ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 64 – THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE


Buffy hung up the phone and turned to Willow, smiling.

"I knew he'd do it! I just knew it!" Willow said.

"I wasn't as sure as you were, but I'm glad he is."

"So, now what?"

"I guess I should call Leroy and tell him when we're leaving. Tell William. Buy anything we need. Buy Xander’s kids something. What do you think we need?"

"Food. I don't know what else."

"I should have asked Xander. I'll call him back later."

Buffy went back in and went into the bedroom.

"You look happy," William said, seeing her smiling.

"I am. The reason I went to see Xander the other day was to ask him if he would help us drive back to California."

"I see. So is he?"

"Yes! And we're going to get to meet his family, too! Oh, and the best part, well, maybe not best, but a good part, is that he already has a RV we can use to drive. It's his in-laws, so he's going to bring it to them in Kansas, drop off Angela and the babies, then drive us the rest of the way."

William just looked at her trying to digest all of it. Xander. Kids. Kansas. RV. "I see," he said, not even realizing that Elizabeth had just taken off her clothes again, and crawled under the covers next to him, until she kissed him.

"Umm," he said, coming back to the very present moment, "what was that for?"

"Remember how I said I was emotionally satisfied," she answered, arching her eyebrows, "think I'm ready for some other satisfaction now, too."

He growled, low in his throat, reminding her of Spike, as he rolled over on top her, grasping her arms over her head for a second, as he pressed his mouth to her breasts, "You're a saucy one, aren't you?"

"That's me! Saucy me! Hot sauce me!"

"Gonna eat you up!" he murmured into her breasts.

"Oh, God, I hope so," she said, and pushed him down lower to show him exactly how.

They lay in each other’s arms afterward, "That was amazing," he said.

"Yeah. You were amazing, William."

"No, you were. I never imagined..." he turned to kiss her, the taste of her still on his lips, "how I could pleasure you in that way. I hope I..."

"You were wonderful, you heard me sc, di, didn't you?"

He smiled, rather proudly, pulling her toward his chest, "Yes, quite. That and I believe you may have pulled out some of my hair."

"Sorry about that," she apologized, giggling.

"That's alright, I didn't really mind. Didn't even really notice it right then."

He lay there, tracing patterns on her back with his hand, as he nuzzled into her hair. Never had he felt more content than he did at that moment. Elizabeth was his. His woman. What a revelation all she had shown him in the past two weeks had been. Love. Life. Love. He had only vaguely dreamed of such a love as he had with her. Never really dared to give into that type of fantasy. He had only hoped that some woman, some day would love him back, make a marriage with him, hopefully not be too cold when it came to pleasures of the flesh.

Elizabeth, though, she just didn't just allow his ministrations; she was a full participant! Many times, it was she who initiated their lovemaking. Warm, hot, sensual, loving, giving, receiving, enthusiastic, beautiful. How could he ever have imagined that some silly bint like Cecily, or those other girls he thought he remembered could ever satisfy him? Now he knew. He was a man, a fully awake, passionate man.

Knowing this kind of passion was bittersweet, though. It made him afraid; afraid of what he could lose, afraid of being alone again one day. To be alone now? After having known this was more than he knew he could ever bear. It’s one thing to have always been alone and only wishing for a great love, but to have had one and then…

He pulled Elizabeth in closer still, "Are you real?" he asked her, not for the first time.

"I am," she answered, not for the first time, "and so are you."

William sighed, "Sometimes I can barely believe you're real; that this is real."

"I know. Me either."

She leaned up on her elbow, putting her hand on his face, "Let me show you just how real you are," she said and with that, disappeared under the covers.

"Oh my," William said, as his eyes closed, "oh my!"

“Real enough?” she asked, looking up.

“Oh, God yes!”


Buffy called Leroy to let him know when they were leaving and to thank him for the use of the cabin and everything he had done. He told her him and his cousin were still planning on coming up the following Friday.

“How you guys doing? You and William?” he had asked.

