They woke to the smell of food and conversation both coming from the kitchen.

"Good morning, sleepy heads," Dawn said, as Buffy and William came out to the kitchen, after hastily dressing.

"Morning," Clem said, from the stove.

"You guys didn’t have to cook," Buffy said.

"Well, we did if we wanted to eat!" Dawn said, teasing.

After breakfast, Clem left to run errands.

"It was great seeing you again, Dawn," he said to her, as she walked him to the car.

"It was great seeing you, too. Especially, since I’m seeing a new side of you," she said.

"What? Oh, you mean human looking me?"

Dawn nodded, "But I still loved the old you, too. You know that, right? No matter what you look like."

"I know, you, too."

"Me, too? Oh, you mean my Keyness? Can you see that?"

"Nah, not anymore, but you used to sort of have a green glow-y sort of aura about you."

"Hm…I forgot some of you demon types could tell that," she said, grinning.

"Come back soon, Dawn, okay?"

"With your cooking, you betcha," she said, leaning over to give him a kiss on the cheek through the car window.

She waved and walked back to the house.

Dawn cleared her throat, as she walked in, just in case.

"Buffy? William? Think I’d better get headed back, too."

"So soon? We were hoping you’d stay at least through lunchtime. We wanted to show you the trails around here and the views of the desert in the distance. From the lookout point up on the ridge, we can see over 100 miles away," Buffy said.

"I’d love to, really I would, but I told Dr. John I’d pick him up at the airport around 1:00pm, so that gives me only 2 hours to get there, and you never know with the traffic."

"Was he at another conference?" Buffy asked.

"Not exactly, training seminar. He asked me to go with, but I told him maybe next time, if I didn’t have a previous engagement," she said smiling.

"Or if you don’t have your studies," Buffy said.

"That’s right," William added.

"Thanks mom and dad, I’ll keep it in mind," she said, laughing.

August 27, 2008

Wednesday

1:00pm

"William Worthington, Elizabeth Worthington," Dr. Emily Strayn’s receptionist called.

William’s mouth was dry, and he trembled a bit as he stood up.

"Are you okay?"

"Not really. I hate this, I don’t know why I have to do this," he part whined, part hissed at her.

"Come on, I told you why, plus there’s that thing I need," she said, winking at him.

She had brought up the idea during sex one night, when he was messing with a condom. She’d told him that she could go on The Pill, after explaining what it was, then told him that he should actually have an exam and get up to date on all immunizations, after also explaining what those were. She told him that the school expected all its employees to be in compliance with State of California Health Department regulations regarding working at schools, even if there were no direct contact with students. He’d asked why it couldn’t be verified that he’d had those when he was a boy back in London, but she’d told him that naturalized citizens were required to take those, given in this country. Furthermore, even if he had, there was no way they could find out from the Health Department of Sunnydale, since it no longer existed. Luckily, he didn’t ask why the state itself didn’t have a record. Thank goodness he wasn’t that computer savvy yet.

So, her argument was, if she could go on The Pill everyday, he could have a couple of little shots that would protect him.

Next, Buffy had called the doctor and explained to her that William had suffered memory loss, so he couldn’t say if he’d ever had any type of vaccinations, but that from what she knew of his family, they had been of a religion that forbid it. Now that he was going to be working around children, it was necessary for him to be protected, as well as them. She asked the doctor not to bring this up to him.

"If I had a different job, I wouldn’t have to be doing this," he said, as they started toward the nurse, who stood holding the door for them.

"There’s nothing to be afraid of," she reassured him, but she knew he was terrified of doctors and needles from the ordeal he’d been through. Not to mention, who knew what kind of doctors they’d had back in the 1800’s and what William’s experience had been with them!

Dr. Emily Strayn was a small woman, in her late 30’s with soft, loose reddish-blonde curls that fell into her face frequently as she talked to them.

"Well, Elizabeth, since you were here last March for your pap, I can just give you a prescription for The Pill," she’d told her. They had discussed the various kinds and settled on what they thought would be most effective. William had been embarrassed beyond measure when matters of a sexual nature between them had been brought up, but he’d been concerned as well, when the doctor had listed the possible side effects.

"You don’t have to go on The Pill, Elizabeth," he’d said, "I’m fine with…"

"No, it’s alright, we’ll give it a try and if I have any side effects I’ll stop, okay?"

Reluctantly he’d agreed, but with reservations.

"So, William," the doctor turned to him, "you’re here for an exam and for vaccinations, right?"

He nodded, a pained expression on his face.

"Elizabeth, how about if you step out for a few minutes while I conduct the exam, then you can come back in when I’m ready to give him the vaccinations."

"Okay," she said, "okay with you?"

William nodded.

"So," said the doctor, "your family belonged to the Church of Christian Scientists?"

"No, Church of England!" he said, looking at her funny.

Buffy took her seat in the waiting room until the nurse came to get her about 10 minutes later.

"Well, William is in fine health, his blood pressure is good, heart sounds fine, all systems are go," Dr. Strayn told her, "I told William we should do a blood test, but he doesn’t seem to like that idea too much. Since there’s no real cause for it, we’ll let it go for now, but I would like to do one just to have a base line next time you come in, okay? Good. Now for the shots."

William grimaced.

"Nothing to worry about, it won’t hurt but for a second," she said, readying the injections.

Buffy stood behind him, her hand on his shoulder lightly, while the doctor swabbed his arm. She also did a T.B. test, and gave him an oral polio vaccine.

"All done, see that wasn’t so bad?" the doctor said.

"Just glad that’s over with!" William said.

"Well, actually, you’ll need to come back a couple of more times to complete the series."

"Great, just great," he mumbled.

"You didn’t tell me I’d have to go back 2 more times," he said, accusingly when they got into the car.

"I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Really."

He just grumbled back at her, not really believing her.

The doctor had warned of any adverse side effects, causing William to needlessly worry, but except for a mild fever and feeling a bit like he was coming down with a cold the next day, he was fine.

September 2, 2008 - Labor Day

Monday

10:00pm

"William, you’re making me crazy, please come to bed."

"I’m sorry. I just wanted to check everything out again. What if something happens tomorrow and I don’t know how to fix it? What if something breaks? Where are those new shoes again?"

Buffy sighed, he’d been like this for the past couple of days, but today she’d almost wanted to tie him to a chair, just so he’d stop pacing about.

"Nothing is going to break tomorrow. Marilyn’s husband, who’s done some of the work before for Mrs. C., is going to take you around and show you the ropes, which by the way, you pretty much know by now, since you and Clem have been over there at least 3 or 4 times. Tomorrow will be mainly introductions and a little light work, along with mostly instructions," Buffy explained for the umpteenth time, a little less patiently than the other ‘teenth times.

"I know, you’ve told me that, I just want to be prepared."

"William, no matter what you do, something totally unexpected could happen, but probably won’t. All I’m saying is that there are no guarantees. You’re as prepared as anyone in your position could be and then some. Really, you are. You’ll be fine," she said, coming up to him and stopping him from pacing, "you will. I believe you’re going to do fine."

He bent down to kiss her, "Thanks, I just worry, is all."

"Time to stop worrying and come to bed."

"Okay. Wait, where are my shoes?"

Buffy had explained to him that he would probably get his good shoes dirty and even green, if he mowed. He had wanted to get a pair of old, used ones at the resale shop in town, but she thought that was probably unhygienic. They’d compromised, getting him a pair of cheap ones at the dollar store, which in his mind, still constituted way too much at $10.00. Same with work clothes. They’d gone to Wal-Mart in San Marcos, near the university to get him some other jeans and shirts for work, getting some stuff for herself in the process. She really didn’t mind; mall shopping was only a treat she had indulged in once or twice a year since moving to Julian, consumerism being low on her priority list.

Buffy figured if anyone could make short shrift of this job, it would be William, with all his preparations and then some.

He’d had Buffy install the Typing Tutor program on the computer the day Dawn had left, and had been putting in at least 2-3 hours a day, for the past two weeks. He’d told her he was up to an accuracy rate of 40-45 words per minute, which was probably as good as she typed. He’d gone to the website and tested out of the first 8 of 10 tests. Now he only had a couple of more to complete, before being able to get his completion certificate, which they’d also found out, would be equal to 3 credit hours of college credit, should he ever take the certificate to a college and pay for them, as they had an agreement with the University of California. Or they could just be considered an adult education course. In any case, he’d applied himself religiously to the training and now was quite comfortable using all 10 fingers. Rather, 8 fingers and two thumbs.

William had called Xander to thank him the same day, and now frequently I.M.’d him online, now that he could type quickly. He raved about the Typing Tutor to Xander, who was a lot faster than William had been initially, but still didn’t quite have the skills to use all 10 fingers. They also talked about programs for kids Alex’s age. Xander said he’d check into it, but William already had ideas in mind for their Christmas gifts.

Buffy began to feel almost like those wives did, whose husbands spent hours watching sports, "I’m an Internet widow," she mumbled one night, but not loud enough for him to hear, or he’d surely remind her that she had to be really married in order to be a widow. Besides, she’d already felt a widow of sorts for too many years, so no matter what their ‘real’ status was, she already had the wounds that had gone with having experienced ‘widowhood’ or ‘significant other-hood,’ as it were.

In any case, she didn’t usually have to ask him twice to come join her in the real world. He was always attentive to her feelings in that way.

September 3, 2008

Tuesday

6:30am

"Coffee’s done," William called from the kitchen.

"Thanks, be right there," Buffy yelled back, then stopped, as he walked into the bathroom with her cup.

"Here you are, "he said, handing her the coffee, "almost ready?"

"Not really, still have to do my makeup and set my hair. Relax William, we have plenty of time, it only takes 15 minutes to get there and we don’t have to be there for another hour and a half," she reminded him.

"We should get there early," he mumbled.

"We won’t get there at all, if you don’t leave me alone to finish," she said, then smiled at him; "I’ll be out in about 20 minutes, okay?"

"I’ll go get breakfast started. You want anything special?"

"Whatever you feel like fixing. A bowl of cereal works, too. Don’t forget to pack lunches."

"That’s right," he said, slapping his forehead and hurrying off.

She shook her head; she’d be so glad after these first day jitters of his were over with!

"Well, here we are," Buffy said, looking down at her watch, it was 7:45am. School didn’t officially start until 9, but some of the All Day children were already in their room, and the other teachers were beginning to arrive.

Buffy parked the car, just in time to see Marilyn and her husband arrive at the same time, but in separate cars.

