POST 1 OF 2
Well, this is the last 'part' of this story. As I suggested the actual 'end' was in part 27, but along the way I'd had enough ideas about what happened after - and written a few of them - that I didn't want to throw them away so added some extra bits. But I'll leave that for the notes in the story.
Been a pleasure, as always, to share this with Kittens and to hear back from some of you who've enjoyed it.
For anyone who cares, I'm currently early in the redraft of the 3rd (and final) part of the Raiders trilogy featuring our favourite archaeologist and secret agent... So we're not that far away from that being ready. Months, but not lots of months...
So, it's been a blast kittens
Drop in if you enjoyed it and say hi!
Due to what the board will accept, this post is split into two for length.
Katharyn
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Title:
Tara and Willow – The Blessed Unrest – Epilogues and afterthoughtsAuthor: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Absolutely, yes please. That’s why I write for this place, to engage in the discussion about the story.
Spoiler warning: Not sure why I am bothering, really, but nothing much apart from the episode ‘Hush’ in S4. And let’s face it, if you’ve not seen that then… what are you doing here?
Distribution: This story was written for Pens. Pens is its home. No archiving off Different Coloured Pens and the Kitten Board please. No conversion to eBook or other formats please. Enjoy it here.
Story notes: Tara’s background is different to that presented in Family and instead based on a throwaway remark made in interviews around the time Family first aired. (Though I now realise not the precisely terminology used there)
Summary: A whole slew (I’ve been waiting to use the word ‘slew’ for something) of endings to this story.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BTVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc. I am making no money from this series of stories however all original characters and situations remain my property. As this is a missing scenes and alternate reality fiction lots of scenes are new versions of those seen in the show, as such dialogue and situations are taken from the show. I’m sure you can tell which. All credit for those aspects goes to the original writers.
The title ‘The Blessed Unrest’ came from and belongs to Sara Bareilles from the album of the same name.
Rating: Occasional, tasteful, adult situations and contextual bad language. However by and large equivalent to the show.
Couples: Tara and Willow forever, that’s all I’m bothered about.
Text convention: Use of
italics denotes either special emphasis if used for a single or a few words in a sentence OR first person thoughts if used for a whole sentence.
Notes: Like Lord of the Rings, this could have many ending scenes that you don’t really need but everyone seems to like at least one of them in that movie so, all in all, better to include them all. Right?
More accurately, I had more than one idea along the line for what happened when they got back so I wanted to use rather than waste those. Perhaps if we’re thinking of movies to compare it to then this final chapter could be based on the old Burt Reynolds films. If anyone remembers ones like Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit then what you used to get was the outtakes running alongside the credits. Yeah, that would probably be a better model. So what follows is – mostly – just the outtakes, strung together with a sort of theme in a sort of logical order and presented as what happens when the girls get home.
Will they go back to the woods? Will they have kids of their own? Who knows, that’s for you to decide. But this is just about those first days after they get back and have to deal with friends, family and overly helpful fairies who just like to show people things. Even things that they really shouldn’t.
After all, the starting point of this is really the first day of the rest of their lives. Literally.
Thanks to: All of you who’ve come this far. Even more so for those who were along ‘live’ for the ride and doubly more so for those who broke cover and let me respond to your feedback. Doubly more so? Triply?
“So there you have it,” Willow said. “Are you sure you’re feeling okay? You hit the ground pretty hard there. Sorry, yeah, we’re not talking about that are we… Big, touch Slayer knocked on her ass by the fact her roommate’s married to a girl. I’m really shutting up now.”
Buffy looked at them. Looked at them both.
She nodded, feeling like she ought to lend some weight to it all. A nod felt like it might be the right way to do that. Especially since – until now – she’d only known Willow’s best friend by reputation. Seemed like anything more than a nod might seem… presumptuous. And that was one thing no one had ever said about her.
Plus the passing out. That had taken Willow by surprise too.
“Umm,” Buffy said finally.
“That’s
all you have to say? It’s not a concussion is it?”
“Not it’s not a concussion. Just – Look, Will, what do you want me to say? I mean, I just had a pretty big night too,” Buffy said, a little more expansively. “I did the town saving thing again and that’s not so big a deal but there was stuff with Riley and you know I’d have told you everything but now you tell me that I didn’t have a big night, I had a night that lasted you a whole year?”
