Title: Final Days
Series: The Unexpected Series (Story 11)
Author: M. Jade
Summary: Every great love must face it’s own end…
Rating: PG
Email: If you have comments or suggestions, email me at jaderozegirl@yahoo.com
Spoilers: Only if you haven’t read the series
Feedback: Flames are not wanted, but the constructive kind is well received
Disclaimers: Joss and co. have all the rights to BtVS and Reba McEntire owns the song “If I Had Only Known.” I’m only a lowly fanfic writer
Distribution: To any who has the other parts of the series, it’s yours, if not just let me know, because I’ll usually say yes
Notes: Part Eleven of the Series. Takes place roughly five years after “Never Easy”
More Notes: I know this is not a happy piece, because it’s inspired by the recent death of a close family member, so don’t complain if you find it too sad, because it’s meant to be
“Mrs. Giles!” the head nurse shouted as Willow rushed past the nurse’s station at Sunnydale Memorial. “Please, wait!” The heavy-set lady rushed from her station to try and head off the frantic redhead. Behind the nurse were Wesley and Faith Wyndam-Pryce along with Cordelia Chase. The nurse almost made it to the room were they were keeping Willow’s husband, Rupert, before she did, but she was instead met at the door by Angel, sporting one of his darker moods.
“Willow…” the vampire didn’t seem to want to finish the sentence.
“What the hell is wrong, Angel” Willow demanded, her voice tight. Angel took her firmly by the shoulders, not allowing her entrance into the room, even to see inside. “What is wrong with my husband?”
“He… Willow, he got worse. A lot worse…” Angel explained, not looking Willow in the eyes.
“I want to see my husband!” she shouted, the tears building in her eyes. By this time the nurse had given up any attempt to try to control Willow, so she simply stood by as Angel tried to talk to her. “Why can’t I see him, Angel!” The vampire’s voice was low.
“Willow, he’s dead,” came his soft reply as he looked intently into her eyes. Willow began to shake under his grip, trying to break it.
“No! No!” Willow shouted. Cordelia came up behind Willow to place a hand on her shoulder. “He was fine when I called!” the redhead insisted, her voice choked with tears.
“Willow…” Cordelia began. Willow shook her off quickly.
“No!” she insisted. “Rupert is fine! I talked to him an hour ago, and he was fine!” Angel shook his head.
“He started having trouble breathing thirty minutes ago. There wasn’t anything the doctors could do for him.” Angel explained. Faith quickly squeezed her husband’s hand as she went to join Cordelia.
“Red… maybe you should talk to the nurse,” Faith offered.
“I don’t want to talk to the nurse, I want to see my husband!” Willow told her shortly. Willow pushed her way past Angel into the hospital room. On the room’s single bed lay her husband, his eyes closed, with a deceptively peaceful look on his face. Various monitors and machines, all of which had been turned off and were now eerily silent, surrounded Giles’ bed. The room was caught in a sort of still calm, and it liked to have driven Willow crazy. She walked up to her husband and took his hand, squeezing it. When there was no response, she started to cry. “Rupert…” she sobbed, squeezing his hand harder, but there was still no response. “Please, Rupert!” Angel stood in the doorway, his calm manner shaken by the scene.
“I called Mike… just before you came. She and Neil will be here on the next plane. Buffy and Riley are on their way, too, along with Xander and Anya.” he explained.
“I should have been here,” Willow spit out, still clinging to Giles’ hand. “I should have been here for him!”
“Willow you didn’t know,” Angel told her.
“I should have been here! I never should have gone to LA…” Willow shouted at him. Cordelia came behind her, placing her hands on her shoulders. “I shouldn’t have left him here.”
“We needed you, Willow. He knew that,” the former May Queen said softly.
“Why did he let me go?” Willow asked softly. “If he was so sick… why? I want to know why, dammit!”
“Because he knew we couldn’t have defeated the Getryk demon without you,” Wesley answered, taking off his glasses as his voice grew softer. “I couldn’t have done the banishing spell by myself. Giles was sure of it.”
“Did he ask for me,” Willow asked in a nearly inaudible voice as she looked to Angel and he nodded.
“Yes, he asked for you.” Angel confirmed, his voice slightly choked. Willow’s eyes began to tear up.
