Author– JustSkipit - Debra
Spoilers–Season 6
Rating– Part 1 - PG
Disclaimer – Guess what, I don’t own W&T, Buffy or the rest of the BtVS crew. Any similarity to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental and fortunate.
Notes and Thanks Well I think it’s always a good idea to start with the important thanks: Thank you to the love of my life: Rachel. Thank you to Joss Whedon who created these characters and the Buffyverse. Thank you to the fictional characters of Willow & Tara and the wonderful actresses Alyson Hannigan & Amber Benson. Finally thanks to all the Kittens who read and enjoy and comment on these fictions, particularly the moderators and Xita!
Thoughts in italics!
Flashbacks and dreams indented
About this story This fiction is a sequel to W/T Season 3 Y’all. It will make most sense to you if you read that fiction first, if not the entire thing, at least the first part, Wish/Wash, Dopplegangland Too, and the last part. But heck, why wouldn’t you just read the whole story?
While Y’all left off in May of 1999, this Story begins in August of 2002. What has happened since we last left our girls? Well…
For the most part, their history since attending college at Sunnydale U has merged with cannon. Some differences occur for what I hope are obvious reasons:
Season 4: Obviously W&T are already a couple and are already out to their friends. No Oz trauma/drama and no coming out drama. Oz left school in the middle of the year to control his inner wolf after he killed Veruca. But no Oz/Willow trauma, no Something Blue, and obviously no NMR. Instead we have Willow and Buffy sharing a room with Tara down the hall. Willow and Tara continue their magical partnership and loving and passionate relationship, both learning from the other.
Season 5: Dawn arrives and has always been there. Tara and she are very close. Although Tara is not conscious of it, they have a special bond. If you read Y’all you know that Dawn is the reincarnation of Tara’s mother who died when she was a junior in high school. The Family episode never happens! No evil family to come take Tara away. No myth that the Maclay family women are demons! She has a lovely birthday party with lots of presents and cake as anyone would want. Checkpoint happens! Willow and Tara don’t have a fight over magic or boys or anything else; nonetheless, Tara is sitting on the bench waiting for Willow when Glory shows up. The hell-god sucks her brain and shatters her hand. Willow nurses her and Tara accidentally reveals that Dawn is the key. Willow reverses the damage Glory has done to Tara and Buffy leaps into the portal and dies to save the world.
Season 6: Tara and Willow move into the Summers house to raise Dawn. Although everyone has mixed feelings about it, the four Scoobies work together to raise Buffy from the dead. Willow dabbles with the idea of getting the fawn’s blood herself but decides against it. Anya gets the necessary ingredient on the black market. Tara and Willow begin to fight about Willow’s increasing dependence on magic. But she’s not addicted! [because that’s a stupid idea!] She doesn’t erase Tara’s memory. Tara does not leave her. The Scoobies make lots of stupid decisions while fighting the super-geeks. Tara is standing in front of the window when Warren tries to kill Buffy. A stray bullet goes straight through her heart and kills her instantly. Willow can’t bring her back. The doctors at the hospital save Buffy by removing the bullet and she recovers quickly because she has slayer healing. Xander stops Willow from killing either Warren or Rack (see below). Warren is sent to jail for what he did. She didn’t go all “Dark Magic Willow.”
Edited to say: Suze pointed out to me that Xander doesn't have to stop Willow from killing Rack because she really never goes that far. She never went all magic addiction so she never meets up with him. Great job Suze!
Why the differences? A few reasons. First, my intention is that her magical partnership with Tara helped her to learn the right and wrong applications of magic (somewhat), that her training by Tara and Tara’s grandmother taught her the connection between nature and power. That she used her power for good, not evil. Second, because her loving relationship with Tara gave her the confidence and love that had been missing from her life. She doesn’t have to attempt to fill that void because she has a strong base of love and belonging. Third, because I don’t personally believe in the addiction philosophy.
So there it is. The setup. We’re moving to Willow & Tara together but it’s going to be dark for a little while first. Enjoy.
One final note Ok, here’s the thing. Timewise this story takes place in season 7. But Willow’s hair is not season 7 hair. It is more like late season 5 hair: think Blood Ties or Triangle.
T-A–R–A M-A-C-L-A-Y
T-A–R–A M-A-C-L-A-Y
T-A–R–A M-A-C-L-A-Y
Y-A-L-C-A-M A-R-A-T
T-A–R–A M-A-C-L-A-Y
T-A–R–A M-A-C-L-A-Y
Willow’s index finger traced the letters as if it were moving on its own. Over and over it moved, noticing only the texture of the cold rough stone with the letters forging a path to follow. As she traced the letters, she heard each one in her mind. T-A–R–A M-A-C-L-A-Y. Like a loud speaker in her brain announcing the arrival of the next train at the station, announcing that Tara was arriving at track nine. Sometimes the letters seemed to sing as they passed from one side of her brain to the others. At other times they seemed more like a whisper, a reminder of something that she would never forget anyway.
