William sat in his office staring down at the papers in his hand. It was as if his eyes didn’t want to believe the names on the divorce papers were actually his and Buffy’s. Time seemed to stand still as he pulled out his pen, scrawled his signature on the bottom and signed the day’s date.
Well this is it. This is the final step to starting over and finally letting go of the past. This is what’s best for both of us, right?
William shook his head and closed his eyes. He felt as if his heart was being clinched in a vise-like grip and there was nothing he could do to ease the pain. His heart was screaming to him to just throw the papers in the garbage and beg Buffy to take him back, but his head told him that if he did that, things wouldn’t be the same as they were before.
He wanted to talk to Buffy, but unfortunately since the night she had called his flat and spoke to Dru, she was avoiding his calls altogether. He knew he looked like a big hypocrite having another woman answer his phone, but it wasn’t what Buffy had thought at all and she wouldn’t even give him the chance to explain. Reaching the bottom of the barrel, he picked up the phone and got his secretary on the phone.
“Tara, I need you to find the number to the Summers art gallery in Sunnydale for me,” he asked.
“Sure thing Mr. Giles. When I get the number would you like me to connect the call to your office?” Tara asked in a soft shy voice.
“That would be wonderful Tara, thank you,” he replied and hung up and waited nervously as Tara found the number to his mother-n-law’s gallery.
******************************************************************************
Joyce pointed in the direction of the far corner of the room. “You can put that crate over there and then the smaller one in my office,” she dictated, looking up from the clipboard in her hands.
The sound of the phone ringing in the office caused her to let out an exasperated sigh and she shook her head. With all the distractions she was never going to get the truck unloaded and cataloged.
Bringing the phone to her ear, she closed her eyes and answered irritably. “Summers gallery, Joyce speaking.”
William could sense the irritation in her voice and wondered if it was from work or if she saw his number in the caller ID.
“Uh Joyce did I catch you at a bad time?” he asked hesitantly.
Joyce’s eyes flew open when she instantly recognized the deep British voice on the other end. Inventory forgotten, she sat on the edge of her desk. “No, not at all,” she lied. She knew if William was calling it must have been important. “What can I do for you?”
William let out a sigh of relief. “Well I’m sure Buffy told you about her calling me last week,” he started.
Joyce was well aware of the call Buffy had made. After Buffy had hung up she spent the rest of the evening in her room crying and then the few days that she was in Sunnydale, she did nothing but sit around the house in a foul mood.
“Uh yes, she may have mentioned it,” Joyce replied.
William closed his eyes and let out an exasperated sigh. “Well I tried calling her to explain, but apparently she’s not taking my calls.”
“So what exactly happened William?” Joyce asked. When Joyce had questioned Buffy as to why she was so upset, all Buffy had said was that some slut bag had answered William’s phone when she called, so Joyce had just left it at that.
William took a deep breath and began to explain to Joyce the events that had unfolded. “Well I called your house looking for Buffy’s address, but Buffy answered. We talked for a bit and things got a bit intense so when I hung up I may have gone to the bar and gotten a bit pissed.”
“You brought some random woman back to your apartment?” Joyce asked disapprovingly.
“What? No,” William exclaimed. “Dru brought me home.”
“Dru?”
“A friend of mine, she came, picked me up, brought me home and made sure I was okay,” he explained.
“So this is the woman that answered when Buffy called?” Joyce asked to make sure she was following him.
“Yes, Buffy called when I was in the shower.”
Joyce sat there for a minute thinking over the situation. It sounded innocent enough, but she could see why her daughter was so upset. William had had a woman in his apartment and let her answer his phone, something you would only let someone do if they were close to you.
“Well William it looks like you have quite the predicament on your hands,” Joyce sighed.
“That’s where you come in,” he replied, still slightly skeptical.
“Oh no, I’m not calling Buffy and explaining to her why you had another woman in your home,” Joyce stated determinedly.
“What else can I do? Buffy won’t talk to me,” William pointed out desperately.
Joyce knew this could turn around to bite her in the butt, but she could hear the desperation in her son-n-law’s voice.
“Well there is one way you might be able to reach her,” Joyce suggested hesitantly. Buffy was going to kill her.
