Thanks Kalita for one last thud.
Part 94 is below... The question was asked a long time ago. I answered it, in part, in an earlier chapter that is referred to in this... but here is the rest of it.
Hands up if you can smell the setup...
Take care and enjoy Kittens
Katharyn
-----------------
Title:
The Sidestep Chronicle – Oh What a Feeling… (Part 94)
Author: Katharyn Rosser
Feedback: Constructive criticism always welcome.
katharynrosser@hotmail.comSpoiler Warning: Pretty limited. The story occurs in an alternate universe though reference is made to events that occur in both realities.
Summary: W/T make a discovery.
Disclaimer: I still don’t own any of the copyrights or anything else associated with BTVS. All rights lie with the production company, writers etc, etc. I am making zilch from this series of stories.
Rating: 15
Couples: W/T
Notes: The title of this part come from the Lionel Ritchie song… of course. You’ll see why.
Thanks To: I’d like to thank Celia for going on with her fic. She didn’t have to and I’m just enjoying it too much to keep quiet. So go read “The Kali Prophecy” now. It’s not getting enough attention.
The Sidestep Chronicle
Oh What a Feeling…
By
Katharyn Rosser
Tara didn’t dare speak. She couldn’t say a word to her love. She couldn’t, firstly because her mouth was flapping open and closed in an expression of sheer shock. Second, she was afraid of what this whole thing might mean for Willow, for her, for them. This definitely changed some things. Not the important things – but definitely things. Third… well, everything in the room was floating. Almost everything anyway – which was why Tara hadn’t crossed the threshold from door to the stairway just yet.
If they’d just been floating that might have been one thing, freaky and weird but worse was that some things were stationary, some were rotating slowly and some were spinning quickly. And around different planes in space too. But even then, if it had just been that then she would have said something and tried to stop it from happening. But that wasn’t why she was shocked. There, above them all, up against the low roof, was Willow and she was obviously terrified even if she was looking the other way… out of the window and at a world where gravity was still working as it should do.
Willow was even more terrified than Tara was at that moment.
So she just stood and gaped for a few seconds more, trying to get past the shock and into thinking about this. Trying to figure out how it could have happened and more importantly what she could do about it now. To speak though, to say a single word, whilst Willow was in that position… If Willow’s concentration was broken then she could fall and hurt herself. It might only be a little over five feet but she could still hurt herself. The other things in the room, none of them were important compared to Willow being injured and anything that wasn’t held or fixed down – apart from Tara – was at least a little way into the air. The weight of the object seemed to have nothing to do with how high it was floating or how fast it was rotating or spinning.
All those other floating objects were all just ‘things’ – but she couldn’t let Willow fall. The only other item, apart from Tara herself, that wasn’t aloft was… something which Tara realised she hadn’t seen in ten years or more. If she’d thought about it in all that time, she would have thought that it was lost – or buried somewhere in the attic perhaps.
She would have been right too. It seemed that it had been here all that time.
And now Willow had found it.
---------------------
All she’d done was…
This wasn't…
Where was…?
How…?
What had she done to cause this? What had she done wrong?
When she’d found herself, well not exactly obeying the laws of gravity any more, at first it had been all like ‘wow’ but that had passed pretty quickly into something that was definitely more like ‘please let me down.’ Willow wasn’t afraid to admit that she was in fact afraid. Was that a contradiction? This just was something that wasn’t supposed to happen. Not to her anyway. All the theories said so… all the theories that weren’t magic. It had to be magic that was doing this. Gravity didn’t just turn off all of a sudden. Newston’s laws hadn’t been repealed. Apples still fell on people’s heads.
Except in this room – where there were no apples.
Did she need an apple?
Questions like ‘how?’ and ‘why?’ and ‘what?’ were filling her head and not in any order. It was a mess in there and she didn’t like the confusion. Terror had come along pretty soon after fear and then shock had thumbed a ride down to Confusionville. And she was still hanging there.
It seemed that she’d been there for ages already but how long had it really been? A few minutes at most? She’d wanted to cry out, for Tara to come and help her, but somehow… somehow she’d known that Tara would come anyway. That Tara already knew. And Tara would make it better. Tara made everything better – the results were long since in – Tara
did make everything better. Also, Tara knew what she was doing with all this magic stuff. Stuff that Willow hadn’t paid that much attention to since she’d been brought back.
