Roles Reversed
by Bwriter
Part two
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Part two - Reunions
Buffy pulled into the school parking lot and killed the engine on the car. Turning to face the Slayer she sighed when she saw that she had no intention of getting out of the car any time soon.
"You know your gonna have to face them sooner or later, though I figured you would have picked your mom first."
Willow turned her head and stared out her window.
"I doubt that she'd welcome me with open arms, and if she can't it's extremely doubtful that they will."
Buffy heard the sadness in the Slayer's voice but couldn't really do anything to help. She had no idea how the Slayer was going to be welcomed back. It was very possible that her Watcher and friends would turn on her. The thought made Buffy growl.
"What's with the gggrrr?"
Buffy frowned before realising that she was growling. She stopped before answering.
"Hungry is all. So, ready to head into the lions den?"
She was surprised when the Slayer smirked at her before getting out of the car.
"Says she with the pointy teeth and the taste for blood."
Buffy expected the Slayer to head on in not stand by the car door. She felt a strange uneasiness about the fact they were about to head of in different directions.
"Could you... never mind, your probably busy. Thanks for the lift and... everything."
Buffy saw that the Slayer was about to walk away and didn't want to leave her side. She didn't know what these feelings were but she liked them.
"Hey wait up. Want some company?"
Willow tried to hide her surprise at the offer but truthfully she didn't want to face Giles alone.
"Sure, but no biting anyone."
Buffy simply smirked at her and they headed inside.
Giles looked up from the crossbow he was testing when he heard the library doors open. What he saw made him raise said crossbow and shoot at the target.
Buffy stepped out of the way of the first arrow but the second hit her in the stomach. Growling and Vamping out she tore it from her body before looking at the Watcher.
"What the hell is your problem? Here I am doing you a favour and you SHOOT me!"
Giles didn't lower the crossbow nor did he back away from the angry Vampire in front of him. He was too busy thinking about the last time this same Vampire had helped him out. Dru had been about to chop him up until Buffy stopped her, course it ended up with him kissing Spike but Giles thought that even that was better than having no limbs.
"What are you doing here?"
Buffy looked around and noticed that the Slayer hadn't followed her in. Muttering a curse she walked back out the double doors and found the Slayer pacing beside a drinks machine.
"Oh this is just great this is. I'm in there getting shot with arrows and your out here pacing and pouting like a spoilt child!" Buffy was pissed. Here she was, an evil Vampire trying to actually help the Slayer and getting nearly dusted for her trouble. She was starting to think that it wasn't worth it.
He thoughts changed when the Slayer turned to look at her and took in the blood that was now seeping through Buffy's tank top and coat.
Willow, like Buffy had done before her never questioned why she was so concerned about the Vampire before her, its not like she could die from her wound. She came to Buffy's side and tried to examine the her but the Vampire wouldn't let her.
"Look I just wanna see how bad it is okay? Who was it anyway?"
Buffy growled and moved away. She was loosing too much blood which led her to think that the arrow had been dipped into something.
"Your Watcher, and would you mind going in there before he comes out to have another go at me."
Buffy tried to ignore the pain but the Slayer wasn't moving. She was just about ready to snap at her when she heard the click of another arrow being slid into place.
"Great, here we go again." Turning she kept her body between the Slayer and the Watcher in an attempt to protect the girl behind her.
Giles noticed that Buffy was protecting someone but he couldn't see who it was. Probably just another demon. He fired his crossbow again, not wanting to give the demons before him time to regroup and two things happened at once.
Willow had come out of her stupor at hearing Giles voice and saw him release the trigger on the bow.
Buffy saw the same thing and stayed rooted to the spot, knowing that if she moved then the arrow meant for her would hit the Slayer. She wasn't ready for the Slayer when she moved.
Willow knocked Buffy to the floor and fell on top on her, the arrow stuck into her right shoulder. Giles looked on in horror as he saw his arrow enter his Slayer, then he realised what he was seeing and rushed to her side.
Giles was about to lift Willow from the ground when he realised that she had passed out. He looked at Buffy and found her looking dead at him with murderous amber eyes and fangs at the ready.
"Get away now." Buffy was way passed pissed off it was a wonder Giles wasn't already dead.
Fighting off her own pain, Buffy raised herself up and had the Slayer once again in her arms before walking into the library. She used one arm to sweep everything off the main table before laying the Slayer down and balling up her coat before putting it under the Slayer's head.
"Funny thing is, she never wanted to come back here. I made her and look what happens. She was scared of how you would treat her. She blames herself for everything that happened with Dru-" When Giles moved closer to Willow, Buffy Vamped out again and growled a warning for him to stop, which he did.
