Chapter Six: Last Chance
Buffy stops just inside the doorway she had walked through for the first time back in May, almost four and half months ago. Her soft footfalls were the only sound breaking the silence that permeated the inside of the building. Inside her mind she can still hear her flippant remarks from her first time stepping inside the large room.
She can replay the entire fight, watch it scene for scene, analyze it, try to come up with something different that she could have done. Only there wasn't anyway she could change what had happened then so she shoves the images away and concentrates on why she came here.
Taking a deep breath Buffy steels herself for what she has to do. The first step is the hardest like trying to push a large boulder over a small lip before it will roll downhill. After that initial gargantuan effort the boulder's own inertia will keep it rolling.
She strides across the hard stone floor with strong purposeful steps until she reaches the spot where Angel had been sucked into hell. There she stops. She doesn't know how she knows its the right spot, only that she does.
Crouching down just in front of where Angel had last stood she places the claddagh ring he had given her, what seems a lifetime ago, but is actually less then a year. The tiny blonde can't believe how much is different, how has changed, how much older she feels in such a short period of time. There is so much the tiny slayer wants to say, his forgiveness she wants to ask for.
"I'm sorry," she finally says barely able to hold back the tears that threaten to pour out. "I hope... There's so much I wish could be different. For us, but... It's over and there's nothing that can change..." She stands up as a few tears begin sliding down her cheeks. "I'm sorry Angel," she finishes with a last look at the ring.
Turning on her heel she walks out of the room showing as much pride and dignity as when she had strode in. The only difference being the tears streaming down her cheeks, the tremble in her lower lip, the shaking of her hand. She refuses to acknowledge any of it until she can get home and crawl into bed and sob like the little girl she is.
Time passes. Minutes stretch into hours and the hours drag by as the night wears on to morning. Some time during those long hours after midnight and before dawn a beam of light encircles a ring left on the floor of a mansion in Sunnydale California. From out of the light a body falls to the hard floor below. The beam vanishes leaving a shivering and sweating Angel lying on the floor curl in upon himself with only one thought running through his mind.
"Buffy."
The sun shines brightly in the clear crystal blue sky that hangs above Sunnydale California and everything is right in the world. At least as far as most residents in the town are concerned. A few however can find something to complain about even on the most beautiful days.
"It's been close to a week already and I just don't know," Buffy answers Willow's question as the two of them make their way towards the school. Most students give the two girls a wide berth as news of Buffy's homecoming party, and the unexplained disappearance of several students was still relatively fresh news at Sunnydale High. "When we're alone, which isn't often thanks to my mom, talk about a woman that can hover, everything's great. Once we get around people though she just like draws in on herself."
Willow chews her bottom lip for a moment before tentatively asking, "have you let Faith know you want more then just friendship between you's?"
Buffy's cheeks turn a healthy shade of pink as she smiles fondly, "oh. We've gotten past the more then friends part," she answers absently as they slowly climb the first set of stairs.
Unnoticed by her best friend, it was Willow's cheeks that go scarlet as she mumbles, "so didn't need to know that."
Buffy quickly turns her head to face Willow, gazing in mortification at the petite redhead. "Oh god. I so didn't mean to say that out loud," she gushes.
Willow shakes her head saying, " no. Its okay. My best friend is in an unconventional relationship. I should be able to handle this without it freaking me out," she finishes with a quick glance at Buffy. After a few seconds she asks, "you wouldn't think I'm a bad best friend if it freaks me out a little?"
"If my track record with unconventional relationships wasn't enough to freak you out I'd think you're insane," Buffy quips lightly.
"Hey!" Willow starts pulling Buffy to a stop, "that wasn't your fault," she scolds her best friend.
The tiny slayer holds her hands up in surrender recognizing Willow's tone of voice. "You're right."
"Darn tooting I am," Willow replies quickly before Buffy can add her normal scathing remark. Taking a slight breath she decides to move back to their original topic. Before she can Scott Hope walks past shooting a withering glare at Buffy.
"Guess he isn't taking the break up well," she remarks with a shrug.
"About Faith," Willow begins trying to get back on subject, "maybe you have to be the one to take charge. Have you guys gone on a date yet?"
"We go out slaying every night," Buffy replies defensively.
Willow shakes her head saying, "slaying ain't dating. Faith might be thinking that you want to keep the entire thing hush, hush. I mean you're not the most affectionate person in public. Granted you guys do the whole hand holding thing, but I don't think I've seen you two hug or kiss, or anything else like that."
"You think so?" Buffy asks with a slight glance at Willow as she pushes the front door open.
Willow nods, "we've been talking a little in the mornings. Its kinda like pulling teeth, but she's starting to open up..."
