Order of Business

"Give me a leg," Rona said as she tried to get as close as she could to the comatose slayer Queen.

"We should parse her out like a chicken," Vi replied as she repositioned herself so that Rona could use one of Buffy's legs for a pillow. "Two legs, two thighs, two..."

"Stop...just stop, okay?" Shannon interrupted as she tried to ignore the fact that one of the two lions in bed with them was using her rear end as a pillow. She really wanted to roll over but didn't want it to look like it was a reaction to the contact. "Let's not make this any harder than it needs to be."

Vi had blushed as she realized what she was saying. "Yea...that didn't go in the direction I wanted it to."

"Remember when we were sitting in that house waiting for the world to end?" Rona asked as she finally made herself comfortable. "Did you ever think we'd end up in bed all naked together with Buffy?"

"And two werelions," Hildie, who was one of those lions, added as she cradled the queen's head on her own belly. She felt the extreme heat wafting off of the horribly sunken red areas of her face as she slid her fingers through Buffy's soft hair.

"I thought Kennedy might," Shannon answered, causing them all to giggle. She gently touched the shiny pink, almost healed over wound on Buffy's left thigh that only three days ago had been a hole she could have stuck two fingers in. "Can you believe there's like over a thousand slayers on the list for bed time now?"

"And all the lions in our pride," Hildie added. "Except for the guys, your Giles said NO to the guys." She rolled her eyes and thought that it'd be nice to have her king here with them all.

"I'm surprised there isn't more," Rona answered. "Would you want to be a slayer that didn't help heal Buffy when Faith comes walking back in?"

"Who's Faith again?" the other lion, Bethany, asked as she read from the latest Harry Potter book.

Hildie answered, "She's the mean one that calls Haven all those names."

"Oh yea, I like her; she was nice to me," Bethany replied with a hidden smile, knowing that the Shannon girl was uncomfortable with where she chose to lay her head.

"It would be like three months before we got bed-time again if they let them all do it," Vi said as she snuggled her head into Buffy's midsection. "Ya know, I thought this was really weird when we first did it...and I still think it's weird, but there's like a humming to the warmth. I can feel it in me and my whole body sort of ...misses her when the others get the bed."

"I know, when Buffy is healed, she's just going to have to get used to the sleeping arrangement," Rona replied, letting that humming warmth flow through her and wrap around her like a phantom hug from her long lost mother.

"If you guys were lycanthropes, I'd say you were talking about skin hunger," Hildie said, happy that she could be a part of the conversation. "The leopards get it the worst but all shifters have some. Your beast gets comfort from touch and you need the feeling of family to get through the tough times."

"Family!" Rona said in surprise. "That's exactly what I was thinking about."

"Me too," Shannon said as she closed her eyes to savor the peaceful feeling of the hum coming from the queen.

Vi raised her hand. "And me, I was just thinking that it felt like I was sunbathing at my granddaddy's ranch in Waco."

"I think it's like a virus," Bethany added in and when they all became silent, she hurried to continue. "I mean that your slayer is a beast and when you're close to your queen, the hum spreads to you and like wakes your sleeping beast up, and that's why you have the skin hunger after being in the bed for the first time."

"Wow, if we're going to be like one big family now, we should think of a cool name for our...pack," Shannon said.

"Pack is always wolves," Hilde announced, relishing her role as an expert.

"Okay, slayers..." Shannon paused to think as she ran a hand through her long dark hair. "How about tribe? Tribe of slayers."

"Dumb," Rona said.

"Pass," Vi added. "It's gotta be something cool, like the Texas Rangers, it has to just sound like we're going to kick butt."

"Destiny, a Destiny of slayers?" Shannon proposed. "Or, how about Reckoning, a Reckoning of slayers."

"An Apocalypse, that might be cool," Rona said.

"Wouldn't Buffy want to name you guys?" Hildie asked. "I mean, she is your queen, it's her right."

The three slayers laughed and Rona replied, "No way, if she names us we'll be the Slayerettes."

"The Haute Couture Angels," Vi added with a sophisticated lilt to her voice, causing them all to laugh again.

"Or she'd just have Andrew name us and then we'd be the Jawas or the Stormtroopers or something," Shannon said.

"Faith should think up the name," Rona said, with a large contented smile. "She'd think up some cool Hell's Angels type of name for us."

Bethany finally moved her head to let Shannon roll over, only to lay it back down on her, the short red spikes of her hair nestling on a very sensitive spot. She smiled at the squeak that came from the girl. "Where is Faith anyway?"

