Quick responses, then update...
***tkheaven -- you must have posted while I was responding to the other posts earlier. Glad you made it to FL safe and sound.
***VampNo12 -- Yay!! You're reading my fic! I
love reading your analyses and critiques of everyone else's work! I look forward to being analyzed... erm.. that sounded a little wrong, but, oh well... Willow's issues with being pregnant are gone into with a little more depth this next post... and I'm glad Ghaena intrigues you... she intrigues me too
***KrisBo5 -- Enjoy your shower...
Here We Go!...
____________________
Both women sat instantly bolt upright. “Emily”, Tara stated needlessly as they quickly disentangled themselves from each other and the bed. Willow swiftly threw on her robe and was the first out the door and toward her daughter’s bedroom followed close behind by Tara who was pulling her shirt back on.
“Emily, what’s wrong!” Willow cried out as she burst through the door into the young girl’s room ready to face anything she found on the other side.
Emily was huddled up against the back of her bed hugging the sheets tightly up to her chin. “Mama”, she sobbed, frantic tears streaming down her little face; she extended her arms to her mama, pleading to be lifted and held.
Willow rushed to Emily’s side, raising the girl up into her arms as her eyes scanned the room for intruders. Tara arrived into the room and quickly hit the switch by the door, flooding the room with light. There was nothing, no one, not a thing out of the ordinary.
“W-what is it?” Tara asked moving to Willow’s side, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know” Willow answered as Emily clutched and grabbed at her, clinging on. “She’s terrified.”
“Baby?” Tara quested softly, smoothing away the anxious lines on her daughter’s face, “what scared you? It’s okay. You’re Mama and I are here now.”
“Th-there was a sh-shadow”, Emily stammered.
“Of what, baby-girl?” Willow asked.
“Big Bird…outside my w-window”, the little girl explained, tightening her grip around Willow’s neck.
The two women shared a tired glance.
“Tara, has she been watching Sesame Street again?”
“What? No!” Tara declared firmly. “Not that I know of…”
“Because you know how terrified she is of that damn puppet…”
“Yes, Will, I know… No thanks to Xander…”
“Emily”, Willow soothed, massaging her daughter’s back as she spoke, “It’s okay. There is no Big Bird in your room…”
“It was outside!” Emily cried emphatically.
Tara moved over to the window and looked out, scanning the view. She turned back to her lover and shook her head. Nothing.
“Or outside”, Willow continued on, “You’re safe. Your mother and I are here and we would never let anything happen to you.”
“That’s right, honey”, Tara affirmed, looking into her baby’s tear-stained eyes.
“You don’t believe me”, Emily whimpered.
“Yes we do”, Tara pressed ardently. “We always believe you. We’re just saying that whatever was here…”
“Is gone now”, the hacker finished. “So your Mommy is going to fix you a nice glass of warm milk and you’re going to be a big girl and try and go back to bed.”
“No, no please”, Emily pleaded, her grip tightening to that of a vice. “I don’t want to go back to bed here. Please! Can I stay with you and Mommy?”
Willow and Tara looked into each other’s eyes, sharing a silent communication. After a moment Tara sighed, “I’ll take her to get her milk if you could change the sheets?”
“Sure”, Willow agreed, gently handling Emily to her wife. “We both need showers”, she added after a moment.
“Go ahead and do that too”, the blonde replied, heading for the door, “I’ll take mine after she’s settled in.”
Willow nodded and followed her lover and child out of the room, clicking off the light switch as she went.
Outside the house, from where it was perched on a tall lamp post, a jet black bird blinked its slate eyes before flapping its wings and flying off into the dark night.
*****
Tara was awakened the next morning by the sharp slap of an object hitting her eye. She jumped at the sensation as it struck her, carefully opening her eyes after a moment to find that Emily, snuggled safely in her arms, had swung her little hand out in her sleep; Tara’s eye the unfortunate mark.
The blonde tenderly moved the small appendage back down to her daughter’s side, rubbing her eye gingerly and looking across to where Willow should have been sleeping. But was not. Tara’s brow furrowed in confusion until she heard her wife in the bathroom, sick again.
Tara exhaled resignedly and carefully removed herself from the bed, so as not to wake Emily, and quietly entered the bathroom that she and Willow shared.
“Will?”
The redhead was just in the process of applying paste to her toothbrush as the blonde entered the small room. “Sorry”, Willow apologized, “Did I wake you?”
