Michelle – So that’s another favorable reaction to the train ride it sounds like. Tee hee. Yeah a hard start to the visit with Willow surprising them but being surprised. And that left Tara dealing with people she didn’t know: two slayers and a vampire at that. The rest of the visit will be interesting

Thanks for commenting.
Title– W/T Season 3 Y’all – part 32 –
Disclosure Author– JustSkipit - Debra
E-mail –
debraser@yahoo.com Feedback – Yes please.
Spoilers–Season 3 through Amends
Rating– Part 32 – R? 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.
Thoughts in italics! Tara woke to the smell of coffee and a very bad headache. Her head felt like every vein and artery in it was on fire. When she moved as little as opening her eyes, the movement of the eyelashes made her world swim and the nausea was almost overwhelming. But as bad as she felt, she felt something wonderful too. Willow was wrapped in her arms. Tara chuckled as she thought about when she first met the redhead. She remembered being confused as if Willow had two personalities. One was the sweet angel she saw sleeping so beautifully and the other was the delinquent in and out of trouble with her old school. Now her amusement increased as she looked at her lover. The redhead was sleeping peacefully and deeply as she usually was when Tara rose for the day. But she sported a nasty looking black-eye and a mark where her skin had been split open. In fact, the entire side of her cheek was badly bruised. Tara knew that she would need to do some additional healing or Willow would be really hurting for a long time.
Quietly and painfully, the blonde eased herself from the bed and went to take a shower. Her head continued to throb from the exertions of the past two days. After getting dressed, she went downstairs and found Buffy having breakfast. The slayer offered some to Tara who gladly accepted.
“Will’s still sleeping huh? That girl can really sleep in when she wants to,” Buffy observed.
Tara laughed as she agreed: “Yeah. She likes to sleep late and with her head hurting so badly, I wouldn’t be surprised if she sleeps for a really long time.”
Buffy nodded: “I feel bad about what happened. I mean I know it’s my fault for not telling her about Angel but I just didn’t know what to do. I mean how do you tell someone you love so much that you love someone you shouldn’t? I mean how can she understand? And now I kept this huge secret and she’s still my best friend but what if she doesn’t trust me or forgive me?”
Tara let Buffy talk placing her hand gently over the slayer’s and sending some comforting energy through the connection. Even that help taxed her energy and increased her headache and she knew that she needed to rejuvenate soon. “M-m-maybe she can understand. M-m-maybe you can j-j-just explain and b-b-be honest?” Tara ventured.
Buffy just nodded, contemplating the conversation she knew needed to happen with her best friend. She relaxed as she thought about how much she had missed the redhead and how happy she was to have her back home.
“B-b-buffy?” Tara stuttered.
“Yeah what Tara?” Buffy answered.
“I have q-q-question and I don’t know if it will m-m-make sense,” Tara began. As Buffy nodded, Tara continued, “um. I n-n-need to m-m-meditate. Like a cleansing. B-b-but the H-h-hellmouth…”
“You need a place to do your ritual?” Buffy ventured.
“Y-y-yes. Someplace outside,” Tara clarified.
Buffy finished eating and stood up from the table. “Let me call Giles—he’s my watcher, like a trainer—he should know someplace that will work for you. Ok?”
Tara nodded her agreement.
After a few minutes Buffy came back the room: “Hey Tara?”
Tara looked up from the magazine she was browsing: “Y-y-yes?”
Buffy told her, “Giles has a place that he says is pretty good. It’s on hallowed ground so it’s pretty shielded from the Hellmouth. He can come pick you up if you want to go over there and I can stay here with Willow.”
Tara nodded to Buffy’s suggestion and the slayer went to call Giles back. On one hand, Tara didn’t want to leave Willow but on the other, if she didn’t go and do some energy work, she couldn’t do any more healing and she knew it was really needed. After checking on Willow and ensuring that the redhead was still sleeping comfortably, she left instructions with Buffy to give her some aspirin when she got up and left with Giles.
