Never Fear

12

Willow's eyes slowly opened and was greeted by darkness. Sitting up slowly she put a hand to her head. It hurt, it hurt so much that this pain seemed so inhuman. How was it possible for someone to hurt so much? Frowning and swinging her legs over the side of the bed she looked at her bare feet before standing up and slowly walking towards the door. Hesitantly she reached out and placed her hand against the handle.

Surprisingly the door wasn't locked, pushing the door open slowly Willow tentatively looked around the darkened corridor before walking silently out. Wrapping her arms around herself she continued on her way to the living room. Sitting at the table typing away at his laptop was Jonathan. He seemed none the wiser about her loitering in the doorway. Stepping forward, Willow continued to walk into the room.

Jonathan finally noticed her presence when she sat down slowly next to him. Willow rubbed her hands up and down her arms before laying her head down on the table. Jonathan put a hand on her head and pushed her hair out of her face, she narrowed her eyes up at him. "I hate you."

"No you don't." Jonathan answered simply, Willow sighed and shut her eyes slowly. Jonathan ran his hand through her hair gently one last time before taking up typing again. He stopped when Willow gave a low groan and put her hands over her ears. Rolling his eyes and standing up, Jonathan disappeared from the room only to appear a few minutes later. Setting a glass of water down he put two little white pills in Willow's hand. "Take them, your headache will go."

"Are you sure they're painkillers?"

"Yes."

"Are you really sure? I mean, after all they could be more psychotic drugs which make me trip out and...hallucinate."

"You held out for a long time."

"I'm not a science project." Willow narrowed her eyes while popping the pills into her mouth and then drinking down the water.

"I beg to differ." Jonathan smiled. "You do realise you withstood triple the normal amount anyone can handle at one time?" He turned to look at her while quickly pushing his glasses up his nose. "How you managed to do that has thrown me off. How did you do it?"

"I didn't do anything, Jonathan." Willow groaned and pushed herself out of the chair and took to laying on the sofa.

"You must have done something." He turned and looked at her. Willow waved a hand at him casually before shutting her eyes again. "Tell me," Jonathan crouched down in front of her.

Willow smiled and tapped him on the nose. "Oh dear, who feels like a failure?"

"Shut up."

"Or what? You'll drug me again and get annoyed over the fact that your drugs don't effectively work on me?" Willow smirked and pushed herself to sit. Jonathan looked up at her and narrowed his eyes. Willow smiled and crossed her arms.

"Yes." Jonathan answered simply. "But with something much, much stronger." He said while narrowing his eyes again. "With something much stronger and untested." Willow shifted uncomfortably and leaped over the back of the sofa to get away from him.

Sighing, Jonathan stood up and looked at her. "How can I give you the answer to a question when I don't know it myself?" He walked casually around the sofa, Willow shuffled away from him. "Blackmailing me...or putting me in this situation doesn't do anything! As for your freaky untested drug, keep it far away from me and find another guinea pig."

"Oh," Jonathan stopped and crossed his arms loosely behind his back. "You'd put a stranger in harms way for my tests? That's considerate."

"Stop it."