Author: Auburn
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: I don't own these characters but the story is mine.

Willow sat in a hospital room fidgeting with a piece of string she had accidentally pulled out of her shirt whilst waiting for a nurse to come. On a normal day she was impatient but today, if it had of been possible, she would have climbed the walls.

Earlier she had been checked by a doctor and given the all clear to go ahead with the removal of her casts, since the nod of the doctors head she had been bouncing in her chair, but her bouncing receded when the process began to take too long.

The string snapped and the redhead glared at it, that wasn't supposed to happen, frowning she slapped the palm of her hand against the arm rest of her wheelchair and turned to her mother.

"Can I have some coffee, they didn't say no on me having coffee did they?"

The older woman sighed and stood with their purse, she knew arguing with her daughter about the fact that coffee would only make her more fidgety was futile so she grabbed her purse and left the room.

Willow watched her back as the older woman left, then turned to stare at her dad with an annoyed look until the man took the hint and ran after his wife.

The redhead then turned to look at the third person in the room and smiled mischievously.

"That was a little mean." Tara stated with a glint in her eye.

"It amused me for a few minutes." The redhead admitted then held out her hand for Tara to come to her.

The blonde did just that and kneeled next to the smaller woman resting her chin on the arm rest of the wheel chair.

"If we weren't in this stupid hospital, what do you think we would be doing today?" Willow asked trying to amuse herself and the obviously bored blonde.

"It's a possibility that we'd be in the park, me writing near the tree and you pulling at the grass with that cute little pout on your lips, kinda like the one you're wearing now."

"These lips? This pout?" The redhead asked innocently pointing to her mouth.

Tara nodded her head and chuckled.

"You know there is probably a way you can stop me from pouting." Willow said flirtingly.

"There probably is, but I don't think it's appropriate in a hospital." The blonde flirted back before raising to a stand then bending over placing a light kiss on Willow's pouting lips. She leaned back and looked at her handiwork.

"Yep, no pout. My work here is done."

Willow laughed at the blonde's wink then turned to see a large framed nurse enter the room, her face was stern as she closed the door behind her and studied Tara before pulling a chair towards the redhead.

"Are you a relative?" The nurses question was directed at the blonde and she nodded her head, smiling mischievously at Willow.

"OK." The nurse then smiled warmly, the smile seemed somewhat misplaced on her previously stern face, and she pointed to a chair over by the far wall. "Have a seat this won't take a minute."

Tara did as she was instructed and watched as the woman pulled something out of a large grey cabinet then took it out of a box. Her eyes widened at the sight of a pair of sheers large enough to cut hedges. The nurse then smiled reassuringly at Willow and began cutting at the oversized white cast covering the redhead's left leg which was propped up on the stirrup of the wheelchair.

The process took at least fifteen minutes as the nurse cut into the cast then used a different piece of equipment to separate it and remove it fully from Willow's leg. Tara couldn't see fully what the outcome was, but having only seen cute little toes poking out from the cast for so long she now saw they were attached to a cute little foot that lead to a cute little leg, her line of vision was blocked once her eyes got to the beginning of the redhead's knee and she craned her neck to try and see more.

The nurse inspected Willow's leg for a brief moment ensuring the cast hadn't caused any possible skin irritation, noting that the redhead had only dry skin from not being able to wash her injured leg she then moved onto Willow's arm.

"As soon as you get home maybe take a bath and moisturise you're leg, it could be a little dry and itchy for a few days but that's nothing to worry about."

Willow nodded her leg absently, a childish excitement growing within her as her leg and arm were removed from their cast prisons.

Willow sat in the hospital lobby minus two extremely large casts, but had gained one pair of crutches and two support bandages, the redhead still sat in her wheelchair, but the smile on her face showed no sign of dissipating despite the fact that she had been waiting for her parents for ten minutes whilst they went to the bathroom, Sunnydale hospital was a large place, but not large enough to get lost in for ten minutes.

Tara held onto Willow's hand gently, it wasn't the usual hand she held it was the recently freed left one and the redhead loved how Tara's thumb gently stroked back and forth making her skin tingle, the sensation on her previously enclose skin made her chest swell at the blonde's action and Willow found herself wondering if Tara knew that everything she did seemed to be just what she needed.

