Learning Curve
by rebelrsr
Chapter Two
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Tara was still gazing at the empty hallway after Faith when Buffy came out of the stairwell. *This isn't going to be easy,* she thought. *Willow and I need to talk about this before Will confronts Buffy.*
"Tara? What are you doing standing out in the hall? Will didn't throw you out, did she?" Buffy tapped Tara's shoulder as she approached. When Tara didn't immediately reply, she continued. "Tara? You OK?"
Summoning a smile, Tara turned to face the slightly shorter Slayer. "Hey, B-Buffy. N-No, Will d-didn't throw m-me out." *Damn. If I don't calm down and lose the super stutter, it won't be Will who tips off Buffy.* "I was heading b-back from the bathroom. Were you over at Riley's?"
Tara was unprepared for Buffy's reaction to her question. For the second time in as many minutes, Tara was bombarded by wildly flaring emotions. Anger, confusion, despair, exhaustion — she staggered and grabbed her head. Buffy's swirling emotions surrounded her in a kaleidoscope of colors, stabbing her with sharp edges. Dimly, she could feel Buffy grab her as she started to sink to the floor and could hear Buffy asking if she was OK. With an amazing amount of effort, she managed to strengthen her mental shields enough to block out most of Buffy's turmoil. As the violent colors of Buffy's emotions receded, Tara was able to regain her feet, but she struggled to catch her breath and even her hair seemed to be shaking. "Tara, come on. Let me help you back to the room." Tara leaned into Buffy as the shorter girl practically carried her down the hall to the dorm room.
Willow had finally woken from her internal debate and was sprawled on her bed when Buffy and Tara came into the room. "Whoa! Bab-I mean-Buffy, what happened?" *OK, focus, Willow. This in NOT how you want to come out to your best friend.*
"It's not me, Will. I found Tara in the hallway, and she almost collapsed. Help me get her to my bed." Willow obediently joined the Slayer and Tara, but wasn't sure she did much to help. Buffy, using her enhanced strength, was doing most of the work. Willow contented herself with plumping pillows and fluttering as Buffy bent over, situating the other witch on the bed. Once she had Tara as comfortable as possible, Buffy stood up, groaning slightly and trying to stretch the lingering soreness out of her muscles. "Will, can you take care of Tara for a few? I really need to shower. Whatever Faith was up to in my body wasn't all of the good." Willow looked at her with a strange, "deer in the headlights" look. "Uh, Earth to Will, you in there?" *OK, wonder what's up? First Tara goes from spacey to staggering and now Will looks like she's just seen a ghost.* "Will, come on! Can you stay focused for just a few minutes?"
Buffy's irritated tone snapped Willow out of her fugue state. "Sorry, Buffy. Sure, I can take care of Tara while you shower. Are you sure you're OK? I mean..." Willow blushed and took a deep breath to stop her babbling before it reached epic proportions. "Go ahead, Buff. We'll be fine." Buffy looked at her for a minute before grabbing a shower caddy, towel, clothes, and a robe and heading back out of the room.
"If we keep acting like this, she's going to think we're crazy." Tara's voice was a mere whisper. When her blue eyes met Willow's green ones, they both started giggling madly.
After a few minutes, the laughter died. "Tara, what happened? Did Faith hurt you? I thought you had a binding spell ready in case she gave in to her need to beat up on people."
"No, Will. She didn't hurt me. In fact, she was hurting pretty badly herself. She must have felt Buffy coming into the dorm because she panicked. Will, she begged me to let her go — said that Buffy would kill her and she didn't want Buffy to be like her, a murderer." She lightly clasped the redhead's hand, stroking it slowly. "Sweetie, we need to talk about what Faith said as soon as possible." She took a deep breath before continuing. "I know you d-don't trust Faith, but I really don't think she was lying or p-playing games. She was genuinely concerned about Buffy." When Willow didn't say anything and glanced away, Tara let go of Willow's hand to reach up and grasp her chin. It took quite a bit of effort to force Willow's head up, and she had to wait several minutes for the green eyes to meet hers. "We can't brush this off or rush in too quickly. What do you think Buffy would do if you ju-just confronted her with what Faith said?"
Willow looked at Tara for a while before answering. "She'd be all Denial Gal and get really defensive. Oh, and she'd probably storm out of here and go to Riley's and we wouldn't see her for —" Willow nearly whimpered at the second outbreak of Willowbabble in the same day. "Sorry, Tara. I really thought the babble problem was over. OK, I see your point. Confronting Buffy is a bad idea. Do you have a better plan in that beautiful head of yours?"
