Chapter Ten
Summers' Residence
The sun was beginning to set when Amy and Oz arrived back at the Summers' household. Joyce met them at the door, looking worried.
"I'm glad you're back," she said quickly. "Can you stay with her? She's doing better, but I still don't want to leave her alone. Greg called from the gallery -- this big shipment came just before closing and I need to go down there and help for an hour or two."
"No problem, Mrs. Summers," Amy said, stepping inside, followed by Oz. "We'll take care of her while you're gone."
Joyce gave them a relieved smile and grabbed her purse. She hesitated by the door, giving the upstairs a worried glance. "Maybe I should just call Greg back and say I can't come..."
"Don't worry," Amy said firmly. "We can make Buffy some tea and hot soup. And if anything at all happens, we'll call you."
"OK." Joyce firmed up her resolve and headed for her car. "I'm going. I'll be back soon. Two hours max!" Then she was gone.
Amy and Oz slowly mounted the steps that lead to Buffy's room.
"Should we tell her about Sonya?" Oz asked.
Amy sighed. "I just don't know."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Back in the library, Sonya had her hands full.
"We're going out to dinner!" Xander yelled, glaring at Giles.
"She's going home," Giles replied sternly. "She has homework to do."
"It's tradition! We always go to dinner after her doctor's appointment," Xander replied angrily. "I'm sure she doesn't have that much homework, do you, babe?" He looked at Sonya who shook her head.
"No, not much." In all honesty, Sonya was starting to get a little freaked out by the changes in the most important men in her life. Angel's demon possession idea sprang back into her mind, but she forcibly pushed that thought away. It hurt too much to think that. Instead, she decided that maybe the shock of her suddenly walking was too much for them. Or perhaps Xander was upset about the Oz thing earlier, and Giles was upset about Buffy's illness.
(Yeah) she told herself (that makes perfect sense. And they're taking their aggressiveness out on each other!)
The thought of Buffy made Sonya wince. A thought popped into her head that she couldn't get rid of. Suddenly, Sonya knew what she had to do. She reached out and put a hand on the arm of each man.
"Xander, Giles, I have something I've got to go do. I promise that I'll get to the homework later. And, Xander, how about if we meet here to leave for Sal's in about an hour, OK?"
Neither man looked very happy with this turn of events, but Sonya was not in the mood to take no for an answer. A few seconds later, she was walking down the streets of Sunnydale, enjoying the feel of the late afternoon sun on her face and the feel of her own movement. Every time the muscles in her legs flexed, Sonya felt like laughing for sheer delight. She didn't, of course, because she didn't want to look stupid, but she felt like it inside.
A short while later, Sonya turned down a familiar residential street, and walked until she came to a familiar, two-story house. She'd only been there a few times, but she remembered every single time with perfect clarity. The most memorable time, was the time when Buffy had cut her hair. Sonya had a small smile on her face when she remembered Buffy's words -- "You're really going to have to trust me." They'd had some good times together. Of course, until the past couple of days Sonya had resented the hell out of Buffy because Buffy had the life Sonya wanted. But just because she'd resented Buffy for having what should be Sonya's, didn't mean that Sonya hated Buffy herself. And because of that, Sonya felt the need to apologize. And the snippet of conversation she'd heard about Buffy being sick had Sonya a little worried. Slayers didn't get sick -- it took much more than a common cold to get a Slayer down.
(Buffy deserves better than this from me) Sonya thought as she slowly walked up the sidewalk to the front door. (When she got my powers, she didn't ignore me -- she cared about what would happen to me. And I do still care about her. I'm not giving up Xander, of course. That would be dumb -- if he truly loved her there's no way he would have come to me -- but I need to apologize. And see if there's anything I can do for her.)
Firm in her resolution, Sonya took a deep breath and knocked on the door. There was a long pause, and then -- just when she was about to knock again -- the door opened. Sonya met Amy's accusing gaze quietly.
"What do you want?" Amy demanded.
"I'd like to see Buffy."
"What for?" Amy asked. "To rub it in?"
"I'm worried about her," Sonya admitted, even though she didn't want to talk to this girl who had nothing to do with the situation. "And I'd like to apologize."
"You want to apologize now? That's rich. You steal her boyfriend, and then you expect a little 'I'm sorry' to make things better?" Amy's tone dripped with bitterness.
"No..." Sonya said, "I don't think it will make things better necessarily... but I wanted to try."
The door opened wider, and Sonya was confronted by Oz's serious stare. "You're lying."
That made Sonya angry. "What? I don't think you know what you're talking about!"
"You don't want to make things better for Buffy. You want to make things better for yourself. You want to absolve your own guilt about your betrayal of a good friend so you can be happy."
Amy's surprise at Oz's very long speech turned into a nod of agreement. "Yeah, what he said!"
Sonya stood there, shocked, for a moment. Were they right? (No... no, they can't be.)
"I'll talk to her."
The voice took all three teens by surprise. Amy and Oz slowly moved aside, and Buffy stepped out onto the porch. Sonya took a look at her and didn't like what she saw. Buffy was wan and pale, with a sheen of fever in her over-bright eyes and in the unnatural ruddiness of her cheeks. She clutched a quilt around her like a shield, and her hair was flat and lifeless. And she limped.
"What happened to your leg?" Sonya blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.
"A vamp surprised me when I was running away from you and Xander," Buffy answered bluntly.
Sonya winced, feeling her guilt increase. But she pushed that aside and plunged forward into the speech she'd prepared on the way here. "Look, I know you probably don't want to hear this right now, but I *am* sorry for what happened. I never should have... er... done anything with Xander until he talked with you first. After everything that we've been through, I at least owed you the truth. But instead I went behind your back. And that was unforgivable."
Buffy's eyes were cold as she stared at Sonya. "You're right. It was unforgivable." Buffy paused, and then looked a little sad. "Maybe someday I'll be able to forgive you, but honestly, right now, if I weren't sick I'd be sorely tempted to bash your brains in."
"Buffy!" Amy gasped from the doorway.
The Slayer was trembling now. She didn't look strong or vibrant in any sense of the words. But Sonya was too angry to notice in more than a superficial way. Sonya had put her dignity on the line by coming here, and Buffy had thrown it back in her face. Of course, Sonya realized that Buffy had the right to be pissed off, but dealing with rejection had never been Sonya's strong suit.
Sonya took several deep breaths and forced herself to calm down. It was like there were two beings at war inside her -- to be cliched about it, a little devil and a little angel like you'd see on any cartoon. Finally, she turned and walked away, calling over her shoulder, "Fine, whatever, Buffy. If you need me, I'll be with Xander."
