Ghost Story
Nov. 19th, 2004 11:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I started writing this because I badly needed a change from my NaNo
thing, but didn't want to lose momentum by ceasing to write entirely.
So I wrote slashfic. I had this idea of stealing an element from
Hex, so I did. And then I noticed that LJ said that faithtastic's birtday was close, so I had a look at her LJ
interests to see what she might like, and based on that I put Captain
Janeway in the fic. The rest is silliness.
Happy birthday, faithtastic. If you like this, then
it's a present for you :-)
Ghost Story
Written by Calle Dybedahl
For Tara, death became much less boring after she found that she could
enter people's dreams.
Before that, all that she could do was to hang around the Summers
house. She couldn't touch anyone, which was terribly frustrating. Her
body just passed through theirs when she tried to hug them. She could
touch things, though, so she might have played the poltergeist and
thrown stuff around. But she was far too polite for that. Mostly she
cleaned stuff up, and put the things that Buffy and Dawn dropped back
where they should be.
Of course, nobody ever noticed that enough to suspect they had a
ghost. Not even when she, in a rare fit of pique, had the stereo play
nothing but k. d. lang for three days straight. Someone turned it off,
she turned it back on. They tried to change the CD, she held the
player shut. They tried to pull the plug, she put it back in.
Eventually, Buffy got pissed off and put her fist through the
stereo.
There wasn't much Tara could do about that.
When the summer ended, Willow came back to Sunnydale. She was in a bad
state, and spent a lot of time in her bed staring at the ceiling. At
those times, Tara would sit next to her on the bed, wishing more than
anything that she could hold her bereaved girlfriend in her arms, even
if just for a few moments. But she couldn't, and as Willow cried and
whispered her name she could do nothing but sit there and watch how
her own tears fade out of existence before they even hit the blankets.
One time, she tried writing "Tara loves Willow" in the fog on the
bathroom mirror while Willow was showering. She'd hoped it'd make
Willow feel better, but all it did was to make the poor girl freak out
so bad she refused to leave her bedroom for a week.
Tara didn't do that again.
As time passed, Willow got better. She returned to what passed for
normal life in Sunnydale. There were vampires, yes. There was a new
big bad flexing its muscles. Anya was a demon, and then she wasn't
again. Life went on. Willow got back into school.
She still didn't sleep very well, though. More nights than not, she'd
wake up sweaty and panting in the middle of the night. It wasn't the
good kind of sweaty and panting, either.
"I so wish I could kiss you now, sweetie," Tara said. But of course
she couldn't.
She got up from the chair and walked over to the bed. She stood next
to it, looking down at her sleeping love. Her face looked so troubled.
Her forehead was so sweaty, and her brow so furrowed. Tara couldn't
stand helplessly watching her, so she left the room.
She walked through the upstairs corridor, as she had so many times
before. She walked past the room where Dawn slept, and from where an
otherworldly green light shone, visible to ghostly eyes. She walked
past the room where Buffy slept, and from in there she heard a moan.
Curious, Tara stopped. Was Buffy also having bad dreams? Or was that
another sort of moan? She pushed the door open and entered the
room.
Buffy was lying naked in her bed. This was quite obvious, since her
blanket had fallen to the side and all of the Slayer was quite
visible. She was even sleeping on her back, as if to give Tara the
best view possible.
One thing that Tara had found out about being a ghost was that there
really was no reason to resist temptation any more. If she'd still
been alive and walked in on Buffy like this, she'd be out again as if
she'd had an embarrassment-powered rocket strapped to her ass, and
she'd have blushed like crazy every time she saw Buffy for days
afterward. Which would've been awkward and unpleasant. But now? Nobody
knew she was watching. Nobody would see if she blushed. There would be
no difference if she walked out of here, except that she'd beat
herself up about missing out on some excellent fantasy material. And
thank the Goddess that she could at least still touch
herself!
Buffy's nipples were standing on attention on top of her small, pretty
breasts. She was moving her hips in a very suggestive way, and the
moans that had made Tara come in here in the first place certainly
weren't of the unpleasant kind.
It made for a terribly enticing image, altogether.
So much so that she actually felt a little like she was cheating on
Willow. Intellectually, she knew that was silly. Even though they'd
never actually done the until death do us part thing, she felt that
that was sort of implied in any relationship. She should be allowed to
do whatever she could, in her ghostly state.
But unfortunately her emotions didn't quite agree. She sat down on the
edge of Buffy's bed.