Tara let go of Willow's chin to caress her cheek. "You're the beautiful one, baby." She stopped, chewing her lip as she thought. "Do you think you could get Buffy to spend some Best Friend Time with you tonight? Movies and chocolate and girl talk?" At Willow's hesitant nod, Tara went on. "Don't push for anything. Just be here if she wants to talk. I think I'm going to go talk with Mr. Giles."
"Tara, I don't think that's a good idea. I mean, Faith is- well evil! I know you think she was telling the truth, but..."
"Willow!" The redhead looked up in shock at the sharp tone. "You can't read auras. You don't understand what I saw. She — was — not — lying." Tara sat up on the bed and swung her feet over the side. Standing, she noted only a little remaining dizziness and a throbbing headache. "I'm going to Mr. Giles.' I'll talk with him about Faith and Buffy. Maybe he'll be able to help us decide how to approach Buffy and find out what's going on with her." She moved away from the stunned redhead and stood for a moment in the middle of the room. The next time she spoke, she sounded more like the shy, hesitant girl Willow was used to. "I'm sor-sorry, Willow. But I d-don't think you ca-can be objective about Faith. I get that. But we have to help Buffy before she finds a way to get killed — and with Adam on the loose, that won't be too hard." She walked to the door and opened it. Before leaving the room entirely, she faced Willow again. "If Buffy asks, tell her I went back to my room because I wasn't feeling well. It's not entirely a lie." Dropping her head and letting her hair hide her face, Tara quietly closed the door.
***
Tara's thoughts were troubled as she walked across the UC-Sunnydale campus. She regretted getting upset with Willow. *After all, I might be less than forgiving if I had been held at knifepoint.* But Tara couldn't get past the fact that her friend —girlfriend?- hadn't trusted her when she said that Faith was telling the truth. She was worried about all of the Scoobies. Just in the short time she had known them, she could sense their internal struggles and their emotional uncertainties. If only Willow didn't want to squirrel her away like a prize acorn, then she might have seen Buffy's downward spiral before it reached a critical state. Wrapping her arms tightly around herself, Tara fought back a sob. *I really thought that Willow loved me. I'm pretty sure she thinks she loves me. But I'm more like a trophy — put away in a display case to take out and look at, maybe show off occasionally. Why can't she see that I want to be a part of everything?* Shaking her head at her depressing thoughts, Tara tried to bring her mind back to the immediate problems, namely Faith and Adam.
By the time she had climbed the steps to Giles' door and knocked, she was no closer to a plan of action. After a short wait, Giles opened the door and stared in bemusement at the nervous girl. "Um, hello, ah, Tara?" Giles relaxed slightly when she nodded. "Can I help you with something? Where's Willow?"
Tara fought to stave off the stutter she knew was coming. Consciously slowing her speech and controlling her breathing, she said, "Mr. Giles, could I come in? There are some things w-we need to ta-talk about." Seeing the older man hesitate, she continued, "It's about Faith." Giles' eyes widened at that and he stepped back into the doorway, giving Tara room to step in to the small vestibule.
Once she was inside, Giles closed the door and walked toward the small kitchen area on the right. Tara moved hesitantly forward to the table and living room the Scoobies used for their meetings. All the blinds were closed and the apartment had a dark, oppressive feel. "Would you like something to drink, my dear?" Tara shook her head at the offer, but looked closely at her host as he poured himself a healthy drink of what Tara suspected was scotch. Glass in hand, Giles came out of the kitchen and moved into the living area, sitting in his recliner. "Please, make yourself at home. Now, have you and Willow found something out about Faith?"
Tara bought a few more minutes to get her thoughts in order by wandering over to sit on the sofa across from Giles. "Faith was waiting for Willow when she got in this afternoon."
"Good Lord. Is she hurt?"
"No-No, Mr. Giles. She's fine." Tara was quick to reassure him. "Willow was able to bind her with a spell." Despite her ambivalence about her relationship with the novice witch, Tara's voice held a note of pride for that accomplishment. "Mr. Giles, I don't really know the whole story about Faith. Willow explained some of it after Faith woke from her coma, but... Could you tell me a little bit about what happened when Faith came to Sunnydale?" Seeing that Giles wanted to object, Tara said, "Faith was there to pass on some information she got while in Buffy's body. I just need a little background to help me make sense of it."
