STORY RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara, and any other characters from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise belong to Joss Whedon, FOX, ME, and a whole host of other entities, none of which are me.
SUMMARY: “If you carry joy in your heart, you can heal any moment.” (sequel to
21+, which is a sequel to
Two For Joy)
FEEDBACK: Go for it.
Joy To The World
Aphrodite the cat woke with a start, her last memory of…
Falling asleep at her human’s feet, basking in the warmth she required they provide. She was their leader, after all.
But now they were pawing and licking each other again. Hadn’t they just gotten clean last night? She flounced off the bed and into the bathroom where she could find some things to knock over.
In the bedroom, the odd ritual of simultaneous cleaning and fighting for dominance persisted.
“Willow…”
“Mmm, yes, Tara…”
“Mmm, Willow…you have to stop.”
“You don’t sound like you want me to stop…”
“
Want is not the deciding factor here…”
Willow’s lips popped off of Tara’s neck and she gave her wife an accusing look.
“You know, if
you hadn’t decided to give birth on Christmas Day, we might have gotten away with spending all day under the covers now that she’s too old to believe in Santa.”
Tara arched an eyebrow, still messy from sleep.
“Anya ruined that before
we even turned 21, never mind Joy.”
“Right,” Willow shuddered, “Disemboweling Santa is not the one you want coming down your chimney.”
Tara frowned deeply.
“Let’s not mention her telling us about Santa trying to come through her back door.”
Willow’s mouth dropped in disgust.
“You just said it. Why would you say it?”
“Marriage is sharing everything, including traumatic memories,” Tara replied with a crooked grin.
That smile ignited waves in Willow. She brushed her thumb on Tara’s lips then put her hand under the covers to press against the front of Tara’s underwear.
“I can think of something else we can share…if you have a bit of self-control.”
Tara rolled Willow right onto her back.
“You know I love having control.”
“Yes I do,” Willow cooed as she folded her arms under her head and relaxed completely.
Their mouths were close enough to share breath and just about to join in that perfect union of eagerness and softness that only their kisses could invoke…before their bedroom door burst open.
“Oh, gross!”
Joy spun around while covering her eyes and Tara scrambled to lift the blanket past their shoulders.
“Joy, seriously!” Willow frothed, “You’re not three years old anymore, you can’t come bursting in just because it’s Christmas.”
“Also my birthday,
thank you,” Joy replied, her eye roll palpable despite her hand still covering her eyes.
She slowly dropped her hand and turned back around.
“And I’m not Joy,” she said solemnly, “At least not…your Joy.”
There was a pause.
Silence.
Joy pouted slightly.
“I really expected a bigger reaction to that.”
Willow and Tara exchanged a perplexed and worried glance.
“Say, you didn't happen to do a bunch of drugs, did ya?” Willow asked with her eyebrows in her hair.
“You can tell us, sweetie. We won’t get mad,” Tara reassured.
“I’ll be a little mad,” Willow countered, “Depending on the drug and how you got it. You can legally
drink today and, okay, technically you can smoke weed but—”
Suddenly Joy had lunged at the bed and threw her arms over both of her mothers.
“I’ve missed you two being…you two.”
It only took Tara a moment of looking into Joyce’s eyes to realize the significance of her words.
“Oh my god.”
Joy’s eyes got glassy.
“Yeah, Mama.”
Willow looked at them both with a quickening glance.
“Wait. What did I miss?”
Tara cupped Joy’s cheek.
“When?”
Willow started waving her hands back and forth.
“Hello?! Fill clueless Mom in here, please!”
Tara swallowed deeply and looked at Willow.
“She’s from the future.”
“A few years,” Joy confirmed, smiling a wry crooked smile identical to Tara’s, “Not enough to stop being grossed out by you two, though.”
“Oh shit,” Willow replied, her shoulders slumping, “At least it wasn’t me this time.”
Tara suddenly turned to Willow and flicked her wife’s arm with her fingers.
“Did you teach our daughter how to time travel?!”
“No!” Willow protested, then turned to Joy with a pained look, “Did I?”
Joy shook her head and looked at Tara.
“No, Mama. You did.”
Tara’s world began to swirl. She had to lean back.
“Is Joy safe?” Willow cut in, “Our Joy?”
Joy nodded.
“Vibing to some Gaga somewhere…in here. She’ll never know I was here,” she said, putting a finger against her head and spinning it around, “I never got the specifics of how the body-sharing works but Mama made sure of it.”
Willow nodded knowledgeably.
“She magically roofied you. Our ‘you’.”
Joy’s eyes widened at Tara accusingly. Tara quickly pointed at Willow.
“I learned it from her.”
“I only ever used it on myself!” Willow defended, then rolled her eyes, “God, I was a such total bitch to deal with. Just ‘push, push, push’, no: hey, can I borrow your body for a bit to save our family?”
Her eyes suddenly grew so big they almost popped.
“Are you here to save our family?!”
Joy reached out and touched Willow’s arm.
“I’m here to save you, Mom,” she said softly, lovingly, “That’s why Mama sent me. You’re lost. She couldn’t come but she said she’s the only person who always knows where to find you.”
