Author: Crimson Vampire Goddess
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I don't own any B.T.V.S. characters, if I did I would have had Spike and Angel go for a nice sunny walk, Faith and Buffy would have realized they had the hots for each other about a week after Faith arrived, and oh yeah, that thing about Tara dying never woulda happened.

Tara awoke to someone shaking her gently.

"Willow, stop it." She groaned sleepily. The shaking continued.

"Willow! Knock it off!" She growled slapping the offending hand away. Again the shaking continued.

"What!" She snapped sitting up and glaring at her girlfriend. Her gaze softened when she realized that Willow was still sleeping peacefully. She was just about to go back to sleep when she noticed there was someone standing at the foot of the bed. Tara looked up at the raven haired woman in shock and a little fear. She was about 5.5" and was dressed in a long white nightgown but what Tara noticed most were the facts that one: she wasn't standing at all but floating and two: she was transparent! ‘That's impossible!' Tara thought as she closed her eyes and shook her head in an attempt to convince her self that she wasn't looking at a transparent woman floating in mid air. Opening her eyes she looked up at the still transparent and still floating woman. All color draining from her face she leaned over to wake Willow.

"Willow, wake up!" She said roughly shaking her girlfriend.

"Come on, WAKE! UP!" she yelled.

"Wha? What's going on?" Willow sat up groggily.

"The woman! The TRANSPARENT woman FLOATING at the foot of the bed!" Tara said in a high pitched voice while motioning wildly with her hands towards the end of the bed.

"Ummm...Tara what transparent, floating woman?" Willow asked confused looking towards the foot of the bed.

"That transparent, floating woman!" Tara said chucking her thumb in the direction she'd last seen the woman.

"Tara, honey, I don't see a transparent, floating woman in fact I don't see any woman." Willow said softly. Turning to look towards the foot of the bed Tara was shocked to see no-one there transparent or otherwise.

"But she was just there." Tara said bewildered.

"You probably just had a nightmare." Willow said as she lay back down.

"No! She was right there; I saw her and she was real!" Tara said hysterically.

"Okay, honey, okay." Willow sighed as she got out of bed and walked over to turn on the light. Blinking a few times to adjust to the bright light, Willow walked to the foot of the bed where the woman had been seconds earlier.

"See, baby, there is no one here so can we please go back to sleep." Willow said pleadingly. Tara didn't respond as she tried desperately to come up with an explanation for what she'd seen. Suddenly Tara paled and her eyes went wide still glued to the spot she'd last seen the strange woman. Trembling Tara struggled voice her thoughts.

"I th-th-think I-I s-s-s-s-saw a g-g-g-ghost!"

"A...ghost? As in: phantom, spirit, ghoul, specter, poltergeist; that kind of ghost?" Willow asked climbing up the bed to wrap her frightened lover in her arms. Tara simply nodded burying her face in Willow's shoulder. Stunned, Willow tried to think of the gentlest way to say what she was thinking.

"Tara, baby, there's no such things as ghosts." She said softly. Tara pulled back suddenly as if touching Willow had physically burned her.

"You d-d-don't believe m-me." Tara stated tears forming in her eyes.

"I love you and I want to believe you, sweetheart, but ghosts just don't exist." Willow said carefully. It was breaking her heart to see Tara crying but Willow just couldn't bring her self to actually believe that Tara had seen a ghost. They didn't exist.

"I saw a ghost, Willow. I wasn't having a nightmare, I wasn't imagining it, and I sure as hell am not making this up so the only explanation is that I saw a ghost!" Tara said needing her lover to believe her. Willow was just about to reply when an ear piercing scream came from Buffy and Faith's room. Both women jumped off the bed and ran to the door to the adjoining room. Throwing the door open Willow and Tara ran into the room just making out the form of Buffy huddled in the corner still screaming.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Faith demanded turning on the lamps and glaring from Willow to Tara and then finally to Buffy. Her glare turned into a look of concern as she rose from the bed and made her way to the shivering blond.

"Buffy?" She reached her hand out to comfort the obviously distressed blond flinching when Buffy pulled back from her.

"Buffy, baby, what's wrong." Faith said gently pushing a blond strand of hair behind the girl's ear. The whispered reply was so low the others barely heard it.

"I saw a ghost."