SECOND CHANCES

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters except for the new ones that I create.

CHAPTER 2-We Fight to Live

The first few seconds after the lights went out cast her into a terrible confusion. Sure she had been through experiences like this before, but on those occasions it was almost always her that had thrown the room into darkness, and only after making a mental note of everyone's location in the room, making it much easier to navigate through the darkness. But this time things were different, the alcohol pumping through her system was clouding her judgment and making her slightly sick to her stomach. There had been a time that she could drink with the best of them, but years of being dry, sometimes forcibly so, had changed her and now even the smallest sip was enough to affect her. As she took a step forward she felt her movements slow, as if she was mired in a vat of quicksand. Cursing horribly under her breath Faith tried to take another step but tripped over something and soon found herself falling into the dark abyss in front of her. She thought she was in the clear until her head bounced off of something hard, sending shooting spasms of pain through her head, and fogging her mind up even more. She started to try and get up when she felt a hand grab her arm. She violently began to try and shake herself free but in her drunken state she only succeeded in falling backwards over an overturned chair and dragging the hapless person on top of her.

It felt odd for another person to be this close to her, the weight bearing down on her, pinning her to the floor. She had always resisted vehemently whenever the prison guards has held her down and she would be damned now if she let anyone do it to her now that she was free. She was about to shove the person off of her when a particular scent crept into her nostrils. It was a smell that although she hadn't smelled it in a long while she seemed to almost know by instinct what it was. Fighting back the surprising tears in her eyes and the bile sickly rising in her throat she feverishly shoved the person off of her and rolled away before scrambling back to her feet. She tried to take a step forward again but was knocked off balance and almost sent sprawling as some of the bars local denizens frantically shot past her. Regaining her composure as best she could only one thought kept slamming through her mind, find a stake, fight, and kill the vampires. Her only hope was that she would be able to find them first.

* * * * * * * * * *

Wesley had not been as startled by the lights going out as Faith had, as he had the added advantage of being at the bar and therefore knowing where everything and everyone was, most importantly the vampires. Shortly thereafter he slowly made his way over to where he had seen Faith, speeding up his movements after he thought he heard a small cry of pain from her direction. He almost tripped over her before he discovered her at his feet and in the darkness grabbed her arms to try and help her up, his mind only functioning well enough to form a plan for their survival, all the pain, the humiliation, the torture that she had put him through was lost somewhere in the mad shuffle to simply stay alive, and for that he was exceedingly grateful. He was about to help her up when she, or at least the person he thought to be her, began to violently resist the help he was offering and ended up pulling him off of his feet. It was while he lay on top of her that he caught the prison smell that seemed to radiate off of her. He had discovered the smell when he had made a few secret visits to the prison where she was being held shortly after he was well enough. He had used the council connections left him to do it and had found out what he wanted, what he needed to know, that she was somewhere where she wouldn't harm anyone for a very long time and that he could try and put her attack behind him, if it were at all possible for him to do so.

Even though he only spent a few short and brief seconds on top of her he found himself starting to almost enjoy it before she frantically shoved him off, with stabbing pains coursing through his arms as his elbow collided powerfully with the floor. Holding his elbow and trying to fight through the numbness that now controlled his hand Wesley's fevered mind raced as he tried to recall if he had brought any stakes with him this time. It took only a few seconds before he remembered the stake that he kept concealed underneath his pant leg, and even fewer seconds to retrieve it and be ready to fight. The vampires seemed to not have any exact plan of attack; their plan seemed to be more one of disorienting the humans in the bar and then just using their strength to overwhelm them before locking their fangs on the horrified person's jugular and draining them dry.

Not particularly wanting to die that night Wesley acted more on his shock of seeing, and touching, Faith than any real defensive maneuvers. He came upon the first vampire mere seconds after he had stepped away from the bar. The vampire grabbed him by the throat with one hand and pulled him close while aiming its fangs, with the anticoagulant saliva dripping sinisterly from them, towards his neck. He let the vampire get close enough so that he could smell the foul smelling cologne that it wore before he brought his hand up in one quick motion and reduced the vampire to dust with a clean jab straight to its heart.

* * * * * * * * *

Faith meanwhile was not having as good a time, were she on top of her game with her skills and reflexes honed she would have most likely reduced the small cadre of vampires before her to dust in the time it usually took a person to brush their teeth, even if she was fighting them in the darkness. But unfortunately for her she was completely wasted and was thereby only operating at around half her best, a fact that although she would admit to herself she would never admit to anyone else. But even a slayer operating at half efficiency and drunk was better than almost any human fighter, even the most highly trained. In the short time after pushing Wesley off of her she had been lucky as none of the vampires had gotten to her, yet, a fact that did not escape her. Then she felt a hand close on her shoulder.

