Cherish The Day
Chapter Five
Buffy was going stir crazy and decided that patrolling was the best thing for her to do and Elizabeth agreed; they went out that night. Elizabeth was quite impressed Buffy’s skill, and was having a fun time telling the Councilmen and women about her.
“Mrs. Giles, she was very impressive. Didn’t even get a scratch on her. Although she did attract attention in her clothes.” Elizabeth relayed.
“Her attire? What about it? That twentieth century outfit that she came here with? You let her patrol in it?” Henry asked.
“Yes . . . . it is what she’s comfortable in.” Elizabeth explained.
“Well I guess that is fine then.” Head Council researcher Mr. Wyndham stated, ending the conversation. The secretary called out the minutes and the agenda for the next schedule meeting and the council board slowly left.
“Chairman Fitzwilliam, may I speak to you for a brief moment?” Elizabeth asked the figure at the head of the table after the other council members left the emergency meeting.
“Certainly Mrs Darcy. What would you like to discuss?” His voice and face held no emotion.
“Well it concern’s Miss Summers.” Elizabeth started.
---
“What do you want Wicca?” Spike called as he saw Tara trying to open his crypt door.
Tara spun around surprised to see the vampire behind her. “I... uhh...w... wanted to talk to you.”
“Really about what?” Spike asked as her brushed past her into the crypt.
Tara followed him in, “Where were you?”
Spike turned to look at the girl, then raised the brown bag in his hand, “Out buying smokes and booze. What of it?”
“Have you visited where the vortex opened?”
Spike visibly flinched at her question. A lump suddenly appeared in his throat as he swallowed.
“What do you want?” Spike asked his voice wavering.
“I wanted to tell you what happened to Buffy. I researched all of my mothers books. You couldn’t have saved her from the vortex. BUT *you* did save her from death.” Tara confided.
The seal of the bottle snapped through the air as she finished her sentence. He looked up at her before he took a placed the bottle to his lips.
“I saved her from death? SO WHERE THE HELL IS SHE? Huh. Why isn’t she here loathing my existence? Why isn’t she here to protect that bloody sister of hers? Why does her voice still haunt me, begging me, not to let go?” Spike exclaimed sadly. He closed his eyes and held the bottle to his lips until he felt his throat burn. The next thing he knew was that the bottle was being viciously ripped away.
“Stop it!” Tara held the bottle away from him, “You saved her. She’s not dead. She’s just in other time period, and because of your interference she didn’t end up in hell. She’s probably living out her life somewhere in your past. Soon it’ll start.”
Spike brushed off Tara viciously causing her to fall and causing the chip to react. They both groaned in pain. Tara got up of the dusty crypt floor.
---
“You think you’re special. You do . I can see it in your eyes. I can see it when you laugh at me. Look down on me and walk around on me. Just one more fight about your leadership. And I will straight up leave your shit. Cause I’ve had enough of it. And now I’m pissed. Yeah. This time Imma let it all come out. This time Imma stand up and shout. Imma do things my way. It’s my way. My way or the highway .” Buffy turned around to find William standing in the door way of her room.
“That’s sounds like an . . . erm . . . interesting song.” William spoke softly.
“Oh it’s Limp Bizkit. A group . . . oh never mind.”
“No. I would love to here about your . . . time.” William stated unsure of the can of worms he might be opening. “You have been the talk of the whole manor for the last week. ”
“Really? I figured as much. My time might shock you.”
“I doubt it.” He replied confidently, “So what is it like?”
“It’s so different from here. Almost a different planet, it seems. Television, cars, the internet.”
“Tell me. I want to know it all. I want to know all about you.” William smiled definitely intrigued.
“Where to begin?” Buffy smiled.
---
“Wow all of that happened to you?” William gasped, “Vampire’s and demons. They really exist?”
Buffy looked up at William’s wide eyed expression and smiled, “I know, it’s a trip, eh.”
“Yes . . . I think.” William answered not knowing exactly what trip she was talking about.
Buffy smiled again as she analysed William. The sharp definition of his features looked gentle to her. His blush looked so natural the slight red that spread cross his hollowed check was euphoric to her senses.
“God you look so different, yet the same.”
“Uh. I am different? How? We met a couple of days ago? How different could I look?” William asked intrigued, “I am in your future some how?”
“Uhhhhh.... No.... I was just....”
“No there is something. Please do tell?”
Suddenly two heavy knocks on the large wooden door stopped their conversation. Buffy sighed in relief, glad that William couldn’t press on with his questions. Since meeting, she had debated whether to tell him that he was vampire in the future. Buffy still couldn’t even fathom how different he was. Sure, Spike had told her about his past, but a part of her thought it was for an affect. Imagining Spike as shy and docile was not easy, but now she was learning first hand. Elizabeth walked into the room carrying two large parcels.