She heard a sob from the Slayer and immediately felt guilty again. She turned back around. "I'm sorry..."
But it was too late. The slamming of the door punctuated Amy and Oz ushering Buffy back into the house.
"Damn!" Sonya muttered to herself, starting to walk back toward the school where Xander should be waiting for her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Can you believe the nerve of that girl?" Amy demanded, sliding her arm around Buffy's shoulders and shepherding her into the living room. They walked slowly in, and Amy settled Buffy on the couch. Oz trailed along behind them, and moved to the window to glance outside.
"She's leaving," he said.
Amy sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."
Buffy looked up at Amy with a tired but determined gaze. "I need to go see Giles."
Worriedly, Amy said, "But, Buffy, when we talked to him, he didn't seem quite... all there."
"Giles is my Watcher," Buffy said in a firm tone. "This all just feels weird to me. I feel weird to me... almost weak... Giles might have been distracted by Sonya's 'miracle,' but he's my Watcher, he has to help me. I think it's in his contract."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The sun was just starting to sink below the horizon as Sonya walked away from Buffy's house and headed for the library. Her footsteps sounded overly-loud to her own ears. As she walked, she reflected on what had occurred at Buffy's house with more than a little bitterness.
"She makes me so mad!" Sonya muttered emphatically. "Where does she get off? I mean, yeah, I made a mistake, but I was *trying* to apologize for it. And what does she do? She throws it all right back in my face! While her little sidekicks are gloating from the sidelines, no less."
Sonya felt a little guilty for the way she'd responded to Buffy by bringing up the whole Xander thing, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. She frowned. It seemed like she'd been doing that a lot lately.
"Maybe I should go see a therapist," she groused. "Just my luck, my life finally starts falling into place and I end up having deep-seated emotional problems."
With all of these depressing thoughts swirling around in her head, Sonya failed to noticed that the sun had set until she heard a heavy footstep behind her. Her danger sense flared to life and she whirled around, coming face to demonic face with a hulking vampire. "Oh great," she muttered, taking a step back. "Just what I need, a member of the un-dead testosterone brigade pawing all over me." She raised an eyebrow at the brute and said, "Why don't you go pick on someone your own size, huh?"
The vampire laughed, taking a step toward her. "But what would be the fun in that?" He smiled a cruel smile. "Anyway, I prefer my victims young, female and helpless."
Sonya rolled her eyes. "How Cro-Magnon of you." As she spoke, she reached into her purse as unobtrusively as possible, trying to find something she could use against the vampire. Her searching fingers came up empty. "Damn it!" she muttered, berating herself. "I can't believe I left without any protection, not even a cross. That was colossally stupid of me!"
"It wouldn't have done you any good, girlie," cave-man vamp informed her with confidence. "I'd still have beaten you."
Sonya's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. NO ONE talked to her that way, least of all some smart-ass, chauvinistic vampire goon! She had been a Slayer once -- she knew how to defend herself even without special powers. Sonya quickly scanned the area, her eyes coming to rest on a small, nearby fence. She grinned, making a run for it. The vamp gave chase, but by the time he caught up to her, she had already broken off a piece of the wooden fence and was holding it out in front of her like she would a stake.
The vampire growled, moving in for the kill. Sonya didn't let him even get close. Her body, falling back easily into old Slayer patterns, knew what to do. She lashed out with her foot, catching the vamp with a viscous kick to the stomach. He stumbled back and she pressed her advantage, following up with a roundhouse to his side. Then she spun into another kick, the heel of her boot hitting him directly on the solar plexus and knocking him to the ground painfully. The vampire was stunned momentarily and Sonya used that second of distraction to lunge in with her home-made stake and thrust it into his heart. Moments later, the vampire exploded into dust.
After the dust had settled, Sonya sat down on the curb and waited until she had caught her breath before resuming her journey to the library. As she was walking, a million thoughts flitted through her brain. But the one that occupied her attention the most was a simple... (How did I do that?)
Suddenly, something clicked and Sonya began to smile. There was only one possible explanation... she was getting her Slayer powers back. Sonya had no idea why they were coming back to her after all this time, but she didn't really care. Figuring out things like that was Giles' territory, not hers. All she could think right now was that, with two slayers on the job, things could only get better.
True, it would take a lot of time and effort to get Buffy to trust her again, but eventually she would see that Sonya hadn't set out to hurt her. In fact, Buffy would probably realize that she was better off without Xander anyway. After all, why would she want to be with someone who didn't fully love her? The more Sonya thought about it, the more she was convinced that things were finally working out just as they were supposed to. Buffy would see that eventually. She just had to. And then, when Buffy trusted her again, the two slayers would make a lethal combination for all of the vampires and demons in Sunnydale. Sonya grinned, picturing it all in her mind. (Not half bad, girl,) she thought, (Not half bad at all.)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Sonya got to the library she pushed the doors open, feeling a twinge of happiness at how easy it was. In fact, she accidentally pushed them a little too hard and they flew back and hit the walls with a resounding thud.
"Oops," Sonya said, unable to stop a smile, "I'm going to have to get used to this again."
As she walked into the main part of the library, she plopped her purse down on the reading table and headed for Giles' office, intent on sharing her news with the librarian. But he wasn't there.
"How weird," Sonya murmured. "He picks now to actually get a personal life?"
Sonya shrugged. It could wait. She would find him later. As she walked around the library, swinging her arms back and forth to release some extra energy, she began to think back on the dream she'd had the other night. She never had gotten a chance to figure out what Oz's last message to her had been due to her preoccupation with walking and Xander and apologizing to Buffy. Sitting down at the table, she grabbed a nearby dictionary and flipped to the C section. "Concern, concertina, concubine," she murmured, flipping through the pages until she found the word she was looking for. "Aha! Concupiscence!" She frowned, reading the definition aloud. "To desire; strong desire; lust."
Sonya closed the thick book and sat back in her chair, repeating Oz's dream-words to refresh her memory. "Deplore thy concupiscences." She smirked. "I didn't even know my subconscious knew words that big."
A chill ran through her, reminding her of the expression "Someone just walked over my grave." But then she heard footsteps in the hallway and shrugged it off. (You silly girl, it was probably just some weird dream that resulted from having that last slice of pizza for a late-night snack. That's all.)
Just then, the library doors opened and Xander and Giles walked in. Sonya quickly forgot about her misgivings and jumped up, a big grin on her face. "Guys," she said excitedly, "I've got some news..." Summers' Residence
The sun was beginning to set when Amy and Oz arrived back at the Summers' household. Joyce met them at the door, looking worried.
