Disclaimer: The usual.

Author's Note: This is the final chapter, all!

"You awake, luv?"

The purr in her ear brought Buffy back to the world of the living, and she let out a little groan. "Sleeping. G'way."

Spike chuckled and sidled up against her back, spooning her tiny body with his larger one. "Hafta get going soon," he informed her apologetically.

"Fine," she insisted grumpily. "Wake me then."

"That confirms it," Spike decided with a sigh, nibbling lightly on her shoulder. "You just are bitchy the mornin' after." There was a smile on his face as he said it, though.

Except for the three occasions where they'd ventured from their comfy motel room to join Rick and Dawn for meals, they'd been sequestered away together for two days now, holding each other, talking occasionally, and making love. Waking up with Sex!Kitten!Buffy in his arms two mornings in a row had calmed his fears a bit about the genuineness of her feelings for him.

That, and the fact that even when he'd been possessed and trying to kill her, she hadn't reached for that stake once. It filled him with an odd sense of peace to know that even when he was at his worst, she saw enough of a man in him that she hadn't resorted to slaying. He'd felt trust and love like that in himself before, but never had similar emotions been directed back at him. That knowledge quenched most of his fears and doubts.

"I didn't mean it like that," she added anyway, snuggling back down into the pillow. "Just need sleep."

"Wore you all out, did I?" he asked cockily, long tongue rolling over his teeth in a lascivious manner.

"Hush," she insisted. "Sleeping."

A wicked smile curved his lips as he pressed his nude body fully against hers, the full length of his rock-hard erection rubbing deliciously against her ass.

Buffy's eyes abruptly opened, suddenly wide awake at the feel of Fully!Aroused!Spike behind her. She moved to turn in his arms, but he held her in place, tisking lightly.

"You need your rest, luv," he reminded her with a cheeky grin.

"But—" she began.

"Go back to sleep," he instructed. "I can have my play time without you."

"Don't wanna sleep," she countered.

"Just said you did," he retorted, gentle fingers coming to rest on her eyes and pushing the lids closed. "Now sleep." He lifted up one of her legs and pulled it back over his hip before thrusting inside of her.

"God, Spike..." she whimpered at the feel of him sheathed within her.

"Sorry, pet, am I distractin' you?" he teased mercilessly. "Keepin' you up?" He began to move within her, deep, slow thrusts right to her core.

"Evil vampire," Buffy concluded with a dreamy sigh, leaning back into his embrace and savoring the pleasure their bodies brought each other...

"Ashes to ashes, dust to dust..."

With a solemn nod, the ceremony ended and the priest and Laura's Danvers attorney turned from the site of the small funeral. The only attendee of the funeral walked up the small slope to where the two observers stood. "Mister Summers," Simon Whitteborn addressed Spike in a crisp manner, "I will need to discuss our business arrangements with your employer."

Spike started to at that, his gaze drifting back down to the freshly-packed earth with an almost nostalgic look. "Not a good time," he said gruffly. "We've got our own funeral goin' on as well."

Simon Whitteborn nodded curtly. "I'm sure you'll agree that given the complications of contract arising from Ms. Danvers' death that the award money would be quite inappropriate for—"

"You're gonna rip us off?" Buffy exclaimed in astonished outrage. "After all that happened?"

Spike's calming hand came to rest on her shoulder. "Leave it be, luv," he assured her before turning narrowed eyes to the attorney. "You'll be wantin' to talk with our accountant, Sigrid Jacobsen." He let a hint of gold flash through his eyes, causing the other man to yelp. "And given how your 'supervision' seemed to be from halfway 'round the world, I wouldn't make any assumptions 'bout the 'complications' we had to go through." He caught hold of Buffy's arm and led her away in mild protest.

"The nerve of that guy," she muttered angrily.

"Weren't prepared to pay us in the first place, 'm sure," he countered. "We were all s'posed to die, remember?"

"And I can't even kill him," Buffy grumbled.

"Just leave 'im to Siggy," he assured her. "He'll be our cheap slave for life once she has her way." He came to a halt in front of the recently erected tombstone, studying the effect curiously.

"They spell her name wrong or what?" Buffy demanded, eyeing the gray marker intently.

"Strange is all," he shrugged. "All this time she was..."

