Rating: R, due to heavy depression and later on NC-17, for some WT goodness
Summary: After Willow lapses back into magic, Tara has to find it in her heart to bind her lover from hurting herself, and those they love.
Thanks: Ruth, Maria and Garner for advice and inspiration.
Warning: Heavy Angst but they’ll be together eventually. Remember they always find one another.
Alright, much to the chagrin of my beta readers this is gonna go up un betated.
The Binding
Chapter One: Lapses
Willow was sick. Not throwing up kind of sick, and that entail doctor’s visits and such, but sick as in a heartache. It had been two weeks since Tara left her, and she’d given up the magic cold turkey. Two weeks since she’d last slept. And two weeks since she’d cast. The very thought of magic made her break out into a cold sweat, and now here she was, sitting in a corner of the Magic Box, literally being treated like a baby by all of her friends.
“..I’m telling you, there was one female Smurf. One, just one! And millions of other little blue bastards roaming around- “Xander was deep in the middle of one of his theories on Smurf reproduction. She’d heard all of them, from the Gremlin one, to a busy Papa Smurf one. “There actually was a baby Smurf that was a girl.” Dawn pitched in, trying vainly to be seen as an equal. “But a baby still, which means she was produced, by who? Smurfette!” It was a slow day, as far as Scooby business, or even Magic Box business for that matter. Willow sighed, zoning out of the topic at hand. If only she had something to read, something to do. But no, she wasn’t allowed to touch a single thing in the place. Finally, sick of all the waiting around and doing nothing, she got up and grabbed her jacket. “And your going where, with who and what time will you be back?” She was sick of the twenty questions she got from Buffy every time she set foot out their site. “I’m going home, getting undressed, taking a bath, and going to bed, and I’ll be there when you get back.” It was said through gritted teeth as she all but slammed the door on her way out.
Buffy sighed. It was hard, intervening with her best friend, but truth be told, she really didn’t trust Willow that much anymore. “Do you think we should let her go alone? What if she encounters something, we all have even in daylight. Shouldn’t you go with her? “ Anya was badgering again, and Xander just gave her that look. “I think she needs some space, and so do I.” Buffy sighed as she sat at the main table, running lithe digits through her short -cropped hair. “Besides, there isn’t anything in the house anymore, and we watched her like a hawk while she was here.” Xander only nodded to Buffy words, desperately wanting to change the subject from his best friend’s recovery, and cast a look at silent Dawn. “So, two female Smurf’s right?”
Willow was glad to be alone for once. Being alone meant she had time to think, and do all the things a person does only when one was alone. It had actually been a long time since she’d had real alone time. After she took a shower, she changed into flannel pajamas and a bathrobe and had curled up on the couch in the living room, waiting for the water to boil for tea. When she used to cast, she could have tea in an instant. Now it took forever, like everything else in her life. She used to do a lot of things more quickly then she could now, including getting dressed, and showered. After what seemed an eternity the redhead got up and filled her mug with the boiling water, and clutched the counter as she waited for the loose apricot tea to steep. All this waiting was making her nervous, she thought as she clutched at the kitchen counter until her knuckles had turned white. Why is it so hard Tara? Why is it so hard without you? It was the last thought she had before she lapsed, and cast to steep the mug, and clean up her mess.
Edited by: xita
at: 4/24/02 12:13:04 pm
