A/N: Hey guys I don't think an apology could make up for the time I've taken to update but nonetheless I am so sorry for the long wait I had a major writers block along with school work. I hope you enjoy this chapter.
Mike had finally let the blonde slayer set up camp inside Faith's room. Buffy had actually raised her fists at the man in pursuit of this right. All thought her blood had been what was needed; Faith was still in need of recovery. It became a game of waiting for the younger slayer to wake up. In the meantime, Angel, Dawn, Xander, Willow, even Giles dropped by to check up on the two slayers. Angel usually was one of the most frequent visitors.
Faith had entered her 4th day of recovery and Angel was currently watching over her. Buffy had gone up to her room to retrieve some pj's. The broody vampire sat in the chair and stared at Faith. He reflected upon their odd relationship and how the girl had become his adoptive sister.
"Hey Angel," a voice said from behind him. The vampire turned around and looked into the eyes of a familiar face.
"Remember me?" the young woman asked.
Angel nodded, "I know exactly who you are," He replied standing up off his chair.
"You murdered me Angel; I trusted you," the women spoke louder walking towards Angel. "You can't deny who you are!" and with that last remark, the apparition disappeared. A minute later, Buffy walked through the doors.
"Geez Angel, you look like you've seen a ghost," Buffy said, noting the unusually paler completion of the man.
"Buffy, I . . ." Angel tried to explain but decided against it. "Sorry, I was just remembering some bad things."
"Yeah? Like what?"
"Things of the past, not really important. Now if you will excuse me, I have some work to do. Let me know if she wakes up," with that Angel left the room.
Buffy took her comfortable spot on the couch. She did like she had done all the previous nights; she would move the couch that was against the wall closer to the sleeping slayer's bed. Somehow knowing she was that much closer gave Buffy comfort that she would immediately know Faith was awake.
Buffy hoped she could find some sleep so she could share a slayer dream with Faith and tell her that everything was okay. She wanted to tell her so much and tell her it was okay to wake up again. Buffy eventually drifted off into sleep.
It was early in the morning when the blonde slayer began to wake up. At first she refused to open her eyes, she wanted to be back in that place with Faith. However, she got that weird feeling in the pit of her stomach and she slowly began to open her eyes. She blinked a couple times and realized that pair of beautiful chocolate brown eyes were staring right at her. Buffy blinked once more to make sure she was seeing those eyes. When she finally confirmed that indeed Faith was staring at her she smiled.
"Hey B," Faith chocked out. Her raspy voice cracking at the dryness her throat had collected during the long days of sleep.
Buffy kept on smiling afraid to make a sound. The blonde smiled as one tear fell down her cheek.
The chosen two stared at each other, feeling like they had found each other again. They felt a sense of relief looking into each other's eyes. Buffy was silently thanking the fates for giving them a second chance at this. Faith was just relieved to know that Buffy was safe and what happened in her dream did not affect her in real life.
"Hey back," Buffy finally said getting up closer to the other slayer.
"Water?" Faith asked pointing to an empty glass.
"Oh yeah, hold on," Buffy rapidly filled the glass with water and tried to pass the glass to Faith. However, she wasn't able to lift her arm to hold the glass up. Buffy immediately took a hold of the glass again and helped the dark-haired slayer drink.
"Thanks," Faith said resting her head back on the bed.
"How are you feeling?" Buffy asked concerned.
Faith chuckled a bit which ended in a cough. "Well, I'm not dead," the slayer joked.
"Yeah I can see that," Buffy got closer to the other slayer. "Your right arm is still in pretty bad shape."
Faith tried to move that arm but failed. "Fuck, those Bringers really did a number on me huh?"
"Yeah, but you seemed to have done damage of your own."
Faith smiled thinking that she had been able to not only save Dawn but also live to see her again.
"I'm just glad that the kid is all right."
The room went silent for several minutes both slayers were lost in thought. Buffy decided to speak first this time.
