"Buffy." Willow stood with her arms crossed over her chest. "What are you doing here?"

Buffy sighed and almost turned around to leave, but she forced herself to stay. "I was hoping we could talk."

"Why would you think I would be willing to talk to you? Faith told me what you did!"

Buffy gritted her teeth in frustration. Not understanding how her best friend could be treating her so coldly. But, she knew there was no point to try and defend herself until she could explain what happened with Faith. She just needed Willow to give her a chance. "Five minutes. Please?"

"Fine. But you're not coming in here. I don't want you to come after me the same way you went after Faith." Willow stood with her arms crossed smugly over her chest. Buffy couldn't even begin to understand how this had happened. Willow was so sweet and kind - how did she turn into this?

"I know we haven't had much chance to talk since Faith and I visited all those other dimensions." Buffy hesitated and almost lost her nerve. Faith's whispered words of support from the shadows helped her push through.

"You might want to get to the point a little faster." Willow scowled.

"Right, OK." Buffy took a deep breath. "So we met a few different versions of ourselves. In the last place we were, we met a very dark version of Faith. She was in league with the Mayor…."

"Faith already told us about this." Willow cut her off. "She said it was a dark version of you and that you wanted to stay there and rule over Sunnydale."

Buffy wasn't surprised by this news. "Yeah, I figured she would tell you that. Here's the thing, though." Buffy slid her sleeve up - revealing her tattoo. "Before that dimension - we were in another one - where everyone received these magical tattoos."

"So?" Willow tapped her foot in annoyance. "Faith said she's getting her's removed - so she doesn't have any ties to you."

"Right." Buffy had to swallow at the lump in her throat. The thought of the real Faith removing her tattoo had her losing her train of thought.

"Red." Faith was suddenly right next to Buffy, with her arm around her waist. Buffy leaned gratefully into her support.

"Faith? What are you doing here?" Willow said excitedly and reached to pull Faith into the house. Faith kept her hold on Buffy, which ended up with all three of them inside. Willow tried to shove Buffy out, but she was no match for Faith.

"Just chill out on B. OK?"

Willow relented and took a step back. "What is going on here? Why are you being nice to her?"

"Look, Red. The Faith you've been talking to - she's that twisted up version of me that B was talking about."

"You're lying!" Willow accused, "what did you do to her?" Willow launched herself at Buffy. Throwing wild and chaotic punches and kicks. Buffy defended herself, but it hurt her soul to see Willow so upset with her, and she really didn't want to do anything that might hurt her friend.

"Red, relax." Faith wrapped her arms around Willow from behind. Squeezing slightly and pulling Willow away. Willow continued to flail her arms and legs, but she could no longer reach Buffy.

"Let me go, Faith! She has you under a spell!". Willow screeched and Buffy was beginning to doubt shed ever get her friend back.

"I'm gonna let you go - just don't attack B again. OK?"

"Fine." Willow pouted, and Faith let her go but stayed close enough to grab her if she needed to.

Buffy looked to Faith, desperately hoping she would know how to get Willow to understand. Unfortunately, Faith was doing the same thing to Buffy. both realizing they should have figured out what to say before come here.

Finally, something occurred to Buffy. She smacked her head in annoyance with herself for not figuring it out sooner. Walking over to the coffee table, she picked up a tin of cookies. "Where did you get these?"

"Faith gave them to me."

"She's been feeding you guys a lot, hasn't she?" Buffy asked, and Willow frowned as she folded her arms over her chest in a huff.

"So?"

Buffy tilted her head at Faith in apology for what she was about to say. "So…" She started, but Faith jumped in.

"Red - do you really think I bake cookies? Think about how things were before B and me went on our dimension-hopping adventure. I lived in a fucking hotel room."

"You said you wanted to do something nice for us. That since you got an apartment, you learned how to cook." Willow pouted, not at all understanding what they were talking about.

"I have an apartment?" Faith raised an eyebrow at Buffy, and Buffy chuckled.

