Oh, God. This
is not going as well as I had hoped. Liam is definitely losing it.
William is getting closer as well, but if that Goddess does not break soon,
I fear we will lose the older vampire. His eyes are rolling back
in his head. I look over at Dawn. She is glowing a blinding
green now, but seems to be taking it well. The witches are holding
their own well, as are the outer rim guards. They seem to have the
easiest job. But then I look back at the trio. Liam is unconscious
and the last two are struggling to hold him up and complete their mission.
Thankfully, the deity
is now much more stable on the Ben end. It shouldn't be long now.
I once again survey the room, and satisfied with everyone's well being,
turn my attention back to the suffering trio.
At this moment in time,
my heart leaps out of my chest and into my throat. My Love, my William,
my Charge is now unconscious. All that's left is Buffy. I resist
the urge to run out and help, but just barely. Who knows what my
interference would do. But then, what's the difference? I may
have just lead William into his final death. What if I never speak
with him again? Never touch him again? Never… I quietly
cry and try to calm myself.
Suddenly, a lone voice
yells out into the din, "she's gone!" Each person quiets, then looks
up to see an unconscious Ben sprawled out on the floor. Oops.
I forgot to mention that. Immediately I reappear and charge toward
William, yelling his name…but not before I can witness Buffy give out on
holding up the two men. She drops William, reaches for Liam and desperately
whimpers his name. No time to display my disgust for the bitc…Buffy.
I gently support his head and lift him onto my seated lap. Tears
drop onto his face as I attempt to assess his status. If he were
human, at least I could feel for a pulse and watch for breathing.
I feel so useless like this.
Behind me, I hear the
minions have retreated, apparently sensing the absence of their Lord.
Just scarcely, I can hear them contemplating what to do next. My
attention focuses away from them as soon as I hear "how about tipping some
cows, or…" I turn briefly to see Xander, Anya, Gunn and Wesley staring
on in silence. In front of them stand Tara, Willow and Giles, looking
somewhat relieved that all went somewhat well. Then, my anger with
the blonde fades as I notice the lack of Dawn's presence. The Key
had served its purpose and was no longer needed. No doubt I will
be the only one in this room to remember her. Now Buffy is left completely
alone, as far as family goes. Her mother has passed. Her sister
does not exist and never did. Her father is MIA. I almost feel
sorry for her. Almost.
The room has fallen
so quiet. It hurts my ears. The raging emotions from each human
just deafens me and overwhelms me. This just amplifies my fear and
grief.
I finally remember
my supplies I squirreled away. I reach into my bag and produce a
packet of fresh human A-, tossing it over to Buffy. "See if you can
get him to drink." She does. When he doesn't, she looks at
me for anything else I can offer. "I don't know what will happen
to them. Fate is funny that way. It dictates certain paragraphs
to the tiniest detail, but then ignores whole entire chapters." I
take out a pocket knife, cut open a small vein on my inner arm and gently
paint his lips with the flowing red blood. At this point, I don't
really care what anyone thinks. As he once said, they all hate him
anyhow. The only two in this group who ever liked him are dead or
gone anyhow.
I don't know if the
smell of my blood helped. Or if was just time, but I definitely see his
eyes flutter. And my heart flutters right along with. The first
thing he sees is my face. Then he smells the blood and sees my arm.
I gingerly help him sit up. "You did it." I smile and wipe
off my arm with my shirt.
"No, we did it."
He looked over at his cohorts, face beaming…until he saw the fallen Liam.
Then he saw that it was Buffy who was curled up at his side. My hand
reaches for his and I comfort him before he can show his disappointment.
"What happened?"
"Well, I'm no demonologist,
but I do know that it had to be the three of you because you are all a
balance between demon and humanity, as was Glory. The demon part
is needed to root you here on this plane, but the humanity is what fights
Glory to restrain her. It was just too much for yours and Liam's
limited humanity. That's why Buffy's fine."
