"So, have you gotten a chance to meet the new history and computers teacher yet?" Xander asks dropping into the open seat beside Willows's own at the campus library.
"Mrs. Maclay?" Willow answers shaking her head in denial "not yet but I have her class tomorrow afternoon." She says tapping her pen against the edge of her book as she hunts for the quote she needed for her essay.
"Will, this assignment isn't due for another week." Xander groans noticing what she was working on.
"It's either this or back on my Tara hunt." Willow challenges pulling off the cap of a highlighter with her teeth after spotting the passage she needed.
Neither notices when the name caused another head to turn in their direction. A woman that to anyone looking her way would easily mistake for a visiting professor. And in a way she was. As well as a concerned mother.
"Still no luck finding your girl huh?" Xander sympathizes. It tore him up inside watching her spiraling like this, but he also knew that if had been him in her place and Anya in Tara's then he would walk through fire and hell itself to find her again. As it was all it took for him to see his own girlfriend was a side trip over to the Pratt the only on-campus all-female dorm the school offered aside from the sororities that is.
Willow shakes her head once more "No." she sighs once again reaching up to toy with the aqua heart around her neck. "But she can't have just left right? I mean I know I spend a lot of time around the Slayer and that she and I only knew each other for less than a week but I just…."
"Excuse me for interrupting, but would your name be Willow by chance?"
At once Willow's head lifts with an answering "Yes." Only to stumble on her next breath when she noticed just who it was that had stopped by their table to speak to her.
True her hair was a few shades darker than Tara's had been a more cinnamene blonde as opposed to Tara's more honey glazed blonde even with its unwashed appearance but her eyes were the same piercing shade of blue Willow had come to love those few days sharing the vampire's space. Another difference was the flush of life in the woman's cheeks that Tara's lacked.
"I just wanted to introduce myself. I'm Gaea Maclay- I'm Ta-I mean I'll be your computers teacher the next few weeks while Miss Calendar is out with flu." The Tara-looking woman says holding out her hand. "According to what Jenna's told me you're her most promised students when it comes to all things computers and I just wanted to ask if you'd mind oh what is the phrasing….."
"Show you the ropes?" Xander offers when it was apparent Willow was still at a loss for words.
Willow felt her heart flip when the elder woman flashes a near-identical Tara-worthy smile. "Yes, that's it." She nodes bashful now as she takes a seat across from the pair whilst she explains herself "You see, I'm afraid when I agreed to take the position to cover Jenna's absence, I focused too much on the history aspect of the course load rather than the much more relevant technology side."
Willow sucks in a breath between her teeth in an attempt not to laugh. "Of course, I'll help." She agrees.
Gaea lets out a slow breath in thanks then her expression became much more serious as she leans in closer so that even Xander needed to concentrate to be able to catch her next new words. "and I don't mean to pry but Jenna also mentioned your…extra credit assignments as well."
This really had Willow's attention. Miss Calendar knew of Willow's dabbling in the ways of the craft. It wasn't as if it should have been a surprise given the amount of power Willow had been able to pick up from her. Almost reminding her of the whisps of power she's sensed wrapped around the curious tabby that had become a sandy furred shadow to her and her friends since what had happened with the Initiative.
"I was hoping you'd be able to help me with a problem. I'm looking for a retainment spell, but I can't seem to find the right incantation to jive with my more 'old school' methods you might call them that allows more than a few hours after sunrise."
After some thought, Willow speaks again also keeping her voice lowered "I have a friend-Rupert Giles."
"Jenna's fiancé?" Gaea says impressed.
Willow nodes "He's more or less the father figure to my best friend and that parental overprotectiveness has rubbed off on me and Xander here." She shrugs gesturing to the dark-haired young man now reading a comic book rather than the textbook he'd originally pulled from his backpack. Since Xander now had his headphones in he didn't bother looking up when he was reintroduced into the conversation.
"I knew his family quite well once upon a time and my daughter had told me he opened a place recently, but I haven't stopped by myself yet."
"Here." Willow smiles pulling a loose sheet of paper from her notebook and picking up her pen to scribble down the Magic Box's address and a time for them to meet that wouldn't interfere with either Willow's school or Scooby-related timetables. "Meet me here and we'll put our head together. Two powerful Wiccans like us are bound to find something if we put our heads together long enough."
Gaea smiles in thanks taking the slip of paper Willow offered "Bless the Goddess." she hums, and Willow swears the other woman is purring in gratitude as she stands. "I'll be seeing you both again soon I imagine." She says giving them both a motherly kind of smile before slipped away behind a neighboring bookshelf.
