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Author's Chapter Notes:
Hi guys...remember me? More in the story below.
So...it's been a while, to say the least. Since I posted the last chapter to this story (and god knows how long ago that was!) my life has just become increasingly busy. I work 20+ hours a week, am a full time student, and I will admit that my interests have turned elsewhere (OMG I could talk Supernatural all day long now)!

But I REALLY didn't want to leave you guys - and especially my dedicated readers - hanging (and thank you, each one of you guys, for the e-mails that just won't stop coming asking me about this story!). So...I DO plan to finish this story, as long as you guys can stick with me and understand that it's just not my top priority anymore.

I actually have had the epilogue written for MANY MONTHS, I just have to get us there. And very slowly, I am making my way to the end of this story. I do hope you all continue to read and know that I won't let this one die.


So here we go...and you might have to reread the entire story, but I do hope you enjoy this chapter!

Chapter 26:
 
 
 
Buffy woke up the next morning with a heavy sense of dread in her heart.
 
How could she have said what she did to William last night? Was that what she really about him? Did she really think that underneath everything, that he was spineless? Sure, he had his unsure and timid moments, but that was to be expected with all of the changes he had to adjust to so quickly.
 
She lay in bed, dreading leaving the sanctuary of her own bedroom. She could hear Dawn and William in the kitchen together and knew that if she didn't get up, there was a possibility that one of them might come looking for her. Knowing her luck, it would be Dawn, and that was another conversation she didn't want to have.
 
Having thought of that, Buffy finally rose from bed and began to get ready for the day.
 
