Waking up
by Lost
Vampires, Demons and Ghouls Oh My!
[reviews]
Willow strode towards the high school clasping her girlfriend's hand. A gentle breeze wafted around them as they moved. "So we've just got to finish your history paper and study for that last test over the reconstruction, then the algebra test and you should be completely caught up," she remarked as she swung their hands lightly.
Buffy couldn't have cared less about school. Nodding to show she'd actually heard, she muttered a vague, "Uh-huh," and went back to musing over the events of the previous evening. She seems better. We had dinner, and did homework until around eleven o'clock. Pretty normal evening. Neither one of us wanted to say goodnight, so she got permission to stay over. I woke up to Willow snuggles. Huh. Normal. Wow! The good stuff. Made me smile to see how relaxed she looks in her sleep. She grinned when I kissed her awake. And instead of pushing back she leaned forward wanting more. Then Mom interrupted by calling to us through the door and the moment was gone. I stopped her by yelling we were up.
And here we are. Back to the monotonous grind. As the high school came into view, Buffy stopped them both. Time for a pre-grind intermission. Using the hand she had hold of her girlfriend by, she pulled her in for a lingering kiss. Explaining when she pulled back, "Just wanted to do that before we have to deal with everyone." It sucks, things between us haven't been great by any means, but I intend to fix it. The sooner the better.
Willow smiled and said, "Works for me," then stepped forward, giving the blonde a searing kiss.
"Wow! B., Red, didn't expect to see you two out here makin' with the—" Faith called as she walked up to the couple. They both pulled back instantly, and Willow turned roughly the color of her hair. Buffy glanced around and saw Faith walking up to the two of them with a sway in her hips. She appeared much healthier today, although she still looked as if it had been days since she had eaten.
"Morning Faith," Buffy said with a 'cat that ate the canary' grin.
"And a good one from the look of it," Faith replied with a smirk. Then her expression turned slightly more serious. "Hey, you two love birds wouldn't happen to know anyone who could tutor me wouldja?" she asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I can help you out!" Willow replied a little too quickly, blushing at the look both Buffy and Faith cast in her direction. Appearing self-conscious as she hastily amended, "I-if y-you want me to...that is," realizing just how she sounded.
"Whaddya say B.? Can I borrow your girl for a bit?" Faith asked.
Buffy held up both hands in a 'don't ask me' gesture. "She's her own boss," she replied, smiling sappily at the redhead before leaning in to place a kiss on her cheek.
"So, you in Red?"
The blush slowly faded as Willow reflected, "Yeah, sure, Buffy has some tests to study for anyway. So maybe we could all meet in the library after school and get caught up?" Her confidence was fully restored when the other two girls nodded in agreement.
The three of them continued walking towards the school.
As they walked, Faith reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a lighter and a pack of cigarettes. "Want one?" she asked as she held out the pack.
"No thanks, we don't smoke," Buffy replied and waved the pack away.
"Suit yourself. I just know that if I'm gonna sit through computer class, then math I'm not gonna make it without nicotine," she commented, taking a long drag on the cancer stick to punctuate.
"What are you smoking? It smells.... almost sweet," Buffy asked when they set off again. Weird, smells minty.
"Oh, smoothes. Tastes like gum," Faith replied. Pausing for a moment, she added, "It's a thing."
Willow raised her eyebrows at this. "You do know that menthol crystallizes your lungs right?"
"Yup," Faith confirmed with a nod. "And school gives me headaches. Yet here I am." She sighed dramatically and put out the end of her cigarette.
Buffy and Willow said their goodbye's to Faith as she split from them to go to class. The girls headed towards their first period class hand in hand.
*******
Buffy walked Willow towards her computer class and sighed when the redhead let go of her hand. Leaning forward, she gave her girlfriend a quick smooch on lips before leaving to make her way to her second period class.
Willow quickly entered the computer lab when Buffy left. After walking straight to her regular spot, she dropped her backpack and sat in the chair. Then reaching forward she turned on the computer and monitor. As she waited for the machine to boot up, she saw Faith sit down next to her out of the corner of her eye.
"Heya, Red," the brunette said as she started up her computer.
"Hey," Willow replied, forcing a smile. Faith will never know the difference. Now if it was Buffy, I'd probably be in some sorta trouble for faking the happy. There's no rule that says I can't put on a smile for the rest of the world.
As the bell rang to signal the beginning of class, Willow turned her attention toward the teacher.
Ms. Calendar stood up in front of the class and began explaining the assignment.
Willow listened intently as Faith fidgeted next to her. A basic research website. Yay! Designed by two people as a team effort. Total cake.
"You can choose your own partners, but if I see you goofing off, then I will be assigning you new partners," Ms. Calendar instructed sternly while she handed out the written instructions.
Willow gave Faith a sideways glance at exactly the same moment Faith turned to do the same and asked, "Wanna be my partner, Red?"
