ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 143 - AFTERSHOCKS

Buffy quietly shut the door to the bedroom behind her and walked over to the bed. She looked down on his sleeping form, avoiding looking at the bags attached to him, above and below. She closed her eyes for a moment, as if doing so would make the last 12 hours go away.

Had it only been that short of time that their life had been changed irrevocably, by forces she hadn’t even known were working against them? No, she corrected herself; she hadn’t wanted to know. She wanted to think they were safe in their little bubble, and that they could just live happily ever after, like normal people did or seemed to.

Guiltily, she made herself look at the things she had been avoiding looking at, from the makeshift patch on his eye, to the bag that hung off the bed, connected to a catheter. No, this was the result of her pretending that she had, or could ever have a normal life; that and and William’s past were truly were just that - in the past.

She watched as the fingers on the hand, which didn’t have an I.V. in it, twitched a little. Lightly she traced her fingers over his. Still asleep, his hand moved, capturing hers, and squeezing it as though a lifeline. She squeezed back; her heart constricting at the threat of emotions this mere gesture was about to unleash, if she didn’t withdraw soon. The last thing William needed right now, was to be awoken by her bawling her eyes out over him.

Buffy watched him sleep for a few more minutes, before bending over and lightly kissing his forehead. “I love you so much, William. And I’m so sorry that...that this happened. Just please, please believe that we’ll get through it together, I promise,” she whispered.

As if responding to what she’d said, his hand squeezed hers a bit more. Relieved, she gently released herself from his grip and left the bedroom.


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

“A what?” Dawn asked.

“A cult,” John repeated, “did Buffy and William ever belong to a...”

“I heard you the first time, John. I just can’t believe that you would ask...”

He leaned closer to her, “Then how would you describe that both their necks look like they’ve been mauled and bitten by some...something, I don’t know exactly what. I’ve never seen anything like it, but I know one thing. They were both bitten by the same thing.”

“John,” Dawn said, torn between fight and flight, “I can’t...”

“Can’t or won’t?” he challenged.

She sighed, “I can’t; not now.”

“Alright,” he relented, “not now.”

They were staring at each other, at a standoff, when a phone rang.

“I think that’s mine,” Dawn said, running to the kitchen to grab her purse.

“It’s Xander,” she called to John. Somehow, she had thought to call him on the way to Julian, worried that he would leave for Michigan, not ever knowing that the plans had been changed.

“I’m going to check on William,” John called. He met Buffy coming out of the door.

“How is he?”

“Still asleep, but stirring a bit.”

John nodded, “The sedative is probably starting to wear off. I’ll stay with him now.”

“Who’s Dawn on the phone with?”

“It’s Xander.”

“God, I forgot all about him,” she said, hurrying to the kitchen.

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

“Dawn, listen to me. I talked to Giles and something happened the same night at the coven that Willow belongs to. In fact, she was there when it was attacked.”

“Attacked? Willow? Did something happen to Willow?” Dawn said, turning pale.

“Willow?” Buffy said, coming out to the kitchen, “what’s happened?”

“It’s Xander,” Dawn said, holding out the phone for Buffy to take.

“Xander, it’s Buffy.”

“Oh God, Buffy. Dawn told me what happened to you and William last night. I can’t believe that crazy Dru was still...I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“I know...thank you, but please Xander, Dawn just said something about Willow. Is she okay?”

“Sorry, there’s so much...okay, here’s what I know...”

A half-hour later, Buffy was off the phone, recapping Xander’s side of the conversation.

“Xander said that Giles told him, that last night Willow and a potential slayer named Sabrina were at the coven, when around 3:00AM, their time, or about the time that Dru showed up here, they were attacked by demons. First, there was the making time-wonky demons, which I came into contact with back when Warren was playing with me, making menk Ink I had killed Katrina. I can’t recall their names. Then there was a second wave of much more malevolent demons. Three of the coven members died, before the rest of them were able to put up a barrier spell and do something to kill the other demons.”