"That’s Joe," Buffy told William.

William nodded and got out of the car, coming around to Buffy’s side.

"Hi, Marilyn. You remember William, don’t you?

Marilyn was the combined Preschool and Kindergarten teacher, "Hi William, nice to see you again, this is Joe," she said, as her husband walked up.

"Joe, this is William, he’s Elizabeth’s husband and our newest employee; the one you’re going to be training.

"Great, nice to meet you," Joe said, extending his hand, which William took.

"Well guys, we’ll see you in about two hours, down in the basement for the

back-to-school convocation.

Buffy stood by the classroom door, greeting her students, receiving hugs and excited "Mrs. W.’s!" as they filed in. Her class, Upper Elementary, was a combination of 4th, 5th, and for the first time this year, 6th graders. The 5th and 6th grade students had just moved up, and she knew most of the 4th grade students as well, as the Lower Elementary classroom of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders was in the room across the hall.

Since it was a small school, they frequently did things together, so Buffy basically knew all the students from Preschool on up. There was only one new student in her class this year, which had transferred from a parochial school, when her family moved to the area.

The kids all got their little rug squares, called sit-upons and brought them up to the front of the room, where Buffy and her teaching assistant, Lily Doler, Mrs. D., to the kids, talked about the new school year with them. They went over where the students would get their morning work from, where to put their folders, and other things that they would be doing this year. Field trips and a possible overnighter to a campground up in Big Bear were also discussed.

They all went downstairs around 10:00am for the convocation and for introductions.

Buffy’s class filed in and took a seat on the floor, while the teachers sat next to them in chairs along the sides of the room. Buffy looked around and spotted William, Joe, and the Susan, the secretary in the back of the room. She waved at him and he waved back.

Mrs. Carpello welcomed everyone to the new school year of 2008-2009 and had each of the teachers come up as she introduced them. She then asked William to come up to the stage.

"This is Mr. William Worthington, our Upper Elementary teacher Elizabeth Worthington’s husband," she said, ignoring the gasps of some of the older children, "he’s going to be doing our outside work for us, as well as helping with our indoor projects this year. Everyone say hello to Mr. W.!"

"Hello Mr. W., Hi Mr. W.," said the multitude of kids and adults, in a cacophony of sound.

He smiled shyly and waved to the kids.

Buffy was grateful that Mrs. Carpello didn’t ask William to speak, or invite questions from the children, as who knew what they might ask him, putting him on the spot. They walked off the stage together.

"You did good," Buffy said.

"I didn’t really do anything," he replied.

She laughed, "I’ll see you down here for lunch around noon."

He took the watch fob she’d given him out of his pocket and opened it up to check the time; it read 10:30, "Got it," he smiled at her and walked off to join Joe in the back of the room.

As soon as she got back to her room, the kids all started to ask her about William, about how long she’d been married to him, when she’d gotten married to him, etc.

"Mrs. W.," Sally said, "You told us that your husband had died, is this a new one?"

She sighed. She should have known these bright kids were not going to let anything slip by them.

"Okay, come and sit down and I’ll explain. But this will be the one and only time we’re going to discuss this, understand?"

They all nodded their heads. When they had all taken their seats on the floor before her, she sat down, facing them and began to tell them about how Sunnydale was destroyed in an earthquake, and how unknown to her, William had survived, but had lost his memory. She answered their questions for another 15 minutes, then directed them to their work for the morning.

William stood by the cafeteria door, unsure of what he should do, when Buffy came in with her class.

She motioned for him to follow her and they filed into line after the students.

"I’ve got our lunches," he reminded her.

"I know, just want to make sure the kids are taken care of, then we can sit. Do you want a cold drink or some coffee?"

"I’ve got some juice for us, but coffee would be good."

"Me, too."

After the kids had taken their seats, her and William found a seat with the other teachers.

"So, William, how did it go? Did Joe get you all set up?" Marilyn asked.

"Yes, he was quite helpful in showing me where everything was, and assisting me in setting up a daily and weekly task schedule. Tomorrow he’s going to show me what needs to be done inside.

"Good, good," Marilyn said.

The other teachers made small talk with him, politely asking him where he was from and when he had moved, until he finally had to say that he didn’t know all the answers, because of his memory loss problem.

They apologized, but he told them it was alright, that he was getting used to answering questions. Buffy looked at him, wondering about his statement, but also feeling very proud of how well he seemed to be handling himself.

"Let’s get out of here," Buffy whispered to William, "lunch is almost over, I’ll walk you over to the library."

Buffy and William walked out to the playground through a side door, where Buffy told Mrs. D., that she should take the children back to the classroom and that she’d meet them all there. Her and William then went across the street.

"I’m sorry about that," she said.

"About what? The questions? It’s alright. I already told Joe about my memory problem this morning, so it’s not a big deal," he said, amiably. "I mean, it seems strange to tell this to people I’ve only just met, but I’m getting rather used to it, seeing as it’s a part of who am. It doesn’t quite seem so ‘terrible’ as it did…does it?"

As they walked into the library, Buffy pulled him into a closed meeting room, and quickly closed the door, flinging herself into his arms and kissed him hard, "Have I told you I love you today? How proud I am of you? Of course it’s not ‘terrible.’ You’re nothing, if not brave, to go through all this, to have…"

He kissed her back, silencing her; "I’m only ‘brave’ about it all because of you, Elizabeth; because you found me, because you love me," he whispered to her.

For the next few minutes they kissed, their hands caressing each other softly, careful not to stir fires that they wouldn’t exactly be able to put out in the middle of their day.

Finally they broke apart and snuck out of the meeting room, "See you in a few hours," Buffy told him.

"I’ll be here!" he smiled, and adjusting himself, went into the main part of the library.

END CHAPTER 105

November 27, 2008

Wednesday

11:00am

Buffy walked by the window in her classroom, just in time to catch a glimpse of William in Spike’s old army jacket, walking into the shed, carrying a rake.

"Where did this come from?" he’d asked of the jacket, a few weeks ago, when the weather had gotten cool and she’d suggested he wear it.

"I don’t know, just something you had here."

He made a face, but put it on, to see how it fit. He put his hands inside the pockets and pulled out a handful of tree bark.

"Why do you think these are in here?"

"I don’t know," she answered, looking at them. Then it dawned on her, "Yes I do, they’re from when you carved our initials in our tree."

He turned them over in his hands, examining them, then put them back in his pocket and stepped over to her and put his hand on her cheek, "S’all connected, isn’t it?"

She nodded, looking him in the eyes, "Yes, it is."

He’d been working now, for over 2 months, and they’d settled into a comfortable routine.

William worked in the mornings, then waited for Buffy to get finished with work, usually an hour after the children had gone, at the library. He passed the time by reading or using the Internet for the first couple of weeks, but eventually, started helping the librarian catalogue some of the books and periodicals that came in. About a month later, with the library board’s agreement, she offered him a part-time job from 1:00pm - 3:30pm. He was quite pleased with this development, as it he now was working almost full-time, and he only had to wait another half-hour or less for Buffy to get out of work, so they could go home.

Tomorrow was Thanksgiving Day. They planned on a small dinner with just Clem as their guest.

Dawn had called to say that their father was going out-of-town with his new girlfriend, and she herself had been invited to Dr. John’s parent’s home in Sacramento.

Buffy was sorry about Dawn, but relieved that she didn’t have to make her own excuses to Hank.

The following day, her and William’s main goal was to get a Christmas tree. It would be the first time; in all the years she’d lived there, she’d never once celebrated a holiday. She’d decorated her classroom last year for the students, and in past years, had gone to her father’s apartment to celebrate the holidays with Dawn. But when she returned to Julian, to ‘their’ house, it was like she drew a curtain, separating her outside life with that of the memories she’d shared with Spike.

The only thing she did religiously every year was to build another ‘Snowman Spike,’ around Valentine’s Day.

This year was different though, this year she had something to celebrate!

They walked through the tree lot in Julian, looking for the best tree and feeling bad for the trees that had given their lives for the holiday, as well.

"How about this one, Elizabeth?" William asked, showing her a Scotch pine tree, whose bottom was covered in burlap.

"That’s nice, we could plant it afterwards, too. But what would we put it in?"

They went to search for the man who worked there. When they found him, he showed them a huge 10-gallon red plastic tub, which could be used to keep the bottom of the tree moist, over the holiday season.

"What a racket!" Buffy said, grinning, half-hour later, as she and William paid the $50.00 for the tree and $10.00 for the tub.

They got the tree into the car’s trunk somehow, tied it down with twine, and brought it home. They moved the coffee table, which sat next to the desk against the wall, and set up the tree there.

Next, they went shopping for decorations. They went to a ‘Christmas Store,’ which had opened up for the holidays. William had never seen so many decorations in his life, and had to stop at every display to look and make his choices. They wound up with an eclectic selection. William wanted silver and gold glass bulbs; Buffy wanted multi-colored ones, so they bought some of each. Same with lights, garland, tinsel, and ornaments. All in all, they spent a couple of hours and a couple of hundred dollars getting a little of everything.

The one thing they both agreed on were the bird ornaments that he’d found. Love birds, doves, cardinals, blue birds, and others, made of feather, ceramic, and glass. They bought some of each kind.

Snowmen, Santas, reindeer, and a glass star for the top, rounded out their selection of ornaments.

Buffy looked at William, enjoying his childlike happiness at picking out ornaments and looking at the decorated trees. The proverbial kid in a candy store. Truth be told, she felt like that, too.

She even talked him out of grumbling over the cost of it all by explaining that they would have these decorations and ornaments for years and wouldn’t have to spend this much again.

They picked up a couple of Christmas CD’s and went home with their spoils.

That evening, after dinner, to the sounds of Christmas music and hot apple cider, they decorated their first tree.

Buffy got out the stepstool, and William stood on it, arranging the lights on top, while she directed from about 10 feet away. The bottom lights they both put on. Then it was time to put on the ornaments, which took them over an hour, just to decide where each one looked the best.

Lastly, she handed him the star and he stood on the stepstool again to reach the top of the tree.

"What do you think?" he asked.

"It’s perfect."

He got down and stood back, admiring it. She went over and turned out the lamps and stood next to him, putting her arm around him, as they basked in the glow of the tree lights.

"It is, isn’t it?" he asked, in wonder.

"It really is," she agreed, and reached up to kiss him, "it really is."

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

November 30, 2008

Saturday

10:00am

"There they are!" Buffy said, waving at Dawn and the young man whose arm she had.

