Forgotten Conscience - Chapter 46: Chapter 46

Buffy's POV
God that whole ice cream shop thing made everything worse. I might as well have just grabbed her and kissed her right then and there. It would've been less obvious.
Now we're walking through the cemetery, half trying to keep our distance, half trying not to lose each other in case we get attacked. I don't know what to say to her. We both have feelings for each other, that much is obvious, but neither of us is willing to act on them. Well I'm not... I really don't know about Faith. After the way she just asked me point blank how I felt about her the way she did, I have no idea what she might do.
I glance over at her for a second to make sure we aren't more than a few feet away.
I honestly don't think I could stop myself if she decided to act on her feelings. I mean I... I've barely been able to control myself so far, if she wanted it too and she... I don't know. But, she was the one who suggested we could have a better chance of catching a vampire in action if we spread out. She probably just needed to be alone and think. Damn, you know I haven't left her alone since she came back to Sunnydale. Maybe when this is all done with I should let her be by herself for a while.
Will that make things better though? I mean, eventually we're gonna have to talk about this. About how we feel about each other, about what we should do about it, and why it's a bad idea for us to get involved with so many unknown things going on right now. Maybe we shouldn't wait to talk about this, get it over with before we say something we might regret.
I start over toward her.
"Faith?"
She glances over at me and then goes into a fighting stance.
"What is it? Did you see something?"
"No, I didn't... I just... I came over here because... well... we need to talk."
"About what?"
"About us..."
She lets out a deep breath.
"I thought there wasn't gonna be an 'us'? That's what you said isn't it?"
"I know I said that but... I want you to know why I said that."
"You explained that. You don't want there to be an 'us' because you're afraid of what will happen when I get my memory back. "
"Yes but it's more than that. I do have feelings for you. It's taking everything I have just to keep from..."
She steps slowly to me and I feel all tingly inside.
"... from grabbing you and..."
She gets a little closer and I forget what I'm talking about.
"Why don't you?"
She reaches out and pushes my hair out of my face, letting her fingers caress my chin bone as her hand pulls away.
A shiver goes through me as she does.
You can't do this, it wouldn't be right.
"Faith... we shouldn't, what if...?"
"What if right now?"
She puts her hand on my hip and pulls me to her, hip to hip. I take a deep breath as she leans into me. I put my hand on her back and pull her closer to me.
I... I know I shouldn't but... Ow!
We're knocked off our feet, on top of each other.
Ow!
After a moment of shock I snap back to reality.
"Faith, are you okay?"
She lets out a deep breath and I feel her breath on me.
"Yeah, what the hell was that?"
I look around, still on top of Faith.
"Uh, I'm pretty sure it was a vampire."
I get up and put out my hand to help her up.
"Why's that?"
Well...
"Cause we're surrounded by them."
"Oh..."
I knew this conversation wasn't gonna end well.
Spike's POV
I walk through the graveyard, stalking the slayers but keeping my distance.
Something about this is off. Usually when this little slayer bitch goes slaying she and her friends spend all her time gabbing about god knows what useless crap. But this time for some reason, they're keeping their distance. Which means either these two kiddies ain't friends, or there's trouble in Scoobyville. Either way it'll make my life a lot easier.
All of the sudden, I see Buffy walking toward her raven haired totty.
Oh good, this is gonna go really well. They start talking and the black haired girl who I can assume is this Faith girl that John and his boys are so worked up over gets upset.
I get a little closer to them as I notice they're pretty caught up in their little chat.
If I didn't know the little bint was shaggin that Riley fellow, I'd say these two were havin' themselves a little lover's spat. But that can't be right, what about soldier boy? Unless of course the slayer is looking for a little something on the side, I didn't know the slayer could be so man-hungry, or in this case babe hungry.
The two of them get really close.
All right, time to break the two love birds up before they start mackin on each other.
I turn to some of John boy's cronies.
"You, go knock 'em off their feet..."
I shove him in their direction and he starts running.
"And you five, you go back 'em up. GO! Before I stake you myself. If you get into trouble I'll be there to help out."
Yeah right.
I watch them run over and surround the fallen slayers.
This is gonna be more fun that I thought.
Faith's POV
I take Buffy's hand and she helps me up. I look around at the 6 or 7 vampires around us.
"Faith... do you feel up to this?"
I don't think they're just gonna let me walk away if you say no.
"Do I have a choice?"
"Well if you want I can hold them off long enough for you to get away."
"Hmm, 6 against 1... could get pointless."
"So could 6 against 2."
"Yeah, it does sorta seem like 3 against 1 doesn't it?"
She chuckles at me.
"What?"
"Never mind, we gotta concentrate on not dying."
Right...
"Okay, let's do it."
One of the vampires runs at us and Buffy takes him on. I don't have time to cheer her on. A vampire comes at me from behind. I kick him in the stomach and he falls over. Another vampire rushes me as I pull out the stake Buffy gave me, this time coming at me head on. I lead with a right cross and he follows with a left hook which I barely dodge. I manage to hit him in the face with a quick jab and he stumbles back a few steps. Just to keep my luck going the right way, I punch him in the stomach and follow with a kick to the head which sends him flat on his back.
I turn around and the last guy I decked is getting up. I hit him in the head with a roundhouse kick.
That should keep him busy while I deal with the third vampire coming in from the side.
I look over at Buffy as she stakes a vampire, bad idea. The vampire grabs me and puts his arm around my neck, choking me.
"Stop!"
He grabs my arm and twists it behind my back.
Fuck, this hurts a lot more than when Buffy did it.
Buffy looks over at me struggling and I can't get out of the hold.
"Buffy?"
