After stepping out for a three course meal and packing for him, Willow stood in the doorway of Xander's hospital room. They were shipping him to rehab in an hour and she needed to see him before he left. When he opened his eyes she smiled at him, but he turned his head away from her.

"Hey. I wanted to stop by and wish you luck. I got the insurance to approve full coverage of your rehabilitation. It's a good thing I put everyone on my work insurance when I did, huh? And I'll send you some petty cash when I can, so you can get some little things." She sighed when he still didn't say anything to her. "Your luggage is with the nurse. I packed all your favorite comfy clothes. That awful robe that looks like my Elmo skin shirt puked it into existence is clean and ready for you. Spike made sure you had plenty of girly mags, and Buffy sent some music for you. Giles even found a book he thought you'd like." She tried to hold his hand, but he pulled away and turned his entire body away from her.

She cried blue tinted tears, "I'm sorry, Xander. I'll leave you alone, but know that I'll be there for you if you ever need me."

Willow walked out of his room and climbed the stairs to Dawn's floor, wiping her tears away with her sleeve. The nurse's glance turned into gawking as Willow passed the nurses' station. She peeked into Dawn's room and saw Buffy sleeping with her head in Dawn's lap. She slipped into the room and went over Dawn's chart to see that there'd been no change.

She left the hospital and walked to the house. Giles told her she could move in since the reason for her not doing so before no longer existed. Everyone knew what she was and what she'd done. So she climbed the stairs in the silent house to the attic. Spike's room was on one side and hers on the other.

The bed in there was mostly for show, seeing as how she didn't sleep. So she sat in the rocking chair near the window and let her mind roam. Thoughts of how she'd stolen Spike's life broke her guilt meter. How she needed to feed more and more just to keep Buffy alive worried her. How she'd been naive enough to think Xander would stop drinking after they got Buffy back struck a painful chord. The weird sensation of having sex with a male again when she didn't want to but couldn't help herself. Which led to thoughts of Tara. Her heart broke remembering that she could never touch her lover ever again. Her girl. Her everything. But Tara had been in just as much danger as everyone else. What else could Willow have done to protect everyone, to protect Tara? She could've resurrected Buffy months sooner, but she'd been looking for any other way. But losing Riley's team and Riley, spurred her into action.

She let the tears fall unchecked as she rocked in front of the window, the hunger rose until it forced her to prepare for another hunt. There were few evil ones left in town, but they were a pulse under her skin.

"I should thank you."

"I was wondering when you'd get around to me, Edith." Willow brushed her hair and didn't even look at the apparition.

"How could I not come to you? If you want to save Buffy and this town, you must stay in town. Buffy needs you here. The whole of Sunnydale needs you here."

Willow put her earrings in their holes. "Really? That's interesting."

"So you'll stay then?"

"Your idea of saving this town is actually to destroy what little is left, isn't it? I'll kill off the last viable demons here by morning, and that would leave only humans as an option if I refused to leave. I won't do that. It would start with killing the bad ones, but I wouldn't be able to stop there, now would I? Sorry, Edith but I will be leaving soon. I'll find something powerful enough to keep Buffy here permanently."

Edith stepped up to just behind Willow's shoulder and looked her in the eye through the mirror. "There's no such creature, and you need to stay. You'll regret it if you don't."

Willow smirked before turning and snatching her hand out faster than the normal eye could see. Keeping Edith in a corporeal state hurt but Willow choked the woman, sucking her in, syphoning the energy to Buffy, but keeping all the shadows in herself. And Edith had deep shadows, so deep, but they were still no match for the combination of Willow's magic and demon. The energy pumped into Buffy while Willow puked soot onto the carpet as she hunched over. When all of it was out of her, she waved her hand and the soot disappeared in a flash of light.

After returning from the hospital, Giles spent hours working out how to make his prosthetic leg work for him. He practiced judging distance using the methods they suggested. He rescheduled his physical therapy appointments to work around his need to visit the hospital. Three days later, and no sign of Dawn waking up, he'd gotten rid of his crutches and used a cane now. Willow bought it for him from a shop a few towns over and it had a sword hidden in it. She got him a wooden one as well should he need to go through a metal detector. But he was pleased with his progress, but more than anything he wanted to share it with Dawn.

As Giles made a fresh pot of tea, Spike walked into the kitchen with a new box of kittens to put in the special bin they had for them. "Tell me some of those came from Cheryl."

"Maybe a couple." Spike tried to smirk but none of them smiled much these days. "Any news about Harris?"

