Title: Closing Ranks part 2
Author: Magrat
Ratings: PG: 13
Spoilers: Anything before Hells Bells but really set between Dead Things and Older and Far Away
Closing Ranks part 2
Dawn pulled her blanket up over herself, hoping sleep would arrive but knowing she was still top excited.
She had enjoyed the whole weekend and in a way she didn’t want too go home. She had enjoyed all the activities. Another thing had surprised she had expected the camp to be made up of mostly women and girls but it had been full of families. There had been a few women there with their daughters and she had felt a close bond to some of those. She felt so close to Tara and some of the girls there had just presumed that she was Dawn’s elder sister, but Dawn told them that after her mother had died, Tara had become her guardian. She even confessed to one girl she had become particularly close to, that Tara was her adoptive mother. Dawn knew it was a sort of lie but during the summer that’s what she had felt for both Tara and Willow.
She wanted them to get back together but just couldn’t work out how she could do it. Dawn felt herself start to drift off to sleep when she hear a strange keening noise coming from Tara’s bed. “Tara are you okay?” Dawn listened but there was no reply just a soft crying sound “Tara? Answer me are you okay?”
The teenager felt fear gripping her. She walked unsteadily across the room to Tara’s bed “Tara are you okay?” she gripped the witch’s shoulder and shook her gently “W-what’s wrong?”
She looked into Tara’s face. Her eyes were wide open but totally sightless and Dawn could see Tara’s right hand clenching and unclenching convulsively. Dawn listened intently realizing the noises were actual words.
“Can’t tell…must protect Dawn, Glory can never find out…must protect…oh god please Willow save me…Willow where are you?”
Dawn reeled back in shock; Tara was having a nightmare, re-living Glory’s vicious attack on her. The teenager shook the blonde harder trying desperately to wake her from her nightmare experience “Please, Tara wake up” but to no avail. The mumbling, crying and convulsive clenching of her fist carried on. She could hear Tara pleading for Willow to save her and Dawn felt like her heart was shattering into a thousand pieces “Tara wake up please, please wake up”
“Willow, where’s Willow?” A bead of sweat appeared on Tara’s forehead and her whole body seemed to go rigid. “Just kill me don’t…I don’t want to be mad…Please Willow save me”
Dawn felt the panic subside she knew what to do “It’s okay I’m here, nothing is going to hurt you”
“Willow?” whispered Tara.
“Yes, baby, now go to sleep,” said Dawn tenderly brushing a hair from Tara’s face. The teenager sat there for over an hour stroking Tara’s face and when she was sure her guardian had fallen to an untroubled sleep, she kissed her softly on the forehead and padded quietly to her own bed. Dawn lay awake for most of the night concerned in case Tara’s nightmares returned.
****************
Tara and Dawn breakfasted early before catching the bus back home.
Dawn sat quietly looking out through the window her arm linked through Tara’s. The blonde witch was wondering what was going through her travel companion’s head. They had always had a tactile relationship but this morning Dawn taken it to an extreme that could almost be called clingy.
“Dawn what’s wrong? Did you enjoy the weekend?” asked Tara.
“Yeah, it was great and part of me wishes we could stay and not go home,” said Dawn still looking out the window.
Tara remained silent figuring if Dawn wanted to talk about what was going on her head, she would.
“Tara?” asked Dawn tentatively.
“Hmm” said the witch.
“I love you, you know,” said Dawn.
“Dawn is something wrong?” asked Tara growing more concerned.
“No, it’s I don’t think I tell you enough. I think we all expect you to be there for us, but no one asks about you or tells you what you mean to us… I don’t know…I think it was the same with mom,” said Dawn.
“Dawn if there is something, please tell me,” said Tara.
“Nothing” said Dawn lapsing into silence. She hadn’t slept well the night before. She supposed she always knew that Tara was protecting her from Glory when she was brain sucked but she hadn’t really thought of the sacrifice Tara had made for her.
It scared the teenager when she had thought deeply about the summer before. Two people had loved her so much that one had sacrificed her life and the other her sanity. It was overwhelming to Dawn. The teenager was not able to quite comprehend that level of feeling. It scared her and she felt unworthy.
One thing Tara’s nightmare had done for Dawn though was make her resolve to get Willow and Tara together even greater. She knew now that Tara still needed Willow. She jutted her chin out in determination armed with this information.
Tara was puzzled by Dawn’s behavior but not particularly worried. She had enjoyed her break and wasn’t really looking forward to going back to her lonely dorm room.
**********************
Buffy leaned against her mother’s old car. She and Xander had spent the morning moving Tara’s stuff back into the Summer’s house and she had a few boxes of clothes in the back as she waited for the bus to arrive at the campus.
She watched it pull into the lot and gave her sister and Tara a hug when the disembarked. “Hey, I’ve missed you both.”
“Hey Buffy” said Tara who was surprised to see the slayer lift Dawn and her bags and head to the car. “Buffy you’ve umm…picked up my bag too.”
“Yes” said Buffy as she stored the bags in the trunk.
“Buffy, why is my stuff in the car? Has something happened to W-willow?” asked Tara.
“No, nothing like that” said Buffy.
“But…”
“You have to move back into the house,” said Buffy. “It’s all arranged.”
“Dawn, can you get into the car while I talk to Buffy” said Tara her anger barely concealed.
“K” said the teenager.
The two women waited until Dawn had got into the car before they carried on.
