Part 1
"Damn her," Willow mumbled to herself, "It’s perfectly acceptable for her to moon and be depressed over Angel for months, but I can’t even be upset about Oz leaving me for a week before they tell me that it’s time to move on. Move on my ass." Willow was walking back to her and Buffy’s dorm room from the frat party that Buffy had forced her to go to.
"Come on, Wills. It’s a chance to meet guys and flirt and just have fun. You’ll love it, Buffy told her. Willow didn’t want to go but finally gave in just to shut Buffy up. (Why couldn’t she just let me alone. Or help me get over Oz sleeping with that were-chick and then leaving me. I did it for her when Angel left and she knew that he was going to go. I didn’t have a clue what was going to happen.)
Oz had left the week before, telling her that he needed to find out who he was. Had to deal with the fact that the wolf was always in him. She begged him to stay with her but in the end he still went. It might not have hurt her so much if he hadn’t said that he had never loved anyone like her in his whole life. She sat in his room all day, alternately crying and screaming until Buffy finally found her. Buffy had been great the first couple of days. Holding Willow when she couldn’t stop the tears from falling and offering to buy out Sunnydale’s supply of chocolate and Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.
When Buffy wasn’t around, Xander was by her side, helping his oldest friend get through her heartache. Even Anya tried to comfort Willow, telling her that if she still had her powers Oz would have one less limb to worry about. Willow couldn’t help but laugh at that. But everyone quickly moved on and told Willow she had to do the same. (Yeah, move on. After everything that Oz and I had gone through, let’s just move on.)
Buffy had stopped asking if Willow was okay, stopped offering to hang with her, instead going on and on over her latest crush. Riley Finn was their TA for Psychology and Buffy had a major thing for him. That was why she had dragged Willow to the party, so she could see him. Buffy figured that with all of the guys there that Willow would have no problem meeting someone to help her forget Oz. (But I don’t want to meet someone new. I want to brood and mope and cry. All the things other people do when they lose someone they love.)
Willow had finally gotten a chance to leave the party when Buffy had wandered off to go flirt with Riley. It wasn’t that Willow had anything against the idea of Buffy and Riley, it was just the whole idea of Buffy assuming that Willow was ready to move on after only a week. Not to mention the fact that Willow was tired of having to deal with some of the other guys bothering her. (Why is it they can never get a clue.)
Willow heard a noise and looked up. She took in her surroundings, surprised to see that she had wondered away from the path and was walking on a darkened walkway. (Stupid, stupid, stupid. I’m just asking to be vampire bait.) She heard the noise again, this time placing it as coming from behind her. She turned around, looking to see what was back there, but her vision was hampered by the darkness that she was in. She started to run towards her dorm when someone grabbed her from behind, their hands wrapping around her neck.
"Oh, goodie, I was in the mood for something red tonight," Willow whimpered as she felt the coldness of the grasp that had captured her. (Goddess, help me) she screamed in her head. She knew that there wouldn’t be anyone to come and help her as Buffy was still at the party. Willow was just about to resign herself to her inevitable death when she suddenly felt the grip around her loosen and then disappear altogether. She turned to see what had happened and breathed a sigh of relief to see her savior.
"Angel," she yelped as she jumped into his arms. "Oh goddess, I’m so glad your here, but why are you here, I mean Buffy didn’t tell me that you were coming back to Sunnydale and is Cordelia or Doyle here with you. And thank you so much for saving my life and how did you know where I was and I’ll be quiet now." The adrenaline that had rushed through Willow’s body at her not being killed suddenly disappeared as she saw the look of amusement on Angel’s face.
Angel decided to answer Willow’s questions, having learned how to decipher her quick speak. "I came here because I was worried about you and Buffy couldn’t tell you because she doesn’t know. Cordelia and Doyle are fine and say hello. And I knew where you were because I was following you earlier, but I saw you were deep in thought and didn’t want to bother you. You know better than to get caught unawares like that. What had you thinking so much?"
