I just wanted to say thank you all for the reviews I know this chap may seem slow but things will speed up quick...

Horrible Truths

The night belonged to the broken. In two cities, miles apart, two girls, two slayers, cried their eyes out for reasons the other would never understand. Both cried for others, both cried for themselves.

"Buffy?" Shortly after the tears had dried on the blond slayers face, the younger Summers had come looking to check up on her injured sister. The instant she set foot in the infirmary she knew something was wrong.

As she stood staring at the sad form of her sister Dawn begins to put the blonde's tears, the brunette's absence, and the red-head's worried face together.

"Buffy are you okay? Did you and Faith have a fight or something? Did she hurt you again?" Old fears began to re-surface the longer Buffy remained silent, however, Willow quickly jumped in to quell the teen.

"Dawn, its okay. They just had a disagreement. Everything is fine." The false peppiness in the witch's voice arose Dawn's insecurities of being outside the Scoobie circle.

"I'm not a kid you know. I have a right to know what's going on with my own sister."

"She's right." Buffy said breaking her own silence. She took a breath and continued warily. "Dawn, I did something…"

Buffy told her the story. The building filled with bodies and the fight that had gone so horribly wrong. However, unlike the reaction of her lover, Dawn moved closer to Buffy the more she spoke and by the end of her story the young brunette held her sister in her arms. Even as tears began to fill the slayers eyes, she went on to tell her sister of her fight with Faith.

"I don't regret it. I know I was right," The young leader shook as she said it, "But I don't think Faith will ever forgive me." Putting her around around the injured slayer, Dawn helped her sister up and back on the bed.

"Buffy, Faith loves you. No matter what I can see the happiness you guys bring out in each other. Right now she is just dealing with her own issues. I mean you fighting a dark haired girl and putting a knife in her stomach, I'm sure that brings back memories." Though the tears on Buffy's face had slowed she was still unable to meet the eyes of the others in the room.

"Dawn you didn't see it. The way she looked at me, there was so much disgust in her eyes. Faith looked at me like I was nothing."

"You disappointed her." Dawn said rubbing the blondes back. "She put you on this pedestal and couldn't deal with you doing something she would do. She has blood on her hands, probably never thought you'd have any on yours."

The seconds seemed to go by like hours as the two brunettes looked upon the mess that was Desiree. With the precision of the arrow shot and the description in Buffy's story, neither girls expected to find the deadly slayer to be a sobbing jumble of dirt and despair.

"Please don't kill me" Is all that she begged of them. Her only movements have been rocking slowly to her insanity.

"Desiree?" Faith asked reassuringly trying not to scare the girl, but slow and steady she kept on rocking as though the other two didn't exist; as if they were complete figments of her imagination. "Desiree, can you hear me?"

"It's not my fault." Desiree whispered so quietly even the two slayers had to strain to hear it with their heightened sense. "It's not my fault."

"Desiree what's not your fault. What happened? Help me understand, let me help you."

"Understand? Help? I saw the way she looked at me, I see you too. You know what I did, but he made me do it." She said as she looked up at Kennedy and Faith accusingly.

"What did you do?" Kennedy asked with the same patience.

"I killed him."

"The man in the chair? What about the other bodies?" Faith asked calmly, but she was quickly put on edge when Desiree jumped to her feet.

"No, you're just like she was. She didn't see, you don't see. He did it. He always did."

"Who?" Kennedy asked.

"Daddy." Desiree said with a smirk. "Daddy did bad things. Him and his friends hurt people for his Gods. He used to make me watch, everywhere he went I went, he called me his little shadow." As she said that, Desiree pulled her shirt down a bit to show where she was branded on her left breast with the name shadow. "I wouldn't have done it except, a few months ago I suddenly got strong and fast and Daddy said that I was unclean. He spit on me and tried to hurt me, but I stopped him. I had the power now and no one was going to take it away."

"Desiree," Kennedy spoke "if that's how it went down then why did you attack Buffy?" Desiree looked at both slayers long and hard. As tears began to gather in her eyes. She fell to her knees.

"I didn't want to hurt her, but when she looked at me she had his eyes. The disgusted way she stared and the way she spoke made me look at her like I saw him. I could just see him and I thought he was back and wanted to take what was mine. The next thing I know is I'm bleeding crawling to my safe room as the building falls around me. It took me months to heal, but when I did I wanted to talk to her. But as soon as I saw her it all came back. Are you going to kill me now?" She asked with tears in her eyes. Before Faith could speak Kennedy grabbed her arm and dragged her to the other side of the room.

"I know what you're thinking and no." Kennedy said low enough so Desiree couldn't hear.

"What do you mean no?" Faith said back in an angry tone, "This girl needs help. Obviously she is fucked up in the head right now and needs a place to go."

"Buffy is not going to like this."

"Saint Buffy," Faith emphasized vindictively, "almost killed this girl." The ex rogue calmed herself and then argued, "When she hears her side of the story Buffy will be cool."

"You know she won't be and frankly I'm not on the trust train as much as you are right now. I know you're mad at Buffy, but bringing her back with us may not be the greatest decision, both safety wise and your relationship stability."

"Buffy will understand," Faith said adamantly. "She has to." She finished with a whisper.

Faith walked back over to the broken girl.

"Desiree get up... you're coming with us. We're going to help you."