Chapter 4

"Would you please let me take this shirt?" Buffy asked for the fourth time.

"It's my favorite shirt!" Drew said for the fourth time.

"I know. That's why I want to take it with me."

"You're only going to be gone for a week."

"I know, but this is important to me."

"Baby, you're not going to forget what I smell like in one week."

"You never know."

"You're like a bloodhound. You can remember a scent for as long as you want."

"Drew!"

"It's my favorite shirt. No."

"You only wear it on weekends."

"I do not."

"You do too. I haven't seen you wear this on a weekday since I've met you."

"You're not taking my favorite shirt."

"You've got all my stuff here to remember me by. Why can't I have this one thing?"

"Why can't you take another one of my shirts?"

"Because they're not your favorite." Buffy pouted and the look was successful.

Drew melted. "Fine." He hugged her tightly. "You're such a pain in the ass, but…."

"You still love me." Buffy kissed his chest. "I love you too."

Buffy sat among Drew's things scattered around the living room and looked at everything. His clothes were folded neatly in boxes labeled with where they would go in black permanent marker. Buffy had called Gillian and asked her what she would like to keep. She'd taken only a few things. Sports trophies and medals he'd won when he was a kid, a small photo album with family pictures and pictures of Buffy and Drew, some clothes, and a necklace he'd bought her for Christmas, but hadn't been able to give it to her because he couldn't remember where he'd put it.

It had taken her the whole four weeks to get everything of his unpacked, sorted, and re-packed. Angel had helped her where she would let him. When he had helped her, everything they'd pulled out and sorted had had a story with it. They'd only been together six years, but it was plenty of time to make almost a lifetime's worth of memories.

Angel had found a little baby blue onezie buried in a small shoe box with a pair of baby's sneakers. Buffy had explained that just before they'd discovered Drew was sick, they'd been planning on having a baby. Drew had come home with the small box and explained that he was just getting ready for when that first baby arrived. A week later he was in the hospital with the migraine that helped the doctors discover the tumor.

"Hey, I got the truck." Angel said, walking in the front door. "Are you ready?"

"Yes and no." Buffy said, standing up. Angel had gone out and gotten a small rental truck to take the boxes to Goodwill.

"We don't have to do this just yet."

"No. It's ok. I've got everything I wanted to keep." She'd held onto a couple of shirts, his high school and his college letterman's jackets, and his "lucky" sweat pants. She had tons of photos stashed away that she never planned on getting rid of. "We should get this stuff down there before they close."

She'd spent all day trying to say goodbye. With every piece of clothing and every pair of shoes and everything else that she was giving up that she touched, she felt like she was loosing small pieces of Drew. It hurt. It hurt a lot, but this was what he'd wanted. Along with the letter, he'd written a list of certain things he owned and what he wanted Buffy to do with them.

His will had been all about money. Buffy had gotten almost all of it and he'd left his mother a very large sum. Other than that, Drew didn't have a lot of family. He had some distant cousins that he never talked to, but that was it. His father had died when he was 13, he didn't have any siblings, his parents were both only children, and his grandparents had passed away a few years back. In the list, he'd left most of the things to his best friend, Caleb Montgomery, and a few things to Xander.

Buffy had called Caleb to let him know that Drew had left him some things. Caleb lived in a town in Kentucky called Paducah. He was the events coordinator for the Executive Inn, a huge resort and conference center with two stages where big name stars played, so he was pretty busy. It took three tries to actually get a hold of him. He'd said that he had a free weekend coming up at the end of the month and that he would head to Nashville and hop on the next flight to New York.

Buffy liked Caleb. He and Drew had met at NYU playing football together. Drew had been the quarterback and Caleb had been the wide receiver. Three years into college, Caleb had admitted to Drew that he was gay, but he didn't want anyone else to know. Caleb had been worried that he would loose Drew, but Drew had proven his friendship by staying by Caleb's side and being there for him when he had finally come out to his family and friends. Not only had Caleb lost a lot of people he'd loved and cared about, but Drew had as well for sticking by his best friend. Drew had said he was glad that they'd deserted them because it showed who their true friends were and then he'd made Caleb laugh by going around to all the friends' houses who'd ditched them and leaving flaming bags of dog poop on their front doorsteps.

