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 Post subject: A Normal Life - Pt 3 in the NMWYG, TYA Series
PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2003 1:52 am 
A Normal Life



The third part of the No Matter Where You Go, There You Are series



By



DarkWiccan



Disclaimers: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and all characters associated with the show are owned by Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy and their affiliates. If they belonged to me, none of the horrors of season six would ever have happened, and Willow and Tara would be on their honeymoon by now. But they don’t, so for now I borrow and kindly ask the big, scary corporate lawyer-guy to look the other way. Also, even though I don’t own W/T, I do own this story and any new characters that appear in it. Please don’t plagiarize.



Feedback: Yes, please. But I have a Fire Extinguisher to put out all flames.



Distribution: Sure, just ask me



Spoilers: Eh, not so much…



Rating: PG



Pairing: W/T



Notes: If you haven’t read No Matter Where You Go or There You Are, you are going to be a little lost at the mention of some characters. A Normal Life is a series of vignettes meant to chronicle the life of the Rosenberg-Maclay family after the events of There You Are. I consider this to be a sort of photo-album/scrap book style fiction. There is very little in the way of linear plot.



*****



"I look stupid", the strawberry-blonde eleven year-old complained, tugging at her dress.



"You look beautiful", her mother assured her, putting the last small flower burette in her youngest child's hair.



"I feel stupid", she amended, making her dark green eyes as large as possible, hoping to derive some sympathy.



"Gillian", Tara said firmly, yet still lovingly, "Emily picked this dress out especially for you to wear today. This is her day and she's very nervous and what she needs is our support, not our complaints. Alright?"



"How's everything coming along?" asked Willow as she entered the room with a fourteen year old boy in tow, his auburn-brown hair neatly combed, his hazel eyes working very hard to express the appropriate level of teenage disinterest. He tugged uncomfortably at the tie of his dress suit.



Tara couldn't stop the mile-wide grin that spread across her face at the sight of her wife and son. "Oh you both look gorgeous!" she exclaimed.



Willow smiled in-spite of herself, pausing a quick glance in the full-length mirror the room so graciously supplied. Her graceful vanilla-white pantsuit flattered her still slender figure. Still got it after all these years, she thought smugly to herself. She couldn't help it, Tara still made her feel sexy and she enjoyed the feeling, because she knew she still made Tara feel sexy too.



"Mom", the boy mock-whined, "gorgeous?"



"My heaven's, what was I thinking", the older blonde corrected. "Willow, love of my life, you look gorgeous. Sean, you look handsome. Very dashing. Princely even."



"Okay, okay", he cut her off. "I get it."



"You know, Tar", Willow began, "I must say that I'm inclined to agree with you. In fact, I think little Seanie looks so good, he's almost good enough to eat." She leaned over and gave her son a quick kiss on the cheek. "Hm.. Uh-huh... sweet as pixie sticks."



"Oh no", trembled Sean, "please don't."



"Really?" said Tara, her voice taking on a very playful and silly sound. "That sweet? I'm going to have to confirm that with my own test."



The boy started to bolt, but Willow quickly caught his wrist. Tara was at his side in an instant and they both began placing loud, smacking kisses on his cheeks that were now beet red with embarrassment. Gillian broke into a fit of giggles as Sean desperately tried to wiggle away from his mothers.



"Oh, yes", said Tara between smooches. "You’re right, Will. He is sweet."



"Told you", stated her wife.



"Mom! Ma! Cut it out! Cut it out! Ma! Quit it! Mom! Stop!"



Finally the two women ceased their attentions.



"I think I've proved my point", Willow stated proudly.



"Hm, yes, quite successfully", Tara nodded.



Sean wiped his hands over his lipstick covered-cheeks disdainfully, grumbling, "Why do you guys have to be so uncool?"



"Because we are your parents and it is our job to embarrass you at least once a day", Willow explained.



"Although to make the established quota we should really try for twice", Tara noted with feigned seriousness. Willow nodded her head in agreement.



"Mama, Emily needs help with her..." Michelle stopped mid-sentence as she entered the room and burst into laughter at the sight of her disheveled younger brother. "You look like you were attacked by a horde of Revlon lipstick models!"



"Shut up", he retorted.



"Hey", Willow snapped warningly, "you know better than that." She took a handkerchief out of her pocket and took Sean's chin into her hand firmly, though he tried to pull away. She licked the top of the small cloth and quickly began cleaning her son's face.



"Spit bath?" he whined some more, "Ma..."



"And that makes two", Willow finished, dotting Sean's nose with the tip of the kerchief.



"Michelle?" Tara questioned, turning to her, "Emily needs help with something?"



"Yeah", answered the sixteen year old. "She can't get the thing in the back to..." She pantomimed the action with her hands.



“Oh, I get it”, her mom answered. “I’ll be right there. Sean, you and Michelle should get to your positions.”



“Okay” he mumbled, rolling his eyes.