"Thanks for the lovely image, anyway," she said. She made to pat
Buffy's clenched fist. She liked to do that sort of thing sometimes,
even though it never worked. It gave her a sense of being there, now
that she was kind of used to seeing her hand passing through someone
else's.
Except this time there was a flash of white light and she suddenly
found herself elsewhere.
It was a corridor, that much was obvious. The walls were hard,
probably concrete. They were bare and painted in the kind of pale
green they like to use in hospitals. There were doors at regular
intervals, made out of metal and closed. At both ends of the corridor
were bigger, more serious-looking doors. They were painted orange.
Tara frowned. What the...?
From somewhere near, she heard a familiar-sounding moan. When she
looked closer, she noticed that one of the doors wasn't quite closed.
She walked closer. The sounds were definitely coming from inside that
room. They weren't just moans either, there were grunts and occasional
words, although she couldn't make out what was being said. There
seemed to be more than one voice, though.
She nudged the door open and looked inside.
The room was obviously some kind of prison cell, although not the kind
you saw in the movies where everybody could see in at any time. This
was a proper room, if very small, with a tiny little armored-glass
window, an iron-frame bed, a small desk and a chair. The bed was
probably meant to be up against the far corner of the room, but at the
moment it had been pulled out a foot or so. Buffy was lying on it, on
her back, stark naked. Her arms were handcuffed to the bedposts. Her
legs were spread so her knees were at the edges of the bed, her lower
legs bent down under it and her ankles cuffed together in the middle.
It looked very uncomfortable.
On the bed, between Buffy's spread-apart thighs, another girl knelt.
She was naked too, apart from a thick black leather belt with many
keys, a radio and many hooks and fasteners on it. She had
shoulder-length dark hair and much bigger breasts than Buffy. Tara
thought she looked familiar, but couldn't quite place her. Her left
hand was solidly placed on one of Buffy's breasts, kneading it
harshly. Her other hand was busy fucking Buffy with a long black
nightstick. The words Tara had heard earlier turned out to be Buffy
going "Yes!", or "Harder!", or "Don't stop!".
Well. This was, to put it mildly, interesting. Tara stayed at the
door, watching. Rough as the scene was, it was obvious that both women
were enjoying it, and watching it was turning her on. So she kept
watching.
After some time, the dark-haired girl increased the tempo with which
she pounded her nightstick into Buffy, and pretty soon after that
Buffy obviously came. She twitched so the entire bed moved, and she
screamed loud enough to be heard many rooms away.
"Liked that, did you?" the dark-haired one said. She let go of the
nightstick but left it where it was, buried to half its length in
Buffy's vagina.
"My turn now," she said. She moved around on the bed so she straddled
Buffy's head, facing towards her legs. When she turned around, Tara
saw her face.
Faith. It was Faith. Fucking Buffy in a prison bondage fantasy. Or
possibly rape fantasy. It was a bit hard to tell.
This just had to be Buffy's dream. Or nightmare.
"Oh, that's good, B," Faith sighed. She had closed her eyes, and faint
slobbering sounds came from where Faith's crotch met Buffy's
face.
"This so is why God gave you a tongue."
Tara looked on, transfixed. After Faith changed position, she had a
much better view. She could see Buffy's whole body (well, except her
face) and all of Faith (and what marvelous breasts she had!). She
could see Buffy's pussy, with the long black rod sticking out of it.
She could see the muscles in Buffy's neck move as she ate Faith out.
She really shouldn't be watching this. It was private. It was in
Buffy's head, for crying out loud.
But on the other hand she was very curious. And she was dead, so what
were they going to do anyway?
She opened the door fully and walked into the room.
"Hey, what do you know," Faith said. "Red's little girlfriend. Wanna
join in?"
"I don't know if I can," Tara said. "I've been having problems
touching things, lately."
Buffy stopped licking. Odd sounds came from her.
Faith cocked her head. "I think she wants to say something," she said.
"Do you think we should let her?"
Up close, Buffy looked even more vulnerable and enticing. There was
something appealingly vulgar about the way the nightstick extended
from her, the way the darkly golden strands of pubic hair stuck to
it.
"Go ahead," Faith said. "You won't know unless you try. And don't try
to tell me that you never wanted to cop a feel of the great and
powerful Buffy, 'cause I won't believe you."
Well, there was some truth to that. She had sometimes let her eyes
rest a few seconds longer than necessary on Buffy's posterior, even
while she was with Willow. And this was in a dream, while she was
dead. How much more of an excuse did she think she needed?
