TITLE: Racing The Rain
AUTHOR: Finey_McFine
RATING: PG13
DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara and any other BtVS characters, as well as some random dialog, belong to Mutant Enemy.
SUMMARY: Totally AU, Willow and Tara Meet with not so surprising results! Set in LA with lots of W/T fluff and a little teeny tiny bit of angst, but no Hellmouthyness. Just good old fashion day-to-day drama.
FEEDBACK: OK
AUTHOR’S NOTE: I plan on doing my best to get another chapter posted this week, however, it may not happen. My girlfriend and I are celebrating our 19th anniversary is this Sunday and I have some prep work to do;-) So, if I don’t get it up, look for it towards the middle of next week. Enjoy!Chapter 6: Inspector ClouseauThe sudden ringing of the phone startled Tara, causing her to sit straight up, bobble the phone and practically throw it across the room. It landed on the floor with a loud thud.
“Shit!” She exclaimed, as she scurried across the floor to retrieve it.
“H-Hello?”
“Tara? Hi, it’s Willow.”
“Hey Willow. How are you?” Tara said, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible.
“I’m Good. I hope I didn’t wake you. Sorry to be calling so late. I got hung up at school and just got home a little while ago.” Willow was nervous and was worried that a monumental babble was coming on. She took a deep breath and tried to calm her nerves.
“No Willow, it’s perfectly fine. I was still up, you know just relaxing and watching a little TV.”
“So, how’s my favorite patient doing?” Asking about the injured pooch.
“He seems to be doing fine, but I think I’m going to have a monster on my hands pretty soon. He’s getting even more spoiled than he was before.” Tara breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that Willow didn’t ask about her TV viewing habits, or lack thereof.
“Spoiled is ok, well for now at least. Did you make a follow up appointment with your vet?”
“Um…I, uh. Whoops!”
Willow chuckled at the speechless blonde. “Been busy huh?”
“Yeah, this week has been a little crazy and it’s only Tuesday. I’ve been on set the past two mornings before sunrise and last night I didn’t get home until after 10pm. It doesn’t leave me too much time in between.”
“Is it always like that? I thought sitcoms didn’t require as much time as movies? Like I actually know what I’m talking about, I just remember reading somewhere that they weren’t as time consuming or something.”
“It’s not usually like this, but this week we’re filming an episode with special effects and it just takes longer. We work with a lot of extra make up, use green screens and so forth. It actually gets a little boring for us, because there’s a lot of redundancy.”
“What do you mean?” Willow was intrigued and loved listening to the sound of Tara’s voice.
“Well, we end up re-shooting quite a bit. After a scene is shot the directors run it back, a lot, checking for mistakes, discrepancies, etc. Effects are expensive and they wanna get it right the first time.”
“Wow, that sounds kinda cool. It’s so interesting to me that it can take so long to produce such a small amount of TV. I can see where it can get tedious though. What do you do when you have down time?” Willow was curious.
“Well, sometimes I’ll watch the other scenes being shot, but mostly I just hang out in my dressing room. I read, watch TV, or play on my computer. I get a ton of email too, so I try to keep up. You’re right, it can get tedious, but I’ve been doing it for so long that it doesn’t really phase me anymore.”
Shifting gears, Tara asked Willow what made her want to be a vet, and soon they were enjoying a relaxing chat and learning new things about each other. They were deeply involved in a discussion about music when Willow let out a sleepy yawn.
“Wow,” Tara interjected, glancing over at the digital clock on the DVD player. “Its after 1am Will, we’ve been on the phone for over 3 hours.” Tara was shocked by the time. She had never talked to someone for so long before, in person or over the phone.
“Oh Tara, I’m so, so sorry! I know you have to get up in like, just a few hours and I really didn’t mean to keep you.”
“Willow, really. It’s fine. I can’t remember the last time I enjoyed a conversation so much. You’re really easy to talk to, we seem to have a lot in common and I like…” Tara stopped herself before she blurted out something that the redhead may not be ready to hear. “…I like talking on the phone.”
She was thankful that Willow could not see her face right now, because she figured it was just about as red as the sun itself.
Willow’s grinning, yet stunned at the same time.
“Thanks, I like talking to you too. It’s been fun and it really didn’t feel like 3 hours. I guess I should let you go, but hey, don’t forget to call your vet. At least try to get him seen by Friday. OK?”
“Ok, Willow…I promise.” She said with a smile, loving that Willow was so concerned.
