FF: A night to remember.

["Christeen Demons" <Shyfox30@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Just to get the ball rolling...so to speak.:-)




Disclaimer: Characters of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer belong to Joss Whedon, 
but it doesn?t mean I can?t use them for my own entertainment.

What can I say about this one, I don?t want to give too much away, but if 
you don?t like sad stories, you won?t like this one.

I took a sudden departure from my Sappho?s spell series because I heard a 
song one night that caught my attention and got my imagination working over 
time.


A night to Remember
By
Shyfox

Dim the lights, lock the door.
Spread your pictures on the floor.
Blow the dust off of our past.
Let it all come running back.
?Cause it ain?t easy being strong.
And when I can?t forget you?re gone.
I just surrender.
And have myself a night to remember.
Colin Raye


Buffy lost track of time as she sat staring at the pictures that surrounded 
her. All took during a happier time in her life, when all was mostly right 
with the world and she was young and in love. In love with the world and 
the people that surrounded her.

It wasn?t to say that she didn?t have trouble in those times. It was just 
that she was able to handle it better then, with the love and support of her 
family and friends.

The pictures themselves told a tale. A tale of a young blonde teenager, 
circled by a young cheerful looking redhead and a sarcastic, yet witty 
looking young male. They showed them in various poses. One with the blonde 
in the middle, hugging her best male and female pal enthusiastically, with a 
big grin on her face. Another of just her and the redhead rolling around on 
a lawn like enthusiastic puppies. And yet another one of the blonde lying 
on a couch, her head in the redhead?s lap, looking up at her friend with 
such a look of love and adoration that it hurt to look at it.

A few quiet, lonely tars dripped from Buffy?s cheeks as she looked at, held, 
and caressed the pictures of her best friend and lover, Willow Rosenberg.

She wished with all of her heart that there was something she could have 
done or said to make things happen differently. She had spent countless 
moments going over every movement, every word and every thought that she had 
at that moment, and what infuriated her the most is she couldn?t think of a 
single thing that would have allowed Willow to stay with her.

?God, Willow. I miss you so much.? Another tear slipped down the slayer?s 
cheek. Buffy caught it before it could hit the picture and mar the memory 
imprinted on the paper. She stared at Willow?s bright smile, feeling lost 
without the woman that had come to mean so much to her in such a short span 
of years. They had gone through the rigors of high school together, they 
had faced ghouls, demons, and vampires using each other as strength. They 
had graduated with honors, if not from the school they had attended, at 
least by the family that loved them. And then they had gone on their 
fateful trip together. The one where everything changed, and dreams had 
become nightmares.

It had been Buffy?s idea to take that vacation away together, leaving Giles 
and Xander behind to stave off the forces of darkness. Buffy?s idea to stop 
at that convenience store in Colorado for food. She had no way of knowing 
that two guys in ski masks would pick that moment to enter the store and 
start waving guns around.

?Nobody move!? Buffy remembered the shout as if she had just heard it; the 
body memories of freezing and looking at the two robbers making her muscles 
convulse involuntarily. ?Give me the money and nobody will get hurt!? One 
of the guys had said, aiming a gun at the flustered old man behind the cash 
register.

?All right! All right! Just don?t hurt anybody.? The old man had said, 
keying open the cash register as he cautiously hit the silent alarm to 
notify the police of an attempted robbery.

?Hurry up!? Lead robber shouted at the old guy, causing the man to tremble 
more than her already was. The old guy dropped a load of quarters on the 
floor and he bent over to pick them up. ?Forget about the quarters old man, 
just hurry the hell up.? Sirens sounded in the background and Lead robber?s 
head swung in the direction of the sound, his gun jutting up in the air, as 
the old guy came up from behind the register a shotgun in his hand.

?Drop it, sonny.? Buffy could tell the old guy was trying to sound stern, 
but she could hear the waver in his voice and winced internally, as she 
looked for a way to diffuse the situation.

?You?re crazy old man!? Lead robber swung his gun back down and the old guy 
pulled the trigger on his shotgun. The sound of it going off was like a 
sonic boom inside Buffy?s head as she saw the robber take the bullet in his 
chest. The finger he had on the trigger convulsed involuntarily and a 
bullet went off, zipping wildly past the slayer?s right arm, leaving a 
burning wave of heat.

Buffy could see the second robber, who had stood passively by, holding his 
gun on the customers in the convenience store, starting to panic by this 
time. Buffy saw the wildness in the guy?s brown eyes as he turned his gun 
on the old man, determined to stop the threat against him, unaware that 
there was another threat in that store that was ready to spring into action 
against him.

Buffy leapt at the guy?s gun arm, determined to get the gun out of the 
robber?s hand. He noticed her movement at the last second however, and 
swung the gun at her in a last ditch effort to keep the girl off of him. 
Buffy grabbed the guy?s arm, the fingers of her right hand closing over the 
pistol as she felt the gun go off. She expected to feel a searing pain go 
through some part of her body, she didn?t really know where the bullet would 
go, and did feel a searing heat flash across the skin of her ribs before she 
heard a soft cry behind her. It seemed like she was going in slow motion as 
she ripped the gun out of the robber?s hand, then slammed the guy hard 
across the face, sending the guy flying across the store. He crashed landed 
into a stack of potato chips and landed hard on the floor, crushing the 
chips underneath him, as he lay unmoving on the floor.