"Maybe we can talk about that later?" Buffy suggested, and Faith grinned. Buffy turned her attention back to Willow. "Do you remember Ted? Remember how he drugged everyone into thinking he wasn't a murderous robot?"

"So now you're trying to say Faith is a robot?" Willow was bewildered, and Buffy groaned.

"No - like I said - she's an evil version of Faith from one of the dimensions we visited."

"How do I know you're not the evil versions?" Willow retorted.

Buffy dropped sadly onto the couch and rubbed at her face. She wasn't sure she was strong enough to handle this. Faith sat next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "We'll figure this out, B. Don't worry."

Willow watched the scene in confusion. "Why are you so beat-up? I saw you like two hours ago, and you were fine."

Faith leaned forward a little. "The other Faith did this to me. She had me chained up and tortured me for info about you guys."

Willow tilted her head as some of the fog in her head was starting to clear. "Did you… tell her wrong stuff?"

Faith grinned. "Sure did. Hoped B would figure it out, but I guess you guy's cut her out of your lives." Her eyes narrowed at Willow as she finished talking.

"Well... Faith said… she…." Willow shook her head a few times to try and clear the confusion.

"She told everyone that I..." Buffy hated saying it out loud. "That I wouldn't stop harassing you and that I tried to..." Buffy couldn't even say all of what she had overheard her friends talking about. It made her feel even worse since the first part of that wasn't entirely false.

Faith's outburst of laughter shocked Buffy. nothing about this seemed funny to her. "Are you serious? And you believed that, Red?"

Willow frowned and looked over to Buffy. "She... she was very convincing."

"That's so fucked up. How could you think that even for a second?" Faith was outraged on Buffy's behalf. "Especially you, Red. You know that I've been crushing on B since the beginning."

"What?" Buffy practically jumped off the couch. "You had a crush on me? And you knew about it!" Buffy couldn't figure what she felt more of at this moment. Hearing about the crush was completely surprising and made her beyond happy. But - not only did Willow know and not tell her, but she also somehow believed that Buffy could have assaulted Faith.

"Don't be too hard on her, B. I made her promise not to say anything."

Buffy frowned but let Faith pull her back onto the couch.

"I'm so sorry, Buffy." Willow was near tears.

"It's OK." Buffy managed to say, though she wasn't sure it was OK at all.

"Fuck that, B. It's not right that she thought you could do that. Whether she knew about how I felt or not - no way should she ever have believed you could do that."

Willow winced and leaned back against the wall. "I'm a terrible person." Willow covered her hands with her face and began to cry.

Faith motioned for Buffy to comfort her friend. With reluctance, Buffy crossed the room and pulled Willow in for a hug. Willow was bawling, and Buffy was barely able to comfort her. She wanted to - she really did. But she just didn't have it in her - not yet.

"Alright - now how are we going to get that shit version of me out of this dimension?" Faith could see how much Buffy was struggling and hoped getting them focused would end Willow's crying.

"Cordelia!" Buffy shouted with excitement, but no one else understood. "She wouldn't eat the carbs from Ted. Remember?"

Willow rubbed her temple, "I guess. Not sure if I noticed her eating anything from Faith."

"Not-Faith." Buffy corrected automatically. "She's the reason I was invited to that planning meeting? Right?"

"Oh, yeah. Guess so." Willow furrowed her brow and looked away in shame.

Buffy was starting to feel hopeful again. With Faith, Willow and Cordelia, maybe there was a chance to get rid of Not-Faith and get her life back. "Where's Giles?"

"Oh." Willow looked away guilty. "After you stopped... um... the council..."

"They deported him." Buffy finished the thought that Willow couldn't seem to. "Do you think you can get in contact with him?"

Willow nodded.

"OK, so we've almost got a plan here. We get Giles back and see what Cordy knows." Faith was starting to feel excited. She wasn't sure how things would go down - but she was sure it would work out. She was going to fix all her mistakes, and she was going to make Buffy happy.

Nothing was going to get in her way.

"About time," Cordelia rolled her eyes as she opened the sliding door.

Again Buffy felt like she was being chastised when she didn't deserve it.

