Title: Life

Author: Hols

Spoilers: Post "The Gift" so anything up to there

Rating: I don't know! I don't understand American ratings... Nothing worse

than on the show

Disclaimer: Don't belong to me - they belong to Joss.

Summary: It would spoil it if I told you

Notes: Okay, well this is my first fic I've actually finished. So be kind!

Comments/criticisms welcome. Oh yeah, and dedicated to Sabs and Aish for

being my best friends ever.

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I don't know how long I cried for. I do know that everyone else was still in

shock; no one except Red had shed a tear for her.

The moment I saw her still lifeless body I felt my knees buckle. She was all

I had to live for. Without her I have nothing left. They all leave me. Dru

first, then Harm, and then my love. My Slayer.

I stood up and stumbled over to her and stroked her hair. I held her hand

and willed her to wake up. She didn't.

Then something struck me. I felt warm. The only other time in the last 120

years that I'd felt like this was when I fought her in the sunlight. When I

had the Ring of Amarra. I turned around and a beam of sunlight rested on my

face.

Everyone else had noticed too. That I, Spike, a vampire, was in a beam of

sunlight and not bursting into flames.

In awe, I put my hand on my chest, and felt something that I hadn't felt for

a very long time. A heartbeat.

And she wasn't here to feel it. She had given up her life so I could have

one. This is what I had wanted so much in the past year. But now I want to

give my life back to her.

But I can't. Because I made a promise to a lady. I made a promise to the

woman I love more than anything.

And I'm gonna keep that promise. As a vampire - or as a human.