Please see chapter 1 for disclaimer
It didn't take the two long to find Faith. By this time, Angel knew the woman's haunts fairly well, and was not surprised to find her drinking and dancing at one of the seedier bars of her preference.
"Tara..." he began, sensing the slayer's presence from the outside, "are you sure you don't want to wait out here? This place isn't very...nice." He finished lamely.
Tara laughed. "Angel. I work for you killing evil monsters. It's a bit late to start worrying about 'nice', don't you think? Come on." And she lead the way inside.
Faith was easy to spot. She had developed her own fan club on the dance floor and was taking full advantage of the fact.
"What now?" Tara asked.
"Now," Angel answered, "I usually get a drink and wait, and do my best to make sure she stays safe without...well, interrupting her fun."
"Does she know you do this?" Tara asked, finding it hard to tear her eyes away from the dancing
slayer.
Angel shrugged. "We never talk about it, but slayers can sense vampires at a fair distance, and she's never looked at me or accidentally tried to stake me. I think she knows. Some nights when she's really on a tear I lose her. It probably isn't an accident."
Tara nodded, and then frowned as Faith dragged one of the guys she was dancing with off the floor and over to a dark staircase. Watching as the two disappeared from sight at the top, Tara turned to Angel. "What now?"
"Tara...she was pulling him along. I think she knows what she's doing." Angel looked slightly awkward.
"They're...oh. So this isn't following time?" She asked, turning back to the staircase as if a second look would reveal more information.
"Well," Angel began, getting distracted by something on the other side of the room, "you can if you like. I mean, I never have, but...if you read something dangerous about him, or..."
"Apart from the fact that he's a bulky biker?" Tara gave him a hard look.
"Come on, Tara. I can't tell her who to have sex with. She can protect herself. And I need to go take care of that vamp." He said, nodding in the direction he'd been staring as a pale woman coxed a young man outside with her. "I'll be back soon."
Tara looked back at the stairs, torn. What Angel had said was true. She couldn't decide who her friends had sex with any more than she wanted them to do the same for her. But Faith was part of their team, part of her new home that she'd grown to care about a great deal. Sighing, Tara made a decision. She'd go upstairs. Just long enough to make sure Faith was okay.
Making it to the top of the stairs as quietly as she could, Tara waited for her eyes to adjust to the gloom. Taking in the assorted couches and condom dispenser, she concluded that Faith's idea was not a new one for this club. There were two couples in the room, that much she could tell, and as her eyes began to register more details, she worked out the pair against the wall on the far side of the room were not who she was looking for. Turning to look at the remaining two on top of a converted couch, she winced. The guy Faith was with was massive, and looked about as gentle as a Rottweiler.
But while he looked like he could crush Faith's skull with one giant hand, Tara knew looks were deceptive and tried to keep in mind Faith's slayer strength. She was certainly using it now. Every time the guy tried to flip Faith so he was on top, she shoved him back into the couch. It was obvious who was in control, and while the guy might not have preferred it, he wasn't exactly complaining. From what Tara could tell, he was, in fact, complying with everything Faith told him to do. Admittedly, all that consisted of was 'Harder!'.
Feeling slightly sick and guiltily voyeuristic Tara knew she had established Faith's safety to her own satisfaction, but watched for a second more. Ogling Faith was something she had tried hard not to do since the woman returned from prison. Partly out of a sense of decency, and partly because of the knowing smirk it prompted the few times Faith had caught her at it.
Finding it almost impossible to look away from this opportunity to do so unnoticed, Tara forced her eyes shut. 'Privacy.' She thought to herself. 'She deserves some privacy.' Putting aside for the moment the fact that privacy wasn't exactly a high priority for someone getting laid in the back of a club in L.A. Tara forced down the sudden and surprising urge to teleport Faith's partner to another dimension, and quietly made her way down the stairs to wait with Angel.
Not finding her boss upon returning downstairs, Tara decided to grab a drink and wait at the bar. It was here that she almost choked to death on her drink a while later when a husky voice whispered in her ear, "Enjoy the show?"
Waving off the concern of the bartender as she tried to cough the burning alcohol out of her lungs, Tara slowly turned to look at Faith. "Sorry?" she asked, at a loss for words, and trying desperately to think of a good reason to be here in the first place, let alone having watched her co-worker doing a biker within an inch of his life.
