Hi there everyone
Thanks so much for reading and responding - it is much appreciated!
Who couldn't use a nice game of checkers or chess
Glad you all enjoyed it.
Here is something that could have happened in season six before entropy.....
hope you like it....
enjoy...
Interior: Willow and Tara’s Bedroom, now just Willow’s
Bedroom. Willow is sitting uncomfortably, but as
comfortably as can be expected with the severe sunburn
she had managed to add to her day’s list of
accomplishments. She had been studying outside for her
finals and had fallen into her “study zone”. A place
not easily escaped from. Once she fell into that
“zone” the rest of the world just faded away…. Come to
think of it, that is exactly how she felt whenever she
was with Tara, or heck whenever she thought about her.
Her sweet, yet still and always shy smile. Her eyes,
how they could hold so much love and hope and faith
and simplicity, but now everything was far from
simple. Willow had made the worst mistake in her
entire life, she had betrayed, violated and utterly
lost the person who meant and still means the most to
her. Don’t get her wrong. She loves and cares for
Buffy, Xander, Giles and Dawn very much, but her love,
her passion for Tara, that was classified to a level
all its own.
Very much lost in her thoughts of Tara
and the pain that seemed to be radiating from her
legs, especially, she was unaware that she had a
visitor.
“Hi there” were the words echoed by the sweet and
subtle voice, coming from the direction of her
doorway. She could have sworn that she must me be
hallucinating – like a dehydrated man stranded in the
desert. It must be some strange side effects of sun
poisoning, yes that must be it, just her imagination
running off with her again. The strain of going
through the magik withdrawal had caused her to
hallucinate, but never pleasurable, fluffy nice,
rolling in kittens and puppies, ones like this. These
types of hallucinations she could definitely live
with.
“Hi Will, I don’t mean to interrupt…. if ….. if y…..
you wwwant I can come back l…. later”. This time it
was unmistakable. This was no hallucination, this was
more like a dream come true. Willow sprang to
alertness from the dream daze that she was sporting on
her face just moments ago.
“No, no you don’t have to come back, I mean you can
always comeback, but you don’t have to leave” Her
first reaction was to spring from the bed and keep
Tara from leaving, but as soon as she tried even the
slightest of position shifts she was met with searing
pain. That’s right she thought to herself…. Both
voluntary and involuntary moment, currently not an
option. Of all times to be laid up with sunburn. She
would just have to rely upon her voice, her eyes, her
face to be the determining factors in getting Tara to
not leave.
“Please don’t go, you don’t have to go. I’m not busy
really. I mean before, I didn’t hear you, well I guess
on some level I did hear you, cause hello you were
emitting sound, not as tricky as one of those, if a
tree falls in a forest and there is no one there to
hear it, does it still make a sound deals, I mean I
guess if your speaking were analogous to the tree
falling then I would be the person to hear the sound,
although there actually wasn’t anyone in the forest ….
And I was very much in the room, so I guess it really
isn’t the same thing …. (she wanted to stop herself,
but it was no use, she was already in babble mode, and
babble mode was a place even more difficult to elude
than the “study zone”. When in babble mode …. Babble).
Because obviously if there was someone in the forest,
they, well actually he or she , cause you don’t have
to be a lumber jack to be in a forest and hear a tree
fall – am I right, or even if you do, I mean this is
the 21st century, women are empowered and can be
lumber jacks, great lumber jacks, the best jacks of
lumber there can be. Maybe they’re called lumber
jills, do you think they are? Wouldn’t that make more
sense, of course there is that whole part, where I’m
crazy and should probably stop talking before you
decide not only to leave the room, but flee from it
with speed and fright.
Willow, during her whole ramble had been trying to
divert her eyes from Tara’s. It seemed every time she
glanced in the girl’s direction her case of
babblelidous would worsen to horrifying and mortifying
degrees.
Tara stood in the doorway, no longer nervous, well
okay she was still nervous, she is only human, no
demon whatsoever, but she wasn’t as nervous as she had
been. Now she was amused, touched and smiling cheek to
cheek. Willow was always so adorable and endearing
when she switched into babble mode. Tara loved it when
Willow would babble. Her babbles were always so
interesting and intricate, especially this one. The
whole jack and jill discussion. She practically had to
gnaw on her bottom lip to suppress her laughter,
Willow was just so cute, she was just so Willow. But
things were different, no matter who much she babbled
or rambled, she just wasn’t the same Willow. The
Willow that gave her the bestest birthday ever. Or who
saved her mind from Glory…. Saved it from Glory only
to use it for herself…. But Tara soon shook that
thought, that memory, that striking, immobilizing pain
from her mind. If this was ever going to work, if they
were even ever going to attempt to try and be at least
friends, she had to try and forget, had to try to
forgive completely. Tara just didn’t know if she was
capable of giving Willow the unconditional love she
once had, or even the unconditional love that a friend
gives to another friend. Tara didn’t know what the
future held for her and Willow, she didn’t even know
if there was a future for her and Willow, but today
she knew that she wanted to see Willow, wanted to be
near her, had to be near her.