“It’s not your fault,” she said. “There is no fault. There’s no bad - It just… sort of happened. It happened to us.”
And I really didn’t seduce your roommate.
Much.But she did get Buffy’s point. They could’ve been in trouble and in a much worse place. They could’ve needed help and… no one here would’ve given it to them. Or even known they were missing until… what? Three or four years had passed? That was making Buffy feel… useless. And this obviously wasn’t a girl who often felt that way.
After all, for her, saving the town – or even the world – was just another night.
So feeling helpless? That wasn’t something she was used to.
“It’s okay, Tara,” Buffy said. “I get it. I do. Sometimes… sometimes I’m not the hero of the story. I think I am, but I know that sometimes something else is going on and I find I’m more like the bit-part player, there for the day while the big story is going on another stage and – I think I ran out of movie metaphors.”
“I told you she’d be okay about it,” Willow said. “Aside from the – you know – passing out thing. But she was probably just tired. You were tired, right Buff? Saving the town and then everything with Riley… Okay, yes, shutting up again.”
“Of course I’m okay. If you’re okay, if you’re
both okay, then I’m okay. And… Tara’s a nymph then?”
“Yes – but, just to be clear. Not a nymph
o. That’s a whole other thing. And there’s no slaying required of nymphs. At all. Ever.”
“Willow! How can you think – or say – that I’d
slay your girlfriend?”
“You wanted to slay my ex-boyfriend,” Willow pointed out, but then turned to her and tried to be reassuring. “Only when he’d dumped me for another werewolf. A skanky ho of a werewolf too. Not even a pedigree. There was probably butt sniffing involved and – I mean too much butt sniffing, I guess and - ”
She pulled a face. It wasn’t something she needed to hear. In her world there was no scale to denote when you’d reached ‘too much’ butt sniffing.
“And nothing. That’s where I need to shut my mouth.”
“I’m not going to slay your girlfriend… Wait, you said – she’s not your girlfriend! Why did you let me call her – you – your girlfriend? She’s your wife. You said she’s your wife.”
“Maybe not in the eyes of the state of California,” Willow admitted. “But… I said ‘yes’. And she said ‘yes’. We both said ‘yes’ and so, we are. As far as we’re concerned.”
“So do… you want me to move out?” Buffy suggested.
“What – why?”
“Well… I figure you’d want to – umm – sleep together now?”
Willow shook her head, blushing. “We’ve been doing that. A lot. But here – you mean here – Well, Tara has a… big bed.”
“On campus?”
She nodded.
“And no roommate?”
“No.”
“No one you drove away with annoying tics? Or maybe singing Cher? A lot?”
Cher? It seemed to mean something to the two of them anyway. Personally she’d never minded Cher, but that might not be the thing to admit right now. It sounded to be something of a test.
The sort of test she needed to pass if wanted to get on with Willow’s friends.
“No.”
“So how
did you get a big bed to yourself?” Buffy asked.
“Oh no,” Willow said. “You don’t need more than a single, Buffy.”
“You got married – why can’t I have a big bed too?” Buffy complained. “I really think it might be going somewhere with Riley we shared secrets and - ”
“Buffy. Every time you go to bed with someone… Every. Single. Time. Bad things happen. Every single time. Maybe you need to… not be in a bed. With anyone. You know what I mean.”
“I’ll have you know I go to bed with myself all the time – wait, that came out… well, right, I guess – but also wrong. I should just give up though? You found the person you want to spend your life with and I should keep… going to bed with myself?”
Feeling sorry for Buffy, she felt like she needed to make a suggestion. “You could say ‘stay single’.”
“
That’s what I meant,” Buffy confirmed. “You think I should stay single, though… that has meant going to bed with myself… umm. Sorry – Tara – we – I’m not usually like this. This whole thing has kind of knocked me out of the park. With good – it’s all good.”
“Maybe you could find a nice girl,” Willow suggested, also trying to help Buffy out.
“I don’t - ”
“It worked for me,” Willow reminded her. “And I didn’t think I was either.”
“I’m not - ”
“I really didn’t think I was – I really didn’t
think at all,” Willow said. “If I had thought, maybe I’d have figured it out sooner. Might’ve saved on all that flea powder.”
