Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters from Buffy.

The gang were still in the hospital, about half an hour after hearing of Buffy's death.

Suddenly, Xander realised that Anya had to be told. Since he was then only one who could actually form complete sentences without trailing off into silence, he figured that he was the one who should tell her.

When he dialled her number, he just got the answering machine.

The message went: 'Hey, Anya here. If this is someone looking for vengeance, tell me when and where to meet you at the Bronze, and if I can, I'll find you. If this is Xander, get lost you stupid idiot! and if this is anyone else, leave a message, and I'll get back to you. But if it's something to do with money being taken away from me then-'

The message stopped there because there was a limited amount of space to leave your greeting, but obviously, Anya didn't grasp that concept.

"Anya, it's Xander. If you're there please pick up. I'm calling from the hospital. Warren shot Buffy and Willow, and they're both dead. Please come, we need you........"

Anya arrived in a flurry, her face tear-stained, and she then went to Xander, and started shouting at him.

"You should have called me straight away! Why didn't you? I was as close to them as anyone else here."

"Well," Xander didn't want to cause anymore of a scene as there already was, so he lied and said "the lines must have been down or something, because I tried you a ton of times, but only got through when I left that message."

"Oh, alright. Can, um, can I see them?"

"Sure. I left Dawn to have some time alone with Buffy, so we'd better start with Willow."

They walked into the silent room, where Tara was sitting, holding Willow's hand, as if she was going to wake up.

Willow looked like normal, just very pale and there was a lot of blood on her clothes.

Anya always felt a lot of power and warmth coming from Willow, and it felt strange to be in the same room as her and feel nothing. She did feel a little something alright. From Tara. It resembled what she felt from Willow, and wasn't exactly weak, but it was very damaged. There was so much pain and aching.

Anya spent some time sitting in there, but eventually, she felt she had to leave. It was as though something was wishing her to go. So as she turned to leave, she figured whatever it was wanted Xander gone to, so she grabbed his arm and dragged him out the door.

Xander opened another door, and in there was Dawn sitting by Buffy.

"So guys," she began asking, "When can we bring her back?"

"Dawn," Xander thought she understood, "we can't bring Buffy back."

"What are you talking about, of course we can. I'm sure Tara can do it, or maybe one of you guys."

"No Dawn-"

"Xander, I'll tell her." Xander kinda felt glad that Anya cut in.

"Dawn, sweetie, we can't bring her back. The last time, we used a one-of-a-kind-definitely-won't-be-made-again-ever object. It's gone now. It broke as part of the spell."

"Oh, well, I'm sure I can adjust" Dawn said that in a very pained voice, and it was clear she was blocking her feeling, for now at least.

"Hey," Xander thought that it would be better to get out of the hospital-y atmosphere, "Who votes we go home, and get some rest?"

Back at the house, the next day, everyone felt it was good to keep busy. Xander began fixing the window, Anya did some cleaning, and Dawn made food for the hungry workers. They all felt that they would just sit in silence, staring into space if they didn't occupy their minds. They all did their best to avoid that, except Tara, who hadn't been out of bed since she got home from the hospital the night before. Only, she wasn't in a bed, because she didn't want to stay in her room, and she didn't want to be in Buffy's room, she didn't want to be in Dawn's room either, so she slept on the couch, and Anya worked quietly around her.

Please R&R and let me know what you think so far.