W/T Season 3 Y'all

Rating: NC-17 (Overall)

Disclaimer: Willow and Tara and any other character that appeared in the syndicated television show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is property of Joss and Mutant Enemy, I’m only borrowing them and am not making any money off them Thanks.

Distribution: /mysticmuse.net

Spoilers: Season 3.

Pairing: Willow/Tara

Author's Notes: You remember how Willow was in a coma and came out of it in Becoming? And how Buffy was accused of killing Kendra? Well, Willow’s parents actually took some notice of those events. That and the fact that when they got to the hospital, she had a boyfriend they had never met: a musician! So they did what any caring loving parents would do. That’s right: stay home more and pay more attention to their daughter right? Wrong! They sent her to boarding school out in the beautiful Hill County of Texas.

Part 51

"Uh, like this?" Willow asked tentatively.

"Close, y-y-you have to be smoother though."

"Ok, so do it again but smoother?"

"Yeah. Start over s-s-sweetie."

Willow took a deep breath. Who knew this would be this frustrating? She thought it would be so fun. "How’s that?"

"B-b-better."

"Now what?"

"Pull back."

"Like this?"

Tara jolted suddenly. "Not exactly. Let’s try again."

"Do I want to go fast or slow? Which is better?" Willow asked. She’d been wondering for a while but maybe Tara could go ahead and give her the hint.

"Uh, well. It’s kind of w-w-wait, wait, go fast, wait, w-w-wait."

"How do I know when?"

"Listen closely sweetie," Tara explained.

"When I hear…" Willow started.

"it will get louder," Tara finished.

Willow stopped for a minute. "This is kind of embarrassing."

"I can s-s-see that," Tara agreed.

"I mean here we are in the school parking lot. Who knows who’s watching or how many people," Willow complained.

"D-d-do you want to stop? You said you wanted to try…" Tara offered.

Willow pouted for a minute before answering: "no I’ll keep trying. You said the important thing is timing my foot and hand?"

"Yes," Tara agreed as both their bodies shook and jangled again.

Before Willow could start the car again Tara offered, "do you w-w-want to take a break?"

"No," Willow responded. "I don’t want to take a break. I want to do this and be good at it and drive all over this lot and out the gate and down the street. I’m 18 years old. This is dumb. Stupid Sunnydale."

Tara laughed at her girlfriend’s rant. They had been out in the parking lot for close to an hour. Actually it was going about like she had expected. The only car that they could use for their first driving lesson was Emma’s which happened to be a standard. Unfortunately when Tara had mentioned that she wanted to teach Willow to drive on the school truck, the answer had been "no. no. and oh yeah: no." The school’s insurance barely covered Tara and only because she was a student and employee. It didn’t cover Willow at all, especially since she didn’t have a license. Both Eliza and James had been pretty darn firm that their cars weren’t up for the adventure and that left Emma’s beaten-down bug. It was a standard which made the lesson much harder but Tara had attempted to assure Willow that if she could learn to drive a stick-shift, she would find an automatic really easy when she got to drive one.

Tara was finding it not that surprising that Willow was having trouble. The redhead didn’t have the world’s best hand-eye coordination even if she was really great at some activities that involved hands (more than eyes). Tara got a smile on her face as she thought about that. Oh, those hands. Since homecoming, the two girls were making up for their lost time and their love-making was especially tender and loving. Tara was still somewhat worried about hurting Willow and a few times the redhead had had shooting pains from a wrong movement but generally it was really wonderful.

"Ok baby," Tara spoke soothingly, "start the car with the clutch in. Then ease on the gas and off the clutch at the same time. When you hear the engine revving higher, push the clutch in, ease off the gas and shift into second, then reverse your feet."

"You know that’s a lot of stuff to do at the same time right?" Willow confirmed.

Tara smiled again. The fact was that there was simply no way to keep from smiling around her. Everything about her made the blonde light up. When she thought about this quirky woman, her body tingled with joy and excitement. "Yes it is b-b-but I know you can do it love," Tara reassured her.

Willow took a deep breath before starting the car. Once it was started, she did as Tara had instructed easing off the clutch and onto the gas before reversing the pattern to shift into second and then back onto the gas. The car lurched forward as she got it going and then again as she shifted into second but it didn’t stall this time. They moved slowly around the lot. Taking her hands off the wheel for a second, Willow waved her hands in the air. "I did it!" she yelled as she glanced briefly at her lover. She was so excited that she decided to stop the car and hug Tara.

Tara realized what Willow was about to do just before she did it but had only gotten out, "r-r-remem…" before the car slowed and shuddered to a sudden stop, the engine dying.

"Clutch, stop, right?’ Willow asked.

"Clutch, stop, right," Tara echoed. "But you d-d-did great getting it started. Why don’t you do it one more time and we can park it again before we h-h-have to go in." Willow nodded and this time got the car moving on the first try before driving it through the lot in second gear and pulling into an empty space. As she turned off the engine she turned to hug Tara.

As they hugged Tara whispered in Willow’s ear, "we have a few minutes before w-w-we need to go in. Do you want to see what else c-c-cars are good for?" Without waiting for an answer she turned to capture the redhead’s lips in her own. Softly she pressed her mouth to Willow’s. Feeling in a teasing mood, she kissed her lips lightly at first before pulling back slightly. As Willow moved forward slightly, mourning the loss of contact, Tara moved forward to kiss her more hungrily. The redhead parted her lips slightly as if expecting to feel Tara’s tongue probing firmly between them and was surprised to feel air again as Tara had pulled slightly away.

Without opening her eyes Willow whispered, "you’re playing with me lover."

Tara ran her hand down Willow’s chest, across her stomach, and to her lap. She didn’t answer verbally but wrapped her other hand around the back of Willow’s head and pulled her in for another passionate kiss. After this time thrusting her tongue between Willow’s parted lips to hear the redhead’s moan Tara again retreated, "yes I am." As she ran her fingertips over Willow’s hard nipples she continued, "do you l-l-like it?"

Willow could only gasp "ye…" before Tara’s mouth again claimed her own. The redhead’s mind was racing at a thousand miles an hour and her body perhaps twice that fast. She couldn’t believe what Tara was doing to her. She already felt incredibly turned on and knew that her panties were soaked under her short skirt. Goddess, if Tara was to trail her hand under there… Willow’s brain was melting under that thought.

Suddenly the blonde pulled back smiling evily and looking at her watch. "Well that was fun," she growled, "time to g-g-go in."

Seeing her opportunity Willow grabbed Tara behind the neck and put her lips by Tara’s ear. She purred as she licked up its crest: "funny. I was thinking about you going in too…" She was rewarded by a plaintive moan from the blonde who blushed as she opened the door to the car.

"I h-h-have to b-b-be…" she protested as she stood up.

Willow laughed as she joined the blonde walking across the blacktop. "I got you. I got you. I got you," she sang as she twirled around.

Tara decided to keep the teasing going: "wow the w-w-way you’re singing baby maybe you should try out?"

"What? What? Try out. There’s not enough money and no way that I would and I couldn’t and there’s no way and you’re the tryer outer and the big star and I’m the content to be in the wings and send you flowers on opening night and … Hey, you’re teasing me."

"Well sure I am. It’s so f-f-fun," Tara smiled wickedly. The two girls reached the auditorium and took their seats in the hall as they watched the last few guys finish their tryouts for the musical. A teacher Willow had never seen before, whom she assumed must be Mr. Head the choral director, announced that there would be a short break before the girl’s tryouts would start.

Looking at her watch Willow asked, "baby. Do you want to go and eat a quick lunch before your tryout?"

Tara shook her head looking somewhat nervous about the suggestion, "c-c-can’t eat. N-n-no." Giving Willow a brief kiss she indicated that she was going to go and get ready back stage for the tryout. Willow went to the cafeteria to get some lunch. She didn’t see anyone that she usually ate with so she ate quickly while browsing her calculus book.

By the time she got back to the auditorium, there were quite a few students in the audience. As she understood it at some schools tryouts were closed. But apparently Mr. Head contended that the performers would have to deal with nervousness and stage-fright eventually and that they might as well get used to them now. So his auditions were always open and other students were welcome to watch the tryouts of their "competition."

"How’d the driving go?"

Willow turned quickly to see Michelle taking a seat next to her. "Uh ok. It was hard. I’m trying to learn to not stall every time."

The junior nodded, "it takes a while to learn. My mother taught me last summer."

"But no car huh?" Willow confirmed.

Michelle agreed, "yeah. I’d rather go to school here than drive fancy car and that’s pretty much the choice." She added, "sorry that Eliza wouldn’t let you borrow her car. It is easier to drive an automatic."

"That’s ok. I can understand her feelings. I mean I’m not sure I’d let her borrow my laptop," Willow looked up to see that Michelle had understood that she wasn’t mad and also that she was joking about the laptop. "Did you come to see Tara? James was finishing when we came in before lunch," Willow asked and commented.

"and Eliza," Michelle answered.

"Eliza?" Willow was shocked. On one hand sure Eliza seemed the artistic type with all the drawing and cartoons and everything but on the other, she was so tough that it was hard to imagine her singing torch songs.

Michelle nodded, "yep. Surprised me too. We woke up this morning and I asked her what she wanted to do and she was completely casual like, ‘take a walk, eat some lunch, tryout for the musical, see a movie.’" Michelle continued, "she teased that she’d have to tryout because quote ‘performers get all the best chicks.’"

"Well in this case I think the redhead and brunette sitting in the audience got the best chicks," Willow argued. As Michelle giggled and nodded Willow got a mischievous look in her eye. "Let me see… I’m remembering something I heard recently… oh I know. ‘we woke up this morning.’" She cocked an eye at Michelle to give her best impression of an interrogation.

"What? No. I mean not that kind of wake up. Ok, that kind of wake up but not that kind of go to sleep," as she blushed she swatted Willow’s arm. "Hey, that’s mean," she pouted.

Willow laughed, "sorry . You two are so cute together. I’m really glad that she came here and everything."

"Me too," Michelle agreed with a dreamy look on her face. Turning to look at Willow she explained more seriously, "I really like her a lot. You know?" Willow nodded wondering where the junior was going with this. She appeared really nervous. "But I don’t’ know about the ‘going to sleep’ part. I mean I think that she’s probably… uh you know before." She looked down at her hands as she whispered, "do you think she has?"

Willow took a deep breath, not sure how to answer that question. She was about 110% sure that Eliza had ‘gone to sleep’ with at least one other girl but if Michelle and Eliza hadn’t discussed that, then it certainly wasn’t her place to discuss it. As the words came out of her mouth, she thought about the parallel between this and when Tara and she had not yet made love. She wondered if these were the same fears that the blonde had held. She had learned that weekend that Tara had in fact thought that Willow was more experienced than herself: that Willow had been with Oz. Perhaps if they had discussed it more openly, it would have assuaged her fears and nervousness. Instead of answering Michelle’s question, Willow returned it back, "do you? Have you talked about it with her?"

"Not really," Michelle explained quietly, "sometimes I think there are things she doesn’t want to talk about."

"Do you know if this is one of them?" Willow prompted.

Michelle shook her head as she answered, "no. I didn’t ask. I guess I could huh?" Willow patted the junior’s hand but didn’t respond as they began concentrating on the tryouts as Tara and Eliza would be coming up soon.

After a few minutes Willow leaned over to ask Michelle, "why aren’t you up there Chelle?"

The junior blushed even more than Willow would have if asked that question: "me on a stage? No thank you. I’ll stick with running this spring. No nightmares for me." Willow nodded her head vigorously to show how easily Michelle had summed up her attitude.

Hours later Michelle and Willow walked up to the table holding aloft truly monstrous sundaes. In spite of the fact that neither girl wanted to be in the spotlight on stage, they had no problem clowning around in the cafeteria. They hummed and high stepped their way to the table before setting down the messy sundaes with a bang and flourish before clapping and hollering for their girlfriends.

The difference in Tara and Eliza’s temperaments and personalities was apparent as the blonde hid her red face in her hands and attempted to pull Willow onto her lap while "shushing" the other three girls. Eliza on the other hand stood to take some fake bows before kissing Michelle on the lips. Giving a "what the hell" expression she turned and kissed Willow too before twirling the small redhead around and setting her back in front of Tara.

Still laughing Michelle and Willow fell into the empty chairs by their girlfriends and dug in a huge spoonful of ice cream and toppings before waving them in front of their respective girlfriend’s mouths. "Ok star, have some ice cream to celebrate," Willow commented playfully before darting the spoon forward towards Tara’s open mouth. To her credit, she did actually put it in Tara’s mouth as opposed to Michelle who intentionally allowed her spoon to trail over Eliza’s lips and chin.

"Ahhh, look, I made a mess," Michelle teased before leaning forward to lick the ice cream trail off her girlfriend’s chin. As she did so, Eliza pulled her down onto her lap and nuzzled into her neck.

"Does it seem kind a hot in here to anyone else?" Willow teased.

"Oh, like you two aren’t like this half the time," Eliza teased back. Holding up her full spoon she held it out over the table like she was toasting. Everyone else loaded their spoons up too and held them over the center of the table waiting for her speech, "congratulations to the Witch and Cinderella," she said simply nodding her head to indicate Tara and herself respectively. "Oh, and to Prince Charming too even if he and Emma went out for dinner tonight," she added. All four girls clanged their spoons together, showering the table with ice cream and toppings somewhat, before beginning to dig in to their sundaes and waiting for the movie to start.

As they ate their treats, Tara stroked her girlfriend’s hand. She knew that Willow was very upset about the news she was getting from back home. She had talked to Buffy after the tryouts while Tara was upstairs in her own room. When the blonde had entered, she had found Willow crying uncontrollably on the bed.

Tara had spent a long time holding Willow while she and trying to ease her fears somewhat. The redhead was overwhelmed with powerful emotions. She was angry toward Faith for hurting those she loved. Of course the leftover feelings she had toward the dark-haired slayer from the first violent meeting and then the way the girl had treated Tara had already left her not liking Faith. Now, knowing that Faith had killed someone, blamed Buffy, and then tried to hurt Xander, she was livid. More important than that was the fact that Willow felt completely useless being so far away. She couldn’t help her friends and didn’t even talk to them all that often.

Tara remembered when the redhead had first arrived at school, how much it pained her to be away from her friends. How much she felt that she was useless because she couldn’t help them with the Scooby business. Although the blonde knew that Willow would never trade a second of the time they had shared, she also knew that her lover really missed her friends and her role in fighting evil. Now that Faith had apparently taken a run toward the dark side, she felt that she was needed more than ever.

After the ice cream and movie, Tara and Willow returned to Willow’s room. The redhead had again gotten very upset about the situation in Sunnydale and her inability to do anything about it. Tara held her and worked her magical healing on her as much as was safe and prudent. In the end Willow wasn’t aided by the magic but by her lover’s strong arms and loving caress as she finally fell into an exhausted slumber.

Part 52

Dopplegangland Too

Previously on...

Tara pulled her girlfriend by the hand across the grass: "come on sweetie. It’s a b-b-beautiful day, too beautiful to spend the whole thing in bed."

"Nice try Chelle," Tara laughed back, "maybe some day."

Willow ran her hand along Xander’s black leather. Sometimes it was just so boring to make these choices. She could play with him or they could play with this lovely thing in front of them. But he said that it was his turn to play so maybe she’d just let him. But…so nice and curvy. Brunette though, a blonde would be so much more fun. Maybe more curvy.

And unbelievably their prey was copping a major attitude to them: "No. No way! I wished us into bizarro land and you still get girls? I can not win!"

Geez, all with the righteous indignation much chickie? Blah blah blah Buffy Blah blah blah Slayer blah blah blah

Bored now

…

And today is the big day. The plant is opening and the smell of fear will permeate the air. Although, blood from a glass? Yuck. It’s so much better from a young girl. So you can feel her squirming and moaning as you drink. Enjoy the closeness of her hot body, pulling her in to rub against you. Mmm. Maybe I can find a blonde in the pens. A young one with blue eyes. Oh yeah, that would be sooo nice.

