Chapter 18: Old Wounds

KNOLLWOOD CEMETERY – CLEVELAND HEIGHTS 11:00 PM

BUFFY'S POV

That bastard just picked me up and threw me in a fucking tree! Jumping down to the ground I run to Faith and Emma. The M'Fashnik demon has Emma in one gnarled hand while fighting Faith with the other. Faith is thrown to the ground but scissor kicks out, knocking him off balance. I get to them just in time to yank Emma away before she goes down with him. "Go to the car now," I toss her my spare keys.

"But I can hel-"

"GO!"

Faith throws a stake in his stomach which stuns him for a moment. Then she lands a couple of punches to his sides and backhands him across the face. He stumbles backward and she advances ready to go for the stake and push it further into his gut. She leaps and kicks the stake in but he holds onto her leg and they both fall to the ground.

They jump up and she starts to wail on him continually punching his face over and over. He narrows his eyes at her then spins, his foot connects with her jaw and blood flies from her mouth in an almost Hollywood-like stream. She's wiping her chin when I get to them, "What took you so long B?" she spits the blood from her mouth, "I was having all this fun without you." She jumps; kicking him in the face then turns to me and winks.

Now both Faith and I are fighting him. It's a constant barrage of blows, we don't let up for a minute. Finally we get in a winning combination: she kicks his chest as I punch his face. Mercifully he goes down. Faith is bouncing on her toes waiting for his next move. When he doesn't move at all she cautiously treads nearer.

"Faith don't!" Emma shouts out, I thought I told her to get to the car…

She looks over to Emma as he shoots up grabbing her arm and wrenching it out of the socket as he head butts her throwing her backwards.

"AHHHHH" she screams as she falls to the ground.

Running full force I kick him in the chest and he's flat on his back. He gets up but is far enough away from Faith that Emma can go to her.

He dodges me, spins then brings his fist squarely into my cheek. I hear something crack then feel what I know is blood start to leak from the corner of my eye. As I'm turning back towards him his fist slams down on my back, bringing me to my knees.

Tilting his head over to Faith he sneers, "Looks like you are about to lose another one Slayer, what is that going to make now, 5?" He laughs heartily as we circle each other. "She's very cute this one, kinda looks like Jessie with those long dark locks doesn't she? I was too quick with her, but this one, I think I'll take my time with." He leers at her appraisingly.

There is NO way that is going to happen, "You know I'm going to kill you," I seethe at him. Out of the corner of my good eye I see Emma pulling Faith's dislocated arm out so it goes back into place.

"Oh, I know you think you are. The PtB said there are two paths: yours and mine. Since you can't seem to keep your lovers alive I figure all I have to do is kill another and I'd say you're done, maybe forever. Then the girl goes to her real family and I get my reward."

Faith comes running up to us from the side and slams her foot into his kneecap, "I don't die too easy asshole so your little plan ain't gonna work."

As he is falling down I grab his head in my hands. Looking at him for a moment, "This is for Jessie you mother fucker," then using all my strength I twist his head clean off and throw it to the ground. I stare at his decapitated body as my blood mixes with my tears.

Faith engulfs me in her arms, "Are you ok?"

I nod into her neck, "I'll be fine. We need to get Emma out of here."

We both look over to her and find she is pinning two vamps to a wall telepathically while staking them physically. We turn back to each other.

"Why didn't we do that?" Faith asks me.

"Because we're morons." I answer as we make our way towards her.

"Naaa, just would have taken the fun out of it."

I put my arm around her waist, "Been a long time since we slayed together baby."

"Yeah," she pulls me close and kisses my forehead, "I think it's safe to alert the media, we're still hot chicks with superpowers."

"Right," I nod, "who need some serious medical attention. I think that cock sucker broke my cheek bone."

Faith turns to me a little shocked, "B – you gonna kiss me with that mouth?"

Stopping, I exhale then slowly bring my eyes up to her, "He murdered her in front of me then joked about it. There aren't enough curses known to any language…" my voice cracks and I try to reign in my anger and pain, "a quick death was a gift and I only did it because we need to keep Emma safe."

She brushes the hair from my face as she clenches her jaw. "I understand, we'll talk about it when we get home, ok?"

I bury my head in her chest as tears start to fall, "Ok."

"Guys, guys," Emma runs to us, "Are you ok? Are you both ok? I can't believe you ripped his head off – that was so cool! And did you see me dust those two vamps??!?!"

