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Chapter VI

Buffy re-read her letter before putting it inside the envelope and addressing it ‘William’.

She sighed dreamily as she put the envelope inside the drawer and closed it. Was it crazy to feel like this for someone she hadn’t even seen once? Maybe it was, maybe she was crazy, but she couldn’t, she wouldn’t stop it. She’d faced death every single night since she was called at fifteen and dammit, she deserved to live this dream at least.

*flashback*

“Giles, did you see my ring?” Buffy asked after sharing the umpteenth kiss of the evening with Spike.

“Thankfully, not very well,” Giles answered, before leaning back and rubbing his eyes.

She got up from Spike’s lap and went to sit beside Giles on the sofa. “I'm not crazy, and I know that you probably don't approve, and my father's not that far away, I mean, he could… but this day is about family… my real family… and I would like you to be the one to give me away.”

“Oh, Buffy! That's... that's so...” Giles began, touched by her words, before remembering what her comment was about. “Oh! For God's sake! This is nonsense. Something is making you act this way. Don't you realize what you're doing?”

Buffy smiled softly and looked back at Spike. “Living a dream.”

*end flashback*

‘Wait a minute, that hadn’t been living a dream, that had been living a nightmare!’ she tried to convince herself, but her heart—that had increased its rhythm with the memory—didn’t seem to agree with her mind. And finally also her mind surrendered to her heart’s opinion. That had been a dream. End of the (inner) speech.

She sighed again, why couldn’t she forget about Spike and that day? The memories continued to come back to her over and over and in the most inconvenient times, too. Even now when she was feeling all this wonderful new things for William she still couldn’t forget about Spike and his kisses, his caresses, how well they seemed to fit together… Nope, not going there again. Argh! Why the hell couldn’t she forget? ‘Maybe because you don’t want to forget?’ a little voice inside her asked and just as she was thinking how could she answer that, she heard her mother’s car parking outside.

‘Perfect, just the person I was waiting for. I’ll really go crazy if I don’t have anyone with whom I can talk about William and mostly I’ll go crazy if I don’t take my mind off those damned memories! And knowing how romantic my mom is, I’m sure she’ll love William as much as I’m starting to.’

* ~ * ~ *

Joyce entered her house, startled when she saw Buffy waiting for her sitting on the stairs. “Hi, honey, I thought you were going back to the dorm tonight?”

“Yeah, I was, but then I decided to stay here.”

“Ah, of course, and I imagine it has nothing to do with certain desk that you seemed very attached to?” she said coyly.

“No, it’s just that it’s closer to the cemeteries Spike and I will patrol in tonight.” Buffy rolled her eyes.

“Really? William is patrolling with you tonight? Does that mean that his house arrest has been lifted?

“Oh, please, mom, as if you had any doubt it will, after the threat you issued I just had to get him out.” Buffy noticed that her mother was studying her and began to feel self-conscious. “What?”

“Are you going to patrol dressed like that?” the woman said, pointing at the very old and torn blue jeans and the plain T-shirt she was wearing.

“What’s wrong with the way I’m dressed?” the blonde wondered, a hint of uncertainty in her voice.

“Well, honey, you can look much better than this. After all, tonight you will be patrolling with a guy, and this way it seems that you don’t care...”

“Okay, let me clear up a pair of things to you. First, it’s patrol, not a date. Second, it’s Spike, not a guy. And for the record, it doesn’t just seem like I don’t care, I really don’t!” Buffy answered, but somehow she hadn’t sounded as resolute as she’d wanted.

Which was painfully obvious by the fact that Joyce kept staring at her in disbelief.

“Mom, do you think that my black pants with the nice new green shirt I bought last week will be better?” she wondered, not believing she was doing this for real.

“That’s my daughter!” Joyce smiled fondly, nodding in total agreement.

‘Oh my! I went to Giles’ house dressed like this before!’ the girl thought alarmed. ‘So what? Who cares? I could have gone there even naked… uh, no... bad, terribly bad idea...’ She shook her head, trying to make the hot consequences that that could have brought and that she was picturing in her mind go away. Somehow in those images there was no Giles, only Spike and her and…

“So…where’s William living now?”

Once again, Buffy was thankful to Joyce for bringing her back to reality.

“Huh? Well, Spike found a crypt at Restfield Cemetery,” Buffy corrected her mother. She really didn’t like that name to be associated to the unbearable vampire. She wondered why but that gave her an odd tingly feeling.

“A crypt?” Joyce repeated, almost horrified by the idea.

“And before you get any crazy ideas of bringing him here, I’ll tell you that he’s quite happy with it.”

“Hmph, so you say.”

