She'd figured she'd only made it half a block away when there was a sudden pull of something making her slow her aimless walking when…
"Bu—B-Buffy?"
The stammered asking of her name has the dazed slayer pausing in her slow retreat from the place that was no longer her own house. Her hand reaches on reflex for a weapon she wasn't carrying when the copied owner of said voice emerges from the shading of a nearby tree. "Buffy your alright, thank the Goddess."
Again, Buffy's eyes narrow in suspension.
The copy, if that's what she was pauses with a knowing but shy smile on her lips. Her arms dropped from the rushed attempt at a hug she'd been about to give the now stone-standing slayer "Understandable you don't trust me." She agrees now fidgeting nervously with her own fingers clasping and unclasping them in front of her as she spoke. "Considering. Well considering I'm meant to be well….not so alive."
Buffy visibly recoiled at the so easily spoken reminder of the friend she'd lost that day.
"I'd ask if there were a way I c—could get you to t—trust me." The Tara copy kept going keeping a respective distance from her now.
"Honestly after what just happened, I'd actually welcome a literal knife in my back right about now." The beaten down slayer sighs rubbing her arms against the dropping temperatures around them as more streetlights flicked on farther up the street.
The slayer felt her heart break all over again as she watched Tara's eyebrows pull together in that adorable, deeply puzzled pouting way she knew Willow melted over. Yet another small thing they'd all lost with that single stray fired bullet "What are you talking about? What happened?"
"You don't already know?" Buffy asked her hands fisting a little deeper into the pockets of her slim jacket.
Tara shakes her head in denial "No. The last thing I remember was the Powers letting me have one last goodbye with my mother before they sent me back." The blonde-haired wicca confesses with a watery but happy seeing smile. "and before then it was…. Well, not so good memories."
Buffy hated the way Tara's hand reached up to rub in that unconscious way against that single space where even now in the dim lighting of the closest streetlamp Buffy can catch the scar of Warren's cowardly retreat from the Summer's backyard.
"Funny thing is, I asked them to give me this." Tara says her tone now taking on that giggled layering as Buffy's eyes follow the steady brushing of Tara's fingers tips along the jagged, healed marks of the life-ending wound.
"H—How?" the slayer asks "Why?"
"Honestly…." Tara trails off with a shrug of her shoulders. "just one day during my afterlife one of the Powers came up to me and was like, 'It wasn't your time' 'You need to go back to them. Go back to your family. They need you back with them."
"Understatement again. Also, why the heck did they wait so long then? If they already knew how much we needed, you?"
Again, Tara gives another shrug of her shoulders "It's the Powers, Buffy, do you really expect them to do well anything in rational order?"
At this Buffy finds herself giggling in honest laughter for the first time since. Well since the day she, Willow, and the rest of their odd gang of a found family had lost the very wicca woman now standing beside her in the low glow of the streetlamp.
Then before her more rational mind could scold her Buffy threw her arms around the also softly chuckling woman for a long denied and muchly needed hug.
Dawn had been right about Tara being a second mother figure and another big sister. Not just for her but for everyone (other than Willow) in their little gang. Even Giles had confessed to thinking along the same lines not long after Tara's funeral.
"Oh Buffy, Sshh." Tara cooed not at all bothered by the slayer-level strength behind the clinging grip. One hand rubbing in slow circles against the sobbing slayer's back the other having slipped into her hair to gingerly cradle the back of her head as Buffy continued to cry into Tara's shoulder with far more intensity than she'd done into Tara's lap the night she'd finally confessed her relations with Spike.
"Slayer!"
Trust William to find some way of spoiling this for her.
Buffy doesn't hesitate after the threatening snarl signaling the rapidly approaching demon in pivoting around on the spot her stance defensive whilst Tara's seemed… giddy?
"Come on Buffy, I think I've more than earned this one, don't you?" Tara asked with a snicker as she sidestepped around Buffy's deflective posturing. "Not that I don't appreciate the whole you being a badass thing. Cause I do. A lot." She adds not at all bothered by the growling vampire racing down the sidewalk towards them. His true vampiric face on full fangs bared display as he drew closer.
"Stay the bloody hell away from my Slay…"
Tara doesn't give the snapping vampire time to finish his barked comment as her arm lashes out, letting her full energy drive her fist as hard as she could into the oncoming vampire's face.
William the Bloody goes down hard after that. Fresh blood spilled onto the pavement in payment for his meddling.
"Kendra taught me a thing or two too before I was allowed back here." Tara says with a gloating explanation, "She wanted me to tell you she says hi." but Buffy can only smile at the way Tara was also shaking out the sting in her hand from the attack as she talked. "What? I'm still not that good with the fighting side of things." Tara defends following the slayer's gaze with all the packed venom of an upset kitten as Spike rolled onto his side with a groan as he rubbed a fisted hand at the blood running freely down his chin.
"You hit my nose." The still 'vamped' out vampire accused glaring in a squint up at his giggling attacker.
"You hit mine first, William." Tara reminds with a cool eyebrow raised half smile. "Thanks for that by the way." She adds still keeping tight to Buffy's side as the sprawled vampire on the ground collected himself.
