Chasing the Girl

Disclaimer - part one

Part 7

Last year.

Buffy had played her part.

That night after she had left, Kennedy called Xander and went to his apartment. She had explained what was wrong over the phone, not surprised when Xander didn't seem shocked. She had gone to the store and was planning on staying with the kid at Xander's until they decideat tat to do.

The next morning, Buffy, Willow and Xander boarded a plane for Atlanta.

They were going to a hospital, famous for its rehabilitation of drug abusers. It didn't take much prodding on their part to get her to go, because she knew she needed help.

The plane ride was silent and so was the check-in at the hospital. The only thing Willow said was

"Get yourself together, Buffy. You've got responsibilities now."

"I'm not the only Slayer, not anymore." She said, looking behind Willow out the window.

"Yeah, and she wasn't talking about slaying, Buffy." Xander answered for Willow. "Get your shit together. Cause this is it, as far as I'm concerned." And he walked out leaving the two girls alone.

Willow hugged her and Buffy tensed at the awkwardness of it.

"I'll come get you, when you're better."

Buffy watched as Willow turned and walked away, making sure she was gone before breaking down in complete sobs. 'How the hell did I get here?' She thought.

Present Day.

Faith was walking slowly back from the store, looking around for anything to beat the shit out of.

'You know,' She thought. 'any other person and I would be gone before the word rehab ever got uttered. Why do I want to save Buffy?'

And then her thoughts went back to the child.

'Rose? Good god, she's got a kid. Two years old and she doesn't even really know her. Do I want to? I mean, this is too much, a baby, drug dealers, phony marriages, what the hell was she doing here? I am way out of my element.' She thought.

She walked a little more and then mumbled to herself.

"Like it fucking matters. All they had to do was say her name and I ran." She thought back to Willow's final explanation.

Earlier.

"She was in the hospital for eight months." Willow paused at Faith's cocked eyebrow."I know that's a long time but she wanted to stay and they weren't completely sure she was cured. Turns out they were right."

"So what happened?"

"Well," Kennedy started. "she came back and she was gone. I mean she was here, but she was a zombie. She would sit in a chair all day long. Or just stare out the window. We even tried leaving Rose with her once. Just for an hour, just to see how she would react. Rose was screaming when we got back."

Willow finished for her. "And Buffy hadn't even moved from the chair." She looked at Kennedy before continuing. "We thought Dawn could help. She'd visited once for a while, just to see Rose, so we called her and asked her to come."

"The meeting was tense," Kennedy said, "but Dawn seemed to be helping. Buffy was saying more than yes and no, or thank you, so it was an improvement. She even talked her into going swimming. So we thought we'd make a day of it. Cook out in the back yard, Will was getting pretty good with teaching Rose to swim," She paused when she noticed Faith's smile. "but that is when the proverbial shit hit the fan."

"The pool incident." Faith said.

"Yep, the pool incident." Willow answered.

"Dawn was laying ofloafloat in the deep end and I was inside getting Rose some water. Xander and Ken had gone to the store for something, so they were the only two outside with Rose. Buffy was laying on a lawn chair. I just assumed she was watching her and then I heard a splash."

Faith looked away, pretty much guessing what Willow was going to say next.

"No, Rose didn't droif tif that's what you're thinking."

Faith exhaled the breath she was holding.

"But she could have. She walked right to the edge and jumped in. The pool's pretty big and Dawn was screaming for Buffy to help, she was trying to swim to her, but Buffy just looked at her, looked at Rose, and just stared.ame ame out in the middle. Dawn was pulling Rose out of the water. Rose was screaming, Dawn was crying and Buffy was just staring. I picked her up and Dawn walked over to Buffy, still sitting on the lawn chair, and slapped her. I mean hard, it knocked her back. Then she came over to me and said 'I'm leaving. I can't help and I can't take care of her.' I'm still not sure who she meant, Rose or Buffy. She just looked tired and mad. She said we allowed her to get this way, and we should fix it. And she left. "

Kennedy picked up.

"Xander and I were pulling up as the cab was leaving. We tried to stop it, but...she must have told him to go on. When we got to the backyard, Buffy was sitting there, tears rolling down her cheeks and Willow was soaking wet, rocking Rose was was a sight. Buffy just got up and left."

Kennedy got up and stretched her arms. "She was gone for a week and when she came back she was drunk, she slapped me, told me I ran away, that's where she was talking to you, I think. She came to get Rose, she said, Xander was there and he was holding her. He told her she was crazy and to get the fuck out and she knocked him, enough to send Rose flying out of his lap and him onto the floor. She picked her up and tried to leave but Will stopped her."

"What did you do?"

"I told her to go ahead and ruin her life if she wanted, but don't ruin Rose's. She looked at me and for a moment I thought she was gonna say ok or you're right, but she just said 'Bitch' and handed me the baby. Then she said 'I didn't want her anyway' and she walked out."

Faith stared at the two girls, stunned. "That's it, she just left?" They both nodded. "So where are they now? "Buffy? Rose?" Faith found that the little girl's named sounded funny on her lips.

Kennedy answered. "Buffy's still here. Tracking spell is still on, but we haven't contacted her." She looked at Willow. "I didn't want to even tell you."

"And Rose?"

"Oh, Ken took her to Xander's after I called. We didn't really want to spring her on you like that. Not til you got the whole story."

Faith stood for the umpteenth time that night and stretched her legs.

"Ok, so why did you call me? I mean we all know how I felt about Buffy, but this isn't B. What can I do?"

"Faith." Willow said. "If you love Buffy half as much as you say you do, you'll help her. Find her, talk to her, I still think maybe you're what she needed, maybe if we had called you, sooner...I don't know, she's still Buffy, she's in there, I know, I can read her, but I'm not the one who can help her, I'm not her other half."

"Yeah, well I'm starting to think I'm not, either." Faith said, as she lit her last cigarette.

"Maybe, maybe not, Faith," Willow said. "but did you love her? Do you still?"

Faith sighed and nodded her head.

"Then you have to help her. If you don't wanna do it for her, do it for Rose." Willow, said as she handed the photo back to Faith.

Faith looked at the chubby baby in the picture and felt a knot rise in her throat, she looked up at Willow and nodded.

"Of course. Tell me what I need to do?"

To be continued