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Title: Dimension Dementia
Part: 5
Author: SallyMcFine
Feedback: I love feedback. Bring it on!
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All disclaimers apply
Thanks: To my beta, Mrs. McFine, for her editing and storyline skills that are out of this world.
Setting: AU/canon crossover
Summary: What happens when a shy, introverted girl is torn away from her world and deposited into a dimension full of vampires, demons, and…a girlfriend?
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Part 5 - Alive
Xander stood kerflummoxed before the sobbing Willow. "What did I do?" he asked Tara with a gesture of appeal.
Tara sprang up from the couch and went to Willow's side, putting an arm around the shaking girl's shoulders. "Here, it's okay," she said soothingly, leading Willow over to the couch and snagging the box of tissues. "Xander, Anya, why don't two sit down. We need to bring you up to speed on something that's happened."
Tara took Willow's previous seat in the wing chair, and she and Giles proceeded to fill in Xander and Anya on their theory that Willow was from a parallel universe. While they talked, Willow sat perfectly still, staring at Xander as if she couldn't believe he was really there.
"So," Tara said, "right before you guys got here, Willow was telling us about how her best friend had died in eighth grade." She said this gently, as if not wanting to upset either Willow...or Xander.
Understanding dawned on Xander. "Oh. Wow. I, uh..." he turned to Willow. "Me?"
She nodded.
"Wow," he said again. "How did it happen?"
"You and your parents were driving home after a day at the beach. They had been drinking all day and stopped at a bar on the way home. Then on the interstate they apparently fell asleep at the wheel and the car went across the median. A tractor-trailer hit your car head-on. They said you all died instantly." Willow looked down at her hands as she recounted this story with difficulty.
Xander swallowed. "I remember that night," he said.
"You do?"
"Yeah," he replied. "My parents were out of their minds that night. Close to passing out after they came out of that bar. I made them get in the back seat and I drove home. I guess it was a good decision. I was only thirteen."
Willow looked at him as if she still couldn't believe he was really there. "So you and me - your Willow - are still friends, then?"
"Totally," he said.
"What else is different in your world?" Anya directed her question to Willow. "Are you..."
"Let's not overwhelm Willow with a lot of questions just yet," Giles interrupted. "We still need to figure out where our Willow went and how to get her back."
"Oh, that's right!" Anya said. "You must be out of your mind with worry," she said sympathetically to Tara.
Tara gave her a strained smile.
"How are you guys going to figure out where the other me went?" asked Willow. "Are you a bunch of physicists?"
"Not exactly," Giles said.
"Then how are you going to switch me back?" Willow asked.
"Magic," Buffy said.
Giles cleared his throat. "Why don't I make another pot of tea, and everyone, why don't you all refill your beverages. This is going to be a long conversation, Willow. We have some things to tell you about how this world is...different from yours."
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Willow sat on the couch and looked at Giles with an expression of frank disbelief. Giles had spoken for about thirty minutes, telling her about Sunnydale, the Hellmouth, Buffy as the Slayer, vampires, magic - with frequent interruptions from the rest of the Scooby gang to clarify some points that he made.
"You guys must really think I'm gullible," she finally said.
"Willow..." Tara said.
"No," Willow cut her off "something has been strange about this the whole thing. I don't know why you all want to play this sick practical joke on me, or why you're going along with it, Buffy. But the things you're saying - they're impossible."
"If you could accept the concept of parallel universes, Willow, then why not magic?" Giles asked.
"Because magic defies the law of physics," Willow said. "I don't know much about quantum theory, but I have heard that alternate realities are at least possible. But vampires and magic - that's all kid stuff."
"But magic is so much of who you are in this world, Will," Buffy said. "That's why you were out all night - you were trying to find a spell that could help me figure out this...weird thing that happened to me recently."
"So Willow was at the Magic Box all night?" Giles asked. "Certainly Buffy's experience with her personal timeline being tampered with was odd, but it hardly seems like an all-night research event was called for. I hope I didn't give her the impression that I expected her to stay up all night when I asked her to look into it."
