TITLE: Give Her Ten

AUTHOR: mmmh-Hot-Sauce

RATING: R ... May become NC-17 later

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of these characters, well, maybe one or two, but as for the rest of them, they are property of ME

SPOILERS: Completely AU

SUMMARY: Tara is the Captain of her College Crew Team and with the help of some friends, they look for new recruits.

FEEDBACK: I would be grateful for any and all comments.

CHAPTER 4

By 9:30, Tara had already been at the gym for nearly twenty minutes with no sign of Faith. "Great." Tara mumbled as she continued a light, warm up jog on the treadmill. "I can't believe she stood me up."

Shutting down the machine, she hopped off of the treadmill, her eyes scanning across the nearly empty fitness center. As she was about to settle herself onto her favorite erg, the sight of vibrant red hair caught her attention from across the room. Sitting upon a stationary bike with her head buried in a thick Biology book, was an unfamiliar woman that Tara was fairly certain was the girl she ran into earlier that day.

Unstrapping her feet from the erg, Tara stood up and with a bit of hesitance walked over to the redhead. Standing in front of the woman who was completely engrossed in her reading, Tara cleared her throat to get the other girls attention.

Startled by the sudden noise only inches from her, Willow lost her footing on the bike, nearly toppling off of the machine. With wide green eyes, she repositioned herself back onto the bike, simultaneously turning off the machine and looking up at the person who had completely caught her off guard. As her eyes locked onto the oceanic blue ones staring down at her, her breath caught in her throat as the mysterious girl started to talk.

"Uhm, hey, sorry to bother you. You don't know me or anything but, are you Willow Rosenberg?"

"Yu, yeah?" Willow said, her response coming out as more of a question as her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion.

"Oh, hey, great." Tara said with a wide smile. Waving her hands back and forth between herself and the still confused redhead, "Uhm, I'm Tara. We kind of ran into each other this afternoon. "

"Oh! Are – are you okay?" Willow asked nervously as she closed her textbook, unintentionally bringing the book to her chest as a form of protection. "I'm sorry I took off so fast afterwards, I was really, really late for class. You're not like pissed or something, right? You're not looking for some type of payback, are you?"

"What?" Tara asked bewildered. "Willow, no." she said, shaking her head to comfort the petrified girl. "I actually picked up a few of your things on accident. I just wanted to give them back to you. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression."

"Wow, uhmm." Willow laughed nervously as she bashfully scratched the back of her head. "I kind of feel like an idiot now. I mean, I was watching you run over there for a while and you had this really intense look on your face. Kind of like 'nobody better mess with me'", she air quoted as she unintentionally started to ramble, her face and hands becoming extremely animated in the process. "And then all of a sudden you're next to me! And I've got to admit, it's a little intimidating. What with you being all toned with the sexy muscles and me as weak as a wet noodle." Taking a breath to continue on with her ramble, her brain finally caught up with what her mouth spat out. Her eyes widen instantly as she stared at the semi smirking blonde, her face blushing from embarrassment. "And oh my god, I can't believe I just said all that! Now I feel like an even bigger idiot."

"It's okay to feel like an idiot." Tara said with a bemused smile, her head cocked to the side as she intently watched the blushing redhead. "I'm sure everyone does every now and again. I for one know I do at least once a week."

"Thanks for trying to make me feel better," Willow said with a hesitant smile as she nervously chewed on her bottom lip. "But I still feel really stupid for you know … saying …"

"What?" Tara asked with a cheeky smile as she rubbed her hands up and down her biceps. "That I'm sexy and have great muscle tone?"

"Uh yeah, that." Willow admitted, her blush growing further, turning her face and neck completely red. "I'm sorry if ..."

"Trust me; I'm taking that as a great compliment." Tara said, cutting off the other girl's apology. "If anything, it's most likely the highlight of my day. Truthfully, it most likely will be the highlight of my week as well."

"Well, I'm glad I was the uplift of your day." Willow said, giving the blonde a genuine smile. "Uhmm, not to change the subject out of embarrassment or anything, but you said you had a few of my things?"

