The Red Witch
Chapter 10
When Buffy and Spike finally returned from the hospital neither of them noticed Faith though she sat in a chair near the front door and both walked right past her. Spike went straight to the basement, but Buffy went upstairs to her bed or so Faith thought. The dark Slayer was in a good deal of pain and truthfully it was this that kept her from sleeping though she told herself that she was keeping an eye on things for Buffy and ensuring that everyone in the house stayed safe. She was hoping that she didn't have internal injuries and that her Slayer healing would kick in and save her ass if she did.
She should have gone to get checked while they were in the hospital and she knew she was wrong not to. But she couldn't bring herself to do that when she knew that Buffy would just feel even more guilty and she absolutely hated hospitals anyway probably because she'd spent so much time in them, so she sat here alone in the dark in pain while everyone else slept. Once the adrenaline had worn off she felt all of her injuries and her body strongly protested its misuse. She highly doubted that she could get up from the chair even if she wanted to. What she really wanted at that moment was the bottle of Jack she had in her duffel but it probably wasn't the best idea to drink now so she didn't, still she was very tempted. As Faith maneuvered herself into a slightly less painful position Buffy came back into the room and finally spotted her counterpart because of the muffled moan Faith couldn't help but make as she moved.
"Faith are you ok?"
"Fine B, five by five. How's Xander?"
Buffy sighed and sat on the couch across from Faith, which had been doubling as Faith's bed for the past few months. "He's not good. He'll live, but he will never be the same again unless we can find some magical way of helping him."
"I don't think magic can do that. T had me helping her research for awhile after she got your call but we didn't find anything. Pretty much everything we found said that we can't fix him."
"Damn it. I was hoping... Anya was so crushed and Xander is the sweetest guy. He doesn't deserve this." Buffy stood abruptly and began pacing angrily. "I'd ask Giles but he won't be here for who knows how long and what if there is a limit on how long we have to help Xander."
Buffy suddenly stopped pacing and fell backwards onto the couch with an exhausted sigh. "I want to find Willow I'm hoping she can help him. But I have no idea where she could be and I am so tired. This day sucked. Why are you still up anyway?"
"I couldn't sleep like you said this day sucked."
"Are you sure you're ok? Maybe you should have got yourself checked out too your nose is gonna heal all crooked."
"Five by five. I'll have T look at my nose when she wakes up. You can re-break it for me if it's healed already."
Buffy smiled grimly at that, remembering that Faith's condition was her fault in the first place. "You should go to sleep soon get some rest."
"Naw, I really don't think I can I'm just gonna chill here and think for a while."
An idea came to Buffy then one that she hoped Faith would go along with if only for Xander's sake though she wanted it for her own sake as well. "Since you aren't going to sleep for a while anyway would you mind looking for Willow. Just for a few hours at least. I'm going to go looking for her myself when I wake up if you haven't found her already, but the sooner we get her back the sooner she can help Xander. Please."
This request from her counterpart put Faith in a real bind. On the one hand she was fairly certain that she should not be moving at all given her injuries. On the other hand refusing Buffy meant having to reveal her injuries to the other Slayer as she really had no reason otherwise to say no. If Buffy knew how bad off Faith was she'd insist on the hospital and Faith was too stubborn to want to go, she had vowed to herself to never get caught there again. And Faith was sure she'd be stuck there for days if she did go, while they were there earlier she never even went inside. Besides this was a genuine request from the other Slayer and not an order, she had even said please which had become rare from Buffy.
"Sure B. Walking around will probably help me think anyway I'll leave in a few minutes."
"Thanks I really appreciate this. I'll owe you one."
"Don't worry about it I like Xander too. He's a cool cat and if Willow might be able to help then I'll find her for him."
Buffy stood and gave Faith a look of gratitude then left heading back upstairs to her room. Faith sat on the chair gathering her strength and then by sheer force of stubborn will picked herself up out of the chair to her feet without a sound. Swaying slightly she carefully maneuvered herself to the front door. She didn't bother stopping for a weapon in her condition she probably wouldn't be able to carry or use any, so she just had to hope trouble stayed away for one night. Faith told herself that she would check one place and then come back so that she could honestly tell Buffy that she did look.
The two likeliest places that she thought she'd find the witch in were the motels near were Faith used to stay when she first came to Sunnydale and the witch's parents house. The red head had been as drained as Faith was feeling now so Faith didn't think that she'd left town or went looking for more trouble just yet. The closest place to Buffy's was Will's parent's place so she'd head there and then come back, hopefully still in one piece.
In the end it took Faith nearly two hours to make the 15 minute walk to Willow's old home. One reason was that she'd only been there once while spying on the Scoobies for the mayor and other than that she only knew in general where it was. Another reason was the further she walked the weaker she got until by the time she had reached the house she was wheezing badly and every so often coughing like an old smoker whose pack a day habit finally caught up with them and she could barely move. Even her sheer stubborn will could do no more for her and she collapsed on the front porch blood from her coughing fits splattered over her mouth, hands and shirt. Grabbing a broken piece of a chair that once sat on the porch she managed to ring the doorbell once before her strength completely failed her. Luckily for her someone was actually home this time and actually came to the door despite the late (or early however you look at it) hour and in this town that was a miracle (or the sign of an idiot however you look at it).
