Cretian Escape
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AtS/BtVS Crossovers › Het - Male/Female › Buffy/Spike(William)
Rating:
Adult ++
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Category:
AtS/BtVS Crossovers › Het - Male/Female › Buffy/Spike(William)
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
19
Views:
3,722
Reviews:
85
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS) or Angel, the Series (AtS); nor any of the characters from them. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
Her Side
Let me thank again my beta, Isis.
For all the people that wanted to know what was happening with Buffy, here you go.
Chapter 4 – Her Side
November 1, 2005
With no rhyme or reason, there were times when Buffy would be sparring with the slayers-in-training, and she would be reminded of Spike. His memory haunted her night and day. A pest in life. A pest in death. She could see him opposite her, taunting her with that smart ass mouth of his, matching her move for move. He had always been her favorite opponent. Even when they were enemies, the chemistry and the rush were always there, verbally sparring as well as physically, off the cuff reactions and attacks, and energy born from his enjoyment of a good row, as he would say. The most memorable of fights was when she found out he could hit her without the chip zapping his brain. She licked her lips thinking of that night. Well matched, they had fought until they were in the abandoned house, fought in the house, and then tore down the house making love for their first time. Taking her memories with her, Buffy headed out of the gym to a more private place.
Later when Giles entered the gym, hend tnd two girls practicing with swords. He had hoped to catch Buffy before she left. She usually worked out with some of the girls after the training session was over; but no such luck this night. “Girls, do you perhaps know where Buffy planned to go?”
Sandy shrugged while Mia shook her head. “No, she just left, but she looked sad again so she probably went to…”
Mia left the end of her sentence trailing off because her speculation was one of the subjects Buffy would not talk about. So out of respect, Mia left the destination unsaid.
Regrettably, Giles knew where the young girl was referring to, so he nodded his thanks and walked out of the gym, out into the night.
&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&
In a grove of trees that was both small and dense, located near the new Watchers Council’s main building, Giles found Buffy sitting alone on a cold stone bench. Not surprisingly, she had a far away look in her eyes and tears were sliding down her face. He didn’t think she even knew he was there. Regardless of her silence, he had no doubt who she was thinking about. After watching his slayer for a couple of minutes, the watcher walked over and sat on the bench next to her. They sat in silence for a time. All the while, Buffy still did not acknowledge his presence.
Six months before, Buffy had a gravestone, a monument really, placed in the grove in Spike’s honor. She knew that the big bad would want to be near the new Hellmouth, close to the action. He would want to help with the cause, and without a doubt he would be there to watch her back. They were a team that’s time was over. The stone symbolized that he was gone. Now, after losing him over two years ago, instead of pain, she felt numb. Dawn had called Angel for Spike’s last name, so the first line read “William Winthrope.” Of course, below his real name was carved “Spike” in larger, bold letters. Buffy had thought long and hard about the last line. She thought of things like Champion, Warrior, Beloved, something or other. Even though they were all true, none of those labels fully described the multi-facets that were Spike. Finally, Dawn came up with the last line. Simple but true. “He was loved.” When the last line was agreed upon, both Buffy and Dawn cried through the night.
When the stone was finished, Dawn went with her sister to see it for the first time. And when they saw the cold stone, they sat down on the ground in front of it, hugged each other and poured out their sorrow again in tears. “He was loved.” When Spike had loved, he loved with all of his being He had reached out for love, but always came up empty-handed. Drusilla didn’t love him as she did Angelus. Dawn had loved him, but when he attacked Buffy, she shoved the love for him to a far corner of her mind. Now she knew that her love for him had never left. She now felt that she had lost a protective, older brother. And Buffy, she also buried her feelings for him, and when she finally told him in those last moments of his undead life, he hadn’t believed that she felt that way for him. That she was just saying the words to make him feel better before he sacrificed himself. So with Dawn and Buffy, he had loved them with all his being and again came up wanting. And they had lost any opportunity to tell him what they really felt. They cried for a war thr that fought the good fight, but also fought to be loved.
Giles finally broke the indefinite silence. “We have just received a report from Gen, the slayer in Crete, through her watcher, Samuel Dickinson. Unfortunately, they have reason to believe that the Sepatucci Clan of vampires is making an impressive resurgence.”
