I don't take embarrassment well. It tends to make me get pissed off, which is what I am right now. After Spike left I decided just to go to bed and the next morning when I wake up, I'm still pissed. And this bothers me. Usually, with guys, I'm all get some and get gone. Never had one walk out on me…well, unless you count that time with Xander when Angel hit me over the head. But that was different. And not something I want to think about right now.
Anyway, it's morning, then it's afternoon, and I've got nothing else going on so I head to the magic shop to see what's up. Maybe the Scoobies have figured out how B's coming back. Maybe Spike will show up and I can beat his ass.
The shop's dead, just Anya and Giles milling around, Willow and Tara in the back, alone.
"Hey," I say, walking up to them.
They both look up from the books they're reading. "Hi."
"Where's Dawn?" I ask.
"With Xander. She's fine. She's staying with us," Tara says, smiling at me.
"Cool, good," I say, antsy. I walk around the shop, looking at all the goodies Giles's got for sale. "You guys seen Angel?" I ask, turning back to them.
They look up again. "No, not since last night," Willow says. "Is he okay?"
I shrug. "Dunno. He booked after we left the shop. Spike and me, we patrolled."
"I wonder what he's going to do," Tara says.
"He may not have a choice," Willow says.
"Oh crap!" I say, slapping my forehead. "I gotta call Sloan." I trot up to the counter. "Giles, can I use the phone?"
He nods, absently. "Sure, sure…"
I duck behind the counter and call Sloan, telling him about the purple people eaters from last night. He seems only slightly concerned, but asks me to patrol again tonight. Hanging up, I turn back to Giles. "Can I ask you something?" I say to him.
He looks up at me from the ledger he's working on. "Of course."
I tell him about the demons Spike and I fought. "Know what they are? Sloan didn't have any suggestions."
Giles gives me a small smile…I detect a little pride behind it. "Yes, well, they sound like Grognals."
"Grognals?"
He takes of his glasses. "Demons that secrete mucus all over their bodies…they possess unusual strength," I remember Spike's toss over the crypt, "and have the ability to paralyze a body if they grip it for too long."
"Yeah…the thing held me in this massive bear hug for a moment…until I broke off it's horn and stabbed it." I say. "It could have paralyzed me?"
"You were very lucky," Giles says, and I think he's actually concerned. "Were you able to defeat them?"
I shake my head. "No, Spike got hurt so we had to go."
"Spike got hurt?" Xander says, walking in, Dawn trailing behind him. "Oh, what a shame that isn't."
Dawn slaps his arm. "He's nice," she chastises.
"Took a re-bar through the leg. Slid out easy, though, no big," I say, casually.
"This is all we're going to hear about now, you realize," Xander continues.
Dawn changes the subject. "Any news on Angel? Or Buffy?"
Giles shakes his head. "No, I'm afraid not. Faith, did Mr. Sloan say if he would be joining us today?"
I nod. "Yeah, he'll be here in a little while. He didn't mention the Council, so I'm guessing they'll be here tonight to give Angel his message."
Everyone looks uncomfortable. "Well, we're going to keep researching for now," Willow says. "There are some Watcher diaries…and the Codex we can look at. I mean, hey, that's the prophecy book about the Slayers, right? It should be in there."
Giles looks a little hopeful. "The Codex, of course. How stupid of me," he mutters, and begins searching through some bookshelves behind the counter. And so we research…again.
**
A few hours later, I'm bored stiff. I'm just not cut out for this. Sloan appeared a while ago, he's been helping with the reading part…I figure he can pick up my slack for a while. Heading to the back, I check out B's training room. Nice… A few minutes later I'm pummeling the crap out of the bag. Then my eye catches on the swords hanging on the walls. Picking one up I notice the dummy set up at the end of the room.
"So, think you can take me?" I ask the dummy. I bow low. "Let's go," I tell the inanimate object, and attack, ducking and swirling around like I'm really fighting something.
"Faith," someone says behind me. I turn quickly, on guard.
Spike.
I raise my eyebrows at him and toss the sword from hand to hand. "Well, well."
"Look…I'm sorry about last night."
"It's fine," I say, turning back to the dummy and stabbing it through the chest. I leave the sword hanging there and jump up on the pummel horse.
He glances at the dummy and hesitates. "No, it's not."
"Spike, Spike," damn it, I can feel the old me coming out, but I can't stop it, "it was a moment. It was fun."
He crosses to me. "It wasn't you."
I raise an eyebrow. "Funny, I seem to remember being there."
He curses under his breath. "It was…when I said…"
I cock my head. "What?"
"When I called you the Slayer," he says, looking me dead in the eye. And then I get it.
"Oh."
"It was unfair of me, I'm sorry. Just got a bit flustered."
"It's fine," I say, extremely uncomfortable. I jump down off the horse and walk quickly to the other side of the room. Grabbing a towel I wipe off my forehead. It all goes back to Buffy.
Spikes stands at the pummel horse, his back to me, his head hanging a bit. I walk out of the room and back to the table, just as Angel walks into the shop.
"Hail, hail, the gang's all here," Xander says.
