The Faith Factor

Part 5

The doc came in and checked me over; he was a short, pudgy guy who looked like he hadn't gotten laid in about a year. He called me "Ms. Summers" about four times before I actually got that he was talking to me. Smooth, Faith. Better not ever have to go into Witness Protection.

He seemed really happy at my progress; he was surprised, actually. I wasn't. Of course, I knew that I was a Slayer, and he didn't. He said I could be out in two days if I continued to improve and promised to do some lame-ass breathing exercises, to "extend the capacity of my damaged lung." Yeah, well, in a few days no one, including a doctor, would be able to tell that I had been shot.

Fuck, I got shot.

I almost died.

Oh well, not like it hadn't happened before.

I was sitting there, flipping channels on the TV trying to find something decent to watch. Figures, here I was again watching lame-ass Daytime TV, and I didn't even have my Playstation.

The door opened and Xander walked into the room, holding a stuffed bear.

Yeah, that's what I said. Surprised the hell out of me, too.

"Um, hi," he said, handing me the bear. I took it from him, wondering if it contained anything explosive, he was so nervous giving it to me.

"Hey."

"I heard about what happened, and I wanted to stop by... And you know what they say, 'Say it with a stuffed animal.'"

I raised an eyebrow. "And what is the stuffed animal trying to say?"

"Um, it's right there on his little t-shirt," he pointed, "'Get Well Soon.'"

I smiled, and set the little guy down on the side of the bed. "Thanks."

Things got pretty awkward after that; a few minutes passed, and neither of us said anything. Eventually, Xander mumbled, "I guess I'd better get going..."

As he was heading out the door, I said, "Hey, X-man?" He froze, and turned around to look at me. "I'm...sorry. For everything back then."

He grinned, that goofy, lop-sided grin he has. "Better have 'em check you over for a concussion, Faith...cuz I don't remember any of that." He waved goodbye, and closed the door.

Well, shit. Buffy had some pretty wicked cool friends. I had some pretty wicked cool friends. I liked the sound of that, actually.

"Hey, was that Xander?" B came into the room, looking like she had showered and changed, but...

I made a point of looking at the clock on the wall. "There is no freakin' way you actually got some sleep."

She grinned, a little sheepishly. "Who needs to sleep when you have caffeine?" She asked, sitting down next to me. "Hey, cute bear."

I decided to let her off the hook, seeing as how I started missing her about five minutes after she left. "Yeah, Xander brought it."

"So that was Xander...how cute!" She picked up the bear and waved one of its little arms at me. "Hi there, Faith," she said in a deep voice, "and how are you to-day?"

I just looked at her.

"I think someone's a little grumpy, Mr. Bear," she said, nodding the bear's head in agreement.

I just kept looking at her.

She grinned, and kept playing with the bear. "So what did Xander want?"

"He wanted to bring that by. Things look like they're going to be five by five."

"Great! Glad to know he's finally come to his senses. Now all we have to do is worry about telling him about us." She licked her lips, kinda nervous now. "Faith, I...um...I kinda told my mom about us."

I nodded. "I thought that's what I heard, right when I was coming out of it. Things...ok between you two?"

Buffy shrugged; she was pretty sad, it was obvious even to me. "I haven't talked to her yet. She stormed out of here, pretty upset, just before you woke up."

God, what a piece of work I was, ruining Buffy and her mom's relationship. "I wish I was surprised, I really fucked up any chance I had of her liking me. I'm sorry."

B's eyes got all wide. "Faith, you don't have to be sorry. My mom will come around, she's got to learn that I'm happy, and the choices I make aren't always going to be the ones she wants me to make. But too damn bad, they're my choices.

"I love you. And if I had my way, I'd spend the rest of my life with you."

I stared at her. "You don't mean that."

"The hell I don't."

"Ah, c'mon B," I said, looking away to stare at the wall. "You don't want--"

"Faith, shut up," she said, leaning over and kissing me. And I did.

"Buffy?"

"Yeah?"

"You never did ask...why I brought us to the graveyard that night."

She shrugged. "Is it important?"

I looked at her, confused. "Isn't it?"

"You saved my life. That's all I care about." She looked at me steadily the whole time.

I nodded, and didn't say anything for a long time. Finally, I said, "I...I kinda need to tell you."

"Okay," she said softly. She squeezed my hand and waited for me to start.

The whole time I talked to her, my voice was real quiet. I did things I regretted before, hell, I did things I regretted a lot. But now, it was different. I felt ashamed.

"That vamp who was talking to us...his name was Vinnie, and he used to work for the mayor, back when I was...working. He wanted to talk to me, said he worked for Adam now, and...and they wanted me to join them. He said he knew that I enjoyed being on the winning side. He told me Adam was the winning side, that he took you on and you were scared of him.

"He knew I hated the fact that I was always second best...to you...and that I should be the only Slayer here. That Sunnydale should be my town, and I wouldn't have to be second best to you anymore. He told me he and Adam could make it so that..." God, I couldn't go on. I just thought about what would have happened if Vinnie hadn't turned the gun on me, if instead he had shot--

"Shh, it's ok," B said to me, smoothing my hair back. "What happened?"

I forced myself to take a deep breath. "I...I had to prove to myself, to everyone, that I wasn't like that anymore. When we got to the graveyard, I didn't know what I was going to do. But when I saw you there, with that look in your eyes like I betrayed you -- I knew I'd do anything to keep you safe. I'd die to keep you safe."

