A/N: Another for you! Just for you!
Buffy watched them pile through the front door together, laughing in their triumph.
"And did you see his look when Faith said he would take the front with her?" Xander made a face somewhere between guppy fish and constipation.
"I looked in no such way, Xander! And wasn't I able to get a shot off with my crossbow first? I should think that takes a certain amount of poise."
Anya twirled the end of her rope like Wonder Woman with her lasso.
Grinning in the middle of it was Faith. Dark eyes flashing in the living room lamplight.
"I dunno, G-man. If you're gonna be bringin' up that shot, you might wanna explain the girly aim." Faith carried the torso of the demon as if it weighed nothing at all. Giles and Xander struggled with a leg each.
Buffy's eyes ran over the other slayer's figure, checking the tight jeans, the revealing tank top for the stain of blood. Checking the exposed skin for any new cuts or bruises. She found none, the dark slayer instead being the epitome of life and energy.
Relieved, she let her eyes travel, trying to get back somewhere familiar, indulging in the red of curving lips, the promising valley between breasts that swelled with each still-excited breath, the pulse in her neck.
"I know it's going to hurt…."
"Wha—?" Buffy's head whipped around to find her mom at her elbow. The blonde's face instantly went red, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my god, did I say just something out loud?" Her mind ran through all she had been thinking and thought that none of it was the sort of thing one wanted one's mother to know.
"Your dad and I have accepted that you're sexually active in this world you've created." Joyce took a breath and tried to ignore her daughter's flush. She plowed on. "But even if you are gay, and even if this Faith person seems like a good idea—"
Buffy's dad snorted a little at that. Joyce frowned at him before looking back at Buffy. "The doctor says you need to—Hank, what was the word?—dismantle this life you've made. What you have with her isn't real."
"That's not true!" Buffy could feel the tears threatening as her hands balled into fists at her side. There was nothing to hit here. And she was sure that, even if she did hit something, it would hurt her a heck of a lot more. Which she supposed was what was normal. "I love her!"
Joyce reached out to smooth down her hair. "Oh, honey, I know you think you do, but think of how you've already sabotaged it, how you've already started to dismantle things—you can't die and, at the rate she's going, she'll die early. And think of the danger you pose to each other constantly. Honey, that's just you telling yourself that it's time to come home. "
"Mom, please…." That familiar voice. She closed her eyes in spite of herself. How often had she wanted to talk to her mom about all this?
"We're your home. We love you." Joyce's voice was breaking. Buffy couldn't bear to see it.
She launched forward into a hug. "I've missed you so much! I never got to tell you goodbye and how much I love you, but, mom, if you could just see her now, see everyone, Dawn, all adult and everything, see how we're all really trying…."
Joyce could only sigh. "Buffy, in your world, I'll never have that chance."
"Well, somebody's feeling good enough to be all pervie anyway."
Buffy jerked, realizing she was still staring at the dark slayer. Dawn gave her sister a look to accompany her comment, then rushed forward towards the new arrivals. Faith, in her turn, gave the blonde an amused eyebrow, allowing some of the tension in her shoulders to melt away. If Buffy wanted to look, well, that was normal. And for her to look adorably flustered by it all? That was pretty normal, too. She allowed her grin to widen.
"Dawn?" Buffy remembered she wanted to apologize for something earlier, but the younger Summers was already past her, talking to Xander. "I…." She trailed off.
Willow appeared, sweeping the group of them past Buffy down the basement stairs. Faith gave her a wink before she popped through the doorway. The blonde tried to wink back and then put up her hand to her face, wondering what it must look like.
She was still staring at the basement door when Tara touched her arm, feeling the waves of confused, distorted energy practically rolling off the slim slayer.
"Buffy?"
Wide green eyes turned towards her, uncomprehending.
"Buffy, it's just me…Tara." Buffy nodded and the witch wasn't sure whether that meant she remembered Tara's name or was thanking her for offering it. "Would you like me to try to help? I don't know how much I could, but…maybe something to help you sleep, just until they, you know, get the antidote?"
Sleep? Buffy couldn't remember the last time she'd slept.
Or ate for that matter. She forced her eyes to find the couch, a lamp, the window, the night outside. Anything but the pulse point at Tara's neck.