Gingerly, she put a fingertip to the inside of Buffy's thigh. It was
warm, and smooth, and wonderful. Buffy twitched.
"I can feel it!" Tara said. She grabbed hold of the thigh with her
whole hand. She could fell it! Flesh that wasn't her own!
"Cool," Faith said. "Now give her a good fondling. Or pinch her. Bitch
deserves a bit of pain."
This was Buffy's dream? It did rather make her wonder about the
Slayer's mental state. She let her hand slide up Buffy's body, from
the thigh over the hip, between the breasts to her chin. After that it
got a little too close to Faith's girly bits for her peace of
mind.
"I'm... not much for the bondage thing," Tara said. "Do you think you
could move a little, just for a moment, so I can talk to her?"
"Sure," Faith said. "If that's your kink, who am I to argue?"
She moved back a bit, and sat down leaning against the head of the
bed. She had the top of Buffy's head only an inch from her pussy, and
Tara had a very clear view of her intimate parts.
Buffy blinked and looked confused at Tara.
"Tara?" she said. "What are you doing here?"
"I'm kind of visiting, I think," she said. "Er, when you wake up,
could you do something for me?"
"What do you mean when I wake up?" Buffy said. She wasn't getting any
less confused, it looked like.
"Never mind that," Tara said. "I'll wake you up so you remember this.
I just want you to tell Willow that I still love her, and that I wish
I could hold her when she cries."
"You're not big with the making sense here," Buffy said.
"You'll understand when you wake up," Tara said. "I hope," she added.
She closed her eyes and wished as hard as she could that she'd be back
in Buffy's bedroom.
Another flash, her balance shifted so she had to catch hold of the
nearest object to keep from falling, and when she opened her eyes she
was back. Everything was exactly as when she left it. Including a very
naked Buffy on the bed in front of her.
A very naked Buffy who she needed to wake up before the dream faded.
Quickly, she grabbed a vase from the bedside table and emptied it on
Buffy's head, water, flowers and all. Then she carefully put the empty
vase back on the table while Buffy flew out of her bed, coughing and
spitting.
"See?" Tara said. "That woke you up all right."
Buffy was looking from the empty vase to the tulips in her bed.
"Ooh-kay," she said to herself. "Definitely weird."
She grabbed a bathrobe from where it had been tossed on a chair. She
put it on and headed out of the room. Tara followed. They went into
Willow's room. Their room, Tara still thought of it as. Buffy
sat down on Willow's bed and gently shook her friend awake.
"Buffy?" Willow said after she'd managed to regain some amount of
consciousness. "Is something wrong?"
"I don't think so," Buffy said. She didn't sound very sure, Tara
thought.
"You don't think so?" Willow said, so apparently Tara wasn't
alone in her opinion.
"I had this dream," Buffy said. "And Tara was in it. It was kind of
strange."
"Tara?" Willow said. "Was she all right? Strange how?"
"Well, she didn't at all fit into the dream," Buffy said.
"Oh?" Willow said. "What was the dream about?"
Buffy suddenly blushed.
"Nothing really," Buffy lied. "It had Faith in it."
"Oh," Willow said. Again. "That's no good. Do you think it was a
prophetic dream? You've had those before."
Buffy's blush intensified.
"Now that would be something," she said. "But no, I'm pretty sure it
wasn't prophetic."
"If you say so," Willow said. "But then why did you wake me up?"
"It was just that in the dream, Tara asked me to give you a message.
And I wanted to do that before I forgot."
Willow just waited.
"She said she still loves you," Buffy said. "And that she wishes she
could hold you when you cry."
Tears appeared in Willow's eyes.
"I wish she could too," she said.
In the days that followed, Tara tried out the dream thing several more
times. Buffy nearly always had highly erotic dreams, it turned out.
Some of them were very hot, like the one she'd walked in on the first
time. Some of them made her wish that she could clean out her brain
with bleach, like the one with Giles.
Dawn's dreams she couldn't enter at all. Something about her not
actually being a real human being, she guessed.
Spike dreamt about Buffy, mostly. Occasionally he dreamt about Angel,
and there was that thing with the bleach again.
Xander slept over a couple of times, and it turned out that his dreams
weren't nearly as sex-oriented as Buffy's. Also, he dreamt more than
she would've guessed about Anya.
And every night she sat by Willow's bed, wondering what she was
dreaming but afraid to find out. What if it was about herself? What if
she went in there and the first thing she saw was herself getting
shot? She was pretty sure that scene figured in Willow's dreams fairly
often.
