TITLE: Baby Makes Three
AUTHOR: Finey_McFine
RATING: R (Language)
DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara and any other BtVS characters, as well as some random dialog, belong to Mutant Enemy. ALL other original characters belong to me! Mention of any ‘real’ people in this fic is brief and pure fantasy.
SUMMARY: Totally AU! Willow Rosenberg is a senior at Sunnydale High. She and her friends are bullied relentlessly until Willow stumbles upon a huge secret and decides to take matters into her own hands. There is no Hellmouth, just lot’s of teen angst, self discovery and of course Willow/Tara goodness...eventually.
Thoughts are in italics FEEDBACK: Yes! Any glaring issues…please send me a PM!
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Chapter 5
Willow immediately slapped a hand over her mouth. Her eyes grew wide as she shrank further back against the wall, in fear that she would be caught snooping. Once she was sure they hadn’t noticed, she crept forward again and continued to eavesdrop on the conversation.
Mrs. Flutie sighed, “Tara, I understand your situation, I do, but rules are rules. This is the third time this month and I’m afraid Chelsea will no longer be able to attend this day care.”
“But Mrs. Flutie!” Tara protested, “Please, I-I...this is the only day care in town! You can’t...I have school and my mom has to work. What am I supposed to do?”
Mrs. Flutie’s eyes held a great deal of sympathy for the high school student, but she held fast to her decision. “I’m sorry, but if I allow it to happen with one child, then everyone would expect the same treatment and that wouldn’t be fair.”
Tara looked up with tears in her eyes, “I
promise, it w-won’t happen again, ever.”
“That’s what you said the last time and the time before that and the two times before that. I’m sorry Tara.” Mrs. Flutie reached into her sweater pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper and put it in Chelsea’s diaper bag, “Here, I made a list of several nanny’s that may be able to help you.”
“Okay, thank you.” The blonde mumbled, virtually inaudible as she turned and headed out the door.
Willow was stunned silent, still with her hand on her mouth and still penned to the wall. Her head was spinning as she silently watched the blonde cheerleader load her infant daughter into the maroon Honda Civic.
As Tara pulled away, the stealthy redhead darted back towards the restroom, opened the door and closed it; as if just exiting for the first time. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and re-emerged into the lobby, making a beeline for the exit.
“Willow!” Mrs. Flutie called out, “Thanks again for dropping off my dinner.”
Willow turned and smiled, “It’s no problem, anytime. Bye Mrs. Flutie!”
“Bye-bye dear, be safe!”
Willow took off down the street towards her house. She walked for several blocks, totally lost in thought and when she finally looked up, she was genuinely confused. Realizing that she’d walked right past her house, the redhead turned and marched back down the sidewalk; her body feeling heavier with the weight of this new information.
A thousand and one questions had formed in Willow’s inquisitive mind.
How was this possible? Who was the father? Where was the father? Do Cordelia, Buffy and Harmony know? Surly they can’t, there’s no way that group of ding dongs could keep a secret this big. Oh God, can I keep a secret this big? Should I? How was it that Tara Maclay had a child and no one knew? Willow was truly puzzled.
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Willow spent most of the evening snooping around online and trying to find out anything she could about Tara. She crept around the blonde’s Facebook page and those of her friends. Willow found several photo’s of Tara’s ‘
little sister,’ quickly figuring out how Tara kept Chelsea secret. Then, just for good measure, Willow hacked into the school computer and accessed Tara’s file, which told her even less.
By the next day, Willow was still flummoxed, contemplating exactly how she could use this new information to her advantage; so far she’d come up with nothing. Her first instinct, had been to post it online, but nixed that idea when she realized that it would just ruin Tara and do nothing to stop the jocks or Cordelia from their seemingly endless taunts. It was all she could do not to mention it to Xander or Jesse, but she knew deep down the two of them were just too immature to be trusted with such sensitive information. As she entered the computer lab, she finally decided to give up on it for awhile and focus on her science project. She got comfortable at her favorite terminal and began her science project research as the other students worked on their programming assignment; the one Willow had finished five minutes after it had been assigned over a week ago.
About twenty minutes had passed and everyone was working diligently except for Cordelia and Harmony, whose constant chatting and complaining were making Willow crazy.
“No! It’s supposed to find the syntax and match it. Or, wait...” Cordelia complained.
