Chapter 9
“Are you hungry? There’s probably something that even I can make.”
Spike stopped her from heading off towards the kitchen. “No, I’m not hungry. We really need to talk. You can’t just avoid it.”
Buffy sighed and hated when he was right. “Fine, you go first.”
He nodded and took a deep breath. “First of all, I wanted to apologize again for what happened earlier. I honestly never meant to call you that. The argument just reminded me of arguments with Elizabeth in the past, but I don’t think you’re her. I know who you are, Buffy. It was just a slip of the tongue. Believe me; I know how different you two are. Elizabeth was shy and skittish about a lot of things, but you have a fire about you that I’ve never seen before in anyone else. I can tell that you don’t take crap from anyone and I envy that about you. It makes me want to get to know you better. I don’t know what I’m feeling for you. It’s hard to believe that I could feel for anyone other than my wife, but you make it so easy. I know that Liz would have wanted me to move on instead of being miserable all the time. Of course, I’m sure this isn’t what she had in mind.”
Buffy smiled. “Yeah, somehow I don’t think Lizzie would take a liking to me getting so close to her husband.” She laughed when a thought crossed her mind.
“Care to let me in on the joke?”
She shook her head and tried to calm herself. “Sorry, I was just thinking about the past. We never had the same taste in guys. Elizabeth hated anyone that I went out with. I felt the same way. God, she had such horrible taste.”
Spike raised his eyebrows.
“Well, until she met you. I have to say, you’re never who I would have expected her to marry. I guess I can’t really judge her choices. I was with Riley, for crying out loud. He had to be the biggest mistake I ever made. I was just a stupid girl that thought she was in love. I gave up everything for him, including my family. I did a lot that I wasn’t so proud of.”
He agreed. “We all have things that we’re not proud of, but what matters now is learning from our mistakes. We can’t go back in time to fix everything, we just have to move on and make the best of it.”
“So, where do we start?” she wondered.
Spike smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I think we should start right here,” he whispered, then captured her lips in a passionate kiss.
* * * * *
She was on cloud nine a few days later. They agreed that it would be best to take things slow, but Buffy was finding it hard to do that. She could hardly go a day without wanting to touch him, but was satisfied knowing that Spike was dealing with the same dilemma. So far, they’ve only shared a couple of kisses that were capable of making Buffy weak in the knees. No man has ever had that effect on her before. She again realized just how lucky her sister was to have found him.
Buffy stopped once she reached the house. She suddenly felt guilty for her last thought. It wasn’t right for her to be enjoying her time with Spike when Elizabeth wasn’t around. She would never get to be with the man that she loved again; never get to raise her daughter. It was thoughts like that which made Buffy glad they were taking things slow.
“Sweetheart, it’s so great to see you again.”
Buffy squealed when she was embraced by a man that she didn’t know. She immediately pushed away from him. “Who the hell are you?”
He looked confused. “It’s Ben, how could you forget about me? Is this one of your jokes that I just don’t get?”
Buffy stepped closer to the door of the house and further away from him. “I’m sorry, but I think you have the wrong person. I’ve never seen you before.”
“Elizabeth, are you feeling okay?”
Her eyes widened at what he said. “You really have the wrong person. I’m not Elizabeth. I’m Buffy, her twin sister.”
He looked embarrassed at that revelation. “Oh, sorry about that. I forgot that she had a twin. She never talked about you much.”
“And again that brings me back to my earlier question. Who the hell are you? How did you know my sister? It looked like you were pretty close by that hug you just gave me. If that’s the case, then how do you not know that she passed away?”
Ben was not expecting that. He felt his whole world collapse. “She’s dead? How did it happen? I’ve been away for months on business. I couldn’t keep in touch with her, but I promised that I would be back soon. I can’t believe she’s gone.”
Buffy took a deep breath. “Yeah, it was a shock to all of us, but I’m still not sure how you knew her.”
Spike chose that moment to open the door after he heard voices. He was not happy to see Buffy talking with another man that he didn’t recognize. “What’s going on out here?” he wondered and tried to keep the jealousy out of his voice, but failed miserably.
Buffy turned to look at him, knowing what he was thinking. “This is, Ben. He says that he knew Elizabeth. Do you two know each other?”
Spike shook his head and stepped outside, closing the door behind him. “No, we haven’t had the pleasure of meeting. How exactly did you know my wife?”
Ben didn’t know what to say to get out of this one, but figured it was about time the truth came out. “Elizabeth and I were very close before I had to move away. We were involved.”
Buffy stopped Spike from doing any harm to the man, but couldn’t believe what he just said.
“You expect for me to believe that my wife cheated on me? That’s insane; we were very much in love. She would have never chosen a ponce like you over me.”
Ben wasn’t fazed, he had a feeling this would happen sooner or later. He just figured that Elizabeth would have been around when it did. “We were together for three months, but she always held back with me. She didn’t want to hurt you. I had to leave town and told her that I would be back for her. I wasn’t planning on taking this long and had no idea that so much would have changed.”
Spike wanted to rip his head off, but the stricken look on Buffy’s face stopped him.
She shook her head. “No, she couldn’t have. Elizabeth would have never done something like that. She’s not capable of cheating. I just can’t believe any of this.”
Ben scoffed. “Well, maybe you didn’t know her as well as you thought. Then again, you were never around, were you?”
Before he could think about it, Spike pulled back his fist and punched Ben in the face.
He yelled in pain and held his eye that was now starting to bruise.
“You don’t come here again, you got that?”
Ben took off after that and didn’t even bother to look back.
Spike ushered Buffy into the house, the shock still evident on her face. “It’s all right, love.”
She seemed to snap out of it at the sound of his voice. “How can you say that? My sister cheated on you, Spike. I don’t think that guy would have a reason to lie. God, how could she do that? You’re so amazing and caring…”
Spike cut her off by smashing his lips to hers. He couldn’t resist with the things that she was saying. He pulled away when breathing became an issue and rested his head against hers. “I can’t say I really blame her all that much. Things were difficult in the beginning of our marriage. We would constantly argue all the time. I wasn’t around as much as I should have been, but I never stopped loving her. I know that she loved me, too. Your sister was a good woman, Buffy. It’s important that we always remember that.”
Buffy nodded and looked up at him. “I just don’t understand it.”
Spike touched his lips to her forehead and held her tighter. “I know, love. I know.”