Hey All!

I firstly want to thank you all for being so understanding and amazing! I got some of the nicest reviews and PM's ever and you are all the absolute best people ever! I haven't responded to them yet because it's been crazy and hectic but I promise you that I will! I seriously love you guys so much.

So this story is going to heat up and heat up QUICK! We finally find out Emily's secret what will it be? ;)

I don't own skins/buffy but if I did they would all live in a homo filled land where everyone lives.

Chapter 23

Naomi's POV

The last thing I remember is leaning against the table and putting my arm behind Emily. I remember them talking about something and the next thing that I remember is total darkness. A darkness that can only be described as cold and black, darker than any black I've ever seen. I could just feel that no light could penetrate this place. I felt as if I was separate from my body, I knew I was awake but it was like my mind was ripped from me and pulled onto another level of consciousness, one where I was most definitely not in control or in charge.

Slowly light started to fill up the space and I start to recognize my surroundings. It's a place I've been before, in real life and in my nightmares. The cave. The cave where our lives were changed forever, never to be the same again. I see the candles on the walls and floor of the cave and lose myself in their glow, relishing in her light for a moment.

"I love fire as well. It's so subtle and beautiful. It gives the appearance of control with a candle doesn't it? But as soon as you knock the candle over, it's a free for all and it becomes destructive and one of the most deadly and beautiful forces in this world." I turn my head to see the last person that I wanted to see ever again, the main in the gas mask. I try to mask my fear and sudden accelerating of my heart by using my sarcasm.

"Sounds likes you need to sort out your priorities." He chuckles softly at me.

"Always trying to hide your fear behind your sarcasm aren't you? Very interesting. Must be hard to let people in that way though isn't it Miss Campbell?" He asks tilting his head to the side in a very irritating and smug way.

"Not that it's really a concern for you, but I have no problem letting people in."

"Is that what you really think Naomi? You know there's a term for someone like you, it's called a liar." He starts to pace around me and I find myself frozen on the spot, unable to move.

"Tell me Naomi. Did you let your friends in right away? Did you let JJ, or Thomas, Pandora in very easily? What about Cook? Or Effy? No, I don't think so. Now who else am I missing?" He stops his pacing and puts his finger on his chin in a contemplative gesture. He stops his movements and looks me directly in the eyes and it's the first time that I can see his eyes fully and I can't help but think that they look familiar. I couldn't think about it too much though because his next words shock me to my core.

"What about Freddie? Did you let him in right away? See, Freddie is an interesting case isn't he? Because you did let him in right away. He was the first person you really let in. And you weren't the only one, Effy did the same di-"

"Don't you dare talk about that! You have NO idea what you're talking about! You know nothing!"I scream at him, trying to get my body to jump at him but I still felt like a wall was pushing me back.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Naomi. I do know about that, more than you even know. Such a shame that the one person that you willingly let in had to die because of that isn't it? Such a pity."

"He died because of you! You killed him! You slit his throat and just left him to bleed out, you sick fucking bastard!"

"Did I kill him? Hmm. I seem to remember it a bit different than that. Tell me Naomi, do you remember everything from that night? I don't think you do, in fact I know you don't. I could tell you the truth, tell you what really happened, but it will cost you."

"You're lying." He cocked his head to the side and if I could see his face I know there would be a small smile on his lips.

"Can you be so sure? How much do you actually remember from that night? Waking up in a pool of water, cold, in one end of the cave? You travel down through the cave until you came into this opening, with these exact candles, and you find Freddie. Neck slit blood everywhere, lifeless. But you can't for the life of you remember why you are covered in blood. You aren't bleeding. The only blood you see is the blood from Freddie." He leans close to me, almost in a whisper. "And that, my dear, is because you did it. You were the one who slit his throat, it was your hand that pulled the knife, and you were the one who killed him."

"No. No it was you." He shakes his head, like condescending a child. I tried to go after him again but still can't move. I can feel the rage building up inside of me and it is going to explode shortly.

