ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 128 - FUN & GAMES

MAY 10, 2009
SATURDAY
10:30PM

William looked down at Elizabeth worriedly, her head resting on his shoulder, as he drove back to Julian, Dawn and John in the car behind them.

Just as they'd started to drink their coffees, she'd suddenly insisted that they should leave for home right then, saying that she had the beginnings of a headache. After they'd gotten to the car, she waited until they'd gotten on the highway, and once she felt that he knew how to get them home, she had fallen asleep.

As he pulled in front of the house, she woke up, smiled at him and apologized for possibly making his arm fall asleep.

"Nah, it was fine, luv. Don't think you're heavy enough to do that to my arm."

She reached up and touched his face affectionately, before getting out of the car.

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

1:00AM

"You guys are so funny! Hardee-har-har," Dawn said, as her and Buffy walked into the kitchen, having just been trumped in cards by William and John, for the second time, as they played Canasta partners.

"We're just better at the game, dear. Admit it!" John called to her.

"Never!"

"Sore loser!"

"Cheater!"

The bantering went on for another few minutes, before dying down. Buffy knew she had sucked badly at the game, which they'd just learned tonight. William had picked it up so much better than she had.

Dawn and John had come prepared, with a box full of different games. She’d felt badly for both William and Dawn, when her sister had pulled out Trivial Pursuit, and then realized when William asked how to play it, that he wouldn’t be able to.
Not unless they had a Victorian Era version, which knowing Trivial Pursuit, it was entirely possible. If not, she’d send them an email suggesting it.

“How much longer you want to play?”

"Maybe we should turn in after this next game," Buffy said.

She sliced some tomatoes and some low fat, low sodium salami and put them on some wheat crackers, topped with a bit of cheese, then put them on a cookie sheet and under the oven's grill for a minute, before transferring them to a plate.

Dawn made up a pitcher of mostly virgin daiquiris, seeing that there was only a little bit of gin to put in them, while Buffy was making the snacks. "Yeah, it's getting pretty late, but I think the boys are all energized by the winning."

Buffy snorted, "Yeah, well, they can stay up and play all night then, but I'm really getting tired."

“Even with that coffee?” Dawn laughed, then stopped when she saw Buffy’s face.

"Hey, Buff?"

"Huh?"

“Something wrong?”

“No, just...I don’t know. When we were at Starbucks tonight, I just got a funny feeling.”

“Funny how?”

“I don’t know. Just kind of got wigged out or something. I’m not even sure what I mean.”

“Is that why you wanted to leave so suddenl
B
Buffy nodded, “Yeah, I just really wanted to get out of there all of a sudden.”

She shook her head again and laughed at her own paranoia, “What did Xander use to say? Sometimes when you see elephants, it’s just elephants. No, it wasn’t elephants. Oh hell, I don’t remember, I’m too tired to remember anything right now.”

“I know what it was.” Dawn said.

“What?”

“Sometimes you see evil coffee, when all it really is, is coffee.”

“Ha-ha! Very funny,” Buffy said, slapping Dawn lightly with a dishtowel.

“By the way, William told me he’s enjoying the self-defense course you guys are taking.”

“Yeah, he is,” Buffy said, a funny expression on her face.

“But?”

“No but.”

“I know that look Buffy, and you have but face.”

“Who has but face?”

“You has but face,” Dawn echoed, replaying an old running joke of theirs.

“Hold on a minute,” Buffy said, and took the snacks out to the guys.

She set them down on the coffee table, which had been dragged out of the spare room, and started to leave.

“Aren’t you girls coming back in to play another game?”

Buffy sighed, “I don’t know, I’m getting pretty tired,” she said, yawning for emphasis.

John turned to William; “I think they’re chicken.”

“Are not!” Dawn yelled from the kitchen.

“Bawk, bawk, bawk,” John retorted.

Buffy rolled her eyes, “We’ll be back in a few minutes, then I’ll let you know, okay?”

“We don’t have to play another game,” William said, looking at her sympathetically.

“William, don’t tell me you’re going to poop out on me, too!”

“John, I just think that everyone’s tired right now,” William said, helping himself to a snack.

“See, some of us have sense John,” Dawn said, coming to stand beside him.

“I was just having fun,” he protested.

“I know, sweetie, but our hosts are tired.”

“John, if you want, I’ll play a card game with you,” William said.

