William walked in the back door of his father’s house to find his father sitting at the breakfast table reading the morning paper. Without so much as a word, he walked over to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of water and chugged it down in one swallow.
Giles took in his son’s paler than normal complexion and was instantly concerned.
“William are you all right? You look as if you’ve seen a ghost.”
William turned to his father and let out a sardonic laugh that could send chills down your spine.
“No Da, even better. Buffy’s mum,” he informed his father in an eerie tone.
Giles regarded his son for a moment before he asked, “What did she have to say?”
William took a seat at the table and looked at his father, void of emotion. “Not much. Said I should talk to Buffy.”
“So are you?” Giles asked curiously.
“No,” William stated flatly. He didn’t even have to think twice.
“William don’t you think it’s time for some sort of closure? It’s been eight years. Eight very long years and you’ve yet to file for divorce,” Giles pointed out gently.
William turned to his father with cold eyes. “She’s the one that left me. If she wants a bloody divorce then she can file for it,” he snapped and then pushed away from the table with such force it sent his chair across the room to collide with the island.
Giles flinched at his son’s enraged outburst. He knew that bringing up his son’s broken marriage would upset him, but he had no idea it would be to this magnitude. With a heavy sigh, he looked up at his son with concerned eyes.
“William I didn’t mean to upset you, it’s just that I hate to see you this way. I just want you to be happy that’s all,” Giles told him with fatherly love.
William let go of his anger and let his hurt take over. With glassy eyes, he looked down at his father and stated matter a factly, “Well Da’ I hate to say it, but I don’t think that’s ever going to happen.”
Giles felt his heart go out to his son. This was a parent’s worst nightmare. To see their child in so much pain and yet unable to do a thing about it.
“William I know it may feel that way, but it will get better,” Giles tried to soothe his son.
“Da’ if it hasn’t happened by now I doubt very seriously it ever will,” William pointed out pessimistically.
“My only suggestion is to find closure and move on with your life. You can’t change what’s already done. You just need to cut all ties and be done with it,” Giles replied in a gentle tone.
William knew his father was right. As a lawyer, he had seen this all too often. One person in the marriage wanted out and the other just couldn’t let go. He knew it wasn’t healthy to keep holding on to the only tie he had left to Buffy, but his heart just couldn’t understand what his mind had known all along. Buffy was gone.
With a heavy sigh, William nodded his head. “Your right Da’, it’s time to let go. Buffy’s not coming back and it’s about time I face the truth and truly set her free.”
Giles got up and placed a comforting hand on his son’s shoulder. “You’re a good man William, but honestly this is the best thing not only for you but for Buffy as well.”
William looked at his father with sad eyes. “If it’s the right thing to do, then why does it hurt so much?”
**************************************************************************************
Buffy sat in her limo on her ride into downtown Sunnydale in silence. She still couldn’t believe it had been eight whole years since she had last seen this place. She had tried to convince Lindsey that they should do her homecoming concert in LA, but he had insisted they come to Sunnydale. He had said something about going back to your roots or some crap like that.
“Hey Buffy, you all right?” Oz, her bass guitarist asked in his normal monotone manner.
Buffy looked up at Oz and smiled. “Sure. It’s just I haven’t been back to my home town in awhile,” she explained.
“How long has it been?” Devon, her drummer, asked as he rolled down his window to get a better look at the quaint town of Sunnydale.
“Eight years,” she replied sadly.
“Damn, that’s a long time,” Devon commented. “So you ready?”
Buffy rolled down her own window and saw the crowds of people outside the record store where they were going to be signing autographs.
“As ready as I’ll ever be,” she replied wearily as the limo pulled to a stop, letting them out to face the crowds.
**************************************************************************************
“Grandpa, why isn’t Uncle Will taking me to get my tickets?” Kennedy asked curiously.
Giles looked down at his bright-eyed granddaughter. “I’m afraid your Uncle Will is feeling a bit under the weather,” he covered. His granddaughter had no business knowing her uncle’s real problems.
“Well he seemed fine yesterday,” she pointed out knowingly as she walked out the front door.
Giles watched as Kennedy skipped off to the car. Sometimes that girl was too smart for her own good. With a shake of his head, he followed the young girl out the door to make the long drive to LA to pick up their concert tickets.
William waited till he heard the sound of his father’s compact car drive off before coming out of his room. After his conversation with his father, he felt he needed some time to himself to get his thoughts straight.
He looked at the clock and noted it was well after noon. He hadn’t had anything to eat since early yesterday evening and he was beginning to feel a bit peckish. Going in the kitchen, he pulled out the things to make a sandwich when the telephone interrupted him.
“’Ello?”
“William it’s Joyce.”
