Here's the second part of Track 10. No replies though cause I'm ultra-lazy like that. It's Saturday night and I have a new Yellowcard album that I need to indulge in, so that's my lame excuse. Pretty pitiful, huh? Anyway, despite Kasey's request for me to hold off until Tuesday-ish, here ya go...
Title: Songs For A Mix Tape
Author: Sarah (unionjill30)
Email: unionjill_30@yahoo.comRating: PG - PG13ish?
Disclaimer: I don’t own the characters from ME, and really I don’t own the other characters so much either. Though Kim would like to think she owns me. I’ve been informed that I don’t have to be Kim’s bitch, I just choose to be. Go figure.
Feedback: Yes please.
Track 10: Above Me by RufioPart 2After clearing the dishes away to the kitchen, Willow looked out the window and noticed nearly all the cars were gone outside. “I bet Metzger’s dying to come back downstairs,” she said as she came back into the dining room where Tara was still sitting. Willow hadn’t let her help with the dishes saying that since she had asked the blonde over, it was her job to do the work.
“Who?” Tara asked, confused by what Willow was talking about.
“Metzger. Buffy and Liam’s dog. He stays upstairs during services so he doesn’t run around down here and make noise,” the redhead explained.
“You have a puppy?” Tara almost squealed.
“A rather big puppy, but yes.” Willow laughed at the childlike twinkle Tara had in her eyes. “Would you like to meet him?”
“Oh yes.” The blonde quickly stood so Willow could lead her to the dog. Tara loved animals but had never had a pet of her own since living at her parents’ house. Her sister had had a cat while they’d lived together, but that was the closest she’d come to having a pet in a long while.
“He’s this way,” Willow said as she held out her hand for Tara to take before leading them upstairs.
At the top of the stairs, Willow noticed a door down the hall that was partially opened. Figuring Metzger was in there since she had closed the door before leaving, the redhead guided Tara in that direction. She slowly pushed the door open with her free hand, and asleep on the plush red upholstery of the couch was the dog.
Tara overlooked the room as the two women crept inside. Her eyes immediately caught sight of the sleeping dog and she smiled. “Aww, I think he’s dreaming,” she whispered as Metzger’s nose started twitching.
“At least he’s not snoring like usual.” Willow sniggered.
The sound of voices triggered Metzger’s eyes to open and his ears to perk up followed soon by his head. He looked over and saw Willow and proceeded to stretch and yawn before trotting over to the familiar woman and her unfamiliar companion. He promptly sat down in front of the two women and tilted his head, studying them.
“He doesn’t get excited very easily does he,” Tara noted. Most dogs she’d experienced would have jumped all over a newcomer.
“He’s had obedience classes,” Willow explained. “Trust me, he’s excited on the inside and just waiting for the signal to let it all out.”
“Can I pet him?” Tara asked with obvious giddiness in her voice.
“Sure can.”
Tara released Willow’s hand causing the redhead to immediately miss the warmth of the contact. She watched as the blonde knelt down and started scratching behind Metzger’s ears. The dog was obviously loving the attention. Willow knelt down as well and began stroking the fur along Metzger’s back.
“Hey, buddy. Did ya have a nice nap?” the redhead asked. She looked at the other woman. “Tara, this is Metzger. Metz, this is Tar… Oof.”
She didn’t have a chance to get the rest of the introduction out because the dog jumped up and nudged into the redhead, causing her to topple backwards. He then proceeded to pin her with his weight before gazing at Tara and panting with a look on his face that resembled a smile.
Tara tried to cover her mouth to keep from laughing but it was difficult, and she started to crack up anyway.
“Oh sure, laugh at a girl while she’s down,” Willow said, trying to sound hurt, but she ended up dissolving into laughter herself.
“Are you sure he actually passed those obedience classes,” the blonde asked, still laughing.
“He passed,” Willow reassured. “He’s just trying to be funny.” She turned her attention to the dog. “Aren’t ya fella? I bet she wouldn’t laugh if it was her trapped by the big scary doggie, would she?”
