2: Makin' Teamwork Look Hard

Boulder, Colorado
May 5th 2006, 12:59 AM

"Behind you!"

Will turned and had to immediately duck as the spirit made a grab for her. She stood up to see that once again, the damn thing had vanished before she had a chance to shoot at it. She groaned in frustration and turned to face Riley.

"Crap! Riley, duck!"

Riley immediately dropped, the bullet fired from Will's gun skimming the end of her ponytail that had momentarily risen as she hurtled down towards the ground. She cursed as she glared up at her blonde counterpart, who just shrugged, grinned and helped her up off the floor. Silently, they returned to trying to locate the grave of said spirit. It was Will who finally found it, just not in the most elegant of manners. Riley had asked her something, and she'd turned to answer, stepping backwards and tripping over a tiny headstone that was almost completely hidden from sight. She'd crashed to the floor with a small yell. Riley had quickly turned to see what was wrong, and had found herself bursting out laughing as she saw the other hunter lying on the floor, glaring up at the sky and mumbling faint curses softly under her breath. Will had heard the laugh and turned her head slowly to continue glaring at the other woman.

"Yeah, you can laugh missy, but thanks to me falling, we've actually found the damn grave, so get over here and do something useful." Will called out.

Still chuckling, Riley moved over and crouched in front of the grave, reading the almost invisible writing and discovering that yes, it most definitely was the right one. Will gave Riley a disbelieving look before picking herself up off the ground and standing next to the grave. She nudged Riley, who overbalanced and found herself sitting down on the wet ground.

"What the hell? Now my ass is all wet you bitch!"

"Yeah, well next time your best friend is lying on the floor, give her a hand, huh?" Will responded.

She grinned at Riley to show that there were no hard feelings, and Riley sighed slightly in defeat before managing to half-smile back. Will turned back to the grave and frowned as she picked up a shovel. Now came the fun part. The pair of them spent the next two hours digging, and just when Riley thought her back was about to snap in half, she heard something actually crunch underneath her. She grinned triumphantly and Will rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"C'mon, let's just get this over with already" she moaned

"Yeah yeah, hold your horses" Riley grumbled back.

Will just shrugged nonchalantly and started to collect their stuff from the bottom of the grave. She threw them back up to Riley before preparing herself to jump. Riley looked down and grinned again.

"You sure you'll be able to reach there, shorty?"

Will growled, suppressing the urge to reach for her salt gun, quickly deciding against it. She took a small jump and grabbed the edge of the hole, pulling herself out of it. Riley had stopped grinning at that point, but just by the expression on her face, Will knew that inside she was still laughing. Without saying anything, she punched the taller woman in the arm. They were quick to salt and burn the bones, both of them surprised that the spirit hadn't returned to stop them. Riley guessed that maybe he actually wanted to move on, but hadn't known how to express himself. Will didn't say anything, just grabbing the bag and moving back to the car. Something she always did after every hunt. She never stopped to discuss a hunt, just did the job and moved on, like she'd always been taught to do. Riley didn't know this though, and on more than one occasion felt frustrated by her friend's lack of emotion when on hunts.

Will threw the bag in the back of the car, and gave Riley a look that clearly told the younger hunter to get her butt in gear and move. Riley shook her head in amusement, but moved anyway, not wanting to get on Will's bad side. She knew the woman had a temper on her, and wasn't about to risk her life over something as trivial as getting in a car, even if said car was virtually the other hunter's whole world and contained almost everything she possessed.

