TITLE: Racing The Rain
AUTHOR: Finey_McFine
RATING: R (Language)
DISCLAIMER: Willow, Tara and any other BtVS characters, as well as some random dialog, belong to Mutant Enemy. This post includes minor references to the movie, Home for The Holidays. ALL other original characters belong to me! This includes: Willow’s siblings and teammates, plus Tara’s friends and co-workers. Mention of any ‘real’ people in this fic is brief and pure fantasy.
SUMMARY: Totally AU! Set in LA with lots of W/T fluff and some angst, but no Hellmouthyness; just good old regular day-to-day drama. Willow is attending college on an athletic scholarship and Tara is Hollywood royalty. They meet and fall in love, of course, but will they be able to survive the pitfalls of a public romance? Well, you’ll just have to read and find out!
FEEDBACK: Yes! Any glaring issues…please send me a PM!
AUTHOR’S NOTE: Hi Everyone and happy Monday! Sorry about the late update and short chapter. It was a stretch just getting this done! I’m going to do my best to get an update out next week, but no promises because next Monday is our 20th anniversary. 
So that means we’re having an anniversary weekend! Woo hoo! Anyway, enjoy! Chapter 53: Heartbreak Morning seemed to come quickly as Willow laid awake watching Tara sleep. She studied her lover for several long moments, coming to the conclusion that waking up first definitely had its advantages. Tara was lying on her back and snuggled into the warmth of the blankets, her golden blonde hair spilling out across the pillow seemed to glimmer as it caught a ray of sunlight that was peeking through the curtains. The storms from the previous night had given way to a crisp and clear fall morning.
Tara looked so peaceful and Willow wished they could stay this way forever, but she sighed in disappointment. They were on the down side of their vacation and in seventy-two hours, they’d be back in LA. Back to their busy lives and back to scrambling to find time together. The vacation had not been ideal, but sleeping together nightly and spending every day together had been heaven. Willow frowned when she thought about what awaited them back in California. Tara had work and numerous other commitments while Willow had finals coming up, a project that was due, and a softball awards banquet...that she’d completely forgotten about.
“Shit,” She mumbled as she fell back into her pillow and cast her eyes up towards the ceiling. Her mind was now in overdrive and her brows knitted. “When in the hell are we supposed to squeeze
that in?” Willow mumbled again.
Willow felt Tara stir next to her, turning and looping an arm across Willow’s chest.
“Ssshhh...just a dream....back to sleep baby.” Tara mumbled, never opening her eyes and attempting to comfort and soothe what she thought was a sleep-babbling girlfriend.
Tara twitched her nose at some errant strands of hair that had fallen across her face, causing Willow to giggle slightly and reach out to brush them back. Tara had said that she comforted Willow during her babbly dreams, but until now, Willow had never witnessed it consciously. She leaned forward, kissing Tara on the head and snuggling closer. Willow settled in with a satisfied grin on her face before drifting off to sleep,
I never want this feeling to end.A couple hours later the girls awoke to the sound of Willow’s cell vibrating on the nightstand. Willow groaned as she rolled over and sent the offending call to voicemail.
“Who’s calling?” Tara asked in a sleepy voice.
“No idea.” Willow replied as she rolled on her side and snuggled into Tara’s chest.
Tara smiled and pressed a kiss to the top of Willow’s head, “Could be important.”
“Don’t care. Much nicer right here,” Willow spoke softly, planting a light kiss on Tara’s chest where her head rested.
“Grrrr,” The redhead groaned, hearing the phone begin to vibrate again as she pulled the covers over her head.
Tara twisted awkwardly, leaning as far as she could and just managing to grab the phone without squishing her girlfriend.
“Hello?” Tara said as she answered Willow’s phone. “It’s Rachael,” She whispered as Willow pulled the covers off her head and looked up at Tara curiously.
“No, not at all, just couldn’t get to the phone right away. Umhmm, she’s right here hang on.”
Willow took the phone from Tara and snuggled back into her chest, “Hey Rach, what’s up?”
“I just called to see how you were after yesterday and everything.” Rachael said.
“I’m ok, feeling better today.”
“So, did Mom say anything after you all got back?”
“We got back late and everyone was already in bed. You know how she turns in early to save her strength for Black Friday power shopping. She’s probably been out since 3am.” Willow chuckled. “Did she say anything to you? What happened between her and Dad anyway?”
“What is this, the inquisition?”
“Raaach, come on!” Willow whined.
“Well, after you and Tara went upstairs, she and Dad had it out on the porch. We couldn’t hear everything, but apparently Dad got so mad he hit the side of the house.”