Willow made an awkward face.
“I’m guessing I’m not just senile and wandering the aisles of Costco looking for cat food?”
Joy sat back on the bed and exhaled a long breath.
“Quick recap?” she said and began to gesture between her parents, “You guys have no idea how powerful you’re about to become.”
Willow and Tara shared a surprised look. Joy waved it off.
“That’s the boring bit. How often have I had to hear ‘oh, your moms are
that Willow and Tara?’ The mother—anyway. And I’m like, hey, I do magic too, I just have a life, you know? I do
other things like—”
“Joysie, baby, speed up the time-travel-necessitating Armageddon explanation please,” Willow asked pertinently.
Joy made the same face she’d made since she was a toddler when reprimanded: Willow’s pout and Tara’s deep, penetrating gaze.
“So the
thing about being super powerful is that everyone wants a piece of it. Not just demons. Fellow witches too,” she continued and sighed, “I wish I could tell you ‘The Great Witch Wars’ was just the name of a book I would totally read.”
“And critique the movie based on it,” Willow mused, trying to not still sound bitter about Joy rejecting the Harry Potter movies with her.
“It’s been over a decade, Mom. Get over it. As
if magic works like that. Not to mention all of the
other unpleasantness,” Joy shook her head at the attempted slight, “And yeah, I would critique that movie. It wouldn’t be close to reality. I know, because I’ve lived it!”
She threw herself back on the bed dramatically, like she had just a few days before when lamenting to her parents about how she’d done on her final exams. Despite this bizarre, if now somewhat familiar scenario, Willow and Tara couldn’t help but share a fond smile over their daughter.
Joy began gesturing above herself with her hands.
“
Very long story short: big battle,
way too many magical artifacts go kablooey. Mom…kinda gets scattered through all of time and space?”
“WHAT!?” Willow nearly jumped out of bed.
“Excuse me?” Tara added in an equally stern but less bodily response, “Why can’t I find Willow in your time?”
Joy looked at her sadly.
“With Mom gone, your magic is just…” she started to roll her hands and made an explosion with her hands, “You’re intrinsically linked. There is no one without the other.”
Tara reached for Willow’s hand, who squeezed back, taking some calm.
“Do I want to know what’s happening in these ‘witch wars’ with our magic disbanded?” she asked Joy with clenched teeth.
Joy sat up.
“Let’s just say the slayers have their ass-kicking skills being put to good use,” she said, visibly withholding a shudder, before smiling at her spot between her moms; safe, “But it’s okay. Because I know you’re going to send me back to a world that is light with your magic and not dark with your absence.”
Willow and Tara shared a determined look.
“What do we have to do?” Willow asked.
Joy looked between them cluelessly.
“I was hoping you’d be telling me. Mama’s…” she stopped and swallowed, “Fading. She could only tell me so much. That I needed to come here and that I needed this.”
She reached into her pocket and produced the Doll’s Eye crystal.
It had a giant crack down the center.
“I had to glue it,” Joy admitted, making Willow gasp, turning Joy’s turn petulant, “It got me here, didn’t it?”
“It’s fine,” Tara rubbed Joy’s arm, “You did good, baby.”
She wasn’t sure she believed it but she had to hope. Her daughter’s life was on the line, not to mention hers and Willow’s.
She got up and went to their magic closet, opening it carefully to take out
their Doll’s Eye.
She brought it back to the bed and to the surprise of all three of them, both crystals began to glow and the battered one started to burn with energy.
“Ow!” Joy dropped it from her hand.
“I know what we have to do,” Tara said suddenly, looking up with a determined look in her eye, “Tinkerbell.”
“TINKERBELL IS REAL AND YOU NEVER TOLD ME?!” Joy interjected with the kind of incredulity only someone with all the legal vantages of being an adult but still liked being the stuffing in a Mom sandwich could produce.
Ignoring her, Willow frowned.
“Really? You think that’s going to work ‘across all of time and space’? Maybe if you rinky-dink it up in a Tardis.”
Tara smiled softly.
“Better. We send it through the nether realms.”
Willow’s eyes slowly widened and she grabbed Tara’s cheeks, pulling her in for repeated kisses.
“My beautiful, genius, goddess-of-magic wife!”
“You have no idea,” Joy muttered under her breath.
Tara turned to Joy and took her arm.
“Joy you have to come with me. I sent you back here, to this time, for a reason.”
“And probably not just to relive my kick-ass 21st,” Joy grinned.
“Our party is kick-ass?” Willow beamed. She’d been planning it carefully.
Joy winked.
“You’ll see.”
While Willow beamed silently to herself, Joy suddenly screamed. Immediately alarming her parents, they both jumped to her aid, only for her to skip away to pick up the white cat that had just come from the laundry basket.
“Aphrodite!”
She lifted her and started kissing her.
“Such a pretty girl! I’ve missed you! Is Sandy here too?”
“Probably on his cat tree where he always is,” Willow replied softly, choosing not to dwell on what her daughter’s excited reaction to their beloved cats meant, “If he hasn’t wrangled himself into the Christmas tree already.”
