ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES
folder
BtVS AU/AR › Het - Male/Female › Buffy/Spike(William)
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
210
Views:
11,813
Reviews:
182
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
BtVS AU/AR › Het - Male/Female › Buffy/Spike(William)
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
210
Views:
11,813
Reviews:
182
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I do not own Buffy the Vampire Slayer (BtVS), nor any of the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.
LAWRENCE
CHAPTER 115 - LAWRENCE
JANUARY 11, 2009
SATURDAY
2:00PM
"Long week, huh?" Buffy asked as her and William drove south towards San Diego.
"Um-hmm," William agreed.
They'd both been back to work, plus school two nights a week. Last night they'd finally gotten to the grocery store, fixed something to eat, then fallen into bed, exhausted. Most of the kids in her class had come back from vacation with colds, which now she appeared to be getting, if her scratchy throat she’d woken up with was any indicator. She'd stayed home this morning, on house cleaning and laundry detail, while William had gone into town to help Edna at the restaurant.
Buffy had met him there about half an hour ago, and they were now on their way to Lawrence's home in La Jolla; him having cornered her on Christmas Day at Edna’s aersuersuading her on making an appointment right then and there.
They arrived at the house around 2:30pm, Lawrence’s wife Shirley, showed them to the living room, bringing them tea and biscuits.
Lawrence came downstairs a few minutes later, and after some pleasantries, suggested they go into his office.
William carried t tea tea for them.
They took their seats in comfortable, matching, maroon leather chairs, which Buffy recognized as the likely, ‘missing relatives' to their couch at home, which Spike had told her he’d gotten from Lawrence the first time she’d ever been to Julian.
"William, Elizabeth,” Lawrence said, nodding his head seriously at each of them in turn, “the reason I’ve called this meeting with you, is so that you know where you stand in regards to your property and holdings. I should be meeting with each of you separately, under the unusual circumstances that make this meeting a necessity.”
“It’s alright with me, Lawrence. I think that you should probably talk to William alone first,” she said, nodding to him in understanding. Indeed, in the short time that he’d spoken to her on Christmas, she’d made clear her wishes in the matter.
Lawrence nodded back, as she started to stand.
“No!” William said, putting his hand on Buffy’s arm, “this concerns us both, there’s no reason to speak to us separately.”
“You might want to hear what Lawrence has to say,” she told him gently.
“I do, but I want you here with me,” he said, his eyes imploring hers.
“Sit down, Elizabeth, it’s fine,” Lawrence said.
It was going to be a long afternoon.
“First, let me be blunt and ask you, this. Are you going to be getting married anytime soon; as in the current year?”
William looked at Buffy. For the moment there were only his eyes and everything else fell away. Why shouldn’t she? Besides the obvious, that is...the fact that she was holding out information from him, about him. But besides that? She gave him a tentative smile.
He nodded slightly at her, though he was sure that Lawrence might hear his heart pound with happiness and anticipation that her small smile had conveyed to him.
He cleared his throat and turned back to Lawrence, “Might be.”
Not exactly the ringing endorsement that Lawrence had wanted to hear. Oh well, more work was what it was to be, then.
He handed them each a copy of the home’s deed, “Let’s start with this, shall we?”
"William, I know you haven’t any memories of this, but 5 years ago you asked me to draw up your will, leaving your house, its surrounding acres, and all your investments in the stock market, mutual funds, and gold bullion to Buffy Summers, whom you now know as Elizabeth Worthington. You further requested, that in the case of her death, everything would go to Dawn Summers. In the case of her demise as well, it would have been willed to one of the environmental organizations you’d named.”
“Gold?” William asked, that being the only word he could think to utter.
“Of course,” Lawrence said, nodding, “and very fitting, as your grandfather first made his money here on mining gold. As I understand it, he had bought about 1000 acres when the prices were low, then held onto them for quite a few years, until after the main gold rush. Then he sold off about 900 acres, creating another mini-gold rush, and got the money out of those, which has become your inheritance. Today, you live in the house that he started to build on the 100 acres that he kept, and that your father finished building.”
“My grandfather, my father?” William mouthed.
Lawrence nodded, “Yes, I remember your father well, although I only met him a couple of times, but I had contact with him throughout the years, as I was his lawyer as well. In fact, I was given your grandfather’s name as my middle name.”
