Chapter 2: Weeping Willow
Willow paused a beat while Buffy gaped speechlessly, biting her lip and rolling her eyes with usual uneasiness. "Okay, so that sounded a lot more appropriately conversational in my head but umm . . ." She shifted on the balls of her heels uneasily. ". . . Yeah."
Buffy refused to let her eyes return from their bugged-out state. She cleared her throat multiple times to fight past the sudden lump of disbelief that had formed there. Finally, her voice came out in raggedy pants before erupting into a, "GET OUT!"
Willow's face fell and she slumped. "Buffy, of all the people to stigmatize me---" she began angrily.
Buffy's eyes widened apologetically. "Oh no, Wills, I don't mean GET OUT get out but um . . ." She pondered a better response but came up with nothing, so she merely repeated, "GET OUT!"
Willow sighed. "It's true. I just came from the doctor's office and the test came out positive. Look." She rummaged into her authentically beaded Indian handbag (as authentic as Urban Outfitters at least) and withdrew a plastic white stick with a shaking hand. "I've been carrying this around for days now, I just keep looking at it as if it's a joke . . ." She handed the pregnancy test to Buffy, who was suddenly shaky herself, gazing down at the piece of plastic like it was a ticking time bomb. The blue plus sign on the test was fading, but still glaring clear enough to incite mouth- droppage. Willow was blinking a mile a minute, obviously still in shock as she continued. "I thought it was a fluke, a-a f-fluke of the highest order, but I never miss my period and . . . a-and then, I stopped by Dr. Mercer's today and she told me . . ." she waved her hand in the air, trying to tangibly grasp the confounding prospect. "THIS . . ."
Buffy was still staring at the test, but Dawn obviously recovered more swiftly than her sister and snatched the stick out of her hand.
"W-Willow, this is big . . . t-this is huge!" Dawn was saying in a tone that reflected more excitement than shock. She shook the test frantically at Willow, as if the poor girl hadn't seen it before, and smiled fiercely. "Y-you're like . . . a Mrs. Pfiefferson!"
Willow frowned in puzzlement. "What?" She snatched the test back and sighed again. "Look, I know this is big. Too big. I-I don't know if I can handle it," Willow's face began to crumble visibly, as if pregnancy hormones had begun to commence a little early. "I mean, I'm still trying to put my life back together after all that happened last year and now this? I-I----" She looked like she was about to keel over as she tried to gulp deeply for air in panic, and it was then that Buffy suddenly awoke from the stilling state of shock and led her into the house.
Getting Willow settled on the couch, Dawn went off into the kitchen to prepare a cup of her favorite herbal tea while Buffy seated herself next to her hysterical best friend. She tried to pace herself, ease Willow into a place where she felt calm enough to talk about it, but couldn't resist unleashing the flood of questions that had suddenly gathered on her tongue. Pausing for a minute while Willow ceased her hyperventilation, she launched abruptly into the interrogation." Okay Willow, what happened? I mean, what, where, who-----"
"Buffy! Couldn't you try some of that best-friendly subtlety in crises like these?"
Buffy bit her lip ruefully and her eyes fluttered downwards as she struggled to find that subtlety somewhere deep inside the rocky emotions she presently felt, but didn't succeeded, so instead stayed quiet for a few minutes.
After a bit of deafening silence, finally Willow spoke, accompanied again by a weary sigh. "Dr. Mercer says I'm about three or four months along," she murmured softly.
"And you didn't know the whole time?"
"I don't see how I would, this is like the last thing I would expect to happen to me. But, hey, didn't expect to go off-the-wall evil either, so I guess my intuition isn't worth much."
Buffy waited awhile for an appropriate time to respond. "So . . . . . so um, who was it, Willow?"