"Wait a minute!" Buffy exclaims suddenly pulling Willow up short. "Faith's been coming here in the mornings?"
Again Willow nods as she answers, "yeah. She shows up about six, study's until just before Giles shows up. Does some training and then goes and takes a shower. From the little that she says it sounds like she doesn't want your mom to be disappointed in her."
Buffy gives a little nod with a speculative look on her face. After a moment she says, "her and mom have gotten close," she gives a small shake of her head, "but she's always going on about how she couldn't care less about school."
"Well she might not care about it, but I don't think she wants to look stupid, or embarrassed in front of either one of you," Willow responds.
"Thanks Wills. I think you just gave me an idea," Buffy says with a secretive smile.
Willow frowns slightly as she inquires, "good idea or bad idea?"
Buffy gives a small little shoulder roll as she says, "won't know that until the end." Taking a quick peek at Willow she asks as casually as possible, "so how's that magic thing going?"
Willow gives a slight snort a she begins, "what magic? Giles has me coming in at five in the morning. First thing I do is translate an assignment written in a language that hasn't been used in at least a thousand years, research some obscure bit of trivia and right a thesis that he barely glances at before telling me good job and disappearing into his office," she finishes in a huff.
"I'm sure Giles has his reasons," she murmurs softly. "Guess it's just something you're gonna have to grit your teeth and muddle through."
"Yeah, you're probably right," she replies miserably causing Buffy to frown. She didn't care what Giles' reasons were she was going to have a talk with him about this. When she had asked him to teach Willow it wasn't with the purpose of breaking her spirit.
Faith hits the thick padded gloves covering Xander's hand lightly, trying to work more on her speed then power. Working quick left-right combinations that she continues to make more intricate with each pass. Xander winces on each punch but knows it could be a lot worse, that Faith could not be holding back her real strength. That if she slips, even just a little, she could pulverize his hand to a substance like fine ground powder.
He's helped Buffy in similar drills before and for the most part Faith seems to be holding back even more then her blonde counterpart. Or it could be that Buffy was just a little stronger then Faith, not that he likes thinking about women being stronger then him. He did, after all, have his male ego to think about.
Faith continues to maintain her slow even breathes as she increases her pace ever so slightly. Mixing hooks and uppercuts in with the jabs and crosses. Throwing two, three, sometimes as many as five different punches with the same hand before switching. She stays away from showing any kind of discernable pattern.
"You're dipping your right," Buffy informs her as she sets her bag down on the table.
The blonde's voice breaks Faith's concentration as she glances ever so slightly over her shoulder to peek a glance at the petite girl. Instead of her uppercut stopping just short of Xander's gut it slams into the young man's abdomen. Xander gasps as all the air in his lungs seems to evaporate in an instant as he doubles over.
"Oh, shit!" Faith gasps grabbing hold of the tall brunette before he can crumple to the floor.
Buffy laughs softly from across the room as she comments, "and you get to distracted too easily."
Faith shoots Buffy a menacing glance as she says, "breath X. Deep breathes, get the oxygen back in your lungs," she says almost carrying Xander over to the large table.
Xander tries to take a deep breath, but all he can manage are tiny little gulps as Faith slides him down into the chair. Buffy walks around the table to where the two brunettes were, as Faith turns to give the tiny blonde a piece of her mind Buffy leans up capturing her lips in a soft kiss. Whatever Faith had been about to say slips right out of her head as she taste Buffy's cherry lip gloss, along with the blonde's soft lips. Xander who had just been about to take a deep breath forgets to breathe completely as he watches the two slayers' slow, drawn out greeting. With a glaze look in his eyes the young teenager watches the girl's passionate kiss with great interest.
After a moment Buffy pulls back, slightly breathless. "Hi," she manages to say after a moment.
"Hey," Faith replies more then a little confused by Buffy's actions. "What was that for?"
"We are a couple right?" Buffy inquires shyly.
"Are we?" Faith asks suspiciously. She didn't want to be suspicious where Buffy was concerned, but it was in her nature.
Buffy closes the tiny bit of space between the two of them, not that there was a lot of space there to begin with but after her slight movement a mouse would have suffocated in moments on the oxygen between their bodies. Reaching her hand up she brushes a stray lock of hair out of the taller girls face. "I'd like us to be," she says leaving the decision up to Faith.
The brunette swallows hard. It was what she wants as well. More then anything she's ever wanted before, she wants this to happen, but could she? Should she? Was this just one more thing, that in the end that was going to cause her more pain and suffering? Squeezing her eyes shut she blocks out whatever fears, and nagging doubts that still fill her head.
