COUPLING: Buffy/Riley
SUMMARY: A/U - Riley has left Buffy, and this is 10 years into the future.
DISCLAIMER: All BtVS characters belong to the wonderfully talented
mind of Joss Whedon. However I do own Riley's daughters and Sam the
nanny.
FEEDBACK: Pretty pretty please! I really hate to beg, but will .
SPOILERS: All of Season 5, and my own little universe.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: Ladies and Gentlemen I would love you to give a warm round of applause to my wonderful Beta Reader Anne Marie who makes each one of these stories better. To Amy, Nicole and Ace thank you so much for your kind words, and wonderful own talent that makes me want to write. And to Andra thank you so much with all your wonderful help writing this. Chris I called the therapists and it seems Buffy will be joining our little group therapy sessions.
Willow hadn’t slept much at all the night before and her head ached from the knowledge that she'd lost Graham before she’d even had him. She had tried crying herself to sleep last night, but it hadn't worked at all. Instead she lay in bed feeling heart broken and lonely. Climbing out of the tangled mess of sheets, Willow stumbled into her on-suite bathroom and shrieked in horror at her reflection in the bathroom mirror. While her crying hadn't worn her out, it had sure left her with a case of puffy eyes and a red nose.
<Maybe I can convince them I've developed a cold? >
She eyed herself critically and then sighed in defeat.
< Hell, even I wouldn't fall for that. >
She stalked back out of the bathroom toward her travel case to look for something to take the puffiness out of her eyes and cursed loudly when she found nothing.
< Great! Now the whole world will know I’ve been up all night crying over Graham! >
The house seemed fairly quiet as she made her way downstairs, but as she neared the kitchen she could hear that all the houses’ occupants had gathered in the large friendly kitchen.
"Tristan stop bugging your sister and sit down and eat," Riley said, reaching over to pour a glass of milk for Hope.
"Dad! She keeps looking at me!" Hope cried
"Tristan stop looking at your sister," Riley said evenly, resisting the temptation of throwing his hands up in the air and screaming at the two girls to get along.
"I’m not looking at her," Tristan pouted.
"Remember Santa Claus can see you pouting, Tristan." Evan reminded his youngest sister, feeling a little sorry for her. She was just really excited about going to see Santa, and well, truth be told, so was he. Evan didn’t believe in Santa anymore, but this was a family outing. His very first, real, live family outing. Dad wasn’t going to be going though because he had a conference call from Australia waiting for him at the office. Apparently it was Monday there already, but the rest of them were going.
"Good Morning Willow," Riley said, smiling at the puffy eyed woman. He knew she’d cried herself to sleep, he’d heard her as he passed her room the night before.
"Morning Riley. Morning gang!" Willow said, putting on her everything is wonderful mask. She was an Oscar winning actress after all.
"Morning Aunt Willow," Evan replied, happy to see his aunt was finally awake so he could share the days plans with her.
"We’re going to see Santa and then we’re going skating," he announced to her happily. Willow acknowledged this with a smile and a nod of her head.
"Hello! Anyone home?" A very feminine English voice called out in the hallway.
"Sam’s home!" Hope yelled as she jumped off her chair and raced out to meet the nanny.
"Hope! Don’t touch anything you’re sticky!" Riley yelled after her.
"Coffee, Willow?" Buffy asked as Willow stood watching the craziness going on in the kitchen. Willow didn't see Graham there for breakfast and wondered where he was until she saw him enter the kitchen with the beautiful nanny.
"Good morning everyone!" Sam said, swooping down to give the other girls each a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey Sam, this is my brother Evan," Tristan proudly introduced her brother to the nanny.
Riley watched Sam’s shocked expression with mild amusement until she turned around and looked directly at him. Buffy didn’t miss the exchange and decided that this nanny was far too close to Riley for her liking.
"Sam, I suggest you and I have a little conversation before you take the kids out," Riley said to Sam. He cleared his throat uncomfortably.
"I think you’re right, Dr. Finn," she agreed, looking to Graham for some kind of explanation.
"Don’t look at me," he cracked, moving past the stunned woman to pour himself a cup of coffee.
"I always look at you," she quipped, flashing a flirtatious smile at him.
"Yeah and I always ended up in trouble with your boss," Graham grumbled, as he flirted with the nanny. It was a hobby he'd taken a particular liking to, much to Riley’s irritation. Graham gave Sam a wink as he turned to reach for the milk. His hand met another hand and judging by the sparks he felt, he knew it had to belong to Willow.
