FIC: Flying Without Wings (7/7)

[reddemon33@xxxxxxxxx]

Title: Flying Without Wings (7/7)
Author: Red Demon
Email: reddemon33@xxxxxxxxx
Disclaimer: Buffy and Company belong to Joss, Mutant Enemy, 20th 
Century Fox and UPN.
Pairing: Buffy/Willow 
Rating: PG13 
Distribution: E-mail me and I'll let you know. 
Feedback: Must Have. Makes me write much faster. Thoughts, opinions. 
Where do you want the story to go? 
Summary: Set in an alternate reality. Buffy is injured before 
becoming the slayer causing a certain redhead to be called instead. 
Lyrics: Westlife, "Flying without Wings" 



"Daddy?" She tried to keep the fear out her voice as he
pulled her into a standing position. Her legs tried to buckle but 
they didn't. She was standing. She could feel the grass beneath
her feet and the wind licking at her legs. 

Hank couldn't help but smile at the expression on her face. Sun 
glinted off her hair and joyous laughter burst from her lips.

Just as suddenly it disappeared. "This isn't real is it? I
have to go back now don't I?"

"They need you down there but you need to see something
first."

The ground shifted and she was in a hospital room. Her hospital 
room. Willow asleep in the chair next to her bed, clothes matted 
with dried blood. The fog lifted from her brain and she felt pain. 

+++++++++++

She had been in a lot of pain in her life but nothing was like this.  
Every nerve in her body felt like it had been hit with a nuclear 
blast. She tried to open her eyes but the light was to bright and 
she felt herself starting to fall back into the abyss of peaceful 
nothingness.

Someone was stroking her face and she felt love and sorrow coming 
from them. "Here." Something cold was pressed against her
lips. Ice chips. Her mind told her. Willow it told her a second 
later.

Willow watched the pain become visible on Buffy's face and she
felt the weight of what had happen press down on her. She angrily 
wiped the tears. She didn't deserve to cry. She wasn't the
one in a hospital bed.

"I& I don't blame you." Buffy whispered knowing
instantly what Willow 
was thinking. She didn't know how but she felt everything that 
Willow felt and thought. "It was my choice to leave." She 
smiled. "It's okay to say it."

Buffy." Willow whispered her heart lodge in her throat. "I
felt that thing attack you and I thought I had lost you. You mean 
everything to me. Please don't ever do this to me again. I need 
you, Buffy. I can't live without you. Promise me you won't
leave me."

Tears formed in her eyes listening to Willow pour her heart out. She 
didn't deserve the love that the redhead gave her
unconditionally. She couldn't give Willow the things that she 
deserved. She wouldn't be able to provide the life that Willow 
should have. She shouldn't have to spend everyday taking care of 
her. Buffy knew that Willow didn't care about that. And if she
did then she'd deny it.

"Buffy?" Willow whispered, seeing the scared look in
Buffy's eyes and tears streaming down her face. "What is it?
Are you 
okay? Do you need a doctor."

"I'm okay." She whispered her voice sounding weak to her
ears. Suddenly everything hit her.  

The fight.

Leaving the library.

That thing attacking her.

Seeing her father.

Walking.

She had walked.

"I can't& "

"Can't what?" Willow brought Buffy's injured hand to
her lips gently kissing it. Her other hand went to Buffy's face 
carefully avoiding the bandages on her face. Absently she rubbed 
circles on her cheek. "What can't you do?"

Willow's touch felt so right but it was so wrong. She
couldn't and wouldn't let Willow throw her life away because
of her.

"I& I'm going to be& I can't do things other
people can." She suddenly felt drained. Her eyelids were so
heavy 
and she could barely keep them open. The events of the last few days 
suddenly rushed upon her and begged her to slip into darkness.

"It doesn't matter to me Buffy. You've taught me that it
was okay to be different. That people shouldn't be ashamed of
being different. But most importantly you taught me that true love 
comes from right here&" Willow tapped her heart. "Not from
what's on the outside. And I WILL NOT give up on you. And I AM
NOT going to let you slip away from me. Because I love you and I 
will always love you Buffy Summers. If I have to fight the hounds of 
Hell to prove it I will. And nothing that could ever happen will 
change the fact that you are beautiful, and smart& and& and
the only
person I want to spend the rest of my life with."  

The last few words choked out of her as she slumped over Buffy's 
body, the emotion of everything that had happened catching up with 
her. "It doesn't matter." She whispered into
Buffy's chest. "I 
love you."

"I love you too." Her words were a faint whisper lost in the
humming of machines and tears.

Everybody's looking for that something 
One thing that makes it all complete 
You find it in the strangest places 
Places you never knew it could be

Some find it in the face of their children 
Some find it in their lover's eyes 
Who can deny the joy it brings 
When you've found that special thing 
You're flying without wings.