No Perfect World: Snow
by Net Girl
Rating: NC-17
Disclaimer: Willow and Tara and all the others are all property of Joss
Whedon, Mutant Enemy, the WB (soon to be UPN), the actors, and the other
creators. Nick is mine, I created him.
Spoilers and Author's Notes: I guess everything including season 5. Except once
again… no Riley. Sorry I just hate the character, not the actor; coz Marc Blucas is
a great actor. And Joyce isn’t dead, Dawn is there and again NO KEY stuff.
Extra Note: If you haven’t read the first 4 parts I suggest that you do,
Part 1: Breaking Chains and Part 2: Darkest Side Of Life, Part 3: The Devil
You Know, Part 4: Against All Odds. (Begins ‘the morning after’ Dawn’s birthday…)
Dedication: To Crystal Moonfall: Always taking time to comment on my stories
and giving me dedication in his… And to Stacy from who I get big feedback
e-mails from. And to Kimberly for writing our story and always saying kind
things about mine. And last but definitely not least; Wolfie/CJ, Jen’fr,
Rebecca and Lea for their help, support and kind words.
Special Dedication: Phillip, thanks for the info… you know what I mean ;-)
Feedback: I’m an addict :-)
Faith was already awake, she had been awake since 5 in the morning. She had spent the next hour watching Buffy sleep with a peaceful and calm look on her face. Despite the previous 2 times they had sex it seemed like it was getting better every time. They actually managed to stay silent; they had to stay silent because if they hadn’t been there would have been 2 embarrassed witches and 2 embarrassed teenagers in the mansion.
Now it was 6 in the morning, Faith decided to get out of bed, and make some tea for herself. She stepped out of bed, grabbed a t-shirt and some shorts and put them on. Faith kissed Buffy on her forehead before walking out of the room. She decided to check on the others and see if they were still asleep, which they probably were, she silently opened the door to Willow and Tara’s room, ‘Ok… way too much information there.’ Faith thought when she saw the two witches.
Then she walked to Dawn and Nick’s room and opened the door. She couldn’t help it but smile when she saw them lying in the bed. They were lying with their faces towards the door, Nick was protectively holding Dawn in his arms and the girl had a more than peaceful look on her face, but that wasn’t all, there was also joy and total bliss written all over it. Faith closed the door and walked downstairs to the kitchen.
Faith had been sitting downstairs for an hour or so and she was falling asleep again on her chair. When she was about to doze off someone jumped in her lap, “Heya.”
“You’re early kiddo.”
“I know,” Dawn replied. “Couldn’t sleep anymore.”
“Why not?” Faith questioned. “You were lying pretty comfortable an hour ago.”
“You saw me!”
“I went to check on you to see if you were alright, and by the looks of it Nick held you pretty protectively,” Dawn did nothing but smile and received a hug from Faith, “You want some breakfast?”
“You gonna cook?”
“I learned a few things.”
“I’ll give it a try.” Dawn replied smiling.
Faith was sitting with her back towards the door listening to Dawn babble about everything and nothing. Suddenly she stopped talking mid sentence and stared at something, “Dawn?”
“Uh huh,” was all the youngster said.
“Uh huh… is that all you can say?”
“Uh huh,” came again from Dawn.
Faith turned around in her chair, then she saw what Dawn saw. Nick was coming downstairs with only his jeans and something on his feet, no t-shirt on, and now she also knew the reason Dawn was looking like that. “You said he was muscular… you never said he was THAT muscular.”
“I don’t brag…” Dawn simply said with a smirk.
“Good morning Faith.”
“Good morning.”
“Good morning babe,” Nick said. He leaned in to give Dawn a small but passionate kiss.
“Hey! No kissing my sister at the breakfast table!” Buffy said walking down the stairs. The blonde slayer smiled when the two teenagers broke apart blushing. “Ok… now THAT was fun.”
“Give ‘em a break B.”
“Oh come on Faith,” Buffy said pouting. “You have to admit that was fun!”
“Yeah true… but still, give ‘em a break.”
“Party pooper,” Buffy said and continued to pout.
“You’re the one that’s pouting?” Faith questioned. She turned to Dawn and Nick. “She’s pouting… I didn’t even get a kiss and she’s pouting?”
“Life is hard.” Nick stated.
“Fine… I’ll give you a kiss.” Buffy said. She leaned in and gave Faith a quick peck on her cheek.
She turned around and started walking away when Faith grabbed her arm and pulled her back. “That wasn’t a kiss,” Faith stated. “This is a kiss.” With that she cupped Buffy’s chin and kissed her passionately, after a few seconds she broke the kiss leaving a surprised Buffy behind. “See… I told you that was a kiss.” Nick and Dawn just started laughing at the face Buffy was making. “Breakfast?” Faith asked innocently, which made the two teenagers laugh more.
** Some Apartment in Sunnydale **
“You told me it was a lot, but you didn’t tell me it was THAT much.” The young woman said.
“Don’t complain, look at what you got,” the young man replied. “You got 3000 dollars in your hands.”
“I know,” the woman replied.
The guy stepped in front of the woman and looked her in the eye. “You have the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen, you know that?” He said cupping her chin with his right hand. His other hand went around her waist pulling the blue eyed woman closer. “The most beautiful blue eyes,” the woman smiled, looking in his eyes, she knew he meant it and kissed him hungrily.
** Mansion **
Willow snuggled closer as she felt Tara’s arm wrap around her tighter. They had woken up to find themselves lying in one of the rooms in the mansion, it was still night and it seemed that the others had gone to bed too. The second they looked in each other’s eyes they passionately kissed each other, a passionate kiss that had turned in to hunger as they explored each other’s bodies.
“Hmm, good morning.”
“Good morning sweetie,” Tara mumbled back. Then she shot up straight in bed. “Nobody saw us right?” She questioned. “Nobody came in here right… to check on us?”
“No I don’t think so, calm down.”
“Willow… we made love last night. We are both naked and the covers are only lying up to our stomachs.”
“That could be a problem,” Willow said as she looked at herself and then at Tara. “I don’t think anyone saw us Tara.”
“Yeah… you’re probably right.”
“Come on let’s get some breakfast.” Both girls put on their pj’s and walked downstairs to find 2 slayers and 2 teenagers eating their breakfast, “Good morning.” Willow greeted.
“Hey Wills, sleep well?” Buffy asked.
“Yeah Red, Tara… sleep well?” Faith said winking. She started laughing when both witches turned bright red and just slumped on a chair.
“Did I miss something?”
“No you didn’t B,” Faith said still laughing.
** Mansion; Later That Day **
Faith was leaning her head on Buffy’s chest listening to the blondes heartbeat. After dinner the two slayers went upstairs for some alone time, they ended up just lying on the bed enjoying the other’s breathing. After ten minutes Faith had moved from laying next to Buffy, to half on top of Buffy, her head resting on Buffy’s chest.
The sound of Buffy’s heartbeat soothed her, for some reason it calmed her down more than anything else. Not even hearing Buffy’s voice could calm her down at some point, then she needed the heartbeat. Faith didn’t know why it was like that, she just knew that it did, and that she didn’t mind being this close to Buffy… she didn’t mind it at all.
“She was glowing wasn’t she?” Buffy asked.
“Dawn?” Faith said already realizing Buffy was talking about Dawn. “Yeah she was,” Faith stated.
“You think she’ll tell us that she did?”
“When she’s ready… maybe.” Faith said.
Buffy was making lazy circles with her fingertips on Faith’s back and Faith was making lazy circles with her fingertips on Buffy’s collarbone. It wasn’t that much, just a touch, but it meant a lot to the both of them, just being able to touch each other, being able to hold the other and feeling so safe that they couldn’t even describe how good it felt.
Faith suddenly started laughing. “Faith?” Buffy questioned.
“I’m sorry B,” Faith said. “I was just thinking of that other reality and the other Faith, Buffy, Willow and Tara. When we were still there, Tara had already noticed that I was in love with you. I told her you wouldn’t love me back… then she whispered to herself ‘give it time’. She didn’t think I could hear it, but now look at where we are.”
“Okay so the girl knows people,” Buffy stated. “Aren’t you glad about this?”
“I’ve never been happier in my life,” Faith said looking in Buffy’s eyes.
“What are you thinking about?”
“This,” Faith said and kissed Buffy passionately. “You don’t mind do you?”
“Not at all,” Buffy replied. “Not at all,” she repeated, and kissed Faith.
** Some Apartment In Sunnydale **
“That was good,” the blue eyed woman said. “That was real good. Where’d you learn to do that Kevin?”
“Practise makes perfect Kerry.”
“So when is the stuff supposed to be on the streets?”
“As soon as it has been checked out by the main guy,” Kevin replied. “I’m gonna need you in two days for help again, they think this will be a big hit so a new shipment is already on the way.”
“More money?”
“If the kids like it… lots more money.”
“That sounds really good,” Kerry replied. She sat on top of him, straddling his hips. “That sounds real good.”
“Hmm well this *feels* really good,” Kevin placed his hands on her hips and sat up. “This feels really good,” he said again, before kissing her passionately.
** One Week Later; UC Sunnydale **
“Buffy! Wait up!”
“What is it Dawn?”
“Don’t have classes for the next three hours, lunch?”
“Sure,” Buffy replied. “We have to wait for Faith though, she’s handing in some assignment she had to finish last night.”
“Sure, Nick is meeting us in the cafeteria.”
“Where is he?”
“He was meeting with some of his friends, he said he would meet us there.”
** Just Outside The Campus **
“I said NO!”
“Come on Nick! Don’t be such a baby, it’s harmless.”
“Leave it, I said NO,” Nick replied. “Look guys, I gotta go. Dawn is waiting for me.”
“Oh I see… rather be with that bitch you call your girl, then with your friends.”
“At this point …” Nick said looking at the marihuana his ‘friend’ had. “… yes I would be rather with my girl than with you.”
His ‘friends’ looked at Nick as he walked away. “Don’t worry Nicky boy, I’ve got something new and much better for ya. You’ll have no idea what hit you.”
Nick looked back one more time shaking his head, he couldn’t believe that his ‘friends’ had offered him marihuana. They knew he was against that kind of stuff, he didn’t even drink, well okay, that wasn’t completely true. He did drink, but that was like only one or two beers and only if it was a party of a relative.
He would never drink when he was at a party of one of his friends, he would be the one to bring everyone home safely. “Hey babe,” Nick said as he walked into the cafeteria. He sat next to Dawn, giving her a quick peck on the cheek. “So Faith, how did the assignment go?”
“I handed it in.”
“Okay… not what I was going for, but okay.”
“She looked it over, she said she liked it,” Faith said. “I have to come back at the end of the day to get my grade.”
“And this was for what class?” Buffy questioned.
“History, paper about Civil War or something.” Faith replied.
“Oh the fun!” Buffy said sarcastically.
“Well… actually,” Faith begun. She got cut off by 3 guys talking to Nick.
“Nick… look, we’re sorry about earlier,” a blonde guy said. “We should have listened to you and not pressure you like that.”
“Forget it Mark,” Nick said a little angrily. He was trying to get them to walk away, he wasn’t much in to his so-called ‘friends’ after them calling Dawn a bitch.
“And I’m sorry about the comment I made,” the blonde said. “So… still friends?” he asked holding out his hand.
Nick took his hand. “Yeah sure,” he said. After the three guys walked away, Nick turned back to the others who were looking curiously at him. “It’s nothing, just a few words.”
“You sure?” Faith asked. “Coz I could go and beat them up…”
“No need,” Nick replied smiling. He was glad to have friends like Faith, ever since he and Dawn started dating, she was protective of him. Nick knew that Faith liked him immediately, and he was grateful for that, he really didn’t want to get in Faith’s way… the girl was really protective when it came to family and good friends.
“What you thinking Nicky boy?”
“Nothing Faith,” Nick replied. He was sure of a couple of things, he was never going to hurt Dawn physically or emotionally, he was going to cherish the friendship he found in Faith and he was *never* going to do drugs of any kind.
** Sunnydale Docks; that night **
“Mark get over here!” Kevin yelled. “What happened?”
“He didn’t take it, we offered him the marihuana, but he wouldn’t take it,” Mark replied. “You said something about a new product?”
“Yes,” Kevin replied. “Slip it in a drink, put it on his food, wherever you’d like to put it… he won’t notice a thing. Give it to him for a period of time and then… well you know.”
“Stop giving it to him… cold turkey?”
“Exactly,” Kevin said. “If you want to cause him pain that is.”
“Oh… I’d love to give him pain… him and his little bitch.”
“What did the kid ever do to you?”
“She took Nick away from us.”
“Don’t give the drugs to her though… you’d kill her instantly,” Kevin said. “Female hormones…” Kevin said shaking his head. “Do what you will with the girl… hit her, create an accident with her in it… do what you like.”
“Can I even…”
“Don’t even dare to finish that sentence!” Kevin screamed. He pushed Mark against the wall and pinned him to it placing his arm against Mark’s throat. “Don’t you dare have sex with her,” Kevin said. “If I find out you touched her like that… I’m personally going to kill you myself. We do a lot of things, but we don’t do rape… understood!”
“Yes sir,” Mark whimpered.
“Good, now help me get these crates down.”
** UC Sunnydale; Next Morning **
“Nick!” Mark yelled running up to him. “Here’s your drink.”
“I didn’t ask you to get me a drink.”
“Still apologising for yesterday I guess.”
“Thanks,” Nick said and took a sip from his drink.
He never saw the evil smirk forming on his friend’s face.
** Mansion **
Dawn was going to eat with Buffy, Faith and Nick at the mansion, and sleep in her own bed at the Summers home. Since Nick was living at the mansion, they had decided that Dawn could spend the school nights at the mansion because that way they could get faster to school, she would stay the weekends at the Summers home. Dawn didn’t consider this as a problem because this way she could spend more time with Nick.
She and Buffy were now sitting at the table, each doing there assignments for the next day. “Buffy?”
“Yes Dawn?”
“What was it like for you?”
Buffy looked at her sister puzzled. “What was what like for me?” She asked and took a sip from her drink.
“Your first time.”
Buffy spit our her drink and started coughing. “What?” She asked between coughs.
“What was your first time like… the first time you had sex.”
“Why?” Buffy asked narrowing her eyes.