Frowning, Willow roughly got up from the couch and began pacing the room heatedly. "I KNEW you were going to ask that. All this is to you is some sordid, tragic 'slut-suddenly-turns-all-single-mother' scenario, isn't it? It's the kind of stuff millions of bored housewives tune into daytime talk shows for. Entertainment in which they get to feel all morally superior to the girls on TV. weeping and blubbering about how stupid they were to get themselves pregnant by some nameless Joe Schmoe----"
"Willow!" Buffy cut her off sharply. "You're my best friend, I would NEVER think that about you!" Slumping her shoulders, she followed Willow off the couch and went to put a hand to her shoulder. "Look, I know I haven't exactly handled this very well, my foot kind of heard the news and made a mad dash for my mouth, but . . . talk to me. I want to help you out, all I can. And I know that's why you came, because you want to talk this through." She smiled a bit, squeezing Willow's shoulder gently in a loving gesture. "We're best friends. This talking thing is what we do."
Willow searched Buffy's eyes for understanding and found a wave of it lying there, so she softened. "Well," she began again, "I'm not exactly handling the news in my best manner either."
Buffy laughed softly. "You're allowed to handle it anyway you want." Then, with her face growing more serious, she added quietly. "So do you know what you're going to do?"
"You mean about the whole pregnancy in general?" Willow gazed down at her hands as she settled back on the couch, heaving a breathy sigh. " . . .Well, it couldn't come at a worse time. I'm just starting my last year of college, trying to get my bachelor's degree in the metaphysical sciences, not to mention struggling to get my life back together in general . . . a baby is just not supposed to be happening right now!" She wrung her hands helplessly.
"Willow . . ." Buffy gazed sympathetically at her best friend, but a part of her yearned desperately to be in her position. How ironic it was that the one thing Buffy wanted most happened to Willow, who knew it was the LAST thing she wanted. "So . . . do you think you want to . . . you know . . ." She let the last part of the sentence linger with tact while she tried to say it as casually as she could.
"Have an abortion?" Willow replied with unusual bluntness. She continued gnawing on her lip uncertainly. "I don't know, my mind hasn't even registered the fact that there's actually life in me, let alone go over the choice whether to take it away. I mean, all these years I was so pro- choice, post-feminism, Steinem chick, and this couldn't be any more ideal for that kind of decision but . . . I don't know, it doesn't feel right somehow." As usual, Willow was nervously letting hand motions and pauses express the emotions she was unable to articulate. "One of the whole Wiccan tenets is the idea that you kind of have to accept things that come to you, try to see if it fulfills some purpose and to see it through. And above everything, you're supposed to show toleration to everything with a life source in nature . . . how am I supposed to call myself a Wiccan if I do something so disrespectful to a life?"
Buffy cocked her head, still finding it hard to believe. LIFE was taking place and burgeoning and flourishing within her best friend's body. She had created a human being, and Buffy felt impossibly envious of her at the moment. "It is really your choice, Willow," she said soothingly, although she knew that if faced with the predicament, there'd be no choice for her. She'd hold her hands to her new child's haven, cradling her flat stomach with so much joy that she'd be afraid to let it go until the nine months were over.
Willow nodded, but still looked relatively like a deer-in-headlights. "I still have the rest of the gang to tell . . . I actually asked them to come in thirty, but I figured it would be easier to tell you first."
Buffy patted one of Willow's hands, but hesitated, curiosity becoming to strong to control. "Umm, Willow? I know you really don't want to talk about it, and maybe it's not the time but . . ." she shrugged tensely. "The father?"
Willow buried her head in her hands, red hair flailing about her in wispy strings, and her head shook momentarily, making the auburn locks wave about her like the long streamers of a willow tree. Looking back at Buffy with an apprehensive face, her voice nearly beckoned over a whisper in response. "I don't know Buffy . . . I don't even know."
AN: Okay, it's not my best work and for the most part, it's unedited so excuse some typos, I'll probably fix it later (I'm a little distracted with schoolwork). And I know that explained nothing further either regarding the whole B/S involvement. I tried to not get so long-winded with Willow's feeling regarding the pregnancy but I couldn't help it. The next chapter will kind of explain how Buffy and Spike fit into Willow being pregnant, but I can't help being so long-winded, sorry, lol.
