Fic: The Times In Between Part 1/?

["frank_8281" <frank_8281@xxxxxxxxx>]

This one has been bugging me for a while now. So here's my take on 
what might have happenned after 'Chosen'.

Author: Bob Head
Disclaimer: None of the characters below belong to me. All the BtVS 
people belong to Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy and 20th Century Fox. I'm 
just trying to have fun.
Pairing: Buffy/Willow, of course.
Spoilers: Anything up to and including the Series Finale is possible 
Rating: NC-17, mostly for language, but who knows what might happen.
Feedback: Well, Yeah! frank_8281@xxxxxxxxx   



The Times In Between



May 20th, 2003


For the group of people standing behind the yellow school bus it had 
been a very long day. It began normally enough, everyone woke up, 
(those that slept anyway) took care of their morning ablutions, ate a 
hearty breakfast (those that could eat) then they gathered their 
weapons and prepared for battle.

They won, which is why now they were all staring (at least those that 
were still capable of standing) at a roughly ten-mile wide crater 
that used to be their home; a town called Sunnydale, in California. 
They were fewer in number than they had been this morning because the 
battle was not without cost. Nearly two-thirds of the young women and 
girls who had gone into the Hellmouth hadn't come back out again or 
had died during the terrifying race to escape the collapsing city.

The people standing at the rear of the bus spoke quietly among 
themselves, joking, laughing, happy that they had beaten the odds and 
defeated evil one more time. Then the red head asked a question of 
the petite blonde that they were all gathered around.

"What do you think we should do Buffy?"

"Yeah," said a dark haired young woman standing towards the back of 
the group, "you're not the one and only Chosen anymore, just gotta 
live like a person. How's that feel?"

A younger girl, just a little taller than the blonde asks, "Yeah, 
Buffy. What are we going to do now?" 

Buffy Summers said nothing, but a smile slowly spread across her 
delicate features. It was still on her face when her eyes rolled back 
in her head and she collapsed. For a moment they all stared down in 
stunned silence at the fallen girl. Horrified at the blood pouring 
from the wound in her belly that she had managed to conceal from them 
until now.

Then the moment broke and the silence with it as Willow Rosenberg, 
who less than an hour before had used the essence of an ancient 
weapon that was bound to the source of the Slayer power to change the 
nature of that power forever, screamed, "Oh god, Buffy no! Don't you 
die on me! Not again! Not now!"

As she dropped to her knees she gathered the limp blonde into her lap 
and Rupert Giles, Buffy's Watcher and mentor, more of a father to her 
than her biological one, knelt opposite Willow and quickly and gently 
assessed the damage.

"I don't understand," he said, "the wound doesn't seem that severe. 
Where is all this blood coming from?" Then he noticed that the blood 
was coming from beneath her!

"Damn!" he cursed, "Willow help me turn her towards you. Gently, now."

As Buffy's back was revealed, Giles and Willow saw a second wound 
opposite the first.

"Oh god, Giles." Willow gasped.

"She's been run through. Xander! Get everyone back on the bus!"

A brown haired man with an eye patch took off to the bus at the run 
shouting, "I'm on it! Everybody get in the bus! We are leaving!"

"Kennedy!" called Giles, "Get all the clean bandages we have left and 
then start tearing up peoples shirts if you have to! We've got to 
slow this bleeding!" an olive skinned brunette shorter than even the 
wounded Slayer nodded to Giles and ran for the bus.

Softly, Giles called to Willow, trying to get the red headed witch's 
attention where she still clung with a desperate strength to her best 
friend. "Willow& Willow!"

Faith stepped in and said, "I got this Giles, get going." He nodded 
and ran towards the bus.

"We gotta go Red. Giv`er to me, I'll carry her." She said to Willow. 
When she still wouldn't let go Faith grabbed Willow by the chin and 
forcibly turned her head to face Dawn Summers. Buffy's sister was 
still standing dumbstruck; her hands clasped over her mouth, tears 
rolling down her cheeks.

"Dawnie?" She said dazedly.

"That's right Willow," Faith said softly, "Dawn needs you too. Now 
get her on the bus! I got Buffy."

"Right, bus." Willow said, finally releasing Buffy and moving quickly 
to get Dawn moving.

"Oh god Willow, is Buffy going to be all right?" Dawn asked fearfully.

Willow goes into resolve mode as she answered, "She has to be Dawnie, 
I won't lose her again. I won't!"

It had taken a little over an hour to reach the nearest hospital, 
even with Xander pushing the bus to dangerous speeds. Faith had 
almost had to physically restrain Willow to keep her from getting in 
Giles' way in the cramped space where he worked desperately to keep 
the Slayer alive long enough to reach a proper medical facility. 
Finally they arrived and Buffy was rushed to the ER where she was 
examined, transfused and rushed to surgery.

For hours Willow, Dawn, Giles and Xander sat in the waiting room 
hoping for some word as the rest of the survivors had their wounds 
treated. When the doctor made his appearance at last, it was with 
mixed news. They had managed to save her, and she was breathing on 
her own which was a good sign. Her heart hadn't stopped which seemed 
to confuse the doctors considering the amount of blood loss involved. 
Unfortunately, she had slipped into a coma and they said that they 
weren't sure when or even if she would wake up. After the doctors had 
allowed them to, they all briefly visited her in intensive care. Then 
Giles, Xander and even Dawn had been convinced to go to a nearby 
hotel where Faith had taken all the newly empowered Slayers to eat 
and rest, but Willow had refused to leave. After learning the 
futility of arguing with Willow in `resolve mode' the nurses brought 
her a pair of scrubs and allowed her to use the locker room shower to 
clean up in. Then she sat at Buffy's bedside and waited and prayed.

