Slayers in Beantown


“Giles, we just got back from one adventure, and now you want us to go on another?” Buffy complained. “And don’t think you’re getting out of the shovel speech.”


“Yes, and I am sorry. But this young woman needs our help, and I believe Faith may be the only one who can get through to her. I rather naturally assumed that you would want to go as well.”

Buffy just glowered at him.

“As to the shovel speech, you can save your efforts. Willow already gave it to me.”

Buffy’s glower continued.

"Please think it over, and let me know in the morning what you've decided,” he said.” If you choose not to go, I will be forced to-"


"You will be forced to make your sad, frowny face,” Buffy grumped. “And I'll end up going anyway."


"I've no idea what you're talking about,” Giles said with as much dignity as he could muster. “And it’s my ‘disappointed’ face."


Buffy rolled her eyes, but she was smiling just a little.


“Please think it over. And take the file to Faith. We have a limited timeframe Buffy. We do not have long before the limited protection afforded by our activities and Anya’s ruse expires. And this young woman does not have long, if my reading between the lines is correct.”


Buffy huffed mightily, but she did pick up the slim folder.

“When this latest crisis has passed, you owe us so much downtime it’s ridiculous.”


Giles responded with a single word. “Hawaii.”

Buffy blinked and squealed with delight. She darted across the room and engulfed the Englishman in a mighty hug.
Awkwardly he patted her back.

“Thank you Giles! Thankyou thankyou thankyou!”


“That’s quite alright dear girl.”


He struggled unsuccessfully to extricate himself from Buffy’s grip.
“Nope. You stay right there and be hugged. Even stuffy English people need hugs.”
She looked up at his fond gaze, her eyes shining. “Especially stuffy English people.”


“Ah, thank you Buffy,” he said.


“Do you know how long I have wanted to go to Hawaii?”


He smiled a little. “I believe you have mentioned it on and off since… about the second week I have known you.”

She did let him go then, and smiled.
“I do listen you know. I also believe as an extra reward for your good service, I will give you the expense account to be frivolous with.”


Buffy squealed. “Really?! This is going to be amazing!”


Gently he directed her gaze to the folder on the table. “However, before we can celebrate with sun, sand and alarmingly bright shirts, there is the rather more sombre matter of a young woman who needs our help.”


Buffy glanced at the folder and snagged it. “Sure sure,” she said dreamily, her eyes clearly seeing bright floral displays and palm trees.
“Ok Giles, helpful Buffy is on deck.”


“If you could get that to Faith, and come and see me before you go, I would be most grateful. I have included all the relevant information, but I would value the chance to give it a little more context.”


Buffy bobbed her head, grinning glassily, ear to ear.
He smirked. “All you can see right now is Faith, covered in those flower garlands, yes?”

Buffy just nodded, still grinning.
He sighed. “Off you go then. Just make sure to talk to me before you go.”


“Yep!” Buffy said, and almost skipped from the room.


Giles sighed, though he allowed himself a small smile.


+++


“Hawaii? Sweet!”


“I. know,” Buffy pronounced with due gravitas.


“So why’d the G-man hafta bribe us with Hawaii?”


“Well we just got back from one adventure. And I may have whined and pouted just a little.”


Faith just smiled. “Yeah, fallen to that one a few times myself.”

Faith picked up the folder and started leafing through it.


“Also it’s in Boston.”

Faith froze.
“I think that’s why he felt the need to bribe us,” Buffy said apologetically.


“So why was he so hot to get us out there?” Faith asked.


“Young girl, life in danger. That sort of thing. All in the ever-so-official folder-y thing.” Buffy pointed to the manila folder.


“Huh. G-man ain’t too dense, so it must be pretty rough for him to send you an’ me to bean-town.”

She grabbed the folder and started leafing through it.
She stopped and started reading more thoroughly. Buffy felt Faith’s concentration and focus sharpen as she read.
She found that if she focused, she could feel the words as Faith read them. More, she felt Faith’s understanding.

“Yeah. I see why Giles is sending us.”


“Oh?”


She nodded. “Yeah. Had to be me or you. Only someone who’s been through the fire, and come out the other side is gonna reach this chick I figure.”
She held out the folder. “This chick is still in the fire. I don’t think she’d be able to believe anyone who hadn’t lived through it. Or worse.”


Buffy tapped her head. “I read it when you did, which was kind of fun.”


Faith raised an eyebrow. “Huh. I’ll have to try that sometime. You know, if you ever read anything other than Cosmo.”


Buffy smiled, pleased to have discovered something about their link before Faith did. Faith’s constant poking and prodding usually discovered things first.
“But how are we getting to Boston?” she asked. “I mean, it’s a long way, so driving is out. And I don’t think we’ll be allowed to take weapons on a plane. And we are being hunted, so there’s no way in hell I’m going unarmed while various nasties try to eat my pregnant wife.”


“We just teleported back with the rest of the gang. I figure we just ask Glinda and Red to work the mojo and poof!” Faith said wiggling her fingers.


Buffy rubbed Faith’s lower back comfortingly. “Are you sure? Because the grossness really looks like no fun.”


Faith sighed. “Yeah. This whole pregnancy thing sucks. I mean, hey I’m glad I’m having our baby B. But I wish this was something I could have chosen. And I still have no fucking clue how come I’m pregnant. It’s not like you turned into a guy or something. I’da noticed that.”

She shrugged helplessly. “Eh, I just can’t get my head around it.”


Buffy smiled softly. “We are going to be moms. That’s what matters.”


Faith smiled shyly and Buffy was almost overcome with how adorable she looked.
“I’m glad B. I really am. Also I think Red and Snow-white are a teensy bit jealous of us.”


Buffy shook her head in disbelief. “Yeah. I really figured they would be doing the whole girl-girl baby thing waaaay before us.”


Faith frowned. “I really woulda thought that you’d be the one doing the girly-pregnant thing though. I’m totally the dude in this relationship, so how come I gotta be knocked up?”


“More for baby to eat?” Buffy said with a faint smirk.


“Pretty thin, B.”


Buffy shrugged. “I have no idea. Anyway, we have to have our trip while your pants are a bit snug, instead of when you look like you swallowed a beachball.”

Faith just looked annoyed.

“You know, some of those maternity dresses are pretty cute.”


Faith’s frown became a glare. “I am not wearing a frikkin maternity dress. I’ll wear track pants from the big and tall store if I have to, but I ain’t wearing one o’ those fucking mumu things.”


Buffy grinned. “I think you’d look very cute in something floral.”

More glaring.

Buffy giggled. “Ok, no mumu. Let’s pack for Boston and go rescue this girl. Then maybe you can show me around the nice parts of the city.”


Faith smiled. “I’d like that B. It ain’t all bad there. Had some shitty times for sure, but there’s a few good memories. Plus who knows, maybe I can dig up something about my real Da, find out who he is.”


“Maybe he’s a foreign king or something. Ooo! That would make you a princess!”


“Only one princess around here, B.”


“I can’t tell if you’re being sweet or being mean,” Buffy said, frowning.


Faith smirked, not letting on.
“How about this?” She pulled Buffy in for a soft kiss.


When they broke from the kiss, Buffy sighed happily. “Definitely sweet.”


“C’mon, let’s grab our gear and talk to the witch squad.”


“What do we need?”

Faith shrugged. “Dunno. We ain’t going into the wilds, despite part o’ Beantown being called the Boondocks. I’m just taking a few weapons, a few clothes… and a credit card.” She grinned evilly as she mentioned a credit card.


“Ooo, shopping,” Buffy said happily.


“Bean town is stickier than what you’re used to, even at this time of year. Winters are damn cold, but in summer? Kinda humid.”


Buffy brightened. “New wardrobe?”


Faith snorted and laughed a little. “B, we’re gonna be there a couple of days. How much clothing do you need?”


“Two days? Three new outfits. And shoes to go with them.”


“If it makes you happy Bumblebee, go nuts.”


Buffy frowned. “Speaking of people whose names start with B B, are you happy leaving the Buffybot here by herself? Is it safe to do?”


“We were? Uh, sure. Also, she ain’t alone. Xander likes playing with her, and lil’ D and Andy-Pandy are absolutely smitten with her.”


“Really? Why?”


“Really? A genuine artificial intelligence wanderin’ around campus in a short skirt, and you’re wonderin’ why the geeky types have gone all starry-eyed and giggly?”


“Hey, my sister’s not geeky!”


“Sure she is. Lara Croft geeky, but still geeky. She gets excited by books and spells, computer stuff and techno toys. S’not a bad thing B.”

She smirked a little. “You sure they made her outa you, an’ not Red?”


“I’m not stupid! I just have trouble with words… and paying attention.”

“True dat. And you’re a decent cook B. When I force you to stay near the stove, that is.”


“Ok, so I’m a real blonde. We were talking about the other blonde.”


“She’ll be fine. And as much as I like having her around, I figure i’ll have enough on my plate this weekend without babysitting another crazy blonde.”


“Hey!”


“Crazy like a fox, B.”


“Nice recovery.”


Faith turned serious for a moment. “And B? I don’t wanna share Boston with anyone else. This is just you an’ me shit, yeah?”


Buffy’s gaze softened. She put her hand on Faith’s arm. “I understand Faith. And thank you.”


“B, our world has changed so much, and it’s gonna change some more soon.”

She smiled, a little worriedly. “This might be our last chance to do stuff with just you an’ me. Pretty soon we’re both gonna be moms, and that’s terrifying, and kinda cool. But it won’t ever be just you an’ me anymore.”


“One last hurrah?”


Faith grinned. “Hell yeah girlfriend! Let blow through Beantown like a god-damned hurricane, and leave them wondering what the fuck happened.”

Buffy chuckled.

“No I’m serious B. We’re gonna hafta settle down and be good parents soon. So let’s make the Boston underworld think the apocalypse has come, just for them. Let’s live in a five-star hotel, eating lobster, drinking champagne and wearing fur coats.”


“Sipping champagne very sparingly,” Buffy said, poking Faith gently in the tummy.


“Fine. But to make up for it, you have to fuck me until I pass out. Ok?”


Buffy giggled, and flushed a little. “That seems fair. I think can handle that.”


“I wonder if they make leather preggo pants?”


“God, I hope not. That would look pretty bizarre, you have to admit.”


Faith grinned. “Yeah. Almost worth it.”


She bounced to her feet. “C’mon B! You go get the Witch-brigade to find us some nasties in Beantown, and I’ll get the gear and the money while go chase up Red and her little angel.”


Faith bounced around like a kid on too much sugar, making Buffy smile to see it.
“Ok sugar rush. You go do your bit, I’ll do mine and meet you in the back courtyard.”


“Wicked!” Faith said and made to bolt from the room.


“Ahem!” Buffy said. She pointed to her face. “Kisses please.”


Faith stopped. “Sorry Bumblebee. I just got too excited.”
She grabbed Buffy and swung her around, peppering her face with tiny kisses.
Buffy giggled happily, until Faith kissed her with such passion she just about wet herself.


“Whoa. Someone ate their Wheaties this morning.”


Faith brushed a hair from her face tenderly. “B, we’re off to help a girl that really needs it. And we’re also having kind of a honeymoon, sorta. So, we help the girl. Then it’s you, me and some kind of fur rug, and every naughty, dirty fantasy you’ve ever had.”

Buffy blushed brightly.

“Yeah B, even the one where I-”


Buffy covered her mouth.
She stood up on tippy-toes to whisper in Faith’s ear. “Show. Don’t tell.”


Faith smiled wonderingly. “You naughty little minx. We are going to have to go toy shopping I think.”


“I. Can’t. Wait,” Buffy whispered into Faith’s ear.


Faith moaned at the hot breath on her ear.
“We… uhh. We should go. Now.”


“Ok!” Buffy chirped, and bounced away.


Faith narrowed her eyes. “Tease.”


Buffy bobbed her head cheerfully. “Yup.”


“And now I have to punish you.”

Faith wiggled her fingers.


Buffy’s eyes widened. “Nononono!”


“Yep!”


And with that, Buffy bolted from the room, squealing in tickle-terror, Faith hot on her heels.


+++


Sometime later, after the tickling and squealing had died down, the chosen two were standing in the fields at the back of Slayer central.


“Y’know, if we are going to keep teleporting people around the place, we might need to set up like a transporter pad or something,” Willow said. Currently she was planting big chunks of crystal in a circle around the two.


“Nerd,” Faith said.


Willow poked out her tongue.
“Teleportation isn’t too risky,” she said. “As long as the arrival area is clear.”
She shuddered. “You don’t want to know what happens if there’s someone in the way when you land.”


“Which is why we scry the area before we send anyone,” Tara said.


“Are you guys going to be ok with the witchy-ness?” Buffy asked.


“We’ll be fine Buffy,” Tara said.


“It’s Faith you’ve got to worry about,” Willow added. She finished wedging the last pointy bit of quartz into the earth.
She looked a little awkward and embarrassed. “Sorry Faith, but we haven’t had time to practice the spell and make it any smoother.”


“And you’re sure it’s not going to hurt the baby?” Buffy asked.


Willow shook her head. “Uh-uh. No more threatening than walking into the next room. We put there next to here, then we just give you a shove to make you hop across.”


“I think it’s your awareness of world around you that makes you so sensitive to the change,” Tara said.


“I always knew remarkable self-involvement was one of my Slayer powers,” Buffy said. “Who knew it would turn out to actually be useful for something.”


Tara chuckled. “Well, perhaps just a little.”


Faith looked impatient. “C’mon, let’s get this show on the road wonder-witches. I wanna be there and back before we’ve even realized we’re gone.”


“Patience Faith. Just a few more minutes,” Willow said.


“Do you have everything?” Tara asked.


Buffy hefted a sensibly sized backpack and made a glare-y face at Willow. “I have Willow’s monster-map and a sensible amount underwear this time.”


Willow giggled at Buffy’s faux glare. “Sorry Buff. It was kinda funny though.”


Buffy waggled a handle sticking out of the pack. A handle with a now familiar tennis-ball stuck on the end.
“I have the scythe, but Faith’s leaving her monster-axe behind.”


“Yeah. Tried getting it to magically shrink down or somethin’. Not happening though.”

She hefted her own pack, which looked heavier than Buffy’s. “Couple of short swords and some knives should do me. Along with the usual.”


“And I have my super survival accessory,” Buffy said.
Her eyes glinted mischievously as she held up a shiny gold credit card. “It’s my new favourite word. Expense account.”


“Do at least try to avoid buying a significant portion of the city,” Giles said dryly. “By all means, have fun. But try not to draw too much attention with your expenditures.”


“Sure Giles. We’ll make sure to stick to portable things. No buildings or islands.”
She turned to Faith. “Gold is portable, right?”


Faith grinned. “According to Mister T it is.”


Giles rolled his eyes. “Very funny. Do you have the post-card?”


Tara held up a post-card showing one of Boston’s more scenic bridges. “This should do to scry with, mister Giles.”


“And you have your insanely expensive, waterproof, smashproof satellite phone?” Dawn asked.


“Yep,” Buffy said, swatting the bottom of the pack.


“I know you’re going for very serious reasons,” Giles said. “And there are serious things happening.”
He smiled gently. “But do try to enjoy yourselves a little.”


Buffy goggled at him. “Who are you? Really Giles, you just gave me a gold-card and told me to have fun.”


Giles quirked a restrained smile, before his face took on a serious expression. “Buffy, you have more than earned any reward. Really, how much would you pay someone who saved the world as often as you had? Who was so committed, that they had given their life? Twice?”

Buffy flushed, torn between embarrassment and pride.

“Enjoy yourselves girls. Between the serious things of course.”


“Will do Giles. And thanks.”


Almost shyly, Faith of all people, approached Giles and kissed him on the cheek. “Gonna be a grandpa soon G. Gonna hafta start calling you Gramps.”


His eyes glittered with emotion. “Perish the thought,” he said softly, clearly anything but offended.


“Don’t forget you two,” Faith said seriously. “You need us, you grab us and yank us to you.”


“Day or night,” Buffy added.


Tara smiled warmly at the pair and nodded, glad to have such staunch allies. She held up her own insanely expensive phone and waggled it. “If we do, we will.”


“Promise?” Buffy asked.


“Promise,” Tara replied.



Willow sat down with the big pink crystal and started wafting pungent smoke around, a look of concentration on her face.

Tara nodded to herself thoughtfully and sat down next to her, facing the chosen two.
They joined one pair of hands, and with their free hands they picked up the crystal together.
Tara chanted her spell, focussing on the bridge in the postcard. Sparkles of light rose from her body as she chanted and orbited her head at eye height. Her familiar blue and white theme, now augmented by Willow’s own colours, produced a subtle rainbow effect, neatly highlighting that the two were casting together.


“We have the bridge,” Tara said. her voice echoed with eerie harmonics as she pushed past the magic of the spell to communicate her findings.
“There,” she said to Willow. “That jetty looks good.”

Moments passed.

“Your landing area is clear. It’s also out of the way and dark, so hopefully there won’t be any witnesses,” Tara said.


“You sound kinda trippy when you talk like that,” Faith said.


“Magic-y,” Buffy added.


Tara smiled a little, but did not respond. She shifted her focus to Willow’s spell. No longer in the lead, spell wise, now all she had to do was push. Once more she stood in awe of Willow’s power. Although she carried depth of magical energy every bit as deep as her beloved, she was in awe of the way Willow’s brain worked.

Although she herself understood roughly how teleportation worked, she had no mind for the mechanics of the spell.
But Willow did.

Lovingly, Willow took the image of the landing site from her mind and wove it into the spell she was casting.
The pattern of the spell flared with light, and in the outer world, the spell circle flared with multi-coloured flames, and the Slayer pair were gone.


+++


Faith blinked in the sudden darkness.
Even the eyes of a Slayer took a while to adapt to the dimness, after the blaze of the spell.


“Goddamn, that’s a bright light. I can’t see shit.”


Buffy waved her hand in front of her face, only barely able to see her fingers. “Oh yeah. I think I can sorta see something though.”
Buffy slowly became aware that a man was staring at her, absolutely… flabbergasted. Yes, flabbergasted was a good word. She was sure she’d heard Giles use it at least once.

“Uh, hey,” Buffy said with a small wave.


“Er…” the man said.


The pair became aware of a distinctly funky smell. There were days when enhanced senses were not fun. This was one of those times.
The homeless man struggled to gather his thoughts. The fumes of some sort of cheap alcohol adding some vital clues as to his mind-state.
“Are you aliens?” he slurred.


Faith stepped forward. “No. We are angels sent by the lord your god,” she said dramatically.


“You are?” he said, awed.


“We are?” Buffy said.


“Yes. We are,” Faith stated confidently. “This is the day your life changes. God has sent us to grant you a gift. A choice.”
She put a wad of cash in his hand. “This simple gift is given to you. You may use it as the first step toward a new life, or the last step in your old.”
She looked at him seriously. “Go now to the church on fifth street and get a good meal in you. But be warned, if you choose to waste this chance, it is the end. There will be no third chances.”

Blearily the man nodded, staring at the two. He hauled himself to his feet and staggered off.


Buffy just stared, amazed.
“What,” she eventually said. “Was that?”


Faith grinned a little sheepishly. “What? You never watched ‘Touched by an Angel?”


“Uh, a little bit. Mom sort of liked it. But hey, explanation please?”


“I just gave the guy a grand and sent him to a church. So either he’s gonna use that to turn his life around, and the church will help him. If not, he’ll drink himself to death. Either way, he’s happy, and I helped him out.”


“But, drinking himself to death is not exactly awesome.”


Faith shrugged. “Look, he may be a drunken homeless guy, but he’s still an adult. If he wants to drink himself to death, it’s his life to do that with. And at least I tried. Plus he’s out of our hair.”


“Uh,” Buffy said uncertainly. “I can’t fault your logic. Still bothers me a little bit though.”


“His choice B. He’s a drunk, so it’s kinda likely he’ll drink himself into an early grave. But that’s still his choice, and dropping outa nowhere in a huge flash and telling him we’re angels? That might just shock him into doing the right thing.”


“I guess,” she said reluctantly.


“Also, about the best I could come up with in 5 seconds.”


“I know. Sorry if I came off bitchy or something. I guess I just don’t know how to handle that sort of thing. Sunnydale never had any homeless people. They tended to get eaten pretty quickly. And um, where I lived in LA was kind of up-market.”


Faith smiled a little and nudged Buffy’s shoulder with her own. “S’ok Bumblebee. At least we ain’t yelling at each other and swinging.”


Buffy smiled a little as they stepped out of the shadows under the bridge. She unhooked the chain on the supposedly locked gate and started climbing the big concrete staircase. Faith took her hand and they climbed the concrete stairs together, going slowly so they didn’t have to encounter the homeless man again, and ruin the impact they’d had on him.

When they made it to the top of the bridge, they stopped and looked around. The wind was blowing fairly strongly, and there was a hint of moisture in the air. Buffy shivered and buried her hands in her nice warm leather jacket, dragging Faith’s hand along with it.
Faith chuckled. They might have lost some of their gear in Bohemia, but the locals had been nice enough to replace the lost stuff.

Handmade shoes and custom fitted leather jackets from Europe. They may not have looked quite as fancy as the store-bought clothing they had replaced, but you couldn’t beat them for comfort. Or Buffy-squeal factor.
And it was quite nice and warm in Buffy’s pocket.


“So, I’m thinking we should get a hotel or something first, then get something to eat, then we see about this girl we are supposed to be rescuing,” Buffy said.


“Sure. Sounds like a plan. Where’re we headed?”

Buffy held up a list. “I got Willow to make me a list of the nice hotels.” Drops of rain spotted the page, and Buffy glared at the darkening sky.


One entry on the rain-spotted page was circled in red and had ‘5 Star!!’ written on it. Buffy currently had her thumb on it.


“This one,” Faith said, pointing to one further down the list.


“Fairmont Copley Plaza? But that’s only four star!” Buffy complained.


Faith grinned. “Yeah, but it’s got history.”


“Uh, did you slay something there?”


Faith chuckled. “Not me B. Someone else did though, an’ I’ve always wanted to see the place.”


“Oh. Well history is cool. Let’s book-in there and you can tell me all about it.”


“Sweet. Let me tell you a story about two nice irish boys…”


+++


“I can’t believe you made us stay here because of a stupid movie,” Buffy complained.


Faith laughed. “I know. I’m such a bitch, making my fiancé stay in this terrible, uh,” she glanced at the brochure. “Four and a half star penthouse.”

She looked puzzled. “Seriously? What’s the diff between four and a half and five anyways?”


“Um, a butler? Gold doorknobs?” Buffy said, not sure herself.


“Whatever. Either way, it’s gonna be pretty fucking sweet.” Faith spun around with her arms out, her bare feet digging into the thick soft carpet.
Nothing said luxury like thick carpet.


She fell on the bed with a happy sigh, and practically vanished into it.

“Seriously B, when we get our own place, I want a bed like this and carpet like that.” She waved her bare foot vaguely around, indicating the plush floor.


Buffy climbed on top of her and rested her head on her generous chest, snuggling close.
“We should really get to work.”


Despite her comment, she showed no real inclination to move from her comfortable snuggle spot.
Faith fiddled with her watch. “We will B. In about 10 minutes. So relax for a little bit. Dig yourself some luxury.”


Buffy hummed and snuggled closer. “I love it when you’re all responsible and stuff. It means I get to be the irresponsible one for a while.”


“Wow, responsibility is a turn on now? Who knew.”


Buffy smiled, something Faith could feel against her breast. She pushed up and gazed lovingly at Faith. “I don’t say it often enough Faith, but I really love you.”


Faith’s gaze softened. “I love you too B. Wouldn’t be here with you, all preggers and shit if I didn’t.”


A frown marred Buffy’s face. “It worries me that we still don’t know how it happened.”


Faith stroked Buffy’s soft hair gently. “I know B. But hey, Snow-white took a bunch of readings before we left. Me, you, some mini-me’s. Maybe when we get back she’ll have some answers for us.”


Buffy traced little circles on Faith’s tummy. “I hope so. At least she said the baby is ok. Like, guaranteed non-demony.”


Faith nodded, moving Buffy’s head just a little. “Yeah. I’d feel it if it was evil or something. It’s nice to have backup on it though.”


“There’s something about all this that is nagging at me. Like there’s something I’ve forgotten, and I’m going to kick myself when I remember.”


“Don’t stress babe. It’ll come to you.”


Buffy stopped tracing circles on Faith’s still-flat tummy. Faith could feel the sudden spike of anticipation/fear that usually heralded Buffy broaching an awkward topic.
“Baby? I have something to ask you, and, um, I don’t know if it’s a good idea or maybe the worst ever, and you know how bad I am with this stuff.”


Whatever it was Buffy was leading up to, it had to be big, given the emotions Buffy was trying hard not to pour down the link.
Faith kept stroking Buffy’s hair lovingly. “It’s ok Bumblebee. Just ask.”


Buffy nodded against Faith’s chest. “I know it’s been too crazy to think straight lately, what with… everything.”


“Yep. That’s why I’m enjoying this so much,” Faith said, cuddling Buffy just a little closer.


“I was wondering… have you thought about names for the baby?” Buffy asked hesitantly.


“Nope,” Faith said. “That’s just one of the many things I’ve been ignoring. I figured if it was some kinda demon, what’s the point? And if it ain’t… well I figure I’ll think of something later.”


“Baby… what about… Hope?” Buffy said hesitantly.


Once again she felt a sudden spike of emotion from Faith, perhaps a little less sharply, a little less painfully than it had once.
Faith was silent for a while.


Buffy was frozen into immobility, hiding her terror that her idea had poured fresh salt on healing wounds.
Faith was unreadable, her face and emotional connection betraying nothing. Long seconds dragged by.
Faith’s watch beeped.


“Time to get back on the clock,” Faith said, her voice rough and unsteady.
Buffy let her up, the pair of them sitting side by side on the edge of the bed in silence.
Buffy hid it as best she could, but she was starting to think that her idea, ‘Hope’ was a bad one. She had been trying to help in some small way, to honour Faith’s loss with new life, new love. And now she had driven Faith back into hiding.


“B?” Faith eventually said.


“Faith honey, are you ok?” Buffy said softly, worry evident on her face.


“It’s a good name,” Faith said, her voice still rough.


“Baby I’m sorry… I just wanted to honour your baby girl and… I so suck at this.”


Faith looked up, emotionally battered and somewhat haunted, but with the ghost of a smile. “It’s a good name, Buffy.”
She had a far-away look. “When I was up there, Cordy told me something. She said that once created, souls can never be destroyed.”
Buffy said nothing, but gently took Faith’s hand to let her talk.
“I asked about visiting her. Y’know, being heaven and all.”

Buffy nodded silently, encouraging Faith to speak.

Eventually she did. “Cordy took me to the well of souls.”
Buffy still said nothing, but Faith could sense her questioning thought.

“It’s where souls that are waiting to be born, uh, wait I guess.”

“It’s this big hole in the world, just goes down forever. They were just little lights, drifting around in space, y’know? Kinda peaceful like.”

“And there was this sound, real quiet. Like someone singing a lullaby. Cordy couldn’t hear it, but I could. Just singing to all those waiting souls.”


“What was she like?” Buffy said softly.


Faith shrugged. “Dunno. Couldn’t go in. Cordy hadda pull out the big guns to keep me out. Told me that they were pure souls. Too fragile to touch, that sorta thing.”

She met Buffy’s eyes at last. Her eyes glittered, but the emotion flooding their link was one of love, and possibly hope.

“There was one light, came a little closer than the rest. It kinda felt a little, dunno, familiar I guess.”

Faith smiled poignantly. “She was so bright B. So much brighter than all the others. I didn’t tell Cordy, but I think she knew.”

Faith pulled her into a tight hug. “Pure gold, B. just like you. The soul of a Slayer.”

Buffy hugged her back just as tightly, unable to speak.

“That was her,” Faith said, her voice thick with emotion. “My baby. My Hope.”

Tears fell silently for them both, as they shared a moment so deep that neither had words to describe it.
Soft rain pattered against the window.


+++


Faith spoke up, sniffling. “Goddamn, you’ve turned me into such a chick.”

Buffy chuckled, glad Faith had broken the solemnity of the moment somewhat. She responded by poking her in the ribs.

Faith yelped. “Hey, no fair tickling the preggo chick.”


“You know, I spoke to Tara about that. Do you know what she told me you couldn’t do if you’re pregnant?”


Faith looked worried. “Don’t tell me we gotta stop fooling around? I can’t take that B!”


Buffy shushed her with a finger. “Smoking, drinking and drugs. Anything else we can do.”


Faith raised one eyebrow and grinned. “Even when you put your whole-”


Buffy shushed her again with a finger and a furious blush. “Yes, even that. And if you want me to keep doing it, you’ll wisely not tease me about it.”


“Fair enough. Goddamn, I am looking forward to it now. Let’s rescue this bitch so I can get some quality Buffy lovin’.”


“And the ritual ‘embarrass Buffy at the sex shop’ time.”


“Only a little bit B, I promise.”


Buffy held up the manila folder.


Faith pushed it back to her and lay back on the very plush bed. “Oh no, your turn now.”
She tapped her temple, “I’m gonna work on reading it with you.”


Buffy grinned. “Neat. Let’s do it.”
She was greeted by laughter. “What?!” she protested.


“When I tell Grampa Giles about this, he’s gonna flat-out call me a liar.”


Buffy snorted and laughed, unable to help herself. She covered her mouth in a vain attempt to stifle the giggles. “Grampa… Giles?!”


Faith grinned. “It’s his new nick-name. You like it?”


Buffy giggled helplessly, emitting an occasional ‘Grampa!’ or ‘Giles!’
Faith just swatted her with the folder, then gave up and tickled her.
Buffy’s giggles turned to squeals, joined shortly thereafter by Faith’s own shrieks as Buffy had her revenge.


Some minutes later the pair were lying on the bed breathing hard.
“We broke the ten minute thing. And weirdly, not for hot lovin’.”


“Yeah. We’d better get up and save the world.”



Buffy responded by groaning, rolling over and grabbing the folder. After some page flipping, she started reading intently.

Faith lay back and closed her eyes, concentrating on the link they shared. She found, as Buffy had, with concentration she could absorb the words and Buffy’s understanding of them. She also discovered that Buffy skipped from point to point with dizzying speed and she really had to concentrate to follow along.
She groaned.


Buffy reached out without looking and rubbed Faith’s tummy reassuringly. “Honey, it works better if you just relax and let it flow into you.”

Faith nodded and tried, mentally taking a step back. It did indeed get easier, if she just let Buffy’s information and knowledge flow into her.

Buffy was discovering all sorts of things, and passing them on to Faith. After a good read, she sat up to talk. Faith still looked a little bit off.


“Are you ok?” she asked.


Faith groaned. “Yeah. Mostly. Just that being in your head is a dizzying experience, B. That and we did just teleport like, an hour ago. I’m just glad I didn’t puke my ring out this time.”
Faith burped slightly. “Still makes me feel a little weird though.”
She looked down at Buffy’s hand, still tracing comforting circles on her tummy. “Better get used to doing that. Baby is going to need burping and shit.”

Buffy chuckled.

“Hey, fair’s fair B. I gotta carry this little punk chick, and pop her out through a hole waaay too small, an’ then feed her. With my tits. Least you can do is deal with the poopy pants and other grossness.”


“Eeew!” Buffy said, wrinkling her nose. “As gross as that sounds, it does seem fair. Given that you’ll be getting all the stretch-marks and droopy bits.”


Faith just grinned. “Nope. Slayer healing and Glinda’s magic say: no stretchmarks, no droopy bits.”


“Thereby becoming hated by every woman in the world.” Buffy added.


