The Gift, Take Two

Title: The Gift, Take Two – Chapter 6: Two By Four
Email: Dafmeister@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: The Buffyverse is owned by Joss Whedon, Mutant Enemy, Fox and a bunch of other people who aren’t me. No infringement of copyright is intended blah blah blah…
Distribution: Faithfanfiction.net, Mystic Muse, Shades Of Grey, Slayer's Fanfic Archive, A Sorta Fairytale, Oralfxatn, anyone else who tells me first.
Rating: Overall R to NC-17
Timing: End of Season 5
Feedback: Yes please, it really helps keep my morale up when my muse is being difficult.
Spoilers: Everything up to the end of Season 5
Summary: Faith has regained consciousness. What now?
Author’s notes: Huge thanks to Kaz, beta extraordinaire, and to Leila, my friend and sounding board. Also to Gabrielle and Alice, who helped me out of the legal minefield I wrote myself into.
* * * * *

“Buffy, it’s Tara. She’s awake!”

For a moment Buffy just stared at the phone, not quite comprehending what she’d heard. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Dawn appear at the basement door, her expression questioning. Shaking herself out of her daze, Buffy replied, “We’re on our way.”

As Buffy hung up, Dawn walked slowly toward her, afraid to ask what the news was. Buffy stepped forward to meet her sister and wrapped her arms around her. “She’s awake, Dawnie. She’s okay…” Neither realized they were crying.

*****

*A few minutes earlier*

“Can you still smell smoke?” Willow asked, sniffing the air.

Tara concentrated for a moment, then replied, “Maybe a little, but only because I know it’s there.”

“All that smoke, just from burning a few herbs…” Willow muttered.

“Do you think we used enough Lethe’s Bramble?”

“I hope so, I didn’t want to use too much and give everyone in the hospital amnesia.” Willow’s nose wrinkled slightly as she sniffed again.

“That probably wouldn’t be a good thing.” Tara agreed. Suddenly, she grabbed Willow’s arm. “Look!” She pointed excitedly at Faith.

Willow looked over and saw why Tara had become so excited. The wounded Slayer was slowly flexing the fingers of her right hand, the one that wasn’t in a plaster cast. A few moments later, her eyelids fluttered briefly, then slowly opened.

*****

Faith blinked several times, trying to focus, before she looked around the room. It took her a moment to spot the two witches sitting by the window. “Hey,” she said, her voice weak and slightly slurred. “Did we win?”

“Well, the world didn’t end, so yeah,” Willow replied, her voice slightly distant as she tried to hide the ambiguity of her feelings at seeing Faith regain consciousness. Tara just smiled shyly and waved her cast.

Faith suddenly jerked up off the pillow, trying to sit upright. “What about B? Is she okay?” The memory of the dreams she’d had, of seeing the gang weeping over Buffy’s body, ran over and over in her mind. They won in the dream, but she still died…

Tara smiled reassuringly. “Everyone’s fine. I-I mean, we were all upset about you getting hurt, but now you’re awake…”

Faith subsided onto the pillow, relief washing over her face. As she lay down again, she finally noticed the casts and bandages covering her. “This looks like it should hurt…”

“There’s morphine in the IV,” Willow said, pointing at the line running into Faith’s arm.

“Oh. So that’s why I sound hammered. It’s good.” Faith’s old crooked smile appeared for the first time since her arrival weeks before, then disappeared again. “How long was I out this time?”

“Uh, not sure. What month is it?” Willow asked Tara, unable to resist having a little fun at Faith’s expense.

“Willow!” Tara gave her girlfriend a playful slap on the arm.

“Sorry, I couldn’t help it.” Willow smiled unrepentantly before turning back to Faith. “It’s been two days.”

“I’d better go tell the nurse you’re awake.” Tara turned toward the door.

“Can you call Buffy, too?” Willow asked. “I think one of us should stay…”

“Sure, sweetie.” Tara kissed Willow briefly and left the room.

As soon as the door closed, Willow’s face hardened. “I want to know what you’re planning, Faith.”

Faith’s eyes, which had been drifting closed, opened again. “Uh, planning?”

“What’re you going to do now that we’ve beaten Glory?”

“Well, I’m guessing sooner or later, someone here’ll recognize me and call the cops, so-”

Willow cut her off, shaking her head. “No, they won’t.”

It took a moment for what Willow had said to register in Faith’s morphine-clouded mind, then confusion registered on her face. “Huh?”

“Tara and I did a spell. No-one’s going to call the cops.”