Moving toward the blonde who was now fighting the Master, Willow barely felt the White Hat who gave her a shove into the side of the holding pen. As the wooden splinter entered her back, she exclaimed, "Fu..".

Willow met Tara coming across the field. "You won’t believe who just called me," she exclaimed taking the blonde’s hand and urging her toward the parking lot.

"Who sweetie?"

"Anya. You remember that girl who helped us out with the kids at the bronze?"

Tara scrunched up her nose for a minute before she remembered, "the weird one who thought the spell was fun and said we weren’t virgins?"

Willow nodded as they reached the parking lot and stopped walking, "yeah her. Hmm, are we virgins?"

"Off topic my love," Tara "What d-d-did she say?"

Willow pulled the keys to Emma’s car from her pocket as she answered, "let’s start driving and I’ll fill you in."

"Ok, but I thought you were trying to check out the mayor’s files for Giles or something?" Tara asked. "And, what is Anya doing here?"

Willow smiled as she opened the door and let the blonde in: "I’m still working on the mayor’s files but I could use a break. She sounded like she just happened through but she said that Buffy gave her my number."

Tara nodded and let Willow start driving. The redhead had been improving her driving lately and she was pretty sure that she would be ready to take the test in the next few weeks. Anyway, most of the way into town was all county roads. While she drove Willow explained that Anya was staying at a Holiday Inn in town. She had called and said that she needed the girls’ help with a spell and happened to be in the area. Of course Willow’s sense of having to make up for their spell encouraged her to do what the girl needed.

"Do you know what kind of spell she needs?" Tara asked.

"No but if it’s something bad or dangerous, we just say no right?"

"Right," Tara agreed as they reached the hotel.

Anya was waiting for them in her hotel room. She offered them drinks and inquired about their trip in. She was trying desperately to seem like a normal human being. The truth is that she wasn’t a normal human being. Anya had spent over 1100 years as a vengeance demon. Her power center was a necklace. Earlier in the year she had come to Sunnydale to entice Cordelia Chase to make a vengeance wish on Xander Harris. The wish had had very unexpected and horrific results and eventually Giles had destroyed her necklace stranding her as a mortal 12^th grader. If she could get her necklace back, she could continue her vengeance ways.

Tara started awkwardly, "so w-w-what do you n-n-need?"

"Oh, it’s just a teensey spell that I need some help with. I can’t do it alone but need either one or two seconds to make a little temporal fold," Anya explained somewhat truthfully.

"Oh ok. We’re great at spells…" Willow started but quieted down as she saw the look on Tara’s face. Tara realized as Willow began to answer that to her this was a much needed connection with Sunnydale. She believed that if she did this spell, not only would her debt be paid to this girl, but that she would be helping the Scoobies in their time of need. Nonetheless, Tara did not trust the visitor.

"Why do you n-n-need a temporal fold?" Tara asked the former demon.

"I lost a necklace my mother owned. I would like to find it again," she began. As she spoke, she noted a look of sadness in the blonde’s eyes. This girl had not spent 1100 years getting vengeance wishes from women without learning anything about human nature. She went forward toward her suspicions: "she died three months ago. She gave it to me the last time we spoke." She stopped a few seconds to emphasize her grief and cause a tear to form in her eye. Neither Willow nor Tara noticed her pulling a hair from the nape of her neck to get that reaction. "Someone broke into my apartment and stole it…" she trailed off and knew that she had a winner as Tara wrapped her in her arms with a comforting hug.

"How does it work?" Willow asked, clear that they would be doing the spell for the girl.

The three girls worked to set up for the spell as Anya explained: "We call on Eyrishon, the endless one. Offer up the standard supplication. Then there's a teensy temporal fold - we hope -- I pour the sacred sand on the representation of the necklace and Eyrishon brings it forth from the time and place where it was lost." All three girls sat down around the circle in the waning daylight.

Joining hands they began the alternating incantation: "Eyrishon. K'shala. Meh-uhn. Diprecht. Doh-tehenlo Nu-Eyrishon. The child to the mother. The river to the sea. Eyrishon. Hear my prayer." As they spoke, Willow and Anya had their hands joined around the bottle of sacred sand as Willow and Tara’s other hands were joined. Tara and Anya’s other hands were joined forming a circle.

With her eyes closed Tara was immediately aware of the powerful light crashing through the room. Behind her eyelids, she took in a confusing jumble of images. She and Michelle walked across a field. They rode a horse. She was brushing down Chestnut alone. She slept under the stars. She was kissing Michelle and the junior kissed her back. Tara’s eyes snapped open to close off the final image of her lips trailing down the brunette’s bare stomach.

As Tara was seeing these images, gastly horrors filled Willow’s head. She saw a hideous demon fighting with Giles. Xander licking blood from his fingers. Cordelia falling to the ground dead. A land of darkness and vampires and a violent fight involving Buffy, Xander, Angel, and herself. Nothing but death and dispair. Disgusted and terrified by the images, Willow pulled the hand she clasped to Tara’s over the plate. Their joined hands arrested the flow of sand toward the representation of the necklace as both girls began to move back from the visitor.

The Vampire Willow from Willow’s horrific vision was about to be impaled on a stake by Oz as she suddenly glimmered out of existence to land on the floor of the deserted warehouse. "Weird," she muttered.

At the same moment, a somewhat confused Tara looked around the stables where she had just brushed Chestnut down from their long ride. Gee, I thought I hadn’t hung up the tack yet. Oh well, I guess I did. Having a few more chores to do, she began work right away so she could get back to the dorm.

"W-w-what was that?" Tara asked.

Anya looked at the plate brushing her hands over the sand in vain. "It’s not here," she complained somewhat obviously.

The three girls exchanged some choice words regarding the level of honesty that Anya was sharing with them. If the visions they had experienced were any indication, Willow and Tara had no interest in participating in any more spells with the strange girl. They admonished her for her foolishness as they headed out the door of the hotel. Strangely Anya yelled after them that she would stay a few more days if they decided to change their minds.

The girls were both quiet on the return trip to the school. Each of them was disturbed by her own confusing vision. They drove through a fast-food restaurant for some dinner since they figured they’d be too late getting back for dinner and it was already dark outside.

Michelle was returning to her room with a cup of coffee. The junior had been studying for a test the next day and needed a break. Eliza awaited her in Michelle’s room but she didn’t seem to have much interest in studying. It was taking most of Michelle’s willpower to continue studying as Eliza practiced her songs for the play. She was distracted by thoughts of the sophomore as she saw Tara. "Hey Tara," she greeted the blonde as she stopped in the center of the hall.

A smile lit up Tara’s face as she saw the junior. Careful not to spill the coffee she hugged her as she asked, "studying?"

Michelle was a little puzzled by Tara’s hug. They weren’t usually every-day-hug type friends although on special occasions or celebrations or whatever they didn’t shy away from it. More puzzling though was the fact that the blonde was kind of keeping her hands on Michelle’s hips in a light grasp. "Uh yeah, I am," she responded allowing her puzzlement to creep into her voice.

Tara leaned in closer as if to nuzzle her mouth into the skin of Michelle’s neck as she whispered, "that’s good. I like smart w-w-women. Very sexy."

As Michelle stood in shock and confusion, Tara leaned forward as if to kiss her on the mouth while the junior took a few steps back, narrowing her gaze a little: "Tara? What’s going on?"

Tara smiled as she answered, "what’s going on? Can’t I l-l-let my girlfriend know I missed her today and give her a kiss before I go get showered up to c-c-come join her studying?"

Michelle assessed Tara’s tone before giving the only answer she could think of: "are you stoned?"

Tara shook off the question, "what? That’s ridiculous baby. Of course I’m n-n-not stoned. I don’t smoke." She returned the teasing, "are you stoned?"

"Of course I’m not stoned. What’s wrong with you Tare?" Michelle asked again.

"Why are you s-s-saying that?" Tara asked, beginning to be as puzzled as the junior.

"Why am I saying that?" Michelle echoed. "Perhaps because I don’t think I like the way this conversation is going. I don’t think Willow or Eliza would either Tara," she admonished.

"Willow?" Tara mused. The name sounded familiar to her but she couldn’t place it. "Eliza, the new girl?"

Michelle nodded her head, "yeah Eliza. She’s waiting for me in my room."

Tara looked somewhat disappointed, "oh Chelle. I don’t really think it’s a g-g-good idea to be hanging out with her. I mean do you know why she got kicked out of her l-l-last school? I don’t think having sex with a 15 year-old girl in a parked car is a noteworthy accomplishment. And do you know about her f-f-father. Wait a minute, why am I gossiping? Never mind."

The cup of coffee Michelle held had completely cooled by now but it shook in the junior’s hands. She set it down in the hallway as she tried to keep the tears from flowing from her eyes. So that’s what she didn’t want to tell me she realized. As Tara moved closer again as if to kiss her, Michelle took a step backward: "look Tara, I don’t know what kind of game you’re playing but I’m going to go study now."

Tara narrowed her eyes at the junior. Finally she got a smile on her face as she responded, "oh who’s p-p-playing a game now? I’ll tell you what: you pretend to go and spend time with Eliza. I’ll go take a shower and c-c-come down after so we can spend some snuggle time." She rubbed down Michelle’s arm as she let her know, "I’ll be back in a little while."

Tara and Willow pulled into the parking lot. Both girls felt tired from the casting this afternoon and from the material of their visions. Willow let Tara know that she needed to stop at the computer lab but would meet her at her room to study this evening. The two girls kissed briefly at the door to the computer lab before Tara headed up the stairs.

The blonde went to her room to grab her bookbag. Hey, Alyson’s home tonight she observed. Her roommate had again borrowed her shower things. Frequently she left her own shampoo and other supplies at Lexi’s room and borrowed Tara’s when she was in their room. Yet another good reason to spend the night at Willow’s. The thought caused a smile to grace her face as she closed the door behind her and walked toward the stairs.

As she reached Willow’s room she placed her hand on the doorknob and put her key in the lock. She could hear Willow’s phone ringing quietly but didn’t know if she would reach it in time. Probably it was Buffy calling since it seemed that only the Scoobies had the number. Either that or Giles wanted to see what progress the hacker was making on the mayor’s files. Just before she could turn the key she heard Eliza’s voice: "Tara!"

Tara turned to see the sophomore coming toward her down the hall. "What’s up?" she called out jovially in spite of the look of anger on Eliza’s face.

"What’s up? What’s up? Where do you get off…" Eliza trailed off as she reached the blonde. Rather than finishing her sentence she pulled back her hand. Tara had barely noticed the movement when she felt pain shooting through her head starting at the point where Eliza’s hand made contact with her jaw. The blonde fell to the floor as much from shock as from being punched.

The younger girl took a deep breath and stood in the hall. "Well," she prompted.

Tara raised her eyebrows, "well w-w-what Eliza? You want to me to e-e-explain why you just p-p-punched me?"

Eliza stuck out her hand and pulled the blonde up from the floor. "Sorry about that. Temper I guess," she mumbled. "What the fuck Tara? Why tell Chelle that stuff and trying to make out with her in the hallway?"

Tara again creased her eyebrows in complete puzzlement, "why the w-w-what and t-t-tell who huh and m-m-make huh?"

Eliza spat out, "you know what I’m talking about. She’s been crying in there for ten solid minutes. I only came out here to find you and see what the holy-fuck you were thinking and haul your ass back to apologize. Not that I think she wants to hear it."

Tara shook her head as she spoke, "I have n-n-no idea what you are t-t-talking about. I h-h-haven’t seen Chelle today." Seeing the disgusted look on Eliza’s face as she spoke Tara suggested, "how about w-w-we g-g-go talk to h-h-her?"

The two girls picked up Tara’s fallen book bag before walking the short distance to enter Michelle’s room.

Willow finished her work in the computer lab in a matter of a few minutes. Good. I want plenty of Tara-time. Goddess what that blonde does to me. The connection when we did that spell… She took a deep breath just enjoying the thought of Tara. Hey synchronicity she thought as she saw her girlfriend coming the other direction down the hallway.

Hearing her phone ringing, she attempted to open the door quickly while Tara was still approaching. Having gotten her door open she turned back to note that the blonde had now moved slightly past her down the hall. "Tara?" she questioned as the blonde turned toward her.

"Y-y-yes?" Tara asked turning to move a few feet closer to the redhead.

"Are you coming in? Where are your books sweetie?" Willow asked as her phone ceased ringing. Oh well, if it’s important, they’ll call back she reassured herself.

"Sweetie? W-w-who are y-you?" Tara asked. This was very strange, even more strange than the weird way Michelle had acted earlier. Now there was this redhead calling her sweetie and asking her if she wanted to come in a room that was being used for storage this year.

Willow smiled as she moved closer to the blonde. She wrapped her hands around Tara’s neck and began to entwine her fingers in her long blonde hair as she spoke, "oh you want to play some games. Like you don’t know who I am right? You want to meet all over and fall in love again?" She leaned forward kissing the blonde lightly on the lips. "That remind you?"

Tara took a quick step backwards disentangling herself from the redhead’s embrace as she stuttered, "what? W-w-who? W-w-what?" Whatever was going on here was very strange. And more importantly, that kiss. Oh Goddess, it was so short but something about it… No can’t think that. Girlfriend in room down the hall waiting for me she thought guiltily as she remembered Michelle waiting for her snuggles. Tara took a deep breath to try to explain herself to this beautiful woman, "I’m s-s-sorry. I’m not p-p-playing. I don’t k-k-know who y-y-you are."

Willow looked intently at Tara for a minute as the realization hit her that the blonde was serious, "you’re serious?" As Tara nodded, Willow took her hand gently. "I don’t know what’s going on baby but you’re scaring me."

Tara agreed, "it has b-b-been a strange day."

Willow nodded, "can you tell me about it?" She pointed to her room. "Why don’t we sit while you talk ok?"

Tara moved toward the doorway. She didn’t know this woman but somehow she made her feel secure and it seemed like she would understand the weird day that the blonde was having.

Buffy hung up the phone and turned toward the other Scoobies: "no answer. I let it ring a long time too."

Xander blew out a stream of breath between his teeth as he heard her words, "that makes sense. Willow’s not answering her phone in Texas since she’s here and locked in the book cabinet." Buffy looked at her friend only appreciating his attempt at humor slightly. It was hard to see anything funny about this situation.

"What is she doing here?" Giles asked.

"Maybe she and Tara came because they were worried about the stuff with Faith," Buffy posited. "I know she feels really left out being so far away. Maybe it’s spring break there?" The blonde was nearly in tears.

"Then where’s Tara?" Xander asked.

The group simultaneously shrugged their shoulders and waited for answers. Angel had come earlier with a report that vampires were attempting to take over the bronze. They went there to find Willow was the head vampire. It took Xander, Giles, Buffy, and Angel to bring her back here and lock her in the book cabinet since none of them was willing to stake her. But how did this happen? They waited for her to awaken from the tranquilizer they had finally used on her.

The foursome watched the familiar form began to stir. They had all seen Willow wake up at least once in their friendships. Buffy and Xander had seen it many times and Giles was certainly familiar with Willow’s shouting about frogs or horses as he woke her after she had fallen asleep over the keyboard on more than one long research night. This was somewhat different though. This waking Willow had no moment of fear and uncertainty.

This waking Willow looked up to take them in and held eye contact as she stood up to face the bars. "Getting even?" she snarled at Giles.

The watcher gave the most coherent answer he could muster: "what?"

The vampire smiled a predatory smile as if remembering some recent adventure. "The book cage. Must make you feel good to be on the outside this time," she told the older man.

Xander couldn’t take it anymore. He asked, "Will? Is that really you?"

Willow heard his voice but couldn’t believe it. She had seen him dusted not a day ago and here was her best friend and playmate. "Xander, you’re alive," she purred.

"Uh yeah," the boy responded completely confused as to her surprise.

She looked at him more closely noticing the rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. And then she noticed what he held in his hand, a wooden cross. "You’re alive?" she questioned.

"You said that."

