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Thanks everyone for the reviews - please keep them coming! Go read In God's Eyes by the_bends, my wonderful beta!!
CHAPTER 20

After we stuffed ourselves full of turkey and pie, Will sat us down for another one of his ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ tales. This one was quite humorous, revolving around Buffy trying to make Thanksgiving dinner for her Watcher and friends while her mother was away on a business trip. Her determination to have a normal dinner was interrupted by some Native American spirits from the Chumash tribe coming back to recreate the wrongs committed upon his people by the white man in the past.

Will finally introduced Dawn and Connor into this new universe. Dawn was a mystical key sent to Buffy in the form of a sister who needed protection from an evil Hellgod. Staying true to Dawn’s wish, Will had given the character all kinds of magical powers that came along with her being a ball of energy, mostly in that she could do all kinds of witch-like spells and open the walls between dimensions. Will had aged her a bit so that she was fourteen rather than eight, making it more convenient for her to hang around with Buffy and help her with the slayer problems.

Connor turned out to be a school friend of Dawn’s, who came to her after he was bitten by his cousin while babysitting and then started having weird blackouts. Knowing that Dawn’s sister was someone powerful since Buffy always seemed to be around when people were in trouble, he went to her for help. It was discovered that his cousin was a werewolf and had passed the gene along to Connor after he was bitten. Buffy and her gang had welcomed Connor into their group despite the monster inside him, finding his tracking skills useful for when they were trying to hunt down the enemy.

The twins and I laughed as Will described Buffy trying desperately to organize a traditional dinner, despite Dawn bringing frozen peas, Connor forgetting the dinner rolls, and Buffy’s basting of the turkey being interrupted by Cordelia arguing that the spirits weren’t actually at fault. Spike went into an impromptu speech about how killing the natives is what conquering nations do in retaliation to Cordelia’s political correctness, which made me smile even more since Will and I had a similar heated discussion in the attic during one of the lessons with the twins.

Survival instincts had taken over for Buffy and the group when they were attacked by a raiding party of Chumash warrior spirits. Quickly realizing it was kill or be killed, everyone entered the fray trying to dodge the arrows being lodged into Merrick’s home, but they could not kill the spirits. Discovering that their own weapons could kill them, Buffy attacked the leader with his own knife and the whole tribe disappeared. The story ended with everyone eating the Thanksgiving dinner Buffy prepared to jovial conversation about new traditions being formed.

When William finished, we all clapped exuberantly and Dawn and Connor started jumping excitedly on the bed. “So, I take it you liked it?” Will asked.

“Yeah, it was really funny. I liked how Spike kept getting shot with the wooden arrows real close to his heart.” Connor said as he bounced to the end of the bed and over to a standing Will. Will took him into his arms as Connor pulled him into a tight hug. “And it’s cool that I’m a werewolf. That’s better than being a slayer – that’s such a girl thing.”

Will laughed at that considering how much Connor wanted to be a slayer too at first. “Dawn, what did you think about your character?”

“I think it was neat that I was sent to Buffy by monks and that I can do cool magic. Are you going to write more where I can do a bunch of spells? I want to turn Connor into a frog. Ooh no, a rat!” She laughed, falling to her back on the bed and pointing a finger at her twin.

“Well, I guess that’s ok as long as you turn me back.” Connor said with a shrug of his shoulders. “And I want to be in one where I’m an actual werewolf. Can you do that?”

“Sure I can. I got plenty of ideas for more stories.” Will said before putting Connor back on his feet.

“I loved it Will. It was very funny. Who knew the poet had a sense of humor?” I piped in. “Though I guess your poetry was just as funny.” I mumbled quietly under my breath.

“Hey!” Will exclaimed in false anger. “I heard that!” He laughed as he tackled me on the bed, rolling me onto my back to attack my mid-section with his fingers. Dawn tried to save me by jumping on Will’s back while Connor joined in with the tickling. William let go of me and maneuvered Dawn over his shoulder and began to tickle her instead. We played like that for a while until Dawn finally called uncle.

