Chapter Six

Willow's could feel the carpet beneath her but then, nothing. Black.

"She's not getting up," Buffy said and knelt next to Willow examining her and discovering the deep bite on her neck, "Not good."

"I-i-is she gonna be alright?" Tara said quietly.

"She looks like she lost a lot of blood, and she's still bleeding" Riley commented, "We should get her to the hospital," he walkie-talkie rumbled, "Hold on one sec," he left the room.

"I'll call for an ambulance," Buffy said, "Get something to stop the blood. Tara, can I use your phone?"

"S-sure," Tara then took off her pillowcase and folded it up, Xander took the case and pressed it against Willow's neck.

Miss Kitty walked over and sadly nuzzled Willow's cheek urging her to get up, but she was still. Tara knelt down next to her and watched her chest intently, looking for motion. There was a shallow swelling and falling. Tara bit her lip.

"Okay, the ambulance is on the way," Buffy said looking up from the phone. She caught Tara's tearing eyes and walked over to her, "Willow's going to be fine."

"Sh-she's not… going to turn into one i-is sh-she?" Tara looked up at Buffy.

"No, I mean she's still alive. You got to be dead before you become a vampire."

"Besides one vampire Willow running around out there is bad enough," Riley said walking back into the room, "She's already killed one of our guys and they lost track of her again. We have no idea what she is up to. Is there anyone she might turn to, any one in this universe she knows?"

"I don't think so." Buffy said.

Sirens approached, lights, sound, stretcher, EMTs in blue, a stretcher, checking vitals. Tara sat and watched everyone around her. It was too much, she couldn't process it, so she just sat and drowned in the chaos. What had happened, someone had asked her, she couldn't reply she just stared at Willow on the stretcher as they took her out of them room.

"She was bitten by an angry puppy." Buffy replied. "We brought her here and she fainted."

The angry puppy thing usually got a lot of mileage.

Buffy knelt down next to Tara, "Are you going to come to the hospital with us? Xander's driving,"

Tara felt numb but she supposed she must have nodded yes, as Buffy extended her hand and helped Tara to her feet and down the stairs to Xander's waiting car. The drive was blur, the two hours in the waiting room felt to be one million years and half a second at the same time, before a doctor came out to tell them that Willow was awake.

Willow smiled weakly as she saw Xander, Buffy, and Tara walked into the room. Tara sat on a chair next to the bed, as the others stood by her side.

"Two bites in one year, maybe that's some kinda good luck or something?" Willow joked.

"You just tell me who did this to you and I will dust them faster than you can say hopscotch." Xander said, making a manly show of hitting one hand with his fist.

"You," Willow replied.

"Is it too late to take back aforementioned sentence?"

"So am I really home?" Willow said,

"No," Buffy said, "You are in the world without shrimp."

"World without shrimp?" Tara said.

Willow turned to look at her and reached for her hand, "Are you okay?"

Tara drew her hand back, shyly.

Willow frowned softly. "I take it you met her?"

Tara nodded slowly.

"Where is she?" Willow asked, "Did she go back to her world?"

"Nope, she's still at large," Xander said, "Soldier boy is off looking for her again."

"Oh," Willow replied.

"I'm going to give a call to Angel, see if he can hook me up with Cordelia, since it's her world maybe she might have information to tell us." Buffy said. "Plus this place is giving me the wiggins."

"And I'm gonna find Anya since she might have a clue." Xander said.

An odd silence filled the space between the two witches as they suddenly found themselves alone in the hospital room. Willow looked up at Tara. Their eyes locked for a moment before Tara glanced away. Willow frowned softly. It wasn't until after another nurse came in and checked Willow's vitals before either of them spoke.

"What did she do to you, Tara?"

"She…. n-n-nothing." She whispered.

"But she did do something, I can tell."

"Can…. Can we not t-t-talk about it?" Tara sighed.

Another odd silence.

"Th-they said you were working on a spell…when you summoned her…"

"I didn't mean to summon –her-, I was trying to summon something else." Willow said.

"W-w-well?"

Willow took a deep breath, "Well…courage."

"But why? Y-y-you're one of the bravest p-p-people I know."

"I had something very difficult to face…and if I did it wrong… I felt I would just die…"

"W-what was it?"

Willow swallowed hard. "Telling…" a deep breath, "Telling you... I love you."

Silence.

Tara cast her glance to the ground.

Willow closed her eyes and sighed, perhaps she had been reading too much into Tara's actions around her. She whimpered trying not to cry when she felt something warm on her forehead. She looked up to see Tara kissing her softly on her forehead. Willow smiled and reached up to touch her cheek, but Tara pulled back.

"Please… don't t-t-touch me… not right now…"

"But why?"

"I… I can't… not now… but… I do.." Tara whispered.

"Do?"

"L-love you too,"

Willow smiled brightly, and was about to speak when the sound of someone clearing their throat was heard.

Willow looked up, "Oz? Wh-what are you doing here?"

"I saw Riley, he told me you were here. I um… wasn't expecting this," he said, classic Oz.

Tara looked embarrassed and slunk back in her chair, looking at the floor, her hair hiding her face.