Chapter 9
For the next few days Willow told Faith to keep her distance. She was trying to work things out with Buffy, and she and Faith both agreed that they spent a while apart. They didn't patrol together anymore, and Willow always went to visit Tara alone, asking for advice, for guidance. It never came, but usually that was the place where Willow could come up with ideas, with things to say next time she saw Buffy.
The problem was that she rarely saw Buffy anymore. During the day she was at work, and during the night she was always with the other slayers. Finally, Willow was at home on the couch when Buffy arrived. She stood up to pull her friend away into a quiet place when the phone rang. Andrew grabbed it as fast as he could. It reminded Willow of the neighbors she used to babysit for who had kids that always thought answering the phone was a privilege, and always raced to get it first. Andrew pulled the phone away from his ear and held it out to Willow.
"It's for you. From Fred. Guy sounds kind of a feminine."
"Fred?" Willow asked, pulling the phone from him and pressing it to her own ear. "Fred?"
"Yeah, hi Willow." Freds cute southern voice trilled through the receiver. "Ummm, we're having a bit of a situation here, and I was wonderin' if you could come down and help us sort it out."
"Okay…what kind of situation?"
"The Angelus kind." Fred said shyly. Willow nearly dropped the telephone. She grabbed it by the cord and swung it back up to her ear.
"What?" She wasn't quite sure why she was whispering.
"Yes. We needed some info from him, and so we brought him back and put his soul in a jar. You know, so we could put it back in him? But only he's escaped, and the jar's been stolen, and we really need some help. I thought you could help with the soul part, and you could bring along Buffy or someone to help get Angelus back." Willow's mind was reeling. She shook her head to clear it.
"Uhh…right. I'll come, but I don't think Buffy can make it. She's been busy lately."
"Okay. Is there someone else y'all could bring?" Willow knew there was only one other person. She could hear Faith's voice from the kitchen. She was talking to some of the Potentials about something or other.
"Yes. There is." Willow breathed. "We'll come right away. I'll call you back on my cell once we're on our way and get the details." After hanging up, Willow went into the kitchen. "You seen Buffy?" She asked Faith, Vi and Rona, who were all sitting around, munching on a bag of Titos.
"Yeah." Faith said. Willow really had to admire how not-awkward she was. Faith had to be one of the smoothest people she knew, even if she was just acting. "She went into the basement." Willow nodded and clacked down the wooden steps.
"Buffy?" The Slayer was standing halfway down the stairs. "I have to take of for LA for a couple days. Something's come up with Angel. You think you can manage without Faith and I for a couple days?"
"Sure." Buffy didn't seem to be paying attention. Willow started back up the stairs, but stopped when Buffy seemed to come to her senses. "Wait. Faith? You and Faith are going away?"
"Yeah." Willow said, turning around. "They need some magic and some muscle, and since I figured you wouldn't be able to go—"
"Fine. Yeah, it's fine. Good. Have fun." Buffy seemed very robotic as she spoke. Willow came back down a few steps and put a hand on Buffy's shoulder.
"I really want you to be okay with this." She said quietly.
"I am." Willow raised her eyebrows. Buffy smile and gave a little laugh. "Okay, no, I'm not. But I will be. I want to be okay with this. I think I need some time." Willow dearly would have liked to hug Buffy, glad that they had at least started to make up, but decided against it. She was two stairs above Buffy, and she didn't want to risk sending them both crashing down into the basement. Suddenly, she remembered that Tara had once fallen down these stairs, tripped by Buffy herself, who had been poisoned and crazy. Willow remembered lying on the floor, bound and gagged, until Tara had come along to rescue her. She closed her eyes, wishing to lose herself in fond memories of her love, but she was brought back to earth when the thought of Angelus loose in Los Angeles nudged her daydreaming away.
"Faith." Willow closed the door to the basement and leaned across the island in the Summer's kitchen. She snatched the Titos out of Faith's hands. "Get your coat!"
"Why?" Faith was sucking the cheese off the ends of her fingers, looking longingly at the bag of chips Willow had taken.
"We've got a mission…of sorts. I'll explain on the way."
"Will, we can't just take off in the middle of the apocalypse or whatever—"
"It's about Angel." Willow said, looking into Faith's brown eyes knowingly. The Slayers attitude changed at once. She popped her fingers out of her mouth and pushed Rona out of the way to get to the front door. "And off we go." Willow said, dropping the chip bag on the island and marching out after Faith, leaving Vi and Rona completely clueless as to what had just happened.
Author's Note: Sorry for the short chapter, guys. I'm just getting back into the writing funk. Hope you like it so far!
