that blood just pumping away.” Spike is clearly interested, but he can’t do anything about it. This is torture for him.

Giles rolls his eyes. “Oh, please!”

“Giles!” pleads Spike. “Make her stop!”

Giles leaves in disgust. He goes into his living room where Willow is reading one of his books. “If those two don’t kill each other, I might lend a hand.”

Willow has found a truth spell in the book. She suggests that they try it on Spike. Giles thinks it’s a good idea, and Willow promises to pick up the ingredients on her way home, and bring them back the next day. She calls out goodbye to Buffy on her way out.

Giles returns to the bathroom. Buffy has gone back to feeding Spike from the mug. Giles tells her that Willow has had a very good idea. He thinks that she is coping better with Oz’s departure these days.

“She still has a way to go,” says Buffy, “But, yeah, I think she’s dealing.”

“What, are you people blind?” asks Spike. “She’s hanging on by a thread. Any ninny can see that.”


Willow stops by at Oz’s place again, and discovers that all of his stuff is gone. The room has been completely emptied out. Willow’s thread has just been cut.


Willow cries in her dorm room. She tells Buffy that Oz had Devon pack up his stuff and send it to him. It looks like Oz isn’t planning on returning to Sunnydale any time soon. Buffy tries to comfort her friend, but nothing she can say will make Willow feel any better.


Spike struggles to reach the television set to turn it on, but his chains won’t let him. He calls out for Giles to come turn it on for him. Giles is trying to phone Willow to find out why she hasn’t brought over the spell ingredients like she promised, but he only gets the answering machine.

Passions is on!” yells Spike from the bathroom. “Timmy’s down the bloody well, and if you make me miss it, I’ll—”

You’ll do what?” Giles yells back. “Lick me to death?” He leaves a message on Buffy and Willow’s answering machine. He is really anxious to do that spell, and get Spike out of his bathtub. “Among other things, I’d like to shower sometime today. Alone.”


Buffy and Riley have their picnic in an open field on campus. Riley tells her how he likes to drive.

“You seriously drive for fun?” asks Buffy.

“Well, not four-wheeling or anything, but yeah. Don’t you?”

“Actually, no-wheeling is more my specialty. I’m an avid pedestrian.”

“You’re kidding, right? I mean, you know how to drive…”

“Well, I took the class,” says Buffy. “Cars and Buffy are, like… un-mixy things.”

Riley thinks it’s just because Buffy hasn’t had a good experience yet. “You can have the best time in a car. It’s not about getting somewhere. You have to take your time. Forget about everything. You should relax, let it wash over you. The air. The motion. Just, let it roll.”

“We are talking about driving, right?” asks Buffy.

“I thought I was.” Riley tells Buffy that he’s going to take her for a drive some nice warm night.

Willow walks by, still in her funk. Riley invites her to join them. Willow sits with them for a while, but she doesn’t cheer up at all. She just manages to depress Buffy and Riley too.


Buffy sits with Xander and Anya at a table in the Bronze. She tells them about Oz sending for his stuff. Xander is surprised that Oz did that without calling Willow first. He thinks it’s pretty harsh. If Anya had her powers back she would liquify Oz’s entrails for Willow.

“That’s sweet.” Xander pats Anya’s hand. “Oh, God, poor Will. No wonder she’s…” He looks over at the dance floor, and sees Willow dancing enthusiastically with a guy. “…having a wonderful time.”

Willow leaves the dance floor and comes over to join them. She seems unusually cheerful, if a little spaced out. She tells them that she has been too much of a party poop lately, and decided it was time to just shake and shimmy it off. “I just figure in the grand scheme of things we’re all just—” She picks up her jacket, and knocks over the beer bottle that was hidden beneath it.

“Drunk?” asks Buffy.

Willow picks up her bottle. “Pffft! Drunk? That’s such a strong word. Kind of a guttural Anglo-Saxon word. Drunk.”

Willow’s friends aren’t happy to see Willow taking this route, especially in light of Buffy’s own recent experience with drowning her sorrows in beer. Buffy tells Willow that it’s time for them to go home.