“Lumber Jill, don’t know if it quite has the same ring
to it, but you never know” Tara commented. After all
that rambling she had to say something. Both she and
Willow smiled. They smiled at each other, their gazes
lingering in one another’s eyes. Suddenly they both
realized this and Willow was the first to look away.
Perhaps out of guilt, perhaps out of being nervous.
She didn’t want to scare off Tara, she didn’t want to
make her feel uncomfortable. She just wanted her to
stay, for a few minutes, hours, days, weeks, months,
eternity, you know whatever amount of time Tara’s
schedule would allow, she wasn’t picky.
“Are you looking for Buffy (she glanced around the
room, as if looking for her) cause I don’t think she’s
hear, I think she’s at work, enjoying, well muddling
through the wonderful world that is double meat”
“N… no I was …. I’m not, I … I actually came here …..
to ummm ….. came here to see you”. Why was Willow
thinking she was here to see Buffy. Had things gotten
that bad between them, that bad that she couldn’t be
there to see her? Well, actually they had gotten that
bad, that bad and then worse on top of it. Maybe
Willow was mad at her for leaving, maybe she didn’t
want her to come back, or come at all.
“I…if you’re busy…. If you’re busy …. I c..I can go”
“NO. No I mean, wow you’re here to see me, that’s
great and me all here with the not being busy, so no
you don’t have to go, because I’m not busy, not at
all, not even a little, so my schedule is free and
clear for you ….. for you to stay, staying being the
opposite of leaving…. Leaving being something that you
don’t have ….. that I don’t want you to do” wheeew,
that was a close one. Throughout this whole dictionary
lesson Willow donned a permigrin, she just couldn’t
help herself.
“okay great, so busy is something you’re not” Tara
confirmed with a grin identical to Willow’s.
“absolutely not busy, could not not be busyer, is that
a word”?
“not sure, but if it isn’t I think it should be”
“So what have you been up to, how are you, doing good”?
Willow squeaked out, wondering to what she owed the
wonderful honor of this visit to.
“Yes, I’m good, I’m fine. I … I just had some free
time and thought I would stop by and say hi, hi.”
“hi”.
“How are you”?
“Me? Oh I’m fine, finey mc fine. I’m good. (noting a
bit of awkwardness, she decided to shift the topic of
conversation. To something that was less subtexy) How
are classes going? How many finals do you have coming
up”?
“Classes are good. I think I am pretty ready for
finals, as much as I can be. What about you, you said
something about studying earlier” Tara motioned to the
various class texts sprawled all over their bed,
correction, Willow’s bed.
“Oh yeah, you know me. Lean mean studying machine. I
was currently, well not currently perse, cause I’m not
busy, recently, recently I was working on English lit.
Wordsworth has some great poems”.
“yeah my favorite of his is “She Dwelt Among the
Untrodden Ways” Tara moved toward the bed to get a
closer look at the lit. book, well maybe not just for
that, but it was one of the reasons why she moved
there. She sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, ran
her fingers soothingly over the book’s cover.
“I love that one” she decided to attempt to recite it.
“She dwelt among the untrodden ways, beside the
springs of doves”
suddenly and gracefully Tara took over.
“a maid whom there were none to praise and very few to
love”
the sound of Tara’s gentle voice reciting the poem was
lulling Willow into a very relaxed and very utopian
state of being. Her heart swelled more with each
passing syllable.
“Like a violet by a mossy stone… half hidden from the
eye. Far as a star when only one is shinning in the
sky. She lived unknown and few could know when Lucy
ceased to be. But she is in her grave and oh…. The
difference to me”.
“I love that poem” Willow comment after Tara had
finished reciting it.
Just then Tara glanced at what was right next to the
text book, Willow’s legs, not in a naughty way, but
something had caught her attention from the corner of
her eye.
“Will, your legs, are you ok? What happened? They’re….
They’re”
“A bit red, a bit too done with the sunbathing ”
“They’re more than a bit done Will, they look like
they’re well done”
“well earlier, with the studying, well I was outside,
and that just happens to be where the name sake for
this dale of ours is, and well I guess I kind of lost
track of time and I might want to think about studying
in the shade next time” Willow answered
“In the shade wrapped in a blanket, under an umbrella,
just to be safe” Tara offered. They both looked at
each other and smiled.
“its not as bad as it looks” Willow claimed. Then she
saw the “I highly doubt that” face that Tara was
giving her and decided to succumb. “Ok, ok it’s
actually a little bit worse than it looks”
“how little”? Tara wondered
“a lot little” Willow confessed, with a pained look on
her face and in her eyes as she glanced down at her
legs. Tara gave a sympathetic smile.
