Author's Chapter Notes:
Sorry this is late..... And please go read my new short story If It Wasn't For Your Love, the end should be up in a few days.
Chapter 4: Art

“Hey da’,” William said as he reentered the library, ignoring his father’s shocked look at seeing him again so soon as he came out of his office, “You have some markers? Maybe some highlighters or something?” When his father looked even more confused, he pointed to Buffy and her daughter, whom he had failed to notice, who were now sitting at one of the library’s tables.

Not wanting to examine why he was being so nice to the little girl, he just continued with his request for is father, “You know, some markers and some papers so she can draw or whatever it is little kids do.”

Finally accepting that his son was being nice to Buffy—okay technically her daughter, but she was an extension of Buffy so it counted—Giles walked back into his office mumbling something about possibly having crayons somewhere.

“Buffy, pet, Da’s trying to find something for the little bit here to draw with, so she won’t be too bored while I convince you I’m not going to take this job.”

Buffy smiled at him, “Thanks,” before adding, “But you’re not going to do the convincing, I am, and you are going to take the job.”

They were about to start yet another argument when Giles returned with what looked to be a circa 1960 box of Crayola crayons and several sheets of paper, “I hope this is satisfactory…” he realized then that he wasn’t sure of whether he should call the girl by her name or wait for Buffy to introduce them.

“Oh! Sorry. Sam, this is Mr. Giles, he works here and I knew his when I was in high school. Giles this is Sam. And Sam, this,” she looked at William, “is William, his son. William, this is my daughter Sam.”

Buffy hadn’t expected her usually shy daughter to say anything, “But my dad calls me Samantha, he says I should be a lady. I don’t know what that means.” Sam scrunched up her nose before smiling when William began to laugh.

“Is that so, sweet cake?” William ignored the…embarrassed? look on Buffy’s face, “Well, I think you can be a little girl, no need to be a ‘lady’ just yet, bit. And would you like me to call you Samantha, too?” This girl was just too adorable.

“No, I like Sam, Samantha’s too long and only my dad and grandmother and grandfather call me that, I don’t like it very much.”

“Okay, then Sam,” William said, smiling at her. Sam liked this man; he was much nicer than any of her father’s friends. But, Sam realized, she didn’t know what to call him, she always had to call other adults, Mr. and Mrs. but she didn’t know his last name and she didn’t think she was supposed to call him Mr. William.

Sam turned to face her mother and whispered in her ear. Buffy smiled before she said, “Why don’t you ask him yourself?” Buffy knew that other parents might see it as being mean to her daughter, but Buffy wanted to counteract her husband’s influence and teach her daughter that she could talk to adults, as long as she did so politely.

“What’s your last name?” Buffy could tell William had no idea where she was going with this.

“Giles.”

“Okay, Mr. Giles.” Sam seemed to think things over for a minute before she realized something. William could tell because she scrunched up her nose in the same adorable fashion as before.

“That could get kind of confusing, couldn’t it?” at the girl’s grateful smile, he smiled too and continued, “So, how’s about you can call me William, since I get to call you Sam and all and you can call my da’ Giles, like your mum does?”

Sam looked at her mother, who nodded, before her face broke into a huge grin and she turned back to face William, “I like that, William.”

“Alright, now that the names are all settled, is it alright if your mum and I have a little talk for a minute?” William directed his question at Sam.

“Uh huh. Can I draw you a picture?”

“Sure, I’m sure it will be very pretty.”

“We’ll just be over there,” Buffy assured her daughter, pointing towards the table across the room.

*(*(*(*I*)*)*)*

“Alright, so how about you tell me exactly why you think I should take this job?” William knew that she’d have some good reasons and listening to all of them at once would either really help him turn it down or really hurt his chances of doing so.

And her plan of bringing her daughter there to help convince him, was definitely a good one. He was already about 40 percent closer to cracking.

“Okay, my husband’s an ass, we can all agree on that, that’s my first reason.” She knew that he was going to try to tell her that it wasn’t a reason, just an unfortunate side note, “And it has everything to do with why. His entire family has gone to boarding schools or hoity toity private schools, sure I knew that when we got married, but I thought since I was studying education and he knew I wanted to teach in a public school, that any kids we had would be free to go to a public school. Apparently not.

“And don’t get me wrong, some private schools are just fine and perfectly good people come out of private schools. But not the schools that meet O’Connor family standards. I don’t want her to turn out like them and if I lose her to that boarding school where I’ll never get to see her and she’ll learn about the world from people who see it like Angel and his family do and teach her to be a ‘proper young lady’ or some tutor who’ll do the same thing then that’s just what will happen. She won’t be anything like me, it’ll be like I was never even a part of her life.

“You can think I’m the dumbest woman alive for marrying Angel O’Connor, and I might even agree with you sometimes, but—like I said before that’s not the point.

“What is the point, is that, that beautiful little girl over there,” she pointed to where Sam was having what appeared to be a very engrossing conversation with Giles, a smiles forming on her face, “She’s a wonderful, caring, loving, generous person. She loves her Grandma for being an artist and thinks that painting, or taking pictures, would be the coolest thing in the world to do for a job. She doesn’t see the world in terms of how much money can be gained from certain things, or who you need to be friends with to get further ahead.

“She’s still a sweet, innocent, little girl who loves her art and watching horse shows on TV and wants a pony, but doesn’t really expect one. She still thinks you should be friends with people if they’re nice to you, not because you’re going to get something from it.