“Curiosity,” Dawn replied. “Be honest. I’m your sister.”
“The very first time or the first time with Faith?”
“The very first time.”
“It was great,” Buffy simply answered. “Did you have something to tell me?” Buffy asked raising a brow.
“How did you…”
“It wasn’t that hard to miss,” Buffy said smiling. “You were glowing.”
“I was?”
“You were,” Buffy confirmed. “In fact… I’ve never seen you so happy in your life,” Buffy said. It was true, she never had seen her sister so happy until the morning after her birthday. Whatever it was that Nick had done … it left her sister glowing.
“I was happy before … not in that kind of way.”
“You were … but I’ve never seen you this happy,” Buffy said. “Was it really that good?”
“Buffy!”
“What?” Buffy asked innocently. “You asked me, now I’m asking you.”
Dawn looked down at the table for a few seconds before looking Buffy in the eye. “It was,” she said smiling. “Nick was … he was nice to me, gentle, kind … all that kind of stuff. He was good to me.”
“Good,” Buffy said.
Dawn just smiled as her mind travelled back to the night of her birthday.
Nick took Dawn’s hand and gently pulled her towards the bed, he sat down on it and patted the spot next to him for Dawn to sit on. After she sat down Nick cupped her chin and brought their faces together brushing their lips against each other. Nick let his tongue slide over Dawn’s bottom lip and smiled when she parted her lips.
They deepened the kiss and Nick gently moved Dawn to the center of the bed. Dawn was now laying on her back with Nick half on top of her. She broke the kiss when Nick started caressing her sides and brushing against her breasts. “I’ve never… slowly okay?”
Nick gently placed a kiss on Dawn’s lips before replying, “You set the pace… slowly… I promise…” He kissed her again, but this time more slowly and gentler letting Dawn set the pace. Dawn smiled through the kiss knowing he would indeed take it slow. She let her tongue slide over Nick’s lips and felt him part his, and their tongues met in a sensual dance.
Nick turned them both around, now he was lying on his back with Dawn completely on top of him. Deepening the kiss even more, Nick was making gentle strokes along Dawn’s sides, brushing his thumbs against the sides of her breasts. Dawn broke the kiss sitting up, she sat in his lap and took off her sweater revealing a black bra.
Nick sat up looking Dawn in the eye, he removed his own shirt revealing a muscular torso. Nick put his hands on Dawn’s sides slowly moving to her back to unclasp her bra, he leaned in to kiss Dawn again. He started placing butterfly kisses on Dawn’s jaw, moving down to her neck and collarbone. A few seconds later Dawn’s bra ended up somewhere in the room as did the rest of their clothing.
Nick laid Dawn on her back on the bed, he took out a condom and put it on. “You ready?” He asked his girlfriend. Dawn just nodded, Nick leaned in kissing Dawn passionately as he entered her carefully, afraid to hurt her. He didn’t move and looked at Dawn. “You okay?”
Dawn could only nod, a tear slid down her face, she couldn’t believe that he was being so careful with her. This wasn’t at all like the stories she had heard, this was much better than that. She looked him in the eye when he asked her if she was really okay, because of the tears that were sliding down her face. “Happiness,” she whispered, then nodded for him to continue.
Dawn brought his lips to her own as he gently started moving inside of her. After a few seconds of getting used to the feeling, she found herself moving her hips upward, meeting him. The passion between them increased with every movement, and they soon found themselves closer to the edge they were working towards.
“I love you,” those three little words were said by both of them at the same time, and it was all they needed to bring them over the edge.
“Dawn…” Nothing. “Dawn…” still nothing. “Dawn!”
“What?”
“Where did you go?” Buffy asked raising a brow.
“Nothing, just thinking.”
“You were glowing again,” Buffy said.
“Who’s glowing?”
“Your girlfriend is,” Buffy replied to Nick. “She’s been glowing like crazy.”
“Maybe she has a reason to glow,” Nick said winking at Buffy.
“I so did not want to hear that!”
“Didn’t want to hear what?” Faith asked walking in the room. She gave Buffy a quick kiss and grabbed herself a drink.
“Nothing,” Dawn quickly said. She so did not want to discuss it anymore than it already had been.
“Nick you okay?” Faith asked. “You look a little pale there.”
“Yeah I’m fine just a little bug or something.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah I’m fine Faith. Thanks for asking.”
** Three Days Later **
“Come on man!” Steven yelled at Mark. “Nick had enough, don’t give him that shit anymore.”
“No he hasn’t had enough,” Mark stated calmly. “You’re going to see him bouncing around at the end of the day.”
“And this is all because you want to have fun with his girl?”
“She would be MY girl if he hadn’t stepped in.”
“Don’t be such a fool. She wouldn’t even have been interested in you if you were the world’s best selling model.”
“That’s what you say.”
“That’s what I know,” Steven said. “I’ve seen the way she looks at Nick and I’ve seen the way she looks at you… disgust. She doesn’t like you man.”
“We’ll see about that.”
“Mark! Don’t talk like that,” Steven yelled. “Just leave them alone.”
“I’m not going to leave them alone,” Mark said. “I’m going to make him pay, and I’m going to make her mine.”
“Fine suit yourself, just don’t come knocking on my door if everything goes wrong.”
“Nothing will go wrong,” Mark said walking away.
‘Oh Man! This is so not happening,’ Steven thought to himself. ‘I’ve got to stop him.’ Steven had agreed to have a little fun with Nick, but he never wanted this, even if Nick never loosened up, he liked the guy. There was no way that Steven was going let Mark hurt Dawn.
Steven had found Mark near the same warehouse they had gotten the stuff from in the first place. He wanted to confront him, but he was afraid of him. Mark was a nice guy, but if you crossed him, he could scare the living daylights out of you. He had almost killed one of their friends before, and Mark had told him that he wasn’t afraid of going through with the killing.
“Mark!” Steven yelled. “Don’t do it man.”
“God! Here he comes again, whining Steven, give it a rest will you!”
“I’m not letting this rest,” Steven said walking up to his so-called friend. “Don’t do this, it will come back to haunt you.”
“I’m sure it will,” Mark said sarcastically. “Don’t get in my way Steven.”
“I *am* getting in your way, you can’t do this!”
“I *can* do this and I *will* do this and you are not getting in my way.”
“Just told you I was…” Steven said.
The next thing he knew Steven was pinned against the wall with Marks hands around his throat. “I told you, YOU. ARE. NOT. GETTING. IN. MY. WAY.”
“Let me go…” Steven said between breaths.
Mark wasn’t going to let go of Steven, the boy was in his way and he would do anything to keep him out of it, even if it meant killing him. He felt Steven struggle to get loose, but Mark knew he was stronger and taking advantage of it. Mark kept adding pressure on his throat until Steven blew out his last breath and went limp.
“Well done Mark,” a voice came from behind.
“Shut up Kevin,” Mark growled. “I just killed my best friend of 8 years…”
“You know it had to be done… you do want that Dawn you’re always talking about right?”
“You know that I do,” Mark replied. “Where’s the stuff?”
“Right here,” Kevin said handing Mark a small box. “You know what to do?”
“Yes I know the amount…” Mark replied. “Just a question though… what if I add a little more?”
“If you add a little more, he’ll be hyperactive… If you add a lot more… he’ll be dead.”
“No, we don’t want him dead,” Mark said. “We just want him to suffer. How long before I have to give him the ‘cold turkey’?”
“Give him the stuff for about a week,” Kevin replied. “He’ll be having signs of withdrawal in less than a day.”
“Good,” Mark replied. “Okay, so one week it is. Is this enough?” he asked holding up the small box.
“Yes, that’ll be enough for the week,” Kevin replied. “No contact after this week passed, you know that, don’t call, don’t look for me, no nothing… not until after the week… understood?”
“Yes of course… like always.”
“Like always,” Kevin confirmed. He looked at Steven's body. “I’ll take care of that,” he said and picked up the body. “Never talk about this,” Kevin said with a stern voice. He looked at Mark one more time before walking away into the night.
** 3 Days later; Mansion **
“Uhm Dawn… why is Nick working out like crazy?”
“To get a better body?” Dawn questioned. “I don’t know Faith. He’s been like this since this morning.”
Nick had been acting crazy ever since morning, jumpy, hyperactive and more of that. Now he had been working out for 2 hours non stop, not even the slayers could stand THAT much in two hours, running, weights and more. Dawn had already tried to stop him, but he just snapped at her to leave him alone.
“Well I gotta go, B is waiting for me at Giles’ and then we’ve got patrol,” Faith said. “Just try to leave him alone, I’ll talk to him later and I’ll ask what’s on his mind.”
“I can’t ask him?”
“He snapped at you earlier so I’m kinda afraid of what he’ll do.”
“He wouldn’t hurt me!” Dawn said a little surprised.
“I know kiddo, I’m worried okay… let me be worried.”
“Okay fine, go be worried on patrol then.”
“You got it,” Faith said winking. “Bye Nick!”
“Yeah.”
Faith raised a brow at that just ‘yeah’ comment, she left it alone, talking would come after patrol, if he wasn’t asleep that is. But at this rate Faith didn’t think he would be asleep anytime soon, by the looks of it he wasn’t even getting tired, “Later kiddo.” Dawn gave a small smile and watched the brunette slayer leave.
Dawn had been looking at Nick for the past 2 hours, watching him work out, watching his muscles work, watching his stomach, his arms… ‘Okay, not going there!’ Dawn thought and snapped out of those thoughts. “Nick why don’t you take a break?”
“Not tired yet.”
“You got to have a break sometime.”
“Not now!” Nick snapped.
“I’m saying you should take a break, catch your breath.”
“Don’t want to, don’t have to, don’t need to.”
“Just take a break, you can continue after that.”
“Leave me alone!” Nick suddenly screamed at Dawn. “Just leave me alone!” He said in the same loud tone.
“Nick?” Dawn questioned with a sad voice.
“Don’t!” He yelled back. Nick stood up from the floor. “I’m taking a shower,” he snapped walking upstairs.
‘What just happened?’ Dawn questioned to herself. Suddenly she felt very down, this was the first thing that even came close to an argument. She and Nick never fought about anything, before there would even be an argument the two would talk calmly about it.
Dawn walked up to the couch, she sat on it with her legs brought up to her chest. She knew the argument wasn’t that serious, but it still hit her hard because it was the first thing that came close to it. She buried her face in her knees and softly started sobbing.
Buffy and Faith were all over each other as they entered the mansion, kissing and touching each other. As they were making their way upstairs Faith noticed there was something wrong with the couch, there was someone on it, there wasn’t supposed to be someone on it at this hour. “B… cut it,” Faith said to Buffy, who was kissing the brunette’s neck.
“What’s wrong?”
“Your sister.”
“Huh?”
“She’s lying on the couch instead of her bed.”
Buffy looked at the couch, her sister was indeed lying on it, and not in her bed where she was supposed to lay in. “Where’s Nick?” The blonde asked.
“I don’t know B,” Faith replied. “You gonna carry her upstairs?”
“I would if that vamp hadn’t kicked me in the ribs that hard.” Buffy replied. Faith carefully lifted up Dawn from the couch, she noticed Dawn’s eyes were all red, and so did Buffy. “She’s been crying,” Buffy whispered.
“We’ll ask in the morning,” Faith whispered back. The brunette carried Dawn upstairs, she carefully put her in the bed and was surprised she didn’t find Nick there. She decided to leave it alone, leaving the room she took one last look at Dawn before going to her and Buffy’s room.
As soon as she stepped in the room, Faith felt the softest lips pressed against hers in a kiss. Faith put her arms around Buffy’s waist pulling her as close as she could possible get the blonde slayer. Buffy jumped up putting her legs around Faith’s waist as the brunette walked up to the bed, still kissing the blonde slayer.
Faith gently laid the two of them on the bed, with Buffy lying on top of her placing butterfly kisses on Buffy’s cheek, working her way to the blonde’s neck. Buffy placed one hand just above Faith’s butt and the other at the base of her neck, making small, lazy circles.
Nick had been in the bathroom for almost three hours, after his shower he suddenly threw up, he threw up almost every ten minutes for a half hour. He didn’t know why he was throwing up, he hadn’t eaten anything wrong, didn’t drink anything wrong, and you couldn’t possibly throw up THAT much from a work out.
All he knew at the moment was that his stomach and throat were hurting badly, his stomach wasn’t only hurting from vomiting, but it was also hurting because he snapped at Dawn for nothing. Nick was mentally beating himself up for yelling at Dawn like that, all she wanted was to help him, and he turned the offer down.
Nick took another shower, and brushed his teeth to get the smell off of him. He put on some boxers and walked to his and Dawn’s room, hoping she would still be awake, but probably not at this hour. As he opened the door his suspicions were right, Dawn was already asleep. When he looked a little closer he saw that her eyes were red and a little puffy, with no doubt in his mind, Nick knew he had made her cry.
He slipped under the cover trying not to wake the sleeping girl. He laid on his back, trying to figure out how to apologise to Dawn, after a few seconds he felt an arm slipping around his waist, and a head being placed on his chest. “I’m awake,” Dawn whispered.
“I didn’t mean to wake you,” Nick replied putting an arm around his girlfriend.
“I know,” Dawn replied.
“Why are you so forgiving?” Nick questioned. “I yelled, no … screamed at you and still … here you are,” Nick added.
“I don’t know,” Dawn replied kissing his chest.
“I made you cry,” Nick said with sadness filling his voice.
“We’ll talk about it in the morning okay…” Dawn said. “Let’s get some sleep,” Dawn gave him a small passionate kiss, she placed her head back on his chest and closed her eyes. Nick placed a kiss on the top of Dawn’s head and closed his eyes as well.
** UC Sunnydale **
Faith and Buffy were standing in line behind two other girls, who were known for spreading rumours about other people. Sometimes the two slayers felt like they were back in high school, those things never stopped no matter how hard you tried to, but what they heard next DID get their attention.
“Have you heard CC?”
“No, what?”
“One of the sophomore’s has been murdered.”
“You’re kidding?”
“Nope, my uncle told me. He’s with the SPD.”
Faith stepped in. “Who has been murdered?”
“Excuse me? I wasn’t talking to you.”
“You are going to talk to me or in 10 minutes you wish you had talked to me.”
“She means it,” Buffy said smiling.
