Night Falls

Notes: To RockerWolfPup, and anyone else wondering about a third part of the Standing on the Edge of Tomorrow series, I do plan to continue the story, perhaps after I finish this one. I have a couple of ideas. The one I'm leaning towards the most, because it would be most fun creatively, is a sort of Shakespearean tragedy. I'm not sure that would be a crowd pleaser, but it's the direction I think I'm going to go. Anyway, just keep waiting patiently; it will come.

Previously:

Pushing herself backwards, she rested against her calves and lifted a cautious hand up to the wound on her chest. Caleb had stabbed her just below the heart. A fraction of an inch upward and she would have died instantly. "Bloody hell," Hailey whispered in shock as she reached through the torn fabric of her shirt and felt her wound. It was starting to close and she was starting to panic. She did not understand why she was not dead. She had felt her life slipping away from her only moments before and then everything stopped.

Chapter Twenty-Seven:

Chaos. They had arrived back at the Summers' residence to pure and absolute chaos. The front door hung limply off its hinges, where Caleb had demolished it. Hailey felt splinters jabbing into the bottoms of her boots as she walked. Spike was carrying Faith and she was carrying Willow. Both women were still unconscious. The rest of the Potentials, who had survived the explosion, were trailing behind them miserably. When they entered the living room, the chaos suddenly stopped. All eyes turned to stare at them in a mixture of shock and sadness, but Hailey only saw two emerald eyes that filled with tears, blinked them away, and hardened.

"What happened?" Buffy asked in a low growl.

"There was an explosion, love," Spike answered softly and carefully.

"Two girls died," Hailey added. Several pairs of eyes shifted downward as everyone noticed those who did not return.

"What were you doing there?" Buffy accusatorially asked as she turned to Hailey.

"That was what we were trying to explain," Giles cut in, only to have Buffy wave him off.

Hailey regarded the other Slayer with cool eyes. Buffy was obviously upset about Faith, but she apparently did not know how to express her anger. The blonde girl seemed to be directing her rage towards Hailey, who was uncertain what she had done to warrant such an attack. "I told you to stay here. I needed you to protect them," Buffy continued, motioning towards the bloody, battered Potentials sprawled about the room, receiving various stages of medical treatment from Xander and Anya.

"Buffy," Dawn warned.

"Where were you?" Buffy demanded again.

"Do you really want to argue about this right now?" Hailey shot back angrily. "Why don't you worry about your unconscious girlfriend, rather than bitching me out about not following your orders. She died for a second there, you know," she said heatedly. Buffy blanched.

"She died?" She asked weakly.

"And she needs medical treatment," Spike added. "So does the witch. Where should we put them?"

"Put them upstairs," Giles commanded. A stifling silence filled the room as Hailey failed to move. Finally, she nodded and led the way up the stairs as she carried Willow to their bedroom. Spike continued down the hallway and deposited Faith in Buffy's bed.

"What is no one telling me?" Buffy asked as she followed after them with Giles, Wesley, and Dawn trailing behind.

"Caleb broke into the house," Dawn explained. "He brought an army of Bringers. They attacked us."

"Hailey was here, the entire time," Wesley added. "She stood up to him. She fought them."

"And he stabbed her in the chest," Dawn said, shuddering at the memory of watching Hailey's blood spilling from her body and staining the carpet a dark red. The stain was still there.

"But she didn't die," Giles continued. "In fact, she got stronger."

"She became a Slayer," Wesley finished.

"And you might think about thanking her," Spike added, walking towards them. "She saved Willow's life."

Buffy peered into Willow's bedroom. Hailey had placed her on the bed and knelt down beside it. She gently reached up and brushed a strand of the witch's red hair from her pale face. "You're gonna be okay," she whispered lowly, smiling softly and intimately.

"How is she?" Buffy asked, sorry to interrupt the moment, yet oddly devoid of emotion.

"I don't know," Hailey replied helplessly, but sarcastically added, "I'm not a doctor."

"Maybe we should take them to a hospital," Dawn suggested.

"They wouldn't be safe there," Buffy replied dismissively.

"How do we know that anyone is really safe here?" Dawn asked. "This is the second time we've been attacked in the house."

