Discovery

2. Chapter 2

Willow ran through the darkened streets of Sunnydale, fleeing everything she had ever known. Her parents, no, the Rosenbergs, had finally come back from their lecture tour, and Willow had asked them about the letter. Her mother had confessed it. She was adopted, and it had only because Shelia and Ira had both thought it would make them more credible in their fields of work if they had a child. Also, what better way to seem credible than to take in a child that otherwise be destined for eighteen years of hell in the foster system. Besides, what better way to put Shelia's child rearing theory to practice than to raise a child using those guidelines herself. Willow had actually snorted at that. She'd read all of her mother's book, and her notes. Shelia had followed her own child rearing theories to a tee, and as a result, Willow had effectively raised herself from the age of six. Willow's eyes had filled with tears at the words of the woman who she had admired and respected for as long as she could remember.
"No, you're wrong. I raised myself, I can't even remember the last time either of you were home for longer than a month. I needed you when Jessie died, but you never came. You never cared about me, only your own careers. You just left me here at Sunnydale, while you went off and travelled the world, telling me to be good, and to go to school and do all my work, and do well. I did everything you ever asked me to, and I got no recognition, no praise. I'm top of my year in every subject, I have been since Kindergarten. I have an average of an A plus in every subject I ever did, and you never cared. Not even a 'well done Willow' or a 'Great job' or even a, God forbid 'We're proud of you'"
"Willow," Ira had interrupted scoldingly; "Don't use the Lord's name in such a manner."
"I don't care," Willow sobbed, "Nothing I ever did was good enough for either of you. You never gave a damn, you never loved me for who I am, just what I meant for your precious jobs."
"Willow, stop it, you're being unreasonable. I understand this is a traumatic time in your life, but you will understand more when you get older." Shelia had said, her voice similar to one that she would use to speak to a child.
"Don't talk to me like that, I'm not a child anymore, I'm sixteen years old." Willow had cried "No, you're not, you're only fifteen."
"My birthday was three weeks ago, that is, even if it is my real birthday. I don't know what is real and what are lies anymore!" Willow sobbed, knowing that they'd forgotten. Xander and Buffy, and the rest of the Scoobies had remembered, even Cordelia.
"Willow, calm down, you're getting too upset" Shelia had ordered. Willow got to her feet angrily.
"I don't care anymore. Everything you've ever told me has been a lie. I hate you."
A stunned silence had filled the room after Willow's outburst. Shelia had a cold, hard look in her eyes. She got to her feet, and Willow suddenly felt small, compared to the older woman. Willow gulped, and Shelia swung back her hand and slapped Willow across the face, closely followed by a couple of equally hard slaps.
"Get...out...of...my...house...you...ungrateful...little...bitch." Every word was punctuated with a hard slap which was, admittedly, less hard than ones Buffy had used during her nightly fights against vampires, were still incredibly hard on Willow's soft skin. Willow had taken one last tearful look at Shelia's face, before turning her back and fleeing the house, not bothering to get her coat or a cross, or even a stake.
So she found herself running. Willow had never felt so shattered in her life. All along, she had only been a tool to further and enhance the careers of the ones who were supposed to love her.
Blood seeped from the cut on her lip Shelia's hard hands had given her, and her entire face was stinging. Willow knew she was going to come up with a spectacular black eye. How was he going to hide it from the others? No-one could ever know about what had happened at her house tonight. Buffy and Angel alone would probably go and do some serious damage, and that was after Xander would put some of his recently acquired military knowledge to good use and go after the Rosenberg couple. Willow paused at an intersection, chewing her bloodied lip worryingly, and making the wound worse. If she went one way, she would reach Buffy's, and would be able to spend the night there, or if she went the other way, she could avoid her friends, until school the next day, and spend the night alone.
Her decision made, Willow changed direction, and started running towards the woods, not noticing the dark figure trailing her, sniffing the air appreciatively.
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Willow froze as she heard the stick crack beneath her follower's foot, and cursed her stupidity. She should have gone to Buffy or Xander, or Giles, or even Cordelia or Angel, but instead, she had felt like going on a trip down memory lane, journeying into the woods to go and visit the fort that she and Xander had built in one of the trees. Technically, she had designed it, and Xander had done most of the hard work in constructing it, as Willow had found that she wasn't very adapt to construction work.
Now, though, she was certain she was being followed, and knowing Sunnydale, her follower probably wasn't human. Willow groaned when she realised that she had been bleeding, and that naturally, vampires would be drawn to the scent. Willow glanced around. She knew that she wouldn't make it to the fort, so she looked down and picked up a broken branch from the ground. She backed herself up against a tree, and peered out into the darkness, searching for the vampire, knowing that any of the spooky shadows that moved beneath the trees could be something that could kill her. She whimpered when she spotted the vampire. It was already in full vamp face, and Willow didn't recognise who it was. She gulped.
"Hello, my pretty, "the Vampire sneered, "What's a sweet thing like you doing out here all by yourself?"
