Giles looked up from the kettle as Buffy shouldered her way through the back door with Faith in her arms.

"Good Lord, what's wrong now?"

"I got clawed by a demon. Don't feel bad for not realisin' or nothin'," Faith said sarcastically.

Giles didn't seem to catch the intonation as he made his tea quickly. "Well, as long as you're okay. Kennedy has put Willow on her bed and Xander is up there waiting for us. Everything is as we left it, I'm thankful to say."

"And I'm thankful to hear it." Buffy said, before asking Faith, "Chair or bed?"

"Chair." Buffy started to ease her down into one of the kitchen chairs and Faith hissed in pain. "Or bed is good too."

Buffy chuckled, gently hoisting her back up again. "I'll see you up there, Giles."

"I'm right behind you."

Buffy was extra careful taking Faith up the back stairs. Normally it might be fun to bash her head off of the banister a few times – especially since she had spent the day getting drunk while Buffy had been going through hell – but the girl was obviously in a lot of pain; and she couldn't shake the memory of future-Faith crying either.

Faith's bedroom was on the other side of the house and Buffy walked swiftly down the twisty turny corridors. She glanced into Willow's bedroom as they passed it, seeing Willow frail-looking on the bed and Xander and Kennedy hovering around her.

She pushed open the door to Faith's room and realised as she entered that it was the first time she had been in there since the week after Faith had moved in. It was. . .not looking a lot different.

"Where's all your stuff?"

"Huh?" Faith looked around. "Oh, in the closet."

"But where's the rest of it? Surely it doesn't all fit in one cupboard?"

Faith looked around again and shrugged in her arms. "Guess it does. Just put me on top of the covers."

Buffy resisted the urge to just drop her on the bed and set her down gently. "You're getting your comforter all muddy."

"Really not caring."

"Do you think you need…? Do you want me to take a look at, uh. . .?" Buffy waved at Faith's injured parts uncomfortably. Not that the thigh or the waist were problems as such, just…

Reading her mind, Faith leered. "Go make Willow better first. After, if I'm not dead yet, you can come fix my boo boo and cop an ogle then."

Buffy quirked an eyebrow. "Boo boo?"

Faith quirked one right back. "Hoo hoo?"

Buffy gave her a scary grin. "Sometimes I hate you."

Faith gave her an easy smile. "Yeah, I hate you too, babe."

Buffy sighed as she left her too it, wondering if that was really as close as they would be able to come to saying 'the words' for another year.

"I want to stay for the spell."

"I'm very sorry but as I told you last night, Kennedy, that's not a very good idea," Giles said calmly as he mixed some more of the ingredients.

Thank the Heavens he had ordered more that he had thought he would need or else they would be left trying to work with the sticky mess the last attempt had left in the bowl. Willow was handcuffed to the bed this time too. She might not have sneezed in three hours but he wasn't taking the chance that the smoke from the spell would induce one at the last minute again.

"And look what happened last night when I wasn't here," Kennedy said.

"That's not going to happen again, look," Willow rattled her cuffs to prove her point.

She seemed to be feeling better now she was home but her skin was the colour of stormy grass and her eyes seemed to be rolling independently of one another on an almost continuous basis. At this point Giles wished he had never watched the Exorcist because he kept having visions of her head spinning around; which was far from helpful when everyone was relying on him to keep his nerve.

"Hey, if you wanna be useful," Xander said. "Grab some clothes from my room and take them down to Oz."

Kennedy just glared at him.

"Please, Kennedy," Willow said, both eyes managing to roll her way expectantly.

"Fine!" She stormed out of the room just as Buffy was hurrying in.

"Okay, I think we're ready," Giles said, nodding to Buffy. "So, if everyone takes their places, we'll begin."

Kennedy had grabbed the biggest pair of jeans she could find in Xander's wardrobe and one of Andrew's Star Wars t-shirts before going down to the boy's dormitory. Typically, Oz wasn't in there anyway.

She found him in the training barn, sitting with his mutt.

