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The stakes were in her hands. The other weapons they might need were in the pack on her back. She was as ready as she was going to be. Except …
She turned back to the woman behind her, with her own stakes and her own pack, her face glowing almost a translucent white in the eerie glow of the moonlight shining through the open front door.
Buffy paused just a moment, suddenly unnerved by the prospect of what was going to come next.
“Are you sure about this?” she said to Faith. “You’re not looking so hot …”
“I’m fine.”
“Are you really?”
Faith’s glare made her regret her choice of words, but it also did nothing to quell the slight worry she felt. That glare could usually stake a vampire with its intensity but not tonight. But Buffy tried to push that thought to the back of her mind. Faith said she was okay, and they had a job to do. A pack of demons to hunt and kill. And then they could come home and worry about anything else that needed worrying.
“Okay,” she said and stepped out on to the front porch. “Then let’s go do this.”
--
She knew something was wrong halfway through the battle. Though, more precisely, she had known something was wrong since they had come home from battle the previous night. They had killed that demon but not before his essence — or whatever the nasty stuff coming off of him was supposed to be — had completely covered Faith.
“Gross,” she had said and sneezed, and Buffy could have sworn her skin had actually changed color. But that was stupid, right? It was stupid, so she let it go. And she let it go for the next day as Faith seemed to look worse and worse because Faith said she was fine and why shouldn’t she believe her?
She shouldn’t have believed her. But then, what alternative did she have? She wasn’t sure she could have gone after these demons alone and Faith was still staking them and killing them. Except they were almost halfway through and Faith was staggering. Actually staggering, and not in the way she did when she was hit really hard but was also three seconds from jumping back up and putting her foot in some places where the sun don’t shine.
This was the kind of staggering someone did before they were going to collapse unconscious to the ground, which would be incredibly bad because there were a lot of demons around.
So many that Buffy almost missed one because she was too busy staring at Faith, her heart thumping practically in her throat and worry filling her mind.
She turned around, away from Faith, knowing she needed to focus.
“Come on, Faith!” she called. “We’ve got this! We’re almost done!”
The demon in front of her grunted like it was offended, which maybe it was, but Buffy shoved a stake through its heart anyway. She glanced over to see Faith do the same. Barely.
“We’ve got this!” she called again.
“Stop,” she heard Faith say, her voice so low Buffy almost didn’t hear her.
“What?”
“Stop being so peppy.”
Buffy smiled as she staked another demon. That sounded like the Faith she knew, so at least her entire sense of humor wasn’t gone. But they needed to hurry — or Buffy did because Faith wasn’t going to make it long.
Faith aimed for another demon as Buffy kicked the nearest one into a pile of very sharp rocks. Behind her, Faith missed and the demon grabbed her around the throat. Faith’s body went instantly limp, and Buffy turned, propelling her stake across the cave. It flew by Faith’s ear and hit its mark perfectly. A second later the demon dropped to the ground in a puddle of goo.
Buffy took off, leaping across the goo-covered cave just in time, reaching out to grab Faith as she crashed to the ground, her eyes fluttering, her mouth just open slightly. Even from just the barest touch, Buffy realized she was burning up.
“Okay,” Buffy said as she helped Faith lie on the hard ground. “I got the rest. Don’t get up.”
Faith made some sort of noise that might have been a wise crack, but Buffy couldn’t make it out. She also couldn’t ask her to repeat it because she still had about ten demons to go, and she wanted them gone now.
A few minutes later they were finally done and Buffy let herself bend over, hands on her knees, taking a few deep breaths.
“That was rough,” she muttered and then raced over to where Faith still lay on the ground, pale and feverish, her eyes glossy. Buffy dropped down beside her. “We’ve gotta get you home,” she said.
“Yeah,” Faith said, her voice barely even a whisper. “I might have been wrong about being fine.”
“Ya think?” Buffy said, and Faith shrugged, and Buffy couldn’t help but smile.
--
She took Faith over to Giles, who called Willow, who called Tara, who both showed up almost right away.
“It’s supernatural,” Buffy said. “It’s got to be. It happened when we fought the gooey demons.”
“If it’s supernatural, we should be able to fix it, Buffy. Don’t worry,” Willow said, and Tara beside her nodded.
“We’ll fix her up and she’ll be good in no time,” Tara added, and now Buffy was nodding along with them.
“Yes, we have to. That would be good.”
Willow and Tara got to work. Giles too and Xander and Anya when they showed up an hour later. Buffy stayed in Giles’ guest room with Faith, sitting by her side and holding her hand and using a wet cloth to wipe sweat off her head.
“You don’t have to,” Faith murmured to Buffy. She forced her eyes open to smile at her.
“Don’t have to what?” Buffy said. “Take care of you? I know that. But I want to.”
“But why?” Faith whispered. “I’ll be fine on my own.”
“I know,” Buffy said. “But I’m going to tell you something now, and this is important.”
“Okay,” Faith said.
“See, when you love someone, you want to take care of them, and I want to take care of you.”
The corner of Faith’s mouth lifted up. “That’s ridiculous. You’re ridiculous.”
“I know,” Buffy said, scooting just a little closer to her. “I am. It’s why you love me.”
“Yeah,” Faith said. She dropped her head on to Buffy’s shoulder, letting her eyes drift close. “It really is.”
She didn’t say anything else, but she didn’t need to. Buffy threaded her fingers through Faith’s, squeezing their hands together. Soon enough, Willow and Tara would find the cure soon, and then they could get back to demon hunting and kissing like they were meant to.
Buffy couldn’t wait.