I'd Go Anywhere With You

Disclaimer in Part One... here's more

******

Faith quickly showered and returned to the room wearing only a towel and using another to dry her hair.

“All yours, B,” Faith grinned at her and walked past Buffy and over to her bed, opening her bag and rummaging through some clothes. “I even left you a little hot water.”

“How thoughtful,” Buffy responded sarcastically, giving her a fake smile for emphasis. Even with that, her eyes roamed Faith’s body for a second. “As soon as I’m done, we’ll get some food, right?”

“That’s the plan, B,” Faith said, trying not to notice Buffy seeming to check her out and hovered over her bag. She smiled at the thought of what Buffy was doing. “Better hurry up.”

Buffy nodded and went into the bathroom, taking some clothes with her. She took a long shower, being it had been a couple days since she had one. She changed into the clothes she brought in with her and walked back into the room to find Faith had ordered room service.

Faith smirked at Buffy’s shocked expression. She was sitting at the table, which was covered with food. “I don’t know about you, B, but I really didn’t want to go anywhere and didn’t want to wait for you to get out of the bathroom.” She paused. “God, you’re such a girl, B. You take a long time to get ready.”

“Well, sorry for being such a ‘girl’, but I like to take awhile. It’s been awhile since I could shower and I was in there until I felt clean again,” Buffy said, walking over to the table and sitting across from Faith. “So what did you order?”

“I didn’t know what you would want so I ordered a little of everything,” Faith smiled. “The guy who brought it up looked at me real weird, though. I think he would have said something if I hadn’t given him a huge tip. I guess he didn’t realize how much we eat.”

“How much you eat, Faith,” Buffy pointed at the other slayer. “I don’t eat that much.”

“Whatever, miss ‘nonfat yogurt’,” Faith laughed. “You are such a liar.”

Buffy got a coy smile on her face. “You actually remember that?”

Faith stopped laughing and smiled. “I remember everything, B,” she said softly, looking Buin tin the eyes.

Buffy felt like she was seeing Faith for the first time. She felt almost... loved by the yor slr slayer and she didn’t know how to handle it. She broke the mutual stare. “So what looks good here?” She touched one of the plates and pulled her hand back quickly. “And that’s hot!”

“The food got here right before you got out of the bathroom so it hasn’t had much time to cool off,” Faith said. “And it all looks good to me. I was getting so sick of eating out of gas stations and rest stops.”

“Me, too,” Buffy agreed and the two dug into all the food in front of them. Buffy didn’t realize how hungry was until she started eating and soon was grabbing food as fast as Faith.

“You’re turning into me, B,” Faith said, her mouth partially full, “and proving yourself wrong, too.”

“Quiet, Faith,” Buffy mumbled, grabbing a fry off Faith’s plate, “I’m just real hungry.” She pointed at her. “This is a one-time deal.”

“Sure, B,” Faith smirked and continued eating.

They ate the rest of the meal in relative silence. Once again, both caught thher her eyeing them several times, but still didn’t say anything. The two of them managed to eat everything there including burgers, fries, chicken wings and pieces of chocolate cake, among other things.

“Okay, I don’t think I’ve ever eaten that much ever,” Buffy leaned back in the chair as Faith gathered up the empty plates on a tray and put it outside the room door. She also grabbed the do not disturb sign and placed it in the key card slot, ensuring no one from the hotel staff would bother them.

“I’m gonna keep track of that, B,” Faith laughed. She leaped and dove onto her bed. “I’m wiped, B. Should we call it a night?”

“You’re going to sleep now?” Buffy asked and looked over at the clock on the night table. “It’s still early.”

“Yeah, and we’ve spent the last to two days trying to get some sleep on a bus,” Faith stated while stretching out on the bed. “I’d like to get some sleep without having to do it whsittsitting up and trying not to listen to others talk and snore and God knows what else.”

“Okay,” Buffy said sounding a little down and trying to hide the pout star to to form on her face. “I guess we should get some sleep.”

Faith noticed Buffy’s change in demeanor and gave her an evil grin, “What exactly did you have in mind, B?” She waggled her brow suggestively for emphasis.

Buffy narrowed her eyes at the other slayer. “I was only thinking we could talk awhile,” she said casually. “We do have a few things to talk about, you know.” She paused. “I mean, if you’re up for it.”

The brunette slowly pushed herself into a sitting position. “I guess so,” she said slowly, looking a little apprehensive and looking everywhere but at Buffy. “What do you want to talk about?”

“Well, you,” Buffy said, trying her hardest to look Faith in the eye but the young slayer wouldn’t look at her so she ending up either looking at the wall or the floor instead.

After a minute, Faith finally looked up, her dark brown eyes huge and starting to water. She couldn’t believe Buffy wanted to talk about her. “Why?”