"Why are you helping her? You have no soul. Right?"
Buffy looked appalled at the mere mention of having a soul.
"God no, why the hell would I want one of those? Never did Dru much good now did it?" Secretly Buffy was thinking that maybe it did do Dru some good, after all it had led her to the Slayer.
"Then why? You've tried to kill her often enough, and yet when you have the perfect opportunity to just now you don't. Instead you help her. Why?"
Amber eyes moved to the Slayer who was still sprawled out on the desk, but who was coming round. Buffy could stall in answering yet again for which she was thankful.
Willow once again found herself waking up with pain cursing through her. Her body was still recovering from being hit by a truck, now she had an arrow wound to add to it. Remembering what happened she sat up and was relieved to find Buffy standing near her.
"Willow?"
Willow turned to see Giles there as well and was thankful he was on his own and that the Scoobies weren't with him tonight. She wanted to reassure him that she was fine but Buffy was still bleeding and looked like she was just about ready to drop.
"Here sit down we really need to get you patched up. Giles a fist aid kit would be good."
Buffy who eased herself into a chair declined the help.
"Fix her Watcher."
Giles went into his office to get his first aid kit before returning and sitting Willow down on one of the chairs. He was shocked when she moved it to sit closer to the Vampire.
"Would someone like to tell me just what in Gods name is going on?"
Buffy had no desire to speak to the Watcher and let Willow tell her story. And tell him she did. Everything from having to kill Dru to winding up being cared for by Buffy.
Giles listened to it all while he was cleaning and bandaging Willow's wound. When she got to the part where Buffy took care of her Giles looked at the Vampire in question but found her about to leave the room.
"If you want to wait I can clean that wound for you. The arrows were dipped in Holy Water so the healing process will be hampered."
Willow had also spotted Buffy leaving and was standing up to stop her when Buffy simply turned and left, not saying a word.
"Guess she didn't want to stick around huh? Well she said she did have business to do here anyway before we left L.A so..."
Giles looked at his Slayer and spoke gently.
"You do realise that the business she has here may be demonic and that you may have to stake her?"
Willow looked to her Watcher and was about to answer him when the library doors opened to reveal Xander, Cordy, Tara and Oz. None of them had noticed her yet, they were too busy talking about the patrol they had just completed.
Giles cleared his throat bringing their attention to him and the girl by his side.
"Will!" All four practically shouted it at once before engulfing her in a group hug, backing off at her small whimper of pain.
"Where have you been?" The question came from Xander and Willow sighed knowing that she was about to go through everything all over again.
Buffy was in her car with no idea about where she was going. When she had told the Slayer that she had business to do she had been lying.
Turning her car she headed for the butchers down on main. She needed blood and was too weak to go hunting for it so she would once again have to feed off animal blood.
After paying for her package and getting some pretty weird looks for buying so much blood, Buffy was on her way to the mansion.
Her stomach was throbbing. She could feel the Holy Water slowly eating away at the skin there and knew she had to get it off soon.
She headed straight for the bathroom when she arrived and stripped before climbing in and washing the blood away from her wound. Looking up she spotted soap that had been left behind and was suddenly thankful for it. She lathered some up before rubbing it into her wound, whimpering when it stung.
Satisfied that all the Holy Water was gone she set about feeding. Opening the shower stall she lifted her blood container off the floor and began gulping it down, trying to ignore the taste.
When she was done she used the soap to wash her hair before getting out and wrapping herself in her coat and moving to her old room. Pulling the dustsheet off of the bed she lay down and opened her coat to get a look at the wound.
It was already starting to heal. The blood and the absence of Holy Water had allowed her body to heal itself and after living or unliving for two hundred and fifty years she healed pretty quickly.
Buffy fell asleep, wrapped in her coat and dreamt of a girl with fiery green eyes and fiery red hair.
Willow stood before her front door and knowing that her Watcher stood behind her only calmed her nerves a little. Taking a deep breath she raised her hand and knocked. And knocked. And knocked yet again. After all her worrying her mom wasn't even home. It would have been funny if Willow wasn't so tangled up inside about her moms reaction.
"You can stay with me tonight and we can sort everything out in the morning."
Willow smiled a small sad smile at her Watcher before thanking him and heading back to his car. Even though she had a lot of stuff on her mind, a niggling thought about Buffy kept pushing its way in. She was a Vampire, a soulless one at that and if she was there to cause trouble Willow knew that as the Slayer she would had to do her duty. Hell she killed Dru didn't she, Buffy should be no problem. Even so, she felt unease at the thought of killing her.