“Hello Buffy. William.” She set down the parcels on the small desk in Buffy’s room.
“New clothes.” Elizabeth announced. Buffy smiled as she ripped open the first package there were various traditional dresses and then at the bottom of the was a beautiful pale blue lace dress.
---
“You ok Wicca? Sorry about that.” Spike grumbled as the pain subsided
“Yeah I’m fine.” Tara dusted herself off
“You think you’re special. You do. I can see it in your eyes. I can see it . . .” Spike sung bewildered.
“Limp Bizkit?” Tara smiled. “Why are you singing that?”
“It’s just in my head all of a sudden.” Spike shook it off. Suddenly Spike saw in his minds eyes Buffy smiling and holding a pale blue lace bodice dress in front of her. Spike shook his head as he sat back further into his chair.
“What? What is it? Are you remembering?” Tara questioned. “Remembering about Buffy?”
“How do you know?” Spike asked his cheek felt like it was on fire. She had kissed him. He looked at her briefly before leaving. She wore a white blouse with a long dark blue skirt.
“What is it Spike?” Tara urged.
“It’s Buffy. I remember her. I remember things. Things that never happened.” Spike answered. He had thought when they first started remembering that he was going crazy. But now.
Tara smiled shyly, “Are you ready to listen now?”
Spike nodded as memories flooded his mind.
Tara began to tell Spike the whole purpose of the Arakor demons and what she had learned from her mother many years ago.
---
“It’s beautiful.” Buffy said as she held the dress to her body and spun around. William smiled as Buffy glowed.
“The next one.” Elizabeth hurried Buffy. She set down the dress and opened the other parcel, sighing as she looked at its contents.. There were three pairs of leather pants, a duster and five white fitted blouses.
“Oh my gosh. Thank you. This must have cost a fortune.”
“Oh that’s ok Buffy. My husband is very wealthy… and I like to spend his money!” Elizabeth chuckled, “There’s another thing that I have been wanting to talk to you about . . . . Something in private?”
“Oh yes . . . Uhmm I should be going home it is getting dark outside. Will I see you tomorrow Miss Summers?”
“Yup. I’ll come by the library tomorrow on your lunch time? And William, you can call me Buffy.” She replied before giving him a quick kiss on the cheek..
William stood stunned for a second but walked out of the door slowly.
“I would like to be your new watcher.” Elizabeth stated a matter-of-factly.
Buffy was stunned. She knew that according to the council, she couldn’t go back home and days had passed that she had cried over that fact.There had been too many to count.
“You could live with me, instead of staying here at headquarters.”
“I.... Uh.... I”
“You don’t have to answer now but think about it.” The watcher suggested.
“You have a slayer, already....” Buffy said softly, her throat suddenly dry, realizing that this was permanent. That she was never leaving 1880 England.
“Yes but she is in Rhodesia. And we do have you here and you have all of your powers still. I believe that I can help you train. You are not the slayer of our time but you are a slayer no less. You can’t stop what you are and I would be honoured if you were my first charge.” Elizabeth explained, never taking her eyes off of Buffy.
“So what you are really telling me is that The Council has given up on looking for a way to get me out of this time. So what your really telling me is. . . .” The tears flowed down Buffy’s checks, “Is that I’ll never see the people that I love again.”
Elizabeth choked back her own tears as she heard the smallness in the Slayer’s voice.
“Buffy I’m sorry, but we have researched and looked into all of contacts and they say that it was lucky that you ended up here instead of the Master Arakor’s lair. I know that it doesn’t comfort you . . .”
“Damn right it doesn’t comfort me. My sister needs me. My mom just d.... and I can’t be here. An-and you people have given up. You want me to stay. This isn’t my place. I need to be back. I need . . . .”
Elizabeth grabbed the trembling Slayer in her arms as she cried, “It’s ok dear, let it all out.”
---
When William walked into the library she was there waiting for him.
“Huhhhh. Mrs Darcy. I’m surprised to see you here.” He said nervously.
“Well our Miss Summers is sleeping in this morning and I wanted to talk to you.” Elizabeth said coldly flipping through a booking.
“Uhh.... yes. Anything Mrs. Darcy.”
“Well Buffy seems to be very attached to you for some reason . . . that I have yet to understand. But she does seem taken with you, and at this point she needs someone whom she can confide and trust. And I have volunteered you for that position.” Elizabeth closed the book loudly making William jump
“Ahhh. Ahhh. Yes that wo-would be . . .”