Willow paused a beat while Buffy gaped speechlessly, biting her lip and rolling her eyes with usual uneasiness. "Okay, so that sounded a lot more appropriately conversational in my head but umm . . ." She shifted on the balls of her heels uneasily. ". . . Yeah."
Buffy refused to let her eyes return from their bugged-out state. She cleared her throat multiple times to fight past the sudden lump of disbelief that had formed there. Finally, her voice came out in raggedy pants before erupting into a, "GET OUT!"
Willow's face fell and she slumped. "Buffy, of all the people to stigmatize me---" she began angrily.
Buffy's eyes widened apologetically. "Oh no, Wills, I don't mean GET OUT get out but um . . ." She pondered a better response but came up with nothing, so she merely repeated, "GET OUT!"
Willow sighed. "It's true. I just came from the doctor's office and the test came out positive. Look." She rummaged into her authentically beaded Indian handbag (as authentic as Urban Outfitters at least) and withdrew a plastic white stick with a shaking hand. "I've been carrying this around for days now, I just keep looking at it as if it's a joke . . ." She handed the pregnancy test to Buffy, who was suddenly shaky herself, gazing down at the piece of plastic like it was a ticking time bomb. The blue plus sign on the test was fading, but still glaring clear enough to incite mouth- droppage. Willow was blinking a mile a minute, obviously still in shock as she continued. "I thought it was a fluke, a-a f-fluke of the highest order, but I never miss my period and . . . a-and then, I stopped by Dr. Mercer's today and she told me . . ." she waved her hand in the air, trying to tangibly grasp the confounding prospect. "THIS . . ."
Buffy was still staring at the test, but Dawn obviously recovered more swiftly than her sister and snatched the stick out of her hand.
"W-Willow, this is big . . . t-this is huge!" Dawn was saying in a tone that reflected more excitement than shock. She shook the test frantically at Willow, as if the poor girl hadn't seen it before, and smiled fiercely. "Y-you're like . . . a Mrs. Pfiefferson!"
Willow frowned in puzzlement. "What?" She snatched the test back and sighed again. "Look, I know this is big. Too big. I-I don't know if I can handle it," Willow's face began to crumble visibly, as if pregnancy hormones had begun to commence a little early. "I mean, I'm still trying to put my life back together after all that happened last year and now this? I-I----" She looked like she was about to keel over as she tried to gulp deeply for air in panic, and it was then that Buffy suddenly awoke from the stilling state of shock and led her into the house.
Getting Willow settled on the couch, Dawn went off into the kitchen to prepare a cup of her favorite herbal tea while Buffy seated herself next to her hysterical best friend. She tried to pace herself, ease Willow into a place where she felt calm enough to talk about it, but couldn't resist unleashing the flood of questions that had suddenly gathered on her tongue. Pausing for a minute while Willow ceased her hyperventilation, she launched abruptly into the interrogation." Okay Willow, what happened? I mean, what, where, who-----"
"Buffy! Couldn't you try some of that best-friendly subtlety in crises like these?"
Buffy bit her lip ruefully and her eyes fluttered downwards as she struggled to find that subtlety somewhere deep inside the rocky emotions she presently felt, but didn't succeeded, so instead stayed quiet for a few minutes.
After a bit of deafening silence, finally Willow spoke, accompanied again by a weary sigh. "Dr. Mercer says I'm about three or four months along," she murmured softly.
"And you didn't know the whole time?"
"I don't see how I would, this is like the last thing I would expect to happen to me. But, hey, didn't expect to go off-the-wall evil either, so I guess my intuition isn't worth much."
Buffy waited awhile for an appropriate time to respond. "So . . . . . so um, who was it, Willow?"
