Spells42: Anne Thanks! I am afraid I won't be giving your curosity much satisfaction in this chapter, soon though. Stay tuned.
Numen: I am glad you are enjoying it. I hope you like the next chapter.
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Title:You Are The One
Chapter: Perpetual Scooby Confusion
Author: BlackIndiaInk - Brea
Rating: PG-13
Pairing: W/T
Feedback: Please do... comments, questions and constructive criticism are welcomed and even needed.
Spoilers: None, unless you've been in a cave. If you have then I take that back.
Disclaimers: Yo, I didn't create them, but I love to use them. Thanks Joss and Mutant Enemy
Distribution: Ask please...
Summary: Tara goes to off to college and meets someone she thought only existed in her mind.
Note: As promised here is the next chapter. Willow and Tara are the witchy wonder bread in an other character sandwich.
Note/request: If anything here seems wonky let me know. I worked twelve hours yesterday and then wrote this. I am pretty sure that I've gotten all the kinks out but I just want to make sure that its all understandable.
Chapter 5 - Perpetual Scooby Confusion
Willow had been concentrating on what Xander was saying when she started to feel dizzy. She looked first left and then right when everything became blurry. She blinked a few times trying to clear her vision but it only seemed to get worse. She hated feeling dizzy. It lead to nausea and that in turn lead to one cranky Willow. This time it seemed like was going to lead to one passed out Willow
Finally, everything faded from her vision until she was surrounded by blackness. She was faintly aware of Buffy calling her name and then felt Xander grab her by the shoulders as she started to sway to the side. His hands felt like they were touching her from light-years away. Gradually, she gave up and sank into unconsciousness.
When she opened her eyes again she was in an unfamiliar, yet strangely comforting, setting. Though she was sitting just as she had been when she blacked out, but she was no longer in the hospital.
A gorgeous field stretched as far as she could see and there were packages and platters of every food she could imagine surrounding a tree. Sitting next to the tree was the only familiar thing in the whole place, the blonde girl from the car wreck. Willow’s mouth opened and closed. She was speechless for once.
Tara looked back at the read head wondering why the girl didn’t seem to recognize her. She wanted to reach out and comfort the girl but didn't when she saw that the red head was freaking out.
Willow looked wildly around again trying to make sense of her disappearing act. She was sitting directly facing the blonde girl who didn’t look at all confused by what was happening.
“Um, hi,” Was all Willow could manage.
She had far too many questions bouncing around in her skull to verbalize. So, for now her mouth would remain unable to adequately produce them. She looked down and finally noticed that she was sitting on a huge root that arched a couple of feet out of the ground. It was a bit uncomfortable, just as the plastic hospital chair had been.
“Hi,” Tara returned, then added, “Are you okay?” She watched as Willow considered the question.
Willow supportd herself with her hands on either side of her legs then scooted off the root and onto the ground, which felt somehow more comfortable to sit on than the ground should feel.
Her brain was processing all the information as it came to her. Still, none of it was making sense. She was in this place that seemed perfect and very safe, with someone that she had never actually met, someone who looked damn good for just having been in a car accident.
There were no cuts or scrapes on the girl that Willow could see. She distinctly remembered all the blood that had been dripping down the side of the girl’s face while she was hanging upside down in the overturned jeep.
“Shouldn’t I be asking you that question,” Willow blinked, “And for that matter who are you and where are we?” Her hand gestured slowly at Tara as she spoke.
The fact that they really knew nothing about each other dawned on Tara. The time constraints that she had been under every time she visited here had kept her from finding out anything other than that the read head had a fondness for chocolate covered almonds and that she disliked frogs.
“I’m Tara,” she stated then continued, “And, what do you mean shouldn’t you be asking me that?”
“This is all very confusing.” Willow sighed and silently wished that her life wasn’t always so complicated. “You don’t know?” When Tara shook her head she knew she would have to explain the events of the night.
“We were chasing this behemoth of a vampire…”
“Vampire?” Tara interrupted her. She knew that vampires existed but she couldn’t imagine why this girl had been chasing one.
“Yeah, you know the evil monsters that try to suck your blood, they’re real. I promise,” she threw up her hands exasperated, “I’m not saying this right. I probably sound like a crazy person to you.”
“It’s okay I know vampires exist. I was just a little surprised.” She half grinned at Willow. Her hand motions had been adorable.
