Chapter 17

Rack purses his lips as he considers his options.  Stepping out into the ‘waiting room’, he looks at the magic drug addicts at his disposal, knowing that all of them together doesn’t have a tenth of the magic that he needs for his customer. 

Stepping back into the main room, he looks at the men, silently wondering not for the first time how they can ‘see’ him when in place of their eyes there’re symbols carved.  Shaking his head at his meanderings, he settles in his chair and presses the tips of his fingers together in contemplation.  “I can get you the power you need, but it will take some time.  It isn’t something that will be easy.”

“My brother, The First has waited this long to make his reappearance.  A few more months, though upsetting, is understandable.  He must be on this plane of existence before the gathering of the Champions if he is to take over this world.  If you succeed in helping him, the world will be at your feet.”  Caleb steps forward from the shadows, the smile on his handsome face would make most people stop and smile back, but for those people that look below the surface, they see the evil looking back at them for what it is.

“I’ll work on this as quickly as possible.  I just want to make sure that I have everything properly prepared, so there won’t be any chance whatsoever that we will fail.”  Rack nods to the group as they disappear out of his back exit, so no one sees them.  Tapping his fingers on the desk, he tilts his head as he thinks about the people at his disposal, his mind finally hitting on one person that he hasn’t seen in many months.  Her power alone would almost be enough for what needs to be done.  “But to drain her powers will take time, and I will need to make sure my preparations are meticulous so nothing can go wrong.” 

Chuckling he stands and paces about his room as he lets his mind wander and come up with different ideas, stopping to look up at the ceiling.  “Strawberry, you’re going to come to Daddy Rack, you just don’t know it yet.” 

People out in the waiting room shiver uncontrollably at the evil laughter coming from Rack’s room, the tingles going up and down their spines enough for two to take off out of the room and into the night to never be seen from again, the others staying, the draw of the black magic too much for them to let their fear take hold.

***

Buffy groans as she drags her body into the house, smiling asTara hurries to meet her, hugging her gently. 

“What’s wrong?”  Tara questions softly, checking over her lover, wondering if there was some demon that attacked her during the daytime.

“Stupid slayer decided she had to show the big strong men that she could move just as many tables and chairs as them today as we were getting the college ready for classes to start up in a couple weeks.”  Buffy moans as she plops down on the couch.  “Why was I stupid to do that?  Of course, they’re hurting worse than me.”  Buffy’s eyes twinkle as she looks up at her lover who’s shaking her head at her. 

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”  Tara chuckles and heads to the kitchen, grabbing a couple aspirins and two bottles of water before heading back to the living room, handing her lover one bottle and the aspirin as she settles beside her. “And in a couple hours you’ll probably be all healed and ready to go, and most of them won’t be heard from for days.”

“But it’s Friday.”  Buffy points out grinning as she swallows the pills with a couple swigs of water.  “So did you get your application put in?”

“Yes, I did.”  Tara shifts to lean against the couch, facing Buffy.  Gently running her fingers through her hair.  “They’re in desperate need of teachers, so I won’t have a problem getting a job.  I just have to decide if I want to teach the older kids or the younger ones.”  Tara admits softly.  “And this is something you probably don’t want to hear.  But they’re not just clearing away the debris of your old high school.  They plan on building a new one directly over the Hellmouth.”

“Ah, shit.”  Buffy groans closing her eyes.  “What did you find out?”

“I asked around under the guise of possibly putting in for a position there.  It probably won’t actually be done until a month or two into the actual school year.  They’re planning on using a lot of pre-fabricated materials to put it up, however.  That’s why it’s not going to take a year or longer to build.  I think they’re also planning on using a lot of the original basement and foundation that was at the old school… at least what you guys didn’t mess up.”  Tara grins crookedly at her lover at the thought.

“Should have used more dynamite.”  Buffy growls before taking a deep breath.  “I hate to say this, because in a way I really, really don’t want you to work there…”

“But if you had someone there to keep an eye on things that are happening, maybe we could keep incidents to a minimum.”  Tara finishes for her lover, the same idea having occurred to her.  “Looks like I’ll be teaching the high school age kids.  Dawn will love that.”  Tara chuckles at the thought.  “Though she might act like she doesn’t even know me.”

“Smack her upside the head.”  Buffy grumbles as she rolls her head to look at Tara.  Grasping her free hand in hers, Buffy plays over Tara’s fingers for a few minutes as she thinks.  “I really don’t like the idea of you working there because God only knows what might happen.  We know how much of a magnet that place is for evil.  Hell, I have to go really patrol that area to keep it to a minimum of demons.”

Tara purses her lips as she considers her next thoughts.  “They’ll be hiring for all positions at the high school, Buffy.  With working at the college, you would probably be a shoo-in for a custodial job at the high school.  Though I doubt that’ll pay as well as the college.”

“Dawn would really freak if that happened.  Both of us working at the high school, she wouldn’t be able to get away with anything…”  Buffy allows a small, wicked smile to cross her face, seeing an answering grin on Tara’s she starts to chuckle.  “You were thinking the same thing, weren’t you?”

“Sort of.  She has done a lot better and has straightened her act up, Buffy.  But occasionally she tries to push the boundaries which is normal for a teenager, but both of us there to keep an additional eye on her would definitely be to the good.”  Tara leans in to press a soft kiss to Buffy’s chin before shifting down and snuggling against her lover’s side.

“I probably should call Giles and let him know what’s up at the Hellmouth.”  Buffy rests her head on top of Tara’s as she considers things.  “Where is Dawn, anyway?”

“Shopping at the mall with Janice and a couple other girls.  Actually, I think they were going boy-watching.”  Tara giggles at the low growl she gets from Buffy. 

“You say things like that just to get me irritated.”  Buffy gently pokes Tara in the leg as Tara laughs softly. 

“Maybe.”  Tara rests her head on Buffy’s shoulder as she relaxes.  “I thought we could go out to dinner tonight, if you want?”

“Hmm.  Sounds good.  Dawn staying the night with Janice?”  Buffy presses her lips to Tara’s head before resting her cheek against Tara.

“Uh, huh.”  Tara nods slightly with her answer.  “Got a call this afternoon from Willow.  She’s flying back in next week.  She’ll call when she gets the rest of the information.”

“So, she’s obviously doing well.”  Buffy comments softly.

“Yep.  She’s still leery of actually using her powers, but she’s working on the small spells and then draining the excess magic each week, so it won’t build up and throw her off-center.”  Tara explains softly, knowing Buffy has been trying to understand the magic side of things a little better, though a lot of time she’s still lost or insists on it being ‘slayered down’ for her.  Which usually led to her picking on her lover, knowing Buffy is nowhere near being dumb, but whereas a lot of people have to go through every step to get from ‘a’ to ‘g’, Buffy can make the logical jump from ‘a’ to ‘g’ without all the steps in between.

“Going slow is a good thing.”  Buffy whispers, closing her eyes and enjoying being close to Tara.  Smiling as she feels fingers stroking softly over her leg, knowing how much Tara loves to touch and be touched. 

“Can I talk you into stripping and lying down on the bed upstairs?”  Tara laughs as Buffy jumps up and starts stripping on her way towards the staircase.  “I didn’t say anything about having sex…”  Tara calls out to her lover as Buffy starts to jog up the stairs, laughing even louder as Buffy stops dead and turns around with a big pout on her face.

“But…  No clothes… bed…”  Buffy whimpers, letting her lower lip tremble slightly from where she’s poking it out as far as she can.

Tara snorts and points to the top of the stairs.  “Go, Slayer!” 

“Okay.”  Buffy’s shoulders droop as she makes her way at a more sedate pace up the stairs, slowly removing her clothes.

Tara stands, fighting the laughter wanting to escape her as she locks the front door and checks the back door.  Grabbing a couple bottles of water out of the refrigerator she makes her way towards the stairs, biting her lip as she hears Buffy mumbling something about no lovings and the honeymoon must be over. 

Buffy debates for a minute as she slides off her slacks, tossing them in the hamper without looking as she stares at the bed.  “Pull the covers down or leave them as is?”  Buffy questions softly, shrugging her shoulders as she reaches for the covers, gently folding them down to the end of the bed before climbing in and settling herself in the middle of the bed on her side as she waits for Tara.  “I can’t believe it.  She wants me naked and in bed, but isn’t planning on any lovings?  What’s up with that?  I mean, I thought the honeymoon was supposed to last for at least a year.  It’s only been roughly seven months… surely the honeymoon isn’t over already?” 

Tara finally makes her way into the bedroom and raises an eyebrow at the slayer.  “What was that I heard mumbling about honeymoon being over?”

Buffy blushes lightly and looks down at the bed, plucking at the sheet.  “I just kinda thought that, you know… we were still in the honeymoon stage of the relationship where we can’t get enough of each other.”

“So, because I made the comment that I didn’t say anything about sex, you’re already thinking the honeymoon’s over, right?”  Tara clarifies as she sets the waters down on the nightstand.  “Can you count how many times we’ve made love?”

“Can’t count that high.”  Buffy mumbles, blushing darker at the thought.  “Hell of a lot easier to count the days we haven’t made love.  Only need one hand.”

“Uh, huh.”  Tara grins crookedly at Buffy as she slowly starts to unbutton her shirt watching as Buffy’s eyes light up at the sight.  “Why don’t you lie on your stomach, my sweet one?”  Tara makes the question sound more like an order as she slides the shirt from her shoulders and sets it on the dresser. 

Buffy falls over onto her stomach, and keeps her head turned so she can continue watching Tara take her clothes off, having to admit that the sight of her lover’s lightly muscular body being revealed to her has a decided visceral response inside her.  “You know I almost had to smack the shit out of that guy that was drooling all over you while we were running yesterday morning at the college track.”

Tara shakes her head.  “He wasn’t drooling over me, his eyes were glued to you.”  Tara unhooks her bra and slides it off, grinning as Buffy’s eyes drop automatically to her chest and a pink tongue comes out to lick over her lips. 

“Nope.  He was definitely staring at you.”  Buffy murmurs, shifting slightly on the bed as her body heats up and the desire starts to gather heavily between her legs.  Grinning as Tara leans over after undoing her jeans and pushes them down her legs, enjoying the sight of Tara’s breasts swaying gently with the maneuver.  “He was watching your breasts bounce as you ran around the track.  I could tell where he was looking because his head bounced with them.”

Tara’s lips curl up in a decidedly wicked looking grin.  “And how did you know this?”

“Because it was bouncing in tandem with my head.”  Buffy grins hugely as Tara laughs.

“So, what you’re basically saying is that you were ogling my breasts at the same time he was and you just happened to glance over and noticed that you both had your heads bouncing in concert with my breasts?”  Tara clarifies as she steps towards the bed.

“Yep.”  Buffy doesn’t even argue, knowing better.  Aware Tara knows it’s not just her physical appearance that pleases her, but the whole package. 

Stopping at the drawer they’d placed all the toys in, Tara slowly slides it open while watching Buffy’s eyes start to gleam.  Darting her eyes down to the drawer, Tara shifts the items around until she finds the non-flavored massage oil.  Knowing what Buffy was thinking, Tara smirks slightly as she decides she’ll grab something out later for her lover, but right now she’s planning on giving her a full bodied massage to help the slayer healing along on the sore muscles. 

Buffy whimpers quietly and loses the huge smile that was on her face as she notices what Tara has in her hand.  “Tara…”

“Whiny slayers never get what they want.”  Tara warns with a quirk of an eyebrow.

Buffy pouts and buries her face in the pillow, covering the smirk that was slowly crossing her face.  Remembering the last time Tara gave her a back massage, they hadn’t left the room for four hours afterwards, the Wiccan being as turned on as she was by touching and stroking her body. 

Grinning crookedly, Tara kneels on the bed and shifts to finally ease her body down on Buffy’s butt.  Opening the bottle, squirting a good sized amount in her palm, she flips the lid closed chuckling as Buffy shifts slightly to move her hair out of the way.  Dropping the bottle on the bed, Tara works her hands together to warm and evenly distribute the oil to both of them before starting at Buffy’s shoulders and neck, slowly kneading her lover’s body. 

Buffy groans and shifts her head to lay her cheek on the pillow, her eyes closed, as she becomes putty in Tara’s hands.  “You have the hands of a Goddess.”  Buffy mumbles a little while later as Tara has made her way to her lower back and was pouring more oil into her hands.

“I do, do I?”  Tara chuckles softly at the confirming grunt coming from Buffy.  “You usually tell me I have the body of a Goddess, so now I have the hands to go with it?”

“Uh, huh…”  Buffy moans and unconsciously shifts her legs further apart as Tara makes her way to her butt and starts to knead and stroke her butt cheeks.

Tara resituates herself as she kneads her lover’s muscular butt, smirking at the sight of the desire coating Buffy’s inner thighs even as the slayer shifts slightly, pressing her body firmly into the bed.  Knowing her own body’s probably in much the same shape Buffy’s is, and actually surprised Buffy hadn’t made some smart comment about the fact. 

Buffy whimpers softly as Tara doesn’t stop with her butt and continues down her legs, hoping that Tara would want to ease the ache she’d caused at her center, knowing her lover’s as turned on as she is, if the smell coming from her is anything to go by.

Tara chews on her bottom lip as she smiles at the whimpers coming from Buffy, knowing exactly what’s going through her lover’s mind.  Working her hands over the strong muscles of her lover’s legs, Tara works down both of them, stopping at the ankles before finally working on the slayer’s feet.

“Oh, Goddssss…”  Buffy buries her face back into the pillow from where she’d shifted it as Tara’s strong fingers work between her toes and over the arch of her foot, kneading and rubbing every part of her feet, spending extra time manipulating her toes.  Panting heavily at the desire coursing through her, Buffy wraps her arms around her pillow and groans loudly into it as she presses her hips more firmly into the bed trying to get some relief for her aching clit. 

Grabbing the bottle of oil, Tara pats Buffy gently on the calf.  “Roll over, sweet one.”

Buffy moans and slowly pushes herself over, bringing the pillow with her to keep her face covered, wrapping both arms around it as she hears her lover laughing quietly.

“Don’t suffocate yourself.”  Tara warns, squeezing some more oil into her hand and closing the container before dropping it to warm the oil in her hands. 

“Either that, or I’ll have to take care of the pain you’re causing me.”  Buffy mutters into the pillow, intentionally spreading her legs and bucking her hips.  Knowing from the painful throbbing coming from her body, that she has to be swollen beyond belief.

Tara whimpers softly at the sight of her lover, her eyes inexorably drawn to her apex that is flushed and swollen, her clit poking insistently out from under its hood of protective flesh, engorged with blood.  “Would you?”  Tara whispers, her voice soft and deep, filled with passion.

Buffy pulls the pillow down to focus in on her lover.  “Would I what?”  Buffy unconsciously wiggles her body, feeling the desire easing down between her butt cheeks.

“Take care of it yourself… with me watching.”  Tara’s eyes drop from Buffy’s hazel eyes to her bald, glistening mound.  Watching as Buffy’s hips jump uncontrollably with her answer, smiling as she swears she can see the slayer’s clit twitch.

“Tara, I could squeeze my damn legs together and climax right now.  Hell, breathe over me and see what happens.”  Buffy growls loudly, knowing it won’t take much to tip her over the edge. 

