Chapter 7

"Mommy, why do you keep looking out the window?" Emily was dressing her Barbie.

Buffy temporized, " Well, I’m really excited to see Willow and Xander again. And Anya and Tara too. It’s been such a long time since we’ve seen them. And we’ve never seen baby Sasha or little Esme. And Alex is coming too. Aren’t you excited about seeing him again?"

"Yeah," said Emily listlessly. She kept playing with the Barbie, eyes downcast. It was past 6:00 PM and the sun had been down for over an hour.

Buffy looked at her daughter, sadly. This was a little girl whose father had gone into the hospital and had never come out. Now she had transferred all of her love to a vampire. Had it been a horrible mistake to do this to her? Damn you William, she thought angrily, forget about me…how can you do this to Emily? The phone rang. She ran for it.

"Hello?…Oh, hi, Will!…what?….No everything’s fine. How was your flight?…Uh huh …Uh huh…well, that makes sense, actually. No point in coming all the way over here…Do you have the address of the restaurant?…That’s right…It’s right in Times Square…wait, somebody’s at the door….no it’s okay the phone is cordless…."

Buffy opened the door. There stood William, with a bouquet of flowers in his hand, and an abashed look on his face. Emily pushed past Buffy and jumped into William’s arms. He picked her up and swung her around. Buffy took one look at the two of them and burst into tears, forgetting the telephone. A voice from her hand reminded her.

"W-what? Oh….W-will….sorry…no, no, everything is okay! In fact everything is just fine! I’ll explain later. See you at the party!" She clicked off the phone and accepted the flowers from William’s outstretched hand, as he untangled himself from Emily.

"Buffy. I-I’m sorry I’m so bloody late. I overslept, and couldn’t get a soddin’ cab. I would have been here an hour ago."

"William, look at my Barbie! "She held it up. Barbie was resplendent in a white wedding gown with veil.

"Oh, that’s lovely, pet. But you know your mum will be much prettier than that."

"Emily, hon," said Buffy, " why don’t you go get dressed? We’re going to be leaving for the pizza place soon, and I need to talk to William, okay?"

"Sure, Mom, " she said happily, "But don’t yell at him, okay?" she raced off into her room.

William looked at her. "Well, at least my invite hasn’t been revoked. Are you gonna yell at me? "

"Oh, William. Thank God you’re home!" William took her in his arms. Buffy had a bouquet in one hand and a telephone in the other, but that didn’t stop her from returning his embrace. They kissed hungrily, as though they had been apart for months instead of one night.

"Buffy, sweetheart, I am so sorry. I should have told you about Dru…don’t know why I didn’t."

"Forget it William. I should have been more understanding…are you all right?" She was looking at his bruised face.

William looked down," Got into a bit of a fight last night. In a bar. Some bloke named Spike. You know me, pet, got to have my spot of ultra violence now and then. Usually it’s demons. Last night…"

Buffy looked concerned. "Uh, William….how is…this bloke named Spike?"

"I think he might be comin’ to our wedding. I can’t remember exactly, but I have an awful feeling that I invited him."

Buffy felt her mouth quirking into a smile, "Oh William, you really are the big bad, aren’t you?" Then she became serious. "William, I just want you to know, that I know how difficult these last nine months have been for you. And I am so proud of you."

"Were you worried about me slippin’ last night, Buffy?"

"I was worried about a lot of things, William. I even thought of you going back to Drusilla. But I never really believed any of it seriously. If I had, I would have been out hunting you, William, instead of pacing the floors waiting for you to come home. I love you, and I trust you enough to marry you and make you Emily’s father. I knew that you’d never betray us over one little fight."

"Well, I love you too, Buffy. You’ve given my life back to me, which I had lost for all those years. I know I’m not human, never will be. But thanks to you and Emily and Dawn I’m no longer a monster. It has been a struggle, but worth every minute of it." They kissed again for along while. Suddenly Buffy pulled away, looking at her watch.

"Damn. We have to go. Will and Xander and all are meeting us at the restaurant. We’ll having to finish making up later."

"Lookin’ forward to it, love." Said William. "Do I look all right? Mirrors at my place seem to be on the fritz."

"You look terrific. How about me?"

"You’re the most beautiful woman, I’ve even seen."

Buffy smiled, "Well, maybe we could be a little late."

At that, Emily came running in, pulling her coat on, "Well? Are we going?"

William and Buffy laughed. He said, "Guess we are, Tadpole."

The scene at John’s Pizzeria was total and wonderful chaos. Tearful greetings were exchanged, Scooby Gangs East and West met for the first time, babies were passed around and admired and much wine was consumed.

"Wow, this place is really cool." Willow had said as they arrived, " I can’t believe that The Producers is playing right next door!" She looked out the door where crowds of people were waiting outside in the cold for the theater doors to open.

"Yep, It’s been running for seven years now, and still going strong! And look across the street…it’s Hannibal!" Buffy pointed out a similar crowd shivering across the street. At that moment, the doors opened and both crowds melted into the theaters.

When they got their table, they ordered several pizzas, and settled down to get acquainted and re-acquainted. Emily and William were shy with each other at first, but soon became best buddies again, laughing at the grownups who were acting more like kids then they were.

Dawn had brought her latest set of headshots, which were admired by all. She wasn’t a star yet, but had had a few bit parts off-Broadway. Well, off-off-Broadway to be precise. Jason was inspected by all and accepted as promising boyfriend material. Winnie, as a witch wannabe, had been dying to meet Willow and Tara, whose exploits were legendary in Wicca circles. She was totally enthralled by Esme, with her dark eyed solemn face and sweet manner. Tina had been very interested in meeting Willow and Xander, the friends who had helped Buffy be the longest lived, given a death or two, slayer in history. Anya hit it off with Pricilla Scott, of all people. It turned out that they were both Martha Stewart devotees. And William and Buffy answered questions from their old friends about the New York Hellmouth. And so the evening went.