“I just can’t stand feeling this way,” says Willow. “I want it to be over.”

“It will, I promise,” says Buffy. “But it’s going to take time.”

“Well that’s not good enough.”

“I know. That’s just how it is. You have to go through the pain.”

“Well, isn’t there some way I can just make it go away, just ’cause I say so?” asks Willow. “Can’t I just make it go poof?”


Willow lies sleepless in her bed. Amy the Rat isn’t sleeping either. Willow gets out of bed and opens her trunk of magic supplies.


Willow performs a spell in the dorm bathroom, seated on the floor in a circle of burning candles.

“Harken well ye elements. I summon thee now.
Control the outside. Control within.
Land and sea, fire and wind.
Out of my passions, a web be spun.
From this eve forth, my will be done.

“So mote it be.”

Willow lifts a chalice, and pours its contents into the bowl in front of her. Electric arcs jump along the floor from her to the candles. The candles flare.


Act II

Willow sits on her bed next morning, looking at herself in a hand mirror. “It is my will that my heart be healed. Now.” Nothing happens. She sets aside the mirror and picks up one of her spell books. “I will that this book speak its words to me.” Still nothing. She picks up a broken Q-Tip, and looks at it. “I will that this Q-Tip gets…unbendy?” Nothing.

There’s a knock on her door. It’s Giles. He has stopped by because he is worried about her. She never showed up for their appointment the other day, and she hasn’t returned his phone calls. That isn’t like her.

Willow tells Giles that she had picked up the supplies needed for the truth spell—which she hands to him—but then she forgot about actually doing the spell. She admits that she’s been off her game lately, and tells him about the spell she tried last night, which seems to have been a total bust. This worries Giles. He doesn’t think that Willow should be trying spells on her own in her current state. She’s too unfocused.

Willow interprets Giles’ words of caution as more punishment on top of her pain. She doesn’t like the way everyone keeps telling her that she has to go through the pain.

“I see how you could feel that way,” says Giles. “I do—”

“No you don’t! You say that you do, but you don’t see anything!” Willow’s eyes flash, and suddenly Giles’ eyes start to bother him. He takes off his glasses and rubs at them. He apologises to Willow, and tells her that he has got to be going. He bumps into a guy in the hallway on his way out.


Giles moves Spike into his living room, and starts to perform the truth spell. Spike isn’t too thrilled with the idea. He is even less thrilled when he notices that Giles seems to be having problems seeing what he’s reading. He’s worried about what will happen to him if the spell goes badly. Giles isn’t worried about that. He figures that anything that might happen to Spike will be better than what he deserves.

Giles eyes are bothering him even more now, and he pulls a handkerchief out of his pocket to clean his glasses. He doesn’t notice that the key to the shackles comes out with it, and falls to the floor at Spike’s feet. Spike carefully uses his heel to pull the key into range of his hands and unlocks himself.

Giles is surprised when Spike suddenly jumps to his feet, pushes him aside, and runs out the door.


Willow pets Amy—who is sitting on her bed—while she tells Buffy about her visit from Giles. She doesn’t understand why Giles seemed to be getting down on her. She returns to cleaning out Amy’s cage.

Buffy understands Giles’ concerns. Spells can be dangerous. It doesn’t mean he thinks Willow is a bad witch.

“I am a bad witch,” says Willow.

“No, you’re a good witch.”

Willow isn’t buying it. If she had any real power she could have made Oz stay, or she would have carried through with the spell against Veruca 1.

Buffy sits beside Willow and tries telling her that she wouldn’t have wanted Oz to stay under those circumstances, but Willow isn’t listening. “The only real witch here is fuzzy little Amy. I mean she has access to powers I can’t even invoke.” Buffy and Willow are both seated in front of Amy’s cage with their backs to where Amy is sitting on Willow’s bed. “First she’s a perfectly normal girl,” Amy transforms back to human behind them, and looks around with an expression of surprise and joy on her face, but Willow isn’t done talking. “And then poof! She’s a rat.” Amy transforms back into a rat. “I could never do something like that.”