Or what if she went in there and found Willow dreaming about somebody
else? She wasn't sure she could stand seeing Willow getting hot and
sweaty with, for example, Amy. Or Anya. Maybe if it was
Buffy. There could be a dreamy threesome...
But no. Oh, and what if it was Oz? Or somebody else with boy parts?
What if it was Giles?! Willow had said that she used to have
a crush on him, once.
It was almost two weeks before her curiosity overpowered her
nervousness. That night, Willow was smiling and making pleased little
sounds. Sounds like the ones she used to do when Tara kissed her neck,
and all of a sudden she just couldn't bear not knowing who made her
sound like that, even if only in her dreams. She walked up to the side
of the bed, knelt down and placed a kiss on Willow's forehead.
After the customary white flash, Tara found herself standing in a kind
of futuristic office. It had a desk with only a few things on it, and
it went mostly in red and gray. There was a window, and outside the
window stars passed by. She couldn't see Willow. She couldn't see
anyone, actually, but the sound of running water came from behind a
narrow door. Moments after she'd noticed the sound it stopped and the
door opened.
A stern-looking woman, closer to middle age than youth, with well-kept
brown hair and dressed in a black and red uniform walked into the
room. She raised an eyebrow when she saw Tara, but kept walking until
she'd sat down in her office chair.
"And who might you be?" she said.
Tara waved a little at her.
"Hi," she said. "I'm Tara."
"Is that your name or your species?"
"Oh," Tara said. "It's my name. Tara Maclay. I'm human. Or, at least,
I was. Before."
"And what are you doing on my ship?"
"Your...?"
Suddenly Tara recognized the place. It was from one of the TV shows
Willow liked to watch. One of the Star Trek ones, although she didn't
remember the full name. It hadn't really been to her taste, although
the captain was very attractive.
Even more so in real life than on TV, it turned out.
"Oh," she repeated. "Sorry about that. I'm looking for my
girlfriend."
The captain looked very doubtful.
"Your girlfriend?" she said.
"Yes," Tara said. "About this tall, red hair, kind of thin, very
pretty?"
Suddenly all doubt was wiped from the captain's face. Annoyance
appeared in its stead. Severe annoyance.
"Ah," she said. "Q."
"Er, what?" Tara said.
The captain stood up. She touched the badge she had fastened to her
uniform. A chirping sound issued from it.
"Janeway to Tuvok," she said.
All right, that was her name. Janeway. Captain Karin Janeway, if Tara
remembered correctly. And the ship was the Traveller, or something
like that.
"Tuvok here, Captain," a male voice said from the badge. "How can I
help you?"
"Is Q still in astrometrics?" Janeway said.
"As far as I know, Captain, but Seven turned off the cameras a little
while ago so I can no longer be certain."
Janeway's face twitched a little.
"Thank you, Tuvok," she said, her voice just as calm as before. "That
will be all."
She had a deep, sexy voice. Tara had thought so from the first time
she'd watched this show with Willow. In fact, she found all of the
captain very sexy. They'd argued playfully about that, back then. Who
was the sexiest. The captain, the black woman with the wrinkly
forehead or the curvy blonde with the painted-on clothes. Tara argued
for the captain, Willow for the...
Tara frowned. She'd just remembered something.
"Astrometrics," she said. "Isn't there where... um, she works... tall,
blonde, got a number for a name? Preposterous bust?"
"Seven of Nine," Janeway said. "Yes, it is. And what do you mean by
'preposterous'?"
Tara blushed. There had been talk of the captain's "special
relationship" with the blonde, hadn't there?
"I... I... I didn't..." she said. Or, mostly, failed to say. She
looked down. Way to insult your host, bonehead. Maybe she should just
wake up and leave Willow to her dream.
Janeway chuckled. Tara looked up, surprised. The captain was smiling
at her. So, probably not very angry.
"I do see what you mean," she said. "Seven is indeed impressively
well endowed in the curves department. I feel a bit intimidated by
her too, sometimes."
She came round the desk and took Tara's hand.
"Is Q your partner?" she asked.
Tara nodded. "Af... af... after a fashion," she said.
"I see," Janeway said. "We seem to have something in common,
then. Let's go down to astrometrics and have a look, shall we."
Still holding Tara's hand, Janeway led her out of the room.
The walked past the captain's crew without word or explanation, and
then took the lift down a long way. Tara didn't know how long, but it
took a while. Willow almost certainly knew. She had a book that was
supposed to contain all sorts of technical detail about ships like
these. Tara had always found that rather silly, but since it
obviously amused Willow she never said anything.
