Chapter 5

Mr. Giles polished his glasses for the fifteenth time that morning. "And what exactly was it you were chasing, again, Faith?"

The dark-haired younger Slayer sighed; her feet were propped up on the library table as she leaned back in her chair. "Like I said already, I didn't get a really good look. I was just patrolling and happened to see B and Blondie here walking down Main, and this big dark thing following them."

"And by big and dark you mean…?" the Watcher prompted, putting his glasses back on.

The Bostonian frowned in frustration. "I mean, it was about six feet tall, and either it had black skin or it was wearing black clothes. I didn't get close enough to see which, 'cause B pounced me and tried to break my arm."

"What? I did not try to break your arm!" Buffy argued. "I was just disarming you."

"See? She admitted it. Dis-arm," she emphasized. "Pulling my arm off. I rest my case," Faith stated obstinately, crossing her arms over her chest.

Xander and Tara hid chuckles behind their hands, while Willow buried her head in her hands. "Faith, that's not what – never mind." The auburn-haired young woman sighed. "So the baddie got away, but on the good side, Tara still got home okay."

"Well, I probably would have anyway," Tara noted, "even without Angel there. Since Buffy and Faith chased off whatever was following us." She ran her fingers through her hair, pushing it back from her face, revealing a great deal of relief displayed across her features.

Buffy shook her head. "We don't have a clue where it went, so there is a possibility it doubled back to go after you again, but saw Angel with you and decided not to. So he could have been protecting you without your even knowing it."

"Yeah, well yippee, we saved the day." Faith dropped her feet from the table top with a thunk. "Do you need to ask me what happened again, or can I take off?"

The Watcher nudged his glasses further up on his nose and sighed. "If you'd like to leave, Faith, I don't see a reason why you can't. Keep an eye out for our, our pursuer, could you?"

Faith stood and tossed her hair. "It got away from me once, G. I'd kinda like to have that not happen again. If I see it again, that thing is going down."

"Yes, well, do get in touch with us, if, if you should happen to cross paths with it again."

"Five by five." With that, the younger girl turned and exited the library, her distaste for being in the school building readily apparent.

Buffy watched the dark Slayer exit, the library doors swinging shut behind her, closing on a scene of Faith sneering at Cordelia, who had been walking past the library. "So, that's Faith," the blonde Slayer commented, looking back to Tara. "She's just got attitude to spare."

Tara gave Buffy a gentle smile of understanding. She could tell Faith basically liked to keep people at arm's length. She suspected that the girl had her own reasons for not getting too close to people, and this seemed to be her way of making sure no one got attached to her. And with Faith being a Slayer, that idea made a certain kind of sense. Though, Tara acknowledged, she much preferred Buffy's way. "Are we trying again tonight? I mean, to catch the, um, the -"

Mr. Giles immediately shook his head. "Not in the same way as last night, no," he stated. "In fact, I'd much prefer it if you stayed in tonight, if at all possible with company. Perhaps even at someone else's home, since whatever's out there knows where you live. It may be safer for you to be elsewhere. We'll let Buffy and Faith try to find this - this being, on patrol tonight."

Buffy shook her head. "Yup, just throw me to the lions, Giles," she said wryly. "I can handle it, I'm sure," she said in a more even tone. "I mean, I haven't come across anything so far that I couldn't handle, eventually."

"She can stay with me tonight, Giles," Willow offered. "I mean, i-if you want to, Tara. I'm not saying you have to or anything. Just, you can. My mom and dad wouldn't mind at all."

Tara nodded with a half-smile. "I have the night off, so um … staying in isn't a problem. And I'd like that, a-a lot. Thanks, Willow."

~~

The rest of the morning passed pretty uneventfully, going to her classes and then spending lunch with Amy. Together they called Michael's house from the pay phone, and he spoke with them each in turn. Tara wanted to know what had happened, but didn't think that it would be a good time to ask about it. They arranged to go over to visit with the boy the next evening, now that he was home and resting up. He commented that "resting up" was incredibly boring and he wished he could have his friends there.

He couldn't stay on the phone very long, but long enough to let them know that he was definitely getting better. His sense of humor was returning, but when Amy made him laugh it hurt his ribs, so she tried to stop. It didn't really work out that way, trying to stop making him laugh only made her comments seem that much funnier, so she quickly gave up and handed the phone over to Tara again before they said good bye.

After lunch, her classes seemed to slow to a crawl, her mind continually wandering back to the fact that she would be spending the night at Willow's house. She wondered what Willow's house was like, what her parents were like, and whether she would have to sleep in a guest room or if she would get to stay in Willow's room.

Maybe they would get to talk about magic, maybe even do a simple spell or two. Tara kind of hoped they would, she was curious about how much experience Willow had with magic and what kind of things she could do. In all likelihood they could learn from each other, an exciting possibility. Who would have thought that a seemingly random crush would grow into a friendship? And Tara continued to hold out hope that one day, the pixyish redhead might return the affection Tara had for her.