And always Willow’s mind returned to the motion of tracing the path of the letters on the stone. There were other letters: October 16, 1980 - May 7, 2002, but her fingers never traced those. Only the name, the only name that mattered, the only name that would ever matter.
Tracing the letters Willow’s mind took a break. She didn’t think of Tara or the pain and anguish and loneliness. She didn’t think about the pile of rocks growing every day on the top of this headstone. She didn’t think about the fact that she sometimes wondered if she should have even agreed to put the stone up so fast. Is it incongruous to place the stones on the grave but put the headstone up so fast? Which traditions to keep and which to discard? Should she have buried Tara here or did she belong with her mother? She had thought of all this, but not today. Not as long as her finger traced the letters. Not as long as she could be with her lover. No thought. No time. No wondering. Just the feel of the stone under her fingertips and the letters echoing in her mind, taking her away from conscious thought as the cemetery faded around her.
“Clothes,” Tara smiled as she finished pulling her shirt over her head.
“Better not get used to them,” Willow teased back in her vixeny way. She playfully poked her finger into the waistband of her lover’s jeans before pulling her closer. Their hug brought back all the amazing connection of the last few days.
“Xander!” Tara exclaimed her arms still wrapped around the redhead.
“Ok,” Willow remarked, “not the reaction I was expecting.”
Tara moved toward the window to look down on Xander and Buffy in the backyard. “Maybe they’re making up…” she suggested. Willow nodded lovingly. She and Tara had been doing a little of their own making up. The fighting about her increasing dependence on magic had intensified for the past few months but the blonde now appeared satisfied that Willow understood that she couldn’t use magic for everything. Their renewed relationship was bearing the fruits of their reconciliation.
Willow watched as Tara turned from the window. As always she was amazed at the love she felt for this woman. In over 3 years, she had never tired of her, would never tire of her. Every time they touched it was electric and felt like coming home. She noticed the dark red spot that appeared on Tara’s blue shirt before hearing either the sound of gunshots or Tara’s confused utterance: “your shirt?”
Willow crossed the space quickly to catch her lover as she plummeted toward the floor of the bedroom. “Tara! Tara!” she cried over and over as she held the blonde’s lifeless body. Within moments it became apparent to her that the life had in fact gone from Tara’s body. She did something she had vowed never to do again, invoking Osiris to bring her lover back.
As tears streamed down her face her power brought the form to their room. His refusal to return her lover to life infuriated the red haired witch who could do nothing but curse him as he departed. Still she held and stroked the body of the woman she loved so deeply crying her name over and over: “Tara! Tara! Baby…”
Knowing that it was too late, she lay on the floor of their bedroom cradling and rocking her lover’s body as it cooled. She was not even aware of Dawn’s entrance hours later as the girl called to her to let go: “Willow? Willow. Willow!...
“Willow!” Dawn shook the redhead’s body as Willow finally realized that she was really hearing the teenager.
“Dawn?” she questioned.
“Willow,” Dawn spoke quietly, “you have to come home. It’s almost dark.”
“I can’t leave her,” Willow answered, her words echoing those she had issued three months earlier to the girl.
“I know,” Dawn nodded as she helped the redhead to her feet. “You aren’t leaving her. Just come with me for a little while ok?” As Willow started to walk alongside the teenager Dawn attempted to reassure her: “Buffy will come by tonight ok?”
The two girls began walking slowly through the cemetery toward Revelo drive. As they walked Willow tried to carry on a conversation about Dawn’s day, about school and boys and everything else. But all she could think about was that she should be with Tara. That she couldn’t be without her. It would never work. A Willow without Tara? Nonsensical. She would never make sense of it. Never.
---
"Keep in mind always the present you are constructing. It should be the future you want." - Alice Walker, Temple of My Familiar
has replaced you with a JustSkipIt-bot as part of his evil scheme to replace all the best writers with robots in order to deprive us of WT stories.
. But 
for the beginning of your story. But I've totally faith in you that it will certainly be better. And as far of your title, I have really difficult to read it and or even understand it (
sorry about that, I think my English is not as good as I thought 
This is a difficult read, and I will try to remain patient until things get better. 
at: 7/12/03 8:20 pm