Faith shrugged. “Not my problem. So, this girl we’re rescuing?”


“Not really a girl, given that she’s in her thirties, and in the air force.”


“Uh, missed that bit I guess. Maybe tell me the old fashioned way, while I have a read.”
She snagged the folder and started her own reading. Buffy draped herself across Faith and read over her shoulder.
“So she’s been seeing demons and vampires for years?”


Buffy nodded. “Yep, and it got worse-“


“Four months ago,” Faith finished.


“Also yep. I think we made things worse for her,” Buffy added.


“We saved the world, so I can live with that. So now our job is to make things right for her. Any ideas?”


“Well, I thought we’d probably go talk to her, let her know she’s not alone or crazy. Then maybe see if she wants to join us?”


“Evil is a growth industry,” Faith said.


“Well she’s all military and stuff. Maybe she can talk planes or something with Giles’ annoying friend?”


Faith grinned. She liked the charming old letch, but something about him rubbed Buffy the wrong way. Probably the fact that he was a charming old letch. Though it least he was sort of British about it.
“Sure. We could use another pilot I guess.”

She went back to reading.
“Man, I kinda like this chick. She likes to fight, but alla this seeing monsters and shit messed her up.”


“Not as much as being taken off active duty for ‘stress’ did.”
Faith tapped the page. “Or having everyone think she was crazy.”


“What’s ‘conduct unbecoming of an officer’ mean?” Buffy asked.


“Dunno. Maybe she punched someone or… heh.”


“What?”


“Uh, looks like she shares some of our tastes B. Looks like she got caught doing the nasty with some chick, and now she’s in trouble. Which I think, is what set all this off.”


“You can’t be gay in the military?”


“Nope.”


“Oh. Well what about Riley’s friend Graham?”


“The dude with the chin? He’s gay?”


Buffy nodded. “Riley told me a story about waking up to find Graham snuggling him, fast asleep.”


“The Boy Toy is gay too?”


Buffy smirked and gently punched Faith in the shoulder. “No. After the embarrassment wore off, he thought it was kinda funny. But no, he’s married. To a girl.”


Faith smirked a little. “It is sorta funny.”


She thought for a moment. “I guess maybe he’s in a special unit with different rules, maybe? Or maybe the bosses don’t know?”
Faith brightened. “Hey, don’t ask, don’t tell. That’s what that is.”


“Well, maybe we can offer…” Buffy read the notes, “Tamara an exciting new career in evil-fighting.”


“You used to get visions of vamps an’ shit when you were a potential?” Faith asked.

Buffy nodded.

“Me too.”


“That’ll be useful. Check this out.” Faith said holding up a page. “She was busted for fighting in O
‘connor’s. Bet you anything you like, she’s there now.”


“Um, I guess taking Axcalibur is a little overkill,” Buffy said, fiddling with the tennis ball on the handle of the Scythe.


“I don’t think it will fit in the wall-safe, B. might wanna take it downstairs and get them to lock it in the vault.”


“Ok. Sounds like a plan. Let’s go.”


“I believe someone is owed a reward, for being so restrained with the smoking-drinking thing. And I want to get to it,” Buffy said, leaning over to whisper in Faith’s ear. “Fucked until you pass out. That was what you said wasn’t it?”


Faith swallowed. “Oh yeah. I said that.”


Buffy nibbled her ear, producing a soft moan.

“Then we should go. So we can pick up Tamara, and come back here and fuck your brains out.”

Buffy’s eyes widened as she realized what she’d said. “No! I mean, so she can be safe somewhere else, and then I can fuck your brains out!”


Faith fell back on the bed laughing, her belly rippling as she laughed. “Priceless. Don’t worry B. Got the real deal right here, not looking for any cheap imitations. Even if she does look like an angry version of that cute blonde from Stargate.”



Buffy buried her face in the comforter.


“Come B. Don’t make me be the responsible one. Be all leadership Buffy ‘n’ stuff.”


Buffy rolled over with a groan. “Fine.”
She huffed, and sat up.
Reaching out to rummage through her bag she asked, “Which do you think is my best ‘hey we’re not crazy’ top?”


She held up a soft pink top and a dark red one. “The pink one is cute, the red one is hot. What look were you going for?”


“Uh. Cute seems safer. Pink it is.”


She looked up at Faith. “And you?”


“That slinky dark blue number. Really shows off my rack.”


Buffy rolled her eyes. “All your clothes show off the goods.”


Faith smirked. “Can’t help looking hot B. Just look on the bright side. Anyone not jealous of you, is gonna be jealous of me. Or is a gay guy.”


Buffy hauled a grumbling Faith to her feet. “Come on you shameless hussy. Let’s get freshened up and go check out this bar.”


“This would be the bar that I can’t drink at?”


“No,” Buffy said, shaking her head. “All bars are bars you can’t drink at.”


Faith shrugged. “Eh. Probably a dive any way.”


+++


Faith stared, clearly annoyed.
“Goddamn! First decent bar I’ve been in for months, and can I get a beer? Hell no.”


Buffy patted her on the butt before scooting in through the doorway.
Faith raised an eyebrow. For Buffy, that was pretty daring, though she was starting to discover, Buffy had an adventurous side.
“Suddenly I’m less worried about the Guinness.”


Buffy scanned the room with a practiced eye, locking on a short-haired blonde woman in a corner booth.
Faith scanned the room also, taking in the smell of wood, fresh beer and gathered folks.


The bar was clean and well kept, with just enough roughness around the edges to give it a level of street cred. A good working-man’s bar.
She sighed. Some days just sucked.
She spotted the blonde that Buffy had picked out, and silently went to the bar.




Buffy moved over and sat down at the table with the blonde woman. She smiled disarmingly.
“Hi, I’m Buffy.”


Tamara looked up. “For real?”


Buffy nodded cheerfully. The woman giving her a measuring look had startling brown eyes, rimmed with grey.


Tamara looked at her, measuring. “Hey Buffy. Not really in the mood for company right now.” Her eyes fell on the gold axe medallion gleaming at Buffy’s throat. “Uh, or a date for that matter.”


“She’s engaged,” Faith said, making an appearance with three tall glasses. The fruit cocktail she slid over to Buffy, who took it without a glance. The dark, creamy-topped beer she pushed over to Tamara, reserving a large coke for herself.


“To her,” Buffy said, taking a sip of her fruity, only slightly alcoholic drink.


Tamara noticed Faith’s matching medallion and ring and looked slightly worried. “Uh… look, you guys are pretty an’ all, but I ain’t into that.”


“Bitch, you couldn’t handle ‘that,’ so just calm the fuck down, ok?”


“Look, I’ve had a shit day. So I don’t wanna hear about Amway, or Jesus or whatever amazing thing saved you, or made you born again.”


Faith smirked. “Yeah, you’re pretty safe there.”


“Ok,” Buffy chirped. “If you don’t wanna listen to us, how about you tell us about why you’re having such a horrible day?”


“About how I’m up on charges, probably gonna get kicked out of the service for somthin’ stupid at a party? Or locked up as a crazy person because I made the mistake of trusting my shrink?”
She took a long swallow of the beer in front of her. “No thanks.”


“That sounds like a shit day alright.”
Faith took a similarly large gulp of her coke.
“So let me tell you about a shit day I had once.”


Tamara looked askance at Faith.


“See I was a kid, and I had issues with foster homes. I didn’t like them and they didn’t like me. The reason they kept after me was because every night I had nightmares. Real bad ones.”


“What the fuck does this have to do with me?” Tamara said angrily.


Buffy bristled, until Faith laid a restraining hand on her arm.
“You’ll see. Hell of a payoff, I promise.”

Faith drank some more of her moisture-beaded coke.
“So every night I’m having these nightmares. Every time I close my eyes I’m seein’ girls dyin’. Every night I’m seeing pale dudes with yellow eyes and bumpy foreheads. Every night I’m seein’ big red and green dudes with horns and shit killin’ all these brave girls. And they don’t go down easy. They go down kickin’ and screamin’, taking the yellow eyed and horned dudes with them.”


Tamara stared at her, white faced and silent.


“But they do go down. All those brave girls.”

Faith sipped her coke.
“So I make the mistake of tellin’ the one person who I kinda trusted, my shrink. And what does she do? She tells my case worker. And right away I get labelled as ‘delusional’ and ‘problematic’. Suddenly my shit life gets worse.”

“So I get bounced from one shitty home to another, until I end up in this one place. It don’t seem too bad, y’know? I mean the story is, more kids run away from there than anywhere else, but it still don’t seem to bad. The would-be Ma ain’t too bitchy, and the would-be Da ain't too grabby.”

“Turns out their kid is locked in the attic, all bumpy faced and pale. And they try to feed me ta him. The fuckers.”

“Turns out those nightmares, those brave girls, they taught me somethin’. ‘Cos them bumpy headed guys? They don’t like sunlight.”
Faith mimed pulling down a curtain. “Curtain. Window. Poof.”

Faith sipped her coke. In eerie synchronicity, Buffy and Tamara sipped their drinks. In the background, the hubbub of the bar continued, oblivious of the women in the corner.
“But it ain’t all shit. One day it got good.

“See, I’d been raised a good catholic girl. Sorta. And I prayed. Used to pray a fair bit. I prayed for my Ma to get off the bottle, but nothin’ happened. I prayed for someone to protect me from Lenny, my Ma’s boyfriend.”
“No-one came then either. Or when I prayed for someone to come rescue me from juvvie.”

Faith sipped her coke.

“I’d pretty much given up on all that crap. But one night I got cornered on the street. Four real pale dudes cornered me.”
“Didn’t matter how hard I hit them, or how fast I ran. They just laughed and kept coming.”

“I figured I was done for. And to be honest, it was kind of a relief. I was so tired. Tired of the cold, tired of the hunger. Tired of dudes tryin to fuck me over, just because they could.”

“But I still didn’t wanna die. And fuck me, if I didn’t pray for help.”
“They laughed, the bastards. They laughed at the crying shaking girl, praying for her life in some shitty alleyway.”

“They were shoving me around, playing with me like a cat with a mouse. They were letting me hit them, letting me take my best shot. Because I was just some skinny girl. No training, no muscles. I couldn’t hurt them and I knew it. But I was determined to go down fighting, just like those girls in my nightmares.”

Faith looked up, her eyes almost glowing with intensity. “This time, help came. This time my prayer was answered.”

“And I felt them. All those brave girls. The girls who stood alone and fought the night. Thousands of them. They held out their hands, lifted me up, and called me sister. Their strength flowed into me, the strength of a line of women warriors reaching back to the dawn of time. Limitless courage.”
“And the next time I punched one of those guys, he went through a wall.”


Tamara stared at her, and silently drained her drink.
“Cool story sister. Thanks for the drink.”
With that, she slid from her stool and walked off.


Buffy and Faith stared at her retreating back in surprise.
“Huh. Really thought I was getting somewhere there.”


Buffy squeezed her hand. “Well I loved it. That’s so much better than what happened to me. I just felt really oogy and spaced out. I think I stared at the sun for like, five minutes.”


Faith raised an eyebrow. “For real? The strength of the Slayer line flows into you, and you space?”


Buffy just shrugged. “I wasn’t fighting for my life. I was waiting to be picked up from school.”


Faith shook her head in disbelief. “Man, I really opened up to that chick. I never told anyone about that shit before, and she just walks off,” Faith said.


She took a big swallow of coke, clearly wishing it had more of a hit to it.
“Bitch,” She huffed. “Any ideas?”


Buffy nodded. “Yep. Same way we got everyone else on the Scooby train. We rescue her from vampires. I say we slay some vampires in front of her, and then see what she has to say.”


“Gotta work better than this. I really thought that if I told her what happened to me, she’d see she wasn’t alone.”


“I seem to remember this other tough Boston girl. She needed more than one or two attempts to get through to. Took years if I remember rightly.”


Faith grinned wryly. “True.”


“Uh, so. How do we want to do the vamp thing?” Buffy asked.


Faith shrugged. “Dunno. We can either grab a vamp and drag it to her, or y’know, the other way. And I’m pretty sure that’ll cause trouble.”


“Cool,” Buffy said. “You keep an eye on Tamara, and I’ll go bag us a vamp.”


“Oh man, why do I have to be on bitch detail?”


“Of the two of us, which is currently pregnant, and from Boston?”


Faith glared. “Hey, no fair pulling out the pregnancy card! I only just got frikkin’ pregnant, it’s way too soon to be doing alla that shit.”


“All what?” Buffy said, confused.


“Alla that ‘wrap me in cotton wool’ shit,” Faith grumbled.


“Ugh. Faith, I’m not trying to do that… much. I just don’t know my way around Boston, like, at all and-”


“And that’s why you’re going to keep tabs on Tammy, while I go rustle up some nice vamps,” Faith finished, smiling just a touch smugly.

It was Buffy’s turn to glare.

Faith sighed. “Look B, I’m not being an idiot here, I swear. I know that I’m gonna have to cut back on the slaying, at least until the little princess pops out. But for now, I ain’t pushin’ my belly around in a wheel-barrow, and it’s no major risk, ok?”


A thousand angry and worried protests rushed to Buffy’s tongue, stifled only by supreme effort of will. She could feel how important this was to Faith, and she knew Faith could tell how badly she wanted to say no.
It all came down to trust, Buffy realized.
She stopped, and let out a deep breath. “I trust you Faith.”


And she realized that she did. Faith still gave off a strong reckless vibe, and still talked a good game. But Buffy realized that in the time she’d been back in her life, she had always tried to do the responsible thing, at least as far as she saw it.
“I trust you with my life, the life of my friends and… the life of our baby.”


“Peanut,” Faith corrected.


Buffy glared, “I’m trying to have a moment here, be serious.”


“I am B. But this little princess inside me isn’t even really a baby yet, just sort of a little peanut thing. BB even gave me a picture.”


“Well, she’s our peanut. And please stop calling her that.”


“Rock, paper, scissors?” Faith suggested.

Buffy rolled her eyes with a sneaky smile.

“Ok?” Faith said, holding out her hand. Buffy followed suit.

“1…2…3!” Faith held out her hand fingers spread in a ‘V’.


Buffy held her hand flat.
“What?! You cheated!” she protested. “You were thinking rock, the whole time!”


Faith laughed. “Sucker! C’mon B, I know you. Ya sneaky little minx. I figure you just couldn’t help yourself, and you had to peak.”
Faith drained the last of her coke. “Now scoot. There’s this freaked out blonde you gotta catch up to. While I go vamp hunting.”


Buffy huffed. “Fine. I’ll go after the angry blonde Bostonian, who thinks I’m after her. Which is entirely true, just not for the reasons she thinks.”
She eyed Faith. “Do you have enough stuff?”


Faith grinned. “Two stakes, two knives, a short sword and a hip flask of holy water. I’m good.”


Buffy blinked. “God Faith, what do you bring on a date?”


“An axe. Now scoot.”


“Ok, I’m scooting, skedaddling even.” Buffy got up, finishing the last of her cocktail.
She looked at her love. All smiles, now that she’d won. “Be careful, muffin.”


“No worries Bumblebee.”


They left the bar together, Faith concentrating hard.
“Ok, I got a few bad guys scattered around, nearest group is over there somewhere.” She gestured vaguely at a rougher looking area. “Can you tell me if they’re vamps?”


Buffy concentrated. “Um, if they’re the nearest group, then yes, they’re vampires. Two new ones and an older vamp.”


“Sweet! See ya in a bit, honey!”


“Ahem?” Buffy said, pointing to her face. “Kisses please.”


Faith grinned. “And you thought I was gonna run of without kissing the little woman goodbye?”


“I am not-” Buffy said, her protests broken off by a passionate kiss. Involuntarily she moaned as Faith’s tongue wrestled with hers, her leg popping up behind her unconsciously.
When they broke for air Buffy looked a little spacey. “Wow. What was I complaining about?”


“Oh yeah, mad skills. See you soon!” and with that, Faith bolted.


Buffy watched her fiancé run off down the road, before mentally kicking herself. “Right… Tamara.”


She pulled out the map Willow had provided. Tamara’s place was directly down the main road from here, as was the gym. Buffy figured if she’d fled the bar, she was likely in one of the two places. She left at a brisk jog.


Some minutes later she felt a surge of triumph from Faith ‘Hey B! got rid of the big one and the other. Got the last one all tied up. Where you at?’


‘Just passing the gym. I think… she’s in there. I can feel… something. Like when you’re around, only really faint.’


‘Awesome. Well, I’ll drag piñata boy over there, and we can put on a show when she gets out.’


‘See you soon.’


Buffy bounced into the gym, looking for all the world as though she were looking for a jazzercize class. Ignoring the admiring glances from the gym patrons, she strode through the building until she found Tamara in an obvious dojo area. The area was decked out in the traditional fashion: mats, wooden weapons of various types, and the logos of the numerous martial arts clubs that used the space.

Buffy unobtrusively hid in the shadows and just watched Tamara move. Her blonde hair held back with a sweatband, body clad in a white martial arts outfit. She was moving through a kata, a set series of martial arts moves, with a speed and fluidity that spoke of long practice.
Buffy admired the way she moved, her mind in sync with Tamara’s movements. On occasion, when she just needed time to process, she had resorted to the elegant simplicity of kata. It was good to get the body moving and the brain stopped, from time to time.
In her head she could feel Faith getting closer, the odd swear word drifting across the link as she dealt with the troublesome vampire.


She became aware that she was being stared at.

Tamara had stopped her movements and was staring at Buffy as she stared goofily into the middle distance.


“Uh, hey,” Buffy said with a little wave.


“Are you stalking me?” Tamara asked, clearly annoyed.


“Uh, no? Yes? I don’t know?” Buffy said uncertainly.


“Well that narrows it down,” Tamara said, dripping with sarcasm.


“Look, I’m sorry. We’re just trying to help.”


“So said everyone else in my life who screwed me over. Everyone wants to help. Just seems interesting that this ‘help’ always seems to make my life worse. Now go away. I’m not interested, and I don’t want your ‘help’,” she said putting in little air quotes.


“Hey!” Buffy protested.


“Go away. You’re interrupting my workout.”


“I could work out with you if you like.”


Tamara looked disbelieving. “You?”


“Yes me. I’ll have you know I’m pretty good in a fight.”


Tamara snorted. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”



Five minutes later saw Buffy in clean but worn set of yoga pants, and a belted top scrounged from the lost property.
The two women squared off against each other. Tamara was clearly an advocate of karate from her solid, aggressive stance. Buffy on the other hand simply waited, her stance loose and easy, looking for all the world as though she was waiting for a taxi.



“Are you going to take this seriously?” Tamara complained.


“I am,” Buffy protested. “Do I not look serious?”


“No.”


Buffy sighed. “Story of my life. Look, I’ll make you a deal. Throw me out of the circle, pin me or put me on the ground, and I promise we’ll leave you alone.”


“Ok.”


“And if do any of that to you, you have to let me and Faith talk to you ok?”


“Deal,” Tamara said, moving aggressively towards Buffy. She lashed out with snap-kick. Nothing fancy, just a rock-hard heel to the solar plexus. By rights the tiny blonde she was fighting should have flown back a couple of meters and crumpled.

Instead Buffy just stepped easily to one side and lifted the foot as it went by. Tamara’s other foot left the ground and she slammed into the mat, flat on her back.

Buffy stepped back as Tamara rolled smoothly to her feet and lashed out to sweep her feet from under her.

Again she simply lifted a foot and let Tamara’s leg swing by. The speed of her reactions, and the precision she was able to apply to the movements made everything look effortless.

Something that annoyed Tamara no end. She smoothly flung a series of punches at Buffy’s head, becoming quite annoyed as Buffy simply leaned slightly to the side and watched the fists go by.

“Goddamn it woman! Stop dancing around and fight!”


“Sure!” Buffy replied chirpily.


Next time Tamara lashed out with a roundhouse punch to her head, Buffy blocked it. The thud was audible, as was Tamara’s gasp of pain. Hitting Buffy was like hitting an iron bar, and she didn’t budge a millimetre.
Tamara shook off her arm, now partly numb. She looked at Buffy with new respect.

Buffy’s fist blurred and slammed into Tamara's sternum with the force of a wrecking ball. A grunt was forced from her body as she went flying backwards onto the mats. She gasped for breath like a fish out of water.


“Jesus B, you don’t have to kill her,” Faith said.


“Hey, I only hit her once. And weren’t you supposed to be bringing someone?”


Faith shrugged. “He was slowing me down.”
She brushed a little dust off her jacket. “Don’t look now, but someone’s ready for more.


Tamara was getting painfully to her feet. “Not… out… yet!” she gasped.


“God, is everyone from Boston this stubborn?”


Faith grinned. “Is that a trick question?”


Tamara set herself and kicked at Buffy, a short snappy kick, leaving no chance for Buffy to catch her like last time.
Buffy didn’t move at all and Tamara’s tough foot slammed into her knee, effectively bouncing right off. Tamara gasped in pain again and put her foot down gingerly.


“What’s the deal B?”


“She beats me, we leave her alone. I beat her, she listens to us.”


“Wicked. So beat her already, and then we can talk.”


Tamara glared. “Bring it bitch.”


“God, this is almost exactly like dealing with you, at your most stubborn!”


Faith just laughed.

Buffy sighed as another kick went sailing past her head.
In a blur of motion, she punched Tamara in the thigh muscle, rammed an elbow into her solar plexus and shoved back on her head until she was lifted off her feet. Again Tamara slammed down onto the mat, flat on her back and gasping for breath.

This time Buffy planted a hand on her breastbone and pushed her down.
The angry blonde writhed and gasped. “Lemme… up!”


“Nope. You have to admit defeat, and then we can talk.”


“Never!” Tamara lifted her good leg and tried to ram her knee into the side of Buffy’s head. Buffy caught the knee with her spare hand and pushed it back down.
“Let me go!”


“Nope.”


The woman glared at her, fire in her eyes. She knew she was outmatched, and she didn’t care. Buffy saw a spark of something there, something familiar, and something-

Her head rocked back as Tamara backhanded her face and shoved with her legs. Buffy was certainly strong, but she didn’t mass much and she flew back a short distance. Tamara rolled to her feet and came after her, raining punch after punch against her, not giving her time to dodge. Buffy just blocked them, Tamara slamming against her rock-hard defences again and again.


Buffy went on the offensive, ramming a knee into Tamara’s stomach, and following up with a brutal left-right punch combo to her head. She was pulling her punches as much as she could, but they still hit hard.

Tamara didn’t go down. Buffy battered the woman with short, hard jabs and kicks, trying to get her woozy enough to give up, without actually hurting her.

Tamara grinned savagely, her teeth stained red with blood from her split lip. With a scream she hurled herself at Buffy, kicking low and to the mid-section, spinning to unleash a lethal kick to Buffy’s head. Buffy lifted the flying foot and kicked, sending Tamara flying. Somehow she twisted and slammed into the mat on one knee, instantly springing back for more.


‘B! Something’s not right here!’ Faith shouted in her mind. ‘She’s not goin’ down, she’s getting stronger!’

The next punch that came at Buffy’s head, she grabbed and pulled, using the momentum to spin and slam her elbow brutally into the back of Tamara’s skull.
It was a blow that should have dropped anyone.


Tamara staggered, shaking her head.
Buffy raised her eyebrows in surprise as Tamara turned to face her.

She looked at Buffy, her eyes like blue fire. She spoke, weird harmonics in her voice making her sound as though a great host was speaking through her. “We… we greet you… sister.”

Buffy froze in shock as she felt something growing, unfurling in the older blonde woman. It prickled at her Slayer senses. But unlike the cold of a vampire, this was hot. It burned like fire, almost overwhelming her senses.

‘B!’ Faith shouted in her mind.

Buffy felt that there should be lights, and possibly exploding windows, to go with the hurricane of supernatural force howling through the room.

Power ancient and vast filled the dojo, unfathomable in its depth. It burned like the power of the summer sun, vast, eternal, furious. It was born of rage and pain and the absolute, undying resistance of a thousand generations of warriors. And it was utterly familiar to Buffy.
Tamara let out a scream of pain, and loss, and limitless fury.

The birth cry of a new Slayer.


When Tamara opened her blue eyes, Buffy saw something new in them. Recognition.
“They called me sister,” she said wonderingly.


“You’re one of us now Tam,” Faith said softly.


“There’s something magnificent inside a Slayer,” Buffy recited wonderingly. “And it responds to other Slayers.”


“Uh, what?” Faith said.


“Something Giles said a while ago. Something about us bringing out the best in each other.”


Tamara flexed her fingers. “I feel different. Stronger.”


“Tam! Are you ok?” a voice said. The women looked around to see an exceptionally burly man looking into the room.


Tamara smiled. “Yeah Barney, I’m good. Really really good.”


“Because there was this scream? Near made my hair fall out.”


Tamara smiled. “Just getting it out of my system. It’s all good Barn.”


“Ok. If you’re sure,” he said, looking significantly at Buffy and Faith.


“Don’t sweat it Barn. They’re… family.”

He shook his head wonderingly, but he left the room.

“What just happened?” Tamara asked.


“You just became a Slayer,” Faith said.


“How?”


“I got no idea. B?”


Buffy just shrugged. “I’m as lost as you are. I know what just happened, but the why part? That part’s a little bit fuzzy.”


Tamara looked at her hands. “So much strength. So many lonely girls. So much darkness.”
She looked up at Buffy and Faith. “I know what I am now.”


“Sounds like you got the deluxe package. I blame B for that.”


“Uh, sorry?” Tamara said, still a little spacey.


“The becoming a Slayer thing,” Faith explained. “It takes everyone differently. B here spaced for about five minutes, and I got a real short version of what you got. Sometimes it comes with info and visions, sometimes not.”


“You were a potential Slayer,” Buffy said. “Now you’re a Slayer for real. A potential becomes a Slayer when the previous Slayer dies…”

She stopped and rummaged in her pocket for her (allegedly) indestructible phone, ignoring the questioning looks as she held up her free hand to still conversation.
She hit the speed dial and waited for a few tense seconds for someone to pick up.

“Giles! What happened?”


“What happened?” he repeated, confused. “Whatever is the matter Buffy?” Giles responded.


“Are all the girls ok?” she asked worriedly.


“As far as I know, yes. There are no patrols out at the moment and things are quiet. What has happened?”


“The girl we came to see-”


“How old are you exactly?” Tamara interrupted.


Buffy glared. “The woman we came to see. She just did the Slayer thing.”


“The Slayer thing?” Giles asked, a note of concern in his voice.


“The whatchamacallit when you become a Slayer. The Slayer army is now plus one. And I’m hoping there isn’t a minus one to balance it out.”


“Called, Buffy. She was Called to life as a Slayer.”


“Right, that. She totally did it.”


“How on earth? What happened?”


“Er,” Buffy hesitated. “I might have been fighting her… a bit.”


“A bit?” Giles asked incredulously.


“A little bit?” Buffy said self-consciously.


“You were supposed to help her, not fight her,” Giles said with a disapproving tone.


“We totally did! We totally helped her, and-and in the process of helping her, a small amount of fighting took place.”


Giles sighed. “As long as everyone is alright.”


Buffy nodded enthusiastically. “Yep. Nothing worse than bruises. Now, about the girls?”


“I’ll get Xander and Dawn to organize a roll call at once. It will take some time to be absolutely certain, but at this stage I’m moderately confidant that no one has met an untimely end.”


“Ok. Well, as much as I’m glad no one died, how can this happen?”


“Buffy,” Giles replied, “I’m in the dark as much as you are. I have access to thousands of years of Watcher and Slayer lore. But all of that is useless, at least for this.”


“But Giles, you’re like, super librarian guy. With the books. And the other things.”


“Scrolls?” he enquired.


“Yep.”


“Which are also books, of a sort.”

“Okay.”


“One girl in all the world Buffy. One,” he stated. “What we are doing now has never happened before. So you might imagine that those books you mentioned are a little light on helpful facts.”


“Any ideas then?” Buffy asked.


Giles ruminated for a moment.
“If I were forced to posit an hypothesis-“


“Which you are,” Buffy interrupted.


“Then I would suggest that perhaps miss O’Neil was in line to be the next Slayer, after Faith. Perhaps Faith’s near death experience called her. Or perhaps simple proximity to active Slayers was enough.”


“The next Slayer? But Giles, she’s way too old for that,” Buffy protested.


“Hey! Who’re you calling old, midget?” Tamara said, irked.


Buffy glared silently at the ‘midget’ comment. Faith tried and failed to hide a chuckle at the exchange.


“While it is true that Slayers are typically called between the ages of fifteen and seventeen, there is historical precedent for Slayers receiving the call much later in life. It’s not common, but it does happen.”


“How come G?” Faith interrupted, pushing close to the phone.


Giles sighed, a frustrated noise. “I honestly don’t know,” he replied. “There were a number of theories among watchers during the days of the old council. The favourites were stress, puberty and sheer proximity to a needful place for a Slayer to be.”

“There is also some evidence to suggest that the former council had a limited degree of control over who was Called. That is something Andrew is investigating in his limited free time.”


“Council?” Tamara asked softly.


“Bunch of tweedy English dudes who ran around telling the ‘one girl in all the world’ what to do,” Faith said.


“And never paid us,” Buffy added acidly.


“Now Buffy, you know that’s not true. The council paid a handsome stipend to me, which I passed on to your mother each month.”


“I got paid?” Buffy said incredulously.


“Oh, yeah,” Faith murmured quietly to Tamara. “It’s a paying gig.”


“Cool.”


“Buffy, how else do you think a gallery manager managed a home like yours, on a single salary? All those clothes, all those house repairs?”


“Alimony? Child support?”


“Yes. And the stipend paid to your mother,” Giles finished.
“Now regarding miss O’Neil, she is by no means old. Nor is she too old to be called as a Slayer. Why she was suddenly called, I don’t know, though I imagine sheer proximity to the two oldest Slayers had something to do with it.”


“And the fighting,” Faith added. “Fighting always gets a Slayer all juiced up.”


“Just small amount of fighting,” Buffy corrected.


“Quite.”

There was an awkward silence.

“Well. If miss O’Neil is now a fully-fledged Slayer, perhaps you two could explain things to her. And see if she’s interested in joining our cause.”


“Ok Giles. Will do.”


“And please Buffy, no more fighting.”


“Uh Giles? I’m not sure that’s possible. She’s a Slayer. She has to fight.”


He sighed again. “I’ll settle for you at least not fighting each other.”


“I can do that.”


“Then do speak to miss O’Neil and ask her if she would like to join us.”


“I can do that too. Ok Giles. Bye!”


“Goodbye Buffy, and do try to be delicate.”


Buffy pushed a button on the phone, satisfied when it beeped and stopped doing phone-y things.


“So, I heard most of that,” Tamara said. “Who’s this Giles guy?”


“Watcher dude,” Faith said. “Kinda looks after us, makes sure we have what we need, figures out how to kill the bad guys, that sort of thing.”


Tamara frowned. “English guy? Kind of older? Green eyes?”


Buffy raised an eyebrow. “How do you know Giles?” she said incredulously.


Tamara frowned, concentrating. “There were two women. Powerful. One had blonde hair with dark roots, the other a red-head.”


“Willow and Tara,” Buffy whispered.


“An older guy. Green eyes. Glasses. He’s crying.”


“Giles,” Buffy said quietly.


“Good looking guy. Dark curly hair, dark eyes.”


“Xander.”


“And a girl. Long hair. Pretty grey eyes.”


“Dawn,” Buffy sighed.


Tamara looked up. “She’s precious. The most important thing in the world.”


Buffy nodded. “How?”


Faith touched Buffy on the arm, and spoke softly. “I’ve seen it too.”