Harmony, who was slowly typing with her index fingers, trying not to break a nail, changed the subject. “Are we going to the Bronze tonight?” The dingy bottle blonde asked.
“No, we’re going to the other cool place in Sunnydale,” Cordelia answered sarcastically.
Harmony looked at Cordelia as if she had three heads, “Huh?”
“Of course we’re going to the Bronze! Friday night, no cover. But you should have been there last night.”
Harmony pointed at the computer screen, “Uh, I think we did this part wrong.”
“Why do we have to devise these programs? Isn’t that what nerds are for?” Cordelia looked past Harmony and nodded towards Willow, “What’s she doing?”
Harmony craned her neck to see Willow’s computer screen, which currently had a big photo of a fruit fly on it. “Uh, she’s doing something else.”
Suddenly Cordelia began to hit the enter button on her keyboard, “Okay, and then ‘Pattern Run.’ Or ‘Go To End.’ That’s it.”
“Maybe...I think...” Harmony said.
“Well, what does the book say?” Harmony shrugged her shoulders and Cordelia continued, “So anyway, I come out of the bathroom and Anya comes running at me with a pool stick, screaming, ‘I'm gonna eviscerate you if you ever go near Xander again!’ I swear.”
“Wow, what’s her deal?” Harmony asked.
“She’s crazed, a real psycho-loony.”
Willow couldn’t take it any longer and finally spoke up, “No, she’s not.”
Cordelia and Harmony just stared blankly at Willow for several seconds as it registered with Cordy that Willow had butted into their conversation. “What?” She finally asked indigently.
“She's not a psycho. You hardly even know her.” Their constant gossiping was grating on Willow’s last nerve. She wasn’t Anya’s biggest fan, but had taken a slight liking to her since the tutoring started. She was enjoying having another girl in the group, even if she sorta was ‘the competition.’
“Excuse me? Who gave you permission to exist? Do I
horn in on your private discussions? No. Why?
Because you're boring.”
Willow wasn’t sure why she allowed Cordelia to get to her, but she did and the girl’s words hurt. Willow grabbed her back pack and headed to the printer to pick up her work as the girls turned back to their projects.
“There, I think the program is done,” Harmony said.
“Finally, the nightmare ends. Now how do we save it?” Cordelia asked.
As Willow exited the classroom, she made eye contact with Cordelia, “Deliver.”
Cordelia looked back to her monitor and then down to the keyboard, “Deliver...where is that...oh, here it is!” The head cheerleader proclaimed triumphantly as she pressed the ‘DEL’ key causing the entire program on both hers and Harmony’s monitors to disappear.
Willow looked back over her shoulder and snickered as both girls stared in disbelief at the computer screens. She was sick and tired of the constant bullying, it was her turn for retribution and as she walked away...a plan began to form.
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Willow took advantage of the weekend and spent the next two days plotting, reviewing and revising. She wrote everything down, highlighting points with different colored pens, listing pros and cons as well as all the variables. She’d wracked her brain trying to come up with every possible scenario and wrote out a list of possible questions, complete with answers. She then wrote an outline and committed it to memory. It was a lot of work with hopefully a very big payoff. Monday she would put her plan into action, it was devious and un-Willow like and she was nervous. She told no one, avoided her friends and laid low all day until it was time.
Willow spent her early release time in the library until the school had cleared out, making sure Xander, Jesse and Anya were long gone before venturing out. She snuck down to the gym and peeked inside, making sure Tara was at cheerleading practice. Spotting the blonde immediately, Willow crept out and made her way to the school parking lot to lay in wait for her victim. She found Tara’s Honda easily, pulled out a book and made herself at home on the car’s hood.
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Cheerleading practice had droned on for what seemed like forever to Tara. She was continuously checking her watch, a repetitive action which finally pushed Cordelia over the edge.
“Geez Tara, preoccupied much? You have some place better to be?”
“Oh, sorry Cordy. I just...my mom has to work tonight and I have to take care of my little sister.” Tara answered the annoyed head cheerleader.
“Ever heard of a baby sitter?” Cordelia instantly shot back.
Tara sighed deeply and simply stared at Cordelia, glancing at her watch once again, “Sorry, I have to go. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”
“Fine. Go. Whatever.” Cordelia spat as Tara jogged over to the bleachers to retrieve her bag as she headed out the door to her car.
As she approached her car, she noticed the redhead sitting on the hood. Tara eyed her curiously, “Um, what do you think you’re doing?”
