Chapter 6
Willow was lying in bed looking lovingly at Tara sleeping in her arms. 'Goddess, she is so beautiful. I don't know what I ever did to deserve her. Hmmm, I still owe her for the other night.' Willow grins mischievously as she slowly eases Tara over onto her back and starts to gently kiss along Tara's neck down to her collar bone where she gently licks and then sucks on her pulse point. 'Oh, my. She tastes so good. Oooh, I think she's waking up.'
Tara groans and slowly eases one of her blue eyes open and looks at certain hackers red head that is slowly working its way down her neck towards her chest.
"Mmm. Sweetie? What'cha' doin'?" Tara smirks looking into the green eyes that look up and wink at her.
"If you don't know what I'm doing, I must not be doing it right." Willow grins at her lover and leans up to give her a long loving kiss. "I still owe you for the other night. And since I woke up early this morning…"
Willow gently moves to hover over Tara while gently spreading Tara's thighs with her knees and proceeds to nibble her way back down Tara's neck while lightly running her hand down Tara's side to her hip, grasping it firmly. "Do you have any idea how much I love you? How happy it makes me to be able to touch you? Kiss You? Just be with you?" Willow slowly kisses her way across her lover's breasts. "Mmmm luscious breasts. I could spend all day worshipping your breasts."
"Ooohh, honey. I would love for you to spend all day…" Tara stops, grabbing the back of Willow's head and groans as Willow gently bites down on the nipple she had been kissing. "Yesssss." Tara hisses.
Willow grins around the nipple and kisses her way over to the other nipple and proceeds to give it the same treatment. Slowly running her hand down the outside of Tara's thigh and then back up the inside of her lover's thigh to gently cup her sex.
"Oooh, someone seems to be extremely aroused right now. Would you happen to know who that person is?" Willow asks naughtily while lightly stroking between her lovers lips and the dampness therein.
Tara flips Willow over onto her back and attacks the hacker's neck with lips, tongue and teeth. "Do you know how much you turn me on, baby? Do you know with just a word from you I melt inside? I believe you've done enough teasing this morning. I want you. And I want you now." Tara growls at Willow.
Willow smirks and says "Why didn't you say so, honey? All you had to do was ask."
"More." Tara moans loudly into Willow's neck. And groans as Willow does what is asked, Tara finally screams out as her orgasm takes over.
Willow continues stroking Tara gently. Slowing down her movements as Tara collapses half on her, prolonging her pleasure as long as possible.
"Oh, Goddess, what you do to me Willow." Tara pants as she finally is able to speak while gently kissing Willows shoulder as she gently shifts to lie beside Willow.
Willow smiles and wraps both her arms around Tara. "I would gladly do that to you every morning for the rest of both our lives, love."
Tara grins "Only in the morning, huh? What about afternoon, evening, nighttime, midnight…"
Willow laughs as she rolls over to half lie on top of Tara while tickling her ribs. "Well, there are so many other things I can do to you during the afternoon, evening, nighttime, midnight hours. I don't want to do the same thing all the time, now do I?"
Tara laughs at Willow and wraps her arms around her tightly. "I love you, sweetie. You're my always." And gently kisses Willows lips while running one hand through the red hair that she loves so much. "Mmm, I would love to stay with you like this all day. However, I believe we should probably get showered, pick up breakfast and head on over to Buffy's." Willow huffs at that comment. "If we head for the shower now, I'll be more than happy to…" Tara proceeds to whisper the rest in Willows ear.
Willow's eyes get rounder and rounder as Tara tells her all the naughty things she's going to do to her in the shower and jumps up, grabbing Tara's hand saying "come on, times a wasting. We need to get showered and all cleaned up. Yep, come on slow poke."
Tara laughs as Willow literally pulls her out of the bed towards the bathroom. If they're lucky they won't be too terribly late to Buffy's house.
"Oh! Look at who finally decides to show up" Kelly smirks at Tara and Willow walking into the house at 9:45.
"But we come bringing food and mochas" Willow smiles swinging bags from her hands and looks at Tara who's carrying the mocha's.
"Always of the good" Buffy laughs coming down the stairs. "Especially since you said you were bringing it!"
"Hmm, Donuts and… Oooh, bagels and cream cheese. I know what I'm gonna be having" Kelly says grabbing the bags and heading to the kitchen and the toaster. "Who else wants toasted bagels? YUMMY – you got some of the ones with everything. Dibs!"
