Your Winter
by tainted_blood_chylde
Rating: PG
It was about two am, it was annoyingly quiet, nothing but the pitter patter of rain and wind and creaks of the building settling. The dim light that shone through the rain streaked window was barely enough to be more than a pin prick in the night blackness. Faith flipped over the page in her magazine and yawned. She hated night-shift. The morgue was always so creepy at this time of night. She hated that she'd been forced to get a job here to support herself through College, Cheap-Ass parents. How did they expect her to get decent enough grades in her exams this way? Just because she wouldn't go to law school like Meredith. Now here she was working four nights a week in a job that paid less for one night than working a shift in the nearest McDonalds.
She sighed and stretched her arms above her head, oh well, at least she didn't come home at the end of the night smelling like burgers. She smiled, remembering her flat mate Tina's recent job efforts. She, Maxine and Tina had been living together for about seven months now. It was a cool little arrangement. They each led their own little lives, and met up once a week to discuss it over pizza. Her stomach grumbled at the thought of it. Where was Christopher?? She hated it when he was late. The pick-up should not have taken him THAT long. She supposed there might have been a problem if she was honest about it. There was quite a few this time, she hated it when she got more than three a night. These ones were being shipped over all the way from Sunnydale, the morgue over there was too small to process them and apparently there was some special interest the FBI had in these particular bodies.
From what she had heard already, it had been like a medieval battle involving several missing girls all over the place who had wound up in Sunnydale. Poor things, apparently many of them were no more than 15 years old. She hated it when the young ones went, it didn't seem right somehow. She looked at her watch again, two-forty-three.
She opened up her cell and dialed the number for the Hummer, the affectionately nickname she had given the pick-up truck because it always made a pleasent purring sound. She wanted so badly to just go home.
"Hello?" the strong male voice answered.
"Where the hell are you?" She demanded.
"Oh it's you! Hey Sweet-cakes how's things back in Dead-Central?" Christopher flirted. She rolled her eyes.
"Quiet, as always and gettting closer to the end of my shift, come on Chris, what is taking so long??" she piped.
"This place was quite a mess when I got here, it's taken me and about six very helpful officers to get all the pieces collected" he explained.
"Pieces?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah, looks like the crusades down here" he sighed "I'll be back when I can Little Bit. Just hang tight, David should be starting in soon anyway."
"David? What's he doing out tonight?" she asked.
"They needed a few extra vechicles there's about thirty bodies in total down here" he said.
"Really?" she felt slightly sick now "All kids?"
"No, there's a few in their twenties, we're still trying to ID most" he explained.
"Oh" she sighed. "Well just hurry back."
"I will" he said as he ended the call.
"Hey!" David called as he wheeled in the newest slide.
"Hey yourself! What's that?" she said as she looked down at the cloth in the shape of small person below.
"Buffy Anne Summers" he announced as he pulled back the covers and revealed the body of a young blond haired woman.
"Oh, pity, she looked like a pretty one.. lets get her prep'd!" Faith said as she turned back to her magazine.
Faith spat her gum into the ash-tray beside the desk and grabbed a pair of disposable gloves before going into the main office to grab her log in file and began filling in the necessary forms. This was going to be a long night. Perhaps she should just fill in all the continuous details on one form and then she could photocopy it and just put in the details of all the other deposits later when she was cleaning them up? She mused to herself, then shook her head, Travers would have a fit.
“Where is she?!” A young woman's voice screamed as someone came rushing through the doors just behind Faith as she wandered back into the main morgue room.
“Whoa! Hold it girly! What do you think you are doing? You aren’t allowed in here!” Faith said as she came from behind her desk to block the girl's path.
Faith looked at the new visitor in front of her, She was about 16, with long brown hair, skinny little thing, and obviously in a state, her clothes, which consisted simply of a pair of training shoes, blue faded jeans and a white t-shirt, were covered in dirt and blood stains. Faith didn’t even have to guess where she had come from. She must have been one of the survivors of whatever had happened back at that school in Sunnydale.
“I need to see her! I know she’s here!” She snapped again.
“Who?” Faith demanded.
“Buffy! Where is she?” Dawn demanded. Faith's eyes shot up, her mind flashing onto an image of the young blonde haired woman who had just been wheeled into the processing room.
“The body that David just brought in?” Faith asked.
“I have to see her!” Dawn squeaked for a second time, only now tears were choking her words.
“I can't let you do that, not until we’ve cleaned her up and then you have to wait until the Detective gets here so you can ID her official so we can release the remains, but trust me kiddo, you don’t wanna see the body the way it is right now” Faith tried to reason with her.
“My name is Dawn, and don’t you dare call her ‘IT’ that’s my sister in there!!” she snapped, her blue tear filled eyes shining with defiance.
“Dawn!” a male voice called as a tall twenty-something young man with a cast on his arm said as he came bolting in through the door after her. “Dawn! Don’t just run off like that!” he pleaded.
“Look Sir, you both can't be in here” Faith said again, this night was beginning to be more than she had bargained for, they better be giving her over-time for this.