“I should have been here for him,” Willow repeated. She leaned over to Cordelia and began to cry as her friend held her. A few moments later, Angel joined them by the bed.
*********************************************************************
The next morning, Willow sat in the kitchen of her home by herself while Buffy and the others were talking in the living room. After what had happened the day before, she wanted some alone time, and the others were willing enough to give it to her. She had been lost in her thoughts when the door opened to reveal a racing tow-headed boy of about four with clear blue eyes. Willow tried her best to smile as he came up to hug her.
“Grammie!” the boy said with a smile, stretching out his arms to her and Willow picked him up. Willow gave her grandson a big hug.
“How is my favorite grandson?” Willow asked in a weak voice.
“I’m your only grandson, Grammie Willow,” the boy said with a chuckle.
“Giles Gabriel Finn,” Michaela’s voice came sternly from the doorway. “I thought I told you to stay in the other room with your father and Grandpa Riley,” she told the boy.
“But grandpa always fusses over Emma!” the boy complained as he sat in Willow’s lap.
“Emma is a baby,” his mother reminded him. “And I need to talk to Grandma Willow right, now, okay,” his mother added gently, giving the boy a weak smile. The boy nodded.
“Love you, Grammie,” he said and gave Willow a kiss on the cheek, then quietly left the room.
“Mom…” Mike began, then she hugged Willow. “I am so sorry,” she whispered.
“Thank you, honey.” Willow answered softly. Already, the tears were building for both of them.
“When’s the funeral,” she asked, almost hesitating, but knowing she had to at some point. Her mother closed her eyes and began to sob softly.
“The day after tomorrow,” Willow said, and Mike nodded.
“Is there anything you need me to do?” Mike asked softly, and Willow shook her head.
“All the arrangements have been made, and we’re having everyone over here after the funeral. Buffy and Anya offered to cook, so we’ve got that covered,” Willow explained. “I just wish… it’s almost unreal, you know? I woke up this morning, and I still expected him to be here, not that I got much sleep, but … it’s been thirty years, Mike. I have been with your father for thirty years, then I wake up today, and he’s just not there…” Willow broke down as Mike hugged her again, also crying herself.
“I know. When Angel called, I … I don’t know what I thought, but … it wasn’t like I was going to get on that plane to say good-bye to Dad for the last time … Then you called, and … it was like, ‘My God, Dad is really gone’ that’s all I could think,” Mike whispered in a choked voice. “I couldn’t explain it to Gabe and Emma, I couldn’t tell Neil what I wanted … because I just want him back.”
“I know,” Willow said in a low voice. “I … want more than anything to have been with him when he needed me. I shouldn’t have been in LA…”
“Don’t do that to yourself, Mom,” Mike cut her off. “You did what you had to do to help Wesley and Angel, and Dad knew that. Dad would have wanted it that way,” Mike added.
“No… he had his destiny… I was always along for the ride, it’s not as if I was that important…” Mike quickly cut her off.
“Don’t you get it, Mom? It was never a matter of Dad’s destiny or Buffy’s … it was about all of you. You, Xander, Anya, Riley, Cordy, Angel, Spike… you were part of a group, something each of you made stronger by being there. That was your destiny, your place. Don’t sell yourself short by saying that Buffy or Faith or Dad and Wesley were the only Chosen Ones around here. You were all chosen, whether you realize it or not. You were chosen as a force for good, and that is what you and Dad passed on to me. You raised me here because it was only by being here that I could fully understand what you did and why, and it was here that I could actually help, to learn things I never would have otherwise, and, even if some small way, I am making a difference, just the same as you. Dad always understood that. He taught me that,” she finished in a low tone. For a few moments, Willow was hushed.
“You are definitely your father’s daughter,” Willow whispered. Mike hugged her mother again as she began to sob.
“But you were his heart,” Mike whispered softly into Willow’s hair. “Always.”
“You may be right, Mike, but right now it feels as if a piece of me is gone, and I don’t know how to get it back, or if I ever can,” Willow admitted through a sobbing voice.
“You will,” Mike assured her. “You’re stronger that that, Mom.”
“Not feeling very strong right now,” Willow retorted, and Mike nodded.
“Can you trust me when I say it’ll get easier?” Mike asked gently.