Willow took a deep breath, looking up and raised the book in her hand, “Reading?”
Tara was now officially annoyed, “What do you want Willow? I’m in a hurry, and get your ass off my car.”
Willow clicked her tongue rhythmically as she slid off the hood and dropped the book in her smily face back pack. “Geez, a little testy aren’t we?”
Tara rolled her eyes as she opened the backdoor and tossed her gym bag inside, “Like I said, I’m in a hurry.”
“Hmmm, in a rush to get home and see your daughter, huh?” Willow’s expression stayed steady and Tara froze.
BAM! Willow hi-fived herself internally.
Tara’s head slowly turned, the confusion swimming in Tara’s eyes. “What did you say?” Tara hissed.
Willow swallowed hard, but held her ground when she saw Tara’s eyes narrow, “You know, your daughter. Blonde hair, blue eyes, about yay big and goes by the name of Chelsea?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about Willow. Don’t you have some nerdy math competition to go to or something?” Tara’s attempts to distract Willow failed as the redhead continued to prod the cheerleader.
“Nope, not at the moment, and I know exactly what I’m talking about and so do you. You have a child and you’ve been lying to your friends. Did you really think you could keep this a secret?” Tara said nothing, fidgeting nervously as Willow continued, “Wow, just wait until everyone finds out!” Willow laughed, but the laughter ended quickly as Tara suddenly began marching in Willow’s direction; backing her into the neighboring car.
“You listen to me Willow Rosenberg and you listen good, because I’m only gonna say this once.” Willow cringed, Tara was literally in her face and poking her shoulder. “You leave Chelsea out of this. She’s a sweet, innocent little baby and if you do
anything to put her at risk, I’ll..”
“You’ll what?” Willow said defiantly.
“Don’t push me Willow.”
Willow looked Tara right in the eye, which wasn’t hard since the blonde was mere inches from her face, “I don’t seem to be the one that’s currently pushing.”
A look of realization crossed Tara’s face and she backed off. “So you know, big deal. You can’t
prove anything.”
Willow shrugged her shoulders, “I don’t have to. All I have to do is put it out there and those brainless friends of yours will drop you like a hot potato. They won’t want to damage their
precious reputations and let’s face it, neither do you.”
“I don’t care about any of that.”
“Oh, really? Then why do you keep Chelsea under wraps? Why do you lie and say she’s your
sister? Why?Because you’re spineless and shallow and you would rather be a cheerleader than a proper parent.” Willow was quite stunned, she couldn’t believe the hurtful things she was saying and neither could Tara.
The blonde stood stock still with her mouth half open and at a complete loss for words; tears shining in her deep blue eyes as Willow continued. “The way I see it Tara, you have a big problem. You have the girl that you and your friends have bullied relentlessly standing in front of you holding the key to your high school existence.”
“I never bullied you,” Tara said calmly.
“Oh really? Are you kidding...you are kidding, right?
You have to know your losers so you can avoid them... ring a bell? Not to mention that crack about my clothes, great example you’re setting for your daughter. You are not a nice person Tara.”
Tara wrapped her arms around her chest and hung her head. She didn’t think Willow had heard her talking to Anya that day at the water fountain. Willow’s words cut. She’d never thought of herself as a mean person before. She was a Mom, she had a child.
She doesn’t know what she’s talking about; she doesn’t even know me! Tara told herself.
“So what, you’re gonna go home and post it on Facebook or something?” Tara asked meekly.
Willow shook her head, “No, I’m not going to tell anyone...on one condition.” Tara’ cocked her head in curiosity. “You’re gonna get Cordy, the rest of the Cordettes
and the jocks to stop picking on me and my friends. You’re gonna get them
all to play nice in the sandbox.”
“So, you’re black mailing me?” Tara asked incredulously.
Willow nodded, “Ummm yeah, pretty much.”
“How in the hell am I supposed to do that? I can’t control what they say and do!”
Willow shrugged her shoulders, “Don’t know, don’t care. That’s your problem, not mine.”
Tara bit her bottom lip in concentration, “Fine, give me a week. I’ll talk to Cordy and the rest of the girls and see what I can do, but I can’t make any promises with the boys. They do their own thing and besides, after that incident with Xander, I doubt they’ll give you any more problems.”
“Fine, one week Tara, that’s it.”
“Fine.” With that, Tara climbed in her car as Willow turned and walked away.