Days in the Sun
June 1st, 2022 – Calling (2)
It was nice to have a full house again, a grinning Spike thought to himself as he walked out of his office and could hear the various sounds all around. With the two oldest children away for their studies during most of the year, and their breaks rarely being at the same time, he was very much enjoying their return for the summer vacation, even if they wouldn’t stay here the whole time. For a little while, at least, they were all here and it just was… nice.
Muffled music, or rather noise, was coming from the first floor, more than likely from Jay’s room. The telly was on in the living room, and as he passed by Spike could see that Lisa was there, laughing on the phone while sprawled on the sofa. There were more voices in the kitchen, Buffy and Will discussing the best way to prepare the sauce for the pasta. This was something he definitely could add his input to, so he stepped into the kitchen, smirk ready for the attack… and stopped dead in his tracks.
His nostrils flared and confirmed what he had thought he had smelled upon entering the room. Blood. Fresh human blood.
Buffy noticed him and came to give a quick peck to his lips. The scent wasn’t any stronger with her in front of him. But when he walked farther into the room, and incidentally got closer to William, he didn’t have a doubt anymore. His son was hurt. For a few minutes, he observed the two cooks of the night and noticed how Will winced when he made certain moves. Right side. Along the ribs, maybe. No blood was seeping through his t-shirt, which meant he had to be bandaged. And he hadn’t said anything about being hurt, so he must have wanted to keep it a secret.
Son and mother were done with their preparations, and Will excused himself for a moment while the dinner finished cooking. A minute later, Spike followed and, after a quick stop by the bathroom, he knocked on the boy’s door. There was a few seconds delay before the invitation to enter came. Spike strode in and closed the door behind him. Then he placed the first aid kit on the desk next to the door and looked at his son, whose eyes were fluttering between the kit and him.
“Show me,” he requested quietly.
The kid passed a nervous tongue on his lips and played dumb. “Show you what?”
“Maybe you have forgotten, but I am a vampire,” Spike said calmly. “You really think you can bleed to death under my nose without me noticing anything?”
“I am not bleeding to death!” the young man protested. “It’s nothing, just a scratch…”
“Yeah, well, I want to see for myself before I believe you on that.”
Twin sets of blue eyes battled for a second and Will gave up with a sigh. With careful moves, and a wince, he pulled his t-shirt off, revealing a square of gauze on his right side, which was beginning to be stained with blood in its center. Without needing to be prompted, he pulled off the tape and revealed the wound.
“Just a scratch, uh?” Spike muttered as he took in the three parallel slashes across his son’s skin. Two seemed almost healed, but the third one had reopened and was bleeding lightly.
“It’s not as bad as it looks,” Will pleaded as Spike opened the first aid kit and retrieved disinfectant, gauze, and tape. “It will be healed in just a day or two.”
“And how would you know that?” Spike asked, his eyes narrowing, as he motioned for Will to sit on the bed. “Unless it’s not the first time you’ve gotten hurt?”
Shaking his head lightly, Will refused to meet his father’s eyes. Spike stepped closer and knelt on the floor. Grinding his teeth, he started to dab at the bleeding slash with some disinfectant soaked cotton, the carefulness of his moves in complete contrast with his contained anger. Despite himself, his eyes ran over the boy’s skin, finding a couple of pale scars he had never seen before. Will hissed, and Spike realized his moves had become harsher and tried to control them again.
“What happened?” he asked once he had discarded the cotton and was carefully applying the gauze.
“I suppose you won’t believe me if I say Sarah has really long nails?”
Spike merely frowned at the feeble attempt at joking and William sighed.
“A vamp. His were claws more than nails. ‘Got me the night before we came back here. He didn’t last long after that, though.”
For a second, Spike closed his eyes and mind, trying to block out what he had just learned, but the information sank in anyway. First Lisa, and now Will. Even knowing that it was bound to happen if the prophecy was to be believed, it was still a shock. A very nasty shock.
“Since when do you patrol?” he asked blankly as he stood and put away the supplies.
“It’ll be two years in September.”
Will’s words were barely more than a whisper, but Spike heard, all too clearly, and faced his son again, immensely surprised.
“Two bleeding years?” he repeated, incredulous. “Two years and you never said anything? You could have been seriously hurt, or worse, and we wouldn’t have even known…”
Emotion choking him, Spike couldn’t finish his sentence and just stared at William.
“I didn’t want you to worry,” the young man pleaded. “And really, there is no reason for you to. This is the worst I’ve ever been hurt.”
“Two years,” Spike repeated once again, more for himself than anything else.
Lisa had called him right after her first slaying night, and even if he was constantly worried about her, Spike was glad she had told him immediately what she had decided to do. But to learn, almost by accident, that her brother had been fighting the same battle even before her without ever giving a clue about it… Spike wasn’t sure whether he was most angry with Will for saying nothing or with himself for never suspecting a thing.
“I wish you had trusted me enough to tell me,” he muttered at last, and Will flinched at the words.
