by Irishlassie101andTKOLove » Wed Apr 05, 2006 2:14 pm
Previous disclaimers apply
Chapter 14
They all tried to get down, move away, cover each other…but it was too late.
Buffy, I love you. You’re the best sister ever, was all Dawn could think.
I’ve failed you all. My children, I beg you to forgive me. Perhaps we’ll meet in another, better world, Giles reflected.
Oh Dawnie, please forgive me! I was a disaster as big sister, Buffy thought.
Anya, I love you. Xander’s mind reeled.
I should have had more orgasms with Xander, came the ex-demon’s analysis of her mortal life. Anya was nothing if not consistent.
Tara, baby…I love you, now and forever, Willow thought and smiled. She realized she was going to die in the warm embrace of her lover, and it gave her a sense of peace.
Stupid gits. Tara smiled to herself, amused at the way her mind had adopted Giles’ phrasing. But the sentiment was all hers as she looked at the two aggressive, hateful men in front of her – and her smile transformed to a smirk.
Everyone awaited the impact of the deadly projectiles, but there was nothing, no contact, no pain.
The Scoobies knew something extraordinary had happened, and they sat in shock as the full realization set in. Hundreds of metal spheres hung in the air just in front of them, as if they’d hit something solid…or rather a gelatinous, impregnable barrier.
Tara stood very calm, still smiling, with a mixture of amusement and boredom on her face. The gang still stood in wonder a few seconds later when the projectiles dropped to the floor, mimicking the sound of a string of pearls breaking over tile. Tara reached out and touched the foreheads of both men, who were instantly paralyzed. They stood in absolute disbelief, unable to move an inch. John and Donnie Maclay stood where they’d fired their guns – neither of them able to move despite willing themselves to do so – in a full-on struggle to take control of their own bodies. A flick of Tara’s hand sent the weapons crashing against the ceiling where they harmlessly shattered into shimmering dust. Another flick sent the two men flying through the hall again.
“Now you’ve really overstepped.” Tara’s calm, almost comical reaction to the murder attempt sent chills through her friends. Her voice was cool and controlled as she strolled leisurely to her father and brother.
“Tara, don’t! Don’t kill them…not for me!” Willow shouted, sensing an immeasurable power flowing from Tara in constant waves. She wanted to run over but was stopped by a subtle shake of her lover’s head.
“You know I’d do anything for you, my love,” Tara replied and smiled. “Anything, no matter what the cost. But don’t worry. I’m not going to kill anyone.” Turning back toward the panic-stricken men still lying on the ground, she continued speaking.
“No Donnie, ‘Dad’, I won’t kill you.” As she spoke she emphasized her father’s title to illustrate just how much he hadn’t earned it. “I’m not really going to do anything to you...other than allow you experience all the pain you’ve dealt in your lifetimes.”
“You will suffer like my mother did, you will suffer like I did, you will feel what we felt, and you will fear what we feared. You won’t know what’s coming or when, and there will be nothing you can do to stop it.” Her voice cut through the silence, shaking the house once again.
A few seconds later, the two men were lying on the floor again, covering their heads with their arms, whimpering, screaming in pain from unseen blows. Tara turned around and walked back to…her family. Again they were unable to speak or move; such power – especially coming from within Tara – was beyond their comprehension.
“I think we should go home now,” Tara said somewhat casually to the Scoobies. “If you still want me to be with you, that is,” she added. A little uncertainty crept into her mind.
Buffy finally regained the power of speech and grabbed Tara by her shoulders. “What…huh? Why would we not want you to be at home with us?”
“Well, because I’m not the Tara I used to be,” she answered with a firm voice. “I can feel it, I’ve changed. No stammering, no insecurity, no shyness…I’ve changed.”
Willow caught the worried look on Buffy’s face. The redhead stepped forward, spun Tara around, and looked right into the deep pools of soul that were Tara’s eyes. She held her stare for a few seconds and turned back to Buffy. “I see power, strength, and determination. And I see compassion, warmth...and love. This is Tara,” she said to the Slayer, and then turned back to her beautiful blonde witch. “You are Tara. The Tara I love, we all love. This is who and what you were meant to be and I love you, baby.”
Seeing the woman she desperately loved actually shy away from her moments ago had nearly shattered Tara’s heart into jagged bits; she was close to losing everything that meant anything to her. Willow. Hence, the blonde was only partially aware of Willow’s last words. Tara felt rather than heard them – they spoke directly to her wounded heart. Tara simply collapsed into her lover’s arms and wept. She cried away all the fear of rejection that had gathered within the past few minutes. Tara had always found solace in Willow – a safety, love, and devotion unmatched – and still, this moment left her breathless. She allowed her emotions to flow, stunned that after all she’d witnessed, her amazing redhead still managed to wash away Tara’s pain with a simple gesture and a few loving, understanding words.
