Title: Maybe, Just Maybe
Disclaimer: Please don't sue. The characters I created are mine. So steal my idea, or 'borrow' without my permission, and I will be the one to sue. Other characters remain...not mine.
Pairings:Buffy/Faith
Feedback: Always, please =)
Rating: R for adult scenes

Note: I am SO SORRY for the lack of update for so long. I've been so stuck with this fic, and I've only just recently started up with it again. I hope you haven't lost interest. Please keep reading! I'm coming up with more ideas now so I should be back on track for updating, and what not. Thanks SO much for your support and I'm so sorry it took so long to update.


Chapter 12 – Differences Aside

Silence was probably the most annoying element that accompanied darkness. Especially at that moment, when vamps were lurking and they had to be found. Faith had a thing for staking out every vamp she had set eyes on, no matter if they led her all the way to Cleveland and back. She itched for the kill, and wouldn't let it go 'til it was done.

But that night was different. I had to bail because Giles needed be at his place, to look over something that he had found in that fat ugly book. So Faith and Will went out for patrol, and as usual I made it a note telling Will to be careful and to pull out if things got too heavy.

'I never thanked you,' Will started, as they trod the pathway concrete leading into a swirl of darkness and trees and tombstones.

Faith glanced at Will, a little confused about what she meant. She let her continue to speak.

'For…helping me. Like…everything that you did, a-and said, and…' she trailed off and Faith looked at her once more.

She shrugged and shoved her hands into her back pockets of her jeans. 'Mneh…it's what friend's do. And anyways, it's all about havin' a good time.'

Silence. Faith immediately realised this was strange. Will was never this silent.

'So you're just a friend to me,' she said, under her breath.

Faith furrowed her eyebrows slightly, beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable.

'You know it's amazing how much your feelings can…can change as your relationship grows. Cos like…with Xander, I spent so long hating him, then liking him, th-then loving him, and…everything that's ever happened between us…I've never been through so many emotions.'

'Well, he's your childhood bud. Of course you're gonna have been through emotional roller coaster rides with him, it's common.' Faith looked at her feet as she walked, thinking a little about how many roller coasters she'd been on thinking about every person she'd ever been with. Few meant a thing to her. Just the one meant a lot.

Will hummed a little in her throat, as if she was thinking. 'Yeah I guess. But…the thing is…I'm…I'm not actually talking about him.'

More silence. Faith had realised straight away what Willow meant, and she looked up at her, to find her looking straight back at her. Will stopped them walking, and leant in to kiss Faith, though Faith pushed her out of the way and landed a kick straight into the belly of an incoming vamp.

Will was a little taken aback by Faith's pushing of her out of the way, though quickly realised it was all for her own safety. She saw a vamp coming in the opposite direction and hurried to go fight him down.

Faith hated the fact that vamps were so freaking cocky with her, and the fact that all they talked about was sucking the blood out of the 'Slayer' ballsed her up. Mainly because she thought of me, and not her.

She cracked his neck off his shoulders, and poof. Looking around she saw Will was surrounded. Surrounded, and beat. Some guy was sucking off her neck, the other holding her stake to the flesh on her chest.

'Shit, Will!' Faith hurried over to her and kicked the sucking vamp out of the way and somehow managed to turn the stake on the other vamp and poof him instantly. She quickly grabbed the stake and chucked it at the other vamp, missing by a fraction of an inch. Will fell to the ground, near enough to unconsciousness. She cursed to herself under her breath, retrieving the stake from her back pocket and moving towards the vamp.

'Nice try, Slayer. Shame your girlfriend wasn't strong enough,' he sneered.

She backhanded him, letting out a noise at the same time. 'Screw you, you bastard. You get your kicks out of siring, you're screwed up. Should get yourself a life.' She paused. 'Whoops. Too stupid, you couldn't keep hold of that either.' She kicked him and he fell down to the ground and as he rolled over, she shoved the stake through his chest, and as he disintegrated, he laughed. 'Insane dickhead.'

She remembered Will and chucked the stake aside, hurried to Will at once. 'Fuck,' she said under her breath. She knelt down beside her, checking her pulse immediately. 'Shi-Will, can you hear me? Red, can you hear me?' she winced, knowing Will was right on the edge.

- - -

She yelled at the top of her voice at the green door before her. 'Open the fuck up, now!!!' she yelled, tears welling up in her eyes.

To her surprise, I pulled the door back, looking a little pissed off. My facial expressions must have transformed at record timing. 'Oh my god, what happened?' I asked as she pushed past, carrying Will in her arms, barely conscious. Giles was clearing books off of the couch to make way for her, and Faith laid her down, gently as she could.

'I was fighting a vamp, she was too, I had no idea she couldn't handle it, I had my back to her.' She stepped back and Giles grabbed a towel, pressed it to her neck.

'Goddamit, Faith I told you to be careful. You knew it was too much you should've just backed out,' I muttered under my breath, as I opened up the first aid box.

Faith sat back on her heels, took some of the equipment I handed to her. 'I didn't know, B.'

'Well you should have,' I snapped at her. Not meaning to, but scared that what I had imagined might come true. This is exactly why I didn't want Will going in.

Faith ripped open the packets of whatever the fuck it was I'd handed her. 'Well how the hell was I supposed to have known? They came outta nowhere, I had no idea, I couldn't see!'

