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TITLE: Close Quarters
AUTHOR: Laragh
CHAPTER RATING: PG-13
DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara and any other characters from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer franchise belong to Joss Whedon, FOX, ME and a whole host of other entities, none of which are me.
SUMMARY: What happens when Willow and Tara are thrown together far away from home? Tara has secrets, Willow has a lonely past. They both want to be loved. Can they find it together? (Of course they can, this is me!)
SPOILERS: AU fic, so at most minor references or pieces of dialogue
FEEDBACK: Yes please
Chapter 17/20
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Tara sat on her bed, numb. She absently rubbed her reddened cheek until she heard a knocking off to the side and her head snapped round, her body following as she leapt off the bed and opened her window for Willow to climb through. She threw herself at the redhead before Willow had a chance to realise what was happening and kissed her fiercely.
Oh Willow...How am I gonna be able to live without you? I need you, Willow, I need you...I need...I need to make love with her. She needs to know I feel. I need to show her. I still have 40 minutes before my father comes to collect me and my things...Is that enough time? It’ll have to be. Maybe, maybe if I have the memory...of us...maybe I can survive.
“Willow, make love with me,” Tara gasped between desperate kisses, pulling at the redhead’s t-shirt, forgetting how she’d vowed she couldn’t make love to her girlfriend with the secrets between them, more consumed with making their final moments together count, “Make love with me, please.”
Willow almost got lost in the sensation of the kiss for a moment before registering her girlfriend’s words and she pushed Tara off angrily.
“No!”
“No?” Tara asked, almost bursting into tears, “No?”
Had Willow just rejected her?
“No,” Willow repeated angrily, folding her arms over her chest, “‘Cause you want it to be goodbye. What were you gonna do, Tara? Have us share...that...that wonderful, special thing and then what? Hope I fell asleep and then leave me to wake up alone? Do you know what that would’ve done to me? It would’ve killed me, Tara!”
Tara’s face was a mixture of shame and shock and her head dropped.
“I didn’t...I didn’t think of that.”
“Yea, well, it wouldn’t have worked anyway, Tara,” Willow replied, letting her arms hang by her sides, “‘Cause if you’d done that I would’ve been on the first plane to Alabama to find you.”
Tara’s head snapped up as she realised all of what her girlfriend had said.
She knows it would be goodbye and said she’d go to Alabama... How...?
“How did you know about...about...”
Willow’s features softened as Tara started to tear up and she moved forward, placing a kiss against her girlfriend’s tender cheek.
“Tara, I saw you with your father.”
Tara stiffened and Willow wrapped her arms around her.
“It’s okay. It’s okay. He’s never gonna raise a hand to you again, I promise. I’m so sorry you had to go through...I can’t even imagine how horrible it must’ve been. But I’m not gonna let him near you from now on, okay?”
Tara wanted more than anything to let herself believe her girlfriend’s words but she knew she couldn’t. She pulled away from the hug and sank back down onto her bed, shaking her head.
“Willow I have to go with him. He’s pulling me out of school as we speak, I have to go. I have no choice.”
Willow sank down to her knees and shuffled herself so she was between the brunette’s legs, making sure their eyes were locked.
“I’m giving you a choice.”
“What?” Tara asked, her brow creased, “What are you talking about?”
Willow took a deep breath. She’d had to come up with a plan quickly and sort everything out even quicker – she just thanked every deity known to man that she knew her way around a computer, she was able to get everything done in 20 minutes.
“Tara, we’re on a flight to London that leaves in an hour. And I booked a taxi, which was not easy ‘cause the guy didn’t speak English but I used a translator thing online – anyway there’s no time for my babbling, the taxi’s gonna meet us at the school gates in ten minutes.”
Tara’s mouth hung open and she gaped at the redhead.
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Tara, I’m never been more serious,” Willow replied genuinely, “And I don’t know what we’re gonna do when we get to London. I can pretty much access any computer server I need to. I’m not saying it’s good or it’s right, I’m saying I can. And there’s enough money in my account and my trust fund...baby, we have options. Whether we’re gonna stay there and try and get our GED’s...we both did the SATs last year, so that’s good...we could go to college or we could just stay for a little while and head back to the US or get jobs – anything, really. I don’t know. But I do know we have to get out of here. Now.”
“Willow, we can’t just...” Tara said in disbelief, “We can’t just leave...”
Willow took both of her girlfriend’s hands in hers.
“We can. At least, legally, we can. We’re 18, baby, we’re adults. And I’ll call my parents when we’re in London, tell them we’re safe. Even if the police get called, they can’t compel us to go anywhere. Baby, we can disappear for a while. Life will always be there, waiting, we can still finish school and go to college and get jobs. Just a little further in the future than we thought.”
Tara couldn’t believe all the effort Willow had gone to, or how she’d managed to organise everything so quickly.
I could never have to see my father again...all those fantasies about our future...they could be real...but...
“I can’t let you do that for me. I can’t let you give up all your opportunities. You could be anything.”
“Dammit, Tara, when on earth are you gonna realise that I’m nothing without you,” Willow replied emphatically, “And the only thing I refuse to give up is you. On us. I know this is the kind of decision you’re really supposed to think over, but, baby, we don’t have the time. We need to be gone before your father gets back up here. Look, I’m not one for advocating running away from your problems, but this isn’t running away. This is starting fresh. And I’m not saying it’s gonna be easy. It’s probably gonna be really, really hard. But it’d be you and me. Together, no one stopping us.”
Tara gazed into Willow’s eyes. It was surreal. The entire situation was unreal. Ten minutes ago she’d been facing a life of nothing but remorse and pain. Ten minutes ago she didn’t think she’d every see Willow’s beautiful face again. But now, Willow was there, offering her a very real alternative. Of them. Together. She was giving her a choice.
