~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
~Part: 11~
"Y-" William paused, seeing the look on Willow's face. He looked down and ran a hand through his hair, "I don't know. Just give me some time to think about this."
Scarlet nodded in understanding, "Well, I'm going to get the stuff ready- just in case." She turned to Willow, "Are there any magic supply shops around here?"
Before the redhead could answer, Xander popped in and held up a hand to get her attention. "Actually, the directions are kind of confusing so why don't I take you, *Scarlet*?" He enunciated her name in a teasing fashion.
She grinned and nodded her head, "Alright- let's go then. I think we should be back within a few hours." Scarlet turned to Ethan and gave him a menacing look, "Have fun."
~^~**~^~
"So, Mr. Alexander LaVelle Harris, please do tell me about yourself."
"Well, Ms. Scarlet Marie Elson, you already know the basics about me so I guess I can go into details now. I am an honorary Scooby, the Zeppo, actually."
Scarlet raised an eyebrow, "Zeppo?"
"See, that's private personal information that I only tell my friends." He teased.
She laughed before looking down, "You don't plan to let that go anytime soon, do you?"
"Well," He held his hands to his heart, "You *did* hurt my feelings. I felt so unloved."
The brunette grinned, "Well, I'm sorry then. If you haven't already noticed I can be a bit blunt sometimes. I don't know, just part of the personality, I guess."
"I like it. It's refreshing."
"Well, my personality has been called many things but umm…" she paused and then turned to him, "refreshing certainly was not one of them."
"It is." They grew silent for a few more moments before Xander finally looked up. Scarlet turned to him expectantly and he leaned forward a bit. She closed her eyes, waiting for the kiss but it never came. Her eyes shot open as she heard Xander's voice in a teasing tone, "We're here."
~^~**~^~
"I still don't trust him" Buffy declared as she walked with Willow through the cemetery. They were going on their nightly patrol, a little earlier then usual, because if Buffy and Ethan spent another second in the room with each other, there would most likely be some bloodshed. Ethan couldn't stop baiting her and the blonde slayer couldn't stop replying to them.
"I noticed," Willow commented as they continued walking. They had already dusted two vamps and it didn't look like there was going to be any more of them anytime soon.
"Urghhh.. I dislike him *very* much. I mean, why would you go and do something as stupid as that? Not only are you putting yourself at risk but—"
Willow managed to tune Buffy out as the blonde rambled on. Yes, she was her best friend and everything but right now, all she wanted, was some peace and quiet.
~^~**~^~
She was thinking again. She hated it. Usually, her thoughts were the ones that would comfort her but not today. Today, they were taunting her. They were repeating the one name that she didn't want to hear. <William>
Willow rolled over on the bed and pulled up the covers. She let out a sigh and rested her cheek against the pillow. It didn't make any sense to her. One minute, it seemed that maybe they were going somewhere and the next, everything that she thought was true, wasn't. Groaning slightly, she reached out blindly for the phone.
"Buffy?"
"Will? What's wrong, hun? I know you wouldn't interrupt my beauty sleep unless it was something major so dish."
"I just wanted to talk."
"Honey, it's 1 AM in the morning. You cannot *tell* me that you called me at this time just to chat."
"Alright, you got me. I was thinking about.. well.. you know."
"William?"
"Yeah"
"Uh huh" Buffy paused for a moment. "What about him?"
"I'm scared, Buffy. I'm falling for him and I don't want to but I am. And it scares me."
"Why does it scare you?"
"Oh Goddess, this is gonna sound so stupid."
"No, it isn't. Come on hun, I'm here for you- tell me what's on your mind."
"It's just- I know that William and Spike are different but at the same time they're alike, ya know? And that scares me because I don't want to go through what I went through with Spike again. That was pure hell, Buff. I just.. don't know what to do."
"Willow, sweetie- listen to me. You can't be scared for your whole life. You're going to let a good thing slip right through your fingers if you don't make a move. I don't want you to regret your decision."
"The thing is, I don't even know if it would work out between us. This is all so confusing."