'Well next time use your fucking eyes!' I yelled, looking straight at her. I turned back to Will and pressed the antiseptic laden cotton wool to her neck. I turned to Giles as he sat beside me, as quiet as he was anxious. 'I think she'll be okay.'

'Maybe we should get her to the hospital just in case. She's probably lost a lot of blood,' Giles told me. I nodded.

'Shall we take your car?' I asked, and he nodded in reply, getting to his feet to grab his keys and coat.

I took the gauze from Faith, who had been silent ever since and pressed it to Will's neck. 'It's okay, sweetie, we're gonna get you to a hospital,' I told her softly, my own voice breaking up a little.

She sat back ever so silently, just watching us two rushing about around her. She ran fingers back through her hair and sighed. 'Want me to carry her out to the car?' she piped up, so gently.

I shook my head. 'Just stay out of it, you've caused enough trouble,' I told her straight away, as I slid my arm under Will's neck, and another under her knees.

'I didn't know, B,' she said quietly.

'That's enough,' I told her. I turned to Giles. 'Shall we go?'

He nodded, and I saw him glance at Faith before heading out. I couldn't even look at her right now. Why I was so mad at her…I don't know. Maybe because I wasn't there.

She followed us out, closing the door after me. I heard her footsteps behind, and inwardly wished they would go away. I really didn't want her here right now.

- - -

'She's lost a lot of blood, so oxygen levels are low. We have her stabilised, and she's coming to. Just…give her some time to rest, she should be right as rain in a couple of days, if that.' The doctor smiled at us and headed out of the waiting room.

'Was a close call,' I uttered to Giles, who had been standing beside me as the doctor spoke to us. 'I told her, and she didn't listen.'

Giles looked at me and I looked up at him. 'Faith knows how dangerous it is. I told her that if it starts to get heavy, for both of them to back out.'

Giles removed his glasses from his face and retrieved a handkerchief from his pocket, used it to clean his lenses. All the while I watched him.

'She never listens.'

'Why are you trying to blame it on Faith, Buffy?' he started, so solemnly, as if it was an enquiry, rather than an interrogation.

'What?' I frowned. I had since wandered over to a chair and sat down, he, still standing in that same position.

'You heard her. She didn't know, she's not superwoman. She was doing what had to be done, little did she know Willow was hurt. And you told them to go out and patrol tonight, they could've stayed at mine with us, we could've gone through the books all together, patrolling could have waited.'

I sat still. 'That's not the point-'

'It's not the point because you don't want it to be the point, Buffy. Faith was doing what any of us would have done. The same thing could have happened to you, or Xander, or me. It doesn't matter. We all get hurt, someway or another. Faith is not the one to blame here.' He paused and rubbed his mouth with his fingers a moment. 'It seems to me as if you need to put your personal differences or…similarities aside, and focus, on this. Whatever it is that's standing between you two.'

'NOTHING is standing between us, Giles! It's just her, she won't listen! I told her specifically-'

'You told her specifically what she did, Buffy. She listened to you. I don't understand why you're so mad at her.'

'Because I should've been there!' I yelled. 'I should've been there to stop them, not her, alright?' I rose from my chair and hurried out. The fuck was up with me? Since when did I get jealous of Faith?

- - -

I hadn't noticed her leaning up against the building, clouded by smoke from her cigarette. But when she called out to me, I stopped in my footsteps, failed to turn to face her, tears streaming down my cheeks. 'I did what you asked me to, B. I don't understand why you're marking me down as such a screw-up.'

'Just leave it, Faith.' I continued walking. God, I just wanted this day to be over.

'Why are you being like this, B?' she called, and I sensed her beginning to approach me. 'Don't even tell me you're jealous of me and Red patrolling together?' Silence. I didn't wanna go there. 'Oh come on, Buffy, what is this? I save her and all of a sudden we're back to square one? Buffy how many times, there's nothing between us!'

I stopped and turned to face her. 'Then why do I always feel as if there's competition between Will and I? Why do I always feel as if leaving you alone with her is like…' I looked away.

'Like what, huh?' she said, her voice telling me she was frustrated.

I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and folded my arms across my chest. 'I just…I feel like I don't have you. Completely. And it…makes me jealous.'

'So you blame all that on me? Jesus Christ, B! What is this?'

'What is what?'

'This!!! You're tellin' me I've caused enough trouble, and that I should stay out of shit that wasn't even my fault! I feel like I'm getting the third degree for saving someone's life, here, B. And I don't understand why the hell you're giving me the run-around all the freakin' time we start to talk about Red. What is there to be jealous about, exactly?'

'Us,' I muttered, then shrugged.

Faith sighed and looked away for a moment, the light from a near-by lamp shade shining in her eyes. She looked back at me for a moment, her taller form meaning she had to look down slightly. I saw the confusion in her eyes and for a moment I realised how stupid I was being. One moment we were all over each other, the next I was messing her around. Being jealous of Willow. That I might…lose Faith.

She pulled me in close and just held me. Took my head in one of her hands and pressed it to her, took my waist in her other hand and just…held me. I guess that was enough to make me realise I was the one she wanted to be touching.

'If you're afraid of losing me…don't be.' I think she didn't intend to say anything more. But if she did…it got lost. I never heard her continue. Instead we just stood there. And she held me. God, I was such an idiot.

At first I didn't realise that was Giles standing in the doorway of the hospital, watching us. But I soon realised he knew I was being a fool. And for the first time ever I thought he must have known about us. And it comforted me.