First, a little note...just want to thank all of you who are reading, giving feed-back and appreciating the value of quirky fics! Coz Chel and I sure like writing them
I send you all communal *hugs*, hope you have a great Xmas, and stuff yourselves with food. I'm missing y'all...
I apologise for the extremely bizarre nature of this update, I'm in Israel (if that explains it at all...*shrugs*) and, well, just had some weird ideas to me. But hope you like... and more W/T goodness coming soon from my Rachelina... (sorry Cin... I forgot that her 'bell' belongs to you... )
Part SixAt exactly 7:42AM, Tara heard a loud ‘pop!’ and her room was suddenly filled with smoke. Coughing, and slightly anxious, she went downstairs and found a telephone-book. She tried to calm herself; this had happened before, and she was pretty sure she knew what was wrong.
She found a torch and squeezed into the basement, peering around curiously.
Sure enough, a plump ibex was chewing hungrily on the gas wiring.
She sighed as she approached it. “You naughty little thing!” she exclaimed. The ibex gazed at her momentarily, then resumed its meal. She grabbed the thin little body and tried to pull it away from the wires, but it growled viciously. She didn’t know if ibexes had sharp teeth, and didn’t particularly want to find out.
“OK, you continue eating…” Patting its woolly head conversationally, she went to flick through the phone-book. She wondered who to call first: the wild animal agency, or the electrician.
Two hours later, seven men were standing in her basement, smirking at each other.
“So, little, girl, you’re telling us that this ibex, this
mountain goat just suddenly appeared here? In a residential farm town?” Bill, the dread-locked animal agency worker, seemed to dislike this idea immensely. He put his hands on his hips and waited.
Tara glared at him. “Well, yes, actually. I know it sounds crazy, but it happened.” She turned to face the electrician. “Could you please just start fixing the wiring? I was asleep when it happened.”
The guy, whom she figured was the boss of ‘Joe The ’Trician’, snorted with laughter. “This’ll take a week at least. You’ll need to find yourself a new place to sleep, love. Do you have any friends?”
***
Willow, meanwhile, was having even less fun, as the local baker interrogated her.
“Do you know First Aid?”
“I sure do. I have my certificate right here.” Willow patted the paper proudly.
Mrs Williams turned a dissapproving eye on the certificate. “And how old are you?”
“I’ll be turning 19 in a couple of months.”
“Really.” Mrs Williams put enough emphasis on her ‘really’ to make Willow feel as though she couldn’t possibly be that age.
“OK…well, if you think you can manage…” She stared, hard.
“We’ll be fine, won’t we, Suze?” Willow grinned at the fat, blond girl.
Suze avoided eye contact.
***
Tara sat cross-legged on her bed, folding her clothes neatly and trying not to go dizzy from the smoke. She’d already put the issue of the ibex out of her mind, and was concentrating on organising herself. She held up a large blue shirt, patterned with koala bears, and wondered if it would go with the red pants she had already packed.
She was trying to ignore the nervous feeling, like cramps, in her lower stomach. She was too scared to call Willow up, out of the blue, and request accommodation. So instead she planned to just pack her bags, leave the house, and then worry about where to go.
From what she could tell, Willow would be more than happy to put her up. But, she still felt as though she were intruding. She knew that Willow’s mother was still staying nearby, and would drop in from time to time. If she saw Tara staying at her daughter’s house, wouldn’t she… Tara stared at her suitcase. She couldn’t even begin to imagine what Sheila would think. That she had a broken home, and needed to live off her daughter? Or that, well, something was going on between them?
Suddenly, resolute, she realised that it was enough pondering. Enough guessing what people were thinking.
I need to talk to Willow.
***
“You don’t like leggo? But, you can make all these cool little buildings, and little people to go inside them! And you can give the little people names, and jobs, and…” Willow realised she was further putting Suze off. “I thought everyone liked leggo…well, except at school when they make you work out surface areas and the little…”
Suze cut her off, irritably. “You talk too much.”
“Do I? I’m sorry. OK, well you tell me, what should we do?”