Flea powder? Was Willow joking? If so Buffy didn’t react and… that made it an old joke or the truth.
“Or maybe you were just waiting for Tara,” Buffy said, apparently as eager to get off the flea powder. “But – and this isn’t a negative thing – I’m not like you guys. Girls. I’m not like – I – girls aren’t my thing.”
“Really, Buffy? Really?” Willow asked.
“No!”
“Well, I guess someone has to be straight. But give it some thought. I mean, Tara’s the best thing that happened to me and that’s not just because she’s a girl – but… Buffy. Seriously. Boobs.”
“Boobs?”
“Boobs. You have – look, you think you know, because you have them yourself and if you’re… going to bed with yourself, you might well appreciate them more than just the whole fashion thing but then there’s someone
other boobs and it’s a
whole different thing.”
“Willow – I’m just not - ”
At this point, she had some sympathy for Buffy. Although, the ‘boobs’ point was a powerful argument. Even straight girls must admit that much. Right?
Willow wasn’t done though. “Except, knowing you – Buffy, honey, I love you but knowing you it’d probably be Drusilla if you ever fell for a girl.”
And that was a name she didn’t know. Buffy, apparently, did. Because her reaction was pure shock.
“Willow!”
“Or Faith. Everyone knows you always had crazy chemistry with Faith.”
“Faith?!”
“Oh, come on. Tell me you didn’t know and I’ll call you liar-liar-pants-on-fire. That’s sort of why I hated her so much… And I probably said too much for all of us, right?”
Moving to her girl’s side, she laid a calming hand on top of Willow’s. “I think that’s a safe bet,” she said. “In fact, I’ll take that dollar now.”
********************
“So… This could be home, huh?” Willow asked, mostly looking at the bed.
For her part, she’d not really thought about that big old bed much until Buffy and Willow had been talking about it.
Single dorm room. Queen sized bed.
So, yeah… Maybe she
had been living in the bachelorette pad. Maybe, in the past, it might’ve seen more use than just for sleepiness. Until now, until Willow was the first person other than a friend to come in here, she’d really not been living up to that legacy.
Nor, on the other hand, was she a bachelorette anymore so that was okay.
Now a big old bed was just a matter of… practicality.
All the same, it seemed like more than just a bed right now.
“We
are married,” she reminded her wife.
“And don’t
I[/] know it?”
She smiled. “What does that mean?”
“Oh, just that we keep telling everyone that we’re married. Like it was this big, important thing or something. You know, being married is not the only important thing about us, Tara. Do you remember that?”
“Oh?”
“There are other interesting facts,” Willow assured her, testing the edge of her bed by sitting on it experimentally. Almost nervously. Like it might break. Or she could sink down into the depths and never be seen again.
“Name some?”
“B - ”
“ - Other than boobs,” she interrupted. Just to clarify.
“Oh. Really? Other than boobs? Umm, well, let’s try this. Speaking personally, I have a new interest in a) who – or what – is on the other side of that wall,” Willow said, pointing towards the head of the bed, “b) whether the springs in this bed squeak and c) whether you can get certain personal items we may have half-jokingly discussed by mail-order or you have to go to a store.”
“Oh.” Those were interesting facts – or questions really – Willow was right so far. “But… I think in terms of what we [i]tell people, ‘married’ is probably enough. We don’t need to mention that other stuff, right?”
“That’s fine,” Willow promised her. “Just so long as
we know there’s more about us than that.”
“Oh, I know. But… mail order? Really?”
“Tara, I’m a curious girl. You knew that when you married me. And you’ve shown me that hands on curiosity is absolutely the best kind of curiosity there is… So, in the hands on curiosity spirit, there are things I want to try. You seemed to want to as well… So, think about it. Now we can do that mail order from the comfort of our own – big – bed. Or we can find and go down the store. Together. And I don’t think either of us wants that, do we?”
Really, it didn’t take much thinking about. Mortifying was going to be the only word. From their bed, much better.
“That’s what I thought. See, Tara, some things wood is
not the best for. No. Wait. That came out… wrong. Just – very wrong.”
“I think I get what you mean anyway,” she promised, taking the easier way out.
“Oh, good. Because we have about a year there to make up for.”
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CONTINUED IN THE NEXT POST