“But would you…”  Tara swallows hard as she drags her eyes back up the slayer’s body to make contact with hazel eyes.  “Would you touch yourself for me?  Would you… could you do that with me watching?”

Buffy groans softly, as she sees the hopeful, desire-filled eyes of her lover silently begging her.  “Are you wanting me to?”  Buffy finally questions softly, having to admit that the thought of Tara watching her while she touched herself intimately definitely was NOT a turn off.  Seeing the quick nod of Tara’s head, even as Tara’s hands clench firmly on her leg, Buffy feels the heat suffusing her cheeks at the thought of what she was about to do.  Never thinking that she could or would do something like this, but for Tara she knows she’d do anything that the woman would want, especially if it put that particular gleam in her lover’s eyes. 

Tara moans softly as she watches Buffy shove the pillow back under her head and small, strong hands start to caress slowly and tantalizingly around her breasts, teasingly never coming into contact with the hard nipples.  Her tongue darting out to wet her dry lips, Tara’s hands unconsciously start to knead Buffy’s legs in direct imitation to what the slayer’s doing to herself. 

Buffy becomes more focused on Tara’s reactions to what she’s doing, than to the pleasure she’s receiving from caressing her own body, a definite thrill shooting through her as she watches Tara become more flushed and aroused by the minute, the woman’s hands one second stroking gently and tenderly over the flesh of her thigh to the next second digging firmly in with her short, blunt nails.  Pinching her nipples firmly and twisting them, Buffy watches Tara from under hooded eyelids as Tara’s body reacts by rocking slightly back and forth, her nipples hardening into tight, rosy colored buds.  Leaving one hand on her breast to tease, touch, stroke and pinch, she slowly trails her other hand downwards.  Smiling fully at the sight of Tara leaning forward slightly, bottom lip captured gently by her teeth and eyes glued to her hand. 

Tara silently urges Buffy’s hand to continue its journey down the slayer’s abdomen and over her mound, groaning as the fingers stop and stroke over the smooth skin, so close yet so far away from where she wants the slayer’s fingers to be. 

Buffy smirks as she catches a low whimper coming from Tara as she hesitates mere centimeters from delving into heated, desire coated flesh.  Her own desire at an all-time high, but the enjoyment of watching Tara’s facial expressions and her obvious desire, more than worth the delay of her own release.

Tara finally growls as Buffy’s fingers play teasingly over her mound without continuing any further.  Finally dragging her eyes upwards, she notices the mischief in hazel eyes, along with the intense desire.  Swallowing a couple times to lubricate her throat, Tara finally hoarsely whispers.  “I’ll remember this when it’s my turn.”  

Buffy’s eyes widen slightly, her tongue almost falling out of her mouth and her eyes become slightly glazed at the thought of watching Tara touching herself, bringing herself pleasure…  “Oh, God.”  Buffy whimpers, it taking her a moment to get out of fantasy land and becoming more serious about her own pleasure as the narrowed blue eyes watching her intently tell her how serious she is.  “Okay.  Not so subtle hint taken.”  Buffy finally whispers.

Tara grins crookedly as she drops her eyes back down to the slayer’s tanned hand as the strong fingers finally make their way down the short distance, dipping between swollen lips, separating them and stroking through the glistening juices flowing from her body.  Shifting, Tara lays down between Buffy’s legs, one hand settling close to the slayer’s apex while she rests her head on Buffy’s flinching thigh after pressing a hot, open mouthed kiss to the flesh. 

Using her free hand while continuing to tease herself as she plays between her wet folds, Buffy grabs the other pillows and uses them to prop herself up so she can watch Tara more easily, groaning and closing her eyes briefly as she finally strokes lightly over her aching clit.  Feeling the loud exhale of breath across her thigh, Buffy chuckles softly and opens her eyes, making contact with the passion filled eyes of her lover for a few moments before Tara’s eyes slowly work their way back to watch her as she strokes more firmly over her throbbing flesh, her hips jerking into the caresses, knowing she won’t last long, actually surprised she didn’t climax as soon as she touched herself.  Whimpering loudly, Buffy presses hard against her swollen clit as it throbs in tandem with her heartbeat and a small flood of liquid eases out of her body.

Tara unconsciously shifts closer to Buffy’s apex, inhaling deeply of her lover’s most intimate smell even as she watches Buffy’s fingers glide down over the slick flesh to bury three fingers in her body, starting with a slow stroke, quickly picking up speed, growling deeply as she watches Buffy press her pinky inside herself, making it four fingers even as her hand shifts and her palm grinds against her clit and she pounds her fingers inside herself, her hips bucking and meeting each thrust as low, guttural groans come from deep in Buffy’s chest.  Panting heavily, Tara rocks her body into the bed as she turns her face and nips firmly on Buffy’s inner thigh even as her eyes stay on the slayer’s hand, knowing by the sounds coming from Buffy that her lover’s about ready to go flying over the edge of the abyss into a powerful orgasm.  Panting heavily, Tara finally shifts up Buffy’s body quickly, pressing her apex against a rock hard thigh, her hand covering the slayer’s hand as she continues the hard rhythm. 

Buffy grasps Tara around the neck, pulling her the rest of the distance down for a rough, invading kiss, breaking it off and keening loudly as she tips over the edge when she feels Tara slide in one of her fingers along with hers, urging her fingers to press up into her g-spot making her explode in pleasure.

Tara buries her face in Buffy’s neck, grinding her center down against Buffy’s thigh as she floods the slayer’s leg with her own climax.  Her shuddering breaths and the slayer’s loud pants the only sounds left in the room as their bodies press together quivering and shaking with the releases they had.

Buffy whimpers as she finally eases her hand from inside her and wraps the free arm around Tara’s back, her hips bucking uncontrollably as Tara eases three of her long digits inside her and cups her mound tenderly.  Pressing her lips to Tara’s head, Buffy closes her eyes and smiles as she feels a tongue trailing in a small circular motion over her neck. 

“Thank you.”  Tara finally whispers, enjoying the feeling of Buffy’s inner muscles fluttering around her fingers as the slayer slowly finishes coming down from her intense orgasm.  Waiting to ease her fingers out when the flutters finally stop, just cupping the slayer’s body, enjoying the feel of the hot, damp skin.

Buffy chuckles softly.  “You’re thanking me?”

“Yes.”  Tara growls into Buffy’s ear after shifting slightly.  Capturing the lobe between her teeth, she shakes her head and growls louder before releasing the flesh to Buffy’s laughter.  “That was one of the sexiest things I have ever seen.  You don’t know how hard it was for me to keep from shoving your hand away and burying myself between your legs.  I think I was actually jealous.”  Tara murmurs, tilting her head as she considers the thought.  Reaching down Buffy’s arm to grasp her hand and pull it up to her lips, pressing a kiss against the palm.  “Jealous of these fingers stroking over your body, feeling the wetness, the heat and velvety body wrapped around them.  Yes, I do believe I was jealous.”  Tara grins crookedly down at Buffy as she brings one of the slayer’s fingers to her mouth to swirl her tongue around it tantalizingly.

Buffy growls and rolls them over so she’s on top of her lover.  “You’re in a mood today.”  Buffy smirks as Tara just grins at her.  Leaning down, she nips playfully on her lover’s chin.  “Are you still wanting to go out for dinner, or…”

Tara laughs softly, having already heard her lover’s stomach growling loudly.  “I don’t think the ‘or’ will actually feed the beast making all that racket.”

Buffy nods her head in acceptance even as she leans down and kisses Tara lovingly.  “Dinner, patrol… then maybe we can shower together and spend a good portion of the night enjoying having the house to ourselves?”  Buffy questions hopefully, her eyes glinting with amusement. 

“What are you wanting to initiate this time?”  Tara laughs as Buffy wiggles her eyebrows. 

“Something more sturdy than the coffee table.  I can’t believe you made me explain to Dawn how the other one got broken.”  Buffy growls quietly. 

“You didn’t.  As I recall you told a big, fat lie!”  Tara laughs as Buffy blushes darkly. 

“I was not going to tell her that it wouldn’t support both our weights while in the middle of having mind blowing sex!”  Buffy wiggles her fingers as Tara.  “Though fingers were involved, I thought it was a little better to tell her we had a tickle fight that got out of hand instead!” 

“She didn’t believe you.”  Tara laughs as Buffy growls quietly at her. 

“Yeah, because the whole time I was stumbling over telling her that story, you were fighting back laughter and winking at her!  No wonder she didn’t believe me.”  Buffy grumbles, burying her face in her lover’s neck, groaning quietly as her stomach starts to growl again. 

“You skipped lunch today, didn’t you?”  Tara finally questions as she rubs her hands gently up and down Buffy’s back, feeling her lover nod slightly against her.  “You’re going to make me mad and then I’ll have to kick your butt if you don’t eat, Buffy.”

“I know.  I’m sorry.  It’s just that we got busy and the next thing I knew it was already almost two o’clock and I just wanted to finish out the last couple hours of the day and come home.”  Buffy mumbles quietly into Tara’s neck.  “Can we go to the pizza buffet place that has the different Italian dishes on the bar?  I think I could eat my weight tonight.”

Tara smiles as she presses her lips against Buffy’s forehead.  “Of course, sweet one.  Let’s get ready, since you need to shower first.”

“’Kay.”  Buffy grins and nips gently at Tara’s neck before easing off her lover.  “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”  Tara’s eyes twinkle as she watches Buffy hurry from the room to shower and get ready for dinner.  “So much.”  Tara whispers before preparing for their night out.

***

Chapter 18

“There she is.”  Tara grins crookedly down at Buffy who’s bouncing almost uncontrollably beside her.  “You’ve missed her, haven’t you?”

“The only other time I wasn’t around her and Xander for this long is when I ran away.  It’s kind of like missing part of your family.”  Buffy admits. 

“I know.”  Tara whispers softly, gently rubbing her lover’s back.  Looking back up at Willow, she realizes she’s talking to another woman that if possible, is even shorter than Buffy.  “I think she either met someone on the airplane or she has company.”  Tara murmurs.

“Leave it to Wills to find a girlfriend while being gone for a couple months.”  Buffy snorts softly as she looks at the young woman that’s probably seventeen or eighteen years old.  “Damn, is it my imagination or does that woman look like a less hard-assed copy of Faith?”

Tara chokes back a laugh and leans against her lover.  “I only met Faith the once, and you were in residence, but coloring wise with the dark hair, eyes and the skin tone, I’d have to agree with you.”

“Paid attention to her, did you?”  Buffy quirks an eyebrow knowingly at her lover. 

“Had to check out the ‘cleavage-y slut-bomb’ that drove Willow crazy.  I think she actually had a crush on her.”  Tara admits softly, whispering into Buffy’s ear, chuckling at the cut off squeak coming from Buffy with her words.

“I think you and I need to talk some more about past happenings.”  Buffy waves her finger back and forth, grinning as Tara smirks at her. 

“It was just an observation.”  Tara laughs delightedly as Buffy growls and presses a hard kiss to her lips. 

“Still going to talk.”  Buffy growls deeply, pinching Tara on her hip as she turns back to watch Willow and the other woman closing the distance between them.  Jumping slightly as when she turns Tara’s palm smacks her firmly on the ass.  Darting a glance at her innocently smiling lover, Buffy smirks.

***

“I’m sure this is just what they’re going to want to hear about.”  Kennedy re-situates her backpack over her shoulder as they make their way through the airport. 

“It’s what we do.”  Willow sighs heavily at the thought.  “You’re probably going to be the beginning of a lot of potentials coming here.  You’re lucky Giles showed up when he did.” 

“But he was too late for my Watcher.”  Kennedy whispers, her eyes shadowed as she thinks about the man that had trained her from the time she was five years old.  He’d been like a grandfather and mentor all rolled into one.  Shaking off her sad thoughts, knowing Daniels would be pissed at her, she takes a deep breath and puts on her cocky attitude. 

“There they are.”  Willow brightens automatically as she sees the two blondes ahead, waiting just on the opposite side of the metal detectors. 

Kennedy blinks as she sees the redhead literally coming to life.  The woman having been serious and hardly ever allowing a smile to cross her face suddenly has a light blush to her cheeks, her eyes glittering with happiness and a huge smile crossing her face that almost literally knocks her on her ass with her beauty.  Watching as the redhead takes off across the short distance left and practically launches herself into the smaller blonde’s arms while the other blonde chuckles quietly and hugs her from the other side, Kennedy closes the distance watching the women curiously.  Figuring the smaller blonde has to be Buffy with the way she’s lifting the redhead and in turn lifting the other blonde that had sandwiched Willow between them.

“I missed you guys.”  Willow cries softly as she feels herself surrounded by the two women, happy at being back home where she belongs. 

“We missed you, too.”  Tara answers and releases them to slide down the short distance, chuckling as she realizes Buffy had lifted them both in one fell swoop.  Turning her gaze back to the speculative brown eyes watching them, Tara pats Willow gently on the shoulder.  “Did you pick up someone on the airplane, Wills?”

“Oh, sorry.”  Willow blushes and wipes at her tears as Buffy sets her back on the ground.  “For now, this is Kennedy.  She’s going to be the first in a long line of potentials heading your way, Buff.”  Willow whispers softly, looking at her best friend.

Buffy groans quietly and rubs a hand over her forehead.  “Talk when we get home.”  Smiling at the smaller woman, Buffy holds her hand out.  “Hi, I’m Buffy Summers, and this is Tara Maclay.”  Buffy waves to her lover. 

“Don’t flirt with her, or Buffy’ll kick your ass.”  Willow growls softly at the brunette, the woman had occasionally hit on her but stopped after the first few times but she remembers how Kennedy had went after a couple of the other witches at the Coven with a vengeance.

“She plays for the home team?”  Buffy questions curiously as she picks up Willow’s backpack her best friend had set on the ground before launching herself at her. 

“We really need to work on your gay-dar.”  Tara murmurs softly and smiles at the small woman.  “Hi.” 

“Don’t believe there is such a thing.”  Buffy grumbles, wrapping her arm proprietarily around Tara’s waist as Kennedy looks at her a little too closely for her liking. 

“There is.”  Tara and Willow answered at the same time, before looking at each other and chuckling.  “Come on.  I’m planning on fixing your favorites for dinner, Wills.  Give you a chance to unwind and shower after traveling.”

“How many bags do we need to get?”  Buffy questions curiously as they make their way to the luggage claim.

“I have just one.”  Willow rolls her eyes before darting a glance back at Kennedy.  “She has three and probably more coming later.”

“Well, let’s get them.”  Tara smiles and runs her fingers through longer, straight red hair.  “I like what you did with your hair.”

Willow blushes and dips her head.  “Part of the whole growing up thing.”  Willow admits. 

“It looks good on you.”  Tara smiles softly at her ex-lover and gently squeezes her shoulder.  “Are you going to move back in now?”  Tara questions hopefully, she and Buffy having already discussed that if Willow wanted to, they’d like her to move back into the house.

Darting a glance to Kennedy who’s being uncharacteristically quiet, but watching and listening to everything intently, Willow’s shoulders slump.  “I think it might be best.  But we’re going to probably end up with a full house.  Major evil is afoot, if you get my drift.”

“Figured as much.  They’re re-building Hellmouth High.”  Buffy grunts out softly.  “I take it Kennedy here is going to be making a home with us, too.”

