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CHAPTER 13 -- Tangled

Author's Note: Thank you sooooooo very much to everyone who tracked down Palerider's "Curiosity" for me! Demona424 found it at http://forever.hybrid-genesis.com/fictions/finished/palerider_curiosity.html if anyone's interested!

Buffy didn’t sleep well that night. She had tossed and turned, stirring at every sound coming from downstairs, wondering whether it was Spike. Of course, it hadn’t been. She had finally fell asleep next to the rock that was her fiancée around four in the morning. Buffy wasn’t sure Spike ever came home. Not knowing he was in the house, near her, made her uneasy. She had tried everything -- a walk around the neighborhood, a visit to a local cafe, she had even tried to read a book from the Giles’ vast library. She had picked up a book a poetry by an author that she vaguely remembered being mentioned in high school. Flipping through the pages, she had come across a poem that sounded very familiar. It was one Spike had recited from memory to her late one night in bed. In a frustrated huff, Buffy slammed the book and set it far away from herself, trying to force away her Spike-filled thoughts with it.

She couldn’t even go in the kitchen -- not anymore. Not with the looks she got that pressured her and ran the guilt she had even deeper. She had to stop herself a number of times from seeking out the kitchen staff, asking if they knew when Spike was coming back.

Wandering through the upstairs hallway, she heard voices coming from Giles’ office. The door was slightly ajar and Buffy strolled towards the hushed sounds, she peered through the crack in the door. Seated at the desk was Angel, gathered around him was Travers and Giles. All three were staring at some papers on the desk in front of them and didn’t see Buffy standing outside the door.

Angel addressed the two men, mid-conversation, “I understand that . . . but what if we moved back the sign-over?”

Travers balked at the idea, “Moved back the sign-over, are you mad?”

Giles cleaned his glasses, “Maybe Liam has a point. If we had the wedding first it would give him a more substantial background when the firm is given to him. Family man and blooming businessman. We can have the wedding at the country club. That’s where your mother and I got married, it would give the message of tradition. That would mollify the fears of the older Senior Partners and it would simply look trendy to the younger generation.”

Travers slapped a hand down onto Angel’s shoulder, “Yes, but what if this marriage isn’t what the boy truly wants. Think about it -- you’ll have a multi-million dollar company at your fingertips. You’ll be the bachelor of the century! You’ll have planes, sailboats, and trips to Martha’s Vineyard in your future. If this marriage fails, the entire country will hear all about it.” He gave Angel a grave look, “Hand over the company before you hand over your freedom.”

Angel turned to his father, “That does make sense, dad.”

Giles sighed, “What ever you like, Liam. It’s your life, no one else’s.”

“What about mine?” The three men looked startled towards the doorway. Buffy stood, leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed.

“Buffy,” Angel greeted as if he was not just planning their future without her, “How long have you been standing there?” Nervousness tinged his last sentence.

“Long enough,” she answered, strolling into the room, dangerously calm.

His voice dropped, strained, “You should have said something.”

“Oh, I think you were planning my wedding just fine without me,” she replied.

“Buffy I . . .”

She interrupted him, “Did you know that ever since I was a little girl,” she toyed with some books sitting in a pile on a table in the middle of the room, “I’ve dreamed of being married in the church my grandmother was married in.” She continued to pace around the room, “It’s a gorgeous chapel. Stained glass windows and an aisle a mile long. I always thought daisies would make a wonderful spring wedding flower. But, you probably already arranged for roses, they would better ’give a message of tradition,’” she looked pointedly at Giles as she repeated his words. He had the decency to look at the floor.

Travers, the only one in the room who truly recognized the fury boiling underneath Buffy’s cool exterior, gave Angel a warning glance, “Perhaps you should tell your girl here, to keep out of business she knows nothing about.”

Buffy ignored Travers and sent her glare to her betrothed, “Angel, I need to see you now -- alone -- without your handlers.”

Angel clasped his hands in front of him, “Buffy, whatever you can say to me you can say in front of them.”

Buffy’s front of confidence and assuredness faltered slightly at the intense stares of the three men in front of her. “Fine,” she took a breath, “Angel when you asked me to move in with you, you said your father would be so busy he wouldn’t even know I was here. The problem is so were you. You haven’t acknowledge my existence since we got here.”

“But the party . . .” he began, but was interrupted.

Buffy’s voice dripped with sarcasm, “Yes, the party. You were very attentive at the party -- springing such a life altering question on me with a room crowded with your friends in it. I didn’t know a single person in that room! Hell, they were celebrating my engagement before I was! You probably had a fucking board meeting concerning our marriage and how it would affect the company. Everyone here is more concerned about how you asking me to marry you would affect the company more than how it would affect me and you.”

Angel addressed her as he would a business partner, “Well, Buffy, excuse me for not spending time with you.” His voice lowered, “I thought by brother was more than covering as the welcome wagon,” he spat.

Buffy raised her head, “You’re right. I was spending practically every minute with Spike. He cared enough. He cared about me.”

Travers seemed unfazed at the turn of events, “Well that’s all very romantic of you Buffy, but what do you expect him to do? Drop his birthright for you? Give up everything he’s worked his entire life for to make you happy?”

“Spike would,” she counter with absolute certainty.

Travers scoffed, “That’s hardly comparable. What that boy does cannot stand up to the responsibility that Angel has accepted. I don’t know what your storybooks have taught you, but a relationship is about compromise. As an attorney’s wife, high on the totem pole of society, there are sacrifices you are going to have to make.”

Buffy shook her head, “I’ve compromised long enough. I was told there was a shitty side to Wolfram and Hart -- I’ll have to tell Spike that he was right.”

Giles, Angel, and Travers looked at her queerly. Angel gave her a little smirk, “Spike? Buffy, Spike left last night.”

“Yeah, I know, he went to clear his head . . .”

Giles interrupted, “No, Buffy, you misunderstand. William left . . . indefinitely.”

Buffy’s eyes darted around the three men in front of her, “What? Why?”

Travers rocked back on his heels, “The problem child of the Giles estate has found himself, as we all have found him, unworthy of this firm. He ripped up the papers giving him half the company and rode off on that disgusting bike of his.” Travers looked amused, “So, I suppose in a way, he did give up his birthright for you . . . to get away from you.” He laughed.

Buffy felt as if she’d been punched in the gut. She had never felt so alone in all her life. She had always had someone with her, to hold her hand -- first her mother, then Angel, and most recently Spike. Now, she truly felt the full weight of her mother’s death and how utterly stupid it was to base her entire life around the relationship with Angel.

That day when Spike rode off on his bike was not a “I need to clear my head” leave, but a “I need to clear myself from you forever” leave.

He said the family would destroy her. And he was right.

He was right. And he was gone.

TBC





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