Baby's Coming Back
by willow
Waiting
[reviews]
Chapter 7: Waiting
***************************************************************************
"Buffy," the slayer spun around from the cooker to face her best friend, oven mits in the air and blowing hair from her face.
"Yeah, Wills?"
"Can we talk? Alone." Willow's pleading eyes met Buffy's as she choked out her words and glanced about the room at Dawn and Joyce.
"Yeah, of course," Buffy said, pulling off her gloves.
Joyce noticed the tears in Willow's eyes when she handed Paige over to her. "You don't mind do you?"
"No, of course not, hon." Joyce said with a reassuring smile before turning to Paige and chattering away nonsense to her.
Buffy took Willow's hand and lead her around the back of the house, so as to avoid the people in the living room, and up the stairs to her room.
"You think she's ok?" Dawn asked worried. Joyce gave her daughter a sad smile as she shook her head.
***************************************************************************
As soon as Buffy's door was shut, Willow's silent tears rolled down her cheeks. "So, Tara's with Faith?" she asked, walking over to the other side of the room, staring out of Buffy's window.
"Uh, yeah. After we defeated the first they just, kinda... hit it off, I guess..." The blonde trailed off, knowing this was the last thing Willow wanted to hear.
"She could have chosen anyone, why did it have to be Faith?" She said, more to herself than the blonde.
"I don't know, sweetie, they just..."
"How could you let her go near Tara?" Willow turned around to face her friend, revealing the shiney eyes and the tear trails. "After everything she did, why the Hell did you let her anywhere near any of them."
"Willow, she's changed..." Buffy tried to explain, but Willow was having none of it.
"She's a psycho, Buffy," Willow threw her hands up in the air. "Or had you forgotten that she killed a man, tried to place the blame on you, then tried to kill us all and maybe even end the world with an apocolypse." Willow's voice was getting louder and Buffy was pretty sure Faith's hearing was picking up the conversation.
"Wills, calm down, ok?" she grabbed both of Willow's arms only to be pushed away as Willow scoffed a laugh, walking over to the window again, this time placing her elbows on the window sill and placing her head in her hands. She took several deep breaths before starting again.
"I can't do this, Buffy, it's too hard." This time the words came out through sobs, "I can't watch her with that bitch. She deserves better."
"She had better," Buffy said, walking up to Willow and placing a hand on her back, rubbing up and down gently. "But better didn't work out, remember?"
"I'm not better," Willow said, trying to hold back the remaining tears, but failing miserably. "She deserves someone normal, someone who doesn't risk her life everyday they're with her." Tears fell faster as she remembered her magic addiction. "She doesn't deserve a life like that."
"No, she doesn't," Buffy said quietly, trying to approach the subject gently as she could. "But, whether we like it or not, it's the life she chose. I guess she felt she was doing the right thing by helping us in the first place."
Willow just nodded and sighed deeply, wiping away the stray tears. Buffy wrapped two strong arms around Willow's middle, and she in turn leaned back into the slayer's body, closing her eyes loving the feeling of someone just holding her. Especially that someone being Buffy.
"She waited for you, you know," Buffy said soothingly. "Nearly two years... I just thought you should know," she said, getting quieter towards the end. Truth was, Buffy had waited, too. She hadn't been with anyone since that one night stand with Spike, who was now very much dead. Her mind was so fixed on looking for Willow, she didn't have time to worry about relationships.
The blonde placed her chin on the brunette's shoulder, "You wanna go home?" she whispered in her ear.
Willow thought for a moment. Should she go to avoid Tara and Faith? Or should she stay to catch up with the rest of the gang?
"I-I don't know," she said truthfully, sighing out deeply. She turned around and grabbed both hands away from her waist, still keeping hold of them. "I mean, I want to stay with you... and the others. We've really got some catching up to do, I just don't know if I can... deal, right now."
"It's ok, you can stay up here while you decide. I'll go fetch Paige if you like?"
Willow smiled best she could at the slayer, it was small but genuine. "Thanks, Buffy," she hugged her best friend tight.
"You're welcome," she broke off the hug and rubbed down Willow's arms. "I'll be back in a sec."
Willow smiled again as Buffy made her way out of the door. She made her way over to the bed and sat down trying to clear her head. She sighed deeply once again and let herself fall sideways onto one of Buffy's pillows. She brought her legs up so she was in a fetal position and pushed her face into the pillow. It had that Buffy smell. It only took a couple of seconds for her eye lids to become heavy and she found herself drifting to sleep faster than she knew she could. She didn't know being emotionally exhausted could make you so physically tired.
***************************************************************************
Reviews? I like reviews =]