Faith sat up in bed, gasping loudly.
"Jesus, you're hard to wake up." Buffy commented.
"My name isn't Jesus." Faith replied muzzily, rubbing her face and checking for mortal wounds. She winced when her fingers found the slashes on her arm. Faith reached for a pillowcase to wrap around it, ignoring Wesley's chastising look. She had been this close to being cut into ribbons by him when she woke up… "Taz?"
"Do you think she's awake?" Wesley asked.
"Her father drugged her." Faith said dully. "I woke up and just left her there."
Faith's cell phone rang and all three of them stared at it stupidly. Taz's number flashed up on the screen. Faith picked up. "Taz?"
"Um, no." Replied a male voice. "I'm Peter McDonald, her father. Taryn is missing and I was wondering if she was with you since your number was the last one she called."
"I thought you drugged her." Faith replied coldly.
"What? How did you – look, it doesn't matter… she sleepwalks."
"Brilliant. You drug a girl that is not only quite terrified of sleeping, but one who sleepwalks and you don't keep an eye on her. I bet you're real proud of yourse –"
Buffy snatched the phone. "Hey, I'm Buffy, another friend of Taz's." She said. "We met Maya, Annie and Marie today, I was wondering if you could give me their numbers and addresses." She gave Faith a warning look and began to write down the details that Mr McDonald was giving her. "Thanks." She said and hung up.
"I'm going to get the first aid kit that's in my room." Wes said. "Those cuts on your arm look nasty."
They watched him go, then Buffy turned to Faith. "Look, I agree with you, it was downright wrong of Taz's dad to sedate her, but you shouldn't have had a go at him. You could get her in more trouble."
Faith sighed deeply. "I'm just anti-fathers at the moment."
"Something in your dream?"
Faith stared at the wall and fought to keep her voice neutral. "Something like that. What about you? What was he for you?"
"You." Buffy replied.
"Me?" Faith turned to face her.
"As a vampire."
"Your worst fear is that I would be a vampire?" Faith asked.
"I don't know about that, I've never thought about my worst fear. You know, living on the Hellmouth, it's hard to find just one thing that stands out against all the other creepy stuff." Buffy shrugged. "Maybe he was you because you were in the dream too and he knew what you looked like."
Faith winced. "Believe me, he's not bound by rules like that."
"What did you see, Faith?" Buffy asked softly.
Faith bit her lip. The reason she never talked about her past was because it was exactly that. Her past. Bringing it up again would only force her to relive it, and she had promised herself that she would never feel as powerless as she had done back then. However, she'd just been forced to see a being that looked and acted exactly like her stepfather, so that rule appeared to be null and void right now. And Buffy had seen Faith as a vampire, not Angelus but Faith, in her dream, meaning, at the very least, she cared about her, so maybe it was time to start trusting her. "I… I saw…" she took a deep breath.
"Back." Wesley announced walking back into the room and taking a seat.
Faith turned to Wes. "Bandage fast, we need to find Taz." She held her arm out and he quickly started with bandages and antiseptic.
"I think we should try Maya's house first, they seemed close." Buffy suggested.
Faith snorted. "Close? B, they're dating." She winced as Wes dabbed her cuts with antiseptic liquid.
"Really?" Buffy replied, looking a little stunned. "She told you that?"
"Nope, just a vibe." Buffy looked a little sceptical, so Faith added, "I have great gaydar." She turned her attention back to her arm. "Nice bandaging, Wes." She said approvingly. "Let's go."
She got off the bed and immediately winced, clutching her leg.
"What happened?" Wes asked.
"I told you, I fell out of a window, I landed badly on this leg… not before I busted it trying to kick Krueger's face into next week."
Buffy looped an arm around her waist and helped her stand. Wesley offered his arm to assist, and was surprised that Faith took it.
*~*~*~*
"Jesus!" Faith complained from the back seat. "We've been driving round this fucking town forever. How the fuck can a crazy Irish girl with purple fucking hair go fucking missing in a town this fucking small!"
Buffy turned in her seat and reached out to touch her shoulder reassuringly. "We'll find her. She's survived a long time without us, she's strong."
They had already called Maya on their way over, who told them that if she'd seen Taz, either in the real world or in the dream world, she would have called Annie and Marie and vice versa. She then got caught sneaking out to meet them to go look for Taz and was now grounded and firmly locked in her room. That much she'd managed to tell them before her parents strode in and confiscated her cell phone. They heard her yelling to them to find Taz and wake her up before the connection was severed.
"How close were you and Taz back then?" Buffy asked, keeping an eye on the road. She had been burning to ask this ever since Faith had mentioned that she had great gaydar and that Taz and Maya were dating, for reasons she couldn't fathom.
"At the summer camp?"
"Uh-huh."
"She was my best friend. My first friend, actually." Faith replied, her eyes roaming the dark streets, looking for a flash of purple hair. "See, when we got there, they had this big introduction evening, and one of the counsellors told everyone that I had won my place at the camp, and it was fairly snotty there, so I was immediately labelled white trash and picked on no end. They said I was on a free ride, that from a girl whose Daddy paid her way into my drama group! After that, Taz sought me out and talked to me, made a special point of sitting with me at meals, sneaking into my lessons if she thought I needed moral support. I was convinced she was setting me up, it was about two weeks before I caved and talked to her."
"So why didn't you stay in contact?" Buffy asked.
"We wanted to," Faith paused. "I really wanted to, but I knew she lived in Minnesota at the time, can you imagine the cost of calling there? My parents would never go for it, and I couldn't let Taz do all the calling, so I thought it would be easier if I told her I didn't want to."
Buffy squeezed her shoulder. "I'm sure she'll understand when you tell her."
