FIC: Right In Front of You; Part 7/?

["Callistosdarkside" <callistosdarkside@xxxxxxxx>]

Lucky number 7, hope ya like!

-CDS

. Title: Right In Front of You; Part 7/?
. Author: Callisto's Dark Side
. Email: callistosdarkside@xxxxxxxx
. Feedback: The more I get, the faster I write.
. Distribution: Wherever. Just email me.
. Spoilers: All of Season 5, but events take place before some events in
Tough Love.
. Rating: R
. Pairing: W/T & B/W
. Disclaimer: All characters from Buffy the Vampire Slayer belong to the
almighty Joss Whedon and Company, and are only being borrowed for the fun
and enjoyment of us, the super fans.
. Summary: Willow/Tara fic in which the two love birds must manage to deal
with the consequences of a spell that threatens to tear them apart forever.

Chapter 7

"Mommy!" Anna screamed and ran through the open doorway into her mother's
arms.

Leanna hoisted the blonde six-year-old high in the air and gave her a kiss,
"How's my girl doing?"

"Great!" Anna beamed. "Who are they?" The little girl pointed at Tara,
Glory and Dawn.

"Friends," Leanna answered and put her daughter down.

"Hi Anna," Dawn said, bending her knees so she was at eye-level, but the
little ball of energy ran right by her and to the stranger with the bright
red dress.

Glory was running her hands through her hair when something grabbed onto her
leg.

"Ahhhhh, get it off me!" The Blonde screamed.

"Hah, hah, you look funny," Anna said, looking straight up at the much
taller Glory.

"Same to you brat. Now take your grubby hands off my leg."

"Take your grubby hands off my leg," Anna repeated.

"What?" The former Hell God asked.

"What?" Anna repeated, mimicking Glory's annoyance.

"Okay, I know what you're doing."

"Okay, I know what you're doing," Anna said, clamping tighter onto Glory's
leg.

"I don't play that game," Glory crossed her arms over her chest and looked
straight ahead.

"I don't play that game," The young girl repeated.

Dawn turned to Tara and whispered in her ear, "You know, I'm beginning to
think you were right about leaving Glory as a human, it's much more fun
watching her suffer like this."

"Thank you," Tara replied, "Although I still like your idea of turning her
into a Tarak if she gets out of line, especially since Leanna said they were
considered a delicacy around these parts."

Dawn and Tara laughed at their own humour and laughed even harder when Glory
tried to walk with a six-year-old attached to her leg.

"Okay Honey, that's enough now," Leanna bent down and opened up her arms,
"Come with me if you want to eat Tarak tonight."

Anna's face lit up, "Yay, Tarak!"

And then the menace that was on Glory's leg let go and ran into her mother's
arms.

******

Tara and Dawn managed to find some time alone outside of Leanna's stone
house. The two didn't exactly find the prospect of watching Leanna skin and
cook the Tarak very appealing, but Glory had jumped at the opportunity to
watch. So here they were, sitting on large rocks, the sun setting and the
breeze calming their nerves.

"So what do you think?" Tara asked Dawn in the dimming light.

"What do I think about what?"

"About Leanna. Do you think we can trust her?"

Dawn gave Tara a surprised look, "I don't see why not. Did you see
something that made you think she was untrustworthy?"

"No, but you can never be too careful in an alternate dimension."

"True," Dawn shrugged her shoulders, "But from what I've seen, Leanna seems
to be a really nice person. I mean, she saved Anna when she was only
sixteen. That's only two years older than me and I doubt I could raise a
baby that young."

"You're, right," Tara shook her head, "I was just being paranoid."

The two watched the sun set while Tara played with the locket around her
neck. As she opened the locket, Tara's heart skipped a beat at the picture
inside, even though she knew exactly what was in it. It was a picture of
her and Willow at the park. Willow had her arms wrapped tightly around Tara
from behind and her chin resting on her lover's shoulder. She felt like she
could look at that picture for hours.

Dawn noticed Tara looking at the picture and put her a hand on her shoulder,
not saying a word.

They stayed there for another hour, until the sun had finally gone down and
Leanna had called them in for supper.

******

"Hi, is Leslie there?" Buffy asked over the telephone.

"Yes, one second," Leslie's mother answered.

Buffy tapped lightly on her dresser drawer, while Willow had her arms around
her waist and her chin resting on the Slayer's shoulder. The Redhead could
hear everything that Buffy heard over the telephone.