“Some guy named Steven, strangled, found in an alley.” The girl quickly said, she pulled her friend with her to find a table.
“Wasn’t one of Nick’s friends called Steven?”
“Yes,” Buffy replied. “Come on let’s see where he’s at.”
After a long search the two slayers found Dawn sitting outside the office of one of the councillors. “What are you doing here?” Buffy questioned.
“Waiting for Nick,” Dawn replied. “I guess you heard of Steven?”
“Yeah we did kiddo,” Faith replied. “How’s Nick?”
“I don’t know, he’s been in there for quite a while now.”
“When did he find out?”
“This morning,” Dawn replied. “Mark came to tell him, and they say it’s been all over the news. He was strangled, why would anyone strangle a person?”
“I don’t know Dawn,” Buffy replied. “Let’s wait ‘till Nick comes out of the office.”
Buffy’s brain was already working on a plan to find the murderer, Faith and Dawn were just talking. Talking about school and more of that, Faith did it to keep Dawn’s mind off of things until Nick would come back, then they could worry about him.
It took another hour before Nick finally came out of the councillors office, he didn’t look that well. He hadn’t been crying or nothing, he was just pale, like he had been since that morning, only this time more because of the news he had received.
Dawn jumped up to hug him, Nick returned the hug, then turned to the two slayers. “I’m going back to the mansion if you don’t mind.”
“Of course not,” Buffy replied. “I’ll go tell that you’re going home … Faith, could you go with them.”
“Sure thing B,” Faith replied. “You coming after you told them?”
“Yeah,” Buffy replied. “I’ll see you then.”
“Ok, so tell me again why he’s boxing?” Buffy asked.
Dawn told her again that when she, Faith and Nick went home, Nick immediately put on his gloves and started punching the bag Faith had given him. He was constantly mumbling to himself about Mark and Steven, and how stupid they were. Faith was getting more curious by the second and needed to know what was going on.
“How ‘bout you fight a little round with me,” Faith said. She was holding the bag for him and was surprised when Nick continued hitting the bag. “Come on, try hitting me instead of the bag. If you want a good work-out I can give you that.”
Nick slowly moved away from the bag and held up his hands. “Not so fast Nick,” Buffy said. “My girlfriend is also going to wear some gloves. Not only for your protection but also for her own.”
“I don’t need protection B,” Faith said. When Buffy glared at her, she knew that was a bad thing to say and put on the gloves. “In the garden,” Faith said, motioning Nick to follow her. When they got in the garden, Nick and Faith stood in front of each other smiling. “So tell me what’s up Nicky boy, why were you hitting that bag so hard?”
Faith threw the first punch, which got easily blocked by the teenager. “Because,” he replied. He threw a few punches at Faith, who easily avoided a direct hit.
“Because of what?”
“Because it’s stupid.”
“Nothing is stupid Nick,” Faith said. “Can I use my legs?”
“As long as I can use mine,” Nick replied with a small smile. “Can we loose the gloves?”
“Sure thing,” Faith replied. She and Nick took the gloves off of their hands and continued to fight.
The fighting with legs and no gloves only got Buffy and Dawn worried, they didn’t like it that Nick and Faith were fighting each other with no protection. Buffy was worried Faith would hurt him, and Dawn was worried that Nick would get hurt or even hurt Faith, although she knew that was a slim chance.
“Come on Nick, what’s bothering you?” Faith asked a little forcefully.
“I told you it was nothing,” Nick replied.
“If it was nothing you would have continued hitting the bag!” Faith now angrily said. Dawn was about to say something about it, but got stopped by Buffy, who put a hand on her shoulder. “Come on Nicky boy!”
“Fine you want to know what happened then I’ll tell you what happened!” Nick yelled. He stopped fighting and sat down on a bench. “Mark offered me marihuana some time ago, I told him that I didn’t go for that stuff. Steven stood by him, but he never said anything, Mark was being an ass and called Dawn a bitch because I’d rather spend time with her than with them.”
Nick took a breath, keeping his eyes on the grass that had never been so interesting. Faith, Buffy and Dawn didn’t say anything, they knew Nick wasn’t finished. “I walked away, they apologised in the cafeteria a few minutes later, you were actually present at that,” Nick continued. “Then I was told Mark was talking about me behind my back. About 4 days ago I heard from someone that Steven was looking for me, because he had to tell me something about Mark.
“Now Steven has been murdered, and when Mark told me about it he didn’t show any emotion at all,” Nick said, sadness filling his voice. “The two of them have been friends for over eight years and he didn’t show any emotion? That just doesn’t add up.”
“You think Mark had something to do with this?” Faith questioned.
“Yeah I do,” Nick replied. “I heard Mark was into heavier drugs than just marihuana.”
“You think he’d kill for it?” Buffy said more as a statement than a question.
“I don’t know,” Nick said. “He has been a good friend, but he’s crazy. When he talked about Dawn that way, Mark crossed the line. I only continued to hang with him because you don’t just throw away 8 years of friendship.”
“You are not going anywhere near him anymore,” Faith said with a stern voice.
“I gotta find out if he had something to do with this,” Nick said with pleading eyes.
“Could I talk to him alone for a few seconds?” Faith asked the two sisters, who nodded and walked back in the house. “Nick listen to me, if he did kill Steven it’s too dangerous to be around him.”
“I know that Faith,” Nick replied. “But I need to find out, I owe it to Steven.”
“Do you know why I let you live here?”
“Huh?”
“Do you know why I let you live here at the mansion?” Faith questioned.
“Because I don’t have anywhere else to live, except my parents two states away?”
“That wasn’t even the biggest reason,” Faith said. “I first tried to convince your mother in coming back to Sunnydale because as much as I like you, I don’t want you to get hurt because of me.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Even if I’m good now, I still have a past, which you don’t just forget.”
“I know about your past, Dawn told me about it. My mother wouldn’t just let me live with you if she didn’t trust you.”
“I know that Nicky boy, but sometimes I don’t trust myself,” Faith suddenly said. “If anything would happen to my family, which includes you now, I would snap. I almost did when Joshua was doing all those things to us,” Faith said.
“But you didn’t.”
“But I almost did,” Faith said. “The point is that the only reason you are living here is because your mother trusts me, she wants me to make sure nothing happens to you while you’re under my care,” Faith said getting a confused look. “Your mother put you under my care when you moved here, I’m the person that legally has to take care of you until you’re twenty one years old.”
“I thought I was a ‘legal adult’?” Nick questioned.
“You are,” Faith replied. “It’s complicated, just call it an extra insurance so your mother feels safe, and I like you to keep this between us. I haven’t told B or kiddo about this. Mostly because I’m not even sure if I can take care of you, you’re eighteen for god’s sake!”
“Yeah but I think you’re doing a good job," Nick said smiling. “You’re like a big sister to me … even if I’m taller,” he added with a smirk.
“Smartass!” Faith said smiling. “Okay so we’re clear here? No finding out if Mark is evil, okay?”
“Okay, but if the cops don’t do anything about it I will.”
“No you won’t, me and B will,” Faith said. “Promise me you won’t go after him,” she didn’t get a reply from him. She tilted up his chin and forced him to look at her. “Promise me Nick.”
“I promise.”
“Good,” Faith said smiling. Next thing she knew, Faith was lying on her back in the grass. “You little…”
“I’m not little,” Nick said smirking. Faith just replied by sweeping his feet from under him, knocking him down on his back in the grass. They looked at each other and started laughing loud like little kids, which caught the attention of the two sisters inside.
Dawn and Buffy looked at the two lying on the grass and raised a brow. “What’s with the fun?” The younger sister questioned.
Faith and Nick caught the two sisters off guard and pulled them on the grass with them, the next ten minutes was one giant tickle fest each taking a turn being tickled by the three remaining. After the ten minutes they just laid on their backs in the grass. “Who’s up for some Bronzing tonight?”
“On a school night?” Dawn asked.
“It’s Friday Dawn,” Faith said rolling her eyes.
“Oh, okay sure,” Dawn replied. “Call the rest of the gang then?”
“Definitely!” Faith replied. The two teenagers stood up and made their way inside, Buffy was about to stand up when Faith pulled her back. “You’re not going anywhere B,” Faith said, and kissed the blonde slayer passionately.
** The Bronze **
They had all agreed to meet at the Bronze for some well deserved partying. Anya and Xander were on the dance floor, Nick and Dawn had joined them a few minutes after. Willow looked at the two slayers, Faith was sitting in Buffy’s lap, playing with locks of the blonde’s hair. Her eyes were locked on the dance floor with a worried look. “What’s wrong Faith?”
“Nothing, little worried about Nick.”
“He is looking pale, and that’s hard to do with his tan.” Willow said. “I mean, look at him. He has a tan others would be jealous of and he still looks pale, and he shouldn’t look pale like that it’s not good for his tan, I like his tan, it’s so … tanned. I want to have that tan.”
“Honey?”
“Yes Tara?”
“You’re babbling,” Tara said before kissing Willow’s cheek.
“Come on Red,” Faith said standing up from Buffy’s lap.
“Come on what?” Willow asked puzzled.
“Let’s dance,” Faith said grabbing Willow’s hand.
“No … I … I’m not going to dance.”
“Red … I don’t bite … not hard anyway,” she said winking at Buffy, who blushed ten different shades of red. Tara just sat on the couch smirking, and Faith noticed it. “You’re next blondie.” Faith added with a wink.
The smirk on Tara’s face disappeared immediately, she looked at Buffy with a hint of panic in her eyes. “Don’t worry, she’ll play nice,” Buffy said. Somehow it didn’t sound reassuring to the blonde witch.
After 5 songs, Willow returned with a smile on her face. “You know … that was actually fun,” she said looking at Faith.
“Come on blondie,” Faith said pulling Tara out of her seat. “Let’s dance.”
“You okay with all this?” Willow asked Buffy.
“She’s my girl, besides, she likes to embarrass you two.”
“Yeah… I’ve noticed that… but I have to admit, the dancing was fun."
Nick was having a bad night, he had promised to go along with them to the Bronze, but he was feeling miserable. He hadn’t told them about it, he thought that maybe it would go away if he took an aspirin, no such luck.
He decided to just go dancing with Dawn, and forget all about it, so far he was failing at it and he was feeling more miserable with the second.
Mark was looking at Nick from a distance, it had been a day or two since he cut off Nick from the stuff he had been giving him. Mark didn’t really want to hurt Nick, but the guy had to learn that *he* was the one that belonged with Dawn, and not Nick. Soon Nick would know that, and Dawn would realize that too.
It had been more than fun to watch Nick getting sicker by the second. Mark was being paid a lot of money for distributing the stuff on the street, and he was actually getting paid to play out his own little vendetta against Nick. ‘Anything to get the stuff out,’ Mark thought and smirked.
Just Tara’s luck, as soon as they stepped on the dance floor a slow song started to play. Faith put Tara’s arms around her neck and her own around Tara’s waist. “It’s just a dance Tara,” Faith said. “Don’t be nervous.”
“I’m not nervous … I just … I …”
“You what?”
“I’ve never …”
“You’ve never danced this close with someone else besides Red.”
“Yeah…”
“Just try to have fun … ‘sides, I kinda have to talk to you.”
“About what?”
“Nick…”
“You’re worried about him looking so pale?”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m worried about,” Faith replied. “He’s been sick before, really sick before… but he’s never been *this* pale.”
“You want me to try something…”
“Yeah,” Faith replied. “I know it’s not something you usually do, but I’m really worried about him. I just want to know that it is something supernatural so we can fight it you know.”
“What if it isn’t?”
“If he still looks this way in a day then we’re taking him to a hospital.”
“That’ll be too late,” Tara suddenly said, which caused a confused look to appear on Faith’s face. “He just collapsed!”
“He killed his best friend?” Kerry questioned.
“I watched him do it, he was cold, never seen anyone like that before,” Kevin replied. “He’s willing to do anything to get his way, or in this case money.”
“Wow,” Kerry replied. “We just have to keep an eye on him then.”
“We sure do,” Kevin said. “I don’t trust him anymore, we have to be really careful with him now.”
“What’s the news on the rest of the stuff and OUR money?”
“Apparently there’s a new shipment coming in tomorrow,” Kevin replied. “I called them yesterday to tell them that we’re out of it. Kids are really ‘digging’ this stuff.”
“I can’t believe people are actually stupid enough to do these kind of things,” Kerry said smiling. “They’re lonely, depressed and all that sort of stuff, thinking that this will help them, I mean how stupid can you be?”
“Remember that we’re the ones who are putting it out there.”
“Yeah, but that’s for the money,” Kerry replied. “There’s a lot of money in this business, and as long as people are buying it, then I have absolutely nothing against it. Just don’t think I’m going to use it.”
“I never said that,” Kevin replied winking. “Come on baby, let’s get something to eat, I’m getting hungry.”
** Sunnydale Hospital **
It had been almost an hour since Nick was admitted to the hospital, and still no word from the doctors. Buffy and Faith were sitting next to each other, watching a pacing Dawn; the girl had begun pacing 20 minutes earlier and hadn’t stopped. “Dawn sit down, you’re making me dizzy,” Buffy said to her pacing sister.
“Nope, not gonna sit down,” Dawn replied, and kept pacing.
Buffy was about to tell Dawn to sit down when she felt a hand on her shoulder. “Let her,” Faith whispered. “She’s worried.”
“Miss Spencer?”
“Yes,” Faith replied to the doctor.
“Can I talk to you in private please?”
“Of course,” Faith replied. The two walked away from the two sisters, Buffy watched the two talking, mostly she watched Faith’s facial expressions that turned from a worried look, to disbelief, anger and back to worried again. Buffy watched Faith thank the doctor and walk back to her and Dawn.
“What did he tell you?” Dawn asked nervously.
“I think you’d better sit down for this kiddo,” Faith replied. Buffy noticed the brunette was trying to keep the anger out of her voice as she explained what happened. “The doctors found a large amount of some kind of drugs in his blood.”
“What?” Buffy yelled.
“He doesn’t take drugs!” Dawn yelled.
“I didn’t say that Dawn,” Faith replied a little angry. “I said they found it in his blood. They’re not sure if he took it himself, they didn’t find any wounds on his arms, and they say that it’s unlikely that he would take such a high doses.”
“How high?” Buffy questioned.