---
Willow woke up with a terrible headache. As she sat up, feeling the room spin out of control, she wondered when she had decided to allow a truck to drive over her head. As the cloud between her aching ears eased, she remembered the events of the last night. Oh, what a mistake. Trying to wrap her mind around everything she processed what she knew.
Let’s go one at a time: Angel’s alive or well, not alive but still undead and no one told me. Especially Buffy. When I attacked him, Faith used my head for a soccer ball. Tara healed me and made herself sick.
On one hand, Willow felt tremendous anger at the slayer for keeping Angel’s return from her. She wanted to know what had happened and how he came back if Buffy even really killed him to begin with. At the same time, she wanted and needed to talk to Buffy about Tara. Not just because she wanted to be open and didn’t want to keep anything from her but because this feeling, this love, this amazingness was just too much to keep to herself. She wanted to share it with her friend because she knew that even if Buffy was shocked, she would be happy for her friend. Because that is what friends do. Right?
Placing a hand on the side of her head so that it wouldn’t fall off, Willow sat up and swung her legs off the bed. Ok, that went well. I don’t think I’ll hurl yet. she thought. It seemed to her that showering would probably be expecting a bit much but a bath would feel good.
After finishing her bath and dressing, Willow slowly made her way downstairs. It sounded as if the house were empty although she couldn’t imagine where Tara would be since she didn’t know anyone in Sunnydale. Since yelling would hurt her head, Willow slowly toured the rooms of the house and found them to be empty as she had suspected. Well, that’s a fine how-do-you-do she thought. I come home and my girlfriend and my best friend bail on me. Where are they? “Tara?” she called quietly. Getting no response, she entered the kitchen and saw a piece of paper on the island.
Will,
I had to go to the library to meet with Giles. I’m sure he would love to see you if you want to come. Giles took Tara somewhere to meditate. She said she needs a few hours so we should both be back around 4 or 5 unless you come to the library. Tara said you should take a few aspirin and take it easy.
Tonight we Bronze it? Hope you feel up to it. I’m glad you’re here.
Love Buffy
After reading and rereading the note, Willow made a sandwich and went back upstairs. She started reading one of the books Teresa had given the girls on magic but it hurt her eyes and she found them closing.
---
A few hours later Tara and Buffy entered the house quietly, aware that Willow might be resting since she had not shown up at the library. Tara felt much better having found the location Giles suggested very appropriate and full of positive mystical energy. The most difficult part of the afternoon was meeting a new person and an adult at that. But Giles was very nice and patient with her stutter, which had definitely increased in severity since arriving in Sunnydale. When Tara could bring herself to actually talk to the older gentleman, she discerned that he did seem to have a lot of useful knowledge concerning the occult and mystical forces. While Buffy went to get a soda, Tara said she would go and check on Willow.
Entering the guestroom, she was overwhelmed once again at her depth of love for the sleeping redhead. Willow lay on the bed one hand over an open magic book, the other resting comfortably at the unbuttoned and unzipped fly to her jeans. The blonde smiled as she saw her lover so innocent and not so innocent at the same time. Approaching, she could smell Willow’s essence and knelt by the bed, taking the redhead’s fingers in her mouth and lightly sucking them. Willow’s eyes flashed open as she stammered: “Tara?”
Dropping her lover’s hand back to its resting place, Tara teased, “would it be anyone else love? I just thought you should share a little of that wonderful taste.”
Grabbing a pillow Willow quickly plopped it on top of her head and groaned. Tara gently removed the barrier from her blushing girlfriend: “How are you feeling love?”
“Well, embarrassed. I mean ok, maybe I shouldn’t be embarrassed but yeah embarrassed because you came in and I’m sleeping here and what was I doing before I fell asleep and I was thinking about you and your beautiful blue eyes and then well, I just you know and it’s totally obvious and now I’m all red and blushing and looking totally silly. Also my head feels like someone ran me over with a truck and I’m getting tired of feeling crummy because this is the second time in three days and I didn’t get to see you all day and Buffy wasn’t here either and this is not the best vacation I’ve ever had.” Finally Willow ran out of breath.