"I'm glad you're back," she said quickly. "Can you stay with her? She's doing better, but I still don't want to leave her alone. Greg called from the gallery -- this big shipment came just before closing and I need to go down there and help for an hour or two."
"No problem, Mrs. Summers," Amy said, stepping inside, followed by Oz. "We'll take care of her while you're gone."
Joyce gave them a relieved smile and grabbed her purse. She hesitated by the door, giving the upstairs a worried glance. "Maybe I should just call Greg back and say I can't come..."
"Don't worry," Amy said firmly. "We can make Buffy some tea and hot soup. And if anything at all happens, we'll call you."
"OK." Joyce firmed up her resolve and headed for her car. "I'm going. I'll be back soon. Two hours max!" Then she was gone.
Amy and Oz slowly mounted the steps that lead to Buffy's room.
"Should we tell her about Sonya?" Oz asked.
Amy sighed. "I just don't know."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Back in the library, Sonya had her hands full.
"We're going out to dinner!" Xander yelled, glaring at Giles.
"She's going home," Giles replied sternly. "She has homework to do."
"It's tradition! We always go to dinner after her doctor's appointment," Xander replied angrily. "I'm sure she doesn't have that much homework, do you, babe?" He looked at Sonya who shook her head.
"No, not much." In all honesty, Sonya was starting to get a little freaked out by the changes in the most important men in her life. Angel's demon possession idea sprang back into her mind, but she forcibly pushed that thought away. It hurt too much to think that. Instead, she decided that maybe the shock of her suddenly walking was too much for them. Or perhaps Xander was upset about the Oz thing earlier, and Giles was upset about Buffy's illness.
(Yeah) she told herself (that makes perfect sense. And they're taking their aggressiveness out on each other!)
The thought of Buffy made Sonya wince. A thought popped into her head that she couldn't get rid of. Suddenly, Sonya knew what she had to do. She reached out and put a hand on the arm of each man.
"Xander, Giles, I have something I've got to go do. I promise that I'll get to the homework later. And, Xander, how about if we meet here to leave for Sal's in about an hour, OK?"
Neither man looked very happy with this turn of events, but Sonya was not in the mood to take no for an answer. A few seconds later, she was walking down the streets of Sunnydale, enjoying the feel of the late afternoon sun on her face and the feel of her own movement. Every time the muscles in her legs flexed, Sonya felt like laughing for sheer delight. She didn't, of course, because she didn't want to look stupid, but she felt like it inside.
A short while later, Sonya turned down a familiar residential street, and walked until she came to a familiar, two-story house. She'd only been there a few times, but she remembered every single time with perfect clarity. The most memorable time, was the time when Buffy had cut her hair. Sonya had a small smile on her face when she remembered Buffy's words -- "You're really going to have to trust me." They'd had some good times together. Of course, until the past couple of days Sonya had resented the hell out of Buffy because Buffy had the life Sonya wanted. But just because she'd resented Buffy for having what should be Sonya's, didn't mean that Sonya hated Buffy herself. And because of that, Sonya felt the need to apologize. And the snippet of conversation she'd heard about Buffy being sick had Sonya a little worried. Slayers didn't get sick -- it took much more than a common cold to get a Slayer down.
(Buffy deserves better than this from me) Sonya thought as she slowly walked up the sidewalk to the front door. (When she got my powers, she didn't ignore me -- she cared about what would happen to me. And I do still care about her. I'm not giving up Xander, of course. That would be dumb -- if he truly loved her there's no way he would have come to me -- but I need to apologize. And see if there's anything I can do for her.)
Firm in her resolution, Sonya took a deep breath and knocked on the door. There was a long pause, and then -- just when she was about to knock again -- the door opened. Sonya met Amy's accusing gaze quietly.
"What do you want?" Amy demanded.
"I'd like to see Buffy."
"What for?" Amy asked. "To rub it in?"
"I'm worried about her," Sonya admitted, even though she didn't want to talk to this girl who had nothing to do with the situation. "And I'd like to apologize."
"You want to apologize now? That's rich. You steal her boyfriend, and then you expect a little 'I'm sorry' to make things better?" Amy's tone dripped with bitterness.
"No..." Sonya said, "I don't think it will make things better necessarily... but I wanted to try."
The door opened wider, and Sonya was confronted by Oz's serious stare. "You're lying."
That made Sonya angry. "What? I don't think you know what you're talking about!"
"You don't want to make things better for Buffy. You want to make things better for yourself. You want to absolve your own guilt about your betrayal of a good friend so you can be happy."
Amy's surprise at Oz's very long speech turned into a nod of agreement. "Yeah, what he said!"
Sonya stood there, shocked, for a moment. Were they right? (No... no, they can't be.)
"I'll talk to her."
The voice took all three teens by surprise. Amy and Oz slowly moved aside, and Buffy stepped out onto the porch. Sonya took a look at her and didn't like what she saw. Buffy was wan and pale, with a sheen of fever in her over-bright eyes and in the unnatural ruddiness of her cheeks. She clutched a quilt around her like a shield, and her hair was flat and lifeless. And she limped.
"What happened to your leg?" Sonya blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.
"A vamp surprised me when I was running away from you and Xander," Buffy answered bluntly.
Sonya winced, feeling her guilt increase. But she pushed that aside and plunged forward into the speech she'd prepared on the way here. "Look, I know you probably don't want to hear this right now, but I *am* sorry for what happened. I never should have... er... done anything with Xander until he talked with you first. After everything that we've been through, I at least owed you the truth. But instead I went behind your back. And that was unforgivable."
Buffy's eyes were cold as she stared at Sonya. "You're right. It was unforgivable." Buffy paused, and then looked a little sad. "Maybe someday I'll be able to forgive you, but honestly, right now, if I weren't sick I'd be sorely tempted to bash your brains in."
"Buffy!" Amy gasped from the doorway.
The Slayer was trembling now. She didn't look strong or vibrant in any sense of the words. But Sonya was too angry to notice in more than a superficial way. Sonya had put her dignity on the line by coming here, and Buffy had thrown it back in her face. Of course, Sonya realized that Buffy had the right to be pissed off, but dealing with rejection had never been Sonya's strong suit.
Sonya took several deep breaths and forced herself to calm down. It was like there were two beings at war inside her -- to be cliched about it, a little devil and a little angel like you'd see on any cartoon. Finally, she turned and walked away, calling over her shoulder, "Fine, whatever, Buffy. If you need me, I'll be with Xander."
