ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 50 – SOME KISSES, SPELLS, & GOOGLE

Buffy awoke to being kissed by William. In her half-asleep state, she'd almost thought herself back in Julian, thought it was Spike kissing her and responded in kind, for a moment, abandoning the reserve she held herself in, while with William. She pulled his shirt off and was about to divest herself of her nightgown when she opened her eyes and saw the almost shocked face of William staring at her in awe. Deftly, she pulled the bottom of her nightgown back into place.

"I didn't this time," he said, smoothing her hair.

"Didn't what?"

"Didn't ask. To kiss you."

"I'm glad," Buffy said, as they kissed again, him pulling her over on top him.

As if hours of sleep had not been in between their last 'session' once again, they moved with each other, kissing tenderly, then not so much. Kissing, panting, moaning, stopping, and starting - over and over again, until a couple of hours had passed into mid-morning.

"Have to..." Buffy said, finally, between kisses, "get up."

"Why?” William asked, "want to stay this way with you forever."

"Don't think it would last like this forever," she said, kissing him, grinding down on him.

"Oh, God, Elizabeth," he gasped.

Finally, they broke apart and seeing an opportunity, she made a dash for the bathroom, sanity, and some coffee. William tried to grab her, then stuck out his lower lip in a rather, in a rather cute boy-like pout, "Come back."

"No, got to get up. You, too," she said, blowing him a kiss at the door.

God, what she did to him! He thought of her, of his body under hers, he let out a soft groan, as his hand slipped under the waistband of his sweatpants...


"Morning," Buffy said, as she hurried past Dawn and Willow on her way to the bathroom.

"Morning," they returned, looking at each other with knowing looks. Dawn had been woken from her sleep to hear her sister moaning. At first she thought something was the matter, but on further inspection. Well, ear to their door, she got the picture. She didn't know what was with her hearing; if it had something to do with having been 'The Key,' formerly, but she always seemed to have the most acute hearing. Not that Buffy was aware she was being heard.

"I'll be back in a few minutes," Willow said, heading over to the little store to buy some more eggs.

Buffy came out of the bathroom, and poured herself some sugar into her coffee cup and began to put it to her mouth, when she realized she hadn't yet poured the coffee. Quickly, she dumped out the sugar and decided to go for the coffee by itself, black.

"How are you Buffy?" Dawn asked, smiling innocently, "sleep well?"

"Um hmm," she said, absentmindedly, trying to not think of his kisses, the way they were affecting her or of how utterly satisfying and delicious they were. That is, if she ignored that they kept her thinking about them, about him, in a constant state of desire.

"Um hmm," she repeated, as if she hadn't already answered the question.

"Okay, Buffy, spill!"

"Huh?" Buffy asked, looking at Dawn for the first time.

"You two, what's going on?"

"Us two? Nothing. Nothing's going on," she quickly answered.

"Then what's all that moaning I heard coming from your bedroom this morning, huh?"

"Oh, God! You heard?"

"Oh, yes," Dawn answered smugly.

"It's not what you think, not what it sounds like," she added, lamely.

Dawn just looked at her, eyebrows raised.

Buffy lowered her voice; "It's still clothes on. Really. Just...a lot of kissing."

"Seriously? Kissing only? All that moaning coming from kissing?"

"Well, a little bit of friction, too," Buffy said, blushing.

"But still, must be SOME kissing!"

"Yeah. It is. Some kind of SOME kissing," she said, getting that glassy-eyed, far-away look again, as she remembered.

Just then William came out of the bedroom, dressed in blue jeans and the gray T-shirt.

"Morning, William," Dawn said, then mouthed to Buffy, 'sleep well?' to which Buffy gave her a warning look.

"Morning," he said, unaware of the interchange between Dawn and Elizabeth.


"Hey, William," Willow came in from the outside, "sleep well?"

Buffy and Dawn started giggling.

"Yes. Fine. Thank you," he said, perplexed at hearing the giggling.

On the other side of the bathroom door, he stiffened, all of a sudden thinking back to a party, well, really many soirees, where women, upon him either entering or leaving, would laugh. Laugh when they either thought they couldn't be heard, or didn't care if they were. At. him. About him. But this was Elizabeth; she couldn't be laughing at him. She just couldn't. Still, the part of him, the lifelong, insecure part, was hurt by the possibility. So, when he came out, he avoided her eyes. He just didn't dare chance to see some sort of scorn in them.

Dawn was making eggs and William, oddly enough, was staying in the kitchen with her. Buffy looked out at the deck, only to be motioned outside by Willow.

