Series: The Velvet Web

For the Episode: A New Man - Chapter Two

Rating: G

Description: What happened to Willow and Tara after the rose missile. One in a series of scenes that I am currently writing that deal with what could have happened before/after a Willow/Tara scene in the episodes of season 4. The details I've written about Tara and her background are actually for another fic that I am writing but I figured I'd start setting it up now. How very Joss, no? I'm more of a dialogue kinda gal and so my narration may not fully vivid, but I think the dialogue is pretty descriptive.

Spoilers: If you haven't seen Tara in season 4 episodes...

Feedback: Much appreciated since this wasn't read by anyone else and English is not my first language. (I have an interesting set up of grammar.)

Disclaimers: Don't own anything, don't make any money, and blah, blah, blah, Joss, blah, blah, blah, production companies, and blah, blah, blah, the Buffy writers... I just love writing to your inventions...

Notes: The transcript part is from Psyche's Transcripts on the web... I will use either these or shooting scripts from The Buffy Shooting Script Site. I like the shooting scripts more since they really let you know what the characters were supposed to say and mean.

Written: June 2000, with revisions at later dates

Cut to Tara's dorm room: dorm unknown, room number unknown. It is very dim. The walls are black and strewn with a string of white Christmas lights that give the place a mystical look. Tara is kneeling on the floor pouring white powder, sand, or salt in the design of a four-point star in a circle. Willow is holding a red rose.

Willow: (sitting across from her) I'm glad you wanted to get together. I know it's late.

Tara: Thanks. (a beat) I was happy you called.

Willow places the rose on top of the circled star.

Willow: We'll start out slow.

Tara sits and Willow reaches her hands out to her and the blonde girl links hands with her.

Tara: Okay.

Willow closes her eyes and Tara follows suit. They sit there for a few seconds in silence.

Tara: Willow?

Willow: Yeah?

Tara: (eyes opening) Start out slow doing what?

Willow opens her eyes.

Willow: (in a soft voice) Oh. We're gonna float the rose. Then use the majiks to pluck the petals off, one at a time. It's a test of synchronicity. Our minds have to be perfectly attuned to work as a single delicate implement.

Tara: (a moment, then smiles) Cool.

Willow: And it should be very pretty.

They hold hands again and close their eyes. They are in deep concentration and a bright light comes to life on the circled star. At the same time a soft breeze sweeps through the room and the rose starts to shudder. Slowing it begins to rise. When it is shoulder level with the girls they open their eyes and look at it. They release each other's hands.

Tara: (softly) It worked.

Willow: (softly) Now for the hard part. The petals.

They begin to concentrate again looking at the rose when the rose suddenly shoots off across the room. Surprised, they stand and watch as the rose ricochets off the walls a few times and have to duck to avoid it. It finally comes straight down on the four point star and we see that it is petalless but smoking.

Willow: (shocked) What the heck was that?

Tara: I don't know, but, uh, the petals are off. (chuckling)

Still shaken, I kneeled down and reached for the rose stem. "You're not into black magic are you?" I asked Tara carelessly.

She was completely taken aback by my question. "N-no. How can... How can you even ask me that?" I couldn't understand how the disbelief in her eyes overwhelmed me.

"Tara, I'm sorry. It's just that I've had bad experiences in the past. And this room, although completely magical in its decor... It's very shadowy... Not that shadowy is bad; it's just... We have an "I love chocolate" poster in my room and... I'll shut up now." I sat down on the floor defeated, the stem falling by my side. I couldn't believe what was coming out of my mouth. I could still see some embarrassment in Tara's face as she sat down in front of me. She proceeded to look everywhere but me.

However, she did succeed to say, "I-I just wanted m-my room to look like the sky - at night. I, I don't like light very much. Especially in the morning." A tiny smile slipped out.

As soon as her eyes clicked with mine I grinned. "Yeah, I know. Like when you're sleeping and a ray creeps in and you need to get under your covers to block it out but then you can't breath..." Her half smile stopped my babbling. "So, there's no demon worship here, right?" I finished as a joke. Ok, a half joke.

"W-Willow!" She rolled her eyes at me and quickly smiled again in recognition of my jest. "No..."

"I know, I know... I'm sorry. I can sense you're good." Another smile lit up her face. "Especially when you do that." If at all possible, her broad smile widened even more. Quickly, she looked down on the floor and proceeded to cover it with her hand. I could have sworn she was blushing.

"Sorry," she said, "I have issues with my smile."

"Why? It's great. Uh..." was all I managed to say trying not to stare at her.

She took a few moments to settle her smile down and looked back at me, "Ok. All's good now." But it really wasn't. She spent a few more seconds contorting her face trying to control her smile.

I looked back down at the former rose to stop me from giggling. "I'm just a little weirded out by the whole rose missile."