The blonde turned to face Willow and smiled reassuringly. Her own emotions playing in her chest at the simple fact that she was here, in the hospital, on the redhead's request. When Willow had asked her the night before the appointment if she would accompany her, the blonde was a little surprised and hesitated with her answer. The mere fact that Willow wanted her to be there seemed like a big deal and Tara felt proud that Willow had asked.

"You've got that look on your face." The redhead interrupted Tara's thoughts.

"What look?" Tara asked innocently not really sure how she had been looking.

"The 'far away' one. Y'know when you're thinking of something and it's obviously mushy stuff because then you sigh and go all dreamy. It's actually quite cute."

Tara blushed and ducked her head under the redhead's attention. "There was no sighing." She defended herself feebly.

Willow raised her eyebrow as if to say 'yeah right' and smirked. They were interrupted in their cheerful banter by Mrs Rosenberg huffing and puffing her way towards them.

"...and all he's doing is checking out the nurses I'm sure of it." The older woman stopped in front of her daughter and her friend, not really noticing their intertwined hands until Tara pulled away and the blush on her face travelled down her neck.

Willow also noticed the action and frowned, deciding that particular conversation should occur later she turned to her mother instead.

"What's wrong?"

"Your farther." Sheila huffed whilst taking a seat next to the redhead. "He was right there when I want into the bathroom, I come out and he's gone. I'm not entirely pleased with his disappearing act in the middle of a temptress infested building."

"I'm sure he's..." Willow's sentence trailed off as she spotted one particular temptress smile at Tara. Her eyes widened as she looked back and forth from the nurse to Tara and saw the slight half-smile the blonde gave in return. If it was possible for her to do so Willow would have jumped out of her chair and made sure that temptress never smiled again.

"You're smiling back." Willow pouted like a child although the frown on her forehead was a little more threatening.

"You're sure your father's smiling back?" Mrs Rosenberg asked confused, clearly not noticing her daughter was speaking to Tara and not her.

"Uh... no Mom I'm sure dad's just looking for the men's room or something."

"Oh for heavens sake I'm going to go look for him again." With that the woman up and left.

"You smiled back at her." Willow turned to face the blonde more fully and was surprised to see Tara studying her face intently. A frown began to form on her forehead mirroring her own.

"I was just being polite." Tara said gently not sure what else to say. She wasn't used to this particular side of the redhead. This was new, but she felt somewhat comforted and surprisingly wanted because Willow was showing jealousy for her.

The redhead's frown receded a little at the soft tone of the blonde's voice, but her pout became more prominent as she realised her childish jealousy had gotten the best of her.

Tara watched as Willow's face softened and her lips jutted out, she remembered the redhead's playful pout from earlier, and just what she did to make it disappear. Looking around her with a mischievous glint in her eye to make sure the coast was clear, Tara then leaned over and planted a firm kiss on the redhead's lips before pulling back. Deciding that the pout hadn't quite gone yet, she leaned in again and gently guided Willow's mouth open to slip her tongue along the length of the redhead's bottom lip teasingly, before Willow responded and captured the blonde's tongue, sucking it playfully before letting go. Tara kissed the redhead one last time then pulled back with a smirk on her face.

Willow's skin flushed almost the same colour as her hair as she looked around although the smile on her face indicated that she didn't care who was watching.

"You vixen!" She laughed when Tara raised her eyebrow cockily.

"Well you were jealous and pout-y, it's the only thing I could think of." The blonde argued then took hold of Willow's hand again just as Mr and Mrs. Rosenberg walked towards them bickering with each other.

With one final word from Sheila her husband acted just as Willow would and folded his arms in sulk, he frowned and there was, Tara thought, the hint of a pout on his lips. She smiled to herself recognising the behaviour from a certain redhead and now knew its origin.

"This man," Mrs Rosenberg pointed an accusing finger at her husband. "Has been gossiping with his friend whilst we were waiting for him, you cannot get more inconsiderate than that!" The woman punctuated the last words of her sentence by wagging her finger. "Honestly Ira, you'd think you were a woman!" She then pushed her handbag further up her arm and lead everyone to the car park.

