It was well worth the wait



you had me on the edge of my seat chanting " go willow! go!"



-Will

"Hear that baby? You're my always."

"well, you know, when you play a lesbian witch you've gotta get killed in this fun kind of exciting way, so the heart was the way to go..."

"we have the most amazing fans though they LOVE us."

I liked that Tara went to Giles to talk about her concerns about how depressed Willow was. Makes a change for her to have a positive parental figure. Poor Willow feeling so much guilt because Buffy was irresponsible enough to run away.



Willow being early for her date with Tara at the espresso pump. I always thought that Willow would be a "pre-punctual" type of person. She panics about so many things, poor love. Imagine thinking that Tara wanted to break up with her.



Busman's holiday is right. Like being back on the hellmouth, with all the beasties and what not.



LJ. Hmm . . . interesting girl, with a lot of power it seems. Must be inherited!

Adding up the total of a love that's true, multiply life by the power of two
Indigo Girls

Next story update willl be another week or so(I hope ), but I thought some people might be interested in this alternate Season 2 overview.





Season 2



When She Was Bad

Some Assembly Required

School Hard

Inca Mummy Girl

Reptile Boy

Halloween

Lie to Me

Unforgettable

The Dark Age

What’s My Line

Ted

Bad Eggs

Surprise

Innocence

Learning Curve

Passion

Killed By Death

IOHEFY

Go Fish

Becoming

R&R

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Sheridan finally got a chance to catch up on this one. Great story. I love the setting after Becoming. Willow's guilt is fascinating. I also like the hints of Black magick, which could prove to be a problem for Willow still. And Tara's maturity, so much growth in your story already. And she's going to college . I was surprised to see that crystal again so soon, but it's cool cause we got a glimpse at things we didn't see on the show. So Willow going back changed reality. Now w/t got married and a kid. . Much better than the way it was going. I look forward to more Sheridan!

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

"Oooh Xita!" - Amber Benson

wow...i just finished reading, and i realy like what you have done here. I eagerly anticipate the next update

As usual just to let people know that the next story 'LA la Land' has gone off to beta. So with luck it will be up in a few days.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Woohooo!! Can't wait!!

Yes!!!!! You know now I will be like checking the board constantly for it



-Will

"Hear that baby? You're my always."

"well, you know, when you play a lesbian witch you've gotta get killed in this fun kind of exciting way, so the heart was the way to go..."

"we have the most amazing fans though they LOVE us."

Title: Reality Check 4: LA La Land

Author: Mike Mullen

Rating: 18/NC-17 for sexual content

Spoilers: S3 AU, so none really.

Disclaimer: All BTVScharacters belong to Joss Whedon and ME, the rest are mine, mine, mine!

Summary: Willow and tara re home from the convention they visuted in 'R&R', Willow is determined to bring Buffy home, others are less keen.

Authors notes: Th is si the beginning of the S3 stories in the series and replaces 'Anne'. Sorry it hasn't been beta'd but there were personal circumstances that prevented it.



LA La Land





1. “To Long To Far From Home”



The vibration of the bus and the blur of the passing tarmac had put Willow and Tara into a doze where daydreams flitted through their minds. Tara was thinking of Willow and their last night in the hotel. If her plan for a relaxing weekend hadn’t been everything she had originally envisioned it had achieved its purpose. The wound inflicted on Willow’s spirit by the disappearance of Buffy had been healed and she was revitalized, especially if last nights performance had been anything to go by. Willow was also thinking about last night, but there were also thoughts about her encounter with that girl in, well wherever that place had been. She had seemed warm and familiar. Still Willow also knew that the girl had exuded tremendous power. She could easily have created any appearance that would make Willow trusting and LJ hadn’t exactly been forthcoming about herself or where she came from, yet Willow couldn’t shake off that sense of trust and the feeling that her advice had been sincere. “You really did change things for the better, and you should do what you think is right.” Whoever LJ was it sounded like a good plan to Willow



A bump in the road jogged the pair fully awake. “What were you thinking about?” Tara asked.

“Buffy.” Willow answered.

Tara frowned but hers were twinkling, “You know someone less understanding might not take that remark too well.”

“Hey trust me, Xander is the one with the slayer fixation. I was thinking about finding her. We don’t have any idea where she is. “

“And Mr. Giles has tried all the conventional ways of finding her.” Tara added.

“All of which depends on Buffy wanting to be found, or being in a condition to be found.” Willow pointed out; it was a possibility that Willow had previously avoided during her guilt trip over failing to save Angel. Now it was something that had to be faced, if anything it made it more important to locate Buffy.



Tara took her hand to distract her from what were obviously dark thoughts, “You know you didn’t know where I was but you still found me.”

“The locator spell. Yeah that would do it. Problem is that it was Jenny Calendar who actually worked it.” Willow wished there had been a chance to patch up the break between Miss Calendar and the gang, she had known a lot of cool magic, and Jenny wasn’t as hesitant about sharing it as Giles was. That was the problem in fact. “I inherited a lot of Miss Calendars stuff, but Giles took most of her magic books into custody. There was some pretty powerful spells in them.”

“And he was worried what we might do with them.”

“Well he didn’t say it in so many words, but yeah I guess so.” Willow nodded.

“So we have to persuade him otherwise.” Tara sounded determined; making it clear she was truly behind Willow in this enterprise.

“Right how hard can it be?”



“Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare tell me you understand how I feel!” Tara recognized the voice of Joyce Summers.

“I’m sorry Joyce I was just trying to explain that I do feel her absence and I do feel responsible for what happened.” Giles was trying to be calm but was succeeding; there was a distinct edge to his voice.

“Well that’s because you are.” Joyce answered coldly. Willow and Tara had found a taxi at the bus station and decided to head for the Summers house first to drop of their bags and recover from the trip before Willow went home to confront her parents. They hastily walked into the living room before the exchange became anymore heated.

“Willow, Tara. You’re back.” it was a somewhat obvious point, however Giles was grateful for anything to that turned the conversation away from the bitter exchange with Joyce. He had received another lead, and another dead end, who would have imagined there was another girl in the world called Buffy Summers?



Joyce tried to calm herself for Willow and Tara’s sake. From what Tara had told her the last thing Willow needed to hear was any more acrimony over Buffy. Actually looking at Willow however she looked far from unhappy. In fact it was only seeing her relaxed that made Joyce realize how tense she had been previously. “Did you have a good weekend?”

“Oh yes, strange but actually pretty good.” Tara blurted out.

“I take it what you called me about didn’t turn out to be a problem.” Giles asked. He was vague because the last thing he wanted to do was discuss the supernatural in front of Joyce in her current mood.

“Actually it was sort of; we took care of it though.” Willow was just as cautious.

Giles could tell there was a story there, as frustrating as it was he stuck to the pleasantries. “Well I’m glad to hear that. Actually I think had better be going. I could drop you off at home Willow if you would like?”

Willow looked at Tara and she nodded her assent. A chance to talk to Giles alone couldn’t be passed up.



Willow had always sort of liked Giles car, it had an eccentric quality that appealed to her. Giles was so utterly familiar with driving it that he usually had plenty of attention to spare to talk. Right now his gaze was focused on the road as if he expected the Hellmouth itself to open up in the middle of it. He had obviously taken what Joyce had said to heart. She knew exactly the place Giles was in right now; loaded with guilt over Buffy’s disappearance and convinced it was his fault. Tara had finally found away to lift Willow out of there, and it occurred to Willow that she might be the only one who could do the same for Giles. That just reinforced the necessity of finding Buffy and laying this whole mess to rest once and for all.



As Willow began to chat to him about her weekend Giles was letting it wash over him. When she started describing the events surrounding April’s possession and the odd encounter with the girl named LJ he couldn’t help himself; his interest was peaked. “You truly believe that this girl was from the future?” he asked.

“It made a lot of sense at the time, and she gave me some good advice.” Willow hoped her maneuver wasn’t too transparent.

“And what was that?”

“That I should do what I thought was right.”

Giles shook his head. “That seems rather vague.”

“Not if she knew what was on my mind, which I think she did.” Willow countered.

Now Giles began to become suspicious, “Exactly what was on your mind?”

“The fact that we need to find Buffy, and I need to be more involved with the effort.” she watched Giles for any clue as to his response.

“Willow you can hardly be going all over the country running down leads.” Giles pointed out and Willow sensed he was being deliberately obtuse.

“Giles that’s not what I meant. I was thinking more about…” She was cut off as the car came to a slightly too sudden halt.



“We’re here.” Giles gestured out the passenger side window. Willow had been too intent on the conversation to notice they were approaching her home. She pulled her bag out of the rear seat, short of throwing some sort of tantrum and refusing to get out all she could do was say, “Thanks Giles.” And step out on to the pavement. She waved after him as he pulled away. Fine, round one to you, but don’t think this is over. Willow slung her bag over her shoulder and marched towards the front door; planning her next move.



2. “Haven’t Seen The Sun For Weeks





The Bronze, a spooky graveyard. Most people their age spent a lot of time in the first and none at all in the second Xander reflected. It said a lot about his life that he had actually made out more times behind a tombstone than in the backseat of Cordy’s Beemer. Of course if it hadn’t been for all this creeping around in the dark he probably wouldn’t have ever gotten together with Cordelia in the first place, whether that was a plus or a minus he still wasn’t sure, especially as she cheerily abandoned Xander for the summer to go holiday in some exotic locale. He heard giggling behind him, which he recognized as the sound of a relaxed Willow. That was something else he had never imagined he would see, a laid back Willow. Emphasis on the laid, the thought rose unbidden from one of the more infantile corners of his mind.



Xander was embarrassed at the somewhat crass innuendo. He had been the last to know of course that Willow and Tara were together, and he had only found out how together they were when Willow and Buffy had been discussing a telling off they had gotten from Mrs. Summers. That hit Xander harder than he had expected; he had accepted that he had lost Willow’s best friend status to Buffy some time ago, but there was still that ongoing crush Willow had on him. Even if they never did anything about it there was a reassuring quality to it. Now that was gone forever. Willow had this whole soulmate thing going on with Tara and Buffy had her eternal love with Angel, and he had a girlfriend who had left him for a summer in Cancun. The fact that Cordelia’s absence hurt so much was probably the most disturbing thing of all.



Willow closed up with Xander and tapped him on the shoulder, and watched him rise about a foot in the air as she did so, which was pretty impressive without any levitation. “Good god Will don’t sneak around like that.”

“Uh, in case you forgot we are supposed to be sneaking.” Willow reminded him, “You know, the vampires?”

“Well having me jump in the air and yell doesn’t contribute to stealth.”

Willow shrugged and Tara spoke up. “We wanted to discuss something with you. We want to find Buffy.”

“Well we all want find Buffy.” Xander said sympathetically, before he realized what she meant, “Oh you mean you actually want to do something to find Buffy.”

“We have a spell that might work, it’s the one I used to find Tara.” Willow smiled unwittingly at the memory.

“And you want me involved how?” Xander was wary, he had checked out enough woodcarvings to be cautious about witchcraft.

“The spell was in a book belonging to Miss Calendar. After, after she died I got her computer disks and some of her magic stuff, but Giles has the book with this particular spell in it.” Willow laid out the problem.

Xander saw the catch. “And he isn’t big with you two doing magic.”

“Right, so I figured get everyone on board in advance and we can talk Giles round.” Willow couldn’t help but notice that Xander didn’t look particularly onboard.



Tara saw the expression and read it correctly. “You aren’t happy about the spells either.” She stated. Willow gave Xander a hard look and he managed to force an answer out.

“Well it sounds like you’re talking about some serious mojo Will. Do you really have the experience to do that sort of thing?” it was the most reasonable point he could think of.

You mean serious magic like this? Willow was staring hard at him.

“Yeah I mean…” It had taken a few seconds for the fact that Willow hadn’t actually said a word to sink in.

“New trick I learned at the convention.” she explained matter of factly.

“You can send thoughts, you can’t read them can you?” Xander’s stomach was doing back flips.

“Of course not.” Willow’s reassurance wasn’t all that reassuring.



Xander tried to regroup. “Look Will so far the magic hasn’t usually been of the good. Cordy got blinded, Buffy nearly got killed; you and Tara nearly got shredded by a werewolf. I just don’t see the magic helping.”

Xander’s lack of support was steaming Willow up. “It led me to Tara and it saved you from that vamp.”

“What vamp?”

“That one.” Willow pointed behind him. Xander turned to see a vampire rushing towards him with the last clumps of dirt falling from it; the grave it had risen from was a mess of earth and broken wood. Before Xander could react to this something raced past him and jammed into the vampires chest. As it burst into a cloud of dust the stake remained hovering in the air and then turned and flew back to Willows right hand; her left was entwined with Tara’s.

Xander stared at the piece of wood for a long time, “So, you tell Giles you want to work the mojo. I nod and smile, that work for you?”



Giles had been reorganizing the American literature shelves; he always found the frisson of cultural superiority he got from it improved his mood and at the moment he needed every lift he could get. He looked up from the collection as the door swung open and he straightened, he recognized a delegation when he saw one. Xander was hanging back a little. Tara was stood beside Willow, looking nervous, not unusual for Tara. Willow on the other hand looked determined, so Giles focused his attention on her, it was clear that she intended to pursue the conversation he had avoided yesterday.

“Giles we need to talk, about Buffy.” she announced confirming Giles expectation.

“Indeed, what exactly is you wanted to talk about?” he wasn’t going to make this easy and encourage her.

“We need to find her Giles, and we haven’t made any progress in nearly three months.”

“You mean I haven’t made any progress.” Giles suggested.

Tara spoke up, “No Mr. Giles that’s not it.”

Willow agreed, “You’ve followed up every lead, but suppose we never get a real lead? Buffy could be in hospital, or in jail…or worse. We need to do something more, active.”

“And what is you have in mind?” Giles couldn’t avoid it any longer; he would have to let Willow present her case.



“I know there’s a locator spell that can pretty much track down anyone, anywhere. I used it with Miss Calendar to find Tara. If we use it we could know where Buffy is, not just guess.” Willow tried to keep the excitement out of her voice. She had to present this as reasonably as possible to persuade Giles.

“It sounds so very simple when you say it like that. Have you any idea how powerful that spell is to have so much reach?”

“I don’t know all the details.” Willow admitted reluctantly, if she did they probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.

“Exactly, but still you want to go ahead with this.” Giles didn’t succeed in keeping the disapproval out of his voice.

“Mr. Giles we could just check it out, see how complicated it is, whether we could do it or not.” Tara responded.

“Come on Giles we have to find Buffy. I mean I’m not big with the magic but it pretty much seems like it’s the only way to go here.” Xander added, mostly so Willow couldn’t accuse him of not helping out later.



Giles’ answer surprised the trio, “Perhaps you are right, and perhaps magic would be a solution. However that doesn’t mean it’s the right solution. Once you start playing with spells like this the temptation is always to go further. Wherever Buffy is I doubt she would thank me for dragging any of you deeper into the supernatural than you already are.” Feeling that this was decisive point Giles turned and walked into his office.



Xander looked from Willow to Tara. They both looked despondent and Xander knew he should just be sympathetic and get them out of here. Then they could come up with some other helpful options that didn’t involve black magic. He couldn’t do it; he knew that this spell was their best chance of finding Buffy and whatever personal problems that might cause he had to try and make it happen. “You guys go on, I’ll be along in a couple of minutes.” Possibly sooner if Giles throws me out.



Giles had turned the kettle on and was surprised to see Xander standing in the doorway; he had expected Willow to come in and make one last impassioned plea. ”You know I sort of miss the old days.” Xander commented wistfully.

“Xander what exactly does this have to do with anything?” Giles really didn’t feel like hearing one of Xander’s rambling stories.

“Well back then it was Buffy doing the slaying, you doing the training, Willow doing her hacker thing and me getting underfoot.” Xander explained disarmingly. “But it’s not like that anymore. Take last night. Willow and Tara turned a stake into a guided missile, and did you know Will learned telepathy at that convention, now that was spooky.”

“She hadn’t demonstrated that for me.” Giles frowned, did Willow think he wouldn’t appreciate her skill?

“Yeah, and she didn’t tell the whole story but I think she took down some sort of big bad at that convention as well?”

Now that Willow had told Giles about. “Yes she defeated some sort of ethereal demon.”

“There you go. It all makes me feel like I’m just falling behind. I mean what is it I bring to the group anymore? Buffy and Willow and Tara are way beyond me and that’s kind of scary; that everything’s just changed out of recognition.” Xander finished and just looked at Giles for a moment. “Maybe that’s just me though.” Xander turned away.

“Alright tell them they can have the book.” Giles called out. Xander didn’t look back, he knew he had done the right thing; snag was he might have dug his on grave in the process.



3. “All Out Of Strength"



“Way too much mandrake root, the author seems to be very heavy handed with all the ingredients, cut them in half.”

Willow looked at the hand written note and wondered how Giles had reacted to seeing what was clearly an old and rare volume defaced in that way. Perhaps he had never seen it, checking out a book that had belonged to Jenny might have been too painful. Jenny’s death was one those things that nagged at Willow. In her trip to the future there had been people missing, she simply hadn’t found out all the details of the why and the wherefore. The future Scooby’s hadn’t been willing to talk about some things and Willow hadn’t seen the point in asking when it was clear they were going to wipe her memory. She had a suspicion that some version of what had happened this past few months had occurred in the other reality, she just wished she knew how different or similar it was.



“Willow honey, we’ve been looking at the same page for five minutes.” Tara mentioned from over her shoulder.

“Sorry, distracted.”

“Don’t let Mr. Giles hear you say that, he’ll take the book back.” Tara pointed out. Both of them had been curious as to how Xander had changed Giles’ mind; Xander wasn’t telling however and they had decided not to make a big deal of it

“Well I think we have enough now even if he did. We do right?” Willow wanted to be sure, she wasn’t going to be accused of getting too ambitious.

“I’m pretty sure, yes. The ritual is clear and Miss Calendars notes should make it straight forward, as straight forward as magic can be.”



Giles opened the front door to be confronted by Tara carrying the magic book and Willow lugging her laptop. “Do I take it you think you can do the spell?” he asked before stepping aside to let them in.

“We’re pretty sure, but we want to go over it with you first.” Willow explained. Actually they were very sure, they just wanted to reassure Giles that they were being responsible.

“Very well show me what you have.” Willow put down the laptop and produced an actual notebook in which she had written out all her thoughts on the spell. She knew Giles would be happier with words on paper than pixels on a screen. Giles took the pad and looked through it carefully. He was searching for some error that would allow him to halt their plans. Unfortunately it was clear the pair had been scrupulous in their work. They had laid out the steps in excruciating detail.



Tara watched Giles leafing through the pages. It felt like they had done a test and now they were going to get the results. She realized that in a way that was exactly what this was. If they had done this right then she and Willow would be able to take their exploration of the magic to a new level. If they were wrong she could accept that. Willow would be crushed though, and that was Tara’s first concern. Giles sighed and put the pad aside, “It appears that my fears if not unfounded were somewhat exaggerated.” He informed them.

Willow beamed and glanced at Tara, “I think that means we can do the spell.”

“Of course there is the small matter of where and when to be decided.” Giles cautioned.

Tara blushed and reached in to her bag; producing three candles, “I brought these along just in case.”

“It was my idea. I didn’t want to give you a chance to change your mind.” Willow explained. Giles nodded, he should have expected it.



Willow picked up her laptop and put it on the coffee table while Tara fetched some saucers from the kitchen. “What role did you have in mind for me in this?” Giles asked.

Willow looked at him seriously, “I was hoping you would do the tracing, I think you want to find Buffy as much as anyone, and with your ability to think clearly that’s going to really help the spell.”

