~*~Part One~*~

Calls that came in the middle of the night, shattering dreams and sleep, were, generally, a result of something tragic or miraculous. An emergency, a death, a birth. Something or anything that couldn't wait until the next morning and just had to be shared at that moment.

Willow had never been on the receiving end of one of those calls, though she saw them on television all the time. They disrupted the lives, and sleep, of all involved. Up until this point her life had been pretty uneventful in that way; all of her tragedies had happened while she was awake. Jesse's death, Buffy's death. They had all happened while she was there to see it. Her grieving may have kept her awake, but she had never been shocked out of her sleep to deal with tragedy.

So when her cell phone went off at four in the morning, she didn't immediately get that sense of dread that others might would experience. She sat up, fumbling on the small hotel nightstand for the piece of plastic. It was too dark for her to see the face of the phone and she pressed blindly at the buttons, trying to find the one to answer the call. The little lights behind the buttons began to glow after three tries and she knew she had found the right one.

"Hello?"

"Wills?"

The red head's heart skipped a beat. She was in Washington, on Pacific Time, so it was just as early for Xander as it was for her. And it would take nothing short of a miracle to pull him out of bed at four in the morning. Only now did she begin to worry, hearing his voice. It was filled with something she couldn't begin to name and it forced all of the sleep from her brain immediately.

"Xan? What's wrong?"

"You're not going to believe this, Wills."

By now Willow could feel Hunter moving beside her. She could see a flash of light off of his open eyes in the darkness, a slant of streetlight coming in through a crack in the curtains. He had placed a hand on her thigh, under the blankets, and was squeezing gently, reassuringly. Did he know how tense she was right now? Maybe he had had this kind of call before, the kind that signaled something dreadful.

"What is it, Xan?"

"Buffy…"

The sound of her dead friend's name echoing across the phone line brought a chill to Willow's heart and soul. She felt tears she thought she had long since banished come to her eyes at the mere thought of the blonde, once so vibrant in life, now lying six feet under the ground.

"What about Buffy, Xander?" Her voice was a whisper; little more than a breath.

Then she heard it. A sound in the background, also a whisper. But it was someone speaking. Someone asking for the phone.

"Hold on a sec, Wills. This," He paused, overcome with emotion. "This will explain better than anything I can say."

There was the sound of the phone being passed from one hand to another and then she heard something that she never thought she'd hear again. Not in her wildest dream.

"Wills?"

The voice was the barest of whispers and sounded tired, but still Willow recognized it. Oh Goddess did she recognize it.

"Buffy?" She croaked out, tears slipping from her eyes to run freely down her cheeks. She felt Hunter sit upright in bed and knew he was giving her strange looks. She was going to have to finally explain everything. But that was the least of her worries at that moment. Buffy was on the phone with her.

How?

"Yeah, its me." She laughed and it was the sound of someone that was exhausted.

"H-How?" Willow stammered. She could hear her own heart racing as suspicion overtook her. Was that really Buffy or some demon in her form? It was absolutely possible that Xander was in danger at that very moment. And she was too far away to help.

"I don't know." Buffy said slowly. "I was in a place. Wills, it wasn't Heaven or Hell. I wasn't happy or tortured. I don't think I was ever really dead."

"But… your body."

"I know. Xander told me. All I do know is that one minute I'm floating in nothingness, wondering if I'll ever be free again, and the next I'm falling through some blue portal thingie and hitting the street. Hard."

Willow didn't know what to say. So she went for the obvious.

"I've missed you, Buff."

"I missed you, too, Wills. And Xander. And Dawnie. Oh god. I can't wait to see Dawn." She was crying now, sobbing into the phone.

"Shhhh."

Willow heard Xander take the phone from Buffy, making soft soothing noises.

"We don't know why she came back, Wills." He admitted. Even his own voice sounded tired. "Me and Anya were out patrolling and we saw the portal. It must have been in the sky for two hours before anything fell out of it. Buffy was the first."

That brought the red head up short.

"The first?"

"Yeah. There were other things that came out after her." He sighed. "We barely got away in time. I think they were sent to bring her back. They're demons of some kind. Buffy's not up to full strength. Wherever she was, it took a lot out of her. She's not super Slayer anymore. We're not sure if she ever will be again."

"Giles?"

"Called. Left message. He wasn't home."

Willow nodded. "I'll be home tomorrow, you keep trying to find Giles. I'll find a flight first thing in the morning."

"I knew you would." She could almost hear him smile. "We need you Wills. I hate to drag you away from your family, your job."

"No, no." She shook her head. "That's okay. This is worth it, Xan. You need help and Buffy -"

She didn't need to finish her statement. Buffy was alive. Buffy was waiting for her in Sunnydale. That thought alone was enough to make her want to jump out of bed and start trying to find any redeye flight heading to California.

"Give her my love." She managed after a long moment. "And stay indoors. I'll be there tomorrow."

"Love you, Wills."

"Love you too, Xan."

She hung up, staring down through the darkness at the little phone. She had tears in her eyes and an ache in her chest, as though something that had been missing had suddenly been shoved back inside her heart.

"Baby?"

"Hmm?" Her eyes sought out Hunter's face in the darkness. The room was quiet except for the soft whir of the air conditioner. And she knew what he wanted to know.

"What's going on?"

