ONE NORMAL LIFE / TWO EXTRAORDINARY LIVES

CHAPTER 90 – DRUNKEN REUNION

William woke up and looked at Elizabeth. And as was the case everytime he saw her sleeping next to him so peacefully, he counted his blessings.

He hated to wake her up, but worried that she might wake and think he was a dream again. He smiled, surely if her body felt half as sore as his did, she'd know that she hadn't dreamed all of yesterday. Still...

"Gettin' up, luv," he whispered to her.

She only mumbled back to him, and he didn't have the heart to rouse her to full wakefulness. He lay there with her in his arms a few minutes, until he thought of something. A few minutes later, he found what he wanted in the closet and writing a quick note, left them on the pillow next to Elizabeth.

He then dressed, washed up a bit, and before leaving the bedroom, picked up the Rocky Road stained towels and pan of left over ice cream off the floor.

He started some coffee, looked in the refrigerator and freezer to get some breakfast ideas, and went to the laundry area with the towels.

He read all the backs of the various detergents and stain removers, as well as the bleach and hydrogen peroxide.

He decided on the hydrogen peroxide, Spray 'n Wash, and detergent as his best bet. Hmm...dark towels, dark = cold, but towels usually are done in hot...a conundrum. Oh well, warm then.

Buffy woke up, once again; surprised her arm didn't connect with a warm body. She opened her eyes and came face to face with two beady ones on the pillow next to her. Mr. Spordo looked back at her; underneath his chin was tucked a note. It read:

Dear Elizabeth,

Didn't want yo wor worry, so Mr. Spordo is here to let you know that I'm still about.

Went to have some coffee and look at what we might do for breakfast. If I'm not inside, then I've gone over to the barn to look at the DeSoto again. Won't have gone far.

Love,

William


She giggled to herself, "Thank you, Mr. Spordo," she said, giving the spikey haired pig a kiss on the nose.

She lay back and listened to see if she heard what William was up to. All was quiet, except for the sound of the wash machine. What could he be washing now, she wondered?

She washed up and got dressed, and went out to the kitchen. She didn't see William, but took a quick look into the washing machine. "Oh," she said aloud. The mere thought of Rocky Road made her stomach flip-flop and not in a good way. She didn't think she'd want to see any more of that stuff again for a very long time, if ever. She snickered out loud. "Maybe we should stick with vanilla next time. Or lowfat yogurt…Nah! That would take all the fun out of the decadence!"

She grabbed a mug full of coffee and headed out toward the barn. William had the hood of the DeSoto up and didn't hear her approach until she greeted him. He jerked his head up, banging it on the hood, "Ow! Oh, good morning Elizabeth."

"Ooh, sorry, didn't mean to startle you. Think that's an occupational hazard of all guys looking under a hood. Welcome to the macho world of cars, William," she said, trying not to laugh. She came over to him, giving his head a kiss, followed by one on the lips.

"So what are you looking at?"

"Not sure. Just trying to remember what Xander told me about this and that. Guess I should get a manual or something, so I can at least name the parts with more accuracy than this or that, huh?"

Elizabeth thought about it for a minute, "Well, we could call up a couple of garage mechanics or auto places and ask them where you could get a manual on the old thing."

"Xander said you should never insult a car in front of it."

"Sorrrrry!" she said, grinning, patting the car, "good car, good car."

"Xander said I might be able to order a manual on it through an auto parts store, or look online at something called eBay in their auto section."

She rolled her eyes. If she'd had a dime everytime someone suggested eBay for one thing or another...better yet, if her mother had invested a dime or two when eBay first came out... Come to think of it, didn't she have eBay to thank for her very resurrection? Hadn't Anya or Tara gotten the Urn of Osiris from eBay. Ha! Wonder what The Powers that Be thought of that one!

"Yeah, that might be just the place, they have everything else, celebrity photos to resurrection urns."

"What's ?" ?"

"Nothing, just saying Xander is right, you can probably find a manual for a DeSoto on eBay. We can look later if you want to. Did Xander explain what eBay is to you?"

"World's largest ever auction?"

"Yep, that about sums it up."

“Oh, Xander said I should ask you how long it’s been since the oil and other fluids have been changed in the car.”

She rolled her eyes, having now heard, ‘Xander said,’ about half a dozen times, and she hadn’t even finished her first cup of coffee.