“Uhh…talk?” Suze pushed back a lock of hair with a fat finger, and stared at Willow.
Willow was startled. This was almost too easy. “Oh, well, talking…I can do that…a little too well, as you pointed out.”
Suze’s red lips curled. “Do you have a boyfriend?”
“A friend that is a boy, or…”
“You know what I mean. A kissy-kissy boyfriend.”
Willow flushed, slightly.”No, I don’t. Why, do you?”
Suze ignored the question. “My mommy told me that if a girl doesn’t have a boyfriend by the age of eighteen, she’ll be a hag for life.” She paused, thinking. “What’s a hag?”
***
“Oh, Sheila…”
She pulled away from the kiss and exhaled. “We’ve got to get a move on. They’re waiting for us to call them, and we have nothing to say.”
He reached out for her and she pulled away. “Come on, Daniel, this is getting ridiculous.”
“Well, what do you want me to do?”
“I’m going to find Willow and tell her the plan. I’ll need a while; she’s going to react very badly. You go and find the cow, and get everything ready. I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
She was already out the door, and didn’t hear him call “I love you.”
***
“Well, do you have a best friend?” Tired of fighting about the value of having a boyfriend, Suze was ready to move on.
Willow smiled. “I have two. One’s human, one’s a cow.”
“Oh. Tell me about the human one.”
“Uh, let’s see… she’s a year older than me. She’s probably the nicest person you’ll ever meet, and the funniest.”
Suze nodded. “What’s her name?”
“Tara.”
“That’s a pretty name.”
Willow smiled at the younger girl. “Yes, it is.”
“Is she prettier than you?”
“Huh?”
“Well, mommy told me that the problem with girls is that they get competitive. With best friends, there’s always one that’s prettier, or smarter. So eventually, a boy chooses one of them, and ends up breaking up their friendship.” She nodded wisely. “Girls are jealous, that way.”
Willow swallowed. “Well, Tara and I aren’t really like that. I can’t imagine a boy coming between us.”
Suze shrugged. “If you say so. Tell me more about your friendship.”
“Well, imagine spending your whole life sure that you’re alone; you have a bunch of good friends, but none of them…”
“None of them get you,” Suze finished, eagerly.
Willow nodded. “Yeah, exactly. And then one day, out of the blue, you come across a person that understands you, and no matter what, she loves you. And you stop having those alone-y moments, because you know that she’s always thinking about you, and…”
Suze was fascinated, “and what?”
“And…this might sound silly, but sometimes you’re just convinced you share a brain. There’s no other way to explain why the two of us share a world that no one else is part of.”
Suze breathed. “Wow. I want a friend like that.”
They both jumped when there was a knock at the door.
Willow opened it to find Tara standing, drenched, in the rain.
“Tara! We were just talking about you!”
Tara grinned. “Really?”
“Yeah!” Willow’s eyes narrowed. “Oh, you might want to be warned; Suze is going to be judging you pretty critically. She wants to work out why girls can’t have best friends, and she wants to see how you….”
Tara wasn’t sure what she was talking about, and she was sure it was fascinating Willow-logic, but she needed to interrupt. “Will, sweetie, sorry to interrupt you, but can I come in? It’s, well, kinda rainy…”
“Oh, god, sorry!” Willow was mortified. “Come in! I’ll take your suitcase.”
She was wheeling it in after Tara, and then suddenly thought of something. “Wait, why do you have a suitcase?”
Tara bit her lower lip. “My house sorta got taken over by mountain goats. An ibex chewed on the wiring.”
Willow nodded. “Oh, that’s bad.” She stared at Tara’s suitcase, almost dreamily. “Do you want to stay here?”
Tara smiled, the shy smile that Willow loved. “Well, if you have room…”
“Room? I have heaps of those!” Willow was almost bubbling. “This is going to be so much fun!”
***
“Oh goddess...” Tara whispered the words in her head, feeling nauseus. She kept trying to look away, to do anything other than this, but her eyes were drawn to it. She was fascinated by it.
