Willow's POV

Where is she? She's always here before midnight. She never stays out past midnight, not even to study. Staying out after dark is a risky thing to do in this town, unless you're a slayer. Even with the dwindling demon population it's still not a good idea. I went by the library just to see if she was there... nothing. Where could Tara have gone? It's starting to really bother me. She hasn't called, there was no note waiting for me when I came home. I suppose I could do a locator spell but...

There's a knock on the door and I jump out of my seat at the edge of the bed, near sprinting to the door and opening it.

"Tara?"

It isn't until I speak Tara's name that it clicks in that Tara would never knock on her own door.

"No, Willow it's just me. Tara's not here?"

"No, she's not I... Joyce, what are you doing here?"

"Well, I couldn't just sit at home and wait to see if my eldest daughters came home on their own, so I went out looking for them."

"Did you find them?"

"No, but I found myself searching near the campus, so I thought I'd stop in and see if you'd heard from them... and maybe check on Tara."

Check on Tara?

"Oh, well I haven't heard from them but please come in."

I move out of the doorway and let Joyce in. I close the door and follow her in.

"So Tara is feeling better?"

"Hmm?"

"At dinner, you said Tara wasn't feeling well."

"Oh, right... yeah, I, she's feeling better."

Joyce looks at me with a concerned smile.

"Is everything all right between you two?"

"I, I don't know... I don't think so but, well she's not here so I can't ask her."

Her concerned smile quickly turns to just concern.

"What happened?"

"It's not important. There are bigger things going on."

"Willow? What happened?"

I take a deep breath.

"It was... the spell."

Joyce's smile returns slightly I'm sure only for sympathy.

"Ever since the spell, things have been, different between us."

"I'm sorry..."

"I mean... I know what we did was wrong. I know that bringing Buffy back from where she was makes it so much worse but... can't we just, get past it somehow? Can't we just learn from it and move on or something?"

She puts her hand on my shoulder.

"I don't know... we all knew there would be consequences to what happened. Tara might not get over this, then again she might. You'll just have to hope that she does."

"But I love her."

"Then you'll just need to give her time."

"I, I don't want to. Isn't there just some way I can just make it all better? Just like that?"

Her sympathy face makes me realize how bad an idea that is.

"I know, there isn't. I just wish things could be better now."

She pulls me into a hug for comfort and it does, sorta.

"Tell ya what? Why don't you come with me and we can check some of Tara's hangouts? See if we can find her?"

"Okay..."

We start to head to the door.

"All right, let's go looking for Tara."

I just want things to be better between us... soon.

Buffy's POV

I grab the neck of her shirt and pull us into the house, kissing her as much as I can before she crushes me against the wall next to the stairs. I put my hand up against the wall as she grabs my thighs and hoists me up against it.

"Mmm, Buffy..."

"Ssh..."

I push myself off the wall and wrap my arms around her neck to lead her to the stairs. We fall on the stairs, making out intense-like.

This feels so good. It's the first good thing I've ever felt since...

"Buffy... Buffy you feel so..."

"Ssh, don't speak..."

We start to make our way up the stairs, stumbling and groping along the way. She tries to speak between tongue wrestlings.

"It's just... it's been so long since, I... since we..."

"You mean, you haven't..."

We make it halfway up the stairs.

"Never... I would never, do that... to..."

"Ssh, no talking... just kiss me..."

We get to the last few steps and we trip over it on to the floor. I grab her by the shirt and we pull ourselves to our feet. I push her into the wall outside my bedroom door. All of the sudden she comes walking down the hall toward the stairs. Faith and I are a little too wrapped up in our own thing to really care what she's doing. I shove my hand up Faith's shirt to grab her breast.

"God can't you guys at least wait until you get in the room before you do that stuff?"

We stop kissing each other long enough to have the same thought.

"Shut up Dawn."