“High enough to kill himself,” Faith replied. “Until we find out what happened you are not going near him,” Faith said to Dawn.
“He didn’t take drugs!” Dawn yelled. “You can’t stop me!”
“But I can.”
“Mom?”
“I called her an hour ago,” Buffy said.
“Listen to me kiddo,” Faith said. “I’m not saying he did take drugs, but until we’re sure you can’t go near him.”
“Who makes you the parent of Nick?”
“Uhm I kinda am.”
“Huh?” All three Summers women said in unison.
The next ten minutes were spent by Faith explaining that Nick’s mother had insured Nick would be taken care of until he was 21. “So that’s basically it.”
“So you are the guardian of Nick?”
“Yup,” Faith replied to Buffy. “Look I’m not gonna explain this any further, coz I’m not sure if I get it. I’m going to visit Nick and ask him what happened.”
“Can I…”
“Maybe after I visited him Dawn,” Faith replied.
Mark was waiting outside the hospital; he was hoping that all of the girls would come outside so he could pay a visit to Nick. He wasn’t too sure on what kind of visit it was going to be, he could give him more of the stuff, or he could just be there to ‘visit the sick’. Bringing the stuff in the hospital was a great risk, and if he would give Nick more of the stuff it would probably kill him.
Killing him wasn’t what he wanted … yet, he still wanted to show Nick that he was better, and that Dawn would love him and not Nick. Showing Nick that he was the best, that he could get anything what he wanted, without the part of getting caught for it.
“What are you doing here?”
“Well hello Kerry,” Mark replied. “Decided to pay me a visit, instead of letting Kevin come?”
“Get the girl in your own time,” Kerry said angrily.
Mark turned around, looking Kerry directly in the eye. “You know she’s not the only I could get,” he said pulling Kerry closer. “If I wanted … I could get you too,” Mark said. He leaned in, kissing her hungrily, which Kerry responded to, after a few seconds Mark broke the kiss. “There’s just one problem, you got Kevin … and I’m *not* interested in you.”
Kerry slapped him in his face. “Sick bastard.”
Mark rubbed his cheek smiling. “Spicy, I like that in a woman.” Kerry turned around, leaving a smirking Mark behind. When she was out of hearing range he muttered to himself, “Stupid bitch, that actually hurt.”
Faith walked in Nick’s room, he looked even paler than at The Bronze earlier that night. Nick had is eyes closed and Faith thought he was asleep so she turned around. Just before she was out the door, she heard Nick calling out her name. “Faith? What’s going on, where am I?”
Faith walked back to Nick, she grabbed a chair and sat next to him. “You’re in the hospital, after you collapsed.”
“When did that happen?”
“About two to three hours back, not sure of the time,” Faith replied. “Nick I have to ask you a question.”
“What?”
“Why do you think you’re in here?”
“Because of something I ate?” Nick joked.
“No jokes Nick,” Faith said.
“Oh god, he did something to me didn’t he?”
“What are you talking about?” Faith asked confused.
“Mark didn’t do something to me?” Now Nick was confused. “Then why am I here?”
“Because they found drugs in your blood,” Faith replied.
“What?” Nick questioned. “How can they find drugs in my blood? I don’t do drugs!” Nick was almost screaming now. “You have to believe me Faith. I didn’t take drugs; you know I would never do that! I didn’t even take the marihuana, and now you’re saying that I took something worse?”
“People do strange things,” Faith replied standing up from the chair. “I have to get back to the rest, I’ll be back.”
Before Faith could leave Nick grabbed her arm, pulling her closer. “Faith please,” he pleaded. “I didn’t take the drugs.” Despite all the wires and tubes Nick sat up in the bed. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head against her stomach. “You have to believe me, I would never take that kind of stuff … please Faith, you have to believe me.”
Faith put a hand on his head and stroked his hair. “Shh, I believe you,” Faith replied. “I just needed to know for sure,” she kissed the top of his head and untangled herself from Nick. “I have to get back to the others, tell them what happened.”
“Can Dawn come in here?”
“We’ll see,” Faith replied. She walked out of the room and closed the door behind her, Faith closed her eyes and sighed. She believed that he didn’t take the drugs, but there was still the fact that the doctors found it in his blood. Faith hadn’t told Buffy, Dawn and Joyce that the doctors wanted to put him in a drug rehab programme at the hospital.
Normally it would be the best thing for someone who took drugs, but Nick didn’t even know he had it in his system until now. Right now Faith had to make that decision, because she was the one taking care of him until he was 21, she still wasn’t able to figure out how Missy had arranged that.
“How is he?” Dawn asked when Faith returned.
“He’s doing good,” Faith replied. “Little upset though.”
“Why?”
“Because you haven’t visited him silly,” Faith replied smiling. Dawn hugged Faith, after the brunette told Dawn what room he was in, she rushed to it. “Gives us some time to talk,” Faith said directed to Buffy and Joyce.
“What’s wrong?” Joyce immediately asked.
“He didn’t take the drugs himself,” Faith said. “He was actually pleading me to believe him, and there’s a big factor that I don’t see him doing it, he’s not in to that kind of stuff. He didn’t even take the marihuana.”
“Excuse me?”
“He was offered some by his so-called friends, he turned it down,” Faith replied to Joyce.
“We *are* talking about Nick right?” Joyce questioned.
“Yes we are mom,” Buffy replied. “When is he getting out?”
“When I spoke to the doctor earlier, he said that Nick was going to have to stay for a few days,” Faith replied. “Something about cleaning his system.”
“What kind of drugs was it?” Joyce suddenly asked.
“I don’t know,” Faith said. “The doc said something about a new kind of drugs.”
“So there’s no way of telling where it came from?” Buffy asked.
“No, but I know someone who might know this,” Faith said. “I’m going to pay a visit to our little ‘friend’ Mark.”
** Kevin and Kerry’s Apartment **
“I’m telling you he is *not* reliable,” Kerry said with a forceful voice.
“Because he kissed you?” Kevin replied with anger. “Every man in this shitty town wants to kiss you! *HE* kissed you, *YOU* didn’t kiss him … did you?”
“Well … not really,” Kerry said ashamed.
“Did you kiss him or not?”
“If you like to call that a kiss!” Kerry said with anger filling her voice. “I’m just saying that we should be careful.”
“I know,” Kevin replied taking Kerry’s hand. “He’s been a risk since the beginning, but he’s been a good risk. He’s done a lot for us, let’s just see what happens, if he pulls anything like this again, we’ll take him out.”
“We have to be really careful with him,” Kerry said. “He may have done good business for us, he’s still one sick puppy, he was really enjoying the ‘taunting Kerry’ part.”
“I wonder how Nick is doing,” Willow questioned to herself.
“He’s doing better,” Tara said as she walked in the bathroom. “That was Faith,” Tara said holding up her cell phone. “Nick is doing fine, but the reason he collapsed isn’t that good.”
“What do you mean?” Willow asked. “Is he sick? What happened?”
“They found drugs in his system,” Tara said. “Nick swears he didn’t take it himself, and Faith believes him. Faith does have an idea of who did it though.”
Willow was still stuck on the fact that they found drugs in Nick’s blood. “Drugs?” She questioned. “He didn’t take drugs … right?”
“Honey, have you been listening to what I’ve said?”
“Honestly?” Willow questioned with a sheepish grin. “I think I was still stuck on the word drugs.”
“Nick swears he didn’t take it, Faith believes him, and they have an idea of who might have done it.”
“Oh, that simple huh?” Willow said grinning embarrassed. “As long as we got that clear … Okay, but on a more serious note; Why would anyone put drugs in Nick’s body? Do they know what kind of drug it was?”
“No they don’t,” Tara replied. “Faith told me that the doctors never even heard of it, but apparently a few other kids have been admitted to the hospital with the same traces in their blood.”
“That’s … bad …”
“I know,” Tara replied. “Faith said she was on her way to see the person whom she thinks is responsible for this.”
“Who?”
“Mark.”
“Mark?” Willow asked confused. “Isn’t he one of Nick’s friends?”
“Yes, they had a fight or something,” Tara said. “Don’t know exactly what happened.”
“So we should go out, find Faith and hope she doesn’t kill Mark BEFORE she gets the information she wants.”
“I don’t think she’ll kill him,” Tara replied. “Torture him yes … but kill him?”
“Yeah I know, but if Mark did do this to Nick … then torture is always good.”
“What happened to prison?” Tara questioned with a smile on her face.
“I think that got lost in between ‘Saving the world’ and ‘being a slayer I can do what I want’,” Willow replied.
“Oh… you see I was wondering about that,” Tara said dead serious. “Being a slayer and all, we’re helpers … does that give us credits?”
“Uhm Tara,” Willow questioned as she opened the door. “This whole conversation … did that make ANY sense to you?”
“Nope … to you?” Tara walked out their dorm and waited for Willow to close the door behind them.
“Not at all,” Willow replied laughing.
“Should we just go find Faith then?”
“Absolutely,” Willow said taking Tara’s hand. “Can we make Mark float so he’ll confess?”
“We’ll see honey,” Tara said leading Willow out the building. “We’ll see.”
** Somewhere in Sunnydale **
Faith was walking down the streets somewhere in Sunnydale, she had heard from some people that Mark liked to hang out there. Even though Sunnydale isn’t that big, Faith had never been to these streets, mostly avoiding them because people said that at these parts were the so called druggies.
If there was one thing Faith hated, it had to be drugs. She had done her fair share of alcohol, but she never touched drugs. “Come on Mark, where are you?” Faith muttered to herself. She kept walking hoping to see him lurking around somewhere, she was about to give up when two teenage boys were arguing about something.
She decided to try and get closer, without them seeing her. When she walked closer she identified one of the boys as Mark.
“Don’t get in my way Steven.” Mark yelled.
‘Okay … what the hell is going on here. Steven is dead … isn’t he?’ Faith thought to herself listening closer to the two boys.
“I *am* getting in your way, you can’t do this!”
“I *can* do this and I *will* do this and you are not getting in my way.”
“Just told you I was…” Steven said.
The next thing he knew Steven was pinned against the wall with Marks hands around his throat. “I told you, YOU. ARE. NOT. GETTING. IN. MY. WAY.”
“Let me go…” Steven said between breaths.
Mark wasn’t going to let go of Steven, the boy was in his way and he would do anything to keep him out of it, even if it meant killing him. He felt Steven struggle to get loose, but Mark knew he was stronger and taking advantage of it. Mark kept adding pressure on his throat until Steven blew out his last breath and went limp.
Faith ran as fast as she could to the two boys, when she arrived there and tried to hit Mark, she hit nothing but air. ‘Okay, what the fuck is this?’ Faith thought looking around. ‘This is so not happening to me,’ Faith looked at the spot where the two boys stood earlier, but she couldn’t find a thing. Faith suddenly realised what was going on and got a dead look in her eyes.
‘Gotta get home, gotta get home,’ she kept repeating over and over again, all the while she was making her way home.
“Willow I think we should go home,” Tara said walking down the streets of Sunnydale. “She’s not here.”
“I’m sure she is,” Willow replied. “We did the spell to track her, and it said she was here.”
“Obviously she’s not,” Tara said. “Willow it’s not safe here.”
“I know baby, but we have to find Faith,” Willow said. “We can do the location spell again to f … there she is!” Willow suddenly said. She pointed across the street, grabbing Tara’s hand she walked up to the brunette slayer.
“Faith?” Tara called out her name. “What’s wrong?” She asked upon seeing Faith’s dead look in her eyes.
“Faith?” Willow tried with no luck. “Come on, Tara we have to get her to the Magic Box.”
“Where is she?” Buffy asked, storming into the shop.
“Right here B,” Faith said. Next thing she knew Buffy was in her arms. “I’m okay B, just had a little scare.”
“Are you sure?” Buffy asked, holding Faith closer. “They said you didn’t react.”
“Well after what I saw, you wouldn’t be on the talking team either.”
“What do you mean?” Buffy asked. She let go of her lover and looked at her.
“Ghost, possibly ghosts,” Giles said coming out behind one of the racks.
“Ghosts?” Buffy questioned. “We had ghosts before.”
“Yeah, but this wasn’t anything like that,” Faith said. “Basically because the other I saw is still alive.”
“What did you see?”
“I saw Mark strangling Steven.”
“Steven is dead.” Buffy stated, it only earned looks of ‘duh’ from the others. “Oh right … explains the whole ghost part,” Buffy said smiling sheepishly.
“But I still don’t understand the whole seeing Mark thing,” Faith said. “I mean, Steven is dead … shouldn’t Mark be dead if I saw him?”
** Sunnydale Hospital **
Dawn walked in Nick’s room, she had been walking in and out of his room for what seemed over 50 times. Although she wanted to see Nick, she never said anything to him, she didn’t know what to say to him. Part of her wanted to yell at him for letting this happen to him, and her other part just wanted to hold Nick in her arms and comfort him.
She knew the yelling part wasn’t going to work, mostly because Nick didn’t even know this was done to him. And the comforting part wasn’t going to work either, since Nick was asleep every single time she entered his room. Now he was sleeping again, Dawn knew he was tired, mostly because his body had been through some serious withdrawal from a drug the doctors didn’t even know anything about.
Dawn pulled a chair up to his bed and sat on it, she took his hand and kissed it. Dawn placed his hand back on the bed, she rested her head against it and closed her eyes trying to block out the image of Nick in the hospital bed. After a few minutes she felt him moving and looked up. “Nick?”
“Hey,” was the weary reply.
“Oh god, I was so scared,” Dawn said giving him kisses. “Don’t ever do that again.”
“Collapse so I can get a lot of kisses from you when I wake up?”
“You can get more than a lot of kisses,” Dawn said. “Only thing you have to do is ask.”
“I know babe,” Nick replied. “So, doc said anything about me leaving soon?”
“I don’t know Nick,” Dawn said. “They want you in the hospital, make sure that your system is completely clean.”
“I can live with that,” Nick said shifting on his side. “Definitely want that stuff out of me, I am going to kill Mark.”
“How do you know it’s him?” Dawn asked. “It could be someone else.”
“No, nobody would have gotten close enough,” Nick said. “I should have seen it before, he was always buying me drinks, giving me food. How stupid can a person be!”
“Nick it isn’t your fault,” Dawn said. “He was smart, he didn’t let himself get caught.”