"Look, I'm sorry - OK?" Cordelia said. "I knew things were rough for you, but I had no idea how to help you."

Buffy was surprised that Cordelia was apologizing to her. She wasn't quite ready to accept it, though. "Yeah, rough." Buffy frowned and felt her confidence slipping away.

"Do you have a plan?" Faith asked, seeing Buffy's sadness and hoping to get things back on track. She needed this to be over as soon as possible.

"Well, the simplest idea is to have a party and capture that bitch version of you." Cordelia smiled at everyone's surprised reactions. "Lucky for us all - I've already set one up for tomorrow night."

"And she's coming for sure?" Buffy asked, wincing a little at the idea of having to confront Not-Faith and worried about what they were going to do with her. There was no way they could kill her, and she wasn't sure how they could permanently get her out of their lives.

"Of course, she will. No one skips out on one of my parties." Cordy says flippantly, and Buffy rolled her eyes.

"What do we do in the meantime?" Faith asked, feeling antsy. It had been way too long since she slayed.

"I suggest you both stay out of sight." Cordelia motioned to the two slayers. "You can stay here tonight."

"You want us to just stay in your house until tomorrow night?" Faith really hated that idea. She'd been trapped in a small cell for months, and she this felt like just a plusher version of confinement.

"She's right," Buffy said with a frown, easily reading how much Faith hated the idea. "It's the safest way to make sure no one knows where you are."

"Buffy!" Willow had been in the other room trying to get a hold of Giles.

Buffy could tell from how anxious Willow sounded that it was not going to be great news. "Did you find Giles?"

Willow shook her head. "Nobody knows where he is."

"Great." Buffy was starting to lose hope again.

"After what happened with Mrs. Post..." Willow's eyes darted nervously to Faith. "Giles gave me a few numbers of people he trusted - just in case something weird happened again."

"OK..." Buffy isn't sure where this was going.

"So no one knows where Giles is... but..." Willow trailed off and squinted at the screen of her laptop.

"C'mon, Red. Get to the point." Faith was trying to be patient, but she was still pretty furious with Willow for being so cruel to Buffy.

"Oh, right. Sorry." Willow shook her head as if trying to clear it. "The people that Giles trusted all seemed to think that Wesley is up to something. He's been requesting a lot of research material lately - material revolving around portals and demon dimensions."

"Did they have any idea what this might mean?" Buffy asked, not at all liking the sound of this.

Willow consulted her screen again. "There is something called the Order of Dagon. They were apparently guarding this source of energy."

"Dagon?" Buffy asked, and everyone looked at her with surprise.

"You've heard of it?" There was derision in Willow's voice, and Buffy cringed away from it.

"No... I guess not." Buffy's voice was small, and Faith frowned at her reaction. She knew Buffy didn't like research any more than she did. But Buffy wasn't the moron that Willow was implying.

"Well," Willow continued to read. "This energy is what separates the earthly dimensions from the demon ones."

"OK, so what's the big deal?" Faith asked.

"Everyone in the order is dead, and no one knows where the energy is," Willow says flatly, and the slayers share a nervous glance.

Faith looks at Buffy, expecting her to say something, but Buffy stays silent with her eyes fixed firmly on the floor. "So we're assuming the Mayor killed the Dagon people has this energy?" Faith says after accepting that Buffy is not going to take charge here. "What can he do with it?"

Willow was silent for a while as she continued to read. "It looks like there is a certain time and place where this energy is at its weakest, and during that window, it can be used to destroy the barriers between the worlds. Basically allowing the demon dimensions full access to ours."

Faith looked at Buffy, who was still staring at the ground and Faith wasn't sure how to fix it. Buffy needed her confidence back. Faith was hoped that once they were alone, Faith would be able to turn things around.

"OK, so he only gets one shot at this?" Faith asked, and Willow nodded. "Do we know when?"

"According to their calculations - it's graduation." Willow squinted at the screen again with a frown.

"What could he need me - or her for?" Faith asked, trying to put the rest of the pieces together.

"Muscle?" Willow suggested, and Buffy scoffed.

