One Day at a Time

by SithLordWiccan

Copyright © 2007

decepticons_4_ever@hotmail.com

Rating: PG-13
Disclaimer: Willow and Tara belong to Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. I'm just using them to make other people feel happy.
Distribution: The Mystic Muse: http://mysticmuse.net
Feedback: It's always nice to know people like my stuff.
Spoilers: None.
Author's Note: Sequel to Working Through the Pain.
Dedication: This story is dedicated to Heather (Tarafied4Life), for being a brave individual who's shown great courage in the face of hardship. Sequel to "Working Through the Pain". Special thanks to Vale (Thianne) for the last minute assistance in the beta department
Pairing: Willow/Tara

"It's OK, Willow. You can do it."

Willow stood in front of the doorway into the backyard, looking across the expanse of freshly cut grass, potted flowers and sculptures dotting the area. Tara was standing against the fence at the far end of the yard, patiently waiting for Willow to come out to her.

She was less than fifty feet away. But to the redhead, Tara might as well be on the other side of the planet.

It had been nearly two weeks since the incident, but Willow continued to have nightmares about it. Never in her entire life had she been subjected to such unbridled hate. And the worst part of the whole situation was that her family didn't care in the slightest. When they had come home from the hospital, they had found a message on the answering machine waiting for them.

It was from Willow's mother. But if both the redhead and Tara had been hoping to hear words of encouragement, they were both going to be disappointed. The woman had gone off in a long and tactless tirade, proclaiming that it was because of the way that Willow had led her life that was the reason why she was attacked. It wasn't quite out of character for her to be doing that, Tara had realized at the time. Sheila had never exactly put Willow high on the list of people she loved.

And as Willow looked out at the blonde standing at the other end of the yard, she struggled to smile. Or at least, show some outward sign that Tara's comment had registered with her. It was the least she could do.

Tara had been through so much in the past few weeks. Because Willow was afraid constantly, never leaving the room that she shared with Tara except to use the washroom, the blonde had to do everything for her. She made her meals, did her laundry and took care of Amber.

And she never complained for a moment about doing any of it. Tara did it all as if it had always been like that for the whole of their relationship. That was her strength. She would do whatever it took to make Willow happy, even if it made herself feel uncomfortable. At times like these, when Willow was at her worst, Tara would put away any negative thoughts she had in the name of pleasing the redhead.

Tara had sacrificed so much for her. It was only appropriate that Willow pay her back. Even if it meant having to do the one thing she dreaded most.

'I can do this," she thought. 'I can go out there.'

Bringing her foot up, and fighting the growing panic in the middle of her chest, Willow took her first step out of the house. Her foot impacted on the wet grass, the feeling akin to stepping to Jell-O. The sudden feelings almost threatened to send her scampering back inside, but Willow persisted. She could do this for Tara. She would walk out of the safety of the house and cross the backyard to get to her.

As Willow slowly began to cross the backyard to get to Tara, her thoughts drifted backward, recalling everything that Tara had done for her. There were the small things like cooking or doing the housework. But there were other things, Amber being the most obvious one. For two weeks, Tara had taken care of Amber, telling her that everything was all right and that things would be OK, never letting on how much in pain she truly was. Amber immediately knew that something was wrong, of course. There was no way she could miss the subtle, yet very present signs indicating her Mommy's distress. But bless her heart, she didn't make a big deal of it, instead doing her best to make sure that her mothers spent as much time together as they could.

That was one of the few good things to happen since the incident, as everything else had stumbled into a quagmire. Tara had woken up the next day to find out that she had been fired from her job. When she had asked why, she was told that it was because she had walked off the set while the news was in progress. Tara had been incensed about that, telling her boss that she had to leave because her wife was in danger. Of course, given that the majority of the human race couldn't accept the idea of same sex couples, she had been flatly told that wasn't a good enough reason.

To be honest, the redhead didn't think that Tara was that unhappy about it. She had never really been happy working there, because it meant that she was often away from home, and thus away from her Willow. Maybe she had been thinking about quitting because of that. If what had happened never occurred, would she have done it?

As Willow took another small step, she looked into Tara's face, finding it full of the warmth and compassion that no one else seemed to want to give her. It made the redhead's heart swell with pride to know that Tara loved her enough to put herself through everything that had happened. And what made her love the blonde even more was the fact that she would continue to do this every day until Willow was her old self once again. If that meant doing all the shopping, she would do it. If that meant accidentally scalding herself while cooking Willow an elaborate dinner, she would simply grin and bear it. If she had to stand where she was all night, she would do it.

That was the blonde's special gift. And that's what kept Willow going, both in the metaphorical sense and the literal sense. She noted that her strides were starting to pick up speed, though they were still small and hesitant. She noted also that her fear, which had kept her cloistered inside the house, was starting to fade, if not completely disappear. Willow wondered for a moment if her fear of the outside world would ever completely disappear. Could she truly go through life worrying about having what happened to her happen again?

Willow didn't know for sure. Maybe she would, but there was the better than average chance that she wouldn't. After all, there were few people who could sympathize with her. But as she got closer to Tara and saw the blonde stretch out her arms, she also realized that there was one who would, through thick and thin, always be there for her.

