"Honey, do you want a cup of tea or something? Maybe you should go home with me and take a shower, you look a mess..."-Joyce said and kissed her daughter's forehead gently.
"I'm ok, mom... You can go home, I'm staying here with Faith..."-Buffy said and wiped the tears away with her sleeve. She was still feeling a bit sick and dizzy from teleporting, but she didn't want her mom to worry more than it was necessary. She was a strong girl, a bit of barfy feelings won't kill her.
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay?"-Joyce asked, very worried about Buffy. She really didn't look ok. Her daughter was a very stubborn girl, though, and Joyce knew no power on Earth would drag her away from Faith, so she when Buffy nodded weakly, she kissed her again and told her to call if she needed anything.
"Do me a favor, mom. Tell Willow and Xander to come here. They're gonna keep me busy. You just don't worry about anything... Ok?"
Buffy smiled a little sad smile, trying to look stronger than she felt and Joyce hugged her tightly. Buffy returned a hug, feeling safe in her mother's embrace. She wished she was a little girl again, safe and protected from the world and all the evil in it. For three years she fought evil and it just kept coming, even worse than before. This time it hurt her more than ever. She'd lost people before, Jenny Calendar's death hit her pretty hard, killing Angel shattered her soul in little pieces, and she really didn't think it could get any worse than that. It just did.
Faith made her world a bit less lonely and confusing. It was so easy to be with her, it made her feel protected and as content as she could possibly be, in every way. She moved away from Joyce, slowly, and said:
"Go home, mom... I'll be back when I'm sure Faith is ok."
"Ok, sweetheart. See you later. Love you."
"Love you too, mom."-Buffy said and sat down in the waiting room. They took Faith away less than fifteen minutes ago, and it felt like hours.
Willow was sitting on her bed, trying to focus on learning for Math exam, but her thoughts kept wandering off to Buffy and Faith. She just hoped her spell had worked, and since she hadn't heard from her best friend she was really nervous and worried.
Joyce called the Rosenberg house as soon as she got home.
"Hello?"-Sheila, Willow's mom answered the phone.
"Hello, Sheila. It's Joyce Summers. Is Willow at home?"
"Uh, I'm not sure, haven't seen her today..."-Joyce was stunned by the vague answer, she couldn't believe a woman didn't know where her teenage daughter was. What kind of a parent was that woman?
"Can you check, please? I need to talk to her.."
"What did she do? Has she been doing magic again?"-Sheila said, annoyance in her voice.
"Willow is a remarkable young woman, you should be proud of her. She didn't do anything, I just need to talk to her for a minute."-Joyce couldn't help saying it in a very angry tone, which was not like her at all.
"Wait for a minute, I'll go check if she's in her room."
"Thank you!"-Joyce said, thinking: At least you'll know if your daughter's home or not. Stupid goat.
"Willow, Mrs Summers is on the phone."-Sheila said, and Willow ran out of her bedroom, hoping everything was ok. She couldn't remember Joyce ever calling for her.
"Jo... Mrs Summers! Is everything ok?"
"Oh, Willow... Buffy is at the hospital with Faith... Faith's been taken to surgery and Buffy wanted me to go home, but she wants you and Xander there with her. She's not feeling so good..."
"I'll go to Xander now, we'll be there as soon as we can, Mrs Summers. Thank you for calling."
"You're welcome, sweetie. Bye."
Xander wasn't home when Willow got to his place, and she totally forgot to call Oz, which made her feel bad. She assumed Xander was busy with Cordelia, but hoped that his dad would give him a message. Of course, if he's not too busy watching the twenty something old neighbor who was sunbathing in a bikini. Willow couldn't help noticing that the specific female neighbor looked really hot.
It was the first time Willow noticed that she noticed a female that was really worth noticing... Well, one would have to be pretty much blind not to notice such a hot girl. Her long red, a bit curly hair was falling freely down her shoulders, her perfectly round breasts, not too big, but not too small... Well, bigger than mine!-Willow thought. and god, those long legs...
Who is that girl?
Willow was sure she would have noticed her at school. At that moment, she focused on walking as fast as possible to get to Buffy.
Faith wasn't her favorite person in the world, but Willow started liking her. She was obviously doing something right because Buffy seemed to be really happy.
Buffy was far from happy at that moment, she couldn't stand still, her palms sweaty and cold, heart beating like a drum and her head pounding... She was literally worried sick.
Just when she thought she couldn't possibly feel any worse, she heard a familiar voice say:
"Miss Summers. I heard your girlfriend got hurt. How unfortunate."-Mayor Wilkins said, flashing one of his famous smiles. His eyes looked so cold, though, so the smile on his face looked a bit creepy.
"What are you doing here?"-Buffy stood up and asked, staring into his eyes like she was defying him to do something wrong.
"My men never came back from their trip to El Salvador and for some reason I think you and your girlfriend had something to do with it. It would be a shame if I had to kill one or both of you since you're both so young and pretty..."-he said, still smiling, and touched Buffy's hair gently, like a father would touch his daughter's hair.
She moved his hand away, gripped his wrist and said: "It would be a shame if I had to break your wrist... Listen, stay away from me and Faith or I swear you'll regret it."
"Aren't you a spunky girl?"
"Aren't you a disgusting bastard who thinks he'll destroy Sunnydale and the world? Over my dead body... The kind that won't be brought back to life like a few years ago."-Buffy shot back, anger boiling inside of her.
If it hadn't been for this bastard's evil schemes Faith would have been fine.
Mayor couldn't afford to be in the centre of attention now that he was so close to the Ascension, so he didn't hurt Buffy in any way. He just threatened:
"I'll be so pleased when I snap that fragile neck of yours and feed you to my vampire followers."
"I'll be so pleased when I kick your ass and erase that stupid grin off of your face. Dumbass."-Buffy narrowed her eyes and frowned at the annoying wannabe demon.
"See you soon, cutie."-he said and walked away, almost bumping into Willow who just ran through the hospital door, worried about her best friend.
"Oops."-she said, hoping that the Mayor didn't hurt or upset Buffy in any way.
"Willow! Thank you for coming! Where is Xander?"-Buffy hugged her best friend, trying to blink away the tears that blurred her vision again.
"He wasn't home when I stopped by. Are you ok, sweetie? You don't look so good."
"I'm ok, don't worry. I'm even better now that you're here. You saved Faith's life... If you hadn't done that spell... Oh, Wills!"-Buffy hugged her friend tightly again and actually burst into tears on her shoulder. She was so thankful for helping her get to Faith and for coming to the hospital, it touched her and made her walls crumble and soon she shook with tears in Willow's arms. She said she was ok, but she really really wasn't.
"Oh, sweetie... It's gonna be ok... It's gonna be ok..."