Chapter 23: March 2017
Davey and Will lagged slightly behind Hannah. She was walking them home as she always did, Sam acting as her shadow. They were talking and laughing, Hannah allowing Sam to carry her backpack as well as his. She was finding out how nice it was to have someone else take care of her on occasion.
They were wrapped up in their own world, leaving Will to attempt to console his twin. “Maybe it’ll be okay?”
“How is it supposed to be okay?” Davey asked glumly. “There’s no way they’re going to let me play Little League this summer. I’ll probably be stuck doing lessons all the time.” A note of panic crept into his voice. “And England ! We’re s’posed to go visit this summer. What if they leave me behind?”
“They’re not going to leave you behind,” Will said, sounding very much like his father. “‘Sides, Mum knows now about Mrs. Howard.”
Davey scowled. “Yeah, and you heard her. She said I had to stick it out this year. Dad’s going to kill me.”
“He’s not going to kill you.”
“Yes, he is,” Davey argued. “You’re always getting high marks, and I just—”
“I’ll tell them,” Will said . “It’s not your fault.”
“It’s not fair.”
Will didn’t have a response to that. It wasn’t entirely the teacher’s fault that Davey was failing. His twin had always struggled more with school, and when the pressure was on like this, Davey tended to freeze up. Put him in a similar situation on the baseball diamond or football field, and it was the exact opposite, though.
Will understood that. Davey was essentially his other half, after all.
“Dawn and Connor are coming,” he said, trying to find something that would cheer Davey up. “Mum and Dad will be in a good mood.”
Davey kicked at a rock in the path. “Not after they see that note.”
Will sighed. “Yeah. You’re probably right.”
~~~~~
Wesley looked up at the knock on the door. The downside of owning a business was the paper work, and he had to admit that it was his least favorite part. He and Spike had retained a reputable accountant a number of years before, but that didn’t get him completely off the hook. He’d hoped to be finished before Dawn and Connor arrived for dinner, but he kept getting interrupted.
“Come in,” he called, watching as Davey pushed the door open, remaining in the doorway. “What is it, Dafydd?”
There was more impatience in his voice than he’d meant to convey, and Wesley winced when his son did. “Come inside, son.”
Wesley wasn’t sure what had brought his son in to visit. Will could often be found sitting on the couch, reading silently as he did his work. Davey was more likely to be outside, especially when the weather was nice.
Even if the rarity of Davey’s visits wasn’t an indication, the expression on the boy’s face would have been enough to tip Wesley off that he wasn’t going to like what Davey had to say. He’d been a father long enough to know guilt when he saw it.
Davey said nothing, just came up to the desk and handed him an envelope. It was unopened, and Wesley frowned, wondering why he hadn’t shown it to Nika first. Typically, she was the one the boys brought their school notes to, since she was usually the first to greet them.
His frown deepened as he read the teacher’s words.
David is doing poorly in three out of five of the major subjects. I would suggest keeping him back a year. He lacks the maturity and focus needed to be successful.
Wesley raised an eyebrow. “Does Mrs. Howard know your full name?”
“She doesn’t ever spell it right,” Davey replied, knowing what his father was referring to. So far, Wesley hadn’t shouted, or even appeared to be all that upset. He relaxed slightly.
One of the reasons that Wesley preferred to let Nika deal with this sort of thing first was that he feared reacting as his father had. He did not want to demand perfection from his sons, knowing first hand how damaging those unreachable expectations could be. Wesley wasn’t sure why Davey had come to him first, but he didn’t want to hurt the boy’s feelings.
After all, he had very vivid memories of standing before his father in just this way with a similar note. Not that he’d been failing, but he hadn’t managed perfection. He hadn’t been good enough.
Remembering that scene, and his father’s harsh words, gave Wesley the ability to take a deep breath and ask, “Would you like to tell me what happened?”
