"Uh, Buff. You've been standing there staring at the recently developed Sunnydale crater, offering outstanding views of nothing. For like ten minutes now without a word. Are you okay?" Xander placed his hand lightly on his friend's shoulder. Buffy covered it with her own, but still didn't speak.

"Are you catatonic again, Buffy? 'Cause I don't know if I have the energy right now to bring you home." Willow's voice was full of weary concern.

"Uh Will, if she's catatonic, how would she tell you she's catatonic?" asked Dawn.

"Good question Dawnie. I think I'm going to take a little lie down while I come with an answer for ya." Willow glanced at Buffy again, saw that she was still smiling and figured it couldn't be that bad and let Kennedy help her back to the bus.

Faith stood watching all this from a few paces away, Buffy hadn't spoken to her yet either and she wasn't sure if her comfort would be welcome. Things were still plenty weird between them and she didn't want to make matters worse. Anyway, she'd spent the last few days pushing the blonde away, she didn't want to start throwing mixed signals about now and make everything ten times harder. 'Still thinking of myself first, there's a surprise. Who cares how harder it will make it to leave; go and put your arm around her, show her you care.' Despite the inner lecture Faith was giving herself she didn't move. The Scoobies were experts at the TLC, Faith wouldn't even know what she was doing. She just dug her hands deep in her pockets and kept looking.

"Mr. Giles, we need to get the injured to the hospital. Robin and Rhona and quite a few of the others need medical attention that we can't give." Andrew came over from the bus, bearing the bad news.

Everyone looked back at the crater, where the hospital was, or had been.

Having something to do seemed to snap Buffy out of her reverie, anyway. She spun on her heel and formulated a plan in the time it took to do it.

'How does she do that?' Faith thought as Buffy started to speak.

"Right, well our best bet is L.A. It's only two hours away and we can book everyone in to the hospital without causing too much suspicion, 'cause y'know, it's L.A. and stab wounds and, er, Vampire bites are much less likely to cause any fuss than they are in Nowheresville, U.S.A. Plus we can hook up with Angel and his friends. They still have that hotel, so they should have rooms to put the girls in and we can plan our next step from there."

"Sounds like a plan Buffster, let's roll out." Xander started to herd people towards the bus.

"Yes it would be a very fine plan, if it were not for one small detail," Giles said.

"What's that? I think I thought of everything," Buffy pouted.

"Well it's not your fault so much as er, mine and Robin's."

"What are you talking about Giles?"

"L.A.'s that way." He pointed across the big new hole in the world, formally known as Sunnydale.

"Oh, well that sucks," Buffy said.

Everyone agreed.

While they were bickering amongst themselves trying to come up with a plan B, they all failed to notice the sound of engines until three hummers came into view and were suddenly upon them.

"What the...?" Xander stopped and shielded his eyes from the sun to get a better look at the army vehicles.

"I second that," Andrew said, doing the same.

Faith tensed; if this was it, if they were here for her, she would go quietly, but she so wanted to go back on her own steam, and she wanted more time with B, even if they didn't appear to be speaking much.

Buffy struck up her favorite defiant pose in front of the bus, legs slightly apart, arms crossed, hip jutting with just enough attitude. "Relax guys, we've got an army of Slayers on board and they think we're just a bunch of little girls. We can take 'em if we have to."

There was a "Hey!" From Xander, and an "Excuse me!" From Giles. Andrew stayed silent.

The hummers came to a halt right in front of Buffy, spraying up dust onto her boots, which you just knew she was going to give the driver Hell for.

The driver's door was flung open and out jumped a tall, tanned Riley Finn.

"Hey Buffy, looks like you could use some help." He smiled in that all American way of his.

Her mouth had dropped open, so had pretty much everyone else's. Andrew's eyes had glazed over too.

"Riley, how did you...?" Buffy's mouth started to work, but then stopped again.

Other people were starting to dismount from the army vehicles. Sam Finn was one of them and she walked forward now and offered Buffy her hand. Buffy shook it weakly.

"Know where you were?" Sam finished for her. "We heard about all Hell breaking loose in this part of the world about three weeks ago. The readings were going off the charts, but we were in the middle of a big messy demon kill in Southern China."

"China?" Buffy echoed quietly.