Still confused she looked over the other two members of the group and knew that the shock had registered on her face. One was the blonde she had seen yesterday. Not the blonde she wanted. Not the blonde she was just dreaming about. The other one. The bad one. But the fourth member of the party was the most surprising: her puppy. That one thing, that one aspect, that one reality allowed her to know that she had somehow gotten into a wrong world. A world where nothing made sense. Where nothing was fun.

She was staring at the puppy with a glare so intense she hardly heard the blonde speaking to her. Finally she focused on her words: "Willow? Willow?"

She looked the girl in the eye before growling, "I don’t like you."

Buffy nodded her head, "ok. Will, where’s Tara?"

"Tara?" Willow repeated.

"Yeah Tara. Is she here with you somewhere?" Buffy asked.

Again Willow repeated, "Tara?"

Buffy blew out a breath as she explained, "you know: Tara. T-A-R-A. Your girlfriend. Cute, blonde hair, blue eyes."

Vampire Willow felt something she rarely felt. She felt as if she had just taken a blow to the chest. Rarely was any other vampire able to lay a finger on her in a fight and she certainly never encountered a human who could. But this. The name ‘Tara’, the description… She knew instantly that this Tara was the girl she was dreaming of. She wasn’t familiar with sadness, hadn’t been for years. But anger. She knew anger. It radiated out from her as she spat out, "don’t know a Tara."

"She’s your girlfriend," Xander tried to interject.

The vampire allowed her face to morph as she angrily attempted to get these human morons to understand her simple words: "Don’t. Know. Any. Tara. Never. Did." With that statement, she turned her back on the assembly as if dismissing them.

Xander turned to Buffy, "maybe they had a fight? Broke up? Did you call Tara?"

Buffy sat heavily in a chair as she answered, "I tried to call Tara. The student who answered ran up to her room but she wasn’t there. The kid left a note on the door." She looked again at the vampire in the cage as she thought aloud, "I guess we wait a little while and hope we hear from her?" Everyone nodded.

Angel looked to the others before moving toward the cage. He got Willow’s attention and tried to pass her a container of blood. She refused the container and snarled at him, "you’re domesticated. I’m not that desperate yet."

Tara sank tiredly into Willow’s desk chair as she sighed. "This has b-b-been a strange day," she repeated.

Willow sat down on the bed as she asked, "can you tell me about it?" This was so strange. Here she was in a room with the woman she loved and she felt like she couldn’t even touch her. It was obvious that Tara was largely uncomfortable with the redhead although she had agreed to come in the room and talk to her. That was something at least. In addition to looking at the floor rather than at Willow, she was continually playing with her hair band. She kept taking it off and putting it back on. The redhead recognized it as one that Tara and her mother had made when she was younger. Perhaps Anya had cast some kind of spell on her as they were leaving. No, that couldn’t be. Tara had seemed fine until Willow had gone to the computer lab.

Tara began speaking in her stuttering voice as she tried to put her thoughts together: "I took Chestnut for a l-l-long r-r-ride. When I c-c-came back, Chelle was r-r-really weird."

"Weird how?" Willow prompted

"Well, s-s-she pretended s-s-she d-d-didn’t know me." Tara reconsidered, "n-n-no. Not that she d-d-didn’t know me. She p-p-played like s-s-she’s not my g-g-girlfriend."

Willow’s mouth hung open as she repeated, "played like she’s not your girlfriend?"

"R-r-right," Tara confirmed, "then you act l-l-like I am y-y-your girlfriend. And you have a r-r-room that’s being used for s-s-storage." The blonde looked around the room again: "this is a r-r-really elaborate j-j-joke."

"I’m not sure who it’s a joke on ba-Tara," Willow corrected herself. "Um Tara, I don’t really know what’s going on but no one’s playing a joke. Michelle isn’t your girlfriend. I am."

Tara laughed at that, "y-y-you think I d-d-don’t know who my g-g-girlfriend is? Look. This is s-s-silly. Let’s go v-v-visit Michelle. Ok?" Willow nodded and both girls got up and walked from the room.

Tara and Eliza had entered Michelle’s room a few minutes earlier and were not surprised to find Michelle sitting on the bed crying. Tara looked from the junior to her girlfriend before advancing toward her. She had been planning to use her magical healing to attempt to figure out what was wrong and why the junior was so upset but as she saw the look of fear and anger on Michelle’s face, she stopped. "Chelle?" she quietly asked. As the junior nodded Tara continued, "what’s w-w-wrong?"

Michelle snorted through her tears as she grabbed another Kleenex. She was surrounded by a flock of crumpled tissues on the bed as if she had been crying for quite a while. "What’s wrong? How can you ask that?" she responded.

Tara leaned on the edge of the desk, not ignoring the angry stance Eliza had taken between the other two girls. Her jaw ached where Eliza had hit her and she knew that she would have a bruise in the morning. "I really d-d-don’t know what I d-d-did. Can you tell me?"

Michelle blew out a long breath. "You met me in the hallway. Tried to kiss me and flirted. Said that Eliza got kicked out of her last school for…" she trailed off making it obvious to both girls that this was perhaps the largest portion for the upset.

Tara wondered why Eliza had been kicked out of her school and what would make Michelle so upset. She considered asking if the junior was stoned but since none of them did drugs, that couldn’t be. Instead she answered, "I’m s-s-sorry Chelle but I d-d-don’t know what you’re t-t-talking about. I haven’t seen you t-t-today until right now."

Michelle turned to Eliza, "see. She’s been weird like this. What is she doing?" Eliza shrugged. She was just moving toward the blonde as the door opened and in walked Willow and Tara.

All five girls were completely open-mouthed as they took in the scene. Unable to think of anything to say, Willow turned and closed the door behind her. Taking a second thought, she turned the lock to keep out any unwanted interruptions. Eliza was the first to speak: "Oh I get it. Don’t touch each other or you’ll both disappear."

Willow turned to the younger girl, "I think that may only be with time travel. It’s because of the quantum physics and the molecular structure… wait a minute. Ok. Does everyone else see two Taras?"

Five heads nodded.

Michelle stood slowly and looked from one blonde to the other. "Anyone want to explain how this happened?"

"I’m g-g-gonna guess magic," one of the Taras said.

Michelle narrowed her eyes and looked to Eliza before answering, "magic? There’s no such thing as magic."

The other Tara, the one that had walked in the door with Willow smiled warmly at the junior as she walked closer to her. "Don’t be s-s-silly baby. Of course there’s magic. You know I’m a witch." Leaning forward she whispered, "remember when I …" The other girls couldn’t hear what she whispered in the junior’s ear but they certainly noticed the shocked look on Michelle’s face just before hearing the resounding sound of her hand slapping Tara’s face.

The girl who had just been slapped stood holding her cheek and looking shocked as she heard the other Tara speak, "you should be happy her hand was open."

Willow glanced over at the girl who had just spoken. Seeing the bruise forming on her jaw she advanced, "what happened to your …" she trailed off. Slowly she asked, "Tara?" The blonde nodded. "My Tara?" Willow confirmed. Tara smiled as she raised her hand.

Finally Eliza decided to make some progress as she declared: "ok, let’s sum up. The Tara who is Willow’s girlfriend, blue shirt right?" Everyone nodded. "And the one in the yellow shirt thinks she’s Michelle’s girlfriend right?"

Again everyone nodded with the exception of the yellow-shirted girl who explained exasperatedly, "I don’t t-t-think I am Michelle’s girlfriend. I am." As she noted everyone else’s look of confusion and correction she turned to the junior. She didn’t take a step forward but began to plead with her, "you asked me to go see Sleepless in Seattle. We’ve been d-d-dating since then."

"Actually you went and saw Sleepless in Seattle with Willow," Michelle corrected.

"Actually she went out with Joss that night," Willow corrected. By now all five girls had found seats around the room as they tried to figure out what was happening.

After a few minutes the yellow-shirted girl spoke up: "so y’all are all in agreement t-t-that I’m the c-c-crazy one right?"

"I don’t think you are crazy, just don’t know that you belong here," Willow tried to explain gently.

"Ok," she nodded, "then how did I get here?"

Suddenly the blue-shirt Tara gasped, "Oh Goddess!" Everyone looked to her. "I think I k-k-know." She turned to her counterpart and asked, "can I ask you s-s-something p-p-privately?" The two blondes moved to the side of the room and whispered for a minute. As they returned Tara turned to Willow: "it’s the s-s-spell we did earlier. I saw her l-l-life. I saw that reality."

As she spoke Willow nodded: "brings forth from the time and place blah blah blah. We brought her forth."

"You’re both witches?" Eliza asked shocked.

"Yeah both of us," Willow responded. Looking to the other two girls she amended her answer, "I guess all three of us actually." She looked around the room as something picked at the edges of her mind.

Blue-shirt-Tara spoke it first: "where are you then?"

Willow looked thoughtful: "I guess where I was in that dimension?"

"That makes sense," Michelle agreed. The junior had long ago moved past her pain and hurt and was now just confused about this whole adventure.

"So where was I?" Willow mused. She turned to the visiting Tara. "Tara? Where am I in your world?"

Tara looked at her sadly as she answered, "I’m s-s-sorry. I don’t know y-y-you there."

"So that means…" Willow started. "…you’re in Sunnydale," Tara completed her thought.

"Oh Goddess. I’ve got to call Buffy," Willow realized. "Can you all stay here for a minute while I go use my phone?" Everyone else nodded and she walked over to kiss her girlfriend lovingly before turning to the other Tara. "We’ll get you back to your world," she vowed as she went out the door.

Buffy didn’t answer her phone nor did Xander so Willow called the library next. Giles answered on the first half-ring: "Tara?" he shouted.

"No Giles it’s Willow," she explained. She of course couldn’t see the look of complete shock that filled his face. "Uh Giles do you know where Buffy is or Xander?"

Giles looked to the subjects of the question she had just asked. "Yes they are right here with me. I’ll put Buffy on." The blonde walked over to the watcher and looked questiongly at him as he covered the mouthpiece of the receiver and explained, "it’s Willow on the phone."

The slayer mouthed a big "huh?" as she took the phone. "Will?"

"Hey Buffy," Willow tried to sound upbeat. "How’s everything there?"

"Uh strange as usual," Buffy stalled.

Willow laughed nervously as she responded, "strange. That’s good. Hey, not to sound crazy but I don’t suppose I’m there am I?"

Buffy let out a sigh of relief as she heard the question, "God I’m glad you asked that Will. Yeah you’re here too." As she spoke to the redhead she tried to relay to everyone else in the room the content of the conversation.

"Uh, am I ok? Am I scared or anything?" Willow worried.

Buffy looked to the others not sure what she should say or if it would upset her. "uh Will? You’re not scared. You’re a vampire."

The memory of the images from earlier in the day flashed again across the redhead’s mind as she understood part of what she had seen. "That makes sense. Did you stake me?" she asked scared.

Buffy let out the breath she was holding. "No Will. We couldn’t do it. We have you, I mean her locked in the book cabinet. Do you want to tell us what is going on?"

"Why don’t I talk to Giles again?" Willow suggested. She spent a few minutes explaining to Giles what had happened in Texas. Giles took a few minutes to find a spell and returned to read it to Willow who wrote it down carefully. He instructed them to go and find Anya to return the other Tara and that he would make due and return this Willow. He didn’t relish the thought of trying to convince the vampire of what he was doing but perhaps she would be glad to go since she found this world so not fun.

After thanking him, Willow hung up quickly and ran back down the hall to find the other four girls in the room. Eliza and Michelle were studying while the two Taras visited sitting on the floor. "I’ve got the spell to send you back," she explained. "We need to drive into town." Michelle leaned over and picked up Emma’s keys and tossed them to one of the Taras.

As they stood, the visiting Tara turned toward her counterpart. "Tara?" The blue-shirted girl nodded. "M-m-mama…?" she didn’t have to finish as she took in the look of pain and grief that flooded her own familiar features as if she were looking into a mirror of her own emotion.

As they started to leave the room, all three girls were surprised to hear Michelle speak: "Tara. Would you like me to come with y’all?"

"Please," the girl whispered in answer. Michelle turned and gave Eliza a hug before reaching out her hand to take the one being offered to her.

On the drive into town, Michelle had driven to allow the two Taras to visit and compare their realities. As far as they could tell the only differences in their worlds were caused by Willow’s arrival or absence at school. Michelle felt somewhat sorry for her counterpart in the other reality whose relationship, perhaps her entire happiness, was dependent on Willow’s absence. That girl apparently had a nice relationship with Tara but the junior couldn’t imagine that it held the same spark that she felt with Eliza.

Luckily the foursome found Anya sitting in her room drinking the first can of a six-pack of beer and watching MTV. She was excited to see them thinking that maybe they were there to help her find her necklace and less so to find out that they needed to send the extra girl back. Willow and Tara were very impressed with Michelle who repeatedly soothed the visiting girl as she became more and more afraid about the spell. It seemed almost anticlimactic as the four witches chanted the spell Giles had given Willow and the visiting Tara had simply shimmered out of their existence.

Tara glanced around the stable as she found herself having just finished grooming Chestnut. See, I didn’t think I had hung up the tack she reassured herself. But there was no reassuring what had happened today. She had visited another time and place. No, not another time and place. Just a different here—a here where she was with Willow. Even in the short time they were together, she could feel her skin tingling as if she longed to be with the redhead.

She sat on a bale of hay and lifted her hand to her mouth, breathing in the combined scents of the day. Mixed in there was that scent—the scent of Willow. And she remembered a dream, a dream of the redhead, a dream that seemed more right than anything had ever been.

The vampire Willow had been suspicious of the strange group’s intention when they explained that they wanted to return her to her own world. She only believed them because they hadn’t staked her yet and they certainly could have. Also, since this world was such a drag, it couldn’t hurt to return to her fun world. As the watcher finished his mumbo-jumbo the others shimmered out of her vision. She looked up see the battle at the warehouse in full swing and was moving toward the puppy as she felt herself shoved backwards by a white hat. "Fu…" she exclaimed as she felt the splinter of wood enter her back and pierce her heart.

It was very late when the three girls returned to the dorm. Michelle smiled and entered her room to find Eliza sleeping on her bed fully dressed. Not wanting to wake her, she changed into some pajamas before lying down to snuggle the sophomore and was quickly asleep.

Tara and Willow were likewise asleep very quickly upon their return. The spell to return the extra girl to her world was very fast but drained their energies greatly. As they fell asleep, Tara mumbled, "well, n-n-not all the exciting updates come from S-S-Sunnydale."

Willow murmured her agreement as she started to giggle, "and I guess we’re out of the closet as witches to Eliza and Michelle."

Tara giggled as she agreed, "they may suspect that we’re gay too…"

Part 53

Toothpaste

Willow looked up from her book to see Tara walking toward her across the yard. The redhead was lying under what she always thought of as "their tree" reading the history assignment. The work wasn’t particularly pressing but it was somewhat interesting. It seemed that Ms. T. actually found the history of the 60s interesting and she infused her discussions with interesting topics and debates. That of course contrasted with her dry repetition of historical facts from some earlier periods. The class when Tara and Willow had been caught passing the note was only one in a long list of mind-numbing hours spent listening, or not listening, to the teacher recite information. Fortunately, her tests followed a predictable line of questioning. More importantly, the teacher encouraged each student to prepare her out-of-class work, essays and research papers, on topics he or she found interesting. She would approve nearly any topic, which had allowed Willow to produce research on the history of Wicca, religious persecution, and computer microchip development, while Tara had produced increasingly complex investigations into veterinary science advancements.

A smile crossed her face as she rolled onto her stomach to watch her lover approaching. The blonde was wearing her usual "uniform:" jeans, boots, and long-sleeve shirt. Her hair was pulled back from her face showing off those adorable ears. Those ears… Willow loved the blonde’s ears. Frequently while watching Tara sleep she observed her face and ears. The ears would twitch occasionally as if she were studying some complex problem or being tickled. Unable to resist the redhead had once reached out and stroked along the crest of the twitching ear. She quickly learned not to do that as the blonde had sat straight up in bed, wide-awake and shouting about invading butterflies.