Buffy turned to Faith, puzzled. “You died, B. I saw it happen.”


“You saw?”


Faith nodded, tapping the side of her head. “Went crazy, remember?”
She turned to Tamara. “Most Slayers get visions. Dreams of previous Slayers. Battles, that sort of thing.”


Tamara nodded. “I’ve seen you too,” she said. “You two were fighting. A lot.”


Faith let out a breath as she ran her hand though her tousled hair. “Yeah. Went nuts a while ago. B had to bring me down.”

Buffy touched Faith softly, her eyes glittering. “I’m so sorry.”

Faith shook her head slowly. “Don’t be. It had to be done, and I’m glad it was you. Someone else might have fucked it up.”

She cleared her throat. “So, yeah. I figure you got the deluxe package when it came to visions. All Slayers get some visions, all Slayers are strong and fast and tough. Some are stronger, some are tougher, some get more visions.”

She poked Tamara in the shoulder. “I figure you for vision girl.”


“What are you?” she asked.


“The strong one. B’s the fast one. We both get visions, but not that much.”


“Anything else I should know about?” she asked.


Faith scratched her head. “Uh, strength, speed, healing, slaydar.” She grinned. “And the big BIG ‘O’.”


“Faith!” Buffy protested.


Faith laughed. “It’s true! Girl needs to know what’s gonna happen next time she gets busy, is all I’m sayin’.”


Tamara raised an eyebrow in question at Faith’s evil grin. Buffy tried very hard to pretend she hadn’t spoken, and continued her explanation.


“Faith has slaydar so good, it’s like she can see through walls. Me, not so much.”


Faith interjected smoothly, “But Buffy here can ID them at range, which I can’t do. I just get ‘Evil! Stab here!”


“Slaydar?” Tamara said, looking at Faith like she’d lost her mind.


Faith slung her arm around Buffy and Tamara’s shoulder. “Girlfriend, get changed. We’ll explain over food, ‘cos I guaran-fucking-tee you are hungry right about now.”


“Starved.”
Faith just grinned.




+++


The three women sat back with a happy sigh, the remains of a demolished Italian meal in front of each of them.


“Jesus, how do Italian women stay thin,” Tamara complained happily.

“Don’t think they do,” Faith said, eying the cheerfully plump chef.
She burped quietly. “Man, I could really use a beer right now. That would make this meal fucking perfect.”


“Pretty sure they got beer here.”


“Nope,” Buffy said cheerfully. “Faith’s eating for two, so no drinking for her.”


“Oh, right. Uh, congrats?”


“Cheers.”


“So, uh, have you guys been trying for long?”


Buffy blushed pinkly.
“Uh, nope. Just happened. Still trying to figure that one out.”


Tamara raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “Think they covered this one in boot camp. Boy plus girl, or turkey baster plus girl, equals baby.”


“And ten minutes ago you weren’t a goddamn super hero. So just accept that you live in a world where weird shit happens sometimes,” Faith said, looking annoyed.


“Jeez, so-ree,” Tamara said.


“Yeah, well. Touchy subject right now.”


“Uh, sorry. What happened?”


“Sore tits, throwing up. Turns out I’m preggo. No dudes. No one knows how.”


“Okaaay,” Tamara said.


“Now you know what we know,” Buffy said cheerily.


“Damn. Suddenly that just took all the fun out of being a lesbian.”

Buffy glared.

“Moving right along,” Tamara said awkwardly.
“So, a few days ago I thought I was losing my mind, and was this close to eating my own gun.”
She took a sip of her drink. “And today I find I’m one of the chosen few. Hell of a trip.”


Faith grinned with just a touch of sadness. “Yeah. Get used to that feeling. Welcome to your new life.”


“Awesome. So what was the British dude on the phone after?”


“You,” Buffy said.


“Me?”


“Yup. He thought you were a potential Slayer. He wanted us to bring you in and show you that you’re not crazy, or alone.”


“And now?”


“Now we’re going to bring you in and train you to fight.”


“Sister, I got a black belt and super powers. I don’t need training.”


Faith just laughed long and hard.
When she eventually recovered she said “Oh shit. You are really gonna regret saying that.”


Buffy just grinned evilly.


+++


“Bring it blondie.”


“You sure you don’t wanna let your dinner settle, before ya get your ass handed to ya?”


Tamara ignored Faith, to focus on the small blonde currently grinning at her.
“B? I don’t think she respects you yet.”


“That’ll change,” Buffy said.


“Ok chicas. No broken necks or gouged eyes. Other than that, anything goes. Bring your A game ladies.”

They were back in the dojo, geared up as before.
This time the atmosphere was a little more serious. Tamara was certainly locked on Buffy with laser-like intensity.
She rolled her shoulders.


And Buffy moved.
Faith’s breath cut off suddenly. She never seen anything move that fast.
Buffy stepped smartly to Tamara’s side, and before she could move, she punched her a half dozen times up and down her ribs and the side of her body.
Tamara yelped in pain, but before she was able to say anything, Buffy swept her front leg out and up with a well-placed kick. She used the momentum to drive Tamara into the floor, flat on her back.

Tamara crashed into the mats with shattering force, Buffy then used her momentum to drive an elbow into her midsection and roll off of her. Tamara rolled to her feet, gritting her teeth, only to have Buffy slam a sidekick between her shoulder blades. She bounced off the padded support pillar only to have Buffy hammer a series of three snappy kicks into her leg, midsection and head.

Tamara essayed an angry punch at Buffy’s head, only to have her flip backwards and kick her in the jaw.
She tried to follow up with a fast one two punch and kick combo, only to have Buffy block both punches hard, and block the kick with a kick of her own. All three hits landed with numbing force, and despite that, left Tamara with the feeling that Buffy was still holding back.

After that, she lost track. It just seemed like Buffy was hitting her everywhere, until at last a bullet-like uppercut lifted her off her feet.

She sailed almost peacefully through the air until she landed with a bone rattling thud on the mats.


Even her newly acquired powers had a hard time dealing with that, and she just lay there groaning.


“Y’know,” Faith said cheerfully, “that looks like respect right there.”


“I think it does,” Buffy said in a bright tone.


Tamara rolled over and staggered to her feet.


“Still thinking you don’t need training?” Faith asked innocently.


Tamara looked askance. Innocent didn’t really suit Faith.
“Jesus, what… just what?” she touched her brow gingerly.


“Don’t worry about a black eye, Buffy said. “Slayers don’t bruise. Like, at all.”


“Yeah, no shiner for you. Just some red marks for a while,” Faith said.


“I barely saw you move!” Tamara protested. She felt her jaw experimentally.


“Oh yeah. Shoulda said. Slayers get stronger and faster over time. B here is the oldest Slayer ever, with me right behind.”


“At least in terms of time served,” Buffy added. “I think the oldest actual Slayer would now be you,” she said, looking at Tamara


Tamara was still examining her injuries. “Christ, I’ve never been hit that hard in my life!”


Faith grinned again as she twirled a staff. “Yep. You got a killer right hook there B.”


“That looked a lot like Krav Maga, with some other stuff. What technique was that?” Tamara said. she moved over to the two women. Faith noticed that she was moving more smoothly already.


“All of them,” Faith said.


“Krav- what?” Buffy asked.


“Israeli military fighting style,” Tamara explained. “Not flashy, but it gets the job done.”


“Um, nope. Giles taught me karate and judo, and something-or-other-jitsu. He tried to teach me kung-fu, but I got the giggles every time he told me the names for stuff. We just sort of skipped that one.”


“Slayer-fu. Also known as ‘whatever works-jitsu’,” Faith said.


“Not flashy?” Buffy protested.


“Feeling a bit let down there B?”


“Hey, I can do impressive fighting.”


Faith slid out of her leather jacket and started undoing her boots. She parked them neatly next to Buffy’s squeal-inducing pair of hand-made boots.

Faith smirked lazily. “Wanna show the young-un’s how it’s done?”


“Are you sure?” Buffy said, looking significantly at Faith’s tummy.


Faith rolled her eyes, but didn’t protest too much. “B, it’s cool. Just don’t hit me in the baby maker, and we’ll be fine.”

Buffy still looked uncertain.

“C’mon B, it’ll be fun! When was the last time you and me really got the chance to cut loose?”


“Last week?”


Faith made a rude noise and padded out onto the mats. “That doesn’t count.”


Buffy reluctantly assumed a fighting stance, mirrored by Faith.
“Don’t hold back Bumblebee.”


Buffy twirled and spun, the blade of her foot lashing out in a head high spinning-kick. Faith blocked it with an audible thud that was felt through the floor.

She grinned. “It’s on girlfriend.”
She fired a series of three sharp kicks to Buffy’s legs and midsection, only to have them blocked by matching kicks.

Buffy slammed a palm into her breastbone, forcing a grunt from Faith, and a step back.

Faith retaliated by tugging on Buffy’s arm and punching her in the ribs as she went by.
She tried to throw Buffy by her arm, but Buffy went with it, flipping in midair, and lashing out with a heel to the side of Faith’s head. It was only a glancing blow, but it was enough to force her to let go.

“You’re still holdin’ back B!” Faith shouted, and leapt after her.

Tamara’s breath caught as she absorbed the panther-like fluidity of Faith’s attack. She leapt nearly ten feet in the air and came down with a knee strike that shook the room and splintered the hard wood of the floor. For anyone else it would have been a big mistake when Buffy ducked out of the way, and Faith’s knee hit the wood. Faith just grunted and bounced back to her feet to absorb Buffy’s next sally.


Both women traded punches and kicks that moved like lightning, blocking or ignoring the hits with heavy thuds and grunts.

Tamara looked on, her mouth open. Both women, dark and light, were moving so fast she had trouble tracking what was happening.

Eventually Faith managed to land a telling blow on Buffy. Tamara was sure she would go down, but she simply went with the hit, cartwheeling through the air to land smoothly and run up a pillar.

She flipped backwards off the padded concrete beam, over Faith’s head to land behind her. Her brutal kick to the back of Faith’s knee was blocked with a bone-shaking thud.

“I’ve seen the Matrix too, y’know,” Faith said as they paused to take stock.

Buffy just grinned back. “This could go on all night.”


+++


Sometime later, a freshly showered trio of girls staggered out into the night.

“My god! I’ve never seen anything like it!” Tamara said.

She looked at the pair of goofily grinning women arm in arm.

“Y’know, I’ve fought in tournaments. And a bout usually lasts a couple of minutes, tops.”

She ran a hand through her slightly damp hair. “What was that? An hour?”


Buffy stretched lazily. “A good warm up.”

She turned to face Tamara, some of the laziness fading. “Now you have a good idea what a Slayer is.”

She smiled a predatory smile. “Now it’s time to show you why a Slayer is.”


“You’re nuts. I’m exhausted just from looking at you two.” She shook her head in disbelief. “You guys hit hard enough to break concrete, and there’s not a mark on you.”


“And you just got the crap beaten out of you, and there’s barely a mark on you. Trust me, the more you get hit, the tougher you get.”

“And we’ve been hit a lot,” Buffy finished.

“Sometimes by each other,” Faith said ruefully.


Tamara stared in disbelief. Again.


Buffy just shrugged. “Ours is a complicated relationship.”


The trio walked in silence for a while, Faith sneakily slipping her hand into Buffy’s.
Buffy smiled and nudged Faith affectionately with her shoulder.

“So. We’re going to drop by our place, pick up some gear, and go hunting,” Buffy said.


“What are we hunting?” Tamara said worriedly.


Faith answered, her voice sounding like chocolate and sex. “Vampires.”


Despite herself, Tamara perked up. “Really? Because even after all this, I’m still having trouble taking that seriously.”

Buffy just gave her an incredulous look.

Tamara raised her hands in surrender. “I know, I know. I should really be on board with this stuff. But it’s hard.”


“If it helps, leprechauns aren’t real,” Buffy said smiling sympathetically.


Faith cleared her throat.

“Oh come on!” Buffy protested. “Giles told me that!”

Faith looked awkward. “Uh, yeah. Here not so much, but in the old country, yeah. Fairies, leprechauns, fetches, the whole nine yards.”


She explained to Tamara, “Over there they have other shit goin’ on. Lots of pacts and blood oaths and crap like that keeping things from boiling over. Here in the new world, not so much. So we get the rowdy ones. I figure that’s why there’s more Slayers in the good old US of A.”


“So what do we run into here?” Tamara said, unconsciously using ‘we’.


“Vampires,” Buffy said. “Lots and lots of vampires. And about twenty different kinds of demons. But mainly vamps.”

“You got any gear you need to get” Faith asked.


“Yeah. I need to swing by my place,” Tamara said, already planning out what she needed.


+++


Deep in the tunnels below Boston, a group of vampires awaited the return of their hunters. All was silent until the metal door slammed open and a small blonde woman strode in, flanked by a larger brunette and one in full military gear. Two were dressed for a casual night out: jeans and a nice top. The third was kitted out for war, wearing full military body armour, an assault rifle and a sword.

“Woohoo!” The little blonde said, bouncing on her toes when the vampires growled.


“I love it when we outnumber them!” she said.
She waved an axe casually, almost like a fashion accessory.


“Someone can’t count,” growled the largest vampire.


“And that’s the leader,” the brunette muttered to the military-looking woman. “Just can-not keep their mouths shut.”


“Hey!” said the small blonde, focusing her ire on the leader. “I’m actually quite good at math. Most people look at me and think ‘Oh hey, she’s good at Home EC’ or something.”


“She isn’t,” interjected the brunette, getting an elbow for her troubles.


“But I’m really quite good at the math. We have you outnumbered three to ten, because I’m the Slayer.”


She pointed to the brunette. “And she’s the Slayer.” The brunette took a bow.


“And this one with the gun? Also the Slayer.”


Incongruously, the armed and armoured one waved. She took aim at the leader and triggered a burst into his chest.
The rifle roared, deafening in the confined space. Stale blood sprayed from the vampire’s chest, dark and syrupy. He staggered back with a look of pain.


The little blonde uncovered her ears. “Sorry about that, she’s new. Was that your favourite shirt?”


“That’s why we don’t use guns,” the brunette murmured. “Try for the head.”


“There goes a perfectly good quip about dressing for a funeral,” the blonde complained.


“Get them!” the leader roared.


+++


“Oh my god, what a rush!” Tamara said, dancing around gleefully waving a short sword.
Buffy giggled as the heavily armed woman danced around Faith, like a big kid.
Faith just laughed and went with it, letting Tamara spin her around.
She froze when Tamara planted a big celebratory kiss, right on her mouth.


She backed out of the embrace with a grunt.
“Yeah, I should have mentioned that. Mowing down vamps an’ demons an’ other evil shit will really get your motor running.”


Tamara coughed. “Uh, sorry. I uh, don’t really know why I did that.”


Faith shrugged. “No worries. Think I’ll live. You might not though.”


Tamara felt a polite tap on her shoulder. She turned and got a glimpse of a small fist moving like lightning. It filled her world in the nano-second before her vision exploded into stars.


She came to, lying on the ground some distance away.


Buffy stood between her and Faith, her stance wide and battle ready, everything in her posture screaming possession.
She growled. “Mine.”


Faith smirked. “Shoulda mentioned that B’s the possessive type.”


She looked Buffy up and down. “Jesus B. Anyone ever tell you, you’re hot when you get all bossy?”


Buffy’s combative stance vanished like smoke. “Yup. There’s this nice brunette that I know. She says stuff like that all the time.”
She turned to Tamara. “You get one free pass. That was it. So remember that, and we’ll be fine.”


Tamara coughed and groaned. The world was tilted, and she couldn’t even feel the left side of her face. “That was a free pass?” she mumbled, trailing off with a groan.


“B? You wanna show her what a real punch looks like?”


Buffy nodded wordlessly and approached the concrete support pillar in the middle of the basement. Her fist snapped out like a striking snake and slammed into the pillar with a sharp crack. She grunted with the force of the blow, and concrete showered out from the impact, smashing a neat scallop of concrete from the pillar. A few last bits of concrete fell, revealing the bent steel reinforcing beneath.


Tamara groaned a little and woozily got to her feet. “Right. Point taken. Sorry.”


Buffy moved back to Faith, picking bits of concrete from her knuckles. “I have an owie. Kisses please.”


Faith smiled as she took the proffered hand. Gently, she kissed the reddened knuckles, smiling at the gooshy feelings flowing from Buffy.
She smiled a little more as the roughened skin smoothed in front of her eyes, and the redness faded away.

“All better,” Buffy said, smiling shyly.

Faith smiled softly back. Even now, that soft, flirty smile took her breath away.


Tamara looked away awkwardly. “Get a room,” she muttered under her breath.


“Good plan,” Buffy said. She rummaged in Faith’s pocket and pulled out a room key.
She tossed it to Tamara. “We got you a room at a fancy hotel. We’re just down the hall.”


She looked surprised, and a little woozy. She looked blankly at the keys in her hand. “Why?”


“We didn’t know your sitch. We thought you might need a place. Or a holiday,” Buffy said. She snuggled into Faith with an appreciative hum.


“Either way Tammy, room’s yours. Have fun. Have a party, and we’ll see you in the morning.”


She rubbed her face ruefully, wincing when her fingers brushed her jaw. “Then what?”


“That’s up to you,” Buffy said. “We have two training programs. One that teaches you how to stay alive, and then sends you back to your life. With a little help, and some new friends.”


“And the other?”


Faith cleared her throat. “The other turns you into a warrior the likes of which the world has never seen. Then you join our crazy little family, and you slay.”


“So this is what I get to do? Go out in the night and hunt evil things, and kill them?”


“Yeah. How’s that sound?”


“Fuckin’ A,” Tamara breathed. Her eyes were almost glowing.


“Damn B. Think we got ourselves a full-blown warrior princess right here.”


“It made me crazy,” Tamara breathed. “I always wanted to fight, and I always felt bad about it. You’re not supposed to want to kill, right?”


Buffy and Faith both nodded silently in agreement.


“But I was made for it, I was made to kill. But I was made to kill evil.”


She quirked a smile. “Destroy all that which is evil, so that which is good may flourish.”
Faith snorted and made a sound, that for anyone else would be a giggle.


Buffy looked at her in amazement.
“Hey, I thought that was pretty good! Why are you giggling?”


More giggling ensued, with Tamara joining in.
Buffy frowned, clearly not enjoying being out of the loop.
“Bumblebee, you remember that movie I told you about?”


+++


“OH FUUUUUUCK!”

Faith laughed helplessly as the cry was heard through the walls.


Buffy grumbled. “I would have thought this place would have better soundproofing.”


Between laughs Faith said. “I don’t think she believed me, B.”
She grinned. “Hey, that rhymes. I’m a poet, and I didn’t even know it.”


Buffy made a face.
“Let’s get out of here honey,” she said. “There’s some shopping to do, and a treat for a certain well-behaved Slayer.”


“Shopping? Treat? Fuck the shopping, let’s have that treat!”


“The shopping is for the treat,” Buffy said.
She leaned over and whispered in her ear. “There’s going to be sexy negligees, a schoolgirl’s uniform, a nun’s outfit and toys.”


Faith whimpered, and said in a small, submissive voice, “Ok.”


Buffy pulled out her purse. “Let’s go shopping.”


“Wicked,” Faith breathed, awestruck. It wasn’t often that Buffy got all bossy and take-charge in the bedroom side of things, or at least the equipment part. But when she did… Faith just about melted on the spot.


+++


One hour later, Faith was in shock.
Or whatever it was, that completely shuts down your brain in the presence of too much sexiness.


Currently she was dressed as a sexy schoolgirl, in an altogether too-short skirt.
Ok, if she was honest with herself, it was ‘slutty schoolgirl.’ But that was fine for tonight.


Buffy was still wearing her sexy nun’s outfit that she’d tried on, and had just finished buying the last of the toys and things.


Part of the wonder of their relationship was their complete equality. They were physically equal, and equal in most other things too.
But watching Buffy going all bossy and demanding in a sex shop had Faith looking thoughtfully at a collar.
Nah. Bossy Buffy was enough of a turn on.


“Hey B. Got any fun new toys?”


The sternness melted from her face. “Yep!” she said brightly.


Faith smiled softly. She knew what Buffy was doing.
She was using her ‘General Buffy’ hat to get her through the epic embarrassment of buying toys in a sex shop. Buffy wasn’t actually as uptight as Faith had accused her of from time to time, but she was easily embarrassed by emotional or sexual stuff.

“So, what did ya get?”


Buffy closed the small suitcase with a click. She smiled, an expression carrying a welter of emotions. Anticipation, nervousness, embarrassment and lust.


Faith smirked. “I see that look on your face, an’ I can't wait to get back to the hotel.”


“You’ll find out what’s in the case very shortly. But I want them to be a surprise.”


“Them? How many toys did you buy?”


Buffy blushed. “They’re not all toys. But yeah, I got a few… things.”


Faith just grinned, somewhere between evilly, and blissfully.


“I’m not saying our love life is stale or anything, but I have some… treats… for later,” Buffy said shyly.


“Wicked. Be prepared and shit. Y’know, like girl scouts.”


Buffy raised an eyebrow. “You were a girl scout?”


Faith snickered. “Ate one maybe. That’s about as close as I got.”


Buffy cleared her throat. “Do a good deed every day.”


“Uh, what?”


“That’s the girl scout motto,” Buffy said blushing slightly.


“You were a girl scout?” Faith said, a little disbelievingly.


“Uh, no. Mom wanted me to do that stuff, be all self-reliant and… stuff. She was a girl-scout back in the day. I guess she wanted me to follow in her footsteps. At least a little bit.”

Faith was grinning evilly. In her ‘schoolgirl’ outfit it looked decidedly odd.

Buffy sighed. “Yes, I was predictably bad at it. I quit the scouts to go shopping. No malls in the woods,” she explained


“Heh, I can believe that.”


She came closer. “You know B, you don’t have to do all of this. Sex with you is so mind blowing I can barely form thoughts.”


Buffy just gave her a look. “You act like I have to be persuaded. I like to get a little frisky too from time to time, you know?”


Faith grinned. “You know, there’s a horn-dog under that innocent blonde exterior.”


“Hey, I dated a vampire, a super soldier, a man-whore and arguably another vampire. I can hold my own in the kink department, ok?”

She leaned forward to whisper in Faith’s ear. “Besides, this is not all about sex. This is about anticipation.”


Faith shuddered. Buffy really knew how to work it, when she put her mind to it.

“And foreplay.”


Faith groaned. “Oh man. I’m so dead.”


“And all your naughty fantasies.”


“Oh wow.”


“Not because our love life needs spicing up. But because I love you, and want to give you an extra special treat. And make some of your naughty dreams come true.”

“Wicked.”


“And hey, I knocked you up. So it’s only fair I pamper you, and cater to your every fantasy,” Buffy said brightly.


That got her a funny look from the sales clerk. Working in a sex shop catering largely to lesbians, she clearly thought she’d heard everything.

“Can I help you?” Buffy said sharply to the clerk.

Embarrassed at being caught eavesdropping, the clerk looked away.


“Right. Let’s get out of here uh, my little parfait.”
She grimaced, as if she couldn’t believe the words coming out of her own mouth.
“Ok, don’t say anything. I was rushed. Let’s just go, because you and me have a date with a bear-skin rug, and a bag full of surprises.”


Faith didn’t say a word. She just walked out the door, towing Buffy by the hand.


Buffy just giggled. “Was it something I said?”


+++


“Miss Lehane. I’m sorry to have to do this, but there must be discipline in our classes.”


Faith shuffled forward, head down.
“I-I understand sister,” she said in a small voice.


Buffy sat primly in the old-style wooden chair, taken from the dining room.
She patted her lap. “Come here dear,” she said crisply, but with a hint of warmth.


Obediently, Faith shuffled over and lay herself in Buffy’s lap, her pleated school skirt barely covering her taut behind.
She felt indescribably vulnerable, and turned on, especially seeing as she wasn’t wearing any panties.
All Buffy had to do was lift her skirt.


“I do this because a love you,” Buffy said softly.

And with that, she brought her hand down for a stinging swat.


Faith gasped, more from the intensity of the situation, than from any actual pain.
She moaned. She didn’t think she could get any wetter, but she was wrong.


Buffy brought her hand down in another stinging swat.
Just the right amount of force to feel it, to make it intense without detracting from the experience.
After the third swat, Faith came.
She tried hard to keep quiet, but she knew Buffy could feel her shudder, and hear her stifled moans.


She whimpered as Buffy slowly slid her hand up her thigh.
The small, warm hand slipped under her skirt, and flipped it over, exposing her naked rear.
The next swat landed on her naked behind.
Faith whimpered, feeling incredibly exposed and vulnerable.
And so turned on it was stupid.


The next sharp swat landed, hitting her other cheek.
Faith was sure she could feel moisture trickling down her inner thigh.


Another sharp swat, and the fleshy, crack sound of Buffy’s dainty hand on her cheek.
God, if this kept up she was going to-

Without warning, Buffy slipped two fingers into her slick folds.


“FUUUUUCK!”


+++


Tamara rolled over and buried her head under the pillows with a frustrated groan.
She was definitely discovering some of the minor down-sides to the enhanced-senses part of being a Slayer.
If she heard one more ‘Buffeeee!’ or ‘Faaaaith!’ she was going to lose her mind.


Though Faith hadn’t lied about the orgasm thing, jesus.


Her companion for the evening, was sleeping the blissfully happy sleep of the thoroughly satiated.
Just thinking about what they’d gotten up to over the last few hours, gave her a tingle low in her belly.
She groaned into her pillow.


The girl she’d picked up at the bar had been fun. Happy, cheerful, and up for all sorts of play.
She lacked stamina. Though if she was honest with herself, three hours of sex was pretty good.
She prized her head out of the pillow and looked at her companion.


Pale skin, long raven-black hair, slim build. And when they were awake, the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.
Even now, asleep, she had a hint of blissful smile on her face.


Jesus that had been good.
She’d been avoiding women for months while the JAG screwed around with her case.
They’d given her an open offer to leave, with an honourable discharge.
Which given the state of things was pretty good.

It was still a fucking cop out, and it pissed her off to this day.
But they’d definitely been dragging their feet with the case.
She’d put up with the foot-dragging, because she really wanted to get back in the saddle again.


Then along came Buffy, and Faith.
She grinned to herself. Now she got to fight evil.
To spend her life fighting side by side with her sister warriors.
And even fly again, if Buffy was to be believed.
She really wanted to meet the guy who had the balls to fly a British warplane around the states, as his own personal taxi.


And they didn’t give a fuck who she slept with.
So, she’d handed in her notice, accepted her offer, and gone out with a bang.
Literally.


She’d rolled in to a bar on Jamaica Plains with a weird mix of anticipation and fear. And she’d gone for the first gorgeous woman she could find.
Something about her eyes had attracted her instantly.
She’d ploughed through the crowd like an icebreaker in the arctic and taken her hand, distracting her from whatever conversation she’s been having.


“I want you. Right now,” she’d said, her voice thick with hunger.
The raw need in her eyes had triggered something in those indigo depths, and her lover had squeezed her hand tight, and nodded her consent.

And Tamara’d scooped her up and carried her out of there.


Corrine (that was her name, Tamara finally remembered) had been swept away at first, but had been a more than enthusiastic participant. And then she’d been an amazed participant, until finally three or more hours of ‘ohmigods’ later, she’d finally passed out.

And Tamara had collapsed next to her.


But her engine was still running, and sleep was eluding her.
She was tempted to get dressed and look for something evil to kill.
She flagged that. She’d seen too many overconfident rookies get themselves blown up, to consider that a good idea.


She poked her companion in the shoulder, and got no response. The gentle breathing didn’t change at all.


She sighed. She’d probably go next door and talk to Buffy and Faith about stuff, but they were still enthusiastically, annoyingly busy, and showed no signs of slowing down.

She was contemplating getting up and hitting the gym, when Corrine snuggled up to her and mumbled something in her sleep.
‘Ok, that wasn’t so bad,’ she thought to herself.


She thought back to the incident that had started all this.
Drinking too much at a friend’s party, unable to deal with the things she saw all too frequently in her dreams.
And then there was this girl. This pretty, pretty girl.
Kissing her was… amazing.


And for an evening, she’d forgotten everything.
Forgotten the dreams, forgotten what the airforce was like, forgotten all the guys calling her ‘dyke.’
Oh the irony.


Jesus. Even now, just thinking about the sex was exciting.
Maybe not as amazing as half an hour ago, but more amazing because of the newness. Her first time.

Having her friend walk in on them the next morning wasn’t too much of a big deal.
She thought it was hilarious.
But her guest, Clarice, had freaked out when she’d woken.
And had accused her of taking advantage.
Her boyfriend turned out to be less than pleased.
Finding the future ‘missus boyfriend’ in bed with another woman was less fun than he’d thought it would be.


The others had been awoken by the loud voices, and it had not been long before the news had made its way back to the base.

It was surprising how much drama had been generated in a short time.
Probably not helped by the fact that the offended boyfriend had a general for a daddy.

Or knocking him the fuck out, when he’d started throwing words like ’slut’ and ‘dyke’ around.


Tamara groaned, as old and much re-hashed thoughts travelled their well-worn pathways through her brain.
Then she stopped and grinned.


Today was a new day. A day filled with fighting, flying and as much ‘girl time’ as she could handle.
And money. Lots of money.
Buffy hadn’t gone into details, but she had looked at Tamara’s paycheck and said “More. Lots more.”

She grinned in the dark. Maybe this ‘dyke’ thing had something going for it.

Corrine mumbled something happy in her sleep, and snuggled a bit closer.

Yeah, maybe it did have something going for it. Now if only she could get some sleep.
Then maybe she could surprise Corrine when she woke up.


“Faaaaaaith!” came echoing through the wall.


Fuck.


+++

P.S: I was wrong. The Boston chapter is just too huge to do in one post, so you'll have another chapter of Buffy and Faith in Boston to suffer through before we get back to Willow and Tara's big day

I'm confident you'll survive.

_________________
“All I feel is sunlight. All I hear is music.” Willow
How i Met Your Mother - By Ariel

My Story: Coming Home

Dibs-y Goodness!

Yay for excellent update-y goodness... I love Buffy's & Faith's recruitment trip to Boston... I'm glad Tamara got the crash course of being a Slayer...

_________________
We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Buggered

Posting while nude improves your mood...

I laughed when I saw that you added Starbuck as a Slayer. That and Tammy's reliance on military body armor and guns followed by Buffy's very clear declaration of "Mine!" sold it.

Though I'm wondering how Tammy will react when she finds out that all the other available slayers waiting for her at Slayer U are about half her age. Could be good. Could be a train wreck. Only time will tell.

I think I lost track but I wanted to ask how many weeks/months has it been in the story since Tara came back and has she caught all the other Scoobies up on what she went through in the other dimension at this point in time? Just curious.

_________________
Time and Time Again

Hey all!

Heya Zampsa, glad you liked

Hey Citanul!
Yeah i was in two minds as to Katie Sackhoff or Amanda Tapping. I figured just a little more butch was in order

Yeah, Tara caught everyone up on her adventures somewhere in the middle of it. I have it marked somewhere but i can't remember exactly where.
I was going to nail down an exact timeframe, but it occurred to me that i've read books that had timeframes accurate to the minute in the chapter heading, and it never helped matters. Also you have to be careful about the timeline.

So i left it vague on purpose.

Hope is growing at more than double the normal rate, which is only sustainable because Faith is a Slayer.
So it's 4 months or less from faith getting knocked up, to the birth.

Which will happen, if Buffy has to tear down the sky with her bare hands.

Anyhoo, here's the next chapter:
We get back to our favourite girls at the end, and the next chapter or tow is allll them


Trigger warning: talk of rape.


