Family

Tara's sitting in the Magic Box grading test papers. For some reason she's been feeling a bit 'off' lately. She's feeling a little on edge and she can't figure out quite why yet. Willow is worried about it – afraid that another BIG BAD is coming to town, but Tara explained to her that it wasn't that type of feeling – just that something was going to happen – but not in a bad way…

"Xander, I want to go home and have orgasms!!" Anya states in her characteristic blunt tones.

"Ahn, it's the middle of the afternoon and I need to finish making these additional shelves for the new shipment of books Giles sent." Xander states calmly, after all these years he has finally come to the realization that no matter what he says – Anya was Anya and she wasn't going to change. He's just happy that she took him back after him being a complete idiot.

Tara just smirks to herself – she can sympathize with Anya, she wouldn't mind for her red headed love to show up so they could make up some 'excuse' to head home for some quality alone time. Even after being together for over five years, their love hasn't diminished. If anything it's grown stronger.

The bell over the door into the shop jangles and Anya says "Welcome to the Magic Box, please come in and spend your hard earned cash. It would be greatly appreciated!!"

Tara looks up and sees a tall, dark haired woman standing at the door wearing camouflage pants and a tight black t-shirt with the Marines logo on it. The woman has a duffel bag thrown over her shoulder and that's when Tara realizes that the woman is staring at her intently.

The woman glances at Anya but turns back to Tara saying, "Thanks, I probably will be spending a lot of cash here, especially since you have such beautiful women gracing your shop, especially ones of such light – right LITTLE LIGHT?" She emphasizes Little Light strongly, hoping that Tara will remember – but it's been so many years…

"K-Kelly???" Tara stutters slightly, not believing that it's her, after all this time.

Just as Tara is slowly getting out of her chair, Buffy walks in from the training room to get a bottle of water. Buffy watches as Tara all of a sudden runs up to the strange woman standing at the bottom of the steps by the door, and throws herself on her crying and literally wraps her arms and legs around the tall woman. 'Whoa, Wills is going to be seriously pissed about this', Buffy thinks to herself. Who the hell is this woman, anyway??

Buffy watches as the tall woman just wraps her arms around Tara and holds her and starts crying with her.

"I didn't know if you would remember me, Tar. It's been almost 17 years since you've seen me. Actually, I didn't even know if you wanted to see me again after all this time" Kelly softly states.

"What? Why wouldn't I want to see you? I love you, Kelly. Just because you've been gone for so long, doesn't mean I love you any less" Tara says in between sniffs clinging all the tighter to Kelly while she's talking.

The bell rings over the door again, and in walks Willow. Uh, Oh. Buffy thinks to herself – this is going to get ugly, quick.

"Umm, Tara?" squeaks Willow when she realizes it's her girlfriend wrapped around some Amazon looking warrior woman. That she is seriously thinking about turning into a toad!!

"Sweetie, come here, I want you to meet someone." Tara slowly releases her legs from around Kelly's waist and smiles brightly at Willow while she reaches to hold Kelly's hand. "Willow, I want you to meet my sister, Kelly. Kelly, this is my…"

Kelly interrupts her at this point and says "Little Light, I think I can see for myself who this lovely young woman is. Willow, welcome to the family. I would say you better be taking good care of my baby sister, but looking at her and seeing you two together for myself that would seem a little redundant!!" Kelly gives a low chuckle then snatches the red head up into a quick embrace.

Willow realizes that she's probably about a foot off the ground, being held in the arms of her love's sister?? Sister?? Finally the Amazon woman sets her back on the floor and Willow looks at Tara and says "SISTER??? Since when do you have a sister, and why am I just finding out you have a sister, and is she like the rest of your family, because if she is I am going to have a serious talking to her about the way they treated you---" at this point Tara gives her lover a quick kiss on the lips to stop the Willow-babble.

"Sweetie, I'll explain everything to you, I promise. It's a long story and honestly, I didn't think I would ever see her again." Tara gives her lop-sided grin at her lover and then looks at Kelly and just grabs Kelly into another hug. "But, boy am I glad that you're here Kel. I've missed you so much. We have a lot of catching up to do."

"Uh, hmmm." Buffy interrupts trying to hint that the rest of the group would like to know what the hell is going on.

"Oh, sorry, Buffy. Umm, everyone, this is my sister Kelly. Kelly – the impatient one is Buffy, Anya is the lady behind the cash register and the man standing beside her is her boyfriend Xander" Tara introduces everyone.

"Hi Buffy, Anya and Xander" Kelly says with a slight grin. Looks like her baby sister did good for herself. That cute little blonde, Buffy, was shooting major daggers at her like she will be more than happy to do some serious damage to her for daring to touch Tara.

"Hiya, it's good to meet you" Xander says with his best 'pretty girl in the house' smile.

"Hello, Xander is my boyfriend, you can't have him" stated Anya in clear, precise tones.

"OOOOkay" Kelly says with a slight question in her tone. "I'll remember that – don't worry."

"Don't worry about Anya, she's like that to everyone she perceives as a possible threat to taking her Xander away" laughs Buffy as she comes over to shake Kelly's hand. "It's good to meet you. If I do say so, you seem quite different from the rest of Tara's family."

Buffy watches as Kelly seems to close off and stiffen when she made the comment. Uh, oh. Something's definitely up here.

"Umm, Buffy. Kelly is actually my half sister. We share – shared the same mother." Tara states quietly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't realize…" Buffy kind of shakes her head in apology for putting her foot in her mouth, as usual.

"That's okay, Buffy. There will be a lot of talking and explaining to do, I'm sure." Kelly states with a slightly tense smile. "Well, can anyone point me in the direction of a decent motel so that I can get a shower and get some clean clothes on? I've been traveling for the last 28 hours straight and am feeling a little less than fresh." Kelly jokes lightly.

"Kelly, if you think I'm going to let you stay at some flea-bag motel, you have another thing coming!!" Tara frowns. "Now, first things first, it's starting to get dark out and…" Tara looks at Buffy with a slight lift to her eyebrow before getting ready to warn Kelly about the dangers of the town of Sunnydale.

Before Buffy and Tara can say anything, however, Kelly speaks up "Sis, I can't believe you settled on a Hellmouth of all places!! What in the hell were you thinking about when you moved here? Or didn't you realize it? I know our talents run along different lines and I wasn't home long enough to know your strengths and weaknesses…" All of a sudden she realized that everyone was looking at her with their mouths slightly open "I guess you all know this already, huh? I suppose I don't need to explain to you that there are evil beings in this world and they're all not human, either? Bogeymen do exist, so do Vampires and Demons, Hell Gods, etc.."

"Uh, nope, you don't have to explain about those types of things to us, no sirree bob. We know all about the things that go bump in the night. The question is, how do you know all about those things that go bump in the night and the Hellmouth and Hell Gods and Vampires, Demons, and all the other craziness that is in this world?" Willow babbles with a very serious note in her voice.

"Well, let's just say that while I was in the Marine's we didn't just fight other countries!" laughs Kelly lightly. "I was sort of in this special ops group that got called in to take out nests of demons, vampires and whatever other nasties that we came across."

"Oh, God not the Initiative" whines Buffy. "I thought they were finally gone."

"No, Buffy, I don't work for the Initiative. That was a major fuck-up if there ever was one. Wait a minute – how… ooohh Buffy – Vampire Slayer?? Got it." Grinning at the shocked look on her face, Kelly continues "Anyhow, the group I was with was in effect long before the Initiative came to be and we didn't play the games those sick bastards like to play. My group was/is strictly a seek and destroy group. We went after the bad guys and wiped them out. We actually had a couple of demons that worked with us. You're probably aware that there are good demons as well as bad demons, right?" Kelly asks quietly.

"Oh, yeah. We know there are good demons; we pretty much take each demon on their own merits. If they don't bother humans, we don't bother them. It actually works out quite well. Some of the demons that are good guys actually help out quite frequently." Buffy says with a grin on her face. "Your group is definitely different from the Initiative if you actually worked with demons!"

"Hey, guys. We can all do this later. How about we head out and get Kelly situated at the house. Oh, Goddess, where is she going to sleep, we haven't finished with the house yet, we only have our bedroom and Willow's office situated so far." Tara states with a slight hint of worry in her voice.

"Don't worry about it Tara. I have your old room at the house that Kelly is more than welcome to stay in, that is if you don't mind?" Buffy asks Tara's sister. Thinking to herself she would like to get a little more information from her while she's staying at her house. After all Dawn wouldn't be home for Christmas break for another week and that will give her a little time to pump Kelly for information about exactly what she knows.

Kelly looks from Tara to Buffy and shrugs her shoulders "I don't mind, if you don't. I can sleep about anywhere – part of being in the Marines. You don't get to be picky about sleeping accommodations!! Just give me a corner somewhere and I'll be happy."

"Well, I think we can do better than a corner. Come on, I'll take you to the house. Pizza at Casa De Summers tonight guys? My treat." Buffy says looking at everyone questioningly.

"Of course, me and Tara will definitely be there – How about you two Anya?" Willow asks Anya and Xander.

"Actually, Anya and I have plans for tonight. We'll definitely get together again later and get all the gossip!!" Xander grins goofily.

"Okay, the rest of us will meet at my house in say, two hours? That will give Kelly time to get cleaned up and settled in a little bit and give me time to order pizzas. Will, Tara, do you have your vehicle or do we need to walk you home to be on the safe side?" Buffy questions.

"We're okay Buffy. I brought the vehicle with me since it was getting so late. I don't like chancing anything happening to my baby." Willow says as she lightly kisses Tara's cheek.

Tara smiles at her lover and looks at Kelly. "Buffy will take good care of you Kel. We'll see you in a couple hours, I love you." Tara gives Kelly another quick hug and kiss on her chin.

Kelly gives her a quick grin while hugging her back and a quick peck on the tip of her nose. "I've missed you Little Light. We have a lot of catching up to do. I'll see you later."

Buffy and Kelly are walking towards Buffy's house and Kelly notices Buffy giving her sideways glances like she really wants to ask her something.

Finally Kelly says "Buffy, if you have something to say or ask, just spit it out. It's a lot easier that way and I promise I won't bite…" Unless you want me too!! she continues in her own mind. Thinking to herself that Buffy would most definitely freak out if she continued that thought out loud. Buffy seems a little on the tense side. Maybe if I'm around long enough I can help loosen her up some. Life's too short not to live it to the fullest.

"Okay, just to let you know, I don't usually pull any punches. What are you doing here? How did you find Tara? And what the hell are you up to?" Buffy asks in a stern voice.

"Buffy, I'm not here to hurt Tara or anyone else. I came here because I found out that this is where Tara was. I wanted to see my sister again and find out how she was doing and if there was anything I could do to help her. I haven't seen her in 17 years and I just wanted to see the last family member I have." Kelly states quietly. "Can I ask you something Buffy? Something about the comment Willow said to me in the Magic box?"

Buffy just nods her head waiting patiently while she thinks about what Kelly just said.

"Did- did her father hurt her?" Kelly asks with a slight tremor in her voice.

Buffy looks at her and sighs. "Tara really doesn't talk about her family much. Obviously, since we didn't even know you existed before today. But when her father, brother and cousin showed up here a few years back I had the distinct impression that there was abuse. I don't know if it was mental or physical, but I know it probably was one if not both."

"Damn, that bastard" Kelly snarls. 'I hoped when I left that son of a bitch would be done with the abuse. He never yelled at Donnie or Tara when I was there. I hoped it was just me he went after since I wasn't his,' she continues thinking to herself.

"Kelly, whatever happened, happened a long time ago. Tara is so different now compared to when she first came here. She would hardly say hi to anyone. Now she's an English teacher at the high school." It was still hard for Buffy to sometimes think about the shy, introverted witch Tara used to be. Compared to the confident young woman she is now. "I think… no, I know that a lot of Tara's self confidence was brought about by her love for Willow. I hope that the rest of us helped her out somewhat along the way, also." Buffy states grinning to herself thinking about the past couple years.

"Buffy, when I walked into the Magic Shop and saw Tara again, I could see that she was happy and well loved. It was in her aura and I can't describe how that makes me feel. I only ever wanted her to be happy with her life. I hoped that my leaving the Maclay household would make things easier for everyone involved. But, with what you just said and the comments from Willow, my leaving may have made it harder on Tara. I just hope that maybe she can forgive me for leaving her." Kelly looks down at her feet as they continue walking.

Buffy reaches over and lays her hand lightly on Kelly's forearm, "Kelly, I can honestly tell you that Tara is one of the most forgiving and loving people I have ever met. I consider her family and would do anything for her. I know she doesn't blame you for whatever happened, she just isn't like that. Talk to her and you'll see. Hell, just think about the way she threw herself at you in the Magic Box – does that say she 'hates you, and doesn't ever want to see you again?' to me it screams that she loves you and wants you here. As a matter of fact, I was afraid you might be an old flame coming to stir up trouble!" Buffy states laughing slightly to herself.