“So, I guess I’ll talk to ya later. Nite Tara.”
Nite Willow”
**********************************************
The pillow talk continued over the next couple nights. The more they talked, the more they felt helplessly drawn to each other, like a moth to a flame. It was as if everything they’d done, every choice they’d ever made was part of a universal plan to bring them together.
It was late Thursday night and they’d already been talking for a couple hours, when a comfortable silence fell over them. Both girls lying in their respective beds, listening to the other breathe, when Tara finally broke the silence.
“Willow?” She said in a soft lazy voice.
“Yeah.” Willow whispered back.
“Why haven’t you told me about the softball?” Tara surmised that they’d spent nearly 8 hours on the phone over the last 3 days and Willow had still not mentioned anything about it. This worried her deeply; she constantly wondered why the redhead didn’t want her to know anything about it.
“Well, I don’t know. I guess it just never came up?” Willow was feeling embarrassed and guilty.
The redhead let out a long sigh, gathering her thoughts, desperately wanting her explanation to come out right. Tara sensed Willow’s apprehension and remained silent allowing Willow to continue at her own pace.
“So, I guess you searched me online, huh?”
“Yeah, busted. I looked you up earlier this week. You’re pretty amazing, you know.” Tara said this with a dreamy quality to her voice, wanting to let Willow know she meant it in more ways than one.
“Thanks. Tara, I wasn’t deliberately trying to keep it a secret, honestly. I-I was just worried that’s all.”
“Worried about what?”
“Well, more scared than worried.”
“Scared? I scare you?” Tara said in a questioning tone, she was now sitting straight up in her bed.
“No, no you don’t scare me. I’m sorry, this isn’t coming out right at all.” Willow felt like she was completely blowing it and could feel a lump starting to form in her throat.
“It’s ok Will, you can tell me anything. What’s scaring you?” Tara asked, holding her breath.
“It’s just that, well, I’m kind of a tomboy and I’m kinda gay too. I really like you and I didn’t want to scare you away.” She said in a small voice, holding her breath awaiting Tara’s reaction.
“Will, sweetie, it takes a lot more than that to scare me. Plus…I’m kinda gay too.”
Willow let out a sigh of relief. “Really? I thought, well hoped that maybe you were too but, I mean there’s nothing online suggesting that you were and...”
“So you were stalking me online?” Tara said, trying to be coy.
“I guess I could say the same for you, Inspector Clouseau.” Willow said with a chuckle.
“Clouseau huh? Just what are you implying?” Tara teased.
“I have no idea, it was the first thing that popped into my head.”
They both were giggling and felt the familiar comfort fall back over them.
“Tara, are you busy tomorrow night? I thought maybe we could do something? Maybe dinner and a movie…if you want?” Willow said in a high pitched somewhat squeaky voice.
“Oh, Willow. That sounds really nice but I-I’m sorry, I c-can’t. I already have p-plans.”
Willow noticed the return of Tara’s stutter, noting that the blonde was nervous.
“Oh, uh ok. No problem, some other time then, I guess.” Willow couldn’t hide the obvious disappointment.
“It’s just that I have this thing. This work thing, that’s been planned for awhile and I-I have to go.”
“No Tara, it’s ok. You don’t have to explain. I just thought…we’re both, you know and the conversation…I mean, geez Willow, presume much? I don’t know what I was-”
“I’m free on Saturday.” Fearing that Willow was about to launch into babbleworld, Tara felt that she needed to cut her off quickly. “That is, if you still want to go out with me.”
“Really?!” Saying a little louder than she intended. “Of course I would, that’d be swell.” Willow couldn’t have been happier.
“Tara, I don’t want you to feel obligated or anything. It’s cool if you don’t want to or if- oh crap! I just remembered I have a game Saturday afternoon and then a birthday party Saturday night. I promised I’d go.” She let out a nervous giggle. “I guess irony is kind of ironic that way.”
“Can I go? To your game, I mean? I’ve never been and I’d love to see you play.”
“Tara, really? I’d be honored a-and I’d be equally honored if you’d go to the party with me after. It’s nothing big and no zany college antics. I don’t really hang with that type of crowd.”
“I would love nothing more.” Tara said. “Willow, just one more question…exactly how ‘out’ are you?”
Willow noticed the serious tone in Tara’s voice and she worried about where this was going. A million thoughts started running through her head.