"Yeah." Buffy shuddered inwardly. She so hadn't needed to hear that Spike had boinked the decrepit old lady. Of course, she realized that Laura Danvers hadn't been old or decrepit at the time. In fact, she'd probably been young and beautiful, and... Okay, so that wasn't a happy thought, either. But the notion that the woman buried here was once been Spike's lover...definitely wig-worthy. "You remember her?" she ventured to ask cautiously.

He sighed. "Not really," he admitted. "Was a bit caught up with..." He trailed off abruptly.

She sighed inwardly, not wanting to say the words aloud, either. They were quite a pair, really, the two of them. She'd once envied his ability to speak about his emotions, his openness, but she was fast learning that he wasn't so different from her in this regard. His affection of her – and even Dawn and Siggy – was made clear, but the more complicated stuff... He really was quite devoted to the image he'd affected for himself and often hid behind it in times like these.

She slipped her hand into his, twining their fingers lazily together as they stood there side-by-side, shoulders barely brushing. It was a strange sort of subtle solidarity that existed between them, but powerful nonetheless.

"You thinkin' about your own grave?" he asked quietly.

"A little," she admitted hesitantly. "You?"

He shrugged. "Was a long time ago. It fades over time."

"You're right," she agreed. "It does."

His hand gave hers a light squeeze. "She seemed...kind." His brow furrowed as he struggled to remember the one night he'd known the dead woman before the Haunting had consumed her. "I needed comfortin' and she..." He left off again.

"Well then, I'm grateful," Buffy concluded, holding his hand between both of hers now and warming the chill flesh with her heat.

"Not homicidal?" he teased lightly.

"She's already dead," Buffy countered.

A wry smile lifted the corners of his lips. "Could've been me," he commented. "If the Hauntin' had tried to take me then..."

"Shh," Buffy soothed, "it wasn't you. Another thing I'm grateful for."

Spike nodded and turned away from the grave. "You done?" he inquired, one eyebrow raised and hand now gesturing for them to depart.

Buffy studied him for a moment, then. The blizzards had given them a short reprieve, but the sky was still cloudy with the occasional flurry fluttering to the ground. The cloud-cover was enough for him to walk outdoors in the daylight, though. The soft white light that fell upon the earth illuminated his features enough that, for once, every wrinkle and imperfection was visible to her. At that moment he appeared not as a creature of the night, wrapped in the embrace of the moon's silver light, but a man. Just an ordinary man who had been hurt every bit as often as she had, who still held himself back at times, fearing the pain and rejection.

She managed a soft smile. This was the closest she would ever come to seeing him in the sun, but perhaps the light flattered him all the same. Just as, she was forced to admit now, the dark sometimes flattered her. But they both fit best in between, together, neither really in one world and...

"Hello? Slayer?" Spike waved one hand in front of her face. "You still in there?"

She batted his hand away in irritation and proceeded him up the snow-packed path that led back to where the rest of their party was waiting. "Ruin my moody, poetic introspection, why don't you?" she countered with good humor.

"'Bout what?" he asked curiously.

She smiled and stood up on her tiptoes to brush a gentle kiss across his lips...

"You know," Dawn commented to Rick and Siggy as they watched the blond pair in the graveyard, "after my mom died I had these fantasies. Buffy and Spike would get together, and then I'd have a surrogate mom and dad, and we'd all live happily ever after."

Rick smiled. "You do not still feel the same way?" he inquired.

"My attitude now is more like, 'Heh, I hope those crazy kids manage to work it out'," she agreed with a frown. "When did I become the grown-up one?"

Siggy managed a smile at that. "It is not difficult with Spike," she assured her friend.

"Or my sister," Dawn agreed, getting up from off of the hood of the car as her sister and pseudo-brother finally ended their kiss and began walking up the hill. "Are we ready to go now?" she demanded of the two of them as they approached.

A slight blush tinged Buffy's cheeks when she realized that she and Spike had had an audience. "Eustacia Collins is put to rest?" she asked softly.

Siggy nodded glumly. "Her nephew was quite distraught," she agreed. "But at least she finally managed to banish the evil that had tainted her life."

Buffy grimaced as they walked down the road to where Siggy had parked Dawn's beat-up Chevy. "Guess she was right about the helping us getting her killed part."

"A sobering thought," Dawn agreed, coming to a halt outside her car.

Veronica sat in the passenger's seat, warming her hands on the vent where the engine had been left on. The redhead had insisted on attending Eustacia Collins' funeral after having witnessed the woman's death. A glance at where Xel and Lena lay buried together had quickly caused her to retreat back from the rest of the group, however.