“What is your problem?” questioned Michelle, clearly perturbed. Tara nodded to Willow to handle it as she slipped out of the room and down the hall to find Emily.



“That is a really good question”, said Willow, stepping up to him. “This is a very important, not to mention happy, day for us all, but especially for Emily. Remember Emily? Your oldest sister? The one with the bright red hair like mine used to be until Mother Nature decided to bless me with undeniably attractive platinum highlights… that are slowly taking over my whole head… but that’s beside the point. What is the matter? Why the attitude, kiddo? Because this is seriously going beyond normal teenage apathy. If something is wrong I will do whatever is in my power to make it better. But I will not allow you to disrupt the happiness of this day. Understood?”



“Yeah…” he sighed.



“Then what has got you so upset?”



Sean glanced nervously at Michelle, and then in Gillian’s direction. It was clear he didn’t feel comfortable talking about whatever it was in front of them. Willow recognized this and asked them both to step out into the hall. Once they were alone, she broached the question again.



“I… I don’t know why I’m in such a bad mood, Ma”, he stated. “I just… I guess I feel kind of left out or something.”



“Left out?”



“Well… Em’s ten years older than me, right?”



“Last time I checked that hasn’t changed”, Willow chuckled, “despite living on the Hellmouth and there being the occasional instance of time going kerfloopy…But Buffy always was able to set things right. So yes, you and Emily are indeed still ten years apart.”



“Right”, said Sean, thankful that his mother had finally reached the end of her short babble. He never understood how someone could use so many words just to say “yes”. “Yeah so, anyway…” he went on, “I don’t know her that well, ya know? I mean, she’s my sister and I love her and everything but… by the time I was old enough to start getting to know her, she was already in high school and had all of her own friends and stuff, plus the whole priestess thing… She’s… I mean… I must sound horrible, Ma and I’m sorry…”



“Sweetheart, you are actively working toward a point, right?” Willow encouraged.And he gets frustrated with me taking the scenic route, she thought wryly.



“I guess not…”, he groaned. Willow waited patiently for him to continue. “Well, today is her day, like you said… but she’s had so many days and I feel like I’ve had so few… plus… and I don’t know why I chose today for this to start bugging me…”



“Yes?”



“Emily and Michelle…” he drifted off.



“Emily and Michelle”, Willow prompted.



“They’re yours… yours and mom’s”, he explained, “like, they’re made of both you. But Gilly and I… we’re only half each. Gilly is half you and I’m half mom, but our other halves… are some guy that none of us have ever met… not even you and mom… am I making any sense?”



“Seanie, have your mother and I ever given you any indication that we love you any less than we love your sisters?”



“Well, no...but…”



“Have we ever led you to believe that you and Gilly aren’t as much a part of this family just because you don’t share both of mom and my genes?”



“No…”



“If this is something that is really bothering you, than I know that your mom and I are going to want to sit down with you to talk about it”, said Willow, “but today is not the day. I need you to pull it together, put on a happy face just for the next few hours and then you can be as much a mope as you like when we get home. Okay?”



Sean shuffled his feet on the carpeted floor.



“Sean Thomas”, his mother said firmly. The boy winced, first and middle name usage was never a good sign. “You do understand why today is a special day? I shouldn’t have to break it down for you.”



“I understand”, he finally acquiesced. “I’ll be good. I promise.”



“Good”, Willow smiled, reaching up and straightening her son’s tie. “ Now go join Michelle and man your post. I’m going to take Gillian to check on Emily and your mom.”



“Okay…” he said, taking a cleansing breath and preparing to turn on his heel to go. Willow’s gentle hand on his arm stopped his movement. She reached up with her other hand and cradled his cheek in her palm.



“I love you”, she said soothingly, “Mom loves you. And no matter how we came by you, you are one hundred percent our son. You’re young, Seanie, you have thousands of days ahead of you to make your own and you will. Don’t be in such a rush, okay?”



Sean felt the corners of his mouth curl up into a small smile of gratitude. “Okay”, he finally agreed. “Thanks, Ma.”



Willow smiled and took one last look at her boy, almost a man now. He’s going to have to start shaving soon, she thought sadly to herself. Having four kids had taught her one undeniable truth: they all grow up too fast. She nodded and placed her hands on his shoulders and turned them causing Sean to make an about-face to the door. Lightly swatting his behind she ordered softly for him to, “scoot”, which he did. She watched him go and then followed out into the hall just in time to hear Michelle instructing Gillian to, “Go with Mama.”



She took her youngest one’s hand; fortunately Gillian hadn’t yet developed the opinion that holding hands with either of her mothers was “uncool”. Willow savored that fact. She looked down to see Gillian fussing with her hair, tugging at the burettes.



“Careful, honey”, said Willow, “you’ll pull them out.”



“That’s what I’m trying to do”, Gilly grumbled.



“Why?” asked Willow, a combination of slightly amused and just a smidgen perturbed.