Angel laughed. "Was he here for the funeral?"

"Yeah. He couldn't stay for the gathering, though. Some country diva arrived early and his boss was threatening to kill her, so Cal had to get back and diffuse the situation. He was here for the last three weeks of Drew's life and for that week planning the funeral. If I hadn't had Cal there, I don't think I would've made it through those few weeks." Buffy paused. "I wonder if Cal helped Drew plan everything!"

"You'd have to ask him." Angel smiled. "So, your next letter's coming in tomorrow."

Buffy's eyes lit up. "I know! I can't wait!"

Buffy paced the apartment all day and kept an eye on the clock. The mail came at 1:30pm on the dot every day. It was 1:25 now. Angel watched her pace with an amused smile on his face. They'd gotten everything down to the Goodwill just before they'd closed. Buffy had cried the whole way back to the apartment. The clock's minute hand went to 1:29 and Buffy turned and bolted out the door.

Angel got up and followed her down. He found her standing by the opened mailboxes glaring at the mailman as he nervously tried to put the mail in the open boxes. After a minute, the mailman sighed and went through his bag. He pulled out a bundle of letters and handed them to Buffy. Buffy snatched them away and rushed up the stairs. Angel apologized to the man and followed Buffy. She was standing in the middle of the living room opening an envelope. There was a piece of stationary and a business card. The stationary simply said, "See Nancy at 1461 1st Ave, Suite #195." The business card had a number on it.

"What's it say?" Angel asked. Buffy showed him the letter and the business card. "That's weird."

"That's Drew." Buffy said, grabbing her coat.

"What are you doing?"

"Going to see Nancy at 1461 1st Avenue in suite 195." Buffy grabbed the business card from Angel and walked out. Angel shrugged and followed her out, grabbing his coat. They took a taxi to their destination and went up to suite 195. The front of it said Scepter Tours. Buffy opened the door hesitantly and looked around. There was a counter by the door and behind that, there was a small multitude of desks.

There was a woman standing at the counter by the door. She had a bright smile on her face as she looked up. "Hi! Welcome to Scepter Tours. I'm Rhonda. How can I help you?" Rhonda said. Buffy handed her the letter and the business card. Rhonda read it and smiled again. "Well, you've come to the right place. Nancy's right over there." Rhonda pointed to a dark red-headed woman sitting at a desk near the back.

Buffy walked over to her with Angel in tow and said, "Are you Nancy?"

Nancy looked up and smiled slightly. "Yes."

"Oh, good. I uh, I received this today." Buffy handed Nancy the business card.

Nancy looked at the number and then typed it into the computer. She waited and the computer beeped. "Oh!"

"Is something wrong?" Angel asked as Nancy started to tear up and she grabbed a tissue from her desk drawer.

She looked at Buffy with tears streaming down her face. "Oh, you're his wife."

Buffy looked at Angel and then back at Nancy. "Drew Turner?"

"Mm-hmm."

"He was here?"

"Yes." Nancy blew her nose and started digging through her desk drawers.

"When?"

Nancy paused in her digging. "Oh, um…. November."

"November? November what?"

Nancy had to think for a few minutes. "November…. 17th. No! 27th! November 27th!"

Buffy looked at Angel. "That can't be. He was bed-ridden for all of the end of November."

"Yes, he did say that he wasn't supposed to be out of bed." She half laughed, half sobbed as she said, "He said that you all probably thought he'd been abducted by aliens or demons or something." Nancy took a moment to compose herself and went back to digging. She finally pulled out a big blue folder. "Found it." She laid it on her desk for Buffy to look at.

Buffy glanced through it and gasped. "He booked a trip to Ireland?"

"He booked the best trip money could buy for you and three other people."