As if on cue, Metzger released the redhead and pounced on Tara sending her backwards into the same position Willow had been in moments before and causing her to let out a small squeal.
“Is it still funny?” Willow asked, now laughing even harder.
“Definitely still funny,” Tara replied, giggling as Metzger started tickling her ear by nuzzling into the side of her head.
“I think it’s safe to say he likes you.”
“I like him too.” Tara smiled and started rubbing the dog’s head when he pulled it away from her own.
Willow reached over and scratched under his chin. “Looks like we have a match then.”
“Yeah,” Tara said quietly, looking at the dog before turning her gaze to the redhead, though she wasn’t referring to herself and Metzger.
Willow didn’t fail to miss what the blonde meant and immediately lost all train of thought, causing her to not know what to say. After a moment, she stood and was able to clear her throat before saying, “Alright, buddy. Why don’t you climb off of Tara and let her sit up.”
Metzger immediately complied and stepped off of the blonde. He then resumed his earlier position of sitting in front of the two women.
“He’s a cutie,” Tara said as Willow helped her stand. She smoothed down her skirt then rubbed behind the dog’s ears once more.
“He just loves the attention.”
At that moment, Liam rounded the corner to the room with a leash in one hand. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Both women jumped slightly at the voice behind them. They turned to see Liam in the doorway.
“Nope,” Willow said. “Just introducing Tara and Metz.”
“Mind if I take him for his walk?” Liam asked. “It seems to have cleared out downstairs.”
“He’s all yours,” Willow replied. As an after thought she added, “If it’s alright with you, Tara.”
“It’s alright with me,” the blonde answered then looked at the dog. “We’ll just have to play some other time, sweetie.” She reached out to pet him one more time, and he nuzzled his face into her palm before giving it a short lick.
Liam clipped the leash onto the dog’s collar and gave it a gentle tug. “C’mon, buddy.”
Metzger stood and trotted up to Liam.
“Bye, ladies.” Liam waved as he turned and walked down the hallway.
“Bye,” Willow and Tara said in unison.
Willow turned away from the door, and Tara followed suit.
“It must be fun having him around all the time,” Tara said, referring to Metzger.
“It can get pretty interesting.” The redhead laughed.
“I bet.” Without the distraction of the dog, Tara was now able to take in the contents of the room. The couch immediately caught her eyes. “Is that a bathtub?” she asked in shock, pointing at the piece of furniture.
“Was,” Willow corrected.
“And you turned it into a couch?” The blonde was amazed by the object. It was an old white claw foot bathtub with a side cut out, and the interior was upholstered in plush red cloth.
“My parents did. They gave it to me when I moved out here,” the redhead explained. “Want to try it out?”
“Is it comfortable?”
“Why don’t you find out for yourself.” Willow grabbed Tara’s hand and led her to the couch. She released the blonde’s hand and took a seat. “Nice and cozy. Care to join me?” she offered with a waggle of her eyebrows.
Tara smiled at the redhead’s obvious flirting and took a seat as well. She discovered it was very comfy, and it also put her in close proximity to Willow; so close that their outer thighs were touching.
“This is nice,” Tara said, referring both to the couch and her nearness to Willow.
“Yeah,” Willow practically sighed. She was talking about how close Tara was.
Thank you Mom and Dad for this kooky couch. It did feel nice, and she decided to take an opportunity before it passed. “Um… would it be asking too much if I… if I said I wanted to kiss you right now?” It took everything she had to get the question out, and Willow began unconsciously holding her breath as she waited for the answer.
Tara turned her full attention toward the redhead. At first she thought she’d imagined hearing the question, but seeing the expectant look in Willow’s eyes Tara knew it wasn’t her imagination. “No it wouldn’t be asking too much,” she said with an exceptionally calm voice that shocked herself. “In fact, I’d have to say that I’d like to kiss you right now too.”
Willow released the air in her lungs, breathing out an “Okay.”