"Yeah, sure," Willow replied as she peered down at the instructions. Great, she thought as she read the part that gave them a list of topics to choose from. I hoped that it would be a free choice research site, but evidently Ms. Calendar had other stuff in mind. "What topic do you want to cover?"
Faith gave a slight shrug and remarked suggestively, "Whatever you want, I'm up for it." Raising her eyebrows at the redhead, she let a slight smile play on her lips.
******
Faith plopped down into the chair and placed her feet on the table in front of her. "Hey, Jeeves, I'm here!" she called out towards the stacks. She waited patiently, staring at her nails in an attempt to amuse herself. Least today was better than yesterday. Not by much, but I'll take what I can get. Lunch however, was more entertaining. When I got to the table the lovebirds were already eating their lunch. Xander showed up pretty quick with this preppy princess on his arm. I'd heard the horror stories so it didn't take long to ramp up.
After all the 'meet and greet' social crap I listened to the cheerleader critique anyone who happened to walk by the table on their fashion sense or lack thereof. It was funny...for the first ten minutes or so. Then Queen C just got tedious. So I started watching the lovebirds. That's when stuff got a little more interesting. Those two are really strange. Sorta stuck in their own little world. Not so much with the talking 'cept between themselves. And blonde's got still got that bruise on her jaw. Wonder what's up with that. It's not the standard thing you see. Looks like someone knocked the shit outta her. Faith was brought out of her musings as she heard a movement from the stacks.
She saw her uncle's head pop out and turn to look at her.
"Ah, Faith, good, you're here. Willow, I believe she said her name was, stopped by earlier and asked that I give you this to start reading before she arrived," Giles said as he walked down the steps towards the table with a book in hand.
"Oh great, more homework." Faith rolled her eyes but accepted the book anyway.
Willow's mocking voice sounded from behind the brunette, "Just be glad I'm not making you do assignments out of it, Missy," causing Faith to jump.
Faith rolled her eyes and suppressed a chuckle. "Yeah, yeah, so where's B.? Isn't she supposed to be studying it up with us?"
Willow sat her book bag down before answering. "She's at a meeting with the counselor." She paused while she grabbed a heavy looking text book out of the bag and abruptly changed the subject. "So, let's get started, what chapter are you on?"
Faith ignored her question and the book being placed in front of her. "Why's B. gotta go to the counselor? Thought you guys already went once this week?"
Willow sighed with exasperation even as she opened Faith's book for her. "It's complicated."
*******
Buffy sat quietly in the overstuffed chair and fidgeted while she waited for the slightly overweight woman in front of her to acknowledge her presence.
"So, how's your assignment coming along?"
"Uhm, it's not really. Coming I mean. I'm not sure what to write about yet," Buffy replied with a slight shrug.
"Ah, well, what do you do outside of school?" Mrs. Trawick asked finally managing to unglue herself from her patent's file. She's not your typical trouble maker by any means, she reflected, glancing at the teenager sitting in front of her.
After turning her gaze to the floor, Buffy responded aloofly, "Not a lot. Just hang out mostly."
"Well, your file says that you recently went through something pretty traumatic. Why don't you tell me a little bit about that?" The counselor raised her eyebrows slightly at the end of her question, only serving to add more inflection to her question.
Buffy glanced down at her hand and began fiddling with a ring she had put on that morning. "Well...umm, er," She closed her eyes tightly and sighed.
*******
"Son of a bitch tried to bite me again."
Maggie raised her eyebrows slightly at the potent tone the young nurse used. I believe her name is Debby. "So then his medications last night were ineffective?" she asked patiently. I put the boy on sleeping pills to assist the night nurses.
"No, he was still difficult." Debby rubbed her temples as if fighting a headache.
Maggie nodded vaguely. "Okay, well, we'll just have to try a higher dosage. Please be certain to check that he's not tucking them under his tongue or coughing them up." Maybe I should've just taken that teaching job. This is turning out to be much more stressful than I originally thought that it would be. Grading papers, in comparison, seems like a piece of cake. "Well, thank you for the report," she said as a means of dismissal.
Picking up her notebook, Maggie made her way out of her office and down the badly lit gray hallway with old white linoleum flooring. She tried to ignore the dark spots on the walls caused by years of incidents. It didn't take her long to reach her patients room. Moving just out of reach of the young man, she offered cheerfully, "Hello, Mr. Andrews, how are you doing today?"
"I'd be better if you'd un-strap me so I can shut the blinds. The light will kill me if it gets too much closer," he growled as he struggled against the restraints. Suddenly growing eerily calm, the young man put on a charming smile and asked a little too politely, "Please just close the blinds." When the doctor didn't budge, he let out a hiss and turned his attention to the sunlight as it inched towards the bed.