Feeling even more irritable that she had had to hunt for him she chucked the clothes his way, and he gave a quiet, "Thanks."

"How's your back?" she asked, not that she really cared.

"Sore, but I have that whole supernatural healing thing. How's Willow?"

"No idea. They didn't let me stay for the spell," her frustration was clear in her voice.

He nodded and then waved the clothes in an awkward gesture for privacy. His lower half was hidden behind his dog at the moment and he obviously didn't want to stand up in front of her.

"Oh, please," she scoffed. "Like you have anything I want to look at."

Shrugging he got to his feet and pulled the pants on. They were miles too big; he had to use a hand to stop them from sliding down his hips.

"Any chance you have a belt?"

She smirked, "Sorry."

Unfazed he unclipped the thin leather dog lead from Ralph's collar and pulled it through the belt loops, cinching it tight around his waist before tying a knot in it. He pulled the t-shirt over his head, looked down at the picture of the Wookie on the front and shrugged again, unbothered.

Jeez, he was annoying. Why couldn't he get pissed that she was messing with him? Shaking off her irritation she turned to leave the barn.

"Can I bring Ralph in now?"

"No."

The spell was done, Willow was, as far as they knew, cured. It was a great feeling for all of them but Giles had insisted that she have at least an hour of lying quietly in her room alone to regain some of her strength.

So, feeling jazzed that her best friend was going to be okay after all the worry, thrilled that they were finally back home, and immense relief that Kennedy was alive and Faith hadn't sunk into a pit of despair, Buffy found herself bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet outside of Faith's room.

The excited bouncing wasn't actually translating to knocking though. She kept going to and then stopping herself. It was silly, she knew that. For one thing Faith might be really seriously hurt, needing her assistance. For two, she was sort of her girlfriend.

It was that particular thought that was holding her back though. Things had still been really tense between them before Buffy had gone off on her impromptu travels. She wanted this to be the moment they put everything right between them, she just wasn't sure how yet.

Still, she wasn't going to find out hopping from foot to foot out here. She knocked a little too enthusiastically.

"Yeah?" Faith grunted, sounding in a lot of pain.

That was all Buffy needed to open the door and go in. "Hey…whoa!"

Faith had managed to take her top off and push her jeans down until they were just off of her hips. She looked down at herself as Buffy exclaimed loudly and sharply averted her eyes.

"B, you've seen me naked before! Get a grip, would ya?"

"Yeah, sorry." Buffy cut her eyes to Faith for a second but still wouldn't look at her properly. "How are you doing?"

"I don't think I'm gonna die but this is hella freakin' painful." Faith grimaced as she tried to push the tight pants even further down her thighs. "Been trying to get my clothes off so I can check the damage but I think I've hit a wall. How's Willow?"

"We did the spell. She should be okay but Giles said we need to wait a little while to be sure. She's resting now." Buffy fidgeted nervously before making a decision and walking over to the bed. "Let me help."

"Thought you were never gonna offer." Faith slumped stiffly back against her pillows.

"Didn't think you liked needing help?" Buffy muttered as she took hold of the waist band of Faith's jeans and gently eased them down her legs.

"There's a difference between needing help and needing…help… Okay, I guess there ain't."

Jeans down to her knees, Buffy looked at her curiously. "You okay?"

"Took a bunch of painkillers after you left." Faith grinned. "Think they're finally kicking in." Buffy jerked the wet, mud-caked jeans down to her ankles. "Ow! Not helping with the actual pain though."

"Oops, sorry. Nearly done." Buffy pulled the pants carefully off of her feet. "There. Oh!"

She'd meant her eyes to go straight up to Faith's face, not really ready to see her in her underwear just yet however irrational that might, but they stopped on her panties when she realised the white cotton was dark red with blood.

Faith looked down at herself again. "Yeah. I think the bleeding stopped, just feels tacky now."

"Uh huh." Buffy forced herself to go into medical mode – and not, 'ooh Faith's panties!' mode.

