Title: Not All Angels Have Wings (6)
Author: TJ Theriault Disclaimer: If anyone actually thinks I own ANY of the characters in this story, then you're alot richer than I am.
Pairings: B/X, Rory/Tristan Willow/Kennedy (what can I say? I'm a hopeless romantic)
Spoilers: General spoilers for Gilmore girls, and Buffy's on its last season, anyway.
Summary: The Gilmore and the Summers girls have some fun in Sunnydale.
Note: # = stressed, because I don't like using italics. { ) = thoughts, because I'm already using #. Also, try to imagine the timeline as just after Rory has graduated from high school, but just before the final fight royale on Buffy. I finally gave up on beginning at the end of the last chapter, so the "Previously On Buffy..." part will be seperated from now on.
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"Sorry," Spike mutttered meekly. "Nice to meet you under better circumstances," Spike said, offering his hand and a smile.

Glancing at her mother and recieving a nod, she shook Spike's hand, then surprised evryone in the room (including herself) by hugging him like he'd hugged her mother. "Thank you," she whispered into his ear.

"What for?" Spike asked, coming down from the shock before evryone else.

"For everything and everyone," Rory said. She blinked for a minute, then her hair shimmered with blonde highlights.

"Tara," Dawn whispered before they heard a thud from outside the room.

"She had to pick up a few things," Kennedy uttered, before she fell to her knees to help Willow up.
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"Was it just me, or did anyone else just hear Tara's voice?" Dawn almost yelled in sheer shock.

"It wasn't just you," came Willow's voice from the floor. After getting up, she looked directly at Rory, fire almost literally in her eyes. "Who are you?" she asked, once she'd had time to calm down. {This #is# Sunnydale, after all. She probably has no idea what just happened.)

Without leaving the spot she'd been standing, Rory looked at the readhead with a small amount of respect. "I'm Rory. Dawn said we could use the room." Looking at Willow, she said, quite bluntly, "Let me guess. Red hair, small trickle of power, came here with a woman. You're Willow, right?"

"That's me," Willow answered with a smile. "Nice to meet you, Rory." She started to move towards Rory, but stopped once she realized where the young girl was standing. "W-what do you mean, small trickle of power?" Backing up, she sensed something she hadn't felt for quite a while. (Why am I thinking of Tara all of a sudden?)

"Gyspy," Rory said, realizing that was the only explanation she needed in the town that the helmouth built. Looking down, she saw the rose again. "There's blood here." Looking at Dawn, due to the fact that she looked like the only one that didn't blink while everyone else was standing like statues, she asked, "This isn't all paint, is it?"

"There was some...blood we couldn't get out," Dawn said. Taking a deep breath and gaining more and more control over her emotions by the moment, she looked at her sister. "Buffy said she knew someone who could do something about it." Noticing Willow's smile, she added, "The rose was Willow's idea."

"She was wearing blue," Rory said, going into 'gypsy mode' without warning. "There were two...no, three shots outside." Looking at Willow in confusion, she asked, "Where her last words 'Your shirt..', like she had something else to say?"

Willow nodded. "She was talking about her blood," she managed to get out. Going into her own trance, she continued. "I was wearing white that day. I used the blood to find the guy that shot her."

"Warren," Rory whispered. Not noticing the shocked look on the faces around her, she kept 'remembering' that day. "You tracked him to the woods nearby and... Oh, god! You skinned him alive." Stepping towards Willow and away from the rose, she gave the wicca a hug. "She loved you very much."

"Thank you," Willow mumbled from Rory's shoulder. Letting go, she looked at Rory in a new light. "She would have liked you," Willow said with a laugh. She paused before she spoke again. "I think I know why she chose you." Seeing that Rory was curious, she said, "You have a good soul."

Wearing a look of deep confusion, Rory asked the question that was in the back of her head at the time. "Chose me? What for?"

"To help her talk to me," Willow explained with a smile. "I tried to contact her once, but nothing happened. I always wondered why." Smiling in a way that she hadn't done in quite a while after thinking of someone who was once the most important person in her life, Willow went over to a picture of herself with Tara before speaking again. "She had this wacky theory that there's a time for everything..."

"...and everything takes its own time to happen," Rory said, filling in the blanks. "My...my great grandmother used to say that, too." Looking at her mother, she felt a need to share something with this redheaded stranger, to make up for putting herself into a sacred part of Willow and Tara's past. "I only knew her for a few months before she just...ceased to be a part of it." Looking at the picture, she placed her hand on Willow's shoulder. "No matter how much time we spend with the ones we love..." she said while looking at her mother and smiling, "...or how little in our case, it's never enough."

"So who's for some ice cream?" Lorelia asked, instantly emptying the room of most, if not all, of the current negativity that seemed to follow evryone around like a cloud.

As everyone left ahead of her, Willow could swear she could hear Tara's laugheter. For once, though, it was a happy memory, not a biterly sad one.

"Goodnight, my love," she whispered back, shutting the door behind her.
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I watched the episode with the funeral of the first Lorelia (Rory's great grandmother) last Wednesday, so it was still freshin my mind. Tara's death scene is exactly the way I wrote it, by the way (minus the artistic liscence). I have the sixth season on DVD. I need reviews on this one, because I want to know what any of the people that are still reading this (hello to both of you!) thought of the new direction that it's taken.