Chapter 13
A baby’s life sure is boring isn’t it? William pondered in his mind for he had just spent the last few days of the week stuck inside his house either on the courtyard or inside Prudence room trying to entertain her before she got tired and fall into a deep and long slumber. Which during those times he didn’t know what to do with himself. He hasn’t brought any work with him from the office nor had he asked Faith to bring over anything because he wanted to spend every moment with his little princess. But apparently he didn’t thought of the lull that was when his little princess was resting her eyes.
He tried to follow Buffy around, see what the rest of the household staff does when he’s not in. Well apparently they don’t really do much, just some tidying, a little laundry and some chatting over a cup of coffee or tea. He then realized that he maybe he paid them too much. Nah… he realized he couldn’t possibly risk them not being here because for one thing he didn’t want to take over their job of doing absolutely nothing. Sure at the office he didn’t have anything much to do either but at least he can rely on the fact that the rest of his staff was working their butt off for him. He laughed inwardly at that thought.
And right now he was on his way out the door, ready to get back into the office and sit around there doing practically nothing. As he prepared to descend the steps, he saw Buffy and Prudence coming from the other wing of the house.
“She woke up early, probably wanted to see her daddy off…” Buffy was walking down the hallway, wanting to make her way downstairs and prepare her charge’s breakfast. She had woken up early that morning, at least earlier than she usually does.
Today was William’s first day back to work. She wouldn’t admit it to anybody, but she was going to miss him being around like he had done the past few days. As much as she hated to admit it, she had fun. Sure it wasn’t really the most romantic thing a guy could do to sweep you off your feet and ride you up their white horse. But he did make an effort, an effort to spend time with her and with Prudence too at the same time. She can’t help but think that it was better than anything a potential suitor could have done for her. ‘Whoa you’re thinking of him as a suitor now?’
What better word to use right? What would you call him exactly aside from being her boss? But she didn’t want to think of that right now. She had felt things she didn’t know the name of. Maybe he was right; they did have passion… and something else. She could definitely agree with him on that one, they did have something. She just didn’t know what it was and honestly she thought she was better off not knowing. ‘You’re in for it now, Summers.’
“Well isn’t that sweet of my princess?” William met them half-way as he scooped Prue off Buffy’s arm and made his way down the steps. “You’re gonna miss Daddy aren’t you?” he asked her and she responded much in her own manner.
“Dada! Dada!” she exclaimed as she bounced up and down in his arms.
“That’s fast becoming her favorite word isn’t it?” William asked Buffy not taking his eyes off his little girl. Prue was beaming up at him, oblivious to the world around her. How he wished he could live such a life too.
“Dada! Dada!” she responded yet again.
“Well you are my favorite girl,” he told her and he can’t help but feel that he meant every single word. It was only this past few weeks did he slowly realized that Prue wasn’t a burden for him as he first thought. She wasn’t a terrible memory of his wife that he had to see everyday. Instead or moreover she was the only thing he had left of Dru. She was the only one he had much as he was the only one she had. This little girl knew nothing but adore him despite of his many shortcomings and he’s not going to be the one to ruin that image she had placed in her mind about her own father. He wouldn’t let her down.
“You’ll be good for Miss Buffy now won’t you sweetheart? Make daddy proud.” William smiled back at her beaming face promising just that as they reached the bottom of the step kissing the tip of Prue’s nose.
She scrunched it up making a disgusting face which made William laugh heartedly as he nuzzled her tummy and placed her back into Buffy’s care.
“If you need anything… anything at all… anything happens, you know where to reach me, luv.” He reminded her as he kissed the top of Prue’s head before making his way to the door.
“Don’t I get a kiss?” Buffy asked from the foot of the stairs pout perfectly intact on her lips.
William turned back eyebrow raised in her direction. She blinked her perfectly green eyes, and oh that lip, that lip will be the death of him as he approached her and effectively upturned that pout into a breathless smile.
“You’re gonna get more than a kiss, pet… later,” he winked, letting the door shut behind him leaving Buffy completely flushed.