"I can definitely say that I'm not an old flame – I think Willow would take care of any problems on that front. She looked like she would have been willing to turn me into a frog or something when she came into the shop" Kelly laughingly replies. More seriously she says "Thanks, Buffy for letting me know a little bit about what's going on. I have so much catching up to do and I'm glad you got my initial burst of anger and not Tara. I can go into talking to her with a better idea of what has happened and maybe I will be better able to control my feelings. I just hope he didn't hurt her badly. I don't think I will ever be able to forgive myself if he did." Kelly continues thinking to herself 'And I definitely will never forgive that bastard if he did, I'll be making a trip to the old homestead to right a few wrongs, if that's the case.'

"Well, here we are. Come on, let's get you situated. I'll show you where everything is and you can make yourself at home. Since Tara and Willow moved out, I've been kind of lonely. Maybe you wouldn't mind sticking around to help keep me company?" Buffy asks with a hopeful grin on her face – deciding to trust her instincts that Kelly's a good person. What she had said so far seemed to further cement that thought in her head. Maybe she's a good cook – hopefully that part was genetic. Slayer tummy growls at the thought of a home cooked meal. Definitely need to talk to Kelly some more!!

Kelly laughs, "we'll see how things go after I talk with Tara. Buffy, I just want to say thank you for taking care of my sister and letting me stay here, I'll try not to get underfoot. If there's anything I can help you with, just let me know."

"Wellllll, no, we'll talk about that later." Buffy says laughingly, "Let's get you situated, by the way, how tall are you?"

Willow doesn't even wait until they are in the vehicle before starting the Spanish Inquisition. "Tara, who exactly is Kelly? I mean, I know she's your sister, but why haven't you ever mentioned her? Where has she been all this time? Why is she showing up here, now? How did she find you? Is she like the rest of your family? Am I gonna have to kick her extremely tall ass back to wherever she came from? By the way, what is up with that? How tall is she? Where did her tallness come from? I guess that would be a stupid question, they probably came from the same place her dark hair, eyes and everything else came from. How is it that you look nothing alike? I mean I understand that you are half-sisters, but usually there is some kind of similarities between family members somewhere." Willow finally has to stop and take a breath of air.

Tara jumps in before her sweetie starts on the next round of questions, "Willow, honey, half of these questions I can't answer. We'll find them out when we talk to Kelly. As for the rest, let me try and give you a quick rundown and see if that might help some. Kelly is my half sister. Her father, from what mom told me was an ex-basketball player that died in a car crash. Kelly gets her height, dark hair and eyes from him. Kelly is nothing like my father or our brother. She left home when I was just 8 years old. From what I remember, she was always a loving, caring person that always had time for me, even if I was so much younger than her. Before you ask – she's 10 years older than me, sweetie. She left home when she turned 18 – th-there were problems between her and my father. I think she left because of that. I don't really know what happened then, I just remember vague things. I have a feeling that what happened between me and my family was minor compared to whatever they did to Kelly."

They pull up to there house and slowly walk inside, holding hands.

"Oh, worse than what they did to you? But honey, they beat you and hurt you, what could be worse?" Willow says with a slight catch in her voice. Whenever she thinks about her love's father and brother she gets upset at how they treated her.

"Sweetie, they may have smacked me a few times and hurt me a little, but I remember Kelly coming in from the barn one night late after my father took her out there and she could hardly move. I was hiding behind the staircase when she finally came in. Mom went to her room later and all I heard was Mom crying. I never heard anything from Kelly. It was a few days later that Kelly turned 18 and left. I haven't heard from her since. But you heard the same things I did; it seems she made a life for herself in the Marine Core. Obviously she is a more powerful witch than I remember. Her aura is as strong as yours if not stronger, so please don't try to kick her butt honey." Tara laughingly says with a hint of sadness in her smile.

"Honey, I'm sorry. I'll try and tone it down a little. I just love you so much and want to make sure there is nothing bad going to happen to you. I was just afraid that she might be here to try and take you back to your family. I didn't realize that she may have had even more of a reason to leave that hell hole behind than you did. Let's get ready to head over to Buffy's. That way maybe we can get some more answers. Even though, she did look tired. Do you think we should give her some time to relax before getting the low down on her?" asks Willow with an understanding smile.

"That would probably be best, let's talk about us. Kelly obviously knows something is up. She was always able to read people. She was way better at it than I ever was. Hopefully Buffy will trust her. If Kelly is as strong as I think she is, she could be a great help to us here on the Hellmouth. Plus, with her experience fighting demons in the Core, that couldn't hurt." Tara says, thinking about it. She pulls Willow to her and gives her a light kiss on the lips. Unfortunately there wouldn't be enough time for much else but a few smoochies before heading over to Buffy's. Damn that Anya and putting ideas in her head. Oh, well there was always tonight when they get back home.

Willow wraps her arms around Tara's waist and gives Tara a lingering kiss. "I love you." she says as she starts to deepen the kiss slightly by running her tongue lightly over Tara's full lips. As Tara opens her mouth welcoming in Willows tongue to suck on it lightly.

Tara slowly pulls away and gives her lover her lop-sided grin "we will definitely be continuing this particular conversation later after we get home from Buffy's."

"Vixen!" Willow growls with a grin. "Can't we…"

"Sweetie, we don't have time. And I definitely am in the mood to take my sweet time driving you crazy tonight." Tara huskily whispers into Willow's ear. She gives her lover a quick peck on the lips as she heads up to the bedroom for a quick change of clothes before they head over to Buffy's house.

"That is so not fair!!" Willow says to herself in the living room. But, boy, oh boy. Fun to be had tonight!

As everyone finishes eating the pizza while they were talking about nothing in particular. Just getting to know each other. Tara realizes that Kelly has a very wicked sense of humor and seems to be sliding quite a few glances towards Buffy during the meal. As usual, when it came to herself and anyone paying attention to her, Buffy doesn't seem to notice that she was the focal point of Kelly's attention.

Tara glances towards Willow and sees that she's noticed also. Willow looks at Tara with a questioning eyebrow. Tara just shrugs her shoulders and grins.

"Well, I guess I can get this ball rolling" Buffy says. "Since I don't have much to say, and will probably be doing more listening than anything. Kelly, I don't know how much you know about the supernatural. Obviously, you know more than a lot of people with you knowing about vampires, demons and all. Obviously you have heard something about the Slayer. I'm sure the Initiative's files weren't very flattering about me, so if you have any questions, please ask."

"You don't have to explain what a Slayer is to me, Buffy. I already have quite a bit of information. And personally, I pretty much took most of the information that came from the Initiative with a grain of salt. My boss' tried to make sure I was supplied with any and all information I might have needed in my job. I learned about the Chosen One in some of the reports and books I was giving to study while in the Service" Kelly starts grinning and laughing stating "I was wondering, I like to keep in shape and exercise quite a bit, do you need a work-out partner? I promise I'll try to keep up with you, I need to keep sharp and need someone to push me – you would fit the bill perfectly. I bet you might even be able to give me a few pointers. I definitely will need a sparring partner. And who better than the Chosen One? Oh, that is if you don't mind. If you do, that's okay; I'll see if I can find a Dojo or something else here in town." Kelly starts to backtrack a little not wanting to seem like she's trying to push herself on Buffy.

"No, no. That would be great – with what little you've said already, you would probably be a good person to work out with. Unfortunately, I don't have anyone to spar with, with Giles back in England, not that he could keep up anyway." laughs Buffy.

Tara looks over at Willow and they grin at each other. Wonder if we can help swing Buffy to our side of the fence she thinks to herself. I can already tell by the glint in Kelly's eyes that she is definitely interested in Buffy.

"Hey, guys. I know it's getting late. Kel you're probably tired since you spent so long traveling, and I figure you probably aren't up for a question and answer session tonight. Plus I have school tomorrow and still haven't finished grading the tests that I gave to my classes today, since I was so pleasantly interrupted at the shop. Since tomorrow is Friday, we can spend this weekend getting to know each other and have a serious sit down chat, if that's okay?" Tara says hopefully.

"Little Light, damn, I guess I'll have to stop calling you that now. You're not my little baby sister anymore. You've grown into a very beautiful young woman Tar. You take after Mom so much. I guess I definitely am the ugly duckling in our family" Kelly states with a slight self depreciating grin.

"Kelly, you most definitely are not an ugly duckling. Growing up I always thought you were the most beautiful person I had ever seen. I still believe that. Just too damn tall!" Tara laughingly jokes.

"Nah, I know I'm definitely not beautiful. Old and maybe I'll give you cute – too tall, that is a given. You should have seen the Services trying to find pants to fit me. I had to wear men's pants, they didn't have any women's long enough. I can never tell you how much I wanted to be a normal person. Do you know how hard it is to find a date when you are pretty much taller than everyone else? I'm almost 6'2" and finding someone that is willing to date an Amazon, is extremely hard. Men feel inferior. Which isn't that big of a loss" Kelly sort of mumbles the last bit to herself. However Buffy hears the comment and raises her eyebrow slightly.

Kelly continues "Women are definitely the way to go; height only seems to matter to a few of them. Most women enjoy a taller partner. Which is a definite plus when it comes to me." Well, that lets everyone know where my sexual preferences lie. "I always wanted to be more like you, medium height, with beautiful blonde hair and blue eyes. Instead I'm 6'2" dark brown hair and normal brown eyes. Go figure. Nothing I can do about that – short of bleaching my hair and getting colored contacts – but that's just a bit much" Kelly laughingly states.

"Kelly, this will be the only time I will let you get by with this. So listen up good. From now on, there will be no more putting down of yourself. In this group, we do NOT allow that kind of thing. All of us have been through so much, good and bad, that we don't let each other put ourselves down. Isn't that right, Willow and Tara?" Buffy states unequivocally.

"Yep, Buff is right. No more talk like that – even if you are definitely on the tall side. I have to agree with Tara, you are beautiful. Normal brown eyes – where did that come from, anyway? I've been studying your eyes and they are gorgeous. Of course, not as gorgeous as my baby's blue eyes, but still gorgeous. They have flecks of green and gold in them…shutting up now." Willow turns to look at Tara and says "You're supposed to stop me when I start that – why didn't you?"

Kelly starts laughing. "I think I know why, which after all this time, I'm sure you know also, Willow. Just look in her eyes – she loves you completely and that includes or is because of the babbling! Okay, guys I'll try to make more of an effort not to put myself down. I love you Tar – see you tomorrow night. Come over and I'll cook. Have a good night Willow; take care of my baby sis for me, okay?"

"I love you, too Kelly. Willow always takes care of me, don't you sweetie?" Tara grins at her lover and winks.

"Oh, yeah, I definitely take care of her. But it's more of a mutual taking care of… and I think it's time to go home now. Good night everyone. See you tomorrow." Willow starts dragging Tara out of the house to the car.

"Well, looks like someone's going to be having some fun tonight. I have this funny feeling that the test papers are SO not going to get graded." Kelly laughs to Buffy as they head back towards the dining room. "Here, let me get this. It's the least I can do after you letting me stay here."

"Hey, you don't have to clean up, I can do it" Buffy states while Kelly quickly grabs the plates and glasses to take into the kitchen.

"Buffy, please let me feel useful. It's the least I can do." Kelly states quietly as she starts rinsing off the dishes and putting them in the dishwasher. Buffy watches her as she quietly wipes down the table and breaks down the pizza boxes to put them in the trash can. Kelly opens the refrigerator and grabs a water to drink and turns to look questioningly at Buffy, silently asking her if she wants a water and Buffy grins and nods her head. Kelly flips her the water and grabs another one out for herself.

"So, before I get ready to head up for bed, I'd like to talk to you for a few minutes, if that's okay?" Kelly asks questioningly.

"Sure. I'll probably be heading out in a little while and do a quick patrol to make sure there are no problems. It's been kind of quiet lately. Which usually means something big is going to be going down soon." Buffy says while sitting down at the end of the couch.

Kelly sits down at the other end turning towards Buffy so she can watch her while she talks.

"Buffy, I know you don't exactly trust me. After I left home, I joined the Marine Core and didn't look back. The only regret I have is that I wasn't there for Tara growing up. I love her more than anything in this world and would do anything for her. I honestly believed when I left home that she would be okay. I thought her dad just had something against me since I wasn't his child. He always thought the sun rose and set on Donnie. And he always treated Tara okay. I never heard him raise his voice or hand to her while I lived there." Kelly smiles sadly.

"Kelly, you don't have to tell me this, if you don't want to" Buffy starts to say when Kelly interrupts her.

