Faith's POV

Buffy...

The sound of a heart rate monitor beeping away wakes me up. I groan and stir as I open my eyes.

Where am I? I think... I'm in a hospital room, lying in the bed. Someone's with me.

"Faith?"

"Buffy?"

"No Faith it's me, Joyce."

I look over at her sitting next to the bed and my shoulder feels like someone's sticking needles in it. I grab my left shoulder with my right hand and feel the bandages on it. I immediately look down at the bandaged shoulder.

"Are you okay?"

The wounds sting a little as I touch them through the red spotted bandages.

"I'm alive, apparently."

I have to see her.

"Where's Buffy?"

She doesn't answer until I look at her.

"Faith, you have to stay calm."

People only say that when there's something to get upset about.

"Where is she?"

"Faith if you don't calm down you might hurt yourself."

I clutch my shoulder to brace myself for the pain of sitting up. My head spins a bit as I do and it makes it hard to think.

"What happened?"

Didn't Buffy make it?

"She... she escaped right? Buffy's strong she... she escaped... right?"

She stands up and puts her hand out to me.

"Faith I'll tell you I just need you to calm, down. I couldn't handle losing both of you..."

Losing?

"Both... oh my, god..."

The spinning gets worse and I fall back on the bed.

"She... she's... is she...?"

"No... I don't know... I don't think she is but... Rupert told me she was, taken by the snake demon so, we can't know for sure."

I force myself to sit up again to get out of bed.

"I... have to find her I..."

"Faith for god sake please..."

She stands up to block my path.

"Lie back on the bed. If you don't rest, you are going to do serious damage to yourself. You could die."

What?

"Are you really going to risk your life AND Buffy's on the slim chance that you might save her in your condition?"

She would do it for me. Hell she DID do it for me.

I look Joyce right in the eyes.

"Yes..."

"FAITH YOU GET BACK IN THAT BED AND LIE DOWN!"

After a few seconds, I sit down on the bed and lie back, reducing the throbbing pain in my upper body.

"Giles had Xander go with Anya to speak with some of her old demon friends in case they know anything about this woman Buffy fought."

"So it WAS her then?"

Joyce takes a deep breath.

"I think it's more than likely. Though I don't understand what she would want Buffy for."

Dawn?

"You're both slayers, if she were up to something, wouldn't it make more sense for her to want you out of her way? Not that I like that option anymore than this one but, I just don't understand what this woman wants."

I've gotta tell her.

"Dawn..."

"She's out in the lobby with Rupert. You don't have to worry about her."

"No I mean, whatever it is this woman wants... it has something to do with Dawn."

"What? How?"

"I don't know, I... Buffy never told me how."

"Then what makes you think this somehow involves Dawn?"

"The night Buffy came back from patrol all beat up. The night she met this demon woman, her first words out of her mouth were 'Where's Dawn'."

"Why?"

"I don't know, but ever since then she's been a little crazy about Dawn. It doesn't make any sense to me, but I think Dawn and this demon woman are somehow connected."

Joyce stands up, and paces a bit.

"But... she's my little girl. How could she have anything to do with anything demonic? She's not a slayer or anything, she's my daughter."

"I know, but I promise no matter what it is I won't let anything happen to Dawn."

"I know you won't, thank you. Well, at least we know one good thing then."

We do?

"What's that?"

"Well Buffy would never do anything to hurt Dawn either, so whatever this woman wants she won't get it. And that means that if Buffy can stay alive long enough for you to save her, then we'll get her back."

I guess.

"So is that why things between the two of you have been so stressed?"

"Yeah... Buffy wouldn't tell me what it was about Dawn that this demon wants so badly. And I can't protect Dawn properly if I don't know the whole story. Buffy promised to tell me everything tonight, but I guess that's not going to happen."

Geez what did I say that for?

"Faith..."

"I'm sorry... I didn't mean it that way I just... I've got to save her. Whatever else is going on between us, I don't want her dead. We can settle our problems when I know she's safe. Things might work out, they might not but if she's not here then we'll never know for sure. I need to save her to know for sure."

"Are things really that bad between you two?"

"They really are. You know, for the longest time I believed that we were meant to be, that no matter what happened as long as we had each other everything would work out in the end. Now I'm not so sure. That's why I have to find her and bring her home, if for no other reason than to say goodbye without any guilt. I have to find her."

Joyce takes my hand in hers.

"And you will. You'll bring her home to us and then you'll say all the things you never got to say, you both will. If you're really lucky... maybe things will work out."

Yeah well...

"I'm not gonna hold my breath."

"Well we'll just have to worry about the future when it happens. We have more important things to worry about, like finding Buffy. I'll go get Rupert and he can give us an update on any news."

I go to get up.

"He can do that on the way, let's go."

"No, Faith you're not going anywhere."

"Why not?"

"Faith that demon snake that bit you was a cobra. It had poison in its bite. The doctors gave you some anti-venom and Rupert says that your accelerated healing will work in your favor, but if you stress yourself out you'll make things worse. So for god sake please just stay where you are. At least until the venom is completely out of your system. It should only take a couple of hours."

There's no telling what could happen to B in a couple of hours.

"All right."

Joyce turns and goes out of the room. I look at the window.

I could break it and escape if I wanted to, but Joyce is right. Risking my own life on the slim chance that I might save hers is a bad way to go. For all I know I could die before ever making it anywhere close to finding Buffy. I guess I gotta stay put to stay alive, but the second the doc gives the okay I'm outta here like Angel outta hell.

Joyce comes back in with Giles and Dawn. Giles stands at about my knees near the bed while Joyce and Dawn come right up in my face, mostly Dawn. She throws her arms around me and I cringe as her hand grabs the shoulder with the hole in it.

"Are you okay?"

I try not to sound hurt.

"Yeah, I'm good."

Dawn pulls back quickly.

"Oh... oh gosh did I hurt you?"

"No a giant snake with teeth like steel hurt me. That was a flashback."

"I'm sorry."

I use my good arm to pretend punch her in the jaw.

"It's cool. I'm a slayer, remember kid?"

She half smiles a guilty smile.

"So you are otherwise all right?"

I pat down my major body parts as if I'm checking at Giles' question.

"Looks that way, I'm kinda anxious to get out of here and start looking for B but otherwise I'm fine."

"Faith..."

"I know, I know, I gotta stay here if I wanna stay alive, doesn't mean I'm happy about it. So any word on B?"

Someone in a doctor's coat comes in before Giles can speak.

"Hey there, how are we all doing?"

"Faith this is Ben, he's in charge of making sure you don't die."

"Dawn!"

"Sorry..."

The doc smiles at me.

"I wanna get outta here Doc."

"Women are always trying to get away from me, which is weird because I became a doctor to meet women."

Is this guy for real?

He comes around the bed and starts to check my shoulder.

"Let's see how we're healing."