After the incident at the beach, both girls had hobbled home, their wet and shrinking jeans sticking uncomfortable to their skin as they waddled. They’d both agreed that, as Buffy’s apartment was the closest (and Willow wasn’t home and her father probably was) they would go to their duplex on McAlister to do a quick clean up. Veronica took the first shower, to get the sea water out of her hair, while Buffy would throw their clothes into a quick rinse in the washing machine. So, in short? Veronica was kinda trapped.
Desperate to get out of there as quickly as possible, she forced on her borrowed clothes and they clung slightly to her still damp skin as she hastily rubbed the towel over her hair… perhaps, one might argue, with a bit too much force. But she was desperate, she was in a hurry, and she felt that she needed to escape. She did not want to stay here any longer than absolutely necessary. Just as she was trying to pull her now slightly tangled hair back into a ponytail and reaching for the doorknob, she heard another door open somewhere in the house. She pulled her hand back and waited. She did not want Willow to see her like this too.“Hello!” She heard called down the hall. That was not Willow, She decided. Veronica heard the door to Buffy’s room jerk open through the wall and could hear the small woman stomping through the hall towards the voice. “Hey! B! Long time no see! Well, not since Giles forced us into a room together again…” Veronica opened the door a crack and peaked out.
“Why are you here Faith?”“What? No hello? No how are you, how have you been, when did you last have something to eat?”
“What are you doing here, Faith.”
“Kinda need a place to crash.”
“Shit.” Buffy muttered under her breath.
“What? Don’t have a place on the house roster for the Second String?”
“Now’s really not the best time for a house guest. I’m trying to… there are some things I’m… You can’t stay here Faith.”
“If this is about that girl I heard about…?”“What?” Buffy demanded, “What did Willow tell you? Where do you get off’-”
“Oh, you know where I get off, B.”
“Shut up, Faith.” Buffy cut in, obviously exasperated yet oddly defeated. A long moment passed as Veronica pressed tighter against the wall in an effort to see further into the scene playing out before her. All she could see was the brunette, Faith supposedly. The young woman was staring fixedly at her feet, glancing in the direction of Buffy’s voice every few seconds. She eventually uncrossed her arms and started swinging them.
“So how long can I stay?”“I didn’t say you could!” Buffy burst out suddenly before cutting herself off in a harsh exhale that tapered off into a growl. Veronica felt the hair on the back of her neck shiver, a mix of fear and arousal at the sound. Her own reaction unnerved her; that sound was almost inhuman.
“We don’t have any guest bedrooms here, Faith.”
“So I’ll couch it.”
“And in so doing you’ll control our entire house!” She could see Buffy now, she was standing inches away from the curvaceous woman, an accusatory finger right in her face. “You’ll sleep in and force us to tiptoe through the kitchen in the morning, come home late and wake us when you slam the front door, leave your shit strewn around the living room, and usurp the only TV in the apartment!”
“I won’t do that this time, I swear!”“You said that last time too!” Buffy shouted. Faith looked embarrassed for all of half a second, then shrugged as a smile slowly melted across her dark painted lips. Buffy set her jaw, obviously biting her tongue to keep from smiling back. She shook her head.
“Have you eaten?”
Veronica’s jaw dropped.
“Nah, B, I haven’t.”
“I’ll fix you something.”
Her stomach dropped too. This was bad.
…
“Are you going to ask, or is this going to be the most uncomfortable and awkward night I’ve ever spent in a car?” Buffy finally blurted out, her tone somewhat amused.
Well, Veronica couldn’t hide in that bathroom forever could she? Well, always… She’d tried. Then Buffy knocked to make sure she was okay. By then that Faith person was already sitting on the counter in the kitchen, taking such big bites out of a monstrous sandwich that she could barely speak to say “hello”.
Faith was kind of leery, and she cast a wink at Buffy that made both Veronica and the older blonde bite the inside of their lips… though she could only hope it was for the same reasons. Veronica had made some excuse about needing to go – that she was supposed to stake out someone that night and she should probably leave… But then Buffy asked if she could tag along and – Poof! Here they were.
Awkward as she might have felt, and as unsettled as this Faith person had made her, with her obvious past relationship of some kind with Buffy… there had been some sort of mildly pleading look on the older woman’s face when she asked to come with - like she was more trying to escape than anything else. She couldn’t really deny such a plea. But it also didn’t help that Buffy looked so human and fragile and cute when she did it.
“I can’t speak to any previous nights you might have spent in cars, but for the record? Stakeouts are rarely comfortable.” Veronica pointed out, not bothering to hide her annoyance anymore. “Ignoring the rest – what are you waiting for me to ask?” She was being petulant and immature but she couldn’t stop herself. It didn’t help that Buffy seemed immune to it; she’d been rude to her all evening and the older girl had glanced every verbal blow off of her with effortless ease. She was willing to spend possibly all night in a car with her, even though she didn’t have to, though there was no guarantee this would work. The fact that she could withstand her more unpleasant side made Veronica like Buffy even more, which in tern made her feel even more hurt.
“Whatever will kill that bug up your ass, Mars.” She said with a smile, her tone almost sympathetic. Veronica sighed and looked back out the window, making a pretext of keeping an eye for their mark. “Okay. Do you want me to guess what’s bothering you?”
