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Unparalleled Love Author : Lovers4Ever Feedback: Absolutely! Distribution: Just let me know first. Spoilers: This story takes place shortly after the conclusion of the last season of BtVS, season 7. There’s an ever so slight crossover with Angel. Rating: R Pairing: W/T Disclaimer: I own no part of these characters - not their history nor their brilliant chemistry, but I do own the joy they bring to me. Summary: This starts a few months after the last season of Buffy. Also, there’s a slight diversion from canon: for purposes of this story (and my own psyche.) Thank you, TKOLove, for helping me tame this beast and release it into the wild.
I WISH EVERYONE PEACE AND HAPPY HOLIDAYS
Unparalleled Love
Chapter Seven
"Pregnant?" Willow squeaked. "You mean the 'with child' kind of pregnant?"
Tara shrugged and smiled in acknowledgement. Willow opened and closed her mouth a few times and finally said, "You…you and she did the ceres suboles spell?"
Again, Tara nodded. As the implications dawned on Willow, her face became a canvas of euphoria. She stood up and placed her hands on Tara's shoulders. "Tara! You're pregnant!" As though this was the first Tara had heard of the news. Willow felt the need for action. She jumped backwards, tripping over the chair. "You need to eat something. We've got to get you vitamins and…and…a doctor or midwife…" She noticed Tara's eyes tearing up and she immediately got quiet and steeled herself for another crying jag. "Tara, what is it?"
"Nothing bad. Just the opposite, really. I was just struck at how wonderful it is to watch you react to the news…twice."
"How far along are you? Do you know when you're due? How do you feel?" Willow had spent many years using her information gathering abilities to fight evil. In more domestic situations, it could be overwhelming.
"Willow, see, this is more than you bargained for."
"Yes, definitely more, but it's that much better. A baby! This changes nothing. Wait until the gang finds out." Now it hit Willow -- how much was at stake and how close they could all be to losing something most special. With glistening eyes, she took one of Tara's hands and said, "Please, please let me do this. Let us do this. Nothing has changed. We all need each other, and you. We need you."
Without hesitation, Tara nodded. They clasped hands and then let go self-consciously. The strange and familiar were melding into unfamiliar territory and neither woman had a road map.
Willow freshened up and they headed to the Scooby suite for dinner.
**
"Xander," Tara said softly as they entered the hotel room. He met her halfway and shyly wrapped his strong arms around her. She smelled like a fresh shower and try as he might, he could sense no difference between this Tara and the one he knew. Tara glanced up at his good eye and ran her fingers over his patch in a show of intimacy that the Tara he knew would never have shown. He had to remind himself that, in her world, they had fought the last year together side-by-side against The First. What he didn't want to be reminded of was the day he washed the other Tara’s blood off his hands just as the coroner arrived to take her body away. "I'm so sorry about Anya.” Tara said. “I think about her all the time."
"Me too," was all he could think to say. Then he added, "It's good to have another person around who remembers her."
"Yeah," Willow piped in. "Maybe we could have an ‘Anya-isms’ day. We would only speak in Anya quotes…or maybe just insert any inappropriate phrase not really aimed at offending but hitting its mark all the same. Don't look at me that way. It would be in homage."
Buffy rolled her eyes and changed the subject. "The pizza should be here any minute. How ya holding up, Tara?"
Tara just stood staring at each of them, working hard not to be a casualty in a battle between the surreal and the real.
Picking up on how overwhelming this all must be, Buffy motioned for her to sit down on the couch. Dawn was immediately at Tara’s side. Willow sat on Tara’s other side, trying to think of a good time to give everyone Tara's news. It was totally up to Tara, but if there was a way to segue into it, Willow was going to find it.
Xander took a chair and asked, "Tara, has Willow told you of our offer?" Now that he'd actually laid eye and arms on this Tara, he felt more comfortable with the arrangements they came up with the night before.
"Yes. Have you really thought about this?"
"Most definitely. Dawn's already settled in, Buffy's in and out, and Will's thinking of settling in the area. What's one more person? There are worse things than living in a house surrounded by beautiful women."
Tara and Willow shared knowing looks. Tara kept her head down, elbows on her knees trying to decide what to say next. Her hair hung in front of her face and no one could see her expression. They were all trying to be hypersensitive to her needs and emotions. Tara looked at Willow with a questioning look. Willow tried to not explode with the news. "It wouldn't be just one more person."
Tara looked down again, wondering how everyone would react. Willow wanted to put her hand on Tara’s back and remind her that everyone in the room cared about her. She didn’t, though. She wasn’t sure if she had the right to be that physically familiar.
"Are we missing something here?" Buffy finally asked.
"She's pregnant." Willow revealed.
"Pregnant?" Xander was thoroughly confused.
