Author's Notes: This part is still low on B/A, but there's lots of stuff going on. B/A will be coming very soon, promise!

AN2: Thank you's go out to: Court, Christine, clues4eva, Angellover, Tariq, and TK for the wonderful feedback. Thank you so much!!!

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Part 7 - Forgotten Memories

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Another week passed by and life remained at status quo for the members of the Sunnydale gang. Each went about their lives as best they could. They went to work, ate, slept, and commiserated with one another. But life went on, and there were happy times.

The first couple months after Buffy's attack had been agonizing for them, but as time passed the girl in the coma became less pressing on their minds. They still worried, still and hoped, but they couldn't allow their lives to revolve around her. So they continued on with their lives, moved forward, but never really forgetting.

Angel dejectedly accepted the fact that four weeks had passed since his arrival back home. That detail held little merit except it unfortunately meant it was time for him to start his job. For a moment he wondered if he should quit the job, but quickly realized it wasn't a valid idea. He needed to work. If anything it would give him a focus other than Buffy.

Even he realized that devoting his entire life to her was a little on the unhealthy side...plus the monetary income would be rather helpful. The job itself didn't make him nervous in the least bit. Angel was quite confident in his abilities. What made him nervous was having something take up so much of his time.

From the time he learned of Buffy's condition, he spent hours a day with her, or in the vicinity. He did anything possible to be of assistance because he just wanted to be useful. Or maybe it was just a vain attempt to repent for past wrongs. Regardless, it meant that he was often nearby in case, well, in case *anything* happened. But now he wasn't going to be able to be there as much, wouldn't be able to hold her delicate hand, caress her silky cheeky, silently beg her to wake up.or anything as much as he had.

Angel knew the others discussed amongst themselves about how it would be better if he weren't there if she were to someday wakeup. He hated them for it, but he also understood. Having her wake up and look upon him with seething hatred would be unbearable, but at least he would know she was going to live, and have another chance to be happy. That was all her wanted.

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Willow awoke and glanced at the clock to her right. It was eleven a.m., on a Thursday. She reveled in that fact. She'd decided to take the day off to spend some time with Joyce, who seemed a bit depressed, and also to get some extra rest since she'd been feeling not quite herself lately. No matter how much sleep she got her body was always fatigued. She assumed the stress of the last eight months was finally catching up with her. Grumbling at the thought of leaving her warm bed, she forced herself to get up and shower. She had promised Joyce she would have lunch with her today.

A few hours later, satisfyingly fed and relaxed, Willow decided she would use the afternoon to straighten up Buffy's room as she had taken to doing every so often the last few months. With all the people traipsing in and out of the room daily, and the constant barrage of flowers and gifts, the room took a beating. The little bit of cleaning she did was reassuring to her that she was doing something useful.

As Willow entered Buffy's room she eyed the flower arrangements that were scattered about. Giles had new ones delivered every few days. He said they made the room more welcoming, and he was right, they did. The others often brought things once in a while as well, stuffed animals, pictures, cards, flowers. And Willow had saved all that she could, the flowers, of course, couldn't be saved, but the other stuff remained in the room, waiting there for Buffy to awake and see how much her friends and family cared about her.

Sighing to herself for no reason, Willow set about the task at hand. She threw away some of the dying flowers, gave fresh water to the newer ones, and arranged the new stuffed animal arrivals. A soundless giggle echoed in her head as she looked at the menacing plush hyena that Xander had brought the week before. Only Xander could pick out something like that she noted.

Once all the various room decorations were tended to, Willow pulled out the dust rag that had been stored in her pocket and worked on ridding the room of the annoying little particles that constantly reappeared. A moment later the silence of the room was broken by a slight sound from behind her.

"Willow?"

Willow spun around quickly in response to the almost inaudible call of her name. Her eyes widened in pleasant shock at the revelation before her.

"Buffy?" she whispered, hardly able to form words at all.

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Across town Angel sat silently in a meeting with his coworkers who were discussing ideas for upcoming stories. He didn't yet feel quite comfortable with his new job to be an active participant in the discussion, but he still gave his opinion when asked.

As he sat listening to the words being spoken a sudden feeling washed over his body, dizzying his mind. Moments later an image of Buffy flashed in front of his eyes. 'Oh god', he thought to himself, knowing instinctively that something was wrong, but not having a clue as to what.

He wanted desperately to dash out of the room and run to her, but he couldn't and part of him wasn't sure if he wanted to. Did he want to know if her condition had suddenly worsened? Did he want to arrive at her house to find her awake and looking at him in distaste? He honestly didn't know. Sometimes ignorance really was bliss.

So he just stayed where he was, listening to the droning words of his colleagues. Despite his indecision on wanting to find out what had happened, Angel knew that the second the meeting was over he would be out the door and on the way to Buffy. His only thought was that he hoped that, whatever it was, she was all right.

