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Title: Dimension Dementia
Part: 3
Author: SallyMcFine
Feedback: I love feedback. Bring it on!
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: All disclaimers apply
Thanks: To my beta, Mrs. McFine, for her editing and storyline skills that are out of this world.
Setting: AU/canon crossover
Summary: What happens when a shy, introverted girl is torn away from her world and deposited into a dimension full of vampires, demons, and...a girlfriend?
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Part 3 - Confusion
Willow was stunned. Her mind was trying to grapple with multiple input items all at once when any one of them taken by itself would have been overwhelming. First, Middle Earth being called The Magic Box. She had seen it happen before her eyes, the sign changing. Then the strange blonde who seemed to know her, called her by name, and told her they were late.
Late for what?
And last but definitely not least, the kiss. Being kissed by a stranger was disconcerting enough, but Willow also was stunned by the immediate reaction she had. It wasn't that the kiss felt familiar or that it had awakened some long-forgotten memory in her like Sleeping Beauty. The blonde was still as unfamiliar to her as any stranger. No, it was her personal reaction. She felt bewildered, flustered...and a sort of yearning. Was that what it was? It was as if the kiss, short as it was, had permeated her entire body with warmth and tingling. It was a feeling that she had never had before, not even during the early days of her relationship with Danny.
She wasn't sure what the kiss had been intended to imply - really, it had been very short and had felt more like a greeting than anything else. But why would a stranger greet her that way? Was she European? And why was she walking along the street hand in hand with this girl? Or being led, really.
"Wait..." she said again.
The blonde tugged Willow's hand as if to urge her to speed up. "Come on, Willow, we're already late. Buffy said she was going to meet us there. She took the car."
Buffy? Was this girl a friend of Buffy's? Had she sent her to find Willow? Willow relaxed slightly - Buffy had a fairly large circle of acquaintances and this wasn't the first time she had met one of Buffy's friends who had seemed to know her - she was easy to pick out of a crowd with her red hair and unusual name. Maybe Buffy had decided to drive Willow to the hospital and had sent her friend to intercept her in town. But why had the girl said she had missed her?
"I must have hit my head harder than I thought," she muttered as she quickened her pace.
The walk wasn't far, just a few blocks outside of downtown to a complex of garden apartments around a courtyard. Willow's companion kept up a steady stream of chatter about her home life for no reason that Willow could discern. "I made eggs and pancakes this morning and just when they were all done Dawn told me that she wanted cereal, can you believe that? Oh well, I wrapped them up and put them in the fridge, although leftover eggs aren't very good. Did you have breakfast?"
And people say that I'm the queen of non sequiturs. "Yes, I did," she said.
"I'm glad," the girl said. "It's not healthy to only have coffee."
"I don't drink coffee," Willow responded.
"You haven't had any coffee? Is it opposite day?" the blonde said distractedly as she hurried across the courtyard to the front door of a ground floor apartment. "Well, don't worry. Giles will have some."
"Is Buffy here?" Willow asked. She was growing anxious to see her friend and get away from this babbling, incomprehensible girl - despite the lingering tingle she could feel in her lips.
"Probably," said the girl as she gave the door a cursory knock and turned the knob. "I'm sure she beat us since she was coming from dropping Dawn off. We're probably the last ones at the Scooby meeting."
"Who is Dawn?" Willow asked, but the blonde was already through the door. Willow followed her.
Did she say Scooby meeting?
Relief washed over her as she saw Buffy's familiar face. Her roommate was seated on a couch eating a jelly doughnut.
"Buffy," she said.
Buffy turned. "Hi Will!"
"Did you get your hair cut?" Willow asked, confused. Buffy's hair had been six inches past her shoulders for as long as Willow had known her, but now it framed her face in a layered bob, the shortest part just under her chin.
"Last week, just a trim," Buffy replied. "Come sit down and have a doughnut, you must be starving after your long night."
My long night?
"Where are the others?" the blonde girl asked from the kitchen, where she had started some coffee brewing in the drip machine on the counter.
An unfamiliar, older man wearing a cable-knit sweater and glasses emerged from the hallway that led away from the living room. "They called and said they would be late. I suggest we start without them." The man had a British accent and seemed to take it in stride that his apartment had been taken over by young people, was covered in a dusting of powdered sugar from jelly doughnuts, and that the strange blonde woman had helped herself to his coffee maker. He held a cup of steaming tea in his hands.
Willow's panic was growing.
Start what? She had been momentarily reassured by Buffy's familiar presence in the strange apartment, but even Buffy seemed different somehow, in more ways than the haircut. She sat in a much more self-assured way than usual, and seemed to make no move to get up from the couch. That made no sense, since Buffy knew she had an appointment at the hospital and was almost more worried about her vision problems than Willow herself.
She walked over to Buffy and hesitantly sat next to her on the couch. "Buffy," she began in a low voice.
"Yeah, Will?" Buffy responded.
"Aren't you going to take me to the hospital?"
Buffy gave her a curious look. "Why would I do that? Are you feeling okay?"
At that moment the older man walked over and sat down in a recliner. "Tara, let's get started."
"Coming," said the blonde girl, finishing up with the coffee in the kitchen.
Tara - he called her Tara. She walked into the living room holding a mug of coffee, which she handed to Willow and then sat down next to her on the couch. A little too close for comfort, actually. Willow edged herself a little to the left.
