True Faith

This is it, y'all! It's been a fun ride...and now I'll go work on Smitten and Ginger Snap. Won't that be fun?

*

Tru was herself once again, dressed in low-cut jeans and a silky blouse. She'd put the leather pants away deep in the back of her closet, knowing even as she did so that the day would come when she would find someone she wanted to wear them for. Until then, she'd hide them, and that part of herself. Today, a new day at last, she was Tru Davies, potential med student and some-time saviour, and for now that was enough.

She pushed open the door of the diner, not surprised to see Harrison and Lindsey sharing a bench at their usual booth. Harrison was stretched out as much as possible, legs in the aisle, one arm slung around Lindsey. She was sitting primly beside him, ankles crossed, holding a mug of coffee. Harri whispered in her ear and she smiled at him, relaxing a bit into his arm.

Tru slipped into the booth across from them. "Do I even need to ask?" she said, signalling the waitress to bring her coffee.

"All is right with the world," Harri answered easily, grinning lazily at Lindsey. "I guess you figure we have you to thank for that, sis. Trying so hard to get us back together yesterday." He raised an eyebrow at her, a sign that once Lindsey was gone'd e'd be asking about the rewind.

"Well, a little appreciation never goes wrong," Tru said. She returned his silent question with a superior look of her own. One that said there was no way in hell he was dragging this story out of her. For one, he wouldn't believe her. He was still mostly in denial about her powers. To start talking about for-real vampires and the Slayers who fought them would only earn her an incredulous laugh and a lot of mockery. For two...well, for two, if Harri knew everything there was to know about this particular do-over day, then he'd probably never take her seriously again. He'd be too busy imagining her with a bed full of strippers.

Not that she didn't suspect that was the way he usually thought about her. But there was no need to fuel the fire.

Lindsey finished her coffee and set it down. "So, when are you going to dish? Who'd you go out with last night that was such a secret?"

Harri's eyes widened. "You went out with her?"

"Her?" Lindsey echoed. "You dressed up like that for a her?"

Tru sighed. This was all her fault, of course. She'd told Harri over the phone yesterday that a girl was going to hit on her. And even though she'd told Lindsey that the person she was meeting was no one special, she knew that "best-friend intuition" could detect a lie like that a mile away.

Harrison twisted to look at Lindsey. "There was dressing up? How exactly are we talking? French maid, or warrior princess...?"

Lindsey rolled her eyes and shoved Harrison. "You are such a pervert."

"What? Just because I like to hear detailed stories?" Harri tried his best innocent look. Lindsey made a disgusted noise. "Oh, come on. Like you aren't curious where she went."

They both stared at her.

Tru's phone started ringing. "Oops. Gotta take this," she said, and flipped open her phone, covering her other ear. "Hello?"

"Tru. I thought--I don't know what I thought. Where were you last night?"

Tru groaned silently. Just to make her morning complete. "I'm so sorry, Davis. I went to a costume party last night and I completely forgot about work."

"A costume party?" Davis asked, sounding scandalized by the very idea that a party might be more important than a night shift at the morgue.

"Yes, Davis," Tru said slowly, hoping he'd get it. "A costume party."

"Oh. Oh. Well then. I guess, uh, you'll tell me about it when you come in tonight."

"Sure." Tru sighed. Not likely. Sorry, Davis. "Was it busy last night?"

"Nope. It was--it was dead around here. Get it...?"

"Yes." She wondered how long he'd been saving that joke. "Thanks, Davis."

"I guess we have you to thank for that. And this, uh, party."

"I do what I can." Tru hung up slowly. She didn't really want to get into this with Harri and Lindsey. She wasn't ready to think about it too hard inside her own head, let alone to start making public declarations. The fact was, she'd fallen for Buffy. Even knowing all the things that stood between them, she'd fallen.

What did that mean for her--and for Luc, if they ever decided to give each other a second chance?

If she'd learned anything from Buffy, it was that second chances were worthwhile. It was hard to imagine that it had taken her and Faith five years to take advantage of the feelings they both said had been there from the start.

Harri was still trying to break through her silence with his 'oh my God my sister's a freak' stare. Tru had been on the receiving end of that stare for too many years for it to make much of an impression on her. Lindsey, though, was looking speculative--like she knew something Tru didn't.

"Candace!" she said at last.

"What?" Tru asked, bewildered.

"Candace, the bitch from highschool, Candace?" Harri asked. "No way."

"I always thought there was something going on between you two...all those basketball practices without the rest of the team." Lindsey nodded to herself, as if it was all falling into place.

"It wasn't Candace," Tru said.

"Mmm-hmm." Lindsey stood up. "I have to go to work. Don't worry, Tru, it's not a big deal." She whacked the back of Harrison's head to shut his mouth. "You see? Best friends. We know this stuff."

Harrison rubbed his head as Lindsey left the diner. "I thought you already saved her once. Talk about selfish if she made the day rewind again. And were you and her really--"

"God, Harrison, it wasn't Candace." Tru stood up. "It was a total stranger, and yes, I saved her life, and no, I am not romantically involved with her."

"Okay...jeez. Sorry. I wasn't going to freak out on you, you know."

Tru sighed. "I know. I g go. go."

"Where?"

"Running."

Tru headed for Stanley Park at a steady jog. Lindsey and Harrison acted like they were just waiting for her to come out to them. And Candace...well, they'd never done anything, but back when they were friends Tru thought she wouldn't have refused...

If Buffy hadn't gone back to L.A. with Faith...if she'd chosen Tru instead?

She would have gone with it. No question.

And Luc--if one day, they met in the hall at work, and she apologised to him for always running off, and he said they should try again?

Well, she would go with that too. She wanted that.

Tru sprinted the last few yards to the sea wall where she'd stood with Buffy on two very different yesterdays. The sun was warm on her back as she looked out at the ocean. So much had changed since then. Her first kiss with a gi The The realization that it was good, that she wanted it so badly--as much as she'd ever wanted a guy.

Tru turned away from the ocean and ran back towards the edge of the park. She couldn't forget her yesterdays; they were what made her who she was. But for now--

It was finally a true tomorrow.

Tru would never be the same again.


*

THE END.