They returned to the shoddy motel they were booked into, but at that moment, neither hunter cared about the state of their beds, just that there was a bed for each of them to collapse onto; which is exactly what they did. Riley was the first to get into her bed and almost as soon as her head hit the pillows, she was in a deep sleep. Will shook her head in amazement, before moving into the shower. Once she was done, she spent a few more minutes getting ready and setting up the barriers of salt lines before sliding into her bed. For a while, she stared up at the ceiling, wishing sleep to claim her, but as with every other night of her life, an hour later, she was still wide awake even though she was so exhausted and desperate to the point of crying to be able to sleep. After a few more minutes, she gave up on sleep and dragged herself back out of bed. She pulled her laptop out of her bag and moved into the bathroom so that she could turn the light on without waking her partner up in the process. She opened it, and was extremely surprised to find that for once, they'd actually managed to get into a room that had working internet access. She punched the air in triumph before logging on and checking her emails. She only had two, one from Bobby 'No surprises there' she thought to herself. The other one though, did surprise her immensely. She opened it and grinned as she read it.

From: Samantha
To: Willow

Hey Will,

I just wanted to make sure that everything's alright with you. I hear you dropped out of college too. I'm back with my brother again, and things between us are pretty much back to normal, although I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad thing to be honest. Anyway, let me know that you're ok and hopefully I'll see you soon.

Love Sam

Will smiled, holding back a few tears that rose from missing her old friend greatly. She checked her email from Bobby, not surprised in the least to see that he was just checking that his 'two favourite girls' were doing okay. She chuckled and replied to let him know that they were fine. Afterwards, she played a few games of solitaire before finally deciding that her mind had shut down enough for her to sleep. She dragged herself to bed and collapsed on it, drifting off into a heavy sleep a few minutes later.

The next morning, Riley woke bright and early at six o'clock, which was normal for her. She showered, dressed and shuffled around for over an hour as she readied herself for the day ahead, and laughed as she looked back and found that the blonde hunter hadn't even stirred. Looking around the room and seeing the salt lines, the laptop that hadn't been closed properly, the bag lying open and the hunter that was still dressed, told Riley that Will had yet another bad night's sleep. Will was one of these people that while she was asleep, a bomb could go off and she wouldn't notice, but then after a while, her senses would come back on high alert. When she had a good night's sleep, the slightest noise after about five would wake her up. On a bad night, she'd still be in the state of virtual comatose up until about ten, before finally waking long enough to realise that she'd almost missed the whole morning and was running late.

Will woke up to the smell of coffee that had filled the room. She scrunched her nose up and sat up, frowning at the offensive cup that was the source of the smell. Riley sent her a sly smile and blew some of the steam in her direction, making her frown turn into a glare. Will groaned and dragged herself out of bed, blearily stumbling over to the second cup on the table that contained her cinnamon hot chocolate. She took a sip and closed her eyes as she revelled in the sweet chocolaty taste, and it was now Riley's turn to scrunch her nose up, unable to understand how anyone could stand drinking something so sickly sweet within minutes of waking. Will smirked and moved over to her bag, rummaging through it and grabbing a clean set of clothes and throwing them on. Then, she rushed to brush her hair and teeth, collected her things together and put them in the car. As usual, Riley was amazed at how she took nearly an hour to get ready in the mornings, whereas Will was more of the get up and go type, always ready to go within minutes of taking that first sip of hot chocolate. Once, just to try and find if it was the chocolate that gave the blonde her energy, Riley'd had the same drink one morning, but regretted it as she spent the rest of the day feeling incredibly sick. That instantly ruled out the hot chocolate, and led her with the decision that it was just how Will functioned, as crazy and strange as that was.

As they got into the car, Riley turned to face Will.

"So, were are we heading?"

Will turned to grin at her, and instantly, Riley had a feeling that she was either going to love or hate what the response was.

"Well, firstly I was thinking of staying in Colorado for a few more days, take a break, maybe go on a few horse rides up the mountains or something?"

Riley froze at that and turned to Will, a look of slight panic on her face.

"Horses? As in real live horses?"

"Well, I didn't exactly mean unicorns. Horses. Yes, H-O-R-S-E-S."

Riley gulped slightly. She wasn't scared of horses; it was just that she'd never actually ridden them before. The thought that her first time on a horse would be while she was on a mountain that could be extremely dangerous wasn't exactly reassuring her, and while on the outside she agreed to take the break, on the inside she was panicking ever so slightly. Will could see how nervous she was and gently patted her leg.