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“So how was the other night?” Willow was sitting on the kitchen island folding laundry with Buffy in front of her feeding Prue her mashed vegetables. William was already gone; Joyce and Giles went out to do some grocery so it was just the two cousins inside the house with Prudence.
Willow knew that she and Buffy have been lacking in girl-time and she was determined to change that by talking about the other night when William had asked them to have a day off, which they don’t normally get, so that’s got to mean that something happened and she wanted the first scope.
“Other night?” Buffy fed Prue with a spoonful of carrots which seemed to have just smeared on the outside of her mouth.
“You know, last weekend.”
“Oh… that other night…” Willow raised her eyebrow, asking her to elaborate on the matter. “Well, we had dinner. William tried to cook, it was terrible.” Buffy shook her head on the memory. “We ended up ordering in and then you know just talking… and then some.” She beamed at that almost forgetting to feed the hungry infant beside her.
“So you two are together then?”
“Together?” Buffy shivered at that, “I don’t think together is really the term you can use for the both of us… I mean it’s not official or anything… I don’t know…” Buffy rose from her seat and made a big gesture of walking over to the sink bringing the bowl and utensils in with her to wash up. “You think we are?”
Willow smiled shaking her head. How can her cousin think for even one second that she and William were not official? The only thing missing was a big parade announcing that William loved Buffy. It was pretty obvious to the whole household the change in the relationship of the two. It couldn’t possibly be denied but instead of replying Willow kept silent carrying the finished folded laundry out. Buffy didn’t need her to tell her what she already knew, she just have to find it in herself to admit it.
“What..? You didn’t answer the question… Willow!” Suddenly the doorbell rang, “Oh, who could that be?” Before getting the door Buffy looked over at Prue she was sitting in her highchair playing with her spoon, she smiled at her before leaving her and getting the door.
“Oh hello!” Buffy swung the door open to reveal a blonde accompanied by two men, one carrying a briefcase and one who just had a scowl look on his face “Who might you be looking for?”
“Oh dear, you don’t know us?” The blonde one asked as they pushed their way inside the house. Buffy could say that they looked vaguely familiar yet she can’t quite put her finger on it.
“Umm… I don’t think so, am I suppose to?”
“I’m Darla… this is Lindsay and this nice gentleman here is Mr. Burnett he’s the examiner,” she said the last part in a whisper.
“Umm…” Buffy stuttered, she had the urge to call for Willow but luckily the redhead decided to bound down the stairs that exact moment.
“Oh, hello Mr. and Mrs. McDonald and…” she trailed off she glanced at the man in the suit holding a briefcase at hand. “How nice to see you. Sir William didn’t mention you were coming over today.”
“Oh he didn’t know we were visiting… we just wanted to see Prudence if that’s okay.”
“Of course it is, Mrs. McDonald” Willow replied quickly. “Oh by the way, you know Buffy right? She’s Prue’s nanny. Buffy this is Prue’s grandparents.”
Buffy still had a confused looked on her face as if trying to figure something out. “We’re the in-laws,” Darla interjected.
Buffy simply nodded her head that was why they looked so familiar, they were the one she saw with William at that benefit. And by the looks of how Willow acted with them and the way Cordelia have mentioned them to her before, she can conclude that William wasn’t their most favorite person in the world.
Having that sorted, she only had one question, ‘What the hell was an examiner?’
“So can we see our granddaughter?” Before neither of them could reply there was a crash from the kitchen.
“Oh my God!” Buffy ran to the kitchen, swinging the doors open. The highchair that once stood by the kitchen island was toppled over. Buffy’s mind raced. ‘Where’s Prue?’.
“What happened here?” Darla came in with Lindsay, Willow and Mr. Burnett tailing behind her. “You left the baby alone?” she concluded seeing the toppled over highchair.
“Well…” Buffy rounded the corner. Astound look on her face as she saw her charge.
“What is-“ Willow came over to Buffy and was cut short by the image in front of her.
