Coma: Chapter 2
by Wolfkin
Chapter 2

Buffy pales considerably, but stays on her feet. "Thank you," she manages, her voice only a little strained. "Someone will be there in a little while." She hangs up without waiting for a response. Turning, she finds Kennedy on her knees, Willow's head cradled in her lap. "How is she?"

The potential looks up, her fear plain on her face. "She won't wake up, Buffy! What was the call?" she looks back down at her girl. "Who was it?"

'Not ready to answer that,' Buffy thinks. "Help me get her to the sofa. She'll be more comfortable there, right?"

Kennedy only nods and stands back as the Slayer easily lifts her best friend and moves her to the living room couch. Once she's there, the Slayer-to-be fusses with pillows and a light blanket, trying to cover her worry as best she can. She's never seen anyone really faint and is unsure what to do.

Sitting down on the edge of the sofa, Kennedy takes Willow's hand in her own, willing her beautiful redhead to return to her. Her eyes suddenly slash back to the blonde standing looking over her shoulder. "You didn't answer me, Buffy. What was that call? Why did it cause her to faint?"

Buffy hesitates, then answers truthfully. "It was the hospital calling with an update on a friend's condition, that's all."

Kennedy looks back at Willow's still pale face and feels herself starting to get angry. "Must have been a really good friend. Who was it? I can't think of anyone you guys have introduced us to that it might be, so who?"

Again, the petite blonde hesitates. Sighing, she admits, "Apparently, it's Tara in there."

The brunette's face scrunches up in annoyance and confusion. "Tara? Tara, who?" The her face falls as the pieces tumble into place and her eyes open wide. "Tara?!? As in, her *dead* girlfriend, Tara? That Tara?" her voice rising in tone and volume as she speaks.

When Buffy doesn't answer immediately, Kennedy turns to look at her, but the Slayer looks away. "Buffy, I gotta know!" Kennedy pleads.

"Yes," the older girl answers simply. Buffy turns her head to look directly in the younger woman's eyes. "Yes, that Tara."

Kennedy looks back at Willow, her mind running faster than it's ever done before, the implications of this screaming through her thoughts. Her first thought, 'So? She's dead, or was. Willow moved on and is with me now.' is the Slayer in her, answering a challenge. Her second thought, though, causes her soul to die. 'If she is alive, then Willow belongs with her, not me. I can't stand in the way.', followed closely by the thought, 'Maybe she'll choose to stay with me.'

Her thoughts start racing, going through all the variations on those three ideas, until she thinks her head will explode. With a soft growl, she shakes her head violently, stilling her mind. 'Later,' she thinks. 'Willow needs me now.'

Willow, feels her mind waking up, though she doesn't remember laying down for a nap. Her eyes slowly open and the first thing she sees is Kennedy beautiful face peering anxiously at her. She smiles, thinking of how this gorgeous potential Slayer is all hers. 'My own personal Slayer!' she giggles internally.

Then, cruelly, her mind dredges up the phone call that caused her to faint. 'Tara?!? Alive?! No, I felt-she was- I held her and-she was gone- the gate guardian said she was- Her mental babble hits full stride in milliseconds, so she does the only thing she can think of to make it be quiet. Lunging up, she hugs herself to Kennedy fiercely, desperate to feel her strong arms around her, for her to make it better, like she has before.

Kennedy automatically returns the embrace, finding it as needed for her as for her witch. They sit, lost in each others arms for an endless time, measured in minutes by others. She feels her own mind quiet as she luxuriates in the sensations of Willow's body crushed to her own.

Far sooner than either girl really wants, Willow pulls back a bit, just enough for them to see each other. The redhead's eyes a full of tears, some of which have begun trailing down her cheeks. Kennedy reaches up and wipes them away without thought, then again as those are replaced with fresh liquid. "It-it was real, wasn't it?" She looks at her girl, desperate for an answer, though she honestly doesn't know which answer she wants. Her tears increase, beginning to flow steadily down her face. "Please, Kennedy, tell me it wasn't a dream!"