"Let us take a look at them," Giles interrupted, motioning for Wesley. "We'll see what we can do."

Hailey nodded and stood, preparing to move out of the way, but Wesley caught her arm. "Where do you think you're going?" He asked, smiling crookedly. "You may be feeling like the strongest thing in the world right now…"

"But I'll crash," Hailey acknowledged with a weary sigh. "I think I already am."

"Take off your shirt," Wesley prompted. Hailey shot him a look. Rolling his eyes, he furthered, "I want to see the wound."

"Oh," Hailey smiled sheepishly and gingerly lifted her shirt. Pain shot through her chest and, for a moment, she could not breathe. The others looked away. Buffy left the room, disappearing down the hallway as Spike pulled a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and vanished. Giles moved over to Willow, instructing Dawn to find the medical supplies. Hailey sat at the foot of the bed as Wesley inspected her wound.

"How does it look?" She asked, glancing at Wesley's face, which was as unreadable as a stone. Finally, he looked up at her and his eyes were soft.

"Remarkably well," he replied, "all things considered."

"It hurts like a bitch," Hailey muttered.

"I imagine that it will, for a few days anyway," Wesley commented. "But it's already healing. Fast. Much faster than I would have thought."

"So I'm good to go?" Hailey asked in surprise.

"Take it easy," Wesley instructed seriously. "But yes, if you don't over extend yourself and break open the wound again, you're good to go," he affirmed.

"How about her?" Hailey wondered, looking over at her girlfriend with concern.

"I couldn't tell you," Wesley answered sympathetically. "I'm going to check on Faith."

Hailey slowly put her shirt back on, grimacing when she lifted her arms. She felt as though she was sinking to the bottom of the ocean with a lead weight attached to her feet. Yet, she had never felt more alive. Her senses were hyper-alert. The single lamp lighting the room glowed harshly like a desert sun to Hailey's eyes. She could smell Willow's blood, dribbling in a small line down her neck from the vampire bite, and it made her feel sick. Closing her eyes, she leaned her elbows on her knees, and rubbed her temples.

"Are you alright?" Dawn asked concernedly as she walked by.

Her words echoed in Hailey's ears. Weakly, she nodded. She shakily rose to her feet and stumbled into the hallway bathroom. Collapsing in front of the toilet, she vomited into the bowl. When she had finished, she leaned back against the wall, breathing heavily. She was a Slayer. She had become. After years of anxiously waiting for her destiny to be actualized, and after years of bitter disappointment, destiny had finally crashed into her. Her father would have been so proud.

Her eyes snapped open when she heard ragged, forced breaths coming from Willow's room. Jumping to her feet, she rushed into the room. Willow was sitting up in the bed, her eyes wide with fear. "You have to calm down, Willow," Giles pleaded.

"What's wrong?" Hailey asked anxiously.

"She can't breathe," Dawn replied.

"She needs an inhaler…the smoke," Giles said suddenly. "Hailey…"

"I got it," Hailey said, nodding. Willow's scared eyes locked onto hers and she felt her heart break.

"Go!" Dawn said eagerly. Hailey snapped into action and ran from the room. Willow watched her curiously as she left, breathing into a brown, paper bag that Dawn had thrust into her hands. Her heart was pounding and her lungs felt as if they were on fire.

"Deep breaths," Giles instructed patiently.

"What…," Willow attempted to say. Closing her eyes, she focused, regaining her breath enough to speak. "What…happened…to her?" She asked. "The blood…"

"Caleb stabbed her in the chest," Dawn slipped out before she could stop herself.

"What?" Willow demanded in panic.

"She's alright," Giles reassured her.

"But how?" Willow asked in astonishment.

"Faith momentarily died in the explosion," Giles answered.

"Kennedy?" Willow asked.

"No," Dawn said, shaking her head. "Hailey was called."

"I thought that wasn't possible," Willow stated.

"It shouldn't have been," Giles acknowledged. "No one as old as Hailey has ever been called."

"The Powers are taking a stand," Willow murmured into the bag.

"How do you feel?" Giles asked, laying a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Willow smiled feebly. "Better."

