A/N: Thanks to those of you who have stuck with me and didn't give up hope that I'd come back to this fic. Welcome to anyone new reading, I hope you like the story so far.
If you haven't gathered already, Spike is not a character I've ever really liked so expect plenty more angst between him and Faith.
Anywho, short update this time. I have a bit of work to do on the next chapter, the bones of it are sorted but my muse needs to fine tune it a smidge. Hopefully I'll get it up in a few weeks.
Chapter 15: We're Going to Win
Int: Buffy's Room
"What do you think?" Buffy stood, facing all of her friends, bristling with excitement
"That depends. Are you in any way…kidding?" Xander chimed in, incredulous.
Buffy frowned at him, "You don't think it's a good idea?"
Faith was standing opposite Buffy, arms folded across her chest, smiling at the blonde, "It's pretty radical, B." Buffy smiled gratefully at the brunette.
"It's a lot more than that." Giles piped in; he stands and turns to address Buffy and the group, "Buffy, what you said, it—it flies in the face of everything we've ever—every generation has ever done in the fight against evil." Removing his glasses he smiles warmly at the blonde, "I think its bloody brilliant!"
Buffy looked fondly at her x-watcher, relieved, "You mean that?"
"If you want my opinion." Giles says softly.
"I really do." Buffy looked into his eyes, in that moment all the tension between them melted away.
Willow had become increasingly agitated throughout the whole exchange, "Whoa, hey. Not to poop on the party here, but I'm the guy that's gonna have to pull this thing off."
Faith placed a hand encouragingly on the witch's shoulder, "It is beaucoup de mojo! But we believe in you, Red."
Buffy glanced at the dark slayer, "You know French?" she asked, dumbfounded.
Faith just smirked and shrugged and turned her attention back to Willow.
"This goes beyond anything I've ever done. It's a total loss of control, and not in a nice, wholesome, my girlfriend has a pierced tongue kind of way."
Nearly losing it, Faith almost choked as she stared straight at Kennedy, snickering. The potential Slayer blushed and looked away, embarrassed.
Buffy continued, trying to keep a straight face, avoiding eye contact with Faith who was struggling to maintain her composure, "I wouldn't ask if I didn't think you could do it."
"I—I'm not sure that I'm stable enough." Willow is genuinely concerned.
"You can do this, Willow. We'll get the coven on the line, and we'll find out how they can help." Giles says gently.
"Yeah, Red." Faith gently slapped her on the shoulder, "We're all here to help." She smirked at Kennedy, "Maybe I should get my tongue pierced when this is over." She muttered softly under her breathe, winking at the potential. Willow laughed nervously, ignoring the dark slayer. Buffy stared open mouthed at Faith, her Slayer hearing allowing her to hear what the brunette had muttered. Faith caught her eye and smirked, "Ya catching flies there, B." she chuckled, causing the blonde to snap her mouth shut.
"Oh!" Dawn suddenly exclaimed, "Pierced tongue."
Buffy panicked, "Dawn needs to do a research thing."
"Yes, you do." Giles chimed in quickly.
Rolling her eyes Dawn stood and headed out, "It's cool. Watcher junior to the library."
Giles followed her, "I'll go dig up my sources. Quite literally, actually." He muttered, cleaning his glasses awkwardly as he left.
Anya turned to Xander, "Come on. Let's go assemble the canon fodder."
Faith snickered and shook her head at Anya; embarrassed Xander quickly followed the ex-demon, "That's not what we're calling them, sweetie."
Buffy and Faith were left standing in the room with Willow. The witch smiled at them, looking a bit nauseas. Buffy handed the scythe to her, "You'll be fine, Willow." She said encouragingly, before heading out the door. Faith just smiled and nodded slightly at the witch, her expression saying it all, that she will be there to help but also to do what the others might not be able to do if Willow turns evil and veiny again. Willow mouths, "thankyou", and smiles at the brunette as she exits the room.
Int: Living room at Summers' residence
Faith is standing next to the mantelpiece, leaning on it and watching Buffy address the room full of potential slayers and her friends. Girl has guts, the last time she addressed everyone we staged a coup. Faith mused, respect and admiration for the Blonde in her eyes.
"I hate this. I hate being here. I hate that you have to be here. I hate that there's evil, and that I was chosen to fight it. I wish, a whole lot of the time, that I hadn't been. I know a lot of you wish I hadn't been either. But this isn't about wishes. This is about choices. I believe we can beat this evil. Not when it comes, not when its army is ready, now. Tomorrow morning I'm opening the seal. I'm going down into the hellmouth, and I'm finishing this once and for all. Right now you're asking yourself, "What makes this different? What makes us anything more than a bunch of girls being picked off one by one?" It's true none of you have the power that Faith and I do. So here's the part where you make a choice. What if you could have that power...now? In every generation, one slayer is born... because a bunch of men who died thousands of years ago made up that rule. They were powerful men. This woman, " she points to Willow who smiles nervously, "is more powerful than all of them combined. So I say we change the rule. I say my power should be our power. Tomorrow, Willow will use the essence of the scythe to change our destiny."
Faith snuck out of the living room, she is well aware of the plan and to be honest, she is wound up after spending the night in Buffy's room, in the blonde's bed. She needs to let off some steam and seeing as she can't drag Buffy to her bedroom as that would negate the whole, taking it slow, thing, she heads down in to the basement to spend some quality time with the next best thing, the punching bag.