"No. He's refused to allow us updates on his condition, but Willow assures me that he's still at the clinic. She hacked into his records there. She's not home often enough to do much more than work. Does she need to feed that often?"

Spike leaned against the counter, arms crossed over his chest. "It's getting bad. I can feel her hunger and it's constant now. It started off as just a once a night thing, and she tries to hide how much she needs and how much pain she's in."

Giles sipped his tea. "Let's hope Anya and Tara return with answers soon."

"I'm sure Willow would know if Tara were hurt or dead. So we have to assume those birds are okay and getting the job done." Spike sat down after procuring a teacup from a cupboard. "I'll take Buffy some clean clothes when I visit Dawn tonight. Can't blame her for never leaving her sis's side though." Pointing at the pot of tea, Spike said, "Do you mind?"

"By all means. Just be warned it's extremely low quality."

"I just need the reminder of what I used to be right now."

The two men sat and sipped their tea. "At least Willow took care of that Edith creature," Giles said.

"Dru's dolls always creeped me out if you want the truth. We dodged a bullet with that."

Xander sat in the middle of group therapy trying to get rid of the mountainous chip he knew was on his shoulder. A chip he had no right to. He'd tried to blame everything on Buffy dying, and then not wanting to think about how they removed her from heaven. He didn't want to be the reason for his own alcoholism. He blamed Willow, and he blamed Spike for not rescuing Dawn on that tower when he had the chance.

Until he finally figured out that no one but Xander shouldered the blame for his addiction. He knew he had a family history, and he knew he shouldn't even sip alcohol, but he'd chugged it. And he kept doing it until he hurt Dawn. She still hadn't woken up, and that was on him. He may not have been drunk but he'd had the shakes for hours. The possibility of a seizure should have occurred to him. He'd seen his dad go through it, and his mom the DT's, but he never thought he'd ever be that far gone.

When the counselor asked him to speak he shook his head. "Xander you need to work the program if you want to continue treatment. So please, tell us something," Anna said.

"Fine. I'm an alcoholic. My name is Xander and I'm an alcoholic. That good enough?"

"You seem angry. Can you tell us why?"

"Because I knew better, and I drank anyway. I was so angry and depressed after my best friend died that I didn't care or think. And now Dawn might die because of a withdrawal seizure I had while I was driving her home. So yeah, I'm pissed off. I'm pissed off at myself. I did something so unforgivable, I don't think I can live with myself. And even though I know the problem's mine, and I'm the one to blame, I can't help being angry at my other best friend. She just." He bit his upper lip and flexed his hand in and out of a fist. "She let herself become something I can't live with either. What's that saying about going home?"

"You can never go home?" Jake, one of the other patients, offered.

"Yeah. I can't help wondering if I'll ever be able to go home and look at any of them again. I don't think I can. I don't know where I'll go, but I can't go back to Sunnydale." He closed in on himself as he turned to look out the window, ignoring the rest of the group as he watched the sun set.

The center of the Earth nearly pulled Anya and Tara into pieces. Even with the mystical walls, it was painfully hot, and they had to work through gravity issues. Tara could feel her organs trying to rotate inside her while Anya was certain she'd never be able to speak again the way her lungs and throat felt like they were trading places.

But they got through to the other side. As soon as Anya recovered and saw who the other Deeper Well Keeper was she groaned. "Tara? You okay?"

With a swallow and a few deep breaths, Tara felt better. "Yeah."

"Don't ask any rhetorical or superfluous questions. This is Drogen of the Battle Brand, truthsayer. He doesn't understand that you don't have to answer every question and he can't lie. All this makes him get very pissy if you ask him anything."

Tara belly laughed. "Hey, Anya, I thought you were the only truthsayer I'd ever meet."

"Yeah, well I don't care about answering everything with complete honesty. But Drogen here's a stick in the mud." She turned to Drogen. "Take us to Osiris."

"Never thought I'd see you human, Anyanka. And I would be hesitant to assist you in any quest, but Griffin assures me your intentions are noble."

"Bite me."

"Anya, be nice." Tara said as she swatted Anya's shoulder. "Drogen, we'd appreciate it if you took us to the tomb of Osiris."

"As you wish." He bowed.

"Have you ever seen the Princess… nevermind. Didn't mean to ask a question." Tara was still smiling though.

"You, you slap happy witch will be the death of me." Anya rolled her eyes as they followed Drogen through the maze of bridges up, hopefully to a much cooler area of the Well.

Tara laughed again.