Chapter 9

Willow asked Buffy lots of questions. Buffy told her that she had not seen the face of her attacker, only that he was wearing army fatigues. Willow said that she figured it was to keep Buffy from recognizing him. There were many questions that Buffy couldn't answer. She showed Will the note, and the police woman took it in as evidence in Riley's murder case. Then all the questions were finished and the patient was allowed to leave the hospital.

Everyone walked out of the hospital together. Willow hugged Buffy and waved good-bye to everyone else before getting in her police car and driving off. Xander kissed Cordelia, kissed Buffy on the cheek, hugged Joyce and Dawn, and ran down the street to get back to his construction site. Doyle and Angel were heading back to Cordy's car, while Cordelia herself hugged her friend tightly. Buffy saw the two men get into the red convertible and looked questioningly at its owner.

"I work with them. Didn't I tell you?" Before Buffy had a chance to answer, the horn honked loudly. The brunette muttered under her breath, "Geez, you'd think since he obviously likes Buffy he wouldn't mind so much that I'm talking to her. He was so worried about an hour or so ago." Then turning around, she yelled loudly, "I'm coming, I'm coming! Have a little patience, would ya?"

Buffy stood there, looking slightly confused. She wasn't sure if Cordelia had meant for her to hear the part about someone liking her and being concerned, but she had heard it. In fact, she had been about to mention the "business" dinner, assuming that the one who liked her had been Angel, but then she thought better of it. *Despite the fact that I love all of my friends, including Xander's wife, I know that if I don't want every person in the world to know about this dinner, Queen C would not be the person for me to tell. I'll talk to Faith or Dawnie about it. Thinking of...* And Buffy turned around to see her "family" standing there.

"Well," she announced suddenly, "back to work."

"Honey, I know it's my day off, but if you want me to go with you to the gallery, I'll be happy to." Joyce looked concerned for her eldest daughter, but also reluctant to relinquish the day with her loving husband.

"It's cool, Mom," Buffy's sister Dawn suddenly said. "I was actually thinking of working there this summer anyway. I'll just start today - if it's okay with you I mean." Joyce's answer was a smile.

"And I'll walk B and the little one here back to the place. You know, keep then safe. Not that they really need it, but you know." There was a short pause, before she spoke again. "And also, come to think of it, Dawnie's not so little anymore."

"Thank you, Faith," Joyce said as she looked at the woman she thought of as her third daughter. "Now, I know I don't really need to say this, but - "

"Be careful!" everyone said along with the worried mother. Then they all laughed. Joyce and Giles watched as the three young women walked happily down the street, making sure they were safe until they turned the corner and were out of sight. With a sigh, she turned to her husband, who had been strangely quiet throughout the entire conversation; well until the end when he had laughed along with everyone else.

He saw her looking at him, and he just smiled gently at her. "I was just thinking. It's been a long time since we've had the house all to ourselves. And, after all, it is your day off." The two then walked to the car, and drove home to spend a nice day together.

"So, B, what's up with that private investigator guy?" Faith inquired.

"Well, I know the police are doing their best, but I felt more comfortable hiring someone to focus specifically on this one thing..." she broke off to find both her sister and her best friend staring at her like she had suddenly sprouted another head. With a sigh, she asked, "Is it that obvious?"

"Only to those of us that know and love you best. Which would basically be just us." Her sister answered quickly, knowing that Buffy was slightly upset with herself for liking this guy.

"I feel so guilty. I mean Riley died, what, only five days or so ago, and here I am thinking about another man. This whole day I've been thinking about my relationship with Riley and my feelings towards him. I know I love Riley, but I don't think I was in love with him." When she glanced at her closest companions, she was surprised to see them staring at her with expressions that resembled the word 'Duh!' "You guys knew that?!?" she cried, angry that they could see how she had felt when she herself had been blind to it.

"Well, yeah, Buff. I mean no one ever doubted that you loved him, but Faith and I knew that you only married him because he was so persistent. If you had met someone else while still dating him, especially this Angel guy, I'm sure you would have realized that what you felt for Riley wasn't exactly shake-your-soul love. You know, going off topic, I wonder where that expression came from - 'shake-your-soul love'."

Buffy just smiled at her sister, unwilling to share with her the dreams she had been having the past few nights. The ones that had involved a mysterious, dark, handsome...vampire. It was so strange, really. She didn't believe in those types of things, yet in her dreams, she wasn't surprised when the man's face had morphed into that of a demon's. In fact, it had been slightly erotic. And as she thought about it, the face could've passed for that of her newest - form of help. The dreams had been fuzzy and not full of details, but as she thought back on it, Angel's face could've easily been the one in her dreams. The "shake-your-soul" part had come later on. The dreams were really like a story. They met, fell in love, made love, and the vampire had lost his soul. Buffy shook her head and left those thoughts for later. She returned to earth again just in time to hear Faith's reply to Dawn's question.

"Don't know, D. But there are a lot of expressions in the human language that don't make much sense. We just have to accept that ancient geniuses came up with them in ancient times." Though she meant most of what she said, the slight sarcastic tone of Faith's voice made her two companions laugh. She was glad that Buffy had laughed; the blonde hadn't really been happy since the death of her husband. *I guess love does the wacky.*

"Well," Buffy said, "here we are. This is the Summers girls' stop."

"Yeah," Faith agreed. "I guess you're off the hook for now. But I will get all the details if I have to use magic potions to get you to reveal them."

"At least the official Summers girls, even though I'm technically no longer a Summers." Buffy babbled on. "Cuz we all know that Faith here is an unofficial one, which actually could be considered something to be thankful for." There was a slight lapse in the conversation as they all thought about the circumstances Buffy was talking about. Then the heavy silence passed, and Faith hugged the two women and headed towards the gym. She suddenly had energy to burn.