It was Dawn who found them on the floor outside the bathroom and she helped her sister get the distressed brunette Slayer into the bathroom. The pain in Faith's chest had subsided to a dull ache but her fever had returned and Buffy had decided that a cold bath would help bring it down.
The dark Slayer was slightly out of it due to her fever and for this the blonde was glad. It was hard enough not to concentrate on Faith's now nearly naked body pressed up against her own, without the brunette being coherent enough to sling about the sexual innuendos she no doubt would have should she be able. Instead she mumbled nonsense and groaned as Buffy held her upright and Dawn stripped her of her clothes. She tried to ignore her sister's gasps when she saw the words that had been scarred into Faith's back and instead concentrated on a spot on the wall behind her so she couldn't see the remnants of the horrific torture her sister Slayer had been subjected to.
Between the two of them they got Faith situated in the bath and Buffy couldn't stop her worried frown when the cold water didn't immediately stir Faith from her fevered state. Faith was still too skinny and pale; the bruises that covered her pale skin appeared darker in the yellow glow of the bathroom light. Buffy blushed furiously when Dawn handed her a damp wash cloth and paused hovering over the other Slayer's body. She couldn't bring herself to touch the other girl so intimately with the changing way she had been feeling about Faith lately. She knew there was nothing sexual in what they were doing but she couldn't stop the flood of heat that coursed through her body at the thought of touching Faith's naked body.
Dawn stared at her questioningly as she hovered over Faith's body before she sighed and grabbed the wash cloth and began to wipe it over Faith's limbs in an effort to cool her down. Buffy moved, embarrassed that her seventeen year old sister had no problem doing a task that she herself should be perfectly capable of performing and she would have if it were anyone else but Faith.
As it was she couldn't stop her eyes from sweeping quickly over Faith's body and was once again stunned at the beauty she saw there. She stopped at the twin puncture wounds on Faith's neck and she reached her hands out hesitantly to brush her fingertips slowly over them. The black veins that had been spreading from the wound had disappeared but even with the cool water being poured over her, Faith's skin still felt hot to touch.
"We're going to figure this out aren't we before...," Dawn trailed off.
"We always have before," Buffy replied her hand ghosting over Faith's face.
"Stone you, break you down," Faith murmured.
"She's not making any sense," Dawn said her worried frown mirroring that of her sister's.
"It's the fever," Buffy told her, moving so she was sitting next to the tub and taking of Faith's hands in her own.
The sisters sat in silence while Dawn continued to pour the cold water over Faith's body. Buffy was lost in her thoughts, anchored only by the feeling of her counterpart's warm hand in her own. Since the brunette Slayer had appeared at her doorway she had become aware of something hidden deeply underneath layers of memories that clouded her ability to pick apart what she was really feeling. She had been acting differently towards the younger girl and she as sure the other's had noticed. They had expected hostility on her part for all Faith had put her through in the past and she had surprised them all with the compassion she had shown. If she were being honest with herself she would admit that there was something there that always had been that caused her emotions to run wild when it came to her dark counterpart.
This thing, whatever it was could be attributed to nearly every interaction the two of them had had. She had been jealous when Faith had shown interest in Scott Hope and at the time she had rationalised it because he was meant to be her potential honey. When Faith had accidentally killed the deputy Mayor she had been upset because she wanted Faith to want her help and when she eventually turned and started to work for the Mayor she was angry that she couldn't have been the one to save her and make her feel wanted.
When Faith had awoken from her coma Buffy had so badly wanted for the two of them to start over and was crushed when Faith only wanted revenge. Then when they saw each other in Los Angeles she had felt that familiar surge of jealousy after finding Faith in Angel's arms, again blaming the jealousy she felt on her feelings for Angel. She had never, not in the three and a bit years they have known each other even contemplated that she could have had feelings other than the bitterness and contempt they had teetered between. It was only if she really delved into the reasons behind the bitterness and contempt did she begin to discover that perhaps that ran much deeper than she could even comprehend.
She didn't even know how she was having this conversation with herself. Could it even be possible that she felt something for Faith? How had she never noticed it before? Probably because she had been terrified at finding herself falling for her fellow Slayer so instead she had tried to push her away in an attempt to convince herself that she wasn't really having these thoughts. It wasn't like she loved her. Did she? Could she? She loved Faith.
Her heart quickened at the confession her inner monologue had just uncovered. If Dawn noticed that her breathing had started to quicken she didn't say anything and Buffy felt like Faith's flesh was burning in her own. She was panicking and she knew it and it wasn't because Faith was a girl, she had no problems with that whatsoever, it was because she was Faith. Faith who didn't do relationships, Faith who was get some get gone girl, Faith who broke hearts all over town, Faith who for all that she knew was very much into men. She was broken from her thoughts by Xander calling her name and in her daze she absently called to him telling him where she was.
"Naked Faith, very naked Faith!" Xander cried his arm flying to cover his eyes.
"Ain't nothing you haven't seen before XanMan," Faith said wearily having finally been roused from her fevered state and not bothering to cover her modesty either because she didn't have the energy to do so or she simply didn't care who saw.
"Faith!" Buffy said excitedly, "Thank god you're hot, I mean thank god you're not as hot as you were, I mean you're hot but you're not hot and what is it Xander?" Buffy flushed mentally chiding herself for her slip. Had she suddenly become a bumbling teenager with her sudden realisation?
Faith for her part let her slip of the tongue slide and looked wearily over at Xander who was still standing in the doorway with his arm covering his eyes.
"Angel is on the phone for you," the carpenter said.
"For who?" Buffy asked distractedly trying not to look below Faith's face.
"You," Xander said again his obvious frown covered by his arm.
"Okay, can you tell him I'll call him back," she said.
"He said it was pretty important," Xander replied.
"I won't be long," she replied.
He turned and walked straight into the door frame causing the three women in the room to laugh. He muttered something under his breath about how painful it was living in a houseful of women before disappearing down the hall.
"How are you feeling?" she asked Faith softly as Dawn grabbed a towel off the rack.
"Kind of steamrolled," Faith replied just as softly.
They didn't speak as Buffy helped her up from the tub whether it was from embarrassment on both of their parts or the tension that had arisen when Faith had stumbled and fallen into Buffy and the blonde had had to wrap her arms around the other girl's wet body to keep them both from falling. Of course with her new revelation she had almost dropped her when she realised what she was touching and what was touching her and she had to hold in an audible moan when she felt Faith's hot breath tickling her neck.
"I should get you into bed, I mean to bed," Buffy said blushing again.
"Hate feeling like this," Faith mumbled as Buffy and Dawn helped her get redressed.
"We'll figure this out I promise," Buffy told her.
She helped Faith back into her room and tucked her into bed taking a moment to brush the hair away from the younger girl's forehead. Faith gave her a quizzical look but didn't say anything seeming to relax under the blonde Slayer's touch. They stared at each other and Buffy could swear she could see straight into the other girl's soul. Faith had always been so guarded, had kept her walls so high that she had never really been able to tell what the other girl was thinking. She wasn't sure if it was because she had suddenly and finally accepted her feelings that she was now able to see behind those walls but she thought she saw something deep within that indicated that maybe Faith had similar feelings.
"Angel's waiting for your call," Faith said breaking eye contact and pulling at the sheet.
"I should probably call him back," Buffy replied.
"Probably."
A/N: I finally updated!!! And we made a little bit of plot progress, well done for us!!! Hope you are still reading and that you can take the time to feed a starving author with some reviews.