“Yep.  And they’re working on getting Faith out of jail to come here, if that gives you any idea how serious it is.”  Willow looks apologetically at Buffy, seeing the anger flash in her best friend’s eyes, Willow sighs quietly.  “I read the reports on her, Buff.  And you know my experience with her, and honestly I think she’s changed.  She’s been a model prisoner and has been talking with the psychiatrists and doing everything that the Watcher’s Council wanted her to do while she’s in jail.  If she’d wanted to, you know as well as I do she could have escaped whenever she wanted.”

“I know.”  Buffy grumbles quietly, watching the luggage being unloaded onto the carousel, snatching Willow’s as it comes by and setting it beside them as Kennedy watches for her luggage.  “Is it that bad?”

“Yes, it is.”  Willow admits sadly.  “Giles thought it best to send you a long explanation via the written word.”

“He just didn’t want to hear me bitching at him.”  Buffy growls lowly and looks at Willow as she giggles, a smile slowly crossing her face at the sound. 

“That’s putting it mildly.”  Willow’s giggles turn to laughter as Buffy’s eyes twinkle with mischief.  “But I’m sure he’s going to hear it anyway.”

“Got that right.”  Buffy leans back as Tara wraps her arms around her from behind.  Catching Willow’s eyes, she tilts her head towards Kennedy who’s pulling off one of her pieces of luggage and wiggles her eyebrows.

Willow’s eyes get huge and she shakes her head vehemently.  “Nope, not, and uh uh.” 

Tara chuckles and buries her face in Buffy’s hair, hugging her lover tightly.  “Someone doth protest too much.”  Tara whispers softly against the back of Buffy’s head, grinning as Buffy snorts.

“That’s the last one.”  Kennedy grunts as she lifts the last large piece off the carousel and turns to look at Buffy with an arrogant lift of her chin.  “Some help here.” 

“I’m not a pack mule.”  Buffy growls softly at the young woman, having finally noticed the expensive clothes, shoes and the almost regal air about the young woman, it reminding her a lot of Cordelia, or even herself before she’d become a slayer.  “I’m not your servant and around here you pull your weight.  If you can’t ask nicely for help, you can figure it out yourself.”

Tara’s eyes widen at Buffy’s comments, then darts to Willow who bites back a loud laugh and blushes darkly.  “Did I miss something?  I mean, besides the obvious.”

“Just that we aren’t waiting on little Miss Priss here.  And that includes you.”  Buffy turns and narrows her gaze on Tara.  “Promise.”

Tara blinks at her lover’s seriousness before nodding her head.  “Promise.” 

Kennedy shifts, crossing her arms over her chest as she glares at the slayer. 

“We work for a living, Kennedy.  We’re not your personal servants.  So you need to get that through your head right here and now.  Everyone works together and pulls their own weight.  If you’re going to be living with us, you’ll pick up after yourself, help with the household chores and treat everyone with respect.  This is one thing I will NOT go back on.”  Buffy gets in Kennedy’s face, making the young girl back up with a glimmer of fear and respect finally showing in the brown eyes.  “It’s your decision to have a hard or easy time of it.  Now, I suggest you figure out how to get your luggage out to the vehicle.”  Buffy lets Tara take Willow’s backpack while she leans down and lifts the bag. 

The three women companionably making their way towards the exit while Kennedy pouts for a few moments before dropping her arms, sighing as she looks around.  Finally grabbing and extending the handle on the one wheeled bag, she grunts and lifts the next largest bag and sets it on top, hooking it through the handle before picking up the last bag and pulling the bags behind her.  “Damn.”  She mumbles quietly, realizing that she’s not going to get by with letting everyone else pick up after her. 

“How did you know?”  Willow whispers as she darts a quick glance over her shoulder at Kennedy.

“I saw Cordelia and me in her.”  Buffy admits just as softly, smiling sadly at her best friend and then chuckling at the stunned look on Tara’s face.  “You haven’t heard about what I was like before becoming a slayer?  I was the quintessential bleached blonde, valley-girl cheerleader bitch.  You would have absolutely, positively hated me if you’d known me back then.”

“I doubt that.”  Tara smiles softly at her lover and brushes a finger gently down her cheek. 

“Tara doesn’t hate… but she might have disliked you immensely.  And I can guarantee she wouldn’t have ended up in your bed if you were still like you supposedly were originally.”  Willow giggles and dodges a half-hearted smack coming at her from Buffy. 

“Why didn’t she stay in England?”  Buffy pouts, though her eyes twinkle, betraying her seriousness.

“Because you missed me too much!!  And you miss having your bestest bud in the whole world to pick on.”  Willow grins, her tongue poking out between her teeth as she laughs and darts away as Buffy growls heading after her. 

“Children.”  Tara laughs as she watches her lover chase Willow around outside the airport, shaking her head as she stands by the luggage she’d set down.  Enjoying the sight of the two friends acting like kids. 

“That’s the happiest I’ve seen Willow in the two weeks I’ve known her.”  Kennedy admits quietly, as she comes to a stop beside the taller blonde.  “So you three are all good friends and you’re dating Buffy?”

Tara quirks her eyebrow at the petite brunette and nods her head.  “More or less, you have it right.  There’s more history here, and obviously Willow hasn’t told you a lot about us?”

“She didn’t hardly talk to me at all.  She spent almost all her time sequestered with the Coven then studying even during her free time.”  Kennedy looks sadly at the redhead.  Seeing a side to the woman that she didn’t know existed, and hopes that she gets a chance to see it more.

“She had some serious problems to work through while she was in England, Kennedy.  And I’m sure she’ll actually be working with them for many years to come, if not for the rest of her life.  She’s a wonderful, caring and loving woman but she’s not without her problems.  She needs someone steadying in her life, and unless you’re serious about it, leave her alone.”  Tara warns softly, her eyes serious as she makes eye contact with the brown eyes, watching the shock cross the small woman’s face. 

Kennedy stares in shock at the blonde, having gotten the feeling that she was the calm, easy-going one of the group but the decidedly heated note in her voice warning her off Willow makes her re-think her original thoughts.  “I’ll keep that in mind.” 

“See that you do.”  Tara narrows her gaze on the brunette before turning back as she hears the loud laughter of Buffy and Willow as her lover gives Willow a piggy-back ride back towards them.  “I think it’s time to head home, ladies.  You know Dawn’s probably chomping at the bit to see you again.”

“Speaking of Dawnie, why didn’t she come with you?”  Willow questions curiously her eyes darting from Buffy to Tara and back again after Buffy sets her down on the ground and picks up her bag to lead them towards the Jeep.

“She opted to stay home and do a little more decorating.”  Buffy smirks at the low groan Willow gives.  “So… You know the drill.”

“Act surprised and say it looks wonderful.”  Willow starts to laugh as she helps load the luggage as Kennedy grunts and lifts the largest bag. 

“Who’s Dawn?”  Kennedy breathes out a sigh of relief after placing the largest piece of luggage in the back of the Jeep.  “Thanks.” 

“You’re welcome.”  Buffy answers as she and Willow finish helping Kennedy load the other two pieces.  “Dawn’s my younger sister and off limits.”  Buffy warns, deadly serious. 

“Shotgun!”  Willow snorts and runs back around to the front of the Jeep, laughing as Buffy growls loudly. 

“I’m going to kick her ass.”  Buffy warns Tara as she shuts the back of the Jeep. 

“Come on!!  Someone promised me a hot shower and food!”  Willow calls out, stepping up on the running board and looking over the Jeep as Buffy and Tara walk around the other side. 

Kennedy chuckles softly as she slowly relaxes at the friends’ actions towards each other.  Walking over to the same side of the Jeep as Willow’s on, she waits until Buffy leans across and unlocks the door, climbing in and looking at her curiously.  “You guys have been friends for a while, haven’t you?”

Buffy nods and looks at Willow.  “Wills and I have been friends for seven years.  Tara’s been on the scene for a little over three years?” 

“Since the Gentlemen.”  Willow admits, blushing lightly. 

“That long?”  Buffy blinks in shock and turns to look at Tara in the rearview mirror, watching her lover grin crookedly at her.  “I don’t think I was aware of her until…”  Buffy frowns and tries to think of when the Gentlemen happened and when she realized Tara was more than a ‘friend’ to Willow. 

“It was about a month until you actually met her, and another couple months until you knew there was something more.”  Willow admits, shifting uncomfortably in her seat before finally looking at Tara apologetically.  “I can’t tell you how sorry I am for the way I treated you.” 

Tara reaches over and pats Willow gently on the hand.  “I know, sweetie.  No sad thoughts, okay?  Today is supposed to be a happy day.”

“Okay.”  Willow smiles as Tara squeezes her hand before releasing it to start the vehicle and put it into gear.  “You two look real good.  Buffy actually looks like she put on some much needed weight.”

“Had to go out and buy new clothes.”  Buffy grumbles, patting her stomach before reaching up to gently run her fingers through Tara’s hair as the witch works on getting them across town and to the house.  “Tara’s very adamant about me not skipping meals, or snacks for that matter.”

“With your metabolism if you don’t eat regularly you’ll waste away to nothing.”  Tara comments with a soft smile as she pulls up to the stop light tilting her head back so Buffy can reach more of her head. 

Kennedy’s eyes widen as she looks from one woman to another, wondering if what she’s hearing is the way it actually is.  That Tara and Willow were a couple first, silently wondering what happened and how she came to be hooked up with Buffy now.

“I know.”  Buffy leans forward and presses her lips against the back of her head before relaxing back in the seat as the light changes.  “I would ask what’s going on, but it sounds like Tara doesn’t want serious talk today.”

Willow chuckles and watches as Tara shrugs her shoulder as she continues to drive, not saying anything.  “Tomorrow is soon enough.  Not a hell of a lot we can do right now, anyway and I somehow doubt that more potentials will be showing up on your doorstep before then.  So we should be okay.”

“Good.  It’s party day at the Summers’ residence.”  Tara warns, chuckling as she turns up Revello Drive, happy that the group that has become a family over the years is coming back together again.

Buffy smiles and winks at Willow as her best friends looks back at her, smiling happily.  “Good to have you home, Wills.  We’ve missed you.”

“And I’ve missed you guys.”  Willow admits, a shaky smile crossing her face not realizing how much she’s missed her friends until she saw Buffy and Tara waiting at the end of the concourse. 

***

Chapter 19

“XANDER!”  Willow doesn’t even make it all the way out of the Jeep before Xander comes running out of the house.  Laughing and hugging him she cries quietly. 

Buffy chuckles and leans against the back of the Jeep as she watches her two friends. 

“I think we did the right thing in keeping Xander coming back quiet.”  Tara smiles at the sight of Willow being swung around in the arms of Xander.  The Scooby having finally shown up a few days earlier having lost the excess weight he’d put on before the non-wedding and sporting a nice trimmed beard.  Of course, the most shocking sight was the tall blonde that had arrived with him. 

“Goddess, you look good, Xander.”  Willow finally reaches up and runs her fingers over the close cut beard, having to admit that the beard gave him a more grown up appearance.  Finally taking in the rest of him, she blinks in surprise.  “Well, I can’t say that I like you taking off the way you did, but you obviously are doing well for yourself.”  Willow laughs and hugs Dawnie as the teen finally shoves Xander away and takes her place for hugs.

Xander chuckles and blushes lightly.  “Well… I kind of met someone not even a week after running away.  And I have to admit, I had to take a long good look at myself when I did.  Things started to make a little more sense after I admitted a few home truths.”  Xander looks up at the door to the house, seeing the blonde hesitating in the doorway. 

“Just wait.”  Dawn giggles and hugs Willow tighter. 

“Goddess, Dawnie!  You must have grown another four inches while I was gone.”  Willow murmurs, blinking as she looks at the tall teen before glancing back at Xander.  “What happened?”

Xander smiles shyly and waves towards the door.

Willow’s brows furrow as she looks at the house, her eyes widening as a tall, relatively well-built blonde man steps down from the porch.  Looking back in shock at Xander, she blinks a couple times as she sees absolute adoration crossing Xander’s face at the sight of the man.  “Say, huh?”

Dawn giggles and covers her mouth with both hands, looking over at Buffy and Tara who are fighting their own laughter at the look on Willow’s face.

“We shouldn’t laugh at her being shocked.  She’s doing better than we did when we first found out.”  Tara buries her face in Buffy’s neck and wraps her arms around her lover’s waist. 

Buffy leans back into her slightly taller lover and nods her head.  “But it’s great.  Original babble queen speechless.”

“Jason, I’d like you to meet Willow.  Willow, this is Jason.”  Xander blushes lightly as he grasps the man’s hand and looks at Willow with a begging look on his face for her to understand.

“It’s a pleasure to finally meet the person I feel like I know better than myself.”  Jason smiles and steps up to the small redhead, holding his hand out to her. 

Willow, eyes wide, looks from Jason to Xander and back again.  “Xander?  You, you’re…?”  Willow blushes lightly as she accepts Jason’s hand.  “It’s nice to meet you, Jason.  But Xander has some serious explaining to do.”

Xander shuffles slightly, blushing lightly as Jason steps back and wraps his arm around his waist.  Shrugging he smiles shyly at his lover.  “I had a problem with my car, and Jason was working at the garage it was towed to.  We got to talking and he asked if he could join me on my travels.  A week later we knew just about everything about each other and one thing led to another…”  Xander tightens his grip around his lover as Jason strokes a hand soothingly down his back. 

“Everything?”  Willow questions, darting a glance to Buffy and Tara before her eyes turn back to bore into Xander. 

“Everything, Wills.  We actually kind of ran into trouble one night that was a catalyst for things happening between us.  And being a Scooby, old habits die hard and I was prepared.”  Xander admits, a happy smile on his face.  “Talk about being thanked for saving his life in an absolutely mind blowing way…”  Xander hums appreciatively in remembrance.

“XANDER!”  Willow cries out before smacking him hard on the shoulder.  “We’ll talk more about this later.  But Goddess, it’s good to be home.”  Willow admits, hugging him again before Dawn wraps an arm around her shoulders and urges her towards the house.

“Come on, let’s go in and let Willow get showered and settled before we get this welcome home party going.”  Buffy grabs Willow’s bag out of the back.

“Anyone going to introduce the newest addition?”  Xander questions curiously as he looks at the small woman.

“Nope.”  Buffy smirks, then grunts as Tara elbows her in the stomach.  “I was just kidding.”

“Uh, huh.”  Tara narrows her gaze on Buffy before looking at a chagrined Kennedy.  “This is Kennedy.  So far, all we know is that she’s a Potential.  The actual story of why she’s here and what newest problems that are rising we’ll find out tomorrow.  Today is a celebration for the family being back together again.”

“Damn, more Hellmouth shenanigans.”  Xander groans before helping with the luggage, smiling at the small woman.  “Welcome to SunnyHell.  First rule is don’t die.  Remember it.”

Everyone quietly agrees as they head up to the house, chattering happily as they try and talk over each other.  Kennedy slowly following as she tries to follow the three different conversations with everyone seeming to comment on everyone else’s conversations.  Shaking her head somewhat at the confusion, she silently hopes that things make more sense as everything progresses.

***

“How’s she holding up?”  Buffy whispers to Tara as she steps up behind her lover, wrapping her arms around her waist and looking over her shoulder to the back yard where everyone else is talking, joking and goofing around as Xander grills the steaks.

“Good.  She seems to be relaxing more.”  Tara leans back against Buffy, smiling as she feels the slayer’s fingers wiggling under her shirt to draw small circles over her stomach.

