Thank you for all your support and reviews. Here goes, the final chapter. Will Buffy and Spike get together? Read on to find out.

Buffy sat in the chair by her desk in the corner of the HQ's huge, open plan office, staring at the phone in front of her, the sole item on the desk. Other slayers and trainee watchers were sitting at other computers but all gave their leader a wide berth.

Xander, Giles and Willow stood huddled in a corner at the opposite end of the room, casting worried glances at their friend.

"We've got to put a stop to this. She just sits there, everyday, waiting for that phone to ring," Willow explained.

"Which it won't," Xander pointed out, "Since she insisted we change the HQ's general number. No one has that number."

"Buffy thinks Spike does," Willow reminded them.

"Yes, except Spike is dead, not undead. He was burned and buried in the Hellmouth."

"You two know that, and I know that," Willow said, gesturing at Giles and Xander, then to herself. "Buffy did know that and then..."

"Then she claims to have had a phone call from him, the day LA fell. Apparently," Xander continued, his voice cynical, "he had been resurrected and wanted to declare their love before he went off to fight." He paused a moment before remembering the final detail. "But Spike would phone her as soon as he could." Xander raised his eyebrows. "Buffy has had some wacky ideas but you can't really believe this, Wil. This time she has completely wigged out!"

"Even I must admit it is rather absurd," Giles said, removing his glasses and wiping them on his tie. "I thought she was over Spike."

"Obviously not," Xander sighed, still not understanding his friend's obsession with the blond-bombshell vampire.

"Maybe she wasn't dealing with the grief as well as we thought. Perhaps we threw her back into slaying too quickly."

They all looked back at their friend. Her eyes hadn't moved from the telephone in front of her but her head now rested in her left hand, as opposed to her right.

"I think it's time for another intervention," Xander decided, striding confidentially across the room. Giles and Willow exchanged a glance before following quickly behind him.

"Buffy," he began before Willow had the chance to tell him to wait. "You need to stop this."

Startled as she was pulled out of her own mind, Buffy stared at Xander, her eyes looking straight through him. "Xander?" she questioned, puzzled.

"Buffy, you can't keep this up. Your life is wasting away before you while you sit here, looking with glassy eyes at that stupid phone waiting for a dead guy to call!"

"Xander!" Willow scolded, outraged that he would be so blunt.

It hardly mattered, Buffy just stared blankly back at them.

"What's going on?" asked Dawn, walking over with concern splattered across her face. She too had noticed her sister's obsession with the telephone, but understood her grief and tried to help her through it, hoping that one day she would just...move on.

"I'm waiting for Spike to call," Buffy said, as if it would explain everything.

Crouching down beside Buffy, Willow spoke slowly and quietly. "Buf, you know Spike is dead, don't you?"

Confused, Buffy shook her head. "No...No...H-h-he told me to wait for him to call. He has to call. He must," she insisted. "He promised."

"Spike died, Buffy."

"But then he came back," the slayer insisted, "in LA. He was resurrected and was working with Angel."

"Buffy," said Giles gently, "if that were true, why didn't he contact us? Why did he only call you just as LA fell."

"Because he was scared," Buffy cried. "Scared of that I'd reject him, of what to say. He thought I'd moved on."

"Buffy," Willow tried again, glancing at the crowd of slayers and watchers which had formed around them, "No one is going to call. LA had been cut off for months and Spike is gone."

"NO! No, he's not," the slayer sobbed, jumping to her feet. Willow and the others took a step away. "He is alive and he will phone."

Removing his glasses and wiping them again, Giles attempted another approach. "I know you and Spike had a connection, Buffy, but he would want you to move on with your life. You were a great team but-"

"I love him." Buffy spoke in a whisper as more tears rolled down her face. "I love him," she said more confidently, "And Spike loves me and he will call."

"For God's sake," Xander muttered, her last words tipping him over the edge. "Spike is dead!" Xander yelled in Buffy's face, his hands tightly gripping her shoulders and shaking her vigorously. "No one is going to call that bloody phone!"

There was a moment of silence as everyone realised what Xander had said. More tears dripped down Buffy's face.

Riiinnnggg! Riiinnnggg!

Everyone's necks twisted towards the ringing phone.

Riiinnnggg! Riiinnnggg!

They looked around, wondering who will pick up the phone. Now that it had happened at last, Buffy wasn't sure how to react. Maybe this was a dream; the phone rang all the time in her dreams.

Seeing that no one else was going to, Dawn leaned over a bewildered Buffy and picked up the phone. She lifted it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Niblet?"

Dawn gasped. Unable to speak, she simply handed the phone to Buffy.

"Niblet?" the phone asked. "Hello? Anyone?"

"Spike," Buffy breathed. It wasn't a question. She would know that voice anywhere.

"Buffy."

A smiled forced its way across her face as her knees buckled and she dropped into the chair. "Your alive. I thought..."

"I'm alright," Spike smiled at her joy. "Although, you should know better than anyone that I'm not alive."

Buffy laughed. The sound shocked not only her friends, but Buffy herself. How long had it been since she had laughed?