"Hey, Will, how's it going?"

"Listen, Buffy, before William comes out, I've got to show somesomething."

"What is it?" Buffy said, a feeling of dread, suddenly overtaking her.

"I bought the South Bend newspaper, just to have something to read, and I saw this," she said, handing Buffy the paper.


From the AP Wire:
Date: Friday June 13, 2008

A small Cessna plane went down over the Rocky Mountains on early Saturday morning. Before it crashed, the pilot radioed that he was being attacked by a mental patient that was being escorted by two 'interns' to Los Angeles, destination unknown.

It is believed that the other two men were killed first, before the mental patient turned his attentions on the pilot.

The patient identified as Mark Mason, a convicted mass murderer, escaped from the hospital, with the help of two men, posing as interns. It is also suspected that a Dr. Dimitri Polydefkis, who before the escape, chloroformed and locked two nurses in a utility closet, was an accomplice, it was reported in The University of Chicago press release.

Dr. Polydefkis still remains at large.


Buffy had turned pale, as she handed the paper back to Willow.

"You were right, Buffy, they were trying to get William out of there the other night."

"You mean Angel," she said, bitterly. "And I guess your spell worked, too."

She stared at Willow.

"Guess that's something," she said, "I didn't know people would die."

"How could you?" Buffy said, comforting her friend, was was obviously conflicted. "The pilot probably worked for Wolfram & Hart, too."

"Probably."

Buffy looked up again, "He's going to know that they didn't get the right person. That it wasn't William in that plane."

"I know. I've been thinking about that. I...I think there's something I can do, I just have to call Athenea and ask her something."

"A spell?"

"Yes, a couple of them really."

"Is it safe?"

"Yes, it will protect William and his identity. And you."

"I meant is it safe for you, Willow?"

"Yeah, it will be safe for me," she said, smiling at her friends concern.

"Good then. Do what you have to do."

"I will. Right after breakfast," she said, as Dawn and William carried out a big platter of eggs and the coffeepot.

After breakfast, Willow went out to find an area, where her digital phone could get a decent signal, and William helped Elizabeth clear the table. He had been quiet during breakfast, not making much eye contact with him. As he put down the dishes, she turned to him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Why do you ask?"

"Well, for one thing, you haven't looked at me once since you came out of the bathroom."

He looked at her, saw the concern in her face and something else. Hurt.

He melted.

"I just...I heard you and Dawn laughing and I thought it was...I thought you were laughing at...me."

"Why? Why would we laugh at you? Why would I?"

"Wouldn't be the first time a lady laughed at me," he mumbled.

As she tried to remember, it came to her. They had been laughing, when Willow asked him if he'd slept well. "Oh," she said, lowering her voice, "Dawn heard us, well, heard me moaning this morning. She asked me all innocent like how I'd slept, then grilled me. So it was sort of a joke between us. But not at you, honestly."

"What did you say?" he asked stiffly, part fear, part embarrassment.

Buffy put her arms around him and whispered in his ear, "I told her you had the most lovely kisses that I'd ever had, and that's why I moaned, because they were so delicious and satisfying."

He looked at her, eyes wide, partly in wonder, partly in gratitude. "You said that?"

"I did. It's the truth," she said, and kissed him, right in the middle of the kitchen, just as Dawn walked in.

"Sheesh, you two, get a room!"

Buffy giggled and William turned red.

"Dawn, didn't I tell you that William was a great kisser?"

"Yeah, Buffy, you did," she said, rolling her eyes, "but you don't have to give a demonstration!"


Later on, Buffy was sitting next to William on the couch, as he looked at the books that Willow had brought. He kept putting the books out at arm’s length. She smiled in understanding and got up. She dug around in her purse for a minute, and came back and held something out to him.

"Here, try these," she said, offering him a pair of store bought reading glasses, that she'd started using this past year when she started teaching.

He put them on and then picked up the book, smiling.

"Better?"

"Yes. Thank you."

She was only glad that she hadn't picked out the flowered ones. These were just plain, no-rim glasses. Maybe back in California, she'd take him to an eye doctor.

For the next hour, they sat on the couch as he read in amazement some of the inventions of the past 100+ years. She tried to read them too, over his shoulder, but squinted, now that he had her glasses, so he would read aloud a particular passage to her, when she’d ask him about something. Most of the inventions, she didn’t even remember the dates of, having just taken everything for granted. She wondered how it would be to wake up 100 years from now, how things would be all different.

