Happy Development
by Whedonist
Trust in Faith
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Chapter 8 — Trust in Faith
Buffy walked in to a full room. Along with their new friends, the Scoobies were spread out with Giles and Xander near the head of the table. Buffy groaned internally and hoped that Xander hadn't had time to prepare a slide show. He'd discovered the joys of Power Point a few years ago and every time something big happened he had to put one together. She nodded to Giles for him to begin and took a seat opposite Mal.
"Good day everyone." Giles cleared his throat and shuffled through some papers on the table top. "I take it everyone is comfortable with regard to the situation that arose yesterday?" He waited to receive confirmation and then continued, "Xander and a few slayers went back to the place where Malcolm and the two others were taken. Not much was left which isn't surprising. However, from the data we collected at the scene, the accounts of all involved and the type of demon that seemed to be the leader of the group we've come up with a possible scenario."
Xander stepped up and hit the remote in his hand. As the lights dimmed, a picture of the demon Buffy and Carrie had killed appeared on the screen behind his head. "This is a mid-level chaos demon, the species name is Lekakolo. Rough translation to Bringer of Destruction. Supposedly they came up here to throw an end of the world sacrifice and party. Red team came upon one of a clan of 8. There are 6 more and from what other Intel we could gather they are using some of the other demon populations to help out. They've targeted our little burgh because Slayer Central USA is here."
Xander removed a cross from his back pocket and slid it towards Mal. "I told you so." He remarked, a smirk playing at the corner's of his mouth. He only got a glare from the captain and was about to start again but Giles interrupted.
"I've been in contact with headquarters in Scotland, Beijing, Rio, Sydney, Paris, & Rome. Only one region, Sydney, reported sightings of the demons. Cleveland is by far the most active hellmouth worldwide, so I'm to assume that they came here because of the energy pull. However, we would be remiss to not check around a bit more. I've organized our teams worldwide to do sweeps for the creatures and hopefully in the process glean more information."
"So that's it?" Buffy looked between Xander and Giles confused, "We interrupt their little sacrifice ritual and they go home with their tails between their legs?"
Giles peered at Buffy over his glasses and pleaded with her to be quiet. "Buffy if you would allow Xander and I to continue?"
"Sure...drone away."
"Now." Xander clapped his hands together and smiled, "I have Delta, Tango, & Green teams doing sweeps as we speak. We need to find the remaining 6 demons and slice and dice."
"Why wasn't I included? Or at least my team?" Buffy glared.
"You were exhausted and there are matters here that need attending to." Giles said simply. "Delta and Tango teams have four slayers each along with their patrolling witches and Green team is competent with their rotating members of six. Surely Buffy, you can see it was well taken care of."
"And since when has my exhaustion ever stopped you from putting me out there, hell when has it ever stopped me from going out there myself?"
"Buffy as non-threatening as their" Giles waved a hand at their visitors, "presence is, we need to concentrate on getting them back to when they belong. I need you rested and able to take care of this. Also I had thought you wanted to be less active, which is certainly understandable and if you are in semi-retirement this gives you the perfect opportunity to act as liaison for our guests. They need help in our time and you of all people are the most adept at attending to this need."
"Yeah, come on Buff, it's not like we're sayin' never slay again." Xander smiled trying to lighten the situation.
Buffy just folded her arms and glared. She knew that the conversation she'd had with Giles a month prior was going to come back and bite her in the ass. She pouted as she witnessed the ass biting. It wasn't supposed to be a major deal. She just wanted to be taken out of routine patrol and possibly learn more of the administrative side so that when she was too old to go out and slay she could do the stuffy suit thing and lend a hand with the strategizing when needed.
"So where's that leave us?" Mal finally interjected.
"It would appear stuck here waiting until we can find you suitable parts for your ship and, as it were, a way back to your own time." Giles looked to Willow to get her attention. "Willow, perhaps you should contact the Devon coven and see if Althanea might have a suggestion to perhaps set us off in the right direction?"
"Sure. It's still talk-able hours there I'll call as soon as we're done here." Willow smiled at Giles and then looked over to Buffy. She had been acting a little funny and Willow shot her a 'what's going on look'. Buffy just broke eye contact and went back to burning holes in Giles.
"Good." Giles glanced down at his papers. "Now on to our second order of business, it seems that while you were all engaged last night Bravo team ran into some trouble over by the space craft."
Kaylee sat up and asked, "She's okay right?"
Xander nodded, "Didn't get touched, but we need to move the ship."
"And that would be where?" Willow asked. The city offered no suitable housing for the ship.