"No it was you. And you know what the best part is? You're going to do it again. You're going to get a hold of that precious redhead's neck and you are going to take no mercy. You are going to be responsible for the death of your love and there is nothing you can do to stop it!" He finishes loudly, almost yelling it. I can see the anger in his eyes.

"I WOULD NEVER HURT HER! YOU'RE WRONG!" I break free out of my daze and charge him as fast I can, reaching for his throat and gripping as tight as I can. I use all of my strength to try and squeeze the life out of him. Before I come to my senses I hear him laugh.

"I… got… you."

The next thing I see is Emily's face in front of mine, hands all over my arms and I see my hands wrapped tightly around her neck. I quickly drop my hands and realize what I've done.

"He got me." I say out loud not realizing it. I see the light fading in Emily's eyes as she says my name, softly, almost to herself. I reach out and take her into my arms before she falls to the ground. I lift her up onto the table and immediately try to get her wake up.

"Emily, Emily, Ems please. Wake up." I say to her, tears close to falling. I feel Giles push me aside and Cook take me into his arms and pull me to his chest. I see Effy and Giles quickly go to work on her administering CPR and Effy doing what she can with magic. I let the tears role down my face, not caring anymore. If she doesn't live I'll walk to the closest vamp nest and let them have their way with me. My life is hers. I grab Cooks hand and grip onto him tightly, he squeezes me back just as hard, knowing that it's what I need right now.

Time passes agonizingly slow. A watched pot never boils. I snort at myself, unable to believe that in a moment like this I can remember that stupid thing my mum used to tell me as a kid when I was waiting for the water to boil.

"She's got a pulse. She's alive." Giles turns to me. "She's getting air, we just have to wait for her to wake up now." Before I can let that fully sink in I feel something hard hit me on the side of my head.

"You fucking bitch! You almost killed her! I'm going to fucking kill you!" An angry Katie yells at me and I can see that she means it but I can't make my hands come up to protect myself. Luckily for me, Cook and Effy both react and pull her away.

"Katie, calm down. Katie, that wasn't Naomi, calm the fuck down!" I hear Effy yell at her.

"I saw her do it Ef! Don't give me that bullshit."

"That's not what she means Kay." I hear Emily weakly say from where she is lying down on the table. I rush to her side and put my hands to both of her cheeks, trying to take in every feature of her eyes, afraid that I would never be able to see them again. She brings her hands up to my cheeks and brushed away my tears that I didn't know I was shedding anymore.

"I..I-I'm so sorry." I say, choking on my words, letting more tears fall. I look down, unable to look Emily in the eyes because of what I almost did. I feel her reach hand underneath my chin and lift my head up, making me have to look her in her eyes.

"I know. And I know it wasn't you. You have nothing to be sorry for."

"I'm not sure if that's totally true. I have to tell you guys something."

A very long time later and I've filled them in on everything that happened during my "dream" and everything that the gas mask guy said to me. Even the part about Freddie. The room is silent, all of us thinking things through. I voice what I think everyone is thinking, at least what Effy and Giles are most likely thinking.

"I think we need to bring in some back up for this. I need to know if he's telling the truth. I need to remember what happened that night." Giles looks at me.

"Yes, I think you're right Naomi. It's time we figure out these dreams, it could be vital." I see Effy smile out of the corner of her eyes.

"I have the perfect person in mind."

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Emily and I are sitting on my couch; the tension in the room could almost be seen. I haven't felt comfortable around her for the rest of the day, unable to shake my guilt of what I did to her. I can't help but think about what gasmask, what we've now started to call him, said about Freddie. He was right about Emily, I did have her throat in my hands and I almost killed her, she has the bruises to prove it.

"Do you know who Effy's called for help?" I shake my head.

"No, but there's only a few people I can think of and if they can't help then no one can." I put my head into my hands and cover my face.

"Naomi. Naomi, look at me." I reluctantly lift my head out of my hands and look at her.

"That was not you, none of this is your fault so stop thinking that it is."