William perked up. “Really, how?”
“William is this really important?” Joyce asked wanting to know if this was going to be worth the possible repercussions.
William looked down at the papers in his hands. “Joyce this could be the most important thing in my life.”
“You could try her at the studio. If you use the password, they’ll put you straight through to her.”
“Thank you Joyce, you don’t know how much this means to me,” he replied gratefully.
Joyce gave William the information he needed to reach Buffy and just before she was going to hang up she asked, “William?”
“Yeah?”
“I hope things work out the way you hope they will,” Joyce said in a knowing voice.
William let out a soft chuckle. “Me too Joyce, goodbye,” and then hung up.
******************************************************************************
Buffy sat in the studio with one of her producers as they went over one of her latest tracks.
“I don’t’ know Xan,” Buffy said skeptically. It seemed like ever since she had gotten back from her mother’s she couldn’t get back in the swing of things.
“It’s great Buffy. It has that whole I’ve just had my heart ripped out feel to it,” Xander Harris assured her.
Buffy let out a wryly chuckle. “Oh Xander if you only knew.”
Xander scrunched his brow at her. He had been working with Buffy for a few years now and he thought of them as friends, so he was automatically concerned at Buffy’s sudden change in mood.
“Hey Buff, you all right?”
Buffy let her head fall to the counter. “Xander I don’t know, I mean it’s like everything is crapping out all at once,” she sighed.
“You mean you and Lindsey?” he asked gently.
Buffy sat up and turned to look at Xander. “That’s just one of the things to add to the ever growing list of things wrong in Buffy’s shitty life.”
Xander studied his friend for a moment before he asked. “Do you want to talk about it?”
“You got a week to spare?” Buffy asked dryly.
Xander couldn’t help but chuckle. “Come on, it can’t be that bad.”
Buffy raised a brow at him. “You wanna bet?”
“Try me,” Xander challenged.
“You asked for it,” Buffy warned and then went to explain the mess that was her life. When she had divulged every last detail, Xander sat with a thoughtful look on his face.
“Well that’s some week huh?”
Buffy let out a sigh. “Tell me about it, and I’m the one that actually had to live it.”
“Well Buff the only thing I can suggest is to take it one step at a time,” Xander suggested.
Buffy frowned. “How so?”
“Well if I were you, I would take the Lindsey situation and the William situation and make them two totally different problems instead of making it one big one,” Xander said with a shrug of his shoulders.
Buffy thought about what Xander was trying to say for a minute before she asked, “So you mean to not let my problems with Will involve Lindsey and my problems with Lindsey not involve Will?”
“Exactly,” Xander said diplomatically.
“But what if that’s the reason I’m having problems with the other,” Buffy whined as she jutted out her lip in a pout.
Xander thought on that one for a minute. “Well Buffy you have to decide what it is you really want. Do you want to be with Lindsey and make a go of it, or do you want to try and work things out with your husband and tell Lindsey to hit the road?”
“Well Xander why didn’t I think of that?” Buffy asked sarcastically. Like the thought of just simply choosing between the two of them had never occurred to her.
“Okay no need for sarcasm here, just trying to help,” Xander replied.
“Sorry Xan, I’m just so screwed up in the head right now it’s not even funny. I’m almost to the point were I’m willing to say the hell with both of them and turn gay,” Buffy replied exasperatedly.
“Well before you decide to go gay, maybe you and I could….” Xander teased.
Buffy looked over and rolled her eyes. “I swear you are such a man.”
“Was that supposed to be an insult?” he chuckled.
“Yes,” Buffy replied trying to scowl, but came across more amused.
They both looked at each other and fell into a fit of laughter. Just as they were getting their laughter under wraps, line one stared blinking. Xander cleared his throat and answered the phone.
Buffy wiped the tears from her eyes and then looked at the phone in Xander’s hand with a look of confusion. Who was calling her at the studio? Oh God, was it Lindsey?
Xander shrugged his shoulders and passed her the phone. Buffy brought it to her ear hesitantly and answered, “Hello, this Buffy.”
“Buffy please don’t hung up,” William pleaded desperately.
