"Rupert! Why?"

"Because I don't love you anymore. You're a selfish woman just as you were a selfish child." He looks at Buffy. "And I can't bloody well stand it anymore."

She stood there, hands on her hips. "Oh, yeah? Well, well how am I selfish?"

"There's Dawn. You treat her like dirt."

"She's not my sister! I mean, I *died* for her once! Isn't that enough of a freaking sacrifice?"

"And then there's Spike."

"He's a lovesick puppy, nothing more."

"And you use that to your advantage, Buffy. I suppose since we began dating and living together I have let my judgment in such things slide." He looked straight at her. "But the way you acted at Xander and Anya's wedding was reprehensible. That, was the last straw."

"I was drunk..." Buffy said quietly. Then she turned tactic. "So, now you're going to leave me like all the other men in my life? My dad, Angel, Scott, Riley..." She turned on the waterworks, playing on his sympathy.

It didn't work.

"Buffy, I am leaving. There is someone else who my attentions have turned towards."

That caught the Slayer's attention. "Who?"

"Willow."

Buffy gasped. "But...she's gay. "

Giles shook his head. "She is not and that is all that matters. It's a united front against you, Buffy, until you change your rather selfish ways."

"No, it's not. There's always Spike. He loves me." Buffy grabbed her coat. "And I can use that."

At that moment Dawn came running in, tears streaming from her face. She ran to Giles and handed him a note clutched in her hands.

Giles took the note and gently comforted Dawn as he read it. When he was finished, he glared at Buffy.

"Spike has decided to depart. Permanently. There's was a note and his duster left for Dawn. He did not say where he was going, but he did say he could no longer be, as you had so aptly described, a lovesick puppy dog on the Slayer's torment list."

He tossed the note to Buffy and guided Dawn out of the room.

"It's all your fault!" Dawn screamed at Buffy, who visibly flinched. "You made the only person who understood me go away! I hate you!"

Giles ushered her out of the room, leaving Buffy alone. She was surrounded by the chaos of an interrupted packing.

Inside, she was surrounded by a different, more painful chaos.