“…he said it’s very important to keep fresh oil in there, even if it hadn’t been run in a while,” William went on.

“Why? Doesn’t the oil lubricate the engine? So, if it wasn’t going anywhere, what’s the point?”

“I don’t know, Elizabeth, it’s all new stuff to me,” he said, pulling himself up to look at her. “So, did you ever change the oil?”

She shook her head, feeling guilty. Spike had told her to change it every 3000 miles, but then her dad gave her a car, and she could just never bring herself to drive it or barely even to look at it, much. “No, I didn’t. I’m sorry. I just never drove it, so I didn’t think about oil change stuff. I think I mentioned something about it to Clem though, once. Maybe he did,” she said, shrugging.

“So, you never even started the car in all the time…?”

“No, again, sorry.”

He exhaled and turned away, with a sort of look men reserved for women who didn’t know things about cars.

Seeing it, Buffy got angry. What gave him the right? Like he knew about cars! Ha! And that look, she’d seen it before, on…on…Xander! Oh, but she was going to have a word with him about teaching that look to William! No, better yet, with Angela!

Besides, she hadn’t asked to take care of his car, had she? ‘Hey gonna die and leave you, but take care of the DeSoto, here’s the house keys, have a normal life!’ These were the irrational thoughts as she walked away.

She tuned on her heel and without another word, stomped back toward the house.

He just caught her face as she turned, “Elizabeth?” he asked, perplexed.

He went after her, “Elizabeth, wait up!”

“I’m sorry that you and Xander think I failed in the car maintenance department, I was a little busy what with grieving, school, work, taking care of this place, making sure my own car was running, all that little woman stuff,” she said, over her shoulder, as she continued walking.

She’d almost made it to the back porch, when William caught up with her. He grabbed her arm and turned her around, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to imply that you didn’t take care of the car, or that you were even supposed to. I just got caught up in what Xander told me. I don’t care about the car, Elizabeth. I don’t even know how to drive it,” he said, sheepishly. He put out his hand to brush some hair back from her face; “I care about you.”

Her eyes softened as he tried to pacify her. “I’m sorry, too. Guess I was just having a moment…a moment ago,” she said, smiling and rolling her eyes, “No big, okay? How about I go get started fixing us some breakfast?”

“Thought I was going to do that?”

“I’ll just start it, and when you come back, you can finish it, okay?”

He nodded, “I’ll be in as soon as I close the hood and the doors.”

“What are we having by the way?”

“Saw some sausages in the freezer. Scrambled eggs and sausages?”

Buffy nodded, “I’ll go beat eggseggs or something equally helpful.”

He laughed and reached forward to give her a kiss, “See you in a minute.”

Walking over toward the car, William thought to himself that he’d have to tell Xander he was right about his warning, women do get jealous over cars!


After breakfast, trying to make up for being so sensitive earlier, Buffy had helped William look for a DeSoto manual on eBay. They’d found some other model years, but not his. She helped him email a seller who seemed to have a lot of DeSoto manuals from other years, hoping he might also have the one William needed, or at least be able to steer him in the right direction.

She also set up an email account for William to use, so he could email any of their friends, or whoever in the future he might request some information from.

She also warned him of spam.

“…and so that’s why you don’t want to respond to anything from someone you don’t know. These people will make it s lik like they know you by putting a greeting in the subject line or say something like, ‘here’s the information you requested,’ and when you open it, it’s some get rich quick scheme or sleazy porn thing.”

“Well, I don’t think that I’ll have to worry about me thinking it’s from someone other than our friends, as I seem to have a very small circle of acquaintances. Guess whomever else I may have been friends with must have forgotten all about me in the past 5 years, or think I’m dead, huh?”

Buffy came up to him and put her arms around him and gave his neck a kiss.

He didn’t say anything, just let himself enjoy the warmth of her arms for a moment, then he asked, “By the way, what’s porn?”

“It’s short for pornography,” Buffy said, looking at him, and he shook his head. “You’ve never heard the word?”

“Well, there’s the Greek word pornographos, which means…” he stopped, blushing, “don’t make me tell you, please, Elizabeth.”

She smiled, hugging him tighter. He was awfully cute when he was embarrassed. “I won’t, but I think you’re getting the idea. There’s a lot of websites out there, well thousands, probably hundreds of thousands that are full of pornography, and they get a hold of people’s emails and try to direct them to their sites, so they can sell them subscriptions to look at their stuff. Totally revolting.”

