The Story So Far

Author: Darcy Daliet

Disclaimers: All characters belong to Joss, Mutant Enemy etc etc……I have just borrowed them to perform my twisted bidding mwahaahaahaa!!!

Spoiliers: None its completely AU

Pairings: B/S, X/A, W/T

Rating:R

Summary: Buffy has overcome tragedy and heartbreak to become a successful businesswoman. Life is good until an old flame returns to haunt her. Can she put the past behind her, or will she let it destroy her again.

A big thanks to my fabulous Betas, Rebecca and Mercy…without you guys this would have been an impossible task!!!

This is my first fic, so please review…….pretty please.

Chapter One

“B! Hey B!!! Girl get with the program!” Faith unclipped her hair and shook it out laughing.

“Come on B, we got some serious planning to do here, we are gonna have some wicked fun”. Buffy sat up with a jolt, she had been miles away immersed in her thoughts, totally distracted from her friend sat across the table.

“Sorry Faith, I guess I am just thinking about chickens,” she mumbled. The girl sat across from her looked puzzled.

“I mean chickens, as in of the not counting variety,” Buffy explained.

“Buff, the job’s yours, it’s a done deal baby.” Faith said confidently as she ran her fingers through her long dark hair. Buffy was less confident though, she had tried to explain to Faith that organizing a party to celebrate before she even knew if she had the promotion was a little crazy, but then crazy was what Faith did best.

Faith and Buffy were an unlikely partnership, they had been thrown together in high school, and despite all their differences had managed to stay firm friends ever since. Buffy was what Faith described as a ‘perfect’ woman. Always well turned out, never a hair out of place, and a hard worker. Faith, on the other hand, was a party girl through and through. Her clothes were always a bit ‘out there’, her hair always slightly crazy. She toned it down for work, but Buffy couldn’t help but notice that she always had a look about her as if she had been interrupted in the middle of some wild session. She oozed sex appeal from every pore of her body, even when she was just sitting watching the TV. Buffy admired her sheer love of life, and longing to experience everything, she wished she could have a piece of that in her. She wished she could let go sometimes and just not care about the consequences. However, she was good, dependable, never goes to the bad side Buffy. Sure she lied on her CV once, oh and she told the guy in the coffee shop she was a famous artist and got free lattes for a week. “Oh yeah, I am one crazy chick” she laughed to herself.

“Helloooo earth to B!” Buffy looked up realising she had been off with the fairies again.

“Damn Buffy, come on girl, we have to organise your big ‘I am the main woman’ party here!” Faith reached over and pulled the band from Buffy’s hair, then ran her fingers through her hair scrunching it all up. Buffy looked at her reflection and laughed, she had the ‘freshly fucked’ look Faith so favoured.

“Faith I just don’t want to go all Buffy celebratey till I know its mine.” Buffy begged. The brunette had been pulling pieces off the paper tablecloth and was systematically rolling them and flicking them at Buffy’s head.

“Come on its gonna be wild, I mean you’re the big boss woman.” Faith smiled her oh so bad smile.

“ Hey Buff, now you’re my boss does that mean I can come in late and have an extra long lunch?” Buffy smiled and leaned over towards the other girl.

“ Na it means you’ll be my bitch” Both girls collapsed in hysterics, which seemed to attract the attention of the rest of the coffee shop, who looked on bemused, clearly unaware of the joke.

Buffy and Faith both worked at WP Publications. Faith started from high school, Buffy after the first year at college. She had to leave after the sudden death of her mother, as she voluntarily became the guardian of her younger sister Dawn. Dad was still around, somewhere, but he didn’t really care for the whole family thing. She didn’t want to see her little sis go into care, and to be honest she was seriously flunking out of college anyway, so when Wesley offered her the job she jumped at the chance.

Wesley had been a good friend to her mother for as long as she remembered. In fact he had been present at more birthdays, Christmas’ and Thanksgivings than her father ever had, so he felt like family to her. She’d had to start from the bottom and work her way up, but it was a good steady wage, and she had impressed and been promoted several times. Wesley ran WP publishing and she had worked her way up to his PA, although technically she ran the whole show herself. Wesley was often away in England visiting his mother who was very sick and he trained her to cover all his managerial duties. Everyone in the office reported to her first then she would deal with the issues and pass on anything of importance to Wesley via e-mail or fax. She was the boss.

It had still come as a shock when Wesley had announced to the office last month that he was going to be leaving. His mother was getting increasingly worse and he really wanted to spend his time with her. It was expected for Buffy to take over but Wesley had still gone through the motions of interviewing candidates for the job. Several people from the office had applied, but they had nothing like Buffy’s experience. There had been some external candidates but they had all be scrutinized and scowled at but the office community, so it was a sure fire thing for the blonde.

“Hey conscientious woman!” Buffy smiled, she loved Faiths own special way of speaking.

“We should get back to the office, don’t want to miss your big promotion thing! The chickens are home, they’re counted, and its party time!”

Chapter 2.

Willow and Tara sat at opposite ends of their bed, tears running down their faces from laughing so hard.

“Right one more try!” Willow exclaimed.

Tara sat on top of the suitcase and jumped up and down while Willow tried to get the zip all the way round, finally, after what seemed an age trying it slid around the side of the case. Willow collapsed back on the bed and let her head fall into Tara’s lap. The brunette ran her fingers through her hair, and both girls observed their handiwork.

“I’m thinking that neither one of us has quite grasped the travelling light concept huh!” the redhead laughed.