"Hands.off," she growled angrily before she blocked another hand that shot out to grab her and in one quick and clean maneuver flipped the person that belonged to the hand over her shoulder mere seconds before she felt the body disintegrate out of her grasp. The next vampire that attacked her met a very similar fate as it was dusted even before it could lay a hand on Faith, who was now operating on memory, using every trick that she could remember. She expected the rest of the vampires to attack in much the same fashion but was painfully surprised when she felt a searing pain scratch across her arm, drawing blood. "Fuck," she howled in pain and anger through gritted teeth as she hunched down, frantically trying to determine where the attack had originated from, but all was for naught as all she could see was an impenetrable wall of darkness in front of her.

"What's wrong slayer.can't see in the dark.," a raspy voiced called out from the darkness before she felt the hot sting of a knife blade flash across her stomach, sending memories of when Buffy had stabbed her flashing through her mind.

"Lucky you.," Faith yelled back angrily before she bit her lip to keep from crying out in pain. Not waiting for another attack she guessed where the voice had come from and swung furiously in that general direction, but all her fist struck was empty air, a feat that did not go unnoticed by the vampire that had heckled her mere moments before.

"What're you swinging at slayer.I'm over here," the vampire chipped in with a mocking tone to its voice before again the knife blade shot out, this time catching Faith across the cheek, opening up a painful gash, and causing Faith to grit her teeth against the pain.

"When I find you.I'm gonna," she yelled out furiously as the blood began to run down her cheek. Not wanting to get slashed again without any knowledge of the vampire, that she decided was most likely dancing around her as it attacked, Faith took a step back and tried to regain her composure. But it was shattered prematurely as a crowbar slammed into her from behind, with what she thought was the sound of bones breaking coming soon after. All Faith could do then is drop to her knees and double over in pain as the small pool of blood at her feet began to grow larger. * * * * * * * *

Wesley had gotten back to the bar when he heard the sound that Faith had taken to mean that a rib or two had either been broken or cracked. He had dusted another couple of vampires, with the last one knocking him off his feet before he had even figured out where it was. As his hip brushed up against one of the barstools he felt a slight breeze go by him, indicative of someone jumping by him. Without taking a second to think, and quelling the voice in his head that was shouting at how stupid this was, he leapt out towards where he thought the person had landed. In seconds he discovered that he had guessed right when he slammed into a body and his sudden weight sent the two sprawling to the floor, with the faint sound of a knife clanking against the floor as they did.

Before he even drew another breath Wesley tried to spin out of the way of the flailing vampire as it tried to get up, but his great escape ended prematurely when he bumped into an overturned table. As he started to get up Wesley was struck in the side by first a well placed fist and then the crowbar that had struck Faith slammed into almost the exact same spot before he crumpled back to the floor in a coughing fit. He could hear the remaining vampires snickering before one vampire, the one holding the crowbar, stood over him and began to lightly tap Wesley on the forehead with the end of the crowbar, reveling in Wesley's reactions. "Bloody hell," Wesley choked out angrily as he dropped onto his back and fought through the pain as he seized the crowbar and in one violent motion shoved the crowbar diagonally upwards directly towards the vampire's crotch.

A sharp howl of pain and agony, accompanied by the vampire dropping to its knees beside him told Wesley that his aim had been true. Before the vampire could recover and fight on Wesley located the stake that he had been using earlier and spun over onto his side, all that before lunging up and driving the stake through the vampire's heart, reducing it to a pile of dust at his side. As he struggled to his feet Wesley could hear Faith staggering to her feet a few feet away and the remaining vampires arguing amongst themselves. He didn't give them any time to make up their minds as he charged towards where he guessed they were, intent on staking the rest of them, but was repelled just before he got to them as someone smashed a beer over his head. He dropped to his knees with a grunt of pain as his vision blurred at first from the hit and then from the blood running into his eyes.

He started to get up before he felt on of the vampires grab his shoulder with such force that Wesley could feel its untrimmed fingernails as they began to slowly dig into his skin. His next action was more instinctual than actually thought through as he dropped to his stomach before he leapt up and tackled the vampire that had been standing over him, with the two of them going down in a heap as from the other end of the bar a small light flickered back on.

* * * * * * * * * *

The sound of Wesley in pain sent chills down her spine. She still did not know exactly where he was or how badly he was hurt, but even though he was the last person that she had ever wanted to see again, for fear of his reaction, she would not abandon him to the mercies of a few shitty vampires that got lucky. With the pain in her side making it difficult to breathe Faith awkwardly began to stagger over to where she thought Wesley was, only to be knocked loopy by a vampire wielding a Billy club. Before she knew it she was on the ground holding her head and trying to make the pain go away. Seconds later she heard Wesley's garbled battle cry and then he and the vampire that he attacked go crashing to the floor after tripping over her.



