Chapter 9. Sleeping Beauty.

"What do you mean I'm not allowed to see him?" says Forrest to a guard that stood watch by the Riley's door. "I'm his best friend."

"He gave specific orders not to let anyone in but Buffy Summers and Faith," says the guard. "I'm very sorry."

"That Summers girl is getting on my last nerve. And who is this Faith?"

"Forrest let it go," says Graham walking out of Riley's room. He tries to pull him away from Riley's door.

"No!"

"Forrest."

"I'm not leaving until I see Riley, okay."

"He doesn't need to be agitated by you right now, so let him be."

Forrest pushes Graham and slams him against the wall. The guards start to call for back up.

"Get me in there."

"Hey, buddy," says a girl from behind. "Let him go."

"Or you what?" says Forrest not knowing who is behind him but knowing that it's a girl.

"Or this." The girl pulls him away from Graham and slams him against another wall. "I'm guessing your Forrest."

"Who are you?" asks Forrest feeling the pain in his back from being slam into the wall.

"Call me Faith and I don't want to see you around her again." Faith release Forrest and he fixes his uniform then heads down the hallway. "You okay?"

"Yeah," replies Graham feeling a little pain. "Thanks."

"No sweat. I owed you one." Faith heads back to Riley's room where Buffy has fallen asleep on the chair. Riley, too is asleep. Some of the pain killers the doctors gave him make him feel sleepy.

Buffy and Faith have been keeping a watch on Riley for two days. The doctors at the base say that they will soon release him because the base will be going under investigation by the some governmental officials.

The girls have not reported to anyone that they are in Sunnydale. They have been too preoccupied with the Riley situation. Even though that Riley ended his relationship Buffy, she still cared for him as a friend.

After they were given clearance to leave the facilities, Buffy, Graham and Faith take Riley to his dorm room. They lay him down in his own bed. He feels much comfortable now that he is in his room and out of that prison.

"Well, I've gotta go," says Graham. "Watch him. Don't let him do anything."

"Will do," says Buffy as Graham leaves the room and she closes the door. She then sees Faith already at Riley's side making him feel comfortable. Buffy starts to think to herself as she watches them smile at each other. Faith had always wanted to be like Buffy just like any little sister would. She looked up to her like little sister would. Buffy hadn't realize that until now. Faith had a hard life and she'll have to agree that Angel was right about Faith.

"You guys hungry?" asks Buffy.

The two look at Buffy and didn't even realize that she was still in the room.

"I'm starve," says Faith.

"I'll make run to the cafeteria."

"I'll go with…"

"No, Faith…You should stay here. Keep an eye on Riley." Buffy turns around and walks out.

"I can't believe she's being nice to me." Faith turns to Riley.

"Well, she can be," says Riley.

"I just feel like I don't deserve it. I'm surprise that she didn't blame me for your break up. She just hugged me. It was very strange."

"She's giving you a second chance Faith. Take it and make it worth while."

Buffy makes her way downstairs then heads out of the building. She then remembers that she hadn't called the gang, especially Xander who has no idea if she is alive since she jumped on a moving helicopter to get Faith. Buffy then decides to go to her dorm to see if she could catch Willow before she heads to class.

When she opens the door she sees a blond sitting on Willow's bed. Buffy doesn't recognize her but Willow comes into the room a second after. Willow's eyes widen when she sees Buffy then she hugs her real tightly.

"Willow I'm okay," says Buffy.

"Buffy, Xander said that you jumped onto a moving helicopter and that you were dangling and that you…" says Willow.

"Breath Willow."

"We were worried about you? Where did you go?"

"It's a secret but we're back."

"Where is Faith?"

"She's with Riley."

"Why is she with Riley?"

"That's a another story I'll tell you later. Wills you've got a friend here whom you've been ignoring."

"It's okay," says Tara shyly as she gets up.

"Oh, Buffy I'd like you met Tara," says Willow. "She's in my Wicca group. Tara this is my best friend Buffy."

"Oh, cool," says Buffy with a smile. "Nice to meet you. Willow has talked about you a lot."

