Nothing But You
by Whedonist
Chapter 20
[reviews]
A/N: D got done with it before I expected so, I just wanted to give him a public thank you. Hopefully this will cut down on those pesky errors that I run across when looking the chapter over. He's been great and hopefully will continue to work with me as time permits.
Chapter 20
Willow grumbled when the blonde that she had planned on using as a pillow wasn't there. As she woke up, her hand patted where Buffy was supposed to be, but Willow had only grabbed cooling sheets and air. Begrudgingly, she sat up and rubbed her eyes. She blinked until her vision came into focus and she looked at the clock. 8 am was way too early for her to be up after yesterday's events. Buffy and Angel had come back looking like they had gone 12 rounds with the devil himself. Angel's hands were busted up and Buffy was sporting a nasty looking bruise on her right cheek. The redhead hadn't pressed about the injuries, but she did want to know what had happened with Adam Smith. The two had filled her, Faith, Dawn and Xander in shortly after they got home. To say that Faith had taken the news poorly would have been an obscene stretch of the word poor. She had smashed her fist through the wall and hadn't even blinked when she removed a bloody, busted knuckled hand. Willow had been the one to attend to the injury and Faith just sat there through the bandaging and icing of the hand as if Willow wasn't even touching her. Truthfully Willow had urged her girlfriend and Angel to get Faith to the hospital because she thought the hand was broken, but neither one of them could convince Faith to go.
Angel had taken Faith to bed shortly after that while Dawn and Xander excused themselves to bed. Willow had taken Buffy to bed, but neither had slept. Buffy told Willow what had happened to Angel and what had happened to her face.
"I was standing there watching and I knew if I didn't do something that Angel was going to kill him. It was surreal Wills, I mean, to stand and watch as something like that goes down." Buffy was lying across Willow's stomach while the hacker threaded idle fingers through her blonde locks.
"Buff you don't have to if..."
"No, I'm just trying to figure out how to explain. So I'm standing there watching and I knew that something needed to be done, so I step into the room and I kind of remember thinking that if I could him to recognize me it would be okay. Angel would come back to me. So I placed my hand on his shoulder which worked because he dropped Adam, but instead he turned on me. He, he attacked me. I got thrown up against the opposite wall. I never knew he could be that strong, but when he spun around he backhanded me. Hence the bruises and split cheek. So I was against the wall and he's on top of me in no time. I was able to stop him. I took my leg and brought it between us to shove him back. That's when Angel stopped. He was heaving, sucking in his breath and it was so weird seeing him like that. He looked...he looked like a demon." Buffy finished the story and buried her face further in to the smooth skin of Willow's belly.
"Buffy, you gonna be ok?"
She felt the blonde nod, "Yeah I am. It's just ya know remind me never to make Angel mad. He just couldn't stop apologizing when he realized what he'd done and I get it, heat of the moment and all."
Buffy sighed and continued to describe in detail the things that they had seen in the house. Between the filth and apparent obsession this man had, Buffy was truly disturbed. She recounted how they carted the guy off on a stretcher and how the only thing she could think was that he should be the dead one and not Kate. Willow had assured her girl that those were all normal reactions. He had brutally beaten their friend and her anger was completely justifiable. Needless to say Willow held on to the girl through the entire night as she went through crying jags.
As Willow thought through last night her mind began to wander. Since moving here, things had changed so drastically and everything had been so good and then Kate died. She knew that everyone had been changed because of Kate's death and she wasn't sure that the group that had befriended her would ever be like they were.
After getting ready for the day, Willow came downstairs in search of her wayward lover. She went from room to room and couldn't find anyone. She went through the den and walked towards the sliding glass doors that led to the garden. She stopped before she reached the outside. Through the glass of the doors, she saw Angel and Buffy side by side moving fluidly together. Their movements were completely synchronized and graceful. She recognized the movements as a form of martial arts. Tai chi she thought. In all her time with Buffy, she couldn't ever remember seeing her Buffy practice, but there she was disheveled looking in a sports bra and work out pants her hair pulled back in to a loose ponytail with a butterfly clip holding it in place and Angel had on a pair of black pants and nothing else. Willow just continued watching as they moved together. She wasn't sure how long she stood there, but was frightened out of her peeping tom trance as Faith nudged her from the back.
"Red, take pictures they last a helluva lot longer." Faith said offering only a slight hint of a smile at her teasing.
Willow blushed red and coughed, "I, ok, ok you caught me, but can you blame me?"
"Nah. It's cool."
Willow cocked her head to the side and noticed a change in Faith. She studied the girl further, but still couldn't put her finger on it. The brunette's hand was still bandaged and she still looked like hell, but there was something else.