Now driven more by the desire to hurt and maim those who had injured her Faith let go of all of the rage that had been building inside of her and leapt at the three standing figures that she could make out due to the small light that had finally come back on. The trio of vampires didn't notice her jumping at them until she was upon them. Having hit her mark perfectly Faith and the trio of vampires should have just went down in a swirling mass of royally pissed off slayer fighting soulless vampires, but with Faith nothing ever seemed to be perfect. And as such instead of falling down the force of Faith's leap propelled the group backwards until they all went crashing through one of the bar's front door and out into the street.

Mere seconds after she and the vampires had gone crashing through the bar's front door Faith was on her feet again, but obviously favoring her right side. The vampires meanwhile growled at her for a second or two before they noticed the bright glare of the sun's first rays as they struck them fully, causing them to erupt in flames and explode into a hazy cloud of dust. It was after a painful moment of grim celebration that she remembered Wesley, and as such staggered back into the bar to look for him, even though she still didn't have a clue as to what she'd say to him and the beginnings of one hell of a hangover were already starting to creep up on her. She hadn't gotten to far inside the bar before she spotted him locked in a wrestling match against a wiry flaxen haired vampire, and from the looks of it Wesley was beginning to tire rapidly.

* * * * * * * *

Wesley had been too distracted with fighting the vampire that had struck him on the head with the bottle to notice when Faith had knocked the trio of vampires and herself out into the street. He had fought against vampires whose strength dwarfed the one that he was facing now, but most of those times he wasn't bleeding badly and starting to grow weaker and weaker because of it. But this was no time to quibble about past fights, because if he didn't keep his attention in the here and now then there would be no future for him, no more demons to slay or friendships to get fucked up. The fighting itself wasn't the hard part as he quickly discovered that although this particular vampire looked like it'd been in its fair share of fights it was apparent that this was probably almost its first fight, and with that knowledge Wesley was able to make pretty short work of him as he finally drove the stake through its heart, turning it into instant dust.

"Now to find Faith," he thought grimly as wiped the blood out of his eye. He had no sooner than done that when he looked up and found himself nervously staring right at Faith, who seemed to be just as nervous. They stayed like this, like two statues frozen in time, for they knew not how long before Faith tried to speak but her mouth had become so dry from all the fighting and coughing that she could barely even say the first syllable of his name. And after several attempts at this it seemed almost as if she were about to cry, Faith cry, the woman that had taken great pleasure in at the time causing him more pain that he ever thought that he could bear indeed looked about ready to tear up, but his trials and tribulations since had shown him that the worst pains are not always of the flesh, but of the heart. Without another word or even a look, as she kept her face turned away so as to not let him see the small solitary tear that slid down her face as she thought of how many nights she had laid awake on her prison cot, running millions of ideas through her head of what she would say to him, the first and most important person that she would have to apologize to. In those night she had come up with what she thought were many great and wonderful ideas, but now, now standing mere inches.feet from him all of those eloquent and carefully plotted out words eluded her, and all she could do was mumble a curse before fleeing out the front door of the bar and disappearing around a corner just as he made his way outside.

He looked around the bar for several minutes, hoping to find her, as even though he was injured and would need a trip to the hospital to get his cuts stitched up and his bruises looked at Wesley was not going to leave her injured and all alone, no matter how ironic the situation seemed. But after several minutes of fruitless searching he returned to his sports utility vehicle just as the first stages of a full blown hangover slammed into his brain. It was about an hour or two later before the doctors had cleared him to go home, as for a time they had discussed keeping him at the hospital overnight for observation. But as per his new outlook on life, amongst other things, he flatly refused to stay there and argued with them until he was allowed to go home, saying his-thank you's- to the doctors and nurses before bolting out of the hospital as fast as his still blood loss weakened legs could carry him, for right now there was truly only one thing on his mind, finding his Slayer.

By the time he returned home he felt as if he barely had enough strength left to lift the key up to the lock and unlock his door. But to his surprise he discovered that his door was not only unlocked but slightly ajar as well. Fearing that he had been robbed he awkwardly reached into his back pocket for the stake that he had used earlier, but finding it long gone he sighed before deciding to just go in and face whatever intruder awaited him. He did find an intruder of sorts, but not anything like what he was expecting, as sitting on his couch with an extremely impatient and overworked, but yet still horny, look on her face was the woman that he had least wanted to see this morning.

"What do you want Lilah," he muttered almost under his breath as at this point he really didn't give a damn why she was there and only wanted her to leave as quickly as possible.

"Nice to see you to Wes.pick a fight with a demon twice your size again.," she said flashing him her killer smile, the one that had in all truthfulness been one of the first things that he had liked about her.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he shot back as he began to feel the effects of the painkillers that the doctors had given him only minutes before.

"Maybe.but the way I see it handsome.you've got a lot of explaining to do.so start talking," she said as she leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms before setting her demanding eye on the beaten and bloody man standing in front of her.

END OF CHAPTER 2