“Why do I have to wear flowers?” she asked, clearly agitated. “Michelle doesn’t have to wear flowers, Sean doesn’t have to wear flowers… so why do I? And why do I have to wear a dress too? You know I don’t like dresses, Mama… I’d rather wear pants like you or Sean. How come you get to wear pants?”



My little tomboy, Willow grinned inwardly. “You know you don’t have to wear your dress all day, Gilly. That’s why we brought that pair of jeans and your favorite t-shirt for you to change into afterwards. You’re the only one here lucky enough to be able to change into comfy clothes so soon. The rest of us are stuck in our dressy outfits for the whole night! Just put up with the dress for the next couple of hours, okay?” Willow silently smirked to herself, Gillian’s comfort wasn’t the only reason she and Tara had packed a change of clothes, it was also because they both knew that the minute their youngest was let loose from the festivities, she would be up the nearest tree and destroying the lovely dress she was currently wearing.



Gillian pursed her lips together and set her jaw in frustration. Her small brow crinkled a little, but after a few moments of forced silence, her features relaxed and took on an almost somber appearance. “We’re never going to see her again, are we?” she asked softly.



“What?”



“Emily”, Gillian clarified. “After today we’re not going to see her anymore. She’s leaving.”



Willow paused her stride, kneeling down to look into the young girl’s eyes. “Sort of”, she conceded. “She is sort of leaving. But she isn’t going far—“



“She won’t be ours anymore”, she interrupted her, her breathing staggered as she tried to stifle the tears now beginning to fall down her small cheeks.



“Oh, sweetie”, said Willow, wiping the tears away with gentle strokes of her thumb, while keeping her own tears at bay. “Emily will always be ours. Nothing that happens today is going to change that. I know how much you love her. Mommy and I love her too and we’re going to miss her terribly. But she isn’t going away. Not really.”



“Promise?”



“Promise.” Willow stood back up and reclaimed Gillian’s hand, giving it a tender tug, urging their continued movement down the hall. “Now let’s go show Emily how beautiful you look.”



“Stupid dress…” Gillian managed to mutter under her breath. Though she heard it, Willow let the comment slide.



*****



Inside the small dressing room, Emily fidgeted nervously with her dress while Tara tried to loosen the zipper that was snagged in the back.



“Sweetie, I need you to stop wiggling around so much”, Tara stated as she bit her lower lip in concentration with the effort of trying not to tear the material.



“Can you get it, mom?” her eldest asked anxiously, trying to turn her head to see.



“Again with the stop fidgeting”, her mother sighed. “It’s almost there, Emily. Just hold still a second.”



Emily faced forward and let out a long nervous breath, trying not to move with the boundless waves of nervous energy crashing through her insides. She looked at herself in the mirror, a grown-up. She looked mostly like her Mama, naturally slender, red hair, freckled skin, small nose and heart shaped lips. But she definitely had her Mother’s eyes and cheekbones and, she thought a little smugly to herself, Mom’s chest too. Thank you, Goddess for small favors… well, not so small. She chuckled to herself.



“Something funny?” Tara asked softly, a lopsided grin gracing her face.



“Just… nervous laughter”, Emily offered, ringing her hands together a little. “What…what if I forget something?”



“You won’t”, Tara assured her.



“But,.. What if I say something wrong or in the wrong order?”



“You won’t…”



“What if you can’t get my dress fixed?”



“Then I guess you’ll have to do the ceremony sky clad”, her mother shrugged.



“What?!” Emily shrieked, her eyes bugging out from their sockets. “I can’t do that! Not in front of everyone! Oh Goddess… “



“Sweetie, honey, calm down”, Tara soothed. “I was just teasing. Besides”, she said as she pulled the zipper free of its entanglement and the rest of the way up Emily’s back, “I think I’ve got it.”



“Really?”



“Yep”, she smiled, stepping back to admire her work, both of the dress and of her daughter. Emily turned to look at her, her red hair pulled back in a long braid, her blue eyes sparkling, the material of her dress flowing gracefully down her body. “Perfect”, Tara noted after a moment, trying to stop the word from catching in her throat.



“How is everybody doing in here?” asked Willow as she and Gillian came through the dressing room door. The older redhead stopped short as she caught sight of Emily standing before her. Willow couldn’t stop her left hand as it landed over her mouth in shock, tears suddenly threatening her eyes. “Wow”, she managed, lowering her hand as Tara wrapped a supportive arm around her waist.



“I know”, Tara agreed.



“You look beautiful”, Willow smiled at Emily.



“Thanks”, she replied, blushing slightly. “Oh, Gilly, you look so pretty!” Emily said, turning her attention to her baby sister.



“Yeah, yeah”, Gillian answered, lightly tugging at her dress. “You too”, she added as an afterthought, shuffling her feet a little.



“What time is it?” Emily asked anxiously.