She was still surprised that Willow had managed to install the internet in the houses of 70% of the townspeople. Sure, she knew by now that Willow was the ‘net gal’ – the red-head was always quick to point this out – but she still got a kick out of seeing Willow crawl under a table, play with some plugs, emerging dusty but triumphant.
Now, alone in Willow’s bedroom and surfing the net, she was amazed to learn of the high percentage of internet users that seemed to have no understanding of English grammar.
“People...your spelling is atrocious!” She kicked the computer lightly, and disconnected from the internet, waiting for Willow.
They’d been lying on the bed since Suze left, just talking, until Willow’s mother had made a surprise entrance and asked to speak to Willow privately. Willow had told Tara to wait for her, and Tara was going to wait, no matter what happened. She was actually pretty hungry but she wanted to be on the bed, like she’d promised, when Willow returned.
Her skin crawled as she heard sobbing in the corridor. She recognised it instantly, as Willow’s. Her first impulse was to jump up and run to the door, to see if she could do anything. But then she heard Sheila’s nasal voice.
“Oh Willow, stop that! You’re a grown up girl, for God’s sake.”
Willow didn’t reply; or, if she did, Tara didn’t hear it.
“Look, you knew this had to happen eventually.”
Willow’s voice was tiny. “No, I didn’t...”
“Then you’re very naive.” Sheila softened her tone slightly. “Anyway, it’s for your own good. Your relationship with her is, to say the least, unnatural.”
“Unnatural?! You know very well, mother, that that’s crazy talk...”
Tara grinned despite herself; this was the feisty Willow that she knew so well.
“Mom...you don’t understand...maybe it isn’t natural to you b-but, I love her. She means so much to me. I can’t just...just say goodbye like that.”
Tara looked down. She didn’t like to make assumptions, but she knew that they had to be talking about her. In the past, others had also called her sexual preference ‘unnatural’, and obviously Sheila had worked out that something was going on – even if Willow hadn’t – and wanted to put an immediate stop to it.
Goodbye? Tara tried desperately to hold herself together. She hadn’t known Willow long, but she knew that she wouldn’t be able to cope without her. Both knew, even if only on a subconcious level, that they were more than just friends. They’d found some connection, almost immediately, and they wouldn’t be able to separate. It would hurt too much.
She said she loved me…
“Well, you’re going to have to face your fears and do it. I’m sorry, but you just don’t have a say in the matter.”
Tara heard footprints leading away from the staircase. She looked up with tear-stained cheeks as Willow walked into the room, closed the door, and broke out in a fresh round of tears.
She edged forward. “Will, sweetie?”
Willow jumped. She’d been certain that Tara would have left already, it felt like she’d been talking to her mother for hours.
“Tare? You...you waited?”
“Of course I waited.” Tara’s voice was painfully soft.
Willow glanced at her and realised that she too had been crying.
“Oh, god, what’s wrong?” She wiped her own eyes with her sleeve and walked quickly over to Tara, to hug her. “Do you want to talk about it?”
Tara flushed. This was it, time for the big talk.
“I, well, i didn’t mean to...but I heard a bit of you and your mother talking...”
Willow nodded. “Of course you heard, we were kinda loud.” She looked away, then spoke.
Tara tried to hold herself together. “When’s it going to happen?” I can do this…
Willow was silent for a moment. “As soon as possible. I have about an hour.”
Tara nodded. “God…Will, I don’t know what to say to you… it’s just so…unexpected and…” she couldn’t hold it in, “horrible! I’m sorry, but I…”
Tears began to trickle down her cheeks once more, and Willow hugged her tenderly. “Oh, I know… it is.” She hugged her tighter. “It’s OK, we have each other.”
Tara shut her eyes. “Not for long.”
Willow wiped a tear off Tara’s cheek. “Yes, for long. Always.”
Tara turned to look at her, but Willow continued speaking. “I just never figured that Buffy would have to go…”
“What?”
Willow continued, almost to herself, “I can understand why she has to be put down, but… it just seems so cruel. It’s like saying, ‘Oh, Buffy, you’ve got an illness that us humans are too dumb to work out, so we better kill you!’ ”
Tara had stopped crying and was staring at Willow.
