[center]3. "Lineage"[/center]
As the photo albums and old diaries spread out across the dining room table Sheila Rosenberg had gracefully withdrawn, realizing that this was definitely one of those things that she didn't want to be aware of. Sheila had a very firm worldview and wasn't even now inclined to confront anything that might upset it.
Willow watched her leaving with a small shake of the head, her mother had been more tolerant of things when her and Tara had started out but that had been based on the conviction that it was, just a phase. When it became clear that it was something more she just blithely ignored it.
Sabrina was looking at a photo album, which since it covered a period from the nineteen nineties onward wasn't strictly relevant to their search but Sabrina had been distracted by pictures of a younger Willow and Tara. More to the point there were a selection of photos of a small redheaded child accompanying them. She plucked one out and waved it towards LJ, "You were a pretty cute kid."
LJ looked at the photo and tried not to grimace, she looked accusingly towards her parents, "You left that album out deliberately didn't you?"
Tara flashed her a beatific smile, "Us dear? Perish the thought.”
LJ was unconvinced. She was certain that the only reason her parents had taken all those photos was to embarrass her with them someday, like today for example.
Sabrina was undeterred, "I still think you look adorable."
"The dress has polka dots, that’s practically child abuse." LJ growled.
Shrugging Sabrina put the picture back in the album and flipped through a few more pages before she began to look puzzled. Tara had been watching her and guessed what the girl was wondering about, "No pictures of LJ's other grandparents right?"
"I know about your mother," Sabrina replied hesitantly.
"But we never mention my dad." Tara finished surprisingly calmly.
"So lets not start now." Willow had a stern gaze firmly fixed on Sabrina.
LJ came to her rescue, "We've only met the once and it didn't go well." Not after he used the word abomination and Willow threw him out, literally, she added silently.
"So moving swiftly on," Sabrina announced brightly, "anybody got anything relevant?"
"Actually I do believe I have." Ira announced triumphantly, glad he could take the chill out of the atmosphere. He was holding a large photograph that despite being sealed in a plastic envelope showed signs of yellowing around the edges. He handed it round the table. Willow took it and saw what looked like an old holiday snap.
It was a black and white snapshot with the figure of a woman set against a skyline that Willow recognized as New York, a very old New York. The woman herself was smiling straight at the camera and dressed for a cold day, wearing a long coat and a sweater. Hanging down the front of the sweater was a gold chain with a circular pendant and a dark gem set in the centre of it.
"She looks like a little like you." Tara commented as she leaned over.
Willow looked at the picture more closely, you couldn't be sure about the hair or the eyes but there was something in the shape of the face and the expression that suggested they might be related, "And I'd guess this pictures must be from the forties or fifties, a generation or so after the family came to the USA."
"Nineteen forty one actually." Sabrina interjected. Willow and Tara were puzzled by her certainty until she tapped the back of the picture.
Willow turned it over and now she saw the faded writing in the bottom right corner; Rebecca 10/31/41.
When she read it out loud Ira looked thoughtful, "Rebecca Rosenberg; she was my grandfather's sister."
"So did you know her, when you were young?" Willow asked eagerly.
Ira's response was disappointing to begin with, "No, she stayed on the east coast when grandfather went west. But come to think of it she did have a reputation as the black sheep of the family."
That piqued Willow's curiosity, "What did she do to earn that?"
Ira frowned, "Honestly no idea, which is odd considering how my sisters loved to gossip."
"To put it mildly." Tara commented. She remembered the first time she had been arm twisted into going a Rosenberg family gathering not long after LJ was born. Naturally the major topic of conversation had been Willow and herself and with a small application of the concealment glamour she gotten to listen to some of the more outrageous stories, which naturally fell far short of the truth.
Ira nodded, "No broken marriages, or married men. No boozing or drugs, no stories at all."
Willow was looking at the photograph again, "When did she die?"
"That would have in seventies, seventy six, the year of the bicentennial, yes, seventy six." Ira finally confirmed.