"Quit crowding, Will," Buffy said.
Willow was confused by the coffee - hadn't she said earlier that she didn't drink coffee? But strange behavior seemed to be the order of the day with this girl...Tara. She put the mug on the coffee table, and decided to pull Buffy aside and ask what the heck was going on.
Before she could speak, the older man beat her to it. "All right, let's begin. Why don't you tell us what you discovered last night." He looked at Willow as he said it.
She gave him a blank stare. "What?"
He sighed and took off his glasses. "Please try to pay attention, Willow. Did you find out anything at all from Bibeau's Compendium that might help identify what kind of demon we're up against?"
"I'm sorry, what?"
Tara held up a restraining hand. "Giles, I'm sure she's pretty exhausted from being up all night doing research - and she hasn't had any coffee yet. Why don't you drink that, hon, and we can continue this once you're caffeinated."
Again with the coffee. What is it with this girl and coffee? "I'm sorry, I don't understand what's going on. I told you, I don't drink coffee."
Buffy snorted. "Yeah, you take it intravenously."
Tara bit her lip and looked at Willow with concern. "Sweetie, you seem a little out of it. Did something happen last night?" She reached over and took Willow's hand, stroking it gently.
"Why are you calling me sweetie?" Willow jerked her hand away as she felt tears begin to prick behind her eyelids. Her panic rose to an almost insurmountable level, and she stood up and took a few steps away from the couch. "I have to get out of here."
The older man - Giles, Tara had called him - gave her an odd look. "Willow, is something wrong?"
"How do you know my name?"
His odd look was part concern, part impatience, and part...something else. "Willow, we've known each other since you were in high school. Haven't we?"
She shook her head as tears spilled out over her eyes and coursed down her cheeks. "Buffy, who are these people?" She turned in appeal to her roommate, her last link to sanity.
Buffy was giving her the same odd look as Giles, though. "Will, I see that you have the wiggins, but I don't know why. It's Giles and Tara."
Tara stood up and walked toward Willow, who backed away from her. She stopped, her hands up in a gesture of appeal. "Willow, did you do a spell last night that included any Lethe's Bramble, maybe?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Willow said, as more tears escaped.
"Do you know who I am?"
Willow shook her head. "I've never met you before in my life."
Tara looked stricken. Giles' eyebrows shot up in surprise, and Buffy's jaw dropped.
"Why don't you s-sit down and we can t-talk about this," Tara stammered, clearly caught off guard. Tears sprang into the blue eyes. Willow felt a pang of regret that the she was the cause of her distress. The feeling mixed with her panic and unfortunately didn't do much to calm her down.
"Listen, I need to go. I'm late for an appointment at the hospital," Willow said.
"Hospital?" Buffy echoed. "What's wrong with you?"
Giles stood up. "I have an idea," he said. "Clearly something strange is going on here, Willow. Why don't we sit down and you can tell us what happened. I'm worried about you, and I don't think it's the best thing for you to wander around Sunnydale alone right now, especially as upset as you are. If you have an appointment at the hospital, let's call them and reschedule it."
She eyed him warily. He seemed genuinely concerned about her, and had a reassuring, authoritative air about him. He reminded her of a teacher, actually. Slowly she nodded.
"Can I use your phone?"
He pointed toward a phone on the wall in the kitchen. She removed the appointment card from her pocket and dialed the number. As she picked up the receiver and dialed the Sunnydale Hospital, she saw Tara shakily take a seat back on the couch near Buffy, her lip trembling. Buffy whispered to her and she leaned her head on Buffy's shoulder as Buffy put her arm around her shoulder in a comforting hug.
Willow felt a little tinge of jealousy at that, but shoved it aside as she heard someone pick up the line.
"Sunnydale Hospital."
"Can you please transfer me to Dr. Angel in neurology?" she said.
There was a pause on the other line.
"I'll transfer you to neurology, but we have no Dr. Angel listed. Hold, please."
Willow wrapped her free arm around her midsection as she fought to stay calm. It was a big hospital. There was no reason to expect that the main receptionist would know every doctor on the staff.
"Neurology," came the tinny voice through the line.
"Hi, I'm Willow Rosenberg, and I have a 10:00 a.m. appointment with Dr. Angel," she said. "I was calling to see if I could reschedule it."
"Rosenberg?"
"Yes."
There was a pause.
"And who did you say your appointment was with?"
"Dr. Angel."
Again, a pause. Finally,
"I'm sorry, Ms. Rosenberg, but we have no record of an appointment for you today."
She swallowed, trying to hold back the tears that wanted to flow anew. "Then can you please just put me on with Dr. Angel?"
"I'm sorry. We have no one on staff by that name."
Willow stared at the phone, the words ringing in her ears. Slowly, she replaced the receiver in the cradle on the wall, and turned toward Giles, Tara, and Buffy, who were all looking at her expectantly.
She tried to say something, but ended up bursting into tears.
) I can't wait to see how this works out.
by PancakesinBellies » Tue Jun 20, 2006 5:21 am 
I wonder how Tara's going to take the news that this Willow isn't her Willow...and what if Willow falls in love with Tara...? what then? is she going to have to go back to her own world all lonely and sexually disgruntled? Oooo maybe she'll find her own Tara in her reality. 
Good second chapter!
Yay, I have a new story to read on Pens! This is freakin' awesome Sally. Seriously.
Akyrie
*is shifty* More please!