Title: Acting The Part Author: Pattyanne snapkik@yahoo.com Disclaimer: None of the BtVS characters belong to me. Feedback: Love some, thanks. Rating: Up to NC-17 Summary: AU. William St. James is an actor in a hit television show. While appearing at a fan convention, he meets Buffy and her six year old daughter, Melanie. Part six... Buffy nearly dropped the phone. "She didn't!" "Oh, but she did." Miss Ashton sounded highly amused by the whole incident, an emotion Buffy desperately wished she could take part in. "Very casually, too." Groping around the corner for the small dishtowel she kept hung on the over door, Buffy wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Well...I'll...I'll talk to her and...see if I can...uh...you know..." Buffy stammered, feeling like a fool. "Just...I'll take care of it, Miss Ashton. I...thanks for calling." She took a deep breath and went back into the kitchen. Melanie was still sitting at the table, but she had put down her crayon and folded her arms in front of her. Her chin rested on the back of her hand as she watched her mother dump spaghetti into a colander and place the boiling pot back on the stove. "That was Miss Ashton," she announced, then turned to face her daughter. "Melanie...why in the world did you tell the class that William St. James is going to be your daddy?" No point in beating around the bush. Melanie shrugged and stared at the paper in front of her. "Be- cause." Buffy waited, but there was nothing further forthcoming at the moment. She was afraid that this was going to be one of those times where she would have to pry the answers out of her daughter with a crow bar. "But you know that's not true." Melanie's eyes darted towards the kitchen. "Is dinner ready, Mommy?" "Don't change the subject, Melanie Anne," Buffy replied sternly. "But I'm hungry." "Melanie!" "But I am, Mommy." Frustrated, feeling like a rotten mother, Buffy grabbed two plates out of the cupboard and placed a portion of pasta and sauce on each one. She set them on the table, then poured two glasses of milk. "All right," she said briskly, handing Melanie a fork and a napkin. "Let's eat...and we'll talk." She allowed the child a head start, then said, "Melanie...tell me why you said it." The six year old looked up at her mother with wide eyes. "Are you mad at me, Mommy?" she asked, her lower lip trembling. Buffy knew this wasn't a stall tactic on Melanie's part. Some kids were masters at the "work up a few tears and you'll be off the hook" game, but Melanie wasn't wired that way. She honestly didn't have a deceitful bone in her body. That's what made this lie she had spoken so truly difficult to understand. Her daughter was as imaginative as the next child, but she knew the difference between 'real' and 'pretend'. "I'm not mad at you, baby," she assured the little girl, pushing her curls back from her face. "Just tell me what would make you say something like that." Melanie twirled her fork around in her spaghetti, but didn't lift it to her mouth. "I dreamed," she said quietly. Buffy almost wanted to lay her head down and cry. This wouldn't be happening if Melanie had any kind of a decent father in the first place, one who loved her and put her first, ahead of everything else in his life. Even if he was no longer HER husband...he was still a father. But Angel had never really wanted to be a father in the first place, so she'd had no right to be surprised when he'd turned out to be a poor one. ******************************************************************** Buffy had been thrilled and excited when she'd discovered that she was pregnant. To her, it was the next logical progression in life. Love, marriage, and children. Simple and basic. Angel, however, had been appalled. He had just started working for Wolfram and Hart, one of the more prestigious law firms in California. His ambitions were heady. He wanted to be made junior partner within the next couple of years, then slowly progress up the ladder as high as it would take him. He had political ambitions as well, which Buffy knew would amount to nothing in the end. He was simply too easily led astray by a pretty face, and would never be able to maintain the illusion of a strong, family oriented man, a man voters could have confidence in. After bringing the baby home from the hospital, it hadn't taken long before Buffy knew that her marriage was not going to last. She'd adored her newborn, and loved nothing more than caring for her. Which turned out to be a blessing, because Angel couldn't be counted on for any- thing. He'd proved that the first time she'd asked him to bring their crying baby from her bassinet to be nursed, figuring that Melanie should be nurtured by both her parents. He had jerked away from her hand with a grunt, telling her that he had to be up early for court the next day, and it wasn't like there was anything HE could do for the baby anyway, so what was the point of them both being up? Buffy had stared at his back in disbelief before dragging her still sore body out of bed and scooping up the baby herself. She took her into the living room and nursed her in the antique rocking chair her mother had given her, silent tears slipping down her cheeks and falling onto the knitted pink blanket she'd wrapped Melanie in. Of course he had apologized the next day, and she had forgiven