Opening her eyes she sees the worry look in Buffy's overly expressive eyes. In that moment she realizes that's not a look she ever wants to see in the blonde's face again. She'd do anything in her power to take that look away right if she could. It takes her a moment before she realizes she can. Gracing the smaller girl with a wide smile she gives her a slight nod of her head as she says, "more then anything else." The brilliant smile that explodes across Buffy's face was exactly the look that Faith wants to see on the tiny blonde from now on.
"Is there gonna be more kissage anytime soon?" Xander asks from the chair he's leaning in. "Because watching that makes this seething pain in my stomach just kind of vanish," he explains with a pain expression on his face. "And being the great humanitarians that you are you'd want to ease my pain."
"Or cause more of it," Faith taunts him with an evil grin on her face.
The graveyard was unusually quite for the middle of the night. The two slayers sat atop the crypt, feet swinging back and forth in unison, left to right, right to left as they wait for Mrs. Robinson to rise. "So your mom's got this whole dinner thing she wants us at in a few nights," Faith mumbles as she tosses a tiny pebble off the headstone.
Buffy gives the brunette a small nod as she says, "yeah. You, me, the gang. Even Giles. Kind of a welcome to the family get together. Hopefully it will go better then the last party my mother threw," the blonde says humorously. Faith gives her a questioning look to which Buffy replies, "zombie crashers, evil demon mask."
"Ah," Faith breathes out in complete feign understanding as she pops another pebble off the headstone.
"Where do you want to go tomorrow?"
Faith shrugs lightly, "you're the one that asked me out. It's up to you to show me a good time."
Buffy sighs lightly saying, "I know. I just want to make sure you enjoy yourself."
Faith smirks while raising her eyebrows suggestively. "I can think of something we'd both enjoy," she says teasingly.
Again Buffy's reaction amazes her as the petite blonde's cheeks color visibly. It was a mild surprise to Faith considering some of the things the two of them had done recently. No where near all the way but still more then enough for Buffy not to blush at the slightest innuendo she made. Of course the brunette was finding the fact that she did blush at everything she said to be quite endearing.
"You do remember we have to go out patrolling afterwards right?" Buffy inquires seriously despite the light blush to her cheeks and the heat she feels rushing throughout her body.
Faith maintains her slight grin as she adds, "don't worry B. I'll make sure you're all nice and refresh by the time we have to go out and play."
A fist punches up through the hard packed dirt of the grave. Buffy glances at Faith asking in a business like manner, "you want Mrs. Robinson or should I take her out?"
Faith shakes her head as she drops from the roof of the crypt. "The only person you're gonna be taking out is me," she says over her shoulder to Buffy as she begins walking up to the grave. Buffy smiles at Faith's back, at her possessive comment, but mostly at the sway of hr backside as she saunters towards the vampire rising from her grave.
Jeff runs through the woods as fast as he can, his legs ache with every step he takes as he pushes them harder then he ever has before, his lungs burn as he tries to gasp enough oxygen to keep himself from collapsing to the ground. He could hear it, the creature chasing him, growling just behind him, driving him forward unrelentingly, always coming just a little closer. Which kept his fear pumping adrenaline into his system allowing him to stay just a handful of steps ahead of his pursuer.
He takes a quick glance over his shoulder to see if the monster was still just a few steps behind him, the barest heartbeat with his eyes off the path in front of him. Something seems to reach out snagging his leg sending him crashing to the ground. Quickly rolling onto his back he tries to push himself away, to gain some purchase, to get himself back up to his feet and continue running.
Only the beast is on him in an instant. Heavy fist beating him nearly senseless before grabbing hold of his feet and dragging him into the underbrush. Jeff screams as he struggles in vain to get away from his captor.
Pete smiles sadistically at the thought of what he was going to do the punk that had been hitting on his girl. By the time he was done Jeff would never think of hitting on anyone else's girl. He wouldn't be thinking at all.
Faith grins broadly as she steps into the library, her small backpack swinging lazily at the end of her arm. She was still feeling giddy from the previous evening. Last night had been different and almost bizarre, but still nice in a weird kind of way. Buffy had taken her out on an honest to goodness date.
A simple dinner and a movie, nothing extravagant but it was an entire, early, evening the two of them had spent together just being a pair of teenagers in love without the weight of the world draped over their shoulders. It was quite possibly the first time in her life that someone had spent time with her for her and not just the opportunity to get into her pants. Of course she was fairly certain Buffy's ultimate goal was getting down her pants as well, it just wasn't the blonde's only objective.
Patrol afterwards had been slow with only seven vampires being staked between the two of them. All in all it had been more like a moonlight stroll instead of a sweep through Sunnydale's normally frenzied downtown feeding grounds.
Faith had found the entire experience to be enjoyable, but in an almost surreal way. It was like nothing she was use to, but it was definitely something she could become use to. In fact Buffy's entire attitude the past couple of days was one she could become more then use to.
