********
TITLE: Family Confidential
AUTHOR: Laragh
CHAPTER RATING: NC-17
DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara and any other characters from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise belong to Joss Whedon, FOX, ME and a whole host of other entities, none of which are me.
SUMMARY: The promised sequel to
Hacker Confidential. How are Willow, Tara, JJ and all their family getting on 4 years into the future?
SPOILERS: Perhaps minor references to the show or stealage of dialogue, but mostly just spoilers for all of
Hacker Confidential . If you haven’t read that...well, you really will have no idea what’s going on lol.
FEEDBACK: Yes please
Chapter 49 ********
“Hello, Office of Children and Family Services, Tara Rosenberg-Maclay speaking.”
“Hello, Tara, it’s Stephanie Peterson.”
Tara looked across the office to her boss's door and frowned in confusion.
“Um, hi, Steph.”
“Tara, could you come in to see me please?”
Tara’s eyes widened and she held the phone to her ear with her shoulder so she could put both hands on the keyboard.
“S-sure. Is this about a case, do you need me to bring in a file?”
“Just yourself. See you in a minute.”
Tara heard a click as the other line hung up and let the phone slide into her hand, placing it back on the receiver. Her hand lingered for a moment before she cleared her throat and stood up, then heard Alice’s voice from the cubicle across from her.
“Are you getting coffee? I need a caffeine hit.”
Tara shook her head and wiped her palm against her pants.
“Steph just wants to see me.”
Alice spun around in her chair, grinning and twisting the pen she was holding between her hands.
“Ooh, Tara’s getting called to the principal’s office.”
“Not helpful, Al,” Tara replied through gritted teeth and heard her colleague laugh as she moved away from her desk and walked across the office to the same door she’d looked at just a few moments before.
She balled her hand into a fist to knock and brought it up, hesitating for a few seconds before finding the nerve to have it connect with the wood, hearing a faint ‘come in’ a moment later. She twisted the knob to open the door and stepped inside her boss’s office. Steph stood as she entered and looked to Tara with a fond smile, gesturing to the chair on the opposite side of her desk.
“Please, sit.”
Tara went over to the chair and sat on the edge, folding her hands in her lap and looking at her boss expectantly. Steph sat back down in her own chair and pulled herself forwards, pushing some pieces of paper to the side for a few moments before finally regarding Tara.
“I wanted to talk to you about your job.”
“My job?” Tara asked in surprise, instantly paling, “Is my job not secure? I, I have a family and a baby on the way.”
Steph smiled as she clasped her hands in front of her.
“How are the family doing? Willow must be almost 6 months along now, right? JJ must be getting excited. And big. What age is he now?”
Normally Tara would have been more than happy to engage in conversation about her family but the words ‘about your job’ kept running through her mind, becoming louder and more ominous with each repetition. She clenched her teeth to stop herself from blurting out something unprofessional and took a calming breath before managing to speak.
“Um, yes, she’s 6 months along, this Wednesday just past actually. And it’s JJ’s birthday next week. He’ll be 6.”
Steph smiled again and rested her chin on her fist.
“Excited about being a big brother?”
Tara silently pleaded for the pleasantries to stop but managed a nod again.
“Very.”
“Send them my regards,” Steph replied warmly, dropping her hand to the desk and tapping her fingers against the wood, “And you’re not to worry, your job is secure. Very secure actually.”
Tara visibly relaxed, her eyes closing momentarily in relief before opening again, shining with confusion.
“Very secure? What does that mean?”
Steph leant forward, smiling like she had a secret.
“You know Irene, who retired last week? You worked with her a few times.”
Tara nodded a few times in quick succession; the older social worker had been someone she’d looked up and she had worked with her on a few cases in her years at the Buffalo office.
“Yes, I did. She was wonderful with teenagers.”
Steph smiled again and nodded.
