Alrighty, here's something I came up with a while ago after watching Seeing Red. It's sort of an alternate ending- perhaps even an alternate universe. I thought to myself, how can I save Tara? I drew a picture of Willow magically (magickally?) catching the bullet, and this story is actually based on the drawing. So I hope you enjoy, fellow reader.
Standard disclaimer here, I don't own Buffy or any characters, themes, etc. but if I did, Tara wouldn't have died. She maybe would have been injured, just enough to set Willow's chain-of-evil-events off, but she wouldn't have died.
The girls' reunion was a fiery one. Many days had passed since Tara had practically begged Willow to take her back, and in those few days the two girls had only left the comfort of their room (because it's not just Willow's room anymore) six times at max. Of course, those six times weren't without the romance; there was plenty of smoochies to be had by the girls. But Willow was more than happy to remain in Tara's arms for as long as physically possible, and Tara wouldn't have it any other way.
Eventually, though, the girls got hungry, and the loving had to stop. Willow climbed out of their bed and strolled to their dresser to find something decent to wear downstairs. Tara stayed in bed just a moment longer to sneak a peek at Willow's still-naked body but soon joined the clothes-getting committee. Willow was the first to speak.
"Hey. Clothes," she stated surprised, as if she didn't think her and Tara would be considering any sort of outerwear until much, much later.
"Don't get too used to them," Tara replied with a coy grin that made Willow reconsider the whole getting-dressed thing.
"Yes, ma'am," she replies, and the reunited lovers kiss once again, sweet and tender with that hint of lust. Tara embraced Willow tightly. She pulled away slightly and something outside the window caught her eye.
"Mmm… Xander?" Were him and Buffy possibly making up? Tara sure hoped so. Her little outburst of words affronted Willow. All this loving and she says 'Xander?' With a hint of annoyance, Willow nudged Tara.
"Okay, not quite the response I was fishing for," Willow looked slightly worried. Tara realized what she said and clarified her thought for her girlfriend.
"No, he's here." Tara walked the short distance to the window and peered out upon Xander and Buffy.
"Think they're making up?" Willow asked hopefully. She couldn't stand having her two best friends arguing. It gave her tummy rumblies.
"I hope so," Tara replied, then smiled and said, "that's the best part." The double entendre was not lost on Willow and she quickly embraced her girlfriend, giving her lots more kisses.
Willow and Tara stayed wrapped in their embrace for another minute, just feeling. Feeling each other. Feeling the love. Suddenly Tara heard shouts coming from outside. Tara jumped, startled, and ran over to the window to make sure Buffy wasn't kicking Xander's ass. Willow stayed put, concern visibly showing on her face.
"What's going on? A-are they fighting?" Willow grew more concerned by the second.
"No, they're not, someone's, someone's out there. Oh my goddess!" Tara spun around and dashed to Willow. She tugged on her arm, trying to pull Willow away from the window. Her next words froze Willow cold.
"He's got a gun."
Willow spent about a tenth of a second deducing who could have possibly brought a gun with the intent to hurt Buffy. "Warren," she growled, and her eyes grew dark. Tara saw this and began to berate Willow for tapping into her magic when she had been doing so well, when they heard gunshots.
One.
Willow felt her magic begin to flow through her body. She knew she had to restrain it, no matter how dangerous the situation was getting. She had to do it for Tara.
Two.
Tara could feel something bad was about to happen. She huddled herself into Willow's left side, wanting to feel the comfort of her lover.
Three.
The darkness was flowing through Willow. She could feel it bursting through her veins. Her will was fading fast; not even thoughts of Tara could hold the magic off any more. She knew Tara would be disappointed. What she couldn't figure out was why? Why now? Sure this was a dangerous situation, but the Scoobies had been in bad places before and Willow had still managed to refrain from the magicks. Then, it hit her. Something bad is about to happen and she needs to stop it. Her mind reached out to the world and she saw what would happen- no, what wouldn't happen, what couldn't happen.
Four.
Tara saw Willow's darkness, and she knew they'd need to be having another "don't use magicks" talk soon. After this Warren madness. She turned to her lover, but what she saw was not the same Dark Willow she knew. No, something was different. Tara could feel the difference in the magicks Willow was using, and though they were indeed Dark, she knew Willow was in control. She felt a rush of pride-
Crash!
The next thing Tara knew was that Willow had her in a very tight embrace with one arm outstretched in front of her chest. Floating in Willow's right hand, the one in front of Tara, was a small golden bullet, stopped about two inches from Tara's heart. Tara stared at the bullet. Had Willow not stopped it, she'd have been dead. She stared at the bullet, then turned to face her savior. Willow's eyes were nearly solid black, and her roots were dark, but that was fading fast. Willow was pulling out of the magicks- successfully- and looked quite terrified.