Because we know that I can’t do it. Knew…And Tara hadn’t been doing much magic either.
Just the thought of Tara had calmed her. Or was it Tara’s thoughts? Just a little bit maybe, but she was definitely better than she had been when those thoughts hadn’t been at the forefront of her mind. When she had taken off. And so, without screaming, she’d hung there above the ground waiting for her baby to come to her. To help her. Tara had always been there for her. Tara
would help her.
--------------------------------
Tara had felt Willow… but in her head. Feeling her was nothing new… she could always feel Willow inside her. In her soul and in her heart, but a minute ago Willow had been right there, in her head. Tara knew that she’d felt the
actual excitement as Willow had left the ground. Then she’d felt the actual fear arrive to brush the excitement aside. And when Willow had realised that she couldn’t get down again then the terror had overwhelmed it all.
It had been like a clarion call for her ears only. Willow couldn’t have known that she was calling her like that, but she
had wanted to. She had wanted Tara to come to her. And that had been all it had taken for Tara to know. The call hadn’t told her where Willow was though. Not even an impression of that place. She’d run around the house looking and eventually she’d found Willow here, in the attic, led there only by the open door. If the door had been closed… Well, Willow would have had to shout to her then – and if she wasn’t supposed to be breaking whatever concentration was holding her up now… then a shout might have been bad.
She wouldn’t have dreamed of looking in here at all but for the door. Spiders, cobwebs and dust. These were a few of Willow’s least favourite things. Not at all what she liked. At least there were no frogs though. But she had a feeling that Willow was liking this floating thing even less than the spiders. She was up there, amongst the cobwebs. That would have been enough to freak Willow out and would have had her wash her hair for like an hour to get it all out.
Tara could understand that – cobwebs in hair was something that made her itch for hours as well even if she didn’t mind spiders. Well she didn’t mind spiders so long as she knew where they were.
The only other thing that wasn't in the air then, apart from Tara herself, was her grandmother’s Doll’s Eye Crystal. The crystal was what had been behind the only other time she had ever felt that sort of pure mental link before. When she and her mother had explored the powers of the crystal, just after her grandmother’s death, she’d felt that sort of mental connection to her then.
They’d just explored it a little – but not too much. They were very cautious when it came to anything that was even slightly magical. As her mother had been with her grandmother to explore the crystal once upon a time and, Momma had suggested, Tara could do with her own daughter.
Even back then Tara had already pretty much figured that there weren’t going to be any more Maclay daughters… not unless they were Donny’s children. But she hadn’t mentioned that to her Momma. She wouldn’t have known
how to mention it then – back when the ‘L’ word was something that older girls at school used as an insult. It had taken her about three more years to tell her Momma.
And no one else.
The Crystal had been put away after they’d done that little bit of exploration. Until Tara was ready for it and… then before she’d been ready everything had gone bad. Momma had got sick and then after that, just as she’d been getting better again, there were the vampires and…
She’d forgotten all about it. And that connection. Until now.
And there it was. The connection and the crystal.
------------------------
“Tara,” Willow saw her, looked at her. “Tara get me down, please.” Tara looked her in the eyes and Willow was so, so sorry for whatever it was that she had managed to do here. She’d made her baby afraid for her. “Tara-” she started but her lover pressed a finger to her lips, asking her for silence.
Nor did Tara move very freely now she had come into the room. She was taking slow, deliberate steps. As if she was afraid that she could also be in the air at any moment.
Was Tara going to be mad with her? Tara had
never been mad with her before. She had no idea what that would be like… and she didn’t much want to find out either.
She knew, remembered, that Tara had tried to show the vampire about magic once – but that had been before Tara had been able to get them out of Sunnydale and before Tara had sworn herself off the use of magic for all but the best of reasons. She remembered what the vampire had been reading about magic, but it wouldn’t help her now. Was Tara going to have to use magic to do this? Not to stop someone being hurt but instead to correct a stupid, inquisitive, mistake. An accident… It was her fault that Tara was going to have use magic when she didn’t want to.
I’m so sorry baby.But she hadn’t actually
done anything had she? If she had, then she certainly didn’t know
what that was.