"Red? Earth to the redhead." Faith said waving her injured hand in front of Willow. "Anyone home?"
Willow shook it off and grinned sheepishly, "Yeah sorry, got lost up there for a second. Faith is everything ok? I mean of course things aren't ok, but I dunno something's different and I can't put my finger on it. So are you, ok that is?"
Faith shrugged and leaned back in a chair that sat close to the doors. "You mean besides the pit of despair I feel like I've been dropped in to?"
"Well yeah, no I mean...never mind." Willow turned to leave, but was stopped by Faith's hand taking hers.
"I know what you mean and your right. I dunno it's like the guys in jail now ya know? I can't touch him as much as I want to beat the living shit out of him and do what he did to my Kate. I can't help but feel a little bit better knowing that the fuckers gonna get what's coming to him ya know?"
Willow nodded.
"Ya know the whole sich kinda reminds me of this story I read called the Black Pumpkin. It's about this kid that gets shit on by his family. Parents could give two shits what happens to him and his older brother tortures him. So this one Halloween his dad takes him and his brother to find pumpkins and his brother gets this wicked looking one just to frighten the poor kid. So right, night comes and the kid knows something's gonna happen with that damn pumpkin and he grabs a knife from the kitchen just to be on the safe side. So sure enough the damn thing comes to life and stalks the family one by one gobbling each person up until the only one that's left is the poor kid. So the pumpkin comes to him then and it doesn't touch him. Just looks at him and says "Can't eat you. You've done nothing wrong, but watch yourself kid 'cuz everyone gets what they give." And sure ya know it's like this big thing about karma and shit, but it's true. I can feel it. The fucker will get his and sure as much as I'd like to be the one to give it to him I know that it's probably best that I don't seeing as how I'd torture the fucker first before finally ending his miserable excuse for a life."
Willow tried not to show her surprise. Not only was it the longest she had ever heard the brunette talk, but also it appeared that Faith had begun to heal. Sure it wasn't like she was dancing around on the roof tops of Sunnydale, but there was improvement like maybe her friend could finally see a small pin size light at the end of a very long tunnel. Willow just turned and gave Faith a hug.
Buffy and Angel came in just then and eyed the two suspiciously. Angel was wiping the sweat from his forehead and took a pull on the water bottle he had.
"Morning you two." Buffy greeted them after they broke off the hug.
Willow smiled up at Buffy and Faith just nodded her hello.
"I talked to the D.A early this morning and he's gonna come by to talk to all of us. Willow, you need to come up with a believable story about how you got this guy's records from NCIC. I'm not sure the whole I accidentally hacked into a Federal Government's database is going to cut it. Faith he said he was ok if you didn't want to talk to him."
Willow turned an interesting shade of red and tried to think of an acceptable lie. Faith just remained quiet and listened. Buffy moved next to Willow and let her arm fall on the girl's hips. The blonde kissed Willow's temple and relaxed against her.
Buffy whispered into Willow's ear, "So sexy, I was thinking of getting naked and wet maybe include a little soap, sound like fun can be had with that?"
There was slight nod of Willow's head as the two excused themselves and made their way up stairs.
Faith noticed the whisper and shook her head, "Why is it that nothing and I mean nothing stops the lust bunnies?"
Angel just raised an eyebrow.
"Ok so I couldn't be stopped either, but still. B's all busted up. And Bro by the way somethin' like that happens again, I kick your ass all the way back to L.A." Angel began to apologize, but was stopped by Faith, "No, no worries about it, I might've done the same thing, but ya know, it's B and well as shitty as it is to say, she was my first and I couldn't deal if anything happened."
"I know. So the deputy DA will be here in about an hour. Can I interest you in some type of food?"
Faith shook her head no.
"Mei mei you need to eat even if eating only consists of some cereal."
"Fine, cereal, we got any Coco Puffs or some Cinnamon Toast Crunch?"
"Xander went shopping yesterday; I think you'll be pleasantly surprised." Angel slung his arm over his sister's shoulder and walked with her to the kitchen.
Thursday and Friday were spent in and out of meetings with the DA and everyone that was involved had to attend. Depositions were taken and hopefully there wouldn't be any need to go to trial. Adam was assigned a public defender and it looked like they were requesting some type of plea bargain. Cordy came to town on Saturday and had only been outside of hugging distance from Angel when she was attached to Faith. The house members plus Dawn were in the kitchen watching Faith cook and talking.
"See it's all about the fluidity of the wrist. I shit you not one and all flipping pancakes is all in the wrist."
"So are the self induced happies Faith. You gonna start giving pointer's on that?" Xander let out before he could censor the comment. His comment got a smack from Dawn and a glare from Buffy. He had the good sense to look embarrassed and concentrated on his food.