Tara’s words and grin reassured Willow so she continued. “My best friend, Buffy, is the slayer, in other words the one girl chosen to hunt and kill vampires, and just about everything else of the evil variety.She is super strong and has these amazing fighting skills.”
“Oh,” Tara said as if she understood though she was still confused as to why the girl had been chasing a vampire and not the other way around.
Willow continued, “So, we’re chasing this vampire. Buffy was in front of me and my other best friend, Xander. She runs really fast being the slayer and all so she was quite a ways ahead of us. I am not really sure what happened after that exactly. I just know that when we caught up there was this big car wreck.
Then, the vampire attacked when he saw we weren’t paying attention to him and I staked him.” Her chest puffed up a bit with pride when she remembered that she had dusted the huge vampire.
“After he was gone we went to see if we could help with the wreck and you were inside the upside down car with this guy.” She didn’t mention how she had felt drawn to the blonde and had refused to leave her side until the paramedics had come.
“Wait, I was in a wreck?” Tara sat confused for a moment. She thought hard. “I was…” she stopped speaking when she started to remember. Her head shook back and forth quickly as the wreck started coming back to her. She had never really thought about how she had gotten here and why she felt more substantial in this reality now when she hadn’t before. Am I dead, she wondered? She didn’t feel dead.
Willow saw realization flash across Tara’s face. She reached out to try to comfort her without thinking about it. The girl was obviously remembering the trauma of the accident.
“We were in an accident,” she reached up and felt the spot on her head that had bleeding profusely after she had been propelled forward and hit the metal dash in front of her when the jeep rolled over. “I guess I just assumed that I had been meditating again.”
Willow had no idea what Tara was talking about, but she kept her mouth shut recognizing that the girl needed a moment.
“Is Donnie okay?” Tara suddenly asked.
“The guy with you,” Willow assumed, “He seemed like he would be okay. I don’t think he was hurt as badly as…” She trailed off and looked down.
“Me,” Tara finished for her. She didn’t want to ask the obvious question but she had to know. “Am I dead?”
Willow’s eyes widened at the suggestion. “No, at least, I am pretty sure you aren't. You were in bad shape but alive when they took you away. We went to the hospital but I didn’t get a chance to see how you were doing before I was… well… here.” The last part was the only way she could think of to describe her appearance in the field.
Tara’s anxiety about her condition was slightly relieved by the red head’s words. “Look,” She stopped when she realized that she had never found out her companion’s name.
Willow looked up when she stopped speaking and seemed to know what Tara was thinking by looking at her.
“Willow,” she said.
Tara smiled, “That’s pretty.”
Both girls were distracted from their discourse when the tree beside them started to change shape. They backed away from the contorting bark. The trunk of the tree shrunk until it was half the size it had been, pulling its roots underground until they were no longer visible. The ground naturally reformed as if nothing had happened and grass sprouted where the roots had been.
The branches shrunk in size as well, becoming so small at the ends that they hung over with the weight of the leaves on them. The blossoms changed to a dull green and became long, narrow leaves.
Willow gasped when she realized that the huge tree had just turned into her namesake. “A weeping willow,” she turned her eyes to Tara, “How did you do that?”
“I didn’t,” Tara looked at the ground, “At least I don’t think I did.”
“This night keeps getting weirder and weirder.”
Tara nodded in agreement as both girls relaxed.
Willow finally asked one of the first questions that had occurred to her. “Where the hell are we?”
Tara sighed in response. “That is a good question.”
Buffy and Xander were freaking out. Their friend had passed out and neither of them could figure out why. Xander sat in the chair next to Willow and held her upper body in his arms so she wouldn’t fall over while Buffy ran for help. Thank goodness they were in the hospital. Xander tried to quell his fears about Willow but every time something like this happened to one of his friends he could not shake the feeling of impending doom.
Buffy reached the nurse’s station only to find that the nurse on duty was nowhere to be seen. “Shouldn’t there be more than one person here,” she mumbled to herself.
“Hey is anyone back there,” she called loudly, “We need help out here.” When no one answered she got frustrated. She first looked around for any other available medical personnel. She was amazed when she didn’t see any in the immediate area.
She bounded around the desk and rushed through the door behind it. The room she entered held a few pieces of office equipment and a large wall full of slots that were occupied by tan files with multicolored tabs. She pushed through the door straight ahead of her.
In this room she found the reason that her call for help had gone unanswered. Two nurses, including the one who had been at the desk, leaned against opposite counters in the small room, laughing loudly. They were holding coffee mugs and apparently discussing something very amusing. Both nurses looked at Buffy when they realized that she didn’t belong there.