“You know, this isn’t The View. The purpose of a stakeout isn’t to talk and there’s no real need for you to be here; why don’t you just go home?”
“What if you have to go to the bathroom and need a backup?” Buffy offered, “Or someone to run to the nearest corner store when you run out of gum? This takes more than an hour or two, you are gonna be glad I’m here.” Her voice was such a perfect balance of genuine and sarcastic Veronica didn’t know which one to believe. She glanced back at Buffy. The older woman caught her eye and smiled at her but she still didn’t know.
“What do you think I’m gonna ask you?”“Knowing your usual approach?” Buffy smirked, “Not what you really want to know.”
Veronica glowered and turned back to looking out her window at this.
“I was born in L.A.” Buffy almost murmured. Something about her tone kept Veronica from turning around. “Good family, good schools, but somehow I managed to find just enough trouble to get kicked out of ‘Most Perfect Life Ever’-High in time for my parents to split up. Dad stayed in L.A. while Mom dragged my sister and me to some small coastal town that might as well’ve been Neptune – had the tech industry gone under rather than flourished.”
“I didn’t know you had a sister.” Veronica said quietly, glancing down at her hands. Buffy chuckled briefly.
“Yeah. She’s finishing up at Berkeley this semester; one of those Design-Your-Own-Major majors.”
“How did you and Faith meet?” Veronica asked, unable to make her tone sound nonchalant, just flat. Buffy sighed pointedly, but it morphed into a laugh. Veronica looked at her and the quiet dragged between them as their eyes fixed.
“The day I started at my new school I met Willow. She’s always been a good person, and she and I and her best friend… the three of us kinda became inseparable. We always hung out in the Library – by a major default, initially - and eventually the librarian… Well, he became family to all of us. None of us had awesome dads, really. Not terrible, just not Norman Rockwell material. My mom sorta filled in a few of the mom-shaped gaps for them as well. She was pretty awesome about all of it for the most part. They were all great people, but because of my previous record at my former school I kept getting ‘bad crowd’ed. Paying for sins long overpaid already, I guess.”
“What do you mean?” the Youth-Sleuth asked. Buffy smiled, amused.
“New principal. The old one was giving me a second chance accepting me at all. The new one? Kind of a disciplinarian. So when something went wrong I got the blame and he tried to expel me. I was cleared, but only after my mom and the librarian really went to the mat for me. No sooner am I reaccepted to start my senior year than Faith shows up.” Buffy raised her eyebrows, her stair exasperated.
“She looks like trouble from a hundred yards away.” Veronica toned slowly. “So let me guess; she hears about your disciplinary record and thinks you and she might have some common interests?”
“Pretty much, yeah.” The older girl laughed, nodding. “Problem was? She’s trouble aright, but she’s mostly a good person. Though unlike myself she didn’t hide from trouble; once she got a taste of it she found she kinda liked it. All went down-hill from there, I guess.”
“Sounds like she and Willow don’t get along. Though I can’t imagine why.” Veronica said sarcastically.
“Oh can’t you?” Buffy asked, amused. “They don’t get along because they are abundantly aware of how much they have in common – which is a lot more than meets the eye. Their personalities just don’t click. Particularly the parts that really like me.”
“Meaning?”“Willow’s my best friend and always will be, but she thinks Faith’s bad for me; can do nothing but get me into trouble or drag me down. Problem is? If everyone treats Faith that way, what other choice does she have but to just become what everyone perceives her to be anyways? When no one’s looking Faith is a good person. I dunno what I did or when, but she let me in and she trusts me… Little bit of patients and maybe I can convince her not be to such a complete jackass all the time.” Buffy finished, chuckling darkly to herself.
“She sounds like a real gem.” Veronica muttered, looking back out the window.
“She’s good to me. Saved my life more than once without ever having to ask. She’s loyal as a damn dog and that scares me.”
“Why?” Veronica asked.“Because dogs can be so easily manipulated. Let’s just say we’ve had our problems there, too.”
“Thought you were two-timing on her?”“Yeah, to say the least. She was ready to kill the-…” Buffy cut herself off, and Veronica glanced at her. The older girl was scowling, confused, staring fixedly in the side view mirror. “Uh, I thought we covered this the night we met?” Veronica shrugged and played it dumb, but she couldn’t help but notice: Buffy still wasn’t looking at her.
“Yeah, hey – my bad. Sorry… I guess, the way she was talking, and then with the idea in my head I just, you know, ran with it. The way you were talking about her
was—”
“Is that it?” Buffy mumbled to herself, her eyes narrowing in concentration.
“Is what it?” “Is that…?”“Is what that huh?” Veronica’s voice had bottomed out a little, not liking that she could be so easily ignored. Buffy still wasn’t looking at her. She had an awful feeling in the pit of her stomach but she was given no reply.
After a long moment Buffy’s head shot up, swiveling towards her. But the older girl’s eyes passed right over Veronica, almost through her. “That’s him.” She said simply, buckling her belt again. Following her gaze, Veronica saw a man on a cell phone coming outside. Rolling down her window and sitting low in her seat, she flipped on the sound-amplifier attached to her laptop. She could hear it quietly recording on the armrest and turned to look at the other woman.
“How did you know he was coming?” She asked.
Buffy looked at her incredulously. “Are you kidding? He was practically yelling into his phone. I’m shocked you didn’t hear him - you’re closer, Mars.”
(To Be Continued…)