A.N- A Long Awaited Chapter- Since my one shot was ignored, I can only guess my holiday was too long.

"That thing isn't her." Buffy said angrily to her fellow slayer.

Faith shrugged. "Seems like her. From what I remember. Just less stuttering."
Tara waited patiently, an understanding look on her face.

"Tara is dead! That's… that's probably the First. You met her once; you had one conversation with her, so how can you know?"

Faith shot out her hand, grabbing the witch's shoulder. "She feels like a corpse to me."

"Corporeal?" Tara offered, and Faith shrugged, "Yeah that."

Buffy frowned. "Well she could be a zombie, or, or, some other bad thing. Giles would know. Let's tie her up and send her to England."

Tara took an involuntary step backwards.

"I thought you got to bring someone back?" Faith asked, "Didn't you choose Glinda the good witch here?"

"I didn't choose at all. I couldn't. It wouldn't be right. No-one needs to go through what I went though."

Faith rolled her eyes. "I don't see what's so bad about coming back from heaven anyway," she muttered. At Buffy's outraged look she elaborated. "I mean, now you know where you're going, you have something to look forward to. You can live life, have fun, die young, and know that you're going somewhere good."

Tara smiled at this interpretation of Buffy's ordeal, even as she looked sympathetically at the blonde slayer.

Buffy, meanwhile, was more shocked than angry. "You…you…you don't understand." She said dismissively, and changing the subject back again,

"Tara is not alive, she's dead. I would never put that sweet girl through what I went through. Digging out of your grave is not the party you'd think it would be."

Tara remained quiet, looking at the slayer steadily.

"You!" Buffy demanded, turning to her, "Why don't you talk?"

"Sorry." Tara apologised. "I thought you and Faith needed to talk it out first. Buffy, please, calm down. Things aren't the way you think."

There was another pause. "Well, "Tara"- how are they?"

"Is there anything I can do to prove I am who I say I am?" Tara asked, ignoring Buffy's question.

Buffy shrugged. "If you're an agent of the First, you'd know pretty much everything about Tara anyway. I am not letting you near Willow- she won't think, she'll just fall in love with you all over again and then it'll be brokenhearted black eyed vein-y Willow, Part 2."

"The Hellmouth is closed. She can't be the First." Faith interjected.

"One Hellmouth is closed." Buffy corrected. "Giles says there's another one in Cleveland, and there could be one in South America."

"Aww fuck."

She looked a bit hurt, though, and scowled fiercely at the ground.

"Oxford still only telling you stuff." She said quietly, so quietly it was on the edge of Buffy's slayer hearing. She debated with herself quickly as to whether she pretended she hadn't heard that, and decided that a Tara doppelganger rated a higher priority, although not without a pang of guilt.

"I am not an agent of the First. It's really me. Buffy, please, believe me."

Buffy shook her head. "There's no way I can trust you. I just can't know."

"If you can come back, why can't I?" Tara said, irritated at last. Then she smiled.

"I knew anger would come back."

Faith gave her a look.

"So…" Tara trailed off.

Buffy, meanwhile, was nodding her head, thinking, giving every impression that a light bulb had just gone off over her head.

"We'll ask Giles for help." She announced firmly.

"Watcher guy is in England, B." Faith said, with the slow patient tone one adopts when speaking to imbeciles.

"He's a witch- well, kinda. Male witch. Can do magic, anyway, so let's just ring him up, and ask him to perform some kind of mojo on this-" Buffy gestured at Tara, "then we'll know."

Faith rolled her eyes. "Ah, dial a spell, how silly of me to forget."

"Meanwhile you will stay…uh, in a motel. With me."

Tara looked as if she was about to speak, then stopped herself.

Faith raised an eyebrow, "What about me?" she teased.

Buffy blushed. "I'm gunna guard her." she hissed.

"I can help." Faith insisted. "Besides, I'm used to staying in dives."

Buffy shook her head. "It won't be a dive, just a nice room, we've got money."

She stopped abruptly, with an expression that suggested she wished she could take back the last sentence.

"What do you mean, we've got money?" Faith asked, sensing another mystery she was not privy to. "We don't have jobs- we've just got the money the council pays us so we can buy food and necessary shit. Right?" her tone was dangerous.

Buffy squirmed. "Actually…we've got a lot of money." She admitted.

Tara stayed quiet, stayed out of a drama that had shifted focus away from her.

"The new council…well Giles is well connected, and he's recruited some powerful people in England, and some in America. Finding the new slayers, sending them to England, training watchers for them and digging up watchers out of retirement, it all costs money."

Faith turned away for a moment, her face shadowed by her raven locks. After a pause she said softly, calmly, "and they're paying you?"

"No!" Buffy hastened. "It's not ready yet, not fully set up. I just meant that if we do this, the council will pay. There's emergency money, or something, waiting for us if we need it. And I think this will count.

"For you if you need it." Faith said flatly.

"No! For us. It's for the senior slayers, I just haven't, and we haven't needed it so… I was going to tell you."

"As soon as you thought I was old and mature enough, right?"

"Faith!"

The dark slayer stalked away a few steps, and then turned around.

"This is not important. Remember your friend, Willow, she is, right? If you can't trust Tara, or me, get her checked out by your trusty Watcher then, and get a fucking move on. I think Red wouldn't like to know you delayed her reunion fussing about stupid shit like this."

Faith ignored Buffy for the rest of their journey, escorting the two of them to a hotel in the south area of town. Faith talked to Tara.

"Do you know what's been going on?"