She noticed a couple of times, tears seemed to come to his eyes, whether it was in amazement, or being overwhelmed, she didn’t know. Probably both.

“Why don’t I know all this?” Why can’t I remember all this?” he would ask her, pained.

“I don’t know,” she would answer. That was partly the truth. She didn’t know why he he’d come back with only William’s memories, instead of Spike’s.

“It’s okay,” she’d tell him, patting his leg in reassurance.

He just shook his head. Finally, she took the book from him. “I think that’s enough for now, don’t you?”

“There’s so much I need to know,” he told her, trying to open up the book again.

“I know. I know, but you don’t have to memorize, learn, or even understand it all in one day. Rome wasn’t built in a day, and neither will your understanding, your education of all this. I don’t want you to try to do too much, too soon.”

“But I have to know. I have to.”

“I know. But not all at once,” she insisted.

He sighed and reluctantly gave her back her reading glasses.

“I’ll put these on the dresser, so we can both use them,” she said.

“Men on the moon?”

“Yeah, but not for a while now.”

“Why?”

“Too much money, I think.”

“It shouldn’t matter. 40 years ago they landed on the moon then didn’t go on to other planets? That’s absurd! Obscene!”

“You’re right. And very astute,” she told him, smiling.

He didn’t say anything for a couple of minutes.

“Cloning?”

“Yeah, not the easiest thing to do, I guess.”

“Would you?”

“What?”

“Make a copy of yourself or someone else you loved?”

“Not of me, but…well…even if I did, it wouldn’t be like I could give them the same environment, that the original had, so they would genetically be the same, but they’d still be different. There’s a nature versus nurture argument.

He looked puzzled.

“You know, what exerts the most influence the environment or one’s genes, one’s own inherent nature,” she said, clarifying.

He nodded, thinking, “Both, I’d say.”

“Exactly! Maybe if I’d just lost a baby…because it would still be a baby and hadn’t had much time to be in an environment I would want to do it, but I guess that even then, you’d want to replicate the internal environment exactly. Or maybe not, if I’d just lost it,” she said, thinking about it in a philosophical way, although the fact that she’d even used the word baby gave her pause. It was something that she tried never, ever to think about, and all of a sudden it slipped out.

“Sort of like me.’

“What? A baby? You’re not…”

“I’m like a clone. I’m the same, but I’m different,” he said sadly.

“William,” she said, not knowing what else to say, “it’ll be okay. You’ll be okay. We’ll be okay, too.”

He put his head on her shoulder for a few moments. How would he be okay without his memory? With only false ones? They didn’t seem false, but then, they had to be, what else could they be?

The first thing he’d looked for in the book, when Elizabeth had left him for a few minutes had been on aging. He thought perhaps there had been some sort of miracle medicine developed to keep people looking young for a century. Perhaps it had been some sort of fluke of medicine from the 1870’s or 1880’s. But if they’d had it then, wouldn’t everyone have wanted it? Maybe the ingredients had been lost; the person who invented it killed. He thought, perhaps that had been his secret; and when he’d met Elizabeth! He just didn’t tell her he was over 100 years old, because judging by what he looked like to himself in the mirror, he was late 20’s at most. What if he was keeping that a secret from her? He’d found some way to keep looking young and he was really an old man?

Then, he reasoned, he’d lost his memory, except for the first 20+ years. But that didn’t make sense. Alas, he’d read that the average age for both men and women was now into their mid- late 70’s. That alone was shocking! He remembered that if someone made it to their middle 50’s, they were doing quite well. Still, he could find nothing on miracle medicine, past or present. No miracle drug to make one looking young, being young.

“I think…I think I’m going to lay down a while. I’ve seemed to developed a headache,” William said, getting up, when she’d come back into the living room.

“I can understand why,” she said, pointing to the book. “I’ll bring you some aspirin.”

“Alright,” he said. He’d learned all about aspirin and the uncomfortable art of taking pills in the hospital.

She came into the bedroom a few minutes later. He was lying there on top of the covers staring at the ceiling.

“Here, take these,” she said, holding out a couple of aspirin and a bottle of water to him.

He sighed, propping himself up on his elbows in order to take them, then laid back down.

Concerned, she put her hands on his head and gently massaged his scalp and temples.

He gave into the feeling and closed his eyes.

A few minutes later, she got up to leave.

“Do you have to go?” he asked, opening his eyes.

“I’m sorry, I want to stay, but I need to talk to Willow about some things. You try to take a little nap now, okay? I’ll be back in about an hour. Promise. If you’re still in bed, then I’ll come lay down with you.”

