Forgotten Conscience - Chapter 93: Chapter 93

Buffy's POV
"So what's going on?"
Going on? Faith just trampled over my life is what's going on.
"Did Buffy find another reason to yell at us?"
"I... I'm not gonna yell... not unless someone gives me a reason."
I won't, I'm gonna keep my cool for the sake of the group. Just as long as they don't start attacking Faith, if they attack Faith I'm gonna yell.
"Okay well, I'd like to be elsewhere when she does that."
"Anya please, now is not the time."
"It's never the time to be honest is it Xander? It's never time to say exactly what we mean with you guys."
"Adam is dead."
The conversation comes to a dead halt at my words, everyone with a slight look of shock on their face. Everyone but Giles and Tara that is.
I know why Giles isn't shocked but Tara? Why is she trying to hide her smile? It's almost like she's happy for me. Why? I feel like crap, she should be picking up on that. Why is it making her smile?
"Adam's dead? When?"
"Faith brought Buffy here about 20 minutes ago, she was in bad condition."
"Who? Faith?"
I lift up my pant leg to show them the bandage on my leg.
"Oh my god! Buffy, are you okay?"
"Well I'm not in the greatest condition like Giles said, but I'm alive and healing. As you can see Will."
"What about Faith?"
I turn to Xander.
"What about her?"
"Is she all right?"
"Do you care?"
He looks at me for a second, without the indecision I thought I'd see in his eyes.
"Of course I care Buffy, we all do. Just because I don't get along with Faith, well except for that one time, doesn't mean I want her to die any more than you do. I noticed she wasn't here."
"She's fine she..."
I close my eyes for a second and take a deep breath before continuing.
"She had to go."
"Where?"
"I don't know, she said... she said she had somewhere else she had to be."
We break into silence.
"Well... okay... this is great, Adam's dead. I knew you'd take 'em down sooner or later Buff."
"It wasn't me."
"What?"
"It was Faith."
"What do you mean?"
"Faith was the one who killed Adam."
"What? How?"
"Well I was kinda busy struggling to breathe at the time but... I was fighting Adam and, and all of the sudden she attacked him. She just attacked him and it was like she became this force. It was like she wouldn't stop until Adam was dead."
"Really? Did she, did she say how she did it?"
"She thinks it was me."
"She thinks you did it? Well maybe you did."
"N-no that's not what I meant. I was, I was fighting Adam and he was kicking my ass and..."
"Where was Faith?"
I glare at Willow.
"She was busy getting thrown across the room. Okay so, she said she saw how he was hurting me and she just snapped. She said she couldn't let him hurt me anymore. She would do whatever it took to stop him from hurting me, and she did. She killed Adam to keep him from hurting me."
I feel like I'm gonna cry as I bury my face in my hands.
She did that for me and she still left.
"Really?"
I try and wipe the pain off my face before looking up at anyone.
"Yeah, really."
I drop my head into my hands again as my previous attempts to keep from crying aren't working.
Faith...
"Well that's good... isn't it? I mean... Faith doing the right thing, trying to be part of the good guy team, that's good right?"
I dig my fingers into my skull trying to keep myself from crying.
"Well yes... it could be quite beneficial to have a second slayer on our side. Especially with her apparent new strength."
"Yeah but..."
Here it comes.
"Well, taking out Adam is no small order. Buffy's really strong and Adam beat her up pretty bad."
Okay pull yourself together. I can't just let them suggest what they are about to suggest. No matter how much I might want to break down and cry.
"What if her new power makes her change her mind? She might..."
"She won't Xander."
I look up, composing myself.
"But..."
"If she cares about me at all the way I know she does, she won't."
"She took Adam apart, who's gonna stop her from...?"
"I am."
"Buffy if she..."
"No... when I said I'm gonna stop her, I didn't mean by killing her. If she ever tries to hurt someone, she's gonna have to kill me to do it and I KNOW she can't do that. But more than that I KNOW that it would never come to that. She wants to do the right thing and she IS a good person."
"Buffy..."
"And nothing any of you can say will EVER convince me otherwise."
I love Faith and I trust her and our love. I won't betray it for anything... not again.
"Maybe... maybe we s-shouldn't argue about t-this..."
I look over at Tara, who's still trying to conceal her happy look.
I should really talk to her about that. Maybe she knows something I don't.
"Tara's right. We're never going to agree on this. You guys don't trust Faith at all and I trust her completely. We may never agree on anything involving Faith ever again. We should probably stop trying."
"It's not that we don't trust Faith, Buff. We just want you to be prepared for the worst. Your relationships have a tendency to go badly and it really does a number on you when it does."
I lean forward and the pain from my ribs shoots through me.
"Can we, can we not drudge up my track record with love right now? My ribs are killing me and I just wanna go home and go to bed."
"Buffy is correct, now is not the time for this. Adam is gone, and there doesn't appear to be any immediate threat from the vampire cult. I believe we could all benefit from a good night's rest."
Good.
"Especially me. I'm gonna go."
I get up, despite my leg, and make my way to the door.
"Buffy do you want...?"
"No."
I can't deal with people right now.
I get to the door and someone stops me.
"Tara?"