Summary: This is a sequel to my story A Creature I Don't Know which can be found here: s/8467907/1/A-Creature-I-Dont-Know
A/N: I strongly recommend a good understanding of season 5 to follow this: Triangle especially for this update.
Disclaimer:Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, 20th Century Fox, UPN and WB Television Networks own the television shows, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "Angel". Dark Horse and IDW own the Comics. No copyright infringement is intended, no money is being earned by myself. The title of each chapter, and the story as a whole, come from K's Choice songs/Album titles. (Given that I had soundtrack for the first I thought I should have one for the second).
Thank you all for your kind words and support for my last story. I hope you enjoy my continuation of it. I would love to hear your thoughts on my thoughts. Many thanks.
8. I Will Return To You
They had been training for an hour and yet neither had worked up a sweat. Having worked with her for five years now, he knew that keeping all of her attention focused on the task in hand was always half of the battle, however, he'd thought her mind would be asking him about Glory. He never even considered that their conversation would be centred around Faith.
Since he'd taken the younger girl into his home, he and Buffy seemed to come to an unspoken agreement that they wouldn't really talk about Faith. They had tried, at the beginning, but they realised if their own relationship was to continue then Faith should be ignored.
Consequently Buffy would never know that he had no such arrangement with Faith.
"Now switch. Right lead." Giles instructed as he rearranged the pads Buffy was hitting and kicking. "Saw that coming. You dropped your shoulder."
"I know you think that the council will know something but…" she paused as she threw a round house kick at Giles, "why is Faith going with you?"
Giles was caught offside by this question and Buffy's following kick.
"Let's, uh, take a break." He suggested, heading to the mats and something cold to put to his shoulder.
"Glory's all you're going to talk to them about, isn't it?"
"Thought you wanted to talk about Faith." He put to her as he passed her a drink. He noticed that she was finding something across the room very interesting. "I'm not going to mention Dawn's name." He reassured her. "I promise I would never do that."
"But you're going to tell them there's a key?" She stressed, still avoiding eye contact. "That Glory's looking for something called the key?"
"Knowing her goal is crucial. If anything will help them uncover her origins and plans..."
"I know, it's just that I trust those Watchers about at far as…" She looked at him briefly and found he was still nursing his arm, "…you could throw them."
"Thank you very much."
"And I gotta say, I'm a little freaked out at the idea of them knowing anything that could point them to Dawn."
"Truly, Buffy, if I saw an alternative-"
"And Faith?"
"Faith would rather remove her tongue than tell the Council about Dawn." He smiled weakly at her.
"That's just the thing," he noted that she'd started to undo the bandaging around her hands, "Faith hates them more than I do. What with the arrest, the chains… Wesley!"
He simply watched and waited for her to ask him again.
But she never did.
She simply let them leave.
She spent the hour watching the clock. She spent the hour calculating the time difference between Sunnydale and London. She wondered what Faith was doing. She had vague images of England tucked away in the recesses of her subconscious. She pictured Faith standing outside historic monuments, drinking tea and eating scones. She wondered if they ate haggis in London.
As she found the rest of the class packing up their things and drifting out, she realised that she'd missed it all. All of a sudden she found herself wondering what the lesson had been about.
"New semester. New classes. Whole new vistas of knowledge to be confused and intimidated by." She told Tara as the left the lecture room.
"I think this one seems kind of fun. Greek art is going to touch on so many things, mythology and history and philosophy..." Tara watched as Buffy sent a worried look back into the room. "You can have my notes to go over."
"Thank you." Buffy smiled. "I need to keep this course. The only other thing that fits my schedule is Central American Geo-Politics and no thanks." She shook her head. "That sounds way more confusing than Greek stuff. Though," she dropped her voice into a whisper, "might be a little drier."
"We'll sit further back next time." Tara smiled back at her as the continued through the corridor. "Where were you for that hour?"
"Do they eat haggis in London?"
"Um, I think its black pudding." Tara frowned. "Missing them?"
"Is it ever hard with you two?"
"Me and Mr Giles? No." Tara shook her head. "Me and Faith?" She bit her lip as she tried to follow Buffy's train of thought.
"You and Willow?" Buffy explained as she found they'd come to a stop. "Faith said she was going to London because its hard."
"What's hard?"
"That's just it." She smiled satisfactorily. "She didn't say! I'm sure it was never this complicated with Angel." Tara simply shrugged. "Well it may have been." Buffy conceded. "But not for me the furrowed brow. How about we go collect Willow and maybe indulge in a little after-school hamburger or something?"
"I guess we could." Tara nodded, noticing that they were suddenly moving back through the hallway. "She might still be at the magic shop. I was there earlier and she and Anya got in this kind of little squabble. Xander and I sort of cleared out. He was pretty upset."
