"Kennedy" Willow sighed

"Willow, what's going on? I thought you told Xander you wanted to be alone!" Kennedy said, becoming cross when she saw the woman sitting next to Willow, Willow's hand on her knee.

"I told Xander I wanted to be alone with Tara" Willow stood up and started to walk towards her girlfriend. Tara barely stirred at the mention of her name. She hadn't even taken note that there was now a third woman in the room, she was so lost trying to accept everything that Willow had told her. It had been three years. Sunnydale was gone. Willow had killed a man, nearly ended the world. It was all too much

"That means alone, Willow! Tara is dead!" Kennedy was upset. She would have been happy to be there to comfort Willow that afternoon, but she had asked to be alone.

"She was. Now she's not. Kennedy, I'd like you to meet Tara." Tara was finally regaining awareness of what was around her, and noticed the angry woman in the doorway, although she didn't recognize her, but Willow clearly knew her.

"Tara, this is Kennedy. She's a slayer."

"Y-you mean, Buffy - " Tara couldn't say it. It was too much.

"no, no, nothing like that. There are more than two slayers now. I'll explain it all to you later Ba-" Willow started to add "Baby" to comfort Tara, but then remembered Kennedy standing behind her.

Neither Kennedy or Tara made any statement to address the other in greeting. Kennedy stood glaring, Tara sat on the couch, barely able to fight the coma of her shock, and Willow stood in the middle, just looking back and forth between her current girlfriend, who had been so patient and loved her so much, and her soul-mate, who had died three years ago and who thought she had been gone only a month. Was she still the Willow Tara loved? Had she changed too much?

"Willow, how long has this been going on? How long have you been cheating on me?"

"What, Kennedy, we haven't… I mean, she just came back this afternoon. I came back from the cemetery and she was just here. Wherever she was, only a month has passed. To her, it hasn't been three years, and its been a lot for her to take in… she's kinda in shock… she can't comprehend how three years have passed. I just started telling her about everything that has passed. I didn't get very far… Only through Dark Willow…"

"You haven't gotten any further than that? You haven't gotten to me… she doesn't have any clue who I am! About us! You can't – "

"Kennedy, I'm sorry" Willow interrupted her girlfriend. "When I saw her, it was just like the last three years never happened… The pain was finally gone. She was back, with me. I could forget the pain of the last three years. They just faded away…"

"I just faded away" Kennedy yelled, upset that the woman she loved could forget her for even a second, let alone however long they had been together. She had given the woman two years of her life, and her entire heart. She had been patient while she grieved, knowing that it was important to let her. She turned to walk back out the door. Maybe it would all just go away if she could go back outside, and come in. The other woman wouldn't be there, and it would just be her and Willow again. She would be able to go on, because Willow would be hers and hers alone again. But she stopped when Willow started talking again. She had to at least give her a chance. Maybe nothing had happened. Maybe it was just a conjuring that Willow made. Kennedy still didn't understand what Willow did with magick. Maybe she had conjured an image of her dead lover to help her grieve. The woman was very still. That's it, it was a conjuring. Kennedy was just back earlier than Willow expected. It wasn't the ideal, but it was better than the thought that Tara was actually back, and that she was losing Willow.

"No, Kennedy. Its just… Seeing her again… Kennedy, I loved her more than anything, and then suddenly she was gone. I went mad. I lost myself… Kennedy, you remember the first time we kissed, don't you? What I became? I never truly let her go. You've always been okay with that! Said it was good! That it showed how much I could love!"

She was mad that Willow was standing there, throwing her own words back at her like that. "That was when she was dead, and not in our apartment wrapped around you like a…. like a…" Kennedy couldn't come up with a word to fill in the blank.

"Kennedy! Please! I was just so surprised to see her again… Everything came rushing back… I love her, I have loved her since I met her…"

"Then why are you arguing with me? If you love her so much, great! Go and be with her! I'll come by in the morning for my stuff!" Kennedy began to turn and walk away, but Willow grabbed her arm and held her back. She could have broken free, but Willow was talking again, and what Willow said next kept her from breaking out of the hold.

"But I love you too! The last two years with you, things have started to get put back together… The pain was finally bearable…" Willow inched closer, not letting go of Kennedy's arm, afraid that she would try to run again…

"Well, Willow, you have to chose! Her or me!" Kennedy said, breaking free of Willows grip and backing off, increasing the distance between them that Willow had tried to shrink

"Kennedy, you have to give me time! Give her time, to comprehend… I know I can't have you both, but… you can't just walk out like this!" Willow was getting mad now. Why didn't she understand? She always acted like she did… She always said she understood, never forced Willow to talk about Tara, but listened when she did, seemed to understand.

"What, Willow? I'm supposed to wait until your ready to throw me out? To go back to her? How could you Willow? How could you do this? To me?" Kennedy cried, turning on her heels and running away before Willow could hear the tears in her voice or see them run down her cheeks.

"Kennedy!" Willow called after her, but Kennedy didn't even break stride.