Willow's Room, Sunnydale Mercy Hospital, 0200 hours.
With her left arm in a sling to take the pressure off the crossbow wound in her shoulder, Willow lay on the hospital room bed and looked up at the ceiling.
She hated this hospital in particular; Willow was able to see and hear her parents dying in front of her, murdered by Borzan ever since she woke up following emergency surgery on her shoulder injury. She had no choice but to see the dead looks from the eyes of her mother and father, this was where she was supposed to be for the next few days.
This was the place where she was supposed to be recovering.
After she woke up, Willow was told by Doyle and Lily that they were leaving for Los Angeles, and that Angel gave all his best to her recovery. They continued to say that he didn't want to traumatise her any more than he already had a few hours ago back in the mansion. Willow would be looked at the both of them without an expression on her face. It was Lily who stepped forward and gave the former redhead a hug, much to Willow's surprise, while whispering into Willow's ear that happened to her wasn't Angel's fault.
"It was Angelus, and he's never coming back," Lily whispered before pulling back as Willow sat upright on the bed an hour ago. Willow's shoulder was throbbing in pain as she continued to just stare at Lily, and even now, late at night, as she lay silently on the bed. Unable to take the pain, Willow reached for a button on a device that was on her bed. She grabbed the device on her left side, and then pressed the button down. Willow closed her eyes and took in a deep breath as the throbbing pain slowly disappeared thanks to a small dose of painkillers that entered her bloodstream through the tube connected to her wrist.
She lay her head to the left, and released the device while trying to push out the sounds of her parents being killed. She closed her eyes and took in a deep breath as she started remembering techniques that the Coven taught her, and the techniques that Ariel had taught Niko.
'No, Ariel taught me those techniques.' Willow thought to herself.
Willow knew that it was time to stop differentiating between her memories and Nikko's memories. From now on, Willow told herself that all of the new memories and experiences - all of Niko's training in magic with the Circle, and her training and experience as a Galaxy Ranger was her own. Taking another deep breath, Willow opened her eyes and turned her head to look back up at the ceiling.
The sound of the sickening crunches just before Ira and Sheila died faded into the back ground. The sounds were replaced with a single thought; she wanted a way to find the others who were at the mansion on that fateful day.
She didn't want to even think about Angel again, so Willow's thoughts went to Spike. The vampire was the one who threatened her family if she or Buffy came after him after he ran away with Drusilla. As she looked up at the ceiling, Willow remembered that he was there watching intently as she was tortured by Angelus. She recalled that Spike was also present during the rape, and he was the one who tried to kill her after the incident at the library – the very night of the Halloween debacle. Willow took in a deep breath while she continued to look at the ceiling as her mind then turned to the vampire who murdered Oz, the one who egged on Angelus in opening the gateway to Acathla's Hell. The very vampire who cheered on Willow's 'corruption'… the very one who hypnotized her and made her powers inaccessible. Willow wanted her to pay dearly.
She wanted the both of them to pay.
As she closed her eyes, Willow thought about how she'd go about making the both of them pay. She knew that Althanea and the others wouldn't approve of what she was hoping to do, so Willow decided to find a way on her own. Willow knew spells from her training with Ariel on how to locate anyone anywhere on a particular planet. It was this particular location spell that provided her with Spike's exact location when she performed it in secret without having the Coven know. She found Spike in Sunnydale, in the South Street Graveyard living underground in a crypt. However, despite her discovery of the creature, Willow wasn't sure if she was ready to get back to her home at that particular time. However it all changed upon learning that Borzan had returned to the land of the living.
And the next day, she and Althanea were already leaving for Sunnydale.
As for Drusilla, Willow knew that she was in Paris, France; she had gathered follower and formed a cult that would go out each night… returning their victims to the catacombs where Drusilla would perform rituals before drinking their blood. Willow didn't know what the mad vampire was doing there, but the former redhead knew that there was going to be a reckoning.
While Willow was imagining the punishments that Spike and Drusilla would receive, Buffy and the other main Scoobies were in the waiting room fast asleep. Their dreams were disturbing to say the least; with Buffy, Tara, Xander, and Giles having vivid nightmares of the First Slayer killing them in retaliation for using her powers in a way that was never meant to be used. It would be a few hours later that the Scoobies woke up with a start. The group took some time to get their bearings, before finding themselves at the hospital waiting room with Joyce, Jenny, Faith and Althanea still fast asleep. The Scoobies gently got up off their seats and went for some vending machine coffee before privately discussing what they had seen and heard in their nightmares. It was Giles who posited, while drinking coffee, that the First Slayer had given them a warning; a warning that her powers shouldn't be misused and that a Slayer always fought alone.
They described their nightmares in private to Althanea the next morning, and she agreed that it was a side-affect of the unification spell that created the 'super-Buffy'.
"You shouldn't be getting those nightmares anymore though," Althanea said before going into Willow's room. Before she entered the door, she turned and told Giles and Buffy that they saved the world again, "this was just a nightmare. We move on, and protect the world against the next threat."
"Agreed," said Giles while Buffy nodded her head. She never told Giles about one part of her dream. In this part, she was entering a room in her house; it was the guest room that Faith was currently occupying. However, the room was decorated differently with many of the pictures and posters that Faith put up in her room gone, replaced with posters of teen heart-throbs and boybands. Shaking her head, Buffy looked back at Faith walking towards them with Tara; the both of them had some coffee in their hands. The dark-haired Slayer told Buffy and Giles that she got a call from Graham and Riley who were in Washington D.C being debriefed on the Initiative situation.
"They'll be back tomorrow," she said handing a cup to Giles and Buffy while Althanea called for Tara, asking the young woman if she was willing to start helping begin Willow's healing process. Tara nodded her head before following Althanea into the room while Buffy glanced over at Faith. She thought back to the completely decorated room in her dream; at first, she thought that Faith had left them… but Buffy could still sense her being in the house.
'But not in the room,' thought Buffy to herself as she moved her eyes away from Faith who was talking to Giles, 'someone else was in that room. And then there was the little girl's laughter.'
Buffy looked at Tara, who was walking towards Althanea in the doorway that led to Willow's room and remembered the laughter in her dream. A laughter from wo she thought was a little girl. Buffy recalled hearing the laughter, but the little girl was nowhere to be seen. Buffy shook her head and walked towards Faith and Giles while Tara and Althanea closed the door behind them after having entered the room. Buffy needed to tell the both of them about her dream; for some reason, she was feeling compelled to tell them.
She just wasn't sure why, and it made her uneasy.
Grover Woods Cemetery, Sunnydale, 1130 hours; a week after the incident at the mansion.
Willow placed her right hand on the top of the headstone, and then slowly knelt down on both knees. She then leaned forward and traced her fingers over the black etching on the headstone's surface. She traced Oz's name as tears gathered in her eyes while silently apologizing for not being there during his funeral since she was spirited away to the Devon Coven to begin restoring her very self. The wind brushed past her while Buffy, Xander, Althanea, and Giles stood behind her dressed in all black. Willow placed four stones on the top of the headstone before kissing the tips of a couple of her fingers, and then placing them on Oz's name.
"I love you, Oz," she said softly before offering a silent prayer, and then slowly getting up to her feet with one arm pushing against the headstone. She had already visited her parents graves before coming down to see OZ, having apologized to them as well before saying that she wished she could have been a better daughter to them. As she walked towards Buffy and the others, Althanea was the first one to carefully hug the white haired young woman, followed by Giles, Xander, and then Buffy.
The five of them then began walking away from Oz's grave while Buffy walked to her left, asking her if she was going to see Tara for their sessions, which began a week ago, later that day.
"At three, actually," said Willow softly as she wiped her eyes.
"Then tonight we'll continue our work on healing that wound, Willow," said Althanea as Willow nodded her head.
"Right now, we need to head to your parents' lawyer's office," said Giles, "they left you a will, and…"
"Yea," was the reply from Willow.
"We'll come with you," stated Xander as Willow looked at the young man, his voice indicating that it wasn't a question, it was a statement of fact. He didn't want her to be alone, and neither did anyone else. Willow nodded her head as Buffy wrapped her arm around Willow's, and walked together towards Giles' red BMW. Willow glanced over at Buffy and thought back to how she had been doing everything she could to try and rebuild their relationship. Willow told her from her hospital bed, after she had been operated on for her shoulder wound, that it would take some time to get back to where they once were.
"But I think we'd get there," Willow said after having her first session with Tara on her hospital bed.
"That's all that matters," said Buffy as she sat next to Willow a week ago.
It would be after that session when Lily and Doyle came to her bedside at the hospital. They told her that Gunn was going to be alright, that the doctors had managed to pop in his arms… although he was going to be sore for several weeks. Willow simply nodded her head before Lily said that Angel sent his apologies again for what happened, but thought that it would be better for her recovery if he didn't say good-bye in person. Willow didn't say a word as she looked at the sadness in Lily's eyes which looked away; all she did was nod her head before Doyle said that they were heading back to Los Angeles and that Angel would be leaving them alone.
"But if you ever need him.. need us," said Lily at Willow and then at Buffy, "we'll come running."
Buffy nodded her head while Willow looked off to the side before Doyle and Lily left the hospital room. The blonde Slayer looked over at her best friend just as Riley arrived to the room with Graham, Faith, and Xander who said that they had just walked past Doyle and Lily. Buffy then told them that they were leaving for L.A.
