For a long time, they just sat there (Well, technically neither was sitting, but that's not the point). Willow tended to Kennedy's wounds, and Kennedy lay there, staring at the woman who she loved with all her heart.

"You love her, don't you?" She whispered, not trusting her own voice.

"Kennedy, I'm so sorry…" They went back to staring at each other. After a few long minutes, Willow added at a whisper, "If it helps, I do love you too…"

"Just not enough…"

"I'm so sorry. You deserve better than this. Better than me. You deserve someone who can love you the way you love them. Who isn't plagued by the stuff that I'm plagued with. You deserve someone whole, not the pieces I could scrape together to give you…"

"So she's really back then?"

"Yeah… I don't know how. I had given up hope that it was possible so long ago. But then, there she was…"

"You know I'm not going to wait forever. If-if whatever brought her back only did so temporarily, I'm not going to be waiting to help pick up the pieces again…"

"I know. I don't expect you to be. And it's not temporary. I don't know who, and I don't know why… I certainly don't deserve a reward this big… but they gave her back to me. Gave her back because we were always meant to be forever. And now we get our lives. A whole lifetime. I'm never going to lose her again. I couldn't take it. Not again…"

"For your sake, I hope your right"

"For the worlds. Who knows if-if Xander could-could talk me down again… He was barely able to last time… It could really be the end of the world…"

"I would stop you, Willow. I could never let you do that."

"You won't have to. She's not going anywhere… She's really back. I don't know how, or why. But I can feel it. I can just feel it…"

"I hope your right…"

Kennedy drifted into unconsciousness, giving into the weakness due to blood loss in the ensuing silence. Willow finished bandaging the woman who had pulled her through the pain over the past 2 years. But the pain was over now. Tara was back, and everything was right now. The way it was supposed to be. She could forget the pain of the last 3 years without her. But there was still a tiny bitter lining to her joy when she looked at Kennedy's sleeping face. She deserved more than this... But that couldn't be helped. she would find someone else. Someone who could love her back the way she never could. She pushed some hair out of Kennedy's eyes, then stood and turned, seeing that her friends had returned from their "walk."

"hey" Willow said awkwardly sticking her hands in her pockets.

"Well, we'll just get out of your way, then" Buffy said, and she and Faith turned to leave.

"We'll come check on Kennedy in the morning…" And with that the 2 slayers returned to their patrols, leaving Willow and Tara alone, unless you count the unconscious Kennedy.

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