Buffy awoke first the next morning, having had some pretty twisted nightmares and an even more twisted dream about practically jumping Faith. She really, really hoped that Faith hadn't been able to tell in any way what she was dreaming of. That would make for a pretty embarrassing situation. Especially since Faith was completely straight and anything like what Buffy was dreaming would probably freak her out to the point of running for the hills.
The blond began to stretch out her arms and sit up, turning towards Faith to get a good look at her for once without some snide remark from the other girl about it. Her fellow slayer was laying on her side facing away from Buffy with one arm beside her head on the pillow and the other clutching her side about where she had stabbed her. Her dark wavy hair had fallen partially in her face and the older slayer carefully swept it away so as not to wake the girl. Her face was pouting. Even in her sleep she didn't look happy or peaceful, but still managed to pull of that effortlessly beautiful and sexy look she always had. Buffy began to feel slightly perverted at staring at her with all those thoughts while Faith was lying there asleep. Especially when her eyes started to gravitate toward the amount cleavage that the tank top she was in revealed.
Ok, Buffy thought, time to stop looking at Faith- who is also a girl- that way. I'm not a lesbian. I'm not attracted to girls...just to Faith. It's not my fault that she just has something about her I can't stop myself from wanting. Stop it Buffy, you're walking a very crooked line there...and besides, Faith is straight, straighter than straight gets, remember all those stories she's told about the men she's been with? Straight. Straight. And so am I. Maybe it's just her, maybe everyone's attracted to her. I could ask Willow... no wait, that wouldn't help would it? Why am I thinking about this? Ok Buffy, just-
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard Faith make a small noise indicating that she was waking up and Buffy tore her eyes away from the girl and slowly sat up. She could feel Faith moving and then also sitting up and yawning.
"Morning, B." She yawned out while stretching and swinging her legs off the side of the bed.
"Morning." Buffy got out in a not so happy, definitely not a morning person voice.
Faith chuckled as she stood up. "Interesting night last night, huh?" The rogue slayer asked, testing the water to try to get a handle on what the hell was going on.
"What do you mean?" Buffy asked, freezing in her place and silently praying that it had just been a dream. That she hadn't practically molested Faith last night.
Ok, now Faith was plain confused. "Uh, you had a pretty bad nightmare. Got a little friendly?"
Buffy's face paled, mouth dropped a little, and eyes bugged. This couldn't be happening. She had really done that? It was one of the most mortifying moments of Buffy's life. She had honestly just thought she was dreaming or she would never have-
"You still here, B?" Faith asked, noting the shocked expression cover her face before embarrassment took over and coated her now wide-awake face blood red. Faith felt kind of bad for her. It had been weird and completely out of the blue and of course, there was the whole fact that neither of them was gay, but she didn't want Buffy to feel bad or embarrassed about it.
"Ok, Faith? Just please tell me that I didn't do what I think I did." She finally made herself look the brunette in the eye.
"Whoa, B. Calm down, it's ok." Faith tried to soothe her. If it had been anyone else she would be thoroughly enjoying this and even teased them about it a lot more, but it wasn't funny when it was Buffy. The fact that it had been her somehow made the situation entirely different.
"It's not ok! Oh my God Faith! I didn't mean to do that! I really, really didn't mean to do that... I'm so sorry for- for-"
"Kissing me?" Faith offered, knowing the blonde wouldn't be getting the rest out any time soon.
She turned to Faith again and finally relaxed her body as she realized that Faith wasn't mad at her. "Yeah."
Faith shrugged, walked over to the blonde's side of the room and patted her on the shoulder on the way out the door. "Don't worry about it."
But still the fact that the brunette seemed to be leaving had her panicked. "Where are you going?" She called out after her.
"I'll be in the shower if you want to jump me." She answered teasingly. But Buffy could tell by her tone that she was just giving her a hard time. She wasn't running away mad at her.
Buffy sat down on the bed again and stared at the wall for a long moment to try to absorb what just happened before getting dressed and going downstairs to try to get some breakfast before everything was gone. Teenage girls had a way of going through food too fast to keep it stocked. She went downstairs to find Dawn and Xander passing out toast to some of the potentials that were awake. About half of them were still sleeping in their various places around the house, many in sleeping bags on the living room floor.
Dawn passed her a plate with two pieces on it without looking up.
"Morning." Buffy greeted, trying to sound and act normal despite the fact that she had just experienced one of the most embarrassing moments of her life a few minutes ago.