Giles could see she was utterly sincere and he gave her a small smile. It was the first anyone had seen from Giles in sometime, “ Thank you Willow.”

She looked unnerved, “No problem.” Tara was carefully laying the candles out on the floor, making sure to leave plenty of room for Giles to get to the computer. She lit them one by one and Giles set himself down cross-legged in front of the laptop. He looked far from comfortable. He concentrated on the task at hand to distract himself from the thought that he looked somewhat ridiculous.



Willow waited while Giles closed his eyes and placed his finger on the top of the computer screen. Tara took her hand and Willow began the low chant that summoned the magic. The last time she hadn’t seen anything of the power that had called forth the location of her soulmate. Now she saw it, wisps of pale violet light that began to gather around Giles and form a translucent wall. The power was taking Giles and the computer to a place where all points in the world were connected. In such a place where you could look everywhere at once, and Willow knew Giles was doing that, seeking out Buffy wherever she might be. At least she hoped that was happening because the candles that were warding Giles against the raw power of the magic were beginning to waver again, she would have to banish the power soon or put him at risk. Then she spotted an icon flashing on the laptop screen, it was done. She swiftly uttered the words that released the power and watched the light disappear and the candles gutter out.



Giles stood up and looked at the screen. The section streets and buildings it showed meant nothing to him. Willow brushed past him and began to work the keyboard, grabbing the details and committing them to the computers hard drive before she turned to Giles to give him the news. “It’s Los Angeles.” She announced.

“I checked her old haunts there.” Giles replied defensively.

“Giles this is nowhere near her dads or her old school, she went somewhere no one knows her.” That thought clearly upset Willow, and Giles was looking rather brooding as well. Tara decided that wasn’t healthy. “This is good, we know where Buffy is, and the locator wouldn’t work if anything really bad had happened.”

Tara’s words helped shake off some of the anxiety, “You’re quite right, we have the information, now we have to act on it.” Giles drew himself straighter, the Watcher side of his nature reasserting itself. After months with little to do it finally had a focus.



“I can be packed and ready in an hour, it’s just a matter of finding a flight then.” Giles laid out his plan and noticed he was getting a far from enthusiastic response. “What’s wrong?”

Tara answered him, being as nice about this is possible. “Mr. Giles; Giles we were talking about Buffy and why she went. We sort of thought that slaying might be big part of it.”

That had occurred to Giles as well. “You think I might simply remind her of why she went in the first place.”

“It’s just a theory.” Willow added sympathetically.

“Probably a good one.” Giles admitted. “I take it you think it would be best if her friends went to find her?”

“Basically; yes.” Willow confirmed.

“How exactly are you going to arrange this? Willow won’t your parents object to you going away again so soon?”

“You mean the ones who both have to go away on business and won’t be back until after the weekend?” Willow answered slightly sarcastically.

Giles turned to Tara, “And what about Joyce? Unless you tell her what’s happening.”

Willow piped up, “I don’t think we should tell her yet, we don’t really know anything except a point on a map.”

“If I tell Mrs. Summers that Willows parents are away for a few days then she won’t be too surprised if she doesn’t’ see me for a couple of days.” Tara lowered her head at the reproachful look she got from Giles. “I didn’t say I liked the idea, it just seems the only way to avoid telling her about Buffy.” She muttered.

Giles sighed, “Well if you bring Buffy back with you I suspect all will be forgiven.” And if not we will all have other things to worry about.



The Mayor was sat at his desk checking the contents of buff coloured folder and making the occasional note. It was the image of a dedicated public servant, an image that Wilkins had striven to create over a great many years. It was that image of duty and dedication that had forestalled any serious challenges to his position. His loyal electorate might have been a touch concerned if they could have seen the contents of that folder. Olmec rituals for human sacrifice were somewhat outside the purview of the mayor's office. “Sir your three o’clock is here.” The voice over the intercom broke into the mayor’s considerations.

“Right on time, excellent. Send him straight in.”



The figure that entered was clad in a black suit, white shirt and black tie. His hair and eyes matched the tie. He had had a deep tan and when he moved there was on occasional glint of light, as though the skin were somehow metallic. “Why exactly have you called me here?” he demanded in a booming voice. The mayor maintained a smile on his face.

“You know my mother always said that manners cost you nothing, I think that’s something worth thinking about don’t you?” The Mayor’s voice remained pleasant and yet the dark man knew he had just been warned.

“It was simply that the notice was short and I had to cancel other arrangements.” The mans voice was more measured now.

“And I appreciate that. This is important however. We had a disruptive influence in my town, a vampire slayer by the name of Buffy Summers. Fortunately she decided to relocate some months ago. Now it seems her friends have located her and are planning to persuade her to come home. Now I admire that sort of loyalty, in this case it’s sadly misplaced. I would like you to follow them and take all necessary measure to ensure Miss Summers stays far away from Sunnydale.”

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Edited by: Sheridan at: 7/25/02 1:03:53 pm

4. “All Out Of Courage"



The car was a heap of junk and yet his uncle had acted like Xander was asking for a kidney. In fact given the state of his uncle’s kidneys the car probably was worth more. Xander had finally pried it loose by promising to return it with a full tank of gas. The means to travel to LA was taken care of and Xander could swear he heard the sound of nails being pounded into a coffin lid. He had never intended to betray Buffy or Willow. He had gone to the mansion fully intending to pass Willow’s message to Buffy, it was just that when he had been standing there looking her in the eyes he couldn’t do it; he had lied outright and shamelessly. Well it was shameless at the time. He had rationalized it away later, the spell was an incredible longshot and even if Willow thought it had worked that was just her wanting it to have worked. The more Xander had seen of Willow’s aptitude for magic the harder it was for him to believe that. The spell had worked and something bad had happened. When they got to LA they would find out what that was, and he was going to be blamed for it. Xander was sure of that but he couldn’t think of anyway out of it unless he simply abandoned Buffy to whatever her life had become; which was the one thing he couldn’t do.



Willow was watching Xander from the back seat of the car. His attention was definitely drifting from the road, plus it was getting dark. “Xander I saw a sign for a motel, maybe we should turn off and take a break. Maybe stay there if it’s not too gross?”

“I could definitely use a chance to get out and stretch my legs.” Tara added.

“Ok I guess might as well make it now as later.” Xander conceded and watched for the signposts to the off ramp, he was in no great hurry to reach LA.



As they emerged from the car Willow scanned the motel. It was a tidy looking place and most of the cars parked around it looked like rentals or company cars, suggesting a place that wasn’t sleazy, and the fact that all the lights on the hotel sign were working was encouraging. “I’ll go check on rooms, why don’t you two go look at the restaurant?” Xander’s suggestion made sense, and it would give Willow and Tara few minutes alone at least.

“Ok, I’ll order for you.”

“Thanks Will,” he called out as he walked over to the reception.

“You know he doesn’t seem very enthusiastic about this.” Willow commented as she stared after his receding form.

“Maybe he just feels like three’s a crowd.” Tara replied.

“Could be I suppose. Let’s go find a table, if I know Xander food will cheer him up.”



The other car was a much more comfortable affair, with air con and leather upholstery. It was still less than pleasant journey thanks largely to the being in the passenger seat. It was squat and broad; and was wearing a hooded sweatshirt with the hood pulled forward to put its face in shadow. Nothing could disguise the unpleasantly damp odour it emitted. The tanned man was deeply relieved when the witches and their driver pulled off at the motel. He parked the car in a spot at the opposite end of the car park from the battered relic that his quarry was traveling in and opened the passenger. A series of wet clicking sounds from the passenger seat got his attention. “Yes alright I’ll get some food. Just try and stay low and avoid drawing any attention.” The tanned man sighed; working with minions was always a trial, this one more than most.



Willow and Tara had begun to relax. The restaurant wasn’t bad and they had gotten a couple of sodas while they waited for the food. Naturally the conversation had rapidly turned to flirting and the unspoken agreement that they definitely weren’t going anywhere else tonight except to bed. The entrance door opened and Willow looked away expecting to see Xander, instead she saw a guy who looked sort of like a funeral director, well a funeral director who spent a lot of time under a sunlamp. Tara also glanced at the man. “Do you think I should try and get a tan?” she asked.

Willow looked at Tara’s exposed skin. “Well I like your skin just fine. Of course it would involve you wearing a small bathing suit and you would need someone to rub in the lotion…” Willow spoke as though she was giving it deep consideration.

“If I was going to do it I’d want to do it properly, you know all over.” Tara pointed out reasonably.

Willow maintained an equally innocent expression for about five seconds. Then let out a small groan “Ok you win, I give in, you can do what you want as long you promise I’ll be the one to rub in the oil.”

Tara took her hand and kissed her on the forehead, “You and no one else.”



Quiet, shy, reticent, these were words that had been used to describe Willow over the years Xander had known her. As he lay on the bed in the motel room staring at the ceiling he was beginning to reassess them, especially ‘quiet’.

“Ohhhhh yeah.” The voice was clear through the thin wall of the motel. Xander looked at his watch lying on the table. Two hours. Two solid hours he had been lying here trying to get to sleep without any luck. “Woooo that is so good.” That was Tara. Xander had simply asked for two rooms and the fact that they were adjoining seemed convenient. “Ohhhh god!” Willow’s cry was the last straw; he pulled on his shirt and jeans. He was going to go for a walk, a long walk he decided as the sound of giggling permeated the wall.



The Bronze was dimly lit but Buffy didn’t really care. She was just enjoying the sensation of leaning her head against Angel’s chest as they danced. They were all alone and she didn’t recognize the slow sort of sad tune that was playing. That didn’t matter either, she was just happy to be here. A light shining into her closed eyes irritated her. She opened them to see a glowing orange vortex. Angel released her and stepped back staring at the vortex and then looking questioningly at Buffy. “Please I had to do it, there was no choice. I had to sacrifice you to save everyone else.” Buffy wanted him to say it was ok, that he understood. Instead she watched as he silently stepped into the vortex with a reproachful look on his face. “I had to save them all.” She murmured as he disappeared. The vortex however remained, stubbornly open; refusing to fold in on itself and go away. “That's right you saved them all didn’t you.” Buffy didn’t recognize the harsh voice from behind her and turned to see a redheaded girl stood in what had now transformed itself in to a graveyard. She had blue eyes and her hair was shoulder length except for two thin braids that fell down her back and ended in glints of gold. Her hands were resting on a pair of side-by-side gravestones. Buffy read the inscriptions ‘Willow Rosenberg’, ‘Tara MaClay’. Buffy looked straight into the girls blue eyes, “Who are you?”

“I was the future.” Buffy didn’t get to ask what that meant, the girls eyes changed to fiery red, “Now it’s all gone.” The girl gestured and the vortex expanded and engulfed Buffy, pitching her into searing heat and the sounds of screaming.



Buffy opened her eyes but otherwise didn’t stir; there had been too many nightmares lately for to leap out of bed after each one. She simply refused to think about them anymore. Hadn’t she done all she could? Hadn’t she given up everything to save this world? There was nothing more it could take from her and she had nothing more to give; the world would just have to get along all by itself. She shut her eyes and willed herself back to sleep, determined to ignore the cryptic accusations of someone she had never met. She didn’t entirely succeed; particularly as there was something oddly familiar about the girl.









5. “Feel Just Like I’m Sinking



“Will sorry to do a Simpson’s on you, but are we there yet?” Xander asked as steered the car along the rundown streets.

Willow pulled the folded up map out of her jacket pocket, “Well actually I think we pretty much are,” she told him.

“So we can stop then?” Xander sounded weary and irritable. Willow suspected he hadn’t slept well the previous night. She and Tara had enjoyed a deep peaceful sleep; well they had eventually.

“We might as well, I think we’re better off on foot at this point” Willow looked around and saw a small coffee shop where they might be able to park and ask if anyone had seen Buffy. It was as dingy looking as the rest of the street and far from inviting, there just wasn’t anywhere else that looked like a place to start. She caught a glimpse of a figure in a waitresses uniform, a blond girl. It simply couldn’t be but Willow couldn’t shake the feeling of certainty that came over her. “Xander pull over,” she cried out.

“Ok as soon as I find a spot.” He answered only half paying attention.

“No right here, right now,” she opened the passenger door and Xander hastily slammed on the brakes.

“Will what the heck are you doing?” Xander realized he was talking to an empty space. Willow ran across the road with Tara and Xander trailing someway behind as Xander parked the car properly. She practically tore the door off its hinges in her eagerness to get inside. The waitress turned as the bell on the door jingled and Willow found herself looking straight at Buffy Summers.



Buffy stared at Willow, she was obviously still back in bed and this was the beginning of some new bad dream. It was only as the others appeared behind Willow and the heat of the coffee pot in Buffy’s hand began to get uncomfortable that it sunk in that she was awake and they really were here. She put the pot back on the counter, “Take a table, I’ll be there in a minute, and you had better order something he gets pissed if he sees people just taking up space,” she jerked her thumb in the direction of the man behind the counter who was already glowering at them.

“Ok Buffy, we’ll be over there.” Willow agreed, knowing she probably looked as confused as Buffy did right now.

“I was expecting a few more hugs and maybe a little girlish shrieking.” Xander suggested as he took a seat, “From you guys I mean.” He hastily added.

“It’s the shock, I mean we just appear, she probably hasn’t taken it in yet.” Tara suggested.

“Yeah that’s it.” Willow agreed, in fact she had been expecting something more along the lines of Xander’s suggestion.



Willow watched as Buffy made busy, moving to another table and taking an order before she orbited back to her friends and dropped menus in front of each of them. Willow realized she was feeling a few hunger pangs but she put that aside. “Buffy we need to talk,” she started, and then realized Buffy wasn’t remotely paying attention. Buffy scrawled something on her order pad and then tore it off and put it on the table. “That’s the address of my apartment,” She pulled a set of keys out and dropped them on top of the piece of paper, “These will get you in. My shift finishes in about half an hour, we can talk then.” She could see the concerned look on Willow’s face. Buffy smiled at her, it was a cold and wintry thing however; it did nothing to make Willow or any of the others feel better.



Sometime back Willow had gotten hold of a psychology textbook and read it for ‘fun’. This had been in the days before Tara had shown her what fun actually felt like. What she had read had stayed with her and it had given her some insights into her friends. Buffy’s room back home had been bright and sort of well, girly for want of a better word. Willow had decided it was Buffy’s way of asserting that she wasn’t just a slayer, she was really just like any other ordinary girl. This new place was quite different. Buffy had never exactly been tidy, this room though had the air of things simply being put down and abandoned. The paintwork was dingy and dark, without any trace of an effort to brighten it up. If Willow applied her pop psychology to this place it came up with some depressing conclusions.



“This is a dump.” Xander said and was startled he had spoken out loud. He expected either Willow or Tara to admonish him. They just looked sheepish, they had been thinking the same, albeit in slightly more high flown language. Seeing that Xander became a little bolder, “Guys exactly what are we going to say when Buffy gets here? I mean I don’t exactly see why she hasn’t come back already.”

“Xander we shouldn’t be judgmental.” Tara pointed out.

“This isn’t about being judgmental, look at this place. What does this place have that would make her stay more than five minute?”

“Maybe its what it doesn’t have.” Willow pointed out, “No vampires, no demons, and no Hellmouth.”

Xander gestured at the room, “Will this is the Hellmouth.”

“Like I said, judgmental.” Tara reproached him. Xander frowned; he could tell when he was being ganged up on.



Willow looked at Xander. Ok so he hadn't gotten much sleep the previous night, and as she had thought about it Willow had an inkling why that was, and Buffy hadn’t exactly overwhelmed them with the warmth of her welcome. Neither of those things justified his current sour attitude. The last thing Willow wanted was for the three of them to get into a row so she kept her tone reasonable. “This isn’t going to help. We need to keep things reasonable, find out what sort of state of mind she's in and what we can do to help her. That’s why we’re here right?” Xander nodded and Willow decided that would have to do.



The doorknob turned and Buffy walked in. She closed the door and looked over friends, as if only now accepting that they really were here. “Hey Buffy.” Xander greeted her; it sounded lame as he said it but someone had to start the conversation.

“I can’t quite believe you found me.” Buffy said, without anything in her voice that told them how she might feel about that fact.

“Well you know, magic.” Willow explained.

“Guess I should have seen that coming.” Buffy commented, still with a total lack of emotion.

“Buffy what happened that day in Sunnydale?” Tara’s question cut through the tense atmosphere. She could see that neither of the other two could bring themselves to ask.

Buffy stared at her for a moment making Tara feel very uncomfortable before she answered. “What happened? I got expelled, my mom threw me out, oh and I had to send Angel to hell to save the world. Typical Sunnydale day.” Now there was emotion in her voice, a rising note of resentment.

“Buffy…” Willow began to offer sympathy. Tara cut her off.

“Angel, you said you sent Nagel to hell, not Angelus.” She pointed out.

“Turn of phrase, does it really matter?” Buffy answered.



Willow looked into Buffy’s eyes and knew that Tara had scored a bull’s-eye. “Buffy the spell worked didn’t it?” Buffy seemed to crumble at Willows question. She sat on the edge of her bed with her face in her hands. When she looked up there were tears welling up in her eyes. “Yeah it worked Will, but the vortex was already open. The only thing that would close was the blood of the one who opened it.”

“Angel.” Willow said, more to herself than anyone else.

Buffy nodded, “Angel, so I kissed him goodbye and then I ran him through and let the vortex take him.” Willow crossed the room and sat on the bed beside Buffy. She put her arm around Buffy in a comforting gesture that the Slayer now seemed ready to accept.

“I’m sorry Buffy if I had just been able to work it sooner.” Willow apologized. Xander felt paralyzed, say something, anything; stop them. He knew where the conversation was headed and yet he was dumbstruck.

“It wasn’t your fault Will, I don’t think even if I had known it would have helped.” Buffy raised a smile as she spoke.

Willow looked puzzled. “But you knew, Xander told you.” Willow looked at Xander as she spoke, he looked like he was going to be sick, and Willow suddenly knew why. Oh god Xander, she thought.



Tara only saw a blur of motion as Buffy sprang from the bed and then there was a dull thud as Xander slammed against the wall, “How could you do that to me!” Buffy roared. Her hand clamped around his throat made any answered impossible, and Buffy wasn’t seriously interested in his whining. “Were you that jealous? Are you that pathetic?” She punctuated her questions by banging Xander’s head against the wall.

“Buffy let him go.” Tara laid a hand on Buffy’s shoulder but she couldn’t budge it so much as an inch. “Please Buffy you have to stop.” Buffy’s only response was to free one hand and shove Tara away.

That was the final straw for Willow, BUFFY STOP IT NOW! Willow’s thought drove into Buffy’s brain and the surprise as much as anything else caused her to let go and step back.

She stared at Willow not quite believing what had happened. “More magic right?”

“Yes, look Buffy…” Willow answered.

“Willow I love you but if that sentence includes a ‘but’ I will knock you to the floor.” Buffy threatened, bringing Willow’s argument to a grinding halt. “I’m getting out of here. I don’t expect to find anyone running after me. And Will if you are so big with the magic now why don’t you come up with a spell to turn that,” she jerked a thumb at Xander, “into a human being.” The door slammed shut with a force that made the walls shudder.



6. “Claw For Solid Ground”



Xander rubbed his throat gingerly, he had been on the receiving end of Buffy’s power before, but then a Hyena spirit possessed him. This was a lot different; this time it was actually him that Buffy was mad at. “Thanks for saving me Will,” he offered. There was a glass sat on the table by Buffy’s bed. It suddenly launched itself and hovered an inch from Xander’s face.