They are interrupted by the phone ringing. Buffy answers it. It’s Giles calling to tell her that Spike has escaped. Buffy tells Willow, and grabs her jacket and bag of weapons to go look for him. Willow doesn’t want her to go, but Buffy tells her that catching Spike has to take priority. She’ll return as soon as she can. Buffy heads out.

Willow isn’t happy. “I don’t see the big. He’s probably just standing out there. You’ll find him in two seconds.” Willow’s eyes flash.


Buffy finds Spike standing in front of her dorm building, looking lost. “I thought that was going to take longer!”

“Me too.” Spike looks around. “I must have got turned around.”

Spike starts telling Buffy that the doorway that he escaped from the lab through was right there. Buffy doesn’t believe him, but Spike gets down on the ground and starts digging with his hands. “Open up!” he yells at the ground. “I’m going to kill you! Let me in!” He stops digging and sits back on his heels. “Fix me!” he pleads.

Buffy has had enough and pulls Spike to his feet. Spike punches her, and suddenly has a splitting headache, followed by the pain of Buffy punching him in the nose.


Giles is in his bathroom putting eye drops in his eyes when Buffy brings the bound Spike back to his place. Buffy is getting very fed up with Spike. She tells him to shut up before she stakes him. Spike doesn’t think that she will go through with it.

“Giles! I accidentally killed Spike!” Buffy calls out. “That’s okay, right?”


Willow has gone to Xander’s where she’s complaining to him about the way Buffy just left. Xander tries telling her that catching Spike had to take priority for Buffy.


Buffy pushes Spike into a chair.

“When I get this spell reversed,” says Spike, “they’ll be finding your body for weeks!”

“Oh, make a move!” says Buffy. “Please. I’m dying for a good slay!”


“Spike’s more important than me,” complains Willow. “I get it.”

“Buffy’s got to find out what’s up with those commandos,” says Xander. “Right now she needs Spike.”

“Well fine, why doesn’t she just go marry him.” Willow’s eyes flash.


Giles comes out of the bathroom, complaining about the way Buffy and Spike have been carrying on, and is shocked by the fuzzy vision in front of him. Spike is down on his knees in front of Buffy. He has just finished proposing to her. Buffy accepts. She and Spike embrace, and kiss passionately. Buffy sees Giles watching them.

“Giles!” Buffy waves her engagement ring at him. “You’ll never believe what’s happened!”

Giles squints at Buffy and Spike.


Act III

Xander continues to try to assure Willow that things will get better soon, but she doesn’t think so. She thinks that they are all just doomed to badness.

“We’re not doomed!” says Xander.

“Oh yeah?” asks Willow. “Let’s look at your bio: Insect Lady, Mummy Girl, Anya. You’re a demon magnet.” Her eyes flash.


Giles tries to phone Willow to tell her about his blurred vision, but he gets the machine again. He leaves a message. “I’m certain it’s a spell of some kind, because…well…it seems something else is going wrong…” He looks into his living room. Buffy returns to Spike with a cup of blood, which she has heated to just the right temperature for him. She hands it to him, sits in his lap and kisses him. “…horribly wrong.” Giles pours himself a glass of scotch.

Buffy wants to get busy planning the wedding. Spike is less enthusiastic. First of all, a church wedding is right out as far as he’s concerned.

“How about a daytime ceremony?” asks Buffy. “In the park.”

“Fabulous,” says Spike. “Enjoy your honeymoon with the big pile of dust.”

“Under the trees. Indirect sunlight, only.”

“Warm breeze tosses the leaves aside, and again: you’re registering as Mr. and Mrs. Big-Pile-of-Dust.”

Giles sits down on his sofa across from them with his glass of scotch. Buffy gets out of Spike’s lap and goes over to him. She could ask her father for what she wants from Giles, but for the last few years, Giles has been more of a father to her. She wants Giles to be the one to give her away at the wedding. At first Giles is very touched, and flattered, until the insanity of what Buffy is suggesting registers with him again.

Spike tells Buffy that Giles is going to have to take some time getting used to the idea. Buffy understands. Her friends didn’t like Angel much at first either.