Riley took up the story. "Yeah, Sandharou Demons, ugly critters. Anyway, by the time we finished them off, got back to the states and got ourselves together, it was last night and now here we are in Sunnydale. Except it would seem Sunnydale's not here anymore. Uh why do I get the feeling this might have something to do with you?" He smiled warmly at Buffy and she returned it. Faith wanted to throw up.

"Well you missed the big showdown Riley, but boy are we still glad to see you." Xander walked forward and shook his hand.

Riley suddenly looked around worried. "Er, where's Willow, is she...?"

"She's on the bus. She pulled off some wicked mojo and I think she's sleeping it off," Dawn said, stepping forward to give Riley a hug. She didn't care if he'd dumped her sister and married someone else. He was here and he would take them off this dusty road, he was a god in her eyes at the moment.

"And Anya, is she on there too?" Riley smiled and then it dropped when he saw Xander's face crumple. "Oh man, I'm sorry, I didn't..."

Xander sniffed but he didn't cry. He figured he would be at some point, but he wasn't ready yet. "S'okay, she knew what we were getting into, I mean she never actually wanted to get into it, but she did, she stayed, she was brave. I'm gonna go help with the wounded," he finished and walked away.

Riley turned round and barked some orders to some of his men. They ran and collected a big kit with a red cross on the side and ran to the bus.

"Medics," Riley said, pretty pointlessly Faith thought, but she didn't say anything. She was too busy checking out the idiot's wife.

'Yeah okay so she's kind of a babe, but she's not a patch on Buffy. You definitely settled for second best there, farm bred,' she thought.

"So we'll get the injured patched up as best as we can and then what do you want us to do?" Riley asked Buffy.

"A lift to L.A. would be really cool. I don't think the bus is made for off-roading." She chuckled.

"It's the least we can do, considering we missed helping out with the actual fight," Sam agreed readily.

'Jeez, it's like G.I. Joe and Army Barbie,' Faith thought with a grimace.

Buffy had expected it to be a squash getting all the survivors into the three army vehicles, but they were like optical illusions, bigger on the inside than the outside. It was made easier because Riley ordered half a dozen men to stay behind and guard the bus and the great, big hole. There was talk of digging for survivors, but all you had to do was look down there to know exactly what your chances of luck were. Buffy was pretty sure they'd been the only people left in town anyway, and any of their gang alive, they'd brought with them.

'I hope,' she thought. 'But a Vampire could fall that far and have Sunnydale land on him and still be alive; it's not like Spike needs to breathe down there.' She bit her bottom lip worryingly while she contemplated Spike down there alone and weak, not much of a reward for saving the world, was it. Then pulled herself together with a shake. 'He had a great big sun burning in his chest and he was catching on fire. Not much chance he's anything more than an extra layer of dust down there'. She wiped a tear that had sneaked past her guard and felt a hand on her knee. She turned.

"Hey you. Hope you're not crying over Sunnydale, 'cause you know, a big hole in the ground is an improvement to what it was before," Willow said with a smile.

She was sat on the same bench seat as Buffy. Kennedy sat on the other side of her girlfriend holding her hand and nuzzling her soft neck. Willow giggled.

"Time and a place Kenn, look into it," Dawn said from the bench across from her.

"Sorry," Kennedy said but she didn't sound it and she didn't move away from Willow's neck.

Willow tried to pull away with another giggle, but Kennedy held on firmly. Causing them to lean on Buffy. She leaned to the side with a smirk.

"How are those Slayer hormones grabbing ya then, Kennedy?"

"Oh they're grabbing me, B." came the muffled reply.

"You did not just call me B. That's it, you are not spending any more time with Faith, young lady. One hungry, horny, double-syllable-ly challenged Slayer is enough, we don't need another," Buffy grumbled, moving further along the bench away from them.

"You must be feeling it too, B. You can't tell me if Faith wasn't in here, you wouldn't be doing the exact same thing."

Buffy blushed bright red, but said nothing. 'Chance would be a fine thing,' she thought.

Willow looked at Xander with a worried expression. He was sat in between Dawn and Chao-Ahn, and while he didn't look particularly sad, he hadn't even quirked an eye-brow at all the girl-on-girl talk, and that was spooky. She half wanted to call attention to the delicious things Kennedy was doing to her neck with her tongue, just to spark a reaction, but she figured she might not get such a favorable reaction from everyone else in the Hummer, so kept her mouth shut and just offered quiet little smiles.