"You sure you don't want company gettin' her back home?" Spike asked Siggy.

"The airport is not too far out of my way," Siggy shook her head.

"Wasn't talkin' 'bout the distance, sugar," he countered, cocking his head to one side as he studied Veronica. Any residual anger he might've felt at the stunt that she had pulled in his bedroom had long since evaporated with the subsequent disasters.

"The company is not so bad, either," Siggy assured her. "In a way, I see it as my duty to help her through this difficult time."

"Got her brother back home for that," he retorted.

"Then for whatever time I can offer her comfort," Siggy amended, giving the vampire a quick hug for this temporary good-bye.

"You know," Buffy said, taking her own hug in turn, "there's this guy you absolutely have to meet. His name's Holden Webster, and you two really have a lot in common." She smiled at the blond.

"Perhaps I will stop by Sunnydale before I go home and meet him," Siggy countered with a soft smile of her own. She turned to Dawn and Rick, offering them each quick hugs in return before she got into the car and pulled off with a squeal of tires.

Spike flinched. "That monster actually drove my baby," he whimpered, patting the hood of his black BMW affectionately.

Buffy patted his back through his recently re-patched black duster. "I'm sure she'll be all right with a little TLC," she teased softly.

He held up his nose in a mock-offended manner, leaving it to the women to make all the mushy good-byes and such.

"So, we'll see you back in New York soon, am I right?" Dawn said with a little grin.

Buffy nodded, a small smile lighting her features at finally leaving behind the town that had become like a graveyard to her. "Soon as I get the house cleaned out and on the market and all that. I'm currently still on Christmas vacation from work, so I should just be able to give my notice and..." She shrugged.

"It'll be nice to have you living close again," Dawn agreed. "And if you ever decide that administration's not for you..." She trailed off with an evil grin.

"Why do I have the feeling that a certain sneaky someone is going to sabotage my job search in order to force me to work as her personal slave labor?" Buffy countered, giving her sister a long hug.

Dawn shut her eyes and smiled, hugging her sister back. "Oh, c'mon, it's the job you were born to take. And I can promise you'll have a cute partner." She winked at Spike over Buffy's shoulder.

"'m not 'cute'," he grumbled, sulking against the driver's side door of his car.

"Denial," Buffy whispered in Dawn's ear. "So sad."

"Heard that," he informed her.

Buffy pulled back from hugging Dawn and gave him an unashamed look. "So, it'll be maybe three weeks," she informed her sister. "A month, tops."

"Welcome to the Dark Side," Dawn countered, "er, I mean, the Big Apple."

Buffy rolled her eyes. "Remind me why I'm moving all the way across the country to be closer to my annoying sister, again?"

"Because of the sexy vampire I've got working for me," Dawn teased. "That, and we can do the girl-talk thing. Like, how about telling me what moisturizer you use that you still look my age?"

"All right, so I'll come," Buffy pretended to be re-convinced. "And, as for the moisturizer thing... Tough luck, it's a Slayer youth thing."

Dawn pouted for a second, looking for all the world like the sulky teenager she'd once been. "So you get the super-strength, the fast healing, and the youthful good looks? And all I get is some glowy force field? Have I mentioned lately how unfair that is?"

"I need the extra years more than you do," Buffy countered, turning back to Spike and slipping a casual arm around his waist. "After all, I've got a lot of time to make up for..."

"The clever talkin' about me while 'm right here stopped bein' cute a while back," Spike informed her, irritated. His tone was light and un-offended, however, and he didn't pull away from her loose embrace.

Dawn grinned at her surrogate big brother. "So, we'll drive back and meet you at the office?" she inquired, giving him a quick, awkward hug to minimize the tarnish to his Big Bad image.

"Right," he nodded, ducking his head nonetheless.

Rick stepped forward to offer Buffy a quick, embarrassed hug as well, only to be stopped from pulling away by Spike's hand on his wrist.

Spike sniffed the air as if trying to detect something before fixing Rick with a menacing look. "Wound on your arm's opened up again, Kayeri," he informed the younger man, releasing him before climbing into his car and slamming the door shut.

Buffy shrugged and got in the passenger side as well.

"What was that?" Rick asked curiously, watching them drive off.

"Spike going easy on you," Dawn informed him. "He's decided that you got injured enough defending me that he doesn't have to hate you. Completely."

Rick grinned at that as the two of them returned to his own car. "I should be honored, I assume?" he inquired.