Everyone looked at her again, and Faith tried to encourage her to elaborate. "I mean - I doubt it. I don't think she's much of a fighter."

Willow frowned, "but she's a slayer?"

"Have you seen her slay anything?" Buffy asked, not quite able to keep the anger out of her voice. Faith was glad to see that Buffy was still in there.

Willow thought about it for a moment, "no - I guess not."

"So why bring her here?" Faith asked, but no one seemed to have answers.

"I'll keep researching." Willow offers and packs up her laptop. "I have to get home - I'll let you know if I learn anything else."

"I'll show you to the guest room." Cordelia motions for Faith to follow, and Buffy trails behind them. She was wracking her brain, trying to remember where she had heard Dagon before.

"Are you OK?" Buffy looked up to see Faith staring at her from an open doorway.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Buffy frowned, feeling immensely awkward. She had no idea what she should be doing with herself. "I guess I should head home."

"Why? Don't you want to stay with me?" Faith asked before she could stop herself. She did not mean to whine.

"Of course I do - I just... don't know if I should." Buffy was excited that Faith wanted her to stay - she was just a little too beaten down to accept that it was real.

"You definitely should stay." Faith grinned and pulled Buffy into the guest room.

Buffy didn't know what was going to happen now. She was starting to believe that Faith really did like her. So far, Faith was saying everything she wanted to hear, but she wasn't sure she could deal if Faith went back to be aloof and confusing.

She could also hear Giles' voice in her head. Telling her that this wasn't the time to be focusing on her love life.

"Ready for tomorrow?" Buffy asked, trying to be mature and responsible and not think about how much she wishes they had a portal stone.

"You know me, B. I'm always ready for a fight." Faith grinned and approached Buffy. "Just in case this goes bad." Faith says just before wrapping her arms around Buffy's waist and pulling her close.

"Don't say that." Buffy lamented but did not try to escape Faith's embrace. "This is going to work."

"Of course it is." Faith smiled and then leaned in. Faith had always been a 'live in the moment' kind of girl - there was no way to know if she'd live another day so she knew she had to take advantage of every opportunity. She had already wasted far too much time pushing Buffy away, it was time to let her all the way in.

Buffy moaned loudly as Faith kissed her. This was nothing like the other chaste kisses they had previously shared. It did not take long until it turned into a heated make-out session.

"Faith." Buffy moaned loudly as Faith began kissing her neck while her hands slid under Buffy's shirt. "That feels incredible." Buffy felt like a dork for saying that out loud, but Faith was finally touching her, and she wasn't going to hold anything back.

Faith chuckled while removing Buffy's shirt and practically ripping off her own. "We're just getting started with the incredible."

Buffy grinned and rolled her eyes at the lameness. Any plans to pick on Faith vanished as a warm mouth encircled one of her nipples, and a tongue flicked over it. The responsible voice in her head was telling her they should not be doing this now. That voice was being drowned out by Faith's moan of ecstasy when Buffy's hand moved down her sides to grab her ass and force their bodies closer together.

"Wait," Buffy said and wasn't sure whose groan of disappointment was louder when Faith pulled back.

"Wait like we should put clothes back on - or wait like... I dunno something simple?" Faith asked, really hoping it was the latter. Now that Buffy was in her arms, she couldn't imagine having to stop.

Buffy laughed and burrowed her head against Faith's shoulder. "I'll ask the question, and you decide about the clothes."

Faith was worried but accepted these terms.

"I have to know - what was going on in the last dimension?"

Faith sighed but understood the question and why Buffy needed to ask it. "Shirts stay off, but let's lay down."

Buffy nodded in agreement, more than happy to lay down in Faith's embrace. Once they were situated, Buffy had one more thing to say. "Just so you know - I can't take any more..." She blubbered for a bit, not able to find the right words. Any words she might have been able to get out were cut off by Faith's lips on hers.

Faith kissed her slowly and gently, hoping to convey everything she felt, but was terrified to say. "You don't gotta explain. I get it."

Buffy breathed a sigh of relief, nuzzled into Faith's neck, and waited for Faith to start talking.

