Choose
by sailor80
Fifteen
[reviews]
Tara stepped away from the bed to speak with Aislin. She pulled Anya into their conversation. The three of them spoke in low voices and gestured occasionally. After a few minutes, Anya left. Tara and Aislin continued to talk. Dawn came to Tara's side and leaned against her. Accustomed as she was to the hospital watch, she still needed comfort. Tara put her arm around Dawn. Talking with Aislin made Tara feel better, calmer and centered. That she was gorgeous didn't hurt any, either.
They finished their planning. Tara sat at the table and drank the lukewarm coffee Dawn had brought for her. Dawn sat beside her. Xander and Giles were talking in the corner. Aislin sat opposite Buffy on the bed.
She looked at Willow, then at Buffy. She frowned. "It's not your fault," she told Buffy softly.
Buffy jerked her head around to look at Aislin. "Yes, it is. I brought her here. I made her come."
"You didn't do this to her. It's not in you to hurt her."
"That's all I do," Buffy said bitterly.
"No." Aislin reached over Willow and laid her hand on Buffy's forearm. "You love her and you protect her as best you can. You believe in her, even when she doesn't believe in herself. That's all you've done, and all you can do." Aislin looked down at Willow. "I need to touch you," she told her softly. "I'll try not to hurt you." Aislin left her hand on Buffy's forearm and laid the other hand on Willow's forehead as if she were checking for fever. Her eyes closed and she blanched and stood up suddenly.
"What?" Buffy asked.
Tara had seen the sudden motion, too, and came to Aislin's side. "What?" she echoed.
Aislin ignored them and walked to the corner where Xander and Giles were talking and trying to stay out of the way. "We need to leave here," she told Giles. "When Anya returns with what I need, I'll do what I can to stabilize her. She needs a hospital, Rupert. Get an ambulance here. The others need to get their things. We won't be coming back here."
"What did he do?"
"I don't know exactly, but it's bad, and it's still here. It's close to her, and it wants her, and we need to go."
Giles turned to Xander. "You heard her. Go pack what you can find. Leave the rest." He reached behind and under his coat and handed Xander a pistol. "Take Dawn."
"No," Aislin said. "I need her here."
Xander waited for Giles to agree. Giles nodded at him, and Xander left.
He met Anya in the hall. She saw the grim expression on his face. "What's going on?"
"Giles' friend said we have to leave as soon as you finish whatever you're going to do to Will." He leaned down and kissed her. "I'll be back," he told her, and continued in the direction she had just come from.
"Crap," Anya said. "If she's running scared, we are so screwed." She hurried toward the room.
It looked no different than it had when she left. Buffy sat at Willow's side, holding her hand. Tara and Aislin were talking quietly at the other side of the bed. Giles was on the phone. Dawn was sitting near the table, picking at her cast.
Anya thrust a paper bag at Aislin. "It's not fresh, but it's the best I could do."
"Thank you." Aislin opened the bag and peered in. She looked back at Anya. "It's perfect." Then she looked at Tara. "We need the little one, too."
Tara smiled for the first time in days. "Don't let her hear you call her that," she told Aislin before going to sit beside Dawn for a moment. "We're going to do a ritual for Willow," she told her. "We need you to help."
"Me?" Dawn squeaked.
Tara nodded. "You're as close to W-willow as any of us."
Dawn nodded and stood when Tara did. They went back to the bed. Aislin and Anya were spreading herbs around Willow. Aislin looked up at Dawn when she approached. "Stand next to your sister, by the head of the bed," she instructed. "Put your hand on her shoulder."
Tara stood at Buffy's other side. Anya stood at the foot of the bed and Aislin stood opposite Buffy. Tara placed her hand on Buffy's other shoulder, and stretched to reach Anya. Anya took her hand and reached for Aislin. They joined hands, and Aislin reached across the bed to Dawn. Their fingers laced, and Dawn drew in a breath at the surge of power that passed through her.
The others let Aislin lead. She called, and they answered, continuing as the herbs turned to smoke around Willow and her body arced and she screamed. Tara didn't realize she was crying again until they were finished. She looked at Buffy and saw a small trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth and realized that Buffy must have bitten through her lip to keep herself from stopping them.
Dawn's eyes were wide as she looked from one of them to the other, and finally at Willow. A small "oh" came from her mouth and she went behind Buffy to Tara. She buried her face in Tara's sleeve and threw her arms around her. Tara kissed the top of her head, but didn't move. She didn't want to take from Buffy the small comfort of her hand on the Slayer's shoulder.
Anya turned to Aislin. "Do you still need me here?"
"No."
"Good." She spun toward Giles. "I'm going to help Xander," she told him, moving toward the door before she finished the sentence.
"Buffy, does she feel any different?" Aislin asked.
Buffy shook her head. She was afraid of what would come out if she opened her mouth.
Aislin leaned over, and as she had done before, put one hand on Buffy's forearm and the other on Willow's forehead. After two or three seconds, she pulled away. Buffy watched and hoped her reaction would be different this time. Aislin straightened up, closed her eyes, and drew a deep breath. She exhaled, opened her eyes, and met Buffy's. "It's a little better," she told her, and went to Giles. They talked too quietly for the others to hear, even if they were paying attention.
It was a few more long minutes before Anya returned with an ambulance crew in her wake. They let Buffy move Willow onto the gurney, and didn't argue as Buffy trotted beside them, holding Willow's hand.
The rest of them followed. When they reached the entrance, Buffy got into the ambulance with Willow. Xander had one of the Council's Land Rovers waiting. Their luggage was stacked neatly in the back. Giles took the wheel. Xander and Anya slid into the back seat. Tara and Dawn went with Aislin. Dawn kept in physical contact with Tara the entire time. All that had happened in the past hour had shaken her, and she wanted someone to tell her that everything would be fine. Buffy wouldn't, and Willow couldn't, and that left Tara, who was the closest thing to a mother she had since her own had died.
No one in either vehicle talked as they followed the ambulance. No matter how many times it happened, they never got used to one of them being hurt. Hospitals were for bad news: der Kinderstad, Faith's coma, Joyce's death.
* * *
They took over the waiting room. Buffy refused to let Willow out of her sight when the doctors needed to do anything that required her to let go of the redhead's hand. The hospital was used to strange injuries coming from the Watcher's Council manor house, but they had never seen anyone in the condition Willow was in. Doctors were unable to check her pupils because her eyes were black. If Buffy wasn't touching her, and if they didn't say what they were doing, they'd find themselves pushed forcefully away by something they couldn't see. They scratched their heads and did what they could. X-rays were taken, IV lines put in, bags of antibiotics hung with the bigger bags on the poles. Finally, they let the rest of her family enter the room in pairs. Buffy sat at Willow's bedside. She remained focused on Willow except for a few moments with each of them.
Giles was the last to enter. He stood at the foot of Willow's bed, using what magickal skill he had to look at her. He shook his head slowly and went to Buffy's side. Giles knelt beside her chair. "The Council is meeting today. Is there anything you want to tell them?"
"Tell them," Buffy said in a cold voice, "that their Slayer is in prison in California. Tell them that I will chase down every lying rat who did this to my Willow. Tell them that whenever I see a member of the Council, their lives are forfeit. Tell them," she continued, moving her gaze from Willow to Giles, "that we are finished with them."
Giles nodded. "I will. Is it all right if I take the others with me to the meeting?"
"If they want to go." Buffy turned again to Willow.
"I'll be back as soon as I can."
Buffy nodded her acknowledgement. Giles stood. He leaned over and kissed the top of Buffy's head. "I'll make arrangements for us to return to Sunnydale as soon as possible," he told her before leaving.