Kennedy looks away for a second, composing her face. Pulling her eyes back, she locks eyes with Willow. "I- No, it wasn't. Buffy talked to the hospital and they told her what I think they told you."

Willow's eyes gain a haunted look, then close as she collapses into Kennedy's chest, her body wracked with sobs. Kennedy holds her without giving it any thought, her hands stroking her back and hair, as she says soothing things in her ear.

As her hands and voice try to offer comfort, the brunette's mind is seething at the thought that this might be someone's idea of a joke. She remembers vividly Amy's little 'prank' and vows to herself and any deity who might be listening, if this is someone's idea of funny, then God, demon or human, she would personally rip them apart to show how amused she was.

The couple sits like this until Willow's sobs at last begin to taper off. Still curled into the potential's body and arms, Willow tries to say, "Kennedy, I-I..." She stops, her voice broken and pain filled. "I-I didn't... I couldn't... I-I"

"Shhhh!" the brunette says, pulling her a little closer for a second, then drawing back to be able to see into her girl's face. Reaching up, she places a finger on Willow's lips. "I know you didn't know." She touches their foreheads together. "One thing I have learned about you, even in the short time we've been together, you're a one woman kind of girl. I'm pretty sure you don't even know how to cheat, so not a worry, okay?"

She locks eyes with the redhead. "I know, I *know*, if this is true, you had no idea until 10 minutes ago."

Fresh tears leak as Willow shakes her head. "I didn't. I swear!"

Kennedy pulls her back into a hug, laying her cheek against Willow's. "I know. It's okay, we'll find out what's going on together."

Willow smiles a little at the word together, then notices Buffy for the first time. Pulling out of her girl's embrace, but staying wrapped in her arms, the witch looks up at her best friend. "Buffy, you talked to them? They told you Tara was in a coma?"

Buffy nods. "Well, they told me she woke up last night. I don't now any more than that, Will, but we'll find out, I promise." The blonde thinks back over the brief conversation for a second. "She asked for Giles at first, then left a message. He must know what's going on, though I can't figure out why he wouldn't tell us about something like this."

"He'll be back tonight?" Kennedy asks, frowning slightly.

Buffy nods, her mind distracted as she tries to understand why Giles wouldn't tell them their friend wasn't dead. "Or in the morning, yeah."

Willow sits up straighter, unconsciously pulling away from Kennedy a little. "Buffy, I can't wait until then! Can we go to the hospital? Now?" she looks at her best friend, eyes beginning to fill with tears again, "Please?" In her distress, she doesn't even see the hurt look that slides across the brunette's face as she moves away.

Buffy, however, does notice it and she see feels a surge of sympathy for the girl. "Maybe I should go alone, Will. See what's going on, you know?" She tries to get the witch to agree, hoping that the couple can talk things over before the inevitable confrontation. "I can call when I find out anything."

Buffy looks at Kennedy meaningfully, but, in her single-mindedness, the witch misses it entirely. "Please, Buffy!" she pleads. "I have to go, have to see for myself, if she-she..." Willow stops, her tears increasing slightly.

Kennedy watches, sadly, her heart cracking. 'This is what you get when you l-love someone, I guess.' The brunette has known for weeks she was in love with the redhead, deeply in love. It was a new feeling for her and she had been enjoying each new discovery, almost sure the other girl was feeling the same way, even if neither of them were ready yet to say the words out loud.

'Guess I don't have to worry about that now, huh?' She asks herself silently, not realizing how much of her thoughts were being portrayed on her face, how sad and nearly heartbroken she appeared.

The Slayer watches Kennedy, sees the emotions flitting across her tanned face. She forgets about Willow's impassioned plea, about Tara maybe being alive, about everything else as her heart goes out to the younger girl in front of her.

