ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 123 - FAVORABLE FIRST IMPRESSION

Buffy and Dawn walked into the apartment to see John anllialliam playing a game on the X-Box.

“Hey ladies, how was shopping?” John said, not taking his eyes off of the action.

“Just fine, how was your day?” Dawn asked.

“Bugger!” William said, as he lost the game to John.

“Better luck next time, Wil,” J,” John said, patting his shoulder.

William grumbled, “Not much chance to practice getting better at it.”

“Elizabeth, you should get William an X-Box,” John said.

“Sure, just what we need,” she said, rolling her eyes, as she came over to him.

“Sheesh William, you look all bleary eyed,” she said, as she flopped down on the couch next to him.

“Do I?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Occupational hazard,” John said.

“And what occupation is that, exactly?”

“Honing fine motor skills and killing things,” he said, laughing.

Dawn and Buffy exged ged a quick look at each other.

“So, what did you get, luv?”

“Huh?”

“While you were shopping?”

“Oh, not much, just a few tops...”

“And something for you, too, William,” Dawn said.

Buffy looked at her gratefully. Dawn had picked up a few things for her, so she wouldn’t come back empty handed, as that would’ve been pretty suspicious.

Buffy handed William a bag; he smiled and took out the T-shirt that was inside of it. It was dark blue and on the front of it was a bright silk screen of a palm tree and a sunset and said, ‘I Love LA’

“Thanks,” he said, looking it over quizzically.

“Dawn’s idea,” she whispered.

“Oh,” he mouthed to her.

“What about me? Do I get a present, too?” John asked.

“Sorry, honey, not this time.”

“Well William, what do you say to helping me drown my sorrows in another game?”

William turned towards Elizabeth, “You mind?”

“No, go ahead, I’ll go help Dawn with dinner,” she said, giving his cheek a kiss as she got up.

Dawn was putting away the morning’s dishes when Buffy walked into the kitchen.

“What do I owe you?”

“Huh?” Dawn asked.

“For the tops and the T-shirt.”

“Ah, forget it.”

“No, I’m going to pay you back, Dawn. You don’t have that much cash going to school and all, so how much?”

“Say $40 and we’re even.”

Buffy opened up her purse and gave Dawn two 20’s.

“So...what did you think? Are you going to introduce William to Giles?”
don don’t know. It’s sort of...I don’t know how to describe it?”

“Scary?”

Buffy paused for a moment, “Yeah, in a way that sort of sums it up. I mean with you and Willow...ever since you found out, you guys have been nothing but supportive to me and you’ve accepted William with open arms. My biggest worry this summer was if I it was the right thing to do getting Xander on board, and even he came around to really liking William.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty cool. He really dlikelike him, I can tell.”

“I know. And I’ve been so grateful, not just that you all helped us, which I could never thank you enough for, but that you’ve all become William’s friends, too.”

“It’s not such a big deal, Buffy. He’s a great guy.”

Buffy nodded, “Yeah, he is. Still, it makes me happy that we’re all friends, makes him happy, too, that my friends are also his friends.”

“And you don’t think that Giles would like William?”

Buffy shook her head, “I’m sure he probably would, but I’m not sure that he’ll ever be able to take off his Watcher’s hat completely. Before I told him, I made him promise me that he wouldn’t record anything I’d told him or try to dissect it, even though he might want to. I just don’t know if he’ll be able to help himself.”

“You’re probably right. Giles has dedicated his whole life to this, even though we’ve all been able to move on, even you; and you were the chosen one. But for Giles, it still goes on, so he probably won’t ever, just be able to consider William a normal person, like we do. Not to mention, we’ve had almost a year now to just accept him for what he is now, pre and post Spike,” Dawn said.

“That’s what he told me. He said that we weren’t just normal people.”

“And you said?” Dawn asked.

“That we were as normal as baseball and apple freakin’ pie,” Buffy said grinning.

Dawn grinned back and giggled.

Buffy’s grin faded, “It’s just I don’t want William being scrutinized, know what I mean? I just don’t like the idea of his life, our life being ‘observed’ in that Watcher way of his.” I guI guess that’s your answer then, Buffy. If you can’t trust him not to, even if he says that he won’t, then don’t introduce them.”

Buffy nodded, “I guess.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

APRIL 3, 2009
THURSDAY
9:30PM

“Can you get that?” Buffy called from the bathroom, hearing the phone ringing in the other room “Wh “Where is it?” William called looking around.

“Try my coat pocket if it isn’t in my purse.”

As he neared the coat the ringing got louder. He tried the right pocket first, no phone, then the left.

“Alright, alright, I’m coming,” he muttered at the thing.