"If we ever find h –" Faith's reply was cut off as Wes slammed on the brakes and both Buffy and Faith were hurled forward. Wes threw out his arm and stopped Buffy from flying through the windscreen.
"What the…" Buffy shut up as her attention turned to the road ahead. Taz was tottering along the road, being pushed over and thrown around by invisible forces.
"Fuck." Faith muttered, opening her door.
"Amen to that." Wesley agreed, offering his arm once more as Buffy tore up the road, trying to catch Taz. "She just flew out in front of the car." He said in a shaky voice. "If I'd have hit her…"
"You didn't." Faith replied, moving as fast as she could to Buffy and Taz. "She'll be fine. We'll all be fi…" She tailed off, staring up the road, a huge lorry was driving to the spot where Taz now stood frozen.
"Watch out!" She screamed.
"Buffy! Taz!" Wesley began hauling her along the road with much more vigour.
Everything but the lorry seemed to slow down to Faith. Buffy running in slow-motion towards Taz. Buffy reaching her, and trying to drag her out of the way, but unable to move her. Taz screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Why isn't the driver slowing down?" Wesley asked in a low voice.
Faith didn't answer, watching in horror as the lorry sped towards her two friends, Taz unable to move, and Buffy unwilling to leave her.
Finally Buffy appeared to admit defeat, leaving Taz's side, a cautious eye still on the quickly approaching vehicle. She stopped, turned, and took a run-up at Taz. Her plan succeeded in the nick of time, she knocked Taz off her feet and they both tumbled into the ditch by the side of the road in a tangle of limbs.
The driver sped past Faith and Wesley, close enough to make their clothes ruffle. Faith paused long enough to hurl her favourite curses at the driver, using a string of profanities so extreme that Wes turned rather red. However, he managed to add a decisive "Arsehole!" when Faith finished, Faith nodded approvingly.
Wesley, for his part, was wondering how on earth he would explain to the Council that on his first day of chaperoning the Slayers that one had injured her leg falling out of a window and the other had possibly broken her leg by jumping in a ditch. He was mightily relieved when Buffy appeared, one arm around (a finally awake) Taz helping her up to the road.
When they reached Taz and Buffy, Faith seemed torn who to go to first. She paused a few seconds, then hugged them both tightly. Then just as quickly, she let them go and limped back. "Don't tell anyone I just did that." She cautioned. "Life and death situations and all that. I'm not the fuzzy, huggy type."
Buffy looked surprised and mildly amused, Taz's face was too beaten up to read any expression.
"Let's get you to a hospital." Wes offered softly.
Taz promptly burst into tears. "No hospitals, they'll sedate me, and I'm so tired already."
"You need medical attention." He replied. She was covered from head to toe in bruises, cuts and scrapes, her clothes were torn from being thrown across the asphalt so much and her hair was matted with blood.
"No! No doctors, no hospitals, no adults! They just don't understand!" She said forcefully, then added as an afterthought, "Not my Dad either."
Buffy and Faith exchanged a look. "Why don't we just take her back to the motel and patch her up?" Faith suggested.
"A Starbucks run wouldn't hurt either." Buffy said.
Wes was torn between what he knew was right and what the Council would tell him was right. He decided that the Council, in it's infinite wisdom, had got it wrong from start to finish with both Buffy and Faith and it was now time to take a leaf out of Giles' book. "I'll go get the car."
*~*~*~*
Taz winced before Wes even touched her with the antiseptic. He drew back. "I can still take you to the hospital." He offered. "I'm sure they wouldn't hurt you as much as I'm going to have to."
"I'm fine." Taz replied tightly. "Really, the pain is good, it will wake me up. And besides, it's the smell that freaks me out." However, she tightened her grip on Faith's hand.
Buffy was out on a coffee run. There was not Starbucks in Springwood, so she had gone to convince the motel owner to give them a kettle and a huge jar of coffee. She had muttered before leaving that it would be too much to hope for that he owned a coffee maker.
Buffy marched back into the room and set about finding a plug, after several loud crashes and a huge sigh of annoyance Faith tentatively asked if anything – other than the obvious – was annoying her.
"The damn manager." Buffy snapped. "He said that I couldn't have the kettle unless he saw my boobs!"
Taz snorted loudly, Faith laughed out loud and Wes turned bright red.
"So, what did you do?" Faith asked between chuckles.
"Well, I showed him, didn't I?" Buffy replied. "It was that or no caffeine. I'm sure the Council would agree that sacrificing my dignity to save lives is a small price to pay. I mean, I've already died once, run a sword through my then-love-of-my-life and I've been expelled. I've not even graduated yet."
Even Wes couldn't keep a straight face watching Buffy rant and slam the kettle around.
"You did the honourable thing." Faith told her in mock solemnity, while Taz nodded in approval.
Buffy glared at her. "God! You actually believed me? You genuinely thought I'd flash my boobs to a fat, smelly, sweaty guy who hasn't had a wash since the bubonic plague was sweeping England? Jesus!" She found a socket for the kettle and plugged the base in, then stomped towards the bathroom to fill the jug with water. She paused, "For the record, I bitch slapped him across the office." She slammed the bathroom door so hard it cracked.
"Maybe we should call her Huffy the Vampire Slayer." Faith suggested in a low voice to the other two.
"I heard that!" Came the response through the bathroom door.
"You were supposed to!" Faith winked at Taz.
Not for the first time, Wesley wondered what he had let himself in for.
Notes: Ok, so Taz woke up after she was drugged. Now, don't go bitching at me because of what you've seen in films. I'm a genuine insomniac, have been ever since I was a kid, and every so often I'm allowed sleeping pills, and really they only help you get to sleep, not stay asleep. My theory on why it took Taz so long to wake up was because she was exhausted. I once slept for fourteen hours after staying awake for four days, so no biggie.