Please Tara help me… I’m all floaty and I can’t go down when I want to. Please… She wished silently as she continued to obey Tara and didn’t speak. Somehow she thought that Tara knew though. Somehow Tara knew what she was wishing.
Willow wished that she had never picked up that stupid crystal from the trunk.
------------------------
What was she going to do now though? Now that she was here Willow seemed to think that it would all be okay and Tara would help her down. Tara just didn’t know how. That was the problem. Magic was complex… it wouldn’t just be a case of snapping her fingers like that TV show. Or wiggling her nose. This wasn’t… in everything she’d done Tara had never really had to overcome something like this before. It wasn't simple at all.
Her first thought had been to create a cushion of thickened air for Willow to fall onto, when she did fall, and then all she’d have had to do was to figure out how to stop her from floating in the first place. Not easy, but at least she would have been able to protect Willow if that effect ended unexpectedly.
The trouble was that it didn’t take more than an attempt at a single step into the attic for her to realise that the column of thickened air was exactly how Willow was floating. A column of air that was supporting her like a bed, and like any physical object it had to be resting on the ground to do its job. Just as Willow was resting on top of it. Getting her own support in there, under her control, past and through Willow’s… she thought that maybe she could do that… before Willow fell too far. And if it had been anything or anyone but Willow she would have taken that chance. But…
Willow might be afraid but at least she was safe up there. For now. Safer than she would be hitting the floor face first. Even if she managed to avoid major injury from that height, what about her pretty nose? Tara didn’t want anything bad to happen. Especially to that pretty nose.
She couldn’t just take control of the spell from Willow, no matter how inadvertent it might have been, because she hadn’t been involved in its formation. She didn’t even know if it was constructed in the same way her own spells would have been. Magic, no matter how common, was almost always unique to the user. It had to be… it depended on the thoughts, and how the person thought, rather than the theory. If they’d done this together then she could have taken the strain on her herself and with that the control because she would have known how the spell was working.
She could have stopped it.
But then, if they
had done this together then Willow wouldn’t have been up against the ceiling now would she? To take control of it now, and she could have tried, would require a violent clash of will. Even if Willow
wanted to come down, the magic had a will of its own that would work through her – or at least a part of Willow’s will. It wanted to be used; it hated to be dispelled. And Willow’s magic, if not Willow, would have resisted her attempts to end that. It was a part of Willow… just not a part that Willow herself knew.
That was just the way things were.
Willow now had to get to know that part of herself. That was the only way that she would be able to control and safely use the magic. And avoid the darkness that always lurked out there.
Tara thought that if things came to it then it was a clash that she might have won, after all she had the experience and knowledge, yet fighting that will might have hurt her love more than a fall from twice the height. That meant that there was just one, safe, way left to her to solve this. She smiled at Willow, wanting to give her that little comfort before she, tried, to tell her what to do.
It was Willow’s spell.
As she stepped closer she was under it. And Willow.
-------------------------
“Willow.”
Just the sound of Tara’s voice helped but she still had to wonder ‘why am I not down yet?’ Why hadn’t Tara got her down? Was there something that was preventing that from happening? Something that was stopping Tara from helping her? If there was then could they just get past it please?
“Willow, sweetie, just be still okay? Don’t try and do anything yet,” Tara said to her.
What was she going to try to do? She had pretty much tried everything that she could do – aside from screaming. No need for that though. Tara was here. Tara had known she was in trouble and Tara had come to her. How had she known?
Well they were… together. That must have been it. Willow liked that. Liked it in amongst the fear.
But… ‘Yet.’ Tara had said ‘yet.’ That must have meant that Tara had a plan. Plans were a good thing – especially in these circumstances. Plans also often involved schedules. Schedules were even better really. Willow had a lot of respect for schedules.
Item One – Get Willow down from where she is floating just under the ceiling.
Item Two – See item one and repeat as necessary.
But she knew that Tara would do that. It wasn’t a matter of faith in her love, though. She certainly had that anyway, it was the look on Tara’s face. She was determined. She was thinking hard. And she was concerned… but not worried. Tara knew that this would all work out so how could Willow have her own doubts about it? Let alone Tara?
Wow… that was an awful lot to read into Tara’s face.