“Tara before you say anything I had no choice in the matter…”
“No choice? How dare you interfere in my life like that Buffy?” asked Tara crossing her arms protectively in front of her.
Buffy put her hand on Tara’s arm. “It’s not like that, the F.B.I have been asking questions about you”
“M-me” said Tara. “I d-d, I don’t understand. W-why would they want know about m-me?”
“Because of Glory. Tara they’re asking questions about why you recovered from the mind suck and no one else did. They’ve been asking questions in the magic box” said Buffy and then shamefully playing her final card knowing it would get Tara to agree to move in. “We can’t let them know about Dawn. We have to stick together,”
“Okay” said Tara. “But I’m moving out the moment they’ve gone.”
“Absolutely” said Buffy with a grin on her face “NO pressure.”
*************************
James and Sandra watched the interaction from a distance.
“Looks like Tara isn’t going to be the easy target we thought” said James.
“Yes”-said Sandra. “Looks like they are closing ranks, but if there has been problems between them, forcing them close together could bring us some good results.”
“When do you want to talk to Ms. Maclay?” asked James.
“Let her stew for a few days. I think we might go to Mr. Harris’s building site first, then Ms. Summer’s workplace before we move onto Ms. Rosenberg. I think by that time Ms. Maclay may be ready to talk,” said Sandra with a grim smile.
***********************
Buffy, Dawn, Willow and Tara sat around a mostly awkward and silent dinner table.
“I’m going upstairs to study,” said Tara. “Are you sure you don’t mind Dawn?”
“Of course not, you can have my room as long as you want,” said Dawn.
It had been decided that Tara would move into Dawn’s room and the teenager share with her sister. At first both Willow and Tara had offered to sleep on the couch, but this seemed to be the most sensible plan.
Tara went to go upstairs but was intercepted by Willow. “Tara, I’m sorry”
“Sorry?” said Tara. “Willow, this isn’t your fault.”
“I should never…I wish you hadn’t got involved…”
“With you?” asked Tara stress and a slight edge of hysteria sounding in her voice. “You regret being with me?”
“Tara, god, no” said Willow. “I just wished you had never got involved with the gang. I never wanted you to get hurt”
“A bit late for that” said Tara pushing past Willow with tears in her eyes.
Willow turned and walked back to the sitting room where Buffy was pulling on her jacket. “You going out?”
“I’ve got to patrol,” said Buffy.
“Buffy, I don’t think this is going to work,” said Willow.
“What’s not going to work?” asked the slayer.
“Tara and I living under the same the roof” said Willow. “She…its really hard Buffy. I just want her back so much.”
“Then use this to your advantage” said Buffy. “Show her how much you’ve changed. She still loves you. You just have to persuade to come back to stay. I know you can do it. Will, I have to go now but we’ll talk, later?”
“Sure Buffy” said Willow not as convinced as the slayer that it would be so easy to get her former lover back.
********************
Willow settled down on the couch and listlessly flicked between the channels her mind unable to concentrate on anything.
Dawn watched from the hall. She had been trying to work out when would be the best time to approach Willow and tell her about Tara’s nightmare and she decided that there was no time like the present. “Hey, Willow what you doing?”
“ Just watching some TV. Are you staying in tonight?” asked Willow.
“Yeah, in fact I wanted to talk to you,” said Dawn.
“What about?” asked Willow.
“I was worried about Tara,” said Dawn.
Willow, looked up quickly at the mention of her ex-girlfriends name. “What about Tara?”
“When we were away she had this horrible nightmare. She kept mentioning Glory and how she wanted you to save her. I tried to wake her up but I couldn’t. I…I pretended I was you to settle her down. It was horrible,” said Dawn shivering.
Willow pulled Dawn on to the sofa and gently hugged the upset teenager. “Did she…did you talk with her about?” said Willow her voice cracking slightly, hating the idea of Tara feeling hurt in anyway.
“That was the weird thing about it; the next day she didn’t seem to remember anything and I wasn’t sure what to say,” said Dawn.
“Oh, she would have remembered,” said Willow. “She always remembered; she just hoped no one else heard her.”
“It happened before?” asked Dawn.
Willow nodded “She started to have them almost as soon as she recovered from Glory’s attack. Some nights we didn’t get any sleep. As the summer wore they started to get less frequent and after Buffy…came back, they had practically stopped.” Willow was staring into space not really talking to the teenager but lost in her own memories.
“Why do you think she is having them again?” asked Dawn.
“It’s obvious,” said Willow. “It’s another one of my screw ups. My messing with her mind probably did this. Why did I do it Dawn? She must hate me.”
“Will, if she hates you how come I could only calm her by pretending to be you? She needs you,” said Dawn.
“I don’t think…”
“She does,” said Dawn. “Why don’t you go and talk to her about it?”
“No,” said Willow. “If she needs me, she’ll come to me.”
“But…”
“I think it’s better that way. I don’t want to crowd her,” said Willow.
Dawn sighed in frustration; she had hoped that Willow would go to Tara. The teenager was undaunted though. She was determined that she would have her surrogate parents together again.
TBC
These five words in my head scream "are we having fun yet?"
Chad Kroeger
Woo and Hoo hoo hoo! I get my Buffy fix and my XFiles fix ... excellent ... 
Aly xxxx 
can't wait to read more 
Wonderful update. Nice to see Dawn finally realize just how much was sacrificed for her.