“How did Giles find out?”

“After you called Xander this morning, he tried to call Willow. When he couldn’t reach her, he called Giles. I guess either he called Willow or Willow called him.”

“So, she knows about William, then?” Dawn asked.

“Yes. I think so. Giles said that she’d be calling me as soon as she possibly can, right now they’re busy with the injured.”

There was a soft tap on the backdoor. Buffy got up, then motioned for Clem to come in. He was carrying a couple of bags of groceries in one hand, Buffy’s purse in the other.

“Hey Buffy, hey Dawn.”

“Hi, Clem,” Dawn said. “How are you? Heard you had a pretty rough night yourself.”

“I’m okay now. Special demon healing powers,” he said, then looked around quickly, relieved not to see John.

“He’s in with William,” Dawn said.

“Thank you for doing this,” Buffy said, taking the groceries from him.

“You’re welcome,” Clem said. “Oh, and I brought your car back, it’s out front.”

“I figured,” Buffy said, pointing to the purse Clem still had over his shoulder.

“Oh yeah,” he said, handing it to her.

Buffy took out her cell phone. The battery was low, so she took the recharged spare from a drawer and popped it in, putting the low battery in the charger.

John walked out into the kitchen.

“Hi Clem.”

“Hi John, how are you?”

“I’m good, and you look fine, considering Buffy said you got beat up last night.”

“Uh...yeah, well...I’m a fast healer,” Clem said.

“How is he?” Buffy said, interrupting.

“He’s awake now. He’s a bit disoriented, but he’s doing better.”

“What about the...?”

John looked at her, then nodded. “Removed; all systems are go, if you know what I mean.”

Buffy let out a sigh of relief.

“You should probably try to get him to eat something. I already told him you would be doing so,” he said, smiling.

“Right,” Buffy said, gathering together a few things from the grocery sacks. She grabbed a snack-size cup of ready-made Jell-O, a spoon, and a can of Sprite and a straw, and some graham crackers, before starting towards the bedroom.

“Buffy?”

“Yeah?”

“He’s still not quite himself.”

She stopped and looked at John, “No, I don’t expect that he would be, but that doesn’t really matter right now, does it?”

“No, it doesn’t.”

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

Buffy pushed open the door to the bedroom and went over to the bed. William was lying there staring up at the ceiling.

“Hey,” she said to him.

He didn’t respond.

Buffy sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’ve brought you something to eat. Just some Jell-O and graham crackers, and there’s Sprite.”

“John says you have to eat something, we both do,” she said, went on coaxing, trying to appeal to his sense of taking care of her, as well.

She smiled as he slowly turned his head towards her, but it quickly faded as she saw the unmistakable look of pain and hurt he fixed her with.

“William,” she whispered, as her eyes filled with tears.

His mouth twitched as he tried to reign in all the various emotions coursing through him; hurt, pain, fear, anger, betrayal, and confusion, to name a few. He settled on sympathy, at seeing her cry.

He brought up his hand, gently cupping the bruised side of her face, “You’re hurt,” he said softly.

She turned her face into his hand, closing her eyes for a moment and letting herself feel a touch of the comfort that she so wanted, but didn’t feel she deserved. Buffy sniffed back her tears, before they engulfed her. She put her hand over his and kissed his palm, before letting his hand go.

“I’m okay, its not too bad,” she said, opening up a Jell-O container and putting some on a spoon for him.

They held each other’s gazes for a moment, the spoon in midair, before silently he relented, allowing her to feed him.

“Better?” she asked, after he’d finished it off, had a cracker, and some Sprite.

He nodded.

“You want anything else?”

He shook his head, “Tired.”

“Okay, I’ll let you get some rest then,” she said, getting up from the bed and straightening the covers for him, as he sank back down against the pillows.

She was almost to the door when she heard him.

“Elizabeth?”

