Night Falls

Notes: Thanks for the reviews. Keep them coming!

Previously:

Buffy relaxed a bit at her words. Sighing, she let her arms drop to her sides. "Well, we're gonna need all the help we can get."

"That include me, B?" Faith asked, reappearing in one of Hailey's white wife beaters and skintight black jeans. Buffy's face hardened, but she nodded.

"Yeah, F," she said a bit bitterly. "That includes you."

Chapter Eight:

"You're kidding me, right?" Hailey asked looking over at Buffy desperately. "I haven't had to do that in years," she said, motioning to the group of potentials gathered in Buffy's backyard for training exercises. Kennedy was leading them through a series of stretches.

"You said you were here to follow, remember?" Buffy said, smirking. "Go follow."

"I don't think you quite understand my situation," Hailey replied. "I was just in an explosion, okay? An explosion. That," she said, pointing to one of the girls Kennedy had managed to arrange into a contortionist's position, "would probably cause severe internal bleeding. Besides, I'm too old to be the Slayer. That ship has passed. I've done my training, paid with all the blood and sweat that I'm willing to pay with," Hailey said heatedly.

"You look fine to me," Buffy pressed.

"What part of internal injuries do you not understand?" Hailey asked incredulously.

Buffy sighed and relented. "Fine, what's wrong with you anyway?" She asked. She had not been impressed with the 'I can take on the world' attitude Hailey had been sporting the moment she walked into the house, but she knew that testing the girl beyond her limits would not be wise. She had to admit that she was eager to see what gifts Hailey possessed. To have another experienced vampire killer on her side would be a great asset. Faith, Buffy thought. She had another Slayer to back her up and though she thought that knowledge should have been comforting, she was conflicted. On the one hand, she had tremendous memories of slaying with Faith. They fell into such an easy rhythm that it felt natural to have the dark haired girl at her side. However, there was a lot of pain and betrayal that lingered between them. Buffy was uncertain whether she wanted to give the younger girl another chance. She knew that some of Faith's actions all those years ago were partly her fault. She could have been a better friend. But Faith took everything one step too far.

"I've got a fractured skull," Hailey said, bringing Buffy out of her thoughts. "Some broken ribs, burns, gashes, bruises…I'm really just a walking bandage."

"How the hell did you get them so far?" Buffy asked, honestly impressed despite herself.

"Sheer determination," Hailey muttered. "Or utter stupidity, I'm not sure which. I need time to rest though, before I get back out into the trenches, so to speak."

Buffy nodded. She did not want Hailey simply loafing around the house while everyone else worked, even if the girl looked like death warmed over. Buffy studied her face for several moments, surprised that she had not noticed the unnaturally pale color of the other girl's skin, and the deep cut that ran down from her eye. "Do you want to see a doctor?" Buffy finally asked, finding herself increasingly worried about Hailey's health. Though she had practically hated the girl the night before, she felt a certain responsibility towards her, as she did with all of the other potentials. She knew that Hailey would be a good ally if she gave her a chance, maybe even a good friend.

"No, I'm fine. Just give me something to do," Hailey replied.

"I'm glad you said that," Buffy said with relief. "I think Willow, Dawn, and Giles need some help researching the First Evil. We know a whole lot of nothing at the moment."

"I'm on it," Hailey said, moving out of the room.

"And as for you," Buffy continued to what appeared to be an empty room, though she knew differently, "I want you to teach the girls how to fight."

"I'm not really all that good with the teaching, B," Faith said, stepping into the kitchen from the hallway, where she had been eavesdropping on Hailey's conversation with the blonde Slayer.

"You'll figure it out," Buffy said, shifting her eyes from the dark Slayer's face to the tile floor. She hated the conflicting emotions that ran through her every time she saw Faith. She wanted to beat the shit out of the other girl for all of the things that she had done to her and her friends. Yet, she also wanted to wrap Faith in a warm embrace and comfort her for all of the bad things she was sure had happened in her life – bad things that Buffy had helped to create in some instances.

Faith could plainly read Buffy's thoughts as they flitted across her face. The blonde Slayer thought that she had mastered the art of keeping things hidden, but Faith knew how to read her much better than Buffy would have liked. "We're going to have to talk about this sometime," Faith said softly. Buffy's head snapped up at her words, partly because she was not certain that Faith had actually spoken them, and partly because it was as if Faith had read her mind.