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Hours seemed to pass as Willow stood and stared at the frail blonde girl before her., the unexpected shock of her awakening overloading her mind. Finally she shook herself out of the daze she'd lapsed into and rushed over to her once best friend and embraced her in a firm hug.

"Oh my god, Buffy," choked out Willow, tears running down her face.

"What's going on?" the confused blonde asked.

As she continued to embrace her friend, Willow began to worry about what to do. Other than Buffy's nurse she was the only one home. Giles was at work, Joyce had gone out to run a few errands, so it was just her. Fortunately they all had discussed with the doctor what to do if she woke up. It had been decided that they would tell her the bare minimum of details because they had no idea what she would remember of the events preceding her attack and usually it was preferred that a patient remember trauma on their own accord. Remembering this decision Willow pulled back from Buffy.

"I'll explain in a minute, I have to go get someone first," replied Willow.

A minute later she returned with the day nurse who, aside from being shocked at the young girl's recent turn of events, checked all of her vitals to make sure that she was doing okay. Once she had completed her exam she left the room to place a call to Buffy's doctor to inform him of the change in the patient's condition.

Upon her exit, Willow found herself in the position to be the one to have to tell Buffy about all that had happened. Well, at least the parts that were absolutely necessary to tell her, and truth be told, there was a lot that neither she, nor any of the others knew and therefore they couldn't fill in those blanks anyway.

"You changed you hair," commented Buffy, not knowing what else to say, and also rather confused at how different her friend looked.

"Yeah, I did it a while ago," frowned Willow, her mind beginning to grow even more nervous.

"A while ago? How long have I been out?" questioned Buffy, realizing that she'd obviously been unconscious.

"You've been in a coma.for a while. What do you remember?" Willow questioned. It was the best way to determine what memories Buffy held of her attack.

"I.I, uh.that psych project for Prof Walsh is the only thing coming to mind," Buffy answered with a scrunched brow. Everything in her head was hazy and confusing.

Willow fought to contain the shock she felt at the answer she'd received. They had taken that class together freshmen year.which was four or so years ago. The implications of this were setting into Willow's mind. Was that the most recent thing Buffy remembered? If so then that meant there was a whole lot she didn't, and not just the attack. She thought for a minute and tried to figure out how to proceed.

"What year are you in college?" she asked cautiously.

"Huh? We're freshmen, duh.what's up with you?" Buffy replied incredulously, her hand going up to rub her aching head. She didn't understand why Willow had asked her that.

"Buffy.I'm not a freshman anymore. I graduated from college over a year ago," spoke Willow slowly. She knew her words were going to come as a shock to her block friend.

"What???" Buffy yelped, her voice cracking from disuse. Willow had graduated? How was that possible?

Finally deciding to take the plunge, Willow set about telling Buffy some of all that had gone on, leaving out the parts that were best for her to remember on her own.

"You've been in a coma for almost nine months. There was an attack, you were stabbed and beaten, and since then you've been in a coma," she explained while holding Buffy's right hand in hers.

Buffy remained silent and let Willow's answer sink into her brain. She searched her memory for any signs of what Willow had just told her, but nothing stood out. She remembered nothing at all about an attack, but from her psych class she remembered that this was common in people who just woke up from a coma. A thought then struck her. A nine month coma didn't work with Willow finishing three more years of college.

"You finished college? How? I don't remember finishing college," Buffy stated, a feeling of helplessness growing in her.

"The doctor told us before that you could have some memory loss when you wake up so I guess that's what's going on. But we'll have to wait until he sees you. The nurse called him so hopefully he will be here soon," comforted Willow, her heart breaking for her friend. "You look a little tired so why don't you try to get some sleep, ok?"

A thousand thoughts were swirling through Buffy's head. Everything was so muttled, and the more Willow talked the more confused she got. It felt like there was so much she was missing and it hurt her head to try and think about it. Maybe some sleep would be helpful. Maybe when she woke up this would all be a bad dream and everything would be back to normal.

"Yeah, I think some sleep might be good," she replied unenthusiastically.

Willow gave her a quick hug before slipping from the room as Buffy lay back and closed her eyes. She felt like her world was crashing down around her.again. She tried to understand the fact that the last thing she remembered happened almost four years earlier, but she couldn't. And then there was the reason for her coma. An attack. Someone had stabbed and beaten her. It just made no sense.

Turning over, Buffy buried her head in her pillow, silent tears soaking the cream colored material. She remained that way for nearly a half hour until exhaustion had taken over. Finally drifting off into a fitful sleep, one thought sounded deep inside her mind: what had she ever done to deserve the things that had happened to her?

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TBC.feedback makes my muse happy.