“You wouldn’t just say that to make me feel all better now, would you William?” John said, in a put-on pouting voice.

William laughed, “Nope, just another chance to beat you at something, since I suck at video games.”

“You’re on,” John said, know how to play Scrabble?”

William’s face lit up, “Know how to play and how to win!”

“You wish! You’re going down!”

“We’ll see about that,” William retorted.

Buffy and Dawn walked back to the kitchen.

“John’s really on tonight, isn’t he?” Buffy asked.

“Yeah, he is. Sometimes he gets like that, all excited like. I think it’s because he works so hard. Sometimes he works 80 hours a week, so when he actually gets some time off, he just wants to cram all that he can into it. If he could totally go without sleep, I think he would.”

“Not me. I love my sleep.”

“Me, too,” Dawn agreed, “though being a student isn’t the most conducive to that. I figure, once I’m in my late 20’s I’ll catch up with the sleep thing.

Buffy guffawed, “Don’t hold your breath. I’m lucky if I get 6 hours.”

“Yeah, well, I’ll take your 6 over my 4.5 any day.”

“And yet, here we stand, talking about sleep, instead of sleeping.”

“Sort of like dieting and exercise. At least that’s what I hear. Which brings us back to the self-defense thing.”

“Good segue.”

“I thought so...so, what’s the deal?”

“Well, you know, we’re taking a class. No big
“O
“Oh...”

“Okay...here’s the thing, it’s like when William is really into it, when we’re doing stuff here, out in the barn loft, it’s like all of a sudden it doesn’t seem like it’s him anymore, but more like Spike.”

“And that’s a bad thing?”

Buffy shook her head, “No, not at all, it’s just a confusing thing. All of a sudden, I’m seeing Spike, when really it’s William standing there, sparring with me. I have to remember to hold back a bit, even when he’s really acting like he wants me to let loose on him. I...I don’t know. Sometimes I don’t like it.”

“Why?”

“Because it gets me angry, that he likes it, the way his eyes laugh at me, when he’s all worked up, when he’s coming at me; that he wants to do this with me. He almost acts like Spike, but he’s not Spike...Oh, hell! I don’t know how to explain it.”

She decided not to go into the Spike-like sexcapades, which also stemmed from the after bouts of their sparring, that was at once exciting, but also confusing. Not that it wasn’t still sweet and passionate, but there was just a little something left over from the rush of having just thrown each other about, that seemed to make it just a little rougher, a little more urgent...

“Innocence lost,” Dawn said, a self-satisfied, Psych 101 look on her face.

“What?” Buffy asked.

“You’ve fallen in love with William, Buffy.”

“I...I don’t understand. I mean, yeah, I have. Duh! But I still don’t understand.”

“Yes, you do,” Dawn insisted.

“No, I don’t, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me,” Buffy said, part exasperation, part exhaustion.

“You’ve fallen in love with William. Innocent, trusting, from a different century, William. But, when William spars with you, it reminds you of our not-so-innocent Spike, who you also were in love with. Ergo, William seems less like William, but not quite Spike. The William that you’re in love with, suddenly seems to have lost some of his innocence, ergo, confusion!”

Buffy leaned her elbows on the counter, and rested her head in her hands, “That almost seems to make a sort of sense,” she said, looking up, “in a sort of insane troll logic kind of way!”

Dawn laughed, “That’s me, full of insane troll logic, for my over-tired, over-bearing sister.”

“Hey, I’m not over-bearing.”

“Nah, not anymore, I’m just messing with you. Look, don’t worry, he’s still William inside, even if he’s sparring with you, and didn’t you tell me that you ‘knew’ William, even when he was Spike?”

Buffy nodded, tiredly, “I’d also go as far as to say that when he took care of you, that it was Spike’s inner William that was at the heart of that.”

Dawn shook her head; “It doesn’t matter to me, though. Spike, William, they’re both in my heart, I mean, they’re both different, but my heart doesn’t make that distinction.”

Buffy looked up and smiled, “That’s a really sweet way to put it, I know what you mean, too. I just don’t know why my mind has to make me, as Spike would say, suss things out.”

“Well, I’m not the one in love with him, or them, so it’s really a lot less complicated for me to feel about it like that.”

“Yeah,” Buffy said, smiling wryly as she stood up, “lucky me.”

END CHAPTER 128