"Oh god, not again…." Buffy thought she had said it in her head, but, seeing the other girl's face, she knew she hadn't. And seeing Tara's face was the same thing as seeing her neck. The still-fading bite mark. Had she done that?
Tara's hands went up. "It's…it's okay, Buffy. It wouldn't be like when Willow…I just wanted to offer. You know I wouldn't do anything without your—"
"No!" The blonde vampire closed her eyes, shielding them with her hand. "I mean, yes. I mean, I think I need to lie down." And so she moved over to sink down into the couch, still rubbing her temple.
Tara hovered next to her. "Are you sure, because we don't…I just thought…."
Buffy blinked up at her, her voice small inside her. "Where do you think I'll be…when I sleep?"
A long pause. "I'm sorry, Buffy, but I just don't know."
She could only nod, having anticipated the not knowing. From the open door down into the basement, she could hear voices as everyone else attempted to secure the demon in the middle of her bedroom.
And then when Tara continued just standing there, Buffy could only say "please," feeling the warm hand touch her forehead before she drifted off.
"Don't the people at the hardware store wonder why you're always buying chains?"
"Probably just think it's kinky."
Giles gave his scowl to both Anya and Faith. "There are plenty of legitimate, everyday reasons that one might need chains."
"Yeah, An, he could be planning on playing Marley's ghost in this year's Christmas Carol."
Dawn nodded gravely at Xander. "And we all know how important authenticity is in those community theater productions."
Giles chose to ignore both of them, grunting a little as he pulled the metal links tight. Bound to one of the basement's support poles, the demon was beginning to wake and shift against its captivity.
"Or we could have just used the chains already up in here." Xander gestured over at the manacles that had hung above Buffy's bed before they moved it.
Anya was busy trying to figure out a place to ditch her rope. "Except that those are for Buffy and Faith's sex games." She settled on under the bed.
The dark slayer pulled the other end of the chain tight. "That, and I'm thinkin' extractin' skewers from demons with that kinda range of movement would be sorta like playin' a game of Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey in hell."
Xander looked over at his wife. "She has a point." He noticed her expression. "And, no, I'm not going to install any manacles over our bed." A pause garnered a look from Faith and Willow. "Yes, I do have a line, people."
"Alrighty then." Willow clapped her hands, moving in with rubber gloves up to her elbows. "I think we're just supposed to stick something in…." She jabbed the demon's arm with a meat fork.
"Please tell me you're going to wash that before we have steak again."
"And, voila!" Willow took the now-extended spike and bent it back, breaking it off. The demon roared. She ignored it. "I'll need alkanet root and a handful of nettle leaf." A pause. "Just for the medicinal properties."
Faith raised her eyebrow, but kept her mouth shut and wandered upstairs.
"Hey, B. Ya missed out on some—" Faith caught sight of Tara's finger over her lips, then pointing down to the couch. The blonde slayer was curled up, murmuring in restless sleep. Tara watched the brunette's face, bare of all its swagger for the moment. Just a girl looking at a girl.
When Faith spoke again, her voice was so carefully hushed Tara had to lean in to hear it. "She probably needs it, huh?"
"I think so. I think it must be very confusing for her, not really knowing where she is."
"Well, your girl's workin' on the cure. Said she might could use your help." Willow hadn't said any such thing, but Faith figured it couldn't hurt to have the redhead a little more supervised. Tara perked up at the mention of Willow, but looked back down when Buffy shifted in her sleep. They could both see the slayer's eyes flickering rapidly behind her eyelids. "Don't worry…I'll take her someplace quiet."
"She can have my bed."
Faith and Tara looked up, having not noticed Dawn. The younger Summers stood at the edge of the living room, watching her sister.
Faith nodded, bending to scoop up the slight blonde into her arms. "Right." Cradling her, she headed for the stairs.
Buffy woke alone. There was a pressure point in her abdomen where the button of her jeans bit into her skin. She could see the moon.
The faint lines of bedspread and dresser and mirror. She sat up and wasn't reflected. Dawn's room? The house sat quiet around her.
The bedside lamp was turned to its lowest setting, a softer light than the "1:07" on the alarm clock. To one side, a note folded over and a cup.