"Tara… *gasp* are you okay? Baby?" Willow was totally herself again, and was fully aware of what nearly happened. She looked to be on the verge of a mental breakdown so Tara tried to calm her down.
"Willow! Will, please listen, I know that- baby, calm down, breathe, I'm fine- yes, that was scary, but you don't have to worry, I'm- Willow, honey, breathe- yes, I-I think he's gone. Will, you saved me." Willow was nearly hysterical by this point and it was all Tara could do to keep her from completely losing it. "Willow… how? How did you know?"
"I'm so sorry, I-I didn't m-mean to go all Dark Me again, I swear I stopped! I'm clean!" Willow didn't believe Tara would still want to be with her after the magicks she had used but she had to try. She just got her Tara back and damn if she won't try and keep her!
"I know, I could tell. I believe you. Honey, I'm not mad," Tara caressed her lover's back, trying to comfort the sobbing pile of Willow, "I just want to know how you possibly could have known one of the bullets would shoot through the window. You couldn't possibly have reacted that fast by yourself."
Willow, following Tara's gentle instruction, was breathing deep. In, out, repeat. Shakily she tried to remember what exactly happened between feeling her powers and magically catching the bullet. "Well," she paused, then continued more forcefully, "when Warren began to fire, I felt this- this power flow through me. And I knew it was the magicks again. So I tried to stop it. Then more bullets happened, and the magicks grew stronger. I-I tried to stop it, I thought, 'Oh, Tara's gonna be disappointed if I use magic,' and I tried to stop, I really did! But then that last bullet happened and- oh goddess- Tara, it was so horrible!"
"You have to tell me what happened to you. I need to know, so if it's something dangerous I can help you fight it."
Willow vigorously shook her head. "No, I don't need help with this, I don't think it'll- it's just, what I saw! It was so terrible! A-and you…"
"I what? Willow, what did I do?" Now Tara was beginning to panic. Could she have accidentally fueled Willow with some of her magic, and that's what caused Willow to go dark?
The redhead was shaking on the ground, obviously traumatized. She looked into Tara's concerned eyes, and spoke.
"Warren killed you."
Tara was shocked. Not about the killing part- she knew that's what would have happened had the bullet not been stopped- but about the part where Willow saw it happen. She saw the death, the murder that almost was, and just stopped it. All of it.
"Oh, goddess Tara, it was so horrible! I saw you, and you were dying, and then you were gone and I was dark and killy and you wouldn't come back no matter how hard I tried and Buffy was- Buffy! She got shot too! Tara, we have to go help her!" Willow ran out the door to Buffy's aid. Tara looked out the bedroom window and saw Willow was right. Buffy was lying on the ground, Xander's hand pressed on her chest trying to stem the flow of blood. Even from this distance Tara could tell Buffy wasn't doing so well. She saw Willow run to Xander, phone in hand, probably on the line with a 911 operator. Tara realized she could probably do a healing spell to help Buffy while the ambulance was on the way. Quickly going over the spells she knew, she chose one that wouldn't draw upon her own energy but rather the energy of the Earth itself. This way, if Buffy grew too weak, the spell wouldn't drain Tara of all her life force.
"Earth, fire, wind and sea, gods and goddesses hear my plea. Buffy Summers has been through strife, so use your energy to give her life!" A blue-green mix of mist flew out the upstairs window and ghosted down to Buffy. Tara saw Buffy get startled, as if she felt the magic enter her body, and Willow looked up at Tara and gave the witch two thumbs up. Tara went to grab for her coat and rushed downstairs to aid Buffy further.
"How is she?" she asked. Xander and Willow looked at her and grimaced.
"Well if the damn ambulance would get here faster, she might be better. Your spell seemed to help though, so that's good." The three heard sirens growing closer, and Xander ran to the front yard to direct the EMTs on where to find the wounded Buffy. Willow put her arms around Tara and kissed her girlfriend. Tara returned the gesture and stared sadly at Buffy.
The taller EMT took a look at Buffy and said, "From the looks of it, she's been pretty badly wounded," No duh, Willow's voice echoed in Tara's head, "but she appears to be stable. For a wound this bad she seems to be doing incredibly well. Someone up there's looking out for her, I tell you."
The EMTs loaded Buffy up in the ambulance, and Xander opted to go with them to the hospital. Tara and Willow would take Xander's car and meet them there. It seemed impossible with all the violence that had just happened, but it looked like everybody was going to be all right. Even with Tara's and Buffy's near-misses, it was going to be okay.
"Tara?"
"Yes?"
"I love you. Don't ever die, okay?"
"I don't think I'll be able to. Not with you catching bullets for me." Tara faced Willow and gave her the half-smile Willow loves so much, and Willow knew everything would turn out okay.
Too bad nothing turns out okay on a Hellmouth. Oh well, this is why we have fanfiction- to write the stories that could have been.