Tara laughed lightly at her lover and whispered in her ear, “I’m glad to hear you were thinking about me. I’ve missed you. Missed you in my mouth and on my tongue.” Seeing Willow turn bright red again the blonde decided to go easier on her. “I’m sorry that you are hurting. I went and got a recharge so I can do some more work on your head. Giles brought Buffy and I home. She’s ordering pizza for dinner ok?”
She kissed the redhead lightly on the forehead, pulling back as they heard Buffy’s footsteps on the landing. “Hey guys,” Buffy said, “how are you feeling Will?”
“Some better but still hurting a lot,” Willow explained.
“Well, the pizza’s going to take about 45 minutes if you want to do your thing now,” Buffy told Tara. Tara had to cut her eyes at Willow who was giggling in response to the thought of Tara “doing her thing.” She really had trouble containing herself when Buffy asked, “can I watch? I’d really like to see the kind of stuff you two do together.”
Pinching Willow’s leg through her jeans, Tara swallowed loudly before answering: “Um s-s-sure. Um. In a m-m-minute.” She quickly got up and went to the bathroom where both girls could hear her running the water loudly. Willow knew that Tara was just too embarrassed to stay in the room and she enjoyed feeling like the tables had turned on the blonde who was teasing her just a few minutes earlier.
When Tara returned to the room, looking much refreshed not to mention less red, she quickly directed Willow to lie on the bed and Buffy out of her way. From her bag, she pulled some herbs that she scattered around the room before concentrating her energy on the redhead. To Buffy, the process looked much like the one that Tara had initiated the night before. The exception was that this time, rather than seeing the green energy directly tying itself to the cut on Willow’s face, it appeared to envelop her entire being. Tara sat completely still as if she were just a conduit for the energy passing from her into Willow’s being. As the slayer watched, the bruising on the redhead’s face lessened noticeably. After a while, Tara opened her eyes, brushing her fingertips lovingly over Willow’s forehead. She motioned to Buffy that the smaller girl was asleep and the two blondes crept quietly from the room, pulling the door shut behind them.
“Wow, Tara, I could really use you around here. Even with slayer healing, I get banged up all the time. You’re awesome,” Buffy genuinely complimented the witch.
“Th-th-thanks B-b-buffy. I just like to h-h-help people.” The blonde looked down at her feet as she spoke.
As the girls heard the doorbell, announcing the arrival of the pizza, Buffy informed Tara, “well, since you like to help people. You’d make a great scoobies.” She turned and went down the stairs to get the pizza and Tara followed right behind her.
The two blondes were just putting their slices on plates as Willow entered the kitchen. “Hey sw-Willow, you w-w-want some?” Tara asked her.
Willow smiled as she reached out for the plate: “Definitely. I’m starving. I feel like I could eat a horse. Or maybe another very large animal if it was cooked and had a good sauce like Bernaise or Hollandaise I guess.”
Buffy laughed as she asked, “so Will, are you feeling better? You look way better.”
The redhead continued shoveling in the pizza as she answered: “tons. My ba… Tara here is really a good witch. Very powerful. Barely have a headache at all.”
“Yeah, she’s very cool,” Buffy agreed. “I was thinking if you’re feeling up to it, how about you and me go on patrol tonight. We can talk and stuff and then we can meet up with everyone at the Bronze.” She looked from Willow to Tara to make sure that the plan was ok with them.
Willow hesitated before answering, looking at Tara, “uh well. That sound good I mean goodly mcgood but Tare, do you want to wait for us at the Bronze or would you rather stay here till we get back?”
“Hey, Faith said she would hang with you at the Bronze,” Buffy interjected. “I talked to here a little while ago. She said you two can play while we go to the office,” the slayer joked.
After finishing eating and noting the ensuing darkness, the three girls went upstairs to get dressed. “Hey baby, are you ok about this plan?” Willow asked her lover.
“W-w-well, I’m a little n-n-nervous you know? I mean Faith is a little…” Tara trailed off. “I mean, d-d-didn’t you think?”
