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Chapter 42

William paused at the door of Giles’ spare room; the room that for the moment was acting as the older slayer’s bedroom. He didn’t like to disturb her when she was in there; he knew that she was having a great deal of trouble coping with the duel memories of Angel. She had already confessed to him that she was having difficulty reconciling her memory of dusting him when he had threatened her and the memory of him returning from hell .

William understood her confusion. He knew that Buffy had dusted the bastard, hell he saw her do it, but he had memories of having the wanker tortured. Memories that he knew hadn’t happened in this time line. If his memories of the great poof weren’t enough, he was now having memories of bonding with the whelp, the same whelp that he remembered treating him with abuse and hatred for years.

Maybe he shouldn’t disturb her. Maybe he should let her be and sort out his own confusion by himself. It wasn’t like she didn’t have enough to worry about.

As he turned to return to the living room, Joan opened her door.

She gazed listlessly into his eyes; expressive eyes that mirrored her emotions. Blue eyes that looked haunted, tired, and confused. She knew how he felt. They both needed time to process. But that wasn’t going to happen unless they could get the younger versions of themselves to stop changing things. Something had to be done…and soon. If they didn’t do something William and Joan would be locked into a continual replay of memories, unable to function at all.

Silently, Joan stepped into the comforting arms of her love.

~*~*~

Spike was so busy laughing at the story Xander was telling him that he missed the entrance of the beautiful girl he was waiting for. Resting his head on the table as he gasped for unneeded air, he failed to notice her approach.

“Whatcha doin’?” the tiny blond asked perkily.

That got Spike’s attention.

“Well, hello, cutie.” He smiled as he turned to her. Gently tugging her down on his lap, he placed his arms around her waist and leaned in to gently brush her lips with his.

Buffy felt her breath catch, as she momentarily lost herself in the depths of his darkening blue eyes.

“Where are Joan and William?” Willow asked, unintentionally bringing Buffy’s attention back to the library.

Buffy and Willow looked expectantly at the blond vampire.

“They didn’t want to upset the visitors, thought it best if they weren’t here for our little pow-wow,” Spike informed them.

“Oh, yeah,” Xander shook his head slowly in agreement, his eyes widened as he pictured the likely reactions of the two people he had invited. “There would definitely be some freakage over the double vision.”

When Spike asked Buffy about her day, Willow took the opportunity to slip away. Knocking softly on Giles’ office door, she entered quietly when his smile told her she could. “Um…I was wondering, cause I noticed that something was wrong, well it might not be wrong but it just looked wrong and that could be my imagination but if it isn’t and nobody else noticed and something bad happens and I could have helped but didn’t say anything, well that would be of the bad, so…”

“Willow,” Giles gently, but firmly interrupted her ramblings. “What is it that you noticed?”

“Oh, um…are Joan and William alright?” she asked, worried.

Giles removed his glasses and contemplated the young girl in front of him. He should have known that Willow would notice something. “They are fine, Willow. They are just having a little difficulty dealing with all the new memories and reconciling them with what they still remember from their own timeline. They just need some time.” He smiled in reassurance.

“Oh, wow…that would be hard. Is there anything we can do to help?” The little redhead offered eagerly.

“I don’t know that we can help, dear,” Giles informed her sadly.

Willow thought for a minute, the beginning of an idea tickled at the edges of her mind. Willow had always found it easier to talk problems through, out loud, as she worked her way to the logical conclusion. “Okay…so William and Joan have all these new memories to deal with and they’re not getting a chance to deal with them because new memories keep coming, so what they really need is a way to stop the new memories for a little while so they can process what they already have before the next lot hit them. The best way to stop the new memories would be to make sure Buffy and Spike don’t do anything different from what they did the first time round; kinda hard what with William being all evil the first time around, still wigging about that. But we could get some relief for Joan if she can tell us what she was doing, then Buffy can do that and Joan won’t have to deal with new memories…oh, oh, oh if we get Spike to stay with William for a while and not interact with anyone else, then William would get some sort of relief, too.” Willow grinned triumphantly at the amazed watcher.

“Willow, I do believe you have found the solution.” He smiled in delight. His smile faded into a look of dread as he glanced over her shoulder and caught sight of the two blonds in the library proper.

Willow followed his gaze and understood his look; telling Buffy and Spike that they needed to take a break from each other was not going to be easy. A cheeky grin crossed her features as an idea came to her. “Buffy’s mom?”

Giles’ expression lightened considerably at the prospect.

~*~*~

Joan’s head shot up as the new memory hit her. All the negative feelings she had been experiencing found a focus and white hot rage exploded within her.

When William realised exactly who it was he was remembering his own anger climbed, he was startled back to reality when the front door of the apartment slammed.

It only took him a fraction of a second to realise that his girl was gone, probably on the way to the library and if her exit was any indication, pissed beyond measure.

‘Bugger!’ he thought as he took off after her.

Automatically shifting into game face to make the best of his vampiric speed, William forgot about the wing factor until he felt his t-shirt tear under the pressure of his emerging wings. He was delighted when he realised that the gentle flapping of his wings as he ran enhanced his speed to such an extent that when compared to a normal vampire, the vampire would have felt like he was running backwards.

It only took him moments to catch up to his slayer, and one look at her face told him all he needed to know. The Slayer was pissed. He called to her, trying to get her attention, needing to stop her from doing something she would later regret. He needed to calm her down.

Catching hold of her in arms of steel, it was hard to say who was more shocked when they lifted off the ground to hover about fifty feet above the street.

Eyes widened with shock met, then focused on the ground below them before returning to meet in mutual amazement.

Joan gulped. “Kinda not good with the whole height thing,” she told him shakily.

“Focus on my eyes, kitten,” he gently encouraged. “I need you to calm down, pet. You need to think rationally. These idiots are likely to be the solution to our little problem. We can’t damage ‘em…yet.” His cheeky grin and eyebrow wiggle got her giggling.

She sighed deeply, placing her head on his chest, drawing strength from his comfort as they slowly drifted to the ground.

Taking a moment to kiss him softly in gratitude, Joan drew back her shoulders and turned towards the school. “Time to go terrorise some nerds.”

William grinned in appreciation and followed her lead.

~*~*~

“But it doesn’t work that way, too many paradoxes,” the small brunette informed them all.

“Oooh, unless they’re like the Bajoran prophets that live in the wormhole and time has no meaning, ‘cause that would be way cool,” the slight blond boy cried excitedly

“Bajoran prophets?” Giles forced himself to ask.

Before the boy could answer, the swinging doors to the library slammed open and the Slayer and her Pure Vampire consort made their entrance.

“Okay, so remember when I said we were sent back in time by three nerds?” Joan asked with deceptive perkiness. “Well, meet two of them,” she snarled in fury.

Jonathan and Andrew cringed in fear.





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