“You should go see him,” Tara encouraged softly.
“Can I, can I?” Joy asked, lighting up as she had as a child on Christmas morning, so overcome with gifts for the holiday and her birthday (she resembled a human Pogo stick the years where Hanukkah had overlapped in the same way).
“Go ahead, sweetie,” Tara nodded, “Mom and I need to talk. We’ll call you when we’re ready.”
Joy hopped out while stroking Aphrodite. Tara waited until she heard the squeak of the stairs to turn to Willow.
“Can you anchor us both?”
Willow nodded.
“Definitely. I don’t even anchor with you anymore, we just…are. And she’s of us. I’ve got you. I’ve got both of you. Always.”
Tara leaned in and pressed a kiss to Willow’s lips.
“Let’s go save ourselves all over again.”
“I’m considering writing this all down as a novel,” Willow said seriously as she followed Tara over to the magic closet, “People would read this shit.”
“Yes, dear,” Tara intoned softly and smiled when she felt Willow’s lips on her neck, “We just can’t let an occasion go by, can we?”
“Who’d want to be boring?” Willow joked as she began to lay out the candles, “Uh…Tara?”
“Mhm?” Tara asked as she flicked through some dried flower powder.
“Getting to the nether realms…”
Willow paused.
“It’s…intimate.”
Tara looked over her shoulder.
“You’ve grounded with Buffy before. Was that intimate?”
“Not like us-intimate,” Willow shook her head, “But this is more than grounding. I mean, I used to ground with Joy all the time until she stopped being that interested in magic. I’m more worried about the…push over the edge.”
Tara came over and perched on the edge of the circle Willow was forming.
“I’ll bind her to me and then you can just…push me over.”
Willow frowned.
“She won’t…see that, will she? Or…” she paled, “Feel it?”
They looked at each other and then spoke at the same time.
“Magical roofie.”
“We’re terrible people,” Willow said with her nose scrunched.
“Yes,” Tara agreed, “But ones that have been put in terrible situations.”
Willow stopped and came over to Tara.
“Hey. Let’s take a minute.”
Tara nodded and they moved to sit opposite each other, cross-legged and hands joined.
They didn’t need to move or speak or even look at each other.
This was a well-practiced routine.
No matter where in the magical ebb and flow of their lives, they grounded with each other every day and took regular cleansing baths to remain synced with each other and the earth.
Even during the most difficult of apocalypses or simplest of demon-axings, they knew they were always stronger together.
Energy swirled around them but it wasn’t harsh or growing like the nether realms spell would be. It just formed between them and rebounded up, lifting them both a foot off the ground before gently floating them back to the floor.
Their eyes opened at the same time. They nodded at each other.
“I’ll get the dematorin,” Tara said quietly.
“I’ll finish the circle,” Willow replied and grabbed a couple of pillows.
When it was ready for the spell to commence and they'd quickly changed out of their pajamas, they looked at each other again and quietly went downstairs to get Joy. She was in their living room, which Willow began to feel anxiety about as she had not factored in her daughter coming back from the future to save them all into her decorating plans.
She should have, she realized now, as this was apparently a very normal thing in their family.
She and Tara’s 30th anniversary was coming up. Better book a barn. At least then they wouldn’t be liable for any time-travel-related damages they might incur.
Joy was using an old mouse-on-a-string toy to make the kitties go bonkers. Or Sandy, anyway. Aphrodite was lounging under the window where she was luxuriating in a suntrap like the goddess she was. Or thought herself of, at least. She could find the smallest piece of sun streaming in the window on an Ohian winter morning, after all. That was wizardry all on its own.
“It’s time, Joysie,” Willow said softly.
Joyce looked up, both serene and sad.
“I know.”
She jumped up with all the sprightliness a 21-year-old should.
“Let’s go find my Mom.”
Willow patted Joy on the back as they ascended the stairs again.
“Sounds like she raised a great daughter.”
Joy leaned her head on Willow’s shoulder.
Back in the bedroom, Joy plopped herself down on a pillow.
“So how does this work?” she asked, looking between her mothers, “You guys never let me go the nether realms.”
Willow and Tara glanced at each other and quickly away again.
“You need to take this, sweetie,” Tara said, handing her a little vial of green liquid, “It, um…prepares the body for the journey.”
“Oh, cool,” Joy nodded, trusting.
“We have to bind you and Mama first,” Willow interjected quickly, “Make sure you don’t get lost from each other while you’re gone. I'll be keeping you both anchored while Aradia helps you find…me.”
“The Queen of the Witches,” Joy smirked ever-so-slightly, “You always told me I could only call on her in an emergency.”
“And you think this isn’t?” Willow arched an eyebrow.
Joy chuckled, low and sarcastic.
“No, I just think she’s going to be pissed about being called ‘Tinkerbell’.”
“And you know her personally?” Tara countered with a crooked smile.
Joy just arched her eyebrows and pursed her lips, hiding a smile.
Tara came to sit opposite her and Willow bound their hands with rope.
“Is this your hand-fasting rope?” Joy asked as it was weaved around her wrists.
