Remember Me?
by Lost
Chapter Four
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Willow glanced at her wife. She did her best to pretend that the blonde wasn't staring intently at her as she sat in her circle, and wafted the scents around her. Eventually she did forget that Buffy was watching her, and she shut her eyes, whens he opened them everything had a surreal appearence, almost as if she was looking through a camera with a special effect on it. She stood up and looked around the room. She wasn't sure where it was that Buffy had gone, but she was no longer laying on the couch.
"Mommy, Mommy, look at what me and Jillian did!" Lyssa said as she ran up to the redhead. Willow looked down at her daughter, there was a white ring around her daughter's neck, and for a moment Willow stared at it. "Aunty Dawn showed us how to make pretty necklaces..." The little girl held up the necklace, and Willow examined it. It appeared to look quite a bit like the necklaces Willow had made when the school had been posessed by the enraged student who had killed his teacher/lover during the Sadie Hawkins Dance. She smiled at the petite blonde.
"Wow, I be that was fun. Have you seen your Mom?" Willow asked as she smiled down at her daughter.
"Yeah, she said she wasnt feeling good, that she was going to take a shower, or maybe a bath, I dont remember." She shook her head and gave a shrug of her shoulders as the look of concentration disappeared from her face.
Willow followed her down the hallway, towards the bathroom. She opened the door and there was Buffy, laying a bathtub full of bubbles, her eyes shut pleasantly, but all around the top of her head was a dark cloud. It looked nearly like a lighting storm cloud, only with red thrown into the angry mixture of colors. She stared at the dark mixture of clouds, and jumped back as she watched it suddenly flash and seem to grow. It had already covered down to the blonde's eyebrows, and now looked as if it would cover her eyes; and if it continued, Willow had no idea how far it would go. She quickly left the bathroom, and went to take down her meditation station, and once the last candle and incense had been snuffed, the room returned to normal and she walked back into the bathroom.
Buffy was still there, her eyes were shut, and her eyelids were moving. She was dreaming. Willow touched her temple softly, concentrating on the words of a spell to let her see what Buffy was seeing as she slept. And then, it felt like her body had been vacuumed up through only her fingertip where it touched the blonde's temple; everything was silent for a moment. Then she was standing next to Buffy. They were both watching the events that unfolded before them. And Buffy, her Buffy, seemed to think it was perfectly normal to keep up a running commentary while they both watched younger versions of themselves.
Before them both, they were sitting at a table in the library. "See, okay, thats where I don't get it. Where having a conversation, with vampires in it." Xander was saying.
"I think I need to sit down." Willow said as if she was going to faint.
"You are sitting." Buffy's girlfriend at the time, Faith, told the redhead. Buffy nodded.
"Oh, good for me." Willow replied. She really didn't like the raven haired girl, but she was willing to put up with her, after all, her and Buffy had been together a year or so (according to them both) and they had moved to Sunnydale with Buffy's mom.
Then the images swirled around them again, and her Buffy turned to look at her. "It's kind of wierd, remembering things like this. I know that I know all of this already, but it's like there's a block thats only letting some of it out at a time. But, as soon as I get one, I dont get a chance to try and look at it and figure out what it all means, before BAM!" She smacked her two hands together. "Another one hits me."
"Well, that was the night after the first time Xander and I saw a vampire, we were at the library trying to figure out how to get Jessie back. You and Faith and Xander ended up going down after him, but he had already been turned." Willow said. "That help any?"
"Yes, actually, immensly. I had no idea what we were talking about. We'd
been in there for a minute when you..." she trailed off as the room around
them took shape again, and there was Faith and Buffy. They were in their
room at the time, and they were talking.
"Listen B, I love you...You know that. And I know that you love me.... but Baby, what if... I dont know." She paused for a minute and took a deep breath. They had been best friends since they were eight, and had been together since they were fifteen. Buffy's family had taken her in when her parents had "mysteriously disappeared" and had never once questioned the girls relationship. "What if you and I are better... as best friends?" Faith asked, and for the first time in her life, Willow saw Faith show real, true, raw emotion; the likes of which would have never graced the other slayer's features if she had known that anyone except for Buffy was in the room.
"I know that we have alot to work on... But I think that we should work through it together. NOT apart." Buffy replied, her eyes heavy with unshed tears. Faith looked up from her hands, and grasped desperately at the blonde's before her. She stared into Buffy's eyes.
