A/N: Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas. Cheers.
Outskirts of Sunnydale, little over thirty five hours later; 12:30 a.m.
In the bus, Sarah was looking out the window at the stars that poke marked the dark sky while Tara had been sleeping with her head on her mother's shoulder. The older woman looked back at the top of her daughter's head and smiled before she gave her a kiss on the top of Tara's head and then leaned back on the seat. It was then that the driver announced that they were almost at Sunnydale.
'Sunnydale' thought Sarah to herself as she looked out of the window once again, 'I hope that Teddy can't find me here, not that he'll actually spend the time or… or go to the police since they don't like him and I'm sure they'll have questions about the bullet holes in the door or… I just hope he's too blind to come after us. Maybe moving as far away as we did would be better; not that I really have a choice since…'
It was then that Sarah tensed up right as the bus passed the lit sign that said 'Welcome to Sunnydale'. She looked around the bus at the other forty people on the bus before she looked out the window at the scenery that was rushing past them.
Sarah then saw the lights of the city in the distance.
But the closer she got, the more a sense of dread start to creep into her being. A sense of dread, and the sense of a very powerful mystical force just permeating from what seemed to be the city itself. Sarah looked outside the window and wondered what she had gotten herself and Tara into. As teh bus kept on going, Sarah started to feel dark magic all around her while Tara started to stir awake.
"Momma?" asked Tara as she opened her eyes and then sat up stright while yawning and stretching her arms over her head, "are we there yet?"
"Yes, honey" said Sarah as she smiled at her daughter before looking out the window again.
"I feel somehing weird" said Tara as she lenaed towards Sarah and placed her head on the older woman's shoulder again, "I feel mystical forces and..."
"So do I" said Sarah as she nodded her head, "I'm beginnning to wonder if it was a good idea coming here, or maybe we should get another bus from here and... maybe go up to Canada; but either way.."
"We'll be away from daddy and the others" said Tara as she nodded her head and wrapped her arm around Sarah's arm, "maybe we should stay here. I mean there's only so much we can run and... and if we change our names then how easy would it be for Daddy, Donnie and Beth to find us?"
"Nerly impossible" said Sarah as she smiled and nodded her head at Tara.
"Can... can I keep my first name and... I mean.. can't we just change our last names?" asked Tara as the bus made a turn into the city, "I mean, everything else will change anyway... so..."
"I aleady changed your name on the school records to Natalie Williams" said Sarah, "your school would have forgotten about you by now, including what you look like. But my plan is that once we get a room, I'll run the spell and temporarily change our names to something completely different. Then we'll just wait for a few months before changing our names again to Sarah, and Tara Collins."
"Your maiden name" said Tara with a smile.
"Yep" grinned Sarah as she looked at Tara, "I'm hoping that it'll take Teddy that long to keep looking for us before he figures that he can't find us. In case he delivers a picture to the police department, I've made it so that no one will recognize our faces; in fact, they'll throw away our pictures, shred them in fact, when Teddy gives them any pictures. Then... then after I change our identities for the second time, I... I'm giving up magic."
"Momma?" asked Tara in surprise.
"I'm committing a taboo, Tara" said Sarah gently as she looked at her daughter, "I'm changing people's minds and... and it's something that should never be done. I tell myself that what I'm doing is to protect us; and it's true.. but I still did it. I just want to redeem myself by training you."
"Yay" said Tara grinning at the older woman.
"Tara, you can shine brighter than any star, just don't repeat the same mistakes I'm going to do" said Sarah as she held her daughter's hand, "first of all be careful with your magic, and secondly... make sure that the person you fall in love with loves you back; that he's not cruel to you, or your friends and family."
"And if it's a she?" asked Tara as she looked at the floor of the bus blushing before looking at a surprised Sarah, "I.. I.. mean.."
"It could be a she" said Sarah as she placed her arm around the young woman's shoulders, "either way, you should warn him, or her, that it's not nice to piss off your mother."
"Momma" said Tara as she looked at Sarah in mock horror.
"I'll have you know" said Sarah thoughtfully, "before meeting your father; when I was a Freshman in Normal... I did experiment with..."
"Momma, I don't wanna know" said Tara as she covered her ears with her hands and closed her eyes while Sarah giggled.
"Whether it's a boy or a girl" said Sarah as she kissed Tara's forehead after the latter put her hands down and opened her eyes, "they will be lucky to have you."
"I wonder what the teachers here are like?" asked Tara who wanted to change the subject.
"You'll make friends too, you know" said Sarah as Tara blushed, "you will, you'll see. But for the first two months we'll lay low, and then.. and then I'll enroll you in the school. In the meantime I'll look into jobs at the hospital, and by the time we have our secondary identities... we'll each have something to look forward to."
Tara nodded her head as the bus headed into the station and then let everyone out. With other people receiving the other travellers, Sarah and Tara walked over to the counter with just the former's handbag, and the latter's backpack. They asked the man behind the counter for information on the nearest motel that they could get to. With the man showing them directions on where to get a cab after giving the older woman a brochure about the city, Sarah and Tara walked out into the dark and headed for a parked cab.