“No”, Tara assured, “No… I received my wake up call courtesy of our little karate kid.”
“Still better than my wake up call”, the hacker commented wryly, “Wanna trade?”
Tara only chuckled in response. Silence lingered for a moment. “When’s your next appointment with Dr. Gulliver?”
“Tomorrow”, Willow answered.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Tara asked, her voice slightly tinged with perturbation.
“Baby, I was going to”, Willow stressed quickly, beginning to brush her teeth as she spoke, “But things got so crazy so fast. I mean, with Emily and that Ghaena person, priestess, whatever… and me and the not knowing… and then last night I was going to tell you… but you and ‘Gone with the Wind’ and your lips … which were very nice by the way… but then Emily was scared and… I wasn’t trying to keep it from you…”
“Willow!” Tara ordered, bringing her lover out of her babble-fest. “It’s okay. I believe you… What time is the appointment?”
“Eleven… uh… A.M.” She quickly added, before rinsing her mouth out.
“Well, that makes sense”, Tara smirked, her lopsided grin in place, “Normal business hours and all… You want me to come?”
“Of course”, Willow stated emphatically, “Why wouldn’t I? I don’t ever want to go there alone… It felt so wrong being there without you the last time. I was so scared. I still am.”
“Willow”, Tara avowed, “this baby is ours. Yours and mine…”
“Yes, and I’m the one having it”, Willow cut her off. “Not exactly on my list of things to do.”
“Is that why you’re so upset about this?” Tara asked, her voice filling with concern, “Because it doesn’t fit into your… your grand design of our life?”
“No!” Willow hastily replied. “I want this baby. I had even been thinking about talking to you about having another child… but I wanted it to be you… I didn’t think it could be done magically either, so I was going to talk to you about adopting… or maybe artificial insem--… I’m explaining this all wrong… I just wish I could have you be me for a minute so you could see…”
“You’re afraid of losing control”, the blonde said suddenly.
“What?” Willow stopped mid tirade.
“Willow, you live your life by lists and multicolored pens and charts and diagrams”, Tara expounded. “You make a living by creating programs to solve mathematical equations for technical design firms. Science. Math. Logic. Order. Control.”
The redhead only gazed at her wife, her expression indicating that she should go on.
“Now you’re faced with a situation where you don’t have control… at least over your own body. But that alone, the fact that the one thing you should have control over at all times is now suddenly uncontrollable…it terrifies you.” Tara concluded, “Right?”
“Oh, Tara”, Willow sighed, her heretofore composure starting to break, she enveloped herself in the safety of her lover’s arms.
“But I’m here, Will”, Tara spoke softly into Willow’s ear, “And I’ll always love you, even if you’re not in control. We’re a team. We work together and this not about us swapping roles. You’re still the provider; I’m still the homemaker. It’s just now you’re providing our little family with another miracle.”
“How do you always know what to say to make things better?” Willow sniffled into Tara’s shoulder.
“It’s a magic trick my former girlfriend taught me”, Tara explained.
Willow pulled back, looking Tara in the eye, “Former girlfriend?”
“Before she became my wife.”
Willow’s lips met Tara’s in a grateful kiss.
“Hmmm”, Tara sighed after pulling away, “What do you want for breakfast?”
“I’m feeling like a big bowl of… nothing”, Willow grumbled.
“Will, you need to eat something” the blonde said firmly.
“But my tummy’s still rumble-y”, the hacker whined.
“Probably because it’s hungry and so is the other stomach you are currently responsible for.” Tara looked Willow deep in the eye.
Willow let out a long breath. This was going to take a lot of getting used to. A lot. “Well… maybe something mild… oatmeal… or something.”
“Okay”, Tara responded, moving to the door. “Emily’s still asleep. We need to get her up soon so that we can make it over to the Magic Box.”
“I’ll get her in a minute”, the redhead nodded. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
************
TBC....
edited to add: Look at me! I'm Extra Flamey!!
Edited by: DarkWiccan at: 6/9/02 7:39:30 pm
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I haven't read it yet but read the comments others posted (spoiled much?), seems like yet another *THUD* 
moment...off I go to read some more fics... 
that guy is terrifying!!!!But, Im scared of way too many things, prarie dogs, snow men, santa, spiders, and many many more
at: 6/10/02 12:59:18 am