By now some of you have already figured out what's happening. So here it goes...
Previously
Buffy answered the ringing phone. “Hello.”
“Buffy, I’m afraid I’ve got some news.”
The Slayer stared at the man in her lap.
******************
“What did Giles have to say?” She could sense how shaken the Slayer was.
She stared up at the evening sky. “Well, I know why we couldn’t reach him.”
“It better be because someone is dead.” Willow joked, to break the tension.
The slayer sighed. “It is.”
“What is?”
“The Slayer.”
“What?” Willow sat down on a rustic wooden bench.
Buffy sat beside her. “Faith.”
***************
“So you know about Faith?” His question was clearly evasive.
“Yes.” The Rosenburgs answered in unison.
“So you know what comes next then?”
Willow answered. “Another slayer is called.”
“Yes, another. The next in line.” Buffy stepped closer to Al.
“Do you know who it is yet?” Willow looked at Buffy
“The next has been called.” Al answered for her. “I’ve been called.”
********* And now.........
Part 9
“You’ve been called? The one girl in all the world…?” Willow questioned, rolling her hand to file through the script of Slayer lore. “But you’re a…”
“Slayer.” Buffy defended. “He’s a Slayer and I think if you put your brilliant mind to use you can figure out all of the rest.”
Willow paused. “Oh…?” She looked at her wife. “Oh…,” her eyes volleyed between Buffy and Al. “Oh!”
Tara nudged her lover. “Very articulate, sweetie.” She raised her hand to close her wife’s gaping mouth.
“Well I didn’t expect that one.” Willow blinked hard, processing every second as if it were ten. “I don’t know what to say.”
“It explains what happened earlier.” Buffy pointed out.
Tara reached around to hug him. “I’m so sorry.”
He pulled away to make eye contact. “For what?”
Her blue eyes filled with embarrassment. “I jumped to conclusions.” She shook her head. “It shouldn’t have mattered.”
“What shouldn’t?”
“They thought you were turning into a demon.” Buffy elbowed him playfully.
His response caught them off guard. “I did, too.” He slid his hat off his head. “I guess I should explain a few things, huh?”
“It would be nice.” The redhead flopped onto a bench.
Tara slipped in between her wife’s legs, nestling tightly into her arms. “We aren’t trying to pry, Al. It’s just that what we know and what we thought we knew are suddenly two very different things.”
“I’m sorry, Tara.” He sat on the chair beside them. “And you too, Willow. I hope you can forgive all of this.”
Buffy moved around the circle uncomfortably. She was attracted to the man, who had once been a woman. She was confused by the feelings that were so real.
The center of the yard had a pit for a fire. She decided it would be a good distraction to build one, and wandered off to collect wood.
“What do you want to know first?” Al planted his hat on his knee before running his hand nervously through his hair.
“Whatever you want.” The blonde gave him a reassuring glance.
“I guess you know that men generally aren’t the Chosen Ones?”
The Rosenbergs nodded. “The one girl in all the world part got muddled up by Buffy, so we’re used to the amended version of Slayer lore.”
“So I could start there.”
The women moved in to listen. “Start with whatever you’d like us to know.”
He watched Buffy move around the yard, his senses keen to every footstep. “I never felt – on the inside – the way I looked on the outside.”
As Buffy dropped the logs to the ground, he began to assemble them. There was a natural synchronicity between the pair.
“I guess I was about ten when I fully understood why I felt so confused. My mother left us when I was seven, so my father and I were on our own and that was fine.” He smiled as Buffy lit the small bundle of kindling under the logs. “I was never frilly or into ‘girl things’. Dad just thought it was because mom wasn’t around to influence me. But it went so much deeper.”
“It must have been terrible not to understand.” Tara stared into the flame of the fire.
He smiled. “I felt alone with everyone that I knew. It’s very hard to explain.”
Buffy sat down beside him. “I understand that isolation.”
He watched his fellow Slayer stack the supply of wood. “Then along came the Watcher’s Council, and that only added to my confusion. I was going to transform into something. It wasn’t real. It couldn’t happen if inside I felt like a boy.”
Buffy reached a hand to his. “So becoming a man, that’s a really huge thing.”