Willow pulled her hand away like she’d been burnt and he looked up into her eyes, noticing how red they looked. He wanted to kick himself because he knew he was responsible for the sad state that her beautiful green eyes were in. What was worse was that she'd heard him flirting with Sam! Graham was about to say good morning to her when she turned her back and walked away from him, effectively erasing his presence from her view.
<Well, I deserved that, didn't I? >
"Aunt Willow are you going to come with us?" Jordan asked hoping that her new aunt would be joining them. "Mom, Sam and Uncle Graham are all coming."
"Sorry sweetheart, but I have to fly back to L.A. today. I have a deal that I have to sign off on."
No one was more shocked than Willow was at her own announcement.
"You can’t leave Aunt Will! You promised you’d do that puppet show with me this afternoon," Hope said, coming to stand in front of Willow.
Willow’s heart ached. Not only was she being dumped but now she was disappointing the children as well. She hated herself so much at this moment. Looking down, Willow stirred her coffee, afraid to look any of them in the eye. She could feel Buffy's eyes burrowing into her back. She placed her coffee on the table and walked over to squat down next to Hope,
"We can still do the puppet show, Hope. I’ll just get a flight tonight," Willow said gently, placing her hand on the little girl’s head and smoothing her hair back.
"Good!"
Graham had felt like someone had punched him in the stomach when he heard Willow say she was leaving. It was his fault that she was going, and he didn’t know how to take back the pain he’d caused her. How the hell was he going to stop her? He'd sat up all night trying to figure out what he was going to do about the situation and all he'd figured out was how much he loved Willow. Graham could no longer imagine his life without her, but he was so afraid that she would leave him again for someone else, just like she’d done with Tara.
"You know what, Jordan? I think I’ll stay here and prepare for our puppet show. I’m not much into skating like the rest of you. Excuse me will you? I have to call the airlines."
With that, Willow put her coffee cup down on the counter and walked out. She needed to get out of there! Between Graham’s flirting with Sam and the look on his face when she announced that she was leaving, it was too much to handle.
She wandered down the hall past the den and found the indoor pool. Taking off her slippers, Willow sat down on the side dangling her feet in the warm water and looked out the glass wall to the large pool area outside.
<Riley, you sure spoiled the girls when you bought this place! >
How had her life become what it was? She was living a life that had her terrified of going out in crowds because of stalkers. Her nephew was dying and there was nothing her name or her money could do to save him and she was always alone because all the men that had entered her life were only there for the fame her name gave them. Russell had been the only one she could have pictured herself spending the rest of her life with, but over time that too had changed. Now the only man she wanted to spend her dying days with wanted nothing to do with her. Placing her head in her hands, Willow sobbed her heart out. Maybe going back to California, and putting some distances between her and Graham was the only thing she could do to help heal her heart and once she stopped crying, she’d call the airlines and book a flight for that night.
_______________________________________________________________________
Graham followed Willow discreetly out of the kitchen. He needed to talk to her. He had no idea what he was going to say but he really needed to be close to her, to hold her in his arms. His heart was aching just as much as hers appeared to be and he'd acted like a spoiled brat last night. If nothing else, he needed to apologise. Kissing strange men was part of her job, whether he liked it or not. It suddenly occurred to him that perhaps that was another reason he never watched her movies.
He watched her walk into the poolroom and followed at a safe distance. She'd been in the room a couple of minutes before he made his way toward her. Graham watched her sitting on the side with her feet dangling in the water and from the shaking of her shoulders he knew she was crying. He was about to rush in and beg her forgiveness when he felt a hand on his arm. Turning, he saw Buffy standing there.
"Let her be Graham. She needs to be alone," Buffy said gently, trying to calm his frazzled nerves. It had been easy to see when he came downstairs this morning that he was an emotional mess. Riley had told her that he'd tried to talk to him last night, but that Graham had asked to be alone.
"I can't stand seeing her like this Buffy! I hate making her cry," he said, leaning his head back against the wall and blinking back the tears in his own eyes.
"When have you made her cry before?" Buffy asked, her suspicions about the night he visited their house rising in the back of her mind.
"The night I asked her to marry me," he said as he turned and walked down the hall, away from Willow.
Buffy stood sputtering after him in shock. He'd asked Willow to marry him? She wanted to run after him, but her feet were glued to the floor. Willow needed her right now and that was more important than getting to the bottom of this new mystery. Was that what had happened the night they'd spoken out in the backyard? Had his proposal been the cause of her tears for weeks afterwards? Had it been responsible for her breaking up with Tara two months later? Suddenly everything made sense. Graham's proposal had been exactly what Willow had needed, but she'd been too stubborn and frightened to admit it to herself or anyone else. Tara had been a mistake, an experiment, while Graham would have been her life. Buffy now understood why she was taking this so hard. Pushing open the glass door she entered the pool area.
