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Author's Chapter Notes:
For those of you wondering how close this is going to be the book, I read it about 15 years ago so I don't really remember specifics. The general premise will be the same and a few scenes do stick out in my mind, but the story has been changed to fit better into the Buffyverse. Hopefully, it will still be good :)

I was amazed by all the reviews - thank you so much!!
Chapter Two

William did his best to keep the promise he made to me the night of our father’s funeral. In the time after father’s death, we operated as a family again for the most part. The twins had become acclimated to life again and we celebrated their eighth birthday in June for the first time without our father. Once school began again in September, William would be entering into his senior year, so he started looking at colleges close to home rather than the East Coast as he originally planned.

I was looking forward to my junior year, having been voted captain of the cheerleading squad along with Cordelia. Will and I took care of mother and the twins just as we promised each other on that night dad had died. Will had taken over the role of man of the house seamlessly, taking on the burden of the more manly household chores and responsibilities. He and I also took on a more active role in the twins lives, making lunches and reading before bedtime. We made sure that at least one of us always attended Connor’s weekly baseball games or Dawn’s Saturday dance lessons.

This more active role was mostly because mother was still living her life through a depressing haze. As we children grew closer, my mother became distant to her family. She would spend more time in her room sleeping or sobbing. None of us knew what to do. We tried to involve her in our lives, but she seemed uninterested and disconnected. Unknown to us, she had other burdens on her mind besides the death of her husband.

Six months after dad’s death, my mother gathered us in the living room. Will and I took this as a good sign since we had not had a family gathering since the day of the shooting. It was anything but. Mother stood watching as Will and I settled on the couch and the twins stretched out on the floor. After a deep breath, she began.

“I know you’ve all been worried about me. I didn’t want to burden you with my problems on top of your own grief, but now I’m afraid I have to.” I gave a sideways glance at Will, but he didn’t register my gaze. He was biting on his lower lip, something he always did when he was nervous.

Mom continued with her speech, “There have been some legal issues with your father’s life insurance policy. Your father fully intended to provide for all of us, but circumstances have arisen that were unforeseen. I’m afraid I can’t support us all. We’re going to have to sell the house.”

Immediately, I jumped to my feet shaken and upset. “What? What are you talking about? Why would we have to sell the house?” This house was where we grew up, where we had spent our entire lives with dad. In this living room, he used to dance with me while I stood on his toes when I was a little girl. He taught Connor to throw a baseball in the back yard. It felt like mom was ripping another piece of dad away. This couldn’t be happening.

“Elizabeth,” my mother admonished, “it can’t be helped.”

Clearly as panicked at the thought of losing the house as I was, Will jumped in. “I don’t understand. If this is just about money, I can get a job. I can forget about college and help out. Elizabeth can get a job too, something after school.”

My mother placed a gentle hand on William’s cheek. “It’s not that easy. Even if the three of us got jobs it wouldn’t be enough. Besides what would I do? I’m a college dropout who hasn’t worked in over seventeen years. And it’s going to be alright.”

“What happened mother?” I asked again in a harsher tone. Tears were running down my cheeks.

She sighed. “The day your father died, you remember that we had big news to share with you. We never got to tell you because he never made it home. Your father was going into private practice. He had bought a small office downtown. It was going to allow him more time with us. He’d make his own hours, no more weekends on-call. He took out a second mortgage on the house to fund it. The life insurance policy was somehow wrapped up with it. The bank is foreclosing on everything.”

“Why is this the first we’ve heard about this?” Will was now pacing back and forth across the living room floor. “You’ve barely left the house in months. Why didn’t you try to fix it?” he asked icily.

“Don’t take that tone with me young man. Don’t you think I tried? Our lawyer has been doing everything he can to clear this up. But it’s too late. I even went to my mother but she couldn’t give me the money without father knowing.”

“What are we going to do mommy?” A quiet whisper from Dawn broke through the tension coming off of Will and mother. We all looked down at her, and then Will and I shared a tentative glance.

“We have one month to pack up our stuff and get out of the house. Although my mother couldn’t help with money, she was able to offer us another solution. We’re moving to Sunnydale to stay at Rayne Manor. I think you kids are going to love it. It’s huge and there are stables with a half dozen horses and ponds where you can feed the ducks. And you’ll be inspired to paint and write with all of the beauty on the grounds.” Mother was spinning a beautiful tale of Rayne Manor for us all but I knew it was just an act for Connor and Dawn. I could hear the slight tremor in her voice and the joy of her voice didn’t reach her eyes. I knew Will felt it too as I watched the muscle in his jaw twitch and his hands ball in and out of fists at his side.

So this is how it came to be that over Labor Day weekend, we said goodbye to our house and life in Los Angeles and sat on a train bound to Sunnydale. Will and I sat together four rows behind mother and the twins. I stared out the window for the first thirty minutes not saying anything. I could hear mom and the twins playing I Spy and I could feel the intent gaze of Will on the back of my head. Lost in my own thoughts about what was to come, I didn’t notice when Will squeezed my knee. It wasn’t until I heard him say my name that I snapped out of my little world.

“Elizabeth?”

“What do you think it’s going to be like? What do you think is going to happen?” I asked.

“I don’t know. Big, I wager. Mom said it was a manor.”

“That’s not what I meant and you know it. I mean with grandmother and grandfather. Do you think we’ll have to grovel and do parlor tricks to get into their good graces?”

“Don’t be stupid, we’re not dogs. I guess mom will just make up with him and we’ll all live like family.”

“You think it’s going to be that easy? A simple nice to see you after seventeen years and by the way meet my four children who I bore with the man you disowned me over.” Elizabeth scoffed at his naiveté. “It’s not going to be like that.”

“’Lizbeth, don’t be so negative. Mom loves us and she knows what she’s doing. She wouldn’t be bringing us here if it was going to be awful, if it wasn’t the right thing to do.” He grabbed my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

“Yeah, well, I don’t know that. In case you haven’t noticed William, mom hasn’t been the same since dad died. She’s like a different person. Sometimes she scares me. This…this plan of hers, I don’t trust it. I certainly don’t trust grandma Dru and I’m not sure if I trust mom anymore. I just wish we were staying in Los Angeles and dad was here to take care of us like he always did.” I finished with tears in my eyes.

As if she knew I doubted her, mom glanced back and gave us a reassuring smile. William squeezed my hand harder as he smiled back at mother. He ran his thumb over the back of my hand. “Dad isn’t coming back, Elizabeth. And I told you before, I’ll take care of you even if mom doesn’t.” I smiled weakly at William. Although I knew he meant every word, my gut instinct was telling me that he couldn’t protect us from what laid ahead in Sunnydale.





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