“She didn’t seem terribly surprised that Anya went back into the vengeance business.”  Buffy frowns heavily at the thought.

“I don’t think any of us were.  Though Xander’s been a little jumpy after finding out.”  Tara sighs quietly and runs her fingers over Buffy’s forearms.  “I did talk with Anya about Xander.  Though she wasn’t thrilled, she promised me she wouldn’t do any vengeance on him.”

“When did you speak with her?”  Buffy questions curiously.

“This morning when I opened the shop.  She popped in for a few minutes and we talked.  She was surprised I even bothered to open the shop with getting Willow this afternoon.”  Tara explains quietly.  “So, what do you think about Kennedy?”

Buffy snorts derisively and she looks out at the petite woman listening to Dawn going on explaining about a lot of the happenings in Sunnydale over the years.  “She’s a spoiled brat, used to having her way.  Now that I said that, I think she can be a decent kid, she just needs to grow up.”

“Same could probably be said for all of us.”  Tara murmurs, smiling.  “Eventually we all have grown up, more or less, but we’ve all done it at our own pace.”

“Don’t talk sense.  And who was it that I heard warning her off Willow, if she wasn’t serious?”  Buffy growls playfully in Tara’s ear, chuckling as she feels the heat coming from her lover as she blushes. 

“You weren’t supposed to hear that.”  Tara grumbles before turning in Buffy’s arms, kissing her lovingly.  “I love you.”

“I love you, too.”  Buffy returns the kiss, slowly deepening it to a lazy battle of wills until a loud cough as the back door opens finally makes them break the kiss.

“Should have figured you two would be in here sucking face instead of out there.  Food’s almost ready.”  Willow smacks Buffy’s hands as the slayer smirks at her over Tara’s shoulder. 

“Sorry.”  Buffy laughs as Willow rolls her eyes.

“No you’re not.  Now get out here, you two.”  Willow pulls on the two women, dragging them outside.  “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me Xander showed up!!  I also can’t believe that fantasy boy decided he’s into another man.”

“Maybe he decided that his luck with women was about like my luck with men?”  Buffy jokes, letting her hand rub gently over Tara’s lower back as she follows the two women into the back yard.  “I think switching teams was definitely a smart move in my case.”

Willow turns around, walking backwards towards Xander and Jason as they pull the food off the grill.  “Though I regret what I did, I think you make a damn good couple and I believe that things worked out the way they did for a reason.  I really don’t harbor any hard feelings about you two coming together.  At first I was upset and hurting, but I eventually came to terms with it and then while I was gone, I realized I just missed my family.”

“Growing up.”  Tara murmurs, reaching out and hugging Willow tightly.  “We missed you, too, sweetie.”

“I second that.”  Buffy hugs Willow and her lover both at the same time.  “I don’t like our family being split up.  And I’ll be doing my damnedest to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”  Buffy warns, before smacking both women on the ass and darting off, cackling as she hears the threats coming her way.

“How do you put up with her?”  Willow puts her fists on her hips as she watches Buffy grab Dawnie up and run around the yard with her sister yelling at her between the laughter.

“How can I not?”  Tara smiles softly at the sight.  “I never meant to fall in love with her, Willow, it just kind of happened.”

“I’ve never seen her happier.”  Willow looks at Tara for a moment, seeing the sparkling eyes and the soft smile on Tara’s face as she watches Buffy.  “Honestly, I’m not so sure that I’ve ever seen you happier, either.  You’re good for each other, Tara.  Just be happy and love each other.  That’s what’s important.”

“Thank you, Willow.”  Tara whispers, tears coming to hear eyes as she accepts the gentle hug from the redhead.  “We’re supposed to be having fun, not crying.”

Willow sniffles and rubs her cheek over Tara’s shoulder.  “No more tears, gotcha.”

Tara chuckles and leans back wiping the tears from her face.  “You’re taking Xander and Jason well.”

“You could have bowled me over with a feather!”  Willow laughs and looks over at the two men huddled close together as they turn the steaks.  “Though Xander seems extremely happy.”

“He is.  You going to bunk down with Dawnie tonight?  Kennedy gets the couch, since Xander and Jason are staying in your room.”  Tara winces slightly.

“It’s not my room anymore, Tara.  Don’t worry about it.  I was just planning on staying at my parents.”  Willow admits quietly.

“Nope.  Not happening.  You’re staying here with us tonight.  Then depending on what we find out tomorrow, we’ll go from there.”  Buffy slides Dawn off her shoulder and ducks the smack from her sister, sticking her tongue out at her.  “Dawn already put your stuff in her room.”

“And the boss has spoken.”  Willow smirks at Buffy and wraps her arm around Dawn’s waist.  “Come on, let’s go pick on Xander’s new boyfriend.  Can’t let him think we’re going to let him into our family without some major grilling, now can we?”

Dawn giggles and traipses along beside Willow.

“You didn’t tell her about the million questions you asked Jason?”  Tara snorts at the mischievous smile crossing her lover’s face.  “I’ll take that as a no.  Though, I have to admit, he didn’t go running the other way when you were done with him.”

“No.  He held up pretty well.”  Buffy agrees, chuckling as Willow separates the two men and starts her own form of interrogation.  “I think he’s a keeper.”

“I have to agree with you about that.”  Tara leans against Buffy, the man’s feelings for Xander obvious with every look and touch between the two.  Xander’s shyness around the rest of the group was adorable, though he never pulled away from any of the touches of his new lover.  But he often blushed when he caught one of them watching. 

“Xander’s slowly becoming more comfortable around us with Jason.”  Buffy comments, having caught Xander reaching out and touching the other man more frequently as the day progressed.

“He was a nervous wreck as to how everyone would react to him being with a guy.  I told him this morning, that the heart will love who it will.  Whether it’s a woman or man and to just take it as it’s offered.  Goddess knows that in our world, we can use all the love we can.”  Tara smiles sadly at Buffy.

“Loving the person, instead of worrying what everyone else will think.”  Buffy nods her head in agreement.  “You’ve helped me with that immensely.  Come on, the foods about ready, and poor Xander is looking like he’s about ready to throttle Willow.”

Tara chuckles and walks beside her lover towards their family.

***

Chapter 20

Buffy growls as she listens to Willow and Kennedy explain about the Bringers, The First and how different Watchers and potentials have been disappearing, and are assumed to have been killed.

“The Council had an emergency meeting, and with Giles’ urging suggested that the best protection for them is you and Faith.”  Willow continues, wincing briefly as Buffy narrows her gaze on her.

“Faith?  She’s in jail, how is she going to be any help?”  Buffy finally questions roughly, her body tense until Tara’s hand gently starts to rub her back soothingly, making her slowly relax.

“They’ve already started the paperwork to have her released from jail.  They’re pulling in some big favors with the government, and with Faith’s exemplary behavior in jail, it looks like it won’t be much longer before they let her out.”  Willow explains softly, switching from looking at Buffy and Tara to Dawn, Xander, Jason and Kennedy, before her eyes land back on Buffy.  “I thought maybe Tara wouldn’t mind driving me to pick her up?” 

Buffy blinks at the question before turning to look at Tara.  When Tara just tilts her head slightly as she watches her, Buffy sighs.  “We’ll discuss it.  What else?”

“The Coven is sending a couple of their best spell casters here to help set up blocks and cast glamour spells to conceal the potentials from detection.  The Council is literally scrambling to contact all the Watchers to bring the potentials here.  Kennedy luckily was saved from a Bringer.  Unfortunately her Watcher wasn’t as lucky.”  Willow sighs quietly as she looks sadly at the potential fidgeting nervously and looking down at the floor.  “They’re setting up an account and setting it up for us to be able to pull from it to pay for everything.”

“They should, the stingy assed bastards.”  Xander growls as he thinks about how much Buffy had gone through with absolutely no help from the Council whatsoever. 

Buffy snorts in agreement.  “Yeah, all of a sudden they grow a conscience?  Not likely.  If all the potentials are killed, they have no reason to be around.  I’m not stupid.”  Buffy growls angrily.

“Shhh, my sweet one.”  Tara wraps her arms around her tense and angry lover.  “All you’re doing is upsetting yourself when there’s nothing that can be done.”

Buffy growls for a few more minutes before finally nodding her head, knowing Tara’s right, but it still pisses her off. 

“So, what are we going to do?”  Xander questions, turning to look at Jason curiously. 

“I’m wherever you are.”  Jason calmly replies, knowing months ago he’d fallen in love with the younger man, and after finding out about the evil in the world they had actually worked together to take out different vampires before Xander felt the call to come back here to his home. 

Xander breathes out a sigh of relief and nods his head at his boyfriend in thanks.

“Tara’s already put in an application to teach in the new high school they’re building over the old one.  I guess I’ll check with the college and see if they know who I need to contact about working at the high school once it gets built.”  Buffy shrugs, not knowing what else to do.

“I can see if there’re any openings on the construction crew.”  Xander offers, his brows furrowing, wondering if his old construction crew is working on the new high school. 

“I can start digging around on the Internet and see what I can come up with.”  Willow shrugs and looks at the group.  “Other than that, it’s more of a wait and see game.”

“Until then, Jason and I can maybe work on fixing up the basement as another bedroom, the garage and the room off the living room.  That’ll be some more living spaces for future mini-slayers.”  Xander looks at Buffy for her approval.

“Extra bathroom, or two might be a good idea.”  Buffy admits, knowing just with four people in the house that the one bathroom wasn’t enough.  “Do you think you can put in a toilet and shower in the basement?  Maybe instead of making the small room a bedroom use it for another bathroom.  It’s kind of small to be a bedroom.”

“I’ll have to figure out where the plumbing runs and see how easy it’ll be to cut into it.”  Xander purses his lips.

Jason looks at the small room in question, and mentally tries to figure out where the bathroom is.  “We may be cutting a few holes in the walls to find where everything runs, but we can fix it afterwards.”

“We’re going to need the bathrooms, so do what you have to.”  Buffy sighs heavily at the thought.  “The money will come out of the Council’s money, and if they bitch about it, I’ll tell them they can keep all the kiddies themselves and find someone else to deal with the next dozen or so apocalypses.”  Turning her gaze on Dawn, Buffy purses her lips.

Dawn silently listens to the group until she notices Buffy looking at her contemplatively.  “NO!  You are not sending me away.  Every time something happens you try and ship me off somewhere, and I’m not going!!”

Buffy growls at her sister.  “If this is going to end up being kiddy heaven for a bunch of teenagers, we’re going to need all the room we can get.  And if all hell is going to break loose, I’d rather you be somewhere a lot safer than here.”

“NO!”  Dawn growls back at Buffy.

“Goddess, please!”  Tara rubs a hand over her forehead as she looks from one sister to the other.  “We’ll discuss this later.  And calmly.”  Tara narrows her eyes on Buffy before turning the glare on Dawn.  “Now, why doesn’t someone call Giles and find out what’s going on, and whether or not the money has already been wired into either Buffy’s account or a new account.”

“Jason, let’s go and get my tools from the storage unit, we can at least find out where everything is located for future plumbing needs and get a running list of the supplies we’ll need.”  Xander hurries from the house, Jason on his heels, really not wanting to be around if World War III breaks out.

“Wimps.”  Kennedy smirks as the two guys practically run from the house.

Buffy snorts in agreement.  “Maybe he’ll bring munchies back with him.” 

Willow smirks at the thought, before taking a deep breath.  “Okay, let me get my laptop and hook-up to see what I can hack into.”

“I’ll call Giles.”  Buffy brushes her lips tenderly over Tara’s cheek before heading into the kitchen to get the phone.

“Well, what should I do?”  Kennedy questions, looking from Dawn to Tara. 

“Help me prepare lunch, or help Dawnie with gathering and doing the laundry.  With the amount of people living here, the bathroom and laundry will probably need to be cleaned and done daily.”  Tara shrugs, looking at Dawn with a quirked eyebrow, daring the teen to argue with her. 

“Fine.”  Dawn pouts.  “But I’m not going to be doing it every day.”  Dawn warns as she heads up the stairs.

Kennedy looks undecided as her eyes follow Dawn before dropping back to the witch watching her calmly. 

“Not meaning this in a bad way, but do you have the slightest idea how to clean or cook?”  Tara softly questions, her eyes serious.  When Kennedy blushes and looks away, she sighs.  “Come on.  You can be my shadow for while.”  Tara offers after a few minutes, figuring the young woman would have better luck sticking with her, than any of the other people.

Kennedy follows behind the witch, eyes widening as she listens to Buffy blasting someone on the other end of the phone when they walk into the kitchen.

“Buffy.”  Tara whispers softly, her brows furrowing as her lover angrily growls into the phone before pulling it away from her mouth to look at her. 

“They’re trying to tell me that it’s going to be weeks before they can get money put in an account, but there’re already two more potentials on their way here.”  Buffy growls, waving the phone around. 

Tara grabs the phone from Buffy and steps out on the porch with a frown on her face.

“Uh, oh.  They’re in for it now.”  Buffy smirks before rocking back and forth on her feet as she unabashedly listens to Tara calmly and sweetly telling the Council that to give her to someone that had some balls and can do what they want, or they could have the potentials turn around and head to the Council instead of to Sunnydale for Buffy to protect.

Kennedy blinks as she can almost feel the coldness of the witch’s words wrapping around her as Tara tells them to get the money wired into Buffy’s account as she tells them the bank routing number and Buffy’s account number, letting them know that any bank can wire it to her bank and it be there literally in minutes, and she wasn’t going to put up with their shit.  If they want them to take care of these young women and girls, they damn well will be paying for their support and the changes and additions that will be needed on the house. 

Buffy smirks as Tara hangs the phone back in the cradle. 

“Check the bank tomorrow, if they haven’t made a hefty deposit, and I mean literally at least twenty thousand dollars, let me know.”  Tara opens the refrigerator and starts pulling items out to make sub sandwiches.

“Who did you end up talking to?”  Buffy questions, knowing that Tara had ended up talking with someone different than the person she had originally talked to.

“Travers, the prick.”  Tara growls as she sets out the mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, tomatoes and onions before reaching back in for the lunch meats and cheeses. 

Buffy snorts at the thought.  “I’ll help Dawn with the laundry.”  Buffy finally starts to laugh as she disappears down the steps to the basement, Dawn having walked by a few minutes earlier while Tara was on the phone with the Council.

“Have you ever sliced onions or tomatoes?”  Tara questions as she sets the items down on the island before pulling out a couple cutting boards and knives.

Kennedy just shakes her head.

“Well, it’s about time you learned.”  Tara smiles gently at the young woman, realizing that she had obviously always had everything done for her.  And it was about time that she learned how to do for herself instead of having everyone wait on her hand and foot.  Knowing that’s part of the young woman’s problem, hoping that this might help her straighten out some.  “Here, this is how you clean an onion…” 

***

“Oh, Strawberry, you’re back.”  Rack smiles as he waves his fingers around the smoke from his spell that he’d been doing once a week after he realized his star witch had left the Hellmouth, setting the plans back even further.  But now that she’s back, he can contact Caleb and let him know that everything is back on track.

