The Missing Half
Chapter 16 – Down Time, Cordy Style
(Faith's POV)
I woke up the next morning and couldn't find B. I was fully awake when I realized she was gone. I jumped up and ran down the beach as fast as I could. Off in the distance, I spotted two figures. One was unmistakingly my Buffy. She was being held by a huge figure.
As I neared I saw that the figure was my worst nightmare, my heart stopped completely.
Kakistos…but strangely not. It wasn't just Kakistos; it was like he was fused with a human. Half of his body was his vampiric self, and the other half of him was…
My dad.
No. It couldn't be. The two people that took away everything I had loved was standing there holding my girlfriend. No. No. NO! I sprint as fast as I could, it feels like I'm breaking the sound barrier. Faith the sonic boom. My lungs are about to burst, but I don't care. I gotta get to her. Get to B. Get to Buffy. I gotta.
I'm ten yards away when it happens. The deformed monster that is Kakistos and my dad simultaneously slits her throat and rips a gun out and shoots her. NO!
"BUFFY! NO BUFFY!" I'm screaming her name. Over and over. I get there and the monster lets her fall to the floor. The evil thing leers down at me and laughs before saying "More blood on your hands eh, Faith? How does it feel to know that YOU killed your girlfriend?" Then he just disappears.
I'm cradling my lover's form. Sobbing. Telling her I'm sorry.
"Buffy I love you, come back to me please." I'm crying hysterically and shaking her dead form. "COME BACK TO ME BUFFY! I promised you I would never leave you! You can't leave me either! NO! You are not allowed to be gone! I need you!"
I'm shouting at her between huge sobs. "You are my strength! You don't understand how lost I am without you! BUFFY! COME BACK! COME BACK! COME BACK!"
I don't know what I'm doing anymore. Just yelling at her as the tears roll down my face in a steady stream.
Then she speaks. Her dead eyes bore into mine and the blood in the back of her throat gurgles as she talks.
"It's your fault Faith. YOURS! You killed me. I'm dead because of you. You're nothing. Disgusting. Murderous bitch. You're nothing! You're disgusting!" She's repeating the words I said to myself in her body.
"NO! Buffy I didn't…I'm not, I've changed. I…I…" I'm at a loss for words. Going into shock. The person I loved was dead and accusing me for her murder. I'm lost in my thoughts.
But I don't get too lost in them because the next thing I know I feel a sharp bruising pain in my stomach. I look down in disbelief. Knowing what was there. My knife. And B's hand holding it into my abdomen. Blood begins to drip out of my wound and B looks into my eyes as she pulls the knife from me.
Through an evil sneer she says, "You did it F, you killed me. And now you're dead." The pain is incredible…my body falls on top of B's and our blood mixes together. And then, like that night on the rooftop years ago, I'm falling.
…………………..
"Faith! Faith! Get up!" Someone's yelling my name and I jerk up from my spot. I jerk my head around to see who was shaking me and see her.
"Buffy…" I reach out to touch her, to make sure it's really her.
"Faith, babe, what's wrong? Are you ok?" Oh god it's really her. She's ok. She's alive.
"Uggh B I just had a wicked bad dream. You…" I can't go on, it was so real. Everything about the dream. "I'm just glad you're ok," I say quietly.
"Faith, I'm not going to leave you. You know that right? I love you." I'm calmed down now. My Buffy is ok; she hasn't died on me. She's right here.
I stand up on shaky legs and stretch. I extend my arm and help Buffy rise from her spot on the beach.
"So did you sleep well?" I ask her.
"For the most part I did. Pretty comfortable. I had a good pillow." B winks at me and we begin our walk back to the Hyperion.
…………………..
We walk into the Hyperion half an hour later and we are immediately surrounded by chaos.
"Buffy, Faith where have you guys been!" Dawn squeals.
"What happened are you guys ok?" Angel asks concerned.
"What could you two have possibly been doing that took all night?" Cordelia put in.
"Was it a demon? Can I kick its ass?" Gunn questions.
My god they're like a babbling Willow on steroids!
"HEY! Do you actually want us to answer the questions, or are you going to wait to get to twenty before you take a breath?" I butt in. "Christ that was annoying! I mean…yay you guys for being all concerned-like and such, but chill. Take a breath. Let us talk." There's a silence that follows that, the gang obviously embarrassed for causing such a ruckus when we were standing right there fine. I stand back and let B take the floor.
She walks forward and takes a breath before answering. "One. We were at the beach all night; we went there on a walk and ended up falling asleep. We are fine, a little sandy in those uncomfortable places, but fine. What did we do all last night? Talked. And umm...talked. No demons, sorry Gunn, save the ass kicking for some vamp later."
Angel looks into B's eyes with his big brown puppies. "As long as you're ok. You should of called…had us all worried, running around like a vamp with its head cut off minus, you know, the dust. Anything else you wanna tell us?"