“You’ve got about twenty-minutes”, Willow replied.



Emily nodded. “Twenty minutes to the rest of my life.” She swallowed a gulp. “Is it normal to be this absolutely terrified?”



“Oh, sweetie, of course it is”, soothed Tara, stepping forward.



“Mama”, said Gillian, “were you and mommy scared when you got married?”



Willow knelt down next to her youngest, looking into her young eyes. “Yes”, she answered honestly, “but not as terrified as I was when Emily was born.” Gillian could not help but look at her mama, puzzled by the odd sounding statement. “You will find as your grow up that there will be moments in your life that change everything. Everything you’ve ever thought, everything you’ve ever known, everything you’ve ever felt… all changed in that one moment. Sometimes it’s a small thing, and you don’t even realize it happened until years later. But sometimes it’s really big and everything about that moment stays with you for the rest of your life.”



The redhead let her last sentence drift off as she found her thoughts moving slowly backward to the day her first child had been born…



TBC in Vignette # 1: “What If She’s Like Me?”

Edited by: maudmac  at: 11/15/03 11:59 am


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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2003 5:20 am 
Wow, I'm so excited about this! I love vignettes and I love the series of stories you've been putting out beginning with NMWYG, it's a perfect marriage. The kids are just as cute as I remember and I can't wait to see more of Michelle. I'm so glad to have read this and I look forward to more from you. Thanks, Katie



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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2003 5:20 pm 
I loved this! Little Michelle is such a cutie. :)

And Tara being pregnant. :heart

Thanx for sharing!

Is there going to come more?! :pray :D

snuggle79 :)



This is how everyday should end and start ..and all the stuff in the middle

The greatest thing you'll learn, is just to love and be loved in return.







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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2003 6:23 pm 
Oh, please say there will be more! I always love your writing, and the way you portray W/T as parents. Gives me such warm fuzzies.



More please! :)



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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Mon Nov 03, 2003 7:42 pm 
I have to agree with everyone else, this is excellent. I was so excited to see another story by you. I loved your others. Look forward to seeing more!



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 Post subject: Replies
PostPosted: Tue Nov 04, 2003 12:37 am 
Hullo there.



ohgroovetasticone -- thanks so much for reading! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm happy that you have enjoyed this little series I've stumbled into. There will be more, and possibly in this thread, but i will need to remove the Hallowe'en story to do it. This excerpt actually comes from somewhere in the middle of the vignettes A Normal Life is being made up of. I just tossed this little story out as a sort of Hallowe'en treat/teaser for the next step in the NMWYG storyline. Again, so happy you liked it! And no worries, Michelle is going to appear ALOT more.



snuggle79 -- Yes, lovely Tara is preggers with mini-Willow/Tara #3 in this story. The explanation behind this little one will appear in one of the vignettes to be.



Scout -- Hehe, I'm glad you get the warm fuzzies with parental W/T. I get the warm fuzzies while writing them... wait... that sounded wrong somehow...



gottalovewillow -- LOVE your screenname, I wholeheartedly agree! Perhaps there is someone calling themselves gottalovetara as well?



Thanks for reading!! I'm glad you enjoyed my little trifle.



Cheers

DW





"Promise me you'll never be linear." "On my trout."



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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Tue Nov 04, 2003 5:01 am 
:bigwave There are a few words I can think of that explain this vignette . . . excellent, beautiful, wonderful, great, and there are more but my brain is not working right now. I loved NMWYG and TYA and was so excited to see the story continued even if it was only a vignette with the promise of more to come. :bounce

Gina



----------

"The only thing that matters is just following your heart and eventually you'll get it right." ~~~ In This Diary, By - The Ataris



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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Tue Nov 04, 2003 9:41 pm 
DarkWiccan, I can't wait for the whole fic. Eagerly waiting for more. :grin

-------------------



"See? I've mastered this tact crap." Anya in Tears Of The Goddess by Lisa



The course of love doesn’t always run smooth, especially for the neurotic and accident-prone. ~ LadyB



.:Dark-bliss.net :..:My blog:..:Blood and Ink:.



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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Tue Nov 04, 2003 10:33 pm 
Ohh this is sooo sweet!

I haven't read a normal life yet *hangs head in shame* but i'm definelty off to read it now! more please?

-michelle

"Love is giving someone the ability to destroy you, and trusting them not to."



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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Tue Nov 04, 2003 11:19 pm 
This was so sweet! I love it!

I believe in the madness called "now."



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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Sun Nov 09, 2003 8:48 pm 
Hey D, long time no see good to see you back on the board yet again. Finally got a minute to read this fic and how sweet it is, but then again you did have all that candy in it. ;)

*********************************************************************************

"Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." ~ Elizabeth Stone











Edited by: BethanyB3 at: 11/9/03 7:51 pm


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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Tue Nov 11, 2003 4:59 pm 
Wow DW,



Willow, Tara, Pooh, and Tigger all in the same story...be still my little heart. What a great break from the hell that has been my day at work. I can't wait to read more of the third book in your trilogy.:wink



Thanks for writing!!!



