Tara laughed and laughed as they ran from the musty old motel room into the night, her dress dancing in the air. Spike might look like a ponce as he joined in the laughter and holding her hand as she spun around but he could not find the will to care as she beamed at him so sweetly. It took them almost till sun up to walk all the way across town back to their shared home but neither seemed to mind. They tried to keep it quiet as the slinked through the corridors of the hall and made their way back into the dorm room. They kissed as Tara closed the door with her foot and Spike stepped backward so haphazardly that he fell and took Tara with him to the floor.
You could hear a pin drop with the silence that followed the thump on the floor. Their eyes were locked and their breathing heavy as they were both lost in one another. She lowered her face to his slowly and kissed him softly. She then pulled away and sat down on his stomach and looked at him wistfully. " I love you" passed through her lips and an unneeded breath caught in Spike's throat.
He turned his face away to look across the floor and the silence was so tension filled that it felt both their world's would come crashing down. The lump in the throat strained his voice " I'm not a man who deserves love. I'm not even a man at all. Not even a real vampire anymore. Just a thing . An evil soulless thing.
Tara's tears felt on fire against his cold skin as she endlessly kissed his cheek and her hands stroked softly through his hair.
" You are so much more than that … it doesn't matter if you have a soul with a heart as big as yours … you saved me without a second glance … you jumped in front of a slayer to save a man you acted like you could barely stand ,,, you are a hero … and when I say I love you ,,, I mean that I love Spike … I mean that I love William … I mean I love everything you were, everything you are, and everything you could be … good or evil and everything in between … now come to bed"
She stood up and her dress fell to the floor and what little light the room held danced across her skin.
Spike quietly stood up and stripped as he watched her lying naked on top of the sheet facing away from him. He slid in beside her and kissed her neck as he spoke
" I've lived a few lifetimes and I could live a thousand more and I know I could never find another quite as beautiful and wonderful as you, Tara. I love you with everything I can give and will even after I turn to dust"
She turned with glassy eyes and not another word was spoken as the two became one as the closed curtains greeted the new dawn .
Spike chuckled to himself as he lay on the bed reading another old book and sippin on a mug o blood. "They probably think I'm dead again , daft bunch of gits." he chortled. " Kinda like being a shut in, got my blood, got my books ..." Tara strolled in mid speech " and of course , my beauty" he said as she smiled and dropped face down beside him on the bed.
"School a bore, love?" Spike asked as Tara sighed into the mattress
" Pop quizzes are the devil" she said muffled.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills " Well at least I keep us in blood and biscuits … so there's that ?"
She took the money and looked at him a bit confused
" What can I say," he said "I love to cheat at poker".
She smiled and mussed up his gelled hair " Forever my Big Bad".
She walked to the fridge and grabbed the orange juice "I ran into your friend Giles today, he was looking for you" she sat at the foot of the bed.
"What the old sod want now?" Spike put down his book and slid toward her.
"Wouldn't say, just said it was of the utmost importance that he speak with you and time was of the essence" she made a funny face as she tried to mimic Giles' English accent.
"Right then , as soon as the sun sets … we go to The Bronze" He smirks as he kisses her and leans her back against the mattress.
While sitting on one of the Bronze couches something interesting catches Tara's eye. It's the girl Spike referred to as the slayer but something isn't quite right . She's acting a little slutty with some boys on the dance floor when Tara thought she was with Captain Cardboard as Spike so lovingly put it when they had met them a few weeks ago. Besides that, she seemed to have an aura of a completely different person, the core energy was the same but the outside was sadness covered over with anger. While Buffy's aura seemed so vibrant this one just seemed broken and hollow. She thought with a furrowed brow and was brought out of his brain trip by a confused looking Spike bringing back their beer.
"Slayer just bloody well humped my leg?!" he exclaimed and that clinched it for Tara.
"It's not her" She said and he looked at her and was lost in thought himself
" No way the slayer would be like that with me, cor …. what the bleeding hell is going on?".
