Title: What Happened Next?
Author: Goolecaptain
Rating: PG
Summary: What happened next after the fadeout in 'Not fade away'? Buffy/Angel with a bit of Highlander.
Disclaimer: All belongs to Joss and none to me, purely non-profit fic.

The valet let her in and announced her. "Miss Summers sir."

"Coming!"

He walked out in his towel. Dawn simply stood there for a moment, taking in his beauty. It was hard to put into words. She wondered what Glory would have looked like if she'd been male? He truly was breathtaking to behold. Handsome but still manly. Toned but not overly muscled. Movie star good looks but not one of those Hollywood prettyboys. The closest thing she could compare him to was one of those old black and white afternoon matinee idols she'd watched on TV when she'd been ill and mom had let her stay home from school.

The memory suddenly made her crave a bowl of soup, complete with chicken and stars. But Joyce was gone now, waiting for them patiently on the other side, Dawn grateful for her unique knowledge of the certainty of the afterlife, an incredible gift few possessed. It was up to her to take care of Buffy now, just as she'd promised their mother before she'd gone into surgery. That was why she was here. He didn't lose his cool. He never lost his cool. "Oh, Dawnie! THAT Miss Summers" he reached for his bathrobe and clothed himself with a flourish. "Buffy still at her dad's?"

"Yeah, she's babysitting Luke tonight, gave dad and Kristy a night off." Tomorrow it was her turn to look after her new brother. She looked forward to it. She wasn't the littlest Summers anymore, no longer the baby. But she'd always wanted a brother, almost as much as she'd wanted her father back. And Buffy loved it, loved being daddy's girl once more, loved doing ordinary things like babysitting and dating rather than stalking around graveyards locked in mortal combat. Hell, they even liked their stepmother!

"No Groo tonight?"

"Xander's bringing in a new Slayer for training. He and Andrew are picking them up from the airport." She felt a momentary pang of concern for her beloved Groosalug. Sure he'd overcome the dreaded scum pits of Ur but the Rome traffic system was something else entirely. "Maybe Italy wasn't the best place for him to learn how to drive?"

"He'll be fine, I'd be more scared for Andrew's nerves."

"I remember Italy before there were cars and believe me it wasn't much better." He smiled, a smile that seemed to lift her a couple of inches in the air. But she held out against it.

"We need to talk."

"Always got time for the Dawnster." He bade her sit in one of the ornate thrones scattered around his quarters.

"Very nice," she commented, making herself comfortable "Venetian?"

"Yes, very good." He seemed genuinely impressed. Dawn smiled. Sure Buffy could kick above her head but little pumpkinbelly had learned a few things from mom.

"How old?"

"Turn of the century. Family firm, been using them for over three hundred years."

"That old. When will you get new ones?"

"Oh these will last another seventy years or so."

"Seventy years." Dawn raised an eyebrow. "Buffy will be ninety."

His smile disappeared. He looked at her with renewed curiosity. "I think I'm old enough to spot some subtext here."

"You can't have children can you?" she continued. He shook his head. "You've seen how Buffy is with Luke..."

"Cute kid," The Immortal admitted. "I think he even makes Faith broody."

"Me too," Dawn countered. "But Robin can have kids, so can Groo as far as we know..."

"Let me cut to the chase here Dawnie, you want me to leave her." His voice was even, tempered.

"No I don't. Buffy loves you. You make her wonderfully happy. But it can't last."

"Oh it can Dawnie, I'm The Immortal, I last for ever, I could be with her until she dies. I've heard this speech before a dozen times. And I'll say to you what I've said to every other person who's given it to me..."

He paused and she felt uncertainty, even perhaps a little fear.

"...that you're right. I would be selfish to do otherwise."

Relief washed over Dawn. He gave her that smile again and this time she willingly succumbed. "How do we do this?" she asked.

"I go away." He spoke with sadness but conviction. "Take one of my famous world trips, write her a few postcards, let things fade. Maybe climb Everest again, see if it's changed much since last time. She'll find someone else. They always do. I always knew I wasn't the long term guy Dawnie and Buffy knows it too. She's lucky to have you, she'll always have someone to love and watch over her."