-E



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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Wed Nov 12, 2003 3:45 am 
This was so cute! I really enjoyed both TYA and NMYG, and I look forward to reading more of this series.



I am rather confused though. Is A normal Life in progress or currently posted, because another kitten said she didn't read it yet, giving me the impression it was out already, while others said they can't wait for it to come out.



I'm boggled.:hmm



Help please?



Kudo's

Tibbs

:pride



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 Post subject: Re: A Post Hallowe'en Treat. Excerpt from "A Normal Lif
PostPosted: Fri Nov 14, 2003 5:18 am 
Aww... I loved it! It's so cute!! :heart



More soon, please?:pray



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 Post subject: Replies
PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2003 12:29 pm 
Thank you all for stopping in and posting!! Makes me feel all warm and fuzzy and loved :heart



In answer to the question "Is A Normal Life publish somewhere already, or is it a new thing that is ongoing?"



ANL is not published anywhere yet. It is and ongoing project that I am assembling. In fact, this little Hallowe'en "episode" actually happens somewhere in the middle... I just pulled it out and posted it cuz of, ya know... Hallowe'en.



I will ultimately be removing the Hallowe'en post from this thread and replacing it with the start of ANL and moving forward from there.



I know that I will probably be getting some grumbling for deleting the Hallowe'en story, but rest assured it will be back when it re-appears in its proper place.



Well, I hope that helps answer some questions and gives you all something to look forward too :)



Cheers

DW :pride

"Promise me you'll never be linear." "On my trout."



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 Post subject: Re: Replies
PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2003 4:06 pm 
No way!! Really? We get another part? Woo and a hoo!!!







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 Post subject: Re: Replies
PostPosted: Sat Nov 15, 2003 8:10 pm 
I kind of envy Emily's fiance, who's got such cool mothers-in-law (?), unlike the average.



The kids are cute... it's been a while since I read the other two, but I love this nonetheless.

I believe in the madness called "now."



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 Post subject: Replies
PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 12:42 pm 


Quick Reply:



Tempestduer - Glad you liked this first bit. More to come. I hope that the kids continued to make the required "cute quotient".



And just a quick reminder to folks to re-read the first post of this thread. It is no longer the Hallowe'en fic, but now the beginning of A Normal Life.



Enjoy!!



Cheers

DW

"Promise me you'll never be linear." "On my trout."



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 Post subject: Re: A Normal Life - Pt 3 in the NMWYG, TYA Series
PostPosted: Sun Nov 16, 2003 4:18 pm 
I loved this first part and can't wait to :read more!

Gina



----------

"I've developed a new philosophy... I only dread one day at a time." ~~~ Charlie Brown



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 Post subject: Vignette #1: What If She's Like Me?
PostPosted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 8:18 pm 
Notes: If you haven’t read No Matter Where You Go or There You Are, you are going to be a little lost at the mention of some characters. A Normal Life is a series of vignettes meant to chronicle the life of the Rosenberg-Maclay family after the events of There You Are. I consider this to be a sort of photo-album/scrap book style fiction. There is very little in the way of linear plot.



Vignette # 1: “What If She’s Like Me?”



Tara slept soundly in her hospital bed, exhausted. The delivery had been a relatively quick and easy one, but that didn't change the fact that it had taken hard work and strenuous effort on the part of the blonde. So now, after the initial joy and elation of seeing and holding their newborn Emily for the first time, Tara's body had finally commanded her to fall into a deep sleep to rejuvenate her energies so that she would be ready to begin caring for her and her wife's firstborn child.



Willow sat silently in her bedside chair, admiring her Tara with even greater love and devotion than she had before. She wondered for a moment if it was possible for the human body to contain as much love as she felt without bursting at the seams. She had so much love for Tara and so much love for their new baby that she felt as though she was walking an inch above the ground, and even paused a moment to check and see if she was in fact floating. But she noted that her feet were firmly planted on the tile floor as she stood and walked over to the plastic bassinet where a four-hour old Emily was fast asleep, exhausted just like her mother.



The redhead gently lifted the slumbering newborn into her arms and carried her back over to where she had been sitting next to Tara's bedside.



"Look at you", she whispered softly, "You're so small. One might even say tiny or miniscule. You're so little in my arms, and you seem so fragile too. Definitely not getting over the tiny-ness of you.



"You're so beautiful. You have Tara's eyes just like I had hoped you would. Even though yours are closed right now I can tell that they’re hers. Your mommy has the most gorgeous eyes in the world, and now you do too. You have red hair, like me, I wonder what other parts of you are going to be like me too.



"I wonder if you'll have my computer skills, or if you'll be good with math and numbers like I am. I wonder if you will have my terrible fashion sense. Of course, your mommy isn't exactly great in that area either, so I guess you're doomed in that category.