“Will, did you see what we packed, there’s like 3 outfits each and the rest is presents!” Tara smiled.

“Yeah I know, it’s been a long time though, I can’t wait to see the gang again.”

It had been a very long time since Willow had managed to get back to Sunnydale, 3 years in fact. The last visit was on the anniversary of Buffy’s mothers’ death, so at least this visit was under happier circumstances. Willow wondered if much had changed in this time, she certainly had. She had become a strong, confident young woman, with her own distinctive style, and a striking if unusual beauty. A sharp contrast to the nervous young girl she had been at school. She remembered the first time she had met Buffy. She was sitting on a bench in the school grounds when the blonde had just approached her and started chatting. This totally bemused Willow at the time, people didn’t talk to her, they talked about her, giggled behind her back and made fun, but they didn’t talk to her, not like this girl was. At first Willow had thought it was someone playing a joke on her, but she quickly realised that this new girl was as lonely and scared as she was. It turned out that Willow had many of the same classes as Buffy, and she lived in the next road. Before long the two girls were inseparable. Willow helped Buffy with classes, and Buffy, well Buffy daydreamed about the future.

So much had changed though, she had watched her friends life fall apart, but finally something good was happening to her. It was worth travelling across America to share that. Tara had never been to California either so it was like a double bonus for them.

Tara and Willow met at graduate school in New York, and quickly their friendship had blossomed into something even more special. They had been together nearly 2 years now, and had recently taken the enormous step of moving in together. It made sense, Willow spent all her spare time at Tara’s place anyway, and they could share the rent and bills. The extra money saved had helped towards their plane tickets.

“Tickets! Tickets!” Willow screeched, “Tara where did I put the tickets?”

“They are in your bag, still, like you have checked 50 times already.” Tara quietly replied.

She thought it was sweet how scatty her lover was being today, she was so excited about the trip Tara thought she might explode at any time.

“Sunnydale here we come!” Willow shouted as she slammed the door behind them, and both girls made their way to the waiting cab, dragging a very heavy case behind them.

Chapter 3

The lift doors slid open on the 3^{rd floor at WP Publication and the two girls strolled out both engrossed in their conversation. It was a warm day and the air conditioning was not working again so Wes had got Harmony to block open the main doors and open all the windows so some semblance of breeze could penetrate the stuffy office.}

Harmony was busy filing her nails, she had the telephone cupped on her shoulder and was detailing the inner secrets of some poor persons private life to whoever was on the other end. She always knew everything about everyone, which was useful if Buffy needed to know some inside info quickly, but not so useful when it was her life being scrutinized. Buffy tolerated her, but it was no secret that there was little love lost between the two blondes.

Technically Harmony was supposed to be in charge of the reception area, she was at best inept, at worst incompetent. Fortunately her duties were few and far between, her main job being just to look pretty and greet clients on their way in. Wes was soft with her, and she got away with murder, but no one could deny that when it came to meeting and greeting Harmony was fantastic. At high school she was a pretty girl, but she had grown into a beautiful woman. Her hair was long and blonde and cascaded down her back, her eyes sparkled and she had shed a few pounds. She was always dressed in this seasons fashions, a concept she tried to explain to Buffy, recommending that she let her give her a makeover once in a while, which Buffy always politely refused. She couldn’t quite see herself coming to work like that, all cleavage and leg.

Harmony glanced up as Buffy walked over. “Yes sir, as I explained we won’t accepted a full unsolicited novel, if you send a summary then we will get back to you?” Harmony covered, badly. “Harm what you talking about?” Cordelia answered, but Harmony had already hung up.

“So Harmony, any messages for me?” Buffy questioned, knowing full well that the blonde had probably been on the phone since she left the office, so the possibility of her answering another call were slim to non existent.

“No messages, sorry, guess nobody loves you” Harmony replied with a smirk.

“Some cute guy showed up though.” The blonde continued

Faiths ears pricked up. She had been going through the mail in her pigeonhole, but replaced the papers and wandered over to Harmony’s desk and perched on the corner.

“Come on Harm, spill, if we got ourselves a hot new author then we need the inside scoop, isn’t that right B.” Faith giggled with a wicked glint in her eye.

“What’s this mystery guy like” Faith quizzed

“Too cute for you pair, and anyway I saw him first, so hands off” she laughed

Buffy leaned in towards Harmony, “I am sure as your superior I get first refusal on any sexy guys that dare to walk through our door, isn’t that right Faith?” Buffy whispered. Men were actually about the furthest thing from Buffy's mind and had been for a long time, but she couldn’t help but tease Harmony, and she laughed to herself as she watched the younger blonde pout.

“Hey no fair”, Harmony whined.

“He arrived just after you slackers disappeared off to plan your office revolution,” she continued.

“Wes collected him, they’ve been in his office ages.” Harmony motioned towards Wesley’s office.

Buffy looked towards Wesley’s office, the door was closed and the blinds drawn. This is strange Buffy worried. Wes’s door was never closed, even when interviewing it was all done very informally, it was more of a friendly chat in fact. She didn’t even know the blinds could be closed, she had wondered about trying it once, but thought they might have gotten stuck through lack of use so she didn’t bother.

“Wesley looked really pleased with himself, gave him a tour of the office and everything.” Harmony began to apply a coat of red varnish to her newly filed nails.

“Oh and he’s not an author either.” Harmony added.

Buffy’s attention fell back to Harmony’s story.