Tara shook her head. "I did, or I think I did, but its fading. As soon as I woke up," she paused and looked embarrassed "Well I could remember seeing everything. Watching everyone I cared about live their lives. Well, you know," she smiled gently "I don't now, I mean, I remember, I know there's trouble, that Kennedy is bad for her, that there's something wrong with her, but I don't remember!"

Faith stopped walking as Tara's tone grew more upset. "Chill girl. Its wicked cool that you're back- at least you can show Buffy she's not the only who gets to rise from the grave minus fangs- you're not a vamp, are you?"

Tara smiled again. "No, of course not."

The three walked on faster, Tara effortlessly keeping up with the slayers. At Buffy's surprised look, Tara commented "Willow could do this too, but I guess she doesn't want to."

When both were safely ensconced, and she'd exchanged a few quick, quiet, words with Tara and a solemn look, she left. Buffy called after her, but was ignored.

"Where's Faith going?" she asked the thing she was guarding, resentfully.

"Home." Tara said. She still regarded Buffy kindly, a smile on her face.

"What are you smiling at?"

"I know why you are doing this, and I completely understand. I would do the same, to protect Willow."

A sudden pang of guilt had Buffy almost bent at the knees. I didn't protect her. I should be with her now. She straightened and almost instinctively tried to leave and when the other girl grabbed her shoulder she threw her roughly away.

"Oww." Tara said softly as she slid into the motel bed. "Pain, real pain, again."

Buffy caught the softly spoken words and spun around, arrested mid flight. Tears obscured her eyes as she helped the taller girl stand up and saw the bruise she'd made.

"Tara I'm sorry." She whispered.

Tara gathered her into a hug. "Oh Buffy.

At the house, Willow and Kennedy were drinking coffee. Their fingers touched as they held their cups, and they sat close together. Kennedy smiled adoringly at her red-haired goddess, and Willow smiled back, a smile tinged with a hint of fear that had not always been there. Before, when the Hellmouth was open and Kennedy was just a Potential, she could have smiled at the younger girl with affection, with liking, if not the love that she'd shown to Tara, at least the foundations of love.

Faith, upon slinking into the house, viewed this scene with a disconcerted frown. Kennedy smiled again, and stretched, and stood.

"I know I've done a lot of stuff wrong, but I love you." She said gently.

Willow looked at her in amazement. Faith scowled.

"You're all the same." She said, entering the room. Suddenly the air was thick with menace.

"Same old lines, same old song, same old shit. Well not on my watch."

"Problem, killer?" Kennedy asked viciously. Faith took an impetuous swing at her, which was blocked. They held positions, inches from each other, each trying to stare the other down. "Guys, stop it!" Willow looked frustrated.

"Xander" she called. "Where are you?"

The man in question halted at the entrance to the room, behind Faith.

"Here Will."

He eyed the situation, but made no move, commenting quietly to Faith's back, "Try not to break the furniture too much."

She flashed him a grin, and as she turned the younger slayer swung, connecting firmly with her jaw. Faith slammed backwards into a wicker chair, shattering it into a million finger length splinters. She stood up slowly, stretching, and plucking the pieces of wood from her back and legs.

"Let's take this outside." She suggested.

"No!" Willow's eyes were wide her face was red and she blocked Faith's way.

"Don't hurt her! She doesn't mean it!"

Xander pushed past Faith, who was shocked into silence, and took his best friend by the shoulders, looking into her eyes. "Will, it's not true? She's not?"

Willow didn't quite meet his eye as she replied, tumbling over her words. "She loves me, stop this. You all think so badly of her, and she's not a bad person. She's loves me, she takes care of me, I need her."

"Willow." Xander's tone was full with sadness. "You can stand on your own. There's nothing wrong with you."

"Willow come on, lets get out of here. They don't trust you or me, why do you want to stick with them. I'm all you have." Kennedy whispered in her girlfriend's ears, too low for Xander to hear.

But someone did.

"Spike used that line on me just after I came back from the dead. Didn't work on me, won't work on her."

"Buffy?" (Willow)

"B." Faith breathed, half relieved, half angry.

In the doorway, she stood, hands on hips, stony expression on her face.

"Let go of her arm." She said coldly.

Numbly, Kennedy complied, taking a step back into a shadowed corner of the room. Willow watched her with concern, and then forgot her as another person came into view.

"Willow."

Tara Maclay, 23, long blonde hair, blue eyes, magic eyes. From across the length of a room, they eyed each other. There was no sound, no movement, as if the softest noise would shatter what had to be a beautiful illusion. Xander whitened and Kennedy felt like her heart had shattered in her chest as she recognised the young woman standing before them. Willow had a picture of her in her room. Faith and Buffy, meanwhile, stared at each other. Some of Faith's anger melted away as she saw tear tracks on the blond slayer's face.

"Hey sweetie." Tara said. Her voice was clearer than it used to be, more sure of itself.

Willow walked towards her slowly, not even blinking, afraid that this dream, this apparation would disappear. As she closed on her, Tara's own control broke and the two flew into each other's arms, hugging tightly. Tears rolled down their faces.

Angels cry, when stars collide

I can't eat and I can't breathe

I wouldn't want it any other way.

Tara drew back to gaze at Willow solemnly.

"Why did you forget who you are, how much you mean?" she asked.

Willow looked away, and then she looked around. Xander, Buffy, Faith, all watching them and trying to look like they weren't. She turned to the corner where Kennedy was standing, but the younger girl was gone.

When I see your smile
Tears run down my face I can't replace
And now that I'm strong I have figured out
How this world turns cold and it breaks through my soul
And I know I'll find deep inside me I can be the one

I will never let you fall
I'll stand up with you forever
I'll be there for you through it all
Even if saving you sends me to heaven