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Author: Ash
Distribution: Any one who already has some of my fic and anyone else if they ask.
Disclaimer: To the surprise of everyone, these are still not my characters.
Rating: Oh, I give up. If it's not PG-13, I'll tell you.
Author's Note: Reviews? Replied to. Ecstatic smile? Firmly in place. *g*
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Part Five
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It was a long drive home from the hospital.
"Willow? Mrs. Summers said for the third time. Are you okay back there?
Yes, Mrs. Summers. Willow said for the third time, trying not to cringe as Mrs. Summers turned away from the steering wheel to look back at her. Traffic fatality statistics kept running through her mind. She was aware that Buffy was looking at her sympathetically. Fine for her, Willow thought. She's the Slayer. She can survive a four-car pileup.
Joyce asked, looking back again. Would you like to stop for some coffee?
No, Mrs. Summers. Thank you. Willow said politely.
Truck, Mrs. Summers, Willow thought. Truck! Ah – oh, okay. Missed it.
This was Buffy's fault, Willow thought miserably. If she hadn't told her mother about the attack', then Willow could have just slunk happily home on the bus instead of being shanghaied in a family sedan and forcibly whisked off to the Summers' house.
Mrs. Summers said. Do you like fried chicken?
No, Mrs. Summers. Willow said and thought longingly of her own parents. She could really do with some of that benign neglect right about now. If Mrs. Summers kept up this level of concern, there was no way Willow would be able to figure out what was going on before nightfall.
Then again, Willow thought as the front fender of an RV loomed large in the front window, maybe Mrs. Summers would just kill them all now and save Angelus the trouble. She had to stifle a smile at the thought of Angelus' face upon learning that both Willow and Buffy had been killed in a traffic accident. It would almost be worth it.
Almost. Mrs. Summers! Willow squeaked. Other side! Other side!
It's a one way street, Willow. Mrs. Summers said. This is the only side there is.
Willow said, subsiding back into her seat. Good. Um carry on.
Are you sure you're all right? Mrs. Summers asked.
"Yes, Mrs. Summers." Willow replied. She was fine. Really. Why wouldn't she be fine? The fear center of her brain took that as its cue: Reason One: Angelus is after you. Reason Two: Angelus is after you. Reason Thre-
Willow clamped a lid on that train of thought. It was a rhetorical question, she told herself. Rhetorical! And you're me, so you had to know that it was rhetorical, so quit it. Angelus is after you, her mind said back, and Willow thought that it sounded amused.
I hate living on the Hellmouth, Willow thought. Even my mind is against me.
She could feel Buffy watching her. They hadn't really had a chance to talk in the hospital, and Willow could almost feel Buffy vibrating with the need to know.
As Willow's best friend, Buffy had a traditional obligation to provide a shoulder to cry on, a comforting hug and chocolate. Lots and lots of chocolate. And as the Slayer, Buffy had a sacred duty to march out into the night, wreak bloody vengeance and then bring Willow home the beating heart of her enemy and also more chocolate.
Under normal circumstances, that would have been exactly what Willow would have wanted. A chance to pour out her fears and receive sugary treats and/or bloody vengeance sounded really good right about now.
But this time, she'd been sworn to secrecy. Well, threatened to secrecy. Willow bit her lip. Angelus had said that she shouldn't tell anyone what she'd done, or had done to her. That'd be a lot easier if she knew what it was.
A chill ran through Willow when she thought of the second part of Angelus' admonition. Whatever it was that she'd done, he didn't want her to undo it. That couldn't be good. Willow strongly suspected that anything a vampire wanted to keep, particularly something that led to biting, was something she should be actively trying to get rid of.
Willow pushed the speculations to the back of her mind. There would be time enough to deal with it when she had any idea what well, what it was! Had to be something to do with the spell.
And until I figure out what I'm not supposed to say, Willow thought, it might be better to avoid all forms of the truth. 'Cause if part of the truth is what I'm not supposed to say, than not saying any of it will keep anyone from getting killed!
The memory of a whisper tingled up and down her nerves and she shivered. "Be seeing you." He'd said. And laughed.
Okay, so this strategy isn't perfect, Willow conceded to herself. But nobody will die...except possibly me. I'm okay with that. I think. Better me than other people. Though a complete lack of death would be optimal.
From her seat beside Willow, Buffy had been observing the lip biting, sighing, shivering and gulping with increasing concern. She had enough experience in this area to recognize all the symptoms of "Willow In Turmoil". Granted, Buffy thought, nearly dying was enough to upset anyone. But this seemed different.
Different from the twenty other times she's almost died, Buffy thought scornfully. Will you listen to yourself? This is Willow! And you're analyzing her reactions like she's the Hellmouth's Scaly Creature Du Jour!
Buffy patted Willow's arm gently to attract her attention. She leaned it until she was out-of-parental-hearing range and whispered, "Everything will be fine. I won't let you out of my sight. Plus, we have chocolate!"
Willow offered her a sickly smile and said, "Oh. Good!"
Satisfied, Buffy sat back and waited for the ride to end.