Frowning, Willow roughly got up from the couch and began pacing the room heatedly. "I KNEW you were going to ask that. All this is to you is some sordid, tragic 'slut-suddenly-turns-all-single-mother' scenario, isn't it? It's the kind of stuff millions of bored housewives tune into daytime talk shows for. Entertainment in which they get to feel all morally superior to the girls on TV. weeping and blubbering about how stupid they were to get themselves pregnant by some nameless Joe Schmoe----"
"Willow!" Buffy cut her off sharply. "You're my best friend, I would NEVER think that about you!" Slumping her shoulders, she followed Willow off the couch and went to put a hand to her shoulder. "Look, I know I haven't exactly handled this very well, my foot kind of heard the news and made a mad dash for my mouth, but . . . talk to me. I want to help you out, all I can. And I know that's why you came, because you want to talk this through." She smiled a bit, squeezing Willow's shoulder gently in a loving gesture. "We're best friends. This talking thing is what we do."
Willow searched Buffy's eyes for understanding and found a wave of it lying there, so she softened. "Well," she began again, "I'm not exactly handling the news in my best manner either."
Buffy laughed softly. "You're allowed to handle it anyway you want." Then, with her face growing more serious, she added quietly. "So do you know what you're going to do?"
"You mean about the whole pregnancy in general?" Willow gazed down at her hands as she settled back on the couch, heaving a breathy sigh. " . . .Well, it couldn't come at a worse time. I'm just starting my last year of college, trying to get my bachelor's degree in the metaphysical sciences, not to mention struggling to get my life back together in general . . . a baby is just not supposed to be happening right now!" She wrung her hands helplessly.
"Willow . . ." Buffy gazed sympathetically at her best friend, but a part of her yearned desperately to be in her position. How ironic it was that the one thing Buffy wanted most happened to Willow, who knew it was the LAST thing she wanted. "So . . . do you think you want to . . . you know . . ." She let the last part of the sentence linger with tact while she tried to say it as casually as she could.
"Have an abortion?" Willow replied with unusual bluntness. She continued gnawing on her lip uncertainly. "I don't know, my mind hasn't even registered the fact that there's actually life in me, let alone go over the choice whether to take it away. I mean, all these years I was so pro- choice, post-feminism, Steinem chick, and this couldn't be any more ideal for that kind of decision but . . . I don't know, it doesn't feel right somehow." As usual, Willow was nervously letting hand motions and pauses express the emotions she was unable to articulate. "One of the whole Wiccan tenets is the idea that you kind of have to accept things that come to you, try to see if it fulfills some purpose and to see it through. And above everything, you're supposed to show toleration to everything with a life source in nature . . . how am I supposed to call myself a Wiccan if I do something so disrespectful to a life?"
Buffy cocked her head, still finding it hard to believe. LIFE was taking place and burgeoning and flourishing within her best friend's body. She had created a human being, and Buffy felt impossibly envious of her at the moment. "It is really your choice, Willow," she said soothingly, although she knew that if faced with the predicament, there'd be no choice for her. She'd hold her hands to her new child's haven, cradling her flat stomach with so much joy that she'd be afraid to let it go until the nine months were over.
Willow nodded, but still looked relatively like a deer-in-headlights. "I still have the rest of the gang to tell . . . I actually asked them to come in thirty, but I figured it would be easier to tell you first."
Buffy patted one of Willow's hands, but hesitated, curiosity becoming to strong to control. "Umm, Willow? I know you really don't want to talk about it, and maybe it's not the time but . . ." she shrugged tensely. "The father?"
Willow buried her head in her hands, red hair flailing about her in wispy strings, and her head shook momentarily, making the auburn locks wave about her like the long streamers of a willow tree. Looking back at Buffy with an apprehensive face, her voice nearly beckoned over a whisper in response. "I don't know Buffy . . . I don't even know."
AN: Okay, it's not my best work and for the most part, it's unedited so excuse some typos, I'll probably fix it later (I'm a little distracted with schoolwork). And I know that explained nothing further either regarding the whole B/S involvement. I tried to not get so long-winded with Willow's feeling regarding the pregnancy but I couldn't help it. The next chapter will kind of explain how Buffy and Spike fit into Willow being pregnant, but I can't help being so long-winded, sorry, lol.
