One More Time: Gone
by Sulks
Rating: PG-13

Cordelia pulled Faith into a fierce hug after the dark-haired Slayer stepped off the train. "I've missed you," Cordelia muttered, squeezing her friend a little tighter than usual. She pulled back to examine her friend and it hurt her to see the dark circles under her friend's eyes. Clearly, Faith had been more troubled by what had happened than her flippant tone on the telephone had conveyed.

"Missed ya too, C," Faith said breezily.

"Are you okay?"

"Five by five."

"Come on, let's go back to my place," Cordelia said, reaching for one Faith's hands. Faith silently trailed after the Seer.

"Are you sure you're okay?" Cordelia asked again, once the two were back at her apartment, and sprawled across the sofa.

"Yeah," Faith said flatly.

"Because you look like a raccoon with those dark circles under your eyes."

Faith snorted. "Thanks a lot, C."

"I talked to Buffy, you know," Cordelia said softly, watching as Faith's head snapped up at the mention of the blonde Slayer. "She really is sorry. You should talk to her..."

Faith shrugged. "There's nothing to talk about. I was happy, but it never lasts. I got complacent and stupid, and she screwed me over. That's all there really is to it."

"I think there's more than that," Cordelia gently protested.

"You on her side or mine, C?" Faith asked gruffly.

"Of *course* I'm on your side. She was wrong, but she makes you happy--"

"She's sort of made me miserable lately, C," Faith said wryly.

"I'm not saying you should take her back...just talk to her...even I talked to Xander after he cheated one, albeit only to insult him. There has be some stuff that you need to work out, and you can't do it if you keep running away all the time."

"I don't do that!"

"Yeah, you do. You need to start being a grownup."

"Fuck you, C--"

"Fuck you, too."

Faith sagged back down into the sofa. "I was happy with her," Faith said sadly.

Cordelia reached around and squeezed Faith's knee. "I know," she said softly.

"I never even saw it coming."

"I know..."

"I should've though," Faith said, her voice cracking. "I mean, what did I expect? She knew all about what a big fucking ho I was, so *of course* she would get suspicious. Fuck. Plus, me and my big, dirty mouth--"

"Shut up," Cordelia snapped, "don't blame this on yourself, she messed up, not you."

"I know," Faith pouted. "I'm just saying."

Cordelia poked Faith in the ribs. "Let's order in some Chinese."

"Sounds good, Sunnydale Chinese food is just shitty."

That night, Faith was trying to sleep on the sofa, although she was restlessly tossing and turning and had thrown herself off on three occasions. Ever since she'd started dating Buffy, she'd just stopped considering other people sexually. Sure, she could admit someone was attractive, but it used to be that Faith was *attracted* as well. It wasn't true anymore after she'd gotten together with Buffy, and she really wasn't sure why, and it had freaked her out a little bit when she realised it (and she'd only realised it after people hit on her in the Bronze and she found that no matter how attractive they were, she didn't even think about anyone but Buffy). But she soon just grew to accept it, and she was happy with it. There was only so much random, nameless sex she could have before she ran out of luck, and she thought getting together with Buffy was a stroke of good luck, a signal that things would get better in a life that had been otherwise filled with dismal strokes of luck. Of course, it didn't quite work out that way.

The next day, Cordelia had to go to work, and Faith was sitting on the sofa in her underwear and munching on Kix cereal watching some random talk show with that kid from Saved by the Bell. She was laughing at some especially sentimental and mushy comment Slater made, when the phone rang. Thinking it was Cordelia calling to confirm her plans for lunch, she answered it with a cheerful, "Whatsa happening, hot stuff?" in imitation of Long Duk Dong in the movie, Sixteen Candles.

"Faith?"

"Buffy." Immediately, Faith's tone chilled over noticeably and it hurt Buffy, to have heard the warmth in Faith's voice and then to have it all just taken away with one word from her. "I thought you were Cordelia," Faith said, her voice flat. "What do you want?"

"I just...I wanted to see if you were okay..."

"Five by five. Is that it?"

Buffy sighed, she knew she wasn't going to get any further with Faith. "Yes," she replied, choking back tears. "Faith," she whispered, "I'm sorry. I love you so--"

"I thought you said that was it," Faith interrupted.

