"Hey Tare. How you doing?"
"Fine. I'm fine," Tara snapped, dropping her bag on her desk, "Why wouldn't I be fine?
Alice grabbed a chair from another desk that was empty nearby and sat next to her friend.
"Because Willow left this morning for two months."
Tara sighed and typed her password in on her computer.
"I know. But I'm really okay. And I can't really think about it here. I need to concentrate on work."
"Okay," Alice said, standing back up, "I'm here if you need anything."
Tara concentrated on her computer screen before turning her friends and giving her a grateful smile.
"Hey, Al? Thanks."
Alice put a hand on Tara's shoulder comfortingly and smiled back at her.
"No problem."
Tara tapped her fingers impatiently as Alice left, waiting for her computer to boot before catching a glimpse of an envelope in her bag. Remembering why it was there, she grabbed it, checked the contents to confirm what it was and stood up, going over to Mr. Evans' office, knocking once and entering the small room. Mr. Evans looked at her with wary eyes.
"Tara, if this is about another 'off the record' visit, I know the last one worked out but-"
"I just wanted to give you your official wedding invite," Tara cut him off with a small smile, "Here it is."
"Oh," Evans replied, taken aback as he took the envelope, "Thank you. That was very nice of you."
Tara smiled and turned to leave, before her boss spoke up again.
"A Tuesday afternoon?" he asked, a joke in his voice, "I bet you just did that so you could take the day off work."
Tara smirked before a thought occurred to her and she turned back into the room, sitting on one of the chairs opposite him.
"Actually, sir, I've been meaning to talk to you about that."
"I think I can allow you to take a personal day for your own wedding," Mr. Evans chuckled, "Won't be a problem."
"Thank you," Tara smiled, "But that's not exactly it. You see, Willow's starting a new job. She's going to be an analyst with the FBI."
Mr. Evan's eyes widened in surprise and he nodded at his employee, impressed.
"The FBI? Well, that's certainly an achievement."
Tara couldn't help the proud smile that graced her features as she thought of her fiancée.
"Yea, it is. I'm very proud of her. She's actually down in Quantico at the moment for training. But, see, when that's done…well, she could be assigned anywhere.
Mr. Evans leant back on his chair and exhaled slowly as he took in what Tara was saying.
"So you'll be leaving us?"
"Most likely," Tara nodded, a sad and apologetic look on her face, "The last week of November would be my final week."
"Well I'll be very sorry to see you leave, Tara. You're one of the finest social workers we have on staff."
"Thank you, sir," Tara replied with a smile, "That means a lot."
Mr. Evans met his employee's gaze, his voice genuine.
"I truly mean it. As soon as you know where you'll be moving to, let me know and I can try and arrange a transfer. It depends where you're going, of course, but I can't envision there being a problem. You'll be going with a glowing record."
Tara looked surprised and clasped her hands in front of her.
"Oh. I...I didn't think I could do that. I figured I'd just have to look for work when we got…wherever."
"We may be losing you here in Boston but it'd be a monumental loss if you weren't kept within the DCF family," Mr. Evans replied, making a small clucking noise and shaking his head, "You have an extraordinary way with children, Tara."
Tara blushed and shrugged her shoulders slightly.
"I love my job."
"And you're good at it," Mr. Evans replied with a definitive nod of his head, then holding up the wedding invite, "Thank you very much for the wedding invitation. I'll be there with bells on. Am I going to have to find cover for all my staff?"
Tara smiled and shook her head.
"Just Jamie, Ben and Alice of course. We're keeping it small."
Mr. Evans nodded and wrote the names down for reference.
"That should be manageable."
Tara stood up and went over to the door.
"Thanks for everything, sir. I'll be sure to keep you posted as soon as I know anything."
"Please do. Oh and I want to review the Kilson case with you and Alice later."
"I'll tell her," Tara said with a smile before leaving the office and going back to her own desk, happy she had some work to get lost it.
It was a distraction and that was exactly what she needed.