“You were? Why?” William asked.
“Because your grandfather helped pay off my mother’s foreclosure note, when she couldn’t do it. He saved her hotel and restaurant, put me through college, too.”
He was quiet a minute to let William take this in.
“To go on, William, acting as your lawyer, and upon hearing of your presumed death in the earthquake and destruction of Sunnydale, I executed the wishes of your last Will and Testament, as you had instructed me to do so.”
“William, this is quite unusual, to say the least, as obviously, you’re alive and well, and if I can just say this, I’m very please that you are. However, this presents a set of very unusual circumstances. You no longer hold any of your possessions. From the house in Julian, to your investments, they’re all under Elizabeth’s name now.”
“That’s fine,” William sashrushrugging.
“Change it back,” Buffy said at the same time.
“No!” he said, looking at her, “why do that? I don’t care about such things. You’ve managed fine so far, and better than I could have done anyway, more than likely.”
“No, William, that’s not the point...”
They bickered a few minutes, before Lawrence intervened.
“Excuse me. William, I understand that you aren’t terribly interested at this moment in time, in what it is that you have willed away. However, as your lawyer, I would tell you that it is in your best interest to take stock in this, as well, as to have yourself declared legally not dead, making the will null and void.”
“NO!” he said, looking over at Elizabeth, “that would mean...”
“That would mean that everything would revert to you,” Lawrence finished.
“NO! That’s not right, I don’t accept that. She’s...she deserves to have this.”
“William,” Elizabeth said softly, taking his hand, “the house, the money, it belongs to you, not me.”
He shook his head, “No! I won’t let you do that to Elizabeth!” he said, looking at Lawrence.
“William, it’s what we must do, at least temporarily. If something were to happen to you now, for real, and it were found out that you actually hadn’t died 5 years ago, well then, your former will would automatically be called into question, leaving Elizabeth with nothing, ultimately. But there is a way around it, as well as a compromise, that I think you two can live with.”
“Let’s look at your portfolio,” Lawrence said, handing them two copies of that as well, “Elizabeth has left you with just about everything that you had 5 years ago,” he said, handing thoth oth a copy of the portfolio and deed to the house.
They both took a couple of minutes to look through the papers.
“Is this...it can’t be?” William said, shaking his head, while looking at the numbers on the page.
Lawrence nodded, “Yes, William, it is. You’re quite well off. So, you can see there’s quite a bit at stake here. Please, if you would both turn to the last page; at the bottom, right hand corner, line 115. This is what your portfolio was worth 5 years ago. Line 116, is what Elizabeth withdrew during that time, for home improvement, mostly I see from the receipts she’s given me over the years. Line 117 is the interest that the remaining principal has made during this time, leaving on line 118, what your net worth is. As you can see, the balance on line 118 is greater than the beginning balance on line 115, so you’ve actually made money in the interim.”
William took in a deep breath, “Made money while I was ‘dead,’ did I?”
“It would appear so,” Lawrence said, gently.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William was quiet on the drive home, thinking of the end result of their meeting.
“I don’t think I like this,” he said.
“Why?”
“I don’t like the fact that it will all be in my name.”
“But just for a while, right after you’re declared ‘not dead,’ in court and the will becomes null and void.”
“What if something happens to me then?”
This had been the hardest part for him to understand.
Buffy looked over at his too serious face; “Nothing’s going to happen to you. I won’t allow it,” she said, smiling at him, trying to lighten the mood.
“Besides,” she continued, “that’s what the new will is for. I’d be covered in the meantime. Then afterwards, we do the paperwork to change the deed to both our names, and then we both make out two more wills, naming each other as beneficiaries if something happens to either one of us.”
“It’s a lot of...legal stuff, something could go wrong,” William said.
“It is a lot,” Buffy agreed, “but Lawrence is good at what he does and he has your best interests at heart. Mine, too. He won’t let anything go wrong, trust him, he knows what he’s talking about.”
William sighed, laying his head back on the seat’s headrest. His head had started to pound while in Lawrence’s office, and it hadn’t stopped.
