Title: Only When You Dream
Author: Xanderschick AKA Sarah
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Joss owns the park; I'm just playing in the sandpit til my hands get dirty.
Rating: M rated action. Children avert your eyes!
Spoilers: BtVS seasons 1-3
Distribution: Take it; just make sure you let me know when you review (hint, hint!).
Plot: After Graduation Angel didn't leave. He's been visiting Buffy every night since then because he can't bear to be away from her. But now she's moved to college and his nightly visits aren't an option anymore, so after a visit to a local demon/warlock he's found a spell that allows him to enter and manipulate his girls dream to his every will. If only I could do that to David Boreanaz. All I can say is: WOW! Anyways, they've been dream 'getting it on' and after a snap decision to get married Angel finally let Buffy in to the little secret that he's still in SunnyD. He proposes that they give up on their miserable lives and dream forever and she agrees and they do the spell. What happens next?
A/N: Yes, I got the whole dream walking idea from AtS S2 but I thought to myself, "Self, wouldn't this be much more fun if it was Buffy instead of the ex-vamp ho?" Answer: "Yup!" After borrowing the fab DVD's off my sister (AKA Xanderschicklet), I've just realised that they have kinda the same thing going on with Isabel in "Roswell" but I didn't know that when I started this.
A/N 2: This chapter is mostly Willow (with a little bit of Angel) POV.
A/N 3: This story is 100 Blondie Bear free so don't even ask. Ever. I mean it.
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Chapter Ten - BlindWillow…
11:15pm.
I don't know what just happened. One minute we were looking up at her on the balcony and the next she was gone. I don't know what to do.
She's my best friend and she didn't tell me. I thought we shared everything. Everything important. I can't believe I didn't notice what she was going through.
I can't believe I was so blind.
Giles is wandering around his undersized kitchen waiting for the water to boil. His solution to everything seems to be tea. The three of us - Giles, Oz and I - went to the docks and the bus station to look for her. Right now Xander and Anya should be at the dorm. They called a few minutes ago to tell us that she wasn't at the airport. And she can't drive so she has to still be in Sunnydale. She has to be. We'll find her. She doesn't have to do this alone.
"Nada." Xander swings the door open and marches into the building, Anya following him like some sort of obedient puppy. I don't like her. I don't know what he sees in her. He could do so much better.
"You checked the dorm?" Giles whips off his glasses - how very British - and rubs them with a handkerchief.
"We checked everywhere. We even stopped to threaten Willie on the way back"
"You didn't threaten him. You offered him a cash incentive in exchange for information. That's called bribery, not threatening." Anya gave Xander her self-superior look and nodded a little.
"Thanks An, I think one of my testicles just vanished". Xander blushes a little, annoyed at her for giving him away. "Anyway, he had nothing."
"Are you sure? Sometimes he needs a little more persuading than a handful of cash." Giles pushes his glasses back on and leans his elbows on the worktop opening between the kitchen and the main room.
"I'm sure. He wouldn't turn down a few hundred."
"If you've lost one of your testicles does that mean that we can't have sex anymore?" Anya stands in front of Xander and raises her eyebrows distraughtly. How dumb is she?
"It was a metaphor. Y'know, for my sudden lack of manliness."
"Oh. Good. I like having sex with you." Anya smiles and I zone away from their pointless conversation.
"Giles, what do we do now? We can't let her leave alone! We don't know how dangerous this is. What if she gets really hurt? What if she dies? What if…" Oz's arm finds it's way around me and I stop talking. I could hear the pitch of my voice getting higher, which usually means I'm babbling. Why the hell do I do that? I'm a witch. A good witch who has no need to be rambling like a nervous idiot. Wicca doesn't just teach us magical ways of solving problems. It teaches us to respect ourselves as well as…wait a minute…
"I honestly don't know what to do. We just have to keep looking. I'll continue trying to contact the council but…"
"Locator spell! We can do a locator spell!" I interrupt Giles, jumping a little off my seat in the process. I'm totally confident that my brainwave will work. I reinstated a vampire's soul so I should be able to do a simple locator spell.
"Of course! I don't know why I didn't think of it myself!" Giles vanishes behind the kitchen wall for a moment and reappears in the doorway before heading over to his bookcase.
"You didn't think of it because Willow is the brains of the Scooby Gang. Xander said so." Anya addresses Giles like he's a little boy. Did I mention that I really don't like her? She's so…Xander thinks I'm the brains? Giles is definitely more intelligent than me. For now.
"This will do. 'Locating a Lost Friend.' The only problem is that I don't have any Roccisin sand" Giles rubs the lines on his forehead.
"I have some back at the dorm." I stand up swiftly, pulling Oz with me.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Xander's already out the door when I begin to move. As I walk I turn to face Giles.
"Bring a map. We'll find her."
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11:42pm
I sit on the floor, the image of my whole world laid out before me. Sunnydale is such a small place but it's all I've ever known. I lived here for sixteen crappy years before Buffy showed up. Before I found out the truth. She showed me a whole other side of my hometown. She protected me. She saved my life. I'm not gonna turn my back on her now.
The candles flicker as I recite the simple spell and I slowly let the purple sand drift onto the centre of the map. I spread it out until the paper is entirely covered in a thick layer.
"Goddess Hecate, blessed be. Show me what I most desire to find."
The sand sits still for a moment and then begins to dissolve. A cloud of violet smoke blocks my view and I fan it away with my hand until the map comes back into focus. A small flame burns brightly in one tiny location.
"It says she's near the Bronze. I don't know this place."
"Angels old apartment. I went there a few years back when I was looking for the Master." Xander kneels down beside me, examining the map.
"That's definitely got to be it. This area's pretty much deserted. I'm guessing that's the only place she knows around there."
"It makes sense. If she's trying to hide from us, why would we look there? As far as she knows, none of us ever went there." Oz breaks his silence and bends down to take my hand, tugging me towards the door.
"Yes. We should…" Giles waves his arms gently, ushering us out of the room and down to the car park.
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11:57pm
Xander drove like a maniac on the way over here. Oz had to keep his foot firmly on the gas just so the car stayed in sight of his van.
As we get out of the van Giles, a little disorientated from being thrown about in the back during our race to get here, is approached by a bottle blonde woman aged around thirty. Why is her dress so tight?
"Hey honey, is there anything I can do for you?"
Oh. Of course.
Giles' face goes an alarming shade of red and he only manages to splutter out a few words "Eh…well…no thank you. I'm fine."
I smile for the first time since he called me at the Bronze. The hooker shrugs a little and lights a cigarette, sauntering off towards the main road a few blocks down.
Xander takes off down a dark alley until he reaches a rusted steel door.
He wrenches it open and runs down, shouting a few words of caution.
"Watch the stairs!"
As we reach a white door adjacent to bottom of the stairs, he throws it open, running inside and stopping for a moment to look around.
"Buffy!" He calls out loudly before sighting her in a small 'room' just off the one we're in now. She's sitting on a bed with her back against the headboard.
She turns around a little, looking at us blankly. A small bottle rolls off the edge of the bed and shatters on the cold stone floor, distracting all of us for a instant. When we look back at her, her eyes are closed.
"Oh God no! What have you done!"
I hurry over to her and shake her forcefully. She doesn't respond; she just falls limply into my arms. Then I notice who's lying next to her.
"What the hell is he doing here?" Xander almost screams in anger as he grabs Angels sleeping form by the collar. He lifts him up a little and slams him against the headboard.
"Wake up!" Now he is screaming. He throws Angel against the headboard again.
"Xander!" Oz grabs him from behind and drags him away from the vampire. I lift my hand up to Buffy's neck search for a pulse. The light tapping against my fingertips tell me she's still alive. Thank Hecate!
"Buffy, come on. Open your eyes." I feel tears welling but I persist in begging my best friend to regain consciousness.
"Giles! Giles! Help me!" I hear my voice cracking as I glance around the room. Oz is grappling with Xander and Giles is nowhere to be seen.
I turn back to Buffy. "Come on Buffy, wake up!" I cradle her tightly. I don't know what's going on! I can't help if she won't tell me what's going on!
"Buffy!"
"Willow, stop." I hear Giles voice speak calmly. I continue to rock her, ignoring him. She's not dead. I felt her pulse. She's not dead!
"Willow, stop!" His hand grips my shoulders and I can taste the warm salty tears falling from my eyes.
"No, we just have to wake her up. She's fine. We just have to wake her up!"
Strong familiar arms wrap around my waist. Buffy falls back onto the bed as Oz pulls me away. I look to Xander for some support but he's staring at Giles, his eyes wide in shock.
"What! Will someone tell me what's going on!"
Giles' turns to me and sighs a little. Oh my God, is he crying? He holds up a really old looking leather journal. My eyes catch sight of the heading at the top of the page:
"Eternal Rest. What is that? What does it mean? Giles!" his eyes travel towards the slumbering blonde figure on the bed.
"It means Buffy's not in there."
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Angel…"Did I just see Xander?"
Her eyes sparkle as they stare at me enquiringly. We're lying on the grass in our meadow watching the clouds roll by.
"We've been gone for less than a minute and you're already thinking about another guy. This went well!" she laughs and reaches over to punch me on the arm. She's so easy to tease.
"So what do you want to do first?" I sit up and watch her, waiting for an answer.
"Well…this is technically our honeymoon. You know what that means." Actually, I don't. It involves a holiday of some sort but that's all I know. When I was alive, newly married couples didn't have a honeymoon after the wedding. They just went home and started their new lives.
"What does that mean?" I smirk happily as she kneels up, leaning forward to peck me on the lips.
"Hawaii."
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Chapter 10, up and running! My wonderful reviewers, I'm taking a short interval. I'm overrun by uni work so I'm gonna have to spend a few days writing about kidneys, cloning, tool mark analysis and chemical titrations (Zzzz!). A day in the life of a trainee Gil Grissom (that show is SOOO wrong that it's actually embarrassing). Anyways, that means that I'm out of service until Tuesday so the next chapter, next two if I have time (and that's a very big if), will be up on Wednesday.
deadbeatsoul - I don't know if Pizza Hut is American. Does America have Pizza Hut? I put it in there coz G-man was calling the Council in England. He would have used an English number and there's PH in England. PH rocks! Chicken Feast with a cheese stuffed crust…mmm…! Note to self: PH on Saturday!
Next chapter is another Willow/Angel POV. Alarm clock type spells and honeymoon hulas!
As always, thanks for reading!