“This is, well this is all rather overwhelming!” Giles said as he pulled back from the blonde witch and removed his spectacles and wiping at his eyes with a handkerchief.

Tara smiled warmly, her eyes letting him know that she understood.

“Buffy?” she asked suddenly, “Can I speak with you… In private?” she asked softly.

Since her return, the stutter that they had come to know and love hadn’t been evident, even when the potentials had arrived.

“Sure.” Buffy replied and got to her feet, heading towards the front door with Tara hot on her heels.

Sitting on the swing at the front of the house, Buffy smiled weakly. “Is everything really ok?” the slayer asked.
”You remember when you came back?” Tara asked, getting to the point immediately and startling Buffy slightly.

She nodded but remained silent as Tara fixed her in her sights. “You remember how you said you thought you came back wrong, changed somehow?” Nodding again, Buffy turned and searched Tara’s eyes. She seemed to be missing the spark of what she could only think of as her ‘Tara-ness’.

“I did come back different!” Tara told her firmly. “I mean, I’m still me and I still love Willow more than anything else in the universe but I’m different.”

Buffy frowned slightly. “How do you know?” she asked.

Tara laughed, it was a cold sound that chilled Buffy to the bone.

“Y’know, the thing about a violent death, means you get a violent in between.” she sighed. “You said you were in heaven, we believed that you went straight there because you died heroically. Turns out that the powers that be have seen enough gang shootings and getting shot means you get to spend some quality time hanging out in the darkness before you move on.” she said.

“I know this doesn’t make any sense but I spent a lot of my time hunting and being hunted. Everything that moved wanted to kill me so it was kill or be killed.” Buffy inhaled sharply, tears stinging her eyes. “I settled for maiming.” Tara offered, “Turns out that not killing these things was the only way you got to move onto somewhere nicer!”