And Willow was swept away just as profoundly. But even now, her ever hyperactive mind was racing.
This is my sweet Tara. She’s changed, but she still is my Tara! Nobody will take her away from me!
Her thoughts jumped their current track and the redhead frowned. My Tara? She is Tara, but is she still my Tara? Oh, goddess! Now she’s so powerful, she can wield white magick like no one I’ve ever seen, and I...if things get really bad I can’t be sure I won’t revert to using dark magick again. Will she be able to accept it? Or even tolerate it? Can she still love me? Stay with me? Would she come to hate me for what I am?
This time it was Willow’s turn to fear rejection. As soon as she found her voice again she took Tara’s soft hands into her own and, avoiding her lover’s blue eyes, asked, “Tara, what’ll happen to us. What will happen to me?”
Tara was caught off guard and tripped over her words. “What? Why? What’s going to change?”
“Well,” Willow answered solemnly, with sheer dread reaching across her face, “you’re a super powerful witch now…not like you weren’t powerful before, but, well, you’re like amazingly out-of-this-world powerful now. My powers are no match for yours and you’re not going to need anybody to look after you from now on. Not Buffy. Not…me. You can do whatever you want and you can get whatever you want. Uhm…and [i]whomever you want. A-and you’re full of white and good magickk and I...I took to the dark magickk and...and...” The heavy tears running down her cheeks drowned her last words.
Tara just stared at her, dumbfounded. She reached over to Willow and kissed her possessively…a soul kiss planted directly on her trembling lips.
“You don’t get it, my love,” Tara smiled at a flabbergasted and still flushed Willow. “All these powers, they served their purpose today, and I don’t need them anymore. All that I needed to do has been done,” she said, looking into sea green, misty eyes. “All I wanted…dreamed of…needed…is you. And you’re here…safe, next to me…with me. Nothing and nobody will ever change that!”
This statement of pure, complete love and affection overwhelmed the rest of the Scoobies. They hugged each other and let their tears flow freely, finding relief from all the tension of the past weeks. It took them a considerable amount of time to find their composure and finally leave the Maclay house.
Buffy carried an exhausted Tara back to the Jeep and lay her gently down on the back seat, resting her head on Willow’s lap.
“Rest, Baby,” Willow whispered and reached down to lightly brush her lips against Tara’s. “Rest, my love.”
Tara closed her eyes and let go. She let herself fall and she knew that she would be safe – not because she was a powerful witch, maybe even the most powerful – but because she was with the woman she loved and with her family. That was all she ever wanted. And now for the second time in hours she was experiencing an utterly new feeling. This time…freedom. Freedom to love wholly, to be loved wholly…without some part of her holding back in fear of the past.
As they drove away, Tara sat up and took a last look at the house. The Maclay men had never gone out of their way to keep the house in the condition that Tara and her mother had in prior years, but it had been fairly well maintained. However, it appeared to have aged a hundred years within the past hour. The walls were cracked, the roof was caving in on the left side, there was dust circling up from the basement where the foundation had snapped, and not a single window or piece of glass was left unbroken. Except for one. A huge mirror with a heavy gold-plated frame. It still hung proudly in the main hallway, clean and untainted by the activities in the house. Catherine Maclay’s mirror.
In this mirror appeared a woman with a gleaming white dress and long blonde hair.
A whisper could be heard throughout the house. “My darling, my precious darling…you are strong now. You will never have to be afraid again. Use your powers with wisdom and let your heart guide you. Take care of your Willow and make her happy. From now on I won’t come to you when you need me, because your powers are beyond mine. My precious Tara, from now on I will come when you want me to.”
“Mama, I love you so much. I miss you…I want you to be with me…with Willow and me,” Tara replied.
“I always will be,” was the answer. “Always.”
“Did you hear that, Willow?” Tara looked at her love and immediately saw the answer on the redhead’s face.
“Yes, yes I heard her, baby! And I promised her I’d look after you, too,” she replied, and kissed the blonde chastely.
“Do you know what makes me sad, Baby?” Willow whispered, getting a frightened look from Tara.
“There will be no more Tara-stammer to go with Willow-babble.” Willow let her trademark grin
Shine
Tara matched the grin with her own heart-melting, lopsided version.
“Don’t worry, Sweetie. I’m more than sure that with the things you do to me, we haven’t seen the last of Tara-stammer,” the blonde flirted. “And, do you wanna know that the best part is?”
“Hmmm?” Willow was already partially distracted by watching Tara’s full lips as she spoke. Uhm…tell me.”