“Now to set in motion the plans to get you here so I can tap your power.”  Rack walks over to the harnessing crystals he’d spent the last months locating and bringing to Sunnydale to hold the witch’s power until needed.  Running his fingers over one of the crystals an absolutely evil smile crosses his lips, the scar on his face shifting.  “To taste you again, Strawberry will make me extremely happy.”  Rack chuckles evilly as he licks his lips at the thought before calling out to his assistant so he can get his spy network in place to watch the redheaded witch until the opportune time to kidnap her.

***

Chapter 21

Tara sniggers quietly as they make their way towards LA and the women’s correctional facility to pick up Faith.  Ten days after Willow had arrived back in Sunnydale they got word from the Council that the slayer would be released the following Friday.  Now, she’s driving with Willow to pick up the rogue slayer while Willow rambles on non-stop about Kennedy not leaving her alone.

“I don’t know what it is with that girl!  Though I have to admit when she turned her gaze on you that once and Buffy snarled at her it was funny as hell.”  Willow finally laughs at the smirk on Tara’s face. 

“What, you don’t want the spoiled little mini-slayer for a girlfriend?”  Tara laughs at the loud groan and the smack she gets on the shoulder from Willow.

“NO!  Though she has gotten better, and actually has been helping around the house for the last week or so, but I am so NOT attracted to her.  She still seems like a kid, you know?”  Willow answers seriously, looking at Tara for a few moments, watching as the smirk turns into a soft smile on the blonde’s lips. 

“She still has a lot of growing up to do.”  Tara nods in agreement, darting a glance to Willow.  “How are you doing, honestly?”  Tara questions softly.

“Actually good.”  Willow admits.  “You helping me with the exercises the Coven wants me to do is a major contributor.”

“I’m always willing to help you in whatever way I can, Willow.”  Tara reaches over and gently pats Willow’s knee before putting her hand back on the steering wheel.  “You’re not feeling any weirdness about me and Buffy?”

Willow purses her lips and thinks about the question and the two women for a few minutes before finally answering.  “Honestly, I thought I might have some residual feelings left over, but I don’t.”  Willow smiles softly at Tara, having to admit that she still loves the witch and probably always will, but understands that they’re never going to be a couple again, and truthfully they’d both changed since they’d broken up and they weren’t the same people they were.  Willow admits to herself that Tara seems to have grown emotionally more since hooking up with Buffy, whereas before she would keep most of her thoughts and comments to herself, she’s now one of the first people to make comments and give her opinion on whatever subject is being discussed.  “Buffy’s been good for you, Tara.  And you have definitely been good for her.”

Tara blushes lightly as a small smile crosses her face.  “I love her, Willow.  Sometimes my breath gets caught in my chest when I see her looking at me, you know?  Her love is almost a physical presence, and to see it pointed at me is almost unbelievable.”

“That’s something that’s changed since you two got together, also.”  Willow comments softly.  Seeing Tara look at her questioningly, Willow smiles at the witch.  “Buffy showing her emotions, instead of keeping them locked inside.  I’ve noticed since you two got together that she’s slowly opened up more over time, and now it’s almost like night and day as to what she used to be like.  If she’s angry about something, she lets the person know instead of keeping it locked away, and what’s even more surprising is how much more demonstrative she is physically.  I swear I’ve received more hugs from her in the last week than the first couple years we were friends.” 

Tara chuckles and nods her head.  “If we’re in the house, I honestly don’t think we go more than ten or fifteen minutes without touching.  I think it helps ground her and fills something she needs from all those years of distancing herself from everyone.” 

Willow looks at the map, knowing they’re coming up on the road the Correctional facility is on.  “It should be the next road.”

“Right?”  Tara questions, checking her rear view mirror as she slows down so they can make out the road name.

“Yep, and this is it.”  Willow confirms as they slow down more and Tara turns on the signal before turning down the road.

“I honestly think Buffy’s looking forward to Faith coming back with us.  Of course, having someone else to help babysit and train the baby-slayers might have something to do with it.”  Tara grins crookedly as Willow giggles. 

“She’s already threatened the couple slayers in training that are being especially difficult, with Faith.  She left it to me to tell Faith that she gets to be a royal bitch to them, since they’re already afraid of her.  They were in awe of Buffy until they saw how tiny she was, and how whipped she is around you.”  Willow gets a dig in, laughing as Tara growls and half-heartedly smacks her on the leg. 

“I don’t want her to change, though.”  Tara admits the now caring and loving slayer is something she’d never want to change, though Buffy does rip into the girls occasionally, and Goddess knows that she takes out her frustrations and anger on the demons in Sunnydale.

“No.  Neither would I.”  Willow admits as Tara pulls the Jeep into the parking space.  Grabbing the paperwork with Faith’s release orders, Willow meets Tara at the front of the Jeep as the two women walk companionably up the steps and in the front door.

***

Faith shifts in the seat looking from Tara to Willow and back again.  “How come I’m up here, instead of in the back?”

“Why would we put you in the back seat?”  Tara questions softly, frowning as she starts the vehicle, Faith having been somewhat shocked at being released from jail.  The two women having found out that the Council had kept the slayer in the dark as to what they were doing.  Now they’re going to have to explain everything to the slayer, thankfully it was a decent drive back to Sunnydale. 

“Well, you two were datin’, right?”  Faith looks at Tara before turning back to a quietly giggling Willow. 

“Until roughly a year ago, we were, yes.”  Tara answers, relaxing as she realizes what Faith was getting at.  Backing the Jeep up, she puts it in gear and starts driving back towards Sunnydale, planning on stopping somewhere for them all to eat.  Having a feeling Faith would love to have some regular food instead of the jail food.

“Long story.”  Willow blushes, her eyes wide as Faith turns her dark brown eyes on her curiously. 

“We got a long drive.”  Faith comments, waving a hand towards the front of the vehicle.  “And not that I’m really bitchin’, but why am I outta jail and you guys pickin’ me up?”

“Another long story.”  Tara murmurs, chuckling softly as Faith growls.  “Growling at me doesn’t do anything, Faith.  I’m used to it.”  Tara laughs at the confused look on Faith’s face. 

“Okay, I’ll start with Tara and I.”  Willow sighs and eases back against the back of the seat, slowly giving Faith the Reader’s Digest version of her and Tara’s relationship, all the way through what she did to Tara without cutting herself any slack on exactly what she did, watching the shocked look come across Faith’s face with her admittance, before she sees a quick look of sorrow as she realizes that she’d lost Tara because of what she’d done.  “It may seem weird for me to say this, but even though I love Tara and always will, it was a good thing for all concerned that we broke up.” 

Tara blushes lightly as she glances up into the rearview mirror when she sees the smirk on Willow’s face.  “Oh, look.  An exit with food, and we need to fill up also.  Do you mind fast food?”  Tara questions softly, looking at a curious Faith. 

“Nah.  Sounds like heaven, ta tell you the truth.  A dozen Big Mac’s, fries and an apple pie or two sounds great.”  Faith tilts her head as Tara blush darkens even more with her staring at her. 

“Hmmm… to tell Faith, or to let her just be shocked when you’re greeted when we get back to Sunnydale.”  Willow taps her finger against her chin, chuckling at the squeak coming from Tara.

“Surely it wouldn’t be that much of a shock?”  Tara’s eyes widen and look at Willow before shifting her gaze back to the road as she slows down on the exit ramp, turning towards the fast food restaurant, happy to see that the gas station is just a little further down the road.

“Hello!  Look at who we’re talking about here!!”  Willow starts to laugh loudly at the confused look on Faith’s face and the slow, knowing grin finally crossing Tara’s. 

“You have a point.  I guess I was more than a little surprised myself.”  Tara agrees, pulling the vehicle into the parking lot. 

“Fuck, guys!!  Come on, what the hell are ya’ talkin’ about?”  Faith finally growls loudly as she steps out of the Jeep shutting the door to glare from Willow to Tara and back again when neither seems willing to say anything. Deciding to give up on that line of questioning, Faith shifts gears.  “Red, I have ta’ admit, I’m happy you ain’t pissed at me and threatening to skin me alive… but why ain’t ya’?”

“You were listening to me tell you what I did, weren’t you?”  Willow looks sadly at the slayer, her eyes darting to Tara before coming back.  “I’ve had a while to come to terms with things, and I have absolutely no right to throw stones.  Plus a few things became a lot clearer while I was doing the introspective Willow thing.  I realized I never gave you a chance when you were in Sunnydale, and if anything, I owe you an apology for treating you like shit.”

Faith snorts and shakes her head.  “I hold a fuckin’ knife to your throat, and you’re apologizin’?  Red, I’m the one that’s got some serious apologizin’, beggin’ and all kinds of shit to make up for.”  Faith rubs a hand roughly over the back of her neck in nervousness, feeling uncomfortable, but knowing she needs to do things right this time.  “I’m sorry for the shit I pulled, Red.  I was in a pretty fucked up place at the time, and I never, ever shoulda done the things I did.  Hopefully one day you can maybe forgive me, even if we can’t ever be buds.”

Tara eases closer to the door, giving the two women some privacy as she watches Willow fidget slightly even as she reaches out to stop the dark-haired slayer. 

Looking intently into honest brown eyes, seeing more emotions than she can ever remember seeing in Faith before, wondering if she’d never bothered to look, or if everything that’s happened to the slayer including spending the last two years in jail had changed her so much.  “You’re forgiven, Faith.  And I’d like to give the friendship a real try this time, if you’re interested.”  Willow offers softly.

Faith blinks in shock and surprise staring at the redhead, before slowly nodding her head.  “I am.”  Faith slowly relaxes as a beautiful smile crosses Willow’s face.  Chuckling at the sight, Faith nods her head towards the fast food restaurant.  “Come on, I could eat a whole cow myself.  You know, all you get for burgers in the joint is fuckin’ soy burgers?  They can’t even give ya’ real meat.”

“I’m not so sure this is real meat, either.”  Tara jokes softly as the two women make their way towards the door, Tara opens it to let them go by her, chuckling softly behind the two laughing women.  Happy to feel the lessening of the tension between the small group, hoping that things continue to go well, since they all need to pull together to take out the newest big bad, because from the sounds of it, he’s making Glory seem like a flea on a dog in comparison.

***

“Fuck me.”  Faith blinks in shock as Willow finishes telling her about the First and his plans to obliterate the slayer line.  “And they’re thinkin’ me and B are the best protection?”

“Yes.  We already have eight SIT’s, a couple of Watchers and witches that are staying at my parents’ house since it’s getting crowded, but they stay at the house or do shopping until it’s time to try and get some sleep.”  Willow explains quietly.  “Also, I don’t know how you’ll react to this, but Buffy was kind of hoping you’d come in with your normal bad ass attitude and use it to help keep the SIT’s in line.  They have a tendency to kind of blow her off.” 

Faith quirks an eyebrow as she sees the smirk on Tara’s face, and the quiet laughter coming from Willow as they enter Sunnydale city limits.  Knowing there’s something else to the comments, but the two women still hadn’t explained their earlier comments, and she has a gut feeling it all ties in together. 

“Do you think Buffy had any luck trying to talk Dawnie into either heading to LA or to her dad’s?”  Willow questions curiously looking at Tara.

“Doubtful.”  Tara sighs quietly at the thought.  “I wish Dawnie would go.  Her being out of here and somewhere safe would make Buffy a little less tense… hell probably all of us.”  Tara admits quietly.  “Maybe I’ll try talking to her again.”

“She’s stubborn like her sister.”  Willow smirks at the thought.  Watching as Tara turns down Revello Drive, Willow starts chuckling, before the chuckles turn to full fledged laughter at the sight of Buffy pacing back and forth in front of the house.

“Oh, Goddess.”  Tara murmurs softly at the sight of her lover turning to watch the Jeep pull into the driveway, her fists on her hips and her eyes narrowed. 

“Hmmm…  What’s going to happen here?”  Willow chortles at the thought.

“We’re not that late.”  Tara mumbles under her breath.  “I mean, yes we had that flat tire, but she knew we were going to stop and get something to eat.”

Faith frowns as she listens then watches as Tara hurriedly opens her door.  “What the hell?”  Faith questions, turning her gaze on Willow, Willow just points out the Jeep towards Tara and Buffy before she laughs and climbs out of the vehicle.

Faith turns back and her eyes open wide as she watches Buffy stride towards Tara until she’s invading her personal space.

“You better have a good reason for being late.  You should have been here at least an hour ago.”  Buffy growls softly, her eyes caressing over Tara’s body, looking for anything out of the ordinary.

“Flat tire and the spare was dry rotted.”  Tara offers, wincing slightly.

Buffy exhales quietly.  “We are going to spend money on damn cell phones.”  Buffy wraps her arms around Tara’s neck and pulls her down the short distance for what she was planning on being a brief, loving kiss that slowly turns into a deep, heated kiss leaving both women wanting more.  “I missed you and was worried.”  Buffy finally whispers, resting her forehead against Tara’s.

“I missed you, too, my sweet one.”  Tara hugs Buffy tightly, before nipping gently on the end of Buffy’s nose.  “I promise to make it up to you.”  Tara grins crookedly at her lover.

“Oooh.  I like that idea.”  Buffy smirks and presses a hard, quick kiss to Tara’s lips.  “How was the trip?”  Buffy steps back and frowns as she hears a thud, looking around to see Faith on her ass with a stunned expression on her face.  “I assume you didn’t give Faith a rundown of what’s been happening?”

“Ummm.  The majority of what’s happening, like the fact that The First is trying to eradicate the slayer line, we have mini-slayers staying here, along with Watchers and witches coming to visit frequently and often.”  Tara taps her chin in thought.  “She does know that Willow and I are broken up, but that’s about it.”

Buffy snorts as Faith looks from her to Tara, to Willow and back again.  “Welcome to Sunnyhell, where it makes Passions pale in comparison.”  Buffy laughs and steps over to Faith, offering her hand to the slayer.  “Wait!  Does she know about Xander?” 

“Nope.”  Willow answers, giggling madly.

“So help me, if ya’ try to fuckin’ tell me he’s decided to jump the fence, too I’m gonna go back to fuckin’ jail.”  Faith growls as she takes Buffy’s hand and hops up.

“Get back in the Jeep, then.”  Tara looks seriously at the dark-haired slayer, though there’s a smile trying to break across her face as the slayer jerks around to stare in disbelief at her.  Shrugging, Tara lets the huge smile cross her lips.

“You’re just fuckin’ with me.”  Faith growls, her eyes narrowed.  “What happened to the shy stutterin’ witch?” 

Tara shrugged.  “She grew up and grew into her own.”  Tara laughs at the slight head nod she gets from Faith in agreement, the slayer having already apologized profusely for being a bitch to her their one and only meeting to be forgiven and told not to worry about it. 

“She thinks you’re kidding.”  Buffy whispers softly into Tara’s ear as Faith grabs her gear out of the back of the Jeep.

“Uh, huh.”  Tara giggles at the thought.  “Are Xander and Jason here?”

“In the back working on the two grills with the other Watchers helping them fix burgers and hot dogs.”  Buffy wraps her arm around Tara’s waist.  “Willow?  I hate to tell you, but there was a little re-arranging of the sleeping arrangements while you were gone and somehow or another Kennedy got herself put in the same room with you.”

“NO, NO, NO, NO!!!”  Willow yells, spinning around to stare in disbelief at Buffy.  “I am NOT sharing a room with that, that, that…”

“Spoiled rich bitch?”  Buffy offers, grinning at Willow.  “That has the major hots for you?”

“Why was there a re-arrange?”  Willow growls at Buffy, her eyes narrowed.

