The door to Wesley's office was opened quickly by an excited looking Gunn three days after the first meeting with Angela.
"Yo English, she just called, she wants to get together with me tomorrow to hang out and I convinced her to meet me here first at 6 p.m."
"Excellent work Gunn. I finished getting all of the supplies needed for the spell from Mr.Giles this morning. We can all review it tonight so things will run smoothly tomorrow night."
Gunn nodded silently before putting his hands in his pockets and learning lightly against the door frame. "Do you really think it's gonna work? Like what if she has a breakdown or somethin'? I don't want us to like ruin her life or nothin'."
"Both Lorne and Mr. Giles believe that this spell is safe and that she is strong enough to handle the emotional after effects. Plus all of us will be there for her, we will help her get through this. I know that she wouldn't give up on anyone, so we should give her the same support."
Gunn smiled slightly at Wesley, feeling a bit better about the situation.
"Come along Gunn, we should prepare the others."
Angel who had been listening to the exchange between his two employees sighed. He was gratefully that everyone was so willing to help Willow, even if they hadn't known her before she was ripped away from them. He walked out to the main part of the lobby and placed a comforting hand on Cordelia's who eagerly accepted it. Clinging to him like a lifeline as Gunn and Wesley emerged to go over what was going to go down tomorrow night. They were going to get Willow back.
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6:05 p.m.
Nearly on time thought Angela as she glanced at her watch before gently pushing open the door to the Hyperion and stepping inside. Spotting Gunn and the girl who had introduced everyone yesterday by the counter she headed in their direction. They saw her coming and both called out hellos.
"Hey Angela, good to see you again, you remember Cordelia don't you? She was here when you met everyone a couple nights ago."
"Yes, of course, nice to meet you again Cordelia," said Angela holding out her hand for a shake.
A beaming smile radiated from Cordelia as she quickly grasped her hand and shook it so hard it was nearly painful.
"It's nice to see you again too. I'm really happy you came back," Cordelia stressed. "Like I mean we don't get many new faces coming by here."
Hearing the signal from Cordelia the group consisting of Lorne, Wesley, Angel, and Fred huddling within Angel's office knew that it was now or never. Wesley and Angel began to recite the spell while Fred and Lorne added the ingredients to the bowl in between the two chanting men.
Outside Angela was smiling thoughtfully while making small talk with Gunn and Cordelia. She felt sorry for the two of them. They looked like they wanted her friendship so desperately, why exactly she didn't know but at this point she didn't really care. They and the rest of their friends she had met the night she was rescued seemed so nice and so kind and friendly and yet also very sad. Gunn had even saved her, a total stranger in a dark LA alley when she could easily believe no other soul would ever do the same. She hated to see anyone unhappy so she decided her new goal would to bring them joy no matter what.
This resolution was firmly in her mind before she felt the headache come on. It was subtle at first before building at an alarming rate. She had never had one this bad before, the vision of her two new friends in front of her became distorted and she barely felt their hands supporting her and she slumped against the counter. With her ears ringing so loudly and the white light in front of her eyes blinding her she couldn't even hear her own blood curdling scream as everything turned to black.
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Willow felt like she was swimming as she began to regain consciousness, the first thing that she noticed was that she was in no pain. She could also feel the strong embrace that she was being held in as she felt herself rise in the air. Voices could be heard coming from all sides, some sounded familiar somehow as the rest sounded foreign to her, or did they. She was confused for a moment more before she realised two things.
The person holding her didn't have a heartbeat.
And
They were beginning to move.
Forcing her eyes open she tried to spring – unsuccessfully – from her captors arms before managing to twist her body and connect her knee to their groin area. Her captor set her on the ground but wouldn't release her from their grasp. Willow stopped struggling as she began to actually see her surroundings. A group of excited looking people was staring back at her. Memories began to assault her as she began matching their faces with names and memories. Trying to keep her breathing under control she was startled when she heard her captor –a man- say her name.
"Willow?"
"Willow? Are you alright? Do you remember anything? Who you are, where you are?"
She felt the hands let go of her slowly as she turned around and looked into his dark brown eyes. She knew him too. She could remember everything, Willow, Angela should could remember memories from both of their lives. Willow's life was so full of pain and Angela's was so bare of anything. Tears welled up in her eyes as she recognised the man in front of her. She placed a small white hand on his chest.
Speaking softly she uttered one word, "soul."
The small smile that graced his lips as she said that were dashed as she took her hand off of his chest and placed in on her own before saying, "hurt". And burst into tears.