“Wow…” Willow whispered, completely astonished. He father was anything but violent.
“I know,” Rachael agreed, “I don’t know when I’ve ever seen Dad that angry…even when the boys were teenagers.”
Willow sighed, puffing out her cheeks in silent defeat as she looked down shamefully at the blankets.
“Willow Rosenberg!” Rachael shouted into the phone, startling both Willow and Tara.
“What?” Willow replied, shrugging her shoulders towards Tara.
“Put the phone on speaker.” Rachael said sternly.
“Why?” Willow argued.
“Because I said so, now do it.”
Willow made a face, grumbling as she met with her sister’s request. “There, it’s on speaker.”
“Tara, are you there?” Rachael asked.
“Yes, what’s going on? Why did you yell at Willow?” Tara was still jumpy after the events of the last twenty-four hours and any potential threat to Willow, no matter how small or who it was from, got her hackles up.
“Whoa there, Momma bear!” Rachael giggled. “Please tell your girlfriend that what happened yesterday was NOT her fault.”
Tara smiled, grateful that it was just a false alarm, “Well, I can tell her a thousand times, but I don’t think she believes me.” Tara squirmed to get more comfortable, sliding her fingers through Willow’s silky red tresses and trying to ease Willow’s discomfort.
“Will, listen, this isn’t the first time that Mom and Dad have disagreed and I’m sure it won’t be the last. Mom’s as stubborn as a mule, you know that, and sometimes she just needs things explained to her…loudly.”
“I guess,” Willow said, visibly pouting like a small child.
“Ugh Wills, you're impossible! I bet you're pouting right now.”
Willow was taken aback, “AM NOT!”
“Are too!”
“No. I’m. Not! Cut it out Rachael!”
“Or what? You gonna tell on me?”
“Wouldn’t be the first time I had too,” The redhead muttered under her breath.
“I heard that,” Rachael stated flatly.
Tara lay back, wondering how they’d gone from a rational conversation to this in a matter of minutes, suddenly thankful that she was an only child.
“Rachael, did you call for a reason?”
“Oh yeah, I did before you side tracked me.”
Willow abruptly sat up as mild anger flashed in her eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, but was stopped by warm fingers that were covering her lips as Tara spoke up.
“Rachael, we’d love to come over today, see the nursery and have a girls day. Is it ok with you if we invite Molly and Stella?”
Rachael paused, stunned that Willow hadn’t taken the bait and that the voice she was hearing was Tara’s, “Um, yeah. That sounds like fun. Should I call them or…?”
Willow smiled gleefully, knowing that Rachael had been completely shut down. As much as she loved her older sister, it was still fun to be on the giving end of the sibling banter, than on the receiving end.
“No it’s fine, we’ll call them. How does noon sound?” Tara asked sweetly.
“Fine,” Rachael squeaked out, suddenly embarrassed by her own behavior. She had taunted Willow and forgotten for a moment that Tara was
Tara.“Great! We’ll see you then, bye Rachael.”
“Bye-” Tara hung up the phone before Rachael had a chance to complete her sentence and tossed the cell aside. Tara turned back to see her girlfriend grinning from ear to ear. She simply shrugged her shoulders, “What? Nobody messes with my girl.”
Willow leaned in and kissed Tara softly, feeling her shutter and relax into the kiss. “Have I told you lately how much I love you?” Willow whispered, rubbing their noses together.
“Isn’t that a song?”
“Maybe, but it’s fitting because I do love you…so very much.” Willow said, her voice taking on a more serious tone.
“I love you Willow, more than I thought was humanly possible.” Tara glided her fingers effortlessly through Willow’s hair as she kept her eyes locked on the beautiful green ones in front of her.
They kissed again and Willow pulled back just far enough to catch Tara’s eye, “Are you up for talking? Because I…I really feel like I need to explain some things. And um, can we maybe put some comfy pj’s on? Because if we sit here like this…not much in the way of talking will get done and there are things that I really need to say and oh! Not that I don’t want to, it’s just that, well you know it’s just that once
that gets started then we won’t be much with the talking…hey, you’re supposed to stop me when I start down the babbly highway!”
Tara laughed melodiously, “You’re adorable and I love your babble.” She kissed Willow again before sliding out of the bed and retrieving two oversized t-shirts, tossing one to Willow and putting the other on. Tara climbed back into the bed and they sat cross-legged facing each other. Willow scooted closer so that one of her knees was between Tara’s and rested her hands on Tara’s thigh. She needed to feel their connection.
