FIC: The Island (3a/?) (B/W) Still PG

Title: The Island (AKA Buffy and Willow Vs. The Hurricane)

Author: Ivy Gort

Spoilers: Seventh Season

Email: Ivygort@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

Rating:PG

Feedback: Yes, Please! I live on it!

Archive: Please Ask.

Pairing: Buffy and Willow

Previous Parts: http://www.fanfiction.net/~ivygort

Disclaimer: I don't own them, I'm just torturing them for you.

BETA: Ann Marie is the Great Goddess. She has to be a Goddess there is no other answer. I feel like you guys should send the feedback to her. Also a big thanks to BHV for prereading this part so many times and JapMap for the suggestions.

Summary: Nine years after Chosen Willow needs Buffy help

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Chapter Two - Marine Biology Research School - Beaufort North Carolina - Aftermath of Hurricane Max.

Buffy found out quickly that the power was off in her cottage. She discovered that all the windows except for the ones on the front of the house and in her bedroom were covered with one-inch thick plywood.

She walked out onto the porch and noticed that all of the other cottages were boarded up. 'A vampire would love a hurricane; all the dark covered windows and the cloud cover, it could go from house to house feasting on the locals.' she thought. When she saw a small twig lying on the path she wondered. ?Is the porch off limits too, without the boots from Hell? Better not risk it and go back inside.'

Buffy went back into the dark interior and opened the uncovered windows. As soon as the bedroom windows were opened a nice breeze zipped through the tiny cottage making it pleasant.

She roamed the small house for a few minutes noting that there were two oil lamps on a table in the hallway, a high-priced flashlight, and a battery-operated lantern in the bathroom. She thought it was strange that the only furniture in the cottage was the table and the iron bed. ?But then again Clare did mention flooding so maybe they put all the furniture in the attic?? She thought when she saw a door conveniently marked "Attic."

As Buffy wandered through the house she considered going out into the afternoon light and exploring the school grounds. ?Oh, be real, the only reason you want to go out is to find Willow. Instead why don?t you lie down ?.? She looked at the soft mattress on the bed and this morning's tiredness caught up with her. She didn't bother to make the bed; just pulled a light blanket over her as she lay down, using her arm as a pillow.

Buffy hated this dream:

She hated the way she felt, the way Willow was crying harder than she had ever seen her. Buffy hated that somewhere deep inside, she was happy that Kennedy was missing. But, most of all, she hated feeling Willow?s pain?she loved her best friend?this was a fact that she would never admit, she would never act on it. All she wanted was for Willow to be safe and happy; if that meant putting up with an arrogant interloper she could deal.

"It's like I'm losing Tara all over again!" Willow screamed, her fists pounding ineffectually against Buffy as she held her. Then, as dreams do, it changed from Willow?s soft hits to the vampire?s vicious pounding ? pounding her over and over on the one spot that caused her knees to buckle and the bile to rise up in her throat.

The sword wound from the battle with the First had healed after months of infections and a blur of operations. But it had left scar tissue twisting up her insides, adhesions was the medical term for them; agony was the Slayer?s life when the old wound was hit. The Vampire knew this, knew this weakness. The Slayer knew that she shouldn?t have gone out in the dark sleet to lead the rescue mission, that she should have stayed indoors in front of the warm fire Dawn had insisted on making minutes before their lives were shattered.

When she coughed up blood all over the Vampire, it had stopped the beating, and had thrown her into the dirty slush of the alley. Buffy came face to face with what was left of Rona, her throat ripped open and the blood spraying the snow as it fell, changing it to a red rain as her young heart kept beating.

She heard a hard knock on a wooden door and the feeling that someone was close jerked Buffy out of the dream. She opened her eyes to the dark interior of the cottage?s bedroom.

But the images wouldn't leave her alone. As she looked around the room she also saw the pain on her best friend's face. 'I shouldn't have gone out that night. But I couldn't stay at home and watch Willow?s world being ripped apart--again--without at least trying to save her. If I made a mistake it was by listening to Giles and taking back-up. The Vampire wanted me.'