"Faith," Buffy said softly, still stroking my hair. "You're not second best to me. Some things I do better, but there are a heck of a lot of things you do better than me too. The two of us, we're partners. Equals. I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't think that you're second best, and neither do any of our friends. And if some dusted vampire and junk-yard Frankenstein do, then that's their mistake. Because they'll learn it the hard way.

"You know, this whole Adam incident has really taught me two things."

"What's that?" I asked, completely unable to believe my luck. She was right, what she was saying felt right to me. I don't know if it was wishful thinking or whatever, but I felt like I could believe it.

"First, that I am incredibly lucky that you love me, and that I love you."

Shit. I felt myself blush. I never blush.

"Second, that Adam is running scared."

"Huh?" I looked at her like she was nuts. "How do you figure?"

"Because, if we Slayers are so inconsequential to him, why did he bother having his flunkies try to get you to fight on his side? I'll tell you why, because when he was making his little plans, he didn't factor you in.

"One Slayer he figures he may be able to handle. Two Slayers... and now he's in a world of hurt."

I couldn't help grinning at her, and she returned it. I don't know if what she was saying was true, but I couldn't argue with her logic.

The Chosen Two. It meant a lot to me right then. It meant everything to me.

Along with Xander's stuffed bear, I also got a bunch of flowers from Giles, and some balloons from Red and Tara. Looks like things went pretty well on their date after all. Just like I predicted, they did make a very cute couple.

Anyway, like I was saying, there was a big exception to all that dull and boring-ness.

I finally made B go to class, since she had probably already missed way too many because of me anyway. I was sitting up, eating my lime jello when the door opened, and who should walk in except Buffy's mom. Ah, shit. And me without my bulletproof vest.

"Joyce," I said, nodding at her. She came in without a word and sat down right next to my bed. Way too close for comfort.

"Faith."

"Buffy's not here," I said, knowing that Joyce had probably planned it that way.

"I know. I came to talk to you."

I didn't say anything, but I knew my expression said, "I'm here, so talk."

"I'll be straight with you, Faith." Well, that makes one of us. "I think you need help. I'm willing to make allowances because of the rough time you've had, but you have some serious problems. You're bad for yourself, and you're bad for Buffy, and I don't want you to see her anymore. If you're honest with yourself about loving Buffy, you'll make the decision which is best for her."

I almost laughed. After what we just faced, did she really think she could get between us? "Sorry to be the one to break this to you, Joyce, but what you want and what you don't want is kinda irrelevant here. It's completely up to Buffy to decide what is bad for her, and to be perfectly honest, you don't know enough about the situation to make that kind of snap judgement.

"Now, if you want my advice, you'd better just accept what Buffy decides and hope she chooses to talk to you about it. Don't think that you can just come here and guilt me into breaking up with her, like you did with deadboy. Because it just ain't gonna happen." I went back to eating my jello, and I heard her get up and leave.

Well, that won't make the inevitable family dinner any easier. But it had to be said. Didn't it?

And I learned that I really needed to practice signing 'Faith Summers.'

Giles drove us to my place in his crappy little car. It was an improvement over his old crappy little car, but only because this one was a few years newer.

B went around the side to get my spare key off the balcony; one of these days I suppose I needed to make a couple of spares. Giles and I were left waiting on the doorstep.

"Thanks for the flowers," I said, lifting the vase. "They're cool."

He smiled at me. "I'm glad you like them." You could tell he still wasn't really comfortable, but it was getting better. And hell, if he was willing to give it a try, I would too.

B opened the front door and we went inside. As soon as we did, though, she started with all the mothering crap.

"Thanks for your help, Giles. Faith, you need to sit or lay down; we're following doctors orders on this, I don't want you going all relapsy."

I rolled my eyes and laid down on the bed. I kinda liked the attention, as long as she didn't totally overdo it. "Only if you lay down here with me," I said, giving her my best smile.

She froze for a second and looked at Giles, who was suddenly very interested in one of my posters. He cleared his throat and said, "Well, I suppose I should leave you two to...recover..."

Buffy nodded. "Yeah, we'll call...later..." And shut the door behind him. She turned to look at me, and I just kept grinning at her.

"Was that really necessary," she said, in that long-suffering way of hers.

"Completely. We've got nothing to hide, B; they'll find out anyway, and if they see how happy we are they won't second-guess it." I patted the bed next to me.

She walked over and laid down, putting her head on my shoulder. "I guess you're right. I just hope my mom sees it the same way."

Uh oh. "I wouldn't bet on it..."

She sat up and looked at me. "Why? What happened?"

"Your mom came to see me this morning, after you left," I sighed. "She wanted me to stop seeing you."

"Damn it!" B swore. She looked really pissed. "When is she going to learn that I'm an adult?" She jumped up and grabbed her jacket.

"Wait a minute," I interrupted, getting up with a small amount of pain and walking over to her. "Far be it from me to keep someone from going off 'half-cocked.' I am, after all, the queen of half-cocked. But do you really want to talk to her right now, now that you're pissed off?"

"Guess not," she said, and dropped her jacket back on the chair. "Guess I should give it a couple of days, huh?" She pulled me back to the bed.

"Now this is more like it," I said, climbing on top of her and kissing her.

I felt her laugh. "Are you sure we should be doing this?"

"Fuck," I said, pulling off her t-shirt. "I'll be six feet under before I stop doing this."

From the sounds she was making, I'll assume she agreed.

Part 6