“Well, I don’t really know where to start,” Willow said blowing out and exasperated breath.
“How about the beginning,” Tara replied softly.
Willow nodded, “This might be long and rambly.”
“It’s ok, just take your time.”
“Well, the epic battle of the college has been raging for quite sometime, but really heated up in my senior year. It was pretty clear early on that I was probably going to graduate valedictorian and I got offers from all over, Princeton, Yale, Stanford, MIT…even Oxford and that was just for academics. I got courted hard from the top sports colleges as well, and once I mentioned I wanted play ball AND practice veterinary medicine…A&M would NOT leave me alone.”
“Wow…”
“Tare, I’m not telling you this to brag, it was actually sort of embarrassing,” Willow blushed and ducked her head.
“Being the brainy type is nothing to be embarrassed about.” Tara nodded towards Willow, gently encouraging her to continue.
“So, when A&M started coming around, my Mom had a field day. When the recruiter came, she had every one of my offer letters and started this crazy negotiation thing. By the time she was done, she had put together a deal that came close to violating nearly every NCAA rule in the book. Oh and my Dad…he may be all ‘Team Willow’ now, but he was totally caught up as well. He was practically giddy with excitement that another kid would be going to his beloved alma mater. You see, both Rachael and Grayson were Aggies, but Hunter went to UNT. That’s the University of North Texas near Dallas because they had a better music program and Eli well…”
“He didn’t go, did he?”
“He just didn’t have the grades, not that he’s not smart, because he totally is, but it was never important to him. He gave community college a shot, but it just never stuck.”
“So you were the last great hope?”
“Yeah, I think they figured they hit the jackpot with me.” Willow laughed lightly.
Tara reached out, put a hand on Willow’s as their eyes met. “They never asked where you wanted to go, did they?”
“No, not once. So when I told them I had no intention of going to A&M, you’d have thought it was the end of the world. My mother freaked out. Then I told her where I wanted to go and she did that dismissive hand wave thing, you know the one that sent the flour flying yesterday?” Tara nodded, having seen the infuriating gesture live and in person. “Anyway, once she realized I wasn’t going to give in and that UCLA gave me a better opportunity sports-wise, we sorta reached an unofficial compromise.”
Tara was nodding her head in understanding. “You agreed to come back for vet school if they let you attend UCLA.”
Willow nodded in return, “Yes, well sorta. I-I never said for sure, I said I’d leave my options open. My Mom just always assumed I would. Then things changed, I changed. I had this amazing freshman year, went to the Olympics, I came out. I…I sort of found myself. I grew up, I wasn’t a little girl anymore and then I…” Willow words trailed off as she took a deep breath.
“What…” Tara breathed, even though she already knew the answer.
Willow looked up lovingly into Tara’s deep blue eyes and smiled, “Then I met this amazing woman, and I fell in love,” she said as she cupped Tara’s cheek.
Tara closed her eyes as she leaned into Willow’s soft touch, reveling in the tingles it sent down her spine. She turned and kissed Willow’s palm. “Willow, I-I don’t want to be the reason-”
“Sshhh, baby. I never intended on going to A&M. I made that decision a LONG time ago, but…”
Tara eyed Willow curiously, “…but you’re not staying in LA,” She said flatly, as Willow shook her head and Tara’s heart shattered into a million tiny pieces.
Sorry couldn’t resist a little Bevis and Butthead interlude. So yeah, I look at it as a challenge as to when and where I can squeeze them in. It’s fun using them in context as well as out of the original context. In fact, I’ve used a ton from pre Tara seasons as well that no one has picked up on. 
I watch it every Thanksgiving and a couple times during the year as well. It’s SO my family as well. Dysfunction at it’s comedic best. “Par, par, bogey, bogey, par, par son.”
! I knew they needed to have the grad school talk. However, I never imagined it would end this way. I assumed Willow changed her mind about going to vet school. The thought that she had decided to attend school in another state never occured to me...that was a nice little wrinkle you threw in there (you still suck!).
) I won't hold it against you 
. Have a wonderful 20th anniversary my friend 
!
I know there is going to be much more to this conversation, which btw I can't hardly wait to hear the rest. Willow saying she had decided already makes me nervous, but I'm trying to not freak out too badly yet. Couldn't there possibly be a good vet school closer as a sort of compromise? I'm just saying...
that is just a cruel, heartbreaking cliffhanger!
(oh yes I shamelessly brought out the sad eyes) enjoy your 20th anniversary but please don't forget about your kittens here! Congratulations on the 20 years!
and you know I'll be back! 