Buffy--
We wanted to let you sleep, but finally got the antidote ready. Sorry it kind of smells and probably tastes worse! But no magic, so next time if you want cherry flavored….
Wake one of us when you get up!
--Willow
She put the note where it had been, carefully folding it back. She picked up the cup and looked down into it. Her nose wrinkled at the smell. It had gone cold. She held it out in front of her as she moved towards the door.
Down the hallway she could hear breathing. Willow. Tara. Dawn. Everyone in their own room. Downstairs she found Xander and Anya curled on the couch. She stared at them for a moment. Then the kitchen, the dining room. No Faith.
She went down the stairs into the basement. Her bedroom. The demon was still chained there, quiet for the moment, eyeing her. Beyond it, her bed was empty. The metal clinked softly as the creature shifted to watch her move over to the bed, sit down on it. It was still unmade from earlier. She put a hand on the cold sheets.
Shifting again, the demon watched her leave the cup on the bedside table and walk back up the stairs. It heard the front door click shut.
Following the little tingle at the base of her spine, it didn't take long to find her counterpart. And feel the slightly different tingle of vampires. A lot of them. She pulled a stake out of her boot and flung it to take care of one sneaking up behind Faith.
The dark slayer raised an eyebrow at the dust that sifted down over her hair, but wasn't surprised to find Buffy there. She'd felt her come into the graveyard, and had relaxed into her fight.
"Good of ya to skimp on the beauty rest to help me with my homework assignment out here, B."
The blonde snapped off a roundhouse that sent one vampire flying back into a tree. She put her hand on her hip. "Is that a veiled comment about my looks?" She could do this. She was always good at quipping and fighting.
Faith gave her a sly grin, rolling back on her heels to avoid a telegraphed punch. "Well, I wasn't gonna mention the bedhead, but since you brought it up…."
"No fair!" The blonde pouted, her hand reaching up to smooth down the long waves of her hair. It flared out again as she spun into a kick. "Some of us don't have the benefit of a mirror, you know." She paused to scowl over at her vampire, who had inconveniently remained standing. She kicked him again because it felt good to. "Which means, of course, that you're not allowed to leave me to wake up alone again." Stumbling back from a punch, Faith fell into her arms.
Faith pulled her close for a minute, enjoying those green eyes glinting back at her in the dark. She leaned in to whisper. "Feelin' better?"
The blonde opened her mouth, but then abruptly ducked the branch that came at her head, hand guiding Faith's head down, too. The slayers crouched together and then launched off in different directions.
Faith flipped back to catch two vamps with a boot to the face. "Hey! We're tryin' to have some meaningful conversation over here!"
"I think you're just upset that I left you hanging in bed earlier." Buffy felt her face remembering how to grin. From Faith's reaction, she guessed she must have pretty good recall.
"Blue-ballin' isn't usually your style, B. So," the dark slayer shrugged, "then I knew you must be sick." She smiled as she landed a punch. "Glad Willow's chicken soup for the hallucinating did its number."
Buffy was stuck back at the word "sick," catching a flash of the hospital intruding. Those white walls. She fought it off. Not now! "Not sure you can really call it blue balls when there aren't any—"
Three vampires interrupted, having finally struck on the idea of attacking simultaneously. Between the three of them, they got two kicks in and one kidney shot that doubled Buffy over. She came up growling, her face sliding into demon before she could stop it. Feeling the fangs extend, her face went as blank as the vampires in front of her.
"Hey, you're—!"
Another one took less time about it, and reached up to pick up a branch off the ground. "Which means we know just how to kill you."
Faith dashed in just before he plunged it into her chest, spiriting her away to tumble across the ground. "Snap to, B." The blonde dutifully shook her head and then reached out to grab the branch before the vampire repurposed it as a club to bash in Faith's brains. Heaving it backwards, she left her stomach open to attack and took a vicious kick there. Clutching her ribs, she rolled away from his returning boot, looking over to see Faith flip up and punch out at two more.
They needed to start dusting some of these.
Picking the stake out of her other boot, she did just that, eliminating one of Faith's attackers from afar. The dark slayer blew her a kiss and went back to wailing on her other. And Buffy realized that was her last stake. It was time to start improvising.