“How do you know that?” Buffy questioned. Harmony could feel Buffy starting to seethe so she carried on with her story. “Well, he had a big folder with him, and I was over at the photocopier and I heard him say something about this place having potential, after a little restructuring, or something like that anyway, and they were all handshaky and big grins. Oh and Wes knew him, did I mention that, he was saying something about it being great to have him back again, or something along those lines. To be honest I was staring at his body, so I may have missed a bit.”

The phone was ringing, in fact it had been ringing some time.

“Are you gonna get that Harm” Buffy snapped.

“Huh, oh yeah right, WP Publications, Harmony Sylvester speaking, how may I direct your call?”

“Ignore her B, she’s just being a bitch, as usual,” Faith said, “I’m sure its nothing to worry about,” and with that Faith grabbed her mail and wandered over to her desk.

Buffy followed her less convinced, in her experience things people said was ‘nothing to worry about’ generally turned out to be a whole lot of worry.

As she sat down at her desk and arranged her papers her phone began to ring.

“Elizabeth Summers speaking,” she said politely.

“Miss Summers could you join me in my office please,” came the reply.

Buffy replaced the receiver and sighed, this was definitely something to worry about.

Chapter 4.

Buffy pulled her compact out from her handbag and checked her makeup, then applied a layer of gloss over her lips. She snapped back the lid, stood up and straightened her skirt and turned towards Wesley’s office. She called it Wesley’s office but 90% of the time it was hers. All the artwork on the walls had come from the gallery her Mother had worked at. She had even rearranged the office so she could see out the window when she sat at the desk. Wesley hadn’t minded, he was never there anyway so he encouraged Buffy to make it her own.

“Nothings wrong, nothings wrong, nothings wrong.” She repeated in her head as she made her way across the office floor.

“B!” Faith beckoned her over, “If he is as hot as Harm reckons invite him to the party tomorrow, you never know your luck!” Faith wiggled her eyebrows.

“Strangely Faith, getting laid is low down my list of priorities today.” Buffy snapped, and then instantly felt guilty, “Sorry, just a bit stressed out”.

“No problem, and don’t worry you can blow off some steam over the weekend, were gonna party Faith style.” Faith wriggled seductively in her chair. Buffy rolled her eyes and turned towards Wesley’s office.

Buffy tapped lightly on the glass door and then pushed it open slowly.

She had expected a bombshell, expected the worst, from Harmony’s girlie swooning she had expected some well toned Adonis that had come in to steal her job with a smile and a few well-chosen charming comments. But it was worse, oh so much worse.

“Buffy, long time no see pet.”

There he sat perched on the corner of the desk, her desk! Smiling at her like nothing had ever happened. She didn’t reply, just stared back with her mouth open while his deep blue eyes pierced into her. He hadn’t changed a bit, although he was dressed a lot smarter than he used to. He was wearing a suit for one, a damn expensive suit Buffy noted, and the heavy boots were gone, in their place a shiny pair of Gucci loafers, but apart from that he looked just the same as he had when he walked out the door 5 years previous. His hair was slightly longer, but still bleached out white, he still had a body to die for, and the cheekbones, oh those cheekbones! “Stop that right now” she thought to herself.

“Did you miss me luv?” he purred at her, and then blew her an imaginary kiss.

That was enough for Buffy, she span round to face Wesley, who was sitting on the sofa in the corner. Wes was oblivious to the obvious tension and was smiling like a Cheshire cat.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?” she rasped at him.

“Elizabeth, William here is going to take over from me for a while, he has been running a similar operation in London for the last 2 years and I really feel you will benefit from his experience…” Wes began to explain, but was interrupted by the furious blonde girl.

“Experience! Experience er hello, I am experience girl Wes, I don’t need any helpful tips and pointers from peroxide boy here! I have doing just fine by myself” Buffy raised her voice.

Wesley frowned, he hadn’t expected her to react in this way, in fact he thought she would be happy for the help, she already had a heavy workload not to mention Dawn who although technically no longer a minor, was still the cause of many sleepless nights for the blonde.

“Well I met with William last time I was in England,” Wesley continued, “He was a tower of strength for me at the hospital” “Yeah I bet he was” Buffy mumbled under her breath. She could just picture him being all supportive, all helpful, all Spike, all the time with his eyes on her job! Worming his way into Wesley’s affections just to screw her over.

“Yeah good old Spike, always there for people when they need him” she spat aiming a hard glance in his direction.

Spike stood up annoyed, and walked over to the table where her had placed his folder. “As much as I would love to sit her and listen to you bitch I have places to be, so I’ll be seeing you Summers” he snarled, “And Wes, if you can talk some sense into the silly bint then give me a call, I’ll be in town a couple of days.” And with that he turned on his heel and exited the office.

Buffy turned and slammed the door behind him and then turned back to her boss.

“What have I done to deserve this Wesley” she begged, “I thought you were happy with my work, happy with the way things were going around here, I can’t work with him, no way, not ever.” She pouted but it wasn’t washing with Wesley today, and he was becoming tired of the situation.

“Buffy, you have done a great job, and one day you will take over permanently, but as much as you like to think you know everything you are far from that stage. You have done a fine job of holding the fort for me, but I need someone with vision to take us further, not just keep us going. William can do that, and he can help you become the person you need to be to run this operation alone. I have known you a long time Elizabeth and I know you like to be independent but you will work with me on this. William is joining the team, and you will make it work!”

