A/N: Thank you for the reviews! This is the last chapter of this little fic, hope you enjoy :)

Chapter Eight

Buffy’s eyes widened as Tara fell to the floor, a wordless scream falling from her mouth. Willow was still sitting cross-legged, back rigid and eyes wide and unseeing. Spike had rushed forwards towards Tara when the creature had stabbed its tentacle through Tara’s chest, and was now cradling her head on his lap.

The creature let out a hellish roar, and resumed its attack. Buffy hit at it over and over with the piece of metal she had found, managing to sever four of its slimy limbs, keeping it at bay for the moment. But it wouldn’t be long before more emerged from the time portal above the Hellmouth.

“Buffy,” Spike called, “we need to get her to the hospital. She’s losin’ too much blood. Her heartbeat’s slowing.”

Buffy shot a quick glance to where Spike was seated with Tara, and saw that he had cut the tentacle off, so that only the part through Tara’s chest remained. He scooped her up in his arms.

“Take her,” Spike said, trying to put her in Buffy’s arms.

Buffy shook her head. “No, I need to finish this. Did it once, I’ll do it again. You get her to the hospital, Spike.”

There were three startled gasps from the door of the library as Giles, Xander and Anya returned, axes and swords in hand.

“Good Lord,” Giles said, staring at Tara’s limp form.

“What the hell have you done?” Xander shouted, staring at Spike. “Get away from her!”

“Xander, Spike’s helping,” Buffy said, then turned back to look at the vampire, her eyes fixed on his. “Get her to the hospital. I know she’ll be safe with you.”

“Safe?” Xander scoffed. “She’s covered in blood! How do we know he won’t get hungry and have a little snack on the way? I’ll take her.”

“There’s no time for this!” Buffy shouted. “Tara could be dying and you’re standing here arguing! Xander, we might need you here to help get through to Willow. And I trust Spike. Now go!”

Spike’s eyes had widened when Buffy said she trusted him, and he gave her a look filled with all the emotion he was feeling. She smiled weakly back at him, and then he turned and ran from the room, Tara clutched tight against his chest.

Giles handed Buffy an axe. “We need to stop this, as soon as possible.”

“It’s just going to keep coming, Giles,” Buffy said, as she darted forwards and sliced another tentacle from the creature as it began to emerge from the portal.

There was a low moan, and Willow’s eyelids began to flutter. She swayed a little from side to side, then seemed to snap out of the trance she’d been in, and began looking around wildly.

“What…?” Her voice was hoarse. “What’s going on?”

The portal disgorged more and more of the creature in a seemingly never ending surge of sticky, fleshy limbs and tentacles.

Buffy leapt over the debris on the floor of the library to reach it, hacking and slashing at the creature, trying to ignore the horrible squishing sounds it made as the limbs were severed and fell to the ground.

She felt Xander and Giles come up behind her, weapons in hand as they too joined in on the fight. Anya had gone over to Willow, helping her stand up, and Buffy had no clue where Ned had disappeared to, and at that moment, she didn’t care. Though it would have been nice if he’d stuck around to help.

“You and your stupid magic has done this,” Anya said, gripping Willow’s arm tighter than she normally would have. “Fix it!”

“I-I…” Willow looked around wildly, trying to take everything in. “What… I don’t understand.”

Anya sighed heavily. “You created a temporal fold, but something went wrong - as usual. So now we’ve got a big swirling time portal with a seriously disgusting demon coming from it, Tara’s in the hospital – or quite possibly being eaten by Spike – and if Xander gets damaged I am not going to be happy!”

“Tara’s in the hospital?” Willow’s eyes widened. “What happened?”

“Did I not just explain? Time portal. Hellmouth. Monster. Got it?”

Willow nodded dumbly.

“Good! Now fix it.”

Willow sank to her knees next to the circle of sand, and closed her eyes, placing her hands flat against the floor, palms down.

“Fixing now would be good!” Buffy called, only just managing to avoid being knocked over.

Willow began to chant, the words too low and monotonous to hear, and the blue light that had formed the portal began to emerge and surround the creature, bathing the whole room in an eerie glow.

Her chants became louder, and the light brighter, and then there was a loud explosion followed by a strange suctioning sound, as the creature was pulled back into the portal and it closed up with a bang.

The silence left behind was deafening, after so much noise and mayhem its presence was profound.

Buffy sighed, and tossed the metal from the book cage to the ground, and swinging her axe onto her shoulder. “We need to get to the hospital.”

“Oh Goddess, Tara,” Willow’s eyes filled with tears, and she began to visibly shake.

“Yeah,” Buffy said. “I just hope she’s all right.”

***

Buffy pushed open the front door with a sigh, setting her keys down on the hall table and hanging up her jacket. Dawn followed silently behind her, slipping her shoes from her feet and then padding into the living room.

Both sisters sank down onto the couch, neither sure what to say. It felt like the end of an era, and though Dawn had said goodbye before, this time it really felt final.

“You think he’ll come back?” Dawn asked, leaning back and sliding her head down to rest on Buffy’s shoulder.

“Not to stay,” Buffy replied, resting her head against Dawn’s. “But he’ll visit. Xander and Anya’s wedding isn’t too far away, so he’ll be back for that at least. I’ll miss him, though.”

“Are you gonna miss Willow, too?”

“I’ve been missing her for a while, Dawn,” Buffy said, sadly. “We haven’t been close in a long time.”

