That Thing That Happened... Chapter 6

That Thing That Happened... Chapter 6
That Thing That Happened That Time That's Really No Big Deal
Chapter 6: In a Moment of Passion

Walking along the dark, dank, unending hallway of the Scottish castle where she'd taken to living since the fall of Sunnydale, Buffy can't help but notice how much less dark and dank it seemed all of the sudden. Something about the air seemed fresher and more at ease in the place. Or maybe that was her. Whatever it was, things definitely seemed to be looking up.

Buffy looked up at the ceiling as a small drop of water landed on her head and she stared up at the small crack in the ceiling, frowning slightly at the water that was pooling there getting ready to drop. Despite the unfortunate turn of events, Buffy couldn't help but shrug and make note of where she was before heading on her way to nowhere in particular.

"Well, at least Xander will be happy with a problem he can actually fix."

Her thoughts instantly went to her own problems that she recently had to deal with and part of her has to smile, knowing that the weight of it all had been lifted off her shoulders and she'd resolved everything for the moment within herself. It was a feeling she wasn't accustomed to feeling, but one that she didn't exactly hate the idea of feeling for a while.

Suddenly, there's a sound coming from somewhere that Buffy can't quite make out. She looks around, trying to figure out where it came from and whether it means something. But things go quiet after that and, slightly against her better judgment she turns to continue on her aimless stroll through the castle. It isn't long however before another sound is heard, this one louder than before that almost sounds like a crash and Buffy's hearing perks up to try and find any other sound that might be happening. She starts to pick up the sound of a voice, an angry voice from somewhere very close by.

Focusing her hearing even more to try and pinpoint where it's coming from, her ears recognize the sound of the voice before she takes off in the direction it's coming from.

"Satsu..."

Every step Buffy takes picks up speed for her and eventually it becomes clear where she's heading when another crash is heard from the fast approaching room. Buffy runs straight into Faith's door at full speed, crashing through it into her room and falling into a pile of broken wood. She doesn't even bother to wait to recover from the pain before looking around the room for Satsu.

The young slayer is standing in the middle of the room with a look of absolute shock and fear on her face that has nothing to do with Buffy's sudden entrance. In fact, Satsu hasn't even noticed Buffy. She's too busy looking at the knife she's holding in her right hand as the blood on both of them drips all over her hands.

Buffy isn't quite sure what to do at first since the reality of what's going on hasn't quite sunk in yet. But eventually the numbing pain of crashing through the door subsides and she's able to carefully stand up to face Satsu.

"I... I..."

Satsu's voice cracks even with what little she said and Buffy can see her hands start to shake more and more as tears well up in the young girl's eyes. Her hands shake so much that she drops the knife on the floor when she looks down in front of her where the bed is blocking Buffy's view of what's happened. Confused about what she's just crashed in on, Buffy walks over to Satsu for answers.

"Satsu? Satsu what's going on?"

When Buffy gets close enough, she looks down at Satsu's hands, blood dripping off them as the younger girl falls apart. Buffy grabs Satsu's hands firmly and brings them to where she can really confirm what it is that she has on them.

"What's going on Satsu? What did you...?"

A thought sparks in Buffy's mind about where the blood could've come from and she immediately turns to look where Satsu was looking a second ago to see Faith lying on the floor propped up against the bed, a deep wound to the right side of her stomach and blood seemingly pouring out. Buffy's immediate reaction is to rush to Faith's side to help the bleeding slayer. She moves Faith's own hands out of the way and puts some pressure on the wound to try and stop the bleeding.

"God, Faith..."

Buffy looks up at Satsu in a mixture of shock, fear, anger and confusion, a feeling of absolute disbelief soon following close behind.

"Satsu? What the HELL did you do?"

The young slayer shakes her head a little, almost in total denial about the events that have just happened.

"I... I don't know. I... I..."

"You don't know?"

Satsu makes an attempt at explaining her actions.

"I... I don't know, I... I couldn't think. I didn't think, I just... it's... it's all her fault. She... it's... she's the reason that you..."

Buffy looks at Satsu with fear and confusion as she can't seem to do enough to stop the bleeding.

"Just, help me. Help me to save her and we'll figure out the rest later. Just... do something."

Satsu goes into panic mode, looking around for something that will make sense.

"I... I'm sorry..."

She sees the open window and climbs out onto it before taking a swan dive straight down. The urge to go after Satsu and see what happened below overwhelms Buffy but she can't move for fear of what might happen to Faith if she does.

"SATSU!!"

A few seconds later a couple slayers and Xander come in through the broken door to Faith's room and see what's going on.

"Xander, find Willow and get her here YESTERDAY! Leah, come here and help me try and stop the bleeding until Willow can get here."

"On it Buff..."

Xander races out of the room while Leah comes over to help Buffy and a couple other slayers just stand there gawking. Buffy grabs Leah's hands and forces them down on Faith's wound, pressing them there hard.

"Keep the pressure there. Keep it there until Willow gets here."

Leah watches Buffy as she gets up and heads to the window. Sticking her head out and looking around, she eventually sees a figure about a hundred feet away and getting farther bolting away from the castle at top speed. Buffy knows that calling out to Satsu at this point is probably about as useful as she is until Willow arrives. Suddenly Buffy hears a voice she never expected to hear.

"B..."

Buffy pulls herself back inside and looks at Faith lying against the side of the bed, a smile coming over Faith's face.

"Why is it that every time you and me get within ten feet of each other, someone always ends up stabbed?"

The blonde slayer gets a bit of a smile on her face as well as she comes back over to help Leah keep the bleeding to a minimum, to little avail.

"I dunno F, but you gotta hold on. Willow will be here any second to fix you up good as new."

Faith coughs as she laughs a little and her breathing gets more ragged.

"Not sure I can B... Buffy... I think I'm a goner."

She coughs some more and Buffy struggles to find some way to make the bleeding stop completely.

"Hey, don't talk like that. I'm the one that's supposed to kill you remember? We're supposed to have that big knock down drag out fight that finally settles everything between us. You die now and we never get a chance to have that. So, stay with me, all right?"

Buffy feels her eyes sting with tears as she watches Faith start to fade in and out of consciousness.

"Sorry... not sure I can help you there B."

Faith's breathing seems to get harder and harder to keep going.

"Come on, Faith... you have to. Just..."

"B..."

"God damn it Faith, I... you can't die. You're, you're not allowed to."

Buffy adds more anger to her tears as she watches Faith seem to slip away with every second that passes.

"No, Faith... You're not ALLOWED to die you hear me? Don't be a bitch about this and actually LISTEN to me for ONCE in your god DAMN life."

Faith's breathes get shorter and weaker as everyone in the room struggles to hope that the dark slayer will pull through. Desperate to find something that will spark SOMETHING in Faith that will keep her alive long enough for Willow to get there, Buffy goes for broke and says the only thing that comes to mind.

"I'm FUCKING in love with you Faith! You hear that? You're not allowed to die because I'm in love with you and I'm NOT going to let you die on me."

Buffy looks down at Faith through the tears now pouring out of her eyes as Faith struggles not to take her last breath.

THE END