What makes you think you’ve been saved? Willows thought was clear and cold. Xander looked into her eyes hoping to appeal to her, his fear began to well up again as he saw they were pools of darkness.

Tara stepped to Willow’s side and laid her hands on Willow’s shoulders. “Honey put the glass down. Let him talk and explain himself.” Xander’s relief at Tara’s intervention evaporated as she continued, “If we don’t like what he has to say then we can kick his ass together,” she caught the startled look on his face and shrugged, hey that’s as much sympathy as he’s going to get.



The pair sat down on the bed and focused all their attention on Xander in a way that made him think of the words ‘lynch mob’. Given that he decided there was no point sugarcoating anything. “Ok so everyone is running around working on getting Angel his soul back and no one wants to think about whether it’s a good thing or not. I mean what were you expecting Will? Give Angel back his soul and watch him and Buffy walk off into the sunset, except of course he can’t. And what happens if he has a happy moment then we’re back to square one. I wasn’t going to put Buffy and the rest of us on the line for that.” Xander hadn’t really thought it through that clearly at the time; he had just gone with his instincts.



Willow wasn’t buying it. "You did it because you were jealous, all the rest is just a rationalization."

Xander's answer was angry. "Yeah I hated him and maybe I was glad for the excuse to get rid of him. But come on Will, if he had hurt Tara are you going to tell me you would have gone right ahead and restored his soul?" Willow didn’t answer that straight away and Xander nodded. “That’s what I thought. I think Buffy had a pretty good idea, I’m going to the diner.” Again the walls shook as the door slammed into the frame. Tara looked at Willow. “What would you have done?”

Willow now answered without hesitation. “I would have shoved Angel into that vortex myself.”

“So maybe Xander isn’t the only one who could let his feelings carry him away.” Tara pointed out. Willow might have protested if anyone else had said it, with Tara there was no way she could pretend. Maybe she could understand why Xander did what he did, just how was she going to sell it to Buffy?



Men liked looking at Buffy Summers. Everything from a furtive glance to outright ogling occasionally accompanied by whistling or moronic comments. Today was a little different; there was something about her, an aura that said to stay as far away as possible. Buffy’s rage was incandescent enough that it could have lit up the entire neighbourhood. Xander had betrayed her; there was no other way to look at it. After all she had done for him and the others he had sold her out to his hormones. Xander Harris was a selfish pig who had simply turned his back on her and the rest of his friends. Which of course you’ve never done. Buffy missed a step as the thought emerged from some dark corner of her mind. For a second Buffy tried to believe it was Willow working her new telepathic mojo, and just when had Willow learned that anyway? This thought however was all Buffy’s own; she was just too angry to keep it at bay right now. The last thing Buffy wanted to do was actually consider her own possible failings; she wanted to concentrate on staying good and mad at Xander. It was a relief then when a man stepped in front of Buffy and blocked her path.



The man was dressed in a sober dark suit with a white shirt and a black tie. It screamed mortician or preacher. “If you’re here to save my soul then you’re a little late,” she commented dryly. The she noticed how intently he was staring at her and her tone turned harder. “If you’re interested in any other part of me then you are cruising to get your ass kicked.” Buffy stepped round him and kept going. The man turned smoothly and got in step with her. Before Buffy could fire off another caustic remark he spoke up.

“As entertaining as that might be Miss Summers that isn’t the nature of my proposition.”

Buffy looked sharply at him, but didn’t break her stride, “How do you know who I am?”

“It’s a necessity if I was to find you and make my proposal.” His tone was pleasant if a little condescending.

“What exactly is it you want.” Normally Buffy would have just given the weirdo the slip, right now having someone to be mad at was actually a relief.

“I don’t personally want anything. I represent a party who would be very happy if you would agree never to return to Sunnydale."

Buffy laughed. “Not high on my to do list right now.”

The man nodded but persisted. “Perhaps not. However who is to say that you won’t change your mind? My proposal would make it a more binding thing. We give you what you want, you give me what I want, and we all go on with our existences.”

“And what exactly is it you think I want?”

“Well Angel obviously,” he answered equitably.



Now Buffy grabbed the mans arm and brought him to a halt in the street. “Listen whoever you are keep screwing with me and I'm going to bounce you off a wall.”

“Was I misinformed? I was told that you would be willing to bargain for the return of that individual.” The man looked genuinely nonplussed.

Buffy’s eyes widened. “You’re serious.”

“Seldom anything else. It isn’t complicated. If you are prepared to accept certain binding rituals that will prevent you returning to Sunnydale I can arrange for the return of Angel. Then the two of you can go with whatever life you choose. Barring a return to Sunnydale of course.”



Buffy’s mind was reeling. This made no sense to her; it was impossible and yet part of her wanted to jump up and down yelling ‘yes, yes, yes!’ The man looked at her sympathetically. “I can understand that this is a lot to take in.” he produced a pen and a card from his inside jacket pocket and scribbled something on it. “I’ll be at this phone number in a couple of hours. If you want to talk further about this call me and we will arrange a meeting. Really though what are your choices? To go back with your friends and return to you’re old life, to remain here in these less than charming surroundings, or you can go forward to a new life with the person you love. How difficult a choice can it be?” he walked away glancing back at Buffy who was simply stood looking at the business card.



Xander was surprised at how good he felt. After all it had been a rotten day and his friends had dumped him on. Still it was done now and there was no more worrying about when and how the big secret would leak out. In fact he had put up a pretty good case for the defence. Maybe his motives sucked but he realised that without all the guilt over keeping it secret he could live with what he had done, big question is can everyone else?



After finishing a piece of pie in the diner Xander had decided to get some coffees to go and a chocolate for Willow. Not much of a peace offering but the best he could under the circumstances. Even with having to worry about balancing the cardboard cup holder it didn’t take him long to realize someone was trailing him. Whoever was doing the following wasn’t in a hurry and didn’t seem to be trying very hard to be sneaky. That wasn’t good; it said that his pursuer wasn’t worried about being spotted. The sun was getting low and shadows were beginning to engulf the street. There was a corner ahead and Xander picked up his pace to get round it first. The pursuer was only mildly disturbed as Xander vanished form sight it would have him again in a moment; it was a shorter moment than expected as Xander was simply standing in the pavement with the coffee tray clutched in both hands. “So what exactly is your problem?” Xander asked. The pursuer was clad in a sweat top with a hood and the hood was pulled forward to shadow the face. The pursuer pulled the hood down to reveal a head similar to a frog, except when the mouth opened it was filled with sharp teeth. “Guess that answers my question.” Xander threw the tray at the demon and sprayed it with hot coffee before turning to run.



Taken by surprise the demon required a couple of seconds to clear the hot liquid from its eyes. Instead of running after Xander its tongue lashed out and looped round his ankle sending him tumbling to the ground. Xander looked over his shoulder and saw the demon approaching with that unconcerned stride it had followed him with. He frantically looked around for something to attack it with. There wasn’t anything, well unless a rolled up newspaper was going to do any good.

“Hey you, if anyone gets to beat up on him it should be us.” The shout made the demon look back over his shoulder and he saw Willow and Tara stood on the pavement a couple of feet apart. The demons instinct was to ignore them, Xander was closer to hand; and then it felt a prickling sensation of magical energies building. It turned round but it was too late. Willow and Tara each raised a hand in the air as though they were volunteering to answer a question. Then an arc of energy leapt between the out stretched hands. The demon stared at it for a few moments before it was knocked fifty feet down the street as a bolt of energy lashed out from the arc and caught it square in the chest. As it staggered back to its feet it decided to retreat. As the demon ran Willow stretched out her free hand and muttered an incantation. A glittering green dart flew from her hand and struck the back of the frog demon. It simply faded into the creature without even slowing it down.



Willow and Tara walked over to where Xander was still lying on the pavement. “That was new,” he commented.

Willow nodded. “Never tried it before, figured hey no great loss if it didn’t work.”

Xander took a hard look; Willow’s voice was completely deadpan but there was a sparkle in her eyes that told him she was joking. Willow extended a hand and helped Xander to his feet.

“Come on lets go back to the flat and clean you up,” she offered. Xander wasn’t exactly forgiven, not just yet, but Willow couldn’t find it in her heart to stay made at him.

Xander could read that without the help of telepathy and responded in kind. “Thanks Will.”

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Edited by: Sheridan at: 7/25/02 12:52:03 pm

7. “Everything We Said And Did Hurts Us All The More”



Willow and Tara were stood in the corridor outside the apartment while Xander changed. His shirt was smeared with dirt and there was demon drool all over one leg of his pants. “It’s a good thing we were watching out for Buffy.” Tara suggested.

“Yeah, when I saw him down there being attacked I didn’t even think about. He was still my friend despite what he did, you know?”

“Yeah I know. You have a very forgiving nature baby.” Tara stepped closer and kissed Willow. They lingered with lips locked together; Willow’s tongue was sliding into Tara’s mouth when the door opened.

“Oh, hey I can go away.” He offered.

Willow broke the clinch. “No, probably a good idea if we all get in out of this corridor.”



Back inside Xander picked up his shirt and poked his fingers through a rip in it. “Just glad it’s only the shirt, “ he commented as he stuffed it into his bag. “So what are we going to do? Round up Buffy and hunt that thing down?”

Willow shook her head vigorously, “No way. I mean we can’t tell her that five minutes after we turn up its back to the slaying?” Willow stopped and frowned, “You know it can’t be a coincidence, I mean we come here and a demon turns up.”

“It followed us.” Tara agreed.

“Which means we were leading it to Buffy. Ok so we really don’t want to tell her that.” Xander followed the thread. “Exactly how are we going to track it down without Buffy though?”

“I tagged the thing, just a little magic but I can trail it wherever it goes” Willow explained. Xander nodded, and then looked out of the window. He saw a familiar blond figure strolling along the pavement.

“Buffy's coming back,” he announced.

“Ok guys, not a word to Buffy.” Willow warned.

“Hey she’ll probably be too busy pummeling me to notice anything else.” Xander joked feebly.



Despite the attempt at humour Tara could see Xander tense as the door opened and Buffy walked in. As it was Buffy seemed startled by their presence, as though she had completely forgotten they were there. “Buffy, how are you doing?” Willow asked tentatively. Tara tried to read Buffy but all she could see was that the slayer was totally distracted. While that might prevent anymore fighting it was still troubling.

“Buffy?” Tara asked, trying to nudge Buffy in to responding.

“You know maybe it would be a good idea if we went and found some where to stay the night. Then we can talk in the morning when everybody’s calmed down a little.” Willow suggested. She thought Buffy was way too calm but she decided not to mention it right now.

“Yeah maybe that would best, a chance to think things over.” Buffy still didn’t seem to be paying much attention.

Willow patted her on the shoulder as she walked by, “That’s right we’ll talk in the morning.”



Out on the street Xander turned to Willow, “I take it we aren’t looking for a good Hotel?”

“No we are all going to get in the car and drive away. Then you are going to drop Tara and me off and circle back here.”

“Hey why can’t I come with you?”

“Because someone needs to keep an eye on Buffy.”

“And you think I’m the best person for that?” Xander asked sounding a little worried.

Willow knew that Buffy would less than thrilled if she found Xander watching her; still it was the best option. “Look there is something freaky going on and we need to find out what. Now if we find this demon it may take some serious magic to make it co-operate, that means me and Tara go search, you stay and watch, ok?”

“I guess so, but be careful. I’m kind of running short of friends right now.”



The frog demon had only traveled about a mile and followed a straight route. The problem was that what was a straight route for a demon wit the ability to simply bound over fences wasn’t really an option for Willow and Tara. Three times they had been forced to take a major detour and search for the trail again. In short they were getting pretty footsore when they reached a stairwell that appeared to be the end of the line. “This is it? It doesn’t go any further than this?” Tara was unsure because they place seemed too busy for a demon to skulk in.

“We’ve been round the block twice, either its in there or something cut off the trace.” Willow shrugged and they walked down the stairwell the sounds of people growing louder as they did.



As they inner door swung open Willow was convinced they had stepped into a corner of hell. There was a ghastly wailing, smoke filled the air and there were demons everywhere. After she blinked a couple of times she noticed that most of the demons were sat at tables sipping from glasses. The smoke was the product of tobacco and a few more exotic things being smoked. Turning in one direction she found the source of the wailing noise. There was a squishy looking demon standing on a stage, clutching a microphone, and mangling a rendition of ‘How do I live without you?’ A demon performing karaoke, and Celine Dione karaoke at that, Willow decided she had been right in the first place. This was hell.



Tara nudged her in the ribs and Willow turned the other direction to look at the long bar behind which a green demon with horns was standing and staring straight at them. I guess if we want to find out anything we talk to the bartender. Willow sent the message telepathically as she wanted to avoid tipping their hand in front of all these things. Tara nodded in response and they moved towards the bar.

The green demon smiled as they approached, “Welcome ladies, what can I get you.” Willow was surprised at how light and friendly it’s voice was. Demons usually had rather low booming voices, if they spoke at all.

“We were looking for someone or something.” Willow stumbled over her words as she was stilled somewhat stunned by the sights around her.

“Well there’s always someone looking for company in here.” The Host stopped. For one thing the way the redhead had just slipped her hand into the blondes in a way that said they already had all the company they wanted. For another as soon as they made contact he felt a prickling sensation that told him the warding spells were gearing up. “You’re Wicca right?” He asked trying to distract them from his faux pas.

Neither of the pair had noticed it anyway. “What is this place?” Tara asked looking around at the bizarre assortment of demons.



Lorne looked at the girls for a moment, he hated giving the speech, but it went with the territory. “This is Caritas. It’s a sanctuary, place where all manner of otherworldly creatures, and a few humans who are plugged into the other realm, can mingle and relax. It’s protected by a warding spell that prevents any violence being perpetrated on the premises.” Actually that only covered demons, but Lorne decided not to mention that right now, as he wasn’t quite sure how well it worked with witchcraft.

“What we need is information not sanctuary.” Willow explained.

“Oh I can do that.” Lorne responded. “It’s a gift I have. I can read people, answer questions, see the future even.”

“You don’t use a tuning crystal do you?” Willow’s reaction was a little panicky.

Lorne didn’t understand it but he reassured her nonetheless. “No, no, you just have to get up there.” He pointed at the stage.

Willow stared in horror at the green skinned demon. “Sing? I have to sing?” she had been hoping for some less terrible means of divination, like having her entrails removed and examined.



Tara ran her free hand along Willow’s cheek, making Willow turn to look at her. “We can go up together honey,” she looked at the Host. “That would be ok wouldn’t it?”

“I can work with it,” he conceded. Tara pulled Willow out of her seat and up on to the stage. Willow felt dizzy as she looked out over the audience. Luckily most of them seemed more interested in their drinks than the pair on stage. Tara tapped her on the shoulder. “How about this honey?”

Willow looked at it, kind of cheesy but she was going to go for whatever came to hand. “Ok let’s do this.” Tara pressed up against her so they could both see the sheet music. Willow drew comfort from the contact and steeled herself.



“When I’m feeing blue, all I have to do, is take a look at you, then I’m not so blue. When you’re close to me, I can feel your heartbeat, I can hear you breathing in my ear. Wouldn’t you agree, baby you and me got a groovy kind of love?” Tara launched into the tune and Willow was astonished; Tara had a great singing voice, it was sweet and clear, and Willow realized there was still so much she didn’t know about Tara. She was so rapt she almost missed her part until she noticed that Tara was pointing at a line in the music.



Willow hastily picked up the rhythm. “Anytime you want to, you can turn me onto, anything you want to, anytime at all. When I kiss your lips, ooh I start to shiver, can’t control the quivering inside. Wouldn’t you agree, baby you and me got a groovy kind of love?” she croaked, and flushed with embarrassment at how she was ruining Tara’s good work. Tara just smiled and went on with the song; she was more interested in the sentiment than the quality of Willow’s singing. The sight of her smile and the soothing sound of Tara’s voice relaxed Willow, she simply focused all her attention on Tara and her nerves went away.





8. “Feel Like Letting Go”



Lorne watched the pair; it was quite a contrast. The blonde had a great voice, the redhead; well didn’t. That wasn’t the main thing that held his attention; he was getting a lot of vibes off of them. There was an incredible amount of information and a lot of it was too wacky for words. For sanity’s sake he pushed it aside. It was clear what was concerning the redhead most at the moment, well apart from the girl opposite her that was. Tara almost had to carry Willow off the stage once the song was over and she realized that the crowd was staring at her. She had more or less recovered by the time they made it to the bar. “Please tell me you can answer my questions.” Willow begged.

“Not a problem little lady.” Lorne reassured her. “The froggy type was in here earlier and he wasn’t alone. There was another demon with him, looked human enough to pass but I can tell. He was tall, dark suit dark hair.”

“Sort of like a funeral director?” Willow asked.

Lorne nodded, “Yeah he was seriously downbeat. The two of them got a phone call and left about twenty minutes ago.”

Tara looked at Willow; “he was t the motel; so we were followed.”

“And the only reason for that is if they were looking for Buffy. She could be in big trouble.”

“That’s the other thing I was going to tell you.” Lorne interrupted. “Your friend, I wouldn’t be worried so much about her body as her soul.”



Buffy opened the cupboard door to fetch her jacket, the night had turned chilly, or maybe it was just her. She kicked her bag as she reached in. Buff bent down and opened it; inside was a decent sized knife and a sharpened stake. Why did she still have this stuff? She had packed it into her bag when she ran from Sunnydale without even thinking. When she got here and unpacked her clothing she had been surprised to see them, and still she hadn’t thrown them away, just left them lying in the bag doing her best to ignore them. She picked up the knife, after all it wouldn’t hurt to have some protection tonight, and that’s all it is, I don’t patrol anymore. Buffy slammed the door on the cupboard and walked out of the apartment. She marched down the pavement pushing everything else out of her mind; all that mattered was making things right for Angel. She had a responsibility to him that superseded everything else. Well doesn’t it?



The suited demon was looking a polished bronze disk grasped in his right hand. A pattern of green swirls moved over the metal and the demon did not look happy at what the patterns were telling him. The frog demon watched its partner quizzically, as much as it could given that it had very little in the way of facial expressions. The flickering lights faded out and the suited demon pocketed the disk. “It seems we have a complication,” he told his partner, eliciting a series of clicks and squeaks in answer.

“It would appear that they can’t currently locate the individual in question.” The suited demon explained. That got a louder series of clicks in response.

“I have no idea how, it’s an unheard of lapse. It odes complicate matters somewhat, I suppose we could attempt to stall.” He didn’t sound wholly convinced. The frog demon launched into an extended series of croaks and clicks.

The suited demon nodded, “You’re right of course we may simply have to rely on a more direct approach.”



Tara was getting footsore. It had been along rambling walk to get to Caritas and despite the fact that they were taking a direct route the return seemed twice as long. Willow had been silent since they left the bar and Tara hadn’t wanted to disturb it. She could tell the difference between Willow brooding and Willow thinking, and this was definitely thinking mode. Finally though Willow let out a sigh. “It’s no good I just can’t come up with anything.”

“Well it’s hard to plan when we don’t know where the demons are or their precise plan.” Tara pointed out. Lorne had gotten sketchy with the details, knowing too much could change things, a sentiment that neither herself nor Willow could argue with.

“Actually I was trying to remember any clue I might have.” Willow explained.

It took Tara a second to catch on. “You mean from the future?”

“Right, I mean all the stuff from my ‘trip’ is probably different but maybe there’s some crossover. And there were those flashes at the convention. Actually one of them was about that place,” she pointed her hand over her shoulder.

“Well that sounds like a good thing, that we’re on the right track?”