She heard a sob from the Slayer and immediately felt guilty again. She turned back around. "I'm sorry..."
But it was too late. The slamming of the door punctuated Amy and Oz ushering Buffy back into the house.
"Damn!" Sonya muttered to herself, starting to walk back toward the school where Xander should be waiting for her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Can you believe the nerve of that girl?" Amy demanded, sliding her arm around Buffy's shoulders and shepherding her into the living room. They walked slowly in, and Amy settled Buffy on the couch. Oz trailed along behind them, and moved to the window to glance outside.
"She's leaving," he said.
Amy sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."
Buffy looked up at Amy with a tired but determined gaze. "I need to go see Giles."
Worriedly, Amy said, "But, Buffy, when we talked to him, he didn't seem quite... all there."
"Giles is my Watcher," Buffy said in a firm tone. "This all just feels weird to me. I feel weird to me... almost weak... Giles might have been distracted by Sonya's 'miracle,' but he's my Watcher, he has to help me. I think it's in his contract."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The sun was just starting to sink below the horizon as Sonya walked away from Buffy's house and headed for the library. Her footsteps sounded overly-loud to her own ears. As she walked, she reflected on what had occurred at Buffy's house with more than a little bitterness.
"She makes me so mad!" Sonya muttered emphatically. "Where does she get off? I mean, yeah, I made a mistake, but I was *trying* to apologize for it. And what does she do? She throws it all right back in my face! While her little sidekicks are gloating from the sidelines, no less."
Sonya felt a little guilty for the way she'd responded to Buffy by bringing up the whole Xander thing, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. She frowned. It seemed like she'd been doing that a lot lately.
"Maybe I should go see a therapist," she groused. "Just my luck, my life finally starts falling into place and I end up having deep-seated emotional problems."
With all of these depressing thoughts swirling around in her head, Sonya failed to noticed that the sun had set until she heard a heavy footstep behind her. Her danger sense flared to life and she whirled around, coming face to demonic face with a hulking vampire. "Oh great," she muttered, taking a step back. "Just what I need, a member of the un-dead testosterone brigade pawing all over me." She raised an eyebrow at the brute and said, "Why don't you go pick on someone your own size, huh?"
The vampire laughed, taking a step toward her. "But what would be the fun in that?" He smiled a cruel smile. "Anyway, I prefer my victims young, female and helpless."
Sonya rolled her eyes. "How Cro-Magnon of you." As she spoke, she reached into her purse as unobtrusively as possible, trying to find something she could use against the vampire. Her searching fingers came up empty. "Damn it!" she muttered, berating herself. "I can't believe I left without any protection, not even a cross. That was colossally stupid of me!"
"It wouldn't have done you any good, girlie," cave-man vamp informed her with confidence. "I'd still have beaten you."
Sonya's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. NO ONE talked to her that way, least of all some smart-ass, chauvinistic vampire goon! She had been a Slayer once -- she knew how to defend herself even without special powers. Sonya quickly scanned the area, her eyes coming to rest on a small, nearby fence. She grinned, making a run for it. The vamp gave chase, but by the time he caught up to her, she had already broken off a piece of the wooden fence and was holding it out in front of her like she would a stake.
The vampire growled, moving in for the kill. Sonya didn't let him even get close. Her body, falling back easily into old Slayer patterns, knew what to do. She lashed out with her foot, catching the vamp with a viscous kick to the stomach. He stumbled back and she pressed her advantage, following up with a roundhouse to his side. Then she spun into another kick, the heel of her boot hitting him directly on the solar plexus and knocking him to the ground painfully. The vampire was stunned momentarily and Sonya used that second of distraction to lunge in with her home-made stake and thrust it into his heart. Moments later, the vampire exploded into dust.
After the dust had settled, Sonya sat down on the curb and waited until she had caught her breath before resuming her journey to the library. As she was walking, a million thoughts flitted through her brain. But the one that occupied her attention the most was a simple... (How did I do that?)
Suddenly, something clicked and Sonya began to smile. There was only one possible explanation... she was getting her Slayer powers back. Sonya had no idea why they were coming back to her after all this time, but she didn't really care. Figuring out things like that was Giles' territory, not hers. All she could think right now was that, with two slayers on the job, things could only get better.
True, it would take a lot of time and effort to get Buffy to trust her again, but eventually she would see that Sonya hadn't set out to hurt her. In fact, Buffy would probably realize that she was better off without Xander anyway. After all, why would she want to be with someone who didn't fully love her? The more Sonya thought about it, the more she was convinced that things were finally working out just as they were supposed to. Buffy would see that eventually. She just had to. And then, when Buffy trusted her again, the two slayers would make a lethal combination for all of the vampires and demons in Sunnydale. Sonya grinned, picturing it all in her mind. (Not half bad, girl,) she thought, (Not half bad at all.)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Sonya got to the library she pushed the doors open, feeling a twinge of happiness at how easy it was. In fact, she accidentally pushed them a little too hard and they flew back and hit the walls with a resounding thud.
"Oops," Sonya said, unable to stop a smile, "I'm going to have to get used to this again."
As she walked into the main part of the library, she plopped her purse down on the reading table and headed for Giles' office, intent on sharing her news with the librarian. But he wasn't there.
"How weird," Sonya murmured. "He picks now to actually get a personal life?"
Sonya shrugged. It could wait. She would find him later. As she walked around the library, swinging her arms back and forth to release some extra energy, she began to think back on the dream she'd had the other night. She never had gotten a chance to figure out what Oz's last message to her had been due to her preoccupation with walking and Xander and apologizing to Buffy. Sitting down at the table, she grabbed a nearby dictionary and flipped to the C section. "Concern, concertina, concubine," she murmured, flipping through the pages until she found the word she was looking for. "Aha! Concupiscence!" She frowned, reading the definition aloud. "To desire; strong desire; lust."
Sonya closed the thick book and sat back in her chair, repeating Oz's dream-words to refresh her memory. "Deplore thy concupiscences." She smirked. "I didn't even know my subconscious knew words that big."
A chill ran through her, reminding her of the expression "Someone just walked over my grave." But then she heard footsteps in the hallway and shrugged it off. (You silly girl, it was probably just some weird dream that resulted from having that last slice of pizza for a late-night snack. That's all.)
Just then, the library doors opened and Xander and Giles walked in. Sonya quickly forgot about her misgivings and jumped up, a big grin on her face. "Guys," she said excitedly, "I've got some news..."