“No, this is our bedroom rope,” Willow chuckled before her eyes widened, “That we keep. In the bedroom. For events such as these.”
Joy made a pained face.
“Can we just get this over with?”
Willow put her hands over their joined hands.
“Amari, hear our reverent plea. Take these binds and make them be.”
She shook an aspergillum over them, shaking liquid over their hands as they all repeated the chant.
The ropes glowed for a moment before unraveling themselves and falling into their laps, now unneeded.
Joy looked up with a frown.
“Did it…work? I don’t feel any different.”
“You won’t,” Willow reassured, “It connected you and Mama on the spiritual level you’ll exist in the nether realms. As long as your bodies stay safe, and I’ll make sure they will, you’ll both go there and return without losing each other.”
Tara nodded.
“Take your potion now sweetie.”
Joy popped the cork on the vial and downed it.
“Hmm. Tastes like strawberries,” she commented before her eyes grew lidded, “I’m sleepy…”
Tara put her arms out just in time to catch her; light red hair splaying out over the pillows as Tara settled her.
“Terrible, terrible people,” Willow shook her head.
Tara turned back to Willow and held her face gently.
“I’m gonna find you.”
“I know,” Willow replied with glassy eyes and a soft smile, “What’s all of time and space in the face of our love?”
Tara leaned in and pressed her lips to Willow.
“I know my Willow. I know all Willows. You’re not off hanging out at the edge of the universe with Dr. Who—”
“It’s just the Doctor,” Willow interrupted and Tara smiled, amused and adoring.
She bumped her nose against Willow’s.
“You’re trying to get back to us. That’s where I’ll find you. Finding your way home. You just need a hand.”
She brought her hands up and linked both with Willow’s.
“And I have two.”
“As I well know,” Willow replied with a saucy smirk.
“Down girl,” Tara smirked back, “Or I’ll have to send you to the ice-cream store to cool down.”
“If
someone hadn’t decided to go back to school to become a counselor, I would still work there,” Willow countered; their faces still close enough to touch, “But it just wasn’t as fun without you.”
Tara reached up and stroked Willow’s cheek.
“Sometimes I think you only offered to run the practice so you could be on your computer all day.”
“You caught me,” Willow said with mock-mirth, “Looking up my sneaky pictures of you in lingerie between the troubled gay youth coming in for you to heal them.”
Tara shrugged one shoulder.
“I figured you were playing minesweeper.”
Willow laughed raucously.
“Oh baby…your references are
so old. Thank god you do have me to run the practice or you’d be keeping your details in ten different notebooks! Or maybe a slate and rock!”
Tara smiled. Willow smiled back.
They stayed like that for a long moment until Tara placed her hands on Willow’s thigh and let them fall off.
Willow knew it was time.
She got up and closed the curtains while Tara lit the candles and brought a little bowl of oil between them.
Quietly, Willow dipped her fingers in the oil and lifted her hand to Tara’s forehead, pressing the oil there. She repeated this on Tara’s mouth and over her heart.
They sat side-by-side side in opposite directions and began casting their arms around themselves in a circular motion.
“The inward eye, the sightless sea. Ayala flows through the river in me.”
Their chant was whispered but evocative, matching the energy beginning to burgeon around them in a perfect, blinding circle.
Their breath got heavier as their hands reached in sync with each other. As fingers touched at every point, the energy rose around them, causing even more labored breath and sweat to appear on their brows.
Slowly Tara looked at Willow, who looked back. At the moment of connection, Tara began to gasp for breath and she fell back, taking Joy’s hand on the way. Her body arched into the waiting pillows as their journey began.
The nether realm was not like the earthly realm.
It existed only in energy but communication could still pass, though it was more on a psychic level. This made it easy for Tara to tap into future Joy when they got up there and could see her Joy’s energy tranquil and at peace.
“Did you DRUG me?” Joy communicated to Tara as her energy burst forth into consciousness.
“Trust me, darling, it was necessary,” Tara replied, somehow able to approximate a ‘mom’ voice, even in this form.
“Who are all these other green dudes?” Joy asked as she got used to the floaty feeling of being on this plane and the simultaneous weighted feeling around her that was Willow anchoring them.
“Other souls,” Tara replied softly, “Don’t disturb them. We’re only here to find your Mom.”
“Okay,” Joy replied and paused, “How?”
“Ssh,” Tara guided softly before she began to intone, “Aradia, hear my words. Goddess of the lost, the path is hidden, the realm is dense, darkness pervades. I beseech thee, bring the light. Show us who we seek to see.”
It was hard to see at first with all of the other lights surrounding them, but then suddenly a blue-white spark of light approached them and started to bounce. It sped off in a directionless motion.
“Come on, Joy,” Tara said.
“Literally can’t stop myself from following you, but okay,” Joy replied as they accompanied the light as one unit.
Joy wondered what the energy form of motion sickness was as they zipped above and beyond any recognizable form of movement. Finally, the little light moved downward and illuminated a scene that they were watching from above like it was a cosmic television, or perhaps a projector that used the stars to show motion.