Faith laughs and I feel it rumble through her chest. I look up at Emma and her face immediately falls.

"Buffy, oh my God, you need to go to the hospital." Her voice is very soft.

I swipe at my eyes, "No, it's ok, we're going to call the house and make sure Willow is up to do some healing spells. How do you feel about driving home?"

Emma's eyes get huge, "Really? You mean it?"

Laughing, I nod, "Faith and I are kinda beat up and it's pretty much a straight shot on the Freeway, so what do you think? You game?"

She just nods then runs to the car.

"You make a great mom, B," Faith whispers in my ear.

"Yeah, that is when I'm not putting her life in danger." I pull her towards the car, "Come on, I don't know about you but I can go for a nice glass of wine."

"How about glasses?"

"Done."

BACK AT THE HOUSE - BASEMENT – TRIAGE ROOM – 12:30 AM

WILLOW'S POV

"Yeah, it's broken." I just finished cleaning the blood from Buffy's face, "I'm going to have to re-align it now, before your Slayer healing fuses it back incorrectly."

"Great, can I get a nose job too, Doc?" she quips.

"No way Red, I like B's nose." Faith is sitting in the chair across from the examination table.

Not particularly in the mood for their banter I snap at her, "Watch it Faith, you're next on my table, and I don't find anything remotely amusing here."

They exchange glances and both lower their eyes.

"Look," I sigh, "aren't you two a little old for this kind of thing? I thought this was going to be a little newbie vampire staking for Emma."

Faith looks at Buffy then drops her head, playing with the new hole in her jeans.

Buffy's eyes hardened. "We didn't know he was going to be there Wills. Besides, this was personal; I wouldn't have let anyone else do it."

"Personal? What the hell are you talking about?" I am totally confused.

Buffy lowers her eyes again and sighs.

Faith speaks up for her, "It wasn't vamps Red, it was the demon that killed Jessie, the one that kidnapped Emma. B killed it tonight."

"Holy crap! How did it know where to find you?" Holy Crap, Holy Crap, Holy Crap.

Buffy shakes her head then winces, probably wasn't a good idea. "Don't know, the PtB told me 'important events will take place this evening' I thought they meant Emma going out on her first patrol. I - I didn't realize." She bows her head again.

"You didn't tell me they said that," Faith creases her brow. "What else did they say?"

Buffy closes her eyes tightly, "Can we just talk about it later?"

"Of course," I squeeze her shoulder, "we don't have to deal with this now, it's been a long night as it is, right? We can talk when you're ready." An uncomfortable silence descends on the three of us. Shit, can't we ever just catch one stinking break? Does it have to be always with the doom and gloom, all the God damn time? "Ok, hold still Buff, this is gonna hurt."

She gasps for breath as I shift her cheek bone and murmur an incantation. When I look up Faith is giving me a very strange look, almost like she's looking through me, freaky. I finish bandaging the cut on Buffy's eye then they switch places.

Faith seems almost shy as I tend to her, bizarre for her I know. I have a look at her shoulder and see Emma did a fine job popping it back into place. "This will probably be sore for a day or two."

"Ok," she says softly.

She only needs a couple of stitches where the demon's apparently steel toe boot connected with her jaw.

When I'm done we all go upstairs where Emma is retelling the adventure to Dawn, Andrew and Ken.

Dawn runs over to Buffy as soon as we come up, "Oh my God, are you ok?" She pulls her into a hug then looks over at Faith who still seems a bit spacey.

"You bet - hugs and puppies." Buffy slowly breaks away from Dawn, "Look guys we're really beat, no pun intended. We're just gonna go to bed, we'll talk in the morning, ok?"

"Ok," Dawn says in a small voice.

Buffy stops and puts her hand on her sister's shoulder. "Hey, I'm fine, really." Now Buff brings her into a heartfelt hug. "I just need to decompress, you know?"

Dawn puts on a knowing smile, "Yeah, I was just worried."

Buffy nods then after making a pit stop at the kitchen for a bottle of wine and glasses, they go upstairs.

The rest of us go back into the living room.

Andrew comes up and puts his hands on Dawn's shoulders, "She'll be fine, babe, Faith will take care of her."

Dawn leans back into him, "I know, it's just that sometimes I wonder where her breaking point is, I mean really, how much can she take."