Now Tara strode across the grass toward Willow as the redhead watched her lovingly. That loving look was quickly turning to a lusty look as she took in the confident and sexy walk her lover was employing to quickly cover the ground between them. As she neared the blanket, Willow sat up to allow Tara to join her. They had a few hours before dinner and if the blonde was done with her chores, perhaps they could enjoy the beautiful weather together. Tara didn’t have any books with her but Willow could always read the History assignment outloud. She was somewhat surprised as Tara’s shadow flowed over the blanket when the blonde stopped walking at the edge of the barrier and looked down at her girlfriend rather than dropping to sit as she usually did.

"Hi baby. Are you done with your work? Can you sit?" Willow asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I f-f-finished a l-l-little w-w-while ago," Tara answered.

Willow noted immediately the amount of stuttering her girlfriend was experiencing. Add to that the fact that she wasn’t sitting and something was definitely wrong. As she got to her feet Willow asked, "is something wrong?"

"What w-w-would be w-w-wrong?" Tara answered. It was obvious to both girls that she knew what she was upset about but was trying to give Willow a chance to say it first.

Willow tilted her head as she tried to read her girlfriend’s tone. No not her tone, tone was obvious. She was upset and pissed off. The question was why. The redhead could think of a list of reasons that Tara would be mad at her but suggesting any of them would just cause more trouble. At the top of the list would be the fact that after her mother’s visit and departure, she had added Tara’s name to the e-mail sniffing program once again. In case anything came out of the visit, she wanted to know first. She had increased security on her program in case the blonde, who was increasing her own computer skills after all, needed to use the laptop for anything. But that’s for our own good she rationalized as she wondered what was upsetting the blonde. "Uh I don’t know," she stalled.

Blowing out a loud breath in frustration Tara finally dropped to sit on the blanket and was joined immediately by the redhead. "Will? Is there a-a-anything y-y-you want to t-t-tell me?"

"That I love you?" Willow guessed. She knew that was going to be the wrong answer but again was worried that her mouth would get her in more trouble than she obviously was already in.

Tara glared at her girlfriend as she explained, "that m-m-may be true…"

Willow interrupted: "that IS true."

"…but. That’s not what I was l-l-looking for. Let’s s-s-start with a quiz. You’re a genius. You’re g-g-good at quizzes," Tara explained angrily.

"a vixeny genius…" Willow mumbled.

Tara ignored her girlfriend’s optimistic commentary as she continued: "so g-g-genius girl. Where did we agree to apply to c-c-college?"

Willow pursed her lips as she answered, "Texas A&M, University of Texas, and UC Berkeley." Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Shit! Piss! Damn! And a lot of other words I can’t remember at the moment she thought even as the answer was coming from her mouth.

Tara stood back up as she heard her girlfriend’s answer. She was just too mad to sit there attempting to have a normal conversation. "That’s s-s-strange…" she began. The blonde was having a really hard time with this. Here was Willow sitting there knowing just what she was so upset about and she was doing nothing to jump in with an explanation, with an apology, with any excuse for her betrayal. Why did she keep doing shit like this? Sure she had spent her life hiding things from her parents and then the whole Sunnydale/Vampires situation from virtually everyone. But this is me! she thought. She doesn’t have to keep lying to me and bending rules. Why does she do this?

"Strange…" Willow echoed.

Tara steeled herself. "Yes, s-s-strange because I just g-g-got a call from Stanford," Tara explained. Ask me what it was about! Go ahead ask like you don’t know while you sit there with that stunned look on your gorgeous face. Hey no gorgeous face thinking here: Angry

Knowing that she was busted Willow could do nothing but again echo Tara’s last word, "Stanford?" What? How? Why did they call? Jesus God!

By now the blonde was pacing in front of the blanket. "R-r-right Stanford. They left a m-m-message." Are you going to say ‘message’ now?

As if on cue the redhead repeated, "message?"

You’re beginning to look pretty silly there. I’m trying to give you any chance to jump up and say ‘oh baby, I need to tell you…’ but you’re not taking that chance. You’re just sitting there. Tara’s anger increased as Willow did nothing to try and explain herself. "They s-s-said I f-f-forgot to s-s-sign my application."

"Your application."

"Jesus Christ Willow," Tara screamed, "can you d-d-do something other than repeat the last word I s-s-say?"

Again Willow mumbled, "that was two words."

"And ‘y’all’ is singular and plural as is ‘you’ but we’re g-g-going in circles," Tara harrumphed. Then she waited. And waited. And waited.

Willow looked at the ground. She studied Tara’s boots. She plucked a piece of grass and let it float from her fingertips. She looked around to see if any other students were around. Finally she repeated again, "your application."

"Do you know w-w-why I didn’t sign my application for Stanford Willow?" Tara continued screaming.

"Because you didn’t apply to Stanford?" Willow smiled as she responded.

Tara dropped to sit on the blanket finally as she answered, "that’s right. I didn’t a-a-apply to Stanford. So why d-d-do you think they c-c-called me?" She glanced at Willow as she continued, "think hard about this W-w-willow."

"I don’t think you’ve ever stuttered my name before," Willow whispered.

"Oh w-w-well that’s fucking pertinent isn’t it?"

"Good point," Willow conceded; she knew that she was completely busted. Tara continued staring at the redhead. Somewhere in the back of her mind a part of her was looking into those green eyes as if she would fall in and get lost. But she forced herself not to think about that. Not to think about those eyes or that voice or that laugh. Not to think about the way this woman made her laugh or the feel of her fingertips as it sent sparks along her bare skin. Not to think about that! "I forgot to sign your application," Willow finally whispered.

"You don’t f-f-fucking s-s-say!"

"This is the part where I explain and say I’m sorry and you forgive me and it’s all good?" the redhead questioned optimistically. Her arms crossed across her chest, Tara cocked her head as if to say, "let’s see about that."

Willow took a deep breath before speaking. "Ok," she started, "I know we agreed on just three schools. But you’re selling yourself short. You’re selling us short. We can get into more schools than you think. We can get scholarships at more schools than you think. With our scores we can get in anywhere and we’ll get scholarships and tons of financial aid. Ok, not so much financial aid for me but for you…" She trailed off as she realized that it might sound like she was putting down Tara’s financial situation rather than praising all the opportunities it would bring.

"Even if t-t-that’s s-s-so," Tara started.

"It IS so," Willow interrupted. She was starting to get pissed off herself. Why wouldn’t Tara trust her? Why didn’t she believe in them and their ability to succeed together and stay together? Did she want to be together?

"Jesus Tara," Willow fumed as all her fears came crashing home: fears about whether the blonde really wanted to stay with her: "why don’t you trust me? I know what I’m talking about."

Tara stood again. She couldn’t believe that Willow has just asked her about trust: "Trust? Trust? You want to know why I d-d-don’t trust you? Which Willow d-d-do you w-w-want me to t-t-trust? The hacker who’s been looking at private c-c-correspondence all year? The woman who applied me to c-c-college even though we agreed where we would apply t-t-together? Which Willow is it who d-d-deserves all this trust?" Both girls had given up all pretense of a normal conversation. They stood by the tree screaming at each other and not caring who heard. Other students began to walk a wide circle to avoid being in the path of their conversation. The blonde looked up and into Willow’s eyes and was surprised to note the sparks floating across the green part. She felt her own magical power humming at the edge of her skin and crackling in the wind.

Finally she could take it no more. Willow shouted out her fear. The fear that had filled her since she first realized how much she wanted to be with this woman. "Maybe you don’t care if we go to school together?" She shouted her question not sounding like it was fear talking, but as if it were anger talking.

Tara reacted as if she had been slapped across the face. Willow’s words, her accusation, couldn’t have hurt more if it had been accompanied by a physical blow. "What?" she shouted. "What?" she repeated more quietly, expressing the shock in what she had heard.

Willow seethed with anger and resentment. This wasn’t just about this conversation. This was about all these months. Months when Willow had told her lover over and over that they were forever. That she would always take care of her. That she loved her. Months when Tara didn’t return the words, didn’t echo and repeat them. "Maybe you don’t care if we go to school together," she hissed.

Tara couldn’t believe what she was hearing. All this time… all this time… all this time she knew there would be challenges in staying together. That there would be challenges around college. But how could Willow accuse her of not caring, "what d-d-do you m-m-mean I d-d-don’t care?" she stuttered out.

Willow couldn’t stop the words from coming from her mouth. As they formed in her throat they felt so powerful. So potent. "Maybe you never cared about staying together. You come along and turn the transfer student gay. Did you get the toaster?" As the words came out of her mouth, she tasted them. It was like bile. Like the foulest, ugliest taste she had ever known. But it was too late to take it back.

Willow was still standing in shock at the words that had flowed from her mouth as she processed the angry answer. An answer, which Tara issued as she turned and ran across the grass: "I d-d-don’t remember t-t-twisting your arm!"

Part 54

Reeling

Tara walked slowly up the stairs, carrying her boots in one hand and her duster over her other arm. She knew that her bootsteps on the stairs would be too loud and wake the residents who would obviously be asleep given the late hour. In her free hand she carried the notes she had found over the course of the last hour. The first she found stapled to the stable door as she brought Chestnut in:

Talk to me.

Please

The next was on Chestnut’s stall’s gate:

Ok. I can understand that you are mad. But really? You said some crummy things. You’re totally selling us short. We can do better. We can be more. We can do more. Why do you want to hold us back? I thought you loved me. I thought you wanted to be with me.

But it occurs to me you haven’t been saying "forever." I have been. Get that. I have been. Do you know why? Because I mean it. I mean forever. Not a year. Not nine months. Forever.

One by the fresh hay:

It’s getting late. You didn’t come home for dinner. I waited a while but people kept wanting to talk and I didn’t want to so I took dinner up to my room. I guess I didn’t really feel like eating anyway. Didn’t.

PS. Please.

Her duster hung on the tack hook. As she thankfully put it on, she was surprised at the note she didn’t find stapled to the post under the coat. She reached into the pocket as she began walking across the field toward the dorm and took a bite of the apple she found within as she began to unfold the note from the other pocket. Seeing the length she decided to sit to read it. The bright moonlight allowed her to clearly make out Willow’s handwriting:

My love,

Talk to me.

Tied to the lowest branch of their tree with a red ribbon:

Tara,

It’s getting late. You’ve been gone so long and I just want you here to hold and love you. I know you’re hurting. I’m sorry.

She knocked quietly on Willow’s door before easing the door open. Willow’s bed was open and unslept in but a crème colored envelope lay on her pillow. Tara of course written across the front of it. She slowly eased onto the bed as she opened the envelope and pulled out the thick sheet within:

Tara: my love,

Yours, Willow

The blonde splashed water on her face to give her a minute to calm down in addition to rinsing the dried salt from her cheeks. She left her boots and duster in the room as she pulled the door closed behind her and again quietly ascended the stairs.

Tara was surprised to find her room empty although Alyson’s traditional absence did come as a relief. For all she knew Willow had asked the other girl to leave. Willow? A smile lit up her face as she realized the redhead must be on the roof. Quietly she lifted the window and let herself out onto the warm surface. She stopped as she took in the sight of her lover waiting for her to come back.

Willow had brought out their blankets and laid them to form a pallet as they usually used when sleeping on the roof. She had Tara’s travel clock and small lamp next to the bed and Tara could see her book lying open across her chest. Most of the candles surrounding the makeshift bed had burned down and Tara smiled as she realized that the redhead had done the same. She lay sprawled among the covers and pillow as if she could just no longer stay awake waiting for her lover’s return. As the blonde tip-toed closer she saw the line of Kleenex littering the edge of the pallet and one clutched in the smaller woman’s hand.

She lowered herself lightly onto the side of the bed as she took in the sight of her lover. Oh Goddess she thought. I could never resist the sight of her sleeping so peacefully: my redheaded angel. She extended her hand slowly to brush her fingertips lightly across the strands of hair splayed against the rosy skin of Willow’s cheek. Moving her fingers again and then again she whispered, "Willow."

Green eyes fluttered open attempting to focus on the blonde. "Tara," she muttered. "Tara?" Blinking she suddenly sat up and gathered the blonde in her arms. "Oh Goddess baby," she whispered as she hugged her lover stroking her fingers down her face. "I’m sorry my love," she choked out as tears flowed down both faces.

For many minutes the two girls sat hugging and desperately kissing each other. Finally Tara pulled back to look at her lover, again brushing a strand of hair from her cheek: "are you ok Will?"

Willow nodded as she answered, "I’m sorry love. Do you want to talk?"

Tara looked down, answering, "I f-f-found the notes."

"All of them?" Willow asked.

Tara giggled as she lay down, motioning that Willow should snuggle closer while they talked: "how m-m-many are there?"

Willow looked up for a minute as she obviously counted in her head, "I think seven."

"Then I missed o-o-one," Tara confirmed. She shifted tone for a moment: "Will. Do you k-k-know why I was so mad?"

Willow got a confused look on her face: "no offense sweetie but duh. You were mad because I applied you to other schools."

Schools Tara wondered but filed it away for the moment. "Well, y-y-yes," she answered, "but more than that. I don’t like you going behind m-m-my back to make decisions that involve us both."

Willow nodded even as she worried that she had let the plural word escape her lips but noted that Tara hadn’t mentioned it. The irony of her relief was lost on her completely as she responded, "I just thought I could make it better for us."

"But you don’t g-g-get to decide what’s better for us," Tara responded. Seeing Willow’s downcast look the blonde placed her fingertips on her lover’s chin and raised it to take in her green eyes. As she spoke she lifted her hand and intentionally touched their rings together as she whispered, "we decide together my love. That’s how it w-w-works best."

Willow could feel the energy Tara was sending through their connection amplified by their rings. "Tara?" she began. "For how long?"

The blonde was a little confused by the question: "how long do we d-d-decide together? We s-s-should always decide together Will." She knitted her brows together as she answered the confusing question from her lover.

"No. That’s not what I mean. Well, I guess it’s kind of what I mean. I mean how long together. I mean. Not that you don’t want to be and not that I’m the only one who does want to be but I’m the only one who ever says that I want to be and sometimes that scares me because what if you don’t want to be and I’m thinking like if we were looking at cars and I’m thinking of financing for 60 months and then owning forever and you’re looking at a weekly rental or something but that doesn’t sound right because it’s not like that. But I’m saying ‘forever’ and ‘always’ and we’ll live in a little house with animals and kids and …" As usual Tara silenced her girlfriend with a soft kiss.

"It s-s-scares me," she whispered.

Locking her green eyes on Tara’s blue ones Willow asked quietly, "what scares you my love?"

"What if I h-h-hold you b-b-back?" Tara whispered. She expected Willow to interrupt but seeing that the redhead was actually waiting quietly she continued: "I love you Willow. Goddess. I l-love you s-s-so much. And I w-w-want to be with you more than anything."

"But?" Willow prompted, stroking the blonde’s hand.

"But what if I hold you back? You have unl-l-limited opportunities: 790 math? 760 verbal? All that money? You can go anywhere and do anything. What happens when you have to c-c-choose between your greatness and me?"

Willow gathered the sobbing blonde in her arms as she confirmed what she heard, "you’re afraid I won’t choose you?"

"I’m afraid if I agree w-w-with forever, you’ll feel l-l-like you don’t have a choice," Tara clarified.

Willow again softly kissed her lover as she stated simply answered, " we will always have choices my love. But we make them together. Always."

Tara giggled a little as she sat up, "together. Like agreeing w-w-where to apply to school?"

Willow smiled a little as she nodded, "ok. I guess I blew that one. I’m really sorry my love."

Tara lay back down pulling her girlfriend with her as she stroked her hair. "I t-t-think I understand now," she explained. As Willow relaxed into her caress the blonde asked, "so w-w-where else did I apply Will?"

"Else?" the redhead inquired. All at once she realized that it didn’t matter that Tara had heard that there were more schools. She needed to tell her that anyway. "Let’s see: Stanford, Notre Dame, Brown, Harvard, UCLA, Northwestern, Rice, and uh UC Sunnydale."

