Thanks to spikeshunny for the amazing banner for this fic. You are absolutetly amazing sweets, kuddos!!!!
**Disclaimer in full effect**
It had been almost a week since Buffy had come back from LA and William had yet to call her. She figured he was waiting for her to make the first move, so as soon as she was done at the studio she was going to call him.
“Okay guys, I think we should call it a night,” Buffy said to her fellow band mates.
“Cool, Willow has Lamaze class tonight and I told her I would go with her,” Oz commented as he began to pack his things.
“Yeah I have a thing to do too so I’ll catch up with you guys later,” Devon said with a wave as he walked out the door.
Buffy waved to Devon and let out a sigh. “So, how is Wills doing?” Buffy asked, grabbing her things.
“Well it looks like you can ask her yourself,” Oz replied somewhat surprised as he pointed to the window of the recording room.
“Were you not expecting her?” Buffy asked as she turned to see Willow with a worried look on her face.
“Actually no, I was supposed to meet her at class.”
Willow began to wave her hand frantically and both Buffy and Oz hurried over to make sure everything was okay.
“Baby is everything alright?” Oz asked as he as he embraced his very pregnant wife. “It’s not the baby is it?”
“No, I’m fine,” Willow quickly reassured her husband with a smile, and then turned to look at Buffy. “I need to talk to you.”
“I’ll just meet you at the car,” Oz said giving his wife a quick kiss. “I’ll see you later Buffy.”
“Yeah Oz, see ya later,” Buffy said before turning back to Willow. “What’s up?” she asked beginning to become worried.
“Buffy I was at the store today and I saw this,” Willow said handing Buffy a tabloid magazine.
Buffy felt her stomach do a flip-flop at the site of her and William kissing outside of his apartment with a headline of ‘Buffy Summers and the Other Man’.
“Oh my God!” Buffy exclaimed as she quickly flipped to the article. Inside were pictures of her and William at the café they had eaten lunch at and a few of her and Lindsey together at past parties smiling like the happy couple that they used to be. Buffy quickly scanned over the article. It was all about her relationship with Lindsey and how now there seemed to be a new man she was keeping on the sly.
“Willow when did this come out?” Buffy asked panicked.
“I’m not sure but it can’t have been too long ago because since you just got back not even a week ago.”
Buffy slumped down in a nearby chair and dropped her head in her hands. “Oh this is so not good,” she groaned miserably. Had William seen the tabloid and that’s why he hadn’t called?
“Buffy you did break up with Lindsey right?” Willow asked hesitantly.
“Yeah, that’s not what I’m worried about. I’m worried about what Will’s gonna do when he finds out about this,” Buffy explained.
“Well this is just a suggestion, but I think you should call him and give him a heads up to let him know yourself before he finds out, if he hasn’t already.”
Buffy let out a heavy sigh and pulled out her cell phone. She was so not looking forward to making this call. She just had to hope and pray that William hadn’t seen this until she had a chance to talk to him first.
Willow gave her friend a quick hug. “Well I better get going. Call me if you need anything alright?”
Buffy gave Willow an appreciative smile. “Thanks Wills, I’ll call you and let you know how it went.”
As soon as Willow was gone Buffy let out a groan and dialed William’s number. Why does my life always have to be so damn difficult?
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William strolled down the grocery aisle getting the things he needed when his phone started to ring. Pulling his phone from his pocket, he smiled when he saw the number that flashed across the screen. “Hey, I was wondering when you were going to call,” he said in a chipper tone. He hadn’t called Buffy first to see how long it was going to take her to make the first move.
“Hey Will,” Buffy said nervously. He apparently hadn’t seen the magazine because he sounded glad to hear from her, but now she had to be the one to tell him the news.
“Buffy is everything alright?” William asked worriedly. He could tell she was apprehensive about something just in the tone of her voice.
“Well that’s sorta why I called,” Buffy replied meekly.
“Buffy talk to me, what’s going on?” William said becoming more concerned.
“Are you not at home?”
“I’m at the grocery store, why?” William asked heading toward the checkout line.
Buffy felt panic rise within her. If he was at the store, than there was no doubt he was going to see the tabloid. “Will, I need you to promise me you won’t freak out,” she pleaded.
Now William was truly worried. Whatever Buffy was about to say could not be good. “Buffy out with it,” he demanded. He was in no mood to beat around the bush.
“Well while I was in LA with you, there may have been some pictures taken,” Buffy explained hesitantly.
Before William could even question Buffy there was a woman with a magazine in her hand staring from him back to the cover.
“OH MY GOD! It’s you!” the woman squealed a she waved her hands excitedly.
Buffy heard the woman in the background and closed her eyes. Well so much for talking to him before he found out.
William stared at the woman like she had lost her mind. What in the bloody hell was she going on about?
The excited woman handed him the magazine as she continued to squeal, drawing attention to them. “You’re from the magazine, the guy Buffy Summers is secretly dating!”
William stared at the picture of him and Buffy on the cover in absolute horror. “What the fuck!” he gasped in shock.
“Will let me explain,” Buffy pleaded.
“Buf- let me call you back,” William said quickly before he reveled who he was on the phone with.
“William wait, please don’t hang up!”
“I will call you back,” he said in a determined tone. There was no way he would be able to handle this with Buffy on the phone.
“Promise me,” Buffy demanded. She had to be sure that William would call back before she hung up.
“I promise,” he assured her, then in a near whisper he added, “We have a lot to talk about.”
Buffy felt absolutely awful for William. “Will, I am so sorry,” she apologized.
“We’ll discuss this later,” he said quickly then hung up.