Int: Basement of Summers' residence
Faith is panting and she is flushed, sweat dripping off her face; she has been pounding the punching bag for the past 45 minutes. She steps back to catch her breath, wiping the sweat from her brow with her wrist guards. She feels a familiar tingle getting closer but the pleasant, safe, feeling is overridden by an unpleasant sensation, this is a warning, alerting a Slayer to the presence of a vampire.
Faith sighs and scowls as she realizes Spike is heading down to the basement and worse, he is with Buffy. He strolls down the stairs nonchalantly, a smirk on his face. He knows Faith is down there so he goes out of his way to aggravate her by sidling up close to the blonde Slayer who is walking down the stairs behind him. He pauses at the bottom when he notices the dark Slayer standing there, body tense, wound up, ready to pounce. She is scowling at the vampire, letting him know his presence is unwelcome. Buffy doesn't notice him stop so she collides with him almost losing her balance. Spike grabs her around the waist to prevent her falling. His arms lingering around the blonde a little longer than necessary.
Faith's expression is dark, she takes a step towards the vampire, "Take your hands off her." She says softly but with venom in her tone.
Buffy shakes her head in annoyance at the dark Slayer, "It's ok, Faith." She shrugs out of Spike's grasp and steps a bit further away from him.
Spike continues to leer at the brunette, "She has the leash wound tight, doesn't she." He directs at Faith, baiting her, he can see that the only thing holding her back from destroying him is that it would hurt Buffy.
"Fuck you." Faith snarls and takes a step closer to the pair; she is clenching and unclenching her fists, fury coursing through her being.
Spike takes a step forward, taunting the brunette, "Come on love, show me what you got." He challenges, winking at her.
"Oh, you asked for it." Faith is upon Spike in the blink of an eye, her fist connects with his face as she sweeps his legs out from under him. He crashes to the floor, grunting as he lands.
"Faith!" Buffy grabs the brunette, pulling her off Spike. She manages to land one more blow to his head before she is pushed across the room away from the vampire.
Buffy stares exasperated at the dark Slayer before she turns to Spike and holds out her hand, helping him up.
Spike smirks at Faith triumphantly.
"Un-fucking-believable." Faith glowers at Buffy, storming past the two of them and up the stairs.
"Faith, wait!" Buffy called after the brunette but her plea is ignored. She turns to the vampire and scowls at him, "You're an ass, Spike." She glared at him, "You baited her on purpose!"
Spike just looks at the blonde, an innocent expression on his face. "Hey, she attacked me!" he raises his hands defensively, "She's out of control if you ask me."
"I didn't." Buffy interrupted him as she shoves past him and heads up the stairs after Faith. Fuck! I have totally stuffed up.
Ext: Front yard at Summers' Residence
Buffy finds Faith standing under the large oak tree on the front lawn. She has obviously hit the tree a few times as her hand wraps are in tatters and her freshly healed knuckles are bloodied again.
"Faith." Buffy says softly, gingerly approaching the brunette, stopping a few feet behind her.
"Save it, B." Faith snaps.
"Look, Spike and I have history." Buffy takes a step backwards as Faith slowly turns to face her. She can see the anger in the brunette's expression.
"He tried to rape you." Faith says softly, fury in her tone.
The dark Slayers expression scared Buffy, "I know."
"Yet here he is, still corporeal, not dust in the wind." Faith's voice is even, steady but the tone is deadly.
"I know, and I can't explain it." Buffy says, tentatively taking a step closer to the brunette.
"How can you trust him?" Faith stared at the blonde, incredulous, "Near Dawn."
"He would never hurt Dawn."
Faith stares at Buffy, she is clenching and unclenching her fists, trying to stop shaking, fury coursing through her body, the slayer in her screaming at her to kill Spike.
"I don't understand this power he has over you." Faith continues, her voice still soft, steady.
"He has a soul, Faith." Buffy sighs, her shoulders slumping.
"Having a soul doesn't make you good." Faith looked at Buffy sadly, "I would know." She muttered under her breath. The blonde whipped her head up at that comment.
"Faith."
"You defended him from me." She ignores Buffy, her voice is less steady, she is struggling to maintain her composure, the rage bubbling at the surface, "You chose him over me."
The hurt, broken expression on Faith's face breaks Buffy's heart, "I know." Buffy looks at the ground, ashamed.
Faith absently runs a hand through her hair; she can see the blonde is filled with remorse. Tears are streaming down Buffy's face. Faith takes a deep breath, controls her rage and walks up to the blonde and embraces her. She can feel the relief in Buffy when she returns the embrace, nuzzling her face into Faith's neck, inhaling the scent of the dark Slayer.
"I am so stupid." She says between sniffles, breaking away from Faith so she can look in to her eyes, "I am so truly sorry." She says from the heart.
Faith sighs, "I know." She holds Buffy's hands in front of her, looking at the ground, "Spike is an issue we are going to have to address." She says, "But not tonight." Faith looks up and stares in to Buffy's hazel eyes, "We have a big battle ahead of us tomorrow and as much as I hate to admit it, we can use his skill in this fight."
They both stand under the tree, holding each other for a while, basking in each others presence. Buffy makes the first move to break the silence, "We should get some rest, big day." She says, holding Faith's hand and leading her back inside the house towards her bedroom.