1998
Over time, Willow had grown accustomed to her 'second sight' that came and went. Gradually she realised that the silvery sheen that lay over everything like oil on a wet road was actually composed of a thousand different shades. It was at its most bright when it lay over heavy, solid items and at its most dull when it covered something so light that it couldn't be seen; the air. Above all else, it was transparent.
Willow assumed that it was a residue of the oxygen starvation that her brain had suffered when she had been locked in the boiler room. And since she hated medical exams with a vengeance that would have surprised anyone who knew her, she had simply neglected to mention it to her doctor on the rare occasions she had seen him since.
Besides, she reasoned, what would her explanation for being locked in the boiler room of her High School with a male student and member of the faculty be? No matter what the excuse, it would still look bad. And the sight thingy really wasn't so awful; she barely noticed it when it happened now.
Deliberately shaking off her thoughts, Willow turned her attention to her computer. She knew why her thoughts were straying – she was bored. She'd finished her homework and her extra credit assignments and she'd already hacked into the coroners office to see who was going to rise tonight and if there were any signs of a new Big Bad to be researched. There weren't.
Willow brightened as she came up with an idea. Sure, Buffy and Xander would mock her for it, but it always helped to be prepared and it wasn't like she had anything better to do.
Clicking onto the Google search page, Willow typed in 'demons' and hit enter.
Google wasn't a particularly good way to search unless you wanted something incredibly specific and didn't mind trawling through useless information for hours on end in order to get it. For example, 'demons' brought up 1,210,000 web pages containing the word demons. But tonight, Willow wasn't looking for anything other than a way to spend her time.
Forty-seven pages later, Willow stumbled into an anti-mutant website claiming that mutants were demons and deserved to die. Willow's lip curled in disgust. Why couldn't people understand that mutants were neither good nor evil? That they were simply human. With all that that entailed… including moral ambiguity.
"Willow? Aren't you in bed yet?" Willow heard her mother call from downstairs. She checked her watch and realised that it was later than she had thought.
"Uh! I'm just getting ready mom!" Willow called back as she exited Internet Explorer. She quickly changed into a nightgown and began brushing her hair. She was just about to get into bed when there was a knock at her balcony door.
Frowning, Willow crossed to the door and pushed the blinds apart to see who it was.
"Oh!" She cried as she recognised the person standing there. She unlocked the door and opened it. "Angel! What are you doing here?"
Angel looked nervous. "I wanted to talk to you." He said quietly.
Willow glanced around her room. Why would Angel want to talk to me? She opened the door further and made a 'come in' gesture with her arm. Angel remained outside. "Well?" She asked, confused.
"I can't." Angel explained. "I can't come in unless you invite me."
Willow blinked as her 'second sight' decided to make an appearance and everything took on a slightly silvery light. "Oh!" She said nervously. "Well, okay, I invite you. To come in."
She turned as Angel walked into the room and to her horror, she spotted her bra, lying in plain sight on her bed. Quickly, she rushed over and grabbed it, stashing underneath the other clothes that were also lying on the bed, waiting for her to take them to the laundry basket.
"I-if this is a bad time, I…" Angel said, with a slight gesture towards the door.
"No!" Willow reassured him. "I just… I'm not supposed to have boys in my room." She confided.
Angel smiled slightly. "I promise to behave myself."
"Okay!" Willow said, still nervous. "Good." Of course you'd behave yourself, it's not as if anyone would ever want to be in my room so they could not behave themself after all. Willow thought matter-of-factly.
"I guess I need help." Angel said, looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Help? You mean like on homework?" Idiot. Angel doesn't go to school! Willow wanted to kick herself, but she figured Angel would notice if she did. "No, 'cause you're old and you already know stuff." Why would Angel need my help anyway?
"I want you to track someone down. On the 'Net." Angel told Willow with a glance at her laptop.
Willow smiled happily. "Oh! Great! I'm so the 'Net girl." She crossed to her desk and sat down.
Angel stood behind her, looking over her shoulder as she opened Internet Explorer. Willow could feel his presence behind her and she almost jumped out of her skin when he placed his hand on the back of her chair where it brushed her nape.
"I just wanna find everything I can." Angel said, leaning a little of his weight onto the back of Willow's chair. "Records, affiliates, I'm not even sure what I'm looking for yet."
Willow quickly typed in the address for Google. It seemed that this time at least, she'd have something specific to search for. "Good." She said distractedly. "What's the name?"
"Billy Fordham."
Willow froze. "Uh, Angel?" She said, turning to face him. "If I say something you really don't wanna hear, do you promise not to bite me?"
"You're gonna tell me that I'm jealous." Angel guessed.
Willow half-smiled at him. "Well, you do sometimes get that way." She said gently, remembering all the times he'd gotten jealous of Xander.
"You know, I never used to." Angel told her, sinking down to sit on Willow's bed. "Things used to be pretty simple." Willow turned back to her laptop and started searching, while she listened to Angel. "A hundred years, just hanging out, feelin' guilty… I really honed my brooding skills. Then she comes along." Angel monologued as Willow sicced an automated hacking program onto her school mainframe and turned back to Angel. Angel looked Willow in the eye. "Yeah, I get jealous." He said simply. "But I know people. And my gut tells me this is a wrong guy."
Willow smiled slightly. Wow. I wish a guy loved me the way Angel loves Buffy. She really doesn't know how lucky she is. She nodded to herself as she came to the decision to help the brooding vampire. "Okay." She told him and turned back to her laptop. "But if there isn't anything weird…" She warned as she searched the student database to find some leads on Ford. "Hey, that's weird." Willow said, frowning as she double-checked the database to make sure.
Angel stood up and leant over Willow to get a better look at the screen. "What?" He asked.
"I just checked the school records, and he's not in them. I mean, usually they transfer your grades and stuff. But he's not even registered." Willow explained.
Angel frowned and stepped back a bit. "He said he was in school with you guys, right?"
Willow instigated a general search on the 'Net for anything on Billy Fordham and a specific search for Hemery's website. From there she could hack into their mainframe and check for Ford's transcripts. "Let me just see if I can…"
"Willow?" Willow's mother called again. "Are you still up?"
Willow stood up, panicking slightly in case her mother decided to come up and check on her. Not that she had in years, but still, you never knew with parents. "Ack!" She managed to burble to Angel as she gently pushed him towards the door. "Go!" Angel silently opened the balcony door, as Willow called downstairs to her mother. "I-I'm just going to bed now mom!"
Angel stepped outside and turned back to look at Willow where she stood, holding the door in preparation for shutting it.
"Come by tomorrow at sunset." She told him. "I'll keep looking."
Angel hesitated before asking her one more favour. "Don't tell Buffy what we're doing, alright?"
Willow's eyes opened wide as she contemplated what he was asking of her. "You want me to lie to her? It's Buffy!"
"Just don't bring it up until we know what's what."
"Okay." Willow conceded. "I-it's probably nothing." She said in an attempt to make herself feel better about lying to Buffy. The school probably hasn't got around to updating their records yet, that's all.
Angel smiled gently at her. "That'd be nice." He said in a warm, slightly amused tone, obviously aware of what she was trying to do.
He turned away as Willow closed and locked the door behind him. It was then that she noticed that the silvery light that she saw lying over Angel didn't seem as, as… alive as the silvery light that lay over everything else.