When she got home some hours later, she didn't know the exact time; Buffy sat down on the couch and closed her eyes. She needed five minutes, just five minutes. But she wasn't going to get any time to herself at all, not now. Her mom and Dawn came into the living room and sat either side of her as she smiled bravely at them. Her mom put her arm around her and she leaned in close, it felt good to be close to someone right now. Dawn put her head down and wouldn't look up, even as she spoke.

"Is Willow ok?" Buffy tried to look at her but couldn't whilst she was leaning on Joyce, so she sat up right and put her own arm around her sister.

"We don't know yet Dawn. The doctors have to run some more tests, we should know more in a couple of days."

"But, I mean – she's awake?" Buffy wasn't sure how many times she could continue to tell people that Willow wasn't awake. She was lying with her eyes closed, possibly not even conscious of people in the same room as her.

"Not yet. But she's a fighter, she'll be fine," false hope is something she never liked to encourage under any circumstances, but right now she couldn't tell her kid sister that there could be complications in Willow's recovery.

"Honey, what happened?" she looked at her mom and slowly began to shake her head in slight confusion.

"From what I've been able to put together she was knocked down by a car that was speeding from a robbery. They just drove on, left her lying at the side of the road…"

"Oh my God, that's terrible, has someone told her parents?" Parents? Wow, Buffy hadn't thought of that. Willow didn't spend much time at home anymore; she never spoke about her parents or mentioned them in any way. Maybe Tara had called them? She'd check later. "Was Mr. Giles there?"

"Yeah, I called him after talking to Tara."

"How is she?" Buffy turned back to Dawn, she knew that her sister felt close to Willow and Tara, she liked all the magic stuff and they made her feel like a grown up sometimes when she got tired of being treated like a kid.

"She's doing ok, she's still at the hospital."

"Alone?"

"Xander is with her. Giles gave me a ride home and Anya went to take care of some business for him at the Magic Box."

"Is it open?"

"No. Out of respect for… well, there's no one to work there, not today. There's some kind of delivery that needs taking in, I wasn't really listening to the details," Buffy sat back into the couch and Dawn stood up.

"Can I get you anything?" Buffy smiled and shook her head.

"Thank you," Joyce stood up too and gave Dawn a hug.

"Oh honey, Riley called. I told him you'd call when you got home."

"Did you tell him about Willow?"

"As much as I could, I didn't really know what to tell him, you should call him."

"Thanks, I will," she stood up from the couch and picked up the phone, Joyce led Dawn out of the room reluctantly so that her eldest could have some privacy. When Buffy didn't get an answer at Riley's place she was upset and wondered why he hadn't waited for her to call. She headed towards the stairs to go to her room when there was a knock on the door. She opened it and was pleasantly surprised to see Riley.

"Hey," she threw herself into his arms and let him hold her close. She didn't ever want him to let her go.

Xander didn't know what to say. It was odd he supposed that his best friend had someone in her life that knew her just as well as he did, if not better. So as he and Tara sat by Willow's bed right now, he couldn't think of anything to say to her – he wasn't even sure that he should, he didn't want to assure her that Willow would be fine, he'd been doing that for about an hour.

Tara wanted to hold her. To take her home and nurse her back to health. She knew she couldn't, but it's what she wanted. She wished it were her birthday again and she could make a birthday wish. Maybe her wish could come true, and Willow would making her smile, making her feel like a million dollars. Xander had been great, she understood that he wanted to be there – but conversation had come to and end.

Neither of them was prepared to leave, but neither felt comfortable sitting with the other. It was ok when they were with the rest of the gang. But sitting with their best friend between them, fighting for life because of a stupid accident. They both wanted to be able to do something to make this all go away, but neither of them knew that one of them could.