Neither Xander nor Willow notices the cinnamon tabby carrying the folded bit of paper between its teeth exiting the other end of the row of books.
They might not have but Buffy who'd been walking up to the table for the group's already planned study session had seen.
"First off who was that woman you were just talking to?" Buffy demands to know dropping her backpack on the table startling a still zoned out Xander with her sudden appearance. "and two I know who ordered the hit that sent the Initiative after you Will." She adds snagging the only open chair at the table.
"Who?" Xander questions tugging his headphones free to be able to fully listen in on the conversation.
"Remember Riley Flynn?" Buffy asks hesitantly now.
"As in Riley Flynn that you dated for all of middle school and a full year of high school? Only to drop him like the hot mefager he is once you met William in my advanced English lit class sophomore year?" Willow clarifies sliding her books aside giving Buffy her full attention.
"Turns out not only is he back in town but he's also the Initiative's newest 'big brain' for all things Sunnydale." Buffy nodes earning harmonized groans from her two best friends with Xander even banging his head against the table.
"Mother?" her daughter called out sleep still heavy in her voice as she speaks having heard the rattling of the cat door fixed into the door of their shared apartment.
Gena gives a purred mew in reply knowing her child would hear her regardless of the softness of the sound.
"How's the day life?" Tara chuckled stepping out of her bedroom still rubbing sleep from her eyes with the heel of her hand whilst taking extreme care to stay clear of the shaves of sunlight seeping past the blackout curtains hanging over the front window as she makes her way toward the sandy furred cat. Afternoon light didn't hurt as much as true daylight, but the burn was still uncomfortable to endure.
"I've been keeping an eye on those friends of yours." Her mother says returning to her more humanized form rather than remaining in her cat one. Either way, she and her child could understand her but Gena liking the fact she was able to speak for herself once again. "You're right that girl is Her spitting image."
"Mother you've been following them ever since I brought you back to me." Her daughter reminds "If you wanted to meet my new love interest you could have just asked." She added trying to be sassy but failing when the tears threatened to overtake her.
"It's my duty as your familiar and as your mother to be sure the one you give your heart to is right for you." She smiles wrapping her arms around her little girl allowing Tara to drink in the fading warmth of the sun from her skin but mostly to stave off the guilt she knew Tara still carried within herself. "I don't care that you fell for her once more Tara, I'm just glad this reincarnation seems to be a far better improvement than the previous one."
She didn't even flinch at Tara's warning hiss at the insult to her sire her hands never breaking in their soft stroking of her daughter's hair.
"What was that paper you were carrying?" Tara asked changing topics as she allowed her mother to lead her into the apartment's small kitchen.
"Another of my attempts to make you a sunlight talisman that will actually last a full day out in the daylight." Her mother explains pulling out the plate of warming food her daughter thoughtfully left warming in the oven for her before she'd retired to bed for the day.
"Mom I've told you as much as I've missed the sun you don't need to strain yourself like that." Tara argues pausing in the act of pouring a fresh bag of animal blood onto her cereal to act as milk.
The trade for bringing her mother back by binding her soul with that of a kitten Tara had recently befriended at a shelter and taken as her pet had been a demanding limit to the amount of magic Gena Maclay was allowed to possess in one transition from animal to human now her body wasn't entirely a human one.
"Well, I'm your mother I'm allowed to want you to enjoy this new life you've been given."
"I do enjoy it. I have you back and-I have some version of the woman I love back what more could I ask the Goddess for given what I am?" Tara argues finishing her bowl quicker than even she was capable but she avoids her mother probing gaze dropping her own toward her now empty breakfast before she gets up to begin getting ready for her next round of night classes.
"What you are being a devoted daughter in the Goddess teachings all these long years since your human death?" her mother argues the flare of her temper giving Tara memories of her long-dead father "You should be able to go enjoy the sunlight Tara, the real sunlight not that simulated one you insist on creating." Her mother fires back following her daughter to her room.
As if to spite her Tara waved a hand summoning the orb in question at the same time, she crossed to throw open the heavy curtains bathing her room in half-full moonlight.
"I am content with my life Mother." Tara says quickly changing from her sleep clothes to something more suitable for attending her nightly studies. "Asking for more is a price I'm not willing to pay." She says gathering her books then leaning over to press a kiss against her mother's cheek as she slips around her back into the hall.