"Love is confusing. Life is confusing. *Everything* is confusing. You don't have to know all the answers."
"Yes, I do. I'm Willow, the smart one. Remember?"
Buffy let out a small laugh before replying, "Nobody knows the answers to everything. Maybe, this is just one thing that you're just going to have to step into blindly."
"But, why would I do that? Just risk getting hurt again?"
"Will, if you close yourself up like you're doing right now then you're going to spend your whole life being cold and unfeeling. I admit it, love hurts and you will get hurt. But, like everything else in life, we just have to move on and deal with it, you know- learn from our mistakes. That doesn't mean that you should shut yourself off though. When you open yourself up, you open yourself up to hurt and pain but you also open yourself up to happiness and love. And honestly, that's worth it all, it's worth everything."
Willow was quiet for a few moments, her mind processing the meaning to Buffy's words. She cleared her throat and then said decidedly, "You're right."
The blonde let out a small giggle, "Of course, I am. Now, are you gonna listen to me?"
"Yeah, I think I am."
~Part: 12~
"Hello?"
"Buffy, this is Giles. I was wondering if you could do me a favor and inform the rest about our meeting today."
"Umm.. sure- will do."
"Thank you."
"Is that it.. or- what?"
"Uh, no. That's all. Thank you.. again."
"No prob, Giles. Bye."
"Bye."
Buffy hung up the phone with a smile. She had just been thinking about the perfect way to give Willow a small push. She knew that even after the conversation with the redhead last night, that she most likely wouldn't be doing anything herself. So, now was the opportunity to give Willow a push, alright.. a great big shove.
~^~**~^~
"Hey G-man!"
Giles merely ignored the nickname. "Hello Xander."
Scarlet looked up from the spell book that she was currently reading and gave him a small smile.
Xander smiled back, feeling a bit like an oaf for acting so boyishly.
The blonde slayer rolled her eyes, <Could they *be* more obvious?> "Hey Xan!"
"Buffster." Xander nodded towards Buffy, "Where's Will?"
"Right here," Willow walked into the room from the kitchen, sipping from a can of pop. "Figured you'd want one too." She threw a Pepsi can at him.
"Thanks," He caught it with ease and sat down at the table, the seat closest to Scarlet. "So, what's going on?"
"Scarlet is going over a few last details of the spell though we're still unsure of William's choice."
Xander nodded and looked around, "Hey, where's Ethan?"
"Sleeping, I still say we should tie him up." Buffy said matter-of-factly.
Willow shook her head, "He's not going to do anything, Buff."
"And how are you so sure?"
"He may be conniving but he's not an idiot. Look at the odds."
Seeing how the argument couldn't be won, the blonde slayer settled for shutting herself up and just sitting down at the table with a huff.
After a few more moments, Scarlet looked up from her reading and said happily, "Got it. Alright, everything's translated and we got all we need for the spell. I'm ready to cast this thing. All we need now is William. Speaking of which, where is he?" She looked around the room but saw that the ex-vamp was nowhere to be seen.
Buffy looked at her watch, "I dunno. He said he was gonna be here by 3:00."
"Maybe he got caught up in something," Willow suggested.
"I doubt it. Will, why don't you go over there and check it out?" Buffy hinted, not at all subtle.
The redhead shot her best friend a glare, knowing that the blonde had something to do with all this, then grabbed her jacket and said her goodbyes.
~^~**~^~
Willow walked nervously up the steps to William's apartment building. She felt like an idiot. The confused redhead had no idea *what* to say, *where* to begin, and how it was all going to turn out. And the worse part, she had spent all the previous night thinking about the subject. Pushing back her nervous thoughts she walked into the building and pressed the button next to Apt. 14A—- W. Ramsey.
"Yeah?"
"Umm.. William?"
"Willow?"
"Yeah."
There was a moment of silence before William finally answered, "Come on up."
~^~**~^~
The young brunette paced around his living room floor. She was here. And she probably wanted to talk. But what about? <Probably about the spell, idiot!> But what *about* the spell? Maybe she was here to encourage him to actually go through with it. Yeah, that had to be it because she didn't seem to be responding to his actions. And it was quite obvious that he was anything but subtle with those.
