Title: Who Knew
Author: Myinnerme
Disclaimer: Joss Whedon and all creators of BTVS own everything, except the characters created by me. No copyright infringement is intended and no profit is being made.
Summary: Everyone was positive Buffy had killed Faith the night she stabbed her. After all another slayer was called, right. But now, swan diving into the most confusing, unexpected sexual experience of her life, is the ghost of Faith haunting her? Or, is this the real deal?
Post Season 7 & 8 AU. So be warned, in my world, all events leading up to BTVS Season 7 and some of Season 8 sort of happened just without Faith in the picture.
Authors Notes: Not that anyone reads these things but it still has to be said.
Unlike most of my stories, this one actually stole the title and my time from another fic I'm writing. But who am I to kick up a fuss. So hope you enjoy.
Also, many thanks to my beta Electra - who's always hiding away in the corner in her iron clad underoos - you rock!!
Dedication: This is for two special friends: Chris and Devina. You've both made the last few months in my life more bearable than you realize.
Song Tribute: "Who Knew" by Pink•
"…If someone said three years from now •You'd be long gone • I'd stand up and punch them out • Cause they're all wrong • I know better • Cause you said forever • And ever • Who knew…
Remember when we were such fools • And so convinced and just too cool…I wish I could touch you again • I wish I could still call you friend • I'd give anything… I'll keep you locked in my head • Until we meet again…And I won't forget you my friend… That last kiss • I'll cherish • Until we meet again • And time makes • It harder…But I keep Your memory • You visit me in my sleep • My darling… I miss you… Who knew..."
Chapter 1
Alright, so sleeping with a girl makes me…
Bi-curious?
Buffy grimaced.
Ok. So the look on everyone's face said they didn't buy into that either.
But sleeping with a girl was kind of…
Different?
Buffy scrunched her face.
Nah, that's a given.
It was…
Nice?
Buffy nodded in agreement.
Yeah that's better. It was nice.
She'd even venture to say it was very nice.
No better than very nice. It was…
"Wo—"
Alright, knock it off. Stop right there with the wows Twinkie. You came out here to think. There'll be no wows, only thinking. And you need to think about the whys. So, why?
Buffy frowned, feigning confusion as she instinctively maneuvered through the crowd.
Fake all you want Blondie. The question still is: Why'd you sleep with her?
Buffy stopped abruptly, then quickly sidestepped a haggard looking woman practically dragging a whiney snot-nosed kid behind her.
Eww!!
She shuddered when the runt swiped his tongue up for a hardy sampling of green goo sliding out of his nose and gave her a toothless grin of satisfaction.
"So did not need to see that." She shuddered again for propriety sake.
Turning away in disgust, she looked around and took stock for a moment, then scowled.
No the real question for today is: "Why the frig did I park the car so far away?"
Because you wanted to avoid the temptation of picking up stuff and only window shop, Dimwit.
Suddenly feeling the lugged weight of neatly wrapped packages stretching deceptively fragile biceps, she looked down.
Well so much for that plan.
Tightening a grip on her precious cargo she ventured back into the hustle of the crowd.
A few minutes later, the blissful peace of mentally accessorizing her purchases was disturbed by…
Ms Denial, you ready to talk? Get this out in the open once and for all. Face the music so to speak.
'I don't hear any music,' Buffy snickered softly to herself, loving her own wit.
You're crazy to continue to ignore this, you know. It won't stay buried deep inside for much longer. And if you don't—
"Look!" Buffy bristled. 'I'm just not ready to deal with this shit yet. So back the hell off.' She groused the rest internally as a few passersby gazed on oddly, one even having the nerve to point a finger.
Fine by me. But you're still crazy.
Buffy stopped, again. Her sudden lack of movement nearly causing a chubby man in a jogging suit to crash into her as he absently admired the sway of the guy's hips to the right of her.
Ignoring his wheezed "sorry", her nostrils flared as she sucked in and out a deep breath. She was totally peeved now.
Fuck the people staring.
There had to be a way to quash to her conscience.
Make it use a different voice.
Cause it was pathetic.
Actually, no, it was more like really fucking, ridiculously hysterical if it was ever seriously taken into consideration.
From the sheer ludicrousness of it she'd burst into long, hard, peels of eye watering, belly-aching laughter on many occasion when it had crossed her mind.
To think - the biggest, psycho-murdering, slut-bitch, whore she knew was the voice of reason in her head.
Karma. She was really such a bitch herself, Buffy sneered.
And for the record, "I am not crazy!" She added in a shout of finality.
"You're fucking crazy!" the emphatic reply instantly shot back.
Blowing an exasperated breath and a snarl to those who dared pause during the pursuit of their daily lives to question her sanity, she made to continue a moody trek to the car until…
"I'm not wearing those panties," assaulted her ears in that oh so familiar burr causing her feet to freeze mid stomp.
Ok.
That was new.
Pulled by an invisible thread (or at least that's how she'll tell her story if asked) Buffy made a beeline to… glancing up at the sign: Maury's Pleasure Emporium.
Figures!