A seductive smile spread across Faith's face. "Upstairs." She clarified. "If you wanted a piece of me, all you had to do was ask." Moving even closer to the witch, putting one hand on her thigh, Faith reached the other hand over her shoulder. Tara's breath hitched unintentionally, and then released again as Faith brought back Tara's drink having grabbed it from the counter behind her, and took a sip. "Mm, whiskey." Faith breathed. "You like it...strong." She added with a quirk of an eyebrow.
Tara groaned internally. She wasn't built for playing the kind of games that Faith so obviously enjoyed. "I'm sorry about upstairs. Wanted to make sure that you were alright." Faith grinned at this.
"I've been told I'm better than 'alright' – but how did you think I was?"
Feeling trapped in a minefield of innuendo, Tara took her drink back off Faith and took a fortifying swig. Ignoring the suggestive tone of the slayer's voice, Tara answered in the vein of her original meaning. "And you're obviously fine, so I should go." Standing up, Tara groaned as this left her body in serious contact with the brunette, who hadn't moved.
"No, stay." Faith answered, putting a hand on her hip. "The night is young."
Taking a deep breath, Tara tried to slow her heartbeat. It had been a while, and Faith was undeniably gorgeous. But the slayer had been drinking, she had just come from screwing the biker from hell, and she usually only went out like this when things weren't right. Tara couldn't bring herself to take advantage of that. Sighing, she put her hands on Faith's shoulders and leaned in close to her ear to make sure she was heard.
"Faith. I won't lie to you – you're beautiful, and I'd be lucky. But if we ever had sex, it might be rough or gentle, it might be fast or slow, it might be a bit kinky. It might even be in the back of a night club, and it would definitely be satisfying. But I can tell you what it wouldn't be – it wouldn't be about using each other, and it wouldn't be about fear. Be safe tonight, okay? I'll see you back at the hotel."
Faith was left stunned as she watched the witch sway out of the club to where she could sense Angel waiting. Shifting uncomfortably she realised the woman had left her more than a little turned on with her final statement, and feeling...exposed. Shit. Leaving the club by the staff exit out back, she disappeared into the night to find some demons and do some damage.
Angel and Tara went back to the hotel in silence. Opening the door, both were surprised to find most of the gang still up chatting.
"Faith okay?" Gunn asked, noticing their entrance.
Angel nodded. "She's fine. Night all." And disappeared into his office.
"Chatty guy." Olivia noted.
Tara smiled, relaxing a bit in the familiar surroundings. "He's sort of...stoic. But a good boss." She walked down the front steps to join them on the couch.
"Speaking of which," Wes piped up, "I should get some sleep. He's not going to be impressed if we're all late tomorrow because of tonight's, uh..." Wes screwed up his face as he provided Angel's former excuse for their layers of multi-coloured gore, "paintball adventures."
"Yeah," Gunn agreed, standing, "Nice to meet you,'livia, but I should get back to my crew, see how they're all doin'. See you all tomorrow."
"Night guys." Tara fare-welled them, smiling as they stopped at the door to perform a complicated manly handshake.
Turning back to Olivia once they had left, Tara asked, "Did the guys find you a room? Need any help setting up?"
"Yeah, I'm all sorted, thanks." The woman relied. "I just wanted to grab you for a minute to make sure Faith's actually okay."
Tara settled back into the couch with a speculative look at the woman. Seeing only honest concern, she thought through her answer. "Can I ask how you know her?"
"Well," Olivia began, "I'm not 'from the slammer here to blackmail her', if that's what you're asking." She finished with a smile.
Tara laughed slightly. "Sorry about that. We're all sort of protective of our friends and Cordy's a bit...blunt."
"I can see that." Olivia answered. "Can I ask why she'd assume I'm from prison, though?"
"I think she assumed that's where you knew Faith from." Tara responded with a shrug. "I take it that's not the case?"
Olivia was silent for a minute. "Faith's done time?"
"Ah." Tara moved in her chair, the moment becoming a bit more awkward. "Yes. Two years, for murder." She would have felt guilty about revealing Faith's secrets, except for Faith's obvious unconcern about sharing this fact with others in the past.
"Shit." Olivia said, eyes widening in a bit of shock. "Only two years for murder?"
Tara ran a hand through her hair. "Look, Olivia, I'd like to know a little bit more about how you know Faith before we discuss this further, and I'm getting the impression it might take a while. Did you want to grab some coffee and we could sit in one of our rooms where it's a bit warmer and more comfortable?
"Sure." The woman answered simply, and followed Tara to make the coffee.