"Dawn! Over here!" she yelled, loud enough to be heard over the throng of Christmas shoppers.

Buffy and William had come down to San Diego to go Christmas shopping and to meet up with Dawn and Dr. John, who were spending the night with his cousin.

"Buffy! William!" Dawn said, making her way through the crowd with Dr. John in tow.

The sisters hugged and kissed, then Dawn and William hugged.

"This is John," Dawn said, smiling proudly at him.

Buffy looked over at him, John was tall, about 6’2", with curly, dark brown hair and eyes, a rather round face, and full lips that easily gave up a warm smile.

"Hi John, I’m Buffy and this is William. It’s nice to finally meet you. We’ve heard a lot about you for quite a while now."

"You, too."

"William," John said, holding out his hand, which William shook, "nice to meet you, I’ve heard a lot about you, too."

"Well, why don’t we go to Starbucks and get tanked up on caffeine as we plot our strategy," Buffy suggested.

"Always the slayer," Dawn whispered to Buffy as they walked ahead of the guys, toward Starbucks."

"Huh?"

"Tanked up? Strategy?" Dawn rolled her eyes.

"That would’ve been ‘suited up,’ or ‘geared up,’ not ‘tanked up.’ That would’ve been the government…"

"What do you want?" William asked, "I’ll buy for everyone."

Buffy gave him her order, as did Dawn and John. She felt bad knowing he was going to be down over $10 already, and they hadn’t even bought a single present yet.

They chit-chatted over coffee, then decided that for the first two hours the couples would shop together, then they would meet for lunch and decide how to proceed from there.

The first stop was the mall’s Radio Shack. Xander was first on Buffy and William’s list of friends to shop for. William picked up a copy of Typing Tutor for him. They also found a child’s version for Alex, geared for the 4-6 year olds. It had dozens of games, all played while teaching keyboarding skills. William also got Xander something called, ‘Let’s Fish!’ on CD-ROM that was like the Gideon’s Bible of fishing information. From lures to tackle, bait, poles, reels, line, types of fish, and what’s more, had a website where Xander could connect to, for up-to-date reports on the conditions of any watering hole he could think of wanting to visit.

Buffy spotted and couldn’t resist a little remote control racecar for Xander and Alex. In it’s seat sat a little character from the latest Disney movie she was sure they were probably familiar with.

"Great little car and a good price," said the sales clerk as he walked up to them.

"It’s adorable," Buffy agreed, "but I think when one purchases a car, they should be allowed to test drive it first, don’t you, um…Doug?" Buffy asked, using his the name on his tag.

"Uh…sure you can," he said looking around for somewhere that they could play with it, where it wouldn’t trip someone.

"Follow me," he said, leading them through the store, two cars and two remotes in his hand, "I probably shouldn’t let you do this, but…" he opened up the back door of the store and took them into a hall that only store personnel entered by. The hall was empty.

"You can play with it here, just don’t let anybody know I let you, okay? Oh, and don’t run the cars into each other’s, don’t want them looking all banged up," Doug said, handing Buffy and William the remotes. He put the cars on the ground in front of them.

"Have fun!"

"Thanks, Doug," said Buffy.

"Yeah, thanks!"

"What color do you car do you want? Blue or green?"

"Ladies first."

"Blue."

"Then green it is," he said, switching the cars so that the green one was now in front of him.

They practiced a bit, getting used to the remotes, laughing when their car would run backwards in circles, when the wrong lever was used.

Finally, they got the hang of it and raced their cars up and down the 20 or so feet down the hallway.

"WOO-HOO! I won, I won," William yelled with glee, as his car smacked into his foot.

"No fair! Your car was in the way, when I tried to turn around!" Buffy said, pretending to sulk.

"Aw…poor Elizabeth! Okay, let’s go again, I’ll even let you start off first."

"Oh, don’t think I can win? Let’s go!"

They raced their cars for another 5 minutes, laughing and trying to block each other’s car, as to get the advantage.

"Okay, last race," Buffy said.

"On your mark, get set…hey, that’s cheating!"

The green car took off, straight down the middle, then veered from side to side, as it blocked the blue car’s advance. Buffy faked to the left, then took off in front of the green car. At the end of the hallway, she tried to make a turn, only to be pushed out of the way, as William’s green car came full speed into the side of hers. He quickly reversed and got straightened out and started coming back in the home stretch. Buffy righted her car and raced after his, staying on his tail, but he anticipated her every move to overtake him, and raced to the finish.

"I think you cheat!" she said.

"Yeah, well, what are you going to do about it?" he asked, smirking at her in a very Spike-like way, that made her weak in the knees.

She grabbed him and kissed him hard, and wrapped her leg around his thigh until she had maximum contact with his body. They stumbled back up against the door to the Radio Shack, and as they did, she fingered the remote, advancing her car, which had been stopped at their feet, to the wall a few feet away, until it banged up against it.

They stopped to look, "Oops, looks like I won after all!" she said, trying to look innocent.

"That’s because you cheated," he said, panting. "and you’ll pay for that, missy!"

"Promise?"

"Oh, I promise alright!" William said, wagging an eyebrow at her in a suggestive manner.

<><><<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>><><>><><><><><><><>

There was a long line at the counter when they went up to pay for their purchases.

"Look, they ship!" Buffy said, pointing to the sign, "think I’ll just have them ship these from here, that way I won’t have to go to the Post-Office later. Just wish I had some cards to enclose," she said wistfully.

"Like these?" William said, as he picked up a box off of an end cap that he’d been standing by.

"Great, we can do these while we’re waiting!"

"What about Clem?"

"Crap, that’s right, why don’t you go look around, while I keep our place in mind, if you find something, let me know, then you can hold my place."

"Can we do that?"

"Why not? If we both get out of line, by the time we get back to the line, we’ll have to wait another half-hour."

He looked at the line that had formed behind her. There were at least another 20 people.

"Good point," he said, nodding and heading off in search of more presents.

He came back a few minutes later.

"Find anything?"

"I think so. Wasn’t Clem talking about wanting to be able to put his old tapes on DVD’s?"

She thought about it for a minute, "Yeah, I think he was. I think he has a DVD-VCR player, but not a DVD recorder."

William nodded, "Right. There’s one on sale for about $65.00, what do you think?"

"That’s perfect, bring it over."

He came back a few minutes later, "It was the last one," he said, dejectedly.

"Crap!" Buffy said.

Just then Doug walked by, "Doug, we wanted to buy that DVD recorder that you have on sale for $65.00, but it’s the last one. Do you think you have any more in the back?"

"No, I know we don’t," he answered, "it sold out early yesterday."

"Damn!" Buffy said, "what about other Radio Shacks?"

"Same thing, but you can probably order one online, I’ll go check."

He returned in a few minutes, "Sorry, it’s out of stock, too. If you’d like though, I can sell you the floor model."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I asked the manger already, just let me find the box, then I’ll have it at the counter for you. The manager knocked 10% off too, since it was the floor model."

"Great!"

Buffy hugged William, "I’m glad you spotted that! Clem will love it!"

"Anyone else?"

"Willow and Dawn, but I don’t think I’m going to buy them anything from here. The Science Store has something that Dawn wants, and I’m thinking of a coat for Willow. Last time I talked to Kennedy, when Willow was out, she told me that Willow had been looking around for a new one, but hadn’t been able to afford the one she wanted."

Buffy knew she probably shouldn’t be spending so much money either, but especially this year, with all the help that they’d given her, she was definitely so spoiling her friends!

"What about you? You see anything here that you like?"

"Me? No. You don’t have to buy me anything. Got everything I need," he said, giving her a kiss on the cheek.

She shook her head, laughing.

"What about you?" he asked.

"Same thing," she said, taking his hand, "got everything I need."

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

"You don’t have to wait with me, if you don’t want to. There’s a bookstore across the way and some other shops, or you could sit down on a bench out there, if you can find one," she said, about ten minutes later, while they were still behind at least another half-dozen people.

"Trying to get rid of me?" he asked.

"Not at all, just thought you might be bored. Know I am."

"I can wait in line for you," he suggested.

"No, I’ve got Xander’s address, so I’d better do this."

"Well, maybe I will step outside then. How long do you think it’ll be?"

"Another 15 minutes, maybe. Want to meet me in front of the store then, by the benches?"

"Okay," he said, and giving her a parting kiss, made his way through to the exit.

He breathed in a sigh of relief, momentarily, as he realized it was about 20 degrees cooler outside of the store.

He stood there looking at the different stores, until the sight of a jewelry store caught his eye.

Walking over to it, he stood in front the display window looking at a variety of rings, necklaces, watches, bracelets, earrings, and chains. Drawing up his courage, he stepped inside, squeezing between the throngs of customers lined up against the display cases, some talking with sales associates, some to their partners, some alone.

William felt a yearning as he watched as a happy couple looked at engagement and wedding rings. The woman’s face was aglow, as she looked at her partner and then the ring on her finger.

"May I help you?" a woman asked, interrupting his reverie.

He cleared his throat, "Um…I’m looking for a Christmas present."

"For a woman?"

"Yes, my…" the word wife stuck in his throat and he faltered.

"Someone very special?" the salesclerk asked, perceptively.

He nodded, grateful, "Very special."

"Are you looking for a ring?"

"I…I’m not sure."

"Why don’t I show you some of the rings and let you get some idea of what we have?"

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

Buffy finally left the store, happy that she’d managed a big portion of her holiday shopping, even if she was going to be paying for it until February. Xander and Alex’s gifts would be shipped tomorrow and would be there next week, and Clem’s and William’s gifts were being shipped to the school, where she would find some way to sneak them into the car after they arrived. She smiled when she thought of her brainstorm she’d had and how she’d gotten William to leave for a while.

She looked at her watch; he should be waiting for her right about now. Only he wasn’t.

Gratefully, she saw someone get up from one of the benches and took their seat, hoping he’d finish whatever he was doing soon.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

William walked out of the jewelry store discouraged; the ring he thought Elizabeth would really like was way out of his price range.

With what he was earning after taxes; which had been a rude shock, he’d only managed to save a small bit of it over the past couple of months. Elizabeth had tried to explain to him that there was a household budget fund for things such as groceries, fuel, etc. Still, it didn’t feel right to just pocket his money, while he knew that the ‘fund’ was mostly being supported by her earnings, and so, when Clem would take him driving, they’d stop at the nearby grocery store and he’d pick up what they needed, using his own money.

He saw Elizabeth sitting on the bench, her eyes scanning the crowds looking for him. She spotted him and he waved to her as he approached.