And right now she wouldn't have minded actually having read it.
"Astrometrics," the lift said. It sounded slightly demented.
"Here we are," Janeway said. "Please keep quiet and try not to make
any noise while you walk."
The door swooshed open. Outside was a corridor, in the same kind of
retro-futuristic style as the rest of the ship. Janeway stalked
ahead, and Tara followed. They didn't walk very far, only a few
yards, before they came to a doorway in the wall. Janeway stopped
just before it, carefully keeping out of view from inside. She
gestured to Tara to be silent and listen.
Tara listened.
"...so if you recalibrate the sensors like this, and then route the
signal through an infinitely variable vector grid, you'll be able to
detect the mechatron particles from much further away," she heard
Willow's voice say.
"I see," another voice said. The blonde with the preposterous breasts,
she assumed. "Your method is clearly superior to mine, again. You have
convincingly demonstrated your superior intellect. Accordingly, I
will accede to your request for sexual intercourse."
Tara just barely managed to stifle an astonished snort. Janeway looked
more pained than surprised.
"Told you so, baby," Willow said. "Now lose the clothes."
There was a peculiar whooshing sound.
"I never get tired of seeing that," Willow said.
Tara frowned and looked at Janeway, confused.
Janeway just put her finger to her lips, urging her to keep silent.
"Which kind of sexual activity would you like to engage in first?"
Seven said. "I have researched several new varieties since your last
visit."
"Sounds interesting," Willow said. "But to start with I just want you
to undress me. With your teeth."
"That is a most inefficient method," Seven said.
"Yes," Willow said. "But it's fun."
"Very well. I will fulfill your request."
Janeway nodded towards the lift and raised her eyebrows
questioningly. Tara nodded. This was getting to be a bit much, and if
they stayed she'd soon lose her self control and try to look. Which
she wasn't at all sure was a good idea.
Side by side, Tara and Janeway headed for the lift.
"So do they always sound like that?" Tara said.
She and Janeway had gone to the ship's mess hall, where they now sat
in the least obvious corner. Janeway had got them both coffee. Black
for her, with milk, whipped cream, sugar, chocolate syrup and
cinnamon for Tara.
"Oh no," Janeway said. "Usually there is more moaning and grunting
involved. My Seven is a quite vocal lover, when she gets going."
"Willow likes that," Tara said. Which was, she guessed, kind of
obvious. This was, after all, Willow's dream. Even if it felt very
real even in the places where Willow weren't.
"Willow," Janeway said. "Is that the name you know her by?"
"Yes," Tara said.
"Pretty name. She's Q to us."
"I gathered. That's kind of a weird name, isn't it?"
"The Q are a weird bunch of beings."
Tara decided not to ask any more about that. It had that abyss-like
feeling of a subject that, once embarked upon, would never end. She
sipped at her sort-of-coffee.
"So, um, are you and, er, Seven, like...?"
"Partners?"
"Uh-hu."
Janeway sipped her coffee. She held it hard enough that her knuckles
paled, and Tara worried a little that the cup might break.
"Yes," she said, jaw firmly set. "We are."
"So, um, you don't really... like what's going on down there?"
Janeway glared at her.
"Do you like it?" she said.
Tara stirred the cooling sludge in her coffee cup.
"Do you have any ice cream?" she said.
Janeway had ice cream. Or, rather, her ship could make it. Before she
had it do that, though, she insisted that they move from the mess hall
to her own quarters. Because of crew morale, she said. Tara thought
that she'd caught the captain looking rather lower on Tara than her
eyes a couple of times too many for her to believe that reason, but
she didn't argue. She'd been doing her best to ogle Janeway
too.
"You didn't answer my question," Janeway said as she handed Tara a
huge bowl of chocolate-chip ice cream.
Tara sighed. She'd hoped she'd got out of that one.
"No, I don't like it," she said. She was sitting on the floor of
Janeway's living room, leaning against the couch. Not for any
particular reason, it had just looked the most comfortable.
"So why don't you do anything about it?" Janeway said. She'd placed
herself on the floor too, opposite the room from Tara and leaning
against a wall. "Just walk in there and confront her?"
Tara dug her spoon into the ice cream and ingested a large bit of it.
"Well, I'm dead and all," she said once she'd swallowed it. "Can't
really barge in and demand she not dream."
"You're dead," Janeway said. She sounded doubtful.
Tara nodded. "I'm a ghost," she explained. "Have been for a few months
now."