When Faith next woke she was lying naked in a strange bed in a strange room cuddled next to an equally naked red head who was not so strange (or at least not a stranger). Her very first thought was; how much did I drink last night to not remember this? Her second was why am I so wet? And the third was Tara is so going to kick my ass, Slayer or not. After that last thought her first action was to move away from her bedmate. In moving she found that she was feeling pretty damn good with not even a twinge of pain just a little soreness and dry mouth though her throat did ache just a little. The room was dark lit only by a single oil lamp on the desk and all the windows as well as the glass doors leading outside seemed to be closed as well as covered by the curtains.
She could now remember the events of last night up to her passing out, but none of it explained why she was in the condition she was in. She got off the bed and stumbled into the nearest wall as her body healed or not was not quite ready to be up and about. Then she stubbornly made her way to the dresser on the opposite wall intent on finding something to wear. Faith noticed now that the room was as hot as a sauna though the air was dry and the bed she'd just left was covered in a pile of blankets. At least that explained why she was wet her body was covered in sweat, so she resolved to take a nice cool shower right after she found what she needed.
Reaching the dresser she found nothing but fuzzy sweaters and cutesy shirts, clothes she would not be caught dead in. Just as she decided to walk around nude until she got back to Buffy's laughter coming from behind her had her turning around a little too fast making her dizzy.
"Check the last drawer there should be a few pairs of sweatpants there and a couple of my old high school t-shirts." Faith stared dumbly as the too amused red head rose out of the bed and stretched not giving a thought to her current state of undress. "You won't get a shower right now though there is still no water or electricity in the house yet. I'll have to take care of that later."
Faith was still playing at being a perfect statue as Willow lifted a brow at her and then proceeded to get the clothes herself. Handing Faith a pair of sweatpants and a shirt Willow walked out the room another set of clothes in her hand. "I'll get us something to snack on before we head to Buffy's" the red head called out from beyond the door.
Faith stood still for another few moments staring at the doorway with a look of appraisal and arousal wondering how to avoid getting killed by Tara if she did what she wanted to do in that moment. She shook her head and put the idea aside for a while dressing quickly and blowing out the lamp before following the sounds of cabinets opening and closing to the kitchen. She was suddenly super hungry as well as turned on.
When she got there Willow was fully dressed and holding two cans of Chef Boyardee. Bottled water and hot cans of Coke on the countertop. "Spaghetti or ravioli?"
Faith chose a random can and grabbed one of the plastic forks Willow held out to her neither bothering with the dusty bowls in the open cabinet behind Willow. Faith stared at Willow while eating, a little too obvious with her thoughts if Willow's smirk was any indication.
"Got a problem Slayer?" The witch asked in a flirty tone. But that prompted Faith to ask the question that had been on her mind since she'd awoken not fifteen minutes before.
"Why was I naked? If you wanted to ravish me I'm good with that I'd just rather be conscious for it."
"Oh Baby. Don't you remember our night of passion? You said I rocked your world and I was definitely pleased but you've still got a lot to learn. Don't worry we can try again later."
Faith stopped eating thrown off her game a bit wondering just for a moment how the hell she could forget something like that, when Willow starting laughing at her again. The nerve of her, a lot to learn indeed she wouldn't dare say that once Faith had her in bed.
"You came here on death's door and it was all I could do to keep you alive. I healed you as much as I could but doing that strained me because I had already used so much energy and a consequence of that was a temporary but very bad case of hypothermia. I borrowed your body heat and even after the worst had passed because I was still having trouble maintaining my body temperature so we both stayed naked. You look fine now though Slayer healing is amazing how do you feel?"
"Compared to yesterday pretty damn good. Thanks Red I owe you one. How are you feeling?"
"I'm good now. Why did you come here anyway when you should have been in a hospital somewhere? If I hadn't been here we'd be down a Slayer."
Faith suddenly remembered her mission and Xander, and looking through the kitchen window she noticed that it was night time. So she'd been here all day and no one knew and who knows what has been happening outside.
"What time is it?" She asked suddenly very disturbed.
"About 8 o'clock. What's wrong?"
"I've been here all day. I was supposed to get you so you could help Xander, but I didn't know how bad off I was."
"You've been here two days. We have both been really sick, but you slept the whole time I didn't. What am I supposed to help Xander with?"
"Two days! Damn." Faith was shocked by that and scared now that she realized fully just how bad off she'd been. They had to get back to the others right away no telling what had happened while she was asleep. But first she had to fill in Willow about what had went down after they escaped the demon prison.
12/28/13- I have opened a poll to help me see which pairing is more supported by my readers. Please vote to share your opinion. I am not guaranteeing that I will stick with the poll results, but it will weigh in heavily on what I write in future chapters. Poll closes sometime within the next 4 updates. Thank you.
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