Or maybe she was here to tell him not to go through with the spell. No, that couldn't be right. If she was here to tell him that then.. it just didn't make sense and there was really no point in the wishful thinking if it was only going to get shot down.
A knock was heard at the door and William stopped dead in his tracks. <She's here!>
Two more knocks was heard before William actually moved towards the direction of the door.
"Sorry about that," He said without actually looking up. The next thing he knew was that there was an extreme pain in his head and that the floor seemed to be getting closer and closer to his face.
~Part: 13~
Her nervousness seemed to fade with each step and by the time Willow got to the top of the stairs, she was actually pretty sure of herself.. to a certain extent.
When she finally arrived at the door, the redhead looked at the open door with a confused expression. <Odd.> She pushed the door open further and walked inside, "William?" <No answer.>
"William?" She called out again and continued to search the apartment. A couple minutes later, and no William, Willow was starting to get just a *tad* bit worried. She looked around frantically, trying to find some hint of what might have happened to the brunette and spotted the phone. Walking with quickened steps she grabbed the phone and punched in Giles's phone number.
"Giles? Something's wrong."
~^~**~^~
By the time Buffy and Scarlet got to William's apartment, Willow was a nervous wreck. The blonde Slayer rushed over to her best friend, "Hun, you ok?"
"I'm so worried, Buffy. I have this feeling, in my gut, something just doesn't feel right."
As Buffy comforted Willow, Scarlet was looking around the apartment, trying to find clues. She looked down at the doorway and saw something a little bit suspicious. "Umm.. did either of you wear muddy boots today?"
The brunette turned around and saw faces of confusion stare back at her. "There's mud all over the carpet outside the apartment and a light footprint in the entrance way." Scarlet pointed to the spoken of footprint.
Willow untangled herself from Buffy's arms and walked over to the spot Scarlet was speaking of. "It's smudged." The redhead stated. "Why would it be smudged?"
Scarlet looked at her uncomfortably, "Sorry to be the pessimist here but.. I think I may have an idea."
The redhead looked at her expectantly.
"I'm talking worse case scenario though."
Buffy rolled her eyes, "You're worse then her." She nodded towards Willow, "Stop babbling and just get on with it."
"I think someone must've found out about our little experiment and so.. maybe he was kidnapped or something."
"How could anyone find out?"
Scarlet turned towards Buffy and said guiltily, "Well, to be honest, we weren't exactly extremely hush hush about the whole thing. Word could have easily gotten around plus there's Ethan and so.."
The Slayer's head snapped up as soon as she heard Ethan's name, "That bastard!" She said decidedly, "I bet you he's the one that's behind all this."
"Buffy," Willow began, "Don't start. You have no evidence towards that and besides he's been at Giles's the whole time."
"It's called a phone, Will."
"Don't you think we would know if he was plotting some big evil scheme against us?" The redhead shook her head. <Guess none of my speech got through to her.>
"Besides, that little fucker is in enough trouble as it is. I doubt he'd try something like this."
"We should get back to Giles's place. Just in case."
"Paranoid." Scarlet said in a sing-songy voice.
Buffy shot her a glare and walked out of the apartment.
The redhead closed the door with a small smile and gave Scarlet a `Did you really have to do that?' look.
~^~**~^~
"Kidnapped?" Giles repeated.
"It's the only thing that I can think of that would make sense." Scarlet added, hoping to make some sense to the Watcher.
"Bloody hell, woman! Why do you have to keep staring and glaring at me like that? I feel like you're about to burn me with your damn eyes!" Ethan said as he inched away from Buffy.
"Oh God," Scarlet rolled her eyes, "Will you two stop it?" She turned back to Giles, "Anyhow, do you have any idea who might've done this? I mean, any organizations or groups with interests in the paranormal around here?"
"We're on a Hellmouth. Think about that for a sec." Xander said amusedly.
"Funny," The brunette said dryly, "Alright, fine. Are there any main ones? Ones that may have connections overseas perhaps?"