“I guess I really don’t know that much about you,” Buffy sighed. “That’s partially my fault, but you don’t let people in, Faith. I wish I could have known more about you then. I keep thinking I could have helped you if I did.”

Faith rubbed the side of her face and thought for a moment before speaking. I don’t think you could have helped, B. I had already written you off by the time the council went for me and was so far gone by thime ime anyway, I don’t think anyone could have helped unless they’d killed me.”

“Don’t think like that, Faith,” Buffy chastised. “No one wanted you dead.”

Faith opened her mouth to challenge the blonde’s statement, but thought better of it. She didn’t want to get into an argument right now. They were supposed to be getting past all this. “What do you want to know?”

Buffy shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said shyly and Faith laughed. She thought for a minute. “Where are your parents?”

Faith’s eyes immediately went black and her whole demeanor changed. Buffy knew it was anger she saw but she had never seen Faith that calm when angered, almost as though her senses had shut down. She thought she might have asked the wrong question. She got up from her bed and sat next to Faith, putting her hand on her thigh.

“Are you okay, Faith?” Buffy asked nervously. “I asked about the wrong thing, didn’t I?”

Faith looked down at Buffy’s hand on her thigh then up at Buffy. Her eyes slowly let go of the anger in them and was replaced with a sadness Buffy had never seen. “Yeah, B,” she responded quietly, “I’m okay, just didn’t expect that.”

“It’s bound to come up, Faith. You’ve never said anything about them,” Buffy said slowly, not wanting to upset the brunette further. “You’ve never even said much about your childhood at all except for a couple stories when you first got called.”

“I didn’t want to talk about it,” Faith said, trying to keep any anger or fury out of her voice. She took a deep breath. “My childhood, if you could call it that, sucked. I try not to think about.”

“Do you want to talk about it now?”

Faith took a another deep breath. “My parents were both alcoholics, B,” Faith started, looking down and refusing to look at Buffy, “all they cared about was the next drink. For as long as I can remember, anytime I did anything wrong, I got beat. When I was five, I spilled a glass of milk at dinner and my dad broke my arm.”

Buffy moved her hand from Faith’s thigh and started to rub her back slowly. “Didn’t anyone do something about it? Your mom?”

“My mom helped,” Faith started to tear up, “and my dad just told everyone I was clumsy. I was too scared of him to say anything.

“It got worse as I got older. My mom started to beat me more and my dad started to... touch me,” Faith sobbed openly now and Buffy pulled her into a hug.

“It’s okay, Faith,” Buffy whispered to her, a few tears falling from her eyes. “You don’t have to keep going.”

“I want to get this out,” Faith moved out of Buffy’s embrace, “I don’t think I can stop now.” She tried to wiped the tears from her face bure rre replaced them. “He-he raped me, B. He told me I deserved it because I wasn’t good enough to be his daughter. My mom toe I e I was a whore and just beat me more.”

She continued through the tears. “One day my watcher showed up at school. She told the principal she was there because of a family emergency and was told to get me. I was afraid to go with her, I thought she was a friend of my parents.”

“But you went with her?”

“Yeah,” Faith nodded. “Once we got outside she told me I wasn’t going to my parents, that I never had to see them again. I didn’t care who she was after that. She was saving me.”

Buffy wiped some tears off Faith’s cheek and ducked her head down to look at her. “The watcher’s council saved you from your parents, didn’t they?”

Faith nodded again. “I was fourteen when she got me and she said the council never took potentials until fifteen. She’d been told just to observe my development, but she couldn’t take watching anymore so she got me. I guess she got into a lot of trouble for that.”

Buffy started to rub the brunette’s back again. car cared about you.”

“Yeah,” Faith sniffled. “I never saw my parents again. They probably didn’t even care I was gone. My watcher and I really bonded, though. It took a long time for me to trust her, but she waited, like she knew I would come around.” Faith almost regained control of her emotion, but started to cry again. “I let her die,” sobbsobbed. “I let her die and the council tried to kill me as soon as I made a mistake. Everyone either died or turned on me.”

Pulling Faith into an embrace again, Buffy held her and let her cry, sobbing a little herself. She was wondering why she didn’t see any of this before. She let go of Faith and held the brunette’s face, making the woman look at her. “Faith, you did nothing to deserve that, any of that. But you have to see, people did care about you. Your watcher did.”

“Iled led her,” Faith tried to pull her head away but Buffy wouldn’t let her. “I couldn’t save her.”

“That was not your fault,” Buffy replied sternly. “Faith, you and I both have learned we can’t save everyone. You can only do so much. There’s no way she would ever blame you for what happened, not if she cared as much as she obviously did.”