Willow makes a point of looking at her fingers and counting them. "Whew, I was worried there for a minute that I might be short a finger or two."
Tara leans in close and whispers in Willow's ear "That would be very, very bad. I love Willowhand and Willowfingers."
Buffy was standing right behind Willow and Tara shaking her head. "You know what? I'm starting to realize I must have really been in my own world all these years. You two are horn dogs, aren't you?" Buffy smirks and heads into the kitchen yelling at Kelly "You better leave me some of that food!"
Willow blushes lightly looking to Tara and Tara just grins and kisses her lightly on the lips, "Can't argue with that." She says smirking lightly and smacking Willow on the butt before following Buffy and Kelly into the kitchen.
"We'll call you to meet up later for dinner and a movie. Don't you two do anything we wouldn't" Tara says to Willow and Buffy as they're heading out the door to go shopping.
"You sure this is all you need from the Magic shop?" Buffy asks Kelly waving the list of items along with the money in her hand.
"Yep, that's all I need for your stuff. I'll visit the shop later on in the week to talk to Anya and get other items I may need for future use. Thanks for getting the ingredients." Kelly quirks a small smile at Buffy in thanks.
"No problem, especially since these are being used to help me out, just wish you would let me pay for them" Buffy shakes her head thinking about the argument they had that morning and just laughs and waves goodbye as they head out.
Tara looks at Kelly watching Buffy walk away with a look that could only be considered infatuated on her face. She bumps Kelly on the shoulder and says with a small grin "You've got it bad, don't you?"
"Wha? Huh?" Kelly says still watching Buffy until she walks out of sight and shakes her head looking at Tara. "What did you say?"
As they walk back into the house shutting the door behind them Tara laughs loudly and says "I said, you've got it bad, don't you?"
Kelly looks at Tara with an embarrassed grin on her face. "You have no idea." She sat down heavily into the corner of the couch with a loud sigh. "Probably completely hopeless anyway. Oh, well. Onto the shitty conversation. You sure you really want to have this conversation?" Kelly asks Tara with a half hearted grin and sad look in her eyes.
Tara looks into Kelly eyes and nods that the conversation does need to take place. "You or me first?"
"You, please?" Kelly asks with a pleading note in her voice.
Tara nods and gets this slight far away look in her eyes and proceeds to tell Kelly about her life after Kelly had left. How their mom had gotten sick. Dad has convinced her that she was a demon. How her father and brother had mentally abused her and Donnie had smacked her around some, thankfully not really bad. How their mother died when she was seventeen and she escaped home to come to Sunnydale to college when she was eighteen. Meeting Willow, Buffy and the rest of the gang. How Dad, Donnie and Beth had come and tried to take her back home before her twentieth birthday and how Buffy had stood up for her and said she was family, with the rest of the group backing her up. How much she loves Willow. The problems they had and how they overcame those problems and have been together ever since.
Somewhere in the midst of telling Kelly about the past she had ended up lying down on the couch with her head in Kelly's lap and Kelly was running her fingers soothingly through her hair while they both cried and laughed through the telling. Tara thinks to herself how this seems so familiar, except with herself running her fingers through Dawn's hair when she was upset and hurting.
Taking a deep breath she pushes up and gives Kelly a tight hug. "Want something to drink while we take a break?"
"Can I ask you something?" Kelly asks looking at Tara. Tara nods her head in acquience while they walk into the kitchen. "You aren't holding anything back about the time at home, were you? Nothing else happened?"
Tara stops and looks deeply into Kelly's worried eyes wondering to herself exactly what Kelly is trying to say without saying it. She shakes her head and says "no, nothing else happened. I'm not holding anything back. Why?"
Kelly looks away and her shoulders relax. She reaches over to the refrigerator and grabs a diet for herself and glances back at Tara asking her what she wants to drink and grabs a water out for her when she answers.
"Let's take this back into the living room." Kelly quietly states as she heads into the living room and moves to sit in a chair kind of isolating herself from Tara.
"That's not going to work, Kelly." Tara states with a frown on her face.
"What?" Kelly asks looking up at Tara and seeing the frown on her face she takes a deep breath and moves back over to the couch, to her previous position. "You aren't going to let me distance myself, are you?"
"No. Whatever it is, we will get through it together. We're together now, family. I want it to stay that way, okay?" Tara makes it more a statement than a question while reaching over and taking Kelly's hand in hers.
