Bright and early the next morning, Willow was sitting in the loft of the Magic Box with a cup of coffee and a thousand spell books to occupy her time.
“Looking for anything specific?” Giles asked her, climbing up the ladder and standing in front of her.
Willow shook her head. “Not really. Maybe a spell to help Dawn and Buffy, but I don’t think it exists. I’ve already gone through what seems like a million books, and there isn’t anything that would help us at all. If you need something killed, we have the spell for that, but saving someone doesn’t seem to be important to these people.”
Willow closed the book she had been reading and tossed it into a large pile next to her.
Giles sighed, and patted her shoulder as they both stared down at the floor sadly.
“We’ll get through this,” Giles said, stepping back down onto the top rung of the ladder as two customers entered the shop below them.
“I promise.”
Willow nodded as he climbed down trying to keep her brave face on, but as soon as Giles’s head was out of view, she began crying again and picked up another book.
She had to find something in one of these dusty tomes…
She grasped a tiny, moldy volume, and from the picture on the cover, assumed it had something to do with vampires.
She shrugged and began to flip through it, and was about to toss it down, when a small, tiny paragraph of text caught her eye.
She had discovered a gold mine.
Willow put most of the spell books away, and began to search for new ones that were vampire specific. By mid afternoon, she was certain she had come up with a way to save Dawn, but she had to convince several people that she was capable of doing the spell, and one person to allow her to do it to them.
She put the books into the backpack she always carried, and climbed to the lower level of the shop, where Anya and Giles were busy with several customers.
“Meet me tonight at Buffy’s house,” she called to Giles, who nodded and went back to his sale of three jars of potent orc blood.
Willow walked out into the quiet, Sunnydale street, and began to make a list of supplies she’d need for the spell.
She would save Dawn, even if it meant her own undoing.
“Ok, I just checked on Dawn,” Buffy said, coming into the dining room, where the Scoobie Gang, Giles, Xander, Willow, Anya, and Tara, were seated around the table, munching on chips and pretzels.
“Spike’s upstairs, keeping an eye on her. She seems to be clinging to him for some reason, you should have seen her last night. She got hysterical when he brought her back upstairs, and there really wasn’t any reason for it.
But anyway, what’s going on? Did you guys find something?”
Willow nodded, ignoring Tara’s evil glance.
“Well, yes and no,” Willow started carefully.
I didn’t find anything that would cure her, but I did find something else.
Dawn needs a kidney transplant, right?”
Buffy nodded, pulled out a chair between Tara and Anya, and sat down exhaustedly.
“Yes. It’s easy enough to come by, I think all of us would donate a kidney, if we could, but none of us have a matching blood type.
Apparently Dawnie’s blood type is one in ten million.”
Willow nodded and pulled out the first book on vampires she’d found.
“I know. I have a question, though, before I show you this.”
At Buffy’s nod, Willow continued, “How does Spike feel about helping Dawn?”
Surprised, Buffy looked at her oddly. “I think he’d die for her,” she said softly.
“Why?”
In a calm, clear voice, Willow began to read from the tiny book.
“’And an interesting side note, recent discoveries have led us to believe, that when a vampire feeds on his victims blood, his blood type changes to that of the victim, and remains such until the next time he feeds…’”
“What does that have to do with Dawn, though?” Xander asked, looking around at everyone at the table, confused.
Giles took his glasses off, and started polishing them.
“I believe Willow is implying that if Spike feeds on Dawn, his blood type will change to hers. But Willow, that’s all fine and good, but we can’t use Spike’s kidneys. You know that. He’s dead.”
Willow nodded again. “I know that, that’s why I found this.”
She flipped open the second book to a page in the middle, and handed it to the watcher.
“It’s a spell to temporarily reverse the vamping process. It’s kind of complicated, but I think I can pull it off.
I just need Spike, or Angel, I guess, to agree to this. I still don’t know if either of them would be willing, and I need Dawnie to agree to being fed off of.
We also have the problem of the chip, if Spike agrees.
“There’s also no guarantee that it will work, either. It still requires the surgery and all that.”
Giles smiled at her. “Yes, but it’s a damn good bit closer than we were before. Very good work, Willow, I didn’t really think you’d find anything of value up there, but I’m glad I was wrong.”
“I think we need to talk to Spike,” Buffy said, rising from the table and leaving the room.
Spike was sitting in Dawn’s dark room, watching the rise and fall of her chest as she slept, wishing there was something he could do for her.
He knew she was in pain, but he still couldn’t quite figure out why, and no one had told him anything, although he wasn’t surprised by that, and suspected Dawn didn’t know anything, either.
The door creaked open quietly, and he heard Buffy whisper his name.
“Spike, Willow and I need to talk to you for a minute,” she said as he came out into the hall, closing Dawn’s door behind him.
“Tara will be up in a few minutes to keep an eye on her, let’s go down to the living room.”
Spike shrugged and followed her down the stairs, passing Tara and Anya on their way up, who gave him small smiles.
The living room was empty except for Willow, and Buffy gestured for him to sit on the sofa next to her.
He did as she asked, and Buffy sat down on the coffee table directly across from them, leaning over and looking Spike in the eyes.
“Spike, you obviously know something’s wrong with Dawnie,” she started slowly, watching his face closely.
He nodded anxiously. “Yeah, it would be kind of hard not to, you know? What is it? Tell me.”
“She needs a kidney transplant, Spike, and she has an incredibly rare blood type. So rare, the doctors say there’s very little hope of finding a donor in time.”
“In time for what?” he asked, and she could see anxiousness and worry lace his face.
“Without a transplant, she’s going to die.” She had finally said it, and it was killing her.
She looked away so he couldn’t see the tears she couldn’t seem to stop crying.
She glanced back at him, stunned by the look on his face. His face, already pale, was ghostly white, and his blue eyes were wide in shock.
“I’m telling you this because we need your help,” Buffy started, but he interrupted her abruptly.
“No, I won’t do it, Buffy! I love her, and God, it’ll kill me, but I’m not going to turn her! I’m not going to curse her to this!” He cried, shaking his head vigorously from side to side.
Willow shook her head, smiling a little sadly. “That’s not what we’re asking,” she said gently, resting her hand on his knee.
He looked at her oddly. “It isn’t?”
“I, um, found a text this morning that says when vampires feed, their blood automatically changes to the type of the victim’s. I have no idea how the author of the book found that out, but apparently if you drink some of Dawn’s blood, and I do a spell on you that makes you human again, you can give Dawn one of your kidneys.
By the time the spell wears off, it won’t matter if you only have one, you’ll be a vampire.”
Buffy stared at the hardwood floor of the living room, and continued as Willow’s voice trailed off.
“I know this is a lot to ask of you, and you don’t have to answer us right away, but-“
“I’ll do it.” He interrupted firmly.
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