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Chapter 48

After the two vampires and the Sasquatch left the library, Dawn took the opportunity to ask the question that had bugged her for years. “Granted my Latin isn’t up to Giles’, but doesn’t the invitation over the front doors mean that vamps can come in anytime they want?”

Buffy, Willow, and Xander looked at her blankly.

“Your point being…?” Buffy asked her sister in the universal tone specifically designed to piss younger siblings off.

“Wouldn’t that mean that you’re stupid and endangering everyone here by holding your meetings in a place that has full vamp access?” Dawn snapped back acerbically.

The three original Scoobies shared a wide eyed look of realisation before turning accusing eyes towards the Watcher who suddenly looked as embarrassed as his three young charges.

Joan chuckled quietly, wondering why it was again that they’d tried to keep this part of their lives away from the little brat. She certainly seemed to share Spike’s uncanny ability of cutting things to the bone. Thinking of the vampire made her wonder what the three males were discussing…and if she was going to have to hurt someone.

~*~*~

“You need to let go of your anger, William. It’s beginning to affect your aura,” Wolfie carefully started to explain.

“I may not have lived as long as you, but I still have your memories floating around inside. I know how he treated you. I also know how you treated him!” Spike snarled. Pointing his finger back towards the library, he continued his tirade. “That boy hasn’t done a bloody thing to you. You’re blaming him for something that in all likelihood he’s never gonna do. Not now. You’re bloody well holding onto a memory that you are going to lose over time. Your biggest bloody bitch was that they never saw who you had become, that they kept your past actions against you. Well guess what, genius? You’re doin’ the same thing to Harris. Stop being a hypocritical wanker!”

William stared at his younger self; his mouth gaping in shock.

Wolfie snickered at the look on the gobsmaked vampire’s face. Maybe this wouldn’t be as difficult as he’d first thought. “I wouldn’t have been game to say it quite like that…but he has a point.”

~*~*~

Buffy was mortified that her baby sister had been the one to point out what should have been obvious to them all. She didn’t know whether she felt worse or better when Joan had informed them that in her time they had moved the meetings to a shop!

Joyce moved to the counter and glanced at the leaflets that were lying there. Picking one up, she turned back to the group. “Is this Cultural Exchange Program something I should know about, Buffy?”

“You don’t have the room to be host to an exchange student, mom,” Joan gently informed her mother before turning her attention to Giles. “You need to find a spell to make something unbreakable then we need to go to the museum and perform the spell on the seal of an Incan Mummy.”

“Is this an urgent matter, Joan?” Giles asked wondering how much time he had to find the correct spell.

“In my time the seal was broken the day we went to the museum. That makes it next Thursday. If it gets broken this time a lot of people are going to die.”

“Right then, to the books it is.” Giles acknowledged Joan’s unspoken plea for action and made his way to the cage where he kept his more dangerous spell books.

Buffy grinned at her older self. “You fought a mummy? What’s next, the Werewolf or Frankenstein’s Monster?”

Joan grinned back. “We’ll meet a guy we might be able to save from becoming a werewolf in a few weeks, but you’ll have to wait for a couple of years to meet the new age version of Frankenstein’s Monster.”

“Get out!” Buffy exclaimed with wide eyed awe.

“Oh! And you get to meet Dracula the year after.”

“Whoa, Buff, you get to meet all the cool monsters!” Xander joked.

Joan smirked in a manner entirely reminiscent of her love. “Well, Drac makes you his bug eating monkey boy, Xan, and Willow dates the werewolf, so it’s not just Buffy.”

She joyously laughed at the expressions on their faces. For the first time in a long time she felt pure happiness. She had finally made peace with herself.

~*~*~

As William came through the doors to the library he was momentarily stunned by a sight he had never seen before. Buffy- his Buffy- was laughing with abandon. He may have to call her Joan, but to him she would always be Buffy. She lit up the room with her beauty. Her eyes sparkled in amusement. She was a Goddess to him; a bright shining light that taught him to believe in heaven. His own smile of joy echoed hers as he reached for her and together they were breathtaking.

~*~*~

“I’m sorry,” William offered sincerely. His guilt flayed him once he’d taken the time to notice the hurt that he was responsible for placing in the eyes of the youth that faced him uncomfortably. He’d hurt the lad publicly; it seemed only fitting that his apology be equally public. “I’ve got no bloody excuse.”

Xander threw William a lopsided grin and shrugged before his smile turned cheeky. “You could always make it up to me by telling me about Anya.”

William lifted an eyebrow and smirked without malice. “Well, at the moment she’s the patron saint of scorned women; a vengeance demon. Want I should call her?”

Xander rolled his eyes in mock aggravation. “Do I ever get to date a normal girl?”

Joan chuckled. “Hate to break it to you, Xan, but in my time every girl you have ever dated either was, had been, or would be supernatural in some form or another. Go you with the equal opportunity dating!”

“Did you tell him he’s s’posed to date the cheerleader yet?” William happily asked his girl.

“Noooooooooooo!” Xander cried as he repeatedly hit his head against the library table.





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