He waited patiently to give her time to think until she spoke; her voice was flat, devoid of any emotion. “So you want to send another slayer to help out.” She shrugged a thin, pale shoulder. “How about Swanka? She’s done a great job with Tia in Miami. Send her to Crete, and we could send another SIT down there to take her place in Miami for some on-site training.”
“You are right of course that Swanka would indeed makeood ood choice. We do need to send another experienced slayer to this new and developing hot spot, and your choice has merit. But there was more to Gen’s report that should be taken into consideration.” Giles paused and took a big breath before continuing. “Even though the Sepatuccis are trying to create more minions and seize control of the area beyond the island, it seems that Gen believes some mysterious vigilante is helping her kill vampires. A situation similar to the help you had in Sunnydale. Not like the Scoobies and myself, but more like Angel and then …” Giles left Spike’s name unsaid. All those close to Buffy knew how much she missed him, and how painful it was for her when someone said his name. More often than not, she would visibly flinch and her eyes would glisten with unshed tears. No matter how much she wanted Giles to stop, he had to tell her all. “Er…Anyway, from my own contacts, they say the Sepatucci Clan has a contract out on a powerful vampire, whose name was not specified. Through his connections, Samuel has found out that since he is killing the clan’s members that the master of the clan wants this vampire dusted. Since all the vampires and other demons who try to collect the bounty have ended up dead, this contract hasn’t been fulfilled as of yet.”
Buffy shuddered with the wiggins. Giles knew that she was thinking of the blonde vampire. Her location was a dead give away. She just couldn’t accept that he was gone. When the first time word came to them about a vampire fitting Spike’s description, she raced to France and hunted the vamp down. She found him, looked at him, and then staked him. As more word of white blonde vampires were reported from the watchers abroad, Buffy hunted them down and no Spike, only dust on her clothes. Eventually she stopped; her hopes were gone, and she couldn’t stand the pain anymore.
Always a sure sign that Giles was getting nervous, he took his glasses off and briskly polished their lenses. “To confirm the speculations, Gen had already felt that thgilagilante was a vampire because, although she has never seen him up close or even seen his face, she has caught brief glimpses of him three or four times walking away from piles of dust. Each time she was left with her slayer senses tingling. Her suspicions deepened when recently she was fighting in a dense grove of trees, outnumbered five to one. By the time she finished off two, she could hear a fight close by and assumed the other three had attacked someone else. But instead of vampires, she only found three piles of dust and looked back up in time to see far away her mysterious collaborator disappearing into the trees.”
Buffy gave a bark of laughter. “Gen should write fairy tales for spare money.”
Truth to be told, Giles wasn’t completely sure about what he was going to tell Buffy next, but he felt with every ounce of his watcher intuition that she needed to know. “Gen’s watcher could only tell us a couple more details about this vampire. She could tell that he was medium height, lean, and his hair was blonde.”
Buffy glanced up for the first time and looked Giles eye to eye, now seriously wondering what Giles was getting at.
“Buffy, Gen said that his hair is so blonde that it is almost white.” The watcher watched his slayer as the information sunk in.
Buffy didn’t know what to say at first. “She’s never seen his face?”
“I am sorry to say, no. She has only seen his back as he walks away.”
“Giles, it’s not him. Every vampire that wants to steal his reputation dyes his hair platinum blonde and wears a black duster. When I find the blonde, all they ever end up being is a lame-o idiot with a bad imitation of an English accent.” She gave a big sigh as she thought through the possibilities. “Send Swanaka. This would be a good situation for her to break some fangs.”
“But this time, the vampire is not playing at being the slayer of two slayers. He’s not playing at being the evil William the Bloody. The difference from the other impostors is that this vampire is helping the slayer. Very different indeed.” Giles watched the hope flare to life in her eyes but then fade back away to her look of pain whenever she thought of Spike. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears again.
“Giles, I can’t go. I looked into the first six rumors and only ended up staking vamps that reminded me of him. It only made me mhim him all the more because I knew how much he would enjoy staking his impostors. I don’t even go out into the field anymore because no matter how much time has passed since his sacrifice, I still expect him to be there fighting with me. So I’m a teacher now. That’s it. No field work anymore. Call me grounded.” Buffy wiped at the tears that were now running down her face. “But even training the SITs is hard. I still can picture him that one night that he came up behind one of the girls in the cemetery, going all grrhh, scaring her to death to help with her training.”