Lifting her head slowly, Tara cautiously glanced around the room. Buffy sat down on the coffee table in front of Tara and smiled. “I don’t know how you feel about it, but I think it’s great.”
“I think it’s great, too,” Tara said in a small voice. The two women hugged and then everyone joined in. Happy tears were shed and a ripple or normalcy worked its way into the room.
Xander's eyebrows were in danger of overlapping. "How does that work?"
"They used a spell, Xander. Don't hurt yourself trying to figure out the specifics," Willow explained.
He was still trying to wrap his mind around this spell-o-baby. "You don't look pregnant. Is this a different, witchy kind of pregnancy? You look normal for a while and then ‘poof’ a baby appears?"
Willow slapped his arm. "No, ya goof. Just the beginning circumstances are different. Everything else is normal." Willow didn't try to hide the happiness she felt over this new development. "Isn't it great?"
The evening dinner was peppered by animated questioning and planning, most of it done by everyone but Tara. She was content to nestle in a cocoon of familiar voices and faces. When it got too overwhelming, she would look at Willow and feel grounded again. It was decided that they would all return to Xander's house the next morning and Tara would move into the room with the bunk beds until Willow made other arrangements for her and the baby. But Xander stated more times than was necessary that there was no hurry for her to move on. And Dawn emphatically seconded the sentiment each and every time he said it. Buffy would double up with Dawn whenever she was in town and Willow offered to take the couch. Whether she admitted it to herself or not, she really wanted to sleep in the top bunk and keep an eye on Tara. Pregnant Tara.
Willow caught Tara's sleepy look just as the meal was winding down and suggested taking her back to her room. They all took the elevator to her floor, walked Tara to her suite door, and made the round of hugs, twice. Dawn, then Willow, then Buffy each offered to stay with Tara until she fell asleep. Xander made a simpler suggestion of having Tara share their suite with them tonight. She wasn't under nurse's care anymore and it would be that much easier to leave in the morning.
"It'll be like a sleepover," Dawn said excitedly.
"Except, unlike other sleepovers, we'll actually let you get tons and tons of sleep. Right guys?" Buffy added forcefully.
They all agreed as they piled back into the elevator and headed back to their room and their shared lives.
**
True to her word, Willow landed a peachy computer contracting job near Xander's house. She also managed to resurrect Tara’s name in all the usual databases.
Dawn felt like she'd died and gone to heaven, but not at all in the literal manner experienced by her sister. Once Tara felt comfortable enough with Xander's kitchen, she treated Dawn and everyone else to pancakes on demand in all shapes and sizes. A couple of times someone else had to finish the breakfast Tara started when morning sickness kicked in, forcing Tara's hasty departure.
As it turns out, Xander did get much more than he bargained for. He didn’t expect to have his eye replaced or to gain the admiration of every straight male he met…
Tara had heard of a spell that would regenerate body parts. It took a while for Willow to track down the spell book needed. The catch was that Xander was going to have to give up a different body part in exchange for the new eye. The spell translation was difficult and at first it appeared that Xander would have to do without one testicle in order to receive a functioning eye. The thought of what he would be giving up put Xander in a major quandary. And even if he could give one up, which one would it be? Try as they might, none of the women in the house could muster a straight face whenever he cornered them for advice on the matter. Giles, who had been consulted and sent a copy of the spell, finally cracked the language barrier. It was discovered that there were several body part possibilities. Xander considered the list of candidates, grateful that another, less sentimental, part could be sacrificed. After researching the matter with Willow's help, he decided he could get along just fine without his gall bladder. Willow did the spell alone. She was powerful enough and she didn’t want Tara performing any magic while pregnant. They weren’t sure of the risks.
With both eyes functioning properly, Xander could augment his cabinetry income by going back to construction. He soon became an object of respect and awe among the other construction workers when it was discovered that he lived with three, sometimes four, women. Throw in the fact that two of them were lesbians and Xander was clearly living every man’s dream. He failed to mention to any of these men, however, that nothing salacious went on under his roof. He just left it to their imagination.
Buffy continued to search for her spot on the planet. She freely admitted, though, that bounding between the U.S. and England, and training potential slayers beat living on a Hellmouth any day of the week. If she had to consider any place home, it would definitely be Xander’s. She loved stepping into his house and feeling like part of a family. Buffy spent as much time there as she could, not wanting to miss any more of Tara’s pregnancy than was necessary, and she also wanted to be there for Willow in case she needed to talk about anything…most specifically Tara. This new life was bringing them all closer together. It was a new experience for them because, prior to now, it had always been death and usually destruction that caused their bond to strengthen.