“If you don’t agree to be her tutor, either Angel will find one or—more than likely—she’ll got to St. Joseph’s and spend her life growing up with girls who actually have ponies, even if they’re never home to see them. She’ll learn to only make relationships that provided the most power and influence for her. She’ll give up on art, throwing away her dreams and believe that the only place art has in your life is to impress people who come to your house or so you can brag about your ‘collection’.

“If you’re anything like your father, which, despite the evidence to the contrary, I think you are, then you’ll understand where I’m coming from. At the very least, you have to recognize how much I love my daughter.” Buffy had almost succeeded at holding back her tears. Almost.

‘Great, you made the girl cry. Wanker!’ “Buffy, luv, don’t cry. It’s not that I doubt your love for your daughter, at all. I can tell how much you love her; you wouldn’t be going through all of this if you didn’t. It’s just,” he wasn’t sure how he was going to convince her of what he was about to say, he wasn’t even sure he really believed it anymore—Buffy Summers-O’Connor was a very convincing woman, “You tell me all of this, all about your husband and his family and it seems, to me at least, that you’re underestimating him when you say that he won’t really pay attention to how or what I’m teaching his daughter.”

“I told you,” Buffy was becoming exasperated, “his family’s idea family relationships differs greatly from that of any rational minded person. To them, a wife is there to make dinner and do the social thing with, somebody to help them keep up appearances. And as for kids, well if they’re boy, then hey, heirs; as for girls, well they’re supposed to be good young ladies from the time they’re born, they never really get to be kids and they’re supposed to help their mothers with the appearances part. There’s nothing personal about any of it. Trust me.”

“I wish I could…”

Buffy was about to respond when she looked over at her daughter and noticed that she was staring at the two of them and seemed to be waiting for the opportunity to do something, “Sam,” she called, “Is everything alright?”

“I just wanted to give William his picture so I’d know if he likes it or not.” She seemed a little worried that she’d interrupted her mother’s conversation, one that didn’t seem too happy, “Are you okay, mommy?” It looked like her mom had been crying.

“Yeah, you’re mum’s fine, why don’t you give me that picture now?” When her mother didn’t object, Sam came running over to their table and handed William the piece of paper. “Well, isn’t this just beautiful. Very pretty colors, nice shapes and everything. I love it.” William smiled at the picture the girl had made him, a swirl of colorful lines and shapes.

“See, mommy, he doesn’t think it’s a house!” Sam was overjoyed that William didn’t try to convince her she’d drawn something she hadn’t.

William could see that Buffy looked to have come up with a new idea and, since he was pretty sure it involved Sam, he was going to try and delay it. “Of course not, sweetheart, if you’d drawn a house I’d imagine it would look like one.” Buffy wasn’t sure if she’d ever seen her daughter looked more pleased.

It made her that much more determined that he was going to take the job. “Sam, remember how you wanted Katie to come with us today?”

“Yeah, but you said she couldn’t, that there wasn’t enough time.” Sam replied and William looked decidedly uneasy, he had no idea where she was going with this and when it came to Buffy, that didn’t tend to be a good sign for him.

“Have you ever told Dad about Katie?” Buffy asked.

“Uh huh!” the girl said happily, “He said she should come to dinner sometime so he can meet her.” William really didn’t like this.

“How long have you and Katie been friends?” her mother continued

“Since I was two,” Sam said decisively with a quick nod of her head.

“And Dad knows?” Buffy checked with her daughter. ‘Really not liking this,’ William thought.

“Yep!” she said popping her “p”.

“And Katie lives down the street from us,” when Sam nodded, Buffy continued, “But does she live in a house?” Sam shook her head no. William reallllly didn’t think he liked where this was going.

“Silly,” Sam looked at her mother like she’d gone crazy, “You know Katie lives in the zoo. Remember,” she began the way only a six-year-old could, “Katie’s my imaginary friend so she lives in the imaginary zoo?”

“I know, sweetie, I just wanted William to know.” Buffy smiled at her daughter who looked very relieved that her mother hadn’t gone crazy.

“So,” it was William’s turn to ask the girl some questions, “Katie’s your imaginary friend,” Sam smiled, “who your father doesn’t know is imaginary,” another nod, “and she lives in a zoo?”

“An imaginary one, of course.”

“Of course; I only have one question then: Why does she live in a zoo?”

“Cos she’s a giraffe, where else would she live?”

“And your dad doesn’t know that either?”

“Nope.”

“You’re sure?”

“He wouldn’t invite a giraffe to dinner, silly!”

‘Gotta love little kid logic’William thought.

Buffy looked at her daughter, “Why don’t you go draw William another picture?” Sam smiled before running back over to the table and picking up her crayons.

“He really doesn’t know?” William asked Buffy thinking—hoping—that the little girl had missed something.

“Nope,” Buffy said, sounding remarkably like her daughter, “Angel and I have had several talks as to why he hasn’t met Katie yet.”

“And you haven’t told him she’s an imaginary giraffe?”

“Nope,” Buffy repeated with a slight laugh, “It’s funnier this way.”

William laughed a little before he threw in his token protest, “It’s just if he fires me…”

“He’ll fire you the same day Katie shows up for dinner. But if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll promise to find out before he actually does, let you know so you can resign, and I’ll write you a letter of recommendation.”

“Fine.”


TBC......

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