And now, the story continues.
An Eternal War
Chapter Ten
By IceWing (icewing@one.net)
Awareness returned slowly to his mind. Then he realized that there was someone else on the couch with him. Someone female. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he took stock of the situation. Her back was against his chest, his arms wrapped around her waist. Her bare waist. He still had his t-shirt on, so he wasn't sure about any of the rest of her torso. 'Please let her be clothed.' Cautiously, he opened an eye, and breathed a sigh of relief. Clothes. He hadn't done anything stupid during the night. In his arms, Faith stirred slightly. He could feel her breathing change as he held her. 'Now what?' he thought. "Definitely a new situation. I have just woken up, and I find myself on the couch, holding in my arms a young woman who I've been intimate with, and I am completely clueless.' He grinned. "What would Brian Boitano do?"
"I never would have taken you for a South Park fan," said Faith sleepily.
"Huh?" was all Xander could get out. "How'd you know what I was thinking about?"
A soft laugh. "You said it out loud."
"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you up. Was just trying to figure out how I could extricate myself from the couch without disturbing you."
Faith rolled off of him and onto the edge of the couch, allowing him to sit up and look at her. "Ask nicely?" she said with a smile.
Xander grinned back at her. "Well, that's one way I suppose." He glanced at the clock, and then out of habit, out the window. "Well, its morning. Guess we both were exhausted." His stomach rumbled ominously. "And I'm guessing you're probably as famished as I am." Another grin. "What say you to breakfast?"
"You cooking?" asked Faith.
"Well, although I am a passingly good cook, the parents usually don't have anything upstairs to cook with, so how about I offer to pick up breakfast at the restaurant of your choice. How's that sound?"
Faith looked down at her hands for a moment. Inside she was torn. Part of her wanted to accept, but part of her was screaming that it was a mistake. Reminding her what happened when she got close to people, when she let them in A slight sigh escaped her lips. 'No more running, ' she thought. 'If he wanted to take advantage of me, he sure as hell doesn't need to use breakfast as a gimmick. I mean, I slept in his arms last night, and he didn't try anything.' "Sure, what the heck. If there's free food, I'm there. Only problem is I'm not exactly presentable after all that went down yesterday. Got someplace I can clean up?"
Xander directed her to the bathroom on the main floor. "Its only 8 am, so the folks aren't due to get up for at least another couple hours or so."
After finding the bathroom and getting in the shower, Faith turned the hot water up to the point it was almost scalding and let it just wash over her. Last night had been a first for her. Falling asleep in a guy's arms. And he hadn't even tried something. She sighed deeply and looked around the shower for the shampoo. What was she doing? Was she really going to open herself up and let them in? She leaned against the wall of the shower, letting the water just flow over her. 'All you're doing is setting yourself up for pain, is that what you want?' She sighed and started washing her hair, trying desperately not to think of everything which was crowding her from every direction. Ten minutes later, she stepped out of the shower, wrapped in a towel. Sitting on the hamper by the door was a small stack of clothes with a small note on top. "Faith, didn't think you wanted to wear the torn up stuff from yesterday, so here are some t-shirts and a couple of button up that maybe you'll like. Hope they fit. Sorry but you're on your own for under garments and pants." Faith smiled and started through the pile to see what she could do with it.
After getting dressed and with her hair wrapped in a towel, Faith headed back to the basement, only to find Xander down there already changed into some clean clothes, his hair still dripping. "Ok, how'd you manage to pull off getting showered while I was in the bathroom?"
Xander grinned sheepishly. "Well, actually there is a shower down here too. The downside is that it has no hot water Anyway, I thought you could use the therapeutic effects of a steaming shower far more than I." He noticed that she had taken advantage of his offered clothes and was now wearing a black t-shirt and red short sleeve shirt which was tied in the front. "Glad to see somebody still fits in that stuff. One advantage of being a slob like me is you never throw out clothes which stopped fitting freshman year. But it looks good on you."
Faith smiled at him. "Flattery will get you nowhere. I appreciate the
threads. Kinda conservative for me, but I think I'll deal." She pulled
the towel off her head and dried it vigorously for a moment then proclaimed
herself ready to go. "Ready to eat?"
'There are times I really wish we had not blown up the school,' thought Giles as he observed the distraught remains of his adopted family sprawled out in his living room. Putting his freshly brewed cup of tea down on the table, he addressed the teens.