“Hello,” he said, flipping it open.

“Ah...yes, hello,” the voice said, hesitantly, “do I have Buffy Summer’s residence?”

“Yes, may I ask who’s calling?” William asked, his ears perking up at the British accent, similar to his own.

“Of course, tell her it’s Giles.”

“Hold on, please,” William said, as he walked towards the bathroom, where Buffy was drying off from her bath.

“Who is it?”

“It’s someone named Giles for you,” he said, holding out the phone.

“Oh, okay,” Buffy said, wondering if he was going to stand there while she talked, but he nodded to her and walked away.

“Hello Giles.”

“Buffy, I take it that was William?”

“Yes, of course. Who else would it be?”

“He sounds so different.”

“Uh-huh,” she said, waiting.

“Um, yes, the reason I was calling was to let you know that I’ll be going back to London on Saturday. I was wondering if you’d thought anymore about my coming to visit you and William tomorrow. Dawn said it was only a couple of hours from Los Angeles, so I could drive up and meet you for lunch, perhaps.”

“We work during the day.”

“Yes, of course. Ther dir dinner, perhaps? At whatever restaurant you’d like to meet at?”

Buffy hesitated for a moment. She had already called Willow after last weekend, making sure that even in the case of Giles, that the protection spell was still in effect, making it impossible to mistakenly put William and her into any sort of danger by disclosing what he knew. Willow had assured her it was, so then it was only now a question of whether or not she wanted him to meet William.

“Buffy?”

“Giles?”

“If you’d rather I didn’t, I understand, but I would very much like to come and see you again.”

“Alright. Just remember what I told you about Wam, am, he doesn’t have any memory of what Sunnydale was, of the Hellmouth part of it, of what he was, or what I was...”

“I remember. And who shall you say that I am?”

“I told him he used to work at The Magic Box, which he thinks was a book and new age-type store. I’ll just tell him you were the owner. He already knows Anya ran the place. He knows that she used to go with Xander and that she’s dead now.”

“I see. Well, that’ll be fine.”

Buffy gave him directions to Julian and to The Rittenhouse Restaurant.

“So, I’ll see you tomorrow at 6:00pm, then,” he said.

“See you then, Giles,” she said.

William looked up from the textbook he was reading when she came into the living room. “Who was that?”

She came over and sat next to him on the couch.

“That was Giles. Rupert Giles is his full name, but we always called him Giles.”

William waited for her to go on.

“He’s an old friend of mine from Sunnydale...” Buffy said, trying to figure out how to explain Giles to him

“Oh,” William said, getting a sort of pained look.

“Oh, no,” Buffy said, quickly, realizing that he’d totally misconstrued her hesitation, “God, no! Not that sort of friend, besides, he’s like old, well, not elderly old, but like a teacher or parent old. He’s someone who...looked out for me a lot back then.”

“I see,” William said, but surprised that she’d never mentioned him before.

Buffy nodded, “I met him when he was the librarian at my high school, and later he owned The Magic Box.”

“Where I worked?” William asked.

“Yes.”

“I worked for him? For Mr. Giles?”

“Yes,” Buffy said, feeling guilty that the lies just kept unavoidably being compounded.

“I...Dawn and I saw him the other day when we were out. He lives back in London now, but was here on a short visit. He’s leaving aturaturday and wanted to know if he could meet us for dinner tomorrow. I told him yes, I hope that’s okay with you, William.”

He nodded, “Of course, why wouldn’t it be?”

“Good, he’ll be meeting us at Edna’s at 6:00pm.”

Later when they were in bed, William turned to her, “Elizabeth?”

“Hmm?” she asked, as she put her arm over his side.

“Why didn’t you mention seeing Mr. Giles before to me?”

“I...I guess it just slipped my mind,” she said.

He looked at her for a second and lay back on his pillow. For some reason he didn’t believe her and it bothered him that she wasn’t telling him the truth.

“William?”

“What?”

“I’m sorry...it didn’t slip my mind, it’s just that Giles and I had some differences in the past year before Sunnydale...you know what happened to the town. It’s been sort of hard to put it behind us. Honestly, I didn’t know if I wanted to see him again.”

“What happened,” he asked, turning towards her again, a look of concern in his eyes.

“Let’s just say that he didn’t trust my judgement when he should have and it caused a rift in our relationship. It was painful, because he was very much like my father for all the years that my father was absent.”

“Was it because of me? Because of our relationship?” William asked.

She reached up to touch his face, “Partly,” she said, “but that wasn’t all of it.”

“Founded?”

“Huh?”

“His reasons?”