Willow didn’t doubt though. Not at all and that made her feel a little better again.
Her baby would so her best for her until…
There was a touch. A warm, strange, calm went through her as Tara came further into the room, stepping around a floating steam iron that was hanging from nothing by the flex, and she touched her fingers. Tara touched her again and the biochemical reactions to her fear eased. If Tara was like a drug then she was one thing that Willow was happy to be addicted to. Tara’s fingers pressed against hers and they were splayed open. Splayed so that Willow could link her own hand with Tara’s. So that they could interweave their fingers.
They hadn’t done that since…
Not since that day in the hallway in Sunnydale.
Except it hadn’t been her.
Funny she should choose now to repeat the gesture. It was one that both Tara and the vampire had liked… and Willow had wanted to replicate many times since they’d come to be together, it was just that it had held other memories. For both of them. Of the bad Willow.
The one who couldn’t do magic… why was she up here now then? Because she wasn’t that Willow? Because not being able to do the magic thing was more a product of the vampire than of anything to do with Willow?
Logical but not proven.
Tara was just below her now, looking up and Willow could, if she dared to move, have almost reached Tara to kiss her. If Tara had strained a little too. They could have done that.
Oh, she wanted to put her hands on those cheeks and hold that mouth to hers. To thrust her tongue between those lips and make another day disappear in a sea of making lover’s new memories. There was the small matter of floating to deal with first though. You couldn’t float and make memories like that… could you?
If Tara got her down… when Tara got her down… then she
would have to be rewarded for that… some fun and loving way.
Just a kiss though for now? It would make the last of the fear go away.
And then Tara looked her in the eyes, and she smiled. Shook her head. It was a ‘not yet’ shake if ever Willow had seen one. Tara could… hear her? Hear things that she hadn’t said? She’d come here, found her… without a sound from Willow who didn’t think that she’d ever seen Tara come in here.
Tara looked at something else, down on the ground by the trunk that Willow had been investigating when she had found it… The trunk that was now just next to her right hand against the ceiling.
“Did you touch the crystal sweetie?” Tara asked her.
Willow nodded. So that was what she had done wrong then?
-----------------------
So it
was the crystal, it stood to reason. It’s lack of reaction to the magic that it had helped cause, the fact that it had been found after all this time and that it was out now. But... it shouldn’t have… No. There was time to wonder about the rest of that later. After. First… First she had to help Willow, before, inadvertently, her red haired love changed something that hurt one or both of them – or did something worse if she was still ‘using’ the crystal.
Was she using it… or was it using her? Or was this…?
No. She had to be focused. Wonder later. Know now. Know that she was going to get Willow down – and let Willow know and be sure of that. She squeezed Willow’s hand in hers and smiled. “We’re going to get you down now sweetie.”
Well… they were going to get Willow down even if ‘now’ was a little premature. They were going to start now though. However long it took.
“How?” Willow managed to squeak as the trunk by her leg abruptly rotated through one hundred and eighty degrees dumping the contents on the floor, before they too started to float up around her. It was like watching some film set in a space ship or something.
Except that there was still a ‘down’ and it still hurt, Tara thought as she dodged the former contents of the trunk until they’d established their positions and hung there.
‘How?’ Not. ‘Thank you Tara.’ She liked curious Willow. But this was a curious Willow that seemed to think that she was going to do this for her. And Tara would have – if she could. There was no, ‘Tell me what I can do.’ Willow thought that her baby could save her when in fact she was going to have to save herself. Willow was going to have to do the doing here. Tara knew that she could only help her – guide her.
--------------------------
There was that comforting smile. She always melted when Tara smiled at her – which meant that she was pretty much in a constant state of meltdom.
“You’re going to have to do it Willow,” Tara told her calmly.
“Me?” She couldn’t do what Tara did. That was part of being Tara, doing those things that she could do. A smaller part of Tara than she had once thought now that the love filled her – but still Tara and very definitely not her. In any Tara and Willow… Tara was the one who was magical. In every way.
Stupid damn crystal. She cursed it silently not sure if speaking the words would cause it do more bad things. What was it doing this to her for?
All pretty and pink and shiny… Glistening in the light… tempting her to reach out and touch it. Focus Willow… she had to think about the crystal and not Tara right now.
