Distribution: Angel of Mine, TPWFLD, Witch Fan Fic anyone else please ask first.
Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Angel, Willow and co. do not belong to me. They are the property of Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, and the WB. All characters are used without permission. No copyright infringement intended.
Feedback: Yes please!!!! Or I may not write any more! :Hint. Hint:
Summery: Willow hasn't returned home and Ira's worrying.
Author's Notes: This take place right after part 25 of Willow's Secret.
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Ira's thoughts:
Ira Rosenberg paced back and forth across the living room floor. It was 10am and Willow had yet to come home.
He hadn't seen his daughter since the evening they had all watched that vampire movie together, and Willow had gone off on a tangent about how some vampires could be good…if they were real that was.
He had taken her to bed that night, but had not seen her after that. The next day she had slipped out without telling them where she was going and had not returned that night.
They had waited till ten o'clock and then Ira had decided it was time to call the police, until Sheila suggested calling the number Willow always gave them just in case they needed to get in touch with her. The number that in his worried state had forgotten all about.
They had dialed the number, and a man with a British accent had answered, and had seemed a little flustered when they had asked if Willow was there. He had told them to hand on a moment, and Ira could hear muffled voices talking briefly before a girl answered.
She had sounded familiar, then it had hit him. She was Willow's friend. What was her name again…Buffy?
After a brief attempt to dance around the question, she had finally told him that she had left earlier that night with Angel and was either on her way home or would be with him at the mansion.
<Mansion?!> Ira had thought to himself. <Just what the hell hasn't Willow been telling us about her new boyfriend? >
At hearing the unease in his voice however she had stressed that she would safe with him, and if something did happen to them, Angel was more than capable of protecting himself and Willow.
When he had asked for his number however she had paused, and had said that she didn't have it, and that it was probably best if they had some alone time anyway. To get something's off their chests, to which he had heard sniggering in the background, followed shortly by a grunt as if they had just been punched before the had said goodbye and hung up.
<She would be safe. Safe my ass! > He'd thought. It hadn't taken a genius to get the meanings behind her words and he didn't like them one bit.
Here was his innocent little girl in the clutches of an older man, doing Christ knows what together.
Sheila had begged him to leave it alone, to go to bed and sort it out in the morning.
That hadn't gone down to well however. He was worried about his daughter.
Eventually though he had given in, and had gone to bed in an attempt to calm his wife, who kept insisting that Willow was fine.
He had lain awake till the early hours though, hoping to hear the door creak open, and for Willow to slip upstairs and into her room, hoping to go un-noticed by her parents like others her age.
But by the time he had eventually succumbed to sleep it hadn't happened.
He had hoped by the time he had woken up the next day that she'd be here, asleep in her bed, but it was made, no sign that she had been there.
Throughout all this Ira didn't understand how Sheila could be so calm, especially in a town where people tended to go missing everyday.
When asked she had replied that she was just as worried as he was, but she had a good idea at where she was.
She had left the room then, and only now had returned, with two cups of coffee in her hands.
"Ira, would you stop pacing for a moment and have something to drink. You're making me dizzy."
Seeing the pleading look in her eyes Ira gave in and took the cup from her before sitting down wearily in a chair.
Rubbing his hand over his eyes to try to remove the tiredness, he looked at his wife.
"I'm just worried about her."
" I know you are, but I really do think she's fine. She's probably with Angel. Safe."
"That's a contradiction in terms." He muttered under his breath, but Sheila heard him anyway.
"What do you mean?" Sheila asked. "Why wouldn't she be safe with him?"
"You think she's safe if she's stayed over at his house?"
"He's her boyfriend!"
"Exactly. God knows what they could have been doing last night."
"Ira, Willow is a adult. What she does with him is really none of our business."
"She's our daughter Sheila! She just wouldn't stay over at a boy's house and not call us unless she was being pressured not to. She knows we worry."
"Ira, Willow has grown up a lot these last few year. She's not a child anymore. She has to make her own choices now, and make her own mistakes. Besides, you know I talked to her about this. She said she wouldn't do anything she didn't want to, and that he wouldn't make her. And I believe her. You talked to him, surly he told you the same thing."
"Yes...I…Sheila, I know I talked to him, but I don't even know him, how do I know if he's telling the truth."
"Ira, Willow knows him. Isn’t that enough? Besides, did he say anything to make you think he has anything other than good intentions?"
"Well no…He said all the things a father would want to here, and he was polite. But I don't know Sheila there's something about him the bothers me and I don't know what it is."
"Ira," Sheila said, "I've seen them together, and I've seen the way that his eyes light up when she walks into the room and I've seen Willow's do the same. He really cares about her. I know he does, I can just tell. Now whatever the problem you have with him, you've got to get over it. I get the idea that they're gonna be together for a long time, and it's not fair on her to put doubts in her mind."
"But I haven't-"
"But you would. And you wouldn't even know that you're doing it. And you also have to accept that she's no longer a child. She's going to go out and have relationship, and that includes sex. Our parents felt just the same way remember? And we hated it that they treated us like kids. I don't want to do that to our daughter. Do you get that?"
"Yes," he said, realizing the truth in her words. " I just wish that she'd ca-"
His words were cut off by the phone ringing, rushing over to it he snatched the receiver.
"Hello?!"
There was quiet on the other end for a moment before she spoke.
"Hey dad…it's Willow…"
Not realizing that he had been holding his breath, he let out a sigh of relief and smiled over at his wife.
"Willow honey, where have you been? We were worried."
"Well…"
The End