"Hi," he said, squeezed in between her and a heavyset woman a seat away, "been waiting long?"

"Not too long."

"Did you decide against the DVD recorder for Clem?"

"No, I bought it, they’re going to ship it to the school for me next week, so I don’t have to carry it around the rest of the day. How about you? You find anything interesting?"

He shook his head, then leaned over and whispered in her ear, "Not until this very minute."

She laughed, "Flattery will get you everywhere."

"That’s my plan," he said, laughing along with her.

<><><><><><><><><>><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

"I see her," William said, waving at Dawn, who was standing next to a table in the middle of the practically overflowing food court.

"I hope you don’t mind the location, it took us about 15 minutes to spot an empty table," Dawn said, when Buffy and William had made their way to the table.

"No, it’s great. Hey, you got pizza and everything!"

"Yeah, John stayed with the table and I took the liberty to order food and pop for everyone, so you guys didn’t have to wait in line. Figured everyone likes pizza. Right?" Dawn looked at William, who nodded.

"Thanks, that was really thoughtful, Dawn," Buffy said, sitting down. She would’ve rather just had some sort of salad, but looking over at the long lines, she’d go with the pizza, gladly.

They ate lunch, and got to know John better. He was very intelligent and soon, William and him were discussing the classics, among other things.

"I agree, A Midsummer Night’s Dream may ‘read’ the funniest, but if you ever see them performed live, you’ll have to agree that Taming of the Shrew is funnier, still," John had argued.

"Yes, well, you may have a point, but I still think that A Midsummer Night’s Dream has the funniest plot. Come now, you’ve got…"

Dawn and Buffy looked at each other and rolled their eyes. Dawn leaned over and whispered to Buffy, "If they were our spouses, I’d say they’re espousing!"

They both cracked up.

The men stopped to look at them, "What?" William asked.

"Nothing," Buffy said, innocently.

Dawn looked at John, also shaking her head and batting her eyelashes at him.

"William, I’d say we’ve just been made the brunt of a cruel joke, if I know this one," he said, nodding over to Dawn.

"Wouldn’t surprise me a bit," he agreed, looking at Elizabeth.

Buffy and Dawn giggled.

"What do you say we get back to shopping. Now, how are we going to do this?" Buffy asked.

After some discussion, they broke into two groups again, Dawn with William, and Buffy with John.

"Two hours enough?" Buffy asked Dawn.

"Probably. I’ll call you on the cell, if it gets reception here. If not, we’ll meet you in front of Starbucks around 2:00pm."

Dawn and William went off to find something for Buffy. William complained about the jewelry store prices and not knowing what he should get.

"Were you looking for a certain kind of ring, in particular?" Dawn asked, hinting.

He turned to face her, "You know I would in a heartbeat, but I…I don’t think…I don’t want to rush Elizabeth, if she doesn’t want…"

Dawn put her hand on his arm, "Relax William, I was teasing you. I think she really does want to, deep down. I can’t tell you when the right time will be; hopefully you’ll know that. So…what about a different kind of ring?"

They discussed his options for a few minutes.

"William, how would you like to blow this pop stand for a little while?"

"What do you mean?"

"I noticed a nice little antique shop about 2 blocks away on our way here. What do you say we get the car and go over there and see if there’s anything nice that’s in your budget as well?"

He nodded gratefully and they took off for the exit.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

It was just after 2:00pm, as Buffy stood talking to John at the Starbuck’s counter, having just ordered a Café Mochachino for herself and Dawn and two regular coffees for the guys. Three large shopping bags full of presents were on the floor next to her. Her and John had stayed together part of the time, like when he enlisted her help in picking out a pretty cashmere scarf for Dawn and a matching sweater. Mostly though, they just shopped by themselves, meeting up before going on to the next store.

"There they are," she said, noticing Dawn and William walking up, arms linked and looking mighty pleased with themselves.

"So, did you find anything? Did ya? Did ya?" Buffy teasingly asked them.

"Nope, not a thing," William answered, a bit too quickly.

"But we had a good time getting ideas," Dawn added, winking.

Neither had any packages, so Buffy had no reason to doubt them, although William seemed to be trying a bit too hard to act nonchalant.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>>

"So, you didn’t find anything today, huh?" Buffy asked, later that night, as they sat curled up in front of the fireplace, enjoying the warmth of that, each other, and the twinkling of the Christmas tree lights.

"Um, not really, just looked at a million things," he said, chuckling, "never understand the attraction to these malls."

"You didn’t have a good time?" she asked, hurt.

"Didn’t say that, luv," he said, pulling her in tighter and kissing the top of her head, "had a lovely time with you, seeing Dawn, meeting her boyfriend. Just malls in general," he said, shaking his head.

"Yeah, they’re kinda crazy sometimes, especially a couple of days after Thanksgiving Day," she said, looking at their intertwined fingers.

He brought their hands to his mouth, kissing hers, "Actually, it was pretty fun. You did good though; got that coat for Willow, some clothes for Dawn, and that thing from the Science Store, right?"

"Yeah, I did okay," she said, smiling at him, as she thought of what she’d bought him, too.

For the first time in longer than she could remember, she was really loving this season.

END CHAPTER 106

A/N Sorry this took so long, what with the holidays and such.

I’m getting to some ‘interesting’ parts of the story, in fact, I was tempted to post the next chapter as well, but I have to make 100% sure about it first, so it will have to wait. Darn…there’s something about the last line of this that would flow right into the next one…but you guys have waited a long time for these chapters, so at least you’ll have these for now. Just remember to go back and read the last line before starting the next one…unless I totally change it between now and then.

Hope everyone had a nice holiday like I did.

December 2, 2008

Monday

10:45am

"I really hate this season," Angel said, tossing the latest cheerily, cliched Christmas card in the trash.

Actually it had been the card prior to this one, which had really set him off. It was a card from his former ‘loyal’ A.I. employees. It had the usual, cheery holiday crap, but their newsletter was a bit different than most. It detailed their latest cases, which they were now quite efficiently solving, so it would seem.

Wesley, Fred, and Gunn each added a little personal note for him, either asking him to reconsider coming back to the firm he’d created, or offering their assistance, should he need it.

They had all gone with him to Wolfram & Hart in the beginning, but one by one, they had found that the company was corrupting them into people they didn’t recognize anymore. Or like.

The only one who stayed on was Lorne. He loved his job hobnobbing with the celebrities.

Angel had insisted from the beginning, that W & H give them all a 90-day no-strings-attached trial. Slowly but surely, one by one, they bailed on him, like the weak humans they were. They’d given up the world of resources that Wolfram & Hart provided at their fingertips, all for the greater good, or so they’d said.

From Angel's perspective, he could do more good in a week from the belly of the beast, than a year on the outside. Who cared how it was achieved, as long as it was? And that, he’d thought, would surely come to the notice of The Powers that Be, when ultimate prophetic rewards were being considered.

Only that hadn’t seemed to be the case.

"I really hate this season," he repeated, as his office door opened.

"Well, maybe this will cheer you up," Lilah said, handing him a VHS tape.

"What's this?"

"Oh, just something that stood out today, when the latest tapes were run though the scanner," she said, referring to the multi-million dollar machine, which had been set up to identify anybody remotely of interest in Wolfram & Hart from all over the country. Every single thing about a person was programmed into the computer, hair color, eye color and shape, cheekbones, bone structure, DNA, weight, gait, clothing style and even what they would look like wearing a disguise.

Every day, thousands of video feeds from Starbucks all across the country were run through the program, and when somebody of interest was identified, be they human or demon, the computer would generate a report on a possible sighting. Starbucks had been chosen, because of it’s overwhelming popularity with both humans and demons. The chances were, at least once a week; everybody of interest would probably be on camera, paying for their coffee, innocent of the fact that they were being recorded.

"What's this, the latest Ghora demon, having a triple espresso in Boise freakin' Idaho?" Angel scowled, taking the tape, and putting it into the VCR,

"Well?" he asked, a few minutes after it started.

"May I?" Lilah asked.

Angel handed her the remote and she brought up the onscreen menu. She then fast-forwarded to frame 3350.

"Right here, it's coming up," she said, smiling slyly at him.

"Buffy!" Angel exclaimed, seeing her standing at a Starbuck’s counter. He stared at the screen for a while, as she talked to a tall, dark haired man, smiling easily and touching his arm.

Out of habit mostly and years of conditioning, a part of him was pained to see her talking to any man, but a grin slowly spread across his face, as he realized the person was most definitely not Spike.

"Interesting," he said, emotionless, though she could tell differently.

"Hold on, don't get too happy," Lilah said, enjoying seeing him squirm.

"Here we go," she said, fast forwarding another 20 or so frames.

Angel watched as Buffy turned and smiled happily towards someone off screen. The man walked up to her, Dawn on his arm, laughing. They unlinked arms and Dawn went to the unidentified dark haired man, while he went to Buffy, putting his arms around her as if it were the most natural thing in the world. She turned to him, her pleasure at seeing him there, apparent in her eyes and body language; the way she leaned in towards him. She had a teasing look, as she said something to him, then laughed. The man turned to her, said something in return, shrugging.

"William!" Angel spat the name out, like a piece of gristle stuck between his teeth.

"Uh-huh," Lilah said, "a little more interesting, huh?"

"What else is there?" he asked through gritted teeth.

She rewound the tape to when they'd first got to the mall.

Angel watched as Buffy and William first arrived, then greeted Dawn and the other man, and as they sat and talked, drinking coffee, before going off to shop.

Angel’s face was dark with anger, as he watched Buffy and William hold hands, as they walked off, out of view.

"That's it," Lilah said, grinning as she turned off the VCR, "your ex and Shanshu boy out doing their holiday shopping; sweet isn’t it?" she purred to him.

She started to take the tape out of the VCR.

"Leave it!" Angel said, raising his voice.

"Whatever you want, boss," she said, taking her hand off the machine and backing up as she saw the expression on his face. No use getting her head cut off, yet again; it would most definitely ruin her new white, silk blouse.

"Where was this taken?"

"San Diego," Lilah said, "Mission Valley Mall."

The wheels were going around in his head, "San Diego, huh?"

"That’s the place."

"Leave now," Angel said to Lilah.

She nodded and headed out the door, grinning as she shut the door.

He reached for the remote and turned on the VCR again, pausing the tape when he got a clear shot of Buffy’s face. He stared impassively at her for a long time, wondering to himself what it was he was feeling.