"Once we made it to that camp - I decided to just see what it could be like. Which I know was probably super fucked up for you. But you weren't saying anything, and I just wanted to get as much of you as I possibly could before we got back here. I know it was wrong. I should have..." Faith still wasn't sure what she should have done, so she just left it. "but I just had a feeling we were getting home soon... and that would be my last chance to have all of you."

"Faith." Buffy started, but Faith shook her head.

"You have no idea how much I hate myself for how I treated you. You were offering me everything I could ever want. I just didn't feel like I could have it. In this world, I always fuck everything up. No matter what I try to do. I always fuck it up." Faith held Buffy tight, grateful that Buffy wasn't shoving her away.

Buffy's heart was breaking, but she didn't know what to say. She didn't know enough about Faith to come up with any kind of counter to what Faith was saying.

Faith wasn't crying. She was too angry with herself to cry. She did her best to shake off her anger and focus on Buffy. "But look, all that time alone - I had time to really think about us. And well... I dunno... we make a good team."

Buffy burst out laughing and pulled back a little so she could see Faith's face. "Make a good team? That's what you came up with?"

"Hey, come on!" Faith pouted, and it was about the cutest thing Buffy had ever seen. "Most of the time, I was barely conscious - it seemed pretty brilliant to me."

Buffy laughed again and kissed her. "No, you're right. We do make a good team. At least when you aren't fighting me about every little thing." Buffy winked so Faith would know she was joking.

Faith smiled and kissed Buffy some more. "So yeah... I'm not much with explaining my feelings... but I want this. I want to..." She practically choked on the words. "I want to be your girlfriend."

Buffy was taken aback. She did not expect Faith to be able to say it. Even if she did stumble over the word a bit.

"Oh, since we're asking questions..." Faith trailed off and looked a little unsure for the first time during this conversation. "Angel."

"What about him?" Buffy wasn't quite up on the conversation shift, but suddenly Faith's body was rigid against hers.

"What's he going to think about this?"

"Oh!" Buffy finally understood. "Well, considering how frosty he was when I told him I thought he should leave Sunnydale - I don't think he's going to be any more upset. I think he's in LA."

"You didn't go back to him?" Faith's voice was tentative and scared.

"There are so many reasons why I didn't and never would go back to him. We were completely ridiculous for trying." Buffy paused but decided to just go all in. "When I thought how I felt about you and how I felt about him - there was just no comparison. And even though at the time, I knew you and I would never be together - I knew that that's what love should feel like. I never loved him the way I thought I did - not the way I love you."

Faith was silent, and Buffy was more than a little terrified that she had just ruined everything. Deciding that she wouldn't leave until Faith told her to, Buffy just relaxed back into Faith's arms and waited.

"I hoped that you did go back to him." Faith's voice was small, and Buffy was very confused.

"Why would you want that?"

"Because if you did - that would have meant you weren't alone all this time." Faith couldn't stop berating herself for how much she had hurt Buffy.

"Oh, yeah. Guess I can see that." Buffy was confused that Faith could have just glossed over the love part of her little babble fest. "It never even crossed my mind to ask him to come back when things got hard. Once I realized how much I loved you - it just didn't seem fair."

Faith stiffened and took a deep breath. Buffy watched her clearly trying to get control of herself and wondered what was going through her mind.

"Please talk to me, Faith." Buffy propped herself up a little so she could see Faith's face more clearly. "I hope you know you can trust me with anything."

"How... why don't you blame me?"

"What?"

"Why aren't you pissed at me for leaving the way I did?" Faith asked and held her breath - just knowing that Buffy was going to start screaming at her. Or even worse - Buffy would laugh and say how this had all been a cruel joke.

Mostly, she was positive that Buffy would never do anything like that. It wouldn't be the first time Faith had been burned, though. Faith had thought she was loved before, only to learn it was something else entirely.

"When you first got here - I was so insanely jealous of you."

"What?" Faith was too shocked to even try denying Buffy's claim.

"You had everything I wanted. Freedom to do anything and be anyone. Everyone who met you - instantly liked you." Buffy shuddered when she thought about Scott Hope. She hadn't even liked him until she saw Faith talking to him.