“No matter what happens, we’ll never forget the special way we have to silence them both,” she replied…and her lips met her lover’s in a breathtaking embrace.
************
After a peaceful night of sleep spent entwined in each other’s arms, the women were ready to greet the new morning with renewed energy and enthusiasm. Before Tara fully awoke, Willow snuck out of bed and smiled her way down to the kitchen, where she prepared eggs and waffles, and poured lots of warm syrup into the only thing she could find to hold it; Joyce’s antique gravy boat. She laid it all out on a tray complete with a small bouquet of wildflowers from the back yard, and as she checked the cabinets for a small vase, Buffy informed her with a wink that she’d be taking the rest of the gang out for a long breakfast. A very long breakfast.
Willow carried the tray into the room and stopped just inside the doorway, amazed by the sight before her. Tara was sitting up, rubbing her eyes, and displaying the cutest case of bed-head that Willow had ever seen. All the while the most delectable expanse of cleavage called to Willow from between a button and hole that deserted each other sometime during the night. The redhead briefly wondered how she could possibly find this woman so innocently adorable and naughtily edible at the same time.
Tara saw the big tray and her lips formed a huge grin.
“Hungry Will?”
“God yes,” she replied, her eyes never leaving her girlfriend’s breasts.
Tara giggled at the overtly amorous intent of the statement and at the lust-filled look on Willow’s face.
“Willow!?”
“Hmm? Oh. Yeah. Uh, I thought we could both use a good breakfast this morning.” She blushed at being caught ogling and tried to get her brain back in at least PG-13 mode. “The most important meal of the day and all.”
Willow tried to keep eye contact with Tara, but it was futile; her green eyes blazed as they continued to skip down to Tara’s chest.
Willow loved sharing meals with Tara up in their room. It was an event to behold. Private time, sacred. She reveled in watching Tara eat, watching those full lips; it was poetry. Sexy poetry. Okay, if she were perfectly honest about it, on certain occasions it was more like a dirty limerick.
******
A short while later their plates sat stacked on the tray, evidence that the girls had done their best to make their way through the better part of everything Willow had prepared.
“So, Baby, did you like it?”
The smoldering look in Tara’s eyes told Willow everything she needed to know, but the blonde spoke up nonetheless.
“Well, let’s see. I slept in your arms all night and then woke to breakfast in bed, made by you, delivered by you, eaten with you. Officially I’d have to say ‘MMM-hhhmmm.’”
Willow’s smile could have illuminated a good portion of the dark side of the moon.
“And um, unofficially?”
Tara’s mouth formed an easy lopsided grin as she leaned toward Willow and let her eyes take in the sexy curves of her girlfriend’s jaw line and cheekbones. As her lids slowly closed, her lips lightly brushed Willow’s moist, inviting mouth. Willow moved her head away slightly and Tara’s lips found purchase with the underside of the redhead’s chin.
“Baby? Would you go with me?”
“Huh? Go?” Between words Tara continued caressing Willow with her full lips. She wanted more contact but felt that Willow was somehow resistant. “Where are we going? Why[i/] are we going? Sweetie, I really need you.”
Willow could barely contain herself. Tara’s words went right through her and coupled with the sensation of her sumptuous kisses, stirring Willow’s desire. She wanted to make love to Tara right then, right there. It had been so long, too long without feeling the connection that makes them whole, right, complete. She wanted to devour Tara, to tenderly make love to her, to fuck her, to...everything. But something was off, something that wouldn’t let her give in to the desire just yet.
“Baby, I love you so much. I’ve been lost without us. You know, without us being [i]us, together. I mean, duh, of course together because otherwise we’d be alone. Unless we were alone together because we certainly could be and in fact are at this very minute but I’m pretty sure I’ve lost my train of thought and I’m going to stop talking now.”
Tara moved her head up and took Willow’s face in her hands.
“Willow, breathe. Now talk to me, Sweetie. Is something wrong?”
“God no! Of course not. No. Not really. Well, yeah, sort of.”
“Will? Honey?”
Willow dipped her head down, seemingly interested in the muted tones and subtle shapes in the weave of the area rug under her feet.
“Sweetie, are you...are you [i]nervous[i/]?”
Willow slowly nodded her head, looking very vulnerable and completely endearing.
“Oh, Willow, sweetie. It’s me. This is me. It’s you and me and there’s nothing to be nervous about. Where did you want me to go with you? I’ll do anything you want.”
“Anything?”
“Anything.”
Willow took Tara’s hand in her own and led her down the hallway, apparently heading downstairs.