“Unbelievably okay,” she’d replied.

“His memory come back?”

She hesitated, “No, but things are still good. He’s adapting pretty well, I’d say.”

“Hmmm. That’s good. I’m glad for you. Both of you.”

“Again, I can’t thank you enough for everything you did for me. If you hadn’t been there…”

“You still would’ve figured it out, Elizabeth. Of that, I’ve no doubt.”

“And this place was just what we all needed. It’s beautiful, peaceful…”

“What I tell you?”

“If you ever get out to California, I want you to call me.”

“You know I will. Gonna stay for a couple of weeks with you and William,” he answered, chucking, “me, my cousins, maybe bring Bernie and Dr. Turner along, too!”

She laughed. He’d been a good friend.

“Goodbye Leroy Roberts.”

“Goodbye Elizabeth Worthington.”



The next days passed both slowly and quickly.


Slowly, in the time they spent just being lovers. For Buffy, it was like discovering a part of herself; that not only had she thought she’d lost forever, but one that she’d barely known. Giving herself, loving another as fully as she felt she was falling for William, not holding back, this was the stuff she’d never allowed herself to hope for, wish for, in the past. As close as she’d been to having that, the one weekend with Spike in Julian, it was still tinged with the shadow of The First hanging over their lives.

As her life had been going in the last years, love was surely not anywhere on her radar. She had tried to push the past behind her and just focus on trying to bcapacapable person. A person who could go to school, work at a ‘normal’ job. Love was best left alone.

For William, he felt like he was growing into a person; a man, that he would never have recognized only a few weeks back. Or as far back, as what he considered, his faulty memory, to be. Elizabeth had opened both his eyes and his heart to what it truly meant to be a man. He chided himself for what had, in the past, been his weak attempt to define what love was in his poetry. The love he felt for her was so big, so encompassing, so huge, he knew that he could not even come close. He wanted to love her the rest of lifelife. Love her, protect her, worship her, and never, ever, ever, leave her again. Or do anything that would make her want to leave him.

And they were both terrified.


But the days went by quickly for all of them, too. Now they were in countdown mode, only 5 more days, only 4 more days, and so on.


It was finally Wednesday morning and Xander and his family would be there sometime this evening. The next morning they would be leaving.

The night before had been particly sly sweet, poignant even, as Buffy and William made love for the last night, in which there was just the original four of them there at the cabin, in what had become ‘their bed,’ ‘their home,’ for the past 19 days.

That night he had pulled her over on top him, like he had done in those first days, before they had actually made love, and they had just kissed, for what seemed like hours, kissed and rubbed, and moaned in desire to one another. And when they finally gave in to the passion, it had once again, seemed like the first time.

The next morning had again, been full of that same sweetness of the night before, as if they were reluctant to break contact; to start a day, that also meant beginning a series of endings.

And so it was. When they finally did begin the day, it was doing chores that had to be done before leaving, laundry, a trip to the grocery store, filling up Leroy’s car, putting away things they’d used that wouldn’t be used again. Swimming one last time and deflating the rafts they’d used.

William tried to be of use that day, but most of the chores were done by Willow, Dawn, and Elizabeth. He was assigned cleaning out the grill and putting away the dishes. Every time he looked around the cabin, it made him sad to see the things that had already been moved in that pre-packing way people had of getting ready for an actual move. He looked at the rooms, the furniture, the deck, the lake, and part of him ached to have to say goodbye to it all.

Buffy saw him standing in the living room looking out the window. An afternoon cloud burst had started and the lake grew dark as the storm came in.

She came up behind him and hugged him, resting her head on his back, “Looks sort of lonely, doesn’t it?”

He nodded, “Yes, but beautiful, too.”

“It does.”

“We’ll be okay, you know,” she said.

He nodded, not trusting his voice.

on’ton’t let…I promise you, when we get home, we’re still going to have this,” she said, coming around and facing him, “we’ll still have us, this closeness, this love.”