 
~~~
 
 
Dawn sat at the table, slowly nursing a glass of orange juice as William moved about the kitchen getting a simple breakfast of toast and eggs ready for the three of them. She looked down the hallway and saw that Buffy's door was still closed and the lights were off. If she didn't come out soon, Dawn was going to go get her and demand an explanation for last night.
 
"So..." she slowly started. “I was reading in my room last night and heard some..."
 
"Fighting?" William finished for her, a mixture of annoyance and sadness evident in his tone. "Yes, unfortunately, you were not imagining that.”
 
Dawn looked at him, and for the first time that morning, realized how tired and worn out he looked. "You look terrible. Did you get any sleep last night?"
 
William silently shook his head "no" and turned back towards the stove.
 
"I'm sorry, William. God, I'm so sorry," she muttered, looking down at her hands in shame.
 
William turned around and looked at her with confusion. "What on earth do you have to be sorry about, Dawn?"
 
She looked up at him with tears welling in her eyes. "It's my fault, isn't it? The fight? If I hadn't said what I did to you yesterday afternoon, then-"
 
"Dawn," William interrupted. He took the pan off of the burner so he could concentrate solely on her. He walked over and sat across from her at the table. "Dawn, you were perfectly right to voice your concerns yesterday. No, I do not have any money with me; no, I do not know how to drive; and no, I do not have any experience with women. But the argument last night with your sister had nothing to do with what you said, because everything you spoke of was just reminding me of the truth."
 
"I'm still sorry that I sounded so angry and accusing," she responded, lowering her eyes again. "It's just that after her last boyfriend, I'm trying to look out for my sister, and certain things about you don't add up. I can't help but get a bit suspicious about where you're coming from with all of this."
 
"There's nothing to be sorry for, nibblet," William replied with an affectionate smile.
 
Dawn's nose wrinkled and she smiled at hearing the new nickname. "What did you just call me?"
 
His smile grew and he knew that he had been right in calling her by his sister's nickname. He couldn't help but call her that at seeing her torn expression, and had hoped that it would cheer her up. Luckily, it looked like it had worked. "Just a nickname I used to call my sister when she was younger."
 
"Emily-Grace?" Dawn asked, remembering when he had spoken of her when they had first met. "You must miss her, both her and your mother."
 
William looked away from a second and nodded. "You have no idea," he finally replied. "I miss them everyday."
 
"Then why not just take a plane home for the weekend and visit them more often?" Dawn asked, clearly confused by something she must be missing out on.
 
"Because it's a bit more complicated than that, Dawn," Buffy's voice replied from the doorway.
 
Both William and Dawn turned to look at her and Buffy weakly smiled in their direction. She still couldn't bring herself to look at William, so instead she settled for looking at Dawn. "Dawn, can I talk to William alone, please?"
 
Dawn slightly nodded. "Sure thing. Let me just grab some food while it's hot and I'll just eat it in my room."
 
After filling her plate with eggs and toast, Dawn headed to her room after promising Buffy that she would not spill it all over the floor.
 
"Good morning," Buffy softly greeted, walking to the seat that Dawn had been sitting in before.
 
"Morning," he replied.
 
"Didn't get much sleep, did you?" she finally asked. At William's silence, Buffy nodded in agreement. "Yeah, same here," she whispered.
 
"I missed...I missed having you there with me," William finally spoke. "I...yes, well, I had just become accustomed to - to being with you. Especially after the other night when we..." He cleared his throat before finishing his sentence, "well, let's just say that it was difficult to sleep without having some one to hold."
 
Buffy frowned at his nervous stutter, wondering if her harsh words had set them back in their relationship. "Same here," she softly agreed.
 
Several long minutes of silence passed before William finally spoke up. "Did you really mean what you said last night?"
 
"William, I am so-"
 
"Did you mean it?" he repeated, looking at her with a stern expression. He wanted to know that above anything else. "That's all I want to know."
 
Buffy shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think so...but, then again, why would I have said it if some part of me inside didn't think it?"
 
"You tell me," he replied.
 
"I know that our relationship is unlike one that I have ever had before-"
 
"Which couldn't possibly be because I was born in 1856, now could it?" William couldn't help but remark.
 
"Look who's resorting to sarcasm now, huh?" Buffy asked with a teasing smile on her face.
 
"Sorry," he answered, looking away from her for fear that if he did stare too long, he wouldn't know what to say anymore.
 
"No, never be sorry for talking back to me," she said, "for sticking up for yourself."
 
William paused, wondering how to take in what she say saying. "So you do think I lack a backbone, as you put it last night?"
 
"No, no I don't. I think that I'm not used to having a man who isn't the overbearing, domineering, leader in the relationship," Buffy explained. "I'm used to the guy planning things, initiating any form of romance, and you know...being the leader when it comes to things done in the bedroom."
 
"And it is the complete opposite with us," William stated, thinking he was starting to understand where she was coming from.
 
"Yes," she acknowledged. "Yes, exactly. I'm not used to having to be the leader here. I mean, I barely know anything about intimacy, especially after Warren, but here we are, learning together and teaching each other...and I think that's how it's supposed to be actually. The only thing is, is that I'm just not used to it."
 
"So, you panicked then?" William asked.
 
Buffy nodded and looked away, blinking back tears at the thought that what she had said last night might ultimately ruin their relationship. "I just have this tendency to say things without really thinking...foot in mouth, and all things like that. I'm so sorry, William," she whispered before lowering her head to the table.
 
"I am too," he replied, reaching out to take her hands into his. "I'm sorry I pushed you so hard last night. If you don't want to tell Dawn yet, then-"
 
"No," she interrupted, "no. I thought over what you were saying last night, and - and I think it's for the best that we do tell her, that way she'll finally understand everything that's been going on. It's not fair to force you to hide so much from her."
 
William smiled briefly. "Really?"
 
Buffy nodded. "Yeah, really. I mean, if you're going to be a permanent addition to our family, then I think that it's fair that she knows the truth about you and how our relationship really started out."
 
"Thank you," he answered.
 
"I know how much it means to you to have honesty with Dawn," Buffy said. "Dawn? Can you come in here?"
 
Dawn walked out with her plate and fork in hand. "I didn't do it, I swear," the quickly said, looking at her sister and William with worry clear on her face.
 
"No, everything is fine," Buffy said. "C'mon, come sit with us."
 
Dawn sat down in the chair beside Buffy and quickly glanced at William. "What's up?"
 
"We...William and I, had a bit of a fight last night which I'm sure you're well aware of," Buffy started. "And although it was not because of you, what you said to William yesterday afternoon did have something to do with what started our argument." She looked at William, silently urging him with her eyes to continue since it was his story to tell.
 
"You see, Dawn, there really are explanations on why I do not have any personal belongings with me and why I am sometimes looking at things as if it were the first time I had ever seen them," William began to explain.
 
"Okay, I'm listening," Dawn said, genuinely curious about what William's reasons were.
 
"You see...these things that I view with such genuine curiosity, the reason for that is because I am looking at them for the first time," William said.
 
Dawn's brow furrowed and she looked towards Buffy for any sign of clarification. "I don't think I get it."
 
"Ask him when he was born," Buffy suggested.
 
"Alright then, when were you born, William?"
 
"I was born on June 4, 1856," he stated.
 
Dawn's expression was confused and disbelieving, wondering if she had heard those last four numbers wrong. "Wha-what?" She looked back and forth between her sister and William. "I don't think I understand."
 
"Dawn, I don't know how to tell this to you, other than coming out and saying it very plainly," William said. "I began writing to Buffy back in the beginning of September-"
 
"I know, she told me," Dawn said. "She said that you two were pen pals."
 
"But we were not writing letters through the daily mail," he continued on. "On the same day that I purchased my desk at a store in London, Buffy did the same thing at her garage sale. Later in that week, we discovered that we could write to each other through a journal that we kept in the bottom drawer of the desk."
 
Buffy rose and walked back to her bedroom. A few seconds later she walked back out with their first black journal in her hand. "Here, look for yourself," she said, handing the journal to Dawn.
 
Dawn flipped to the first page she touched and began reading. After flipping past a few more pages, she looked back up at the two. "So, you're telling me here that William really is a proper gentleman, and he is actually from the 1800's?"
 
William nodded. "And that is the truth. It's why I have no money or personal affects with me. It's why I barely know anything about women, because I was born and raised in a society where gentlemen are not as up front with women as we are today."
 
"Wow," Dawn whispered. "Wow. Buffy, you really know how to pick 'em, don't you? I mean, we all wanted someone better for you than Warren, but you had to look in 1882 to find the right guy."
 
"I like to think that the right guy found me," Buffy said, winking at William and taking his hand into hers.
 
"Does anyone else know?"
 
"I think that Anya and Willow suspect that something is different about William, but they don't know exactly what," Buffy explained. "But it doesn't matter. If it does come out, it does."
 
"I've been thinking on the subject for a while now, and I just thought that you deserved to know," William said. "You mean a lot to me, Dawn. You remind me very much of my own sister, and I don't want any secrets to get in the way of our friendship."
 
Dawn smiled. "It means a lot to me that you guys would even think of me regarding this."
 
"We're sorry if we frightened you with our fight last night," Buffy added, knowing how much they had both disliked the heated fights between their mother and father. "I...I thought you might freak out or something, I don't know. And I guess...I guess some small part of me just didn't want to let anyone else in on our little secret."
 
"Well, I can't deny that it's shocking. You're really from 1882?" At William's nod of agreement, Dawn quickly shook her head in disbelief. "So, tell me everything."
 
"Everything?"
 
"Everything. No more secrets, tell me everything there is to know about you and your life. Start from the very beginning."
 
William looked at Buffy and at her slight nod to tell him to proceed, William took a breath and began to tell her everything he might have left out in their several weeks of friendship.
 
 
~~~
 