“What?” She asked, turning around and coming back over to the bed.

He hesitated, then shook his head, “Nothing.”

She looked at him for a minute, “William?”

His eyes closed and he didn’t respond, but felt her hand softly caress his cheek, then felt her lips kiss the top of his head. “I’ll be back in a while,” she whispered to him, and he nodded.

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

AUGUST 12, 2009
TUESDAY
4:00PM

After the flurry of activity that morning, the house was now quiet. William slept on; Clem had gone home, and Buffy had fallen asleep on the couch. John had talked Dawn into taking a nap in the spare room, intending to stay awake, and then fallen asleep himself, as he laid on one of the chairs outside.

Somewhere there was a ringing in Buffy’s dream, but she couldn’t find where it was coming from, as she frantically searched. Her eyes opened, and she realized it that the ringing was real. She sat up and reached her phone, which was on the table nearest her head.

“Buffy? It’s Willow.”

“Willow!” Buffy said.

“Oh God,” they both said at once.

“Xander told me what happened to you guys. Dru came? What did she want?”

Buffy laughed hollowly, “What didn’t she want?” she said, walking towards the kitchen, and away from within ear shot of the bedroom, “To kill and turn William again, kill me, who knows, she’s...she was a vampire. Crazier than a loon, too. One thing I know for sure is that Angel was behind it. She said he told her that he’d take care of me, himself.”

“But she’s dead? I mean...”

“Dusted,” Buffy said, taking a bottle of water out to the back porch, “William got in the killing blow. Chopped her head right off.”

“Oh God, Buffy. Poor William. How is he?”

Buffy told her about what had happened since.

“I’m so sorry, Buffy.”

“Me, too. I heard what happened to your coven. I’m so glad you weren’t...I’m so sorry it happened to people you know.”

“Thanks, I know you are, Buffy. “I’ “I’m sorry to ask you this Willow, but is what happened to the coven have to do with why the protection spell failed? Or did it fail earlier?”

“No, I’d bet my membership in the coven that this was definitely orchestrated to cause the failure of the protection spell, Buffy.”

“God, all those people dead because of us,” Buffy said.

“No, not because of you; because of Angel,” Willow said darkly, trying to keep herself in check, “and we’ll most definitely be dealing with him.”

“Good,” Buffy said, wondering how she might deal with him as well.

“There’s something else to consider, Buffy. There had to have been a locating spell done on you and William, in order for Dru to be there at the exact time, that the protection spell would be broken. I don’t think that Angel thought that it would be broken for long, so he had to have a window of opportunity in order for her to be there at the exact time.”

“So, what does that mean?”

“It means, that he had to have something of yours and Williams, in order to do the protection spell. Something personal that would retain some molecular component of yours still on it; sweat, hair, saliva, tears; that sort of thing.”

“Well, maybe he had something of William’s from the hospital still. Maybe mine, too, though I can’t imagine what.”

“I don’t know. I think it’s more likely that somewhere you were spotted around where you live and there was an opportunity to get thinthing of yours.”

“I can’t...we haven’t been to a beauty parlor to take care of my hair in I don’t know how long; and I’ve cut both of ours. Saliva...where would I leave saliva? Dentists? Evil dentists? I don’t even have one right now, evil or otherwise.”

“Well, you can leave saliva on lots of things.”

“And to that, a big ewww!”

“No, think about it Buffy. You leave it on silverware when you eat somewhere, on glasses, cups, those sorts of things.”

Something at the back of Buffy’s mind was starting to nag at her. “Yeah, I guess so...I don’t know. I can’t think right now. Oh, sweat...we did probably leave some sweat around the gyms that we’ve taken classes at recently. You think someone is going around collecting our sweat?”

“I wouldn’t put it past them, if they were looking to get it from you.”

“But, say there was someone working for Angel at our gym, if they knew who we were, then they wouldn’t need a locator spell, right? I mean, around here, we use our names, we go to school, restaurants, etc. Couldn’t they just have followed us then?”

