Starting Over Again

hey, i just wanna thank all the people who've been reading and reviewing my story. i really appreciate it. i got the next part already. hope you like.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Months went by and nothing changed. Well not for Faith anyway. She was still in the hospital, still in a coma. People came into the hospital and left again, Faith stayed there. She didn’t leave, she couldn’t leave.

Buffy’s life however had been turned upside down and swirled around for a little bit. College wasn’t exactly what she had expected it to be but she’d adjusted eventually. It was weird in the beginning to not have Angel stalking her all the time, but it didn’t take too long before she got a new stalker, Riley.

Riley, though, wasn’t exactly like what Angel had been and hadn’t been the first guy who was after Buffy.

First there was Parker. He seemed like a nice enough guy, until Buffy slept with him and got ignored by him that was. Poor Buffy felt betrayed and like shit, so she decided to do like any other girl her age would do. Get drunk with other college guys she didn’t know. Too bad for Buffy though, because the beer she drank was cursed, turning anyone who drank it into a cave-man/woman. Or as Xander observed, a cave-slayer.

Buffy eventually dealt with the one-night-stand with Parker and moved on, accepting that Parker was a dick and couldn’t be changed. This was when Riley, a TA for Psychology, decided he’d try his move on Buffy. One date he got but that was enough time for Buffy to decide that this all-American Iowa boy was as interesting as a broken table lamp.

Buffy, being the nice girl she is, let him down easy. Riley, being the dumb ass he is, couldn’t take a hint.

To get Riley off of her back, Buffy decided to tell him a tiny white lie. She said that she was a lesbian and currently dating Willow, the date with him was only to suppress her inner urges. Not long afterwards though Willow actually confessed she was gay, but that will be explained later.

Riley and Buffy stayed friends, mostly because Riley was a part of something called the Initiative, a human army collecting demons to do experiments on them. It was nice to have a back-up team. Until they decided to make their own demon ‘Adam’ and getting killed by it.

Even though Buffy’s new life consumed a lot of her time, she never forgot about Faith. After patrol she’d usually stop by and her Saturdays were reserved for Faith only, it was named ‘Faith-day’ by Buffy and no one would be able to spend time with Buffy except for if they spend it in the hospital with her. This didn’t happen too often though. Buffy had also given her phone number to Faith’s doctor and nurses so that if there was any change they could contact her immediately.


*********************************************************


Xander came back from his trip during the first week of college, he ran into a sad Buffy at the Bronze. She was sad because she felt like she didn’t fit in at college.

They hugged and exchanged stories. The night started great but ended in a fight; Buffy had told Xander about what she had planned for Faith. His reaction had been anticipated, but that didn’t make it any easier.

Willow, being the good friend she is, talked to Xander and convinced him that it was probably for the best to help Faith once she woke up.

After a week of no talking between Buffy and Xander, they met up, talked, hugged and moved on.

Xander started a job at the local college bar as a bartender, needing the money, hoping to pick up girls and wanting to stay close to his friends.

He didn’t pick up any girls, but not to worry, Anya the ex-vengeance demon came back to town because she missed Xander. They had sex and later became a couple. Still dating now.


****************************************************


Willow and Oz were the perfect couple, she was a witch, he a werewolf. Everything was fine, until he cheated on her with an other werewolf, Veruca.

Not long after he had cheated on Willow (he had been in wolf-form, as had the other werewolf), he decided it was better if he left to try to get control over his wolf-self.

Willow was devastated, nothing could make her feel better. This went on for a long time until one faithful night ‘The Gentlemen’ came to Sunnydale and stole all the voices from the people living there.

Tara, a fellow wiccan, looked for Willow wanting to do a spell to get their voices back. They had met in the wicca meetings on campus, the two of them being the only real witches.

That night a very special friendship blossomed. (It was also the night Buffy found out that Riley was a part of this so-called Initiative.)

Willow and Tara did many spells together and eventually started a relationship that was more than being ‘just friends’.

Since Willow didn’t want to keep secrets from her best friend, knowing that it would drive them apart eventually, she decided to come out to her.

***Flashback***

Willow opens the dorm room door after staying yet an other night at Tara’s. She has decided to tell Buffy exactly where the two of them are in their relationship. She looks around the room, sees that Buffy’s bed is unmade and that her toiletries are gone.

Buffy is obviously in the shower, so this gives Willow a little more time to figure out how to tell Buffy that she has a girlfriend.

Buffy walks into the room only wearing a towel and carrying her toiletries in a little bag in her hand.

Willow sits on the edge of the bed nervous. “Hey Buffy,” she squeaks. Buffy is started and almost drops her towel (too bad she didn’t…), “shit, Will! You scared me.” “Buffy? Could we talk?” Buffy turns around with a sweater in her hand, “Yeh, sure. Just give me a minute to get dressed.”

