A/N : Thanx to all those who reviewed; SpIkEs AnGel, SouthernRain, fictionfreak2, Leanne8582. Did we not like chapter 9? Maybe I'm just being greedy. The four reviews that I got were super-nice so I can't complain. Next chapter will be Buffy and Willow in High School and then we get into the part where William returns. Anyway, here's chapter 10. Hope you like...
(For disclaimer, etc. - see chapter 1)
Chapter 10 : Truth Time - 1993
Myself and Willow, being less than three when our parents married, had no idea we weren't really siblings. We were brought up as sisters, in a house in Revello Drive, Sunnydale, and were often told of our brother, William, who lived in England. It never occurred to us that Mom wasn't really Mom or that Dad wasn't really Dad, at least, not until we were seven years old and some kid in the playground made a comment, like they do. Despite the fact it was over ten years ago, I can remember it all as if it were yesterday...
"Its okay, Will" Buffy comforted her sister as the walked home from school, a short journey that took just a minute or two on foot. The red-head, with tears streaming down her face, was glad of the blonde's arm around her shoulders, but it didn't make her any happier about what one of the boys at school had said to her today.
As Joyce let her two girls into the house, she immediately hugged Willow and asked what was wrong.
"That stinky boy Parker was saying mean things" Buffy explained with an angry look on her face.
"What did he say to upset my babies?" their mother asked as she took them both into the living room with her and they all sat on the sofa, Willow huddled beneath her arm whilst Buffy sat with her arms folded over her chest and explained about 'that stinky Parker boy'.
"He said we look too different to be sisters and that sisters with birthdays on the same day have to look idenc..indetic...they have to look exactly the same" she told her mother as Willow's sobs began to slow and her tears stopped flowing quite so freely, "Why don't we look the same, Mommy?" Buffy asked in all her wide eyed innocence and Joyce felt sick. The day had finally come when they had to know the truth. It would have been easy enough to say they didn't have to look the same, twins didn't always, that was the honest truth, but the bigger and better truth would be to admit they weren't real biological sisters.
Checking her watch, Joyce knew it would be just another minute or two before Rupert got home. He'd been meeting a business associate for lunch and was not required back in the office after that, so he'd estimated to be home early. As if on cue, a key was heard in the lock and, her question temporarily forgotten, Buffy belted toward the door, Willow soon right behind her.
"Daddy!" the two cried, both managing a smile and Giles was pleased to see them as always. He crouched down to their level and gave them both a hug before standing again and going into the living room where Joyce still sat on the couch, a troubled look on her face.
"Is everything alright Joyce?" her husband asked as he came to sit beside her and the girls stood in front of them, Willow by her mother's knee and Buffy by her father's.
"Rupert, a boy at school told the girls they couldn't be sisters because their birthday is the same day but they're not identical twins..." her explanation trailed off as she caught her spouses eye and they shared a look, silently agreeing it was time for the truth.
"Why don't we look the same, Daddy?" little Buffy asked him with a little frown of confusion on her face. With a sigh, Giles took his wallet from his back pocket and pulled a photograph from it.
Willow giggled as she and Buffy were shown the picture.
"Is that you?" she asked quietly, looking at her parents and pointing at similar but younger looking people in the photograph.
"Yes, sweetie" Joyce smiled as tears came to her eyes.
"Who are the other people?" Buffy wanted to know, always the curious kid with twenty questions about everything.
"The lady is called Jenny and the man is called Hank" Giles told both her and Willow, swallowing hard, "I was married to Jenny and your mother was married to Hank"
Even Buffy was too shocked to have another question lined up in response to that. Giles was quite relieved as he continued to explain.
"Unfortunately, there was an accident...they're in heaven now, and have been since just after you were born. Then your mother and myself decided that we should make a little family, us four, so we could be happy even though we'd lost two important people" Giles sighed at the still confused expressions on the children's faces. He knew he was explaining badly but he didn't know what else to say.
"You see babies, Buffy was my baby, mine and Hanks, and Willow, you were Daddy and Jenny's baby" Joyce tried to help, "but when they had to go to heaven, we thought it was a good idea for us to make you both our little girls...do you understand?"
Buffy and Willow looked at each other then at their parents. They were still a little lost but it was starting to make some sense, at least.
"So, it's true?" Buffy asked, her little voice shaking and tears coming to her eyes a she realised she couldn't blame Parker for this anymore, it was real, "We're not really sisters?"
"Oh you are, baby" Joyce assured her daughter pulling her onto the sofa to her right the Willow to her left, "You're sisters in every way that matters, and we're still your Mommy and Daddy, and we love you so much.." emotion took over and tears took Joyce's voice away. Giles too was close to crying as he looked upon the family he saw as his own, despite the fact Buffy was only his daughter by adoption and Joyce was not his own child's true mother.
"We're a family because we love each other" Giles told the two little girls that in his eyes were both his own, "and that's all that matters"
Well, we accepted what we were told, and the fact we now knew we weren't really sisters did not tear us apart, if anything it made the bond between us stronger because we had to make up for the lack of similar genetics. Giles was still Dad to me as much as my Mom was still Willow's too, but we had questions as we grew up, about what really happened to our 'other' parents as we called them, what they were like and how those we call Mom and Dad felt about them. We were an interesting couple of kids for anyone to know, always willing to share our story whenever someone asked us how come we were un-identical sisters born on the same day. I remember when we first met Xander and explained it all to him. I think his exact word when our tale was finished was; Shpadoinkle! Which he tells me is a phrase meaning he was shocked. Still, he soon became mine and Willow's best friend, after each other naturally. We never looked at him as boyfriend material, he was just Xander, and still is now. Xand has a girlfriend anyway, and Willow has a boyfriend, as do I. I thought I loved Riley, but he soon became just one more complication in this long story of mine...
To Be Continued...
[Next Update : One Wild Night - Chapter 10 - Thinking & Feeling]
