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Author's Chapter Notes:
So how did I go with the whole 'intriguing chapter title' thing? : ) I hope you enjoy. Please review!
Chapter Six

“Hello?”

“Hey Buffy. It’s Will.”

“Hey! How are you?”

“Great. And yourself?”

“Oh, peachy with a side of keen. That’s me.”

She heard William chuckle on the other end of the line. “What?”

“Nothing pet. That’s just a Buffyism I haven’t heard in a long time.”

Buffy smiled, grateful that he couldn’t see her blush.

“So I’m getting off work in an hour and I was wondering if you’d like to join me for dinner.”

Her smile widened as she twirled the phone cord between her fingers. “I’d love to.”

**********

Buffy looked up nervously from her menu. William had taken her to a lovely little Italian restaurant just a few doors down from the bookstore where he worked. The whole street was full of an odd collection of shops, cafés and restaurants and the area teemed with people enjoying their Friday night out.

“Everything okay love?”

Buffy jerked her eyes back to William’s concerned face and she nodded quickly. “Yeah, I just…haven’t been around this many people since I got back. So I guess I haven’t been around this many people in over six years…as my mother would be quick to point out.”

“Problems at home?”

“I just know that she’s scared I’ll go away again. I’m trying to reassure her, make her feel more at ease but…it’s not easy.”

William’s head tilted to the left as he looked at her. “Have you been out of the house at all since I saw you last week?”

Buffy shrugged dismally. “Mom took me to see my doctor on Tuesday and Thursday.”

“Oh that would have been a laugh riot.”

“Yeah. You could say that.”

“Did she have a problem with you coming out with me tonight?”

“Well, I think she considers you an adequate Buffy-sitter. But…” Cringing with embarrassment Buffy opened her purse and pulled out a small mobile phone. “I’ve been instructed to carry this at all times and answer promptly when it rings. Plus she drove me here and dropped me directly outside the front door of the bookstore.”

William smiled sympathetically. “Yikes.”

“Yeah.” Buffy laughed. “I put my foot down when she tried to give me a curfew.”

“That settles it. You need to have some fun.” William indicated the wine list on the table. “How about we start by ordering a bottle of wine?”

Buffy nodded emphatically. “Yes please.”

He handed her the wine list with a flourish. “Ladies choice. Anything you feel like pet.”

Looking through the list Buffy bit her bottom lip, unsure what to choose.

“If you’d prefer I can choose,” William said quietly, sensing her hesitation.

Buffy glanced up at him, still holding the list tightly. “When I lived in LA…before…I only tried wine once. At a Christmas party my parents held. I remember…a couple of years ago I complained to Willow that all wine tasted the same to me.” She shook her head in amazement. “Now I know why. All wine tasted like the only wine I’d ever actually had.” The words on the list in front of her blurred as her eyes filled with tears.

She felt a warm hand on hers and looked up to see William smiling at her warmly. “In that case it’s time to experiment. Let’s order a different wine by the glass with each course and then we can see what you like.”

Immediately comforted by his practical suggestion, Buffy smiled coyly. “Are you trying to get me drunk sir?”

William waggled his eyebrows in a Spike-like move that made her breath catch. “Hell yeah. I want to see how fast I can corrupt you.”

**********

“And you never thought about going back to England?”

William shrugged. “Not really. I might not have been too impressed when my parents moved me here but, after a while, it grew on me. My parents are still here, I have friends, a job I enjoy. I’m part of the local writing community and I’m trying to further my career.” William gave a contented sigh. “I have a good life here. There’s no reason for me to go back.”

“Did you always want to be a writer?”

“Not always. I always loved to write but it wasn’t until I was almost finished high school that I realised I could make money doing it. In fact, you suggested it.”

Delighted surprise lit her eyes. “I did?”

Grinning, William lifted his glass to her in salute before drinking. “Yep.”

Buffy nodded in approval of her own actions. “Yay me.” Turning serious she added, “It must be nice to do something that you love.”

“Yeah, it is,” William agreed readily. “Of course, it would help it that something paid the bills.”

Buffy laughed, picking up her wine glass to sip the smooth dark liquid. It was delicious; and not like anything she’d ever tasted before.

“What about you love?” William asked suddenly. “What are you going to do with yourself now that you’re back?”

Buffy shrugged a little dejectedly. “I have no idea,” she admitted. “At least in Sunnydale I had been to college for a couple of semesters. Here I haven’t even finished high school.” She rolled her eyes, cringing. “God, when I think of all the stress I went through trying to fight evil and pass finals at the same time. Now I have nothing to show for it.”

“Well, there’s a community college that teaches classes for adults wanting their high school diploma. We carry some of the text books at the store. If you wanted to graduate you could probably do it at night in under a year.”

“I suppose,” Buffy murmured, considering the suggestion. “That would just leave the matter of getting a job. I do not want to live with my parents forever.” Buffy fiddled with the stem of her wine glass. “I love them…I do. But I miss my independence, you know?”

William nodded. “Absolutely. I couldn’t even imagine living with my parents again now that I’ve been out on my own.”

“Exactly.”

“There’s more,” William murmured, noticing the sadness in Buffy’s eyes. “Tell me?”

She smiled a little at his perceptiveness. “Sometimes I think about living out on my own and I want that but…it would be so different this time. I would be…alone.”

For a moment William was unsure what she meant but then it clicked. “You wouldn’t have Dawn,” he said quietly.

At the sound of her sister’s name Buffy drained her wine glass. When that was done she stared at the empty glass as if it held the answer to the troubles of the world. “When Mom died I was forced to become responsible and independent but…I was never alone. I had to become the mother; I had to take care of her. Now when I think about becoming my own person…I can’t imagine not having that responsibility. I wonder if I’ll be lonely.”

They sat in silence for a moment, then William reached out to brush her fingers with his. “You wish you could see her again don’t you?”

Buffy smiled as Dawn’s face, looking every bit the petulant teenager, appeared in her mind. “Every day,” she whispered, finally raising her eyes to William’s once again. “I dream about her every night. About all of them actually.” She quickly swiped at a tear that threatened to fall. “Dawn was so scared that I didn’t want to be with her after Willow brought me back to life.” She gave a harsh bark of laughter. “If only she could see me now.”

“I think she can see you,” William affirmed, clasping her hand tightly. “She would want you to be happy.”

Sniffing, Buffy frowned at William. “Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Talk about them as if they were real people. I’ve had people barraging me with the fact that they were figments of my imagination since I woke up. But you talk as if I just packed up and moved here from Sunnydale. I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I,” William interjected. “But for all those years they were as real to you as I am now. Who the hell am I to say they weren’t real?” He shrugged, draining his own wine glass in one long swallow. “There are things in this world that can’t be explained by anyone Buffy. As far as I’m concerned your Sunnydale is one of them.”

Buffy looked at him askance. “So you aren’t just humouring me or anything? Cause that would be patronising you know.”

William chuckled. “If I were patronising you you’d know pet. I just can’t seem to help but think of them all as real people, even though I don’t really know what they looked like or sounded like.”

“So then why do you hate Spike so much?” Buffy blurted out, surprising them both with her question. More hesitantly she added, “Given that I based him on you after all.”

William just stared at her for the longest time. She thought she saw a deep hurt in his eyes, buried beneath the usual hardness that appeared whenever she mentioned his alter-ego. She squirmed uncomfortably in her chair, wondering if she should just change the topic. Then he finally spoke.

“Given that you based him on me,” William said slowly, his voice rough with some unexpressed emotion. “Maybe the question you should be asking is…why did you hate him so much?”





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