May 23rd, 2003 7:04 pm

Willow hadn't slept for more than a few minutes at a time for almost 
four days now. She had barely left Buffy's side long enough to eat, 
and then only when threatened by Faith, Giles and Dawn at the same 
time. Finally she had succumbed to sleep while resting her head on 
the edge of the hospital bed, though she still didn't release Buffy's 
hand, which she had held almost constantly since taking up her vigil. 

When Buffy awoke she was not a little surprised to find herself not 
dead. Still a small smile touched her lips at the sight of her best 
friend sleeping in a chair next to her. Willow looked exhausted.

`How long have I been out?' Buffy wondered. `Only one way to find 
out, I guess. I hate to wake her up when she looks so tired though.'

Gently she stroked Willow's hair with her free hand, only the barest 
touch but it was enough to awaken the witch.

"Buffy?" she murmured, "You're awake! How do you feel? Are you in 
pain? Are you thirsty? I need to call the doctor. And Dawn and Giles 
&" at this classic Willow-babble Buffy almost laughed, but a twinge 
from her side restrained her.

"Breathe, Will." She said

"Right, breathing good, babble bad. I'm just so happy you're okay. I 
thought I'd lost you!" she hugged the blonde Slayer, "I only have one 
question. What the HELL did you think you were doing?" Willow 
fumed. "Why didn't you tell us you were hurt? How could you let us 
just chatter away, patting ourselves on the back while you stood 
there quietly bleeding to death?"

"I& I don't know Will. I guess I just didn't know how bad I was 
hurt," she answered while intently examinining the bed sheet.

"Buffy?" she didn't look up. "Oh god, Buffy you werent& were you? How 
could you? How could you even think of leaving us& of leaving ME? 
Again!" The raw pain in her friend's voice brought her head up only 
to see Willow storm from the room in tears.

"Willow, wait!" she cried. 

She tried to get out of bed, to follow, to explain but the pain from 
her side brought her up short. "Oh!" she gasped and tried again. This 
time she made it into the hallway. Willow was nowhere in 
sight. `Dammit Willow, come back!' she thought. `I gotta explain, fix 
this.'

She limped to the nurse's station and asked, "Where is she?"

Startled to see a patient who, only a little while before had been 
comatose the nurse could only gape. 

Buffy, never known for her patience under the best of circumstances, 
slapped the counter-top hard enough to crack it. "Where IS she?" with 
no answer forthcoming from the terrified nurse she said, "Fine, I'll 
find her myself." And moved on down the hallway to the elevator. The 
doors opened to reveal Faith on her way to check on Willow and Buffy.

Surprised to see the blonde Slayer moving under her own power, she 
rushed to her and hugged her fiercely. "Jesus B, you scared& Wait a 
minute, what the hell are you doing out of bed?"

Grimacing from pain now, Buffy clutched Faith's jacket and 
pleaded, "Help me Faith."

"Damn straight I will!" she answered as she gently scooped the 
smaller woman up and headed towards her room.

"No, dammit help me find Willow!" She cried

Confused, Faith asked, "Why the hell would you have to& What 
happened?"

"She& I& and then," she stammered helplessly, her eyes overflowing.

Carefully, Faith laid Buffy back in the bed and just let her cry for 
a time.

Finally she said, "Tell me what happened Buffy."

"I can't, not now. Faith please, just& find her for me?"

For a moment she doesn't answer, then she said, "I'll take care of 
it." And goes in search of Willow.

Later&

Hours passed. The doctors had come and gone, amazed at their patients 
progress. A few hours before she had barely managed to walk down the 
hall. Now they were wondering if they might have to restrain her to 
prevent her from leaving the hospital prematurely.

Faith, meanwhile, approached what could only be described as a dive. 
Kennedy was with her. When she heard Willow was missing she insisted, 
strenuously, on coming along. Faith didn't have time to argue, Buffy, 
in all the time she had known her, had never asked for help before. 
The fact that she had and of HER of all people, worried her more than 
Faith would like to admit, `But here I am,' she thought, `About to 
walk into the only demon bar in this town trying to find Red because 
B asked me to, with Red's girlfriend in tow. Shit! This is a REALLY 
bad idea.'

She pulled Kennedy to stop with a hand on her shoulder, "Kennedy, I 
need you to do me a favor." 

She looked up at Faith suspiciously, "What?"

"Kennedy there's only two possible reasons I can think of for Red 
being in a place like this. Either she's lookin' to get shitfaced 
drunk, or she's lookin' for a magic high. She is not gonna want you 
to see her like that. So just wait here okay?"  

"Faith, she's my girlfriend and she's hurting, so unless you want to 
fight, I'm going in!"

Faith sighed, "Okay Brat, just trying to warn you."

"About what!" Kennedy snapped, "That she loves Buffy more than me? 
I'm not stupid Faith. I already know." She walked off leaving a slack 
jawed Faith hurrying to catch up.

TBC&



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Willow: "It's a good fight, Buffy, and I want in."
Buffy:  "I kinda love you."
                     'Choices'

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