"I wonder if you'll have my temper...



"But I hope you're like Tara in so many ways."



Tara felt herself slowly waking to the sound of Willow's voice speaking softly to someone else in the room. As the sleep-induced fog lifted languidly from her brain she was able to discern that her wife was talking to their baby. A gentle smile graced her lips, and she kept her eyes closed, tuning her ears to the sweet conversation.



“Your mommy is the most amazing woman to ever walk the face of the earth,” Willow went on, unknowingly causing a blush to creep across her lover’s face. “She's generous and compassionate and kind and beautiful and patient. She's more patient than anyone I have ever met in my entire existence. She'd have to be to put up with me and my quirks. That's what she likes to call them, 'quirks'. Others would probably call them, 'insanities'.



“I have a lot of them. Quirks, I mean. For one thing, I babble a lot, which you probably already noticed, and I talk in my sleep sometimes, but I’ve been told on good authority that’s one of my cuter quirky things. Most of my other quirks are related to my occasional tendency toward being mildly OCD. OCD means Obsessive Compulsive. Not that you know what obsessive-compulsive means, after all you’re only four-hours twenty-three minutes and”, she paused to check her watch, “forty-two seconds old. See what I mean? Obsessive.



“Basically I get hooked on stuff like making sure the closet is kept in order according to clothing type, color, material and, in some cases, thread count. The compulsive part is where I feel like I absolutely have to put the closet in order and I can’t stop myself from doing it.



“Sometimes I get compulsions to do destructive things, like trying to put my life in order. I know, maybe you’re thinking, ‘what’s wrong with putting your life in order, Mama?’ Well, nothing, usually. But if you’re obsessively compelled to try and put everything into neat categories with headings and subheadings labeled out in different colored pens… life just doesn’t work that way. So then you try to find a shortcut to the order, like for example, and I’m just going out on a limb here, you use magic. Because with the right kind of magic, and by that I mean the wrong kind of magic, you can change the world and make it how you want, which is never a good idea by the way... so don’t do that. Don’t do what I did.”



Tara’s brow had furrowed, concerned by the sound of her wife growing increasingly agitated in what had started as a cute little babble on the blonde’s virtues and had escalated into a full blown self-deprecating diatribe.



“Better yet, don’t be OCD if you can help it because its really more trouble than it’s worth.” The redhead continued, “I mean, don’t get me wrong, being organized is good, but there are limits. Like, how many people do you know program everything that they are going to do the next day into their palm pilot, including stuff like, ‘wake up’, ‘brush teeth’, or ‘get dressed’ and set little alarms to go off as reminders even though they are perfectly capable of doing those things without a prompt. Well, you probably don’t know that many people yet considering you’re four hours, twenty-five minutes and…thirty-six seconds old and you’ve been asleep for most of that time. So really the only two people you know are your mommy and I, so I guess that means that half of the people you know are mildly OCD. I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.



“I did mention that I babbled, right?” Willow let out a long sigh as she gazed sadly at the infant in her arms. “Look, you have your whole life ahead of you and you can be whatever you want, just… whatever you do… don’t be like me.”



“Don’t say that”, said Tara suddenly, her voice, though low and gravelly with fatigue, firmly filled the room and caused Willow to jump a little.



The redhead turned in her seat to see her lover looking back at her with intense blue eyes. “Tara…”



“Don’t you ever say that again”, the blonde repeated, her voice clearer now. “Don’t you know what an amazing person you are, Willow? Don’t you know that there is more to you than just quirks and foibles?”



“I don’t want her to make the same mistakes I did”, the redhead tried feebly to explain.



“Stop”, Tara interrupted her. “If she has half the strength of character that you do, if she has even a portion of your ability to always see the good in others, to put others ahead of herself the way you always do, then she will be a finer human being than ninety percent of the rest of the world’s population. Willow, living is a process and a learning one at that. She is going to make mistakes, probably a lot of them, and we’ll be there to help her through, to point her in the right direction as best we can for as long as we can. That’s our job now as parents. We will teach her many things, but one thing you will not teach her is that it isn’t okay for her to look up to you and to see you as a role model.”



“I’m not a role model, Tara.”



“You’re my role model”, the blonde replied. Willow looked up into blue eyes, not understanding. “You’ve shown me that it is possible to rise above the lot we’ve been handed in life. You’ve proven that a person can overcome a weakness and turn it into a strength. You’ve shown me that there is more to me than me. And I love you for that, and I look up to you for that. And if there is anyone I want our daughter to be like when she grows up, it’s you.”



Willow paused for a moment, looking down once again to Emily sleeping soundly in her arms. Carefully leaning down, she placed a soft kiss on the babe’s teeny forehead and looked back up into Tara’s eyes.



“Is it okay if we agree on fifty/fifty?” She asked shyly.



