Chapter 2

Buffy was in the bathtub, full out relaxing, when she heard the phone ring downstairs. Sitting up somewhat jerkily, she wavered for a second, trying to decide whether she was going to ignore it. Here she was, lying up to her neck in bubble bath, having planned to have a nice, quiet, relaxing evening at home… and the very minute she felt all her muscles loosen up in bliss had, of course, been the moment her relaxation was so rudely interrupted.

As the phone rang a second time, Buffy lurched to her feet in the tub with a slight growl of irritation, reaching for her bathrobe and shrugging it on hurriedly. With her hair sodden down her back, water running in rivulets down her legs, she began to run to reach the phone, swearing when she almost slipped at the top of the stairs. By the time she picked up the receiver she was scowling, thoroughly annoyed, her words less than politely spoken.

"Hello?"

"Buffy?" came Willow's voice, and instantly Buffy listened up; the redhead sounded tense, hesitant, maybe even a little afraid. The rest of her words came out in rush Buffy only barely made sense out of.

"Buffy, don't panic, okay…maybe I'm wrong here, because you wouldn't think-"

"What? Why am I not panicking?" Buffy cut her off, her voice rising anxiously as she cut the other girl off before she had hardly even started. "What's going on, what happened? Are you okay? Is-"

"No, no, I mean, yes, I'm okay, Buffy, everyone's okay… that I know of anyway. I hope so, I don't-"

"Willow, just take a deep breath…just, just calm down and tell me what happened," Buffy stopped her again, making an effort to calm down herself as she heard Willow doing so over the receiver. "Just tell me what happened…"

"Okay…okay, like I said, maybe I'm wrong…" Willow began, obviously trying to make her voice calmer and more understandable. "I mean, I don't think so, but it's really weird, so maybe…okay. Okay, calming…okay. I was walking to Oz's, 'cause it's not that far, and the vamp activating it has been kinda low, you know, and I was going past a bunch of stores, some of those ones that just got new tenants, you know…and I walked past an alley, and…I don't know, I'm not sure, but I think I…I think I saw Faith."

Almost instantly Buffy's features tightened her spine stiffening, and her grip on the phone made her knuckles whiten. Willow's words had been far from what she had been prepared to hear…

It had been an uneventful summer so far. With the Mayor dead, the high school gone, and the Hell Mouth closed over once more, most of the vampires and demonic activity Buffy and the others were used to had died down. She had been enjoying- or almost enjoying, at any rate- a summer where she could just be normal, just prepare for college and spend time with friends…

Of course, it hadn't been exactly a carefree past two months even so. Hanging over her, casting a shadow on her days, was Angel's departure, memories of her injured and dead classmates, and stunningly enough, nostalgia for a high school she would never have thought possible to miss. But above all, what bothered her was Faith. Memories of how it had been between them, and how it had become… her resentments and regrets, her wishes and self defenses, and most powerfully of all, her confused feelings toward her sister Slayer now.

She didn't know what to think about Faith anymore, how she should feel. Her anger with her had faded since their shared Slayer dreams began… dreams that continued on a fairly regular basis, and that seemed to convey to Buffy that somehow, while in her coma, or maybe even before, Faith's attitude had changed. Buffy tried not to think about her now… because honestly, it made her feel too sad, too regretful…too guilty.

She knew now even if she could never say so to any but her own self that she had made mistakes in the way she had handled Faith. They had all made mistakes… granted, not like Faith's, but theirs had been important nonetheless. She had put Faith into a coma, she had stabbed her, almost put herself into the very category of evil deeds Faith herself had committed. Regardless of how Faith might be now, whether awakened or in a coma, Buffy knew now that this had been wrong… one of the biggest mistakes of her life. She could have found another way, regardless of what Faith had done, what she had become, there could have been other, better ways to deal with her. Maybe even ways to bring her back to what she had been…

She had told herself once, on the rare occasion where she let herself think about it, that if Faith woke up- and she HAD to, Buffy couldn't let herself think that she might could have killed her- then she would do what she could to do right by her, to rehabilitate her. But now that she was hearing Willow, actually telling her that Faith was awake… what was she supposed to do? How should she feel? How DID she feel?