“Okay. Don’t ask.”

“What?”

“You know,” he said, with a shy smile.

She smiled back, “I won’t,” she said, and kissed him then before she left.


Dawn was coming out of the bathroom with her swimsuit on, when Buffy came into the kitchen.

“Oh, Dawn, were you just going to the beach?”

“Yeah, is that okay?”

“Could you do me a favor? Could you stay in the cabin with William for a while?”

“Sure, where is he?”

“Laying down, he had a headache. Nothing serious, just on overload from Willow’s invention books, I think.”

“Sure, where are you going?”

“I have to talk to Willow. Did she show you the article?”

Dawn nodded, “Yes, I saw it. And I also threw it away so he didn’t.”

“Thanks, next thing I was going to say.”

“Okay, no problem, I’ll be here,” she said, flopping down on the couch with her laptop.

“Thanks, Dawn.”

Dawn waved to Buffy as she went out the sliding door to the deck and to find Willow.

She saw Willow sitting on the dock and went to join her.

“Did you get in touch with Athenea?” Buffy asked.

“Yes, and she agreed with what I was thinking.”

“Which was?”

“That the first thing I have to do is to erase everyone’s memory and all paper traces of William Worthington from the past few weeks. From the time that William was found in the museum and all of his time spent in the hospital.”

“That way,” Willow continued, “nobody will be able to look over his records, including any thugs that Angel might send.”

“I’m sure he will be, if he hasn’t already. Bastard,” she swore under her breath, how could he do this to me? To Spike?”

“He’s jealous; of both of you. Spike for the Shanshu that he assumed was going to be his, and you…well, because you love Spike.”

“Yeah, except he’s not really e ane anymore,” she said, giving voice to what she knew now to be true. “I don’t know if he ever will be. Do you think he will?”

“Um, I don’t know. What if he’s not Buffy? Have you thought of that? I mean about your feelings for him?”

“What do you mean, my feelings, he’s still, I mean Spike still had William inside him and I loved him. Them. Ug!” she sighed, her own head hurt now.

“But William doesn’t seem to be any of what Spike was,” Willow said, gently.

“Of course he is, because Spike had William inside him, I mean…” she looked at Willow. “I don’t know what I mean, but I care. No. I love William, too. I loved him when I knew him before, at least the parts I got to see in Spike, so there’s just more of William to love now, right?”

“I guess so,” Willow answered, heavy with new knowledge, she’d just gotten about the prophecy which she couldn’t share, lest it be interfered with or changed somehow.

They sat for a while, just looking out at the water, watching a person put up a dive flag and go snorkeling, watched as a couple of paddleboats took off with happy peddlers.

What if William was never Spike? Never remembered his life as Spike, how he’d felt about her. Did it matter? He seemed to be quite into her right now. Was he remembering, somewhere inside him, the love they’d shared? Or, just as William, discovering what it was like to be a man with a woman? Why did Willow have to ask such difficult questions when she was happy being in the land of De Nile, at least for now?

Shaking the tough questions out of her head, she turned to Willow. “You can erase what? Newspapers? Hospital records? Police reports? All the memories of everybody who ever dealt with William or me?”

“Yes.”

“What about Dr. Turner? And Leroy and Bernie?” she asked.

“What are you asking me?”

“It’s just that…well, I thought that maybe William would want to speak to Dr. Turner if he had any questions or felt too stressed. You know? Maybe even I would.”

Willow thought about it for a minute. “I can do a special spell on them, so that upon hearing your voice or William’s that they remember everything, but the minute that they aren’t, then they will be unable to remember anything about either of you two. Unless they need to mail you something or something like that. But if Angel was to capture them, torture them, or more benignly, hook them up to a lie detector, even then, they wouldn’t know a thing and it would be ‘technically’ the truth.”

“Is it safe for you, for them?”

“Yes, I’ve got the power of the coven behind me on this, so not a problem.

“There’s another spell I need to do, one involving you and William.”

“What is it?”

“I need to do a protection spell over you and William, in particular, so that he can’t be hurt by any supernatural forces. Or any forces hired by the supernatural, like Angel did in hiring Dr. Polydefkis.”

“That would be good, won’t it? That he’ll be protected?” she let out a sigh of relief.

“Yes, you, too. But it won’t protect you or him from being hit by a car or anything like that, ” she said, but to herself thought, ‘or from the rest of the prophecy that might turn out one way or the other.’

“Oh, thanks for that reminder. Crap, he could be hit by a car. Or a bus. Oh, God!”