He squeezes a little harder.
"Especially you, unless you wanna be staking your little friend here next..."
She starts toward me but two vampires grab her and hold her back.
"No... don't do it."
I struggle to get free but he chokes me harder.
"P-Please, l-let her go."
"No... I think I'll keep you around JUST long enough to see your little friend die."
I feel my hair being pushed to the side.
Okay this is not how I thought it would go.
I hear a low growl from behind my ear and it sends a shiver down my spine, which just happens to be pressed against the vampire.
"Faith!"
I can see her struggle in futility against the vampires, tears in her eyes. I feel the vampire breath on my neck and then, all of the sudden it stops and I feel the grip the vamp has on me weakened. I fall into a pile of dust and someone catches me. I look up at some bleach blonde guy holding me up.
"T-Thank you... who are you?"
He looks around.
"No time for that now love, evil's a foot."
He helps me up and I see Buffy break free by cracking their skulls.
Okay, lives in danger, worry about introductions later.
I take on one of the vampires while Buffy deals with the other one. The other three vampires don't attack us.
I guess pale skin guy is keeping them busy. Whoever he is I'm really glad he's hanging out in a cemetery like a lunatic.
I hit him in the face.
"Faith, are you all right?"
She hits her vampire with a barrage of punches.
"Well, I'm still breathing."
"I hear... that's an important PART."
She stakes a vamp at the end of her sentence.
"So I HEAR."
I do the same for some reason. As we wipe the dust off of ourselves we look over at Blondie who's dealing with three vampires.
"What the hell is he doing here?"
I follow her over to the rest of the battle. I can pretty much tell they know each other.
"Well I'm not sure but I think he's saving my life."
We stop just far enough away not to get involved.
"Yeah but the question is why?"
She doesn't like him, but he saved my life so I don't feel too inclined to hate him.
He manages to stake a vamp.
"Shouldn't we help him?"
"Nah, he can handle himself."
Um... okay...
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"I'm a little busy right now slayer. Feel free to chime in at any time."
She looks over at me and I'm already looking back.
"He did save my life Buffy."
She rolls her eyes and huffs at me.
"All right FINE."
She walks over and tries to get involved but it doesn't last long. She distracts the vampire long enough for peroxide boy to stake one of the two remaining vampires, but she does it by getting hit in the face and it sends her flying into me and she lands on top of me.
I look up at her and she looks back at me, right in the eyes. My eyes are locked on hers as she stares into my soul. I put my hand on her side and I feel her hand on my neck pulling us closer together. We're so close we don't hear the last vampire turn to dust.
"Well... that was bracing, wasn't it kids?"
Buffy blinks as if coming out of a trance. She gets off me before helping me up.
"What the hell do you want Spike?"
Spike, his name is Spike?
He responds in a sarcastic tone.
"Oh, thank you very much for saving my life and my friend's life. Please accept one of my nice juicy blood vessels as payment for your noble deed."
Wow, did these two used to date?
"For all I know you probably set this whole thing up."
"Oh come on slayer. You know as well as I do that the demons in this town ain't been all that friendly to me since I've helped you fight them. Speaking of being friendly I don't think you've introduced me to your little friend here."
He heads in my direction and Buffy isn't too happy about it.
"And I'm not gonna introduce you."
Spike puts out his hand I take it.
"The name's Spike. What's yours?"
"Um, it's Faith."
"Really, well how'd you wind up with Ms. Sunshine over there and the Scoobies?"
Buffy decides to get involved in our conversation.
"It's a long boring story."
"I'm not getting any younger."
Buffy takes my hand and we start walking away.
"You wouldn't like it."
She REALLY doesn't like this Spike guy... but something tells me I should get to know him.
"Say, why don't I buy you lovely ladies a couple drinks and you can tell me the whole story?"
I stop and Buffy nearly gets taken off her feet when I don't let go.
"Sounds like fun..."
"What?"
"But on one condition, you let us buy you a drink or two."
I put my arm around Buffy's shoulders. I feel her tense up under my touch and I suddenly feel kinda tense myself.
"Of course by us I mean Buffy because I don't have any money, at least not that I remember."
Buffy puts her arm around my shoulders and I realize just how much of a bad idea this closeness thing is.
"Excuse us for a second Spike, I have to talk with my friend and... quite frankly you're not one of them so, let's be honest, we might not be back, excuse us."
She leads me away from Spike sorta half huddling as we do. She whispers to me.
"Faith I don't want to go have drinks with Spike, he's evil."
"Come on he can't be that bad, he did save my life and yours."
"He's a vampire Faith. He doesn't save lives he takes them."
A vampire? Wait Spike, isn't that?
"You mean Spike, the vampire who got a chip in his head thanks to those military bastards in their dank pit?"
"Yeah, that Spike."
"Well... if he is evil then we should definitely go have drinks with him."
"Faith I think your amnesia has affected more than just your memory."
It's not insane when you think about it.
"Think about it, if he did set this all up then he's not just gonna go ahead and admit it. But if he had a few drinks..."
"He might let slip a few things he wouldn't think to otherwise. Okay... as much as I hate this idea you're right."
She takes her arm off my shoulder and it dawns on me to do the same.
"All right Spike let's go have some, I can't believe I'm saying this... fun."
"Jolly good..."
He comes over and gets between us, putting his arms around our shoulders.
"Let's go to the Bronze, it is the only place worth going to in this town."
"Okay."
Buffy stops and I look over at her. She peels Spike's arm off her shoulder, making sure to touch him as little as possible.
"Don't touch me Spike."
Spike takes his arm off me.
"Right then, let's go."
I can't tell if this is gonna be fun or not.