“I should say! How do they get your email, if you don’t give it to them?”

“Honestly, I’m not even sure, but I think they have software that just goes around to all the popular sites like eBay, and probably thousands of other sites, and if your email is on there, then they just grab it and start spamming you.”

She went on to tell him that she hadn’t had much spam, since she was now on AOL Version 30.0 with the newest spam guards, so he shouldn’t worry. They’d spent about an hour discussing privacy issues, the Internet and other basic rights and freedom issues.

It was interesting listening to him talk about these issues, as she knew how he felt about them was more a reflection of a Victorian’s upbringing than much to do with the past month. For the most part, he seemed to be pretty much in synch with the whe the thought about these things, even if she sometimes played devil’s advocate, just to see how he would react. He was better at understanding the other side’s position, than she thought he would be. She told him so.

“Well, Elizabeth, from what my memory serves,” he said, giving her an eyeroll, “I do seem to remember listening to the debate team at OxfoAnd And I had a class in debate, also. They would assign you a certain position that you had to defend it, whether or not you truly believed it. Lots of times, while doing research, you’d sort of come to understand that opposing thought, even coming to believe it yourself.”

“And if you didn’t?”

“If you didn’t, you’d argue even better, I think, just trying to show that you could…oh, I don’t know…rise to the challenge, perhaps.”

“Sounds interesting. Did you like it? Debating?”

“I liked the research better, but I hated standing up in front of my peers, I just…”

“What?” she asked softly.

“I just was…awkward, wasn’t very popular…”

She spun the chair at the desk around so that he was facing her, “Then your classmates were all stupid! You’re quite the charmer, you know,” she said, plopping down on his lap, “and very popular with me!”

“Am I now?”

“Um-hmm,” she said, and leaned in to give him a slow, lingering kiss.

He groaned, “I love how you make me feel, Elizabeth. Know that?”

She nodded, “Like the way you make me feel, too. And the way you feel,” she said, winking at him, as she squirmed a little bit more into his lap.


They walked to Clem’s along a different trail than they had the day before. Buffy had called him to let him know they were on their way.

Clem had sounded nervous, and William was uncharacteristically quiet on the way over. She overcompensated for her own nerves by chattering the whole way there.

“There it is,” she said, as they came to a clearing. It looked a lot like their house, only smaller in size and with a much smaller front porch.


The door opened as they got to the bottom steps. Buffy looked up at a human faced Clem and smiled. He was wearing a new pair of blue jeans and a nice San Diego Chargers T-shirt. He smiled at her briefly, but his eyes were on William.

William looked up at him and tilted his head a bit, something about the man seemed a bit familiar, but he had no distinct memory of him, just a feeling.

“Clem?” Buffy said, after a few moments of him and William staring at each other.

“I’m sorry, come in Buffy, Spike, I mean William,” he said, holding the door for them.

“You look nice,” Buffy said as she walked in, giving him a little nod of approval and encouragement.

He cleared his throat.

They walked into the living room and looked back at Clem, who still didn’t look like he knew the next thing to do.

“Whatever it is you’re cooking smells really good, but then you always were a great cook, Clem. We really enjoyed your stew the other night. Isn’t that right, William?”

“Huh?” he said, still also staring, “uh, yes, quite delicious, very tasty, filling…”

“Clem?”

“Huh? What?” Clem said, turning to Buffy, finally.

“I’m going to go into the kitchen and check the food, okay?

“Oh, it’s almost done, it might be done. Maybe you could just stir the au jus?”

“The all juice?”

“No, au jus.”

“What’s au jus?” she asked.

“For on top of roast beef,” William answered, “right?”

“Right,” Clem answered, nodding.

“Be back in a few,” she said, reaching up to give William a kiss on the cheek. She also gave Clem a little pat on the arm on her way to the kitchen.

“Would you care to sit down?” Clem asked William, pointing to a chair.

“Yes. Thank you,” he answered and sat.

Clem swallowed, then said, “I forgot to tell Buffy something, I’ll be right back,” he said and hurried from the room.

Clem came into the kitchen in a flurry. Buffy looked up at him, questioningly.

“Buffy, I don’t know what to say to him! He seems so different from Spike, I mean he looks like, he has his features, but nothing else seems like him at all.”