"No, Buffy. I want you to know the basics of what happened. I won't go into details right now. But I do want you to get a better handle on the person you are letting live in your house." Kelly slowly took a deep breath to steel herself for what she was going to tell Buffy. "He used to beat me and right before my 18th birthday he took a whip to me out in the barn. I never have understood why he did the things he did, I just kind of hoped it was because I wasn't his blood and he hated me because of that. I don't know how, but some way I made it back into the house and went to my room. Mom came in as I was taking off my clothes and she freaked. Needless to say all she could do was cry as she tended my back. I didn't leave the room again until three days later. I turned 18 on that day. I packed one change of clothes and left the house and didn't look back. I joined the military. A few years later we were out on a secret ops mission when some kind of demon let into my platoon. I didn't even stop to think, I saw all my mates being torn apart and I went a little crazy. I called down some kind of magic spell; to this day I don't even know what it was and killed the demon. One of my leaders saw what happened and from then on I was sent to a specialist training outfit to work on my powers. At the time I didn't realize that they even had a separate training facility for the magically inclined." Kelly stops for a moment taking a sip of her water and looks up at Buffy to see what she's doing.

Buffy was looking at her with a look that was hard to define. It almost looked like pity, but not quite. Kelly just shakes her head and looks back down again as she continues her story.

"From then on I was put in some of the most dangerous areas and hot spots around the world. I've done everything I can humanly do to help the human race. And even in some instances, when certain demons were the ones being persecuted, I helped them. That's how we ended up having some demons in the specialized platoon I belong to. Well, needless to say I've spent the better part of the last 20 years in the service of the US of A. I was getting burnt out on all the traveling and fighting, so I decided to retire. The day I got my dismissal papers, I used a locator spell to find out where Tara was and here I am. As far as I'm concerned, Tara is the only family I have left. I just want to get to know her again. Find out what kind of person she has become and hopefully, maybe, make up for any hard feelings she may harbor towards me about the way I left home." Kelly slowly smiles a little bit as she looks back up at Buffy and then says "Plus, you can always kick my ass across the United States to the Eastern seaboard if you think I need it or deserve it."

Buffy grins at her attempt at lightening the mood. "Kelly, Tara will say there is absolutely nothing to forgive. And, I believe you. Maybe tomorrow I'll take you to the Magic Box's training room and see what you can do. If you're as good as I think you are and if you want to help me with patrols, I'd appreciate it. I'm sorry for what happened to you. I believe I can say that it wasn't nearly that bad for Tara. But I don't know for sure. You two really need to have a quiet sit down and discuss everything."

"Thanks Buffy. I'm gonna go head upstairs. If you need me, wake me up. I'm a light sleeper, at least most of the time." Kelly grins then heads up the stairs to bed. Tomorrow's another day. Tara and I will talk this weekend and hopefully all will be right in my world again. Just having my sister back in my life will make me happy. Kelly thinks to herself as she strips and gets into bed. She smiles as she slowly drifts off to sleep thinking about a certain little blonde.

"Honey, I think your sister is crushing on Buffy!" Willow starts off as soon as they are in the vehicle heading home.

"I know, poor Kelly. Being in the Marines she probably didn't have many chances for any kind of relationship. I guess I'll talk to her this weekend and maybe put a bug in her ear about Buffy not being interested in the home team." Tara says with a little grin at Willow.

"Maybe you shouldn't say anything to her. We could take bets on how long it takes Buffy to realize that Kelly is hitting on her, what do you think?" Willow smirks slightly.

"Ohh, my baby is feeling a little wicked tonight, hmm? I guess I will have to put that wickedness to use when we get home!"

"Well, honey, you did promise me I would be driven crazy tonight. That's still is the plans for this evening, right?" Willow asks Tara in her most innocent voice as they pull up outside their house.

"Sweetie, you have no idea" Tara states with a low growl.

OOOHHH!! I am definitely in for it tonight. I can't wait – Willow thinks to herself doing a small little dance on their way into the house.

As soon as they're in the door, Tara grabs Willow in her arms and gives her a smoldering kiss on the lips and lightly smacks Willow on the butt and says "Will, get up to the bedroom. I'll just check and make sure everything is locked up tight and be right behind you."

"Okay honey. I love you" Willow says sweetly to her love as she gives her a light kiss on the lips and proceeds to head upstairs to their bedroom.

Tara checks the doors and windows to make sure everything is locked up tight and grabs a glass of ice water to take upstairs with her to bed.

As Tara walks into the bedroom she has to laugh – Willow has already stripped and is lying in the middle of the bed on her side with a 'come hither' look on her face. "Is my baby in a little bit of a hurry tonight, hmm?"

Willow gives a little grin saying "you told me to get up to the bedroom. I figured you wanted me waiting and ready for you!!"

Tara gives a small smile as she sets her glass down on the nightstand. She slowly starts unbuttoning her blouse when Willow starts to get up to help her undress. "Uh Uh. Lay back down. No touching allowed until I say so."

Willow pouts but does as Tara says and lies down and proceeds to watch Tara slowly takes off her clothes piece by piece. By the time Tara is taking off her silk bra and panties, Willow has a glazed look in her eye. "Honey, you still with me? Sweetie?"

Willow finally becomes a little coherent and realizes that Tara was talking to her and says "Huh? What?" Higher brain functions are definitely gone for the night. Willow is gazing with rapt attention on Tara's bountiful breasts.

Tara just smirks – her sweetie is definitely a breast gal – through and through. Slowly Tara kneels on the side of the bed and gently pushes Willow onto her back. Tara grabs Willow's hands and put them on the headboard and murmurs "Keep them there until I say otherwise."

Willow grasps the headboard and nods and moans incoherently.

Tara slowly runs her hands down Willows arms and up the side of her neck to run her fingers through Willows hair. She leans down and starts to press light kisses on the side of Willows neck nibbling downwards to her collarbone then back up the other side until she slowly reaches Willows mouth and gives her love a slight lick across her bottom lip with her tongue. Willow moans quietly and opens her mouth slightly to lick the taste of Tara from her lips. Tara smiles and straddles Willows hips and proceeds to slowly work her way down Willows neck kissing, nibbling and sucking as she reaches Willow's breasts. Willow moans loudly as Tara slowly brushes the bottom of Willows breasts with her fingertips and kisses her way around both breasts without touching Willow's nipples.

"Please baby, pleeeaaasssse!" Willow groans as she squirms under her lover, feeling the pressure building up unbearably.

"What do you want Will? Would you like me to kiss your nipples? Lick them? Maybe suck on them? How about I do all of that and then bite them? Would you like that?" Tara grins wickedly.

Willow's eyes get bigger and bigger with each question and all she can do is nod enthusiastically.

Tara proceeds to lightly kiss, lick and suck Willow's breasts as she makes her way back to Willow's nipple and then she bites down gently on Willow's left nipple while her fingertips gently squeeze her right nipple. Willow's reaction was instantaneous – she screams Tara's name as she comes shuddering. Willow releases the headboard and starts to reach for Tara when Tara looks at her "Did I say you could let go of the headboard yet? I'm nowhere near finished with you, love."

"Sweet Goddess, I think you are going to kill me tonight."

"Maybe La Petit Morte, but nothing you won't recover from" Tara laughs as she slowly starts kissing her way down Willows ribs and stomach, stopping to pay special attention to her lovers belly button. She lightly nibbles around the outer edges and then quickly dips her tongue in to swirl around and press firmly in. Willow raises her hips groaning as her desire grows ever stronger at her lovers ministrations.

"Tar-raaaa" Willow groans loudly. Willow is panting and her hips are dancing trying to find much needed friction.

Tara smiles to herself. I don't think I'll be able to keep this up much longer. I want her just as desperately as she wants me!!

Tara continues her trek down across Willow's lower abdomen to her trimmed mound. She lightly kisses and nibbles her way down to her lover's outer lips that are dewy with her excitement. Tara greedily sucks first one outer lip in her mouth and then the other, cleaning all wetness from them as Willow pleads for more.

Tara gently separates her lovers outer lips with her fingers and flattens her tongue out and slowly brings it up her lovers slit bottom to top and stops just short of Willow's clit and repeats this process four or five more times as Willow starts growling and trying to push her clit into her lovers mouth. By this time the juices are flowing out of Willow so fast that Tara can't keep up.

"Please Tara, please!!" Willow cries. "I-Inside. Now." Willow pants.

Tara glances up seeing Willow's eyes are glazed looking down at her lover. Tara gives Willow a loving smile and inserts three fingers in her lovers well and latches onto her lover's clit with her lips at the same time. Willow's body bows off the bed to where the only body parts touching were the heels of her feet and her shoulders and head as she comes over and over again. Tara gently rubs against her lovers g-spot to help prolong her orgasm while gently sucking on her lover's swollen bundle of nerves.

Finally Willow collapses back onto the bed panting looking with unfocused eyes at the ceiling of their bedroom.

Tara slowly removes her fingers and licks them clean as she climbs up besides her love and lies down to gently hold Willow while she comes back to earth. "I love you sweetie. Go to sleep," Tara gently says while she reaches down to pull the covers over both of them and turns out the light.

"Uv U, Tar" is all Willow is able to say back to Tara as she drifts off into a deep restful sleep.

Kelly wakes up, getting dressed and goes downstairs to make coffee. 'Damn, where's the coffee at? Hell, maybe I should ask where the foods at – all that's here seems to be leftovers in the refrigerator and milk. Doesn't Buffy eat anything besides take-out? Well, I can definitely pick up some groceries while I'm out. Guess it's time to get the trainers on and go for my morning run.'

Buffy wakes up to the smell of coffee. 'Coffee, mmm. Wait, I don't have any coffee. Actually, I smell food. What?'

Buffy trots downstairs to the kitchen and stops dead in the doorway.

"Good morning. Do you want some coffee? What do you take in it? I'm making you some breakfast. Sausage links, hash browns and eggs. How do you like your eggs?" Kelly asks over her shoulder.

"Uh, two sugars in the coffee and I'll take the eggs any way you feel like fixing them. I'm not too picky. Umm, not that I'm complaining or anything, but the last time I checked I didn't have any coffee or food in the house?" Buffy questions.

Kelly smirks at Buffy "Buffy, that's putting it mildly. No coffee, no food whatsoever. Unless you want to count the milk and leftovers in the fridge. Which, I threw all of it out – it all pretty much looked questionable on the good side and fuzzy on the bad side! I went out for a run this morning, stopped at the corner store and picked up a few things on the way back. I grabbed the extra set of keys to let myself back in, I hope you don't mind." Kelly placed a plate in front of Buffy with the eggs done over easy along with the links hash browns and a couple slices of toast. Turning around and grabbing a coffee cup putting the requested two sugars in, filling it and topping her own coffee off before sitting down across from Buffy.

"Aren't you going to eat? By the way, this is great. I'm not much with the cooking. Pretty much, Tara is the only one out of all of us that can cook. Since her and Will moved out, I haven't been having too many home-cooked meals except when they have me over a couple times a week." Buffy states easily around a mouth full of food. "Go ahead and keep the keys on you for future use, you'll need it with staying here."

"Thanks. I had a couple pieces of toast while I was fixing you breakfast. I'm not a big breakfast eater. More of a coffee drinker. We probably need to discuss a few things. While I'm staying here, I'll be more than happy to take care of buying the groceries and fixing the food. One thing I can do is cook. Let me know what you like to eat, besides take out" Kelly grins at Buffy with that comment "and I'll get to fixing anything you like. Are you allergic to any foods? I always ask, with Tara being allergic to shrimp it kind of got me in that habit when I was younger."

"Kelly, you don't have to earn your keep. Not that I'll complain with you fixing the occasional home-cooked meal" Buffy laughs. "I'm not allergic to anything and I like pretty much everything."

"I won't stay here unless I can help you out. I'm gonna go hop in the shower and get dressed. Would you mind telling me where the local bank is? I need to open up an account and take care of some other business around town today, if possible."

"No problem, I don't have anywhere to be today and I'd be happy to show you around town." Buffy grins. "Hope you don't mind hoofing it – I don't have a vehicle. Me and vehicles…. Let's just say, bad news!" Buffy laughingly states.

"No problem, that's one of the things I hope to get taken care of today. Finish your breakfast – there's some more links and hash browns in the skillets, if you want them. I'll be back after I take a shower and get ready." Kelly rinses her coffee cup out in the sink and heads out of the kitchen.

'Damn, she cooks, seems extremely nice, she's gorgeous--whoa where did that thought come from? Hetro Gal here – remember? I think Willow and Tara may be rubbing off on me.' Buffy shakes her head to herself and pours herself another cup of coffee and eats the rest of the food left from breakfast. 'Mmmm hash browns, sausage links, eggs and coffee for breakfast. I can definitely get used to this!'

"So, where all do you need to hit today besides the bank?" Buffy asks as they walk.

"Well, the bank is the first and most important. After that, I definitely need to hit the mall. Pretty much all I have is my t-shirts and military garb. I need to pick up some regular clothes. I'd like to buy either a truck or an SUV. Maybe we could stop in and see Tara, if that's okay?"

"Well, Tara has a free period combined with lunch on Fridays – so she's free from 11:30 to 1:00 so we can probably hit there after the bank. There are a couple car dealerships down the road from the high school. We have a mall on the outskirts of town that we can hit for clothes. I'm always up for a shopping trip" Buffy grins.

"I appreciate your help, Buffy. You don't mind being a guide do you? If you do, I could always call a cab and tell the driver where to take me?" Kelly asks in a questioning tone.

