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"So everything's going okay with you guys now?" Tara asked her girlfriend again. She just wanted to be sure things had been worked out.

"Yeah, we kinda talked. Found out Spike set us all up. Not that we weren’t just waiting for something to happen. But we talked, and it’s all cool."

"How did the movie night go?" Tara had stayed away, giving the old gang time to regroup. "Hope the dreams didn’t worry you too much."

{{ What does she know about our dreams?...I haven’t told her anything yet.}} Willow's uneasiness made her fidget.

"I’m sorry Willow, I just want to be there for you."

"But how did you know we had strange dreams? I haven’t told you about that yet, have I?"

"You haven’t, but I was there, remember?"

Willow shook her head and stood up. "You weren’t there, it was just the old gang, except for Cordy of course, 'cos she lives with Angel now, not in that kind of way though, she just works for him, with…"

"Willow, it’s okay." Tara said, pulling Willow into a hug. "You know what I mean, I was in your dreams, wasn’t I."

Willow nodded not wanting to talk.

"And you know some of the spells we’ve been casting, plus me being a witch and all. Did Buffy tell you about her dream?"

"Yeah, she said you were in it, but Xander said you were in his as well, though he did seem a bit vague when it came to what you were doing."

"You know, you are so sweet when you’re nervous."

"Um, thanks, I think. Look, can we change the subject for a while?"

"Sure, why don’t you finish what you were telling me before."

"Um, you mean about Faith?" Willow tensed up again.

"If you think you can. It’s part of you and you know, I would like to know about it, if you can tell me. I already know about it, but I like hearing it from you."

"How come I don’t know anything about you?"

Tara looked shocked, taking a minute to answer, "You do know about me, you've just forgotten."

"Will you tell me some time?"

"Some time."

Willow nodded. {{She doesn’t want to say anything yet. Maybe I should tell her more about me, then she'll know I trust her.}}

"What have I told you?"

"Um, I know that you and Faith used to be friends without the gang knowing, and that you would visit her in the hospital. That's all you've told me."

"Okay then." Willow moved back to the bed, making herself comfortable. "I used to visit Faith all the time. She couldn’t talk back to me, but I would still go and talk to her. Especially when Buffy started to drift away from me…"

# # # # # # #

(Sunnydale hospital during The Harsh Light of Day)

"Hey Faith. How are you doing?" Willow smiled "I know, I know ‘why the hell do you ask that Red’ well, it's something to start with."

Willow moved towards the small table and swapped the old flowers for some new ones she'd brought.

"There, that makes it look nicer. I know they're all pink and prissie, but they really were the nicest ones in the shop. The others were all wilty and what good are wilty flowers when you want them to cheer up a room? None, that's right."

Willow walked over to the bed and sat on the edge. Carefully, she brushed some stray hair out of Faith’s still closed eyes.

"Hey, look what I got." she gestured to the brightly coloured band-aid on her neck, "Harmony tried to give me a hicky. Well, yeah, she’s a vampire and she tried to suck my blood, but how boring is it to say that? Gotta make it sound fun. Hey, and our old friend Spike is in the area. He’s looking for some gem, says it makes vampires un-poofable. Did I tell you that I moved in with Buffy? After that roommate from hell she was kinda glad to just have little me. I wasn’t sad about moving, I mean, how many people do you think you should be able to fit in one of those rooms? 'Cos there seemed to always be much more than that in my old room. Kinda reminded me of some of those places you would take me to. Like when we took off for the weekend and went away. What would the gang think if they knew we skipped town for a weekend? They would've told me that you were having a bad influence on me. Not that you didn’t have an influence on me, but the bad was mostly the drink. But I guess you were the one that got me the drink, but it wasn’t you, I wanted it. Remember Faith...I don’t regret anything we did. Even if it was getting kicked out of bars. I mean, shouldn’t they have noticed we were too young to be in there, and drinking…'naughty young ladies'… that was a laugh, young ladies indeed. I thought you were going to kick him..."

The door opening interrupted Willow.

"Um, hello Willow, I didn’t think you would be here." Rupert stood in the doorway with a book in one hand and a cup of tea in the other. "I can come back if you like. What did you do to your neck?"

"Harmony, vampire." Willow answered, nodding towards the empty seat next to the bed. "Please join us Giles. I know you’ve been coming. I was here one day and I hid in the closet."

Rupert smiled "I thought you knew. There were just some times when I was certain that someone else had been here, and you always were close to Faith. No, don’t worry, I haven’t said anything to the others and please, call me Rupert when we're here."

Willow blushed, "Sure Rupert. Thanks for not telling Buffy. She didn’t know Faith and I were friends, I think she would, well..."

"She wouldn’t take too kindly to the notion, let's say." Rupert said, settling himself in the chair.

"There are a lot of things that go on that Buffy doesn’t know about. For the most part that's because I don’t tell her, being the slayer doesn’t mean you need to know everyone’s business. In fact it only makes matters complicated, more often than not."

The two sat looking at Faith in silence for some time.

"I come and tell her what’s going on. Before Buffy...before she came in here, we used to talk. There were things that she understood, and she wasn’t as bad as she seemed. Sure, she was working for the evil guy, and yeah, she killed someone, but she regretted it. She never said as much, but I know it's true."