Slaying in Beantown

Faith awoke with the gentle morning sun shining through the window.
The beam of pale light turned Buffy’s hair into spun gold, and Faith lost the ability to breathe.
Or think straight.


‘God, is she really mine?’ she thought to herself.
Buffy may have been asleep, but she mumbled and snuggled close. Her arm wrapped protectively around Faith’s middle.

Faith looked down. She was barely showing yet, even if you knew what to look for. But she could feel it, feel the swelling, low on her body.
‘Damn, is this really happening?’


‘Yes it is. And I love you,’ Buffy sent back sleepily.
She snuggled a little closer, resting her soft cheek against Faith’s ample breast.


‘How long do you think it’s gonna take the little bean to pop out?’ Faith sent.


Buffy thought sleepily for a moment. ‘I don’t know. Maybe four and a half months? Maybe three?’
Her free hand roamed gently around Faith’s belly, gently kneading and stroking. Eventually her hand was able to zero in on the bump.
‘There you are,’ Buffy thought brightly.


A sense of warmth and bright joy flooded through Faith, as Buffy spoke to their baby.
Their baby. The thought made her shiver happily.
‘Fuck me, I’m gonna be a mom.’


‘Yes you are. And you’re going to be a great one,’ Buffy sent.
Her eyes opened, and she smiled sleepily at Faith.


‘Think so, huh?’


‘I know it. I see how you are with Anne. How gentle, how loving. You are going to be an amazing mommy.’


‘Anne? Oh, BB.’


‘Yes, Anne,’ Buffy replied acerbically.


‘C’mon B, you’re the only one who calls her that.’


‘I don’t care. That’s her official name.’
Buffy crawled up Faith slowly and planted a soft kiss on her lips, a quickly turned into a passionate smooching session.
‘Blech, morning breath,’ she complained while smooching.


Faith broke the kiss, unable to keep the grin off her face.
‘I think you’ll find its pussy-breath.’


Buffy flushed pinkly. ‘Only you could make me blush without actually speaking,’ she complained.


‘We should have a shower. We stink.’


Buffy agreed. ‘I am literally covered in you. This whole apartment smells like sex. I’m glad we have the thing on the door that says ‘no’ to room service.’

Buffy looked at her. ‘You did put the thing on the door, didn’t you?’


‘Hell yes. The last thing I wanna do is share your goodies with the world.’


With perfect timing, the suite door opened.
‘I thought you said-’ Buffy complained as she dove under the covers.


‘I did! I really fucking did!’ Faith protested.
Her hand reached out for the dagger she had tucked into the night stand.


“Jesus, what the fuck did you two get up to?” came a familiar voice from the front room.


Faith groaned. “Fuck off Tammy, unless you want your ass kicked some more!”


“Well get up dammit. I need to talk about some stuff.”


“Fuck me,” Faith muttered.


‘Make her go away!’ Buffy sent, from under the covers.


“What are you even doing here?” Faith shouted.


“You left the wrong thing on the door. So I followed the maid in,” Tamara said.
She appeared in the doorway, smirking.


Faith was covered up, but there was an obvious lump right in the middle of the bed, that signified Buffy hiding.


“So yeah, ya scared off the maid. There’s dildos, chocolate, schoolgirl stuff, and unless I miss my guess, part of a nun’s outfit out here.”


Faith could feel the heat of Buffy’s blush against her stomach.


“Oh yeah, and a really nice lacy bra hanging off the chandelier.”


“Fuck. The maid is here?”


Tamara laughed. “Hell no. She wasn’t fazed by the mess. But when she saw the bright pink, double-ended dildo by the fireplace, she ran out of here like her ass was on fire.”


‘Crap,’ Buffy sent, along with a distinct feeling of mortification.


Faith just laughed. “Well, fuck off a minute so we can clean up!”


“Yeah, alright. I’ll get breakfast. What do you want?”


“Bacon! Eggs!”


“For breakfast?” Tamara said.


“Hey, pregnant chick here. Gimme some bacon and eggs woman!”


“Aright aright. Uh, Buffy? What do you want?”


“Omelette? With cheese and mushrooms?” the Buffy-shaped lump said in a muffled voice.


“Check. Remind me not to get in any cars with you two today. Come to my room when you’re all cleaned up, and I’ll get the breakfast sent there.”


With that she left, quietly shutting the door.


After a short pause, Faith spoke up. “Told you I put the thing on the door.”


Buffy blew a raspberry against Faith’s stomach in response. “The wrong thing!”


Faith squealed and kicked her legs. “Damn, that tickles!”


Buffy stopped. “Hey! Shh!” she said urgently.


Faith quietened down, listening carefully.
Buffy laid her head against Faith’s belly with a sense of awe.


A sense of awe seeped through Faith from her link with Buffy.
“Baby… I can hear her heartbeat.”


Faith could not speak. All the emotions froze her brain, and her tongue.

“Hello Hope. Your mommies are looking forward to meeting you,” Buffy whispered.


The sense of warmth and joy flowed through Faith once again, and something clicked inside her.

“B, she can hear you,” she whispered.
Tears streamed down her face as she spoke. “Our baby can hear us.”


Tears pricked Buffy’s eyes as she pressed her cheek against Faith’s belly.
“We love you very much, baby.”


Faith’s eyes widened as she felt something happen deep inside her. “B? Did you feel-”

“-Our baby kicked!”


“Damn, that’s a hell of a kick!” Faith said proudly. “Uh, B? Ya wanna come up? Talking to the top of your head through the blankets is kinda weird.”


“Nope! I’m staying down here with the baby. Note how I cunningly said ‘baby.’ So no more ‘peanut’ comments,” Buffy admonished.


“Huh. That’s the way it is. Just usin’ me for my body.”


“Yep.”


“Damn, this relationship went downhill fast,” Faith said with a smirk.


“It happens,” Buffy said lightly.


“Well I guess I better come down there and sort this out,” she said with a grin and a sense of anticipation.


As soon as she started squirming her way under the sheets, Buffy squealed. “Nonononono!”


“Oh yeah.”


And for the next couple of minutes, all that was visible was a frantically jumping comforter, and a lot of squealing.


+++


Tamara looked up as Buffy and Faith came into the room, clean and somewhat damp.
They were all smiles, and Buffy’s hand never left Faith’s stomach.


“You guys took your time. Figured I was gonna have to eat it for ya.”


“That would have been bad. Hungry momma, right here,” Faith said.
She sat down and grabbed the lid off food, pleased to see a hefty pile of eggs, bacon, toast and a minimal garnish of greenery.

She handed the other plate to Buffy.


“Wow. That looks good,” Buffy said as she got face time with her omelette.


Faith was already inhaling her bacon and eggs. “Dig in B. Got a lotta stuff ta do today. Gonna need the fuel.”


Buffy nodded and made a start. “Mmm, yummy.”


Faith glanced around. “Your girl not joining us?”


Tamara shook her head. “Nah. Not my girl. She was really nice, but she insisted she’s not gay. Also, she doesn’t want to move ta Colorado, so…” she shrugged.


Faith snorted. “Not gay? You guys sure spent a lotta time fucking, for ‘not gay’ people.”


“Hey, I never said I wasn’t. Just… this morning after she’d gotten all snuggly, she kinda went a bit strange. Got all nervous, and wouldn’t talk.”


Buffy put down her fork. “I can relate. Not everybody can deal with big changes like that. Not everyone can shrug and just go ‘Uh, guess I’m gay.’” Buffy said.


“Wonder why that is?” Tamara said. “I mean, I told my mom I liked girls, and she just said ‘Don’t tell the airforce.’ That and ‘You’re still giving me grandchildren, one way or another.’”


Buffy laughed at the ‘grandchildren’ comment. “I don’t know. I freaked out more than anyone I know. But like, my mom worked in the art scene, two of my friends and my mom were kinda gay, and everyone was very non-judgy about all this stuff. I still went into major denial about all of it though.”


Tamara just shrugged. “Well, whatever the case, she’s gone now. Shame, she was really nice. And smoking hot.”


“Don’t worry about it. Where you’re going, there’s plenty more. Fish and all that,” Faith said.


“Faith, most of the girls are teenagers,” Buffy replied.


“Yeah. But what about Brie’s gang o’ pals? They’re all grown girls.”


Tamara waved her hand in front of them. “Hey, relax. I don’t need you guys to set me up. Got more important things to do. Speaking of which, what’s the plan for today?”


“We’re gonna be here at least one more day, probably two or three. So ya don’t have to pack your bags in a tearing hurry.”


Tamara nodded. “Sweet! That’ll give me a chance to pack my shit and wave goodbye. Uh, question? Some of the stuff I’ve picked up ain’t exactly legal. Could be a problem on a plane.”

Buffy raised an eyebrow.


Tamara cleared her throat and grinned sheepishly. “You may not realize, but it ain’t standard for a pilot to be runnin’ around with all those guns,” Tamara said, ruefully.


Faith smirked. “Not a problem. We didn’t fly. Also, any gear you don’t have, X-man can hook you up. He’s got every gun known to man.”


Tamara groaned. “Driving to Colorado? Are you nuts? That’ll take forever!”


Buffy chuckled. “We didn’t drive either.”


“Ok, quit being cryptic, how did you get here?”


“We teleported,” Buffy said.


“Now I know you’re bullshitting me.”


“I wish we were,” Faith said. “Makes me puke my ring out, but it’s still better than flyin’.”


“It makes me a little dizzy,” Buffy said. “But it’s not too bad.”

Faith gave her an evil look.

“Well, not too bad for me, anyway.”
She patted Faith on the hand. “Poor baby.”


“I’ll live. So, Tammy, we got some plans for today. Personal stuff mostly. You gonna be ok for the day?”


“Sure. I got a few friends to say goodbye to, a little packing to do. I also figure if I show up on base and bitch a little, it should speed up my discharge a bit, so hey.”


“Cool.”
Faith fiddled with her phone and sent Tamara a text. “That’s my phone number, B’s, and Slayer central’s emergency number. If something goes tits-up and you can’t get us, call that number and ask for Giles. He’s the one sent us down here to pick ya up, so he knows all about ya.”


“Aright. See ya later then I guess.”


“Do we get to finish breakfast first?” Buffy said around a mouthful of delicious omelette.


Tamara grinned. “Sure.”


“How’s the discharge thing work then?” Faith asked between mouthfuls of bacon.


Tamara sighed. “I’m officially suspended pending the ‘inquiry,’” she said, making air quotes.
“But I was given the option of an honourable discharge, if I left without making waves.”


“Did you?” Buffy asked.


“… Sort of.”


“That sounds like a ‘no’,” Buffy said.


“Well, I kicked up a bit of a stink, but nothing legal. Told them it was bullshit and all that. Mainly I hung on, hoping to get it all sorted out, so I could get back in the air.”


“Was there a chance?” Buffy asked.


Tamara shrugged. “I dunno. Airforce ain’t as bad for the whole ‘girls in uniform’ thing, and they aren’t as down on lesbians as they are on gay guys. But it’s still the military, and they still don’t like that stuff. Plus it was the general’s future daughter-in-law I ended up in bed with.”


“Oops,” Buffy said with a grimace.


“Yeah. So I figure, fuck it, I’m out. I’ll go do what I was born to do, y’know?”


Faith grinned. “Oh baby, they are gonna eat you up.”


Tamara gave her a funny look. “Huh?”


“You’re gonna have a cult following in less than a day,” Faith said.


“Yeah, you’re all bossy, and mature and stuff,” Buffy added. “Also hot.”


“Mature?! I’m not even fucking thirty!”


“Well that seems pretty old when you’re like, twenty three.”


“You’ll grow out of it,” Tamara said with a glare.


“Heh, nice one,” Faith said approvingly.


“Hey! You’re supposed to be on my side,” Buffy complained at Faith.


“We have ‘sides’ now?” Faith said. “I thought we were just makin’ jokes?”
She raised an interrogatory eyebrow. “And if ya wanna be like that, what’s with the ‘hot’ comment?”


“Oops. My bad. Sorry,” Buffy said, contrite.


Faith shrugged. “No worries. She is hot.”


“Hey, ladies? I’m sat right here,” Tamara grumbled. “Hot and all.”


“My bad,” Faith said, polishing off the last of her bacon and eggs. “Damn, that parsley was good. Remind me to get some more when we get back.”


“Cravings?” Buffy asked.


“Yeah, I guess. Just tasted real good is all.”


“Remind me never to get pregnant,” Tamara said.


“Yeah, well, we weren’t expecting it, that’s for sure,” Buffy said.
“I’m new at this whole ‘lesbian’ thing, but I was under the impression that one of the up-sides, was not getting pregnant.”


Tamara chuckled. “Yeah, I’d heard that too.”
She stood and stretched. “Well, I got to take my hot-self off, and sort my shit out.”


“Hold up.” Faith rummaged in her pack and tossed a small bundle to Tamara.


Tamara caught it, her eyebrows raising as she saw the contents. A neat stack of hundred dollar bills.


“You’re takin’ a lot on trust Tammy. I figure it’s only fair I show you we’re serious. Think of it as a signing bonus.”


“This has to be ten grand!”


Buffy leaned over to peek inside Faith’s pack. “What other goodies do you have in there?”


“Later B. Look Tam, we got more money than god. Ten grand is nothing. I didn’t even get Xander to sign out the money, I just took it out of my bank account.”


“That’s… a lot of money to just throw around,” Tamara said.


“The old Council has been around since time began,” Buffy said. “Say what you like about them, but they knew how to invest. Now we have all their money.”


Tamara gave her a curious look. “How much money?”


Buffy shrugged. “I don’t know, but our yearly income is in the billions of dollars. Anya just about wet herself when she found out how much money was involved.”


“Whoa.”


“Yep. That’s what I said. When Willow showed me the accounts, I had to count all the zeroes to figure it out.”


“How much would you pay people to risk their life, fighting vampires every week,” Faith asked, as Buffy finished the last of her omelette.


“Fair point.”


“So, the guardian types, they’re the ones who don’t really wanna be full-time Slayers. They get solid training, then they go home. In return for keeping an eye out and being our eyes and ears, they get a small weekly pay, and Red’s help getting into whatever college or job they want.”


“When we started, it was about half and half,” Buffy said. “Now after a few months training, most of the Guardian trainees have switched to the full Slayer program.”


“The only ones left are the ones with real heavy commitments to stuff. Mosta them are headed home pretty soon,” Faith said, putting her empty plate back on the tray.


“And we have some trainee witches,” Buffy said. “Not many. Thirty or so. Including my sister.”


“And a bunch of trainee watchers,” Faith added.


“Right. And the full-time Slayers get paid about a hundred thousand per year, once they graduate and get deployed.”


“Damn. That’s a decent pay scale. How does the deployment work?” Tamara asked.


Buffy grimaced. “Yeah, we’re still working out all the details of that one. In theory, every major city like LA, and New York gets a team of five Slayers and a watcher to do the research and paperwork.”


“In theory?”


“Yep. The problem is getting teams of five that can work together well, AND all want to go to the same place.”


“So far we can get one, or the other, but not both,” Faith said.


“Unit cohesion is far more important than keeping everybody super-happy,” Tamara said.
“Send them out in the good teams, even if they don’t get to go home. Hell, you’re paying them, right?”


Buffy nodded.


“Right. So, like the forces, explain this to them, then deploy them anyways.”


“Yeah. That’s pretty much what we’d settled on,” Buffy said.


“We also have a few roving groups, or we’re gonna,” Faith said.


“One of which is our Valkyrie squad,” Buffy added.


“They’re our heavy hitters.”


“Or as we call them, maniacs,” Buffy said.


“Hey! You be nice to my girls,” Faith said.


“Your girls?” Tamara asked.


“Yeah. They were kinda the problem kids. You know, angry, from shitty backgrounds, that sorta thing.”


Tamara gave Faith a thoughtful look. “Like you?”


Buffy laid a gentle hand on Faith.

Faith nodded. “Yeah. G-man figured I could relate. Turns out he was right.”


Tamara riffled the money like a deck of cards. “Well, I’m gonna bail and blow some of this wedge.”


Faith grinned. “Wadda ya gonna get?”


“Shoes. Guns. Beer. A really cool jacket. A sexy dress. And maybe some sexy underwear.”


Buffy made choking noises. “Uh, ok. Interesting list.”


“I should make a move,” Tamara said.


“B an’ me have some fairly major stuff to do today. So I’d be happy it if ya could not call us unless it’s important, yeah?”


Tamara nodded solemnly. “I hear ya. Will do. On another note, how much stuff can this teleport thing handle?”


“Well, we teleported five people plus gear on the way there,” Buffy said. “Plus six people, a tree and about a bazillion dusty books and scrolls on the way back. We still haven’t worked out how that happened, but I blame my sister.”


Tamara looked confused. “Okaaay. So a few bags shouldn’t be a problem then?”


Buffy shook her head, blonde hair swinging. “Nope. If you can carry it, we can move it.”


“Or Red and Glinda can, ‘cos we are totally useless at the magic thing,” Faith added.


“Sweet. A’right, I’m outa here. See you girls later on.”


“Bye!”


“See ya.”



+++



“Faaaith, come on! Please?”


“Nope. Wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I told you where we were going, now would it?”


“I hate surprises,” Buffy grumbled.


“No ya don’t. You just hate bad surprises.”


The pair were walking down town, after a short shopping trip.
Buffy’s bag included some very pretty shoes and some new outfits.


Faith was wearing a dark blue t-shirt with ‘baby on-board’ in bright yellow lettering, and an arrow pointing downwards.
She was also wearing some new and expensive jeans.
Most of the money went on jeans that ‘made her butt look awesome’, while still being comfortable for someone with a growing tummy.

Faith was grinning evilly as she towed Buffy towards her destination.
Buffy was busy sulking, due to Faith’s complete unwillingness to tell her where they were going.

“Just wanted you to know I was listening, that’s all,” Faith said.


“What? When?” Buffy sputtered.


“Ages ago, when you were telling me the things that you like to do.”


“But that could be anything! I like to do all sorts of things, you know.”


“Shoes, dresses, more shoes-”


“-Pussy,” Buffy interjected.


Faith stopped and stared at Buffy’s innocently smiling face.
“You’ve been taking lessons from Snow White, haven’t you?”


Buffy just smiled.
“I have the feeling that Tara has a dirtier mind than any of us realize.”


“I bet you anything you like, that Red knows exactly how dirty she can be.”


“No bet. I’m glad they’re happy, but I don’t want to know those things about my best friends.”


“And with that, ta-da! I’ve successfully distracted you from where we’re going. Surprize, B.”


Buffy looked around, and found herself standing under a tree, outside a glass-fronted place.
“Steriti… Rink? Ohmigod!”


Faith grinned. “Oh yeah. I do listen ya know.”


“Ohmigod! I love you so much!” Buffy squealed. She glommed onto Faith and swung her around and around in absolute joy.


Faith laughed happily as Buffy spun her around and around. “Don’t get me too dizzy B, I won’t be able to skate with you.”
Buffy all but carried her inside.



+++



“Damn, that’s tight. Sure you’re not overdoing it?”


“Yep. The tighter the better, otherwise you break your ankle.”


Buffy was kneeling in front of Faith, doing up her skates. Her own were already firmly strapped on.
Behind them, a few moms and kids skated. Being the middle of the week meant that they almost had the place to themselves.


Buffy stood and held out her hand to Faith. Hand in hand they waddled awkwardly to the ice.

“Never done this before B, so don’t drop me ok?”


“I won’t. I promise.”


“Alright. I trust ya.”


“Aww, you say the sweetest things,” Buffy said, smiling shyly.


Faith smiled softly back. “Well yeah. How couldn’t I, when you smile like that?”


Buffy just blushed a little, and helped Faith on to the ice.


“Ok honey, keep your feet level, and point your feet like this,” Buffy said, demonstrating.


Faith did so. “Hey, is this like rollerskating?”


Buffy bobbed her head. “Kinda, yeah.”


Hesitantly, Faith pushed off, and made her slow way forward.

“Hey, you’re doing it!” Buffy said, impressed.


“Yeah well, Slayer. That and I can rollerskate a little.”


Buffy took Faith’s hands and skated in front of her, backwards.

“Show off,” Faith said.

Buffy just giggled, and kept skating.


By the time they had completed a circuit, Faith was moving more confidently.
She moved up next to Buffy, and started skating hand in hand.


“There are days when being a Slayer is awesome,” Buffy said with a laugh.


“All days are awesome,” Faith said. She leaned over and said quietly in Buffy’s ear, “Especially when I’m with you.”

Buffy just blushed. Faith thought it was adorable.

“You are just so damn cute when you do that.”


“What?”


“Go all shy and cute like that.”


“You just like making me blush,” Buffy said, looking a little pink.


“Guilty as charged.”

By this stage, they were going quite fast, and Faith was moving almost as smoothly as Buffy.

Buffy was laughing brightly as they zoomed around the rink, hand in hand.
Faith even essayed turning around and going backwards for a while, her eyes locked on Buffy’s impressed smile.


For the next hour or so, they skated around the rink, Faith laughing from time to time at Buffy’s antics.
Buffy was almost floating around the rink with happiness, and the feelings of almost childlike joy were flooding the link they shared.
Much to her consternation, Faith found herself occasionally giggling.
But it was hard to be worried about it, with Buffy so obviously happy.

Buffy’s radiant smiles and joy were returned by the kids they skated past and a few of the parents too.


Almost two hours later, even Buffy was starting to find the idea of food more exciting than skating.

“Hey Bumblebee, wanna get some grub?” Faith asked. As much as she didn’t want to rain on Buffy’s parade, junior miss was making herself felt, and she was starved.


“Yep,” Buffy said dreamily.


At this point, they were swinging around and around, orbiting each other in the centre of the rink.
Faith was silently glad that one of the Slayer’s many advantages was a resistance to getting dizzy.
And sick.
So far, other than the teleport situation (which seemed to be getting slowly better), she’d gotten no more than a little queasy in the morning. And that passed by the time they’d actually rolled out of bed.

Buffy had her head thrown back, and was watching the roof spin by, her loose hair trailing behind her as she spun.


“Then let’s go, before the growls scare the kids,” Faith said.


Buffy righted herself. “Growls?” she said, clearly confused.


“Yeah. My stomach. I can’t be held responsible if it gets us kicked outa here for scaring people,” Faith said with a look of fake seriousness.


“Gosh, no. We can’t have that!” Buffy said with a wide-eyed seriousness that had Faith giggling again.

Buffy smiled and pulled Faith in close. “I love you, you know that? I love that you share your world with me, and I love just how sweet you are.”


Faith smiled back. “Ditto.”


Buffy laughed and rolled her eyes. “And you’re so romantic too.”


“Yeah. I got this romantic stuff cold.”


“Goof. C’mere,” Buffy said, pulling Faith in for a tender kiss.


The kiss was warm and gentle, like coming home.

When they broke apart, Buffy looked a little dreamy. “Mmm, Faith kisses. Yummy.”


“Do you mind?” came and angry woman’s voice. “There are children present.”


“Do you mind?” Buffy retorted sharply. “We’re trying to have a romantic moment here.”


“Well take it someplace else,” the woman replied angrily.


“Why do I have the feeling you wouldn’t be this pissed if one of us was a dude?” Faith said.


“Look, I’m not saying I hate gays,” the woman said. “If you want to be that way, that’s fine. Just do it somewhere that normal people don’t have to see it.”

“Hey lady? Fuck off,” Faith said. “If I wanna kiss my girl, I’m gonna kiss my girl.”


The woman gave them a disgusted look, but before she could storm off, Buffy opened up on her.
“Lady, I don’t know who you are or why you have a problem with gay people. And I just don’t care,” she said with a look that would have stripped paint.


“You need to understand something. I had to fight for my love with Faith. I have people right now trying to kill us both, to keep us apart. You don’t know what it’s like to fight for your love like that. And if you think for even one second I am going to stop loving or kissing my fiancé, just to please you, you are terribly mistaken.”


Buffy pointed out of the rink. “Now you go away, and leave the rink to the people who aren’t bigoted idiots.”
The woman looked about ready to protest. But there was something terrifying in the eyes of the small blonde that made all protests die in her throat.

She nodded numbly and left, dragging her protesting child.


Faith gave Buffy an impressed look. “Damn B. You can be scary when ya’ wanna be.”


She nodded, the hard flinty look melting from her eyes. “Yeah well. She was taking a bazooka to my balloon of happiness.”


Faith grinned. “No worries pumpkin. I think we all know I like it when you get all hot and bothered.”


The last of the hard look faded as Buffy laughed. “Pumpkin? I thought we did that one already?”


“Uh, it’s hard to keep track of ‘em all.”


“Pear?” she suggested, looking fixedly at Buffy’s chest.

Buffy swatted her good-naturedly.

“Peach?” Faith tried, looking further down.


Buffy laughed. “Oh my god, you’re obsessed with sex.”


Faith waggled her eyebrows suggestively and leaned over to check out Buffy’s butt. “Yep. Can you blame me? Though I can’t think of a cool ‘buns’ related nickname.”


“You’re terrible,” Buffy said, smiling.


“Yep.”


“This was wonderful… darling,” Buffy said hesitantly.


Faith raised an eyebrow. “Trying out something new?”


Buffy shrugged awkwardly. “Yeah. Mom used to say it all the time. It might be a bit grown up for me though.”


“Yeah, well,” Faith said uncertainly. “A bit of grown up might be good for this next bit?”


“Uh, what are we doing next?”


Faith let out a breath. “Somethin’ hard.”
She ran her hands through her hair, something she did when she was nervous, or thinking. “Talking to Snow White got me thinkin’ about my own past. Not the shitty stuff, but like, who my Da was, an’ all that crap.”


Buffy squeezed her hand reassuringly. “What do we need to do?”


“Raid the old homestead. X-man’s digging got me thinking. Ma sometimes got kinda weepy when she talked about ‘the good old days.’ She had a stash of stuff from her first boyfriend, stuff that she used to go through when she got all weird. I didn’t think too much about it at the time. I mean, what do I care about ma’s old boy toy, y’know?”


Buffy nodded her encouragement.

“But now I know my Da ain’t the dude I thought he was, I’m thinking that stuff might be my real Da’s.”


“And you want to get it?” Buffy asked softly.


Faith nodded. “Yeah. Might be able to get Red and Glinda to track him down. Who knows, he might be a stand-up guy?”


Buffy smiled sadly. “I hope so.”


Faith shrugged. “Can’t be much worse. Dave skipped out on me and Ma. Took everything we had according to her, I was too young to remember that shit. After that the dudes just got worse and worse. Ma never could handle bein’ alone, so she just latched onto the next provider.”

Her voice turned hollow. “Then there was Lenny.”


Buffy slammed her mental shield into place.
She’d been practicing, she could barely stand the level of hate and rage that flooded her, and she didn’t want to inflict that on Faith.
Had her life been anything less than a nightly battle for survival, she would never have had the strength to hold herself together.


Faith touched her shoulder to get her attention. “S’ok B. I get it. I’d feel the same way if it was you.”


Buffy nodded jerkily. Years of emotional pain gave her the tools to function, despite her feelings. “How… how are we going to do this?” she asked unsteadily.


Faith let out a tired sounding sigh. “Talked to Tara about this a little bit. I figure, we just sneak in, look around and grab it.”


“And if someone else is living there?”


Faith shrugged. “The same. I guess we could ask ‘em if they seem nice. But it ain’t that kinda neighbourhood, so don’t hold your breath.”


“And if he’s there?” she said softly.


“Fuck. I dunno.”


“Baby, I don’t know if I can… not kill him. I don’t think I have the strength.”


Faith shook her head. “It ain’t about him, B. Alive, dead, I don’t care. It’s about you still being you. I don’t want you getting hurt the way I did.”


“I know. And you’re right, and I believe you completely. I just don’t know if I can stop myself honey. I hate him so much I can barely breathe.”


Faith nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I get it. Uh, how about this, you break all his arms and legs, but leave him alive?”


Buffy nodded solemnly. “I’ll try my best Faith, I really will.”


Faith nodded. “Good enough. Let’s go.”


Ten minutes later the pair were leaving the rink, as happy as could be, under the circumstances.


“B? This might sound kinda weird, but I wanna swing by the bank.”


“Ok,” Buffy said slightly more brightly. “Why do you want to go to the building o’ money?”


“I’ve been thinking about our situation, and some of the things you’ve said. I don’t owe my Ma anything. She was a shit parent, hell Mrs S was a better mom to me in a couple of days, than my Ma was her whole life.”

She stopped and sighed, running her free hand through her hair to help her think. “But we’re gonna be Moms now, and that made me think about her sitch a little. Think how fucked up I’d have been without the Scoobs to look after me, all preggo an’ shit.”


“I get it,” Buffy said. “But what does the bank have to do with this?”


“B? My Ma was kind of a victim herself. I really dunno how much of what happened was her fault, or just her just bein’ outta her depth, y’know?”

Buffy nodded her understanding.

“So I ain’t saying all is forgiven, but if we run into my Ma, I wanna give her some money. Like the guy we met under the bridge. I figure she can use it to get her life together, or kill herself off for good.”


Buffy nodded. She searched through her feelings, and the feelings she was getting from Faith.
Faith’s feelings were very mixed and murky, but she could feel an almost desperate need to do the right thing.
And to prove something.
“Why, baby?”


“Because I don’t wanna do the wrong thing, B. But I don’t know what the right thing is. Fuck, I dunno about any of this shit. So I figure, I’ll give her the money. Enough to make a go of it, make a new start someplace else. And if she does, maybe we can talk.”


“Baby, what if she doesn’t? What if she just blows it all?”


Faith shrugged. “If she drinks herself to death, fuck her. She had her chance.”


“Baby?”


“Look, B. I don’t know what the right thing to do is. So I’m gonna give her the chance. Kill or cure right?”



Buffy didn’t know what to say, what the right thing to do was.
This woman had done so much harm to her child, to one she was supposed to protect.
As a soon-to-be mom, Buffy couldn’t imagine anyone feeling that way.
She may not have asked for it, or even understood how. But she already felt a fierce protectiveness towards the tiny life growing inside Faith.
How could someone hurt their own child? Or simply stand by and let someone else do it?
She was lost.


So she concentrated on what Faith was feeling. Anger, disappointment, loss.
And under that, almost hidden from Faith herself, hope.


Hope that she could have a normal relationship with her mother.
Hope that perhaps she could be redeemed, despite the horrors of the past.
Hope that if she could be, perhaps there was hope for Faith herself.

But Faith had been hurt so very badly, so she would have to prove herself before Faith would extend trust.


Buffy nodded. “I get it.”


Faith looked surprised. “Ya do?”


Buffy nodded slowly. “I think so. Like, you want to be forgiving, but you want to be sensible about it. So she has to prove she’s worth it, and this is her chance to do that.”


Faith just looked at her with a sense of wonder. “That’s why I love you B. You just get it.”


Buffy chuckled and took her hand. “That’s the first time I’ve ever been accused of that, smooshy pooh.”


“Oh you take that back.”


Buffy shock her head vigorously. “Nope.”


Faith threw up her hands. “I see how this relationship is. I’m gonna be all barefoot and pregnant, and you’re gonna be al ‘give me a sammich, woman!’”


Buffy beamed, and bobbed her head. “Yep.”


Faith grinned evilly. “Fine. But next time, you’re havin’ the baby, and I’ll be all ‘gimme a sammich.’”


Buffy’s eye went wide. “Next time?! I’ve only barely got a handle on this time!”


“What? I’m the chick here? I’m supposed to have all the kids?”


Buffy sputtered. “Kids?! Plural?! Ohmigod!”
She became aware of Faith grinning at her.
“Oh that’s just evil.”


