Loving Willow Til Death Do Us Part
by Rin
10
[reviews]
A'N: Short chapter but it's quite a shocker, and will help explain my twists and turns for the end.
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"I've got something for you." Buffy held out her hand, and offered it to Willow. "Trust me."
"Midterms start tomorrow." Willow was uncertain. She was studying for her philosophy exam, and there was a knock at the door. Slayer didn't bark, just cocked her head to the side, so Willow knew it was Buffy before she even opened the door.
"You'll love it. I promise." Buffy was surprised how easy their courtship and friendship fell back into place. It was like wooing Willow all over again was just the thing to ease her troubled mind. "Besides, you've been studying nonstop these past two weeks. It's time you got out of the house."
"I get out of the house." Willow moved aside to let Buffy in the house but the blonde wasn't entering.
"Besides to go to school?" Buffy cocked an eyebrow, and smirked at the redhead's lack of answer. "Thought so. Come on, then.
You won't wanna miss this."
"Should I be worried?" Willow scrunched her eyebrows, and looked at Buffy. She didn't look like she was trying to go on a date. When Buffy tried this last week, she'd been dressed up, ready to go out on the town. It seemed that the blonde was starting to come around completely.
"Only if you don't get your ass out here now." Buffy smirked, and challenged the redhead. Their feelings were starting to come together again (not that they'd ever left), and their flirting kept getting stronger every day.
"Let me grab a jacket first." Willow went to the closet to grab a jacket, and Buffy stopped her.
"No time. You'll miss it." Buffy pulled the redhead along, and shut the door behind her.
"Buffy..." Willow whined, though she was loving the attention, not to mention the extra tingles from Buffy's hand in hers. Being dragged along wasn't all that bad...
"Trust me, Wills. You'll love it." Buffy was being cryptic, and steering them towards the beach. When they got there, the blonde made Willow close her eyes. "Ready?"
"You've dragged me this far, haven't you?" Willow smiled underneath her closed eyelids. She could hear soft music from somewhere. Why were they at the beach?
"Take your shoes off first. You can't very well go to the beach in house slippers." Buffy kicked her own sneakers off, and studied her handiwork. She was almost ready to take their flirting to the next level but there were still too many unanswered worries. "Okay, open them!"
"Buffy?" Willow opened her eyes to see a blanket spread across the sand, speakers placed around it with soft music playing, a bottle of wine opened, and thermos cups sitting beside a baggie of grapes. It was déjà vu.
"Like it?" Buffy was worried Willow had forgotten what this spot meant.
"Our anniversary. It was the first night we..." Willow blushed. "Um...Buffy?"
"I want this, Willow. I want forever with you. I know we have a lot to work on before we get to this point again...but for now? I thought it'd be nice to just dance with you in the sand again. Is that okay? Nothing more, nothing less." Buffy was determined tonight. She was afraid Willow would take the reminder of when they were good together as a bad sign. However, the heavy lids, parted lips, and slight nod only told Buffy what she needed to know. Willow still wanted her, in every way. "Good...so...this is okay?"
"It's more than okay." Willow stepped onto the blanket, and the two shared a thermos mug of wine. "Are you trying to get me drunk, and take advantage of me?"
"You wouldn't have to be drunk." Buffy didn't miss a beat, and continued to sip her wine, as she smiled at Willow.
"Are you saying I'm easy?" Willow almost choked on her wine.
"If the shoe fits..." The blonde just smirked in return, a sultry smirk that sent shockwaves down Willow's spine, all the way down to
her toes. They were quiet for the next several minutes, just enjoying the other's company. They were comfortable around each
other again, and it seemed like it hadn't been that way in a long time. Finally, they could go back to being Buffy and Willow. "Wanna dance?"
"I'm not sure. I wouldn't want you to think I'm easy." Willow sent her a toothy grin, and watched as Buffy's eyes lit up with excitement. It was the familiar sign that Buffy was in the mood. "Are you sure you want to be that close to me?"
"As close as I can get without breaking you." Buffy watched the redhead's eyes glisten, and offered her hand for a dance. They hoisted themselves up from the blanket, and swayed to the soft music, sand squelching between their toes.
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"I aced midterms." Willow walked into the Magic Box, and had that 'geeker squeal of joy' thing happening with her body language. The gang was all gathered around the table, and had confused looks on their faces. Willow tried to find Buffy but the blonde wasn't in the room.