“I wasn’t asking your permission Mr. Kingston. I was ordering you.” Elizabeth stated as walked out of the library.
“Poor thing.” She whispered smiling as she walked out of the room and headed toward her office.
---
“So what do you do for entertainment around here?” Buffy asked as they walked down a corridor.
“Well we could go to the theatre. Or there are the centres but they tend to attract the wrong crowds. Well there are other things but not things that interest me. There are many social functions and parties.”
“Sounds stuffy.” Buffy replied as they reached a large room with a several beautiful bay windows allowing the setting sun’s rays to drift lazily in the room. The room was sparsely furnished. A large grand piano was off to the side by one of the windows draped in red velvet curtains. “Do you play?”
“Well yes, but I do not . . .” William felt himself being dragged by the powerful slayer toward the piano.
“Excuse me?” A voice boomed from behind them.
Buffy and William spun around to see a tall man dressed in black standing in the shadows of the room.
“You must be Miss Summers.” The man said never stepping out of the shadows.
“Yes and you are?”
“Mr. Fitzwilliam. I am the Director of the Council.”
“You mean like the president?”
“Yes.” He hissed. “I think that you should walk Mr. Kingston home now. We have received information that some groups of vampires have come into London, and it will be dark soon. And we do not need anything to happen to our best translator do we?”
“Nope. I’ll walk him home.” Buffy dragged William back toward the door, shaking off the strange feeling that she was getting as she left the room.
As soon as they were out of earshot they both breathed a sigh of relief.
“That was unusual. I have never seen that man before in my life. I don’t know how he knew my name:” William declared.
“But he’s ‘The Chair’ so I guess he’s the head honcho. Well I guess I’d better listen. Just wait here and let me go change and I’ll walk you home.”
“Ok Miss Sum. . . .Buffy.” He smiled shyly as he dipped his head in embarrassment.
---
They walked most of the way silence, the sounds of hooves hitting the cobbled stone streets broke through the silence. The sound of a scream broke through the night air. Buffy turned toward the direction to find a young woman shrieking at a young but about a puddle she had just stepped in
William and Buffy both laughed out loud until he suddenly stopped in front of a door and announced, “This is it . . . . Buffy I was . . . “
“WILLIAM? Is that you out there?” A shrill voice called out as the door opened slightly.
He groaned, and then took in a deep breath.
“Why are you home so late? Hurry up and . . . . Who is that?”
Buffy looked up to see a beautiful woman. Her light brown hair was pinned onto top of her head and her framed her face. Her high cheek bone and broad nose resembled William to a tee.
“Ahhh Mum, this is Buffy Summers she works for my employer as well.” William covered.
“Well bring her inside here, it is not safe for a young lady to be out this time of night.” The woman ordered.
William ushered Buffy inside as he whispered, “Just do as she says. It’s futile to fight her.”
Buffy laughed as the walked inside of the house. It was beautifully furnished and well lit. A large portrait was above the fireplace mantle of young woman and man holding a baby.
“Where did your Mom go?” Buffy asked softly.
“Probably to go get tea. I am really sorry about this Buffy.”
“It’s ok. Although I’ve never done an official meet the parents thing.”
“William.” His mother sang, “I need you for a second dear.”
“Excuse me Buffy.”
Buffy couldn’t help but stare at the paintings and the cosy surroundings that seemed warm and inviting. She couldn't believe this used to be Spike’s life. Moments later Mrs. Kingston emerged but no William.
Buffy searched frantically waiting for William to walk through the door.
“Slacks?” Mrs. Kingston noticed first.
“Well since it is so late this evening I thought it better to run in pants than a dress.” Buffy smiled awkwardly, “You know, with the crime and all.”
“Very smart. Where are you from? I don’t recognize you accent.”
“The U.S..” Buffy shook her head, “America.”
“Interesting. Well, I am glad to see the person who has diverted my son’s attentions.”
“Huh? I mean pardon me?” Buffy asked as she swallowed.
“Well my William has shall I say had this fascination with a particular young . . . . how shall I call her, trollop and you seem to have diverted those misguided feelings temporarily. And I very much doubt that anyone can be worse than that woman.”
Buffy smiled not knowing what to say.
“Ohhh. So are you to visit family? That must have been a long boat ride.”
“Uhhh no. I have moved here, for good.” Buffy stared at the woman she must have been in her fifties but she looked like she was in her early forties. Her body lean but not skinny. Her face pale and smooth. Buffy looked into her eyes to see those same blue eyes that William had. Although he had some of her features they didn’t look that much alike.
