"In here."

She walked inside, setting her bags on the floor. She turned around and held out her hand. "Come on."

"Don' wanna."

"Please?" She knelt down and held out both arms. "Pretty please?"

"Kay." The little boy walked toward her on shaky feet. His strawberry blond hair shone in the sunlight as he stepped over the threshold and into his mother's arms. "There."

Willow picked him up and stood, shutting the door behind them. Walking into the kitchen, she made sure she had her smile firmly in place. "Hi Mom."

"Hello, Willow honey. And how's this little guy?" Sheila Rosenberg stepped forward, her hands outstretched. The little boy in Willow's arms cowered back from her touch. "Willow, honey? Why is he so afraid?"

"You gonna take my Daddy too?"

Willow closed her eyes at his words. "He's a little worried about other women right now, Mom. The last other woman he hugged was…well, she's with Oz now."

Sheila nodded. "I'm not going to take your daddy away, Connor. I'm your grandmother. You'd know that if your Mommy ever came home to visit."

Sighing, Willow sat Connor on the ground. "Please? Not now."

He hugged her leg, still frightened by the older woman. Sheila frowned and started to say something, interrupted by the back door swinging open. "All right, Mrs. R. I got the lawn…done."

Willow couldn't help but stare. Xander. He stood there, his chest bare, sweat glistening against his golden skin.

"Thank you Xander." Sheila picked up her purse, "How much?"

"Free of charge, you know that." He paused for a long moment. "Hello, Willow."

"Hey." She bit her lower lip, a nervous habit she thought long forgotten.

Xander bent down and stared at the little boy, cowering behind Willow's legs. "And who's this?"

"Connor." He said softly.

"Connor." Xander nodded and stuck out his hand. "I'm Xander."

He stepped forward and took the larger hand in his small one. "Hi."

Xander tried to ignore the sharp pain that went through him. He was staring at her son. Her son with Oz. "You and your mom come to visit?"

"No. Live. Dad's gone."

He looked up quickly, the question in his eyes. Gone in Sunnydale meant something very different than it did in the rest of the world. He saw Willow shake her head and sighed in a mixture of relief and regret. Not dead then.

"So you're moving back home?"

Connor nodded, screwing his face up into a pout. "Don' like it."

"Don't blame ya." Xander stood up. "Well, I've got to get home. Shower, change. All that good stuff. You should come by the library tonight. Regular research pizza party."

A ghost of a smile crossed Willow's face. "Sounds like fun. Maybe I'll stop by."

The warm air of nostalgia assaulted Willow as she stepped inside the high school. It had only been a few years, but it seemed like a lifetime ago that she'd left Sunnydale behind. Left it for bigger and better things that had turned out to be a lot smaller and worse than she expected.

She pushed open the doors of the library and stopped. It was like being in a time warp. Giles stood by the circulation desk, Buffy was beating up on a wood dummy, Angel was lurking by the stacks, Cordelia was surveying her nails and Xander was eating.

"Hi."

Her soft greeting was met by a rush of bodies. Hugs from everyone crushed her, and she felt deafened by the roar of questions and comments. When she finally broke free, she couldn't help but giggle.

"I missed you guys too."

Only Xander hadn't joined in. She walked over to the table and sat in her regular seat. Buffy sat beside her and grabbed her hand. "What are you doing here, Wills? Not that I'm not glad to see you, but I didn't expect to see you. I hadn't heard from you in so long…"

She sighed. "I guess I may as well tell you all now, so that I don't have to do this over and over again. I'm moving back to Sunnydale. My dad…he's sick, as you probably know. Mom doesn't think he's going to last much longer, so I'm home to help out."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," Cordelia said softly.

"It's okay. Anyway, I've been really bad about not writing, I know, but I haven't had very much good news to write about. Oz and I, well you know we got married." She watched the nods, seeing the suspicion creeping into their eyes. "Well, we also got divorced. He met someone else…left…left me for someone else. So I've been raising Connor, that's our son, on my own."

"Your son?" Buffy asked incredulously.

"Yeah. He's five. Oz left about two years ago. He's really bad around women, so I didn't bring him tonight. You can meet though, later." She nodded. "Anyway, so I'm home and willing to help with whatever Hellmouthy thing there is."

"Actually, there's very little going on this evening. We were just getting together to spend time with Angel and Cordelia." Giles shrugged. "Home on a little R and R."

"Oh." Willow grinned. "So, tell me what's been going on with all of you."

Buffy walked Willow out to her car, her arm linked with her friends. "Are you okay, Wills?"

"Yeah." She stopped walking and sighed. "Is Xander okay? He seemed so quiet tonight."

"He's been getting over someone," Buffy shrugged. "And I imagine it was a shock seeing you after all this time. It was a shock for me. You could have written or called, Willow."