The two witches fell into a comfort zone with each other. The Scoobies tried hard not to treat Willow and Tara as a couple, but it wasn’t easy. Tara rarely was seen without Willow. Willow knew Tara best and the affection they felt for each other was obvious. Willow made sure there was a prenatal vitamin next to Tara’s plate every morning at breakfast. She also insisted that they only buy organic groceries to keep Tara and the baby at their healthiest.
Willow also bought a laptop computer and a beautifully bound notebook for Tara’s journaling purposes. Tara only hinted at the destruction and loss visited on her life in the last year. Willow let Tara choose if and when she wanted to open up, and she hoped that giving Tara a way to document her past might help.
Scouring the online realty web sites, Willow tried to find the perfect place for Tara and the baby to live, but either her standards were too high or she didn’t really want Tara to leave, because no house ever seemed right.
Before long, Willow gave up the couch and started sleeping in the bunk above Tara. This was at Tara’s request because she was tired of getting up each night to shake Willow out of her anxiety-ridden dreams. The first time it happened, Tara was roused from her bedroom -- which was closest to the living room in Xander’s one story house -- by the sound of Willow moaning, “I’ve never held one! I’ve never even held one!” It turns out Willow was panicking in her sleep about her lack of baby experience. After going through this two more nights, Tara insisted that Willow sleep right above her for easy waking access.
Tara felt the first twitch of movement from the baby a few weeks after Willow moved into the top bunk. It happened just as they were climbing into their respective beds for the night. From Tara’s reaction, Willow thought something must be wrong and jumped --instead of climbed -- from the top bunk. Without saying anything, Tara placed Willow’s hand on her belly, but by then the movement had ceased. They stood there for a long while, with Willow’s hand on Tara’s belly, waiting for the movement to return. Even when it was clear that the baby was stilled, neither woman moved to separate. Tara suggested that Willow share her bunk with her and sleep with her hand on Tara’s belly so she’d be sure not to miss it the next time. They crawled into the bottom bunk with Willow spooning behind Tara, her hand firmly planted on her pregnant tummy. Both women lay there, completely still with all senses honed in on Tara’s stomach. Just as they started to relax, a twitch was felt by both of them. To Willow, it felt like Tara was being tickled from the inside.
“Does it hurt?” she wanted to know.
“No, not at all. It’s just kind of weird…and wonderful. I guess I’ll get used to it,” Tara replied.
“Wait until you tell everyone the baby’s moving. They’re going to love this. Should I wake them up?”
“Can we wait until tomorrow? Right now, you’re the only one I want to share this with, okay?”
“Okay,” Willow whispered into Tara’s ear. Tara placed her hand over Willow’s hand as it rested on her belly. It was a small thing, really, but the gesture made plain to Willow that Tara wanted her to stay and not return to her own bunk. So she did. They spooned like that every night from then on and Willow missed very few baby kicks.
More than once Buffy found Willow in Xander's kitchen late at night either snacking or preparing something in anticipation of Tara's cravings, which currently included watermelon and black olives, but not served together. During these times, Buffy would nudge Willow into talking about how things were going with her and Tara. Anyone with two eyes, or just one eye, could see how much the witches depended on each other.
"Things are good, comfortable even," Willow told Buffy one late night. "There's something there, though. Something we’re both fighting."
"Fighting? Like what? It's pretty obvious you're sleeping together."
"No carnal knowledge is being exchanged. Really. She knows I like feeling the baby's kicks, is all."
"It's just…I worry about you. Do you feel like she'll stay around after the baby's born?"
"She's the strongest person I've ever known, Buffy, but I think she needs all of us."
"Well, I think it’s the coolest thing on the planet having all of us together like this. With the exception of my mom, I think Tara will be the greatest mom in the history of mom-dom.”
“Me too,” Willow beamed.
“Is it possible the baby could look like you?" Buffy asked.
"I don't know." Willow was stunned by that question. The thought hadn't occurred to her. She had always imagined this child looking like a miniature Tara. “That would just be too weird.”
-Last Chapter to be posted soon
Edited by: Warduke at: 4/18/04 10:07 am
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Amazing update!
Oh well it makes it even more intresting...
. 
i believe you have left me speechless 
. Yep, Tara now has two Willow who have told her she's beautifull... eventually she'll get the point, heh.
(y'know, because of the whole "double "X" chromisome" thingy)
)
Could this child be the "other" Willow's?? 
this hits you right in the solar plexus
Omfff... this story is heart wrenching and it seems to be gaining yet more momentum ( as if that where possible 
) with the stunning
pregnancy
....NOT!!! lol
. I had been waiting for this update, and it was definitely worth the wait. Not that I had any doubt that the scoobies wouldn't accept the fact that Tara was pregnant, but I was kinda scared. But of course, the ALL love her and she is part of their family, no matter if she was from another dimension. Absolutely a beautiful, wonderful, and sweet update. And for the Xander exchange part....