Together We Stand Divided We Fall

Chapter 10

The next day, Faith woke up to find Dawn still sleeping with her hand tightly tucked close to her chest. Faith smiled and then moved her finger against Dawn's breast.
A small sleepy moan escaped from Dawn's lips. Faith turned her hand so she could feel more of her girlfriend's breast. She curled her fingers in and applied pressure to Dawn's nipple.

"Oh.... Faith," Dawn's moan became slightly louder. Faith knew when she moved her hand that Dawn had woken up but was not fully awake.

"Dawn, move up some and I will wake you right," Faith told the beautiful girl sleeping by her side.

As Dawn was moving to get closer to the dark girl, the door opened and Buffy walked into the room. “So, ready to go home?” she asked, not noticing what the two girls were doing.

Dawn opened her eyes at the sound of her sister's voice. She looked at Faith and rolled her eyes. "Sure Buff, not quite ready, but if you leave then I'll get Faith up," Dawn told her sister. Turning back to Faith, "She has the worst timing... and she's a slayer."

"Hey, still here... standing right here." Buffy stood looking at her sister with her hands on her hips. "Hurry up, I have to be at work in…well now." She turned and walked out of the room.

"Okay, so lets get ready and get me the hell out of here," Faith said as she sat up.
She bent down and placed a kiss on Dawn's lips.

***

Faith was ready to go home; the only thing left was to check her out. Buffy stood at the nurse’s station waiting for the paperwork. Dawn and Faith walked out of the room and joined Buffy at the nurse’s station. “So B, we out of here yet?” Faith asked her sister slayer.

“No, not quite. I’m waiting for the paperwork and they are SO slow.”

Dawn looked around the hall to see if she could find someone to help them. She spotted a man looking at her. He looked like he came from Hell itself. Well, in Sunnydale that is very possible. He raised his hand, pointed at her, and smiled. He mouthed the words “You’re next!” then turned to leave. Dawn move closer to Faith. “Baby, look!” She pointed at the man when both slayers looked in her direction.

“Dawn, what happened?” Buffy asked.

“No, it can’t be. I thought Angel took care of him.” Faith looked pale with fear.

“He mouthed ‘you’re next’ to me and pointed. Buffy, we need to get out of here NOW!” Dawn pulled at her sister’s arm.

“I know Dawn, I’m going as fast as I can,” she told her sister, while grabbing for her cell phone. “Xander, get in here now!” she snapped into the phone. After she called Xander, she asked Faith, “Who was that?”

“I didn’t see his face, but I think it was Lindsey,” she told the two girls standing with her.

Buffy was a little confused about the whole Lindsey and Wolfram & Hart deal, but she wasn’t going to waste time asking questions. This man had just threatened her sister. He could be the same man that sent the zombie after Faith. The nurse came back with the papers as Xander ran to the threesome.

What happened, Buff?” he asked as he skidded to a halt.

“I’ll explain in the car. Help Faith, we need to go!” she said as they hurried out of the hospital.

****
Back at the Summers house, Tara and Willow were getting things set for Faith’s return. Tara was in the kitchen cooking and Willow was upstairs making Faith’s bed. Downstairs, Amie and Anya were sitting in the living room folding clothes and talking about how Amie met Willow. The front door slammed open and Buffy ran into the house followed by Dawn and Xander helping Faith. “Buffy what’s wrong?” Amie asked as the slayer ran through the living room into the kitchen.

Her footsteps scared Tara as she ran into the kitchen to the phone. “Baby?” Tara asked but Buffy didn’t answer her. She snatched the phone off its resting place and dialed Angel’s number. Buffy let the phone ring three times. As she was about to hang up, Cordy answered the phone. “Angel Investigations. We help the hopeless. Can I help you?”

“Cordy, get Angel. I need to talk to him.”

“Buffy?”

“Yeah, now get Angel.”

“Okay.”

“Buffy what’s wrong?” Angel asked the slayer.

“Tell me everything you know about Lindsey!”

****

Dawn took Faith up to her room. She sat the dark beauty on the bed, then she reached for her shirt, but Faith stopped her by grabbing her hand. “Faith, what?” Dawn questioned the hand that stopped her.

“Dawn, we…I don’t want…I don’t want you to see.” Faith stuttered her words.

Dawn could feel the tears building behind her eyes. She turned Faith’s in arms she could see the fear and the pain in her eyes. “Faith, please don’t be scared. If you don’t want me to see you than I will understand, but you need to know that I love you.”

