True Faith

La la la...this is getting fun.


*


"Mixed signals." Buffy threw a handful of popcorn on the ground in front of a gaggle of Canadian geese. There was a flutter and a honking mass descended on the treat. "I could never be sure if she was serious, you know?"

Tru nodded, hands shoved deep into her jacket pockets, as they walked along the path near the river, leading to the sea wall. "Maybe it's none of my business, but did you want her to be serious?"

Buffy shrugged. "You ever feel like your work is taking over your life, whether you like it or not?"

Tru smiled to herself. "Strangely enough, all the time."

Buffy glanced up at Tru through her eyelashes, giving her a wry look. "Why do I get the feeling that you're not just talking about the morgue?"

"What does your work have to do with those mixed signals?" Tru shot back easily. Weeks of giving Luc excuses had really honed her answer-a-question-with-a-question skills.

"We worked together." Buffy grabbed another handful of popcorn for the geese, then offered the bag to Tru. She shook her head. If this was the way Buffy snacked, no wonder she was still so thin. Buffy sighed and continued. "Office romances...Once was too many times for that, but I didn't learn. Oh, no. Instead I let it happen again, and it was worse. So, I don't know if it was serious, because I didn't have the time or the energy to find out, and there was another battle every day..."

"Battle?" Tru asked. This, and Buffy's mutterings about 'magic' and 'spells', was really making her more interested in the life the other girl had led than in her supposed doppelganger.

Buffy's eyes widened guiltily. "Yes. Battle. Um, a battle of words...and policies...there was a lot of diverging opinions, very vicious stuff, I think there was an epidemic of papercuts, at one point there was a very nasty incident involving a stapler..."

"What is it that you do?" Tru asked, laughing.

"School...guidance...counsellor?" Buffy asked hopefully, as though she knew she weren't going to be believed.

"Right." Tru smiled. Well, Buffy could have her secrets if she wanted. Tru wasn't about to tell her everything about her life, either.

"So if you work in the morgue," Buffy asked, "then why did Harrison say you save people? Isn't it a little late by the time they get to you?"

Although it wouldn't be easy.

"Oh, I--I help the families," Tru said. "You know, when they come to identify the bodies."

"And Harrison helps?" Buffy asked skeptically. "He...doesn't really seem like the sympathetic type."

"Yeah...he's not. But he's getting better." Tru ran her hand over the stone wall beside the path, then leaned over it, looking down to where the waves were crashing into the beach. "It can be really tough. People...I mean, you'd never realize how many people die before their time. Too young. Too suddenly. Violently, sometimes."

Buffy leaned back against the parapet, and suddenly she looked incredibly sad. She crossed her arms like she was trying to protect herself from something, one hand holding her stomach. "I know," she said softly.

Tru believed her. Even Davis, working with cadavers every day for the last twelve years, didn't really understand death. He saw bodies that had stopped functioning, and he found out the reasons why. They weren't people by the time they got to him. When Tru needed his help, he speechified and got all metaphysical...what Fate wanted and what it didn't want, who was meant to go and who to stay...but he still didn't understand death the way she did. He'd never seen someone die, right in front of him.

Buffy had. Tru could see it in her eyes, suddenly bright with tears that she refused to cry. The day was colder, the wind sharper now, clouds floating down from the mountains surrounding the city. The quick change in the weather matched Buffy's expression, which was older and far away.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Tru offered quietly.

"Ah, my...my mom," Buffy said. "I...haven't really thought about her for a while...I haven't had the time. But I just realised...um, there was, a, um...an earthquake, in my hometown, and now...I mean, the whole place is rubble. And, I won't be able to visit her anymore, or bring f-flowers..." Buffy turned around so that she and Tru were both facing the ocean. The wind had whipped her long blonde hair out of its clips, and now it hid her face.

Tru watched her for a moment before moving closer, wondering if it was the right thing to do, remembering the incredible warmth of Buffy's hand on her cheek. She put her arm around Buffy's shoulder. Buffy turned to her and wrapped her in a fierce hug. Tru returned it, but she couldn't help but wonder if Buffy wasn't, somehow, hugging that other girl...Faith. That was her name.

"My mom died too," she said, almost to herself--she didn't want to intrude on Buffy's grief with her own past, but it felt like something needed to be said to fill the silence. She didn't know if she was speaking loud enough for Buffy to hear, because the wind was picking up, but Buffy nodded against her chest, and she went on. "Ten years ago," shed. d. "Sometimes it still hurts...and it always feels like it wasn't supposed to happen. But mostly I remember the good things..."

"Like waffles from scratch," Buffy mumbled into her jacket. "They didn't have any calories if she made them."

"Yeah..." Tru smiled. "Or when she'd come to my track meets and cheer me on even if I was losing..."

Another nod, and Buffy's shoulders shook a little more, her hug tightening briefly before she seemed to remember Tru wasn't strong enough for her whole strength.

Tru sighed, and looked down to see that she was stroking Buffy's hair. When had that happened? It was soft...

The wind was carrying rain now, and when Buffy felt it she backed away, wiping the tears off her face. "Thanks," she said, giving Tru a soft smile. "I, uh...I haven't done that in a while..
\
"I guess everybody needs to," Tru said. "Sometimes." In the arms of a stranger.

Buffy's smile widened. "Yeah. Well. Maybe we should get out of the rain?"

"Right."

They went back to the path and Tru led the way to a small teashop she knew of near the edge of the park. Buffy was holding her hand, and it was nice, and again, Tru didn't know when that had started.

Looked like this Faith person wasn't the only one who knew how to give off mixed signals.

*

To be continued, da da dum!