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Chapter 35

**
Previously:

For once, the dishwater blond was determined not to be swayed by her beautiful but manipulative lover. “I can’t, Willow. I have to stay with the journal. You need to do this on your own,” Tara stated firmly.
**

Penny ushered the distraught redhead into her living room. It was time to start the healing process.

Coaxing the girl to sit, Penny quickly retrieved drinks from the kitchen before joining Willow on the couch.

“Willow, why don’t you tell me what it is about this plan that has you so upset?” the psychologist encouraged the young witch to speak. She firmly believed that for Willow to heal and change her behaviour patterns, the redhead needed to come to the realisation herself. Denial was not an option.

“You all think I can’t control myself. You think I can’t handle the power. I can. It’s not my fault I didn’t know about the consequences. If someone had told me about them, I would have been more, you know, careful or something. But I know now, so it shouldn’t be a problem. So why do I have to go away?” Willow’s words tumbled out chaotically.

“I thought you liked to learn new things?” Penny asked, encouraging the girl to talk.

“I do,” the redhead responded petulantly.

“And travel?”

“Well, sure, but it’s not like I wanted to do it today.” Willow held on to her animosity. It wasn’t fair. She wanted sympathy. Unfortunately, it didn’t look like she’d be getting any empathy from this woman.

“Just let me see if I understand; you want to learn new things and you want to travel. You have been given the opportunity to do both. The new lessons will be about a subject that you love, by the best practitioners in the world, but you want to put it off because….?” Penny left the end of her sentence open deliberately. Willow would get there, but it seemed she was going to need a little push

Willow bit her lip in consternation. She had to admit that Penny did have a point. The redhead did want to study with the best witches in the world. She did want to travel. Why was she fighting this? Thinking about the psychologist’s question, Willow was hard pressed to come up with a reason other than the reason behind her banishment.

“You don’t get it. I do want to do this, but I want to do it because I choose to and not because you all think I’m going to lose control of the magic. I want to do this because I want to and not because you think I need to.”

“So you believe that you have no problem with control? That you don’t use magic because emotionally you can’t cope with certain situations?” Penny asked unemotionally. She had no intention of accepting the usual trip down that exotic river in Egypt.

“There’s nothing wrong with my control. I’m all about control. I’m good with the coping,” Willow whined.

“If that was true, Willow, why did you need to do a de-lusting spell, or the ‘Thy Will Be Done’ spell?” Penny gave the girl a hard look. “Taking the easy way. Not facing your problems or emotions. This is what you lack control in. You need to learn about the consequences. You need to face your problems. Quick fix solutions never work. They bring more harm than good. You want to become a strong independent young woman, but you are copping out on the actual developing stage. Make your mind up, Willow. Do you want to be an asset to the Slayer or a hindrance to her? Do you want to help her or harm her? You have the potential to be her strongest ally, but then having the potential and reaching that potential are two totally different things. The choice is yours.”

“I want to reach my full potential,” Willow earnestly told the psychologist.

“Then I guess the trip to England is the right thing to do.” Penny smiled as she subtly prompted Willow to agree.

~*~*~

Spike followed the previous owner’s instructions carefully. From the outside the house was everything that he had hoped for. He entered the front door and turned to usher Buffy in, only to see her bounce off the invisible barrier.

“Not sure if I should be pissed that I need an invite or happy that you’ve got a secure home,” Buffy mused thoughtfully.

“Come in, Buffy.” Spike grinned, amused at his girl’s conundrum.

Walking through the empty house, Buffy felt her joy meter go into overload. The look on her face when she turned back to her vampire was one of utter bliss.

“Can we go shopping?”

~*~*~

“Here’s how the cookie crumbles, my little strudel. Things have the potential to get bad, very bad. The powers are losing faith in your ability to control your demon. They’ve already stepped up to the plate and served up the little crumpet as a delicious twist.” Lorne seriously informed the brunette vampire. He hated the message he had to give and was thankful once again, for the sanctuary spell he had had the foresight to have placed on the club.

“The slayer’s destiny lies in Sunnydale. Yours, on the other hand, is in serious jeopardy if you don’t make with the serious attitude adjustment and quick. You, my Angelicious cream puff, seem to think that just because you were once tapped as a champion that it put you on a pedestal higher than most. You still think you’re on speaking terms with the Powers. What you never understood is that being a champion means you have to lower yourself, to put others above yourself.

“The slayer understands. She tends to run to the other side of the spectrum, puts everyone before her, which seemed to work just fine for you didn’t it?” the green Pylean was a little less than kind in delivery of his verdict. He had witnessed a side of the vampire he hadn’t known existed before the reading. To say he wasn’t impressed would have been an understatement.

Angel pouted. “I do put others before me. I left Buffy so she could have a normal life. I did that for her, regardless of how hard it was on me to leave my soul mate,” he whined petulantly.

“Crap! You left because you didn’t trust yourself not to get groin-y,” Cordelia snorted derisively. She was so sick to death of the broody one’s flogging of that very dead horse. If he was so cut up over Buffy, why did he start sniffing after that lady cop just after he moved to LA?

Wesley silently watched and waited. He didn’t like the look on Angel’s face. He had a very bad feeling about this.

Gunn had absolutely no idea what the big green guy was talking about. Looked like he had some serious catch up conversations coming with English and the honey.

“The blond cupcakes, well, I think they surprised even the powers with their little dance, but you have to realize some very serious things, Angel. She wasn’t meant for you. You were supposed to help her, keep her safe, and not lose yourself and your soul in her. She is not your soul mate,” Lorne stated firmly.

“You’re wrong,” Angel snarled. This was not the way it was meant to be. “I’m going to see the oracles. I’m putting an end to this once and for all.”

As the furious vampire made his way to the entrance, Wesley’s voice made him pause.

“We don’t support this course of action, Angel.”

“Then you won’t be surprised to discover that you’re all fired.” Angel stormed through the doorway to the steps leading him up and out of the club.





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