Disclaimer: In the interest of honesty and transparency, I am not making any money off of anything you're about to read, nor do I own any of the characters within. So I'd appreciate not being sued by Joss Whedon or anyone associated with him who owns rights to the characters in his universe. Thanks.

Rating: I'm gonna go with R, since it's going to be getting a little more mature later.

Distribution: I'd appreciate a heads up if you're interested in putting the fic up somewhere for other people's enjoyment. :)

Feedback: = Appreciated

To Really Know Someone

Chapter 2

She starts to shift in the spot she woke up in, the cold dampness of her surroundings becoming more obvious the more she moves. Suddenly, something rattles and a weight on her arms seems to shift when she lifts them. Looking down at her hands, the feeling of the shackles fastened tightly around her wrists registers in her head.

"What the...?"

"I'm sorry..."

* * *

"We're coming up empty Buff."

The three main screens of the Slayer Command Centre show various live feeds from slayers in the field, the main factors in the search.

"We've been all over the five hundred mile radius that a slayer can travel in the time she had to escape and we're coming up empty."

Buffy stares intently from one screen to another in search of some sign of their target.

"She can't have dropped off the face of the Earth. There has to be some trace of her somewhere."

Xander readjusts his weight on the stone floor.

"Too many traces actually. That's what's making her difficult to track."

"What do you mean?"

"In the last 24 hours, she's hit up every major hiding place in the area that we set up since coming here. Including a few of the former ones we've abandoned and the secret ones we set up for you in case of a slayer apocalypse of some kind. Each time she takes some supply but leaves the rest of them behind. I'd say by now that she has enough to last her about five weeks, maybe more. But Willow and the other witch-folk are having a hard time pinning down where she might be stashing it all."

"Well, at least we know the confusion spells we set up to hide them from magic detection are working."

"Willow's working on bringing the spells down but they were set up to work independently, so she has to do them one by one. It'll take some time."

"Time we don't have."

"Pretty safe assumption, yeah, what I'm not getting is why she's planning on sticking around for that long. Seems like the best thing for her to do is to get out of Scottish Dodge as quickly as possible, I would."

Buffy pulls herself away from staring at the screens to look at a map of their property, highlighting all the hideouts in the area.

"She's not leaving, not while she still has unfinished business here."

"What kind of unfinished business?"

"Me..."

Xander comes up beside Buffy to survey the map with her.

"You? I would've thought she'd be fairly certain the Buffy ship had sailed, what with the stabbing of other slayers and all."

"If attempted murder had stopped most of the people I'd slept with from thinking they'd had a shot with me, I never would've lost my virginity."

"And a celibate Buffy is a cranky Buffy. Okay, so what's the plan forming in that blonde head of yours?"

Buffy steps back from the map for a moment, taking a deep breath.

"She wants me so bad. I'll have to give myself to her."

Xander watches his best friend for a moment.

"You mean that figuratively right?"

"It's the only way Xander. Satsu's too smart to let anyone catch her. She knows our procedures too well. She knows me too well."

"So how is that going to help us find her if she knows us too well to be tricked into getting caught?"

"Because no matter how hard she tries, no matter how smart she is, she can't fight how she feels."

It's silent for a moment as neither of the life long friends says anything.

"No one can."

There's a pause to the conversation before Xander goes into commander mode.

"All right, I'll have Willow and the magic brigades get to work on a tracking system that will cut through any cloaking spells that might be out there. We need to make sure we can find you if..."

"No."

"Buff?"

"I have to go in clean on this. Satsu's going to be paranoid out of her mind thinking we're going to track her down and lock her up. The only way I'm going to get her to trust me is if she knows that it's just me and her in the conversation."

"And you don't think that putting yourself out there for a potentially violent and paranoid slayer who is strong enough to kill you without backup is a little bit risky?"

"It usually is."

Buffy takes a deep breath.

"But this is whole situation is my fault. And the sooner she hears that from me, the sooner all this will be over."

Xander steps up to Buffy and they face each other.

"Hey, this isn't your fault Buff. Satsu made her own choices too. She didn't have to do the things she did. She didn't have to stab Faith and run off like that."

"No, but I didn't have to sleep with her and make her think that we had something together, then go and kiss Faith right in front of her either."

"Touché..."

"I think I know the best place to start too."

"And this whole 'putting yourself in harm's way to save a wayward slayer' wouldn't have anything to do with your need to alleviate your guilt in the situation while simultaneously avoiding the possibility that Faith will wake up and want to have a long conversation with you about certain declarations?"

There's a pause before Buffy says anything and she turns away.

"Of course not..."

"Right..."

The blonde slayer puts some distance between herself and Xander.

"Look, at the very least. Faith and I are the way we are because in all the years we've been fighting neither of us has ever been willing to take responsibility for what we were doing to each other. We still haven't to this day. I don't want me and Satsu to end up as Buffy/Faith 2.0. I owe her better than that."

"So what do you need the team to do if we're going to help with Operation Chance in a Hellmouth?"

Buffy goes back to the map, pointing to a particular spot.

"Give me a lot of space around this cemetery here and wait to hear from me. Don't try and keep track of me and don't let any of the other slayers go after Satsu if they have an opportunity. No matter what happens. This has to be just me and Satsu or I'll never get anywhere with her."

Xander watches Buffy's expression for a while before responding.

"Okay boss lady. I'll do my best to be your Titanic."

Buffy smiles slightly at her friend.

"Thanks Xander..."

End of Chapter 2