"No problem. Plus the fact that Tara would probably have my butt in a sling if I didn't show you around! She seems really happy to have you here. I'm glad you're not like the rest of her family." Buffy states quietly.

"That's something you don't have to worry about Buffy. I just wish I could have been there for her. Maybe made things easier. Unfortunately, we can't change the past. No matter how much I wish I could. I'm just glad she found such caring people to have in her life. Speaking of which, you were ready to kick my ass back in the Magic Shop, weren't you?" Kelly laughingly asks, trying to lighten the mood back up.

"You have no idea! I thought for sure you were Tara's old girlfriend and the way she acted…let's just say it made my heart stop for a moment. Willow and Tara have been together for what seems forever. And I have never seen two people more meant for each other. Then you, this tall, buff, great looking Amazon-type woman comes in the store and Tara is literally hanging off you in the next instant!" Buffy states without even thinking about what she is saying. "I couldn't believe it. Luckily everything got cleared up quickly, or you would have had me and Willow kicking your ass" Buffy shakes her head with a smile on her face.

"You have no idea how happy that makes me." Kelly smiles down at Buffy.

"What, that I was going to kick your ass? You definitely need to have your head examined if that makes you happy" Buffy states unbelievingly, looking at Kelly.

Laughing loudly, Kelly grins "The fact that Tara has 'family' that loves her and will protect her makes me extremely happy, Buffy. And that's what you are, her family. Just from being around you this short period of time, I can tell you love her. You have that Mama Bear attitude when you talk about her and Willow. That makes me happy beyond words." Kelly teasingly adds, "so, you think I'm good looking, huh?"

"Wha-" Buffy starts then blushes lightly looking down at the ground. "I did say that, didn't I? Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. You won't hear me complaining! Even though, I might suggest you get your eyes examined while my head is being examined!" Kelly laughs to let her know that everything was okay. "Looks like we're at the bank. This will probably take a little while. Do you want to wait?"

"I'll head over to the Espresso Pump across the street. You can meet me over there when you're done." Buffy while pointing to the coffee shop

"I'll be done as quickly as I can. Thanks again." Kelly smiles.

"No problem. See you in a little bit" Buffy waves as she crosses the street.

'Buffy definitely is gorgeous. I wonder if I have any chance whatsoever?' Kelly thinks to herself as she heads into the bank.

Kelly walks into the Espresso Pump 45 minutes later as Buffy is finishing her second mocha. "Do you want another one? My treat." Kelly asks Buffy, glancing at her drink.

"Sure, even though I'll probably spend the rest of the afternoon hitting the bathroom!" Buffy grins.

"It's a little after 11:00 – do we want to walk and drink at the same time? I don't know how long it will take to get to the high school" Kelly asks questioningly.

"Sure, we can start heading towards the high school. It will probably take around 15 minutes to walk there. So, I take it, you got everything taken care of at the bank?"

"Yeah, took a little longer than I had hoped. But after a few phone calls I got everything situated. I'm afraid I may have broken the bank – figuratively speaking." Kelly laughs. "I don't think they were ready for me to take out a big chunk of their cash today – but with the amount I transferred into their bank they didn't complain too much."

"Damn, you must have pulled out a lot of cash to make a bank want to complain." Buffy states. "If I can ask, how did you get that kind of cash? Oh, God, I'm sorry. Forget I asked that. It's none of my business."

"Yeah, well since I need to buy a vehicle and clothes, among other things I figured the quickest route for the majority of that is cash. Plus when you've spent basically 20 years in the service and don't spend hardly any of the money and just sock it away and invest it, it adds up." Kelly looks at Buffy with a serious look in her eye. "Buffy, feel free to ask me anything. If I don't want to answer, I'll let you know. But other than a few things in my past, I'm pretty much an open book. So, please, feel free to ask anything. Of course, I may decide to ask questions back," Kelly sort of asks with a questioning lift of her eyebrow and a smirk.

'Oh boy, I think I see a little bit of resemblance with Tara with that eyebrow lift. She also has a wicked looking smirk.' Buffy shakes her head to herself, 'Why am I noticing things like this. I don't usually pay attention to other women.'

"Well, I guess it's only fair that you're able to ask questions back. So, feel free to ask away." Buffy said smiling slightly. "I probably owe you a couple dozen by now."

"Nah, start fresh starting right now. So, first question. Hmmm, personal or general? Decisions, decisions." Kelly grins wickedly looking at Buffy from the corner of her eye. Oh, Buffy looks slightly scared. Maybe I shouldn't start off with anything too hard. "Okay, easy question first off. I would really like to join you for patrols. I want to make myself useful. Plus that will give me a chance to keep in shape." Kelly started laughing at the look on Buffy's face. "You thought I was going to ask something else, didn't you? Just what did you think I was going to ask?"

Buffy shakes her head then grins at Kelly "Well, it wasn't that. Actually I don't know what I thought you were going to ask. You can go out on patrol with me. But I withhold the right to say yeah or nay after seeing you in action."

Oh, I really shouldn't but I just can't help myself, "See me in action, huh? Anytime, anyplace girlfriend. Even though I got the feeling you don't swing my way. If you decide to, please let me know," Kelly starts laughing so hard at the look on Buffy's face that she has to stop, leaning down to grab her knees. "Oh, God Buffy. I don't think I've laughed that hard in years. The look on your face is priceless."

"Ohh, you," Buffy growls as she smacks Kelly on the arm. "I'm gonna tell Tara on you."

"Oww. Now that's just downright mean. Telling on me to my sister. She'll kick my ass from here to the next millennium. And that just isn't right! I don't know if it's a plus that we're here at the high school now or not" Kelly grins at Buffy.

"It might be a good thing, Or I might have had time to kick your butt. Then I would have to explain to your sister why you are all broken and bruised" Buffy grins back at Kelly to let her know she's kidding.

Kelly and Buffy proceeds into the high school about 11:20. They stop outside Tara's classroom door watching Tara give the homework assignments for the weekend amidst groans. Tara catches movement from the corner of her eye and turns to smile lovingly at Kelly.

"Okay class. You have about five minutes left, so you can either start your assignment or talk quietly amongst yourselves until the bell." Tara states while walking towards the class room door. "Buffy, Kelly come on in. I didn't realize you were going to come by today."

"Well, I thought we could come by and take my favorite sister out for lunch. Buffy decided to come along for the free meal," Kelly laughs at the look Buffy gives her for that comment.

"Buffy is always up for a meal. I swear, I don't know how that girl stays so skinny." Tara gives her a lopsided grin. "To have her metabolism, boy, wouldn't that be something."

The bell rings and the students grab their stuff as they head out. Quite a few students wishing Tara a good weekend.

"Wow, when I went to school we didn't wish a teacher a good weekend, especially after giving us a homework assignment for the weekend!" Kelly points out to Tara with a grin, "They must have a crush on their beautiful English teacher."

Tara blushes and lightly smacks Kelly on her arm. "Stop that. Let me get my purse and then we can head out for lunch. Where are we going, anyway?"

"Damn, I've been smacked twice on the arm today. I must be doing something wrong. Or is it that I'm doing something right??? Hmmm. Have to think on this some more!" Kelly grins first at Buffy then Tara.

"Buffy, are you smacking around my big sister? Kelly, is she picking on you? Do I need to straighten her out?" Tara smiles and winks at Buffy.

"Hmmff, straighten me out? Kelly's been the rotten one this morning. Taking everything I say the wrong way. Making me make comments that I wouldn't usually make. I think your sister is a very bad influence Tara. You need to have a serious chat with her about how things are done around here. How there is no picking on the mighty Slayer." Buffy states trying to look serious but not able to keep the smile off her face.

'Hmm, I haven't seen Buffy smiling this much in forever.' Tara thinks to herself. "So, Kelly. You're picking on the mighty Slayer, huh? Like living life dangerously? You may be taller than her and look stronger, but physically I believe she can still kick your butt. As long as you don't bring magic into play!" Tara smirks up at Kelly.

Kelly gets a mischievous glint in her eye and states, "I don't know what you two are talking about. I have been the absolute picture of innocence today. I have even fixed breakfast for Mighty Mouse here…"

"Hey! Mighty Mouse? Who are you calling Mighty Mouse, you overgrown Amazon! I'll have you know that I am much taller than Mighty Mouse! Oh, hell." Buffy starts muttering to herself at this point. "I have this feeling I'm gonna have a hard time keeping up with you in the quip department."

By this time Tara and Kelly are both laughing at Buffy, catching Buffy's comment about the quips.

"Oh, poor Buffy. She's so used to only having to outwit the vampires that she's going to have to come up with all new comments to combat my sister." Tara grinningly states while deciding to watch how Buffy acts around Kelly.

While they are picking on each other they make it to a diner down the street from the school. Kelly opens the door and lets Buffy and Tara precede her in.

As they sit down, a pretty blonde waitress brings over three menus and three glasses of water. "What can I get you three to drink while you look over the menu?"

"I'll have a diet coke, please." Kelly smiles up at the waitress.

Buffy and Tara both state that just the water is fine.

The waitress grins at Kelly and says "I'll get your Diet Coke sweets. Then I'll get ya'll's order," as she heads over to get the soda.

Tara elbows Kelly in the side and looks at the waitress with a grin on her face. "Already making friends?"

Kelly glances to where Tara is looking. "What? Her? Nah, she's just being friendly is all. I'm too old for her, anyway."

"Kelly." Tara warns.

"What?" Kelly looks toward Tara with a confused look on her face. "What did I say to get that tone?"

"You are NOT old. So get that thought out of your head. Plus you are absolutely gorgeous and can have anyone you want." Tara grins.

"You have to say that – you're my sister. I think it's obligatory or something." Kelly smiles at Tara.

"Oh, you think so. Okay, we need to get another opinion here. Buffy, what do you think? Do you agree with me that Kelly is gorgeous?" Tara glances at Buffy, curious what she might say. Unfortunately, the waitress comes back with the Diet Coke for Kelly at that moment.

"Here you go sweets. And just to put my opinion in there, I'll agree she's gorgeous." Sherry, the waitress smiles with what could only be considered a 'come hither' look at Kelly. "So, what can I get ya'll to eat?" Tara glances at Buffy while the waitress is making her comments. Buffy looks as if she swallowed something sour.

They place their orders and the waitress leaves to put their orders in.

"So. I don't think the waitress thinks you're too old for her." Tara smirks.

"Aaargghh! Tara, I just got into town and found you. I want to take my time getting to know you and the people you consider a family before I even think about myself, okay?" Kelly states with enough seriousness for Tara to know she's not kidding, even with the smile.

"Fair enough. Subject change. Willow and I were talking this morning and, if it's okay with you Buffy, Willow and you can have a best friend's day all day tomorrow. That way Kelly and I can get caught up on what's happened with both of us." Tara states looking from Buffy to Kelly. "I figure we can work out the particulars over dinner tonight?"

"Works for me. If you want, and if everyone likes, I can fix spaghetti for dinner tonight? Maybe invite Xander and Anya?" Kelly asks questioningly to both Tara and Buffy.

"I know everyone likes spaghetti. It sounds good to me, how about you Tara? You and Will feel like spaghetti at my house tonight? I'm sure Xander and Anya are up for it, if they don't have any other plans" Buffy states.

"Okay. Dinner a la Kelly tonight at the Summers' residence" Tara smiles. Then almost laughs out loud when the waitress sets their lunch down flirting with Kelly the whole time. She glances over at Buffy and grins even wider. She could swear that she had one of her 'I'm gonna stake your ass' looks on her face.

"Don't. Just, don't…" Kelly smiles while shaking her head at Tara after the waitress leaves.

They proceed to eat their lunch while talking about what Kelly and Buffy have planned for the rest of the afternoon.

The waitress comes back to ask if the want desert. Which no one did. Then proceeds to lay their check down along with another slip of paper and a wink at Kelly. "Hope to see you again, sweets."

"Thanks." Kelly smiles as she grabs the check and slip of paper. "My treat guys." she says as she lays the money on the table for their lunch.

As they walk out of the restaurant and get a few steps down the street Tara bumps and says "So, what did the other slip of paper say, huh??"

"Here, you can have it. I was planning on throwing it away when we came across a trash can." Kelly hands it over to Tara.

Tara looks at it and starts laughing. She notices Buffy is trying to look at it without being to obvious. Tara just hands it to Buffy.

"God, could she get anymore forward?" Buffy states with a grimace as she hands the note back to Kelly. Kelly just shrugs while she crumbles up the note and throws it in a trash can that they are walking by. "What, you were serious about throwing it away? She was cute." Buffy states with a surprised note in her voice.

"Buffy, if you want to call her, I can get the note back out of the trash can, if you would really like me too?" Kelly smirks at Buffy. "I mean, since you think she's cute and all."

Tara giggles and then stops quickly when Buffy turns her gaze on Tara. "She's your sister – can't you do something about her? Plus, you don't need to encourage her by laughing or thinking she's funny – it's just not right that me, the Slayer, has to put up with this" Buffy says pouting by the end of her dialogue.