William let out a heavy sigh. “I was wondering when you might call,” he commented knowingly.
“Well you ran off so quickly this morning I didn’t get a chance to ask you how you’ve been,” Joyce replied conversationally.
“Well I could lie to you and tell you that my life for the past eight years has been great, but you and I both know I’m a shitty liar,” he replied trying to sound casual, but wasn’t able to hide all his bitterness.
Joyce felt her heart break at the hurt sound in William’s voice. She had always had a soft spot for William, even when he was a small boy.
He had been frequenting her doorstep since the young age of five when he had first met her son, Angel. They had been on the same little league team growing up and then when they had gotten to junior high and high school they played soccer together. You would have thought them to be brothers instead of best friends.
“I just wish things would have been different for the two of you,” she replied sympathetically.
“Yeah well you and I both know that Buffy had made up her mind and there was nothing I could have done to change it,” he told her knowingly. For as long as he had known Buffy she had always been so damn hardheaded.
“Oh believe me, I know for a fact how stubborn my daughter can be. As a matter of fact, she hasn’t been back to Sunnydale at all since she left,” Joyce told him.
“Well I can’t say much in that department, I’m just as guilty,” William confessed sheepishly.
“Well at least now I know you weren’t avoiding me all these years,” Joyce teased.
“You know that if I was in town that I would have more than likely stopped in to see you,”
William defended.
“You sound kind of unsure,” Joyce pointed out.
“Well to be honest, I thought you hated me,” William admitted.
“What?! God no. Why in the world would I hate you?” Joyce asked completely astounded.
“For letting her go,” William answered in a mournful tone.
“William it is NOT your fault Buffy left,” she quickly assured him. “Buffy made her own choices; you of all people should know that. She was young and confused, not that it’s any excuse, but it does seem to make it a bit easier to understand why she did the things she did,” Joyce tried to rationalize.
William let out a small chuckle. “You know for the longest time I wouldn’t let myself blame her for any of it. I told myself that it was all my fault. That if maybe I had let her have her way and stayed in the states things would have worked out for us and we would still be together today.”
“William you can’t take the blame on this. Buffy was the one that gave you the ultimatum. Buffy was the one that decided her dreams were more important than trying to save her marriage. Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter, but she was wrong in every sense of the word, and I made sure I told her that.” Joyce stated matter a factly.
To say William was surprised by Joyce’s opinion on how she felt on the whole situation was saying the very least. Here all this time he had thought Joyce had blamed him when she had put most of the blame if not all of it on Buffy.
“Joyce it’s nice to know that you stuck up for me, but I wasn’t exactly innocent either. I said some pretty harsh things before I left,” he pointed out.
“I know exactly what you said to my daughter that night in my front yard William,” Joyce assured him. “And I never said you were innocent, but I think it all could have been avoided if Buffy had been willing to compromise.”
“Well I wasn’t exactly giving her much choice now was I,” William pointed out.
“See there you go again, giving Buffy the easy way out. You have got to stop doing that. I know you love my daughter but if you don’t let yourself see that she played a part in this you will never be able to find some sort of closure,” Joyce pointed out gently.
“You sound just like my Da’,” William pointed out.
“Well your father’s a smart man,’ Joyce replied fondly.
“I think someone has a crush,” William teased.
“William don’t be ridiculous,” Joyce replied a little too quickly as she began to blush profusely.
William could practically feel her blushing over the phone. “You do realize that Buffy and I both know you and my Da’ have snogged before, right?” he asked letting out a full laugh.
“There is a very good explanation for that,” Joyce quickly explained. “We had had a few too many drinks and well one thing lead to another…” but her voice trailed off unable to finish her sentence out of sheer mortification.
William suddenly realized that Joyce thought he was talking about something TOTALLY different.
“Uh Joyce, a snog is a kiss,” he explained hesitantly.
Joyce had never been more embarrassed in her whole entire life. She had all but told her son-n-law that she had had a one-night stand with his father.
“Of course I knew what a snog was, what did you think I was talking about?” Joyce tried to cover but didn’t sound one bit convincing.
“You know what, how ‘bout we just leave it at that and NEVER talk about this ever again, sound good to you?” William asked as he cringed from the mental picture of his father and Joyce together like that.
“Sounds good,” Joyce quickly agreed. She was never going to be able to look her son-n-law in the eyes and not feel uncomfortable for as long as she lived.
They both sat there on the phone in awkward silence, unsure of what to say to the other after having talked about Joyce and Giles’ sex life.
“Well William I think I have embarrassed myself to the point that I have nothing else to say,” Joyce tried to joke to lighten the mood a bit.
“Right, well I guess I will talk to you later then?”
“When do you leave town?” Joyce asked.