Willow laughed, “sweetie. I really didn’t notice much about her except her stylish yet affordable shoe smashing into my skull and knocking my overactive brain loose.”
Tara hugged the redhead close saying, “I’m glad you are f-f-feeling better love. But Faith. I just don’t kn-kn-know…”
“What don’t you just know love?” Willow questioned.
Tara backed up as a flush entered her cheeks explaining, “well. It’s just. I think she kind of, you know, g-g-gets off on the s-s-slaying. You know?”
Willow looked aghast as she answered: “For real? That’s weird. I mean ok, she must like to get off or something. She slept with Xander after all. Hmmm, actually I’m not sure if that means she does or doesn’t like to get off. Don’t even want to think about it. Come-on love; Buffy’s waiting for us and the evil undead won’t wait.”
---
Faith was already at the Bronze, dancing in the center of a circle of hulking guys. As she saw the other three girls come in, she left the dance floor to come over and check on them and particularly on how Willow’s head felt, apologizing again. Seeing how good Willow looked, she told Tara: “Damn girl, you must be really good if she’s feeling that good already.” Turning to Willow and Buffy, she directed, “hey girls. Go do my job for a while and I’ll keep this one busy ok?”
As soon as the other two had left, Faith turned to Tara, “so Blondie, you want a drink?”
“Tara.”
“Tara what? Oh Tara name right. So you want a drink Blondie?” Faith pulled the witch toward the bar.
Tara looked at Faith for a moment with complete puzzlement. Although she persisted in calling Tara Blondie, Faith’s tone and manner were nice, perhaps a little too nice. As if she were brewing up some plan and Tara didn’t really know what to expect from the dark-haired slayer. Attempting to gather some more information, Tara ensured that she brushed fingers with the slayer as she handed her the cup of water. Shocked she pulled back her hand as she tried to identify the myriad emotions pouring through her companion. She identified numerous ones including but not limited to: anger, sadness, grief, rage, lust, and happiness. The grief and rage seemed to battle for supremacy on the inside although Tara felt that Faith’s outside betrayed those emotions.
Moving closer to the blonde, Faith asked, “so you wanna go dance or what?”
Tara was still nervous about the brunette’s motivation but decided to try and be friendly back: “o-o-ok.”
The two moved to the dance floor where Faith quickly staked them a sizeable portion of real estate and began gyrating energetically. Tara moved less vigorously, being much more of a two-step girl than a bump and grind girl at least on the dance floor she thought. As the music progressed, the blonde became more and more interested in her dancing and began really letting herself go, enjoying the physical motion. It had been a day since she’d had any good exercise and her muscles warmed to the activity quickly.
As she danced, Tara watched the other woman closely. She seemed to be really enjoying herself in the dance. Occasionally she turned to rub against someone who was dancing close by and she seemed to have plenty of guys intentionally stationing themselves at hand or hip to be available. Playing the good host, she returned after each encounter to give her attention to Tara. As the evening progressed, the dance floor became more and more crowded and the two women danced closer together. Tara was shocked as Faith suddenly moved closer than the space limitations required, rubbing her body up and down Tara’s stiffening one: “so Blondie,” she smiled sexily, “it’s really nice that you came home to visit with your friend .”
As Tara tried to move subtly away from the slayer, she attempted to answer, “w-w-w-what? W-w-w-hat? M-m-maybe we sh-sh-sh-ould sit d-d-d-own?”
“Sure,” Faith shrugged, “whatever you want Blondie.” The two girls turned toward the couches lining the wall of the club. As they neared an empty couch, Tara felt Faith right at her shoulder and heard her whisper: “so Blondie, do you stutter when you scream her name?” As Tara turned to look at the dark-haired slayer, Faith uttered a parody of an orgasmic scream: “W-w-willow!”
Tara stared on in absolute shock as the dark-haired slayer fell into the couch, grinning widely. She was still standing there opening and closing her mouth repeatedly when the young man with spiked hair approached. “Hey,” he said to Faith, turning to Tara and wiggling his nose as if smelling the air around her.