She can remember, just a few short weeks ago, Willow had confided in her, so excited, she was almost bouncing, that she and Kennedy had decided to make things official. 'She's really my girlfriend!' the witch had giddily told her.

Now, it seemed that the redhead had forgotten completely about this new girlfriend, even though she was still being held by her, still had her own hands loosely on the potentials waist. In that moment, the blonde forgave Kennedy for all the challenges and attitude she'd given her over the last few months.

Shaking her head slightly, the Slayer refocuses her attention on Willow. Trying to get her to let her handle this, that she really needed to stay here and talk to her girlfriend, Buffy says, "Uh, listen, Will, I think that..."

"It's okay, Buffy. I'll go with her," Kennedy interrupts. "We all kinda need to know what's up, so I got this." She tries for an indifferent, who gives a damn, tone, but misses it by so much, that even Willow notices.

Her expression showing horror and self-loathing, Willow mumbles, "Oh, Goddess!" She reaches up and cups the left side of Kennedy's face, gently pressing her hand to the girl's cheek. "Kennedy, I'm so sorry, I-I wasn't thinking! I-"

"No, you were thinking." Kennedy assures her. "Just not about me." Seeing the hurt, guilt-ridden look on Willow's face, she adds quickly, "It's okay, Will. I understand, I really do." She pulls away and stands, going over to the coats beside the door, returning with her own and Willow's favorite.

"Kennedy, I-"

"I said, it's okay, and I meant it." She offers the redhead her coat. "Come one. Let's go see what's going on, then we'll know if we have something to talk about."

As soon as Willow's hand closes on the jacket, Kennedy releases it and walks out the door, waiting on the porch for her and Buffy to catch up.

Willow watches her go, hears the door shut and feels her heart lurch and skip several beats. 'What have I done?' she thinks, frantically. Looking up at Buffy, she repeats the question aloud. "What have I done, Buffy? I just showed her she didn't matter to me!"

Buffy considers her options, whether to go for the comporting lie or get the truth out there, in the open, so it can be dealt with. "Yep, you did. You just told and showed your new 'girlfriend', the one you've been so crazy over, you've been walking into walls over for weeks, that she's just a face in the crowd when it comes to Tara."

At the witch's stricken look, the blonde nearly stops, but then thinks that maybe she should just get this over with. "Willow, you were sitting in her arms, her trying to comfort you and all you wanted to know was how fast you could get to the hospital. You completely ignored her." Buffy shakes her head. "She must love you, cause she's still here. I wouldn't be."

Willow turns tear filled eyes up to the Slayer and Buffy finally relents. "Come on. Kennedy's right about one thing. We can talk over what to do, once we know what's what." She holds her hand out to the redhead. " Let's go."

Arriving at the hospital, the three women enter and, after a brief argument with the volunteers at the information desk, find and enter the long term care ward. When the get to the nurse's station, it takes a moment to find someone to talk to, as per usual. Finally locating a nurse, they tell him about the earlier phone call and he checks.

"Yes, we do have a patient here named Tara Maclay, in room 417. Are you family?"

Buffy nods. "Yes, I'm her cousin. All of the rest of our family is back east. Could I talk to her doctor, then see her?"


"Let me check." Her flips through the computer for a moment, then smiles a little. "Yeah, her doctor is Doctor Patterson and she's still her. I'll page her. Would you like to wait or so see your cousin now?"

"We'll wait," the Slayer assures him, looking at Willow, making sure she'll stay there.

Willow moves over to Kennedy and takes the girl's hand, flinching when the potential looks down, patently considering whether to allow the touch. Visibly relieved when she allows it, Willow says, softly, "Sweetie, I'm so sorry for what happened at the house. I just wasn't- I mean, I l-... You mean so much to me, and I didn't mean to hurt you."