He looked into her eyes and saw both the fears and hopes that he felt. He took her face in his hands and kissed her lips, “I know. As long as you’re with me, long as we’re together.”


As they were just finishing dinner that night on the deck, they heard a loud horn sound in front of their cabin.

“I bet that’s Xander,” said Buffy, hurrying to get up.

Willow and Dawn ran down the deck steps and sprinted toward the front of the cabin. Buffy started after them, then looked back at William, “Aren’t you coming?” she asked.

“I…I’ll be there shortly. I’ll just clean up here and let you guys catch up for a few minutes.”

Buffy hesitated, then walked back to him, “It’s going to be fine. Xander is great, you’ll see!” Then she kissed him quickly on the c and and hurried down the steps.

“Xander!” Buffy cried as she came around. He was already out of the RV and in the middle of a Willow and Dawn embrace, when she came up, joining the group hug.

“Hey guys, this is my wife Angela,” Xander said as a woman with long dark hair holding the hand of a little boy came down the RV steps,” and this little fellow is Alex, and the baby is still asleep inside, right?”

Angela nodded, “It’s nice to meet all of you, Xander has told me so much about all of you over the years, I feel like I know all of you.”

“I’m Buffy, this is my sister Dawn, and my our friend, Willow.”

“I’ve seen all of your pictures, it’s nice to see you in person now.”

“Alex, right?” Willow said to the boy.

He nodded.

“That’s a nice name and you’re a handsome fellow, just like your daddy.”

“Now she tells me,” Xander said, grinning, and getting an elbow jab from Angela.

“Where’s Spike?” Xander whispered to Buffy.

“William,” she said, using his name with inflection, “is cleaning up our dinner plates, he didn’t want to intrude on the reunion, I think.”

Xander made some sort of face and Buffy looked at him, eyes pleading.

“I’ll behave,” he whispered.

“I HAVE TO GO TO THE BATHROOM!” Alex said suddenly.

“Want me to take you, Alex?” Dawn asked.

He shook his head, and went around the back of Xander, clinging to his legs.

“I’ll take him back in the camper,” Xander said.

“No, take him in the cabin, the bathroom is right off the kitchen, as soon as you walk iant ant me to go with you?”

“No, I can find it, stay here and talk with the girls.”

Xander took Alex by the hand and they walked into the front porch and then the kitchen.

William was standing by the sink, washing dishes when the door opened. He looked as he saw a man with a black eyech, ch, dark hair, a little bit on the heavy side, and atle tle boy walk in.

“Oh, there it is…” he stopped, an astonished look on his face, as he saw a man who looked like Spike, but yet looked very different. His hair was a light brown, and his clothes were subdued. Instead of all black and leather, he wore a light blue T-shirt, tan khaki pants, and sandals. And the look on his face, not at all the smirking countenance Xander remembered.

“Who is that daddy?” Alex asked, as he saw the two men looking at each other.

“Um…this is Spi…this is William,” aid,aid, “William, this is my son, Alex.”

William looked down at the boy and smiled a genuine smile, “Nice to meet you, Alex,” he said, as he squatted down and extended his hand.

Alex smiled back and shook William’s hand. “Nice to meet you, I have to go to the bathroom.”

William smiled and rose up, pointing to the bathroom.

“Want me to go in with you?” Xander said.

“No, daddy, I can do go myself.”

“He might have a hard time with the soap. Oh wait, there’s a little footstool,” William said, and went to retrieve the plastic stool that had been on the porch.

“Here you go,” he said, handing it to Xander.

“Thanks,” he took it in to Alex and positioned it in front of the sink for him. He decided to stay in with him, to make sure he could work the water without burning himself.

They came out of the bathroom, “Why don’t you tell your mommy that I had to go potty too?” he told Alex, motioning to Angela that he was coming to her.

“When are you coming out Daddy?”

“I’ll be right there in a couple of minutes.”

“Okay, daddy! Bye William!”

“Bye Alex!”