Xander tried to take the phone but Willow held up her hand to stop him. He looked at her, puzzled. 'Leave her,' she mouthed.

"I'm sorry I kept you waiting, love," Spike apologised. "It was harder to get to a working phone than I thought it would be."

"But you're alright?" Buffy checking.

"I'm fine. Better than fine, now that I'm speaking to you."

"What happened? Where are you?"

"LA was a demon war zone. We could've used your help, love. Slaying everyday, breathing in the death and drinking the blood of the dead."

"Spike!" snapped and outraged Buffy.

"Vampire," Spike reminded her. "Anyway after a while, most of the demons gave up or were killed or sent back to some hell dimension. Angel and the others can handle it without me."

"What do you mean? Where are you, Spike? What's going on?" Buffy queried, confused.

"Angel lent me Cordy and I rode her across-"

"You what!" roared Buffy. "Cordelia! But you said-"

"Not Cordelia Chase," Spike sniggered. "Angel's dragon, Cordelia."

"Angel's got a dragon?" repeated Buffy. Then realising the more bizarre point, clarified: "He named it Cordelia?"

"I know," laughed Spike. "She'd be thrilled! So, back to the point, it turns out that Cordelia has always wanted to see Scotland."

"What? Spike, what are you saying?"

"Turn around," he ordered. Except, Buffy didn't hear Spike's voice through the phone.

Her hair whipped around but her eyes remained on the floor. She was scared to look up.

There were a mixture of gasps, screams and orders, all of which were quickly hushed by Willow.

Buffy's eyes remained on the floor.

A pair of shoes stepped into her view followed by a swish of a long leather coat.

One finger was placed under Buffy's chin and slowly lifted her head up.

Spike.

The bleach in his hair had faded slightly and contained flecks of dried blood. A fresh scar had been drawn across his cheek from a point just beside his nose to the edge of his face. His t-shirt was covered in droplets of blood and was ripped at the shoulder and around the hem.

"Is it really you?" Buffy whispered.

Spike nodded.

Unsure of herself, Buffy raised her hand to his head and stroked it through his hair, down his cheek, to his lips where three of her fingers settled.

"You're...you're really here?"

"I am, love."

Without wasting another moment, Buffy stood on her tiptoes and touched her lips to his.

It was like dropping into a cloud and floating away. She was flying, soaring through an endless sky, somersaulting.

"Spike..." Buffy couldn't put her feelings into words. "I-I-I..." she struggled.

The vampire placed a finger on the Slayer's lips. "Buffy, I know. It's the same for me too."

"Spike?" Dawn asked from across the room, still unable to believe her eyes.

"It's me, Niblet." He extended his arms to her and, like a child, she ran into them, without a second's thought.

"How did you..?" The question didn't need to be finished.

"That's a very long, very complicated story that I would very much like recite after I've had a glass of blood."

As he finished the last word, every slayer in the room - save for Buffy - pulled out a stake or a crossbow or another vampire-fighting weapon and pointed it at Spike.

Immediately, Dawn put herself between the weapons and the vampire.

"Stand down," Buffy commanded.

"But, Buf-" protested Xander.

"No," she ordered, before he could finish. "Becky, fetch some blood from the medical supplies and heat it to 37.5 degrees precisely. Spike is here as a friend."

"I think he wants more than friendship," Xander murmured.

As the various stakes were lowered, Spike grinned at Xander and gave him a slight wink.

Dawn took Spike's hand and began to lead him towards the seats at Buffy's desk.

"Jesus, if I can get through their crap defences, do they really think that a couple of stakes can stop me?" Spike said unhelpfully. "I've taken down two slayers and been to three versions of hell and back."

"Really?" queried Dawn.

"Well, there was actual hell. Then there was LA which, trust me, can be even worse."

"And the third?"

"I spent nearly a hundred years with Angel. Even before he got his soul, he spent the majority of his time brooding. Bloody hell, he knows how to ruin a bloodbath!"

Dawn laughed and Buffy, to her amazement, found herself joining in.

"Love," Spike continued to Buffy, "You really ought to tighten your defences. I walked right through the front door and not a single one of the alarms went off."

"They weren't supposed to." He looked at her quizzically. "Demons don't have souls, so I suggested that we build our defences based around a soul detector. Willow and Xander made it. It seems that magic and mechanics work pretty well together."

"Still, there are one or two demons that might be able to slip past. Wouldn't it have been better to-"

"I wanted the base to be open to you. Souls don't define good and evil. There are human murderers and helpful demons. You didn't need a soul to fall in love. That's just Angel."

"Buffy," Spike whispered, "I don't want you to put yourself at risk for me. You mustn't get hurt. I'd die to protect you. I did."

"And don't you think that I would do the same? For months, I wished more than anything that I had worn that amulet, or that I'd just let Angel wear it. I can't lose you again."

"You won't, Buffy. I promise."

Delicately, Spike slid his hand into hers and squeezed it tight. "I'm right here. I always will be."

"But you left once before," whispered Buffy, doubt filling her voice.

"And I never will again. Not now that I've found you. I will never let you go."

I hope you enjoyed Final Declarations. Follow me for more stories (especially more spuffy)!

Indigofrog