FF: The Slayer's Secret

["sam stoltz" <shadowmage_draco@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

The slayer's secret
by
Sam	

email: shadowmage_draco@xxxxxxxxxxx 
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I don't own them (sad face); Joss does. I 
am only taking them out to play for a while and will return them when 
done. 
Spoilers: all episodes and hidden subtext are open for grabs. 
Archive: Gary, Bill, all others feel free to post them just send me 
an Email to let me know.
Pairing: B/T 
Notes: Somebody's been keeping a secret from her friends and now 
it`s time to come clean. Feedback is strongly encouraged and 
appreciated, this is unchartered territory for me, please be 
gentle. 
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Buffy waited outside the door to Tara's room hopping that she would 
get back soon so she could spend some time with her little blonde 
Wiccan before having to go out on patrol. The slayer couldn't 
believe how fate had smiled upon her and allowed her to find Tara. 
It had started out so simply, all she had wanted to do was help 
Willow adjust to life without oz, so she started looking around at 
the various organizations on campus to try and find something that 
would help take her best friend's mind off of that no good werewolf 
that had broken the red head`s heart. That's when fate stepped in 
and she found a Wicca group on campus. She had went and checked them 
out, thinking that not only might Willow meet some new people who had 
the same interested in magic that she did but they might even be able 
to help her with her magic. It's not that she though Willow's magic 
needed help she just wished to avoid anything along the lines of the 
Will be done spell the red head had cast, she still had to go and 
wash her mouth out every time she thought about how that particular 
spell had caused her to kiss Spike of all people. The whole time she 
was talking to one of the groups senior members she found that she 
was unable to take her eyes of off the blonde girl over in the 
corner. So after she had gotten all the information she needed for 
Willow Buffy decided to take a chance and ask the girl out and to her 
surprise the blonde had said yes.

Buffy's thoughts were interrupted by someone tapping her on the 
shoulder. She turned around and smiled, "Hi Tara."

"Hi, w-waiting for someone?"

"Yeah." replied Buffy as she wrapped her arm around the girls waste.

"So w-want to come in."

"Don't mind if I do."

Once inside Tara's room Buffy wrapped her other arm around the blonde 
and brought her into a soft embrace, she then kissed her gently on 
the lips, "Miss me"

Tara smiled at the blonde slayer and quickly returned the kiss, 
"Y-yes."

The two girls then went over and sat down on the floor accrosed from 
one another, Buffy took Tara's hands in her own, "So tell me about 
your day."

"It was nothing special...you know classes and everything."

"Yeah, same here, so what do you want to do this weekend."

Tara took a moment to gather up her courage before telling her 
girlfriend what she was hoping to do this weekend, "I w-was 
wondering...if you would....i-introduce me to...the Scooby gang."

A frown came over Buffy's face as she listened to Tara's 
request, "Can't I just keep you to myself for a little bit longer?"

"Buffy, I d-don't understand, why don't you want me to meet you're 
friends. I mean they help you with slaying and everything..y-you`re 
not a-ashamed of me....are you."

Buffy leaned forward and took Tara's chin in her hand, "No, I love 
you, I am proud to be with you, it's just that..."

"Just what?"

"It's just that I don't want to drag you into all the chaos that I 
have to face, I am constantly worrying about my friends every time a 
big evil pops up and I...I"

"Don't want to put me at risk."

"Yes, I hope you understand."

Tara smiled at Buffy and then kissed her on the hand, "Yeah, I 
understand so I,ll give you a little more time, but I still want to 
meet them or at least know their names."

"Deal, just give me a little longer to adjust to everything and I 
promise one off these days I will introduce you to them."

......................................................................
As Willow helped Tara pick up after the Saturday morning Wicca 
meeting, she made a mental note to once again thank Buffy on 
insisting that she joined the Wicca group. Not only did her spells 
get better as she practiced with her magic partner but Tara had also 
become a good friend to her, second only to Buffy. Willows mind 
drifted as she thought about Buffy and how she could brighten up a 
room by just walking in, the slayers movements were so graceful, 
almost fluid like...<Wait a second Rosenberg you're not suppose to be 
thinking about Buffy that way>

"Willow you s-still there," inquired Tara who noticed her friend 
seemed to monetarily drift off into space.

