A few comments and then the Update:
Nick – Hey! I thought you were gone forever. Great to see you here though. Thanks for commenting.
Nation - I’m glad you liked Y’all and that it made you feel homesick. Can’t imagine bland food – yuck! (Congratulations on your 3-month old son; how awesome!). Thanks for all your comments and I’m glad it seems moderately original to you.
Title – Paths Diverged/Divulged Part 6–
Carrying Through Author– JustSkipit - Debra
Spoilers–Season 6
Rating– Part 6 – 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. Also Rachel thinks I should point out that I don’t make any money from this…
Thoughts in italics!Flashbacks and dreams indented Willow woke with a start and looked around the room. The sunlight slashed through the glass doors from the patio and she surmised that she must have slept nearly 20 hours. It was not a huge surprise since she knew that her body needed the rest.
I certainly didn’t get that much sleep the first time I stayed here she smirked as she remembered that weekend. Her Tara had planned a surprise weekend away for the two girls for their anniversary. It was the first time they had revealed how much they loved each other and their first time to share that love fully. It was an amazing weekend and one she frequently remembered.
After showering and getting dressed she decided to eat. She ordered a large lunch to be delivered to the patio and opened the doors to let in the light. Finding a newspaper outside the door she began to read through the headlines. As she did it occurred to her that she should start to do some research to find out what this world was like. Pulling a notebook from her backpack she began making a list of events to review in the newspapers of this world. It was apparent from this day’s news that as in her world President Bush had been elected but she would like to know the details on that. In addition she could think of many other events to review.
When she looked up again she realized that a few hours had passed and she had eaten the entire meal. She smiled as she noted just how much fun she could have doing research or planning. After calling downstairs she determined that the hotel had high-speed Internet access and booted up her computer to begin doing her research. She knew that she was putting off calling Tara but persisted for two reasons.
The first and less important was that for the first time in three months, she found herself happy just sitting on the patio and researching. The sun was warming her skin, well heating it actually, but she felt good sweating. It was the first time she had felt really alive since Tara’s death. The waitress came by every 30 minutes to refill her iced coffee and by dinnertime she had worked up a pretty big hyper. The second reason was absolute fear. What if Tara answered? What would she say? What if Tara didn’t answer? She had no idea what she would do in either situation.
After enjoying a light dinner she called down to let the front desk know that she intended to stay another night. Breathing out slowly she set the phone back in the cradle and stared at it. For the third time in the past week she found herself scared silly of a simple piece of plastic with metal and wires inside it.
Okay she thought
I’ve faced hell gods and vampires and demons. I think I should be able to make a simple phone call. Without looking in a mirror she knew that she now displayed her famous “resolve face.”
Before she could lose nerve she dialed the phone. Her nerves faltered momentarily as Michelle again answered: “Hello?”
“Uh hi,” Willow ad libbed, “is Tara Maclay home?”
“No, she’s not. Can I take a message?” Michelle answered politely. For a second Willow could have sworn that she heard the girl giggle.
Willow had already come up with an idea in case Tara wasn’t at home: “Oh darn. You must be Chelle?” She waited a moment for Michelle to answer that she was. “Well this is Claire from her biology class.”
“Oh right Claire,” Michelle agreed. Willow almost chuckled to herself at the humor of Michelle acting like she had heard of Claire considering that Willow had picked the name out of thin air and didn’t even know if Tara was taking a biology class.
You’d think Tara’s girlfriend would know her class schedule better than that she thought somewhat uncharitably.
“Well we have this test next week and I wanted to see if I can borrow her notes,” Willow lied.
Willow thought that she heard Chelle whisper “stop it” with her hand covering the mouthpiece but moments later she heard the girl quickly speak: “Claire, do you want her number at work? She’s there till late but she’s studying.”
“Oh that would be just great,” Willow answered, her pen poised over the paper. She quickly took down the number, read it back, thanked Michelle and got off the call.
Before she could lose her nerve she called the number on the piece of paper. She knew that she had the right number when the voice answering the phone, not Tara’s voice, said, “Pet Hospital.”
“Oh, what’s your address?” Willow asked and wrote down the answer quickly before hanging up. That was enough for tonight she decided. Tomorrow she would go to Austin and see what happened but now it was time to go to bed early.
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Still attempting to pry off the fingers tickling her without mercy Michelle replaced the phone and turned around. “I was on the phone,” she giggled.
“I could tell,” Eliza teased without lessening her assault on the runner’s ribs and underarms. Beginning to kiss her lover’s neck the younger girl whispered, “did I hear you say that Tara was working until late?”
“Mmm hmmm,” Michelle purred as she reached her arms behind her to pull the smaller girl closer.
“Then come back to bed,” Eliza whispered. Like the redhead miles away, the two younger girls went to bed early.