“I do trust you,” the young man said warmly. “I just knew you would worry for me so it was just better if you didn’t know.”
“What if something bad had happened to you?” Spike repeated his earlier protest.
For a second, it was clear that Will was hesitating. And then he said, very softly: “Sarah would have explained to you. Or Lisa.”
This time, the revelation left Spike completely speechless. Lisa, his Lisa, had known and never said a thing? Will seemed to understand what was going on in his head because he added quickly:
“Don’t be mad at her, she wanted to tell you but I made her promise not to.”
Shaking his head, Spike left the room without another word, hurt that two of his children had hidden something so important from him – and Buffy – for so long.
It had been a very peculiar dinner. Joy had left just seconds before they started, reminding Buffy that she had agreed she could spend the night at her friend Sandra’s house. Spike hadn’t said a word during the whole time, barely touching his plate, not talking to either Will or Lisa, whom Buffy knew he missed so much when they were away, just as she did. William had been very subdued too, obviously preoccupied by something, and casting furtive glances at his father every now and then. As for Lisa, she was oblivious to their strange attitudes, telling whoever was listening about her plans to go to the beach the next day with her old high school friends. Buffy was sure she was still hurting about her breakup with her boyfriend, but she was putting up a good front, as she always did.
Just as Will was getting up, his dinner finished, Spike gave him a hard glance, and the young man sat back with a light sigh. This time Lisa noticed and she observed the two men quizzically.
“What’s going on?” she asked, clearly puzzled.
“Strange that you would ask,” Spike said with an unusually harsh tone. “Because you seem to know more than we do.”
For a second, she seemed perplexed, and then her eyes widened and she looked at her brother, questioning him silently and obtaining a short nod in reply. Annoyed at being the only one who didn’t know what was happening, Buffy requested an explanation.
“Tell your mother,” Spike demanded of William with a voice that left no place for refusal.
And so William told her. About his patrols. About slaying vamps and the occasional demon. About having done so for almost two years.
As she listened to him, Buffy’s hand found Spike’s on the table and clasped it tightly. Hearing about Lisa had been bad enough, but this… For so long, her son had risked his life every night without anyone knowing? Unless… Understanding at last Spike’s words to Lisa, Buffy looked at her sharply.
“You knew?”
The young woman only nodded, and Buffy’s anger and pain flared. She turned her gaze to Spike, and could see now that the emotions on his face were the same as what she felt, maybe with some sense of betrayal on top of it. She squeezed his hand lightly and tried to give him a smile. It took him a couple of seconds to return it.
“I am disappointed,” she said at last, her gaze going from her son to her daughter and back. “Not that you both decided to become Slayers. It is your choice, and even if I wish you had normal lives, it was your birthright to make that decision for yourselves. But that you would hide something this important from us, for such a long time…”
Sighing, Buffy shook her head, and the two twenty-somethings had the grace to look embarrassed and to blush slightly. As she looked at them, she wasn’t sure which was strongest, the hurt at them having lied by omission, or the fear, deep inside, that she had always had when she thought of them becoming Slayers, and that had suddenly increased a hundred times.
“Will just thought it was useless to have you worry for him,” Lisa tried to explain after a few seconds.
“But he told you,” Buffy replied blankly.
Lisa had nothing to answer, and so she was quiet. William however didn’t let it at that.
“It’s not Lisa’s fault,” he said stubbornly. “If you have to blame someone, blame me.”
“It’s not about blame,” Spike interjected. “It’s about trust. Honesty. It’s about not having us discover by accident what our children do at night. It’s about knowing we can be there for them if they need help or advice or anything else.”
For a minute or so, silence fell again on the room.
“I’m sorry,” William said at last, his gaze going from Buffy to Spike. “I sincerely thought it would be easier if you didn’t know, and I didn’t believe not knowing could hurt you.”
“Easier, yes,” Buffy murmured. “But not better.”
Will nodded, and Lisa frowned slightly.
“OK, we’re both a bit too old to be grounded,” she commented. “So can we all agree Will should have told you, I shouldn’t have promised not to tell you, now you know and all is right in the world?”
It wasn’t as easy as Lisa made it sound, but Buffy could admit that she was right on two things. They were too old to be punished and it was useless to hold grudges. Spike, however, wasn’t ready to let go so easily.
“Too old for grounding,” he agreed with a half smile. “But not too old to learn how to fight properly. I will see you both in the basement at 7 tomorrow morning.”
As Buffy wondered what he meant by fight properly, she saw William answer with a tight nod, at the same time as Lisa was protesting she had plans to go to the beach. The discussion could have turned ugly then, but, somehow, it evolved into light banter, and soon no one could have guessed that only minutes before the situation had been so tense between parents and children. But despite the calm Spike was displaying, Buffy knew he liked no more than her the idea that their children had decided to fight. He was proud, yes, just as she was, but also just as scared, even if he wouldn’t let them know.
The characters and names used in these stories do not belong to me. All copyrights remain with Fox and Mutant Enemy. No profit is made from this fanfiction.