The Two - Chapter 4 - Part I

TITLE:	The Two (19/24)
AUTHOR:	-Andy- ( see2go4me@yahoo.com )
RATING:	R eventually
STATUS:	WiP
DISCLAIMER:	All characters belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox Television, and others. I don't own any of this, just the words gluing my story together.
SUMMARY:	Buffy meets a different kind of Willow in an alternate universe. (It's gonna a be a B/W folks. Eventually. But not right away.)
SPOILERS:	All seasons of BtVS.
DISTRIBUTION:	buffywantswillow, ikoly, and my blog fanfic pages. Anyone else, e-mail me please.
AUTHOR'S NOTES:	Inspired by (but not based on) something that was quickly covered in a flashback in a Willow/AU fanfic except with Buffy as the main character.

Willow sat slumped in the chair, occasionally looking over at the pale face of the woman in the bed beside her. She'd been unconscious since they'd brought her out of the cavern below Wilkins House three weeks ago. Her wounds had healed at a rate that would have put a slayer to shame but she still hadn't awoken. The doctors thought she'd sustained some kind of brain injury and weren't sure if she would ever recover. Tara and the other local Coven healer had just shaken their heads.

She'd become a permanent fixture in the ward. The nurses had given up trying to make her leave at the end of visiting hours every night. She stayed every night until Dawn walked her home after her nightly patrol. She was sure it was her fault that Buffy was in the hospital. If she hadn't waited so long to call in the other slayers Buffy wouldn't have tried to deal with the problem herself and wouldn't have gotten so badly injured. If she'd told her they were coming she might have waited.

"Bullshit." a voice said firmly from the other side of the bed.

Willow sat up in surprise. She hadn't heard anyone enter the room. Looking towards the voice all she could see was an indistinct form.

"She would have gone no matter what you told her," the voice said. "She might not be pig-headed like some other slayers I've known but Buffy can be a stubborn bitch at times."

"A slayer?" Willow said in surprise, still unable to make out more than a blur.

"A good example," the voice said. "I bet she never told you. Not surprised." Willow could feel herself being examined, like a bug under a glass. "Would have thought you would have guess. Working with slayers like you do it should have been obvious."

"No..." Willow mumbled in shock. "She's nothing like a slayer."

"Hmmph..." the figure came closer. It was a ghostly looking woman who looked very familiar. "She is what she is. Not going to argue with someone who can't see what's in front of them."

"Who are you?" Willow asked.

"An old friend of coma girl there. Took us long enough to find her," the woman said. She reached for Buffy's nearest hand, holding it for a minute. "She's stuck in her head. Doing the guilt thing Summers women are so good at. Just like her sister."

"Can you help?" Willow asked hopefully.

"No." She shook her head. "It takes too much energy just to be here. I can't stay long enough to fix her. You'll need to find someone local or figure it out yourself."

"Who? Where?" Willow asked, trying to keep her voice emotion free.

"No idea. I'm just visiting." the woman said. Sighing, the woman leaned over and brushed a stray lock of hair away from Buffy's face. "Not sure she'd want me in there again anyway."

Willow watched the woman as she started to fade away. "Will you be back?"

"Don't know. It's a difficult trip traveling between distant dimensions like this." The last few words were so faint Willow wasn't sure she'd heard them correctly.

She slumped back in her chair, thinking about the things she'd learned, wondering what she was going to do.

© Copyright 2009 Andy Stoffel. Last update: 7/19/09; 10:57:18 PM. This theme is based on the SoundWaves (blue) Manila theme.