"So what was that all about?" Faith asked Buffy as she leaned against the doorframe of her apartment.
"I don't know. We were talking about why I left Sunnydale and the way that I had left and then he got all serious and stormed out of here saying something about a phone call."
"I wasn't just talking about his quick and reckless exit, I was also talking about the fact that Angel's cousin was in your apartment in the first place."
"Boy is that ever complicated to answer." Buffy admitted as she sat back down on the sofa. "He kept bothering me, lurking about, waiting to try to talk to me. It was as though he were stalking me or something. I'm not really sure I even understand why he was doing it. He told me that it was because I was the only one that would respond to anything he said. The next thing I know we are standing out in the hallway and he was yelling at me as if it were my fault that his life was sucking at the moment. That's when Oz showed up to make sure everything was okay before your stepbrother heard the yelling. The next thing I know I am inviting him in. We had a normal conversation, started over from the beginning, and then, well you saw what happened."
"Angel and I told you he was trouble B. All though, trouble or not you have to admit, he is way hot."
"Faith!" Buffy exclaimed shocked that her friend was admitting that to her.
"Oh come one Buff. You can't tell me that his lean muscular body and chiseled face aren't just drop dead sexy. Oh, and don't forget about those eyes. Didn't they catch you off guard earlier today?"
"Faith stop it." Buffy demanded with a giggle. She knew her friend was teasing her. "Is there something that you wanted?"
"Actually I was coming to see if you wanted to join me on a shopping excursion? Angel asked me to go pick some things up for the lunch room at the shop."
Buffy thought for a moment. She had originally wanted to spend time alone, but now she felt she needed a distraction. "What the heck. Count me in." Buffy agreed pushing the thoughts of Spike and William out of her mind. She got up from her seat, went into her bedroom and grabbed her purse before following Faith out of the apartment.
Spike stepped out into the sticky late afternoon air. He wasn't sure where he was going, all he knew was that he needed out of that building and as far away from her as possible. Thoughts were still flooding his mind as he walked down the sidewalk trying to figure out what had happened to the girl he had left so many years ago. Lizzie had loved her family and would never have thought of hurting them the way she was now. "I should call Hank and tell him I found his daughter." He whispered to himself thinking of how happy it would make him to know that his daughter was okay. "No, that's not my place. She should call him." But Spike knew in the back of his mind that Buffy would never call him, that she was only worried about what she wanted and didn't care who she hurt as long as she was happy.
He thought back to the day that he had told her he was leaving. Elizabeth had been upset and had begged him not to go. He didn't want to, he wished he could have stayed.
William had come home from school that day to find a moving van in the driveway at his house. When he walked through the front door his father had met him in the foyer to give him what had been the worst news he had ever gotten. "Something has come up." Rupert had told his son. "We are leaving first thing in the morning. I need you to go finish packing your things, Jenny has already started for you."
"Leaving? What do you mean leaving? Where are we going? When are we coming back?" William had asked his father as his stepmother came into the room.
"Oh, William, you are home." Jenny exclaimed when she saw him. "I packed most of your clothes, books, and toys. Try to get the rest finished by tonight. If you need help honey just let me know and I will see what I can do." He had liked his stepmother. She had always treated William as though he were her own son.
"Could some one please tell me what is going on?" William pleaded with the two adults.
"William, we are moving far away. We aren't going to be coming back."
"What do you mean, moving? I don't want to move. All of my friends are here. Please. You can't make me do this. What about Lizzie? I can't just leave her. If I go and don't tell her she will never forgive me."
"Fine. You may go and tell Elizabeth that you are moving. I expect you to be back here in twenty minutes. Once you are back I want you to go straight to your room and finish packing."
As he walked back to his house after talking to Elizabeth, the words she had said to him played over again and again in his mind. "I love you."
Spike had never forgiven his father for taking him away from his best friend and the life he had known. He had also never forgiven himself for not telling Lizzie that he loved her. He had told her he would be back when he was older, but he never told her how he had felt about her. At the time he might have only been ten but he knew that his best friend was special and that he would never be able to forget her. Now as he walked into the first bar he had come across he wished that he had forgotten about her. After the way she had treated him and the things she had said about her father he had decided that she was not worth the pain he was going through again and he was going to put a temporary stop to it by drowning himself in whiskey.
"So what exactly are we here for anyway?" Buffy asked Faith as they walked into the local grocery store.
"According to Angel the cabinets and the fridge in the lunch room are getting low. He gave me the company credit card and told me to stock up on everything." Faith replied pulling the plastic card out of the back pocket of her jeans and waving it in front of Buffy.
"Well I suppose that's what we'll do."
Faith and Buffy walked up and down the aisles putting various items in the shopping cart Faith was pushing. "So do you think Spike will eat any of this stuff?" Faith asked as she helped Buffy unload the items from the cart onto the belt at the cahiers station.