"Willow, you don’t have to try and make me like her. She may not have let you know, but you weren’t the only one she would talk to. She still came and talked to me. Never what we were fighting about at the time. I started to tell her about Slayers, I even gave her a copy of the handbook, though I never believed she would read it. She told me things, things that made me change my mind about her. If we can help her when she comes out of this, I think she will return to our side."

"Why did she only show us this side of herself?"

"Only Faith can answer that question Willow, maybe some day you shall get to ask her."

"What is that you brought?" Willow questioned looking down at the book in Rupert's lap.

"Oh, just something I was reading to Faith. They are the watcher diaries, some are much less dull than you would think, this one is all about fighting techniques."

"Would you like to continue? I don’t really have anything more to talk to her about, and I think if we're both here it will make her feel better."

Rupert smiled. {{She doesn’t realise that she loves Faith. I wonder when that happened? Is it something new, why didn’t I see it sooner? Maybe something happened before Buffy...before this happened.}}

# # # # # # #

"I still can't believe everything is over, I mean, we’re all on break now, its just so..."

"Different?" Tara rolled over and looked at Willow. They were having lunch in the park. "I think the others are going to be late." Willow rolled her eyes and smiled.

"They’re always late, it’s kinda their thing, you know? Make a time, miss the time, apologise. We count on it now. But they'll be here. You did promise to make that yummy looking cake."

"No, you can’t have any yet. It's for everyone." Tara said, batting Willow's hand away from the food.

"So, how late are they going to be? I mean, are they super late, or just a little?"

Willow frowned slightly "I wouldn’t think super late, but this is the gang we’re talking about. Extra evil fighting gang, does wonders for night timing, not so good with the day timing."

"Can understand that. So what do you want to do while we wait for them?"

"I kinda like this, just sitting together, talking."

"You're just being lazy." Tara poked Willow softly in the side. "Not that I mind, just doing something normal is nice. You’re not off helping save the world, you’re just being Willow."

"Here they come, you should probably get up." Tara shook Willow gently.

"But I like it here, why can’t I stay here? They're friends, I’m sure they won’t care if I’m lying with my head on your lap."

"No, I don’t think they will mind, but I don’t think they'll be happy about you not helping them carry things."

"Oh, right" Willow got up slowly and made her way over to Buffy.

"Hey Buff, need a little help there?"

"Nope, I’m alright," Buffy said from behind a pile of containers "but I think Giles could use a little help."

"Giles, can I get anything for you?" Willow asked walking around the other side of the car.

"Oh good, yes please, here." he handed her two covered baskets.

"Well, we don’t do anything else on a normal scale, so why should we have a normal lunch?" Willow commented as she turned to make her way back across the grass.

"Willow?" Giles called hesitantly.

"Hmm?"

"There is also this," Rupert walked over to Willow and handed her an envelope. "I wouldn’t open that here, it came from Angel."

{{From Angel, that can only mean…from Faith.}} "Um, thanks Rupert, um, I mean, Giles." Willow grinned. She still felt funny calling him Rupert in front of everyone.

"I haven’t said anything to Buffy. That note wasn’t the only one and I’m not about to let Buffy go and do something she may regret later. Better to keep this from her for the moment." Rupert headed back to the car before Willow could say anything else.

{{ A note from Faith. What am I going to do with it? Put it away Willow. If they see you with it they'll want to know what it is… goddess, sometimes...}}

"Hey Will, you coming or what?" Xander called out, waving over Anya’s head.

"Sure thing, Giles was just telling me he's going to move the car. Something about sun and stuff."

"Oh, that must have been a thrill, now hurry up, I’m starving here."

{{Look at her, she’s not listening, she is so distant. I wonder what it really was that Mr. Giles said to her. I swear I saw her put something in her pocket as she walked over.}} Tara sat watching the group. Even now that they were all friends she still felt a little uncomfortable around them.

"And the Cheese guy, I still don’t get him." Buffy held up a slice of cheese and jiggled it as she spoke. This seemed to amuse Xander, Willow and Giles. Tara was glad to see that Anya didn’t seem to know what they were talking about either. "I mean, if we’re all going to dream about something, why some strange man with cheese?"

‘You never said there was a guy with cheese in your dream." Anya said, hitting Xander on the arm.

"Why should I?" he asked, shrugging.

"Was I in your dream?" She asked, scooting herself closer and wrapping her arm around his.

"Yeah, we were driving the ice-cream van, then Tar… traffic got bad, so we stopped, driving that is."

"That was a nice day." Tara said as she settled herself on Willow's bed.

"Yeah, but did we really need to know all that stuff about our dreams? I mean, sure the first slayer tried to kill us, but the other stuff, that was kinda private. I know I didn’t tell everything that happened in mine, and I just know Xander lied about the ice cream van, and Giles, did you see the way he looked when Buffy said..."

"Willow" Tara interrupted reaching out and grabbing Willow's hand. "Come and sit with me. Relax, you didn’t have to tell them anything."

Willow nodded. Slowly sitting down on the bed with Tara. "But I need to tell you."

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