“She was. She fostered a lot of teens throughout the years, always had a wonderful way of relating to them,” she answered before looking intently at Tara, “I see that in you too. Though you have it with children of any age, from infants to being on the cusp of adulthood. I’ve seen you bring out things in kids I thought could never recover from what they’d been put through; turn children so damaged into ones with so much potential and self-belief. In all my years in this job, I’ve never met someone with quite as much empathy and compassion as you have.”
Tara’s eyes widened in surprise at the praise.
“T-thank you,” she replied, unsure of what exactly to say.
“You’re welcome,” Steph replied, looking at Tara to see if her employee understood what she was saying, then clarifying when she just remained blank, “I’d like you to take over Irene’s role as a senior social worker.”
Tara’s jaw dropped and she blinked repeatedly before bringing a hand up to cover her mouth. She tried to process what exactly her boss was saying as she lowered her hand again.
“Are you promoting me?”
Steph nodded in affirmation and Tara continued to shake her head in disbelief.
“There’s… a lot of people here so much more qualified.”
“Well qualifications only speak so much. What use is a piece of paper on the wall if you can’t connect with a child or understand families?” Steph asked, before gesturing forwards with a hand, “And you’re right, there are some people in this division who are wonderful at their jobs and have attained the higher degrees. But you excel them. And you are the one I want on my senior team.”
Tara could almost feel her brain exploding as everything her boss was saying finally registered.
“What…what does this mean?”
“Complete control and responsibility over your cases, as well as taking on a supervisory role for the junior care workers,” Steph answered, matter-of-fact, “You’ll also be assigned and do weekly visits to one of our foster homes, be a liaison between us and the care workers there.”
Tara nodded along as her boss spoke, excitement and adrenaline pumping through her before frowning as a thought occurred to her.
“What about working hours?”
Steph nodded to herself as if in thought for a moment before speaking.
“I know you manage your hours so you can collect your son from school. I’m still happy for you to work the hours you work. We can arrange the foster home visits to be in the morning, probably Mondays, and after that you can arrange your own schedule. Our senior workers generally have a lesser case load to accommodate the other aspects of the job, and I’m confident you can continue to perform as you have for the last 6 years. You will need to make sure you approve anything you need to by the end of your working day, which might mean putting a bit of pressure on your subordinates, but that’s something you’d have to do anyway.”
Tara covered her hand with her mouth again, awed into silence then laughed.
“Is this really happening?”
Steph smiled and grabbed a pen from a selection she had in front of her and started jotting something on a notepad.
“We have case review meetings every Monday mid-morning. I’ll arrange all the official things before then and we can all discuss cases going forward and whether we need a switch-up with the supervisory roles.”
Tara shook her head in shock and disbelief.
“Thank you. Thank you so much.”
“I’m delighted to have such a capable woman on our senior team,” Steph responded kindly before grinning slightly, “And I’m sure you were wondering; 15% pay bump and an additional week holiday pay.”
Tara’s eyebrows shot up.
“Wow.”
Steph smiled and looked towards the door.
“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off and go home and celebrate.”
Tara gave a single shake of her head.
“Friday’s my long day. I still have hours left.”
“Anything that can’t be finished Monday morning?” Steph questioned and Tara shook her head again.
“No, it’s just reports for home visits I went on this week. All the urgent paperwork is filed.”
“Go home,” Steph grinned, “Enjoy your weekend. Come back to us on Monday ready to start in your new role.”
“I will, I will,” Tara answered, then her brow creased, “The parental leave I asked for... Will this affect that? Because Willow and the baby have to come first.”
“I wouldn’t dream of denying a child time with its mother,” Steph replied reassuringly, “I’ve already arranged your cover for that period, and I'll be looking to bring in two extra juniors to replace your role as it is now. If anything, we'll be overstaffed. It won’t be an issue.”
Tara felt her lips widening into a huge smile and promptly stood, extending her hand out.
“Thank you. I...I will not let you down.”