Dawn nodded. "What will you do?"

"I have a few old girlfriends. The Furies, Raven the Immortal..."

"There's a female you?" Dawn's mind boggled at the prospect.

He grinned and shook his head "She AN Immortal, not THE Immortal. Gorgeous lady, almost as good with a sword as Buffy."

She reached over and took his hand. She kissed him on the cheek. Then on the lips. Even with his hesitancy he was still an incredible kisser.

He seemed uncomfortable. She'd never actually seen him flustered before. "Ah Dawn..."

She put her finger to his lips to silence him. "So far I'm aging normally. And maybe I always will, maybe being The Key won't affect that at all. But if it does, if I stop aging one day, let me give you a call, OK?"

For once The Immortal was lost for words. But he nodded and smiled once more.

Dawn winked at him as she let herself out.

*

And then they were there, hundreds of them, pouring out of the shadows of the alleyway, hacking, slashing, annihilating the legion of demons hurtling towards them. Spike looked in wonder around him at the young girls trouncing Wolfram and Harts' chosen warriors. He recognised faces here and there, Violet, Rhona, Kennedy, Chao-Anh. And Buffy, Buffy in the middle of it all, fighting as if she were born to it.

But then they all were.

And then there was Willow, Amy and Dawn, holding hands, protected by Faith and Robin Wood as they cast their spell. Then the sky seemed to split apart.

"How the blazes did you do that, Dawnie?" Spike asked in wonder as the portal closed around Wolfram and Hart's army, trapping them in the Quor-toth.

"My Key powers really kicked in when I turned eighteen," she explained. She couldn't help staring at Ilyria who was cradling a still bleeding Gunn. Around her Buffy and her army of Slayers looked almost disappointed that they wouldn't have to fight.

"Why didn't you tell us you'd called her?" Spike demanded of Angel.

"Couldn't risk one of you being captured. Besides it was fun to watch your expression."

Spike snorted. "Where's Wes?" asked Buffy.

"Dead," Spike replied simply. Buffy, Faith and Dawn all looked saddened, the triumph of victory marred by loss and regret. Faith actually shed a tear. But there'd be time to mourn later.

"Let's get Gunn to a hospital," Angel suggested. Dawn nodded and created another portal, the trio stepping through to the emergency room.

Angel watched her go, looking over her maturing figure. "She sure grew up," he observed.

Buffy took his arm, then Spike's. "We all did."

"I guess Wolfram and Hart are playing a whole new ball game about now," Angel stated. He looked around at the assembled army of slayers, the new generation. They'd done their part. It was a whole new world. And lying on the ground in the alley was a slain Mohra demon. He took it for a sign.

"Time to choose," he told Buffy.

"What?" she asked.

*

Mistress Spanks-a-lot gazed impatiently at her watch. "Where is Wesley? He's normally never late."

*

"I do," Dawn replied.

Buffy totally lost it and began crying as Connor kissed his new wife. Her little sister was all grown up. And married. In front of her she saw Willow weeping openly into Xander's sleeve. Kennedy stood beside them, vainly trying not to join her. Hank, Angel and Giles all offered her a simultaneous hankie. She took her dad's, Angel giving his to an equally needful Faith, Kennedy taking her cue from them and finally accepting Giles' as she gave up her impossible struggle. Illyria looked on curiously, thankfully in her Fred disguise today as Spike and Gunn tried to explain things to her. Oz almost formed an expression.

"I wish mom could have been here," she remarked to Hank, recovering a little.

"So do I baby, so do I," he replied. He took her hand and she leaned against her father's shoulder.

"There are lot's of people I wish were here today," she whispered to herself as the happy couple swept down the aisle. Little Jesse walked in front as a pageboy, his sisters, Tara and Amanda carrying the hem of Dawn's bridal gown. Xander winked affectionately at the children he had fathered with Willow and Kennedy as they passed.

Angel nodded benignly to Connor who returned the gesture. "At last he's cut his hair," he thought.

Dawn beamed at Buffy and Hank, sharing her smile with Giles, then Xander, then each of the Scoobies in turn, finding it returned in every instance.