"Just going for a walk" Willow nervously replied, holding her branch tightly. The vampire laughed.
"Just a walk, my pretty. I'll be sure to make sure it's the last moonlit walk you'll ever take" and with that, he lunged forward. Willow squealed and ducked down, raising her stick instinctively, squinting her eyes shut so she wouldn't be able to see the yellow fangs descending down into her neck. She tensed, waiting for the pain of the fangs piercing her skin, but it never came. Willow frowned, puzzled, and opened her eyes. The vampire was leaning forwards, his eyes wide open and surprised as he regarded the stick embedded in his chest, before he exploded into dust. Willow released the breath she hadn't realised she was holding, before she got shakily to her feet, and raced the rest of the way to the fort., a slight smiled on her face. She'd just killed her first vampire without having any help whatsoever. Despite her earlier distress, Willow felt very proud of herself.
Willow and Xander's fort was built into a large oak tree. The floor was nailed into the branches of the tree, and the rood was connected to the tree as well. Willow climbed up the ladder that Xander had hammered carefully into the tree trunk, testing each rung before she trusted her full weight on it. Eventually she reached the top of the ladder, and clambered into the fort itself. It was quite large, about three meters square. Willow smiled when she spotted her and Xander's old sleeping bags neatly rolled in one corner, and the little table with the lantern Xander had 'borrowed' from his parents garage. Her eyes flicked to one of the walls, where, just after Jessie had died, Willow and Xander had come here, and Willow had written Jessie's name, and his birth and death dates on one of the walls in permanent texta, as an eternal tribute to their fallen friend. Over the last summer, they had come here again, and Willow had written names on another wall, people who had helped in the fight against Vampires
Xander Harris
Willow Rosenberg
Buffy Summers
Rupert Giles
Angel
Willow considered the list; her head cocked to one side, before she picked up the old permanent texta from its space on top of the table, and pulled the lid off, before writing down another name.
Cordelia Chase
Xander would be happy with this sign of Willow's acceptance of his and Cordy's relationship. Cordelia had matured greatly since the summer, and the support the cheerleader had given Willow ever since the discovery of her true history had allowed Willow to begin to accept the brunette as a friend. They weren't as close as, say, Willow and Buffy, but it was a start.
Willow sniffed, and tears began leaking from her eyes and she put the texta away, unfurling her old, faithful sleeping bag and wriggling into it. She buried her face into the padding, and cried herself to sleep.
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When Willow awoke, it was to sunshine shining though the window of the fort. Willow had made curtains for the fort, at some point, but they stayed open most of the time so that she and Xander could stargaze. She blearily opened her eyes, her head aching from her mother's hits. Her lip was swollen, and Willow knew her face was covered in bruises. Willow groaned, and stretched out, glancing at her watch to check the time.
Eleven o'clock.
Damn, she was late for school. Her teachers were gonna flip. So were her parents.
She didn't have parents; Willow reminded herself scathingly as she sat up and wriggled out of her sleeping bag. She got up, stretching her back out. Next time she and Xander came to the fort, they were bringing mattresses in. She was too old to sleep on wood now, or so her back was telling her anyway.
Willow rolled her sleeping bag back up, and put it back beside Xander's. With a sigh, she walked towards the ladder, brushing her fingers along the piece of wood bearing Jessie's name, as was tradition. She climbed down the ladder carefully, before, her head bowed, she began to walk to school. She walked past her house, sighing when she saw her parent's car still parked in the driveway, but didn't go in. She wasn't ready to face them just yet. Once she reached Sunnydale high, she went to the bathroom, and studied her reflection in the mirror. She looked like crap. Her hair was messy and her lip was a mess. Both her cheeks were bruised, and the bruising was spreading towards her eyes, which were already shadowed from lack of sleep. She ran her fingers through her long hair, before she gave up completely, and walked to the library. She knew that shehad spares scheduled at that point of time, so she knew that she had a little bit of time before she had to be ready for class.
She pushed the library door open, and was surprised to see Xander, Buffy and Cordelia sitting at the library table, while an obviously worried Giles stood at the check out counter.
"Wills" Xander yelled joyfully when he saw her come in, getting up and bolting across the room to embrace her. Willow returned the embrace gently.
"I was so worried Wills, I thought you'd been made Vamp meat." He muttered.
"What happened last night?" Cordy asked.
"Willow, you're hurt. Come and sit down" Buffy said. Xander pulled away and examined Willow's injuries. He took her gently by the shoulders and steered her towards the table, sitting her in the chair that he had been occupying.
Giles had fetched the first aid kit and given it to Buffy, who had instantly gone into mother hen mode.
"What happened. When you didn't turn up for class this morning, we got Giles to ring your parents, I Mean, the Rosenbergs, and they said that you'd run away, but that we shouldn't worry, because you were suffering from deep emotional trauma, but that you'd get over it, and it was just you having a identity crisis and that you'd grow out of it. I mean hello, don't they know what goes on in this town of a night?" Cordy said. Willow smiled in spite of herself.
