Chapter 16: Field Trip Time
Neither Buffy or William spoke of the ‘kiss’ after that night. Buffy still hadn’t found it in herself to be mad at him. Rather she was getting mad at herself for not being mad.
And she was feeling not a little bit guilty—not that it happened, but that she didn’t feel bad that it happened. If that even made any sense.
That’s why today was scaring her so much.
Today was Sam’s first field trip and had been supposed to go along. She’d managed to get out of the morning part of it by lying that she had some stuff to finish, but she still had to meet them for lunch. And spend the rest of the day after that with them.
She just hoped she could handle it.
*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*
“Alright Sammy Sam,” William said, earning a laugh from the named girl, “Think we should get going?”
They were currently sat on Sam’s bed and had been talking about just what they were going to do that day while she finished brushing her hair and William thought it was about time they got going.
“I can’t get the knot out of my hair,” she said, turning pleading eyes on William, “Will you help?”
“Sure,” William grumbled, pretending to be embarrassed about brushing a little girl’s hair, but secretly he enjoyed being able to do something so simple for her. “Oh, Sam,” he said once he’d made some progress on the knot, “I’ve been meaning to ask you, how’s Katie doing?”
“Oh no!” Sam practically yelled, continuing before William could ask what was wrong, “I forgot to tell mommy. You have to promise not to tell her.”
“I promise,” William stated hesitantly, nervous about just what it was he was promising not to tell Buffy.
“Remember when you told me that the lions and tigers and giraffes lived in Africa?”
“Sure,” William answered, remembering their lesson on the different continents about a week ago. “But there are lots of other things in Africa too,” he said, not really sure where she was going with this conversation.”
“I know and I remember all that too. But, then on Saturday there was a TV show on about Kenya and how there are a lot of giraffes there. Katie watched it with me and she decided she wants to go there to see if she has any relatives there?”
“So she went to Kenya?” William asked.
“Uh huh!” Sam said with a definitive nod, “And she told me to remember that it was Kenya in case I need the zoo to go find her for me.”
“Do you know when she’s coming back?” William didn’t want to push it too far, but he was curious.
“She might come back to visit, but she might stay forever if she finds her family, “She’s really missed her family.”
“That’s understandable. Sam, I think you should tell your mum, just so she knows.”
“Can I tell her tonight?”
“You can tell her whenever you want as long as you tell her soon.”
“I will; I promise.”
The two sat in silence as William finished her hair, both just thinking.
“Ready to go now?” William asked as he got the last of the snarls out of her hair and set the brush on the table.
“I think so.”
“Alright, then let’s go tell your mum we’re leaving and we’ll be off.”
*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*
They made it to the Children’s Museum less than half an hour later traffic having been light. William was glad that he’d decided on a field trip to the Museum as Sam hadn’t been there in a long time and since they redid all of the exhibits every six months or so, it would all be new to her.
“Where to first, pixie?” William had decided to let her have the opportunity to do whatever she wanted on this trip, no matter what she did, given their location, she’d learn something.
“Can I go see the water and sand thing?” she asked pointing at the little station that allowed the kids to build sand castles and then watch them get washed away by the simulated tide.
“Promise not to get too wet or dirty?”
“I promise not to get yucky.”
“Okay, we’ll go do that then.”
William had fun watching Sam play with the sand and water, but refused her desperate pleas that he join her.
After building three or four sandcastles, Sam decided that she wanted to move on to the next thing. Can I go over there, she pointed to the part of the museum that allowed the kids to build things with magnetic figures.
William, deciding that at least part of this trip needed to be educational, tried to explain to her how only one end of one magnet would stick to only one end of the other magnet. After several attempts at an explanation and a few demonstrations, she seemed to understand him.
“But why?” she asked.
“Cause that’s just how it is, sweet bit, don’t really know why,” William wished she didn’t always need to know ‘why’.
“Okay,” Sam said, as if she weren’t quite sure if it actually were or not.
“Maybe we’ll do some more on magnets later in school,” William supplied This seemed to placate Sam and she went back to building abstract little figures.
*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*
“That’s a beautiful little girl you’ve got there,” the man next to William said as he watched Sam playing with the bunnies. They’d made their way over to the special petting zoo like area several minutes ago and William had recently moved to stand along the nearby wall, allowing Sam to have fun on her own.
“Yeah,” William said wistfully, choosing not to correct him—wasn’t like it would do any harm.
A few seconds later Sam came running up to him, smiling at him before she noticed the man still standing next to him, “Hi, Mr. Christian,” she said politely.
The man just looked at her for a second before asking, “Do I know you?”
“You work with my dad,” she explained.
The man—Mr. Christian, apparently—turned a questioning gaze to William, “I’m uh,” he stumbled, “I’m not her father,” he said, trying with all his might to not seem embarrassed.
“Yeah, he’s my teacher,” Sam said when she heard him.
“But you,” Mr. Christian started with a look towards William, “Oh never mind…Tell your father I said hello,” he finally said to Sam.
“It was nice meeting you,” Mr. Christian said to William, giving him a strange look before turning to leave.
“You too,” William offered meekly, all the while thinking, ‘Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.’
The one time that he’d indulged in his little fantasy that Sam was his daughter…or step-daughter at the very least….and it was going to get back to Angel. Shit.
“William?” When she didn’t get his attention right away, Sam tugged on his hand, “William?” she repeated.
“Hmm?” He finally looked down at her, a smile returning to his face when he took in her face splitting grin.
“Will you come look at the bunnies with me?”