Oh great, he knows. Don't know how but he does. It's in those soulful eyes of his. Might as well tell them sooner or later. I turn to B who moves closer to me and takes my hand in hers. "Faith, you wanna do the honors? It's kinda a long story…"
"Sure, B." So how do I say this? My mind's searching for a way to put our situation into words. I take the Faith way out. Simplest answer. "Me and B are together now." I simply state.
B looks at me, guess the story's not as long as she thinks. She turns to the group and adds. "So that was the abridged version."
I look around at the faces of the LA crew. Angel obviously already knew. Gunn just looks normal, must not know his Faith Buffy history very much, as in how we tried to make with the killing a couple of times. Cordy's the first to speak.
"Typical of you slayers. Of course. Send this entire hotel into a panic trying to figure out where our two precious fighters are and naturally they're being all together on the beach. Do you mind if I puke now?" Didn't expect anything less of Cordy. But no time to think about that cos Little D's runnin' up to me and B and wrapping her arms around us.
"Awww you guys I'm so happy for you! This is so so so cool! Not only is my big sister a slayer, but her girlfriend is one too! So is Faith going to move in with us yet? Is she gunna live in our house? Can she stay with us Buffy?"
"Again with the questions Pint Size! It's all up to Big Sis. I don't wanna be a burden to you guys, so whatever, I'm cool with it." I respond.
Buffy has already made up her mind though. "Yeah Dawn, she can stay in mom's room, no sense in making her go to some cheesy motel. I wouldn't like that when I go to visit with her." B winks at me.
Cool so I get to bunk with the Summer's sisters, I could deal with that.
Dawn's moved on to the next subject though, she's obviously got one thing on her mind. Something that all those little teens love. Shopping.
"So Buffy can we hit the stores here in LA? Please? I was looking for this really cute purse I saw on the Internet…" Dawn pleads with Buffy. B looks over at me.
"Do you mind if I take Dawn shopping? If we go back to Sunnydale empty handed the kid will bug me to no end."
"Go ahead B, have fun. I'll just chill here." I respond then look over at Angel and Cordy. "If that's ok with you guys of course."
"Yeah sure. You're welcome to do whatever you want here." Angel answers.
I give B a quick kiss on the cheek and squeeze her hand. "Have fun."
"You too, Faith. Take care!" And with that Dawn and Buffy are out the door and off on their shopping adventures.
"Oh dear God," Cordy says. "I'm more than happy to separate you two, I don't know how much lovey stuff I can take."
I start to walk up the stairs when Cordy calls to me. "Faith, can you meet me in my room? I wanna talk to you."
Oh great, what did I do now? "Sure Cordy. Umm, ok ya sure." I'm kinda scared. Demons and stuff I can handle, but if I've pissed the Queen C off…
I climb up the remainder stairs and then down the hall to her room. I walk in and sit on her big bed and wait for her to come up. A few moments later, Cordelia appears in the doorway. She doesn't look pissed, so that's a start.
"So C, what's the what?" I ask, not wanting to make this worse than it probably is.
"I uhh, I just wanted to say that I'm happy for you guys." Ok so that's a shocker. As in, what?
"Rewind?" I ask her.
"Well, it's just, look I know you probably didn't have the best life, considering that you went extremely psycho on us." Figures Cordy would bring up the past so bluntly. "But I think, that, you really deserve this. Life's a bitch sometimes, you don't ask for what you get, and the cards dealt aren't always a royal flush."
My confused face surfaces. C continues. "What I mean is, yay for you guys. Finally you two get something out of this crappy deal the Powers that Be Cruel give us. So, what I'm really trying to say is that, although I may seem to be all like, you know, against this relationship, I'm not. It's just my mouth speaking words that never really reach my brain for processing. I'm happy for you guys I really am."
I'm honestly stunned. This was the last ting I expected from Cordy when she called me up here. "I gotta say Queenie, when you wanted me to go to your room, this was not what I expected. But thanks. It means a lot to me that you're ok with it. It helps to know that at least a handful of people won't be completely freaked by this."
"No problem Faith, I guess that I just want to start over with you, and your reformed self. We both have a lot of things in the past to regret." I snort at that one. "Alright, so I didn't kill anybody or try to hurt my future girlfriend, but I wasn't exactly the angel of peace back then either. I was not nice."
I laugh at that thought. Yeah, Cordy used to be the Wicked Bitch of the West Coast. "Things change C. I'm glad we talked."
I get up from her bed and start to walk out. I have a lot of pent up energy I wanna work off. Surprisingly enough Cordy's arm shoots out and grabs mine. "Actually Faith, if you don't mind, we could, we could hang. I mean, don't feel like you have to, but I'm bored and there's never an abundance of females round here to do girly things, and Fred is kinda a booky girl…so…"
"Sure C," I say, "Got nothin' better to do. Whaddya got in mind?" Cordy looks at the ground sheepishly.
"Well, we could, we could go tan in the back! Soak up some of that LA sun and get back to Sunny D with a natural glow!"
"Alright Queenie, sounds good to me…I'll umm I'll go change." Cordy's face lights up.
"Cool! I'm gunna change too…meet ya out back in a few, 'kay?"