It wasn’t just the confusing talk of wills, deeds, and portfolios. It was the talk about his father, his grandfather. This, more than anything boggled his mind. Although he knew he suffered big time memory loss, what he thought he remembered, at least whom he thought he remembered, rang true to him, and one thing he thought he was certain of, was that he’d never met any of his grandfathers. His maternal gratherther died when his mom was around 16, and his paternal grandfather died the same year his parents married. As for his father, he died when he was only 8 years old. And he was certain that he’d never heard any stories of them being in California. They had never left England as far as he knew.
He looked over at Elizabeth, then away again, closing his eyes. She’d nodded when Lawrence had been telling him that, leading him to believe that she had already known the story, so wouldn’t do much good to ask her then, if that’s what he’d told her. Still...
“Elizabeth?”
“Hmm?” she said, as she pulled off the ramp on their exit.
“What did I tell you about my father and grandfather? You know, before?”
“Um...not much, just pretty much what Lawrence told you.”
It hadn’t been much, but he’d thought he heard her hesitate.
“Why?” she asked after a moment.
“I just though maybe I’d told you something else about them that you might have remembered. You know, fill in my Swiss cheese-like blanks in my memory,” he said, a little bit of bitterness creeping into his voice.
“I’m sorry,” Buffy said, reaching out to pat his leg, “you never talked about them very much.”
That struck him as odd, considering that his inheritance and his family’s long term connection to Edna and Lawrence.
They arrived back home early in the evening.
“You hungry?” Buffy asked when they walked in, “really didn’t get a chance to have lunch today.”
William shrugged, “I don’t know. Think I’m just going to lie down for a while.”
“Tired?”
He shrugged again, “I don’t know. Maybe. Have a headache, though.”
Buffy walked over to him and putting her arms around him, gave his cheek a kiss, “Kind of a headache worthy day, wasn’t it? Why don’t you go on then; I’ll bring you something to take for it, and put some soup on. Sound okay?”
He nodded and walked toward the bedroom.
A few minutes later she was there, holding out a glass of water and a couple of aspirin. He sat up and took the glass from her hand, took a sip, then swallowed the pills.
“It’s a good thing we did today,” she said, as he lay back down, “it’ll all be okay.”
He nodded, then closed his eyes. He heard her leave the room, shutting the door behind her.
Suddenly, he remembered the question Lawrence had asked them about whether they were going to get married anytime soon and her response.
William smiled to himself. Well, that was at least something quite nice that had come out of today that didn’t give hiheadheadache. Elizabeth has smiled at him, rather than looking scared.
She’d just smiled.
This was something quite nice indeed.
END CHAPTER 115
JANUARY 11, 2009
SATURDAY
2:00PM
"Long week, huh?" Buffy asked as her and William drove south towards San Diego.
"Um-hmm," William agreed.
They'd both been back to work, plus school two nights a week. Last night they'd finally gotten to the grocery store, fixed something to eat, then fallen into bed, exhausted. Most of the kids in her class had come back from vacation with colds, which now she appeared to be getting, if her scratchy throat she’d woken up with was any indicator. She'd stayed home this morning, on house cleaning and laundry detail, while William had gone into town to help Edna at the restaurant.
Buffy had met him there about half an hour ago, and they were now on their way to Lawrence's home in La Jolla; him having cornered her on Christmas Day at Edna’s aersuersuading her on making an appointment right then and there.
They arrived at the house around 2:30pm, Lawrence’s wife Shirley, showed them to the living room, bringing them tea and biscuits.
Lawrence came downstairs a few minutes later, and after some pleasantries, suggested they go into his office.
William carried t tea tea for them.
They took their seats in comfortable, matching, maroon leather chairs, which Buffy recognized as the likely, ‘missing relatives' to their couch at home, which Spike had told her he’d gotten from Lawrence the first time she’d ever been to Julian.
"William, Elizabeth,” Lawrence said, nodding his head seriously at each of them in turn, “the reason I’ve called this meeting with you, is so that you know where you stand in regards to your property and holdings. I should be meeting with each of you separately, under the unusual circumstances that make this meeting a necessity.”
“It’s alright with me, Lawrence. I think that you should probably talk to William alone first,” she said, nodding to him in understanding. Indeed, in the short time that he’d spoken to her on Christmas, she’d made clear her wishes in the matter.
Lawrence nodded back, as she started to stand.
“No!” William said, putting his hand on Buffy’s arm, “this concerns us both, there’s no reason to speak to us separately.”
“You might want to hear what Lawrence has to say,” she told him gently.