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“Do you want a refill?”
Willow was startled from her concentration on the screen in front of her. “Huh?” she answered lamely.
“You seem really involved in what you’re reading. I said do you want a refill?” the waitress repeated.
“Oh yeah,” Willow nodded, “thanks.”
“You don’t have trouble sleeping?” the girl asked after having poured the warm-up. Willow shrugged non-committally. “If you do, maybe you just need some exercise in the late evening,” the girl suggested.
“Uh, maybe I’ll try that,” Willow offered, not 100% sure what the girl was saying.
“We could get some dinner after I’m done here if you want?” the waitress asked, confirming Willow’s suspicions.
“Thanks for the offer but I really don’t… I mean not that I don’t eat because I do eat. I mean food not… Well you know but well I just don’t think that I …” she looked down at her computer as the waitress started laughing and mumbled something about “can’t blame a girl for offering,” before moving across the shop.
Willow looked at her computer screen with a blush burning in her cheeks. It was her second day sitting in this coffee shop. She felt like a detective from a B novel staking out the Animal Hospital across the street. It was obvious why Tara would work at this place, besides her love for animals and her wish to be a veterinarian someday that is. She had counted 5 different busses that stopped right across the street, which would make it extra convenient for the blond witch. Willow was sure that her finances would be no better in this world than in the other: why would they?
The first day Willow had arrived right after lunch and waited until after 10:00 at night before deciding that Tara must not be working. In the time yesterday and her wait so far today she had made a few conclusions about Austin. First was that the city was very wired. More than half of the people coming into the coffee shop carried a computer, which they set up and began working on or playing or whatever. She found out that the coffee shop offered a membership-type thing where you could pay a flat fee and use their wireless hub so that you could be online at the shop. Since the fee was low and money wasn’t really an object, the redhead had eagerly paid the cost and then set to work hacking the system to keep anyone else from spying on what she was doing. Her second conclusion was that Austin was a very gay-friendly city, or maybe not so much gay-friendly as just plain gay. Even using a pretty conservative estimate and not counting questionable interactions, she had been hit on by two waitresses including the one working right now and 5 girls who had stopped in for coffee. One of them had outright propositioned her and she still reeled from the shock of the offer. Bluntness aside, she couldn’t even imagine being with anyone but Tara. She never had been and didn’t particularly ever want to be.
As the afternoon wore on she kept watch out the window for each bus that pulled up and continued her research. She was working her way through the different news media and had found nearly identical news stories to those that she remembered. She spent hours reading the newspapers from September 12 and found those reports to be virtually identical. Her review of the numerous and lengthy stories on the presidential elections showed the same outcome although it seemed to her that the vote counts were different in some states for some candidates. Having read national and international news she was beginning on sports and entertainment news.
She was also working on recreating her college transcript. She had printed out her transcript before leaving her reality and was working on creating a duplicate of it in electronic form on her laptop. She figured that once she had created the records, she would hack the UC Sunnydale system, which probably wouldn’t be any harder than it was in her reality, and upload the transcript, so that she would have her educational history in this reality. She was still trying to figure out how to renew her identity since she had been dead for six years here.
As another bus came by she watched expectantly for Tara to get off and go into the animal hospital but she did not.
Maybe she’s not working again today Willow began to suspect. Looking at her watch and noting the time at 5:45 she decided to give it another hour before leaving for some dinner and returning the next day.
I really am like a detective on a stake-out she giggled to herself.
A few minutes into her self-imposed deadline a blue Volvo pulled into the Animal Hospital parking lot and parked. She had not noticed the space that was marked for a handicapped vehicle but now noticed that the Volvo in fact had taken that space. Willow found it amazing what kind of pets people had and brought to the veterinarian: dogs, cats, birds, iguana, ferrets, and more. Traffic slowed significantly around 4:30 and she assumed that must be the time they stopped taking appointments. She waited expectantly to see what kind of animal the driver of the Volvo had and made an internal bet that it would be a medium-sized dog.
As the door swung open she watched to see the driver and particularly the pet emerge from the vehicle. Predictably two jeans-covered legs swung from the car first. It took her a moment to process the tip of the cane that came out next and landed next to the left foot before the driver hoisted herself from the car and started toward the door of the hospital.
Maybe she’s going to get help to bring in the animal Willow surmised. However, the driver did not come back out the door but appeared to go through a door into the back of the office. As the redhead sat there shocked she began to put together the clues: blonde hair, beautiful body, jeans in the dead heat of summer, and didn’t come back out to get a dog.
That wasn’t an animal owner; it’s Tara. But what happened? Why does she walk with a cane? And drive a Volvo? Did she win the lottery and get hit by a truck like in that Alanis Morrisette song? After a few minutes the blonde came back out into the lobby of the hospital and bending down visited with a few people and their animals before returning to sit behind the desk. The guy who she was relieving visited with her for a few minutes before picking up his backpack and leaving. As soon as he did Tara pulled her books from her backpack and began studying.