Willow settled into her plane seat and smiled when she saw she was one of the last people to board and the seat beside her was still empty. Hoping she'd get both the aisle and window seat to herself, she put her bag on the empty seat and fastened the belt around her waist. She was just about to close her eyes to see if she could sleep before the flight actually took off when she remembered the present Tara had given to her, which she'd shoved into the side of her carry-on.
Unzipping the pocket, she took the box out and quietly unwrapped it, revealing a sparkly box that gave away nothing as to what was inside. She took the lid off and her eyes widened in surprise when she saw a blue iPod lying there, complete with tidy earphones and a small post-it note, with what Willow recognised as Tara's handwriting.
I know music helps calm you down…and that during the plane journey you'd start to get jittery. Didn't want to be overly mushy but well, I think of you when I see the titles or hear the songs. Love you more than anything. Yours forever, Tara.
Willow felt a single tear come to her eye, but let out a low laugh instead when she turned on the iPod and saw a playlist called 'For My Love', the first song being 'Michael Bolton & Kenny G - Missing You Now'.
"Miss you too, baby," she whispered into the air, oblivious to the strange looks she got from the people sitting across from her.
She put the earphones in her ears and clicked play, her smile getting wider as she saw the rest of the playlist.
Olivia Newton John – Hopelessly Devoted To You
Mariah Carey – We Belong Together
Barry White – You're The First, The Last, My Everything
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
The Police – Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Cyndi Lauper – Time After Time
Lifehouse – You and Me
The Pretenders – I'll Stand By You
Captain & Tennille – Love Will Keep Us Together
Willie Nelson – Always On My Mind
The Calling – Wherever You Will Go
Jason Wade – You Belong To Me
Joe Cocker – You Are So Beautiful
Richard Marx – Right Here Waiting
The Vogues – You're The One
Natalie Cole – This Will Be (An Everlasting Love)
Willow didn't even notice the plane taking off as she listened to the songs Tara had taken the time to upload for her. Upon further exploring of her new electronic toy, she discovered her fiancée had added all her favourite songs as well and her heart swelled with love at the gesture.
She must've snuck onto my laptop and gotten into my music files. God I love that woman.
She was glad she had the music as well, as she started to feel nervous when she realised they were up in the air, not from any fear of flying, although she did have a particular hatred for turbulence, but from the knowledge that she'd be arriving in Virginia soon and all the new endeavours that awaited her.
It's all good, Rosenberg. Opportunity of a lifetime. It'll be a few days of adjustment…living with someone that's not Tara…be like college again, like living with Becky. All good.
The redhead reached into her pocked and pulled out her wallet, opening it up to look at the photo she kept there of her and Tara and the little piece of paper stretched above it that said 'I love you' in Tara's handwriting. That seemed to calm her nerves, at least for a little while and she relaxed into the seat again, a small smile on her face.
Sure, she felt nervous. But she had to admit, she was getting excited too.
Willow dropped her bag on her bed as she looked around the fairly-spacious dorm room, nodding her head in satisfaction. She hadn't quite known what to expect of the living situation and granted, it was minimal but the room seemed nice, with enough closet space for both her and whoever her roommate turned out to be. She sat on the bed and found that too was quite comfy.
She stood up again and started unpacking, arranging her clothes by type on the bed. Organising always gave her a sense of order and control and as she separated her t-shirts from her sweatshirts, she found the excitement starting to build all over again. She'd only seen a small area of the Quantico grounds, but she was impressed so far and was definitely looking forward to being in the classroom setting once again.
As much as Tara would tease her about it, she truly did love learning and getting to do so with one of the most prestigious organisations in the country was certainly something she was proud of. She was just about to walk over to the closet to start to put her clothes away when a petite blonde burst through the door and threw her bag on the bed opposite.
The girl looked around the room for a moment, checking out the space before turning to Willow with a broad smile on her face and extending her hand in greeting.
"Hi, I'm Buffy Summers. Looks like I'm your roommate!"