Buffy stared back shocked, Wesley had never spoken to her like that before, she felt like he had scolded her like a child.

“Make it work Elizabeth,” he repeated slowly and seriously.

Buffy nodded and made her way to the door, tears welling in her eyes. All eyes were on her as she crossed the office to her desk all the time fighting back the tears.

“I am not going to cry over you again,” she thought to herself, but it was too late.

Chapter 5.

Buffy threw her handbag onto the floor and slumped down into her favourite soft armchair.

Faith strolled in from the kitchen, 2 bottles of beer in hand. She screwed the top off one and handed it to her friend.

“I’ll pass thanks Faith, me and alcohol, not very mixy,” she sighed. “On the other hand though,” she reached out and grabbed the bottle, taking a large swig before screwing up her face. “Yuck, beer bad!” she mumbled.

“Chill out B, after a few bottles it’ll be your favourite drink, trust me I’m an expert” she laughed.

Faith had nearly fallen out of her chair when Spike had stormed out through the office, sending a pile of papers flying off her desk, as he had swept past. And as soon as Buffy had emerged she grabbed her friend and headed for the exit. She explained it all to Faith on the cab ride home.

Buffy sat and stared into space while Faith turned on the TV, it came on to a rerun of Passions, his favourite show, Buffy glared at the brunette and she hurriedly tried to find another channel, she settled on a music channel realising almost in time that it was showing a documentary on the Sex Pistols, that was enough for Buffy she got up, stalked to her bedroom and slammed the door shut.

Buffy lay on her bed staring at the ceiling, trying to make sense of her life.

“Why does it always go wrong!” she sighed.

She could actually pinpoint the moment when her life turned to shit. She was 16 years old, a bright student, and a popular girl at school, hell she even made the cheerleading squad. She was the girl everyone else wanted to be, and she lived that role to the full. It was her father’s birthday and she thought she would surprise him by bringing him a cake to work. She remembered that day like it was yesterday. She bounded into his office, cake in one hand and card in the other, singing at the top of her voice. What she saw she would never forget. Her father on top of Melissa the pert young secretary, going for it like two teenagers. Her supposedly doting father screwing the office bike, in the middle of the day, in his office, so engrossed in his sordid deed that he didn’t even notice his teenage daughter standing by the doorway.

That basically signalled the end of her parent’s 20-year marriage. Her mother Joyce had suspected for some time that he was cheating, but even she didn’t expect that he actually had 4 lovers! She took her two daughters and moved to Sunnydale leaving her cheating spouse in LA.

It was a clean break, and definitely what Joyce needed, but it was hard on the girls, Buffy especially. Before the move she had to take the young blonde out of school after a meeting with the principal where her behaviour was described as disruptive and violent, and suggested that maybe some therapy would be in order.

Buffy never forgave her father, he was the one man in her life that should always be there for her, the one man she could trust and he had shattered that, and she knew it had scarred her deeply.

Spike sat quietly in the cab on the way back to his hotel. “Ungrateful bint!” he thought to himself, “Still she looked hot though,” he smiled. He hadn’t expected a warm welcome from her, but he did think time may have healed the wounds a little, at least he had hoped it would have.

He thought back to the first time he had seen her.

He walked down the hallway in Sunnydale High minding his own business when suddenly he was charged into by a crazy, short blonde girl.

“In a hurry luv?” he questioned as he bent down to pick up the papers she had scattered over the floor.

“I am not your love!” she bit back.

Spike took a step back and held his hands up.

“First day pet?” he said as he looked through the papers in his hand.

“What’s it to you?” she snapped.

Spike smiled at the angry young woman stood glaring at him. She was different to the other girls here, she had a spark. In fact she was a breath of fresh air in a High School frequented prominently by the stuck up girls Spike hated, girls with no opinions of their own, sheep. She obviously had some issues going on, but at least she had some fire.

He had been in Sunnydale for a year already, but he still remembered his first day at a new school.

His family had decided it would be a good learning experience to finish his schooling in America rather than his native England, and he had jumped at the chance happy to get away from his overbearing parents, even if just for a year.

“Shit blondie, you’ve got a hell of a lot of classes here, who did you piss off?” Spike questioned as he read through her schedule.

“I missed a lot of classes at my last school, so have to do the extra work here.” Buffy answered.

“Why doesn’t he just leave me alone, the last thing I need is so bit hit on on my first day!” she thought to herself. “Although he is hot!”

He had sharp cheekbones like she had never seen before, and crazy hair, a shock of peroxide all slicked back but a few strands had come forward and were curling around at his temple. She felt like his eyes could see straight into her soul, piercing blue, she was captivated.

“What’s your name pet?” he asked, she jumped back to reality realising she had been blatantly staring at his striking features. “Bad Buffy,” she thought to herself. The last thing she needed was a man in her life, any sort of man, and that especially applied to the gorgeous, sexy variety!

“Buffy” she replied, the blonde in front of her chuckled, “No really,” he repeated his question.

Buffy passed him a deadly glare, “What’s yours bleach boy?” She snapped

“Spike” he answered.

Buffy burst into giggles, “Oh and like that is so much better.”

They both stood laughing together, He couldn’t take his eyes off her, her long silky blonde hair falling seductively over one shoulder, soft full lips pouting prettily, sexy hazel eyes looking back into his, he was intoxicated by her. He handed her papers back, his hand softly brushing hers. Buffy jumped back abruptly the moment broken. Spike looked to the floor freaked out by what had just happened. “Get a grip,” he thought to himself, but he could still feel a tingle across the skin where he had touched her.