"No Council?" Willow asks.
"No Council," Angel says. At least he seems to be in a better mood, though not by much.
"Not yet," Giles mutters. I guess him being reinstated hasn't increased his love for the Council.
"Make them not come here," Anya says, a little whine in her voice. Xander, sitting next to her at the table, puts a hand on her knee.
Spike walks in from the back, avoids me, and sits down across the room.
"Faith," Sloan says, "I've found some information on your demons."
My ears perk up. "Yeah? Like how to kill 'em?" A little fighting might cure my bad mood.
"Beheading," he says.
"That oughta do it," I say. "Can I borrow some swords?" I ask Giles. He nods and I head back to the training room, pulling the sword from the dummy. Angel's followed me and takes a sword off the wall.
"I'm coming with you," he says.
I nod. "Sure." We walk back out into the main room and head for the front door, brushing past Spike. "Back in a bit," I tell Sloan.
"What do we do if the Council shows up?" Willow asks.
Angel turns to her. "Tell them I'm out, doing my job. If they want to wait for my refusal, fine."
We walk around for a while, heading back to where I was attacked last night. After a little searching, sure enough, big purple guys aplenty. "They're super strong," I tell Angel. "And remember, they'll paralyze you if they touch you for too long." He nods, looking anxious. I think he's looking for a fight, too.
We jump in, fighting side by side. The swords seem to intimidate them a little. Not much, I think, as I duck a wild swing from one of them, but a little. Angel stabs at his demon with the sword, gross, even their blood's purple, and it takes off running. Angel glances at me, sees I'm okay, I nod, and he takes off after it. Mine comes at me, swinging wildly, and I bring the sword up, lobbing off an ear. It screams in pain and rears back, then runs straight for me. Before I can react I'm on the ground and it's on top of me. The sword falls from my hand and I'm trying to grab for it before my body goes numb. Too late. I can already feel my legs tingling. Oh crap, oh crap. I'm hitting the thing and I swear, it's smiling at me…a big evil grin.
"Angel!" I scream, but he's too far away I guess.
"Get off her!" I hear and see Spike hovering above me. He's picked up the sword and stabs the demon through the back. It shrieks and lets me go, turning on Spike. I drag myself with my arms to get out of the way…my legs aren't working real well. Looking back, Spike's taking control of the fight. The demon's bleeding bad from its back…and in a moment the fight is over. Spike rushes to me.
"You okay?" he asks.
"My legs…I can't move them very well," I say, my voice is shaky.
"It'll be all right, come on, up and attem," he says lightly, picking me up.
"Put me down!" I shout.
He cocks an eyebrow. "Sure," he says, and drops me to the ground. I land on my backside, hard.
"Ow!" I scream, looking up at him. He's wincing in pain, guess his dropping me set off the chip. I try to stand up but can't. My legs won't hold me very well and I stumble back to the ground, landing face first in the dirt. Spike laughs at me.
"Somebody's got sea legs," he says. "Come on then, let's be a good girl and let me carry you."
"I can manage," I grumble.
"Can you now? 'Cause I'd kinda enjoy watching you fall on your ass for the rest of the night, so be my guest."
"Don't you have somewhere to be?" I shout at him, pulling myself up so at least I'm sitting on the ground, not laying in the mud.
"Not that I can think of."
"What are you doing here, anyway?" I say to him bitterly.
"Thought you might need some extra muscle, Slayer," he hisses at me. He's getting irritated. "The book-stuff, not exactly my forte."
"I was handling it," I spit back at him.
"Oh, yeah, I can see that," he says, leaning over and picking me up again. "Now, be a good girl."
"Screw that, put me down!"
"Get over it, I'm carrying you," he says through clenched teeth.
"No."
He rolls his eyes. "Yes, I bleedin' am, now shut up before I make you regret it."
Now I roll my eyes. "How in the hell will you make me regret it?
"Like this," he says, and kisses me hard. I struggle against him, trying to push away.
"Don't," I say, and even I can hear the rawness in my voice. "I'm not her."
He stares at me for a moment, thinking. Then he leans in again, stops just before his lips touch mine. "Faith," he says softly, staring into my eyes.
"So you know my name, great, but—" I start to say, when he kisses me, so gently I want to cry. My whole body's covered in goose bumps and I feel that familiar little tickle deep inside.
"I know your name, Faith, and I know who you are," he says, breaking away for a moment and leaning his forehead on mine. "I'm just trying to figure out why I keep wanting to do this." He kisses me again.
"Ahem," a voice says from behind us.
We break away guiltily and turn to see Angel standing there, a bloody sword in his hand. "I got him."
"Yeah, uh, me too," I say, wanting to sink into the ground.
"I can see that," Angel says, glancing at Spike.
"No…I mean, I got the demon…."
"Her legs aren't so workable right now," Spike says. "We need to get her back to the shop, see if the Watchers know what to do."
Angel nods, glances at me again and I can see a slight smile on his lips. I know I'm gonna hear about this later.
We walk back to the shop and upon opening the door are faced with a man and a woman, both wearing tweed. Damn.