"I've been in contact with one of our watchers and we could perhaps move it there, but we need to be able to find transport for it as well." Giles turned to Kaylee. "Is there anyway t-that it would be possible to, in a sense, break the ship down to be more, er, ah, shippable?"
Kaylee's face scrunched up and she looked to Mal. She couldn't read the look on his face, but she knew he expected her to answer. "Well, let's see the main body can't be taken apart. The engines can be taken off, along with the expansions on the side. That's all though."
"How difficult would it be to do so?" asked Giles.
Kaylee scratched her chin, "Well not too seeing as how we done it before, but we're gonna need a crane to do it."
"We can do that. I've got a buddy that owes me a few favors." Xander nodded already figuring the way it was going to go down.
"So we are going to where?" Willow asked.
"It appears that the most conducive place to get things in order would be in New Mexico. Just outside of Tohachie to be more specific. It's secluded yet only a few hours away from Sante Fe and Albuquerque."
"And who's going?" Buffy inquired not liking the sound of what was coming.
"Malcolm and his crew naturally, you, Willow, Xander, Faith, and the rest of the Red and Alpha Teams." Giles met Buffy's stare and waited for the blow out.
"Fine...we done here?" Buffy replied.
The ease at which Buffy accepted the request took Giles back for a moment, but he quickly recovered. "If you wish to go Buffy, please feel free."
Buffy didn't wait for him to finish as she pushed back from the table and walked out the door. She made her way quickly to her room. Slamming the door, she pulled out her suitcase and began to get the things together she would need. She wasn't upset about leaving Cleveland for a few weeks. That was fine by her. Gave her a chance to relax and not have to worry about the other girls in the school. What had gotten to the slayer was Willow and Inara. They had been sharing glances the entire time and Buffy's jealousy burned a bright green as she continued to sit there.
She went back to her earlier ruminations about Willow before Dawn had interrupted her. To Buffy these feelings shouldn't have been happening. That was not the case though. It took Inara showing up for Buffy's thoughts to click fully into place. She thought back to how she and Willow had relied on each other since the witches return from Rio. Willow had only been gone 6 months, but there hadn't been a day that had gone by Buffy didn't think of her. She emailed the witch constantly and learned to use those instant messaging programs to chat with Willow at odd hours of the day.
When Willow came back, Buffy's heart soared and for the first few months the two could not be separated. To the blonde, it felt like sophomore year all over again. The two friends had reconnected and Buffy remembered how much she missed Willow's company. She had also realized that the distance between herself and her family had been nothing but her own doing. Since Willow's return everyone was happy to see the softer side of the slayer. Xander had even made a few comments here and there, but these were met by a stony glare from his friend.
Buffy turned at the knock on her bedroom door. She called in whoever was there and was surprised when it was Faith who walked in.
"Hey B."
"What's up Faith?"
"Just comin' to make sure you aren't destroying your room."
Buffy turned to look at the girl and cocked her head to the side, "And I would be all rampagy because?"
"'Cuz you nearly took the hinges off the conference room doors."
Buffy's eyebrows shot up, "Oh, I didn't..."
"Yeah I know you didn't mean to. So what's the what, you that pumped to go to the middle of nowhere?"
"Just packing." Buffy let out and went back to rummaging through her drawers.
Faith took the seat by the window folding her feet underneath her. She watched a moment, as Buffy opened and closed various drawers, smiling. Something was up with the girl and Faith being all reformed and now a solid part of the core group wanted to know what was bugging her friend. "Buff, if you had stayed for the last three minutes, you'd have found out that not only are we not leaving today, but it's proly gonna be about a week to take apart, crate and ship their craft."
"Oh," The blonde turned to Faith and let her shoulders drop. "So packing not so important right now?"
"Not so much." Faith smiled and shrugged. "Although, B what I really wanna know is what's got your panties in a twist."
"And you care because?" Buffy let some of the anger drain out of her as she sat on the edge of the bed.
"'Cuz I'd like to think that over the past few years you and I have gotten to be sorta on the friends level and well, as friends do things they also have these things called conversations especially when something is bugging them. So out with it B. What's got your knickers in a twist?"
Buffy gauged the sincerity of Faith's words and tried to sort out how much to tell the brunette. She knew Faith to be trustworthy and from previous Buffy blow outs none of the things she and Faith had talked about had gone anywhere but between them. She also knew that Xander couldn't help her, Dawn she didn't want to talk to about this and the only one she did she couldn't because it was concerning her.
"Heya B. It wasn't such a stumper. Sure if I asked you who the current Secretary of Defense was you'd look at me funny, but this wasn't it so..." Faith trailed off at the un-amused glare coming from the bed. She back peddled and held her hands up in the air as concession to shutting her trap.