Summers' Residence
The sun was beginning to set when Amy and Oz arrived back at the Summers' household. Joyce met them at the door, looking worried.
"I'm glad you're back," she said quickly. "Can you stay with her? She's doing better, but I still don't want to leave her alone. Greg called from the gallery -- this big shipment came just before closing and I need to go down there and help for an hour or two."
"No problem, Mrs. Summers," Amy said, stepping inside, followed by Oz. "We'll take care of her while you're gone."
Joyce gave them a relieved smile and grabbed her purse. She hesitated by the door, giving the upstairs a worried glance. "Maybe I should just call Greg back and say I can't come..."
"Don't worry," Amy said firmly. "We can make Buffy some tea and hot soup. And if anything at all happens, we'll call you."
"OK." Joyce firmed up her resolve and headed for her car. "I'm going. I'll be back soon. Two hours max!" Then she was gone.
Amy and Oz slowly mounted the steps that lead to Buffy's room.
"Should we tell her about Sonya?" Oz asked.
Amy sighed. "I just don't know."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Back in the library, Sonya had her hands full.
"We're going out to dinner!" Xander yelled, glaring at Giles.
"She's going home," Giles replied sternly. "She has homework to do."
"It's tradition! We always go to dinner after her doctor's appointment," Xander replied angrily. "I'm sure she doesn't have that much homework, do you, babe?" He looked at Sonya who shook her head.
"No, not much." In all honesty, Sonya was starting to get a little freaked out by the changes in the most important men in her life. Angel's demon possession idea sprang back into her mind, but she forcibly pushed that thought away. It hurt too much to think that. Instead, she decided that maybe the shock of her suddenly walking was too much for them. Or perhaps Xander was upset about the Oz thing earlier, and Giles was upset about Buffy's illness.
(Yeah) she told herself (that makes perfect sense. And they're taking their aggressiveness out on each other!)
The thought of Buffy made Sonya wince. A thought popped into her head that she couldn't get rid of. Suddenly, Sonya knew what she had to do. She reached out and put a hand on the arm of each man.
"Xander, Giles, I have something I've got to go do. I promise that I'll get to the homework later. And, Xander, how about if we meet here to leave for Sal's in about an hour, OK?"
Neither man looked very happy with this turn of events, but Sonya was not in the mood to take no for an answer. A few seconds later, she was walking down the streets of Sunnydale, enjoying the feel of the late afternoon sun on her face and the feel of her own movement. Every time the muscles in her legs flexed, Sonya felt like laughing for sheer delight. She didn't, of course, because she didn't want to look stupid, but she felt like it inside.
A short while later, Sonya turned down a familiar residential street, and walked until she came to a familiar, two-story house. She'd only been there a few times, but she remembered every single time with perfect clarity. The most memorable time, was the time when Buffy had cut her hair. Sonya had a small smile on her face when she remembered Buffy's words -- "You're really going to have to trust me." They'd had some good times together. Of course, until the past couple of days Sonya had resented the hell out of Buffy because Buffy had the life Sonya wanted. But just because she'd resented Buffy for having what should be Sonya's, didn't mean that Sonya hated Buffy herself. And because of that, Sonya felt the need to apologize. And the snippet of conversation she'd heard about Buffy being sick had Sonya a little worried. Slayers didn't get sick -- it took much more than a common cold to get a Slayer down.
(Buffy deserves better than this from me) Sonya thought as she slowly walked up the sidewalk to the front door. (When she got my powers, she didn't ignore me -- she cared about what would happen to me. And I do still care about her. I'm not giving up Xander, of course. That would be dumb -- if he truly loved her there's no way he would have come to me -- but I need to apologize. And see if there's anything I can do for her.)
Firm in her resolution, Sonya took a deep breath and knocked on the door. There was a long pause, and then -- just when she was about to knock again -- the door opened. Sonya met Amy's accusing gaze quietly.
"What do you want?" Amy demanded.
"I'd like to see Buffy."
"What for?" Amy asked. "To rub it in?"
"I'm worried about her," Sonya admitted, even though she didn't want to talk to this girl who had nothing to do with the situation. "And I'd like to apologize."
"You want to apologize now? That's rich. You steal her boyfriend, and then you expect a little 'I'm sorry' to make things better?" Amy's tone dripped with bitterness.
"No..." Sonya said, "I don't think it will make things better necessarily... but I wanted to try."
The door opened wider, and Sonya was confronted by Oz's serious stare. "You're lying."
That made Sonya angry. "What? I don't think you know what you're talking about!"
"You don't want to make things better for Buffy. You want to make things better for yourself. You want to absolve your own guilt about your betrayal of a good friend so you can be happy."
Amy's surprise at Oz's very long speech turned into a nod of agreement. "Yeah, what he said!"
Sonya stood there, shocked, for a moment. Were they right? (No... no, they can't be.)
"I'll talk to her."
The voice took all three teens by surprise. Amy and Oz slowly moved aside, and Buffy stepped out onto the porch. Sonya took a look at her and didn't like what she saw. Buffy was wan and pale, with a sheen of fever in her over-bright eyes and in the unnatural ruddiness of her cheeks. She clutched a quilt around her like a shield, and her hair was flat and lifeless. And she limped.
"What happened to your leg?" Sonya blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.
"A vamp surprised me when I was running away from you and Xander," Buffy answered bluntly.
Sonya winced, feeling her guilt increase. But she pushed that aside and plunged forward into the speech she'd prepared on the way here. "Look, I know you probably don't want to hear this right now, but I *am* sorry for what happened. I never should have... er... done anything with Xander until he talked with you first. After everything that we've been through, I at least owed you the truth. But instead I went behind your back. And that was unforgivable."
Buffy's eyes were cold as she stared at Sonya. "You're right. It was unforgivable." Buffy paused, and then looked a little sad. "Maybe someday I'll be able to forgive you, but honestly, right now, if I weren't sick I'd be sorely tempted to bash your brains in."
"Buffy!" Amy gasped from the doorway.
The Slayer was trembling now. She didn't look strong or vibrant in any sense of the words. But Sonya was too angry to notice in more than a superficial way. Sonya had put her dignity on the line by coming here, and Buffy had thrown it back in her face. Of course, Sonya realized that Buffy had the right to be pissed off, but dealing with rejection had never been Sonya's strong suit.
Sonya took several deep breaths and forced herself to calm down. It was like there were two beings at war inside her -- to be cliched about it, a little devil and a little angel like you'd see on any cartoon. Finally, she turned and walked away, calling over her shoulder, "Fine, whatever, Buffy. If you need me, I'll be with Xander."
