An unexpected turn of events

The next thing, Willow knew, she was in a shower stall and hot water was pouring down upon her naked body. Not just any shower stall, it seemed. In fact, the more she looked around, she could not help but think about how much it reminded her of the one at Buffy's house.

But why would she be there?

Just then somebody tapped Willow on the shoulder and said, "Wake up, sleepyhead. We get enough complaints from Buffy about the water bill without you bogarting all the hot water on top of that."

That voice. It sounded so familiar. Could it be --

Willow turned to look and saw her girlfriend Tara standing outside the shower stall, dressed only in a bathrobe.

"Tara," she said, "you're alive."

"Of course, I'm alive, Willow," said Tara. "Now move over. I want to take a shower too."

Willow replied, "But I thought that Warren --"

"Oh, don't worry about Warren," said Tara as she took off her robe and entered the shower. "He came by a few days ago and tried to scare Buffy with a gun but fortunately, she and Xander managed to tackle him before he could do too much damage. Good thing too. The way he was waving that gun around and firing it at random... I was afraid he was going to hurt somebody. Like Dawn. Or worse yet, you."

"So where is he now?" asked Willow.

"In jail, where he belongs," said Tara. "Anyway, I promised Dawn that I would go with her to help place some flowers on her mother's grave and then I've got some other stuff to d -- Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"Like what?" asked Willow.

"Like you've never seen me before," said Tara.

At that point, Willow broke down and hugged Tara. "Oh, baby," she said, "I've missed you so much. Please tell me this isn't a dream. Please tell me this is real."

"Of course this is real," said Tara. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"It's just that I had the strangest dream," said Willow. "I was in this weird place and --"

"It's okay, Willow," said Tara. "I know about the wish. You don't have to tell me. And for what it's worth, you made the right choice."

"But how did you --" Willow started to say.

"Look," said Tara, "I'll say this once and only once. You got lucky. Someone close to you -- not me, of course, but someone else -- interceded with the Powers That Be and arranged all this. This isn't heaven but it's not hell either. It's -- well -- let's call it a second chance."

"But after everything I've done, I'm not sure I deserve a second chance," said Willow.

"Well, as Giles once said, to forgive is an act of compassion," said Tara. "It's not done because people deserve it, it's done because they need it. In this case, you've been forgiven. For now. But if you make the same mistakes in the future, well, then you will have wasted your second chance. But I know you, Willow. You're not likely to do that. However, if you're still feeling guilty about it, you can always -- how they say -- pay it forward. Like, say, Amy. I'm sure she's getting really tired of that cage and we really need to re-humanize her soon. Otherwise, there will be no telling what she'll be like when she finally becomes a human again."

And with that, Tara turned away from Willow and turned up the hot water.