Chapter 4: Part a-
20 minutes earlier...
Another few weeks had past, and still no changes had come to Tara, when one day she decided to go out for a walk, as she used to so love to do. It seemed that a lifetime of habit could not overcome four years of avoidance, as Tara walked to the door and looked in the mirror as she went past in what seemed to be the first time in her life, rather than the first time since Kara’s spell... but, then, that was another life.
Looking into the mirror, Tara Maclay was disgusted by the decrepid old woman who she still couldn’t accept as herself, that surrounded the sapphire pools that seemed to scream out against the wrinkly, saggy old skin that was their captor. Sighing with the conclusion that fresh air and a little excersice would do her body good, Tara turned to the door, took one step, turned once more, walked back to the mirror, removed it from the nail it hung from, turned it over, and rested it on the desk below, before turning back to the door with a barely detectable air of deffiance, walking into the hall, using the key, still shiny from lack of use in the four and a half years it had been Tara’s only way in and out of her home, and locked the door, turning down the hall and walking out with a determined spirit that Tara hadn’t known since her body was its own.
Part b-
Tara wandered all over Sunnydale before she finally ended up by the ocean, which had been her favourite place when she first moved to the town, just after Kara...
Actually, the ocean had always been her favourite place, but here in Sunnydale, a thousand miles away from her past, in the month she’d had to enjoy the town before the visit that had ended the life she’d previously known, Tara had discovered her favourite spot in the world, up high on Sunnydale Cliff, looking out across the water, always seeming so full of possibilities....At so, her spiriys a little lifted at the memories, Tara decided to vist that spot, for maybe it, if nothing else, could still her mind, and give her some resemblance to peace.
And so she began to climb the steep rock steps, her frail legs stumbling with the uncommon movement, both her hands clinging the wooden walking stick she’d found below. Reaching the top, Tara stumbled over the edge used her sudo-cane to help herself up, and dusted of her dress, before making toward her favourite place.
Part c-
And it was at that moment that the eyes fell upon her, those gorgeous emerald eyes that seemed to be from beyond this world in their knowledge and wisdom... and pain. One word escaped from the still supple lips of the far-to-frail body before Tara fainted, and at hearing her name whispered delicately from that pained-yet-pleased face, from those supple, radiant lips, she finally realized that the words she’d considered a plague for months, the incessant call for help, couldn’t be ignored, shouldn’t be ignored, because it was this woman, this gorgeous, vibrant woman, who her, and Willow, in turn, though she didn’t yet know how, needed this woman, perhaps more than life its self...
Part 2: Chapter 1:
“Tell me a story.” demanded the spoiled brunette preteen of her middle-aged red-headed adoptive aunt where she stood a few yards away brushing the blonde hair of her adopted 6 year old. “Auntie Willow!” The child whined with impatience after a moment of silence. “The children are boring, I’m to mature for them. And since Mommy, Daddy, and Aunt Dawnie went to Grandpapa’ s funeral and I have to stay here,” the girl continued in a matter-of-fact voice that sounded so like her birth mother’s that Willow couldn’t help letting a few tears fall at the memory of her old friends, “you should entertain me. And I want a story!” Willow’s neice concluded dramatically.
“Anh, you know your Auntie Tara’s the one who’s good at telling stories,” Willow reminded the twelve year old, not really wanting to disturb her wife of nine years from her job of feeding the baby, and intending to simply tell Anya that she was not as important as baby Joyce. Willow’s plans were crushed a moment later, however, when she saw the look on her neice’s face, which was full of such dejected sheepishness, she couldn’t help but remember Anh’s father as child, from whom she saw that same look whenever she refused Xander a cookie, or a bite of her apple, and Willow’s resilliance simply crumbled under the gaze of a child who was a perfect combination of her two friends who had died ten years. “William, Moraé, I want you to go get your Mama for me. William, you can feed Joyce, can’t you?” Willow asked her flame-haired eight-year-old, an appologetic look in her eyes at knowing how hard it was to feed her youngest child.
At her son’s nod, Will turned back to her little girl, who, not to Willow’s surprise as a smile seemed to be the only face her child ever wore, beamed up at her. “Moraé, if you can bring Mama out here, I think my little angel’s a good enough storyteller to help us.”
“Sure!” agreed the child excitedly, happy for the chance to tell a story and be allowed to help her mothers. Before leaving the room, Moraé kissed Willow on cheek and whispered in her ear, “Mommy, Auntie Buffy and Uncle Angel aren’t coming back soon, are they? It’s fun having Anya around!” exclaimed the child before following after her brother in search of her Mama.
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hope you enjoy! feedback wanted! chapter 2 up by wednesday*hopefully*!
~jas
who's Kara and why has she betrayed our Tara? 
Woo hoo! 
I have complete trust that you will take us on an incredible journey....more soon.
Im so excited that Im jumping up and down! (okay...not literally, but definitely figuratively) 
cause they're good for the seeing... but what happened to Willow five months ago? I hope the next part is chocked full of back-groundy goodness. 