Spike is not pleased that Buffy has brought up Angel. Of course Buffy isn’t too pleased to think about Spike’s relationship with Drusilla either. “You think that I’m not wondering if you’re going to be thinking of her on our honeymoon when you’re…making sweat love to me.” She drops back down into Spike’s lap and starts kissing him again.

Giles reaches for his scotch with an expression of disgust on his face. He knocks it off the table.

“Giles, are you okay?” asks Buffy.

“I rather think not,” says Giles. “I seem to be rather, uh…rather…blind. Completely in fact.”

Buffy moves across to sit with Giles on the sofa. “What? How could this happen?”

“A spell I believe.”

Spike gets up and starts going through Giles’ books. He thinks that they need a general reversal spell. Giles is shocked that Spike is helping him.

“Well, its almost like you’re my father-in-law isn’t it?” asks Spike.

Buffy tells Giles that Spike will take care of him while she goes to the magic shop to get the supplies they’ll need. “From now on, we’re family.” She starts kissing Spike again.

Giles gets to his feet, and starts to feel his way toward his kitchen. “It’s all right. I have more scotch.”


Buffy sees a wedding dress display in the shop window next door when she leaves the magic shop. She goes over to look at it.

Riley spots her from across the street and comes across to talk with her. “What’s up?”

“Riley look. Aren’t they beautiful?”

Riley agrees the dresses are nice, but they’re a little too dressy for school.

Buffy is anxious to tell Riley her news. She takes his hand in hers. She really likes him, and she hopes that they will always be friends, and she really wants him to come to her wedding.

Riley is somewhat shocked and confused to hear that Buffy is getting married. He’s even more shocked to learn it is to someone named “Spike.” He asks if Spike goes to the university.

“Oh, no, he’s totally old!” says Buffy. “Well not as old as my last boyfriend was!”

Riley is just getting more confused and upset as Buffy tries to explain things to him. He decides it is time for him to go. Away. Far away.

Buffy sadly watches Riley leave. “They’re ruining my happy day.”


Willow has left Xander’s, and Anya’s there now. They have been eating fruit rollups. Anya really likes them. Xander is a little worried about Willow, but Anya takes his mind right off her with a kiss. They lie back on his bed.

A demon smashes through the door. Xander jumps from the bed and attacks it, but it just tosses him aside. Anya grabs a baseball bat to use as a weapon. Xander comes back and pulls down the clothes line strung across his basement room, and wraps it around the demon’s neck. He pulls it away from Anya.

Anya recognises this type of demon. It’s a Separvo. The only way to kill it is to drown it. She helps Xander push it toward the laundry tub, which is full of water. They push the demon’s head into the water, and it begins to boil and steam.

A second demon smashes through Xander’s window.

“What the hell is going on?” asks Xander.


Giles is lying on his couch with a cloth over his eyes.

Buffy has returned without the taggis root needed to cure his blindness. They were all out at the magic shop, but they should have more in tomorrow. She has picked up a wedding cake top piece with a blonde bride and groom though, which she walks along Spike’s arm while humming the wedding march. Spike isn’t too pleased with it. He thinks the groom looks insipid, and much too human. Buffy suggests that they put a little red paint around its mouth. “The blood of the innocent.” She and Spike go back to kissing.

Giles isn’t happy. He can still hear them.

Next bit of planning for Buffy is the invitations. She’s a little worried about the names. Both “Spike” and “William the Bloody” are majorly weird. Spike doesn’t think they’re any weirder than “Buffy.”

“What’s wrong with Buffy?” asks Buffy.

“Such a good question,” says Giles.

Xander and Anya burst through Giles’ door, and barricade it behind them. They keep being attacked by more demons. Xander is somewhat shocked to see that Spike is untied. He is more shocked to learn that Giles has gone blind. He waves his fingers in front of Giles’ eyes.

“Stop, whatever you’re doing,” says Giles. “You smell like fruit rollups.”

This is the crack team that foils my every plan?” asks Spike. “I am deeply shamed.”

Anya is a little puzzled. “Why are you holding hands?” she asks Buffy and Spike.

“They have to hear it sooner or later.” Spike hugs Buffy.