As Willow sits waiting for Buffy to get ready and she just gets more and more nervous. She is so lost in her own little world that she doesn’t even notice the hot little blonde sitting down next to her on the bed.

“What was it you wanted to talk about Will?”

No reply.

“Will. You OK?”

Buffy moves herself to sit cross legged on the middle of the bed and motions for Willow to do the same.

“I have something to tell you bit I’m not sure how to. I don’t want to keep this a secret because that would mean I would have to lie to you. And I know that if we lie to each other, smaller things will become bigger things and eventually we’ll fall apart and I’d have to move to a different dorm room and ---”

Buffy cuts off Willow rambling, wanting to know what her best friend is trying to tell her.

“Will. Breathe. Now, tell me, what’s up?”

Willow listens to Buffy and takes a few deep breaths before starting again.

“You know that girl I’ve been telling you about?”

“Tara?”

“Yeh. The thing is, we’ve become really good friends, like really close.”
Buffy smiles at her best friend, happy she’s found someone else beside the Scooby gang to hang out with. “That’s great Will.”

Willow sighs, “no, I mean like really close friends.” Buffy just looks at Willow, not getting it.

Willow is looking at Buffy expectantly, scared for her reaction. Buffy finally figures out was she means.

“Oh! You mean like you and Tara are together…… like girlfriends, dating?” Buffy asks, wanting to be sure she got it right. Willow slowly nods, still not sure if Buffy’s reaction was a good one or not.

Buffy leans forward to hug Willow, “that’s great Will. Really. I’m happy for you.” They let go of each other again and Willow just looks confused, “you’re not freaked?”

Buffy just smiles, “no, why should I be freaked? I had noticed that you were happier, now I know why. I’m glad she makes you happy.” She smiles widely at her red headed friend, the smile slowly turns into a grin. A grin that reminds Willow too much of Faith’s.

“What?”

“You into pussy now then?” Willow turns bright red, ready to harm Buffy in a serious way, until Buffy can’t hold it anymore and just laughs. “God Will, you should have seen your face! I’m sorry, maybe it’s a bit too early for those kind of comments.”

They continue laughing until Buffy gets a hold of herself and becomes serious again.

“Seriously Will, I’m happy for you and thank you for trusting me to tell me about this. you should know that I’d never judge you about anything.” Buffy smiles softly before continuing, “I do wanna meet her though, you should bring her to the next Scooby meeting.”

“Have you told any of the others yet?”

Willow shakes her head ‘no’, “you wanna tell them after they’ve met Tara then?”

“Not yet, telling you was hard enough for now. It does make everything easier though. And like you just said, I want them to meet Tara first.”

***End Flashback***

Willow eventually told Anya, Xander and Giles, that was after Oz had shown up on Giles’ doorstep though.

He thought that he would be able to get back with Willow again, but she told him that she’d moved on. To Tara.

While Willow had been doing that Buffy had kept Tara company and told her not to worry about Willow choosing Oz over her ‘cause that wasn’t gonna happen. Ever.

The whole gang had been supportive about Willow’s relationship with Tara. Tara had become an important member of the gang now, just like Anya had.


************************************************

As you can see, this year, which wasn’t even over yet, had been quite a stressful time for Buffy and her friends. To relieve some of this stress that had built up because of Adam’s resent escape, the whole gang (which didn’t include Riley), went to the Bronze. They’d asked Giles if he wanted to come but he had politely declined.

Anya and Xander went to Xander’s basement to, as Anya said, have a lot of wild sex and use hot candle wax for foreplay. They all pretended they hadn’t heard that.

Soon after Anya and Xander had left, Tara, Willow and Buffy decided to call it a night too. They had planned a girls night in Buffy’s and Willow’s dorm.

Tara had been a part of the gang for a while now but didn’t talk a lot, therefore Buffy didn’t know a lot about her. She wanted to change that tonight.


As the three girls walked into the room the phone rang. Since Buffy was the closest she answered it.

“Hello?”

“Good evening, I apologize for calling at this hour but could I speak to a Buffy Summers please?”

“This is her.”

“Oh good. This is nurse Elizabeth from Sunnydale Memorial. I was told that any information regarding Faith Wilkins was to be delivered to you immediately.”

“Yes, I know that. What is it? Is she OK?” Buffy started to panic slightly, Faith couldn’t die, not now, not after those long months of fighting the coma she was in,

“Is she ---”

“Oh no, no, quite the contrary actually. I have called to inform you that Faith has just woken up about 10 minutes ago.”

Buffy dropped the phone as she fainted. Willow quickly picked it up while Tara looked after Buffy.

“Hello?” Silence, “Yes.” More silence, “Thank you, we’ll be over in about 20 minutes, good night.”

Willow hung up the phone and helped Tara with Buffy. Tara looked at her girlfriend expectantly,

“Faith’s awake.”

*************************************

TBC.... the next update will take a little longer than this one. i'll probably have it finished by next week.