***
Five minutes later, everything was much clearer. Willow had told Tara everything that Sheila had told her, about some strange new disease that was affecting cow’s brains. It wasn’t anything to the extend of Mad Cow Disease, but it caused them to become barren, unable to produce milk, and hence they were useless.
Sheila had assured Willow that Buffy was not dying in vain. Her brain tissue would be examined by some of the best experts in the world, who would ensure that a cure be found as soon as possible.
Tara was still a little confused, and suspicious, about it all. But Willow needed to prepare herself to accompany Buffy to the slaughterhouse, and Tara was determined to support her, not make her feel even worse about it all.
Willow turned to face Tara, tears streaming down her cheeks. In front of her lay the entire contents of her wardrobe.
“No, no, I-I, I should, I should wear the purple. The purple, I, I think, it's just that it's so, I don't know. I-it doesn't mean something bad?"
Tara wished she could do something, do anything to make Willow's pain go away. But Willow was waiting for an answer, and Tara couldn't lie.
"Uh, Will, you might not want to wear purple. I think it's, um... RoyaleMeats. Purple is the official color of the RoyaleMeats Company."
Willow's face went green. "Well, I can't take Buffy to the abbatoir and be all Royale! "Oh, I wholeheartedly endorse the RoyaleMeats Company, I'm human, I eat animals...I'm better than you!" She sobbed quietly, then whispered, "I have to be supportive! I, Buffy needs me to be supportive, I can't just take her down to be killed, being..." she trailed off, peering into her wardrobe.
"God, why do my all shirts have to have advertisements for meat companies on them? Why can't I just dress like a grownup? Can't I be a grownup?"
Tara cradled Willow’s face in her hands, whispering comforting words to her. Then she kissed her cheek softly. “Will, you have to be strong.”
Willow’s white face peered doubtfully. “Strong like an amazon?”
“Strong like an amazon.” Tara took Willow’s hand. “I’m with you, baby. Always.”
***
“Sheila, we need to get a move on, honey pie.”
The older woman turned to Willow. “Meet my boyfriend, Daniel Osbourne. Oz, meet my daughter.”
Willow stared at him. Sheila seemed to catch on and leaned forward, whispering into Willow’s ear ,“Plastic surgery got me my man. He thought I was in my 20s! He was a bit doubtful when he found out I have a daughter the same age as him. But he still loves me.”
Willow smiled weakly. “Uh, that’s great, mom. Nice to meet you, Daniel.”
He nodded at her.
Sheila looked around. “Well, where’s the big brave Buffy?”
Daniel pulled on a rope and Buffy was suddenly standing before them. He began to put her into a tiny cage, pushing her head in first, then her large body.
Willow started. “Excuse me, what do you think you’re doing? I thought there were going to be scientists present during the entire…procedure.” She choked on the word. “What’s going on?”
Daniel exchanged looks with Sheila. “You heard wrong, red-locks. We figured it’d be quicker if we did the deed. You know, a nice, quiet family occasion. No need to get others involved.”
Willow took a step towards him. “Who is going to…to kill her?”
He shrugged, nonchalantly. “Well, I figured I’d do it. Being the only boy here. Unless you’d rather?” He reached behind him and produced a large, engraved silver knife, decorated with gems. “Would you like to?”
Willow nearly growled. “Who the hell are you? Mom, something’s going on. I-I don’t want him to do it. Let’s just take Buffy to the proper scientist people, who know what they’re doing.”
Sheila grinned. “There are no scientist people. And Willa, you really need to work on your vocabulary. You’re a big girl, you should talk properly.”
“Well, you’re an old woman, and you should grow a heart. And my name is Willow, dammit. What do you mean, there are no scientist people?”
Sheila leaned against a table. “Ah, little girl. You’re so naïve at times. Didn’t you figure things were a little big suss?”
“I’ve kinda been a bit too upset to ‘figure out’ your master plan, mother...”
“Buffy’s going to become a princess.”
Tara watched the scene quietly, feeling helpless. She had no idea what she could do; other than try to take on Sheila and Daniel. But alas, her punching skills were weak and she knew she would only make things worse.
