Before the Pain
Chapter 2 Layover
Chapter 2 Layover
In L.A. Fred and Angel pulled up to the bus station. They looked around for the blonde witch. “Uh, Angel do you know what she looks like?” Fred asked shyly.
Angel looked around and then pulled a picture from his pocket. The picture was of Willow and the blonde in question. “Willow sent me this a while ago right after Tara left. She the thought Tara may have come here and asked if I would keep an eye out for her. I don’t think she has changed too much.” He looked at the picture again, then swept his gaze around the parking lot. “Willow said she’s the shy type and not to quick on her feet.”
“Well if she was a Scooby then she wouldn’t be out here. So maybe we should go check inside.”
They walked into the station and found her right away. She was sitting at the food counter in the far corner. She had looked up at a man that brushed against her shoulder. “Sorry,” Tara said. He looked at her closely and turned from her his face changed and he turned back to face her. Tara seen his face out of the corner of her eye and in one swift move of her hand the vampire turned in to dust. Angel and Fred stood looking at the display that unfolded in front of them.
“Yes.” She looked up into the vampire’s eyes and smiled. “You must be Angel. I’m Tara and you must be Cordelia.” Tara stood before them.
“Oh no, I’m Fred…me…Winifred Burkel. Hi.” Fred shook Tara’s hand.
Angel started to think that Willow didn’t know her ex-girlfriend very well. Or Tara had some secrets that he was going to get to the bottom of. “Well, we should get back to the hotel before Wes and Gunn get back,” Angel said.
“Oh did they go on patrol?” Tara asked shyly.
“No they went to do some research on a demon,” Angel told the witch he knew that Tara had known about him and the work he did, but the way she dusted that vamp with slayer speed and strength. They all climbed into the car and drove away.
“So you have a layover. How long?” Fred asked.
“Four hours. Then I’m going to Sunnydale. Do you know anything about Faith and why she’s even there?” Tara cut to the chase. She didn’t know why Faith was back. The last time Tara had seen the dark slayer, Faith had stolen Buffy’s body.
“Oh, Buffy is helping her while Faith finishes school. Well, that is what I got out of it anyway,” Fred told her.
“Faith is in Sunnydale because I asked Buffy and Giles to help her. She was released from jail about six months ago and was looking to start over. I though Sunnydale would be the best place. She made her mistakes there, after all. Not very many people get to go back and mend the fences of their past,” Angel told the witch. He now wonder why Tara was returning to Sunnydale. Buffy had told him how she was almost killed by a vampire and that she left but the slayer didn’t know why. Things weren’t adding up, Angel was told that Tara was shy, quite, not good on her feet and that she gets tongue-tied.
“Good idea, I guess I’m doing the same.” Tara told them as they pulled up in front of the hotel.
“Well, I would stay with you, but I should go find Wes and Gunn,” Angel said as he dropped the two girls off. As he pulled away he took out his cell phone to call Willow. He looked back and seen Tara watching, he dropped the phone on to the passenger seat. Angel watched as the two girls walked into the hotel. He then picked up his cell and began to dial.
The two young ladies walked into the lobby. Cordy ran past them with her cell phone glued to her ear. “No wait, I’m coming with you! The guys have been fighting this demon for an hour. Sorry I can’t stay. See you later…I hope,” she called back to the two girls in the lobby.
“That was Cordy,” Fred whispered to Tara, pointing at the back of the retreating girl.
“Okay…so what do you do here?” Tara asked Fred.
Fred started for the stairs as she told the witch what she did and then she was gone to work on some research in her room.
Tara sat in the hotel lobby waiting for Angel and Cordy to return from their patrol. She looked around the room taking it all in. She felt the pull at her eyes and fought against the need for sleep. Tara knew if she would fall asleep then the dreams would return, the dreams of the night that made her leave Sunnydale, and the reason she left Willow. She wiped her eyes and walked into Angel’s office to look around. She sat in his oversized chair and looked at the files on his desk. There was a lot different from Giles’ desk in his apartment, but the files were the same. ‘Some demon raising some kind of hell,’ she thought to herself.
