Chapter 2

A/N: This chapter could be triggering for some, I just want to be polite and warn you. This story happened in my brain cause it's weird and dark in there.

After school Tara walked part way home with Willow, dropping Willow off at the redhead's house, before running the rest of the way home, alone. She knew her father wouldn't be forgiving of her coming home late.

As she came through the front door her brother came down the hall and grabbed a handful of her hair, dragging her down the hallway.

"Little bitch coming home late, Pops isn't gonna be happy with you." Donny smiled wickedly shoving Tara into the living room "Hey Pops, look what I found!" Donald Maclay Sr. looked up with a maniacal grin on his face, he started taking off his belt slowly, making each movement slow and deliberate, bathing in Tara's fear. Her brother held her arm much too tightly, Tara knew that it would leave a bruise that would be terribly difficult to cover tomorrow, if she made it to tomorrow.

"Now, Tara, take off your shirt" her father said as he looped the belt to make a hard knot with the buckle at the end, she did as he asked. "Donny, get her arms. Now listen here, you're gonna home on time from now on, aren't ya?" he paused waiting to see if she would respond. Tara knew it didn't matter if she responded or not she would still get a beating so she didn't answer at all. Her father brought the belt down once, twice, thirty times, one hundred, he kept going till he had no strength, then he gave the belt to Donny. When they were finished blood ran freely down Tara's back but she didn't cry once, she barely even felt it. "Now do your chores"

Tara did as she was told, she wasn't even really present during her punishment, she just kept thinking about Willow. Willows soft, fiery, red hair, her vibrant emerald eyes that saw deep into Tara's soul, and Willows lips, her soft luscious lips… After her chores she went to her room, showered her shower that she was allowed that day, and attempted to clean and bandage her back.

That night Tara snuck out, knowing it would cause her another beating if her brother or father found out but she figured she wouldn't be around for them to beat, her body might be, but not her soul. She went to the store and bought simple everyday things that's she could come up with some lame excuse for buying this late at night if anyone asked. But as she snuck back into her room, she thought of Willow again, the compassion she had seen in Willows eyes when talking to her, the fear that was there when Donny was brought up, she knew she couldn't leave Willow behind, she had to protect Willow and be the friend to Willow that Tara had never had.

She hid the things she bought under her bed and thought more about the redheaded beauty before falling asleep and dreaming about Willow.

After Tara walked Willow home, she watched the beautiful girl sprint off to get home. Willow thought this was a little strange, Willow knew Mr. Maclay was strict and gave her the heebie jeebies but what would make Tara take off like a bat out of hell? The more Willow thought of it, the more she understood, she saw the bruises Tara had tried to hide since she first saw her three years ago, Willow knew them all too well, for she did the same thing for years until her parents just ignored her existence when they were home, and she didn't know what was worse; when they were beating her, or forgot she even existed? Sometimes they remembered she was there and acted on old ways.

Willow thought about the things that happened that day: helping Tara, kissing Tara, walking home with Tara, she was so confused. She had had a crush on her best friend Xander for so many years, she had dated Oz so she didn't think she could be gay but she definitely felt something way more that friendship for Tara and that kiss was so much more powerful than anything with Oz

Willow called Buffy and asked her to come over. Twenty minutes later Willow heard a knock at the door. When she answered the door Willow saw it was Buffy and ushered her in.

"Hey Wills, what's goin on?" Buffy asked in her usual chipper attitude, then she saw the sadness in Willows eyes "Willow? Whats wrong?"

"Hm? Nothing just thinking about some stuff, Buff. Hey that rhymed!" Willow's tongue stuck out a little bit as she grinned. "I'm just really confused about some things, started thinking about Oz and things like that." Willows grin going away as she admitted what she was thinking about before Buffy could ask what was really wrong.

"Will, why? You know that gets you in a funk and instead of saying whats wrong you always say 'Nothing, I'm finey mcfine fine' or 'Queen of goodness right here, no problems here, nope' and then we have to find out some way else that you are not okay" Buffy let out in a rant. Willow knew she was right.

"I was thinking about him because of Tara" Willow admitted to her best friend, Buffy just looked at her confused "Buffy, I think I like Tara when we were walking to class and we lost you, I kissed her and it was more powerful than anything I ever felt with Oz and I'm just so confused and I need you here…" Buffy looked at her in shock.

"You kissed her? Will, you just met her, you don't even know if she likes you too. Will, I don't care that you like a girl, but you don't just randomly kiss people!" Buffy was shocked that Willow had done something so daring, Willow, fuzzy sweater, frog and pony fearing Willow just randomly kissed someone she just met? Buffy thought and they stood awkwardly for a while before Buffy spoke again "Ok, Will, if anyone understand that love and crushes make you do the wacky, it's me, sorry I reacted so harshly at first."

"I just don't know what to do, she returned the kiss, hell she even deepened the kiss, I know that's an awkward thing to say, I just didn't know how to say it differently Buff." Willow paused before speaking again "I like her and I'm pretty sure she likes me too but her family. Her brother, her father, they cause a problem, I know what they do, I know what she's going through. I hate her brother, I've met her brother before, and I will never forgive him, or forget what he did" Buffy looked at the redhead with concern.

"Willow, what's going on?" Buffy was scared for Willow right now "What aren't you telling me, Willow?" The red head stared down at her feet.

"Did Xander ever tell the story of how on the first day of kindergarten I broke the yellow crayon, and I cried? I cried not because I broke something that wasn't mine, I cried because I was afraid. I was afraid they would tell my parents and I would be punished. Xander took the blame, Xander got me a new crayon. All these years his family has been mean to him, I always made sure that they never hit him because… because I didn't want him to go through what I was going through… I didn't want him to be like me… I didn't want his light to be diminished and him want to die, for him to hurt himself because someone was hurting him and he didn't know how to deal with it" Willow looked up for a second to see shock and anger on Buffy's face, Will looked down and continued and tears rolled silently down her cheeks "All those years, all the stupid shirts with long sleeves to cover up the bruises, to cover up the cuts and scars, to hide my shame. You want to know why I hate Donny Maclay? Freshman year I went to a party to drop this girls notes off for class, Donny and his friends spiked the punch, I had a sip, one sip Buffy, I was fully conscious, but defenseless and he took advantage of this. He took advantage of me. Buffy…. he raped me…." At the last words Buffy let out a hiccup of a sob and Willow let go of her tears. Buffy wrapped Willow up in a hug, holding the red head to her chest both crying freely.

"I'm sorry Willow, I'm so, so sorry." Buffy kept repeating that over and over knowing it wouldn't change the past but saying it because somebody needed to, and Willow needed to know that she cared, Willow needed to know Buffy loved her. Buffy spoke after a long period of silence "I love you Will, I'm always gonna be here for you, you're my sister, maybe not by blood, but by choice and that means something more anyways" after talking and crying for a while more Buffy went home and Willow was left alone with her thoughts. And they kept coming back to the blond-brunette beauty, Tara. As Willow lay in her bed that night she dreamt of Tara in a world where everything was okay, there were no scars, no pain, just her and Tara.

TBC…

A/N: This chapter is very emotional and long, I couldn't find an appropriate place to end it any earlier and all this needed to be uncovered so you better understand where I'm taking these characters. Thank you for reading, please follow this story and favorite it if you enjoy it so far, if you don't like it give me some constructive criticism and I'll see what I can do. I'm going to try and upload a new chapter each week, I only really work on it on the weekends but I write around 4 chapters each weekend and work on editing them when I get time to on the weekdays.