A/N : Thanx so much to Spikez-babe91, Brunettepet, LiLi, funkydevil206, XspikeXbuffyX, Freezyboncoolipants, BuffyandDracoLover, Spikesgirl2626, and Moluvsnumber17 for all the great reviews. I'm loving writing this fic and I'm so glad you're all enjoying reading it :-)
(For disclaimer,etc. see chapter 1)
Chapter 4 - The Exchange
For three days no-one at the Giles mansion really saw Buffy as much of her time was spent in her room re-decorating. Willow had told her boss about the wallpaper, which had caused him to clean his glasses violently. He had eventually decided it might help if Buffy was left to her own devices. Perhaps changing the bedroom to her liking would help to make her feel more at home and calm her down somewhat. When the girl overheard a conversation between her God-father and a servant in which he said just that, she had to stifle a snort of laughter so as not to be found out for listening in.
He really thought that underneath it all she was some good and sweet little girl? It was so clear that he didn't know her at all! Would he be saying that if he knew what she was doing in that room? Xander certainly didn't think so. He was one of the few people who had been graced with Buffy's company on several occasions. There was left over paint and fabric and such kept in a storeroom in the basement and he'd helped her find what she wanted for the room, after a little persuasion.
Buffy was heading back to her room from another trip to the basement, another pot of paint in her hand. She was actually enjoying herself, painting the ceilings and walls in shades of red and black, and re-hashing the bedclothes. What she lacked now was decent drapes. She wanted to carry on with her colour scheme and have them black, but unfortunately none were to be found amongst the supply of old linen and she'd used the dark fabrics she had found already on the bed and pillows.
It was now as she walked across the hall that she noticed the door to another of the bedrooms was open. Usually all the doors were locked, but now one just a little way from her own had been left ajar. Checking no-one was paying attention she walked over, putting the pot of paint down and pushing the door so it opened further.
The room was similar to hers in size and furnishings, but the curtains were drawn against the sun, keeping the whole space in almost complete darkness.
In the gloom, Buffy made out china dolls, sitting on a chest at the end of the bed, and a fancy dress with cream lace up on a hanger on the closet door. She headed for the windows and noticed the closed drapes were almost exactly what she wanted for her room. It wasn't like anyone would care if she just took them, she reasoned, and even if they did, what did she care?
Gripping on tight to the edge of the material she prepared to rip them down, a grin on her face. She physically jumped when a hand came out of the dark, fingers wrapping tightly round her wrist.
"Buffy" William's voice was shockingly cold and dangerous, "Do be specific and tell a fellow, exactly what you think you're doing?" he asked her as she made out his face in the dim light.
"Like it's your business!" she snapped, tearing her arm from his grasp, "What the hell are you doing in here? You nearly scared the crap out of me!" she complained.
"What am I doing in here?" he asked incredulously, "I think I should be asking you that"
"I need new drapes for my room, I like these" she shrugged, "What's it to you?"
William laughed painfully at that.
"You need them" he echoed, "No. You want them, and you think that makes it okay for you to have them" he said bitterly. Buffy rolled her eyes.
"Enough with the psycho-babble" she told him, "Yeah, okay, you're right. I want, I take, I have" she said hand on her hips like a challenge, "You got a problem with that?"
She was a little taken aback when he got right up in her face. Where was the shy geek she'd met three days ago. 'Potential for hotness rising' she thought to herself.
"When you're talking about taking my sisters things, then yes, I do have a problem with that" he said seriously, turning away as soon as he'd finished speaking and walking over to the end of the bed. His fingers ran across the edge of the chest and the pale faced dolls that sat atop it, as Buffy looked on.
"Is she dead?" she asked bluntly and William looked over at her in apparent shock, "I mean, she's not here and you're being weird about her stuff"
"She's not dead" he told her sharply, looking back at the dolls in front of him, "but you're more right than you know when you say she's not here" he said sadly.
Buffy wasn't entirely sure she knew what he was talking about and didn't really feel like asking for an explanation. Something bad had obviously happened to his sister, whoever she was, and it was getting to him. Though usually she was quite happy to plunge in and ask all the inappropriately cutting questions til she knew what she wanted to, when it came to William, something stopped her.
"Whatever" she shrugged, deciding it was best to just get out and leave this guy alone, "It's not like I care anyway" she said, making for the door.
"No, you really don't" he let out another humourless laugh and Buffy stopped two steps from the door. It was the way he said it that made her snap and she flung the door closed with a loud bang as she turned around to face him again.
"And what is that supposed to mean!" she demanded to know. William was quick to tell her.
"Giles agreed to let you come here because he wanted to help you, he wanted to get to know you and be your friend and you've thrown it back in his face" he told her, far more angrily than he would usually. If he wasn't being so annoying, Buffy couldn't help thinking she could quite like him when he was being this way.
"He doesn't care about me" she shot back "Nobody does"
"Only because you don't want them to" he argued, "Anyone tries to be nice to you, you bite their head off or run away. You don't know when you're well off"
"You don't know anything about me!" she almost screamed at him, "You don't know what it's like to be me!" with that she stormed out of the door, slamming through to her own room. William gave chase, blocking the exit to her room when she attempted to avoid the argument.
"I know what it's like to have no-one to care" he retaliated, "I know how hard it is to grow up without a mother, without a father too mostly" his volume and anger were decreasing now but he wasn't done yet, "I know what it's like to feel alone and unwanted, and if it weren't for Giles...well, you might not be the only one painting your room black and avoiding everybody"
The pair looked at each other with intense gazes. She was still processing what he'd been telling her, he was still wondering why he had and where all the anger had come from. Of course he knew why he'd exploded the way he had.