"Don't let it go to your head," Dawn assured him. "I doubt Spike's benevolence will last more than a week."

"I take it this is why you have managed to go so long without a boyfriend?" Rick countered, pulling out of the cemetery parking lot and onto the highway.

"That, and everyone else I've tried to date before was a bleeding wanker," Dawn agreed with a quirk of her lips. She watched Rick flick on the turn signal back to the motel. "We don't need to head back there, do we?" she inquired.

Rick looked at her in surprise. "I thought we were planning to leave when Spike did," he questioned.

A wistful smile crossed Dawn's face. "Something tells me Spike's going to make a little detour through Sunnydale for the next three to four weeks," she informed him.

"He said..."

"Yeah, he says a lot of things," Dawn agreed, "but he knows I know how to read between the lines."

Rick turned back onto the highway then, heading east along 35. "Home, then?" he inquired with a small smile.

"Home," Dawn agreed, grinning as well, "and I can't wait to show it to you..."

"'Bout that rental you got," Spike began the instant they pulled out. "Was thinkin' maybe you could turn that back into the agency here, save yourself some cash."

Buffy gave him a curious look. "And how would I be getting back to Sunnydale then?" she asked pointedly.

"I could offer you a lift," he said in the most disinterested voice he could manage.

"And that wouldn't interfere with you getting back to your job?" she demanded.

Spike plucked out a cigarette from his jacket pocket, lighting it up with the silver Zippo he'd reacquired and opening the window a crack so the smoke didn't blow in her direction. "Bit's groomin' Rrrrricardo to replace me right now," he sulked.

If nothing else, at least Lena's trilled 'R's would live on in remembrance of the D'vorak Demon.

"'Sides," he countered, "Dawn's a smart girl. Knows perfectly well that 'll head back to NYC when you do." He ventured to look sideways at her at that. "We're together, right?"

The question was meant rhetorically. Buffy answered it anyway, though. "Right," she agreed, resting one hand on his knee.

He glanced down at it before turning his attention back to the road. "Liable to be quite a driving distraction there, pet," he pointed out.

"Humph," she sulked, giving his knee one last pat before settling back in her seat. "What happened to the DeSoto, anyway?" she asked curiously. "It had that nice, wide front seat to facilitate snuggling."

A small smile quirked at the corners of his lips. "Sold it," he provided. "Summer you were...gone." He practically mumbled over the word as if thought of the time when she had been dead still brought him pain. "Needed some cash for the Bit, and a collector was interested."

She sighed. "I still feel like I know nothing about you," she confessed. "I know that's not quite accurate, but..."

"Road trip's a good time to fill in the pointless details," he supplied.

She smiled at that. That was exactly what she wanted: the pointless details. She'd had the drama and the sex and the crossed stars, and now she just wanted the boring details. Day to day stuff. Just what was day to day Spike like, anyway?

"I think I'm falling in love with you all over again," she whispered, a tear in her eye.

"Don't go soft on me now, Slayer," he said lightly, turning to favor her with that sweet smile of his. "Love you, too," he added tenderly, reaching over to wrap his free arm around the back of her seat, inviting her to lean back against it.

Buffy sighed and tried to reconcile the man who was being so gentle with her to the vampire she'd fought that fateful night when the Haunting had finally been banished forever. It was hard to imagine that someone so strong could still be so tender. She thought that maybe she was the only other person in the world that could understand, because she was the same way. "Never," she promised him.

"You'll need the edge if you're gonna put up with me," he sighed, fingers playing lightly with a strand of her golden hair.

"Oh?" she inquired pointedly.

"Dangerous unchipped vampire, evil temptations, all that rot," he responded, eyes fixed on the road ahead as if the secrets of the universe itself were written in the yellow center lines.

"I don't think you're dangerous or evil," she countered.

"Oi!" he exclaimed, eyes wide in outrage. "You take that back!"

She couldn't help but laugh. "Spike, c'mon, you're so not."

"Got the chip out," he grumbled. "Could go on a killin' spree if I didn't still get the headaches."

Her lips pressed together in a line, and she let out a deep breath. "You don't have to do that, you know," she commented thoughtfully.

"What?" he demanded, still sulking slightly.

"The fake chip zap thing. Siggy explained to me all about it. You know you don't need it, right?" she questioned softly.

"Dunno what you're talking about," he insisted vehemently.