“Sorry snuggle-pumpkin. Can you forgive me?” Faith said, batting her eyes in a very non-Faith way.


“Har-de-Har.” Buffy said flatly. “Come on, let’s get out of here. Maybe we can go slay something and calm that amazing sense of humour that you’ve got.”


“Or sex? We could have more of that. I’m pretty sure I’ll calm down after getting wriggly,” Faith said hopefully.


“Give the funny bone a rest, and there could be sex,” Buffy said dryly.


Faith mimed zipping her mouth, though her action concealed a happy smile.



+++



Some hours later, they were standing in the darkening streets of the nastier part of south boston.
A ‘quick trip to the bank’ had turned into a ‘long trip to the bank,’ as it had taken a while to organize ten thousand dollars in cash, along with all the paperwork to authorize it.


“You know,” Buffy started. “As a Slayer, I’ve always had a bullseye painted on my back.”
She eyed the small pack Faith was carrying, which was stuffed with money. “But somehow, now I feel like someone dipped me in steak sauce and the sharks are circling.”


Faith chuckled. “I would have gone with ‘honey’ and ‘lesbians,’ but steak sauce is good too.”


“Chocolate,” Buffy said absently, looking around.
She blinked as her brain caught on to what her mouth had said.


“Chocolate, check,” Faith said. “Anyways, we can have that later. For now I wanna show you another one of those rare bright spots in boston.”


Buffy quit looking around and paid attention. “Oh?”


“Yep. I wanna introduce you to father McIlhenny.”


“The priest guy you mentioned? Cool!” she looked around some more, this time focusing on places rather than people. “Using my amazing powers of deduction I’m guessing we’re headed over there,” she said pointing to the old church, visible in the dimming light.


“Uh-huh. Let’s go.”
Faith held out her hand, and Buffy took it happily.


“Are we likely to get a repeat of skating-rink lady?” she asked.


Faith shrugged. “I dunno. Too bad for them if we do. The few girls I hooked up with weren’t from around here, so I dunno how they feel about lesbos here.”

They crossed the street and headed for the church. The door was unlocked and Faith lead the way inside, Buffy in tow.



Inside Faith stopped to take in the smell of the place. A few deep relaxing breaths later, she opened her eyes and smiled.
She spied a familiar tall shape pottering about, getting the place ready for the evening service.

“Yo father!” she shouted into the echoing silence.

The figure looked up in surprise. “What- Faith?”


Buffy smiled. He did look a lot like Giles, though he obviously lacked the other man’s glasses, and English accent.


“Is it you girl?” he said in his strong irish-boston accent.


“Aye father, ‘tis me indeed,” Faith said in a terrible irish accent.


With that she let go of Buffy and bounded forward to engulf the man in a hug.

He laughed and hugged her back. “’tis good to see you girl! How have you been?”


She laughed as she let him go. “Good father, good. Fuck it, real damn good!”


He snorted. “Some things never change.”
He caught sight of Buffy. “And who is your friend here?”


Faith held out her hand and Buffy moved over and took it with a shy smile.
“This father, is my fiancé, Buffy.”


“Hello father,” she said with a little Willow-style wave.


He raised an eyebrow at the revelation, but held out his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. Buffy… was it?”


Buffy smiled. “Yes… I’m from California.”


“You don’t say?” he said with a wry grin.
He turned to Faith. “Fiancé? Since when did you decide to settle down and get married? And to a woman no less.”


Faith grinned brightly. “When you find the right girl, you just have to marry her, that’s all there is to it.”


“Never a truer word was said.”


“Um, not that I’m complaining or anything,” Buffy said uncertainly. “But aren’t you supposed to be against this sort of thing?”


The priest looked at her seriously. “Do you love her?”


Buffy nodded. “Yes.”


“Will you fight for her?”


“I already have. But if need be, I’d lay down my life for her.”


He smiled. “Then that’s all you need, Buffy.”


“Father McIlhenny ain’t your typical priest, B,” Faith said with a smirk.


“My parents come from a very old part of Ireland. This Christianity is a bit new-fangled for the likes of us.”


Buffy looked at him in disbelief. “You’re a catholic priest!”


“No, I’m Irish. Catholic priest is my job. And where my people come from, we remember the old gods.”


“B, did you notice the name on the door?”


“Saint… something or other.”


“Saint Bridgit’s church.”


“Like Willow’s goddess?”


“Uh-huh.”


“We respect our roots here,” he said. “And The Lady would never condemn true love.”


“The Lady?”


“Well, it wouldn’t do to go around worshipping pagan gods now, would it? But there’s nothing wrong with respecting your roots.”


Buffy grinned. “Stealth priest, gotcha.”


He grinned back. “I don’t know what you mean. Now, how did you two meet?”


“Uh, work?” Buffy said uncertainly.


“B’s the Slayer.”


“What?!” the father said, eyes wide with surprize.


“What?!” Buffy said, eyes similarly wide.


They stared at each other, and then turned to Faith.


“Chill B. He knows.”


“You’re the Slayer?” he said, his tone caught somewhere between reverence and disbelief.


“Um, I guess I’m outed now. Yep, I’m the Slayer. So’s Faith.”


His stunned gaze turned to Faith.


She shrugged. “Yeah.”


“I understood that the Slayer was one of the greatest forces for good in the world. I also understood there could be only one.”


“Yeah. I did kinda die that one time. Well, twice really. Then Faith eventually became the Slayer.”


“There’s a lot of us now. Nearly two thousand at the school, and maybe more coming.”


“Two… thousand?!”


Faith grinned. “Yeah. Things are different now.”


“Fucking murphy’s balls, Faith. You’re not kidding.”


Buffy chuckled at his shocked expression. “We closed the Hellmouth in California,” she said. “And we are training a Slayer army. Pretty soon we’ll be driving back the darkness, everywhere in the world.”


“We might actually win this,” Faith said. “If y’know, we can stay alive and all.”


“If the Powers That Be don’t kill us.”


“What?”


“Oh right. Yeah, sorry. The Powers That Be went all kill-y on us. So far they’ve sent demons, ex-demons and who knows what else to try and do Faith in. It nearly worked.”
Buffy took Faith’s hand reassuringly, though it looked to be as much for her own comfort as anything else.


“Powers That Be? That’s usually a term for distant bosses. And why are they trying to kill you?”


Buffy shot Faith a look. ‘Do we tell him? I mean, he’s your friend, and I don’t want to break his head.’


‘Yeah. I know what ya mean. I dunno. I guess the smartest thing would be to ask him.’


“Yeah, so father, if I told you that I knew something that would totally screw up your life, because it was the truth… would you want me to keep quiet, or open my big yap?”


He gave her a funny look. “Faith, I’ve always told you that no-one should fear the truth.”


“Yeah, you did. But are you sure? Because I ain’t kidding father, this is gonna rock your world, and you can’t un-hear it.”


“Faith, what is it?”


“Well, there’s a prophesy…”



+++



“I feel kinda bad,” Buffy said. “I mean we dropped all of that on him, and then ran off.”


“Naw, he needed some space to think, I guess.”


They turned a corner into a somewhat dingier street. “I was feeling a little bad, until I remembered what kind of guy I was dealing with. He’d wanna know the truth, no matter what. ‘Better a hard truth, than a pretty lie’ he always used to say.”


Buffy nudged Faith with her shoulder. “He’s an important guy to you, huh?”


Faith nodded back. “Yeah. I don’t think I’d have made it without him. He’s a standup guy.”


Buffy looked around. “I notice things have gotten darker and more horrible. Are we going somewhere specific?”


Faith nodded. “Yeah. Time for the big finish. There are a few friends around I could say hey to, but we weren’t that close. No, it’s time to go visit my ma, or the strange new people who live there.”


“Ah, the skating rink makes sense now,” Buffy said.


“Well yeah. I really can’t see a way that this visit isn’t gonna suck on some level. So I figured, do the happy thing, while we’re happy, y’know?”


Buffy hugged Faith’s arm happily. “Anyone ever tell you you’re super smart?”


Faith chuckled. “Not often.”


“Well you are.”



Buffy could feel Faith’s tension ratcheting up slightly as they approached a particular rundown house.
Like most of the others on the street, it was a long and narrow, two storey weatherboard building.
Unlike the vast majority of the houses, this one was freestanding, with a narrow driveway down each side.
While the street wasn’t going to win any civic pride awards, it wasn’t too bad.


Not so this house.


The house was neglected, paint starting to peel from the wood.
Obnoxiously loud music blared out into the otherwise quiet night.
Similarly obnoxious cars were parked outside, all glaring colours, huge spoilers and chrome rims.
An overflowing dumpster completed the scene of neglect.


The scenario Buffy was hoping for: kindly old people who let them have a look around the old homestead, was evaporating by the second.
The vanity plates on the car were the final nail in the coffin. ‘Stud.’


Buffy sighed. “What are the chances this isn’t some kind of gang headquarters?”


“With those cars? None.”


“So, what are we doing?”


“Fuck it. Let’s at least try to be nice. We can always go nasty if they give us any trouble.”


“I’m starting to wish I’d brought a violin case,” Buffy said. She reached into her messenger bag, and loosened the leather protector on the Scythe blade.


“I still can’t believe you brought that. What were you going to say if it was an elderly Chinese couple living here?”


Buffy shrugged. “It would be pretty dumb to bring this thing to Boston, and then not take it with us when things are likely to be badness. And I was intending to tell the elderly Chinese people that I was out shopping, saw it in the secondhand store, and had to have it.”


Faith snorted. “You really thought that one out huh?”


“Yep.”


“And if a cop pulled us over or something?”


“Wandering around South Boston in the dark, with a bag full of money, weapons and a scary axe? I was going to use my pout.”


Faith had been on the receiving end of the ‘I’m tiny and blonde and cute, please do everything I ask,’ look before. Damned if it wasn’t effective.


They were now stood on the sidewalk outside the building, looking up at it with some trepidation.


“Just… be careful, ok?” Faith said. “These guys are guaranteed to have guns, and we don’t know if we’re still, y’know, bullet resistant.”


Buffy pricked her finger with the pointy bit of the Scythe blade and held it up. By the time it reached eyeball height, the cut was gone, leaving only a spot of blood.
“I’m good. You’re the one that can’t afford to get shot, miss bun-in-the-oven.”


“Oh come on, are you gonna hold that over me for the next god-knows-how-many months?” Faith whined.


“You’re whining about this?”


Faith shrugged. “Hormones.”


Buffy rolled her eyes. “You can’t use that excuse every time.”


Faith smirked. “Yeah I can. If you can play the no-risk, no-fun card, I can play the hormone card. For the exact same length of time.”



Buffy muttered something unintelligible under her breath.


Faith took a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”


She stepped forward, climbed the stairs and pounded on the door.
Polite knocking had no chance of being heard.


Buffy delicately inserted herself between Faith and the door, pushing both of them back a little.


Before Faith could object, the door popped open the reveal a scowling muscular black man, in a wife-beater and jeans.
The scowl fell off his face as he broke out in a greasy smile. “Hello pretty ladies, are you the entertainment for tonight?”


“Who is it, yo?” came from inside.


The man looked over his shoulder and called back, missing Buffy’s death glare. “Some hoes ma man. An’ fine lookin’.”


He was pushed out of the way by an even more muscular white man. “Damn,” he said appreciatively.


Buffy noticed the way Faith froze like a deer in the headlights.


“Faith, is that you?” the man said, reaching out to stroke her face.


Faith seemed paralysed, the terrified little girl in her overriding the indomitable Slayer part of her.


Buffy had no such problems, the slayer part of her connecting the dots and flashing up a big sign: ‘SLAY.’
She was moving before she’d even thought. Her hand pulled the Scythe from her bag and used it like a giant pair of knuckle dusters, to slam his reaching hand against the doorframe. With a crunch, the fingers bent far past any angle they were supposed to take.

Instantly her small booted foot kicked out and up, and crashed into his chest with enough force to send him flying clear down the hallway. He flew out of the hallway, and across the room, slamming high into the wall of the front room.

He fell to the floor leaving a huge dent, as Buffy stalked inside, the Scythe moving back and forth like a snake in her hands.


“I want a word with him,” she ground out in tones of frozen hate. “You can all leave, or you can die here with him.”


Scattered around the room were various badly dressed men in various stages of shock, along with some skinny half-dressed girls, completely stunned.

One of the men had the presence of mind to pull a shiny chromed pistol from the waistband of his pants, and point it at Buffy.


The Scythe moved faster than thought, and sliced cleanly through the pistol, just in front of the trigger guard.
The dumbfounded man stared at his half-pistol, as his friend groaned on the floor behind him.


“That’s your only warning,” Buffy said coldly. “If you’re still here in ten seconds, I’m going to cut off your heads.”


Nobody moved a muscle.


She stamped her foot loudly. “One!”


They bolted.


The girls fled for the front door, the men piled out the window.

Faith walked slowly inside, after letting the terrified women stampede out of the house.
In a feeble heap at the base of the far wall, he groaned.


“That’s him,” Buffy stated, more than asked.

Faith nodded silently, her face white.

Buffy hauled him upright by the simple expedient of balling up his shirt in her fist and lifting.
“I work nights. And do you know what I do at night?”

He groaned, and pawed feebly at her steel grip.

“I kill evil things. Vampires, they drink people’s blood. It’s usually fatal. And demons, I kill demons too. They cause all kinds of trouble, some of them even eat people.”


She looked him in the eye, her eyes burning with hate.
His eyes rolled back in his head. “I’m not finished with you. Don’t you dare pass out!” Buffy shook him vigorously. “I swear, if you pass out, you will wake up in five different places!” she roared.


His eyes struggled feebly open. “Wha?”


“It’s night time,” she whispered. “Work time.”


“Don’ kill me,” he groaned.


“Why not?” asked Buffy, in a surprisingly reasonable tone. “I kill evil things, it’s my job. If you ask stuffy English librarians, it’s my destiny.”


“Not evil,” he groaned.

Several of his ribs were badly broken my Buffy’s savage kick, if his struggling breaths were any indication.


“See, you beat a little girl. A lot. You were a shitty parent to her. And you raped her. Probably more than once. My sister was nearly raped. I was nearly raped, so I kind of have a thing about that.”

She leaned in closer and whispered in his ear. “And you killed her baby. Sounds pretty evil to me.”

Leaning back, she asked in a disturbingly conversational tone, “So, why am I not killing you?”


“B? Don’t,” came a weak voice.


Buffy stopped. She knew that it was wrong to kill people, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember why. Not at this moment.
Nonetheless, she dropped him.

He groaned as he hit the floor.


“Honey, what do we do?” Buffy said softly, and with obvious care. “I don’t think we can walk away from this. It wouldn’t be right, not with the things he’s done.”


Faith nodded, still pale, but gaining strength as the shock wore off. “Yeah, we don’t. But cold-blooded murder hurts you B. it ain’t good for the soul, no matter how justified it is.”


“Well what? Jail?”


Faith shook her head. “Nah. Too much like a holiday for this guy. No, we fuck him up. We fuck him up like only one other guy has ever been fucked with.”


Buffy looked at Faith, for a moment, until the light dawned. “The guy who tried…”


Faith nodded. “Yeah. We get Red and Glinda to do the mojo on him, and get their goddess to punish him.”


Buffy stared hard the suffering man. “Justice.”

Faith nodded silently.

Buffy crouched down beside Lenny. “You are going to suffer. I’d say you’re going to suffer more than any human being has ever suffered, but there’s one other person who’s suffering just as much.”


“If you kill yourself you just might avoid what’s coming. Feel free to run, there’s nowhere you can hide from us.”

Buffy stood, and in a gentle tone, spoke to Faith. “Honey? Did you want to look around, or go?”


Faith took a deep breath and closed her eyes visibly centring herself. “Let’s look around. See if we can find what we came for.”
She turned to the battered man, her face gaining some animation. “Hey asshole? Where’s my ma?”

He groaned something inaudible.

“What?” Faith demanded.


“Dunno. Gone,” he said feebly.


“Gone what? Gone shopping? Moved out? What?”


“Took off. Months ago,” he groaned.
He gingerly moved into a more comfortable position, though his busted ribs were clearly giving him trouble.


“Fuck,” Faith said. “Right. We’re gonna look around. See if we can find something she mighta left.”

She turned to Buffy. “C’mon B. Who knows, we might get lucky.”


Buffy nodded. “You go look. I’m going to keep an eye on mister muscles here, and make sure he doesn’t get any clever ideas.”

Faith gave her a look.

“No killy. Scout’s honour.” Buffy held up three fingers.


Faith nodded, and went upstairs.


For the next few minutes, nothing was heard, other than some thumps and bangs from upstairs.
Buffy more or less assumed that Faith was in the attic. It seemed to be the kind of house that would have one.

Faith came back, looking a good deal more dusty, and slightly happier. She was also carrying a dusty and cobwebby cardboard box.


“Struck paydirt. C’mon B, let’s get out of here before someone decides this can’t be happening, and gets themselves killed.


Buffy nodded and grabbed a small zip-lock bag of trail-mix from Faith’s bag.
She emptied it out, and roughly yanked out a tuft of Lenny’s hair. She used it to soak up some of the blood that had trickled from his nose, and sealed it in the bag.


At Faith’s puzzled look she explained. “It’s always about blood. For the spell.”


Faith shrugged. “And the hair?”


“Voodoo?” Buffy said uncertainly.


Faith smirked a little. “You watch too many movies.”


Buffy turned to Lenny. “We will be back in a few days. And when we are, you are going to suffer. You can run if you want. It won’t matter, we can find you anywhere.”

She snagged a celphone off the bottle-and-can covered coffee table. “Here, call the paramedics. We don’t want you to die before your big day.”


He took the phone with a confused and pained expression.

And without a backward glance, they left.



+++



“Wow, this is dustier than some of Giles’ books,” Buffy commented.


The pair were sitting crosslegged on the floor in their lounge area, a dusty cardboard box to one side.

“Yeah, well, he looks after his stuff. This was just jammed in the attic under a pile of crap. It was the only box that wasn’t broken shit and old clothes from the seventies.”


Buffy shuddered. “Don’t talk to me about seventies ‘Fashions,’” she said miming the air quotes. “I’ve seen pictures. It was before they invented fashion.”


Faith rummaged in the box and pulled out a small jewellery box, a photo album, and an oddly sized, flat wooden box. The rest of the box was stuffed full of receipts and old tax forms.


Buffy’s eyes locked on the jewellery box. Faith smirked and handed it over.

Buffy popped it open.


“Anything nice in there?”


Buffy poked through the collection. Mostly fake gold and silver bangles and earrings bought from a drugstore.
“Not really. Unless you’re trying to go to a party as fashion-challenged.”

She eyed the photo album.


“Oh hell no. I’m looking at this all by myself. Probably full of embarrasin’ baby pictures and shit.”


Buffy gave her a pleading expression.


“Uh-uh,” Faith said shaking her head.


Buffy pouted. Her lower lip stuck out adorably, and quivered just a little. Her hazel eyes looks like they were going to overflow at any moment.


“No fair! Not the pout!” Faith complained.


Buffy didn’t let up.


“Fuck. Fine, you can look at it with me, ok?”


The pout was replaced by a victorious grin. “Still got it.”


Faith sniffed. “Red does the sad-face thing better.”


“Yeah, but you’re not marrying her. You’re marrying me. So you have to bend to my every whim,” Buffy said sweetly.


Faith sighed dramatically. “The old ball and chain. It all happens so fast. You’re still changing the diapers though. No way you’re getting out of that.”


Buffy made a face, which just made Faith’s grin wider.

Still grinning she opened the flat square wooden box.

“Whoa.”


“Something good?”


“Damn,” Faith said appreciatively. She turned the box so Buffy could look inside.


“A gun?! Why is there a gun? A big gun!”


Faith took the revolver from the box and held it up admiringly.
It was a big revolver, all polished blue steel and beautiful polished wooden grips. There was even engraving.
“This is a thing of beauty,” she said.


Buffy goggled at Faith, who was clearly enamoured with the gun she was holding. “Would you two like to be alone?” she said with a smirk.


“Hey, just because I can appreciate quality craftsmanship, it don’t mean I’m getting all pervy,” Faith retorted.


Buffy smirked as she lifted one of the row of bullets stored in the case. “Uh, somehow this doesn’t strike me as factory standard.”
She held up the bullet for inspection. It had ‘.44 magnum’ written on the bottom. More importantly, the bullet was made of visibly tarnished silver, and engraved with a pentagram and some symbols.


“Yeah. I recognize that stuff.”


“You do?” Buffy said, surprized.


“Yep. Don’t forget I’m tight with Red now. It’s magic.”


Buffy rolled her eyes. “That part I’d worked out, what with the star and all.”


“And the little wiggly symbols,” Faith said, nodding with fake seriousness.


Buffy chuckled.


“Why the hell did my ma have a huge fucking gun, loaded with magic silver bullets? An’ why didn’t she take it with her?”


“I dunno. Uh, how big was your mom?” Buffy asked.


“Uh. Taller than me. Fairly tall, maybe five-nine, five-ten. Why?”


“Powerful build?”


“Fuck no. Tall and skinny. Seriously, why?”


Buffy took the gun from Faith’s hand. She held it in her hand, struggling to grip it. “Because unless her hands were like our chef Mary’s, humongous, there’s no way this is her gun.”


“Well hung,” Faith said. “Y’know, lesbians with big hands.”


“Just use more fingers,” Buffy said matter-of-factly. “Back to the gun. I might be able to use this thing, with both hands, or with a crazy strong grip. But unless your mom was a Slayer, this isn’t her gun.”


Faith nodded. “Yeah. But what the hell? Why didn’t she sell this thing? I mean it’s gotta be worth hundreds. I mean look at it. What is that hand grip even made of? Mahogany or something?”


“Cherry burl,” Buffy said.

Faith gave her a look.

Buffy shrugged. “Mom was an art dealer. She also had a side line in antiques. Trust me, after a while, you end up learning this stuff whether you want to or not.”


Faith looked closely at the gun. “It has ‘accurized’ written on it. And it looks pretty custom, B. Why would my ma keep an expensive hand gun she couldn’t even use? And fuck, what’s with the bullets?”


“I don’t know. Maybe it’s something to remember someone by? Maybe that’s why she didn’t sell it? Ooo! Maybe your dad left it for her. Y’know, your real dad.”


“Hmm. Maybe. I guess my Da was a monster hunter of some kind. I mean, a fuckin’ forty-four magnum loaded with magic silver bullets? Gotta be huntin’ monsters with that.”


“And he left it here for her? He must have really cared about her then.”


“Yeah. Weird.”


“Weird?” Buffy asked.


“Uh, yeah. Weird to think of people carin’ about her, ya know? I mean that sounds like the kinda thing G-man would do if he had ta go away for a while ya know? Never thought my ma was the kinda person that someone would do that for.”


Buffy squeezed her hand. “Maybe things weren’t so bad once?”


Faith nodded slowly. “Maybe.”
A grin slowly spread over her face. “Cool though. I bet Snow-White didn’t get anything this cool.”


Buffy rolled her eyes. “Somehow I don’t see Tara’s mom leaving her a gun behind. I really can’t see her being that much different from Tara.”


“Never know,” Faith said. “Maybe she was all feisty?”


“I think Tara would have mentioned it.”


Faith grinned. “Shopping trip,” Faith said, looking at her new toy.


“Shopping trip?”


Faith nodded. “Yeah. Dunno much about guns, but I know ya gotta keep em clean and oiled. Also I’m gonna need a holster, and a buncha ammo.”


“Funny. When I think shopping trip I think dresses and pretty shoes. With you, guns n’ things.”


“Hey, I like shoes and clothes as much as the next girl.”


Buffy gave her a level look.

“Ok. Maybe not quite as much as the next girl, seeing as she’s you, and you won the gold medal in Olympic shopping.”


Buffy grinned. “I took the silver in pants, and the gold in shoes.”


“Yeah, well I’m the queen of leather and denim.”


“Ooo! I just realized, we’re in Boston. We should get some baby things while we’re here!”


“Baby things and guns? We are gonna get some funny looks.”


“Cute. But not as cute as you!” Buffy said triumphantly as she held up the photo album.


“You little sneak!”


“Well duh! I’m training the girls in being sneaky. Can’t teach, if you don’t do.”


Faith glared.

“Oh come on, let’s look through the album together.”


“You look. I don’t wanna.”


“Ok!” Buffy said brightly and flipped open the album. “Ooo,” she cooed.
She read a little and grinned. “Oh you are such a cutie!”


“Ugh!” Faith grunted, falling back on the rug.


Buffy just squealed with delight and she looked through the album. “Ohmigod Faith! Almost all of these are photos of you!” Buffy said happily.


She knew she was gonna regret it, but she sat up.
“A’right. Let’s have a look.”


Buffy’s grin was manic. “I am sooo going to get copies of these!”
She flopped down on the rug next to Faith, both of them ending up resting on their elbows as they looked at the album.
The first picture she showed Faith was one of an angry red face poking out of a pink blanket.


“Man, I look like Winston frikkin’ Churchill.”


“I think everyone does at first. I still say you were cute.”


Faith just grunted.

They picked through lots of polaroids of early Faith, until Buffy squealed with joy at a picture of Faith as a toddler with a pink bow in her wavy brown hair. Toddler Faith was frowning seriously at the camera.
“Heh. Even back then I wasn’t a fan of too much girly stuff.”


As they flicked through the album, Faith began to age at an increasing rate, the photos becoming less common.
And Buffy could see in the few photos featuring her mother, she was becoming harder, skinnier and (if she was being honest) trashier.


The last photo was taken when Faith was about ten. She was smiling happily, with a big birthday cake in front of her, though Buffy would swear she could see a sense of wariness in her eyes. Her mother was in the background, dressed like a hooker and glaring, her arms crossed.


A tear rolled silently down Faith’s cheek.
“This… this was the last photo my grams took. She died a few months after that.”


Buffy put her arm around Faith, and hugged her tight. “Oh honey, I’m so sorry.”


Faith leaned gratefully into the hug. “Yeah it sucked. Things went bad after that. I think my Grams was the only thing keeping my ma even slightly sane.”

She sniffed a bit. “C’mon B. I wanna get out and about. Stretch my legs, get some air, alla that.”


Buffy climbed to her feet and hauled Faith up. “Better get used to that, B. Pretty soon I’m gonna look like I ate a pig whole, and then you’re gonna have to haul me upright.”


“All part of the service. So, where to first?”


“Well, if you’re gonna make me go shopping for baby stuff, I wanna brace myself first, with a little gun shopping.”


“Right, because that won’t scare the pants off the baby shop people.”


“Eh, fuck ‘em.”


“Fine. But you get to explain it to the police.”


“Deal.”



+++



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/c ... G_2284.JPG
“I've got to have it.” Faith said flatly, and with conviction.


She’d said it at least four times in the last two hours, and every time she said it, Buffy got a little more worried.


Currently Faith was plastered against the huge windows of a car dealership.
On the other side of the glass was a car, though Buffy thought it could easily be mistaken for a tank.

“That looks… expensive,” Buffy hazarded.


“It’s a Shelby,” Faith said almost worshipfully.


“Uh?” Buffy said. Cars and Buffy were unmixy things.


The only reason she had a jeep was that she recognized it in the dealership.
It was a slightly different model, and a slightly different shade of blue, but it was functionally very similar to her mother’s jeep.

The test drive had given the salesman a new outlook on life.


This car on the other hand, looked aggressively fast.

“Shelby. It’s basically a Mustang plus. And this is a Super-snake. This is a Shelby plus! I gotta have it!”


“It doesn’t even have a sticker price,” Buffy complained.


“Yeah. If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.”


Buffy came over for a closer look.

“It’s even in my colours,” Faith stated. “This would make the most totally wicked Slayermobile, ever.”


Buffy chuckled. “Well, it is traditional to get a new car when you have a baby. Though that’s usually trading in the sports car for a people-mover.”


“Yeah, well I got a bike, but no car. So it’s still a step in the right direction.”


“Honey, if you want a car, get a car. Just don’t expect me to drive it.”


“Well no offence pumpkin, but your driving skills are terrifying. You leave everything to the last second, and use your reflexes to deal. Ya really should have learned ta drive before you were called.”


“Mom wouldn’t let me,” Buffy muttered.


“’S alright. You’re getting better. C’mon.” taking Buffy by the hand, she dragged her inside the dealership.
For whatever reason, the car dealership was open late. And Faith could appreciate a guy wanting to make money, especially when it helped her out.


She approached a man filling out paperwork at his desk. “Yo, the Shelby? We’ll take it.”


He looked up, surprized. “Ah! Sorry, in theory, we’re closed.”


“The door was open, and the lights were on,” Faith responded.


“My bad. I have a sh-ton of paperwork to do, and I didn’t think it would take this long.”


“You get commission, yeah?”


He nodded. “Sure. I’m Duncan, and did you ask about the supersnake?”
He looked over the two women. Both were well dressed, and carrying a bizarre combination of bags containing leather and babies clothes, mostly in purple. They were not your typical muscle-car buyers.


“I’m Faith. This is Buffy. And yep, we want the Shelby.”


Duncan whistled. “That’s quite a piece of machinery. And quite expensive.”


Faith grinned. “Is it more than a million dollars?”


“Er, no.”


She tossed a platinum card onto his desk. “Here ya go then.”


His eyebrows vanished into his hairline. “You don’t want finance?”


“Nah. Got the juice. Just ring it up, and gimme the keys.”


He coughed. “Right. I’ll get right on it. Can I have your licence and insurance details please?”


Faith pulled them out of her wallet and handed them over. “I also need you to arrange to get this beast shipped to Diamond Falls, Colorado.”


He nodded absently. “I’d normally explain how expensive that would be, but I don’t think you care.”


“Nope.”


“When?”

“Next couple of days. I wanna take it for a spin tonight, and drive it around tomorrow. After that we’ll be, uh, flying home. If we weren’t in such a hurry we could make a road trip out of it, but we don’t have a week.”


“It’s not as bad as you’d think. Normally it takes about 30-35 hours, so you can do it in about three days if you’re determined. In this car? Less. Though you’re going to want to stop for gas.”


“Huh. Cool. I’ll remember that. Still gonna need it delivered.”


“Sure. Fill this out with your address and contact details, and I’ll make a start on the credit checks and such.”


Faith filled out the forms with only a little help from Buffy. “What is our official address, B?”


“Uh?” was Buffy’s reply.


Duncan was luminously happy when he got through the checks, and everything came out roses.

Half an hour later, after filling out enormous quantities of paperwork, pinks slips and insurance forms, he handed Faith the keys.
“Go easy with it. It’s been run in, but it’s still pretty new. Also, it’s got a shit-ton of power, so go easy on the gas until you get a feel for it.”


Faith raised an eyebrow. “I was half expecting you to make some kind of comment about girls and big cars.”


He smiled. “You have money. So I don’t care. Enjoy your new insanely awesome mustang.”


“Wicked. C’mon B, let’s go drive the slay mobile.”


“You just dropped over a hundred thousand on a car. It better be awesome.”


“Wasn’t doing anything else with the money. And it is an awesome car. It’s a Slayer’s car, and it’s like the Slayer of cars. Hence it’s a Slayermobile.”


“You’re going to stuff the trunk full of weapons, aren’t you?”


“Yep. When we get stuck in a rut, we can go on a slaying roadtrip. Y’know, travel around America, slay new and horrible things with a baby in one hand, and an axe in the other.”


“Sounds like fun.”


Duncan coughed. Faith just grinned. She opened the driver’s side door and slipped inside.