Another thought drifted into her mind, then. There was this cartoon that got played at Christmas that Amber had enjoyed a great deal. So much so, that she often watched it whenever she wanted to. And that seemed to be, for the first few weeks after they had bought her a videotape of it, nearly every waking moment. There was a quote from that cartoon that Willow found appropriate to this situation.

'One friend is a lot different than no friends,' Willow thought. 'Especially when that friend is Tara.'

The distance between her and Tara finally closed, and Willow felt herself in the warm embrace of her love. Shutting her eyes, the redhead buried her face into Tara's chest and began to cry.

Running her fingers through Willow's hair, Tara gently cooed, "It's OK, Willow. Let it out. You've done it. You've taken the first step on your road to recovery. It will be hard, I know. But we'll work hard and before you know it, you'll be your slightly quirky self again."

The two held onto one another for a few moments more before deciding to head back inside. There was one more thing they had to do today, and only a hour to get prepared.

"Bye, Chris! Bye, Sally! Bye, Heather! See you tomorrow!"

Amber waved goodbye to her circle of friends as she walked up the driveway to the door, backpack on her back and "Scooby-Doo" lunchbox in hand. The day had been exciting, and she was in a good mood. She had gotten an A+ on her spelling test and had been on the winning team when the class played dodge ball during PE.

But all of that was secondary compared to the one thing that excited her most. It had taken her nearly a week of lunchtime and arts and crafts class work to get it done, but she finally got her present for Momma done. The one thing on her mind during the entire time she was making it was how much it would make Momma happy.

It had been nearly two weeks after Momma had something bad happen to her, and she had told Mommy that she should spend as much time as she could with her. If anything, it made her happy to know that Mommy was going to be an Amazon and help Momma deal with whatever was bothering her.

But over the weekend, she came to the realization that maybe she should show her love. And she couldn't do it at home because she wanted to keep what she was doing a secret from both Mommy and Momma. So starting on Monday, she began a project that she hoped would make both Mommy and Momma forget about their problems.

It was in her backpack, and hopefully it was still in one piece. The last thing she wanted to do was to her Momma and Mommy a broken gift. Fumbling for her key, she let herself into the house, quietly closing the door behind her.

Walking into the basement, Amber put her backpack down and unzipped it, taking out the cardboard card she had spent the week creating. The reason it had taken so long was because she had decorated it rather heavily, creating a crude drawing with crayons of her Momma and Mommy holding hands in the center, drawings of other happy things scattered around. The card was also decorated with glitter, bits of macaroni and pipe cleaners. Opening the card, she saw the other images she had drawn, including three stick figures standing below a smiling sun, which was emblazoned with the words "I Love You!"

Smiling, Amber took the card and made her way upstairs. She walked towards the door leading into Momma's room. She knew that she should have asked Mommy first if she could go into Momma's room, but given the time of day, it was only logical for her to think that they would both be there now.

Turning the knob slowly, she gently pushed the door open and peeked inside. Her feelings of happiness evaporated in an instant as she saw that neither Mommy nor Momma was in the room. Letting out a startled yelp, she closed the door and made her way back down the hallway.

Amber searched the house, but could find no evidence of her mommies. She was about to go to the phone and call Mommy when she heard something coming from her room. Walking up to the door, she pressed her ear to the door.

Reaching for the knob, she turned it open and stepped inside her room, finding Momma and Mommy sitting on her bed, a Tupperware container between them.

"Hi, Amber," Tara said.

Amber grew puzzled. "Mommy, is Momma OK?"

"Not yet, Amber," Willow replied, draping an arm across Tara's shoulders. "But Mommy's helping."

So surprised about what she had seen, Amber nearly forgot about what she had in her hands until Tara grew attention to it. "What's that, Sweetie?"

Blushing, Amber handed the card to Tara. "It's for you, Mommy. Well…you and Momma."

Tara took the card and gave it a quick glance. Putting two fingers to her lips, she gave the card to Willow, who gasped as she opened it. It was clearly not the reaction Amber was expecting, and seeing them start to cry worried her.

"I'm sorry, Mommy. I shouldn't have…"

"No, Amber," Tara said. "It's…it's OK. These are happy tears. People cry when they're happy, too."

Amber's face brightened, knowing that she had made her mommies happy. Her face stretched to even more impossible lengths when Mommy reached for the Tupperware container and opened it.

"Cookies!"

Amber's hand reached into the container and grabbed several of the cookies, stuffing them into her mouth one after the other. Moving the container to the side, she got onto her bed and sat between her Momma and her Mommy, humming a tuneless song.

Willow and Tara watched with amusement at this, their hands intertwining behind Amber's back. Things had certainly gone better than they had planned. Their plan was to make Amber feel happy so that she wouldn't feel depressed about what her mommies were going through, but here she came with a present made straight from the heart that was more precious than any jewelry the pair had ever bought for one another.

And it showed how much Amber was really aware of what was going on. No other child of Amber's age would do anything like this for their parents without a reason or without expecting to get something in return. But their child wasn't like that. She gave without thought of reward. They had truly raised her well.

The three of them sat in the room for a long while, Amber politely offering cookies to Willow and Tara at random intervals. All three of them knew that what had happened today was important not only for the redhead, but for their own family unit.

Things weren't better yet. Perhaps they never would be exactly the same as they had been before. But today was a good start. They were making progress. And who knew what tomorrow would bring?

After all, tomorrow was just another day.

The End

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