“Which is exactly why I chose you,” Steph replied, shaking Tara’s hand, “I know you’ll be telling Willow of course, but I’d appreciate it if we could keep this between ourselves until the Monday meeting, I’d like to inform the team altogether.”
“Of course,” Tara replied, gesturing in front of her with her hands as she tried to think of what else to say, “I…Thank you.”
She reached forwards to shake Steph’s hand again before leaving the office, trying to contain the massive grin on her face, though obviously wasn’t succeeding as Alice stared at her suspiciously the moment she approached the cubicles again.
“What’s got you so happy?”
Tara turned away from Alice and started to gather her things.
“Just get to go home early.”
Tara heard Alice scoff.
“Teacher’s pet.”
“She’s a mom, she knows what it’s like,” Tara replied calmly, leaning over to shut down her computer, “Just letting me have some extra time with the family.”
Alice crossed her arms over her chest indignantly.
“I’m a mom.”
Tara gave a small grin.
“You don’t have a pregnant spouse.”
Alice grinned and laughed.
“I’d be pretty worried if Jesse came home and told me he was pregnant. Although it would explain the beer gut he’s starting to get.”
Tara laughed as well as she swung her purse over her shoulder as she looked over to her aunt’s empty desk.
“Tell Michelle I said bye.”
Alice nodded and brought her hand up in a wave.
“I’ll let her know. Bye, Tare.”
Tara waved a few fingers in goodbye as she did a final check that she had everything in her purse before bouncing out of the offices and to the elevators, riding them to the underground parking lot. She all but skipped to her car and jumped inside, starting the engine as she hummed happily along with the radio that turned on automatically.
An ear-to-ear grin stayed plastered on her face as she coasted home, fingers tapping against the steering wheel until she finally pulled into her driveway, noticing JJ lying stomach-down on the lawn, comparing pieces of grass against each other.
He jumped up as soon as the car pulled up alongside him and ran towards it as Tara exited, leaping into her arms.
“Mommy, mommy!”
“Hello, beautiful boy,” Tara replied, catching him in time and squeezing him to her chest for a moment before he pushed away, looking at her hopefully.
“Will you make mac’n’cheese? Momma won’t ‘cause she says the baby doesn’t like the smell.”
Tara began to walk them towards the front door of the house.
“You know what, I am going to take you and Momma out for dinner and you can have anything you like.”
JJ’s eyes lit up and he started bouncing in his mother’s arms.
“Ice-cream?”
“Absolutely!” Tara replied enthusiastically as she pushed the already-ajar door open and set JJ on the ground, “Go put a nice sweater on.”
JJ fist-pumped the air as he ran into the house and made a beeline for the stairs, zipping past Willow who was making her way down them.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah!”
“Don’t run in the house!” Willow called after him, shaking her head in his direction before looking down, her whole face lighting up as she saw her wife, “Tara!”
“Hello my lovely,” Tara greeted as Willow descended the last few stairs, taking her hands and pulling her close to drop kiss on her lips.
Willow moved her lips warmly against Tara’s for a few moments before pulling back and placing her palms on her wife’s chest.
“What are you doing home so early?”
“I missed my missus,” Tara replied, taking a hold of Willow’s hips and planting another deep smooch on her.
Willow gladly accepted the show of affection and returned the kiss before pulling away with a curious look on her face when she felt Tara bouncing up and down on the spot.
“What is it? What’s that big Tara-grin about?”
Tara took her hands from Willow’s hips and gestured down herself.
“You are looking at…”
“My wife,” Willow ventured but Tara just continued to grin so she guessed again, “A beautiful woman.”
Tara shook her head and Willow lightly tapped her hand against the blonde’s chest.
“Someone who’s being deceptively coy and needs to spit it out!”
“The newest addition to the circle of senior social workers at the Buffalo OCFS division,” Tara blurted, bringing her hands up to cover her mouth but still obviously beaming behind them.