---
After leaving Tara with Faith at the Bronze, Buffy and Willow started their patrol. They walked in silence to the cemetery, cautious for any visitors. “Well, I could ask how school is or something lame like that but I’m guessing that are wondering about Angel,” Buffy started.
Willow nodded her bruised head, “it did cross my mind. Buffy, why didn’t you tell me?”
Sitting on a headstone Buffy started to explain: “I really was going to tell you. I was planning to tell you all about it when I picked you guys up at the station today. You know, during the daylight.”
“Ok sure,” Willow answered, “but Buffy, why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Oh God Will, I wanted to tell you so bad. But at first, it just hurt so badly. I mean I killed him and I left town. And then I came back and it was so painful to be here and you weren’t here to help me,” Buffy started. Willow looked at her in a mixture of sadness, compassion, and resentment that Buffy seemed to blame Willow’s absence on her. “Then he came back and he was in really bad shape. He’d been in hell Willow. But he got better. And I wanted to tell you but then it seemed like the longer I hadn’t told you the worse it would be to tell. Does that make any sense?”
Willow had taken Buffy’s hand while she spoke and now answered, “kindof. I’m sorry that you were hurting so badly. I missed you so much. And well, yeah, I’m hurt that you didn’t tell me about Angel but I guess I kind of understand. I mean, sometimes you want to tell someone something. Something really important that makes you really happy but you don’t know if your friend will take it right and will approve of it. Like what if they can’t handle hearing who you love and they don’t accept it?”
Buffy hugged her friend, “wow, Willow. I can’t believe that you understand so well how I feel about Angel. You’re really smart you know,” she finished, completely oblivious to Willow’s intended double meaning and the reason for her empathy.
Willow decided to dive right in saying, “uh yeah well. I do understand. Really Buff. And well, actually I kind of was wanting to talk …”
Her words were cut off by the appearance of three vampires coming through the bushes across from where the two girls sat. “Well, look at that dinner,” the biggest one growled.
“You’re gonna wish you had called out for pizza like we did,” Buffy quipped as she leapt from the headstone and went straight for the lead vampire. Sidestepping his first blow easily, she staked him from behind. Not watching his pile of dust settle, she quickly moved to the next one, taking him on in a flurry of punches and kicks as the final vampire advanced on Willow. Scared for Willow, Buffy staked her prey and moved to grab the vampire that was still moving toward the redhead. As she grabbed him by the collar, spinning him around before her could reach her friend, Buffy heard Willow call out: “hey Buff, wait a minute. I want to try something.”
Both the slayer and vampire looked puzzled but the witch smiled back at them. Suddenly Buffy felt heat and dropped her grip on the collar of the vampire, looking down to see flames spreading all over his clothing. He screamed, trying to pat them out and dropped to the ground to roll but was quickly reduced to a screaming pile of ash. As the witch dropped to the ground next to Buffy, staring at the spot where the vampire had just been, she smiled broadly.
Buffy hugged her friend, “hey Wills, check you out: witch-foo. First the curse on Angel and now this. You are getting way powerful.”
Willow looked at the ground saying, “well sure powerful. Too bad the curse didn’t work.”
As they started walking through the again quiet cemetery Buffy whispered, “it worked Will.”
Stopping to look at her friend, Willow questioned, “what? It worked? But you killed him.”
Unable to hold back her tears Buffy explained, “he’d already awakened it. I had to kill him anyway. I kissed him and told him I loved him and asked him to shut his eyes. Then I killed him and sent him to hell. He never even understood what was going on Will.” Buffy collapsed to the ground, unable to contain the emotion. As Willow held her best friend, Buffy finally experienced all the anger and grief that she had been holding in. Willow leaned against the nearest headstone, feeling her best friend’s grief and perhaps beginning to understand why the slayer had run away.
---
Faith looked from Tara to Oz. This should be good she thought as she smiled. “Hey Oz, this is Tara, Willow’s friend from school,” she politely introduced them.
