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The first visit was simultaneously the best and the worst. Willow had been even paler than usual, and she looked so tired. Tara cried for a moment, but she pulled herself together for Willow's sake.
“How are you?” she asked.
Willow smiled a wan smile. “I've been better.”
“But it's working, right?” Tara asked. “You're getting better?”
“I will be,” Willow responded.
They spent the rest of their allotted hour holding each other, always aware of the security camera in the corner.
The next week, Willow looked so much better that Tara cried again, this time out of relief.
“You're better,” she said. “You look so much better.”
Willow took her hand. “I'm getting there.”
The week after that, Willow showed Tara how she could float a pencil again, and the next week, she created a ball of white light. After that, Tara noticed that the security camera was gone, and Willow was far more affectionate.
Week after week passed, and Willow got better and better. Tara had explored every inch of the nearest rural town, and she had gone so far as to get a job at a local apothecary. Her co-workers were always asking about the “friend” she was seeing every Friday, the one who prevented her from working the last shift, but she only smiled and said, “She's a special girl.”
One Friday, one of her colleagues came up to her as she was leaving and whispered, “Is she your girlfriend?”
Tara nodded, smiling at the girl, but she was in a hurry, so she left without saying much more.
Willow had gotten well enough for horseback riding, so Tara did a lot of that with her, and board games, some of which had some sort of twist to help Willow's magic. Clue became a game of sensing what was inside the envelope, but chess was just the same as always, despite the pieces being floated to their positions. Tara enjoyed the exercises, too; it had been a while since she’d properly challenged her magic. Giles would stop in sometimes and watch them playing, making wry conversation with Tara, until her visits grew longer and longer.
Her friends at work kept asking questions. The one who had asked if Willow was Tara’s girlfriend asked all about her in a gossipy way; Tara replied, and was surprised to find that she had missed gossiping about her girlfriend. Everyone else was still trying to figure out who Tara visited every week. Tara hadn’t even allowed them so much as a name.
“Is it Lily?” one friend ventured.
“How about Anne?”
“Billie?”
“Lavinia?”
“Lucy?”
Tara just shook her head. But to Ruby, who had asked first, she told almost everything.
“Her name’s Willow. She’s beautiful. Her hair is red, like the sky at sunset. She’s in a special kind of rehab, and this was the only place we could do it. I wasn’t even supposed to come along.”
Ruby listened in awe. “So how did you two, you know, get together?”
Tara smiled at the memory. “We were in this Wicca group at our college. We were the only ones who were interested in real witchcraft. Everyone else cared more about woman power shrines or something.”
“You’re a witch?”
Tara nodded.
“That’s so cool!”
“Yeah, it is. Willow went too far, though. It’s a long story, but she’s here to get away from dark magic. She’s getting lots better.”
“But you didn’t tell how you got together. Just that you were in the same group at university.”
“Yeah. The university was in a place with lots of mystical stuff. So we really became close after I was running from these monsters, and she helped me get away. We wound up hiding in this room and levitating a vending machine to block the door.”
“What happened to the monsters?”
“Her best friend is supernaturally good at killing monsters, apparently.”
Ruby laughed. “I don’t even know if I believe you. Good story, though.”
“You don’t have to believe me,” Tara answered.
The next time Tara saw Willow, she was practically glowing.
“There’s a girl at my work who’s dying to meet you,” Tara said. “I think she might be a baby lesbian.”
“I always wondered where they came from,” Willow said. “I thought perhaps they were hatched.”
“Be nice,” Tara admonished. “You weren’t hatched, were you?”
“You watched me blossom into a nice young homosexual,” Willow answered. “You tell me.”
“I don’t know. I think you were a miracle,” Tara teased.
“Sure I was. Miracles always go bad and have to be shipped across an ocean.”
Tara pulled Willow into a hug and held her close. “Miracles keep my family away,” she whispered. “Miracles help me give my cat a name like Miss Kitty Fantastico. Miracles give vampires their souls.” She moved out of the hug, keeping her hands on Willow’s shoulders, Willow’s hands resting on her waist. “It’s okay that you made a mistake.”
“I endangered all of you,” Willow said.
“And we’re all okay, and you’re better now.”
“I know,” Willow said. “But I’m afraid, Tara.”
“I’m not,” Tara replied.
A week later, Tara moved into the farmhouse, and a month after that, she was sitting with Willow and Giles when the phone rang. Giles wandered away to answer it, and when he came back, he sighed to find Willow and Tara completely entangled on the couch.
“Buffy needs you back,” he said.
“Giles, am I ready?” Willow asked.
“I believe you are,” Giles said, “and you have Tara if things get bad again.”
Willow looked at Tara. “Are you sure you want to be responsible for me?”
“You don’t need me to be responsible for you,” Tara said. “You’re going to be just fine on your own.”
The next day saw the two of them sitting next to each other on an airplane, watching the same movie on different screens. The flight was an eternity of suspended time, but they had the hopeful promise of friends and a soft bed before them.
Willow leaned over Tara to watch the plane land, making them both laugh. Finally, finally, finally the plane was on the runway, and then at the gate, and then it was stopped, and then, after everyone in front of them had left, Willow and Tara were able to pull down their carry-on bags and make their way to the front of the plane, and then through the jetway, and when they came out, they immediately saw Buffy, Xander, and Dawn, each holding part of a banner stating, “WELCOME BACK, WILLOW AND TARA!”
Willow and Tara ran to their friends, laughing as everyone hugged.