Xander stopped and looked at the young woman who was wearing, black jeans which complemented her heeled boots and the red top she wore under her white lab coat made her tanned skin look somewhat exotic. Her sharp cheekbones and dark hair that surrounded her serious and sympathetic face took him by surprise for a second. She stood in front of him blocking his and Dawn’s path to the main room where the fresh bodies were kept. Morgues were all the same, and over the last seven or eight years, Xander had seen more than his fair share of the inside of a morgue, he just hated it was for this reason, his heart hurt to think of it.
“Dawn, the cops are gonna be here soon and they are gonna start asking lots of questions.” He warned her.
“I don’t care about their questions! I just lost my family tonight Xander!” Dawn shouted.
“Anyone who comes here has usually lost someone, but please trust me, you don’t want to see her until she’s been cleaned up” Faith replied sympathetically.
“She is right” a strong accented female voice said as a tall young black Korean woman dressed in black trousers and a green tank top and leather jacket slung over her shoulder said as she entered the room. Faith studied the latest visitor, she had her hair pulled back into some kind of no-fuss weave and her jaw was bruised and commanding, everything about her demanded respect.
“I'm Sorry but I'm gonna have to ask you to leave!” David said as he came back into the main morgue room.
“We were just leaving” Kendra said, as she touched a hand onto Dawn's shoulder.
“You have twenty minutes, then I need to see her” Dawn said, her gaze set soully on Faith, she nodded politely in response as the young woman turned on her heel and stormed off out of the room.
“What was that about?” David asked.
“Wrong room, they came for those remains you landed in here with a few moments ago” Faith explained as she watched the doors swing closed.
“That blonde?” he asked.
“Yeah, they must have come all the way up here from what-ya-call-it” Faith said as she followed him into the main Clean Room.
“Sunnydale?” he suggested.
“That’s the one, either way, lets get this night over with so I can go home to my bed” Faith said as she pulled back the covers and began to clean the blood off the cheeks of the corpse. Poor kid, she thought as she started to stitch up the stab wound in the chest of the body.
“Looks like it was done with a wooden object of some kind” Faith said as she pulled out a fragment of wood from the left side of the body.
“Yeah, but that’s not what killed her, see here?” David said as he turned the side of the head over to reveal a small puncture mark in the back of the victims skull. “In fact, that you’re patching up right there, looks like it was healing long before this here even happened” he said as Faith took a picture of it and noted the findings in the case-file.
“When’s Argento getting here?” Faith asked.
“Detective Argento, to you Micheals and shouldn’t you be at home already?” the Detective smiled as he walked in the door.
“Over-time, besides I don’t have class tomorrow” she smiled back.
“Tell Tina I said hey” he said as he walked over to the slab and had a look at the body they were examining. He read the toe-tag. Buffy Summers.
“You bet, the vic’s family is outside in the hall” Faith said as she put her pen back into her jacket pocket and moved over beside him.
“Sorry I was so late!” Christopher said as he came barging through the door with a new slab. “Traffic out this way was awful! Media is all over the joint out there, International Battle-Royale they are calling it. Slaughter of the Lambs I tell you!” He wheeled the new remains beside the other one and Faith pulled back the Covers.
She saw a skinny red-headed girl, well part of her anyway, the rest had shifted to the bottom of the bed. Faith felt sick.
“Aww come on! After that shark vic the other week, THIS bothers you? Come on, that girl who got mauled by that panther in Los Gatos was worse than this!” Christopher said.
“Still, I think I met her once. Remember that guy Maxine was dating a while ago, the guy from Sunnydale?” Faith said.
“The guy from the band?” David asked.
“Yeah that’s him, he had a picture of the group and I think she’s in it, Wilma or something… She was pretty cool, gave me some cool sites that helped me with my final year project” Faith said as she looked down at what was left of her. “What could DO something like that?” she asked almost below her breath.
“Alright Michels! I'm here now, you can head on home now” Travers said as he stormed in and put his coat on.
“No Problem” she said meekly as she left the room. Walking into the hallway she saw Dawn staring at her, lowering her eyes Faith turned the other way and headed towards the exit.
“You are up early” Faith said as she walked into the tiny kitchen and saw Tina packing away her course notes.
“Hey!” she smiled brightly, her red hair falling over her face slightly as she lifted her head up from her task. “You're home late!”
“Late delivery” Faith replied.
“There’s coffee if you want some, fresh pot” Tina said as she lifted her cup and took a sip.
“Thanks” Faith said as she walked over and lifted a cup and began to make herself one. “Deputy Do-Da sends his adoration and love.”
“Neil?” Tina smiled.
“Yeah” Faith smiled back “He was over tonight, some bodies his branch have special interest in.”
“The International Battle-Royale” Tina mused. “I heard about it on the news, god it was awful!”
“What was awful?” Meredith said as she came downstairs and into the kitchen.
“The Sunnydale Murders” Tina said.