Buffy felt her face burn with anger. How in the hell had he found out how to reach her at the studio? Then as if someone flipped a switch, she knew the answer. Her mother.
“William how dare you call me at work,” she said through clinched teeth.
Xander saw the anger in Buffy’s eyes and got up to leave. “Buffy I’ll just be outside.”
Buffy gave Xander a curt nod before she turned her attention back to William. “What the fuck do you want,” Buffy asked snidely.
William was expecting Buffy to be mad; he just hoped he could get her to listen. “Buffy can I just explain the night you called?” he asked in a pleading voice.
Buffy knew she didn’t owe him her time, but she was mildly curious as to what he had to say. “I’m listening,” she informed him coolly.
William let out a sigh of relief. “Right, well after I talked to you, I was kinda upset so I left work and went to the bar, got completely pissed, and Dru had to take me home, that’s why she answered my phone,” he explained.
Buffy felt her anger turn to rage. “So let me see if I understand. You got shit faced and called Dru to come and get you to go back to your place?” she asked incredulously.
Well that came out sounding all wrong. “Buffy wait, it’s not how it sounds,” he defended.
“Oh really?” she challenged. “So the fact that some other woman was answering my husband’s phone after he got ‘pissed’ at the bar is a good thing?”
William didn’t hear anything Buffy had said except the word ‘husband’. “What did you just call me?” he asked disbelievingly.
“What?” Buffy asked confused as she thought over what she had just said, then she realized what he was talking about. She had just called him her husband, yes by all sense of the word he was, but she had called him that in more of a possessive manner.
“Uh, well, I uh,” she sputtered nervously.
“Buffy?” he asked with a hopeful tone. She had said it possessively, not casually, that meant something right?
“What?” she replied hesitantly.
“You just called me your husband,” he pointed out.
“I know,” she whispered.
“What does this mean?” he asked cautiously.
Buffy let out a sigh. “Nothing.”
“Nothing?” he asked dejectedly.
Buffy let silent tears fall down her cheeks. Too much had been said and done to go back to the way things were.
“William I can’t do this right now,” Buffy pleaded. She was at the studio and she really didn’t want to have to explain to everyone why she was red-eyed and tear-stained.
“Buffy we need to talk about this,” William pushed.
“Whatever, just not now,” she sighed.
William felt his temper getting the better of him. “What is your precious Lindsey there?”
Buffy felt her anger rise to the surface ten-fold. “What?”
“Lindsey, he’s there that’s why you don’t want to talk now isn’t it,” William accused.
Buffy had had all she could take for one day. “You know what Will, I’m done talking to you, just send me the damn papers and be done with it alright,” she snapped.
“Fine, they’ll be there day after tomorrow,” he snapped back.
“Fine!” Buffy yelled through her tears.
“Fine!” William yelled back as he flung an award he won across the room to smash into a million pieces.
Buffy heard the sound of busting glass and flinched. She had never seen or heard William lose his temper like that.
“William this conversation is over,” she said through gritted teeth.
“That’s right, whatever Buffy wants Buffy gets,” he remarked snidely.
With that Buffy hung up the phone and let out an irritated groan. She could not be done and over with this mess soon enough.
William clinched his jaw and shook his head. She fucking hung up on him. With a sardonic chuckle, he took and stuffed the divorce papers in the envelope and scribbled Buffy’s address on it. If this is what Buffy wanted, then who was he to deny her.
A/N : Okay I know this chap was kinda angsty but I swear I am working up to something here. I know you are all ready for the Spuffy but all good things come to those who wait, LOL! I swear that it won't be too much longer until the angst dies down, you're just going to have to trust me. Thanks again for all the support, kuddos!
Huge thanks to cordykitten, Brunettepet, spuffette, Suzee, KImber, spikeshunny, blondiebear, DaniD, briana, Nicki, SarahandJamesFanatic, frederique, dusty273, mj, willowmouse, kim, Laura, MidnightGirl, Raspy_Luv, jennybean, vitalis, and gotkona (my lovely beta who has worked her tail off on this fic for you guys! Show her some luv!) for all the reviews I love them to bits! Kuddos!
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Thanks everyone for the support, it means the world to me! Kuudos!