DISCLAIMER: Nope not mine. But a girl can dream can't she?
SUMMARY: Tara's been traumatized by the attempted invasion of the school. Can she break through her fears?
A/N: I know. It's been a long time since I've done anything.
Two weeks after the invasion happened, Tara decided to stop being so frightened of being away from Tommy. She decided to go to the café and get lunch for herself and Tommy.
'I can do this. I NEED to do this,' Tara told herself as she slipped out of the school. It was the last day of school before Christmas break.
"Hey, H-H-Haley."
"Tara! Good to see you. Is Tommy with you?" The redhead stepped up to the counter to talk to the woman.
"No. I d-d-decided to get lunch for the t-t-two of us. He d-d-doesn't know."
"What would you like?"
"Chicken s-s-salad sandwiches and c-c-coleslaw?"
"Done. Just make sure that you tell me what he thought later." Haley smiled as she went back to the kitchen to make the request only to come back to the counter a moment later with a smoothie in hand. "For while you wait."
Haley had only been gone a few minutes when Tara felt a tap on her shoulder. "Can I help you, miss?"
It was a stranger's voice and Tara stiffened, dropping her smoothie. She turned around to see a young man almost directly behind her. Without a word, she bolted from the café.
"Wait! Wait!" The young man followed her out the door. She ran off into the rain that was just beginning to fall outside. Dejected, he walked back inside to see Haley standing at the counter with a bag in hand.
"Where did she go?"
"Who, Haley?" Haley picked up the keys sitting on the counter.
"There was a young woman standing here a moment ago. Long black hair and big blue eyes. Did you see where she went?"
"She ran off. I tapped her on the shoulder to see if there was anything I could help her with. She dropped her glass and ran off."
"Trent, where did she go?"
"I don't know, Haley. She ran off into the rain. I don't know where she went." Haley looked Trent in the eyes.
"Trent, this is really important. Did you see which way she went?"
"Toward Dr. O's. Why? Who is she?"
"I'll explain in a bit. I need to call Kimberly first. And then make the really fun call."
"Haley, who is she?"
Haley held up her hand as Kim answered the phone. Haley summed up what had happened and extracted Kim's promise to head over there and check on her.
"Trent, that young lady is the little sister of our very own Coach Scott. He's very protective of her and so is Tommy. She's very easily startled and she's really skittish."
"Haley, I didn't mean to scare her."
"Trent, I'm sure Tommy won't be mad at you. After all, you didn't know." She dialed Tommy's cell phone number.
"Tommy Oliver."
"Tommy, this is Haley. We have a problem. Tara was here."
"She's there? By herself? Way to go, Tara." He paused for a moment. "Wait. You said was?"
"Was. Trent startled her and she ran off, leaving her keys on the counter. I've already called Kimberly and she's gone after her. She headed for your house, Tommy."
"She ran off into the rain toward my house?" Tommy sounded almost frightened. Haley never wanted to hear such a tone in her friend's voice again. It wasn't a good sound.
"Tommy, calm down. Trent didn't know that she'd run off like that."
"I'm not mad at Trent. I'm worried about Tara. She's been sniffling some lately and I'm worried that she's getting sick. Her being out in the rain won't help that."
"I'm sure that Kim's already caught up to her. She'll be fine, Tommy."
"I hope you're right, Haley."
"Well, if it helps, I made Kimberly promise to call you the minute she got Tara to the house."
"I'll be waiting for her call then." Tommy hung up and Haley turned to calming Trent who was still apologizing for scaring Tara.
Kimberly pulled up beside Tara who was stumbling along, still heading for Tommy's. The young woman was soaked to the skin and obviously freezing.
Putting down her window, Kimberly called to her. "Tara, come on and get in. I'll take you home."
Tara turned a tear-streaked face toward her friend. "I f-f-forgot my k-k-keys."
"Don't worry. I have mine. Come on."
Tara trudged around the car, stopping a couple of times for coughing fits. One of the spells almost dropped her to her knees. She climbed into the pink Firebird Kim drove to find her friend turning on the heater and pointing the vents at the passenger seat.
"I'll g-g-get your s-s-seat all w-w-wet," she protested weakly as she climbed inside.
"It'll dry." Kim didn't care what excuses Tara made; she was going to follow through on the promise she had made Haley.
"H-h-how did you f-f-find me?"
"Haley called me after Trent told her what had happened. I'm proud of you for going down there on your own."
Tara hung her head. "B-b-but I failed. I w-w-wanted to get l-l-lunch for T-t-tommy and I."
"You tried. That's what counts. And I'm sure Tommy will say the same thing."
Tara's head snapped up to look at the brunette with almost fear in her eyes. "D-d-did you tell T-t-tommy?"
"No but I'm sure Haley has by now. I'm supposed to call him the minute I get you back to the house." She fiddled with the controls a little. "Are you warming up any?"
"A l-l-little."
"Good. When we get back to the house, I'll let you take a nice hot shower and we'll get you into bed under the covers so you can warm up even more."
"S-s-sounds good t-t-to me." Kimberly headed down the road toward a house which seemed to be the only place that Tara wanted to be right at the moment.