“What happened?” Darla asked concerned as she walked over to the two.
“Prue’s walking…” Buffy was speechless, seemingly proud of the little girl. She had caused her heart jump up to her throat by falling over the highchair but she was walking! She was walking! She couldn’t have been more proud. “Prudence, sweetheart… come here.” And with that Prue followed holding on to the island for support as she wobbly made her way to Buffy throwing herself in her nanny’s arm.
“She walked!” Willow exclaimed as if only noticing for the first time. “She walked!” she turned her head towards their guest, announcing her discovery.
“Yes, we can see that.” Darla had a warm proud smile on her lips. Even the examiner seemed to be glad about the little girl’s accomplishment.
“But you left her all alone… in the kitchen nonetheless?” Lindsay interjected disapprovingly. “I don’t think that was a very safe thing to do, don’t you think?” she turned to the examiner, who simply nodded in agreement. “There are a lot of dangerous items she could have hurt herself with. You shouldn’t be leaving a baby alone in a kitchen; you shouldn’t leave a baby alone at all.”
“But… I was just going to get the door…” Buffy explained as Prue laid her head in her shoulders seemingly tired over her recent activity.
“Nonetheless. A lot could have happen in the couple of minutes that you were gone. Isn’t your charge’s safety supposed to be your top priority?”
Buffy couldn’t get a word in, not even to explain herself or anything, all she could do was stand there and take in all of Lindsay’s nagging.
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William walked out of his study, frustrated with himself. He had come back from the office because he had left his portfolio at home. And now he was rushing because he was late for a meeting. As he walked passed the staircases, he heard sounds coming from the kitchen. Curious on what was happening, and a little part of him wanting to see Buffy again before he left for the second time, he walked in on his father-in-law arguing with Buffy about leaving Prue alone.
He coughed to make his presence known, “What’s going on here?” he asked from behind them. Lindsay was the first one to spin around to face him. He and Buffy’s eyes met, she was looking at him as if asking for something and he just smiled at her in reply.
“What’s going on here is that you have an incompetent nanny! She left Prue all alone in the kitchen, the girl toppled over her seat.”
“Is she okay?” was the first thing William asked after hearing the incident. He couldn’t believe that through the course of a few months his priorities have shifted from work to his little girl.
“She’s fine.” Darla tried to make ease of the situation. She knew Lindsay was overreacting, finding a way to spite William. “Not a scratch.”
“She walked…” Willow added.
William looked at Buffy, Prue sleeping in her arms, “She walked…?” he asked in an astounded voice. He had missed his princess’s first step.
Buffy nodded her head in reply, understanding the overwhelming feeling of both astonishment and pride William felt.
“That’s all nice and everything but we have more pressing matters to attend to.” Lindsay butted in. “Betty over here can’t even keep her own charge safe. What kind of nanny did you hire, William? The one who was suppose to care for the well being of your daughter.”
“I just left her for a little while…”
“Even so…”
Darla looked at her watch, “We’d love to stay and chat but we’re gonna be late for an appointment.” She excused themselves before her husband created a big commotion. “We’d visit Prue another time.” She smiled pulling Lindsay and Mr. Burnett with her. “We’ll let ourselves out.”
“Yeah…” William nodded his head, still a bit disoriented with the exchange that happened before him. But he didn’t really have the time to talk it out with Buffy and Willow. Prudence was all right, they could discuss everything else when he got back later that night, he was already late for a meeting as it was. “I need to get back to work…”
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Buffy stood in front of the hard wooden door, mind debating on the next action to take. She had never thought choosing to go into a room could be this hard. She had just finished tucking Prue into bed, when she decided to see what William was doing. She couldn’t help but feel bad all day, as if she had done something wrong. As selfish as it sounds, she had wanted him to tell her it was all okay, that everything would be fine, but he didn’t. He just left and that left her wondering what he thought of the situation. She knew she was blowing it out of proportion just like William’s father-in-law had done but something didn’t seem right, even before she came into their lives, and she had a feeling that she made it all worse today.