Davey looked at him, startled, and then stared at the floor. His expression was a mix of sullenness and dread. “I’m not that smart.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute.” Wesley moved around the desk so he could meet Davey’s eyes. “I know you’ve been doing your homework. Your mother and I have been checking it over. Unless you haven’t been bringing it all home—”
“No!” Davey said, stung that Wesley could think he’d been lying for the last few months. “I haven’t been hiding anything!”
Wesley nodded. “I believe you. You’ve always been honest with me in the past. So what’s been happening? Because you are certainly not stupid.”
“It’s the tests,” Davey confessed, his face turning a dull red. “It’s just—I can’t do them. My brain freezes up.”
Wesley shook his head. “Failing a few tests shouldn’t be enough to hurt your scores that much, Davey. Surely—”
“You can ask Will,” Davey shot back. “She gives them out every week. Quizzes and then tests too. Mum said I had to stick it out and get my grades up. Now I won’t be able to go on, and everybody’s going to think—”
Wesley hushed him with a look and a rough hug. “You’re not staying back,” was his firm answer . “If I have to tutor you myself this summer, you will go on to the next grade. Besides, you’re not going back to that school, so it shouldn’t matter what this woman has to say.” The way his dad said “this woman” made Davey grin. “She can’t even spell your name right.”
“Then I can still come to England with you?”
Wesley stared at him. “Why on earth would you think we’d leave you behind?”
Shrugging uncomfortably, Davey said, “If I have to be in summer school…”
“You aren’t going to summer school,” Wesley said. “As I said, I’ll tutor you myself, and I’m sure your mum will help. Although, I imagine you’ll end up wishing you were in summer school.”
Davey gave a huge sigh of relief. “Then I can still play baseball?”
“Yes, you can play baseball,” Wesley replied. “Now, go find your mother and ask her to come see me, please. And do your homework!” he called as Davey ran out the door, heaving a sigh of relief. That hadn’t gone too badly, although it seemed they needed to have another conference with the teacher. Wesley was sure that she had Davey’s best interests at heart, but she didn’t know his son as he did.
Wesley hadn’t received much support from either of his parents growing up, and he never wanted his own children to be able to say the same. This was a battle he had no trouble fighting on Davey’s behalf.
~~~~~
“We’re telling them tonight, right?” Buffy asked, watching as Spike finished buttoning his shirt.
He shrugged. “Up to you, pet. We don’t have to.”
“No, I want to, if you do,” she replied, smiling. “Besides, I don’t think Meg’s going to be able to keep it a secret much longer.”
Spike grinned. “She’s nearly bursting, yeah?” They had sat Meg down the day after they’d done the at-home pregnancy test. With Dawn and Connor coming, it was unlikely that Buffy would be able to keep her morning sickness private, and Dawn would know exactly what was going on, since her own experiences were so recent.
Neither of them had been sure how Meg would react. It was a toss-up between thrilled to death and upset over losing her spot as an only child. They needn’t have worried, however. Meg had been wanting a sibling ever since Carwen was born, and she immediately started telling her parents how big of a help she could be.
Meg really was a good kid. Buffy was deeply afraid that it wasn’t going to last through her teenage years. Hadn’t her mother always said “Wait until you have a child just like you someday?”
Now, of course, she wanted to tell the world, and had been persuaded to keep quiet with some difficulty. Dawn and Connor had arrived only a few hours before, and Meg had nearly dropped the news twice already.
“You’re really okay with this?” Buffy asked suddenly, wanting to know that he wasn’t just play-acting being happy for her sake.
Spike turned to look at her, his blue eyes serious. He’d begun to develop a tan in the last few months, and it just intesified the color. “I’m okay with it.” Spike sat down next to her on the bed. “Let me ask you. Are you really okay with me? Being human, I mean. I know you didn’t want me to do this, and I can’t help but wonder—”
“I didn’t want you to leave,” Buffy corrected him gently. “I didn’t want to lose you. Spike, I love you. I know you feel different, but you’re the same to me. You’re still the man I fell in love with. I’ve had so many people leave one way or another, I was scared to death of losing you. You came so close in Cleveland …”
He pulled her to him, still not used to the fact that his skin was as warm as hers now. Spike had found a few new gray hairs that morning, a reminder that he was aging.