“You have to stay away from him,” Nick said. “He’s really dangerous, he would do anything to get his way.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere near him.”
“Good,” Nick replied. Dawn leaned in and gave Nick a passionate kiss. “God I missed that,” Nick said smiling. He started laughing when he noticed Dawn was blushing. “No need for blushing babe,” he said through his laughter and pulled his girlfriend in for a hug.
“But if Mark isn’t dead, then why did she see him?” Buffy asked.
“I don’t know, it could be a projection,” Giles said. “Steven’s spirit replaying what happened.”
“So a *ghost* just told me that he was killed by Mark?”
“I believe so, yes.”
“Honey are you alright?” Buffy asked a very pale looking Faith.
“Oh yeah, great,” Faith said sarcastically. “Just the concept of seeing a ghost tends to get to you.”
“You never saw a ghost?” Willow questioned.
“I think the pale colour of her face stated that,” Tara said. “So what do we do now?”
“We can’t go to the police,” Willow stated. “Hello officer, my friend here saw a ghost replaying a murder.” Everyone looked at Willow if she’d just ate a wrong thing. “What? Trying to be helpful,” she said with a pout.
“I’m not too keen on seeing ghosts,” Faith said. “Give me vampires and demons any day, but no ghosts.”
“I think I’m going to take her home now,” Buffy said. She took Faith’s hand and guided her out of the shop.
“Is it me or is Faith not too keen on ghosts?”
“I think that was obvious honey,” Tara replied to her girlfriend. “You wanna go see Nick?”
“Sure,” Willow replied. “See you later Giles.”
** Sunnydale Docks **
“Latest update on Mark?”
“He’s getting more and more unreliable,” Kevin said.
“So it finally came through that thick skull of yours,” Kerry replied sarcastically. “I told you we couldn’t trust him anymore.”
“We have to let him go, make sure we get those people suspicious and then he’ll be in a lot more trouble then when we’ll try to ‘dispose’ of him.”
“Hmm no, I have a better idea,” Kerry replied with a twinkling in her eyes. “Let’s play with him for a while.” The two of them walked away from their place, a new shipment had arrived and they needed to get that off of the boat.
They never noticed someone had been listening to their little conversation about Mark. The person listening was Mark himself, he went to meet them about getting more stuff to sell, and stopped walking when he heard them talking about him. He was not liking this at all, but he knew that didn’t matter, he was going to get what he wanted anyway.
“Dawn,” a voice said.
“What?” She asked turning around. “Oh hey Willow, Tara.”
“How is he?”
“He’s doing good, sleeping at the moment,” Dawn replied. “Even when he sleeps he hurts,” Dawn said. “You can see it on his face, filled with anger and pain.”
“He’ll get through this Dawnie, I promise,” Willow said.
“He has to,” Dawn replied. “I can’t loose him.”
“You won’t,” Tara replied. “Why don’t you get yourself cleaned up at the mansion, we’ll stay here with Nick.”
“I don’t want to leave,” Dawn said.
“Come on Dawn, take a rest, go to the mansion,” Willow said. “Buffy and Faith are there too, talk to them.”
“You sure?”
“We’ll stay here and watch him for you,” Tara said.
“Okay, thanks guys,” Dawn leaned in, giving a kiss on Nick’s forehead. “I’ll be back in an hour,” she said to the two witches and walked out of the room.
** Two Hours Later, Mansion **
“Faith are you sure you’re okay?” Buffy questioned for the tenth time.
“I’m fine B,” Faith replied. “Just a little scared, never seen a ghost before, especially not one that can do what it did.”
“I know it’s a scare, but be glad that was all it did.”
“There’s more?”
“Yeah kinda, they can possess your bodies,” Buffy said. “Remember that I told you about the Sadie Hawkins Dance and that teacher and student?”
“Yeah, but I thought you were kidding.”
“Faith sweetie, that wasn’t a joke.”
“I’m just gonna lay down,” Faith said. “Right here on the couch, on my back, just gonna close my eyes, and when I wake up, none of this ghost thing happened.”
“It’s not that simple Faith.”
“I know,” Faith groaned. “It’s just that, vampire, demons and now ghosts?” Faith asked quirking her brow. “I’m not too fond of ghosts.”
“You already told me that, multiple times actually,” Buffy replied. “But that’s not all is it?”
“I’m worried about Nick,” Faith said. “He’s a tough kid … but he looked so sick in that hospital bed.”
“He’ll get through this Faith,” Buffy said. She moved to the couch and sat beside Faith. “He is a tough kid, and he will get through this. He has Dawn and the others to help him, and he has a big sister now,” Buffy added.
“Yeah I know,” Faith said. “But I’m still worried.”
“As a big sister should be,” Buffy replied smiling. She pulled Faith up, and looked at her with desire in her eyes. “Let’s concentrate on something else now,” she said in a husky voice, a voice that sent a shiver down Faith’s back.
“What did you have in mind?” Faith replied with an equal amount for desire.
“This,” Buffy replied. She pulled Faith closer, placing her hand on Faith’s lower back, and kissed her passionately. “I have a lot on my mind right now,” she said pulling away from Faith. “Upstairs,” Buffy whispered, pulling the slayer off of the couch. Faith smirked evilly, and Buffy saw it, the brunette couldn’t wait any longer, and crushed Buffy against the closest wall kissing her hungrily.
Buffy closed her eyes, and rested her head back, moaning at Faith’s touch on her skin. The brunette was kissing her neck, slowly making her way down, her hands roaming Buffy’s back and sides, basically everywhere … until the phone rang. Faith groaned in disbelieve, she looked at the phone, willing it to stop, but it didn’t.
Faith tried to get it, but got pulled back by Buffy who started kissing her. “Let the machine get it,” Buffy said breathing heavily. Faith didn’t need to hear that a second time and let her mouth taste every inch of Buffy’s again. Faith pressed herself against Buffy, trying to get as much bodily contact as possible, Buffy’s hands were around Faith’s waist, pulling the younger girl as close as she could.
“Buffy, Faith? You there?” The voice on the machine said. “It’s Willow, is Dawn with you?” She said. “Dawn said she would be back in an hour, and that was almost two hours ago. She said she was going to the mansion.”
Buffy didn’t know how fast she could get to the phone. “Willow? It’s me Buffy.”
“Oh thank god you’re there,” Willow said. “Dawn said she would go to you guys at the mansion, and be back in an hour, but that was two hours ago.”
“We haven’t seen her,” Buffy replied panicking a little.
“Come to the hospital and look out for her in the mean time,” Willow said.
“See ya in a few,” Buffy said. She put the phone down and looked at Faith. “Dawn’s missing, Willow said we have to get to the hospital.”
“We’ll find her,” Faith replied instantly. She took Buffy’s hand entwining their fingers, and pulled the smaller girl out of the mansion.
Dawn opened her eyes and looked around, the last thing she remembered was a hell of a blow to the head right after she left the hospital. Now she was in some, what looked like, dingy motel room god knows where. This was so not her day, Nick was still in the hospital and she was kidnapped by … she didn’t know by whom she was kidnapped, that was the problem.
Dawn didn’t know where she was, and who had taken her away from her family and friends. The second thing beside her surroundings that Dawn noticed, was that she was laying on a filthy bed, with her arms tied to the iron bars of the head of the bed. ‘Handcuffs, who uses handcuffs?’ She questioned. She knew this wasn’t some police thing, they would never do a thing like this.
‘No!’ Dawn screamed in her mind. ‘Not him, please not him!’ Dawn almost started crying. ‘It can’t be him,’ Dawn was now crying silently at the thought it would be the one person she feared most at this point … Joshua. She feared it would be him, but that would be impossible, the guy was in jail. At least that was what they’d heard the last time Sam called them.
“Willow!”
“Buffy, you’re here,” Willow said hugging the blonde. “She hasn’t returned yet, I don’t know where she is.”
“Does Nick know?” Faith asked.
“No, we haven’t told him yet,” Tara said. “He’s still asleep, has been since Dawn left.”
Faith was pacing in front of them, muttering under her breath that they had to find Dawn. That nothing would happen to her, and if, god forbid, something did happen to her, that she would get the person responsible for it. “No one touches that kid and gets away with it, no one,” she mumbled to herself.
Buffy looked at the younger slayer and smiled, she knew how much Faith cared about Dawn, and that she would make sure nothing happened to her. Buffy found that out since they were together, Faith would be extremely protective about the people she loved and cared about. That was just her, and knowing that, Buffy knew she would always be safe as long as Faith was around.
“Where is she?” Faith mumbled to herself, still pacing.
“Faith baby, I’m getting dizzy,” Buffy said. “Could you stop moving now?”
“How can you be so calm?” Faith questioned a little upset. “She’s your sister and I’m the one getting upset.”
“I am upset!” Buffy replied angry and surprised by that outburst of Faith.
“Funny way of showing it!”
“Faith!” Willow interjected. This had already gone too far, and Willow needed to stop it before it went even further, and they would start blaming each other for what happened. “You know Buffy is worried about Dawn, she just … she … help me here Buffy!”
“I’m just trying to stay calm,” Buffy said. “Of course I’m worried about Dawn, she’s my sister.”
“I’m sorry B,” Faith said stepping closer. “I’m worried okay?”
“I know sweetie,” Buffy said pulling Faith in for a hug. “Do we tell Nick?”
“No,” Faith said firmly, pulling back from the hug. “I don’t want to worry him, he needs to get better.”
“Okay, but we need to find Dawn fast,” Buffy said. “I don’t know who … or what has her, and I really not like the thought of her going through god knows what,” Buffy turned to the two witches. “Tara, could you stay here with Nick? If he wakes up again, tell him … I don’t know just tell him something. Willow you check Dawn’s friends, and get Spike to help you. Faith call Xander and Anya, ask them to help. I’ll go tell Giles, and mom … I haven’t told mom yet,” Buffy said slumping her shoulders.
“We’ll find her B,” Faith said. She pulled the blonde closer and gave her kiss. “I’ll check the cemeteries after I called Xander and Anya, meet me at Crestview in 30 minutes.”
“Yeah, I will.”
It had been almost three hours now that Dawn had been in that motel room, and no people in sight. Not even her abductor had shown him, or herself, this was not looking good. Dawn tried to move in a more comfortable position, but all that she gained were another pair of cuts on her wrists by the handcuffs. ‘I’m strong, I can break these … no biggie … right?’ She thought to herself.
Dawn started pulling on the cuffs, trying to break either those things on her wrists, or the iron bars of the bed, or at least to get one of the bars loose. After a few minutes she stopped trying, not only because it was too painful, but also because she felt and saw blood trickling down her arms. ‘Ok, so this is a biggie.’ She couldn’t help it but to laugh a little at her own comments. ‘So now what? Can’t get loose, not without cutting through my wrists anyway. I wonder what Faith or Buffy would do…’
She knew exactly what they would do, they would break free from the chains, but she wasn’t that strong, not anymore anyway. ‘God, this isn’t going anywhere … And Nick is still in the hospital,’ “Where’s a slayer when you need one,” she muttered to herself.
“What’s a slayer?” A voice asked.
If Dawn wasn’t tied to the bed, she would have jumped twelve feet in the air. “Who are you?” She shrieked.
“I asked you something first,” the voice said. “What is a slayer?”
Dawn remembered the voice from somewhere, but couldn’t quite place it. She knew it definitely wasn’t Joshua’s voice, which brought a lot of relieve, but also fear, because now she still didn’t know who it was. “A slayer is someone who’s going to kick your ass if you don’t let me go.”
“That’s a big mouth for such a little girl,” the voice said. “Make yourself comfortable, and get some sleep. We’ve got a long journey ahead of us,” then he left.
“A long journey ahead of us?” Dawn questioned out loud. “What the hell is he talking about?” ‘This is so not good,’ she thought.
Dawn recognised the voice from somewhere, but she couldn’t place it. It felt very familiar, almost too familiar. ‘At least it isn’t Joshua,’ she thought. “I hate this,” she mumbled. “Buffy, Faith where are you?”
** Spike’s Crypt **
“Oh don’t be such an idiot!” Spike yelled at his small television. He was watching an episode of Dawson’s Creek, a re-run, but still a good one. Spike looked behind him when he heard a loud banging on the door. “Yeah hold on, coming already!” He yelled at it. He stood up from his less then comfy chair, and opened the door. “Well Red, what did I do to deserve this pleasant surprise?”
“Dawn is missing,” Willow replied out of breath.
“What are you still standing here for then?” Spike said hastily grabbing his coat. Teasing Red was another thing, but when it came to lil’bit he didn’t take any chances. He would never admit it to himself or anyone else, but he cared about the kid, and she was, until some recent events, the only one that treated him normal.
“She was supposed to be at the mansion, but she never showed up there,” Willow said. “She said she would be gone for an hour, not two hours, and if she didn’t show up at the mansion, then where could she be? It’s not like people don’t have phones and…”
“Red!” Spike said with a determined voice. “Calm down, your babbling isn’t getting us anywhere.”
“I’m worried, babbling is something I do when I’m worried, let me babble!”
“Sweets, please don’t make me shut you up,” Spike said calmly. “I know you’re worried, so am I.”
“You are?” Willow asked surprised. “I mean, I know you like Dawn, but…”
“Don’t fuss your pretty little head over it,” Spike said ignoring the redhead’s comments. “Let’s just find the kid okay?” Spike sped up the pace, leaving a confused witch behind, after shaking her head in confusion she followed the blonde vampire.
Faith paced in front of Crestview Cemetery, waiting for Buffy to show up. ‘B, where are you?’ She asked herself. It had already been 40 minutes, and there was still no sign of her girlfriend, while she actually had to be there ten minutes earlier. ‘Come on B, show yourself,’ Faith thought. One single moment too long without her girlfriend would make Faith crazy, and now she was pacing even faster, and muttering to herself on what was happening.
She thought about going home to find Buffy, but then she wouldn’t be here if Buffy did show up, because she was late or something. Maybe she had run into a few vamps that needed to be dusted, that could explain why Buffy was late. What if one of the vampires got her … no, she couldn’t think like that, Buffy would be fine.
“Faith!”
“B!” Faith said turning around, immediately hugging her girlfriend. “Where were you?”
“I’m ten minutes late Faith,” Buffy said smirking.
“Ten minutes is a long time living in a place like this,” Faith said still hugging Buffy.