Buffy smiled at them and subconsciously ran her hand down her own swollen abdomen, her twins resting contentedly in their very special mother's womb.

A brother and sister Connor would always consider his niece and nephew.

*

"What is that papa?" Drusilla asked.

"It's a rainbow dear," he answered. "You learnt about them in Sunday School, the story of Noah remember?"

"Oh yes," she remembered. "Richard of York gave battle in vain. Red and orange and green and blue..."

He rested his hand on her shoulder lovingly. "Some say there's a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow."

*

She smiled in her sleep, a radiant grin spreading across her features.

*

"Dru, what are you doing?"

Drusilla looked around to see Spike, his face full of concern. She was mere inches away from the sunlight, gradually creeping towards her.

"I was looking for rainbows," she replied softly.

He put his arm around her. "Come on, Darla and Angelus brought us a couple of young girls, they'll do us until tonight."

She could hear their screams echoing through their Venetian townhouse. One was beyond words, her cries just primal guttural terror. The other still had enough presence of mind to form words. Dru concentrated, trying to translate form Italian in her mind. Bloody foreigners, why couldn't they speak english?

"PLEASE DON'T HURT ME! PLEASE, PLEASE LET ME GO, I JUST WANT TO GO HOME, LET ME GO HOME!"

The words made her laugh. And made her hunger.

*

The smile disappeared. She whimpered.

*

Drusilla paused for a moment and took time to watch her victim die, the boy gasping out his last breath as the blood flowed freely from his neck. He looked about eleven, she thought. He reminded her of her cousin.

She cradled his head in her hands and stared at him curiously as the light ebbed from his eyes and he was finally still.

"Does YOUR god reject you?" she asked the corpse sadly.

*

She began to cry in her sleep.

*

"Just another step," Cordy thought, creeping terrified past the sleeping Drusilla, tottering slightly due to her blood loss.

She froze as she felt a vice like hand seize her ankle. She looked down into Drusilla's black, black eyes and saw something new there.

A moment of clarity.

"Tell Angel I forgive him."

Dru went back to sleep as Cordy made good her escape.

*

She wakened. It was night-time again. There was someone else in her room, the nurse standing protectively at the open door.

"Spike!" she took him in her arms and embraced him. "Oh Spikey, oh Spikey, I had such a lovely day today, they let me walk out in the grounds this morning and feed the birds, the sun was shining, the trees were singing in the wind! And there was a rainbow, a lovely rainbow, red and yellow and blue and green..."

He smiled, "I wish I could have been there pet". He looked around her room, colourful, cosy, bars on the windows, stripped of anything she could use to hurt herself but covered in flowers and dolls and the bright, happy, pictures she had drawn, pictures of children playing in Victorian dress, stars and fairies flitting through green pastures. And rainbows of course, lots and lots of rainbows. He felt her tense, felt her manner change abruptly. When she spoke her voice had a brittle, anguished edge to it. "I have terrible dreams Spike, dreams of blood and screaming and I'm in the middle of it all, I'm causing it."

He patted Drusilla's hair. "There, there pet, they're only dreams, they can't hurt you, you would never hurt anyone, you know that."

She smiled again. For a moment her envied her, her madness allowing her great comfort from the burning guilt that followed the restoration of a vampires' soul. He still heard the screams and he would never be able to convince himself that they weren't real, they would torture him forever. But she deserved to be happy, to be able to write the horrors off as no more than a passing trick of her subconscious. He had long since made friends with the faces of his victims. Now it was just a matter of making it up to them. Helping the new Watcher's council was a good start. He had lost Buffy to the magnificent pouf but he would always have Drusilla.

"I have a new friend," she whispered. "Do you want to see her?"

She led him to the metal mirror, firmly attached to the whitewashed wall of the asylum. She put her fingers up to her own reflection. "There she is, isn't she pretty?"

Spike nodded "She's the prettiest girl I've ever seen."

She looked vainly in the mirror for Spike's reflection. "Where's your friend Spike?"

He circled his arms around her waist. "I've got you pet, who else do I need?"

Drusilla smiled, finally having reached the end of her rainbow.