Chapter 26
Three Months Later
There wasn’t a dry eye around when Xander walked out of hospital. Anya fussed around him, putting his collar straight and doing up his jacket, she offered him his walking stick, but he refused, saying he was sure he could make it a few hundred yards to the car. He held her arm and they walked slowly, Buffy and William next to them, Hailey dancing on ahead. The numbness in Xander’s legs had begun to wear off a week after the special cage was put on his head, and after minor surgery for a trapped nerve, he was perfectly better now, although he found he got tired quickly. This, the doctor told him was only to be expected, and he was to begin a fitness regime to build up his stamina. It involved walking and jogging on a treadmill if the weather was bad, or outdoors if good, cycling on a bike or machine for five miles a day, and swimming at least three times a week.
William had bought Xander a Gym pass, and got him a special personal trainer who worked with people after accidents or illness. He’s also told Xander never to worry as even if he had to sit or take to a wheelchair, there would always be a job for him at the new gallery.
ooOOoo
The three months that led up to Angel Stebson’s trial had seen him get up to all sorts of things, leading Cordelia a merry dance. There were at least four botched attempts at suicide by him, one with tablets and alcohol, but he threw up before the tablets could work. The second and third tries were with drug overdoses, the second time he tried the heroin had been cut with all sorts of rubbish resulting in a chemical imbalance in his brain.
The fourth and most serious of attempts, while trying to ‘eat his gun’ he shot himself through the cheek and blew out four teeth top and bottom. This prompted a long stay in hospital, and he was deemed mentally unfit for trial, and remanded for psychiatric reports. He was found to be criminally insane and couldn’t be charged. He was sectioned to stay at a high security psychiatric facility until he died or he was cured and was fit for trial.
ooOOoo
The insurance company informed William that as there hadn’t been a trial, as the perpetrator of the crime hadn’t been found ‘guilty by twelve of his peers’ they wouldn’t pay out on his policy. Incensed with the injustice of this, William took them to court and argued with his confession and over-whelming forensic evidence against Stebson, had it gone to trail, he would have certainly been found guilty of Arson and attempted murder. The insurance company argued that the confession was from someone who had been diagnosed as criminally insane and was worthless, but as a gesture of good will, they would pay him one million dollars, roughly one quarter of what the policy was worth. William said no to this, and the trial judge ordered the company to pay in full.
Even with the full four million dollars, William would have to find another one and a half million, building materials, and builders didn’t come cheap. The work already done clearing the site and getting it ready for building on again had cost nearly half a million alone, what with structural engineers doing tests on the walls of the other buildings either side, and of course the foundations and the parking lot had to be looked into too. The insurance trial had been in all the papers and the local news. Cordelia felt sorry for William, he was a nice man and was being made out of pocket for something that wasn’t his fault. She wrote him a cheque from the ‘overseas’ account, for two million dollars and took it to him.
At first William didn’t want it and wouldn’t take it, but she explained who she was and where the money was from. “I’m going to pay Prince Arreeza back his one million dollars too. The rest I shall just leave in the account for Angel – one or two of his pieces are selling now, notoriety I suppose. To tell you the truth, I had planned on running off with this money, but…well I’m getting married and my boyfriend has more than enough” William was stunned but pleased, it made his decision easier for him.
ooOOoo
William had asked the architect in charge of his building to make sure that the gallery was wheelchair friendly, after all, why should the disabled loose out? Not only that it was still early days for Xander and they found that going out and about with the family how difficult it could be with somebody in a wheelchair, just going for a cup of coffee could be a logistical nightmare!
Eight weeks later, the gallery was built. Modern, light and clean, with lots of glass, chrome and light wood it looked beautiful, and more importantly, William, Buffy, Xander and Anya loved it – as did Hailey. On three floors now instead of two, the top floor was a shop where posters, cards and art-related gifts could be bought, and there was also a coffee shop. This could be reached from a glass fronted ‘bullet lift’ outside the gallery, or from a normal lift from inside. Only too pleased to leave her boring low-paid office job, William made Buffy the manageress of the gift shop, and Anya ran the coffee shop, she was overjoyed that she could keep an eye her Xander, so he didn’t over-work himself. Rather than one big exhibition area on the ground floor, there was one room separated from the main, and the other part could be sectioned off too if need be. This gave a more intimate feeling for smaller pictures that tended to get swamped on a big bare wall.
