Two Weddings and a Funeral

By Dramaqueen

Prologue

Jonathon Levenson sat in the darkness of his room, clutching his head in an attempt to stop the searing pain. Earlier that day, he had been called into the hospital to get the results of a biopsy he had had on a tumour that they had found on his brain.

"I'm afraid to tell you that the tumour is in fact cancerous…cancerous…cancerous." The words of the doctor echoed in Jonathon's mind as he bit his lip in the vain hope that it would ease the intense pain shooting throughout his head. Then, remembering the bottle of painkillers in his draw, he pulled them out and stumbled downstairs to the kitchen to get a glass of water.

Half an hour later when the painkillers had kicked in, Jonathon decided that he should call Giles and the others and tell them the results, as he knew that they had all been worrying about them almost as much as he and his parents had.

It wasn't until an hour after Jonathon had called that everyone had finally gathered at Giles' apartment.

"Right. Now that we're all here." Rupert Giles looked at the six young faces of the three happy couples in front of him and wished he had never offered to tell them all about Jonathon's results for him. It had seemed like a good idea at the time. As much as knew it would be cruel to make the 18-year-old repeatedly tell his friends that he was dying, now that it came down to it, the forty-something Englishman just couldn't find the words to break the news with.

"As some of you may know, Jonathon got the results of his biopsy today. Well, he phoned me earlier, and I'm afraid it's bad news." Giles told the group sorrowfully, secretly glad that it would be obvious what this bad news was.

"He's got cancer." Buffy Summers said quietly as the group sat there in shocked silence.

"Do we know how long he's got?" Buffy's boyfriend Riley Finn asked as he wrapped his arms even more tightly around his girlfriend.

"They think around two-three months." Giles told them.

Everyone sat in silence as the reality of it all sank in. Riley held Buffy tightly to him, Anya rested her head on her boyfriend Xander Harris's shoulder as he put his arm around her, and Tara gripped her girlfriend Willow Rosenberg's hand. Sure, people died all the time in Sunnydale, after all it was on the Hellmouth, but usually they could fight the 'things' that caused so many deaths. Not now though. This was out of their control.

"I'm just going for a walk mom!" Jonathon called out as he grabbed his jacket.

After spending the whole of the last week hanging around the house, thinking about the unfairness of it all, Jonathon had finally decided to get out and get on with the rest of however much of his life he had left.

"Are you sure you want to go out? What if you get one of your headaches?" His mom asked, coming out of the lounge with a worried expression on her face.

"Look, I took a couple of painkillers half an hour ago and I doubt it'll ware off within an hour. Okay mom?"

"Okay sweetie." She said, hugging her son as he went to open the door.

"Bye." He said, stepping out the door and shutting it before his mom could make any more of a fuss.

"The sun really does seem bright when you've been in doors for ages." Jonathon muttered to himself as he walked down the street.

It was 2 o'clock on a Monday, so there was hardly anyone around. At first Jonathon was grateful for the quiet, but after about quarter of an hour he wished he wasn't the only person around. He had suddenly been overcome by a pain like no-other, searing through his skull. He looked around frantically for someone, anyone who could help him get home. As he turned and started to head home on his own, his vision became blurry, and the pain grew.

As he stumbled along, he felt himself getting weaker. Then, what shapes he could see went black, and he fell to the ground.

"You still haven't told them? Will!" Buffy asked her best friend Willow incredulously.

"Well I don't see them that often." Willow said in an attempt to justify the situation.

"You were at home on Saturday." Buffy pointed out.

"Yeah, well, it's not exactly something you can say over dinner. 'Can you pass the salt dad? Oh, and by the way I'm gay!' They're still getting over me and Oz splitting up."

"That was six months ago!"

"Try telling my parents that!"

Willow had been broken hearted when her long-term boyfriend Daniel 'Oz' Osbourn had left her. She knew that he did it to protect her from the werewolf inside of him, but it had still hurt immensely. Then she met Tara. At first they were just friends, meeting up about once a week to cast spells together. But, as time went on, the pair grew closer together, and Willow realised that it was Tara who had helped her to get her life back on track.

Ironically, it was Oz coming back to Sunnydale that made Willow realise that her love for Tara was not the friendship type of love she had thought it to be.

"Ya think they'd mind if I told them over the phone?" Willow asked hopefully.

"Probably. But they'd mind even more if they found out from someone else. Besides, I don't think your parents are the type to be bothered about you being gay." Buffy reassured her friend.

"So I can call them?" Willow asked happily as they came to their dorm.

"You can call them." Buffy said as she pulled her keys from her bag.

"Thank you! Ooh message." Willow said as she entered the dorm and saw the little red light flashing on their answer phone. She went over and pressed play.

"Buffy. Willow. It's Giles. Call me as soon as you get this message." Came the urgent sounding voice of Buffy's ex-watcher over the answer phone.

The girls looked at each other. Buffy stopped the tape, picked up the phone and dialled Giles's number.

"Giles, it's me. We just got your message. What's wrong……What!?…… Do you want me to get Willow on the phone?…… Okay. Bye."

"What did Giles want?" Willow asked as Buffy hung up the phone.

"It's Jonathon. He's dead."