"Especially not at the Magic Box," Anya piped up. "She could be using the stock without paying for it. She has that hippie Wicca communal property philosophy, and don't think I haven't noticed how the hellebore mysteriously disappears when she's around."
Tara pursed her lips with a hint of irritation. "She's been like a machine ever since - well, you know," she said, with a glance at Buffy. "She promised it would only be book research - she said that having everyone around distracted her, and that's why she wanted the Magic Box to herself. But this makes me wonder if she was trying out some spells too."
"Timelines, dimensions - I suppose it's possible," said Giles with a shake of his head. "Extremely ill-advised, but unfortunately, maybe even probable."
"Hold on," Willow said. "None of what you're talking about is even possible."
"Of course it is." said Anya. "There's more on heaven and earth, Horatio, than is dreamt of in your philosophy."
"And I'm supposed to believe that you're a Shakespeare-quoting demon?" Willow said hotly, rounding on Anya.
Anya shrugged. "I knew him well - there were quite a few women he trifled with. I gave him boils, hallucinations, you name it. Of course, he turned every one of my vengeance scenarios into a play. You know Hamlet? It wouldn't have been written if William's mistress Margaret hadn't wished that he'd see a banshee and think he was dying."
Willow didn't reply, but snorted and pursed her lips in a thin line as she sat back and crossed her arms on her chest.
Giles looked over at Tara. "Tara, would you..."
Tara hesitated, then nodded. She closed her eyes momentarily as if to gather herself, and then settled her gaze on the coffee cup on the table. She murmured a couple of words of what sounded to Willow like Latin, although she couldn't make it out. Slowly, the cup rose in the air, trembling, but the tremors stopped as her eyes became more unfocused and took on a far-away expression. The mug tilted as if on an invisible axis, but no coffee spilled - it stayed in the mug as if it were solid and not liquid.
Willow sat still on the couch, her eyes as round as saucers. She blinked a couple of times as her brain tried to process what her eyes were seeing.
Tara exhaled and the coffee cup lowered slowly back down to the coffee table.
Willow looked at her. "Are you telekinetic?"
Tara shook her head. "No. I made it move with a simple floating spell. Telekinetics don't need magic to move objects."
Willow picked up the coffee cup and inspected it, running her fingers along the rim. After she was satisfied that there were no unseen wires attached to the mug, she put it back down.
Buffy watched her helpless expression with sympathy. "Willow, I know how overwhelming all of this must seem. We could show you a lot of stuff like this - Tara could do more magic, Giles could conjure up a demon, and after dark, I could take you to the cemetery and show you some things that would give you nightmares for a week. I know that it seems impossible and we probably seem like we're a bunch of nut jobs playing a practical joke on you. I felt like that too when I first found out that I was the Slayer."
Willow didn't respond, but didn't look away, either. Encouraged, Buffy continued.
"But the thing is, everyone here knows a Willow who is very much like you, and we love her. And you have people in your world who love you and want you back. We want to get our Willow back as much as you probably want to get home. So as crazy as all this seems, can you trust us? At least for a little while?"
Willow hesitated, and finally nodded.
Tara let out a breath that she didn't know she had been holding.
"Good," Giles said. "Let's get to work with the research. Tara, I'll need you to help me perform a locater spell - that will give us a hint as to whether our Willow is still in this dimension, or not. Anya, please look into magical spells that deal with inter-dimensional travel. Buffy, we'll need to know what books Willow used in her research last night - she's been sloppy lately, so I'm sure the books are still strewn all over the table at the Magic Box. And Xander, we're going to need someone to read up on quantum physics."
Xander looked doubtfully at Giles. "I don't think I'm really the person for that."
"Yes, yes, Willow would be - can you give him a hand, Willow? Even if physics isn't one of your specialties, you likely have an aptitude for it."
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As it turned out, Willow didn't have much of an aptitude for quantum physics after all. She was just as puzzled by the textbooks and information on the internet as Xander was. To be fair, though, she wasn't really concentrating on the words that were on the page in front of her. Sitting next to Xander was a little overwhelming.