Buffy sighed when she realized she'd come to another one of those walls Spike had set up to protect himself. She decided not to push it for now. She had all the time in the world to convince him that he himself was a good man and didn't need the excuse to hold him back anymore. And that the Big Bad in him didn't have to be ashamed that he'd found something more important in life than the thrill of killing.

"Sorry," he murmured belatedly, "'m kinda screwed up."

"It's all right," she assured him. "I get that." She caught his hand at her shoulder, intentionally guiding it back over to the scar at her throat.

His thumb rubbed the mark in slow, sensual circles, enjoying the feel of connection between them. "You know, luv," he began, "one of these days we might actually both be uninjured enough that I can bite you right and proper."

"There's a right and proper way to bite?" Buffy asked skeptically.

His tongue flicked up beneath his teeth, and he favored her with a little leer. "Oh yeah..." he moaned in a husky voice.

Buffy's cheeks reddened. "Oh, that kind of 'right and proper'..." A smile. "You know, most people would probably say 'warped and kinky' or something like that."

He snorted. "'ll have you know that 's perfectly normal an' acceptable among vampires."

"Oh really?" she said with a frown. "Does that mean you've been biting people 'right and proper' all these years, then?" she demanded.

"Normal an' acceptable among vampire mates," he corrected, flicking his thumbnail over his mark. "Haven't bit anyone like that since...well, Dru."

"Oh." A gulp. "I don't suppose we could book the motel room for another couple of days and..." She trailed off suggestively.

"Or we could start off on the road an' see when things happen," he countered with a grin. "Gettin' there's half the fun after all."

"Is it?" she inquired curiously.

She knew the odds. A Slayer and a soulless Vampire, working together, as friends and lovers... The odds against it were mind-boggling. She was half-convinced that he was the only vampire in the world that had a chance of making it work. But those thoughts didn't fill her with fear anymore, just a grim determination to make this work. And a calm settled over her at the thought that, after all they'd been through, they deserved for everything to turn out all right for once.

A gentle smile lit up his face as he looked at her, the contact of their skin letting him know exactly what she was feeling. They were both starting to realize what a blessing that connection really was, especially given that emotional words came to them with such difficulty.

"We'll make it fun," Spike finally concluded.

And ahead of them, the open road stretched ever on, twisting and turning through the wooden mountains, leaving their haunted past far behind them.

Wow. After 234 pages and 116,000 words, 'Haunted' is finally complete. When I first started out, I had no idea this was going to be one of the longest stories I've ever written (second only to 'Blue Horizons'). I guess my goal in this story was to finally really get Buffy and Spike past the events of 'Dead Things' and to play with role-reversals in that scene in an effort to get them to understand each other better. It hasn't always been an easy ride, but I hope I managed to convey in some way that this new understanding will allow them to build a strong, healthy relationship in the future. So, yes, this story does intentionally leave off before we're absolutely guaranteed the 'happily ever after'. I got them this far, Buffy and Spike will just have to work out the rest of it on their own. ~_^

As always, I'd like to thank everyone who gave me feedback and support on this one. Especially those to gave me encouraging comments during the less than idyllic chapters where, yeah, I took some pretty nasty hits. But thanks to all you guys who are still reading, I never gave up faith in this one. So, yeah, I'm really, really grateful, even if I do suck with responding to feedback. ~_^ Special thanks go to Jypzrose, whose 'The Evil Inside' was one of the original inspirations for this story and whose successful portrayals of her Mark and Johnny characters encouraged me to introduce my own OC love interest in the form of Rick for the very first time. To Tracy for her constant feedback with every chapter and enlightening comments that helped me understand just what I was trying to do better. To Eurydice whose writing is a constant inspiration and constantly makes me try to better my story lines. (You can blame about five layers of plot complexity in this one solely on her. ~_^) Oh, yeah, and for being a 'Siggy', too. ^_^ And, most of all, to Kallysten and Darkwaif who created stunning, gorgeous images to accompany this story:

And, finally, we move on to the future. In case anyone asks, no, there won't be a sequel to this story. We will see Rick again, if only in the Seventh Slayer-verse, so no worries there. ~_^ And I will, of course, continue to write more Spuffy in the future. I've got another saga all prepped and ready to go, and I'll begin in October after I've returned from my vacation in England. In the meantime, I'll continue my work on 'Balancing the Scales' and 'SCBI: The Series' as well as writing some short Spuffy stories to fill in the gaps left by 'Haunted's absence. Thanks so much for reading, everyone, and I hope you continue to enjoy my works in the future!