Buffy pauses with her fingers on the door handle, turning to look at Spike with an expression somewhere between affection and exasperation. It looks as though she's about to do a great deal of blurting.

"Believe it. I love you. Which ranks high on the list of 'things I never thought would happen', but I do. I need you with me. You make me stronger. You make me feel special - even when you say horribly crude things, and by the way the verb 'doing'? Not especially romantic. But I want you, and... not just because of your astonishingly well-defined arm muscles and roguish charms, though they're definitely a factor, but... I want this. I want us. Together. I also want to stop talking sometime this century."