Embers, Part 7/22 (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

[coalitiongirl]

Thank you to all of you for your lovely feedback! :)

Title: Embers
Pairing: Spike/Buffy
Rating: PG-13, most likely for the whole fic. Possibly some R action later on.

That's how betrayal works. It sends out ripples of hurt. Ones right next to you...ones you can't even see.

A year after the events of Season Eight, Buffy is still reeling. But while she

Comments

[norwie2010]

Hm, i think a re-naming is in order: how about "heartripper" instead of "coalitiongirl"? ;-)

Another wonderful chapter of a wonderful story - the plot thickens and the heart strickens.

(Give me more, please?)

I don’t want Spike, she recites to herself. I don’t care if Faith wants him. I don’t care that Spike’s been spending all his time with Faith and him.

I care that he didn’t tell me.

I hope the concussion helps with the delusions... :D

[coalitiongirl]

Hee, I promise it all works out nicely in the end... ;D

Aw, don't take away poor Buffy's delusions! They're all she has right now! :DDD

[spikereader]

Yikes! Hopefully that's Spike to the rescue, and not some random bug-controlled space ship just passing by. :D

[coalitiongirl]

Yes, that's exactly what it is. *nods* :D

[slaymesoftly]

*sigh*

That is all. :)

[coalitiongirl]

Give 'em time. ;)

[moscow_watcher]

Aaaahhhhh!

Buffy... Buffy... *whimpers* But he will save her, right?

*deep breath*

Terrific chapter. I love the action parts - you write expressive, dynamic scenes. Love Buffy's thoughts, her desperate attempts to convince herself that she wants Spike to be her friend. Love the little details, like this one: "Last time, she'd yelled at him for eating salsa on the couch, only to fire up even more when she'd peered into his bowl and realized that it wasn't salsa." - So true to characters!

[coalitiongirl]

Happy ending! I did promise... ;)

Thank you! I spent much time squeeing (while writing!) over the mundane, silly little everyday life-type things that I mentioned this chapter. Epic love stories are wonderful, but I just adore reading and writing Spike and Buffy fighting over the remote or cooking dinner or something utterly normal. :)

[rebcake]

I am enjoying this story immensely, even though I am having trouble figuring out Buffy's motivations. (No surprise, since this follows S8, and I couldn't understand her motivations there, either.) However, the many mysteries are exciting, there are lots of people to worry about, and you keep piling on the cliff-hangers! (Which I like.) Scary bed-making dream! (What the heck is the Jungian interpretation of all that bed-making anyway? Just the obvious "now lie in it"? Seems like I've been missing something all these years...

[coalitiongirl]

Thank you! I think some of the problems with motivation do come from the fact that I'm faithfully adhering to the comics, which are shaky canon to work with. But one of my major goals in this fic is to bring Buffy back to the girl we knew, bit by bit, and while she's stagnant right now, things will be changing to sufficiently force the old Buffy out. (I hope. I've spent far more time than is probably sensible discussing Buffy's every move and decision in this fic with my sister/beta.) Buffy's going to take some time to face much of the reality of the events of the previous year, but it'll come... :)

What the heck is the Jungian interpretation of all that bed-making anyway? Just the obvious "now lie in it"? Seems like I've been missing something all these years...Gosh, and I've always gone with the Freudian interpretation of "Buffy and Faith want each other"! :D I went with the bed scene because it's one that's been repeated before when it comes to Buffy and Faith, and I've seen the bed as partially representative of slayerhood, and