“We had two more SIT’s show up.  Xander and Jason took the small room in the basement, and I thought you would like to have your old room back, but of course with it being the master bedroom, with all the extra space in it, you get bunkmates.  Four of them.”  Buffy shifts and wraps her arms around Tara’s waist from behind, effectively putting her lover between her and Willow. 

Faith snorts as she listens to the group, shutting the back of the Jeep as she slings her duffel bag over her shoulder.  It not really clicking in her head that Buffy said Xander and Jason, as she looks at Willow.  “Do I get ta’ start being a hard ass now?  What’cha want me to do?”

“Sleep with me.”  Willow jumps in hurriedly, her eyes widening, as she blushes at what she said.  “Uh, uh…”

“Really, Red?”  Faith purrs as she walks by the redhead, leaning towards her.  “You don’t say?  Your wish is my command.”  Faith chuckles wickedly as she trots towards the house. 

“I… I…”  Willow whimpers.  “I didn’t mean it like that.” 

Tara giggles and turns around to bury her face in Buffy’s neck as Buffy laughs at the look on Willow’s face.  “Looks like Willow’s got a new bedmate.”

“You two!!”  Willow sends them a dirty look as she stomps towards the house, ignoring the laughter coming from behind her.

***

Chapter 22

“Think she’s pissed at me?”  Tara questions between giggles as Faith glares at her from across the yard.  Tara’s sitting on the ground with Buffy’s back resting against her front as she relaxes while Buffy continues to eat. 

“What would give you that idea?”  Buffy snorts as she works her way through another double cheeseburger. 

“It isn’t my fault she thought I was kidding about Xander.”  Tara buries her face in Buffy’s neck hugging her lover against her tightly, laughing as she remembers the dark-haired slayer coming after her, stating there was no way those two were together, that she had to have the two men acting like a couple just to fuck with her.  Of course when Xander laid a huge kiss on Jason to prove to Faith that they were serious, it was obvious in more ways than just the kiss that they were together.  Now Faith keeps glaring at her. 

“I want to take half the SIT’s with us on patrol tonight.  They need some real experience, and I feel better with both Faith and I being with them.”  Buffy murmurs a little while later after she finished eating dinner and was relaxing back against Tara, letting her fingers trail over her lover’s legs as she watches the rest of the group.

“Any in particular?”  Tara questions curiously, looking at the group of SIT’s spread out around the yard.  Chuckling as she notices the Watchers and the witches from the coven conversing in one area while Faith is leaning against the house looking half asleep now that she isn’t glaring at her anymore, though she has a feeling the slayer is watching and listening to everything.  Willow is just close enough to the dark-haired slayer to keep Kennedy away from her, snorting as she remembers Kennedy’s stuff flying down the stairs after Faith had gone up there when they got home, with Kennedy running down a few seconds later.

“I figured to split them up.  One that’s at the low end another one or two in the middle and one of the better trained ones.”  Buffy admits, looking at the group of girls. 

“One of the better ones will be either Kennedy or Joanna.”  Tara purses her lips as she looks at the two girls.  “Rona, Vi, Chloe, and Eve I would consider more or less the middle ground.  With Amanda and Molly being on the lower end.” 

“Been paying attention, have you?”  Buffy chuckles as Tara nips gently at her ear.  “Maybe I’ll give Faith a chance to irritate Kennedy a little more and take her tonight.  Amanda, though on the whiny side gets along pretty much with everyone, so I’ll grab her also.”  Buffy tilts her head as she thinks about the other girls. 

“How about Rona and Eve?  Rona’s been doing well and I would consider her at the higher end of the middle group, so taking her tonight in the first group might be a better idea, then next time take the last four.”  Tara suggests, shrugging.  “I would say ask Faith who she thinks, but she hasn’t seen them working out yet, and tonight might give her a better idea of what they can and can’t do, before putting them all through their paces tomorrow.” 

Buffy whistles sharply, smirking as Faith shifts from where she was leaning negligently against the side of the house and strides towards them, Willow following quickly behind.  “Faith and her shadow.”  Buffy sniggers softly.

“Don’t pick too much, maybe Willow does like her.”  Tara whispers softly in Buffy’s ear.

Buffy starts to chuckle, before stopping and blinking at the thought.  “Huh.”

“Didn’t think of that, did you?”  Tara grins crookedly as Buffy turns and looks at her curiously as Faith and Willow stand at the edge of the blanket they’re spread out on.  “Let’s scoot back and give them room, honey.”  Tara shifts more up from where she was half reclined back. 

“Sit.”  Buffy orders softly as she maneuvers to sit beside Tara instead of practically on her.  “I want to make sure this is okay with you, Faith…”  Buffy explains what she has planned for that night’s patrol. 

“Whatever ya’ think, B.  I don’t know what they got going for ‘em until I see ‘em in action.”  Faith shrugs, shifting her head to look at the group of SIT’s.  “Hell, the only one I’m sure of is rich bitch.  I don’t know who the other ones are, tell ya’ the truth.” 

Tara chuckles quietly.  “Trust me, if they hadn’t arrived separately and I had to learn who they were all at the same time, I’d probably be confused, too.  Darn, I didn’t think about Janie and Debbie.”  Tara looks at the two newest girls that had arrived together with another Watcher.

“I need to put them through their paces before I figure out what group they belong in.  At least they have some training, so they should be at least in the ‘know just enough to get into trouble’, but not the ‘know so much that they’re cocky’ group.”  Buffy smirks as she hears the snort from Faith.

“Are you going to want some kind of witch-y back up?”  Willow questions curiously, as she glances at Tara before looking back at the rest of the group. 

Buffy quirks an eyebrow as she looks at her lover.  “What do you think?”

“The children have their glamour spells that should confuse anyone that would do a locator spell on them, so the main reason to need one of us with you, besides another adult to even things out somewhat, would be for protection spells.”  Tara purses her lips in consideration.  “Anna is the best in that particular instance.”

“I’ll run it by her.”  Buffy tilts her head as she looks at Faith.  “I’m sorry for dropping you into the middle of all this, Faith.  But we really need your help, and you being a hard ass to the girls.  I think some good old fashioned fear will do wonders with some of them.”  Buffy smirks a she thinks about Kennedy.

“And here I’ve been tryin’ to be on my best behavior, and you’re tellin’ me to be a bitch.”  Faith smirks as she scratches her head in contemplation.  “How tough are ya’ wantin’ me to go with ‘em, B?”  Faith finally questions after a few moments.

Buffy sighs and leans forward, seeing the serious and somewhat wary look in Faith’s eyes.  Both emotions something she really wouldn’t have used to describe the ‘old Faith’, but having noticed the way the woman stayed back and actually seemed to be watching everything around her intently, judging and coming to her own conclusions about the different people here she realizes Faith had done some serious growing up while in jail.  “Nothing you would feel uncomfortable with, Faith.  But I would like you to use your attitude, your intimidation factor and possibly be something of an ungiving hard ass.”

“Good cop, bad cop.”  Tara murmurs quietly under her breath looking at the dark-haired slayer with a somewhat guilty look on her face.  “I’m sorry, but between what you’ve been through and the majority of the girls not being afraid of Buffy, this would probably work out the best.”

Faith stares at Tara for a few minutes, her emotions locked down tight as she notices the actual guilty and sorrowful look crossing the witch’s face, realizing Tara really is sorry for her being in this position even though she had nothing to do with it.  “B?”

“Yeah?”  Buffy answers immediately, her eyes serious and a hint of sadness even in their depths.

“You’re damned lucky ta’ have her, B.  It ain’t your fault, Blondie.  I pretty much fucked up my own life.  I’ll just be thanking whatever PTB that’s given me a chance to do things right this time.”  Faith turns her gaze back to Buffy, talking softly and deadly serious.  “I am gonna do things right this time, B.  If ya’ see me fuckin’ up, knock me upside the head.”

“That won’t be necessary.”  Willow comments softly, looking at the dark-haired slayer. 

Faith’s eyes widen slightly at the softly spoken words, wondering exactly what Willow means as she makes contact with green eyes watching her intently, with understanding and some other emotion she’s not sure of at the forefront. 

“I’m going to start gathering the weapons and let the baby slayers know.”  Buffy presses a quick kiss to Tara’s cheek.  “Make sure we have the room to ourselves tonight.”  Buffy warns as she stands, grinning down at Tara as she wiggles her eyebrows. 

“Was planning on it anyway.”  Tara chuckles as Buffy laughs and takes off towards the house.

“I, I think I’ll help.”  Faith hops up and takes after Buffy hurriedly.

Tara looks questioningly at Willow as the redhead shifts to sit beside her and watches Buffy and Faith disappear into the house after telling the girls to gather together.  “Can I ask you something, Willow?”  Tara questions curiously.

“Sure.”  Willow turns to look at Tara, blinking at the serious light in Tara’s eyes. 

“Do you like Faith?”  Tara speaks softly to be sure she isn’t overheard.

“What?”  Willow’s eyes widen in shock, shaking her head in the negative even with her question. 

“Willow, sweetie, I’m just curious.”  Tara gently pats Willow’s arm to calm the woman as she notices her starting to hyperventilate somewhat.  “It was just a question.  I mean, a lot of time people say they don’t like someone or do hurtful things to them when they actually like them, especially when they’re younger.”  Tara remembers all the times Willow had went off about the ‘evil, skanky, cleavage-y, slut bomb’, silently wondering if Willow might have had a crush on Faith when she was a teenager but didn’t know how to express it, or more like afraid to express it.  Then when she made the comment for Faith to sleep with her earlier that day, Tara silently wonders if it wasn’t a Freudian slip.

“We hardly know each other, and she’s like just gotten out of prison, and, and, and like she’s into the guys…”  Willow starts to ramble, continuing on for a few minutes until she finally snaps her mouth shut at the half smirk and quirked eyebrow on her ex-lover’s face.  “Shut up.”  Willow grumbles as she hops up and strides away, doing her best to ignore the quiet laughter coming from Tara.

“Thou doth protest too much.”  Tara giggles quietly to herself as she stands, folding up the blanket to take back inside as the rest of the group gathers for the meeting Buffy called. 

***

“Okay, we’re going to take some of you on patrol tonight to see how you do in a real situation.”  Buffy looks over the girls, noticing who seems a little nervous, extremely nervous and of course Kennedy’s the only one that seems cocky and at ease.  Snorting internally at the thought of the young woman getting knocked down a peg or two, Buffy starts listing the girls that she and Tara had discussed.  When they step up, Buffy winks at Faith and nods her head towards the other slayer.

“Here’s the tools of the trade.”  Faith steps up, dumping the weapons on the ground.  “Grab a couple stakes a piece, and whatever other weapon you’re comfortable with.  If you ain’t comfortable with it, it’s going to be more of a hindrance than a help.”  Faith steps back watching as the girls grabs the weapons, smirking as Kennedy goes for the biggest sword that was too heavy and long for the short woman.

Buffy sees the smirk on Faith’s face as the dark-haired slayer darts her a knowing glance, the two of them having discussed the fact that the SIT would probably grab it, even though it was way too heavy and awkward for her.  The only reason Buffy had it, is because of her slayer strength, or there would be no way she could handle it properly. 

Faith shakes her head and turns back, nodding her head as the other girls slide the stakes into their jeans or pockets and they grab either short swords, crossbows or knives, depending on the girl.  “Good.  I don’t know how well ya’ work with the items ya’ picked and that’s something we’ll figure out as we go.  There’s only one of ya’ that I know bit off more than you can chew.”

Buffy shifts back as she watches Faith grab one of the hardwood practice swords that the council had sent for the girls to use. 

“Attack me.”  Faith snarls, dropping down into a defensive posture as she faces Kennedy.

Kennedy smirks as she settles her hands on the handle and starts to swing at the slayer, showing that she does have experience with a sword, but in no time Faith’s parried every one of her strikes and has knocked the sword out of Kennedy’s hand up into the air to catch it with her hand.

Holding the point against Kennedy’s neck, Faith narrows her gaze on the angry SIT, watching as the woman pales but doesn’t look away.  “I suggest ya’ pick somethin’ a little more within your means.  You overextend yourself and you’ll be worn out in no time by using somethin’ like this.”  Faith moves the blade away from the girl and leans down to pick up the scabbard to put the sword in, snorting as she quickly spins around and kicks the SIT back on her ass.

“And that shows that you always want to pay attention to what’s going on around you, because if Kennedy had been able to make contact with Faith, she could have hurt her.”  Buffy crosses her arms over her chest as she looks at the girls, watching as they all look shocked at how quickly Faith had knocked Kennedy back from what looked like a seriously off-balanced position when Kennedy had started to pounce angrily on the slayer.

Sliding the sword into the scabbard and threading it over her chest before leaning down and picking up a couple additional stakes and another knife quickly tucking the items away, Faith looks at the girls.  “We’re leavin’ in ten minutes, be ready.”

“I think this is more your size.”  Buffy kicks a short sword towards Kennedy with a warning glance before following Faith around the house to wait out front.

“Well, there’s wake-up call number one for the group.”  Tara comments as the girls all scramble towards the house. 

“They can’t afford to use kid gloves on them, or they’ll end up dead like the other girls and Watchers.”  Xander steps up beside Tara and Willow, sighing quietly.  “I think they still believe this is a game.”

“They’ll learn.  If they don’t…”  Tara shakes her head sadly at the thought before sighing heavily.  Looking towards a couple of the Watchers and witches as they step up beside them, Tara tilts her head curiously at them.

“They do have to learn.  You can’t treat these girls like kids.  Their lives are literally on the line.”  Greg speaks for all the Watchers having watched the display. 

Anna pats Tara gently on the shoulder.  “We’re doing everything we can to protect these young girls, but you have to remember, if they weren’t here and being protected they could very well already be dead.”

“I know.”  Tara whispers, her eyes sad.  “They’re still kids and deserve to be having fun, instead of worrying about being killed.”

Willow watches as Tara walks away, heading towards the front of the house.  “I guess those of you staying here for a while can go in and make yourselves at home.  Those heading back to my house can be walked over there by Buffy and Faith.”  Willow works her way out front to see the group off.

***

“Was I too rough?”  Faith runs a hand roughly through her hair as she glances at Buffy.

“No, I think you did just right, though you might want to keep an eye on Kennedy.  I didn’t think she’d have balls enough to try and go after you with your back turned.”  Buffy watches Faith for a few minutes.

“She’s a spoiled angry little girl that’s used to gettin’ her way.  She’s pissed at me for tossin’ her shit down the stairs and tellin’ her in no uncertain terms that Red wasn’t interested in her.”  Faith’s eyes twinkle as she looks over at Buffy.  “I kinda pushed her buttons.  I told her why would Red wanna have a baby slayer when she can have the real thing.” 

Buffy snorts and smacks Faith on the shoulder.  “You’re bad.  Though you know, you two do look physically quite a bit alike.”

Faith snarls her nose at the blonde slayer. 

“Hey, hey!  I just mean, you both have dark hair and dark eyes.  Admittedly you’re quite a bit taller than her.”  Buffy dodges the smack coming from Faith.

“And I’m better lookin’.  Hell, I ain’t better lookin’, I’m fuckin’ sexy.”  Faith smirks as Buffy rolls her eyes at her. 

“Not shy or lacking in self-esteem, either.”  Buffy snorts at the slayer before they both start chuckling and laughing. 

