FIC: These Roads We Travel (22/?)

["Kimber" <kimbertvs@xxxxxxxxx>]

TITLE: These Roads We Travel (22/?)
AUTHOR: Kimber (feralspirit@xxxxxxxx)
DISCLAIMER: All BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy.
SUMMARY: The long awaited next story in "The Road Series".
SPOILERS: Everything is fair game.
DISTRIBUTION: The usual suspects. Anyone else, e-mail me please.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This comes because I've had so many great responses to the
series and many people begging for another. Be careful what you wish for.

{{Indicates flashbacks}}
-----------

The sun rose up into the blue sky. Birds came out of their nests, ready to
face a brand new day and the world was alive again. Things have a way of
changing, literally, overnight. The night holds secrets and sadness and
shadows of the unknown. But when the sun lifts itself up into the sky, it
all disappears and fades as if it never existed.

Buffy Summers sat in an empty room adjacent to Willow?s room. The doctors
had been in there for over two hours, examining her. Two hours ago, Faith
came tearing down the hall screaming that Willow was awake. Since then, her
family and friends had gathered in the room and waited. And waited. And
waited.

?I?m gonna snap.? Buffy finally said. ?What the hell are they doing in
there??

?Buffy, Willow has been through a very traumatic experience. We have to be
patient and let them check her over thoroughly.? Giles placed his hand on
hers. ?If they don?t come out here in two minutes, I?m going in.? He
deadpanned.

Buffy couldn?t help but smile.

Just then, the door opened. ?Miss Summers??

Buffy rose to her feet. ?Yes? How is Willow? Can I see her? What?s going
on? Is she okay? There isn?t any memory loss, is there? Cause, I?ve heard
about that kind of thing. Makes people devolve.?

The doctor laughed. ?Slow down. She?s fine. As fine as can be expected
for now. She?s awake and alert and very evolved, I assure you.? He smiled
at Buffy and looked around the room until his gaze settled on one particular
person. ?She?s asking for you and Buffy to come in now.?

Laurel looked over at Buffy, and she nodded. She got up, took Buffy?s hand,
and they walked into the room together.

-----

?Hey.?

Lisa turned around to see Faith standing behind her. ?Hey back.?

?How come you?re not with the others? I was looking for ya.?

Lisa shrugged. ?Needed some thinking time. Things are moving kinda quick
and I feel like I can?t catch my breath.?

Faith nodded in understanding. She walked over next to Lisa by the window
in the waiting room and looked out. ?Seems so different. Doesn?t it? We
live our lives in the darkness, patrolling, fighting the baddies, but then
you look at something like this and it?s just amazing.? Faith looked over
at Lisa and smiled. ?It?ll be okay, you know. Everything with you and
Laurel. You two have been through a lot and I think that there?s plenty of
sunshine ahead for ya.?

?Since when do you work for Hallmark?? Lisa smirked.

?Very funny. Come on. Let?s go see what?s going on. I hope Buffy was able
to see Red by now. She was going crazy before.?

?Faith??

?Yeah??

?I?m sorry. I mean, I am and I?m not. Laurel has her mom back and that?s
so amazing, but.. .?

?Hey, don?t worry about me, kid. I?ll be just fine. I?m not losing
anything with Buffy. We have a . . .special relationship, one that Red has
encouraged herself over the years. That doesn?t just go away. There may
not be the whole physical part of it, but, I?m not losing any of the
emotional. And that?s what?s great about B. She?s really something.?

-----

Willow Rosenberg sat in silence in her bed in Sunnydale Memorial Hospital.
She was bruised all over her body, and felt like she?d been hit by a mack
truck that came back for more at least three times; but at least she was
alive and solid.

It was all thanks to her daughter, Laurel. Laurel, who, was being told
right now that her mother was alive and wanted to see her. Laurel who had
gone through so much in her sixteen years. But isn?t that the way it always
goes with slayers? They live an amazing and intense roller coaster ride of
a life because precedence has shown that their time on this earth isn?t very
long.

Willow looked up as she heard the door open slowly. This was it. She
finally, after all this time, would get to see Buffy and Laurel.

Buffy pushed the door open slowly and settled her eyes on the person sitting
up in the bed not ten feet away. Her hair was jostled, her skin paler than
she?d ever seen in her life. There were bruises evident all over her face
and arms, and she could only imagine the black and blue welts that were
covered by the hospital gown. She looked at her and decided that she was
the most beautiful thing she?d ever seen in her entire life.

She and Laurel walked slowly over to the bed, trying to absorb the moment
and savor it. Long before she even touched her hand to the door knob, tears
began to stream down Buffy?s cheeks, and now they were flowing even more
freely.

She reached the side of the bed. Willow had much the same expression on her
face as Buffy did. Tears of joy, of loss, and of immense relief coupled
with the biggest goofiest grin both of them could possibly have plastered on
their faces.

?Hey.? Willow croaked out between tears. She lifted her arms and opened
them wide.

?Hey, yourself.? Buffy managed to say before falling gently into those
arms. The arms she?d dreamed about for over a year. And it was so much
better than she?d dreamed because it was real. This was Willow, alive. It
felt like her, smelled like her, and she could hear her heart beating and it
was the most amazing sound she?d heard since Willow had an ultra sound
almost seventeen years ago and they heard Laurel?s heartbeat for the first
time.

?Laurel.? Willow whispered and reached over to her daughter, their
daughter.

Laurel reached her hand out and touched her mother?s for the first time in
over a year. Everything hit her all at once, and she finally broke down and
sobbed.

Buffy managed to catch her and put her on the bed next to Willow. Laurel
looked up and reached a tentative hand out to Willow?s face. As she made
contact, she gasped. ?Momma.?

?Hey there, little one.? Willow said in a voice thick from emotion. ?It?s
been a while.? She looked up at Buffy and smiled. ?Too long a while.?

Buffy nodded and moved around to the other side of the bed. ?Much too long,
Will.? She climbed in gently and sat beside her. ?But that?s all in the
past now. Now, you?re here.?

Willow nodded and absently stroked her daughter?s hair. ?Yeah. I?m finally
home.?



~~Kimber

List Gutter Lust Goddess, Masked Road Runner (meep, meep!!), Keeper of the
crazy lil comma, Pat's Elmer to his Wabbit, self proclaimed 'perfect drug'
addict, and Official Tormenter the Phantom Chimpunk and her band of crazy
nuts. Proud supporter of the Mad Poet Society and the Troll under the
Bridge.

"What's that feeling you get when you're driving away from people and they
recede on the plane until you see their specks dispersing? It's the too
huge world vaulting us and it is goodbye; but we lean forward towards the
next crazy venture beneath the sky."
Jack Keruac, 'On The Road'

Member of the BtVS Writers Guild: Because fic makes anything possible.