"Miss Summers?" A soft voice called to her from the hall outside of the bedroom. She had forgotten about the knock waking her up because she was lost in the past. "Miss Summers? Dr Gidwitz, ah, Clare, asked me to fetch you?" The voice continued, only the slur of the Southern accent made it sound like "Miz Sum-mers." Buffy was still half-way caught between the chill of Cleveland and the warmth of the North Carolina autumn night. Shivering slightly, she pulled the blanket tighter as the black emotions of the dream began to fade.

The darkness of the room wasn?t an issue, Buffy could see clearly at night. 'All part of the Slayer package ?seeing in the dark, always knowing the direction, and gut clenching misery for all those around me.'

"Miss Summers, Dr. Rosenberg said that I could have her come if you ?." The mention of Willow?s name and title spurred Buffy to action. Shaking her head to clear the last of the dream's images she sat up, dashing the tears from her eyes.

"No, I?m up." She said after a moment of composing herself. She then threw off the blanket and stood up, only to realize that while the night air was warmer than Cleveland, it was still quite cool. She spotted her overnight bag and walked around the bed to grab a sweater out of it. "You can come in, I don?t bite." She said belatedly remembering her visitor.

A small brunette pushed the door open further. "Dr. Rosenberg was very clear that I shouldn?t enter the room if you were asleep. She was worried I would startle you."

"Was Willow here earlier?" Buffy asked the girl, then wondered how the redhead could have gotten so close without the Slayer feeling her.

"No, she'd been with us all afternoon ?" The girl answered as Buffy felt a disappointment that Willow hadn't been there. "Dr. Rosenberg just said not to startle you and if you were asleep not to get close?" The way the girl finished the last line made the statement into a question.

Buffy looked at the girl and realized that she wasn't a child at all. She was just small like the Slayer was petite. "Yea, waking me up isn't a smart thing to do." Buffy mumbled. 'Not really wanting to talk to a stranger about my sleeping habits, besides what?s this with the "Dr. Rosenberg?"'

She shook her head and asked. "Why did Willow send you?" Realizing too late how blunt that sounded, Buffy tried to soften it with a smile, only then thinking that the young woman probably couldn't see her in the dark. 'And speaking of the dark, why didn't the girl have a flashlight with her?'

"The Drs. had a call from Durham they needed to take. So Dr. Rosenberg sent me to get you. It's suppertime, the power has been out for two days, so we be have'n a cook out 'fore all the food goes bad." Buffy stood there with an open mouth trying to translate what the young woman just said. The girl sounded like a mixture between Giles and Julia Roberts in "Steel Magnolias."

Still the woman didn?t seem to notice Buffy?s confusion as she continued to chat, walking towards the door. "And the Drs. want to see you to talk about leaving tomorrow. I can't believe you are actually going to take that boat out onto the Sound." The young woman said, avoiding the partially opened door unerringly.

'Seeing in the dark ? couldn't come in unless I invited her?.' The Slayer's mind put the pieces together quickly. But the sense that the girl was human stopped Buffy?s hand on the end of the stake. 'One thing I've gotten perfect at over the years is knowing exactly what a demon is and where they are in relation to me. Still, there is a strange vibe coming off of her.'

The young woman stopped in the doorway and turned back to the Slayer. "Are you coming? Or do you need to use the W/C before we leave?" She asked politely. And again Buffy had to translate ? the WC? The Watcher's Council? No, the water closet, or bathroom ?.

The Slayer shook her head.

"Cool, so put on your boots and we'll be off. Oh, and I'm Donna," she told Buffy as the Slayer sat on the edge of the bed and struggled with the huge boots.

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Walking outside was an experience that Buffy would remember for the rest of her life. Buffy had grown up in the city with street lights and porch lights all around her. Even the darkest alley in Sunnydale couldn?t compare to what she was seeing now. There was no light except for what the stars and the moon provided. Buffy never considered what the night could look like with the absence of artificial lighting?not even a distant glow from a city broke up the total darkness of the night. Buffy nearly tripped twice because her breath was taken away by the beauty of the sky. And yet, it seemed so lonely.