“Spike!” Spike looked up to see Drusilla standing beside him with a face like thunder. “Run along little girl,” she snarled at Buffy.

Buffy just stared back at the peculiar girl standing in front of her and smiled. She bit her tongue to stop herself snapping back at her, even though the ammunition she had was priceless. She looked like an extra from a Dracula movie or something, long black hair, far too much eyeliner and deep red lipstick, not to mention the ‘out there’ goth dress. Buffy guessed that she was trampling over Dru’s territory with her little hallway liaison with Spike, only accentuated when Drusilla put a claiming hand on his shoulder and started to nuzzle his neck.

“Well Spike, its been an ‘experience’” Buffy whispered softly in his ear, and with that she turned and walked down the hall away from him.

Chapter 6.

“The past makes us what we are today and gives us future imperfect…………….and to understand where we are now we must look back into our past.

Sunnydale High. Buffy’s first week at school.

“Buffy! Buffy! Over here!” Willow bounced up and down in her seat waving wildly.

“Hey it’s the Buffster!” Xander announced, and pulled out a chair for the pretty blonde. “Have a seat Buff,” he beamed at her.

Buffy smiled to herself, Willow and Xander were certainly different to the crowd she used to hang with at her old school. They certainly weren’t the ‘in’ crowd that was for sure, but she’d had enough of that in LA. She had learnt that the cool kids couldn’t be relied on, they wouldn’t be there when things went wrong, would never support her, and in fact would turn on her, ridicule her or worse desert her. She couldn’t handle that again.

Initially she had approached Willow, because it seemed she was as nerdy as they come, and her friend Xander hadn’t seemed much better in the cool department. These were the sorts of people that would be happy to be her friend, who would never desert her. Of course she felt kind of shitty about that now, it turned out that these two kids were beyond cool, they were real, and their friendship was real. Buffy didn’t know how she would have survived her first week at Sunnydale High without them.

She met Willow on the first day, and they had met after school every night since. Willow was blessed in the brains and organization department, and had helped Buffy to catch up on some of the stuff she had missed early in the term. She had just wanted to blend into the background in her new school, get through her final year, and then get the hell out of Sunnydale to college. But they had made her welcome, and now school wasn’t such a drag after all, apart from the actual work of course.

Buffy put her dinner tray on the canteen table and sat down.

She poked suspiciously at the dark brown lump of meat, purporting to be a hamburger and wrinkled up her nose.

“Anyone wanna tell me what the hell this is?” Buffy questioned.

“Rumour has it that they make them from retired dinner ladies,” Xander joked.

“Ewwww, and that’s me done!” Buffy pushed her plate away.

“The Jell-O however as far as we can tell is harmless and copious consumption can create an excellent sugar rush,” Xander grinned.

“Oh yay because a sugar rush is just what Buffy needs to act more of a no brainer in class!” Buffy replied.

“English class not so good Buffy?” Willow looked concerned.

“Oh it was just great, if you class making a complete ass out of yourself and being corrected by a wanna be Billy Idol throwback good!” Buffy cringed trying to put the whole sorry experience out of her head.

“Thinking about it a sugar rush can’t make it any worse really!” Buffy shook her head and shoveled a huge spoonful of green Jell-O into her mouth. She didn’t notice the figure standing behind her. Willow kicked her in the shin and Buffy snapped her head up.

“What?” Buffy tried to say with Jell-O falling out of her mouth. Willow turned her eyes to look behind her friend, Buffy looked over her shoulder, mouth still stuffed with green jelly.

Spike stood behind her, head cocked to one side trying to work out how someone so cute could look so ridiculous. He raised his left eyebrow.

“English was, well it was entertaining wasn’t it Buffy?” he said trying to keep a straight face.

“What do you want?” she asked annoyed, as she wiped the goo from her mouth.

He just laughed at her.

“What?” she snapped.

“Well pet, after your amazing display of no knowledge in class I thought you could use some of my notes to catch up.” He smirked

She glared at him angrily. “I don’t need your help!”

“Suit yourself, your making such a bang up job of it, I’ll leave you to it shall I?” He snarled at her.

“Silly bitch!” He muttered under his breath as he walked away.

Buffy looked over to the table he had sat at, she could tell they were all laughing at her, it wasn’t as if they were even trying to be discreet. Drusilla had draped herself around his back, and was recounting the whole embarrassing English class incident to the whole table, who Buffy thought were finding the tale a lot funnier than it actually was. She had come in halfway through the term, and so she had been discussing the wrong book in detail. It wasn’t that damn funny

“What a jerk!” Buffy pouted.

“I am going to head off to the library, it appears I have a few books I need to get,” she sighed and picked up her bag.

“See you after school Buffy, movie evening tonight remember!” Willow squealed animatedly.

“Sure thing Wills,” and with that she headed out of the canteen.

As she passed by the table where he sat the group fell into silence, waiting for her to pass before bursting into laughter. She walked on ignoring them all.

“Are my Spike’s eyes wandering? Does he want the pretty blonde princess?” Drusilla whispered into his ear.

“Don’t go all crazy on me love, you know you are the only princess for me.” He replied and kissed her on the forehead. But his eyes followed her out of the canteen.

Chapter 7.

“Buffy honey is that you?” Joyce called out from the kitchen.

“Hey mom! How was your day?” Buffy strolled towards the sofa and slumped into it sighing loudly.