“Well, it happened in stages, really.” He began to share his journey. “My father was killed when I was 17. We’d just moved to Sunnydale, something the Council recommended, and I’d been living as Alison. That’s who I was as a child.” He waited for a reaction.
“Nice name.” Willow smiled.
“It was my grandmother’s. I kept part of it for her.” He paused respectfully. “When dad died, I was placed in the state’s care because there was nowhere for me to go. Well, I could have gone to be trained but it wasn’t right. I didn’t want to believe it. Being a Slayer seemed like accepting what I wasn’t. I ended up in a great teen home and had a counselor that really understood me. I was living a lie and she helped me to find the real person trapped inside this body.”
“Trapped?” Buffy prodded the fire. “Trapped and I are great friends.”
“This might be a level of trapped you’ve never achieved, Buffy.” Al playfully nudged his fellow Slayer. “Nick, that’s the counselor’s name. She encouraged me to be me. It was like shining a light into a very dark room.” He watched for a response, waiting for repulsion or fear. It didn’t come. “So, little by little, I transitioned from Alison to Al.”
“Did Giles know?” Willow stared at the Slayer.
“He met me as Alison.” Al smiled at the thought of Giles finding out about the operation. “I had the reassignment surgery just before coming here. But most everyone knew me as Al. Alison has been gone for a very long time.”
“How have you avoided the Council this whole time?”
He grinned at Buffy. “Alison is kinda hard to find these days.” He winked.
“Oh… right.” She smacked herself internally.
A silence fell around the circle. Tara was thinking how logical it was that Al had ended up at the center. It was the perfect environment for support. She grinned at the wisdom of the counselor that had sent her there. Giles must have known something. Tara looked up at her friend. Buffy clearly had questions, and Tara hoped they would have some element of subtle.
“So, you’re gay then?” Buffy blurted the thoughts scrolling through her mind.
Tara’s question was quickly answered.
“I mean, you like… you date women, right?”
He pushed his hat back onto his head. “Well, if I was gay, I guess I’d be dating men.”
Buffy tossed a piece of wood into the fire. “But you dated guys, right?”
“No. I never really dated. I was too busy figuring myself out. That was enough to sort through. Then there was the Council and all of their interference.” He could see the confusion on Buffy’s face. “I just didn’t feel like a girl, and as soon as all of the biology kicked in and hormones... it was almost painful, because breasts are very hard to deny.”
Buffy raised a brow.
“All of that is biology, Buffy.” He smiled at her, knowing what she must be thinking.
She rubbed her temples. “Like the chromosome thingies?” She looked at the smiling Wiccas.
Willow nodded. “Total chromosome thingies.”
Al continued, “I’m a man in my soul, Buffy. All the other stuff is science and I don’t even care to understand it. I just know what makes me feel whole.”
“Do you have any pictures?” Buffy’s curiosity surprised Willow and Tara.
“Buffy!” The redhead scolded.
“Not of his breasts!” The Slayer barked back. Her mind was concentrated on Al and Alison. She didn’t bother with political correctness.
“It’s fine, Willow. I don’t mind talking about it. I’m just glad you all care enough to ask and to stick around.”
“Stick around?” Tara’s tone was soft with understanding. “Where would we go?”
“Yea, you think we can’t handle a penis?” Buffy questioned seriously. Very unaware of how her question sounded.
“We can totally handle it.” Willow supported her friend.
Tara raised a questioning brow. “We can?” She grinned wickedly at her wife. “Since when?”
The redhead realized her verbal dilemma. “Oh, well not the actual hands on handling. But you know, the concept of you having one and being our friend and all that comes with that. Xander is a guy and I’m sure he has one, well because if he didn’t Anya would let us know. And we don’t really want to, but I’m guessing…”
Tara reached a hand to muffle the redhead’s words. “Sweetie, stop.” She pulled her playfully back into her arms.
“It’s okay, Tara.” He smiled. “I know what she meant.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket. His fingers filed through the photographs. “This is a picture of me and my mother, the only one of her that I have.” He passed it around the circle.
“She’s beautiful.” Tara thought of her own mother, and how precious every photograph of her was.
Willow looked over her wife’s shoulder. “Yea, she really is.”
They handed it to the Slayer. Buffy stared curiously at the images. As much as she appreciated the older woman’s beauty she couldn’t help but compare Alison and Al. “You were just as beautiful.”
