Crossing Wires
by Living Dead Girl
Rating: R

Disclaimer: Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, etc own all the characters, I’m just playing around with them.
Spoilers: Set a while after season 5, 5th in the Here I Am series.
Author's Notes: Okay this one has been really hard to write, so if it’s a bit crap, I’m sorry. “” depicts speech, [ ] depicts thought, ** depicts speech from a phone.
Feedback: Yes please!!!

The girls were kissing, soft at first but growing more passionate. Faith couldn’t believe it, Buffy didn’t slap her! Buffy was kissing her back, and enjoying it as far as Faith could tell. The brunette was tempted to stop and pinch herself, she wanted to make sure she wasn’t dreaming. But this was better than any dream she had. [Shit! What if this is just some drunken thing…and B’s all grossed out tomorrow…fuck it! I’m drunk too.]

Faith put her hands on the smaller slayer’s waist under her top, trying to subtly move her way up. As Buffy grabbed the other girl’s ass, Faith recognised a familiar tune.

[Shit!] Buffy pulled away. “Sorry, that’s my mobile.”

Both girls sat up, the blonde grabbed her bag and fumbled about for her phone.

“Hello?” She said sounding agitated.

*Hey Buff.*

“Xander!”

*Hey.*

“You said that. Why are you calling? This better be good!”

*Why? What are you doing?*

“Nothing! Just…just sleeping.”

*I just called your house, you didn’t answer.*

“Yeah I’m at Faith’s, I just fell asleep.”

*Oh don’t tell me you’ve already become best buds!* He said deliberately sounding annoyed.

“No, we were just…what did you want?”

*Listen, I don’t want you to think that I give a crap about Faith, cos frankly I don’t! I don’t even know why I’m telling you this, well maybe cos…*

“Xander! What? Tell me what?”

*Willow was really pissed earlier. Anya and I met her in The Bronze and she left early after muttering some stuff about a spell…saying she wanted to reverse the one she did on Angel.*

“What? What do you mean?”

*As in taking away someone’s soul instead of restoring it!*

“What? Why? I don’t understand.”

*Ok, I’ll spell it out for you brainiac…she wants to turn Faith bad so you’ll kick her ass once and for all.*

“That’s awful! How could she?”

*I can understand what she’s doing, and usually I’d be all up for it, but…*

“Xander.”

*Yeah?*

“Thank you.”

*Yeah well, I’m doing this for you, not her!*

“I know. Any idea where Will is?”

*Not really. You could try her apartment. Oh and try to sober up a bit first.*

“How’d you…whatever, yeah, I gotta go, thanks.”

- click -

Buffy turned to face Faith.

“You have a mobile?”

“Yeah, comes in handy.”

“Ok, but the bigger and much more important issue to address here is…your ringtone is Heart of the Ocean?”

“Well it was already on it, and I just haven’t got round to changing it.”

Faith shot her a look of disbelief.

“Ok, and well maybe I also think it’s sorta pretty.”

The brunette sniggered. “You need help!”

Buffy blushed. “Shut up!” She paused and put on her serious face again. “Listen, I gotta go.”

“Everything ok?”

“Um yeah. Just some vamp problem.” She lied, thinking it’d be best not to tell Faith why she really had to go.

“Want some help?”

“No! I better go alone, it’s just that…um…with the gang…”

“I get it!” Faith cut her off!

“I mean I wa…”

“I get it B! Just go!” The brunette turned away. [She can’t lie for shit! It’s her with the problem, not just the gang, if she wanted me there she’d tell me to come anyway.]

“We’ll talk later.”

“Whatever!”

Buffy sighed, she wanted to know what Faith was so annoyed about. [Since when did she start caring about what the gang thought of her?] The blonde wanted to stay and talk, but she probably had very little time. She had to find Willow, so she headed out the door and started running to the witch’s apartment.

*****

Faith lay back against the headboard feeling rejected. [Ok, well maybe I was a bit hasty in thinking that it would be all that time til the morning before she got grossed out and ran! Fuck, she couldn’t get outta here fast enough!]

She sat for a few minutes, just staring into space shaking her head. Suddenly, she jumped of the bed. “Fuck this!” She grabbed her jacket and bolted out the door.

*****

“I haven’t seen her, I…I thought she was still at The Bronze, I’m just home from work.”

Buffy was pacing around Willow and Tara’a apartment. “Is there anywhere she could be? Is there any, I don’t know…spelly stuff missing?”

Tara frowned. “What’s going on Buffy?”

“It’s a long story. I need to find her, is there anywhere she would go to cast a spell?”

“Usually here!” The witch paused. “There’s a few other places around the town.”

“Take me to them now!” The slayer turned to leave.

Tara grabbed the blonde’s arm, her face pleading with Buffy. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“We’ve no time, I’ll explain on the way.”