Buffy hugs back. “Spike and I are getting married!”

Xander’s shock level reaches new heights. “How? What? How?”

“Three excellent questions,” says Giles.

Buffy and Spike go back to kissing. Anya and Xander look away.

“Can I be blind too?” asks Xander.

Something about the current situation is familiar to Xander. He tries to remember what it is. After a few seconds it comes to him: Willow said that Buffy and Spike should get married. She also said he was a demon magnet.

Giles remembers that Willow said that he didn’t see anything. Willow’s spell to have her will done is working. Whatever she says is coming true.

“And you both were affected. I probably only escaped because I’m the Slayer,” says Buffy. “Some kind of natural immunity.”

“Yeah, right!” says Xander. “You’re marrying Spike because you are so right for each other!”

“That’s it!” says Spike. “You’re off the usher list!”

They need to find Willow and warn her about what she’s doing before someone gets really hurt. Giles starts toward the door, but trips over his coffee table.


Willow returns to her dorm room. The demon D’Hoffryn is waiting for her inside. He grabs her by the head. Lightning flashes.


Act IV

Buffy, Spike, Xander and Anya arrive at Stevenson Hall. Xander wonders why they had to bring Spike. Spike kind of wonders what any of them are doing there.

“Spike, these are my friends,” says Buffy. “Besides, it’s kind of my job.”

“For now,” says Spike.

“What? You want me stop working?” asks Buffy.

“Let’s see, do I want you to give up killing my friends?” asks Spike. “Yeah, I’ve given it some thought.”

They find a circular scorch mark on the carpet inside Buffy and Willow’s room. Anya recognises it. D’Hoffryn has opened a portal there. He’s the one who made her a demon 1,120 years ago.

“Why would he attack Willow?” asks Buffy.

“I don’t believe he did,” says Anya.


“You have much anger and pain.” D’Hoffryn tells Willow. “Your magic is strong, but your pain—it’s like a scream that pierces dimensional walls. We heard your call.”

“I’m sorry I’ll try for a quiet rage. Bye!” Willow turns away from him, but she’s blocked by another demon.

“Our intention is not to quash your potential,” says D’Hoffryn. “Quite the contrary.”


Buffy, Spike, Xander and Anya head for a crypt in the cemetery where Anya can open a portal to Arashmaharr where D’Hoffryn lives. Anya tells them how 1,120 years ago she’d been performing minor vengeance spells after her boyfriend had dumped her. D’Hoffryn came to her and offered to make her a demon. She thinks he’s about to offer Willow the same deal. Buffy wants to get to her before that happens.

Buffy is distracted as they pass the Alpert crypt. She thinks it will be the perfect place to take wedding pictures. Spike is less than thrilled with the idea. Xander spots an approaching demon.

Buffy fights with the demon, being careful not to damage the foliage. If it was alone it wouldn’t be much of a problem for her, but two more demons show up right behind it. Buffy and her friends run for the crypt and barricade themselves inside.

Anya sits on the floor, draws a circle in the dust around her, and begins the spell to open a portal to Arashmaharr.


D’Hoffryn tells Willow how impressed he is with the pain and suffering she has brought down on the others around her.

Willow doesn’t understand what D’Hoffryn’s talking about. She doesn’t know anything about any pain.


Anya continues with her spell to open the portal while Xander and Spike hold the door, and Buffy struggles with a demon at a window into the crypt. All the distractions make Anya forget the words, and she botches the spell. She has to start over again.

Buffy breaks away from the demon at the window and joins Xander and Spike at the door. Spike is worried. In his current state he won’t be able to protect her if the demons get in. Buffy doesn’t think she needs anyone protecting her, not even her future husband.

The three demons manage to break open the door. Buffy fights with one, and Xander is attacked by a second. Anya gives up on her spell, and goes to help Xander. Spike manages to toss the third demon back outside and close the door again.


D’Hoffryn shows Willow the results of what she has done. He opens a window which lets her see her friends fighting for their lives in the crypt. Willow is shocked. She didn’t intend any of this to happen.

“But you did,” says D’Hoffryn. “This is the result of your power. You will make a fine vengeance demon.”