“Of course, pet, let’s go.” They walked back towards the bunnies and his possible firing was put to the back of his mind for the time being as he focused whole-heartedly on having a good time with Sam.
*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*
They didn’t meet up with Buffy until several hours later and by that time William had totally forgotten about the earlier encounter. Forgotten about it, that is, until he saw Buffy waiting for them outside, leaning against a railing looking as beautiful as ever. And he remembered. Remembered that she was married—to Angel and that he’d implied otherwise just a few hours ago. And now he was going to have to deal with the consequences.
They didn’t talk much while they got their food—okay, Buffy and William didn’t talk much, Sam, though….well Sam was a different story.
“And there was this sand castle thing and it was so cool because the water was right there and when I made the sand castle it would wash it away but not all of it and then I could build another one, but I had to do it before the water came back or I wouldn’t be able to finish and I didn’t make a mess and I didn’t get any water on me ‘cause William said not to and I got to build a bunch of sandcastles and then they all got washed away but it was so much fun and I made them all look different and it was so much fun, it was just like going to the beach except I could where my school clothes and it was inside,” somehow Sam hadn’t stopped to take a breath until she’d told her mother all about the sand castle building.
But apparently Buffy had expected this as she jumped right in before Sam could start up again, “Grilled cheese for lunch sweetie?”
“Yes, please and lemonade, too.”
“Okay, why don’t you and William go find us somewhere to sit and I’ll get the food,” Buffy said after finding out what William wanted.
“I’ll get it,” William said quickly, “You two go sit down.”
“You sure?” Buffy asked, used to being the one in charge of getting food.
“Positive,” he said, “And Sam can catch you up on all of the other stuff we did today.” ‘And hopefully you two will get past that bit ‘bout Mr. Christian before I even get there.’
Watching to see where they choose to sit, William then walked up to the counter and ordered them their food. He was glad that they’d chosen an out door restaurant, it was still warm enough this early in fall for it to be extremely pleasant out.
Once he’d gotten the food, he walked over to their table, carefully balancing the drinks and food until Buffy noticed his trouble and jumped up to help him, grabbing a few of the cups.
“Finish telling your mum about this morning?” William asked once he’d taken a seat at the table.
“Not about the bunnies,” Sam happily answered, not noticing William’s groan at the realization that he hadn’t missed the conversation he’d so hoped to avoid.
“Oh, maybe you can tell her later then, don’t want the food to get cold.”
“I can do both,” Sam was quick to assure him. And then she started telling her mother about the bunny rabbits. Glancing around nervously, William tried to see if there was a way out of this, but by the time he realized that there wasn’t anything that Sam could say to Buffy that would be damaging to him, he’d already been caught.
“What’s wrong?” Buffy asked after noticing that he was looking around as if he’d rather be anywhere but there.
It wasn’t as if he could say, ‘Oh, I basically told a man that works with your husband that I was Sam’s father..now the poofter’s going to find out and I’m going to get fired and then I’ll never see you or Sam again.’ Yeah, couldn’t say that…….
“Nothing, just thinking,” he said instead.
“Oh,” Buffy said, not believing him for a second, “Then can I ask you about something I’ve been thinking about?”
“Sure, lu- Buffy,” William caught himself just in time.
“It’s about that actually.”
“’Bout what actually?”
“You were going to call me luv,” Buffy started.
“No, I wasn’t!” William adamantly denied it.
“Yes, you were!” Buffy insisted stubbornly. “And I want to know why you quit doing that…..I….I liked it,” she quietly admitted.
Not sure he had heard her right, William decided to just assume he had and go on, “Because, Buffy,” he emphasized her name, “I shouldn’t have started doing it in the first place. I’m not sure why it happened….it was like I felt I already knew you…And I started with something that I really shouldn’t have even considered until I knew you better. I’m sorry.”
Buffy might have laughed at how proper he was suddenly being, if only he hadn’t looked so deadly serious. “You’re serious?”
“Well, yeah,” Didn’t she understand what he was telling her.
“But now that we do know each other, do you think you could start it up again? Maybe?” She asked carefully, blushing after uttering the last word.
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”
“Maybe just sometimes?” she knew she was begging, but somehow hearing him call her ‘luv’ or ‘pet’ had made her feel more cared for than she had in a long time.
“Maybe……luv,” he still wasn’t sure how appropriate it was to call her pet names, but God, did he want to…and after seeing the blinding smile that she awarded him with, he decided to Hell with decorum, he’d do anything he could to get her to smile at him like that again. “As long as you’re comfortable with it, then I guess that maybe I can try it a bit…That okay with you, pet?”
“More than okay!” Buffy said.
“Hey, mommy?” Sam said, turning her attention away from the birds and animals for the first time during the adults’ whole conversation, “I need to go to the bathroom.”
“Okay, sweetie, let’s go,” she and Sam got up, “We’ll be right back,” she said to William.
“Sure, luv, I’ll be waiting,” even he knew that sounded way more flirty than he’d intended.
Buffy walked away, not saying anything else, but she knew that she was swinging her hips way more than necessary, but he’d just put her in such a good mood, that it was just a reaction; not something she put much thought into.
*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*
TBC………
[Reviews - 685]
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | 
Chapter or Story
Has been viewed 2617 times
- Text Size +
-
Table of Contents [Report This]
Chapter or Story |
Chapter or Story | Chapter or Story - Text Size +
Author's Chapter Notes:
Last catch-up posting....and this is an Authors Note from my last post...Panta_rei won't be able to post for awhile--due to parental rules...but she does have a new LJ (selene_90) if you want to say hi........and also I just posted a short story called Something Crazy...hope you like it!