A young, college-aged Willow hovered outside a door, nervously lifting her hand to knock several times before dropping it. Finally, she managed to connect her knuckles and an equally-young-looking Tara answered the door.
“Damn, Mama,” Joy said into the ether as the scene below them continued undisturbed, “Was your hair dyed by Justin Timberlake’s stylist?”
“Shush,” Tara replied, her tone soft and wistful, “I remember this. This wasn’t long after I met your mother.”
“Are we on a TV show right now?” Joy asked incredulously, “Has this all been some giant prank?”
“Shush,” Tara repeated.
Below, young Willow waved her hand nervously.
“Hi. Just thought I’d…pop by.”
Young Tara’s smile lit up the room.
“I-I’m so glad to see you. I thought, um, you’d be with your friends. You know, for Christmas?”
Willow made a pained face and shook her head.
“Buffy wanted to spend it with Riley and Xander is…tied up with Anya,” she said, face molding into disgust, “And um, I’m not sure what Giles is up to. Probably has lots of stuffy British traditions to adhere to. And you know, me being a big honkin’ Jew-slash-Wiccan not much on the familial front. So I thought I’d…come here.”
Tara smiled again and stepped aside.
“Please, c-come in.”
Willow entered the room with a beaming smile and hands that couldn’t stop fidgeting.
“I’m not…disturbing any of your Christmas plans, am I?”
Tara shook her head and sat on the bed, cross-legged.
“I-I focused more on Yule this year.”
Willow’s eyes lit up.
“Yes! Yule,” she said as she unselfconsciously sat up beside Tara, “Between the eight days of Hanukkah and the twelve days of Yule, I get a little overwhelmed sometimes but I did an offering on the solstice.”
“Me too,” Tara nodded demurely.
Willow drew circles on the bedspread.
“Maybe next year, we could do it together?” she offered, her voice going up a pitch, “I mean, my friends try but they don’t really…get it. And Anya, Xander’s supposed girlfriend ruins everything…”
She shook her face angrily and rolled her eyes.
“She thought it would be funny to get me ‘Salem’ as a gift and Xander just went along with it. You know, the card game where the less-satanic-than-thou hunt down the witches? Can you believe that?”
Tara paused, taking it all in before responding perkily.
“H-Have you ever played Straw Man?” she asked as a cleanser as she picked up her tarot cards from her nightstand, “My mom and I used to play. It’s with tarot cards. It’s kind of old-fashioned. You probably don’t want to play.”
“No, I do,” Willow replied eagerly and scooted a little closer to Tara, “Show me?”
Tara smiled and started showing her the cards.
“Each divination has a different score and suit assigned to it. We take it in turns to ‘bet’ or play a card and the other person has to match that suit. If they don’t have one, they have to take it from the ‘straw man’ pile. I’ll explain the rest as we go on.”
“Sounds neat,” Willow replied, bouncing slightly on the bed so that the cards slipped off, “Oops! Sorry!”
She jumped off the bed to pick them up and straightened them against Tara’s tape player. While doing it, she noticed the tape lying on top and turned to Tara with a big smile.
“You like String Cheese Incident too?”
“Uh-huh,” Tara replied with a keen smile, “I-I saw them at the Bronze.”
“Me too!” Willow replied with wide eyes, “Wow, if I’d known you were there…”
She frowned at that thought but quickly shook it off.
“Can I play it?”
Tara nodded.
“Sure.”
Willow stuck the tape in and pressed play. After spinning for a second, sweet, melancholic music began to play. Quite different from the bluegrass rock she expected.
So dear to me
Always keep me companyWillow glanced over to Tara and caught her gaze.
I can't take my eyes off youTheir gazes held.
I can't take my eyes off youTara’s tongue poked out to lick her lips. Willow’s eyes visibly glossed over.
“I g-guess it got mislabeled,” Tara said quietly.
Willow pushed away from the tape player, not turning the music off.
“Tara?”
Tara looked up with vulnerable eyes.
“Yes?”
“Do you…?”
Willow slowly sat back beside Tara, closer than she’d been before.
“I feel funny when I’m here.”
Tara’s eyes cast downward.
“F-Funny?”
“Good, funny,” Willow amended quickly, waving her hands, “I grew up in Sunnydale with vamp attacks on the regular and became a slayer sidekick when I was 15. I’ve never felt safe in my entire life. But here…”
She looked over at Tara again, who found the strength to meet her gaze.
“I feel safe.”
Tara’s eyebrows rose on her face. Willow found herself brushing her fingers against Tara’s hand.
“Tara?”
“Yes?” Tara asked, slightly breathless.
Willow leaned in.
The scene went black.
“What the heck?” Joy asked but there was no time to question it as the little blue light was off again.
This time they zoomed in the exact opposite direction, not that direction was discernible.
It felt like a long time and no time at all when they were deposited in front of another scene.
Willow was older this time, older than even Tara knew. She held a green shimmer about her person and moved with a weary but ethereal step.
“Wait,
I know this one,” Joy interjected, “This was a few months ago at Christmas…right before Mom went kapung.”
“The future,” Tara replied softly.