Willow’s emotions were confused and scattered. On one hand she was excited about seeing Tara again. Her love for the woman poured out and she could feel tears pooling in her eyes. Some part of her knew that this was not the same woman that she loved but another part said that it could be. She was also feeling fear over what to do and curiosity about what had happened in Tara’s life in the past four years. There was obviously so much that the redhead didn’t know! For hours she watched Tara studying and occasionally helping people with their emergencies. She knew that she should get something to eat but just couldn’t leave the coffee shop, as if she feared that if she left or closed her eyes Tara would disappear. Realizing that she was in no shape to meet the woman of her dreams tonight she decided to come back tomorrow and go over to the animal hospital. After packing up she started to leave and heard the waitress call behind her, “see you tomorrow?” Willow nodded and smiled back that she would be right here.
Assuming that Tara probably worked a similar schedule every day, Willow merely drove by the pet clinic during the early afternoon to ensure that Tara’s car was not there. When it was not she took the rest of the day to tour the city, stopping to ask people what she should visit. Faith was right: there were a lot of bars in town and even more coffee shops. If she hadn’t been planning on spending most of her evening at a coffee shop, she might have visited a few of the more interesting ones.
About 5:30 she returned to her spot at the shop and got her coffee and a sandwich. Right on schedule Tara pulled in a few minutes before 6:00 and Willow watched her appreciatively as she got out of the car. As far as the redhead could tell her injury had not negatively impacted her appearance and Willow felt her body respond to her beauty. As she sat and watched, another Volvo pulled in and parked. She was shocked to see Eliza get out of the car and go inside to visit with the blonde. She was even more shocked as the girl looked both ways before crossing the street. It was obvious that she was coming over to the shop.
Willow started to panic. Eliza would see her and her cover would be blown. Again she giggled at the image of herself in trench coat and fedora, her cover blown by an enemy agent. She slouched in her seat and pulled a magazine from a stack by the window to hold in front of her face. As she surreptitiously watched Eliza ordered two drinks, flirted casually with the waitress, paid, and left. Only as Eliza was reentering the clinic with the drinks did Willow realize that Eliza wouldn’t have recognized her anyway; this Eliza had never met or seen the redhead.
After bringing Tara her coffee, Eliza sat down and began visiting with the blonde. At times she was very animated, standing and moving around the waiting room waving her arms as if telling a very amusing story. Watching Tara laugh Willow felt as if something were pulling her toward the blonde. She had the same half-smile, the same way of tilting her head and it was hard to wait until Eliza left to go over to the hospital.
As she watched Willow wondered about the relationships between the three girls. If Tara and Michelle were still together then where did Eliza fit in? Did she have a girlfriend? Had Michelle and Eliza never felt their natural connection? Willow wondered,
in this reality, would I be with Eliza? The thought made her giggle and shake her head. After a few more minutes Eliza gave the blonde a hug, got in her car, and drove away.
Willow knew she had to do this before she lost her nerve. After sucking on a mint for a minute, she put her bag in the trunk of her car and started across the street. She could see Tara through the window but the blonde was studying intently and didn’t notice her moving toward the door. At the door she stopped for a minute before pulling it open quickly, like pulling off a band-aid all at once, and stepping through.
Tara looked up, obviously about to ask what she could do to help the pet owner, and saw Willow. The words she was about to say dried up in her mouth, a mouth that hung open in shock. Each woman stared into the eyes of the other for seconds. Finally Tara broke the silence as she asked, “Willow?”
An alternative/NC-17 version of this story is available at
littlecrazy80/Romy's site.
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Well there's not even breathing room between pleasure and pain. -- Aerosmith.
Edited by: JustSkipIt at: 9/1/03 3:56 pm
. Like the phone conversation between Willow aka 'Emma Carpenter' and that woman. Letting poor Willow waiting for an answer about Tara while she has to listen to that music. Now that was really evil but funny at the same time
. And it was nice from Faith when she saw Willow so sad that she would kick some demon ass for her. And the flashback were great. But the last update was so sad 
. 
The waiting fo 
and 
is killing me but I'm sure that it is worth it, right? 
Well keep the greatness coming! Update soon? 
Sorry.
. It's not a really 'alternative' version hopefully, that would be confusing... just the version nc17-version.. 
What a nice surprise!!! I can't wait to see how they handle this. I am ready to find out what is going on with Tara. 
at: 6/23/03 8:35 pm
Hmm is it possible that Willow died in her time and Tara was injured because she wanted to help Willow?
Hope the next update will be soon!!! Oh and 
to that update, great story