“Buffy!”

“Okay, okay, I’ll deal with the non-supernatural stuff. As much as there is!” she said, mentally noting all the things that could hurt him. Poison, cars, staple guns. Stop, Buffy, she told herself, he’s not a baby!


Buffy and Willow walked back to the cabin.

“If I haven’t already said it, thank you, Willow. For coming, for helping, if it hadn’t been for you…I don’t know what I would have done,” Buffy said, gratefully.

“It’s okay, Buffy. It’s what I do!”

“Um, I don’t think I’ve asked you, with everything going on, but how’s Kennedy? Did she mind that you were leaving?”

Willow laughed, “What part do you want me to answer first? Okay, Kennedy is fine, but she’s taking a particularly hard summer school course right now. So, to answer your second question, she was rather glad to get me out of her hair for a while, I think, just so she could give all her concentration to studying.”

“Is she slaying?”

“Not-so-much right now, but she has an open ended offer to work for Giles anytime. We all do. I just don’t know if I want to and neither does Kennedy. Of course, for her, it’s different. I think she really does want to get involved, kick some ass, you know.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Do you ever?”

“No, I haven’t since…Sunnydale. In fact, it seems that some of that super-slayer power seems to have left me. Don’t know why, maybe it’s a case of use it or lose it, or just it’s not as strong, once I decided to share it.”

“Faith is still kicking demon ass, from what Giles tells me. He talks to her and Robin pretty regularly. She finished her G.E.D., and has even taken some correspondence college courses. Giles would still like to open a school in Cleveland for slayers, too, but that’s sort of up in the air. Think Robin would like her to semi-retire and start a family, at least that’s what she tells Giles.

“Family?”

“You know, he’s never really had one, since his mother…”

Buffy looked at her.

“I’m sorry, that was thoughtless of me. I forgot about Spike’s history with Robin. Robin’s mother.”

“That’s okay. Are you happy Will? With your life now? With Kennedy?”

“Yeah, I am, Buffy. I like living in England. Even the first time I went there with Giles, it felt familiar somehow, more comfortable than Sunnydale. Of course, that’s not saying a lot,” she snorted, “but it fit, know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I do,” Buffy answered, thinking of Julian and her home. Their home, she corrected herself.

“I feel like I fit, where I live now. Still, something’s been missing.”

“Spike?”

Buffy nodded.

They spent the next 45 minutes just talking like old times, about their lives, their happier memories, and even some of the sadder ones.


As they walked back into the cabin, they could hear the voices of Dawn and William. They were sitting on the couch together looking at her laptop. William had on headphones. He waved.

“This is amazing!” William yelled in the way people do when they’re using headphones.

“What’s he doing?” she asked, giving Dawn a warning look.

“Trolling through some music sites. Classical, for now,” Dawn said, rolling her eyes, “I told William I was going to ‘rock’ his world with a real music education.”

“When did he get up?”

“About half an hour ago.”

“How’s his headache.”

“Gone, he said.”

“So, you were explaining the Internet to him?”

“Not exactly. Kind of hard to explain that in half an hour. I was listening to some music files and he asked me to explain, so I gave him the 15-minute tour. He digs it!” Dawn said, smiling.

“Wonder if he still likes The Ramones?” Buffy mused.

“Who? Oh, yeah, I remember.”

“You do?”

“Yeah, used to hang with him in his crypt and when you were gone, remember?”

“Dawn!” Buffy said, horrified.

“Shit!” Dawn said, guiltily, realizing what she’d just said. They both looked at William, but he had been preoccupied and hadn’t heard them.

They both let out a sigh of relief.

“Sorry,” Dawn said.

“It’s okay, nearly said stuff myself. Kind of hard not to.”

“You’re going to have to explain something, sometime.”

“I know. I just can’t do that to him. Not now.”

Dawn nodded.


The next couple of hours Dawn had her swim; Willow explained how to use a search engine.

“Just Google it,” she told him, when he was looking for a name of a rugby team in England.

“Is google a new verb?” he asked.

“Um, not really, but there’s been so many new words and terms that came with the Internet, we just sort of use them that way sometimes,” she said sheepishly, then proceeded to tell him what Google was.

“I see,” he said seriously. “So, if I was using Yahoo, I’d say, I’m going to Yahoo it?” he asked.

“Not really, I mean you could, though I’ve never heard anyone refer to Yahoo that way. Guess Google just sounds…I don’t know…funnier, more verb-like?”

He shook his head. He’d never get these idiosyncrasies!

END CHAPTER 50