“Well, I’m out to my family, my friends and the team. I don’t stand on a mountain shouting my gayness, but I don’t try to hide it either. I do try to keep my personal life off the field. No interviewer has ever asked, but if they did, I wouldn’t deny it. Up to this point, it’s been pretty easy, since I haven’t really had time to date and there was no one I was interested in…until I met you.” Her heart was pounding and she felt the sweat starting to form on her forehead. Willow realized that she’d just let a very big cat out of the bag.
Tara broke out into a grin as big as the State of California, not knowing how in the word she was going to make it not seeing Willow until Saturday.
Ever since they met 5 days ago, she couldn’t stop thinking about her. About what it would be like to run her fingers through the silky red hair, to leave a trail of wet kisses down her neck and across her freckled shoulders. Willow was the most beautiful woman Tara had ever seen and she couldn’t believe she actually had a date with her. She was completely smitten and felt the butterflies fluttering in her stomach at the mere sound of her voice. She took extra care, however, in suppressing those emotions, and not letting them pour out of her through the phone lines. After all, it was their first date and she certainly didn’t want to send Willow running.
Tara’s emotions were on edge, she hadn’t dated anyone since before her Mom had passed away. Before that she’d had one short semi-serious relationship that had ended badly. She had become so adept at keeping her personal life under wraps, that she’d almost forgotten what it was like to have one. But all that was about to change. She could feel the surge of energy within her and it went by the name of Willow.
Willow, having similar thoughts, was also wondering how she would make it until Saturday. The blonde had occupied all of Willow’s thoughts and had effectively kept her off kilter all week. She had found herself daydreaming more times than she could count. Nearly every conscience moment had been spent focused on Tara, not to mention several naughty unconscious moments as well. More importantly, she was worried about how having Tara come Saturday would affect her concentration during the game. Willow had never been in a serious relationship. She’d dated a few guys in high school, but after realizing she was gay, didn’t date again until freshmen year in college. All of those were set ups, none had made it past one or two dates and none had ever come to see her play. This was a huge step for Willow and she was as nervous as a cat.
Jarred from her reverie, Tara realized that willow was speaking.
“Tara, what made you ask me that?”
“Oh, well you had said that you didn’t see anything online suggesting I was gay. Th-that’s because, believe it or not, no one has ever asked me either. They just assume I’m straight…so I’m not 100% out. I’d like to think that if an interviewer ever asked that I wouldn’t lie but…I don’t know. Heck, who am I kidding? I’m not even 1% out, it’s complicated for me, you know? I-I’m not saying that’s it’s not complicated for you as well, but…ugh!” Tara was clearly frustrated.
“It’s ok Tara, just take your time.”
“A lot of livelihoods depend on me. Not that they’d hate me, I mean they all know anyway. It’s kind of an actor’s unwritten code of ethics to keep secrets. I just…h-haven’t had a
real reason to be out before, so it was never an issue. But I do now a-and Willow, you need to understand something, people will talk. A-and as soon as we’re photographed together and insinuations are made…the shit will hit the preverbal fan.”
Willow pondered Tara’s ramble; this scenario had not crossed her mind. She was so caught up in her own little ‘Tara world,’ that she had completely forgotten that the blonde was in fact, one of the most famous women in the world. The consequences of her coming out were monumental, and not just for Tara. Willow now wondered how this would affect her and those around her. When she came out to her family two years ago, it had actually gone fairly well, but it had only been a select few people and then she had time to ease into others knowing...not BAM the entire planet. Which, Willow thought, would be writing, blogging and televising non stop. She could picture the CNN crawl in her head. In the end she decided not to worry over things in which she had no control and just go with the flow for a while. After all, this was all just speculation.
“I understand Tara and I’m not worried. I can handle it, regardless of what happens. Why worry about something we have no control over?” Willow said, desperately trying to convince herself that she wasn’t worried.
“I see your point, but Willow, this fame stuff can crush you and I just don’t want to see you get hurt. The Paparazzi and the tabloids have a way of getting under your skin and I couldn’t stand to see them turn your life inside out.”
“Tara, no matter what happens, I know it’s not your fault. So, let’s just take it slow and cross that bridge when we come to it, ok?” Willow said with all the sincerity she could muster.
Tara could sense that Willow was tired and a little overwhelmed so she decided to let it go.
The two said their goodbyes and after completing their nightly routines, settled down to sleep and dream of their date to come.
Dang, you made me beg!
I love this story..its so awesome...When I read this story its like I am right there and can see it all play out in my mind. I can't wait for the next update. I am hooked. You are doing such a great job writing it..
:D:D
