Tell Me I Was Dreaming
by Shyfox
Tell Me I Was Dreaming
[reviews]
Comments, questions, criticisms are as always welcome at shyfox30@hotmail.com
Tell me I was dreaming
by
Shyfox
When I woke up this morning.
Wiped the sleep from my eyes.
I found a new day dawning.
And suddenly I realized...your gone.
Tell me I was dreaming,
That you didn't leave me here to cry.
You didn't say you don't love me anymore.
It was just my imagination telling lies.
Tell me that you didn't say goodbye.
I'm in a state of confusion.
I hope things aren't as they seem.
If this is really happening.
Just let me go back to dream...your home.
Tell me I was dreaming,
That you didn't leave me here to cry.
You didn't say you don't love me anymore.
It was just my imagination telling lies.
Tell me that you didn't say goodbye.
-- Travis Tritt
Fate is a funny taskmaster, and for most people a cruel one. They find themselves facing cruel jokes brought on by fate's hand and wondering what the hell happened...I mean think about it...how many of you have ever been watching a good movie...or reading a really good novel, gotten into the story...identified with the characters...only to have something really terrible happen halfway through the plot and shake your head saying... "That wasn't supposed to happen."
Fate is funny that way.
It gives unselfishly...yet it can also take away.
One of the best days of your life can quickly turn into your worst nightmare.
Willow Rosenberg-Summers knew this lesson well. She had faced it many times before in her young life. But somehow she had never thought that she would come to be at this place, in this moment in time, and find herself screaming into a cold cruel world... "This wasn't supposed to happen! It isn't fair!"
Life isn't fair. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Sometimes things happen for no reason at all. We don't get to pick and choose. We just have to live with it...as best we can.
*****
(Two minutes before all Hell broke loose)
"Anybody else feeling really shitty about letting her go up there alone?" Xander asked, raising his hand as he looked back and forth between Oz and Giles. None of them could tell what was happening up on the roof, although they spent an awfully long time looking up. But the longer they waited down here, the more nervous they became.
"I think we should help Willow." Oz agreed, nodding his head emphatically.
"Well, Buffy did say we should stay here." Giles protested, although Xander could tell his heart really wasn't in it. "We could prove to be an unnecessary distraction." The argument was weak at best and Giles knew it. "Oh Bloody Hell, you're right. I'm as anxious to know what's going on as you are." Giles said, starting to walk toward the entrance of the building.
"Giles." Xander said, gesturing toward the fire escape that Buffy had climbed earlier.
"Well, I'm not climbing up the bloody fire escape, come on." The watcher figured he would never be able to climb up all the way on the ricketly looking metal staircase. He'd rather take his chances from inside the decrepit looking building. "Faith has probably already seen Buffy come over that route she might be looking for more heads to pop up." He entered the building with Xander and Oz following behind him, shaking their heads.
*****
"Who knew there would be so many stairs in this place?" Giles asked, sounding out of breath as the three men raced from floor to floor. I'm getting too old for this. The retired watcher thought to himself ruefully, trying to ignore the nagging pain in his side as he fought to keep pace with the younger men.
Then all thought became irrelevant as the bone chilling sound of a woman screaming reached their ears.
"Will." Oz said, his face turning still and white for a half of a second, his head cocked to the side as he listened to the screams, before increasing his speed, kicking in some form of stamina that he drew from a secret place deep inside of him.
"I didn't know he could do that." Xander muttered to himself as he tried to keep up with the man taking the lead.
They broke out onto the roof, coming to a stand still as they tried to adjust their eyes to the sudden darkness of the rooftop. Oz however was scanning the rooftop intently, his eyes shining with an inner glow which was giving Xander the creeps. "I didn't know you could do that." Xander muttered again, getting hushed by an anxious wolf-man for his trouble.
They could all hear the screams and could pretty much tell where they were coming from, but they couldn't see any sign of Buffy or Faith and that was worrying them. "Do you see them?" Giles asked, whispering to Xander and Oz.
"No...but I see Willow...I'm gonna go untie her." Xander whispered back, darting out further onto the roof and heading over to where Willow was tied to her chair.
The lack of seeing any sign of Buffy and Faith was still bothering Giles and Oz and they continued to peer anxiously through the dim haze of the flickering florescent light. Then they noticed the direction in which Willow was looking and decided to follow her gaze, right off the edge of the building. "Dear God." Giles murmured, feeling his stomach twist as he hoped that what he was suspecting wasn't true.
