Hey wonderful kittens,
First off, let me appologize for not answering back all of your feedback. I'm very sorry for that. Just know that I read it and I really appreciate all of your comments.
For those of you who are reading this, thank you. I'm glad you are enjoying this fic as much as I am enjoying writing it. It's fun.

So, that said... I hope you will enjoy this update and I promise to try and get better at answering all of your replies.
Some of the content in this update was important for later chapters and the story as a whole. I will confess, that I DO have their first kiss written already, but I don't have the scenes before it written yet. I know what I want to happen though, so you'll just have to hang in there a little bit longer.
Can you do that??
Okay, here's the update. Please let me know what you think, k?
Hopefully I'll have more of this one or more of one of my other fics ready soon.
One more thing: Look for more of Brownie in the next update!

I love that little guy.
Chapter 3bSame disclaimers apply here.
This chapter is rated PG
Story rights go to myself. E-mail:
jennpurr@yahoo.com or
willowtaralove@netzero.com">
willowtaralove@netzero.comA disgusted moan could be heard in the back room of the Veterinary clinic. An annoyed right foot tapping up and down echoed through the air.
Willow’s hands were pressed flat against the counter top, her arms straightened out and her shoulders tense. She hung her head down even with her shoulders as she grumbled.
“Ugh!” She breathed; an exasperated sigh escaped her lips.
Buffy observed from her position beside the counter. Her right hip was pressed into the edge, her hands resting on her hips. Her breathing was controlled, but the air around her – disturbed.
“I have scratches from all her brittle!” she exclaimed. “That woman irritates the snot out of me.”
“Ew, Buffy. Nasty mental images.” Willow lifted her head up, but she didn’t move. Her posture was still very much the same as it had been for the last 10 minutes.
“I have to agree though.” Finally, she turned around. She leaned the crest of her buttocks against the counter behind her, while crossing her arms over her chest.
“She was drunk again,” Buffy stated matter-of-factly, her words summing up the whole of the woman’s actions. “I hate it when she comes in here. You try and do everything for her pets, which she only brings in if they are sick and when they’re ready to leave, she acts like you didn’t do enough!”
Turning her body to the right, the Slayer gave a healthy kick to the side of the cabinet.
“Ah, Buffy!” Willow yelled in a high pitch squeak. “Stop it. You’re gonna break my clinic. Any damages come out of your paycheck, missy!” She walked over and squatted down, investigating the wood for any trauma, her fingers rubbing over the outer surface.
“I didn’t kick it that hard, Will.” She looked down at her friend, a smile tickling her lips. Her predictability was cute sometimes and always expected.
When Willow stood up, she surprised herself and the other woman by doing something that she never imagined herself capable of or the certain need to do.
She kicked the cabinet.
Hard.
She quickly regretted it though and started hopping up and down, clutching her shoe in her hand.
“Ow, ow, ow!” The hospital director hopped the short distance back over to the counter she had been at before the, “kicking incident,” and collapsed into the black rolling chair.
Her big toe throbbed in her shoe as she closed her eyes. Her teeth pressed tightly together in her mouth and Willow had to almost bite her tongue to keep the, very colorful, words that were flitting on the tip of her tongue from surfacing.
Although it wasn’t really funny, Buffy had to turn and walk away to keep herself from laughing. She knew good and well that if she were in her friend’s shoes and someone had laughed at her, that they would be sorry. Being on the redhead’s shit list was not appealing in the least.
Keeping her back turned to the other woman, Buffy focused herself by looking at her schedule, which was hanging on the wall opposite to the first row of animal cages to it’s direct right.
Her attention was quickly averted however, by the sound of the door opening and boot heels tapping on the tiled floor. When she turned around, she spotted Dr. Maclay standing there, her eyes curiously looking over at Willow.
“Is she gone, Doc?” Buffy curiously pressed.
