They made their way up the path, Tara pushing back branches and holding them for Willow. It had become overgrown since the last time Tara had been there. She made a mental note to do something about that later. They came to a clearing and Willow gasped. They stood at the top of a drop off overlooking the forest below. The sun was setting on the horizon. Willow felt like it was right out of a movie or a fairytale. It was breathtaking.

"Wow," she said. Tara just turned to her and smiled. "I was getting kind of upset with all the hiking, but this was so worth it. It's beautiful. How did you find it?"

"Uh, I didn't," Tara replied. She looked to her left. At the base of a tree there was a small rock formation. She moved over and rested her hand on the tree, looking up to Willow. "My mom found it a long time ago."

Willow looked at the rock formation and realized something. It wasn't just a random formation. It was a memorial.

"Oh. That's…"

"No, it's not really," Tara said. "Dad had her buried in a cemetary of course. He didn't even know about this place. It was our special place. I-I hated that he had her buried in a cemetary with all those other people. I always felt she was better than that. And this place…"

She knelt down and brushed some dust off the stones. Willow knelt next to her and rested her hand on her shoulder.

"We would come here whenever we could. She brought me for the first time when I was six," Tara explained. "She told me that this location is a mystical…um, hot spot. It's like the good version of the Hellmouth in Sunnydale. Very powerful."

"I thought I felt something about it here," Willow said. "It's a center of power for good magic."

Tara nodded her head and paused, looking at the memorial she had created for her mother.

"When she died I spent a lot of time here. Being around my dad and Donny was just stifling. I never saw them cry. They looked sad, but they never cried. That just seemed so…wrong," she said. Then she made eye contact with Willow. "I saw her here."

"Saw her?"

"The energy here, things can happen that can't happen anywhere else. The night that she died I didn't know where else to go. I had to get away from everybody. This was the only place I could think of, and when I got here, she was waiting."

"I don't understand," Willow said. She actually thought she did, but she wasn't sure she believed it.

"This place allowed her to…hang on, at least for a little while," Tara explained. "She stayed to say goodbye. Because before she…we didn't get to say goodbye. It seems like that's always the way that it happens."

Willow could feel how apprehensive Tara was. She had planned all this. It had been important to her.

"I'm telling you this because…just in-in case…"

"Nothing's going to happen to you," Willow said, realizing what Tara was getting at. "Or to me. You can't think like that."

"It's too hard not to, especially with Glory around," she said. She looked down. "We've both come so close too many times."

"And we're still here, still alive and kicking," Willow said with a reassuring smile. Tara returned the smile. "I would never let anything happen to you."

"I know," Tara said. "Just…don't forget this place."

"I don't think I could if I tried." She wrapped her arm around Tara's shoulders. "Thanks for bringing me here, for letting me in on your secret."

"I want you to know all my secrets," Tara said.

"But then they wouldn't be secrets," Willow said with a smirk.

"Not to you," Tara said. She snuggled against Willow and they sat together, watching the sunset in their special place.