"And you saw the necklace in the box in the seventies," LJ observed, "she died and no one else wanted it."
It was a depressing notion and Willow offered up a slightly less depressing option, "Or since magic runs in the family they felt the power without understanding what it was and that made them stay away from it."
"And when I saw it again I felt it unconsciously and brought it to the people who would understand it." Ira added, feeling pleased with the notion.
LJ lifted the necklace again, "So if Rebecca owned it all that time either she didn't have any magic, or she knew exactly what it was; magic made for her or by her."
"Yes dear," Tara agreed before turning to Ira, "Is there anything else in that box, or any other old mementoes that would tell us about Rebecca?"
"I honestly don't, and I guess there's only one way to find out." With that Ira pulled the box back into the middle of the table.
"Hello Melissa, yes it's Ira. It hasn’t been forever; I spoke to you just last week if you remember. I wanted to ask you something; yes they are here, yes she did bring someone, Sabrina. Yes that's right. Look Melissa I wanted to ask you about Rebecca Rosenberg, granddad’s sister. Well you know all the old family stories; no I know you're not a gossip Melissa. All right Melissa, I have to go, I'll talk to you again soon." Ira slapped the disconnect button and turned away from the screen shaking his head. He gave Sabrina a long suffering look, "You may consider my last ditch effort, ditched I suppose."
"She was more interested in us rather than family history." Sabrina concluded.
Ira nodded, "I love my sister but sometimes family just drives you crazy."
"Haven't had a lot of experience with that, unless you count the Athenai, they certainly tried to drive me crazy." Sabrina wasn't being purely flippant; her ex-colleagues had been prone to playing mind games.
Ira felt embarrassed about putting his foot in it and try to move the conversation onto a more positive footing, "Still you have a chance to bond with your relatives now," he suddenly saw the flaw in that before Sabrina could respond, "except for that whole lot of questions you can't begin to answer."
"Right, and honestly I think I'm looking elsewhere for family ties." Sabrina answered evenly.
Practically on cue LJ walked in, "The moms has found something, come on," she slid an arm around Sabrina and dragged her back to the dining room with Ira following in their wake.
Willow had connected her tablet to the screen in the living room, which was a feat in itself as it was an old model that her state of the art tablet had trouble recognizing, "Now I know what I'm getting dad for his birthday," she muttered.
Tara watched as Willow dragged icons around the screen joining them together with a maze of criss crossing lines, "Isn't that what you said before you bought him the one he has now?"
Willow hesitated, "Ah, right, I'd forgotten."
Tara chuckled, "It's okay honey I'm sure he'd like a new one."
Willow shuffled one last icon as LJ, Sabrina, and Ira walked in, "I found a lot of official stuff on Rebecca, even an FBI file."
Sabrina gave Willow a quizzical look, "Was she a bank robber or something?"
"Nothing that exciting. It was wartime and she was an immigrant, there were a lot of files being opened then." Willow explained succinctly.
Ira had a different concern; "I do hope you obtained that from legitimate sources Willow."
Willow gave him her most reassuring smile, "Don't worry about it dad," she saw her mild teasing was drawing a disapproving look so she decided to let him off the hook, "There's a little thing called the Freedom of Information Act and it is a seventy year old file."
Ira wasn't entirely convinced but decided to let it go, "So what did you find?"
Now Willow looked a little deflated, "Actually nothing much, a couple of odd gaps in the record during world war two but that might be because the FBI had more important things to do."
"There's plenty of other documentation but its all the same," Tara added, betraying a degree of frustration as she did so, "it tells us where she was and when but not what she was doing."
"I'm beginning to think we aren't going to find the answers we want." Willow added reluctantly.
A soft cough drew everyone's attention to Sabrina. She was dangling the necklace from her fingers, "This was there for whatever happened, so why don't we ask it some questions?"
Ira wondered if Sabrina was being sarcastic, or just very odd but he saw Willow had an intrigued expression on her face, "Psychometry."