“That worries me.”  Tara comments as she rounds the house as the two slayers laugh and bounce off each other, smiling lovingly at Buffy as she trots over to her. 

“We’re just picking on each other.”  Buffy wraps her arms around Tara’s neck and pulls her down for a deep kiss.  Panting quietly as she ends the kiss, she places a soft kiss on top of Tara’s nose.  “I’m going to miss you while I’m out on patrol.”

“You’ll be too busy irritating the children.”  Tara rubs her hands up and down Buffy’s sides before leaning in to kiss her softly on the forehead.  “Be careful, my sweet one.”  Tara’s eyes glance towards the door as the SIT’s that are going on patrol come running out.  “Bring yourselves back safe and sound, ladies.” 

“You heard the boss.”  Buffy looks at the Watchers and witches that normally crash at Willow’s house.  “You want to lead?”  Buffy looks at Faith, smiling as Faith just shrugs and heads to the front of the group.  “Do you know where Willow’s house is?  That’s our first stop.”

“Yeah.”  Faith unconsciously looks at the redhead for a moment before turning to look at the girls.  “Loose grouping around the Watchers and witches.  As far as you’re concerned, they need you to protect ‘em and are civilians.  Keep your eyes and ears open for anything and everything.”

Tara grins crookedly at her lover as Buffy winks and grins at her.  “I guess I should work on cleaning up.”

“I already have the other mini-slayers working on that.  They should be pulling their weight around here, too.”  Jason leans against Xander, smiling at Tara.  “Come on, girls.  I rented a couple movies to pass the time while they’re out on patrol.”

“Bless you.”  Tara laughs and accepts the man’s arm around her shoulder, having to admit that he fit into the group quite well.  And she doesn’t remember ever seeing Xander as happy as he’s been since they showed back up in Sunnydale. 

“Well, be that way.”  Xander holds his arm out to Willow, grinning at his old friend as she accepts and wraps her arm around his waist as they make their way into the house.  “Sooo…  What’s going on between you and Faith?”

“XANDER!”  Willow bounces into his side and whimpers quietly as the rest of the group busts out laughing, blushing a dark red even as her eyes dart back to where the large group starts to turn down the block.  Not knowing why, but realizing she’s been seeking the slayer out the majority of the day, just to be close but not right there invading her space.

***

Chapter 23

“What the hell was that?”  Vi finally shifts closer to Buffy and Faith as the two slayers look at each other after taking out the Uber Vamp.

“That was a vampire… but not the normal vampires we usually deal with.”  Buffy finally answers, frowning as she looks at the group of girls.  “Something’s going on, and we have to find out what.  He was like ten times stronger than the Master was when I fought him.” 

“Yeah, Kakistos was nothin’ compared to him.”  Faith shivers slightly while wiping some blood off her cheek where the vampire had made contact and split the skin.  “You okay, B?”

“More or less.”  Buffy rubs her side where she knows her ribs are bruised, and possibly cracked.  “Come on, ladies we need to finish patrol.”

“And pray like fuckin’ hell we don’t run into another one of them tonight.”  Faith grumbles softly, so only Buffy would catch what she said.

“I agree with that.”  Buffy blinks at the thought, knowing if she had been by herself she would have ended up in worse shape, but with her and Faith tag-teaming the vampire they’d been able to take him out with little fuss.  A few bruises and cuts nothing compared to how bad they could have gotten hurt. 

“Did you see how the cross bolt that I shot at it, just bounced off his chest?”  Rona frowns heavily at the thought.  “I mean, even Buffy when she kept trying to get the stake to go into its chest, it looked like it took everything in her to just barely pierce his chest.”

Faith shakes her aching hand, having slammed it into the vampire’s jaw to only hurt herself and do absolutely nothing to the vampire.  “It’s like he had some kinda coating over his chest or somethin’.  We gotta get harder wood, or somethin’, B.  We wasted four stakes before I was able to finally take his head while he was distracted fightin’ you.”

“Anna?”  Buffy turns questioning to the witch wondering if she knows of anything that might help.

“We’ll have to research.  I’ll have one of the Watcher’s contact the Council and see if there are any special hardwood stakes that might be of better use against whatever kind of vampire he was.”  Anna shrugs, a look of irritation and sorrow on her face that she couldn’t be of better help.

Faith sidles up beside Buffy and leans down to whisper in her ear.  “Do ya’ think we should finish patrol, or get back to the house?  The kiddies have only fought two vamps so far tonight, and honestly they need work.”

“I know.”  Buffy sighs and looks at the girls, most of them having an almost fearful look on their face as they look around while Rona keeps looking at the crossbow in her hands, obviously still in shock that the bolt that should have dusted the Uber vamp just bounced harmlessly off his chest.  Kennedy worries her, though the young SIT had lost her cockiness, she wasn’t showing any fear about what happened.  And honestly, even she and if she isn’t mistaken, Faith were worried about that vampire.  “Let’s get them home, cleaned up and put to bed, then maybe have a little powwow with the grown-ups.”

“’Kay.”  Faith looks at the girls.  “Pack it up and head it out, girls.  We’ve done a good enough job for tonight.”

Buffy leads the way, using every sense at her disposal to watch, listen and feel for anything out of the ordinary, occasionally darting a look back over the group, watching as Faith seems to be keeping a serious eye out, too.  Nodding as Faith catches her eye for a moment, seeing the worry in the brown depths.  Whatever misgivings she had about Faith put to rest in that moment.  Knowing the slayer was in for the long haul and wasn’t going to screw up this time. 

Faith keeps her eyes open as she looks at anything and everything around them as they double-time it back towards the house, ignoring the quiet grumbling from some of the SIT’s about jogging.  A slow smirk crossing her face at the thought that she’ll get with Buffy and make sure the girls run at least five miles a day from now on.  Knowing Buffy was working and not able to work with the girls as much as she wants to, and was leaving a lot to the Watchers to pick up the slack.  Learning from a Watcher was all well and good, but they haven’t been in the line of fire and won’t necessarily teach the girls to fight with everything in them to stay alive.  That’s something both her and Buffy needs to get through to these girls.  That it’s not a game and they could die at any moment.  Something she herself had forgotten for a time and was finally brought home to her. 

Buffy opens the door and lets the girls precede her in before turning back to Anna.  “You want to stay here tonight, or do you want one of us to take you to Willow’s?”

Anna looks from Buffy to Faith and winces.  “I’d rather not have to crash on the floor.”

“I’ll take ya’.”  Faith offers nodding towards Buffy as she sees Tara step out to see what was taking them so long.  “I’ll be back in fifteen.”

“Do you want to take the Jeep?”  Tara offers softly looking at the women, holding up the keys. 

“I ain’t got a license.”  Faith smirks as she looks at the keys.

“Do you know how to drive?”  Buffy laughs softly at Faith nodding her head.  “Get a license soon.”  Buffy eases the keys from Tara’s hands and tosses them to Faith.  “We can use as many people with a license as possible.”

“Be back in a few.”  Faith smiles at the sight of the keys in her hand, some of the tension she’d unconsciously been holding within her releasing at this additional show of trust. 

Tara rubs Buffy’s shoulder as Faith and Anna hurry to the Jeep.  “Are you okay?”

“Pretty much.  Bruised ribs, maybe a little worse than that but nothing that won’t be better in a couple days.  We might have a problem and I want to gather the adults in the house where the kiddies won’t overhear us.”  Buffy admits softly, leaning back into Tara’s caress as the witch starts to rub both hands gently over her neck and shoulders. 

“I came across a temporary sound blocking spell in my research and made a note of it.  We just need an enclosed room to use it in.”  Tara offers, a small grin on her lips as she hears the quiet chuckle coming from her lover.  

“We can use our room…”  Buffy turns and wiggles her eyebrows at her lover, before placing a soft kiss on Tara’s lips.  “Then it won’t go to waste later on.”

“Rotten.”  Tara rubs her nose against Buffy’s and hugs her gently.  “Let’s get your ribs iced and wrapped.”

“Yes, dear.”  Buffy snorts quietly at the narrow-eyed look she gets from Tara.  “I’m surprised Willow isn’t down here worried about… us.”

Tara giggles quietly at the hesitation.  “She was up in her room getting Faith’s stuff put away for her and letting the couple girls that were here that are staying in the room with her and Faith know that the bed was not available.”

Buffy laughs softly as she steps into the kitchen, smiling at the sight of leftover burgers and hot dogs along with all the fixings obviously having just been pulled out of the refrigerator. 

“Lift your shirt, sweet one.”  Tara orders softly as she pulls out the first aid kit.  “How badly was Faith hurt?”

“I think just the cut on the cheek.”  Buffy pulls her shirt up and winces a little as Tara prods her ribs. 

“I think you cracked a couple ribs.”  Tara shakes her head as she pulls out one of the ace wraps and wraps her lover’s ribs.  Stepping over to the freezer, she pulls down an ice pack and places it gently against Buffy’s ribs while using another wrap to hold it in place.  “What happened?”  Having gotten somewhat used to bandaging and fixing her lover’s wounds, but still not liking when she gets hurt.

Buffy sighs quietly as she looks at Tara.  “We ran into a vampire that was SUPER strong… I mean between Faith and I tag teaming him, we wasted three stakes on him before the fourth one finally made it past this tough outer shell that seems to coat his body, and even then I couldn’t hit his heart.  And it honestly probably took us fifteen or twenty minutes to take him out.”

Tara blinks in shock at Buffy.  “Both of you?”  Swallowing at the thought, she shakes her head and looks out the window.  “That was one vampire… if there are more than that one…”

“I know.  Anna’s going to speak with the Watchers and see what they can find out, along with getting us some kind of wood that’s a little more sturdy.”  Buffy runs a hand through her hair as she thinks about the vampire, silently wondering what they can do to breach that impenetrable shell. 

“We’ll figure it out, love.”  Tara turns and smiles gently at her lover.  “Faith just pulled up.”  Tara smiles as she listens to the slayer come into the house growling at someone to get out of her way.  “Come into the kitchen, Faith so I can look at your cheek.”

“It ain’t nothin’, Blondie.”  Faith steps into the kitchen, heading for the refrigerator.

“Let her look at it, Faith.  If you don’t she’ll get upset with you and it’s not a pretty sight.”  Buffy smirks and wiggles her eyebrows at her lover.  “Trust me, I’ve been on the receiving end of a pissed off Tara, and I don’t like being there… though the sex afterwards…”

“BUFFY!”  Tara yells and tosses a hand towel at the slayer, blushing darkly at her lover’s comments. 

“I somehow don’t think I’ll be gettin’ any of the lovin’s.”  Faith comments, chuckling at the two as she pulls out a bottle of water.  Shaking her head, she steps over to the witch and tilts her head as Tara gently grasps her chin and urges her to move her head so she can look at the wound.

“What do you need?”  Buffy questions already pulling out the antiseptic wipes and a small bandage.

Tara looks down at what Buffy pulled out and smiles softly.  “You have it.  Sit down, Faith.”  Tara orders as she opens the package containing the antiseptic wipe and gently cleans the wound.  “I didn’t notice any of the girls hurt, were all of them okay?”

“Yeah, not even a hair on any of their heads was harmed.”  Faith smirks at the thought. 

“Hmmm…  You didn’t kick anyone’s butt while you were out there?”  Tara chuckles at the wicked gleam in Faith’s eyes. 

“Nope.  Don’t mean I didn’t want to, though.  She ain’t afraid of nothin’.”  Faith shakes her head in disgust.

“I remember someone else that put on a pretty good show of acting like she wasn’t afraid of anything.”  Buffy comments softly, her eyes on Faith.  “And I believed it.”

Faith darts a guilty look at Buffy before looking down at her hands where she’s playing with the bottle of water.  “Yeah, well, look at what happened to her.”  Faith mutters.

Tara finishes bandaging Faith’s cheek while listening to the two women before stepping back to look into sad brown eyes.  “Are you hurt anywhere else?”

“Nah, I’m good.  Thanks, Blondie.”  Faith smiles half-heartedly at the blonde.

“Everything works out for the best usually, Faith.  Just keep that in mind.”  Tara offers as she puts away the items in the first aid kit.  “Honey, want to let Xander and Jason know that we’re planning on having a meeting up in our room?  We can grab Willow on our way by.”

“But I was gonna…”  Buffy pouts as she looks at the food having grabbed a hamburger bun.

“Faith and I’ll throw together a bunch of hamburgers and hot dogs for you two to eat, now go.”  Tara smiles lovingly at Buffy as the slayer pouts even more before nodding and heading out of the room.

Faith snorts at the sight.  “Now it makes more sense why the kiddies don’t wanna listen to her.  You got her whipped.”

“And she loves every minute of it, too.”  Tara grins crookedly at the slayer.  “Come on, help me throw together some hamburgers and hot dogs for you two to eat.”  As they start throwing together the sandwiches, Tara watches Faith for a few moments.  “Are you settling okay, or are you still feeling off-centered?”  Tara finally questions softly. 

Faith’s hands still where she was throwing lettuce and tomatoes on a hamburger.  “How did ya’…”

“No special powers used this time, Faith.  I just knew that you were uncomfortable on the ride back here and grew quieter with only occasionally saying something.  Then when you got here other than when you were pretty much directly questioned or asked for your input, you kept to yourself.”  Tara offers softly as she doesn’t look at the slayer but continues to make the sandwiches.  “My personal opinion…”  Now Tara looks up into wary brown eyes.  “Everyone’s happy you’re here.  And though there might be some comments from the younger crowd, the ones that know what happened then aren’t holding any grudges or bad feelings toward you, Faith.  I’m sure there might be the occasional tense moments and some people being uncomfortable, but eventually even that will lessen.  Just give it time.” 

“How can ya’ be so sure?  I mean… I tried to kill two of ‘em, pushed Buffy to the edge and even was a bitch towards you.  Fuck!  If it’d been me that B had done that to, there wouldn’t be another chance, because she would have never made it off that roof alive.”  Faith admits, taking a deep breath as she stares into sad blue eyes.

“This group is a pretty forgiving group, Faith.  With what they do and see on a daily basis, they have to be.  Just accept it and try not to let it get you down.  We all need to draw together to defeat this newest enemy, and we have to trust each other.  Our lives could depend on it.”  Tara starts piling the food on a large plate before opening the refrigerator and pulling out a couple handfuls of waters and sodas for everyone. 

Exhaling loudly, Faith shakes her head at the thought that everyone could so easily forgive her but decides to let it go for now and think about it more later.  Helping Tara carry the food and drinks up the stairs for the meeting, she looks over the SIT’s talking quietly amongst themselves and getting comfortable on the floor with the television playing some movie.  Silently wondering if she was ever that young, Faith looks back up the stairs and climbs them hoping that she doesn’t fuck things up this time.

***

Chapter 24

Tara gently runs her fingers through Buffy’s hair as the group tosses ideas back and forth on what to do, smiling at Xander thinking of using metal for the tip of the cross bolts and stakes to see it that would help pierce the armor-like outer casing of the uber vamp.  The two men were already in the corner discussing how it would be best to make the items.

“What do you think?  You’ve been quiet.”  Buffy turns to look curiously at her lover. 

“I’m thinking some flamethrowers would be perfect, it’s just getting our hands on some.”  Tara admits, shrugging.

