There are vanishingly few people who can write Buffy, Spike, and a plot without making me impatient - not because I object to an actual story, but because the stories usually seem like an obvious (and halfhearted) mechanism for moving the characters around and manipulating their emotions.

You've managed to get me totally hooked on the story you're telling and you've seamlessly worked the emotional elements into it so that nothing feels in the least contrived. I'm loving this.