For most of her life, up until eighth grade, Xander had been her best friend, confidant, and constant companion. His home life had always been chaotic, but it hadn't seemed to affect him, or at least not outwardly - he didn't seem to carry the trauma around with him. But his parents' inattention and the occasional ruckus at the Harris home meant that he spent as much time as he could out of his house. Willow's parents, aware of his home situation, were more lenient with allowing him to spend the night than they might have been with another male friend, especially as the two children got older.
Her parents also seemed glad that Willow, an only child, had managed to form such a strong bond with someone else her age. She didn't have a lot of other friends - she was shy by nature and seemed to spend a lot of time with her imagination for company. But Xander could always tap into a fun-loving facet of her personality and help her see the silly side of life, not to mention getting her nose from out of a book to accompany him on various escapades around town.
His death, so sudden and final, had shattered her. It had sent her into a deep depression that lasted for most of the summer. Her parents had been very worried, and had sent her to see a therapist, took her to Xander's funeral, and encouraged her to grieve, but nothing had helped. She spent most of her time in her room, sleeping or staring blankly into space. She had shoved aside her grief, and the effort of keeping the emotions at bay exhausted her, leaving little energy for anything else.
Until high school, when she met Buffy. Buffy had been shellshocked by her move from Los Angeles to the much smaller town of Sunnydale, and had been determined to walk the straight and narrow in her new school. She had latched onto Willow, a studious and quiet person at the best of times, with a fervor that would have been alarming if Willow had not been so lonely and desperate herself. Over the next four years, their fast friendship was gradually cemented. They had found each other at needy times in their lives, and after the need had ebbed, they had discovered that they actually liked each other.
When Buffy's mother had died of complications from a brain tumor their senior year of high school, the Rosenbergs had taken her in as if she were their own daughter. Willow's support and refusal to give up on drawing Buffy out of her grief was the only thing that prevented Buffy from going off the deep end - and on the other side of that experience, their bond was stronger than if they had been sisters. They roomed together at college, sharing an apartment, spending holidays together, and confiding details about all of their different boyfriends - all of Buffy's boyfriends, anyway. Willow had only dated Danny, and that had ended badly.
She surreptitiously glanced around the room at Buffy. Buffy definitely seemed different, and that, more than anything, was what was beginning to convince her that the crazy things the group had talked about were true. Floating coffee mugs aside, she knew Buffy better than she knew herself - and this Buffy was different.
It was subtle. There was an air of confidence about her that Willow identified as out of place. Her Buffy always seemed a little on edge - very aware of what was going on around her, and of other people's reactions to her. She was always concerned about her appearance, often tucking her hair behind her ear or smoothing it down, tugging her shirt up or down, yanking at her socks - constantly fidgeting, in other words.
This Buffy didn't do any of those things. After returning from her errand to find the books Willow had used last night, she had been studying them ever since. She sat lazily in the armchair, one leg slung over the armrest, her hair mussed from slouching. She was absorbed in the book, Beebo's something - Willow wasn't sure - her only concession to her hair being to blow at an errant lock that was in her eyes. Her bra strap had fallen down over her shoulder from beneath the camisole she wore, and had remained there since it had fallen.
But it wasn't just the lack of fidgeting. It was something else, too. An aura of competence seemed to permeate the air around her. Willow's Buffy was forever second-guessing herself, panicking, and overreacting. This Buffy hadn't done anything like that. She was fun-loving and irreverent, to be sure - her making fun of Giles behind his back had shown that - but there was also a gravity about her that Willow found fascinating.
Buffy closed the book with a thump, and sat up. "Giles, there's nothing in this book that deals with time travel or whatever. It's all about demons."
Giles looked up from the volume he had been poring over. "Not time travel, Buffy. Inter-dimensional travel."
"Whatever. There's nothing about any of that - it just looks like a yearbook from Demonvale High School. Just lots of descriptions about how dangerous they are, how they fight, and pictures of their ugly mugs."
Anya looked up. "Hey! Not all demons are bad, you know."
