Fic: The Times In Between Part 2/?

["frank_8281" <frank_8281@xxxxxxxxx>]

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 24th, 2003 12:10 am

Willow wasn't hard to spot once they were inside. Not only was she 
the only red head in hospital scrubs; she was damn near the only 
human in the place. She was sitting at a booth towards the back of 
the smoky room. On the table in front of her rested a nearly empty 
tequila bottle and a glass. `Shit,' thought Faith, `I would have to 
be right for once!'

"Kennedy, are you sure you&" She started.

Kennedy interrupted, "Faith, we've been through this. Big, tough, 
Slayer now remember? I can handle this."

Faith thought, ` I hope you're right kid, but if this is what I 
think it is& you're in for a world of hurt.'

Willow barely looked up when Faith sat across from her and Kennedy 
slid in beside her.

"Go `way," she slurred, "not in the mood for company."

"I can see that Red, killed this bottle all by yourself did you?" 
Faith said as she scooped the bottle away from Willow.

Clumsily the drunken witch lunged at the Slayer, trying to retrieve 
the bottle.

"Hey," she cried, "give it back! The worm's the best part!"

"Willow," Kennedy said quietly, "don't you think you've had enough?"

"Kennedy?" she asked, "Where did you come& what'd you say? Enough?" 
She looked puzzled. "Hmm& I can still feel the pieces of my heart 
scraping against my insides, so nope! Not enough yet."

"Willow," Kennedy began

"What? Are you going to tell me I'm hurting myself? That I'm hurting 
the people that care about me? Guess what? I don't give a shit. All 
done with the caring. What good has caring ever done me?" Tears began 
to roll down her cheeks. "The only thing that caring ever does is let 
people think that they can trample all over your heart like it was 
nothing! You're lucky Kennedy, you get to find out now instead of 
taking seven years to figure it out like I did. Seven fucking years&" 
she shook her head, "What the hell are you guys doin' here anyway?"

Faith took a deep breath and said, "Buffy asked me to find you."

Willow snorted and rolled her eyes, "What about you?" she asked, 
looking at Kennedy.

"I'm here because I love you and you're hurting Will. Let me take you 
home."

"Home? Kennedy, my home is at the bottom of a big hole in the ground, 
along with my first girlfriend's grave. I only visited a few times 
since I came back and now there's nothing to visit." She laid her 
head down on the table and looked up at Faith. "She was doing it on 
purpose you know." She said quietly.

"What was she doing on purpose Red?" Faith asked.

"Dying. She just stood there listening to us congratulate ourselves 
and make stupid jokes while she held her jacket closed so we wouldn't 
see the blood. Hoping we wouldn't notice till it was too late."

Kennedy stroked Willow's hair and asked, "What makes you think that 
Willow?"

She laughed bitterly, "I asked her about it and she gave me some lame-
ass excuse about how she `didn't know how bad she was hurt'. Didn't 
know my ass! She got run through with a sword! Doesn't take a damn 
genius to figure out that had to be bad!"

"Maybe, she's telling the truth Red," Faith said, "God knows when I'm 
in the middle of a fight I can get hit pretty hard and not even 
realize it till later."

"Bullshit Faith. She was trying to go back to Heaven. You know what 
that means? It means that she'd rather be dead than be with me." As 
she closed her eyes she missed the flash of pain that crossed 
Kennedy's face.

Faith didn't, `Oh yeah, a world of hurt.' she thought. For a few 
seconds she just watched as Kennedy rearranged her now sleeping 
girlfriend to a more comfortable position.

Faith said, "Passed out huh?"

"Yeah," Kennedy sighed, "Faith, Can you take her to the hotel, put 
her to bed?"

"And what are you planning to do Brat?" she asked.

Kennedy took a deep breath and said, "Something stupid."

She turned to go but Faith said, "Uh& Kenn?"

"What Faith?" she said, sounding annoyed.

`Like I said before, really BAD idea.' She thought, but out loud she 
said "You, uh& know that B and Red got a long history, right? Best 
buds all through high school and all that?"

"Faith," Kennedy said, crossing her arms, "do you actually have a 
point coming up soon or are you just rambling aimlessly in some 
complicated attempt to piss me off?"

