Hi-ya folks...hope all is well...update now...
PART 11
Isabella balanced a tray with two cups of coffee and a bag of muffins and fruit as she pressed the elevator button.She visited most mornings just so she could get her boss to eat something healthy at least once a day.The redhead mostly ate delivery food or skipped meals entirely and it alarmed the ultra health minded woman enough to slip in an apple or orange whenever she got the chance.
Just as the elevator stopped on the third floor she heard a yell.
“Damnit Willow, what the hell is wrong with you?”
It was a question tinged with anger.Isabella hated loud arguments…she had been around too many in her life.She reached into her purse and wrapped her hands around an object of protection.
“Did you come to see what’s left?Get the final victory?”
Her boss sounded cold, empty, and maybe even a little scared.Isabella put the food down and fully pulled out her gun.It was a Sunnydale style gun…as in it looked real but was filled with holy water.But the visitor currently with Willow, and she had a good idea who that was, wouldn’t know that from a distance.She took a breath, putting the gun close to her side.
The doors quietly opened and she saw a fearful scene.
Willow was collapsed in front of the sofa, her body limp and resting at an odd angle.The blonde was standing a few feet away – frantic yet cautious.As if she was afraid to get too close.She saw a small necklace, one she recognized as her boss’s protection amulet being guided by a levitation spell.It landed in the empty hand of the redhead.Tara was continuously whispering something Isabella couldn’t quite make out until she got closer.
“Willow, wake up.”
A creak in the wood flooring caused Tara to glance in her direction.Her blue eyes went wide as she stepped back with her hands in the air.
The brunette suddenly realized that was pointing the gun.She hadn’t been aware of lifting and aiming it.She was still confused but something about the demeanor of this woman, that same gentle soul she recognized yesterday, told her to put down the weapon.She followed her instinct and let go of the holy water side arm.
“Please check her…make sure she’s okay,” the blonde asked helplessly.
Isabella nodded and went to check vitals.It was a little too deja vu for her taste, after all she had just done the same for Tara hours before.Her pulse and breathing seemed normal though her boss was still unconscious.
“She’ll be fine,” the assistant said as she positioned the woman more naturally.
“She c-can’t let g-go of that charm,” Tara said in a rush, afraid it would fall out if the taller woman jostled her hand too much.
“Well, why don’t I put that back on then,” Isabella offered as she lifted Willow’s hand to her own neck and placed the charm there, keeping it in bodily contact the whole time.As soon as she affixed it to her neck she met the blonde’s eyes.
“Why don’t you tell me why this was off?” she questioned with a raised eyebrow.
“S-she took it off…I would never d-do that to her.Oh, Goddess what have I done?How did this happen?”It was the last coherent sentence as the blonde heavily fell back into the chair and sobbed into her hands.
Isabella sighed and saw to dragging Willow onto the couch and covering her with a throw blanket.Tara had yet to calm down.
“Hospital…we’ve…”
Isabella cut her off.“Boss wouldn’t want that.She’ll come around…she always does.”
“This has happened before?”
“Not quite this…but let’s just say we had our fair share of strange happenings.”
It was dimly lit in the alley behind the club…but it was clean and fairly quiet, which was a marked difference from L.A. Isabella had just moved to Sunnydale from that superficial hellhole.What she didn’t know was that Sunnydale was a hell all its own.
When the ‘man’ approached her and used a cheesy come on line, she rolled her eyes and kept moving towards her car.When the man further approached her, she turned, sprayed him with mace, kneed him in the valuables, and made a run for it.He was barely swayed.When he grabbed her and morphed into a bumpy thing, she screamed like a regular b-movie heroine.Someone answered her call.
“Incindere,” the redhead spoke.A massive wall of flames erupted from her hands..the vampire disintigrated into dust and the wall of the building behind them was scorched solid black.Yet Isabella was unharmed…she seemed to be encased in a watery protective sphere.
As the sphere shimmered away, Willow stared at her hands and mumbled, “But nothing has happened in so long…”She then collapsed to the ground.
“I remember trying to take her to the hospital and she murmured that they couldn’t fix the magick.I thought she was a nut job.But then after seeing all that stuff, I kind of thought I was going crazy too.I took her to my apartment and she woke up the next morning on my couch.”
“Was it gray then too…after she channeled that?” asked distractedly.
“What?” Isabella responded curiously.
“Her aura?”Tara knew what the gray meant.It meant bare essence…nearly the lowest feasible amount of life energy a person can sustain on.
“Oh…I don’t know, I don’t have any hocus pocus powers,” the brunette shrugged.
Tara stared at the floor.
It’s not that Willow doesn’t have power…it's that there is an imbalance in our connection.If we can figure out how this happened, we could rebalance the energies and sever the connection.The only way to sever it would be with a joint spell…and she couldn’t find me before.Hmm...she was always stronger then me so why didn’t she just take back her power?Tara deflated in realization.
She knew it would hurt me.“I should g-go…I shouldn’t be near her,” Tara said as she stood and began backing towards the elevator.
Isabella met the frightened witch’s actions and clasped their hands together.
“In all the time I’ve known that woman I have gained a little perspective about her.She is the most intense, hard working soul I have ever met.She is private and full of resolve…so generous despite her problems.She keeps Buffy financially afloat so she can be the slayer, she lines up all the contract work she can for the construction company Xander works for so he can be successful and independent, and she keeps track of Dawn’s report cards and occasionally lines up tutors.Not to mention what she’s done for me.Now I may disagree with her methods and her imposed isolation, but she believes it to be necessary, so I trust her judgement.And I know she had to have let you in, considering all this security, so I’ll trust her judgement again until she tells me otherwise.You’re welcome to stay until she wakes up.”
Tara had to fight the trigger that told her to run.The instinct that’s been telling her to run all her life.From her kin. From the demon.From every town the last three years.From Willow.
She sat back down with a stronger sense of purpose.
She was going to stay and fight this time.
When I'm sitting here with you, I don't even think about the slime people.
~The
very romantic lead in
The Slime People (1962)Altered ShadowsEdited by: hermitfish at: 2/15/05 11:15 am
My face was stuck in 
<------ that position for a whole 24 hours after reading your last update. I didn't know if my face would ever be the same again... You are amazing with the plot. I love Twists. I can't wait to see where you are going to take this story. It's my favorite! 
-Cameron
)
MMHHBUAaaaaaaa Poor Willow (What a scare when she was found out cold, you give me) , With that "gray" aura 
sorry about that. 
it was still so wonderful....
(love those eufemism and soooo understand how the situation is) 
It will be cool when they found out.
*soft sigh* okay.... I can wait a little longer.... if I must... 