"Her aura is like its someone else entirely, I don't think it's Buffy in that body".
Spike was speeding through the streets of Sunnydale like daylight was approaching. Tara was safely buckled in luckily or she'd be flying with every turn . The slayer wasn't the slayer and that meant trouble for the whole lot of white hats, including Joyce. That wasn't going to fly with Spike , the only one of the lot to treat him half way decent , even if his first impression was being brained with an ax. No way he would let anything happen to that lady. He almost smashed into the garage door and was surprised that he hasn't been uninvited from the home as he made his way through the front door .
"Joyce !" he yelled and the frightened and shocked object of his calls ran down the stairs
" Spike … what are you doing here?" seeing that Buffy or whoever wasn't there he grabbed her hand gently and ushered her out the door
" We are going to the Watcher's, mum . I'll explain when we get there cause I don't know if I understand it myself"
Giles didn't know what was more strange, the motley crew that came through his door or the tale they brought with them. Both he and Joyce sat stupefied as Spike and his lady friend went over the whole aura , flirting with Spike thing and by the end of it somehow they were convinced as well.
Giles knew exactly where this extraction team had taken Faith which was really Buffy and was suprised by the fact that Spike insisted he go along even without prompting from Tara or Joyce, Spike tried to cover it up by insisting he just wanted to kick some "good old homegrown tea-swilling ass" but Giles could tell that maybe being a good guy was rubbing off on the old villain. The problem with that thought was that they had all made a grave error. He had come to them for help in a most vulnerable state and they had regarded him as a violent and homicidal prisoner because ...well... he was violent and homicidal ... but the point was that he could not't harm humans ... they could have tried rehabilitation , even without a soul he had saved the world by betraying Angelus to Buffy, albeit for selfish reasons but there was still the idea of someone soulless saving the world ... He glanced over at Spike as they drove in silence, this Tara girl had come along and seen something in Spike and in a short while had convinced him that he was good enough for something and had even saved Giles life. He knew the feeling of being unwanted as he had no job and felt he had less and less to do with Buffy as she was becoming more and more independent . What spike was feeling was probably much much worse because all of them had treated him no better than a leper. He shook himself out of deep thought as they approached he warehouse.
Spike could not hit them without hurting himself but they didn't know that. Spike chased them at every turn and got right up in their faces without once taking a swing but a good snarl and game face brought the smell of fear induced urine and by bloody hell if it didn't smell like Channel No5 to him. While Giles tied them up securely and he busted the chains holding Buffy with another face apart, he could not't help telling the Slayer he saved her ass once again. Of course, she was thankless as always and the ride back to the house was just as silent as the way there had been. They spent hours first getting a new swap device and then scouring the city until sun-up chased them indoors. Then the news story came on about the Gang, the church and the mysterious blonde and Buffy and Spike made their way through the sewers.
Spike could not believe the fury that this Faith girl was taking out on her own body. He got the feeling that this girl had some issues. Then the swap happened and she had tried to run and Spike got a candlestick stuck in his chest for the assist but he had her subdued. He figured he'd need a few stitches again and rolled his eyes at the thought of another injury caused by fighting with the white hats. Off his damn rocker he was but of course life is never easy when you are loves bitch ...He was even nice enough to carry the girl for the slayer despite the gaping wound. Tara was livid when he got back bleeding all over everything and on top of that carrying an unconscious woman. Giles directed them to his bedroom which had an en suite bathroom and Tara coddled poor Spike but not before he made sure faith was securely bound in a way that would really tickle even if she moved just slightly. She did a little bit of healing magic on him and then he took a shower. She told him to go downstairs and figure out what was happening and she would hold down the fort up here and make sure to take care of Faith. Spike protested until she pointed out that he was the one who bound her and that she had a little magic up her sleeve so her defences weren't so shabby.
Tara watched the troubled girl's face as she wiped it free of blood and dirt, she was having an unpleasant dream and she was radiating sadness with such intensity that it was making Tara herself tear up. She did not notice when her eyes slowly started to flutter open.
