Title: One Night, Nine Months, & Two Years 12/?
Author: DeeBeth
Feedback: there are worse things in life then flames, and not many better things than praise, but I'll settle for professional criticism.
Disclaimer: all characters, except the few I will make up as the story progresses, belong to UPN, The WB, Mutant Enemy, and of course Joss Whedon, not to mention the countless others that I don't know or have never heard of. The only thing I know for sure is that the shows (BtVS & AtS) aren't mine and I have no control over what the characters do, no matter how hard I wish, pray, and dream!
The walk home was a silent one, all three to deep in thought to talk. Buffy was trying to figure out why the prospect of Dawn learning to fight made her so uncomfortable. And Wesley was busy thinking up a way to tell Buffy that he thought it was a good idea that Dawn knew how to fight, if not to help with patrolling than at least to protect herself. While Dawn wanted to know why Wesley was in Sunnydale and what happened to him, he looked so un-Wesley-like, but was afraid to say anything at the risk of upsetting Buffy more.
After the threesome arrived home, and Willow and Tara let them in, they all sat around the kitchen table for an emergency family meeting. "Okay, Dawn I know you are wondering why Wesley is here, he is going to help us get our finances under control and he is going to be moving here from LA. And you can only continue training as long as either me, Wesley, or Giles teaches you not Spike." Buffy said glaring at Dawn. "Okay, but why can’t Spike train me? I mean who better to learn from than the Big Bad himself?" Dawn asked relieved that she could still learn how to fight, but still wanted to see Spike, with Buffy’s permission. "No and that’s final." Buffy said dismissing the matter she turned to face the others. "Now where do we began, bills, or more bills?" She asked taking a seat at the head of the table.
"Right then, I would like to look over the bills and after I have decided the best course of action I will advise you all of the options. So if you could point me to the place in which the dreaded papers are kept, I will get started." Wesley said getting up from his place at the table. "Wait, I’ll get them you sit." Willow said as she went into the now crowded living room finding her way between the crates.
"Buffy, you will be helping me go through everything wont you?" Wesley asked taking off his glasses, but not cleaning them. God, if he had cleaned them Buffy thought she would have broke down in tears, she missed Giles so much and seeing that act would have pushed her over the edge. "Yeah, yes of course I am going to help ever step of the way." She answered hoping that Dawn, Wesley or Tara didn’t pick up on her despair. "Okay here we are, this is the box of gloom that has been hanging over our heads for the last few months." Willow addressed the group as she came in carrying a rather large box full of papers. She slid it onto the table in front of Wesley, who visibly paled at the sight of miss organized papers in front of him, returning his glasses to his face he lifted the bill on top of the pile. "This is going to take a rather long time." He stated simply.
"I’m sorry we can’t stay and help but we have class." Willow said gesturing to Tara, who in turn got up to join her girlfriend in the search for their books for their next class. "That’s fine me and Wes can handle everything." Buffy said energetically as she grabbed a pill of bills to go through. "Uh, what do I do? I already did my homework at Spike’s." Dawn complained, already board by the prospect of watching the two other people left in the room go through mounds of bills. "Why don’t you go and see if Giles can use your help at the Magick Box?" Willow hollered from up stairs. "Fine, can you drop me off?" Dawn asked getting up and walking over to the stairs. "Yeah, we’ll be down in a few." Tara answered her. "I’ll be outside," Dawn said grabbing her jacket and heading for the front door.
"Well it looks as though it’ll just be us." Buffy observed smiling up at Wesley as he began organizing the different bills into piles and throwing the out dated past due bills into the trashcan Buffy had put at his side. "Yes it does, and I know your still wondering about what happened in Los Angeles and I will tell you once everyone is together. Perhaps we could meet at the Magic Box tomorrow." He said thinking he would never tire of seeing her smile at him, or actually anyone smile at him. "Yeah, I’ll call Xander and let him know." Buffy said thinking that she would have to confront Giles tonight or at least before the meeting. She couldn’t keep evading him, not only did she miss him like crazy but she had to speaking to him when she told him she was carrying his child.
"Okay lets get started do you have a pen, I’m going to need to write down all the totals of the bills so we can add them up and get a grand total of debt." Wesley said matter-of-factly as he was shuffling the offending papers into prospective piles of badness. "Sounds like fun, I’ll get it for you," Buffy said getting up, this was going to be a long evening.
A little after 8:00 that night Wesley leaned back on his chair and reached for his water. Taking a sip he said, "Buffy I’ve been at this thing from every angle and the only way you will be able to afford to pay these bills is if you sell the house, or in this case let the bank take it. You will need to find a cheaper place to live maybe an apartment or something in town. Which has its good side because then Dawn would be closer to school and you’ll all be closer to the Magic Box." He finished with a hopeful smile. "Alright, so I guess this means apartment hunting, and you’ll need one too right?" as Wesley nodded she continued, "maybe we could get a place in the same building?" Buffy said praying that Wesley would agree so she could have some support even if he was just across the hall. "I would love that, but we might not be that lucky. Apartments are hard to come by especially two on the same floor within our budgets." After seeing Buffy’s disappointed look he quickly added, "but we’ll make it a priority when making our final decision, okay." Buffy looked up with a sad yet determined smile, "Great!"