Part 1

      "Okay, honey,  you know how to get in touch with us if you need to.  Mrs.
Summers has the itinerary of the cruise.  She said that it was no problem
staying with her, since the house is going to be painted and everything
while we are away."
      "I still can’t believe that you decided to take a cruise the same week as
my spring break," Willow said as she watched her mother pack her suitcases,
for their last minute cruise.  "What happened to spending quality time with
me and all that?"
      "Willow, this trip came up suddenly, you know that," Mrs. Rosenberg told
her daughter.  She didn’t understand why Willow was making such a big deal
about this trip.  She should have been used to being left alone while her
parents were out of town.  And, this time, they had even made arrangements
for Willow to stay with one of her friends.  "One of your dad’s partners
offered it to him, he couldn’t say no.  You know how important this could be
to him."
      "But its spring break.  I thought we were going to go to LA or maybe down
to San Diego.  Remember, you said you wanted to do the whole mother/daughter
bonding thing that is always so important to a girl in my teenage years."
Willow repeated the same words that her mother had used the month before
when she started to actually take an interest in what her daughter did with
her time.  Granted, her parents were still not the most attentive, they had
not idea of what she did at night, but they had made an effort.  Well, that
was before they announced that they were going to leave for a vacation and
while gone, have the house painted, forcing Willow to seek shelter
elsewhere. "You know, go shopping and have coffee at some street café and
talk.  I thought you were actually looking forward to spending time with
me."
      "I know, honey.  And I promise, as soon as we get back, we’ll go somewhere
and do exactly that.  But right now, I need you to pack up whatever you will
need to bring with you.  We leave in thirty minutes.  Mrs. Summers said that
she would be at the gallery all day, but that Buffy was going to be home."
When Mrs. Rosenberg saw that Willow was still upset over the change in
plans, she tried to put a positive spin on things.  "Look, think of it as
one long slumber party.  I mean, you haven’t been spending a lot of time
with Buffy these past few weeks, so you can use the time to get caught up on
things.  Talk about all those things that girls like to talk about.  Clothes
and boys.  You’ll see, by the time we get back, you won’t even want to come
home."
      "Why do I doubt that?" Willow muttered as she left her parents bedroom and
preceded to hers to finish her packing.  Willow knew she should have been
happier to be spending the next two weeks at Buffys, but lately Buffy hadn’t
really had anytime for her.  She was always off patrolling or shopping or
doing other things that weren’t hanging out with Willow.  And it didn’t help
that Xander had also been preoccupied.  Willow was beginning to feel as if
her two best friends were abandoning her for some reason.
      Willow had noticed over the past few days, that Buffy and Xander had almost
been avoiding her.  It had gotten so bad that she never saw either of them,
except for the times they were in class together or they were all at the
library researching.  Even then, the two of them had trouble looking at
Willow and the hacker had no idea what was wrong or how to fix it.  She knew
that Buffy and Angel were in the off stage of their on again-off again
romance, yet Buffy hadn’t been over to cry on Willow’s shoulder once in the
month that she and Angel had been apart and Willow wondered how her friend
was doing.  Considering how well the slayer had taken it the last time she
and Angel were apart, she had expected Buffy to be over consistently, the
two of them keeping Ben & Jerry’s company.  But it hadn’t happened that way,
and Willow was beginning to think that her friendship with Buffy wasn’t as
secure as she thought.  And Willow didn’t even want to think about the
possibility that her and Xander were growing apart.  They had been too close
for too long for that to even enter her mind.  She cared for him too much.
      "Willow, are you ready to go?" Her father called from downstairs.
      "Be right down dad."  Willow looked around, quickly grabbing her laptop and
her suitcase.  She knew that she could always run back to the house real
quick if she needed anything.  She shut her bedroom door and joined her
parents downstairs.
      "Is this everything?" He father asked, as he took her suitcase from him.
      "Yeah, this is it," Willow told him.  Willow followed her parents to the
car, getting in the back seat.  She looked out the window, blanking staring
at nothing.  She didn’t know why, she just had a feeling that something bad
was about to happen.  She tried to shake off that feeling, but it refused to
leave her.  It only grew stronger the closer she got to Buffy’s.  When her
father pulled into the drive, Willow wanted to ask him to just turn around
and go home.  She was surprised when her dad got out of the car and helped
her with her stuff.
      "Come on, Willow.  Let’s get you inside."  He put his arm around Willow and
the two of them walked up to Buffy’s door.  They knocked and waited for
someone to answer.  When no one did, Willow looked over at her father and
tried the door knob.  It turned easily.  Willow slowly opened the door,
expecting something to jump out at her.  When nothing did, she entered the
Summers’ home.
      "Buffy?" She called out.  Still no one answered.  Willow was starting to
panic.  ‘What if something happened to her?  Where is she?  Why was the door
unlocked?’  All sorts of images were going through her mind.
      "I hear the television," her father said, as he set the suitcase in his
hand down.  "Why don’t you check the living room."  Willow nodded her head,
going towards the noise.  What she saw in the living room made her gasp.
Loudly.  Buffy and Xander pulled apart, jumping to their feet as they heard
Willow’s gasp of surprise and hurt.
      "Willow,"  Buffy said, seeing her friend.  "Look we can explain."
      "You,"  pointing to Buffy, "and him," pointing to Xander, "together?"
Xander hung his head down.
      "Yes," he answered.
      "And you never told me," Willow stated.
      "We can explain," Buffy said.  Willow never gave her the chance.  Willow
ran to where her father was still standing.
      "Dad, can you take me somewhere else to stay.  I can’t be here," she
pleaded.  He looked into his daughter’s eyes and saw the distress that was
there.  He didn’t know what she had seen, but knew that whatever it was, was
enough to rattle his little girl.  He nodded his head, picking up her
suitcase once more and leading her quickly to the car.  By the time that
Buffy and Xander shook themselves out of their state of shock, Willow and
her parents were already pulling out of the driveway.
      Willow’s mother looked at her daughter in the rearview mirror.  She didn’t
know what had happened.  One minute Willow and her father were bringing her
things into the house, the next they were practically running out of it,
tears falling from Willow’s eyes.  Something that had happened.  Something
that hurt Willow.
      "Where do you want to go, sweetheart?"  Willow’s father asked her gently,
pulling over to the side of the road once Buffy’s house was out of view.
Willow thought about the question for a moment.  ‘Where do I want to go?  I
want to go home, but I know that isn’t an option.  Can’t go to Giles, he
would tell Buffy.  I don’t have any other friends.’  Then she thought about
the one person who would probably understand what she was going to.  She
gave her father the directions.  When they stopped in front of the
warehouse, her parents turned to face her.
      "Are you sure this is where your friend lives?" Her mother asked, concerned
for her daughter.
      "Yeah, he owns the building.  He converted some of it into an apartment,"
Willow assured her parents.
      "So you want us to come up with you?  Just to make sure that he’s home.
It’s still early in the day, he may be at work or something."  Willow looked
out at the bright sunshine and smiled.
      "He’ll be there.  He works nights," Willow informed them.  "I’ll be fine."
Willow got out of her car and her father helped her with her suitcase.  She
kissed her parents goodbye, silently thanking the gods that they didn’t
question her about what had happened back at Buffy’s or who was this friend
that she wanted to stay with.  She waved at them when she reached the
entrance to the warehouse.  She made her way to his apartment, knocking on
his door.  A few minutes later, he opened his door wearing nothing but a
pair of faded jeans.  He looked down at the girl at his door, complete with
luggage, surprise evident on his face.
      "Willow?"
      "Angel, can I come in?"
 

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