Willow heard a tone in the Slayer’s voice which had been missing for ages. She pitched her elbow toward her wife, nudging her to take notice of Buffy’s interest.
“Were?” Al teased.
Buffy stopped. Had she insulted him? Was what she just said inappropriate? “Well, you can be beautiful now, but I thought handsome would fit better.”
He ran his hand across his chin, pondering. His smile was playful and at ease. “Handsome is good. I’d give beautiful to you, anyway. I think it suits you better.”
The Rosenbergs sat back to enjoy the mischievous banter. Buffy and Al shot comments back and forth until Willow was about to gag on the sweetness of it all. She’d wished such flattery for her best friend and felt happy to see it come from Al.
The four talked into the evening, each sharing the highs and lows of their teenage years. The circle of friends understood the complexities of survival and could relate to hiding truth and fearing its inevitable revelation.
The fire burned on into the night. Willow and Tara were the first to break off.
“I’m sorry to say, the kids will be awake in a few hours and neither of us are blessed with Slayer strength to get us through tomorrow.” Tara stood from her wife’s embrace, reaching back to guide the redhead with her. “What do you say, baby? You ready for bed?”
“I think so. It’s been such a long day.” She raised a hand to smother her yawn. She could feel the weight of the day taking hold of her body. She wondered if her wife would equally enjoy the luxury of the bed waiting for them. She reached for the soft hand in front of her. Their palms slid together in perfect form. She’d follow that lead to the ends of the earth.
“Goodnight, you two.” Tara smiled as the Slayers hunched down for a more serious conversation.
Al looked up. “See you in the morning.”
Tara turned her wife, cuddling in to walk behind. They stumbled their way across the yard and into the house. It was quiet as they peered in to check the sleeping boy. Tara hesitated to enter, afraid to wake him. Willow led her inside and they stood over him, adoring the peace of his rising and falling chest.
Tara removed the wraps that swaddled the loops of steel on his leg. She rubbed herbs against the points where the pins entered his flesh. Looking at him in the darkness, lit by the brilliance of the moon, gave them hope that he would heal and be stronger. Once again the child was forced to fight against a pain inflicted upon him.
They slipped out silently, leaving Patrick as they’d found him.
Willow paused as her wife took a second look. “What is it, baby?”
The blonde leaned against the closed door. “I just,” her hand rested on her stomach, “I can’t help but wish...”
“Shh, I know.” She placed her hand over Tara’s. “That he’d been ours from the beginning?”
The blonde nodded.
“He’s ours now.” She touched Tara on the cheek. “The universe has plans for him. I have to believe that.”
Willow led her wife up the stairs and stopped to peek inside their daughter’s room. The smaller blonde had fallen asleep while reading. Tara slid the riding book from the girl’s hands. Abbey rolled over, snuggling into the soft pillow under her head. Tara couldn’t help but skim her fingers across her daughter’s brow, tucking the blonde curls behind her ear. She whispered through a tender kiss, “we love you, Abbey girl.”
Willow watched a smile rise on her daughter’s face, and enjoyed the obvious love between her favorite people. This was a moment for them, quiet and calm. She wanted to freeze time, keep it still, so that nothing could add to the pain they’d endured. But she couldn’t, no one really could. She could only stand back and wait. It was the hardest lesson as a parent, as a wife. Being strong for them kept her focused, making it easier to bury the dreams that had plagued her since that day in the hospital.
She noticed the fire burning in the yard, where Al and Buffy sat locked in serious conversation. Willow prayed it would help the two people she cared so deeply for. She closed her eyes. Darkness swallowed around her thoughts.
Tara found herself in an odd dilemma. Her daughter was beautiful when she slept but the sight of her wife’s face, bathed in the light of the moon, was heart stopping. She felt blessed. She looked around, realizing that for the first time since her childhood, she was experiencing joy inside her family home. She felt a strength she’d not experienced between the four walls.
She touched her wife’s face. Her fingers danced along the slight edge of Willow’s cheek.
“Tara,” the redhead whispered.
“I’m right here, baby.” The blonde kissed her soft lips. “Come to bed with me.”
Willow took her hand and followed down the hall. They closed the door on the long day, shutting out all that was hard and dark.