Stupid crystal. Why was it doing this?
“You sweetie,” Tara said. “I’ll explain later – but you’re going to have to do this. You have to stop it, or it could get… worse” Tara frowned a little as if she had thought better of saying that last word when she saw Willow’s reaction.
Too late baby. She gave Tara a smile. It was okay – as long as Tara was there with her.
Except… it could get worse than this? There
was a worse?
Of course there was a worse, because apart from being super-scary, this wasn't actually all that bad. Not really… Not on a scale of one to the things that she’d done as the vampire. No… it was nothing compared to her dreams and the things that they’d told her and reminded her of.
And Tara was here to help her now. Tara knew what to do. She really did, Willow could hear it in her voice. But she wanted to come down now thank you very much.
Tara smiled again, as if she’d heard that as well. “Come to me,” Tara said and Willow pulled on their hands where they were connected, trying to drag herself down to Tara, but she’d only just started to move when it got much harder. It was as if whatever was supporting her would compress a little and then the resistance started – like a spring it started to push back and she touched the low ceiling lightly.
“No honey,” Tara instructed, “don’t pull. Just
want to come to me.”
-----------------------
Willow looked at her as if she had said the dumbest, most obvious thing in the world.
Ever.
But she also looked at her as if it had been said by a person who she loved so deeply that she would forgive the dumb thing. So that would do for now.
Of course Willow wanted to come down – that was screaming in her head. Willow did want to… but it wasn’t quite as simple as that.
It sort of depended on how Willow had done what she’d done. It was obvious that there was no incantation as there were no spell books and Willow knew no magic of her own. Nor had the vampire learned any spells. This was just her Willow and it was the crystal. Nothing more than that. It could be…
“Just try sweetie,” she asked squeezing Willow’s hand again. This time she gave her palm a little tickle too which at least brought another smile to Willow’s face.
Good. Humour was good. They might be here for a while if Willow couldn’t do what she needed her to. At least she wasn’t upside-down, that made things easier.
It, well it wasn't an ideal situation, for magic 101. Upside-down… now that would have been even worse. Her own manifestation had been… well, easier than this. Momma had been able to help her through it all, after she’d spotted it early on. She’d been there when she had been scared. She had held her daughter’s hand as she showed her the way. The right way… and let her know what the wrong way was too.
She’d even tickled her palm.
Tara hadn’t realised until that moment that she’d been, unconsciously, following the pattern that had been set back then. As it had been before, right here in this house. But it had worked then, for her. She’d managed to come through all that without turning to the darkness. Momma had taught her well. Better than she could ever have hoped for. Maybe that was how Momma had been taught by Grandma? Tara had thought that she’d never have anyone to pass that on to… but now she did.
They’d both, she and Momma, had reason to be scared back then. Mother and daughter had both known that the emergence of the magic made Tara a demon. Except… except it hadn’t had it? It had all been lies.
Why had he done that to her Mother? She knew that that her parents had been in love… and yet he did that to her anyway. He’d been teaching Donny the same lessons. Why?
“You just need to want it, Willow. I think…” she said. There was nothing certain about this. That was the nature of magic – nothing was ever certain.
In fact that was the whole point. Certainty came from laws and theories in science. Magic was the only thing that obeyed other laws. And certainty went out the window.
“I
do want it,” Willow told her.
Tara sighed. And maybe Willow really did want it. Maybe the magic didn’t though… and the part of her that had found that crystal was the magic… This was going to call for something different. Something more than just the desire to get down from there. Even more than getting away from the cobwebs and the spiders that must have been up there around her.
Actually spiders… well those might have done it, but maybe faster than would be healthy for either of them given where Tara was stood now, underneath Willow’s face.
“Want me,” Tara instructed her.
‘Want me?’ Was that actually the best thing to have said in the circumstances? She had to wonder if she would be floating there too as a result of those words. Maybe it was time to… she used a little magic of her own to ensure that she was firmly held within the grip of gravity. Just in case.
Willow just looked at her though, wondering – it seemed – what she’d meant by that. “Want me,” Tara tipped her head back, offering her lips to Willow. Willow who strained for them. Extending herself as best as she could in the position to reach for Tara.