"I'm going to kill you all, I hope you know that. I know Buffy and her little hangers on but I don't know you but it doesn't matter, you're gonna all die screaming" Faith said calmly startling Tara. "You better hope someone kills me or you better kill me because once I get out, this house will be stained with all your blood" she tried to make a move but the ropes groaned and all the wind went out of Faith. Tara was surprised that the girl didn't scream out in pain.
Tara just looked at Faith with eyes so soft that Faith squirmed with discomfort at the display. She raised the cloth again and ran the coolness of it across Faith's brow. "I don't know who you are but I can see beyond what you want others to see. You are wrapped in sadness and pain, anger and fear. You think that somehow you are just nothing but wrong, a disgusting thing that deserves the worst life can offer because that's all you've been afforded" Tara finished up with the cleaning in silence and went to put the basin back in the bathroom the silence was broken by an angry voice.
"What the fuck do you know, you blonde Florence Nightingale bitch?" Faith shot at Tara's back.
Tara stiffened and then turned her head to the side and spoke over her shoulder, not looking towards Faith at all "Exactly how it feels to be in that place you are now, Faith and knowing that all it took was someone to believe in me to make me finally see my light". With that she closed the bathroom door, dropped off the basin, and took the other door into the hall. Faith needed time to think by herself.
She stopped at the head of the stairs when she heard the screaming match going down.
"Who the bloody hell do you think you are judge, jury and executioner to that bloody girl? You're signing her death warrant if you call in those Council buggers... She accidentally kills a man and that's it , kill the evil rogue slayer?"
"Shut up Spike, you're just hoping she kills us all and she needs to pay for what she's done. The cops can't handle her, maybe the council can"
"Help? You mean bloody well put her down, don't you pet ... What happpened when Angelus killed quite a few people a few years back? Oh, was it death by puppy dog eyes and snogging his lips off, you hypocritical bitch?"
She flew down the stairs when she heard the crack of fist against skin. She didn't even think , just reacted when she saw Spike on the ground and with a wave of her hand Buffy flew against the metal of the stair case with such force it caused and imprint.
"You will get the hell away from him right now or so help me Hera I won't hesitate to kill you" Tara screamed at the prone form of Buffy as she reached down to pick up Spike "What type of goddamned bully are you?"
Spike was recovering and so was Buffy as the anger flowed from Tara's lips and spittle flew from her mouth. Buffy wasn't Buffy anymore to Tara. Buffy was her domineering father and family telling her she was no good, She was the depression and hopelessness that took her mother away from her. She was the kids at school and in town that treated her like a freak because of her magic and because she loved people for who they were, not what they were. She was every wrong that was ever done to Tara when she stuffed it down inside to the point where she was so cut up internally she could barely breath and thats when the stuttering began and staying on the fringes of everyone and everything never a smile on her face. Buffy was everything that hurt her personified. Buffy was the devil and her bladed tongue was gonna send that bitch straight to Hell.
" You hit a vampire who can't fight back while plotting the death of someone so torn apart on the inside about what she had done that she tried to run but still came back to save those people in that church even if it meant her capture?" Spike tried to stop her but Tara flew until she was nose to nose with the slayer and running on pure fury " Who the fuck do you think you are ? Wasn't it just a few weeks ago that you almost killed Mr. Giles over here? Who gives you the pass for fucking a vampire out of his soul so he kills half the town … oh but wait... then he comes back and says sorry for the massacre and what no harm no foul because you fucking deem it to be so? That girl up there is so broken and torn apart and all she needs is someone to tell her she's not wrong and you want to what... throw her to the wolves ? Fuck you, you self-righteous, self-aggrandizing, self-important, judgmental, hypocritical, holier-than-thou bitch !"
The last words came out strangled and hoarse and when she was done Tara fled back up the stairs to the bathroom and apparently everything she had ever eaten issued forth from her stomach as she collapsed onto her knees and gripped the side of the bowl.