“Faith I’m fine,” Buffy said pulling the younger girl closer. “Nothing got to me, and unfortunately I didn’t get to dust any vamps. Come on, we need to find my sister,” Faith let go of Buffy, and took her hand entwining their fingers. She gave the blonde a passionate kiss before pulling her in the cemetery to begin their search.
Buffy was leaning into Faith for support, a few minutes after they had entered the cemetery, Buffy started crying because they still hadn’t found her sister. Now they were slowly making their way through the cemetery hoping that no vampire would come up to them. Faith had her arm around the smaller girl’s waist, and pulled her even closer giving as much support and comfort as Buffy would need from her.
They were about to make their way out of the entrance when Buffy pulled Faith with her inside again. “B, she’s not here.”
“You don’t know that.”
“We’ve had the whole cemetery B, and we didn’t find her.”
“Then we’ll check it again,” Buffy said bluntly walking away from her girlfriend.
“B!” Faith yelled and ran up in front of the smaller girl. “She’s not here,” Faith repeated. “We’ll find her,” Faith said pulling her girlfriend in for a hug. “Come on, let’s go back and see how the rest is doing.”
“This is so not my day,” Dawn muttered.
“Why is it not your day?” The voice asked coming out of the shadow, and revealing who he was.
“Mark?” Dawn questioned. “Why the hell did you kidnap me?” Dawn said loudly.
“Don’t talk that loud,” Mark said calmly. “No one can hear you.”
“What do you want?” Dawn hissed. “Let me go!”
“No can do,” Mark replied. Then he was gone again.
“Great!” Dawn said to herself. “If this day wasn’t bad enough, HE has to be my kidnapper.” Although Dawn was being sarcastic about the whole situation, she was scared to death. If what she heard about him was true, then she was in a lot of trouble. Kids at school were always saying that he would do anything to get his way, and that nothing would get in his way. “I so need to get out of here,” Dawn muttered to herself.
After what seemed like hours, but what hadn’t been more than a half hour, Mark returned to the room. “Got something for ya,” he said holding something in his hands. “It may not be a good meal, but at least it’s something.”
Dawn looked at Mark’s hand, which had a sandwich in it. “I don’t need anything from you,” Dawn objected. Okay, she was hungry, but that didn’t mean she should take what he was offering, who knows what was in it. “Untie me,” Dawn said forcefully.
“You are very brave for someone in your position,” Mark said. “But I’ll let you off the hook this time,” he said. “I’ll untie you, if you stay still and don’t try to run away, because if you do … let’s just say that it won’t be pleasant,” Mark untied Dawn, and handed her the sandwich. “Take it, you’ll need the food.”
Dawn reluctantly took the sandwich and took a bite from it. ‘Mental Note: If I ever come out of this, and Mark gets locked away, ask him how he made this,’ she thought to herself, greedily taking another bite of the sandwich.
“Good girl,” Mark said. “There’s some drinks in the fridge, including some other stuff if you’re still hungry. Toilet is through that door, there are some magazines in that drawer,” Mark said walking to the door. “Cooperate and you’ll find this stay here very pleasant, if not … Don’t try to get out of this place, it won’t do you any good, there’s no where to get out from,” he said before leaving again, and making sure the door was locked.
“At least he’s given me some food,” Dawn muttered to herself moving off the bed. “Drinks he said?” She walked to the small fridge standing in the room, and opened it. “Wow, he wasn’t kidding when he said drinks,” she said amazed at the amount of drinks laying in the small fridge. Looking more, she also found some sandwiches, and some cheese and other stuff. ‘Okay, that is at least enough for a week, what the hell is he going to do with me?’ She thought to herself.
Dawn didn’t think much of it when she spotted her favorite drink. “He really does think of everything,” she said smiling, then the smile faded. “What the hell am I smiling for?” She asked herself out loud. “He kidnapped me for god’s sake!” Now she was almost yelling at herself. ‘Ok Dawn, calm down there, he kidnapped you, don’t need to be mad at yourself for this.’
“This place is seriously starting to creep me out here,” Dawn said moving back to the bed. She drank the bottle completely empty, and laid down on the bed. She was glad Mark had untied her, this way she could actually sleep comfortable, well as comfortable as possible on the thin mattress. ‘At least he left a pillow and blanket. Sheesh, I could be sleeping on the floor and be more comfortable then on this bed.’
Dawn’s head snapped up at the thought of sleeping more comfortable on the floor. ‘Why the hell not, couldn’t be any worse thsn this bed,’ she thought before moving the mattress on the floor. She laid down on it, and found a comfortable position. “Much better,” she mumbled, before closing her eyes and falling in a, thankfully, peaceful sleep.
“We’ve got problems,” Kevin stated walking in the bedroom. “The little girl is missing, and guess who has her.”
“Mark,” Kerry immediately replied. “That little … I told him to leave them alone.”
“He wants the girl, and he’s getting the girl … all the way if we don’t stop him.”
“Why are we getting into this?”
“Because dealing drugs is one thing, but raping is another thing,” Kevin stated. “I may have done some pretty terrible things in my time, but that never included rape, or molesting of any kind, and I’m not about to add it to the list.”
“Would he really do that?” Kerry wondered.
“Yes he would,” Kevin simply said. “He would do anything to make that girl his, even if it means forcing himself on her, that even if he doesn’t get her in the end, she’ll have him with her forever.”
“He is one sick kid,” Kerry said. “We need to stop him. I did some background checking on those people,” she added. “And I’ve got some bad news.”
“What is it?”
“The kid has been assaulted before,” Kerry said.
“Was she raped?”
“No.”
“Good, then we won’t allow it to happen this time.”
“What is it with you and women?”
“Even if some men on this crappy world like to force themselves on women in order to get their few minutes of happiness, doesn’t mean I have to like it. I’d rather that it didn’t happen at all, and when time comes in stopping it … then I’ll be gladly to do so. ‘Sides, I love you, and I wouldn’t stand it if anything like that happened to you,” he said pulling Kerry closer.
“I love you too,” she replied before kissing him passionately.
“As much as I want to find Dawn, Faith has a point,” Giles said directed at Buffy. “It’s already 4 a.m.,” he said rubbing his eyes. “Everyone is really tired.”
“I want my sister back,” Buffy said forcefully.
They had been trying to convince her that they should stop looking for Dawn, to get a few hours of sleep before looking again. It was taking its toll on everyone, even Spike was having problems keeping himself awake, and he was a vampire.
“Buffy,” Willow spoke softly. “It’s 4 a.m., we need the sleep, I know you want to find Dawnie, so do we, you know that,” Willow said. “Let’s get some sleep before searching again, okay?”
“Fine, you can all go to sleep, but I’m looking for her,” Buffy said walking towards the door.
“No you’re not,” Faith said stopping Buffy. “We’re going home, getting some sleep, and then we’ll start the search for Dawn again.”
“You need to have Joyce call the police in the morning,” Giles said. “Dawn … she’ll be gone for over 12 hours then, and seeing this is Sunnydale, maybe they’ll actually do something about it this time.”
“I’ll take care of that,” Faith said. “Get some rest, ALL of you,” she said directed mostly at Spike, who gave a small smile and nod in reply. “Come on B, let’s go home and get some sleep.”
Buffy was snuggling comfortably in Faith’s arms, sobbing, she had just faced her mother after she told her the news over the phone. Joyce was devastated to hear about her youngest being kidnapped, by god knows what, or who. She had held her oldest daughter for over an half hour, and both had been crying, Faith had given them their privacy, or she would have if Joyce hadn’t pulled Faith in her arms too.
Now Buffy was snuggling against Faith, who was more then willing to keep the smaller girl in her arms. Occasionally, Faith would place a small kiss on the blonde’s forehead, and whisper loving words in her ears. They both knew that they’d probably wouldn’t sleep anyway, so they just lay there on the bed, at least trying to get some rest before they would continue their search.
“Faith?”
“Yeah?”
“Who would take Dawn?” Buffy asked sincerely.
Faith took a deep breath. “I don’t know B,” she replied, "but we’ll find her.”
“I miss her.”
“I know, me too.”
Buffy shifted so she was now facing Faith. “I want her back Faith,” Buffy said tears already running down her cheek.
Faith brushed her hands through Buffy’s hair, in a loving and comforting way before answering. “We’ll get her back, I promise,” she said. Closing the gap between them, Buffy placed her lips on Faith’s, the brunette returned the kiss, deepening it. Buffy’s hand reached Faith’s neck, pulling her closer to deepen the kiss even more, what began as a loving and caring kiss, quickly turned into a passionate, more demanding kiss in seconds.
Buffy’s hands roamed Faith’s back, moving to her sides, and brushing the sides of her breasts. Buffy was hurrying to get her clothes of, but Faith stopped kissing her and pulled back. “B, what are you doing?”
“I thought … I need you Faith.”
Faith moved into a sitting position and pulled Buffy in her lap, she put the blonde’s legs around her waist, and then put her own hands around Buffy’s waist. “I need you too B,” she said.
“But …” Buffy said already knowing what was going to happen, or rather what wasn’t going to happen.
“But I don’t want this to be a hasty job,” Faith said. “I don’t just want a quick fuck, I want this to mean something, not just because you’re sad about something and need me to comfort you this way,” she spoke softly, but hard enough so the message would be received. Buffy moved off of Faith’s lap and lay down, pulling the brunette down with her. Faith put her arms around Buffy and held her close, Buffy leaned in Faith’s embrace and closed her eyes. “I love you,” Faith whispered to the blonde, and placed a kiss on the back of Buffy’s head.
“I love you too Faith,” Buffy replied.
“Get some sleep,” Faith said, pulling Buffy even closer.
Dawn woke up when somebody opened the door to her room. She looked around and found herself still in the same room she was in before, she hoped it was a dream, but that hope went right away when she saw Mark entering the room. “Good morning sweets,” Mark said. “And how are you feeling today?”
“Miserably, and don’t call me sweets,” Dawn hissed back.
“Now, now, don’t be such a baby,” Mark said. “Why are you feeling like that?”
“Because you gave me this crappy bed to sleep on for one, and the second is that you keep me here against my will.”
“Well that can be fixed … the bed part anyway,” he grinned. “You are not going home for a long time Dawn.”
“What?” She asked angrily. “They’ll find me, and when they do they’re going to kick your ass.”
“I’d like to see them try,” Mark said smirking. “There’s some clean clothes in the closet, and you can take a shower in that room,” he said pointing at the door next to the closet. Then he left again, never taking that smirk off of his face.
“This is so not fun anymore,” Dawn said. She walked to the closet. “At least he’s got good taste in clothes,” she said quirking her brow. She opened the door next to the closet and walked in the bathroom. What Dawn saw, wasn’t what she’d expected; the bathroom was clean, and rather large. It had a bath in it, good lighting, and it was clean. ‘I already said clean, but did I mention it’s clean?’ She thought to herself.
“I guess he’s good with hygiene,” she said before turning on the water. Everything that she needed was there, soap, shampoo, and … “oh, bubbles,” She said smiling. She put some in the tub, making it nice and bubbly. “Smells good,” she said taking in the scent of the bubble bath. “But I still need to get out of here,” Dawn took off her clothes and stepped in the bath, she moved her knees up to her chest and put her arms around them. For the next half hour she just sat there, praying that someone would find her soon, or that she would get out of this herself.
** Magic Box **
“Hey,” Buffy said walking in the shop.
“Hey Buffy,” Willow replied. “Did you sleep last night?” She immediately asked worriedly.
“No, but don’t tell Faith that,” Buffy said. “She thinks I did.”
“Where is she anyway?” Tara asked.
“Shop,” Buffy answered. “She needed to get something, she wouldn’t tell me, she’ll be back within the hour,” Buffy added. “So how’s the search for my sister going?”
“Not good,” Giles said walking in from the back. “We haven’t been able to locate her.”
“Guys, good news,” Faith said walking in the shop.
“I thought you weren’t coming back for an hour?” Buffy asked surprised.
“Yeah, well … I didn’t get that thing I wanted to get either so, anyways,” Faith said. “Good news I was saying, I know who took Dawn.”
“Who?” Buffy said.
“Mark,” Faith said. “I went to the hospital first to check on Nick, and some friends of him were visiting, and saying that Mark hasn’t showed himself at school, for a few days now. They also said he was saying something about Dawn.”
“And that is good news how?” Buffy asked angrily.
“Because now we know he did it, and I can kick his ass,” Faith simply answered. “And yes we still have to find him, but I thought maybe Red and Tara can help us with that.”
“Oh, you mean locate them with a spell?” Anya asked.
“Score one for Anya!” Faith said smiling.
“Hey, I help,” Anya said shrugging.
“So when can you start?” Faith asked.
“It’s not that simple,” Willow said.
“Can you do it?” Buffy asked, she got a nod from both witches. “Then do it.”
“We need something of him,” Willow said.
“Will this do?” Faith asked throwing a ring to them. “It’s a ring, got it from his mother.”
“Didn’t know he had one,” Willow said sarcastically.
“Do the spell,” Faith said. “I need to do something. Buffy can you go to Nick for me, I didn’t speak to him, I immediately left after I heard his friends talking. You need to explain to him what happened.”
“Sure,” Buffy said. “Can we get my sister after that?” She asked in a childlike voice.
It broke Faith’s heart to see Buffy helpless like that, and she could see it hurt the others too. “Of course we’ll get Dawn,” she said smiling. “Go tell Nick what happened and come back here, Red and Tara should be finished by then.”
“Faith.”
“What?”
“I have a name you know.”
“Sorry R … Willow.”
Nick never remembered being in so much pain, his whole body was aching, especially his chest. It felt like something heavy was sitting on it, making it hard for him to breathe. “Then again, sneaking out of the hospital isn’t such a good idea when you’re sick,” he said sarcastically to himself. After he had heard from some of his friends that Mark had disappeared, and that he mentioned Dawn, Nick didn’t wait to get out of the hospital.
Despite the injuries he had gotten because of the drugs, Nick had still been able to get past the nurses and doctors. Now he was walking outside, in the middle of the night, in just some shorts and a t-shirt that Faith had left for him. He was extremely cold, and probably had a mild form of hypothermia, but he had to go on. He had to find Dawn, and make sure she was alright, then he had to find Mark and make sure he would pay for hurting Steven and doing this to him.