"Leslie, who's wants me."

"Umm," The Slayer struggled to find the words that she wanted to say until
Willow whispered 'Dawn' in her ear.

"Actually," Buffy began, "I wanted to know if Dawn was over at your place?"

"Dawn? Dawn who?"

"You don't know a Dawn Summers?"

"Nope, never heard of her."

"Oh, sorry, must be the wrong number then," Buffy lied, then hung up the
phone.

"Well," Buffy turned her face to face Willow, which was only an inch away,
"I guess you were right. If Dawn's best friend doesn't even know who she
is, then no one else does, except for us."

"That's a good thing, right? I mean, if know one knows she existed, then
they can't call for a missing person's report."

The Slayer's heart raced as Willow's cool breath tickled her neck and ear.

"True, I'd hate to have to try and explain this one to the cops. Little Sis
Disappears, Big Sis Suspected," Buffy joked nervously.

"That wouldn't happen, would it?"

Willow's concerned face inched as close as it possibly could without making
lip contact.

"Hey," Buffy let out a nervous laugh while turning her head and swallowing
hard, "this is Sunnydale, they'd jump at an opportunity for a scandal like
that."

"Yeah," Willow let her right hand slide off of Buffy's stomach and used it
to lightly rub the Slayer's arm, "You're right. It's a good thing we don't
have to deal with that then. It's hard enough just trying to find them,
without a bunch of reporters trying to get the inside scoop on a witch and
her best friend, who just happens to be the Slayer."

Buffy let out a deep a breath, "Yup, I'm actually surprised the villagers
haven't taken a torch to our homes yet."

******

"I don't get it," Willow said, lifting a heavy box of Anya's belongings,
"Why are we moving Anya's stuff before mine?"

"I know the answer to that," Anya supplied, "It's because Buffy won't let me
touch her stuff, and you, being the best friend and all, can touch her stuff
any time you want."

"Huh?" Buffy gave Anya an odd look, while Willow blushed.

"Not that stuff, I mean clothes stuff," Anya cleared up.

"Oh, good," Buffy replied, blushing as she hastily lifted her fourth box out
of the room.

"Ooh," Anya said excitedly as she came upon Xander's shelf of Babylon 5
video tapes, "I almost forgot." Anya reached for several tapes.

"You forgot to take Xander's immaculate B5 collection?" Willow questioned.

"No, silly," Anya said, taking the tapes and placing them on a desk, "I
almost forgot about the tapes he hides behind them. See." Anya grabbed the
first tape and held it at eye-level so Willow could see the cover.

"Oh," Willow blushed, "I don't think we should be doing this."

"Why not? Xander won't mind, we watch them together all the time."

"Yeah, but." Willow trailed off as she tried not to look at the naked women
on the videotape cover.

"Please, like you've never watched this stuff before."

"Well," Willow looked down at her feet, "I. we.. me and." Willow
stammered.

Anya shook her head, "If you're too embarrassed to watch, then you can stay
upstairs while me and Buffy watch," Anya took a look at the title of the
movie, "The Mistress and her Maids."

Willow nearly fell over.

******

"You know, I was thinking," Willow said, tapping her pen on the spell book
she was searching.

"About Anya's slumber party plans?" Buffy asked, lying on her bed flat on
her stomach next to Willow.

"No, well, yes, but no."

"Okay, so that's a maybe."

"Actually I was thinking that we were going about the search for a reversal
spell all wrong."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I started thinking that maybe we could find a locator spell that
would tell us where Tara and Dawn are, then we could find a spell to bring
them back."

"A locator spell?"

"Yup," Willow smiled, "I've never actually heard of one that could locate
people in other dimensions, but I'm sure there's one out there, we just
gotta find it."

"So where do we look?" Buffy asked, turning so that she was on her side,
propping her head up with her hand.

Willow's eyes looked passed Buffy and to the pile of books on the floor.

"Argh," Buffy scrunched her face, "We have to go through those again?"

"Well, that actually brings me to my second idea."

"Which would be reading every single book in the Public Library?"

"No, I was thinking I could reprogram BuffyBot to do it."

"Huh?"

"It would be great, we could have her read through the books for us."

"Yeah, but won't she go all lusty after Spike again?"

"No, no lust. I can take the lust right out of her."

"Huh?"

"Reprogram her," Willow said, not liking the look on Buffy's face.

"Oh."

"Did you think." Willow trailed off.

"No, no think," Buffy replied guiltily.

To be continued.