A World of Their Own

Part 9

It had been a very hectic month for Willow and Tara. After Anya showed up that day and handed Tara the papers for the store, they had agreed to keep it open, so they were both working there. Willow had spoken to Giles and he said that he wasn't planning on coming back to California but that he would remain part owner of the store if they wished to keep it open.

Between work, packing up the house, and trying to find a spell to locate Xander and Spike, the two girls had very little time for anything else. They didn't know how they were going to manage classes in the fall.

It was after sundown and Willow was just coming home from the Magic Box. Tara was in the kitchen washing the dishes. "Tara? Sweetie, are you home?" Willow was sorting the day’s mail as she wandered toward the kitchen. "I'm in the kitchen." Tara called back to her. "How was work?"

Willow sat down at the counter and picked up a banana to snack on. "Horrible. I never knew suppliers could be so bitchy. I don't think we should deal with that occult bookstore in Santa Monica anymore. The woman yelled at me for ten minutes straight about some Tabitha Chronicle or something that she says we ordered and never paid for. I know I never ordered anything called a Tabitha Chronicle. It sounds so... Bewitched.

Tara chuckled and put a plate in the dish drainer. "I think she was talking about the Tarmithia Chronicle, and we did order it; the slip got lost under the register. I found it yesterday while I was cleaning and sent a check off."

Willow took a bite of her banana and chewed it slowly. "Oh, then maybe you should call her tomorrow and let her know that. If it helps, you can tell her that your business partner is certifiably insane. I think she'd believe you."

"That's okay. I'll still love you when you lose your mind." Willow smiled sadly in remembrance of those hectic weeks after Glory had taken Tara's sanity. She was glad she was able to get Tara back. If she had to deal with that on top of losing both Buffy and Xander, she didn't think she'd be sane anymore either. "Oh hey! We got a letter from Dawn."

"Why don't you read it to me while I dry these?" Tara picked up a dishtowel as Willow opened the envelope. She unfolded the paper, cleared her throat and began.

"Dear Willow and Tara. I'm writing you because Dad says I spend way too much time on the phone and that the art of written correspondence is lost on me. He can be so lame sometimes. I miss you guys a lot but I like it here in L.A. Dad's apartment is like on the thirtieth floor of this really swanky building. We have a doorman and everything. He calls me Miss Summers. Isn't that way cool?

I was going to look up Angel and Cordelia but then I thought maybe it was better if I didn't. I don't want to do anything to remind him of Buffy; he's already been hurt so much, you know? Besides, I remember Cordelia from when she dated Xander and she was kind of a bitch. Hey, I can swear on paper, it's not the same as saying it you know."

Tara smiled and winked at her girlfriend. It was an ongoing joke between them. Tara had told Dawn that a lady never curses. And then she told her if she was really angry that she should just write down every bad word she knew. By the time she was finished she would have forgotten what she was so mad about. After the first time she did it, she presented her list to the two witches who wrote down the ones she had forgotten. They'd all laughed about it afterwards and Dawn wasn't angry anymore.

"The malls in L.A. are so cool, but Dad insists on going shopping with me. He says he wants to know where his hard-earned money is going, I think he just wants to make sure I buy things that don't show any skin. There are a lot of trampy girls in L.A., and he doesn't want me to be one of them.

I hate to ask this, ‘cause I know you would call me if you did, but have you guys found anything to help get Xander and Spike back yet? I mean, I was thinking, since it was my blood and all that opened the portal in the first place it might help to find them. If you think it'll help I'll be happy to give you some. I miss them.

How is Anya? Has she come out of the apartment yet? Tell her not to give up, I know that you guys will find a way to bring them back, you're the best witches in the world.

I went to see Faith at the prison. I know you don't think I should talk to her after everything Buffy went through with her, but I wanted to. She's changed. She really is trying to be a better person. We talked for a long time while I was there. She wants to know if you'll come see her, Willow. She said she needs to apologise to you, and that she wants to do it in person.