It finally came to him. Revulsion.

Angel’s eyes flashed yellow, as his mind conjured the last images of her, sending him away, giving him that stupid cookie dough speech of hers! Cheating him, Angel, of his destiny, so that Spike, whom she’d said wasn’t her ‘boyfriend,’ but ‘in her heart,’ got the chance to Shanshu.

He advanced the tape, until he saw William and hit the pause button again.

Angel’s face, now in complete vamp mode was distorted, his yellow eyes narrowed, as he glared at the cursed image on the screen.

"So, Spike, you think you’ve suffered? Think you’re deserving enough to live happily ever after with her, do you?" he muttered, as images of just what he’d like to do to William to make him suffer filled him with satisfaction.

All of a sudden he banged his fist on the desk as hard as he could, causing his mug of O+ to spill all over the desk.

"Willow!" he said darkly, impotently, recalling the protection spell she’d cast and the threat of annihilation, should he try to interfere with the prophecy, as it played out.

"Damn her! Damn them all to hell!"

END CHAPTER 107

December 3, 2008

Tuesday

3:00am

"Come with me," William said, "I have to show you something."

"What is it?" Buffy asked.

"Just come with me, Elizabeth," he repeated taking her hand.

They hiked the trail behind their house, up to the overlook near The Tree.

"What did you want to show me?" she asked, looking at him questioning.

"Wanted you to remember me here, like you always said you did."

"What do you mean?" she asked, a sudden sense of dread coming over her.

He just looked at her with sorrow, and shook his head; "It wasn’t enough, was it? You couldn’t return it; not the way I felt about you."

"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked, blinking her eyes, as William seemed to be…less?

"William?" she asked, reaching out to him, "what’s happening?"

He backed away from her outstretched hand.

"It’s too late, not your fault, just…" he shook his head, "I love you, Elizabeth, always have, always will."

"William!" she screamed, as it was obvious that William was fading before her.

She looked at him, her eyes pleading with her brain, for it to be some sort of trick of lighting; "This isn’t happening; it’s not real! You can’t…" she choked back a sob, "can’t be leaving me. It’s not supposed to happen…" Buffy stopped talking.

William looked at her sadly, "It was always up to you," he said.

"What do you mean? Let me stop it then! Tell me what to do!"

"It was never mine to know, but for this minute, I didn’t…it’s too late, it’s done."

She looked at William, who was almost completely transparent now. Her eyes looked into his and she saw all that he was, all his love in his beautiful, fading blue eyes. He was right, there was nothing more to be done, whatever ‘it’ had been, she had blown it, missed something; let something irrevocably slip away.

Buffy looked into his eyes, "I love you," she said in a tiny voice.

He made a little sound, as he almost imperceptibly shook his head, "No you don’t, but thanks for saying it," he whispered back, and with that, he was gone.

"William!" she cried, "come back to me, please don’t leave me, you can’t be gone, you can’t!"

"WILLIAM!" she screamed, sitting bolt upright in bed, her heart pounding, her face wet.

"Elizabeth?" William asked, his own heart pounding, having been awoken by her screaming. "What is it? What’s the matter, luv?"

She turned suddenly towards his voice, his wonderful voice! Her eyes brimmed with wetness, which soon spilled down her face as she blinked, tried to come back to the present, push the images away.

"Are you real?" she asked, her voice breaking.

William nodded, as he cupped her face in his hand, wiping away her tears with his thumb, "Don’t cry, luv. Just had a bad dream. I’m here…"

She let out a sob as she threw herself over on him, showering him with kisses, even as her tears still fell.

"I love you, William! You know that, don’t you? Because I do, I do," she said, pleading with him, "please tell me you know…that it’s enough."

"Elizabeth," he spoke softly, put his hands on either side of her face, to make her look at him, "I know…of course I know. Why would you ask me if it’s enough?" he asked, a bit of hurt creeping into his voice.

"Have I ever given you any reason for you to think that I don’t think it’s enough, that you’re not enough?" he asked, shaking his head. How could she think that?

Was this what her dream was about? That he rejected or left her because she wasn’t enough?

"Listen to me, Elizabeth. Don’t you ever, for a single second ever think that what you’ve given me isn’t enough, that your love isn’t enough! It’s more than enough, more than I could’ve ever dreamed possible. It’s I, who should be…"

"No, William, you shouldn’t. Never!" she said,

Buffy silenced any more talk with a kiss, tried to put as much of herself as she could find to give into it, Tried to dig down within her heart to find more of herself to love him with, even the little parts that she held back. The part that only Spike lay claim to.

December 20, 2008

Friday

12:00 Noon

It was the last day of school before winter holiday and William had been invited by the class to come and enjoy their party that afternoon, which consisted of games, food, stories, and crafts from here and different countries.

William sat on the floor in Elizabeth's classroom, surrounded by children as he read them a Christmas story from England, in a book he'd borrowed from the library.

Buffy too, sat on the floor at the outer circle of children, watched his face, animated in its expressions when the story called for it, listened to his various voices, as he read the different characters and held his audience’s rapt attention.

The story ended, and one of the older children started a round of applause. He smiled a big grin at them, slightly embarrassed. She looked at him, proud that he’d come so far, proud that he was who he was, proud that he was hers.

He looked over the heads of the children towards her, and held her glance for a moment. The grin left his face, replaced for a half-second by awe, when he saw the look of love that her eyes held for him. The children quickly looked from one to another, conscious of the emotional vibe being transmitted around them. Some started to giggle.

Buffy smiled at him, then got up, "Okay, let’s get organized for the lunchroom activities," she said.

William went over to ‘his’ group of students to help with their last minute preparations.

At 12:30pm, all the students came down to the lunchroom. The teachers had been using the kitchen with their students over the past week, cooking up traditional holiday fare from different countries. The upper and lower elementary classes had been doing research over the past weeks on different cultures and this afternoon's lunch had been the culmination of that.

Each group of students took turns in front of the lunchroom to talk about the culture they had studied; then they would walk around the lunchroom, offering the diners a taste of what they had cooked.

As part of their research project, Buffy had sent the group assigned England, over to the library to talk to William. Now that group, having finished their presentation, approached their table.

"Would you like to try our mince pie and plum pudding Mr. W.?" asked Katie.

"Of course!" William said, smiling at her, as she handed him a plate.

December 23, 2008

Monday

3:30pm

Buffy was in the kitchen trying hard to duplicate that Plum Pudding, that the kids had done so well. William was standing behind her as she stirred.

"Turn the heat down a bit, or it’ll burn," he said.

"I already did."

"Just a little more," he said, giving her a peck on the cheek.

"Okay, I can do this," she smiled at him, "really I can."

"Know you can, luv. You can do anything."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, but culinary skills aren’t my forte."

"It’s just practice. And finesse," he answered grinning.

She snorted, "Yeah, I’m big with the finesse, aren’t I? Oh, hey…phone’s ringing. Can you…?"

"Yeah, I’ll get it."

He went to the bedroom, locating the phone in Elizabeth’s purse.

"Hello?"

"Hey William, its Dawn. Just who I wanted to talk to…"

"…. That’s just great, Dawn. Elizabeth will be so pleased!"

"Just don’t let on William, okay? I want it to be a surprise!"

"Don’t worry, I won’t," William assured her.

"Oh, one more thing," Dawn said, "do you think you can change the reservations from 6:00 to around 5:00pm instead? I know it’s early, but we’ve all got planes to catch later. John and I are catching a flight from San Diego to Sacramento at 9:00 and you-know-who catching a flight cross-country around then, too. That way we can spend more time with you guys."

"Got it, add a person to the reservation, and make it an hour earlier. I’ll just tell Elizabeth if she asks, about your flight."

"That’ll work!" Dawn said, "see you guys tomorrow evening!"

"Bye Dawn,"

"Bye William."

END CHAPTER 108

December 24, 2008

Tuesday

4:30pm

"Are you ready yet, Elizabeth?" William said, jingling the car keys he held in his hands.

"We don’t have to be there for a half-hour still, which means we really don’t have to leave for another 15 minutes."

"Alright, alright," he said dejectedly, plopping down on one of the chairs. He smoothed out the cerulean blue and tan sweater that Elizabeth had bought him while at the mall a couple of weeks ago. She’d given it to him today as an early gift, in case he wanted to wear it, assuring him it was dressy enough, even for Christmas Eve. He wore the nice tan pants that he’d got him as well.

About 10 minutes later, she walked out of the bedroom. William inhaled sharply, as he gazed at her.

Her hair was in a loose ponytail, two ornate gold and green chopsticks through it, with a couple of curled tendrils framing her face. She wore a see through, forest green, lace top, with a thin, spaghetti strap tank top underneath it. She had on a black velvet skirt that came down just beneath her knees and black boots that almost came up to her knees, sporting about 4" heels. She carried a matching black and dark green velvet jacket over her arm. She had on her lovebird necklace, as always, and a simple gold chain, which had couple of gold beads every 4 inches or so. Her earrings were gold and green stars.

William stood up and just stared at her.

"What do you think?" Buffy asked, turning around once for him.

"You take my breath away," he said, his voice filled with emotion and appreciation.

"You, too," she answered, pleased by his response.

He held out his hand to her and she took it. He pulled her into his arms and onto his lap as he sat back down.

"Look at you," he said, "you’re…what’s another word for gleaming?"

"I gleam?"

"Like a precious gemstone, like a diamond…"

She kissed him, stilling his sudden burst of poetic expression, "Thank you, William," she said, gently breaking off the increasingly passionate kiss, "but I thought you said we had to go."

He groaned, putting his hand down along her hip, which in turn made her moan from the contact, "Uh…there it is," he said, pulling out his watch from his pocket.

"We still have a good 5 minutes," he said grinning, pulling her in for another kiss.

"Just watch the makeup. I won’t have time to reapply it."

"I will, promise. Um…lipstick okay?"

"Yeah," she said, grinning, "I’ll have time to put some more on, and you’ll have time to take some off."

"Come ‘ere then!"

Buffy and William walked into The Rittenhouse Restaurant at exactly 5:00pm, carrying a large bag of presents.

"Master William! Miss Elizabeth," Edna said excitedly, seeing them as she walked up to the front from the dining area.

"Edna!" they both said.

"Merry Christmas," Buffy said, reaching into the bag that William held and handing her a large present.

"Oh my!" Edna said, flustered, "you didn’t have to…"

"Nonsense, my dear," William said, giving her a card and a peck on the cheek.