him and tried to get on with things...but she'd never really forgotten. His indifference towards the baby wasn't malicious or mean...it was simply that he had no time for anything but his own goals. He worked, or so he had told her, long hours; sometimes well into the night. Days went by when she and Melanie barely saw him. He rarely returned phone calls or replied to messages she left. Buffy was, for all intents and purposes, a single parent long before it was made official by the courts. She'd led a protected life, sheltered by her parents; she'd married young and then became a mother herself before her marriage had time to solidify. But, sometime during the months of loneliness she had been subjected to by Angel's unswerving ambitions, she had learned to cope. She was the only stable influence in her child's immediate world, and she had to grow up and step into that role fully. Gradually, she had begun to pull away from Angel. The independence she'd been forced to learn took root inside of her and began to grow, and it wasn't a terribly long time before she knew that she no longer needed him. She could do it on her own if she had to....and she did. Still, she put off doing anything permanent, perhaps hoping that he would somehow realize what he was missing and would straighten up and be the husband and father that he was in fact as well as theory. She gave him chance after chance, and he would make half hearted attempts, but nothing lasted. It wasn't until he missed his daughter's third birthday party that Buffy finally decided to put an end to the farcical playacting they were doing. He had called her mid-afternoon, promising to be home on time for the small gathering that Buffy had put together. She had given him detailed instructions to swing by the Toys-R-Us and pick up the tricycle that she had already chosen and left there to be assembled. There were several other gifts in the trunk of his car, gifts she had left there so Melanie could see her Daddy coming in the door with them in his arms. Five o'clock, the designated time for the little party, came and went. Five thirty...five forty-five...five-fifty...passed by on the clock. At six, Buffy called his office and was told he'd left for the day nearly four hours ago. She tried his cell phone, but only got a connection to his voice mail. She called two or three of his colleagues at the firm, and was told that they hadn't seen him for most of the day. She had no trouble divining the lies she was being fed. Putting her mother in charge of the guests, she had jumped into her car and sped downtown to the toy store. The trike was still there. Angel had never showed up for it. Buffy raced through the store, throwing items into a cart. She'd handed the cashier her credit card, then called home and explained what had happened to her mother. The small party had been as successful as it could be, all things considered. Buffy had spent the evening after everyone had left plotting her next move. She had rehearsed everything she planned to say to Angel when he showed up, but he hadn't come home at all that night. The next day, Buffy had retained a lawyer and began the painful process of ending her marriage. ******************************************************************* "You dreamed?" Buffy repeated. "You had a dream that William St. James was your real daddy?" Melanie shook her head, making her curls bounce. "No. My NEW daddy," she clarified, still playing with her fork. "He came to our house and said he was taking us home to be with him. He said that he loved us most of all, and we were supposed to be together." It was so simple in her eyes, Buffy realized. She saw her situation as a mistake, a cosmic glitch. Someone, somewhere, had screwed up and had assigned her the wrong father. An easily fixed problem. All she needed to do was find the right one. And, according to her dream, she had done just that. "Melanie," Buffy said reasonably, "you already have a daddy." "That's okay," the little girl said promptly. "Alicia has two daddies. So does Brooke, and Samantha, and Jacey, and...." Buffy held up one hand to cut off the flow of names assigned to Melanie's class mates from broken homes. "But, honey...you...I mean we...we don't even really know him that well. Those other little girls mommies married the new daddies because they fell in love with them." "You can fall in love with him...can't you?" Looking down into the child's guileless eyes, Buffy wasn't sure how to answer the question. She had a sneaking suspicion that it would be amazingly easy to fall in love with William St. James...what was not to love? He was handsome and sexy, good natured and friendly, and he seemed to like children. He certainly had liked Melanie. Actually, the man seemed....perfect. Which meant there had to be something wrong with him. "Look," she forged on, still trying for 'reasonable', "you can't go around telling people that he's going to be your daddy, no matter what you dream about. It's pretty unlikely that we're ever going to see him again, except for Wednesday nights on channel....." The phone rang suddenly, startling them both. Buffy swallowed hard, wiping her damp palms on the seat of her jeans as she stood up. Melanie was watching her, still fiddling with her spaghetti. It wasn't....it couldn't be....it was way too big a coincidence... "It's