Tides of Love and Hate
Part 11

 
 Willow was kissing Angel.

 And she was really liking it.

 After being out for at least three hours, she had woken to a worried Angel waiting by her side. Once Angel filled in what had happened and what he had found, Willow had taken a few minutes to deal with the loss of the Slayer. Then she had taken another few minutes to deal with Buffy’s reaction to the whole deal. Then, she had taken another few minutes to deal with the idea of yet another new Slayer.

 Then she had decided to deal with it later and just make out with Angel.

 She had been practically untouched in her encounter with the street vampire, save for a few scratches, which were perfectly superficial anyway. She hadn’t hardly even been bleeding. But yet Angel touched her so gently, as if she might break like a china doll. Although that sort of thing was always nice, she had other things on her mind.

 “Shouldn’t Giles be back by now?” she asked worriedly.

 Angel was taken by surprise by the question. Giles hadn’t even crossed his mind for the past…well, forty minutes. And the Watcher had left over an hour ago. Now that he thought about it, Giles should have been back by now, preferably with the new Slayer. As much as he hated to admit it, he was thinking that he should go looking for them.

 “You stay here, Willow,” he said as he kissed her softly on her forehead, “I’m going to go look for Giles, make sure he’s not in trouble.” He got up from his position on the bed and left. He was all the way downstairs and opening the door before he realized he was being followed.

 He sighed heavily. “Willow, you can’t come. It’s too dangerous.” He turned to face her, trying to coax her into staying where it was safe.

 She was giving him puppy dog eyes. Oh, Goddess, she was giving him puppy dog eyes. He felt his resolve melt into a soupy puddle of non-resolve-type stuff, and drooped his shoulders. “Okay, you can come along.”

 Content with her powers of persuasion, Willow grabbed her jacket and a crossbow, and the two accursed lovers set off into the night.

***
Rupert Giles gently set the unconscious Amber Lee onto a cot in the library. *Why is it*, he thought, *that none of my first impressions are ever good?*
 
He leaned down and took her pulse, just to be sure. She was alive and breathing. Now he had to wait for Amber Lee to wake up.

 Amber Lee Williams. Even now, her unzipped jacket revealed the Coven birthmark. Her flaming red hair was the same shade as Willow’s. He knew from the Council’s records that this girl had moved to Sunnydale just two weeks before.

 At least he now had Buffy around, and sane, to train and guide this new girl. Giles didn’t know if he would survive the both of them at once, though. He went into his office to check his records, and tried to wait for Amber Lee to wake up to her destiny.

***

 Visions took turns floating in her mind. The cemetery at night…Jack holding her…Jack growling at her…Jack running away…a repressed memory from long ago made itself known. A picture of her older brother, his face contorted, coming in for the kill…

 “NO!!!” she screamed as she bolted upright in the cot. “STEPHAN!” And she blacked out again.

***

 A terrified scream echoed through the musty library. Giles came running from his office to Amber Lee’s side. He came in time for her to shout a name and black out.

 Slumped in the cot again, she looked rather peaceful. A sixteen-year-old girl who had been up too late. A child in need of a mother’s hug.

 Giles sat down next to the sleeping Amber Lee. Deep in thought, he stroked her fire-red hair absently. Another Slayer had been chosen to replace Faith. She had a huge responsibility to accept and train into. He felt badly for her, that she had so little choice in what she would do for, most likely, the rest of her life.

 As he sat there, smoothing down her tousled red hair, the door to the library flew open with a loud bang. Giles whirled around to see Angel and Willow race into the library, weapons handy.

 Giles stood defensively in front of the sleeping girl, trying to block her from any harm that could possibly come to her. Then he realized who had just come in, and relaxed a bit.

 Willow spoke first. “We heard a scream while we were looking for you. What happened?” she said worriedly. She took a step towards the librarian.

 Finally, Giles managed to compose himself enough to sit down. “It…was nothing, r-really,” he managed to stutter out. “The new Slayer…she, she was h-having a sort of, of, nightmare, and she, well, cried out.”

 Angel nodded, accepting the explanation. But Willow was still taking in the situation. In Willow’s opinion, Giles was a mess. His hair was matted, his glasses were foggy, and his shirt was ruffled. And when she saw the still body on a cot nearby, she leapt to conclusions.

 “Giles!” she yelped, shocked immensely. Dropping her bag on the desk, she ran to the girl’s side to get a better look at the girl.

 Surprise flooded Giles’ face as he realized what her mind had immediately leapt to. “Willow, no, it’s a long story, really…” His face was flushed from the toil of watching over the Slayer. And from worrying about his other Slayer. Two Slayers, one Watcher.

 They were going to kill him.

 “Oh.” Willow’s soft voice cut through the now-tense air like a sharp implement. “I’m sorry, Giles…” She blushed immensely. “I, er, my, my mind has been on quite a different track lately…” She glanced over at Angel and her face proceeded to match the color of her hair. “I see now. You two ran into vampires.”

 Angel walked over to Willow quietly, and kneeled down next to her. Wrapping a reassuring arm around her shoulders, he soothed her into returning to her normal skin color. Giles was polite enough to look aside, pretending to be interested in the peeling paint on the walls.

 Finally, Willow spoke up again. “Giles? Can we stay here tonight? I…well, I wanna do some research, sorta, and I’d like to be around when she wakes up. Is that okay?”

 Giles nodded absently, and Willow went off into the stacks to look for a book. Angel, however, had had a thought come to mind, and wanted to think it through. Going to a calendar, he retraced all the steps that they had taken since they had first learned of the curse.

 He nearly fainted dead away when he finally figured it out. The clock now read 2:46am. Only two days ago he had been sitting in Willow’s room, listening to her cry about her cruel parents. Less than 48 hours ago he had learned of the curse. Only a day ago, he and Willow had met in the library for their secret rendezvous. And only a little more than 12 hours ago, Willow had skipped school to see him at the mansion.

 And the whole time, it had felt like weeks, even months. He wondered if this was how they were going to live their lives…er, and unlives…from then on. Day to day, hour to hour, minute to minute. That’s when he remembered the second part of the curse.

 That’s when he began to swear profusely.


Part 10     Index     Part 12