“I head back to Los Angeles Sunday evening,” he informed her.
“You should come by the house then before you leave. Angel should be in town this evening for the concert and will be staying until sometime next week,” Joyce let him know.
“I’ll think about it,” William replied skeptically, feeling a set up in the works.
Joyce could sense his skepticism. “Don’t worry William, I’m not trying to trick you into seeing Buffy, although I think it would do you both a bit of good to talk,” she pointed out.
“I like how you slid that in there all covertly,” he retorted dryly.
“Well what can I say, I’m secret agent mom,” Joyce quipped.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Spike teased. She most definitely needed to work on her covertness that’s for damn sure.
“William,” Joyce warned knowing exactly what he was implying.
William let out a laugh. “I’m sorry but you set yourself up for that one.”
“Don’t think your too grown young man that the next time I see you I won’t take you over my knee,” Joyce scolded.
“Knowing you, you would definitely give it a go,” William commented knowingly. Joyce was a sweet enough woman, but God help you if you pissed her off.
“And don’t you forget it,” Joyce replied resolutely.
“Not in a million years,” William chuckled.
“William, come to the concert tonight,” Joyce asked.
Well that came out of nowhere. William didn’t know what to say. He had gotten so comfortable talking to Joyce that for a moment he let himself forget about all the bad things between him and Buffy.
“Joyce I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” he tried.
“Please William, it’ll be good for you,” she pleaded.
“My Da’ is in Los Angeles with Kennedy right now picking up their tickets from some radio station she won them from, but she only won enough for the two of them,” he pointed out hoping that it was a good enough excuse as to why he couldn’t go.
“That’s not a problem, I’ll just leave your name at the ticket booth, and you can come and sit in the section we’ll have blocked off for VIP’s,” she explained happily.
Well shit. That didn’t work out the way he had hoped at all. Now how was he going to argue as to why he couldn’t go? He knew for a fact Joyce wasn’t going to give up until he agreed to go, so he decided to save himself the headache.
“Fine I’ll go, but only if you promise not to tell Buffy I’m there before the concert,” he demanded.
“I won’t say a word.” Joyce promised. But she never said anything about making sure they just so happen to meet up afterwards.
“I mean it Joyce,” William warned.
“I promise I won’t say a word, and if you want we can even give you an alias to go by,” Joyce suggested sarcastically.
“Very funny,” he retorted dryly.
“Seriously, Buffy will be so busy before the concert that I won’t get a chance to talk to her,” she assured him.
“Well I guess I’ll see you tonight then,” he replied wearily.
“All right, I’ll keep an eye out for you, and tell your father he’s more than welcome to bring Kennedy over so she can meet the band after the concert.”
“No worries, Ken got backstage passes as well,” he informed Joyce. He didn’t quite know how to explain that Kennedy had no clue that Buffy was her aunt.
“Kennedy doesn’t know about Buffy does she,” Joyce asked knowingly.
“Not exactly,” he replied sheepishly. “Because of me, no one really talked about Buffy and if they did, they made sure not to say her name.”
“Don’t feel bad, Buffy knows Cecily had a baby, but that’s about as far as it goes. After she left the only time she really called is when something big was going on and then I knew better than to bring up anything that had to do with you,” she informed William.
“Well I don’t think tonight is the time to tell Kennedy about Buffy,” he suggested.
“You’re probably right, but I still think it would be neat for her to get a chance to meet Buffy,” Joyce replied.
“Most definitely. Buffy is her idol, so I want her to have the opportunity to meet her backstage, just not necessarily as her aunt, you know?”
“I think we can manage that,” Joyce assured him.
“Well I have some things I have to do around town before my Da’ and Kennedy get back so I’ll talk to you tonight,” William said getting off the phone.
“All right, see you tonight, bye,” Joyce said and then hung up the phone.
William stood there for a minute staring at the phone. What in the buggering hell had he just done. How had he let Joyce convince him to go to see Buffy tonight? Running his hands through his hair frustratedly, he realized he was in much need of a haircut, and a bleach job no less.
Grabbing his keys, he headed out the door. If he was going to see Buffy tonight, he was going to make sure he looked damn good doing it.
Huge thanks to gotkona (my lovely beta by the way!), DaniD, spuffette, Brat, Kimber, gg, Stine, MidnightGirl, Whitelighter354, and jenny for all the lovely reviews! I so appreciate them y'all. I don't know if I mentioned before but I was way nervous about this fic but ya'll are making it very easy to post, so much luv. Kuddos!
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Disclaimer: As I said in the begining I own nothing . All the lovely charecters from BtVS belong to their rightful owners and I am merely having a bit of fun. Enjoy! Kuddos!