The two women gradually began moving their faces towards each other. Tara licked her lips and slowly blinked as she focused in on Willow’s tongue darting out to moisten her own lips. As they inched closer, they started tilting their heads to avoid bumping noses. Right before contact, Willow reached a hand out to gently cup Tara’s face, and as their lips touched she began stroking softly with her thumb.
The world fell away as lips slowly moved against each other, and Willow concluded that despite the heat of their first kiss, this easy exploration was just as good, if not better, than that initial occurrence.
A shrill noise interrupted the tranquility of the moment, and Tara jumped back in alarm.
Willow heard the phone ring just before Tara pulled away. I will kill whoever you are on the other end, she thought in annoyance.
After the second ring Tara registered that it was in fact a phone making the noise, which calmed her slightly. “You should probably get that,” she told Willow, who was just staring menacingly at the offending object.
The redhead broke out of her trance and blushed. “Good point.” She stood and walked across the room, picking the handset up out of its cradle. “Hello?”
“Willow, honey, it’s your mother,” replied the voice at the other end.
The redhead covered her eyes with one hand and sighed. Through clenched teeth she managed, “Mom, hi.” She then looked over at Tara and rolled her eyes mouthing, “My mother.”
Tara smiled and blushed. Despite the interruption coming by phone, she felt almost as if they were teenagers being caught kissing by a parent.
Shelia Rosenberg wasn’t a naïve woman, and she picked up on her daughter’s annoyance even through the phone. “You’re not busy are you?”
“Maybe just a little.” The redhead tried not too sound too aggravated. After all, her mother couldn’t have known it was a bad time to call. “Whatcha need?”
“Just a little issue with my laptop, and your father’s not here to help,” Mrs. Rosenberg said, feeling bad that she’d interrupted something. “I can let you go if you want.”
“No, Mom. You’re fine. What’s wrong?”
“Well,” Shelia started, “the darn thing wouldn’t turn on earlier, but now that I’ve finally got it on I get that lovely blue screen. I don’t know why it’s not working. It was fine yesterday.”
Willow fought back the urge to say, “It’s not working because your operating system is a piece of crap.” Instead, she asked, “What’s the screen say?”
Meanwhile, Tara had begun looking over the room’s contents. She noticed a laptop and various other accessories that looked like they belonged with the computer. Also, she saw a television complete with DVD player and Playstation. So someone likes video games? The blonde couldn’t help but smile. In another location was a tripod folded up as well as what Tara assumed was a camcorder bag, but what really caught her attention was the large bookshelf along one wall covered in books and DVDs as well as CD cases and VHS cassettes. She locked eyes with Willow and motioned toward the shelf silently asking if it was okay to take a closer look.
Willow smiled and nodded that it was okay for the blonde to look around. She also pointed to the phone mouthing, “Sorry.”
Tara smiled, assuring that it was alright before walking over to browse the shelf.
“It says something about terminating a thread because of stack overflow problems, and that just sounds ominous,” Willow’s mother was saying over the phone. “Then it gives me all these abbreviations that I know nothing about and it’s telling me to change some settings or something.”
“Just tell me exactly what it says, and I’ll tell you how to fix it. It doesn’t sound like it’s a horrible problem,” Willow tried to reassure. She knew her mother had the potential to start panicking and didn’t want the conversation to lead there. She just wanted to fix the dilemma as soon as possible and get back to Tara.
Mrs. Rosenberg began telling her daughter what the screen said, and Willow wrote it all down before booting up her own computer to find the solution. After a short search online, she found the exact page she needed and began walking her mother through the steps to correcting the problem.
On the other side of the room, Tara was scanning the titles of books, which Willow had alphabetized by author. There were a lot of titles she recognized and some she’d never heard of. Nearing the end of the list, her eyes stopped on six books by the same author: C.A. Vaughn. She ran her hand over the spine of one of the paperback copies and her throat clenched. Tara slowly pulled the book from its place on the shelf and began opening the cover. Two pages in she found exactly what she’d expected to find; something she hadn’t read in a long time: To my two little girls and the newest miracle in my life. Without the three of you my world wouldn’t be complete. Closing the cover, she blinked back tears and replaced the book on the shelf.