"I'm sorry--"

"You don't get it, B," Faith interrupted. "We're *okay*. You don't need to keep saying you're sorry for fucking me over. So stop it, because it's bugging the fuck out of me. I'm just kind of pissed off at you right now, and I need to cool down. Away from you. *We're* fine."

"I was actually just apologising for having kept talking after I said that was it."

Faith paused. "Oh." She started laughing, and an element of true warmth entered Faith's voice. "I'll swing by Monday night after work to see you."

"Really?" Buffy asked hopefully.

"Yeah."

"I'll see you Monday night."

"Yeah."

Monday night rolled around and then passed by without any sign of Faith. Buffy finally picked up the phone sometime after 2AM and called Cordelia.

"Is Faith there?" Buffy asked.

"What?"

"Is. Faith. There?" Buffy said slowly, her voice oozing with condescension. She was a little annoyed.

"What are you talking about? I dropped her off at the train station this morning before I had to go to work. She should be *there*."

"What?" Buffy asked, confused.

"What?"

"Huh?"

"What?"

"Oh, shut up!" Buffy exploded. "She's not here!"

"Well, of course she's not *there* she moved out, remember?"

"But she said she'd come by..."

"Did you call her apartment?"

"I don't have the number," Buffy said sadly, "Faith never gave me the address or the phone number."

"I have it," Cordelia said, "I'm only going to give it to you because I'm worried, and she would have had to given it to you eventually anyway." Cordelia reached around and grabbed her address book and recited the phone number and address Faith had written down in her careless scrawl.

"Thanks, Cordelia..."

"Did she go in for work?"

"I don't know. I'll call Sheila tomorrow."

"Let me know," Cordelia ordered.

"I will."

Buffy hung up the phone and dialed Faith's number. It rang five times before the voice mail service came on, and Buffy just hung up. She was getting a bad feeling. She left to go to the address Cordelia had given her and realised that Faith's new apartment wasn't that far from her old motel room. There was no answer there either.

Buffy was worried, and she stayed up all night until 9AM when Sheila's opened and went down in person.

"Sheila...did Faith come into work yesterday?"

"No, she didn't...she didn't call. I was wondering what happened to her. What's wrong?"

"She...her friend dropped her off at the train station yesterday morning, but no one's heard from her since."

"Did her friend see her get ON the train?" Sheila asked, her forehead wrinkling in worry.

"I don't know," Buffy said, biting her lip. "I'll call and ask. Thanks, Sheila. I'll keep you posted."

Buffy went back home, deeply worried. Where the hell was Faith? It was just like her to do something like that, but it wasn't like her not to at least call in at work if she was going to miss it. She went home and dialed Cordelia's number and found out that Cordelia had not witnessed Faith actually getting on a train, which was when the shit began hitting the fan.

Buffy and Dawn went to the Sunnydale train station, but no one there had seen Faith either. A maintenance worker glanced at the photograph that Dawn held up and insisted that Faith hadn't come off any trains, because he "would've noticed a girl that looked that good." Once the sun had set, Angel and Cordelia went to the train station and asked around about Faith. Someone who worked in the ticket box said he'd seen Faith and Cordelia the day before, but didn't see Faith board a train.

The blonde Slayer wasn't sure what was going on. Had Faith run off again or did something happen to her? She wasn't really sure which scenario it was, but both possibilities made her feel sick to her stomach. Several days later, Faith hadn't surfaced and everyone was going berserk from worry. Buffy took time off from work, leaving Dawn alone in the house, to go to LA to figure out what had happened. Dawn had wanted to come along, but Buffy insisted that Dawn go to school.

Cordelia was glaring at Buffy as Buffy parked into a space. She was still glaring when Buffy got out of the car, but there were more important things to worry about than resuming their high school-old bitch fest.

"Hi," Cordelia said, keeping her voice civil.

"Hi."

"Keeping your hair short. Looks good."

"You're blonde now, I always said blonde was the way to be."

"Let's just cut the small talk and look for our girl."

"Fine by me," Buffy snapped, intent of finding Faith. People went missing in Los Angeles all the time, but Faith wasn't just a person and there had to be some sort of explanation for whatever was going on. But the whole situation gave her, as Dawn puts it, "the belly rumblings."

...continued in Secret Life...