Secrets
"Buffy, Willow, I have an assignment for you"
Easy, that's what he said it was going to be. That's all she's been repeating to herself for the past two months, but the memories never got any easier for her. Every minute of that mission was like watching a slow motion movie of your life about to go to hell. Now as she lies in the backseat of her new car, watching the blood spill over the new leather, she almost wishes for the easy way out. The simple scenario of death seems much easier then the possibility of facing what she has done.
"B, Buffy" Faith whispers "Its gonna be alright. We're almost home, Kennedy already called the house, and the healers are ready and waiting for our arrival. Okay? Just hang in there."
When Faith finishes talking she turns back around in her seat, she can't have Buffy see her cry. Faith almost jumps when she feels a pat on her hand and she is even more surprised to see that affection coming from Kennedy. However, Faith understands the sadness in Kennedy's eyes. Even if they weren't that close, Buffy is their leader, she's supposed to be indestructible. Yet, Buffy feels anything but indestructible.
Buffy watches as the blood stops spilling out of her wound and she becomes sad at the thought of not being able to pass out to avoid the unavoidable conversation that needs to happen. However, it is the display in the front seats that truly break her heart. These people need her and trust in her and she has betrayed them all behind their backs. She knows once the upheaval of her almost fatal wound fades, they'll want answers.
With the lack of motion of the car Buffy knows they have reached their destination. When Buffy's door opens and she is lifted from the car she still holds the arrow, now dislodged from her stomach, in her hand. "Buffy, Buffy are you okay?" Buffy looks up to see the concurred face of Dawn, "Hey, Dawnie I'm fine. I'll be up and running in no time." Buffy gave Dawn a smile with those words of encouragement and while she didn't believe her sister for a second, she did calm down a little bit.
As Buffy headed off to the infirmary where the healers were waiting an emergency gathering of the scoobies was held in the library to trying and figure out what had happened. "So then Buffy just stops walking and I was like guys do you feel that and Faith and I were just waiting for Buffy to say something but she was just staring straight ahead, she wouldn't look back at us."
"Did you happen to she what she was looking at?" Giles asked
Faith began to pace as she picked up where Kennedy had stopped, "At first we didn't see anything, and then B just started to shake really badly, so we looked in the direction she was looking in, thinking we were going to see some big monster, but instead it sort of looked like some girl was.." "A girl? Willow interrupted "What did she look like, was it a slayer, or a vampire, or maybe the first.." "Red!" Faith said stopping willow from babbling "We didn't get a good look at her and she didn't feel like no slayer or anything I've ever been around. Plus, once B feel and we saw the arrow we sort of took off ."
When Faith said the word arrow Willow stopped pacing which caused Faith to stop and stare. "An arrow, that's what happened?" At the urgency in willows voice Kennedy stood up and took hold of her girlfriends hands "Yeah, baby, that's what happened, I guess with everything going on I fail to mention that on the phone. Does matter though?" Willow quickly looked away from Kennedy's eyes "No of course it doesn't matter, but what did you do with the arrow?"
Faith turned toward the couple and replacing the look of pain in her eyes with suspicion she answered "We managed to get it out of her but she hasn't let go of it yet. She's probably still holding on to it, you know B loves her mementos." With a glance toward Giles, Willow lets go of her girlfriend's hands and walks toward the doors of the library says "Giles I think we should go check in with the healers and see if they need any help." "Yes I think we could be most useful."
When the door clicks shut Kennedy and Faith share their own glance and go to the door. Opening it they find an out of breathe Xander and the retreating backsides of Willow and Giles "Guys what's going on!" Xander asks urgently, but the two slayers aren't focused on him but on the little bit of sentence they got from the others "…she's declared war…"
"Kenndy! Faith! What the HELL is going on!" Xander asked furiously, when the two slayers looked back up they were thinking the same thing.