Willow’s eyes widened in shock.
“What?!” she all but screamed, taking handfuls of Tara’s shirt, “You got promoted?!”
Tara could only nod excitedly and Willow started jumping in place as well.
“I didn’t even know you were up for promotion!”
“Neither did I,” Tara giddily shook her head, “One of the older social workers retired last week and they want me to replace her. I never though…I didn’t even think I could…I thought, I thought maybe in a few years, when the kids were older, I could maybe go back to school–”
“You still can,” Willow interjected, nodding eagerly as well.
“Yes, yes I can,” Tara beamed, “But my boss promoted me anyway because she said I have the most potential for the job and thinks I’m the best one for it.”
Willow squealed and threw her arms around Tara’s neck.
“You are phenomenal,” she whispered, pressing her lips repeatedly against her wife’s cheek.
Tara felt herself flush as Willow kissed over to her other cheek and left a trail there before grabbing the sides of her face and kissing her lips warmly.
“So proud of you. So proud.”
Tara looked down bashfully for a moment before back at her wife.
“I’m taking you two out to dinner to celebrate.”
Willow looked over her shoulder towards the stairs.
“Is that what he was so excited about?”
Tara nodded as Willow looked back to her and gave a crooked grin.
“I can, uh, flash the cash a little now.”
“Oh really?” Willow asked, raising an eyebrow.
“15% bonus,” Tara replied, a proud smile falling on her face.
“That’s, that’s not small change,” Willow responded, internally doing the figures, “That’s…8 grand a year. That’s a lot of diapers.”
Tara grinned and nodded.
“And maybe even a vacation. Which we could take with my extra week of paid days.”
Willow’s eyes lit up.
“Tara, that’s great! We’ll have the same vacation days! Let’s do it, let’s go on vacation before the baby comes, just the three of us.”
Tara thought for a moment before smiling.
“Give me a month to settle into the job and wait for JJ’s school to let out. Then I’ll go anywhere you want.”
“Really?” Willow asked, clapping her hands together, “Okay, but I can’t fly after my 36th week, so we have to go before the end of June.”
“Well the end of June sounds perfect,” Tara replied, putting her hands on Willow’s shoulders and giving them a squeeze, “You can get into research mode.”
Willow once again threw her arms around Tara’s neck.
“I love you, I love you, I love you,” she repeated, throwing more kisses on Tara’s cheek before pulling back just enough so they could see each other, “We’ll do whatever we have to do to work around your new hours. I’ve been talking to the boys about cutting back a little anyway now bean is getting so big.”
“I can work the same hours,” Tara replied before scraping her teeth over her bottom lip for a moment, “Maybe for the first week, you could collect JJ from school in case there’s some settling in problems?”
Willow popped a kiss on her wife’s lips.
“No problem. Longer if you need.”
“Thank you,” Tara replied, rubbing Willow’s hips under her pants, “You’re an angel.”
Willow tightened her arms around Tara’s neck and rested their cheeks together as she moved to whisper in her wife’s ear.
“I’m so proud of you. I told you that, right? I'm saying it again. So proud.”
Tara lay naked in bed, her hands above the covers and thumbs turning around each other, having been told a few minutes before to ‘strip, get in bed, and wait’ before Willow had disappeared into their closet, right after they'd come home from a family dinner and had put JJ to bed together. She’d eagerly disrobed as Willow left her with a lingering kiss and had experimented with some different nude poses before giving up, feeling silly after a minute or two without Willow reappearing.
She let out a lengthy sigh and tapped her fingers against the blanket before the sounds of struggle and heavy breathing caught her attention from the closet. Her brow creased in concern and she sat up straight in the bed, holding the blanket to her chest.
“Honey?” she called out, only to hear a loud grunt, “Honey, are you okay? You sound like you’re going into labour in there.”