"Oh, don't blame Tara. You put yourself in that position, so buck up and take it like a man, ooops, Slayer." Kelly says laughing while wrapping her arm around Tara's shoulder. "Sis, I'll protect you from the mean, evil Slayer. I won't let her pick on you, promise. You can laugh and egg me on all you want."

"Please, please don't put me between you two. If you guys are already acting like this, with not even knowing each other 24 hours, I'll hate to be around you in a weeks time….ooh, are we still having Christmas at my place?" Tara asks getting sidetracked thinking about next week.

Buffy just sighs shaking her head. 'what have I gotten myself into.' she thinks to herself. "Yes, if that's okay. Will you have furniture by then?"

"Yep. They are delivering the living room and dining room sets next week. I've already bought a turkey and ham for dinner. Anya is making some vegetable dishes. I've picked up some other odds and ends. Are you still picking up a couple pies from the bakery Buffy?"

"Can I interrupt for a sec? I can make or bring some items too. Actually, I can bake a couple pies along with make some homemade yeast rolls for dinner, if you want?" Kelly interjects.

"That would be great. I'll double-check with Anya to see what she's bringing and get together to see if there's anything else we need. Dawnie is still coming home for Christmas break, right Buffy?" Tara asks.

"Yep. She should be getting in sometime Friday. I should probably call her and let her know that there's a strange person in the house, that way if I'm not home when she gets in, she'll know who you are." Buffy smirks up at Kelly, getting a dig in.

"Weak, slayer. Very, very weak. You are definitely going to have to do better than that." Kelly smiles down at Buffy as they get back to the high school. Kelly gives Tara a hug and says "Buffy's around 7:00 tonight? That should give us plenty of time for us to do some more shopping and still leave me time to make dinner."

Tara smiles and nods her head. "You two try and stay out of trouble this afternoon, okay?" Tara shakes her head to herself. 'These two together seem like they could cause some serious havoc.'

"No promises. Mighty Mouse here likes to start all kinds of things, and I just can't help but finish them!" laughs Kelly. "Love you. See you tonight."

Buffy pouts and stomps her foot. "I am NOT Mighty Mouse. Just wait, when you least expect it, I'm gonna take you down." Buffy groans to herself as she realizes what she said.

"See, Sis. She just gives me all kinds of openings to make all kinds of comments. But she thinks it's my fault!" Kelly looks at Tara and winks.

Tara just laughs and shakes her head. "Please try and behave. See you guys tonight." She waves and heads into the high school.

"Okay MM. Let's go to the shopping and see what kind of havoc we can cause at the dealership and the stores." Kelly grins as she pokes Buffy in the ribs.

"What have I gotten myself into." Buffy moans and they head out to continue their day.

"You've got company, MM!" Kelly grins as they pull into Buffy's driveway.

"Not just me – you too! That'll be Tara and Willow here early – go figure" Buffy grins while looking at Kelly. "I wonder how long they've been here. And stop calling me that!"

Kelly mumbles "If the shoe fits…"

"As soon as I figure out a good nick-name for you, you are so in for it" Buffy says with a light growl.

"Promises, promises" Kelly laughs when Buffy backhands her on the shoulder. "If I tell you I realllllly like that, will you keep doing it?" Kelly says in a low timbered husky voice. Then waits for a second to watch Buffy's face turn red and busts out laughing. "Come on, let's get all this stuff in. It's probably a good thing Tara and Willow are here, they can help us."

"I can't believe you bought a Hummer! I thought the salesman was going to shit his pants when you told him if he had the paperwork done and us out of there in less than 30 minutes you would pay cash" Buffy just shakes her head.

"I didn't want to waste time at the dealership, we had some serious shopping to do before we needed to get back here" Kelly says while grabbing a couple bags of groceries and heading towards the house.

Buffy grabs a couple bags and follows her to the front door 'Serious shopping. She says serious shopping. We filled up the Hummer – that is something more than serious. I don't know what to call it, but something more than serious.' Buffy thinks to herself.

"Hey guys get your clothes back on and get out to the vehicle and help us bring the stuff in" Kelly yells as she comes in the front door and heads straight to the kitchen.

"Kelly, I'm sure they aren't making out in the…" Buffy trails off as she glances into the living room. "Oops, guess so." Buffy quickly follows after Kelly into the kitchen.

Kelly looks at Buffy's blushing face and starts laughing. "How long did those two live with you, Buffy? You can't mean to tell me you haven't caught them in 'compromising' positions before? Hell, I figured they were up to something, since when we left the house this morning the drapes were open in the living room and now they're closed!"

"I haven't caught them doing anything before. And why didn't you give me some kind of warning" Buffy questions Kelly with her hands on her hips after she sets the bags she's carrying down.

"I don't know how much more of a warning I could give you. After all, I yelled out for them to get there clothes on – you were the one that had to go and peek into the living room" Kelly hesitates and gets a devilish glint in her eye as she looks at Buffy. "Oh, I get it now. Voyeur, huh?"

"Wha? No no no no. Not enough world of no" Buffy is almost hyperventilating by this time. Then she actually looks at Kelly and sees her smirking at her with her arms crossing her chest. "Enough. Enough. Enough. No more picking on me for the rest of the night – I want you to promise me."

Kelly slowly grins at Buffy and shakes her head as she heads out of the kitchen to get more bags from the Hummer.

As Buffy follows her whining for her to promise to stop picking on her, Tara and Willow come out of the living room blushing lightly and following Buffy and Kelly to the vehicle. When they see what Kelly's bought they stop in the middle of the yard just looking at it. It's a Metallic Red H2 with the complete package.

"When you two stop staring, we got quite a bit of stuff you can help us bring in" Kelly smirks at Tara and Willow.

"You bought a Hummer?" Tara turns and looks at Willow and starts to grin. She leans over to Willow and whispers in her ear "Maybe she'll let us borrow it and we can break it in for her properly" Tara smirks as Willows eyes get big and she gulps.

"Vixen" is all Willow says back and proceeds to the vehicle to help take some of the bags into the house.

"You can borrow the vehicle, just make sure you clean up any… messes you may make" Kelly smirks looking from Tara to Willow and back.

Willow turns the same color as her hair and Tara turns bright red. "I can't believe you are insinuating we would even contemplate doing anything---"

"Oh, save it for Buffy. She'll believe you. I know better. Look me in the eye and tell me you weren't thinking about it" Kelly grins looking at Tara who just gives in and smirks at her.

"Hey, I resemble that remark" Buffy states coming from the back of the H2 with some more bags and heads towards the house. "It would go quicker if you guys would actually grab the items and bring them in the house."

"Goddess, did you buy out the stores? You have to have 50 bags in here" Willow groans looking into the H2.

"Well, I'll let you in on a little secret. I needed to buy everything clothes wise, since all I have is my military gear along with a few t-shirts. Also I bought you two some housewarming gifts, so stop your whining or I'll be mean and take them all back" Kelly states with a straight face then starts to break into a grin as she grabs bags and runs with them towards the house.

"Evil. YOU ARE EVIL" Willow yells after Kelly who just laughs as she heads into the house. "Love, I really like your sister. She's going to be good for us, isn't she?"

"Yeah, I believe so. Make sure you keep an eye on how Buffy acts around her – see if I'm imaging things, okay sweetie" Tara says while leaning towards Willow and giving her loving kiss. "If we don't help get these things in, I wouldn't put it past her to take them back out of pure meanness. So let's grab some and get them inside."

The rest of the bags are brought in while Kelly is in the kitchen putting the groceries away and getting dinner started. "Hey, Buffy. Can you do me a favor and see if you can find one of those food mixers for me? And be sure to keep those two out of the rest of the bags until I can get in there to see their faces, okay? I might even try to be nice to you for a while" Kelly winks and grins at Buffy.

Willow and Tara walk to the kitchen doorway unobserved while Buffy and Kelly are talking and just watch them for a few minutes.

Buffy grins back at Kelly and tries to say with a straight face, "I don't know if you know how to be nice. You've done your absolute best to embarrass me at every store we went into today. I mean, God. Did you have to drag me into Victoria's Secrets? I think they would have banned you from going back in there if you hadn't dropped almost $500 with them!" By then Buffy is giggling and shaking her head.

"Oh, like you were complaining. Once you realized I was serious about taking you shopping for whatever you wanted, you were more than willing to add quite a few items to that pile, weren't you MM? Of course, you weren't willing to model any of those items. I think that I shouldn't have given in to that. I bet if I had pushed a little more I could have talked you into it" Kelly smirks at Buffy. "Of course, the store manager by that time was ready to throw us out. I think she thought I wasn't serious! Or maybe she was more upset because you wouldn't model the underwear, either. I bet that's it!" By then Kelly's trying not to laugh. "You ticked her off by not modeling and then I pissed her off royally when I gave the sales commission to that young lady that was helping us and running interference for us with the old bag. Oh God, the look on her face" By then Kelly and Buffy are both laughing so hard they are leaning against each other and the island in the middle of the kitchen.

Willow grins at Tara and nods her head towards the living room. "Definitely something there. Let's keep an eye open."

"Meatballs are in the oven and the sauce is a bubblin'. Time to sort the goodies in the bags?" Kelly asked as she came into the living room looking at the group.

"Please before Willow bounces herself right out the front window" Buffy laughs looking at the hacker practically bouncing out of her seat on the couch besides Tara.

"Willow, if you're this excited over housewarming gifts, what are you like on Christmas morning?" Kelly smirks at Willow.

"Oh, Goddess. Kelly don't even ask that. For a Jewish Wicca witch, she gets extremely hyped at Christmas." Tara just shakes her head reaching over to give Willow a kiss on the cheek. "My Jewish Wicca Witch." Willow smiles and kisses Tara back.

"Ok, do you two want to continue the smooch fest? Or do you want to look at your gifts…. Oh, please forget I asked that extremely stupid question. Here, let me start passing you the items. I just got generic white on the appliances – I have all the receipts, so if you want to take anything back and switch it out for different colors or something else please do so." Kelly grins to herself as she grabs a couple bags and looks inside quickly then hands them to Willow and Tara and heads back to the other bags sorting through them for the gifts.

As Willow and Tara start pulling out item after item Tara stops and looks at Kelly. "Kelly, we can't accept all this. This is just way, way too much."

"No arguing allowed." Kelly smiles softly at Tara.

Buffy starts laughing "Tara, forget it. She definitely has a stubborn streak a mile wide. Just from our little shopping spree today I got that figured out."

"Time to a check on the meat-a-balls" Kelly laughingly states in a cheesy Italian accent.

"They're done, anyone want to be the guinea pig?" Kelly says sticking her head out from the kitchen and starts laughing as Buffy jumps up and comes running into the kitchen. "Hey, guinea pig, only one!!"

"Oh, Gods…." Buffy is literally drooling at the mouth when she comes back in the living room. "I don't ever remember tasting something that good."

"I'm gonna head upstairs and change for dinner. Someone, please keep an eye on Mighty Mouse here, before she eats all the meatballs and there aren't any left for dinner, okay?" Kelly laughs as she grabs a couple bags with clothes she bought and heads upstairs. At the top of the stairs, she yells down "Would someone check the spaghetti noodles, I think I'm gonna take a quick shower and they'll probably be done before I get out."

"Got it covered" Buffy yelled back up to her and runs back into the kitchen grinning 'meatballs here I come'!

Tara and Willow look at each other and start laughing as they follow Buffy into the kitchen knowing what Buffy is up too. "Buffy, stop that. Kelly specifically said to keep you away from the meatballs." Willow grins as Buffy turns with a guilty look on her face with chipmunk cheeks.

"But, but, Willowwww" Buffy whines when she finishes her mouthful. "Here, you try one. See if you can resist them." Buffy grabs a fork and spears one and hands it to Willow.

"I guess one won't hurt" Willow mumbles as she grabs the fork that the slayer is waving in front of her face. "Oh, Goddess. What did she put in these? They're absolutely delicious. Give me another one."

Buffy starts grinning madly and starts to reach for some more meatballs when Tara steps between her and the food. Tara crosses her arms over her chest and puts her best 'Mom' face on looking from Buffy to Willow and back again.

"Living room, now!" Tara states then points to the living room. "I'll watch the sauce and the noodles, while you two try and behave yourself."

"Tara! But look at all the meatballs, there's plenty for us to have a few of them. Kelly's a vegetarian and won't even be having any." Buffy stops and then thinks about what she's saying and looks from Tara to Willow and back again. "Speaking of which, how weird is that? She fixes these delicious meatballs and she doesn't eat meat?" Buffy gets an absolutely mischievous grin on her face as she states "She's evil, I say, E-V-I-L. I'm just gonna have to keep her chained up here in the kitchen. Make sure she doesn't terrorize anyone else with her evilness, yep, that's what I have to do. Where are the chains? Still down in the basement?" Buffy starts mumbling to herself as she heads back to the living room.

