Conclusion. Disclaimer on first page.
With one final withering look Xander sat down next to his wife. Willow and Angel seated themselves across the room. There was an uncomfortable silence that hung in the air when Giles came in his face grim. "They think she doesn't even have a week. She started bleeding internally again. They just took her up to surgery a few minutes ago. I . . . I . . . "He broke down and started crying into his hands.
Willow went to him and led him to a couch where he cried on her shoulder for at least an hour. She patted his back to calm him down. Eventually his sobs became gasps and then stopped. A doctor entered the room then.
"Are you the friends and family of Buffy Summers?" He asked.
"Yes." Willow said.
"I have news. She made it through surgery without incident. The bleeding has stopped, but it left her very weak. She requested that she see a Willow and an Angel together. Are they here?"
"Yes thats me and him." Willow said pointing at Angel.
And then she wants to see a Xander Harris alone."
"I'm Xander." Xander said. The doctor nodded.
"This way please."
All three followed the doctor down the hall and to another room. He opened the door and let Willow and Angel in. Buffy looked worse than before. Her pallor was that of death and her breathing was labored. Through all of this however her eyes still shone when she saw Angel. The corners of her mouth seemed to move upward momentarily as though she were trying to smile.
"Hey guys." She whispered.
They waited for her to explain why she wanted to see them. "I wanted to tell you that . . . I want you . . . to promise me something." She gasped pauseing many times to take a breath.
"What anything?" Willow said stepping forward to take Buffy's hand. It was cold to the touch.
"Promise me that no . . . mater what . . . you will stay together. No matter . . . what." Angel came up behind Willow and placed his hand on top of their's.
"Promise." Buffy ordered.
"We promise." They said at the same time.
"Good. I didn't . . . want your . . . relationship . . . to go to waste . . . because of me."
"Shhh, don't talk. Get your strength up." Willow said sadly. Buffy nodded and shut her eyes. The other two stayed for a while. When they left Xander looked at them angrily and went in.
"Buffy?" He called softly. Her eyes opened and she looked at him tiredly.
"Xander."
"You wanted to see me." He reminded her wondering if she was still under the influence of the surgical drugs.
"I know."
"What about?"
"I know . . . how you're . . . treating Willow and . . . Angel. Don't. They love . . . each other. If . . . you dare. . . ruin that . . . I'll never forgive you."
"But he did all those things and he hurt you."
"I forgave him . . . try for me." She begged almost starting to cry.
"I'll try." He assured her bending down so he was at her level, "I'll try. Please don't cry." He whispered wiping her tears away.
"I . . . want Giles to sit . . . by me while I sleep." She said as innocently as a child.
"Anything you want." Xander said and kissed her forehead before he went.
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Willow sat at the cafeteria table glumly. She tried to cry, but the tears wouldn't come. It was as if her body were waiting for something.
"Are you going to eat?" Angel asked.
"No."
"Okay." It was a simple conversation. Nothing spectacular, yet comforting somehow.
"Why did it have to be her?" Willow asked.
"Because she is the chosen one."
"No, I mean why did the guy choose her to attack that night?"
"I don't know. It must have been her time."
Willow nodded and sighed. "I'm staying here today in case anything happens. It's terrible waiting for someone to die. It's like I'm a vulture. I hate that feeling."
"I know what you mean. I wish I could stay, but there are to many windows and not enough curtains." Angel said standing. Quickly he kissed Willow goodbye and went to go to Giles apartment for the day.
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Willow tried to sleep on the couch in the waiting room, but sleep evaded her. Cordilia had left around noon to take Laura to the hotel for a nap. Xander was pacing the halls outside Buffy's room. He couldn't go in because Giles was there.
Groaning she rolled on to her back and closed her eyes. She remember highschool. All the fun she had Buffy had had. If it wasn't for Buffy she wouldn't have lived as long as she had. Then again if it weren't for Buffy she could have stayed an innocent, oblivious of the world around her.
She remembered how she had felt when Buffy ran away. Alone and friendless. But now she realized that Buffy had been going through more. Willow hoped she never had to do the things that Buffy had had to. And she remembered Oz. Her Oz. The way he knew when to be quiet and how to make her laugh. He wasn't the brooding kind like Angel. There was knock at the door and then it opened a crack. She looked over and saw Xander peeking in.
