nv3

~~~part 3~~~

With Willow cradled in his arms, Angel burst into the Emergency room, seeking for anyone that could possibly help the little witch. He caused such a scene that several medical personal rushed forward, having to almost pry the redhead from his grasp.

A young intern placed Willow's limp form on a gurney and hurried to a nearby room. Angel had tried to follow, brushing off a nurses questions. But the doors swung shut in his face, and the nurse put a restraining grip on his arm. Angel was vaguely aware of her telling him that he couldn't go in the room, but that didn't stop him from trying to follow. If it weren't for Buffy's voice from the end of the hallway, Angel knew he would've caused crashed through the doors and made an ass out of himself.

The nurse studied the man in front of her and felt sorry for him. She hated working at the Sunnydale Memorial Hospital. All sorts of weird things happened here, not to mention the magnitude of unexplainable deaths she'd witnessed on a daily basis. She wished she had listened to her friends when they told her that she should go find work in the city, get as far away from Sunnydale that she could. If it weren't for her aging mother she would have. That way she wouldn't have to live night after night watching Boyfriends lose girlfriends, parents' losing their children, not to natural causes anyways. Try having to explain these things to the grieving. What she would give for something natural like a car wreck, or perhaps a real
gang related death.

"Sir please, I need to ask some questions about your girlfriend." Tugging on his sleeve she hoped she could get through to him.

"She's not my girlfriend." Angel couldn't tear his gaze away from the small window that allowed him to see the doctors and nurses working on Willow.

"Is she a friend?"

"I guess you'd say that." Angel's voice was non-committal, confusing the nurse. She had seen thousands of people come through these halls during
the years she had worked here. She was an expert at reading emotions, seeing the physical signs off the connections people shared. She sensed when it was 'just' a friend, or if they had been friends for life. She could also tell without a doubt when there was more, a lot more between two people.

"What's her name?"

"Willow Anne Rosenberg." A female voice came. A small blonde appeared taking the dark males hand into hers.

"How old is she?"

"Seventeen." The blonde answered again.

"And her parents?"

"Somewhere in Europe." This time the handsome male answered, but it came out mostly as a growl.

"Does she have any other family living in town or nearby?"

"She has a guardian." The nurse looked up seeing the pretty blonde looking around.

"He's over there. His name is Rupert Giles." Buffy was a little relieved that Willow had talked her parents into putting Giles as her 'Guardian', just incase something happened again when they were out of town.

Giles was hurrying down the corridor after telling Xander and Cordelia to stay put in the waiting room. He knew the chaos that too many overly concerned teens could create, let alone one very distressed Xander. The teen was annoying on a good day.

"Mr. Giles." Buffy breathed out a sigh of relief as the nurse met Giles half way, firing questions out before he was barley given time to answer the previous one.

"How is she?" Buffy stood on her tippy toes trying to get a better look through the small window.

"Her heart is beating way too fast." Angel whispered. His concentration was centered on the pale redhead lying deathly still on the table inside the room.

"I don't understand, what happened back there? I fighting, well mostly getting my butt knocked around, you fighting, then poof! They started bursting into flames."

"Willow did it." Angel sighed. He knew that Buffy was concerned about Willow, and just wanted to know what had happened. But he wished she'd join the others, wherever they were. The strange pulling he had experienced back at the library was back, and he knew somehow it involved Willow. He was positive. Only this time when he tried to concentrate on it, it wasn't vanishing like before. Instead it was Buffy's voice that kept interrupting.

"Willow!? Remind me to thank our little witch. We're lucky she didn't stay at the library after all."

Any concentration Angel had slipped away with his girlfriend's thoughtless words. "Buffy the reason she's lying in that bed is because she didn't listen to us. We knew better, *all* of us. Willow was in no condition to come tonight. But the second she started to protest we caved, not wanting her to feel left out or unwanted." Angel's tone was harsh, his eyes becoming hard with anger.

"You're blaming this on me?" Buffy's voice was annoyed.

"No-o. I'm blaming this on me. I told her that she was to stay at the library. I shouldn't have backed down. She hasn't slept in days, is barley eating..."

Buffy looked at him perplexed. "How do you know she hasn't been sleeping or eating? And how did you know her parents were in Europe?" Crossing her hands over her chest, she glared at Angel.

Angel paused, how did he know this? "I'm sure I just overheard her telling you where her parents went."

"No, she never told me, in fact all she said was that her parents had gone on another trip...again." Buffy pulled on Angel's jacket to get him to turn toward her and explain how it was he knew these things about her friend when she didn't.

"I don't know Buffy. It sure wasn't from Willow, it's not as though she and I have that kind of relationship. And her not sleeping or eating... Did
you look at her? I've never seen her so run down before."

"I guess you're right." Buffy turned back to the room and sucked in a deep breath when all of a sudden the staff working around Willow jumped into action when the machines and monitors she was hooked up to started going off. "NO!"

~~~*~~~

"I hate this. We should have heard something by now. Why do Angel and Buffy get to stand in the hallway and be the first to know, while we're stuck in here with outdated copies of Readers Digest?" Xander paced the waiting room. Giles checked the clock hanging on the wall.

"Xander will you stop your pacing, it's making me dizzy. First of all we've only been here for twenty minutes. Secondly I really can't see myself forcing Buffy and Angel to do anything." Xander stopped pacing and went to sit next to Cordelia.

"I hate this. Why is Willow the one that always has to get hurt?" Cordelia patted Xander's hand, wishing she had the words to comfort her boyfriend.

But Cordelia had no idea what to say. Was it the spell that Willow performed that made her pass out? She knew that Willow had done some pretty amazing abracadabra in the last year, and tonight was really well timed, but it wasn't something that would've drained her. Unless of course she hadn't been sleeping, and had been living off caffeine pills, soda and coffee for a few days.

Willow had trusted her with some pretty heavy stuff, something that truly amazed Cordelia. No one had ever...ever bared their soul to her like that before. Perhaps because she was known to be a hard ass bitch. It felt incredible to be trusted like that, and she couldn't ruin it now by being a big ole blabbermouth.

"Xander let's go see if the cafeteria is still open."

"At a time like this? Are you kidding? How can you think of food while Willow could be dying?"

"Maybe they'll have that green jello you love." Xander paused.

"Well perhaps." Giving a dramatic sigh Cordelia grabbed Xander's hand and pulled him out of the room.

Giles was extremely grateful that Cordelia had pulled the boy from the room when she had. Otherwise he wouldn't be held responsible for his actions. It wasn't that he disliked Xander, it was just large dosages of the teen gave Giles the worst headaches.