Author: Suzy G
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon et. al. are the owners. I simply write non-profit work.

For the next six hours of the trip I sat in the passengers seat watching palm trees in California pass us by, then tumbleweeds in Oregon, and now potatoes in Idaho. Sorry about that last one, everything really looked the same, maybe there were potatoes, I wouldn't have noticed. As we left the diner we started up the glance and smile game again. Only this time I was the glancer and smiler while she was the driver and smilee. I'm sure at least three words in that sentence aren't considered words but I think you get the idea. She drove and we listened to music, sometimes even singing along, one of the most memorable times was when the song "Hit Me Baby One More Time" came on. We both busted out singing and laughing.

Then there were times when the radio wouldn't work. Sometimes we talked, sometimes we didn't. Either way it was totally comfortable, either way we were at ease. I swear we spent whole hours just smiling, just smiling in silence, watching the sunset. When we talked I tried not to make it too deep, straying from the subject of her family knowing how sensitive she was about it. Sometimes it got deep though, sometimes we opened up to each other, and it was easy, it had never been so easy with anyone else to open up. We talked about the horrors of high school, which we found were extremely similar in both our cases. She shared some poetry with me that she had written back in high school. It was really good, I even cried a little, I felt so sad and so angry at the things that had happened to her. What was even worse though, was that I didn't think that was the end of it. I think things may have been more terrible than she let on. She told me about the way the kids treated her, and the way her boyfriend treated her, and I wanted to cry. She told me about when her mother died, she didn't go into it much, but I saw the look in her eye, I saw the quiver in her lips.

And then there were times when we just couldn't stop laughing. When I thought that I had never had so much fun with another person in my life. And one of the best things, Tara hadn't stuttered a single word in hours. She was so witty, and so open, and so confident, I was falling in love with her. No longer was it a fascination, a crush, this was the real thing, or atleast the most real anything had ever felt to me. I knew there was something special about her. She was going to take me places I had never been before.

I watched as Tara left the campus with a redheaded girl. This surprised me. Tara wasn't usually good at making friends, I hadn't expected that to change in just a years time. I figured she'd be staying in her room alone, which would have made my mission a whole lot easier. I could have just shown up at her door, surprised the hell out of her, and forced her to come back home with me. But then I thought maybe this would be fun. There wasn't much else I could do. I would just have to follow her and the girl wherever they were going and figure things out from there.

Things hadn't gotten too interesting. I followed them to a diner, and to a couple of gas stations, then through Oregon, and into Idaho where they rented a motel. I thought it pretty strange that Tara would drive. I didn't even know she got her license. I know her father wouldn't be too pleased to find she had one. I would have to figure out how to get Tara back, so far it didn't seem like they even noticed me following them. Which is good, I did my best to stay a ways behind them. I'm a patient man. I can wait it out. Wait for a time when she's alone, then scare her into coming with me. Oh yes, I'll get my Tara back, no matter what it takes.