“Oh yeah I heard about that on the news, so Faith is it true what they say?” she said as she picked up an apple from the table and sat down to look at her sister. “Were most of the bodies dismembered??”
“You know I can’t talk about that” Faith said looking at her older sister. “What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn’t you be in court or something?”
“My shower is broken, so I came over to use yours, Chris said it was okay” she explained as she dried her dark hair.
“Yeah well last I checked Chris didn’t live here, is that my…?” Faith said looking at the blue silk blouse that her sister was wearing underneath her black trouser suit.
“Yeah, I'm borrowing it, my cream blouse got soaked on the way over here this morning, the weather this last week or so has been awful!” she said as she stood up and proceeded to brush her hair.
“Whatever. Why are you even up this early anyway?” Faith said as she rolled her eyes and took her coffee upstairs. She looked at the clock in the hallway.
6.45am.
Chris was right, Traffic that morning HAD been a nightmare and it had taken her nearly twenty minutes to get past the news crews. Whatever had happened in Sunnydale had drawn media coverage like a moth to a flame.
Peeling her slender stiff form out of her denim blue jacket and black jeans had needed a little too much effort. She just wanted to sleep, she could feel the sleepiness beginning to paralyse her weary form as she lay backwards onto her bed.
Meredith infuriated her, she was always like this, showing up uninvited, taking her things without asking, arranging things with other people without even consulting her. It wasn’t even like they were related!! She couldn’t complain she supposed. It could have been a lot worse. Her real mother was an abusive alcoholic and no one even her mother knew who her father was.
The Michels had been good to Faith, after she’d been taken into foster care, and after the loss of their own daughter Holly, they had adopted Faith and treated her as their own and she loved them, hell she loved Meredith like a sister, still sometimes the girl didn’t know when to respect a person privacy. Her mind drifted back to Dawn Summers, poor kid, Faith had been no older than that herself when she lost her mother, not that it was much of a loss, still she knew how it felt to be alone with no family.
An alarm went off, followed moments later by the sound of a door opening and a toilet flushing. A soft knock at the door and Faith sat up slightly to see Maxine peeking her head shyly around the corner.
“Can I borrow…?” she began politely.
“In the bathroom, third drawer down, you're welcome” Faith smiled, referring to the condoms she kept there. It was nice that she had found her own family, she wouldn’t be without Tina and Maxine.
Tina had been dating Detective Argento for about six months, they had met one night when Tina had been picking up Faith when her bike was in the shop and they both hit it off immediately.
Maxine on the other hand spent most her time with every dead-beat and two-timing loser going. Faith tried not to judge, fair play to the girl, she used the users. She could respect that.
Faith on the other hand, had been dating the adorable Chris on and off for the last eight and a half months and she was worried that soon she’d have to give in to his constant nagging of her moving in with him which she didn’t really want to do, she liked her little arrangement. Or end the relationship. Neither possibility seemed acceptable to her. She loved Chris.
She lay back onto the bed again and put a pillow over her head as the thumping started again followed by a few large groans. Maxine was loud, thank god she had to teach over at the Centre today. Faith wanted nothing more than sleep.
Ring ring.
She moaned and reached her hand over to the bedside desk and lifted her cell to her ear.
“Hello?” she said dreamily.
“Morning Beautiful!” Chris said.
“Hey. Mr Morgan, what can I do for you?” she smiled.
“I just wanted to make sure you were okay” he said softly, he always did the sweetest things.
“I'm okay, just tired” she replied.
“Do you feel okay to pull an extra shift today?” he asked before pausing. “Henry isn’t well this morning and we’re kinda under a lot of pressure to get these bodies processed. It would really help us out” he said finally.
“I just got home, I haven’t slept” she said weakly, she knew there was some kind of motive behind this call.
“Well take a nap for a while and come in later say 2.30pm? Can you do that for me babe? Please.. I missed you, how often do we get to spend the day working together, and the extra money can be used to plan a weekend away for two..” he pleaded, she hated it when he used that voice.
“Alright, I'll see you then” she relented.
“OK! I'll see you later, don’t forget to pick up some donuts or something on the way in, I’ll give you the cash for them later” he said in a much more chirpy voice. She hated that he was a morning person. They were all morning people, Chris, Henry, Travers, Sylvia, Frank, David.
“OH!!” Maxine.
“Okay, Ill see you later” she said before hanging up and burying her head in the pillow again. The world wasn’t fair!
The weather was too warm, she’d forgotten how warm Sunnydale was, too much time spent up north in a prison cell. She loved this kitchen, even though it hadn’t been used to cook anything proper in a really long time, she always remembered Joyce making dinner for her and Buffy when she was here. She missed Joyce, it was hard to believe that she was gone, so much had changed since she’d been away. She should have been here for Buffy back then.
“You got a rough sitch here, trying to turn a bunch of little girls into an army...” Faith said as she came out of her musings and looked out over the back yard filled with young girls training in different fighting styles.
