Electricity flows

Chapter Five :: Just Teasing

Faith could hear the shouting but it was behind her and away to the left some, not right behind her as she’d feared. Not that the situation was any better for that. Here in the cemetery with the high headstones and looming, bulky mausoleums there were plenty of places to crouch and hide, but once she hit the open road there would be nowhere. Normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but she was injured and carrying an unconscious Buffy. She’d be lucky to manage more than a stumble-run at the moment.

From the shouts she was hearing it sounded like Fang-boy had called in reinforcements too and they were all looking. The smell of Slayer blood must have been hanging enticingly in the air. This was bad considering it would lead to them.

Faith shook her wet hair back as best she could and tried to think what to do. She didn’t know how badly Buffy was injured so a hospital would probably be a good idea, or Giles’ place, but both meant crossing town. She had a first aid box at her place, but the angry vampires were in the way.

Muttering “Fucking rain.” She made her slow, painful way over to a crypt and kicked open the heavy wooden door, nearly dropping the blonde as she recoiled from it. Still: mission accomplished.

She hurried through the open door and unceremoniously plonked Buffy down in a corner before looking around the dark, cobwebby space.

“Nice digs.” She shut the door with a bang, there was no point being stealthy about it, anyone close enough to hear it shut would have heard the all-mighty bang when she’d forced it open a second ago.

There wasn’t a lot in the stone room in the way of furnishings, but Faith had always been a simple girl. “It’s Spartan, suits me down to the ground.” She gave a humourless chuckle and pulled the heavy masonry lid from the sarcophagus, wincing a little as her injuries let her know they were still there and didn’t much like dragging monoliths around.

She’d just got it in front of the door when she heard the call: “We know you’re here somewhere Slayer, and we will find you. Don’t bother trying to escape, the cemetery is surrounded.”

There was nothing else in the crypt that could be useful, she just had to hope the lid would stop them from opening the door. Obviously the dead guys didn’t know exactly where they were hiding, which was a plus. Another plus was that “Open Skies” was one of the oldest bone yards within the city limits, meaning it was full of mausoleums and raised tombs, not like the new ones which were all regimental lines of grave markers.

Faith grabbed a fancy candlestick from an alcove in the wall and settled down by the blonde Slayer.

“Buffy.”

Faith pulled the blonde’s head onto her lap and gently stroked the dishevelled hair off of her face. “Buffy.”

The older girl still didn’t stir. Faith started to check her over for injuries. Buffy was covered in cuts and bruises on her arms, but then so was Faith. The dark Slayer couldn’t check any further down her body without disturbing the blonde’s position and she didn’t want to do that so she settled for pulling her more bodily into her arms and holding the smaller girl tight.

The voice from outside came again. Faith thought it sounded further away than before but couldn’t be sure. The rain was still running its monotonous backing track.

“Just give us the blonde one, Girl, and we’ll let you go. She’s half dead already; let me put her out of her misery.”

Faith bit her tongue to stop from shouting out exactly what she thought about that idea. “Like that’s gonna happen.” She muttered instead, instinctively holding Buffy tighter. The older girl was shivering constantly and Faith was getting a little worried. Or more worried.

“Buffy.” She said again so softly it was more of a sigh than a word.

The blonde mumbled something and buried her head deeper into Faith’s chest.

Faith smiled with relief; with one hand she ran her fingers gently over Buffy’s cheek: “Buffy.”

There was a small smile playing on the blonde’s lips as she swallowed a few times and lifted her small hand to place over Faith’s, holding it against her. Faith leaned down a little to catch what she was trying to say.

“Angel.” Buffy’s voice was filled with soppy love and sleepy contentment.

The dark Slayer stiffened. Her smile turned upside down and her fingers, still being held against Buffy’s face suddenly felt like they didn’t belong to her anymore. She wanted to cut them off.

