Sorry for the delay!
Author - Sammi
Rating - R.. deserved in this part
Disclaimer - All characters belong to Joss and ME, I just borrowed them.
Feedback - Pleeeease tell me what you think.
Notes - Instead of Tara, Willow died at the end of Seeing Red. This story takes place 5 years from that point, and Tara is an author living in Chicago. ----Flashbacks----
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The telephone rang. Tara jumped up, startled. Her phone only rang occasionally, usually it was Dawn, calling to check in on her every week. Tara walked slowly to the phone, deliberately pacing herself after this morning's near fall in the bathroom.
"Hello?"
"Miss Maclay, hello. It's Mikey," her agents voice boomed from the other end of the line.
Tara delicately held the phone away from her ear. "Oh Mikey, hello."
"I'm calling to inquire about your next piece."
"Oh, well, I-" Tara tried to interrupt her but the man continued speaking.
"Rumors are starting to fly Tara, people are beginning to say you've lost your gift." Tara could hear the fearful questioning in his voice.
"No sir, I've-" once again, the agent interrupted.
"You may have noticed Tara, your writing, the earlier stuff I mean, had this personal tone to it. You could tell it meant alot to you, lost love, that kind of crap. Lately though, we can't feel you in the words anymore Maclay. The readers don't like that."
"I'm sorry Mikey, I-I, I haven't noticed." Tara swallowed a lump in her throat.
"I know you Tara, you only stutter like that when you're hiding something from me. Fix the problem, whatever it is! By Monday!!" He hung up.
Tara stared at the phone in her hand in shock. After a moment she placed it gingerly back in the cradle with a click. She trudged over to her writing desk and surveyed the materials there. She had all her pens, and her pencils, capped and neatly sharpened, lined up in rows along one side. All her notebooks and legal pads in a pile on the right, a few candles, a lamp, and a stack of her favorite books in one corner. She sank into the padded roll around chair with a groan. "By Monday?" She repeated aloud. "But today's Thursday." She let out another long groan and banged her head against the desk. "What am I gonna do?" She looked around and then pulled out the thickest journal form the bottom of the stack. It had an aged brown leather cover and a rope binding. She had found it cleaning out her bedroom at Buffy's before she had moved. It had belonged to Willow. She turned to the last page and began to read. She could almost hear Willow's cute, almost child-like voice reading it to her.
"My Tara. I met you for coffee today for the first time since we've been apart. I was so nervous, waiting for you. I mean, what if you hadn't shown up? What if you were only coming in pity for me? Goddess, what if you did come, and we just sat there in silence, not knowing what to say? But I'm babbling, aren't I. I don't know why you always liked that so much. It's just me going on and on about pointless ridiculous things. (I know, I know, you'll tell me nothing I say is pointless.) But, back on topic. I was so nervous, but then you did come. And we talked, and laughed, and you smiled at me. I got both the cute half smile AND the full blown gorgeous smile. What did I do to earn those? I love you so much, you have to know that. I've been going crazy without you all these nights. I want you back Tara, bad. Come home, please? I need you. And I'm gonna do whatever it takes to win your heart again, I swear, I swear to you I will. I belong to you Tara Maclay."
Tara shut her eyes and closed the book. She murmured under her breath, "You never lost me Will." With that, she put away the journal and took out a clean notebook. If the people wanted personal... well, that's what they were going to get.
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at: 12/28/03 1:57 am