Dr. Walsh rolled her eyes as she glanced at the boy. Pity really, he'd be a perfect specimen if it weren't for the delusions. It shouldn't be too hard to break his mind. We can start with the sunlight. If he doesn't have a heart attack he should figure out quickly enough that it's harmless. From there it shouldn't be terribly difficult to convince him that vampires do not exist and therefore he couldn't possibly be one.
"My name is Dr. Walsh; I'll be overseeing your case. When did your hallucinations start?"
He stared at her like she was crazy. "Start?" he mumbled as his eyebrows scrunched up. Growing more agitated, he added, "I don't know, they never started they just were!"
Maggie began to take notes on her clipboard. Glanced back up she asked, "Have you ever used drugs?"
"NO!" he practically yelled at her.
"Well, then you wont mind if we run a screening test to see what's in your system," Maggie remarked and watched as a sneer formed on his face before he snarled at her. It's going to be a long day.
*****
Buffy walked quickly in through the double swinging doors. "Gah, I swear that was quite possibly the most horrible thing I've ever done," she said, her tone thick with disgust. She let herself fall unceremoniously into the wooden chair next to her girlfriend.
"That bad huh?" Willow asked, barely looking up from the book she was studying.
"Yes! God, yes!" Buffy let her head drop into her hands. Being that avoidy...for that long...it sucks. Biatch had all the social skills of a rabid pit-bull. I'll be damned if I'm gonna tell her crap. Story's way too likely to end: 'And next time on Springer.'
For a second Willow looked sympathetic and Buffy felt her hand rub small slow circles on her lower back, but all too quickly the hand was gone.
"C'mon, here's your study guide," Willow said as a paper appeared in front of the blonde.
Dammit! Buffy glanced down at it. "Great," she intoned, sarcastically drawing the 'a' out to an almost impossible length. "The Revolutionary War. Just what I needed: history. Faith, if you could just shoot me now. I swear it'd be a mercy killing and in no way would it reflective on your karma."
"It's not that bad," Willow offered reassuringly as she turned back to her own studying.
Buffy looked back down at the paper, then up. Must think quick—how to be avoidy around Willow. Answer: it's impossible. Let the torture resume. Sighing despondently, she stared back down at the paper trying hard not to let her eyes focus.
"B., welcome to the party." Faith said with a roll of her eyes.
An hour had passed, and Buffy had managed to go through the majority of her study packet, Willow had diligently checked all of the questions as she went; and Faith was actually beginning to maybe kind of grasp the concept of matrices.
"So, you see, it's just whatever formula is at the top gets applied to each number on the right hand side of the matrix," Willow explained.
"Alright girls, I think that's enough for the evening. I'm certain your parents will be wondering where you are as it is nearly dinner time." Giles smiled genially before he asked, "Would you like a ride home?"
"Yeah, sure Mr. Giles, that would be great, thanks." Willow answered in their behalf.
******
A shy looking blonde exited the Greyhound bus, walking quickly down the steps to the side paneling where she waited with everyone else for her luggage to be unloaded. Once her two bags had been retrieved, she set off towards the taxi that was waiting for her.
Ten minutes later she was deposited in front of an upper class looking condominium with a courtyard in the middle. She glanced down at the paper in her hand, reading the address again, before she walked up to a heavy wooden door and knocked.
She waited about a minute and a half before she knocked again. When it became apparent that no one was home, she sat down with her luggage next to her to wait.
******
"You can just drop us both here, Mr. Giles," Buffy said as her house came into view. She wanted to talk to Willow about her meeting from earlier after dinner. Although technically she hadn't asked her mother if the redhead could stay for dinner, she knew it wouldn't be an issue.
"I'll see you guys tomorrow," Faith said as the two of them exited the car. Damn, four more days. She'll be here in four days.
The two girls thanked Giles and waved goodbye to Faith.
It's Tuesday evening. Tara's bus wasn't to arrive until Friday evening. Faith was lost in thought as the drive continued until they reached her new home. After reaching down to grab her backpack, she got out of the car, slinging it casually over her left arm as she walked towards the courtyard that led to the front door. The brunette kicked the ground as she went. Glancing up when she entered the courtyard, she blinked in confusion. "Oh my God, Tare! I thought you weren't coming till Friday?" she shouted as she broke into a sprint and nearly tackled the blonde to the ground.
While in reality Faith had only been away from the blonde for a week, it had felt much longer. She kissed the blonde hello and when she heard a cough behind her broke the embrace. Turning, Faith took in the smile her uncle was giving them.
"This is why we didn't stay later studying isn't it? You were in on it!" Faith accused her uncle. At his nod she went up to him and gave him a hug. "Thanks," she said as she let go.
"Indeed," was all Giles said in return. After unlocking the door, he ushered the girls inside and asked, "Now, what would everyone like for dinner?"
A/N: Valyssia Beta'd, can you tell? I gave her permission to have her evil way with me ;D Let me know what you think? -L.