"Three other…. Who?"

"Oh, uh…." Nancy typed on the computer for a minute. "Willow Rosenberg, Xander Harris, and an Angel no last name."

Buffy giggled and looked at Angel. "Nice last name."

Nancy looked at Angel. "Oh, you're Angel?"

"Yes. The last name is Brennan." Angel said.

"I'm sorry. Drew said that he couldn't remember it." Nancy typed in the last name. "Your plane leaves from JFK airport at 7:10 pm next Thursday and you'll arrive in Dublin at 7:20am next Friday. There will be a tour guide waiting for you. He or she will direct you to your rental car and give you directions to your house."

"House?" Buffy asked.

"Yes, he rented a house for you outside of Galway city."

"So it'll be us and the tour guide?"

"Oh, no! Drew was very adamant that there be no official tour guide."

"Why?"

"He said you'd figure it out."

Angel laughed and Buffy and Nancy looked at him. "It's where I'm…. my family is from." He looked at Buffy. "I believe I'm your tour guide."

Nancy smiled as she started to tear up again. "He worked everything out for you. It's all in that folder."

After pumping Nancy for all the information she could remember about Drew's visit, Buffy and Angel headed back to her apartment. An hour later, Willow and Xander were seated at the kitchen table while Angel was working on supper.

"So, what's all the hoopla?" Xander asked.

"Did you get Drew's new letter?" Willow asked excitedly.

"I sure did." Buffy laid the letter on the table with the business card.

They read over it and Xander said, "I don't get it."

"Who's Nancy?" Willow asked. Buffy laid the folder on the table and watched Xander and Willow go through it. Willow let out a squeal. "He's sending you to Ireland!"

"Nope." Buffy said with a smirk.

"Nope?"

"He's sending us to Ireland. You, me, Angel, and Xander."

"No way!"

"Yes way!" Willow squealed and jumped out of her chair. She danced around the kitchen before realizing everyone was watching her. She calmly sat back down. "Sorry."

"It's ok. I almost did that myself."

"We don't have a tour guide." Xander said, reading through the folder's contents.

"Yes we do." Angel said.

"We do?" Willow asked, looking over Xander's shoulder.

"It's me. Drew chose Galway because Buffy told him that's where I'm from and she told him she'd always wanted to go."

"When do we leave?" Xander asked.

"Thursday at seven pm." Buffy said.

"A red eye?" Willow asked.

"It's ok. We'll sleep on the way there and when we get there, it'll be morning."

"This is so exciting! I can't believe that Drew did this!"

"Me either." Xander said.

Buffy just smiled. This was typical Drew. He loved to surprise her and this was the ultimate surprise. They'd talked about going to Ireland for vacation and making that the place they conceive their child. It had all been half-way planned after Buffy had gone to the doctor and confirmed that she was perfectly capable of having children.

"Hey, no sad face." Willow said to Buffy, noticing her friend was starting to brood.

"Oh, sorry." Buffy said. "Just thinking about Drew."

Willow smiled sympathetically. "I know. We all miss him."

Buffy smiled and squeezed Willow's hand. "Oh, Cal's coming at the end of this month."

"He is?!"

"Yeah. Drew left him some things and he's going to come pick them up."

Xander leaned into Buffy and said quietly, "How's he going to react to Angel?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're living with another man. Drew was Caleb's best friend. He might be a little hurt that you've moved on so quick."

"I haven't 'moved on', Xander. Angel and I aren't even Angel and I."

"Could've fooled me."

Willow slapped Xander's arm. "Leave her alone. Drew asked Angel to come and be with Buffy. This is what Drew wanted."

"Still don't get that."

"He didn't want me to be alone in my misery." Buffy said quietly.

"Misery's right." Angel laughed. "She was sitting in her wedding dress about a month ago."

"Mrs. Haversham!" Willow cried out and burst into giggles.

Xander looked completely bewildered. "Her last name's Turner, Will." That caused everyone to start laughing except Xander. "What!?"