"Shall I open this now?" she asked.

"Sure," Buffy answered.

Edna put the package on the maitre d’s stand and carefully undid the wrapping, making sure not to tear it, as she was a die-hard saver and re-user of wrappings and bows.

Finally, she came to the package and opened it up.

"A cuckoo clock? How did you know?" she asked, her eyes tearing.

"A little bird whispered that it was always something you’d wanted and that it reminded you of when you were a little girl," Buffy said, smiling.

William grinned. He’d been that little bird, as he’d heard her talking to some other diners one night about her childhood and the subject of clocks had come up somehow. He hadn’t heard the whole conversation, but he remembered that when Buffy wondered what to get her.

"Thank you William, thank you Elizabeth," Edna said, coming up and giving them a hug. "I’m going to put it right over that wall," she said pointing to the wall that the museum room was located on.

"Maybe I can put it up for you later," William suggested.

"Yes, you can, but not tonight William. No work on Christmas Eve! Now, if you’ll wait one moment…" she said, and disappeared into the dining room.

She was back in a couple of minutes; "Your table is waiting, if you’ll kindly follow me."

Buffy smiled when she saw Dawn and John were already seated.

"You’re here!" she said excitedly, giving them hugs.

William hugged Dawn and shook John’s hand.

"Hey, there’s Clem," Dawn said, waving to him as he walked over.

They sat down and started to talk, but Dawn interrupted, "I have a surprise for you Buffy," she said, grinning.

"What’s that?"

"That would be me," said a familiar voice.

Buffy turned around and there was Willow!

"Will!" she shouted, standing up and hugging her. "How? When?"

"Just last night. I spent the night and part of today with my mom and dad, and now I’m here!"

"But I thought they were going over to England for Hanukkah, "Buffy said.

"They already did," she said, taking a chair, "but it fell early this year; about 2 weeks ago. I wasn’t going to come to the states again so soon, but then Kennedy got homesick and wanted to go see her family in New York, so that’s what she’s doing. In fact, I’m catching the red-eye back there tonight."

"Tonight? Already?" Buffy said, disappointed, "but at least you’re here now!"

"Yeah, I know, it’s a short trip. Kennedy and I are spending tomorrow with her family on Long Island, then we’re going over to New Jersey, to see Xander and Angela and the kids."

"That’s great. Okay, you’re forgiven then for spending less time here."

They had ham and turkey and all the side dishes of a traditional dinner, plus Edna had some specialties from Ireland that she had cooked up as well.

Mrs. Carpello came by the table with her sister on their way to being seated.

"Hello Elizabeth, hello William. Merry Christmas Eve."

"You, too. Everyone, this is Mrs. Carpello, directress of Montessori, where we work. Mrs. Carpello, this is my sister Dawn and her boyfriend John, and this is my best friend Willow. She’s in from England."

"Ah, another English person in our midst," she said, smiling at William.

"Not really," Willow said, "I’m from California, but I live there now."

"How wonderful for you," Mrs. Carpello said, "and this is my sister Marjorie."

Hellos were said all around once again.

"Well, I’ll leave you to your dinner. Will you and William be at midnight service tonight?"

"Um, I don’t think so, I…" Buffy stammered.

"You should think about it, St. Marks it’s quite nice. Very old fashioned church we have here, built around the turn of the century and it’s really quite spectacular looking at midnight; very special."

"Um…maybe we’ll think about it," she said, looking questioningly at William.

He nodded, "We will."

"Well then, maybe we’ll see you tonight," Mrs. Carpello said, smiling as her and her sister went to their table.

"Looks like everyone in town is here tonight," Buffy said, looking around.

"It’s like this every year. You would have known that if you’d come with me all those years I invited you," Clem said.

She just shook her head and shrugged. There was an awkward silence for a moment, until Willow started talking to John.

William squeezed her hand and leaned over, whispering in her ear, "Why didn’t you ever come here on Christmas Eve."

She looked at him, before softly answering, "Well, a couple of times I went to my dad’s, to see him and Dawn, but mostly I just stayed home."

"Alone?" William asked, his eyes sad.

She shook her head, "Not here," she said, putting her hand over her heart, which he took in his, his eyes never leaving hers.

Dawn cleared her throat, and Buffy and William quickly returned their attention to the table, "So, when are we going to get to the presents?"

Buffy grinned at her, ever the little kid who can’t wait, "You know the rules Dawn, first you eat, then you open."

"Aw, mom!" she said.

They finished dinner with still 2 hours to spare before Willow, Dawn, and John had to leave to catch their flights.

"Why don’t we just invite them back to the house?" William whispered to Buffy.

Quickly her mind took in not only the time logistics of it, but the idea that now, their house, Spike’s house, would be opened up to guests. Willow she didn’t mind, Dawn had already been there, but John… She looked at William and she didn’t have a good reason she could come up with for denying him this. Besides, she’d just make sure that Willow still had that protection spell in place, maybe throw a forgetting spell in for good measure. Besides there was something she wanted to talk to Willow privately about.

"Okay," she answered him. He smiled at her, pleased.

"Elizabeth and I would like to invite you back to the house to open presents there with us, instead of here. It’s not far and you’ll still have plenty of time to make it to the airport. And, we have wine."

"Well, if there’s wine," Willow said, smiling, as she raised her glass of White Zinfandel.

"Goodnight, Edna, Merry Christmas, dear," William said, holding the shopping bag full of gifts with one hand, Elizabeth’s arm linked through his other.

"Merry Christmas to you, too, William, Elizabeth. I’m so glad you’re together again…" she smiled at the happy couple, but stopped herself before she got carried away.

"Teresa said maybe you would be coming to services tonight?" Edna asked hopefully.

"Teresa? Oh, Mrs. Carpello, well, um…maybe," Buffy said.

"Good night dears," Edna said.

"Boy, everyone is really wanting us to go to church tonight," Buffy said, laughing, as they drove toward home. Behind them were Clem and Willow in one car, Dawn and John in the other, following.

"Did you ever go?" William asked, after a moment.

"Where? Church? Um…not really. I mean, I think my mom took me a couple of times when I was real small. Dad wasn’t with us, I don’t think. Then when I was about 10, I went to a friend’s church once or twice, but my mom didn’t like what I told her about it when I returned, so I never went again. Other than that…guess Elizabeth and church are unmixy things," she said, feeling a bit more than the usual ungodly heathen she rather thought herself, not without some perverse satisfaction. Well, rather an ‘ungodly,’ than someone like Caleb. She stifled a shudder; "What about you?"

"I went to church pretty regularly as a boy. We went to a small church, not far from our home, but every other year on Christmas Eve; we went to services at Westminster Abbey; it was quite…moving. To be in that grand cathedral…we sat in this part of the Abbey called the Nave. To look up as a child and see that ceiling that is over 100 feet tall, all gothic arches and such…well, you can imagine, it’s quite an impressive thing; sharing that sense of awe, the sense of history. And when we sang, the music seemed to echo right off the walls, the ceiling, until it felt like the music was right inside you; hundreds of people all there on that special night, all holding little candles, all singing. It was…oh, nevermind. It was a long time ago," he said, hastily.

"It sounds like it was really nice. How old were you when you first went?"

"Um…maybe around 8. My mum always had wanted to try it, but my father wouldn’t hear of it, since he thought the vicar of our church would be insulted, even though lots of the parishioners went to the cathedral for Christmas Eve. Still…it wasn’t until my father died that we went. My mum’s compromise was that we only went every other year, that way, she felt like she wasn’t hurting the vicar’s feelings too much, or my father’s memory."

"I see. Well, that was pretty clever of her, really."

"Yeah, she was that…" he trailed off.

Buffy put her hand over his, as they approached the house, "That was a nice story. Thanks for telling me that."

He reached over and took her chin in his hand, then kissed her, "You’re the keeper of all my memories, Elizabeth. Aren’t you?" he asked, his question obviously carrying so much more than one meaning.

She nodded, "I guess I am at that."

He nodded back briefly, then got out of the car, as did she.

"Come on in everyone," Buffy said, as William held the door open.

"William, Buffy, this is so nice," Willow said, once inside.

William took Willow and John on the tour, while Clem started the fire and Dawn helped Buffy in the kitchen with the getting the wine poured.

"Bet it feels funny having everyone here, huh?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah, but nice, too. William is the one who suggested it, he loves his friends," she said, smiling at Dawn.

The trouped into the kitchen just then, on their way out the back door. John came over to Dawn and pulled her with him. She gave Buffy a helpless grin.

"Where you taking them now?"

"Out to see the sky, the barn, I dunno."

"William, don’t you want our guest to be able to have some time to relax, drink some wine, open presents?" she gently scolded.

"They will, they will," he said, as the door banged shut.

It opened again, and Willow came back inside, "Think I’ll skip the barn tour," she said, grinning.

Buffy rolled her eyes, "Do they know you stayed? Otherwise, they’ll be outside for an hour looking for you!"

"Yeah, I grabbed Clem and told him."

"Good. Anyway, I’m glad you stayed," Buffy said, giving her a hug, "want to help me carry these glasses out to the living room? Oh, wait, we need to move a table first."

After they’d transported the coffee table from the spare bedroom to in front of the couch, dusted it off a bit, they put the glasses and bottles of wine down on it. Next they put everyone’s Christmas presents under the tree. Buffy plugged in the tree lights.

"Ooh, pretty!" Willow said, smiling.

Buffy nodded, "Yeah, it is. Our first tree, actually my first tree since coming here."

They stood there admiring it for a moment.

"Um…Willow, I’m sort of glad you stayed behind there’s something I wanted to ask you about."

"What’s up Buffy."

"I’m not sure exactly, see I had this dream the other night…"

"A slayer dream?"

"No. I mean, I don’t think so, there was no slaying but there was…this is hard, and some of it’s kinda fading, you know, how dreams are, but other parts, the ones I wish would fade, they’re still so clear if I think about them," she shook her head.

Buffy proceeded to tell Willow the content of her dream, how William had told her that it hadn’t been enough, how he had faded into oblivion before her very eyes.

"What do you think it means?" she asked Willow.

"I’m not sure," she said, "could just be a bad dream."

"Yeah, but what if it isn’t?"

"Buffy, maybe you’re just letting your insecurities get the better of you. After all, it’s still been a relatively short amount of time since Spike’s been back, I would think it’s normal to still have dreams that he’s gone or that he’s left. I think it’s just your subconscious fear."