Her words broke his heart, just as they always did when Buffy spoke of Spike. His opinion of Spike had made a u-turn when Spike willingly died to save everyone else. Now he respected the vampire after listening to the few times his slayer talk about Spike, his good deeds he did that he tried to hide behind his big bad reputation. Indeed his opinioned had changed. Giles started to put his hands in his pockets, but instead reached out and took Buffy’s hands in his own. A very un-Giles like gesture, but he knew both he and she needed the comfort from Spike’s loss. “You know that I think of you as my daughter.”
Buffy’s smile was small but genuine. “I am your daughter.”
Giles own eyes misted over, and he had to take a moment to speak over the lump in his throat. “I am honored. And as my daughter, I am going to ask you to trust me on this. You need to go to Crete.”
“Giles, do you know something you are not telling me?”
“No. I’m just asking you to trust my instincts on this one.”
Buffy smiled. “I refuse to get my hopes up. Just remember that I am doing this for you, dad.” Letting out a big sigh, she closed her eyes, resigned to make another fruitless search. “Make me flight reservations.”
“Right…ah…Dawn’s already made them. You leave tomorrow at 8:20 AM.”
&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&
The whole gang turned out for the drive to the airport. Buffy had refused to even get into the car without assurances personally from Faith that all would be ok at the home front. When they pulled up to the curb at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, Xander hopped out to get her bags, but Buffy didn’t immediately get out of the car. Giles looked over at her while he still gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, “Buffy, I know this could be xercxercise in futility and potentially very painful for you, but…the details from Gen are seemingly more accurate than any other time an impostor has been spotted. I can’t help but think that if Spike made it back from beyond, this vampire’s behavior rings true to Spike’s style when we saw him last.”
Feeling the sorrow but also hope surpassing her sister’s, Dawn spoke up from the back seat where she sat next to Willow. “Buffy, Giles is right. It could hurt, but it could be him. Are you willing to take a chance that you missed him?”
The eyes Buffy turned toward her sister said enough to make Dawn and Willow flinch. “If it is Sp…him, then why has he not come to me? Since we first met, that pest never left me alone.”
Willow reached up and touched Buffy’s shoulder. “Buffy, I know if I thought there was any chance Tara was back and out there, I would search forever. Dawn and Giles talked about the pain, but if it is him, think how happy you would be.”
&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&
As the plane took off, Buffy wanted to jump up from her seat and run to the cockpit’s door, beating and yelling, “Turn around, I can’t take the hope and then the pain again. Turn back.”
The first leg of the trip from Cleveland to JFK airport in New York was rather short. Nevertheless, she got sick in flight, probably more nerves than motion sickness. She changed flights, and when settled, she tdramdramamine to help her stomach and mind and kicked back for the longest leg of the trip. During the flight to Crete, Buffy brooded enough to take the world title away from Angel. Actually, Angel’s attitude had changed for the better, thanks to Cordelia. A couple of months after destroying the first Evil, she headed to LA, to Angel. But it only took a couple of days to figure out that they both had moved on. Oh, they still loved each other, but it was a love of the past. There were no hurt feelings, and Buffy was happy that Cordelia had brightened up Angel’s life. All three parted friends and kept in close contact.
She hoped the drug would keep the dreams away, but the dreams came again. This time with a Greek island twist. Normally, she would be sitting on the bench in front of the marker she had erected for him. She would look to her left and see him coming towards her. She could see the white-blonde hair, his black t-shirt clinging to his chest, his duster billowing behind him, a cigarette dangling from his fingers, and she could see his sexy smirk. What she never saw was Spike reaching her side. She saw his hand that was reaching out to touch her, to hold her own hand, but never made contact. Before they touched, the dream would always end. This time, however, on the plane headed to the Mediterranean, her dream was different. She could still see his white-blonde hair, cigarette in his fingers, and his sexy smirk. But she could not see a leather duster, and his shirt still clung to him but was long sleeved, medium blue. There was another change. She was sitting in a lounge chair at night. She saw Spike coming as before, but this time he reached her, touched her, and… “please return your seats to their up right positions…” The dream may have been interrupted, but her hope was fortified.