“We need help out here.” Buffy stated before whirling around and proceeding back through the doors that she had come through. The shocked nurses followed, setting their coffee down on the way.
Buffy and the nurses reached the sitting pair quickly.
“What happened,” the desk nurse asked. She knelt down next to the chair that Willow was occupying and began to check her vitals.
“She just passed out,” Buffy replied. She walked around the row of chairs so she could see what the nurses were doing.
The desk nurse turned to the other nurse. “Go grab Dr. Stintson.” She felt guilty that she had taken a few moments away from her post to gossip and that Buffy had caught her. A healthy fear of consequences convinced her to make sure this girl was taken care of.
John Maclay was not known for his patience. It had taken all the discipline he had in him not to explode at the nurse when she had called. Instead he had kept the call short, sticking to getting the pertinent facts.
He threw his tan coat on over the red plaid, flannel shirt he wore. He looked around spotting his keys on the small wooden table in the entry way. He scooped them up on his way to the door.
When it stuck, as it was apt to do, he cursed and pulled harder. He heard the splintering of wood and knew that he had pulled a little too hard. It didn’t matter though. He needed to get to his kids. He pulled the door shut behind him, which was made more difficult by the piece of wood now hanging from the frame. As soon as his hand left the handle it popped back open. He ignored the door and jumped from the porch to the ground, bypassing the five steps that would have slowed him down.
He reached his truck and prayed that it would start this time. When roared to live he shoved the gear shift into its proper place and took off down the drive. He would not let his children slip away. They were all he had left.
Tara thought hard about her reply to Willow’s question. If Willow knew about vampires then she might know that magic was real, right? Tara was slowly working out what was going on.
Willow had been patiently waiting but was now getting a little tired. She was worried and confused but every moment she spent in this place, with this girl, seemed to make her more comfortable and she was beginning to get a nagging feeling. This, combined with her initial confusion made her all the more eager for answers. She almost jumped when Tara began to speak.
“I don’t know how much you know about witches and magic, but I am one. When I was little my mom taught me how to meditate and now I do it every day. It helps me to focus and cleanses me of negative energy.”
Willow almost interjected to tell Tara that she also dabbled in magics but though it would be best to let her get her story out.
“Awhile back I had a particularly bad day and I was meditating,” Tara didn’t want to go into her mother’s death at present so she kept her explanation to that, “and I don’t really know how I did it, but I came here. Then the next night the same thing happened. It has gone on for months now. Every time I meditate I end up here.”
She stopped to see if Willow was understanding her story. “Go on,” the red head prompted. Tara was hesitating because she didn’t know how Willow was going to react to the next part of her story.
“Well, everything was just like it is now.” She looked behind her at the tree that had recently changed form. She pointed at it, “Except the tree never did that before.” She looked into Willow eyes. “You were always here waiting for me.”
“Me?” Willow was fairly certain that she had never seen the blonde before she had witnessed the wreck. The nagging feeling returned to her.
Tara nodded, “We would sit here, talking and eating until I had to go back.”
“I don’t understand why you think I was here. I was definitely there not here. I mean not there but where I was supposed to be.” Willow was beginning to confuse herself all over again. Tara laughed softly at her companion’s wacky attempt at explaining her whereabouts. Willow decided that she greatly enjoyed the sound of Tara’s laugh.
“Now you’re laughing at me and I have no idea where I am or why I am here. It’s a nice place but I kinda think I should get back. I mean, sure glad that you’re all with the not being hurt, but I want to know why. I mean is this some kind of dream?”
Willow finished her speech and looked expectantly at the blonde, who really had no idea how to answer any of her questions at present. She wished that they didn’t have to worry about it, that they could just sit back and get to know each other. She finally had the woman she had been thinking about constantly with her but the circumstances prevented her from enjoying it the way she wanted.
“Willow,” she said the name slowly, savoring the way it rolled out of her mouth, “I really don’t know why we’re here. I do know that I had no idea that you really existed until now. I am pretty much figuring that you do judging by your reaction to being here. I thought you were just someone that my mind had created.”
Through listening to Willow she had figured out that the girl was a real person who she had somehow been interacting with on this plane. If that was true then she had just pulled Willow out of the real world and into this place. Tara looked at her hands, letting her long hair form a curtain around her face. She felt downright guilty.
"You are an octagon of evil. That is eight sides of badness."