Buffy turned to where the Old man had been standing, to make sure he was all 
right, when she noticed he wasn?t standing there anymore. She scanned the 
store quickly and felt like the blood was going to explode inside her head 
when she saw him bending over Willow who was laying deathly pale on the 
floor, blood pooling beneath her body. Buffy unconsciously heard the scream 
of sirens as police cars pulled into the parking lot of the convenience 
store, but her whole attention was focused on the devastating sight in front 
of her. ?Oh my god.? She moved forward on wooden feet, her heart 
threatening to pound right out of her chest. The bullet that had skimmed 
her ribs had hit Willow, who was standing right behind her, and Willow 
hadn?t been as lucky to just be grazed.

Buffy hit her knees beside Willow, her eyes scanning her lover for the 
injury which wasn?t hard to spot as the blood soaking up the shirt on her 
chest made it quite obvious where it was flowing from. The old man met 
Buffy?s eyes for a fleeting instant, as she saw her worst fears reflected in 
his eyes. The guilt in them made Buffy flinch, but she turned her attention 
back to her lover. She never even noticed when the old guy went outside to 
fetch the help that was arriving in the form of policemen. Buffy tried to 
slow the flow of blood from her lover?s wounds, but the life giving 
sustenance leaked from her so quickly, like water through a sieve. ?Will.? 
Buffy murmured to her lover, tears streaming down her face. Hazel green 
eyes flickered up to look at her through the daze of pain she was feeling, 
and sobs caught in the slayer?s throat. ?Hold on, Will. Help?s on the 
way.?

?Buff?? Willow tried to speak, but blood pooled up inside of her mouth, 
choking her and she was forced to stop.

?Shh?don?t try to talk?you can talk all you want when you get better, okay?? 
Buffy murmured, running her fingers through red hair, feeling helpless as 
she watched the life drain away from Willow?s face.

The green eyes tried to convey all the love Willow could not say as they 
grew duller and the life force that was Willow slipped away.

?No.? Buffy whispered, seeing the change happen in those beautiful eyes 
that she had loved to stare into. ?No, don?t go.? She said, louder, when 
Willow became unresponsive in her arms. ?No.? She shook the form beneath 
her, refusing to let her go. ?No!? She said, louder, refusing to believe 
the truth. ?NO!? Buffy threw her head back and screamed at the heavens, 
the rage of the slayer unleashing itself in the tiny convenience store. She 
picked up Willow?s body and held her in her arms, ignoring the looks of pity 
and remorse on the other customers faces, as she rocked her lover?s body in 
her arms refusing to let her go.

Policemen slipped into the convenience store, guns drawn, as they looked 
around at the mess the convenience store had become. They saw the robber 
the clerk had shot down lying sprawled in the middle of the store. The 
other robber still lay unconscious amidst the Ruffles and Frito Lay potato 
chips. They took in the robbers? positions before they noticed the young 
blonde weeping as she held onto the body of her friend. Sympathy covered 
the faces of the officers as they went to see what they could do. They were 
shocked when the young woman looked up at them, her face contorted in fury, 
as she screamed at them to stay away. They held an uneasy pace away, 
allowing the young girl to mourn her friend in peace.

Some semblance of sanity had finally returned to the slayer, and she laid 
Willow?s body back down on the tile floor, being extremely careful of her 
head as if she could possibly do any more harm to her friend. She gently 
brushed the hair away from her lover?s face and closed the green eyes that 
shattered her composure with their lifelessness. The officers had come 
forward then, and Buffy had to fight hard with herself not to attack them. 
The thought that one of them would probably shoot her and she could then die 
and be with Willow was strong in her mind, but she fought it down. She 
wasn?t quite sure why she resisted, but she did, allowing them to take 
Willow from her.

Buffy watched, an eerie silence settling over her, as they put Willow into a 
bag and put her on a stretcher. The man who had shot her was put onto a 
second one as the ambulance crew worked to clean up the mess Buffy had made 
of him. They were put into separate ambulances, and Buffy watched, oddly 
detached as they drove away. She then calmly walked to a payphone and 
called Giles to tell him what had happened.

He had arrived the next day, having arranged a flight out the second he got 
off the phone with her. He basically took over the details of arranging 
Willow?s transport back to SunnyDale. Her parents had been notified, Giles 
listening to their rants and raves as they cursed Buffy out for taking their 
daughter out of town and getting her killed. He had attempted to defend 
Buffy, but when Buffy overheard the conversation, she told him not to 
bother. She felt responsible for getting her best friend and lover killed.

At the funeral, she stood back away from the rest of the crowd, not feeling 
welcome by Willow?s parents, as she watched them put her lover?s coffin into 
the grave and cover it over with dirt. It felt so weird to have her lover?s 
body in a cemetery where she knew she would probably be staking a vampire 
that night, and probably every night for the rest of her life.

The emotions came around full circle as Buffy sat staring at the pictures of 
the woman she missed. She allowed herself to remember the times they had 
spent together, and as she lay back on the floor her arm curled up under her 
head, she held the picture in her other hand and gently traced the sweet 
face looking back at her. ?I still miss you so much.? Buffy relaxed as 
ghost like fingers eased the tension out of her face. She felt a feeling of 
being so loved settle over her as she relaxed completely, her eyes dripping 
low as sleep overcame her. Nerveless fingers dropped to the floor, the 
picture slipping from her fingers as Buffy fell into a dreamless sleep.

?I miss you too, love.? Willow whispered into her lover?s ear before she 
smiled at her and disappeared.

The end.

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