Second Chances

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

The day was incongruously sunny, Willow thought, as she watched the caskets lower into the ground. Her eyes were red-rimmed and bloodshot but dry, and she was strong enough to support her younger daughter, who was silent and white with shock. In one blow, half their family was gone. One drunk driver crossing the yellow line—in broad daylight, no less—and her partner of twenty years was gone, as well as their older daughter, home on vacation, who had such potential that Oxford University had begged her to join the ranks of its scholars.

Much later, after the mourners had all gone, Willow and Lexie found themselves sitting on Willow's bed, staring at one another morosely. Tears were superfluous when they were together; both powerful witches, they had shared a mental and emotional connection since Lexie had resided in Willow's womb. Between the two of them, no tears were needed.

For the first time since the Highway Patrol had arrived at their door, Lexie formed words. /I don't want to stay here any more./

Willow blinked. /You want to move?/ The sentiment didn't particularly surprise her—she had felt similar stirrings herself.

/I want to leave. Completely. I want... I want to go to Sunnydale. Permanently./

Willow cocked her head. /What about school?/

Lexie gave her the Look of Shame. /Mom, they have schools in Sunnydale. You went there yourself./

Willow cocked her head and studied her daughter's face for a long moment. /Well, I do have some... unfinished business in Sunnydale./

/With Buffy./ Lexie nodded. /I know./

"You know?" Willow spoke aloud. "What do you know?"

Lexie smiled slightly. "Mom. I'm thirteen, not three. I could see how you looked at Buffy when we were there, and how she looked at you. Besides, why on Earth would every bedtime story you ever told me feature the Slayer as the heroine if there wasn't something there? I don't think you ever once told me a story that didn't involve the Slayer saving the day and getting the girl."

Willow studied her daughter's face for a moment, subtly probing her emotional state, and found a new maturity that she couldn't remember seeing before Lexie's summer in California. "You miss it. Vampires, demons, earthquakes and all, you miss it."

"Like my arm," the girl replied simply. "Think about it, Mom." Mentally, she flashed back to the summer, working the spell that helped Buffy so immensely. She pushed that memory toward her mother, sharing her feelings of euphoria and delight at being, for once in her life, useful. She waited for her mother to absorb that concept, then continued. "There's something else. When I go to school here, I'm so special ed that it's not even funny. I can't do math for anything, Mom, and I can barely read. But, Mom, I was smart when I was there! I read books! I read a spellbook! Mom, I can do things there that I can't do here. It's a magical place, Mom, and it's a good place. And it's a good fight that Buffy's fighting. I want in."

Willow flashed back to a moment on the grassy lawn of Sunnydale High School, looking Buffy in the face and saying almost the exact same words. And she could no more deny her daughter than Buffy could deny her. She nodded slowly. "We'll go."

Making the arrangements took them nearly six months. They sifted through their possessions, deciding what to take and what to get rid of. Yard sales every weekend relieved them of most of the things they didn't want to take; everything else they either donated to Goodwill or threw out. They put the house up for sale and it sold almost before they were ready to go. Willow withdrew Lexie from school and took possession of her permanent record. And on the day they were ready, they packed all the belongings they'd decided to keep in the bed of Willow's 1998 Ford F-150 and drove out into the woods.

Willow set up the circle around the truck and the two of them called the corners together. Then Lexie chanted the invocation to the Powers and Willow chanted the spell itself, focusing in on the parking lot of a drive-in theatre on the outskirts of Sunnydale that had been closed for over ten years. The portal opened before them and there sat the drive-in, the midday sun blazing overhead. Mother and daughter jumped into the truck and Willow navigated them through the portal and into Sunnydale. They watched in the mirrors as the portal closed behind them, shutting away their final view of north Florida's pine forests.

Lexie flipped through her folder from the school as they drove into town, frowning at certain pages. Willow immediately recognized a difference in her daughter, who was now scowling at her IEP—the legal document which listed her educational goals and her teachers' plan for achieving them—and muttering under her breath about how far behind she was.

Willow smiled to see so many familiar things after being away for so long. There was the Espresso Pump, and Dawn walking in, smiling and chatting with several of her friends. Here was the Magic Box, and as they stopped at a traffic light, Willow could see Anya through the window, ringing up a sale and handing a purchase to her customer. Further down the street, Xander's car was parked outside the Planning and Zoning Commission's offices. And then they were turning down palm tree-lined streets, crossing this street and turning on that one, until suddenly they were turning off Hadley and onto Revello, and then they were pulling up behind the Summers' Jeep. Lexie burst out of the truck, flew across the yard, and exploded into the house, screaming, "Buffy! Buffy! We're back!"

Willow, smiling, cut the truck off and came up the sidewalk at a bit of a slower pace. Buffy met her on the porch and drew her into a bone-crushing hug. "Tell me what happened," she whispered, and Willow suddenly began to cry.

Lexie disappeared into the house, though Willow could still feel her distress and therefore attempted to pull herself together. But Buffy saw what she was doing and called to Lexie. "Lex, honey, Dawnie and her friends are down at the Espresso Pump. Why don't you go see if you can find them?"

Lexie reappeared at the front door then and nodded gratefully. "If I don't find them, I'll go to the magic shop," she stated quietly. Then, with a last look at Willow, she ran down to the truck and unearthed her skateboard, helmet and kneepads, and skated off down the street.

After Lexie had turned the corner back onto Hadley, Buffy took Willow into her arms and let the older woman cry herself out. She took in the story as Willow hiccupped her way around it, and held her best friend as she cried. She reassured Willow that she always had a home with Buffy, which for some reason only made Willow cry harder. Finally, Buffy realized that Willow had gone beyond grief and into hysteria, and she reached back and slapped Willow on the cheek.

The witch's sobs stopped finally, and she relaxed against Buffy again. "Sorry," she murmured.

"It's okay, Willow. Really. I promise. I love you."

Willow took a deep breath. "I—Buffy, there's something I need to tell you." At the Slayer's nod, Willow continued. "I love you, Buffy. I'm in love with you. You should know that before you welcome me back into the house. I'm in love with you, and part of the reason I came back was to tell you." She sighed. "I know you probably won't want to be with me, since you're straight and I'm twenty years older than you are now, but I needed you to know."

Buffy gasped in shock. "You... you do?"

Willow nodded. "I'm sorry to drop it on you like that. And if you're not comfortable with us staying here and knowing this, we can get an apartment somewhere. It's not a problem. I -"

Willow's babble was suddenly cut off by a warm pair of lips which attached themselves to hers with such fervency that the witch's breath was taken away. Her eyes fluttered closed, the better to focus on the sensations provided to her. The gentle stroke of Buffy's tongue touched her lips, softly requesting entry, and she granted it, tasting the sweetness that was the Slayer for the first time. She moaned slightly as her head swam, and then softly, Buffy withdrew from her far enough to look into her eyes as they slowly opened again. Buffy smiled. "Does that answer your question?"

Willow's eyes were full of tears again, but this time they were tears of joy. "Yes," she whispered, and she followed as Buffy took her hand and led her into the house, thanking whatever Powers were out there for second chances.

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