“They're potential slayers, just like we were” Buffy said grumpily as she sipped her tea and looked at the map of the vineyard that Willow had given her. “We've spent all this time worrying about the seal and the hellmouth. The bad guys always go where the power is. They're protecting the vineyard or something at the vineyard. And I say it's time we go in and take it away from them.”
“Wicked ambitious plan B, you're forgetting this Caleb dude can render two full-grown slayers useless in one punch right?” Faith said she said indicating at her bruised face.
“Look I know this sounds a little crazy..” Buffy started.
“NO B it IS crazy. Look Baby, I don’t want to burst your bubble, but if we do this thing, there's a hell of a lot of kids are gonna die!” Faith argued.
“I know that!” she exclaimed “But look at how many we are losing by sitting here and doing nothing!” she cried. “He almost killed Xander! He KILLED Anya! He took her head and left the rest of the body right there for us to find!” the blond said passionately. “How many more are going to have to die, before someone actually LISTENS to me!”
“I hear you B, I always hear you, you know that!” Faith said as she drew closer to Buffy, putting her strong arms tenderly around the smaller girl's waist. “But we can't go off and do something stupid. I want this guy just as bad as you and I don’t even know these girls all that well. We need to re-group and think this through.”
“I know, but I just can't do this anymore, I just can't face Xander anymore. Have you seen him lately? And Andrew? I don’t know how much longer I can do this. There has to be something we are missing, there MUST be!” Buffy sobbed.
“We’ll find a way to beat him B, I promise” Faith said before she lowered her mouth to the other girl's and gave her a passionate kiss.
“WHOA!” Faith said as she bolted upright her heart beating wildly against her chest. That was surreal, it was like she had been there for real, but just in a dreamy way, what the hell was going on?
“You okay?” Chris asked.
Faith looked up to see that she was back in her own room, with Chris sitting on the end of the bed.
“You were moaning in your sleep” he said.
“What are you doing home?” She croaked as she sat up to look at him.
“It's three o’clock, you were supposed to meet me at work half an hour ago. I got worried, Maxine let me in” he smiled, “If I'd have known you were THAT tired I would have told Travers NO WAY you were coming in” he laughed.
“I'm fine! Sorry, I made you come all the way out here, I'll be ready in a sec!” she said as she bolted out of bed and into the bathroom. She patted down her face with cold water. WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT ALL ABOUT?? Something was really wrong with her. Dreaming about kissing a dead girl?
Dawn and Xander had already spoken to Detective Argento about their involvement in the murders in Sunnydale. They blamed it on a ritualistic cult from England who had kidnapped the girls and brought them to Sunnydale and tried to pass them off as students in Sunnydale high when Buffy, the school guidance counsellor and her friends, Kendra, Xander and Willow had discovered them and the cult reacted by turning them against each other in a fight to the bitter end before fleeing. It seemed to incredible to be anything but true and him and his fellow detective bought the story and went to check it out.
“I can't believe we lied about that! Why didn’t we just tell them what happened?” Kennedy asked.
“Because, they wouldn’t have believed us” Dawn snapped back in reply. “Looks like the watchers council came in handy for something after all!”
“That was a smart plan, they do a background check on the ‘Cult’ with that address in London with all the Watchers files, they will assume they are a bunched of crazed lunatics and it stops the questions, we get written off as nothing more but the unlucky survivors” Kendra said as she smiled at Dawn.
“We still have to find the other slayers, there's gonna be more of them out there, and with the Council all but gone, they have no clue what they are. Dark Forces will be doing everything they can to find, especially with the First on a rampage after what we did to its army” Xander said, looking at them all with his one good eye.
“Yeah, well you guys have fun, I'm out. My involvement in this mess was only because my sister was the Slayer, she’s retired now so I'm having nothing more to do with it. This shit has cost me my parents marriage, my mother, and my sister. I got in touch with my dad, said something about coming home for the funeral. I think I'll be going back with him” Dawn said as everyone else regarded her with heavy hearts.
Xander turned and walked out of the room, she knew how much this would upset him. He had lost JUST as much as her, if not more, and here he was still trying to fight the good fight even though his body was broken, and pretty much useless against the big bad. Caleb, they had to find him and destroy him, and after that, Dawn was done with this crap.
He was weak now, and the supervamps were history. One way or another, he was gonna pay for killing her sister. She felt a part of her scream inside at the mere thought of her name, and Willow? Poor poor Willow.
“I understand you're hurting right now, but we’ve got to stay together” Anya said as she wrapped her arms around Dawn. “It's what she would have wanted.”
“You’re right, but she's not here anymore is she?” she replied softly before slipping out of Anya’s embrace and going to get Xander.
“You guys still here?” Faith asked as she walked into the main hallway.
“We’re waiting to ID the rest” a short black girl replied.
“You’re all from Sunnydale?” Faith asked, surveying the girl's bandages.
“Yeah” she said giving Faith a stony look.
“Sorry for your loss” Faith replied before pulling her lab coat from her locker and shutting the door.
“Not as much as I am” Rona said glumly.
What was WITH these kids? Faith thought as she pulled out her file block and went into the processing room.
“AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” she screamed as bumped into the lifeless body of a naked 16 year old red-headed girl. Faith took a deep breath, and looked at the body again. It was hanging up like a piece of dead cow in a butchers shop.
“Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you” David said as he pulled the body down again. “It’s the easiest way to try and stitch them all back together again, not to mention piece together which way the blow came in” he explained. Faith looked at him and nodded, still a little in shock.
She’d always like the forty-something over-weight and slightly balding big lug, and the fact he was one of LA’s top forensic consultants didn’t hurt either. She’d learnt a lot from him in the last year and a half, but sometimes the things he did worried her.
“Where do I start?” Faith asked calmly.
“Over there, Red-head from this morning” he said pointing at the corpse of the young woman that Faith sort-of remembered meeting.
“Do I have to? I knew her, kinda” Faith said.
“Okay, then um… Short Asian chick in slot four” he said as he positioned the body he was holding back down on the slab.
“Okay” Faith said as she walked over and opened the door, she pulled it open and looked down at the body in front of her. Amy Zing, 15 years old. The neck had been sliced through with some kind of object. Faith looked closer, and pulled out a bit of what looked like Ivory. A bone sword?
This was going to be a long day. Sighing she pulled over a trolly and put the body onto it. Glancing over her shoulder she saw Travers explaining to Argento the injuries to Buffy Summers in order of occurrence. Shivering she remembered her dream from earlier that morning.
“You can't go on blaming yourself!” a small woman’s voice said to her. Startled Faith searched for the location of who was speaking to her, looking down to her horror she saw that it was Amy who was talking to her. “It's not like you could have known, none of us knew what we were getting ourselves into” she said as she smiled and looked back at Faith as if reading her thoughts.
Blinking Faith looked at the body again, it was dead again. She looked around, David was humming away to himself and Chris was busy getting all the tools ready that they needed. It had all been in her head. Another dead person coming to life and talking to her, only this time she was awake! What was happening to her?
“End of another long day!” Chris said as he smiled and took off his lab coat.
“Yes, I suppose so, well I shall see you all here in the morning. Rodger, Simms, you guys have a good night, hopefully it won't be as busy as last night” Travers said as he smiled goodbye to the two men who had just arrived for their night shifts.
“Night Jack” Simms replied as the older man disappeared down the hallway.
“What time is it?” Faith asked, she had been completely absorbed in her work. Most of the bodies had been cleaned up and stored away and gratefully she closed the last door of her recent workload. There hadn’t been anymore oddities all day, it must have just been stress.
“About time for Patrol” Buffy smiled as she leaned against the Slab wall. Faith panicked and looked over her shoulder towards David and Chris, they were waiting for her by the door. “Don’t worry, they can't see me” Buffy said as she looked over her shoulder.
“It's about half eight” Chris said.
“You guys wanna come over for dinner tonight?” David smiled. “Marcy’s cooking her famous lasagne, and it's been so long since I've had you over for dinner. She wants to talk to you about your paper and see how you're coming along” he said chatting away to Chris as he opened the door and the two men started to walk down the hall.
“I don’t know, I'm thinking of heading home and just crashing, I aint slept a wink and I'm on again tomorrow night” Chris said regretfully. “What about you babe?” he asked as he glanced over his shoulder at her.
“u-uh I don’t know” Faith said, unable to stop looking at the short blonde girl standing in front of her.
“Your mouth is hanging open, Faith. Seriously if you're not careful, they might think you're crazy” Buffy teased playfully. Faith ran her gaze up and down the young woman's form, she was dressed in a blue full length coat and a little black dress with heels and a bag to match. Her golden sunkissed hair was tied back into a Chinese style bun. She looked like she was going out for a meal or something.
Blinking at the ridiculousness of the statement Faith shook her head and walked out of the lab, She was just stressed out from work, yeah that’s it. The trauma of the bodies of people so close to her age was just really getting to her. She’d feel better once she got home. Grabbing her coat she smiled at Chris, trying to ignore the girl whose heels she could hear clicking across the floor. Trying to block out the fact that the girl who was following her and walking behind the trio with her hips swaying in rhythm to the song she was humming.
“Alright, We’ll come over for a while. It would be great to see Alec” Chris relented.
Faith smiled and nodded in agreement as she wrapped her coat around her and walked into the mid-night air. The little troupe of kids had disappeared, so had the Media circus, FOR NOW. Faith shuddered to think what happened when the governers office released the official statement of the findings. Most of the girls had been savagely beaten and struck with weapons that Faith had never heard of. One thing was for sure, whatever had done it, had been STRONG.
“I won't be your winter…. No I won't.. And I won't be anyone's excuse to cry… We can be forgiven… And I will be here…..” Buffy sang as she took the place beside Faith on the other side of Chris in the car. “Don’t you just LOVE Sister Hazel??” She smiled.
“I don’t know it” Faith answered and automatically regretted it as it was rewarded by a puzzled expression from Chris. “The song, that was just playing in my head, I don’t remember what it was called” she lied.