"As much as she needs too," Ken says rather solemnly, "She's been doing this for a long time Dawn, your sister's a very strong woman she can handle it."

Dawn shakes her head, "I know but that demon fucked both of them up, badly, and from the looks of both them, more than just physically. I, I just worry."

"It's all my fault," Emma bows her head.

Ken raises her eyebrows, "Have you lost you mind? How do you see this is your fault?"

"Well, the demon was after me so it's my fault. Then Buffy made me leave so I didn't help them, I could have helped them, I could have used the magic -"

This is where I cut in, "Emma, they were trying to protect you. You know your magic is still unfocused and imprecise so it's incredibly unreliable. It could have actually done more harm than good. And it probably wouldn't have worked – the demon was a minion of the Goddess, she would have shielded him from your power. So please, don't take any blame, especially here where there is none."

"But I distracted Faith then she and Buffy got hurt."

Emma's eyes are still downcast. "Yes they were both beaten up pretty good, but I fixed what I could and they're ok now. By tomorrow morning their Slayer healing will have them good as new. As for the heavy duty emotional issues, well they'll work it out together. And if either of them needs our help or an ear or a shoulder, they know we're here for them, it's what family does."

BUFFY'S ROOM – 1:15 AM

FAITH'S POV

B is laying against my good shoulder her arm and leg draped over me. I'm leaning on the headboard, sipping my wine. "How decadent it is to be in bed, sipping wine with a beautiful woman. It seems unfathomable I was in a hell dimension 2 months ago."

"Breaking out the SAT words Faithy?" B looks up at me.

"Never took the SAT, the Stockton Women's Correctional Facility classes got me my GED, that's enough schooling for me. The rest was all reading. You read a lot when you're alone. So I read plenty, kinda like how Emma's got that killer vocabulary."

"Sorry," she traces her hand up and down my side, "There was no one in all that time? In all those places?"

"B, I'm not a nun, of course there were people."

"You know what I mean, a relationship."

I nod, "Once."

"Tell me?" She snuggles into me.

"Well..."

"Come on, you know everything about my sordid love life, not to mention that you basically hooked me up with the last person I was with, I'm still not over the weirdness of that by the way."

I sigh, "I would hardly call your love life sordid." I pull her into me, "And I just did what I thought was the right thing to do."

"Tell me?"

I sigh knowing she wants me to share it, knowing it might help her share her pain with me. I begin, "Isabella was part of that Coven in Mexico, their healer and Iliana's daughter. We met when I came back from Venezuela after cleaning up the vampire nest that killed Riley and Sam. I had a few scrapes and she patched me up. So after every assignment if I was hurt, I'd go to her and she'd take care of it, well, me."

B leans up and refills our glasses, "Sorry I didn't mean to make you stop."

"It's ok," I take another sip then continue, "So after your school started to take care of business here and you and Jessie got together, I started making those trips to other dimensions. It got to where I would always come back to Mexico even if I wasn't hurt and stay with her. It's not like anything ever happened, or anything was ever said. I just went there, I guess cause I didn't have anywhere else to go."

"You could have come here," she says softly.

"No I couldn't have. I was still messed up and you and Jessie were happy." I take a breath, "We both had a job to do B, and our feelings about each other were too raw. We would have distracted each other and people would have died."

"Don't we each still have a job to do?"

"We're older now; I think we know how to handle the balance a little bit better than when we did in our twenties."

"Yeah, I guess…"

"So anyway," I give her a little squeeze, "So one time when I came back things got serious. I was 27 and it was the first time I was with someone for more than a week."

B turns to me, "How long were you guys together?"

I look down, "Two years."

She settles back into me, "That's impressive," she pauses, "What's she like?"

I look up to the ceiling and think for a moment, "Very…soothing, like the embodiment of calm," I laugh, "talk about polar opposites huh? But she helped me work out a lot of stuff."

"How? Magic? Meditation?" B drains her glass then sets it on the night table.

Shaking my head, "Nothing as sexy as that, we just talked a lot; about Finch, the Mayor, Angel," I take a huge breath, "you."

She turns to me, "No way you talked to her about me," she's incredulous.

"Way. But she understood, better than I did at the time that no matter what, a piece of me would always belong to you."

B's very quiet then she nods, "Jessie knew it too. We never discussed anything like you did, I mean I told her about you and stuff, but I know she put the rest of it together on her own." She runs her hand over mine, "So what happened with Isabella?"

