Okay. I've just been on a website that has lots of Tara bashing. That sucks. So just to tell you, I like Tara, and Willow, and Faith. (And Anya, but only the first time I hear her lines)...just noticed there's a lot of crying...hope that's okay...

"Where's Dawn?" Willow mumbled at the door to Buffy's room.

Inside muffled sleepy groans as Buffy woke up.

"Huh..?" she said softly.

"Where's Dawn."

"Went...friends...back...9am." Buffy mumbled, before rolling over again.

Willow stared at the wooden door despondently.

"Okay."

It's good...Dawn's just a kid anyway...need someone...not Buffy... Xander's gone, Willow's eyes filled with tears...Giles is gone...

"Willow?" Kennedy called sleepily from her room. "Where are you?"

Willow stopped. Her face trembled and with one hand she brushed a tear away before answering. "Going for a walk." she said shortly, trying to keep her voice as steady as possible.

Willow walked through the park head down, staring at the fallen leaves, her mind a mess of confusing thoughts.

Kennedy loves me. But she hurt me. But she loves me. And I treat her badly. She sank onto the ground, back against a tree.

"What am I going to do?" she moaned aloud, tears falling again. Seems all I ever do is cry nowadays.

Some minutes later Buffy sat up, wide-awake. Something had finally filtered through her sleep fogged brain. She was in bed with Faith. Slowly and carefully she turned her head, the dark haired slayer lay beside her, but not asleep, her eyes were wide open and she stared back at Buffy, eyes dark with some emotion.

"Faith?" Buffy said tentatively.

Faith sat up, leaning away from Buffy. "B. Hey."

She swung her legs out of bed, shrugging on her clothes quickly.

Buffy watched in bewilderment and growing anxiety. Fai-"? She started, getting half the word out before Faith left the room, shutting the door firmly.

Willow sighed, unable to stop the tears from coming. She stayed silent, knowing that if she opened her mouth she wouldn't be able to stop calling for her. For Tara. Why? Why is this happening now? It's been a year, why can't I just let her go?

"Why won't you just leave me alone?" Willow screeched, tearing up fistfuls of grass.

"If I didn't know that you haven't noticed me, I might be offended by that," a voice drawled, and a strong hand grabbed Willow's, pulling it away from the grass and then dropping it. "It's pretty crappy grass for a park, but you should take your anger out on someone, not nature." Faith said, sitting down casually beside Willow and pretending not to see her tears.

Willow looked at her in astonishment for several long moments and then realised what the slayer had just said. "Concerned about the environment Faith?" Willow laughed through her tears.

"Not really no. Fuck the environment!" Faith shouted.

Willow looked up in alarm.

Faith caught her gaze. "No I haven't been drinking Red- well not since last night."

"I've never seen you like this." Willow said softly, feeling the illusory quality of their conversation. Who would ever guess I would be sitting in the park talking about the environment with Faith? Faith the 'evil one'

"Yeah well I'm the Bad Girl aren't I? The Bad Slayer, like Buffy's the good Slayer." Faith said lightly.

Willow didn't know what to say.

"Anyway, bugger all that," Faith said roughly. "I heard you this morning, asking for Dawn. I wasn't really awake, but about half an hour later it registered in my brain."

Willow looked down, troubled.

Faith sighed impatiently. "Okay Red, I know. I'm the evil slayer; I'm the murderer, gaol-bird, whatever. I'm also right here, and strange as this might sound, not here to moralise on ya, lecture you or bag you out."

"Why are you here then?" Willow choked out, trying to inject some of the roughness in Faith's voice into her own, but feeling that she'd failed as her voice retained that special "I've been crying" sound.

"Cos...Whether you like it or not, I have a certain...I actually, uh, you know."

"No I don't know."

"Well..." Faith looked pained. "I don't want to see you get tossed off a bridge, if there's something I could do about it, if you know what I mean."

Willow thought about what Tara would say to that.

"That's very nice Faith. Did you say that to Buffy, was it your eloquence that impressed her." Willow mimicked Faith 'Hey B, now that everything's all 5 by 5, I'm feeling like I don't want you to jump off a bridge as much as in the sack.' On second thoughts I doubt Tara would say that. But it was either make a joke or hug her, and I don't think we're ready for the hugging.

Faith laughed. "I was just my usual sexy self Red." She paused, and then decided to see if they could talk about what she came for.

"So, you up for talking about it?" Faith asked, then began to back-pedal. "I mean hey, just tell me to fuck off if your not and I'll head back." She began to stand up.

"Alright" Willow said softly. "But Faith, you have to promise, don't say anything to Buffy or Kennedy. Especially Kennedy."

Faith frowned, already half convinced she knew what Willow was going to tell her, and wanting a 'conversation' with Kennedy very much.

"Okay fine." She said at last, disgusted with herself for giving in.

"I promise. Now spill."

"Faith's not here?" Kennedy scowled. "Willow's gone too. They probably went for a walk together." She growled, jealousy darkening her features. Buffy just looked at her in puzzlement, what's got her in such a bad mood?

Buffy turned away from her, wishing childishly that Kennedy had missed out on slayer powers. It just seemed to make her more annoying and aggressively petulant. She slumped down on a chair and put her head in her hands. Why does this shit happen to me?

Bright white light. Why are you still procrastinating? You have to think about it sometime. But, I don't know what to do! Buffy protested silently.

The voice softens, becomes more sympathetic. You know. It's in your heart, its just taking a long time to get to your head. I'll help you.

"What the hell are you doing Summers?" Kennedy asked loudly.

Buffy jumped up from her seat, heart pounding.

"You were mumbling and waving your hands about and stuff." Kennedy continued, staring at her.

Buffy bit her lip hard. Don't say it don't say it don't say it.

"Don't worry about it." She mumbled through gritted teeth.

...I kind of wrote this in bits and pieces...I think the bits with Buffy and Kennedy are very wooden and crappy but I'm in that 'too tired to think' mode. Oh well. Try to ignore the crappiness of that bit and perhaps give me some constructive criticism, or praise or flames or whatever. Please?