ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 188 – THEN, YOU TALK


“Willow? Willow! My God, where did you come from? Never mind that; it’s wonderful to see you! Come in, come in! Why didn’t you let me know you were coming?”

Willow shrugged, before stepping aside.

“Hello, Giles,” Buffy said, moving from where she’d been standing in the shadows to the center of the doorway

“Double surprise,” Willow added meekly.

“Buffy? Oh my goodness, my dear girl, I’m so very glad to see you!” Giles said, smiling broadly and taking both of her hands in his. In that moment, he all but forgot the most likely reason she’d come at all.

“Girls, you are both a sight for sore eyes,” Giles said, looking at them fondly. He wouldn’t have admitted it aloud, but them being there had just made it seem a lot more like Christmas. He shook his head in wonderment. “I just can’t believe it.”

William had quietly come out of the study, disbelieving what his ears were hearing. As he slowly walked down the hallway, he saw her. Her back was to him, as he drew nearer.

“It’s nice to see you, too. Wonderful, in fact,” Buffy said, “but, I gotta ask, what the frilly heck is going on?”

“Going on? Whatever do you...? Ah, of course...” Giles said, a bit deflated as her meaning became clear.

“Elizabeth?” William said, so softly that the others didn’t hear.

Slowly she turned around; heart pounding. There, not six feet from her stood William. To her left she heard Willow gasp and quickly tried to conceal her own shock. His face, thinner than she'd ever seen, made the deep, dark circles underneath his eyes all the more prominent. His hair, unruly and grown out since she’d seen him last, reminded her of how he’d first looked when she’d discovered him living in Sunnydale High School’s basement, after he’d come back from Africa. The clothes he wore, slightly disheveled looking and hanging loosely on his lean frame, told her another worrisome story.

“Merry Christmas, William,” Buffy said softly, venturing a small smile.

Wide-eyed, he continued to stare at her. She was really here, not just a vision from his most ardent dreams, and recurrent sacrifice in his most horrendous nightmares, but here in the flesh.

Watching the play of emotions across his face, Buffy took a tentative step forward.

Shaking his head, he mirrored her, only in the reverse, backing away from her. This couldn’t be happening, couldn’t be real. Please God, not now.

“William? I...”

Just then the door burst open. All eyes turned to the three women who had just come in.

“Hey Giles! You ready for the party? How about you, William?”

Buffy looked at them, then at Giles and William. Nobody spoke.

Finally, Giles cleared his throat. “Girls, this is Buffy Summers and Willow Rosenberg. Buffy, Willow, these are some of our school’s students; Rose, Fatima, and Meghan.”

“Mary,” she corrected.

“Mary, of course.”

“Buffy Summers, huh? As in the former slayer?” Asked Rose. Coolly she sized up the competition and inwardly shrugged, finding her lacking.

Buffy nodded, having trouble taking her eyes off of William for even the few seconds it took for the introductions.

“Nice to meet you. Seems you came just in time for our party; in fact, it’s starting as soon as we get back.”

The three girls had now surrounded William, who himself was still staring at Elizabeth. Only when Rose possessively grabbed his arm, making him wince, did he look away. Noticing she'd grabbed him over the wound she'd accidentally inflicted earlier she adjusted her hold. Buffy also noticed, as she watched the interplay between them with something akin to fascination.

“What are you doing?” William sputtered, suddenly aware that both Rose and Mary each had hold of him by an arm.

“We’re here to escort you to the party.”

William shook his head.

Buffy bristled, ready to kick some sub-slayer butt if need be.

“Uh-uh, William, you promised, and we’re here to insure you make good on that promise,” Rose said, as they started to drag him towards the front door. Too stunned to think or say anything else, William let them.

“Well, hope we see you at the party,” Rose said sweetly, as she opened the front door, and along with the other girls, led William through it.

Following the procession, Buffy could only nod, dumbfounded, as she and William continued to stare at each other until the car drove out of sight. Only then, did she turn back around and confront Giles.

“What the hell is going on!?!”

“Buffy, calm down.”

“Don’t you dare, ‘Buffy calm down’ me, Giles! I just flew thousands of miles to find out what’s going on, only to find William looking like I don’t know what, and then hightailing it out of here to go to a party with some...some slayer sluts! So don’t tell me to calm down!”

“That’s neither fair, nor accurate. The girls have had this party planned for weeks. It had nothing to do with your arrival, which by the way, thanks for having the consideration to let us know you were coming,” Giles said, heatedly.

“Yeah, I should’ve done that. Then William would’ve had time to go hide out in Asia or something,” Buffy said, hands on her hips. “I’m sure you would’ve helped him disappear, seeing you’re the expert on that.”

“What did you expect from him?” Giles asked, ignoring the baiting. “You just pop in here...”