Tara giggled as she began to sing the song from Sesame Street: "One of these things is not like the others." As Willow laughed in agreement she continued, "but Will. I can’t afford most of those schools and there’s no way I’ll get into Harvard. Plus which: N-n-notre Dame—not Catholic."

The mood much lighter Willow explained, "yeah. I picked a few schools by randomly generating some selections. That’s how Notre Dame got in. Not high on my list. Hard to imagine an active gay/lesbian or Wicca community." Tara nodded her agreement. "But I figure let’s try some schools and then see what they offer."

"That m-m-makes sense," Tara agreed. "Will?"

Willow murmured, "yes?" as she began softly placing kisses on Tara’s neck. On one hand the blonde had spent the day on her horse and wasn’t exactly at her best but on the other… The woman was drop-dead sexy any day any time.

"D-d-did you p-p-pay the admission fees?" Tara was having trouble keeping her mind on the topic at hand as her girlfriend had advanced from light kisses to sucking on her pulse point. All rational thought was mere moments from leaving entirely.

Needing to use her mouth to answer the question the smaller woman began to allow her hands to trail over Tara’s body as she whispered, "they all waived the fees. I figured you wouldn’t want me to pay them for you." Willow’s ministrations were interrupted by Tara’s deep laughter shaking both women. "What?" she asked perplexed and a little insulted.

Tara took Willow’s hand in her own as she began placing light kisses on the soft skin of her wrist, whispering teasingly into the flesh: "y-y-you were worried that I wouldn’t w-w-want you to pay the fees but not that you weren’t supposed to apply me at all."

Willow finally saw the joke as she pressed Tara back onto the blankets and merged their bodies together. The last words either woman spoke coherently for a while were Willow’s admission that "irony’s kind of ironic that way."

As they watched the sun rise over the edge of the building, wrapped together in their blanket Willow sleepily asked, "do you have to go to your classes today?"

"Not really," Tara conceded. "But rehearsal is at 4:00."

"Mmm," Willow murmured, "so sleepy snuggles the rest of the day?" As she thought about it she amended her plan: "after we get you some food that is."

Part 55

Out

"Well," Willow began, "what should we all wear?"

"Well, I’ve seen people dressed every way there. Some in black leather, some in red leather, others just in lace so I guess whatever you’re comfortable in," Eliza deadpanned as the other three girls all got completely shocked looks on their faces.

"W-w-what? L-l-lace? L-l-leather? I don’t think I c-c-coul…," Tara’s stuttering voice trailed off as she took note of the look on Eliza’s face and admonished the younger girl, "that’s mean."

"Ah come on," Eliza teased back, "it was so worth it. Just a little joke you know."

Willow and Tara both nodded as smiles began to spread across their faces. "Yeah, I guess as long as it’s all in fun…" Michelle began. Eliza was just nodding to agree with her as she felt the ice water pouring on her head. She took it stride shaking her hair out and laughing along with the others.

The four girls were having a fun lunch and getting ready to have their evening out. This was the double date that Willow would be paying for. Eliza had suggested that they go toward San Antonio to a little bar that she knew where they could get in underage as long as they paid cover and got their hands stamped. They could stop for dinner along the way and enjoy some dancing. Eliza and Tara both still had rehearsal this afternoon but after that, nothing on the agenda and all four girls were looking forward to their evening out.

"It’s going to be such fun!" Michelle beamed.

"And we have something to celebrate I think," Willow agreed. The junior blushed as the other girls poured their drinks on her head and chorused, "Congratulations Chelle!" The morning’s meet had gone extremely well with Michelle winning the 800, 1 mile, and 2 mile runs in the regional meet and the school had won the region. Now she didn’t have a meet for two weeks as she prepared for the state championships and the girl was very excited about tonight’s outing.

Grabbing a few of the ice cubes that had poured onto the tables, Michelle tossed them toward the redhead as she shook her fingers at her, splashing her with water. "And who else has something to celebrate?" she teased.

Willow stood up quickly as she took a fake bow, "that’s right ladies and, well, ladies: at the tender age of 18, this woman has earned her driver’s license." The others gave her a rousing bit of clapping before she retook her seat. As they began cleaning up the mess they had made Tara leaned over and whispered in Willow’s ear. "Uh, hey how about we see you guys later after rehearsal?" Willow suggested not waiting for an answer as she grabbed Tara’s hand and raced out the door.

"Gee, I wonder where they went…," Eliza teased as she wrapped her arms around her girlfriend. She kissed the other girl tenderly as they stood by the doorway of the cafeteria. "What do you want to do this afternoon baby?" she asked.

Michelle turned to her girlfriend looking in her eyes, "are you ok about, well us not…, I mean I know you’ve…" She glanced down embarrassed.

The younger girl lifted Michelle’s chin as she looked into her dark eyes: "totally ok." She waited a minute for her girlfriend to smile before appending, "so how about we take a short ride. Then maybe we should take a nap ok?" Agreeing the junior took Eliza’s hand as they left the cafeteria and moved toward the stables.

Willow and Tara sat on the redhead’s bed making out as they waited for the other two girls to come meet them for their date. "Geez, is that all you two do?" Eliza teased from the doorway as both younger girls entered the room and leaned on the desk.

Tara blushed as they stood from their place on the bed and grabbed a hair tie from the bedpost as she asked, "everyone r-ready to go?"

"Y’all look really good," Michelle complimented as she waved her hand up and down Tara and Willow’s bodies. Tara wore jeans, boots, and a deep blue blouse while Willow wore a brown skirt with a green shirt. Both shirts set off the girls’ eyes and they were obviously excited about the evening.

"You too," Willow returned the compliment as she took in the sight of Eliza and Michelle waiting for them. Eliza wore black jeans with a tight black T-shirt and Michelle wore kahki slacks with a light blue blouse.

"I hope you are bringing a lot of money Willow," Eliza teased, "I plan on spending it pretty good." All four girls were still laughing as they reached the stairs and went down to the car. Willow was surprised as the sophomore turned to her and held out the keys, "in honor of your new license?"

"Really?" Willow asked shocked. "Yeah I’d love to but you have to tell me where to drive. I don’t even know which direction San Antonio is."

"I think we can find it," Eliza smiled as she and Michelle climbed into the back seat.

A little over an hour later the car pulled into the parking lot of a seedy looking restaurant with neon signs for beer in every window and a big sign over the window reading "Wings!!!" As Willow handed the sophomore the keys and took Tara’s hand before moving across the parking lot she appraised the establishment: "Really? This is the hot dinner spot we drove an hour to get to?"

Eliza laughed as she pulled Michelle along with her, "just wait. I’ll tell y’all what. If any of y’all don’t think it’s a totally incredible dining experience, I pay instead of Willow." The girls all looked at each other and nodded their agreement to her challenge.

The music wasn’t playing as loud as Tara expected once they entered the bar. And it was obvious that this was a bar. Not that it wasn’t a restaurant, but it was definitely a bar. Every table seemed to have at least once pitcher of beer on it. The blonde was slightly worried about Eliza’s potential concept of a "fun" time. She didn’t drink besides a few glasses of wine to celebrate and didn’t think that Willow did either. So it seemed strange that the sophomore would bring them to such a place for dinner. Nonetheless the entire restaurant smelled really fantastic with the mingled scents of tomatoes, Tabasco, and garlic floating almost visibly in the air.

"We just sit," Eliza explained as she moved toward a booth and the four girls sat down.

They pulled up menus from the basket at the corner of the table and began to look over their choices. "So what’s the b-b-best?" Tara asked.

"The lasagna is wonderful and the wings are required. We can have those as appetizers. Who’s up for ‘burn your tongue off hot?’" She asked as she pointed to the fourth classification under the wings section of the menu.

"Don’t get that one baby," Willow purred under her breath to Tara who gulped loudly eliciting a laugh from Michelle and Eliza. Michelle turned and whispered in her girlfriend’s ear which quickly allowed the younger girl to turn as red as the bright cover on the menu.

"Ok then," Eliza croaked, "so a couple votes for ‘pretty darn hot?’" she confirmed.

Just then a waitress came by: "you kids know what you want?"

Eliza waited a minute to see that everyone was waiting for her before ordering three baskets of wings to start. Everyone added their orders for coke and Iced Tea. "No beer?" the waitress questioned.

"No," Eliza answered, "we’ve got some more stops to make tonight so I think we’d better pass on it. Thanks." The waitress harumphed a little as she stalked away. "Tips are always better from drinkers," Eliza explained to the other girls who seemed a little surprised at the waitress’s attitude.

"Y-you know a lot about waiting on tables?" Tara teased. Before Eliza could answer, all four heads turned as they heard a shriek from the kitchen. Willow leapt to her feet and reached for Tara’s hand so they could act together to combat whatever attack might be coming. Before they could react further they heard a stream of very fast speech as it unfurled in front of the force moving toward the table. At first all Willow could comprehend was that this woman seemed to have something to say. The redhead attempted to decipher the speech as if slowing it down in her head would allow her to understand the nature of this attack.

She was just starting to process and understand that she would never understand because the woman wasn’t speaking even a little English when the woman reached the table, pulling her apron from around her waist and grasping Eliza tight. The young girl had stood as the woman ran toward her and now stood hugging the woman back. After a few seconds in which both witches sat back down, the woman pulled back to look at the sophomore. Again she began speaking in the other language which Willow had by now decided was Italian. Eliza leaned forward quietly whispering, "English, Aunt Maria," and the older woman quickly switched languages allowing her gaze to sweep over the group as a large smile graced her kind-looking face.

As Eliza was opening her mouth the large woman spoke very quickly with a heavy accent. She reached out her hand, "you must be my niece’s friends. I am Aunt Maria." Tara and Willow each reached out their hands to shake as they introduced themselves.

Finally Eliza got a word in edgewise as she introduced her girlfriend just as a smaller man approached from the kitchen: "Aunt Maria, this is my girlfriend, Michelle."

"And this is my uncle Frank," Eliza explained before hugging the new arrival. In the meantime, Michelle reached out her hand to shake Maria’s but found herself caught up in a tight hug from the woman which was quickly followed by kisses on each cheek. No sooner had the junior caught her breath than Frank grabbed her and hugged her excitedly.

Turning to the other girls Maria explained, "Eliza didn’t tell us you were coming. You order wings?" she confirmed.

Tara nodded not trusting her speech as this was certainly a surprise. Unbidden Maria pulled up a chair to the end of the booth while Frank said he had to return to the kitchen. Before any of them could speak the waitress set their wings and drinks down in front of them and indicated which baskets were hot and which were less hot. Helping herself to a wing Maria turned to Eliza, "you just missed your brothers."

"Which ones?" the sophomore asked.

"Little Joey and Francis," her aunt explained. "They almost ate me out of business," she joked.

Eliza laughed as she turned to the other girls and explained: "little Joey and Francis are pretty big eaters. Not little at all."

Holding her girlfriend’s hand Michelle was very curious about her family. The sophomore rarely said much about them and Michelle really wondered what the story was. "How many brothers do you have?" she ventured.

Maria laughed as she stood from the table, "I go back to the kitchen. You don’t leave without you say goodbye."

All the girls confirmed that they would say goodbye and complimented the woman on her food as Eliza turned back to the table saying, "six."

"S-s-six what?" Tara asked puzzled.

"Six brothers: Giovani, Leonardo, Charles, Mario, Little Joey, and Francis," she explained. "I’m the baby girl."

Right about that time their lasagnas and spaghettis arrived and everyone began to eat with gusto. Intermittent conversation confirmed that Eliza was the only girl in the testosterone filled clan and focused on the approaching end of the school year, the musical, and Willow and Tara’s college choices. Fortunately the younger girls didn’t have to worry about college for another year.

As the bill arrived Willow and Tara reached for it at the same time. "I w-w-was about to push it at you baby," Tara teased as Willow eagerly reached for her credit card.

"No question about that Eliza," Willow agreed, "my treat tonight. That was one of the best meals I’ve ever had." The younger girl got up to take the bill to the bartender as it became apparent that her aunt didn’t want to let them pay for dinner and was upset with the waitress for even bringing the check.

"She’s really the girl of surprises," Willow mused as they watched the youngster walk off.

"Yeah," Michelle agreed. "Sometimes I think she’s a little too much the woman of mystery though…"

"W-w-why?" Tara asked disturbed that something was obviously bothering the dark-haired girl.

Michelle blew out a breath as she explained, "I don’t know. I mean why not just tell us we were coming to her aunt and uncle’s restaurant? Why pretend it’s just a wing place on the way to a dance place? And why didn’t I know that she has six brothers. And she never mentions her parents at all…." Michelle mused. Seeing her walking back from the bar with the credit card slip, Michelle continued, "on the other hand…" She got a dreamy look on her face that both witches recognized and they knew for the time being, her concerns and curiosity were lost.

All four girls made their way to the car. Willow and Tara both waved off the offer to drive now that it was dark out so Eliza took the wheel. She drove for about 45 minutes before pulling in to a dirt parking lot outside a bar with "These Walls…" neoned over the door. She indicated that they needed to lock everything in the trunk taking just their identification and money in with them.

At the door the bouncer looked over each id thoroughly before charging them an eight dollar cover and stamping each of their hands and putting a band around their left wrists. "Geez," Michelle muttered as they moved into the foyer of the bar.

Eliza laughed as she pulled her girlfriend along, "they’ve got to make money off us somehow if we won’t pay to get drunk and they have to make sure we can’t pay to get drunk."

The other three girls stopped walking as they moved from the entryway to the edge of the dance floor. The room was dark with various dim lights and strobes flashing intermittently throughout the area. Loud music pulsed through the room making the floor shake and each girl could feel the beat through her feet and into her bones.

Both Willow and Tara stared at the dance floor somewhat shocked. Although they had danced together at homecoming and even at the bronze, the sight of an entire dance floor filled with women dancing together was still shocking. The women dancing seemed to fit every description: some wore western wear including wide belt buckles and cowboy hats with sharply starched jeans, others had a preppy look, while still others sported endless combinations of tattoos, spiked or colored hair, or black clothing and makeup. Although some women danced with others dressed like themselves, some combinations seemed unlikely. "What the…" Michelle asked under her breath as she saw a third woman dance up to two already bumping and grinding and begin to grind against the back of one of the girls.

Eliza laughed as she observed all their shocked expressions: "do y’all want to dance or just watch for a few minutes?" Getting no audible answer, she pulled them toward a recently vacated table and they took seats. After a little while all four girls relaxed and Eliza pulled Michelle’s hand as she asked, "want to go dance Chelle?" The junior nodded and she and Eliza took to the dance floor. Tara and Willow followed and fell into the rhythm of the dance very quickly.

At first they kept a socially acceptable distance, enjoying the dance. But after a few minutes Tara smiled conspiratorially as she moved closer and closer to the redhead. Softly she ran her palm up Willow’s hipbone before retreating. Then she repeated the motion on the other side. As she danced, Willow closed her eyes letting the music wash over and through her. To her, they might have been dancing alone in the dark of her room. But they weren’t dancing alone; they were dancing in public with no threat of ostracism or intimidation.

Tara repeated the motion moving closer and then farther from her lover as they danced., each time retreating less far until their entire bodies were just hair’s breath apart. She could feel Willow’s heartbeat as strongly as her own and the smaller girl’s breath sounded short and loud. She couldn’t tell whether it was the dancing or the intimacy of their bodies that was affecting her lover and frankly, it didn’t matter to her. Leaning close she moved her mouth to almost touch Willow’s ear as she placed her hands on the redhead’s waist just above the waistband of her pants and allowed her hands to cup her warm soft skin. "You s-seem a little distracted love," she teased as she began to run her hands over her lover’s flesh.