His sister, Drusilla, had taken another turn for the worse. Her mental state had been unbalanced ever since the accident that killed their dear mother and almost took the young Dru's life too. For years she was in and out of hospitals and institutions, experts visited their home as her father and brother tried to cope with her violent mood swings and bouts of illness. It was when she was fourteen that she'd finally been permanently admitted to a home that could better take care of her, Ethan didn't care enough to bother and William was just a child of barely twelve.
"If it weren't for Giles" Buffy echoed his words, much more calm than she'd been before "but the point is you did have him, I didn't"
"That's not his fault, or mine" William told her, eyes fixed on hers, "What happened to your parents was tragic but..."
"Don't tell me that wasn't anyone's fault either!" she was yelling again now, eyes flashing angrily, "Some guy was out there with a gun. He tried to take my mothers purse and when she fought he murdered her!" she told him, so much pain and anger in her eyes he didn't want to look but he couldn't tear himself away either, "and when he realised what he'd done, he couldn't leave a witness" she said more quietly, tears coming to her eyes that she desperately pushed back, "so he shot him too, and d'you wanna know the worst part? In less than six years he'll be back out on the streets, to wreck another little girls life, just like he wrecked mine" she said both bitter and angry as she turned her back on William.
He felt so desperately sorry for her. What had happened to his mother was also terrible but it was an accident at least and no-one's fault that she was dead or Drusilla was ill. He always thought it would have been easier to have someone to blame, but he saw now how wrong he was. Buffy was consumed by anger at the man who took her parents away from her when she was just a child. What she had become was all down to that one man, triggering a chain reaction of events that led to this person standing here in this moment, back turned on one other human being who was trying to understand.
"I can't say I know what you feel" William said softly as he stepped up behind her, "All I can say is that you're not as alone as you think you are. Giles wants to help you, and be there for you. I can't speak for anyone else but I know I want to know you better too...perhaps, given time, we could be friends" he tried, tentatively reaching out a hand to her shoulder. She spun round before his fingers made it to her skin and he yanked his arm back fast, trying to cover by running his hand through his hair.
"I don't have friends" she told him, an expression on her face that tried to be neutral but her eyes gave her away. She hated to be alone but all she'd really had for the past nine years was her own company, "I have my cousin, Faith, but even she doesn't want to talk to me..." she frowned slightly at the thought, her eyes moving away from his to a spot on the side wall.
Nobody ever really talked to her, nobody cared enough to try. She was so fast to jump down the throats of all who even looked at her, nobody tried to start a conversation. William was a surprise, she admitted to herself only, he'd got past her yelling and made her want to really talk about things, made her feel things about the past and the future, and all in one half-argument, half-conversation.
"Buffy" her name sounded different when he said it, sounded like it mattered, like she did, "I'm here if you want me to be...this Summer is going to be less than fun if we do nothing but fight" he half-smiled, so wanting to reach out to her, get her to look at him, talk to him.
"I guess I can deal with the not fighting" she said still not looking at him.
Screwing her eyes tight shut suddenly she breathed deeply a couple of times and when she opened her eyes again she was smiling, though it wasn't entirely genuine, William was sure.
"I need to get out of this place for a while" she announced, heading for the door. She opened it and then paused, turning back, "You wanna come with?" she asked a slightly stunned William, who nodded nevertheless.
"Where exactly are we going?" he asked her as they walked down the hallway together and Buffy shrugged her shoulders.
"I dunno" she admitted, "Just out of this building for a while" she told him as she ran down the stairs and he followed at a slightly more sedate pace.
"Ah Buffy, so nice to see you my dear" Giles smiled warmly at her as she reached the foyer. He was slightly surprised when William followed her down, almost colliding with her back as she stopped so suddenly, "And William, er, are you and Buffy...?" he wasn't quite sure what to think, considering Buffy had been so anti-social with everybody and now here she was with his nephew in tow.
"We're just going out, Giles" the younger man told him and the blond in front of him smiled as they headed for the doors.
"Anywhere in particular?" Giles frowned worriedly as he removed his glasses and polished the lenses on his handkerchief. He doubted very much that this girl, however dear she and her parents once were to him, would be anything other than a bad influence on his nephew.
"We'll know when we get there" Buffy called over her shoulder as they went out and the doors thumped shut behind them.
Giles sighed and replaced his glasses, heading off to the drawing room.
"This will not end well" he surmised.
Outside, Buffy was loving the sensation of the warm sun on her skin after too many days of hiding away inside. Back home the sun was almost constant, she preferred the weather here. Though it was Summer there had been a couple of excessively rainy days already, yesterday she'd noted the clouds had been fewer and far between and now today the sun shone bright in the sky, lighting up the world in rainbow shades. The countryside was a welcome sight to both she and William, who rarely saw a landscape such as this. They walked for a while in surprisingly comfortable silence until Buffy spotted something in the distance and her eyes lit up.
She walked a little faster and William followed though he had no idea where she was headed. After a while he noticed they were getting closer to the lake that resided in the Giles House grounds and he wondered why it would interest Buffy.
"This is perfect" the young blonde smiled as they stood by the side of the water, the light bouncing off it, making every ripple look like sparkling diamonds on the surface.
"Er, perfect for what exactly?" William asked a little worried, "What exactly are we doing out here?"
"Well I dunno about you" Buffy grinned, kicking off her boots "but I'm going in the water" she told him, working the zipper of her pants and sliding them off too.
To Be Continued...