 
Much later that evening, after Dawn had left to spend the night with Janice with a strict promise to not gossip about everything she had just learned in the last hour, Buffy and William decided to head to the Bronze for an evening of relaxing fun.
 
"That didn't go as badly as we all thought it would, huh?" Buffy asked. She wrapped her arms around him and began to lead him to the dance floor, intent on showing him how people of 2005 customarily danced together. "I'm sorry I freaked out so much about it last night. I know how close you two are, so I should have just trusted you to begin with."
 
William shrugged and leaned down to kiss her. "It's okay," he said. "I imagine that every couple has their first fight, right?"
 
"Let's hope it's our only one," Buffy said. She turned around and took his hands into hers, placing them around her waist and bracing herself against his chest.
 
"Somehow, I don't foresee too many arguments in our future together," William replied. He bent down and kissed her neck, taking a deep breath and trying to control everything he felt within him at the feel of her pressed so tightly against him. "God, what are you doing to me?"
 
"Dancing," she simply replied, giving him a small smile and slowly swaying back and forth to the beat of the music.
 
"I don't think I am...too familiar with this form of dancing," he said into her ear.
 
"Just follow my lead, okay?" She pressed a kiss on the side of his face and went back to dancing. "Trust me; you don't have to do too much."
 
Buffy closed her eyes and leaned against him, gently moving back and forth regardless of the faster pace of the music beating around them.
 
She remembered when she had done this with Xander one night on this very same dance floor so many years ago. It seemed like a completely different world during the school year when she had been on-and-off-dating the senior football quarterback, Liam O'Connor, and had decided to make everyone in the club jealous of her.
 
Buffy had dragged a very surprised Xander onto the dance floor and had proceeded to try every move in the book of seduction that she had known at the naive age of sixteen. Now, almost ten years later, she was trying to do the same thing, only this time it was for real - no jealousy involved whatsoever, just the desire to dance with the man she loved.
 
Buffy turned back around and wrapped her arms around his neck. She pressed her entire body against his, smiling when she saw him clench his jaw in concentration. She loved watching William when they were close together like this. Whether it be kissing, touching, or even hugging, she just loved watching his reactions to all of the new sensations she was showing him and how with each passing embrace he relaxed just a bit more.
 
"Having fun?" Buffy asked breathlessly.
 
William's eyes slowly fluttered open and he looked down at her with a somewhat dazed look on his face. "Definitely."
 
"Good!" She pressed a kiss on the corner of his mouth and went back to giving him a crash course of dancing at the Bronze. "Think you can handle dancing here like this? Like how we do in 2005?"
 
William responded by holding her body still and pressing his hips against hers. "I think that, with practice, I will quickly pick up on everything there is to know." He kissed her once more, this time long and intoxicating, before slowly moving to the beat that she had been following as well.
 
He wrapped his arms around her waist, pulling her flush against his body. William could tell how much she enjoyed having him take over from the look of excitement on her face.
 
"How was that?"
 
"Not bad," she answered cheerfully.
 
And with his arms wrapped tightly around her, and her fingers weaving a path through his hair, the couple danced the night away.
 
 
~~~
 
 
TBC
 
 
 
 
Taa daaa! Sexy Wuffy dancing! It doesn't get much better than that!

So please leave me a review of what you thought - I'm very curious since it's been such a long time.

Thank you and I will aim for another chapter soon!





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