“I do, but I want you here with me,” he said, his eyes imploring hers.
“Sit down, Elizabeth, it’s fine,” Lawrence said.
It was going to be a long afternoon.
“First, let me be blunt and ask you, this. Are you going to be getting married anytime soon; as in the current year?”
William looked at Buffy. For the moment there were only his eyes and everything else fell away. Why shouldn’t she? Besides the obvious, that is...the fact that she was holding out information from him, about him. But besides that? She gave him a tentative smile.
He nodded slightly at her, though he was sure that Lawrence might hear his heart pound with happiness and anticipation that her small smile had conveyed to him.
He cleared his throat and turned back to Lawrence, “Might be.”
Not exactly the ringing endorsement that Lawrence had wanted to hear. Oh well, more work was what it was to be, then.
He handed them each a copy of the home’s deed, “Let’s start with this, shall we?”
"William, I know you haven’t any memories of this, but 5 years ago you asked me to draw up your will, leaving your house, its surrounding acres, and all your investments in the stock market, mutual funds, and gold bullion to Buffy Summers, whom you now know as Elizabeth Worthington. You further requested, that in the case of her death, everything would go to Dawn Summers. In the case of her demise as well, it would have been willed to one of the environmental organizations you’d named.”
“Gold?” William asked, that being the only word he could think to utter.
“Of course,” Lawrence said, nodding, “and very fitting, as your grandfather first made his money here on mining gold. As I understand it, he had bought about 1000 acres when the prices were low, then held onto them for quite a few years, until after the main gold rush. Then he sold off about 900 acres, creating another mini-gold rush, and got the money out of those, which has become your inheritance. Today, you live in the house that he started to build on the 100 acres that he kept, and that your father finished building.”
“My grandfather, my father?” William mouthed.
Lawrence nodded, “Yes, I remember your father well, although I only met him a couple of times, but I had contact with him throughout the years, as I was his lawyer as well. In fact, I was given your grandfather’s name as my middle name.”
“You were? Why?” William asked.
“Because your grandfather helped pay off my mother’s foreclosure note, when she couldn’t do it. He saved her hotel and restaurant, put me through college, too.”
He was quiet a minute to let William take this in.
“To go on, William, acting as your lawyer, and upon hearing of your presumed death in the earthquake and destruction of Sunnydale, I executed the wishes of your last Will and Testament, as you had instructed me to do so.”
“William, this is quite unusual, to say the least, as obviously, you’re alive and well, and if I can just say this, I’m very please that you are. However, this presents a set of very unusual circumstances. You no longer hold any of your possessions. From the house in Julian, to your investments, they’re all under Elizabeth’s name now.”
“That’s fine,” William sashrushrugging.
“Change it back,” Buffy said at the same time.
“No!” he said, looking at her, “why do that? I don’t care about such things. You’ve managed fine so far, and better than I could have done anyway, more than likely.”
“No, William, that’s not the point...”
They bickered a few minutes, before Lawrence intervened.
“Excuse me. William, I understand that you aren’t terribly interested at this moment in time, in what it is that you have willed away. However, as your lawyer, I would tell you that it is in your best interest to take stock in this, as well, as to have yourself declared legally not dead, making the will null and void.”
“NO!” he said, looking over at Elizabeth, “that would mean...”
“That would mean that everything would revert to you,” Lawrence finished.
“NO! That’s not right, I don’t accept that. She’s...she deserves to have this.”
“William,” Elizabeth said softly, taking his hand, “the house, the money, it belongs to you, not me.”
He shook his head, “No! I won’t let you do that to Elizabeth!” he said, looking at Lawrence.
“William, it’s what we must do, at least temporarily. If something were to happen to you now, for real, and it were found out that you actually hadn’t died 5 years ago, well then, your former will would automatically be called into question, leaving Elizabeth with nothing, ultimately. But there is a way around it, as well as a compromise, that I think you two can live with.”
“Let’s look at your portfolio,” Lawrence said, handing them two copies of that as well, “Elizabeth has left you with just about everything that you had 5 years ago,” he said, handing thoth oth a copy of the portfolio and deed to the house.
They both took a couple of minutes to look through the papers.
“Is this...it can’t be?” William said, shaking his head, while looking at the numbers on the page.
