By Patti
Time Frame - very end or
just post "Chosen"
Feedback - yes, please
Distribution - let me
know
Disclaimer - Joss owns everything
Rating - G
**Companion piece to
"Always Mine"**
*****
He could feel
his soul channeling and pouring out the light from within, incinerating the
ubervamps. He knew that the First had been beaten back, but it was up to
him to be sure it stayed down. Suddenly she reached toward his outspread
hand, touching her palm to his. He could see the tears gathering in her
eyes - eyes that looked at him with awe, tenderness and a dawning recognition
that they would not both be leaving this place.
Their fingers
intertwined and energy flowed between them, connecting them in way unlike any
other time they had touched. Spike realized that this is what he was meant to
do. His Slayer had put evil on the run and he was going to back her up -
one last time. He felt power flowing from him into her, healing the wound and
giving her the strength to escape. "Go" he told her. "Get
out".
"I love you,"
she choked out, the tears overflowing her eyes and sliding down her face.
The words he had waited so long to hear somehow weren't that important anymore.
The connection between them was so strong, so pure so all-encompassing that
those merely human words faded in importance next to the blending of their souls
that he could feel happening. But, he knew the words were important to
her. She wanted him to feel valued when he died. He was mildly
surprised that she couldn't feel the energy between them for what it was. He
would always be with her now - as she would always be with him. He knew,
sometime, in some future place they would be together again?forever. He tried to
tell her that - that he didn't need those words because he knew what they were
to each other and it was so much more than the love between a man and a
woman. But all he could think of to express it was "No, you don't; but
thanks for saying it". He wanted to let her know he appreciated the words.
He just didn't need them anymore.
He put all his effort into
the flow between their hands. Hoping she would realize his real
meaning. Then he had to make her go. He wanted his Slayer to live;
he wanted her to have the long happy life he was earning for her. And, if
truth be told, some little part of his irrepressible personality was enjoying
all the destruction his soul was wreaking. He was curious to see how it would
end. He released her hand and with a last look, she ran out of the
collapsing cavern and into the sunlight and the world.