She heard a sob from the Slayer and immediately felt guilty again. She turned back around. "I'm sorry..."
But it was too late. The slamming of the door punctuated Amy and Oz ushering Buffy back into the house.
"Damn!" Sonya muttered to herself, starting to walk back toward the school where Xander should be waiting for her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Can you believe the nerve of that girl?" Amy demanded, sliding her arm around Buffy's shoulders and shepherding her into the living room. They walked slowly in, and Amy settled Buffy on the couch. Oz trailed along behind them, and moved to the window to glance outside.
"She's leaving," he said.
Amy sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."
Buffy looked up at Amy with a tired but determined gaze. "I need to go see Giles."
Worriedly, Amy said, "But, Buffy, when we talked to him, he didn't seem quite... all there."
"Giles is my Watcher," Buffy said in a firm tone. "This all just feels weird to me. I feel weird to me... almost weak... Giles might have been distracted by Sonya's 'miracle,' but he's my Watcher, he has to help me. I think it's in his contract."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The sun was just starting to sink below the horizon as Sonya walked away from Buffy's house and headed for the library. Her footsteps sounded overly-loud to her own ears. As she walked, she reflected on what had occurred at Buffy's house with more than a little bitterness.
"She makes me so mad!" Sonya muttered emphatically. "Where does she get off? I mean, yeah, I made a mistake, but I was *trying* to apologize for it. And what does she do? She throws it all right back in my face! While her little sidekicks are gloating from the sidelines, no less."
Sonya felt a little guilty for the way she'd responded to Buffy by bringing up the whole Xander thing, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. She frowned. It seemed like she'd been doing that a lot lately.
"Maybe I should go see a therapist," she groused. "Just my luck, my life finally starts falling into place and I end up having deep-seated emotional problems."
With all of these depressing thoughts swirling around in her head, Sonya failed to noticed that the sun had set until she heard a heavy footstep behind her. Her danger sense flared to life and she whirled around, coming face to demonic face with a hulking vampire. "Oh great," she muttered, taking a step back. "Just what I need, a member of the un-dead testosterone brigade pawing all over me." She raised an eyebrow at the brute and said, "Why don't you go pick on someone your own size, huh?"
The vampire laughed, taking a step toward her. "But what would be the fun in that?" He smiled a cruel smile. "Anyway, I prefer my victims young, female and helpless."
Sonya rolled her eyes. "How Cro-Magnon of you." As she spoke, she reached into her purse as unobtrusively as possible, trying to find something she could use against the vampire. Her searching fingers came up empty. "Damn it!" she muttered, berating herself. "I can't believe I left without any protection, not even a cross. That was colossally stupid of me!"
"It wouldn't have done you any good, girlie," cave-man vamp informed her with confidence. "I'd still have beaten you."
Sonya's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. NO ONE talked to her that way, least of all some smart-ass, chauvinistic vampire goon! She had been a Slayer once -- she knew how to defend herself even without special powers. Sonya quickly scanned the area, her eyes coming to rest on a small, nearby fence. She grinned, making a run for it. The vamp gave chase, but by the time he caught up to her, she had already broken off a piece of the wooden fence and was holding it out in front of her like she would a stake.
The vampire growled, moving in for the kill. Sonya didn't let him even get close. Her body, falling back easily into old Slayer patterns, knew what to do. She lashed out with her foot, catching the vamp with a viscous kick to the stomach. He stumbled back and she pressed her advantage, following up with a roundhouse to his side. Then she spun into another kick, the heel of her boot hitting him directly on the solar plexus and knocking him to the ground painfully. The vampire was stunned momentarily and Sonya used that second of distraction to lunge in with her home-made stake and thrust it into his heart. Moments later, the vampire exploded into dust.
After the dust had settled, Sonya sat down on the curb and waited until she had caught her breath before resuming her journey to the library. As she was walking, a million thoughts flitted through her brain. But the one that occupied her attention the most was a simple... (How did I do that?)
Suddenly, something clicked and Sonya began to smile. There was only one possible explanation... she was getting her Slayer powers back. Sonya had no idea why they were coming back to her after all this time, but she didn't really care. Figuring out things like that was Giles' territory, not hers. All she could think right now was that, with two slayers on the job, things could only get better.
True, it would take a lot of time and effort to get Buffy to trust her again, but eventually she would see that Sonya hadn't set out to hurt her. In fact, Buffy would probably realize that she was better off without Xander anyway. After all, why would she want to be with someone who didn't fully love her? The more Sonya thought about it, the more she was convinced that things were finally working out just as they were supposed to. Buffy would see that eventually. She just had to. And then, when Buffy trusted her again, the two slayers would make a lethal combination for all of the vampires and demons in Sunnydale. Sonya grinned, picturing it all in her mind. (Not half bad, girl,) she thought, (Not half bad at all.)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Sonya got to the library she pushed the doors open, feeling a twinge of happiness at how easy it was. In fact, she accidentally pushed them a little too hard and they flew back and hit the walls with a resounding thud.
"Oops," Sonya said, unable to stop a smile, "I'm going to have to get used to this again."
As she walked into the main part of the library, she plopped her purse down on the reading table and headed for Giles' office, intent on sharing her news with the librarian. But he wasn't there.
"How weird," Sonya murmured. "He picks now to actually get a personal life?"
Sonya shrugged. It could wait. She would find him later. As she walked around the library, swinging her arms back and forth to release some extra energy, she began to think back on the dream she'd had the other night. She never had gotten a chance to figure out what Oz's last message to her had been due to her preoccupation with walking and Xander and apologizing to Buffy. Sitting down at the table, she grabbed a nearby dictionary and flipped to the C section. "Concern, concertina, concubine," she murmured, flipping through the pages until she found the word she was looking for. "Aha! Concupiscence!" She frowned, reading the definition aloud. "To desire; strong desire; lust."
Sonya closed the thick book and sat back in her chair, repeating Oz's dream-words to refresh her memory. "Deplore thy concupiscences." She smirked. "I didn't even know my subconscious knew words that big."
A chill ran through her, reminding her of the expression "Someone just walked over my grave." But then she heard footsteps in the hallway and shrugged it off. (You silly girl, it was probably just some weird dream that resulted from having that last slice of pizza for a late-night snack. That's all.)
Just then, the library doors opened and Xander and Giles walked in. Sonya quickly forgot about her misgivings and jumped up, a big grin on her face. "Guys," she said excitedly, "I've got some news..." Summers' Residence
The sun was beginning to set when Amy and Oz arrived back at the Summers' household. Joyce met them at the door, looking worried.