Willow hung up the phone with her mother after sorting out the computer issue and walked over to where Tara was looking at a book. As the blonde was putting the book back, Willow said, “That’s a really good one. You should read it some time.”
Tara jumped at the unexpected voice. She’d been in her own world and hadn’t heard Willow get off the phone. “Huh?”
“I said it’s a good book and you should read it some time,” Willow repeated.
“Oh, o-okay. Sure.” Tara tried to smile.
“Sorry about the phone,” Willow apologized. “My mom was having computer issues, not to mention timing issues.” She grinned at the other woman. “I love her to death but man… Does your mom ever just call you out of nowhere for the weirdest stuff?”
“Not really,” Tara replied absently. Her eyes drifted back to the book she’d been looking at earlier.
Willow noticed the blonde was staring at the same book again. “Have you ever read any of her stuff?”
Tara’s eyes snapped up to look at the woman beside her. “What?”
“C.A. Vaughn. Have you ever read any of her stuff?” Willow wasn’t sure what was bothering Tara, but she figured something must be wrong from the blonde’s demeanor. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good,” Tara replied, not quite convincingly as she forced a smile. “And, yeah, I’ve read some of her stuff.”
Willow wasn’t going to argue if Tara said she was good, but the redhead still felt like something was up. Instead of pressing the issue, she decided to keep the book conversation going. “She was an amazing author. It was a shame to hear she’d died.”
Something finally broke inside of Tara, sending tears down her cheeks. She covered her mouth with one hand and choked back a sob.
Willow immediately began to panic at the extreme shift in mood. “Oh god! What’d I say? Don’t cry. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you cry.”
Not wanting Willow to see her breaking down, Tara turned away from the redhead as she began crying a little harder.
Crying Tara. Tara’s crying. Oh god. It’s my fault. Willow hit full panic What do I do? What do I do? Think! Okay, when Buffy’s crying I let her get it out and there are hugs. Lots of hugs. But if I did this maybe she doesn’t want me to touch her. Crap. Think!
Deciding to give it a shot, Willow tentatively put a hand on Tara’s shoulder. When the blonde didn’t pull away, Willow moved a little closer and slid her hand down Tara’s arm to grasp the other woman’s hand. “Hey,” she tried in a quiet voice.
Tara looked up with tear stained eyes and it broke Willow’s heart. “C’mere,” the redhead said as she pulled Tara into a full embrace. “Shh, it’s okay.”
Relaxing into Willow’s arms, Tara rested her head on the redhead’s shoulder and continued crying. She lifted it when she felt herself being led in the direction of the couch. She then allowed herself to be lowered onto the piece of furniture where she buried her face again into Willow’s shoulder.
Willow began softly stroking Tara’s hair and trying to tell her that whatever it was it would be okay. She was at a complete loss as to what was wrong but decided the most important thing at the moment was to calm Tara down.
The pair stayed in that position on the couch for a few moments before Tara’s tears finally started to slow. Once she realized she had been sobbing on Willow’s shoulder, embarrassment started to set in and Tara tried to pull away. “I’m sorry,” she managed to choke out.
Willow tightened her grip, pulling Tara even closer. “You have nothing to be sorry for.”
“But I got your shirt all wet.” It was an attempt to lighten the mood and earned a small grin from the redhead.
“It’ll dry.” Willow lifted the blonde’s chin with one finger to look at her face. “But what’s more important is getting those beautiful eyes of yours dry.” She reached over to the end table and pulled a tissue out of a box before using it to gently dab at Tara’s cheeks. When she was completely satisfied that she’d gotten rid of all the moisture, she playfully dabbed the tissue once on the other woman’s nose. “There ya go.”
Tara couldn’t help but let a smile out. She rested her head back onto Willow’s shoulder and let out a small sigh. “Thank you,” she said quietly.