[center]4. "Imprint"[/center]
Willow stared at Sabrina for a few moments while the girl confirmed her guess, "Yeah, some times you can pick images or sounds that have been imprinted on an object."
"But it's a complicated art." Willow pointed out, "Only really powerful emotions can imprint and you have to sort through them very carefully."
"Well that's what most people think but you can usually extract what happened around any object recently with the right spell, and if an object has magical properties it just soaks things up like a sponge." Sabrina's exposition was enthusiastic, so much so that she looked positively embarrassed when she finished.
LJ though looked suitably impressed and reached over to give Sabrina a hug, "My girlfriend the expert."
Willow nodded but still kept her gaze fixed on Sabrina, "I was just wondering how she came to be such an expert in the first place."
Now Sabrina turned bright red, "It was a favourite trick with the Athenai, take a personal object from someone, put a spell on it, put it back, and then, uh, borrow it again to take a reading. Because I was good with concealment and illusion glamours I usually got the job of making the switches and doing the reads before putting stuff back," she could see that was getting disapproving looks, "Hey at the time I thought it was all for the greater good, I was spying for the side of right."
LJ hugged her tighter, "We know sweetheart, don't we?" The way she put the question made it clear there was only one acceptable answer.
Tara headed off any argument by getting back to the original subject, "You think with magic this powerful the necklace will have soaked up a lot of information?"
Sabrina was happy to focus on the mechanics, "I think there's a good chance, at the very least creating that kind of magic should have imprinted something on it."
Tara looked round the table, "Well unless anyone else has a better idea, or we're just going to give up?"
"Well you know how I'm going to vote." LJ replied instantly.
Ira was a little more thoughtful, "I'm honestly not sure what it is your planning but I still want to know where the necklace came from."
That only left Willow to offer her opinion. She could see the enthusiasm on LJ's face and didn't need to ask Tara what she thought; Willow could sense Tara was intrigued and in truth she was too. There was a whole chunk of her family history that had been edited out somewhere along the way and she wanted to know what it was, "All right then, let's give this a try."
As Sabrina was the expert the younger couple had been delegated to take a quick trip home and collect the necessary materials. LJ was looking at the tablet in her hand and taking items from a box of magical ingredients, "Will the plain candles do?"
"They're the best actually." Sabrina commented distractedly.
Putting down the tablet LJ gave her full attention to her lover, "What's the matter sweetheart?"
"Well you know when you're mom was asking me about spying?" Sabrina still sounded hesitant.
"I don't hold any of that against you." LJ reassured her sincerely.
Sabrina shook her head, "It's not that, it's that, well, I always enjoyed that spy stuff."
LJ thought about that for a moment, and smiled, "When I was little I used to watch old episodes of Alias, I loved that whole super spy saving the world thing."
"And I got to do the super spy stuff while you got to save the world," Sabrina continued happily, "And Jennifer Garner was hot."
LJ arched an eyebrow; "I hope your spying wasn't the Mata Hari kind, seducing people in to giving up their secrets."
"Absolutely not," Sabrina stated solemnly, before smiling foxily, "chance would have been a fine thing." She barely avoided the pillow that whizzed towards her head but she didn't even try dodging when LJ followed it up by pouncing on her.
Willow turned the photograph of Rebecca over and over in her hands, "She does sort of look like me, doesn't she?"
Tara sat next to her and slid an arm around Willow's shoulders, "Yes she does."
"But did we resemble each other in more ways than that?" Willow let out the thing that was stirring her curiosity, "When my family lived in Sunnydale and I found out about the Hellmouth and magic I thought that was where it all began, that I was the first one in my family to discover that magic was real. Now I'm wondering if I didn't rediscover it instead."
Tara considered that. In her own family she could trace witchcraft back for generations despite her father's best efforts to blacken its name, "It's certainly possible, you are pretty powerful."
Even after all this time that sort of praise made Willow blush, "You're just biased."
"Yes I am but you do have some serious power, and even though your dad has never had any training I can feel the power in him," she paused for a moment, "thinking about it now I'd be surprised if there weren't more witches in your family."