I look up at her then down again, "Vampire." I take a rather large drink of my wine. "Irony, huh? A Vampire Slayer's girlfriend gets killed by a vampire. I was in another dimension so I didn't find out until three weeks later. Iliana took it very hard, Isabella was her only daughter, and she had just found out about her cancer. So I asked the PtB if I could stay with her for a little while, they said it was ok so I stayed for a couple of months."

"Jesus Christ." she cups my face in her hand and lightly kisses my cheek. "We can't seem do the relationship thing, huh? It's just like that demon said."

"No, B, don't believe that little fuck. He just talked all that trash to rattle you. We're in a high casualty business, and although so many have been lost I feel we are incredibly lucky to still have so many alive: Dawn, Willow, Ken, Giles, Andrew, shit, especially me and you. All of us have faced tremendous odds and yet are still here to do the best we can with what we got."

"Now you sound like Willow."

"Red is an exceptionally intelligent woman."

She leans back against my chest, "Do you think now that we're together the PtB will leave us alone?" She asks hopefully.

"That would be more than I could ever ask for, but no, I doubt it."

We're quiet for a little while both lost in our thoughts. I pull her closer to me again, "You alright with what happened tonight?"

She exhales, "I always thought it would make me feel better, you know, killing him, the whole revenge thing. And to be honest it did, for about a minute. But it didn't change anything, well, except that he's dead now too. It's like…" She stops.

"What B?" I coax as I put my glass on the night table so I can carefully wrap both arms around her.

She swallows. I can tell she's crying. "It's like I can let her go now but part of doesn't want to and the other part of me already has. Oh God, I shouldn't be talking about this with you, I should be talking to Will."

"Shhh," I nuzzle my face in her hair. "I think I know how you feel. You've been holding onto the pain of losing her for so long that letting go of it makes you feel guilty."

She sits up and faces me searching my eyes, "Exactly."

We hold each other's gaze for a moment. "I'm not asking you to let her go, Buffy." I reach out my hand and rub my thumb against her cheek.

"I know," she pushes into my hand, "thank you."

"For what?"

"For being so incredibly understanding and strong and open and honest. God, are you real?"

"Very real," I lean in and capture her lips with mine. It's a soft kiss, not heated; the Gods know neither of us could handle that right now; too many emotions running around both our heads, too many old wounds reopened tonight. "Let's get some sleep."

Buffy reaches over and shuts the light. She pulls the covers over us then wraps me in a full body Slayer hug. "I love you so very much," she whispers.

I return her embrace with fervor, "I love you too."

4:00 AM

NO ONE'S POV

The wind blows through her hair as she rides the cable car up the mountain. Looking out, she sees the ocean is calm as the sun starts to set. Once at the top she gets out and starts walking around. There are little creatures hopping about. They kinda look like mutant rabbits but she knows they're not. She thinks for a minute, Dassies, that's what they're called, they're cute.

Breathing in deeply she is awed by the beauty of her surroundings: being above the clouds, the view of the city below and the ocean that stretches out beyond it reflecting the setting sun.

Turning to walk back to the cable car she stops when she sees her leaning against the railing looking out onto the water, shoulders set, raven hair being taken by the wind. The corners of her mouth turn up into a grin as she feels her heart flutter. 'Will I ever stop feeling like this when I see her?' She asks herself as she strides toward her other half.

"Hey you," the blonde speaks as she leans her head against her lover's back, wrapping her arms around her waist.

"Hey Buffy," her captive replies turning in her arms, "Where are we?"

"Table Mountain, South Africa, it's gorgeous here isn't it?" Buffy takes in the view once more, then turns back looking into those warm brown eyes.

The brunette nods as she holds her stare, "Absolutely," a smirk forming at her lips.

She laughs as she feels her cheeks color, "Faith, what are you doing in my dream?"

"Don't know, just found myself here."

"Think it's the PtB?"

Faith tilts her head to the side, "Slayer dream, Emma's from South Africa, no such thing as coincidence, hmmm, I'd say probably." She places a kiss on Buffy's forehead.

Neither of them notices the woman begin to approach them let alone when she raises an eyebrow as Faith kisses Buffy's head, "You know I always had a feeling about you two."

Buffy's eyes widen, immediately recognizing the voice. She turns, "Mom?"