He answered before the phone had even rung once and Buffy was slightly taken aback by the urgency in which he said her name. It was a tone she hadn't heard since their meeting after she had been resurrected and she knew he hadn't just called to have a friendly chat.

"What's wrong Angel?" she asked knowing that whatever he was going to tell her would be bad news.

"It's Faith," he replied and her heart quickened at the mention of the girl who was currently upstairs in her bed.

"Cordy had a vision and she's going to get bitten by an ancient form of vampire called the Turok Han," he rushed, "Buffy you mustn't let her go outside, these vampires are unlike anything you've ever faced before, their fangs can inject a poison into their victims and the consequences are disastrous," he continued taking an unnecessary breath at the end.

"She's already been bitten," Buffy said quietly, "The First Evil manifested itself as me and tricked her into going outside."

"Is she okay," Angel asked.

"No, she's running a near constant fever, she's having chest pains and she can't walk two paces without feeling completely exhausted. The guys are looking into it but they haven't found anything yet," she told him.

"I have," he near whispered and she could hear the despair in his tone.

"Angel what's going to happen to her?" she asked.

"I tracked down a contact I have in the desert who was around the first time the First tried to end the world, he didn't try to end the Slayer line but tried to open the Hellmouth in Tokyo. His arm at the time wasn't nearly as large as it is now and the Slayer called then managed to stop his followers before they could do any real damage. My contact witnessed firsthand the changes that occur when bitten by a Turok Han. His clan, whilst human are born with the genetic capability to live for thousands of years and he said he's never seen anything like it. The venom in the Turok Han's fangs moves through the bloodstream until it reaches the heart. Once there it weakens the walls of the heart where it begins to produce more of the poison until eventually it is only poison being pumped through a person's veins. People's bodies aren't built to live with poison flowing through their veins so their body must transform into something that can," he stopped allowing her time to absorb what he had just said.

"A Turok Han," Buffy said horrified.

"Yes," Angel sighed.

"What can we do? We can't just let her die and turn into one of those things, there has to be some sort of cure, Angel I-I can't lose her," Buffy cried hot tears beginning to fall from her eyes.

"I haven't found anything yet but I have the whole team working on it, I promise we'll find something," he said.

"I don't know if I can tell her," Buffy said, "She doesn't deserve this, I haven't even gotten the chance to tell her how I feel or find out if she feels the same way" she said blushing when she realised what she'd revealed.

"I think she does," Angel said not seeming surprised.

"How do you know?" Buffy asked.

"I could always tell, from the moment she arrived the two of you always had a spark that I realised we would never come close to having, it's one of the reasons why I left," he said.

"You knew, well why didn't you tell me?" Buffy asked.

"I thought you would figure it out for yourself you know, before stabbing her and putting her in a coma," he laughed.

"Well I never was very bright," Buffy chuckled.

"You have to tell her," he said quietly, "About both things."

"I know," Buffy sighed running a hand through her hair," I just don't know how to. Hey, maybe you could do it for me since you already knew about how I felt and you found out about the poison."

"I think she'd prefer to hear it from you," he said, "And I think you might be pleasantly surprised."

"Fine, but she'd probably like to talk to you, I know the two of you haven't had the chance since Wes broke her out of jail," Buffy said heading towards her bedroom.

"I'm not telling her," he said.

"I know but I know she misses you," Buffy said pushing her bedroom door open.

Faith had her eyes closed but they snapped open when she heard Buffy's voice.

"Angel wants to say hi," Buffy said to her handing her the phone.

"Hey Fang," Faith said brightening.

Buffy smiled and moved to leave wanting to give them their privacy but Faith's hand on her arm stopped her.

"Stay," the brunette mouthed.

As Faith chatted to Angel Buffy laid beside her on the bed her arm going around the younger girl's shoulders. It seemed that whenever they were close her body needed to have physical contact with the other girl and she often found herself holding Faith in some way or another without even realising she had done it. She didn't fail to notice that the brunette never pulled away, in fact she was currently moving so that her head rested against Buffy's shoulder, still on the phone seemingly unaware of her actions. Was it possible that Faith's body reacted the same as her own? Was Angel right?

She could feel the heat radiating off the other girl's skin although it wasn't nearly as hot as it had been earlier. Sighing she closed her eyes and focused on feeling the other girl next to her and the husky tones of her voice. She must have dozed off because the next thing she knew she found herself being flung off the bed, her head hitting the corner of her sidetable with a painful thud.

Rubbing her head she looked up at Faith who stood above her, hands clenched into fists at her side. The younger girl was breathing heavily and her eyes darted between Buffy and the door as if she was caught in some internal battle. Shaking her head she lunged at Buffy with a feral growl and the blonde Slayer had to wrap her arms around the other girl's torso to stop her from hitting her, the two of them toppling over sideways as Faith struggled and shrieked to be let go.

"Faith! Faith it's Buffy, it's me," the blonde cried as the dark Slayer tried to scratch at her face.

One of the brunette's wildly swinging arms managed to make contact and the blonde dropper her arms from around her as she tried to clear her head. Faith scrambled back, her eyes wide with fear when she took in the blonde's dazed expression and rapidly purpling jaw and her own split open knuckle.

"B?" she asked, "Oh god, what's happening to me?"