ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 84 - TIME FOR GOODBYES

Buffy peeked out the window, careful to not be seen this time. She sighed at seeing all the cars and trucks barely moving.

"See, told you we were going to run into a big traffic snarl."

"Well, that was a good thing for us," William said, looking quite satisfied, his arms behind his head, as he looked up at her, smiling.

She closed the shade and plopped back down next to him, "Yeah," she said, kissing him, "good thing for us, but I think I should finish packing now."

"Okay," William said, and sat up, reaching for his pants.

Buffy finished taking all their clothes out of the drawers and closet and put them onto the bed. William brought her backpack and daypack to her. He only had a daypack and plastic bags in which to pack his things.

"Got a lot of stuff in the past few weeks," he said.

"Well, you didn't have anything, so you needed a lot of stuff."

He smiled at the memories of Fuller's Resort, when he came across the swim trunks and water-shoes in the bottom of one of the bags. He had better memories in the past 3 weeks than he'd ever had before.

"I think I'm going to miss this little room, too. And the RV," he said.

"Me, too. Like a home away from home."

"Gonna miss them, too. Your friends."

"They're your friends too.”

He nodded, "Yeah, sort of feels like it,” he said, smiling a little sadly, “but I get the impression they weren’t so much before; my friends, that is.”

Buffy looked up at him from her packing, and walked over to him, “They're both of our friends, now,” she said, putting her hand on his cheek. “Okay?”

"Okay."

“Arrrhhh!” Xander muttered, “Damned traffic.”

It was 6:30pm and they’d only gone 30 miles in the past hour. Only 10 miles in the past 25 minutes.

“Next time the traffic stops, I’ll drive for a while,” Dawn said, “I’m familiar with this crap and I don’t mind. You should get out of the driver’s seat for a while.”

“Okay, Dawnster, talked me into it.”

They didn’t have to wait too long for the traffic to come to a complete stop. Xander stood up and stretched, “Sheesh my ass is sore,” he said.

“Thanks for that visual, Xander,” Dawn said, taking the seat.

Another hour passed and barely another 20 miles.

“See what the crazy commuters of Southern California put up with on a daily basis, William, “Xander asked.

“Why don’t the people use trains?”

Xander made a guffawing noise, “Good question, except there are no trains. Well, there are trains in Los Angeles, but if you’re going to LA from somewhere else, or out of LA, or from anywhere other than LA to another non-LA place, nope, no trains. People just love their cars here.”

“They love ‘em, because they’ve never been given any other choice,” Willow said.

Xander whispered something in William’s ear. Buffy watched as his eyes got bit, then let out a snort.

“What are you telling him, Xander?”

“Nevermind. Guy talk.”

Buffy and Willow rolled their eyes.


Finally, they were on the home stretch to the airport. Buffy took William aside and told him of how low the planes would be flying and that more than likely, he’d get a good look at the belly of some of them as they either were making their approach to land, or to take off.

William had been staring mostly silently as they drove through some of the most congested areas in the Los Angeles area.

Buffy watched him taking it in. “It’s not like this, where we live. We’re about an hour from San Diego, but San Diego isn’t nearly this crazy. And we’re in the mountains, outside of a very, very small town. It’s peaceful there.”

“Glad about that, don’t know if I’d feel comfortable in the middle of all this…”

“I know. I don’t either, really.”

“Before…when we lived in Sunnydale, what size town was it?”

“Not too large,” she said, “maybe 20,000 – 25,000 people.”

She looked at the lines of worry on his face.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“The town was totally destroyed?” he asked.

She nodded.

He just shook his head. There must have been thousands and thousands killed if an earthquake destroyed all of it.


“Hey, we made it to the 405!” Dawn said.

“Yeah!” Willow said.

“What’s the 405?” William asked.

“One of the main highways around here, and the one that will lead into the airport.”

“Oh, that’s good, then, right?”

“Right.”


“There it is,” Dawn said, “Exit to the John Wayne Airport.”

“John Wayne?” asked William

“Yeah, a famous actor who starred in lots of westerns, they named the airport after him.”

He looked blankly at her.

“Cowboys and Indians.”

“Oh, OH!” he said, remembering some of the old TV shows he’d seen in Michigan.

Suddenly he put his hands up to his ears.

“That would be the planes we were telling you about,” Xander said.