"I want to be alone," Willow sniffed, knowing that it was Buffy coming in.
"Too bad, I'm not letting you," Buffy replied, kicking off her own slippers and sitting down beside her friend.
"Why didn't you ever tell me that he asked you to marry him that night?"
"What?" Willow exclaimed, shocked that Buffy knew about the secret Willow had walked around with for 10 years.
"Graham just told me." Buffy said simply as Willow dropped her head onto Buffy's shoulder.
"For the longest time, every time I thought about it, my heart would break just a little more. The only person I ever told was Angel. I told him the night he drove me to the Betty Ford. I knew he'd understand," Willow explained, her tears running freely over her cheeks.
"I would have understood," Buffy said quietly.
"No, you wouldn't have. Maybe Riley would have, I don’t know," Willow shrugged her slim shoulders and turned to face her friend. "You were the one that was left behind twice, once by Angel then by Riley. But I was the one who said no. Even though I knew I was letting the greatest man I'd ever met get away, I'd said no. I couldn't bring myself to admit that I'd been wrong about my relationship with Tara. I loved them both, but I thought that Graham would be the one to hurt me, but in the end it was Tara."
"I'm so sorry."
"And now I'm back at square one with him again. I've hurt him, and he's angry. Now I have a matching set of memories of how I've hurt him. He's better off without me," Willow said sadly. "You’re probably right. I'm bound to cheat on him, you know how Russell and I are."
Willow cried, feeling like her heart had been savagely ripped out of her chest. Why was she always doing this to him, to herself?
"You know you'd never cheat on Graham, Willow. I know you love him too much. I was so stupid and thoughtless to have even implied that last night. I'm so sorry," Buffy cried, throwing her arms around her sobbing friend.
"It doesn't matter anyway. He doesn't care about me. Did you see him flirting with Sam?" Willow said, feeling a little angry. She got up from the side of the pool and slipped her feet back into her slippers.
"If he doesn't care about you, why did I have to chase him away from here? He wanted to talk to you but I asked him to leave you alone, give you some time to think," Buffy said, also rising to her feet.
"Maybe to tell me good riddance!" Willow retorted. "You know, don't let the door hit you on the way out."
"No. He loves you Willow, give him and yourself a break," Buffy said, giving her friend a quick hug before turning to leave.
_______________________________________________________________________
Riley sat by himself in his office, staring out the window. He hadn't been truthful when he'd told the kids and Buffy that he needed to go into the office for a conference call. He'd had a meeting, but it hadn't been work related. He'd just finished meeting with Steve Bishop, the head of the Oncology Department at Boston General Hospital. Steve was one of Riley's golf buddies and a top-notch specialist. Graham had placed the call yesterday afternoon asking Steve to meet with Riley.
Riley wanted to know what he should expect from Evan's illness and what options they would have. Steve had told him that without Evan's case history in front of him, it would be hard to tell him but he'd outlined roughly what to expect. The doctor had explained how the donor testing was done and Riley had expressed concern for his daughters' well being. The procedure was painful and he worried about the girls going through it but nothing out-weighed the agony he would feel if he lost Evan.
A light knocking on his office door interrupted Riley’s thoughts. With the type of work that they did, there were no 9 to 5 hours here, rather the office existed on round the clock shifts.
"Come," he called. Riley heard the door opened and turned around to find the most unlikely person standing there. Willow.
"How did you get here?"
"I took a cab after everyone left. I needed to talk to you when no one else was around so when I heard you had a meeting this morning, I decided to come here. I've been waiting for an hour ago, since that man left. I've just been sitting in the lobby giving you time to wrap up any last minute strings. Can I come in?" Willow knew she was starting to babble. It was a habit she'd broken after she'd appeared on David Letterman and made a fool of herself. Most of America thought she’d been cute but the agency that represented her thought she’d sounded like an idiot. A week later they sent her off to some sort of finishing school for actresses.
" Sorry to keep you waiting, Wills. Of course you can come in," Riley said, getting up from his leather chair and ushering her to the couch in front of his desk.
"Nice place," she said, looking at the pictures of the kids all over the place.
"Very you."
"Thanks, but I know you didn't come here to see my office, so spill."
"I'm lost," she said simply, laying her head in his lap.
Riley knew exactly how she felt. He'd always felt a special kinship with Willow. They were two lost souls trying to navigate the world and now, sitting here with her in his arms, he felt like someone had just thrown him an anchor. Here was someone who needed him, someone that he could help. Riley Finn was not a man who did helplessness well. He could help Willow in her fight for Graham, but he could not fight his son's illness. He was grateful to have something, anything to do.
