One month later:

Willow looked down at her underwear, annoyed.

"Hey baby, can you get me some clean panties?" she called sheepishly to her girlfriend in the bedroom.

A minute later Tara entered the bathroom with Willow's panties and an odd look on her face.

"What's up?" Willow asked, taking the garment from Tara.

"Will, I haven't had a period in…well it must be like two months." Tara explained. "Remember, I didn't get it with you last time, and I didn't get it later. I guess I forgot all about it, with everything that was happening…" she trailed off.

"Yeah, the last month has been pretty stressful." Willow agreed. "But nothing really out of the ordinary for us. Maybe you should go to the doctor." She suggested, concerned.

Tara nodded absently. "Yeah, I can stop by the health center today after our Japanese History lecture." She mused.

"Do you want me to come with?" Willow asked.

"No, that's okay, you have Differential Equations then, remember? I'll be fine, it's probably nothing."

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Tara sat nervously in the exam room waiting for the doctor. She was relieved to find that the on-call physician was Dr. Waters, a female doctor who had rainbow stickers in her office. Willow and Tara both always tried to get appointments with her, feeling more at home knowing that if their sexuality came up it would not be an issue. In fact, with the amount of time the girls spent in the doctor's office she now knew both of them by sight and knew of their relationship.

The door opened, and Dr. Waters entered. "Tara, it's nice to see you again, though I must say it's always nice to not see you in here for a while, if you know what I mean!" she joked. "What seems to be the problem today?"

Tara blushed and let her hair fall in her face to cover it. "Well…it's kind of stupid, really, I'm sure it's nothing but…I haven't gotten my period in about two months."
"When was your last one?" Dr. Waters asked.

"Um…I don't know exactly, but well…Willow and I usually get them together…but then last time I didn't get it and then I forgot all about it until she got hers again today. So I'm sure it was about two months ago." Tara started to babble slightly as she explained.

The doctor wrote this information down on Tara's chart and paused before speaking.

"Well, Tara, I'm sure you can guess what my first instinct is. A missed period is a pretty clear sign of pregnancy." She said gently.

"Pregnancy? Oh no, I couldn't be…I'm…I mean I've never…just Willow." Tara got out, turning the color of a tomato.

"Tara, I understand, but we should do a pregnancy test just to rule it out. If it comes back negative we can discuss other possibilities and run some more tests, okay?"

Tara nodded her head, understanding that the doctor needed the negative pregnancy test to pursue other alternatives. "Okay…"

"I'll just need a urine sample, I can get them to run it while you wait, if you'd like. It should only take about an hour."

A little more than an hour later, Tara was flipping through the magazines in the inner waiting room when Dr. Waters entered.

"Tara? You can come with me."

Tara followed the doctor mutely back to her office and sat down on the exam table as she closed the door.

"Okay, so now we can look for other things right? What's first?" Tara asked.

Dr. Waters didn't answer right away. She sat down facing Tara. "Tara. The pregnancy test came back positive." She let the results sink in for a moment.

"Positive? That's impossible…I can't be!" Tara protested.

"I know this is hard to understand, but I had them run it again to be sure. Tara, during that month, did anyone…force himself on you? Or maybe you were at a party, things got a little out of hand, someone could have taken advantage of you without your knowledge?" she suggested gingerly. She knew how hard this must be for Tara. The poor girl had been raped, and possibly didn't even know it until now.

"No! We don't go to parties, and I don't drink or use drugs, and I wasn't r-raped! I've only had s-sex with Will…" Tara suddenly trailed off and her eyes went wide. "Oh my god." She murmured. "The spell!" she blurted out, forgetting where she was.

Dr. Waters looked up from Tara's chart. "A spell?" she asked with interest. "Are you Wiccan?"

"Um…" Tara tried to think of a way out of this. "Yes." she finally came up with, choosing not to reveal any more information than was necessary.

"Tara, are you saying this baby is the result of some sort of spell?" she tried to clarify.

"Er…"

"It's okay, I understand. My mother was a practicing witch. I don't have much power so I don't practice anymore, but you can trust me. You need to tell me what happened Tara." She said softly. "I know enough to know that it matters what the spell was."

Tara's head jerked up. "Oh, no, it's nothing like that. It wasn't a spell to make a baby…I can't believe we were so stupid though…" she trailed off.

"What did you do? I don't think that getting pregnant is a normal side effect of a spell." Dr. Waters prodded.

Tara blushed. "The spell…she didn't know exactly what it would do, and it um…turned Willow into a man for a day. And we um…"

"You had unprotected sex." The doctor finished for the trembling girl.

Tara nodded. "We didn't even think about it! I mean it was still Willow, it didn't even cross my mind."

"I take it this was about six weeks ago?"

Tara nodded again.

"Well, then I think it's safe to say you are pregnant with Willow's child."

Tara lay back on the bed. "What am I going to do? I don't think I'm ready to be a mother! And school…"

"There is always the option – "

"No!" Tara sat up, speaking uncharacteristically forcefully. "Dr. Waters, we've managed to do what every lesbian couple dreams of doing. There's no way I could not accept that as a priceless gift."

Dr. Waters held up her hands in surrender. "I wasn't suggesting that you do, I was merely reminding you of all your options." She thought for a moment. "Well then, you are going to need an OB/GYN. Tell you what, I'll try to find you one who you can tell the truth to, okay? I'll let you know when I find one. Until then, no drinking, smoking, drugs, and make sure you eat enough and healthily. Do you want to call Willow or someone to pick you up?" she added, noticing that Tara was looking rather pale.

"No, I mean, Will was supposed to meet me here after her class, she's probably waiting out there now." Tara said weakly.

"Okay then. Please, Tara, feel free to call me at any time if you need to talk or have any questions."

"Thank you." Tara said gratefully as she got off the table.

She left the doctor's office, marveling at the past ten minutes. She walked out to the front of the clinic in a daze.

Willow was pacing around the waiting area. "Tara!" she felt a sudden urge to kiss her girlfriend but settled for a hug as there were other students watching her curiously.

Tara hugged Willow back, took her hand, and walked out into the sunshine.

"Baby what's wrong, are you okay? Oh god something's wrong!" Willow began to panic. Tara stopped walking and turned to her.

"No, sweetie, I promise, it's nothing like that. But…can we wait until we get home?" she didn't feel like talking in such an open area.