Chapter Two

Later that night, Dani had stepped out to get she, Dawn and Sarah a pizza. The other girls had chosen various other activities for the evening, though mostly inside the quarters. As she walked aimlessly into the pizza palace, she clumsily ran into a young woman. "S-s-s-sorry," the woman said shyly, as she turned to see if Dani was all right.

Dani gazed down into thee most beautiful sapphire eyes she had ever seen in her life. She stood motionless, as if she were staring at a painting of some ancient beauty. "I'm sorry, I should have been paying attention. I'm Danielle but my friends call me Dani," answered the young woman, as she smiled at the blonde.

"M-m-my name's Tracy Willis," replied the blonde nervously.

"As in detective Brad Willis?" Dani asked out of curiosity. She had met the detective on a couple of occasions around the city during patrol.

"Y-y-yes, he's my uncle," the girl stammered. "I work here to get through college, I'm in my last year."

"I thought of taking a few classes but I never got around to it," Dani added, she was never into the school scene but still wished she could get into law enforcement. A hint of sadness shown on her face, all be it a brief instance. She supposed that working a full-time law enforcement job was out of the question, at least for the time being. There was far to much work to do at the headquarters.

"Are you all right?" The girl stammered more so than before. She feared that she had said something wrong and had hit a sad nerve with the gorgeous woman.

"Oh no, I'm fine," Dani said, as she quickly regained her smile. "This is just a new place and new career choices for me."

"Oh, I understand," the girl continued speaking in her stammer. "I better get back to work though, it was nice meeting you."

"I better get the pizza back home," Dani added. "It was nice meeting you also. If you don't mind, I'd like to come back and have a chat sometime," Dani scribbled her cell-number on a piece of paper, thankful that she had a part time job at the local book store to pay for the accessory. "If you'd like for me to stop by, just give me a ring and let me know when's a good time." The girl's parted with smiles.

- - - - - - - -

Dawn and Sarah sat impatiently on the sofa, as Dani came in with their food. The headquarters was comprised of two buildings and a large yard area. The building that housed everyone was a nice 5-story place, with privacy for the elder members of the team. The scoobies, watchers, and top three ranking slayers got the bottom floor. This housed several bedrooms, two sitting rooms, the main kitchen and a few other storage and recreational rooms. The other floors were comprised of bedrooms, smaller sitting rooms, bathrooms, and a few storage rooms. The other building was comprised of the offices, large library, school and training facility, along with a larger storage area.

"We thought you forgot us," Sarah, a 16-year-old slayer stated dramatically.

"No, I ran into a potential date." Dani said with a smile. "You should see this girl, she is shy, real nice and has great eyes."

"That means Faith is free if she ditched Robin," Sarah said with a hint of laughter in her voice.

Sarah's face quickly turned a bright red, as she noticed that Faith had just walked in the room. "What's this about me being free?" Faith asked, as she gave the young girl a sultry smile.

"Well," Dawn shrugged her shoulders. "We were all kinda placing bets on your love life. We kinda thought you were doing one or both Dani and Robin."

"They don't give you all enough to do around here," Faith said, as she took a slice of pizza and sat down with the girls. "Where's Red?"

"She's gone out with Kennedy." Dawn said in a disgusted tone.

"Ole Ken still hangin' in there huh," Faith quirked an eyebrow to show her agreement with Dawn.

- - - - - - - -

Willow and Kennedy sat quietly through a movie then walked to dinner. The restaurant was an out of the way place for the more wealthy citizens of Cleveland. "Willow, I want to talk about some things over dinner." Kennedy said, as their food and wine were placed on the candlelit table.

"I think that's a good idea." Willow said bracing herself for whatever Kennedy came up with.

"Look, I know I act a little bratty sometimes, especially when Dawn is around. I need to work on that but Willow, I've put my all into us and feel as though you haven't."

Willow knew Kennedy was being honest and decided it was time for her to do the same. "Kennedy, I have decided that tonight is my real start. I want to try and move forward from Tara. I will never be able to replace her in my heart but I would like to see if you too can have a piece of my heart. The truth is, I know that I care for you but I don't know to what extent because I haven't allowed myself to let go of Tara fully."