Willow gave a little whimper, which Tara heard and was pleased by. However, she did not see the look that appeared on the redhead’s face as she grinned her vixeny smile before quickly pivoting to stand behind her lover. The heels she wore, while low, still brought her to about the same height as the blonde and she quickly pressed her front into Tara’s back as she wrapped her fingers around the blonde’s waist. Lightly she blew on the back of Tara’s neck and felt the blonde shudder under the attention. Guiding her lover’s hips she began to move their bodies together, her leg pressing between Tara’s to increase the heat both women felt.

Continuing the movements she was rewarded by the continued low groaning and purring from her lover as she allowed her hands to roam over her body without allowing a centimeter of space to come between their bodies. "Do I still seem distracted?" she teased, blowing the question softly into and around Tara’s ear. Softly she ran her tongue along Tara’s neck feeling the quiver of that skin as she passed slowly.

"Oh Goddess," Tara moaned quietly as she closed her eyes and turned to her lover. Without thinking twice she leaned in and captured her lover’s lips in as hungry kiss. Both girls were unceremoniously interrupted from their passionate embrace as they felt a hand on their shoulders.

"Geez girls, dance floor you know?" Eliza teased.

"Yeah, ever hear of ‘get a room?’" Michelle quickly added as she saw the incredibly bright shades of red rising from the seniors’ necks to their faces.

Tara swallowed nervously as all four girls started from the floor but Willow shot right back, "oh like you two weren’t the same way a few minutes ago."

"Well yeah," Eliza agreed and all four laughed as they made their way back to their table. A few hours later they had had enough dancing and even dirty dancing. They had traded off partners frequently although they of course kept their distance when not in their couples. Willow and Tara were both feeling very ready to go and especially ready to get back to the privacy of Willow’s room and bed. She could only imagine how Michelle and Eliza were feeling although she wasn’t sure about the status of their relationship where that was concerned.

Nonetheless Willow and Tara snuggled in the back seat as Eliza drove them back to school. Throughout the visit Willow ran her hands surreptitiously over Tara’s body, making glancing contact with her breasts and nipples and allowing her elbow to occasionally brush across Tara’s center. She could feel the heat off her lover’s body and definitely wanted to feel and taste that heat very soon. As she teased and stroked the blonde, all without being too obvious to the girls in the front seat, she whispered in her ear. She started slow with words of love and endearment: "I love you so much Tara" or "you looked so beautiful tonight." By the time they had returned to the school Willow had moved through lightly flirtatious: "I hope you aren’t too tired after this long date…" to very direct and sexy: "I can’t wait to run my fingers over your soft skin and taste you." As Tara moaned quietly the redhead continued: "you know I love your taste. I want to lick the sweat from your body and then see if I can find something else to drink." Knowing that the blonde would be wordless by this point Willow continued her assault on her ears and senses: "Can you think of anything that might quench my thirst."

Reaching the parking lot, Willow and Tara almost ran to separate themselves from the other two girls but had to be polite walking across the lot and to the dorm with them. They had to sneak in through an exit, which Emma had left open for them, knowing what time they were expected to return. The entire way Willow traced her fingertips lightly over Tara’s palm. A glance at the blonde, biting her lip as they said goodnight to their friends said everything words could not.

No sooner had they entered the room than Tara had Willow backed against the door, devouring her mouth with her own. As they pulled and clutched at their clothes and fought their way to the bed, Tara explained, "you are so going to pay for the way you teased me."

She was certainly right. Willow spent hours "paying" for teasing her lover but she didn’t regret a second of it.

Part 56

Consequential Musings

Willow sat looking at the stream. This wasn’t helping! She didn’t feel any calmer, any better, any more connected. She just felt angry and frustrated and powerless. And somewhat scared too. Ok, more than somewhat scared. Pretty scared. Ok, not pretty scared, back to somewhat scared. She was comforted by her lover’s presence just a few feet away as the blonde kept her mount slightly to the side and behind Willow. She knew that when the redhead wanted to talk she would.

For days Willow had grown more upset. She explained that things in Sunnydale were very complicated and not at all good. She had asked Tara for advice on how she could best think through the situation thinking that Tara would give a magical solution. Instead the blonde had suggested some physical activity. "Mmm," Willow had answered, "that sounds lovely but I’m not sure it would help me think about Buffy my love."

Tara blew off her girlfriend’s teasing and intentional misinterpretation of her suggestion to explain: "no. It’s just t-t-that sometimes when I’m upset or confused, I like to go for a ride. You’re getting better at riding. Maybe y-y-you’d like to try that."

Willow thought about it for a moment. The two girls had been continuing to ride with Willow progressing to her own horse after a few joint rides. They had now gone riding on individual horses 4 or 5 times and she was getting more and more used to it: not fully used to it and she still had some fear, but it was getting better. "Well, it couldn’t hurt and if I was scared out of my mind at least I wouldn’t be worrying about Sunnydale," she responded. Tara agreed and the two made plans to make a day of it. They would take a lunch and some crystals, ride for a while, make a picnic, meditate, and give Willow time to think.

Now they stood their horses by the side of a bubbling stream. Tara worried about her lover and her lover’s turmoil. Even without Willow explaining her worries, Tara would have picked them up. She knew that Willow was still very upset over her absence from Sunnydale. Since Buffy had moved to Sunnydale, the redhead had been a committed and active member of their monster fighting squad. Tara knew that her girlfriend considered herself a "nerd" down deep but that her involvement with Buffy allowed her to also tread on the "cool" side of the street. Certainly her introduction to magic appeared to be motivated by a wish to help out, although it was obvious to the blonde that Willow possessed a tremendous gift and power.

Since coming to school, Willow had repeatedly felt left out of things in Sunnydale. She was unable to help out with the daily tasks of patrolling and researching and of course couldn’t help out with big crises. Tara knew that Willow felt that if she had been involved in the recently and narrowly averted apocalypse it would have gone better. She had tried to emphasize that really if an apocalypse didn’t end the world, that should be seen as success but the redhead regretted her absence. It wasn’t that Tara doubted that Willow would rather be with her but she knew that her girlfriend wanted to be helping her friends in Sunnydale.

Her recent attempts to hack the Mayor of Sunnydale’s computer system had been unsuccessful and that was very frustrating to her. When Giles had called asking if Willow could help them try to learn what the mayor had planned, she was thrilled. This was something that she could do from anywhere in the world. And it was something that no one else could do. Oz had already tried and he had quickly explained to Giles that he needed to pass it on to Willow as he couldn’t even start to crack the codes. But… her efforts were unsuccessful. She tried and tried to hack the system and just when she finally got through, the files were empty. She could tell from the file properties that they had been very recently destroyed, some within the prior hour, but she couldn’t determine anything about the Mayor’s plan.

"Baby," Tara quietly asked, "do you want to sit on the g-g-ground and maybe have some lunch?"

Willow nodded and both girls dismounted. Tara led both horses over to loop their reins over a tree branch while Willow laid out the blanket and began pulling food from the basket. They ate slowly, watching the stream but not talking. Finally they finished and Tara repacked the lunch leftovers while she pulled some crystals from her pack and laid them around the blanket. Quietly she leaned her back against a tree and motioned Willow to come closer. The smaller girl leaned back against her girlfriend enjoying the comfort that she always felt in her arms.

Sounding a little hurt Willow spoke quietly, "you haven’t asked."

"I haven’t," Tara agreed.

"Why?"

"Because I know something is b-bothering you," Tara began. "And you know that I know."

"Ok?" Willow asked still confused.

"But I don’t want to push you," Tara continued explaining. "I know something is wrong and you know I know something is w-w-wrong and I know you know I know …"

Willow turned her lover’s face to kiss her on the mouth. "You sound like me baby," she teased. "You figured when I was ready I would talk?"

"I g-g-guess that’s what I was trying to Willow-say," Tara smiled.

"Things are really messed up at home," Willow said cryptically. Tara nodded but didn’t speak waiting for her lover to elaborate. Willow took a few breaths before starting: "Buffy and Faith were out patrolling. Faith accidentally staked a human, the mayor’s assistant. She, she killed him."

"Right you told me that a few weeks ago," Tara spoke.

"Yeah, oh Goddess," Willow agreed. "But she got scared apparently and she got rid of the body. Then she tried to blame Buffy for it. But Giles and the gang believed Buffy, not Faith. Well, Xander went to talk to her and she almost killed him."

"Right," Tara agreed. She still felt in shock over this: yes she had felt very negative vibes from the dark-haired slayer and experienced her anger but she would never have expected the girl to intentionally attempt to kill someone.

"Apparently she thought it was some sort of sick game. Angel stopped her. Here’s where it gets even more stupid. Then Wesley, the new watcher, came in with a crew to take her to England. She ran away from them. Buffy found her, they saved each other’s lives and now Faith’s on like probation."

"Wow and double-w-w-wow," Tara agreed.

"I’m not even there," Willow whispered. Before she could complete the thought, she collapsed completely sobbing against the blonde. For a very long time the two girls sat just like that. Willow cried harder and harder until she began to let off a little. Tara meanwhile held her lover close and attempted to send her loving and supportive energy. Finally the redhead spoke repeated: "I’m not even there."

Tara didn’t speak; she just ran her hands over her lover’s back attempting to send loving and calming energy through their connection. After a long time she asked, "what did you f-f-find out on the computer sweetie?" Willow shrugged but said nothing else. "Sweetie?" Tara prodded, "what did you find out?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing good?"

"Nothing nothing," Willow responded bitterly. Taking a deep and extremely exasperated breath she explained: "I couldn’t get through his security. Then I finally got in and every file was just cleaned out. I could tell that it had all been done in the prior hour. Some in the last five minutes but everything was gone. It was like he knew I was coming or something…"

"Well," Tara began, "at least you tried."

"I tried. I tried. Yeah I tried. And the mayor has some diabolical scheme that’s going to kill my friends and family and I don’t know what it is but I tried will really make me feel better when I stand in a cemetery surrounded by all their headstones," she responded. She began her response sounding angry but quickly moved to sorrow again and started crying. By the end of the sentence Tara could hardly understand her speech at all. The blonde understood her lover well enough to know that she didn’t mean to lash out at her; she was just very upset and useless feeling.

After a very long time, Willow stood and moved toward her horse. Surprisingly she began to pet it, rubbing her hand along its neck and main. The animal turned to nuzzle her lightly as it to comfort her. "You know," she said quietly, "I almost think he understands I’m upset and wants to help me feel better."

"He does," Tara agreed.

"I can’t believe I’m standing here petting a horse and feeling better," Willow mused.

Tara smiled, "you’ve changed a lot since you got off that train my love."

The redhead turned toward her and smiled. "But I still don’t say ‘y’all’ do I baby?" she teased. Turning back to the blanket she moved slowly toward it but at the last moment threw herself down, tackling the blonde and beginning to tickle her all over her stomach. Realizing that she was no match for Willow’s surprise attack, Tara instead began retaliation with her lips. As she wiggled away from Willow’s fingers she placed kiss after kiss on the redhead’s neck, cheek, ear, nose—anything she could reach. Quickly Willow relented to capture her lover’s lips between her own. As soon as she did, she felt herself trapped between the ground and Tara’s warm body as Tara’s nimble fingertips aimed for her elbows, underarms, and – worst of all – behind her knees. In moments the smaller girl had to hold up her hand coughing out "stop" in the magical tickle safeword.

After lying together for a long time, occasionally leaning in to kiss briefly or less briefly, Willow signaled that she was done thinking about Sunnydale for the time being: "when is Donnie getting in?"

"He’ll be on the early train on F-Friday," Tara explained. "He says he wants to see his baby sister in all her performances." She couldn’t help but beam over the thought. On one hand, it seemed a lot of fuss to make over a school musical but it meant so much that he was coming to see her that she couldn’t help but be extra proud.

"Well of course he is," Willow agreed, "who wouldn’t want to see you as a wicked sexy witch?"

"A wicked witch or wicked sexy?" Tara teased back to clarify Willow’s comment.

The redhead pressed their lips together once again before explaining, "right now you are wicked sexy and a witch. In the show you are a wicked witch who is also sexy." After a few more minutes lost to the ecstasy of their lips, she pulled back to look deep into blue eyes: "do you have any idea how proud I am of you? How incredible you are?" Tara’s blush was enough answer for her lover kissed her again before asking, "is he staying at the Royal Arms?"

"N-n-no," Tara explained, "he’s staying with James. They met a few years ago and g-g-got along good and the Arms is too booked to be able to g-g-give me a r-r-room like for our anniversary." "It’s the only way," she whispered.

"Hey, well that’s good. Then you don’t have drive into town to get him or anything," Willow attempted to lighten the stress of the Maclay financial situation. She knew that Donnie’s visit had come down to their only having enough money for one person to come for the show and graduation. Tara gave her lopsided smile and nodded.

Part 57

Passing

Every year the same thing.

Huh?

Every year: we finish finals or all the assignments we have to do or whatever and we still have to go to class. What’s the point?

Well, it means I can sit here and look at your cute ears some more…

Mmm, you could do that anyway. Although I prefer your looking at the fronts of my ears to the backs. Gee, that sounds weirder on paper than it did in my head.

One thing I love is the way they get so red when I’m looking at them or talking about them.

Well geez, put them on the spot why don’t you? Now they feel shy.

Take a look around this room. People are listening to their walkmans, playing tic tac toe, sleeping. I have no idea why we even come.

Because they said if you miss your grade drops a level?

Ok, that’s probably got something to do with it. But… Ms. T. is reading a magazine. Cosmo! Think she’s taking a sex quiz?

I shudder to think

That’s not the only time you shudder.

Tara Maclay! You should wash your mind out with soap.

Do you think that would help? I only ask because…

Because what?

Well, I took a shower this morning but I can still smell you on my hand.

Tara Rebecca Maclay! Oh Goddess.

Seriously, I’m sitting here with my fingers just under my nose kind of resting on my upper lip and I can smell you.

Uhhhh. Good?

Good? Wonderful. Spectacular. Ambrosiac.

I mean, it’s not like smelling you up close but for sitting here not losing a grade level… it’s pretty good.

Puddle Girlfriend here.

I love the puddles you make my love. The way you get so wet.

You know what makes me like that?

I can think of a few things. Like when I circle my tongue around your nipple, tracing the bumps as it grows harder under my attention. Or when I suck one nipple deep into my mouth as I scrape my teeth over it.

I know you like that because you always make that groaning noise.

Uh yeah….

And sometimes, ok most of the time, ok all of the time, I love to go back and forth between your nipples, sucking on one and using my fingertips on the other. All the while as you arch your back as if you want to press your flesh so deep into my mouth. Oh yeah, I love that part.

Uh a grade level right? Do you think we both need that grade level?

Oh I’m sure we do… I’m sure we need it badly. Do you need it?

Are we still talking about grades?

Maybe

Then: maybe

Maybe you need it? Goddess baby. You sure seemed to need it this morning.

Uh, I remember

You remember waking me up with your soft kisses on my neck?

Definitely

And you remember my flipping you onto your back?

Oh yeah…

Holding your wrists as I began to cover your chest with light kisses? And your neck?

yesss

Seems like you said that this morning too. And you remember how I teased your lips with mine? Barely brushing against them.

yesss

It was amazing my love. Only a few minutes and I could already smell you in the room. Filling the air with your wonderful scent. And then you started moaning and saying "please, please."

And you said, "please what?"

Maybe I didn’t know what you wanted.

Oh right. That’s possible (not).

Remind me. What did you say?

Oh Goddess, now I’m the blushing one. I said, "please baby take me now."

Did I?

Not right away.

Awww. That sounds mean. Was I mean?

no (small)

No. I wasn’t mean. I said, "not yet love," and kept playing with you didn’t I?

yes

I licked and sucked your nipples and licked and sucked them some more. They get so hard… You know I’ve heard ice cubes can be good for that too. That they help nipples get very hard. I wonder if yours could get any harder if I used ice cubes on them. What do you think?

Oh baby, the note came back without your writing. Does that mean you’re speechless?

Maybe one of these days we can get some ice and I can experiment. That does sound fun.

But back to talking about this morning. I would have loved to just keep playing with your nipples for hours. But…

But???