“Maybe and the other flash make it seem like things will work out. We were in the Bronze. You and me, and Xander and Buffy and Dawnie…” Willow stopped but went on before Tara could ask the obvious question. “The point was that we were all happy, it was a good day, it’s just it had to be a day a couple of years from now.”

“So you’re not sure we’re supposed to bring her home right now?” Tara was following the train of thought.

“That’s it exactly.” Willow nodded.



Tara thought about what Willow was saying, and then an answer occurred to her. “Didn’t you tell me that the girl you met; LJ? LJ, said to do what you thought was right?”

“That’s what she said.” Willow conceded.

“So what do you think is right?” Tara looked Willow straight in the eyes as she asked.

When Tara looked at her that way Willow couldn’t help speaking from the heart. “We need to get her out of here. Xander was right this whole place is a dump; it’s just a hole she’s crawled into. So what if Sunnydale is full of monsters? It’s where all the people who love her are; it’s the only place where she’s going to find the help to deal with what happened.”

Tara smiled. “So then we know what to do don’t we?”

“We find, we talk, and if we she won’t listen we knock her down and carry her home.” Willow stated confidently; even though she was pretty sure it wasn’t Buffy who would end having to be carried out if it got rowdy.



Xander had reached much the same conclusion as Willow and Tara; that whatever happened they had to get Buffy to come home. As he sat in the car watching the apartment and going slowly crazy with boredom it had occurred to him that it must be like this for Buffy every time she came back to that place. There was no TV, no books, not so much as a magazine. All Buffy had to do there was brood and get depressed. Maybe he wasn’t the one to persuade her right now but the others had to, if it came to it they could call in Joyce Summers and Giles, someone had to get through to Buffy. He was still thinking it over when the light went out in the apartment. It was a little early for bed, so he kept a close eye on the door to the building and Buffy emerged a couple of minutes later, walking into the night, and going in completely the opposite direction to the diner.



It was an uncomfortable decision but Xander decided to follow Buffy at a distance, it wasn’t like she would want his company and if Willow found out he just let Buffy wander off she would probably hex him all the way back to Sunnydale. Following Buffy didn’t turn out to be all that hard. It was a dark street and Buffy seemed oblivious to her surroundings. Regardless Xander kept well back, he didn’t want to get those Slayer instincts twitching.

Xander what’s going on?

Xander almost tripped over his own feet. “Please don’t do that Will,” he muttered, hoping that he hadn’t caught Buffy’s attention, “Couldn’t you just get a mobile phone instead?”

This has better reception. There was a hint of laughter in the thought.

“Whatever, Buffy’s on the move, and I have no idea where she’s going. We’re heading west from the apartment,” he explained.

We should be there in a couple of minutes, and keep her in sight.



The girls hurried to catch up with Buffy and Xander. Buffy could just be going to some friends place, except Willow was pretty sure that Buffy didn’t have any friends here apart from themselves. It was pure bad luck that Buffy chose to turn down onto the street that they were hurrying up. Buffy stopped as she saw Willow and Tara. ”What are you two doing here?” Buffy demanded.

“We were out for a walk and we were just heading back to the apartment.” Willow answered; it was true even if not exactly a complete explanation. “We wanted to talk to you.”

“I have to go someplace, you can wait at the apartment until I get back.” Buffy was clearly trying to brush them off.

“No Buffy I think we need to talk now.” Willow was firm; there was something in Buffy’s manner that made her feel that there might not be much of a later.



Xander appeared around the corner and Buffy looked over her shoulder at him before turning back to Willow. “Just out for a walk?”

“Buffy please whatever it is we should talk about it before you do anything you might regret.” Willow pleaded.

“Will this is something I have to do, so just back off and let me get on with it.” Buffy’s tone was stern. Suddenly she broke into a sprint and plowed through Willow and Tara, knocking them to the pavement. Willow raised her hand and uttered the syllables. A green dart raced out and splashed against Buffy’s back. As she executed the tag spell Willow felt Dizzy and almost toppled over.

Tara grabbed her. “I think you’re tapped out honey.”

Willow shook her head. “I just need to rest for a moment.”

Xander came up beside them. “I’ll go get the car, that way you can save your strength.”

“Thanks, I think I’m going to need it” Willow commented as she leaned on Tara.



9. “Lift Me From This Place”



A glance over her shoulder told Buffy that she was alone again. She had managed to ditch her friends. I seem to be getting good at that, she thought and flatly refused to feel the guilt that went with it. She owed a debt and she had to repay it. Of course she could have stopped and explained that to Willow and Tara but could they really understand? Whatever Xander might have done or not done it was ultimately her that had sent Angel to hell and she had to get him out.

What are you doing Buffy? Willow’s thought was tired but clear.

“Get out of my head Will, you aren’t Jiminy Cricket.” Buffy pointed out.

Well if what you’re doing is so right why don’t you just tell me? Now Willow sounded suspicious.

“I’m getting him out Will. Their prepared to give me Angel back, all I have to do is stay out of Sunnydale.” Buffy answered anxiously, as though she was hoping for Willow’s approval.

Is that all? Just turn your back on us again and run away? Willow’s thoughts were disbelieving.

Buffy got angry. “I have a right to a life, and it was pretty clear that three wasn’t one for me in Sunnydale.”

You don’t really believe that, you know that you can’t hide from being the Slayer forever it’s who you are. Buffy come home, I know you’re hurting but we can help, we care about you. Willow was pleading now.

“Willow I need to make things right.” Buffy responded.

Ok, fine, I got some great advice lately, ‘do what you think is right’. So if you think this is the right thing you go right ahead Buffy. With that Willow broke the psychic connection.



Willow slumped into the back seat of the car. “I don’t know if I reached her,” she announced.

Tara let go of her hand and stroked her face. “You did your best baby, it’s up to Buffy now.”

“Tara’s right Will, but maybe I’ll step on the gas just in case.” Xander offered.

“Probably a good idea.” Willow conceded.



The place chosen for the meeting was the car park of a rundown industrial park. Most of the buildings were empty, and the employees of those that were in use made a point of it to clear out after dark. A couple of lowlifes had approached the pair of demons with a view to robbing them or supplying them. Once they had gotten a good look at the frog demon they had backed off and they had the car park to themselves. The suited demon scanned the darkness looking for any sign of the Slayer. A deal was still the best option, this Angel couldn’t evade the guardians of the demon dimension for long and once he was found they would make the bindings and go their separate ways, until the lovers needed something else. He didn’t think much of most things human but they did have a rather appropriate saying about the road to hell…



Buffy approached the meeting place, she was a little surprised by the suited mans companion; there hadn’t been any rules about coming alone and it really didn’t make any difference at this point. “Miss Summers glad to see you are so punctual.”

“I just want to get this done.” Buffy muttered.

“Also an admirable trait.” The suited demon smiled agreeably.

“This deal, it won’t require me to do anything else other than stay out of Sunnydale?” Buffy needed some reassurance.

“That is the only condition we are interested in.” The demon replied.

“And no one will get hurt?” Buffy pressed.

The demon sighed. “Now how can I guarantee that? I’m no oracle. All I can offer you is the thing you value most and a chance to create a future for yourself. What more can you ask?” The demon kept it’s tone reasonable, though it was finding Buffy somewhat irritating.



‘A chance to create a future’. Well wasn’t that what she wanted? Buffy couldn’t suppress an image however, an image of two tombstones and a very pissed off redhead. Just what price was she prepared to pay to get Angel back, and for that matter how would he feel about what she had done to free him? If he had been given the choice would he have sacrificed himself for the world? Willow had told her to do what she thought was right. It hurt unbearably which was why she had run away from it, but she had done the right thing when she closed the vortex and if she took this deal it would have been for nothing, the world be wide open to the darkness.

“No deal,” she was surprised that she had actually spoken the words, but it was done now.

The suited demon shook his head. “Ah well. Deal with her.” It gestured towards the frog demon that launched himself at Buffy. She was ready for it however and dodged while grabbing the froggy thing and swinging it round so it landed heavily on the concrete. As it drew itself up Buffy found herself between the two creatures. Then the headlights of an approaching car lit up the scene.



As the car screeched to a halt Willow saw Buffy in the middle and felt a surge of relief that Buffy was in the middle of a fight with them. She would have been more worried if they were shaking hands and having a cozy chat. “Are you ok honey?” Tara was anxious about how much energy Willow had expended.

“I will be as long as you’re close.” Willow reassured her and squeezed her hand as she opened the car door and climbed out into the night.

“Hi Buffy, do you need some help?” Willow asked doing her best to sound casual.



Buffy looked at her friends for a moment not sure how she felt about them or this whole mess. Then she decided she felt good. God help her she had missed this. “Hey Will I think there’s room for a couple more at this party.”

The suited demon looked around, this was very annoying, ah well. Buffy felt a surge of heat and turned. The suited guy was smouldering, which quickly turned to flames and burned away to leave a human figure covered in flame.

“Oh great tell me you didn’t bring Mr. Fantastic or the Thing with you?” Buffy commented and then threw herself to one side as a ball of flame leapt from the creature’s hand. It almost struck the frog demon who croaked in annoyance.



“Buffy you go with slimy one we’ll deal with Mr. Flamey.” Willow called out.

The fire demon turned towards the trio round the car, “You will deal with me? Let’s just see about that.” It let loose with another fireball. Tara raised her hand and the bolt of flame ricocheted away into the concrete.

“Not bad but hardly overwhelming.” The demon commented and raised both hands for a double whammy. It was interrupted by the sound of screeching tyres. Xander was sick and tired of listening to snotty demons. He revved the car and then let the brake off, the car raced forward and slammed into the fire demon with a satisfying crunch.



Buffy was fencing with the frog demon. It had twice tried to snare her with that gross long tongue it had. She was just waiting for it to have another try. When it obliged she slashed out with her knife and felt goo splash onto her hand as a two foot section of the tongue came loose and fell to the ground. The demon began leaping around and shrieking in an earsplitting manner. Since it was otherwise occupied Buffy turned to see what was happening with the others.



The fire demon was pulling itself too its feet. Xander was desperately trying to restart the car that had stalled after the impact. The demon decided to fry the little man before he could irritate it further, and then its vision began to become obscured. Tara had dredged up the spell from the recesses of her memory. It had been in an old book of her mothers. Under ideal conditions it could summon a rainstorm. Right now the best it could do was suck all the moisture out of the air and turn it into a cloud of fog around the fire demon. The cloud didn’t last long before the heat of the creature drove it way. The demons shroud of flame was damped down however, revealing dark cracked skin that still had puffs of steam rising from it. It began to focus its power to reenergize the flame when it felt something long and sharp slide into it’s back. Before its life ebbed away to see Buffy standing there. “Now that’s’ just ungrateful. Then it collapsed into a heap that began to glow and smoulder before burning itself to heap of ash.



Willow looked around the car park, there was no sign of the frog demon; apparently having its tongue bisected dissuaded it from any further action. Xander had climbed out of the car, and stood beside Willow and Tara as Buffy walked over to them. “So can we drop you somewhere?” Willow asked.

Buffy nodded. “Back at the apartment,” she paused then smiled and continued. “I have to pack my bag.” Willow smiled, and then Tara smiled. Xander remained nervous and held the passenger door open for Buffy. Willow watched the pair. Buffy nodded and then climbed in. Xander looked to Willow and she shrugged, it was a start.



10. “Full Of Grace”



As they heard the sound of the key turning in the lock Willow and Tara took up position on the sofa. Joyce was surprised to see them there. “Oh you’re back. I suppose Willow’s parents are home,” she sounded tired and irritable.

Tara looked apologetic and spoke up. “Actually Mrs. Summers we know we’ve put you through a lot lately, we wanted to get you something to make up for it.”

Joyce frowned. “You don’t have to do that.”

“That’s what I told them, and I wasn’t sure you would like what they got you.” Joyce looked up and saw Buffy framed in the kitchen door. She simply looked for a moment not sure if this was real. Then she rushed over and threw her arms around Buffy.

“I thought I’d never see you again.” Joyce sobbed.

“I’m so sorry mom, I promise I won’t go away again.” Buffy patted her mother on the shoulder as she spoke.



Willow and Tara rose from the sofa and moved towards the door. “We’ll leave you two alone.” Willow announced.

Joyce looked over her shoulder at them. “Thank you girls.”

“We really do owe you Mrs. Summers.” Tara reminded her before they stepped out on the porch. “Do you think they will be ok?

Willow nodded. “Yeah might take a little time but they’ll work it out.” As they walked down the steps Tara asked a question that had been bothering them since they had returned to Sunnydale.

“Do you think those two demons just followed us or did someone send them?”

“This is Sunnydale baby so just assume the worst, that some terrible evil sent them and is still out to get us.” Willow had meant it as a joke; Tara’s expression said that she had taken it seriously. Willow decided to change the subject. “There are more important matters to discuss actually.”

“Like what?”

“Well precisely how much drawer space am I going to have in the dorm room?”

Tara looked at her and smiled. “Well I think that’s still open for negotiation.

“Well I can be a persuasive negotiator.” Willow suggested mischievously.

“Prove it.” Tara challenged her. Willow pulled her close and kissed her. It was the beginning of a long days negotiation.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

fantastic!! I love this story!!! And they finally found out about Xander's lying!!! Did they ever mention that on the show??? i can't wait for the next part!!



-Will

"Hear that baby? You're my always."

"well, you know, when you play a lesbian witch you've gotta get killed in this fun kind of exciting way, so the heart was the way to go..."

"we have the most amazing fans though they LOVE us."

this is a really cool AU piece, really enjoying it. can't wait to read more

Dude, we're surrounded by perverts!

Cross my heart, smack me dead, stick a lobster on my head.

Beer: the cause of and solution to life's problems

Excellent. I like how you managed to work LJ into Buffy's dreams. That means, she's still very much a part of Willow and Tara's future. Also very cool that the mayor is making guest appearances. Looking forward to the next installment.

--------------------
Too many of us live desert lives. ~Charles de Lint

I've been really enjoying this series, but hadn't realized how many updates there were until I saw this one. I like how you brought Xander's betrayal to light; it really annoyed me that they ignored that in season 3. I also liked seeing the Mayor again and hope to see more in future parts. Finally, I like seeing that the future is still influencing the past with their encounters with LJ in the last two parts.

--
"Omnia mutantur, nihil interit. "   "Everything changes, but nothing is truly lost."

New to this fic, i really love it!! I'm glad Buff came around and went back w/ them!! Can't wait 4 ur next update!!

"W-well, I-I was wondering, maybe, you would wanna go out sometime? For coffee ... food ... kisses and gay love?" - Willow (Normal Again)

Emphasis on the laid Heh, had a good giggle over Xander's gutter mind! And over Giles' cultural superiority.



Glad Giles let Willow and Tara do the spell. Willow, with Tara's guidance, seems to have a more responsible attitude towards the magic now.



Love that they ended up in Caritas. Poor Willow, with her stage fright and all, but she had her girl with her and that gave her the courage.



And I really love that you addressed the issue of Xander lying about Angel.



Yet another wonderful chapter of this great story. Thank you.

Adding up the total of a love that's true, multiply life by the power of two
Indigo Girls

This is the Reality Check season 3 running order including the next two stories. Yes I moved The Zeppo, but it was the only way to preserve a big chunk of the arc without having Willow kiss Xander, which is just not going to happen.



Season 3



La La Land

Faith, Hope and Trick

Beauty and the Beasts

Homecoming

Band Candy

Revelations

>>The Zeppo

Lover’s Walk

Cold War

The Wish

Amends

Helpless

<<

Bad Girls

Consequences

Dopplegangland

Enemies

Earshot

Choices

Blackout

The Prom

Graduation D[/i]

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Edited by: Sheridan at: 7/27/02 9:10:43 am

Just saying that I've read this whole thread in one go. Colour me impressed! Thank you so much for such an interesting insight into all these characters. I agree, Willow meeting Tara at an earlier stage seems to mean that Tara's balanced approach to magic may be having an impact. However, the flashes of Black-eyed Willow do set the stage for future angst. Still, the presence of LJ gives me a LOT of hope for our girls' future.

Sheridan, this is a truly excellent series ... it's such a fun concept, and you're handling it remarkably well. It seems we're having a spate of "putting Tara back in earlier seasons" fic, each done with their own special twist.



And this twist is wonderful ... Willow, haring off to save Tara ... *sigh* Yes, wonderful is really the word I'm looking for *G*



And I wonder when/if they'll figure out who LJ is



-Sass

______________________________________

I Think The Hellmouth Tastes Like Chicken -- Autumn

Excellent Sheridan!



I have been looking forward to this update for a long time. I can't wait to see what other changes you make for the other seasons.

Tara: My heart doesn't stutter.

Tara: Willow, I got so lost.
Willow: I found you. I will always find you.

Willow: Hi, um Tara. I was wondering maybe you want to go out some time for coffee? food? Kisses and gay love?

Well Sassette and Rose 24 I have a pretty good idea of the story arc up to the end of S6. I have started 'Cold War' and I have complete outlines for 'Blackout' and the first S4 story. I have rough synopses for three more S4 stories, 2 S5 and 3 S6 stories. S5 and 6 will probably get more stories as I get closer to actually writing for those seasons, the original S6 is pretty much toast. Oh and if its of interest LJ's 18th birthday will be in 2020, she is not going to do a 'Connor'.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Great update. The thing I loved the most here is addressing the lie. I can't believe the show never thought they talked about it. It seems such a logical conversation. thanks sheridan!



oh and I loved them ending up at caritas of course Tara sings beautifully but I am curious to all the things the host saw.

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

Childie -"Not all girls are raving bloody lesbians, you know!"

George - "That's a misfortune of which I am perfectly well aware."

The Killing of Sister George

Edited by: xita  at: 8/9/02 10:27:32 am

Quote:

---

oh and I loved them ending up at caritas of course Tara sings beautifully but I am curious to all the things the host saw.

---

Well I have to keep some secrets. Don't worry it will all be revealed...in time.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

I've just finished writing the next story 'Cold War' now it just needs a bit of editing and a lot of betaing.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

Yay!!!!

"Hear that baby? You're my always."

"well, you know, when you play a lesbian witch you've gotta get killed in this fun kind of exciting way, so the heart was the way to go..."

"we have the most amazing fans though they LOVE us."

You know what? I wish i was a mediator in their negotiations! woo!

Title: Cold War

Author: Mike Mullen

Rating: 18/NC-17 for sexual content

Spoilers: None what so ever

Disclaimer: All the original BTVS characters belong to Joss Whedon and ME, the rest are my fevered creations.

Summary: Middle of season 3 and our girls find themselves short on allies as they investigate a mystery and have to take help wherever they can find it…

Authors notes: Basically a nice straight forward tale without any future hints or big arc consequences, that has to wait for the S4 tales…

Feedback: Just add your comments at the end of the story.









Cold War



Prologue



When you alter history some things are different, some things are unaffected, and in some cases the differences cancel out and you wind up right back where you started. Willow and Tara are naturally in the first category. Angel and Buffy are largely in the second. Xander and Cordy have the misfortune to be in the third.



In ‘Homecoming’ it was naturally Tara who was helping Willow choose an outfit for the dance; with the long pauses between one outfit being removed and the next being put on it was very long business. This should also have sidestepped Xander’s problem with Cordelia, however the ripple effect of changing history brought a group of demons intent on opening the Hellmouth to Sunnydale far earlier than they would have otherwise. Xander had a row with Cordy and went off on his own to prove he was ‘cool’ and ‘fun’. In the process he experienced many of the events of ‘The Zeppo’, including sleeping with Faith.



