Title: Runaway

Chapter 10: The Scooby Gang

Disclaimer: Characters not mine. (Plot is.)

Author's Note: Okay, I've gone back and changed a chapter or two. You don't need to read them 'cause the change is tiny, but I realized that Buffy needed to be away for longer for everything to work. So, the Gang (including Buffy) are all 21. Sorry about that.

Slowly thick white clouds of, something, parted before her and Willow vaguely became aware of voices coming from a long way away.

"For the past four years we had to look after the Hellmouth. You've probably forgotten but that is supposed to be your job!"

Willow frowned. Strange, why was Xander shouting like that?

"We could have all been killed, but do you even care?!"

"That's low, Xander." That was even weirder. Willow was sure she recognized that soft voice but she hadn't heard it for a long time.

"I don't care, just like you didn't give a damn about us!" There was a loud slam, before total silence. Finally Oz spoke up.

"You hurt her a lot you know." His voice wasn't raised but nobody could miss the anger in it. Were they talking about her? Willow had no idea.

"I know. I didn't mean to, or at least I didn't want to. Do you want to yell at me too?"

"Not right now. But I'm still mad."

Finally all of the white stuff was gone and the redhead's soft eyes slowly opened.

"Oz," she murmured, looking at her werewolf boyfriend.

"Hey." Willow's eyes swept around the room as she sat up, looking for something. There was Cordy, Giles, Angel, Anya and Doyle, Xander was missing and . . . Buffy. The world spun crazily again but before she could collapse Buffy was across the room and holding her.

"Easy, don't want you to hit your head." Buffy gently moved her against a pile of pillows so that she was supported.

Meanwhile Willow's brain was having a hard time absorbing the information. It basically looks like Buffy, it sounds like Buffy, it acts like Buffy. So it's got to be Buffy. Right?

"There you go, Will." Buffy smiled, and even with her hair brown, it was uniquely her, and incredibly sad.

The moment that she heard those words and saw that smile Willow knew that the vision was true - Buffy was alive.

~~FLASHBACK~~

It was a short while after the police had finished their investigation and decided that Buffy was innocent after all. Giles, Willow, Xander, Cordelia and Oz were all sitting in Giles' apartment.

"Well, after all this time I think there is only one conclusion that we can come to." Even as he said the words Giles was looking down at his mug of hot tea, devastation written on his face. "Buffy is dead."

Willow hiccupped, tears streaming down her face. Immediately Oz wrapped his arms tightly around her, whispering meaningless words of comfort in her ear.

Giles continued grimly. "Angel is gone, Spike and Drucilla are both also gone, as is Buffy. We have heard that Spike and Drucilla have left Sunnydale, but that is the only thing we have heard. With no word about Buffy or Angel after all this time, they can only be dead." He sighed softly. "The only thing that we can do now is get on with our lives."

During the four years that followed all of them did just that. Got on with their lives. All, that is, except Willow. You could barely mention Buffy's name without her starting crying, and on the anniversary that Buffy disappeared she refused to leave the house, and often the bed.

Because the red haired witch blamed herself for her best friend's death, and Angel's as well. If she hadn't messed up the spell then Buffy would be here with them with Angel by her side. But the spell hadn't worked and they were both dead.

When Angel returned Willow had let herself hope that he would tell them what had happened to Buffy, only to have that hope cruelly destroyed, Angel was an animal, afraid and aggressive with no hint of humanity left in him.

Even when he had finally recovered, he hadn't been able to tell them anything from before, because for a reason that he wouldn't ever mention, Angel had lost every memory that he had ever had. He couldn't remember them, where he had come from, his own name . . . and he didn't remember Buffy.

~~END FLASHBACK~~

Now that Willow wasn't in any danger Buffy looked guilty and uncertain, unsure what her place was in their lives or if she even had one. She moved away from the witch's and walked to the other side of the room.

Still staring at her Willow was sure whether she should yell at Buffy or comfort her.

Slowly she stood up and made her way towards her.

Seeing what she was going to do Buffy stiffened and looked down at the floor, trying to avoid Willow's eyes.

She thinks I'm going to yell at her.

But continuing across the room towards her, Willow softly whispered her name. "Buffy?"

Suddenly the Slayer started to cry helplessly. She had so many things and people to cry for, so many reasons to cry that she didn't have a chance of naming them all. But Willow's voice had been so afraid and uncertain, as though she still wasn't sure that Buffy was real, or that she would vanish again if she spoke too loud.

Willow noticed instantly that Buffy's shoulders were shaking, her entire body racked with huge sobs of guilt that she couldn't control. When she finally raised her head and looked at her best friend she looked so venerable standing there, with tears streaming down her beautiful face, as if she were ready to bolt from the room.

It was then that Willow realized the something had happened in Buffy's life, something huge and terrible that the witch was not a part of. And she realized that whatever it was had changed her friend for the rest of her life, that she would never quite be the same again.

Willow didn't know how many times she had woken up in the night, pulled on a coat and gone outside, to look at the stars as if they could tell her the answers that she desperately needed to know.

And even despite the hurt and the sorrow that she had suffered for four long years Willow felt sorry for her friend, and as she got close enough she held out her arms.

A crushing weight of guilt landed seemed to land on Buffy and her friend knew that whatever the reason she had left, why she had needed to get away from Sunnydale, it was something that despite her love for Oz that Willow could never hope to understand.

When she saw the even stronger pain and guilt on Buffy's face she knew how much she had suffered. That Buffy hadn't just left them and forgotten everything that they had shared, that she had probably done the same thing at night, gone outside and stared at the stars as she wished that she was back with them.

As she thought that she was even more right than she imagined, and still sobbing Buffy gave in.

The barriers that she had so carefully put up and maintained, that had kept her distanced from her friends in Los Angeles, came crashing down around her. Finally she allowed her herself to take comfort from another human being and fell into Willow's arms.

~

As he watched the entire scene unravel before him Angel felt strong, conflicting emotions. First he felt Buffy's pain as if it were his own, he felt sadness that something had happened to hurt her so badly, guilt and anger that he had not been able to stop whatever had happened, and intense jealousy that she was not in his arms.

Angel swore to himself that if, someday in the future, she ever needed to be comforted again, that she would be in his arms and that he would do anything to stop her pain.

~

Hmm, the gang has been reunited and it only took ten chapters. Lol. You know, I think as this story goes on my writing's improving, what d'ya think?