Title: Second Chances
Author: Phaedra's Love
Fandom: BtVS/Roswell
Pairing: Faith/Max
Disclaimer: I do not own any of this, it all belongs to someone else. Please don't sue me.
Faith was dying and she knew it. Could feel it in her bones, in the way her heart pounded loudly and slowly in her ears. She could taste it in the copper tang of blood on her tongue. A dry cough tried to escape from her lips but drowned before it found it's way out. At the sound she could feel herself giving up, the will to fight slowly fading away.
Roswell fucking New Mexico...
She wondered if the vampires who had torn most of her throat apart would be back for her corpse. She almost wanted them to come back for her so that for the rest of time everyone could wonder if Faith the Vampire Slayer was abducted by aliens. A laugh wanted to escape from her lips because she knew that no one cared enough to wonder.
When her eyes began to finally glaze over she noticed a figure emerge from the shadows. At first she thought it was Angel. Tall, dark, same vaguelly familiar haunted look in his eyes. He kneeled down next to her and she realized he wasn't Angel at all. Her mouth opened to tell him it was too late, she was as good as gone but no sound escaped as she gaped like a fish out of water.
"Shhh." His voice was soothing as he placed a cool hand against her neck.
Faith stared up at him, her vision fading and flickering. Her eyes closed because suddenly she was sure that he was another vampire sent to finish her off. But his hand didn't tear or choke, just rested lightly against her torn flesh.
Max Evans wasn't sure why he wasn't just allowing this strange girl he had been following to die. He could almost hear Michael's voice in his head demanding to know. Max supposed it just wasn't in his nature to stand idly by and watch someone bleed to death. He ignored the blood of the brunette as he pressed his hand to her throat, feeling the skin warm as he began to repair the damage.
Faith.
Her name suddenly struck him with such force he had to fight to stay upright. A thousand visions flooding him with such fierce intensity he began to tremble. Fight. Run. Die. Over and over again and through lifetime after lifetime. Faith always at the center, occasionally replaced by a primal looking African woman. He felt it, every single bitter tear, every cry of pain, every thrust, every punch. But mostly, he saw her. The parts of her that he was suddenly sure she never showed to anyone else.
When he was finished he inspected her throat, all too conscious of her eyes on him before he stood up and backed away. Faith pressed a hand to her neck in shocked disbelief as she sat up feeling oddly revitalized and strangely exposed.
"What are you?" She demanded, her voice uncharacteristically shaky. "A witch or something?"
"No." It was a simple answer but it was the way he said it kept Faith momentarily speechless.
"How did you find me?" Her lips almost felt numb, her eyes permanantly glued to his.
"I was following you." He explained calmly.
"What? Why?"
"Because I thought you were the enemy. Now I know the truth..."
She was too confused to follow him when he slipped back into the darkness and disappeared.