Disclaimer: I own nothing, except Sophie.
"Why did Tara go to the West Wing when Dark Willow telled her not to?" asked Sophie.
"She was just curious I guess" Willow replied.
"But what if Dark Willow had a good reason for keeping her away?"
"She didn't" said Willow, thinking that her daughter sometimes seemed wise beyond her three years. It wouldn't occur to most children her age to ask a question like that.
--
"DON'T YOU DARE TOUCH THAT!" Dark Willow roared, leaping out of the shadows and placing the jar back over the rose, while Tara quickly moved out of the way. The witch glared at her. "Why did you come here?"
"I'm sorry" said Tara, backing away.
"I warned you NEVER to come here!" Dark Willow began angrily smashing and destroying any breakable object she could get her hands on, except for the rose.
"I didn't mean any harm!" said Tara, frightened.
"Do you have any idea what you could have done?!" the witch growled, smashing another table.
"Please stop" Tara whimpered.
"GET OUT!" Dark Willow roared, continuing to smash everything in a blind rage. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO BE HERE! NO RIGHT!" Tara fled from the room, now terrified. As soon as she had gone, the witch began to calm down, and realised what a horrible mistake she had just made. "Wait" she whispered. "I'm sorry. Please come back..
--
Tara rushed down the stairs with her travelling cloak on, speeding past Xander and Wesley as she ran.
"Wait, Tara" Xander called after her. "Where are you going?"
"I'm sorry Xander" Tara replied, snow blowing in as she threw the door open. "But promise or no promise, I can't stay here a moment longer!"
"Please don't go!" Wesley called as she left.
"It's cold out there, at least wait until the storm clears up!" Xander yelled. But it was no use.
--
Not too much later, Tara was riding away through the forest on Jonathan. The horse reared up in fright when a pack of demons emerged from the bushes. They chased Tara and the horse until Jonathan got his hoof stuck in a tree root, and accidently threw Tara off. She looked up to see the demons surrounding the horse, who was unable to move as his hoof was still trapped. Tara grabbed a fallen tree branch and swung it at the demons, but one of them reached out and snapped it to pieces. The whole group now turned their attention to Tara, who backed away, screaming. Luckily, a certain witch living nearby happened to have very good hearing. Just as Tara began to think that all hope was lost, Dark Willow appeared, magically hurling two of the demons into a tree. One demon lunged at the witch, savagely slashing her arm, and she screamed in pain, but continued to fight the demons, who were all now focused on her. She sent three more of them flying into trees, and one into a rock. Eventually, the other demons gave up and fled. Tara turned to Dark Willow, who despite her victory, was in a bad way. Her breathing was shallow, and she was bleeding heavily from the three deep gashes the demon had left into her arm. The witch collapsed into the swirling snow. The road ahead was clear now. Tara could easily run and not look back if she wanted. Dark Willow, very weak lifted her head for a second, giving Tara sad, kind of puppy dog look, before collapsing again. In that moment, she looked like a scared little girl, rather than an evil witch. And Tara was sure that, once again, her black eyes had flashed that beautiful emerald green. She couldn't leave Dark Willow behind after she had just saved her life. Tara helped the witch to her feet, then with great effort, pushed her up onto Jonathan's back before leading the horse back towards the castle.
--
Later, Dark Willow was settled in her favourite armchair by the fire place, with her concerned servants gathered around, and her sleeve rolled up to expose her wounds. Buffy poured warm water onto a cloth, which Tara, kneeling beside the witch, dipped in antiseptic before applying to her wounds. She screamed in pain.
"Don't be such a baby" said Tara.
"It hurts" Dark Willow hissed.
"If you'd just hold still maybe it wouldn't hurt so much!" Tara snapped.
"Well if you hadn't run away this wouldn't be a problem now would it?" Dark Willow growled.
"If you hadn't frightened me I wouldnt have run away!" Tara argued.
"You shouldn't have been in the West Wing in the first place Missy!" the witch yelled.
"You need to learn to control that temper of yours!" Tara shot back. As they watched this exchange, the servant's heart's sank. Everytime they seemed to be getting somewhere, something dropped them right back to square one. "Now, hold still. This might sting a little." Tara applied the cloth again, and Dark Willow bit her lip, shutting her eyes against the pain. Tara was once again struck how should be such a monster one minute, and so human the next. "And by the way.."
"Mmm" the witch mumbled, still biting her lip.
"Thank you" said Tara, "For saving my life." A small smile spread across Dark Willow's face.
"You're welcome" she said softly. The servants smiled at each other. Maybe they were getting somewhere.
--
"Yay!" said Sophie.