Luckily, branch-boy was back again. She let the weapon rush down at her, catching it only at the last moment. With a twist, she wrenched it away and then pushed it back through its owner. His dust fell down in her mouth.
It was dry, cottony. Like they said the pills would make it.
"Just a few more, Buffy. The doctor thinks it won't take much now. Most of the work now is up to you."
The chill of a hard plastic chair filtered through the thin cotton of her pants.
The vampire pressed her into the gravestone, bending her over that cold stone. He had been going for her neck, out of habit, pulling up when he finally realized that wouldn't work. Struggling back into the moment, she let his momentum carry both of them back over the headstone together. Tangled on the other side, her elbow to his face kept him stunned long enough for her to grab one of her stakes from the ground and jam it home.
And then a body came flying over to land heavily on top of her. "Faith!" The dark slayer's jaw was reddening into a bruise as she rolled off the blonde.
"Sorry, B. Goddamn uppercut." She noticed the other girl grabbing her left side. "Your rib?"
Buffy groaned, massaging with fingers to tell if it was a crack or a break. She forced herself to talk through it. "Maybe you should lay off those twinkies—"
She was cut off by the stake—her own in a vampire's hand—whistling down at her. Twisting at the last moment, she felt it go into her shoulder instead and stick there. Screaming, each hand closed on a clump of grass and ripped it out by the roots.
"B! Fuck! Hold on!" Faith's hands were there, wincing when she pulled it out, knowing how much it must hurt. There was another scream that changed octaves into a half warning that managed the first three letters of her name. Without looking behind her, Faith lashed out, aim true enough for the vampire looming.
But not for the other one by his side. He swung his own branch and caught Faith full force in the side of her head. She dropped like a stone, eyes closed, rolled over on her side. Blood already flowing freely from her temple.
Buffy scrambled, crying out, placing her body over Faith's as the vampire kicked out. She could feel how still Faith was under her.
"That's it, sweety! I knew you could do it!"
"Do what—!" It hit her. "Hey, I didn't do that to her!"
The doctor was patient, hand on her arm. "Buffy, you're in control of everything that happens there."
"But I didn't—!" She was still protesting when the boot hit her side and her ribs, and the words devolved into a hoarse scream. She grabbed out blindly, hardly able to see through the pain, but a boot is a fairly big thing to grab and she found it, yanking hard.
She would pay for that later with her shoulder as she felt something pop. But it was worth it to pull the vampire down. Fumbling, found her stake and plunged it in and the graveyard was quiet.
Buffy hardly noticed.
"No, no, no, no…." She was fumbling now to push the other girl's jacket aside, find that pulse point. The faint, hopeful tremor. It was there. Underneath all the blood, Faith was pale but breathing.
All the blood.
"It's okay if you have to do it that way, honey."
"Do what—?" It dawned on her. "Oh god, I can't—" She caught the doctor's warning glance at her mother.
"Buffy, listen to me. You have to work within the world you've created. You've made yourself a vampire. In so many ways, that makes it easier for you to—"
All the blood. The smell of it. Almost knocking her over.
She staggered back on her knees, looked around wildly, seeing only the empty graveyard, all the headstones.
Faith moaned and Buffy's head snapped down to her. The pulse was stronger now in her neck. Her eyes didn't miss it. She knew what it meant.
So instead she squeezed her side. Hard. Forcing herself to go down on one hand then while the lightning show of pain played out on the inside of her eyelids. But she could still smell it, still feel the moan humming in her throat. The pain didn't make it go away and probably only made her want it more. Her side throbbed. The wound in her shoulder was a point of pain.
"Can't—" She wasn't sure who she was talking to.
She struggled to lift Faith, and nearly collapsed. Now the slayer's blood was on her clothes. She tried again, moving slowly, barely making it to a mausoleum before she went down on her knees. The brunette's head rested quietly against her chest. She forced the door and went inside, practically crawling at the end, putting Faith out of the way behind a tomb.
She meant to stay.
But then she was running and running, her mind elsewhere.
"You can do it, Buffy, I know you can. You've always been so strong."
"Mom…" Her eyes teared up. "Mom, I don't want to be that way."
And suddenly Buffy was pulled into her mother's embrace, feeling that familiar warmth, safety. "I know…I know." Whispered into her hair.
"Tell me what I have to do."
