Willow straightened a pile of papers on her desk and turned off an overhead projector. "That should be it for today. A domani!" she said, and the students immediately dispersed. A tall and slender woman advanced toward her.
"Good job, Ms. Rosenberg. You're Italian is a little rough, but you'd never know you've only lived here for...how long?"
Willow blushed. "About three months. I'm a quick learner."
"I see." There was a moment of silence as the woman stared at Willow.
Willow cleared her throat then said, "I'm sorry. I'm not sure who you are."
"Oh, I must have forgotten my manners. I'm Dr. Canzona. I'm your, er, what do they call?--oh, yes, faculty supervisor. I'll observe you in the classroom, be a liasion between you and the board, and answer any questions you might have." Willow looked at the woman. At first glance, she looked stern. Her dark, curly hair was bound into a tight bun at the back of her head. Red glasses sat on the bridge of her nose. But when looked at more closely, there was a lightness in her gray eyes and the corners of her mouth were slightly upturned. Willow shifted uncomfortably.
"You've got your doctorate already? You seem fairly young." Willow felt stupid after she said that, but it was too late to take it back. The doctor laughed.
"I am, I suppose. I was very driven. I saw no purpose in wasting time. And, well, here I am." She smiled and Willow's heart jumped. It was unsettling.
"Well, Ms. Rosenberg, I have other things to attend to. I'll see you at your next class." She walked out of the room and Willow watched her in a daze. She shook her head and all thoughts of the mysterious woman, and went back to gathering her things.
Willow unlocked the door to her apartment. She set her bags down and sighed deeply. She closed the door, then leaned against the door and closed her eyes.
"Hey, there!" Willow jumped as she saw Kennedy standing before her. She smiled weakly.
"Oh. Hey." Kennedy kissed her on the cheek.
"You look flushed. Are you feeling okay?" Kennedy reached out to feel her forehead, but Willow pushed her hand away.
"I'm fine. Just tired, is all." She began to walk over to the kitchen area of the apartment.
"Oh. Okay. So, how was school? Did you learn stuff?" Kennedy asked brightly, following her.
"Well, not really, since today was a teaching day, and all." Willow opened their small refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of water.
"Right. I forgot. Well, what do you want to do tonight? I thought maybe we could go get something to eat." Willow took a large drink of water.
"Well, I'd really love to do that, but I have some texts that Giles needed me to help him translate. So..." She took another drink of water as she waited for Kennedy's response.
"I see. Well, maybe I'll just go out then. ...What would you think about that?" Kennedy looked slightly disconcerted.
"If you want to, you can. You know I don't mind." She smiled and pecked Kennedy on the cheek before walking over to her laptop and turning it on.
Kennedy sighed deeply. "Fine. I'll see you later." She turned and opened the door. "Don't wait up, Willow." She grabbed her purse, then left.
Willow looked at the door and began to feel apprehensive. She wasn't sure just what exactly she was feeling right now. She still loved Kennedy, but she wasn't quite sure if she was still in love with her. The things about her that had once made Willow smile now annoyed her. Perhaps it was being in such close quarters with her all the time. Maybe they shouldn't have moved in together so soon. But now, Willow found herself spending as much time as she could anywhere but at her home, mainly at school or helping Giles when he needed it.
Right. The translating, Willow thought. She reached inside her bag and pulled out an old book. She began entering the text into the new program she designed that helped her to crossreference ancient texts with modern languages to find common patterns and therefore translate easier and faster. It was tedious and boring work at times, but one Willow also enjoyed.
Willow had only been teaching for about a month. She was in a symbology class when one of her professors asked her to teach. She had been quite surprised at his request, but had risen to the challenge since, though she hadn't told anyone, had already learned the entire textbook. The next day, she had been asked to take over a class that had been abandoned by another professor, and, well, the rest was history.
The fact that there was a professor in her classroom that afternoon had been quite a surprise. Quite a surprise, indeed. More shocking than the fact that the faculty had actually remembered that she was teaching this course, though, was the woman herself.