“We already did that the night we made her”, answered Tara, a lopsided grin forming on her lips. Willow leaned over and captured them in a gentle kiss, holding there for a few long moments before pulling away again.



“I guess I’d better start working on this whole role-model image”, Willow smiled resolutely.



“Only if that means you don’t change a thing”, Tara stated.



“Deal.” They kissed again, slightly deeper this time. Emily started to awake and fuss a little, causing the two new parents to pull apart to attend to their newborn.



******



Willow slowly came out of the memory as she gazed at her daughter, now fully grown and adjusting her wedding dress in the mirror in front of her. A tug on her sleeve caught the redhead’s attention.



“Mama, you didn’t finish your story”, Gillian complained. “You got stuck at the part where you and Mommy are kissing and Emily wakes up. What happened next?”



“Oh”, said Willow, glancing down to her youngest child, and then looking up into her wife’s lovely blue eyes, “We lived happily ever after.”



“Mama”, chided Gilly, “There’s more than that. Lotsa stuff happened between way back then and now.”



“You’re absolutely right”, agreed Tara, “and we’ll have plenty of time to tell you those stories… at the reception. But right now I think it’s time we all got to our positions. Ready Emily?”



Emily turned and faced her parents yet again. “I think so”, she said nervously. “I just hope that I don’t forget how to speak the English language or something. I feel like I’m nervous enough.”



“Well if that happens, just start with the first word you ever spoke and move forward”, Tara offered soothingly and teasingly at the same time.



“My first word”, Emily chuckled. “Yeah, that’ll work in place of ‘I do’ any day of the week.”





TBC in Vignette # 2: “Odd-todd” …



"Promise me you'll never be linear." "On my trout."

Edited by: DarkWiccan at: 11/19/03 10:55 pm


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 Post subject: EverAfter
PostPosted: Wed Nov 19, 2003 10:53 pm 
DW



You portray so well the undying tenderness between W and T. A lot of writers keep writing the word 'forever' without fleshing it out, without leaving sketches of 'WT forever' to really look at. So I'm really glad you wrote this fic and gave us a glimpse into 'WT Ever After.'



I adored Willow's babble with Emily -- it's just like her to be fearful for Emily and just like Tara to be affirm Willow's strength. I love the give and take in the relationship -- whenever one is weak, the other makes her realize her strength.



Touching story. I salute you :pinky



:love Sleek





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 Post subject: Re: EverAfter
PostPosted: Thu Nov 20, 2003 3:02 am 
Amazing updates. :heart

Willow's babble was really sweet, i'm glad that Tara made some things clear about her fears.

snuggle79 :)



This is how everyday should end and start ..and all the stuff in the middle

The greatest thing you'll learn, is just to love and be loved in return.







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 Post subject: lovely
PostPosted: Thu Nov 20, 2003 11:42 am 
hello DW

i love all of your fics. and i am so glad that you are continuing the No Matter Where You Go, There You Are series. your works is beautiful. i love the relationships between willow and tara, and then them with their children that you establish. again your writing is beautiful! i can't wait to read more



Aine



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 Post subject: Re: lovely
PostPosted: Thu Nov 20, 2003 4:22 pm 
Awww. Very moving...:heart

Wonderful work!:clap



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 Post subject: Re: lovely
PostPosted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 9:11 am 
sweet :D

I'm not stealing, I'm just taking things without paying for them. In what twisted dictionary is that stealing?
They think she's innocent and sweet, but I know she's an evil bitch



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 Post subject: Nicely Done!!!
PostPosted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 5:27 pm 
Go You!!! I'm so glad you overcame writer's block to get this done and post it. I do have to agree with Tara...Willow has amazing strength, well, they both do and they build on each other's strentgh, which is one of my favorite things about them as a couple. Nice ending by the way...now you have all of us scrambling to find out what Emily's first word was...because I've slept since then and can't remember.:hmm



I'm so glad you're writing this as I'm looking forward to reading all about the life and times of Willow and Tara as Moms. It should be quite interesting...and full of love.



Thanks for writing.!:clap



-E



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 Post subject: Re: A Normal Life - Pt 3 in the NMWYG, TYA Series
PostPosted: Sun Nov 23, 2003 9:48 am 
I’m just so delighted to see a fic with Tara and Willow partially written as older parents, with adult children (well one, anyway). Maybe that’s just my own age speaking its desire, but regardless, I’m going to enjoy seeing how Willow and Tara have coped with sustained parenthood and approaching middle age. How has it changed them, and in what ways have they stayed the same. Willow seems a bit calmer, whereas Tara’s gentleness and hallmark patience are omnipresent. I really like how you’ve grounded the family in love and tenderness but that it’s not so cloying that individual uniqueness is sacrificed. I’m looking forward to some lovely vignettes that will help me get to know each one of those children and their mothers, better. And I confess Gillian has already captured my heart completely. I am so going to enjoy reading about her escapades. I get the feeling that she keeps her mothers on their toes and probably has a razor-sharp mind that challenges them both to stay one-step ahead with parent-logic! And Sean—“his hazel eyes working very hard to express the appropriate level of teenaged disinterest”—I can just picture him perfectly! In fact, today at church a lovely older grandma brought her grandson along and introduced me to him afterwards. He was very nice, sweet, but—to paraphrase you, worked really hard at trying to find the right balance between showing respect and emanating the required amount of teenaged apathy. While I talked to them both, I honestly mused to myself that he would make the perfect Sean in A Normal Life! Thanks for these lovely snap-shots and for those to come.