Faith looked deep into Dawn’s eyes and saw the love and devotion. She knew that she could trust this girl but the problem wasn’t with Dawn; it was with herself. Faith was what she called damaged goods. She never knew what love felt like, and to be told that she was loved scared her to no end. Love was never something that Faith had invested in; she thought it was a game and a trap. She had never told anyone that she loved them, but the night in the cave changed everything when she thought she would never see Dawn again.

“Dawnie…Dawn. I don’t want you to see because I don’t want to hurt you. I know, I’m the one wounded, but I know you well enough that my pain would be yours. And I…I love you too much to have you share this pain.” Faith flushed red as these difficult words spilled from her lips.

“Faith,” murmured Dawn as she snuggled close to the wounded slayer. “We’re together now, connected. I don’t want to just share the good times; I want to share the bad as well. If that means knowing how much you are hurting, and being hurt by it, that’s just one more part of us.”

****

On the outskirts of Sunnydale sits an old mansion. Once the home of Angelus and Spike, now the house sat slowly moldering in the lazy afternoon heat. The smell of decay that had slowly permeated the building since Angelus’ defeat at the hands of Buffy years ago didn’t bother the occupant now. In fact, Lindsey McDonald couldn’t even smell the rotting wood. The spell components arranged around the room overpowered all other scents. In the center of the floor, close to a scorch mark of Angel on the marble, was a corpse. Lindsey was creating a second zombie. This one was not as large as the last, however. Its target was not a Slayer. This time, Lindsey wanted Dawn.

A forgotten language filled the room. The first spell, the re-animation, was nearly complete. Now was the time to begin the second spell, the one to make the zombie more human. A wicked grin crossed his face before he chanted. Dawn was sure to be horrified. Lindsey had found the grave of their mother.

****

“Buffy I don’t think Lindsey is the problem. He couldn’t be in Sunnydale.”

“Then you explain why we saw the son-of-a-bitch at the hospital.” Buffy snapped.

“Okay so you think you saw him, but Buff, you don’t know him…”

“Look, Faith saw him and that was after he threatened Dawn! So are you going to tell me about him or do I go over your head to Spike?” she yelled at her once lover.

“Whoa, that was a low blow. Okay we’re on our way over,” Angel said as he hung up the phone.

As Buffy walked into the living room, she looked around for her sister. “Where is Dawn?” she asked the room full of people. Xander looked up from the magic tome he was idly flipping through. “I saw her help Faith up to her room. I haven’t seen her come back down yet.”

“Alright, I’ll trust Faith to watch her for a few minutes. How is the research coming?” Xander sighed. “I’m not having much luck. The only reference I found to humanizing a zombie said that the ritual circle would have to be almost 40 feet across.”

“Well, that rules out motels and such. So if we go looking for Lindsey, we’re going to be searching for a large cave, an abandoned house, something big.”

“So, does this mean we’re going back to Dracula’s place? I still have weird feelings when I see that house…and I’m still nobody’s butt monkey!” Xander said defensively, pointing at the others in turn.

“Good idea. We might also want to look at the Initiative facility,” Tara said with a slight tremor in her voice. She hadn’t liked Riley, and hoped that she wouldn’t remind Buffy of him. Buffy was hers now.

“Yes, dear, great idea. However, Riley told me that the facility was destroyed, filled in. So that at least is out,” Buffy replied, smiling at her lover.

Willow spoke up next. “The spell is a rather powerful one. It’s in ancient Somolian…? I think so anyways; I don’t really know ALL the mystic languages yet. But when the spell goes off, we should be able to detect it. I could work up a signature spell. Sort of a magic Richter Scale device. It would take me a day or so to cast…”

”I can help you with that!” piped up Amie. “I used to cast those spells with my coven back in high school when we got into a fight with another group.” She looked around at the dumbfounded Scoobies. “Well, you all know I do magic, I might as well help as best I can, right?”

“Right. Well, Will and Amie, you to get started on that. Xander…I haven’t seen Spike since he went back to cover our trail. I need to talk to him. Try to find him. Anya, Giles went home last night. We need to get his help on translating. Check the Magic Box, and if he’s not there, run by his apartment. Bring him here.”

Anya grumbled as she felt up Xander for his keys. “First its go home, now its get Giles, next, what? Go find bunnies for the spell?” She shuddered as she went out the front door, with Xander close behind.