The woman on the other end sounded annoyed. “Really, Buffy, is that a way to answer the phone?”
She had to suppress a groan. “Hello to you too, Mom. So nice to hear from you.”
Joyce Summers ignored her daughter's sarcastic comment. “I just called to let you know that I’ll probably be home late again tonight. I still got a lot of work to do at the gallery, and then Dean wanted to take me out for dinner.” She paused. “I left you some money on the kitchen counter, but I want you to get something healthier to eat than pizza this time.”
Pizza it is then, Buffy thought. She sighed. “Fine. Look, Mom, I really gotta go…”
“Have you heard anything from your father today?” Joyce interrupted her, and Buffy rolled her eyes.
“No, he hasn’t called.” She glanced at her watch; she was going to be late.
“Right. Of course he hasn’t. That would make him actually care about us.”
Buffy cringed at the angry and hurt note in her mother’s voice. “Mom, I’m sure Dad has…” She hesitated, wondering why she was trying to defend him. After all, it wasn’t like her mother was wrong. “Never mind. Have fun tonight. Tell Dean I said ‘hi’. No, wait. Don’t.”
Joyce let out an irritated sigh. “Buffy, there’s no reason for you to be rude. Dean and I are just friends and it’s not like it’s a date. It’s just dinner.”
”Right.” Buffy rolled her eyes again. Dean Walker was the man working with her mother in the art gallery, and she didn’t like him one bit. He was way too… tall. And once she had seen him wearing a green tweed jacket and blue shoes. There had to be some fashion law against that sort of thing. She shook her head in disgust. “Bye, Mom.”
“Bye, sweetie. And remember, no pizza!” With that, her mother hung up.
Buffy headed for the door when the doorbell rang, causing her to jump. “Now what?!” She hurried over to the door and opened it, determined to get rid of whoever was outside. She was supposed to meet Spike in less than ten minutes and she didn’t want to be late.
“Hi, Buffy! Going somewhere?” Willow was standing on the porch, a hopeful smile on her face. “I was hoping we could, you know, hang out.”
“I’m sorry, Will, but now is really not a good time.” Buffy stepped outside and closed the door behind her. “Some other time.”
Willow’s smile disappeared and she got a disappointed look on her face. “Oh. You’re not still mad, are you? I’m really sorry about the other day.”
“No, of course not.” Buffy hurried to assure her, then realized that wasn’t entirely true. But she didn’t feel like getting into another argument with her best friend, especially not now.
“Good!” Willow sounded relieved. “So, where are you going?”
Buffy hesitated. If she told Willow that she was going to see Spike, the red-head would probably come up with numerous reasons why that was a bad idea. Not that she really cared, or felt that she needed Willow’s approval or anything, but she didn’t have time for that particular discussion now. “I’m meeting up with my mom downtown. And I’m really late. How ‘bout I’ll call you later? We can talk more then.” She felt a little bad for lying to her best friend, but she fully intended to tell her everything tonight, over the phone. And if Willow would have a problem with her seeing Spike, then too bad.
“Sure, Buffy.” Willow smiled a little. “Tell Joyce I said ‘hi’.”
“I will. Bye!” Buffy rushed past her friend and jumped into her car before Willow got the chance to respond.
There was a knock on the door, and Spike frowned. He was supposed to meet Buffy downtown, so she had no reason for showing up at his place now. And since he didn’t exactly have any friends here in Sunnydale, it wasn’t likely that someone else would come visiting him. He opened the door and froze in his tracks, finding himself standing in front of a person he had hoped never to see again. “Mum?” He stared at the woman in shock. “What the bloody hell are you doing here?! How did you…?”
“Find you?” The dark-haired woman watched him, closely, then let out a giggle. “Wasn’t that hard. I had a vision, you see. The stars told me you’d be here.”
Spike snapped out of the shock and snorted. “Are you completely daft?”
The woman shook her head, sadly. “You’ve never had any sense of humor. I hired a private investigator. Happy?”
“Not really.” He glared at her. “Why are you here?”
Her eyes narrowed. “You have done something different with your hair.”
Spike rolled his eyes, feeling a headache coming up. This wasn’t fair. He had done everything in his power to leave the past behind him. His mother had never cared about him before; why did she have to show up now? Why couldn’t she just leave him alone? He felt like his head was spinning. Was Ethan here somewhere as well? He took a deep breath, forcing himself to calm down. So what? He didn’t have to let that abusive bastard hurt him anymore. And so what if his mother had found him after two years? He didn’t owe her anything.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?” Drusilla Rayne gave him an expectant look.
“Not bloody likely.” Spike crossed his arms over his chest. “I have nothing to say to you. Just do us both a favor and go back to the mother country.”
Drusilla got a thoughtful look on her face. “I miss the rain. This place is all wrong. The sun is too bright, it hurts my eyes.”
“Right…” Spike had no idea what she was talking about. His mother was acting really strange, and he found it most disturbing.
Reaching out a hand towards him, Drusilla got a sad look on her face as he flinched away. “Why did you have to leave, my William? Do you have any idea what it did to me?”
Spike just stared at her. “You have got to be fucking kidding me! What it did to you? What about me?! You never cared about…”
“He could never forgive me for letting you go.” Drusilla went on like she hadn’t heard him. “And with you gone…” She lifted her shirt a little, revealing a thin, five-inch scar across her pale stomach. Running her fingers over it, she let out a bitter laugh. “Took the light inside of me, he did. Cut it right out, said it wasn’t his.”
Spike suddenly felt like he was going to be sick. “You’re telling me you were…?” He shook his head in denial. “No. I don’t wanna hear this. You shouldn’t have come here.”
“No, you should never have left.” Drusilla’s eyes were cold as ice as she went on; “But it doesn’t matter anymore. Because he’s gone now.”
“Yeah?” Spike swallowed. “Good for you! You knew exactly what he was doing for all those years but you never cared enough to walk away. But now…”
Suddenly Drusilla burst out laughing. Then she stopped, abruptly. “Oh, William… He would never have let me walk away.” Spike raised a brow in confusion, but didn’t say anything. She smiled a little as she finished; “I killed him.”
TBC