"She talks about you a lot, too," says Tara with a smile.

"Well, just wanted to check up. I gotta go. Is Xander back from LA?"

"Yeah, got back yesterday," says Willow. "Spike drove him a little crazy then Xander purposely drove Spike's car into the Sunnydale welcome sign."

"But wouldn't Spike do that anyway. He's not the best driver you know."

"Yeah, that's why Xander wanted to drive."

"Well, we'll meet at Giles tonight and if you could call him and tell him I'm alive that would good. Gotta go."

"What about your mom?"

"I'll be going over there later. Hope she's not too mad."

"Good luck."

A couple minutes later, Xander catches Willow and Tara on their way out of Willow's dorm room. Willow happy to see Xander introduces him to Tara. The two greet.

"Wills I'm really worried about Buffy…" says Xander.

"Don't worry Xander," says Willow. "She's back. I just saw her. She'll explain everything tonight at Giles'."

"Where is she?"

"She went to the cafeteria. Maybe you can catch her there."

Xander says goodbye to the girls and heads down the hallway. He stops then comes back to Willow.

"Where is that exactly?"

Willow nods her head and explains to him where the cafeteria is. Then Xander quickly made his way over and hopefully he finds Buffy there.

Buffy heads for the cafeteria line. She searches for her ID card then drops it. Buffy bents down to pick it up but someone else picks it up for her. They both rise up and look at each other.

"Xander," says Buffy.

"I'm glad I found you," says Xander. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm good. Just got back. It's a long story."

"Got it."

"Could you help me grab some food." Buffy starts to stack a bunch of wrap foods in Xander's hands. They then exit the cafeteria.

"Who are we feeding Buff?"

"Faith and Riley. Just follow the sound of my voice Xand."

They reach Riley's dorm room and they dropped all the food on the bed. Xander sees Faith and Riley. He looks at Buffy and she gives him a reassuring expression.

"So, Faith," says Xander. "How's it been?"

"Five by five," replies Faith as she starts to gorge on the food Buffy brought. Faith then looks at Xander and remembers what she did to him the last time she was with him. Faith stands up and hugs Xander. "I'm sorry Xander."

"Huh?" Xander is completely confuse at how Faith is acting now. She's apologizing and Buffy is being nice to Faith and Riley is with Faith. Wait, rewind, Riley's with Faith. He looks at Buffy giving her a look saying 'what's with the Riley and Faith thing here.'

Faith releases Xander and offers him a mini doughnut. Xander takes it but is still surprise by her actions.

"Thanks."

Buffy grabs a Twinkie from the bed and leads Xander outside. Xander turns around as Buffy closes the door. She turns to him and takes a deep breath.

"Xander, Riley and I aren't together anymore," says Buffy in sad tone.

"Buff," says Xander feeling for Buffy's painful break up. "He's an idiot."

"No, I'm the idiot. I keep blaming my job as the slayer as the part of me that can never have a decent relationship with a guy dead or alive and it's not that." Buffy begins to pace back and forth. She moves her hands around gesturing still with the Twinkie in her hand. Xander is paying close attention to it but is still listening to what Buffy is saying.

"Then what is it?"

"It's me. Just because I blame my slayer duties for not being normal. I'm never going to deal with it and if I don't I'm going to be pushing guys away."

"Buffy, just be you and everything will good."

"Thanks, Xander." She sees that his eyes are set on the Twinkie. "Xander you want it?"

"Please."

"Okay." Buffy opens it for Xander and places it in his mouth. Buffy laughs at Xander as the Twinkie doesn't make it all the way into his mouth.

Xander takes the left over piece and offers it to Buffy. He places it in her mouth and she starts to laugh after that. Half of the Twinkie falls out of her mouth or more like a quarter of it. Buffy wipes off a piece of the Twinkie from Xander's mouth then she starts to move in closer to him. Xander wipes off a piece of Twinkie from Buffy's mouth with his thumb and leans down slowly to Buffy.

"Buffy…" Their lips collide and Xander is push over to the wall next to the door they had exited.