See chapter 1 for author's notes and disclaimers.

Before Willow knew it, the lecture was over and Adam was standing beside her. "Did I really have nothing to say worth noting?" he teased, motioning to the still blank page in her notebook.

She looked down at it and then back up at him, her face turning the dusty rose color of her silk shirt. She answered him sheepishly. "I got so caught up in what you were saying that I...sorta missed what you were saying," she admitted.

His hazel eyes shone with amusement as he regarded her. "Come have coffee with me, and I'll recap for you."

As she looked into his eyes, something caught her attention. They looked so old, like he had seen so much more than his age could account for. She hesitated before answering him.

As if sensing her uneasiness, he spoke again. "I promise I don't bite."

That made her smile. Coming from Sunnydale, she knew that that was a major plus in his favor. "All right."

#####

And that was how it started. They'd gone for coffee and ended up talking for hours. Through their conversation they realized they had a lot in common with each other. From their knowledge of history and folklore to their shared tastes in music.

They would leave together each day after her mythology class he was guest lecturing for. Even after his stint as instructor was over, he would meet her outside the lecture hall and they would go wherever their feet took them: museums, parks, libraries, movies... Each was the close friend the other had been seeking for quite some time.

It was about two months after their having met and on the return home from one of these outings that something happened to change the course of their friendship. The movie had let out late, around one in the morning. It had been some sort of art film that had left both Adam and Willow less than interested and quite sleepy by the time it was over.

The theatre wasn't very far from the university housing Willow was living in, but Adam insisted on walking her home anyway. 'I don't know why he has to be so paranoid,' she thought to herself as they made their way down a couple of alleys. She was continuing her inner monologue about overgrown male senses of chivalry when Adam suddenly stopped. "What is it?" She asked as he scanned the area, a strange look coming over his face.

As he continued his assessment, he answered in a whisper. "Stay here." He began silently moving past her and forward into the alley.

Confusion played across her delicate features. "Adam, what's going on..?"

He whirled to face her, a dark expression on his face and in his eyes that she had never seen before. "Stay quiet and stay here." It was an order, not a request.

Before she could protest further, a sound in the alley caught both of their attentions. The footsteps were somewhat quiet at first, but they soon got louder. Someone was there, and they were coming closer. Adam used his left arm to push Willow back around the corner from the opening of the alley and reached the other hand into his coat to grip the hilt of his Ivanhoe.

He still couldn't see this unwelcome visitor, but he knew he was there – just out of range of the meager light cast by the streetlamp at Adam's back across from where he'd left Willow. Normally, his sword would have been drawn the instant he'd sensed the other immortal, but if there was any chance he could get away with not dragging Willow into the knowledge of Immortals, he'd try to keep it that way.

The fear and the curiosity warred with one another in the young woman's brain. Eventually the curiosity won out, and she carefully peeked around the corner. At that moment, the stranger stepped into the light.

He was a short, stocky man with dirty blonde hair. He wore jeans and a black long-sleeved shirt. He appeared to be fairly well muscled, but the thing about him that drew her attention the most was the yard of glinting metal he held out before him. 'A sword?' she thought to herself. 'Why does this guy have a sword?'

Willow hadn't even begun to answer herself when the man spoke. "I am here for your head." Her eyes widened at his words.

Before she could even process what was going on, Adam had drawn a sword from – well, she had no idea where from, it just seemed to appear – and the two men began circling one another, Adam shedding his trench coat. Once they had appropriately sized each other up, the fighting began in earnest, and they kept up a feverish pace, metal clanging against metal. As they fought, Willow edged closer and closer, until she was no longer hidden from view.

She was within a couple of yards of the two adversaries when the stranger managed a blow that got under Adam's guard and sliced open the tender flesh beneath his ribcage. Willow let out a strangled cry and Adam looked to her, his defenses dropping momentarily. It was all his foe needed. With unerring skill, Adam was disarmed and on his knees in the half lit alley.

"No," she pleaded, shaking her head vehemently. "No, no, no." 'I can't lose Adam.'

The man smiled sinisterly at Willow and spoke. "Why, thank you, my dear." His voice was low and slimy. He raised his sword above his head and prepared to make the stroke that would sever Adam's head from his body.

Seeing what he intended to do, Willow did the only thing she could think of. Her eyes became dark pools, and she began chanting every painful spell she could remember. With a passion and fury she'd barely even let herself think about since the death of her beloved Tara, Willow let loose every power she had access to on the stranger. The confined space lit up with an eerie glow of energy, bright as daylight but much more unnatural. The blonde man screamed with the pain Willow's magic was inflicting upon him.

Adam couldn't believe what he was seeing. He'd experienced magic many times in his long life, of course, but nothing compared to the sheer power exuding from the usually unassuming Willow. His eyes kept darting from his opponent to Willow and back again. The man was convulsing, blood running out of his nose, ears, and mouth. Willow looked inhuman; her eyes were solid black orbs and her skin looked abnormally pale.

In the blink of an eye the man's head was on one side of the alley, his body was on the other, and Willow was slumped on the cold pavement, the display over. Adam managed a deer-in-the-headlights look moments before the Quickening began. The mist rose up from the dead man's body and then the lightening began.

Willow watched in horror as the repercussions of the spells she'd used chose Adam as their target. There were always consequences for using magic, but she'd thought they would be for her, not for him. Lightening wracked his body, tearing violently through his system. He fell forward on his hands and knees, the strength of the energy Willow had thrown into the man overpowering the already weakened immortal.

As the Quickening ended, the force of it and the blood loss got to Adam. Before he could offer any reassurances to the stunned Willow, he fell face down on the pavement and died as she continued to watch in shocked silence.

When she saw his breathing stop she began to crawl toward him. Willow ignored everything else around her, all of her concentration on the lifeless form sprawled out in front of her. "Adam? Adam!" The tears began to fall freely from her eyes, and she grasped at his lifeless body as she sobbed. She still spoke, but most of it came out stuttered and hard to decipher. "No...not again...not-not like Tara...can't leave...I didn't mean it...trying to save you..." She finally sank into a keening wail that spoke of a loss and pain too deep to bear.