Willow asks D’Hoffryn to help her friends, but he isn’t interested in that. She is his only concern in this matter.

“Really, no offense intended,” says Willow. “You’ve been super nice and everything but I don’t want to be a demon. I just want to go back and help my friends.”

“That is your answer?” D’Hoffryn sounds angry.

“It is,” says Willow.

“I’m sorry to hear that.” D’Hoffryn pauses and considers for a couple of seconds. “Oh well, here is my talisman.” He hands Willow a medallion. “If you change your mind, give us a chant.” He gestures with his hand and Willow vanishes.


Buffy has pretty much finished with her demon when the demon outside manages to get the door open again, and knocks Spike on his ass. Buffy gives her demon one last kick, and rushes to kick the demon at the door back outside before she closes it again. She goes to check on Spike, ignoring the problem that Xander and Anya are having with the demon they are fighting right next to him. “Are you okay?”

Spike had been knocked out, and is just coming to. He looks up at Buffy. “Slayer!” They kiss passionately.

“A little help here!” calls out Xander while the demon tries to strangle him. Anya is on the demon’s back, but it doesn’t seem to notice her. Buffy and Spike ignore him and keep on kissing.

There’s a flash of light, and Willow appears in the crypt. She looks around at what is going on and quickly starts a new spell:

“Let the healing power begin!
Let my will be safe again!
As these words of peace are spoken,
Let this harmful spell be broken!”

The demon that Xander and Anya are fighting vanishes, and Spike and Buffy pull away from each other in disgust.

Spike wipes his mouth. “Oh, bloody hell!

Buffy spits. “Spike lips! Lips of Spike!

Everyone looks toward Willow. She smiles weakly, and waves at them. “Hi guys.”


Epilogue

Willow bakes chocolate chip cookies for everyone in Giles’ oven as part of her apology. She is also going to be detailing Giles’ car.

Xander is checking out Giles’ eyesight. It seems to be back to normal. He still needs his glasses. He wishes that Willow had given him 20/20 vision instead of just putting everything back the way it was.

Willow goes to offer Buffy a cookie. She’s standing guard on Spike who is back to being tied up in a chair. Spike wants a cookie too, to help get the Buffy taste out of his mouth.

“You’re a pig Spike,” says Buffy.

“Yeah, well I’m not the one who wanted Wind Beneath My Wings for the first dance,” says Spike loudly. Everyone looks over at them.

“That was the spell.” Buffy retreats away from him.

Willow shoves a cookie into Spike’s mouth and follows her. “Did I mention about the sorry part?”

“We may be into a forgetting spell later,” says Buffy. “I loved him. We were betrothed!

“Well at least you were getting along.”

“But we weren’t,” says Buffy. “It wasn’t even nice. And the ‘bad boy’ thing: over it. Okay, I totally get it. I would be really happy to be in nice relationship with a decent, reliab—Oh my God! Riley thinks I’m engaged!

“What?” asks Willow.

Riley! He saw me. What the hell am I going to say to him?


Buffy walks through the campus with Riley. “You thought I was serious?”

“Well, no. Y— I mean you weren’t serious?”

“Oh God! Please,” says Buffy. “I’m marrying a guy named ‘Spike?’”

“Maybe,” says Riley. “We haven’t known each other that long.”

Buffy tells Riley that she saw the look of fear in his eyes when he caught her looking at wedding dresses, and she just had to give him a hard time about it. She was only joking about getting married.

“So, you’re insane!” says Riley.

“Uh-huh,” says Buffy.

“But you’re still single?” Riley’s still not really sure.

“Yes.” Buffy smiles at him.

“Okay then. Just another little piece of the Buffy puzzle.”

“You really have a lot to learn about women, Riley.”

Riley steps up to Buffy and gently places his hand behind her neck, as if he were about to kiss her. Buffy makes no move to discourage him. “You’re going to teach me.” Riley smiles, and then walks away from her.



Death Toll

Who or What Where How
A Vampire The cemetery Staked by Buffy

Notes

  1. The spell as shown seemed to be more directed at Oz to me.