“Tara, don’t go too far we don’t know where the vamp is,” Willow called to her girlfriend.
“Don’t worry so much Will, I can take care of myself. Besides, Buffy is right over there.” Shepointed behind her telling the redhead where the Slayer was, but as she turned to face Willow, she was gone. Buffy was fighting a vampire and she was alone, which is never good. “Willow…Willow where are you?” Tara called looking for her. “Willow this isn’t funny! I get it, you want me to stay with….”Tara was hit over the head with something hard but not hard enough to knock her out. She fell against the side of a mausoleum knocking her stake out of her pocket. As she slid down the side of the crypt, she felt a cold hand on her shoulder she turned her sore head to look at who or what was touching her. She was face to face with a vampire. He smiled at her as he bent her head to the side, leaning in to bite her she screamed,“Buffy help!” Then the vamp bit her hard and deep. “Buffy please…” Tara cried quietly as he drank of her. She felt around on the ground for her stake but fell short of finding it.
Buffy heard Tara’s cries and ran over the tops of the closed mausoleums looking for her in the darkness of the cemetery. Crouching at the top of a crypt, Buffy listened for any sound that Tara might be making. She heard a slight cry and listened carefully. She heard Tara’s quiet sobs and ran to where the blonde witch was being held and drained.
“Get off of her!” Buffy yelled and staked the vamp before it had a chance to turn and fight.
“Tara…what were you thinking taking off by yourself?” Buffy scolded the girl, as if she was a small child.
“Tara, Tara are you okay?” Willow ran over to the slayer’s side and fell to her knees next to her lover, helping her sit up.
“No, I’m not okay…look.” Tara pointed at her neck. “Does it look like I’m fine and dandy…no, I don’t think so.” With that, she pushed up onto her shaky legs and walked to the gates. She didn’t wait for her girlfriend or the Slayer. She turned back to see if the two girls were following and to her surprise she seen Buffy holding Willow in a close hug. Focusing closer she could see Willow kiss Buffy’s neck.
The front door opened and Cordy’s voice rang out into the lobby of the hotel. Tara’s eyes flew opened when she heard the prom queen’s voice.
“You know, Angel, you are so good at killing things, but I’m one hell of a bait, but one would think that the champion of the people would at least kill the damn demon on the first try!” Cordy complained as she walked into Angel’s office.
“Oh hi, I was just looking around and fell sleep,” Tara said as she jumped up from the chair.
“Okay. It happens a lot. That chair is very comfy,” Cordy said as she looked in the filing cabinet.
Tara walked past her out into the lobby. As she walked over to Angel, she raised her hand and felt the scars from the bite marks on her neck.
Angel watched Tara’s hand. “Buffy told me that you left but she didn’t know why. Now you’re going back and not sure if they even want you. So why, what do you need to finish back there?” He asked as he sat her down on the couch.
“I don’t need to finish anything…I just want to go home…but I don’t know where that is.” She put her head in her hands and began to cry.
“Going home isn’t always a warm welcome, but I know from living it that Buffy will be there with open arms. Hell Faith is living in her basement; you can’t get more open then that!” Angel told her with a grin.
Tara chuckled and looked up at the vampire. “Well I didn’t do anything like Faith, I just ran away. I don’t think Buffy would ever forgive me for that. She would never run away. Besides the open arms is why I left. Buffy opened her arms and Willow fell right in to them.”
“What…oh girl, you don’t know little Miss Buffy then. She ran away once,” Cordy said as she walked into the lobby carrying some files for Angel to look at. “Yep she sent Angel to hell and high tailed it out of town. She spent a summer here in L.A. doing the poor me thing she’s so good at. Then she came back and acted as if nothing happened…she was stuck on herself even back then. Hell, she was still with the its all about me thing up until her and Willow got together. Now it’s all about Willow,” Cordy rambled, not noticing the look on Tara’s face.
“Wait you knew that Willow and Buffy are together now?” She asked with tears in her eyes. Shaking her head to rid the memory of when she seen Buffy and Willow heavily making out in Buffy’s room.
