Bring me to Life

Insert all legal stuff here. I don't own Buffy or the Mermaid Saga...blah blah...

Thirteen

She felt wonderful, better than she had in…well, who knew how long. Smiling, she rolled over to look at Tara. The two of them had fallen asleep in each other's arms.

"Hey." Tara gently placed a kiss onto her girlfriend's nose. "Sleep well?"

Willow grinned at her. "Perfectly."

Tara giggled. "Your feet are cold. I should warm you up."

The redhead blushed. "I think that maybe you should."

"Vixen."

Willow nuzzled her love's neck. "Well, some things never change."

Tara looked nervously around. Willow eyed her for a moment. "What is it?" A pause. "You can tell me."

"Willow…who's Dani?"

The redhead froze, unsure of what to say. "She's my…my granddaughter." At Tara's encouraging look, she went on. " She's…um…Danielle Tara Rosenberg."

Tara stared at the younger woman for a moment. "She's named after me?"

Willow blushed. "Yeah." She paused a moment. "It was after you…Anyway, I was ah, I decided that I wanted a baby. There wasn't really anything else to it. There was this guy who was in my Coven and-"

"You had your own Coven?"

"Yeah. Anyway, he wanted a baby too. And seeing as he was gay too, it worked out. That and we were pretty good friends. So, we went to a fertilizing clinic and the rest was history. Nine months later, Damien Jackson Rosenberg was born."

Tara smiled warmly at her. "You had a boy."

"You would have loved him. He was so sweet. I told him about you every day. His uh…his wife also knew about you."

"I guess that makes sense."

"Well, the woman he married was," Willow's face broke into a large grin, "Jennifer Halfrek Harris. Anya and Xander's daughter."

Tara grinned. "Oh my Goddess!" The blonde burst into laughter.

"They had six kids. Jennifer and Dame had five. Dani was number four."

"They must have been very happy."

Willow smiled. "They were."

"Can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

Tara sighed. "How is it that you and Dani are still here?"

"I…Dani had just turned twenty." At Tara's look she joked, "I guess a lot of big moments happen then." She paused, getting serious. "This cult…" She looked over at Tara. "Have you ever heard about the Mermaids, the legend I mean?" When the blonde replied 'no', she went on. "Legend has it that if someone eats mermaid flesh, it'll make them immortal, only getting your head cut off'll kill you. But most of the time you either die or turn into a monster." She sighed. "The cult, they wanted to…Dani was pretty powerful as a witch. They wanted to get rid of her. It was…three days after her birthday and she was at a new restaurant in town. She was served the flesh, in the hopes that she'd be damned. She was, just not in the way they wanted. She became immortal. She's been with me ever since."

"I…I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault." Willow hesitated a moment. "I overreacted. When I found out, I…I killed them all. Twelve people." She looked Tara in the eyes. "All human."

"Willow!" Tara sobbed, bringing the now shaking redhead further into her arms. "It'll be okay. It'll be okay."

The two of them fell asleep in each others arms.

Some hours later, Tara was woken by the thrashing and screaming of the redhead. "Willow! Sweetie, wake up!" Willow's eyes slowly opened, tears flowing down her cheeks. "It's just a dream, it's just a dream, don't worry. It's just a dream…"

Minutes later, Tara had fallen back asleep, hugging Willow tightly.

Willow lay there, staring into the darkness. It hadn't been 'just a dream'. It had been a vision of memories past. Of the things she had done.

Of things she would do.