“Yours, yeah, but you weren’t there when we talked,” Joy replied, “You were making dinner. You still do that, all manual like.”
Tara didn’t know what that meant but didn’t have time to contemplate it. In the scene below, they weren’t in a home Tara recognized at all. It looked so odd like it was hanging in mid-air and not rooted to foundations in the ground. The walls, if that’s what they even were, were stark whites in all corners and bounced endless light.
It seemed almost unpalpable.
Unworldly.
Heavenly.
On the wall, a photo hung of the three of them with huge smiles on their faces, celebrating something. Off to the side, was somebody else.
“Is Sandra Bullock in that photo?” Tara asked in surprise.
“No,” Joy scoffed, “Uh. Yes. You’ll see. Not important.”
Willow stood under the photo and wrapped her arm around Joy’s shoulders.
“Thanks for coming up to see us. We’re not technically supposed to celebrate Christmas anymore, but it is your birthday so we have an excuse.”
“Are you kidding?” an older Joy smiled just like Tara, “I much prefer coming up than you coming down, which usually means I’m at least going to have to break a nail.”
Willow sighed deeply.
“I fear things are going to get worse before they’re going to get better,” she said and turned to Joy importantly, “Joy, you have to know.”
“Yeah, yeah, you love me, whatever,” Joy dismissed, though with a warm smile.
“I do. We do,” Willow nodded solemnly, “But I want you to know, that this night…”
She pointed to the picture.
“This night I saw you become a woman and how you took on that transition with the essence of who you are. With joy. This was the night I knew whatever happened, that it would all be okay. That the world was safe in your hands.”
Joy’s smile faltered.
“I don’t know if I want the responsibility of the world.”
“Nobody does,” Willow replied wisely, “But we step up because it’s the right thing to do. I never wanted this responsibility to be yours. But if it is to be, I know there’s no better shoulders to heed it.”
The scene went black again.
“She said it was one of the greatest nights of her life,” Joy whispered reverently, “I was confused because, well…I got pretty wasted.”
Tara made some kind of energy-tongue-clicking noise.
“What?” Joy rebuffed haughtily, “I was legal. It was my 21st. It was…now. Your 'now'.”
Tara gasped suddenly.
“I know where Mom is,” she said and the blue light disappeared, “Let’s go.”
For all Willow knew, it was a single second after she sent her wife and daughter to the nether realms when she felt the tug of their return.
She gasped loudly and then the two lying bodies awoke in the same manner.
The candles blew out on the circle and Willow quickly came to hover over her girls.
“Tara? Joysie? Are you okay?”
Tara’s hand came up behind Willow’s neck as she caught her breath. Her other hand opened and revealed a glowing, translucent orb.
Willow frowned.
“A katra? Are we switching bodies again?”
Tara sat up while Joy held her head in a woozy motion.
“It’s not a draconian katra,” Tara explained quickly, “It’s a mirrored katra.”
Joy let out a sound of pained annoyance.
“Can someone please tell me where my Mom is?”
Tara turned to her daughter.
“In us,” she replied softly, “Where she feels most safe. Look.”
She held the katra up to the sun and onto the walls was reflected a wonderful burst of red light straight through Tara and Joy.
“She split her energy into the two of us so nobody nefarious could detect her if they were looking.”
Willow’s nose scrunched.
“Does that mean I’ve been having sex with myself?”
“Mom, GROSS!” Joy covered her ears with her hands and looked to Tara, “How do I get her back?”
Tara looked at Willow wryly.
“Can we borrow your body for a bit?”
“Hardly the first time,” Willow chuckled, then pointed a finger between the other two, “We need to unbind you first. I’m not sending you back with them. You’ll have to endure the next decade or so with me in person, thank you very much.”
Tara kissed Willow’s cheek and turned to Joy.
“We’re just unbinding physically, darling. You’re bound to our hearts, always.”
“Gag,” Joy replied but allowed Tara to stroke her hair as she got up to get something from the magic closet.
Willow exhaled a soft breath and reached out to touch Joy’s cheek.
“So are you ever going to make us grandmothers?”
Suddenly Joy smiled and put a hand over her stomach.
“Who do you think I’m saving the world for?”
Willow’s eyes widened. Joy winked a put a finger against her lips.
Tara returned with the binding rope and they went through the process of unbinding, checking their energies in the katra to be sure.
“What do we do now?” Joy asked.
Tara held the katra out in front of them all.
“On three. One.”
Willow put her hand over Tara’s.
“Two.”
Joy raised her hand and from reassuring nods, placed her hand on top.
“Three.”
The katra burst light out from under their knuckles and then hit Willow square in the chest, making her fall back into the thankfully still-placed pillows.
The light scattered almost as soon as it shone and the katra dropped to the ground as a dull rock.
Willow gasped into consciousness as the others clambered above her.
She blinked several times and then burst out in a watery smile, reaching up to touch their cheeks with shaking hands.
“Tara. Joy,” she said with thick emotion in her voice, “I knew you’d find me.”
Tara leaned down and kissed Willow softly. Joy allowed it.