She watched as Willow found her, stretching for her… and those lips… they barely touched. They just whispered against her own lips. Tara reached up with both hands and laid them on Willow’s soft cheeks, offering her tongue to the lover who had her hair hanging around her face.
And as those hands, and the tongue, met Willow – the other woman started to tip. Slowly at first, barely moving at all, so little Tara could hardly tell that it was working. But then… yes… Willow’s whole body was shifting, her feet gradually descending towards the floor as the kiss went on and on. The kiss was the fulcrum of the pivot.
It was just a simple kiss. It was nothing special apart from being Willow.
Just lips against lips. And once Willow had started to move she’d been able to stop with the tongue too. She didn’t want to chance there being any biting in the event of a crashing fall the rest of the way down. It was good to know what her girl wanted though. What would motivate her.
Especially when that thing was her.
And then Willow was supporting her own weight, settling from her tiptoes to stand normally against and in front of Tara. And once Willow could move herself with those feet she managed to press herself against Tara too. And she did as the kiss went on and on.
Kisses around here tended to do that. In general. Now there was a law of nature that magic couldn’t mess with.
“Thank you,” Willow said eventually when they surfaced, more than a little bit breathless.
Tara grinned, “I think you said that already sweetie. With the kiss.” Then she looked around at the rest of the room. “All we have to do now,” she prodded the floating truck with a cautious finger, “is figure out how to get everything else back down on the ground.”
“Won’t it just, you know, stop?” Willow asked her as if just noticing the still levitated objects.
“That’s still sort of up to you sweetie,” Tara told her.
“They won’t kiss me like you do.”
“No probably not,” Tara had to admit.
--------------------------
“So the crystal is…” Willow tailed off, waiting for Tara to fill in the gaps for her. Again. She was usually a quick study, but this she was having problems with. It came from having no real idea what Tara was referring to when she glossed over things that seemed really important. And when she asked… well the definitions seemed to change from spell to spell and person to person.
That wasn’t her baby’s fault… it just seemed to be the way magic was. Disorganised and not making much sense.
“It’s like an amplifier,” Tara said carefully. “It makes things easier – with the magic I mean.” She didn’t sound too sure. It wasn’t the facts… just how she was explaining it. At least Willow thought so. Tara knew what she wanted to say, it was just explaining those to someone who had no idea what she meant that was proving tricky.
“But not more powerful? Like louder if it was a amplifier?” Willow had to ask. That was how an amplifier worked, it made quiet things louder. And hence the name after all.
Tara seemed to think about that comparison. “No. I mean I don’t think so. Maybe that wasn't the right word… What I meant was that an amplifier would make it easier to hear something from the back of a room. But I guess that does mean louder. With the magic though… it just gives you starting place – if you have the talent.”
Willow leaned over and kissed her. They were lying together in bed. Most of the afternoon had been spent getting things down and into the grip of gravity again and once the last item had been rescued Willow had felt sort of disappointed. It must have been like Tara said… the magic wanted to be used. It wanted to be out in the world.
And it didn’t want to go away.
She had also been really, really tired when it ended. Which Tara had explained was also how the magic worked. There had been no noticeable strain during it… but after. She was bushed.
‘Nothing was for free.’ That had been the first thing that Tara had told her. Willow had yawned over and over during that explanation and lesson, despite being interested. Eventually they had taken the conversation to bed with them.
“I have many talents you know,” Willow reminded her. She might be tired, but Tara had to remember that fact above all others. Well all bar the love thing. She kissed her baby’s forehead and applied her hand to the rest of the reminder as they lay there and talked.
“I know you do,” Tara replied resting her own hand over Willow’s on her chest then gently removing it. “But you’ve got one more now than you had this morning.”
So Tara wanted to be serious… well it was a serious topic and that morning was just the most recent time that she’d displayed those talents.
“I know,” Willow said. “I really get that.” And she did. “I guess that it just makes me a little nervous so I’m trying to… you know distract things a little.” She smiled. “But you see… it’s so exciting, but it’s also scary and ‘wow’ too. I mean I thought that we’d already shown that I had zero talent – at least for the magic.”