"I'm glad you're back," she said quickly. "Can you stay with her? She's doing better, but I still don't want to leave her alone. Greg called from the gallery -- this big shipment came just before closing and I need to go down there and help for an hour or two."
"No problem, Mrs. Summers," Amy said, stepping inside, followed by Oz. "We'll take care of her while you're gone."
Joyce gave them a relieved smile and grabbed her purse. She hesitated by the door, giving the upstairs a worried glance. "Maybe I should just call Greg back and say I can't come..."
"Don't worry," Amy said firmly. "We can make Buffy some tea and hot soup. And if anything at all happens, we'll call you."
"OK." Joyce firmed up her resolve and headed for her car. "I'm going. I'll be back soon. Two hours max!" Then she was gone.
Amy and Oz slowly mounted the steps that lead to Buffy's room.
"Should we tell her about Sonya?" Oz asked.
Amy sighed. "I just don't know."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Back in the library, Sonya had her hands full.
"We're going out to dinner!" Xander yelled, glaring at Giles.
"She's going home," Giles replied sternly. "She has homework to do."
"It's tradition! We always go to dinner after her doctor's appointment," Xander replied angrily. "I'm sure she doesn't have that much homework, do you, babe?" He looked at Sonya who shook her head.
"No, not much." In all honesty, Sonya was starting to get a little freaked out by the changes in the most important men in her life. Angel's demon possession idea sprang back into her mind, but she forcibly pushed that thought away. It hurt too much to think that. Instead, she decided that maybe the shock of her suddenly walking was too much for them. Or perhaps Xander was upset about the Oz thing earlier, and Giles was upset about Buffy's illness.
(Yeah) she told herself (that makes perfect sense. And they're taking their aggressiveness out on each other!)
The thought of Buffy made Sonya wince. A thought popped into her head that she couldn't get rid of. Suddenly, Sonya knew what she had to do. She reached out and put a hand on the arm of each man.
"Xander, Giles, I have something I've got to go do. I promise that I'll get to the homework later. And, Xander, how about if we meet here to leave for Sal's in about an hour, OK?"
Neither man looked very happy with this turn of events, but Sonya was not in the mood to take no for an answer. A few seconds later, she was walking down the streets of Sunnydale, enjoying the feel of the late afternoon sun on her face and the feel of her own movement. Every time the muscles in her legs flexed, Sonya felt like laughing for sheer delight. She didn't, of course, because she didn't want to look stupid, but she felt like it inside.
A short while later, Sonya turned down a familiar residential street, and walked until she came to a familiar, two-story house. She'd only been there a few times, but she remembered every single time with perfect clarity. The most memorable time, was the time when Buffy had cut her hair. Sonya had a small smile on her face when she remembered Buffy's words -- "You're really going to have to trust me." They'd had some good times together. Of course, until the past couple of days Sonya had resented the hell out of Buffy because Buffy had the life Sonya wanted. But just because she'd resented Buffy for having what should be Sonya's, didn't mean that Sonya hated Buffy herself. And because of that, Sonya felt the need to apologize. And the snippet of conversation she'd heard about Buffy being sick had Sonya a little worried. Slayers didn't get sick -- it took much more than a common cold to get a Slayer down.
(Buffy deserves better than this from me) Sonya thought as she slowly walked up the sidewalk to the front door. (When she got my powers, she didn't ignore me -- she cared about what would happen to me. And I do still care about her. I'm not giving up Xander, of course. That would be dumb -- if he truly loved her there's no way he would have come to me -- but I need to apologize. And see if there's anything I can do for her.)
Firm in her resolution, Sonya took a deep breath and knocked on the door. There was a long pause, and then -- just when she was about to knock again -- the door opened. Sonya met Amy's accusing gaze quietly.
"What do you want?" Amy demanded.
"I'd like to see Buffy."
"What for?" Amy asked. "To rub it in?"
"I'm worried about her," Sonya admitted, even though she didn't want to talk to this girl who had nothing to do with the situation. "And I'd like to apologize."
"You want to apologize now? That's rich. You steal her boyfriend, and then you expect a little 'I'm sorry' to make things better?" Amy's tone dripped with bitterness.
"No..." Sonya said, "I don't think it will make things better necessarily... but I wanted to try."
The door opened wider, and Sonya was confronted by Oz's serious stare. "You're lying."
That made Sonya angry. "What? I don't think you know what you're talking about!"
"You don't want to make things better for Buffy. You want to make things better for yourself. You want to absolve your own guilt about your betrayal of a good friend so you can be happy."
Amy's surprise at Oz's very long speech turned into a nod of agreement. "Yeah, what he said!"
Sonya stood there, shocked, for a moment. Were they right? (No... no, they can't be.)
"I'll talk to her."
The voice took all three teens by surprise. Amy and Oz slowly moved aside, and Buffy stepped out onto the porch. Sonya took a look at her and didn't like what she saw. Buffy was wan and pale, with a sheen of fever in her over-bright eyes and in the unnatural ruddiness of her cheeks. She clutched a quilt around her like a shield, and her hair was flat and lifeless. And she limped.
"What happened to your leg?" Sonya blurted out the first thing that came to her mind.
"A vamp surprised me when I was running away from you and Xander," Buffy answered bluntly.
Sonya winced, feeling her guilt increase. But she pushed that aside and plunged forward into the speech she'd prepared on the way here. "Look, I know you probably don't want to hear this right now, but I *am* sorry for what happened. I never should have... er... done anything with Xander until he talked with you first. After everything that we've been through, I at least owed you the truth. But instead I went behind your back. And that was unforgivable."
Buffy's eyes were cold as she stared at Sonya. "You're right. It was unforgivable." Buffy paused, and then looked a little sad. "Maybe someday I'll be able to forgive you, but honestly, right now, if I weren't sick I'd be sorely tempted to bash your brains in."
"Buffy!" Amy gasped from the doorway.
The Slayer was trembling now. She didn't look strong or vibrant in any sense of the words. But Sonya was too angry to notice in more than a superficial way. Sonya had put her dignity on the line by coming here, and Buffy had thrown it back in her face. Of course, Sonya realized that Buffy had the right to be pissed off, but dealing with rejection had never been Sonya's strong suit.
Sonya took several deep breaths and forced herself to calm down. It was like there were two beings at war inside her -- to be cliched about it, a little devil and a little angel like you'd see on any cartoon. Finally, she turned and walked away, calling over her shoulder, "Fine, whatever, Buffy. If you need me, I'll be with Xander."