"Faith we bought practically every kind of chip, soda, and lunch meat there is. Not to mention the other dozen bags of snack foods we got." Buffy paused for a moment. It was odd that Faith had thought about what Spike would eat. "What's it matter anyway? It's not like he plans on sticking around. If he doesn't like what we have then he will just have to fend for himself. He isn't part of our family here. Wait, I take that back, he is family, but you know what I mean."
Faith gave Buffy a confused look. "I thought the two of you were cool? Why the hate trip?"
"It's not a hate trip. I just don't see what the concern is. I doubt he will be around for long. He told me that he was only going to be here long enough to get himself together then he was going to leave."
"Sounds to me like you don't want him to go."
"What?"
"Think about what you were just saying girl. I'm telling you that sounded a lot like you were upset about the fact that he isn't sticking around."
"I'm not upset." Buffy protested. "I just don't understand why we have to worry about making him comfortable if he isn't planning on staying and no one wants him to be here anyway."
"You really do like him don't you?"
"Faith!"
"Oh, come on B. Admit it. You like him. You don't have to lie to me about it. It's not like I am going to run off and tell every one."
"Fine. Yes, I like him. When I first met him, he was a jerk and I didn't want anything to do with him, but that was my fault. I was rude to him from the very beginning and I guess I deserved to be treated that way. Now, that I have gotten to know him, he really isn't that bad. I don't know why Angel says he is." Buffy admitted as Faith signed her name on the electronic screen for the credit card purchase and they walked out of the store.
The car ride to Exotic Detailer was made in silence. When the two girls reached the detail shop Faith unlocked the back door to the building then turned off the alarm and switched on the lights. She glanced around the open building at the cars that were sitting there waiting to be picked up or that had been dropped off on Friday afternoon to be detailed sometime this week. "You gonna help unload this stuff or are you just going to stand here staring at the work we have to do this week?" Buffy asked her as she walked through the door her hands full of bags from the store.
"I was just checking to make sure that everything was okay. The last thing we need is to come in here and find some big shots car missing."
"They're all here Faith. If any one tried to steal any of these cars the building alarm system would have gone off as soon as they tried to get in through the door."
"I know, I just had to be sure." Faith said as she turned and walked out the door to get some of the bags from the trunk of her car. "It's because Spike had become rebellious after he was moved to England from the States. Angel's uncle asked Dad to bring him to visit hoping that maybe the two of them would get along and Angel could get Spike to realize things weren't as bad as he made them out to be, in the hopes that Spike would stop causing so much trouble." Faith said after a bout of silence as they unpacked the remaining items from the grocery bags.
"What are you talking about?" Buffy asked pausing from loading sodas into the refrigerator.
"You said earlier that you didn't know why Angel said Spike was so bad." Faith explained. "I don't know all of the details from Angel's visit. All I know is that the two of them did not get along well. Angel told me that things didn't go well. Spike had been pushy and destructive. He didn't want anything to do with Angel other then to make his stay in England miserable."
"But why? There had to be something that made him not want to be friends with his cousin."
"Angel thinks it had to do with him living in the States and something about him being jealous over him moving to Sunnydale. From what I got out of the story Spike used to live in Sunnydale."
"Spike lived in Sunnydale?" Buffy questioned closing the door to the fridge. This had gotten her attention.
"That's what I got out of it. Apparently Spike had been born there and his father and stepmother had moved him away from his friends and the life that he had loved. He took it pretty hard and from the moment they arrived in England he started to cause trouble sort of like a pay back to his father for making him move there."
"Why hasn't Angel mentioned this before? He never told me that he had family that had lived in Sunnydale before you guys moved there."
"I guess it was because Angel didn't care for his cousin. Once he was back from England he basically pretended that Spike didn't exist. It took him until just a few years ago for him to finally tell me about what had happened with his visit there."
Buffy was silent for a moment thinking about what she had just been told. "I wonder why Spike didn't tell me that he had lived in Sunnydale when I told him that was where I had moved here from."
Faith turned to look at Buffy after she put the last nag of chips in a cupboard across the room. "Maybe he didn't want to talk about it." Faith shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, but are you finished cause I am ready to get out of here."
"Yes, definitely." Buffy replied putting her empty soda boxes in the trashcan. She thought about Spike. The memory of him when he had held his breath when she had mentioned Sunnydale crossed her mind. There was something odd about him, like he was hiding something from her. 'I'm going to have to have a talk with him when we get back' She thought to herself as she walked with Faith out to the car. 'There is something that he is hiding I know it and I am going to find out what it is.'
A/N: So sorry it took a little longer to write this chapter then I had wanted to take, I ended up with a case of writers block. I also wanted to say thank you to those of you that have reviewed. Your wonderful comments are a blessing. Thank you all so much, I'm glad you are enjoying this. And to think I wasn't even going to share this since I wasn't too sure how well it would turn out.
Oh and luvs-bitch01 I tried to lengthen this chapter but I had a hard time doing so since I wasn't sure what to write, but I have the ideas set for the next chapter so hopefully it will be longer and I will get it up much sooner.