"I…" Kelly hesitates and looks into Tara's blue eyes and shakes her head looking up as if for help. "I haven't ever really talked to anyone about it before, Tara. I've kept it pretty much locked up inside me for a long time and I don't really know how to even begin talking about it. Especially to you. You're my baby sister and I have this urge to protect you from the seedier side of this world. I know, I know. Even with everything you've been through I still have this uncontrollable urge to keep this from you."
Tara almost seems to hesitate and looks down for a moment before looking back up into Kelly's eyes. "I don't know if this will make it easier or harder. But I was downstairs the night you came back in from the barn after Dad made you go out there. I saw that you were moving slowly and I could see the pain in your aura." Tara stops, biting her lip and looks away for a moment before whispering "I saw your clothes soaked with blood."
Kelly looks at her in shock and then closes her eyes for a moment taking in a deep shuddering breath. "I never wanted you to know anything about what happened. Ever. You're a gentle soul that should only know love and happiness. Not heartache and pain." Kelly opens her tear-filled eyes and gently pushes some hair behind Tara's ear.
"I guess I should start at the beginning. It started when I was 12, I guess he realized I was maturing. He never said or did anything around the rest of the family, but he would always find some excuse to follow me out to the barn when I fed the animals or cleaned out the stalls. He made me believe that it was my fault, that somehow I was to blame for what he did. The … sexual abuse became more physical abuse the older I got. It was bad, but not so bad as to break my skin or leave any kind of marks that couldn't be covered by clothes. Until right before my birthday. Maybe he realized that I was planning on leaving and it infuriated him so much he didn't have any control. That night he took the whip to me." Kelly stops and looks at Tara and sees the horror on her face and the tears running down her cheeks. Kelly gently reaches out and wipes some of the tears off her face. "Don't cry, Sis. It was a long time ago. That bastard just needs to be thankful he never hurt you. If he had he would be counting down his last minutes on this earth before I sent him to hell." Kelly cocks her mouth in a semblance of a smile at the thought of beating the old man into a pulp. "That night mom knew something was wrong and was waiting in my room for me. She cleaned me up and started the healing process as much as she could. She was so distraught she couldn't do much, but she stopped the worst of the bleeding. I don't think I would have made it if it wasn't for her. Then I took off on my birthday and joined the Marines. I've been fighting for our country and fighting demons since. Even had a few love interests in my spare time," Kelly smirks at that, thinking in particular about Sam.
"Show me, please" Tara whispers looking at Kelly with sorrow filled eyes.
"Tara…" Kelly looks and sees the determined look coming over Tara's face and just shakes her head as she stands up glancing out the front window and reaches over closing the drapes and turns on the lights in the living room. "Are you sure?" Kelly asks hesitating until she receives the nod from Tara and then untucks and pulls her t-shirt off.
Tara slowly gets up from the couch and walks around Kelly to look at her back. "Oh, Goddess" she says in a broken hearted whimper looking at Kelly's scarred back. The criss crossing of the scars that completely covered Kelly's back. Tara gently reached out and ran her shaking fingers over one of the worse ones that was raised higher than the other ones.
Kelly turned around after Tara pulled her hand away and put her shirt back on before reaching out for Tara and pulling her into a gentle hug. Tara just cried broken heartedly holding onto Kelly for dear life. Kelly gently rocks her back and forth. "It's okay. It's okay, Tare. It was a long time ago. I'm all right, you're all right. That's what matters most." Kelly pulls back a little with Tara still in her arms as Tara finally starts to calm down. "Here, sit down. I'll be right back."
Kelly runs to the bathroom and grabs a washcloth and wets it with cold water, bringing it back so Tara can wash her face and cool her swollen red eyes.
"Thanks." Tara gratefully takes the wash rag and gently wipes her face and holds it for a few minutes against her eyes.
"Can't have you going out all red faced and puffy-eyed to meet that firebrand girlfriend of yours. She would probably think I was being mean to you and then she would want to kick my ass. Or maybe she would have Buffy…" Kelly trails off on that note thinking about having Buffy kick her ass. 'Hmmm, may not be such a bad thing having her kick my ass.' Kelly smirks to herself picturing that.
Tara can't help it and busts out laughing, watching the different emotions crossing Kelly's face. 'She is definitely smitten with Buffy. Probably time to lighten things up anyway.'
