Ben yawned and rolled over expecting to see Willow's sleeping figure beside him.
     He frowned and sat up scanning the room for her, no sign of her.
     Walking over to the door he knocked quietly, "Willow? You in there?"
     When he get no response, he opened it and peaked in, once again, she wasn't there.
     After getting dressed Ben decided to check out where Willow had wandered off to.

     After stepping into the empty hall Ben quickly noticed Darren.
     "Hey, Dazz!"
     Darren turned half startled then smiled at Ben, "Oh, hi Ben!"
     Ben returned the smile, "Hey have you seen Willow around?"
     Darren shook his head, "No, sorry. I just left my room. I'm heading out to give the town a quick scan, I want to pick up some kind of souvenir. I'll check around the lobby for you though!"
     "Yeah, thanks! You're going alone?"
     Darren laughed, "Yeah. The larger the group the more attention we get. I just want to grab a few small things then come back. Bye." And with that he headed off in the direction of the stairs, not wanting to have to wait for the elevator.
     Ben was still tired and tried to fight back a yawn. After looking at a few of the doors, he tried to remember which one the girls had.
     After finally just taking a guess, Ben knocked on one of the doors.
     The door opened and a very annoyed / tired Karl looked out, "Ben!" he said in a whine almost, "It's too early, go away.." Karl yawned and scratched his head, "What do you want anyway?"
     "Actually, I thought this was the girls room.. Sorry. But, anyway, have you seen Willow?"
     Karl glared at Ben for a few seconds, "Yeah, she decided to crash here with me tonight. Give me a minute and I'll wake her up.."
     "Ok, I'm sorry Karl.. Really I am. She's just not in our room. Which one is the girls room than?"
     Karl yawned loudly again, "I don't know. I think it's the one beside mine," He said pointing to his left. "I'm going to go back to sleep ok?"
     Ben nodded with a smile, "Yeah. Sorry Karl.. Really.."
     Walking to the next door, he rapped softly on the door.
     Nicole answered the door, "Hey Ben.." she said in a whisper, "Shh, Anna's still asleep. Here.." She stepped out and quietly closed the door behind her. "So, what's up?" Nicole asked, now talking in a normal tone.
     "Have you seen Willow this morning?"
     Nicole's smile faltered, "What?"
     "Willow, have you seen her any today?"
     "Uh oh.." Nicole said under her breath.
     "Nikki, what?"
     "I, uh, well I thought you knew.."
     "Knew what? Nicole what!?"
     "Oh my," Nicole said putting her hand to her mouth, "She didn't tell you.."
     "Nicole! What already!?"
     Nicole sighed, "Oh, I don't know how to say it.. Ben, Willow already left.." [you know guys...THIS should have been the last part of the last chapter...]
     Ben's jaw dropped, "What!?!"
     "Yeah, she stopped by to say bye earlier. I thought you knew. I figured she would have told you.."
     "Oh man.. She left already?"
     "Yeah. Why wouldn't she have told you? Did you two have a fight or something yesterday?"
     "No.. I don't know why she wouldn't tell me. Here, I'll talk to you later Nicole. Thanks.." He gave her a quick hug and headed back to his room.

     After looking through his things, Ben cursed, "Damn, I left her number home.."
     He sat there trying to figure out what had went wrong, and led her to leave without a word.
     He drew up a blank.

     Willow sat on her plane and tried to keep herself still. She was having problems keeping her hands still, she had became very fidgety. Looking at the numerous rings on her fingers, Willow started rearranging them, in attempt to wind herself down.
     After getting annoyed with her rings she dropped her hands and crossed her legs sitting in her chair. She wrapped her hands around her waist and looked out the window. Clouds, all she could see was a sea of white clouds around the plane. She soon started to rock herself back and forth, "Oh gawd, what am I going?" Willow mumbled quietly to herself.
     "Would you like a drink ma'am?"
     Willow jumped slightly and looked over at the blond female flight attendant. Bottle blond, Willow noted to herself. The attendant also seemed to be sporting a pair of bright unreal blue contacts along with her annoyingly happy smile. Her teeth seemed to be almost too white, so damn bright they seemed to actually reflect light. It looked as if the woman had put her hair through hell making it curl around her face just so. The woman continued to stand there with the fake toothy smile, waiting for a reply from Willow. Willow quickly checked the woman's name tag. 'Buffy' was the name scrawled out on the tacky gold plated heart pin that the woman had pinned to her vest. "Buffy, what a name, such a fake name.. Hm, I suppose it suits her then.." Willow thought quietly.
     'Buffy' who remained to keep her smile, asked again, "Would you like a drink ma'am?"
     Willow began to wonder if the woman had some kind of surgery to be able to keep that smile. "No, I'm fine.."
     "You have nothing to worry about ma'am, really!"
     Willow soon realized that 'Buffy' had seen her whole fidgeting act. She soon was swept over with embarrassment and looked down and tucked her hair behinds her ears. "Ok.."
     "Our pilot this morning, is one of the best. He's been flying for 20 years now, not one single thing gone wrong yet."
     "Yet, oh.."
     "Yes, he's a great pilot. Nothing to worry about at all ma'am! A drink may help you kind of wind down a bit. Let you 'loosen up',"
     Willow looked up at the woman with a small smile, "Maybe I will take that drink.." Willow soon realized that the woman thought all Willow's uncomfortableness was the result of her being scared of flying..