-----------------------------

"Elle se réveille, ma Reine."

"I can see for myself that she awakens, go and fetch the docteurs."

Faith felt like she was swallowed by Godzilla and then left in a large steaming pile somewhere over Tokyo. She opened her eyes, fighting to hang on to consciousness, and looked into a small pale brunette's gaze. "I'll...kick your ass...if you try to roll me."

Belle Morte laughed, an indelicate braying sound, "Petite Mademoiselle Dangereuse - Little Miss Dangerous, is a better name for you than the Destroyer or the Dark Knight, I think."

Faith fought for a few more moments, but her body demanded sleep and she couldn't stop the slide back into darkness.

Belle put her hand to the slayer's face and leaned close. "Belle Morte has not finished speaking to you, child."

Faith screamed in appreciation as the blind slide-guitarist finished Sweet Home Alabama. She signaled to the waitress to bring her another beer and made her way through the rowdy crowd of rednecks to the Dive's only pool table. She watched the local hustler, a tall bald cowboy with a goatee and a scar from his left eye down to his chin as he took another loser's wad of cash.

"You next, Baby?" he asked her as he blatantly checked her out, from her snakeskin boots to her tight jeans, and then he took his time checking out her tight Harley tee-shirt.

She looked around at the bar, her hand on the shirt that she had given Jenn months ago. The waitress came and set the beer by her and waited as Faith, by reflex, pulled out a few bills to pay for it. She popped the cap off and was in the middle of a long pull when she noticed a small pale white arm snaking around the pool hustler from the shadows behind him. The hand slid between the buttons and into the shirt and his whole demeanor changed. He was practically drooling as he stared at her tee-shirt. Faith got the impression that the small arm and hand was all that held him back.
"Is this supposed to be scary? I beat up guys like him before I was the slayer." She watched the shadows as Belle Morte, in a flowing red dress with a full corset stepped out from behind him. It surprised Faith how small the master vampire was, her power gave her a presence that made you think she was an Amazon, but then when you met her she looked more like a little porcelain dark haired doll. If little porcelain dolls were shaped like hour-glasses that is, Faith thought as she couldn't help but stare at the massive cleavage the vamp was displaying.

"If Belle Morte wishes to scare you, then you will be scared," Belle answered as she drifted closer to the slayer and took the beer bottle from her and dropped it on the floor.

"Ya know, if you keep speaking in third person, people are gonna assume you're batshit crazy," Faith told her as she signaled the waitress again. That beer was nice and cold and exactly what she would have dreamed of if this was her dream.

"It is your dream. Do you truly believe Belle...I would frequent a place such as this?" the vampire said as she leaned in towards the slayer again.

"If it was my dream," Faith leaned away from her, "this would be an all-male strip club and it would definitely be Slayers Drink Free-Nite."

"Come now girl, I can see that you...appreciate both men and women. Do you not think I am beautiful?" Belle slid closer to her again.

"Whoa!" Faith took a big step away. "No offense, Honey, any port in a storm and all but I always pass on crazy bitch vampire queens."

Belle Morte snarled for a brief moment at the girl who was proving to be completely resistant to her magic. She looked out at the club and a stage with a male dancer appeared. Nathaniel, Ma Petite's beautiful leopard, swayed his naked body on it and she turned to watch Faith's reaction to him.

"Holy Mother..," Faith muttered as the man's hair swayed around his ankles. She tensed as Belle's slim arms wrapped softly around her. "Umm...you really don't get the no means NO thing, huh?"

Belle kissed her neck and whispered across the delicate skin. "No one can refuse Belle Morte for long, no one." She looked at the leopard on stage and knew he wasn't enough to make her submit. She squeezed the girl tighter as the Slayer Queen appeared on the stage.

"HOLY MOTHER OF..." Faith's mouth hung open at Buffy's naked writhing around a brass pole. She watched the focus of a lot of her attention over the years as she displayed herself on stage. After the initial shock, what she felt most was anger, anger that the rednecks in the bar got to see Buffy that way, but more than that, it was anger that her friend, sometimes her only real friend, was being shown this much disrespect. She leaned into the embrace and turned her head to kiss the vampire's forehead. "This is a dream, huh?"

"Oui, Ma Petite Dangereuse, this can be a very good dream for you." She unwrapped her arms and turned the slayer to face her.

"Good," Faith whispered a split second before grabbing the pool cue, spinning it around in the air, and spearing the vampire right through the chest with it. "Then you shouldn't get too pissed about this."