"I have conscious fear, too. I’m well aware of my fear. My fear and I are old friends. And believe me, I’ve had those kind of dreams, too. But this was so specific, it wasn’t just that he’d never come back or that he left, but that somehow I…I was responsible. See, I’ve been thinking Willow. Maybe this has to do with the prophecy. Maybe the part you couldn’t read? Please Willow, what if there’s something I’m supposed to be doing to make it stick, but I don’t know what it is, what if…"

Just then they heard the others come back in from the back door.

"Buffy!" Willow said, "There’s nothing else you can be doing. You guys are good, right?" she asked, with a slightly worried expression.

"We’re better than good, we’re wonderful," Buffy answered.

"Then don’t worry, okay? Dream, that’s all."

William came into the living room and walked over to Buffy, putting his arm around her, "Sorry, luv, got caught up with talking about the DeSoto." He said, sheepishly, looking over at John.

"Don’t blame poor William, I kept him out there, making him answer 101 questions about his awesome car," John said, winking at her.

"It’s okay, I forgive you both. Besides, Willow and I were enjoying our visit," she said, smiling.

"Hey, presents!" Dawn chirped, going over to the tree, while everyone watched her with amusement. She turned around, blushing a little. "What? Can’t I be excited about presents anymore?"

"Of course you can, Dawn," Buffy grinned, "you can be as excited as you want, but we’re still going to make a toast first."

Dawn looked at Buffy, nodding, "I’m down with that."

"Oh, here, this is for you, John," Dawn said, handing him a package, "it’s from William."

John opened it up, "Hey, it’s…wait a minute. Dawn, hand William the package from me, would you, hon?"

"William, I want you to open this the same time I’m opening yours," he said, laughing. "It’s for you, too, Buffy."

"Alright," he said, taking the package from Dawn, as he looked at John, questioningly. "Elizabeth, do you want to…?"

She shook her head, "Nope, you do the honors."

"Good. Okay. Ready, set, unwrap!" John ordered.

William tore off the wrapping, coming to a large box, which for its size was incredibly light. He opened it up and foam noodles popped out onto the floor. Digging down, he found a smaller box inside, also wrapped. Again, he tore off the wrapping, until he came to a small, long box. He opened it up and looked inside the envelope. He started to laugh and pointed at John, who was also doubled up.

"What is it you guys?" Buffy asked. She took the envelope from his hands and looked at a set of four tickets inside. They were for two Shakespeare plays at The Old Globe Theater in San Diego for the next spring and early summer. One was A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the other for Taming of the Shrew. Buffy stated to laugh.

"We’ve got tickets, too," Dawn said.

"This is so cool," Buffy said.

John held up an audio CD, "Plays of Shakespeare, read aloud by Sir Alec Guiness," he said, laughing, "guess we’re both bound and determined to win our points, aren’t we William?"

"I should say," William agreed. They shook hands and thanked each other.

Buffy got up and handed Clem his package, "It’s from William and me."

He opened it up and whooped when he saw the DVD Recorder; "Thanks! This is great, guys! Now I won’t have to miss any of my favorite shows and I can copy all my old VHS tapes…wow!" Clem sat back, looking a bit overwhelmed.

"This is for you, Dawn," Buffy said, handing her a package.

"Yeah, present!" Dawn said, and unwrapped it. "Wow! This is…wow!"

"What is it, Dawn?" Willow asked.

"It’s called Archeology Palm Pilot. It’s got…wow…just about every single thing I ever need to reference. See, when you’re out in the field, and you come across a find, you can look up the data on it, based on shape, location, density, etc. But you can also use the camera to take a picture of it, which is fed right into the Palm’s memory, which will bring up either what it is you’ve found, say a bone from a Mastodon’s little toe, or at least give you points of reference."

"Cool," Willow said.

"Very. Thanks, Buffy!"

"You’re welcome."

"John, here’s another small present from me," Buffy said, handing him a box.

He undid it and laughed. It was a mug which said, ‘Shrink This!’ on it, filled with Christmas candy.

"Thanks. Next time a patient is giving me a hard time, I’ll just hand ‘em a candy in this mug."

Willow stood up and handed out gifts to Dawn, William, and Buffy, all wrapped with Harrod’s of London wrapping paper.

Dawn and Buffy each received a light blue sweater with a huge snowflake in the middle, which sported a detachable, thin, matching scarf. William also received a sweater. It was quite similar, sans the scarf and a darker shade of blue, and had a few snowflakes on it, instead of one large one.

"I was going to get you and William matching sweaters, but I thought maybe you wouldn’t go for it," she said laughing.

William shook his head, "With a scarf?"

"Um, no William, the his and hers sweaters didn’t come with a scarf."

"This is fine, Willow. They’re really nice! And they almost match, don’t they, William?" she teased.

"Closely enough, but still allowing me some modicum of dignity," he said.

The girls giggled.

Buffy rolled her eyes at Dawn, could she get more domestic? Almost matching ski sweaters. Sheesh!

"There’s one more for you guys," Willow said, handing Buffy the package.

"Hmm…must be matching toothbrush holders!"

"Ha-ha. In fact, it’s not, just open it."

Buffy opened the package. It was a bank shaped like Kensington Palace.

"Cool, a bank!"

"Not just any bank, but a we’re-going-to-save-money-so-we-can-come-and-visit-Willow-and-Kennedy-bank.

"Even cooler! Thanks," she said, reaching over William to give her a hug.

"I’ll be right back," Clem said, going out to his car.

"William, close your eyes," he said, as he came in the door.

William heard something being rolled across the floor.

"You can open them now," Clem said.

William looked at the large red and gray tool chest on wheels, sporting a big bow on top.

"Wow, Clem…"

"This is from me and Xander, for your tools," Clem explained, "thought you might need it, when you’re working on your car and what have you."

William stood up to look at it. He pulled open the drawers and lifted out the top section. There was a wrench and screwdriver set in there, as well as a sealed tray full of screws, nails, brads, washers, etc.

"Clem, this is…thank you."

Clem just nodded, "My pleasure. Mine and Xander’s that is."

William went over to Clem and whispered something to which Clem nodded.

"We’ll be right back," William said to Elizabeth, "and you close your eyes this time."

"Okay," Buffy said, wondering what was going on.

She heard them go out the door, then a few minutes later, come back in.

"Your eyes still closed?" William asked from the doorway.

"Uh-huh."

"I think she’s cheating," Dawn yelled.

"No cheating!"

"I’m not, I’m not."

"Okay then."

William and Clem walked into the living room, carrying a large mirror, the dark wooden frame, ornately carved with birds and flowers, and leaves.

"Can I look now?"

"You can look," William said.

Buffy opened her eyes and gasped.

"I hope you like it. You said you always wanted a mirror over the dresser…"

"William, it’s beautiful. Where did you get this?" she asked, standing up and walking over to it.

"At an antique store that Clem and I went to during one of my driving lessons."

"My God, it must have cost so much," she said, looking at him.

He shook his head, "Not as much as it would now. It was in pretty bad shape. No varnish, mirror was all cloudy, bits of the frame broken," he said, pointing to a fine hairline crack that she could barely see.

"You fixed it up?"

William smiled shyly, looking down, "Well, Clem and I did…"

"Uh-uh, Buffy. William did most the work. Sanded it, varnished it. Put it together. All I did was find another mirror for it."

"But you supervised and got the stain and brushes and all that, fixed the crack in the frame," Clem argued.

Buffy had wondered what William was up to the past 2 weeks. He’d been going over to Clem’s almost every other night after dinner, telling her that it was a secret. Coming home with smelling like…varnish!

"William…this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done, it’s just beautiful! Thank you. Thank you, too, Clem."

"You’re welcome, Elizabeth. Think we can put it on the dresser for now? Maybe we can hang it tomorrow."

"Sure, come on. I’d better move some stuff off of there, then," she said, heading for the bedroom with Clem and William following.

They put it on the dresser and stepped back to admire it.

"The wood color really matches, she said, admiring it."

"I hoped it would."

"Glad you like it, Buffy," Clem said, walking back out to the living room.

Buffy stood in front of the dresser looking at herself and William’s reflection, as he stood behind her, watching as he bent over to kiss her neck, his eyes meeting hers.

"Thank you," she said, turning slightly in order to kiss him.

He deepened the kiss and for a few moments, their guests were forgotten.

Finally they broke apart. She turned back towards the mirror, straightening her hair a bit.

He smiled at her and when she was done, took her hand, as they went back into the living room.

The rest of the presents were opened. William gave Dawn a pair of earrings that she’d admired in the antique store, buying them while she was busy elsewhere.

She gave him a hug, whispering, "Thank you; you big sneak!"

Dawn had bought William a gift certificate to classicalmusic.com and gave him a couple of CD’s she had burned on her computer of Mozart and of the Sex Pistols.

"Dawn! My God!" he said, blushing when she he saw the label.

"Well, you used to like them," she giggled.

"I doubt that very much! I can’t even imagine it being legal for a musical group to have such a name!"

"Doubt away, William, but it’s the truth. I swear. Didn’t he use to like the Sex Pistols?"

William grunted, blushing even more, upon hearing her say the name. He looked helplessly at Elizabeth, who was doing the best to not burst out laughing, as were the others.

Finally, she shrugged, "Um…well, you did use to go for some of that punk stuff from the 80’s," she said.

He shook his head, rolling his eyes, then threw up his hands, leaning back into the couch, "Give ‘em one thing, a quite daring name!"

Everyone laughed.

Willow’s present to William, was a variety package of foods and teas from England, which he promptly passed around for everyone to sample.

Dawn also had brought a couple of packages of Buffy’s favorite bagels from near their dad’s place.

"Yum! Now my Christmas morning will be complete!"

There were two large boxes under the tree.

Buffy got up and brought them over to William, "These are from me," she said, smiling at him.

He looked at her, quizzically. She grinned back, nodding.

"The remote control cars!" he said, pulling the wrapping off of them. He looked over at her, grinning, "how did you get those home?"

"I have my ways," she said, mysteriously. "Actually, I just had them ship them to the school and when they got there, I just put them into the trunk when you weren’t around."

"Sneaky," he grinned.

"That’s me."

"Who wants to race me?" William asked.

John held up his hand and William handed him a remote.

"No, no, not in here!" Buffy said, as the cars took off towards the tree.

William stood up, making his car back up. It swooped by Willow, crashing into Dawn’s foot.

"Hey, ouch!"

"Sorry," he said, grinning.

"New drivers," she said, rolling her eyes at him.