“Whoa, calm down guys,” Willow said.

Giles took a deep breath, continuing in a much softer tone. “Buffy, it’s not that I don’t want you here. Please, don’t think that. I’m very glad you’re here, just as I’m sure William is as well. You just took him aback, is all.”

“Is that what that was? Being taken aback?”

Giles didn’t answer.

Buffy’s shoulder’s sagged as the adrenaline, which had sustained her, now ebbed away.

“How could you not tell me William was here all this time? That he’d come to you? Why is he here? How did he even know where you lived?”

Giles took a deep breath. “To answer your last question first; last year in Julian, unbeknownst to you, I did give William a card with my phone number, and the offer that if he ever needed to, he could call me. The reason being was that I could foresee that he might someday have questions you either couldn’t, or wouldn’t answer.”

The betrayal stung like a slap, and Buffy took a step backwards.

“Such as?”

“Such as The Council’s records, as they pertain to him.”

“I thought The Council and all it’s records had been blown up,” she said, icily.

“Not those that I’d already had in my possession, and that would apply to the totality of files of one William the Bloody.”

“Know what I think? I think this was your way of still trying to control me; by taking away the one person I love,” Buffy yelled. She knew she wasn’t making any sense, but she was helpless at this point to stop herself from dredging up old wounds. “Admit it Giles, you always hated him, and of all the people he could go to who would fuck with his head...”

“Buffy!” Willow warned.

“That’s patently absurd, even coming from you, Buffy!” Giles said, his voice belying his indignation.

“What the hell does that mean?”

“You want to know what that means?”

“Guys! Stop!” Willow yelled. It had the desired effect. She turned to her friend, first.

“You’re not being fair, Buffy. I don’t think Giles hates William. You don’t, do you?”

“Of course not!” Giles said, shooting Willow an aggrieved look.

“And Giles, you have to know how it looks to Buffy, don’t you? No matter your motives, you went behind her back. Again.”

Giles nodded, sighing. He’d always known that his helping William would likely drive a deep wedge between him and Buffy. Apparently, those chickens had now come home to roost.

“Believe it or not, Buffy, I’ve grown quite fond of William and I have no wish to see him hurting. Back in Sunnydale, I did strongly dislike Spike, but that time has long passed. And admittedly, I did conspire behind your back to remove him from the picture, but only because I wholeheartedly believed Spike was a danger to you and the potentials. Furthermore, I believed that you couldn’t see that because of your feelings for him. I was wrong on all counts. Believe me when I tell you that the last thing I want to do, is to cause you any more suffering than you’ve already had to bear.”

“How could you?” Buffy asked, her voice trembling. “How could you let him read those terrible things without...”

“You?”

“Yes, as a matter of fact.”

“William didn’t want you involved in this, that’s why he came to me. Do you really think me that heartless, Buffy? Do you think I just gave him the files, and let him read them without comment, without discussion, without trying to somehow put it into perspective for him? However, the fact remains Spike killed; killed with impunity. Try as I might- try as you might- there’s no good way to soft sell that.”

“William didn’t kill those people,” Buffy said adamantly.

“No, he didn’t. But William is the one left trying to understand why he’s back. He doesn’t understand why he’s alive again for the first time in over one hundred twenty some years, or after burning up in The Hellmouth.”

“He’s back because he saved the freakin’ world! That’s his reward! Isn’t that what the Sandshoe Prophecy said?” Buffy asked, turning to Willow.

“Shanshu. Yep, that’s what it said,” Willow said, shifting uncomfortably. “Still, there are a lot of questions for William to try to find answers to, Buffy.”

“It’s not that he doesn’t intellectually realize these truths,” Giles interjected. “It’s that he isn’t internalizing them, and that’s where it counts if he’s to be able to make some sort of sense of his life and go on.”

“Yes, he does. I know that.”

“William needed someone who wasn’t in love with him to be able to give him the facts, without censorship,” Giles said gently, putting his hands on her shoulders. “Who else would you rather him have turned to? The only other person, with direct knowledge of who Spike was and what he did throughout all those years is Angel. And even if Angel hadn’t been behind what befell you and William, I doubt you’d have much cared for that option. I have no doubt that if it hadn’t been me; William would have sought out someone else to find his answers from. I gave him my card, Buffy, because I was the safest choice.”

“He could’ve told me. I would’ve taken a leave of absence. I could’ve come, too.”

“William also needed to do this without worrying that you would be in pain, right along with him.”

“Too late for that,” Buffy said, looking at Giles. “Doesn’t he know that I feel what he feels?”

Giles smiled sadly at Buffy.

“He needed to do this on his own.”

“So what do I do now?”

“Well, I believe that if you’re up to it, we go and catch up to William at the party. Then, you talk.”

END CHAPTER 188