Author: JustSkipIt
Rating: G
Feedback: Yes, please. Please leave feedback on the Love Comes to Long Lick - Revisited thread on the Kitten Board.
Disclaimer - Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy own Willow, Tara, and the Buffyverse and Angelverse and all characters and locations from those universes. No copyright infringement is meant by this fic and I will not make any money from it.

Rose sat on the steps on the library carving her apple just as she did every afternoon. She wanted to get back to the archives but always spent a few minutes to allow her brain to re-align itself to her research. Her grandmother had cooked some soup for the two of them but it was obvious that she was not feeling well and Rose had quickly taken over making their sandwiches. Lunch had involved, as always, admonisions from each woman that the other was not eating enough, not sleeping enough, shouldn't worry so much about her companion. Following lunch, they stood side-by-side washing and drying their bowls and plates. The dishes put away, they sat down to watch Jeopardy together, choosing their categories ahead of time to avoid shouting over each other. When Jeopardy was finished, Rose had gotten Grand-me's reading glasses, the newspaper,and a pencil for the crossword and had assured her that she would be home for dinner at six.

"I wish you woudn't spend so much time at the library, Rosie."

Rose shook her head. She had heard it many times before. "I know grand-me. But the grant only lasts another few months and then I'll be done."

She'd started to walk away her Grand-me had grasped her hand with surprising strength and speed. "What then, Rosie? Will you go back to school? Give up this search? Go find a nice young man or woman to settle down?"

Rose sank onto her knees by her grandmother's barcalounger, not letting go of the older woman's hand. "I know it seems crazy, grand-me. But I know that it's there. I know there's a document. Or ten, or twenty-five. And I'm going find them."

"What if there's not, sweetheart? What if what you're searching for doesn't exist? What if the piece of paper is a ghost?" When Rose didn't answer her grandmother lifted her chin with her hand. "Just promise me. When the grant is over, you'll give up your search."

Rose looked at her grandmother, tears filling her eyes. "You deserve better than this. Grandpa deserved better than he got. Dead in the fields at 48? I'm not even going to bring up mom. We all deserve better than this." She waved her hand at the drab living room, picked at a thread on the recliner, then smiled. "I'm going to find it and then I'm taking you to Italy, Scottland, Greece, anywhere you want. We're going to eat steak and drink champagne."

Grand-me, known by everyone but Rose Daniel Jennings, as Winnefred Rosenberg Jennings, took a deep breath and then kissed her grand-daughter on the forehead. "Ok, honey. You find it and we'll go."

Rose wiped her eyes with her forearm as she took another bite of her apple. Today would be the day. Her lucky day. The Jennings family's lucky day. The Jennings family's first lucky day in well over a hundred years. No one could spend this long, twenty-one months now, searching for one goal, only to fail. It wasn't possible. Rose's logic was irrefutable. The document, or documents exist. They have to. And if they existed, which they did, she could find them. And when she found them, the Willingham family would have to pay. It was simply impossible to fail.

She closed her eyes and calmed her mind. I will find the document today. Today is my lucky day. She finished her apple and stood to walk the core over to a bush which stood on the side of the library building, bending down to tuck it under the lowest branches for a squirel or bird to enjoy, then returned to the steps of the library and went inside the building.

She didn't notice that she was being watched, studied, by the two women at the café across the street and slightly down the block. She rarely paid attention to the café, having never been inside. Maybe she would take Grand-me there for lunch before they left for their European tour. Some days she thought she could remember her mother and she walking past the café holding hands but most days she knew that her mother had disappeared long before that, before she could even walk.

Had she known that she was being watched, she would have been quite surprised and extremely interested. She was no stranger to news of either audience member. Of course, every child in Sunnydale knew of the Willingham family and Sunnyland Farms jellies, jams, and the rest. And Rose was no exception. She had avidly followed the rise and continued financial rise of the family even as she remembered their tragedy. She had been only nine at the time but she had never gotten the television image of Mr. Willingham ushering his youngest daughter from the limosine into their mansion upon her return from boarding school out of her head. Both had looked heartbroken and Rose felt sorry for them.

Of course, that had been years ago. And if the Willinghams had cared, they would have found that Rose Jenning's pity had been used up that day, fourteen years earlier. She had none left for them and was sure they would have none for her. And the continued exploits of Maclay Willingham, heir to the vast Sunnyland fortune, only showed how little she deserved her riches. If Entertainment Tonight was any honest purveyor of news, the woman spent more money on shoes each year than Rose and her grandmother had scraped together to pay for her bachelor's degree in American History.

"Hi, Rosie." Rose looked up to see the security guard at his tall stool just inside the door. She'd been in a lot of libraries but this was the only library she'd ever seen with a security guard by the door.

"Hi, Joey."

"Back to your hole?"

Rose laughed. "You know it, Joey. How's Annie feeling?"

Joey stood and stretched. "Good. She's tired and her back's hurting but she's good. Her mama's coming down this week to help work on curtains and painting the nursery."

"That's wonderful. Maybe Grand-me and I can come by this weekend and bring a pie."

"Ok." Joey waved as Rose disappeared through the doorway and down the stairs in to the basement of the library.

The young woman greeted a few more library employees before opening the door to what had become her private study and closing it behind her. "Hello, archives!" She laughed to herself as she wondered what someone else would think of her speaking to the boxes, cabinets, papers, books, and other miscellany throughout the room. She pulled out a chair at the table nearest the small window high up in the wall and set her computer on the only clear space among the clutter. Next she shrugged out of the backpack and set it by her chair.

From a stack on a bookcase, she took a pair of gloves and pulled them on before opening the nearest box and continuing the long search of documents, keepsakes, and assorted detritus of a life and time everyone but her seemed to have forgotten.