AN This story has been done before. And probably better than I'm going to do it. I don't know how long it will be. But what if Willow and Tara had met while Oz was still around. He never met Veruca. And this is basically at the start of Hush. Those, for now, are the only changes. How would they all react? Who will she choose?

Willow was partially thinking about the night before. She had been so bored because it was the night before the full moon. And that meant that Oz had locked himself up in that crypt in the cemetery. Having a boyfriend that was a werewolf was strange, to say the least. But she really loved him. And he was good to her. It was the nights that he had to stay locked up that bored her.

Buffy was always off with Riley and the commandos. Xander spent all of his free time with Anya. That really left Willow on her own for those three nights out of the month. And that really wasn't that much time. But still, she missed him when he was gone. She couldn't imagine herself with anyone else.

The day before, she had noticed this flyer for a wicca group. It had sounded appealing. Especially since the meetings, at least this month, were to take place during the final two nights of Oz's wolfiness.

The redhead had had such hopes for the meeting. The thought of finding another witch like herself was very appealing. Giles had pretty much helped her all that he could as far as her learning spells and what not. She needed someone with more knowledge and training than she had. That's why she had come to the meeting in the first place.

But they had all seemed so boring. All they were worried about was getting the message out and blessings and woman power and all that other stuff. That was all important part of being a witch, Willow knew this. But there were also other things that were just as important. These women were all simply wiccans. There didn't seem to be a real witch in the group.

Finally, tired of sitting and listening, Willow finally ventured a suggestion. "This all sounds nice. But there are other things that we could take an interest in. As a wicca group."

The one named Chantrelle looked at her suspiciously. "Like what, exactly?"

"Well, there is the wacky notions of spells." There was almost an immediate uproar from the group. She could hear mutterings of sterotypes and other really none flattering things about her personally. And than her eyes met a blond's. The girl seemed so shy. She even tried to speak, but she could not seem to get the sentence out. Someone said her name. Tara. It had sounded like she had wanted to agree with what Willow had said. But she wouldn't finish. She wondered why? Oh, well. It looked like this wicca group was going to be a big time bust. Might as well move on. But to where?

*****

Not being able to talk was so not of the good. Especially when one was Willow Rosenberg, queen of the babbling. But that's what was happening. She was glad that Oz was safely locked up in his cage. These creepy gentleman that they were facing were of the not good. Stealing human hearts was simply disgusting. Although, they had come across a lot of other disgusting things in her time with the scoobies.

She felt so exhausted. She had been trying to figure out how to stop the gentlemen for what seemed like hours. It was getting rather late. She leaned her head down on the desk. Resting for a couple minutes wouldn't hurt anything. After all, a sleepy researcher could miss something of the important. And this was just plain to big to mess up on. But time was a big time factor as well.

The redhead sighed deeply. Her eyes were now half closed. She could feel sleep coming to her. She knew she shouldn't but she just could not help herself. Her eyelids were so heavy.

And than, there was the banging. And her eyes were wide open. The adrenaline was flowing throughout her entire body. She was alerted to her surroundings. She knew that someone was in trouble. But was it too late for her to do anything about it?

The banging continued. She slowly walked over to the door. She took a deep breath. The witch knew that she could not leave whoever to their own. She opened the door and was immediately run over by someone. The pain in her ankle distracted her for a moment. But when she looked, she knew the girl. But who is she?

That's when she heard the chain rattle and the girl was helping her to her feet. They were through the doors and down the stairs in a heartbeat. They had better, or they just might lose their own hearts.

They ended up in a dead end. They were in the laundry room of her dorm. The door locked, but it was not going to hold those creepy straight jacketed guys out for too long. The witch knew she had to do something. If only she had the power. She had just been saying to Buffy that she wished that she could someday float something larger than a pencil.

The banging on the door told her that this was the day that she was going to have to try. Using all her concentration and the little bit of power that she had at her disposal, she focused on the soda machine. It shook a little, but there was no way that she, by herself was going to get it to move.

That's when she felt fingers intertwining in her own. She brought her eyes to look into the blond's blue eyes. Tara's blue eyes. For whatever reason, that refreshed her memory. Tara nodded towards the door. It was as if they were speaking a language that only the two of them knew. Willow instantly knew.

Both turned their focus back to the soda machine. The redhead watched in amazement as the big heavy thing flew with ease at the door. It helped to drown out some of the banging. And left her staring into the eyes of the other girl. Both of their breathing was heavy. And that was because of the power that they had used and of course, the running before that. Wasn't it?

*****

The bright sunlight flowed into the common area of Willow's dorm. She was sitting, talking with the fellow witch. "How long have you been practicing?"

"Since I was little." Tara looked into the emerald green eyes of the other witch. "My mom was too. She had a lot of power, just like you."

"I don't have much in the way of power." Willow shook her head for emphasis. "In fact, most of my potions turn out soup. I'm nothing special, really."

"Oh, but you are." Both women exchanged smiles. Tara's cheeks were reddened a little.

"Hey." Both women looked up at the sound of the voice. "Wondering where you were."

"Hey!" Willow stood up quickly and gave Oz a big hug. "Oz, this is Tara. She's a powerful witch. We met last night. She saved my life."

"What?" Tara looked up at Willow. "I'm n-not that powerful. And y-you saved my life."

Oz looked from his girlfriend to the blond. "Shall call it even and say that you are both powerful and help to save each other?"

Willow smiled big. "I think that would cover it." She kissed him on the cheek. "Since you have that thing tonight, I was gonna ask Tara if she'd like to get together. Real witches are hard to come by. And I would like to spend some time with another real witch."

"That's cool." Oz looked at Willow. "It'd be cool even if I wasn't tied up tonight."

Again, a little smile played at Willow's face. She turned back to the blond, who for some reason was not able to look her in the face anymore. "So, how about it? Want to do a spell or two?" There was an excitement in the redhead's voice.

"I'd loved to." Tara finally looked up. Her face was happy and sad at the same time. "Just give me a call a-and I'll be waiting for you. I-I've got class."

Before either Willow or Oz could say anything, she was gone. "Shy, isn't she."

Willow nodded absently. Her mind kept going back to the fact that the blond seemed sad and distracted somehow. Why was that? The two of them were going to be good friends. Or at least she hoped that the two could build some type of friendship. After all, to her, the girl had saved her life. And that was something for an ordinary girl to do.

"Pizza?" Oz asked, not noticing how distracted Willow had become since the blond had left.

"Huh?" Willow shook her head. "Oh, yes please. A little alone time before you go all wolfy on me tonight." The two walked towards the door of Willow's dorm, hand in hand. But the red head kept thinking about a certain blond and not about Oz. Strange.