Tara reaches over and pulls Willow into a hug. "It's been way too long since I've seen Buffy smiling and carrying on like this. Actually, I don't remember the last time she was like this, if she ever was." Tara gives Willow a questioning look.

"Honey, to be honest, I haven't ever seen Buffy acting this happy. She's been the 'Slayer' for so long now, that I think she's forgotten what it's like to just let loose and have fun. She's had moments, but you could always see in her eyes that she was worrying about the next 'Big Bad' that would be coming to town. I can actually see a happy light in her eyes without the worry or sorrow. She needs this so much. I just hope she doesn't shut Kelly out like she has other people in the past." Willow whispers softly into Tara's ear. Then lightly kissing the blondes earlobe she grabs a meatball as she pulls away from Tara grinning to. "These really are delicious!" she waves the meatball around as she runs into the living room.

"Oh, God. Kelly, you are gonna have to fix this again soon." Xander groans as he leans back in his chair at the dinner table rubbing his stomach. "This was absolutely delicious and I can't believe I am actually going to say this, but I am stuffed!"

Everybody at the table starts laughing. After all Xander had five platefuls of spaghetti and meatballs, not counting the salad and bread.

"Thanks Xander. After the holidays, maybe we can set up a weekly dinner get together. I enjoy cooking, and I can tell it probably won't go to waste" Kelly states looking at the food crumbs that was all that was left. "I guess next time I need to make more? I would have thought five pounds of meat for meatballs with everything else would have been plenty for six people. My bad. I'll plan a little better next time" Kelly laughingly states while shaking her head.

"Who wants ice cream?" Buffy asks to the room as she helps gather up the dishes to take to the kitchen.

"What kind of ice cream do you have?" Xander asks, his interest piqued.

"The bottomless pit has spoken. So much for him being stuffed." Willow grins at her long-time friend.

"There is always room for ice creamy goodness" Xander defends himself.

"How about I grab bowls and spoons and you grab the different containers of ice cream. The way the dinner was demolished, I hold out no hope that the ice cream will make it out alive." Kelly laughingly states to Buffy.

As Buffy grabs the ice cream she grins at Kelly "I guess I should have warned you. Xander can definitely put a hurting on the food." She leans in closer to Kelly whispering "I don't think Anya can cook. And the one time I looked in the refrigerator at their apartment…Ugh. Let's just say that it isn't anything that a normal human would eat. But then again, we are talking about Anya and Xander…" Buffy smirks as she heads back to the dining room, leaving Kelly laughing and following her back in.

"Thanks for dinner you guys. It was great. See you later." Xander says as he and Anya leaves with Anya smiling and waving at them as they walk out the door.

"I need to go get changed and ready to go out on patrol. Are you still wanting to go with me, Kelly?" Buffy asks Kelly as she gets ready to head upstairs.

"Yeah, if you don't mind me tagging along. I'll see Tara and Willow out and get the particulars for what's gonna be the plan for tomorrow. Then I'll get myself changed and my gear together." Kelly states smiling at Buffy.

Buffy nods her head and goes upstairs.

Tara grins at Willow and Willow just smirks and shakes her head. "We figured would come over tomorrow morning around 9 o'clock and bring bagels and mochas for breakfast. Then Willow and Buffy can go out and do their thing while we can sit here in the comfort of Buffy's house, since we don't have any furniture yet, and have a serious discussion about everything. Is that okay with you?" Tara looks up at Kelly with a serious look in her eyes.

Kelly looks into Tara's eyes and knows in her heart that she will have to tell her pretty much everything about the past. She nods her head with a sad look in her eyes. "Yeah, sis. We'll discuss everything." Kelly gives her a hug and a kiss on the top of her head before Tara got into the vehicle. "You two be careful. Love you."

"Love you, too Kelly. We'll see you tomorrow." Tara says with a sad smile after giving Kelly an affectionate kiss on the cheek. Willow looks from Tara to Kelly and just says goodnight.

"What was going on between you and Kelly as we were getting ready to leave" Willow questions Tara as they head home.

Tara sighs and looks over at Willow. "You know my home life wasn't great. After my, our, mother fell ill, Father had me convinced that I was a demon. He mentally abused me and Donnie mentally and physically abused me. Fortunately, the physical abuse wasn't real bad. Mostly just being smacked around occasionally. I know it was worse for Kelly. I don't know to what extreme, but I was basically giving Kelly a heads up tonight that I would want the full story tomorrow. E-e-everything. She understood what I was saying and from the reaction I got from her and the fact that I read her aura while I was talking to her, I believe it was bad. Extremely bad." Tara states with a tear running down her cheek as they pull into their driveway.

Willow parks the car and leans over and gently wipes away the tear looking into her lovers sad eyes. "Honey, it'll be okay. I know this is going to bring up bad memories for both of you. But just remember, that they are memories now. That what happened is in the past and all that matters is the fact that you are both here, together at last. That is the most important thing to remember. You have each other now and those…" Willow growls out the next word "bastards, can't harm either of you now."

"How did I get so lucky to have you in my life?" Tara whispers.

Willow smiles gently at her as they head into the house. "Love, you aren't the lucky one. I'm the lucky one. I almost screwed it up royally and I thank the Goddess every day that you gave me another chance. I don't know what would have happened without you in my life. I just know that it would have been meaningless and I will never, ever take you for granted."

Tara smiles lovingly at Willow with tears running down her cheeks as they get ready for bed and asks "Hold me tight in your arms tonight?"

"Always." Willow states while turning out the lights and climbing into bed besides Tara pulling her close and kissing her gently. "I will always hold you tight and love you forever."

Tara snuggles in against Willow with her head on her chest and her arm wrapped around her waist and smiles as she feels Willow gently running her hands through her hair. "I will always love you, too" she states softly as they both slowly fall asleep in each others arms.

"Hey, are you just gonna watch, or are you gonna join in?" Buffy laughingly yells over at Kelly who is sitting on top of a tombstone watching Buffy fight three vampires.

"You're the slayer, your destiny, one girl in all the world, yada yada yada." Kelly laughs while hopping off the tombstone. She goes after one that was just getting back up off the ground from where Buffy had knocked him down. "You know, I think I like vampires the best out of the majority of the evil demons I have run across in my travels." She says while ducking the punch the vampire throws at her.

"Why is that?" Buffy says while she stakes one of the two vampires she's fighting while keeping an eye on Kelly to make sure she doesn't need any help.

"Because…" Kelly stops talking as she drops to the ground rolling away from the vampire that tried to tackle her. As she pops back up into a low crouch holding both hands to the side almost like she's holding something, she lets the vampire get within three feet of her and swings. The vampire suddenly dusts and Kelly grins watching Buffy finish the last vampire. "There's no clean-up."

Buffy stands there with a stunned look on her face and points to where the vampire was standing a moment ago "What the hell happened to him?"

"Liked that, did you?" Kelly smirks while Buffy is looking at her first in disbelief and then with an expression that said it was explanation time. "It's actually very simple. No magic involved, at least not now there wasn't. Other then myself, no one can see it. Also it's completely undetectable except for when I'm using it, of course. Wouldn't do a bit of good if you couldn't feel it when I needed it, huh?" Kelly says with a quirk of an eyebrow and a half smile.

Buffy looks at her with an unbelieving look in her eyes as she slowly walks towards Kelly. "Well I would say seeing is believing, but considering I can't see the sword, can I feel it?"

"Here, let me show you" Kelly states while reaching for Buffy's hand and slowly running it along the handle and the back of the blade. "I have actually done this to all my weapons so I don't have to worry about them being found by accident." Kelly says while letting go of Buffy's hand.

"You have got to be kidding me" Buffy shakes her head slightly in disbelief.

"Nope, no kidding. Here, watch this" Kelly says smiling at Buffy as she puts the sword back up in her jacket. "Now, feel along the jacket."

Buffy reaches over to where she just watched Kelly put the sword away. She carefully feels along the jacket trying to find the sword.

"I'll be." Buffy says with a disbelieving shake of her head.

"If you're a good little Slayer. Maybe Santa Claus will bring you your own little play pretties for Christmas." Kelly states with a smirk as they continue on patrol.

Buffy's eyes light up and she looks over at Kelly. "You can do that for other people?" Buffy asks with an unbelievably bright smile on her face.

'God, she is absolutely stunning.' Kelly thinks to herself looking at the smile on Buffy's face. She mentally shakes her head and smiles back at Buffy. "Yes, I can do it. But, uhh, I need blood so I can 'key' the items into your essence so that you will be the only one that can see or use them. Well, that's not entirely true, unfortunately because I do the spell, I can always see them and use the items. I haven't figured out a way around that, yet." Kelly states that last part, as if she is still trying to puzzle it out.

"How much blood would you need?" Buffy hesitantly asks Kelly.

"Depends on how many items I will be doing the spell on. A couple drops will let me do roughly ten items." Kelly states calmly. "If you're not comfortable with giving me the blood, I can use your hair, the only thing is I have to work it into the items that the spells will be done on which isn't permanent. The hair will usually be dislodged sometime or another. Where as the spell will let the blood soak into the items and be permanent."

Buffy thinks about it for a few moments while they finish patrolling and start to head back to her house. "I don't see a problem with giving you some of my blood. Do you need any other supplies to do the spell? Wills and I can pick up what you need tomorrow at the Magic Box if you do need anything else."

"I believe I have everything else I need. But I'll double check my supplies" Kelly smiles as they walk up to the front door. "For the Hellmouth, I expected it to be a lot busier. We fought those three vampires and that…orange demon with two heads? What the heck was that thing?"

Buff laughs and shakes her head. "Your guess is as good as mine. I'll see if Willow can research it for me later on this weekend. Maybe she can find out what it was. At least you had your sword and was able to take the heads off. The hidey spell on stuff would be great. It's kind of hard to carry a sword around with me – not exactly easy to explain." Buffy laughs as she takes off her jacket and hangs it up heading into the kitchen to grab a water.

"That's the main reason I created that spell. Makes life a lot simpler. Thanks." Kelly says smiling at Buffy when she throws her a water. They both sit down at the island in the kitchen drinking their waters.

"Well, I can honestly say that I would be more than happy to have you patrol with me whenever you want. You can hold your own and you would keep me company. Makes for a happier slayer." Buffy smirks.

"I'll do my best, Mighty Mouse." Kelly laughs as she gets up and throws her empty water bottle in the trash. "I'm gonna go and check my supplies to make sure I don't need anything. I probably need to see Anya and give her some money to go towards future supplies and orders. After I'm done I'll probably hop in the shower."

Buffy follows her up the stairs. "I'm going to take a quick shower while you're checking your stuff and get some of the cemetery filth off me. See you in the morning."

"Night, Buffy. Sweet dreams" Kelly says with a slight smile heading into her bedroom as Buffy heads into the bathroom.

Willow is lying in bed looking lovingly at Tara sleeping in her arms. 'Goddess, she is so beautiful. I don't know what I ever did to deserve her. Hmmm, I still owe her for the other night.' Willow grins mischievously as she slowly eases Tara over onto her back and starts to gently kiss along Tara's neck down to her collar bone where she gently licks and then sucks on her pulse point. 'Oh, my. She tastes so good. Oooh, I think she's waking up.'

Tara groans and slowly eases one of her blue eyes open and looks at certain hackers red head that is slowly working its way down her neck towards her chest.

"Mmm. Sweetie? What'cha' doin'?" Tara smirks looking into the green eyes that look up and wink at her.

"If you don't know what I'm doing, I must not be doing it right." Willow grins at her lover and leans up to give her a long loving kiss. "I still owe you for the other night. And since I woke up early this morning…"

Willow gently moves to hover over Tara while gently spreading Tara's thighs with her knees and proceeds to nibble her way back down Tara's neck while lightly running her hand down Tara's side to her hip, grasping it firmly. "Do you have any idea how much I love you? How happy it makes me to be able to touch you? Kiss You? Just be with you?" Willow slowly kisses her way across her lover's breasts. "Mmmm luscious breasts. I could spend all day worshipping your breasts."

"Ooohh, honey. I would love for you to spend all day…" Tara stops, grabbing the back of Willow's head and groans as Willow gently bites down on the nipple she had been kissing. "Yesssss." Tara hisses.

Willow grins around the nipple and kisses her way over to the other nipple and proceeds to give it the same treatment. Slowly running her hand down the outside of Tara's thigh and then back up the inside of her lover's thigh to gently cup her sex.

"Oooh, someone seems to be extremely aroused right now. Would you happen to know who that person is?" Willow asks naughtily while lightly stroking between her lovers lips and the dampness therein.

Tara flips Willow over onto her back and attacks the hacker's neck with lips, tongue and teeth. "Do you know how much you turn me on, baby? Do you know with just a word from you I melt inside? I believe you've done enough teasing this morning. I want you. And I want you now." Tara growls at Willow.

Willow smirks and says "Why didn't you say so, honey? All you had to do was ask." She grins as she reaches inside Tara with two fingers and flicks her thumb over Tara's clit. "Oh, Goddess. You are so wet."