Willow felt nauseous. How was she supposed to figure out what's going on if they never left her alone?
What am I going to do, she thought. I need to research that spell but chocolate. Yum. But not worth death! Let's have a little focus here! Right. I have to think of a lie that gets me out of there, doesn't make Buffy worry about me, and sounds plausible.
*****
"It wasn't Angel?" Buffy said, looked both confused and relieved.
"Nope. Not Angel. Willow said, shaking her head. Nothing like him at all. This vampire was, uh short! And I think he was balding. " Too much, she thought. Keep it simple.
"So, let me see if I've got this straight. Buffy said. You ran into a vamp on the way home" She paused, and gave Willow an odd look. "A short, balding vamp. You staked him with a tree branch, but not before he'd managed to drain a lot of blood. You somehow made it home and got inside"
Buffy broke off and fished around her pockets. "Oh, that reminds me, she said. When I went to pick up a change of clothes for you, I found your keys in the bushes. "
Uh oh, Willow thought.
"Yeah Willow said slowly. I must have dropped them. I, uh Think fast! Faster than that! I climbed in through the balcony! Yeah. Weird, huh?" Good, she congratulated herself. Sounding casual, very good.
"Just a tad. How could you do that while you were so low on blood?" Buffy asked. She sounded curious, but it was probably just Willow's imagination that laced her tone with a hint of suspicion. Probably.
Flying monkeys? Demonic influence? No, that wouldn't help things much, Willow thought. Frantically she ran through the things that could have gotten her up to the balcony before dismissing them all as too contrived.
Willow gave Buffy her most innocent it-certainly-wasn't-me-who-hacked-into-the-computer smile and shrugged. "Just one of those weird things, I guess. "
Buffy looked at her for a moment longer and then relaxed and said, "I guess. " Cheering up now that she was no longer directly responsible for Willow's injury, she grabbed the bag of Oreos and settled down on the bed next to Willow. "So, she said. Which video do you want to watch first?"
"Ooh! Princess Bride!" Willow said, bouncing slightly out of relief. She reached in the bag for a cookie, telling herself that tomorrow would be soon enough to go home and face Angelus. Tonight, there were cookies.
Outside the window, a figure detached itself from the shadows in the tree and leaped to the ground. Angelus walked away from the house with his hands in the pocket of his coat and something that was not a smile curving his lips upwards.
*******
The next morning, Willow closed the front door of her house behind her with a deep sigh. It had taken quite a bit of persuasion to convince Buffy that she would be all right at home by herself. Not that that was exactly what Willow wanted night would be coming soon, and then-
Willow stopped that train of thought before it drove her right back to Buffy's house. And chocolate. And silly movies, and No. It wouldn't be a good idea to trade one night of fun for having to spend the rest of her life dead.
She frowned. Having to spend the rest of her life dead? There was something wrong with that thought maybe she had a concussion. Maybe she should go back to the hospital and get checked out. They had chocolate there, too.
One trip to the store and three Kit Kat bars later, Willow settled down to do research. It took seven hours of searching the web, the books and anywhere else she could find but she finally found it. The flaw. The problem. The thing that was going to kill her.
She found it in a small book of annotations that had been created by a modern alchemist/witch who had strongly believed that the flowery language that most spells were written in was useless at best and dangerous at worst. As she'd put it, There's a reason why explosives manuals don't use metaphors. Calling a demon is tricky enough, calling one while also trying to translate the instructions into haiku form is just asking for trouble.
In an attempt to make old spell books clearer, this witch had translated them into chemical language, citing reagents, procedure, primary effect, secondary effects
Willow sat and stared blankly at the page dealing with the Lure of the Shadows spell.
Oh. She thought. This is so not what I wanted to find out.
She'd been hoping to see the word, "protected" or maybe even, "temporary".
Darn it, Willow thought bitterly. I knew I should have taken the time to translate the Latin. But no I wanted to get my Geography homework done. That's just peachy!
Not for the first time, Willow wished that she could swear. A few well-chosen adjectives would have gone a long way towards making her a happier person.
She slumped back against the headboard of her bed and read the page again.
"This spell is very rarely used, for obvious reasons."
Hah, she thought. Weren't so obvious to me, now were they?
"In my opinion, it should not be used at all. It is unconscionable to sacrifice an innocent life, even to gain complete control over a demon. (See footnote 7)"
What? What was that?
Flipping frantically to the back of the book, Willow searched through the numerous footnotes. She found the one she was looking for in a small section titled "Historical Usage". Quickly, she read it. And then she read it again. And again.
A small smile lifted the corners of Willow's mouth. It wasn't all she had hoped for but yay! She might not have to die!
Sobering quickly, Willow glanced out the window at the gathering dusk. Now, she thought, if only Angelus will let me live long enough to explain that to him.
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Tell me what you think?
This is completely something that I would do, you know. I remember this one time when I was making explosives for a school project and it came down to a choice between A) wearing safety equipment or B) going to the vending machine and getting chips. Needless to say, I have the distinction of having made the first batch of sour cream & onion gunpowder ever. *g*