CHAPTER FOUR: the talk

"Mom I'm back!" Buffy shouted as she hurried through the door and up the stairs. Joyce looked up from the book she was reading to see a blur of her grinning daughter breeze past her. Curious as to what had obviously pleased her daughter she set her book down and began to head upstairs.

"Alright spill. What happened?" Joyce asked stopping outside of Buffy's room and noticing her daughter rummaging through her cloths obviously looking to please someone. If the accumulation of cloths already present on the bed was any sign, "No I take that back…who happened?" She asked pulling Buffy out of her oblivious state of delirium.

"Huh?" Buffy asked stupidly trying to play it off, but deep down knowing her mother would see through that act instantly. She always did.

"You heard me." Joyce said good naturedly. "So who is it?" she asked sitting on the edge of Buffy's bed. "Do I know them?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Buffy sing songed, pulling down a beige pair of pants and a blue crop top. Joyce plucked up one of the skirts Buffy had discarded on the bed.

"Yes I suppose you're right." She said dejectedly, causing Buffy to look at her confused. She smiled at her daughter. "Skirts are rather formal for a first date." She squealed as Buffy tossed a pillow at her head.

"It's not a date." Buffy mumbled quickly heading towards the bathroom to take a shower. The grin she had been wearing never once leaving her face. Hearing the shower start, Joyce laughed lightly and headed downstairs to make a cup of coffee.

"Whatever you say Buffy."

A few minutes later after all the sweat had been cleaned off her body, Buffy changed and headed downstairs. She looked at her mom nervously as she came into the kitchen knowing that she was going to be pumped for info. Joyce just smiled knowingly, allowing her daughter to take her time and passed her a cup of coffee, waiting for her to begin. But after a few moments of silence and seeing her daughter's eyes glazing over more than once her resolve finally cracked.

"Oh come on! Who is he Buffy?" she finally asked setting her cup down. Buffy nearly choked on her own sip of coffee. He? She hadn't even thought about that, it never really occurring to her that that might be an issue. All she had been thinking about since she left the Magic Shop was a pair of mischievous blue eyes and a crooked smile that she swore took her breath away. She blushed realizing that the blonde Wicca had been the only thing she had been thinking about since she had left the shop. She looked down at her cup of coffee avoiding her mother's playful smile. Seeing her daughter's face fall put Joyce's mom-dar on full alert.

"Buffy, honey what is it?" she said pulling her chair closer to where Buffy was sitting and stroked her hand through Buffy's hair. "You know you can tell me anything right?" Buffy looked at her mom sadness written across her face.

"Have you ever met someone," she started dropping her gaze to her hands. "And when your were with them everything seemed to click." She rubbed her hands against her still semi damp hair. "Like it was supposed to happen," she looked up at her mother pleading her to understand, "you were meant to meet that person and just seeing them smile makes your heart beat that much harder that much more stronger and something about them…they just pull you in?"

"Like Angel?" Joyce asked unsure of where her daughter was going with this.

"No." she shook her head. "Definitely not like Angel, opposite in fact," she took a deep breath thinking "and if the feelings I'm having right now are any indication, Angel is looking to be more and more like a high school sweetheart rather than a lost soul mate." She groaned seeing her mother's look change "Mom when they look at me, smile it's like time freezes and it's just them…and it's amazing! I've never ever had that with anyone. Including Angel. Or any other guy for that matter," she said fading away. Joyce raised her eyebrow at this trying to figure out exactly what her daughter was saying, and possibly not saying.

"So you're saying this said person isn't like Angel at all? Better even?" she asked wondering how the love of her daughter's life, someone who she had nearly ended the world over, suffered for, almost died for, could be tossed off as a silly high school crush and after just one day? Not that she was particularly fond of the vampire, by no means. But who could have breached that shell of a heart Buffy had been carrying around since her junior year, in less than one day? Then something occurred to her. "Buffy when did you meet this person?"

"Right before we moved here from L.A…" she paused not sure how to continue. She chanced a glance at her mother who seemed to be trying to remember something. Buffy figured she was trying to remember one of her later boyfriend's names before they had left and decided to put that thought at rest. "It wasn't Pike if that's what you're thinking." Buffy shook her head thinking about it, he had been a mistake. "Shortly before the school year ended I was out on patrol and I heard a scream." Joyce gave her an odd look never realizing Buffy had patrolled in L.A. "Long story short they were hurt, nobody was home…so I brought them back to the house and cleaned them up…the next day they were gone." She couldn't help smile when she remembered the first time she heard that laugh, something she swore could make her melt, or the way her hand seemed to buzz at the slightest contact when she was cleaning the girl's arms with the antiseptic. "But even then…for as little time as we spent together, it just felt right…it…" Joyce quickly turned to her daughter something finally beginning to click.