Lawrence nodded, “Yes, William, it is. You’re quite well off. So, you can see there’s quite a bit at stake here. Please, if you would both turn to the last page; at the bottom, right hand corner, line 115. This is what your portfolio was worth 5 years ago. Line 116, is what Elizabeth withdrew during that time, for home improvement, mostly I see from the receipts she’s given me over the years. Line 117 is the interest that the remaining principal has made during this time, leaving on line 118, what your net worth is. As you can see, the balance on line 118 is greater than the beginning balance on line 115, so you’ve actually made money in the interim.”
William took in a deep breath, “Made money while I was ‘dead,’ did I?”
“It would appear so,” Lawrence said, gently.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
William was quiet on the drive home, thinking of the end result of their meeting.
“I don’t think I like this,” he said.
“Why?”
“I don’t like the fact that it will all be in my name.”
“But just for a while, right after you’re declared ‘not dead,’ in court and the will becomes null and void.”
“What if something happens to me then?”
This had been the hardest part for him to understand.
Buffy looked over at his too serious face; “Nothing’s going to happen to you. I won’t allow it,” she said, smiling at him, trying to lighten the mood.
“Besides,” she continued, “that’s what the new will is for. I’d be covered in the meantime. Then afterwards, we do the paperwork to change the deed to both our names, and then we both make out two more wills, naming each other as beneficiaries if something happens to either one of us.”
“It’s a lot of...legal stuff, something could go wrong,” William said.
“It is a lot,” Buffy agreed, “but Lawrence is good at what he does and he has your best interests at heart. Mine, too. He won’t let anything go wrong, trust him, he knows what he’s talking about.”
William sighed, laying his head back on the seat’s headrest. His head had started to pound while in Lawrence’s office, and it hadn’t stopped.
It wasn’t just the confusing talk of wills, deeds, and portfolios. It was the talk about his father, his grandfather. This, more than anything boggled his mind. Although he knew he suffered big time memory loss, what he thought he remembered, at least whom he thought he remembered, rang true to him, and one thing he thought he was certain of, was that he’d never met any of his grandfathers. His maternal gratherther died when his mom was around 16, and his paternal grandfather died the same year his parents married. As for his father, he died when he was only 8 years old. And he was certain that he’d never heard any stories of them being in California. They had never left England as far as he knew.
He looked over at Elizabeth, then away again, closing his eyes. She’d nodded when Lawrence had been telling him that, leading him to believe that she had already known the story, so wouldn’t do much good to ask her then, if that’s what he’d told her. Still...
“Elizabeth?”
“Hmm?” she said, as she pulled off the ramp on their exit.
“What did I tell you about my father and grandfather? You know, before?”
“Um...not much, just pretty much what Lawrence told you.”
It hadn’t been much, but he’d thought he heard her hesitate.
“Why?” she asked after a moment.
“I just though maybe I’d told you something else about them that you might have remembered. You know, fill in my Swiss cheese-like blanks in my memory,” he said, a little bit of bitterness creeping into his voice.
“I’m sorry,” Buffy said, reaching out to pat his leg, “you never talked about them very much.”
That struck him as odd, considering that his inheritance and his family’s long term connection to Edna and Lawrence.
They arrived back home early in the evening.
“You hungry?” Buffy asked when they walked in, “really didn’t get a chance to have lunch today.”
William shrugged, “I don’t know. Think I’m just going to lie down for a while.”
“Tired?”
He shrugged again, “I don’t know. Maybe. Have a headache, though.”
Buffy walked over to him and putting her arms around him, gave his cheek a kiss, “Kind of a headache worthy day, wasn’t it? Why don’t you go on then; I’ll bring you something to take for it, and put some soup on. Sound okay?”
He nodded and walked toward the bedroom.
A few minutes later she was there, holding out a glass of water and a couple of aspirin. He sat up and took the glass from her hand, took a sip, then swallowed the pills.
“It’s a good thing we did today,” she said, as he lay back down, “it’ll all be okay.”
He nodded, then closed his eyes. He heard her leave the room, shutting the door behind her.
Suddenly, he remembered the question Lawrence had asked them about whether they were going to get married anytime soon and her response.
William smiled to himself. Well, that was at least something quite nice that had come out of today that didn’t give hiheadheadache. Elizabeth has smiled at him, rather than looking scared.
She’d just smiled.
This was something quite nice indeed.
END CHAPTER 115