Part 4 - Tara?

Outside it was a little cold so Buffy took her coat and chose a direction and started to walk.

The streets had a few people and they were shopping, nothing much. Nothing weird was happening.

It was a very calm night, she was walking and lost in her thoughts she didn't realized that she was walking towards a park...

The park was empty, calm, the only thing you could hear was the sound of the wind, when Buffy came back from her thoughts she realized she wasn't alone, there was just one person who was sitting on the seesaw, there she was, waiting to be saved.

Buffy started to go towards her. Could that be?

"Tara?" Buffy asked staring to the girl.

The woman turned her head and there she was...

"Tara!" Buffy yelled and ran to her.

"Buffy?" Tara looked confused to the girl.

Tara was sitting with her mind all confused not really knowing what to do but when she saw Buffy, finally a face that she knew, a great smile popped on her face.

"Oh my god Tara, it worked." Buffy said excited.

Buffy was on her knees and hugged Tara.

"Oh god Buffy?" Tara hugged Buffy, after a moment they apart and Tara asked. "Worked? Oh yeah, she told me, you wished right?"

Buffy nodded and sat on the wood bank that was near it and they started to talk.

"Buffy, is this all really true?" Tara asked not believing that she was alive again.

"Yeah, I guess in Buffy world nobody can rest in peace hum..." Buffy said in a funny tone.

"Yeah…" Tara smiled and continued talking "Tell me about it, they sent me into this place..."

"San Francisco." Buffy said.

"Right, see, I didn't even knew that, and I was afraid to talk to people and..." Tara explained.

Buffy saw Tara's reaction so she took Tara's hand in hers, looked in her eyes and said.

"Tara it's ok, I've had that experience, remember?"

Tara nodded.

"Sorry it's just so..." Tara tried to explain.

"Confusing." Buffy finished the sentence.

Tara smiled... "Yeah. For how long have I've been..."

"About a year." Buffy answered.

"A whole year?" Tara sound very surprised.

"Yeah...Tara, I'm sorry to put you through this, but it was something that I had to do, I wanted to give you a chance with..."

"Willow, oh god, Willow. Right, is-is she ok? Does she knows about me? How is she?" Tara started to freak out, if only by seeing Buffy, who was her friend made her all confused and weird, imagine with Willow, her soul mate, her everything!

"She's fine! I mean, she's doing ok, and no, she doesn't know about you, I haven't told her yet." Buffy tried to answer all Tara's questions.

Tara was thinking about Willow, she was always thinking of Willow but now it's real, now it's happening, it wasn't a dream that she was having, she actually was going to see her again, be able to touch her, to feel her again. That thought made Tara incredible happy but also very worried, it had been a year that she hadn't talk or even seen her lover, would the feeling be the same?

"Willow, my heart, It only takes me to think of you and my heart melts, my sweetheart, are you with someone? Oh my god what if she has already found someone? Better than me, of course she did, she's so beautiful, it wouldn't take one month for...for...and it's been a whole year!"

Buffy realized how freaked out Tara was getting... and she had to do something...

"Willow is fine." Buffy said getting Tara out of her thoughts.

"What?" Tara said looking to Buffy.

"Willow."

"Oh...how is she?" Tara asked worried.

"She's ok...doing the best she can, always with her Willow-way to do her things. We missed you Tara, a lot." Buffy said with a smile getting a smile back from Tara.

"Oh, I missed you guys too." Tara said with a smile.

"And you? How are you hanging?" Buffy asked worried.

"It's... uhm...confusing... I fell like I don't belong here, you know, I fell lost like I don't know anything about you guys anymore, and in a year... a lot can happen."

"You have no idea… I mean… yeah, I understand. It's crazy everything that happened..."

Buffy told Tara some things that happen while Tara was dead, she skipped the part that Willow was involved with the dark magic though, if someone should tell Tara, that someone should be Willow.

"...but then Spike died..." Buffy said sadly.

"Spike died? Wow... are you ok?" Tara was so surprised about all this information that Buffy had told her.

"Yeah, he...he was great." Buffy said remembering him.

"So everybody fought with the Ubervamps?" Tara said still trying to understand what really had happened.

"Well, yeah...everybody had this place to be and they did just great, Willow though, she did this magic that save us and..." Buffy said excited.

"Magic?" Tara asked looking surprised.

"Oh...yeah." Buffy realized what she just had said so she tried to make Tara calm. "She had been trough some stuff, you don't have to worry, it wasn't a bad magic one… and she's fine, I wouldn't ask to do the magic if I knew that it could harm her, besides she was with Kennedy..."

"Well… good then." Tara said thinking that after a year without seeing Willow, Buffy would know Willow better then her. After some time thinking about Buffy's words she asked. "She was with who? Kennedy?"

"Ohh... yeah..." Buffy said looking down thinking how stupid she was to mention her name.

"Is she a witch too?" Tara asked curious.

"Actually, she's a potential..." Buffy said, she couldn't lie. Tara would have to know the truth one time or another.

"Oh...so, she's just this potential that helped you?"

"Ah...Tara, she's actually with Willow..." Buffy said the words worried looking for Tara's face that now was full of confusion.

"With? Like she's her girlfriend?" Tara asked feeling an enormous pain in her heart.

"Ah...yeah..." Buffy said praying that Tara would react ok. But praying wasn't enough.

"Oh my god Buffy! How can you bring me back when she's with someone else, she's happy without me, she... she, she had moved on." Tara got up trying to hold her tears. Her heart now was hurting like hell, imagining Willow with another woman was to much for Tara right now.

"Hey, I wouldn't bring you back if I didn't know who she wanted, Willow isn't happy as she was with you Tara, when I saw you guys together I could see that you loved each other more than anything." Buffy got up trying to calm Tara.

"The only thing that I want is for her to be happy, and for as hell as it can hurt, I want her happiness even it's not with me… and if I got back in her life again, it would confuse her, and believe me it's not a very good feeling. How could you Buffy! I can't believe this."

Tara started to run, she didn't want to confuse Willow, she remembered when Oz came back how confused and lost Willow was, and she didn't wanted to make her suffer, not again and this time even harder.

Buffy started to run after Tara, and as she is the slayer, she got to her, Buffy grabbed Tara's arms.

"Tara, please, she needs you, she's lost already, you have to go to her, to find her." Buffy said begging.

"No Buffy, she's fine, she's strong, she doesn't need me." Tara said seriously.

"How do you know?" Buffy asked looking to Tara's eyes.

Silence...

"Tara, please! The reason that I brought you back is because I KNOW that Willow will want to stay with you."

Tara twisted her arm so Buffy let go.

"No, don't. Just stay away from me." Tara gave a very angry look at Buffy and started to run again.

"Tara, where are you going?" Buffy yelled.

Tara looked back "Anywhere."

Buffy just stayed still, she didn't know what to do. If she chased Tara again it could be worse. Maybe it would be better to give Tara a time to think. Buffy knew that it wasn't going to be an easy to make everything as it used to be, but she wasn't going to give up.

And right now the only thing Buffy could do was to go to back to the hotel.