"Actually, as Hellmouths go, this one isn’t much. I mean, sure, we’ve got demons aplenty, but not one single apocalypse so far." Buffy explained.

"Sounds like a pretty wimpy Hellmouth to me, " said Xander.

"Now the latest is this Jersey Devil thing!"

"What, the hockey team has run amok?"

Buffy laughed, "Well, no, silly. The hockey team was actually named after this thing which was reputed to live in the Meadowlands. But recently all these people have been reported missing in Cliffside Park, which is right across the river and Fort…." Buffy stopped suddenly and looked at William "Lee."

William looked at her. The realization had hit him at the same time as it had hit her. He mouthed. "Dru?" Buffy nodded.

"What is it, Buffy?" Xander asked.

"We know where Drusilla is. And as usual, she is up to no good." She explained her suspicions.

"Have we heard anything from our errant soldier boy?" Asked Xander.

"Not a word." said Buffy. "But I’m not too worried. Without my last name or address, he’ll never find us. New York is a big place."

Riley opened his laptop, and hooked it up to the telephone on the seat back in front of him. It was about time that vampires moved into the 21^st century. Ah, good…E-mail from Finch. According to the Limo Company, that particular car had picked up 7 passengers at Kennedy airport and driven them to the address listed below. Excellent! According to the latest data, the occupants of that address were one Elizabeth (Buffy) Giles, age 28, Dawn Alice Summers, age 23, and Emily Joyce Giles, age 6. Buffy Giles? Riley chortled, why Rupert, you dirty old dog! And Xander hadn’t said one word about it! Incredible. Ah, but Buffy had a daughter. As soon as the plane landed and he could use his cel phone, he would call Finch. He had a plan.

The alarm went off, shaking Buffy out of a not very pleasant dream. Something about Riley and Dru, but too fuzzy and indistinct to recall. She was totally exhausted. Last night, after leaving John’s, the party had moved to Xander’s hotel room. Only the original gang, since Winnie, Tina and Priscilla had gone home from the restaurant. Buffy hadn’t slept the night before, but she had missed her friends so much, she wanted to keep talking, and the visitors were on California time, so for them the night was young. The kids had gone to sleep, but the gang had kept talking late into the night, reminiscing about the good/bad old days in Sunnydale. When Buffy found herself dozing in the middle of a sentence, they decided it was time to leave. Carrying a sleeping Emily, Buffy, Dawn and William had come home, and Buffy had climbed into bed, falling asleep as soon as she hit the pillow. Surely that had only been five minutes ago. It couldn’t be time to get Emily up for school, could it? William stirred beside her. "Love, do you want me to get Emily ready for school?"

"Oh, William, that would be wonderful. I just wish that you could bring her to school, too."

"Can’t do that. But, does she have to go, pet? It is Friday. And next week she has off."

"She’d better go, William. She’s going to miss a week as it is, and I still have so much to do today. I just need to sleep a few more minutes."

A little while later, Buffy woke up feeling much better, but wondering what had happened with Emily. William came in with the answer. "Dawn brought Emily to school, love. I figured we never really got a chance to finish making up. You were pretty dead to the world when we got home." He took off his pants and got back into bed.

Buffy shook her head. "William, I’d love to, but the school is only five blocks away."

William gave her that smile that always melted her, "I gave her a few bucks and told her to go to Starbucks. Told her not to come back before ten."

Buffy laughed, "Oh William, you are a devil. I love you." She pulled him close.

Dawn and Emily walked towards Emily’s school. The sun was out for a change and the air was cold and crisp. Emily was chattering excitedly about being a flower girl, and the pretty dress she would wear tonight. Dawn was listening with half an ear, but was also wondering what it would be like having William as a brother-in-law, and whether or not Jason was the commitment type. She looked up to see a policeman in front of them. "Excuse me," he said, "Are you Dawn Summers?"

My God, Dawn thought. What has happened? "Yes, I am. What’s this about, Officer?"

He knelt down in front of Emily, "And that means you must be Emily, is that right?"

"Officer.." Dawn began, but the policeman suddenly swept Emily up into his arms and pointed a gun at her. He smiled menacingly, "Get into that car or the kid gets hurt."

He gestured to a green sedan parked at the curb. Dawn, horrified, hastened to obey. What was this all about? Could this be some kind of key thing? Nobody had been interested in her keyness in seven years, and she had almost forgotten about it. "Look, Mister, please take me and let my niece go. She can’t help you. Please."

The officer shook his head. "Nope, no can do. Both of you…get in."

He pushed Dawn into the driver’s seat, and made Emily, who was too terrified and confused to even cry, get into the backseat. He then nudged Dawn with the gun, moving her into the passenger seat and got into the driver’s seat himself. Still holding the gun on Dawn with one hand, he turned the key in the ignition and pulled out. Dawn looked around, hoping for witnesses, who would tell Buffy what happened, but the residential street was quiet, and she didn’t see anybody. She leaned forward to see the officer’s name badge. Jablonsky.

She ventured once again to find out what this was all about. "Officer Jablonsky, please tell me what this is all about."

He laughed, but kept the gun firmly planted in Dawn’s direction. "Jablonsky? Sorry kid, this uniform ain’t mine. I kind of borrowed it from a friend. My name is Finch. Pleased to meetcha."