"But not today," Buffy said stolidly. "I have to go to work," she said to herself as she picked up her bag and slung it over the shoulder. She was about to throw a harsh quip at Faith when she stopped, almost feeling sorry for the girl standing before her, who looked rather apprehensive about the thought of having to instruct a bunch of restless teenage girls. "You'll do fine," Buffy assured her. "Just don't let them kill each other. They get a bit carried away," she said, chuckling to herself as she walked out of the kitchen.

"That wasn't so bad," Faith murmured. Sighing, she walked over to the backdoor and slung it open. "Okay girls," she said, stepping out onto the grass and squinting in the bright sunlight. "Let's have a little fun."

……………………….

"I thought Buffy said Dawn and Giles were researching too," Hailey said as she entered the dining room. She had expected to see a group of people gathered around the dining room table, flipping through books and ancient papers. Instead, she only saw Willow sitting in front of her laptop, squinting intently at the screen. Hailey smiled, thinking the red haired girl's enraptured attention to the machine whirring away on the table rather endearing.

"What?" Willow asked, startled. "Oh, it's you," she said smiling. "And you asked a question," she murmured to herself, trying to pull Hailey's words from her recent memory. "Oh yeah, Dawn is at school and I haven't been able to pull Giles away from that duffel bag you brought. I haven't seen him this excited about anything in, well…I don't know if I've ever seen him this excited," Willow admitted.

Hailey took a seat across from the witch and grabbed one of the books sitting in the center of the table. "You should have seen him at the Council library," Hailey said, nostalgia lingering in her voice. "I remember watching him when I was little. Every time he walked in that place, he got this look of sheer contentment on his face. It only lasted a second and I don't think anyone else really noticed, but it always made his eyes shine."

Willow smiled, picturing Giles surrounded by stacks of books. She knew the older man must have felt quite at home there. "What are you doing?" She asked, noticing Hailey skimming through a book.

"Buffy assigned me to the research party. I'm a little too banged up for field exercises. Besides, I've trained all my life, I really don't need to learn how to dodge a punch," Hailey explained. "If you mind though, I'm sure I can find something else to do," Hailey added, momentarily worried that her presence would be an interruption to the witch.

"No," Willow replied quickly, flushing as she looked down at the table. "It's fine. I can use the help really."

"That's good, because I'm here to help," Hailey offered. Silence fell between them and Hailey found herself studying the girl sitting across from her rather than the book in her lap. Every once in a while, her eyes would lock with Willow's and they would both hurriedly look away. Hailey mentally cursed herself, wondering why she was acting like a high school kid again. Focusing her eyes on the book in front of her, she sighed. Ever since Tanya died, she had used her sexuality to escape from her grief. She had never really accepted the fact that her lover was dead because she never let anyone else in. She had strings of affairs, but they were only physical connections. Distancing herself from any sort of emotional connections, she had managed to get by. However, though she found Willow to be very attractive, she knew that she could not simply use the witch and ditch her the next morning. Things were far more complicated than that now.

Though she knew that a part of her heart would always belong to Tanya, she also knew that it was time to move on. She craved the intimacy that an emotional connection afforded. Glancing up from the book, she caught Willow staring intently at her. "So," Hailey said, when Willow glanced away. "What's the deal with you and Kennedy?"

Willow glanced up at her surprised. "What do you mean? There is no deal," she replied in confusion.

"Really?" Hailey asked, intrigued. "You two seemed pretty close."

"Oh," Willow said, nodding a bit. "I think she has a bit of a crush on me."

Hailey raised an eyebrow and laughed. "Cradle robber," she joked.

Willow blushed a deep crimson that nearly matched her hair. "I never said that I had a crush on her back," she mumbled.

"So you don't then?" Hailey pressed.

"Why do you want to know?" Willow asked, suddenly turning the conversation around.

"I'm just curious," Hailey answered enigmatically.

"Curious?" Willow asked. "Maybe you have a crush on me too," she said, noticing the small smile playing on Hailey's lips.

Hailey leaned forward and studied Willow's emerald eyes for a moment. "Maybe I do," she said shrugging. "But something tells me it wouldn't matter," she said.

"Why's that?" Willow asked, frowning.

"Because you don't know if you like me yet or not. And you don't know how you feel about Kennedy either. But what's more," Hailey said, leaning back in her chair, "you don't know if you're ready for anything yet."

