Faith goes looking for her father to answer some of her questions left by her mother's return. Buffy tries to help as best she can, leading her to ask questions about her own relationship with her father and whether she should do the same.
Running my hands through my hair, I take a deep breath to try and calm myself.
I wanted to just go in, have a conversation, and get out. It was all supposed to be so simple. Should've known it wouldn't have gone down that way. Things are never that simple when it comes to my life. There always has to be some sort of complication. And usually it's me who ends up causing the problem, just like it was this time. I thought I'd moved beyond this type of thing. After everything that happened between B and I, it felt like I was finally in a good place. Now I realize, things are just as screwed up as ever.
It's just the way it happened that was different. I'm not even entirely sure how it went downhill so quickly. I kinda reacted on instinct. Something about being there with him made me want to protect him in whatever way I can. Especially with them being vampires and all. My slayer instincts probably had more to do with it than anything. I see a vampire and I want to protect anyone near me from it. That plus having my father around made for a crazy combination. The kind I haven't felt since... Dawn.
Maybe that's it. I couldn't protect Dawn from what happened to her, so I want to protect my dad from whatever trouble he's in. It makes me feel better to know that I can at least save someone. Except for the fact that I didn't save anyone this time. I might've even put him in more danger than he was before. All because I couldn't keep my cool and do the simple thing. I had to have B come in and rescue me from myself. Thank god she was there though. I don't know what I would've done if she hadn't talked me down.
Guess I was right to be worried about what I might do. She's always been the more level headed person in our relationship. She didn't want to take advantage of me when I had amnesia, then she wanted to wait until we figured out the spell. She's always been the one to talk me down off a ledge. Most of the time anyway. It's part of what makes us so good together I think. Or at least it was when we were like that with each other. Now we're just friends and she's still being the level headed one.
She opens the door to the bathroom and walks out... in nothing but a towel.
Wait... is she?
B smiles at me as she walks over to her bed and pulls her bag out from under it, setting it down and opening it up. She starts ruffling through her clothes.
"Hey B, good shower?"
She shrugs.
"It actually wasn't bad. I feel clean at least."
"I hear that's usually what is important with showers."
She pulls out a pair of panties and steps into them without taking off her towel. Once it's on, she drops the towel and stands there barely clothed for a moment.
"Yeah..."
Is she playing with me like I was with her?
She pulls out her bra and adjusts it in her hands before putting it on.
It kinda feels like she is. I should probably do what she did and try to ignore it.
After a while, she pulls out a pair of pants.
"Thanks by the way."
"For taking a shower? Did I really stink that badly?"
She tries to smell herself as she finds a good shirt to put on. I chuckle at the question.
"No, no... you always smell great..."
That's probably not the best way to say that.
A weird look happens between us but she ignores it.
"I mean, with my dad. I kinda went a little crazy there for a minute."
With her shirt on, she makes her way over, sitting on her bed close to where I'm sitting on mine.
"That's why you wanted me to come isn't it?"
"Yeah but... I didn't really think things would get that weird. I pretty much lost it."
"It's not that weird."
Looking over at her, I give her a little confused look.
"It's not?"
"Remember how I acted after finding out about Dawn? I went a little nuts. You almost left me because of what I did. Plus, when my mom was dying. Not exactly the most sane person over here."
She's not wrong.
"True..."
"So don't beat yourself up over what happened. You wanted to protect your dad. That's not crazy."
I take a deep breath.
"I guess you're right. Although I kinda hope I hadn't screwed things up so badly for him. Now we're trapped. We can't just leave him here if it's going to get him killed."
"No... but I wouldn't say we're trapped."
Is she...
"You're saying that we just leave? Do you want to leave?"
"No, I would never do that. What I'm saying is, we know what we're doing. We've handled vampires in the past, and we can do it again. This really isn't that much different."
Not sure that's true.
"Handle a lot of mobsters have you?"
"Not exactly, but there was the whole thing with The Master, and Angelus... and Omega's cult. They were pretty much like mobsters. It was definitely a conspiracy."
"You've got a point."
"I'm just saying, we handled that stuff and we'll figure out a way to handle this stuff too."
I take a deep breath.
"I hope so. Not sure what I would do if I got my dad killed after finding him again."
"You're not going to get your dad killed. Besides..."
She doesn't finish the sentence. It makes me focus on her.
"What is it?"
"It's nothing."
She's trying to be nice.
"Come on B, let's not start pulling punches now."
"Well... it's not entirely your fault. He did it to himself."
I don't really say anything to that.
"He's the one who took the money from these guys. You didn't do that to him."
Again I don't respond.
"All I'm saying is, you don't have to blame yourself."
"Maybe not, but I definitely didn't make it any better."
B smiles back.
"Which is why we're going to fix it. We just need some kind of plan."
I guess we'll have to come up with one then.
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