Willow quickly reorganized her thoughts, "Yeah, sorry about that I 
don't know were my mind got off to."

Willow once again began helping Tara straighten up them a thought 
dawned on her, Her magic was a lot stronger when she and Tara cast 
spells together maybe should ask Tara to come over to Giles and 
introduce her to everyone, if she could get her new friend to join 
the group then she would be in a better position to help Buffy. 

"Tara, could I ask you something."

"Sure."

"Me and some of my other friends are meeting this afternoon and I was 
wondering would you be interested in coming along?"

"What time?"

"Around four can you make it."

"Uh...W-will it be l-long...I sorta h-have a d-date tonight."

"No, probably an hour or so. So who is the lucky guy, anyone I know?"

"P-p-probably not....where do you want to meet?"

....................................................................
Willow stood outside her dorm waiting for Tara to show so they head 
to Giles. She wondered what it was about her that made two of her 
friends reluctant to talk to her about the people they were seeing or 
even introduce them to her. She could understand why Tara might be 
that way, after all she had not know the blonde Wicca for that long 
but Buffy was another story. They had been best buds since high 
school and had always been there to support one another, and now all 
the sudden she starts seeing someone and won't let anyone know who. 
At first they all thought it was another Angel type thing but Buffy 
had reassured them it wasn't, which put everyone's mind at ease but 
hers. The funny thing about all of this was that she wasn't sure any 
more what bothered her most the fact that Buffy hadn't brought her 
new love interest around or the fact that Buffy had a love 
interest..<What's going on with me, I should be happy that she's with 
someone but I'm not.>

......................................................................
Willow had just finished introducing Tara to Giles, Xander, Anya, and 
unfortunately Spike and they all were waiting for Buffy to show. 

Giles looked at the young Wicca and smiled, "So Willow tells me 
you're a witch like herself." 

"Y-yes sir."

"That's good, has she told you anything about us."

"N-not really."

"I see, would you care for some tea?"

Tara was becoming confused about what was going on, Willow had told 
her that her friends were having a type of meeting but everyone 
seemed to just be hanging out making small talk. She turned to 
Willow and ask, "Are we w-waiting...for someone?"

Before Willow could answer Spike began to laugh. Giles shot him a 
quick glance, "Care to enlighten us on what it is that you find so 
humorous?" 

Spike looked at Giles smiling ear to ear, "Sure, Red brought her 
little witch friend here to meet the bloody slayer and neglected to 
tell her just who she was meeting."

Willow had hoped Giles and Buffy would be able to explain everything 
to her friend but Buffy wasn't here yet and Spike had just let the 
cat out of the bag. She turned to Tara to try and explain what was 
going on only to noticed that the blonde had the deer in the 
headlights look. "Tara, are you OK."

"S-s-slayer?"

"Yes, if you give me a second I will try to explain."

"Y-your the s-s-scooby gang."

Everyone in the rooms eyes were looked on Tara as they pondered how 
she knew about their little nickname, but before anyone could begin 
to question her the front door swung open.

"Hey Giles sorry I'm late but....." Buffy froze in mid sentence as 
soon as she spotted Tara in the room. 

The Blonde witch quickly rushed to her side, "I-i'm s-sorry, I didn't 
k-know they were your friends...I j-just came her to meet some of 
W-wilows friends."

"It's OK, I wasn't planning it this way but it seems fate has decided 
that it is time for me to come clean."

Giles walked over to the slayer, "Buffy what is going on here?"

Buffy wrapped her arm around Tara then turned to Willow, "I take it 
you two know each other from the Wicca group."

Willow shook her head in agreement with Buffy as she tried to figure 
out what was going on and why it was bothering her that Buffy had her 
arm around Tara.

"I also take it that everyone has already been properly introduced to 
Tara," Buffy paused for a second to make sure everyone one had, then 
she continued "I bet you guys are wondering what's going on. Allow 
to properly introduce Tara, my girlfriend and the woman I love."

Willow watched as the others quickly overcame the initial shock of 
the bomb Buffy had just dropped and began congratulating the two 
young women. She wanted to go over and join them, she wanted to tell 
them she was happy for them, but she couldn't. All she could do was 
stand there and watch as Buffy held Tara up against her. <it's not 
fair I knew you first> 

...............?