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 Post subject: Replies
PostPosted: Mon Nov 24, 2003 11:24 am 
Sleek – Wow. I’ve been saluted! Thank you! Seriously, though, thank you so much for your kind words. Similarly to you I had always wanted to see the “ever after” part of the W/T relationship. I had thought about creating a completely new fic not linked to any of my others to expound on this, but the characters from NMWYG, TYA just worked so perfectly with the set up of a strong and loving family environment already in place so all I am having to do is simply expound on milestone events in any family’s life. In other words, I cheated and made is easy on myself :wink



snuggle79 – I’ve often been told that I do a really good job with writing babbling Willow. I think this is actually kind of ironic because I usually suck at stream of consciousness, which is essentially what Willow babble is. Irony is kind of ironic that way. Thanks for reading!



Aine – I’m glad that you are a fan of the series and I hope that this current installment lives up to the other two, which I must confess I am quite proud of… so I’ve got to try and outdo myself which may prove to be a daunting task.



allykat – Thanks!



Grimaldi – Thank you!



Always E – Hey girlie! Well, thanks to a mental jumpstart due to some great suggestions from one of my “advisors” [nudge, nudge, wink, wink] I was thankfully able to get over the blockage for this little vignette. Here’s hoping the next one finishes itself a little more easily. Emily’s first word… well, I can tell you what it isn’t… it isn’t “beer”. Even though that was MY first word. Seriously, I ain’t kidding yuh. But it wasn’t in a good happy context a la “beer, yay!” it was more of a “beer, ewww” type thing.



daiailun – What a great screen name! How do you pronounce it? What does it mean? You have me so curious now. I’m glad that you are enjoying this little compilation of vignettes. We will see all the characters at varying ages and stages of their lives even well past middle age in the cases of W/T and the other older Scoobies.



I’m glad that you like Gillian, she is largely based on what I was like as a youngin’… with some embellishment of course. Sean’s attitude just sort of appeared as I was writing him… I didn’t want everyone one to be sickly sweet and happy and easy going, because that would have been really, really boring and not at all realistic. I initially thought that Michelle was going to be the difficult child, and she does have her own set of issues that we will see later, but as she began to take shape on the page she just couldn’t help but behave herself… darn it all. However when Sean entered the room, bam!, instant attitude. At first I was worried about this because I didn’t want readers to think that I was making some editorial comment about how girls are better than boys because I’m not. As I have said before, I don’t write these folks, I just kind of… er… channel them. They show up and introduce themselves and from there I take dictation. It makes sense, though, that Sean would be the sulking one. Not only is he smack dab in the middle of those terrible teens, he is also the only male in a very female household. The bathroom issues alone would be enough to put him in a permanent funk.



We’ll see more of Sean and the entire Rosenberg-Maclay as the story progresses.



Thanks for reading! More to come!



Cheers!

DW:pride

Edited by: DarkWiccan at: 12/16/03 6:54 pm


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 Post subject: Not quite an update...yet
PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2003 3:43 am 
Okay, here's the poop.



I am sick...sicky, sick sick sick.



I have this flu thing... but before this flu thing I had a nice little lung infection which lasted a couple of weeks...making me nice and week for the flu to attack and threaten me with pneumonia...



i have been bed ridden and cranky and not at all creative....



I have the next update all written...in my head... but until today...about ten minutes ago... i was feeling too dizzy and loopy to be able to stand even sitting in front of the computer...



so as I can sense this reprieve is short... I thought i would use it to post this little... I'm really not dead and there is more story to come post.



so.... im taking my blechy (and bitchy) self back to bed where I plan to stay just a bit longer as I do battle with the evil flu virus from hell...



thanks for you patience everyone.



Cheers...bit of an overstatement...



DW

"Promise me you'll never be linear." "On my trout."



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 Post subject: Re: A Normal Life- Pt3 in the NMWYC, TYA Series
PostPosted: Sun Dec 14, 2003 2:29 pm 
Hey DW,

I have just seen that there's this wonderful new fic written by you. But first I'd like to say, "please get better soon!".

I wanted to tell you anyway that your stories are totally amazing, especially NMWYG and TYA. And now there's a sequel to it. I'm happy, happy, happy now!

Again, get better soon and please, please, please continue writing this lovely fic. I can't wait to read more.

Love,

LittleMissTara



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