"This is news how?" Xander smiled at his friend, trying to steer the topic of conversation away from the previous. No wonder they were all confused...and he wasn't sure it was his place to tell Willow. A change of topic was definitely in order.
"What's up? Everybody looks like somebody died." Willow saw their eyes. "Oh, no. Who died? It wasn't me again, was it?"
"No, not you...just sad. That's all." Xander was at a loss for words. He wanted to hit something, punch the wall, do anything to understand how this could've happened. "Maybe you should sit down."
"Oh, no. Somebody did die...and, and...was it Buffy? Where's Buffy?" Willow began to go into full blown panic. Things were going so well with them lately, and it wouldn't be long before they started dating again.
"She's okay. She's with Dawn. Um...maybe you should sit down, Wills?" Xander tried to coerce the redhead in the seat but panic had already set in, which was never a good thing.
"Just tell me what happened." Willow was beyond okay at this point. "Tell me!"
"It's Joyce." Giles announced in his monotone voice. The news shocked him, and his British upbringing disallowed him to show emotion, despite wanting to scream at the PTB for being unfair.
"What about Mrs. Summers?" Willow really was panicked now. "Tell me now!"
"Calm down. She's...well, Buffy found her...and..." Xander didn't want to be the one to tell Willow this. He thought Buffy should.
"Buffy found her? She's gonna be okay, though...right?" Willow started to fight tears. All those fights they'd had about Buffy smothering her mother in the hospital, about protecting Dawn. Willow felt nothing but guilt and harsh reality sink into her bones.
"They're at the morgue right now." Xander gulped. He wasn't ready to lose anybody else, and so sudden, so...mortal.
"Joyce is...is...huh?" Willow did need to sit down, and she did. She fell right to the floor. Her emotions and memories of all the things she said to Buffy. It all came rushing back to her. "I'm...I'm a horrible person."
"It's not your fault, Willow. It was natural...a brain aneurysm." Giles tried his best to stay calm for his charges. "Buffy will need us to be strong for her right now. It's difficult losing a parent."
"I...I wouldn't know." Willow stared off into space, not sure what to say. Things were going so well; she should've known something bad would happen. "I need to see Buffy."
"We know, Willow. We're to pick her up at the morgue. She and Dawn are there waiting for us now. They just called with the results from the autopsy." Giles helped Willow to her feet, and watched as the young girl started to run for the door.
"Will! Wait!" Xander yelled after her but the girl was already long gone. "She and Buffy are..."
"Yes. I noticed they were starting to become friendlier again." Giles took a deep breath. He'd already removed his glasses, and the lens was already popped out once from cleaning them.
"They want to have sex again." Anya, ever the blunt person, was the most confused of all. She was unfamiliar with the grieving process, and didn't think this was any different than normal.
"Thank you for that insight, Anya." Giles huffed at her, and for once let his anger show at the young girl. "I apologize."
"We should pick up Buffy." Xander hurried to relay the situation. "We may pass Will on the way."
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Willow had already been there, attached to Buffy and Dawn, for about ten minutes. She had ran faster than she knew she could run. Buffy saw her standing there, out of breath, and almost broke down right there. Willow had run to her, to comfort her, to be there for her, to be her strength. Her mommy was gone. What was she going to do now?
"We got here as soon as we could. Are you ready to leave?" Giles hugged Buffy, who kept one hand in Willow's during the exchange. Everybody hugged them, and still the blonde held onto Willow's hand.
The gang left the morgue, after Giles finished setting everything up with the coroner. The body would be transported to the proper funeral home, and all would be settled. Family would be called tonight.
That's how Buffy found out she had a first cousin she never knew about: Winifred Burkle, from Texas, though Aunt Mitzy hadn't heard from the Burkles in a long while. Buffy was aghast. How could she miss that? Was this a big joke? Fred? Willow's Fred? This couldn't be happening. Aunt Mitzy took Buffy's silence as a need to continue the story. Buffy learned more about her Nana than she ever wanted to know.
Nana had been married before, and had a daughter with her first husband before Aunt Mitzy and Joyce were born to her second husband. Her mom never talked about that, maybe because she was the youngest, and didn't remember much about Trish before Nana's first husband moved away to Texas. Then again, Joyce never really talked much about their elongated family, too focused on the three of them.
This was all too much. There had to be something wrong. Fred was her blood kin? No...this was a dream. If Willow hadn't pinched her to get her attention, she would've kept on believing that, too.