"These ones are. It's like the juvenile delinquent roster of demons."
At that moment Xander's stomach let out a loud growl.
"Speaking of demons," he said, standing up from the couch, "it's way past lunchtime. G-man, do you have anything here to eat?"
"There's some leftover steak and kidney pie in the refrigerator, if you're hungry, Xander. Or Marmite and toast." Giles replied.
Xander's expression made Willow want to giggle. Even six years later in a different dimension, he was so similar to the friend she remembered.
"I think I prefer hunger to British food," he muttered.
Buffy glanced at her watch. "Speaking of it being way past lunch, it's almost time for me to go pick up Dawn from school, and I think I'll head home after that."
"Will you be patrolling tonight?" Giles asked.
She nodded. "I don't think I can afford not to, with all the demon activity lately."
Giles nodded. "Could I have a word with you in the other room?" Buffy nodded and followed him out of the living room.
"Who is Dawn?" Willow asked.
"She's Buffy's sister," Tara said. "Her little sister." She took in Willow's surprised expression and said, "She d-doesn't have a sister in your world, does she?"
Willow shook her head.
Buffy and Giles returned, and she exchanged looks with Tara. Some unspoken agreement seemed to pass between them, and Tara stood up. They both looked hesitatingly at Willow.
"Will, where do you live in your dimension?" Buffy asked.
"Um…with you," Willow replied, realizing that Buffy was about to leave and feeling her internal panic rise again. "We rent an apartment together."
"Well, some things are still the same here," Buffy said. "You and I still live together, but at my house, not an apartment. Tara lives there too, and Dawn. We're one big happy family. So I was thinking, since we haven't figured out any answers yet about what happened or how to get you back, maybe it would be best if you came home with me and Tara for now."
Willow nodded and stood up, grateful that she wasn't going to be abandoned, although she did feel a pang of regret that she would be leaving Xander. They hadn't had much of a chance to talk, and she had so many questions about what his life had been like during the last six years.
As if on cue, Xander spoke up. "Why don't An and I swing by around dinnertime? We can bring over a pizza - I'm guessing that nobody really feels like cooking tonight."
Buffy nodded. "Sounds good."
Anya watched the conversation with interest. "We'll keep researching. Are you going to have Willow sleep in the room with Tara, or on the couch?"
Giles winced. "Anya…"
Willow raised her eyebrows and looked at Tara. "We're roommates?"
Tara started to speak, but Anya beat her to it. "Yes - and lesbian lovers, too." She said it directly, not trailing off or whispering as everyone else had been doing all day.
Willow felt the bottom drop out of her stomach.
Did she just say lesbian lovers?
"Anya!" Giles said. He rubbed his forehead.
"What?" she said, blase'. "She was going to find out sooner or later - and it's better if you don't keep things from people."
"An, honey, remember when we talked about appropriate moments?" Xander said.
"There's really no appropriate moment for major life revelations when you've been snatched out of your dimension, Xander. I think I know a little more about this than you do. Eleven hundred years old, remember?"
As Xander and Anya continued to bicker, Willow didn't know what to do. She couldn't look at Buffy, or Tara for that matter.
I'm a lesbian? What kind of weird dimension is this? And…with Tara? That must be why she kissed me earlier. Oh my god. Is she going to want to… Willow didn't finish the thought. She pressed her fingers to her temples.
Buffy came to her rescue again. "Will, I know you have a lot to process. Let's get going - we can talk in the car."
Willow allowed herself to be led out the door, blushing crimson as she passed Tara, who silently held the door open.
As the door closed behind them, she heard Giles interrupt the bickering couple. "Anya, Xander - can you put this aside for the time being and concentrate on the problem at hand?"
Take care
by viximon » Wed Jul 12, 2006 12:43 am 
It must be painfull to Tara to see Willow in dispair and not being able to console or hold her 
.
)
and then the other Willow comes back all annoyed because Tara's been kissing on another Willow... (Okay... I just realized that I said 'Willow' at least 40 times in that paragraph... )
Sally,
Akyire