probably Anya or Willow," she said firmly, picking the names of her employees out of the air. "Maybe...maybe something's wrong at the shop." Melanie said nothing. Carefully laying down her fork, she took a sip from her milk glass. Buffy cleared her throat and picked up the phone. "Hello?" "Buffy? It's William. William St. James. Remember me?" She turned around and stared at her daughter, who couldn't have looked more innocent. "Of course I remember you. How have you been?" "Busy. I'm sorry I couldn't call sooner. I wanted to, but I got stuck doing re-shoots, and it was a big mess...so...yeah." "I..I understand." She covered the phone with her hand and mouthed "Eat your dinner" at Melanie. "How've you and Melanie been?" "Oh....fine. Just fine. Really...fine." Closing her eyes tight, she wanted to scream at how stupid she sounded. "Would you like to talk to her?" "I'd love to." Silently, Buffy held out the phone and waited. And another miracle was performed by the miracle guy. Usually, she had to chase Melanie through the house to get her to talk on the phone to anyone but her grandmother. But all William St. James had to do was call and she was jumping to her feet to take the receiver. "Hello...Oh, hi....Yes....Fine....Uh-huh....Me, too....I had a spelling test today....I don't know....Sometimes....Did you like it?....No....Because....Uh-huh....I'll ask...." She looked at Buffy. "He wants to know if he can take us to where they make the show sometime. Can we, Mommy?" Buffy leaned against the wall. "We'll see." "She said maybe....Okay....I did too....I drew a picture for you..Uh- huh...I will....Bye." She handed the phone back to her mother and went to finish her milk. "Hi..." "Is everything all right?" he asked. "Yeah....I told you. We're just..." "Fine, I know. You don't sound terribly fine, luv. You sure nothing's wrong?" Nothing she was ready to discuss with him! "I'm just tired. Busy day today," she said, falling back on the standard excuse. He didn't sound convinced, but he let the matter drop. "Well, I was wondering...I don't have to work tomorrow. Any chance I could talk you and Melanie into going out with me? I know a place where they serve great peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." Buffy was too caught off guard to offer up any kind of excuse. "Sure," she heard herself saying. "We'd love to." "Great," he replied casually. "What's your address?" She could tell he was writing it down by the way he repeated it after her. After promising to be there at exactly 6:00, he instructed her to say goodnight again to Melanie for him. Then, his voice dropped just a little into a deeper tone. "Do you remember the last thing I said to you the other night?" Like she could forget a comment like that. "Yes," she half-whispered. "I haven't been able to get the thought of kissing you out of my mind," he said. "Do you think I have a chance?" Listening to the husky quality of his voice as he spoke, and feeling the slow tightening of her abdominal muscles in response to it, Buffy would have called it more of a lead pipe cinch, than a mere chance. But she couldn't very well say something like that. "I don't know. Maybe. Probably," she finally admitted. William laughed softly. "Tease," he whispered. "You're driving me crazy." Buffy could relate. "I'll see you tomorrow, luv." "Goodnight." She hung the phone up, then turned to see her daughter looking at her quite seriously. "Did you fall in love with him, Mommy?" "Of course not," Buffy scoffed. "How come your cheeks are all red?" Buffy spun around and headed for the kitchen, muttering something under her breath about boiling water and steam. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ She never managed to return to the subject of Melanie's indiscreet remark at school. By the time she got the dinner dishes loaded into the dishwasher, supervised Melanie's bath and dried her hair, then read her two chapter of 'Charlotte's Web', she was too tired to discuss it anymore. After a hot shower, she fired up her computer and entered her days business transactions. She finished a letter to her mother, and deleted a staggering amount of junk she'd neither asked for nor wanted. When she had her finger poised to click on sign off, she stopped and decided to check the archive for a new story she could add to the little booklet she was putting together for Melanie. She found two and printed them, then her attention once again wandered to the adult fiction. An hour later, she signed off and climbed wearily into bed, ready to sleep. ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** "Captain Amara! Captain! We're receiving another distress call from the Kaylenans," Buffy called. "How do you wish to respond?" Rising from his command chair, the handsome blond starship captain made for his private conference room. "Come in and we'll discuss it, Ensign. Buffy jumped to her feet, tugging down the back of her very short skirt. She closed the door behind her, then turned to see her commander sitting at the far end of his conference table. "Something wrong, Ensign?" he asked, one brow arching in amusement. "Well, sir...now that you mention it, I've been wondering...why am I the only female personnel on the ship who has to wear a miniskirt?" His startling blue eyes skimmed slowly over her body. "Because, you're the only female personnel with the fantastic legs that it would be a crime against nature to cover up." "Oh. I see. Now, about that distress call? How did you..." He waved one hand at her, then tilted his chair back and propped his feet up on the table. "Not now. You've heard one distress call, you've heard 'em all. They can wait." "Huh?" Buffy was confused. "But, sir, they may be in serious trouble. They said something about an enemy ship hovering just out of the atmosphere." The captain leaned over and pushed the intercom. "Bridge. Lock on target the Praetorian vessel in range of Kayle Prime...then remove them from my sky!" "Aye, sir!" the second in commands voice responded. The view screen flickered on just in time to watch the enemy ship disintegrate. "Thank you, Commander," the captain said, "Now...see that I'm not disturbed for the rest of the evening." He signed off, then turned to Buffy. "If I'm not mistaken," he said, leaning back and eying her body up and down, "you have family of Kayle Prime...don't you, En- sign?" "Yes, sir," she nodded. "My parents live there." "Well, then....I suppose you should be especially grateful to me for dealing with the invasion problem so...expediently," he purred. "Oh, I am grateful, sir. I wish I could tell you how much." "Perhaps you could show me." "How, sir?" "Take off your uniform...very nice....I don't think such naughty under- garments are regulation," he said, teasingly. "Maybe, you'll have to report me," Buffy replied, shaking her hair out of her eyes. "Well," he said slowly, indicating that she should get closer. "Maybe you'd just better take them off." Buffy slipped the silk lingerie off slowly, enticingly...she hoped. "Lovely, Ensign," the captain murmured. "Tell me....do you ever touch yourself?" "Sir?" "Do, you Ensign?" "I...well, I...doesn't everybody?" Her entire body felt flushed. "Lying in your bunk at night...when you touch yourself....do you think of me?" he whispered, reaching for her hand and pulling her down to his lap. "Yes," she admitted. "Only me?" "Yes." "Good." He spread her legs apart until she was straddling his lap, pressing her down against the sizable bulge beneath the tight uniform pants he wore. "Know what that is?" "Uh-huh." "Tell me," he whispered, nuzzling her ear. "It's....it's your....you know...oh, my..." Her voice was fading in and out as he licked and nibbled at her earlobe. "It's my cock," he groaned into her ear. "Hard...for you, Ensign. The second I see you sashaying around in that little skirt...it gets hard so fast it's almost painful." "Really?" she asked breathlessly. "Oh, yeah, luv....hard as steel. Can you help me with the problem?" "All right!" She reached down and yanked his uniform shirt off over his head, then unzipped the fly of his pants and reached in. Her fingers wrapped tightly around his erect organ, stroking it up and down, hard and fast. "Come on, luv," he begged. "Sit down on it. Ride it. Ride it hard." Happy to oblige, she lifted herself and placed him where he wanted most to be, then lowered her hips. grinding down on him. "Captain....Captain....oh, my....you're so....so big...." "Biggest in three galaxies," he said, pumping his hips up and down. "You like it?" "Yes, Captain." "You want it harder?" "Yes, Captain." "Hang on then!" Wrapping his arms around her waist, he rose to his feet and laid her down on the conference table. He kept her at the very edge, draping her legs over his shoulders as he continued to thrust rapidly in and out of her. Buffy turned her head and gazed out the window, transfixed by the beauty of the velvet sky with it's spattering of diamond like stars. She lay beneath her commanding officer, taking all he had to give, want- ing more...and more...and more.... "Christ, Ensign," he grunted. "You're so fucking hot...so tight...and juicy. I've never been in a tighter pussy before. Oh, fuck....it's like a wet satin glove is just...uh!...just squeezing my cock...uh...oh, yeah...do it baby...tighten it up for me...yeah, that's it...that's my good little girl." It felt as though electricity was being poured into her body by him, stimulating all her nerve endings and muscles to vibrant life. Her legs wrapped themselves around his waist as he worked over her. "You're the best, baby," he muttered, leaning down to kiss her hard on the mouth. "Better even than those Vendorian triplets...or the Doge's number two wife back on Saturnian Five...or that receptionist back at Command Headquarters...or the...." "Enough!" Buffy said, digging her nails into his biceps. "Oh, baby," he shouted, beginning to ram in and out even harder. "Do it....fuck me good....come on....ahhhhhh....uh! oh, yeah! Fuck.....yeah!" His orgasm triggered hers, making her come on a wave of pure pleasure. It was perfect and wonderful, and she wanted it to last forever. Unfortunately...... "Captain!" the intercom blared. "We need you on the bridge, sir! Now, sir!" "Sorry, babe," he said, leaning down to kiss her. "Love to bask in the afterglow and all, but....duty calls." "Yes, Captain. I know all about duty." ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** ***** The alarm blared, nearly making Buffy hit the ceiling! Instead of laying there for a few minutes and waking up slowly, she jumped out of bed and headed for the shower....a very cold shower. This promised to be a long...long...day. TBC.....