"Oz and Buffy and my life in general." Willow explained. She was glad that Angel had felt the need to come and make sure that she was okay. The two of them had become closer friends since he left for Los Angeles, keeping in touch by email. She had even gone to visit him and Cordelia one weekend, telling Buffy that she was going on a trip with some relatives. She didn’t know how her friend would have taken it if she knew that Willow had keep in touch with Angel.
"What about Buffy and Oz?" Angel gently prodded.
"Well, Oz you know. The whole, why doesn’t he want to be with me, am I too pathetic of a girlfriend to even get a guy thing." Angel hated when Willow talked about herself that way. He was tempted to go and hunt the boy that had caused Willow to doubt herself. He almost missed what Willow was saying about Buffy.
"And then there’s the whole Buffy thing of telling me that it was time to move on," Willow snorted. "She thinks that I am being too depressed because I’m still upset over everything even though it took her a few months to finally stop mooning over you and find someone else." Willow saw the hurt in Angel’s eyes and regretted saying that last part as soon as she said it. "Oh, I’m sorry Angel. I didn’t mean it the way it sounded."
Angel just shook his head, "It’s okay Willow. I’ve accepted the fact that Buffy’s moving on without me. It’s why I left. I wanted her to have the kind of life that I couldn’t give her." Willow’s heart went out to her friend as she gave him a hug. He wrapped his arms around her tiny waist and held her against him. He pulled her back from him to look in her eyes and saw the tears that were threatening.
"Willow, why are you out here alone?" Angel asked concerned. He had always had feelings towards the red head, she being the only one to ever give him the complete trust that he didn’t think he deserved. She had a place in his heart that could never be taken away and it bothered him that her friends could care for her so little that they allowed her to go walking around Sunnydale at night knowing her state of mind.
"Well, Xander and Anya are off doing god knows what," Willow explained. "And Buffy is at some frat party, which is where I just came from. I didn’t exactly relish the idea of going but she dragged me. Said it would be good for me to get out and forget everything. Yeah like that’s possible. Forget that the only man to ever really show an interest in me decided that I just wasn’t a good enough reason to stay around." Angel heard Willow’s voice crack as the tears finally began to fall. He saw as her legs were about to give out and he caught her just as she was about me. She broke down in his arms, sobs wracking her body as she released everything she had been holding back because her friends had gotten tired of listening to her.
‘Shhh, little one, it’ll be okay," Angel whispered to her, smoothing her hair trying to comfort her. His other arm wrapped around her protectively. He cursed her friends silently at their insensitivity towards Willow. Willow clutched at Angel, using him as her personal life line to sanity. So wrapped up in dealing with her pain, Angel and Willow never noticed that they were being watched.
A group of men, dressed in commando uniforms were watching the vampire and hacker. They were holding weapons that were now trained on the couple in front of them. The leader held something that resembled a tricorder from Star Trek.
"One is definite hostile," he said s he looked at the readings he was receiving. "The other human."
"What is he doing?" one of the others asked. The group was confused. With everything that they had read about vampires, they had never heard of one that actually seemed to care about his victims. "Why is he comforting that girl?"
"She was probably a friend before he was changed and is using that friendship to gain her trust before he kills her," the leader stated as he took out a communication device. "Yeah, this is Red Team, we have the hostile sighted. There is a human with him." He heard a reply and nodded. "Understood."
The leader turned to the rest of the group. "We are to take both out. Move out."
Angel sensed the group as the approached. "Willow, I think we need to get out of here."
"Vampires?" Willow asked scared.
Angel shook his head, "No, human. But not friendly." Suddenly Angel’s body was wracked by an electrical shock and Willow screamed as she watched her friend collapse.
"Angel," she screamed as she fell to the ground, checking to make
sure he was all right. Suddenly her hand went to her neck and then the
darkness overtook her.