Well, she was shocked, of course… but overwhelmingly, her first instinctive emotion had been relief.

"What?!" she blurted to Willow, her voice too loud, too panicky. "What do you mean, you 'think' you saw her, Willow? Either you saw her or you didn't… she's supposed to be in a coma, why wouldn't someone have told us if she had woke up? Why would she be around- where did you say she was, in an alley? What would she be doing there if she just got out of a coma?"

"I don't know…maybe she, she escaped the hospital or something," Willow said somewhat helplessly, and Buffy could almost see her biting her lip, twisting her hands nervously. "I'm not entirely sure it was her… I mean, it looked like her, but it was from a distance-"

"Will, either it was her or it wasn't! Didn't you look at her- that's kind of important for us to know if it's even her or not!" Buffy exclaimed in exasperation.

"Well that's the thing…" Willow hedged. "It looked like her…but if it was her, she looked…weird. I mean, her hair, it was sort of nasty looking, all matted and tangled, I could tell even from a distance. And she looked all dirty and scratched up… and she was moving kind of weird. Jerky like… but kind of, I don't know, clumsy? But wild…like…I don't know, sort of like…I want to say like a gorilla."

Buffy could feel her face scrunching up with confusion, and she tried to think about what Willow was describing, what it might mean. Moving like a gorilla? Jerky, clumsy… that wasn't like Faith at all. Wild, yes… but her movements, as rough and impulsive as they might be, usually had a strange, almost feline fluidity to them, even when performed in an explosion of powerful action.

"Well…she, if it was really her, then she just came out of a coma," Buffy said slowly, trying to make sense of what Willow had told her. "Maybe it affected her brain somehow, her movements… maybe she's confused, she might not even remember what happened. Willow, she might not remember who she is. Doesn't that happen sometimes, when people come out of comas? Aren't they brain or nerve damaged sometimes, or have anesthesia?"

"Anesthesia?" Willow echoed, sounding puzzled. "You mean amnesia?"

"Yeah, that. She might have that… did she seem confused to you, or lost or something? Where did you say she was, an alley? What was she doing there? Was she hurt? Did she see you? Did she act hostile?" Buffy asked quickly, her questions tumbling rapidly over themselves as she continued to grip the phone tightly.

"I…I'm pretty sure she didn't see me," Willow said slowly. "She was kind of busy…it, it loked like she was slaying, there was a vampire there with her in the alley. But like I said, it was weird… the way she was moving, and looked…but, but she didn't have a stake either. She had…it looked like she was trying to stake it with a club…"

"A CLUB?!" Buffy blurted, incredulous. "What?!"

"Yeah…I know…that's what I thought too…but that's what it looked like, Buffy it was all big and fat-"

"Did you call out to her, or go closer to her, Willow? Did you-"

"No…no, I kind of froze and then slipped away before she could see me and come after me," Willow said guiltily, and Buffy could just picture her biting her lip on the other line, her eyes widening anxiously. "I'm sorry, Buffy, I just kind of panicked. I was so stunned to see her-"

"No, no, that's okay, Willow- you did the right thing," Buffy assured her quickly, even as her stomach tightened a little with her disappointment. "We can't know how she's thinking right now, how she might have reacted to you, whether she would have even recognized you. We don't know what's going on with her, what we're going to have to do with her now…"

She sighed, her shoulders sagging slightly, vaguely aware of the water still dripping down her back and legs, making small puddles on the floor.

"I…I guess I should go out looking for her…and you should call Giles and Xander and Oz, let them know, in case they run into her. But whatever is going on, whatever her mindset right now, I have to go find her…she's my responsibility."