The third Hummer had been turned into a temporary ambulance, Robin and Rhona and a few of the other girls who had taken hard hits were in there with the medical team. Faith had wanted to go with them, but there hadn't been enough room, so she sat in the back of number two with Giles, Andrew, Vi and the rest of the girls, speeding along in the wake of the truck carrying B and the others to L.A.

In some ways this couldn't have gone better, she was getting a free ride to where she wanted to go, right to Angel's in fact. She'd managed to avoid getting in the same truck as B. Hadn't been easy, especially when Buffy had turned around before boarding, the first time she looked at her since leaving the school, and made a 'come on' motion with her head. She'd seen the disappointment in B's eyes when she'd shrugged and climbed aboard another one, but Faith figured this was a Scooby time and she had no part in that.

The down side of this deal was being stuck in the back of here, listening to Andrew and the girls play eye-spy and twenty questions. The only person as bored as she was seemed to be Giles. He looked her way and rolled his eyes. She smiled back.

Who'da ever thought she could get along with Giles like this? Who'da thought he would ever go behind his precious Slayer's back to help her? She'd always known the old guy wasn't so bad.

"Hey Giles, when I get out, y'know, twenty-five years from now, if you still want to do these tests of yours, I'm up for it."

Giles smiled at her kindly. "You're still determined to go through with this? You do realize no one expects this from you, don't you. Not Buffy, nor I. You've more than earned your place back in society, Faith; and well, with all these new Slayers, your help would be greatly appreciated."

"Sorry G, I gotta do this. For me, for everyone. It's the right thing to do, and anyway you've got B to help and Kennedy, and Vi proved herself one Hell of a fighter this morning. I promise you one thing, if you ever do need me, y'know for something big, then all ya gotta do is let me know." She smirked. "Wes knows how to get me out, just tell him to bring a rope ladder next time."

He smiled at her before asking. "What about Buffy, I know she's beginning to care a great deal for...?

"Yeah I know and...and I love her too, I think." Damn that felt good to say. How many years had she been bottling up those three little words? "No, that's Bullshit; I know I love her but that doesn't change this, doesn't change the fact I'm doing the right thing. She'll get over it. New town, new boys, she'll be fine."

"Okay, well we'll speak to Wesley and get the wheels in motion as soon as everyone is settled."

"Thanks."

It was late afternoon when the Slayers and the Scoobies trailed into the lobby of the Hyperion Hotel.

"Not exactly buzzing with guests, is it?" Said Kennedy, setting down her's and Willow's bags before going to the front desk.. "Is there like a bell I'm supposed to ring?"

"Don't be retarded, it's not a real hotel, is it." Faith brushed by the younger Slayer and went behind the desk.

"As long as they got showers, I'm good." Xander dropped his and Dawn's stuff on the growing pile and stretched his back. "I'm coated in Uberdust and desert."

"I wonder where everyone is." Buffy looked around the big lobby. She'd never been here before, to Angel's home; but Faith had, it seemed a bit weird. She looked over at the her now, rummaging through paper work like she belonged here. Maybe she always had belonged here; she wore L.A. like a second skin. It was Sunnydale she'd never been comfortable in, she'd wanted to escape. Well now that big chunk of their history was rubble, would Faith be willing to put their past behind them and give it a go? Or was it Buffy she wanted to run from and not Sunnydale? Buffy had no idea.

She stepped up to the front of the desk and looked down at the papers Faith was shuffling.

"What'cha doing?"

"Just getting any clue as to where they might be. Figured if they were on a job or something, there'd be somethin' written down. This is L.A. They wouldn't normally just go off and leave everything unlocked." Faith didn't even bother looking up at her.

"And is there? Anything, I mean."

"Lottsa stuff B, but it don't tell me nothin'."

Everyone was gathered in the lobby now, except the badly wounded, they were at St. Peter's memorial hospital. Rhona and the rest of the girls would be out tomorrow because of the Slayer healing. Robin would probably be in there a week, but at least everyone they'd brought out of the Hellmouth was going to live.

"Well what have we here. I feel like I've just walked back stage during Annie."