"It is my fault though, I knew that this could happen, I knew-" Emily puts her hand out and puts a finger on my lip to stop me from talking anymore.

"Stop. Nothing that has happened or will happen will be your fault. I knew what I was getting into. I wouldn't have done this if I didn't think you were worth it, so stop blaming yourself because I would take all the risks in the world to be with you." I kiss her gently, finally able to do so without feeling totally guilty.

"How did you know it wasn't me?"

"It was your eyes. I've seen a lot of things in them, but I've never for a second seen nothing. It was like your light was off, like no one was home. They were empty and I just knew that something was wrong and that it wasn't you."

"How did I get so lucky? I don't know what I would do if I hadn't found you."

"I am pretty spectacular." Emily jokes and I smack her lightly on the shoulder before pulling her closer to me. I look her in the eye, both of our smiles fading, sensing the serious mood that has quickly filled the room.

"Emily, there's something I've been wanting to tell you for a while now." She nods at me, telling me to continue.

"I… Emily, I lov-" Before I can finish what I'm trying to say, my mom burst through the front door, swearing about some tosser at the store and yelling my name.

"Naomi!? Are you home dear?" She comes into the living room, breaking my chance to tell Emily how I feel about her.

"Emily! I didn't know you were here. Oh my, what happened to your neck?" Emily brings her hand to her neck and blushes a bit.

"Oh nothing really, just a bit of a fight with Katie is all."

"Very aggressive of her, going for the neck I mean."

"Yeah well an angry Katie is nothing to mess with." I snort, knowing that that is all to true. I shoot Emily a thankful look, she knew that I wouldn't be able to tell my mother what really happened. It would only worry her more than was necessary.

"Well are you two going to help me with dinner or are you just going to sit there and stare into each other's eyes all night."

"Mum!"

"What dear, it's the truth. If you two aren't staring longingly at each other, you're busy screwing each other's brains out."

"MUM!" I feel my cheeks turn red and hear Emily chuckle next to me.

"Oi you! Don't encourage her, she'll never stop then."

"Come on you, let's go help your mum with supper." Emily pulls me off the couch and I'm helpless to resist her.

Dinner goes by without a hitch, with only a few embarrassing stories from my mum, and Emily and I spend the rest of the night curled up in bed together just enjoying being with each other. We quickly get sleepy, the events of today finally catching up to us. We lie on the bed, with me being the little spoon for a change and Emily the big spoon. Before I fall asleep I hear Emily say quietly into my ear.

"You know what you were going to say before? I feel the same way." She kisses the side of my neck and I squeeze her hand, letting her know that I heard her. We fall asleep in each other's arms, thinking of what's to come the next day.

We all gather in the library the next day, waiting for Effy to come back from the airport where she picked up whoever it is that could help me. I sit on the edge of the table with Emily in my arms, almost mirroring the position of the previous day. I kiss the side of her head, just because I can. She turns to me and smiles and squeezes my hand, knowing that I'm thinking of the events of the previous day.

"Oh, she's here." I look towards the door and don't see anything. I look around the room and see that everyone else is just as confused.

"Giles, no one is there." He smiles.

"She's here trust me. I can feel her."

"Feel her? Giles what are you talking about?"

"You'll know when you see her Naomi." I look to the door and see Effy come in first smiling to herself, closely followed by our guest. Someone I hadn't thought that I see in a very long time and now that I know who it is I know what Giles meant.

"Willow!" I jump off the table and walk to her with my arms wide open and pull her into a big hug. We pull away and smile at each other.

"It's good to see you Naomi, though I wish it was under better circumstances."

"Me to but you know the life Willow." She laughs.

"Oh yes, I do." She looks to the rest of the room and gives them all hugs, giving Giles and extra-long one. Willow and Giles have a relationship similar to Effy and his; he's a very special man. Willow stops and looks at Katie and Emily questioningly, never having met them before. I grab Emily's hand.