She hesitated for a second; “It’s complicated, but ultimately, no.”

“But he knows I’m back in your life now?”

“Yes, he does.”

“And he’s okay with that?”

“Yes, but even if he wasn’t, it wouldn’t matter. You matter to me, William. We matter; that’s what matters, right?” she asked with a smile, trying to lighten the conversation.

“What did he say?”

“He said he wanted me to be happy, and he knows that you’re what makes me happy,” Buffy said, kissing him.

William lay back on his pillow, pulling her over to rest on his chest, as he once again wondered what it had been about him, about his past that was being hidden from him. What sort of person had he been, which had met with disapproval? He knew there was something, but all he could remember was the social ostracism that he had been subjected to all of his life; the snickering behind his back, and even in front of him. He’d never understood it, never understood what he had done to people who had seemed to despise him so. Not that this was what Elizabeth had alluded to, but there it was, that feeling of something being ‘wrong’ with him. It hurt. Before Elizabeth, he’d only known rejection; she’d been the only one to ever show him any sort of love, caring, respect...and he knew how lucky he was. Lucky that she found him, lucky to be living the life he’d only ever dreamed about with a woman he loved.
God, he knew!

Yet still, it angered him that others could still...and that it would’ve affected Elizabeth’s life as well, for her part in loving him.

“Elizabeth?”

“What?” Buffy asked, sensing the tension coming off of him.

“I love you...that’s all,” he said, deciding to drop the subject for now.

“It’s enough...I love you, too. Don’t ever forget that,” she said, hugging him tight.

“Never, luv. Never could,” he said, hugging her back for all he was worth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

APRIL 4, 2009
FRIDAY
10:30AM

Giles paid his motel bill and took his luggage out to the little blue, 2-door Mitsubishi that had been delivered to him from the rental company and placed his bags into the car’s boot.

He looked once more at the directions that Buffy had given him to Julian. He decided that he would get there early and do some looking around before their dinner.

First he was meeting with Wesley again, to give him the name of another slayer, which he’d just learned of last night. Since Wesley was no longer working for Angel, he had more than enough time on his hands, and had been glad Giles had offered him the opportunity to be a watcher again.

Giles had found it hard to believe what Buffy had told him of the lengths Angel had gone to kidnap William, subjecting him to abject terror and horror in the process. Giles had laid awake wondering if there was something more about the Shanshu that Angel knew, which Buffy didn’t, and it worried him greatly. What if William was destined to revert back to Spike? Of course, that didn’t make any sense; why give him the reward stated in the prophecy, only to take it away? Those and other scenarios kept Giles tossing and turning that night.

However, from what Wesley told Giles of Angel, it bore out what Buffy had told him, and the situation didn’t bode well. Angel, it appeared, had been corrupted by his position at Wolfram & Hart, to the point where he had regard for neither advice, nor companionship from his former friends and employees. In fact, they were now quite keen at avoiding him and the ‘evil empire’ he was in running at all costs.

The cost of going up against demons, who just happened to be clients of Wolfram & Harts had exacted a high price to their practice. One, of which was that Fred felt threatened enough, so that she had decided to pursue her interest in research back in Texas at A&M University, rather than stay in Los Angeles any longer. Wesley had told Giles this with more than a tinge of sadness, and Giles suspected he’d had feelings for her.

Gunn had also been disillusioned, and now spent most of his time back on the streets fighting evil the way he had done before meeting Angel. He was perhaps the most bitter of all, having for a while, been endowed with all the legalese of the demon and human worlds. Gunn had believed in the rightness of it and had drunk it in; feeling for once, he’d finally arrived in the ‘white man’s world,’ only to wake up one morning without any of the knowledge he’d gone to bed with the night before. When he called W & H, Angel wouldn’t even take his call, instead letting Lilah confirm to Gunn that indeed, they had remotely mind-wiped him, seeing as he wouldn’t need any of this anymore. And really, Lilah had so callously asked; it hadn’t truly been his anyway, so why was he complaining?

Lorne was busy building his entertainment empire, which had been funded by the largess of Wolfram & Hart, and who was still his biggest client.

And poor Cordelia, she was in some sort of permanent coma.

That left Wesley only small cases to take on, which came in under Wolfram & Hart’s vast radar. Therefore, he was more than happy to be reinstated as a watcher and something to give his life meaning again.

After dropping off the papers on the new slayer with Wesley, Giles got on the road and was in Julian by 1:00pm. He drove through the main road in town and saw the restaurant that they would be meeting at.

A couple of miles further, he saw the library. He pulled the car over and parked it. Wasn’t that where Buffy had said that William worked in the afternoons? He looked across the street and sure enough; there was the sign for Montessori School of Julian.