"W-why? Cause we're not in synch? I mean, it should be natural. We've only just met."

I looked at her, "Yeah we did didn't we?" A tangent thought popped in, "Do you think I'm a nerd?"

She certainly had not seen that one coming, "Huh? W-what?"

Restless, I started to pick up the closest rose petals one by one, "Oh, nothing. It's just I ran into this guy from high school and I overheard him say some unpleasant things about me... He called me a nerd!"

"At your h-high school reunion?" she asked me as she leaned over to the side of her bed. I noticed she was reaching for her trash can.

I remembered yesterday's phone conversation. After getting fed up with Spike's nonsense about wanting to go out and fight demons, I had called her as soon as I had returned from Xanders'. Tara admitted she had phoned me up the night before but hadn't left a message. When I asked her why not she giggled and said, "I don't really know." I had given my impromptu high school reunion as the reason I wasn't home. At least it was truth and not a fib. Well, sort of.

"Actually no. He was at the Porter dorm party. He could have been a little more decent. I mean I tutored him! Like Xander said, if it wasn't for me he'd still be in high school."

Tara smiled as she placed the bin by my knee. "You tutored?"

I nodded, "And taught. Well, only because Miss Carpenter... uh, left. So why weren't you at the Porter party?"

Tara looked down at the circle, "I was somewhere else... I heard what happened though. That must have been scary. You know, to have a dead guy in the building." She reached under her bed and pulled out an aged looking book. She proceeded to scan the ivory-yellow pages very carefully. Then she softly whispered, "That's the second student in less than two weeks..."

"Yeah, I was the one who found him."

Wide eyed she looked at me. "Oh god!"

"I know. Double yuck."

"I would have fainted. Well, screamed first then fainted." She darted back to the book.

"I was so scared I don't even remember if I screamed."

"Did they find out what happened?" she asked without looking up.

"Yeah! "I got excited to tell her the story of how we, the Scooby gang, saved the world again, "It was..." A secret my thoughts reminded me. "Um, I don't know. Certainly not the Gentlemen. No siree - we killed them. Well, you know what I mean. Uh, probably alcohol poisoning... What are you looking for?"

"There's a spell Cheryl told me about. For cleansing auras - It's a ritual."

I rolled my eyes. "I thought miss blessed wanna be didn't believe in magic." I couldn't help but imitate her, "Get on our broomsticks and fly around on our broomsticks. Who does she think she is?"

Tara half smiled, "Cheryl's ok. She's just upset - She knows she doesn't have the gift. I tried to explain to her, you know, that practicing Wicca and witchcraft are s-separate things."

"Yeah, I sure learned that lesson. She's probably the one who left scented candles on her own woman power shrine."

Tara looked up and smiled, "I take it you don't like her very much."

"I don't know. It's just the way she shot me down... and intimidated you..."

"S-she didn't intimidate me. Umm... you did."

"Me?" I asked and she nodded. "Why?"

"I... I knew right away you had powers. The way you, uh, talked about it... I can't find this incantation." She laid the book open on her bed.

"But... Come on. I don't. It's you that has all the power. I can't do anything alone. You're the hot air to my balloon... Ugh, I'm turning into Xander."

"W-who's Xander?" she shyly asked. "Y-you've mentioned him a couple of times." Tara looked down at the circle again and proceeded to pile up the sand with her left hand.

"Xander?! Oh god! He's my bestest friend. Well sort of. We've known each other forever. Buffy, Willow and Xander, that's us." Having finished picking up most of the rose petals, I looked to help her with the sand. Instead I stared at her sleek hands. Rhythmically, her fingers slowly moved the sand in to a pile.

"Does he go to school here?" Tara asked.

"No, he's a townie." Is it possible for someone to have such perfect hands? Not a single scar on them?

She looked up at me, "You're from here?! From Sunnydale?"

"Huh?" Both her question and expression surprised me. "Yup. Born and raised." I've been here forever .

"So, umm, your high school is the one that blew up, huh?"

"Yeah. How did you know?"

"I was here - when it happened."

"That's right, I keep forgetting you're a junior."

She finished accumulating the sand and looked at me. "Uh, do you mind if I do something with the rose petals?" I shook my head.

"Another spell?"

"No", she said.

Tara got up and walked over to her bureau, grabbed something from her top drawer and walked back to where she was sitting before. As she sat back down, I noticed it was an empty Glade glass candleholder. Mindfully, she reached in the trashcan and grabbed a handful of petals. She searched through them for the ones most intact and proceeded to place them circularly in the glass. Then, she scooped up some sand with her hand again and carefully poured it in the center, where all the petals connected. She stopped as soon after all the petals were covered. Again, she took the remaining rose petals and placed them in the glass except this time they were put in the sand upright, and not flat. They curled inward and created a little teepee like structure. The contrast between the white sand and the red petals was brilliant.