Oz quickly held out his hand, sniffing no longer just at the air, but at Tara herself. “Tara?” he questioned.
Realizing that the smaller man was not letting go of her hand, Tara trembled slightly, “n-n-nice to m-m-meet you.” She glanced over at Faith who appeared to be amused by the entire encounter.
Oz began politely, “friend of Willo…” Raising his eyebrows he sniffed at her more directly and obviously: “You smell like her. She's all over you, you know that?”
Tara started to withdraw from the conversation, “I I I c-c-can’t talk about th-th-this.”
Withdrawing his hand, the boy pulled back, “Hey sorry, uh nice to meet you Tara.” He turned and quickly walked back toward the stage.
Breathing out the breath she had been holding, Tara turned to see Faith smiling, “well that went well didn’t it?” Seeing the angry look on the blonde’s face, Faith smiled her innocent smile, “come on let’s dance and we won’t have to talk ok? Truce?” She held up her hand and Tara shook it briefly before moving toward the dance floor.
---
When she was totally cried out, Buffy wiped her face on her shirt before hugging her friend. “Thanks Will. I’ve really missed you you know?” As Willow nodded, hugging her again, Buffy continued, “it’s been really hard without you here and keeping this from you and everything.”
As they stood to continue their patrol, Willow started, “hey, speaking of well stuff and everything, I was wanting to kind of talk to you about I mean well, if this is a good time and everything and well with the not keeping secrets and with the happy and you know how sometimes you don’t tell something and then you want to but the time isn’t right and you still want to…”
“Willow, you’re making my head hurt,” Buffy interrupted, “can you slow down?”
Willow took a breath before speaking, “yeah sure slow down. Um well so about Tara…”
“Yeah Tara, I wonder if she and Faith are having a good time at the Bronze. We should head over there soon,” Buffy mused.
“Soon,” Willow echoed, “but with the point. So about Tara…”
“Right Tara, sorry that we didn’t have more room at the house, only one guest room you know? Tonight we can do the slumber party thing, you and me. But sorry that you had to share a room last night Will,” Buffy blathered on oblivious to the frustration streaking the redhead’s face.
The anxiety and frustration of this conversation was really getting to Willow. She grabbed Buffy’s wrist, “Buff, listen to me: Tara and I don’t mind sharing the guestroom.”
“Oh well, that’s good. I wouldn’t want to make you uncomfortable.”
“Of course not,” the redhead sighed, “you see the thing is that we sleep in the same room every night.”
“Oh right, you are roommates then? I was confused about that. I thought your mom got you a single,” Buffy questioned.
Dropping to the ground and starting to gently pound her forehead against the heel of her hand, Willow strained to explain, “no. We’re not roommates.”
Buffy dropped to sit by her best friend: “You’re not roommates but you sleep in the same room every night? Why, is her roommate loud or has guys over all the… no. that’s not what you mean is it?”
“It’s really not,” Willow agreed.
Getting up and beginning to pace, Buffy rambled: “Well... That's great too, right? I mean, she seems like a great girl, Will..”
As she swelled up with pride, Willow began her babble: “She is. And there's something
between us... I wasn't looking for it, you know. It's just totally powerful.”
Worried about the slayer’s response, Willow asked, “Are you freaked? Do you get it?”
Buffy nodded, “What? No, Wi- No! Absolutely no to that question. I'm glad you told me.
You like Tara; that’s cool.”
Wondering how thick Buffy could possibly be, Willow clarified, “yes it’s cool but Buffy?” Seeing Buffy nod at her to continue Willow explained, “I don’t like her I mean well, I do like her I mean, I’m in love with her. I’m crazy about her. I love her more than I ever knew it was possible. Just the thought that she exists and knows that I exist fills me with more joy than you could imagine. I want nothing more from life than to make her happy forever.”
By now the two girls had turned to approach the Bronze. Buffy nodded, “Uh ok. Well, I’m glad you told me.” They joined Faith and Tara in the bar to dance until everyone was tired and wanted to go home.
---
"War may be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary it is always evil." - President Jimmy Carter after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize