ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 68 - TELL ME THE STORY

"Which is mine, daddy? The fishy that I caught?" Alex said, looking down at all the filets.

"These two right here, Alex. See how I took a little notch out of the sides? That was so you'd know they were yours."

"Okay!" Alex said, and skipped off happily to join Willow & Dawn, who had volunteered to take him to the playground before dinner.

Buffy had helped bread the fish, while Angela took a shower. Xander then took over the cooking of the fish. He handed Ann to her, "Okay, Ann, you let Buffy hold you for a while, so daddy can cook the fish.”

Buffy sat down in a chair with Ann, who stood on her lap, cooing happily, as she played with Buffy’s hair. Then she saw the necklace and brought it up to look at it, trying to put it into her mouth moments later.

“That’s not food,” Buffy laughed.

William had gone inside for a moment. On his way back out, he stopped, to watch Elizabeth sitting with the Xander and Angela’s baby daughter. He smiled, seeing her this way, imagining how it would be, if she were his wife, if it were their child.

Ann tried again, and once again, Buffy gently repelled the mouthing of her necklace.

“You like my birdie necklace don’t you? That's because it's special," she whispered. “See the two lovebirds? William gave this to me a long time ago."

See the initials on the back?” she asked, turning it over, “this was Edna's necklace, and these were her and Wallace's initials. And by design or coincidence, they're the same as Elizabeth and William's! What do you think of them apples? Pretty neat, huh?” she asked, as Ann rubbed her little fingers over the letters.

“Then, after he…after Spike, er, William was… gone, it was waiting for me in Julian, and I’ve never taken it off since! So you see, baby, I can’t let you play with it. But see the birdies? This is William and this is Buffy,” she said, looking at Ann and nodding.

See the birdies? This is William and this is Buffy."

“Buh?” Ann said, pointing to the bird on her left.

“Uh-huh. That’s me, and this other one, is William,” she said, pointing to the bird on her right.

Ann looked up and pointed at the door, “W’um?”

Buffy looked up. William stood there, smiling, his eyes looking at Elizabeth with adoration and love.

Buffy looked him in the eyes and nodded, “Yes, that’s William. And Buffy and William are protected inside this heart.”

“My heart,” she mouthed to him.

He brought up both his hands and ran them through his hair, overwhelmed.

“My heart,” he mouthed back, bringing his right hand down to the middle of his chest.


After dinner that night, they made S’mores and roasted marshmallows. William set quite a few marshmallows on fire, before getting the hang of it. Finally, he learned the art of taking a finely browned marshmallow off of a stick, without getting frustrated by the runny white stuff that stuck to his fingers. He helped Alex with his, too.

Around 11:00pm, they all turned in. Xander wanted to leave extra early again in the morning, as they had at least as long a drive to get half way through Kansas to meet up with Angela’s folks. Xander and his family retired to the tent, the rest of them to the RV.

William had been the last to use the restroom, having let all the women go before him. When he came into their room, Buffy was sitting on the edge of the bed, waiting for him. She smiled at him.

He came over and knelt before her. Reaching up, he took the lovebird necklace in his hands. He turned it over to look at the back for a moment, before turning it right again.

"Would you...?"

"Would I what?"

"Tell me the story? About the necklace?"

"Of course I will," Buffy said, stroking his face, "what do you want to know?"

"Everything. I…I meant to ask you about it, ever the hospital, when you gave me the picture of us that I’d drawn and I noticed that you were wearing it, like you were that day you came to see me."

Buffy took a deep breath and began, "The first time you took me to Julian, to show me your house, we stopped at The Rittenhouse Restaurant, for dinner. I told you about the restaurant before, right?"

He nodded.

She continued, "We didn't realize that it was Valentine's Day and all the tables were reserved..."

"I thought you just said I took you to dinner. I didn't realize that it was Valentine's Day?" he asked her, confused.

"Um...well, the point of us coming up to Julian wasn't really dinner, it was just so you could take me away for the weekend. I needed to get away...from everything that was going on in Sunnydale, and you insisted that I get out of town a couple of days, so you brought p thp there. The point being that it wasn't for a romantic Valentine's dinner that you brought me up there. It was just once we were up there, you wanted to feed me," Buffy said, shrugging.

"I see," he said, looking rather confused. "So we stopped to eat. Then what?"

"Well, Edna came out, seeing it was you. She was so excited, she hadn't seen you in years and..."

"Edna is my friend?"

"Yes. You knew her for a long time. You helped her with her...business, I believe."

"Go on," William said.

"So, Edna sees you and she's cooing, 'Master Worthingthisthis, and Master Worthington that.' Anyway, she insists on feeding us, and she takes us into the kitchen and has us wait there, while she sets up this little room with it's own table, chairs, place settings, candles, you name it. That's where we have Valentine's Day dinner. In our own little private dining room."

"Sounds nice...and romantic," he added, sadly.

"It was. I said you didn't mean to take me away for a romantic dinner or even romantic weekend, but I didn't say that it didn't turn out that way. It very much did," Buffy said, and kissed him softly, her tongue gently probing his mouth.

"What does that have to do with the necklace?" William asked, reluctantly breaking off the kiss.

"Oh, sorry. Duh! The restaurant is on the first floor, but on the second floor, there are antiques for sale. When we were done with dinner, I went upstairs to use the bathroom, and while you were waiting downstairs, you found another little room with antiques, and from what Edna tells me, you just gravitated to this necklace. You bought it for me without my knowing it. And when I was upstairs, I found a very old copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, and bought it for you. So that's the story. We each secretly bought each other a gift that night."

"When did I give it to you?"

"Later on that night. We'd each changed into our pajamas, and when I came out of my bedroom, you had a fire going in the fireplace. We were sitting on the couch and that's when you gave it to me."

"And you gave me the book?" he asked.

Buffy nodded.

"Is it...I mean, do you still have it, by any chance?"

"The Shakespeare book?"

William nodded.

"Of course, I would have never..."

"I'm glad..."

"Of course, you do have that book of Shakespeare's comedies from Dawn," she reminded him.

"I know, but it's not the same...it's not from you."

"I know," she said, knowing why Spike had always worn his heart on his sleeve. It was William's.

Buffy looked at him, kneeling in front of her, her hands in his, as his mind mulled over the story.

"Elizabeth? You said that you'd come out of your bedroom. Did you mean you had your own? We weren't...lovers?"

"We had been. The year before, but then...things happened and we weren't. You, I mean we...had some growing to do, I guess is the best way to describe it. We hadn't been together that way, until that weekend. So yes, it did start out with us each having our own bedroom. You had yours and I had the guest bedroom."

"What happened...then?"

"You mean...?"

William nodded, looking at her intensely.

"I came...to your bed," she said, looking down for a moment. When she looked up, she had tears in her eyes.

"Why? What changed?" he asked gently, squeezing her hands, waiting for her to continue.

A small sound caught in heroat.oat. How could she possibly answer that for him? The world had changed, Spike had changed; she had changed.

"I fell in love with you," she said, in a small voice. The simple truth of it, reliving the story hit her squarely where she lived. It had been the best weekend of her life.

God, he'd never loved anything or anyone more than he did her, at this moment.

Gentle as spring, he rained down kisses on her eyelids, her lips, he neck, as he rose to his feet, and crawled onto the bed, pulling her, to hug her tightly to him.

"Thank you," he whispered.

“For what?”

“For the story," he said, "it felt good to hear a real story…about me. Made it more real; my past life, you know? Makes me...I don't know if happy is the right word, but it makes me rather glad now, certainly less apprehensive, that we're going back home, because now there's a wonderful connection to it. ”

“Oh, William,” she said, reaching out to touch his face, “I was going to tell you about the necklace sooner. I’m so sorry that I didn’t until now…that I haven’t told you…more.”

“Shhh,” he said, running his hands up her sides, “s’right, Elizabeth. Know you’ve just been trying to do right by me. Probably didn’t know what to even make of me, when you found me like I was, in the hospital and all that…didn’t rightly know what to make of myself, sometimes I still don’t…”

"I do," she said, firmly, "you're a good man, William!"

"Am I?" he asked, then added, mischievously, "how good?"

"I'll show you," she said, kissing his warm lips, as her hands caressed him,

And she did.

END CHAPTER 68