“Really, mom, it’s not such a bad place. It even has a lower level and he has all these ideas of how to fix it. It’s a five stars crypt, compared to the other crypts we saw it’s like a loft in the most expensive street in town!” she added, in order to persuade her mother.

“Okay, I’ll believe you…for now.” She frowned. “B-but isn’t he in danger there? Remember he can’t fight anyone.”

“Oh, I guess you should have worried about that before threatening your only daughter.” She smiled evilly before continuing, “But you shouldn’t worry about that, we discovered yesterday at patrol that Spike can fight demons. It’s just humans he can’t hurt.”

“Well, that’s a relief. I wouldn’t want anything bad happening to William.”

Buffy rolled her eyes after hearing that name again, but then decided to let it go. After all she knew that it was a lost battle.

“Speaking of William’s, I have something to show you.” Buffy handed her mother the two envelopes that contained William’s letters and his poem.

Joyce looked at her, curiosity drawn in her face, but instead of asking Buffy what was inside, she sat on the staircase beside her and took the first letter out of the envelope and began reading.

* ~ * ~ *

London, December 7th, 1880

William felt the anxiousness creeping upon his skin as never before as he opened for what had to be the hundredth time just in the last hour the secret drawer where he’d found Elizabeth’s letter. And still nothing!

“Bloody hell!” he exclaimed as he caught his thumb in the drawer in his hastiness to close it. His eyes widened as he covered his mouth with his hand, surprised by his bluntness and thanked his lucky stars that his mother wasn’t there to listen him. If it had been such a shock for him, he could only imagine how she would react.

Where had that come from? And as long as he was asking himself that, he might also ask when had he turned into the impatient, less introverted and a whole lot more confident person that currently inhabited his body, because he hardly recognized who he was turning into anymore. He’d always taken pride on his patience and now it seemed he couldn’t be still for more than a few minutes in a row. Now the confidence thing was a definite improvement though, maybe knowing that someone could care for him and his words as Elizabeth seemed to do was what did it?

And his mother had noticed this change, too. She hadn’t said anything to him yet, but he could tell by the way she looked at him during dinner that she was just waiting for the opportunity to talk to him about it.

He opened the drawer again pleased when he finally found what he’d been waiting for. He held his breath as he took the letter out of the drawer and opened the envelope, exhaling a relieved sigh when he began reading.

‘My dear William,

You have no idea how astonished I was when I opened the secret panel again and found your letter inside the drawer, instead of mine. This is the kind of thing that only happens in fables, the ones with charming princes, damsels in distress, dragons, fairies and every sort of spells, just like the ones my mom used to read to me when I was just a little girl.

So now it seems that thanks to a mysterious desk we both own, this lonely Princess from the future can communicate with you, my charming Prince from the past, who already owns a piece of my heart... and I don’t even know who you are or how you look like! But I’m pretty sure that if you are even half as beautiful as what you write... my oh my, you must be gorgeous!

Anyway, I think that whatever there is going on between you and me is beyond the superficial physical aspect and stuff like that. It’s a bounding of souls, our souls, and I have the feeling that it’s going to increase with every letter we exchange. And I am more than willing to let it happen.

Believe me, the life I’ve led has helped me understand that anything is possible, good or bad stuff, although in my experience it’s been mostly bad. And that’s why it’s so amazing for me to finally be able to believe in something so marvellous, captivating and unique.

I guess after all I wrote you can already imagine what my answer to your question if I could be that special lady is, but if there is any doubt, it’s a resounding YES!

Can’t wait until your next letter arrives.

Yours, Elizabeth ’

“Yours, Elizabeth,” William repeated, savoring those two words in his mouth. “Mine. Yes, even if it’s just through our letters, that’s what you are.”

He was about to take some paper from the upper drawer when he heard a knock on his door. “Come in,” he said.

“William, are you all right?” his mother asked as soon as she entered the room.

“Yes, Mother, I am, in fact I don’t think I’ve ever felt better in my life.” He smiled at her. “Why?”

“Hmm, well, since you didn’t go to the Addams’ party, I thought you might be ill,” she said, still not fully convinced that her son was as well as he said. “Why didn’t you go if you aren’t sick, did they do anything bad to you?”

“No, Mother, I just felt like staying home today,” he replied.

“I just thought that…never mind, Son, have a good night.” Anne moved towards her son and gave him a kiss on his forehead.

He took a deep breath after she began walking back to the door. ‘Should I tell her? Maybe not everything, but a little bit?’ he wondered, deciding that it was the right thing to do.

“Mother?”

“Yes, darling?” She turned back to face him.

William cleared his throat. “Hmm, do you believe in destiny?”