"And its all just been written out of history." Willow sighed.
Tara took the photo from Willow's fingers, "Well perhaps now we can write it back in."
Willow turned and kissed her, which was how LJ and Sabrina found them when they returned with their magical supplies, "Ahah, now I know why you sent us off foraging." LJ announced in a scandalized tone.
"And of course you two just came straight back here." Willow observed wryly."
Tara backed her up, "Wasn't Sabrina wearing a red t-shirt when you left dear?"
LJ maintained a cool exterior, "We just felt the need for a change of clothes. I have all the stuff we needed." Willow wasn't remotely convinced but turned her attention to the bag of paraphernalia and began to empty it out.
LJ's attempt to maintain her dignity was seriously threatened when Sabrina silently commented; I've never literally had my clothes torn off before.
A small coughing fit threatened to overwhelm LJ, I'll buy you a new t-shirt, I promise. Oh I didn't say I was complaining, do you think it's actually possible to take someone's panties off with your teeth? Sabrina made it sound like a scientific inquiry.
For a moment LJ was tempted to come up with some item they had forgotten, something that might take hours to find.
That idea was scuppered by Tara, "This should be everything we need for the spell Sabrina outlined earlier?"
LJ was certain Tara had read her intentions, "Yeah that's everything mom."
"Good, then we can begin."
Ira Rosenberg watched as his dining table was converted from a historical archive into some sort of magical altar. Willow was setting out the candles, placing each one on an upturned saucer. This was a compromise to protect the surface of the table and the china, "If our local Rabbi ever hears about this," he shook his head.
"You may find he knows more than you think," Willow suggested distractedly as she worked, "the good ones are usually more in tune with the supernatural realm. After all by definition they have to believe in unseen powers; if they're serious about their faith anyway."
"Though that's not always a good thing." Tara pointed out as she laid the medallion in the centre of the candles; she had slipped it off the chain to perform the spell.
LJ was laying small rock crystals around the edge of the table, "Especially if they believe in the power but can't use it themselves."
Ira took in all their points but, "Still I don't think I'm going to be mentioning it to him any time soon."
Willow smiled, "Might be just as well. Ok I think we're ready for this, everybody move to the cardinal points. I'll lead off the incantation then we go around clockwise." Seeing that everyone was in place she looked over to her father, "You might want to take a few steps back dad."
Ira did as suggested, "Just try not to wreck the dining room young lady."
"I'll certainly try." Willow responded not very reassuringly but launched into the spell before Ira could say anything else.
Ira watched as the incantation passed around the four witches, trying to follow what was happening without much success until a sudden silence settled over the quartet. He was going to ask what was going on when saw the expression on their faces, they were blank, staring into space and there was a distinct sense that they were elsewhere, "Oh Willow what have you done now?"
Willow wasn't entirely sure where the dining room had gone or where the others were, she just knew someone had turned the lights out. She heard a piping sound and turned around;
The water was calm and the sky was clear, she could see the ships spread out across the harbour, quiet, relaxed, and yet... She spun round and the sky was almost golden, the broad expanse of concrete was thronged with people all craning their necks to look skyward. She joined them, and saw the dart shaped craft, descending like a rain of arrows.
Tara was confused by the darkness but the sound of pounding feet didn't give her time to think...
The walls were being swarmed from every direction now, there was no more time, "LJ do it now!" LJ just nodded and raised her arms, the lightning was blinding... Her vision cleared and she saw the pleasant expression on the oriental face slide off like a mask, "Do you think I've forgotten? There will be revenge for what you've done worldkiller!"
Sabrina didn’t even have time to take in the empty darkness before…
"Just get out, don't touch me, don't try and talk me round, just go!" Sabrina knew she was getting hysterical but she couldn't help it. She looked at Jessica, at the hands reaching out for her, those hands... The room was different but the protagonists were the same, Jessica's smile was cold, "I'll take her away from you, make everyday a living hell and there's only one way you can stop me." Anger and terror overwhelmed Sabrina, she reached out...