"Willow, I'd like you to meet Emily, my girlfriend and her sister Katie."

"So these are the girls I've heard so much about? Buffy and Faith are going to be so mad that they didn't get to meet you. I've been telling them for a while that Effy's going to end up with a girl but they never believed me. Now look who's right!" We all laugh with her.

"I'm still a bit confused though, what did you mean that you could feel her Giles?" Emily asks and Effy answers.

"She's a witch Emily. A very powerful one, actually the most powerful one in the world. She and I have both had a bit of a run in with dark magic and Giles is the one who brought us back. He can sense her because she's so powerful and Giles dabbled with a bit of magic himself back in the day. But don't worry, Willow won't hurt a fly nowadays." I snort a bit at that.

"That's not totally true. I seem to remember a particularly annoying fly that got the receiving end of a fireball during my last visit."

"Well he was asking for it. He was a tricky fly!" I laugh at her and shake my head.

"As much fun as this is, we should probably get down to it. I'm sure Willow is tired coming straight from the airport." We all nod in agreement.

"Alright, so basically what I'm going to do is project someone else's consciousness into the room and then into your head. Because you can't remember what happened that night, connecting someone else to your memories will allow them to see everything. Giles and I already talked about this and decided that it will be him."

"Okay, makes sense. That way even if I block out the memory subconsciously than he'll be able to see it and remember it."

"Exactly."

"But what makes it so that Giles' consciousness will go into my head and memories and not anyone else's?"

"It'll only go into yours because I've tweaked this spell so that it will only go to the slayer in the room, which is you."

"Genius willow!"

"Yeah, it is." She smiles proudly at herself. This entire time we were talking Giles was setting up incense and preparing the room for the spell. Willow makes me sit down, not sure if this will make me dizzy at all. We all sit around the table as Willow starts to chant and add certain things to her bowl. I see a flash and look over at Giles and see that his eyes are glowing bright fluorescent green. I look at Willow and see that he eyes have glazed over, clearly in another world now. I prepare myself for the feeling of having someone come into my consciousness but I don't feel anything and become even more perplexed when I see Effy's mouth practically fall to the floor. Before I can question her I see Giles and Willow snap back into themselves. I see Giles jump from his chair and storm over to Emily.

"How long?! How long have you known this!?" Giles yells at her. I stand up and go to get in front of Giles but Effy grabs my arm and stops me.

"You're going to want to hear this Noams."

"Giles, what the hell are you doing?!" I yell at him but he ignores me.

"How long have you known?"

"Giles, leave her alone she clearly doesn't know what you're talking about." I say, trying to defend Emily from whatever Giles is yelling at her about.

"I don't know." Emily says quietly and it causes me to stop my actions, confused as to what they're talking about.

"How long have you known something was different?" Giles continues.

"A bit. I've known for a bit… but I didn't know what to do."

"Please Giles, this is Emily we're talking about. Perfectly normal Emily. She freaked out when we told her about me remember?"

"I don't understand." I say to Effy, pleading with my eyes to tell me what's going on but Willow answers instead.

"Remember Naomi, the spell was made to go into the slayer in the room? It must have gone into her because she was sitting closer to me, that's why it didn't go into you. Giles must have seen something that could back this up."

"That's absurd; the spell obviously just didn't work." I say, not believing what Willow is suggesting.

"Naomi, I saw it mate. Her eyes wen' green just like Giles did. She's tellin' the truth." Cook says and I shake my head, trying to make this nightmare end.

"How long have you known that you are a slayer?" Giles asks Emily.

"I wasn't sure…" My head snaps towards her stopping me in my tracks. I walk over to them slowly, thinking that if I walk too quickly I might faint.

"What are you saying Giles?" I ask him calmly, afraid of losing it if I don't. Every muscle in my body is tense and ready to help me flee from this as soon as I hear the truth. Giles finally turns to me, sadness in his eyes.

"Naomi, she's a slayer." I look to Emily and see that she won't look me in the eye.

