A/N: I usually don't do review responses in the chapters I post, but I guess I have to in order to respond to guest reviews.

Taralover: First off Faith being adopted by the Summers family doesn't necessarily negate any possible Faith/Dawn pairing (I haven't decided for certain yet so it's not a spoiler). The Watchers Council is going to be very much a non-entity in this story (most of Wesley's contacts to get Faith's adoption approved were Watchers though). As far as Buffy knowing Tara was Dawn's tutor…remember in canon Buffy was very much uninvolved in Dawn's life so it's plausible that she hadn't seen Tara since Hemery. And yes high school grade levels are freshmen, sophomore, junior, and senior (also applies to first four years of college). At least in the USA they are, I realize that people from all over the world can be reading this story, but I gotta write what I know. There will probably be flashbacks and conversations that show how Buffy acted her freshmen year. True that most vamps are purely evil, but I also believe that the remnants of their humanity can fight the demon for control, sometimes the human side shines through more. Anyway hope you enjoy reading as the story progresses.

A/N 2: Thank you Taralover for pointing out a mistake in Buffy and Tara's conversation...hope it's less confusing now.

Second Chances

It had been nearly a week since Buffy had rescued Tara from the vampires. She was a little worried that Tara had decided not to call her she really wanted to make things right and was tempted to just go see Tara at her dorm, but she didn't want it to seem like she was forcing herself on her. Buffy had not been idle throughout her week though, she had been busy with her classes, with helping her mother that art gallery, and was training Dawn how to defend herself along with the help of Faith. She had also been watching Faith and Dawn interacting, Buffy could not be sure, but she thought Dawn had a crush on Faith. She wasn't sure what to do about that, if she was wrong in her assumption and brought it up could make Dawn mad at her she had decided to just let things run their course. If her suspicions that would not go away she might bring it up to her mother later she decided it was in a big deal at the moment the only issue she would have is the fact that Dawn was only thirteen, however Faith was only three years older.

Buffy's mind was brought back from its wandering by the ring of her cellphone. She did not recognize the number on the caller ID, but answered it anyway thinking it might be Tara. "Hello?" Buffy inquired.

"Hello, B-Buffy? This is Tara." Came the reply from the other end of the line.

"Oh hi Tara! Yes this is Buffy." The slayer replied enthusiastically.

"Oh g-good I'm glad I dialed the n-number right. I was wondering if you were st-still interested in maybe having coffee sometime…that is if y-you're still interested in talking." Tara said nervously managing to minimize her stutter.

"I'm definitely still interested." Buffy said, "Whenever you have time."

"OK how d-does ten AM Saturday sound t-to you?" Tara asked.

"Sounds good to me, do you want to meet at Starbucks or the Espresso Pump?" Buffy asked.

"Um… Let's m-meet at the Espresso Pump."

"Alright I guess I'll see you Saturday." Buffy said then hung up after saying goodbye.

She was glad that Tara had to finally called, more glad then she should have been she suspected she might have spent more time thinking about why, but it was getting late and she had to get ready for patrol. When Buffy came downstairs from changing into her patrol clothes Dawn was just getting back from her jog, which she had started doing shortly after she began training with Buffy to help her get into better shape. "How far did you run today?" Buffy asked.

"I'm not sure how far exactly I went about half way to the supermarket and back." Dawn answered.

"Really were you just jogging leisurely or were you going all out?" Buffy inquired curiously.

"Just the leisurely jog," Dawn said, "Why?"

"Cause Dawn that's five miles and if you were able to do that easily in thirty minutes then you should seriously think about joining track team." Buffy said honestly impressed.

"You really think I should?" Dawn asked.

"Yeah I think so you're obviously a good runner and if you enjoy running I say go for it." Buffy said encouragingly. "I have to head out on patrol pretty soon mom and Faith are gonna be at the gallery for a couple more hours. They had a shipment come in a day early so they're busy making sure everything is there. There's some leftover pizza in the fridge if you're hungry. Don't forget to lock the door after I leave, I was planning on doing along patrol tonight, but if you want I can do a short one in case they're gonna take a long time."

"No go ahead and do along patrol. I should be OK by myself for a while I have a little bit of homework left and there's always TV to watch. Plus if anything happens I can always call you or Faith." Dawn reassured her older sister.

"Before I go Dawn, I wanna talk to you about your tutor Tara."

"What about her?" Dawn asked with a confused frown.

"Do you remember how I was when I went to Hemery? How I was a lot like Cordelia was at Sunnydale to Willow? Well Tara went to Hemery too and she was my Willow there. I know you like her and have become friends with her so that's why I'm telling you, I'm meeting her for coffee in a couple days so I can try to, if not make things right, maybe start fresh." Buffy explained.

Dawn was a little upset hearing this, "You better work things out, cause if she stops tutoring me because you're my sister I'm not going to be very happy." She said more disappointed in learning how her sister had treated people when they lived in LA than angry.

"I'll do my best Dawn, but all I can really do is show Tara who I am now and hope she can forgive me for what I've done in the past. I know you've become pretty good friends with her recently if so I'll try to make sure that whatever happens between me and her doesn't affect her friendship with few." Buffy said reassuringly.