“I won’t miss her,” Dawn said fiercely. “Not after what she did. Tara could’ve…”

“She didn’t,” Buffy replied. “Lucky that it didn’t hit any vital organs.”

“Lucky that Spike drives like a maniac.”

Buffy smiled. Ned’s disappearance at the Hellmouth had been because he’d gone with Spike and Tara to the hospital, apparently popping into the car and scaring ‘the bejeesus’ out of the vampire – which Spike vehemently denied, of course.

To hear her Imaginary Friend tell it, Spike had broken nearly all the rules of the road as he raced towards Sunnydale Memorial, and had even crashed through the hospital’s welcome sign as he pulled up outside.

Dawn yawned, and stood up. “I think I’m going to go to bed. Why Giles couldn’t have got an earlier flight, I don’t know.”

“Night, Dawnie,” Buffy called, as her sister went upstairs. “I’m not patrolling tonight, so I’ll be here.”

“Night,” Dawn shouted back down, and then a few moments later Buffy heard her sister’s bedroom door click shut.

Buffy leaned her head against the back of the couch and groaned. She was tired, but she knew that she would be unable to sleep – there were too many thoughts milling around in her mind.

A quiet pop let her know that Ned had teleported in, and she smiled as she sat up. He was sitting cross-legged on the coffee table in front of the couch, smiling back.

“Everything okay?” he asked, removing his fedora from his head and twirling it in his hands.

“Peachy,” Buffy replied. “Giles has left. Willow’s gone to England to train her magics at a coven. The only good thing is that Tara was awake and talking earlier. The doctors think that she’ll be well enough to come home by the weekend.”

“Sorry about your old man leaving,” Ned said. “He was determined though; even I couldn’t change his mind.”

Buffy looked at Ned suspiciously. “Did you do something?”

“Who? Me?” Ned’s eyes were wide and innocent, but he soon dropped the act. “Okay, yeah. I fed him some false news reports about his hometown. Hooligans and thieves and that kind of thing. Bugger just decides to live elsewhere instead, doesn’t he?”

“I appreciate the effort, though,” Buffy said. “Thanks. But I think we need to talk.”

Ned gasped in mock horror, and leapt up from the coffee table, placing the back of his hand over his eyes as he adopted the pose of a weepy romance novel heroine.

“Say it ain’t so! Don’t do this to me, Buffy!” he dropped to his knees before her, and buried his head in her lap, loud fake sobs filling the room. “Oh please, Buffy! Tell me it’s not true!”

“Get off me,” Buffy grumbled, good-naturedly.

“But-but-” Ned stammered, looking up at her with comically wide eyes. “Nothing good ever comes of those words. You’re breaking up with me, aren’t you? Aren’t you!”

Buffy couldn’t help herself as she dissolved into giggles, her Imaginary Friend following suit and rolling on the floor in laughter.

A few minutes later she sobered, the occasional chuckle rising up as she looked at Ned. “You’re right though, in a way. I guess I am kind of breaking up with you.”

Ned scrambled to his feet, and pulled out his notebook, brandishing it at her. “Really? But we’re not done with your issues!”

“I think we are,” Buffy said, then sighed. “I’ve been thinking a lot the past couple of days. Willow went off into the deep end with her magicks, and Tara almost died. We all could have been hurt a lot more than we were. It was a… wake up call, I guess. Ever since I came back, it’s like I’ve only been half here… going through the motions. You’ve helped. And Spike, he’s helped too.”

Buffy paused, and Ned smiled, nodding at her to continue.

“Fighting that creature in the old library, well, it brought back a hell of a load of memories. My very first apocalypse. The night I died. You know, the first time.” Buffy smiled wryly. “You know what I said to Giles that night?”

Ned shook his head, his usual grin replaced by a serious expression as he listened.

“I don’t wanna die.” Buffy stood up, and walked into the hallway, standing before the mirror. She fingered the bite marks on her neck, the punctures the Master had made still visible even through the scarring from Angel and Dracula.

“I don’t want to die.” Her voice was stronger now, more sure, as she tore her gaze away from her reflection and looked to Ned once more.

“I think I’m okay now, Ned.” She smiled, and swallowed around the lump that had suddenly appeared in her throat. “I’ve still got issues. Who doesn’t? But… I think you can go now. Find someone else who needs your help.”

Ned nodded, and turned his head away slightly.

“Are you crying?” Buffy asked.

“No! Of course not!” Ned’s voice was wobbly.

“Oh come here, you big freak,” Buffy pulled Ned into a tight hug. “For some reason, I’m gonna miss you.”

“Miss you too,” Ned said, as he pulled out of the hug. “Guess I’d better be going then. Bye, Buffy. I’m glad that I got you instead of the murderer in Kansas.”

“My alternative was a murderer in Kansas?” Buffy exclaimed. “Well that’s just insulting.”

She sighed when she realised that Ned had gone, and wandered into the kitchen, arms wrapped around herself. She knew that she’d made the right decision, but for the past few weeks Ned had been like a crutch, a support to lean on that she didn’t even know she’d needed.

She heard the snick of a lighter, then the quiet whoosh of a flame as a cigarette was lit. She peered out the backdoor, and could see Spike’s shadowy silhouette, a column of smoke rising into the air above him.

Buffy smiled to herself. She walked slowly across the kitchen, and pushed open the porch door.

Perhaps it was time to find that support somewhere else.