Several of the girls swung to face the door, dropping into combat stance.

"Okay not big musical fans." He put his hands up in mock surrender as her sauntered through the lobby.

"Hey Lorne, how ya doin'? We just destroyed Sunnydale so we kinda need a place to crash. That cool?" Faith asked, vaulting the desk and approaching him.

"Uh sure it is Sweetcakes, but you wanna run the whole destroying Sunnydale sentence past me again? I think it got away from me the first time."

Buffy walked up to stand next to Faith and quirked her eyebrow in the green demon's direction.

Faith rolled her eyes. "Lorne, this is Buffy - yes the Buffy, before you ask. Buffy this is Lorne, he's an acoustic demon."

Buffy looked puzzled. "Like a guitar?"

"I think Faith meant to say anagogic, as in a mind-reader?" Giles came over, offering his hand to Lorne, smiling widely.

Lorne shook his hand. "Song-reader actually, English Muffin, but let's not quibble."

Buffy, Faith and Xander, who had been close enough to hear, all laughed at Giles' face.

"Angel and the gang should be back shortly, they're still sleeping with the enemy at the mo. Why don't you all pick yourselves rooms to freshen up in and then you can tell me all about it over drinks while we wait for them." Lorne shooed them all towards the stairs.

"How many rooms can you spare, Lorne?" Buffy asked.

"Well it's only really the first couple of floors that are liveable, and I'm not sure how many of those have beds in. Feel free to take a look and see what you can find.

Buffy smiled her thanks and made her way up the stairs with everyone else. Dawn met her at the top.

"There's six rooms that aren't too gross, but only four of them have beds."

"Okay thanks. Uh, I guess Giles should get a bed, cause he's ol... the patriarch," she fixed quickly and smiled brightly as he walked past.

"Thank you Buffy," he remarked dryly. "And who's my roomie?"

"Well I was thinking Xander and Andrew."

"My, that will be cozy. Please tell me Dawn that the bed is in fact a large one."

Dawn giggled. "Not that large."

"Giles, I'm sure when Angel gets back from whatever enemy he's sleeping with, he'll be able to find us blankets and pillows. Andrew can sleep on the floor. I just refuse to put him in with a bunch of inexperienced Slayers feeling the rush for the first time. He wouldn't make it out alive, plus do you want to open a new Watchers Council with adjoining kindergarten?

"I don't mind bunking with Xander," Dawn offered.

"I thought you'd be sharing a room with me?" Buffy said, feeling slightly put out.

"Nuh-uh, you have weird dreams, and you talk and kick out, and when you're not doing all that you hog the covers," Dawn told her.

Buffy blushed at having her sleeping secrets revealed. "Okay well don't you want to get in the slumber party groove with the rest of the girls."

"Like please, I am way more mature than that. Plus they'll be spazzing all night, like you said. And anyway, Xander's sad, he's trying to put a brave face on it but he's obviously upset. I just want to help."

Buffy leaned over and gave Dawn a quick hug. "Okay if you don't mind and it's cool with Xander, I think it's a great idea."

"Yes, very commendable," agreed Giles.

"I'll go and tell Xander and we can pick a room with twin beds before they all go." Dawn rushed back off to find the construction worker.

"Guess that leaves you with Andrew, will you live?" Buffy asked, with a grin.

"I most definitely will... He may not." He in turn wandered off to find a room.

Movement caught Buffy's eye down below and she looked over the banisters. Faith was still down there, sitting on a couch in the middle of the floor, chatting to a woman with long dark hair.

"That's Fred," Willow informed her as she walked up to stand next to her best friend.

"The one who called you to come help with Angel." Buffy's eyes only flicked over the unfamiliar woman, before returning to Faith.

"The one and the only," confirmed Willow. "She's nice. I thought she liked me a bit to be honest, when I was here before, but Faith told me she was going steady with Gunn until recently, so I guess not."

"You're happy with Kennedy though, aren't you?" Buffy finally turned to look at her friend, a tiny worry frown, creasing her brow.

"Pretty much, and I think I'm about to be made very happy if you know what I mean." She yawned. "I just hope I can stay awake long enough to enjoy it."

"Jeez Will, you don't know what you're letting yourself in for. Slayer strength, Slayer flexibility, Slayer stamina," Buffy teased.

