(Here from su_herald ) Wow. This IS dark, but in a totally realistic way. One of the things you've done here that I wish the show had done, is show Spike more sympathetic to Buffy's emotional state. And not in a pitying way at all, just searching his own bank of experience (in this case, poetry -and can I just say what a stroke of genius that Marlowe quote is) to try and connect with her.

Beautiful, and haunting.