Cordy looked up from the file in her hand. She looked at the once blonde and then to Angel. She then closed her eyes and shook her head with a sigh.
“Nice Cordy…you really know how to cheer a person up,” Fred said as she walked over to the threesome. “Tara do you think you could help me with this spell?” She continued, pulling the witch up and to the stairs.
“I guess I could.” She walked to the stairs with the other girl. Tara stopped on the bottom step. She turned and looked at Cordy. She knew that the girl felt bad but she couldn’t bring herself to comfort her. She then turned back to the stairs and disappeared up them.
“Sorry for Cordy, she doesn’t always think before she…her foot lives in her mouth, but for the most part she’s harmless.” Fred told her as she sat at the desk. “You know this spell could help us out a lot with the demon.”
“One time Willow and I were working on a sunshine spell. To help Buffy…”
“Yeah but it wouldn’t help Angel…in the way of helping. Angel would call upon the spell and turn to dust. So let’s not!” Fred babbled and then locked eyes with Tara. “Are you okay?” she asked.
“Sure, what is the spell?” Tara turned from the small Texan.
“Sunshine…oh you mean this one. Well it will help us find all the demons in L.A.” Fred handed her a book.
“Oh yes! Willow and I tried this spell once. It didn’t work…” She looked around the room as she remembered the spell.
“Oh well, I think with your help I could make it work. Wes said he could help me but he’s out being a demon fighter.” Fred sat next to Tara and placed her hand on the girl’s leg. Tara jumped up from the bed and ran to the door. “What…Tara what happened…what?” Fred hurried over to the fleeing girl. She raised her hand slowly and placed it on the witch’s shoulder. She then moved her hand closer to Tara’s neck. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what I did, but please don’t leave.” She moved back so that Tara could move back into the room or leave if she wanted to.
“Fred, I can’t do this. Please don’t make me,” Tara whimpered with tears in her eyes.
“The spell…Tara I don’t understand.” She moved more away from the witch when it hit her to what Tara was talking about. “Oh Tara I didn’t mean anything from that. I don’t want anything from you…well maybe help with the spell.” She backed away from her.
Tara looked around the room and then down at her watch. “I need to get ready to go. My bus will be leaving soon.” She turned and walked out of the room. When she was in the hallway, Tara slid down the wall and cried. She couldn’t believe she acted like that with a girl that she had only just met. What did she think Fred wanted from her? They had only met and she thought this girl was coming on to her. “She wants to go home, but nobody's home …,” Tara sang to herself.
“Oh pumpkin.” A voice came from above her. Tara looked up slowly with a small lopsided smile.
“Holy shit!” Tara scrambled to her feet and locked eyes with the green demon in front of her.
“Oh no pudding cake…I’m not going to hurt you.” Lorne leaned against the wall next to her.
“What do I want?” Tara asked then shaking her head when she realized what she had said. “I mean you…what do you want?” She asked, her face turning red.
“Hey cupcake, I’m Lorne, friend of the fold. I help the big guy,” Lorne told her. He could see that she was sad but it wasn’t why she was crying. He looked even deeper into her soul. His eyes widen when he seen why the quiet girl was so sad. Lorne couldn’t believe that so many things have happened to Tara.
Tara looked at the demon and pulled a confused face. “The big guy…oh Angel, right. So…what do you want?” She asked again.
“You need to stop running away. Go back and see what is waiting for you. They can only turn their backs but their hearts will always be open. Sometimes you have to help the ones you love before you can help yourself,” Lorne took Tara’s hand and walked down the hall to the stairs.
“I don’t have to leave right away, but I need to talk to Angel,” Tara slowly pulled her hand from Lorne’s. She turned and looked directly into his eyes. “I don’t know who you are or what you are, but thank you.” She placed her hand on the demon’s check as she spoke. Her touch opened Tara more to Lorne his heart just broke seeing what the young girl had been through. Removing her hand, Tara turned and walked back to Fred’s room.