Her stomach had stopped bleeding too but the red gash across it looked wicked nasty still. Her thigh was still leaking a little blood, probably thanks to the removal of her jeans, but it wasn't enough to indicate anything arterial had been hit.

"Okay, try not to move around so you don't re-open anything. I'll be back in a minute."

She left Faith's bedroom and went to the communal bathroom just down the hall. There were bandages and stuff in there. It wasn't as well equipped as Giles store room inside his office – which looked like a hospital had thrown up its guts in there – but it had what she needed. She took the time to fill the small bucket kept under the sink with warm water too.

She bumped into Xander in the hall. He looked down at the stuff she was carrying and then back up in concern.

"Where's the medical emergency?"

"Faith. One of those lizard demons sliced her up pretty good."

"Oh God. Is she okay? Do you need a hand?"

She thought about Faith in her panties. "No, I've got it. She's fine, just…sore and stuff."

Xander nodded. "Kennedy and Oz are waiting downstairs."

Buffy smiled. "You should probably get down there then. Before there's even more bloodshed."

"Actually, I think they're just wondering when dinner is going to be ready."

She gave him a stern look. "That better not be the only reason you're talking to me too."

He held his hands up defensively. "No way. I'm thinking we order pizza."

She smiled again. "Let me see to Faith and then we'll work something out foodwise."

He nodded and walked away down the corridor. She watched him go for a second and then went back to Faith's bedroom. Faith looked half asleep when she opened the door.

"I'm back." She put the bucket and other supplies down on the bedside cabinet.

Faith opened her eyes. "Yeah?"

"How many of those tablets did you take?"

"Not enough to kill me…unfortunately." She shifted a little on the bed, winced, and decided lying still was better. "So what did you bring me?"

"Warm water and bandages."

"Oh, B, you really know how to treat a girl right."

"Well, I was gonna go and pick you some flowers too but I was worried you might bleed to death before you could appreciate my effort."

Faith laughed quietly. "I'm just glad you came back."

Her words made Buffy think of the future, literally, and she looked away for a moment, remembering future-Faith's crying again. How would the other slayer react now if she told her about that? She would probably deny it. If she gave it a moment's thought at all with all the painkillers she had taken.

Buffy started with her stomach. A little mud had leaked beneath her top but mostly it was just blood to deal with. Once that was clean she applied the heavy duty antiseptic cream and then gently patted a wide swatch of gauze over the wound. Using the spare face cloth she had brought in she tenderly dried the area around the gauze before taping it down firmly.

Faith watched her through heavy-lidded eyes and gave her a dopey smile as Buffy looked up from her handy work. "Nice job."

Buffy nodded but said, "That was the easy one."

She moved onto her thigh next and after wiping it clean and checking it to make sure it wasn't worst than she'd first thought, she repeated the process of delicately applying the cool cream with her fingertips and dressing the wound securely.

She looked up at Faith nervously. "I have to…uh."

"I know."

"You don't mind?"

"You taking off my underwear? Kinda been hoping and praying for it for a while now, B."

As Faith grinned, Buffy gave her an embarrassed smile. "Not quite how I was planning our first…uh, next time to be though. You know, with the blood and all."

"But you have been planning it?" Faith sounded quietly surprised.

"Not really planning it, no." Faith's face dropped a little. "More just thinking about it. A lot." Faith grinned again. "Ready for some time way in the future when you stop being an idiot." Faith's face went neutral.

"Just take my damn panties off, B, before my pussy bleeds out."

"Stop using that word."

"Why? Does it shock you?"

Buffy looked down at Faith's blood-soaked underpants with a grim smile, feeling her cheeks grow hot with her blush.

"It doesn't shock me. It's just…" She hooked her fingers into the waistband of the panties. "…there are nicer words."

"What would you prefer? Bajingo? Lady Flower?"

Not answering, Buffy gingerly started pulling down the underwear.

"Oh, sorry, forgot. Hoo hoo's your fave, right?" Faith was smirking.

"Are you going to be teasing me about my poor word choice forever?" Buffy griped.

