Angel stared at the ground. He couldn't bring himself to look at her. < It's all my fault. I shouldn't have left her alone. Now she's gone, and I'll never be able to tell her how special she is, how wonderful she is, how much I need her, how much I love her. Oh Willow... > He broke down in tears, sinking to the ground. Standing was too much of an effort. *Existing* was too much effort. She was gone, just as he was realizing how very much he needed her, and he didn't want to live anymore.
< No damnit! I am not going to accept this. I just found the girl. She is *not* dead! I won't let her be. I refuse to lose her like I lost Dru! > Spike bit into his wrist, preparing to turn her. He reached for her head to force her to drink. It rolled loosely, bringing home the reality of her death. He pulled back. It was too late. < If only I had taken her last night. This is all Angel's fault. If he hadn't gotten in my way, she would have been vamped yesterday and wouldn't be dead now! > Spike glared at his sire. He glared at the dust remains of the vampire who killed her. He glared at the trees surrounding them. He glared at everything and anything, so that he wouldn't have to look at her body.
The two vampires were mired in grief. So much so, that they failed to notice the pale red glow that began to emanate from Willow's still form.
"Ouch."
Both vampire's heads shot up. They looked over at Willow, who was struggling to sit up. Within a matter of seconds, they had both grabbed her into a bone crushing hug. "Oh God, Willow, we thought you were dead!" Willow looked at Angel, speechless. The only thing she could think to say was 'I'm not' but somehow, it seemed kind of pointless to say, since she obviously wasn't. < Why would he think I'm dead? This is weird. > About that time she noticed the second pair of arms surrounding her. She twisted her head to find out who the arms belonged to, and found herself looking into Spike's eyes. "You scared us little girl. Don't ever do it again!" he said in a concerned tone of voice. < Curiouser and curiouser. Um... Spike caring and concerned. I mean, before he just wanted to kill me, but last night he was being all nice, and now... now he was scared for me? Maybe I'm in some sort of alternate dimension or something. > Willow noticed that neither of the vampires made any move to release her, and they didn't look like they were planning to anytime soon. < Odd, nice but odd. Strike that, VERY NICE! But Angel is Buffy's and Spike is Drucilla's and a bad guy to top it off. Still very nice. It's weird, but I feel very safe, and... Oh wow! Look at those cheekbones! How could I have never noticed them before? And- >
Angel interrupted Willow's internal babbling, "Wait a minute. You were *dead*. You had a broken neck. Nobody just suddenly recovers from death!" His eyes widened as he realized... "The ritual! It had already started! You must have been effected by it!" He fell silent as he thought < She's still pretty willowy. It can't have effected her that much. But she was dead. She had to have been changed by it to recover from death. We need to talk to Giles. But we can't go to the library. The idiot-watcher will try to kill her. Besides Spike doesn't look like he's letting go anytime soon. > "We need to get back to the mansion. I'll call Giles and he'll figure this out."
The vampires stood and pulled Willow up between them, neither one letting go of her for a second. Neither one said anything about the other touching Willow, simply because they were both so overjoyed that she was alive. They could fight it out later. And off the unlikely trio went, back to the mansion.