“Willow, shouldn’t we be getting dressed before wandering around Sunnydale? It’s not that I’m worried about what people will think. Our wardrobe always seems to get people talking. I just know that anything can happen out there and it’s such a lovely day...I’d hate to have it interrupted by bumping into Ethan Rayne and suddenly assuming the persona of the characters on my pajamas.”
Willow gave a puzzled look.
“What? The Scoobies filled me in on your Halloween adventure. By the way, what ever happened to that costume you wore?”
She smiled and blushed a little.
“Anyway, uhm, like I said, I don’t care to become the character represented by my morning wardrobe.”
She looked down and took note of her silky nightgown with the “Xena: Warrior Princess” image and logo on its pocket.
“Then again...” Tara gave Willow a sly grin. She then got serious again when Willow stopped walking. “Okay, sweetie. Where are we going?”
“We’re here.”
“Uh, the bathroom? Willow, haven’t we agreed that the bathroom is sort of a one-girl area? Unless...”
“Unless we’re showering together.”
“Oh my.”
“Baby, it’s just that, well, you know, long day. Yesterday, I mean. And I still sort of feel like I have sticky bandage residue all over me. It felt so great getting to take off the cast and the bandages. Have I thanked you properly for the InstaMagicHealy thing you did? I really meant to because, bleck, the cast was itchy and the rib wrapping stuff made me feel a little claustrophobic, and the stitches were all spidery and I’m not all big with the spider fan stuff, although the second Spiderman movie wasn’t bad and who could argue that silk is —“
“Will?”
“Sorry. Anyway, I’d like to get this off of me, sort of wash away all the stuff that kept us apart. Everything leftover that reminds me of things you had to suffer through. We had to suffer through. I’d...I’d like it if you’d wash me clean of it all. And...” She trailed off.
“Go on, sweetie.”
“And I need to reconnect with you. It’s been so long and I’m...”
“It’s okay...” Tara reached up to softly stroke her girlfriend’s cheek.
“I’m...just...I’m nervous, Tara.”
Without another word Tara took Willow by the hand and led her to stand on the fuzzy rug in front of the sliding shower door. There they stood looking into each other’s eyes, lost in forever, in once upon a time, in the profound beauty of the moment. Tara slowly untied the belt of Willow’s robe and let it fall at her girlfriend’s sides. Willow’s chest began to rise and fall more quickly and Tara felt her own body respond in ways equally as unsubtle and far more fluid.
Each woman wanted to take and be taken, to feel everything and think of nothing. No more BigBads, no more Slayerette duties, no spells to conjure to save the universe from demonic possession or immediate implosion. Only each other to hear, see, smell, taste, touch, and writhe with.
A chill ran up Willow’s spine at that thought just as Tara’s fingers softly traced her left arm from wrist to shoulder. She moved one of the thin straps of Willow’s nightgown and leaned in to place a series of delicate kisses on the soft freckled shoulder where it had laid. This was not exactly a bold move but Tara needed to know that her girlfriend was okay before she continued, so with her lips still hovering over tender flesh she snuck a peek at Willow’s reaction. Tara audibly gulped at what she saw. At this simple touch, Willow had thrown her head back, closed her eyes, and seemed to struggle to keep her knees from buckling. With no questions left unanswered, Tara was free to leave thought behind and join Willow in pure blissful abandon.
Tara moved to Willow’s other shoulder and let the strap slide out of the way. It hung there angled in a way that barely prevented the nightgown from falling off altogether. Willow’s nipples grew hard and strained against the satiny material, begging for attention.
“Oh my god, Willow. You’re so beautiful.”
Malformed words escaped the redhead, taking the shape of guttural moans.
“Plee...ahhhhh.”
As if reading her girlfriend’s mind and body, Tara brought her hand up to run along the outside of Willow’s nightgown, tracing her from her hip to the slight swell of her breast. Tara kissed her way to the strap and used her lips to move it a fraction of an inch. She gasped as the clothing fell and gathered around Willow’s feet, and she couldn’t prevent herself from moving back a bit to better take in the sight. Willow opened her eyes and saw a powerful look from Tara; a mix of adoration and lust that took her breath away. She needed to see Tara, all of her, and the knowledge that they were one layer of clothing away was driving her mad. This room wasn’t big enough for the three of them; Xena would have to go.
THE END ?
I swear you that if them had hurt someone I don't know what I do. And less said about Tara, she could go all rampage punisher girl 
I'm not sure if I wanna see that. I mean, yep I do, I want to but Wooow. Hope you upload soon bcause I'm dying to read more. Great upload btw
yes a sequel is a must see I dont mind angst as long as it is balanced real life is a balance of many things and this story had it all . next please 
Good job! I loved it.