DISCLAIMER: Nope still not mine.

SUMMARY: Tara's admitted to having been jealous of Kim when she was dating Tommy. Can Tommy convince her that she's beautiful in her own right?

A/N: I'm so thrilled. I've already posted six chapters between two stories this week. I have another chapter almost ready for Shattered and now this one. JD apparently decided to kick me in the butt this week.

By the time the final bell rang for the day, Tara had decided that Tommy was just as nice a guy as Jason and Kim had always told her he was. She even believed that she might stand a chance with him. 'He thinks I'm gorgeous.' The thought echoed through her mind all afternoon.

Kira came upstairs to help them get down to the room Tommy was using for his karate club on the first floor. Once they had him settled in, Kira and Tara stepped outside to talk for a moment.

"Did the two of you work things out at lunch?" Tara nodded, a blush creeping up her neck and spreading quickly over her face. "What did he say?"

"H-h-he thinks I'm g-g-gorgeous." Tara was still so shocked over Tommy's admission that it was hard to keep the stutter out of her voice.

"And rightly so. You are beautiful. I'm kind of glad that Connor's not around right now. He'd be chasing you all over the place just to get you to talk to him." Kira laughed as Tara blushed even harder.

"D-d-don't tease me like that, K-k-kira."

"I'm not kidding. Connor was the biggest flirt in my graduating class. Of course, he had the looks to back it up so ---"

"You like him." Tara giggled as Kira took her turn at blushing bright red.

Kira nodded. "Guilty as charged. Of course, he never looked at me like that. He just saw me as a teammate."

"I'm sure that's not the case at all."

"It is. I saw him as boyfriend material and he saw me as just another girl."

"Not just another girl, Kira." The familiar voice behind her made Kira jump. She turned around to see Connor standing there with his hands jammed in his pockets and looking a little sheepish. Tara stepped back, startled to see the young man behind Kira.

Kira stood there for a moment shocked to see her former red teammate. "I thought you weren't due back in town for another three weeks."

"I decided I needed to come back early. I had to see you."

Tara decided that now would be a good time to go back inside. Kira caught her before she could make good her escape though.

"Tara, I want you to meet my friend, Connor McKnight. Connor, this is TaraLynn Scott. She's Dr. O's new aide." When Connor almost lunged forward to shake her hand, Kira held out a hand. "Slowly, Connor. She's really shy. Just take it slow."

"Sorry. I'm not a big one for moving slowly." Connor stepped toward Tara slowly with a hand held out to shake. "It's nice to meet you."

"N-n-n-nice to meet y-y-you too," Tara said, shaking his hand timidly. Kira noticed that Tara had gone a bit pale.

"Tara? Tara, breathe. Breathe, Tara." When Tara couldn't seem to catch her breath, Kira went to the door. "Dr. O! Dr. O, come here!"

Tommy ran out the door. He wrapped an arm around Tara and eased her to the ground. "Tara, look at me. Slow deep breaths. Slow deep breaths. Focus on me. Take a slow deep breath. There you go. That's right. Slow deep breaths. Stay with me, Tara. Stay with me. That's it. Relax."

As Tommy kept talking to Tara Connor stepped back. "Did I do that?" he asked.

"Like I said, she's really shy. She'll be okay. Dr. O knows what to do. Her big brother told him what to do when she gets like this."

When Tara broke down in tears, Tommy looked up at Kira. "Would you go and let the kids in the room know that club is canceled for today? I'm going to make sure that Tara gets home okay."

"You don't have to do that, Tommy," Tara started, wiping her eyes. "It wasn't a full blown panic attack. I'm fine. Really."

"Tara, do you remember what we talked about earlier? What Kim told you last night about me?"

"White knight." Tara's voice was little more than a whisper.

Tommy nodded. "White knight. Don't fight me on this. It won't do you any good."

"What about Jason?" she asked from her place in Tommy's arms. It felt good to her. She felt safe and protected.

"I'll call him from your place. He can pick me up there after football practice." Tommy looked up at Connor. "Don't feel bad. Four football players caused a full-blown panic attack her first day of class. Jason wasn't real happy with them that day."

"Coach Scott knows her?"

"I'm her big brother, Connor. And I'm very protective of her." Jason's voice from the doorway startled Connor. Jason stepped up beside his friend. "Is she okay?"

"Jason, you could ask me. I'm not mute."

"Tara, are you okay?"

"I'm fine. I can get home on my own." Tara was getting frustrated. She was tired of people trying to protect her all the time.

She pulled herself to her feet and started walking away from the group of people who were watching. Suddenly, she felt a need to run and she gave into it, dropping the books that she was carrying.

Before Jason or Tommy could stop her, she was gone, running down the street.

"I'll go over to her place and see her later. We need to give her a chance to calm down first." Jason was ready to just shrug it off and let her go but Tommy wasn't so sure.

"Are you sure about that, bro?"

"She'll probably go home, rant and rave for a while and then fall asleep on her couch after a serious crying jag. Best to just let her be for a couple of hours before trying to apologize for being myself."

"You've been through this before then."

"Oh yeah. She used to come home from school in kindergarten and do the exact same thing at times. And don't even get me started about the times this happened when she was at that damned private school."

"When you go to apologize for being an overprotective big brother, can I ride along? I feel like I should apologize for being an overprotective friend."

"No problem, bro. Of course, she might just throw things at us. Her temper can be as volatile as Kim's at times. It can get rather scary."

"Thanks for the warning, Jase. How about helping me up from the ground here?"

Jason took Tommy's arm and pulled his friend to his feet. "Let's get back to our responsibilities. We'll go talk to her later."

Tommy nodded and headed back inside but not before he cast another look in the direction Tara had run off in.