Faith's smirk dropped into a gentle, if drugged up, smile. "Hopefully."

Buffy smiled bashfully in response. Sometimes Faith got it exactly right. So why couldn't she always?!

Again choosing not to answer, she concentrated on what she was doing. She watched the slow passage of Faith's panties as she eased them down her thighs, over her knees, along her shins to her ankles and then off of her feet because she still wasn't quite ready to look at the area she'd left uncovered yet.

"B," Faith said softly when she was still just looking at the underwear now in her hands.

"Huh?" She looked up, dropping them self-consciously. "Okay…I'm okay."

"Never said you weren't, but I'm not used to being the only one practically naked in the room."

"Really?" Buffy knew she sounded surprised as she busied herself moving the bucket and grabbing more gauze to avoid looking at where she had to look.

"Yeah. What'd ya think I usually do? Give shows?"

"No, it's just…" Buffy plunged the wash cloth into the bowl to rinse it and then wrung it out. "I know you're way more experienced than me," she added in a fast mumble.

Faith laughed and then cringed when it made the slash on her stomach hurt. "Is that what's been holding you back? 'Cause, babe, the two times we've done it, we've been pretty evenly matched. Last time, if anything, I was keeping up with you."

Buffy blushed again but also smiled a little at that knowledge.

"'Course, I'd hardly had any sleep for a week, put me a little off my game, but still."

Buffy grinned now. "Always the charmer."

"I'm pretty sure I can be more charming when my pu—hoo hoo ain't throbbing like a bitch."

Buffy smirked, "Don't say hoo hoo. You manage to make it sound dirty."

Faith sighed. "Can't freakin' win. Would you just…"

"I'm on it," Buffy promised.

It wasn't so bad, she told herself. To look, that was. Faith's legs were nearly together and the demon's claw had sliced her high up-ish. It wasn't so…

Okay, it totally was! It might not have been the sexiest of situations but that was Faith's hoo… that was Faith's pussy! And it was all just…there! And she had to touch it!

Buffy took a deep, calming breath and wiggled her fingers a little to get the tension out of them before picking up the wash cloth again. It was no good; she had to come up with a conversation to take her mind off of what she was doing.

"Anyway, that's not what's been holding me back."

She squeezed the cloth over Faith's…girl-part…and watched the water dribble down. She was just trying to wet the blood caked in her pubic hair, it really shouldn't be hot! She averted her eyes, just for a second while she got control of her weird and disturbing emotions again.

"So what? You don't trust me?"

"I trust you, I…" Buffy squeezed the cloth over her again. "No, okay, I don't trust you."

Wincing, Faith sat herself up. "B, I help you save the world. I did my damn time! What else…"

"Faith, its not you I don't trust. It's…" She started to rub the cloth around the wound. "It's just…you!"

Faith slumped back against the pillows, one arm going over her eyes, her other hand coming up to hover over the bandage on her stomach as she winced again.

"Great, you almost managed to not blame me for something!"

"I guess I meant us, more than you." Buffy rinsed the cloth again and dabbed it gently over the cut. "The thought of us being together, you know like that, again, is great, really it is, but what if we do it a bunch more times and then…"

"And then?"

"And then you…or we…I don't know," she finished awkwardly.

She didn't really feel comfortable having this conversation when she was doing this. Actually, she probably wouldn't feel comfortable having this conversation even if Faith was fully dressed and they were doing something mundane like staking vampires.

"You think you're going to get bored of me, B?"

"No, I don't," she said, looking up quickly. "Not at all."

"I don't think I'm gonna get bored of you either."

"That's nice." The wound was as clean as it was going to get but Buffy kept pressing the cloth over and around it. "But what if…?"

"Buffy, just spit it out already!"

"Relationships go wrong! Mine especially. We have one argument and you barely speak to me for weeks. You get thralled by Dracula and I'm the one who can't think straight. You won't open up to me and I don't know how to make you. I'm insanely jealous of the ten year old you were forced to share a prison cell with. In fact, I think I'm just insane period. I nearly retroactively killed Angel for you last night and what do I get in return, huh? You're not even worried about me! You're just boozing it up at Barnies all day!"