“Angel?” Buffy sounded curious now; she must have felt Faith’s reactions even though her brain was, hopefully, still fuzzy with the concussion. Slowly she opened her eyes.

“Faith!”

“In the flesh, Girlfriend.” Faith tried to keep her tone neutral, but the look on Buffy’s face when her eyes had open had been, well if it was anyone else she’d have said it was priceless, but for some reason, it was just disappointing.

Faith had done the rescue after all, but Angel got the lovesick smiles and whispered nothings. All Faith got was confusion, with a dash of embarrassment and horror thrown in.

Buffy sat up as fast as she could, both hands going to her head as it swam away from her. “Ow!” She was avoiding looking Faith’s way the dark girl noticed. “Cold.” The blonde was shivering still.

Faith felt like shivering now too. The heat generated by Buffy’s body had disappeared as soon as the contact was broken and the wet clothes and chill air in the crypt both worked fast to make her feel freezing.

“Where are we?”

Faith held a finger to her lips and made a quiet shushing noise. “In a crypt at the back of ‘Open Skies.’ They’re still out there looking for us, so talk quietly.”

Buffy wrapped her arms around herself. “Why did you hide, why didn’t you just run?”

“Because I was carrying your injured ass and didn’t think we’d make.”

“It’s not my ass that’s injured, it’s my ankle.” Said Buffy, making a face when she tried to move it.

“Damn, and I was gonna offer to kiss it better.” Grinned Faith, shucking off her denim jacket and draping it around Buffy’s shoulders.

“You’ll get cold.” Buffy protested through chattering teeth.

“S’okay, you got got worse than I did, we need to keep you warm.”

“But it’s soaking wet.” Buffy pulled an ‘ick’ face this time. “Just like me.”

“Layers, B. The more the better. As your body temp. rises, you’ll sweat.” Faith pulled Buffy’s ankle onto her lap. Muttering sorry when Buffy flinched.

“And that’s a good thing?”

Faith gave Buffy a look that plainly said: ‘Well yeah, don’t you know anything?’

“One thing you learn when you’re an all weather girl like me, is that layers equal’s good. I don’t know the whys and wherefores or whatever, just trust me.” She was feeling softly around the blonde’s ankle as she said this. “I don’t think it’s broken, just twisted like hell.” She pulled off her left boot and then her sock and used it to start binding the ankle. “I’d make you put my t-shirt on if I was wearing a bra.” She smirked,

Buffy didn’t rise to it. “So because you couldn’t be bothered to dress properly this morning I freeze to death. Gee thanks Faith and I thought you cared.”

“Hey I’d give up my modesty…” That earned a giggled snort from the blonde. “…for your health, but a peek at the twins would probably kill ya quicker, B.” Faith pulled her boot back on, grimacing at the soggy feel of it on her now bare foot.

“We’re all girls here, Faith.” Buffy pulled the jacket around her shoulders tighter and flexed her ankle slightly. It obviously still hurt a lot. “S’not like a look at your rack would do any more than warm me up.”

Faith’s mouth opened to respond but her brain was away with the naked Buffy fairies again. Did the little knock to the head bang some bad into goody-goody Buffy Summers? If the blonde hadn’t woken up saying her dead ex’s name, Faith might have thought there was a little something she wasn’t being told.

Buffy nudged her in the ribs. “Faith, close your mouth, I was joking.”

Faith came back from her little Buffy daydream enough to respond with: “Shame.” With a leer and an eyebrow wiggle. If Buffy wanted to play…

Buffy leaned back against the cold wall and let her head rest on the solid stone and closed her eyes again. “Yeah right, a minute ago you were terrified I wanted to ogle your breasts. I guess that’s the answer to the ‘Is Faith all talk’ question, number one on everyone’s list. Nice to have that cleared up.”

Faith sat up straight, a look of hurt indignance wasted on Buffy’s closed eyes. “I am not all talk!” She spluttered.

“S’okay, F. I won’t tell anyone.”