"Oh yeah!" Tara proclaimed with a broad smile. "I have your enrollment sheet; hopefully you didn't need that to get to your classes today. Which by the way, welcome to Caz College. "

"Yea, it would have been helpful so I knew where my night class was." Willow said with a slight shrug of her shoulders. "I tried to get a new print out of it after my class, you know, the one I was late to when I ran into you, but the registrations office was already closed for the day."

"That's the registrations office for ya, closed always when you need them. But, uhmm, if you want to swing by my room later tonight I can give you your stuff so you don't have to worry about missing any more classes."

"That would be great, thank you Tara."

"It's no problem Willow. Oh, I also picked up this really worn out book."

"You have my book!" Willow shouted, causing the few people still in the gym to turn their heads towards them.

"Well, uh, yeah." Tara said slowly, her left eyebrow lowering while her right one raised high onto her forehead.

"You didn't read it did you? I mean, it's okay if you read it" she faltered as she chuckled nervously, her right hand flicking at the edge of her text book. "It's fine really."

"No. No I didn't read it," Tara reassured the nervous redhead. "I wouldn't intrude on someone else's privacy like that. Plus, the thing is so worn out I couldn't even make a name out on the cover. You must really love that book."

"I, uh … " She faltered as she tried to come up with something to say to Tara. Settling on the most logical thing, "Thank you."

"Of course." Tara responded demurely with a light head nod. "Well, I'm gonna get back to my workout. I'll see you around Willow." As she got back to her previously unattended rowing machine, she re-strapped her feet back into the foot stretcher with the soul intent of resuming her workout when Willow's meek voice caught her attention.

"Hey Tara," Willow called out quietly, her voice just barely recognizable over the load clinking of dumbbells being jolted around from the various gym-goers. Swiftly clambering off of the stationary bike, her textbook still clasped tightly to her chest, she walked over to the blonde who was gently easing back and forth on the slide, loosing up the muscles in her leg. "Umm, where exactly do you live? So I can get my stuff and all."

"Oh right," Tara said as she looked up into Willow's soulful green eyes, playfully slapping her own forehead. "I live in Swenson Hall. Second floor, above the cafeteria, room 233."

"Okay, that should be easy to remember." Willow said, giving the blonde a genuine smile. She wiggled the digits on her right hand at the machine Tara was currently sitting on before taking a step back, "I guess I will swing by later tonight then. Give you some time to finish, um, whatever this thing is."

"Wait, Willow." Tara called out, stopping the other girls retreat. "This won't take long. I'm only doing a 2k and I plan on doing power tens through most of it so I should be done real quick. My split time will be around 1:50 … so my time will be around seven minutes" Off of the quizzical look she received from the redhead, she shyly bit her lip, her eyes nervously casting around the room. "And I just realized you probably didn't understand a word of that. Sorry. Crew talk. I'll be done here in ten minutes if you want to stick around and come back to my room right after to get your stuff."

"And I thought I rambled on," Willow said good naturally as she smiled at the blonde, letting her know she was just joking.

"Like I told you before, everyone acts like an idiot." Tara replied, a smile on her own face that reciprocated Willow's. "And this right here," she said, flailing her hands about, indicating herself and the machine she was sitting on. "This is my idiotness showing through."

"Well, it looks good on you." Will replied with a glazed over look in her eyes before a blush took over her face yet again. "I mean. I, uh. I … well …" Willow faltered, unsure what to say to make the situation better, or if she should say anything at all in fear that she would only make it worse.

Trying to contain the smirk playing across her face, Tara watched on with great fascination as Willow blunder over her own words. After a few seconds of watching the girl panic over her mild slip up, Tara decided to help ease the redhead's embarrassment by changing the subject. "Hey Willow, do you think you could help me out with something?"

"I'd probably say yes to anything right now if we agree to forget about that little thing I just said." Willow babbled out in one long breath, her eyes wide with mortification.

"What thing?" Tara asked, already silently agreeing to not mention Willow's slip up.

"You know? That thing where I just sai…" It finally dawned on her that she was about to repeat the sentence that originally brought her to this state of embarrassment. Snapping her mouth shut, she smirked at the blonde before nodding her head. "Sure, what do you need?"

"Would you mind coxswaining me?" Tara asked, her bottom lip poked out slightly in a pout "I do better when I have someone shouting out the commands for me."