"Faith," the blonde started "you really scared me." Buffy held back some tears. "The First took your form and I thought you were gone."
Faith, seeing the blonde about to burst in tears, reached her hand out to Buffy's own. The older slayer slid her hand onto Faith's and held on to it until she was able to repress the tears again, yet her words seemed stuck in her throat.
"Faith,. . ."
Faith was getting uneasy seeing Buffy's struggle with her words. She wasn't sure what the blonde slayer was thinking or wanting to express. She knew that her life threatening experience had made her want to tell Buffy. In fact, if she remembered correctly she would have told her if the blonde vampire hadn't interrupted their meeting. Faith wasn't sure if she would be able to disclose that information to the woman in front of her. After all, she was only going to tell her because she thought she was dying but now, looking at the beautiful woman in front be conflicted with some much emotion, Faith wanted to express some emotions of her own.
"Buffy," Faith began carefully examining Buffy's features. The blonde slayer snapped out of her dark dwellings and a sigh of relief escaped her. Her eyes were glued to brown eyes. Their hands still connected.
"Do you remember the slayer dream we had?" Faith's hands began to slightly shake, her body trying to make this as difficult as possible.
Buffy still afraid to speak, nodded and she smiled trying to comfort her.
"I needed to tell you something." Faith paused and closed her eyes momentarily trying to gather every ounce of courage and confidence she could muster. While she did this, Buffy's thumb gently rubbed the top of Faith's hand.
At that moment Faith's doctors decided to intrude on the slayers private moment. Mike walked through the doors looking a bit asleep while two more doctors followed him in.
"Hello Buffy, our monitors went off and alerted us to Faith's change" Mike looked towards the wounded slayer and stared to check the machines attached to her. The other doctors started to check Faith's body.
Buffy patiently awaited for the doctors to finish up their procedures. She could see that Faith was completely annoyed by everything that was going on around her. Secretly though, the dark-haired slayer was relieved that the doctors had stopped her confession. After half an hour of running around Faith, Mike was the only one left in the room with the other slayers.
"We are glad to see you awake Faith," the man adjusted something on her IV bag. "I'm going to adjust the medication. Later today I will start you on some anti-biotic."
"Great, hey doc. When can I leave this place? I feel so sick of it already," Faith asked hoping Mike would give her favorable response.
"Faith, I think you need to stay here a while longer," Buffy interjected.
"Yes. I agree. Your wounds were life threatening and we still don't know the effects of the poison you were infected with. Best case, you can be out of here within a week." Mike smiled and nodded towards Buffy while the blonde slayer reclaimed her spot next to Faith.
"I was poisoned?" Faith asked confused.
Buffy wasn't quite sure what to say or how to explain what had exactly happened because she didn't really know her self.
"Well Willow tested your blood and you were poisoned. According to her, it was making you reject any blood you were given. You lost a lot of blood due to your wounds," Buffy paused and directed her eyes to Faith's shoulder. "When the doctors took you into surgery, they tried to give blood but it only made you worse." Buffy tried to block her emotions from surfacing.
"So how am I alive?"
Buffy smiled "In the slayer dream, Spike told me that my blood was the key. So when I woke up, I had them try my blood and it worked. We weren't sure if you'd wake up regardless if your body took the blood or not."
Faith looked off into space. She couldn't believe that Buffy had actually saved her life. The blonde slayer had in a sense; she'd blood to save her.
"I'm awake," Faith stated.
"Yeah I can see that," Buffy chuckled.
"So Red figured all of this out as well?"
"Well by the time she got to me, we had already done the transfusion. She is still working on what exactly the poison was intended for. Giles researched as well and he found out that your reaction was a mere side effect."
"Oh. So that means I'm not out of the woods yet?" Faith asked tensing up.
"You heard the doctors, you can be out of this place in a week, that sounds kind of out of the woodsy to me." Buffy tried to diffuse the tension.