“Yes, I can,” Willow relented. “I just can’t see it now is all.”
***************************************************************
Willow spent some time with Mike, and various others came in and out of the house as the day drew on, until it was finally time for Willow to go to bed. Mike and Neil had taken the guestroom as Emma and Gabe were set up in Mike’s old bedroom. It didn’t take Willow long to fall asleep, and she soon found herself in a dark room lit only by firelight. She was laying on a couch in front of a roaring fire, and there were strong arms surrounding her. Rupert’s arms. When she turned to face her husband, she saw not the face of a seventy-year old man, but that of a younger Rupert, the Rupert she had known back when she was still in high school. The Rupert she had fallen in love with. “Oh, Rupert,” she cried out as she hugged him and then kissed him frantically on the lips. “I thought I’d lost you!”
“You did,” Giles answered softly as he kissed her on the forehead.
“You were dead!” Willow cried out, kissing him again.
“I am,” he said as he took her face gently in his hands. Willow shook her head violently.
“No, no! I can’t lose you, Rupert! I won’t lose you!” she spit out frantically.
“We don’t have that choice, love,” Giles said sadly.
“Yes, we do! I… I don’t know what I’m going to do without you,” she said with tears in her eyes. Giles took his thumb and gently swept the tears away.
“We knew this day would come, Willow. Every day we spent together, we knew it grew closer. For thirty years, we lived on borrowed time, my love. It was simply a matter of when.” Willow began to shake her head, but Giles cut her off. “I want nothing more than stay here with you, to be with you, but it can not be.”
“It’s not fair!” Willow shouted.
“It never is!” Giles insisted, “But that’s not going to matter. Life will go on, whether it’s with me or not, and you have to be a part of that, Willow. It’s not your time. Please don’t waste what you have left on me,” he finished.
“What am I going to do?”
“The same thing you’ve always done. Just be Willow, and all else will work itself out, I promise,” Giles said in a soothing voice as she laid back and stroked her hair. As they relaxed, she snuggled back into his arms to rest, as some music began to play. Willow couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but it didn’t much matter. It’s sad melody spoke volumes in the silence of the room.
{If I had only known}
{It was the last walk in the rain}
{I’d keep you out for hours in the storm}
{I would hold you hand, like a life line to my heart}
{Underneath the thunder we’d be warm}
{If I had only known it was our last walk in the rain}
“Is there anything you’d change,” Willow whispered
softly. She could almost feel the smile draw itself across his face.
“I wish I had realized my feelings for you a little sooner. Perhaps comforted you after Oz left, but not much else,” he admitted.
“Everything seemed to work itself out for us, didn’t it,” Willow said in a soft voice.
“That it did,” Giles conceded. “I may not be proud of everything I done, but it all came for the best in the end.”
{If I had only known I’d never hear your voice again}
{I’d memorize each thing you ever said}
{And on those lonely nights}
{I could think of them once more}
{Keep your words alive inside my head}
{If I had only known}
{I’d never hear your voice again}
“How long is this going to last,” Willow asked.
“Being her with you, I mean.”
“As long as you remain asleep,” Giles told her. The room remained quiet as Willow pondered her reply.
“And after that?” Willow questioned after a few moments.
“I’ll still be with you, my love. One way or another,” Giles replied in a gentle voice.
{You were the treasure in my hand}
{You were the one who always stood beside me}
{So unaware I foolishly believed that you’d always be there}
{But then there came a day}
{I turned my head and you slipped away}
“I want to stay here…” Willow began, but Giles
cut her off.
“Shhh… better not to ask for things that I can’t give you.” As the fire crackled on, Willow took his hand.
“I like being here with you.” Giles slowly reached out to touch her face and gave her a gentle kiss.
{If I had only known it was my last night by your side}
{I’d pray a miracle would stop the dawn}
{And when you’d smile at me}
{I would look into your eyes}
{And make sure you know my love for you goes on and on}
{If I had only known}
{If I had only known}
{The love I would have shown}
{If I had only known}
“I love you,” she whispered as they parted from
their kiss.
“And I have loved you, and will love you always, my sweet Willow.” She awoke with a start, but there was a sort of calming presence she could feel permeating the room. She laid back and closed her eyes, saying a quick prayer to face a new day.