"More." Tara moans loudly into Willow's neck. And groans as Willow adds a third finger to her stroking. Tara is rocking against Willow's hand almost roughly now. As Willow curls her middle finger inside Tara rubbing over her g-spot over and over again Tara finally screams out as her orgasm takes over.

Willow continues stroking Tara gently. Slowing down her movements as Tara collapses half on her, prolonging her pleasure as long as possible.

"Oh, Goddess, what you do to me Willow." Tara pants as she finally is able to speak while gently kissing Willows shoulder as she gently shifts to lie beside Willow.

Willow smiles and wraps both her arms around Tara. "I would gladly do that to you every morning for the rest of both our lives, love."

Tara grins "Only in the morning, huh? What about afternoon, evening, nighttime, midnight…"

Willow laughs as she rolls over to half lie on top of Tara while tickling her ribs. "Well, there are so many other things I can do to you during the afternoon, evening, nighttime, midnight hours. I don't want to do the same thing all the time, now do I?"

Tara laughs at Willow and wraps her arms around her tightly. "I love you, sweetie. You're my always." And gently kisses Willows lips while running one hand through the red hair that she loves so much. "Mmm, I would love to stay with you like this all day. However, I believe we should probably get showered, pick up breakfast and head on over to Buffy's." Willow huffs at that comment. "If we head for the shower now, I'll be more than happy to…" Tara proceeds to whisper the rest in Willows ear.

Willow's eyes get rounder and rounder as Tara tells her all the naughty things she's going to do to her in the shower and jumps up, grabbing Tara's hand saying "come on, times a wasting. We need to get showered and all cleaned up. Yep, come on slow poke."

Tara laughs as Willow literally pulls her out of the bed towards the bathroom. If they're lucky they won't be too terribly late to Buffy's house.

"Oh! Look at who finally decides to show up" Kelly smirks at Tara and Willow walking into the house at 9:45.

"But we come bringing food and mochas" Willow smiles swinging bags from her hands and looks at Tara who's carrying the mocha's.

"Always of the good" Buffy laughs coming down the stairs. "Especially since you said you were bringing it!!"

"Hmm, Donuts and… Oooh, bagels and cream cheese. I know what I'm gonna be having" Kelly says grabbing the bags and heading to the kitchen and the toaster. "Who else wants toasted bagels? YUMMY – you got some of the ones with everything. Dibs!"

Willow makes a point of looking at her fingers and counting them. "Whew, I was worried there for a minute that I might be short a finger or two."

Tara leans in close and whispers in Willow's ear "That would be very, very bad. I love Willowhand and Willowfingers."

Buffy was standing right behind Willow and Tara shaking her head. "You know what? I'm starting to realize I must have really been in my own world all these years. You two are horn dogs, aren't you?" Buffy smirks and heads into the kitchen yelling at Kelly "You better leave me some of that food!"

Willow blushes lightly looking to Tara and Tara just grins and kisses her lightly on the lips, "Can't argue with that." She says smirking lightly and smacking Willow on the butt before following Buffy and Kelly into the kitchen.

"We'll call you to meet up later for dinner and a movie. Don't you two do anything we wouldn't" Tara says to Willow and Buffy as they're heading out the door to go shopping.

"You sure this is all you need from the Magic shop?" Buffy asks Kelly waving the list of items along with the money in her hand.

"Yep, that's all I need for your stuff. I'll visit the shop later on in the week to talk to Anya and get other items I may need for future use. Thanks for getting the ingredients." Kelly quirks a small smile at Buffy in thanks.

"No problem, especially since these are being used to help me out, just wish you would let me pay for them" Buffy shakes her head thinking about the argument they had that morning and just laughs and waves goodbye as they head out.

Tara looks at Kelly watching Buffy walk away with a look that could only be considered infatuated on her face. She bumps Kelly on the shoulder and says with a small grin "You've got it bad, don't you?"

"Wha? Huh?" Kelly says still watching Buffy until she walks out of sight and shakes her head looking at Tara. "What did you say?"

As they walk back into the house shutting the door behind them Tara laughs loudly and says "I said, you've got it bad, don't you?"

Kelly looks at Tara with an embarrassed grin on her face. "You have no idea." She flops down heavily into the corner of the couch with a loud sigh. "Probably completely hopeless anyway. Oh, well. Onto the shitty conversation. You sure you really want to have this conversation?" Kelly asks Tara with a half hearted grin and sad look in her eyes.

Tara looks into Kelly eyes and nods that the conversation does need to take place. "You or me first?"

"You?" Kelly asks with a pleading note in her voice.

Tara nods and gets this slight far away look in her eyes and proceeds to tell Kelly about her life after Kelly had left. How their mom had gotten sick. Dad had convinced her that she was a demon. How her father and brother had mentally abused her and Donnie had smacked her around some, thankfully not really bad. How their mother died when she was seventeen and she escaped home to come to Sunnydale to college when she was eighteen. Meeting Willow, Buffy and the rest of the gang. How Dad, Donnie and Beth had come and tried to take her back home before her twentieth birthday and how Buffy had stood up for her and said she was family, with the rest of the group backing her up. How much she loves Willow. The problems they had and how they overcame those problems and have been together ever since.

Somewhere in the midst of telling Kelly about the past she had ended up lying down on the couch with her head in Kelly's lap with her sister running her fingers soothingly through her hair while they both cried and laughed through the telling. Tara thinks to herself how this seems so familiar, except with herself running her fingers through Dawn's hair when she was upset and hurting.

Taking a deep breath she pushes up and gives Kelly a tight hug. "Want something to drink while we take a break?"

"Can I ask you something?" Kelly asks looking at Tara. Tara nods her head in acquiesce while they walk into the kitchen. "You aren't holding anything back about the time at home, were you? Nothing else happened?"

Tara stops and looks deeply into Kelly's worried eyes wondering to herself exactly what Kelly is trying to say without saying it. She shakes her head and says "no, nothing else happened. I'm not holding anything back. Why?"

Kelly looks away and her shoulders relax. She reaches over to the refrigerator and grabs a diet for herself and glances back at Tara asking her what she wants to drink and grabs a water out for her when she answers.

"Let's take this back into the living room." Kelly quietly states as she heads into the living room and moves to sit in a chair kind of isolating herself from Tara.

"That's not going to work, Kelly." Tara states with a frown on her face.

"What?" Kelly asks looking up at Tara and seeing the frown on her face she takes a deep breath and moves back over to the couch, to her previous position. "You aren't going to let me distance myself, are you?"

"No. Whatever it is, we will get through it together. We're together now, family. I want it to stay that way, okay?" Tara makes it more a statement than a question while reaching over and taking Kelly's hand in hers.

"I…" Kelly hesitates and looks into Tara's blue eyes and shakes her head looking up as if for help. "I haven't ever really talked to anyone about it before, Tara. I've kept it pretty much locked up inside me for a long time and I don't really know how to even begin talking about it. Especially to you. You're my baby sister and I have this urge to protect you from the seedier side of this world. I know, I know. Even with everything you've been through I still have this uncontrollable urge to keep this from you."

Tara almost seems to hesitate and looks down for a moment before looking back up into Kelly's eyes. "I don't know if this will make it easier or harder. But I was downstairs the night you came back in from the barn after Dad made you go out there. I saw that you were moving slowly and I could see the pain in your aura." Tara stops, biting her lip and looks away for a moment before whispering "I saw your clothes soaked with blood."

Kelly looks at her in shock and then closes her eyes for a moment taking in a deep shuddering breath. "I never wanted you to know anything about what happened. Ever. You're a gentle soul that should only know love and happiness. Not heartache and pain." Kelly opens her tear-filled eyes and gently pushes some hair behind Tara's ear.

"I guess I should start at the beginning. It started when I was 12, I guess he realized I was maturing. He never said or did anything around the rest of the family, but he would always find some excuse to follow me out to the barn when I fed the animals or cleaned out the stalls. He made me believe that it was my fault, that somehow I was to blame for what he did. The … sexual abuse became more physical abuse the older I got. It was bad, but not so bad as to break my skin or leave any kind of marks that couldn't be covered by clothes. Until right before my birthday. Maybe he realized that I was planning on leaving and it infuriated him so much he didn't have any control. That night he took the whip to me." Kelly stops and looks at Tara and sees the horror on her face and the tears running down her cheeks. Kelly gently reaches out and wipes some of the tears off her face. "Don't cry, Sis. It was a long time ago. That bastard just needs to be thankful he never hurt you. If he had he would be counting down his last minutes on this earth before I sent him to hell." Kelly cocks her mouth in a semblance of a smile at the thought of beating the old man into a pulp. "That night mom knew something was wrong and was waiting in my room for me. She cleaned me up and started the healing process as much as she could. She was so distraught she couldn't do much, but she stopped the worst of the bleeding. I don't think I would have made it if it wasn't for her. Then I took off on my birthday and joined the Marines. I've been fighting for our country and fighting demons since. Even had a few love interests in my spare time," Kelly smirks at that, thinking in particular about Sam.

"Show me, please" Tara whispers looking at Kelly with sorrow filled eyes.

"Tara…" Kelly looks and sees the determined look coming over Tara's face and just shakes her head as she stands up glancing out the front window and reaches over closing the drapes and turns on the lights in the living room. "Are you sure?" Kelly asks hesitating until she receives the nod from Tara and then untucks and pulls her t-shirt off.

Tara slowly gets up from the couch and walks around Kelly to look at her back. "Oh, Goddess" she exclaims in a broken hearted whimper looking at Kelly's scarred back. The criss crossing of the scars that completely covers her sisters back. Tara gently reaches out and runs her shaking fingers over one of the worse ones that is raised higher than the other ones.

Kelly turns around after Tara pulled her hand away and puts her shirt back on before reaching out for Tara and pulling her into a gentle hug. Tara just cries broken heartedly holding onto Kelly for dear life. Kelly gently rocks her back and forth. "It's okay. It's okay, Tare. It was a long time ago. I'm all right, you're all right. That's what matters most." Kelly pulls back a little with Tara still in her arms as Tara finally starts to calm down. "Here, sit down. I'll be right back."

Kelly runs to the bathroom and grabs a washcloth and wets it with cold water, bringing it back so Tara can wash her face and cool her swollen red eyes.

"Thanks." Tara gratefully takes the wash rag and gently wipes her face and holds it for a few minutes against her eyes.

"Can't have you going out all red faced and puffy-eyed to meet that firebrand girlfriend of yours. She would probably think I was being mean to you and then she would want to kick my ass. Or maybe she would have Buffy…" Kelly trails off on that note thinking about having Buffy kick her ass. 'Hmmm, may not be such a bad thing having her kick my ass.' Kelly smirks to herself picturing that.

Tara can't help it and busts out laughing, watching the different emotions crossing Kelly's face. 'She is definitely smitten with Buffy. Probably time to lighten things up anyway.'

"What are you laughing at little girl?" Kelly asks in a mock stern voice. "It isn't nice to laugh at your elders, you know that right?"

Tara shakes her head smiling from ear to ear. "You are completely taken with Buffy, aren't you?"

Kelly tilts her head to the side and a genuine happy smile comes across her face as she thinks about it. "Taken isn't the word for it, sis. I know it probably seems impossible with the short period of time that I've known her, but I have completely fallen head over heels. I probably don't have a snowballs chance in hell of her ever returning the feelings, but what the hell. Maybe I'll luck out and she'll decide she wants to bat for the home team and want to do it with an 'older' woman; that older woman being myself, of course." Kelly grins and just shakes her head like yeah, like that will ever happen.

Tara smiles at Kelly and shakes her head. "Honestly, I have to say that I have only seen Buffy interested in guys before. But I also have to state the fact that I have never seen her smile, laugh or joke as much as I have in the last few days since you've been here. As for falling in love in a short period of time…" Tara hesitates, thinking about Willow and her first meeting at the Wicca group. "I fell in love with Willow within 15 minutes of meeting her. Willow was never interested in women before me, either. So maybe, just maybe Buffy just never met the woman that would make her consider jumping the fence before now. Hell, as Willow said last night, if Buffy can date a vampire, it should be easy to get her to date a woman." Tara laughingly states watching the hope spring up in Kelly's eyes.

"Wait a minute, she dated a vampire? A vampire slayer and a vampire. That just seems wrong. Talk about mixing oil and water." Kelly shakes her head wonderingly.

"Well, Angel actually had a soul, if that helps at all. I don't believe any of Buffy's relationships have been exactly good for her. But, I don't really feel comfortable talking about that. It would probably be best for you to discuss it with Buffy. If you two ever get to that point." Tara states with a small frown, hoping that Kelly understands what she is trying to say.

"Tare, no problem. I don't want to cause any friction with you telling stories out of school, per se. Actually, Buffy and I have been having this question and answer thing going on for whenever anything comes up that we want to talk about. Maybe I can work up to it somehow or another." Kelly says with a little smile and a glint in her eyes thinking about how she can get that conversation going.