Willow stifled another yawn at the word stamina. "Then I best go find out." The witch smirked as she walked away. "I've got to admit I always wondered what it would be like; ya know,to be with a Slayer." She winked at Buffy and giggling, disappeared into the room she and Kennedy had picked.

Buffy finally managed to blink before her eye balls dried up and fell out and then she shut her mouth as well for good measure. Shaking her head and laughing, she walked down the corridor to the empty rooms at the end.

There was only one room left unoccupied, but she noticed with unconcealed pleasure that it had a nice big bed. Giles or Xander or someone must have told the girls to leave it for her.

They hadn't brought stuff with them, they'd believed that morning that if they won, they'd be able to go home again. As that plan didn't quite, well, go to plan, they'd stopped at a seven-eleven before coming to the hotel just to pick some essentials. Buffy could see a large shopping trip in her near future and if that and this bed weren't things to smile about, what was.

She dumped her plastic bag of toiletries in the middle of the floor and flopped down on the bed, face first. 'Okay now to sleep for a hundred years.' She thought, wriggling around until she was totally comfortable.

She didn't realize how close to sleep she actually was until a voice pulled her back from the brink with a start.

"Oh, I guess it's you and me sharing then is it?"

Buffy heard Faith clomp into the room and kick the door shut with her heel. 'You don't have to sound quite so disappointed about it,' she thought.

She said without rolling over, "Dunno, hadn't thought about it." And she hadn't. She'd thought about Faith non-stop since she'd landed on top of the bus. The first one being 'Did she get out alright,' but she hadn't thought about sleeping arrangements. She'd assumed she'd be sharing the room with her sister and after the last two nights, when things seemed to become especially awkward between the Slayers, she'd figured Faith wouldn't want to room with her anyway.

Now Faith was in the room with her, she was feeling all tingly, her body seemed extra sensitive to where Faith stood in the room. She felt her by the window, just before it was shoved upwards with a loud grating noise. She felt her head towards the en-suite just before she heard the shower turned on, then off again, and then she felt her by the foot of the bed, just before she sat down.

Buffy knew she should sit up, or at least roll away. The bed was a double, but she was sprawled smack-bang in the middle of it. She couldn't be bothered so she didn't. If Faith wanted her to move she'd have to ask.

"Red told me this was the only room with any space left." She sounded like she was just trying to make conversation.

"S'ok, I'll kill her later," Buffy muttered into the sheets.

"What's that B?"

"Nothing."

"Oh, well I'll just take a shower and I'll get out of your way."

"Whatever."

Buffy felt the bed shake as Faith started pulling her boots off, then 'thud, thud' as they were thrown against the wall.

"Was one hell of a fight, huh?" Faith pulled a sock off and started playing with it. She felt awkward sitting here like this, rabbiting on while B had gone all cave speak on her. Wasn't her fault Red had organized her to be in this room. If B was gonna give her the cold shoulder for the rest of the night then she might as well sleep on the couch downstairs. It would be as comfortable as this silence.

"B."

"Yes Faith?"

"How's your gut?"

Buffy's hand moved to her stomach and she felt gingerly around where the sword had got her. "It's a bit itchy."

"D'you want me to clean it up for ya?" Faith shifted on the bed and pulled off her other sock. 'I'm going first thing in the morning, why am I trying to build this bond now? I blew my chance for a good reason, don't make things worse for both of you.' "Or I could get Willow to do it."

Buffy chuckled. "I think Willow's going to be busy for quite a while yet. If Kennedy has anything to do with it anyway."

A knowing leer spread across Faith's face. "Go Kenn! I think I'd better get Fred to order a couple of dozen pizza's extra for dinner, don't you think?"

Buffy was still chuckling. "Yeah we should take pity on the Slayers who haven't got girlfriends on tap." She turned her head to face Faith's way.

The brunette was looking back at her, smiling. Buffy moved onto her back in a fluidly, suggestive roll and tugged her shirt up a little to bare her tanned, well-toned middle.

"Are you gonna take care of it for me then?" She asked coyly, peering up through her sooty lashes.

Faith's eyes bugged out.

"The big, bloody stab wound Faith, get your mind outta the gutter." Buffy laughed at Faith's expression.