"Anybody here?" LJ's voice didn't echo, she wasn't sure it carried at all and there wasn't any break in the blackness...
"I probably shouldn't be here." LJ admitted uneasily. Lydia smiled, "I don't think it will hurt things, I'm just glad to meet you, to know things work out."... LJ watched the door close behind Tara and Sabrina and turned on Reese, "I just gave up everything I have left, you make this work or I swear...
The visions faded, and the darkness swallowed all of them up before casting them out, elsewhere.
[center]5. "Seven Days"[/center]
Willow's senses returned one by one. The first to come back was touch, which was how she became aware that she was sat in a chair, not a very comfortable chair but a chair nonetheless. She was grateful for that; waking up sprawled on the floor would be undignified and embarrassing. Hearing was restored next and Willow was aware of a babble of voices around her but none of them sounded familiar though what was being said reminded her of somewhere she had been. The smell of the place also seemed familiar, antiseptic, and astringent.
Her suspicion was confirmed when her vision came back and Willow could see the white clad figures of nurses and doctors walking back and forth over a linoleum floor, one corner of which was taken up by a reception desk with another nurse stood behind it. There was a row of people spreading out to either side of Willow on wooden chairs, all looking unwell to one degree or another, wooden chairs? The discrepancy hit Willow suddenly; she had never seen a reception area that didn't use plastic chairs.
With her brain slipping into 'drive' Willow took in the other anomalies, the archaic uniforms, the battered green typewriter on the desk where there should have been a flat screen terminal, the wooden signs where there should have optical panels. There was a glass-paneled door opposite and Willow walked over to it. The lighting let her get a faint reflection of herself and Willow saw she was just as archaically dressed as everyone else. Looking round again she saw a fire extinguisher chained to a wall with 'Brooklyn Memorial' stenciled on it, I think we're a lot further from home than Brooklyn, she concluded unhappily. Something had gone spectacularly wrong with Sabrina's spell and Willow planned to have a few choice words with her daughter’s girlfriend when she saw her again, if I ever see her again.
The gloomy notion that she might be stranded here alone was the reason she didn't respond when she heard her name being called the first time, she thought it might be her imagination running away with her, or an incipient nervous breakdown. The second time though there was no doubt.
"Willow!" She spun round just in time for Tara to sweep her into a crushing hug.
When she got her breath back one comment came to Willow's mind first, "Nice uniform baby."
When Tara recovered her senses she wondered what was with all the white. There was a whimsical moment while she considered the possibility of angel before she focused on the fact that they didn't wear stockings, or silly little hats on their head. That said nurse, albeit an old fashioned costume party type nurse. A look around the room however said it wasn't just a costume. The room had a trolley with some instruments, a bed, a sink, and the other accoutrements of some sort of treatment room, even if it was one that should have been in a museum exhibit.
Catching sight of herself in a mirror Tara realized there was a nametag pinned to her chest, which when she twisted it round said 'McPherson'. With no other clue in the room she decided to step outside; and spotted a thankfully familiar redhead looking lost in the reception area.
Tara wasn't inclined to let go of Willow, afraid that she might disappear again. Willow felt the same but became increasingly aware that they weren't alone, "People will talk baby."
"Actually I think we could stand here like this all day if we want." Tara suggested happily.
Willow looked round and realized that the people in the reception area were oblivious to the two women enthusiastically hugging in their midst. Experimentally, and because she wanted to anyway, Willow kissed Tara and let her lips linger on her partners before she broke away and looked around, "Well that had no effect."
"I wouldn't say that." Tara murmured coyly.
"I did mean on everyone else." Willow scolded her.
"True but I think I'd still like a little privacy, and we can check that out," Tara pointed to Willow's left sleeve, which had ridden up to reveal a bandage wrapped around the forearm.
Willow prodded the arm, "It doesn't hurt."
"Well let's go into the treatment room anyway, I don't want to count on people ignoring us if I decide to tear your clothes off." Willow wasn't going to argue with that.
