Liar

Rating: NC-17

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon et al own everyone in this story except Lexie, Gab and Tara, because those three are mine all mine.

Distribution: The Mystic Muse http://mysticmuse.net

If you want it, please ask me first.

Spoilers: None

Feedback: Please!

Pairing: Willow/Buffy

Lexie Rosenberg stretched out on the bed that had belonged to her mother many years or only a few days before. The witch in her cackled with glee at the sight of so many spell books and components just lying around. Everything in this room had been her mother's, and now it was Lexie's.

From the bedside table, Lexie picked up a framed photograph and studied it. She experienced a moment of shock at the sight of her very young mother laughing in the embrace of an attractive young blonde woman. Then she recovered somewhat as she remembered that the picture would have been taken before Willow used the spell that carried her across dimensions to Gab. That meant… "Tara," Lexie breathed, studying the picture even more intently. "This is Tara."

All of Lexie's life, she had grown up knowing who and what Willow's friends had been. She knew that her sister was named for Tara, Willow's lost first love, and Dawn, the Slayer's younger sister who had been like Willow's own sister. She knew that she herself was named for Buffy and for Willow's best friend since childhood, Xander Harris. She had, in fact, been called Buffy until the age of ten, when she had flatly refused to be called Buffy any more, and adopted a shortened version of her middle name, Alexis.

And now, here, finally, were all the faces attached to the names. Buffy, Dawn and Xander had been there in the room when she stepped out of the dimensional portal. And here was Tara. Lexie studied the blonde woman's face carefully, finally deciding that there was no resemblance between her and the woman Lexie had grown up calling "Mama." She put the photograph away in a drawer.

The sound of a throat clearing came from the doorway and Lexie turned to find Dawn standing there. "Oh, hey Dawn."

"Hey. Can I come in?" At Lexie's nod, Dawn entered the room and sat down on the bed, staring at Lexie. "I'm sorry," she said after a moment. "It's just so weird."

"What is?"

"Looking at you and seeing her. You look just like her, you know, except for your eyes. And her hair was shorter than yours is when she left."

Lexie nodded. "My sister looks just like me, too, except that she wears glasses and has shorter hair. And she dresses like a geek. She's such a bookworm."

"Don't you mean was?"

Lexie blinked blankly at Dawn for a moment, then suddenly remembered. "Oh. Oh, yeah. I meant was. I just… it's been so… I guess I'm not used to the idea yet."

"Yeah. I guess not. So what do you do there? In your place?"

Lexie shrugged. "I just… go to school. And Mom was teaching me magic. So I don't get addicted."

"Was Tara a witch?" Dawn asked.

Immediately, Dawn knew the question had been the wrong one to ask. A dark, ugly shadow flitted across Lexie's face, almost too quick to notice. But Dawn noticed. And the words were somehow hard when they came out of Lexie's mouth. "Yeah. Wonderful Tara. Best witch in the family."

Dawn tried to soothe the anger. "I know the feeling. My sister's better than me at everything, too."

Dawn slipped into Buffy's room after leaving Lexie's. "Buffy? You awake?" she whispered.

"Yeah," came the whisper back. "C'mere."

Dawn slipped over to the bed and lay down, putting her head next to Buffy's. "I think she's lying about stuff. Something's not right."

"Any specifics?" Buffy asked.

Dawn shook her head. "Just a feeling. She's got something against her sister bad."

Buffy nodded. "Now, how to find out?"

When the fourth portal of the last few days opened in the living room, no one was there to see it. Everyone was upstairs, asleep. The portal opened silently and a lithe figure stepped out, followed quickly by two more. It closed then, and one of the taller figures gestured to the sofa. The three figures stole over to it and sat down, getting comfortable and settling into naps.

The next morning, the three ladies upstairs woke to the smell of breakfast cooking. None of them thought anything about it until they met each other in the upstairs hallway, then they all raced downstairs to see what was going on.

Dawn didn't recognize the dark-haired woman at the stove, but Buffy did. She stepped forward, confused. "Aren't you…?"

The woman turned and Lexie gasped. The woman glared at Lexie for a moment, then nodded to Buffy. "Yep. Been a while since I saw you last.. More gray hair since then, a lot of it due to the young scamp you've got there with you."

Dawn looked from Lexie to Gab and back. "So… no car accident?"

Lexie shook her head miserably, then suddenly burst out: "But how did you find me?"

"It wasn't hard," scoffed a voice from the kitchen door. "If you weren't such a lazy git, you'd clean up after yourself instead of leaving energy trails any half decent witch could follow."

"Now, Tara, that's not helping."

Buffy gasped again, then turned with Dawn and Lexie to face Willow. She was older, of course, than the Willow Dawn remembered, but not much older than the Willow whom Buffy had seen in the other dimension. Certainly not twenty years older. Willow smiled at Dawn and Buffy, then with a stormcloud of emotions across her face, she turned to Lexie. "Take that glamour off this minute, young lady, and come here."

Before their very eyes, Lexie's form began to switch and melt into a new body. When this transformation was complete, Willow held out a hand to the twelve-year-old girl who had fooled everyone. "Now, come here."

And Lexie flew into the arms of her mother, and Willow smiled.

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