How It Ends

This is my first fanfic, so sorry if it is not that great.

Summary: Tara doesn't die, her heart just stops momentarily.

Willow's Story

Tara's head laid limp in my hands. 'Limp? She's limp.' The thought was there, but it was lost, not so much lost more like not registering. Then like a wave it hit me, it hit me like a tidal wave, pulling me under so I could not breathe.

"Tara baby?" The rage filled me. Flashes, flashes and loud noises came back to me. The sudden appearance of crimson on her blue shirt, the words that she spoke as her life left her.

I loved this woman, and now all that was left was her body, no love, no Tara.

Those were the last of my memories of that day and the next few, and the next thing I knew I was on a cliff and Xander was holding me and then all I knew was sadness. But somehow, something, something bigger than Xander had pulled me out of the darkness something or someone had called out to me.

"I need to go to the hospital."

Dawn's Story

The door was open so I walked in thinking maybe that someone had needed to pee really bad when unlocking the door. I always get yelled at for just forgetting to lock the door. So leaving the door open should make it super bad, I have an excuse to be the angry one for once, hopefully it was Buffy. "Buffy?"

No one was downstairs so I went to Willow and Tara's room, it was dark and the smell of iron was in the air. As I walked around the bed I saw a foot "Tara?" the sight of her lying there alone just left with that crimson hole in her shirt. After that I called 911 and waited for the ambulance to come pick her up, she still had a slight pulse.

Tara's Story

Waking up in the ICU was bad enough, but waking up and no one being there was even worse. The last thing I remember was hearing Willow screaming my name and thinking I had died. I could feel it, Willow's magic. I could feel it suffocating me. Oh the pain. "I'm alive. Oh honey I'm alive." My mind reached out to her hoping my thoughts could pull her back to me, to my hospital room. And as I did I felt it, the darkness subsided and now there is nothing just me, all alone in this room.

The Rest of the Story

Tara's eyes opened to see Willow sitting on the end of her hospital bed crying. It took Tara a moment to remember what had happened. 'Wait, what had happened?' Tara thought.

"Willow what happened?" The woman's voice was raspy from just waking up and probably from also being on heavy pain meds.

"Warren… It all happened so fast. I thought you were dead, well you were. Your heart stopped." The red head was still sobbing quietly as the words escaped her mouth, she reached over and brushed a hair out of her lovers face. "So much…" She wasn't quite ready to tell Tara that she had killed a man. She wasn't even ready to accept that she had.

Grabbing Willow's hand in her own Tara breathed out. "It's alright, I'm not dead." The witch decided to let Willow tell her the story in her own way, Tara knew that if she rushed her lover, that she would end up more confused than when she woke up. Especially since her mind hadn't completely reached itself yet, and though she usually could understand the strange way Willow told stories she felt this one was going to be a long one.

"Warren tried to kill Buffy by means of a gun… Only he didn't just get Buffy." Another sob excreted from Willow's mouth. "A stray bullet came into our room through the window, hitting you." After each sob Tara would squeeze her girlfriend's hand. "I couldn't help it Tara… The darkness. Oh baby, I did such horrible things." Now Tara understood why Willow was crying so desperately. She remembered the feeling she had had when she first woke up by herself. Tara gulped back her tears. Consoling her lover was all she cared about, the pain in Willow hurt Tara more than the throbbing coming from her chest.

The blonde witch also sensed something else, something beneath the pain, Willow's aura had completely changed, there was darkness in it, but it wasn't just the darkness that was different, but a new sense of power Willow was almost a million times stronger than she had been when Tara last touched her. "It's alright… I'm alive, I'm here we can get through this together. Just tell me what happened."

Finally Willow completely broke down, allowing herself to lay her head completely on Tara's ok shoulder. "I killed him Tara."

A Few Months Later

Willow sat cross legged on the bed, concentrating on something, on what exactly Buffy didn't know, but Buffy tried to just sit cross legged and be quiet while the witch did all the work and healed herself, Buffy was just there to lend her strength.

"Willow? Do you think you are up to seeing Tara now?"

"I guess…" Willow was still unsure, but she was trying not to think that she wasn't ready to see Tara because then she might inadvertently make a spell so they both couldn't see each other again. "How she must hate me. I killed, in her name I killed." Willow sighed "She must hate me."

"She doesn't." Buffy got up from the bed and walked down the stairs. When she came back Tara was following her.