“Oh yeah,” she breathed. “Mama’s home.”
Faith’s voice sounded like chocolate and sex.
“Get in B. It’s leather.”


Buffy got in.


“Ooo, comfy.”


“It should be. Damn.”

She slid the key in, and turned it. The engine started with a throaty rumble. “Oh yeah.”

She touched the gas, and the engine snarled, with a whine like a jet engine.
“Yeah baby!” Faith said, totally enthused. “I so have to drag race Tara and Winona!”


Buffy chuckled. “I don’t think Tara’s going to be into that, no matter how much you give her the puppy eyes.”


“Nuts.”


Duncan heaved aside the huge glass doors, and waved them out air-traffic style.

Gently, still getting a feel for how it handled, Faith pulled out. On the way past, she gave Duncan a triumphant high five.
He was grinning. Not surprising, given how much money he’d just made in less than an hour.

Faith put her foot down, and the Mustang took off with a snarl.


“Yeeeehaaaa!”



+++



“You fucking bought that?” Tamara said in amazement.


“Yep,” Faith said proudly. “Saving the world pays pretty well. You should see B’s bank balance.” She whistled in appreciation.
“I only saved the world once. B’s done it like, six times? Seven?”


Buffy shrugged. “Something like that. Though I’m not counting the trio of dorkness.”


“Trio of dorkness?” Tamara asked. “Sounds kinda… highschool.”


Buffy grimaced. “Uh, yeah. Three idiots who thought they were the next big thing in super villains. They were mostly annoying, but in their stupid flailing around they did a lot of damage.”


“They killed Tara,” Faith said flatly.


“Who’s Tara?”


“Did you ever meet anyone who was just… good?” Buffy said.


“Uh, sure. Met lots of good folks.”


“Nonono. I mean, did you ever meet a person who you knew they were nice, and good? Like, you could feel it?”



Tamara slowly nodded. “Yeah. I had an auntie like that, calmed everyone down just by being there. Always nice, serene I guess you could say.”


“Serene. Yeah, that’s a good description. So our little gang, had two people that were really important, super important, and we never knew until something happened to them. There’s Xander, he’s kinda the heart of the group. No special powers, but he’s the glue that holds us all together.”


“Right,” Tamara said, nodding slowly. “And Tara?”


“She’s the soul,” Faith cut in. “That thing you don’t even realize is the most important thing in the world, until it’s gone.”


Buffy nodded. “That’s what Giles said. And she is. Our soul, our moral compass. Our conscience sometimes.”


“And the dorks killed her.”


“Yeah. Warren, their leader took a shot at me. He got me in the shoulder, but one of his wild shots went through the window and killed Tara.”


“Shit.”


“Yeah.”


“Collateral damage is a bitch.”


“The worst part, is that she was the nice one, y’know? Not a fighter, not a mean bone in her body, just kind. And she was the one that died. Not me, not Xander, but Tara.”


“’S not all bad though,” Faith said. “She got better.”


“Better? How do you get better from dead?”


Faith grinned. “She’s an angel.”


“Uh, I’m guessing you don’t… actually I’ve no idea, go on.”


“Yeah, she’s an angel. Wings and all.”


Conflicting emotions flitted across Tamara’s face. “Ok. I’m going not to say ‘you’re shitting me’ given all the other stuff you told me. Slayers, vampires, witches and stuff. So, angels huh?”


“I haven’t seen any others, but yep she’s an angel. Got really pretty wings.”


“Can she fly?”


Buffy smiled. “Yep.”


“Cool. Uh, does everyone get to be an angel after they die?”


“Nope. We’ve met a few dead folks recently, and some of them can be glowy, but no wings.”


“Can they fly?”


“No, but they can teleport. Dawn calls it ‘orbing.’”


“Huh. I think I want to meet her.”


“You will. We’ll be going soon, do you have your shit sorted?” Faith asked.


Tamara nodded. “Yeah. Packed up my important shit into three big bags. Gave away my other stuff and told my landlord I’m gone. That was fun.”


She eyed Faith’s new ride. “Uh, how is this getting home? ‘cos I bet it’s a bit much for carry-on luggage.”


“Eh, getting it shipped home. Should be there later in the week. Red’s pretty impressive, but I think her head would explode if she tried to shift this beast.”


“Speaking of which. Uh, Willow, not exploding heads, I should give her a call and let her know were coming home.”


She pulled out the expensive, allegedly indestructible sat-phone. Contrary to Buffy’s gloomy expectations, it was neither destroyed, nor impossible to operate.
Willow had even included a little card with it, though Buffy thought ‘press 1 for Giles, two for me’ was oversimplifying ever so slightly.


“Hey Buffy!” Willow chirped. “How was your trip?”


“Exciting. How about you?”


“Didn’t take too long, so y’know, we’re home now. Did you need to come home?”


“Actually Will, I kind of need you and Tara to come here,” Buffy said seriously.


“Oh, ah, what? Why?” Willow replied worriedly.


“Uh, you know the thing that you and Tara did with that guy? I need you to do it again.”


“Um. Is there someone listening in?”


“Yep.”


“Ok. I think I know what you mean. The Brighid thing, is that what you mean?”


“Yep.”


“Oh.”


“Yep.”


“Um, ok. I trust your judgement Buffy, but this is some harsh and painful stuff we’re dealing with here. For us, not just the big bad. I’m coming, and I’m bringing Tara with me, but you’ll have some convincing to do.”


“I understand. And thanks Will. OH! And bring the bits and pieces for a finding spell, in case he’s gone into hiding.”


“Ok Buff. We’ll be there in about half an hour. Can you arrange a car or something? We’ll be arriving at the bridge, same as you did.”


“Done. See you soon.”



+++



“They going to be long?” Faith asked.


The three women were sitting in the darkness, under the bridge. The previous inhabitant was nowhere to be seen, which improved the atmosphere somewhat, but it wasn’t the most pleasant place to spend time.

Buffy grinned. “Right on cue.”


Blue-white fire erupted, tracing out the circle, and filling in the bars of the faint pentagram scorched into the concrete.


“Fuck!” Tamara swore, almost falling off the concrete block she was sitting on.


With a final flare, Willow and Tara appeared. Or at least, someone a lot like Willow and Tara.


“Will?” Buffy said uncertainly to the bespectacled blonde.


“Buffy!” Willow said.


“Jesus Tara, nice legs,” Faith said, ogling the aforementioned legs.


Tara chuckled. “We’re under cover.”


“You’re really not,” Faith said, totally amazed by her transformation.


Buffy cleared her throat. “Faith? She’s up here,” she said, lifting Faith’s head by the simple expedient of her chin.


“Right. My bad. Just… damn, that’s a different look for you.”


“Long story,” Willow said. “So, what’s up Buffy? And who’s your friend?”


“Uh, hey,” Tamara said.


“Guys, this is Tamara, she’s the newest Slayer. She did the Slayer thing right in front of us.”


“Neat! Are you joining us then?”


“Yeah. The airforce is being a pain in the butt, and I like fighting, so…” she shrugged.


Buffy caught herself quietly admiring Tara’s long and sleekly muscled legs, and mentally shook herself. She looked up and saw Faith’s knowing smirk.


“Right. Well, whatever happens tonight, we are going shopping. Again. This time for daisy dukes, because Tara clearly needs competition.”


“Yeah, can’t say as I’m complaining,” Tamara said.


Willow glared at her. “Yes, she has great legs. Now look someplace else.”


Tamara sighed. “Well, you know what they say: the good ones are married or gay.”


“Both in this case,” Tara said. “Now, if we’ve finished making me feel like a piece of meat, fought over by a pack of wild Slayers, could we go please?”


She put on her nice leather jacket. It wasn’t a cold day, but the weather in Colorado was positively balmy at the moment.


“Sorry,” Tamara muttered.


Faith lead the way to where she had parked the car, unlocking it with the characteristic ‘beep beep’ of the car alarm.


“Wowie! Is that a car or a tank?” Willow squeaked.


“Hey, it’s a car,” Faith protested. “Notice the wheels. Dead giveaway.”


“It’s huge! Are you sure it’s not a tank?”


“Don’t listen to her baby,” Faith said patting the car reassuringly.


“Wait, you’re acting like you own this car, not renting it,” Willow said.


“Well duh,” Faith said. “Got her last night.”


“Hmph. A clear case of car envy if you ask me,” Willow muttered.


“I’ll take Winona any day,” Tara said with a wry smile.


“Sure sure. Get in funny girls.”


“I call shotgun!” Buffy said.


“Cool. Looks like we get to pile up in the back seat,” Tamara said.
She waggled her eyebrows suggestively at both Willow and Tara. “Who’s going to sit on my lap?”


Willow gave her a level look. “Well I could, but my fiancé might complain.”


“What about you cutiepie?” she said to Tara, with a sexy smile.


Tara cleared her throat. “I’m the fiancé. And no thanks.”


Faith snickered.


“Damn. Not my day.”


“Dumbass,” Faith muttered. “Get in girls, an’ I don’t care who’s sitting on who’s lap.”


Willow hopped in. “Come one baby, you can sit on my lap.”


Tara smiled. “Goody.”



+++



“You know, there are three seats in the back? There was actually room for you all, even if it is a bit cramped,” Buffy said.


“It was Willow,” Tara said with a smile. “Sitting on her is never a bad thing.”

Willow coughed, and Tara turned pink as she realized what she’d said.


Mere minutes later. the five of them were relaxing in the lounge of Buffy and Faith’s suite, drinking coffee.


“Not that I’m not glad to see you, because I am, and nice to meet Tamara, even if she did hit on me and my fiancé in less than ten seconds,” she said with a mild glare.
Tamara responded with an unapologetic grin and some eyebrow waggling.
“But we’re here for something un-fun. So shall we?”


Buffy nodded. “Tamara? Can you give us a few minutes please? We need to talk about some very… personal things.”


Tamara raised her head in acknowledgment. “Sure. I’ll be next door, come get me when you need me.”


Willow waited until Tamara closed the door and her footsteps had faded before she burst out. “What’s with Boston girls?”


“She kissed Faith,” Buffy growled.


“What? Oh my god!” Willow squeaked.


“B punched her lights out though,” Faith said with a chuckle. “And she ain’t that bad.”


“Says the girl who was that bad,” Buffy grumbled.


“Look, Tammy’s ok. She’s just dealing with being out of the service, being O.U.T out, and also a Slayer at the same time. Cut her a little slack.”


“I fear you, and your new calmer attitude,” Buffy said. “And that’s easy for you to say, she wasn’t hitting on your fiancé.”


“I think it was more you hitting her with your fist, but ok.”


“There was talk of punishment,” Willow said. “Could we talk about that now please? Given that we teleported here and all.”


“We’re getting better, the more we practice,” Tara said. “But it’s not an easy spell.”


“There’s a very bad man, who needs to be punished,” Buffy said simply. “The man who made Faith’s childhood into hell.”


Willow nodded. “I guessed as much. Um, not trying to be insensitive-girl here, but how bad? I mean, I don’t want to bring up bad memories here, but we are talking about unleashing a goddess on him.”


“Worse than what might have happened to little D,” Faith said hollowly. “And it went on for nearly a year.”


“Goddess,” Tara whispered in horror.


“Yeah,” Faith said. “We can’t leave this guy walkin’ around. An’ I don’t want any of us killing him. He’s not worth what it would do to them. To B.”


They sat in miserable silence for a while.


“I’ll do it,” Willow said. “I’ll need one of you for the rage.”


Buffy nodded. “I have that in spades.”


“We are all going,” Tara said quietly, but firmly.


“Baby, no,” Willow protested. “This is angry angry stuff. I don’t want to expose you to that.”


Tara gave her a level look.
“I understand you wanting to protect me from the harsh things in life, and I love you for that. But it’s my decision, and I have dealt with anger before. If we are going to unleash Brighid’s vengeance on a man, we owe it to him, and to her to witness it. We also have to make absolutely certain it is the right man, for his sake, and out of respect for Brighid.”

She turned to Buffy. “And you will need me for that.”


“Ok, so we’re all going,” Buffy said, trying to smooth things over a little.


Willow nodded her agreement. ‘I’m sorry baby. I didn’t mean to be all ‘know-it-all girl,’’ she sent, looking down at her feet.


’It’s ok Willow. It comes from a good place. I wouldn’t want you to go through this either.”


“Where is he?” Tara asked.


Buffy cleared her throat. “Uh, hospital almost certainly.”


“B kinda broke him. A little,” Faith added. “One hit and he went flying. I’d say badly broken ribs at least.”


At Willow and Tara’s understanding look, Faith grinned a little. “He tried to get touchy feely. B got her slay on a little.”


“I only hit him once,” Buffy muttered.


“You kicked him in the ribs. Hard enough that he flew down the hall and bounced off the wall. I ain’t complainin’, but that hadda do some damage. Uh, we called the ambo’s.”


Willow sighed. “Another hospital. That’s how we got in this mess.”


“Uh, mess?” Buffy asked. What mess?”


“It’s why we’re in disguise,” Tara explained. “When we called down Brighid’s wrath on Dawn’s attacker, we um, unloaded I guess is the best description. By healing a whole bunch of sick kids.”


“It felt really good, after all that vengeance-y stuff,” Willow added on.


“Well, now there are some reporters in Diamond falls asking questions. So we are trying to lead them astray,” Tara finished.


“How exactly do your spiffy new looks factor into this? I mean, I’m having a hard time convincing my brain that you two are… you two,” Buffy asked Willow.


Tara grinned a little shyly. “Well the plan is to do more um, miraculous healing and lead them away.”


“And the really great legs? I mean, disguise?” Faith said with a smirk.


“Trying to get people to not focus on blondes and red heads,” Willow said, glaring.


“And a little adventurousness,” Tara added with a shy smile.


“Trust me,” Faith said. “No one is going to be focussing on your hair colour.”


Buffy elbowed her in the ribs.
“We are sooo going shopping for daisy dukes,” Buffy muttered.


“Well, maybe you could do your thing here?” Faith said. “After Lenny. Kill two birds with one stone.”


Tara nodded slowly. “Good idea.”


“Let’s do this and go home,” Willow said. “There are some surprises waiting for you two.”


Buffy gave her a look. “Nice surprises, or bad ones?”


Willow grinned impishly. “Oh, good. Definitely good.”


“Would it do any good to ask what it is?”


Willow’s grin widened. “Nope. But you’ll like it, I promise.”


Buffy rolled her eyes with a little smile. “Oh Willow, you get me the nicest things.”


“Well yes. Getting you a birthday gift is going to seem a teensy bit anticlimactic after this.”


“C’mon then,” Faith said. “Like you said, let’s do this and home.”


Willow nodded. “First we’ll need-”

Buffy held up a plastic bag with a clump of blood stained hair.

“-that,” she finished.


“You know me Will, magic’s not my thing,” Buffy said. “But after I don’t know how many years, I eventually absorbed some of what you and Giles waffled on about.”


Willow nodded. “It’s all about blood.”


“Yep.”


“I’ll need a map,” Tara said.

Faith handed her a map of Boston. All the hospitals were circled.

“Wow. Boston has as many hospitals as Sunnydale had graveyards,” Willow said in surprise, leaning over Tara’s shoulder to look.


“Rough town I guess.”


“I figure he’s in here,” Faith said pointing to the biggest circle. “It’s the closest and kinda cheap, which fits him perfectly.”


Tara nodded. “Let’s find out.”


They sat crosslegged on the floor, the map between them. Tara took the tuft of hair from the bag, and interlaced the fingers of her other hand with Willow’s.

Scrying was a spell she was utterly familiar with, and she cast it with nothing more than a whisper. “Let me see.”

As her viewpoint shifted, she moved her finger instinctively along the map. “You were right. He’s in the hospital. This one,” she said, tapping her finger at a point on the map.

She let go of the spell and looked down. Her finger was in the centre of the largest circle.


“Figures,” Faith muttered.


“Well, there’s no need to teleport or fly when we can be there in a few minutes by car,” Willow said.


“What about our lusty new friend?” Willow asked with a frown.


“Bring her,” Faith replied. “It’ll be a good intro to the weird and wacky side of our lives.”
She looked at Willow. “I’m guessing you have some mojo to get in and out?”


“Yep. An invisibility spell is a long way off yet. But I have a ‘forget me’ spell that works fairly well,” Willow said.


“Though not perfectly,” Tara said. “Thus the disguises.”


“And kiddies kinda remember us, on account of an undeveloped subconscious,” Willow added.


“Huh?” Buffy said. “I took psych in college, but I’m a little fuzzy on how that relates to magic.”


“Lying to yourself takes practice. Little kids haven’t had enough time to learn,” Tara explained.


“Oh right. So the only people who remember us, are the ones no one listens to, huh?”


“Pretty much.”


“Wicked. I’ll go get Tammy, and we can get this show on the road.”


“Are you sure she’s ready for this?” Willow asked.


Faith shrugged. “Gonna find out. ‘Sides, she’s up for a bit of rough and tumble. She’ll be fine. And if not, better we find out now.”


Buffy nodded.


Faith got up. “Yo Tammy! Get it in gear, we got a job to do!”



+++



One hour later, five women stumbled into Buffy and Faith’s suite. They all-but collapsed on the various expensive couches that the room boasted.


All five faces were pale and drawn, and the couples huddled together for comfort.
Tamara stared off blankly into space.

For several minutes nothing was said.


“Fuck,” Tamara eventually said.
If anything, the silence seemed to agree with her.

“Christ Faith. I’m sorry as fuck that happened to you.”


Faith nodded her acknowledgement. “Not your fault. Fuck that was bad. I was there the first time and… yeah it was bad, but I didn’t think it was that bad.”


“Distance changes things,” Tara said. “When it was happening to you, you could deal with it, a little, and maybe you thought there was a reason for it. But when you watch something like that from the outside, knowing there’s nothing you can do to make it better? It hits you in the heart. And you have a big heart, Faith.”


Faith nodded slowly, absorbing Tara’s words. “Maybe.”
Buffy was impressed that she wasn’t protesting the ‘big heart’ comment.
It was one of the truest things that could be said about Faith, though she normally protested such fluffy terms.

“I thought I’d feel, y’know, different,” Faith said. “I mean, I’m glad Lenny got what was coming to him. But I thought I’d feel, I dunno, better?”


“Justice was done,” Buffy said firmly. “He won’t be hurting anyone else, and he’s punished for what he’s done. So now we move on with our lives, pay respect to Brighid, and forget about him.”


“So let’s go home and give Buffy and Faith their surprise,” Willow said.


“Thought you said it was B’s surprise?” Faith said.


“Well, it’s for both of you, but I think Buffy will appreciate it more,” Willow said, the beginnings of a smile on her face. “Let me just give Giles a call and get it all set up.”


“And while Willow is doing that, you can get your things ready for departure,” Tara said.


“Cool.”



+++



When the flames cleared it revealed five women loaded down with luggage and bags.


“Ok Buff, close your eyes,” Willow said with a small smile.


Buffy groaned but she closed her eyes, putting the luggage down. “You know after all this build-up, it’s going to have to be a heck of a surprise, Will.”


Willow put down the bags she was carrying, and lead Buffy up the back staircase of Slayer central.
Tara looked meaningfully at Tamara and put her fingers to her lips, before leading Faith up the stairs with a murmured “Close your eyes Faith.”


“Buff? You know how it’s always been just the few of us against the darkness? All by ourselves, with no help in sight?”


“Yeah,” Buffy said uncertainly.


Willow turned her around to face the rear courtyard, and the fields beyond.

“Well that changes now. Open your eyes Buff, you too Faith.”


Buffy opened her eyes.

There before her, were rank upon rank of women warriors. The left half of the field was dressed in forest green, the right half in Slayer black.


Willow raised her arm.

A horn rang out, loud and clear in the evening sunlight.
And the ring of steel as thousands of swords were drawn as one.


“Don Slayer, don todhchaí !” the cry rang out over the field.
And three thousand throats cried as one, a battle cry as had not been heard in a thousand years.


The Daughters of the Flame and the Slayers roared into the evening sky, crying their support, and willingness to fight.
It was like an ocean of sound, overwhelming and endless.


Willow hugged Buffy close, and rested her chin on her shoulder. “You’re not alone anymore Buff.”


Tears spilled down Buffy’s cheeks as the cry went on and on, buoying her with it.
At last she had hope.

Hope that they might win this thing.
Hope that her love would not die, not this time.
And that her daughter might live to be born.


Faith squeezed her hand tight and smiled.


+++


Bonus extra bit:

“Why do you like the Buffybot so much?” Buffy said, trying very hard not to sound jealous.


“Because she’s you. She’s this big-kid version of you. I figure playing around with her is like taking a dry-run at the mom thing. And hey, she’s nearly indestructible, so I figure even I can’t mess her up too badly.”


“You’re going to be a great mom, I know it.”


Faith grinned. “I am so going to be the cool mom.”


“And what am I going to be?” Buffy asked, annoyed.


“The responsible one who makes her eat broccoli and do her homework. Y’know, the uncool one.”


“Hey!”


“Naw, just messing with you. You’ll teach her all that stuff I have no idea about. Like, how to be a girl and stuff. And I’ll teach her to be a badass. And we’ll both teach her how to fight.”


“We will?” Buffy said dubiously.


“Sure. We can’t keep her safe by not teaching her. Besides, with two Slayers for moms, you and me, she’s gonna be a fighter.”


Buffy smiled wryly. “No doubt.”
 

_________________
“All I feel is sunlight. All I hear is music.” Willow
How i Met Your Mother - By Ariel

My Story: Coming Home

Dibs-y goodness!!!

Yay for excellent update-y goodness... I'm glad that the Boston trip was successfully concluded... Big yay for the gathering of the Slayer-army...

_________________
We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Buggered

Posting while nude improves your mood...

Great chapter. I liked how the hotel maid was completely unphased by the lingerie, schoolgirl and nun costume bits strewn around the room but the bright pink double dildo sent her screaming for the hills.

I'm doubtful that Tara will agree to a drag race with Faith but I'm not too sure that Dawn's sidekicks are above borrowing both muscle cars.

And good for Buffy getting her vengeance on, I can't wait for Anya to come up and congratulate her for proper form and technique. She can probably suggest a few more uses for Buffy's new armies while she's at it.

_________________
Time and Time Again

Hey Zampsa! Hey Citanul!

You make a good point about Anya, and i hadn't thought of that angle, TBH.
But, after a little more thought, i figure it is unlikely that anyone will talk to her about it.

Everyone knows what she's like, and it was kinda wrenching, personal and harsh for all concerned.
So it's unlikely they'll talk about it with her.

Well, you gotta imagine maids see all sorts of stuff when they clean, but big pink dildoes might be a bit... personal?

As to the drag race, the Impala is a beast, no doubt. But the Supersnake (a couple years too early, but eh, who cares) is a whole other creature. Not even a challenge.

Actually, the only one i see borrowing one of those cars without asking is Dawn.
I don't imagine the other two would feel brave enough.

Dawn knows no-one is going to kill her.
The other two, not so much


Anyway, new chapter shortly.
Feeling distinctly icky, so it's taken a while.

_________________
“All I feel is sunlight. All I hear is music.” Willow
How i Met Your Mother - By Ariel

My Story: Coming Home

So, as before, another super long chapter, that i broke in half.
I did my best to break it off in a good spot, with only middling success.

Just a continuity note, this takes place at the same time as Buffy & Faith's trip to Boston.
Slightly before, in that their trip only takes an afternoon, so they get back in time to get the call.

And at the end, you get some explanation at to why everyone's flipping out over how they look
Enjoy!


Witches in Dixie


The river bank was still, peaceful. The silence was disturbed only by the gentle gurgle of the river flowing placidly along, and the gentle chirps of birds greeting the sunrise.

Blue-white fire erupted in a ring ten feet across. With a flare of light, two people appeared, hands clasped. With a quiet ‘fut’ sound the fire vanished, revealing Willow and Tara dressed in their adventuring gear.


Willow tucked her free hand into her dark green bomber jacket and closed her eyes. “Oh, that made my head all spinny.”


“Me too.”


After a few long seconds, she opened her eyes and looked around.
She looked down. “Um, oops. I think we made a mark.”


Tara looked down and saw that they were standing in a scorched five pointed star. “Wow. We really did leave a mark.” She looked at the huge ring of scorched grass.
There wasn’t a lot of actual damage, just a narrow strip of grass turned to ash, but the insignia was unmistakable across the area. “A pentagram. It’s a classic.”


“Is this going to get us into trouble?” Willow asked.


Tara thought for a moment. “Probably, if anyone sees us. I know this place fairly well, and there shouldn’t be anyone around. But I think we should go somewhere else, just to be safe.”


Willow bounced a little in her excitement before she flung her arms around Tara.
“I’m just so excited! It’s like a trip into the past! The Tara past, the best kind!”


Tara smiled at Willow’s infectious joy. “I’m glad I get to share some happy memories with you, sweetie.”
She wrapped her arms around Willow, still carrying more than a trace of gratefulness to be able to do that.
“There’s a lot of unhappiness here for me, but a lot of joy too. And that’s the part I want to share.”


“So miss Maclay, oops, miss Giles, show a girl around huh?”


“My pleasure miss Rosenberg,” Tara said, leading the way down the river.


Willow chuckled. “I’m still getting used to that. Suddenly the Giles’ are spreading like wildfire.”


“I would have thought very civilized fire, actually.” Tara said, putting on a terrible snooty accent.


Willow giggled. “Raaather,” she said, hamming it up.


“It’s a very prestigious family I’m marrying into,” Willow said, linking arms with Tara as they strolled down the river bank.
“I’ve been thinking about that actually. I was going to just be Mrs Rosenberg.”
Willow wriggled happily at that, and Tara found that the idea still took her breath away. She leaned over and kissed Willow softly on the cheek, receiving a deliriously happy sigh in response.
“Not that there’s anything ‘just’ about a Rosenberg,” she whispered.


“Darn tootin’,” Willow said.


“But now that I’m a Giles, I wonder how you’d feel about Rosenberg-Giles?”


Willow leaned over and kissed her softly on the cheek. “Wonderful,” she said softly.
Tara smiled warmly.
“Baby, I was delirious with joy about becoming Mrs Rosenberg-Maclay, because ‘Maclay’ meant everything wonderful in my life.”
Tara opened her mouth to protest, but was silenced with a finger pressed gently against her lips.
“But I know that’s not what it means to you. I’m just happy to be Mrs Rosenberg-anything baby, and I’d be proud to be Mrs Rosenberg-Giles.”


Tara stopped them in their walk down the green riverbank and enfolded Willow in a hug. “How do you know just the right thing to say?” she said softly.


Willow beamed as she melted into the hug. “Magic.”


Tara chuckled softly. “Goof.”


“Your goof.”

“True.”

They shared a quiet moment together by the riverside, until Willow’s natural enthusiasm bubbled up.
“So,” she said eagerly. “Where’s the first bit of Tara memorabilia? Remember, you promised to show a girl a good time.”


“I did, didn’t I? Behind you darling, turn around.”


Willow turned around, and Tara rested her chin on her shoulder as she cuddled close.
“Do you see the tree?”


“Yep, it’s a droopy willow.”


“And do you see the little hollow just there at the base?” Tara said, pointing with her finger.


“Yep, just perfect for sitting.”


Tara nodded. “It is. I used to sit here and read a lot when I was a girl.”


“Ooo,” Willow said, slightly reverent. “Was this your favourite tree?”


Tara chuckled. “No sweetie. That tree was planted by my mother, before I was born.”
She squeezed Willow a little tighter. “But I will be showing it to you, I promise.”


“Um, you’re not worried that maybe it got cut down, or something bad happened to it over the years?”


Tara shook her head. “No. Not that tree. My mother planted it to honour the Goddess, and in my name. My tree has the strongest protection magic she knew how to cast upon it. Even Donny wouldn’t lay a hand on that tree in anger.”
She whispered softly in Willow’s ear. “And we buried her beneath its roots. No one would hurt that tree, no matter how angry they were. Daddy wouldn’t let them.”


“Wow,” Willow whispered. “That’s a very seriously special tree.”


Tara chuckled softly. “My mom, the original tree hugger.”
She let go of Willow and, taking her hand, lead her further down the riverbank. She lead the way towards a path, visible in the distance.

“When I was little, she told me that it wasn’t the stork that brought me, like the other babies. She told me that a big flower on the tree opened up, and there I was.”


Willow chuckled. “I heard about the stork thing from Xander. And then I asked him where the storks got the babies from, and it all kinda broke down about there.”


Tara laughed. “Growing up on a farm I never needed the ‘birds and the bees’ story.” She frowned. “Though now that I think of it, I’ve never actually heard the story.”


Willow grinned. “When a mummy and daddy love each other very much-”


Tara swatted her on the butt. “Goof. That’s not what I meant. I meant, have you ever actually heard the story?”


“Um, no. Something about pollen I’ll bet. Though I bet in our household, it’ll be the birds and the birds, because, y’know, gay.”


Tara smiled as they strolled hand in hand. “That will be a story for the ages. I look forward to hearing it.”


“What? Me?!” Willow protested, looking worried. “You want me to tell the story? What about you? You’re all calm and-and motherly and stuff! You should tell the story!”


Tara raised an eyebrow. “Oh? So you’re the man in this relationship?” she asked mildly, with just a hint of teasing.


Willow looked a little panicked. “Well no, but you’re more… and I’m… not.” She said helplessly.


“So I can look forward to you wearing pants, drinking beer and scratching yourself?” she said, still teasing.


Willow looked a little huffy. “Hey no fair teasing me.”

She blinked and smiled with realization. “You teased me.”


“Yep. I did,” Tara said, smiling just a little.


“You teased me,” Willow said.

Tara’s smile broadened.
Willow squeezed her tight, and bounced excitedly, which lead to an awkward staggery dance.
She pulled back, her eyes shining. “You just teased me! I was worried we’d never get back to where we could do that.”


Tara’s smile took on a sad cast. “I know. And just the thought of anything happening to you still makes my heart freeze. But I have to try.”


“Last serious bit on our trip, I promise.” Willow took her hands, looking more than a little serious. “But every day I wake up, I thank the Goddess for you baby. I can still barely believe you’re here. Every day is a fresh new miracle for me.”


Tara leaned forward until they rested, forehead to forehead. “For me too sweetie. For me too.”

They paused for a while, absorbing the moment, and the warming sun.


“Come on baby, let’s get some breakfast.”


“Ooo! Is there a special place?” Willow asked excitedly.


Tara nodded. “Yup. Best place in town. Dixie’s Diner.”
She leaned over close. “Best pancakes, ever.”


Willow waved her free hand dismissively. “Pshaw! Pfooie even! I’ve had Tara pancakes. Anything else is a poor imitation.”


That provoked a laugh. “Well, the best other pancakes then.”
She lead the way up the trail, towing a beaming Willow by the hand. “And, if we are very lucky, we may meet an old friend.”


Twenty minutes of brisk walking saw the pair round a bend in the trail and look down on a 50’s themed diner.


“Ooo, neat!” Willow pronounced. “I like the retro 50’s thing they have going. Like the one Xander likes in Diamond Falls.”


Tara shook her head ruefully. “It’s not retro. At all.”


Willow blinked in surprise. “Oh? Well, now it’s cool again. Plus, food!”

Willow lead the way, eager now that she had a destination and the promise of breakfast.


In a few minutes they were outside the diner, Willow bouncing excitedly.
The pair attracted the vague curiosity of a few early morning diners on their way to or from work in the early morning.

Tara held the door open for Willow.
“Why thank you Mrs Rosenberg-Giles,” Willow said graciously, stepping into the diner.


“You’re welcome, Mrs Rosenberg-Giles,” Tara said with a goofy smile.
She stepped in after Willow, only to find her just inside the door.