“Always,” Tara promised and bumped Willow’s nose, “You can’t stay for a chat this time. Sounds like you have a very eventful life to go back to.”
Willow’s eyes blinked again.
“It’s…” she took in a deep breath, “Our destiny.”
Tara nodded once against Willow’s forehead.
“I’ll get new candles.”
Tara went over to the magic closet again while Joy and Willow had an intense, hushed discussion. Eventually, Joy came over to Tara just as she was returning.
“Mama told me something with her last breath,” she said to Tara, who frowned slightly at the intensity of her daughter’s voice and the words themselves, “Mom agrees that you should know. That you need to prepare. It's the only way to get things right this time.”
Joy looked back at Willow, who nodded. Joy turned back to Tara.
“Do with the magic what you did with the slayers,” she said, being careful and specific with her language, “Use the Doll’s Eye crystal like the scythe. Activate all of the witches, Mama. And when the people fight with you, not against you, you’ll take your rightful place as Mother Earth.”
Tara inhaled softly but deeply.
“Mothers Earth,” Joy amended quickly and saw a lot of emotion play across her mother’s face, “The guides you were always meant to be, not the warriors you were forced to become. But you have time. Enjoy it. My twenties are a hoot, let me tell you.”
She opened her hand to reveal the broken Doll’s Eye crystal she’d brought with her. Tara did the same with her opposite hand.
They started to glow in each other’s presence again and Tara and Joy naturally brought them together. They crackled and started to fuse into one giant crystal.
Tara held it in her palm and felt its power. She looked at her daughter with tears in her eyes.
“You always have been and always will be our biggest joy.”
Joy closed her arms around her mother.
“Merry Christmas, Mama.”
“Happy Birthday, Joysie,” Tara whispered back.
“My loves,” Willow called from the circle, “It’s been too long since I’ve held my goddess. Can we hurry this thing up?”
Both Joy and Tara laughed.
“Yes. Let’s get you both home and get me my Willow back to have this wonderful party tonight.”
Joy laid back down beside Willow and they clasped hands.
“Let’s go home, baby girl.”
Tara closed the circle and lit the candles closest to her.
“See you later, loves.”
They all shared the same warm smile.
”Taqadam lil'amam.”
Tara blew out the candle.
Willow and Joy’s bodies arched in perfect harmony and then twisted in a gasping mess.
“Willow, Joy?” Tara asked, scooting up close between them.
“Here, baby,” Willow sighed, closing her hand around Tara’s arm, “All on my own.”
Joy, meanwhile was spluttering as she looked around.
“Uhhh…moms?”
“Um,” Tara started, glancing to Willow who looked equally alarmed.
“Uhh…”
Joyce suddenly stood, irate.
“I thought you stopped floating me to your room when I was six! Seriously, it’s creepy! I’m twenty-frickin’-one if you haven’t noticed!” she folded her arms over her chest before they dropped and her face lit up, “I’m 21! It’s my birthday! And Christmas! Are there presents under the tree?!”
She ran out without another word and her footsteps were thunderous on the stairs. Willow and Tara looked at each other again and shared an exhale.
“We have to stop meeting like this,” Willow said with a grin and Tara laughed.
“I have a feeling that was the last time.”
Tara stood up and helped Willow up as well. They quickly tidied away the materials they’d used before heading downstairs to join Joy.
“Hey, did you cheat on me with me again?” Willow asked as they stepped off the last stair.
“She went through a rough time. She needed a little sugar,” Tara justified herself.
Willow shook her head with a mock scowl.
“You just can’t control yourself around me.”
Tara bumped Willow’s hip.
“Ain’t that the truth.”
Willow grinned and kissed Tara’s cheek.
“Come here, Sandy B!” Joy called, playing with the same cat-on-a-string other-Joy had been earlier.
The cat raced toward Joy and followed her circling on the string. Aphrodite lay in the spot she always had, unperturbed by any of the events of this morning.
Willow and Tara sat on their plush couch and smiled as Joy started ripping into her gifts with the same energy she had as a six-year-old.
After some traditional Christmas pancakes, Tara took Joy out to go ice-skating. It was another tradition, as having her birthday lie on Christmas Day excluded a lot of activities being opened. Willow often came to watch (she broke her arm the one time she tried to participate) but this time opted to stay home today to 'tend to dinner', though as Tara always prepped so that things just needed to be slid into the oven, this was obviously an excuse.
When they returned, Tara called out loudly.
“We’re home! Coming through the door right now!”
“Oh my god, you’re so lame,” Joy rolled her eyes.
Having a birthday on Christmas Day was pretty counter-intuitive to having a good party but she had to give it to her parents, they always made her feel like the most special person in the world on that day.
Every day.
Walking into the living room they were assaulted by balloons and banners embossed with ‘21’. Had they had a hastily scrawled in ‘+’ beside them, they would remind Tara of a day not unlike this many years ago.
All of Joy’s favorite candies were in little bowls on the coffee table, which the cats were trying to steal. Christmas music played and Willow was wearing a Chrisyulenukkah sweater Tara had made for her a few years ago with a Santa-hat-wearing menorah standing on a log sewn into it.