William looked out the window, just in time to see a Southwestern Airlines 707 coming in for a landing. His eyes grew large.

Buffy put her arm around him and patted him on the back, comfortingly.

“What do you think?” she asked him.

He looked at her, awe in his eyes, “That’s just amazing!”

She smiled, “Yeah, I feel that way everytime I see one up close, too.”

“How long did you say it took you to fly to Chicago?” he asked.

“About 4 hours.”

He just shook his head, his mind boggled from the idea that a road trip of such mileage, that could take this long, even with stops and such, could be done in 4-hours time.

“So, wish you’d flown instead, William?” Xander asked.

William shook his head; “Not sure I want to be in anything that fast. Besides, never would’ve gotten to see all the great things I got to see, never would’ve gotten to know you lot. So,no. Glad I went on the road trip,” he said, grinning.

“Me, too, buddy. Me, too,” Xander said, slapping him on the leg. “Got a chance to see all these things, too. Mostly I’ve just flown from one side of the country to the other, so it was great seeing all the middle parts.”

They all nodded.

“Buffy, is this where your car is?” Dawn asked, pointing to a big sign that said, ‘Parking.’

“That’s it!” Buffy said.

“Let me out, Dawn. I’ll ask the guy at the booth if you guys can drive into the lot, so William and I can get our things into the car, or if I have to get the car first, then meet you guys somewhere.”

Buffy quickly used her fingers to comb back her hair, then sauntered over to the man in the booth.

William watched, a pang of jealousy going through him, as he saw the man put back his head and laugh, while appreciatively looking Elizabeth up and down.

Buffy was back in a few minutes.

“He’s going to let you guys pull right up to my car. He said, as long as you were out within 15 minutes, he wouldn’t charge us to unload. I already paid him, too, so at least he knows it’s legit, considering that I’ve been parked here one day shy of 4 weeks.”

“God, Buffy, what did that cost you?” Dawn asked.

“You don’t even want to know!”


They pulled into the parking lot and Buffy directed them to her car.

“There it is,” she said, pointing to the ’98 Red Subaru that her father had given her 5 years ago.


It was time for good-byes.

Xander and William unloaded the bags, daypacks, backpacks, presents for Clem, and the boxes containing the pots they’d bought for themselves from Mesa Verde, carrying them out to the car, and stashing most of them in the trunk, the rest in the back seat.

Xander walked over to William, and handed him a small card. It was his business card with his work email, as well as his home email.

“Stay in touch William. Alex expects to hear from you, too.”

“I will, Xander. And thank you for…for all of this, for driving us all this way…for showing me about cars and baseball…for being such a good friend to Elizabeth and the rest of them…and for your advice.”

Xander looked at this strange little man who’d come so far, had been such a thorn in his side for so many years, a thing to be scorned and ridiculed, feared and loathed, and if he’d had his way on many an occasion, staked. Yet, in the end, he’d come through, not only saving him, before Caleb could finish the job, but also saving the world for them all. He felt a lump in his throat. He grabbed William and gave him a few ‘manly,’ slaps on the back before releasing him, “Take care, William,” he said turning away and going over to Buffy.

“Xander,” she said, “I don’t know what I would’ve done.

“You would’ve done fine,” he said, “Dawn drives, Willow drives…”

“I mean throughout the years, Xander. You were always there, always helping,” she wiped her eyes, “and now you’re all grown up with a beautiful family…I don’t think I could’ve wished anything better for you.”

“Me neither, Buffy. Me neither. Speaking of someone who was always there,” he said, motioning to William, “You know how I felt in the past, but now…well, he seems like a good man. Wants nothing more than to make it work with you.”

“I know.”

They hugged and held on for a long time.

Willow came up to Buffy, “You made it, Buffy!”

“We made, it Willow. All of us.”

Willow nodded.

“Don’t your parents live around here somewhere? Are you going to stop by to see them?”

“Yeah, they’re not too far from where your dad lives. But, they’re coming to London for Christmas Vacation, or as they call it, “Hanukkah Vacation,” she said, rolling her eyes. “I’d sort of like to visit them, but if I do, then they’re going to want me to stay a few days and be hurt if I don’t, so I think I’m just going to pretend I wasn’t even here, rather than make Xander stop for that.”

“Don’t suppose he’s going to stop and see his family.”