Finally, after taking a deep breath and thinking of all the possible scenarios that could happen behind that door, she knocked on it. When she heard William beckoned her to enter, she turned the knob and pushed the door slightly open and peek her head inside.
“Hello…” she quite shyly, still mostly concealed by the door.
“Hey,” William was sitting in bed, a book perched on his lap. As soon as he saw who was at his door, he dropped the book placing it on the night stand. He motioned her to come in; as she did he noticed that she was merely standing a few inches away from the door, hands in front of her. He tried to smile at her warmly but she didn’t seem to be looking her way. He sat up from bed and let himself sit limply on the edge of it, legs dangling onto the floor. “Buffy,” he called to her, and she raised her head just a bit, “Come here,” he invited her, opening his arms out.
She slowly made her way to him and as soon as she got near, William grabbed her and placed his hands on her hips so that she was standing in front of him. “Is something wrong?”
“You tell me…” she answered and William immediately felt the need to pull her in closer. His mind was mentally counting off anything that he could have done wrong to her to make her act the way she was. He thought they have been doing fabulous since last week. He thought she finally understood that they had something special. He could kill himself if he did something to blow it up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he finally gave up, knowing it was probably best that she tell him exactly what it was they were dealing with. “You have to give me some kind of clue here, luv.” He rested his head on her stomach, nuzzling it. He was already trying to lessen the blow by being extra sweet. Maybe she’d spare him a little; it’s known to work on some women. And he immediately knew that she was one of those when she started ruffling his hair affectionately.
“You’re not mad at me?” she asked quite skeptically, as if thing weren’t supposed to be like this.
“About what?” he mumbled from his spot on her tummy, enjoying the feel of her hands playing idly with his hair.
“Prue…”
“What about Prue?” he looked up at her and pulled her to seat on his lap, arms encircling her waist. “The walking bit was spectacular. Why would I be mad at that?”
“Not the walking thing…” she grew bold as she rested her hands on top of his shoulders, reaching behind his head, playing with the hairs at the back of his neck. “The leaving her all alone in the kitchen thing,” she bit her lip unsurely.
“Well…” William trailed off; he didn’t really know how he was supposed to respond. So that was what had her all in a twist. It was adorable if you think of it, Buffy was all worried because she thought she had done something to spite him. It only showed that they were progressing in their relationship.
“I didn’t mean to do it…”
“I’m sure you didn’t,” he squeezed her tighter for assurance. She must have felt terrible; he knew from experience how Lindsay could get you down with just a bit of nagging.
But Buffy had continued as if nothing had interrupted her, “In the back of my mind I knew I probably shouldn’t have left her alone but the doorbell was chiming and no one was answering it. And I know it’s not an excuse-“
“Hey,” he held on to her shoulders, effectively holding her still and stopped her from babbling. “You don’t need to explain to me,” Buffy made a move to continue but he silenced her with a chaste kiss on the lips. “I know you didn’t mean it…” he kissed the side of her lips, “Nothing major happened…” he kissed the side of her neck. “All’s good and well,” he rested his head on the swell of her breast nuzzling the flesh.
“William,” Buffy moaned as if it were a bad word, all worries were out of her mind. ‘All’s good and well’ he said and she let herself believe it.
“So what’s an examiner?”
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“Bloody Hell!”
‘What did I do?’ Buffy asked herself as he saw William paced in front of her. She wanted herself sitting on his lap again. When she had asked him what an examiner was he went into a list of questions, bombarding her with details about the earlier happenings when he just said that everything was okay. Apparently not all’s good and well.
“Hey,” she held on to his upper arm, preventing him from pacing, “What is it?”
“Nothing…” was his reply, pulling his arm from her grasp, making his way to the door. “I need to call Angel.”
If he needed to call Angel, that can’t be good, Buffy thought as she tried to follow him down the steps and into the study. She had much shorter legs than he did and he was using that to his advantage as Buffy tried to catch up behind him. “What’s do you mean it’s nothing, you’re all riled up. It’s got to be something.” She insisted as she watched him disappear into the hall just as she made her first step down the stairs. But William didn’t seem to hear anything, continually walking until Buffy heard the door of the study slam shut.
