A/N: PLZ REVIEW. As before, a new chapter will go up if i get 5 reviews or more. I love reviews, they make me happy, and it's good to know that you guys like the story.

Chapter 7

Buffy had spent last night the same way as the Sunday night and her first meeting with William. Giving her friends vague details of the meeting without going into any details, or telling them anything of what he had told her knowing that he would want to keep it all private. They had went to dinner, afterwards, Buffy had gone back to the motel while Tara and Willow went on to a club where they were going to meet Anya and Xander. Of course, Buffy was invited, but she had declined, preferring to have an early night and get ready to meet William the next day.

So, now it was 11am and she was due to meet Willaim in 30minutes, and she was running late. She had overslept; not having gotten to sleep until around 3am; everything that had happened during the day running through her head. She could still see the hurt look on his face when Willow and Tara had run from the shop. She had wanted to say something to them about it but refrained from doing so because she knew William would be upset. She looked in the mirror as she hurriedly pulled her hair back. She had finished her make-up, and was dressed. She gave herself a once over just make sure she looked okay, brfore grabbing her car keys from the dresser and running for the door.

William paced up and down in front of the Espresso Pump, looking for any sign of Buffy. He looked at his watch. She was late, he had thought she would be on time as she had been early the day before. For some reason he was nervous. It wasn't the kind of nervous you get when you have a crush on someone; more nervous in the sense of being afraid that like other people she no longer wanted to spend time with him. And he also worried about what they would talk about all day. He looked at his watch again. Ten minutes late.

Buffy parked her car and got out. After quickly locking it, she looked at her watch seeing she was late. She was a little bit away from the Espresso pump. She sped up to a slight jog to try and get there quicker. When the coffee shop came into view she could see William pacing outside. She ran a bit faster and slowed down when she was only a few feet away, calling out to him

"William" he looked up and she saw that he looked quite relieved, when she approached him, she stood for a moment to catch her breath before offering an explanation for why she was late "Sorry, i overslept, didn't sleep too well. And anyway i guess we're even now"

He looked confused for a moment until he realised she as referring to his being late the day before "Oh, yeah, i suppose it does"

"So did you have anywhere in particular you wanted to go today?" she asked him, given that she wasn't from Sunnydale she didn't exactly know what there was to do

"Not sure, we could go to the park or something" he suggested. He hadn't livedin Sunnydale for too long. Only a year, and in that time he hadn't exactly become acquainted with what there was to do.

"Do you have like a carnival or something?" she asked. she had always liked the carnival, ever since she was a kid and she figure they could have some fun.

"Not yet, but their is some fairground rides and some shows on the pier, the actual big carnival isn't here until the summer"he answered

"Ok, well why don't we go down to the pier and see what's open" she suggested as they made their way back in the direction of her car, she had decided that it was quicker and probably better to take the car down to the pier with them. So she drove them soen. The short drive being made in silence. It was neither awkward or comfortable; it simply was.

Tara and Willow walked along the quiet street. It was a strrt of houses, they decided to take a detour on their way to main street to go to the Magic Box. Willow loved the houses. They looked quite big but very homey too. It was the kind of houses that Willow had always wanted to live in, the kind of house you could really call a home. She had grown to love the small town in the little amount of time she had been there. She kept finding things to love. It was small and quiet but the people were nice and there was a few things to do. There were some nice shops and unlike the ones in LA the people who worked in them had time to stop and speak to the customers. Something about the place just drew Willow in, and she couldn't help but think of it as similar to how William's poem had drawn Buffy in.

"Tara, what do you think of this place?" Willow asked suddenly

"It's nice, the people are friendly, and i could see myself living here one day. Just not for a long time; maybe when my career was up and running" Tara said. She didn't notice the dejected look on Willow's face

"oh" she responded softly. She didn't carry the conversation on any longer.

Buffy took the two corn dogs from the vendor handing one to Spike as she had taken to calling him. He seemed to like it. And she wanted to talk to him about everything surrounding the name eventually when he was ready. He took his from her and they walked a little ways down the pier; they saw a bench and took a seat.

"So, we haven't talked very much" she observed "and we don't have to talk about your poem. We can talk about other stuff"

"Ok" he had known they would have to talk about something eventually, he just didn't know what.

"So, let's start from the beginning. I guess family's always a good place to start" she said turning to him. He took a bite of his corn dog, looking worried at the mention of family.

