Chapter 7
The sky was a clear blue, not a cloud to be seen and the sun shone down relentlessly like a burning ball of fire. It was so hot that the golden sand was burning the soles of Willow's feet. Almost skipping on her tip toes she darted between the packed bodies of the sunbathers to walk on the wet sand and cool her feet. It was a blinding, scorching day and it seemed as if the entire population of L.A. had decided to go to the beach.
The water was warm as it rushed up the beach and covered her toes, white froth gurgling around her ankles. She had pulled her red hair up off her face and neck and covered herself in sun block, she could smell it on her skin, sun block always had a distinct scent. The water did little to cool her down, Willow could feel the sweat gathering between her breasts and at the backs of her knees and she walked further into the sea until the water reached her knees and lapped up to her thighs. She wasn't all that comfortable in the little denim skirt that Cordelia had leant her, Willow felt it was too short to wear without tights, but she made do and was rather glad of it in this heat.
She stood staring out over the glassy surface of the water, broken by white crested waves that rolled in from the engines of the speed boats and the water skiers and the larger boats with passengers hanging off the railings as they made their way off shore to try their hand and scuba diving or snorkeling. The horizon shimmered ahead of her and Willow found it hard to believe that there could ever be evil in the world when she was part of a day like today, with the sounds of people easy and carefree, the excited barking of dogs, the joyful shouts of children and the calling of the gulls filled the air. It was almost idyllic.
But there was evil and she fought it, during the night-time hours when the rest of America slept she ventured out into the dark to help do battle with the creatures that lived in the shadows and she would return to that life by the time the clock struck midnight tonight when she would be back in Sunnydale.
Faith arrived at her side, splashing through the water, her long dark hair pulled back in a pony tail that swung around her neck. She squinted out across the sea watching a skier cut through the water. "Hot," she said.
Willow nodded and pulled the brim of her hat further over her eyes. Being a red head she needed to ensure that she protected her skin well, she was prone to burning. She envied Faith who wore a tiny pair of shorts she had bought at a shop on the pier and a tank top, she looked hot and cool at the same time and the Audrey Hepburn sunglasses she wore just added to the overall affect. Willow wished she could feel as comfortable in her short skirt as Faith appeared to be in her shorts.
"Roasting," Willow agreed. "Cordy was right though, it's nice to have some time just for us without worrying about the end of the world and stuff. We never get a holiday."
"The downside to being friends with a slayer I guess," Faith said. "And the downside to being a slayer."
"There's a downside to everything," Willow said with a soft sigh. "Better make the most of today, we'll be in Sunnydale and surrounded by creepy hellmouth goings on by tonight.'
"Is there anything in particular going on at Sunnydale? Any specific evil reeking havoc?"
"Nothing out of the ordinary according to Xander. He thinks there's a nest of vampire's. He was checking that out last night so he'll have an update for you."
"So, you'll all still be helping then?" Faith hadn't been told anything to the contrary but she didn't know how Xander and Dawn had reacted to the news that she was heading back to Sunnydale. She couldn't imagine them hanging streamers and balloons for her.
"Yes of course, we're on your side, Faith. You're the slayer and we're here to help you," Willow assured her.
"Good to know." Faith stretched out her arms as she surveyed a large streamline yacht gliding effortlessly out to sea. "Can you imagine having a boat like that?"
"I can imagine it, yes," Willow said and sighed despondently. "Unfortunately imagination is the closest I'll ever get. I'm not sure that I would want it anyway, not forever. It might be nice for a while, having all that money, but what would I do all day?"
Faith grinned. "Spend the money?"
"That might be nice," she conceded. "But wouldn't you get bored with nothing to do all day? And I couldn't live my life of luxury knowing the danger the world was in and not help in every way I possibly could."
"We both managed to live a life before we found out about slaying and vampires," Faith pointed out.
"True, but could you really let it go now that you know? Pretend that you could walk away from slaying, that there was someone else to take your place, would you walk?" Willow was genuinely curious. She knew that Buffy had often lamented the loss of her teenage years and had frequently wished for a normal existence, she couldn't help but wonder if Faith had similar feelings.
Faith considered the question for a few minutes. Without slaying what would she be? Just another prison statistic, another young woman who had made bad choices, who had fallen on the wrong side of the tracks. Just another kid run wild and gone bad.
But having said that, she had gone to prison to make amends for what she had done, she had for all intents and purposes left slaying. True Buffy had been there to pick up the mantle and continue the slayer line, but she had still walked away from it.
"I already did," Faith said quietly.
Willow blinked in surprise, when she thought about it Faith sort of had a point. "But you didn't quit," Willow said firmly. "You took a sort of sabbatical. I could say a lot about you, Faith but I wouldn't say that you were a quitter, I'd say that you're a fighter and that's just was the world needs. A fighter."
Faith was rather touched, not many people had praised or encouraged her in her life. Accept for Angel. Faith shook her head slightly refusing to allow thoughts of Angel to creep up on her.
"Fighting's easy," Faith said after a while. "When you're in a sitch where it's kill or be killed the fight comes out in you. Sometimes it's harder to quit, to walk away." She wasn't particularly smart but Faith did know what she was talking about. She had walked away once before, going to prison had served a dual purpose of giving her time to deal with her crimes and heal emotionally. Now she was going to quit and walk away again. It was for the best no matter how hard it was, she would stay whole and unscathed only if she quit Angel.
Willow didn't have the chance to answer, Cordelia chose that moment to make an appearance. She held lollipops in her hands and offered one each to Willow and Faith. "Today is great!" Cordelia enthused. "We should so do this more often!"
