13.

This morning felt different.

She stretched herself slowly, luxuriously, between the clean white cotton sheets. The sun was already pretty high she could tell. Must be at least nine. She rolled on her right side, tucked her elbow under her pillow, brought her knees up. Downstairs she could hear the familiar rattles and bangs that announced Dawn's preparation for her traditional Saturday Waffle Fest, followed by a few slightly off-key notes. She was happy. So good to hear.

She closed her eyes again, let the sunlight warm her face. Yes, today was different, she could feel it. The same sort of feeling she used to get the first morning of summer vacation or just before one of her Dad's road trips. Excited, filled with happy expectation of the day ahead. She frowned, let her eyelid open a chink. So what was it?

An alarmingly loud bang and a squeak of alarm from the kitchen forced her out of bed and into her jeans and a t-shirt. Padding down the stairs, she picked up the mail, bills, bills...a handwritten letter? Pocketed it as she heard another bang, Dawn squeal again,

"Dawn? What the heck are you making in there? Semtex?"

She rounded the kitchen door to see the miraculous Key desperately trying to lever a mess of charred batter and what looked suspiciously like hot jam from their newly acquired waffle iron.

"I tried to make them with fresh strawberries, but they kinda...exploded?"

Her sister pursed her lips, managed to suppress a smile.

"Tell you what, how 'bout I take you out to breakfast today!"

She didn't need to ask twice. Dawn racing for their coats, at the door in a second.

"We could call for Xander and Anya?"

She pulled on her jean jacket as Buffy locked the door. They walked out into the hazy summer morning.

"He said they had to be somewhere this morning." she shrugged, "Probably baby stuff. Picking out little Xander-shaped babygrows."

She looped an arm through her sister's,

"Besides, I fancy a bit of alone time with my Dawnie."

They set off towards town, letting the yellow warmth wash their faces, laughed and chattered over nothing, everything, stopping occasionally to pet a stray dog, say hi to one of Dawn's friends and as they neared the Expresso, talk turned to food, specifically the Pump's famous Iron Horse Breakfast. They seated themselves in the open, loathe to give up the miraculous sun for shade, ordered the works.

Dawn squinted at her over the top of her sunglasses, smoothed her napkin out with a sly grin.

"So you haven't really told me...what's going on yet...have you?"

Her sister pushed her golden curls back with one hand,

"We can do whatever you want...movie...go to the mall?"

Dawn gave her the withering look, the one that she obviously practiced in front of mirrors.

"You know what I'm talking about Buffy! You've been avoiding the subject for days!"

"Umm Hmm?"

She picked up the menu, used it to hide her expression. Dawn reached over, pulled it down.

"You and William?" she pronounced his name carefully, emphasising the syllables, "You're all like...nothings happening."

"Nothing is happening." she put on her own sunglasses, turned to look at the street.

Dawn groaned,

"But something did happen. I saw you Buffy!"

She felt her face begin to colour up,

"You said that you didn't see a thing!"

"I might not have seen...a thing," she backtracked, hurriedly, "But I saw enough to know...that you guys weren't in your bedroom reading poetry to each other."

Buffy felt the start of a smile, managed to disguise it with a cough. She looked over at her sister, so full of curiosity but also concern. She was right, she should let her know what was going on. And she would if only she could figure it out for herself. She sighed, rested her elbows on the table.

"Dawn...it's complicated."

Her sister snorted, folded her arms,

"Complicated! Right! It's always 'complicated' when you don't want to tell me stuff."

"It's not stuff. Dawn, I've just been having a hard time with understanding it myself."

"What's to understand?"

God, she could be so infuriating sometimes.

"Feelings! Feelings are sometimes hard to understand!" she took a deep breath, let it out, "I mean...I care...I really care about him. Spike. I mean...William. But...there's stuff that...needs to be...understood."

She realised that she was starting to make the sort of sense that doesn't. Tried again.

"We have to sort of get to know each other again. Find out...what's the same and what's changed. Parts of him are still Spike...you know? The other parts...the William parts...I don't know about yet."

"You don't know yet what? If you like them or not?"

She frowned, took a sip of the coffee the waitress had just brought her.

"No. I do. Like them, I mean. It's just...strange."

Dawn shook her head,

"No. I think you're the one whose strange."

"Thanks."

"No, I mean it,"

Her little sister was serious now, cross even.

"Buffy, I really loved Spike, I still do, but I always knew there was a part of him we couldn't trust. He was always so funny and he treated me like a grown-up and I liked him for that, but part of me knew he wasn't like us, that there was something inside him that...was bad, that could hurt us, even though sometimes I forgot it."

She looked her then, understanding so much for a kid. She knew Buffy had forgotten too.

"And then he went away and you were sad...for so long. You thought I didn't notice but I did. Then one day...he's comes back and he's different. All the bad stuff is gone, there's just this nice guy...who loves you and who'll do anything for you, and who's everything you've ever wanted...pretty much. Your dream-come-true! And what do you say? It's complicated?"

She rolled her eyes in exasperation. God, and where had she got that from?

"Buffy, he loves you. You love him. What's so strange about that?"

She took a forkful of her eggs, popped them in her mouth with a flourish.