"I'll be with you the whole time. I promise, nothing will happen to you"

After booking into a half decent motel for once and spent the rest of the day relaxing, they went to bed early. The following day, the pair of them drove up to a riding stables, and before long, they were off up the mountain with a tour guide to accompany them. Riley actually found herself relaxing and enjoying the ride and it helped that the horse she was riding was very even tempered and happy to just walk, even when Will's horse suddenly decided that it wanted to go for a bit of a canter. That took Will by surprise, but only for a second as within a few seconds, the horse was calm again. Riley fell behind a little bit, but was content to do so, enjoying the scenery around her and glad for once that they were doing something purely for themselves. It was a little selfish to be having a break knowing that there was probably a hunt out there, but at that moment, all that was on Riley's mind was the happiness she felt at having a break.

The happiness didn't last too long though. Out of nowhere, a small animal jumped out from behind a bush, causing the horse she was on to panic. She grasped hold of the reins as hard as she could, and the horse bolted forward, galloping past the guide and Will. Riley let out a terrified scream, and Will was quick to go speeding after her. She caught up relatively easily and leant over to grasp one of the horse's reins. When she missed, she shouted to Riley to move her foot out of the stirrup and as she did, she swung her own foot into it and moved so that she was now sitting in the saddle in front of Riley. Riley looked at her in shock, wondering how the hell she was able to do that. Will's face was set solidly and she gazed seriously at the road in front of them, seeing that a drop was approaching them, fast. She pulled on the reins and the horse slowed down, eventually stopping with a jolt just before the drop. Riley quickly scrambled off the back of the horse and Will went to follow when the horse suddenly bucked, knocking Will over. She felt herself go back, and threw her arm out to stop it, screaming in a panic when she didn't feel any ground there.

The guide arrived at that minute and both he and Riley watched in fear as Will dropped from view down the drop. Riley ran forward, her heart in her mouth as she looked over the ledge, expecting the worst as the guide radioed for help.

Fortunately though, the drop wasn't as big as it looked. However it was big enough that Will was lying on the ground trying to get her breath back, her arm curled underneath her and blood from a cut on her forehead steadily dripping down her face. Her eyes were scrunched closed in pain, and each breath she took felt like fire was flowing through her body. Shakily, she managed to sit up and immediately felt an agonising pain in her arm that made her cry out.

"Will! Are you okay?" Riley called down.

Will looked up and grinned, although it came out as more of a grimace.

"Well, you know I promised that I wouldn't let you get hurt?"

Riley nodded, and inside, she couldn't have been more grateful for what her friend had just done for her. Will continued.

"Well, I definitely kept that promise. The only problem though is this…"

She carefully pulled her shirt sleeve back and hissed. Riley went pale, then green and disappeared for a few seconds. Will winced as she heard the sounds of the other hunter vomiting, and couldn't help but pity her. Riley never was very good with gory things, even though she faced them most days. She had to admit though, the sight of seeing a bone sticking out of her arm did make her feel slightly light headed, and the cut on her head wasn't helping the situation. She sat down heavily, only nodding to the tour guide when he told her that there was an air ambulance on its way.

Later that day at the hospital, Will felt her phone vibrate but didn't answer it. She knew it was Bobby, but she'd only been out of theatre for a while and at that moment, she just wanted to sleep. She glared at the cast on her arm before sighing and turning her head to one side, not bothering to wipe away the single tear that rolled down her cheek as she fell into an uneasy sleep.

Author's Notes

LP: Hey! We figured it was time for an update and since we were together, it seemed like a good time to do this. Kudos for this chapter goes completely to Kerryyuy, who thought up the ideas and wrote it. You'll soon learn the differences between our writing styles! Anyway, I threw some ideas here and there and Keryyuy did all the hard work. Hope you enjoy it!

KY: What she said! ^.^ Just 'cos I'm too drained from writing to say anything more. Enjoy!