"I confronted them when they got home last night, like I said I would yesterday and there was a fight."
"Who did this to you, Wills?" Buffy softly asked. Willow blinked, and tears welled up in her eyes.
"My Mom, I Mean, Sheila. She slapped me, and she kept doing it, and I didn't know how to make her stop it. Then she told me to get out, so I ran off and spent the night at the Fort."
"Wills, oh god," Xander pulled Willow into his arms, wrapping her in his embrace. "I'm sorry, Willow" Giles sadly said, patting the redhead on the shoulder comfortingly. "What's the Fort?" Buffy asked.
"Wills and I built it when we were kids, before we even met Jesse. It's a big tree house that's in the woods. We always used to sleep out there, and when we needed to get away from home, we went there. It was our sanctuary."
"In hindsight, it possibly wasn't that much of a good idea to spend entire nights up there though, what with the things that go bump in the night." Willow admitted.
"How come you never mentioned it before?" Buffy asked, a hint of hurt in her voice.
"The fort was ours, even Jesse didn't go there very often, and now, well, we're older, but when we need somewhere to hide, or to escape that's where we go."
"It doesn't seem like a safe place to escape to. I mean, a tree house is not going to save you from vampires." Giles commented."Er, Giles, I don't think Xander meant escape from vampires and other creatures of the night. More like escape from drunken abusive parents, or completely absent parents in Willow's case" Cordy dryly stated.
"Cordy!" Xander gasped, "How do you know about that?"
"Everyone knows about that, it was kind of obvious. I can't even remember the last time I saw Willow with her parents, or mentioned that they were home, last night being the exception, and you, Xander, always used to come to school covered with bruises. How many times can one kid fall down the stairs, I mean, seriously, Xander, pick a decent excuse for once."
"Whoa whoa whoa. Did I miss something?" Buffy asked.
"This was all before you came to Sunnydale, Buffy, don't worry about it." Willow informed her friend.
"I never realised it was this bad" Giles sadly said, polishing his glasses once again.
"Where are you going to go now, you can't stay at your old house anymore?" Cordy asked. Willow shrugged and huddled a little closer to Xander, something the others noticed, but didn't mention. Even Cordelia knew it was just because to Willow, Xander represented Safety and Security.
"You can't stay at my house; you would be safer on the streets, what with my dad and everything. I don't want to think about what would happen if he got to you."
"I know Xand" Willow sadly said.
"You could stay with mom and me, we have a spare room, and Mom thinks of you a as second daughter." Buffy offered, smiling reassuringly.
"Thanks, Buffy," Willow managed a small smile as the slayer went back to cleaning Willow's wounds and applying a soothing lotion to the bruises.
They all jumped when the bell suddenly rang, and they got their books together. Willow walked beside Buffy as the Slayer slung her arm comfortingly over the petite redhead's slim shoulders, while Xander and Cordelia followed them from the library, holding hands, and exchanging loving looks. Giles watched as they left, a deep sadness gathering in his gut.
Willow was such a loving and kind person, she deserved to have a home and a family that loved and cared for her.
It was time for the Scoobies to front up to the challenge. BtVS BtVS BtVS BtVS BtVS
That night, Willow sat in front of the computer in the library, surrounded by her friends. They were researching the latest big bad to come to Sunnydale, flicking through the many ancient books Giles had gotten out for them. Willow logged onto the internet, but hesitated before logging onto her favourite demonic database. Making a decision, she got onto Google, and typed in the name of the adoption agency that had, according to the letter she'd found, facilitated her adoption. She clicked on a promising looking site, and blinked as the agency's website cam up on the screen, and she scrolled down, grinning when she spied a promising looking link. She scanned through the rest of the company's home page with her eyes, before she returned to the link she had spotted. It was titled 'find my parents' and Willow only hesitated for a second before she clicked on it, her resolve face firmly in place. She felt as though everything she'd ever been told by the people she'd been raised to believe were her parents had been a lie. Willow was confused about everything. Who shewas, what was her identity? Did she look like her mother, or her father? Did she act like them? Did she have siblings? Where were her parents now? She yearned for the answers to these questions, and the many millions more she had bouncing around in her head, and this was the only way she could think of to go about getting them.
The link had brought up a form that she could fill in online and email back to the agency. At the top of the form, though, there was a note. Willow smiled as she read it.
'Unfortunately, we cannot disclose the identity of biological parents to persons aged fifteen years or younger. This is because of law, and we have no control over it'
Willow was glad that she'd had her birthday already as she looked over the form and began to type in her details.
Childs Given Names: Willow Danielle Childs Surname: Rosenberg
Date of Birth: 7/10/1991
Place of Birth (If known):
Adopted Mother's Name: Sheila Rosenberg
Adopted Father's Name: Ira Roseneberg
Town of residence at time of adoption: Sunnydale, CA, USA
The questions continued down the page, and Willow filled as many of the questions as she could, before hitting the send button at the bottom of the form. She leant back in her chair and closed her eyes, praying that her real parents could be found.