Choose
by sailor80
Nineteen
[reviews]
Willow felt disjointed. Her mind worked, but her body refused to answer her commands. She could feel the demon but it ignored her and directed her body to move faster than she thought possible. 'At least it doesn't hurt,' she thought.
The demon stopped in the depths of a cave and stayed perfectly still for an extended period. Willow alternated between amazement at what her body had done and trying to figure out how to regain control over it. She had listened to Buffy's conversations with Gienah and knew that it didn't want her dead.
'Think, Rosenberg, think. It's a demon, it wants something. It got here somehow, so there must be a way to make it leave. A way that doesn't end with me dying, no, that's bad. It didn't go to the Hellmouth, so it must want something else. Yeah, like to raise an army of other demons before it goes to open the Hellmouth. C'mon,' she urged herself, but got nowhere fast. Her thoughts ran in a pattern that reminded her of Amy on her wheel, and she mentally stamped her foot. 'I want my body back. I want my life back. And I want you gone,' she screamed.
Willow suddenly came back into her body. It ached in places she had never noticed before. She forced herself to her feet and stumbled toward the cave entrance. It took her a while to orient herself once she got outside. Once she recognized the direction she had to go, Willow forced herself to move. Every step was an agony. To add to her pain were the conflicting urges to use magick and to surrender to the demon's command.
She concentrated on moving and staying the present. Willow stumbled like a drunk. She had no grasp of the passage of time, except that it was still daylight. When she reached a road, she fell to her knees. Several cars went by before one stopped. It was a police cruiser. The officer took one look at her and called for an ambulance.
Giles answered the phone. "Summers residence."
"I'm calling from Sunnydale Memorial Hospital," a woman said in a bored voice. "Is Joyce Summers available?"
"I'm sorry, she isn't. Is there something I can help you with?" Giles was cautious.
"Ms. Summers is listed as the emergency contact for Willow Rosenberg. Ms. Rosenberg has been admitted to the hospital. Will you please leave a message for Ms. Summers?"
"Certainly. Thank you for calling," he said, and hung up without waiting for a reply. He walked slowly toward the stairs. Xander and Anya had gone home to rest not long ago. Tara had convinced Buffy to lay down, and then she and Aislin had gone to Willow's room to sleep. Dawn, too, was in her room, and Giles had napped briefly on the sofa. He stopped at the top of the stairs and drew a deep breath before rapping on Buffy's open door.
She sat up immediately. Giles noticed that the gauze that Tara had applied earlier was dark with blood. "What is it?" Buffy asked.
"The hospital called. Willow is there."
Buffy swung her legs to the floor and got to her feet. She walked to her closet and pulled out a pair of jeans. She pushed her shorts off and jammed her legs into the jeans and closed them. Without looking, she pulled a shirt from the closet and put it on. She saw Giles when she opened a drawer to get a pair of socks. "Tell the others," she ordered.
"Of course," he answered, and went to do as she asked.
Buffy put her shoes and socks on and grabbed her wallet from the dresser. She jammed it into a pocket on her way out of the bedroom. She heard Giles talking, and sleepy voices answering as she bounded down the stairs. They would take too long to prepare to leave the house. She pulled the front door shut and took off running toward the hospital. 'She's alive, she's alive,' her mind repeated as she ran.
Buffy controlled herself in the hospital, although all she wanted to do was race through the halls. She stopped at the information desk and got Willow's room number and went there as quickly as she could.
The room was dim, and there was no one there except Willow. She was hooked up to several machines, and IV lines had been put into her other arm. The one that the lines had been torn from was bandaged. Willow as nearly as white as the sheets, and Buffy clearly saw each freckle on her skin. She stood at the bedside and held Willow's hand and waited for the others to arrive.
She wasn't there long before a nurse came in to check Willow's machinery. Before she left, she told Buffy, "I'll let the doctor know you're here."
Buffy recognized the doctor who came in. He was one they saw regularly when the Scoobies came to the emergency room to get patched up. He explained that he had put Willow into a drug-induced coma to give her body a chance to heal itself. He didn't ask what had happened to her. He had learned that living in Sunnydale, it was better not to know, especially when any of the group around the blonde were involved.
Dawn was the first to enter the room. She stood beside her sister and put one arm around her waist. "Hey," she said softly.
"Hey," Buffy answered. She laid her head on her sister's shoulder for a moment.
The rest of the group surrounded Willow's bed as they had a few days earlier. Xander kissed Willow's forehead, then stood with the backs of his fingers resting on Willow's cheek.
Buffy relayed to them what the doctor had said. They stood silently, staring at Willow.
"The demon's still there," Aislin said softly.
"I never thought I'd say this," Xander said. "Let's hit the books."
"Buffy, will you be all right by yourself?" Giles asked.
Buffy nodded. Giles moved toward the door. On the way, he stopped and patted Buffy's shoulder. "We'll be back as soon as we know something."
"Okay," she answered.
Except for Aislin, the others, even Anya, hugged Buffy. Dawn stayed at her sister's side. "You should go with them," Buffy told her.
"No, I think I need to be here."
Buffy looked at her sister quizzically.
Dawn shrugged. "It feels like the right thing to do."
"Okay," Buffy agreed. She was glad that someone was staying with her. It was too easy to be frightened by the machinery and Willow's absolute stillness. That was more unnatural than any of the other circumstances. Willow always, Buffy learned at their first sleepover, talked and twitched and gestured in her sleep. Now, her chest rose and fell in a regular rhythm, but nothing else moved.
Buffy stood for hours and held Willow's hand. Dawn sat in the chair in the corner. She was so quiet that her sister forgot she was still there until she looked around the room and saw her.
The table at the Magic Box was piled with books. Some were open. Everyone except Aislin and Giles were reading. Aislin was meditating and Giles was again on the phone. Tara was studying the prophecy. The heart of the Slayer shall be taken, and the Council will fall. The Slayer and her Sorceress will search the realms for their heart. Chaos will reign and the Slayer will bleed until the Sorceress opens the door between them. The Key then will be transformed and their heart restored.
There remained only one item to complete the prophecy, but Tara didn't know what she was supposed to do to fulfill it. When she looked up, Xander was looking at her. "I know this sounds nuts, and you probably don't remember, because, you know, the whole Glory thing." He sounded a little embarrassed.
Tara nodded to encourage him to continue.
"Buffy went all non-responsive and Willow locked them up in her room for a few hours, and when they came out, Buffy was back. I dunno what Will did, some Vulcan mind meld thingy or something. Will's in a coma now, and maybe you guys can do something like that..." His voice fell.
Tara thought about what Xander said. It made as much sense as anything else they had tried. Willow hadn't told her much about what transpired while she was out of her mind. She had adamantly refused to talk with Tara about anything concerning Buffy. "All we can do is try, Xander," she answered him. Giles hung up the phone, and Tara waved him over. "Tell him what you just told me," she asked Xander.
"Remember when Glory took Dawn?" Xander asked.
Giles nodded.
"And Buffy shut down and Will did that thing," Xander continued. "I was wondering if we could do something like that for Will."
Giles, too, took a moment to consider Xander's suggestion. "It can't hurt," he said finally.
Aislin finished her meditation in time to hear Xander talk with Giles. "What thing?" she asked, and Xander went through it again. "That's a good idea, Xander," she told him. "Who's going to do it?"
"Buffy," Tara answered softly.
"Why not you?" Aislin asked.
"That's not my place any more," Tara said in an odd tone. She wasn't sure whether she was relieved or sad. Some of each, she decided. "We don't really need anything except them."