Her eyes were closed, and she was breathing in the fresh cooking smells.
“Wow, I had no idea how hungry I was. Teleport spells really take it out of you,” she said, rubbing her tummy for emphasis.

That comment attracted some odd looks from the pair of truckers eating their breakfast.
“Um, hey, those computer game things. Crazy huh?” Willow said awkwardly.


If anything, that just got even more confused looks.
Willow waved her hand in front of their faces. “These are not the witches you are looking for.”

They looked at each other in surprise at the weird behaviour. They shrugged, and went back to eating their breakfast.


‘Did you just enchant them?’ Tara murmured on their private channel.


‘No, but I did convince them that I’m a crazy person. Which is almost as good. Go geek powers!’


Tara chuckled. ‘Well, Mrs Crazy person, you go claim a nice table, and I’ll go order for us.’


“Okie dokie,” Willow said, and scurried over to the corner table. She flung herself into the corner and sat there bouncing excitedly.
Tara smiled at the sight. There were so many things about Willow to love, but one of the things she particularly cherished was her infectious enthusiasm.


Her stomach rumbled. Willow was right, teleport spells did take it out of you.
She ordered two large pancake breakfasts from a dark haired girl, and headed back to Willow.
She slipped out of her jacket and sat down in the booth across from Willow’s admiring gaze.


“You know,” Willow said, drinking in the creamy shoulders and back revealed by her blue halter top. “There’s an unexpected up-side to the whole wings thing. Halter-tops and backless dresses, oh my.”


Tara stretched like a cat, giving Willow ample reason to return her gaze to Tara’s front. “Though, to be fair, the front is nice too.”


“I’m glad you like it. It was a present from Buffy. Um, the top that is.”


“Remind me to thank Buffy when we get back.”


Willow caught sight of a waitress emerging from the kitchen with two plates, momentarily distracting Willow with the promise of non-Tara yummyness.
“You realize, that after eating Tara-pancakes, these are going to have to be the world’s best pancakes to measure up, right?” Willow said in mock seriousness.


Tara smiled shyly and ducked her head a little, a ghost of her old self making itself felt in this place of her past.
She reached out a finger and playfully poked Willow on the tip of her nose. “You’re biased.”


Willow went cross-eyed looking at the finger. “Yup.” She grinned cheerfully. “The special ingredient is love.”


Tara rolled her eyes. “So corny.”
Willow’s witty retort was cut off by the arrival of their extra-special pancakes.


“Tara Maclay, as I live and breathe!”


Tara looked for a moment like a deer caught in the headlights, before relaxing with a smile.
“Hi Dixie.”


Willow looked over the very blonde older woman. She had big caramel-blonde hair, and a matching tan, which made her stand out in her red and white waitress uniform. Mentally, Willow tagged her as being about Giles’ age.


“Willow, meet Dixie. Dixie, this is my fiancé Willow.”


Dixie smiled at Tara and turned to Willow. “Hey sweetie. Wow, fiancé huh?”


Willow grinned shyly. “Yup. Pretty soon I’m going to be Mrs Giles-Rosenberg. Or Rosenberg-Giles, we haven’t worked that bit out yet.”


“Well congratulations!” Dixie said. she slid the plates of pancakes expertly in front of the pair and snagged a chair to sit on.


“I have to admit, I’m surprised. Last I’d heard, you were dead. Was that some witness protection thing?”


Tara grimaced slightly. “It would probably be easier if I said yes. But no. No witness protection.”


“Didn’t really think that. Donny may be rattlesnake mean, but I didn’t think you’d need that with him.”


“He might need it if he runs into Buffy again,” Willow murmured.


Tara thought for a moment. “Dawn,” she said. “She might shoot him. Or turn him into a hamster.”


“Rat,” Willow said. “I’m pretty sure he’d turn into a rat. And not a cute one like Amy, but a mean, nasty stinky rat.”


Dixie frown in confusion. “Ok, honey, now you’ve lost me.”


Tara glanced at Willow. ‘Should we tell her sweetie?’


Willow shrugged. ‘You know her better than I do. I’ll follow your lead.’


Tara nodded. “Dawn is practicing to be a witch. She’s picking it up with amazing speed, and she really doesn’t like Donny. At all.”


Dixie blinked in surprise, clearly struggling to take it all in. “She’s met Donny? And what did you mean by witch?”


Willow gestured rapidly with her finger over her plate. Then, with a gentle coaxing motion of her hand, she levitated a cut section of pancake off the plate. It had been expertly sliced into the shape of two stick-figure women holding hands. She added a small amount of syrup, and tucked in, lowering the figures to the plate as she did so.
Dixie just stared.


Tara explained. “She met Donny when they all showed up for my birthday. They wanted me to come home. Donny tried to force me.”


“Which wouldn’t have ended well for him,” Willow said over a mouthful of pancake. “Believe me when I tell you, there are a lot of people who will fight for Tara. A LOT.”


Dixie transferred her stare to Tara. “Your mother,” she whispered, her voice carrying an over tone of comprehension. “I always knew there was something special about Rhiannon.”
She smiled fondly. “I swear, the way she was, I half expected flowers to grow wherever she walked.”


“Um, I’m not trying to be rude or anything, but why did she marry Tara’s dad?” Willow said, her pancakes nearly forgotten. “It seems like they wouldn’t really, y’know, get on.”


“John?” she said. Willow nodded.
“John is a handsome man. Strong. There’s a will and a fire in that man like no one else I’ve seen.”

Willow scoffed and gave Dixie a disbelieving look.

“You definitely saw him on a bad day. But you have to understand, he loved Rhiannon with all his heart. When she took sick, it broke him. He prayed and prayed, talked to doctors, hell he even wrote to doctors out of state.”

Dixie sighed and shook her head. “Nothing worked. He was never the same after that. I think it hurt him that Rhiannon didn’t fight harder to stay with him. I remember, before she passed, I asked her about the doctors. She just smiled sadly and said it was the Goddess’ will.”

She met Willow’s eyes. “You have to understand Willow. The man you met, was not the man that Rhiannon married. When she died, the light went out of his life.”


“Um. Oddly, I can relate,” Willow said.
Tara squeezed Willow’s hand.


“Eat up sweetie. Those pancakes are nowhere near as good cold,” Dixie said to Tara.


Tara smiled a little and tucked into her pancakes.


“So is that a thing?” Willow said between bites of yummy pancake. “Everyone from here is good at pancakes?”


Dixie laughed. “Sure sweetie, and the town is named after me.”


Willow looked down at the pancakes she was eating. “Um, it is? Are you the mayor? Because the last mayor we met? Kinda evil.”


Dixie laughed. “No sweetie, I’m not the mayor. Hell, my name’s not even Dixie, I just prefer it to Chastity.”
She made a face. “What was my mother thinking?”


“Um, well my name’s Willow and I’m best friends with Buffy, Faith and Xander.” She waved a fork for emphasis, “So I’m not going to cock a snoot at anyone. Nope, no snoots cocked here. Um.”


Dixie’s eyebrows raised, and Willow turned a charming pink colour.


Tara put her hand on Willow’s with a twisted grin. “Willow spent time in England with our friend and father-figure Rupert.” She said with a hint of emphasis. “Sometimes it pops out at random moments.”


Dixie laughed. “That’s a terrible thing to do to a child, giving them a name like that.”

Before Willow could say anything in defence of Giles, the atmosphere of the whole place changed.


Donny Maclay stepped into the diner.


Willow had nightmares about that face.
Her eyes narrowed.

And she’d had more than a few vengeance fantasies.
And here he was just casually strolling into a diner, smiling a little, and clapping one of truckers on the shoulder in a friendly way.
As though he had a right to exist.


Tara’s hand squeezed hers gently, bringing her to her senses.
She smiled sadly at Tara.
Seeing those features, those cheek bones, that arched brow, on the face of Donny Maclay was nightmarish.
She let out a calming breath and nodded. ‘I’m ok.’


His smiling face froze as he locked eyes with Willow.
He may not have been expecting to see Tara, but he was never going to forget Willow’s face.


“Oh lordy,” Dixie said, becoming aware of cause of the sudden rise in tension. “Now don’t you start nothing Donny Maclay,” she said warningly. She got to her feet and planted herself between him and the girls.


A twisted smirk spread across his face. “What? A guy can’t get a simple breakfast anymore?”


He stepped forward, hands raised placating. “I got me a powerful hankering for some sausages this mornin’”


“There’s some subtext,” Willow muttered.
His grin spread as he approached. “Well if it isn’t the little red-”
He broke off, his face freezing again as he saw Tara for the first time.
“Tara?” he said disbelieving. He seemed surprized, almost a tiny bit happy to see her.


Fighting the urge to duck her head, Tara looked at her brother. He was still a scruffy blonde, still needing a shave. The passage of years had made his face a little more angular. If anything it made him seem a little more like their mother.
“Hi Donny.”


His face closed, hardening.
He took an angry step forward.
“Don’t,” Willow said. Her quiet voice was filled with limitless threat.


He froze. Her face was marble-like, cold and hard. Not even the tiniest amount of compromise or mercy was visible in her gaze.
She hadn’t raised her voice, or even her fork. But the look in her eye told him on no uncertain terms that she would destroy him. She would destroy him and forget he ever existed.
The muscles in his jaw bunched as he chewed over his few options.

He turned to Tara. “Heard you was dead.”


Tara shrugged. “I got better.”


His mouth compressed into a hard line, something he definitely got from their father. “I shoulda known it was all lies. I should have known-”


Tara interrupted him. “Donny, go away. We’re trying to have a nice breakfast and you’re making it quite unpleasant.”


Donny couldn’t have looked more surprized if she’s slapped him.
Willow grinned, impressed beyond words.
“What? So you have your little girlfriend here and all of a sudden-”


Tara cut him off again. “Fiancé, actually,” she said mildly.


At that, he almost sneered. “You think you can get married, like real-”


“Don’t you dare!” Tara hissed. “You can talk to me like that, I don’t care. But don’t you dare talk to Willow like that!”


If anything, Tara’s outburst surprised him more than anything so far.
“Donny Maclay!” Dixie said warningly. “I think you should take a walk and cool off some. Then we can see about maybe getting you some breakfast.”


He looked annoyed at the interruption, but he nodded. “Y’know, you’re right. I should go for a walk and cool off some.”
And with that he turned and left.


Willow blinked in surprise, her fork hallway to her mouth. She looked at Tara. “Did you…” she waggled her fingers.


Tara shook her head. “I was going to ask you that.”
As one, the two women turned and looked at Dixie.

“Don’t look at me. That’s just Donnie being smart. For him at least. He’ll be headed home to tell John, right now.”


Tara sighed. “So much for sneaking by without a confrontation.”


“Suddenly I’m not hungry anymore.” Willow looked sadly at her yummy pancakes. “Poop.”


“Eat up sweetie,” Tara said. “It promises to be a long day.”


Willow nodded and picked at her pancakes. “Um, so we’re expecting a big drama thing then?”


Tara sprinkled a little sugar onto her pancakes. “I’d hope not, but it does seem likely.”


“You’d best stoke those fires girls,” Dixie said. “Like as not, you won’t be in the mood for them later.”
She glared at the two truckers, who were watching the drama with poorly concealed interest. “Look at you two, rubbernecking like a pair of old ladies.”


That got a chuckle. “Aw come on Dix, don’t be like that. Most interesting thing to happen this week.”


“Eat your breakfast,” she replied. “Same goes for you girls. You tuck in to them pancakes, and I’ll get us all some coffee.”
Dixie bustled off, leaving the girls to finish up their pancakes.


Willow fidgeted with her pancake. “So… is there a plan? Because I’d really like for there to be a plan.”


Tara sighed. “It wasn’t very realistic I know, but I’d hoped we could just sneak in and sneak out without a huge fight.”


Willow made a quiet raspberry noise and dropped her fork onto her empty plate. “Well, that plan’s a bust. Any new ideas?”


Tara made a wry, twisted grin. “Good old fashioned Texas showdown?”


“Well, I have my butt-whooping boots on, and my fingers are fully loaded.” She wiggled her fingers suggestively.
She looked at her fingers as if surprised at what they were doing. “Y’know, that was a lot less dirty in my head,” she muttered.


Tara chuckled, as Willow turned pink for the second time in ten minutes. She stuffed the last of her pancakes in her mouth, and chewed ruefully.

“I thought it was fine,” Tara said. “And when we are done here, we will have ourselves some alone time.”
She grinned at Willow. “I bet I can make you turn a lovely pink colour, for an entirely better reason.”


“I’m not taking that bet missy, that’s a sucker’s bet.”
Willow flushed pink again at the look in Tara’s eye. Once again Willow was struck by how Tara managed to turn her on with just a look. And the look in her deep blue eyes was sultry. Smoking even. She fanned herself.


‘By all that’s holy, when we get somewhere private, I’m telling you. Poof! All your clothes are coming off,’ Willow sent on their private line.


‘And when my clothes are off, you won’t be telling me anything, because I will be sitting on your face,’ Tara said, her face picture of innocence.


‘Tara Maclay! Sorry, Giles. Sorry, Giles-Rosenberg.’
Tara smiled demurely.


‘Don’t eat too much sweetie, I want you to leave room for me.’


‘Always room for pussy,’ Willow said with an equally hot look.


‘Willow Rosenberg-Giles, well I never!’


Willow concentrated and sent Tara a picture, animated even.
Now it was Tara’s turn to turn pink and fan herself.
‘Wow. That’s my favourite number sweetie, and a very hot picture.’


“Now I really can’t wait till we’re alone,” Willow said breaking their intense, subconscious staring contest.


Tara sighed. “Well, thinking about dealing with my family certainly put a damper on things.”


Silence reigned for a time.
“So, how are we going to do this? Commando raid? Slayer army? Full frontal assault?” Willow said, her eyes drifting to Tara’s cleavage.


“Focus sweetie. Icky relatives now, breasts later.”


Willow huffed. “Fine.”
She thought for a moment about their situation.


“This was your home baby, and your mom’s. We should respect that. Maybe we can just visit? Like regular folks?”
Tara smiled warmly. “I’d like to try. I don’t know how well it will work, but you’re right. We should try.”
Willows smiled, though it soon gave way to a worried look. “Um, not to be all negative girl, but what do we do if they’re not all tea and crumpets?”

Tara quirked an eye brow in question.
“Sorry, residual Giles-ism. What do we do if they don’t want to be civilized about it?”


“Then we take what we came for,” Tara said simply. There was no heat in her words, just a simple affirmation of intent.
“The ring, my mother’s athame and boline, and her spellbook.”


“Book of Shadows?” Willow asked.


Tara made a face. “Mom never liked that term. She was more of a kitchen witch.”


“Aha! “ Willow said with a grin. “I knew those pancakes had some magical component!”


“The only magical ingredient is love,” Tara said.
Willow made a goofy face in response.
“That and a hint of nutmeg and cinnamon,” Tara said. She poked Willow softly on the nose and finished up the last of her pancakes.


Willow turned serious for a moment. “Are we ready to do this?”


Tara’s expression was thoughtful. “Yes. We can walk, it isn’t far. And I can show you a few more sights on the way. The swimming hole, the big tree I used to climb with April, and my pet rock.”


Willow blinked. “You had a pet rock?”


Tara nodded. “A big rock. The only pet I could have that was immune to Donnie. Anything else he would terrorize.”


Willow shook her head in disbelief. “Is there a name for what’s wrong with him? I mean really, does he have like, a brain thing or what?”


“Not that I know of,” Tara said sadly. “I know he kind of hated me for all the time I spent with mom. I mean, he was her son too, and she loved him. But as mean as he was, she didn’t really want to spend much extra time with him. I think he was jealous of our bond, and jealous of the time we spent practicing magic.”

Dixie dropped off the two coffees with a smile, and left them to talk.
“Mom tried to include him. But by that stage, he’d decided that he was too cool to spend time with his dopey sister and his hippy mom. And daddy wasn’t too pleased with the idea of him learning anything about magic. Or getting sissified by spending too much time with the girls.”


“Jeepers. No wonder he’s so messed up, if that’s your dad’s attitude to a boy spending time with his mom.”


“Daddy was a marine. So was grandpappy,” Tara said sadly. “Discipline was all they knew.”


Willow clipped the plastic lid onto her coffee. “Come on baby. Let’s drink these on the way there and get this over with.”
Tara nodded and did likewise.


“Going already?” Dixie asked.


“Yep,” Willow said. “We got some dragons to slay. Only not real ones, more the metaphorical kind.”


“Well, good luck girls. Breakfast is on the house.”


“Are you sure?” Willow asked, waving a shiny gold credit card around significantly.


Dixie nodded. “Rhiannon was one of my best friends, honey. There’s not a whole lot I can do for her only daughter. But what I can do, I will.”

She handed each of them a brown paper bag. The bags were warm and heavy, packed solid with cookies fresh out of the oven.
“Your money’s no good here sweetie. If you need anything, you just let me know, alright?”


Tara smiled. “We will.” Taking a leaf from Willow’s book she impulsively hugged the older woman.


Dixie responded in kind. “You take care, Tara. You have your mama’s light you know?”


Tara mumbled “Thank you Dixie, for everything.”


“John has powerful friends in this town. But there aren’t many people who didn’t love your mama at least a little bit.”


“Thank Dixie.”

Tara stepped back next to a slightly fidgety Willow, who then engulfed Dixie in a Willow-hug.
“Well, you know I didn’t want to cross some kind of family-hug-boundary thing, but everyone was doing the huggy thing and I kinda didn’t want to miss out,” Willow said.


“That quite a talent for words you got there honey.”


Willow blushed. “Um, yup.”


“It’s just one of the reasons I love her,” Tara said, as she intertwined her fingers with Willow’s free hand..


Dixie handed Willow a scrap of paper. “That’s the number for the diner. You call me if you need anything. Anything, you hear?”


Willow stared intently at the number, memorizing it.
“Yup. We will, I promise.”


“Now go on, do what you need to do. But Willow, Tara? Please remember, John’s not the devil. He’s a man still hurting from the loss of his wife and only daughter.”


Willow frowned. “It won’t be easy, but I promise to keep it in mind.”


“That’s all I ask.”


Tara opened the door for Willow and ushered her out.
“We’ll drop by after, if we can. Let you know how things went.”


“Please do. It’ll ease my mind considerably.”


Tara waved their goodbyes and left.
As they walked hand in hand across the carpark, the shine was rubbed off their glow somewhat by the wolf whistles and cat-calls of a group of truckers.
Unfortunately, they also had to pass by the noisy truckers to get where they needed to be.


“This is one of the not-fun parts of being a lesbian,” Willow muttered.


“I’d say it’s one of the not-fun part of being a woman,” Tara muttered back. “Gay or straight, what woman would like that?”
As they closed reluctantly on the group of four men, their joined hands caused a rise in the amount of noise.
‘Goddess, where’s Faith when you need her?’ Tara muttered.


The mental image leaked into Willow’s mind. Four fat and sweaty truckers doing pushups while a leather-clad Faith cracked a whip over them.
Willow immediately got the giggles.


As they got a little closer, the biggest and fattest trucker stepped forward, hitching his belt and grinning almost unpleasantly. “Hey there ladies. Me and the boys was just talking and wondering how two-”


Tara cut him off. “No.”


“All I-“


“I am not having this conversation. I’m not interested in enlightening anyone as to what we do. I’m not sharing that part of our lives with you.”


Willow cut in smoothly, not giving the slightly scruffy truckers time to object. “And no, I don’t want to see a real man. Real men lay down their lives for those they love. Real men fight the darkness with everything they have, with no fame or hope of reward. Only that their friends will live another day, and the world will keep on turning.”

Willow poked the front man in the chest with a finger. “I don’t have time for you. So get out of the way, or you’ll find out what a pee’d-off witch looks like, and that’s not a good thing.”


Wordlessly the men stepped aside and let the women passed.
All was well as the ladies passed, until they made it about ten paces away. One of the men recovered his bravado enough to mutter “fucking dykes.”


Willow stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes narrowing. “Right. Enlightenment time then.”


“Will,” Tara said warningly.


“I promise Tara, no harm. Just a little enlightenment.”

She turned to the men, her eyes glittering dangerously, like chips of jade. ‘What was that very gay comedian called? The English one that Giles thought was hilarious?’


‘Um, don’t know. Julian Clary maybe? Why?’


‘Visualise him as best you can baby. His movements, his mannerisms, everything you can think of.’


Getting an inkling as to what Willow was up to, Tara concentrated on the outrageous comedian. Or at least as much as she could remember from her brief encounters with his show. Willow took her impressions, added them to her own and sent them out to the men. Faint streamers of ethereal light flew from her hands, almost invisible in the morning sunlight. The streamers enveloped the startled men, caressing them almost lovingly, before fading away. The men looked startled, but otherwise none-the worse for wear.


With that Willow turned and grinned at Tara, she held out the crook of her arm for Tara to link her arm into. “Let’s go Mrs Giles-Rosenberg.”
Tara hooked her arm through Willow’s and the pair strode confidently off.


When they were a little way down the road they stopped and looked at each other. “Did we just make them into Julian Clary for a day?” Tara asked.


Willow sighed. “Oh I am so bad. It’s just a glamour, Giles calls it a perception filter. But until sunrise tomorrow, everyone will see them normally, but they’ll react to them as though they were as flamingly gay as Mister Clary. Which is pretty gay, I have to say.”


“Here’s hoping it enlightens them a little.”


Willow slumped a little. “I’m sorry baby. It’s just that all this stuff, seeing Donny, your dad, all this has me on edge.”
She shuffled her feet. “And I think we both know I don’t think well when I’m all edgy.”


Tara lifted her chin with a finger. “Me too. And you’re not alone in wanting to combat a little homophobia. So brace yourself for more.”


“So I’m guessing they don’t march in the PFLAG, huh?”


Tara made a face. “Not so much, no.”


Willow smiled a little. “Suddenly I’m wishing I wore more rainbows today.”


Tara smiled. “That’s my girl. Now there’s a very special tree fort I want to show you.”


Willow squeezed Tara’s hand in hers. “I’d be honoured.”

Tara lead the way.


+++

Sometime later, after a pleasant walk, Tara lead the way through some undergrowth into a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a moderately large tree, and in the tree was a surprisingly large tree house. It not only had a proper roof, but it also had a balcony on either side, presumably to keep watch for terrible boys.

“Wow!” Willow said. “That’s a tree house and a half.”


Tara nodded. “A memory of happier times. Daddy built most of it, and mister O’Connor put the roof on it.”


“Wow,” Willow said again. “I’ve never seen a tree house with a balcony. Two even!”


“Daddy was very good at building things,” Tara said wistfully.


“Even Xander would be impressed.”


Tara tugged Willow’s hand. “Come on sweetie, let me show you around.”
She towed Willow toward the tree house, and steered her towards the ladder fixed to the trunk.


Willow climbed carefully up the ladder, not quite trusting it to be safe after all these years, despite its sturdy appearance.
She needn’t have worried, the ladder was as safe as anything bought in a store.

Tara looked up and grinned, enjoying the view.
Sensing her gaze, Willow wiggled her butt a little in response.


She got her first look at the inside of the tree house. Though it could obviously use a clean and tidy, it was in good repair.
“Oh my god, you have cute little curtains!”
Tara smiled as her head popped up through the floor hatch. She was pleased to see that her little house hadn’t been vandalised or turned into a drug den.
She was even more pleased to see Willow bouncing about as she admired the unbearably cute house.


“This is so cute!” Willow said, her eyes lit up with wonder. “I wish we’d had something like this in Sunnydale, though we’d probably have been eaten by vampires or something. But I still wish we’d had one!”

Tara laughed with Willow’s infectious enthusiasm.

“I have an terrible urge to ask Xander to build us our own treehouse now,” Willow said with a huge grin. “With a landing pad for us to take off from, and everything!”


Tara grinned from ear to ear as her fiancé enthused about their own treehouse. “Have you given up on the Scooby palace already?”


Willow looked a little guilty. “Uh, well, maybe we could have it as a secret retreat sort of thing? You know, a place just for you and me to get away from it all?”


“Only cool flying witches allowed?” Tara said.


Willow bobbed her head. “Yep. Though at the rate Dawnie is going, she’ll be flying in six months. Don’t tell her I said that though, her head is big enough already.”

She held her arms open for Tara to snuggle in, which she did smoothly.

“I bet you loved it here baby.”


Tara nodded, snuggling into Willow’s chest happily. “It was wonderful. It was like our own little place.”


Willow softly kissed the top of her head. “April was a very lucky girl. I wishI’d lived next to you when we were kids.”


“And miss out on Xander?”


“Well, he could live next door too. He could beat up Donny for you, when April wasn’t around.”


Tara chuckled. “That would have been nice. And momma could have taught you magic, when she taught me.”


Willow wriggled. “Neat.”


The pair sat in silence for a little while.
“You know we’re going to have to get up and face the dragon at some stage,” Tara said reluctantly.


Willow sighed. “I know. I’m just enjoying Tara-snuggle-time too much to move.”


“I know the feeling,” Tara said, clearly enjoying her snuggle time.


“So… as much as I don’t want to bring up a yucky subject, what are we going to do when we get to the farm, and meet Donny and your dad?” Willow said quietly.


It was Tara’s turn to sigh as she thought about it.
“I think we should try your idea first sweetie. We should try and explain why we’re here, and ask them for my mom’s things.”


Willow nodded slowly. “And if they want to know where you’ve been?”


Tara shrugged a little. “Then we tell them.”


“That’s going to be some conversation,” Willow said.


“Uh-huh.”


They sat in comfortable silence for another few minutes.


“And if they don’t want to be all civilized about it?” Willow said hesitantly. “I now have way more respect for Giles, by the way. Looking for the doom-and-gloom stuff is hard on the old noggin.”


Tara nodded. “I really hope we can talk like real people. But if not, then that’s just too bad, because I came for my mother’s things, and I’m not leaving without them.”


Willow blinked at Tara’s no nonsense tone, and grinned. “Ooo, I like take-charge-Tara,” she said.


Take-charge-Tara raised an eyebrow archly. “What are you saying Willow? Did you want me to tie you to the bed or something?”


Willow blushed a little. “Well if you’re offering…”


Tara blinked in surprise, before her face broke out into a soft half-smile. She pushed up and kissed Willow on the nose. “Do you know what’s so wonderful about our relationship, sweetie?”


“Um, cuddles, companionship, holding hands, magic and beautiful snuggles?” Willow said uncertainly.


Tara shook her head, and snuggled back down. “Nope. It’s that we get to be equals in everything.”


Willow smiled shyly. “You mean…?”


Tara nodded against her chest. “I’ll happily tie you to the bed and have my wicked way with you, my sweet. If you’ll do the same for me?”

Willow nodded owlishly, her words having deserted her.


Tara sighed happily. “Something fun to look forward to.”


“Golly,” Willow said.
She sat in silence, absorbing the shiny new idea.
She eventually cleared her throat. “Um, I’ve been thinking…”


Tara smirked. “Mmm?”


“We’re going to have a lot more room in the new place.”


“Mmm.”


“Four. Poster. Bed.”


“Mmm!” Tara said. “I like that idea.”


“We can get one of those oldy-time ones, all polished dark wood and velvet and stuff.”


Tara hummed again. “Mmm. I might have to start calling you ‘Milady Willow.’”


“Queen Tara.”


“Mmm. If I’m queen, then you have to be co-queen.”


“Really?”


Tara grinned. “Uh-huh. Only royalty get to tie other royalty to beds. Otherwise it’s treason.”


Willow had a goofy grin. “I like the idea of being co-queen. I think that sounds pretty spiffy.”


“Queen-sized bed?” Tara asked innocently.


Willow giggled. “Goof.”


“Do you still want a treehouse?”


“Um, am I in trouble if I say yes?”


“No sweetie.”


She sighed. “I guess we should go and face the music. The sooner we get done, the sooner we can get back and pester Xander to start building us that house.”


“Neat!” Willow said brightly. “We can get Bridey to design it for us. I might be able to help with a little earth magic.”


Tara sat up. “You’re really serious about this?”


“Sure! I mean, I don’t wanna live away from the gang, but can you imagine how awesome it would be to have a house up in a big beautiful tree? That we could use as a getaway?”


Tara thought about it for a moment. “Getting close to nature, in comfort and style.”


“Yep.”


She smiled. “It does sound nice.”


Tara stood up and help out her hand to help Willow to her feet. “I’m persuaded. Let’s go beard the dragon while I’m still feeling a little bit brave.”


Willow put a restraining hand on Tara’s arm. “Baby, before we do, I think I should use some of my newfound maturity and honesty, and talk about a few things.”


Tara looked concerned. “Baby? What is it?”


“I know you’re a strong, confident woman, and don’t need me to protect you.”

Tara raised one eyebrow in question.

“But Tara, I need you to know, I won’t let them hurt you.”
Willow’s eyes glittered with unshed tears. “I don’t have it in me baby. I’m sorry if that makes me a bad fiancé for not respecting your strengths, but I can’t. I can’t stand by and let anyone hurt you.”


Tara pulled her close. “Shh, baby. It’s ok. You’re not a bad fiancé at all Willow.”
Willow whimpered, prompting Tara to explain. “I couldn’t let anyone hurt you either.”


“You’re not upset?” Willow said with a sniffle.


Tara kissed her softly. “No sweetie. How could I be? My wife-to-be said she won’t let my mean old relatives hurt me. She’s very sweet.”


Willow perked up a little. “I guess I’m just freaked about all this. I mean last time was awful, and I’m worried that this time I’m going to blow everybody up.”


Tara shook her head slowly. “No Willow. I’m not worried at all. You’ve had your trial by fire at the mountain. You held it together under the worst conditions imaginable, so I have absolute confidence in you.”


Willow felt Tara’s utter conviction flowing down their link into her, soothing most, if not all her fears.
“You really have faith in me, don’t you?”


“I do.”


Willow thought for a moment.
“Then I guess I should stop worrying, and live up to the faith you’ve shown in me.”


Tara just smiled.



+++


Hand in hand, the two witches stood at the bottom of the gravel driveway, leading up to the Maclay farmstead.
“Ready baby?” Willow asked, squeezing Tara’s hand.


Tara took a deep cleansing breath and nodded. “Let’s go take my mom’s things to our new home.”


Together they strode confidently towards the house. Whatever they might face, they had each other. And there was no way each would let the other down.

As they approached the farm house, the first thing visible were the high branches of her tree.
And then came the house.

Tara smiled as she saw the tree.
Her mother had planted it when she was carrying her, and she’d always called it ‘Tara’s tree.’

But she could only think of it as her mother’s tree.
Her mother had always smiled and said ‘My sweet Tara, this tree represents your future.’


She had always been reassured by the way the tree grew fast and strong, resisting storms, insects and blight.
In the summer heat, its green drapery created a blessed cool patch, that was just perfect for picnics on a Saturday afternoon.
She stopped as she saw the mighty tree, its branches still lush with curtains of green.


“Baby?” Willow said concerned. She’d felt to sudden spike of emotion the tree caused.


“My Sweet Tara,” Tara whispered, repeating the words her mother had told her, from the time she was a little girl. “This tree represents your future.”


“Baby? What’s wrong?”


“Willow… It’s a Willow!” she said, excitement mixed with trepidation.


“Um, poor sentence construction is usually my thing. Or Buffy. I’m confused,” Willow said.


“How did she know baby? How did she know?”


Willow looked puzzled. Tara was radiating surprize and disbelief, mixed with a sense of awe, so Willow wasn’t too panicky.
“Sweetie, you’re going to need to give me more, because I have no idea what’s going on.”


“My mom planted this tree before I was born.”