     Twenty-two minutes later Willow sat in her seat and clinked the two ice cubes around in her untouched drink. The liquor was given to her straight up. After taking a small sniff of the drink, Willow realized she wouldn't be able to drink this down. She figured she'd be able to ration it out a bit with orange juice or something, but 'Buffy' hadn't been around again.
     Willow finally put the glass down after spilling a few drops on herself from her swirling the ice cubes around the glass.
     She needed to call Ben, she knew she wouldn't be able to untense any other way.
     Remembering back to when she had first boarded the plane, the man who was sitting behind her had a cell phone.
     Getting on her knees, Willow turned to look at the man and smiled politely.
     The man, startled at first, smiled at Willow. "Hello there.."
     Willow quickly picked up on the guys tone of voice he had used on Willow, he was using the whole 'flirty' tone. Quickly Willow's mind flashed to Ben, she wondered what he would do if he ever found a guy laying on heavy flirting. Willow soon cleared her head and said, "Oh, sorry, never mind!" as she went to turn around to sit back down.
     "No! I'm sorry!" The man said, defending himself suddenly, "What was it you wanted?"
     Willow turned back to him, "I, uh, noticed you had a cell with you earlier. I was wondering if I could make a call. I'll pay you whatever, 10..20.. I don't really know how much it costs.."
     "Oh, no, no. Don't worry about it. It's on me. It's just not really long distance is it?" The man asked reaching into his brief case by his feet.
     "No, it's just a hotel back on the ground." Willow thanked him as he handed the phone forward. She turned around and dialled the hotel getting her call re-directed to the room she hoped Ben was still in.

     Ben was at the door when the phone rang, he groaned. "Damn room service.." Ben muttered as his hand rested on the door knob. The phone continued to ring.
     Finally giving in, Ben picked the phone up, "Hi, yeah, my sheets are fine.."
     "Oh, well, umm, that's great to hear.."
     "Willow!" Ben burst when he recogzined her voice, "Hi.." Ben tried to make his voice mono tone, to show no emotions. "So, how are you?" He questioned, trying his best to appear like the whole fact of her leaving had no effect on him at all.
     The absurdity of Ben's question, when it was quite clear he wasn't all too pleased with her decision of leaving, almost made Willow laugh. "I'm sorry Ben.." She finally said, not knowing what else to say.
     Ben tried to remain level headed and play the dumb one, "Sorry? For ever what?"
     "Ben.."
     "Yes, I am trying to hide my whole reaction to the fact that you decided to hop on a plane and leave. Not only did you hop on a plane and leave, you didn't tell me, you just left. And now, as if that wasn't enough already, you decided you had enough time to go and stop off and say a good bye to Nicole.."
     "No, Ben you don't understand.."
     "Yeah, you're right Willow. I DON'T understand.. Care to explain?"
     "Remember last time we parted at the airport? I cried, I cried and cried and cried.. I can't handle doing that again.. I don't like being like that. This is the best way to do it Ben. I WAS going to call you and explain it all to you."
     By this time, Ben was sitting on the bed, "Seriously?"
     "Yes! Of corse! It was harder than hell leaving you this morning, but I HAD to.. It's just easier this way."
     "So, are you still on for later?"
     "Later?" Willow asked with a confused frown.
     "Getting together later. After I'm finished at home, you at school. Whatever.."
     "Oh, yeah, of corse!"
     "Well, I hate to do this. But I've got to let you go Willow. I'm meeting the guys down in the lobby in a few minutes,"
     "Yeah, I should be handing this cell back to the guy..I'm going to cost him a fortune."
     "Ok, then. I'll call you or you me, you know. However it goes, I'll talk to you later.."
     "Yeah, of corse. Bye Ben.."
     "Bye.."
     As the line went dead Willow sighed. She clicked the phone off and handed it back to the man behind her.
     Buffy the flight attendant came by a few minutes later with Willow's 'breakfast'. Aeroplane food verses hospital food, which one really is worse..

     Ben joined part of the band in the lobby.
     Darren looked over, "Ben, did you end up finding Willow?"
     Ben stopped for a moment then looked to Darren, "Yeah, I found her.."
     "Oh, well that's good. So where'd you find her?" Darren asked as he checked his watch to see how they were doing.
     "On a plane.." Ben commented flatly.
     Darren quickly looked up confused, "Huh?"