Giles thought about driving on, but his curiosity got the better of him. Turning off the car, he slowly walked up to the library’s entrance. He stopped inside, between the entrance and the library proper and looked through the doors. He didn’t see anyone but a couple of elderly patrons looking at magazines.

Giles opened the door and nodded to the librarian at the desk, then walked towards the far side of the bookcases, looking up and down the rows as he did. He heard the muted voices of children as he neared the rear of the library, and as he looked around the last bookcase, he could see about a dozen or so of them, sitting at a rather large, round table.

“Hush now, or I won’t have time to read this chapter today,” said a young man, who was facing partly away from Giles.

Giles froze as he heard the familiar accent. Quickly he walked around the library to the opposite side he had been on to get a better look.

“I’ll be damned,” he whispered to himself, as he was now looking directly at the very familiar, yet different face that Spike now wore. “William,” he reminded himself.

From what Giles could tell, William was reading them a chapter from Homer’s Odyssey, somewhere towards the middle of the book. Buffy suddenly came into view from behind William. She came and walked up behind him and lightly touched his shoulder, while looking at the kids. William didn’t stop, but quickly glanced up at her with adoration, all the while still reciting the story, as if he had it memorized. A couple of seconds later, his eyes went back to the page, finding his spot without missing a beat.

Giles nodded to himself, impressed.

He stood frozen to the spot, while William read for another 15 minutes.

“Aw, don’t stop now, read some more, please,” the children begged when he finally stopped.

“None of that now,” William said, trying to look stern, but only coming off as looking upon them fondly, “you know the rules, any whining and your teacher won’t let you hear the next chapter, when you come back next week.”

“Yes she will,” Shelly piped up, “she likes to hear you read as much as we do.”

That set off some pre-teen girlish giggling.

“Okay, that’s enough,” Buffy said, “I believe that you have a report that’s due for me in less than 2 weeks on Greek Mythology. I suggest you start looking for your books now. Remember I want at least 3-4 references, and I will check them out, so no just listing them. You have to read them.”

Giles had to smile at her very teacher-like demeanor.

“Do we have to read the whole book?”

“What do you think?” Buffy asked.

A boy raised his hand.

“Gage?”

“Only the parts that apply to the report that we’re doing.”

“Sounds reasonable. Say your report is on Zeus, and you take out a book that has all the Greek mythological characters, you can use that as a reference, as long as you’ve read the parts on Zeus. On the other hand, let’s say that your book is just about Zeus, then I expect you to read all of it. A combination of both kinds would be preferable.”

The kids went off to look for their books, with a warning to do so quietly from Buffy, leaving William and her alone at the table. She sat down next to him.

“So, you like my reading, huh?” he teased her, putting a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

“I like everything you do,” she whispered, putting her hand briefly on his face.

He smiled at her in a warm, genuine way. Giles couldn’t recall ever seeing Spike smile any other way than a smirk. This was a smile that spoke a thousand words between them, all in a fraction of a second.

“Mr. W? Can you help me find a book? A child called as she came out from between one of the rows.

“Duty calls,” he said, getting up.

Giles went around to near the row where William was helping the girl. He pretended to be reading the row of books where he was standing, as he looked over the edge of them instead. He did this for another 10 minutes, as William went from one child to another, helping them with their selections, suggesting different books, asking them questions to get them to think on their own. He was impressed with William’s kindness, as well as his knowledge.

“May I help you?” A voice startled Giles from behind.

“Oh, no thanks...oh...hello, Buffy.”

“Giles. I thought you weren’t coming until this evening.”

“Um...I wasn’t, but I finished my business in LA early today, so thought I’d come up and look around. Never been up here, it’s rather a lovely area.

“Yes. Yes it is. So, are you enjoying your sightseeing tour so far?”

Giles turned to face her, “Yes I am, William is...it’s quite remarkable, truly.”

“What I been telling you, he’s...here. Hey, William, this is Giles. I told you he was coming for dinner later. Seems he got here a little early and decided to look me up.”

William seemed unsure for a moment. What did he call him? What did he say to someone who knew him, whom he couldn’t remember?

He decided that formal would be the best, “Um...very nice to meet you Mr. Giles,” William said, extending his hand, which Giles took. “Elizabeth has told me about you. I apologize that I don’t remember you from before, as I’ve lost all my memories of past events, as well as people I once knew,” he said, apologetically.

“That’s quite alright, Sp...William. I’m just very glad to see you and know that you’re doing alright now. And it’s Giles. Call me Giles.”

“That’s very kind of you to say so, Mr....er, Giles,” William said, the name sounding strange in his mouth.