Faith bristled, "The point Brat, is that it might not be the best 
idea to confront Buffy about this. She can be& over-sensitive about 
her friends, but especially Willow."

"Somebody has to do it Faith! Willow won't, and it's killing her! I 
only know one person that can fix what's wrong with her and it's not 
me. She needs to be with the one she loves, and that's Buffy." She 
looked sadly at the sleeping red head then turned and walked away.

1:45 am

Buffy was still awake, despite repeated admonishments from the nurse, 
when the door to her room opened. "Faith?" she asked, "Did you find 
Willow?"

"It's not Faith," Kennedy said, "but yeah, we found Willow."

Buffy asked anxiously, "Where is she? Is she all right?"

"Faith took her to the hotel, and no, she's not all right. When we 
found her she was at a demon bar Buffy, and she was drunk"

"Willow? Drinking?" Buffy asked incredulously.

"A whole bottle of tequila, by herself," Kennedy replied, "Do you 
know why Buffy?"

The blonde Slayer had a guilty look on her face as she replied, "I 
think so."

"Maybe you'd like to share then." She said hotly. 

Buffy's eyes narrowed at the tone in Kennedy's voice as she said 
softly, "That's between me and Willow. If she didn't tell you then 
I'm sure as hell not."

Kennedy responded "Not good enough."

Buffy's breathing quickened as she slid off the bed to face the 
younger Slayer. "You need to take it down a notch Kennedy."

"Or what."

"Or I'll take it down FOR you!" she growled.

"Do you have any idea what you did to her? Do you even care?" Kennedy 
said venomously. 

Buffy crossed the room and slammed her into the wall. "For seven 
years I have put my ass on the line for one reason! To keep her safe! 
Hell, I've even DIED for her! Twice! So don't you EVER tell me that I 
don't care about my Willow! "  

She backed away suddenly, a shocked look on her face as her brain 
caught up with her mouth. `Oh my god!' she thought, `My Willow? 
That's what it was, wasn't it. It wasn't Giles and his speeches about 
duty and responsibility. It wasn't my stupid destiny. It was Willow!' 
she sank down on the edge of the bed as the realization washed over 
her.

"I'm in love? With Willow?" she asked, looking up at Kennedy.

"Don't sound so shocked." Kennedy said as she sat next to 
Buffy, "You've been best friends for seven years and in that time 
you've both faced down the worst evils the Hellmouth could throw at 
you. Frankly, I'm amazed you haven't realized it before now." 

Buffy sighed, "I've known Will was gay for a long time now. I just& 
didn't think she felt that way about me."

"No doofus, I meant that you felt that way about her!"

"Oh. I& I don't know. There was always some new vamp or apocalypse to 
deal with, I guess I just didn't notice when `best friend' feelings 
became& something more."

For a moment Buffy looked thoughtful, then she asked, "Kennedy, why 
did you come here?"

Kennedy took a deep breath before answering, "To give you the kick 
in the ass you needed to get you to see what was going on between you 
and Willow."

Buffy crossed to the window before turning to look at Kennedy, "You 
know that I& I can't NOT go after her right? I've wasted too much 
time already. And if I go after her Kennedy&"

Kennedy looked at the floor as she said, "I'll lose her, I know. But 
she's broken inside Buffy, and I can't help her. You're the only one 
that can do that."

Buffy put her head in her hands as she thought, `Dear god she's 
broken? I broke my Willow? Fuck! I can't do ANYTHING about it from in 
here!"

"Kennedy? I'm going to get dressed. You go tell that stupid nurse 
that we're leaving and she's got five minutes to get whatever 
paperwork she needs me to sign."

"Buffy?" Kennedy asked at the door, "Then what?"

"Then you're going to take me to Willow so I can try to fix this. I 
just hope to god it's not too late." Buffy said determinedly.


TBC



------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at MyInks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada.
http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/mOAaAA/3exGAA/qnsNAA/RoMolB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

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

Community email addresses:
     Post message: buffywantswillow@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     Subscribe:    buffywantswillow-subscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     Unsubscribe:  buffywantswillow-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
     List owner:   buffywantswillow-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Shortcut URL to this page:
     http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buffywantswillow

Official archive for the list:
     http://www.ikoly.com/fanfic

Other links to Buffy/Willow fics:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/buffywantswillow/links  

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/