“A lot better than yours by the sound of it, what’s wrong sweetheart?” she questioned, leaning in to stroke her distressed daughters hair.

“Just a rough day mom, nothing to worry about promise,” she feigned a smile.

“And definitely nothing that won’t be cured by a movie night with Willow and Xander! Chick flicks, popcorn, sodas, more movies and popcorn, did I mention the popcorn?” Buffy jumped out of the chair and hugged her mother.

“Which means I better get ready! Don’t wanna go and miss anything!” with that she headed towards the stairs.

“Buffy, you haven’t forgotten Wesley has invited us all over for dinner tonight have you honey?” Joyce asked, knowing it was quite apparent she had.

“Oh mom, do I have to?” Buffy whined.

“Yes young lady you do! Now go get ready, we have to leave in an hour.”

“Great!” Buffy thought to herself as she slammed her bedroom door. “Sabotage my social life why don’t you!” she threw her bag to the floor.

Wesley had been a friend of the family for many years, and it was partly due to him that the Summers girls had found themselves in Sunnydale. Joyce didn’t want to move somewhere where they knew nobody at all, she felt it would be too much upheaval for her daughters, but also too lonely for herself. She decided if she was going to be rebuilding her life, she might as well do it someplace where there was a friendly face. Wesley was indeed that friendly face. There had never any romance between them, the mere mention of anything like that had the two girls gagging, but they had to admit that he was always there for their mother. Without him Joyce really wondered whether she could have managed to get Sunnydale High to accept her eldest, let alone the help he had offered in finding her a job.

Buffy had completely forgotten she had agreed to go over to dinner that evening and stomped around her room, picking up various items of clothing and throwing them down again. She ripped open her closet and rummaged ferociously through the rail.

“Dawn!!” she screamed.

“Dawn, what did I tell you about borrowing my clothes?”

The teenager appeared at the bedroom door and stood pouting with her arms crossed over her chest.

“I haven’t touched your stuff!” she snapped back.

Buffy looked at her younger sister and glared.

“You’re wearing my blue sweater! I wanted to wear that!”

“Tough!” Dawn spat back, and slammed the bedroom door.

The relationship between the two sisters was strained at the moment to say the least. Dawn resented having to leave her friends and change school, as far as she was concerned it was all Buffy’s fault. If Buffy had just kept her mouth shut then her parents would still be together, and she wouldn’t have to be living in this lame ass town.

Buffy returned to her closet and pulled out a white lace blouse and a pair of tailored jeans.

“This will have to do I guess,” she mumbled as she did the buttons up on her blouse.

The door to her bedroom flew open, and a cordless phone was flung into the room landing on the rug with a bump.

“Its Willow for you, be quick I want to call Marcia!” the teenager rasped.

Buffy bent down and retrieved the telephone, sending a vicious glare to the younger girl leaning on the doorframe.

“Willow, I gotta call a rain check tonight I am so so sorry!” Buffy pleaded.

“Hey Buffy its no big!” she replied trying hard to disguise the disappointment in her voice.

“Yeah I gotta go have dinner with my Moms friend, its kind of a family thing, It’ll be dead boring and absolutely no fun of any kind will be had I promise!” Buffy continued.

Willow laughed, “Well so long as it’s all no fun Buffy tonight, I guess we will let you off. You wanna hang out tomorrow though? I can show you around town if you like.”

Buffy smiled, “Hanging sounds cool, I’ll call you about ten tomorrow then. You guys have some big fun for me tonight though yeah!”

Buffy made sure the call was disconnected, before throwing the phone back at her sister who shrieked as it struck her on the knee. She then started to pull a brush through her thick blonde hair, careful to get all the snags out before pulling it into a neat ponytail. A quick slip of lip gloss over her lips and she was ready to go.

It was almost half eight as the SUV pulled up onto Wesley’s driveway.

“Only 30 minutes late! Wes will be impressed,” Buffy smiled to herself, knowing that the Summers women were not exactly renowned for their good timekeeping.

Wesley lived in a very nice area of the town, his house wasn’t as large as Buffy had expected, but did have a very English look about it, which was a little out of place amongst the other buildings in the road. She had to admit she was looking forward to seeing him again, it had been quite some time since they had actually been in the same room together. He had been pretty busy with his company, running around helping her mother recently, and Buffy, well she had a lot of her own problems to be dealing with.

As they approached the front door it was flung open, and Wesley bounded down the pathway.

“Joyce you look fantastic, Elizabeth, Dawn, come on in, make yourselves at home.” He was prone to be more than a little excitable and Buffy wondered if he was going to burst. She often wondered how he had managed to retain such an extremely posh English accent, despite living in America most of his life.

“Elizabeth, how is Sunnydale High treating you?” Wesley questioned.

The blonde cringed. ‘Please god no, not the school interrogation, let me at least get through the front door first!’ she thought before answering brightly.

“Schools just great Wes thanks.” She beamed an Oscar winning smile in his direction.

Wesley grinned back, “Excellent, that’s really wonderful Elizabeth, I knew you would just fit right in.”

“I was speaking to William earlier and he said you were doing really well in class.”

Joyce smiled towards Wesley, “He did, well that’s nice to know isn’t it Buffy?”

Buffy looked around confused.

“He did? He who? Huh?” Buffy stuttered.

“Superb, well you two can have a good chat about it when he gets back from the Chinese, I am cooking take away tonight ladies, I am afraid the company is occupying all my cooking time these days.”

