TITLE: Watching As You Sleep
AUTHOR: Ragna (writinggoddess@aol.com)
RATING: FRC
CLASSIFICATION: Willow/? (it's a cannon character, who I'm choosing to keep secret until the end. But you guys will probably guess anyway.)
SUMMARY: Willow's husband watches her sleep.
SPOILERS: Set five years in the future.
DISTRIBUTION: Any sites with my fic up; you all have unspoken permission. I write it, you can post it. Everyone else just keep my name on it and let me know.
DISCLAIMER: If you don't recognize it, chances are it's my own creation. If you do, Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Kazui Sandollar, FOX and the WB own it or them. Various friends of mine are holding characters hostage. You may see them by appointment only. The song is "This Velvet Glove" by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.
FEEDBACK: Sorry I'm not home right now I'm walking in the spiderwebs so leave a message and I'll call you back...in other words, I want it. Don't care if it's onlist or not.
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This was an answer to Katie's challenge.

***

The rain's pounding softly against the windows as I sit here, watching her sleep. She's beautiful like this, her chest rising and lowering in measured beats, her red hair spilled softly over the pillow in it's haphazard way.

She can't sleep without music. And she picks the strangest CDs to listen to...tonight it's "Californication." And it's helping her keep those eyes shut, keep her breathing normal, keep her sleep as peaceful as possible.

It's these moments I know I love her.

I have since the moment I met her. She was so shy then, meek and unassuming. She was so innocent.

And then there was the introduction of all the horrors of the Hellmouth, the pain of losing her friends, one by one, in some form or another. She was so strong underneath, even under her shyness.

She meant so much to all of us then, and she means so much to me now.

We had to get away. Things had gone terribly wrong, for the longest time, but once everything was under control, we had to leave. If we hadn't, I think my strong Willow might have lost her mind.

And I never wanted that, never.

So we're in Ireland, and I'm laying next to her, watching her sleep.

There is another reason we're here, of course...there always is a second motivation for everything we do. It's human nature. Nothing can ever be simple, and everything has to be complicated.

The only thing that's simple is nature. It just happens. Like this rain, the rain that's starting to fade, allowing the moonlight to pass through the clouds and filter in through the uncovered window.

And like her and I.

It was never expected, it just happened. She had graduated from college, a beautiful woman with a high level of intelligence. But that was something I already knew, something I'd known for seven years.

I watched her grow, watched her mature into the radiant young woman I realized I was in love with, and had been in love with for a long time. And I felt pride, and let her know.

And found out she felt love for me as well.

That was the best moment of my life.

We had to keep it a secret, though. The others weren't ready to accept it, and neither were my peers. It went on this way for almost a year. And that was the hardest time, for both of us.

It wasn't until we found out she was pregnant, with our child. Then we couldn't hide it anymore. Not that we wanted to.

And surprisingly, everyone but her parents took it well. They were happy for the both of us, age difference be damned.

So we have a beautiful daughter, Constance Anne. She has her mother's flaming red hair and my soft eyes. She's a beautiful child. And right now she's probably driving Buffy and Riley nuts.

They wanted children, and consider dear Constance as an almost test run. They're expecting a son, in a few months. I hadn't seen my dear wife so happy...she's a mother, her best friend will be a mother soon...

Life should be perfect. And for a group of people living above hell, I suppose it is.

I think it was the desecration of poor Xander's grave that almost drove Willow over the edge. She visits it once a week. And every week, the grave would be profaned in some way. And she'd clean it up, fix it...

But when the earth was dug up, it got to be too much for her. So we're here to find the key piece of the spell, a true Celtic knot to be engraved on a piece of the Blarney stone. And we'll place it on his grave, to give his spirit some rest.

And give my poor Willow some rest, too.

This is the first night she's slept peacefully. No nightmares, no tossing and turning, nothing. She let her hair grow long again, and it's splayed on her pillow and her back. She looks as still as a statue, a Grecian sculpture, and just as beautiful.

I keep track of her breathing. In...out...in...out... she's grown so lovely, so beautiful. So warm and caring and wonderful.

I love her ever so much.

The rain is fading away now, and it's time for me to sleep. I'll need some sleep before we go and try to find the wizard to engrave the knot on the rock. He lives far from Dublin, where we're at now, in Kilkenny.

I love the idea of being alone with my wife, in one of the most majestic places on earth. I love the idea of just the two of us, alone. It's something we don't have very often.

I'd do anything for my lovely wife, anything at all.

I'm finally going to sleep, I think. I've shut my eyes, and laid next to Willow. She smells clean and crisp like the rain outside. She always smells like this.

And my breathing is beginning to mirror hers, breathing out and breathing in at the same rate as her. I put my arm around her, pulling her towards me, and suddenly sleep overtakes me.

And my last waking thought that night is of my lovely wife, Willow Rosenburg-Giles.