One week had passed. The Slayer had been accepted back by her friends, her Watcher and her mom. She was even back at school. Buffy knew all this because she had been keeping an eye on her.
In fact she was watching her right now. The Slayer and her friend, the blonde one were dancing to the werewolf's band. Buffy had finally admitted to herself that she had feelings for the Slayer, there was no way she was letting her know that but she had admitted it to herself and that was enough. For now.
She watched as the blonde one moved closer and the tempo of the song changed from rock to slow. Buffy watched through narrowed eyes as the blonde moved even closer to the Slayer and resisted growling. Buffy had never been so happy to see the boy as she was now. The one called Xander, made his way through the crowd of people to his two friends. She knew that the blonde was dating the werewolf but she was still to close to the Slayer for Buffy's liking.
Raising her eyes Buffy could see the Slayer looking around herself. Alerting all her senses, Buffy searched the club looking for a threat. There was nothing apart from Vampires. Quite a high number of them actually. Buffy could detect twenty or so.
Buffy looked towards the Slayer again and found her gone. Then the lights went out. Buffy instinctively switched to her game face so she could see better. Searching through the mass of people from the balcony where she was, she spotted the Slayer near the pool table.
She began making her way there when the lights came back on. On stage where the band had been were five Vamps and the boy they had by the throat, who Buffy realised was Xander.
"Okay, nobody move. Me and my buddies here were just passing through town when we got hungry. So this is what's gonna happen. We're gonna feed and you lot get to die."
Buffy rolled her eyes and finally arrived at the Slayer's side. Putting her face close to the Slayer's ear and being surprised that she could Buffy spoke;
"Hey there, looks like you could use a hand. You take any Vamps down here and leave the five on stage for me. Holler if you need help." She was gone before the Slayer could say a word.
Buffy walked calmly up to the stage before jumping up and facing the Vampire that had spoken.
"Boys would ya look at that. This ones egger to die.
Buffy rolled her eyes before Vamping out.
"I'm already dead nimrod." With that said she launched herself at him, which was the signal that everyone seemed to be waiting for. The crowd of people began running towards the exits and Willow began fighting her own battles.
Buffy hadn't had a good fight like this in ages. Just fist and fangs. Two of the five on stage were already dust thanks to a drumstick. Buffy leapt into the air and spun before coming down behind the leader and kicking him in the back of the neck, sending him sprawling to the ground below the stage. She made quick work of the other two before going after him.
Willow had dusted seven Vamps while Xander, Cordy, Tara and Oz were taking on another three, leaving two including the leader. As Buffy was taking care of him Willow went after the last one.
Soon they were all dust and it was then, now that the club was empty apart from the Scoobies and Buffy, that the rest finally noticed her.
"Nnnaaahhh Will! Look, what the hell is she doing here? Never mind just dust the bitch." Xander really didn't like Vampires.
Willow rolled her eyes and walked over to Buffy, who just glared at Xander for the bitch remark.
"You okay?" Buffy turned her attention back to the Slayer and gave her a slight nod, knowing that she was talking about the aftermath of the fight.
"How bout you?" As she asked the question her face reverted to its human guise.
Willow tilted her head before answering;
"I'm good." She also got that Buffy wasn't talking about the fight. They were interrupted by the others.
Xander pulled Willow away from Buffy and thrust a cross in her face, making her growl and step back.
"Keep walking."
"Xander." Willow lowered his arm and stepped out from behind him.
Buffy smirked at him before stepping forward and the smirk widened when he took a step back.
"Gee, anyone would think that you weren't happy to see me."
"Will why aren't you staking her?" The question came from Cordy and Willow answered without taking her eyes off of Buffy.
"Because she hasn't give me a reason to yet."
Buffy heard her and the message was clear. She wouldn't stake her unless Buffy forced her too by acting like the Vampire she was. It was probably lucky that the Slayer didn't know about the humans Buffy had been feeding off then. Even if they were left alive, she would probably frown upon it.
"Will, she's a Vamp, reason enough there." Xander just couldn't keep his mouth shut.
Buffy had had enough. Turning to the Slayer she said;
"I'll be around if you need me, you know where you can find me."
Willow watched as Buffy walked passed them, with the rest of the Scoobies giving her a wide berth, before leaving the club.
Xander turned to his friend and told her to explain why she had just let Buffy go.
Willow sighed and told them all the pieces she had left out of her story before. All the pieces regarding Buffy, that she had only told to Giles.
tbc