Discovery

Chapter 41

Willow sat quietly in the school library, tapping her pencil lightly on her school books as she thought about the attack that had placed her in a coma and brought her father... her biological father racing to her side. Eleven months had passed since that fateful day and as much as Willow wanted to be able to say that things had gotten better, she couldn't.

All right, that wasn't entirely true. Angel was back to normal now... well, as normal as anyone could be after they had killed the girlfriend of their girlfriend's mentor and terrorized the same girlfriend and her friends for four months and then being sent into a hell dimension. It was still Angel, though, and that was at least an improvement on the previous year.

That Christmas, Willow had borrowed a family tree that her great-grandmother had put together before her death and after a bit of research, she had discovered that she and Angel were related. When he was still human, Angel had slept with a local eighteen-year-old maid. Shortly after Angel had been turned, she'd given birth to a son named Liam. Angel had confirmed the story, remembering the maid's name and when they had been together. The child, Liam, had carried Angel's bloodline on until it reached the Booth clan.

Angel had been thrilled, hugging Willow when he found out that he was her great-great-great-great-grandfather (or something like that). It meant that, when they were patrolling, Angel was even more watchful over her than he had been previously. Giles had polished his glasses furiously when he'd found out, finally asking her if it had been a good idea to tell Angel, should Angelus return and go after her. Thankfully, Buffy had been there at the time to smack Giles in the arm on Willow's behalf.

Spike and Dru were gone as well, although Spike had put in an appearance about a month ago. Willow shuddered at the memory of Spike's cold fingers on her face as he talked to her... the broken way he'd sobbed into her shoulder as he recalled Drusilla's betrayal. Willow had actually felt sorry for him... she still did, despite Xander and Buffy reminding her that he was a soulless monster who had killed two Slayers and still very much wanted Buffy to be the third.

Instead of Angelus, Drusilla and Spike, now there was the Mayor and Faith... the dark-haired Slayer who Willow had not felt right about from day one. At first, Willow had put the feeling down to her being jealous of Buffy having a new friend but then Faith had shown her true colors and Willow had felt as if she'd expected Faith to turn all along.

Of course, that hadn't stopped her from being terrified when Faith had held that knife to her throat. Willow had been convinced that she would die right then at the hands of the Slayer. She'd begun to prepare herself for death, even as she plotted her escape, and couldn't believe her luck when she'd managed to get those pages out of the book, giving Giles the information he needed.

Now they knew what they were up against... with the Ascension of the Mayor to demonic status that was slated to occur during their fast-approaching graduation ceremony and, despite Buffy's assurances that everything would work out... because it always did, Willow wasn't looking forward to it.

"Heads up, Snyder's coming," Oz said quietly from beside her, having spotted the principal approaching the library through the windows in the library doors. Buffy and Xander both hid the thick books they were flicking through beneath their school textbooks as Giles stuffed the crossbow he had been cleaning under the librarian's desk. Willow looked up innocently when the door burst open and Snyder strutted in, as if he owned the place (which, technically speaking, he did but Willow wasn't going to go into that).

"Ah, Principal Snyder, what can we do for you today?" Giles asked in a deceptively calm voice. Snyder huffed.

"I need to borrow Rosenberg for the moment, Mr. Giles. I do hope you don't mind." Snyder spoke with a voice thick with sarcasm.