TITLE: As You Wish

AUTHOR: Delayne T. Buranek

NOTE: See Chapter 1 for all disclaimers and notes.

CHAPTER 2

Willow awoke in a clean room in a hospital bed. She had been in and out of consciousness, at one point thrashing and yelling and asking who everyone was that they gave her a sedative. The colors of dusk were painting the wall opposite the window pink now. She whispered out a hello from her dry throat to a thin brunette in nurse scrubs. The woman turned around and Willow gasped.

"What are you doing here?" Willow croaked in surprise.

"I told you I have many jobs."

"I don't believe this is some sort of coincidence. What happened to me?"

Anya looked at her like she was a small child. "You made a wish."

"I did no such thing!"

"Yes you did. I asked you about getting married and having children and deep in the deepest of your heart you wished. I am merely showing you what your life would be like."

"So I'm married and have children?"

Anya gave her another look. Willow was not used to people talking to her like she was simple... That was the look she usually gave others.

"Yes, and here is some of your family now. Oh and next time you see me, I won't be me."

"Oh my god Willow!" The tall blond came in and threw herself onto the redhead hugging her tightly. Willow let herself be hugged and had even lifted an arm around the dark blonde stranger. She felt a sense of loss when she heard the nurse clear her throat and the blonde let her go.

"She might still be suffering from memory loss, but so far from the tests we've ran there isn't anything obvious or dangerous that is causing it." The nurse said, who now was a short stocky brunette. "I will leave you two alone for a moment while I let the doctor know she's awake, maybe the contact will help."

Tara sat down in a chair and scooted it closer to the bed. She spoke softly, almost afraid. "Willow. It's me Tara... Your wife."

She looked deep into the green eyes before her, searching for her wife. Willow stared back into the blue eyes suddenly wondering where she went wrong with her life to not have met this beautiful woman yet. The blue eyes shied away from her.

"I'm s-s-sorry for hugging you earlier. I was just scared when Xander called, saying you didn't know him or me. But I was so glad to see you and forgot you might not know me. I hope I didn't make you uncomfortable."

"Look, Tara. I..." She got really quiet whispering the next part like it was CIA top secret info, "Something happened to me and it is going to sound really weird... But I'm not your Willow."

"I know."

"What, how do you mean you know?" She was louder this time bordering on hysterical yelling.

"I can tell, you aren't my Willow. Your eyes are a shade of green I haven't seen before."

They both contemplated this for a while. Willow surprised at the comment and Tara wondering if she was doing the right thing, playing along. A nurse with the name-tag 'Ben' had pulled her aside just before she went in to Willow's room. Told her that crazy talk could accompany the amnesia and for now her best bet was to nod and smile. Though her eyes really were a shade she hadn't seen before.

Finally Tara spoke up. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"I was driving my Porsche past my parents' house, I don't even know why. I don't even know if they live there anymore or own it. I just drove past my parents' house." She said it as if it really was a foreign concept.

"Our house." Tara spoke up. Whether this was her Willow or not she clarified with the truth as she knew it. Plus Xander told her the accident happened at the corner to their house.

"What?"

"Our house, we bought it from your parents when they retired to Florida."

"Oh... Well... I was driving and then I hit a car or something at the next block."

"There is a stop sign there now, it took you a couple months to get used to it." She had been using 'you', 'our', and 'we' because it was natural, she was talking to Willow after all.

"And then I got out of the car, only it was a minivan and uh... Xander stopped to help me."

"He said you were headed to the reunion. Which isn't until next week."

"So not only have I entered a completely alternate universe, I went back in time a week..." The redhead gave an exasperated sigh.

Tara quirked her eyebrow "Alternate Universe?"

"Look Tara, it isn't that I don't remember you, like I've forgotten, it is... that to me... none of it ever happened. It is completely different. And now you probably think I'm just crazy and will commit me to an insane asylum."

Tara looked her in the eye again. "I believe you." She said softly.

"Really?"

"I don't know why but I do." At first Tara was playing along like the nurse said but deep in her gut and in her heart she really believed her. She could feel it was not her Willow so the explanation seemed perfectly reasonable.

"Well that makes sense as you seem to be taking this rather well. So now what do we do with this information?"

"First off I gotta know... In your other life, you are... you are gay right? Your shock isn't in part to finding your married to me, married to a woman right?" Tara wasn't sure she wanted to know the answer, or think about how heavily it would weigh on her mind if this alternate Willow was straight. Not that she would question her Willow's love or the life they shared, but she was human after all.

"Well, I am shocked I married such a beautiful woman," Tara frowned at that, which concerned Willow so she quickly elaborated, "You know, not the fact that you're a woman, but because you *are* beautiful and I wouldn't notice you were beautiful if I weren't gay right?, but what I mean to say is I, uh, don't actually date much, and when I did they were all gorgeous bimbos just after my money. Oh, not to say that you being beautiful means you are dumb or anything, I just can tell you are beautiful and smart and kind and... I'm going to shut up now before I make myself look more like an ass."

Tara blushed a little. "Well you share Willow-babble, so that is the same. But, uh, back to your previous question, there must be a reason why you are here right? So we take you home and try and figure it out I guess."

"Take me home? Like to our house where we live and have... kids?"

"Yes, two kids... Adele after my grandmother and Simon after your grandfather."

"What are you going to tell them?"

Tara felt uncomfortable hearing Willow use 'you' even though she knew it wasn't her Willow. To not hear her voice use 'we' was mental torture.

"Adele is five and is going to ask a lot of questions but we can tell her you hit your head and that you might forget things. Simon is only 4 months, but Will, he is really really attached to you. Like you are the only one who can calm him down," She said with a bit of fear in her voice as the idea hit her, but it softened, "I'm guessing that if you were driving around in a Porsche you probably don't have any kids."