Tara nodded, clearly thinking back to the vampire that ‘fact’ had been proven with – just as Willow was remembering it. Memories that weren’t hers… it was so weird. Like someone else had lived in her body – and in fact that was almost exactly it.
“But,” she went on, “I haven’t – got no talent I mean. Okay, so I needed the help of the crystal and it was more than a bit scary and I had no idea how to get down… but… if it wasn't the crystal that was actually doing it then… wow.”
Wow. She could do magic.
“Willow, honey, you have to be careful. More careful now.”
--------------------------
Tara was a little colder and a little sterner when she said that than she’d intended to be but this was serious. It had to be taken seriously. ‘Wow’ was fine… but ‘Wow’ with responsibility. That was the way to go. Knowing what the dangers were and how to avoid them. Willow had probably never heard her speak like that before, but she didn’t look hurt by it. Willow would know that she was only saying it because she cared for her so much. Loved her more than the world.
Willow would pay attention. Willow loved to learn and there had to be the talk about all this. It was serious when magic was misused or used in ignorance. People got hurt that way. Willow herself could get hurt. “Magic isn’t a toy,” she started as her mother had started the talk to her all that time ago. “It’s not fun. It should only be used when the need is great, when nothing else will work, to save someone from being hurt and only when you are sure what you want to achieve.”
Willow nodded at every point to show that she got it. “I understand,” she said.
“Do you sweetie?” Tara asked. She wasn't trying to be confrontational – nor was she doubting Willow, but it had taken more than that for Tara herself to understand and she had come to ‘the talk’ as a young girl well used to obeying her parents and the consequences of not doing that. Perhaps… Willow being older, having been through what she had. Knowing something about power that was dark… Maybe that would make it easier for her?
What had happened this afternoon hadn’t been Willow’s fault and no one had been hurt but… this all had to be said anyway.
“I think so,” Willow confirmed.
They would have the talk again. Before Willow’s magic was allowed to develop anywhere she
would understand. That was the only way that Tara could keep her safe. Magic needed to be practised in controlled circumstances – especially when starting out. That was the way that the Maclay women had been taught for generations. And, despite being called demons by their fathers and husbands, none of them had ever succumbed to the darkness.
Not even in the face of that lie.
Tara wondered whether one of them though… whether one had? Way back… out of the family memory... If one had slipped into the dark and the whole demon thing was what the men back then had decided to use to control the inherent magic in their wives and daughters. Lacking a better explanation… might they have thought that it must be a demon?
Had that been it? Or could they just not face the idea that their female family members were potentially more powerful than they were? Had it seemed that they might not have needed them?
So they had to beat us down?Willow’s voice, and the fingers stroking her hair back, brought her out of her thoughts. Maybe there was something in the attic though, that might tell her that? Maybe in her grandfather’s things. No one had ever looked at them after he died. It hadn’t been allowed. Why had that been?
“What I don’t understand,” Willow said again patiently.
“Sorry sweetie.”
“Is why, if the crystal is tuned to the women in your family it worked for me?” her lover asked.
Tara had been thinking about that herself, during and after the incident that afternoon. She rolled onto her back and looked at the ceiling weighing her conclusions. “Maybe,” she suggested a little shyly, “It’s because
you are attuned to me? And I to you? Each of us to the other.” It made as much sense to her as anything else.
“I like that explanation,” Willow told her, coming onto her side alongside Tara.
“The real answer,” Tara admitted, “is that I don’t know sweetie. But can we just say that
is the answer? Being as we like it?”
“Okay,” Willow grinned and stroked Tara’s shoulder. “Teach me something?”
“Now?” Tara knew that she couldn’t do this now. Not until Willow really understood and definitely not when she was tired. “A spell?”
“No,” Willow moved her hand. “Not a spell. That other magic you do.”
And there was a kiss. Just a simple kiss.
Until the magic show started.
**************************
-------------------------
If I want a little pussy, I got my own to play with.
Chance in
Chance.------------------------
by ruby » Thu Oct 24, 2002 8:15 am 
After 92 gorgeous parts, it's hard to believe you could continue to raise the bar all the way to the end. But you're doing it. Thanks.
at: 10/25/02 8:43:03 pm
Contaminating Pens is so not an option!
at: 10/25/02 11:36:29 pm
Tara is here, so all problems will be solved, I liked that.