“Us,” Tara whispered after a moment, “I choose us.”
“Oh Tara,” Willow replied, near tears as she threw her arms around the brunette’s neck, “Oh god, I love you. Okay, okay, we need to pack, quickly.”
Willow dropped down again and fished Tara’s suitcase out from under her bed, throwing it on top of the mattress and unzipping it.
“You have your passport, right?”
Tara nodded and opened the side case of her suitcase, producing a small cloth bag.
“It’s in here,” she said, before suddenly snapping to attention, “Do you need to go pack?”
“No, my bag’s outside your window,” Willow replied as she unloaded the contents of her girlfriend’s nightstand into the suitcase, “I’m also booked on the next flight to Alabama tonight, which I can only assume is the one your father is booked on too. I had to have a back-up plan. Either way, I was gonna be heading to the airport this afternoon. No way was I gonna leave you with him, no way.”
Tara could only stare at the redhead.
“Willow, you’re amazing.”
Willow turned and gave her girlfriend a quick smile.
“Tell me how amazing I am when we’re sitting on that plane, okay?”
Tara nodded and ran off to her wardrobe, grabbing as much as she could and transferring it to her luggage. It only took them a few minutes to clear the room, Tara leaving the school laptop and uniform on the bed.
“Okay, that’s it, that’s everything,” she said, before suddenly remembering something and snatching her pillow up, picking up her heart toy, “Can’t forget this.”
Willow smiled and moved to softly kiss her girlfriend for just a moment, before picking up the handles of her suitcase.
“Come on, the cab should be there.”
She walked over to the window and threw the suitcase out, before stepping over the pane and onto the grass on the other side, holding out her hand for Tara to follow. They both picked up their suitcases and ran the 50 yards from the school to the gates, where a taxi was parked, an irritated looking man sitting in the front. They threw their cases in the trunk and got into the back seat.
The man looked like he was about to start spouting something irately about being left waiting that neither of them would’ve probably been able to understand so Willow quickly whipped out her wallet and handed him a note as well as saying the name of the nearest airport, only a ten minute car journey away. This seemed to appease him and he started driving as Tara took Willow’s hand and held on tight.
“No looking back,” she said quietly and felt Willow squeeze her hand.
“No looking back.”
***
“Baby, you can relax now,” Willow said with warm smile, putting a hand on the brunette’s knee, “We’re 30,000 feet in the air, we’re gonna be in London in an hour and we’re together.”
Tara tried to loosen up her tensed shoulders against the aeroplane seat but found she couldn’t.
“I know,” she replied, turning her head to look at her girlfriend, “I think I’m still in shock. Willow, I thought...I mean, I thought we had a couple more months, but I thought that come the end of school...I’d never be able to see you again. That I’d be dragged back to that hell I lived in before. I never for one second imagined we’d ever be able to...”
“That’s why you told me to apply to all the different schools, huh?” Willow asked quietly, “You knew you wouldn’t be around to go to college with.”
“I’m so sorry,” Tara whispered, a few errant tears coming to her eyes, “I kept so much from you and...I lead you on so much. You have to believe me though, Willow, when we talked about going to college together and being together after school and getting married – I never lied when I said that’s what I wanted more than anything. I just-”
“Never thought it could come true?”
Tara gave a weak nod, expecting her girlfriend to be really angry with her and was therefore surprised when the redhead just raised the armrest between them and cuddled into her side.
“Well now I get to make sure it does come true.”
Tara closed her eyes in relief and softly stroked her girlfriend’s hair.
“You’re not mad?”
Willow sighed and moved her head to rest against the brunette’s shoulder so they could look at each other.
“Do I wish you’d told me about your home life sooner? Yea. But I get why you didn’t. You were scared. And you were trying to protect me. I mean, if I’d known about all of that we could’ve been more organised, worked out a plan that when we graduated, that’s when we decided to make a new life for ourselves. But like I said earlier, school will always be there. I know you only kept things to yourself because you thought it would be easier not to deal with it. But you never lied to me, not about the important stuff. You never lied about your feelings, I know that. But no more secrets, okay?”
Tara gazed down into Willow’s eyes adoringly.
“No more secrets. I was just afraid if you saw the kind of people I came from, you wouldn't wanna be anywhere near me. That you’d think I was weak.”
Willow just smiled and shook her head into the taller girl’s shoulder.
“See ... that's where you're a dummy. I think about ... what you grew up with, and what you dealt with... the horrible things you must’ve dealt with. And then I look at what you are now...so strong and capable. It makes me proud. It makes me love you more.”
Tara leant her head down and kissed Willow softly, all her love and affection transferring through her lips.
“I’ll make it up to you,” Tara whispered when they pulled away, “For all the confusion and the secrets. I’ll make it up to you. I give you my word that from now on I will tell you and talk to you about everything and I will make it up to you.”
Willow sighed happily and smiled.
“I just want one thing.”
“Anything,” Tara replied insistently, “I’ll do anything.”
“Promise you’ll love me forever?”
Tara could only smile and nod as she spoke the words with utter honesty.
“I’ll love you forever.”
Last edited by Laragh on Wed Dec 14, 2011 7:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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i want so badly for one of the teachers to have seen what he did and call the authorities, have him arrested, and spend the rest of his life as the punching bag for a huge swiss body builder!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 
he needs to be spanked very badly!!!!!!!! 
i feel so badly for tara. i hope that willow can save her in time.
Although I guess there's not too many left in this one so it can't get REALLY bad again (not a challenge!)
)
woohoo... loving Willow riding in and saving the day... 
Willow was awsome coming in and saving the day like that! All I could do was sit here and go AWWWW!!!! lol Sooo cant wait for the next one 