“They’re awfully red Will, as red as a …..” she was
trying to find a good example to drive home how
incredibly red Willow’s legs were, but she was coming
up short.
“ a lobster” Willow offered with a smile on her face
“no not a lobster, most lobsters I have seen have been
blue or orange” then the example came to her in a
flash. “They’re as red as that carpet that the star
parade around on” She smiled at herself, proud of the
example she had found, it was the perfect example,
Willow agreed.
“Does it hurt”?
“Believe me when I say, Oh Yeah”.
“Is there anything I can do? Did you put moisturizer
on it? Aloe? Something? Anything”?
“I haven’t tried the moisturizing in a while, a while
being about 15 minutes. But I still remember how much
it hurt, from fifteen minutes ago, so I’m thinking
maybe I don’t want to do that again”.
“Sweetie, even if it hurts, you have to keep
moisturizing it, it will help in the long run, you
don’t want it to get worse” Tara placed her hand on
Willow’s shoulder and gave it a light and reassuring
squeeze. Little did she know that Willow was sun burnt
there as well. Willow didn’t let it show though, if
fact she didn’t really feel it. She was too busy
reeling from Tara’s use of the word Sweetie.
“Where’s the lotion you used before” Tara asked,
completely switched over to her nurturing mode.
“it’s right over there” Willow tried to reach the
bottle that currently resided on the far end of the
bed. No luck, she was going to have to move her body
to get closer. She tried and a gasp of pain escaped
from her lips.
“Honey, don’t try and move, I’ll get it”. Tara reached
and stretched her whole body over Willow’s to get the
bottle. Just by being in the same space, or almost in
the same space as Willow she could sense the other
girl’s body heat, her special smell, vanilla and
whatever new shampoo she was using. Memories of her
time together with Willow flooded her mind and her
heart. She was only poised there for a matter of
seconds, but the results would last forever, had been
locked away, secured safely in her heart and in her
soul.
She regained a slightly closer position to
Willow, by the edge of the bed, than she had before.
It seemed that their recent closeness was having as
much as an affect on Willow as it had on Tara. Even
after Tara slightly repositioned herself she glanced
over and saw Willow sitting perfectly still with her
eyes still closed, as if relishing the proximately she
had just had with Tara and still embracing it’s
effects upon her.
“Will do you want me to try and put it on, I mean
maybe if you don’t have to move, cause if you put it
on, like you had to earlier, well you would have to
move, and in moving therein lies the pain. So maybe if
I put it on, maybe it wouldn’t hurt” Wow, it appeared
no one was immune to babblelidous.
“Are you sure you want to, I mean you don’t have to, I
don’t mind if you do, I don’t mind at all, but I don’t
want you to feel….. I mean, I don’t want you to feel
as though you have to, you know, but yeah, that would
be great, thanks” She smiled, recovering from babble
mode yet again. Wow today she could probably set the
world record for babbling in a single conversation – I
wonder if they make a medal for that. Probably not
‘cause who would want to sit around and listen to the
acceptance speeches, hello long and well…. Long.
Tara grinned. “Remember this is going to hurt me a lot
more than it is going to hurt you” she said with her
best impersonation of Willow’s resolve face, that she
had come so accustomed to.
Willow glanced up at her, then glanced at her horrible
red legs and said with both cheer and fear. “Some how
I don’t think that is going to be the case”.
“Sweetie, I’ll be gentle I promise and if it starts to
hurt to much, we can stop, promise” Tara held up her
hand showing the boy scout symbol that stood for truth
and honestly, while her other hand was still holding
onto the bottle and was positioned over her heart as
though she was pledging allegiance to the flag.
“Okay, I can do this, I can be strong. I can be strong
like an Amazon” Willow stated cheerfully. At those
words both girls experienced a flash back.
They were in Willow’s dorm room. Buffy’s mother had
just died and they were all going to the hospital to
meet her, to be there for her. She, Willow had been a
complete nervous wreck, constantly changing her
clothes and crying. She didn’t know if she would be
able to make it through the day, heck she didn’t know
if she would be able to make it through the minute.
She did though, and there was only one reason for her
survival, Tara. She was there to comfort her, to be
there for her. She was what enabled Willow to be
strong, strong like an Amazon. With one kiss, well
maybe more than one, Tara had been able to bring hope
and strength back into Willow’s life. With Tara she
was able to survive the minute, and all the minutes
that would follow it.
Suddenly they both returned to present tense. They
both looked at the other as though they could each see
that scene from their past replaying in each other’s
eyes, it was mesmerizing, captivating, it was love. It
was still there on both sides. It was still lingering
between them, the hope the possibility. They each felt
it, felt it coursing through their veins, beating in
and out of their hearts. Maybe the wrongs of their
pasts couldn’t be forgotten completely, but just maybe
their future, their future together was still a
possibility, maybe there was still a chance.