Faith didn’t respond, just sniffled a little. She rested her head on Buffy’s shoulder and tried to settle down. Buffy held onto her a minute before guiding Faith to lay on the bed and got her under the covers. The brunette didn’t object, the toll of the conversation combined with the bus trip had completely drained her.

Buffy wiped the rest of the tears off the young slayer’s face and smiled down at her. She got off the bed and turned off the lights, checking the door along the way to make sure it was locked. Looking back to the beds, she could tell Faith was already starting to fall asleep, the brunette curled up and laying on her side. Buffy felt a tear roll down her cheek as she thought about what Faith has just told her.

She wanted to talk more, to know more about the brunette but she knew Faith definitely needed the break. What she had just confessed to Buffy had already taken a lot out of her. She wanted to makee Fae Faith was all right, though. The young woman seemed so fragile now.

Buffy walked past her bed to Faith’s and laid down next to the brunette under the covers. She heard Faith was still sobbing silently and before she realized what she was doing, she pulled the younger slayer to her and wrapped her arms around her, putting her head on Faith’s shoulder.

“Just sleep, Faith. I’m right here,” she whispered into her ear. “No one’s gonna hurt you ever again.”

******

Morning came faster than Faith ever thought possible. The last thing she remembered was Buffy having her lay down then nothing. She opened her eyes to see light ing ing into the room and felt someone next to her. It took her a moment to realize where she was and who exactly was with her. Buffy’s arms were wrapped around her as the blonde spooned her from behind.

Faith turned to see Buffy was already awake. The older slayer loosened her hold on the brunett she she felt Faith wake up and turn. She smiled.

“Hey, did you sleep well?” Buffy asked sweetly. She knew Faith had been still most of the night because she watched her for a good portion of it, but she hoped last night’s talk hadn’t sparked any nightmares.

“Yeah,” Faith rubbed her face and looked at Buffy, confused. “B, why are you in my bed?”

Buffy tucked a strand of Faith’s hair behind her ear as she looked at her. “You were crying in your sleep, Faith. I wanted to make sure you were okay, make you feel safe,” she yawned.

“Thanks, B,” Faith said softly and gave Buffy a concerned look. “You look tir tired. Did you sleep at all?”

“A little,” Buffy yawned again. “I watched you for most of the night, making sure you didn’t have any nightmares.”

“I always have nightmares,” Faith said simply, “I’ve just gotten used to them.”

“And last night?”

“Yeah,” the brunette confirmed sadly.

Buffy pulled her into a tight hug. “I’m sorry, Faith,” she whispered in her ear. “I shouldn’t have asked you to bring up all that shit again. I’m sorry you’ve been hurt so much and that I was a part of it.”

Faith felt tears begin to fall once again as she whispered back, “It’s not your fault, B. I have nightmares almost every night. You didn’t do anything to cause it.” She shifted and moved away from Buffy so she could face her. “I told you all that because you wanted to know about me.” She shrugged. “That’s me.”

The young slayer wiped a couple tears on Buffy’s cheek and smiled. “I’m gonna shower and you should try to actually sleep. Then maybe we can order room service again.” She chuckled. “I love doing that.”

“Okay,” Buffy yawned again. “I’ll just rest my eyes for a minute.”

“Sure, B,” Faith grinned, “you do that.” She grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom.

When she got out Buffy was fast asleep on her bed. Faith looked to Buffy’s own bed and realized for the first time that it hadn’t been t int in at all. The blonde had held her the entire night. Faith didn’t know what it think about that and decided not to think about it at all right now. Her and the older slayer were finally makinogreogress and Faith didn’t want to think about anything other than that.

She walked over to Buffy and relaxed on the bed next to her, her head resting against the headboard. She decided to wait until Buffy woke up before ordering any food. She moved Buffy closer to her and put the blonde’s head so it rested on her lap. Running her fingers through Buffy’s long hair, she watched her as she slept, just like Buffy had done for her.

******

A couple hours later Buffy woke up and saw Faith looking down at her. She raised an eyebrow up at the brunette.

“Just returning the favor,” Faith smiled at her. “Are you hungry? ‘Cause I’m starving but I wanted to wait until you woke up before ordering anything.”

Buffy sat up and leaned against the headboard, mirroring Faith’s position. “I could eat,” she smiled back and looked over at the clock. “God, it’s still early. What time did you wake up anyway?”

“Early,” Faith said simply. “We went to bed kinda early last night.”

“Yeah,” Buffy breathed out. “Well, you order some breakfast while I shower.”

“What do you want?”

Buffy leaned on the doorframe of the bathroom. “You did pretty well choosing last night. I trust you.” She disappeared into the bathroom leaving Faith grinning on the bed.

******

TBC...