“Clem,” she said, coming over and putting her arm on him, “I know it seems like that. I’ve been through it, we all have, Dawn, Willow, Xander…but the more you get to know him, the more you’ll see that William has always been a part of Spike, too. Just really well hidden. But you’ll surely come to see some part of him you recognize, he was your friend and up here…well, this was the place that William came out the most, I think. And even if you don’t right away, he’s really a nice guy, you’ll like him, I think. Please, Clem, he needs you. You and I are the only people he knows up here. Please, just go talk to him,” Buffy said, her eyes pleading with his.

“About what?”

“I don’t know…anything. If it’s something he doesn’t remember, he’ll tell you so…just please make an effort, for me. Please?”

“Okay,” Clem said, getting ready to go back out there.

“Wait, take this,” she said, pouring two glasses of wine and handing them to him.

Clem shook his head, “Save them for lunch, I got something better,” he said, opening the cabinet under the sink and grabbing a bottle of bourbon.

Her eyes widened, but she held her tongue. It was obvious that he needed a bit of liquid encouragement to get on track.

“Don’t get him drunk,” she said, forgetting about the tongue holding, “he doesn’t really drink.”

Clem nodded and went back out in the living room.

“Hey, William, thought you might like a shot,” he said, holding up the bottle.

William nodded. He’d almost come out to the kitchen, as he was beginning to feel uncomfortable sitting there by himself.

Clem poured and handed William the shot glass.

“Here’s to being back among the living, er, I mean being back home,” Clem said, making the toast, and mentally kicking himself for his choice of words.

The double entendre was lost on William, having just taken it just as a manner of speaking. He clinked shot glasses with Clem and downed the bourbon.

“ stu stuff,” he said, coughing as it burned on its way down his throat.

Buffy opened up the door a crack and looked out, she could hear the low murmur of talk. She smiled and closed it. She’d give them a little more time by themselves before she came out. She checked the au jus, checked the timer on the roast and the thermometer, then sat down with a glass of wine and one of Clem’s many cookbooks.

“So, William, how you doing?”

“Alright, I guess. Better than when Elizabeth first saw me,” he said, looking at Clem, “she tell you about that?”

“Not sure, you mean the part about your being in the hospital and all that?” he asked.

William nodded, “That and I have no memory of…well, anything of my life here or for the past 28 years of it. Not even of her, if you can believe that.”

Clem nodded his head, “Tough break man!”

“But it’s not all bad, sometimes it feels like I’ve been given a second chance or something. A clean slate. Know what I mean?”

Clem nodded.

“And then there’s Elizabeth…she’s,” he smiled, shyly, “she’s pretty amazing, I feel so very fortunate. If it wasn’t for her, I don’t know what I would’ve done…probably still been in that bloody hospital!”

There were at least half a dozen responses that Clem came up with in his head, each one in turn, being dismissed as ‘saying too much,’ in regards to Buffy and Spike’s relationship.

“Well, she loves you man, and Buffy, she’s always been a mountain-moving kinda gal.”


The timer rang. Buffy turned the heat down to low and went out into the living room.

William and Clem were now talking about the DeSoto.

“I changed the oil once about 3 years ago, I was going to do it again, but it slipped my mind,” Clem told him.

“Oh, that’sss perfectly alright,” he said, slurring his words.

“I’ll come show you how to do it in a couple of days, okay good buddy?” Clem said, starting to refill the shot glasses again.

Buffy put her hand over William’s, “The bell rang, I think maybe it would be a good time to go eat now, don’t you?” she said pointedly at Clem.“One“One more shot for Spike and me,” he said, trying again.

“I don’t think you guys need another shot,” she said, once again putting her hand over the glass.

“May not need one, but want one,” William said, then started to giggle.

Buffy rolled her eyes and shot Clem a dirty look, “NO!”

“Aww mom!” Clem and William both said at the same time followed by another burst of giggles.

“Great, just great,” she mumbled, “fine, you guys want to get shit-faced, I’m going to go have lunch,” she said, turning and marched off to the kitchen.

William looked at Clem rather guiltily, “Guess we’d better follow her or I’m going to be in trouble.”

Clem nodded,u’reu’re not the only one. Let’s have another before we face her, what do you say?” he winked conspiratorially.

William nodded and they downed their third shot.

Buffy was already sitting down and starting to eat when they came in.

She didn’t say anything when William sat down and sloppily draped an arm around her, followed by a wet kiss to her cheek, “Don’t be angry, Elizabeth. Just having fun.”