“Yes. She finally left.” Tara responded without taking her eyes off the object of her increasingly developing attraction. She frowned at the hospital director’s posture and the way her forehead was resting on the counter top.
Truth was, Willow’s foot was fine now. Her toe was still somewhat tender, but it wasn’t being a nuisance any longer. No. Now, she was more embarrassed than anything.
So, she hid her face.
Buffy smiled, glad that Tara had taken care of Mrs. Brown. She despised that old woman with a passion. She did feel kind of guilty for leaving the new doctor the task of dealing with their most difficult client, but Tara had insisted.
“Great.” The smile on the Slayer’s lips practically engulfed her whole face. “Thank you, Dr. Maclay. I’ll go check on the appointment schedule.”
Tara did turn her head this time to nod at the other woman. “You’re welcome and thank you, Buffy.”
Giving a brief nod of her own, Buffy moved past Tara and went into the front of the clinic, leaving her co-workers to themselves.
Watching the door close, the blonde doctor turned back to Willow, who was sitting a little differently now, but still hid her face.
Willow had turned her chair slightly so her left side was facing Tara, while her face was concealed in the bend of her elbow. Her left hand was resting on her knee.
Walking over to the sink beside the computer, Tara gripped the arm of the other black rolling chair and pulled it over and sat down close to Willow, their knees almost touching.
“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice tinged with worry. Looking down at the other girl’s knee, the blonde inspected her co-worker’s hand. Her eyes traced each finger slowly, taking in every line and curve. She came to one conclusion: Willow had sexy hands.
“Yeah,” was the redhead’s simple reply.
As the blonde’s eyes mapped the creamy skin, they came to settle on the still present bite marks from the week before. Although healing and fading, you could still tell they were there.
Boldly, Tara reached over, her right hand brushing forward onto warm skin. Gingerly, her fingers ran the length of the hacker’s hand before coming back down and wedging their way underneath, gripping onto the smaller woman’s flesh.
Willow tensed at first and then felt a shiver follow as she finally lifted her head and looked down at her hand. She watched as Tara’s thumb glided over the bite marks and squeezed her own fingers around those in her grasp.
Lifting her eyes, the redhead found a beautiful smile and soft blue eyes staring back at her. She opened her mouth to speak, but changed her mind and just licked her lips.
Fixating her eyes on the wet pink tongue, the doctor watched with great interest as she allowed her voice to speak. It came out as a whisper of breath.
“Your hand is healing nicely, Willow.” Her thumb never stilled its movement, only now it slowed, gingerly tracing the skin.
“I-its thanks to y-you,” Willow stuttered. Her flesh was humming from the other woman’s caress. Her knees were now touching Tara’s. How they had moved an inch closer, she didn’t know.
Boldly, Tara squeezed the hand in hers again and felt her upper body start to move forward on its own accord, while her mind was screaming – no. It was in that moment though, something decided to squash her intentions and she pulled her body back and looked at the door in slight surprise.
Buffy pushed her way through the squeak less door to the back room of the clinic, phone in one hand and pressed to her ear, while the other held a thermometer.
“Next patient’s ready, Dr. Maclay.” The Slayer froze somewhat when she saw the doctor snap back into her chair. She was alarmed by the startled look and didn’t understand what had just happened.
Willow did though. “Uh…” she started and quickly pulled her hand from Tara’s and pushed herself backwards, standing up from her chair.
“I’ll just… go help, Buffy.” Her voice practically squeaked the last word’s as she hightailed it out the door, Buffy following in step.
“Why in Goddess name did I do that?” Tara cursed herself, shocked at her own behavior. Had she almost tried to kiss, Willow? Not that there was anything wrong with that, but had she almost done that?
Blowing out a big breath of air, emptying her lungs, she stood up and straightened her jacket. Now was not the time to be paranoid; that was her last thought as she proceeded to go up front to see her patient.
*****
Buffy practically skipped out the back door, moving out of the way so Willow could lock up for the night. It was finally time to go home and she was ecstatic. She had been looking forward to hugging her daughter again, all day.