"No. If I had, I wouldn't have been able to do all that I did. And I needed to do it, for me if for no other reason." She hugged Buffy tightly. "I should get back to Connor. You'll come meet him tomorrow?"

"Of course. He's got to get to know his Aunt Buffy."

"What about his Uncle Xander?" Xander's voice was harsh in the darkness. "Can he come and play too?"

Willow turned to him. "Of course, Xander. You're always welcome." She looked at him, wondering at the pain in his eyes. "You need a ride home?"

He laughed bitterly. "Sure, Will. That'd be great."

She stopped the car and shut off the engine. Xander looked down at the city below them before turning to her. "Why are we here, Willow?"

"I thought we needed to talk. You're obviously upset with me, and I want to get it out in the open before you blow up in front of Connor. Just because Oz is his father, doesn't mean he can be the target for your hostility. If you're mad, be mad at me."

"I'm not upset with you, Wills." Xander sighed. "I'll admit, it was a shock to see a little version of Oz staring back at me in your mother's kitchen, especially since I didn't even know you'd married him, but I'm not mad."

"You didn't know?"

"My invitation probably got lost in the mail."

"I asked Buffy to tell you…" Willow sighed. "And she probably didn't. I'm sorry."

"Don't be. Look, it's just going to take some getting used to. You were my best friend up until the day you just disappeared with him. You ran away and never looked back. You ran away and had this whole life without me and I'm just finding out about it."

"Buffy said you were getting over someone?"

Xander laughed again, the bitterness in it making Willow flinch. "Yeah. Nice girl. Seemed to think I was a little too hung up on the past. Said I was still so hung up on you that it hurt to watch."

Willow shook her head. "Don't be silly, you're not hung up on me. You got past all of that."

"No, Willow. You did." Xander closed his eyes and lay his head back on the seat. "Can we go home now?"

"Sure."

Connor glared at Buffy over the back of the couch. Turning to Willow, he frowned. "Is she coming to take Daddy away too?"

"No honey. Daddy's gone. Nobody's going to take him away anymore. She's Mommy's friend." Willow sighed softly, wondering when he was going to get over Oz's leaving. "She's your Aunt Buffy."

"Can she play horsy?"

"I'm sure she can," Willow's green eyes begged Buffy and the Slayer smiled.

"Can I play horsy? Kiddo, you're in for the ride of your life." Grabbing him off the couch, she proceeded to run him around the house and yard like a maniac. Willow couldn't help but laugh at his delighted shrieks.

Xander smiled from the chair across from her. "He reminds me of you."

"Does he?" She asked. "I don't see it."

He moved and sat next to her on the couch. "I'm sorry about last night. It was a shock, seeing you and him. Finding out about everything. I…" he raised his hand and brushed the hair out of her eyes. "I didn't mean to upset you."

Willow's green eyes stared up into his chocolate brown ones. "It's all right, Xander, I…"

She was cut off by the soft pressure of his lips on hers. His hand buried itself in her hair and tilted her head slightly to allow him better access to her willing mouth. The intensity of the kiss was overwhelming and Willow pulled away. Her breath was shallow.

"Wha…what was that?"

"Kiss." He leaned forward, nuzzling her mouth with his own, rubbing her lips gently before kissing her again. Heat was rising in his body, filling his heart and his groin.

"Xander," she pulled back, fear in her eyes. "I can't."

He stopped short when he saw the fear. "Did he hurt you, Willow?"

"No." She bent her head so that he couldn't see her eyes. "Not like you mean. But it hurt when he walked away. And I don't ever want to hurt like that again."

"I won't hurt you, Wills. I love you."

"He loved me too, Xander. Besides, you don't even know me anymore. I'm not the same girl I was five years ago." Buffy and Connor came bouncing into the room, both breathless with excitement. Willow stood and took her son from Buffy's shoulders. "I'm a mother now."

Buffy looked at Xander and sighed. "You tell her?"

"What? That you were the one I broke up with?" He shook his head. "No. I don't know what her feelings are for me, but I'm not about to risk hurting her again by letting her know that we took a chance on our friendship and tried to date. Besides, I don't think four dates counts as a relationship."

"Five."

"Well, one date and four chances to let me down easy." Xander laughed. "You knew I still loved her the first date, didn't you?"

"Xander, I've known it since I met you." Buffy hugged him briefly. "You just didn't want to admit it and I had to make you realize it. Plus, I had to get me out of your system."

Xander shook his head. "Well, I appreciate it."

"What are you going to do?"

"She's gun-shy. He really hurt her." Xander's face darkened. "And her number one priority is Connor."

"Right."

"So I'm going to do the right thing."

Buffy raised her eyebrows. "Which is?"

"Make her son love me."

Buffy laughed. "You're more evil than the Hellmouth, Xander."

"All's fair in love and war."

"Hey, I guess you did learn something in school after all, didn't you?"