She rolled over in the bed, smiling at Aiden when she saw him beside her, watching her. "Hey," she said softly, her voice scratchy.
Aiden smiled, warmly, yet with a trace of sadness. Emma didn't have to ask why it was there.
"I'm grateful you're all right," Aiden said as he ran his hand down Emma's cheek. "I didn't wish for you to sacrifice yourself."
"I did what I had to do," Emma replied.
"You did. And I am proud of you. Yet knowing you were in danger, watching you be harmed…" Aiden trailed off with a shake of his head.
"I'm strong. I'm a survivor," Emma told him, the strength she spoke of reflected clearly in her eyes.
"I know." Aiden's own eyes darkened, growing stormy with lust and something else Emma couldn't quite identify.
Then, he kissed her, his lips sealing themselves over hers, and she knew. Possession.
The two times they'd been together before had been passionate, but this… She knew now Aiden had truly been holding himself back, but now, he no longer could.
This was the full force of his passion, mirroring the wild, untamed landscape of his world. And with every touch, every stroke, he demanded nothing less from Emma.
She gave him all he wanted and more.
Dawn had been awake for a while now, still tired, yet too restless to fall back to sleep. Her body was sore, but in a way, she welcomed the pain. It let her know she was still there, still real.
When Glory had failed in her attempt to return to her world, Dawn had believed she'd no longer have to worry about the Key. Even after Willow had gone all black-haired, veiny evil and tried to return Dawn to her Key state, Dawn had convinced herself the Key wasn't anything but dormant, useless.
Recently, she'd learned how wrong she'd been.
The Key itself had woken up inside of her, making its presence known. She still wasn't sure what all it could do or even if she'd ever truly be able to utilize its powers at will, yet she knew it was there and that it was indeed powerful.
Now, someone other than Glory had come for her, showing her the Key had uses beyond only what the hellgod had planned.
Would others come for her? Would it be something she'd never see an end to?
The thought filled her with dread. She didn't want to be always fighting against someone who wanted to use her to end the world. And what if someday, they weren't able to stop the diabolical scheme du jour? Dawn didn't want the world to end because of her.
She'd thought before, especially the summer when Buffy had been gone, about ending her own life in order to get rid of anything that might be left of the Key. Yet now, even when she knew the Key truly was still a possible danger, she didn't want to entertain that thought again. Maybe it was selfish of her, but she wanted to live.
She couldn't, however, continue pretending the Key didn't still affect everything about her life. If the recent awakening of the Key in Rome hadn't been enough, this with Chalchicomehuel had been more than she could possibly ignore.
Dawn knew she didn't have enough of a martyr streak in her to go through with suicide, but it would be irresponsible for her not to seek a greater understanding of her powers. She needed to open herself up to the Key, to learn more about it—and, in the process, herself as well.
The door to the room opened, making Dawn look up sharply, and she smiled when she saw it was Buffy. "Glad to see you awake," Buffy said, returning Dawn's smile as she walked over to the bed and sat on the edge.
Dawn sat up, her knees pulled to her chin. "Yeah, I'm awake. A little reluctant to get out of the bed, though. When we get home, I swear I'm going into hibernation."
"I don't think you'll be the only one," Buffy replied. "I feel like I could sleep for a month. And Spike—he's so out of it now, he didn't even notice me coming in here." She frowned. "The man still sleeps like the dead."
Dawn smirked, then grew serious again. "You and Spike are all right now, aren't you? I mean, like, relationship wise. You were fighting and stuff."
Buffy frowned. Had they been? She knew it had truly only been a few days, but now, that seemed like lifetimes ago. So much had changed in a short period of time. She felt even closer to Spike than she had been before they'd come here, and Emma, well…
Buffy certainly wouldn't ever feel jealous of the other Slayer again.
"We're good," Buffy told her sister. "We're very, very good."
"There's been 'we almost died' sex, hasn't there?" Dawn asked with a teasing grin. When Buffy's only response was a blush, Dawn pointed and announced, "I knew it."
"So what if we did?" Buffy asked, her chin raising. "We did almost die, and that's a perfectly good reason to have sex."
Dawn rolled her eyes. "Oh, like you need a reason. You two would have sex to celebrate buying a loaf of bread."
Buffy's blush returned. "Shut up," she muttered.
"I think it's sweet," Dawn replied. "Well, probably not the sex itself, 'cause you two tend to break things, and I always know, too, 'cause Spike gives the lamest fake explanations in the world for things like how the coffee table ended up in pieces, but anyway, you guys—sweet. You've got like, this epic love."
"Do we?" Buffy asked, her expression half-questioning, half-smile.
"Well, yeah. I mean, for starters, vampire and Slayer? That's got this whole dark fairytale thing to it, like Beauty and the Beast." Dawn's eyebrow quirked. "Unless the vampire's lame and has hair that grows straight up from atop his gigantic forehead. Then it's more like a low-rent production of Romeo and Juliet."
Buffy gave Dawn a stern look, though Dawn could still see a twinkle of mirth in her sister's eyes. "Ha ha. Very funny, Dawnie. And just for the record, you talk to Spike way too much."
"Whatever, you know I'm right. But yeah, epic love. You two like defied everything—even death. And now you're getting the big happy ending, with the wedding, and the babies, and everything."
"I guess we do, but when I think about him, I don't think about things like that. He's just…Spike. And I'm just Buffy." Buffy leaned forward and stroked Dawn's face. "What about you? Are you okay? How are your sides?"
"They're fine. A little sore, but that stuff of Aiden's really helped. I'll be good as new soon."
"Good." Buffy touched her hand to Dawn's cheek one more time before she let her arm drop. "It's not your fault, you know."
