3 Inches - Part 13

[druffine]

And another chapter. I give a tissue-warning! And I am very interessted in your opinion on this part. And I guess I won't manage to finish this fic in 15 parts. *sighs*

And this one is beta'ed already by my two lovely beta-women joolzmp7 and mygothangel who I completely adore for their help!!


button by vampirellabites
*hugs and cuddles you*

all parts




Part 13

Xander’s footsteps sound hollow as he walks down the hallway to the witches’ dorm room. He only needs to knock once before the door opens. Willow looks at them. Under her eyes are dark circles that tell of a night of research or just of a night without sleep. He grins, images of Tara and Willow, naked, kissing, touching, are swirling in his head for a moment before he recollects why he is here actually. Tara sits on the bed, a big book on her knees. She looks up and smiles at Xander and Spike, who peeks out from his usual transport spot: Xander’s shirt pocket.

“Come on in, you two. We think we have found it. I mean Tara has found a spell to revoke the side effects on Spike’s size.” Willow beams at them and steps to the side so Xander can enter the dorm room.
“Hey Tara, hey Willow. Sounds like good news.” Xander waves at Tara and stands uncertainly in the middle of the room.
“Hello Xander, Spike. Indeed, we have something. Actually it’s quite easy, there aren’t even any weird ingredients needed.” Tara says and pets a space beside her on the bed. Xander sits down. The blonde turns the book so Xander and Spike can look at the words written on the page.
“Here, it’s in this chapter. Simple counter spells to unintended side effects. The spells are not specifically phrased to unshrink someone but they are like universal counter spells.” Tara explains, tapping her finger onto words on the page.
“Nice – that’s written in Latin. Can’t really follow you there.” Xander shrugs.
“It’s totally easy! We just need to try out some and one will have the desired effect on Spike, promise!” Willow babbles and Spike growls.
“Try some of them out? Do I look like some kind of guinea pig, Red? Guess you tried out enough on me already.” Spike spits. Xander watches Tara looking angrily at Willow. Uh oh, trouble in paradise.

“Cookies?” Willow offers, voice quiet and feeble. She nearly pushes the plate with the chocolate cookies into Xander’s face. Xander takes one, because it’s chocolate, duh! “This doesn’t mean you’re forgiven, Will.” He says, before biting into the cookie.
“It doesn’t? But…, I baked cookies and I…, I apologized, like, a lot.” Willow puts one hand on her hip, the other busy with holding the plate.
“Willow…” Xander tries to warn her. “So not the attitude to have right now.”

Spike would like to join in, but he feels this is a fight Xander has to get through on his own. Willow and Xander have been friends since kindergarten, but the last few months they’ve drifted apart. Spike doesn’t trust Willow but it’s Xander who needs to decide if he still trusts her, if he can uphold the friendship with her any longer.

“What do you mean – attitude! I saved your life! I even saved Spike’s, ehm, existence. I don’t know why you’re complaining at all.” Willow turns away arrogantly and puts down the plate.
“I’m not complaining about you saving our lives. I’m just questioning the means. Magic is not the solution to everything!” Xander barely refrains from yelling at her.
“The means? What would you have done? Throw yourself into the fight and get yourself killed? Everybody knows you’re completely useless on patrol!”
The words leave Willow’s mouth and the hand she clamps over it comes too late. Xander feels dazed. “Xander, I didn’t mean to…”
“Oh I think you did.” Xander says apathetically. It’s not that he doesn’t know it. He gets pounded on more often than he pounds, but still, without his distractions, Buffy would’ve sometimes had a harder fight.

Xander helps Spike out of his shirt pocket and sets the little vampire down on Tara’s waiting hand. Spike is in his full vamp-face because he is so angry that Willow hurt his boy with words so much. Under normal circumstances he’d kill her without hesitation. Nobody hurts what is his. But right now, two things - his size and the chip - are keeping him from it.

