The Road Less Traveled
Chapter 8-Realizations
"Will—over there!"
Buffy had spotted Faith and Kennedy walking along the brush beside the road. "What the hell are they doing? Why aren't they with the van?"
"I see them." Willow pulled off the road in front of them. Buffy jumped out while Willow popped the trunk. Faith and Kennedy ran to the Jimmy.
The blonde slayer was beside herself. "What were you thinking? Do you have a phone with you? Anything? We can't split up!"
"Buffy, just get in the car," Faith said angrily, jumping into the rear compartment and slamming the door. Kennedy crawled in the backseat between Dawn and Robin. Buffy bristled, got in, and they took off again.
Willow was worried. "What happened? Are you guys ok?"
"Yeah, baby, we're fine; we had to buy the others some time, that's all."
Buffy rolled her eyes. "Did you guys think about how you were going to get back?"
"No," Kennedy shot back. "We did what we had to. We would have found you. And you found us, so it's really not a problem, is it?"
"We just can't—"
"B, come on. Kennedy's already said it. There was a van full of other people to think about. We did what we had to do."
Robin raised an eyebrow as he turned to look at her. "Sorry, Faith…I think Buffy was just really worried about you guys. You understand."
Faith set her jaw and said nothing. Dawn and Kennedy registered something weird in Robin's tone, but let it pass.
"I'm just glad everyone's ok," Willow said.
"All of them are fine," Kennedy assured her. She put her hand on Willow's shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
They all rode in silence for awhile. After another hour, Willow pulled over at a roadside diner for all of them to use the bathrooms and grab some food; they'd had to leave everything at the hotel. Faith got a few burgers to go and went to a picnic bench a bit of a distance from the diner. She was taking her time smoking a cigarette; she sat on the table staring out at the road and didn't eat. Buffy was watching her, concerned, but then decided that behavior wasn't too "unusual" for Faith. Willow came out of the diner and touched Buffy's arm, gently bringing her focus back. "Hungry?"
"Starved—thank you." The two of them settled at a nearby table. "Do you think she's ok?"
Willow looked to Faith, then back to Buffy. "I think so. Why?"
Buffy shook her head. "I dunno. Nothing, I guess." She went back to her sandwich.
The others trickled out of the diner and dove into their food. The small talk started up, but Buffy's gaze lingered on the brunette exhaling plumes of smoke into the air, letting her food grow cold. She excused herself, grabbed up the remainder of dinner, and walked over to Faith.
"Hey."
"What's up, B."
I don't know; you just seem "off." Is this about the hotel, the dream? Are you only avoiding me, or everybody? Are you actually ok, and I just can't read you? But Buffy didn't say any of that. Instead, she said:
"Nothing."
and settled on the table beside Faith. Faith didn't even glance her way. Buffy suddenly felt extremely stupid, though that feeling soon gave way to embarrassment as she remembered that the last time she and Faith had "quiet time," they'd been holding each other in bed. When did I become as awkward as a middle schooler again?
"B."
Buffy started. "Huh? Hmmm?" Smooth.
"What do you need, B? Cause if it's to tell me you think I messed up somehow, I really don't want to hear it right this minute."
"What…? Oh…no. No. Faith, I—" just saw you sitting far from a group you've grown closer to and thought you looked sad so I came to help because you really helped me out the other night like no one has in a long time and WOW thank god none of that was out loud. "—you just seemed down, so I…" Buffy sighed. "I'm bothering you. I'm sorry." She stood up to go back.
"Buffy, wait!" Faith threw down her cigarette and jumped up. Buffy turned to face her, but she noticed Faith's eyes darken as she saw something over Buffy's shoulder. Buffy glanced back and saw Robin staring at them with some interest. She didn't like his look at all, and then her eyes widened as it finally hit her. "OH. Did…did something happen with you guys?"
Faith crossed her arms and shrugged, keeping her eyes locked on Robin. "Nothing I can't handle."
"I'm sorry."
"It's ok."
Change the subject! "Look, earlier…I didn't mean to…bite your head off like that. I'm so worried about all of us, and I'm still not even sure about everything that's going on, but…I mean, you got everyone out, really fast, so…great job." 'Great job?' Ugh.
But Faith seemed to soften at Buffy's words. They gave each other a small smile. Faith took a breath, running a hand through her hair. "You should probably get back to the troops; figure out our next move."
"Right! Right. Are you…"
"I'm good. Just gimme a shout when everything's ready."
"Ok." As Buffy walked back towards the others, that same awkward middle-school feeling crept up again. She ignored it.
…
Willow hung up the phone and came back to the table where the others were finishing up. Dawn perked up. "Did you reach Giles?"
Willow nodded.
"And…?" Buffy asked. She seemed more than mildly irritated at Giles's not speaking directly to her.
"Well, he says we definitely need to split up for the time being-we're too easy to spot. He has some old friends in a coven who are trying to work some major mojo, and we need to lay low."
Kennedy leaned in. "What kind of mojo?"
"Massive mind-sweep of all things us, as we could ever relate to human law-enforcement."
Robin let out a low whistle. "Can they do that?"
"It's definitely possible, but it's no small spell. The least we can do is not add to the blips on the radar."
"Sure," Buffy said. She reached up and gave a quick wave, summoning Faith back to the group.
"So what next?" Dawn asked.
"There are cars and phones waiting about three hours north of us. We can send the new slayers off to safer waters while our main group continues driving north."
"And what's north?" Faith had just joined them.
"He didn't say."
Buffy shook her head. "No, of course not."
"Buffy…"
"Whatever; I'm over it. Let's call Xander and make sure we're all heading to the same place. Let's go."
As they all piled back into the Jimmy, Willow pulled Buffy aside. "Giles said one more thing."
"I can't wait."
Willow looked bothered. She took a breath. "He said you need to keep Faith close to you."
Buffy stopped; her brow furrowed. "Why."
"He said it would be safer."
"Wait, what would be safer-us? Her? Me? Everyone? What 'it?'"
"I don't know! He was…he sounded really rushed. He didn't say anything more specific. I'm sorry."
Buffy sighed. "Fine. It's fine. Thanks for telling me."
"Buffy…do you think it has to do with the dreams changing? I mean, maybe Giles-or the coven-maybe they know a bit more about what we said earlier."
Buffy gritted her teeth. "I'd like to think they'd tell me, if it was that important."
…
Faith leaned her head against the window and looked out into the abyss. It was so dark, the only things she could make out were the mile markers. She had counted fifty of them since the Jimmy had left the others and started its unknown journey. She knew that somewhere behind them, a black Honda Civic would match them mile for mile. It was a good idea to split the core group into two smaller driving teams to make them even less conspicuous. Though it made more sense to keep him around than to leave him with a group of teenage girls somewhere in the Midwest, Faith disliked the fact that Robin was in that Civic.
Fifty-one…
Focusing on the mile markers also helped Faith calm her rising anxiety over the blonde slayer sitting next to her. Why did Robin have to say what he had back at the motel? Not that she hadn't provoked him, but…
It isn't true.
It wasn't. It just wasn't.
Fifty-two…
Her mind tried to replay bits of her past, but she kept shutting it down. He's wrong. But one moment seemed to be stuck on 'repeat' and kept looping through her mind: "You always wanted Buffy to like you; to love you, even." And that simple statement of fact from Robin—"You love her."
Faith sat up straighter, shook her head, and pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. She took a slow, deep breath, and looked back out the window.
Fifty-five… Wait… fifty…fifty-two...
Faith felt sick to her stomach.
Oh god…It's true.