"Morning. How's Faith?" Her sister asked.
"What? Faith? Oh, yeah, she's fine. Uh, completely normal and everything, so-"
"What?" Xander asked, shaking his head at her babbling without any sense the first thing in the morning.
"Uh, nothing." She quickly answered and kept her head down and looking at her toast.
Faith walked in from upstairs with her hair still wet and thankfully, a closed mouth. Everything went normal for a little while. That was until everyone heard a shot blast through the kitchen window and directly into Willow's butt. The red head jumped up in pain and before anyone could move to help her, another three were let out. Xander grabbed Dawn and pushed her to the floor, while Faith did the same to the injured Willow and Buffy to one of the potentials that was near her. More shots and some screaming were heard from the living room.
"Every one get down!" Faith yelled in her throaty voice from the kitchen floor. After a moment the shots stopped coming and there was a loud sound a of car screeching away from the road outside. Faith ran into the living room while Buffy crawled over to Willow and placed a comforting hand on her waist.
"Dawn, Xander? Ya'll ok?" She looked over to them as she helped Willow stand up, whimpering from the pain.
"Yeah, I'm ok." Dawn answered. Xander nodded his head and said the same, as did everyone else in the kitchen.
The girls that were in the living room were mostly still asleep so they were ok, except for one who had just woke and stood in time to be shot in the head.
Faith was frantically looking over all the other girls as she knelt down beside the one who was dead. They all seemed ok, physically at least. She turned to a couple of girls sitting nearby.
"What was her name?" She asked determinedly.
The girls looked at her terrified and still in shock. But one of them answered "Amanda" in a weak voice.
Buffy rushed into the room once Xander and Dawn had started to look after Willow and saw Faith kneeling on the floor beside a dead potential with a bullet in her arm and a determined glare to her eyes. She walked over to the girl and watched as Faith covered her up all the way with a blanket out of respect before reaching out towards Faith's arm and motioning for her to follow her back into the kitchen.
She looked at the other girls, now huddled together and a couple crying. "Go to the basement with Spike and bring all the other potentials with you, now. Stay there until I come get you." She snapped at them. They jumped up and ran off as the blonde walked with Faith behind her back into the kitchen to check on Willow before going upstairs to work on Faith.
"Anyone else hurt?" Xander asked, holding up a very unhappy Willow.
"One dead, no others hurt except Willow and Faith." Everyone else glances at Faith as if just noticing the bloody bullet wound in her upper arm. They probably had not actually noticed it until then as Faith acted completely normal.
"So that's two for a trip to the nice hospital. Dawn, you coming?"
"Yeah." She answered.
Buffy turned to Faith, knowing clear well that there was no way she'd let them take her to a hospital. She hated hospitals and after as much time as she had spent there, Buffy really couldn't blame her.
Faith was about to protest before Buffy intervened. "No, I'll take care of it. It doesn't look like it hit a bone or anything." She turned to see Faith giving her a grateful look.
Faith grinned at Dawn turning a little green before Buffy led her upstairs. Faith hopped on top of the bathroom counter as Buffy pulled out the rather large and over used first aid kit and sat out the things she'd need. She couldn't call herself a doctor or anything, but both Buffy and Faith had been taught enough to avoid most hospital trips unless it was life threatening. She had never pulled out a bullet before though. Demons didn't usually use guns for whatever reason. She was thankful for that.
She took a wet cloth and cleaned off all the blood before rubbing it with alcohol. She looked up at Faith, who seemed to be unfazed at the bullet in her arm. "You ok, Faith?"
She was expecting the usual five by five response but instead got "That girl was too young, B."
Buffy focused back on the wound, not wanting to think about it. Amanda wasn't the first potential to die in her care. "I know." She took out a scalpel and tweezers and dug them into the wound, causing Faith to hiss out in pain as she searched around for the bullet and began pulling it out.
"Sorry." The older slayer said as she finished removing the bullet.
Faith managed a very tight smile as a response while the blonde wiped more blood away and cleaned it again before wrapping it tightly with gauze and tying it.
Faith stayed on the counter for a moment more and stared at Buffy with her big brown expressive eyes that made Buffy just want to kiss her... and the fact that she wanted to made her uncomfortable so she backed off a bit.
The rogue slayer said "thanks" and hoped down, oblivious to the internal conflict in her fellow slayer's head. "We better get to the basement and figure out what's going on before all the girls start to panic."
Buffy followed her out of the bathroom in a daze. "Yeah, panic is bad."