"Okay, to the kitchen!" William said to John, as they steered their cars through the dining area, "come on Clem, give you a turn at the wheel as well," he offered.

Buffy looked over at the Dawn; "You remember when William and I met you and John at the mall a couple of weeks back? Well, we went into Radio Shack and found these for Xander and Alex, but first I talked the clerk into letting us take a ‘test drive,’ and he let us go and play with them behind the store. He had such a good time, I decided to get him one, too."

"And yourself?"

"Of course. No fun if you don’t have someone to race against," Buffy said, grinning.

They all turned to hear some whooping going on from the kitchen.

"No, you didn’t! Clem, didn’t my car touch first?"

"Better go and investigate," Buffy said, getting up. Willow and Dawn followed her.

"Are you boys fighting again?" Buffy teased, hands on hips.

"I think we should show them how, don’t you?" Dawn asked.

"William, I do believe that’s a challenge," John said.

"I do believe you’re right," William said, half-smirking at Dawn, "how about ladies against gents, then?"

"You guys are so going to get your ass kicked!"

William almost sputtered.

They picked their first contenders, Willow against Clem, while the guys gathered behind him, and the girls behind Willow.

"Ready, set, go!" Dawn shouted.

"Come on Clem!" John and William shouted, as Buffy and Dawn did the same to Willow.

"Hoo hoo! Clem wins!" John shouted.

"Hey, I just learned how to use this thing, and not very well, I may add," Willow said.

"Pffft, pffft, sour grapes," William said, causing Willow to reach over and smack him on the arm.

"Ow! That would’ve made you forfeit if you’d won, I’ll have you know!"

"It still would’ve been worth it," she said, sticking her tongue out at him. He laughed.

"Who’s next?" Clem asked. "Dawn, you want to race John?"

"Oh no, I want to race William," she said, giving him her most wicked smile.

"Okay, then it’s Buffy against John.

"She cheats, so watch her," William warned, remembering how she distracted him at Radio Shack. Well, she wouldn’t do that, exactly…

"Yeah, but you didn’t mind," Buffy said, winking at William.

"Sheesh! I can only imagine!" Dawn said, then turned to John. "My sister is really quite incorrigible."

"Hey, enough talk, you ready?" Buffy asked John.

"You’re on! Clem you start us."

"Okay, Buffy."

Buffy had the green car, John the blue.

"Ready, set, go!"

Buffy’s car shot out, flanked by John’s, who veered away toward the cabinets.

"No, no, no!" he yelled at his car, but Buffy had already turned around and was on the home stretch.

"Hurry John!" William yelled.

"Come on Buffy!" yelled the girls.

"Buffy wins!" Clem said, "sorry guys!"

"Woo hoo!"

"You’re up Dawn, time to show William what us Summers women are made of," Buffy said, handing her the remote.

"Got that right! You’re going down, William!" Dawn warned.

"We’ll see about that," he retorted.

Clem cleared his throat, "Ready, set, go!"

Everyone was yelling for their teammate.

Dawn’s green car shot out, straight and narrow, with William’s right beside her. She tried to ram into him, but he evaded her. Again she tried, and again he evaded. They both got to the stove at the same time, turning around almost in unison. William was slightly ahead, with Dawn coming up fast. This time when she went to ram him, he pulled back suddenly, causing her to go too far to the right, while he sped up, straight for the home stretch.

"No, crap!" yelled Dawn.

"William wins!" John shouted, with him and Clem patting him on the back.

"I believe darling, that’s two out of three," John said to Dawn, "which means guys rule!"

"Boo! Hiss! Boo!" said the girls, with their hands cupped to their mouths.

"See, sore sports!" John said.

"Am not!" Dawn said, "but William has more experience with the remote.

"Oh, you did fine with the remote, Dawn. Just had a bad strategy," William said, grinning at her.

Soon after, they went back out to the living room, to drink wine and talk. Before they knew it, it was time for their guests to leave for the airport.

"Hey Buffy, this was fun, you should do this every year," Willow said, as she stood up to get ready to leave.

"Yeah, it really was. Hmm…maybe I’ll get electric trains for next year!"

"You got my vote!" Willow said, and the others enthusiastically agreed.

"Yeah, Buffy, you could get this mega train set and have the tracks running all over your house, with tunnels, bridges…" Dawn said.

"Overpasses, steam engines…" John added.

And the others added their suggestions to the mega railroad set.

"I think I’m going to have to win the lottery to do all that. That and start constructing it in July!" Buffy said, rolling her eyes. I had more in mind a set about the size of a ping pong table or something."

"And she ruins the fantasy!" Dawn sighed.

"Well, we’ll see. Maybe you guys could each send me one of your paychecks if you want the mega-kick-ass version, okay?"

"Sure, no problem," Dawn answered, "especially since I don’t have one. I know, I’ll just get dad to bankroll our little fantasy."

"Speaking of which," Buffy said, going to get something from the spare bedroom. She came back out and handed Dawn a package.

"Give this to dad when you see him next, will you?"

"Sure, think I’m going to have dinner with him next week, before New Year’s Eve. What did you get him?"

"A robe and a shirt."

"Good. Um, Buffy?"

"Huh?"

"Dad said to tell you that you’re invited, too. Why don’t you and William come down, have dinner with us? I mean it won’t be like you and William will be all alone with him, if that’s what you’re worried about."

"Did you tell him about William?"

"Is this a trick question?"

"Spill!"

"I just told him that you were involved with someone that you knew from Sunnydale and that he’d been a friend before and that he’s very nice."

Buffy was quiet for a minute, "That’s not too bad," she said, blowing out a breath. "Sort of takes the pressure off of me breaking it to him. Not that I would have had to anyway, considering all the things I’ve kept from him, considering how much he really doesn’t even deserve to know anything about me…"

"Buffy? Chill?"

Buffy laughed, "Sorry about that. Did you tell him about William’s memory loss?"

"No, I figured that’s up to you. I also didn’t tell him about you guys living together or where you worked, only that William works at the same school that you do."

"Well, good then."

"So? Will you come?"

"I don’t know…"

"Well, think about it at least, okay?"

"Okay, but I’m not making any promises…"

"I know," Dawn answered.

Willow got her coat from the wooden coat tree that William and Buffy had bought themselves last week.

"Did I thank you for my coat, Buffy? I really love it!"

"I’m glad. Did Kennedy get the books?"

"Yeah, she thanks you, too."

"Good. Oh, and tell Xander, Angela, and the kids that we send our love."

"I will."

"How’s Giles?" Buffy asked in a quiet voice. She had avoided asking about him the whole time Willow had been with them in the summer. It was still point of contention with her, how Giles had betrayed her trust, among other things. Her feelings about Giles were probably more conflicted than she had for her own father. Plus there was honest-to-goodness-fear, should he find out about Spike.

"He’s good…I guess. I don’t see him very often, but when I do, he seems kind of lonely. I think he misses you and Dawn… Xander. You know, the whole gang. Not that he says anything mind you, and definitely not that I say anything, it’s just a feeling I get from him sometimes."

"I’m sorry about that. For him," Buffy said, after a pause.

What else could she say? Life had changed for all of them and even if William hadn’t come back, she still wouldn’t have wanted to go back to slaying anymore. But now that William was back, her life was warmer, richer, better than it had ever been.

The others had walked out to the cars, Buffy put her hand on Willow’s arm; "Will? I meant to ask you…the protection spell on William, Dawn, everyone…?"

"Still in effect."

"Good," Buffy said, letting out a breath.

"And…here?"

"Still part of the forgetfulness spell. Without your exact permission, none of us will even remember how to get here. Nothing can be traced back to William. It’s all good, Buffy. Relax, enjoy your life, William…"

"I do, I really am…just sometimes I get worried. I just wanted to make sure. You know me. It’s not like I don’t trust you; you know that, don’t you? I mean, it’s just that sometimes I forget about it, then I overcompensate, because even if I’m living the almost 100% blissful life here, I really can’t forget, can I? I mean what have we here, Willow? Look at us! A former slayer and her formerly dead, then deader still vampire-now alive-and-back-from-Victorian days human lover and sometimes poet, a former dimensional key for a skanky Hellgod, turned sister, now college student, an awesomely powerful witch, a baggy-skinned demon who is hiding the fact from said former vampire-now-turned-human. And then there’s John. Suppose he’s just normal, but then again, shrink? Jury’s out on that one."

Willow put her hand up in front of her mouth and giggled into it. "Kinda funny when you put it that way, especially since it feels all normal-like to us anyway, doesn’t it? Sheesh Buffy, relax! It’s Christmas Eve!"

"Okay, okay," Buffy said, laughing too at the absurdity of it all.

They walked out to the cars.

"Bye Dawn," Buffy hugged her, "take good care of her," she said to John, reaching out to hug him, too.

"I will. I promise," he answered.

The guys shook hands, then William gave Willow and Dawn hugs.

"Merry Christmas, William, "Dawn said.

"You, too, Dawn."

Next came Willow.

"William, I just wanted to tell you how proud I am of you, you’re doing great!" Willow said, as he hugged her good-bye.

"Thanks. You know I have all of you to thank…for so much."

"Ach…you’re doing all on your own now," Willow said.

"Well, not exactly alone," William said, looking over at Buffy.

William and Buffy got into their car to lead their guests out to the main road, as did Clem.

They stopped on the side of the road, walking over to the car with Willow, Dawn, and John, giving them directions to the highway and wishing them safe trips.

"Call me, when you arrive," Buffy told them.

"We will," Dawn said, and with last waves, they were off.

William put his arm around Buffy, as they stood there watching the car lights fade off into the distance.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

Buffy nodded and they got back into the car and drove home.

They pulled up at the house and asked Clem if he wanted to come back in with them, but he declined.

"Got some other people to see tonight in San Diego. I’ll be there tomorrow, too, but I’ll be back the next day early."

"Okay. Well, thanks for everything, Clem. Have a great Christmas Day tomorrow."

"I will. You, too. Bye guys," Clem said, getting into his car.

"Bye Clem, drive safely," William said, "and thanks for the nice gift."

"Gift! Almost forgot!" Clem said, bolting out of his car and into their house. He was back in a minute with his gift from them, the CD from Dawn, and some English cookies in a tin from Willow.

"Thanks for this. I love it!" Clem said, putting the DVD Recorder and other stuff in the backseat.

"You’re welcome, we’re glad you like it," Buffy said.

"Bye guys, Merry Christmas."

"You, too!" they called, as he drove off.

END CHAPTER 109

Next