Whatever might be wrong with her, whatever she might do now, it's on my head, Buffy thought to herself, not voicing this aloud to Willow. I did this to her… guess now I'll have to deal with any of the consequences that come from it.

Still, a big part of her, more than she wanted or would ever consciously admit to existing, was incredibly relieved by what Willow had told her. Faith was alive…in whatever condition, for whatever reason, Faith was alive, and awake. Buffy had not killed her… Faith was conscious, obviously mobile, and so there was a chance.

A chance for what, Buffy would not name even in her own thoughts…but it was enough to know that there was one. Whatever happened now, there was one… she just hoped that this time, everything would be different. She hoped that this time she would do everything right… that this time, Faith would be different, Faith would let her-

"Buffy?" came Willow's voice hesitantly, and Buffy, completely lost in her thoughts and unprepared to hear it, jumped slightly.

"What?" she asked quickly, her voice a little rushed and loud, betraying her startled state.

"There, there was one more thing… she had a club in one hand, or something that looked like a club… but, but she had a bottle of beer in the other hand. And…and she wasn't letting go of it, even while she was slaying…"

Well, that could explain some of the weirdness, Buffy thought with a mix of wryness and relief- for maybe there was a reason other than traumatic injuries for Faith' movements and behavior, as described by Willow. Buffy remembered vividly how crazy Faith could act when she was drunk…

"So you think she's been drinking?" Buffy said aloud to Willow, some sarcasm creeping into her voice. "Yeah, that's the first thing I'd do after coming out of a two month coma… give my brain some more hurting. Great…all the more for me to deal with…"

She sighed again, as much for Willow's benefit as any true feeling of reluctance… for the moment she had heard that Faith might be awake, the prospect of going to find her had seemed a desirable one.

"Well I guess I better go find her before she does any damage…to herself, or to anyone else. You said she was in an alley by the main street row of shops?"

"Yeah…that was about ten minutes ago though, she's probably not there anymore," Willow said worriedly.

"Well don't worry, Will, she couldn't have gone too far. I'll find her. You just stay put, and call everyone else to warn them- and when I find her, see what's going on, I'll let you know, okay?"

"Okay Buffy… be careful…"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine…I can handle her."

But could she… she didn't know what she was dealing with here, what it was that Faith was going to be…

Buffy hung up the phone, turning toward the living room doorway with the intention of going upstairs to put some clothes on before going out to look for Faith. But she had barely reached the foot of the stairs when her front door was heavily flung open right in front of her… and standing in its entrance way was the very person she had been prepared to search for.

Immediately Buffy could see why Willow had been so thrown off… for she had never seen Faith looking in the state that she was in now. Her long dark hair was badly snarled, what looked like branches and twigs sticking out of it… her clothing, which looked like nothing she would usually pick to wear, was torn and stained, her face scratched and smeared with dirt. As Willow had said, there was a partly emptied bottle of beer in one hand, and what was unmistakably a club- believe it or not- in the other…

As Buffy gawked at her, astonishment, amazement, and a strange, continuing relief at the sight of her and her sudden appearance flooding through herm, Faith strode through the door, a wide, almost child-like grin spreading across her face, sending her dimples into display. She tilted her head slightly as she stopped in front of Buffy, knocking her hip against her lightly, playfully. There was something in her eyes that was the strangest thing of all… something about them had changed, grown simpler, almost, and yet they were completely open and unguarded in a way that Buffy had never seen from her before.

It was the eyes that got to Buffy… for in them was no fear, no anger or resentment or cunning, none of the negative complexity that she was used to seeing from Faith before. Her eyes were somehow innocent….playful, happy, trusting… right now, Faith was entirely at ease with Buffy…she trusted her.

And this was further evident in the way her arm was currently snaking itself around Buffy's waist as Faith pressed herself against her in an affectionate, slightly clumsy hug… another thing Faith had rarely before done with her.

"Hey, B," she said in the husky tone Buffy was accustomed to. "Want beer?"

To be continued