"You said it happened a few months before we finalized the move?" Joyce asked slowly. Buffy shook her head yes not quite sure where her mother was going with this, "And you brought them back to the house after they had been attacked right?" Another nod. Finally putting the pieces together Joyce turned to her daughter realizing this could be a very delicate situation. "Correct me if I'm wrong…" she took a deep breath "Buffy what is her name." At that comment Buffy's jaw dropped. "I thought so." Joyce said wrapping her arm around Buffy, trying to give her daughter support.

"Wh-What?!" she stared at her mother in disbelief. "How did you...when I didn't even…" Joyce patted her daughter's hand comfortingly and decided she should explain.

"Buffy aside from the pronoun game you were just playing with, remember that shirt I found all wrinkled, torn and stained in the garbage when I came home that Sunday?" Buffy nodded blankly. "and you said the red stains where paint?"

"Yes but how did you figure out abou-" Joyce cut Buffy off before she fell into babble mode, compliments of Willow.

"Let me finish Buffy. And also I'm assuming that wasn't paint than after all?" Buffy shook her head no, still trying to wrap her mind around how her mother could have figured it out, when she was still having a hell of a time with it herself. "Buffy that was the last vacation I went on, the last weekend I was gone." Buffy stared at her mom in disbelief signaling her to go on. "That shirt I found wasn't yours. I didn't recognize it… but…that shirt was a woman's shirt Buffy." After blinking a few times shocked at how her mother put that together she almost didn't notice that she was still talking. "and then there were all the phone books lying around, unknown calls, not to mention the news paper articles." Joyce smiled at her daughter. "You said they were research projects" she said as if an after thought surprised that she hadn't put two and two together back than. Buffy looked down at her coffee and too another big sip trying to clear her throat "…you were looking for her weren't you." The older Summers said softly

"Yes." Buffy whispered feeling her heart pounding in her chest. "But than she was gone." She felt her heart constrict at the thought of the blonde disappearing again like that. "And I tried and I tried, but she was gone." Joyce rubbed her daughter's back soothingly. "I didn't think I'd ever see her again." And than we moved here, and I-I…than today she just walks into the store and…"

"The feelings were all still there." Joyce offered finishing the thought for Buffy and taking her daughter's hands.

"But Mom." Buffy said trying to point out the problem "She's a girl! And hello!" She waved a hand towards herself "Me girl!"

"Yes Buffy I gave birth to you, I'm aware." Joyce said smiling. "But is the fact that you're both female really that big of a deal?" Buffy stared at her mother in shock.

"You're okay with it?" Buffy asked almost in awe. Joyce chuckled.

"Buffy I'm you're mother, the mother of a Slayer who could die at any given time." She paled slightly. "And as much as it scares me to think that, I know it's possible. It's something that I am slowly beginning to come to terms with." She ran a hand through Buffy's hair again. "But it's a part of who you are." She sighed trying to find the words to tell her daughter. "You have never had it easy Buffy and I know part of that is my fault, but these past couple of years we've all noticed you slowly backing away, loosing the light in you're eyes so to say." What her mother was saying Buffy realized was pretty much what Tara had said. "Yet today you come running in here grinning from ear to ear. You can't know how happy that made me." She stood up and refilled her cup of coffee. "And if it's a woman that can bring that light back in your eyes when you smile, then I will gladly welcome her with open arms."

"But she's a…" Buffy paused, the fact that Tara also being a girl seemingly not a problem, "How are you taking this so well? I can barely wrap my head around it."

"Buffy I work with gay and lesbian clients all the time, the fact that they were gay had never bothered me. In fact they are probably some of the nicest people I have ever met." She sat down again and held Buffy's eyes. "Everyone deserves and needs love Buffy. It has no gender. Love has no gender, and you deserve to be loved and to be happy. So if a girl or guy, black white, gray or in-between, make you happy than just go with it honey, we only ever live once."

"You have got to be the greatest Mom ever." Buffy said pulling her mother into a hug, the fact that her mother was completely supportive finally cementing.

"I wouldn't say all that." She said laughing, hugging her daughter back. "But the fact that this person has a pulse is definitely working in your favor." Buffy laughed with her mom at that and released her from the death grip she had on her.

"Thanks mom." Buffy said wiping off a stray tear.