"How do you know all of that?" Willow asked, shocked at how well Hailey had read her.

"I'm good at reading people," Hailey replied. "Everything that a person wants to tell you but can't is written in their eyes. You just have to look."

"What do you see in my eyes?" Willow asked, closing her laptop lid.

"Pain," Hailey said softly. "But hope as well. The world seems like it's too much to bear for you right now, but you know that someday it'll get easier."

"I lost someone…recently," Willow said lowly.

"I lost someone too. Not so recently though," Hailey replied, smiling sadly. "We all lose people. There isn't a person here that can't tell you some kind of story of loss and pain and sadness. It's what you do with that pain that really matters."

"Picking up the pieces?" Willow asked.

"Picking up the pieces and putting them back together. That's the hard part," Hailey answered.

"Am I interrupting something?" Faith asked, smirking as she stood in the doorway, her arms folded across her chest.

"What do you want, Faith?" Willow asked grumpily.

"The girls are doing their exercises. No one's really filled me in on the First. I thought I'd ask the expert," Faith said, noticing Willow's face soften at her compliment.

"Take a seat," Willow replied. Faith sat down next to Hailey and leaned back in her chair.

"How ya feelin', sheriff?" She asked with concern. Willow nearly laughed, but she realized that the concern in Faith's voice was real.

"Bloody peachy," Hailey replied sarcastically, her British accent shining through her voice. "If Buffy had her way, I think I'd be dead right now."

"Buffy means well," Willow interjected.

"But she's not always right," Faith concluded. "Besides, something tells me that you don't really need to train as much as the rest of those girls. They're fuckin' babies. I can't imagine taking them into a serious battle."

"They'll get better with time," Willow said.

"But we may not have a lot of time," Hailey said softly.

"The First's primary weapon is the Bringers," Willow said. "We haven't seen anyone else representing it. Based on Angel's experience with it some years ago, we're assuming that it's incorporeal. When it appeared to Angel, it appeared as ghosts – things that he couldn't touch, but that he could see and hear."

"So we can't really fight it then," Faith concluded.

"No," Willow replied with defeat clearly in her voice. "I think you're starting to understand our dilemma."

"How do you stop something that you can't touch," Hailey elaborated.

"What about magics?" Faith asked. "Is there some kind of spell we could use against it."

Willow sighed and glanced down at the table, her shoulders slumping. Faith and Hailey glanced at each other, both wondering at the witch's reaction. "There might be, but nothing that we could use."

"What do you mean?" Hailey asked. "I thought you were supposed to be a powerful witch."

"I am…or was," Willow replied. "I had some problems with magics."

"Problems?" Faith asked.

"I got addicted to black magic, went a little crazy, and tried to end the world, okay?" Willow said quickly.

"You tried to end the world?" Faith asked in disbelief.

"You didn't know that?" Hailey asked.

"No. How did you know?" Faith wondered.

"The Coven told me about her," Hailey replied. "I didn't know that she had given up magic entirely though."

"So let me get this straight," Faith said angrily, "you try to literally end the world and they welcome you back with open arms like nothing happened?"

"It wasn't like that, Faith," Willow began.

"No, I think it was exactly like that," she said, rising to her feet. "You know how fucking hypocritical that is? Yeah, I helped a demon. Yeah, I killed people. But I wasn't fingering the nuke button."

"Faith," Hailey said softly. Faith looked over at her. "Getting angry isn't going to change anything. We're all in this together now, despite whatever happened in the past. Besides, you should probably go check on the girls."

Faith glared over at Hailey before sighing and throwing up her hands. "Fine," she said, walking out of the room. Hailey watched her go before looking back at Willow, who was staring at her with something akin to amazement on her face.

"How did you do that?" Willow asked.

"Do what?" Hailey replied.

"How did you get Faith to calm down like that?" Willow asked. "I thought she was going to snap."

"I'm good with people," Hailey answered. "You just have to know how to talk to them. Look, Willow, I get that you have a lot of history with Faith. But she's a different person now. If you would look, you could see that. Remember how I said everyone has a story of pain and loss? I kinda think that Faith has an epic novel."

"Maybe you're right," Willow begrudgingly admitted.

"Of course I am," Hailey said, smiling confidently. "Now, what were we talking about?"