It came the day of the ‘Grand Opening’ and William asked Hailey to cut the ribbon and declare the gallery open. She took the honour seriously and wrote a little speech all by herself. The local and national news came and it wasn’t only William the media wanted to talk to, he spent all morning giving interviews, so did Xander and the two ladies.
Later on that day, when the fuss had died down a little, William made an announcement and getting Buffy to hold his arm, he led everybody (including the local media and the representative from Art World magazine to outside the small exhibition room. Buffy noticed that above the room was a covered plaque on the wall. William said a few words and asked Buffy to pull the cloth off the plaque. To her astonishment the room was called ‘The Joyce Summers’ Room. It took all her will-power not to cry at this wonderful thing William had done.
William went on to explain that through Joyce’s kind gesture of letting people exhibit without charge, a few young and talented artists had been able to get their work seen without cost to them, thus allowing them to sell their work and make a proper living at it. (He didn’t however mention this was how Angel Stebson got on!)
William continued that this had been and inspiration to him, and the ‘Joyce Summers’ room would allow artists who would be nominated by their colleges or schools or Art teachers, to exhibit their work for a month to six weeks, they would be able to actually paint in there and speak to prospective buyers all without charge.
Seeing a chance for new customers, Art World magazine said they would run a feature on the nominate artists each month and sponsor them – William was thrilled.
ooOOoo
It seemed silly them keeping on two places, when William practically spent every night at Buffy’s. More of his stuff was at her place than his, and on the odd occasion they did spend the night apart, they were on the phone for hours talking about nothing, just to hear each other’s voice. The four drawings of Buffy he’d done and called ‘A Study in Blue’ and promised to get framed for her, now hung pride of place above the fireplace in the lounge.
He’d lately began to sketch her nude and Buffy woke up from lying on the bed to see him drawing her. She smiled and asked,
“Are you going to hang those at the gallery?” William smiled and replied,
“Certainly not, I can’t have all and sundry looking at my beautiful wife naked!” Buffy smiled and rested her head on her arms again, then her head shot up and said,
“Your WHAT?”
“Well now you see…I was going to cook you a special dinner, and put it in the dessert or something, I don’t know but…now’s a good a time as any…” William put down his drawing book, got down on one knee and said,
“Buffy Summers, Will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?” Out of his pocket he produced a small box, he flipped it open and Buffy’s tear-filled eyes bugged-out the size of the rock he’d got her
“I…oh William, it’s so beautiful!”
“Like you then…I know we haven’t been together all that long, but – well, I’ve never been so certain of anything in my life before, and I know it’s you I want, since the moment I first set eyes on you” Tears dripped down Buffy face and she reached up and hugged him to her.
“So…what do you say? – Going to make an honest man of me – will you be my wife?”
She let out a shriek and said,
“YES! Oh yes! Oh god William I love you so much!”
William slid the 2 carat diamond solitaire ring on her finger and Buffy couldn’t stop looking at it. She pulled his shirt out of his pants and he quickly divested himself of the rest of his clothes, slowing only to manoeuvre himself between her legs, he slowly entered her, Buffy gasped and arched her back, thrusting her hips upwards to seat him fully inside her. He waited a moment and whispered, ‘I love You Buffy’, before he too began to meet her thrusts. He captured her lips and their tongues fort a duel until passion took over and she tore her mouth to cry out long and loud as her climax washed over her like wave after wave pure pleasure. William felt the tight clench of her muscles and it triggered his own climax, her thrust up deep, gasping until he was fully spent. He gently rolled off her and they lay wrapped in each others arms.
“You know, Hailey’s going to be so excited when I ask her to be bridesmaid!”
William smiled and said,
“Well, keeping it in the family, I was going to ask Xander to be my best man”
“Anya can be an usher or something…might as well get our money’s worth!” They began to giggle.
THE END
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Dedicated to all the people who stuck with me through this one!!
Chapter End Notes:
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