Kennedy was taken aback by this revelation. She realized that her theory that their first lovemaking encounter was Willow's letting go signal was wrong. She had hoped that she gave her something that night, enough of herself to free her of the ghost of Tara maclay in a sense. The realization that the night was just some sort of sexual encounter for Willow didn't sit well with the slayer. "Willow, are you telling me that the first night we made love was meaningless? The few times you've allowed me to make love to you since that night were nothing to you but sex?" Kennedy's voice was rising slightly, but she tried to control it.

"No Kennedy," Willow pored herself another glass of wine. "I allowed you to have that night with me because I liked you and I," Willow hung her head in shame. "Well, I thought we were all going to die and I wanted to have a special night with someone that I liked."

Kennedy jumped up from her chair in a rage. "You had sex with me because you thought it would be your last time?" Her voice pierced the restaurant like a clap of thunder, as she stawked towards Willow.

"No Kennedy, you're missing the point here." Willow put her hand on the young slayer's arm in an effort to calm her. "Look, Tara was my world and I am having a difficult time moving on from that part of my world. I made this dinner date because I wanted to try and move on and I wanted to do this with you. The first night we shared was important to me. It was a stepping-stone in my healing. You weren't just some girl from the street; you were someone I wanted to get to know better if we got the chance to live. That is why I was with you and yes, because part of me was scared that I wouldn't get the chance to be with you again."

Kennedy seemed to relax slightly after hearing Willow's words. This night wasn't starting out exactly how she had hoped but maybe it could end up that way. "I'm sorry Willow," she said quietly. "I jumped to conclusions and should have given you more of a chance to explain."

"That's all right," Willow said with a slight smile on her face. "We need to air it all out so we can move forward and I really think I'm ready to make progress with that. I'm sorry that I dragged my feet for such a long time but Tara was so important to me. I never was willing to let myself love again but I want to try now."

Kennedy got to her feet and stepped around the small table next to Willow. "I'm so glad you really want to try with me." She kissed her girlfriend sensuously, as a slow song began to play. "Let's go have a dance then finish our meal." She reached out for Willow's hand and was glad to see that Willow accepted the offer quickly.

Willow relaxed in Kennedy's embrace as the song played. They snuggled close and shared a few kisses through two more songs, both enjoying the company of the other. "Are we okay?" Kennedy asked, breaking the relaxing mood.

"We're fine," Willow said, as she kissed her lover then lead her back to their table. "You're also right that I need to relax more often too." Willow added, as they continued to eat their meal.

- - - - - -

Faith sat alone in one of the sitting rooms at nearly 2:30 AM. She couldn't sleep, a normal occurrence for the dark slayer, but one she wished she could remedy. It was the times late at night that she reflected on her life, the changes she'd made and those she refused. Robin Wood was one change that she had refused. The two had a great deal of fun but once he tried to get serious, Faith got going. She just couldn't see him in that way and didn't really care if he understood that fact or not. It wasn't that Faith didn't want to change and give a real relationship a shot, but the fact that she wanted her first real relationship adventure to be with a woman. Robin was upset by this and vowed to tell everyone, obviously he had decided against it or else the all-knowing Dawnie would have mentioned it earlier in the evening.

"Hey Red," Faith said, as she pulled herself back together. "Whacha doin' up this late?"

"I had a nice night with Kennedy and then, after things happened, well I had a disturbing dream." Willow said. She wished Dani were the one up but Faith would have to do because she was rattled and needed an ear. "This one time, we all had linking dreams and Tara appeared as the first slayer in Buffy's dream. I had this dream that she came back as the first slayer to help us with the current problems because she was the key to the resolution of the problems." Willow's hands began to tremble as she continued speaking. "So she wouldn't take me back because I was with Kennedy and it owuldn't be fair to just rip Kennedy's heart out."

"I'm not good with this sort of thing Red." Faith stated lazily. "I guess maybe just that Ken isn't the gal for you maybe. I don't know much about love but, if she were the one, it wouldn't have taken you this long to move on y'know?"

"You know," Willow stood from her seat and looked directly at the smiling slayer. "Everyone deserves a chance and I never gave her a full chance. I want to try this but thanks for the advice."

"You asked my opinion is all." Faith chuckled and headed to her room for some much needed rest.

Willow sat in the cozy room wondering why she had that dream. It could have been because she was letting go and her subconscious was trying to stop her from doing so. That would be the easy explanation but what if that was incorrect? What if there Tara did come back as the first slayer? Willow pondered this until she drifted off to sleep with dreams of better times for the Scoobies.

A/N thanks for the reviews, I hope you like this little twist. This may or may not mean that Tara is back, stay tuned!