FIC: Right In Front of You Part 23 (PG-13)

["CDS" <callistosdarkside@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey all, finally got the next chapter finished.

My email and site have changed slightly. I broke up the story into parts,
rather than having one long html file at my site, so look for the little
links just beneath the main nav bar.

Hope you like.

-CDS

? Title: Right In Front of You
? Author: Callisto's Dark Side
? Email: callistosdarkside@xxxxxxxxxx
? Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.
? Distribution: Can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/callistosdarkside/RightInFrontOfYou.htm (My Site),
http://www.geocities.com/last_days_of_pern, and
http://www.peccath.com/extraflamey/mainframe.htm
? Spoilers: All of Season 5, but events take place before some events in
Tough Love.
? Rating: R
? Pairing: W/T & B/W
? Disclaimer: All characters from Angel & Buffy the Vampire Slayer are
copyright Joss Whedon & 20th Century Fox.
? Summary: Willow/Tara fic in which the two love birds must manage to deal
with the consequences of a spell that threatens to tear them apart forever.

Chapter 23

Willow's eyes fluttered open, the light of a nearby lamp hurting them. The
redhead instinctively blocked out the light with her left arm, which had an
IV attached. Her right arm was trapped under a warm body.

Willow refocused her eyes on the sleeping form of her best friend lying next
to her, Buffy's arm wrapped protectively around Willow's waist, but low
enough to avoid the rib wound.

Willow recalled the events that left her in this state, the confrontation at
Wolfram and Hart, the gun shot going off, Buffy carrying her to the car, and
finally Buffy kissing her on the lips as she fell into a coma.

Willow shut her eyes and opened them again, the final memory a blur, making
her wonder if it had even happened.

The Wiccan surveyed the rest of the room, noting several bags in one corner,
some flowers and one giant card, but no other people.

Buffy stirred slightly, murmuring something incoherent against Willow's
shoulder.

"Buffy?" Willow said softly.

"Will?" Buffy murmured.

"You awake?" The redhead smiled.

Buffy opened her eyes, her heart beating like so many times before as she
had dreamt Willow waking up.

"Will?"

"That's me."

Buffy pushed herself up on her side, her eyes never leaving Willow's, "Are
you really awake?"

"That or I'm dreamin' again."

"Oh God, Willow," Buffy cried, bringing the redhead into a hug.

"Definitely not a dream, as the pain shooting through my body would indicate
that," Willow winced.

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Buffy pulled away, "I didn't mean?"

"It's okay, I know."

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief, "When did you wake up?"

"Just now. How long have I been out?"

"A few days, a week, I'm not sure. I'm just glad you're back," Buffy
sniffled, reaching both her hands out to clasp Willow's.

"So am I," Willow smiled warmly, "So am I."

******

"Will?" Buffy said, her eyes downcast.

"What is it Buffy?" The redhead asked, placing a hand on the Slayer's
shoulder.

"Nothing." Buffy shook her head.

"Are you sure?" Willow lowered her eyes to meet the Slayer's.

"Yeah." Buffy raised her eyes.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Willow encouraged.

"I know," Buffy smiled sheepishly, "it's just?"

"What?"

"I was, I dunno, wondering? if you happened to remember anything about
before?"

"Oh," The Wiccan replied, her face and body flushing red.

"I know it's stupid, but I was just wondering." Buffy lowered her eyes
again.

"It's not stupid, Buffy. I can remember some things clearly, like the gun
going off, but after that, it became a big blur, so I'm kinda foggy on the
rest."

"Oh," Buffy muttered dejectedly.

A stab of guilt cut deep into Willow's heart.

"If it helps," Willow reached out to hold Buffy's hand, "I remember you
saving me."

Those words brought a smile to Buffy's lips, but cut a hole through the
Slayer's heart.

******


"We should do the location spell now," Willow suggested, still lying on her
back in the hospital bed with Buffy clasping her hand.

"How're you gonna do the spell on your back?" Cordy asked.

"From what I've heard," Anya interrupted, "that's the best way to do them."

"Anya?" Xander muttered, hugging his girlfriend to his chest.

"What?" The thousand-year-old demon asked innocently, "That's what I heard."

"Anyway," Willow rolled her eyes, "I'll be sitting up for the spell."