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Though our Thanksgiving had started out rather gloomy, it ended on a high note. Once dinner had lifted all of our moods, the story that Will read had all of us laughing again, and after the tickle fight we played cards until it was time for the kids to go to bed.

Will and I had gone up to the attic after putting the twins to bed. I didn’t really want to ruin the good mood that had settled over us, but Drusilla’s comments from earlier had me curious. As we sat together on the mattresses playing thumb wars, I got up enough courage to finally ask William his thoughts. “What did you make of Dru’s ranting earlier?”

“Besides her proving to be more of a nut every time she opens her mouth, I don’t know what to think.” Will replied as he pinned my thumb under his. “One, two, three. I win.”

“That’s not fair, I was distracted.” I pulled my hand away from his and lay back on the mattress with my arms stretched over my head, baring a bit of my stomach from my shirt tugging up. “What about the whole thing about us only knowing lies about dad? Do you think it’s true?” I turned my head to look into his eyes. ”With the way mom’s been acting since we moved in here, maybe there is a lot we don’t know.”

William stretched himself out beside me and cradled his head on his bent elbow. “Well, we know the story about mom and dad meeting and Ethan not liking it. They never really mentioned when it was. For all we know, it could have been around Thanksgiving that he found out. I don’t think they were necessarily hiding anything.”

“What about his family? We knew about grandmother Dru and grandfather Ethan and that mom’s an only child, but we never knew anything about dad’s family.” I questioned.

“His parents died when he was a teenager. I don’t think he liked to talk about it because it was traumatic like how we find it hard to talk about dad.” Will justified, while he placed a comforting hand on my bare stomach.

“Even so, we’ve never met any other family besides Dru. No third cousins, no aunts or uncles, nothing. Isn’t that kind of weird?” I closed my eyes as Will started to rub slow circles on my stomach.

“I don’t know, Elizabeth. If he was an only child too, the line would have stopped with him.” His eyes looked sad as he moved closer to my body and laid his head down on my chest, wrapping his arm around my waist. “Why are you listening to crazy Dru, rather than believing mom and dad who love us?”

I knew he was seeking comfort since it seemed my questions were bringing the whole world he thought he knew down around him. One of my arms automatically went to his head, running my fingers through his hair in a calming gesture. Though I knew he was getting upset, I continued the conversation, “Dru has nothing to lose, nothing happens to her if she tells the truth. Mom and dad obviously did, mom even more so now.” I could tell Will was trying to control his emotions from the rhythmic breaths I felt along my stomach and the tight kneading of his fingers on my skin. Before continuing, I shifted my position so that I was cradling him better with one hand gently rubbing up and down his back while the other continued to stroke his hair. “I’m not saying that mom and dad didn’t love us. It’s just, how much do we really know about their past? Maybe the fallout between mom and Ethan was more than just Ethan disapproving of dad because he wasn’t a lawyer.”

“Well, what do you suggest we do? We can’t really find anything out from in here.” Will slowly started rubbing circles again on my stomach, which I assumed meant he was starting to calm down.

“I don’t think Drusilla will be much help, she tends to talk in riddles anyway. Maybe we can ask mom about it next time she comes by?” I suggested.

“Yeah, ok. But we have to do it carefully. We don’t want her to get jumpy. If she really does have something to lose, then she might just shut down.” Will looked up at me from his position on my chest. “Promise me.”

“I promise. You won the bet fair and square, William. I’m not going to go back on it, at least until after Christmas.” I reminded him.

“Ok, good. Then I think that’s settled.” He picked himself off me and gave me a light peck on the lips, before straightening my shirt back into its proper position. “Come on then, let’s get to bed.” He stood up and held his hand out to me to help me out of my lying position. I took his hand and he held onto it until we reached downstairs. He placed another kiss on the back of my hand, before letting go and heading for the bathroom to put on his pajamas. I stood in the dark staring at the small beam of light coming from under the bathroom door as I lightly stroked my stomach, blushing as I remembered the feel of Will’s hands touching me.





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