Xander carried the nagging guilt over being unfaithful, and the anxiety that Faith would say something, around for weeks. Finally he decided to tell his best friend everything and seek her advice. Sadly he did so just as Spike returned to Sunnydale looking for a little revenge on Dru and triggering the events of ‘Lovers Walk’. Capturing both Willow and Xander, with Willow being injured in this history, the pair found themselves back in the basement of the factory. Willow sent out a telepathic message to Tara but in her weakened state wasn’t sure it got through.



The message was received and Tara rounded up Cordelia and raced to the factory. Believing that they were about to die Xander decided to unburden himself and told Willow the sordid details of his night on the town. Of course Cordy was standing on the stairs and everything else pretty much followed a familiar course.



This story picks up a couple of days later, with Willow and Tara standing in the rubble of their friend’s love lives…



1.“Icebergs”



Willow Rosenberg felt utterly decadent. Maybe not in the Roman orgy class, but still here she was stretched out on a bed stark naked idly running her fingers over the breasts of a sleeping, and equally naked, Tara MaClay. What would my mom say if she knew I was being so wanton? Willow pondered. It was good question as somehow there still hadn’t come that mythical right moment to tell her parents the whole truth about their relationship Since Tara seemed sanguine about it Willow was in no hurry, especially as each night she pent over here in the dorm made it more awkward to explain things.



Willow put the thought aside and turned her attention to the more entertaining subject of Tara’s breasts. She slid a little further down and began to kiss the left breast, progressively working her way around to the nipple, which rapidly firmed up under the attention. As Willow began to become more aroused herself she let her hand slide under the bedclothes and over Tara’s thigh. “You know you really should wake me up before you go that far.” Tara murmured with her eyes still closed.

Willow grinned. “I was wondering how long you would keep pretending to be asleep,” she explained.

Tara opened her eyes and fixed her gaze on Willow. “How did you know?”

“Your breathing.” Willow explained. “It gets sort of ‘fluttery’ when you get excited.” Willow let her hand continue its downward journey. Tara slipped hers around it and brought it to a halt.

“I thought we agreed we were going to do something with our Saturday.” Tara reminded her.

Willow moved her free hand up towards Tara’s breasts. “We are doing something.”

Tara caught the hand as well. “Something different from every other Saturday.”

“You caught me in moment of weakness when I made that promise, you know you can talk me into anything when I’m excited.” Willow accused Tara, spoiling the effect because she couldn’t wipe the grin off her face.



Tara pulled herself up in bed, making her boobs jiggle in a very distracting manner. “Honey if we don’t go outside soon they will start putting our photographs on milk cartons.”

Willow considered it for a moment. “Well what exactly did you have in mind?”

“I was thinking of going to the beach.” Tara explained a little nervously.

“Never really saw you as a beach bunny.” Willow responded.

“Well I’ve been here nearly a year and yet I’ve hardly even seen the beach let alone gone swimming in the ocean.” Tara was babbling slightly, thinking this was going to sound dumb to someone who lived to close to the sea.

In reality Willow realized it had been good long while since she had been to the beach, and an image of Tara emerging from the sea soaking wet helped make up her mind. “Ok so we’ll get up, get our suits and hit the beach.”

Tara smiled luminously. “Thank you baby, and you know, we don’t have to go just yet,” she pulled the sheets over their heads and wrapped herself around Willow.



Walking down the beach Willow was increasingly glad that Tara had suggested the idea. It was a sunny day but the heat was tempered by a nice breeze blowing off the ocean with a tang of salt water in it. It was also much less crowded than Willow had feared so it wasn’t difficult to find a good spot to lay out their towels and peel their shorts and t-shirts. Willow had wondered about Tara’s taste in swimwear and found she had been pretty much spot on in her prediction. It was a demure black one piece, definitely meant for swimming not showing off. Still it clung to Tara’s body and emphasized those curves Willow had become so familiar with. Willow’s own suit was a little more adventurous, A red two piece, mostly because she had let Buffy talk her into one of her ‘seize the day’ moods when they went to the mall one afternoon many months ago.



Tara saw the frown cross Willow’s face. “What’s the matter Will?”

“Well Buffy helped me pick this suit out.” Willow began.

“And I should thank her for her efforts.” Tara interjected.

Willow smiled, but went on. “Yeah but that’s the thing, here we are sat on the beach chilling, having a good time, and there she is sat at home being miserable.”

“Honey I care about Buffy and Xander and the others. I just think we’ve done enough refereeing for now.” Tara pointed out. She knew it might sound a little selfish. The truth was that even Tara’s compassion was being exhausted by the misery that had engulfed their friends. It was being compounded by the fact that hardly any of the gang were on speaking terms.



To Willow Tara’s point sounded pretty reasonable, if they invited any of the others her they were more likely to bring Willow and Tara down than to be cheered up. Willow was staring out at the ocean as she talked and that was when she saw the sparkling. The sunlight was bouncing off something out in the water. Willow cupped her eyes to get a better look but she couldn’t make it out. Tara joined her with no more luck. “We were going to go swim anyway.” Tara pointed out.

“Yeah, maybe it’s just a passing boat.” Willow suggested, with the nagging sensation that this was Sunnydale. Nothing was that simple.



It was in fact a passing boat. A very nice looking motor yacht at least forty feet long and expensive. It was hard to get a really good look at it because it was completely encased in ice. Tara was treading water and staring at the iceberg in front of her. It was quite surreal but there it was. A yacht raised several feet out of the water and entombed in a crystal clear iceberg. The chill in the water testified to the fact that it was ice and it was steadily melting. Willow appeared from around the back of the iceberg much to Tara’s relief. “Did you see anything else?” she asked.

“Nope, there’s no sign of anything but the yacht. I couldn’t see any people.” Willow told her reassuringly. They weren’t the only people in the water; the boat cube had drawn just about the entire population of the beach. Some people had even gone so far as to touch the thing and even try to climb on to it. Willow and Tara had been a little more circumspect. The sound of rotor blades pulled Tara’s attention upwards to see a white and red coastguard helicopter passing overhead. It circled and then hovered over the berg.

“Please move away from the boat. This vessel is now under quarantine.” The voice over the loudspeaker was firm and the downwash from the helicopter helped to persuade people to obey. Willow and Tara didn’t need much prompting.

“Well there goes our weekend.” Willow commented before the two of them swam back to the beach.



Giles listened to the voice on the phone intently, and then he pressed a button on the keypad. There was another period of concentration and then another key press. The third time Giles began to mutter to himself. “Is there actually a human being manning this system? I mean I simply need to speak to a person,” he took a deep breath and restrained himself there was no point in arguing with a computer, and with one of the other numbers he had called a vulgar comment had sent him into some strange nether realm of their voicemail system. He heard the front door opening and turned to see a rather damp looking Tara and Willow walking in. Before he could ask the obvious an actual human voice materialized on the other end of the phone. “Hello? Yes this is Mr. Giles. Rupert Giles. That’s right. I wanted to find if my request to move my payment date had been approved. The one I’ve phoned about three times. To move it from the twentieth to the twenty-fifth. Well it’s a relatively simple request. Very well I’ll call again tomorrow.”



As he put the phone down Giles muttered. “Have a nice day indeed.”

“Not having a good day huh Giles?” Willow asked, mostly to remind Giles that they were actually there.

“Just dealing with the bureaucratic mentality. Anyway what brings you here.”

“We were at the beach and we came across an iceberg.” Willow offered, trying to pique Giles curiosity.

The attempt only partly succeeded. “That certainly is unusual, though I suppose a large enough mass of ice could survive long enough to drift here. It hasn’t struck anything has it?”

Tara answered that. “Only if by struck you mean completely encased.” Giles’ eyes widened as the pair filled in the details. Willow watched Giles’ reaction. He was clearly surprised by their story; she had the distinct feeling though that they still hadn’t fully engaged his attention.

“Well a truly bizarre occurrence; anywhere but Sunnydale. By this towns standards I would have to downgrade it to ‘odd’.” Giles words confirmed Willows suspicion.

“You don’t think maybe we should be hitting the books, doing a little research?” Willow asked.

“Researching what precisely? We seem to have precious few details to work on. This could be a bizarre natural phenomena, demonic, or even witchcraft.” Giles took his glasses off to polish them to escape the hard stare that last comment attracted.



The phone began to ring and rescued Giles from the awkward silence that had descended. ”I had better get that,” he announced and grabbed the receiver. “This is Rupert Giles. No, it’s not inconvenient, yes I did want to discuss why the funds transfer was taking so long.” Giles glanced up apologetically at Willow and Tara.

“We’ll check in later if we come up with anything else.” Willow announced as the pair made for the door.

“I didn’t know Mr. Giles was having money problems.” Tara commented as the door closed behind them.

“I think he has money, the Watchers council are just making it difficult for him to lay his hands on it. They would be way happier if he left Sunnydale.

“That’s mean.”

Willow shrugged. “That’s the council for you.”

“So I suppose we have to go see Buffy now.” Tara didn’t sound keen.

Willow wasn’t much more enthusiastic when she answered. “I guess we have too.”



2.“Chilled”



Joyce Summers was staring out of the kitchen window. She was watching her daughter’s activities, partly out of a fear that Buffy might decapitate her flowerbeds with an over enthusiastic kick or block. Joyce heard a knock on the front door and before she could answer it Willow’s voice rang. “Buffy? Mrs. Summers?”

“In the kitchen Willow.” Joyce answered. The pair had dried out since the beach but their rather stringy hair was still a big clue.

“We went swimming, just having a quiet Saturday.” Tara confirmed. There was a yell from outside and Willow looked out the window and saw Buffy executing a roundhouse kick.

“She’s working off some tension.” Joyce explained.



Tension was not adequate to describe what Buffy was feeling. If she had been wound any tighter she would have exploded. She had set up one of Giles’ practice dummy’s with several large stones set on the base to keep it from being sent flying by the rain of blows she delivered to it. She had hoped this would work off some energy, so far it wasn’t really working, there was just too much angst. She slammed the palm of her hand into one of the pads with a satisfying smack. Top of the list was walking away from Angel when her every instinct to was to run into his arms. Smack! Then there was Faith running around like an alley cat. Smack! Xander who kept finding new and exciting ways to screw up. Buffy stopped as she caught sight of the figures and standing in the kitchen. Smack! And then there was Willow who was her absolute best friend in the world and was driving her crazy because she had a lover she could be with whenever she wanted to be. SMACK! She caught the dummy with a kick that lifted it off the ground in spite of the rocks and it landed with a dull thud on the grass.



Willow was standing in the doorway as Buffy flattened the dummy and looked hesitantly at Tara, maybe this wasn’t the best time to be discussing weirdness with Buffy? Tara shrugged her shoulders and Willow decided they might as well get on with it. “Hey Buffy, nice move,” she called out, as much to avoid a misguided kick as anything else.

“Yeah if we get attacked by any wooden demons I’m all set.” Buffy answered dismissively. “So what’s up Will?” Willow launched into yet another description of the events at the beach whilst Tara focused her attention on Buffy. The Slayer definitely didn’t look happy. There was a faint puffiness around the eyes that suggested Buffy had been crying a lot and there was unhealthy cast to her aura, maybe getting her involved in this was a good plan, a little distraction might be the best thing for Buffy.



It soon became clear that Buffy didn’t feel the same. She listened to the story without any hint of interest or enthusiasm. “It sounds like you found the world’s biggest gag ice cube,” she commented.

“Kind of an expensive joke, freezing an entire yacht.” Willow was trying to sound reasonable, she was somewhat irritated though by Buffy’s blasé attitude. “I mean don’t you think a little Scoobying is in order?”

Buffy considered it. “Maybe but it sounds like you need to hit the books, and you know I’m not big with that. I mean if you come up with some big bad I’ll be there to help.”

“I know you will Buffy, I’ll let you know if anything turns up.”



As they closed the front door closed behind them Tara spoke up. “I don’t think Buffy’s doing so well.”

“I know, and I’m not sure there’s much we can do about it right now.” Willow was sympathetic to Buffy’s situation and she had happy to be a shoulder to cry on. Willow still couldn’t shake that annoyance she felt though. If Buffy had come across some otherworldly weirdness she would have expected Willow to drop everything and help out. When it was the other way round, well Buffy could be less than attentive.

“So what do we do about the iceberg?” Tara asked.

“I guess we work it alone, hey we can handle this together right?” Willow announced brightly.

“Right.” Tara answered positively and kissed her on the cheek.



“Hey Will, Tara!” They turned to see Xander walking down the street.

Willow’s expression turned frosty. “Xander.”

“Are you going to see Buffy?” Tara asked.

Xander nodded. “I thought maybe I could talk, try to explain things.”

“Maybe you should. I think she just broke her last practice dummy.” Willow wasn’t giving Xander any quarter and he winced as she spoke.

“Look Will I don’t why you’re so mad at me, you never liked me dating Cordy anyway.” As he said it Xander knew how lame it sounded. Willow wanted to blast Xander again for his irresponsible behavior, but a look at Tara persuaded her otherwise.

“I’m just saying that now is not a good time to speak to Buffy, you should wait until she’s cooled off a little, and don’t say anything that dumb to her when you do see her.” Willow suggested. Xander simply turned around and walked away.

“That wasn’t very nice.” Tara reproached Willow.

“Hey he’s made me feel sorry for Cordelia Chase, he deserves everything he gets.”



Tara placed the glass down next to Willow who took an absent-minded sip. “Thanks hon,” she murmured as she concentrated on the computer screen. Tara would rather be working the darkest spell in the blackest black magic book than try to learn Windows, and the internet was just plain scary. It was doubly scary when Willow was going places that she wasn’t supposed to, like for example the network at Sunnydale PD. There was ping from the computer and Willow let out a relieved sigh.

“Someone really needs to shake that place up, I mean three hours just to file a preliminary report.” Willow commented.

“Maybe you should offer to reorganize their filing system.” Tara suggested.

Willow turned to Tara and grinned. “I could do, but I’m not sure I really want a more efficient Sunnydale PD, they’d get under foot too much,” she tapped at the keyboard and pulled up a series of images and documents. “The yacht was called the Miranda, registered here in Sunnydale; big surprise there.” Tara stood over her shoulder and read some of the information for herself.

“It says it was registered to a business, how can a yacht be a business expense?” Tara asked naively.

“Well according to the record this Peter Dillard engaged in a lot of creative accounting practices. In fact there’s a note in here suggesting this might have been some kind of elaborate scam to let him disappear.”

“Or maybe it was some sort of revenge attack.” Tara suggested.

Willow frowned, “Well it’s more traditional to put a bomb under their car, or rat them out to the IRS.”

“Unless his clients weren’t human.” Willow looked at Tara frowning, so Tara continued. “Well some demons and vampires must have money to invest.”

Willow thought about that for a few seconds. It made a sort of sense. “If that is so then the only place to find out would at this guy’s office.”

Tara didn’t like the sound of that. “Willow you’re not suggesting we break in are you?”

Willow smiled, not at all reassuringly. “Hey we’ll knock his door and if there’s no one around we’ll just go in and wait.”



As breaking and entering went it proved to be pretty unspectacular. The door of the Dillard Enterprises office was unlocked and opened onto a reception area with a plush sofa, a couple of potted plants and a desk with all the equipment necessary for a secretary cum receptionist. The person who should have been manning the desk was nowhere to be seen. Tara walked round the desk and saw a clue as to why. There was an envelope on the desk with the words ‘Mr. Dillard’ handwritten on it. She couldn’t be certain but Tara suspected it could be resignation letter. Willow was looking at a number of certificates and newspaper clippings that had been framed and hung on the wall. There was a second door, which had to be Dillard’s own office. As she stepped up to it Tara shivered, and not from nerves. There was a distinct draft of cold air coming from under it. “Are you ok baby?” Willow asked. She knew Tara wasn’t thrilled about this part of their investigation.

“I’m just cold, Dillard must have the air conditioning turned up to the max.”

Willow walked over and grasped the door handle. She jerked it back in shock; the handle was freezing. “I don’t think that’s air con.” Willow placed her hand on the metal again bracing herself this time and turned the handle. As the door opened the couple were struck by a blast of cold air as though they had opened the door of a fridge.



The window in Dillard’s office was covered with a thin layer of frost and neither Willow nor Tara could help shivering as they stepped inside. The office was a perfectly normal executive den, except for being as cold as an icebox. Tara spotted something lying on the carpet, a shiny piece of metal that she couldn’t identify at first. The she noticed the slot designed to take a key. It was a piece of a padlock and there were more on the floor, which fitted together with the first one. “It looks like it fell on the floor and shattered,” she commented as she handed the pieces to Willow.

“That could only happen if the metal was incredibly cold.” Willow commented looking around to see where the lock had come from. She decided it must have come from the filing cabinet in one corner of the room. Willow walked over and stretched her hand out towards the top drawer. She hesitated to touch it as she could feel the cold radiating from it from several inches away. Willow kept her hand where it was and concentrated. The door slowly slid opened and the pair looked inside it. There was a jumble of paper inside.

“I think someone else has already gone rummaging through this place, and I’m guessing not human.” Willow said and Tara nodded. The incident with the yacht didn’t look like accident or chance; something had gone after Mr. Dillard.



Willow closed the drawer again with a wave of her hand and then spotted a picture of the Miranda hanging on the wall behind the desk. There were a group of men standing in front of it and Willow examined it closely. One of the men looked vaguely familiar but she couldn’t say from where. “What the hell are you doing in here?” An angry male voice called out from behind them.



3. “Frostbite”



Willow and Tara spun round at the sound of the voice. Tara had expected to see Mr. Dillard stood in the doorway, but the man bore no resemblance to the photo in the police file Willow had accessed. The man was no more than thirty where Dillard was in his mid forties, and this person had sandy coloured hair where Dillard’s was dark brown. Also this man had a nasty look on his face where Dillard had clearly tried hard to radiate an air of bonhomie. Willow casually cupped her hands before she answered the man. “I could ask you the same question, you’re not Mr. Dillard,” she could have an energy bolt heading for him in a fraction of a second if he tried anything funny. The man simply reached into the inside pocket of his jacket and produced a wallet which he flipped open to reveal something that struck fear into the hearts of men. Next to a picture of the man were three bold letters; IRS.



“My name is special agent Cole. Now I’m going to ask again, what are you doing here?”

“We just wanted to see if Mr. Dillard was ok.” Willow piped up.

“And why exactly are you concerned about the welfare of Peter Dillard?” Cole remained hostile.

“We were at the beach and saw what happened with the yacht and we thought we would come here and see if Mr. Dillard was here.” Willow explained.

“You just decided to wander over here and check things out? Do you two make a habit of this?” Cole asked.

“Actually we do.” Willow answered solemnly.

That took Cole back slightly; he quickly recovered though. “ Well you needn’t worry about Dillard. I suspect he’s simply pulling a stunt to get out from under an investigation into his financial activities.” Cole seemed to realize he had said more than he should and took a breath before continuing. “Regardless you two have no business being here. So I suggest you get out before I call the local police.” Willow looked ready to argue further but Tara grabbed her hand and pulled her from the office.



“There’s no point sulking honey.” Tara pointed out. “He was with the IRS.”

“Maybe but I bet he didn’t even have a warrant to be in there.” Willow pouted.

“Neither did we, and I don’t think you’re dad would have been thrilled if the agent had decided to take our names and check his returns.” The agent could also have checked Tara’s father’s tax returns. Tara couldn’t work up a lot of concern about that option though. Willow though accepted Tara’s argument; they weren’t going to win a fight with the IRS.

“So what do we do now?” Tara wondered out loud.

“Well whoever or whatever is doing all this freezer magic wanted into those files. Maybe it just wanted some papers, maybe not.” Willow answered. It could be that this was all over; this being Sunnydale though she wasn’t going to bet on it.

“So I guess you gals ran into Frosty the snow demon, huh?” A voice asked from behind them.