There was a frustrated sigh before Willow appeared in the doorway of the closet, her cheeks flushed and hair sticking up in some odd places, wearing just her bra and panties. She crossed her arms over her chest and blew a piece of hair away that had fallen in front of her face.
“I was trying to put something sexy on for you but nothing fits.”
Tara gave a soft smile and shook her head.
“You don’t need to put something on to look sexy. I’d just be taking it off anyway.”
Willow still looked disappointed at her thwarted efforts, so Tara lay back on the bed, holding the blanket coyly close to her chest as she went down before throwing it to the side and holding her arms out.
“Come get inside me.”
Willow instantly brightened and giddily bit her lip as she sauntered over to the bed, climbing on and jumping to straddle Tara, who let out an unintentional ‘oof’ at the added pressure.
Willow’s face dropped again and she rolled off to lie on her back, folding her arms over her chest.
“I’m failing at trying to give you ‘wow, you’re so amazing and I’m so proud of you’ sex.”
Tara turned herself on her side and moved to stroke her fingers down her wife’s cheek.
“I don’t want you to give me anything but yourself.”
Willow scowled slightly.
“Well I have plenty to give.”
Tara turned her head into Willow’s neck and started placing small kisses on her skin there.
“You’re so beautiful.”
Willow felt flutterings begin in her stomach but continued to pout.
“I just crushed you.”
Tara lifted her head and shook it, trying to look reassuring.
“No you didn’t. You didn’t. I just turned my leg the wrong way.”
Willow gave Tara an ‘are you kidding me’ look, so the blonde tried a different approach and slid her hand around her wife’s back.
“C’mere, let me get that pesky underwear off you.”
Willow let herself be turned so Tara could rid her of her bra but was still set in annoyance at herself until she felt a hand run down her side and looked up to see her wife gazing lustily down her body.
She blushed as she thought of how wonderful it was that Tara could switch her from feeling close to a heifer to a sexy goddess with one look, and without even trying.
She watched with ever-growing confidence as Tara’s eyes fell lower down her body, a hand following as the waistband of her panties was bunched up, then dragged down her legs. Willow aided their removal by kicking them off as they fell to her knees, then slowly smirked as Tara looked back up to her face.
“You think I’m sexy…” she started to sing in a teasing tone, “You think I’m gorgeous…”
Tara nodded along in agreement as Willow sang, grinning wildly. Willow bit her bottom lip and made a grab for Tara’s hips.
“You want to kiss me…”
“I want to kiss you…” Tara sang back, snaking her hand around the back of Willow’s necks and pulling their heads together to kiss her deeply.
Willow moaned as Tara’s tongue started to tease her lips apart and tried to pull her wife’s body as flush against hers as her swollen stomach would allow until she felt the blonde pull away and heard a giggle.
“What?” Willow asked with a smile, finding Tara’s laughter infectious.
Tara moved a hand down the front of Willow’s stomach.
“It’s funny feeling your belly button as an outie.”
Willow tried to self-consciously cover her stomach.
“I hope it goes back in after the baby’s born.”
“I’ll still think it’s cute. And it could be fun,” Tara replied, her top teeth flashing in a grin as she moved her stomach to Willow’s so the redhead’s belly button almost slotted in to hers, “Look, see.”
Willow held back a snort as she looked down at their liked stomachs, then back to Tara.
“This isn’t what I had in mind when you said to get inside you.”
Tara began to move her fingers up Willow’s arms, lightly brushing them against her skin until she felt the redhead shiver.
“What
did you have in mind?” she asked in a low, husky tone and watched Willow’s eyelids grow heavy with lust.
Willow felt her breath quicken as Tara’s fingers started to dance down her chest and clutched the blonde’s hip.
“It unnerves me sometimes how you’re able to flip a switch inside me so easily.”
Tara leant down to trail a series of kisses along Willow’s jaw, towards her ear.
“Well, let me calm those nerves.”
Willow let out a low moan as Tara’s lips sank back down into her neck and moved towards her throat.