Xander shakes himself and sits up straight. An unusual strength seems to come from deeply inside him when he starts speaking then.
“Your attempts to use magic are getting us into trouble more often than it is useful. You aren’t ready to use magic, you can’t control it in the least. It’s way bigger than you are able to understand.”
“What are you trying to say? I saved our lives. That is all that counts.”
“No, it’s not. You saved our lives, well great, but it was only luck. You could have shrunken all of us or done something even worse. You didn’t know at all what you were doing exactly. You endangered us. You put us in incalculable risk. You made Spike a…”
“What do you care anyway? It’s Spike. Vampire. Soulless. Bad. Remember? Ring any bells?” Willow spits and looks ugly with all the anger distorting her face.
“I care because Spike has saved our lives a lot of times and he doesn’t deserve to be killed by one of your tricks. He is more reliable than you are since you’ve been on this magic trip.”
“I can’t believe you are saying this, Xander! I have always been there for you and that’s the thanks I get for all that.”
“Oh come on, Will. That’s not what this is about.” Xander sighs. The anger seems to have faded away already. There is only disappointed sadness left in him.

“This is exactly what this is about. You’re losing ground!”
“I what?”
“You always tagged along with Buffy and everybody, but now we are all something special and you aren’t. You feel useless and that’s why you’re trying to make me feel all bad about using magic. I am a powerful Wicca, Buffy is the Slayer, Spike is the Superfighter, Giles the Brainy… And what are you, Xander?” She actually has the nerve to look at him pitifully.

Tara holds Spike back from leaping at her girlfriend. Silent tears are running down her face. She is not surprised, but it still shocks her to have Willow say all these things which Tara had seen in her aura already. Blackness is winding around Willow‘s red-golden light like a big dangerous snake, and it is getting bigger with each passing day, eating away at Willow’s core.

“I don’t need any superpowers, Willow. I fight for good because it is the right thing to do. It’s not some ego-gig for me. I’d rather die before I’d put one of you at risk. Buffy understands that. I am sorry you didn’t get it.” Xander speaks evenly with a strong voice he doesn’t use often. It’s the core of him, his white knight talking.

“Stay a loser if you like that. I don’t care. I don’t care about Spike at all. Magic is more effective than one fighter can be. To hell with you. I won’t help you. There is the door, you know how to use it. Good-bye.” Willow’s eyes sparkle with blackness. It frightens Xander so much – he is afraid for Willow. She needs to be saved and soon – before she does something she’ll regret forever.

Tara stands up suddenly to Xander’s surprise. She sets Spike down on Xander’s shoulder but the vampire quickly climbs back down Xander’s arm into the safety of the boy’s hand. Spike hugs Xander’s thumb and looks up into the boy’s brown, sad eyes. He wishes he could hug him for real. Spike is very proud of Xander. He stood up to Willow in a spectacular and knight-y way. Xander pets the vampire’s back tenderly.

Tara speaks with a commanding voice Xander has never heard from her before. “It’s time for you to go, Willow. I will help Spike and Xander.”
“What? Tara?” Willow’s surprise over the fact that her girlfriend is standing up to her is clearly written on her face. Tara doesn’t say anything, she gestures to the door and it opens. “You… you can’t throw me out of my own room!” Willow gasps.
“It is, or rather it was, our room. I can’t throw you out but I can ask you to leave for a couple of hours. I won’t need more time to get my things and leave. You can have the room all to yourself again when I’m gone.”

“I… Tara… why are you – you don’t have to leave! I only had a fight with Xander… it doesn’t change anything between us…” Willow stutters uncomprehendingly.
“I want to leave.” Tara says and for a second it looks like she’ll lose her poise. While tears are running down her cheeks, she keeps on speaking determinedly. “You’ve changed, Willow. Magic changed you. You are not the person anymore I… I fell in love with.”
“No. No, Tara, that’s not right… you can’t…”
“Please leave now, Willow.”
“You don’t have anywhere to go.”
“I’ll find a place.”
“But you are lost without me.”
“I will manage.”
“You will manage?” Willow squeaks. There are tears gathering in her eyes and she gestures wildly, but the words normally accompanying are missing.
“Please go now, Willow. Don’t make me…”
“You can’t make me go.”

Without further comment Tara raises her hands and gestures as if she was sweeping the floor with a broom. Horrified, Willow watches helplessly as her body begins to float, only an inch above the floor, then moves toward and then through the door which closes behind her silently.

“You’re going to regret that, Tara!” Willow screams from outside and pounds at the door. Tara draws a circle with her hands in the air, and after a soft golden glow, there is only silence left.

“We’re safe here. She’ll give up soon. She is not very patient.” Tara says, before she collapses on the floor, sobbing into her hands. Only seconds later, Xander is there to hold her while she cries. He puts his hand over Tara’s and Spike hugs both their thumbs, providing as much comfort as he can give.