Willow and Tara spun round to find Faith standing behind them. She had closed up on them without any sound, and was clearly enjoying making the couple jump. Faith was clad in her usual style, a denim jacket and tight jeans, to which she had had added the unusual fashion accessory of a pair of leather gloves. “What are you doing here Faith?” Willow’s tone was harsh and she didn’t care. Faith was way down on her list of people whose feelings she cared about hurting.

“What no hi, how are you?” Faith answered, clearly unconcerned by Willows hostility. “Or maybe even what do you mean ‘snow demon’?”

Willow had in fact forgotten that, she gave no hint of that as she replied. “Well maybe I thought you were just messing with us.”

Faith peeled the gloves off slowly, and winced as she did so. “Does this look like I’m messing with you?” Faith turned over her hands to reveal angry red flesh.



Tara stepped forward. “God faith what happened to you?” she reached out for Faith’s hands. Faith almost jerked them back but she resisted the impulse. Tara’s touch was light and soothed the throbbing sensation in her hands. Faith realized that Tara was doing some sort of magic to soothe the pain. She would never admit it to anyone but Tara freaked Faith out somewhat. The fact that she was a lesbo didn’t really bother Faith; she figured guys were good for one thing and if Tara and Willow didn’t think they were useful for that Faith could get that. What freaked her out about Tara was that Tara was nice, all the time just plain nice. That bugged Faith, she knew plenty of people who were nice as long as you had something they wanted, but Tara, Tara just didn’t seem to know there was any other way to be, and that was creepy.



Watching impatiently as Tara examined Faith’s injuries Willow decided she wanted an answer to her questions. “So you were talking about some sort of demon?”

“Yeah. Went out on a solo patrol last night. You know Buffy not exactly in the mood to watch my back? Anyway I come across this thing that looks like somebody dropped a polar bear off a high building.” Faith outlined.

“Meaning what exactly?” Willow pressed. Dealing with Faith was exasperating at the best of times and since she had slept with Xander these were not the best of times.

Faith fixed Willow with a steely gaze. “I mean it was about your height and the head looked like it had sort of melted into the body. It also had wicked long claws. I got in a couple of good kicks and then I was going to grab it and flip it on to the ground to do some serious work on. Except soon as I grabbed it this happened,” she held up her damaged hands.

“It looks like freezer burn Will.” Tara added.

Willow nodded. “Where exactly did you see this thing?”

“In the park, heading north.” Willow realized that would have the demon heading in the direction of the building where Dillard had his office.



This was interesting but Willow wasn’t prepared to admit that to Faith, at least until she got a little more information. “So how come you’re here? Why aren’t you getting some attention for your hands?”

Now Faith gave Willow a predatory smile. “No bucks and no insurance to see a doc. So I thought I’d speak to someone who could work a little computer magic to get me some treatment.” Willow was speechless at the sheer nerve. Faith was asking her to hack the hospital after all the misery she had caused?

Faith seemed to read her mind.” Hey I don’t expect you to do it for gratis. You scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back, or maybe other places if you’re real helpful.”

That was the last straw for Willow. “Come on Tara I think we have places to be.”

Faith shook her head. “Ok, ok. Jeez you guys are way too uptight. If you get my hands fixed I’ll provide you with some muscle if you run into the walking freezer, that sound fair?”

Willow didn’t say anything, instead she glanced at Tara and thought, what do you think honey?

I don’t think we can leave her like this; those injuries are bad even for a slayer. Tara’s thought came through loud and clear. She seemed to have no interest in learning to send her thoughts; Tara was however perfectly happy to let Willow into her mind.



They could in theory call up Buffy to help if they ran into trouble; as long as the demon was willing to wait while they went off to find a phone. Willow took a deep breath. “Ok Faith you have a deal, just try and keep the sarcasm to a minimum?”

“No problem we’ll do the whole musketeer thing. All for one and one for all.” Faith replied and smiled. This isn’t going to go well, Willow decided, they were just going to have to do their best and try and resolve this before the inevitable falling out with Faith happened. Tara gave her a sympathetic look to say what else can we do?

“Come on Porthos let’s go,” she took some small pleasure at the puzzled look on Faith’s face.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

4.“Cold Comfort”



Sunnydale General was at the sharp end of the town’s unspoken problem. The police could get away with creating a work of fiction and calling it an investigation. The hospital had to deal with the constant stream of victims that the Hellmouth generated, it actually had to find a way to treat the survivors and cope with the fact that more than one corpse had simply elected to walk out of the mortuary, not to mention the fact that its blood bank needed more security than the towns S&L.



The hospital reception had some of the manic energy of an episode of ER, without the good-looking staff and with the addition of an antiseptic odour that barely covered other more, ‘organic’ scents. Willow walked up to the nurse’s desk with the clipboard and the form on it, all filled in with Willow’s immaculate handwriting. The Nurse glanced over it ignoring Willow’s nervous expression. “This all seems in order, just tell Miss Rosenberg to take a seat and we’ll get to her as soon as we can.” The nurse announced brusquely before turning to the next prospective patient. Willow sighed with relief and turned back to where Tara and Faith were standing.

“So did they buy it?” Faith asked in a voice that was loud enough to make Willow look around, half expecting to find a security guard hovering over her shoulder.

“Yes they accepted your details and they will treat Faith Rosenberg as soon as they can.” Willow said cautiously, not able to shake the sense that someone might be eavesdropping.

“No sweat sis.” Willow winced as Faith said the word. “I’ll take a seat and behave myself; scout’s honour.”



Willow seriously doubted Faith’s ability to behave, and a look round the reception area suggested they could be here quite a while. She supposed they could just leave Faith here and agree to meet up later. That would mean trusting Faith to keep up her side of the deal and help them; though if Faith reneged that wouldn’t necessarily be a tragedy. The look of concern on Tara’s face killed the idea. Tara was just too soft hearted to abandon an injured person, even if it was Faith. There was also another matter that occurred to Willow which ruled out leaving Faith here alone. “Will you too be ok here while I go check something out?” Willow asked. Telepathically she added, Tara I’m going to go find Cordy, just to make sure the two of them don’t run into one another. Don’t really want a catfight in here.

Tara nodded. “No problem baby, we’ll be right here, or in with the doctors.”



As it happened Willow needn’t have worried. Cordelia was lying in her bed looking pale and fragile. Willow hadn’t been entirely joking when she had said she was mad at Xander for making her feel sorry for Cordy; it was unnatural. She just couldn’t shake off the feelings of sympathy. Cordelia had gone out with Xander far longer than she had with anyone else, and had taken a lot grief from her friends over dating him. Willow had no idea how intimate the relationship was but it seemed clear that she had strong feelings for him. Willow had been convinced that sooner or later that Cordelia would get over it and dump Xander. Nothing could have shocked her more than the fact that it was Xander who had wound up cheating.



Willow knew she could just sneak back down corridor with Cordelia being aware of her, but her accursed conscience nudged her into tapping on the doorframe. Cordelia looked over and looked confused, as though not quite sure if Willow was really there. “Willow? What are you doing here?” Cordelia’s expression hardened. “If Xander Harris sent you here…”

Willow raised a hand. “I’ve hardly even spoken to him since, well, you know.”

“He humiliated me in front of you and your girlfriend?” Cordelia offered.

“Well yeah that.” Willow replied awkwardly. She decided to try and move on to safer ground. “How are you doing?”

“Still got a big hole in me.” Cordelia responded bitterly.

Her attitude began to annoy Willow; then she reminded herself that Cordy had every excuse to indulge in a little self-pity. “Maybe I should come back when you’re feeling a little better.” Willow said quietly and turned to go.

She halted at the voice behind her. “Willow?” Willow turned to see Cordy with a pained smile on her face. “The doctor says I am getting better, I’ll probably be out of here in a few days.”

Willow smiled back. “That’s good to hear.” She was looking Cordelia’s expression and was hit by a sense of familiarity, exactly like the one she had experienced when she was looking at that group picture in the office. “Cordelia does your dad now someone named Dillard.”

Cordelia shook her head. “Haven’t heard of them.”

Willow was going to let it go when she realized she might be trying the wrong angle. “He owns a yacht called the Miranda.”

Now Cordelia nodded. “His name is Dillard? Yeah I remember his yacht, daddy thought it was cool, and he said if pulled off some big deal he was going to get one.” Naturally Cordelia remembered a big yacht but not a person’s name. ”Why are you asking me about this?”

Willow wasn’t about to tell Cordelia about the freezer demon, and there was nothing to suggest that Mr. Chase was connected. “Oh just doing a little sleuthing and came across his name, its no biggy.” She turned and went before Cordelia could see through her transparent lie.



They had only been sat waiting for a couple of minutes when a passing doctor stopped to check on Tara and Faith. The fact that Faith had smiled broadly at him and done her best to thrust her boobs out had probably helped. He had looked at Faiths hands, when he could tear his attention away from her other ‘attributes’. As he conducted the exam he completely ignored Tara. Once that wouldn’t have bothered Tara at all, she had been used to simply being regarded as part of the furniture in Quincy. It had taken some but Willow and her experiences with the gang had made Tara begin to believe that she had a right to be taken notice of. This explained why she found the doctors behaviour unsettling and annoying. The doctor finally stood back. “Well the burns are nasty but not too deep. If you god down that corridor,” he pointed to his left, “And wait in room three I’ll get the nurse to come and dress them.”

“Sure you don’t want to do it yourself doc?” Faith asked.

The doctor shook his head. “Somehow I don’t think that would be a good idea.”



As they sat in the room Tara couldn’t help asking. “Why did you do that?”

Faith looked at her. “Do what?”

“Flirt with that doctor, I mean you didn’t even like him.”

“What makes you so sure?” Faith sounded suspicious.

Tara wasn’t going to explain about her ability to see auras. “Just a feeling.”

“It passes the time.” Faith responded.

Was that why you slept with Xander? Just a way of passing the time? Tara decided that question was too dangerous too ask, as much as she honestly wanted to know. Tara couldn’t comprehend why Faith seemed to have gone out of her way to drive off the people who could have been her friends and allies.



Tara was spared having to come up with a conciliatory response as the door opened and the nurse walked in. She was a stern woman in her forties, with no interest in any chitchat. It wasn’t until she was preparing to dress Faiths hands that she bothered to engage in conversation. “That looks like freezer burn,” she commented tersely.

“Well kind of.” Faith replied with disinterest.

The nurse made a clicking noise with her tongue. “Is this some sort of new fad with you young people?”

Faith didn’t seem to be inclined to answer so Tara spoke up. “It was an accident, why would you think otherwise?”

The nurse was preparing antiseptic and bandages and answered over her shoulder. “Because she’s the second person we’ve had in her with those sort of injuries today.”

“You’ve seen someone else with freezer burn?” Tara asked, and now faith was watching the nurse’s reaction as well.

“Oh yes, except that he looked more like he had wrapped himself around a frozen pipe or something. He’s resting up in down in room nine. Where do you think you’re going?” This last was directed at Faith who had gotten off the bed she had been perched on.

“This guy could be someone we know, I want to see how he’s doing.” Faith lied, looking at Tara who reluctantly nodded in agreement.

The nurse place herself firmly in front of the door. “Well that can just wait until I’ve treated those hands, unless you’re enjoying the pain?” Faith could easily have thrown her aside but her hands were throbbing painfully and so she sat back on the bed and the nurse nodded curtly.



It was left to Tara to thank the nurse; Faith was impatient to go find the man. "We said we would wait for Willow." Tara pointed out.

"And I said I'd help with your investigation, you don’t want me breaking my promise do you?” That left Tara with little room for manoeuvre. She was half hoping that Willow would reappear before they located room nine; fortune wasn’t with her as Faith found the treatment room practically straight away.

Tara laid her hand on Faith’s arm. “Maybe we should wait until he comes out, follow him and see where he goes.”

Faith seemed to consider it for a moment. “Nah, where’s the fun in that?”



Faith flung the door open and strode in. Tara hastily shuffled in behind her. The man was clearly of American Indian stock. He had black hair as long as Tara’s and was probably in his mid twenties, though his weather beaten skin could have been taken for some a lot older. His clothing reinforced the impression of someone who lived in a rural environment. He also sported a number of bandages on his hands and face and a surprised expression. “Hi there, I was looking for someone and I figured you could help. They’re about so high, covered in white fur and it hurts like a bastard when you put your hands on them. You met the dude?” Faith asked. The man blinked once and then bolted. Faith made to grab him, forgetting about her damaged hands. He shrugged her off as she flinched form the pain and shoved Tara into her, buying him a few seconds to escape down the corridor. Faith disentangled herself from Tara and looked both ways along the corridor. She swore profusely, there was no sign of the man.

“Well at least I got a piece of him,” she commented. Something fell from her hand and dangled on a thin leather strap. Tara examined it. It was carved from some sort of bone or tooth into a highly stylized face, maybe a charm of some sort.

“What the heck happened?” Willow was standing in the doorway. Tara took the talisman and went to her lover; she hoped she would be forgiven for breaking her promise.



5.“Inuit”



Faith’s hands were beginning to itch, that was a good sign that they were healing, so she could pretty much ditch the witches if she wanted to. They were probably expecting her to anyway. Of course maybe that was the best reason for not doing it, just to surprise them. Willow wasn’t really paying attention to faith; she was more interested in the charm and the well being of Tara. She passed the carving from hand to hand, as if she could somehow extract some information just from the feel of the thing. “I think it’s quite old.” Tara commented.

Willow took another close look at the thing. “What makes you think so?”

“Well it’s so smooth. Like it had been handled a lot. What do you think Faith?”

Faith was taken aback at Tara including her in the conversation. “Well maybe, hell it’s not the kind of thing you wear unless you have to.”

Willow decided that Faith had a point. The face definitely wasn’t the kind of thing you would make to sell to tourists; it was too severe, and too downright ugly.

“Well that means there’s a good chance that Giles will be able to tell us something about it.” Willow said. Faith simply grunted in response.



It had been a bone of contention between the couple and the slayer. Faith had wanted to go after the man. Willow and Tara had been less than thrilled by that idea. They didn’t want to draw any attention to themselves in the hospital, especially the kind that would have resulted in names being taken, and checked. Faith on the other hand had been a long way from enthusiastic about going to see Giles; as far as she was concerned he was Buffy’s Watcher. She was sure that if it ever came to it he would throw her to the wolves to save his precious Buffy.



When they reached Giles apartment Faith’s doubts seemed to be confirmed. At first Willow and Tara managed to keep Giles attention on the subject of frost demons and the charm. It wasn’t possible though to prevent him noticing Faiths bandaged hands, and once he go the story of how it happened out of her he swung the full weight of his disapproval onto her. “So after going off on patrol without so much as informing you then roped Willow and Tara into getting you medical attention?”

“I didn’t rope anyone into anything, I went, I asked, I offered to help them out, they said ok. I mean it wasn’t like I had to fight my way to the front of the queue.” Faith snapped back.

“Uh people.” Willow tried to interject; neither Giles nor Faith was listening however.

“That is not the point. You are a Slayer, you do not go around hiring out your services.”

“Mr. Giles.” Tara’s intervention got no further than Willow’s.

“Ok I’m out of here. See you later girlfriends.” Faith called out. As she flung the door open to storm she stopped. Xander was stood there, hand half outstretched to open the door, blocking her path. "Well if it isn't Mr. big mouth himself," she sneered.

“Faith, Willow, Giles.” Xander’s voice was rising and filling with panic.

Faith looked amused. “Relax lover boy, the Watcher was just explaining how everything was all my fault, and was I just leaving.” She barged Xander out of the way and strode down the path, leaving him speechless behind her.



“Well that went well.“ Willow commented to Giles.

Giles turned to her. “Well I’m sorry but she behaved in a highly irresponsible manner and as her Watcher I have to try and guide her.”

“Like I said, it went really well.” Willow emphasised.

“And what would you have me do? Pat her on the head for encouraging you to engage in fraud? Or her other…misconduct?” Giles modified his sentence as he registered that Xander was still in the doorway.

“Maybe this wasn’t the best time, I just figured you guys would be here and I wanted to help with whatever you’re working on.” Xander explained sounding rather lame.



Willow turned to Xander intending to brush him off. As she did so she caught a glance from Tara, a warning to be kinder this time. After just pulling up Giles for his handling of Faith it would look pretty bad if she just dissed Xander in front of him. Giles decided to take advantage of Xander’s offer to change the direction of the conversation. “Perhaps we should concentrate on the matter at hand,” he looked at the charm. “It’s clearly not Central or South American, the materials and execution are incompatible. And I think we can also rule out the plains or the east coast.

Willow nodded. “So probably from somewhere in the north, like Canada or Alaska.”

“Quite possible.” Giles agreed.

“Somewhere cold in other words.” Willow pointed out, failing to entirely keep the sarcasm out of her voice.

Giles remained calm. “It’s a reasonable assumption, but until we have done some research it is only that.”

“Well I can help with that, I can look at pictures as well as the next guy.” Xander offered. “But if someone could fill me in what’s actually happening that would be cool.”



Willow laid out the story about Dillard, the frost demon, and the yacht. When she was finished Xander still looked worried. “I remember Cordy mentioning that yacht a couple of times, her dad was hanging out with this guy.”

“Yeah I found that out at the hospital.” Willow knew what that admission would lead to and Xander didn’t disappoint her.

“You spoke to Cordy?” Xander sounded apprehensive and a little hopeful.

“I did, but only have after I promised I wasn’t there on your behalf.” Willow didn’t see any point in hedging with Xander, and she still wasn’t that concerned about how he was feeling.

He did look pretty devastated as he said. “Oh, right,” he shook it off. “So research.”

That jarred Giles back into action. “Yes research, I’ll need to get some books from the library, most what I have here covers medieval Europe.”

“Well I could help carry and fetch, and look.” Xander reminded them.

Willow sighed; he was clearly determined to work his way back into their good books, so she might as well take advantage of it. “Fine you and Giles can hit the books. Tara and me will head back to the dorm, I left my laptop there and we may need it. Besides we haven’t eaten all day and I could use a shower.” Truthfully Willow just wanted a break, it had been a long and frustrating day, and I don’t think it’s going to get any better, she thought gloomily.



The haze of gloom that Willow felt had lifted after they got back to the dorm room. Willow had hopped in the shower first and was now lying on the bed wrapped in a towel and stretching her feet to relive the tension that had built up in them. She wondered if perhaps it was time to learn to drive, or at least get a good pair of sneakers. Tara was still in the shower, but Willow could feel her presence in the room. It was a faint scent in the air and the myriad of little personal touches she had left around the room. Willow couldn’t help but feel brighter in this place and she wondered how she had managed without it. That unfortunately brought up a subject she didn’t enjoy thinking about, which was that technically she wasn’t supposed to be here. If she hadn’t interfered with history Willow wouldn’t have met Tara until she started at UC Sunnydale next year. Should she share her knowledge with the others? Would it make Buffy feel any better about breaking up with Angel if she knew she was going to meet someone else at some point in the future? Willow doubted it. Should she tell Xander that he would know the touch of a woman again? It probably would make him feel better and right now Willow didn’t think he deserved that. As for the other stuff, it was either too vague, too depressing, or too outright freaky to share. Willow sighed; for the time being she would just have to keep her secrets and hope things worked out for the best. They certainly had for Willow since that trip to Quincy all those months ago, in fact nearly a year ago, in fact as she thought about it almost exactly a year ago. Sunnydale had kept them both so busy that it had almost passed her by. Just what was she going to do to mark that occasion?



The laptop gave out as series of pings and Willow reluctantly got up off the bed. She hadn’t completely slacked off since getting back to the campus; she had set up the computer to do some searching all by itself and now it was demanding attention.