Multiple devices were set up with Buffy and Dawn videoing in from San Diego, Xander from wherever he was still traveling around in that old car of his, and even Giles and Olivia had zoomed from England, though their images were currently upside down.
“Quit it,” Willow nudged the cats’ paws away from the candies before offering a beaming smile, “Happy Birthday my little almond Joy!”
She popped a party popper and sent confetti everywhere, which made the cats flee. Behind her, there were lots of cheers and the buzz of interfering devices.
“Happy Birthday kiddo!”
“Happy Birthday mini-Will!”
“Happy Birthday Joy!”
“Yes, quite an achievement in this family. Happy 21st birthday darling Joy.”
Willow served everyone some punch so they could raise a toast.
“To my not-so-little girl and all of the greatness I see in her,” Willow beamed at her daughter, “The world is so gosh darn lucky I accidentally knocked your mom up.”
Everyone laughed, bar Joy who made a pained face.
“You guys are so gross. Please tell me at some point you’ll stop being gross?”
“I wouldn’t count on it, kid,” Willow grinned.
After some Scooby-style virtual celebrations, Willow looked giddy about something.
“I have a surprise for you,” she said as she went through the door to the kitchen and popped her head back out, “I tried to get you a real video but after her agent, and I quote, told me ‘the next time you harass my client, I’m filing charges’, I had to settle for this.”
She produced a life-sized cut-out of Sandra Bullock. Joy just blinked.
“Uhh…”
“Oh, this makes more sense,” Tara said while trying not to think of the fact that she’d already seen a photograph they were yet to take, “Why Sandra Bullock?”
“Because she loves her?” Willow replied with a haughtily raised chin which faltered when she just got blank looks, “She called her cat after her!”
Joy’s nose scrunched.
“No, I didn’t.”
Willow’s arms fell by her side.
“Sandy B!”
“That’s short for Sandy Beach,” Joy replied slowly, “Because his fur is like white sand on a beach? Have you seriously not known that all these years?”
“But, but!” Willow started to splutter, “You watched Practical Magic on repeat as a kid! It almost burned into the screen!”
Joy arched an eyebrow.
“Do you know how little positive witch representation is out there? You should, you're the one who bleated on at me about it!”
Tara pushed Joy toward Willow.
“Just take a picture with the cut-out for your mother.”
Willow sighed and put her arm around her daughter. She scowled back at Sandra Bullock.
“Should’ve known no daughter of mine would admire someone who did ‘Speed 2’,” she mumbled before squeezing Joy’s arm, “Just take a picture with us, instead, okay? Stupid Sandy.”
She opened her other arm for Tara to cuddle into her. Joy held her new phone out to take the photo with the cardboard Sandy creeping surreptitiously in the back.
“Say ‘Christmas Joy’!” Willow announced and they all repeated it as the photo took.
Joy looked at it and smiled.
“Can I show off my gift haul to slayer central?”
“Sure, honey,” Tara laughed.
Joy grinned up to her eyes.
“Can I have a beer?”
Willow and Tara glanced at each other.
“Sure, honey,” Willow said this time, “You deserve it. But it’s still the afternoon. How about some hard ‘nog all around?”
Tara smiled and nodded while Willow went to get a tray of eggnog. She left one by Joy, who had zoomed into the slayer HQ downtown and was showing off her gifts and how she dared to drink in front of her parents. The cats were interested in all the hubbub and even Aphrodite was showing affection and celebration of her human. Joy and love went hand in hand, after all. And now, thanks to Joy, she would one day know the truth of being a feline Goddess. Until then, she would just believe she is anyway.
None of them had any idea that the slayers, and other friends of Joys, would be crashing and trashing the house later and that one nog would turn into endless jello shots.
But they didn’t need to know that yet.
Sometimes it was okay not to know the future.
Sometimes it was hard to think of anything but.
All that mattered was that both situations invoked happiness and Tara felt nothing but as Willow sat with her and handed off a nog.
“The best thing we’ve ever been is mothers,” Tara said as she leaned her head onto Willow’s shoulder, “Think you’re up for it again?”
Willow chuckled.
“I think we’re a little old, honey.”
Tara inhaled and exhaled softly.
“Somehow, I think we’re going to be a lot old.”
Willow raised a conspiring eyebrow.
“Grandmother old, even, perhaps.”
They cuddled closer together as they each thought of the knowledge of the future they’d attained. It would be shared, eventually, but it was too much for this day.
They deserved to have this day.
Willow kissed the top of Tara’s head.
“I’ll be a mother with you for all eternity if you’ll have me.”
Tara sipped on her eggnog and cuddled impossibly closer.
“That just doesn’t seem like long enough.”
And so they lost themselves to the noise of Joy’s exuberance and the music playing over the speakers.
This feeling would etch itself into their souls forever.
Joy to the world
Then we sing
Let the angel voices ring
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she thinks so. More like a cat who lives in a heavenly dimension...who probably believes she runs it.
I'm really enjoying imagining how your fic would have continued and I absolutely love when a fic can provoke that in me!