Kennedy looks at her then quickly looks away. "I told you to forget it. I mean it, Red, let's just drop it until we get back to the house, okay? I really don't want to talk right now." Her eyes start scanning in the inborn Slayer manner, looking for trouble, but Willow can tell, it's just an excuse. Sighing, she just stands with her, their hands still together.

At the sound of footsteps, all three turn around and see a mid-thirties strawberry blonde walking up. "Miss Maclay?" she asks, holding out her hand.

"Summers, actually," Buffy answers. "How's Tara?" At the doctor's glance, Buffy introduces Willow and Kennedy. "These are Tara's friends and you can speak plainly in front of them."

The doctor nods. "I'm Doctor Patterson, Would you all like to sit down? I can tell you a bit about what's going on here. From what I hear, you weren't expecting this news."

"Well, no," Buffy admits as they all sit on the nearby chairs. "We all thought Tara had died almost a year ago. We even had a funeral."

Doctor Patterson nods, understanding a few things now. "No, she's very much alive, though very weak, of course. You can all see her, for a few minutes, if you'd like."

"We would, but could you tell us first, how did this happen? We really don't understand."

The doctor sighs. "Well, I can only tell you some of it. I only took over her care about a month ago. Her previous doctor, Doctor Stevens quit then and left town with his family." She stops for a second, then resumes. "Well, anyway, as I understand it, Tara was brought in as a dead in the field case. When the attendant was preparing her body, he noticed she was still warm, even though the time of death was listed as several hours earlier, so he checked and found a very weak heartbeat, but no pulse in her wrist or throat. She'd lost too much blood for there to be one there by that point.

"He immediately got her back up to Emergency and after several units of blood and surgery, she was brought here in a coma. It seems the bullet entered her body and went through a rib on both sides, before exiting. It also punctured her lung and caused a fair amount of internal bleeding, all of which was corrected by the emergency surgery that followed."

She took a deep breath, then let it out in a sigh. "Anyway, she woke up last night and among the paperwork left with her was a request that, if that happened, we contact a Rupert Giles immediately. The rest, I believe you know."

Buffy looks at the doctor for a moment, trying to process it all. She really was alive. All Willow's grief and rage and madness was for nothing. Refocusing on the woman in front of her, she smiles slightly in gratitude. "Thank you, Doctor. What happens now?"

"Well," she says, sighing again, " for now, she's incredibly weak, because she hasn't used any of her muscles for months. That means physical therapy, probably a lot." She looks at her watch. "Considering the time, why don't we worry about that tomorrow and you can go check on your cousin for yourself right now?"

The Slayer smiled again, this time more genuinely. "Yeah, that would be good, Doctor. Anytime tomorrow, or just early?"

"Anytime before noon will work just fine, Miss Summers."

"Thank you. Room 417, right?" Buffy asks, her mind already skipping ahead to the conversation she and Giles are going to have when she sees him.

The doctor nods. "That's right. I'll see you tomorrow." She wanders off to the nurse's station.

Buffy looks back at her friends, taking in Willow's burgeoning joy and Kennedy's sinking expression. "Come on." She leads them to the indicated room and they look in.

The blonde witch lies there in her bed, her hair clean, but her skin so pale, it looks see-through. Her eyes are closed, but they can tell she's only dozing.

Before Buffy can do anything else, Willow rushes passed her and practically launches herself onto the bed. She hugs Tara as best she can and showers her face with kisses. The Slayer looks at Kennedy and reached down and takes the girl's hand, wincing at the crushing grip that's immediately applied.

Tara wakes with a start, then her eyes open wide when she sees who it is. At first, she's lost in the feeling of Willow being this close to her again, but them her most recent memory returns and she tries to push the redhead away. Finally succeeding, she looks at her and says, her voice weak, but clear, "Willow, what are you doing? You know we broke up, so why are you kissing me?"


AN There you guys go, part 2. Part 3 will be here as soon as I can, and should have the confrontation with Giles! Meanwhile, please keep up the reviews! They make my day and really do motivate me to write better and faster.

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