Willow couldn't shake the image of the doctor. Her dark and striking features seemed to replace all of the drawings of demons in the scroll. Willow taught again tomorrow and she could hardly wait to see the woman again.
No. I can wait. I'm full of waitingness, Willow thought. She sighed for what seemed like the thousandth time that day. I'm not even making any sense. The fact that she was having so many thoughts about a woman besides her girlfriend made her feel sick and guilty, even though she hadn't done anything. It wasn't that she didn't like Kennedy. She cared deeply for her. But... Willow firmly decided not to think about it for the rest of the night and devoted herself to the translations.
A few hours later, the phone rang. "Hello?" Willow answered softly. She felt somewhat disoriented.
"Willow? Are you all right?" The rich voice was filled with concern, and Willow could imagine the man's expression.
"Yes, Giles. I'm fine. What did you need?"
"The text I gave you. Have you looked over it yet?"
"I've spent the last three hours or so entering the text. I'm almost done."
"Good. Well, the scroll I gave you, it's only part of the entire, er, book. I have the other half. I just finished translating it about an hour or so myself. I hit a rather confusing, er, bump in the road, if you will. Would you mind calling me as soon as you get finished?"
"No problem, Giles." She hung up and returned to the last few paragraphs of the scroll. A few minutes later, she entered the code in her program that allowed it to begin searching for the language it was most closely related to. The laptop emitted a small beep.
Italian. Go figure, Willow thought. She clicked the translate button and the computer began it's work. First, it would completely translate all known words to Italian. Whichever words didn't match were seperated for Willow herself to de-code, then re-enter into the text. Then, the computer finished translating it into English. It had taken her a few months to develop the software and many frustrating nights spent gazing at the screen and pouring over manuals, but the finished product made it all worth it.
Willow waited for the next beep, signaling her part in figuring out the unknown words, but it never came. Finally, the English sat before her. "Huh!" she said to herself. She picked up the phone and called Giles.
"Read it to me, if you will."
"All of it?"
"Yes, Willow. It's necessary, I'm afraid."
"All right. But only for you, buddy." Willow felt slightly uneasy when Giles didn't laugh. "Wow. Must be important. All right, then." She took a deep breath and began to read the pages to Giles. About fifteen minutes later, she finished.
"Oh, dear. It's just as I thought. Would you mind joining me here, Willow? I'm afraid I'll need your help quite desperately."
"Of course. I'll be there in about thirty minutes." She hung up the phone and rubbed her eyes. She blinked away the bluriness that appeared before her and stood up slowly. She walked into the kitchen and poured herself a cold cup of coffee from the pot she had made earlier that morning. She began to drink it as she reached into the cabinet to grab a granola bar. She ate and drank quickly, then grabbed her wallet and coat and set out the door.
The nippy air bit at her arms as she hailed a cab. She hopped inside, thankful for the somewhat warm interior of the taxi. She leaned her head back against the seat as she began the journey to Slayer Central, as the Scooby Gang had dubbed it. She thought of it more as her home in Italy.
She paid the driver, then approached the three story house. To Willow, it looked like a giant cottage out of a fairy tale. The house had been an orhpanage about thirty years before, but was sold to a rich doctor after the owners quit. Though it hadn't been really refurbished until they moved in, they didn't care since they hadn't had to pay for it (Giles apparently had done the doctor a big favor--though he wouldn't say what).
Willow walked past the half-dead flowers she suspected Giles couldn't get anyone to tend regularly and breathed in a deep breath as she knocked on the door.
"Who is it?" a young voice called from inside.
"Willow Danielle Rosenberg!" Willow yelled back. The door opened to reveal a tall and sweet looking brunette young woman with bright eyes. She ran at Willow and threw her arms around her.
"Ooph! Hey, Dawnie!" Willow managed to choke out. Dawn let go.