“Cute kid,” William said, when Xander came back into the kitchen.”

“Yeah, we kind of like him,” he laughed, looking at Spike.

“How old is he? Three? Four?”

“Four, just turned.”

They just looked at each other for a couple of minutes.

“So, how have you been, Spike? I mean William?” he said, flinching at his error.

“It’s alright. I know that’s the name I used to go by, even though I don’t remember. They, Willow and Dawn, slip up once a while and call me Spike. Even Elizabeth does sometimes. I don’t mind anymore.”

“You mean Buffy, right?”

“Yes, Buffy. I know that’s what most people call her. Her friends at least, but the first time I ever knew she existed, at least since I can remember, I’ve known her as Elizabeth, so,” he shrugged, “a rose by any other name, right?”

“Huh?”

“Oh, sorry, a line from Shakespeare.”

“Oh, yeah, rig Xan Xander said, getting annoyed with the new and improved Spike.

“So what should I call you, then?”

William looked at him, trying to tell if the question was meant to be friendly, or as he suspected, held some other feelings. “Whatever makes you the most comfortable, of course.”

“Okay, then.”

“Alright.”

“So, how have you been, Spike?”

William sighed, it was as he suspected, “Did Elizabeth tell you about the hospital and such?” he asked.

Xander nodded.

“Well, I guess since then, I’ve been alright. I don’t seem to remember anything that I should, so I’m sort of lost as far as knowing how things work,” he laughed, self-deprecatingly. “I guess I’m learning, though. I can work a microwave, answer a cell phone, and even ‘google’ on Willow’s laptop.”

“That’s a start. If anyone can ‘google,’ then I guess they’re doing alright. Do you remember how to drive?” Xander asked, as an afterthought.

William shook his head, “I don’t even like to ride in cars!”

Xander laughed, “Well, you’d better get over that quick!”

“I know,” he said, “gonna be a long drive, huh?”

“Oh, yeah!”

Buffy walked in, and smiled as she heard the laughter.

“Hey guys, what’s ya doing?”

“Um, Spike,” then he looked ovnd snd smiled at him, “William and I were just getting reacquainted.”

“That’s nice,” she said, patting Xander on the shoulder, then walking up and putting her arm around William’s waist. His hand automatically did the same, as he smiled, pulling her in towards him.

The way they were comfortable around each other was not lost on Xander. When he’d last seen them together, he knew there was something strong between them, even though they tried to hide it from everyone else. Anya had pointed it out many times, when he wouldn’t have paid attention. He also knew that Buffy had spent the last night in Sunnydale in the basement with Spike, as he, Giles, Andrew, and Amanda played Dungeons & Dragons.

Although his first reaction was almost anger or revulsion, he quickly checked his emotions, telling himself that Buffy was a grown woman and obviously, William a grown man, and that was that. He’d promised himself, before agreeing to this trip, that he would try to let bygones be bygones, as hard as that might seem.

“I’m going to go out and check up on Angela. Is the baby awake?”

“Yeah, she’s awake, we saw her a couple of minutes ago when she awoke. She’s precious Xander. Ann, right?”

“Yeah, after Anya.”

“I know,” Buffy said, her eyes getting moist. “We’ll be right out.”

“Okay,” Xander said, smiling at her and hurrying out.

“Who was Anya?” William asked, when Xander had left.

“Um, she was Xander’s girlfriend. In fact, he almost married her. Long story.”

“She died?” Spike asked, looking at her.

“Yes. Same time you…the time when Sunnydale collapsed.”

“I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I’m just so glad that we all are here. Together,” she said, and turned around, putting her arms around hid kid kissed him.

“Me, too.”


Buffy and William went out to join the group and Xander and Angela invited all of them to have a look around inside the RV.

“Wow, this is so cool,” Dawn said.

“Yeah, this is huge!” Willow said.

Angela showed them all of the rooms and cabinets, storage, and pullout beds.

The women took a turn holding the Ann, who was just beginning to walk, but still wanted to be held most the time.