Tara walked back in brushing her wet hair and wrapped in a bathrobe. She knew they should really be getting on with the investigation but she was tingling all over and surely they could spare some time for a little fooling around? That idea was killed off as she saw that Willow was pulling her clothes back on. “We need to go, and we need to go now.” Willow said, agitated. Tara didn’t bother to ask why, in Sunnydale there was only one answer, something bad had happened.



6.“Cooling Off”



The stack of books that had been moved from the coffee table to the floor was growing. Each had been checked and found wanting. A smaller group were lying open on the sofa they were the ones that Xander thought might contain something useful. Giles was reading through another volume while looking at the charm. He looked up and checked the time. “Where are those girls?” he wondered out loud. Xander could think of an obvious possibility, given his tenuous status at the moment he kept his mouth shut and carried on looking through the books.



As it happened Willow and Tara finally showed up about fifteen minutes later. Giles was going to scold them until he saw their grim expressions. “I take it things have somehow gotten worse?”

Willow grimaced. “I had my computer watching the police files, it flagged up a report about a block of ice in an underground garage.”



The pair had made their way to one of Sunnydale's more expensive apartment buildings. A block of steel and copper tinted glass separated from its surroundings by a moat of grass, hedges and trees. The area had been thoroughly sealed off by the police; which had naturally led to a crowd of onlookers blocking Willow and Tara’s view of the site, and getting into the garage was out of the question, at least by any normal means. “Willow are you sure you want to try this?”

Willow gave her a sideways look. “Honey if Amy Madison could do this spell we can do it.” Tara didn’t see that as any great recommendation, and Willow could tell. “I promise you I’ve checked it out and I’ve even improved on it.”

Tara could see that Willow was determined to go through with the spell. “Ok we’ll give it a try, just make sure we can break it when we want to?” Willow nodded and took Tara’s hands. She slowly and clearly pronounced a series of runic incantations. A faint glimmer ran over the pair and they felt a faint tingling sensation. Apart from that the spell had seemed to have no effect. They stood looking at one another for a moment, and then Willow shrugged.

“There’s only one way to find out if this has worked.”



Officer Lay was sweating, not only was it a hot night but he had been stuck with lugging a camera tripod that was both heavy and awkward. He just hoped the sergeant didn’t see him or he would be back on that fitness regime again. As he staggered up to the barrier his colleagues cleared the way and pulled the barrier back, not quickly enough for Lay’s liking. Willow and Tara had fallen in step behind Lay. Tara knew it was silly to be holding her breath but she couldn’t help it, she was afraid the least sound might break the spell. As they walked through the police line it was clear that the magic had succeeded, no one was paying the least bit of attention to them. The spell didn’t actually make the girls invisible; it simply made it so that others saw what the caster wanted them to see. In this case that meant no one paid any attention to either Willow or Tara. They strolled into the garage and were confronted by a scene of confusion.



The police officers were moving around looking busy, but there didn’t seem to any pattern to their actions. Willow couldn’t really blame them given the circumstances, which were that there was a column of ice stretching from floor to ceiling with a car frozen inside it. Tara was looking past the ice to a cluster of people stood in a circle in one corner if the garage. She nudged Willow, still unwilling to speak, and pointed. Willow nodded in return and gestured towards the frozen car before walking away to take a closer look at it.



As she stepped past the milling police officers Willow could see that encased car was a Mercedes convertible, preserved perfectly, right down to the glass in the windshield. The ice was almost perfectly clear so Willow could make out every detail and at first she was relieved that it appeared to be empty, then she noticed that there was a patch of milkier, less transparent ice centred around the drivers seat. As she looked the outline of the patch became clear, it was a seated human figure. Willow felt a knot in her stomach. There had been someone in the car when this had happened and she was sure that whatever had happened to them was worse than simply being frozen to death.



Tara soon saw what was grabbing the attention of the circle of people and hesitated about going any closer. The mayor of Sunnydale was holding court. “So gentlemen have we got the press contained?” he asked reasonably.

A man with a shield tucked in to the breast pocket of his jacket answered him. “Yes sir, the press seems happy enough to accept the hoax story.”

“Well that’s fine.” The mayor answered and then his face hardened, “Now what progress are you making on putting a stop to this? We cannot have our most prominent citizens vanishing. It’s bad for business and draws a lot of attention, and you know how I feel about attention.”

There was much exchanging of glances among the assembled senior officers before the one with the badge spoke up, giving the mayor bad news was a risky business. “Well sir this isn’t the kind of thing we usually investigate. We usually focus on damage control; quite often that Summers girl puts in an appearance.”

The mayor appeared to accept that. “Yes it’s typical of today’s youth. Always underfoot when you’re trying to get things done and then when you have a job for them they’re nowhere to be seen.” He stopped talking and looked around.

“Is something wrong sir?” The man with the badge asked.

“Just that feeling you get sometimes that someone is looking over you shoulder, I’m sure it’s nothing.” Tara could have sworn that he was looking straight at her. She began to back away and then turned and walked back to where Willow was still studying the ice.



“After that the two of us got out of there as fast as we could. I’m going to set up my laptop and check what’s on the police computers.” Willow finished up.

Giles looked at Tara. “It was a dangerous thing to do,” he had become used to Willow being a little reckless, especially where magic was concerned. He expected Tara to act as a restraining influence.

Her reply was disarming. “We did need to find out about what happened Mr. Giles, and now we know this isn’t just about a yacht or a car, it’s about people.”

“Well that’s true,” Giles conceded. “And if the mayor is taking a personal interest that make matters considerably worse.”

Tara picked the charm up off the table. “Did you manage to make any progress with this?”

“Oh yeah, it’s from the frozen north alright.” Xander explained.

Giles was annoyed at being preempted. “To be more accurate it belongs to the Paquana tribe of Alaska. It’s some form protection charm. Unfortunately as with most Native Americans they pass along their history and legends verbally. So far I haven’t come up with any source that’s recorded them.”



Willow started up the search engine on her laptop and put in the name of the tribe. While it worked away Willow turned her attention to the slightly trickier matter of getting into the Sunnydale PD system. The initial parts of the report only told her what she had already seen at the garage, and in a lot less detail. It seemed the police were already trying to erase any inconvenient facts. The search engine pinged and grabbed the screen. The results were sparse but interesting. “This tribe made a news story a couple of months back,” she announced.

“What sort of news?” Giles prompted.

“The tribe was involved in a land dispute. The story says that they won their case and a piece of land was added to their tribal reservation, a piece of oil rich land.”

“If this Dillard is as shady as the IRS thinks he is, or was, then maybe he was trying to grab all that black gold and someone got mad about it.” Xander suggested, and looked around to see if he was making sense.



Unfortunately as far as Willow could see he was making sense, because the police report was heading in the same direction. “Uh guys, according to the cops the car belonged to a man named Andersen, and he had invested money with Dillard,” she found a picture and hesitated. “He was also in that picture of the men in front of the Miranda.”

That grabbed Xander’s attention. “Are you saying Cordelia’s dad could be involved?”

Giles tried to calm him. “I think Willow is saying that Mr. Chase knew both men, and even if he is uninvolved in whatever links Dillard and Arthurs he may know something about it.”

Tara nodded. “So we should talk to him anyway, he might be able to give us some clue, “ she avoided the obvious point that if he was involved then they really needed to talk to him, preferably before he became an ice cube.



7.“Thin Ice”



For a 'Fortress of Darkness' the Chase house was actually pretty nice. When they were young Willow and Xander had spent a lot of time talking about the place. Naturally they were never invited to visit. Instead Willow had pictured the place, not figuratively either. She had created maps, blueprints and everything. In her vision it was a medieval fortress with a wide moat around it. Xander had suggested that the moat was filled with sharks and crocodiles; Willow pointed out they were ecologically incompatible. The reality was a large but perfectly normal house. It had a big front garden with a broad driveway snaking up to the L-shaped house. The main part of the house was a three storey white stone clad house in a classical style. The short arm of the L was a garage with room for three or four cars. There were series of carefully shaped shrubs dotted about the neat lawn, in a thoroughly tasteful manner. Money and taste, but no manners. Willow thought as she squared herself up to the task of confronting Mr. Chase.



Tara seldom saw Willow this psyched outside of the dorm room. Her girlfriend was seriously into this whole sleuthing thing. Tara had always liked ‘Scooby gang’ better than ‘Slayerettes’ for describing the group that worked with Buffy. She supposed Willow would be Velma, who come to think of it never seemed to be interested in boys. Xander was a shoe in for Shaggy. That sort of left only one female part open, and that was where the analogy broke down; Tara just couldn’t see Buffy Summers as Daphne.



The front door of the Chase how was intended to be imposing, or possibly just plain intimidation. There was a short flight of stairs leading up to porch that had thick fluted columns to either side and the doors themselves were dark stained Oak with back metal fittings. Willow wasn’t in a mood to be impressed; she was foot sore and wanted some answers. She pressed the button of the doorbell firmly and held it for several seconds before letting go. Her nerve almost failed when Mr. Chase himself opened the door. She took a deep breath. “Mr. Chase I’m Willow Rosenberg and this is Tara MaClay, we’re friends of Cordelia’s.” Willow almost choked on the word, but she didn’t think that ‘mortal enemies’ would get them through the door.

Chase looked at Willow for a moment. “Yes I believe my daughter has mentioned you a couple of times. Please come in.” The man’s civility took Willow by surprise but she stepped inside while the going was good, Tara gave Mr. Chase a friendly smile and followed Willow in.



The elder Chase led them to a spacious lounge with a red leather sofa and matching armchairs set about. One wall was dominated by a home entertainment system. The fact that neither TV, radio, nor music was playing suggested that it was there more for the benefit of a certain daughter than for his own use. “Cordelia is still in the hospital, though she is doing better,” he explained as gestured for them to take a seat.

Willow stayed standing. “I know, I mean I saw her in the hospital today she did look a lot better. When she was injured I thought.

“You were there when she was injured?” Mr. Chase interrupted.

“Yes, she didn’t tell you what happened?” Willow couldn’t help being distracted. Cordelia’s father was far from being the ogre she had always imagined.

“Practically nothing, apart from the fact that it had something to do with some boy she was seeing getting himself into trouble she refused to say anything else.” Mr. Chase explained.

“Oh, I see.” Willow was torn. On the one hand not telling her father about dating Xander was kind of shallow; on the other hand she could have dropped Xander into deep, trouble if she had wanted to.



Tara could see Willow was getting sidetracked. “Mr. Chase we wanted to ask you some questions, it’s important,” her voice was quiet but insistent.

“Willow was grateful for the reminder and put her resolve face on. “Yes we need to know what you can tell us about Mr. Dillard and Mr. Arthurs.”

Now Mr. Chase’s features hardened. “I don’t really see how that would be any of your business.”

“You have heard what happened to them? I mean you’ve heard about the yacht and the car?” Willow pressed.

“I saw some nonsense on the news yes, that’s not to say I believe a word of it.” Chase wasn’t giving an inch.



Willow was somewhat taken aback, after all the weirdness his daughter had been involved in could Mr. Chase really be that ignorant? Right, she didn’t tell him about Xander, why would she tell him about the Hellmouth and the Scooby’s? There was a possibility; she just hated to spring it on him. “You don’t have a weak heart or anything do you?” she asked.

“What? No of course not.” Chase answered nonplussed. Willow looked over her shoulder at the entertainment center and the remote control lifted off the shelf and drifted towards her. She let it float a few inches from her face while she read the labels on the buttons and then she mentally pushed it away again. The handset spun round to point at the entertainment center and then the television sprung into life. It changed channels, the sound went up and down, and the colour and brightness swung wildly. It clicked off again and Willow sent the remote back to where it had come from.



Tara could see the strain on Willow’s face. Picking up the remote was well within Willow’s powers, she had could probably have floated Mr. Chase if she wanted to, the kind of control and focus it took to manipulate the keypad was something else all together. Doing it while keeping the handset in the air had clearly been an immense strain and she was trying to gather her strength again. Mr. Chase was simply standing staring at Willow. Tara looked between the two of them; neither was able to talk. “Mr. Chase, Mr. Chase?” Tara’s voice drew Chase’s attention towards her. “Mr. Chase I know it’s a lot to take in but trust me when I say that what you just saw is actually pretty normal for Sunnydale. There are much stranger things out there, and one of them doesn’t seem to like Mr. Dillard or his business associates.”

Chase slumped into one of the armchairs. “This is insane,” he was talking to himself rather than Willow or Tara.

Willow had recovered sufficiently to answer him anyway. ”It always is. We really need to know about Mr. Dillard’s business, especially if it involved oil or the Paquana Indians.”

Chase’s look of astonishment grew. “How do you know about that? No don’t bother telling me, I don’t think I want to know.”

“Actually we just asked questions and did a little research.” Tara offered in an effort to make Chase feel a little easier.

Chase could at least understand that, “If you give them one of those demonstrations I’m not surprised you got answers.” Willow didn’t say anything; she just arched her eyebrow in way that made Chase want to get this over with. “Peter came to me and said that the Paquana were willing to sell the oil rights to part of their land. He needed capital to swing the deal, and do it quietly. He roped in Arthurs, me, Andersen and Ronen Once we had the rights we could resell them for, well for a lot more that he was talking about paying for them.”



What Mr. Chase was telling them fitted in with what Willow had already guessed, and it didn’t seem to take them any further forward. “Was he having any problems? Was there any opposition?”

“No, it was all going well, and I know,” he hesitated as it struck him that knew might be more accurate. “Peter Dillard couldn’t get anything past me, I would have known if there were any problems with the deal. Any business problems anyway.”

“You didn’t meet any Indians? Or see any of them with Dillard?” Willow was getting desperate.

“No, as far as I know all the meetings with Paquana took place in Alaska.” Chase answered. He watched Willow who looked to Tara unhappily. “Is there anything I can do? Some way to protect myself?” Chase was anxious.

Willow wished she could offer something a little less lame, but she said it anyway. “Just be careful and warn your business partners to do the same. Don’t worry, we’ll find away to stop this,” she just wasn’t sure if that would be before or after anyone else ended up in an ice cube.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am

8.“Cold Fury”



The walk back from the Chase house was quiet, and not the good holding hands looking into each other’s eyes kind of quiet either. “At least now we know it all fits together.” Tara said encouragingly.

“All we know is what we knew before, I mean what we thought we knew, now we know.” Willow gave up trying to straighten out what she was saying. Tara put a comforting arm around her. She suspected what was making this whole thing harder was that these demons weren’t interested in the Scooby gang or any of the usual targets, they had an agenda that so far neither Willow nor herself could see a way to frustrate.



Faith let the pair walk past her hiding place before she stepped out and called out to them. “Hey girlfriends how’s your evening going?”

Willow managed to bite back a shriek as she recognized the voice. She spun round. “Don’t you get tired of trying to scare us to death?”

Faith smiled. “Hey it’s easy and it’s fun.”

Much like you, Willow thought, and decided to keep to herself.

It was Tara who asked the obvious. “What’s wrong now Faith?”

“Nothings wrong, hands are pretty much healed,” she showed them the palms; there was practically no sign of the burns that had scarred them earlier.

“Good for you, glad things worked out for you.” Willow commented harshly.

“Yeah they did, and they did for you as well,” she produced a piece of paper.

Willow took it gingerly. “What is it?”

“That’s the address of the Indian guy, interested?”

“Seriously? I mean how did you get it?” Willow was amazed.

“Well in case you hadn’t noticed there aren’t many places an Indian could blend in around here, so I twisted few arms until I got that.” Faith explained. Willow suspected that wasn’t using ‘arm twisting’ as a figure of speech.

Tara looked at faith. “Why did you do this Faith?”

Faith was noncommittal. “We had a deal, just cause Giles was being a pain didn’t mean I was going to break it. So you want to go ask this guy some questions?”



The motel was a sleazy hole, the kind of place that even Faith would balk at staying in. It was dirty, ill lit and there was an odour that mixed garbage with a sort of animal scent. The smell was explained by the clientele; mixed in with the drunks and junkies were a number who were only approximately human, not every demon it seemed was prepared to live in a crypt or a sewer. The unpleasant ambience made Tara glad that they had brought Faith with them. More than one person lingering around the place had eyed them up, and then changed their mind when Faith gave them a hard look. She did wonder if the Slayer was only doing this because of the deal she made or was there some instinct to protect and fight the dark forces that went with the calling? “Room sixteen.” Willow whispered and pointed at the door. She started to tiptoe towards the door when Faith strode past and delivered a kick that knocked the flimsy plywood out of its frame. Tara and Willow looked at one another and Tara wondered if a need to break things was also part of the Slayer instincts.



They rushed to join Faith in the doorway and were almost knocked down by a shadowy figure going the other way. The figure didn’t get very far as Faith lashed out and wrapped an arm around it’s throat. She pulled it back into the motel room and Willow threw in the light, revealing the man from the hospital. “If you don’t quite struggling you’re going to get your neck snapped.” Faith growled.

“We want you to put a stop to the demons, you can’t go around killing people over a piece of land, however important it is.” Willow scolded him.

That caused the man to stop struggling. “Stop the demons? If I could do that I would have been long gone from this lousy place.”

“You better start talking sense or you won’t have any air to talk with.” Faith warned.

“Faith let him go.” Tara asked softly. She had taken a hard look and the sense she got was that he was telling the truth.

Willow backed Tara’s request. “Do it. If he tries to run then you can pound him.”

“Fine.” Faith removed her arm from the man's throat and used the other one to shove him towards the bed.



The Indian tumbled on to the bed. As he pulled himself up into a sitting position he could see the hard stares he was getting, especially from the dark haired girl who had been throttling him. It was the redhead who was doing the talking.

“We know about the oil and we know about the frost demons, so why don’t you fill in the rest of the story.”

“My name is William, I was sent here to keep an eye on Dillard,” he offered.

Willow tried to jump ahead. “To make sure the deal didn’t go through.”

William shook his head vigorously. “No I was making sure he stuck to the deal.”

That knocked the wind out of Willow. “Huh?” Was all she could manage by way of a reply.

“We wanted to be sure that Dillard wouldn’t try and change the deal, that they would drill where we wanted them to drill.”

“You wanted them to drill?” Willow echoed, still not understanding.

William hesitated, his explanation was fantastic; then again these people seemed to have some inkling of the supernatural. “There was a time when monsters walked the earth, creatures of unspeakable evil who ruled over this world. In time they were driven out, sent away. Not all of them left a few stayed and hid in the depths of the earth. One such creature lay beneath my peoples land. It was not quiet. It sent its minions to prey on the weak and unwary, and lay in wait for a chance to escape. We also had a story, a vision, that one day men would forge a lance that could plunge through the earth and strike the heart of the evil one and kill it.” William finished his story and waited to see if they would laugh, or perhaps start roughing him up again.



Willow had heard this story before, a variation on it anyway, from Giles. It was the story of how the world began. In Giles version all the demons had left or blended with humans. If what William was telling them was true then Giles version was incomplete. She glanced to Faith and Tara. Faith was impassive, clearly letting Willow take the lead on this. Tara gave a nod, she believed William. “Ok so you didn’t expect this minion to show up here?”

“Minions, three of them.” William corrected her.

“THREE of them?” Willow exclaimed.

“That’s right, it takes the three of them together to freeze and transfer things, individually they can still be pretty nasty,” he brushed his hand over the bandage on his face.

Will digested his information and then nodded. “Ok so tell me everything you know about them and their magic then we’ll figure out how to stop them.”



“I think these frost demons are basically water elementals.” Tara suggested.

Willow agreed. “It makes sense, water elementals.”