Faith’s eyes widened in surprise. “You did that for me?”

“I did it for Buffy. She asked me to hide you for a while, while you recover.”

“Oh.” Disappointment flickered across Faith’s face for a moment. Why the hell would Red do anything for me? Damn it, Faith, quit feeling sorry for yourself! “Well, thanks. I’d rather not be healing up in the prison infirmary.”

Willow arched an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with it?”

“Nothing, it’s just…” Faith paused for a moment, wondering how best to explain. “Back when I first went inside, a few people tried to play “pick on the new girl”. I put a couple in the infirmary, and everyone’s left me alone since, but if I’m laid up like this they might try to settle some scores…” And I’ve had enough knives in me to last a lifetime…

Willow’s eyes narrowed. “Get back to the point, Faith. What are you going to do?”

“Go back, I guess.” But I don’t want to… No, I have to.

“Okay, then.” Willow sat down again, the stern expression on her face softening somewhat. After a moment, the door opened, and one of the doctors came in to take a look at Faith. He had just finished when Tara returned.

“I called everyone, they’re on their way.” Tara perched herself on the end of the bed.

Faith smiled weakly at her. “Careful, Blondie, you keep this up and I’m gonna start thinking people like me!” Tara returned the smile shyly. Neither of them saw Willow’s eyes narrow.

* * * * *

When Buffy and Dawn got to Faith’s hospital room, Giles had already arrived and was waiting with Willow and Tara. The bed was empty.

“What’s happened? Where is she?” Buffy asked, panicked.

Giles answered, his voice soothing. “It’s all right, Buffy. The doctor took her up for a CT scan a few minutes ago. She’ll be back soon.”

Buffy visibly relaxed, as did Dawn. The two sisters sat down on the edge of the bed to wait. After a moment, Buffy asked, “Any luck finding a spell?”

Willow smiled slightly. “Found it and cast it. It was pretty easy, really; we’d already looked into using it once before.”

“W-we found it a while ago, when we were looking for some way to hide Dawn from…,” Tara said, breaking off before she uttered Glory’s name. “It sorta masks the person it’s cast upon, makes people see what they expect to see. I-I mean, we’ll all still see Faith ‘cause we know her, but the staff here should just see her as a patient. If a cop saw her we might have a problem, ‘cause watching for escaped prisoners is sorta their job, but…”

“We never cast it on Dawn because Glory had already seen her and didn’t know she was the Key, so we didn’t think it would help – it doesn’t work against mystical senses so anything that could sense the Key would still know it was her.” Willow finished, babbling slightly.

“Thank you, both of you.” Buffy said, smiling at the two witches.

Giles cleared his throat. “Buffy, what are you doing? I know we kept Faith hidden before, but she has done what she came here to do…”

“I know, Giles.” Buffy sighed. “I just want her to have a chance to get well again, before the cuffs go back on.” Giles looked at her curiously for a moment, but remained silent.

Xander and Anya arrived a few minutes later, and soon after that, the group decided to wait outside in the corridor “where the chairs live”, as Xander put it. Half an hour passed, then an hour. Xander was returning from fetching coffee when the elevator doors opened, and Faith was wheeled out, looking tired but a little more alert than before.

Buffy and Dawn ran to meet her, Dawn practically pouncing onto the gurney to hug Faith. Buffy’s greeting was more restrained; she simply squeezed Faith’s uninjured hand once and smiled.

A nurse quickly returned Faith to her room, while a doctor with “Michael Wilson M.D.” embroidered on his lab coat gathered the waiting Scoobies. “I’m sure you’re all anxious to talk to Faith, but what she needs most at the moment is rest. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that you’ve all been watching over her while she was unconscious, but now she’s awake I don’t want her getting disturbed too often. No more twenty-four hour vigils, okay?”

“She’s going to be all right, isn’t she?” Buffy asked anxiously.

Dr. Wilson smiled gently. “I think she’ll be fine. She’s already making excellent progress. I’m going to go over her condition with her now, and then you can see her, but only fifteen minutes. She needs to rest today, so anything else will have to wait until tomorrow.”

“Got it.” Buffy replied, the others nodding and murmuring their agreement.

Wilson nodded once and disappeared into Faith’s room. Buffy sat down again and hugged Dawn. “She's going to be okay…”

Everyone sat in silence for the next few minutes, digesting the news, before Dr. Wilson came back out. “You can go in now. Fifteen minutes, remember?” The various nods seemed to satisfy him, and he left them to it.