&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&
TBC
For all the people that wanted to know what was happening with Buffy, here you go.
Chapter 4 – Her Side
November 1, 2005
With no rhyme or reason, there were times when Buffy would be sparring with the slayers-in-training, and she would be reminded of Spike. His memory haunted her night and day. A pest in life. A pest in death. She could see him opposite her, taunting her with that smart ass mouth of his, matching her move for move. He had always been her favorite opponent. Even when they were enemies, the chemistry and the rush were always there, verbally sparring as well as physically, off the cuff reactions and attacks, and energy born from his enjoyment of a good row, as he would say. The most memorable of fights was when she found out he could hit her without the chip zapping his brain. She licked her lips thinking of that night. Well matched, they had fought until they were in the abandoned house, fought in the house, and then tore down the house making love for their first time. Taking her memories with her, Buffy headed out of the gym to a more private place.
Later when Giles entered the gym, hend tnd two girls practicing with swords. He had hoped to catch Buffy before she left. She usually worked out with some of the girls after the training session was over; but no such luck this night. “Girls, do you perhaps know where Buffy planned to go?”
Sandy shrugged while Mia shook her head. “No, she just left, but she looked sad again so she probably went to…”
Mia left the end of her sentence trailing off because her speculation was one of the subjects Buffy would not talk about. So out of respect, Mia left the destination unsaid.
Regrettably, Giles knew where the young girl was referring to, so he nodded his thanks and walked out of the gym, out into the night.
&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&
In a grove of trees that was both small and dense, located near the new Watchers Council’s main building, Giles found Buffy sitting alone on a cold stone bench. Not surprisingly, she had a far away look in her eyes and tears were sliding down her face. He didn’t think she even knew he was there. Regardless of her silence, he had no doubt who she was thinking about. After watching his slayer for a couple of minutes, the watcher walked over and sat on the bench next to her. They sat in silence for a time. All the while, Buffy still did not acknowledge his presence.
Six months before, Buffy had a gravestone, a monument really, placed in the grove in Spike’s honor. She knew that the big bad would want to be near the new Hellmouth, close to the action. He would want to help with the cause, and without a doubt he would be there to watch her back. They were a team that’s time was over. The stone symbolized that he was gone. Now, after losing him over two years ago, instead of pain, she felt numb. Dawn had called Angel for Spike’s last name, so the first line read “William Winthrope.” Of course, below his real name was carved “Spike” in larger, bold letters. Buffy had thought long and hard about the last line. She thought of things like Champion, Warrior, Beloved, something or other. Even though they were all true, none of those labels fully described the multi-facets that were Spike. Finally, Dawn came up with the last line. Simple but true. “He was loved.” When the last line was agreed upon, both Buffy and Dawn cried through the night.
When the stone was finished, Dawn went with her sister to see it for the first time. And when they saw the cold stone, they sat down on the ground in front of it, hugged each other and poured out their sorrow again in tears. “He was loved.” When Spike had loved, he loved with all of his being He had reached out for love, but always came up empty-handed. Drusilla didn’t love him as she did Angelus. Dawn had loved him, but when he attacked Buffy, she shoved the love for him to a far corner of her mind. Now she knew that her love for him had never left. She now felt that she had lost a protective, older brother. And Buffy, she also buried her feelings for him, and when she finally told him in those last moments of his undead life, he hadn’t believed that she felt that way for him. That she was just saying the words to make him feel better before he sacrificed himself. So with Dawn and Buffy, he had loved them with all his being and again came up wanting. And they had lost any opportunity to tell him what they really felt. They cried for a war thr that fought the good fight, but also fought to be loved.
Giles finally broke the indefinite silence. “We have just received a report from Gen, the slayer in Crete, through her watcher, Samuel Dickinson. Unfortunately, they have reason to believe that the Sepatucci Clan of vampires is making an impressive resurgence.”
He waited patiently to give her time to think until she spoke; her voice was flat, devoid of any emotion. “So you want to send another slayer to help out.” She shrugged a thin, pale shoulder. “How about Swanka? She’s done a great job with Tia in Miami. Send her to Crete, and we could send another SIT down there to take her place in Miami for some on-site training.”