“Well . . .” Buffy glanced at the picture above the mantle and Mrs. Kingston noticed
“No need to say anything. So let me ask you Miss Summers? Your parents, do they not miss you being so far away? I know if my William left me that I would be devastated. He is all I have left. Jeremy his father,” She nodded toward the picture, “Died when William was five. He was devastated.”
“I know the feeling. My mother died a couple of weeks ago.” Buffy declared sadly.
“Oh poor girl. I am sorry.” Mrs. Kingston reached out for the slayer’s hand and squeezed it affectionately. Buffy looked up to see her warm blue eyes look up at her.
“Thanks.” Buffy said as she stood up, “I should be leaving, Mrs. Kingston, could you tell William good bye for me.”
“My dear but at this hour you shouldn’t walk home by yourself.”
“I am going to the Darcy’s.”
“Oh Elizabeth and Cedrick’s well that is extremely good. Will I see you soon? Maybe we could have some tea later on in the week.”
“I would like that.” Buffy answered as they walked toward the door. “Good evening Mrs. Kingston.”
“Good night Miss Summers.
Buffy was completely fascinated by now with Spike’s pre-vamp life as William. It was weird to think of them as two entirely different people, but they were.
William had an extremely heavy workload today and Buffy was bored as she walked through the bustling streets of London.
“HELP! MY PURSE! THAT BOY HAS STOLEN MY PURSE!” A shrill voice screamed out.
Buffy turned to see a young man running towards her. Buffy expertly moved out of the way but stuck out her foot and tripped the assailant. He got up shocked, looking at the petite girl standing before him holding a fighting stance.
He smiled.
Buffy cringed as the pickpocket smiled his front teeth brown and yellow.
“Yuck, dental hygiene. You need it.”
“Pretty lady you’ve messed with the wrong man.” He snarled
“I don’t think so.” Buffy looked at the small crowd that had formed. Many of the women looked frightened.
The man pulled out a knife and Buffy rolled her eyes as he began his attack.
He took a wild swing at the Slayer and she dodged the knife easily and punched him in the face. Sending him sprawling backward into the arms of a police officer who grabbed the falling robber.
“Miss that was very . . . interesting. But ladies should not be fighting men you could have been injured.” Another officer scorned Buffy.
“Oh bite . . . Never mind.” Buffy smiled politely as she walked away and the woman rushed up to reclaim her purse. “I’ve got to remember 1880.”
“Miss Summers.” A voice called from behind Buffy which she recognized instantly.
“Mrs. Kingston. It’s good to . . .”
“Saw what you did Miss Summer’s, I am very impressed.” The woman smiled, “Would you care to get some tea with me? There’s a shop down the lane where many people such as myself frequent. They do have nice pastry there too. If you have a sweet tooth.”
“Certainly.” Buffy smiled, “ But please don’t talk to me about teeth right now.”
Mrs. Kingston laughed as they walked toward the shop.
---
“These scones are the best in the city.” Mrs. Kingston told Buffy as they sat down at a table.
Buffy sat down quietly not sure exactly what to say. She sipped the hot tea.
“So Miss Summers. What are your intentions with my son?”
Buffy began to choke, “Par . . . .don. . . me.”
“Are you all right dear? I didn’t mean to . . . .”
“Uhh ...no it’s ok. Uhmm I was just . . . . it just went down the wrong way.” Buffy covered.
“Ok then. So back to my question. Your intentions?”
“Well I really don’t have any intentions Mrs. Kingston. We are just friends. I have a feeling that he is interested in someone *else* anyway.” Buffy declared.
“Yes I know.” Mrs. Kingston’s lip curled in disgust, “That’s why I am asking you. I think that you could be the woman to take his mind off of that no class, no talent, simpering idiotic, imbecilic, ugly girl named Cecily Addams. I can’t believe that he could fall for such a fake, senseless, dolt of a girl. I don’t care to whom she is related to. Or what upper crust society she *thinks* she belongs to, but she is not worthy of my son.”
“Well, I can see that you don’t have much affection for her.” Buffy smiled trying to suppress a giggle.
“I am sorry Buffy.” The woman smiled slightly. “But she is a dreadful, artificial, abhorrent, ridiculous glut of a woman. I would love to drain her from my son’s mind and I think that you are the person to do it, Buffy. He talks about you all the time now. I really think that you are good for him. A lot better than Cecily. You,re beautiful, smart and a good fighter. And I’ve only meet you on two occasions. I think that you could make him happy, and that’s all I really want for him.”
Buffy blushed as the woman continued to talk. They stayed until the shop closed and Buffy walked Mrs. Kingston home.