Author's note: Sorry I haven't gotten this done sooner, but work and real life got in the way. Trust me, I'll keep writing this ... it's my diversion from the professional writing stuff. :)
***************************** Chapter Three *****************************
"Prove it."* Do you have any idea how painful those two words can be?
And I wasn't being all figurative, with the distrust and the broken friendships. I was being literal ... really, really literal. When you tell anyone that you're Immortal, they usually say, "Prove it." And you usually have to drag out a big-ass knife and slice up your arm just to prove yourself right.
Which I did. And ow. Just ... just ow.
After I'd wiped up the blood and picked up everyone else's gaping jaws off the floor, it took something like twenty minutes to get through the whole story, a lot shorter than I'd expected.
But still, no Tara.
Giles, Buffy and Dawn kept glancing over their shoulders towards the counter, as if Tara would pop up any second now and stutter a "S-surprise!" Plus, they continually looked at the front door, like they were waiting for Willow to show up and smell trouble, or Anya to come in with a straitjacket and a registered nurse.
No Tara. No Anya. No Willow.
And no help. Thanks, ladies. Really. I mean that.
I stopped talking as soon as I got to the part of the story where I let Cordelia talk me into this wild and crazy scheme --
*Okay, first you have to shoot Tara.*
-- before it hit me that fully that Willow and Anya weren't there.
*And you have to do it in front of the Scoobies. All of them.*
I wondered briefly if them not seeing Tara "die" would affect Cordelia's vision of the future. It couldn't do that much damage, could it?
Oh, God, those are famous last words, aren't they?
Giles and Buffy kept staring at me, Buffy not taking her glare away from me, Giles looking at me in almost disbelief. Yeah, that's what it was. Like he couldn't believe I'd finally come out of the Immortal closet. Me neither, crumpet boy.
Dawn, meanwhile, was still working it out in her head. After a minute of silence, she finally said, "Okay, so let me get this straight. You can't die. Tara can't die. Unless, you know, someone gets all choppy on your neck. Right?"
I nodded.
Frowning, she reached out and touched my sword, which I'd placed on the table ... I don't know, as proof, maybe? I mean, it's not exactly like they hand out Immortal Membership cards and secret decoder rings. "So, how do you fit that under a coat?" she asked.
Giles groaned and rubbed at the bridge of his nose like he always did when he was frustrated. "Dawn ..."
"What? I couldn't have been the only one wondering about that."
Buffy, meanwhile, just kept staring at me, as if I'd grow horns or a tail or something and she didn't want to miss it. I don't think I'd ever seen her look so serious. "Why didn't you tell me?"
Damn, I knew someone was going to ask me that. "Are you mad at me?" God, listen to me. I sounded like a five-year-old.
She rolled her eyes. "Please. I just ... I wish you would have told us sooner, that's all. I mean, up until now, you've been Most Likely To Puncture a Major Organ. We worry about you."
"You do?" The others nodded, and I grimaced. "Ah, so this is what it feels like to wallow in the kiddie pool of guilt."
Buffy got all pensive for a few seconds before saying, "So, your 'rents aren't, are they?"
I shook my head. "Teach said no, so I asked Mom. She mentioned something about a truck stop and a newborn baby in a dumpster and that's how I learned there are worse mental images than your parents having sex."
Dawn made a face, but Buffy grinned, and I could have sworn the corners of Giles's mouth went up just a little. "That's ... good," Buffy said, tentatively. Almost like she expected me to fight her on it and defend the abusive bastard. I mean, most of my friends loved my mom, but my father ... well ... "Your dad just being psychotic and not being related and all," she added, then blushed and said, "Well, I mean, I never liked him anyway. He was kind of slimy. And he always smelled like Coors. So, want me to go sell his kidneys on the black market?"
See, this is why I love the Buffinator. Because here I was, telling her my father had tossed me down the stairs and killed me, and she was asking me if she could rip out his internal organs. She's just so sweet, isn't she?"
"You know what? I think the big, pointy thing I kept next to my bed for two years spooked him enough. But thanks anyway." For a split second, all eyes went to the sword on the table.
"And you never got him arrested for it?" Giles asked.
"You show me a corpse," I said, "and I'll show you a murderer."
Giles frowned. I had a point. I don't think he was really used to it.
Dawn glanced back once again towards the counter. "Is anyone else worried about where Tara might be?"
"An island in the South Pacific," I blurted out, then did the guilty thing as everyone stared at me. "Cordelia told me."
"She tell you anything else?" Buffy asked.
I shrugged. "Just to wait."
**************************
Now, here's the thing. Right about this time, Adam had dragged Tara's ... well, for lack of a better word, dead, lifeless corpse out of the ocean.
Yeah, dead and lifeless. That was where *my* problems started. Adam's started with the sticky situation (for all he knew) of having to tell her beloved friends and family that she was dead. But first, he had to find out who she was, and that meant searching her pockets.
That was why Evan Roberts came in handy.
Evan sat next to Tara in her art history class, and two seats down from Buffy. So Tara knew who he was when he'd missed the Monday class, and he knew who Tara was when he walked into the Magic Box on Tuesday looking for a crystal necklace for his girlfriend. Evan needed the notes for class, so he wrote down his phone number on the back of a business card and gave it to Tara so he could get the notes later.
Surprise, surprise ... the business card was for the Magic Box.
And with no other clue as to who she was, Adam didn't have much of a choice in what he was going to do with her. So, grabbing onto her, he concentrated for a split second before the both of them vanished into thin air.
Don't say I didn't warn you.
**************************
I've got impeccable timing, you know that?
I haven't even gotten finished saying "wait" when there's the fresh scent of ozone and this sizzling sound in the big open spot in the middle of the store. And when the initial shock of someone suddenly appearing in the middle of the store wore off, we were confronted by two soaking wet people on the floor -- Tara, who was still out of it, and Adam, who wasn't.
With an apologetic smile on his face, Adam got to his feet, cleared his throat, and said, "Excuse me, but do any of you happen to know this girl?"
And that's when Tara woke up.
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Saturday, February 17, 2001 04:13 PM