Sheila grabbed the knife and held it towards Buffy’s neck. The cow burped loudly and sniffed its foot.
Willow watched with a mixture of amazement and horror. “God, mom, when did you become so…”
Tara spoke up, “evil?”
Sheila laughed. “Not evil, Terry. Just brilliant. You see, Buffy isn’t supposed to be a cow. She’s supposed to be a fighter, a brave, wonderful goddess. But something went wrong in her reincarnation, and she became a cow.”
Willow would have laughed, if the situation was any different. “Is this a joke? Or do you belong to some weird cult?”
“No, not a joke. But I do belong, along with Daniel, to an enlightening group. Our leader explained to us, for a small fee, the truth about Buffy. Once the cow is killed, and we pray to her ashes, the true wonderful goddess can emerge. You see, from every generation there is a…”
Willow cut her off. “Enough! I don’t care! Just put down the knife, and let’s work this out.”
Sheila chuckled and shook her head. “Can’t do it, little one. But if you’d like to do the killing, feel free.” She extended her hand towards her daughter, offering the knife. “What’s it going to be? Organic chops for dinner, or would you like my boy to do the deed?”
Willow shook her head firmly. “Neither! You’re nuts, mom. I don’t know what happened to you, but you’ve completely lost it. And you…”
“What are you going to do, Willow? How will you stop me?”
Willow took another step forward. “I don’t know…I just know that I won’t let you touch Buffy! So put your knife away.”
Sheila’s eyes were dark. “Willow, I gave you an order. You don’t want to mess with my group. Buffy means a lot to them. If you do as I say, you’ll get a lovely financial reward. You won’t have to stay around this dump of a town much longer,” she glanced at Tara, “although I have to say, you do move…”
“NO!” Willow shut her eyes, as if to escape the scene. She didn’t know what to do, what to say, to get her mother away, but she couldn’t do as she was asked.
Sheila pressed the knife into her fingers, “you do…”
“HEY!” Tara was suddenly between the two red-heads. “She said no. You’re not going to make her do something she doesn’t want to do. And if you try, you’ll have to come through me.” She folded her arms.
Sheila turned, laughing, to Daniel. “How cute. But Terry, you forget, I have a weapon. What do you have?”
Tara smiled at Willow. She suddenly knew everything was alright. “Love.”
Sheila screamed, hearing a pounding noise on all the walls, under the floorboards, and on the ceiling. It seemed to be getting closer.
“What the heck is that? What did you do?” She stared accusingly at Tara. “You witch. What did you do?”
Tara leant behind her and swiftly opened the door. Thousands of goats began to flood into the small room and went directly to Sheila, knocking her over. They began to nuzzle her softly but firmly, as if they knew to pin her to the floor.
“Daniel!” She screeched. “Look after Buffy!”
He ran to grab the cage but it was gone, all he could see was Tara holding Willow’s hand, and Buffy’s cage in the other hand, running into the distance.
That was the last thing he saw before an ibex bit him in the groin and everything went black.
***
A cookie-fest was taking place in Willow’s bedroom that evening.
“Gosh,” she gushed, “you were so brave!” She leant forward and pressed a cookie into Tara’s mouth. “You deserve all these cookies and more!”
Tara smiled bashfully. “I didn’t do much. Those ibexes were just sitting around waiting for something to do. And when they felt how much urgency I had, they came in flocks.”
Willow shook her head, wonderingly. “I still don’t really understand it. Your gift.”
“Well, it all sort of started with my dad. He was the first one that could communicate with certain animals. But he had too much power, and he went a little crazy.” Tara looked at Willow carefully. “It’s all going to sound a bit strange to you.”
Willow shrugged. “Yeah, coz my mother is just SO normal!”
Tara giggled. “True. Anyway, he convinced himself he was a leprechaun. That was the only way he could explain to himself the fact that he could communicate with bats, parrots, and goats. At first, my mother figured it was just one of his quirks. But then he really snapped, and she sent him to a home.”