When it was Buffy’s turn, she felt a little awkward, having not held one this small for quite a while, but then she settled into a chair, as Ann, studied her face and played with her necklace.

“How old is she?”

“Fourteen months,” Angela answered, just as Ann slipped down from Buffy’s lap and went to her mother.


“Oh, it’s almost 9:00pm,” Dawn said, suddenly.

“What does that mean?” Asked Xander.

“Ice cream time,” Willow, Buffy, and William all said at once.

“The little store closes in an hour, so this is the time every night we make a run for ice cream.”

“I see, well, count us in,” he said, as he scooped up Ann, motimotioned for Angela, and Alex to follow him.

Alex took off in a run, and it wasn’t but a couple of seconds later, that he fell on the rocks. He started crying.

William had been right behind him, and kneeled down to see what was the matter.

“Oh, poor Alex, let me see,” he said, in a sympathetic voice, “oh, you’ve cut your knee on these sharp rocks. How about after we go for ice cream, that you let me see if we have any bandages for it back at the cabin?”

Cry, cry, gulp, gulp, “Ohhhh…kaaaaay,” Alex said, then put his arms around William’s neck.

William smiled at the sudden affection of the small boy, “Would you like me to carry you over to the ice cream store?”

Alex nodded.

“Alright then, seeing as you have a bum knee and all,” he said winking at Alex.

Alex giggled between sniffles.

As they were ordering their ice cream, William said to Elizabeth, “Why don’t you get one of those frozen ice things, too. Alex can put it on his knee.”

She smiled at him, “Good idea! I’ll take one of those red things, too,” she told the girl behind the counter.

“Now this is just for your knee, Alex,” William said.

“Can I eat it, too?” he asked.

“Well, why don’t you just eat your ice cream cone first, then if your knee feels better, and if it’s alright with your mommy and daddy, then maybe you can have it.”

“Okay,” he said, happily licking his cone, which was melting on both him and William, who was now covered in both blood and ice cream, but smiling happily.

Buffy looked at him and smiled.

Xander had been ready to rush in and scoop Alex from William when he first picked him up, but Alex had seen so taken with him, and he reminded himself that Spike wasn’t a vampire any more.

Buffy was standing by the rails of the porch in front of the little store, while the rest of them were sitting on the picnic benches. Xander came up and stood next to her.

“Who’d have thunk it, eh Buf?” Xander said, motioning back to William and Alex.

She looked back over at William and smiled at him, when he looked up, “Yeah, who’d have thunk it,” she said to Xander.


They went over to the swing, to finish their ice cream, then took a walk on the beach and the dock.

Xander and William were on the dock while the others decided to take off their shoes and walk along the shore.

“Do any fishing?” Xander asked William.

“No, I don’t like fishing, I don’t like to kill things.”

Xander looked at him. Was he kidding? He figured not. “Well, that’s just kinda wussy.”

“What do you mean? Wussy?” William said, stiffening.

“As in, ‘wuss,’ a man who doesn’t like to fish,” then went on to explain, “it’s not killing, it’s not like drinking bl…I mean it is killing them, but…you like to eat fish don’t you?”

William nodded.

“Well, someone has to catch and kill them in order for you to eat them,” he said.

“I guess…I just never…I don’t know how,” he said, miserably.

Xander lookt hit him. William was turning out to be as strange in his own way, as Spike had been in his.

“I’ll show you sometime, okay?”

“Thank you. I’d like that, Xander,” William said.


Later on, they all came into the cabin for a while.

As they were sitting talking about the next morning, all of a sudden Buffy cut in, “Xander, do you think you could take a quick look at Leroy’s car? It sounded a bit, um, I don’t know, rough today? I don’t know if anything is wrong, but just hate to leave him a problem.”

“Sure, I’ll go look at it. Want to show me what’s wrong, Buffy?”

“Sure, Xander.”

He looked back at William talking to Angela, Willow, and Dawn.”