Buffy sat back into Wesley’s rather large couch and surveyed the room, its was so Wesley, lots of ornaments and strange looking artwork, and more books than any sane person would ever have the time to read. Now her mom had got the job managing the art gallery in town, Buffy assumed their house would soon be full of weirdness disguised as art too.

“Oh joy!” she thought out loud.

Having to ditch her new friends for an evening with Wesley was one thing, but for an evening of fun school chat with one of her teachers, now that was just cruel.

“Who the hell is William?” she thought crinkling up her forehead as she did so.

After a few minutes she had it narrowed down to three. It wasn’t actually that hard, most of her teachers were women, so that really ruled them out of the equation just leaving Mr. Barratt her English teacher. Buffy was fairly confident that he would never describe her as doing well in class, she cringed remember the days earlier embarrassment. It was either Mr. Collins her Math teacher, or Mr. Pires who did Spanish.

‘I suck at Math and Spanish!’ She let out a groan, ’Oh please let it be Mr. Pires, at least I have the excuse of never taking Spanish before, and he is pretty cute too.’

Buffy was snapped out of her daydream, by the sound of banging coming from the front door.

“Elizabeth, would you mind terribly answering that for me.” Wesley shouted from the basement where he was proudly showing Joyce his wine collection.

Buffy headed for the front door, the person on the other side was banging constantly.

“Hang on, hang on!” she shouted and flung the door open.

She stood in the doorway mouth open for what seemed like an age, snapped out of her stupor as the impatient man spoke.

“Hello, loaded with very hot bags here pet, any chance of you moving your pretty little ass out of the way?”

She still stood mouth agape so he pushed his way past her.

“Bloody women!” he muttered as he made his way to the kitchen.

“You reckon you could shut the door and help me sort this lot out?” he shouted through to the pretty blonde.

The door slammed so hard the walls shook and Spike smiled to himself. He was getting under her skin and he knew it. He had to admit he had been a bit slow putting two and two together where she was concerned. When Wesley had been talking about his friends daughter that might need some help settling in to school he had always referred to her as Elizabeth, it was only when Wes had been getting some old photos out earlier than the penny had dropped. The girl he was supposed to take under his wing was none other than Buffy Summers.

Spike could feel the girl glaring at him and turned around sharply.

“What the hell are you doing here?” she snapped, her eyes piercing into him.

He smiled sweetly and returned to dishing out the Chinese food.

“I live here love, have done for the last year. I am surprised the nibblet never mentioned me.”

Buffy stared back blankly.

“You are surprised the whatlet didn’t mention you?”

She didn’t have to wait long for her answer. Dawn bounced into the room and flung her arms around him. He gave her a big bear hug and lifted her onto the worktop.

It all started to make sense now. Her mother had said that Wesley had a lodger but it had slipped her mind. It also explained why Dawn was always more than happy to go over to Wesley’s with her mother, she had a crush on him.

“Nibblet, you fancy helping me dish up, big sis here seems to think it’s beneath her,” he chuckled.

“Dawn, go help mom set the table,” Buffy snapped. Dawn huffed and stormed into the dining room.

She turned back to face him.

“I guess you think this is really funny huh?”

She didn’t give him a chance to answer before continuing.

“Making fun of me at school, laughing about me with your friends when you know I have to come here and be polite, and be Nice Buffy tonight.” She hardly paused for breath.

“Who the hell do you think you are?”

Spike smiled, she was adorable when she was angry.

“What the hell are you looking at?”

“You.” He replied as he stared straight into her eyes.

She looked away, “Well stop it! Don’t look at me, not ever!”

She grabbed two plates from the sideboard and moved to make her way to the dining room, but as she tried to exit the kitchen he barred her way, putting his hands firmly on her shoulders.

“Buffy wait!” he spoke gently. “I was trying to help today, it just came out all wrong, and I didn’t mean to make you feel stupid.” There was honesty in the softness of his voice.

Buffy stood rigid. “Well maybe you should have told that to Cruella!” she replied.

“Cruella? Oh you mean Dru, ignore her pet, she’s just being a bitch, she wasn’t too happy after the other day in the hallway.”

She was looking at the floor avoiding any sort of eye contact so he reached up with his hand, putting it underneath her chin and slowly raised her head so he was looking directly into her eyes. Her skin was flushed and he couldn’t help but notice that she was trembling. He ran his hand up the side of her face and captured a stray strand of long blonde hair, replacing it behind her ear never breaking eye contact. She took a sharp intake of breath and he removed his hand taking a step back.

“Look I am sorry about today Buffy,” he spoke gently. He leant in close to her and whispered in her ear, “Can you forgive me?”

In her mind Buffy was screaming “No, no, no.” So she was almost as surprised as he was when she leant into him and whispered, “I already have.”

Chapter 8.

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief as the bell rang signaling the end of another English lesson from hell. She had actually managed to impress Mr. Barratt her teacher, thanks mostly to the notes Spike had given her the week previous at dinner. Every time she answered a question correctly she would see him beaming over at her.

It wasn’t the class that was her problem, it was the two bitches sat at the back of the class, Cordelia Chase and Darla, snickering, pointing and passing notes about the class. One had got as far as Spike and Buffy had watched him read it, with his face twisting into a disbelieving frown before he screwed it up and threw it back at Cordelia with a freezing glare. He hadn’t met her gaze again all lesson.

She couldn’t wait to get out of there, not wanting to wait around to find out what the two girls were saying about her. She snapped closed her folder and quickly threw her bag over her shoulder, running from the class into the crowded hallway.