Giles looked at her with a blank expression and Willow spoke up. "Research session?"
Before Scarlet could even answer, the hacker was already at her laptop, typing away.
~Part: 14~
"Urgghh!" Willow shot a glare at the monitor, "This is not helping me whatsoever."
"Problems, Will?"
The redhead looked at her best friend and sighed impatiently, "Just realized something. If you're some kind of underground organization that kidnaps used to be vampires, you probably won't have a big website on the net."
Buffy gave her an `I see' look and moved over by her. "Nothing at all?"
"Nothing, Nada, Zip." Willow sighed again and pounded her fist against the table, "This is making me mad!"
The others in the room jumped a little from her sudden movements. Willow was usually calm and patient when it came to researching baddies but for some reason, she was really on the edge with this particular situation.
Scarlet looked at the frustrated redhead with an understanding eye. It made sense. Usually, when these Scoobies were researching baddies, the victims weren't directly connected to them but this one was different, this one, Willow actually cared about deeply, maybe even love. And that made all the difference. Deciding to be comforting, the pretty brunette said in a soft voice, "We'll find something out. Try searching for organizations that receive money, as in a lot, on a monthly or quarterly basis. You'd think if they had the power to catch William or even finding about it in the first place, they'd have some major funding."
Willow nodded thankfully and began typing away again.
~^~**~^~
Something felt odd.. and off. William opened his eyes but couldn't see anything but.. darkness and black. He proceeded to lift his hands but they were chained down. His legs were also restrained from movement. Panic began to rise in the young brunette's mind and he cleared his throat, cringing a bit from the dryness, and asked, "Hello?" At receiving no answer, he asked again, "Hello?" After a few more moments he continued, "Is anyone there? Can I at least get something to drink?"
Footsteps were heard after his words were spoken and yet again, he felt a pain in his head as he drifted off to unconsciousness.
~^~**~^~
"Find anything yet?" Buffy asked, sitting down next to Willow.
The redhead shook her head and turned her tired eyes toward her best friend, "I feel so helpless, Buffy." She paused and looked down at her hands that were in her lap, "There's so much I want to do but nothing I can do."
"Will, it's only been a couple hours, we'll find something. Just don't give up."
"What if-?" Willow stopped herself, "If only I had gotten there sooner, I could have prevented this from happening."
"Will, it's not your fault. Don't even think it!"
"I'm just.. really worried."
Buffy moved to hug her and said in a soft voice, "We all are."
~^~**~^~
When William woke up again, he felt something in his lap. Lifting up his chained hands he grabbed at the object, making it out to be a water bottle. Letting out a sigh of relief, he twisted the cap and drank. When he was done, he asked again, "Is anybody there?"
Yet again, there was no answer. "Thank you, whoever you are."
~^~**~^~
Buffy smiled caringly at the sleeping body of her best friend and got up to look for Ethan. She had some interrogating to do.
She opened the door to Giles's guest room and saw that he was resting. The blonde flipped on the switch and walked over to his bed. "Wake up, Ethan."
Getting no answer, she repeated, "Ethan! Get up!"
Annoyed with his lack of reply, she grabbed the glass of water on the night table and poured it on his head.
Ethan's upper body shot off the bed and he yelled out, "Ahhh!!"
"Good to see you're finally awake." Buffy said with a smirk.
"What do you want, Slayer?"
"Some answers to begin with."
"I told you already, I don't know anything."
"That is such BS beyond belief. You know something," She pointed an accusing finger at him, "And you better tell me *now* before I smack it out of you."
He shook his head, "Alright, bugger all. I'm tired of this. You really want to know some answers?"
Buffy gave him a `no really?!' look and he continued, "Ask Scarlet."
~^~**~^~
"Is she okay?" Scarlet asked when she saw Xander step through the door.
Xander looked up at the night sky and then at his current crush, "She's doing better."
"I wish me and the British idiot in there could be of more help."
"You are helping." The young brunette smiled at her with a boyish grin.
"Not completely."