………………………………

Hailey glanced up and down the hospital corridor. It was empty. A feeling of dejavu swept over her. She had broken into a hospital's medicine room before, but that had been to steal drugs. Kicking open the medicine room door, she walked inside. The lights were off, but she could see as if they were all shining brightly. "The painkillers are over here," a voice said. "That's what you want, isn't it junkie?"

Hailey stopped and turned, looking back at the face of her dead girlfriend. Sighing, she smiled, "I know you're not really Tanya," she said.

"Can't you just pretend?" The First asked, stepping closer. Hailey took in the woman standing before her. She looked exactly like Tanya. The First had her wearing a tight, red tank top that accentuated her generous breasts and a short skirt that revealed her long, tanned legs. Her jet-black, dyed hair was swept back in a loose bun. A flash of desire swept through Hailey.

"Just for a little while," she acquiesced.

"You look so tired, baby," Tanya purred. She stopped walking when she was standing only inches from Hailey. For a moment, Hailey imagined that she could reach out and touch her. But she knew that her hand would pass through her skin.

"I am," Hailey admitted.

"I wish I could help you," Tanya said. "But no one can help you now. You're beyond reach."

"What do you mean?" Hailey asked.

"You're a Slayer now. Don't you understand what that means? It's all death and blood and pain for you. You'll never have another moment of peace for the rest of your life. By the end, you'll be wishing that someone would just kill you and give you a moment of sweet release," the First said, circling Hailey predatorily, but subtly.

"What makes you think I don't wish for that now?" Hailey asked, smiling sadly at her. "That's all I've ever wanted since you died. Maybe even before that."

"Than why do you try to so hard to live?" Tanya asked.

"That's what a Slayer does," Hailey replied.

"You want release, you know how to find it," Tanya prompted.

"Tanya wouldn't encourage me to go back," Hailey said.

"No?" The First replied. "I recall shooting you up myself on more than one occasion."

"Leave me alone," Hailey demanded wearily.

"What if I don't?" Tanya asked.

"You only have power over me so long as I allow you to," Hailey said. "It was nice pretending…if only for a moment," she whispered, letting her eyes linger over Tanya's face before she turned to look for the inhalers Willow needed. She located them and grabbed a handful. When she turned around, the room was empty, and she was alone.

………………………..

"Is she going to wake up?" Buffy asked.

"I don't know," Wesley replied. He was examining a wound on Faith's head. "With her history, I'm worried."

"What do you mean?" Buffy said, stepping closer. She had been standing in the doorway of the room, her arms folded across her chest, gazing at Faith worriedly. However, every time Wesley turned to look at her, her face went blank.

"The last time she injured her head, she was in a coma for eight months. Falling off a roof, blunt force trauma by a piece of rubble, it's all the same thing really," he explained. "If she doesn't wake up soon, she might not wake up at all."

"She can't die," Buffy whispered.

"Yes, she can," Wesley replied steadily. "She's not a god, Buffy. She's just a person in the end. No person can survive too many wounds of this magnitude."

"You don't understand," Buffy continued.

"No," Wesley interrupted. "I do. You know, if I couldn't hear it in your voice, I would think you didn't give a shit about her."

"What are you talking about?" Buffy said angrily.

"You're standing all the way back there like if you touch her, she'll shock you. What are you afraid of?"

"I'm not afraid of anything," Buffy replied flippantly.

"Why did you yell at Hailey when she came in? You clearly saw that Faith was hurt, yet, you didn't rush over to her. You didn't try to help her. Why are you even with her?" Wesley demanded.

"I love her!" Buffy yelled.

"Do you?" Wesley yelled back, leaping to his feet. "Why don't you show her then?"

"I can't," Buffy whispered, tears straining to break free from her eyes.

"Why not?" Wesley asked, sighing wearily.

"I…," Buffy hesitated.

"You can say it," Wesley prompted. "It's alright."'

"I'm afraid," Buffy finally admitted. "I'm afraid to let her in like that again."

"You think she'll hurt you," Wesley stated. Buffy nodded, allowing the tears to flow freely down her cheeks. "There's not much I know about Faith, but I do know this. She loves you and she'll do anything for you. She's not going to hurt you again."

"How can I know that?" Buffy pleaded.

"You can't," Wesley stated. "You just have to trust her."