Giles leaned forward in the chair. "Tara, Faith is very good at playing mind games. Are you sure she isn't just trying to trick us all?"
"Willow was afraid of that, too." Tara rubbed her right temple with a hand that shook slightly. The throbbing headache was getting worse. *I really need to get this done before I can't get it done.* "Mr. Giles, I know that Willow hasn't told you or any of the Scoobies much about me." The admission hurt more than the headache. "I am an hereditary witch. Unlike Willow, I didn't have to learn the Craft from books and experimentation. My mother taught me about magic from the time I was little. One of the skills I developed was reading a person's aura."
"Ah. So you would know, then, if Faith was lying." He sat back in his chair, chewing thoughtfully on the earpiece of his glasses. "I'm sorry for questioning you. But Faith can be frightfully adept at subterfuge."
Tara almost grinned at what Willow called "Watcher-speak." "I-It's OK, Mr. Giles. Why does everyone automatically think evil when Faith is mentioned?"
"I don't know what information you got from Willow." He sighed. "And, I'm not sure that Willow can be counted on to present an unbiased account of what happened last year. Faith came to Sunnydale at the end of the summer preceding the children's last year of high school." Tara listened intently as Giles highlighted Faith's appearance outside the Bronze, the debacle with Gwendolyn Post and Angel's return from Hell, and the accidental staking of Deputy Mayor Allan Finch.
Tara stopped Giles there to ask, "What was the gang's response to his death?"
"Well, I um..." Giles removed his glasses and began to clean the lenses with a handkerchief. "Looking back on it, I think everyone was confident that Faith hadn't intended to kill Mr. Finch."
"Yes, but if Buffy had accidentally killed someone, you'd all be gathered around trying to keep her spirits up and coming up with ways to help her deal with it. Did anyone do that for Faith?"
Giles stood up and walked back into the kitchen. Tara turned to watch him. "Yes, as a matter of fact, we did. But, in retrospect, I fear our efforts were an example of too little, too late. Buffy and Faith hid their involvement at first. And, by the time either of them thought to tell me what happened, Faith was in full denial." Giles shook his head at the memory. "None of us really knew how to approach Faith. I, for one, found her — ah — predilection for provoking comments difficult to handle. Willow and Xander mistrusted her." He gave a small, embarrassed laugh.
"That's OK, Mr. Giles. I know what happened between Faith and Xander, and I know Willow kind of went on an anti-Faith kick after that." Tara spoke to relieve the uncomfortable ex-Watcher.
"All that aside, I don't think we ever really made an effort to get to know the girl behind the attitude. Out of all of us, Buffy was really the only one to see the emotions Faith was hiding. Unfortunately, after Mr. Finch died, Buffy was too entangled in the events to get close to Faith. Angel, I think, had started to get her to face her actions when that ponce Wesley and the Council team showed up. To be honest, my dear, we all made a right bollucks of the situation."
"Well, that's not quite how Willow remembers things, but it gives me something to work with. Mr. Giles, when I saw Faith today, I saw someone who was on the brink of collapse. Her emotions were fractured and sharp." Seeing Giles' confusion, she backtracked. "When I look at someone, even casually, I get a sense of what they are feeling. It's just surface; I can see a faint glow around their body and the color represents an emotion. For most people, I see one solid color with maybe a tinge of another at the very edges of the aura. The glow looks like a stable force-field. There are no edges; no beginning or end to the color." Tara paused. "Is this making any sense?"
"Yes, my dear. I've done a bit of work with some of the covens in the area around the Council's Headquarters." He grinned slightly. "Your explanation is vastly superior to the —ah- more mystical babble I got from the High Priestess in Devonshire."
Tara smiled shyly back. "When I talked with Faith in the Bronze, her aura didn't fit in Buffy's body. That's what made me think it wasn't Buffy. This afternoon, the aura fit, but it was spikey and almost rainbow colored. There were so many emotions roiling around that it hurt to look at it. But," Tara forced herself to look up and directly at Giles, "at no time did I sense that she was lying. That's why I thought it was important to talk with you." She shrugged. "Willow didn't believe me — or Faith. Mr. Giles, Faith said that she didn't think Buffy was really trying to win their fight at the church. Faith said she could feel Buffy through their Slayer bond and that Buffy's given up. She wants to die, Mr. Giles."
Despite the serious nature of their talk, Tara had to fight a laugh at Giles' "Bloody hell."