“What did it go like?” Chris asked.
Faith hummed the tune and was rewarded by a big smile on David's face. “Your Winter. It’s a Song by Sister Hazel. I remember when I first heard that song, It was on the CD of a soundtrack that my Alec bought a girlfriend he went out with a really long time ago, Marcy copied it of course, and that tune was one of her favorites. Always sings it when she makes dinner” he chuckled.
“See? Everyone loves that song!” Buffy smiled.
Twenty minutes later they were at David’s house, Faith excused herself and headed into the bathroom. Waiting until Buffy was there she turned furiously and snapped at the apparition.
“Why are you following me? What do you want!?!” Faith demanded.
“Why are you upset?” Buffy asked her face wrinkling up in confusion.
“WHY? I'm losing my freaking mind is why!!” Faith snapped.
“No you aren’t, I'm here, you aren’t imagining it, and no one else can see me” Buffy explained.
“I don’t understand” Faith asked.
“Oh, you will” Buffy smiled before her face contorted and changed before Faith's very eyes, shrinking back from the vision in front of her, she looked at the horrible transformation of that beautiful face. The eyes were yellow and inhuman, the skin looked like it had been burned and healed in some melted and reshaped fashion and the teeth were long and point. “Soon enough!” she snarled before lunging at Faith.
Screaming Faith threw her arms up to protect herself and shut her eyes as what seemed like an eternity before everything went black.
"Faith!" a male voice called from somewhere floating up above her. She felt something cold trickling across her face and down the sides of her neck. What the?
"I think she's coming round" another deeper male voice said. David?
That's right! She was in Marcy and David's house. She came with Chris after work, and then she went to the bathroom and fainted because she had been over-worked and had a bad bowl of rice last night. She didn't see any ghosts dead girls that she'd been having lesbian dreams about get up and walk around and sit in the car beside her and sing her songs and then turn into horrible monsters and try to attack her in this perfectly normal, perfectly safe bathroom. She had a dizzy spell and she cried out because she thought she saw a shadow outside and then it all went black. Yeah, that's what happened.
"Get up and let the poor girl have some air" Marcy scolded as she shued Chris out of the way and knelt down beside Faith and handed her a class of cola.
"Do you remember what happened?" David asked her softly. Faith shook her head and smiled from behind the glass of cola she was now drinking extremely fast. God, was she this thirsty before??
"I remember seeing a shadow or something... at the window.. and then I slipped on the rug I guess and cried out as I fell and then it went blank.." she stuttered.
"Well as long as you're alright" Chris smiled.
"I wouldn't sleep for a while though, looks like you have a nasty bump on that head of yours!" Marcy said examining the purple bruise on Faith's temple. "You must have hit it when you fell" she said helping Faith to her feet.
"Must have" she said, feeling slightly shaky.
"Shall we set the table?" David asked.
"Oh no the oven!" Marcy exclaimed before running out of the bathroom and into the kitchen, Faith could smell the smoke that she must have been wafting out of the way from the hall.
"You gave us quite a scare, I nearly broke the door down. Were it not for Alec here getting it open from this side, I probably would have" Chris smiled.
"Years of living with 2 older sisters. I learnt all the secrets of this house!" Alec said when Faith shot him a questioning look.
Following Chris downstairs she sat gingerly through dinner and made the usual small talk about work and College. Marcy always made her feel welcome, why couldn't she have had a family like this growing up?? Waving her goodbyes she climbed into the car and Chris drove her home.
"You are unbelievable sometimes" he chuckled as he showed her to the door. "I never know what to expect when you're around" he smiled affectionately, she could tell he was tired, other wise she would have dragged him inside and gotten him to hold her and tell her that she was just imagining everything and that she wasn't crazy like her mother had been. No she couldn't tell him, he'd think she was a freak, this was the one relationship she'd had in all her long years that she felt could really be something. Chris wasn't the One by all means, but, maybe someday. He could give her everything she'd always wanted. A normal life. A quiet house of their own, with a family that no one could tell her wasn't hers. Love.
"Hmmm" he said as he frowned and looked at her forehead.
"What?" she smiled.
"Your bump... it's gone!" he said looking at it again as if to be sure.
"T'was nothing.. see I'm all better now" she smiled. He didn't look convinced. "What's that look for?"
"Bump like that, I was sure it would take a week or two at least... aww well. It was nothing, like you said" he smiled before kissing her softly. "I'll call you tomorrow. I gotta get home and get some sleep otherwise I'd come upstairs with you and see what other little marks I can give you that I can go looking for.." he whispered in between kisses. She moaned. She hated it when he teased her.
"Alright, Christopher Patrick Morgan, Off with you! Away home!" She commanded him. He smiled and faked a salute before walking to the car and waving before driving off down the road. She smiled to herself. How could she be worried about going mad when she had such a great guy to keep her grounded? She thought as she pullled herself under her blankets and snuggled up and saying a silent prayer that the madness was over she slowly drifted off to sleep.