“Yes, well...I’ll leave you both now so you can attend to your students,” Giles said, “I look forward to seeing you at dinner tonight.”

“Thank you. You, too,” William said, once again, shaking hands.

“I’m going to walk him out,” Buffy told William, as Giles started to walk away.

“Okay, luv.”

“Giles!” Buffy said, catching up with him near the front door.

“Buffy,” Giles said, turning, “I’m sorry, I know I should’ve waited until tonight, it’s just as I was driving through town, I saw the library and the school...”

“It’s okay, Giles. Really, it is,” Buffy said, then asked, hesitantly, “so?”

Giles smiled gently at her; “William makes a very favorable first impression.”

Buffy smiled a real smile at him, nodding triumphantly, “He makes a very favorable second, third, and hundredth impression, too. You’ll see.”

“I’m sure I will. Until tonight then?”

“Until tonight.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Giles stomach was beginning to growl as he left the library. He drove around looking for something quick to eat, but with little choices, and nothing quite appealing, he decided to drive back to The Rittenhouse Restaurant. The more he thought of it, the better he liked the idea. Plus, perhaps it would also give him a chance to talk to the owner, whom Buffy had mentioned.

It appeared to be the end of the lunch hour when he arrived, as there were only a few diners and he could hear a vacuum being run in another room and the clang of dishes from the kitchen.

An elderly woman with white hair came out to greet him, “Good afternoon, how many will there be with you?”

“Just myself, I’m afraid,” Giles said, smiling at her.

“Well, that’s just fine, too, isn’t it? I always say sometimes your own company is the best company,” Edna said with a wink, as she led him into the dining room.

A young man came with a place setting and a glass of water.

“Bernie, tell them I said to stop that vacuuming for now,” Edna told him, as he left the table.

“Okay,” Bernie said, as he walked off towards the kitchen.

“They’re ambitious, but I don’t suppose all that racket will make for a pleasant dining experience.”

“Oh, that’s quite alright,” Giles said, looking over the menu and gave her his order.

“Actually, I’ll be coming back here for dinner tonight, also,” he said, “yes, I’m meeting William and Buffy. Um, I believe you know her as Elizabeth?

“You are? How lovely! William and Elizabeth are two of my favorite people in the whole world,” Edna said. “I’ll be right back, as soon as I put in your request.”

A few minutes later Edna was back and Giles asked her to sit down and join him.

“How do you know our young friends? Mister...?”

“Giles. Rupert Giles, but everyone calls me Giles.”

“And you must call me Edna.”

“Hmm, let’s see. I’ve know Buffy back since she was in high school in Sunnydale, and I’ve known Sp...William almost as long. How about you, Edna?”

“Well, I’ve known William since about the mid ‘90’s or thereabouts, but I’ve known his family since the 1930’s. First his grandfather, then later his father, then William himself. Always a Godsend to my family, too.”

“How so?” Giles asked.

As Edna told the tale, Giles sat fascinated. Buffy had told him a few things about how Spike had a very, very long history with the owner of this restaurant. However, never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that Spike would have, not only saved her husband, but once he had died, paid off her debt and basically put her son through college.

“Then, after Elizabeth had thought that our William had died when your town collapsed, she came up here and lived in the house that William had left her in the will.”

“His will?”

“Oh yes, Lawrence had been his father and his lawyer forever. He made out a will before...anyway, leaving his house and all his investments to Elizabeth.”

Giles shook his head, his food forgotten, as he tried to wrap his brain around the fact that, not only had Spike not killed these people, but that he’d built a house, had investments, a will, and a lawyer.

“After she moved here, she was heartbroken. She even changed her name to his, to Worthington, because she loved him so.”

Giles nodded his head, “And became a teacher.”

“Yes, and became a teacher. Then last summer, she found our William in Chicago of all places! And without a memory! I tell you, Giles, it was a miracle that she found him, a right miracle it was,” Edna said, her eyes tearing up at the memory. She dabbed at them, “Don’t mind me, I’m a silly old woman who is just a sucker for miracles and happy endings.”

“I don’t think you’re silly at all, Edna,” Giles said, smiling.

“Thank you for saying so. Anyway, now they’re engaged and I couldn’t be happier. Oh, the lovely children those two will have!”

Giles eyes grew wide.

“Oh my, you didn’t know about that yet, did you?”

“No, I’m afraid I didn’t.”

“Oh dear,” she mused, “please don’t tell them I told you. I’m sure they wanted to tell you themselves.”

“Don’t worry,” he said, patting her hand, “it’ll be our secret.”

END CHAPTER 123