"Emily… Look at me." She does so but I can see the tears in her eyes and I know it's true but I have to hear her say it.

"Naoms, I swear I didn't know. I thought maybe, maybe it could be that but I never thought… that's why I was watching you on patrols and taking pictures and you almost saw me one time I forgot to turn the flash off. I didn't know what to say to you, I had to know for sure. It just started to happen one day and then I pushed Anne really far and I didn't know how-"

I help my hand up, making her stop talking.

"Anne!? This has been going on since Anne?!" She looks sheepish.

"It's… it's been happening since before Anne." I felt like someone had just punched me in the gut and knocked my soul out of my body. I laughed simply because there was nothing else for me to do.

"So you didn't think that maybe just fucking maybe you should have told me after I told you about me!? That maybe I just put myself out there for you, opening up to you, trusting you not to stab me in the back and that's exactly what you fucking did!"

"Naomi, no" She stood up and went to reach for my hands.

"Don't you fucking touch me." I could feel myself starting to collapse and losing all control over my emotions.

"Don't you ever fucking touch me again. Do you have any idea what I would have done for you? I let you in, I let you inside of all of me and you set a fucking bomb, ticking away every time we talked and now it's fucking exploding. I went against every instinct that I had with you! Every single one of them because I trusted you." My voice cracked and I could feel the tears threatening to fall. I fought them back knowing that once is start I'll never stop.

"You took my heart and you threw it into a blender. We were special." A few tears fell down my cheeks and I wipe them away quickly. Turning away from them and walking away but I couldn't get far because Emily grabbed my hand to try and stop me.

"Wait Naomi, let me explain please." I turn on her, rage boiling to the brim.

"Let you explain?! You're having a fucking laugh! YOU'VE HAD MONTHS TO EXPLAIN! How many times did you sit there and cackle to yourself knowing that I was letting you know everything there is to know about me and the entire fucking time you never even showed an inkling of wanting to tell me anything. Not once! It must have been really fun for you hun. Kick around Naomi for a bit, destroy her fucking life for a laugh. And to think that I thought I lov…" I shake my head, tears falling down my cheeks freely now.

"You know I always thought I would have to protect you from the world, that I needed to keep you safe. Who knew that I had it so backwards? How did you do this to me? How stupid could I have been?" I put my head into my hands and wipe away the tears.

"Babe please…" I can hear the tears in Emily's voice and it kills me that I still care even after she just ripped my heart out. I shake my head at her.

"People always fuck you up." I put my mask on and give her the coldest look that I can manage and I see her visibly flinch. "Have a nice life Emily." I turn and walk out of the library and somehow manage to make my way to my house and room where I quickly collapse onto my bed.

As soon as I sit down I feel everything hit me at once. I can't believe that I didn't see this coming. This is why you don't let people in Naomi. I feel the betrayal and most annoyingly, the love that I feel for Emily hit me square in the chest. It feels like I can't breathe, like my entire world is crashing down around me. Emily was my axis, she kept me in balance and now the world is spinning out of control. How could she do this to me?! I feel the tears come to my eyes again and let them fall. She betrayed me, she lied to me, she let me make a fool out of myself and did nothing the entire time. She destroyed me. Wrecking sobs hit me full force and it takes everything in me to keep myself breathing. I must cry for hours, so long that I eventually stop feeling anything and go a bit numb. I find a bottle of Vodka on the floor and quickly open its contents into my mouth. Relishing the burn in my throat, glad to feel something at least. The rest of the night is spent looking at the bottom of various bottles and I quickly pass out, tears in my eyes and Emily's name on my mouth.

Reviews? Comments? Anyone else see S.H.I.E.L.D.?!

If anyone was wondering, my friend is out of the hospital we had to force him to go in and it has been one of the hardest week and a half of my life. He's doing a little better but not much so the next update may tomorrow or next Sunday or even Thursday, I'm not really sure. It all depends on how much work I can catch up on because I'm still behind. I just want to thank you guys for being so understanding once again! 3