Tara could see the fire reflected in their window. “Did it shock you?”
“Which part?” She pulled off her shirt. “Really, I think Al being Alison pales beside Al being the Slayer.”
Tara sat down on the bed and slipped off her shoes. “I was actually thinking about Faith.” She stopped to watch her lover undress.
Willow caught her wife’s stare. “Really?”
“Well, I was until your shirt came off.” She smiled. “You distracted me.”
“Did I? You know… I’ve got a cure for that.”
Tara’s mouth pitched with a curious half smile. “Do you?”
Her skirt dropped to the floor. “Come here, and I’ll cure what ails you.” Playfully, she pressed her tongue to her teeth and curled a finger to summon the blonde.
“You think it’s that easy?” Tara lifted her shirt up over her head. Her hair trickled through the open collar.
The redhead tossed her skirt on the back of the chair. She stepped over to her wife. “Oh, I know you. I know just how easy you are.” She touched the bare flesh of the blonde’s shoulder, trailing her finger down along the curves of her breast.
Tara closed her eyes, feeling the fingertips trail over her skin. “I love the way you touch me.”
“I know.” Willow felt her lover’s lips graze her own. Her hand traveled slowly up to cup Tara’s face. The redhead’s fingers laced into the silken blonde tresses. “I love to feel how soft you are. You’re so beautiful.”
“I love you, Willow.” Tears slipped from the corners of her eyes.
The redhead pulled away to look at her wife. The tears surprised her. “Baby?” She swiped her thumbs across them. “Don’t cry.”
The gentle command opened a floodgate. “I guess this wasn’t part of the cure?”
Willow led her wife to the bed. “I was thinking cries of ecstasy.” She broke the sudden tension with a nervous laugh. She could see it didn’t help. “Talk to me, Tara.”
“Just tell me it’ll be okay.” She sat on the edge of their bed. “I need to know that my family isn’t going to suffer anymore.” She looked up with desperate eyes. “Promise me.”
Willow knew that she couldn’t make such a promise. Their life together had challenges even before their son was a part of it. The redhead couldn’t give empty guarantees. She wouldn’t offer false security. Their marriage was based on truth and honesty; even in this desperate moment Willow offered only this. “Baby, if I could cushion us all from pain I’d do it. I’d go out tomorrow and bubble-wrap each and every one of us.” She kissed her wife’s hands. “But I can’t. No one can.”
“It just keeps coming, Will.”
The redhead sat beside her lover, wrapping hers arms around her. “I know, baby.” She pulled the blonde as physically close as two beings could be. Tara let go; the tears fell until all she could do was relax in the embrace. “I can’t promise it will stop. I don’t know what’s coming tomorrow.” They lay back. “All I can do is be here. I can promise you that. As long as the Goddess allows, you’ll never face it alone.”
Tara closed her eyes. “Promise?” Her tone was tired, hushed.
“Yes, baby… that I can promise.” She could feel the blonde relax against her body and she pulled the thick blanket over them. Tara draped across the redhead, finding rest. Willow lay in the dark, convincing herself that she could be everything to those she loved. Her hand drew circles along the soft curves of Tara’s back. Touching the soft skin reminded her that she was awake. Afraid to close her eyes, she ran through the day’s events.
“Stay awake, Rosenberg.” She was terrified to sleep. She’d taken over the nightmares that Abbey had seemed to overcome. She shared most of the details with Tara and together they’d determined she must have been carrying her fears for Patrick deep in her psyche. It made sense but didn’t help to stop them. Whenever she closed her eyes they were there.
She raised Tara’s arm from her chest and slipped out from the covers. She opened her laptop and began working on her latest project. The glare of the screen kept her awake. She peered over the top of the computer and watched her wife sleep, remembering the nights when their love was new. How the blonde would wake, terrified from the fear of becoming a demon, something she’d kept hidden from them all. Until that night in the magic box when the punch from a demon set her soul free. Willow welcomed the blow that would end her own fears. It would not be as simple for her. She disappeared for hours into the glow of data on her laptop’s screen.
The blonde rolled over. The bed felt big and empty as her hand searched for her ladylove. “Willow?”
The redhead closed her laptop. “I’m over here.” She set it on the table as she walked toward her wife.
“Why are you so far away?” Tara rolled over, wiping the sleepiness from her eyes.