"What do you mean?"
Scarlet sighed and looked away, staring at the stars for a few moments before looking back at him, "I lied."
~Part: 15~
“What do you *mean* ask Scarlet?” Buffy demanded.
“I don’t know how much easier I can make that sentence for you, Slayer. It’s pretty self-explanatory.”
The blonde glared at him and stormed into the living room, looking for Scarlet. Hearing voices outside, she flung open the door and saw exactly who she was looking for. Her arm shot out, grabbing the brunette by the neck and pressed her up against the wall. She growled out, “What do you know?”
Scarlet reacted on instinct and brought her knee up to push Buffy away forcefully. She then kicked her in the abdomen, sending the shocked Slayer stumbling backwards. Buffy regained balance and was about to deliver a punch when Xander came between the two.
“Stop it! What is going on?” He asked, looking between them.
“I don’t know!” Scarlet said, catching her breath, “Ask her! She’s the one who attacked me!”
“You know something,” Buffy accused, “And you’ve been hiding it from us. William maybe be *dead* because of you and Willow was in there, crying her eyes out. I think I have *some* right to be just a *little* pissed off.”
Scarlet turned away and let out a sigh, “I was going to tell you guys.”
“When exactly? After we got William’s corpse delivered to our door?” Buffy asked sarcastically.
“No,” She denied, “I was just going to tell Xander, before you burst out here, attacking me.”
“Well, I’m not attacking you now, so get to explaining.” Buffy paused, “And it *better* be good.” “I work for a secret organization that does research on the paranormal.” Scarlet paused, waiting for a reaction, but it never came. “A couple months ago, I was assigned to a case to research on Vampires and humans. The connection, if you will. I mean, they were thought of to be pure myth before but when we discovered that they truly existed, we had to know more. So, they dug up a spell that they found that supposedly could turn a vampire back into a human. Little did I know that it would actually work.”
“I thought you said that you and Ethan wrote it.” Buffy stated, calmly.
“That idiot always manages to take credit for things he never does. I told him that I wrote it, which is obviously not true, and he was too excited to test it out to find the whole situation suspicious.”
“Alright, go on.”
“They decided to release him, to have him return to where he was before and I guess you can say, see how he reacts to his previous habitat.”
“So what? He was just some test toy?”
“To put it harshly, yes.”
“Do you know where he is now?”
“No, I reported him missing to my superiors and they know nothing about it. Someone else did this.” Buffy continued to glare at her but after a few moments of silence, the Slayer spoke up, “You need to tell Giles and Willow about this.”
“I know.” The brunette said, quietly.
“Wait a second,” Buffy turned to her again, “What does Ethan know?”
“I didn’t tell him about all this until the plane ride over.”
“Uh huh,” Buffy nodded, “And why did you decide to tell him?”
“I’m not powerful enough to reverse the spell myself. I needed him to help me.”
“And why would you want to reverse it?”
Scarlet looked down.
“Don’t tell me it’s for more tests.” When she got no reply from Scarlet, the blonde turned away in disgust. “Whatever, I’m going in to wake them up.”
A few moments of silence passed after Buffy went inside and Scarlet finally gathered the courage to look up at Xander. She whispered, her voice shaking, “I’m sorry, Xander. I’m really sorry. *This*,” She pointed towards him and then back to herself, “wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“I guess I ruined your plans, huh? Falling for you? Or was *that* some kind of test too?”
“No,” She shook her head, “No, I-“
He sighed and stopped her, raising a hand, “I really don’t want to hear it. Right now, we have an ex-vampire to save and you have to do some explaining to Will and Giles.” He turned around and began to walk away when her voice, full of sorrow, stopped him.
“Please, Xander,” She pleaded, “Please don’t walk away from me.”
Xander let out a sigh, confused. He wanted nothing more then to turn around, embrace her, and whisper words of comfort into her ear but he couldn’t help but feel a sense of betrayal. He continued to walk inside, closing the door with a click.
Scarlet stood there, completely frozen, a single tear slid down her face and she whispered again, “I’m sorry.”