Chapter 3
“Dear Goddess, please help me get through this.” Tara could only plead to a higher power for help as she stood immobilized in fear, just staring at her big green enemy, her bridesmaid gown. Why did she say yes? She wasn’t even that close to Anya. But Anya begged, and gave her the big round sad doe eyes. She couldn’t say no to a person in need. She wished she had the ability to say no, but every time she tried, yes came out of her mouth and it lead to situations like this where she had to put on that monstrosity of a bridesmaid gown. And she somehow she ended up with the ugliest version as well. Buffy somehow convinced Anya to take off the fluttery long sleeves, so she came out looking at least a little delicate beneath the neon, but no, she wasn’t so lucky. She looked like she got attacked by a cloth monster.
“Ugh!” With a big sigh she let herself fall flat on her stomach on to the bed besides her dress and moaned.
“Could you like try and be a little more quiet, some people need their beauty rest,” mumbled Lana from the twin bed across the small dorm room before turning over and putting the blankets further over her head.
“Sorry” Tara meekly whispered. That was a whole other thing; she hated being back in the dorms. They were able to fit her in last minute because another girl had “mysteriously” disappeared but her new roommate Lana was just resentful of her appearance and the loss of a double single room to herself. This situation didn’t make missing Willow any easier. Her heart throbbed every time she thought of her beautiful redheaded pixie.
Suddenly her cell phone started to ring on the bed stand besides her. She quickly grabbed it and shot out into the hallway so she wouldn’t disturb her roommate further.
“This is Tara.”
“Tara, luv, I need your help, and you can’t tell the Scoobies.”
“Sp..Spike? How did you get my number? Why are you ca..ca..calling me?” She stuttered out a little bit. She hated that she constantly fumbled her words. Sounding like Porky Pig didn’t exude confidence to people. She took a calming deep breath and continued more quickly. “This better not involve any criminal activities.”
“No! This is not illegal, I swear.”
“Well, why don’t you tell me why you called, and I’ll decide that. And, you didn’t answer my first question.” Tara slid down the wall to sit on the floor in the hallway and pulled her knees to her chest, might as well get as comfortable for her bizarro world conversation with Spike. Talking on the phone with Spike was definitely something far from the norm and something she really never had expected to happen, like at all.
“Well, I kinda nicked your phone number from Willow’s phone when I was at Buffy’s house awhile. It never hurts to be prepared, I say. And this is totally on the up and up, but it’s a bit awkward to explain on the phone. Maybe you can come over to my flat, and I’ll show you. I’ll make it up to you in some way, I promise. It’s just…well…you were the only person I could think to ask. Me and Buffy aren’t quite on speaking terms at the moment.”
There was just something about Spike that always made her want to help him. She had a hard time saying no to people normally, but it was even worse with him. Besides, it’s not like he really asked for something from her in their entire existence knowing each other. And Spike was unlike any other person she came across. If she would describe him in one word based on his aura alone, it would be passionate. It came out of every pore. So as she sat there biting her lip, the sensible part of her brain was saying “No” and she really was going to say no this time, but the words coming out of her mouth were actually “Okay, I’ll come over.”
So there she was, thirty minutes later standing in front of his door, a door that didn’t belong to a crypt. She was nervously twirling the silver commitment ring Willow had given her trying to work up the nerve to just knock. Finally she moved her right hand up into knocking position and the door swung open and there stood Spike staring at her fist in his face.
“Glinda, be a luv and put your hand down and don’t hit me in the face. Come on in, I need your womanly advice.” With that he grabbed her hand and swiftly dragged her inside his apartment. Now, she can admit, that although she preferred the curves of a female, she could admire the cut of a beautiful man, and oh was Spike beautiful. Most of his manly lines, cuts, and curves were on full display since all he wore were some low slung black jeans. She was flustered at the best of times and now she felt like she would never be able to untie her tongue. From the heat warming her face, she also knew that she was probably as red as a tomato as well. And the cocky bastard knew it too.
“Just, put your bag down on the couch, we need to go upstairs” Spike told Tara yanking her quickly after him. He took her upstairs to the loft space and headed for the bedroom door to the right. She couldn’t help but notice how large and beautiful his new place was. She was starting to doubt his assertion that he hadn’t done anything illegal. Spike stopped suddenly before the door and blocked her view.
“Ok, so things are going to look right fishy, but I can explain everything.” Spike moved out of her way and as she stepped into the room, what she saw floored her. There on the bed was a chubby squiggly baby. Needless to say, that was the last thing she ever expected.
“What? Huh? I mean, what?” That’s all she could get out of her mouth. She looked dumbly from the baby up to Spike’s sheepish face. He brought his left hand up and rubbed the back of his head in an unconscious show of embarrassment.
“It’s a bloody long story luv.” He answered sheepishly.
“Well, you better start telling it now”. Said Tara, poking Spike in the chest. The look on her face didn’t allow for any arguments and Spike swallowed hard. He knew that if he didn’t give her a good answer now, he’d be in a world of trouble. Never ever get on the bad side of a witch.
“To sum up, this here is Conner. He’s Angel’s baby and I’m protecting him from his da’.”
Tara sat down heavily on the bed in total shock. Sunnydale never failed to offer her surprises. After a lengthy pregnant pause she answered, “Angel can have children? He’s still a vampire right? Okay, you’ve bought yourself some time, but start explaining and quickly.”
Spike didn’t waste any time. He went into the whole sordid story. Some parts a little too sordid for her taste, but he was nothing if not thorough. And in the end, she believed him. I mean, how could she not believe him, it was Spike. Spike was many things, but a liar was not one of them. It was a blessing and a curse that she could read people so well, and right now she could not only just see Spike’s desperation, she could feel it flowing off of him like a surging tide. She looked down at naked Connor squirming between them and tickled his soft tummy.
“Oh dear” was all she could answer at first. He looked at her expectantly, trying to suppress any hope and she folded.
“Ok, I’ll help. Let me guess. You first want me to help you with Connor’s diaper.”
“The thought had crossed my mind.” Spike tried to do his best to look humble and meek, which looked pretty silly on him.
Tara sighed, what had she gotten herself into? Somehow Spike seemed to read her mind and said, “Don’t worry luv, let’s think of this as an adventure, with a baby, like that movie with that Elizabeth Shue bird.”
“I hate to tell you this Spike, but diapers are not a fun adventure. Come on, let’s come up with a plan while I help you deal with poop.” Spike was in deep shit when this was all over.
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Author's Chapter Notes:
Sooo, I totally did a disappearing acting. I got wrapped in my friend's wedding and then real life took me away for a bit. So my deepest apologies. I'm not even sure I have any readers left! I have been sitting on this chapter for awhile so I decided to just go ahead and post it. It's a bridge that will finally get us to Buffy next chapter. :-)