"Anya and Xander are in trouble?"
"Oh! No. I said that all wrong..." Tara tried to clarify concerned that they'd once again stopped moving. "It was nothing. Willow and Anya were sort of fighting and Xander kind of snapped at both of them and he left."
"He left? He left Anya?"
"Um… no. Not left her, left her. He just left. It was only a little thing. Really."
"A little thing? See, thing is, a little thing gets bigger. You don't catch the little thing and then boom, you've got this whole huge thing."
Tara looked uncomfortably round the corridor, she didn't think she was really following the flow of the conversation.
"Um…"
"But the thing is," Buffy continued, "the small things are always there."
"I guess." Tara nodded, not sure if she was meant to be joining in or not.
"If the small things are always there, they will inevitably become big things and big things will always be in the way. You know?"
"Maybe?"
Buffy sat at the end of her mother's dining room table and watched Giles and Faith interact along side her. Giles was talking about the state of his shop, Faith was smiling smugly as if the shop proved her distrust of magic.
When they'd entered the house she'd presented Dawn with an 'I heart LDN' t-shirt and her mother with a tea pot. She'd given her friends gifts as well, though Anya's present was simply a £10 note, Buffy waited for her turn.
She watched as the two interacted, she watched Faith's smile – so broad, so happy, so genuine. She wondered when the last time that smile had been used for her. She wondered if she ever made her that happy.
She thought back to when Faith first came to Sunnydale, after the mess with Kakistos, the two of them had had fun. Even after the hurt of Angel's revelation, Angel's return, they seemed to have fun. She wondered when the last time they had fun was.
Maybe there was no fun left to be had. Maybe simply too much had happened.
They would talk, they would kiss, they would…
It wasn't a relationship.
She was brought back into the room when her mother came in with a tray of tea and biscuits. She smiled to see that she was using the horrible touristy teapot Faith had brought her.
"Rupert, I still don't understand why those other watchers made you go all the way to England if they don't know anything."
"Its weird hearing you called Rupert." Faith smiled at him, snatching a biscuit from across the table. "Its Rip or G."
"You never told me why you were called Ripper." Joyce frowned as she poured them all tea.
"I'm sure you two were far to busy with the band candy for all that." Buffy sighed.
"Yes, well, quite." Giles blushed as he took a teacup from her mother. "Well, they don't know it yet. They had no record of Glory-"
"Nicely skipped over, G." Faith laughed as she took her own cup.
"-or anyone like her." Giles continued as if uninterrupted. "But based on what I've told them, they are going to look into it. They might have something soon."
"What about the key? Were they all over the key?"
"Yes…" he looked from Faith spooning heaps of sugar into her drink to Joyce. "You know all of this?"
"I got some of it myself. Buffy told me the rest."
"Well, they were interested, certainly. And full of theories-"
"Most of them crap from what you told me."
"I would have used the word nonsensical." Giles continued.
"But they didn't guess about Dawn." Buffy clarified, ignoring Faith. "They don't know it's her."
"No."
"I still can't even start to grasp this." Joyce said, finally sitting down herself. "She's my little girl."
"It is disorienting." Giles nodded.
"Giles, what happens if they figure it out?" Buffy pressed, pushing her tea to the side. "What would they do? What would happen?"
"I don't know."
The four of them dropped into silence.
"I'm glad you like the tea pot." Faith smiled.
"Yes," Giles sighed, picking it up and examining it. "It's a shame it didn't break on the flight back."
"I think its lovely." Joyce smiled once again at Faith. "I never knew the Queen would have such a large head."
"Novelty tat." Giles sighed once more.
"He said that for most of the three days we were away." Faith smiled.
"Where's my novelty tat?" Buffy asked her.
"I, um," Faith pushed her chair back, "I was going to give it to you later."
"Go on." Joyce nodded at the pair of them. "We'll get these." She told them as she picked up her Queen teapot and Giles collected the cups.
Buffy followed Faith out of the room and out of the house. She sat down on the swinging chair on the front porch while she waited for Faith to pull something out of her back pocket. She took the bent postcard from the girl and waited for her to sit down besides her before turning it over.
I love you, was all that was scrawled across the pack of the picture of Buckingham Palace.
Buffy looked from the postcard to the girl next to her.
"It's always been you, B." she said simply.
Buffy looked from the postcard to the girl next to her. She subconsciously traced over Faith's messy handwriting with her thumb.
It had always been her. She looked from the postcard to the girl next to her. Faith was right. It was too hard.
It wasn't a relationship. At least not for her.
Many thanks, Circus