“Which means we could fight them with an antipathetic spell.” Tara enthused. Their discussion was interrupted by a burst of tuneless whistling. They turned to Faith and stopped walking. She quit whistling but still had a bored look on her face. “Look Faith I know the magic isn’t your thing, but you’ve already proved you can’t take these things on head to head.” Willow pointed out. “You could leave, we could call you if we need you.”

Faith considered that then shook her head. “Nah if I ditch you and something goes wrong Giles let me forget it. You go ahead with your magic babble.” Willow bridled a little at her craft being called ‘babble’, however she kept her mouth shut.



They had left William in his motel room, Faith wanted to bring him along. He was far from willing to take on the frost demons again and Willow felt that she had gotten everything useful out of him she could. Tara had pointed out that keeping an eye on him would be a serious pain, and Faith had accepted that argument and agreed to leave him behind, after issuing dire warning about what would happen if he was playing them. William didn’t understand the terminology, but he knew a threat when he heard one. They had decided to head back to Giles’ place to hit the books and along the way Willow and Tara had fallen into the discussion of possible magical strategies that had so bored Faith.



As she turned back from Faith Willow saw a familiar blonde pounding up the street towards them, and she knew she was going to have to deal with another ticked off Slayer. “Hey Buffy what brings you here?” She started off brightly.

“More to the point what’s she doing here?” Buffy demanded.

“I was covering their backs while you were feeling sorry for yourself.” Faith replied sharply.

“Great and who’s covering them from you?” Buffy snapped.

Faith pushed Tara aside and stood practically nose-to-nose with Buffy.

“Fine you want to go somewhere and settle this?” Faith offered.

Before Buffy could answer Willow decided to intervene. ENOUGH! The telepathic shout blocked out every other thought in Buffy and Faith’s minds for a moment. Faith had experienced Willow’s telepathy before and jumped back like she had been struck.

She looked straight at Willow. “Do not do that to me again.”

“It’s pretty annoying Will.” Buffy added, not wanting to sound as aggressive as Faith.

Willow ignored both of them. “We have a serious problem on our hands and Faith has a great idea, lets go somewhere and settle this.”



9. “Cold Shoulder”



Shepherding two pissed off Slayers through the streets of Sunnydale was no easy task. Only the fact that neither one wanted to be the first to storm off had kept the group together. Tara could see that Willow was tense and wanted to offer some comfort. However the oppressive atmosphere made it hard for to speak. She had been reluctant to work on telepathy, and right now Tara was regretting that decision. Willow was either too agitated to use her ability or too distracted by figuring out how to get Buffy and Faith to co-operate.



Willow had decided to head for The Bronze rather than Giles’ apartment. If she couldn’t get the Slayers to co-operate and it came to blows she figured Giles would grateful if she spared his furniture from the wear and tear; especially as he still brought up the werewolf attack on his home some months ago with annoying regularity. The Bronze was crowded but they did manage to get a table to themselves, at least they did after the couple that was sat at it decided to find somewhere else to sit. Willow would have liked to sit next to Tara; that would have put Buffy next to Faith. Instead she sat opposite her girlfriend who was doing her best to look supportive, Willow knew though that this was down to her. “Ok first off Faith, Xander did have a choice and you didn’t make anyone do anything, and it was a spur of the moment thing. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a dumb thing to do.” Faith was going to respond, but Willow raised her hand. “It was dumb.” Faith sat back, brooding and looking daggers at Willow,



Buffy had a slightly smug smile on her face, until Willow turned her attention onto her. “Buffy I know you’re mad at Faith I’m just not sure if it’s because she slept with Xander or because she can have casual sex and it’s no biggie. Whereas you have to give up the person you love because if you sleep with them just once it could be the end of the world. That’s going to make anyone cranky,” she glanced back at Faith as she said the last part. Now Buffy sat back and looked a little sullen. Willow let the two Slayers have a moment to think before she continued. “Now do you two to go into the alley and duke it out or are we going to work on stopping the frost demons?”

“Whatever.” Faith replied.

“Frost demons?” Buffy asked; her sullenness replaced by concern. Willow sighed and once again explained about the frost demons, while she was doing so she vowed she was going to keep the gang together in future, this was way too much work.



“So we go see Giles and, Xander, and see if they’ve come up with anything more?” Buffy suggested after Willow had finished.

“Well yeah, but I doubt there’s anything they can come up with that William didn’t already tell us. We need to figure out how to take these demons down.”

“Going head to head isn’t an option?” Buffy suggested.

Faith snorted. “I laid my hands on one of them and I left behind about two layers of skin.”

“And if you run into all three of them together, then they can ‘transform’ you.” Tara added. Buffy considered that, the description of what had happened in the garage was weird and unsettling. Buffy really didn’t want to know the full mechanics of what had happened to Dillard and Arthurs.

“And even if you go one of them the others could still freezer burn the rest of Dillard’s partners to death.” Willow pointed out.



Nobody spoke for a moment, and then Faith threw out an idea. “Couldn’t the wicked witches come up with some kind of protection spell?”

Willow wasn’t sure exactly how Faith meant the ‘wicked’ part. She ignored that and concentrated on the practical problem. “We probably could, but a spell like that would wear off, even if you cast it the person themselves.”

“And that’s not a good idea.” Tara added hastily.

Faith persisted. “But it would work for a while?”

“That’s your best solution wrap these guys up in a spell and hope for the best?” Buffy asked sarcastically.

Faith gave her a hard look. “I didn’t say we should put the spell on all of them.” The others just stared at her. “Hey we cover two of them and then we know where the demons are going to go. We set up an ambush and then Will and T can do that elemental stuff they were yakking about earlier.”

“You’re suggesting that we set up one of these guys as a sacrificial lamb?” Buffy was horrified.

Faith was unfazed. “I was figuring that Chase would be the best choice, he’ll be the easiest to convince when the demons make their move.”

“So your suggesting we just set him up without warning him?” Buffy was disgusted, and was wondering why she wasn’t getting more support from Willow and Tara.



Both Willow and Tara were thinking over Faiths plan, it was cold and heartless and they couldn’t think of anything better. Buffy could see that they were considering it. “You two cannot be taking this seriously. We can’t just set an innocent person up.” Buffy insisted.

Faith smirked. “Come on B; you think Chase is innocent? I bet he didn’t ask too many questions about whether this oil deal is on the level.”

“We could ask him to help.” Buffy wasn’t willing to give up, even though should could see she was fighting a losing corner.

“Right and he won’t jump on the first plane to Mexico.” Faith answered.

Willow decided that this argument had gone on long enough. “Look yes it sucks, but we need to decide what to do, and unless anyone has a better plan…” she looked around the table and was met with silence. “So we do this, and we make sure that the frost demons don’t hurt anyone else, right?” she stared at Faith as she spoke, the smile she got in reply made her very uneasy.



Some hideous creature was poking Willow with something sharp, but she couldn’t see what it was. It was simply poking at her relentlessly. “Come on Will wake up.” He eyes flickered open to be confronted by the sight of Xander Harris poking his finger into her, it was not how she preferred to wake up. Tara was sharing the backseat of Giles’ 2CV. She was blinking and stirring having woken only a few moments before Willow. Willow turned to look out the passenger window, and groaned out loud at the pain from the stiffened muscles in her neck. Almost instantly she felt long supple fingers digging into her shoulders. Now she let out a relaxed sigh, “Thanks baby I need that,” She became aware that Xander was still watching them and flicked a glance at him. He swiftly turned around and focused his attention on Giles.



The four of them had spent a miserable night parked close to the Chase house. Tara had helped Willow come up with the necessary magic to make Faith’s idea work, the snag had been that by the time they were done it was far too late to actually enact it that night. Instead they had been forced to settle on this surveillance, with Buffy and faith sticking as close to the remaining business partners until, they got the opportunity to stick the charm on them. The rest of them had stuck close to Mr. Chase just in case the demons went for him without any help from the gang.



Andersen stepped out of his house and walked out on to the street. It was annoying that yet again his wife had parked her car in front of his. He could ask her to move it but that would reopen the argument, and he was not going to be bullied into redecorating for the third time. He had a vague impression of a grey blur just before someone ploughed straight into him. Andersen almost tumbled to the ground, but the jogger grabbed hold of him. Nonetheless the contents of his pockets were spilled onto the pavement, along with his briefcase. “What the hell were you doing?” he demanded angrily.

“Sorry I was in the zone. “ Buffy lied, sounding a little flustered which wasn’t entirely an act. “Here let me help you,” she began to pick up the dropped items and as she did so she slipped a piece of card into his jacket pocket.

Andersen brushed her away. “Look just leave me alone. I can pick up my own stuff.”

Buffy backed off. “I’m really, really, sorry,” she truly was; for not telling him about the danger he was in. It was too late now, all she could do was jog away and hope the charm worked.



Ronen had set out from home early and was enjoying a quiet coffee sat next to the window of the coffee shop and watching the world go by. In this case the world took the shape of mini skirted brunette who had just walked through the door. She was also wearing a leather jacket, a v-neck black sweater and a pair of heels. Her face had an almost vulpine quality to it. Andersen noted she was wearing a broad smile; he looked over his shoulder to see who she was looking at. There was no one at the other tables. As he turned back he was shocked too see her sliding into the seat opposite him. Faith pulled a card out and pressed into Ronen’s hand. She leant in close to his ear. “Call me,” she whispered huskily then got up and sashayed out. Ronen looked after Faith, and then looked at the card. There were was a strange pattern inscribed on one side, and a phone number on the other. He was twice her age, he was married, and it had to be some sort of joke. Regardless of all that as he watched her graceful motion down the street he tucked the card into his wallet.



Faith’s vamp act was almost spoiled as Willow’s voice echoed in her head. Is it done Faith?

“Yes, and I told you don’t do that, it’s frigging annoying.” The look on her face ruined the image of sexual allure.

Fine, but how am I going to tell you where the action is? Willow responded.

“Ok that you can you can call me for.”

Willow broke off the mental link. “It’s all done. The other two should be safe for a day or two.”

“I certainly hope that’s true.” Giles answered. He hadn’t been any happier than Buffy about the plan, and no more able to come up with an alternative.

Willow didn’t get a chance to answer as Xander piped up. “He’s on the move,” he pointed out the window and Willow could see Mr. Chase coming out of the house and walking to the garage.

“That doesn’t look like a briefcase.” Tara pointed out.

“That’s Cordy’s overnight bag.” Xander explained, “So I guess we know where he’s going.” He looked at Willow with a very unhappy expression.





10. “Baked Alaska”



The 2CV had done its best to trail Chase’s BMW. Fortunately the man didn’t seem to be in a hurry so they were able to trail him at a reasonable distance. Willow was still anxious; one burst of speed from the BMW and it would be gone. Why doesn’t Giles get a real car? Willow thought, but kept it to herself. She knew the real reason she was so panicky was the thought that this plan was going to blow up in their faces, and even though it wasn’t Willow’s plan it was her who had taken it up and backed it. Tara slipped her hand into Willow’s, and Willow took comfort from that and the look on Tara’s face, they would make this come out right.



Chase had emerged from the BMW and headed for the elevator in the hospital parking structure, still oblivious to the fact that he had been followed. The quartet waited until the elevator doors closed before emerging from the car.

“So we just wait here until he comes back?” Xander wondered.

Willow was going to say yes when Tara gasped. Willow turned and saw what had startled her. The air seemed to be folding in on itself, becoming bright and reflective, a brilliant white in fact.

“Get down!” Willow ordered and the four of them huddled behind Giles’ car. Tara and Willow peered over the bonnet and saw the figure of the now fully formed frost demon. It did sort of look like a polar bear, if it had been designed by Salvador Dali. The eyes were big and black, sort of like a seal’s, except there was nothing cute about its expression. The creature seemed every bit as keen to hide as the gang, quickly finding a dark corner to skulk in.

Willow turned to the others and whispered. “We need to go after Mr. Chase.” The others nodded in response. “Tara and me will go upstairs, Giles you stay here with Xander.”

Xander shook his head vigoursly, “I’m coming with you.” Given that there was no time to argue Willow shrugged and shuffled towards the stairwell.



As soon as the door of the stairs closed behind them the three broke in to a run. Xander wanted to take the lead but Willow held him back, she was sure he wasn’t the first thing she wanted the Chases to see. They emerged onto the floor where Cordelia was staying and saw her dressed and sat in wheelchair, with her father pushing her towards the elevator. “Mr. Chase wait!” Tara called out. Both the Chases looked up. Mr. Chase looked bemused; Cordelia though was horrified as she caught sight of Xander.

“I told you to stay away from me!” she screamed at Xander, and almost climbed out of the wheelchair.

Tara put herself in Cordy’s sightline, preventing her from rising in the process. “Please Cordelia we have a serious problem,” she urged.

“You’re not kidding.” Cordelia snapped.

Mr. Chase guessed where this was going. “This is what we were talking about?”

Willow had joined Tara. “Yes, and I think we need to get away from here.” She gestured to take in the floor filled with patients, doctors, and nurses.

Cordelia looked up at her father. “You talked with them? About what?”

Mr. Chase ignored her question and simply said. “Cordelia please.”

“I’ll take care of her.” Xander volunteered.

“You will not!” Cordelia insisted. Willow and Tara had already grabbed Mr. Chase and headed back to the stairwell, leaving Xander to argue with Cordy and keep her distracted.



As they emerged into the garage Willow spoke earnestly to Chase. “Whatever happens whatever you see, you have to do what I tell you; do you understand?” Chase just nodded, still somewhat dazed. Willow decided that was probably for the best, if he was thinking clearly he would probably run for the exit. They were almost back to the BMW and Willow was wondering if their presence had put the demons off when the three creatures suddenly emerged. Chase stifled a rather unmanly shriek at the sight of them. Stay perfectly still. Willow sent the words telepathically for extra effect, and it worked. Chase was frozen to the spot, which Willow realised would give him a head start if this spell didn’t work.



The three demons took up positions around Chase and the witches; they were quite prepared to send the two girls to their master if they didn’t get out of the way. The eyes of the demons took on a strange blue glow and Willow could feel the temperature dropping. Tara was stood on the other side of Mr. Chase and now se turned to face Willow, raising her arms above Chase’s head. Willow did the same and now Chase was under a sort of Human arch. “ Ardor. Diluesco. Defectus Inremeablis!” Willow and Tara chanted the words. The energy flowing from the demons became visible as a chill blue light. They repeated the words again. The light began to turn from blue to a deep fiery red. It was still drawing in around the girls and Chase, and Willow and Tara chanted the spell one last time. The red light lanced out from the arch and engulfed the three demons. They erupted into pillars of brilliant flame, before they could make any sound they were consumed, reduced to nothing but marks on the concrete.



Giles rushed over as the girls broke their grip and staggered back. They almost fell on to the floor but Giles caught Tara and Mr. Chase grabbed hold of Willow. He fumbled in his pocket for the car keys and pressed the button. The BMW beeped as it unlocked. Chase managed to get the drivers side door open and drop Willow into the plush leather seat. She shook her head to clear it while Chase stared at her with a concerned expression. “Is it over? I mean you did destroy those, whatever they were?” Willow was too drained to do more than nod. The spell should not only have destroyed the frost demons but sent a pretty big jolt back to their master. It should be an end to it.

Chase grasped Willow’s hand and shook it. “If there’s anything I can do to thank you, just say the word.”

Willow was about to explain it wasn’t necessary when she spotted Tara being supported by Giles. “Actually there is something…”



Tara felt very silly; she was walking along a hotel corridor with a blindfold on, she just hoped no one could see her. Willow had refused to explain why they had come here, she had simply insisted on blindfolding her as soon as they go into the elevator. “Ok standstill.” Willow ordered. Tara complied and heard a door being opened before Willow pulled her through and led her another half dozen paces.

“You know Willow this is on the brink of going from cute to annoying.” Tara pointed out, she wasn’t actually annoyed; she was just dying of curiosity.

Willow sounded very pleased with herself as she replied. “Ok you can take it off now.”



As she blinked to clear her vision Tara could see why. It wasn’t simply a hotel room it was a suite, and a very expensive look one with a canopied double bed and a fireplace. “Wow. Willow what are we doing here? How did you get us in here?”

Willow was smug. “How is easy; Mr. Chase offered to do anything for us after we saved him so I asked for a night in the best room in the best hotel in Sunnydale.”

“Ok so that’s how, but still leaves the why.”

You know why.” Willow replied mysteriously. “Think about it. A year ago right now where were you?”

As she thought it suddenly became crystal clear. “I was at grandma Lydia’s.”

“Yes and you were sat there listening while a crazy woman tried to persuade you that you should run away with her.” She rushed up to Tara and kissed her hard for a moment. “Happy anniversary baby.”

Tara was stunned. “I didn’t realise, I didn’t get you anything,” she babbled.

Willow’s smile broadened. “Oh you’ll make it up to me,” she beckoned Tara to follow her and opened the bathroom door, right in the middle of it was a hot tub, more than adequate for two people.







11. “Thawing Out”



Willow slid into the hot bubbling water and sighed, this really was every bit as relaxing as they said. Still it didn’t compare to the sensation of the fingers caressing her shoulders. ”Hmmm, I think I’ve said it before but that feels so good.”

Tara added a light kiss to the massaging fingers before she answered. “It’s a gift, you have telepathy, and I have magic fingers.”

“As good as this is it is getting kind of lonely in here.” Willow pouted.

Tara laughed. “Ok, ok, and besides I want to try that warm water.” She got up from where she was stretched out behind Willow and dropped the bathrobe she was wearing.



Willow watched as Tara stepped down into the water. She had her hair pinned up and Willow could admire every inch of her as she lowered herself into the bubbles. Tara was perfect, and not just physically. She was everything Willow needed, a friend, a partner, a lover, a mother? The thought that had been there ever since she had met LJ surfaced, and as she watched Tara it didn’t seem so freaky anymore. Willow glided over to Tara’s side and let hard hand cup Tara’s breast as she kissed her. “This is good.” Tara murmured.

“The water or this?” Willow asked as she squeezed Tara’s breast harder.

“A little bit of both.” Tara answered and let her hand slide in between Willow’s thighs. Willow responded by turning and straddling Tara, bringing their wet, slippery bodies together. Tara felt Willow’s breasts brushing against hers, and Willows wet thighs rubbing against hers.



Tara drew Willow close and crushed her body against her lover as she kissed her and let her hands caress Willow’s spine and bottom. Willow writhed in the embrace making Tara’s skin tingle as Willow rubbed against her and making her stroking and caressing of Willow increase in intensity. Tara let her fingers slide under Willow to reach out and stroke her girlfriend’s sex. That drove Willow into an even greater frenzy of wriggling, stroking and kissing, until finally she was lost in a moment of pure ecstasy.



The couple slid under the sheets of the bed with a faint sheen of dampness still clinging to them. The nestled together just enjoying the closeness, there was plenty of time to make love again. “Maybe I should write Mr. Chase a thank you note.” Tara suggested.

Willow shook her head. “Nah, I mean after all we did save him from complete disaster didn’t we?” Tara nodded and then kissed her again.



The reports on Cole's desk did not make for light reading. Dillard and Arthurs were missing, Sunnydale PD in fact had told him they were 'presumed dead', though they wouldn't explain how they had come to that conclusion. Cole had been advised to direct all enquiries to the Mayor's office. When he had done so Cole had the feeling he was being told to back off, though the idea of someone threatening the IRS was too ridiculous to consider. Cole looked again at the folders on his desk; he had to rescue something from this mess. He decided on a whim to pick the one furthest from him, the Chase file. Fine let's see what happens when I rattle this guy’s cage.

Willow: ...I have to tell you....

Tara: No, I understand you have to be with the
person you l-love

Willow: I am