By the time she had caught up with him, he had already placed the phone back on its rack, leaning against his desk for support.
“What did he say?” Buffy asked as she stood in the middle of the large room, for the first time she had felt so small and insignificant in front of William. As if her presence didn’t matter at all because he wasn’t really looking at her. Even when they hated each other at least he had shouted and scolded at her but now it was just silence that was between them.
“Nothing,” was his whispered reply; he even sounded as if she shouldn’t have been asking the question, aggravated that he even had to answer. He walked past her not even bothering to acknowledge her.
“William!” she called following behind him, “Would you stop running away from me? I want to know what’s happening!”
William swiftly turned around, “You want to know what’s happening?” he challenged. Buffy reluctantly nodded her head under his gaze. “Fine.” he huffed, “An examiner is a bloody ponce who comes into my life and decided whether I’m good enough to hold custody over my own daughter. That good enough of an answer for you?! ” He stormed up the stairs leaving Buffy astonished about a second taking in the information before she recovered.
“What do you mean custody of your daughter?” she asked helplessly, following behind his steps.
“You bloody well know what I mean.”
“But who’s trying to take her away, Social services?”
William scoffed, “I wished it was that simple, pet.”
“But they can’t do that…”
“They already are…”
“You’re her father…” she tried to reason. Surely they can’t take you away from your own parent?
“But that’s the problem! I am her father!” William felt frustrated and angry with himself. He told himself that he wouldn’t blame himself in this whole charade but he couldn’t help it right now. It really was his entire fault. If he weren’t Prue’s father then none of these would be happening. His in-laws would be most pleased with their other son-in-law who wasn’t such a disappointment. Hell, Dru might still be alive if it wasn’t for him.
“Okay…” Buffy replied unsurely, William seemed to be really pissed off, something she hasn’t seen. Sometime before he was mad at her but never like this and she finally found herself scared of him. “Is there something I can do to help?”
“You’re bloody well helped enough don’t you think?” He asked quite smugly and as soon as it left his lips he regretted it, Buffy didn’t deserve to be treated this way. It was his problem that he had brought on to himself; he shouldn’t be placing the blame on others. But that logical part of his brain was asleep right now and he didn’t really care what he was saying or who he was saying it to.
“But… I didn’t mean too…” she replied unsurely, she didn’t know what to do. Every word she spoke seemed to just surge William on, he was getting angrier and more frustrated and probably losing patience with her by the minute.
“Yeah, But a lot of people didn’t mean to do a lot of things. But that doesn’t change that fact that it was already done. One might have thought that it was for the best when he made the decision but it turned out to bite him in the ass in the end.” He took a deep breath, losing himself in his words, “So yeah, you didn’t mean it.”
He was turning beyond mean now and Buffy didn’t know what else to say, she just wanted to turn back time to when they were in his bed were everything was alright just like he had said. “I’m sorry…” she bit her lip, not knowing what else to tell him. How she wished she could tell him to calm down that everything would be alright. She wanted to kiss him and make all the pain go away. Despite everything he was telling her, she knew he didn’t mean it that way.
“Well, sorry won’t bloody well change anything now would it?”
“I know it’s my fault, but William please calm down…”
“It bloody well is your fault!” he shouted as he slammed the bedroom door open, leaving Buffy in the hallway, afraid to get near him. “But you know… on second thought, it is my fault… for trusting you enough to leave Prudence with you.” With that he shut the door on her face.
Buffy stood outside the hallway, taking in everything she had just heard. She knew he didn’t mean any of it, it was just something he said in the moment of anger and despair but it still didn’t change that fact that it hurt her, as she let the tears fall.
to be continued...
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry for the long wait... but if it's any consolation, longest chapter ever! Do tell me what you think and thanks for all the reviews from the previous chapters!