Together We Stand Divided We Fall

Chapter 8

Faith was taken to surgery. The doctor told them that it was a difficult surgical procedure. He said Faith’s arm was badly damaged and they would have to reconstruct her shoulder. He told them that the operation should take up to five hours.

Dawn sat in the waiting room. She held her head in her hands. “I’m so tired of being here! Why do we always end up here? I can’t take this anymore. I can’t lose another person. Buffy, why does this always happen? Is it me?” She turned to her sister.

“No, Dawn this isn’t your fault. Faith is a slayer and these things happen to us. You know that. You grew up with a slayer,” Buffy soothingly tried to tell her sister.

NO, no I didn’t!” Dawn jumped up from her chair. “I never grew up! I was a key, then you…If those damn monks didn’t make me then none of this would have happened. If you weren’t the slayer then I would never have been made. You would be happy. Tell her, Tara!” she cried as she paced the waiting room.

“Dawn, if Buffy wasn’t the slayer, then none of us would be here. She has saved every one of us at one point or another. You can’t say you wish she wasn’t the slayer,” Tara told the now crying teen.

Dawn stopped whimpering and locked eyes with her sister. Buffy could see pure emptiness in Dawn’s eyes. “If I wasn’t here you would have never died. You said yourself you died because of me!” With that, Dawn turned and ran out of the hospital.

She ran all the way back home. Without going inside, Dawn took her keys and headed for her car. She drove around just thinking. She pushed the play button on the CD player. Avril Lavigne played loudly throughout the car.

‘I cannot find a way to describe it
It's there inside; all I do is hide
I wish that it would just go away
What would you do, you do, if you knew
What would you do

All the pain I thought I knew
All my thoughts lead back to you
Back to what was never said
Back and forth inside my head
I can't handle this confusion
I'm unable; come and take me away

I feel like I am all alone
All by myself I need to get around this
My words are cold, I don't want them to hurt you
If I show you, I don't think you'd understand
Cause no one understands

As the song played, Dawn thought of Faith and all of their conversations. All the things she wanted to do with her. Dawn pulled the car over to the side of the road and listened to the rest of the song as she cried.

I'm going nowhere (on and on and)
I'm getting nowhere (on and on and on)
Take me away
I'm going nowhere (on and off and off and on)
(and off and on)


Take me away
Take me away
Take me away
Take me away’

After the song ended, she turned off the car and stepped out. The sun was just coming over the horizon. She looked around and noticed that she had come to the west cemetery. She walked to Spike’s crypt. “Spike, its Dawn. Can we talk?” she asked as she walked into the dusty old crypt that the vampire called home. The teen looked around and found that the vampire wasn’t there.

“Of course…wait, its dawn! Why would he still be out?” she asked herself and decided to wait for him.

***

As the Scoobies went into the hospital with Faith, the blonde vampire stayed outside to have a smoke. He watched as they disappeared inside then turned and walked off. Spike doubled back to the cave to cover up any evidence that would lead back to the Scoobies and L.A. group.

He walked into the cave to find the body still there. “Guess the bloke was just a nut case,” he said as he looked for any information on the body. He found the dead man’s wallet. “I’ll be taking this. Let’s see who you are…or were, that is. I’ll just take this to Red. You don’t mind, right?” He gathered the chains and the doctor bag as he prepared to leave. As he left, he swept away any footprints with his feet. “Well, bye, have a nice nap.” Then he walked to the opening of the cave. “Balls. Sunrise.” He returned to the room he had just left. “Guess we’re stuck with each other until nightfall. You’re not a big talker, right?” he giggled to himself.

***

Back at the hospital, it had been three hours since Faith went into surgery. The rest of the Scoobies sat and waited. Then a doctor came down the hall towards them. “Miss Summers, you’re Faith’s next of kin?” Buffy nodded. “Well, I’m Dr. White. I was assisting in the procedure. It looks good really good. It could take at least another two hours but she is in stable condition. She will have a lot of physical therapy to help realign her shoulder after healing. The cut wasn’t as deep as we initially thought, but there was damage to her joint and her collarbone is broken. She will have to keep her arm immobilized for about six weeks. As for her stomach, there was little to no damage done, but we did find evidence of a previous wound. She should be able to receive visitors by tomorrow.” After explaining everything, he asked, “Do you have any questions?” Buffy shook her head and smiled. The doctor smiled back, and with a squeeze on her shoulder, turned and walked back into the operating area.

Buffy stood with a confused look on her face a moment, then shook her head and turned to the Scoobies. “Okay. So she’s going to be fine. Willow, will you stay here with Faith and wait for Dawn? I’m going to go look for her. Tara, do you want to come with?” Buffy asked as she hugged everyone. Then she and Tara left to find Dawn.

****

Dawn sat in Spike’s chair, waiting for him to come home. She got up and looked around the crypt until she found a notebook and a pen. She went back to the chair and wrote Faith a letter.

Dear Faith,
I wish I could have stayed there with you at the hospital, but I needed to leave. You know I have lost so much in my life and I almost lost you tonight.
I want you to know that I love you and I always will. You have been the best thing that has come into my life. I trust you and I fear for you but most of all, I love you.
I started this letter to tell you good-bye, but now as I write I see that leaving you would be like you dying tonight. I couldn’t live with you dying and I couldn’t live in this world without you by my side. I want to look beside me and see you there; I want to wake in morning in your arms. I want to be with you until tomorrow never comes.
Faith you are everything to me! I want to be yours!
I Love You Always and Forever,
Your Dawn

After she finished the letter, she curled up in the chair and cried herself to sleep.

