NOVEMBER 25, 2001

"All I know is, I'm alone, you're not there, and all my friends are on this anti-Willow chorus thingy."

As far as reconciliation attempts go, Tara was beginning to wish this one would.

"Say what you like about me. You will anyway, and maybe I deserve some of it."

Willow tried not to sneer.

"Its not maybe, and you deserve some all of it. Do you know what a pillow feels like, against your face? Hint, hint. It doesn't feel like a person."

Tara could not resist the opening, despite the pain of the moment. "Well, then, change it into a person. That's your style now, right?"

Willow bit her lip. Revealing her current limitations since bingeing with Amy was just not in her.

"You sound just like Xander."

Tara nodded.

"Good. Maybe if I'd been more like Xander, you wouldn't have pushed me around so much."

This was turning bitter, Willow knew. But she also no longer cared.

"Now who's straying off the reservation?"

"Oh, stop! Don't even go there. But if you do go, here's one for you. Xander Harris is the kind of man I could tolerate living a lie with. If I had to go back in, he'd be on my short list just like that, ex-demon greed lady aside."

Willow was finding solid ground hard to find, of late.

"That's because you've only seen the 'intrigued-by-two-chicks-together' Xander. You've only seen the 'I sometimes give good advice' Xander. You've only seen the 'Lets all gang up on Willow' Xander ---Xander."

Tara folded her hands.

"He loves you. If you dare doubt my love, don't doubt his. He'd take a bullet for you."

"Maybe a real bullet. That way, he could be Doug Ramsey to my Rahne Sinclair. But the hard stuff? I asked him to meet you here, instead of me. No go. No way. That's your hero, Tara."

Tara looked up.

"I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this. I've been avoiding magic like crazy. But---*Chronos Ante*"

Willow looked around.

"This is my parents' house--like it was when I was five!"

Tara pointed.

"There's Xander. Don't worry, this was an observation spell only. The whole Scrooge deal."

Willow looked at the little boy, then at her former.

"Couldn't you have done a George Bailey? Look at what he's playing with!"

Xander Harris was indeed holding an object precious to any Willow Rosenberg.

"I'm Supergirl--cousin of Superman-- which means we can't kiss, and I got killed off in the stupid Crisis--but I'm still cool!"

Willow winced.

"My Barbie! He's going to add my Barbie to his Megos! He'll dress her up in that lame skater's skirt and a cape, and draw an S---ohhhh, I knew it!"

Tara shook her head.

"You know nothing at all."

As Xander went on, a pair of hands snatched the doll away from him. An argument began in the next room between Willow's parents.

"I thought we agreed to keep these male-fantasy stereotypes away from my daughter! Its probably already distorted her self-image forever!"

Mister Rosenberg responded.

"Honey, its just a doll. But I'll tell you what. When Willow finds out Barbie's gone, YOU be the one to explain to a crying little girl why her toy is gone!!!"

"Oh, I'll do it. I can make her life ten times as miserable as she can make mine. She's got to get past these crying jags. They're emotional blackmail, and I won't have it."

Willow looked at Tara.

"You pulled a Marty McFly, didn't you?"

Tara said nothing, and Willow fell silent as her younger self came back from the ice-cream truck.

"Xander--where's Barbie?"

Willow saw familiar panic in the little girl's eyes.

"Xander Harris---where is my Barbie?"

The little boy gulped--and then moved to prove he was at least
partially a hero.

"I stole your stupid Barbie, OKAY?!!"

A moment later, a little boy with a bruised arm and ice cream smushed on his face was pushed out of a house and down a set of porch steps. Crying, he nonetheless kept the silence that kept the peace in the Rosenberg household.

Back in the present, Willow looked at the restaurant table.

"My Mom--tried to pick a fight with me. I always knew she did that, despite what Dad would say. Xander knew how miserable that made me. He probably even knew I'd forgive him, eventually. But things were never the same between us."

Tara smiled.

"I think maybe we'd better make a visit."

Willow smiled, too.

"You're right!"

She laughed. It was all coming back together. Willow closed her eyes, and drank it all in while announcing her intentions.

"Ok. We'll go find my Mom--and cast a spell that will force her to write a self-help book that actually works! She'll be decades even getting through the first chapter. Tara, I'll need you to get a lock of her hair from the brush in the bathroom..."

Willow opened her eyes. She was alone.

"Tara?"