She was right. Her sixteen year old sister was right on the money. There wasn't anything complicated about it. She did love him. He was her perfect match. She frowned. What the hell had she been torturing herself about for the last three weeks? And it wasn't as if she didn't need someone, she'd been so long without a real boyfriend she'd almost considered buying herself an appliance in one of those slightly seedy adult- shops that Xander always seemed to be drawn too. The only thing that had stopped her was the thought of being seen by a creature from the underworld, news would travel pretty fast in the demon realm. She shuddered, it brought a whole new meaning to the moniker Mr Pointy. She looked over at and she looked back at her through a faceful of bacon,

"Maybe you're right. There's nothing really strange about it. Maybe, I'll just go over there and..."

Dawn's eyes widened at something over her shoulder. She got to her feet grinning, brushed herself down hurriedly,

"I'm just going to go...over there...and get myself some..er...ketchup," she was backing away now, still smirking, "But Buffy! Hold...that...thought!"

What the hell had gotten into her? She didn't even like ketchup. Followed her as she made for the other side of the counter, slid onto a stool next to some guy. She narrowed her eyes...oh, so that was it. See some cute guy and we ditch the un-cool sister?

"All right if I join you?"

Her head jerked round so fast her glasses fell off her nose, somehow he managed to catch them before the hit the sidewalk. Straightened up, slid them back onto her face. He looked, different today, which was sort of fitting and she squinted at him as he pulled the chair out, moved in next to her, smelling of soap and sunlight.

"Your hair...you've done something else to it?"

He quirked an eyebrow,

"You like it? Decided the natural look wasn't quite me, thought I'd go for something sort of in between."

He ruffled his streaky blondey-brown hair and she reached a hand, pushed a stray toffee curl back into place. Felt him move against her palm like a cat purring. She smiled,

"Yeah. It's nice. Sorta like a Half-Spike-Moca-Latte."

He caught her hand in his, curled his fingers around it.

"That suit you?"

Beautiful eyes searched her's and she felt her heart flip at the realisation that he was totally Spiking her! Leaned in for the softest of kisses, still taking it slow, breathed him in.

"Just right."

She let their hands drop to the table, felt his foot on her's, knee press warm against her leg as Dawn returned to them, all smiles and bouncing hair.

"Ketchup! I have the ketchup now!"

"Hey! Anyone wanna buy some prescription drugs?"

A familiar voice brought all three heads round, Buffy to her feet in a second.

"Will!"

A huge grin stretched Willow's face, her hair glowing scarlet, throwing her arms around her smiling friend, her adoptive sister, Xander and Anya standing a few feet behind, Xander holding her small hospital suitcase. He smiled,

"Sorry. She wanted it to be a surprise."

Willow unfurled a sheaf of documents, held them out at arms length for all to see,

"Willow Rosenberg, now officially sane! Thank you very much!"

She bounced in tandem with Dawn and Buffy, all three barely able to contain their excitement at Willow's impromptu freedom.

"Sit down! You gotta sit down!"

They bundled her into a seat, made room on one side for Xander, Anya sliding onto his lap.

"What'd ya want? It's on me!"

"God, do they still do the hot-fudge brownie sundaes? Every time I'd trip out on the medication...I'd always be dreamin' of them!"

Buffy hailed the waitress, ordered the hottest, brownest and fudgiest. Sat back to look at the people around the table, her people. Willow's face radiant with health and happiness, Xander's as he looked from at his pregnant girlfriend to his best-friend. Listened to Will tell how Gile's had finally convinced the doctors of her sanity over the telephone using something akin to a Jedi mind-trick.. Dawn's mad grin as she looked over at her sister, saw her fingers intertwined with William's on the table, his arm resting against hers. Perfect. Life was perfect.

The waitress dropped the bill on the table and her hand went to her pocket, automatically searching for her purse, closed over the letter she put there earlier. She pulled it out, glanced at the LA postmark, the unfamiliar handwriting.

"Whose that from?"

William raised an eyebrow,

"Not a rare communiqué from the Pater?"

She shook her head, tore it open. Then as she started to read, her face drained of colour.

"What's happened pet?"

He prised it from her fingers, his eyes skimming down the page, leaping from one sentence to the next, felt his stomach drop to his boots.

"So who's it from? What is it?"

Dawn voice had the edge of teenage hysteria to it,

"Is it from Dad? Is he O.K?"

Buffy felt for William's hand, but it was gone, drawn back into his lap, his expression suddenly unreadable again.

"No, he's...it's fine Dawn. It's from Cordy."

"Cordelia?"

Xander's voice was incredulous, Willow's face said the same thing,

"Buffy? Why's she writing to you?"

She searched for William's eyes, but he'd turned away now, was staring up the street towards the station.

"She just wanted to give me a heads up. Angel's on his way here."

Why wouldn't he look at her? Didn't he know how much she needed him right now? Needed him to be strong for her, be her right arm. She felt her throat constrict, wondering what he must be feeling right now.

"Angel's coming here? Is there some kinda trouble?"

Buffy turned back to them, her friends, looked from one face to the next. Judging the moment, trying to distill Cordy's muddled, over-emotional syntax into a simple phrase.

"Angel's human. The Powers That Be...they changed him back."

THE END OF 'DIVERSION'
(The story continues in the sequel 'Detour')