"So, allow me to make sure I have this correct. Approximately eighteen hours ago, while the three of you plus Xander, were at the park, you encountered Faith. Specifically, Buffy encountered Faith. A fight, of which Buffy threw the first punch, ensued and ended with Faith on the ground. Up until this point, do I have the facts reasonably straight?" All three teens nodded. "Now, at this point, Xander, who was somehow armed with a baseball bat and was running slightly in front of both Oz and Willow, broad sided Buffy, knocking her and himself to the ground immediately before she could deliver a coup de grace to Faith. He then proceeded to verbally attack Willow and Buffy, and then subsequently assisted Faith to her feet and departed, flattening your tires so you couldn't get back before dusk. Did I miss or leave out anything in that summary?" When no response came, Giles sighed and reached for his glasses. "Not exactly a sterling situation we find ourselves in"
Willow piped up. "Maybe he's under a spell or could he be his evil vampire duplicate?"
Oz looked at Willow, then at Buffy and Giles and shook his head. "I'm going to play devil's advocate here for a moment, if nobody minds." No one said anything, so he continued. "Has anyone thought that perhaps we have been treating Xander like dirt as of late? Like, all year basically? Now, hear me out before saying anything. Willow, you and he were friends since time began. And Buffy, he worshipped you and the ground you walked on. Giles, you were one of the few adults whose opinion of him mattered much. I kinda have an excuse, albeit lame, that I caught him kissing my girl. But the rest of you shouldn't be all that surprised he split. Although I must admit that taking off with Faith was more dramatic than I would have figured on. But the fact does remain that he was speaking from the heart yesterday when he told us off. You can blame him if you want for abandoning the gang, you can blame Faith if you want, but maybe, just maybe you need to think about that chance that maybe the gang abandoned him long before now. And that Faith, already abandoned by everybody, saw what was happening and offered him something This is our fault, nobody else's."
Buffy stuttered, tears flowing again. "But we didn't abandon him. He has to"
"He's right" Whispered Willow as she looked first at her folded hands, then at Buffy. "We pushed him away, time and time again. We said it was for his own good, but it wasn't. We all said that he was the weak one and we excluded him." She looked down at her hands again. "You guys remember Jesse? Giles and Oz were drawing a blank, but Buffy nodded hesitantly after a second. "I talked to Jesse last night, or more like he talked to me. "
"Isn't he dead Will?" asked the Slayer.
"He visited me in a dream. He told me pretty much the same thing that Oz just said. That it was our own fault and that we.." Willow paused and wiped at her watering eyes. "He told me that I had to try and fix things, that we all did. Or things would be bad. Really bad." Willow began sobbing and buried her head in Oz's shoulder.
"But I was I mean.." Buffy tried without success to complete a sentence. "He can't just bail on me. Not now!"
"And what is so critical about now?" asked Giles.
Oz explained, after a nod from Buffy, that the reason they had been late to the park the day before was that she and Willow had been in a discussion about Xander, an in particular, her feeling for him and what to do about them.
"I was going to tell him yesterday at the park," sobbed Buffy. "And then" She was unable to continue.
"And then the situation went to pieces," finished Giles as he cleaned his glasses again.
"He can't do this. Not now!" she cried, almost as if denying it would make it all go away.
"As much as I hate to say this Buffy, I believe that we may in fact be responsible for this rather unfortunate chain of events. Regardless of any feelings that you may have allowed to come to light in reference to Xander, the situation seems to have reached critical mass as it were. We have treated him poorly, and I am curious, now that this has thoroughly slapped us in our collective faces, why Xander stood by us as long as he did."
"Inertia," said Oz. "Simple physics. Objects in motion tend to stay in motion."
Willow nodded as she dried her tears. "We ignored him for too long. Even though we tried to patch things up yesterday, it was too late. The tree was already failing down. It just hadn't hit the ground yet."
Buffy looked as if her heart had been ripped out of her chest and stomped on. She buried her face in her hands. "What have I done?"
But no one had an answer.
The fading evening sun glimmered across the asphalt ribbon as it wound its way into town. Down its length rode three vehicles, moving in concert like a single finely tuned machine. As one they moved, yet their outward appearances were sharply contrasting. In the middle lane, slightly ahead of the flanking vehicles was a sharply detailed Dodge Stealth. The dark tinted windows and black edging accentuated the fiery red of the body. On its right, and slightly behind, was what had started out its life as a US Army two and a half ton truck, now rebuilt to look like an extremely oversized sport utility vehicle. An SUV which looked like it could ram through Fort Knox with no more than some scratches, but an SUV none the less. On the left of the leader was a streamlined miniature winnebago. Its paint job was of a sunrise overlooking a forest scene.
Inside the lead car, a gloved hand reached for the radio mic. "SunnyDale, 12 miles boys. Remember, no spell slinging Tyrell, until we know the ground a bit better. We've got a warehouse leased for HQ and a house on the outskirts of town. Remember, watch out for the Slayer and her friends." Two affirmatives came back over the scrambled frequency as the driver rehooked the mic. Her hand brushed over the sword laying on the passenger seat. A mission, a Slayer and a Rogue. 'When it rains it pours,' she thought as the trio speed towards the setting sun.
End Chapter 10