"I have to know what happened to them, you can't just pick up and leave like I can... I promise I'll come back for you, you know that... I'll always come back for you, if not so we can work us out...then at least so we can be friends again...no, not friends. Family. We're family...." She trailed off as she leaned over and kissed the blonde. The kiss was solid, and final, and as they both cried again, thr room drifted off once more.
Buffy looked at Willow, who avoided her gaze. Willow finally faced her. "Faith went to go and find her parents, she said that she had to know what happened to them, at least that's what you told me. You waited for her, for over a year. During that year you and I got closer....and before I knew it, I was..."
There were Buffy and Willow sitting on Willow's bed. Both girls were talking, smiling. Willow turned to Buffy and watched her. When Buffy turned to face Willow, their eyes met, and both girls leaned in without thinking. They kissed for the first time there, on Willow's bed, and when they pulled back Willow looked at her.
"So uhm, I kind of like you." Buffy said as she reached over and grabbed the redhead's hand.
"Well, that works out nicely, 'cuz I do too. Like you I mean." Willow said in response as she leaned in and kissed the blonde again.
This time when the world swirrled, both girls were blushing and instead of the world reforming in front of them, Willow felt like she was vacuumed out and then there she was, sitting on the tile next to Buffy as she lay in the bubbly bathtub, that, by this time, was not nearly so bubbly any more. "Okay, that was freaky." Buffy said as she looked at Willow. Willow just nodded. She was doing her best to avert her gaze from the now nearly visible body of her wife. "Okay, then you can explain them all..." The blonde said, and when Willow didn't answer she waved her hand in front of the redhead's face, putting a different part of herself in Willow line of view.
Willow turned bright red. If this had been her wife with her memories in front of her, Willow would have been fine, however this Buffy didn't have the memories, nor the level of comfortableness that the two of them had attained over the years, and so Willow lit up like a christmas light. "Sorry, what?"
"I'm telling you about all of them, you can explain." And so Buffy did her best to remember all of her new memories enough to actually tell Willow them. And Willow did her best to explain them. Afterwards, Buffy climbed out of the tub, and Willow turned around at the last minute, wanting to offer Buffy what little privacy she could have.
"I'm gonna go and do some...research." Willow said as she sheilded her eyes and walked out of the bathroom. Buffy heaved a sigh of frustration, and got dressed quickly, and followed the redhead out of the room. She looked one way down the hallway and heard giggling, and the the other was quiet. She headed towards the quiet end and found Willow sitting at a table, skimming through websites on her computer. She was talking on the phone as well.
"It's all gone. All of it. She didn't know who she was, who I was, who Dawn was. She didn't even know our kids!" She paused. "Yes, I did. And yes, there is some kind of a spell on her." she took a deep breath. "No I dont know who would have done it... I'm sure there are tons of candidates. Yes, bring them all." She paused once more. "Okay, I'll see you in ten." And she hung up the phone. She turned and jumped a little. "You scared me." She said as she looked at Buffy.
For her part, the blonde just stood there, arms crossed over her chest, and stared at Willow. "Do you think I'm attractive?" She finally asked.
"What?! Of course I do..." Willow scrunched her eyes up. "Where'd that come from?"
"Well, it just seems like you hold yourself back around me alot." Buffy answered.
"I hold myself back!??" She asked, she stared incredously at the blonde. "Of course I hold myself back, you dont even remember that you know me!" She wasn't yelling at the blonde she was just putting emphasis on her words, but it was enough emphasis to draw Dawn, Jillian and Lyssa around the corner.
"Uhm, I dont mean to interrupt or anything...but are you guys okay?" Dawn asked.
Both Buffy and Willow answered at the same time. "Yes!" "No!" Willow took a deep breath. "How about we continue this discussion when you have your memories back?" She said as she took the blonde's hands in her own.
"Fine..." Buffy said as she went and sat down, "Exactly how are we supposed to be doing that?" She asked in an exasperated tone.
"Giles and everyone are on their way over..." Willow said as the front door opened, and in walked Giles, followed shortly by Faith, Tara, Xander, Anya, and their two kids, Marcus and Rhett. Marcus was seven, and Rhett was five. In all seven of their arms were books, and they all settled down at the table.
Everyone hugged hello and then started to work. Buffy looked at all of these people whom she didnt know... and felt overhwelmed. She remembered them all, but only little bits and pieces of them, and they all seemed to know everything about eachother, and her.
She stood up from the table, and the world swam before her eyes. She rubbed her temples, trying to make her migrane go away, she swayed a little bit. And then fell. That was the last thing she remembered before getting sucked into a new memory.