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Willow was exhausted. She had just spent the entire night re-meeting her friends, both new and old. Realising that she was in LA, while the rest of her friends were in Sunnydale. With the help of her LA friends she slowly sifted through her memories as both Willow and Angela, facing the horrible truths of what occurred to make her Angela. They also told her everything they knew from both LA and Sunnydale that she had missed out on. She was emotionally run down. The waves of pain from her memories were plowing over all of the good. She felt so lost. All she wanted now was to go home but she sure where home was anymore.
A fresh wave of tears threatened to spill over, she knew that Buffy and Xander had done the right thing to send her away. The FBI for protecting her and sending that scumball to hell and that the LA gang had done the right thing by giving her, her old life and memories back. So why did she feel so alone, so betrayed? She felt the need to be comforted rise in her but instead she sat quietly and alone in the darkness of the lobby. Everyone else was staying the night and insisted that she get some rest as well. But she couldn't sleep, not right now anyway. In the morning she would ask Gunn to take her to her hotel to collect her things. She would come back here and decide how to spend the rest of her life. She would go back to Sunnydale. She knew that for sure but she wouldn't stay there, not forever. Willow Rosenberg was dead after all. Angela Jennifer Giles was still alive though.
A half smile appeared on her lips. Buffy had been right; she did like the name. But that wasn't who she was, no matter what she was still Willow. But Willow didn't have a future; Willow didn't have a plan. Willow didn't have a life she could just slip into. The frown reclaimed her lips as she sighed. What was she going to do?
Unknown to her though she was being watched from above as Angel and Lorne stood at the top of the stairs, leaning against the wall and looking at the red head below them.
"She's brooding."
"Better then you even Angelcakes, I never thought that anyone could beat you at that."
"I want to help her, but I'm not sure what else I can do."
"Well I know something that I can do, I'll go down there and have a chat with the little strawberry while you go to bed and get some rest. I'll find out what I can and then we can find something to do to help the girl."
"I don't need to rest, I need to help her Lorne."
"You can't help her properly if you don't get some rest, the parts you and Wesley played in the spell were very taxing."
"Not really, besides I owed it to her, she tired to restore my soul and was injured and put into a coma. She woke up and did it from her hospital bed. I can never fully repay her for what she did for me, but I need to try."
Lorne looked thoughtfully at the vampire beside him and could feel the emotions running off of him. He would die for that girl down there. Thinking back to the reading he had done earlier in the week when Angel sang he remembered the emotions the souled vamp had of Willow. Friendship, devotion, and love. He loved Willow but wouldn't do a thing about it. From everything he had gathered from the history of the original Sunnydale group she had given him back his soul out of pure friendship to him and Buffy. And Buffy loved her back as a friend but Angel's feelings towards Willow ran deeper then that. In love. That was the popular term used to describe what Angel was.
Spike loved Willow, and Lorne had no doubt in his mind that if the chipped vampire were near Willow he would smother her with it. But they weren't meant to be, in another lifetime yes, but not in this one. Making his decision final he gently pushed Angel away from the stairs.
"Let me help her for now, so we can all help her right tomorrow. For now go and get some sleep."
Knowing he was defeated Angel sighed and ran a hand over his face. "Thank you Lorne. For everything, for helping her."
Lorne just smiled as he watched Angel walk down the hall before turning and heading down the stairs and towards the redhead.
"What's a sweet little girl like you brooding in a place like this?" Lorne announced before sitting down so as not to scare the girl.
"Angel is the brooding one." She answered with a slight smile on her face.
"Normally yes but he's very happy since you've come back to his world. Want to tell me what's got you so down?"
Looking down at her feet she nodded yes. "Promise not to get mad and tell the others?"
"I can promise that I won't get mad, I believe that there is nothing that you can tell me that will make me mad. But I can't promise you that I won't tell the others. They just want to help you Willow, they love and care about you."
Willow nodded again before slowing telling Lorne her fears of the future, or lack there of, as well as her unawareness of her identity. He listened carefully as he held her hand and never interrupted her. When she finished he told her that what she was feeling was nothing to be ashamed of and how he could read into a person's future, before asking her to sing a song. She softly sang the first song she could remember. One of the Dingo's old songs. Lorne looked a slightly paler shade of green before telling her that she indeed had a future ahead but she couldn't start it without a goodnight's sleep. Plotting all the while to corner Wesley and his prophecy books first thing in the morning.