Feeling something warm at the end of the bed, Faith tugged at the covers, they wouldn't budge something was sitting on them. Grumpily she tugged on them again, still couldn't move them. She opened her eyes and sat up, looking around the room she could tell immediately it wasn't her room, her classic modern chinese style furniture and blank white walls and black curtains wasn't there! Instead it was full of posters, and had green and white striped wallpaper. She drew her gaze to whoever was sitting on the end of the bed. It was her again! Only she wasn't dressed up all schnazzy this time. She was in blue faded jeans and a black t-shirt. Her hair was pulled back into a pony tail and her arms were dirty and full of bruises. She was crying. Faith drew herself up so that she was kneeling on the bed.
"I'm so sorry!" she sobbed, looking up into Faith eyes. "I only wanted to protect you Faith, and I failed us all!" she said before laying down at Faith's feet. "It's all my fault!"
“I probably should have mentioned this before now, but with everything that’s been going on.. it just didn’t feel like the right time” Kennedy said as she stood regarding the rest of the surviving slayers.
“What?” Kendra said, looking at the shorter younger girl.
“Will, before she… she said that if anything happened to her, that this spell would unite the slayer essence and make us able to identify each other like we can a vampire” Kennedy said as she pulled out a small slip of paper with an incantation written on it in Willow’s handwriting. Willow had created the spell herself. Tears began to form in Kennedy’s eyes.. Willow, how could you not be here to help me with my mission? It's only worth it if I've got you….
Taking the slip of paper from Kennedy, Dawn looked at the page and ran her fingers over the words. Tears forming in her eyes also, damn fools, even in their deaths they couldn’t leave well enough alone. It was always about the mission. Buffy should have let Kendra take over the role of Slayer when she had the chance. It should have ended when they both killed Ahkathla, Dru and Spike, but she just couldn’t let it go…
“You did right in telling us this now, it would have been too soon before and we needed to make sure that the First was not still lurking around” Kendra commended her.
“We must go meet with Giles and the others, we need to locate the remaining Slayers and form a defence perimeter around the city. This is where the last battle is to be held, the city of angels, I'm not so sure on how much of the prophecy is true or of many of the details. But one thing I DO know, is that this is where the battle for dominion is to happen. The gates to hell are open. We failed in our mission in Sunnydale, and they will be gathering here after they open up the portals” Kennedy said looking at all the battered girls.
“We make our stand now!” Rona agreed.
“Then you're gonna need a witch” Dawn said as she stood more central in the circle, Xander looked at her, his eyes filling with tears. “I want to be the one to do the spell.”
“You can't!” he pleaded with her. “This spell needs pure energy…”
“I know that!” Dawn said looking at him, she knew what this spell would do.. how dangerous.. how suicidal it was. But maybe this was her last chance to finally do her part…
“Wait until you talk to Giles, we’ll figure out another way!” Xander begged as he followed her out of the abandoned hotel and grabbed onto her shoulder, forcing her to turn and look at him.
“You know there isn’t any other way!” she snapped. “Willow told me about this spell before we went to the school Xander… I know it was made for me. I'm the KEY Xander… this energy can only come from me” she told him tears spilling down her face.
“KILLING YOURSELF ISN'T THE ANSWER!!” he shouted at her. Tears falling from his one good eye. “You're all I have let Dawn, you and Giles. You can't leave me here alone like this” he sobbed. Throwing her arms around him she burst out into a fit of gasping sobs. She just wanted to disappear, this hurt so much…… She couldn’t leave him. She loved him too much. He was her family, they were all her family, and she was going to lose them all if they didn’t stick together.
Faith tossed and turned in her sleep, trying to wake up. For one split second she was caught between feeling herself asleep on her bed and trying to wake up and panicking because she couldn’t, and the confusion and compassion she felt towards looking at the sobbing girl laying at the bottom of her bed.
“It's all my fault!” Buffy cried.
“What's all your fault? Who are you?!” Faith shouted as she threw herself off the bed and away from Buffy, using the bed to create distance between them both.
“I only wanted to protect you, you have to believe me” Buffy sobbed as she sat up and looked at Faith.
“Protect me from what?! Why are you here?!” Faith snapped.
“The Vampires.. thousands of them.. I thought that with that spell we would have enough.. but there's not enough.. sob it wasn’t enough!” she explained.
“This is insane! I'm talking to a dead girl in my sleep!” Faith cried out in desperation as she put her hands in her hair and pulled on it a little. She had to get out of here.
“It can't get you when you sleep” Buffy said.
“What can't get me?” Faith asked, she was exhausted.
“The First.. the dead people you’ve been seeing. You’re a Slayer, Faith” Buffy said. “Chosen to fight evil and protect the innocent.”
“No, what I am.. is not going to be eating anymore dairy products before bed” Faith said looking around the room. It was full of odd little trinkets and stuffed animals. “This isn’t my room, I've never seen this room before, why would I dream it?”
“It's my room, you once told me that this was the only place you ever really felt safe.. it was that night after Kakistos.. I remember everything…..” Buffy told her.
