Title: Need
Author: velvet_midnight
Fandom: BtVS
Pairing/Character: Willow/Giles
Notes: written for 100_situations, table two. Prompt 010: Cry
Spoilers: middle of s6, Tabula Rasa & Wrecked
PS: there's going to be a ton more of these. 100_situations being a rather large number & whatnot. Just thought I'd let people know. =)
She cries at night, in the darkness. No-one knows; there's no-one who would know. Tara 's gone, Amy's gone, her magic…all gone. She feels empty, tired, always tired, and misses them more than they can ever know. They both left her, she thinks in the sweaty, shaky withdrawal nights.
They all leave me .
First Oz, now Tara and Giles. The difference is that Oz and Giles went where she could not follow. And somehow that hurts worse than seeing Tara around Sunnydale. She wants to prove to Tara that she can change, that she is changing. And they all tell her that Tara still loves her; is rooting for her. She has something, someone, to change for now.
The phone rings, loud in the silence. Willow rolls over—to Tara 's side—and picks it up.
“Hello?” she answers, voice husky, swallowing her tears.
“Willow?”
She sits straight up in bed, covers askew, damp hair swirling around her face.
“Giles?” she's breathless; he's caught her off-guard.
“Yes. Hello, Willow .” He sounds almost as happy as she feels.
“Hi! It's so good to hear from you.” She wonders briefly if she should be angry at him—, for chastising her use of magics, for leaving her, for leaving Buffy. But then she remembers all he's done for them and for her and she can't be angry. Not at Giles.
“It's good to hear you, too.” He's smiling; she can hear it. His voice is soft, soothing as ever.
There's a pause; they listen to each other breathing over the static.
“How are you?” she asks. Thinks she hears him sigh.
“I'm well, thank you.” But I miss you is evident by the way he stops himself suddenly. “And you?”
“I'm—I've given up magic.”
“Really?”
“Yeah. I, uh—Buffy didn't tell you what happened.”
A definite sigh. “Buffy doesn't want anything to do with me.”
“Oh. I'm sorry.”
“What happened, Willow ?” he asks it nicely, but there's a certain undercurrent of alarm.
“I had—there was an accident. With Dawn.”
“Is she alright?” Clear alarm.
“She'll be fine,” she says quickly. “But it…it was scary.”
“Are you alright?”
“I—no. It's—it's hard, Giles.”
“I know,” he says. She believes him. She starts to cry again.
“I need—I need help.” A pause; more tears. “I need you,” she finishes quietly.
The line cuts out; she cries herself to sleep.