"Sorry. It just seems like eons since I last saw you," she said apologetically.
"Dawn, I was here last month."
"Exactly. Forever ago. Especially with all those boys around." Willow stepped inside and took her coat off, gingerly setting her belongings down.
"Don't forget about Andrew!" she said out of the side of her mout. Dawn started laughing hysterically and Willow joined her, feeling her tension slowly begin to ebb away. It was good to be home.
"Weren't you gonna say 'hi'?" Willow turned around to see Xander standing before her. She hugged him and felt like never letting go of the one thing in her life that had always been there and always would be.
"Hey, Will. Missed you, too." For once, Xander wasn't being sarcastic. AFter a while, they let go. Willow looked up at her one-eyed best friend and felt a pang of sorrow trob in her heart. She felt like crying every time she thought about what had befallen him.
"Like the new eye patch? It's the hottest thing in Milan right now," he joked in a bad Italian accent. " No. Really. They had to special order one to fit my head." Willow giggled, then remembered the initial reason she came.
"Where's Giles?" she asked as she retrieved the ancient text, her laptop, and a bottled frappucino from her pile of belongings.
"With all of the books. Where else?" The walked through the kitchen where a few young slaywers waved, "Hi, Willow." She waved back as they entered the library.
Willow smiled. She hadn't seen Giles like this in a long time. His glasses were askew ans his hair rumpled. he scrutinized minute texts and muttered to himself.
"Hey, Giles!" Willow said brightly, yet softly, lest she startle him to death.
"Willow! Please. Do come in," he said distractedly. Willow pulled up a padded chair and sat opposite him.
"Lock that door, will you?" he asked. After recieveing a dumbstruck look from Willow, he explained, "The only way to safeguard against distracting Slayers when I can't afford being distracted." When she still didn't move, he added, "Don't worry. Xander has a key."
"No. It's not that. It's just...couldn't they force the door open anyway?" Giles paused for a moment, then sighed deeply.
"I've missed you, Willow." He took off his glasses and cleaned them with a spare hankie on the table. It was an action that comforted Willow so much she couldn't put it into words.
"I've missed you, too, Giles."
Giles put his glasses back on and brushed his fingers through his hair. He put a bookmark in the book he was reading and closed it. He looked directly at her with kind eyes. "How are you?" he sincerely probed.
Willow swallowed. "I'm doing pretty good. I love teaching. It's just so interesting to see someone when something you teach them sticks, you know? Anyways, my classes are going pretty well, too. I'm not doing as good as I used to, though. I mean, I made a ninety-four on my last "Intro to Symbology" test! It's stressing me out."
Giles laughed with mirth. Willow looked at him reproachfully. He straightened and said, "Yes, I suppose it is. Please continue."
Before Willow knew it, everything she had been wanting to say for the past month, maybe more, came pouring out of her. "Ever since Kennedy and I moved in together, things have been...wierd. I don't know. She kind of annoys me. I still care about her, but now, it seems like I'm trying to do whatever it takes not to go home. I don't want to hurt her, though. I still love her. I just don't know that I can live with her. And if I can't live with her, then..." She took a deep breath. Giles pondered the situation thoughtfully and clucked his tongue.
"Honesty, Willow, is key. Let her know how you feel, or you'll end up hurting her more than if you didn't." She nodded.
"Thanks, Giles."
He cleared his throat, then said, "Now. Do you have your half?" Willow held up her laptop. "Excellent!"
A/N: This chapter was really easy to write for some reason. I got it done in about four or five hours total. Not too bad! Maybe I'm channelling my inner Willow... Hope you guys enjoyed! Questions? Comments? Concerns? E-mail me!
spbangel: Glad you're enjoying it!
Popping up Blanks: Sorry to disappoint, but it will be a while before they actually meet up. This is the fourth chapter and it's just now the end of the first day (though they won't all necessarily be like this. Expostition takes a while).
spiked punch1: Thank you! Hopefully you'll like the ending!