"We live in Sunnydale, Cordy, the beach isn't the same there," Willow said ruefully.
"It certainly isn't," Cordelia agreed. "We're heading to the arcade, are you coming?"
"Yeah," Faith stepped out of the water. "There's air conditioning in the arcade."
Willow unwrapped her lollipop and followed the others up the beach. She dropped her wrapper into the bin and brushed the dried sand off her feet before replacing her sandals. There hadn't been much time for fun the last year what with Dawn and Glory and Buffy and then Giles; Willow was determined to enjoy her day of fun and do all she could to bond with Faith. Once she arrived back home Willow had the feeling that her day at the beach would fast become a distant memory.
She popped her lollipop into her mouth and it came rushing back to her like a screaming banshee; something that wasn't a distant memory; Spike. He was very definitely living in the present, he was right there at the forefront of her mind no matter how much she tried to push him away.
A sudden hot flush swept Willow's entire body and it had nothing to do with the heat from the sun.
What had she done?
Closing her eyes against the mental picture Willow pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead as though she could physically push the image away.
"Willow, come on!" Cordelia called from up ahead where she was standing in the doorway to the arcade.
Willow rubbed at her chest nervously, she couldn't bring herself to go into the arcade and stand around playing games when her mind was spinning like a wheel on a race car. "I think I'll go for a walk instead," she gestured behind her to the long wooden pier. "I want to enjoy the sun while I still can," she hastened to add when Cordelia lifted her eyebrows quizzically.
Cordelia nodded. "Alright, we'll be in here for a while I expect so come and find us when you're done."
"I'll see you in a little bit." Willow turned away and Cordelia slipped into the cool arcade.
Willow wandered down the pier where people lounged on freshly painted benches and children stood on the binocular stands peering out to sea. There were stalls selling pop corn, fizzy drinks and cotton candy, burger stands filling the air with the scent of fried onions and a gathering of old men at the end of the pier fishing.
She paused to browse a stand of picture post cards and novelty shot glasses and t-shirts aimed at the holiday makers taking in the strange accents all around her. L.A. was filled with tourists.
Adjusting her hat lower over her eyes Willow moved further down the pier weaving her way between the crowd until she came to a spot where she could lean on the railing. There were a couple of young boys in the sea below her, they were on surfboards and were trying to shoot the pier, Willow watched them without any interest, raising her lollipop to her mouth. As soon as she felt the icy coldness against her lips everything around her disappeared as Willow was flung back in time to the previous night; the only thing in her world was Spike.
She could see him in her minds eye as clearly as if he was stood in front of her now with a look of pure bliss on his face and his eyes flecked with gold. The lollipop melted away and she could almost feel him in her mouth again and the scents of fries, hot dogs and sunscreen evaporated to be replaced with whisky and smoke and something that was pure Spike.
Finding herself suddenly experiencing a dull ache in the centre of her body, Willow panicked and violently threw the lollipop into the choppy water below. Gripping the railing until her knuckles turned white Willow took deep claming breaths. She was gay, she was in a loving relationship, she loved Tara; she had no idea what was going on with her.
"Oh God," she groaned and closed her eyes tightly.
Would Spike deem it necessary to announce her betrayal to everyone once they returned to Sunnydale? He had told her time and time again that he wasn't her friend, that he would kill her if he ever had the chance again, he didn't have a soul and that made him evil, there was no way to judge what Spike would say or do. Spike was a loose cannon, a wild card, totally unpredictable; he did whatever most appealed to him at any given moment.
Willow groaned again, she had become the one person she had sworn she would never become, she had turned into the cheater, the adulterer. She had cheated on Tara and Willow couldn't, as much as she would like to, make some technical plea about it not really being sex due to the fact that she and Spike hadn't... she shied away from even thinking the world.
She was a cheater.
She was a scarlet woman.
She couldn't stop picturing Spike's blissful expression.
"Agrr!" Willow pressed the heels of both hands to her forehead a feeling of total despair washing over her. The last thing in the world she wanted to do was hurt Tara.
xXxX
Spike lay propped up in bed, smoke curling lazily from the end of his cigarette. The shadows lengthened across the floor as the sun sunk below the horizon, it wouldn't be long before he would be behind the wheel of his beloved Desoto heading back to Sunnydale with a slayer. He would be taking a slayer back to the hellmouth to fight evil. There was something radically wrong with this picture but Spike couldn't bring himself to care.
He couldn't worry about anything, in fact he couldn't bring himself to think about anything else other than Willow. Willow's hot, moist mouth. Her flickering tongue, her lips wrapped around him and the intense look in her eyes when she looked at him. Spike felt a tingle run down his spine and his face shifted, his fangs coming out as he remembered how she had held eye contact with him. She had been with him the whole time.
A low annoyed noise vibrated in the back of his throat when Spike suddenly realised that the main thing wrong with returning to Sunnydale was not the slayer but that pasty faced Glinda. She would be there hiding behind her straggly hair and stuttering and stammering until he wanted to rip her tongue out. Until now he had never really had any feelings towards Tara, she was just there, a pale imitation of a human being who had the tendency to annoy him with her whispering and stammering, but now he actively disliked her, she had what he wanted.
Spike's fangs flashed in the murky light, not for long though. It was a two birds with one stone situation really so Spike couldn't be too down about it, he'd get rid of Glinda because she was bound to leave when Willow ended things with her and then he would get Willow.
He took a long drag of his cigarette and smiled, he liked situations where he was guaranteed to come out the winner.