Here and There: Chapter 3
by ang118
Chapter 3
Part 1: HERE
“Buffy, we need to get a hold of Angel. I think I know where Cordy is, and how to get her back.”
“Huh?” the slayer asked her sister. “What are you talking about?”
Dawn sighed. “Fine. I’ll start at the beginning...”
***
“Hey Will, you okay?” Xander asked.
“What?” Willow asked.
“I asked you if you were okay.”
“Oh,” Willow said. “Fine, just a little tired.”
“You seem a little distracted.”
“No, just tired,” Willow insisted. “I think I’m gonna go home and take a nap. Can you tell Buffy when she gets off the phone?”
“Sure,” Xander said. “You sure you’re okay?”
Willow smiled. “I’m fine,” she insisted. “Don’t worry.”
Xander watched as his friend gathered her stuff and left the Magic Box. He could tell that something more than fatigue was going on with her, but he didn’t push. He figured she would tell him when she was ready.
“That was... interesting,” Buffy said when she hung up the phone. “Actually, I think I meant to say ‘uncomfortable.’”
“Well?” Dawn asked.
“I told him what you told me. He said he’s gonna call me back later and tell me if it works.”
“‘K,” Dawn said, standing.
“Where are you going?” Buffy asked her sister.
“Can we just pretend that I told you and you were ok with it?” Dawn asked.
Buffy shook her head.
“Then I’m not going anywhere. I’m just gonna sit here and call Connor on the phone at his motel and have him come over here.”
Buffy eyed her sister curiously. “You were gonna go to his motel room, weren’t you?”
“No,” Dawn lied.
“Then what did you want me to pretend I was okay with?”
“World hunger?” Dawn tried.
Buffy rolled her eyes. “Remember, I was young once.”
“Yeah, in the eighties,” Dawn joked.
“Hey ” Buffy said, offended. “I was born in the eighties.”
“Hence the you being young then,” Dawn said.
“Oh.”
Dawn rolled her eyes. “You’re like a total spaz sis,” she said. “You’re not old. Giles is old. Spike is old. Angel is old.”
“I’ll give you that one,” Buffy said. “He’s like two-hundred and fifty, or something.”
“Now that’s old ”
Buffy smiled. “Suddenly I feel like a spring chicken again.”
“What does that even mean anyway?” Dawn asked. “Are chickens like usually born in the spring so they’re young then?”
“I guess,” Buffy said. “Never really thought about it before.”
“But anyway, even though this is one of our more life affirming conversations, I’m gonna get out of it quickly now and call Connor.”
“Please,” Buffy said. “Anything to get me out of this conversation.”
***
Willow was having trouble falling asleep. Part of her was missing her Tara. Another part was missing the Tara from the other dimension. Then there was that last part of her that felt bad for lying to Xander earlier.
She had told him that she was just tired and that was it. But she’d been feeling weird lately. Almost disconnected. Like she didn’t belong here. In this life. The only time she felt better was when she was with Tara. The other Tara.
She thought about talking to Xander or Buffy about how she was feeling. But she didn’t even know how to describe the way she felt so it would be useless to try to share her feelings when she herself wasn’t quite sure what they were.
She closed her eyes again and decided that she’d go see Tara again after her nap. That would make her feel better.
***
“There was no part of that that wasn’t embarrassing beyond belief ” Dawn decided as her and Connor walked to the movie theater.
“I thought it was kinda fun,” Connor admitted. “Sparring with your sister. She’s pretty good.”
“She is the Slayer,” Dawn reminded him. “It was just creepy. You do realize that the reason she made you do all that was to make sure that you were capable of protecting me if we were attacked by someone, or some thing.”
“I kinda figured that,” Connor said. “I guess I passed, though. Since she let me take you out tonight.”
“Yeah,” Dawn said . “And on the bright side, you won’t have to do it again.”
“Take you out?”
Dawn rolled her eyes. “No, spar with my sister.”
“I don’t know,” Connor said. “I wouldn’t mind doing that again. You think she’s busy tomorrow?”
“What?” Dawn asked. “Are you like interested in her now?”
Connor laughed. “Nope, she’s more my dads type. Or was.”
“Was?” Dawn asked.
“Yeah, I guess him and Cordy were on the verge of having a thing before she disappeared.”
“Angel and Cordy?” Dawn asked. “Huh, I guess I can picture them together. But, of course that’s probably partially because I still kinda hope that Buffy and Spike will work things out.”
“Didn’t you say he tried to rape her?”
“Well, there’s that, but I think he knew he couldn’t. He knows she’s way stronger than him.” She sighed. “I just think he’s cooler than Angel.”
Connor stopped walking. “Excuse me?”
“No offense,” Dawn said. “It’s just, Angel never really did it for me. Probably because he always seemed way older than me. But, his son on the other hand...” She wrapped her arms around his neck and smiled.
“I guess I’ll let it slide,” Connor said as he wrapped his arms around her waist. “But just this once.”
Part 2: THERE
“You came back,” Tara said, smiling. “I was hoping you would.”
“I had to see you again,” Willow admitted. “I don’t know what’s happening to me, but when I’m not with you I feel...”
“So do I,’ Tara said.
“What are you doing here so late?”
“I was working on a spell,” Tara admitted.
“Need any help?”
Tara shook her head. “Nope. It’s working perfectly.”
“Oh. You already did it?”
Tara nodded. “I was just on my way back to the house. You coming?”
“What about Buffy and Dawn? They’d ask questions I’m not ready to answer.”
“They’re sleeping,” Tara said.
“How do you know?”
“Trust me,” Tara said.
“Ok,” Willow said. “Lets go.”
“Just let me clean up first.”
“Need any help?”
“I’ve got it. It’ll just take a minute.”
“Ok,” Willow said. “I’ll be right here.” She sat down at the table.
Tara extinguished the candles she had spread around the table and busied herself putting the herbs back on the shelf behind the counter.
Willow glanced over at the spell book that lay open in front of where Tara had been sitting when she got here.
The book was opened to a sleeping potion. Willow smiled. Guess now I know how she knows that Buffy and Dawn are asleep.
Tara walked over to the table and closed the book. “As soon as I put this back on the shelf we can go.”
“Ok,” Willow said.
But the more she thought about it, the stranger it seemed. Her Tara never would’ve used a sleeping potion on Buffy or Dawn. At least not so her and Willow could have some time alone.
She glanced over at the Tara as she walked back towards her and wondered how well she really knew this woman that looked like her dead girlfriend.
“You coming?” Tara asked.
Willow looked up, disoriented, to find Tara standing by the door.
“Yeah,” Willow said, standing. For the life of her she couldn’t seem to remember what she had just been thinking about.
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