"Best case Buffy," Faith countered. Over the course of her apparent death and back to life, Faith was no longer ready to leave this world. She wanted to be by Buffy's side regardless of the consequences even if it meant seeing her with Angel.
"Can we please have some positive thoughts here?" Buffy exclaimed. "You technically died and yet you are still here." The blonde slayer placed her hand on Faith's, "Whatever comes, you can fight it, we can fight this."
"Faith!" Dawn came into the room still in her pajamas. The young Summers launched her self onto the wounded slayer, which caused the said slayer to wince in pain.
"Ow Ow Ow," Faith said as she wrapped one arm around the girl.
"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry," Dawn retreated next to the slayer's bed. "I just heard Mike inform Giles about you and I ran here."
Faith chuckled "Love the Pjs."
"Yeah? I stole them from this person," Dawn pointed at Buffy then changed her expression from happy to angry and gently slapped Faith in her forearm.
"Don't you ever do that again! What is it with you slayers that makes you think it's okay to sacrifice your self?" Dawn turned and looked at Buffy then back at Faith. "I swear the next one that does that I will kill you my self."
Buffy silently giggled at her sister's threat causing Faith to burst out laughing. Dawn tried to keep her serious face but soften once she saw the two slayers laughing. She gently hugged Faith again "Thank you for saving me."
"Any time kiddo, so what's been going on while I've been asleep?" Faith smiled.
"We've been in super research mode. Crazy slayer over there," Dawn once again pointed at Buffy. "Put the entire force on research mode. She was a wreck," Dawn said half jokingly.
"Really?" Faith asked raising an eyebrow.
"Well I'm going to go change and let the other's know. I'm sure Kennedy will like to know her partner in crime is awake." Buffy said trying to avoid any more embarrassment from Dawn. As she exited the room she heard Dawn giggle and Faith laugh.
"Will, She's awake," Buffy said walking into her best friend's room.
"You hear that baby? Faith's up." Kennedy rephrased Buffy's words. Willow came walking out of their closet smiling.
"Buffy, that's great. Is she okay?"
"Yeah, the doctor said that she could possibly be out of the recovery room in a week." Buffy made her way to sit on a chair. "Dawn is with her right now. I'll probably head back down there in a bit."
Kennedy walked out of their bathroom and greeted Buffy with a huge grin. "Well before you hog all the Faith time, I'm gonna go see how she is doing." With that Kennedy walked out of their room.
Willow pulled a chair next to Buffy and looked at her best friend with a questioning look.
"What?" Buffy asked.
"Nothing." Willow smiled "So your blood was the cure after all."
"Yes. Well that's what I'm sticking to. Have you found out anything else?"
"Well, not much. The poison, though, it's ancient. I've contacted the covenant in Britain they are helping us research."
"Oh okay. But have you found anything that could possibly affect Faith now that she's awake?" Buffy asked fearing that her counterpart was still in danger.
" Buff, I am pretty sure the effects of the poison have been countered with your blood. Faith will be fine." Willow reassured her friend. "Buffy can I ask you something?" Willow stuttered out.
"Yeah Will, anything,"
"Do you, . . well have you,. . ." Willow hesitated.
"What is it?" Buffy pressed.
"Do you like Faith?" The witch rapidly asked.
Buffy was confused and nodded, "Of course Will, I know that we've had a really stabby past, but she's changed so much and she risked her life not only for Dawn but for most of the potentials as well. She also took care of me when I got wounded after the battle. Will, she's different you know? She is on this road of redemption righting her wrongs and she's done more than enough for me. Of course I like her." Buffy ended her small babble and smiled.
Willow had a goofy grin on her face, "Buff, don't take this the wrong way but I think you more than like her. I think you like her the way I like Kennedy."
A/N: So what do you guys think? Please leave a comment/review they really really make my days and keep me going. Thank you. Hopefully I'll have the next chapter done in the next few days. Thank you for those of you who are sticking with this.