Buffy placed her hand behind the redhead's back and helped her into a
sitting position.

"All Buffy and I need are the ingredients and some privacy."

"We can handle that," Xander said, "Your parents are as good as gone for the
day."

"They don't have to be gone for the day," Buffy said, "just long enough for
us to complete the spell."

"And how long will that be?" Xander asked.

Buffy looked to Willow for the answer.

Willow furrowed her forehead, "I'm not exactly sure."

"A day it is then," Xander smiled.

******

"Giles?" Buffy and Willow almost cried as the weary Watcher entered the
room.

"Willow," Giles walked the small distance to the bed and pulled the redhead
into a hug, careful to avoid the bandages. "I'm so sorry I didn't come back
sooner," Giles apologized, "but Buffy insisted I stay in England until I
found this," The Watcher reached into his pocket and handed the Wiccan an
old piece of parchment.

Without asking what it was, Willow quickly scanned the words, realizing at
once what the spell entailed.

Willow's eyes began to water as she pulled both Watcher and Slayer into a
fierce hug, not even noticing the pain that was shooting through her body.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Willow cried.

"We didn't want to get your hopes up until we were sure," Buffy explained,
"but now we have all we need to bring them back."

Willow cried uncontrollably, the thought of bringing Tara and Dawn back
seemed too good to be true.

******

"Okay, so when we do the spell," Willow stated, "I'll look for the pink star
which will be Tara's location slash dimension and you look for the blue
star, which will be Dawn's location, but hopefully they'll be together."

"So once we know where they are, that's when we do the second spell, right?"

"Right. I'll lead the chant and you repeat after me, then we have to close
our hands around each of our stars and pull them back into our dimension."

"Sounds easy enough," Buffy said uneasily.

"Lets hope it will be."

"Just one more thing. You're sure we won't pull their entire dimension back
with us, right?"

"Pretty sure," Willow shrugged. "Our pictures of Tara and Dawn specify what
we want back, so they should be the only things coming back to our
dimension."

"Okay, then I think I'm ready," Buffy stated, mustering up her courage.

******

Buffy and Willow floated in what seemed like space, looking for the pink and
blue stars that represented the locations of their loved ones. Every star
they could see so far was yellow.

Willow motioned to Buffy for them to split up.

Buffy nodded in agreement and proceeded to float in the opposite direction
of Willow.

Willow flew faster and faster through the seemingly endless void, quickly
touching as many yellow stars as she could, to make them invisible,
narrowing the numbers down.

Buffy did the same, making short work of several clusters of yellow stars,
but had no luck in finding a blue one.

Willow had always wondered how many alternate dimensions existed. Now she
knew - too many. The Wiccan grew restless, batting down each yellow star
she came across to make it invisible, but the yellow stars never seemed to
stop coming.

Buffy faced a similar problem, but refused to give up as she stoically made
her way through a few hundred more stars.

After reaching the apparent ends of the universe, Buffy and Willow turned
around and met back where they started, only a few glimmering yellow stars
left.

Buffy tried to speak, but remembered they could only mouth their words to
each other.

Did you find them? Buffy mouthed.

Willow shook her head.

Buffy and Willow surveyed the nearly empty black space, the few stars left
shining, their only hope. Together, with exhaustion racking their bodies,
they held hands and flew to each distant star left, eyeing it carefully
before touching it and reluctantly moving on.

Eventually, one shining star remained, distant enough for the possibility
that it was two, but from what the Slayer and the Witch could see, the light
was all too yellow.

Reaching the final star, the two stared coldly at it for what seemed like
forever, unable to touch it, unable to even mouth the words they so wanted
to say.

Finally finding the courage, Willow raised her hand to end the search by
touching the final star, the final glimmer of hope, but Buffy grabbed the
redhead's wrist, and pulled her into a hug, their silent cries, heard only
to themselves.

******

The green minion watched in awe as the Great Benificus stood in a trance,
his fists held out in front of his body, both holding something only he
could see.

Another minion, watched the door to the hospital room, exactly adjacent to
the Slayer and the Witch.

With his eyes closed, and his mind reaching out, Ben smiled, more than he'd
ever smiled before, for he had just ensured his powers would remain and
never return to the woman that had possessed his body for his entire life
until now.

To be continued.