The two men made their way over to the edge, hearing Xander talking to Willow as they did so.
"Hey take it easy, Willow. We're here. We'll get you out. Ouch! Those nails are sharp! Calm down!" But Willow wouldn't calm down...she wouldn't even stop fighting, and as Giles and Oz looked over the edge, they understood the reason why as they caught sight of the extremely still body lying in an awkward position far below them.
"Do you think she's..." Oz started to ask, but was interrupted by an ill looking Watcher.
"Go call an ambulance. Hurry!" Oz was loping over the pavement before Giles had even finished the sentence, feeling like the hounds of hell were at his heels.
"There...see I told you I'd get you untied.." Xander said, a smug tone to his voice as he released the rest of Willow's bonds. Giles half turned, seeing the wild look that covered the redhead's face.
"Xander...don't..." Giles warned, but it was too late...Willow had already broken loose from Xander's hold and was running pell mell for the edge. Giles caught hold of her, holding the struggling woman tight in his harms, feeling her shake with sobs against him.
*****
Oz ran to the nearest apartment and started pounding heavily on the door. "What the Fuck! Who is it?" Came a rough voice from within. The door was opened by a middle aged balding fat guy, wearing nothing but a rat chewed stained white t-shirt and a faded pair of green work pants that had seen better days.
"What the Fuck do you want?" The guy asked from between the stogie he had crammed between his teeth. Oz wasn't the slightest bit intimidated.
"I need to use your phone...it's an emergency." Oz said, trying to remain calm.
The fat guy snorted, the stale smell of the cigar going into Oz's face. "Like Hell." He said, starting to close the door. Oz's foot stopped the door's movement.
The fat guy looked back at Oz surprise and anger twisting his fat, flabby cheeks. "What the Fu--" He started to say, but was unable to finish as Oz cut in.
"As I was saying...I need to use your phone..." The voice started to deepen into a low growl as his eyes lit up. "NOW!" The tone left no room for argument as the fat man felt himself being pushed out of the way, and the insolent kid was moving inside his apartment.
*****
"Is she?" Willow could barely get the question out from between stiff lips. She was merely centimeters away from her wife, watching Giles carefully as he searched desperately for a pulse.
"She's alive." The answer came with a sigh of relief, as the watcher looked down on the damaged body of his precious Slayer. Barely. He thought to himself...not knowing how much longer she would stay that way. But not wanting to stress Willow any further he kept the observation to himself. He did wish the ambulance would make an appearance soon. Otherwise, Slayer healing abilities or not, she wasn't going to make it.
*****
"BP seventy over forty; Pulse rate 100; breathing is thready and shallow...let's get her moving." Willow watched in a complete state of shock as they loaded her wife onto a stretcher getting ready to load her into the nearby ambulance. She kept thinking that if she'd just pinch herself a little harder, that if she closed her eyes and pretended that it wasn't happening, she would wake up in bed, feeling Buffy's arms wrapped tightly around her, and hear her murmuring gentle words in her ear to calm her after having this nightmare. But it wasn't a bad dream...this was really happening...and she felt herself coming apart at the seams as she watched the paramedics pick up the stretcher and load it into the ambulance.
"I'm going with you." Her voice cracked as she got the words out, but at least she had managed to say them...she wasn't sure she'd be able to say anything through the huge lump that was lodged in her throat like a permanent fixture. The attendents spared her a quick look before nodding their heads.
"Are you sure..." Giles said, put a restraining hand on the red head's shoulder. Giles would be following behind the ambulance anyway, and wasn't sure Willow should put the greater stress of riding in the ambulance on her shoulders.
"I'm going." Willow didn't even look back as she climbed up into the ambulance behind the attendants. Giles watched with a certain amount of helplessness as the paramedic closed the doors behind her.
'Dear God...please don't let her die.' Giles offered a solemn prayer to whatever higher power was listening, before he headed hurriedly to his car
*****
"Hang in there, Class Protector. You can't leave us to face the darkness alone." One of the attendents whispered to Buffy, and Willow was amazed to discover she hadn't even recognized one of her former classmates. Not too surprising considering the state of shock she was in, but still...
"How are you holding up?" Jonathan asked, sparing Willow a sympathetic look, before turning his eyes back on his patient.
"I've been better." Willow admitted, fresh tears staining her cheeks. "Can you hurry?"
"We're going to try." Jonathan said, as the sirens flared to life, and the ambulance pulled out of the dark alley it was parked in, intent on making it's destination as fast as humanly possible.
*****