He had already made it to Mark’s house to see if his former friend was there, but nobody answered the door, and now he was making his way to one of the many motels in Sunnydale, that he had heard Mark talk about once before.
** Magic Box **
“Is Faith here?” Buffy asked running in the shop.
“No she isn’t,” Giles replied. “What’s wrong?”
“He’s gone,” Buffy said out of breathe. “Nick’s gone. I talked to one of the nurses, and they said he left shortly after some of his friends left. I’ve been trying to find him all day, which shouldn’t be so hard … I mean, this is Sunnydale. That’s why I was gone for so long.”
“Faith hasn’t returned yet,” Tara said looking up. She and Willow had been preparing the spell most of the day, well… they had been searching for a few ingredients all day, preparing for the spell wasn’t supposed to be longer than five minutes. “Where do you think he could be?”
“I don’t know,” Buffy said. “But we have to find him fast. The nurse also said that he had a mild form of hypothermia … Giles … hypothermia isn’t good,” she said looking at the watcher.
“I know it isn’t Buffy,” Giles said worried. “Take a seat, and calm down. Willow, Tara could you hurry with the spell?”
“We were about to begin Giles,” Willow said. “It should have been easier, and we tried that other spell, but someone or thing was blocking it, and this is a little more complicated.”
“Do the spell,” Giles said. “How is your mother doing Buffy?”
“Well… She’s upset, if you could call it that,” Buffy said frowning. “She’s been cleaning the house since I told her, only stopped a few times to eat or to sleep. She’s also been telling herself that she’d kill the person who did this.”
“Then I think we should be glad that she doesn’t know,” Giles said wide-eyed.
“And now Nick is missing too,” Buffy said slumping her shoulders. “If anything would happen to him, his parents would kill Faith.”
“What’s that about killing me?” Faith asked confused. Buffy walked up to her girlfriend, and hugged her. She almost immediately started crying, which left Faith even more confused. “B, what’s wrong?”
“Nick’s missing,” Giles said after Buffy failed to stop herself from crying long enough to tell. “The nurse Buffy talked to said he had a mild form of hypothermia.”
“How’s that spell working?” Faith asked anxiously.
“Almost done,” Tara replied.
“We’ll find him Faith, and Dawn too,” Giles said putting a hand on the brunette’s shoulder.
“We have to,” Faith calmly said. “Coz I think Buffy was right, his mother is going to kill me if something happens to him.”
“Where do you think he could be Ker?”
“I don’t know Kevin,” Kerry replied. “I heard one of his friends talk about some motel before, but I can’t remember which one it was, only thing I remember that it was one near the docks.”
“Then we’ll check there first,” Kevin said. Kevin drove them to the first motel closest to the Sunnydale Docks. They had to be careful not to be spotted by Mark, coz if that would happen, he would take the girl away, and then they would never be able to get her back to her family.
Kevin and Kerry had never planned this, and they sure didn’t want it in their plans so they decided to fix the little problem they had, and return Dawn to her family where she belonged. Then they would take care of Mark, and turn him in, making sure they would point everything of the drugs in his direction so they could get out of town clean.
Sure they would help the girl, but that didn’t mean revealing their business. By now they had enough money to start over again, both knew that they wouldn’t get into something like this anymore. Both would find a job, and earn their income without hurting anyone, anymore.
Kevin opened the door to one of the motels, and saw some woman standing behind the counter. “Excuse me, does a guy named Mark happen to live here?”
“Last name?”
“You know his last name Kerry?”
“No,” Kerry replied, and then looked at the woman. “He’s about this tall,” she said showing Mark’s height. “Muscular, brown hair, brown eyes, kinda creepy look in his eyes?” She asked.
“You mean looks like he owns the world?”
“Exactly,” Kevin said.
“Nope,” the woman said, “But I’ve seen him around,” she added. “Try Sunny’s place.”
“That’s a motel?”
“Motel and bar,” the woman said. “Bad part of town,” she shook her head. “And I thought Willy’s was bad, Sunny’s place has the lowest of low, and I’m not talking about the drunken vampires,” she quickly added. “I’m talking about those filthy, stinking, no good for anything but a meal humans.”
“You’re a vampire?” Kerry asked.
“Sure thing sweets,” the woman said. “The name’s Pat, no offence about the meal stuff,” she said. “I only eat because I have to, not like I choose to be a vampire you know.”
“I thought vampires liked to kill?” Kevin asked confused.
“Not all of ‘em cutie,” Pat replied. “I’m not one of them, it’s pretty boring nowadays, and I really don’t like to get in the way of that brunette chick.”
“Wasn’t the slayer supposed to be blonde?” Kerry asked.
“Well, there’s two,” Pat replied. “The blonde doesn’t come in here, but the brunette does, got a bar back there, she likes to drink once in a while. Forget her sorrows you know.”
“Yeah,” Kerry replied. “But why is that a problem?”
“Some of my friends tried to kill the blonde slayer,” Pat replied. “The brunette rescued her, and she recognised one of my boys. So if I give her free drinks, and I get to be alive.”
“Nice,” Kevin said.
“Hey, gotta do something to keep livin’ or well, unlivin’,” she added with a wink. “Go three blocks ahead, then turn right for another two blocks. That’s where Sunny’s place is.”
“Thanks,” Kevin said.
“Thank you,” Kerry said.
“Sure thing sweets.”
Kevin and Kerry walked out again, and went to the place Pat had told them about, that’s where Mark could be. When they entered the bar, the smoke, and smell of beer filled their nostrils. Kerry found it disgusting, and hurried Kevin to the bartender and ask where they could find Mark.
After describing to the guy for the tenth time what Mark looked like, he finally pointed them into the direction of a door, where they should ask for him. After a small chat with one of the guys in the room they were directed to, Kerry and Kevin found out that there was a guy living at room 12 that fit the description they gave about Mark.
They thanked the guy that helped them, and went on their way to ‘room 12’. When they got there, Kerry noticed that the TV was on, the blue-ish light was reflecting against the window, and nodded at Kevin. “Someone’s home alright,” she whispered to him.
“You think it’s him?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t know, didn’t he still live at home?”
“Yes,” Kevin replied. “Can you look through that window?”
“I’ll try,” Kerry said. She moved through the window and noticed that the curtains had small cuts in them. “So much for privacy,” she muttered to herself when she noticed the cuts were big enough that you could look through the window. She looked through the cuts, and noticed someone sitting in a chair. “It’s the girl,” she whispered to Kevin.
“The boy?”
“Not there,” Kerry whispered back. “Should we get the girl?”
“Yes,” Kevin said. Kerry looked up, and saw Kevin already trying to open the door, and after a few seconds, he proved successful. Both of them slowly walked in the room, seeing the girl jump up from the chair, and was about to scream, he quickly grabbed her, putting his hand over her mouth. “Be quiet,” he whispered. “Be quiet and I will let go of you.”
Dawn nodded and Kevin released her. “What the hell do you want?” Dawn whispered.
“To get you out of here, and away from Mark,” Kerry said giving the girl her jacket.
“Are you taking me back home?” Dawn asked.
“Yes we are, now put on that jacket before he comes back,” Kevin said. “Where are they now, your family?”
“Probably at the Magic Shop,” Dawn replied walking out with the two ‘rescuers’.
“Then we’ll drop you off nearby,” Kerry said.
“Why not bring me there? Mark could be waiting.”
“We’re not exactly what you call good citizens.”
They got in the car, with Kerry and Dawn sitting in the back, and soon Dawn recognised the streets they were driving in. “I’m sorry to do this kid,” Kerry said, and pushed Dawn out of the still moving vehicle.
“Did you locate him?” Faith asked for the thousandth time.
“He’s at some motel near the docks,” Willow quickly said before the brunette slayer got more impatient than she already was.
“Specific motel?”
“No,” Willow answered.
“Come on B, let’s find your sister and then Nick,” Faith said taking Buffy’s hand and dragging her out of the shop.
Since Joyce had the car at home, Buffy and Faith went walking, not wanting to throw away the time that they didn’t have. “What’s going on there?” Buffy asked after they saw someone lying on the floor, and a car driving away. They had only walked about two blocks away from the shop, and there was already trouble.
“I don’t know, let’s check it out.”
Both slayers ran towards the person on the road, when they got closer, they could see the person was a girl, to be more specific, it was Buffy’s sister. “Dawn!” Buffy yelled and ran even faster to her little sister. “Dawn!” She yelled again. She kneeled beside the young girl, and checked for any injuries. Dawn was groaning and complaining really bad, and mumbling about two people. “Dawn? What are you talking about?”
“Buffy?” Dawn said looking up. “Faith?”
“Are you alright?” Faith asked also kneeling beside Dawn. Dawn nodded and then threw herself in the arms of both slayers. “Shh, it’s okay,” Faith soothed. “Come on let’s get her back to the shop,” Faith said helping Dawn up.
“That was fast,” Willow said frowning when they saw the two slayers and Dawn walk into the shop. Then she quickly hurried to Dawn, hugging her and helping her to a chair. “What did he do to you?” She asked seeing the bruises, and cuts on Dawn’s body.
“He didn’t do that,” Dawn said breathing heavily. “Two other people took me out of the place he was keeping me in, and then threw me out of their car here, saying that they would bring me back to my family … so hey, here I am … OUCH!” Dawn yelled.
“I think she might have bruised her ribs,” Faith said lifting Dawn’s shirt up. When she looked at Dawn’s side, the bruises were already forming. “We should take her to a hospital,” Faith said. She put Dawn’s shirt carefully down again, and kissed the girl’s forehead.
“Where’s mom?” Dawn asked.
“She’s at home, I’ll call her for you,” Giles said walking to the phone. “I’ll tell her to meet me at the hospital.”
“Can I go to Nick after that?” She looked at Buffy, who was nervously avoiding her gaze, and looking at Faith. “What? He’s at the hospital right?”
“Not exactly kid …” Faith said taking Dawn’s hand and helping her up so they could get her to a hospital.
“Where is he?”
“We’ll tell you on the way,” Faith said. “Come on, those ribs need to be checked out.
** Atlanta, Georgia; Waters Residence, One day earlier **
“No Bailey, I’m going back to Sunnydale.”
“Sam, we need you here.”
“I can take a short vacation,” Sam replied. “I had promised them that I would come back for a short holiday and that I would bring Chloe and Angel with me.”
“Does that have to be now?”
“Yes Bailey,” Samantha replied smiling. “I’ll be gone for a week, if there is something *really* important you can call me, otherwise I’ll call you on how everything is going, okay?”
“Okay,” Bailey finally gave in.
“Let’s just hope Jack doesn’t decide to pay a visit.”
“Are you sure you’ll be okay?”
“I’ll be fine Bailey,” Samantha replied, and kissed him on his cheek. “Now go, they need you back at the office.”
“Yes ma’am,” Bailey replied, playfully saluting. He grabbed his coat and left the fire-department-turned-home.
Sam watched him leave, and then turned to her daughter and roommate. “So you ready to go?” Samantha asked.
“Yes,” Angel replied. “I’m pretty curious on meeting those teenagers you talked about.”
“They’re not exactly teenagers anymore,” Samantha said. “They are pretty mature for their age, must be something with the vampires.”
“What?” Angel asked surprised. “What are you talking about?”
“Nothing,” Sam replied.
“You said vampires mom,” Chloe said looking at her mother curiously.
“Well, that’s not what I meant,” Sam said. “Never mind lets go.”
** Sunnydale Hospital, Present Day **
“Sweetie are you alright?” Joyce said almost running in the hospital room where Dawn was.
“I’m fine mom.” The youngest of the Summers sisters replied. “Don’t hug that hard, I got my ribs bruised.”
“Sorry sweetie,” Joyce said. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“You’re not the only one,” Dawn said staring at the two slayers. “They’ve been hugging and kissing me ever since I got back, couldn’t get a break ‘till the doctor told them to go away so he could check out my ribs.”
“We’re just glad you are back Dawn,” Buffy said.
“You shouldn’t be here,” Dawn said. “You should be looking for Nick, since I obviously can’t do it like this.”
“We’ll find him,” Buffy said. “He’s strong.”
“I know, but he’s sick and I’m worried about him.”
“We’ll go look for him.”
“So this is Sunnydale,” Angel said looking around. The three had arrived an hour earlier, and put their stuff at the mansion. Samantha then decided she’d give Angel a short tour of the town, of the places she had actually been. “Nice.”
“That it is,” Samantha said. “Wait ‘till you see the inside of the mansion.”
“Where were they?”
“I didn’t tell them we’d come, I thought it would be a nice surprise.”
“Mommy?”
“Yes Chloe?”
“I know that boy,” she said pointing towards a stumbling young guy.
“So do I,” Samantha said rushing towards him. “Nick? Are you alright?” She asked the boy while holding him up. “We need to get him to a hospital fast!”
** Sunnydale Hospital **
“You know what I want to do to that mouth don’t you?” Faith asked looking at a pouting Buffy.
“I sure do,” Buffy said walking towards the brunette. Buffy had decided earlier that she needed to freshen up before going out again to look for Nick, Faith had slipped out of the examining room, and had followed Buffy to the closest bathroom.
“Don’t make me beg for it,” Faith said in a low sensual growl. The moment Buffy was close enough; Faith grabbed her hand and pulled her closer, devouring her mouth. What began as a hungry kiss, turned out in a slow sensual, loving kiss, one tongue massaging the other. Moaning in Buffy’s mouth, Faith put her arms around Buffy’s waist and lifted her a few inches off of the floor.
Buffy broke the kiss, and put her arms around Faith’s neck, foreheads touching, eyes looking in to the other’s soul. “I love you,” Buffy said placing a soft kiss on Faith’s nose.
“Love you too B,” Faith replied hugging the blonde. “Come on, let’s go find Nick before Dawn kills us.” She gave a final light kiss on Buffy’s lips before pulling the blonde to the door.
“Where’d you think he could be?” Buffy asked opening the door.
“I don’t know, but if he knows about Dawn, then he’d be looking for her, which means looking for Mark, and that is never good.”
“Faith look out!” Buffy suddenly said. She tried to stop Faith from bumping into another woman, but it was too late, both of them crashed into each other, leaving the blonde woman falling to the ground. “Owh,” Buffy groaned. “Are you okay miss … Sam?” She said helping the blonde woman up. “What are you doing here?”