Willow resumed stroking Tara’s hair and holding her. “You’re welcome,” she replied softly.
The two lapsed into silence for a few minutes with Tara’s thoughts all over the place and Willow not wanting to push Tara into talking about something she may not want to discuss. Finally Tara broke the silence.
“She was my mom.”
It came out of nowhere and Willow was thrown. “Huh? Who?”
Tara began playing with one of the shirt buttons over Willow’s stomach in an attempt to detach herself from the conversation she was having. “Cecelia Anita Vaughn is my mother.”
The initial amazement that she owned books written by Tara’s mother was overridden by Willow’s sudden sadness that Tara had lost that same mom. Replaying the sequence of events that led them to this point, Willow remembered the conversation with her own mother, the joking question about Tara’s, and the prodding about the books. “I… I’m sorry.”
Without looking up, Tara replied, “You have nothing to be sorry for. You weren’t there. It wasn’t your fault.”
“Well no, I wasn’t. But I was being a big ol’ jerk asking if your mom called you with stupid questions and not shutting up about her books,” Willow argued.
“You couldn’t have known.”
“But still…” The redhead was going to try to argue more but figured it wouldn’t help anything anyway. “Is there anything I can do? Anything to help you feel better?”
Tara finally looked up and locked eyes with Willow. “You’re already doing it.”
Willow blushed as Tara lowered her head back down. “Oh. Well, uh, go me,” she whispered.
Tara smiled and murmured into the redhead’s neck, “Go you.”
After another short bout of silence, Tara had pushed everything back down inside herself, deciding it wasn’t Willow’s responsibility to deal with any leftover hurt from her mother’s death. Focusing on their other plans for the evening, she commented, “Adam’s probably getting antsy.”
Willow sniggered.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing,” Willow tried to cover.
“What?” Tara pushed, leaning up and smiling.
“Okay, but it’s bad. Stupid bad, not naughty bad,” the redhead clarified. “Adam… ansty… Adam Antsy. Like Adam Ant but not really.”
Tara laughed. “That was bad.”
“Told ya.” Willow grinned. “So you think we should head over there now?” she asked.
“Probably,” Tara said, even though she was reluctant to leave her place on the couch with Willow.
“Then we should go,” Willow agreed though she made no move to get up.
“Okay.” Tara slowly began extracting herself from the redhead’s embrace. Once she had completely pulled away, she missed the contact but kept telling herself that they had a promise to a friend to fulfill.
Willow reluctantly stood as Tara sat up fully, and she offered her hand to the blonde.
“Thanks,” Tara said as she took the proffered hand. “Is there anywhere I can…” She gestured towards her eyes.
“Oh, sure. The bathroom’s right across the hall. I can just wait here.”
“Thanks.”
Tara went into the bathroom and splashed a little water on her face. After a moment she had herself looking presentable again and walked back to the room where she had left Willow.
“All done?” Willow asked.
“Yep. You ready?”
“Yep.” Willow smiled and held out her hand for Tara to take. She then led them back downstairs and into the living room where Tara retrieved her purse and Willow grabbed her keys.
At the door to the first level Willow paused. “Do you want to walk or should we drive?”
“It’s a pleasant night, and it’s not too far,” Tara said as she thought. “A walk sounds nice if it’s okay with you.”
“Sounds great,” Willow assured.
Well it's me at the bottom again. I'm Aquaman and I'm drowning in a kiddie pool that's empty, and it's surf's up as long as you notice me.
The measure of good taste is for the precious few.
by When You Were Mine » Thu Jul 31, 2003 3:07 pm 
I love it. You have a great way of sliding in pop-culture references (I mean, come on, SNL Celebrity Jeopardy! Wooo) and not making them seem forced.
) 
,
and 
are just so cute. 
I loved how they just sem to fall into place together so easily. 
the update. Update soon, please? 
at Liam's "failed stealth"
I so can't wait for the next part keep up the good work 
Oh well...guess I'll stick with automatic.