Chapter 7: Explaining Spike – Tara/Buffy

A/N: To make up for not posting the last couple days, this one will be extra long…for this story, at least.

Challenge: partially to answer a forum request/challenge by DeepBlueJoy for a story with a 'person of color' as a main character – who doesn't die immediately.

Warning: just the general warning of whatever.

Thanks to my betas: sorry, wanted to get this posted to make up for the weekend. Stupid parades that need stupid outfits sewn for them. I love this country, but would have preferred more than a few days' notice that I had to sew costumes.

Disclaimer: BtVS and AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

Summers living room/kitchen

Guessing that Buffy wouldn't want to open up in front of Willow, Tara turned to her recently reunited girlfriend and suggested, "Hey, Willow? Would you mind talking to Robin about his mother and her Watcher? I'm sure that there's stuff he knows that we haven't heard. There could be something important we could use for slaying. I'd do it, but you know your database better. Buffy and I will go to the kitchen to make a snack; get out of your way."

Willow was a tad suspicious of being 'handed off' to the new guy, but that feeling was overwhelmed by her pride in the database she had worked the past six years on. After the Moloch incident, she stopped scanning books into the computer and typed them in instead, using various programs for languages and pictures. It wasn't complete…yet, but she had over half of Giles' library on disk now.

Her next plan of action was to see about doing the same to the Council library. That would require a team to assist her, though, and she was very particular about who she would trust with that sort of work.

She pulled out her laptop from its case by the desk and plugged it in near the couch. "Sure," Willow replied. "I'll see what info Robin has that we don't already have on the computer."

Kitchen

As soon as the door between the kitchen and the dining room closed, Tara grabbed Buffy's hand and asked, "So…you wanna tell me what's wrong?"

Because it was Tara, Buffy ducked her head, then murmured softly, "He tried to rape me."

"Robin?" Tara exclaimed in surprise, looking at the door nervously. She didn't want to leave her girlfriend with a guy who-

Buffy cut off her thoughts with her equally startled reply, "No…Spike! Robin was coming to introduce himself to me and he heard…it happening and broke in. When he saw us, Spike was all vamped out, so Robin staked him." How could Tara think that Buffy would be so calm around Robin if he was the one who tried to rape her – especially just mere minutes after the fact? Now the Slayer just had to worry about Tara's reaction to finding out Spike was gone.

She needn't have been concerned, though. Tara surprised her when she practically spat out one word, "Good!"

"Tara?"

Realizing that it wasn't the response Buffy expected from her, Tara explained in a more Tara-like fashion, "Don't get me wrong, I appreciate everything Spike did for us last year and all, but what he's done to you since we brought you back… Him trying to rape you was the final straw." Her voice grew arctically cold again as she went on, "If anything, staking was too kind. I would have been a little tempted to ask Anya for a vengeance favor. Rape is a…hot button issue for me."

"Obviously," Buffy replied with a bit of grim humor. "Umm, is that because…"

"No, not me. A friend of mine was in high school, though," Tara assured Buffy. Her eyes grew dim as she recalled Karen and the human monster who destroyed her. "I watched it tear her up until she couldn't take it anymore, and she committed suicide. I have to ask this: you do know that you aren't to blame for this, right?" she demanded fiercely, staring directly into Buffy's eyes.

As much as she wanted to answer 'no', Buffy couldn't help but feel the tiniest bit responsible because of the nature of sex she had with Spike. "Well, I mean, with the way we were-" she began stammering.

"No!" Tara interjected with a growl. "It was risky for you two not to have a safe word, but the blame for this is Spike's!" Thinking about it for a few seconds, she added, "And ours."

"What? How do you figure that? Because of the resurrection spell?" Buffy rolled her eyes at the insanity of that idea and inquired facetiously, "So if I break my leg tomorrow, that's your fault, too?"

"Only if I push you down the stairs," Tara teased right back, grateful and worried that Buffy seemed to be returning to her normal habit of joking about matters. It was nice that tonight hadn't finished destroying her, but Tara didn't want the Slayer to brush this off like she did with so many other things.

Trying to think of how to explain her comment, Tara finally said, "We saw that you were struggling with being back, and instead of trying to figure out how to help you, we ignored it, hoping that you'd bounce back eventually. I'm sorry for that. I will be there for you from now on, 'k?" she promised.

Buffy appreciated the offer, and a small part of her, hidden deep down inside her, was relieved that somebody was going to be the strong one for once. Yeah, Riley said he wanted to do it, but he tried when she wasn't ready to be weak. Now she was. "Wanna help me tell Dawn that her favorite vampire is gone? She's gonna hate me when she finds out what happened." She took a deep breath and continued, "And I'm guessing she won't be thrilled to meet Robin when we tell her he's the one who staked Spike."

"We'll have to tweak the story a little – 'cause I'm assuming you don't want to get into the whole sex issue with her?" Tara guessed correctly.

"That'd be a world of no," Buffy confirmed.

Tara nodded her head, thinking of an alternative. Soon she offered, "So we tell her the truth, but leave out the sex and attempted rape. Robin walked in to find Spike attacking you and staked him. You tried to fight him off, but were too surprised that the chip didn't work anymore, and he got a few hard shots in right away." Her face turned grim as she decided whether to offer this piece of advice. In the end, she knew it was necessary. "When she becomes sexually active, you might want to tell her the whole story, though. That way, she knows to be safe."

Shuddering, Buffy replied with a grimace, "Oh my god, I don't even want to think about my baby sister having sex, much less the kind of sex I had with Spike."

Deciding to change the subject, Tara suggested, "Uhh, if you still have any bruises, it might be a good idea to take pictures so we can prove to Dawn that you were injured." She hoped that if it worked for police shows, it would work with Buffy's little sister.

Buffy twisted her body a little to test out her range of motion, and had to fight back a gasp of pain. "Given how sore I feel right now, I'd be willing to bet I have a few," she said through clenched teeth.

Narrowing her eyes at the obvious understatement, Tara ordered the Slayer, "Then we'll take the pictures, you'll take some pain medicine and go straight to bed. Everything else can wait until tomorrow. Got it?"

It was a testament to how wiped Buffy really felt when she didn't even argue at being told what to do. She simply agreed, "Yup. Sleep sounds really good right now…assuming I don't have any nightmares."

"I'll stay in your room just in case," Tara offered, sounding like she wouldn't take 'no' for an answer.

"What about Willow?" Buffy tried to dissuade her anyway. She didn't want to interfere with their reunion night.

Tara waved off the concern, though, "After you go to sleep, I'll tell her that Spike attacked you. She'll understand that I won't want to leave you alone tonight."

"Thanks. You're a good friend, Tara," Buffy said, giving her a gentle hug. The Slayer needed to remind herself that physical touching wasn't a bad thing, and starting with Tara was probably the easiest way to do it.

A/N: Robin and Willow's conversation.