"Except you." Faith snapped her mouth shut, regretting still being bitter about how Buffy had initially felt about her.

"Hold that thought." Buffy gave Faith a moment before she continued. "When you arrived, I was just starting to get my life back together after having to kill Angel. My mom and friends were starting to feel like mine again."

"What does that mean?"

Buffy sighed - Faith's question reminded her of how little she shared with Faith. "Can we save that part for later?"

"I guess." Faith furrowed her brow. Nothing Buffy was telling her made sense so far and now it sounded like Buffy was brushing her off.

"We will talk about it, I promise. I just want to get through this part first." Faith didn't say anything, so Buffy pushed forward. "There were a lot of reasons why I didn't try harder with you in the beginning. One of the biggest was because... because I felt so drawn to you."

Faith stiffened slightly in Buffy's arms, but Buffy did her best not to let that stop her.

"It was very confusing. I had never felt that way before. I wanted to know everything about you - at the same time, I was terrified. It didn't seem like you felt the same way. You didn't want to know me at all."

Buffy paused here, hoping that Faith would say something. When she didn't, Buffy began to freak out a little. Believing there was a good chance that this conversation wasn't going to end the way she hoped - she decided just to keep going. She could no longer deal with regretting not telling Faith how she felt.

"Well... so yeah... there was that, and then Angel showed up. Then I was even more confused. I had no idea why he was back. I knew I didn't love him anymore, but I felt responsible for him. There have been so many days that I wished I had told you about him sooner. That I had let you help me figure it out."

Buffy sucked in a breath. "Maybe it wouldn't have mattered. You obviously didn't like me then." Buffy hesitated, wondering if Faith even liked her now. "So that was a really roundabout way of saying the reason that I don't blame you for how things have been between us - is because most if not all of it - is my fault."

Buffy was really starting to wish they had put their clothes back on. It felt wrong to have her arm draped over Faith's bare midsection, so she moved just enough to tuck it in closer to her own body. Buffy did her best to wait for Faith's reaction before doing anything else. Her eyes were squeezed tightly shut to keep any tears at bay.

Faith was shifting away from her, and Buffy prepared herself for the worst. It was a shock then when instead of Faith telling her to leave - Faith was kissing her in a way she had never been kissed before.

"I'm sorry you thought I didn't like you." Faith said when she pulled back. "I was just..."

"Hey - how about this?" Buffy reached up to tilt Faith's face towards her. "We were both kinda jerks in different ways, but we're here now. Can we just trust each other and leave the past behind us? I really don't want to spend another moment hiding how I feel about you."

Faith smiled at the implication and nodded before leaning back down to kiss her. "No more waiting?"

"No more waiting." Buffy agreed and pulled Faith back down for a searing kiss. She was nervous for so many reasons, but the thing she was most worried about was going another moment without showing Faith exactly how she felt about her.

Buffy unclipped Faith's bra and quickly slid her hands under the fabric. Buffy had never touched another woman before, but she let her instincts and Faith's reactions guide her.

"Fuck." Faith hissed, and her body undulated against Buffy's. "I missed you so much, B."

"You did?"

Faith chuckled and slid her hands down Buffy's side. "'Course I did. So fucking much."

"I missed you too." Buffy had been fantasizing about this moment for months. Not just being able to touch Faith, but Faith actually talking to her. She couldn't believe this was actually happening. "Promise me." She gasped out as Faith's fingers fumbled with the button on her jeans.

"Promise you what?" Faith didn't stop her efforts to take off Buffy's pants. Whatever it was that Buffy needed her to promise - she was definitely going to do it.

"Promise me that you're real. That you'll be here in the morning, and you'll still be you." Buffy felt ridiculous, but she needed to hear it.

Faith grinned and finally managed to work her hand into place. "I promise, B. I'm real, and I am not going anywhere."

"If you're not real - I am so going to kick your ass," Buffy says before unbuttoning Faith's jeans and sliding her hand inside to mirror what Faith's hand was doing to her.