?A mirror to how I?ve felt the last eight years without Willow fighting beside me. Lost in the darkness?.? Buffy thought, then had the sudden need to find the North Star. Turning around until she finally found it, marveling at how bright it seemed. ?Willow was always my guiding light, everything I did was for her.?

Her escort stayed quiet and just walked beside the distracted Slayer. Buffy stopped to gaze at the water and wondered if this was what the first English settlers to the area saw 500 years ago? The islands were dark shadows as the moon reflected off of the water.

Standing beside the Sound, she wondered how anyone could be so stupid as to let it become so horribly polluted. And, she also thought, 'If we ever get ahead in this war against evil, if I'm ever able to really rest, this is where I want to live out my life. And, God help me, I want to share it with Willow. What am I thinking? It?s never going end. Why does Willow always have to bring this out in me? I don?t believe in hope, and I really don?t believe in dreams!'

"Miss Summers, I'm sorry but if we don't go then the best food will be gone." Donna told her, cutting into the Slayer?s thoughts.

"Please call me Buffy. And thank you for showing me all this." The Slayer turned to the young woman, who all of a sudden didn't seem so young. Buffy didn?t know how long she stood staring at the water and dreaming of the possibility of Willow joining her one day. But this would be a memory that she would cherish.

Donna looked up at the North Star, then turned back to the Slayer. "I can always tell which way is which." The girl shared with Buffy, a strange intensity shining in her eyes. "Whenever I would get lost out on the water, the ocean, I knew that all I had to do is just head west of the star." The woman said, facing away from Buffy.

Then the Slayer in her made her ask the question that had been nagging her since she first met Donna. "How can you see so well in the dark?"

Donna looked back at the Slayer for a moment then motioned her for to follow as they started back towards the school. "I don?t know about you, but I?m hungry!" And the woman was just a young girl again.

After a few steps Donna walked in a wide arc around what looked like a broken branch only as Buffy neared it, the "branch" curled up into a coil and hissed at her, the snake?s white mouth reflecting the light from the moon.

"Watch it, cottonmouths are nasty?." Donna warned as Buffy interrupted her.

"Let me guess? Especially after a hurricane?" The Slayer finished.

"No, what I was going to say is that cottonmouths are just plain in a bad mood all the damn time." Donna told Buffy smiling. "I can see in the dark, as you call it, 'cause I grew up around here. Some nights on the river it would be so black that you couldn't see the person next to you."

The girl looked at Buffy to see if the Slayer understood. They were nearing a large three-story brick building. "We would have to float with the current while setting the traps, the crab traps," Donna said, making sure Buffy knew what she was talking about. "And if we drifted to close to shore and got under the trees, sometimes the snakes would drop down on us in the boat. Or during the spring they would actually try to climb in the boat to attack us."

Buffy shuddered at the thought of a snake with bad intentions dropping on top of her. Thinking of the old Indiana Jones movies where Indy said, "Snakes! Why does it always have to be snakes?" Thank god so far Buffy had only run across one snake demon and it didn?t really look like one cause it had arms and a rubbery skin?.it looked more like a bad prop out of some 70?s movie than a demon.

"Here we are." Donna announced as they rounded the building and Buffy found an outdoor party already in progress. Citronella candles and torches were placed around a small area of grass. Gas grills were set up and delicious odors wafted in the air. Buffy couldn?t believe that she hadn?t smelled the food before now.

"We were downwind." Donna answered with a smile, as if reading the Slayer?s mind. "It?s a simple arrangement; all you do is grab a plate and serve yourself." Donna pointed at the small portable table that held a stack of paper plates and cups. "When you're finished throw everything away. All the food has to be eaten tonight."

"I got it." Buffy said, spotting Willow and Clare already sitting at a small table, eating and pointing at some papers between them. Buffy waved back when Clare looked up and waved at her.

"I?ll leave you then," Donna told her, then wandered off to join a group of about 10 students stacking up their plates with various foods.

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TBC in 3b