“William, want to come with?”

“Um, sure.”

“What are you doing?” Buffy asked him.

“Giving William an education, that you women obviously can’t.”

“Chauvinist!”

“Look Buff, you and Willow were better at lots of things; slaying, magic, etc. So, at least I can be better at engines and carpentry, okay?”

“Deal.”

Once outside, Xander opened up the hood and had Buffy start the car.

“What do you hear William?” Xander asked him.

“I don’t know, what am I supposed to hear?”

“Well, you’re supposed to be hearing a nice smooth sound.”

“Buffy, step on the gas.”

“How about now?” he asWillWilliam again.

“Well, it seems to be rather chugging?”

“Exactly!

William looked pleased with himself.

“Buffy, can you bring me a screwdriver?”

“Yeah, I think there’s one in one of the drawers,” she said, going into the house.

“…and that’s why the air and the gas have to mix inside thginegine…”

“Which is mixed together when you use the accelerator?”

“Good, that’s a simple, but correct explanation of the internal combustion engine.”

“Combustion engine,” William mouthed softly, “you’re going to have to explain that to me again, Xander.”

“Yeah, I will, once we’re on the road, we’ll have plenty of time for that.”

“I look forward to it.”

“You do?” Xander said, feeling some strange sense of pride.

William nodded.

“Hey, Xander, here’s the screwdriver.”

“Give it to William, I want to show him how easy this is.”

“You sure?”

“It’s a screw, Buffy, now, go inside.”

Buffy opened her mouth in protest, then grinned and walked inside. This was going smoothly so far. She crossed her fingers. Just hoped the rest of the trip would be like this, as well.

Xander and William came back inside. William was kind of looking rather proud. And full of grease. Grease, blood, ice cream; it was the first time she’d seen anything on any of his new clothes.

She smiled at him, all the while thinking, she wasn’t going to be able to get those puppies clean anytime tonight. On the other hand, if he could mess with a car, and use a grill, he could learn the finer arts of stain removal!

“Well, cars running fine now, just needed a little fuel injection adjustment, isn’t that right William?”

“That’s right, Xander.”

The women all giggled over the male bonding taking place over a car.

“What’s so funny?”

“Nothing,” they all said.

Xander and William looked at each other and shrugged.

“Okay, time for my troop to hit the hay,” Xander said, nodding toward Angela, “we should leave about 5:30am, if we hope to get to St. Louis tomorrow.”

“St. Louis? As in Missouri?” Buffy asked.

“No, as in St. Louis, Florida.”

Buffy looked at him, blankly.

“Yeah, Buffy, St. Louis, Missouri. I booked a campground, just outside of there. Sounds nice.”

“Oh, okay. Goodnight, guys!”

“See you in the morning!”


END CHAPTER 64

TBC...OKAY, I DIDN'T QUITE GET THEM OUT OF CABIN, BUT THE VERY NEXT WORDS WILL HAVE THEM ON THE ROAD TO ST. LOUIS! HOPE YOU GUYS LIKED THE XANDER PARTS. I REALLY DEBATED IF I COULD FORGIVE XANDER ENOUGH FOR HIS BULL-HEADEDNESS REGARDING SPIKE IN ORDER TO LET THEM INTERACT. GLAD I DID NOW, HOPE YOU GUYS ARE, TOO!

OKAY, NOW FOR SOME PIMPING: I KNOW LOTS OF YOU ARE LOOKING AT THIS PAGE, I MEAN 1000 HITS, BUT ONLY 7 REVIEWS, SHEESH! I'D LIKE IT BETTER OVER HERE IF THE REVIEWS WERE FORTHCOMING. OKAY, 'NUFF SAID. THANKS TO THOSE OF YOU WHO REVIEWED, YOUR KIND WORDS ARE HEARTFELT! AND FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT ARE READING AND ENJOYING (THOUGH NOT REVIEWING) WELL THANKS TO YOU GUYS TOO! (SNIFFLE, SNIFFLE)