Dawn flinched, her eyes going down. "It feels like it sometimes. I mean, the world keeps being put in peril because of what's inside of me."
Buffy shook her head. "No, Dawnie. It's not because of you. There's nothing but good inside of you. It's because of them."
"I…"
"Don't, okay? It's not you, and I don't want you to think it is. Besides, if the Key wasn't there, they'd just find some other way to try to destroy the world." Buffy shrugged. "They're evil. It's what they do. Like a hobby. Knitting just isn't sinister enough."
Dawn couldn't help but giggle. Then she looked up, met her sister's eyes, and threw her arms around her, hugging her tightly.
"We can't really be together, can we?"
Emma's question pierced the silence that had fallen after their lovemaking, and Aiden looked down at where she rested against his chest. "No, we can't. I have my duties as a guardian and you…"
"Have mine as a Slayer," Emma finished for him. She sighed. "This sucks."
"That's one way of putting it, yes," Aiden replied, his hand smoothing over her hair. "I didn't think the nights here could get any colder, but now that I've held you…" He let his voice trail off, stopping himself before he said too much. With his inability to be anything but completely honest, he knew it would be difficult to say anything without saying everything.
Emma traced a random pattern against his chest, a tightening in her throat. She felt safe with Aiden, which was a feeling she was far from used to. She wanted a chance to explore this thing between them, to get to know whether or not it was just a brief physical connection that would fizzle in time or something more.
Something she'd never truly touched before.
"I'm allowed to leave the Temple for short periods of time," Aiden said, his hand stilling against her hair. "It would not be as much time as I know at least I would want, but it would be…better than nothing. If you would allow me to visit you, that is."
No, Emma knew it wouldn't be enough, and even now she had the feeling it was going to be difficult to keep having to say good-bye to him. Rationally, she knew she should tell him no. She had already begun to fall for him, and if she kept seeing him, she feared she would falling further when she still couldn't really have him.
Would that be worse in the long run than not having him in her life at all?
"I want you to," she said softly. "When…when you can."
Aiden moved his arms to wrap around her waist and hold her close. "I will be with you as often as possible."
"And we'll have to make that be enough."
Aiden could see the tears in her eyes, and he didn't know if he could watch them fall. Already, this was causing more pain in his heart than he'd known in centuries.
To stop them, he dipped his head down to kiss her.
Finally, they'd ended up back in the large central room of the Temple, the time for them to return to their own dimension now at hand. Buffy kept her hand tightly in Spike's, the thought of more interdimensional travel making her nervous even though she knew it was necessary.
"I thank you greatly for your help," Aiden said. "And I apologize for putting you all in such great peril."
Buffy waved her hand. "Eh, peril's like, what we do. I mean, I grew up on the Hellmouth. All of this—just another Tuesday night in Sunnydale."
Aiden favored her with a dimpled smile. "Still, you all made great sacrifices in order to aide me in my quest, and I appreciate it."
Spike nodded. "Happy to be of service, mate." He squeezed Buffy's hand.
"So this is it then?" Dawn asked. "Time to go home."
"Yes, it is," Aiden replied, his gaze flickering to Emma. "Safe journey to all of you."
He closed his eyes, preparing to call on the forces needed to send them back, when suddenly Emma ran to him and threw her arms around him. He returned the embrace, taking in one last deep breath, full of her scent. She looked up, her brown eyes shining with unshed tears.
"I just needed to tell you good-bye one more time," she said softly.
Aiden nodded, understanding. "I'm glad you did. I will be with you again, soon. I promise you, mimlai."
Emma swallowed hard. "I know. I'll be waiting for you, okay?"
Aiden gave her another nod before he kissed her, gently, bidding her a soft farewell.
Reluctantly, Emma stepped away. Aiden closed his eyes again, and with a bright flash of light, they were gone.
Seconds after leaving Aiden, they were standing back in Dawn's living room. The four of them took a moment for the disorientation to pass, and Buffy was grateful she didn't feel the need to throw up again. She had had enough of that to last her a lifetime.
Dawn glanced over at her clock, squinting at the time as if she wasn't sure what she was seeing. Then, she picked up her cell phone from the coffee table, the time and date showing up on the screen.
"Guys, we've been gone like ten minutes," she said.
"Must've been one of those dimensions where time goes all wonky," Spike said.
"The Council's supposedly working on something to regulate that now, but since we just snapped over there, we couldn't do anything about it," Buffy replied. Then, with a shrug, she added, "Not that it really matters so much in this case since we were only there for three or four days in their time. Not a lot of aging we can do then." She frowned. "I wonder if this changed my due date."
"So that's just it then? We saved the world, and now we call it a night?" Emma asked.
"Yeah, that's pretty much how it goes," Dawn replied. "No one died, so eh, it's all good."
"Welcome to the life of a Slayer," Buffy said, her smile teasing.
"Not to like, throw you all out of here or anything," Dawn said, "but I'm really, really tired."
"Nib's got a point," Spike replied. "Might as well all head to bed and then suss out anything that needs it in the morning. Or later."
"I'm liking 'or later,'" Buffy said, her hand slipping back into his. "Come on, honey. Let's go home."
Buffy and Spike said their good-byes to the two girls and then walked out the door to their own flat.
That's pretty much it for this fic, aside from the epilogue I'm posting tomorrow. Sorry to anyone who wanted more details of the wedding, but that isn't what I had planned for this one. It's part of a larger series, so there will be more stories connected to this one at a later date. If you're interested in seeing the ones I've already written in this series, you can check them out here: http://dark-desire.org/blood/subpages/post-chosen.html
Please review!