Well, you know how it is. I ran my fingertips that one time through your wetness. I thought I would just touch you and then tease some more…

But you didn’t

No. I didn’t. I ran my fingertips along your lips once and you just trashed so wildly. I knew you were so ready. Ok, not like it took any genius to figure that out. There you were, flushed all over… hard nipples… wet all over… trashing about… moaning. Beautiful!

Goddess baby—I needed you so badly

Mmmm hmmm. I noticed. That’s why I thrust my fingers inside you. Hmmm, maybe ‘thrust’ isn’t the word I’m looking for here. What do you think?

Uhhh, thrust works. I just remember feeling complete suddenly

Oh baby… you weren’t complete that quick were you?

Uhhh, not that kind of complete. I mean… I mean you complete me. Not I was complete I mean. Hey, you’re teasing.

Well yeah. But the hour is going quicker now.

Oh yeah. Ten more minutes. You know what that means?

Lunch time?

Not quite

Taking a peaceful scenic walk?

Want to see if the third time is the charm

Our bodies pressed to the door of your room as we rip each other’s clothes off?

And we have a winner

What do I win?

An all expenses paid trip to …

As soon as your clothes are off, I drop to my knees in front of you and start to lick your lips. Tasting your wetness. Spreading you with my fingers a little…

Mmmm, hmmm.

Pressing into you as my tongue flicks the tip of your little nub and your hands wrap around my head.

I’m sure I won’t mean to pull so hard.

And yet, you always do. Goddess I love that baby. Knowing that what I do makes you feel so good. I’m going to make you come so hard. Dripping into my mouth and squeezing my fingers. Oh baby I can’t wait…

And yet here it is class has been over for 3 mintutes and we’re the only ones here…

What the?

Part 58

First Choices

"There are just so many…" Tara trailed off looking around at the papers scattered all over the bed.

Willow looked at her girlfriend before picking up first one and then the next sheet, scanning each as if it would give her some insight into her destiny. Their destiny. As if one sheet would call out to her, screaming, "I’M THE ONE! PICK ME!" But they all stayed silent with their nearly identical messages: "Congratulations Ms. Rosenberg [or Maclay]. We are pleased to inform you of your acceptance to begin study at … for the 2000 school year…" Every letter with the name Rosenberg on it showed a successful attempt at admission. Only a few rejected Tara and those were the schools neither girl really expected her to be admitted to: Harvard, Yale, etc. All the other schools had accepted both girls, which didn’t make the choice any easier.

Helping to narrow the search were the additional sheets informing the girls of scholarship and financial aid information. While some of that information would not be available until later in the summer, their aid was somewhat balanced out. Willow had received more dollars in pure scholarship offers while Tara received more in need-based financial aid. Even if the couple decided to narrow their choices to those schools offering a pretty-much "free ride" they had multiple options. In Tara’s opinion the best package when combined by educational quality were being offered by Texas A&M and The University of Texas. All the UC schools were offering considerable financial assistance but only UC Sunnydale offered more than the Texas schools. In her opinion though, the strengths of Willow’s hometown option were more than outweighed by the lacking academic opportunities there and the increased danger. The redhead countered that she had friends there and the two witches could help in the ongoing fight against evil.

As if in contrast to the long time that had elapsed without their discussing their college selection process, the two girls now were "talking it to death." The scattered sheets of paper had been folded and unfolded countless times as had each of their preferences and needs. Neither girl had reached a point of frustration or anger with the other but they had certainly reached that point with the process.

"What time does Donnie’s train arrive?" Willow finally asked wanting to shift the focus from the looming college selection process.

"1:00," Tara responded. She and Willow planned to drive the school truck into town to pick up her brother. From that point on, it would be a busy weekend. Tonight’s show was at 8:00. Graduation would happen at 7:00 Saturday night and Sunday held two shows at 2:00 and 8:00. Then strike and cast party. In addition to the exhaustion she expected from the performances, Tara was nervous over the announcement of additional scholarships during the graduation. Various endowments were always announced at the ceremony and she had applied for many of them. Fortunately (or unfortunately) her sixth place ranking kept her out of the spotlight and energy required to make a valedictory or salutatory speech. Willow was somewhat disappointed that her late transfer made her ineligible for class ranking, particularly since she had finished her three years at Sunnydale High and now a year at Brenhams without making a grade lower than two A minus in PE her freshman and sophomore years.

"I don’t understand why graduation is so early here," she repeated.

"Sweetie," Tara answered gently, "we’ve discussed this before. Graduation is so early because the school year here runs from earlier in August to early May because of the heat." In fact their graduation was scheduled for a full week earlier than Sunnydale High’s graduation.

Tara jumped as the phone rang near her. Although Willow had had the phone in her room for nearly the entire school year, the blonde had never been able to adjust to its presence and always reacted badly when she heard it ringing. Part of her negativity toward the implement was based on the fact that it was contraband and part was due to the fact that she felt like it was Willow’s "bat phone." Lately, the thing only went off for bad news from Sunnydale or something that her friends needed her to do. Since either only served to cause the redhead more grief and guilt because she wasn’t there helping, Tara was having trouble appreciating either type of call.

Ironically the school had announced that starting next year they would be installing phones in each room. They had finally realized that it was illogical and anachronistic to deny the students phones, particularly when they had high-speed Internet access in their rooms. As more and more students got cell phones, it became obvious that the electronic age had reached even the Texas Hill Country.

"Hello," Willow spoke breathlessly into the phone. As Tara watched she mouthed "Buffy" at the blonde. Tara leaned back against the pillow finding no surprise that the slayer was the person calling. At least with Buffy calling, it was possible that the reason for the call was social. The only other person who ever called was Giles and he never called socially; his calls all meant that he needed help from the redheaded witch.

Tara listened to Willow’s end of the conversation for a few minutes as she gathered up the letters and laid them neatly on her girlfriend’s desk. Looking at the clock, she tapped it twice to get Willow’s attention. As Willow excused herself from the phone conversation Tara explained, "I’ve got to go into t-t-town."

Stealing a quick kiss the redhead encouraged her girlfriend: "mmm. Bring Donnie back here so I can see him before dinner time ok?" Tara nodded as she went out the door, wondering what was going on in Sunnydale this time. She was sure that Willow would share the news from the conversation with her although she feared that the smaller woman would want to save her from the stress until after her performances.

As she went out the door she heard Willow’s question, "so she tried to turn Angelus? Buffy that’s terrible."

After kissing Tara goodbye, Willow had returned her attention fully to the call from Buffy. It was unbelievable. She knew that Faith was bad and she knew that the dark-haired slayer got on her nerves but she never expected this level of evil from the girl. Sure Willow had taken an instant dislike to her based on her callous and crude treatment of herself and Tara, particularly Tara, but she never took the girl for a heartless murderer.

According to Buffy while Faith was giving the appearance of regaining the trust and approval of the Watcher’s Council and the Scoobies, she had actually sold out to work for the Mayor. Even knowing that he had something diabolical planned for the city, that he trafficked with demons and vampires, she had apparently gone to work for him and was undermining all the good work being done by the Scoobies. It would not have surprised the redhead to find out that Faith had given the Mayor the heads-up on her file hacking attempts on his data.

After working incognito for a few weeks, Faith had come out of the closet in a big way. According to Angel she had tried to bring back Angelus in the traditional manner. In other words, as Willow pointed out, she had acted with him like she acts with every other man or boy she came in contact with. When he had rejected her, she had worked with a shaman to steal his soul, bringing Angelus back. Then she took him to work with her and Mayor. The two had tricked Buffy, chaining her to the wall and promising a long slow torture for fun and pleasure. In the process Buffy had goaded Faith into revealing the Mayor’s plan.

According to the dark-haired slayer, the Mayor was working toward ascension as a demon—an event that would occur on Graduation Day and result in the destruction of the town and most of its inhabitants. Not a warm fuzzy thought.

"How did you escape Buff?" Willow worried.

"Oh, sorry I left out a key piece," Buffy explained, "Angel wasn’t really evil. The shaman was a friend of Giles’ and he only pretended to bring back Angelus. I wasn’t chained. Faith and I fought and she took off." Having no concept of cinematic foreshadowing, the blonde failed to mention Faith’s comment as she and Buffy held each other at knifepoint that the blonde slayer was not ready yet for that.

"So on Graduation day the Mayor is going to become a demon and eat the school?" Willow confirmed.

"The city apparently," Buffy added.

"Wow."

"Yeah wow," Buffy agreed. She waited a few minutes before continuing, "hey Will. We kind of need some help."

Tears started to seep from the witch’s eyes as she answered, "sure Buffy. What do you need?"

"Um I have a note here from Giles," Buffy explained, "two things: one magical and one computer. We need to make living flame and we need schematics of the city hall building." Willow took down the information and promised to get online immediately. Within an hour she had found and sent the desired information to the school where Oz retrieved it. Once again she found herself grateful that he boy had failed the year so that he could handle the computer needs for the group while she was away. After confirming that the Scoobies had received the information successfully, she leaned back to think and worry about the situation.

It was unbelievable really. The mayor of Sunnydale is going to destroy the town? Can’t they find a way to kill him? What is with Faith and why is she such a sadistic bitch? Why aren’t I there? Should I be? Could I even help if I were there? Even Willow’s powerful brain became tired with all the worry and "what ifs." More importantly her emotions were draining her of any energy. She fell asleep not to awaken until Tara and her brother returned from town.

Tara pulled into the train station a few minutes late. Seeing few people in the area, she assumed that the train was even more late and settled back against the bench to rest. As she sat she played over the college choices in her mind. She knew what her first choice was. She wanted to go to A&M. As her father had done. As her mother had done. As she had always dreamed of doing. For as long as she could remember she had wanted to go to A&M for undergraduate and then veterinary school. Sure the colors were ugly and the corps of cadets was a bit too Lords of Discipline for her liking, but she planned to stay away from that segment of the student populace. But now… How could she expect Willow to settle for A&M? While the school had a good computer engineering department, it certainly wasn’t Harvard, Yale, or MIT.

She was startled from her thoughts by a knock on the window of the truck and for the second time that afternoon she jumped. Looking over and seeing Donnie, she immediately jumped down from the vehicle to hug her older brother. "I can’t believe you came," she gasped as he twirled her around.

"Had to come little sis," he drawled, "not every weekend your baby sister graduates from high school and stars in the musical all the same few days." As he released her he threw his duffel in the back of the truck. "Walk around or slide across?" he asked, being familiar with farm vehicles and their notoriously unreliable passenger doors.

She waved him to slide under the wheel and began quickly driving back to the school. As they drove he filled her in to the events at the farm. The baby was growing quickly as evidenced by the pictures he eagerly pulled from his pocket. Teresa was well but having intense pain with her arthritis on a daily basis. Their father seemed to be feeling better but was still financially strapped due to the ongoing hospital bills. Donnie told his sister that the older man had said repeatedly to tell her how sorry he was that he could not come for her big weekend. He had promised a celebration for her and Willow when they came in the next few weeks.

"H-h-he said a celebration for both of u-us?" she questioned.

"He repeated it three times little sis," Donnie confirmed. "I think our daddy may not be as dumb as people have always thought."

"I’ve never thought he was d-d-dumb," Tara pleaded, "just that he might not catch on to s-s-some things."

Donnie chuckled to himself as he thought of the days after their departure at Christmas. "Right after you left he and I were riding. He kept saying how happy you seemed to him. He stressed it over and over. Didn’t I think you seemed happy? Didn’t it seem like you were complete? Didn’t Willow seem like a nice girl?" Donnie explained. "Finally I asked him if he wanted to know something."

"Goddess Donnie, what did he say?" Tara asked.

"He said ‘I’m right: she’s really happy right?’" Donnie answered. "But I knew what he meant. I said that you were very happy. Then he patted my hand and said that’s all he ever wanted for his children: to be happy like he and mama were." Both siblings felt the hot tears pooling in their matching blue eyes and let them come and then flow, happy for the moment.

Pulling into the lot Tara asked her brother, "you want to go and drop your stuff off at James’s room or go say hi to Willow first?"

"Let’s go and see Willow first," he answered. "I just need to hang up my shirt so it ain’t too wrinkled." Tara nodded her agreement. "I just brought a shirt and slacks but I’ve got a new tie ok?"

Stopping to hug her brother Tara reassured him: "I’m just glad you’re here Donnie."

When they reached Willow’s room, Tara knocked to ensure that Willow wasn’t busy since she had left the smaller woman in the middle of her conversation with Buffy. "Come in," they heard her call from the room.

By the time the two blondes entered the room, Willow was halfway across the floor and found herself caught up in one of Donnie’s hugs, which were quickly becoming infamous for the spinning ability. Fearing for her computer Willow quickly yelled to stop and the boy did.

"Hey Willow," Donnie greeted her enthusiastically. "So what do y’all think about Tara and this play? Is she great? The star or what?"

Tara blushed as Willow praised her to her brother: "You won’t believe it Donnie. She’s amazing. The dress rehearsal was last night and she shined. You can sit in the front row or with me in the lighting booth." Both girls blushed furiously as they made eye contact remembering the way Tara had come down from her amazing high after the show.

Pulling his shirt to hang it on the back of the closet door the older boy continued, "we’re all just as proud of her for graduating as the musical." He amended, "I mean I graduated from high school too but to have all those colleges wantin her to go. That’s pretty big."

"Oh," he exclaimed, "I almost forgot." He pulled a leather bound album from his bag and handed it to the two girls. "Grandma said to send this along. She said it’s important and it’s about that thing you’re tryin to figure."

"For m-me or Willow?" Tara questioned.

"I don’t know little sis," Donnie explained. "That’s what she said. I guess she wants y’all to sit down and go through it together." Willow set the book on the edge of her desk as she gave a shrug of her shoulders. After a few minutes the three agreed that Tara needed to rest before the show and Willow and Donnie went to take a ride. Tara warned Donnie about Willow’s limited ability and fears and he promised to take good care of her. "Can I ride Chestnut sis?" he teased, clearly expecting her to refuse.

She thought for a moment before reassuring him, "sure. Take good c-c-care of her." After Willow and Donnie left, she lay down and went quickly to sleep.

Part 59

Showtime

Even before the lights came down, a hush fell over the audience. Those who had seen the dress-rehearsal the night before, and there were very many attendees considering that the event was "closed" had passed on the word that the show was spectacular and the crowd came expecting something great.

Tara, Eliza, James, and the other players prepared and warmed up while still others peeked out from behind the curtain to report on the size and mood of the audience. For Eliza the reports served to whip her nervousness up to a frenzy pitch. She had never been involved in a performance of this magnitude and the butterflies in her stomach were active and growing. James adapted by adopting completely the role of his witless and self-absorbed prince. In doing so, he relaxed many of the other actors as he moved through the area bringing laughter and amusement.

Tara attempted to attack the backstage nervousness on two fronts. She felt not nervous but excited over the opportunity and the power she felt when on stage. She had confided to Willow the night before that being on stage, singing, acting allowed her to feel as if she had transcended her body, her being. It provided her with a freedom to be anyone and anywhere – completely unconstrained. Her chief emotion besides excitement was sadness over the loss of her mother. Last year’s performance would have been the first performance that her mother had ever missed. Instead she left school without appearing in the play and now her mother would never attend another performance. While she was glad that Donnie had been able to come, she felt a great deal of grief that her parents couldn’t attend either the play or her graduation.

Days earlier Tara had created a ritual to communicate with her mother. It was something she had done before but she felt the need to complete it at this time. After centering herself, she opened herself up to any communication that she might receive and then just talked to Spirit about her accomplishments and questions. She shared everything about her love for Willow, graduation, the play, and college choices. As she opened herself up to communication, she felt a calming and peace and knowledge that she would make the right choices. This experience allowed her to feel a peaceful contentment as she prepared backstage for this performance.

The second activity she was attempting was calming the other actors. As James had used his humor to comfort others, she was using her healing powers. As she walked she allowed her hands to touch a neck here, a hand there, and where she found too much distress, she stayed a moment extra to visit. When she walked off those people mysteriously found themselves feeling more peaceful. Being close friends, she repeatedly visited with Eliza.