"So, you knew this
would happen? You knew that this could possibly kill Angel, and you
didn't tell me?!"
"Would it have made
a difference?"
"Yes, it would have."
Now, I have seen William
angry. I have seen him mad, fuming, irate, enraged, and down right
pissed off. But I've never seen him livid. To tell the truth,
it's scaring me a tad bit. "God damn it Buffy!" The Slayer
turned her attention to the vampire. "She saved our worthless lives!
All of us! You've never had a friggin' thankful bone in your body.
You take and take, assuming that the world is just there to help you and
your cause. Well, it's not all about you. Screw you.
No one is ever bloody good enough for you. Not even your friends.
You shut them all out." Angel starts to awaken, but Buffy is too
irritated to notice. (It will be a good day or so before she even
notices his reflection and his heart beat. Shanshu's a bitch, ain't
it?) "You even shut out Riley. I don't know what your fascination
is with Soul Boy there…" I whisper in his ear and he realizes his
mistake. "Oh, excuse me. Make that Brooding Boy." He
turns to me and quietly states, "There, is that better?" I nod my
head. "I don't know why I ever wanted for you to love me. Here,
I've made a fool of myself and treated someone who loves me unconditionally
like a second, a bloody hand-me-down."
Now, as I've said about
a gazillion times, I know this man. There's only a handful of things
he could possibly do to surprise me. He chooses this one moment to
do just that. He sheepishly turns to me and takes my hands, looking
into my teary, puppy dog brown eyes. "Can you forgive an idiot?"
To take my breath away takes a lot. But he managed to do it.
"Duh! I have
for the last century and a quarter." He kisses my forehead and leads
me outside.
Once away from the
prying eyes of the Slayer and her friends, I can't help but doubt myself.
There's no reason in the world for him to love me. I'm not adventurous.
I'm not witty. I'm not impetuous. I don't beat up on him.
I'm not anything he needs.
"William. I'm
terribly sorry. I was wrong and I'm sorry."
"Huh?"
"I told you that you
would have Buffy just the way you wanted her. That's the problem
with prophesies. The damn things never come with footnotes.
It was Liam they were talking about…not you." I begin to softly cry.
"I don't know how I could have made that mistake."
"Danielle." He
stops us behind a hill and grabs my shoulders. "I meant what I said,
you know."
"Well, of course you
did. Afterall, you have more practice at hating her than loving her."
I smile the biggest smile I can muster…which admittedly is not that big.
"No, not what I said
about her. I meant what I said about being an idiot." I smile
a bit to myself as he paces. "All I've ever wanted was someone to
challenge me, to keep up with me and most of the time surpass me.
Someone who can keep me in my place…but also someone I don't bloody have
to work at impressing. With Dru, I always had to work at proving
myself to her. 'When are you going to kill another Slayer, Spike?'
'When are you going to stand up to Angelus, Spike?' It was relentless.
She never shut her sodding gob. Then there was Buffy. I was
never going to be good enough for her, was I?"
"She was never going
to be good enough for you."
"See! That's
what I'm sayin'." He's gotten all dramatic and has stopped pacing
to stand in my personal space. Words cannot express my excitement
to his proximity. I feel as if I could be banished to Hell right
here and now and I'd be happy the rest of eternity.
"You've never left
me. You've never doubted me. And you even know me better than
I know myself."
If it takes a lot to
make me breathless, it takes twice as much to make me speechless.
William moves just
a bit closer and my heart jumps back up into my throat. Damn thing
needs some staples to keep it where it goes. I was contemplating
having it surgically done when all of a sudden his lips were on mine.
They taste sweeter than any thing I have ever sensed. He moves even
closer, and I can feel his cool body rub against my chest. A low
purring emanates from him as he slips his tongue in my mouth, and I let
him.
But then, fear overtakes
me as I open my eyes and see him…the old man in a white cloak. I
break the warm sensuous kiss that I've waited three lifetimes for and just
grab Will as tightly as I can, willing the man to just disappear.