"Guess this makes us even then, huh Glinda?" Spike huffs from the ground
Tara snickers at the asking holding out her not blood-dotted hand in offering. "Seems so." The Wicca agrees when the vampire takes her hand allowing her to pull him back up.
Buffy gives a weak smile when Spike's other arm lifts to loop around Tara's back for a hug of his own. One Tara didn't mind returning as she nuzzled her face against the chilly leather of the vampire's long coat. "Missed you too, fangs." She hears Tara mumble into Spike's shoulder.
"Not that I'm not thrilled your back pet," Spike started earning a 'seriously Spike' glare from Buffy that he ignored "but how in the blazes are you back among the living?"
Tara hesitates in her answering her eyes casting around warily before she shakes her head. "First let's get off the streets." She suggests instead "the Powers say my place is still well mine considering they'd always planned on bringing me back eventually."
Buffy nods in agreement at the offering of a safe haven after being so recently forced from her own home. Spike on the other hand looks warry. "and yes William, your welcome into the apartment." Tara keeps going now gingerly linking her arm through one of Buffy's trembling ones.
They'd only made it a few more steps however when a loud mewing sounds from behind them, along with the rattling jingle of the small silvery bell hanging from the hurrying cat's collar.
"Miss Kitty?" Tara asks in shock as the running cat flitted through the uneven glow of the street lamps.
The answering mew at the whispered name only has the cat running harder toward them.
Tara was already kneeling when the cat sprung up into a leaping pounce at the Wicca woman's shirt front. "Goddess, look at you, you're all grown up. Such a pretty kitty you are."
The loud happy purring that followed as Miss Kitty seems to make it her mission to nuzzle every inch of her human's face and neck brings a fresh also happier round of tears sliding down the watching Slayer's cheeks as the two reunite.
Even Spike seemed to be a touch misty-eyed at the sight as Buffy nudged just a little closer into the half circle of his arm around her waist.
Eventually, they do make it to Tara's apartment building. Tara immediately offered the shivering Buffy use of the bathroom shower as Spike gallantly followed a chirping Miss Kitty into the apartment kitchen for a poured bowl of dry food and a fresh measuring of water.
"So, sleeping arrangements are going to be a little tricky." The Wicca points out around another bite of a power bar Spike had dug out of the cabinet.
"Not really," Spike says his eyes lifting to a cleaner-looking Buffy peaking out at them from around the edge of the bathroom door as he and Tara mill around in the kitchen as she'd showered. "Slayer takes the bed, you pet get the sofa, looks cushy enough for one night's rest. And I'll just stalk around the place seeing as I don't need the rest."
Tara follows the vampire's eyes, but Buffy was already shaking her head in denial at the suggestion. "I'll take the couch. This is still your…."
"Or you and I could share the bed for the night and make Fangs here take the sofa." The resurrected Wicca suggests finishing off the last few bites of her power bar supper. Another unopened one held out for Buffy.
Spike doesn't even bother arguing at the child-like smile the offer earned from the beaten down slayer across from them. "Okay." Buffy agreed in a low whisper now slowly nibbling at the offered food under Tara's watchful eye.
"Just think of me kind of like a white lighter. But without all the cool orbing powers." Buffy hears Tara saying later dragging her back from the haze of sleep. Tara's fingers yet to pause in the slow tracing along her back as Buffy curled even closer against the returned Wicca's warmth beside her. "I was dead. Now I'm not anymore. I'm something else."
A low stretch of relative quiet passes as a low-volume re-run episode of Charmed played on the tv.
"How bad was it? After I died?" Tara asks after the end credits of one episode spill into the opening scene of another.
"Let's just say Red took it harder than the rest of us," Spike answers "Understandably yeah given how close you two were, erm are…whatever point was she was…. In a dark place for a long while."
"How dark was Dark?" Tara pushes her fingers finally stopping the lazy skimping over Buffy's back.
"Skinned the guy that killed you alive then burned up what was left kinda bad." Spike admits with a low guilty sigh. "still too good of an end if you ask me." He adds still not taking his eyes away from the low glow of the tv screen.
"There's more to it than just that, wasn't there?" Tara guesses her fingers returning to their slow combing of Buffy's drying hair against her shoulder "What else aren't you telling me?"
"Looks it's late, and if your coming back was anything like it was for Buffy you need to rest up just as much as she does, pet." Spike dodges as the cat sprawled over his lap stretches out even more before flopping onto her back in quite demand of a belly rubbing.
"William."
"Tara, please." Spike answers the raw guilty pain in his voice cutting even deeper than the listening slayer had thought possible as she pressed herself closer to the Wicca's side, still pretending to sleep. "trust me when I say you don't want to know everything all at once, alright. Red. She was hurting. Bad. Yeah, what she did wasn't the best way to handle her grief, but she's come a real long way in trying to atone for her mistakes."
Tara nods in acceptance. "Alright." She relents scooting down until she was laying out on the bed rather than leaning back against the bed board. "goodnight, Spike."
"Night, Glinda."