"So does she have a name?" Joyce asked very curious about the girl who had obviously stolen her daughter's heart.

"Her name's Tara, and…" Joyce watched the glazed look come over her daughter's face again.

"And?"

"God!" she stared at her mom snapping back, "I have never had it this bad before."

"This really hit you hard didn't it?"

"Yeah," Buffy whispered lost in her thoughts.

"So it is a date then?" Buffy blushed. "Come on girl, details!" Joyce said poking Buffy in the ribs playfully.

"No I don't think it is. At least I don't think so." Buffy said. "After training at the Magic Shop we both decided to go get cleaned up and meet for lunch." She glanced at the clock figuring she still had a couple of hours to spare. "Plus she said she needed to unpack some of her things and told Gile's she'd bring some of her books over to the Magic Box so he could look at them."

"Mr. Giles knows her?" Joyce asked confused.

"One of the Covens in L.A. sent her here to help with the Hellmouth." Buffy clarified.

"Covens? Like witch's Covens?" Joyce asked thoughtful.

"Yeah and she's really powerful, much stronger than Willow no offense to her. She even beat me in sparing today when Gile's hurt his back unloading one of the newer shipments." Buffy said the thought of being bested by the witch making her groan. "She could have wiped the floor with me today."

"She beat you?" Joyce asked in surprise.

"Yeah, twice." Buffy mumbled putting her cup in the sink. "And that's something that Faith only ever did a couple of times and she's a slayer." Buffy smiled remembering the feeling of the witch being pressed against her. "She even asked to come on patrol with me."

"I think I like this girl already." Joyce said still stunned that her daughter had been bested.

"HEY!" Buffy grumbled. "Why is everyone so happy that I got my ass kicked?" Joyce laughed at that.

"No it's not that Buffy, but if she could best you in sparring and she was with you on patrol…" She faded away thinking of the possibilities.

"And it's not just her strength though," Buffy went on. "she's really kind and funny and not to mention beautiful." Buffy quieted a little. "And she makes me see things that I wouldn't let myself see before." Joyce watched as Buffy grew quite.

"Like what honey?"

"That everything isn't my fault and that I shouldn't continue just hating myself for the things that I never could have changed…" Buffy's mom also grew silent in contemplation realizing that those must have been the type of thoughts that had been pulling her daughter away from them. She was blaming herself. "She has a way of putting things in perspective that I wouldn't have seen on my own."

"Buffy, she sounds wonderful." Her mother said softly thinking about how a girl that barley even knew her daughter could see that type of pain Buffy kept locked away and help her with it so quickly. "Did you talk with her about these things at the Magic Box."

"No I was showing her a brief tour around Sunnydale and we stopped for coffee and got to talking." Joyce grinned wickedly at her daughter.

"Oh so this is going to be like a second date?" she joked making Buffy blush.

"I don't even know if she likes me like that or not. For all I know this could be completely one sided." She mumbled self degradingly.

"How could she not?" Joyce said, though knowing it was a partially biased opinion. "Think of it this way, she knows you're a slayer and wants to help you, one of you're biggest problems overcome already. Plus you said she was a very perspective person, not to mention a witch. And if my Hellmouth knowledge serves me correctly lesbianism is very accepted in that practice." Buffy's eyes widened. "Why don't you just get to know her and see?"

"How do you know that?" Buffy asked, personally not knowing that much about magic herself, and definitely not expecting her mother to know anything concerning it.

"My daughter's the Slayer, what kind of mother would I be if I didn't do a little research now and then." She smiled at her daughter encouragingly. "Just get to know her and see Buffy and if you want to, perhaps you can bring her to dinner sometime." Her daughter brightened at this "Because from what I've heard, I would certainly like to meet her."

"You really are amazing you know that?" Buffy said beginning to think back to how Tara had been looking at her earlier. "And I think you're right about the whole witch theory, though I don't want to get my hopes up, just in case."

"That's all you can do." Joyce looked at the clock. "What time did you say you were going to be meeting up with her again?"

"I'm going to have to leave in about forty-five minutes." She smiled at her mother, standing, needing to start getting ready. "You really are the best mom ever."

"Okay Buffy." Joyce said laughing as Buffy pulled her into another hug. "Go on go on, but I want details later alright!" Buffy just grinned not believing how well and excepting her mother was being with all of this and ran to the bathroom to start getting ready.

I know it's short and there really isn't any B/T action going on, but it needed to be done and I hoped you guys all liked it. And as always I live for feedback. Chapter 5 is coming soon. And thank you to all of you who have reviewed so far.

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