“Hello to you too,” Sam said rubbing her forehead. “Sheesh, you got a hard head Faith.”
Faith just grinned at the older woman, she rubbed her forehead too. Even if she was a slayer, colliding with someone’s head on still hurt. “Same to you,” she said smiling.
“What are you doing here?” Sam asked. “Another injury from slaying?”
“Not exactly, Dawn got hurt,” Faith said.
“Oh, speaking of, I found Nick wandering around, looking really hurt.”
“You found Nick?” Buffy said looking at the blonde, then hugging her. “Oh thank god, we were so worried.”
“What happened to him, he looks like he just started rehab.”
“He kinda did,” Faith said. When a confused Sam looked at her, she just shrugged. “Long story,” she said. “Where is he?”
“ER,” Samantha replied. “Chloe and Angel are in the waiting area.”
“You brought Chloe and Angel?”
“This was the little vacation I told you about.”
“Nice start huh,” Buffy said sarcastically, then turned to Faith. “I’ll go tell Mom, Dawn and the others what happened, you go with Sam and see Nick.”
“Okay, meet you at the waiting room?”
“Definitely,” Buffy said. She gave Faith a small kiss, and went to tell Dawn the good news.
Mark walked up to the hotel room where he’d kept Dawn, and opened the door. He stepped in and looked towards the couch where he had left her … she was gone. “What the fuck is going on here?” he walked to the other rooms, and opened them one by one, she wasn’t there either. A low growl came from the back of his throat as he grabbed a chair and threw it across the room. “She’ll die as soon as I find the bitch,” he hissed to himself. “Double joy for me,” he smirked realising there was already something he had done.
When Buffy arrived at the waiting room of the ER, the atmosphere was very sombre. Samantha was comforting Faith for some reason, Chloe and the woman she presumed was Angel, weren’t looking so happy either. Now Buffy was glad that she had convinced Dawn to stay in the examine room, because this wasn’t looking too good. She saw Faith was softly sobbing, a thing that she almost never did, and that’s what made Buffy thoughts even worse.
Buffy walked up to the four of them, and kneeled in front of Faith. “What’s wrong?” She asked, almost afraid of doing so. She took Faith in her arms, when the girl started crying, and looked at Samantha. “What’s going on?”
“It’s Nick,” Samantha said. “He’s in a coma, the doctor said something about an overdose, and cold,” Sam added. “I can’t remember.”
“Oh god,” Buffy said realizing how much this was hurting Faith. It was hurting her too, the boy was like a brother to her, and Dawn absolutely adored him, hell … the two adored each other. And Faith … the two had been like a brother and sister with their rivalry, if she didn’t know better, Buffy would have thought they were actually family, the two even looked alike.
“Faith honey?” Buffy said. “Can I get you something?”
“Just stay,” she whispered holding Buffy tighter. Buffy couldn’t believe what was happening, first Nick gets in trouble because of Mark, then Dawn got kidnapped, then they got her back and then Nick was gone, and now Nick was back, but in a coma. It seemed like everything was going wrong at the moment. Her family and friends were getting hurt, and not even by forces of the darkness, but by human beings.
‘How could any human being hurt another,’ Buffy questioned herself. ‘That’s just sick.’
“What?” Faith asked breaking the embrace. “What did you just say?”
“I didn’t say anything,” Buffy said.
“You said it was sick,” Faith said angrily. “You said it was sick to hurt another human being.”
“I thought that, I didn’t say it.”
“Then you think I’m sick,” Faith said. “I hurt people, I killed a man. Then I must be one sick chick.”
“Faith? Where is this coming from,” Buffy questioned upset. “It was just a thought, that’s what everyone thinks.”
“So everyone thinks I’m sick.”
“I didn’t say that!” Buffy replied raising her voice. “Stop this, what are you doing?”
“Just leave me alone!” Faith said running away.
“Faith!”
“Buffy don’t,” Sam’s calming voice said. “She’ll be okay.”
“What?” Buffy questioned with tears in her eyes. “Why would she … she knows I didn’t mean it like that. I would never…”
“I know Buffy, I know.”
“She killed someone?” Angel questioned.
Faith had wandered outside Nick’s room for about thirty minutes after her outburst to Buffy. She had been waiting for the nurses to let her inside, but they told her to wait a half hour to get clearance by the doctor. The thirty minutes were over… “Can I go in now?” Faith asked again, in a more angrily tone.
“Calm down Miss Spencer.”
“Don’t tell me to calm down,” Faith hissed. “Can I go in or not?”
“Not like that you’re not.” The nurse said forcefully.
“Then I’m going in myself,” Faith said walking past the nurse.
“No you’re not,” she said again, now stepping in front of the brunette.
Faith raised a brow in disbelieve and with a hint of pleasure. “Excuse me?” She said. “I am going in there, and you can’t stop me. No one can stop me.”
“Yes I can, I’ll call the police.”
“You can’t do that, I’m family.”
“Family knows what’s best for them, but that doesn’t mean storming in angry like you are doing now.”
“Let me in,” Faith hissed.
“No,” the nurse replied forcefully.
“Fine, have it your way,” she said and grabbed the shocked nurse by her arms. “I’m getting in there,” she said pulling her closer. “Get out of my way,” Faith almost growled.
“No.” Despite the fact that the nurse was terrified as hell, she still kept her ground and said no to Faith again.
Faith let out a low growl, and shoved the nurse out of her way. When she was about to enter the Nick’s room, the nurse was in front of her again. “Get out of my way,” she hissed.
“No,” the nurse said again.
“Brave little nurse,” Faith said. Before the nurse knew what was happening, she flew back against the wall. Faith had just hit her, sending her flying against the wall. The terrified nurse looked at Faith in disbelieve, tears streaming down her face of pain, she tried to get up, but couldn’t. Faith looked at the nurse smiling, when she saw the nurse was crying out of pain, and had a absolutely terrified look on her face, she shook her head slightly letting fade in what had just happened.
Faith looked at the nurse once more, and took a step closer, which made the nurse crawl back in fear. It was then Faith realized what had just happened, she had let her anger, and her dark side take control once more, and hit the poor nurse. The feeling was nauseating, and Faith felt like she was about to throw up, she covered her mouth with her hand, and ran… ran as fast away from this as she could. Ran away from the anger, and pain that were building up inside again for what she had just done.
“Another,” Faith said dryly to the bartender.
“Are you okay Faith?” The bartender replied.
“Shut up Pat,” Faith hissed. “Didn’t ask for anything, just give me another.”
“Sheesh Faith, you’ve been downing that tequila as if it were lemonade, are you sure you want to do this?”
“Since when do vamps care?” Faith said bluntly.
“Since you’re a regular, good for the business.”
“Oh right, only the business.”
“Shut up,” Pat said and gave Faith another glass.
“I hit someone, an innocent,” Faith said remembering what had happened. “I hit an innocent.”
“Why’d you do that sweets?”
“I lost it,” Faith said. “I lost my temper, got angry, and lived it out on the nurse.”
“Why’d you lose it?”
“Because of everything,” Faith replied. “First Nick gets in the hospital by Mark, then Dawn gets kidnapped by Mark, then Nick goes out to find Dawn and ends up in a fucking coma!” Faith said to the point of yelling. “Nick’s in a fucking coma because of that stupid…”
“Keep it down sweets,” Pat said soothingly. It didn’t surprise her that she did that, ever since Faith came in her place, she had been talking to the girl about her problems. Faith, on many occasions, had laughed about it, ‘talking to a vampire, ain’t that ironic,’ she had said once. Then they had both laughed about it, but Faith kept coming back to talk about whatever it was that was bothering her at the moment, if it was a little fight with Buffy, or a huge demon problem.
“I feel like screaming Pat,” Faith said silently. “Scream until every one in this fucked up world has heard it, and then kill the son of a bitch who dared to touch my family.”
“That’s a first,” Pat said raising a brow.
“It wouldn’t be too hard, I killed before.”
“No not that,” Pat said. “You called ‘em family. You never did that, you talked about ‘your girl’ and her sister, and your now brother, but you never called ‘em family.”
“Guess I did.”
“Feeling goes deep doesn’t it?”
“To the soul,” Faith replied without any hesitation. “It goes to my soul and it fucking hurts when someone or thing dares to hurt it.”
“Welcome to the world of caring cutie, need another?”
“Hit me,” Faith said holding out her glass.
“What!” Buffy almost screamed. “She did what?”
“She hit me, got upset, and ran away,” the nurse replied.
“Why didn’t you stop her?”
‘Screaming involved,’ Dawn said to herself watching her sister. Buffy had just told her what had happened to Nick, and when they walked to his room, they saw the nurse looking pretty upset. Buffy immediately got worried when the nurse said Faith was gone, but she got mad when she told Buffy that Faith had hit her. “Oh,” Dawn groaned. ‘Definitely screaming involved,’ she thought to herself with a pained expression on her face.
“Buffy,” Dawn tried, soothingly putting a hand on her sister’s shoulder.
“Stay out of this Dawn,” Buffy hissed.
“Buffy!” Dawn said now more upset. “Get your butt out of this hospital and find Faith, cursing at the nurse won’t help ‘cause he doesn’t know where Faith is.”
Buffy looked at her sister, shocked she opened her mouth, then closed it again. Opened her mouth, but no sound came from it. “Sorry,” she whispered to the nurse, and pulled Dawn away from her. “Stay here,” Buffy said. “Tell mom to come here, and look after Nick.”
“I will, just find Faith will you,” Dawn said. “Before she does something she’ll really regret.”
“I will,” Buffy said. “And be careful with your ribs,” Buffy kissed her sister’s forehead and walked out of the hospital.
“Another,” Faith said again.
“Are you sure cutie?” Pat asked. “You already had ten of ‘em.”
“I’m sure,” Faith replied. “Just give me another, I can take it.”
“If you say so,” Pat replied, and gave Faith another drink. She shook her head, and sat on a stool next to the brunette slayer. Even if she was a vampire, she wasn’t all that bad. She had lived a long time on this world now, and it still hurt her seeing people drink like this, even if she was the one handing them out.
In the 150 years that she had been ‘undead’, she had seen a lot of stuff. Other vampires had laughed at her, and shut her out of their world because she had compassion for humans. Compassion that she shouldn’t have, but she couldn’t help it. When a low life vampire had sired her, and made her his slave, she had seen the way he treated humans. He had kept humans as slaves too, and every time he would bring in a new one, she was the one taking care of them.
That’s how the compassion for humans had started, Pat knew she was still stronger than them, and that she could kill them in an instant, be she didn’t. After being with her sire for 50 years, she would only kill if she needed blood again, or she would get it from another place, without having to kill. Most of the time she survived on pig’s blood, didn’t taste good, but it kept her going.
After another 50 years, she had ‘bumped’ into her sire again, making her wonder why he had survived that long, because he wasn’t all that strong as he had been when he made her. She had done everything to him that he had done to humans. It was the last thing she had ever done to hurt anyone… or anything.
After that, she had opened her hotel, and bar, and just served alcohol to vamps, demons and humans, humans that know vampires, demons, and those beings exist. She had always chuckled at the fact that she was being compared to Willy, but she didn’t mind it, Willy’s place has a good reputation, but she gave, as weird as it sounds, emotional support to her costumers. And once again, it was Faith who had been in her bar the most.
“Why aren’t you kicking me out yet?” Faith suddenly asked.
“Because I closed shop an hour ago sweets,” Pat replied. “It’s 3 a.m.”
“Oh god,” Faith groaned, suddenly experiencing major headaches. “Buffy’s going to kill me.”
“Don’t worry about that, here, coffee,” Pat said handing her a cup.
“Just give me another,” Faith said pushing the cup away.
“Take the cup,” Pat said angrily. “I don’t think that blonde of yours would like to smell an alcohol breath at night in bed.”
“I guess,” Faith said taking the cup anyway. “She’ll be fucking pissed at me!” Faith was groaning again. Groaning because by now, Buffy would have found out what had happened, that she had hit the nurse and went to Pat for some drinks. Even if she didn’t know, Buffy would find her anyway. “Oh she’ll find me all right Pat, if there’s one thing Buffy Summers is good at, then it’s at finding people.”
“She can’t be that mad,” Pat tried.
“Are you kidding me?” Faith said. “She’ll be furious at me! I hurt another human being because I couldn’t control my temper! I’ll be sleeping on the couch for weeks!” Faith groaned, and let her head fall on the bar. “She’ll be fucking furious … and now I’ve got an even worse head ache.”
“Come on sweets, it can’t be that bad.”
“You don’t know B.”
“No she doesn’t,” a voice said from behind.
“B…” Faith whispered turning around.
“She looks pissed,” Pat whispered to the brunette slayer.
“Tell me about it,” Faith replied.
“You … mansion … now,” was all Buffy said. Faith quietly left the bar, and went to the mansion. Buffy then turned around again, to face Pat, who gulped, and looked afraid for the first time in a very long time.
“I…”
“Thanks for the call,” Buffy simply said. “Gives you a few more months to live … or un-life … or whatever,” she added frowning.
“You’re welcome,” Pat replied, and went on with her own business.
“I’m fine Willow,” Buffy said to the redhead. “Yes, she’s here with me at the mansion … yes Willow … Wills! Yes I will, and Willow thanks for looking out for my mom and sister. Okay, see you tomorrow, bye,” Buffy placed the phone back on its place and frowned. ‘Damn that girl can talk.’ When Buffy arrived a few minutes later to the mansion, Faith had avoided eye contact with her and went upstairs. After that, she had made that call to Willow, and was now grabbing herself a drink, thinking what she would do to Faith in the mean time.
It still bothered her that Faith on most occasions never talked to her, she would only express five percent of her feelings, but that was about it. She would never say anything if there was something bothering her, that was something she would just keep hidden inside herself, and that was what bothered Buffy the most. There were times when she knew exactly what was going on with the brunette, and then she was at a complete loss. It was hurting her that Faith wouldn’t talk to her, and the brunette probably knew it, but didn’t think anything of it. She simply wouldn’t share her feelings with Buffy.
Buffy grabbed some orange juice, and two glasses. She walked upstairs and found Faith already laying in bed, Buffy knew she wasn’t asleep yet, her breathing was too heavy for that. “I know you’re awake Faith,” Buffy said,