No, the protection spell prevented that. It also had an immediate dampening effect on anybody trying to recall your names; it was the way it was set up. However, once someone located you by other means, say they had a physical description of you or a picture, all they had to do was somehow get a piece of your essence, so to speak. Then once the protection spell was broken, it could be used to pinpoint your exact location and used at the very moment it was needed.”

“What about the protection spell? Right now Angel could be sending something or someone else...”

“Just hang tight, Buffy,” Willow said, “We’re working on restoring it. As soon as some of the members of the coven from Inverness come down tomorrow morning, we’ll get it right back into place. This time it won’t be able to be broken, I promise you that.”

“Thank you. But for tonight, should I...do you think we’re safe here?”

“I think that Angel must have had very specific plans to have orchestrated this whole thing on two continents on once. I doubt he’d have thought he’d need a backup plan, as well. That’s my opinion.”

“In other words, he wouldn’t have had time to put something else into place.”

“I don’t think so, but I can’t be sure. Maybe you guys could still go to Michigan, or...oh, I guess you missed your flight already, huh?”

“God, what was I thinking Willow?”

“Buffy? What do you mean? Oh, Buffy,” Willow said, hearing her start to cry.

“Damnit, Willow! I couldn’t even protect him! I’m the fucking slayer and I couldn’t...I was so stupid to think that everything was going to be alright, everything was safe,” she said, laughing bitterly. “Not to mention, I don’t seem to be as strong as I once was... It’s...he’s...I don’t know what I’m going to do, what I’m going to say to him, Willow? I’m so afraid of what he’s going to say, how he’s...I should’ve told him; he shouldn’t have had to find out this way!”

"You just wanted to protect him, Buffy. You just didn't want him to get hurt."

"You mean I didn't want to be the one to hurt him with the truth, but instead..." her voice wandered off and she wiped angrily at her eyes, "instead I left him open like a sitting duck. At least if he'd known, even if he would've...he might have been prepared for it."

"Buffy, unless he was chosen to be The Slayer like you were, I doubt he would've been ready for it anyway. It still would've been a shock to see Drusilla."

"There's even pictures."

"Pictures? What?"

"Of Drusilla, well, not photos, but drawings that Spike drew over 100 years ago. If I would have only shown him those and told him who she was, then he wouldn't have invited her in; she wouldn't have been able to hurt him."

"No? She could've waited for William to come outside last night. She wouldn't have needed an invitation then," Willow said, sighing as she searched for some words of wisdom or comfort, anything, which might help her.

"There's nothing you can do now about the past Buffy; what's done is done. It's what you do to help William cope with this now, and in the future; that's going to count in the long run."

“It’s not that easy,” Buffy said.

“Who said anything about easy? I haven’t forgotten who I’m talking to, you know?” Willow said.

She was glad to get a laugh out of Buffy for that.

“Buffy, it’s going to be okay. Just trust in yourself. You love each other, and you’ll work it out,” Willow said.

“I hope so,” Buffy said.

“You will. You’ll see. Listen, I’ll call tomorrow to let you know as soon as the protection spell is back in place.”

“Okay,” Buffy said, taking a deep breath. “Good-night Willow. I’m glad you’re safe.”

“You, too. Talk to you tomorrow. Bye.”

Trust. It was a little word, but it meant the world. It was she who couldn’t trust Spike at first and then later, much later, not her own feelings as they developed for him. Then he became the only person she could fully trust when her back was against the wall and it seemed that everyone else was against her.

Trust. A little word, which meant the world. She trusted him to be a good man now, and he had trusted her to show him the world, as he believed it was. Trusted her to show him his place in it, and how he fit.

Trust. A little word, which made the world a safe place. How would William perceive her, and what she hadn’t told him, in relation to that word now?

Trust. A little word one takes so long to build their world around, but only a moment to tear apart.

END CHAPTER 143