Right along with his wife.
“I just thought it was because you wanted me because I was a vampire,” Spike said, adding sheepishly, “Figured it was because the undead got you hot.”
It was such a typical comment coming from him that Buffy didn’t even react except to roll her eyes and thwap him across the chest half-heartedly. “Would we be dealing with this now if you were still a vampire?”
“No, luv, but—”
“I know I’ve screwed up before,” Buffy said. “I know that sometimes when you doubt that I love you, there’s good reason.”
“Buffy—”
“But I love you. I don’t think I could live without you. I was so afraid that you wouldn’t come back to me, or that you’d be a stranger, and I couldn’t deal with that.”
It wasn’t often that they were so honest with each other. Actions spoke louder than words for the both of them, and she and Spike often preferred it that way. Still, Buffy had gotten better over the years at being honest, at telling Spike how she was feeling, or what she thought. During those awful months when Spike was trying to figure out what he wanted to do, and Buffy was doing her best to ignore his journey, she had not allowed herself honesty.
During the last couple of months, once he was back safe with her, Buffy felt that Spike might be too fragile to hear the words, and not ready to listen.
“I love you,” Spike said softly. “Don’t doubt me when I say that I’m thrilled ’bout this. You know I think of Meg as mine, but this—”
“This is different,” Buffy agreed. “It would be nice if he looked like you.”
Spike raised an eyebrow. “Could be a girl.”
“I’m rooting for a boy,” she replied. “It’d be nice.”
He smiled, reverently putting a hand over her abdomen. “That it would.” They sat for a long moment before Spike started speaking again. “I have a question, but don’t feel like you have to say yes.”
“Just ask,” Buffy replied.
Spike shrugged. “You think you’d want to renew our vows?”
“What?” Surprise made her tone sharp.
He stood quickly. “Forget it. It’s a stupid idea, and—”
“No, it’s not stupid,” Buffy quickly replied. “I just—you surprised me. Why do you want to renew our vows?” He just looked at her. “Humor me.”
Spike sighed. “Because it would be nice. Because I’m not the bloke you married, even if you don’t think of us any differently. You married the vampire without a soul. I’m—not him.”
It was useless to try to argue, of that Buffy was sure. For one thing, she’d been trying to convince him that he was the same man since he came back. Spike just wasn’t buying it, and it had only been when she’d stopped trying to tell him he was the same, and simply accepted what he was, that things had gotten easier between them.
It didn’t really matter anyway. Buffy would still marry him in a heartbeat, so it wasn’t like it really mattered. Or maybe it did matter, but not in the way that it would to Spike.
“Okay.”
“Okay? Okay what?” Spike asked, scowling.
Buffy smiled. “Okay, I’ll renew our vows, and I do get why you want to do this. Just one thing.”
“What’s that, luv?” Spike asked, relief evident in his tone. He hadn’t wanted her to think less or him, nor had he been certain she would understand.
“We do it before the baby’s born,” Buffy replied. “I’m going to do it right this time . First the wedding, then the baby.”
Spike couldn’t help but laugh.
~~~~~
Meg heard her father laugh down the hall, and a little more of the fear seeped out of her bones.
She had a lot of friends whose parents were divorced, and she’d heard their stories. How their moms and dads had yelled at each other, or had never spoken. How one parent was never around and the other was always sad.
Ever since her dad had come home from that trip, Meg had been scared that he would leave, or that her mom would make him go. They had fought for months before he’d left, and Meg was sure that it was something bad.
By now, she knew the difference between a normal argument and a fight that would leave the house ten degrees cooler for days.
Meg’s joy over getting a little brother or sister was real, but it was more than that. She figured her parents were definitely sticking together now. They wouldn’t have wanted another kid otherwise.
It would be nice to have a younger sibling, though. She had wanted one since Carwen was born. Meg had envied the twins their younger sister, plus having Hannah living with them. There was always so much going on, and she wished it could be more like that at her house.
This was a good start, though.