Tara just grins and shakes her head. "You are rotten to the core, aren't you?" Tara looks at the clock and realizes it's after 3 o'clock in the afternoon. "My goodness, we've been talking for almost five hours straight. Why don't I go and straighten up my make-up and make sure I look okay and then we can go do a little shopping before we decide to meet Buffy and Willow later. I want to pick out something for Willow that she doesn't know about for Christmas and this would be the perfect time to do it, what do you say?"

"I'm there. I'm always up for some shopping. Anyway, I need you to point me in the right direction for gifts for everyone. And before you say it, I'm gonna buy stuff with or without your help. So, I would suggest you help me that way I'm not buying inappropriate gifts for everyone. You never know what I might put in peoples stockings as stocking stuffers for Christmas" Kelly states wiggling her eyebrows at Tara.

Tara can't help but laugh at Kelly. "With you I probably wouldn't be too shocked. And if you decided to buy anything naughty for Anya and Xander, you would probably make Anya's day." Tara hesitates thinking about it for a moment. "Then again, you would probably have a hard time finding something she didn't already have." Tara stops shaking her head thinking to herself 'scary visual place, need to stop thinking about this now.'

Kelly gets an evil grin on her face. "What about you, sis? Anything special I should put in Willow's stocking this year from Santa?"

Tara stops halfway up the stairs and turns around looking at Kelly with a slightly horrified look on her face and shakes her finger at Kelly. "You wouldn't dare."

Kelly just smiles from ear to ear with a mischievous look in her eyes. "Well, maybe I would and maybe I wouldn't. I guess it all depends on what kind of mood I'm in at the time."

Tara shakes her head and looks upwards toward the heavens. "Why me? What did I ever do to deserve this? Goddess, I have a feeling that you have sent your own little mischief maker here to drive us all crazy."

Kelly laughs heartily at Tara and gently turns her around to give her the hint to continue walking up the stairs. "Get your butt in gear sis, if you want to do some shopping. I want to put on a different shirt and grab those new boots I bought and wear them today."

"Yeah, just what you need. Something to make you taller." Tara laughingly states, heading into the bathroom.

"Hey, they make my ass look good!!" Kelly yells as she enters the bedroom. 'I can definitely use all the help I can get, if I want a certain little blonde to take notice.'

"So, how is the new roomie and you getting along?" Willow asks looking out of the corner of her eye to watch Buffy. They were walking into the Espresso Pump to have another mocha before heading to the Magic Box and then spend the day shopping the other little stores around town.

Buffy grins as she opens the door to let Willow in ahead of her. "She can cook, she's funny, very outspoken, in a good way, not in an Anya way. Even though she does like to say stuff occasionally for the shock value. I think, no I know things were very rough on her at home before she left." Buffy stops and frowns thinking about that for a moment hoping that one day Kelly may want to talk more in depth about that time. "And…" Buffy hesitates looking at Willow for a moment.

"And… What Buffy?" Willow asks wondering what else Buffy was going to say since Buffy had this worried look on her face. "You know I love you, right?"

They stop and place their orders for mochas and grab them to take them to a table in the back to sit down and continue their conversation.

"Damn it, Willow. I like her." Buffy blurts out, looking down at her coffee.

Willow grins from ear to ear, with her tongue slightly poking out from between her teeth. Buffy glances up and sees that grin on her face and shakes her head. "Why are you grinning like that for? You would think you won the lottery from the look on your face."

"As far as I'm concerned, I have." Willow laughs looking at Buffy.

"But…I've never liked another woman before. What am I supposed to do? What if she doesn't like me? She's gorgeous, tall, her eyes are that deep brown, but they have green circles in them that distract me when we're talking. God, when we talk, having a serious conversation, she seems so…intent. And my God, she's built. Did you notice her…" Buffy stops and realizes she has her hands out in front of her like she's gripping and releasing something in front of her and quickly puts her hands down beneath the table with a blush on her face.

By then Willow is laughing so hard she can't speak. She holds up her hand to keep Buffy from saying anything while she gets control of herself. "That was Willowbabble worthy." Willow says with a soft smile on her face, finally having gotten control of her laughter. "Buffy, let me see if I can remember all your questions, statements and whatever you said. Let's see, something about not ever liking a woman before – I never liked a woman before Tara, either. But I love Tara with all my heart and can't see myself with anyone else. Personally, Buffy, I don't think it's the sex of the person, but the person themselves. Give it a chance, if it doesn't wig you out too much, and I would assume with the grasping motions, that it doesn't….." Willow grins at Buffy.

"Ugghh." Buffy states blushing even redder and looks down, grabbing her mocha to have a sip to keep from having to say anything.

Willow just grins some more at the slayer. "Let's see, what else did you say? Something about does she even like you? I would say that is a definite yes. She likes you, my goodness, she's flirting with you almost non-stop Buffy! Anybody can tell that she likes you. Yes, she is gorgeous and has an extremely nice rack. And if you even think about telling Tara that I've noticed her sister's rack, I will disown you for the rest of my life and never talk to you again! Do you understand me?" Willow states with mock seriousness.

Buffy looks up at that and grins. "Well, if nothing else, it might be bribe worthy at a later date." Buffy laughs heartily and Willow's eyes getting big and round.

"You wouldn't dare! Would you?" Willow almost whines with a pleading look in her eyes.

"Don't worry Willow. I'm probably going to be coming to you for all kinds of help with questions on what to do, how to act and God only knows what else." Buffy states with an almost terrified look in her eyes. "How am I supposed to act around her? What am I supposed to say? Willow!"

Willow reaches over and grabs Buffy's hand and holds it, trying to calm her down. "Buffy, just act normally. If she likes you, which I'm sure she does, she likes you being yourself. Say what comes naturally. You know how to flirt, Buffy. You flirt all the time with guys. This time it just happens to be a woman. There's nothing different."

Buffy raises an eyebrow at that last statement. "Uh, Willow. I hate to tell you this, but there are definitely some things that are different between women and men. If you don't know that by now, we need to have a serious talk." Buffy smirks at Willow.

"Buffy!" Willow whines. "You know what I meant. Flirting, flirting. There is no difference in how you flirt with a woman from how you flirt with a man. Why do I even bother? You're hopeless." By then Willow is lightly banging her forehead with the heel of her hand and shaking her head.

Buffy just laughs, feeling much better having talked with Willow about the feelings that Kelly's stirring up inside her. So glad that Willow doesn't seem to have any problems with her possibly dating a woman… 'Me, dating a woman. Not something I ever really thought about before. But maybe, just maybe I should give it a chance.' By the end of her inner monologue she has a heart-stopping smile on her face and is gazing off in the distance.

Willow shakes her head watching the emotions cross Buffy's face. 'Whether Buffy realizes it yet or not, I think she's already fallen a little in love with Kelly. Goddess knows she needs someone that will be there for her. Not someone that's bad for her, like Angel and Spike. Or someone that feels like they always have to be in competition with her, like Riley. Ooh, that reminds me.'

"Buffy, not to get off track here, but how did patrol go last night?" Willow asks wondering if Kelly might be all 'macho woman' in a Riley sort of way.

"You wouldn't believe it. Kelly has this spell that makes all her weapons invisible. You can't even feel it unless she actually has hold of it. I was fighting three vampires in the cemetery and she was sitting on top of a tombstone watching me when I yelled over to her to ask if she was going to help. Of course, I didn't really need any help, they were all relatively newly risen. You won't believe it, but she basically said that she knew I was the slayer, with all the powers and strength to fight demons, that she could never compete with something like that. But since I asked, she hopped down and proceeded to fight one of the vampires and took its head off with the invisible sword. It was so cool. While she was holding the sword I could feel it, but once she put it away, I couldn't even detect it in her jacket. You know, she's not like anyone else I know. It isn't a competition with her or testosterone. It's just seems to be something she does. Like she likes to help out but doesn't want to be in the way. Then we came across this demon that I was fighting and I stabbed it with my stake like 10 times, but it didn't seem to phase it, then she took it's head off with her sword, thank God it decided to actually die then." Buffy shakes her head thinking about the night before and how unpretentious Kelly seemed.

"Thank the Goddess. That was something I was wondering. You didn't need someone that would think they had to be in competition with you, like past boyfriends." Willow gets a glint in her eye looking at Buffy. "She sounds perfect, she has to be evil. Run away as fast as you can, Buffy. She's human, she doesn't seem to want to be in competition with you, she's gorgeous, has a great sense of humor, and guess what else?" Willow asks while Buffy just grins shaking her head at the hacker.

"What else, Will?" Buffy asks wondering what else the red head could say.

"She's knows about the things that goes bump in the night, is an asset and she's family. After all, she's Tara's sister. You would have your own Maclay to love and hold and have unlimited smoochies with. I mean, I know how much I enjoy having my smoochies with Tara, and if Kelly is even half as good a kisser as her, watch out! It's been years since you've had anyone to have a smooch fest with. It's about time you got on with it, girl!" Willow laughs as Buffy wads up her napkin and throws it at her.

"Let's go do some shopping. If we keep talking about smooch fests, you'll want to head back to the house and grab Tara and disappear for the rest of the day. And I need to go get these ingredients for the spell at the Magic Box, since Kelly is going to make some of my weapons invisible for me. Then we need to finish shopping for the rest of the group. I need to figure out what to get Kelly for Christmas. Maybe I'll ask Anya to keep an eye on her to see if there's anything she notices her looking at when she gets to the shop." Buffy states more to herself than Willow.

Willow just grins and grabs her jacket to head out and continue their day.

"So, you want me to hide the stuff you bought Willow for Christmas at Buffy's? You know she will find them if you keep them at your house!" Kelly laughs at Tara thinking about Willow sneaking around the house looking for her gifts.

"You have no idea! Last year I had to keep the presents at the Magic Box till the night before. I've learned over the years that she is relentless. She can't stand to have someone keep a secret from her." Tara stops looking ahead of her and grins. She turns at looks at Kelly "Can you take these bags and put them with yours? I see a certain redhead and blonde coming this way and I don't really want her to know that I've gotten something."

Kelly looks up and sees Buffy and Willow heading their way. It doesn't look like they've seen them yet, since they stopped and were looking in a window. "Here, give them to me real quick – they have lockers right down the side here. I'll put them in there and come back later to get them."

Tara grins and hands her bags over. "Thanks Sis."

Kelly nods and runs off with the bags, depositing in the lockers and pocketing the keys to the lockers.

Tara hooks her arm through Kelly's as they head towards Buffy and Willow.

"Oh. My. GOD." Buffy exclaims with her eyes going wide and her jaw dropping.

Willow turns and looks at Buffy "What is wrong with you?" She turns to look in the same direction that Buffy is looking and starts laughing after her eyes about pop out of her head, too.

Tara and Kelly are walking towards them and Kelly is wearing skin-tight black hip-hugger jeans, a short black leather jacket with a red silk shirt unbuttoned halfway down showing off cleavage and the black lace bra that she's wearing underneath it. Willow quickly closes her eyes and shakes her head to get the image out of her mind. Can't have Tara getting upset with her, nope, can't have that.

Tara sees the way Willow and Buffy are looking at Kelly and bumps into Kelly's side grinning. "I think you've broken both of them."

Kelly smirks and looks down at Tara "You think so? I don't know what might have caused it."

Tara laughs out loud, "Oh, the extreme showing of the cleavage, the tight jeans, the boots, the leather jacket, lipstick that matches your shirt? Beautiful woman walking towards Willow with breasts will usually make her look. My baby is a definite breast gal!"

Kelly looks at Tara with a little grin and says. "Oops? I'm not going to get her in trouble, am I?"

"Goddess, no. It will just give me something to tease her about and…" Tara hesitates and gets a devilish grin on her face. "I'll also get some major hot loving out of it too, if I know my redhead."

"Oooh, Tara's gonna get some hot monkey sex tonight!" Kelly teases.

"Damn straight." Tara replies with an unrepetenant grin.

By this time Tara and Kelly have reached the other two and Willow is making sure to keep her eyes on Tara, while Buffy just has a glazed look in her eyes while looking chest level at Kelly.

Willow glances to Buffy and sees she's still out of it, so she bumps her hard and whispers in her ear "Buffy, wipe the drool off your chin and say something!"

Buffy shakes her head quickly reaching up with her hand to wipe her chin and is embarrassed to see there actually was drool on it. "Uhh, fancy running into you two here?!"

Willow eases over to Tara and leans in to give her a loving kiss as Tara pulls back slightly and looks Willow in the eye stating "Don't think I didn't notice where your eyes were young woman."

Willow's eyes get real big and round "But, but…I didn't….Honey….But…were there…and…I love you!" She stutters out with a slight whimper.

Tara let's her lover stew for a few moments before leaning in and giving her the loving kiss she was looking for before and then pulls back with a big grin on her face. "I know you do honey. And I knew the first place you would be looking when I saw Kelly walk out of her bedroom wearing that outfit!" Tara pulls Willow slightly away from Kelly and Buffy and quietly asks "What surprises me is Buffy, what's up there?"

Willow gets a huge grin on her face and leans in whispering in her ear "Buffy lik