You know, DW, I loved this story when you first started it. I don't know what all went into the reposting deal, but I'm so extremely glad it's back. Because this has proven to be one of my favorite Pens fics ever.
I sat down with it tonight and read it from start (even the parts I'd already read) to its present point. This is just fantastic stuff.
First of all, you write extremely well, so even when you're not beta'd, your work is smooth. Most of all, though, you capture the vagaries and vacillations of the human heart. You give us such clear understandings of both Willow and Tara, and that's not always easy to pull off. The backdrop of Grace's illness and death serve to illuminate/heighten Tara's uncertainty about her feelings for Willow. It's fascinating from a power dynamic, really: Willow is the one who (from the outset, at least) is emotionally vulnerable to Tara, but Tara is the less experienced of the two w/ re: to dating in general. Their movements toward each other, in all their fits and starts, never feel like the writer jerking us around. They feel like the truth of these two people and their circumstances.
And oh, that first kiss, and the time on the couch, and that last kiss...Honey, you know your way around sexual tension and that is just
such a fine town to call home...
Great work, DW. I can't wait for more, although I will because really--what else am I gonna do?
Mary