She opened her locker and was attempting to squeeze her textbooks into the tiny space she had left, when she heard her name being called. Buffy poked her head round the locker door and saw the 2 girls from her English class standing smirking at her just across the hall.

They were the girls every guy wanted to date, Cordelia was stunning, dark hair always beautifully coiffed, head cheerleader and dating the star quarterback in the schools football team. She was a walking cliché. Darla was a spoilt, rich, daddies girl, beautiful and perfect in everyway, well perfect except for the stinking attitude she had. In her old school they would have been Buffy’s friends, but not here, that had all changed now.

They had been joined by Drusilla, who cast Buffy an evil glance as she whispered something into Darla’s ear.

Buffy returned to the task in hand, forcing an overly large book into an increasingly smaller hole. The more she arranged the contents the less space there became. It was a futile experiment, but she was putting all her concentration into it, to help her ignore the giggles coming from across the way. Her concentration was broken when she heard Darla shriek out,

“Oh my god, she’s such a freak!” followed by Cordelia adding, “Yeah she should be locked up, she is like a total lunatic. Her last school threw her out after she half killed some guy, broke his jaw and everything.”

This attracted the attention of pretty much everyone within earshot of the group, and they all turned to look at the tiny blonde girl approaching them.

“What is your problem?” Buffy snarled at the brunette.

Drusilla decided this was a good point to join in, “That would be you my sweet,” she whispered sinisterly as she slowly waved her finger around and pointed at the blonde. “You see we don’t want you here, your not right.”

Cordelia leant in towards Buffy and whispered to her, “And how is Angel these days, I hear he found someone better, you weren’t enough for him were you.”

Buffy snapped, she drew back her arm and hit the mocking brunette square in the face. Cordelia went falling to the floor slumped against the lockers. Darla just stared at the furious girl in front of her in silence, but Dru grabbed her by the hair and threw her across the hall. She caught Buffy off guard and she went tumbling into another girl that had been watching all the excitement with interest. They both fell to the floor in a heap. An ear piercing bellow from down the hall broke the chaos of the moment.

“Buffy Summers! Faith Collins My office now!”

“Oh shit!” Both girls mumbled simultaneously.

A furious Principal Snyder stood above them, face so red with rage Buffy half expected steam to come out of his ears.

“Cordelia Chase, get that seen to by the nurse then come to my office!” Cordelia stared back blankly. “Today Missy, today!” He shouted at her.

The two girls walked into the waiting room in silence. “Sit down!” Snyder bellowed before walking into his office and slamming the door.

“You’re Buffy Summers aren’t you?” The other girl asked, Buffy nodded and put her head in her hands.

“Well wicked punch B! Can’t say I haven’t thought of punching Cordelia once or twice myself, stuck up bitch.”

Buffy didn’t reply, just sat with her head in her hands.

“Look don’t stress it,” the brunette continued, “Snyder’s an ass but you’ll only get a suspension or something.”

Buffy sat up, tears welling in her eyes. “You don’t understand, I am in so much shit!” she mumbled before breaking down.

Faith put her arm around her shoulders, “Look Buff, it’ll be cool, he will just give you a week then you’ll be right back,” she tried to reassure.

“You don’t understand,” Buffy sobbed. “I am on probation here, it’s strictly one strike and I’m out. I am totally screwed, Shit my moms gonna kill me!”

“Shit!” Faith replied, “You are screwed huh?” she pulled her face into a frown. She then stood up and walked over to the office door.

“Principal Snyder, I gotta go to the ladies room, be right back.” She closed the door before he had a chance to answer and walked across the waiting room.

As she passed Buffy she whispered in her ear, “Deny everything, I hit her OK, I’ll sort it but you are gonna so owe me one.”

She didn’t give the confused blonde a chance to answer before she swept out the door.

A few minutes later Cordelia arrived already sporting the beginnings of a fierce black eye. She scowled at the blonde before knocking on Snyder’s door and entering.

She left a few minutes later passing Faith in the doorway.

“Buffy Summers, it appears you are off the hook, go home, but be very sure that I am watching you young lady!” Buffy didn’t need a second offer, she shot out of her chair and ran from the room sobbing.

She flung open the main doors and ran down the stairs not looking back.

“Buffy! Buffy wait up!” Spike stubbed out the cigarette he had been smoking and chased after her.

“Buffy!” he grabbed her arm and swung her round gripping her tightly.

“Just leave me alone Spike, please just go away!” She sobbed.

“What the hell happened in there?” He asked with a harsh tone to his voice.

Buffy tried to pull away, but he had a tight hold on her and she started to struggle wildly in his grasp.

“Get your fucking hands off me!” she rasped as she shot him a cold look.

That just made him tighten his hold on her even more. Buffy looked into his eyes, which were cold and hard. He looked so angry, nothing like the warmth she had felt from him the previous week. She tried again in vain to pull away from him.

“I said let me go!”

“Or what Buffy, you gonna hit me? You got quite a reputation for that or so I hear!” He spat the words out and watched as the tears began to flow down her cheeks. She stopped struggling and stared into him.

“You wouldn’t understand Spike,” she whispered.

She looked so vulnerable he thought, so scared.

“And I won’t until you explain it to me pet.”

He loosened his grip on her and pulled her towards him. She practically collapsed into his chest as she began to cry even harder. He ran his hands through her hair and pulled her head down onto his chest and held her until her sobs subsided.

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