“I don’t remember any of this, you keep talking to me like I know you… and supposing for one second it's true.. I'm not gay… those dreams I've been having… the faces in the morgue that seem so familiar to me…” Faith ranted.
“You work in a MORGUE?” Buffy laughed.
“Yeah?” Faith said her eyebrows wrinkling up as she frowned. “That’s where I first saw you.”
“Is Dawn there?” she asked, worry taking over.
“In what way?” Faith asked.
“Is she..?” Buffy asked her voice panicked.
”No, she’s alive, she's pretty upset. Willow.. is” Faith explained. “I thought that you would be able to tell that, you know? You being where you are and all.. can't you watch over them?”
“It's difficult to explain, I didn’t really die.. I was sent to limbo or something…” Buffy began to explain.
“So I'm like the only one you can communicate with?” Faith asked.
“Ye-“
Faith bolted awake. Something was in her room. Something had moved. She could hear it scurrying around. A rat? Tina’s hamster? She moved towards the end of the bed and leaned over to check the floor. Moments later, something slimy and cold with crab like feet had landed on her back. She screamed as it began to run up her back, its sharp claws beginning to dig into her skin just around the spin, and moments later Faith felt a small scorpian-like tail trying to break the skin at the base of her skull….
Faith screamed in pain as the small insect-like creature broke the skin. What the hell is this thing? She thought furiously as its six legs started to pierce the skin along her spinal column.
"What's going on in here?" Maxine asked as she came into Faith's bedroom whilst flicking through some of her course notes. Horrified to see Faith laying on the floor by her bed with some scorpian looking thing on her back she froze for a second before she smacked the creature off Faith's back. Aware that she was now bleeding Faith scrambled off the floor and trailed Maxine by the arm as both screaming girls fled the bedroom and slammed the door shut on the creature that had come scuttling after them. "That thing??!!!! That thing!!!!" Maxine squealed hysterically as Faith threw a towel onto the floor to block it coming underneath the door.
*Bump Bump*
"It's trying to get out!" Maxine screamed. "What the fuck is it?"
"I DON'T KNOW!" Faith screamed that thing had nearly killed her!
"OH MY GOD FAITH!!!" Maxine said as she jumped up and down and pointed at Faith's shoulder.
"What?" Faith said panicked and scrapped at her arm in case there was another one of those things.
"You're bleeding!" Maxine replied.
"What is all the commotion up here?" Tina asked as she came upstairs Faith turned to answer her before reaching her hand to the back of her neck.. there was something stuck in it. Pulling it out and looking at it Faith realised she had had the creatures sting or whatever stuck in her neck. Feeling weak Faith handed the bony looking hook-like object to Tina before she fainted onto the floor and the world once again sank into darkness.
"Are you SURE she's going to be alright?" Tina demanded as she grilled the doctor for a third time.
"We are unsure of the exact nature of the specimen that injured your friend but police say that the creature also attacked one of the officers who went to remove it from the house and the toxin infect into his system gives every indication that it did not harm him" Dr. Siago assured her before turning to look at the now fully conscious Faith. "We are sending the remains of whatever it was over to the Research Department as we speak and my colleague I spoke to over the phone who works at the university was very excited, it seems you have uncovered a new species. It also means you may get to name it, it's very exiting!" he smiled as Faith groaned at the possibility. "However I would like to take a few blood samples over the course of the next few days, to monitor the effects of the toxin, if you have any unwanted symptoms AT ALL, you MUST contact us. There may be more of that creature somewhere and YOU would provide excellent information from the victims known to suffer from it about how to treat others and recognise the tell-tale signs which may save lives. I'm sure as a Medical Student, you understand the importance of this" he said on a much more serious note.
"Of course, Doc" Faith smiled before standing up, she glanced at the clock. It was twelve thirty, that sting or whatever it was had knocked her out that long?
"You sure as hell know how to worry a person!" Tina scolded.
"I know I'm sorry, didn't you have class today?" Faith asked her friend as she helped her into the wheelchair, she hated being treated like an invalid but she knew hospital policy, carried in? rolled out.
"I did, but it's a catch up class, I was only going to ask about some coursework" Tina replied "You are much more important."
Faith smiled at that.
"After all, you are the key to destroying the world.. I mean why else do you get the signs?" Tina snorted sarcastically.
"What?" Faith demanded.
"Signs.. communicating with the DEAD.. calling the Orions to you.. Really thought it would have been the vampire myself, but you're the one who carries the poison in your blood, want to share some?" Tina mused.
"Get the hell away from me!" she snapped as Faith threw herself from the chair and turned to look at her, arms raised in a defensive stance.
"God what's wrong with you? I only asked if you wanted to get lunch.. you worry me sometimes" Tina said as she abandoned the chair and fixed her bag onto her shoulder. "You wanna go back and see the doctor?" Faith looked around her, everyone was looking at her like she was crazy.
"No, I'm fine.. I just heard something else is all" Faith answered while she looked at her friend.
...continued in part 11...