Tara sat on the end of Willow's bed as she watched the redhead go through drawers and pick out things she would need for her bath, on the list of items she had written in different coloured pens was many obvious things, but one specific thing was a must have or the bath would have to be put on hold until it was found.

"Ah Ha!" The redhead shouted triumphantly holding the particular 'must have' item for Tara to view and the blonde shook her head at the insane woman before her.

"You've been searching for ten minutes for a rubber duck?"

"Hey!... this isn't just any old rubber duck, it's quackers." Willow defended herself as if that explained everything.

Tara just raised her eyebrows in mirth and stood, grabbing the handles of the redhead's wheelchair she lead them both towards the bathroom.

The bathroom was an adequate size, larger than most and nicely decorated. The bath tub however, was extremely large and took up most of the room's space. Willow explained that it was because her grandmother used this room when she lived there through her illness.

Parking the wheelchair at the edge of the tub, Tara clamped on the breaks and sat on the edge of the toilet facing Willow, she smiled warmly at the redhead before gently placing her hands at the edge of the support bandage that stopped just before her knee, then raised her eyebrow for Willow's permission remembering that the doctor said although the casts had been removed the redhead would still have slight pain because her injuries hadn't fully healed.

Receiving an encouraging nod from Willow for her to proceed, the blonde removed the bandage as gently as possible only stopping to let Willow regroup when she heard a slight intake of breath as she reached her ankle.

The removal of the redhead's arm bandage was easier and Tara placed both bandages on the radiator so they would be warm when Willow put them back on. The blonde smiled then stood and made her way to the door, but as her hand grasped the handle the redhead's voice stopped her from taking any further action.

"Stay..." Willow asked softly, her voice barely audible to the blonde's ears.

"You don't want me to get your mom to help you?"

"No, I-I... w-will... maybe you could help me?" The redhead stammered nervously. "I mean, We're in a... and you're my... and you're gunna see me... Y'know?"

Tara laughed lightly as Willow inhaled a large amount of air at her frustration with not being able to speak her words or get them to make any sense. Sitting back down the blonde took Willow's hand to reassure her and spoke softly.

"We're in a relationship and I'm your girlfriend, I'm going to see you naked sooner or later, so I may as well help you with this bath?" Tara filled in the blanks and as she said the words 'relationship' and 'girlfriend' out loud a sense of pride washed over her.

"I'm your girlfriend." She repeated "This is a relationship."

Willow nodded not quite understanding the significance of the words until a trickle of realisation ran down her spine and sent a tingle through her body, she'd never said the words before and realised that Tara had been waiting for her to come to terms with what was happening between them.

"This is a relationship and you are my girlfriend." The redhead savoured the look on Tara's face as it melted her heart, she squeezed the blonde's hand and smiled warmly. "I'm afraid you're stuck with me, although I warn you, I'm a workaholic, computer nerd, and it's been brought to my attention that I'm not big with the patience."

"I wouldn't have you any other way." Tara beamed.

"So OK, bath time." The redhead spoke after a few minutes of just staring at Tara. "That means me in there with the water, and oh my god it's gunna be so nice, I haven't had a bath in about ten weeks. That's over two months with no bath I must stink!"

"You're over exaggerating."

"Yes I am." Willow agreed.

"How do you want to do this? Am I to strip you or can you do that yourself?" Tara raised her eyebrow willing the redhead to be serious and try to minimalism any impending kinky outburst she knew would possible occur.

Willow bit her lip and smiled sheepishly.

"I can do it myself, kinda."

The blonde nodded and busied herself with making sure the water wasn't too hot, she was fighting to keep her eyes averted from Willow who was getting naked only a few metres away. A very interesting dent in the tile held her attention as she held her breathe and willed herself to be a grown up, grown ups can control them selves even when there is a naked, very beautiful girl in the room.

Willow watched as Tara fidgeted with the taps then dipped her hand in the water to check the temperature, the blonde seemed nervous and the redhead stifled a laugh as she pulled her UC Sunnydale shirt over her head, feeling the change of temperature hit her skin she shivered lightly then lifted her hips as best she could from the chair to remove her underwear.

"Your turn." A devilish grin formed on Willow's face as she waited for Tara to turn and look at her with her mouth agape in surprise. It didn't take long.