The redhead crawled across the bed. “I wanted you to get some sleep.”
“I got some. How about you?” Her arms opened to welcome her wife.
“It’s hard to close my eyes.”
Tara could feel the hesitation in Willow’s words. Her hand wrapped around the old wounds on the redhead’s wrist as her thumb trailed over the blistered flesh. “I’ll never let it happen again. I’ll die before anyone touches you.”
Willow turned to face her lover. Their eyes met in a raw honest exchange. The skin around her wrists still held the tenderness of damaged nerves. After so many years it was hard to deny their existence. “I know, Tara. I would fight harder.”
“You fought very hard, Will. You came back to me. You brought her back to me.” Tara knew that coming home would stir up her own past. What she hadn’t realized was that it would awaken Willow’s sleeping demons. “Talk to me, Will.”
“I can’t, Tara. I don’t even know what it is.”
“He’s gone.” The blonde closed her eyes, regretfully.
“I know he’s gone. It’s not even that.”
They lay in the darkness, the radiance of the moonlight, now sheathed by the dense clouds outside. The blonde waited for her wife, her hands finding home in the soft tangles of red.
“I’m afraid.”
“It’s been a hard last few weeks but this is more, Will.”
Willow replayed the vision from the hospital. Her body shivered as the darkness paled her skin. “I can sense something coming, Tara. I can feel how bad it is and when I close my eyes I can see it.”
The blonde sat up in bed. “We shouldn’t ignore this any more. What you’re feeling. I trust it, Will, and we need to figure it all out.”
The redhead slid toward her, propping upright against the blonde. “We need to channel a path into my dreams.”
“Do you think you could relax enough to do it?” Tara touched her lover’s arm. “We could wait.”
“I’m so tired, Tara.” She turned to look up at her wife. “You’d have to do most of the work.”
“I’m strong, sweetie. Don’t worry about me.” She pushed their bodies forward. “Let me set things up.”
Willow watched her wife move around the room. Tara slipped a singlet top over her head, covering her breasts. The redhead sighed. “I already don’t like this.” Her lip pressed up into a pout.
“I have to go to Abbey’s room to get my mother’s spell book. Everything we need is in that closet.”
Willow pointed to the shirt. “Will you take that thing off when you’re finished?”
Tara winked. “I’ll let you.” She blew a kiss to her wife as she hurried out their door.
The redhead pulled on a long t-shirt. She decided she should put on a pair of shorts just in case Tara needed to call for help. Willow prepared for any reaction.
Tara returned with a small wooden box and a short stack of books. She dropped them on the chair. “Help me, sweetie.”
Together they pushed the bed into the corner of the room, opening enough space to comfortably perform the ritual. Willow made the sacred circle with herbs and plant root taken from the box. Tara read through the pages, confident they could reach Willow’s inner turmoil.
“Can you do this?” Willow lay prone on the floor.
The blonde giggled. “Well you have to roll over and rest your head in my lap.”
“I thought I was going to sleep.” She pouted.
Tara rolled her wife against her. The redhead rested in the warmth of her crossed legs. “You comfortable?”
“You’re kidding me, right?” Willow turned her head to nibble Tara’s inner thigh. “I love this position.”
“Concentrate.” Tara pinched her lover’s cheek. “This isn’t a sexy moment.”
“Can’t we alter it just enough to make it sexy?”
“Later.” She lit the candle beside them. “Close your eyes.”
“Can I talk?” She threw her arms over her head, wrapping around to run the length of Tara’s thigh.
Tara swatted the frisky touch. “Shh, no,” she scolded. She placed the wandering hands across Willow’s chest. “Behave.”
“I don’t like this at all. I want sexy Tara.”
The blonde rested a hand over Willow’s mouth. “I’m inside you, can you hear me?”
Willow answered in her head. “I’ve missed you in here with me. I like it.”
“I thought you might.”
The redhead tensed. “What about Abbey?”
“The circle is sacred, all around us we’re masked, sweetie. It’s just you and I, in here together.” Her fingers traced across Willow’s forehead. Slowly, the rhythmic sensation eased the redhead into a sleeplike state. “Show me where it hurts, Will.” Tara whispered the chant. The sounds lulled her lover. Together they toured the redhead’s mind.