***

Back at the hospital, Angel sat in Faith’s room. He waited by her bed and watched her sleep. He looked to his lap where Cordy also slept. She had finally fallen asleep after a long cry. Angel looked between the two women that had come to him at separate times and he had helped. He thought about the time Faith came to L.A. and begged him to kill her while they fought in the ally. He thought of how fragile she was. Looking at her now, she didn’t seem very fragile. Rather, she seems like a discarded doll, the arm having been nearly torn off. He hoped that the doctors had sewn very carefully. He wondered why she was tortured and cut to a point where she may never use her arm again.

Faith moved her head from side to side, as she slowly woke. She opened her mouth slightly and tried to speak. “D…” Her mouth was too dry to finish, but she tried again. “Dawn…Dawn where are…” She opens her eyes to see the dark and brooding vampire looking at her with a silly smile.

Angel puts his hand on the head in his lap and said, “Cordy…hey, Cord, she’s awake.” Cordy lifted her head out of his lap and has a look of pure fear.

Faith took both of them in and rolled her eyes. Angel gave her some water to take care of the dry mouth. “Where’s Dawn? I want to see her…and what the fuck was she doing?” The more or less awake slayer said with a wave of her hand at Cordelia.

Angel took Faith’s hand in his and looked her right in the eyes. “Faith. Dawn has, well…” Faith’s eyes widened as tears filled them.

“No, no, NO don’t tell me, I…” Angel stood up and came to her side to try to calm her some but the action only made more upset.

“Faith calm down, what the big dummy was trying to say is, Dawn’s fine. She just left to clear her head some. Buffy and Tara are looking for her right now,” Cordy told the dark slayer.

Faith took a breath and then a look of fear crossed her countenance. “Why are they looking for her? They don’t know where she is?” Faith closed her eyes and let the tears fall. Opening her eyes, she looked back at Angel and Cordy. “Did you think to call her? She always has her phone with her.” She shook her head ever so slightly. “What’s wrong with you guys? I’m the one on the mend here.” Cordy turned and left the room. “What’s wrong with her?” Faith asks.

“I’ll tell you later. Right now I’m going to get Willow to call Dawn.” He bent down and kissed her on the forehead before turning for the door.

“Just find her!” Faith said as she drifted off again.

***

Angel walked out of the room and down to the waiting room. “She was awake. She wants Dawn. She told me to call her,” he said to the remaining Scoobies.

Willow stood up and started for the nurse’s station. “I don’t think she would answer if one of us called, but she may if she sees it was from the hospital,” she said as she walked away. Willow dialed Dawn’s cell number and waited for her to answer.

Dawn’s cell phone rang three times before she heard it. Looking at the caller ID and seeing it was the hospital. “Hello?” She answered.

“Dawnie, where are you?” Willow asked.

“Why? Who is this?” she asked, still sleepy.

“Dawnie, it’s Willow. Faith was awake and she asked for you,” the red head said, worried something may have happened to her.

Dawn wiped her face with her free hand to wake herself up more. “Okay I’m awake. I’m at Spike’s.” She stood up, finding the letter she wrote Faith. She tucked the letter into her pocket and walked out of the crypt.

“Okay, I’ll call Buffy to come get you,” the hacker told Dawn.

“No need. I have my car. I’m on my way.” Dawn ended the phone call without a good bye and ran to her car.

Willow hung up with Dawn and called Tara. She knew Buffy didn’t have her phone.

“Yah?” Buffy answered Tara’s phone.

“Buff, thank the Gods. Faith was awake and I called Dawn she’s on her way.” Willow told the slayer.

“Where was she Will?” Buffy asked.

“She was at Spike’s. She must have gone home first because she said she had her car. Where are you?” The red head filled in Buffy.

Buffy took Tara’s hand. “We’re at the school. Okay we’re on our way. Tell Dawn to stay there. Bye.” They ran back to the car.

Willow rejoined the Scoobies. “Okay, everyone is on their way back. Oh fuck, where’s Cordy?”

“She’s in the bathroom. I think she’s puking again.” Amie pointed to the restroom behind her.

***


Buffy and Tara made it back to the hospital before Dawn. “Is she in with Faith?” Buffy asked as she walked in and didn’t see her sister.

Amie popped her head up out of Willow’s lap. “No she hasn’t come back yet.”

They all waited for Dawn to return.

The doors opened to the waiting room. Dawn and Anya walked in. “I know I said I was on my way, but I went home first to get Faith bed shorts. She can’t sleep in anything else,” she told the group as she walked in.

Anya walked up to Xander and slapped him right across the face. “Thank you very much for not calling me.”

Xander put his hand over his cheek. “Sorry, I forgot.”

Anya sat down in the nearest chair. “Jackass!”

Buffy walked up to Dawn and pulled her into her arms. “Dawnie, I love you…glad to see you listen to me,” she said, pointing to the teen’s cell phone.

“Well I am seventeen…I love you too Buffy...I think...I want to go see Faith.” She gave her sister a hug and walked down the hall to Faith’s room. As she walked in, she could see Faith was still asleep. She walked over to the bed she placed the letter she wrote on Faith’s chest. Taking Faith’s hand she bent over and kissed her on the lips. After pulling away, she walked over to the door. She looked back at Faith and smiled. “I love you Faith!” Then she left the room to be with the rest of her family.