25: Desperate Measures
Suddenly Willow spoke up. "There might be a way!"
"A way to do what?" asked Xander.
"Bring Buffy back!" Donna was startled; half the room jumped, but Giles looked anguished.
"Willow-"
"No, no. There's a spell... I didn't think it would work before, but with another Slayer-"
Giles was shaking his head. "Willow, you know how dangerous-"
"I can do it!" she insisted vehemently. "I can do it," she repeated pleadingly. "Giles, I really think I can. I didn't think I could before, but with somebody to take the Slayer powers from, and Dawn as her own flesh and blood, and the robot as a vessel..."
"The what?" asked Josh.
Slightly embarrassed gazes passed around - centring, for some reason, on Spike. "There's this... robot," Willow said awkwardly. "Um, this guy Warren made it. It's kind of a copy of Buffy. It looks just like her, but it's a robot. We've been kind of using it to scare the vampires into thinking she's still around."
This was all getting too crazy for Donna's brain to deal with. "You think you've got a way of bringing your friend back from the dead?" she asked Willow. It sounded a little blunt, but... how were you supposed to phrase that question?
Ignoring a look of dismay from her girlfriend, Willow nodded eagerly. "I- I- I really think so. It's a special spell, not like all the others - because Buffy didn't die a natural death."
Giles suddenly stiffened. "Because she was sucked into the vortex?"
"Exactly!" said Willow. Everyone leaned in, suddenly starting to believe that maybe, just maybe, this was really possible. "I don't think she really died - I mean, she died, but her soul didn't go away properly... we can do it, Giles. We can!"
Giles was obviously torn. Donna could see the emotions at war within him, the way she could sometimes see them in Leo, or even in Josh. This was a man who understood the true cost of leadership, and wore responsibility heavily. He wanted Buffy back, wanted it as desperately as any of these others... but he didn't want to stir false hope, and he didn't want to risk causing some terrible damage.
Suddenly Spike spoke up from the back "I vote we try."
"So do I," said Dawn shakily.
Xander nodded, and Anya looked to him and then did the same. They all looked at Tara. "This kind of spell is wr-wrong," she said nervously, "b-b-but..." She didn't finish.
The slayerettes looked across at Josh and Donna, but Josh was shaking his head. "We don't have any place in this decision," he said softly. "This is your call, not ours."
Donna reached out and gripped his arm gently. She wondered if the warm feelings of love and trust she was having towards him were strong enough to radiate out towards him.
All eyes were on Giles. He looked monumentally uncertain. "Perhaps..." he said softly. They waited, and he shook his head suddenly, in a gesture that reminded her of Josh. "I want to believe it, but..."
"We can try, Giles," said Willow softly. "Maybe it won't work, but we owe it to Buffy to try."
Slowly, very slowly he nodded.
"Okay. Scooby Gang research party?" spoke up Xander, a little shakily.
It was the word 'party' that sparked Donna off. "Josh! The fundraiser! We've got to get back."
Josh looked at his watch and swore. "If we're not there before the plane takes off-"
"Leo will be pissed," Donna finished.
"As will CJ. And Toby. And Sam. They're covering our asses on this."
"Joey Lucas might have gone looking for you," Donna said nervously. "What if she finds out you weren't in your room after all? And neither was I? If people find out that we both disappeared during the fundraiser..."
Josh suddenly started to grin. "They'll think we've eloped," he smirked.
"As if you'd ever be brave enough to ask me."
"If I asked you to marry me, would you bring me coffee?"
"Would I get that raise?"
"Not if we ran away together."
"We could go to Hawaii."
"I could buy you that DVD player."
Donna was suddenly aware of gently amused eyes on her. In the ring of young faces around them, she was uncomfortably aware that there seemed to be a lot more knowledge than in older, supposedly wiser heads. They all see right through us, she realised. Had something in their harsh lives made them more perceptive than your average man in the street to unspoken feelings?
Or are we just getting really, really obvious?
"We'll research this spell," Willow said. "But we'll need you, Donna, to finish it."
She looked at Josh in dismay. "Will we be able to get away again?" For some reason, she wasn't even contemplating the idea of doing this without Josh.
"Um, we could come to you," suggested Tara shyly.
"Yeah, um, that would work," agreed Xander. He looked around at the cluttered magic shop. "It's not like we're, you know, running the country here."
"Okay, you come to us," agreed Josh. He smiled wryly. "You can't miss it; it's the big white place on Pennsylvania Avenue."