“Ok,” Willow said, trying her best to understand.


“And she said it represented my future.”


“I always thought she meant that it grew big and strong, and that I should take hope from it.”


“That sounds kind of nice,” Willow hazarded.


“Baby, look at the tree. It’s a [/i]Willow[/i] tree!”


“Um, not wanting to be a downer girl, but we walked past a bunch of willows by the river bank. They’re common trees.”


Tara shook her head. “But they were not planted by my mother to represent my future.”
She looked at Willow wonderingly. “You were always my future baby.”

Whatever Willow was going to say next was lost, as a mocking voice cut across their conversation.


“Aww, ain’t that sweet.”


Both girls turned to see the owner of the mocking voice, and were completely unsurprised to see that the owner was Donny Maclay.

He shook his head with mock sadness. “As if it weren’t bad enough you bein’ a demon witch, you had to be a dyke too.”
He stepped off the porch with a frown. “Goddamn girl, is there any perverted thing you won’t do?”

Willow’s mouth gaped in shock. She was prepared for unpleasantness, but for it to be so blatant and ugly caught her by surprise.
Tara just shook her head. “It’s called love Donny. You should look into it.”


Donny nodded thoughtfully. “Yeah, I can see your time in California has given you a smart mouth, on top of your evil. You need a firm hand to keep you under control, I can see.”


That kicked Willow out of her shock. Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Try anything like that, and I will fuck with you in ways that defy mortal comprehension.”

He smirked. “I might just like that. You’ve got a sweet mouth, I can tell.”


Tara looked annoyed. She had been expecting her brother to be unpleasant, but enough was enough.
“Just stop Donny. We didn’t come here to trade insults. I told Willow we weren’t hillbillies, and frankly you’re making me look bad.”


He just grinned at her, confident on his home-turf.
“Why are you here, little sister?” he asked in an almost civilized tone.


“We’re getting married. I came for mom’s ring and a few other things.”


He shook his head almost regretfully. “Now Tara, you know that ain’t possible. That sort of thing is for real people, not dykes and faggots.”


“God, could you be any more unpleasant?” Tara asked, exasperated.


“I feel like I’m in a shot from deliverance,” Willow muttered.


Donny’s grin widened. He was clearly feeling in control of the situation.


“You see Donny,” Willow explained patiently, as if to a child. “What you don’t understand here, is that you are not in control of anything. We came to ask politely for her mom’s things. Because we’re nice.”
She pointed to her face with her free hand. “This is my nice face. You don’t want to see my angry face.”


He smirked again. “You think you can just roll in here and tell me-”


“Sleep,” Tara whispered.

Donny dropped like a stone.

Tara squeezed Willow’s hand. “Sorry sweetie. I could see you were building up to a quality butt-kicking, but I’d just had enough of his nastiness.”


Willow nodded. “Yep. I was seriously considering beating him around the head and shoulders with a tractor. But your way is good too.”
She looked at the scruffy blond man, lying in a heap on the wooden porch. “I’m gonna have to learn that spell at some point. It could be really handy.”


“Tara?” a voice said. “What’s happening here?”


John Maclay stepped onto the porch.
The pair looked up from the unconscious Donny, to the new voice.


Tara met his stern gaze. “Hello Daddy.”


He nodded as if confirming something to himself. “It’s true then. You lied.”


Tara sighed. “No daddy. I died. I just got better is all.”


His stern look remained, intensifying somewhat. “Girl, people don’t just come back from the dead.”


“Buildings fall down. People die,” Tara said. “But real love is forever.”


“That’s just fanciful talk, girl.”


Tara made a show of taking Willow’s hand. She extended her wings with a snap, scattering the wind-fallen leaves on the driveway.


“Real love is forever,” she said, as she stretched her wings up high, shading them from the early morning sun.


John Maclay stared open-mouthed at the display of snow-white feathers. They were as white as arctic snow, and perfect, not one out of place.


“Kinda makes the whole demon thing seem kinda stupid now, huh?” Willow remarked.

John Maclay had nothing to say. He just stared in shock as long-held beliefs just crashed together in his head.

“Where did the idea for that stupid demon junk come from?” Willow asked acidly.


Mr Maclay was able to blink and look away for a moment. “Uh, a book. There’s a book that told us the truth,” he said in a dazed voice.


“I think I want a look at that book,” Willow said darkly.


“We came for Mom’s things, Daddy,” Tara said. She folded her wings across her back, letting the morning sun warm everyone.


He shook his head almost regretfully. “All her things are gone.”


This time it was Tara’s turn to shake her head. “The things we came for are still here. Mama’s most precious things cannot be touched by anyone.”
She looked over her shoulder at the vigorous Willow tree. “Just like her tree.”


“That’s your tree girl. Your mama planted it for you.”


“I know. That’s why I think of it as hers. She planted it. And she’s buried beneath it.”


He nodded, occasionally shooting glances over Tara’s shoulder, and at the crumpled figure snoring gently on the porch.

Tara stepped towards the door, tugging Willow gently with her.


“He’ll be fine,” Willow said. “He’s just sleeping.”


“I know you don’t like magic daddy. But it’s the reason the farm did so well. Can I take the last few things away please? After this, there will be no more need to see us, and no magic on the farm, except that which naturally resides in the earth.”

He nodded slowly, clearly conflicted. “Take what you need Tara girl. She… she would have wanted you to have it.”


Tara smiled sadly and stepped up onto the porch, towing Willow by the hand. Wordlessly they stepped over the sleeping figure of Donny, and went inside.

John Maclay was left on the porch with only his thoughts and his son.
At that point, neither made him happy.



+++


Inside, Willow and Tara looked at the house that held such powerful memories.

When Rhiannon was alive, she had gathered flowers every day to brighten the hall, and especially the kitchen.
Now, the hallway was clean, spotless. But un-cared for. It held the look of transient housing, or the home of a confirmed bachelor, lacking in decoration or homey touches.

Willow Felt the sadness wash over Tara as she took in the changes in the house. All traces of her mother’s touch were gone.
It was almost as if the past had been erased, and it made Tara deeply sad.

The kitchen was worse. Once it had been filled with family pictures, flowers and bundles of fragrant herbs hanging up to dry. The very scent of those herbs and flowers being the scent of happiness to Tara.
Now it was all gone. The room had less personality than a motel kitchen.
It has a very worn sort of cleanliness. Not that of a home, but a house, where people happened to be.


Tara nodded to herself. Her mother was already gone from this place.
It was time to take her things home.
A place filled with slightly wacky people, but family in a very meaningful way.


“Baby? Where would her things be?” Willow said, looking around.
Everything reeked of an almost military precision. Like Riley’s room, on the few occasions that she’d seen it.


Tara smiled. “Look around sweetie. Tell me what you see.”


Willow looked around. The word ‘nothing’ on the tip of her tongue.
But, she could feel the relief from Tara, so something that she was looking for was still here.

She let her mind wander, not actively looking for anything, just simply being.


Her mind’s eye was drawn to the bottom drawer, down low where the awkward, seldom-used utensils were kept.
“There,” she pointed.


Tara smiled. Willow was not the best at sensing spells and charms, but she’d improved a lot since she had started her magical studies.
“It’s glamoured and warded,” she said.

In some ways it was testimony to Willow’s spiritual growth, that her busy mind could at last settle. And listen. And see.
And Tara felt a little proud that she had helped Willow make some of those steps.
She pulled the drawer open. Inside was a flat, lacquered wooden box and a large old-style book.


Tara smiled. This book was her only real link to her past.
Generations of witches had contributed to the lore held inside, and she grimaced as the guilt hit.
She’d run away from the farm in such a hurry, unwilling to risk these treasures to the journey, and college life.
She should have taken these precious things with her.


“Baby? What’s wrong?” Willow asked.

“I left it behind when I, um, left. I wasn’t sure what UC Sunnydale was going to be like, so I left it all behind.”
She looked up. “I should have taken them with me.”


Willow frowned. “Hey, don’t beat yourself up over it. What if this stuff had gotten stolen? Or wrecked in some demon attack? Imagine how bad you would have felt then.”


“I know. That’s why I left it behind in the first place. I’m just wishing that I hadn’t, now.”


Willow squeezed her hand reassuringly. “Well we have them now, and that’s what matters. Come on baby, let’s get out of here and celebrate.”


Tara took a quick peek inside the box to make sure everything was still there after all these years. Everything was as she’d left it, which was a relief.

“You’re right sweetie. Let’s go home.”


Willow fidgeted a little. “Before we go, can we see your room? I mean, it’s not like we’re ever coming back here, so we may never get the chance again.”


Tara sighed. “There’s nothing to see Willow. All the life in this house was in the kitchen. It was the place we were left alone to just be. .”
She looked around sadly. “And that is all gone.”
She looked at Willow’s crestfallen look, and smiled sadly. “But if you want to see, it’s not very far.”


Willow nodded solemnly. “Please? Even if it’s an empty room, it would make me feel a little closer to you.”


Tara quirked a half-smile. She could deny Willow nothing.
She passed her mother’s book of shadows to Willow and took her by the hand. Pausing only to pick up the box of precious things, and lead willow upstairs.


The small room was exactly as Tara expected it to be: sterile.
While her disciplinarian father had discouraged any kind of clutter, untidiness or dramatic demonstrations of personality, she had been allowed to decorate her room in a minimalist fashion.


Now the bundles of flowers, the crystal sun-catcher, dried herbs and paintings were all gone. The furniture was all as she’d left it, the bed, dresser and drawers were all in place, but the room was as sterile as a surgery and as characterless as an army bunk room.

“See?”


Willow grinned. “It doesn’t matter baby. It makes me feel closer to you, no matter how silly that might be.”

She sat down on the bed with a bounce. “Hello little Tara,” Willow said softly. She patted the mattress reassuringly, clearly talking to someone not present.
“Now don’t you worry. No matter how bad things might be, there’s someone out there for you. Someone who loves you more than life itself. She doesn’t know it yet, but she’s been waiting for you all her life.”


Willow smiled up at the bemused Tara, currently leaning on the doorframe.
“You are going to be so loved, and have so many new friends. Good friends.”


“Goof,” Tara said with a half-smile.


“Yes, but you’re forgetting something. I’m your goof,” Willow said happily.


Tara pulled Willow to her feet and into an appreciative hug. “Yes you are,” she murmured contentedly into her ear.
They stood together for a little while, simply happy to be. Together and strong, chasing away some of the demons of the past.

Eventually they broke apart, Tara searching Willow’s amused gaze.
“What?” she asked softly.


“You,” Willow replied. “I could sense you waiting for me to get impatient and want to play with your new toys.”


“Sneak.”


Willow grinned. “Yup. So I didn’t. I guess you’re the impatient one today.”


“True. Let’s get out of here. I want to show you some things.”


“Special things?”


“Very special.”


“Neat.”


Tara’s expression hardened. “There’s something I wanted to say to my father before I go though. I owe him that.”


“Baby, you don’t owe him anything.”


“Oh yes I do,” Tara said. “I owe him a piece of my mind, if nothing else.”


“Whatever you need,” Willow said. “I’m here.”


Tara smiled, reassured by Willow’s support. “I know.”


“Like you said, we’ll probably never be coming back here. So I want to close this chapter of my life properly, and move on.”


“To your shiny new life,” Willow said with a smile.


Tara grinned back. “Filled with love and family and marriage and babies.”


“And the occasional apocalypse. Can’t forget them.”


“True. Where would our life be, without the world trying to end every few years?”
She pulled Willow to her feet. “Come on sweetie, let’s go.”



+++



As Tara and Willow came down the stairs, they were met by her Tara’s father.
He had a battered old leather-bound journal clutched in his hands.

“We have what we came for Daddy. We’re going now. I don’t think you’ll see us again.”

He nodded curtly.

“But before we go, I wanted to say something to you.”

He was impassive.


“You were wrong.”

John Maclay’s face did not change in the slightest, remaining closed, with a slight frown.

She took a breath to gather herself.
“You were wrong about the demon. You were wrong about the magic. You were wrong to keep us under your thumb all those years.”


He stood stoically, taking her judgement in silence.

“It was wrong of you to beat me. And just as wrong to let Donny beat me too.”
Tara felt Willow squeeze her hand reassuringly.

She let out her breath with a sigh.
“We are going home now. To our family.”


Tara’s defiant gaze bored into her father’s impassive stone-like face. “And I want you to know, that when it’s time to have children of our own, we will never be locking them in the basement!”


John Maclay nodded.
He drew himself up, like a man facing a firing squad with equanimity. “Tara, I’m not going to apologise for what I did. I did what I believed was right.”

Willow just stared, open mouthed in disbelief.

“But I will say that I’m sorry that your childhood wasn’t as happy as it could have been.”
“Here,” he said, holding out the scorched and battered journal.
“It doesn’t make things right. But at least you’ll get the chance to understand. Maybe I did do the wrong thing. But I did it for the right reasons.”


Tara took the journal, unsure about what to say.


Her father wasn’t a man to apologise. He believed that if you lived your life right, you never had to say you were sorry.
And he believed in living his life right.
But for him, this was as close to an apology as anyone had ever got.

She reached out and took the book.



Donny’s disbelieving voice cut through the solemn moment.
“That’s it?! You’re just gonna let ‘em go?!”


“Donny Maclay, you close your mouth right now!” he snapped, rounding suddenly on his son.


“Let him talk,” Willow said in a low and angry voice.

She glared at him, her eyes dark with fury.
“There’s something you need to know boy. There isn’t a darn thing you can do about any of this.”


His expression soured. “You watch your mouth, you little bitch.”


Willow grinned nastily at him. “Or what? You’ll hit me? Put me in my place?”

His eyes narrowed.
He didn’t say yes, or even nod, but his intent was clear.

And Willow laughed.


Despite the anger and tension in the air, it was a laugh of genuine hilarity.
And it wiped the stern look from Donny’s face.
He couldn’t bear to be laughed at.

Willow’s laughter stirred him to anger. She was laughing at him like he was nothing. As though he didn’t even matter.
His face twisted into an ugly expression of hate and he stepped forward to teach the redhead a lesson.


His father grabbed his arm tightly and held him back, for perhaps the first time in his life.
Shocked, he looked at his father.

Many years as a marine had given John Maclay a sense for danger. And he knew that the slight redheaded woman was more dangerous than anything he had seen on the battlefield.


Willow wiped the tears from her cheeks, still laughing. “You know Donald,” she said, putting deliberate stress on his name. “The thought of you trying to be all intimidating just makes me laugh, and you know why?”


“Why don’t you go ahead and educate me,” he said darkly.


She let everything fall away, and stared into his eyes, willing him to see the horror that she had seen.
He met her eyes, and was forced to look away.
This woman had stared into the abyss.
Unflinchingly.


“I have seen things you cannot imagine. I have seen monsters try to destroy the world, time and time again. But I have seen the worst thing in all creation.”

She continued remorselessly on, her voice hollow. “I was there when Tara died. Her blood was on my shirt, her last breath on my skin. And after that, nothing can scare me.”

“A goddess hurt Tara once. And I. Made. Her. Scream,” she said flatly.

“I called Osiris, god of the dead, from the underworld to return Tara to me. And when he wouldn’t, I punished him. I made him cry out in agony.”

“And when I found the man who shot her, I skinned him alive, and burned his body to ash.”

He met her gaze and saw the seething hatred and limitless contempt there.

“So what do you think I’m likely to do, to the angry little boy that made her life hell for so many years?”


Donnie tried to swallow nervously, but found that his mouth had gone dry.


“Nothing,” she whispered. “I’m not going to do anything. Because Tara doesn’t want me to.”
“You hurt her, shamed her and made her afraid for years! And she still doesn’t want you hurt.”

“You can’t imagine how much better than you, she is.”


Willow straightened up and brushed herself off. “I can only hope you’ll learn something from all this. But I bet that you won’t. So I want you to know, I’ll be watching. And if I find any domestic abuse calls with your name on them… if I hear about any gay-bashing near you, anything bad, I’ll come looking. And Donny?”

His eyes narrowed.

“I can find you literally anywhere.”

He forced himself to say nothing.


Tara laid a gentle hand on Willow’s arm. “Sweetie? It’s time to go.”

Willow nodded and turned away from the Maclays, toward the future. Towards Tara.
She smiled warmly, the anger and darkness fading away, like fog before the morning sun.


“One last thing to do,” Willow said.

Tara raised an eyebrow.

Willow gestured to the tree. Tara’s tree.


Tara smiled and nodded happily. Willow tucked the spellbook under one arm, and joined hands with her love.
She was lead to the tree, which Tara touched with a familiar hand.

Willow reached out and touched the smooth bark reverentially. She sighed as she felt the strength flowing through the tree.
Someone had put quite a bit of spell-work into the tree at some point, and Willow could feel the energy flowing through it.

“This feels like our field,” Willow whispered.


Tara hugged her close. “Where do you think I got the fertility spell from?”


Willow blinked. “Wow. Your mom really planned ahead.”


Tara chuckled in her ear, sending happy shivers down Willow’s spine. “Not that spell silly. The one that made the flowers grow.”


“Oops.”


“The farm was quite successful, even though the land isn’t the best. This spell is why.”


Willow closed her eyes. “Thank you Mrs Maclay. For bringing up someone so wonderful.”


“Rhiannon, sweetie. Mom’s name was Rhiannon.”


Willow smiled happily. “Thank you Rhiannon. I seem to be doing that a lot lately. Thanking people who aren’t here. For you.”
She frowned slightly. “I wish we knew where she’d gone. There’s so much happening lately that we can’t figure out. It would be nice to have one mystery solved.”


Something crystalized in Tara at that moment.

“There’s something I want your help with, Willow.”


“Sure. What do you need?”


Tara thought how best to explain. “Mom loved this farm. And Daddy or Donny wouldn’t admit it, but she was a major part of why the farm was so successful.”


“Really?” Willow said.
She looked around. “Um, I know I’m not all ‘nature girl’ but this place doesn’t scream ‘successful’ to me.”


Tara pointed at the farm truck and the RV parked by the shed. “We had a new truck, that big camper, a modern tractor, and don’t owe the bank anything. The farm’s pretty good, even if daddy never liked spending money on luxuries. Or paint.”


Willow nodded. “Ok. So… what are we doing?”


Tara squeezed her affectionately, pleased to have Willow’s unwavering support.
“We’re reinforcing Mama’s spell.”


Willow nodded slowly. “I get it. It’s her legacy.”
She grinned cheekily. “Even if it helps out a couple of giant poopy heads.”


As if reading her mind, one of the poopy-heads called out. “Y’all are still here? I thought you was going back to dyke land?”


Willow rolled her eyes. “Can I turn him inside out? Or into a frog? Please?”


Tara chuckled. “I think if you really wanted to hurt him, you should turn him into a girl. But no sweetie, no transmogrifying my brother.”


Willow grinned. “Are you sure? Because I researched this sex swapping spell a while back…”


That got a raised eyebrow. “Really?”


Willow shrugged. “Evil jacket. Made everyone fall in love with the boy wearing it.”


Tara chuckled, shaking her head in disbelief at the craziness of their lives. “And this lead to a sex-change spell how?”


Willow squirmed in her arms a little. “Well, it got me too. And hey, gay now. so…”


“So you decided to make ‘him’ into ‘her,’” Tara said as the light dawned.


“Well, yeah. Plus if he was a she, I’d have way less competition.”

She thought for a moment. “Well I thought I would. Now it turns out, no. No I wouldn’t.”


She glared at Donny, who was standing on the porch, trying desperately to get hold of the situation.
“Hush boy! Can’t you see this isn’t the day for this?”


Donny glared at his father.
John glared right back.

“Open your eyes boy! Your sister has wings! Whatever’s happening here, it isn’t what any of us was expecting.”

Donny glanced at Tara, noticing the snow-white wings folded across her back, registering them for what they were, rather than some bizarre costume or funky backpack.

She turned her back on him, giving him a splendid view of the expanse of pure white feathers.


He didn’t know what to say. None of this fit in his world. “Tara… Tara’s an angel?” he said.
Shocked wasn’t the word.
Truth be told, he had no idea how to process this.


“Now he notices,” Willow muttered, turning back to the tree.


Hand in hand, the pair closed their eyes and called the power to them.
Strength flowed up from the ancient earth and down from the eternal sky. Willow pulled the power to her, gently, unhurriedly, and passed it on to Tara. She had only the vaguest idea how this spell worked, so for now she was only helping with the spell.

Tara, for her part, didn’t need to cast a spell. The spell was already in place, its structure and energy flow woven into the living tree.
All she had to do was strengthen it. In essence, to recharge the spell.

She and Willow wove their energies together, and let their combined strength flow into the tree. And from the tree, to every part of the land. They both glowed with soft light as they renewed the land, giving strength to that which Rhiannon had loved, and given so much for.


When they opened their eyes, they could see the fruits of their work.
The flowers surrounding the tree had become riotous, a veritable bounty of glorious colour and rich scent.

She smiled radiantly. “Look what we have done,” she said softly.


Willow grinned back. “This is never going to get old.”


“Time to go. Hmm, do you have enough practice with the flight spell to do it? Without all the chanting and ingredients?”


Willow looked worried. “Maybe. In an emergency, maybe. I’m pretty sure if I try it now, I’m going to end up with no pants. And I like these pants, they’re really comfy.”


Tara smirked. “As much as I’d like that, it would kind of ruin the whole ‘cool exit’ plan.”
She stealthily checked out Willow’s behind. “Plus I’m not one for sharing.”


“Tara Giles-Rosenberg, you saucy vixen!” Willow said in a mock-shocked voice.


“Oops,” Tara said with a grin. “No one told me angels have a naughty streak.”


“Well… let’s get you home. I want to find out all about this naughty streak.”


“Well, if we’re going for a dignified exit, we should probably walk.”


“Pooh-pooh I say. Let’s wow the natives a little. I mean hey, who’s gonna believe these guys?”


Tara’s mouth twisted into a wry smirk. “Julian Clary lessons and flying lessons, all in one day? You are so bad.”


Willow grinned back. “I am very seldom naughty. So let’s make it count.”


Tara closed her eyes for a moment and summoned additional strength. The last thing she wanted to do was drop Willow.
She felt a twinge of guilt for basically showing off with her abilities, but only a twinge. It wasn’t every day that you came out to your relatives like this.
The Goddess apparently didn’t begrudge her this celebration, and granted her silent prayer. Her body flooded with additional strength.

She gathered Willow into her arms as the familiar white and blue pinpoints of light flowed around her. She extended her wings up high.
“Hold on tight sweetie,” she murmured into Willow’s ear.

Willow took a deep breath and crouched with Tara, jumping up hard, as Tara brought her wings down with a powerful snap.
With a few mighty wing beats the pair were airborne, Willow making a passable imitation of Xena’s warcry.


The Maclays watched open-mouthed as the pair vanished into the sky.



+++



Willow was laughing hard, her face red as they leaned against Tara’s reading tree, down by the river.


“Oh my. I can only imagine the expression on their faces,” Tara said, between gasps.


Willow faked a terrible hillbilly accent. “Mah daughter returned from the deyed… an’ she’s a angel!”


“See it live on Sally Jesse!” Tara said, sounding like a TV announcer.


They dissolved in helpless giggles again.

“Oh wow,” Willow said with a sigh. “That was fun.”


“I can’t believe I even said my family weren’t hillbilly’s,” Tara said.


“Uh, your dad doesn’t really give off a hillbilly vibe. But your brother… yeah, he’s a different story.”


Tara shook her head, disbelieving. “I don’t know what happened to him. This is not the back hills of Appalachia, we have a good school system here. Donny went to the same school that I did.”


Willow thought for a moment. “You don’t think there really is a demon, do you? In him, I mean?”


Tara pondered the thought for a while.
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably not. I don’t think people need to have demon blood to be mean to their little sisters.”


Willow brightened. “Which reminds me, we should have a look in the journal your dad gave you. I mean, we can give it to Giles to decipher, but it won’t hurt to have a look.”


“Sure.”


Tara pulled the journal out from where she had tucked it in her jacket, and handed it over.
Willow took it eagerly and quickly started skimming through it.
“Huh, looks like it’s been through the wars a bit. There’s some water damage, and it looks like the back half has been burnt.”

Tara sat on the grass at the foot of the tree, and pulled Willow into her embrace.
Willow hummed happily, warm in Tara’s arms.


After a couple of minutes she spoke. “Oh poop. Poor Giles.”


Tara felt the spike of mixed annoyance and sadness shoot down the link they shared.
“Sweetie, what is it?”


“Oh fuzzy heck. I think I know where the demon story came from.”

She waited patiently for Willow to puzzle through the pages she was looking at.

“I don’t suppose you had a great-great-grandmother called Marion did you?” Willow eventually asked.


Tara frowned, thinking. “I’m not really sure. Maybe. Why?”


“Because according to this, she might just have been a Slayer.”


Tara blinked in surprise. “A Slayer?”

Willow nodded grimly. “Yep. There’s mention in here of a Marion Ó Liatháin. And I’m thinking that can’t be a coincidence.”
She looked up into the blue eyes of her mate. “Baby, this is a watcher’s diary.”
She held up the diary, open to the front page. It showed an inscription, ‘Council of Watchers, year of our lord 1904, Errol Plummer.’
Below that was another line. ‘Herein is an account of the triumphs and tribulations of Marion Ó Liatháin, Slayer.’


“Oh my. So the ‘demon’ was the Slayer?” Tara asked.


“I don’t know yet. But if it’s not, it’s one doozy of a coincidence.”

Willow relaxed into Tara’s comforting embrace as she flicked through the pages, looking for clues.

“Huh. It looks from this as though they didn’t know where she was. All the first few months of entries are this Errol guy trying to find her.”


“I’m assuming that he eventually did.”


Willow read some more.

“Yup. He apparently followed some rumours that members of a ‘proud and ancient lineage’ had settled in the area. Uh, and then he heard about a massacre in a place called Dixie.”


Tara frowned. “I heard about that. We were always told it was Indians, but it seemed a bit too pat for me.”


“Native Americans always get the bad press.”


Tara nodded sadly. “Especially here. The whole area is kind of white… and proud of it.”


Willow sighed. “Why doesn’t that surprise me?”


“Sweetie? What does the journal say happened?”


“Uh, nothing good. This Errol guy makes Quentin Travers look like a new age hippy. Get this: ‘It seems miss Ó Liatháin has defied her maker and rejected the place that man and god have made for her. She has rebelled against her betters and slain the menfolk of her family. She must be dealt with strictly, and shown her place at once!’” Willow said angrily.


“Goddess!” Tara said. “That sounds kinda harsh, even for the times.”


“No molly-coddling this criminal,” Willow quoted. “I will have none of this wishy-washy business my colleagues are fond of. The Slayer is an instrument, and must be wielded as such by a strong and steady hand, and the sooner the better!”

Tara sat in silence, absorbing the impact of Willow’s words.

“Tara? Baby, are you ok?”


“I’m alright Willow. I was just thinking. What would it be like to be abused by the menfolk and to then suddenly inherit the power of the Slayer? It must have felt like divine justice.”


“I’m thinking that was probably why she went a little crazy.”


“I can understand that. Especially with Buffy and Faith as our friends. They’re very… physical with their emotions.”


Willow thought about Faith. Given what she knew of the Bostonian, it made sense. Faith would have come down on them like the wrath of god.

“Yeah. That seems likely.”


“So, this watcher told Marion that it was a demon that gave her the power?” Tara asked.


“I dunno. Give me a minute to see if I can find anything.”


Willow flicked through the pages with amazing speed, searching for the part of the journal where the two met.
“Here we go. Um, he told her that there was a dark power inside her. He said that the dark power came from a demon, and only discipline could stop it coming out and killing everyone she loved.”


“Half true I suppose.”


“He also mentions ‘de cruciatore’ the testing potion, which I can only assume is the stuff that took Buffy’s powers.”


“So he drugged her?”


“Looks like. Then he beat the crap out of her, to show her that she was nothing without her strength.”


“Goddess, what a charmer.”


“Oh yeah. I gotta say, those council types were kinda poopy-heads, but they were nothing like this guy.”

Willow turned her head and rubbed her cheek against Tara. “You know, if you’d been around when I cast the big Slayer spell, you’d be a Slayer now, I think.”


Tara made a sour face. “I’m glad that I’m not. I don’t think I could handle all that fighting.”


Willow smirked. “There’s other compensations. Stamina, heightened sensitivity, less need for sleep.”


Tara raised an eyebrow. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I don’t need a lot of sleep. And I think I do ok in the stamina department.”


“Vixen.”


“Yes. Anything else?”


Willow shook her head. “Not right now. I’d need to do some more in-depth reading, to get anything more than a few phrases that jumped out at me.”


Tara sighed. “Well, at least we have some understanding of where this mad idea came from.”


Willow’s eyes had drifted back to the page, and a spell diagram that stood out from the hand-written words.
“Uh, hey, here’s a demon detecting spell. I think she used it to test if he was right about the demon.”


Tara leaned over a little, to get a look at the diagram. She looked closely at the page.
“That certainly looks like a detection spell, though it’s not one I’m familiar with.”


“Straight magic. No invoking of spirits, gods or anything.”


Tara frowned as her eyes traced the spell’s diagram. “’Other than man,’” she quoted.


“Huh?”


“Here,” she said, pointing to part of the diagram. “This spell is worded poorly. It doesn’t discriminate. This would pick up anything supernatural. Witches, werewolves and probably Slayers would all show the same way.”


It was Willow’s turn to make a sour face. “And now we know how he got it to stick.”


Tara nodded. “If this was her spell, she would have trusted the results.”


“Phooey.”


“Well, this isn’t what we came for, but it’s good to have an understanding of what caused all this,” Tara said.
“Put this away, at least until Giles has a chance to look at it, and we can look at things that are a little more pleasant.”
She patted the grey leather-bound spellbook.


“Neat!” Willow said. “I’ve never seen a genuine Book of Shadows.”


“Mom never called it that,” Tara said as she pulled the big book into Willow’s lap. “But yeah, that is its official title.”


“What did she call it?” Willow asked curiously.


Tara smiled. “Promise you won’t laugh?”


“No,” Willow said. “I can promise you that I’ll try. But if you’re even asking that question, there’s a good chance I won’t be able to do anything but giggle.”


“Mom called it ‘the big book o’ spells.’ Sometimes the ‘bumper fun book o’ magic.’”

Willow burst into giggles.

Tara smirked wryly. “Yeah, mom had an odd sense of humour,” Tara said, opening the book as Willow giggled madly.


The spine of the book made a crinkling sound as she opened it up to the first page, breathing in the scent of history.
Her history, the history of generations of witches. Which clearly involved herbs. Lots of herbs.

“Is é seo an leabhar litrithe de grá Bodhmal , penned ag an Liath. Mar gheall ar mian linn iad siúd a leanann a bheith in ann a léamh i ndáiríre é.”
Tara read out.


“What does that mean?” Willow asked.


“This is the spell book of loved Bodhmal, penned by the Gray. Because we wish those who follow to be able to actually read it.”


Willow snickered. “I’m guessing that Bodhmal’s writing wasn’t so good?”


“This is the book of shadows for my ancestors, Willow. It’s more than a simple spell book, it’s the living history of those who went before.”


“Wow.”


“Mom never let me read it,” she said, turning the page. “She always said I’d understand when-”

She stopped in shock. There on the page was a beautifully rendered charcoal sketch of Willow.
She was wearing some kind of gown, and her hair was in braids, but there was no mistaking that smile.


“Wuh?” Willow said.

Tara stared in silence.

“Who… is that?”


“My heart, beloved Bodhmal,” Tara quoted, translating the elegant script below the beautiful sketch.



+++