"You feel pretty solid for a ghost."
"Well, this is all Willow's dream. I'm sort of intangible out in the
real world."
"To me she's this near-omnipotent being," Janeway said, "and no matter
how much I'd like to walk in there and kick her ass I can't.
She'd just teleport me somewhere, or make me stand there paralyzed or
whatever awful thing she might dream up."
Tara wanted to say that Willow would never do that, but unfortunately
she knew her old girlfriend too well to do that. She knew quite well
that Willow had a cruel streak that tended to show up when she thought
she could get away with it. And, of course, this wasn't even the
conscious Willow. This was dream-Willow, who probably was a whole lot
less inhibited than the waking one. And who apparently had, in this
place, awesome superpowers.
Janeway sighed. She'd relaxed a bit once they got out of the public
places, and now she looked a bit tired and down.
"I just wish I could do something," she said.
Tara got an idea. Well, not exactly got it, but rather she
thought of an excuse for an idea she'd had since pretty soon after she
entered Willow's dream. She stretched out her leg and let her foot
slide along Janeway's calf.
"I... I guess it'd be one of the things that you'd only know about
yourself but never could tell her, but you c... could make out with
her girlfriend, if you wanted."
"Are you sure?" Janeway said, in her slightly hoarse voice that seemed
to speak directly to Tara's groin.
Tara nodded. "Really sure," she said.
Before Tara quite knew what had happened, Janeway was across the room
and sitting straddling her thighs. She had her hands tangled in the
hair on the back of Tara's head, and she was kissing her as if it was
going to be outlawed. Tara paid back in kind, as well as she could
from her position. Her hands were roving over Janeway's back, and her
tongue was quite busy playing with the older woman's. She tasted,
unsurprisingly, of chocolate chip ice cream.
Janeway broke the kiss and sat up straight.
"Right here on the floor or in the bed?" she said.
Tara smiled wickedly at her.
"That's not an 'or' question," she said.
A long time later, they were lying exhausted in Kathryn's bed. Tara
knew by then that that was the captain's first name. Kathryn felt that
you really should know the full name of anybody who'd had her tongue
up your private parts, and Tara could see the sense in that. Their
clothes were still in the living room.
"I wonder what happens if I'm still here when Willow wakes up," Tara
said. "If I just get thrown out into my world when this one vanishes,
or if I get stuck here, or something else entirely."
Her head was resting on Kathryn's toned stomach. The starship captain
was in disgustingly good shape for a woman her age. It had made Tara
feel a bit inadequate at first, since she was far from in good shape.
Or, well, she hadn't been when she died and now she was sort of stuck.
"Do you want to hang around and see, or would you rather leave soon?"
Kathryn said.
Kathryn's hand was resting on one of her breasts. It felt very nice,
just having it there, warm and heavy.
"Actually, I think I'd rather go," she said. "If you don't mind."
"On one condition," Kathryn said.
"What?"
"Promise to try to come back."
Tara tilted her head as far back as it'd go and smiled at the captain.
"I promise," she said.
"Good," Kathryn said. "I think you should be going, then. Seven's
shift is over soon, and Q usually leaves then."
"All right."
She got out of the bed and went to get her clothes. A couple of
buttons had got torn off when Kathryn removed her blouse, and it
wouldn't stay quite shut. Her skirt was all wrinkled, and she had a
serious case of bed hair. All in all, she really looked like what
they'd been doing.
Which really didn't matter, since she was usually invisible anyway.
But still.
"It's been good having you here," Kathryn said. She'd got out of bed
and wrapped a robe around herself while Tara dressed, and now stood
leaning against the frame of the door to the bedroom.
"It's been good being here," Tara said. She gave the captain a quick
kiss.
She concentrated, and with a flash she was back in the real world. Or,
possibly, just her usual one.
Tara sat on Willow's bed. Her clothes and hair had returned to their
usual state when she came back, which was interesting to know.
Willow was running to and fro across the room. She'd overslept and was
now trying to do everything at once in an attempt to still get to
class on time. It didn't work, of course. It never worked, but Willow
always did it anyway.
When she was eventually done, Willow stopped for a moment in front of
her mirror. She touched the photograph of herself and Tara, side by
side and smiling in the grass.
"I miss you, sweetie," she said. "I wish I could see you again."
Tara got up from the bed and stood behind her.
"You can, love," she said. "You can."
Willow grabbed her backpack and walked out.
"Just dream a dream where you're you," Tara said to the empty room.