"Hey! Ow ow ow!" Faith sat up painfully to slap Buffy's hands away from her. "Go freakin' easy down there! I'm not up to playing rough today."

Buffy pulled the cloth away. She hadn't meant to take her distress out on Faith's injuries, especially not that one. Blood had started to trickle from it again, mixing with the water dripping between her legs.

"Sorry. I just wanted to make sure it was clean," she lied.

Faith settled back again. "You saw Angel last night?"

She had tried to ask that question casually but there had been a hint of suspicion there. Buffy sighed; at least she wasn't the only one with the jealousy issues.

"Not exactly. I met Liam."

"Who?"

"It's not important right now." She refolded the dry cloth and held it lightly over the wound to stop the bleeding.

"Then what is?" Faith asked.

"What if we don't fit?" she mumbled.

"What if we don't…? What do you mean?"

"It took you a week of living on the streets to decide whether you wanted to give us a chance. What if it took you that long because deep down you knew you didn't."

"I came back, didn't I?"

"Well, yeah, eventually, but you were living on the streets. I imagine forcing yourself to go through with this charade of being with me for a little while was a price worth paying for a warm bed and regular meals."

"You think I'm pretending to like you 'cause I got hungry?" Faith asked incredulously.

The bleeding had stopped. Buffy removed the cloth and picked up the antiseptic cream, unscrewing the cap slowly.

"No. I think you're pretending to like me because winter is coming and. . . and if it had been summer when you were released maybe it would have taken you even longer to decide if I was something you wanted. . . or not."

"Really?" Faith's total confounded disbelief made her voice go higher than Buffy had ever heard before.

"No! Of course not! I don't know!" Buffy shouted back to her. "This was a conversation I wanted to have weeks ago but you didn't want to talk and now I'm rubbing cream onto your hoopussything and. . . and, I just don't know whether we're meant to be in a relationship or if we're both just victims of being hot chicks with superpowers whose Slayer hormones get all bouncy when they're in a six foot radius of each other, Faith, okay? I don't. . . I don't. . . Are you even listening to me?"

"Yeah, sure. Keeping doing it." Faith's eyes were closed, her lips parted in a blissful little smile. "The talking thing I mean, keep going. Don't stop. I'm listening, babe."

Buffy looked down. She was still smoothing the cream over the wound. Okay, her fingers may have strayed a little in her tirade but not by that much.

"Oh, for God's sake! I'm not even touching anything that good!"

"Feels pretty damn good to me."

"See! Hormones!" Teeth clenched, Buffy recapped the tube of cream and set it aside.

Faith opened her eyes again now the rubbing had stopped. "Okay, let's just cut to the chase. What do I need to do to prove I ain't just here for the warm bed and three square?"

Buffy placed the gauze over the slice and stuck it down with tape – lots of tape. Faith would be in pube-pulling agony when she tried to take it off again. Buffy smirked as she imagined offering to rip it off quick like a band aid.

"I shouldn't have to tell you."

"No. Fuck that bullshit," Faith said adamantly, half sitting up again. "I've never been in a proper relationship before, Buffy. Never wanted to be either."

"Well, thanks for being honest." Buffy started to huffily pack the first aid supplies into a pile.

"Until now! So, yeah, you tell me I'm screwing it up, I'm not surprised, but if you want me to learn better you gotta give me some help."

Buffy's anger disappeared as she read the seriousness of the plea in Faith's eyes. It was probably only because of the drugs but that didn't make it any less powerful.

"Well, I suppose you could start by doing something to actually show you want to be with me."

Faith waggled her eyebrows and patted the bed beside her. "Come a little closer and I can do that right now, babe."

"Something not to do with sex, Faith!" Buffy scooped the stuff up and stormed out of the room.

"I was. . ." The bedroom door slammed and Faith rolled her eyes. ". . .just joking. Damn!"

Tbc... Thanks for reading :)