"I..." Buffy stopped trying to find the words, "I..."
Faith leaned forward curious as to what Buffy was actually going to say. In her memory the blonde had never been at a loss for words. Whatever was troubling her friend had to be huge? As the ex-rogue watched the play of emotions contorting Buffy's face, she idly wondered if she bit off more than she could chew and was half tempted to go get Willow.
"Okay, so the sitch, right, well...I guess, it's really simple although simple isn't necessarily a word I'd use to call it, because it's far from simple and it's really uber confusing for the most part. I mean you spend 10 years of your life with a person and it takes what, some one coming from the future to get you to fully realize the enormity of your feelings towards them. So you sit and you watch and then there's jealousy, big raging jealousy, that makes you want to rip arms off and beat people senseless. How does this happen? Why does it happen now? Xander..."
"Whoa, hold up...I got lost mid babble. Jealousy? 10 years? Xander?" Faiths' eyebrows shot up. "You got a thing for X?"
Buffy's face scrunched up wondering if she heard Faith right. "Xander, huh?"
"You're jealous... Xander? You want our X-man?"
"Faith stay with me. I don't want Xander. A world of no to Xander. I want Willow."
Faith's mouth dropped open and she starred at Buffy.
"I can't really figure it out. I mean best friends for so long and then she leaves for Rio and then she comes back and the missing her and then the time we spent together when she came back, add that on top of the fact that for the past 4 months I've had naughty dreams starring her at least 3 times a week and I'm just a big ball of confused slayer mush."
"Oh," Faith tried to regain composure, but the shock of Buffy essentially coming out to her left her floored. She could have kinda sorta seen her digging Xander. He had turned out to be a great guy, but her falling for the redhead. Faith thought there was more of a chance that she'd see the pearly gates of heaven before that happened. Her brain did a quick sort through and couldn't help inquire, "So you went to automatic when?"
"Huh?"
"You got gayed up when?"
Buffy sent a sour look to her friend, "No to the gayed up." She paused and thought for a second, "Okay I mean yes I guess it was, or I am. I guess yes to the gayed up, but I don't know. Two years ago or 10 years ago, I don't know Faith. You and I had a few close calls if I remember right. It's Willow though. I have no urge to be gay except with her."
"Oh, so what's the problem? You two are both single. I know you can throw down. Spike told me some stories..."
"F. haven't we had this conversation about Spike?"
"Right, no mentioning of the vampire that shall not be named. Christ you'd think the Brit was Lord Voldemort or some shit." She winked at the look Buffy was giving her. "So is this just you wanting to have some bump and grind time or are you on the whole moving to Vermont and not shaving your legs shtick to raise your kids in an excepting environment of gays?"
"Huh? Vermont? Where the hell do you come up with this stuff?"
"I'm asking, are you just wanting Willow for a screw or are you talking about a house in the 'burbs 2.5 kids, fences and stuff?"
"Is everything about sex to you? Never mind don't answer I know that one." Buffy ran her fingers through her hair. "Okay, no it's not just about sex although it's been a while, but no, not just sex. I want it all. Well not the kids and not the suburbs, no to your crazy Vermont theory. I just want..." Buffy trailed off trying to put into words what she wanted, "I want what I have with her now, but I want the cuddles and the kissing, and the sex."
"Gotcha. So what's the problem again?"
"Have you not been paying attention?! Willow and Inara joined at the hip the past two days! They're gonna get together and I'm gonna get screwed..."
"If they hook up you won't." Faith had to get the shot in, it was too easy.
"Uh?" The double entendre registered and she threw a pillow at the girl across from her.
"But Inara isn't staying. We're gonna ship 'em back to their own screwed up future. So I'm still not seein' the problem."
"There's a list. Shall I name them for you?"
"If it'll help all of us avoid psycho Buffy for a few then feel free..."
"One: It's Willow. Two: It's Willow. Three: she doesn't feel the same way. Four: She's making goo-goo eyes at another girl. Five: I'm a chicken. Six: It's Willow."
"Okay since three of those were the same, we are only counting them as one. That's four reasons and really none of those matters. Sure it's Red, but she loves you, maybe she just doesn't know how much yet. The other girl will be going away shortly and then it'll be you two joined at the hip again so that's five by five. I can't help you with the chicken bit though."
Buffy flopped back down on the bed. It was hopeless. She closed her eyes in frustration and felt the bed sink down next to her.
"B, it'll be cool. You'll see. I'll help. By the time this is over, we'll have Red beggin' for ya."
Buffy turned her head to Faith and quirked and eyebrow. She had feeling things were going to get interesting. More so than they already were.