She had never thought she would be the kind of person to go all googly over public displays of affection, but she was. The more then friendly hugs, the kisses, all of it. She loved it and eat it up, though if anyone were to call her on it she'd have to beat them for it. Fortunately nobody was saying anything to her. Of course that could be because so far it was just around the Scoobies, which was okay with her.
She had seen first hand just how intolerable high school students could be concerning this subject. While her and Buffy didn't have anything to worry about physically, students could be even worse when it came to mental cruelty. It was something she didn't want Buffy to expose herself to. Especially not over her.
Glancing up as she nears the table she stops seeing a very dejected looking Willow, which was something she wasn't use to seeing. Most mornings Willow was running around reading this book or that one as she wrote a hasty paper. Normally she was too busy to make more then polite small talk, which Faith likes just fine not being one to talk if she didn't have something to say. With a quick peek at the cage she can still hear Oz inside so she knew that wasn't the cause of the redhead's misery.
"Hey," she says in greeting as she slides her bag to the leg of the table.
"Hey," Willow responds in a voice that makes her body language seem positively jubilant.
Faith groans internally without making a sound. The very last thing she wants to do is get drawn into someone else's life. Only problem with that being Buffy had already made her a part of her life, and Willow was a part of Buffy's so in a way she was a part of hers as well.
Pushing the books and papers back she hops up on the table next to the tiny redhead. "You look like someone just killed your pet guppy," she begins lamely.
Willow shakes her head, "that was last year. And they were goldfish," she mutters absently.
Faith stares at the unexpected and emotionless response, obviously there were more stories that she had yet to hear. Giving herself a mental shakes she reminds herself that she's suppose to be offering support not digging up local dirt. "All I meant was you look like crap."
"Thanks," Willow replies warily as she looks up at Faith. "I feel a lot better now," she says sarcastically.
Faith scowls softly as she says, "look. I know you and B usually do the whole sharing thing, and well. She ain't here and I normally don't share so good, but if there's something you need to get off your chest then I'm here," she finishes then hops off the table.
"Faith," Willow calls out quickly.
Faith turns back around saying, "yeah."
"Are you serious?" The redhead tentatively asks.
"Wouldn't have made the offer if I wasn't," she replies. "This has something to do with the hoops G has you jumping through?"
"How'd you?"
"Me and B do talk," Faith answers before Willow can finish her question. "It isn't all about quick gropes in the dark."
Willow looks down slightly as she says, "I didn't think..."
"Sure you did," Faith replies cutting Willow off again. "It's five by five. You don't know me, not yet anyway and you're watching out for your friend."
"I'd like to though," Willow replies, "so if you wanna listen to me complain about Giles and the useless work he has me doing then hop back up here, or sit down and do your homework and I'll ramble on aimlessly."
"It sounds to me like he's yanking your chain," Faith says a moment after Willow finishes speaking. "You gotta call him on it."
Willow stares down at the floor in thought as she asks, "you think so?"
"Trust me Red, from what you said G-man is trying to push your buttons. Don't know why or what he's hoping it'll do, but its a load of crap. If he told you he was going to teach you then he should be teaching you."
The redhead nods slowly as she mulls over what Faith just said. After a couple of minutes spent in silence the slayer hops off the table again. "Faith," she calls out suddenly after the brunette had taken a couple of steps. The slayer turns around to face Willow who says simply, "thanks."
Faith rolls her shoulders slightly saying, "don't mention it."
"I mean you help out a lot. So thank you," she says again.
"No, I mean it. Don't mention it. To anyone," she says slinging her bag over her shoulder. "I'd hate to have to hurt you after helping you out and all," she warns the tiny redhead in a low voice with a dangerous glint in her eyes. A few seconds pass before Faith turns around and strides out of the room.
After a moment Willow manages to work the moisture back into her mouth. She thought Faith was joking, but she wasn't sure. The brunette slayer had sounded deadly serious before she left, but she had to be joking. Didn't she?
________________________________________________________________________
Last Chance - John Cougar Mellencamp
A cold day in December
And I'm still here alone
I look through my window and I surrender
Should be gone
But I've not place to go
Last chance to get up
Last chance to go
Last chance to get up and go
Last chance to get up
Last chance to go
Last chance to get up and go
If there were someone
I'd hold her
If there was love
I'd let it take me away
But I just stay here alone
Last chance to get up
Last chance to go
Last chance to get up and go
Last chance to get up
Last chance to go
Last chance to get up and go
I feel nothing I feel no pain
I feel no joy nor hurt inside
I only have myself to blame
If I see that the world's past me by
Last chance to get up
Last chance to go
Last chance to get up and go
Last chance to get up
Last chance to go
Last chance to get up and go