Tara could sense the darkness. It was cold and damp. She felt smothered by the way it held her. She whispered. “Via lumen.” She saw a light along the path. “Where are we going, love?” She followed Willow’s mind as it led her along the winding trail.
The thick darkness twisted and curved, transforming into a dense forest of trees. Tara followed Willow’s path, stumbling with every other step. The closer she moved to the ground, the brighter their light shined on it. She could see braided barbs of metal intertwined with prickly frays of rope, a mystical combination that zippered across the path. The redhead’s mind tossed obstacles in front of the path.
Tara felt the pounding pace of Willow’s ragged heartbeat. The sound echoed around her, as if bouncing off of solid forms. She was surrounded by her lover’s innermost fear, teetering on the edge of discovery. The blonde concentrated on relaxing them. “Show me what’s scaring you.”
Willow led her wife through the shadows. The nameless silhouettes frightened the blonde; she had no idea such a place still existed inside her lover. Tara stumbled again, this time falling over the twisted barbed rope. She felt it scrape across her shin. Her palm rested on a soft surface. It felt warm, inviting. Tara tried to stand as the ropes crept across her wrists and ankles. Slowly it snaked around to tangle the woman in her fallen position. She froze, controlling her panic. The ropes paused to mirror her response.
“Willow, baby… you have to let me in.”
Tara watched as the barbed twine tangled up to form a barrier around her. Whatever existed, just beyond, Willow wasn’t ready to share. The blonde could feel her lover shaking. A hard jolt ripped them from the shared darkness.
The blonde opened her eyes. The woman in her lap was still, wet with perspiration. “Willow.”
Willow gasped for air, blinking her eyes widely with fear. “Tara.” She curled up into her wife’s lap. Her arms grabbed hold as exhaustion ripped through her. “I can’t.”
The blonde held her wife, rocking slowly. She’d been in her darkness. “It’s okay. I know.” She pushed the damp red tresses from her lover’s face. “It’ll be okay… we’ll figure this out… it’ll be okay.”
Tara gathered her up from the floor. They stumbled to the bed, giving little notice to its location against the wall. The blonde tucked her wife into the feathered comfort of the blankets.
She blessed their circle and cleansed the space of dark energy. She asked for quiet rest for her beloved as she meditated. She took her time cleaning, paying close attention to her wife’s exhausted sleep. “I love you.” She pressed a chaste kiss on Willow’s forehead, before folding herself tightly against the woman she cherished above all.
TBC..............
Urn of OsirisA new idea is delicate. It can be killed by a sneer or a yawn; it can be stabbed to death by a joke or worried to death by a frown on the right person's brow. Charles Brower
I was hoping that the spell would work and they would know better what they would be facing, but I suppose I must learn patience and wait for all to be revealed.
Crikey these go all the way back to part 7. 
I am a slacker. *confesses* “My name is Urnie and I’m a slacker.” *sighs relief* I’ve had at least two new injuries since posting that. 
*
Oh well, my girlfriend says it gives me "character". 
*sings* "Love is in the air.... everywhere I look around....."
It's never a good sign when dead in-laws start showing up...Willow should keep her eyes open for any and all strange occurrences 
Yay! but at least there's a possibility that Patrick's legs can get better. 
We have really gotten to know so many of your original characters in this series of stories they are as real as the characters from the show. This story is just extremely well written and you can tell that its crafted with love and not hastily written. As a reader I appreciate the fact that you let the story lead you and set its own pace -you allow it to develop and become the best possible story it can be. Too many times I have seen authors rush to post updates just to satisfy the readers and I really love that you don't do that. You may keep us dangling with cliffhangers, sighing at the love between Willow and Tara, worrying over Patrick's future and most recently keep us guessing concerning Al...but you always deliver. 
Ok, NOW that my account is fixed since the re-set, might i add my woo-hoo's about this story (not to mention the first 2 stories in this series), and BEG for an update? 
I can see that you have been reading the story. Wow, thank you for the compliment. I'm humbled by your thoughts. Al has a role for sure, what it is, you'll have to be very patient to find out. I'm writing this with very limited free time so I appreciate your patience. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. I'm sure you are aware how they keep a writer motivated. 
but ah well, I will take a leap or faith and know that it will all turn out right in the end!