“You are a vixeness, queen of all vixens.”
Willow felt Tara smile against her skin.
“Does that make you my prey?”
Willow let out a low gasp as Tara licked from the base of her throat to her chin before teeth scraped over her pulse point.
“Your willing prey.”
She brought her hand over Tara’s buttocks and slowly took handfuls of her flesh while she twisted and turned her neck to accommodate her wife’s roaming mouth. Her hand became needier in its squeezing as a tongue descended onto her breasts and around her nipples until the tips of her fingers caught some of Tara’s arousal seeping out from the back of her thighs and couldn’t contain herself any longer.
“By the way,” she whispered, bringing her hand around and between Tara’s legs, taking a moment to enjoy the soft feel of her downy curls before sliding into her wetness and inside her in one fluid movement, “This is what I had in mind.”
Tara dropped her head against Willow’s chest and cried into it as the redhead guided her leg over her hip as she slipped a second finger inside. Willow heard a whimper before lips were crashing against her own.
She felt Tara’s hands wrap around the back of her neck as her mouth was attacked with hungry kisses and the blonde’s hips moved speedily against her. She kept up with the quick pace, curling her fingers in response to her wife’s escaping moans and added a third when Tara bit down and pulled on her lower lip.
She could feel Tara’s heart beating furiously as the blonde’s chest was thrust upon her and moved her spare hand to her wife’s head, entwining it in her hair so she could pull their mouths even closer together to accept all the love and desire Tara was offering to her; giving back all she could, all she possessed, until her wife’s lips stopped moving against hers and she felt her take a sharp intake of breath.
She opened her eyes to watch a slow smile spread over Tara’s face and let out a sigh of satisfaction as she felt hot contractions around her fingers, digging them in as deep as she could until they died down and the blonde slumped against her.
Willow loosened her hand in her wife’s hair and wrapped it around her shoulders, dropping a series of soft kisses on her head until Tara pulled her hips away and dropped her leg back to her side, raising her head until it was next to Willow’s on the pillow, her cheeks flushed and still breathless.
“So what I got from that was: I’m amazing, and you’re proud of me.”
Willow giggled and popped a quick kiss on her wife’s lips.
“Yes. Very.”
“Message received,” Tara murmured, bringing a hand up to tuck a piece of hair behind Willow’s ear as she leaned forwards to kiss her again.
Willow enjoyed the sensation of being languidly kissed and moved her hand to Tara’s cheek, smiling against her wife’s lips as their noses nuzzled against each other until she felt herself starting to be turned.
She let Tara move her until she were in a spooning position and let out a soft sigh as she felt the familiar body curve into her like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle fitting perfectly together; breasts crushing into her back and lingering wetness rubbing against her buttocks.
She felt Tara’s hand move to her hip and her breath quickened as the blonde’s palm began to inch its way between her legs, stopping short at her mound to dance some fingertips against her curls.
“Baby, please,” she breathed, bringing her own hand up to cover Tara’s and pushing it lower, “I need you.”
Tara moaned in Willow’s ear as her fingers came in contact with her wife’s copious arousal and twirled them around to gather the wetness as the redhead’s hand fell away again. When her fingertips were suitably coated, she let them glide into her wife’s folds until she found the bump in her flesh she was looking for and rubbed them back and forth.
Willow let out a low groan and started to circle her hips in the same pattern Tara was rubbing her, with just the right amount of force, giving her just the right amount of friction.
“I like that.”
“I know you do,” Tara replied, dragging her hand up and down, moving her hips in synch with Willow’s, “I know what else you like too…”
Willow clutched the blanket in anticipation as she felt Tara’s hand fall from her, only to be replaced with her thumb and the gasp-inducing sensation of being filled with familiar, long fingers.
“Tara…” she gasped, bearing down on the sweet intrusion and moaning when she felt a swelling of hot pleasure in her abdomen.