*****

“Are you sure there’s nowhere else?”

The girls had checked all over Sunnydale, but with no sign of Willow.

“That’s all of the places that we’ve cast spells before. Unless there’s somewhere she hasn’t told me about.”

Buffy detected a bit of resentment in Tara’s last statement. “We have to find her.” The slayer sat in the ground and sighed. She was deep in thought for a moment, then she abruptly stood up. “It’s getting late, we can’t sit around all night!”

“I…I wasn’t sit…”

“Oh my God! What if she’s already done it? What if Faith’s changed? Everything’s messed up.” She held her head in her hands. “I can’t do this again!”

Tara put her hand on Buffy’s shoulder. “Are you sure that Willow is going to do this? She’s not some demon, she’s Willow! It was probably just talk.”

“Yeah, yeah you’re right.”

“And…if the worst comes to the worst, I can reverse the spell.”

“Yeah, but in the meantime Faith could be hurting someone…or worse.” Buffy turned to face Tara. “Wait a minute, you’re not actually sure that Willow wouldn’t do this are you?”

Tara shrugged and started to speak hesitantly. “It’s just that, s…she’s been doing some crazy stuff lately and trying to hide things from me. I…I shouldn’t even be saying this to you, you’re her best friend.”

“Don’t worry. I don’t mind, you can talk to me. I won’t run and tell her!”

“Thanks…but that’s not what I mea…”

“I know. C’mon, let’s keep looking.”

The girls started walking. Buffy was really tense, any slight sound and she turned round like a shot.

Tara couldn’t help but notice it. “You care about her a lot.”

“Willow? Well yeah, we’ve been friends for years.”

“I…I meant Faith.”

The slayer paused. “We’ve been through a lot.” Buffy thought about what happened earlier that night. She wanted to talk about it to somebody, but wasn’t sure that Tara would be the best person. “I wanna be friends again…though I’m afraid I might get hung for saying so. Some people haven’t been so supportive in my decision to give her a chance.”

“You mean Xander and Willow.”

“Yep! And I haven’t even told Dawn yet!”

“Well if it means anything, I trust your decision. You wouldn’t put us in danger, look at the number of times you’ve saved our lives, saved the world!”

The small blonde smiled. “Thanks, that means a lot.”

They were approaching the park, Buffy could see a figure sitting on a swing.

“Willow.” The slayer said under her breath before running over to her, Tara following a few steps behind.

Willow heard the two approaching and looked up. “Buffy, Tara, what’s wrong?”

Buffy grabbed the redhead by the shoulders and crouched down to face her. “Willow! What have you done?”

“What?” She replied looking quite confused.

“The spell! The spell!” The slayer was now shaking her.

“What spell?” Willow asked, still confused, looking back and forth from Tara to Buffy trying to make sense of it.

“Faith! The soul thing!” The blonde calmed herself. “Xander called me, you were talking about it in The Bronze, then you stormed out.”

“What? That? No!”

“Willow, are you lying to me?”

The witch’s face dropped, obviously hurt that her friend would think that badly of her. “No.” She said in a soft voice.

Buffy suddenly felt racked with guilt.

“I was just angry, I came out here to cool off. I wasn’t serious…well ok I was sorta serious, but I wouldn’t do that! I don’t even know if it can be done!”

Buffy let out a huge sigh of relief that she had been holding in since the phone call. Although a small part of her was also annoyed that she ran out and left Faith for nothing. “Will, I’m really sorry.”

“Yeah it’s ok, I can see your point, I have gone and done stuff without tellin’ ya in the past, but this is different.”

“I know.” The slayer replied still feeling a bit ashamed.

“Xander called you? I always knew he was nuthin’ but a snitch!” The redhead giggled, trying to lighten the mood.

The other girls laughed half-heartedly. The three of them stood up and started walking.

Willow looked at Tara. “Sorry for worrying you.” She turned to face Buffy. “But if psycho starts killin’ people again, don’t come runnin’ after me thinkin’ it’s some spell I’ve done, that’s just Faith bein’ Faith.”

“Willow!” Tara objected.

“Don’t start this now, it’s been a long day. I gotta get some sleep. Will you two be ok walking home?”

The witches nodded.

“Ok, see you tomorrow.” The slayer started walking.

*****

Buffy had her ear pressed against Faith’s motel room door. She had decided to go round and talk to her, maybe explain what really happened, and hopefully pick up where they left off. But there was no answer, and there was no sound from inside, so she decided that Faith wasn’t just avoiding her again, she was definitely not there.

[Where is she? What’s she doing?] Buffy’s head was suddenly filled with anxiety about what happened between them.

She shook herself. [Really sleepy now, I’ll think and deal tomorrow.]

The blonde slayer turned and made her way home.

...to be continued...