"It's okay, Will. I'll help you find your way back to Graham, I promise you," he said stroking her back as she cried. He wished he could join her in crying, but one of them in tears was enough right now.
"How?" She asked, sitting up and rubbing at her nose, looking for all the world like one of his girls.
"Let me think about it. Why don’t you let me take you to lunch for now? What time is your flight."
"Nine thirty tonight," she sniffed.
"By the time I'm finished with Graham, he won't let you near that plane. Do you trust me?" Riley asked. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do but he knew it would have to be fast and it would have to be effective.
"I trust you with my life, Riley. Why else do you think I came here?" She said smiling through her tears.
_______________________________________________________________________
The kids, Buffy and Sam were in the kitchen making lunch and Graham was on his way out the door when the phone rang. To be more precise, he was on his way home.
"I'll get it," he yelled from the front hall, hoping that it was Riley. He'd been worried about him but he couldn't wait around forever and he wanted to be out of the house before Willow returned from wherever it was that she had gone.
"Hello? Finn residence."
"Can I speak to Riley, please," asked an unfamiliar male voice.
"I’m sorry, he's not in right now. May I take a message for him?"
Graham was trying desperately to place the voice.
"Graham?"
Then it hit him.
"Xander?" He asked as he finally placed the voice and the young man’s image came to mind.
"Yeah. How are you?"
From the distracted tone of his voice, Graham knew that Xander really wasn't interested in the answer.
"Xander, what's wrong?" He asked immediately.
"We have a bit of a problem here and I need to make sure that Willow's okay," he said hurriedly.
"She's fine, why?"
Whatever it was it concerned Willow, and Graham felt his stomach tighten.
"Last night, her place was broken into and torn apart. I don’t' know if you know, but she's being stalked. The police and Angel are concerned about her safety and, as you can imagine, so am I. The guy destroyed her house. The police aren’t sure how he got past the security system, but he did. He did horrible things to pictures of her, he wrote lovely notes on the walls about what he wanted to do to her in blood. Very Charles Manson. The worst part is what he did to her bed. Graham the cops figured he stabbed her mattress over a 200 times. I thought the letters he sent her were harmless but I'm terrified for her."
Graham tightened his grip around the receiver. How could anyone do this to his Willow?
"Oh my god! The police think he would have attacked her if she'd been home," Graham said flatly as he swallowed down the bile that had risen in the back of his throat.
"Exactly," Xander said, glad that the ex-commando was on the same page as the rest of them.
"God!" He needed to sit down. Willow could have died last night, if she hadn't been with them here in Boston and now because of him, she wanted to go home.
"We need you to keep her there in Boston. Roger, her agent and Angel are having a top of the line security system installed as we speak and the cops are hoping they can find some clue as to who this sick bastard is."
Graham was only half listening to Xander, instead picturing Willow lying in a pool of her own blood, covered in stab wounds. He thought was going to be sick, so he kept taking deep breaths to steady himself.
"I know how you feel. I puked when I heard."
Graham was grateful that Xander understood how he felt.
"I'll do whatever I can. I'll tell Riley and Buffy but who's going to tell Willow?" Graham asked tentatively.
"One of you guys I guess, but we don't want her rushing home. Make sure she's with one of you every minute of the day. The police aren’t sure if this psycho knows where Willow's gone."
<Oh my God! Where is she now? >
"Look Xander, call us if you hear anything else. Don't worry about Willow. She's safe here."
"Thanks, Graham. I’ll talk to you soon," Xander said and hung up the phone.
"What's that about Willow being safe here?" Buffy asked coming up behind Graham and making him jump.
"Don't ever sneak up on me!" He exploded at Buffy, forcing her take a step back. Seeing the anger and fear in his eyes, she knew something was up in L.A. regarding Willow.
"Why is she safer here, Graham?" Buffy grabbed hold of his arms and gave them a strong yank. Graham winced. Even without her slayer powers, Buffy was still very strong.
"Her stalker vandalised her house last night. Xander says he tore the place apart and stabbed her mattress over 200 times. The cops and Angel are looking into it right now."
Seeing Buffy pale and stagger, Graham guided her to the stairs and sat down with her.
"Oh my god!"
"My words exactly," he said, holding her shaky hand in his own shaky hand.
Just then the front door came flying open.
"Graham help!" Riley screamed, carrying a lifeless Willow in his arms.
"Willow!"
Both Buffy and Graham yelled rushing to the red-head’s side.