She felt Tara’s head rest behind hers and her hand start to push deeper inside her as a tongue began to trace the curve of her ear. Her chest heaved in time with Tara’s thrusts; slow and steady and overwhelming her every sense.
She relaxed back into Tara’s body and gave herself entirely over to her wife’s touch; feeling as if she was floating outside her body yet somehow very inside it at the same time, nothing but deep, radiating pleasure coursing through her.
What could have been hours to Willow passed, lost in sensation and the echoing of her own cries against the walls, until her head suddenly jolted back as Tara hit against her sweet spot, inadvertently causing her gaze to lock with her wife’s.
A smile spread across her face as she felt Tara shift her lower body slightly to get in a more comfortable position to keep their gazes locked before the steady thrusting in and out of her resumed.
She felt a slight strain in her neck as it stretched behind herself, but wasn’t willing to stop staring into Tara’s shimmering blue eyes as she spiralled towards the abyss, her raging body a distinct contrast to the calm, serenity-filled love she was exchanging silently with her wife at that moment.
“You’re so beautiful,” she whispered in awe as her eyelids began to flicker with the intensity of her impending orgasm, “Oh Tara.”
Her head lolled forwards again as her body went rigid against Tara’s and she quietly rode out her release. Everything was still for several minutes, apart from her furiously beating heart, as she came down from her high until she felt Tara brush some of her hair to the side and place small kisses on her neck, interjected with faint whispers of ‘I love you’.
She smiled as warmth filled her up inside, then outside as well as Tara covered them with the blanket and wrapped an arm protectively around her waist under it, while the other lay under her neck. Willow reached up to take that hand and snuggled back into her wife.
“Love you more.”
“Uh uh,” Tara shook her head slightly and continued to plant kisses on the redhead’s neck, “Not possible.”
Willow turned her head just enough to catch Tara’s eye and smiled.
“Call it a tie?”
Tara pressed her lips against Willow’s lovingly for a few seconds before pulling away with a matching smile.
“Okay.”
“Okay,” Willow repeated with a giggle as she settled back into Tara’s arms.
They lay in content silence for quite a while, long enough that Willow felt Tara’s kisses peter out and felt her steady breathing against her ear and assumed she had fallen asleep. She had almost succumbed to slumber herself but was drawn from the haze starting to cloud her mind when she heard quiet, almost inaudible words whispered in her ear.
“Can I do it?”
She opened her eyes, wondering if she’d imagined what she’d heard, it had been so quiet, but turned her head to see Tara looking at her, her eyes shining with a strange sense of fear she never saw in her wife. With a push of effort to move her body, she turned onto her back and reached a hand up to run the back of her fingers against her wife’s cheek, knowing it gave her comfort, which she could see she needed.
“Can you do what?”
Tara remained on her side, looking down at Willow and leaning into her touch.
“The job?” she asked eventually, her tone still small and timid, “Can I take on all that responsibility? For all those kids?”
Willow tapped her fingertips against Tara’s jaw and moved to tuck a piece of hair behind her ear.
“Of course you can.”
Tara dropped her head slightly.
“How do you know?”
Willow guided Tara’s head up to look at her and smiled lovingly.
“’Cause you’re my woman. And my woman can do anything.”
Tara gave a small smile but it faltered after just a second as her brow again creased in worry.
“How can you have such blind faith?”
Willow visibly did a double-take, her mouth opening and closing a few times before she shook her head and cleared her throat. She took Tara's hand and cradled it between both of hers.
“I remember our junior year in college, you went on your very first placement. And you were so scared, you didn’t sleep a wink the night before. But you went, and you did it, and you came back to our dorm that first day with the biggest smile on your face and you said ‘I know this is what I’m meant to do’. Do you remember that?”
Tara closed her eyes and managed a smile again, nodding to indicate she remembered; the initial joy of being on the job when she was still learning the ropes. When she opened her eyes again, Willow was still looking up at her with a warm smile.