Back in the present day, it had been a week since they left Sunnydale as Giles' car pulled up to the Rosenberg's lawyer's office. Willow hugged the older man who gave her his condolences on the loss of her parents before asking her and her friends to take a seat. He then sat down, and took out a thick envelope. He talked to Willow about the last time he had talked to Ira and Sheila while opening the envelope, and then reaching inside and taking out a smaller envelope which he then handed to Willow.
"It's a letter to you, Willow," he said while Willow looked at her name written in blue ink on the envelope's surface, "but we should start with the reading of the will."
"Yeah," Willow replied as Althanea placed her hand on Willow's shoulder. The lawyer started to read the will as Willow recalled the time she had with her parents. The lawyer told Willow that they had left everything from their investments, to the bank accounts, to the home which was already paid for… transferred to her name after their deaths. As Willow thought about her parents, she remembered the happy moments and sad moments. The moment that stuck with her the most was when Willow first laid her eyes on Sheila after returning from Hell. She remembered Sheila's warmth as she held her daughter tight while telling Ira to call the police, all while the lawyer's voice sounded distant.
Everything seemed to go at super-speed, and the next thing she knew.. Willow was saying goodbye to the lawyer who told her to keep in touch, and that he'd be there for her if she needed any help or advice. Willow nodded her head and then left with the others towards the exit, and then into Giles' car which was parked outside. Once in the car, Willow asked Buffy for help in opening the envelope since her arm was still in a sling. She opened the envelope while Giles started the car, while Xander sat next to her on her left, with Althanea in the front seat.
Buffy then handed the letter to Willow, before feeling something else in the envelope.
"My dearest Willow," said Willow, with Buffy and Xander consoling the young woman when she was unable to speak for a few seconds after her voice broke. The letter was written by Sheila, in her handwriting, began with Sheila saying that the day they found out she was pregnant with Willow was the happiest day of their lives, "we tried for a year after we… we got married to have a child. But.. but we were unsuccessful. The doctors said.. said that I wasn't able to have a child and… and that broke my heart."
Willow sniffed and wiped her tears while everyone listened in silence. She took in a deep breath before continuing to read the letter.
"Ira and I were working on our respective doctorates when I got that news," said Willow reading the letter, "and I was devastated. I lost my focus and wanted to quit. I wanted a child, and I just found I wasn't able to have my own baby boy or girl. Ira was there for me the whole time, and he pulled me back from the brink. We agreed to adopt a child after we graduated."
"Are you adopted?" asked Xander interrupted Willow. The young woman, Buffy, Giles, and Althanea all turned to Xander and frowned. The young man held up his hands and apologized for interrupting before asking Willow to continue reading the letter.
"We agreed to adopt a child after we graduated," repeated Willow as she scanned the letter, "we returned to Sunnydale after spending a few days in Santa Barbara and were thinking about starting a practice in Sunnydale. Three weeks after our return to Sunnydale, while we were signing the lease for our offices… I felt sick. I later learned that a miracle happened. I was pregnant with you. You are our miracle baby."
Willow's voice broke again and she closed her eyes while Buffy looked inside the envelope after remembering that she felt something inside. She opened it, reached in, and found a Polaroid picture. She looked it out, and saw a young Ira and Sheila sitting on a bed surrounded by balloons. Ira's arm was around Sheila's shoulders while the both of them were looking down at a pink coloured bundle.
"Will," said Buffy as she handed the picture to Willow, whose eyes were wide open upon seeing the picture. She closed her eyes and sniffled before wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. She looked at the picture, and told herself that she had never seen this particular picture, and believed that it was probably one of many that Ira and Sheila kept to themselves.
"When you were… were born," Willow began reading the letter again, "that was the happiest day of my life. Our lives. I know that you feel that you were ignored by us, and we are so sorry. We wanted everything for you so we pushed our lives into making sure you wouldn't want for anything. But the sacrifice we made was having a better relationship with you… which is why we were out so much, and why you were alone so much. I know I used to tell you that you needed to be independent, and I remember how sad you used to look back at me and your dad… and that look broke our hearts. But despite not being able to see you… we never stopped loving you, Willow."
Willow continued reading the letter, and once she was done, the young woman handed it to Buffy who folded it, and then placed it into the envelope, along with the picture. She then handed the envelope to Willow, who then whispered that she was ready to leave. She leaned back on the seat as the car reversed, and closed her eyes with the times she had with her parents flowing through her mind.
Her thoughts on revenge were pushed back slightly, the young woman very aware that she had to have her shoulder heal first. But for now, Willow wanted to remember her parents… for now, that's all that mattered.
TBC.