"No, I really don't think I've met a kid, other than when I was a kid... And I really didn't even like them then." She paled when she realized that she probably just deeply offended the poor woman.

Tara took it better than Willow feared, "Okay I will tell you this one time and one time only. You love our kids. Got it?" She said it with a smile and mirth in her voice, but there was also serious seriousness.

"I don't doubt that. So anything else I should know immediately? Because if it can wait, I think I need a few to take this all in."

"I'll go check on that doctor. But we should probably play it like you've merely forgotten and that includes what we tell our friends. It probably won't be beneficial to spend your strange holiday in a loony bin."

v^v^v^v

Willow was released shortly after. Tara had called Xander and told him not to bring the kids, that they'd be home soon.

The ride was fairly silent as Tara wanted to let Willow process without overloading her with more info. She figured if Willow wanted to know something she would ask.

As they got close to home Willow asked "So Xander said this is my car?"

She looked around the interior, it was brown with brown trim. She noted when she got in that it was a Chevy Cavalier, and looked to be as old as her.

"Yeah, You were driving this when I met you. The minivan we bought later just before we had Del."

When they met was a question Willow got wrong when the doctor was examining her just before he released her. Willow guessed college but they had actually met in High School. She at least answered enough for him to feel comfortable releasing her.

"And we really met in High School, we've been together for 10 years?"

"We've known each other over ten actually. I came to Sunnydale my senior year which was your junior year. It took us awhile to get together." She said with a blush.

Willow desperately wanted to know why she blushed. She wished she could open up a book and read about their meeting, their first date, their first kiss...

The little Chevy pulled in the driveway. She noticed first the four foot white picket fence that now encased the yard. That had definitely not been there when she had driven past earlier that day. The lawn looked recently mowed and it made her hands itch like she had just been pushing the mower herself. She looked up to her old bedroom and the balcony that came off of it.

She assumed they would share the master-bedroom and had a sudden panic attack. "Who is in my old room?"

Tara recognized the panic, as her Willow indeed freaked out about it too. "It's the office. And it's always locked, there are no kids falling off balconies." She then beamed proudly. "See you're a good Mom."

Willow's panic didn't subside however. "I'm going to meet our kids. Oh, what if they don't like me. What if they know I'm not their mother!"

Tara used her calm and soothing voice that always worked on Willow and the kids, "It will be fine honey, calm down."

Willow instantly felt better and also felt warm and fuzzy from Tara calling her honey.

Xander met them in the kitchen from the side door in which they entered.

"We just put Simon down. We are attempting to give Del a bath."

A brunette came into the kitchen behind him. "We? There was no we about it."

"Anya?"

"Willow, welcome back." She turned to Xander, "I thought you said she couldn't remember who we were."

"Hey, it must be coming back. Right Will?" He walked over to her and gave her a hug. Willow stiffened up.

"Sorry, I'm still a little off." She said. When he backed off he had that same hurt look in his kind eyes when he helped her earlier today.

"So Del is in the bath?" Tara asked and Anya nodded, "I'm going to go check on her and tell her how Mommy is doing." Tara headed up the stairs focusing on her children leaving Willow standing there.

Anya came down when heard them downstairs and knew the little girl would be okay for the short time it would take for one of her mothers to make it upstairs. She figured it would be Tara if Willow was recently injured and crazy, but now she was confused. The redhead called her name but stiffened when her childhood friend hugged her. Anya kept glancing at Willow as if she was expecting her to spontaneously combust.

Willow just kept a wary eye on Anya, her previous words at the hospital nagging her. Clearly this was a different Anya.

"Why are you looking at me like that?" Anya asked after her fifth or sixth glance Willow's way.

"I... uh... I think I'm going to go lay down now."

"Hey Will, feel better." Xander said.

"And you're welcome!" Anya yelled towards the retreating woman.

Willow headed up the stairs and didn't notice the young male child passed out on the couch. Xander went and picked up his son and Anya followed him out the door.

The redhead entered what she knew was her parents room the last time she'd seen it. She was glad to see it was decorated with a much warmer theme. She followed into the master bathroom to see if her wife and child were in there. It was a strange notion, wife and child, but as she walked through the house it seemed like the most appropriate thing for her mind to think. When they weren't in there she changed direction and went to what was her Father's study that had an entrance to the master bedroom. She saw a crib and walked over to where the little boy lay. She reached a hand out, tempted to stroke the soft baby head.

"It's okay, he finally sleeps like a log." came that soft voice from behind her. "You won't wake him."

She gently reached out. It was as soft as it looked. In the light she couldn't tell the color and it was so faint still that it probably would be deceiving anyway. The boy seemed to settle more into sleep, as if content with the knowledge his mother was now home.

Willow turned and headed back towards the master bedroom. Tara who had been standing in the doorway moved and sat on the bed.

"I convinced Del to go to sleep, which was not an easy thing to do. But she understood that you weren't feeling well, even though she didn't seem happy about it. I promised her two bedtime stories tomorrow night. But I can guarantee first thing in the morning she'll bust in and start jumping on our bed."

They both then realized how normal sleeping arrangements went.

"I... uh... I could sleep on the couch?" Willow suggested.

Tara started rubbing her head with a hand. This was going to be harder than she thought. Her sleeping on the couch could raise questions starting with Del but Willow sleeping on the bed would result in inevitable cuddling. As much as she wanted to hold Willow and kiss her senseless especially after an emotional day spent in a hospital, it wouldn't be right. This woman didn't even know her.

"If anyone asks just say I took a muscle relaxer they gave me at the hospital and you didn't want to carry me upstairs. Or that I found the couch more comfortable or something."

"Yeah I guess that would be best." Tara finally replied.