“I was there… when you got offered a job before we even graduated because your placement loved you so much. I was there when you took the licensing exam and aced it. Even though you almost missed it because you had to sit it the first week we moved into our apartment and we were still christening all the rooms.”
Tara blushed, her face finally breaking out in a full-blown grin as Willow giggled.
“It was the kitchen that morning, right?” she asked, sticking her tongue out between her teeth, “Breakfast of champions.”
Tara blushed even more and dropped her eyes to try and stop the flush, before being pulled back up by the intensity of Willow’s loving gaze. Willow idly ran her hand down her wife’s arm and began to play with her fingers.
“I was there when you started your very first day as a social worker, officially. I walked you to your office that morning and picked you up that evening and we went home and you told me how a nice colleague named Alice brought you on a home visit, first day and everything. And you told me that when you were there, you snuck off to talk to the daughter while Alice interviewed the parents and that you’d gotten that little girl to speak about how her father was abusing her, even though he’d been on the radar for months, but no one had been able to get anything concrete.”
Tara felt like she was stabbed in the heart as she remembered what had become her very first case; the sorrow and agony that child had been subjected to, how she’d wanted to do everything to help her and how she’d learned more on a single day on the job than she had in her entire 4 years of college.
Willow saw the flash of pain on her wife’s face and her fingers instantly went to Tara’s cheek again as she let out a soft sigh.
“You felt that little girl’s pain so much. You cried for hours. Hours. And I held you. I was so worried that it wasn’t going to work out, that you couldn’t cope with that day after day, that your dream wasn’t going to come true. But then you looked up at me, and you were still crying, but you were smiling and you said, “I helped her. I really helped her.” And I knew then, that even though it might kill you sometimes, because you just care so damn much, that you were right what you’d said a couple of years before, this is what you were
meant to do.”
Tara felt a small lump of emotion rise in her throat as she finally understood why Willow was replaying all of those memories and inhaled deeply to quash it as her wife continued.
“I was there every time a case brought out your own memories and your fears. I watched you channel all of that into helping each child with everything you had. I watched how much all your colleagues adored you at Christmas parties and I was there when they all sang your praises. More than one mentioned you were the most promising social worker they’d ever seen.”
Tara felt Willow’s hand move down to her chest, her palm flattened above her left breast and the redhead’s voice started to break.
“I was there when that beautiful heart you have in there brought our little boy home and I was there when
you convinced the judge to let us keep him. So don’t you think for a second you’re anything but extraordinary, Tara Rosenberg-Maclay. And I’m not saying that blind.”
Tara felt her eyes well with tears but managed to keep them at bay until she felt Willow cup both her cheeks and pull her down for a tender but passion-filled kiss. Willow felt tears stream under her hands and gently wiped them away until Tara’s cheeks were dry again.
She wrapped her arms around the back of Tara’s neck as their kiss slowed but didn’t lessen in intensity until they naturally pulled apart as their chests began to heave slightly.
They stayed gazing at each other for a moment before Willow put one hand under Tara’s chin and pushed in so her lips puckered and deposited three short and sweet kisses directly on them.
“You can do it.”
Tara closed her eyes and nodded to herself, taking a few deep breaths before reopening them, rid of all fear and worry and replaced with a fresh sense of confidence.
“I can do it.”
But it's founded on so much caring and tenderness and support between them. Without that foundation of true love, it just wouldn't work and it wouldn't be W/T.
Their foundation of love is what I try to emulate in every and all aspects of their life, but most certainly in the private times, so I’m glad that comes through 
. Kudos.
ALL my evil schemes to topple the dibs-master succeeded! Muah ha ha ha ha! 
Hooray for Tara's promotion!! 
Naughty, they’re just for Willow 
around his or her shoulders! If you are the Dibs-Master, I will bow before you and proclaim you mighty! Do you DARE to accept this challenge? 
Thank you for that one! Hilarious.
