Chapter 4

"You're not in trouble, willow," Giles said, as he paced the library restlessly in front of her. "I do think that you have been bloody stupid in over reacting to a simple request, a piece of advice even. And to let yourself get so worked up that unleashing it provoked something like this… well, that was just damned irresponsible."

Willow dipped her head, looking at her feet and trying to stop herself breaking out into tears of shame. She tried to shrink into the over stuffed armchair in which she was sat, only to be rapped across the shoulders by Axel, and made to sit up straight.

Giles took a deep breath and started to talk to the former monk, distracting him from his business of making sure willow was facing the music.

Willow herself tuned the men out.

Her mentor had taken her straight to Giles after giving her a few minutes to calm down by herself. She had been given a glass of water, which she still held, rolling the final drops around the bottom of the glass, trying to calm the deeply hidden fear she had of being told off, a remainder of her school days, when she had been nothing more that plain, reliable Willow, who wouldn't go near the goose, never mind say "Boo" to it.

She had sat through a lecture which she had heard many times that summer about control and respect for magic. It was repeated that she had to learn to separate her emotions from her spells if she wanted to cast successfully, and how she had to start small and return to basics because something dreadful would happen should she attempt something big and find herself unable to handle it. Something like the storm she had sent to Sunnydale.

She knew the repercussions of her outburst. Stormy days generally made it darker, and a cloud of that thickness would turn day to night, upsetting the natural order of things- birds would roost without knowing when to awake, the weather would be unpredictable even after it cleared, anything powered or effect in any way by the sun would be rendered useless. And on a worse note, the creatures of the night would have uninterrupted playtime.

But that's what you wanted.

"Never," Willow whispered, too quiet for either man to hear her.

You hate Buffy for what she's done to you though.

The feelings were still there. Buffy had survived where Tara had died from a shot intended for her. It was important that Buffy lived for them to all prevail, but her true love…

Willow shook the thoughts of anger from her head. Buffy had saved her countless times, and Tara wouldn't want her to feel this way about a mutual friend. Axel was right. It would take her a long time to get over the feelings, her healing was just beginning, but she knew enough to admit that someday she had to let go, had to grow into being the old Willow. The Willow who could be counted on, who was always there, who would help when she was needed.

"What do you propose we do now?" Giles was asking, causing Axel to look up at his friend, frowning, and shaking his head slowly.

"Since we don't actually know the spell which she cast, it will take a considerable amount of time for either of us to find a counter spell. Weeks, possibly months."

The Willow within, who was fighting to the surface with a solution.

"Erm… excuse me?" she asked, timid now. "I think I know what needs to be done, if you'll trust me with this one final bit of big magic."

The phone rang on, and Giles rolled his eyes heavenwards. What was the point of having a phone if you were never in to answer it? Bloody Americans…

"Hi this is Buffy and Dawn. We're not currently home, so do your thang…"

Again Giles rolled his eyes. The concept of communication had gone right out of the window amongst teenagers. Honestly- in his day… well, he himself would probably have not even recorded a message, but that was besides the point.

"Ah Buffy…"

He left a message for his slayer detailing how Willow had had a slight accident, and how they were attempting a spell for her to correct it. He used more big words than that, and more than a few expletives, directing his anger and disappointment into the phone while warning Buffy that things would be rough for the next day or so. And that was putting it nicely.

Replacing the phone, he turned sharply on his heels, and nodded his head in Willow's direction.

"Let us start."