In the treatment room Tara settled for removing the bandage, to reveal a completely undamaged Willow. It was a relief but it just reinforced the reality of their situation, "We definitely seems to have stepped into other people's shoes."
"But we don't all have name tags to tell us whose." Willow pointed to the badge on Tara's chest and then seemed to get distracted.
Tara coughed, which got Willow's eyes looking at hers again, "You do have purse though, try checking that." Although she wasn't a betting person Tara would have been willing to put a lot of money on what Willow would find.
As it happened she would have won the bet. As soon as opened the purse Willow spotted a library card. She read it and handed it to Tara, typed next to the space for 'name' were the words Rebecca Rosenberg. There were also a couple of keys, Willow picked one up, and had a powerful image flash into her head;
a house, not an expensive one but not shabby, she lived there with her brother and his family.
Willow dropped the key back into the purse and explained what she had seen to Tara, "Well at least we know that Sabrina's spell is still working."
"I wouldn't exactly call this a success." Willow had decided this was all Sabrina's fault.
"I think we just didn't appreciate how much the medallion had absorbed, more than just a few sounds and images, it stored up a whole slice of Rebecca's life." Tara couldn't help being a little awestruck.
Willow turned that over in her head, and she recalled something else, "Before you woke up here did you have some weird flashes?"
Tara nodded, "I saw a vision I had when LJ was born, and some guy I've never seen before making wild accusations."
"I saw a harbour full of ships, and then a landing field with what I think were spaceships coming down." Something about the harbour nagged at Willow but she couldn't put her finger on it.
Further discussion was forestalled as the door of the treatment room opened and another nurse stuck her head round the door, "Hey Alice in case you hadn't noticed shifts over, better get out of here before Hemming Shanghai’s you for a double shift, oh hi Rebecca," she disappeared and the door slammed shut before either of the witches could answer.
"Well I guess I've been here more than once, or Rebecca has anyway." Willow surmised.
"Certainly sounds like it, and people are definitely seeing what they expect to see, so maybe we should get out of here before I have to start giving bed baths" As much as she wanted to learn about this past there were somethings Tara felt they could safely skip.
It took a few minutes to find the nurses locker room but much to Willow's relief it was empty; she wasn't about to let Tara out of her sight, and it wasn't just to see what Tara was wearing under the nurses uniform either. They found McPherson's locker, which contained enough personal items for Tara to get a flash of where the nurse lived, only a few minutes from the hospital.
While she changed Tara carried on talking, trying to figure out the situation, "We must be somewhere near the time that picture of Rebecca was taken, that coat you're wearing looks like the same one."
Willow was finding it hard to focus on the conversation as Tara stripped down to white underwear but she did her best, "A good coat could last years, it doesn't really narrow things down that much," she looked round trying to gather her wits and saw an abandoned newspaper that she seized on as a distraction, "Oh damn."
Tara halted as she was pulling on a blouse, "What's the matter honey?"
“I think we can narrow it down quite a lot.” Willow held up the paper and tapped at the date in the banner, [Ii]December 1st 1941[/i].
Having hastily finished dressing Tara and Willow headed for the hospital doors, "It could be a coincidence I suppose, just a hideously unlikely one." Tara was speaking as much to herself as to Willow.
"Hideous is the word, we're trying to track down the history of a powerful amulet and we wind up a week before the USA gets into world war two, there has to be a connection."
Tara nodded, "Except we're thousands of miles from Pearl Harbor, and what would the amulet have to do with a very mundane attack? In the magical sense I mean."
Willow was still trying to figure out an answer to that when the doors burst open and two orderlies came in with a stretcher between them. The man on it had a burn on his chest. Willow was inclined to look away but found herself transfixed; the burn had the shape of a runic symbol.
Tara had also taken in that bizarre detail, "Should we go follow that up?"
Willow did want to pursue it but, "I think we need some space to think first, and we need to find out if LJ and Sabrina are around here somewhere." And if Sabrina is here we are going to have a lot of words about her spellcraft.
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