Finally the curtain went up and the actors took the stage for the fast-paced show. Sets were somewhat minimal but the audience obviously didn’t mind as they stopped the show repeatedly with standing ovations. James and the other prince were a particularly big hit as of course, was Tara.

Donnie watched from the light booth with Willow. The redhead was amused by his continuous running commentary. He obviously had never seen or heard the musical and asked questions which would be answered only moments later. Between questions he praised his sister and claimed her talent for the family: "isn’t she great Willow? You shoulda heard our mama sing. Or the two of em together. Ahhh man."

Willow concentrated on working the lights and interacting minimally with the proud young man. While his constant dialog was distracting it was wonderful to see and feel how proud and supportive he was of his sister. Although he liked the princes’ song, he commented that, "them guys can sing but it seems like you’d have to be a little funny to dress like that."

Willow turned a little shocked at the comment, "Donnie, that’s James you’re talking about. I thought you liked him."

"Oh I do like him," he confirmed. "I’m just sayin: a guy’s wearing pantyhose you gotta wonder…"

While Tara’s personal fans were enjoying the show so immensely everyone else in the auditorium appeared to do the same. At curtain the standing ovation was minutes long and everyone on the stage was overjoyed at the success. Willow and Donnie ran down quickly to greet Tara backstage.

Before Willow and Donnie could make their way to Tara who was clearly mobbed they saw Eliza who waved them over excitedly. As Willow gave the younger girl a hug Eliza spoke: "Willow these are my brothers Little Joey and Francis. They came down for the show. Joey and Francis this is my friend Willow. She’s the computer expert I told you about." She indicated two men who completely dwarfed everyone else in the area. The redhead felt like her hand had been engulfed by a bear’s paw. Even Donnie’s hand seemed to disappear into Eliza’s youngest brother’s hand. Before moving away she was happy to see Eliza and Michelle casually holding hands as her brothers visited with the couple.

After waving casually at James, Willow and Donnie determined to make their way through the crowd to greet Tara. The redhead clasped the roses she had gotten on her clandestine trip into town with Emma behind her back. As they reached the center of the milieu Willow was dejected to see Elizabeth standing right next to Tara, her hand on the blonde’s arm looking very territorial. Before Willow could say anything Tara saw her and reached out her hand in absolute excitement. The redhead pulled the flowers from behind her back as she pulled Tara into a tight hug followed by a spontaneous and completely unselfconscious kiss. For a few second the two girls looked deeply into the other’s eyes, oblivious to anyone else. "You were wonderful my love," Willow finally whispered.

Tara didn’t answer but just continued staring into the eyes of the woman she loved as if there were no one else in the world. After a few second of this someone cleared their throat and James’ father pushed through the crowd to congratulate Tara on her wonderful performance. As he released her, Willow noticed Elizabeth leaving the circle looking dejected. Oh well she thought get your own girlfriend Bethie! Hmmm, should I feel guilty for that? Nope I don’t think so. She returned her attention to hear James’ father telling Tara that he felt she had a very good chance at the scholarship given each year to the most rounded student overall.

Although Tara felt embarrassed to have the subject brought up by the man, she also knew that a certain amount of "schmoozing" was necessary, as the voting for the award had not been completed. "Come visit with me," the man offered. Tara glanced at Willow to ensure that her girlfriend understood before wandering off to meet the rest of James’ family.

Later that night the two girls lay in bed snuggled close together. "Good day?" Willow asked.

"Mmm best day," Tara agreed. "I th-thought the show went great."

Willow leaned up on one elbow, "Goddess baby. It was wonderful. You were wonderful. You are so amazingly talented."

Tara leaned forward to catch her girlfriend’s lips in a tender kiss. "And tired," she whispered. Those were the last words either woman spoke before falling deeply and exhaustedly asleep.

The next day Tara, Willow, and Donnie took a long ride around noon. Tara had gotten up to work and Donnie came with her, cutting her responsibilities in half. Both siblings enjoyed the familiarity of working together with the horses and with each other once again. As they worked Donnie filled Tara in on the status of the farm and condition of all the horses. She was pleased to hear that the foal that had been injured at Christmas appeared to have recovered completely and was growing well.

"H-h-how is grandma feeling Donnie?" Tara asked.

"Her arthritis is hurting her pretty good," he confirmed her suspicions.

Even though she expected this answer, Tara frowned as she heard it. "I’ll do what I c-can when we’re there," she reassured him.

The older boy set his hand on her arm as he saw that she was concerned: "I know you’ll do what you can sis. She knows it too."

Both worked mostly in silence for the rest of the morning as they didn’t want to discuss Tara’s absence from home. Late in the morning Willow arrived with a pack filled with sandwiches, drinks, and fruit for their picnic. Those students who were not graduating or involved in the musical were leaving and most remaining students were spending the day with their families so there was very little traffic at the stables or on the grounds. The three youngsters were able to take a long leisurely ride with no distractions. Occasionally Tara and Donnie would take off on a competitive race returning to Willow after a short while and teasing about which had gotten the better of their sibling.

Finally the group reached the edge of the creek and stopped to water their horses and enjoy lunch. After eating Donnie declared that he was going to ride some more and leave the girls alone. Willow pulled the book Donnie had brought from home. "Why do you think Teresa sent this along?" she asked her girlfriend.

Tara took the book lightly as she set it in front of them. "I d-d-don’t know," she answered as she opened the book. As she saw the first page, she gasped in surprise and felt tears come to her eyes.

"Wow," Willow exclaimed, "you look just like her." Even as she spoke, she reached out to hold her lover’s hand.

Silently the two girls began paging through the photo album. The book began with pictures of Tara’s mother as a youngster, playing with the animals on the farm and beginning to experiment with magic. As she grew, the album began to contain more clippings to go with the photos. Photos of Tara’s parents attending an 8^th grade ball and their attendance at other formal events through the years were interspersed with news items touting her performances at various shows and recitals.

By now Tara had to be careful to keep her tears from falling onto the valuable clippings and photos. Her salty tears represented both sadness at the woman she had lost and love and pride over her mother’s accomplishments. Willow’s left hand constantly rubbed her lover’s lower back as both women perused the book.

"I thought your mama went to A&M?" Willow commented in confusion as she pointed at the headline reading: "Local girl wins scholarship to prestigious Juliard."

"Sh-sh-she did," Tara replied as she turned a few pages to find the item she was seeking. The engagement notice showed a beautiful and happy picture of both Tara’s parents. "Andrews-Maclay" the heading read. Farther down the notice stated that both would be enrolling at Texas A&M in the Spring.

The final few pages of the book relived Tara’s mother’s first year at college and the local paper’s coverage of her accomplishments. Willow turned the last page expectantly: "why did it end?"

"I guess it stops when they g-g-got married. That’s another book. I’ve s-s-seen it," Tara explained.

"And this one?"

"I’ve never s-s-seen this one," Tara told Willow.

Willow leaned against the tree indicating that she wanted to hold her lover. "Why did your grandmother send it with Donnie?"

Neither girl had heard the young man approaching on his horse but lifted their heads as he spoke, "she said somethin about figuring something out." The three young people looked to each other and shrugged before deciding to ride back and put away their horses to get ready for the ceremony.

Hours later Willow and Tara lay cuddled in Willow’s bed basking in the glory of their evening. Graduation was a typical high school graduation with the same boring speeches and processional. The most exciting part of the evening was the announcement of last-minute scholarship awards. As expected Tara had received the award intended for graduates pursuing veterinary science at A&M. However, the major coup of the evening was her receipt of James’ family’s $5,000 cash scholarship to attend the school of her choice. Both girls knew that the award would go far toward supporting her education. Additionally, the award made her eligible to apply for renewal each year depending on her grades and accomplishments during college.

Willow had received no scholarships from the school but her educational needs were more than satisfied by the combination of awards and offers being made by every college in the country and her parents’ support. "It’s great that Donnie came," the redhead commented, "he seemed so proud of you."

"He always h-has been," Tara agreed. "I’m really sorry that your parents didn’t make it love," she continued as she stroked her lover’s stomach.

Willow was silent for a moment before answering, "I guess it didn’t really surprise me." She reached over to her desk and handed Tara two telegrams that had arrived earlier:

"Willow. Congratulations. Gift wired to account. Mom." Read the first sheet.

"Congratulations sweetheart. Proud. Gift in Driveway. Love Ira." Read the second.

"Gift in the driveway?" Tara quoted.

Willow nodded: "sounds like it’s a good thing I learned to drive or you’d have a new car baby. Mom sent a lot of money."

"I know you’d rather have them here than the presents," Tara attempted to comfort her lover. As she spoke she felt Willow’s emotion break and the smaller girl cried herself to sleep.

Part 60

Choices

Tara woke to the sun streaming through the window. It was obviously mid afternoon and the blonde took the chance to lie there just enjoying the laziness and relaxation of the afternoon. Classes were over. The show and graduation were over. Her chores were mostly completed. She and Willow were staying at the school for a few days to allow them to complete their projects: Willow the website and Tara preparing the horses for the summer and arranging Chestnut’s transport back to the farm.

Without opening her eyes she could tell that Willow was not in the bed with her. The redhead must have gotten up to shower. Rather than getting up to join her, Tara decided to enjoy the spaciousness of the bed and relive the morning:

Tara woke to feel fingertips lightly brushing along her sides, moving eventually to stroke her arms and legs. She purred lightly as she began to luxuriate in the soft sensual touching. "mmm," she moaned quietly enjoying Willow’s touch.

Continuing to trail her hands across her lover’s body, Willow began to lightly kiss her shoulder as she whispered, "good morning lover." Tara reached her hands up to stroke Willow’s back as the smaller woman began placing small light kisses on her lover’s neck.

As her breath began to catch in her throat Tara gasped, "what a way to w-w-wake up." Willow shifted her weight to stretch out against the blonde’s body, pressing their lengths together. Both women began to move together as they enjoyed the feel of soft breast against soft breast. As Tara thought how much she loved the feel of Willow’s body against her own, the smaller woman raised her hands to stroke the sides of the blonde’s breasts.

Neither woman felt any urgency and they spent untold minutes or even hours just kissing lightly and touching each other’s bodies. Their tongues continued a dance they had found so wonderful in their time together as each woman traced the inside of her lover’s waiting mouth or pulled both tongues back into her own. Noting the increase in Willow’s breathing, Tara finally slipped her hands between their bodies as the smaller woman raised up a little to create a little space. Much as she disliked the distance between their flesh, Tara took advantage of the movement to raise her hands to her lover’s small breasts.

Slowly she palmed the flesh, rubbing each breast slowly and gently in circles. As always Willow’s nipples hardened, pressing their points into Tara’s waiting palms. "Oh baby you feel so good," the blonde moaned around a kiss. Allowing the hardened tips of her lover’s breasts to slip along her hands, she began rubbing each nub between her thumb and forefinger. As her attention intensified, so did Willow’s moaning and movement against their still connected lower bodies.

Holding her weight on her own hands Willow lowered her mouth to Tara’s breast, licking around the aureole as the nipple hardened in front of her mouth. Slowly she laved the dimpled area as Tara continued her assault on the smaller woman’s nipples. Willow switched from one nipple to the other as she enjoyed the reaction of her lover under her mouth and lips. While she took Tara’s hardened nipple in her mouth Willow breathed in, savoring the scent of her lover as their essences mingled and filled the room. As soon as Tara arched her back into the contact, Willow knew that it would not take much longer before both women would need completion.

Ardently she suckled first one and then the other nipple as Tara arched and moaned into the attention. Rolling with the shifting weight, she allowed Tara to reverse their positions so that the blonde now straddled her smaller lover. As Willow kept her hands on her lover’s breasts, Tara bent to take her small hard nipples in her mouth. As she scraped her teeth along the bumpy surface, Willow grasped the back of her head and she cried out, "Oh Goddess Tara."

"Shhh," Tara admonished without ceasing her attention to her lover’s pleasure. She alternated soft licking, deep sucking, and teasing nips with her teeth and felt the pressure on the back of her head continuing with each motion. Suddenly the blonde felt Willow’s fingers tracing the entrance to her sex. "Ohhhhh," she gasped as Willow thrust two fingers inside her wetness.

Just as quickly the smaller woman withdrew her fingers and began tracing them up and down Tara’s lips and over her clitoris. With each movement over the hardened bundle of nerves Tara’s body shuddered. She whispered that familiar phrase, "let’s share it," as she began stroking Willow’s wetness to match the smaller woman’s movement. She was enjoying the sensation of Willow’s body as she felt the redhead again insert two fingers into her depths. "Oh Goddess," Tara moaned out as she mirrored the motion.

Feeling her body filled with her lover’s talented fingers, Willow arched up to engulf them even more. As each woman combined slow thrusts with curling her fingers and faster thrusts, the other reacted by pressing her center into her lover’s hand. Their mouths met to share their passion and swallow the screams as each moaned wordlessly into the contact. Knowing that her climax was near, Tara began thrusting her center even harder and faster against Willow’s hand as she mirrored the motion with her hand. The feeling of Willow’s climax and the clenching of the smaller woman’s body around Tara’s fingers was enough to send the blonde over the edge as she shook with pleasure.

As her climax retreated Tara lowered her body onto the bed and continued kissing and snuggling her lover. "Good morning lover," she whispered.

"Mmm morning," Willow moaned back as she clutched her weakening arms around Tara. Both women were asleep in moments.

As she remembered the morning’s events, Tara allowed her hands to trail over her soft body.  Goddess Tara: nymph much?  She chuckled even as she comforted herself:  hey just thinking about Willow makes me ready. In a matter of minutes she had used her imagination about Willow to her fullest ability. She sat up looking for a clock and wondering how long Willow had been in the shower. It seemed like a long time since she had woken up but she couldn’t really tell.

Glancing over she noticed for the first time an envelope on Willow’s pillow with her name written across it. How sweet of her. Maybe she wants to have a picnic? the blonde speculated and smiled. It was amazing how much she loved this quirky woman. She opened the envelope to find a few sheets of paper handwritten inside:

Tara,

My love. By the time you read this I will be gone. Isn’t that just so cliché? I feel like a bad movie to even write that line. Understand that I will be back. That is the most important thing in the world: that you know I love you and would never leave you.

Do you remember at Christmas when I had the audience with your grandmother and met the guide? Did I tell you that there was a question I was supposed to answer but that I couldn’t even remember the question? The question has been playing at the edges of my mind for the last few weeks. At times it is like a child or a kitten that just wants attention but then goes back into hiding.

Well, I think I know why your grandmother sent the album. As we went through it, I remembered the question: "what creates our reality?" I remember sitting under the tree with your mother as she asked me that question. I didn’t understand whether it was for me or for you but now I think it was directed to me. Or maybe to both of us. And I think I know the answer: choices. Everything we do, every action, every event, creates the reality we are in.

So maybe it’s choices and fate. The fate of you and me. The fate of our meeting and falling in love. For that other Tara that we brought here, fate is everything. She’s not with a Willow because they have never met but you and I have because of the fate and because of choices made by my parents. And choices made by me not to run but to follow their wishes and come here. And because I did that, I got to meet you. Wonderful you. Lovely you. My everything.

But I have to make this choice. I have to go to Sunnydale. My friends, my family, everyone I have ever known who isn’t here is there. And they’re all going to die unless we stop it. I have to be with my friends and stop the carnage. I know that I can be a powerful force of good and fight the evil that is coming.

I’m going to work with Buffy and the other Scoobies to defeat the mayor. And then I will spend the rest of my life loving you. Graduation is in two days. I will meet you at the farm in less than a week.

Please don’t be upset or disappointed that I made this choice. I must help my friends and do good. I can help people and that’s what I will do. I love you forever and will see you soon.

Yours Willow.

Tara read and reread the letter as tears streamed down her face. She was tempted to go after Willow but the redhead had obviously planned her escape carefully and would not be caught. Finally she refolded the letter and rose from the bed.

Part 61

Graduation Day