"You bet." I walk outta Cordy's room and carefully comprehend what the hell just happened. Cordy is happy for us. Cordy sees my change. Cordy wants to start over. Cordy wants to go tanning. Well I'll be damned; the world really is ending.
I change into a pair of short shorts and a sports bra. I haven't bought a bathing suit yet, so this will have to do for now. Besides, I'm gunna get a funky tan line from the bandage around my ribs anyway.
I put on a pair of sandals, grab a towel, and walk out to the small space that we consider the "yard" of the hotel. I spread out the towel and lay belly down on it. A few minutes later, I hear the back door open and close and Cordy walks into my view. She's wearing a barely there bikini. Shouldn't have expected anything less from C.
She spreads her towel out beside mine and lies down next to me.
"Oohh," she says pointing to my healing ribs. Around the edges of the bandages, you can see the purple bruising. "Looks somewhere along the lines of ouchies. So how'd you get it?"
"The earth decided to have an appetizer of Faith and swallowed me up."
Cordy seemed to be able to tell that wasn't the whole story. "What really happened?"
How do I put this? "The earth started shaking while me and B were talking. I noticed the ground was about to open up, couldn't let B get hurt. I got her outta the way, just wasn't so lucky myself." No sense in talking myself up more than I have to.
"So you saved her then? If it weren't for you, Buffy could be dead right now?"
"Ya I guess…its no biggie though. Did what I had to, it's what I do." I try to shake it off and C notices and changes the subject.
"So what are you gong to do now? Now that you got that weapon of mass beast destruction…you guys heading back to Sunnyhell?"
"Probably. We should get back, get the G-man to research this little tool and just wait and see what happens with our beastie boy."
"How do you think Willow and Xander and them are gunna react to your and Buffy's ummm…recent developments?" Tough question.
"Not too sure yet on that one. I really hope I don't end up dead."
"I like you alive," Cordy nods in agreement.
We quiet down and relax in the sun, soaking up the warm rays and let my body rest. After fifteen minutes though, I'm getting restless. And hot. I walk over to the hose and start to spray myself down.
"You now, Buffy's not here, don't need to get yourself all wet and moisturized for little ol' me." Cordy jokes.
"But I'm so…damn…hot!" I yell and run towards C, spraying her with the hose.
Cordy screams and runs from my line of fire and grabs a cup of ice water she brought from the house. She throws it at me and the cold water freezes my skin. I squeal and go back to squirting the Queen.
It's a full on water war now. We're giggling…me…giggling! Cordy's laughing like she hasn't in a few years. We play around for a few minutes, spraying each other, screaming and laughing.
"TRUCE!" Cordy screams.
"Too much water pressure C? Can't handle gettin' a little wet?"
"Nope, I just have a better idea." Cordy grins devilishly and beckons me over. "I have some old balloons from a party I threw a while ago, what do you say we fill 'em up with water and give Angel a little surprise?"
"You speak my language C. You really do." We dart, dripping water, into the hotel. Cordy makes a mad dash for the balloons while I grab a container to put the balloons in. Less than two minutes later, we've met in the backyard and begun to fill up balloons.
"Won't know what hit him." I say.
"He'll be so far into a deep brood I doubt he'll even realize we hit him with a balloon in the first place." Cordy adds.
We finish filling the balloons and creep back into the house. I scoped the place out when I was in there and deduced that Angel was looking at his weapons. We tiptoe down the hall and when Angel comes into view, Cordy launches her balloon at him.
Angel, with his incredible reflexes, tries to knock the balloon out of the air with his sword.
Bad idea buddy.
The balloon breaks when it touches the sharp sword and explodes all over his face and he throws his arms up in surprise. I take this chance to toss my balloon at him and I knock him one straight in the chest. The water bomb explodes and Angel is left standing there, soaking, while we scream and make a mad dash for the backyard.
Once we are in the sunlight, we turn around and face a dripping wet Angel standing in the doorway.
"Heh heh Soulboy, looks like we got you. Two girls got the Scourge of Europe," I joke. Cordy laughs and raises her arms in victory.
"Oh hell to the yes! Take that tall, dark, and broody!" I look at Cordy in awe. Did she just say that? Oh yes she did.
But before I can tease her, Angel beats me to the chase. "Cordy now not only dresses like a rap video, but talks like one too!" Gotta hand it to him, he can dole out lashings of the tongue like ATM machines give out cash.
Angel smiles, starts to laugh, and walks upstairs to change. I turn to C and give her a high-five.
"Damn girl, that was some good entertainment!" She cheers.
"Too bad we didn't have a video camera of that one." A voice says from the doorway Angel just vacated. Buffy.
"Hey B, back so soon?"
"Ya, Dawn found the purse she wanted, spent her life savings on it, and went upstairs to fill it with her makeup. I take it you guys had fun?"
"Ya just coolin' off. Missed ya B."
"Me too." She replies. We start to walk up to each other to properly say hello when I hear a loud BANG. Buffy screams in shock.
She's been shot.
A/N: Uh oh…Buffy! What's in store for our two chosen? Reviews equals an answer ;)