3:47 am at Willow and Kennedy's apartment
Kennedy woke with a start, shooting up in bed dripping in sweat. She had just had a terrible nightmare involving Rona dying a slow and terrible death, but Kennedy was unable to save her.
She couldn't help but replay the moment of how she died. She felt like she was going to be sick and ran to the bathroom.
She threw up, crying as she did, not knowing that Willow was waking up at the movement of her girlfriend. Willow felt a little disoriented by being suddenly awakened, then she heard Kennedy in the bathroom and she knew immediately that she must have had a nightmare. She slowly got up and walked to the bathroom.
He heard crying coming from the bathroom, then a loud CRACK! She ran to the door, but before she got there she heard CRACK, CRACK, CRACK! She ran in to see Kennedy on the floor. She looked at the walls to find four fist shapes through the wall. She ran over to Kennedy to see her right hand was bleeding pretty badly. She was also shaking and crying.
"It's my fault." Willow heard her say over and over again in a whisper. "It's my fault, all my fault. I'm so sorry Rona", Kenn whispered. Willow's heart sank. She did have a nightmare, Willow thought glumly. Willow went to Kennedy and hugged her, rocking her back and forth. She cried harder, shaking violently. Willow noticed Kennedy's right hand (the one that was bleeding), was shaking. She saw a bone coming out of one of her fingers.
"Shhh," Willow whispered. "It's all going to be okay." She let Kennedy cry for about 20 minutes, continually rocking back and forth, Willow kissing the top of her head, soon tears falling from her own eyes.
"Come on, we need to get you to the hospital, your finger looks broken".
"No, I'm not a wimp. I don't need to go", Kennedy answered.
"Honey, I'm not calling you a wimp, but you have to make sure it's healed". Willow said putting on her resolved face.
"Fine, okay, thanks." Kenn said turning a little red.
"No prob. Happy to do it." Willow said half smiling. They went out of the bathroom, and then got dressed. Willow helped Kennedy to the car.
When they got to the hospital, they went up to the front desk and gave their names and Kennedy's condition. They took Kenn to get x-rays.
She came out one hour later with a cast on her hand and said she had to keep it on for 3 weeks.
Since it was around their time to get up, Willow took Kennedy to breakfast, her treat, They talked about the dream and ate pancakes, toast, eggs, ham and sausage. After that they got a call from Buffy saying Rona's funeral was that very day at 2pm at Cleveland Cemetery. They got dressed in better, nicer clothes, then went to meet the others at the cemetery.
When they got there they saw Buffy crying, hugging Dawn. When they walked up to them, Buffy stopped Hugging Dawn and immediately hugged Kennedy when she saw she was crying. They held each other for a few minutes, then broke away to hug the others who showed up moments later.
The ceremony lasted about 2 hours, each person standing side by side around the grave. Some were crying, some hugging each other and others just staring at the grave.
The preacher started talking about how she helped people and was a great person, and then they buried her. It seemed to go on forever, as her body was being pulled down.
Finally she was down there, and then they used a bulldozer to pick the dirt up and drop it into the grave. Kennedy and Willow were crying and holding each other, Buffy was holding Faith, who was actually crying too. Xander was holding Dawn, both of whom were crying. The dirt mound was on top of Rona's coffin, where her body laid lifeless, cold, almost frozen with multiple injuries from the battle that reminded Kennedy so much that it was her fault. She cried harder.
Just as the ceremony finished and people filed out, the moon suddenly came out and the sun went away and it was nighttime.
"What the…" Xander said but didn't get to finish his sentence. Suddenly Willow felt a shiver run down her back and Kennedy moved away from her and to the ground clutching her stomach.
"Kenn?" Willow asked tentatively.
"Le..Leave n..ow" she choked out.
"What the hell is going on here?" Buffy and Faith asked together.
Suddenly Kennedy cried out in pain again and fell on her side, still clutching her stomach and writhing. Suddenly she opened her eyes and the whole group gasped and stepped back. Kennedy's eyes had turned yellow. Hair started to appear all over her body, then she growled and they flinched, hearing her bones snap, rearrange and fix in her body. She finally lay, fully wolfed out and howling quietly.
Then she suddenly got up and started toward Xander. He stepped backward. She pounced and landed on him. But there was a sudden cry of pain coming from Kennedy. Buffy had jumped on Kennedy and accidentally broken her right arm. She howled and fell to the ground a little bit away from Xander. She then started to change back into a human.
Willow started to run to her, but Buffy blocked her. "What are you doing Buffy? I have to make sure she's okay," Willow said trying to get past Buffy. But a second later they heard a growling noise.
Kennedy had started to change back into a wolf. She howled, as her right arm stretched.
Xander flinched at the blood-curdling scream now coming from Kennedy as she was changing back into a human. Faith could see that she was crying. She felt bad for the brat because she was in so much pain. She ran over and touched her on the arm. She twitched; suddenly the moon went away to be replaced by the sun once more.
Willow and Buffy went over to Kennedy and Willow put her jacket around the girl. Buffy went to her car and came back with a blanket and Willow wrapped it around her girlfriend.
Buffy picked up Kennedy, who was now unconscious, tears streaming down her face and took her to her car. She laid her out on the back seat and tucked in the blanket.
Faith got in Willow's car (passenger seat), while Xander drove. Dawn was in the passenger seat of Buffy's car, while Willow was in the back with Kennedy's head in her lap.
They drove to SHQ (Slayer headquarters) and Buffy got out of the car, Dawn following close behind. They opened the back door and they, Giles who had just come out and some other slayers, helped get Kennedy out of the car and into the house. Buffy slowly and gently brought Kennedy to the couch and laid her down.
"Bloody hell," said Spike coming up from the training room.
"Just what I was going to say." Giles quipped, coming over to kneel next to Willow and Kennedy.
"Well…" Buffy started. She never finished because at that time Kennedy began to stir, her face screwed up with pain. Fresh tears came out of her eyes.
"Baby," Willow started tentatively, moving closer.
"AHHHH!" Kennedy screamed then began to writhe once more. Everyone flinched.
"Ah, hell." said Buffy, looking outside. "It's nighttime, on a full moon."
Spike and Faith set to try to restrain her but got some bad cuts and scrapes. Kennedy howled when Spike accidentally hit her right arm. "Spike, her right arm is broken. Don't touch it!"
"Right, sorry." Bloody hell. What if we can't control this, what if we have to kill her? Spike thought with a shiver down his spine.
Finally they had to hit her to knock her out.
Willow was sitting by the wall watching and crying. I don't want her to die, Willow thought. I can't have anyone else that's close to me die. I don't know if I can handle it.
"Willow, Buffy, I'm going to need you to go get some chains and some aspirin."
"S...s...sure, Giles." Hiccup. "We'll go." Willow said, still crying. Buffy went and got the chains, while Willow got the aspirin.
Willow could hear the slayers upstairs talking. Psssh, newbie slayers. They don't understand a thing. They didn't understand anything about what's going on. Half of them went to the funeral but left before the whole Kennedy/Wolfy thing happened. Wannabies! Willow thought. They have a lot to live up to.
Years of training before they are anywhere near as good as Kennedy. They didn't understand anything about what she was going through. Least of all what she had been through all her life; the pain, death, loss, abuse (physical and mental) from both her dad and babysitter for 5 years. This was before she was strong enough to go to the cops and have them locked away for 10 years.
She felt so bad for the girl, to have to go through all that she had been through and still be so strong.