Getting inside the vehicle, the older woman asked the man to take them to the Sunnydale Twenty One Hotel that was located near Main Street. As the driver started to drive the vehicle, Sarah looked at Tara and reassured her that everything was going to be alright. The older woman smiled when Tara nodded her head and smiled her before she put her arms around Sarah and just held on tight. It was about twenty minutes later, which Tara and Sarah travelling in comfortable silence, that the cab reached the three story hotel which was the only one in town that had a twenty-four hour diner attached to it. Sarah paid the man before she and Tara headed into the office, which she entered after reciting spell to make the manager believe anything that she would be writing, where she requested a room for two. While Sarah wrote down her fake information, Tara was looking out of the glass walls with eyes narrowed slightly. She could feel mystical energy, both stable and unstable, permeating through everything around her. She glanced over at Sarah, who looked over at her; once again silently confirming the feeling that she was having.
'Momma still has the weird feelings too' thought Tara to herself as she looked out of the glass walls. She could see the brightly lit sign over the small diner, with the hotel right next to it. However, she swore that she could also see shadows moving swiftly from one place to another. Thinking that it was just her being exhausted, Tara shook her head and pushed it to the back of her mind. She then turned and watched as her mother gave the man some cash before he gave her the keys to a room on the second floor.
The two of them walked out of the office and to the building on the opposite side of the main office, and then walked up the stairs to the second floor. Sarah then walked with Tara to room number 213, a few doors down from the stairs, before she opened the door and the both of them walked in. Sarah sighed as she closed the door behind her as Tara sat on one of the two beds in the room. The older woman then turned on the air-conditioning unit to cool down the warm room after she placed her purse on her bed. She then turned to see Tara lie down with her hands over her head; it was then that Sarah realized that the only clothes they had was what remained in their backs.
Other than some cash on hand, and her and Tara's I.D's which she always carried with her, they nothing else. Sighing as she sat down on the bed, Sarah knew that she had no choice but to take out more money so that she could pay for the entire week, and get Tara and herself some new clothes. She looked at her daughter who was looking back at her while lying down; Sarah saw the smile on Tara's face that she loved, the one she always looked forward to when the younger girl came home from school.
However, there was something gnawing away at her and Sarah knew she needed to talk to Tara about it.
"I'm sorry, Tara" said Sarah as Tara immediately got up with worry on her face while she looked at her mother.
"Momma?" asked Tara as she stood up and walked over to Sarah's bed and sat down by her side, "what's wrong?"
"I… I know bringing you out here at the last minute… I mean I haven't even packed any clothes or…" said Sarah as she looked down at the floor while Tara leaned her head on the older woman's shoulder, "and.. and I mean I've got an account that your grandmother set up for me under my maiden name."
'Daddy doesn't know?" asked Tara softly while Sarah shook her head 'no'.
"It's got quite a lot of funds and… well… I didn't want Teddy to go near it" said Sarah as she rested her head on Tara's while the both of them looked at the cream coloured wall in front of them, "but.. but I wanted to give this to you and… and I guess it feels like I haven't…."
"Momma" said Tara as she put her arm around Sarah's shoulder, "we'll be alright. That belongs to you and… and I know that everything's going to be alright."
"I'm still sorry, honey" said Sarah as she wiped her eyes and looked at her daughter as it finally dawned on Sarah that they were away from anyone they knew, even if it was the relatives who would put her down from Teddy's side of the family. Sarah looked at Tara and knew that they were strangers, in a strange city… a strange city that was giving off energy; mystical energy.
Tara held onto Sarah for a few minutes before they walked down to the diner to have a quick meal. Once they were done, they two women headed back to the room where Sarah and Tara, placed everything they had onto the bed. Sarah told Tara that the spell she was going to cast would magically change every document that had their names, and she'd be making sure that the copies of any document bearing their names that Teddy, and Donnie had will be burnt to ashes. Tara then nodded her head when Sarah told her that she'll also be removing memories of herself, and Tara, from all those who know them… except from Teddy, Beth, and Donnie.
"But why?" asked Tara.
"They'll keep on insisting that we exist when every single shred of evidence shows that we don't" said Sarah, "at least not our old names. Can you say insane?"
"I like it" said Tara as she imagined Teddy, Donnie, and Beth being sent to an asylum, as the while shouting that Sarah and Tara were real, at that they were demons sent to destroy the world, "yeah, I can imagine what they'll be saying."
"All our I.D's will change, and we'll get new documents that will show our new lives" said Sarah as she sat on the bed, "then after the two months is over, I'll run another similar spell to give us our final identities."
"I love you, mom" said Tara as Sarah gave the younger girl a wide smile, "and I promise I'll never do anything like this."
Sarah kissed her daughter's check again before she and Tara sat side by side, the older woman chanting a spell in latin. A spell that would begin a new life for themselves in Sunnydale.
TBC.