She heard a sob from the Slayer and immediately felt guilty again. She turned back around. "I'm sorry..."
But it was too late. The slamming of the door punctuated Amy and Oz ushering Buffy back into the house.
"Damn!" Sonya muttered to herself, starting to walk back toward the school where Xander should be waiting for her.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
"Can you believe the nerve of that girl?" Amy demanded, sliding her arm around Buffy's shoulders and shepherding her into the living room. They walked slowly in, and Amy settled Buffy on the couch. Oz trailed along behind them, and moved to the window to glance outside.
"She's leaving," he said.
Amy sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."
Buffy looked up at Amy with a tired but determined gaze. "I need to go see Giles."
Worriedly, Amy said, "But, Buffy, when we talked to him, he didn't seem quite... all there."
"Giles is my Watcher," Buffy said in a firm tone. "This all just feels weird to me. I feel weird to me... almost weak... Giles might have been distracted by Sonya's 'miracle,' but he's my Watcher, he has to help me. I think it's in his contract."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The sun was just starting to sink below the horizon as Sonya walked away from Buffy's house and headed for the library. Her footsteps sounded overly-loud to her own ears. As she walked, she reflected on what had occurred at Buffy's house with more than a little bitterness.
"She makes me so mad!" Sonya muttered emphatically. "Where does she get off? I mean, yeah, I made a mistake, but I was *trying* to apologize for it. And what does she do? She throws it all right back in my face! While her little sidekicks are gloating from the sidelines, no less."
Sonya felt a little guilty for the way she'd responded to Buffy by bringing up the whole Xander thing, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. She frowned. It seemed like she'd been doing that a lot lately.
"Maybe I should go see a therapist," she groused. "Just my luck, my life finally starts falling into place and I end up having deep-seated emotional problems."
With all of these depressing thoughts swirling around in her head, Sonya failed to noticed that the sun had set until she heard a heavy footstep behind her. Her danger sense flared to life and she whirled around, coming face to demonic face with a hulking vampire. "Oh great," she muttered, taking a step back. "Just what I need, a member of the un-dead testosterone brigade pawing all over me." She raised an eyebrow at the brute and said, "Why don't you go pick on someone your own size, huh?"
The vampire laughed, taking a step toward her. "But what would be the fun in that?" He smiled a cruel smile. "Anyway, I prefer my victims young, female and helpless."
Sonya rolled her eyes. "How Cro-Magnon of you." As she spoke, she reached into her purse as unobtrusively as possible, trying to find something she could use against the vampire. Her searching fingers came up empty. "Damn it!" she muttered, berating herself. "I can't believe I left without any protection, not even a cross. That was colossally stupid of me!"
"It wouldn't have done you any good, girlie," cave-man vamp informed her with confidence. "I'd still have beaten you."
Sonya's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. NO ONE talked to her that way, least of all some smart-ass, chauvinistic vampire goon! She had been a Slayer once -- she knew how to defend herself even without special powers. Sonya quickly scanned the area, her eyes coming to rest on a small, nearby fence. She grinned, making a run for it. The vamp gave chase, but by the time he caught up to her, she had already broken off a piece of the wooden fence and was holding it out in front of her like she would a stake.
The vampire growled, moving in for the kill. Sonya didn't let him even get close. Her body, falling back easily into old Slayer patterns, knew what to do. She lashed out with her foot, catching the vamp with a viscous kick to the stomach. He stumbled back and she pressed her advantage, following up with a roundhouse to his side. Then she spun into another kick, the heel of her boot hitting him directly on the solar plexus and knocking him to the ground painfully. The vampire was stunned momentarily and Sonya used that second of distraction to lunge in with her home-made stake and thrust it into his heart. Moments later, the vampire exploded into dust.
After the dust had settled, Sonya sat down on the curb and waited until she had caught her breath before resuming her journey to the library. As she was walking, a million thoughts flitted through her brain. But the one that occupied her attention the most was a simple... (How did I do that?)
Suddenly, something clicked and Sonya began to smile. There was only one possible explanation... she was getting her Slayer powers back. Sonya had no idea why they were coming back to her after all this time, but she didn't really care. Figuring out things like that was Giles' territory, not hers. All she could think right now was that, with two slayers on the job, things could only get better.
True, it would take a lot of time and effort to get Buffy to trust her again, but eventually she would see that Sonya hadn't set out to hurt her. In fact, Buffy would probably realize that she was better off without Xander anyway. After all, why would she want to be with someone who didn't fully love her? The more Sonya thought about it, the more she was convinced that things were finally working out just as they were supposed to. Buffy would see that eventually. She just had to. And then, when Buffy trusted her again, the two slayers would make a lethal combination for all of the vampires and demons in Sunnydale. Sonya grinned, picturing it all in her mind. (Not half bad, girl,) she thought, (Not half bad at all.)
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
When Sonya got to the library she pushed the doors open, feeling a twinge of happiness at how easy it was. In fact, she accidentally pushed them a little too hard and they flew back and hit the walls with a resounding thud.
"Oops," Sonya said, unable to stop a smile, "I'm going to have to get used to this again."
As she walked into the main part of the library, she plopped her purse down on the reading table and headed for Giles' office, intent on sharing her news with the librarian. But he wasn't there.
"How weird," Sonya murmured. "He picks now to actually get a personal life?"
Sonya shrugged. It could wait. She would find him later. As she walked around the library, swinging her arms back and forth to release some extra energy, she began to think back on the dream she'd had the other night. She never had gotten a chance to figure out what Oz's last message to her had been due to her preoccupation with walking and Xander and apologizing to Buffy. Sitting down at the table, she grabbed a nearby dictionary and flipped to the C section. "Concern, concertina, concubine," she murmured, flipping through the pages until she found the word she was looking for. "Aha! Concupiscence!" She frowned, reading the definition aloud. "To desire; strong desire; lust."
Sonya closed the thick book and sat back in her chair, repeating Oz's dream-words to refresh her memory. "Deplore thy concupiscences." She smirked. "I didn't even know my subconscious knew words that big."
A chill ran through her, reminding her of the expression "Someone just walked over my grave." But then she heard footsteps in the hallway and shrugged it off. (You silly girl, it was probably just some weird dream that resulted from having that last slice of pizza for a late-night snack. That's all.)
Just then, the library doors opened and Xander and Giles walked in. Sonya quickly forgot about her misgivings and jumped up, a big grin on her face. "Guys," she said excitedly, "I've got some news..."