"What are you laughing at little girl?" Kelly asks in a mock stern voice. "It isn't nice to laugh at your elders, you know that right?"
Tara shakes her head smiling from ear to ear. "You are completely taken with Buffy, aren't you?"
Kelly tilts her head to the side and a genuine happy smile comes across her face as she thinks about it. "Taken isn't the word for it, sis. I know it probably seems impossible with the short period of time that I've known her, but I have completely fallen head over heels. I probably don't have a snowballs chance in hell of her ever returning the feelings, but what the hell. Maybe I'll luck out and she'll decide she wants to bat for the home team and want to do it with an 'older' woman; that older woman being myself, of course." Kelly grins and just shakes her head like yeah, like that will ever happen.
Tara smiles at Kelly and shakes her head. "Honestly, I have to say that I have only seen Buffy interested in guys before. But I also have to state the fact that I have never seen her smile, laugh or joke as much as I have in the last few days since you've been here. As for falling in love in a short period of time…" Tara hesitates, thinking about Willow and her first meeting at the Wicca group. "I fell in love with Willow within 15 minutes of meeting her. Willow was never interested in women before me, either. So maybe, just maybe Buffy just never met the woman that would make her consider jumping the fence before now. Hell, as Willow said last night, if Buffy can date a vampire, it should be easy to get her to date a woman." Tara laughingly states watching the hope spring up in Kelly's eyes.
"Wait a minute, she dated a vampire? A vampire slayer and a vampire. That just seems wrong. Talk about mixing oil and water." Kelly shakes her head wonderingly.
"Well, Angel actually had a soul, if that helps at all. Personally I never could understand it either. I don't believe any of Buffy's relationships have been exactly good for her. But, I don't really feel comfortable talking about that. It would probably be best for you to discuss it with Buffy. If you two ever get to that point." Tara stated with a small frown, hoping that Kelly understood what she was trying to say.
"Tare, no problem. I don't want to cause any friction with you telling stories out of school, per se. Actually, Buffy and I have been having this question and answer thing going on for whenever anything comes up that we want to talk about. Maybe I can work up to it somehow or another." Kelly says with a little smile and a glint in her eyes thinking about how she can get that conversation going.
Tara just grins and shakes her head. "You are rotten to the core, aren't you?" Tara looks at the clock and realizes it's after 3 o'clock in the afternoon. "My goodness, we've been talking for almost five hours straight. Why don't I go and straighten up my make-up and make sure I look okay and then we can go do a little shopping before we decide to meet Buffy and Willow later. I want to pick out something for Willow that she doesn't know about for Christmas and this would be the perfect time to do it, what do you say?"
"I'm there. I'm always up for some shopping. Anyway, I need you to point me in the right direction for gifts for everyone. And before you say it, I'm gonna buy stuff with or without your help. So, I would suggest you help me that way I'm not buying inappropriate gifts for everyone. You never know what I might put in peoples stockings as stocking stuffers for Christmas" Kelly states wiggling her eyebrows at Tara.
Tara can't help but laugh at Kelly. "With you I probably wouldn't be too shocked. And if you decided to buy anything naughty for Anya and Xander, you would probably make Anyas day." Tara hesitate's thinking about it for a moment. "Then again, you would probably have a hard time finding something she didn't already have." Tara stops shaking her head thinking to herself 'scary visual place, need to stop thinking about this now.'
Kelly gets an evil grin on her face. "What about you, sis? Anything special I should put in Willow's stocking this year from Santa?"
Tara stops halfway up the stairs and turns around looking at Kelly with a slightly horrified look on her face and shakes her finger at Kelly. "You wouldn't dare."
Kelly just smiles from ear to ear with a mischievous look in her eyes. "Well, maybe I would and maybe I wouldn't. I guess it all depends on what kind of mood I'm in at the time."
Tara shakes her head and looks upwards toward the heavens. "Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this? Goddess, I have a feeling that you have sent your own little mischief maker here to drive us all crazy."
Kelly laughs heartily at Tara and gently turns her around to give her the hint to continue walking up the stairs. "Get your butt in gear sis, if you want to do some shopping. I want to put on a different shirt and grab those new boots I bought and wear them today."
"Yeah, just what you need. Something to make you taller." Tara laughingly states, heading into the bathroom.
"Hey, they make my ass look good!" Kelly yells as she enters the bedroom. 'I can definitely use all the help I can get, if I want a certain little blonde to take notice.'