“No, I don’t think he’s even talked to them in over 5 years. Probably best he doesn’t. They only made him feel bad, and knowing them, despite what he’s accomplished, they’d find a way to make him feel like he was still stuck in their basement somehow. It’s a mind thing.”

Buffy nodded.

“I’m so glad that you and William are together. Don’t worry so much, whatever comes up, I’m sure you guys will work through it. Oh, and by the way, I’ll make some papers up for him and mail them to you right away. Let me know if he wants me to help with a resume. I heard Xander talking about William’s Oxford background. I’m sure I could doctor up a resume, to make it more…oh, I don’t know, this century!”

Buffy laughed, and hugged Willow, “Thank you. For everything. Tell Kennedy, ‘hello,’ and that I send her my best.”

“I’ll do that.”


Willow and William faced each other.

“William,” she said, “this is good-bye.”

“I know. I wish I had more time to talk to you about England and all the places I think I remember.”

She nodded, “Well, you can always email me. About anything. I check my email every single day, so if you do, I’ll get back with you right away.”

“Thank you, Willow. For everything.”

“You’re quite welcome, William. It was very nice seeing you again. You take care of Elizabeth, and yourself, hear?”

“I will,” he answered sincerely, then hugged her and gave her a quick peck on the cheek, before turning to Dawn.

Dawn looked at him, then threw herself into his arms, teary eyed.

“What’s this, then?” he asked, surprised.

“You, you big, dumb…man, you!” she said, sniffling, “by the way, still going to get you back for that Dawn poem,” she whispered.

He chuckled, “That’s because you were being a brat.”

“Was not,” she said, smiling, though.

“Was, too.”

“William,” she said, seriously, as she pulled away from him, “you were my best friend at a certain point in my life. You were there when everybody was gone, even when Buffy had di…dyed her hair orange and wouldn’t talk to anyone,” she quickly made the save. “And now you’re back and with Buffy. I just wanted to tell you that you’re like a brother to me. Or a brother-in-law. You’re my friend, Spike! Whether or not you go by Spike or William, you’ll always be my friend and I’m so glad you’re back.”

William was overwhelmed by Dawn’s show of emotion.

“Dawn, I…I love you, too,” he said realizing, not only hadn’t he said that to anyone other than Elizabeth, for different reasons, of course, but that he meant it. He did have a protective, warm, and brotherly familial feeling towards her.

Dawn smiled through her tears, “You know you can call me anytime, William, right? If you want to talk, about anything, or about Buffy when she’s being an unreasonable bi…unreasonable,” she said winking.

“Thank you Dawn. I hope you mean that, because of all of you, I can truly imagine myself calling you up to talk, as you say.”

“Well, you’d better!”

“I will. Promise.”

She hugged him hard one more time, then turned to Buffy.

Buffy had watched her and William’s exchange.

“So, what were you telling William?”

“Just that you’re the biggest bitch there ever was, and if he had any brains, he’d run, not walk for the nearest exit, and if he was free, I’d jump his bones in nothing flat.”

Buffy stood there with her mouth opened, then laughed.

“Duh! What do you think I told him? That he’s my friend and that he’d better call, especially when he’s got some dirt to dish out about you.”

“Well, that’s better, little sister, Buffy said, smiling fondly at her, “Dawn, I don’t know what I would’ve done without you!”

“Damn straight!” she said, and hugged Buffy hard.

“You take care of yourself and William.”

“I will.”

“You let him take care of you, too.”

Buffy nodded, “I will, I promise. Now, you go home, call that Dr. John of yours and have some fun. But not too much!” she warned.

“Of course, not.”

“Of course, not. And do well in school.”

“Yes, mom.”

Buffy smiled.


William held the door for Buffy as she got into the driver’s seat, then went over and got into the passenger seat.

“Bye guys!” Buffy said.

“Bye, yourself. Call me tomorrow,” Dawn said.

“I will. Bye Willow, Bye Xander,” she said, as she started the car and put it into drive.

“Bye Buffy, bye William,” they called, waving.

Buffy looked through the rearview mirror, seeing them until the last moment, standing by the RV, before rounding the corner to the exit of the parking lot.

William reached over and gently wiped a tear off of her cheek.

She turned and looked at him and smiled, “You ready for this?” she asked.

He nodded.

“Then let’s go home, William.”

END CHAPTER 84