Buffy shut her cell phone and let out a growl of frustration. She swore that her life couldn’t get anymore complicated than it was right now, but just then her phone rang and Lindsey’s number came up. With a sardonic chuckle she shook her head. On no, it could be so much worse.
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After spending thirty minutes in the checkout line signing copies of the magazine that had his picture plastered all over it, William managed to buy his groceries and get to his car.
To say he was pissed off was an understatement. Not even a month ago his life had been normal, and now ever since Buffy had come back into his world it had turned to utter shit. As his temper flared, he pulled out his phone and called the person who was responsible for all of this.
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Buffy sat on her couch with a glass of wine in hand trying to soothe her frazzled nerves. Her call with Lindsey went as she had thought. He yelled at her for making him look like an idiot and she had yelled back at him telling him that he had no say in what she did anymore since they weren’t together.
By the time they hung up they had both decided that Buffy would call her publicist to make a statement about her split with Lindsey and try to clean up the mess about William without turning his world upside down.
When Buffy’s cell phone rang, she sighed and checked the caller ID as she answered it. “William I am so sorry,” she said needing him to know she had never meant for this to happen.
“Buffy what the fuck happened? I go to the store and I have all these bloody women in my face asking me to sign some shit magazine,” William snapped.
“Someone must have found out I was in LA and tailed me when I went to your apartment,” Buffy explained.
William let out an aggravated sigh. “Are there any others?”
“I don’t know,” Buffy replied meekly.
“What do you mean you don’t know? Don’t you have someone who tells you these kinds of things?” William asked heatedly.
Buffy felt bad about this happening, but William was starting to piss her off with his accusations. He acted like she had done this on purpose. “Listen William, I said I was sorry, what else do you want me to do?” she snapped back at him.
William was trying to calm down, but was finding it very difficult at the thought of any other pictures of him flying around. “Find a way to keep my pictures out of that trash,” he demanded.
“So this is my fault now?” Buffy asked indignantly. “I told you this was something that could happen and you told me that you would deal with it.”
William pulled into his parking space and got out of his car, pacing the sidewalk.
“Buffy I know you didn’t mean for this to happen, but it was a bit of a shock to see myself in nothing but a pair of jeans snogging my ex-wife on the cover of some tabloid for all the world to see,” William explained exasperatedly.
“I know, and I’m sorry. William, this is my life, so if you don’t want to do this, I’ll understand” Buffy replied in a sad voice. She knew this was going to happen and that’s why she was so skeptical in the first place.
“Buffy I do want to be with you, but I don’t know if I can handle this part of it,” William admitted honestly.
“Well it’s part of the package deal, you can’t have one without the other,” Buffy informed him fighting back her tears.
“So if I can’t accept this part of your life than that’s it?” William asked desperately.
“I’m sorry, but there is no way I can guarantee you that I can keep you away from this part of my life.”
William thought about this. There was no way that he could deal with what had happened at the store on a daily basis. But if he wanted to be with Buffy then that meant he would have to sacrifice his privacy for her.
“Buffy if I do this, I want to make sure that you’re serious about us.”
Buffy sat there for a moment in silence before hesitantly asking, “Are you saying that you want to get back together?”
“Well I guess when you put it that way, then yeah,” William replied hopefully.
Buffy felt panic run through her. Were they really ready to jump back into things so soon? They had only been on speaking terms for a week and half the time they hadn’t even spoke to one another.
“William I don’t know if we’re ready for that,” she admitted honestly.
William felt his heart break. He had yet again put his heart on the line for Buffy and she had smashed it into tiny pieces. “So this is it then, we’re back to where we started?” William asked angrily.
“William you knew this wasn’t going to be easy, but yet you said we could start over, get to know each other first before we jumped back into things. You can’t give me an ultimatum and expect me to tell you that I want to get back together, that’s not how it works.”
“Well Buffy I’m not gonna turn my life upside down for some fling,” William snapped.
“Well if you think that’s what this is then I think we should just end this before it starts,” Buffy snapped back. She was hurt that William felt she was just stringing him along after what they had shared that night at his apartment.
“Is that what you really want Buffy? If this ends now then I won’t be back,” William warned.
Buffy let her tears fall like rain. How could she have been so blind as to think that this would ever work? There worlds were so different and it would be near impossible to bring them together and expect things to run smoothly.
“Will you know I don’t but I just don’t see how this is going to work if we can’t take this slow,” she sobbed.
William was beyond frustrated. He was torn between wanting Buffy in his life and having it broadcasted for the whole world to see.
“Buffy I’m just afraid I’ll be doing this for nothing,” William admitted.
“Will I promise that it won’t be for nothing, you just have to trust me,” Buffy pleaded.
“Then just tell me one thing,” William requested. If Buffy could just reassure him of this one thing then he would give her the time she needed.
“Okay.”
“The other night at my apartment, did it mean anything to you?” William asked softly.
Buffy didn’t even have to hesitate. “William, it meant more to me than you’ll ever know.”
William let out a sigh of relief. That was exactly the answer he had been hoping for. “So tell me, am I gonna have to see myself in nothing but a towel here in the near future on some billboard?” he asked dryly.
“No, I don’t think billboards come ‘til much later,” she managed to laugh through her tears.
They sat and talked for hours that night both knowing that it was going to be rough from here on out, but for now, Buffy’s small confession was enough.
Huge thanks to spuffette, Debbie, Laura, kim, cordykitten, DaniD, Spikeshunny, Kimber, SarahandJamesFanatic, MidnightGirl, willowmouse, briana, Raspy_Luv, Nicki, Meagan, UncleGob, and frederique for the lovely reviews. I am so glad to see that y'all are still interested in where this fic is going and I will to my darndest not to dissapoint you! Kuddos!