I'd better go now. Dad wants us to do happy Daughter/Daddy things today. Like I said before, he can be so lame.

Love Dawn."

Tara put down the dishtowel and pulled Willow into her arms. She petted her hair and cooed to her while the other woman cried. She didn't know how much longer Willow could take the pressure of constantly looking for Xander. She knew that her lover felt guilty, that because she had ordered Xander to fetch Spike, he had been sucked into the portal. It wasn't her fault, but nothing Tara said would convince her.

Willow didn't know how she was going to tell Dawn that Anya was gone now as well. Not dead like Buffy, in another country like Giles, or even sucked into another dimension like Spike and Xander, but gone back to being a demon, wreaking vengeance of the male population once more. She chose to abandon them, to give up on Xander and go back to what she had been before. It wasn't going to be easy.

"Come on, why don't we go out tonight. See a movie or something, maybe it'll help you relax." Willow shook her head at her lover’s suggestion. "I can't. I'm sorry Tara, but I just can't, not while Xander is lost out God knows where with no idea that any of us even survived. I have to find him." Tara wiped Willow’s tears away and kissed her. "It's okay, I know. Let me help, we'll look together."

~!~

Rupert Giles sat in the living room of his one bedroom flat with a bottle of scotch in his hand and open books all around him. They were his watcher diaries, and Buffy's patrol journals. He had been reading and rereading them everyday for the past month. Somewhere in here he would find the thing he had overlooked, the thing he should have taught her that would have saved her life. It had to be here, everything they ever did was in these books and until he found his mistake he refused to train another slayer, or to mentor a young watcher-in-training. He would only get them killed, or worse.

The council had tried to persuade him to take a research position at their headquarters, to get back on the horse, so to speak. He had refused. He told them his judgement was not to be trusted, that he was fallible. He had failed his slayer and the world. The council said they understood his position and would contact him in six months; perhaps by then he would have regained his sense of duty. In polite terms they told him that they believed he was a fool and was ignoring his duty. In a way they were right.

Trisha, the new slayer, was 'sweet sixteen' but there was nothing sweet about her. She was - for lack of a better word - a bitch. She and her watcher, a younger version of Travers himself, had stopped by one day to chat. They were going to be heading for Sunnydale once her training was complete and they wanted to get all the information they could on the hellmouth. Giles had answered their questions, but he could tell they wouldn't heed any of his advice.

Not that he cared anymore. He was done with destiny and world-saving. He was old and tired. At least he felt that way. All he wanted out of life now was the answer to the question that was plaguing him - how had he failed his slayer? After he knew that, he would cheerfully curl up and die.

~!~

Trisha O'Leary was a pretty young girl with strawberry blonde hair and hazel eyes. She wasn't tall but she wasn't exactly short either. She was well built and very muscular for a girl her age. She was training to be an Olympic runner before she was called to active duty. As far as she was concerned, Buffy Summers had ruined her life.

She had heard the story from her watcher, how the slayer had taken her own life to save a girl that wasn't even real. How even now, that girl was living a normal sixteen-year-old’s life in Los Angeles with her 'not really hers' father. Something that Trisha should have been doing. But instead she was forced to leave her home, her family, her friends and her boyfriend Tommy. All because Buffy decided a fake girl deserved a life more than she did.

She couldn't believe the things she had heard about this slayer either - sleeping with a vampire, working with another one, keeping witches on her team and an eleven-hundred-year-old ex-demon. Who had ever heard of a slayer having a team, and to align herself with the very things she was sworn to destroy? It was appalling. No wonder she had been the longest-living slayer - she had others do her job while she cavorted with vampires! Trisha was disgusted by her.

Her watcher, John Leeds, was a stuffy, uptight British man, but he had the same feelings toward the previous slayer as she had, so they would get along just fine. Besides, he might be stuffy and uptight but he was only twenty-four and he was cute. If she had to leave Tommy back in Ireland, at least she had found a cute replacement. It would only be a matter of time before she had John right where she wanted him - between her thighs.