"OK, that's all I can really ask of you I guess. Be careful on patrol."

The next couple days seems like an eternity to Buffy. She was very anxious to see Tara again, but she didn't know why, Am I really this anxious just to prove to her that I've changed? Is that why can't seem to get her out of my head? Buffy thought to herself knowing that it was really more than that, but not wanting to think too hard on the subject, that it might lead down a path about her as a person that she was far from ready to go down just yet.

Saturday morning finding came and at ten AM sharp Buffy was sitting at one of the tall tables in the Espresso Pump with an untouched extra chocolaty mocha sitting in front of her she had her hands wrapped around cup staring intently at the brown liquid. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she did not notice Tara walking up until the other blonde had sat down with her cup of tea across from Buffy. Buffy looked up with a slightly shy smile, "Good morning Tara!" She said excitedly.

Tara simply gave a small nod and half-hearted smile in response, "So, Buffy what d-did you want to talk about? Maybe about my st-stutter? Because I don't do that very often anymore, it took a couple years of intensive therapy, but now it only happens when I'm nervous or around people or things that bring up bad memories. Is it about my clothes? Because if I'm not mistaken my "hippie chick" style is making a bit of a comeback. So it must be something else."

Buffy hung her head in shame knowing that what Tara had said was well deserved and it was true and that she had teased the girl about those things and many others as well, "I deserved that, I know. I was pure evil to you and teased you mercilessly. I know I don't deserve it and I know I can't make things right, but would you be willing to give me a chance to try and make amends?"

"I'll be honest Buffy, everything in my head that's logical is telling me to run and not look back and avoid you at every turn, but I realize that by nature I believe in the best in people I believe that people can change and now I'm skeptical about you. May not be fair to view you that way, but I still see you as the freshman from high school who made my life hell. If it weren't for the fact that I knew the rest of your family and saw how good their character was and how good of people they are I might not give you the chance. I'll give you another chance if only for the sake of me not having to try to avoid you when I'm tutoring Dawn."

"That's another thing I was worried about, Dawn likes you and I didn't want her to have to find a new tutor just because you and I couldn't resolve things, so if we can't work things out I'll just make sure I'm not in the way whenever you need to come over to tutor her."

"OK so if I'm gonna give you another chance I guess I should find out what you've been doing the last few years." Tara said.

"Well you know how I was expelled for burning down the gym at Hemery right? Well that was actually slayer business, there was a nest of vampires living in there. Then my mom, my sister, and I moved out here to Sunnydale. I was determined to give up on slaying and make a new life for myself. At this point the only person who knew I was a slayer was Dawn. So I was getting settled into the new school, but low and behold the schools librarian was assigned to be my new watcher. I still didn't wanna start slaying again though. Then I met Willow, Xander, and Jesse. Honestly Willow reminded me a lot of you and I figured this might be a chance for me to do things right so I hung out with them my first day. That night we were at this town's all ages night club, The Bronze and Willow, thanks to my brilliant advice started flirting with a vampire. Xander and I follow them to a mausoleum I fight off the vamps they ran, but Jesse got captured and turned. A couple days later we stop the current master vampire from rising back to power and Xander and Willow have been fighting alongside me ever since. You kinda know about the Master, he's the one that killed me, but as I said Xander saved me with CPR and I ended up defeating him." Buffy says as she goes on to describe her life so far in Sunnydale. "So that brings us to now Faith, my sister slayer/adopted sister of me and Dawn, and the person that if I'm not mistaken Dawn has a bit of a crush on, is the most recent addition to our crew. Oh and Oz and Cordelia actually got together soon after "the fluke", where they caught Willow and Xander kissing, well they moved to LA where I hear they're helping Angel fight the good fight."

"Wow that's a helluva lot to happen in three years, oh and I'd have to agree about your views on how Dawn feels about Faith, though I can't blame her Faith is a hottie! And I can't believe I just outted myself to you like that…so from what you've said demons take time off in the summer or something?" Tara asked trying to change the subject.

"Yeah, I'm not exactly sure why, I mean there's still some vampire activity, but significantly less it has something to do with the short nights. They get enough time to feed, but not much else. A lot actually head south, or at least that's what Angel told me, they follow the seasons. And about outing yourself…you being gay doesn't bother me if that's what you were worried about. I deal with too much stuff in my calling to have time to even think of having a problem with that."

Tara was slightly reassured by Buffy's words and although she sensed a goodness in her former bully she was still cautious. The duo continued to talk for a while as they slowly became more comfortable with each other.

Tara left the coffee shop feeling conflicted, her instincts were telling her that she should not trust Buffy before she had proved herself more, but the rest of her felt drawn to the petite blonde and wanted to believe she had truly changed for the better. She felt drawn to the slayer for some reason and she was unsure whether she liked that or not, Tara Maclay, you are NOT going to fall for the girl who made your life hell! She chastised herself, We'll see about that, replied an annoying voice. "Damn, I'm screwed aren't I" She asked no one.