Buffy watched the rainfall out her bedroom window. It was Friday. Fridays were usually her favourite day of the week; it was the day William would come back from London. However, she knew that he would not be coming home today.
She, Ella and Willow had returned to the estate three days previous after Faith had called to tell her that William had agreed to the custody terms for Ella.
The fact that he had not put up a fight surprised her. He was a lawyer after all, and he lived to fight. It also confirmed her worst fears; he did not want her in his life. The confirmation of this hard knowledge in a strange way empowered her. She felt relief in knowing where she stood with William.
She had not spoken to him since the morning they had awoken in his bed together. As soon as Faith had called that afternoon, she had packed her, Willow and Ella up and left London. In the time since they had returned, she knew that William had called the estate to check on Ella’s well being. Everyday in fact, and not once had he asked to speak to Buffy.
“As it should be,” she convinced herself as she made her way to Ella’s room. William and her needed clear, defined boundaries in their relationship and that is what she had done in filing the custody papers. They were Ella’s guardians; they had no claim to each other. Her mind had been made up, she had done the best thing, and her heart was taking a little longer to come to the same conclusion.
She missed him, missed William. His smile, voice, and the way he made her laugh without doing anything remotely funny. In all, the way he had made her feel.
Buffy was still deep in thought as she gave Ella her bath. Actually, a more correct assessment of the situation would be that Ella was having a bath, and giving Buffy a shower at the same time. How such a small child could splash so much water was beyond her. She was drenched from head to toe.
She smiled despite herself as she remembered when William had bathed Ella and ended up the same way. She pushed the pang of regret away as she tried to focus on the happiness that Ella was bringing to her.
“Do you want me to finish up here?” Willow’s voice broke her from her thoughts. “You look as though you need to dry yourself off.”
“Thanks Will. That would be great.”
As she made her way back to her room, she heard the doorbell ring.
“Hey B.”
Buffy stood in shock, door still in hand, as she saw Faith in front of her.
“Faith, what are you doing here?”
“I needed to give you some papers to sign. I was going to send them with William but he insisted I come down and give them to you. Make a weekend of it.”
She could hear about every other word coming from Faith’s mouth.
“William, what?”
“Is getting our bags out of the car, he should be right behind…”
“Hello, Buffy,” William nodded as he made his way through the door. She was sure that it was just the fact that she was cold and wearing wet clothes that had caused her to shiver.
“Faith, follow me. I will show you to our room,” William gestured for Faith to follow him.
Buffy tried to mask the pain of hearing “our” room. It took her a few moments to regain her composure. Once she had, she realised they had both disappeared.
“Our room, William?” Faith said, smirking, as she followed William. “We have a room together now?”
William was barely paying attention to Faith, and only caught the tail end of her sentence. He stopped in the hall and turned to her. “What are you going on about?”
“You told Buffy you were going to show me to our room.”
William dropped the bags he was holding. “I did?”
“Yep. I think you crushed her.”
“I did?”
”What is wrong with you?”
He shook his head, trying to clear his thoughts. Seeing Buffy again after the filing and her leaving, seeing her in the house after obviously having given Ella a bath, seeing her bra through her shirt…his mind was a muddled mess of longing and hurt.
“You all right?” Faith asked gently.
”No, I’m…I am, I mean, I am.”
“You know what I think?”
“No, and I’m not sure I want to know.”
“Oh, shut up. I think maybe you should play this up a little.”
“Play what up?”
“You and me, our room—“
“Faith, we don’t have a room—“
“I know that, but she doesn’t know that! She thinks we do after your little slip!”
”What are you getting at?”
“Are you really that dense? My God, no wonder she gets so frustrated with you—“
”Can you get to the point, please?” William said impatiently.
“If she thinks there’s something going on, that could help you get her. You know, by making her jealous.”
William shook his head. “No, I’m not playing that game with Buffy. For one thing, she’s too smart for something like that, for another, if she found out later, she’d shoot me, and for another…I’m just…I’m tired Faith. I don’t have it in me to play any sort of game right now.”
“Not even if it meant getting Buffy?”
”No games to get Buffy, Faith. If one day she should come to me, I want it to be of her own free will, not because she was tricked into it,” and he grabbed the bags, stalking off once more.
Faith frowned. “Well fine,” she muttered crossing her arms across her chest. “If you won’t play, then I will. I guarantee I will get you two thick-headed morons together by the end of this weekend.”
Once Faith was settled, William resigned to his room to shower and change. He was exhausted. Mentally, emotionally and physically. However, he had not been running in quite a while. His muscles felt tense and bunched up. What he really needed was a good stretch, some…yoga.
He shut his eyes and sat on his bed. Yes, he needed some yoga with Buffy as his instructor. Touching him, laughing at him as he tried to mould his body in one shape to another. He had missed her after she left. Her scent had lingered on his pillow and every night he found himself pressing his nose into those pillows, conjuring up her image and wondering how on God’s Green Earth he was ever going to get over her.
He was not. Plain and simple fact. The first woman he ever fell for was the last woman he would fall for.
Hearing Ella’s cry, William went to the door and flung it open, finding Buffy and Ella sailing down the hall.
“Buffy?”
She stopped, and turned, “Hi,” she said smiling, and it seemed forced.
”What are you doing?”
“Ella was a little upset after her bath, got water up her nose, and so I was just taking her for a walk around the house to calm her down.”
“Mind if I join you?” he blurted out before he could think.
She blinked. “Uh, sure. I don’t want to disturb you and Faith—“
“You’re not disturbing anything,” he said quickly, and stepped out into the hall.
They walked for a long time saying nothing, only Ella’s sobs filling the silence.
“So,” Buffy started but the sentence died on her lips.
“So, how are the classes going?” William asked.
“Classes?”
“Yoga classes, love, unless you have starting running a cooking school out of the kitchen as well.”
“Yoga, yeah they are going well, I guess.”
“When’s the next class?”
“This afternoon at four. Why?”
“I was planning on catching it.”
“Won’t you be busy with Faith, I mean busy showing Faith around?” Buffy asked trying to keep the bitter tone from her voice.
“Look about that, Faith and I are not sharing a room. Not sharing anything in fact.”
“William, you don’t have to explain anything to me. It’s your life; you can do what you want.”
“No, I can’t do what I want.”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“Nothing, just forget about it. Class is at four, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
“Ok. Well, I will see you there.”