"I know you're trying to sleep, but I have talk to you with Angel gone." He said looking guilty.
"Sure, I can't sleep anyway." She said sitting up. So he came in and shut the door behind him.
"Are you going to sit down?" She asked yawning.
"Oh yeah." He said sitting in the chair next to the couch.
He looked uncomfortable for a moment then cleared his throat."I know that you probably hate me right now, but let me talk" He
started, "I'm sorry that I never wrote to you. I should have, but I never
thought that all this would happen. I thought that you would go to college
and come back and marry Oz and then I'd move back and we'd take turns
babysitting each other's kids. Look at what really happened.
I know that you love Angel, I can see it in your face when you look
at him. I guess that I still wish that you would look at me like that. I also
know that that is imposible. That you and I can never be together, it's just
I can't look at him and not see all the things he did to hurt us. You can and
I respect that.
At Buffy's request I'm going to try to be nice. At least decent
anyway to him. If you still hate me I understand and don't blame you. But
please accept my apology."
Willow waited to see if he was through then hugged him hard. "I love you Xander. I never could hate you." She said.
"God Wills." He said hugging her back. He was crying.
"It'll be all right." She said holding him.
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Midnight. Something happened. Willow raced down the hall behind Angel and Xander to see what to problem was. Buffy couldn't breath. When she had been shot a bullet had gazed her left lung. They had stopped the bleeding, but it seemed that the wound had reopened. She needed surgery again. Giles was standing in the middle of the hallway stunned as the doctors pushed her out of the room and down the hall. The look on his face was of total confusion. He turned to them small group assembled in the hall and shook his head.
Willow shoved through and took his hand. He let her lead him down the hall and to the lobby. "She just stopped breathing." He repeated over and over again.
Willow led him out of the building to the parking lot where he sat on the curb and tried to comprehend. "She'll be all right," Willow assured him.
"Stopped . . . breathing." He repeated.
"I know, I know. You need to breath. You'll pass-out if you don't."
He took a deep breath. "If she dies, I don't know what I'll do, where I'll go." He said.
"Come back to Sunnydale. We'll take care of you. There isn't room in the apartment, but I'm sure we'll find some place for you to stay. Don't worry, everything will work out." She soothed. He nodded and stood.
"Where are you going?" She asked.
"Back in. Come on."
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Buffy made it through surgery. They said she was going to die and that it would happen very soon. She knew it too and yet she smiled.
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Angel went down the hall and pushed open the door to her room. She was laying there hooked up to more machines than the last time he had seen her. "Buffy." He said kneeling beside her. She looked at him and smiled. "Buffy I have something that I need to tell you."
"Yes." Her voice seemed stronger somehow.
"I . . . I . . . I love you." Then he kissed her. Not hard, not passionately, but gently and sweetly. She still tasted the same after all the years. Like roses and a little of blood. When he pulled back he saw a single blood red tear slip down her cheek and stain the pillow.
"Thank you." She said and then she died.
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Willow cried.
The funeral was beautiful.
The grave was white marble with a rose carved on top. The words close
your eyes were engraved on it just below her name and the dates. A large
weeping willow grew over the grave, protecting it from all harm. The ground
surrounding it was eternally damp with the tears shed there.
And all cried.
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Time brings change. And change is eternal. You can't avoid it. It happens to us all. It can be good. Make things better. Or it can ruin your plans and break your heart. If every tear you ever shed stood for a change in your life, you still wouldn't have counted half of them. So how do you survive it? You just do. There is no getting around it. If you miss it once it'll hit you twice as hard on the second trip. It's better to just let it happen and accept it.
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Giles did move back to Sunnydale. And Willow kept her promise and watched over him. Xander and Cordilia moved back as well. They raised their daughter in a nice house not to far from the school.
Angel and Willow stayed in that apartment. And when she turned twenty nine he changed her into a vampire, just as soulful as himself.
There is more to the story than this, but to write it all down would take an eternity. So this is the end and the end this is.
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