“You are right of course that Swanka would indeed makeood ood choice. We do need to send another experienced slayer to this new and developing hot spot, and your choice has merit. But there was more to Gen’s report that should be taken into consideration.” Giles paused and took a big breath before continuing. “Even though the Sepatuccis are trying to create more minions and seize control of the area beyond the island, it seems that Gen believes some mysterious vigilante is helping her kill vampires. A situation similar to the help you had in Sunnydale. Not like the Scoobies and myself, but more like Angel and then …” Giles left Spike’s name unsaid. All those close to Buffy knew how much she missed him, and how painful it was for her when someone said his name. More often than not, she would visibly flinch and her eyes would glisten with unshed tears. No matter how much she wanted Giles to stop, he had to tell her all. “Er…Anyway, from my own contacts, they say the Sepatucci Clan has a contract out on a powerful vampire, whose name was not specified. Through his connections, Samuel has found out that since he is killing the clan’s members that the master of the clan wants this vampire dusted. Since all the vampires and other demons who try to collect the bounty have ended up dead, this contract hasn’t been fulfilled as of yet.”
Buffy shuddered with the wiggins. Giles knew that she was thinking of the blonde vampire. Her location was a dead give away. She just couldn’t accept that he was gone. When the first time word came to them about a vampire fitting Spike’s description, she raced to France and hunted the vamp down. She found him, looked at him, and then staked him. As more word of white blonde vampires were reported from the watchers abroad, Buffy hunted them down and no Spike, only dust on her clothes. Eventually she stopped; her hopes were gone, and she couldn’t stand the pain anymore.
Always a sure sign that Giles was getting nervous, he took his glasses off and briskly polished their lenses. “To confirm the speculations, Gen had already felt that thgilagilante was a vampire because, although she has never seen him up close or even seen his face, she has caught brief glimpses of him three or four times walking away from piles of dust. Each time she was left with her slayer senses tingling. Her suspicions deepened when recently she was fighting in a dense grove of trees, outnumbered five to one. By the time she finished off two, she could hear a fight close by and assumed the other three had attacked someone else. But instead of vampires, she only found three piles of dust and looked back up in time to see far away her mysterious collaborator disappearing into the trees.”
Buffy gave a bark of laughter. “Gen should write fairy tales for spare money.”
Truth to be told, Giles wasn’t completely sure about what he was going to tell Buffy next, but he felt with every ounce of his watcher intuition that she needed to know. “Gen’s watcher could only tell us a couple more details about this vampire. She could tell that he was medium height, lean, and his hair was blonde.”
Buffy glanced up for the first time and looked Giles eye to eye, now seriously wondering what Giles was getting at.
“Buffy, Gen said that his hair is so blonde that it is almost white.” The watcher watched his slayer as the information sunk in.
Buffy didn’t know what to say at first. “She’s never seen his face?”
“I am sorry to say, no. She has only seen his back as he walks away.”
“Giles, it’s not him. Every vampire that wants to steal his reputation dyes his hair platinum blonde and wears a black duster. When I find the blonde, all they ever end up being is a lame-o idiot with a bad imitation of an English accent.” She gave a big sigh as she thought through the possibilities. “Send Swanaka. This would be a good situation for her to break some fangs.”
“But this time, the vampire is not playing at being the slayer of two slayers. He’s not playing at being the evil William the Bloody. The difference from the other impostors is that this vampire is helping the slayer. Very different indeed.” Giles watched the hope flare to life in her eyes but then fade back away to her look of pain whenever she thought of Spike. Her eyes were shining with unshed tears again.
“Giles, I can’t go. I looked into the first six rumors and only ended up staking vamps that reminded me of him. It only made me mhim him all the more because I knew how much he would enjoy staking his impostors. I don’t even go out into the field anymore because no matter how much time has passed since his sacrifice, I still expect him to be there fighting with me. So I’m a teacher now. That’s it. No field work anymore. Call me grounded.” Buffy wiped at the tears that were now running down her face. “But even training the SITs is hard. I still can picture him that one night that he came up behind one of the girls in the cemetery, going all grrhh, scaring her to death to help with her training.”