She placed the remaining petals on the open book and asked, "Why doesn't Xander attend university?"

"I don't know." I said as I watched her get up and carefully take her creation to the little table by her desk. "He doesn't have any academic ambition. He works odd jobs, lives in his parents basement, and dates an ex... uh, Mormon."

She turned to me, "Really?!"

I smiled, "No." Tara laughed. "Anya's an interesting girl. I don't know what he sees in her but... Whatever. He's got odd taste in women. I'm still in shock over Cordelia..."

She sat back down in front of me, "Maybe they have a certain connection that you can't feel... see." Tara picked up some sand with her hand and poured it slowly in the bin.

"I guess. But I think it's all just sexual with those two. I can't picture them having a conversation. They are like two big hornballs... And I can't imagine why I am talking about this."

Tara looked up at me, ready to say something but held back. At last she said, "How did you and Buffy know someone needed to scream to kill the Gentlemen?"

"Huh? Talk about a question from left field..."

"I'm sorry."

"No. Uh, we... A friend of ours knows a lot about... fairy tales and he told us. Well, he didn't tell us, tell us - since we had no voices, but he wrote it down for us. He knew. How did you know it was a fairy tale?"

"I told you. I, I looked it up."

"How did you know to look for it there?"

"I was up all night. It was the last tome I looked in."

I had to smile thinking of Giles, "Tome? That's so British."

"Yeah." She shyly smiled. "I'm, uh, Canadian."

"Really? Will you say 'about' for me? Just kidding... What part of Canada?"

"Tiny town in Saskatchewan. You, you wouldn't know it. No one would know it. I, I don't think people in the province know of it." She laughed quietly. It quickly rippled to me.

"Tiny town? Cute name."

Another smile. "Stony River. There's like fifty of us. I-it's not even on the map."

"That's so weird. Sunnydale isn't such the metropolis but our populace is way more than that. Especially considering... uh, visitors that, uh, leave. I'd go insane."

"It's, it's a different life that's for sure. Lots of nature about."

"Hey! You don't have the accent."

"Its since faded."

"No fair! It's so cute..." She just shrugged her shoulders as she smiled at me. "So, where'd you go to school? Did you have to walk twenty miles in thirty feet of snow, little Tara?"

Tara laughed and shook her head. "I was home schooled... My mother..." She looked away without finishing her sentence.

"And you graduated high school from home? Did you have to take the SAT's? Do you have the same education system as England or is it similar to the States? Sorry, academic Willow is coming out."

"It's ok... W-we don't have SAT's."

"Lucky you..." I noticed near me was a wooden chest by her bed, similar to mine but much, much smaller. It looked as though it could be brought out from under the bed. "This is so cool. Where did you get it?" I asked as I traced my hands over the carved top. It looked like a scene out of the Bible, only I couldn't recognize it.

"That? I found it in an abandoned cabin."

"A log cabin?!" I just had to smile. "That is so cute! A cabin..." was followed by a small yawn. "I, uh, I guess I better go. It's kinda late." I stood up.

A look of worry clouded her face, as she got up too. "Are you sure? I mean, it's late and all but... After everything with those Gentlemen... What I'm trying to say is - Is it safe?"

I smiled at her concern. "Yeah. I'll just have campus security escort me to Stevenson."

"Ok."

I walked past her towards the door. But I suddenly stopped and accidentally caused Tara to bump into me.

"Sorry." We both said simultaneously as I turned around to face Tara.

"I'm sorry. I should have given you warning."

"It's my fault", she said. "I, I wasn't paying attention."

I started to wonder what she was paying attention to. "I just want to thank you, Tara."

"What for?"

"Everything. Letting me come over so late. Talking and stuff. You know..."

"My pleasure. You saved me from having to write a paper."

"I hope it isn't due tomorrow..." I tried to give her my frown but it didn't work after what she said.

"No professor Rosenberg. I write my papers at least two days in advance, not one."

I laughed. "Ok. Good night."

"Be safe."

But I didn't move. I couldn't. "This feels weird." I said. "I feel like I should hug you or something." Tara looked at me not knowing what to say. "And now I feel more weird cause I said that out loud."

"How about we shake?"

I laughed again. "Ok." I held out my hand for her. She softly grasped it and a tingle rushed down my spine. "Are you working your healing mojo on me?" I asked.

"No." She quickly pulled back her hand. "I wasn't open. I mean, I need to be..."

"I was just kidding Tara."

Relieved, she said, "Oh."

"Ok. I'm off for real now. See you tomorrow. I mean..."

"I understand. Good night."

As soon as the door closed behind me I let out a sigh. By the time I got to the lobby and my cheeks were hurting from so much smiling.