"Can't seem to do that when you're around," Faith said before slipping off the bed and leaving the room.

"Oh, great going Buffy, way to scare her off again. You suck at anything to do with Faith, you should just give up," she told the empty room. "I can't be her friend without sending her crazy or wanting to jump her bones, and both of those things make her run away from me. I should give us both a rest and crawl under a rock until she goes off to honor these big plans of..." Buffy shut up and went red when Faith appeared back in the doorway.

"What's up B, you talking to yourself? You know what that means, don'tcha?"

"Yeah that you're driving me crazy." Buffy put her hand over her eyes. "Sorry, I was meant to just say that in my head."

"Not to worry, B. Wasn't so long ago you drove me crazy, remember? I just went to get some first aid stuff." Faith held up some cream and some large cotton pads. "Which do you want me to do first, front or back?"

"I guess my back's worse." Buffy rolled on to her belly again and pulled her shirt up to under her arms. She rested her head on her crossed arms and squinted up at Faith. "Is it bad?"

"Uh, oh nah, not really, just a bit bloody." Faith stopped staring at Buffy's bra and started cleaning up the wound. 'You've seen plenty of bras Faith, B's ain't no different,' she chastised herself.

Buffy flinched when Faith set to work. "Sorry, did that hurt?"

"No, just cold." When Faith had finished cleaning it up, she applied cream to her fingertips and began smoothing it over Buffy's skin. It took all Buffy's willpower to not to push against the mattress or moan out loud. She moaned plenty in her head though. Faith seemed to be taking her sweet time about making sure it was all rubbed in and Buffy was perfectly fine with that. She sighed heavily when Faith stopped and placed a bandage over it.

"Okay, time to do the front," Faith told her. 'Damn how eager did I sound right then. Please roll over B, so I can get all hot by rubbing freaking evil smelling antiseptic cream on you. No Faith, you're not pathetic.'

Buffy rolled over quickly, with no intention of telling Faith she could do this bit herself. Her shirt stayed rucked up above her bra. She fought with her inner self for supremacy, but in the end the chicken shit won out and she pulled her shirt down a bit, not completely covering her breasts but just enough so she didn't feel like a complete slut.

Faith went through the same routine as before. When she started spreading the ointment on, Buffy closed her eyes so they wouldn't give her away. Her muscles twitched and jumped under her skin, but she could put that down to ticklishness if Faith said anything. Faith didn't, she was too busy watching the muscles twitch and jump, and she made the most of Buffy's closed eyes to continue running her fingers over Buffy's abdomen long after the cream was gone.

Buffy knew her wound was a good inch and a half from where Faith's finger's were stroking her skin and she felt herself tense slightly with this knowledge. When Faith's fingertips skimmed her belly button she couldn't stop herself hissing through her teeth. Faith jerked her hand away as if she'd been burnt and slapped the bandage over the injury a little too hard, causing Buffy's eyes to snap open.

"Ow!"

"I'm gonna take that shower." Faith disappeared into the bathroom and shut the door. Buffy cursed a whole lot and punched the mattress a few times.

Buffy stood outside the bathroom door waiting for the shower to shut off. After a few minutes the hissing of the water stopped and the wet slapping sounds Faith made climbing out of the old fashioned tub, could be heard.

Buffy smiled, before calling: "Faith."

"Yeah?"

"Fred's just brought up some clothes and a towel for you, I'll leave them on the bed. She said I can shower in her room so I'll see you downstairs, okay?"

"Okay B."

Buffy left the room to go find Fred's. She had to get out of these icky clothes and she didn't want to be in the room when Faith came out of the bathroom naked and dripping wet. It wasn't going to be easy showering without getting her bandages wet, but if it couldn't be helped she'd just have to ask Faith to do them again. 'Damn,' she thought with glee.

Faith crept out of the bathroom and made sure B wasn't still around, when she was convinced she was alone she walked to the bed, wet, naked and shivering like crazy.

"Sh..sh..shouldn't ha..ha..ve a sho..ower, in a..a. b....ding with n..n..o heat." She said to herself as she vigorously rubbed her body with the towel. 'Thank God for Fred,' she thought. She'd been so desperate to get away from Buffy and cool off she hadn't stopped to consider clothes or towels.