She smiled, a little sadly. “Back then, my mother liked things like quirkiness. But after dad lost his mind, she pretended she’d never had anything to do with it. She gave up all her ecological work, and her study of the occult, and became a lawyer.”
“A lawyer? Wow! I’ve never met one of those.”
“Really?! Well, I had to go to a party at a farm when I was eleven. I had never been to a farm before, she’d kept me away from them, just in case. But it had such an impact on me. I’d never felt more at home there. And then…well, I had a conversation with a goat. And all the kids at the party freaked out. And my mom was so angry with me that I guess I leant to control it.”
Willow nodded.
“Then, when I finished high school, mom just wanted me to move out. I had no where to go, and I was kind of worried about being homeless. But then I read a real estate ad, for a little farm house, and figured it was fate.”
Willow handed her a choc-chip-macadamia-nut cookie and smiled. “I’m glad you came here.”
“Me too.”
“Mr Happy was so worried about us today. It turned out that mom locked him up in a cupboard just above where we were, and he heard the whole thing. He could have intervened, he carries a little emergency button just in case weird things like that happen, but he didn’t. you know why?” Willow gazed at Tara solemly. “He told me he saw something in you. Protection, wisdom, a mixture of things. But he trusted you to get us out of there.”
Tara thought about this. “He’s a really sweet guy. He deserves a cookie too, don’t you think?”
“Oh definitely. But the weird thing is, he told me that mom and Oz really did take the whole Buffy-is-a-goddess thing quite seriously. They paid a scientist $470 million to develop a tool that translates cow moos.”
“Really? It works?”
“Yeah! But Mr Eevil locked it up, coz he figured it’d just be exploited. Which is pretty amazing, if you ask me…he would love to talk to those cows and know what they’re saying back!”
Tara snuggled into the blankets Willow had given her. “God, what a day.”
“Yeah….at least it’s ending on a great note. I love slumber parties so much; even if there is more emphasis on the slumber than the party.”
“I guess we should get some sleep.”
“I guess so.”
They both rolled over, lying in the darkness and thinking. Neither were even contemplating sleeping. Willow managed to restrain her mouth for approximately 7 minutes before she gave in.
“Tare?”
“Yes?”
“Do you like living by yourself?”
Tara thought about this. “Well, it’s nice to be independent. To rely on myself for everything. And I like being able to sit and think, and know that no one can come and interrupt me. I can cook pancakes all day, and stay in my pyjamas, if I want to, and there’s no one to nag me. It can be a lot of fun. But, you know,” she sat up and looked around Willow’s room, “it’s not the same as living with someone that you…”
She paused.
“Are friends with?” Willow grinned into the darkness.
“Exactly.”
She lay back down, shutting her eyes. She tried to fall asleep, but she kept thinking of the feeling of exultance she had felt as she ran out of the abbatoir holding Willow’s hand. No matter what she did, Willow always seemed to be in her thoughts.
After five minutes, she suddenly had a terrible thought. We forgot to say goodnight.
She was motionless, agonising over whether or not to wake up Willow to say goodnight, when she suddenly felt warm breath on her face.
“You’re probably asleep, my Tare-a-la,” whispered Willow, “but I couldn’t sleep without saying goodnight. Thankyou for saving me today.” She pressed her lips lightly against Tara’s cheeks, then, feeling better, climbed back into bed.
“Goodnight,” Tara whispered into the darkness. “I’ll save you any day.”
TBC…
_________________
Willow laughs, kissing her. Soft and sensual. Deep love territory.
Seeing Red, Shooting Script.
Edited by: vix84 at: 12/25/02 11:31:37 am
I think you may guess what my sick mind might've been thinkin' when I read that 
Anyhoo, much sweetness with Tara throwing Will a surprise belated bday party 
by pikescoob » Sun Nov 24, 2002 8:02 pm 
(hmm, kinda like cow's milk but without the originality and the alternate realityness).
Pax! -Bev 
I'm so glad to see your update and so happy to see you last night, dear Sali. 
Can't wait for more, guys!!
Mwa! to you
at: 1/18/03 6:50:35 pm
Sali 
at: 12/28/03 1:03 am