Recruiting

"Tara, could I speak to you a moment?" I ask her taking advantage of the fact that for once we are alone.

"S-sure... is this about the Bronze?"

"I'm afraid so. I need to be sure something like that won't happen again. I know you agreed with Spike that it was a bad idea and I'm grateful for that but the truth is that I'm not sure what to do. There are things you don't understand, things I can't explain because it's not my place to do so but that you should know nonetheless."

"I-I knew she was afraid, even before we got there... I kept hoping she would say something but she didn't."

"She couldn't." I say.

"S-she was t-trained to obey?" asks Tara and I'm surprised by the directness of her question. I had expected her to be more aware of what's been going on with Buffy than the others but I wasn't expecting anything like this. My shock must be clearly visible on my face because she goes on.

"You m-met my f-father... and m-my b-brother when they came to g-get me last year. I k-know it's n-nothing compared to what she m-must have gone through but l-let's just say that after my m-mother died I l-learned pretty quickly that saying 'n-no' was n-not an option. T-the only r-reason I was able to b-break free, to g-get away, was b-because I won a scholarship and a t-teacher had t-taken an i-interest in me. They didn't want p-people to get s-suspicious of what was g-going on at home and r-refusing to let me go w-would have drawn to much a-attention to them."

"I had no idea." I say, disturbed not only by the implications of what she's saying but also by how much worse her stutter got when she said it. I hadn't really wanted to think about it when her family showed up, now I realize that maybe I should have.

"I-it's okay, it's over and I r-really don't like to t-talk about it but I t-thought you should know."

"Yes, she was trained to obey, so when they suggested going to the Bronze she had no choice but to go along, even if she really didn't want to go." I say, I want to reassure Tara but I don't know how to do it so I try to distract her by bringing the focus back to Buffy, hoping that it will help.

"A-and Spike knows about this?" She asks.

"Yes, Angel was in hell too so he's the one who understands the most about what she's been through and Spike's been mediating between us."

"Why?"

"Why what?" I don't understand the question.

"W-why do you need a mediator? I-is it because of Buffy's fear? W-we all saw how she reacted when h-he came to visit."

"Yes, Angel can't come near Buffy without triggering that fear so, Spike." I explain.

"B-but what can we do? I m-mean, next time it happens we will be in the s-same spot we were before. I-I can side with Spike, but Dawn, Willow, Anya and Xander will just o-outvote us again."

"That's where you come in. I wanted to ask for your help to talk to Willow in order to get her to side with the two of you the next time another such idea comes up... and maybe give you a few pointers to keep it from happening in the first place."

"I-I can talk to Willow but I don't see how it can be p-prevented."

"You can prevent it by twisting the situation around," I explain, "by asking Buffy to tell you where she wants to go instead of asking her if she agrees with what you have planned. If you ask her where does she want to go in general terms obedience ceases to be an option, unlike what would happen if you were to ask her specifically if she wants to go to a certain place... and I also wanted to warn you that no matter what you do, you should not give her two options and ask her to make a choice."

"T-that won't work," she says and in a way I'm glad to hear her contradicting me so openly, even if she's stuttering once again... somehow it gives me hope, "n-not without coming clean to e-everyone. I-I can side with Spike and I may be able to talk Willow into a-agreeing with us as you s-suggested, b-but there's no w-way we can p-prevent the others from making s-suggestions if they don't k-know what's g-going on and you've m-made it p-pretty c-clear that y-you don't want me to t-tell them."

"I see your point. Unfortunately Buffy doesn't want any of you to know and you are correct in assuming that I don't want to betray her trust."

"A-and that's why you are trying t-to get me to agree while telling me the l-least you can."

"Is it that obvious?"

"Considering you haven't t-told me a-anything, I-I guess so. B-but I understand and I th-think you should respect her wishes."

"It's not that she doesn't trust you."

"W-we know that."

"We?" That was certainly not the pronoun I was expecting to hear.

"Y-yes, we. W-we may not know exactly what's wrong, w-we may make mistakes, b-but we are not completely blind either. W-we saw how she r-reacted to A-angel's p-presence. W-willow and I were there w-when you took her to the b-beach s-shortly after her r-return, we k-know there was a reason why you wanted us to m-move --even if we are s-still not sure what that reason was... and we k-know there was more to her recent 'i-illness' than a l-little v-virus."

"And you've talked about it amongst yourselves?" I ask realizing I may have seriously underestimated Buffy's friends. In my mind I still see them as children, it's only when something like this comes up that I become momentarily aware of just how mistaken that assumption really is.

"A little. More w-with Willow than with Xander and Anya... and we've t-tried to keep D-dawn out of it as much as possible, t-though we have also tried to k-keep her out of your hair as much as we could." Tara explains.

"I thought Spike was on Dawn duty."

"He h-has been for the most part, but he has also taken on p-patrolling and he can't take her along then, b-besides he sleeps during the d-day."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"F-for the same reason you d-didn't. We were trying to respect Buffy's p-privacy as much as we c-could and we were t-trying to give you the s-space you needed in order to h-help her."

"But if you knew what was wrong why take her to the Bronze in the first place?"

"B-because we knew there was s-something wrong but we had no way of k-knowing exactly w-what was wrong. If we had we would have b-been able t-to interpret her silence better... besides it was D-dawn's idea and we didn't have a c-clue as to how to handle her with B-buffy standing there. D-dawn wanted to go, S-spike tried to talk us o-out of it but you know X-xander, there's n-nothing that can convince him that s-something is a good or bad idea faster than S-spike insisting on doing the opposite. Anya jumped on board right away and B-buffy d-didn't say anything so W-willow had no r-real r-reason to oppose. As s-soon as we r-realized that B-buffy wasn't d-dealing well with the s-situation we c-came b-back."

"Oh," I say, somewhat ashamed of myself. I was so angry when they brought a badly shaken Buffy back home after only a few minutes that I didn't even stop to think about what did the fact that they had actually brought her back mean.

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AN- I usually prefer to avoid Tara's stutter (especially in season 6) but it was relevant to the plot here so sorry about that. I know it makes reading a less than pleasant experience.