~*~Part Two~*~

Willow looked into Hunter's eyes, blinking under the sudden assault of the nightstand light on her own dark-adjusted green orbs. She sighed, biting her lower lip. How many times had she meant to tell him about this part of her past and fell just short of being able to? It wasn't just a topic one brought up in the middle of dinner - 'You know sweetie, been meaning to tell you that I'm a witch. Vampires and demons, they exist. Could you pass the pepper?'

"What's going on, Red?" He murmured, taking one of her trembling hands in his own. Her half of the phone conversation had been confusing enough and he had fully expected her to get off the phone and say something, anything, to make it all make sense. But now she was hesitating, as though she were afraid of something. Surely she wasn't afraid of him, not after all this time?

"Its like this," She began slowly, pulling her hand from his. She blinked back tears of fear that were threatening to fall and held her palm up in front of his face.

"Inciende" The word was a breath, a whisper. But it was more than that. It was an invocation. It was magic. A ball of flame appeared in her hand, growing until it was two inches in diameter. She could have made it larger or smaller, her will was enough to do either. She was powerful and this was small time magic, just a parlor trick, really.

"There are more things in heaven and earth." She whispered, daring to look into his astonished eyes. "And magic is one of those. I'm a witch, Hunter. Have been for years."

He stared, unblinking, at the fire that was swirling gently, magically, in his love's palm. Her fingers rose, caressing the outside of the ball as though it were nothing, though he could feel the heat himself. But she wasn't burning. And the fire hadn't been created by a match or lighter. Nothing so ordinary. She had made it with just a word and -

What?

Magic?

Willpower?

"I -" He stopped, shaking his head, finally breaking eye contact with the miracle that was going on in front of him. "I don't understand."

She nodded, releasing her hold on the fire. It dissipated into the air, like a fine fiery mist.

"Its hard to wrap your mind around at first, I know. I didn't believe there was anything in this world that I didn't know about until the night one of my best friends, Jesse, died."

"Jesse?" Hunter asked, grasping at something. "I think you mentioned him once. You never said how he died though."

Willow smiled sadly. "Then let me tell you now, my love. Just keep and open mind and remember what I just showed you." She paused, tears flowing down her cheeks. This was scary. Telling a regular old person about Sunnydale and magic. He had every right to repudiate her for not telling him sooner. And what then? What would she do without his love? The idea of losing him made her chest ache with the intense pain of phantom heartache.

Shocked as he was, Hunter could still see the pain she was going through. He couldn't understand why she was so sad, so upset. He reached out, patting her hand.

"Just tell me, Willow."

And so she nodded, and began her story.

~*~*~

Time crawled to a slow ooze as she spoke, telling him about her life since she had met Buffy. She told him about vampires, demons, Slayers and Watchers. She even told him about Angel and Cordelia and everyone on the LA staff. This was her life before him and he deserved to know. In halting words, punctuated by crying and sniffling, she told him about Glory and Dawn, about Buffy's death.

And he listened, not making a noise until she stopped at the end, with the call she had gotten not even an hour before. The one that had woken them from a sound, restful sleep.

"So - she's alive."

Willow nodded, her eyes holding to his as though she could stop him from hating her by that alone. She didn't see any reproach in their depths, however, and that bolstered her spirit, if only a little.

"And you're going back because there's some sort of -" He paused, unable to choke out the word she had used, as if by saying it he was somehow accepting everything. Not that he could deny what she had said, anyway. He had seen her work magic with his own two eyes. The rest, about vampires and demons, was equally hard to swallow, but if magic was real - why not that as well? It was making his head spin, all these new, unthinkable, revelations.

"Demon." She finished for him, smiling softly. This time she was the one to lay a reassuring hand on *his* arm. "I'm going back because there are some demons that came back with her and she needs the help. Please understand."

He laughed.

"The fact that you want to help your friend isn't the hard to understand part, little Red. It's the rest of it that I'm having trouble with." He shrugged. "But I guess I'll get to see it all for myself tomorrow, or should I say, later today?"

She looked at him, confusion threading through her. "You'll get to see? Oh no, Hunter. You're not coming with me! I can't ask you to do that. This is going to be dangerous!" She was shaking her head from side to side so rapidly that it was making her dizzy.

He reached out, grasping her head in his hands and stilling her frantic movements. "Baby. You can't really expect me to let you run off to danger by yourself, can you?"

"But -" She sighed, still shaking her head ever so slightly. "You're not used to this. People go in Sunnydale and never come back out. I don't want you to be a statistic, Hunter. I love you."

He smiled, lowering his lips to gently kiss her. "And I love you, too. But I'm going. No argument. You think you can tell me about vampires and not take me to meet any?"

Willow frowned at him then, thinking of Spike, laughed. "I think that can be arranged." She sobered almost instantly. "You have to promise me to stay close, though. Don't go wandering off or anything. I don't want to loose you."

He nodded, smirking. "Yes, ma'm. No running into dark alleys or graveyards."

She rolled her eyes, kissing him one last time before sliding off the bed to plug in her laptop. There were plane tickets to be purchased. And she would need to call Stephanie, let her know that she had an emergency back home to take care of.

"No running into cemeteries, he says," She laughed quietly to herself. "He's gonna find out just how impossible that is in Sunnydale. That place is one big graveyard."

~*~To Be Continued~*~

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