Her words broke his heart, just as they always did when Buffy spoke of Spike. His opinion of Spike had made a u-turn when Spike willingly died to save everyone else. Now he respected the vampire after listening to the few times his slayer talk about Spike, his good deeds he did that he tried to hide behind his big bad reputation. Indeed his opinioned had changed. Giles started to put his hands in his pockets, but instead reached out and took Buffy’s hands in his own. A very un-Giles like gesture, but he knew both he and she needed the comfort from Spike’s loss. “You know that I think of you as my daughter.”
Buffy’s smile was small but genuine. “I am your daughter.”
Giles own eyes misted over, and he had to take a moment to speak over the lump in his throat. “I am honored. And as my daughter, I am going to ask you to trust me on this. You need to go to Crete.”
“Giles, do you know something you are not telling me?”
“No. I’m just asking you to trust my instincts on this one.”
Buffy smiled. “I refuse to get my hopes up. Just remember that I am doing this for you, dad.” Letting out a big sigh, she closed her eyes, resigned to make another fruitless search. “Make me flight reservations.”
“Right…ah…Dawn’s already made them. You leave tomorrow at 8:20 AM.”
&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&
The whole gang turned out for the drive to the airport. Buffy had refused to even get into the car without assurances personally from Faith that all would be ok at the home front. When they pulled up to the curb at Cleveland Hopkins Airport, Xander hopped out to get her bags, but Buffy didn’t immediately get out of the car. Giles looked over at her while he still gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles, “Buffy, I know this could be xercxercise in futility and potentially very painful for you, but…the details from Gen are seemingly more accurate than any other time an impostor has been spotted. I can’t help but think that if Spike made it back from beyond, this vampire’s behavior rings true to Spike’s style when we saw him last.”
Feeling the sorrow but also hope surpassing her sister’s, Dawn spoke up from the back seat where she sat next to Willow. “Buffy, Giles is right. It could hurt, but it could be him. Are you willing to take a chance that you missed him?”
The eyes Buffy turned toward her sister said enough to make Dawn and Willow flinch. “If it is Sp…him, then why has he not come to me? Since we first met, that pest never left me alone.”
Willow reached up and touched Buffy’s shoulder. “Buffy, I know if I thought there was any chance Tara was back and out there, I would search forever. Dawn and Giles talked about the pain, but if it is him, think how happy you would be.”
&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&
As the plane took off, Buffy wanted to jump up from her seat and run to the cockpit’s door, beating and yelling, “Turn around, I can’t take the hope and then the pain again. Turn back.”
The first leg of the trip from Cleveland to JFK airport in New York was rather short. Nevertheless, she got sick in flight, probably more nerves than motion sickness. She changed flights, and when settled, she tdramdramamine to help her stomach and mind and kicked back for the longest leg of the trip. During the flight to Crete, Buffy brooded enough to take the world title away from Angel. Actually, Angel’s attitude had changed for the better, thanks to Cordelia. A couple of months after destroying the first Evil, she headed to LA, to Angel. But it only took a couple of days to figure out that they both had moved on. Oh, they still loved each other, but it was a love of the past. There were no hurt feelings, and Buffy was happy that Cordelia had brightened up Angel’s life. All three parted friends and kept in close contact.
She hoped the drug would keep the dreams away, but the dreams came again. This time with a Greek island twist. Normally, she would be sitting on the bench in front of the marker she had erected for him. She would look to her left and see him coming towards her. She could see the white-blonde hair, his black t-shirt clinging to his chest, his duster billowing behind him, a cigarette dangling from his fingers, and she could see his sexy smirk. What she never saw was Spike reaching her side. She saw his hand that was reaching out to touch her, to hold her own hand, but never made contact. Before they touched, the dream would always end. This time, however, on the plane headed to the Mediterranean, her dream was different. She could still see his white-blonde hair, cigarette in his fingers, and his sexy smirk. But she could not see a leather duster, and his shirt still clung to him but was long sleeved, medium blue. There was another change. She was sitting in a lounge chair at night. She saw Spike coming as before, but this time he reached her, touched her, and… “please return your seats to their up right positions…” The dream may have been interrupted, but her hope was fortified.
&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&~&
TBC