“Yes, I do.” She smiled warmly at him. “Why?”

“I’ve met a girl.” He blushed at his mother’s hopeful expression. “Well, not exactly met her, but…” he rattled his mind thinking of how to tell her about Elizabeth, how much was too much?

“Hmm, you see…Ralph Matthews, you remember him?” She nodded; he was one of William’s best friends in College and lived in the Highlands in Scotland. “He has a cousin, Elizabeth, and h-he thought it would be a good idea if we corresponded. He thought we might…eh, like each other and well, even if we’ve just met through our letters, I-I feel like she could be the one.”

“The one?” Anne asked, more than a little curious over this mysterious girl that seemed to have captured her son’s attention so quickly.

Although all she knew about Elizabeth so far were her name and who her cousin was, Anne was already thankful to her because it seemed that corresponding with her had been more than enough incentive to keep her beloved son far away from Cecily Addams and the bad, very bad things that she was sure that that spoiled and unpleasant girl would eventually bring him with her unbearable attitude.

She’d never liked when William read her the poems he’d written for that girl, not because the poems were bad, because for her he was the best writer in the world, but because she knew they wouldn’t be received as he hoped they would be.

“Yes, the one woman that I could fall deeply in love with, even if we might never meet in person,” he added, his expression saddened. “But that isn’t the important part, the important part is that she feels the same way about me. She said that my poetry was beautiful and that my words are heartfelt a-and…”

“And I already love her for that,” Anne replied, her eyes full of happy tears. She’d prayed so long for her William to find someone like this Elizabeth girl, someone who was able to see how worthy he was and how much love he could give to someone willing to receive it, and it seemed her prayers had finally been answered.

* ~ * ~ *

Sunnydale, December 7th, 1999

“Oh, darling, these letters and the poem are just so romantic,” Joyce said, wiping a few tears that had rolled down her cheeks as she read.

“Yes, they sure are.” Buffy sighed dreamily. “I never dreamt that I’d meet someone like William. Well, not meet meet, but you know what I mean.”

Joyce turned towards her daughter with a frown in her face. “Buffy, you do realize that nothing can come out of this, don't you? I mean, I understand how you could be…hmm, crushing on someone as William Pratt, but he lives in the past, darling, and although I’ve seen many weird things happening since we live in Sunnydale, well, I think you should focus your attention on someone that's a little more...hmm, I don't know...available? Someone as our William, perhaps?”

“Our William? He might be your…eh, no, not yours, either, because that’s just ewww. Anyway, I don’t understand why you’re so fond of Spike. Have you not heard me going over and over all the times he’s tried to kill me?”

“Yes, I have, but it’s not like you haven’t tried to do the same before. And really Buffy, how many love stories have begun with two people who apparently couldn’t stand each other?” she made her notice.

“Well, Spike and I used to try to kill each other, I guess that’s slightly different from not standing each other!” she pointed out.

“Instead, for me it’s exactly the same thing, and I can guarantee that if you gave William half a chance he might surprise you.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure, he would surprise me to death, maybe.”

“Okay, since it seems we will never agree on this, so let’s talk about something else.” Joyce said resigned. “So… you said that you found the letters in the desk?” Buffy nodded. “That’s strange; don’t you think that maybe you should tell Mr. Giles about this?”

“I was thinking the same thing. I’ll go over to his house before meeting Spike for patrol.”

“Don’t you have something to do before leaving?” Joyce wondered expectantly.

“I guess I have to change my clothes, right?” she rolled her eyes, getting up from the staircase.

“That sounds great, honey. Oh, can you tell William if maybe he can go to the gallery tomorrow?”

“Why?” Buffy asked, as she headed towards her room, suspicious of her mother’s motives.

“Well, it’s not of your business, young lady, but I want to give him a few pieces of furniture I’ve had in storage for a while now. Even if he’ll be living in a crypt, it doesn’t need to look like one, you know?”

“Yeah, okay. I’ll tell him, otherwise you might threaten me with taking the desk away again,” she half-joked, disappearing in her room and coming back a quarter of an hour after, wearing the outfit she had previously planned.

“It makes me happy to realize I have such a smart daughter,” Joyce said, smiling evilly. “And you look so beautiful, as soon as William sees you, he...”

“O-kay. I think I better go to Giles’ house before this conversation turns even weirder than it is now,” she said, walking to the front door. “I’ll try not to make too much noise when I come back, mom.” And after throwing her mom a kiss, she left.

But deep inside, she was glad that she looked beautiful with that outfit. Hopefully someone else would think so too, and that someone was definitely not her Watcher, of course!

tbc





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