"Some tea would be nice, sweetheart, please."
Willow could see Tara was torn on the matter but gives a hesitant but encouraging nod of her own as she nudges over the little sack with the relatively fresh chips of tree bark, they'd collected before returning to the house.
With a pout, Tara departed leaving Willow only a little stung when the teen gave her mother a light departing hug rather than her before leaving for the kitchen.
Both women wait a few extra seconds after the separating door closed behind her before speaking up.
"I'm dying." Tara's mother says her tone is blunt now as her eyes so like Tara's it hurts to hold Willow's own across the small table. "but I assume you already know that" the mother goes on attempting to muffle a hard cough as she talks.
Willow can only nod meekly in answer the cooling cookie in her fingers now becoming an edible fidget toy under the witch's fingers. Not that Willow can make the thing spin against the small plate she'd been given but she does her best all the same as she gets her thoughts in order. "you still have some time left" she attempts to comfort the same time most of her concentration was making sure the currently 16-year-old Tara wasn't listening in from the other room.
She knew for a fact just how deeply the loss of her mother at the age of just 17 wounded her lover. How many nights she held the more adult Tara in her arms as her lover had cried herself to sleep from missing the very woman Willow was seated across from. How she'd wished her mother could have known just how truly happy Tara would become after finding her new family in Willow's love and the 'scarily strong' (Tara's words) support of the 'Scoobies' as Xander still called their ragtag band.
The Maclay monarch smiled sadly at that "would you still grant an old woman a last request?" she questions her hair a much softer shade of blonde than her daughter's own catching the light of the newly turned afternoon sun rays as she leaned in more across the table.
"Anything" Willow agrees at once mirroring the action.
"Let me know my daughter." the elder asks. Willow looks puzzled for a beat or two before Tara's mother clarifies a little "I know my child." The elder witch says wistfully "Teenager those she is at the moment my Tara is still a child. Though if you'll pardon a mother, she will always be a child to me."
Willow can't help but chuckle along with the mother's own coughed laughter at her own description of the woman currently working on making them all tea in the adjoining kitchen. "But you my dear. You know my daughter." Tara's mother reminds. "I wish to know her as you do, or I guess the right phrasing being as you will."
The pain quickly fills Willow's eyes when the last final seconds of her love flash behind her eyes at the innocently asked request.
The quick crunch of the glass breaking Tara's last breath formed that last conscious thought at the life-ending splash of red staining Willow's white blouse.
"You're shirt"
The warmed compress of a hand against her wrist stops the sting of remembered grief for now as Willow's tearful eyes find the mother's own. "Although perhaps given the way you watch her, I shouldn't ask to know her quite as shall we say as intimately as you seem to, but I would still like to know my daughter the same as I know my child."
Willow already felt a blush creeping up her neck and coloring her cheeks at the knowing look the mother gave despite the fresh threat of tears still stinging Willow's eyes. "How?" a now flustered Willow asks her tone far too high and breathless for her liking as she once more shifts uneasily under the Maclay mother studying gaze.
"Hold out your hand"
At once Willow was reminded of the day Tara had offered to read her palm at the Magic box as she lays her hand on the table in Taras's mother's direction. "Think of my daughter." the woman across from her instructs as she draws an unfamiliar symbol along Willows's outstretched palm with the pad of her finger.
Willow smiles with a hushed "that's easy" as her eyes drift closed at the same time Tara's mother's hand closes in her own.
It was as easy as taking her next breath to think back on her memories of her lost love especially with the low glow of magic wrapping like a warmed glove around the pair now joined hands.
She thinks of that first time she'd seen her shy soulmate at that 'wanna-be' witch meeting, of the quiet strength she'd felt that first time Tara's warm hand had held her own in that half-light laundry room so easily soothing some of Willow's terror over what would happen given the threat of the Gentlemen's goons just outside the shaking door.
Her shock with just a single in tandem look she and this strange thought pretty blonde had found enough power between them to shift the heavy drinks machine in front of the still shaking door.
Her love's soft "Even at my worst you make me feel special, how do you do that?" as Tara's arms wrap around her shoulders as they hold one another in the soft hum of the slower dance songs the Bronze offered.
The playful sass of her lovers scoffed 'Vixen' after she'd asked to be told a story before she drifted to sleep wrapped securely in Tara's grounded embrace. Miss Kitty having scampered off to play on her own letting her two owners wind down for the night.
How safe she felt knowing Tara would be there to anchor her during her dive into the NetherRealm after Tara had first suggested Faith switch bodies with Buffy.
The joy in Tara's eyes at Buffy's claiming "we're family" as she and the rest of 'the Scoobies' stand between a tearful Tara and the so-called led family trying to take her away.
Tara's honest laughter when Willow had jealously pulled her back to her after Tara's teasing "Oh my god I'm cured I want the boys" remark as they'd wondered the park when the rest of the town was breaking out into random acts of singing and dancing for no apparent reason.
The awe Willow had felt when her then ex had stood up for her against Anya's pestering at Thanksgiving.
How sure Tara had been in contradicting Willow's own "I'm nothing special' comment during their first real talk with that so sure "No you are" reassurance.
The steely edge at her lover's "Nobody messes with my girl" as Willow stars in honest shock at the battle axe buried deep in the demon's back as Tara's soft hands pull her to her feet. Followed by the shy "My first demon"
Tara's amused half smile at Dawn's high "I love you guys" cheer before she'd shooed her giggling lover still wrapped in the bed comforter back into the bedroom for actual clothes.
Of the hesitant joy, she caught in the glowing flickering candle flame after she'd admitted she was right where she wanted to be Tara stammered "you have to be with the one you l-love" comment just before she gave her whispered, "I am." In return before Tara had blown out that extra flamy candle.
How sure Tara's voice had been at her soft "I am you know... Yours" declaration
The scent of cinnamon and something both sweet and woodsy rouses both women from their daze.
"Willow?"
The stabbing blend of remembrance and longing rip into the crying red heads heart as her eyes find Tara's the same time the kitchen door swings closed as the teenager returns to the Maclay's small dining room.
"I'm okay." Willow assures her voice wavering as more tears slid down her cheeks.
The tray the teen held was quickly set onto the table before Tara was rounding the thing towards the alluring stranger.
The sounds of tires on gravel make all three women's heads turn toward the house's front door.
"No, no, no, no." Tara panicked triggering Willow's immediate rise from her seat for an offered calming hug from behind. The move coming so easy she hadn't realized she'd moved until she'd all but molded herself against the teen's back. Tara leaned back into her hold even when Willow was attempting something a little less intimate given the out-of-time couple's current ages.
"Strong like an amazon." Willow soothes and then groans under her breath when that same punched-in-the-gut feeling takes hold making her cough several times as she attempted to catch her breath around the sudden feeling.
"Strong like an amazon." Tara echoed in a whisper turning in the half circle of her fellow Wicca's arms.
"Before they see you." Tara's mother coaxes as the sounds of her husband's and son's voices grumble over the slamming of car doors as Willow's coughs grew more frequent.
"I'll be back." Willow promised
"You better." Tara warns with a kind shy smile before all that was left of the red-haired woman was a falling borrowed dress.