"I'll start. I have a sister named Dawn who is 17 and in high school obviously. She still lives with my mom in LA. She's a bot of a pain sometimes but i love her" she told him. She waited for him to say something, he looked a little like he didn't know what to say. Finally he started to talk

"I don't have any siblings. There's just my father and i" he told her. She noticed how his manner of speaking often changed. The way he often spoke didn't fit with the way he looked. But he was well spoken and seemed to like words a lot. She had only heard him talk about certain things but since they had arrived at the pier she noticed he seemed to look for the perfect word for everything.

"That's a shame. What about your mom?" he visibly flinched at the question and she couldn't help but wonder why. She was about to find out

"My mother died, when i was fourteen" he said softly, sadness in his eyes.

"I'm sorry" she said. He looked at her and mistook the look in her eye and it made him angry. He didn't like pity at any time, but he liked it even less when it cme to the loss of his mother. In his view pity was patronizing and he hated it. He stood up abruptly, his voice on this occassion better suiting his look

"Look, i told you not to bloody pity me ok. I don't want it. Just because you have the perfect fucking life doesn't mean we all do. My mother is gone, yeah, she is. I don't like it but i live with it. You have no idea how i feel so don't pity me, and do not patronize me by pitying me" he was red faced, his anger evident. He looked at Buffy and saw the hurt look on her face but he couldn't care at that moment. Suddenly she was just as angry as he was

"You know what, i'm just trying to get to know you. I'm not pitying you. And another thing you are wrong when you say i don't know what you're going through. My life isn't perfect. My father died when i was 15 years old. I saw him fade away, until all that was left is a body. I don't pity you William, but you are so caught up in the past and people who didn't care that you don't take the time to get to know people and let them have a chance to care" by the time she had finished tears were stinging in her eyes. She didn't usually talk about her father as the pain was still quite raw, but he had just annoyed her so much. She grabbed her bag from the bench and began to walk away. She got only a few feet before she heard his quiet voice

"I'm sorry"

She turned back to him, looking at him. He looked vulnerable. She hadn't seen him look this way before. She had saw him look hurt and a range of emotions which were all confused. But she hadn't seen this. She walked back to him

"It's ok. I'm sorry too" she replied "come on let's go ride the ferris wheel"

She walked in the direction of the ride just waiting for him to follow.

As the ride moved William tried to think of how he could restart the conversation. He did feel guilty for yelling earlier, especially now that he knew about her father. He decided maybe they should talk about something they had in common

"She died in child birth" he said

Buffy was a little surprised to hear him speak, and immensely saddened by his words. Now she knew why he had been so reluctant to speak of the subject earlier. She couldn't bring herself to say anything and so just waited to see if he would say anything else

"She hadn't been well during her pregnancy. When she was in labour her blood pressure went through the roof and the baby went into distress. They rushed her for an emergency c-section. But they couldn't save her or the baby" his voice was strained, it hurt to talk about. The ride stopped on the grouind and he jumped out, glad that he didn't have to sit and wait for her reaction. After wandering for a few minutes saying nothing Buffy suggested the go walk on the beach where there were less people around.

"My dad had cancer" she told him, deciding that he had confided his story in her and so she should do the same. They kept walking as she told him "I was 13 when they first found out. It was a brain tumor. They operated and we thought he was okay. But it came back a few months later. This time it was bigger and inoperable at that point. So they started on chemotherapy, hoping to shrink it enough that maybe they could operate then. That went on for 6months. It didn't get any smaller there was nothing else they could do. They would keep up the chemo for a while and see if they could prolong his life. It had been almost a year and there were only a few weeks until i turned 14. So they told him one day at the hospital, the chemo wasn't helping, so they stopped it. They said he only had a month or two left. I had saw him getting worse. After the chemo stopped, it was awful. He was even more ill. By my birthday he could barely get out of bed. He had given my mom money to buy the gift he wanted to give me. He had called the store to arrange it all, mom just had to pick it up and pay for it. He was there that day he gave me the gift, Ate a tiny bit of cake and then went to bed. He died that night" a tear slid down her cheek. She had told only a few people of the whole story of her father's death.

William looked at her and saw her cry, instinctively he pulled her into a hug and held her close. He could feel her pain at losing a parent. The pain was the same however it happened.

Buffy cried into his shirt for about five minutes. When she had calmed a little she pulled away, wiping at her face

"Sorry" she apologised, seeing the wet mark on his shirt

"Don't worry about it" he said, reassuring her that he didn't mind "you needed to get it out, sometimes you need to talk to someone about the things that hurt you"

She looked at him,

"Maybe you should listen to your own words" she advised. Quiet overcame them again, as they started walking down the beach once more.