When she and her best friend walked out the door to the parking lot, the Slayer spotted Tara waiting beside her car, which coincidently was parked right next to the redhead’s truck.
Tara had a look on her face – a somewhat nervous grace to her features.
Focusing her attention back on her friend, Buffy looked at Willow just as she started to speak.
“Give Bre a hug and a kiss for me, okay? I need to stop somewhere on my way home, so I’ll see you there?” The hospital director’s eyebrow raised, her inner voice wondering why she had lied to her friend. Why couldn’t she just have told Buffy that she wanted to talk to Tara? That she hadn’t really talked to her since earlier that afternoon when she thought the doctor was about to try and kiss her? Truth was, Willow was worried.
She wasn’t quite sure how she felt about what may have been close to happening. If that was fact, which she wasn’t even positive about, then why had Buffy had to interrupt? It’s not like she hadn’t thought about Tara’s lips before that day. She had wondered numerous times what they would feel like pressed to hers.
“Sure,” the Slayer replied, purposely interrupting the inner babble she knew was going on in the other woman’s head.
“Thanks.” Stepping over, the redhead hugged her and then stepped away, turning to walk over to her truck and talk to Tara, who was currently staring at the ground.
As if sensing her, the young doctor looked up just in time to see Willow rounding the corner of her truck and walking over to her.
“Hey,” Willow smiled sweetly; her voice was very calm and soft.
“Hey. Was it okay that I waited for you? I just wanted to…” Tara voice trailed off when the other woman stepped closer to her, their bodies about two inches apart from each other. Any other words that she had been about to speak, escaped her and she just stared into the other woman’s eyes.
“Tara, I don’t want things to be weird between us.” Shifting her weight to her right foot, the redhead held her arms down at her sides.
Smiling and looking down briefly, Tara tilted her head slightly when she looked back up. “I don’t either.”
“So…” Willow started, moving her weight back to both of her feet. “Friends?” she asked, hopefully.
Beaming a brilliant smile, the blonde nodded. Although, she was somewhat disappointed that the other woman had said, “friends.” She wondered if she would ever have the pleasure of knowing this girl as more than just a friend. That’s what she longed for. She liked Willow very much.
Smiling brightly herself, the hospital director stepped closer and held her arms out. She sighed a sigh of relief, when the other woman stepped into her arms and they embraced.
The embrace felt like heaven to Tara. She gently ran her hands over Willow’s back before crossing them and giving her a healthy squeeze. She felt the embrace returned and quickly realized that she didn’t want it to end.
The same thought was playing around in the redhead’s mind. She didn’t want their hug to end, but she knew it had to. With great sadness, she started to pull away, but decided to be bold and she turned her head, leaving a soft kiss on Tara’s cheek.
When she pulled away, she smiled at her friend. “Goodnight. I’ll see you tomorrow,” she breathed as she started to back away.
“Goodnight, Willow.” The blonde’s cheek was buzzing from where the other girl had kissed her. That was something that she hadn’t expected. It was a wonderful surprise though.
Turning completely around, Willow walked around to the other side of her truck and hopped up into the driver’s seat. Starting the engine, she waved at her friend outside the window before buckling her seatbelt and pulling out of her space.
As she watched the truck pull away, Tara couldn’t help but feel saddened by Willow’s use of the word friend. It was just a painful reminder of what she didn’t have – someone to call her own.
She longed for it and hoped that one day she would find someone. She just hoped it would be Willow.
TBC…
Questions? Comments??
Sorry this update was so short. Hopefully the next one will be longer.
Jen
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"One thing I don't understand," Willow went on, laying herself down on top of Tara's legs, with her head resting on her stomach, "is how you don't just lock yourself in your room and play with yourself all day."
Tara laughed, which caused her chest to shudder quite expressively, and Willow to, "Mmmm," again. "Hellebore," Chapter 20 by Chris Cook