Buffy’s lips curl up in a mischief-filled smile.  “Great thought.”  Pressing a firm kiss to Tara’s lips, she reaches over to the nightstand and pulls out a card and grabs the phone.

Tara frowns in confusion as Buffy makes a phone call leaving her name and phone number after hesitating for a moment. 

“I’ll explain later.”  Buffy shrugs.  “Hopefully we might end up with a few more weapons to help us out.”  Buffy shifts back and wiggles against Tara’s chest, smiling as Tara wraps her arms around her waist and rests her chin on her shoulder. 

“Do ya’ think we should continue takin’ the kids out before we get something we’re sure will take out those super-charged vamps?”  Faith fights the smile crossing her face at the sight of Buffy cocooned against Tara’s body, the witch’s arms wrapped around her and her legs outside Buffy’s. 

Buffy sighs and looks at Faith before darting a glance at Willow, Xander and Jason before turning her head to look at Tara.  Not getting any help from any other quadrant, she grunts quietly.  “Maybe I can do a compromise.  How about you and I go out looking for regular vampires and incapacitate them until we can have the children fight them?”

“We gonna chain ‘em up and leave ‘em in a mausoleum or somethin’?”  Faith blinks before chuckling at the thought.

“I do have the chains and manacles.  I know the perfect mausoleum to keep them in, too.”  Buffy smirks at the thought of using Spike’s crypt to keep the vampires in.

“I’m game.”  Faith shakes her head before her eyes dart towards Willow as the redhead shifts but doesn’t say anything.  Faith frowns slightly at the thought that the Willow she remembered would talk almost non-stop, this quiet Willow makes her feel a little unsettled.  “Well, if that’s it, I guess I’ll head out.”  Faith moves towards the door. 

“I’m just going to gather this stuff and follow you.”  Willow comments softly, gathering the dirty dishes and placing them on the trays, her eyes darting up in surprise as Faith steps over to help her.  Blushing lightly Willow turns back to gather the empty soda cans, placing them on the tray as Faith carries everything out of the room.

“Us, too.  We’ll work tomorrow on trying different things out to see what we can come up with.”  Xander offers, moving to follow Faith out of the room with Jason following him. 

“And I have to work.”  Buffy pouts at the thought even as Tara chuckles softly in her ear.

“I’m sorry, love.  If it makes you feel any better, I have to be at the school’s temporary office to fill out paperwork for a job at ten.”  Tara grins crookedly as Buffy’s eyes light up.

“How long have you known?”  Buffy shifts around to face Tara as Willow quietly follows Jason out of the room, shutting the door behind her with a soft smile on her lips. 

“Remember the phone ringing first thing this morning before Willow and I left to pick up Faith?”  Tara tilts her head and squeaks quietly as Buffy grabs her waist and slides her further down in the bed before lying on top of her.

“And you didn’t tell me?”  Buffy narrows her gaze on her lover.

“You were in commander mode yelling at the children.”  Tara giggles as Buffy starts to nip playfully along her neck and jaw. 

“At least with Faith here, she can do some of the yelling…”  Buffy smirks even as she wiggles her hands under her lover’s top.

“Let her do all the yelling, I think she’ll like it.”  Tara arches into Buffy’s nails scraping gently along her sides. 

“I should lock the door.”  Buffy growls softly as Tara’s hands grasp her butt cheeks and pull her tighter against her apex.

“Live dangerously.”  Tara nips firmly on Buffy’s bottom lip before sliding her hands under her top pushing it upwards.

Buffy arches and helps Tara take off her top before helping take Tara’s top off, unhooking the witch’s front clasp bra and pushing the cups aside to nip and suckle on the flesh almost feverishly.  “Been too long.”  Buffy mumbles before working her way up Tara’s throat to kiss her heatedly. 

When Buffy finally breaks away and slides the straps of her bra down her shoulders and arms, Tara unhooks the back of Buffy’s bra and divests the slayer of the cloth.  “It’s been two days.”  Tara chuckles softly at the grunt she gets. 

“Two days too long.  And the day before it was hurried and quick… and though satisfying, not satisfying enough.”  Buffy rumbles against Tara’s skin as she works her way down her lover’s body, unbuttoning and unzipping Tara’s pants. 

“Strip.”  Tara finally growls taking over and pushing her pants and panties down her legs as Buffy rolls over and hurriedly strips her clothes off.  “Plan on being tired at work tomorrow.”

“Goody.”  Buffy slides against Tara, straddling one of her lover’s thighs as she presses against her lover’s apex, her own body pulsing and aching with desire.  “First time’s going to be quick.”  Buffy warns.

“Maybe second time, too.”  Tara hooks her leg around Buffy’s and arches against the strong thigh pressing against her, digging her fingers firmly into Buffy’s ass as it flinches.  “Goddess, you’re so wet.”  Tara moans as Buffy buries her face in her neck, nodding even as her body rocks quickly against hers. 

“I wanted to pounce on you since dinner tonight.”  Buffy pants out the words, whimpering as she feels her body starting to quiver and throb uncontrollably.  “Shit…” 

Tara half chuckles, half groans as she feels Buffy’s release easing onto her leg even as she jerks and quickly follows Buffy over the edge.  Grunting quietly, Tara shifts and rolls them over. 

“Too damn quick.”  Buffy threads her fingers through Tara’s hair and looks into beautiful blue eyes as she tugs gently.  “I am completely and hopelessly in love with you, Miss Tara Maclay.”

“And I love you, Miss Buffy Anne Summers.”  Tara relaxes her body into Buffy’s, shifting her elbows down so she can capture Buffy’s lips in a hard, invading kiss.  The desire in Buffy’s eyes giving her a clue to the fact that her lover wasn’t ready for soft and gentle just yet.

“Would you mind…?”  Buffy’s eyes dart towards their ‘toy’ drawer after Tara releases her lips.

“You want to be ridden, Slayer?”  Tara questions, nipping roughly on the slayer’s chin and grins at the grunt of approval coming from her lover. 

“Ridden hard and put up wet.”  Buffy groans loudly as Tara shifts her body and her hip grinds into her apex. 

“Did that Uber Vamp do a number on you?”  Tara nips her way down Buffy’s neck before biting firmly on her shoulder and suckling on the flesh.  “Did he get you all worked up?”

“Yessss…”  Buffy growls as Tara’s teeth sink more firmly into her shoulder and the witch worries the flesh while her hipbone hits the perfect spot as they grind against each other, it only taking a few minutes to send her over the edge again.  “Faith got the kill.”  Buffy pants as she pulls Tara up for another hungry, hard kiss.

Tara chuckles wickedly as they end the kiss.  “So you were left high and dry…  Poor baby.”

Buffy pulls Tara down, smothering her lover’s laughter as she kisses her again, sliding her hands down her lover’s back to knead her ass gently.  Growling softly as she finally releases Tara, she glares at her as Tara starts giggling.  “It isn’t funny.”  Buffy grumbles. 

“I’m sorry, honey.”  Tara tries to fight the laughter, easing away from her lover as she heads towards their toy drawer.

“No you’re not.”  Buffy grumbles shifting around onto her stomach, watching her lover intently.  “You get a perverse kick out of me being horny.”

“I’ve noticed that you’re exceptionally horny when you don’t get closure.  Not that you’re not normally…”  Tara smirks over her shoulder as she slides on the harness.  Holding up two of the dildo’s she quirks an eyebrow at her lover.  “Which one?”

Buffy’s eyes dart to the thick dildo, smiling as Tara drops the other one back in the drawer and squirts a dusting of the lubricating powder on the vac-u-lock dildo.  Glad her lover is wearing this harness, as it leaves her sex accessible to her.  After the first couple times using the original harness she’d bought, she’d almost ripped it off Tara when she couldn’t get to her lover.  Now with this set-up she can touch, stroke and play over her lover without having to take the harness off.  Of course, getting hit in the noggin with the dildo didn’t feel that good.  Buffy smirks at the remembrance of Tara trying to disconnect the dildo while she’d been more intent on burying her tongue as deeply inside her lover as she could.

Connecting the dildo, Tara quirks an eyebrow at her lover.  “You staying like that, or are you wanting to shift around?”

Buffy shifts back on the bed and onto her side, patting the bed beside her with a glimmer in her eye.

“I thought you wanted to be ridden…”  Tara murmurs softly as she settles in the middle of the bed on her back, chuckling as Buffy just grunts quietly and starts to lick and nip slowly across her chest. 

“I’d probably wear you out.”  Buffy admits before capturing a turgid nipple between her lips laving it with her tongue for a few moments before nipping gently as she releases the flesh.  Smiling at the low groan she gets from her lover at her actions. 

Tara arches as Buffy starts to nibble her way down her abdomen.  Burying her hands in her lover’s hair, Tara growls softly as Buffy nips firmly on the inside of her thigh, making her jerk uncontrollably.  “Buffy…”  Tara warns when she feels teeth on the other inner thigh.  Whimpering and jumping uncontrollably at the teeth scrape along the flesh, causing the desire to flow from her even heavier than it already was. 

Buffy grins at the response she gets, having learned over the months how much her lover enjoys the feel of fingernails scraping over flesh, and in turn teeth nipping sharply or scraping also.  Nose twitching at the smell of arousal, Buffy shifts her hand up to hold the heavy, thick dildo as she delves between her lover’s coated lips.

Tara tugs on Buffy’s hair as the slayer laps hungrily up her slit, delving inside her for a few moments before flicking her tongue teasingly over her aching clit.  Digging her heels into the bed, Tara bucks uncontrollably as teeth start to nibble along her flesh with Buffy’s tongue coming out to lave over the flesh a few moments later.  “Goddess, Buffy…”  Tara whimpers almost yanking the slayer’s hair out of her head as she nips softly at her clit, a barely there pressure that’s just enough to cause her to climax.

Buffy laps lovingly over her lover’s body, gathering the abundance of fluid, trailing down her lover’s body to circle teasingly around her lover’s rosebud, whimpering herself when Tara’s hands tug even harder at her hair, pulling her closer to Tara’s body.  Having only teased her lover a couple times in past lovemaking sessions, they still hadn’t talked about going any further than the soft touches of fingers or tongues in that area for either of them.  Growling softly, Buffy presses a little firmer with her tongue as she circles the opening without actually trying to enter her lover.  Sliding a finger up to gently glide inside Tara’s slick center before replacing her tongue with her finger, continuing to stroke lovingly over the puckered hole while slowly kissing her way up her lover’s body.  “We’re going to need to discuss this…”  Buffy mumbles as she suckles on her lover’s pulse point, pressing softly at the opening with her index finger without entering her lover to let Tara know what she’s talking about. 

“Uh, huh…”  Tara pants heavily.

Buffy growls at the desire in her lover’s voice as she quickly enters her lover’s center with her two middle fingers, curling and stroking firmly over her g-spot, capturing the cry with a kiss as Tara screams out her release, continuing to stroke for a few moments until Tara’s body falls back to the bed with the occasional flinching aftershock.  Gently easing her fingers from her lover, she slowly maneuvers above Tara, smiling down into hazy blue eyes.  “God, I love you.”  Buffy whispers, knowing there is no more beautiful sight than Tara when she’s flushed and half out of it from being made love to.  Pressing a soft kiss on Tara’s lips, Buffy closes her eyes as she feels the pressure of the head of the dildo at her entrance.  Knowing that the way she’s feeling, she very well can still be riding her lover when the sun’s rising in the sky.  Finally sliding down on the thick dildo, Buffy groans at the feeling of being filled and stretched.

Tara blinks as she starts to come back to herself as Buffy leans above her and starts a slow rocking motion, letting the dildo move in and out of her to where it almost comes out.  Knowing it won’t be long before Buffy starts to build up speed and power.  Untangling her hands from her lover’s hair, Tara plucks lovingly at the slayer’s nipples, smiling at the groans coming from her even as she starts to rock faster.  Chuckling softly, Tara pushes up and nips and suckles at one nipple as Buffy growls loudly.

Buffy jerks and climaxes as Tara’s free hand wiggles between their bodies to stroke firmly over her clit at the same time her lover sucks as much of her breast into her mouth as she can. 

“Beautiful.”  Tara whispers at the sight of her flushed, perspiration coated lover as she continues to ride above her, stroking tenderly over Buffy’s swollen clit as she lies back on the bed, bracing her feet into the mattress to start counter thrusting hard into her lover, knowing it’s going to be a long, but ultimately extremely satisfying night, realizing she’s going to have to figure out something for them to be able to make love even if it’s just sneaking away for an hour occasionally.

Crying out loudly as another climax works it’s way through her, Buffy slams down hard, burying the dildo deeply within her as she takes a few minutes to recover from the explosion, flinching slightly as Tara squeezes her clit hard between her finger and thumb, another orgasm coming through her.  “You’re going to pay for that…”  Buffy pants out between each word, opening her eyes to glare at her lover.

“I hope so.”  Tara murmurs, grinning crookedly as Buffy already starts to rock again.  Settling in for a long night, Tara plans on pacing herself so she’ll still be semi-conscious when Buffy finally collapses so she can partially clean her lover.

***

Faith looks at Willow and rubs a hand roughly over the back of her neck as they get ready to walk into her… their bedroom.  “Ummm…  I ain’t exactly used ta actually sleepin’ with someone, Red.  I ain’t sure this is a good idea.” 

Willow blinks in surprise as Faith actually fidgets nervously.  “You’ve never actually spent the night with someone, or someone stayed with you the night?”

“No.”  Faith shakes her head and looks nervously at the door to the bedroom.  “Red, ya’ know what I was like.  Get some, get gone.  If it was at my place, their ass was kicked out after I got off.  Sharin’ the bed for anythin’ else ain’t somethin’ I’ve ever done.” 

Willow feels an imp of mischief trying to make an appearance, thinking about teasing the slayer, but Faith’s obvious worry and nervousness makes her re-think teasing her.  “Relax, Faith.  If it makes you feel any better, I promise not to take advantage of you as you sleep.”  Willow grins as Faith snarls her lip at her.  “Come on, Faith.  You get to play general tomorrow and I can play your good little soldier while you piss off the SIT’s.”

Faith groans and finally follows Willow into the room, carefully stepping over the girls that are crashed around the floor.  “Where’s my stuff?”

“Left side of the dresser.”  Willow answers softly as she opens her side of the drawers, pulling out an oversized t-shirt and shorts to wear to bed. 

Faith steps over beside Willow and sorts through the drawers until she finds her worn out tank top and old sweat shorts, figuring it might be best to wear somethin’ to bed since she’ll be sharing it in a non-sexual way with the redhead.  Seeing her shower kit tucked away in the corner, she snatches it out.  “You wanna use the bathroom first?” 

“If you don’t mind?”  Willow smiles as Faith shakes her head.  “Thanks, I’ll only be a few minutes.”

Faith’s eyes follow Willow out of the room, sighing quietly at the thought that it’s been a long two years and the redhead was looking damn fine, but there was no way in hell she’d ever go there.  Not only would Willow not want to have anything to do with her, but she figures that’ll be the quickest way to piss everyone off, by going after Willow.  The rest of the girls in the house are just that, girls.  And the only two men were into each other.  Faith smirks at that thought.  Resigning herself to visiting Mrs. Palm and her five daughters when the need arises, Faith mumbles softly.  “Just like fuckin’ prison.”  Snorting in disgust, she maneuvers her way out to the hallway waiting for Willow to finish in the bathroom.

***