"Aww, come on Honey, pretty please. Do it for Big Daddy," pleaded a masculine voice as she entered the store.
An eyebrow quirked high in the air, was she the only one listening to this drivel?
Surveying the terrain, she spotted a sleazy looking, balding, middle-aged clerk dressed in a blue pinstriped uniform shirt leering perversely at her.
'As if,' Buffy scoffed, turning away to the otherwise completely empty store.
"Mike you owe me if I do this. And payback's a bitch," warned a lighthearted feminine voice.
'You should know,' Buffy snorted angrily, creeping carefully towards the first aisle.
Spying ever so slowly around, she found it… empty.
"As long as you pay me back the way you did this morning at breakfast, I'll be a happy camper," purred a blatantly suggestive retort which soured Buffy's stomach and made her immediately regret having extra gravy with her Poutine at the mall's food court. Damn Xander for introducing her to such a disgustingly delicious dish.
"In your dreams, buster. Your juices were all squishy in my shoes when I slipped them on to go to the bathroom."
God! TMI!!
Her stomach lurched and she almost tripped while trying to fend off the barrage of hurling imagery.
Muttering a curse under her breath, she checked the second aisle.
Nothing.
"You could have let me lick it off like I wanted to," the husky voice suggested.
"Gross!" Both females chimed in disgust, one much more vocal than the other.
A loud chuckle rang out in aisle………five.
Got 'cha.
"You didn't say that last night," the chortler said.
"Tell me. Why am I with you again," the teasing question was asked with a laugh. The unforgettable sound sent cold shivers down Buffy's spine.
"Because you love me," came the reply just as Buffy sprang into action.
Startled, Mike whipped around in surprise at a blonde toting about thirty shopping bags with fire in her eyes.
Now, life experience had taught Mike many things. One of them being: you always find freaks in novelty stores. And just because this girl didn't stink of pee and looked a little too well groomed to be off her rocker, you never could tell.
"Hey, you alright lady?" he amicably greeted a few pulse racing moment later when menacing hazel eyes continued to dart frenetically about.
He'd concluded on the 'nice' approach after mentally assessing his gamut knowledge base of how best to handle raving lunatic encounters. The other option of running with his tail between his legs really wasn't his style. And his least favorite of all, backhanding the crazed, was not up for grabs. Especially when his upbringing had taught him smacking a woman was a no-no and the obvious physical advantage was clearly in his favor.
Baffled, Buffy blinked rapid in confusion.
'Where did she go? I-I thoug… Oh God don't tell me I'm imagining her again.'
"Who you talking to, Sweetie," a curious voice drifted up from re-shelving the edible grape underwear she'd rejected for the cherry flavored ones. Standing full length from her crouching position when an immediate reply wasn't given; she stepped from behind and to the side of the nice looking brunette blocking her view.
Not that Buffy took a moment to even notice the male's strong fine features or the way his alert sea blue eyes seemed to gleam in anticipated readiness under the harsh fluorescent overhead lights. No. Her full attention was locked and searing into the other brown haired beauty, whose softer features were really, really nice looking as chocolate brown orbs gazed back at her.
Seething and beyond livid, Buffy scowled murderously at the face she hadn't seen in six years.
"Faith!"
The name spat out with complete malice as Buffy exhaled a long, hard breath. A raging inferno instantly ignited and raced through every nerve ending in her body, boiling her blood and seemingly leaving in its wake charred, blackened skin and the scent of burnt flesh in the air.
Faith! The slayer in her also roared and shifted automatically into a fighting stance as all semblance of humanness was dropped along with her shopping bags.
Fuck. What she wouldn't do for that knife in her hand again. That sharp, brilliantly designed weapon of beauty from that night clutched purposefully in her grip.
That fatal night when she had to live with the ever plaguing guilt of killing… She swallowed the bitter bile rushing up from deep within as angry refluxes hindered her from even mentioning the fetid name again. But, seeing as the whore stood live and in the flesh no more than a few feet away - all smiles and giggles and playful, and doing nasty disgusting things to people's dick with her feet - Buffy guessed she was wrong about the killing part.
'Always a slut,' Buffy hissed. I lay rapt in guilt for years and she's always the slut.
A minute part of her knew Faith wasn't dead though.
She didn't care what Giles, The Council and everyone else had claimed about another slayer being called. And even when eventually meeting Wendy during the battle with The First, the fourth slayer called since Faith's death, it didn't change a thing. Always in the back of her mind, the nagging feeling that Faith was alive lingered.
Vile, disgusting evil things like Faith never died. They just slithered off somewhere else to pollute and infect another unsuspecting victim. Innocent victims just like her.
But now, finally, face to face again. No more, the slayer in her howled. No more.
Faith wasn't getting another chance to crawl her slimy ass out of here alive.
No. Not this time.
So with fingers clenched so tightly into a fist that tiny trails of blood seeped into the fissures of her knuckles, Buffy launched.
And in the next instant a blood curdling scream of anguish echoed throughout the entire store of Maury's Pleasure Emporium.
End of Chapter 1
TBC…