Faith was back in her bed looking a little shell-shocked when Buffy led the others into the room. Seeing the expression on the other Slayer’s face, Buffy immediately went back on alert. As the other six tried to arrange themselves around the bed without crowding it, Buffy perched on the side of the bed. “Faith, what happened?”

Faith gave a wry smile before she answered. “The doc was telling how many bones I broke; I never really thought about how many there are before.”

“How are you doing? And if you say ‘five by five’ I’ll break your other arm!” Buffy said, smiling weakly.

Faith laughed briefly, then winced as a jolt of pain penetrated the painkillers in her system. “More like two by four, as in ‘hit with a’, but I’ll live.”

“How bad is it?” Dawn asked quietly.

“Ah, I’ll be fine, Bite-size. Doc says I’ll be here for a few weeks, which means I’ll be out in two max with the whole Slayer healing thing.” Faith’s attempt to laugh off her condition didn’t work.

“Please, Faith, I want to know…” Dawn said. How bad did I get you hurt?

Faith sighed once before acquiescing. “The arm took the worst of it. I broke one of the bones in the forearm and a few little ones with big-ass names in my hand. Dislocated the shoulder, too, which messed up the arrow wound again, but there wasn’t any real nerve damage so it should heal up fine. I cracked my skull, but they took care of the bleeding, and the swelling’s gone down so that’s all good.” She patted her plastered-up right leg. “Broke my shin in two places and cracked the kneecap, but they’ll all heal. Punctured lung’s all stitched up. A few ribs got cracked, but nothing serious. Other than that, it’s just cuts and bruises, nothing I couldn’t have gotten on patrol.”

Tears welled in Dawn’s eyes as Faith ran through the list. As she finished, Faith looked over at the younger Summers and said as sharply as her tiredness would let her, “Hey! Knock it off, Bite-size! We took on a hell-god and we’re all here for the “We Kicked Her Ass” party. Sounds pretty good to me.”

Dawn sniffed a little and nodded. Giles put his hand on her shoulder and said to Faith, “We should probably let you get some sleep. Dr. Wilson was quite emphatic about that.”

Faith chuckled at that. “Yeah, it’s weird. I sleep for two days and wake up wiped, how twisted is that?” Everyone laughed a little awkwardly.

Buffy turned to the others. “I’ll catch up, guys, I just want a minute…”

As the door closed, Faith suddenly remembered something. “Hey, is Spike okay? I remember him going off the tower right before me…”

“He’s a bit beat up, but still in one piece.” Buffy replied. “He twisted his knee pretty badly when he landed but he’s in way better shape than you – he hit that big heap of rubble and rolled down the slope, so he didn’t just slam into the ground.”

Silence reigned for a moment, then Buffy spoke again. “Thank you.”

“What for? After what I did to you before, this was the least I could do.” Faith’s eyes dropped at the mention of their past. “I never thought I’d get a chance to start squaring things with you, B, I had to take it.”

“Faith, we are so far past square right now… You saved my sister. She’s all I have now.”

Faith shook her head slightly. “It’s not enough, B. It can’t be enough…”

“It is to me.” Faith was about to object again, but Buffy touched her finger to the dark girl’s lips, silencing her. “I can’t forget what you did, and you really shouldn’t, but I forgive you.”

“Okay.” Faith began to smile, but it turned into a yawn halfway through.

Buffy laughed gently. “Sleep. Now. I’ll be back tomorrow, and Angel will be by after dark tonight.”

Faith perked up at that. “Fang’s in town?”

“Yeah, I called him when you were brought in here, but he only got the message last night, and he came straight here.”

“Cool! I don’t think they’ll let me send him a visitor’s pass for a while after I get back, y’know.”

Buffy nodded slightly and left the drowsy Slayer in peace.

Giles and the others were waiting just down the corridor. Buffy joined them and motioned them into a corner where they wouldn’t be overheard. “Giles, can you take Dawn home? I want to run by Spike’s crypt and let him know Faith’s okay.”

Giles ignored Xander’s eye-rolling as he replied, “Of course.”

Buffy paused for a moment. “I’d like you all to come over tonight, ten o’clock. There’s something I need to talk to you all about. Actually, Giles, can we use the Magic Box? I think we could use some space.”

“Of course, Buffy.” Giles replied, half-suspecting what was on her mind.

“What’s up, Buff?” Xander asked. “Spider-sense tingling?”

Buffy shook her head. “Nothing like that. I’ll explain tonight.” I really don’t want to have this argument more than once.