"You're bruised," Tara said quietly as she washed Willow's back.
"It'll heal - I hope," Willow replied, wincing, sitting forward in the bath to let Tara get farther along her back. She smiled at her lover, kneeling on the floor next to the bathtub.
Tara leaned over and gave her a soft kiss. "How was patrol?" she asked, sitting against the bathroom wall.
"Oh, the usual, kablooey demons, Spike-punching, the usual," Willow replied.
"Why did you punch Spike?" Tara asked.
"He was trying to say that I want Buffy back so I wouldn't have to be the Slayer anymore," Willow replied. "And he asked me what kind of a friend I was."
"Jerk," Tara said. "A good friend. One who let Buffy live with the choice she made."
"But she's still in my head," Willow said. "I don't know what to do."
"I do," Tara said, reaching her hand to Willow, her eyes inviting. "Love me."
Willow stepped out of the bath, the goo finally out of her red hair, and wrapped herself in a towel. Following Tara to their bed, they kissed and made love, able to forget for a few moments the stress of being the erstwhile Slayer - and the one who loved her.
Giles sat at home, wondering about Willow on patrol, how she was doing. He wondered how Buffy was. WHERE Buffy was.
"I've got to get out of my flat," he said to himself. "Maybe I can call Bess."
He rummaged in his suitcoat pockets until he found the slip of paper she'd written on. Carrying the piece of paper, he sat down on his couch and dialed the number.
"Hello?" a soft feminine voice came on the phone. "Yes, hello, this is Rupert Giles, we met.."
"...in the woods," she replied. "This is Bess. How are you?"
"Truth be told, not great. Could we go get a drink, perhaps?"
"That sounds nice," she said. "Want to meet at WannaBees? That's got some quiet corner tables."
"Sure," Giles replied. "Shall we say in a half-hour?"
"Sounds good. See you then."
"Yes, then," Giles said. "Thank you, Bess."
"Thank you, Rupert."
A half hour later found Giles in a corner booth by himself, nervously sipping a whiskey. He stood quickly when he saw the dark-haired beauty walk into the bar and look around. He waved discreetly and she made her way through the other tables to him.
"A Long Island iced tea, please," she said to the server who was nearest them.
"Sure thing, lady," he said and went to get the drink. Giles and Bess sat across from each other on the round table with the curved seat arcing between them. Bess looked calmly at Giles as he took off his glasses and began polishing them with the napkin his glass had rested on.
"You're agitated, aren't you?" she said softly.
"I'm still dealing with all of this...there's so much I need to talk about, but I don't know if I can," he said.
"Well, give me a try," Bess offered. "I think you'll find I'm surprisingly hard to shock."
"To understand my problem, you have to understand who I am," he said. "I'm a Watcher."
"A watcher? As in a peeping Tom?" she questioned.
"No, capital W," he said.
"I'm part of a group from England. Part of what I do is train and watch over a girl who fights vampires."
"A Slayer?" she asked.
He blinked in surprise. "Yes, how did you know?"
"I was a literature major in college," she replied. "We did a section on journals and such, and now it makes me think that one of them we studied was part of your group."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Fascinating. Those are supposed to be under much better guard than that." Giles said.
"I just didn't know the NAME of what that group was called," she said. "It talked about a young girl who fought vampires and ... it told how she died."
"Yes." Giles said, his voice getting softer. "The woods by the gravestone? I was saying goodbye to my Slayer. But then it got all terribly muddled."
"How's that?" she asked.
"One of Buffy's friends — Buffy was my Slayer — is a powerful witch. In the last year, Willow's dabbled with the darker powers of magic and learned some amazing things. One of the entities we fought had stolen her lover's mind from her and Willow retrieved it through magic," Giles said.
Bess took a deep swallow of her drink. "That doesn't surprise me much," she said. "To tell you the truth, I'm very sensitive to the magicks and slightly telepathic. Back a few months, I sensed a really powerful person at work. I suspect it was her."
"But the strange part," Giles said. "Happened when Buffy died. Or sort of died. Buffy gave her life to save her sister's by jumping off a tower. She survived for a little while after the fall. Willow tried to save her through magickal means but thought she failed."
He stopped for a moment, tossing back the remains of his drink. He wiped his mouth, let out a breath and continued.
"It seems Willow was able to retrieve not only Buffy's mind but also her essence," Giles said. "Willow shares Buffy's memories and Slayer skills, as well as using her own magickal powers. Now we don't know what to do. The others want to resurrect her through magickal means and then figure out how Willow can put Buffy back together again."
It was Bess' turn to blink. "Giles - perhaps the Fates ordained us to run into each other. I may know a way to remedy the situation. In digging through medieval literature texts in college, I found some spell books that deal with these sorts of things. Let me do some research and get back to you."
"Please do," Giles said quietly. "While Willow's twice as powerful as some Slayers - with Wicca and fighting skills at her command — she's also only doing this in Buffy's memory. Buffy was fulfilling prophecy, she was doing what destiny demanded. If she wasn't supposed to die then, I fear for Willow's survival."
A week had gone by. Giles had spent a lot of time considering what to do. Willow continued as the erstwhile Slayer and life continued as usual — for the Hellmouth. Following a particular brutal fight with a vampire, Willow came to Giles.
"I don't know if I can do this, Giles," she said. "Levitating pencils to stake vampires and having Buffy's fighting skills only go so far. I'm still ME at heart."
"Hold on a little longer, Willow," he said. "Bess, a lady I met a few weeks ago thinks she may be able to remedy the situation."
"How can anybody remedy this?" Willow asked. "Buffy's still in my head."
"She thinks she may know a spell that can transfer Buffy's essence back to her. We're trying to figure out how to reanimate Buffy's body, though, short of spells. Those are ruthless - and often unpredictable," Giles said.
"Look!" Willow said. "You are powerful. I'm powerful. Tara's powerful. This Bess, I take it she's a witch too?"
"Yes," Giles said. "She's been practicing for many years."
"How can the four of us NOT help Buffy?" Willow asked.
"Bess will let us know," Giles said. "I trust her."