Digging into the food, Willow asked around a mouthful of pancakes, "Angel, Cordy how long are you guys gonna stay in town?"
Angel glanced at Cordy, "Well Cordy's going back Sunday, but right now I can't leave. I've got a good group in L.A that's overseeing things. So it's to be determined."
"Bro, what are you going to do about the Sunnydale branch I mean, who's gonna run it?"
Angel smiled, "I'm working on it. I have a few ideas that I'm trying to work out."
"Cool." Faith turned her attention back to the stove and finished off the rest of the batter. Xander and Dawn volunteered for clean up so the rest of the group dispersed.
Sunday rolled around with a few goodbyes for Cordy as everyone saw her off. It was also unanimously agreed upon that L.A seemed to agree with the ex-cheerleader. Everyone went home that night and tried to sleep. Monday morning was a big day for the Crawford house residents. Everyone had to start back up at classes and Willow had taken it upon herself to get everyone caught up over the weekend. She had written a paper for Faith, 2 for Buffy and had to break out the idiot's guide to pre-calculus for Xander.
Willow came out of the bathroom in her now usual sleepwear and climbed in bed next to Buffy. The blonde had been waiting on her so that they could talk and also to get some quality snuggle time in. Willow rested her head on Buffy's chest and formed herself to the other girl's side.
"Hey Wills, you remember Saturday when Angel said he was working on stuff for the AI branch?"
"Uhuh." She knew Buffy was going somewhere with this and decided quiet was best.
"Well, we've, Angel and me, have talked about it before ya know, me going to work for him and I know things have been less than sane around here, but it needs to be thought of. He's still needed in L.A. and there isn't anybody here in Sunnydale that knows the place better than me, well except for Kate, but..." Buffy let the sentence trail off.
Willow shifted so that her head rested on the same pillow as Buffy and they were now eyelevel with each other. "What is it Buff?"
"Well, he asked me to help him with it. Ya know oversee stuff. He needs the help and I'm the only one that knows how he runs things."
"There's a but in there somewhere Summers spit it out."
Buffy grinned and stroked Willow's hair. This next part was the hard part. She knew how much Willow was all gung-ho about school and how much she pushed Buffy to excel in her classes. "But...it's gonna be a lot to take on and well, it won't be permanent, but I would probably end up dropping out this semester until things die down or at least dropping some of my class load. Also..."
"There's an also? Buff you can't drop out." Willow was sitting up in bed nearly hyperventilating at thought of her girlfriend dropping out of school.
"Baby hang on let me finish. Also, Angel wanted me to talk to you about helping at the office as well. He talked to all of his computer guys and none of them are able to do a third of what you can do. He said that if you wanted to like work 15 or 20 hours a week that was cool with him. He asked me to talk to you about it."
Willow's jaw was to the mattress and she couldn't get past the dropping out of school part. The Angel wanting her to do computer stuff was no sweat, but Buffy couldn't stop school.
"You didn't tell him yes did you?"
Buffy shook her head no. This wasn't going nearly as well as she hoped it would. Willow had completely lost it over the whole might have to drop out. It wasn't a sure bet if she would or not, but she wanted to be honest with Willow so that they could make the decision together.
"Good 'cuz it's a big fat no."
"What? Wills let's talk about this."
"Buffy there's nothing to talk about, you are not quitting school."
"You did hear the part about it not being permanent. It might not even come to that. I could take night classes or just take the quarter off or something." Buffy scrunched her mouth and eyebrows up hoping the poutie look would get her somewhere. She noticed as Willow's defiance started to crack.
"Can you take two night classes and work in the day?"
"It's a possibility. I want us to make the decision together. My time is going to be seriously lacking and it might be of the suck for a while too. I just, it's like, your kinda the center of my world and I don't wanna jeopardize that."
"I get that." Willow said stroking the side of Buffy's face. "It's just that you and the quitting freaks me out. Buffy you're smart even if you do let the blonde out sometimes. You're a quick study and I've seen you get all happy when the subject material is good. I don't want to see that go away."
"It won't, but other things need to be taken in to consideration. He's family and they come first. My priorities are as follows, Willow, Willow, family, and school. Right now family stuff needs to be worked on."
"Flattery will get you nowhere. Have you talked to your mom about this?"
"No I mean I'm going to let her know what I've, what we've decided, but that's all."
"I think you should get her opinion and Giles's to."
"I can do that."
"K, and just so we are clear: I will back you a hundred and ten percent 'cuz I'm supporto gal, but even if it's only one class I still want you to go. I can help you with if I need to. Also, tell Angel that I'll do the computer stuff as time permits."
Buffy squealed and tackled her girlfriend. She showered Willow's body with kisses and thank you's.