“What you’re going to have is a big hangover,” she said, backing away from his alcohol heavy breath.

“Pssshhh tosh,” he said, waving her off with his hand.

“Pish tosh? What?”

William shrugged.

Clem was staggering over to the stove.

Buffy sighed and got up, “Clem, sit down before you fall down or burn yourself, I’ll serve, okay?”

Clem stumbled into a chair and gave William another wink.

Buffy gave them each a plate of food and poured herself a glass of wine.

Clem grabbed the bottle when he was done and poured a glass for him and William, “What should we toast to?”

“Friends. Good friends,” William said, holding up his glass.

“Good and sober friends,” Buffy added.

“Good friends, sober or not,” Clem said, and they all clinked glasses.

Buffy wouldn’t have minded getting a little buzz on herself, but looking at William and Clem, she figured she’d better be the one voice of sobriety around here. Besides, she was rather pissed at how the afternoon was turning out.

As for Clem and William, they were having a grand old time!

After lunch, Clem invited them to go back to the living room. William accepted, but Buffy said she’d help with the cleanup. Truth be told, she was too irritated with both of them, to enjoy their drunken company much. She finished up in the kitchen then told them she was going to get the car.

“Why?”

“Because I don’t think that William is in any condition for a long hike home,” she answered. “I’ll be back in half an hour.”

She walked home, wondering why the afternoon had to turn out the way it did. Why couldn’t they have just talked? Xander and Spike didn’t have to get drunk to talk to each other. Sure, it had been uneasy, but did they have to get plastered?

She’d never seen Spike that drunk. Well, almost, but she knew William was going to probably regret it, more than Spike ever did by later in the day, or the next morning. She hoped he hadn’t been some sort of alcoholic in his former life. Great, she thought, just great. Something else to worry about.

She got home and got the car keys. She thought about bringing over the mixing bowls they’d bought Clem, but she figured they might get broken in the state Clem was in. Better leave the gift giving until another day. A sober day!

She could hear the stereo on full-blast as she parked the car in front of Clem’s.
She walked in to some hard rock song that she didn’t recognize at first, and with Clem doing his best air-guitar impression, while William was cracking up.

She shook her head at them.

“Buffy!” Clem yelled coming over to her, still jamming on the air guitar and warbling off key to the song, “In the midnight hour, she cries more, more, more. With a rebel yell, she cries more, more, more, more, more, more…oh yeah…”

Buffy smiled her most tolerant, adult smile and went over to the stereo and turned the volume way down, “We should go now, Clem. Thanks for the lovely time.”

“Aww, you guys don’t have to leave,” Clem said, looking deflated all of a sudden.

“Yeah, I really think we need to.”

“I don’t want to leave yet. I’m shtill haffing fun!” William who slumslumped down in the chair said.

She turned and fixed him with an icy glare that partly sobered him up.

“Um…guess I’d better, though,” William said, smiling sheepishly at Clem and staggering up to a standing position.

“Oh, okay, don’t want Elizabeth here to bust your…”

“Clem!” Buffy said, with a warning look.

He just grinned at her and William.

“Oh, wait,” he said, taking the CD out of the player, “here, you can have this.”

“No! You don’t have to do that!” William said.

“I want to, it’s my welcome home gift to you, Spike. You’d better take it, or my feelings will be hurt.”

“Well, thanks! You’re such a good friend,” William said, drunkenly, going over to Clem. They gave each other a big hug, pounding each other on the back.

“We hafff something for you, too. Don’t we, Lizbeth? A nice gift for my friend, Clem,” William said with his arm around him.

“Yes, we do. I’m sorry I forgot it today, we’ll bring it by soon. Okay, Clem?”

Clem nodded, “That’s so nice!” he sniffed.

“Look, Lizbeth…Billy Idol. Clem said he stole his look from me,” he said, grinning like a fool, with tears in his eyes at the same time.

Buffy rolled her eyes, “Did he now?” she asked, shooting another warning look at Clem, which was totally either ignored or missed. She could tell it was going to be a really long evening!

Buffy grabbed William’s arm and steadied him as they walked to the car. Clem stood on the porch and waved.

“Bye Spike, bye Buffy!”

“Bye, Clem!” they said.

He walked in and stood by the window, watching them drive off.

As William looked back once more, he could swear Clem all of a sudden looked rather rubbery.

END CHAPTER 90