Title: Just Desserts (12/12)

Author: nailbunny617

Pairing: B/F

Rating: Erm…R? This isn't a fluffy piece of fiction, my friends…

Disclaimers: No, I don't own any of these characters, I'm just taking them for a joyride and mean no harm. Oh and if girlsmut is illegal where you live, move! If it's not your cup of tea, then I suggest you stop reading right now.

Author's Notes: I couldn't let the story just lie with part 11 as the conclusion, much as it would've been poetic to leave it like that. I, bowing to the wishes of the multitudes of you who inundated my mailbox, have attempted to attach a more fitting ending. I think the idea I've got is going to fit beautifully. Oh and I have no idea if Lorne can do what I'm gonna have him do…but hell, it fit the story so perfectly…

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Lorne plopped down in the seat next to me. Cordy had run off to the bathroom with an apology that I'd told her was unnecessary. Buffy had just finished singing and was greeting the boys, looking over at me with reluctant eyes. I understood her hesitation.

A folded piece of paper floated onto the table in front of me. I watched it as though it were going to bite me in the ass.

"The Powers That Be must like you, Faith. Actually, they must just like this dimension. You need to make sure to be at that address at the exact day and time specified."

I raised my eyebrow at him, and opened the paper. It told me to be somewhere in the warehouse district of Sunnydale in a few days towards sunset. Fucking weird.

"But I didn't sing this time." I told him, a little stymied.

"No, this one came through your other half's song specifically for you." He raised his hands in a sure-beats-the-hell-outta-me way. "I have no idea, but you need to be there no matter what else is going on."

"Okay, I think I can handle that." I wasn't going to dwell on the implication of him calling B my other half. I wasn't.

"I don't care if you're in the middle of an apocalypse, dearie."

"Got it."

"Even if you're languishing in post-coital bliss."

"Okay." I was beginning to get a little annoyed with the guy. And trying not to think about Buffy standing not twenty feet away.

"Nothing else matters. At half past 6, you'd better be there," he said as he jabbed a finger at the address in front of me.

"I said okay and I meant okay, okay?"

"Promise me, Faith."

Getting a little nervous, knowing I definitely wouldn't be able to avoid doing exactly what he was describing, I eyed him and replied, "Okay, I promise."

"On your mother's grave?"

I winced at that. "Yea, I promise on my mother's grave."

"No matter what else is going on?"

"Yes! God, obsessive much? You need to get laid, buddy." He nodded, obviously still a little unsure. But, considering what Cordy and Angel had told me about him, my ass was gonna be there at half past six in four days come hell or high water. Lorne squeezed my shoulder and wandered off to schmooze with other customers.

"Hey." I turned to see Buffy standing next to me, doing her best impression of someone who felt confident.

"Hi…have a seat."

She sat, gazing hesitantly towards the bathroom, and asked, "Is, um, Cordelia okay?" I sighed, not knowing how to answer that question. I didn't really know the answer myself.

I sighed softly and avoided the question. "So what brings you to LA?"

"You," she softly replied, staring into my eyes. I'd expected anything but that direct answer. Unable to avoid it, my eyes drifted to her mouth and flashes of the last time I'd seen her flew through my mind. I bit my lip and looked away.

"Did you mean it?" I asked, gesturing at the stage. It was as specific as I was going to get.

She smirked at me. "If you can ignore my lack of singing ability, then yes. I did." Reaching out, she held both of my hands in hers lightly. I shivered. "Did I screw us up before we had a chance?"

She said us. She said we. She was talking about her and me in a me-and-her kinda way. I willed myself not to pass out.

"No," I whispered. It was hard to whisper the word – it left me feeling vulnerable and bereft. Her eyes lit up and she smiled. It had been so long since she'd smiled at me. It felt like coming home.

We left the bar shortly after that, and I tried to ignore two pairs of eyes on us. I was definitely going to have to talk to both Angel and Cordy. It still shocks me even now to say the word "we" and mean it in a relationshippy way. B and I walked all over the city of angels that night, not speaking much. There were too many words and neither of us knew where to start. She kissed me and I cried.

We ventured back to the Hyperion hours later, giddy and giggling. I walked Buffy to her room, the one next to mine, and kissed her goodnight softly. She didn't seem to understand, perhaps thinking that I'd just fall into bed with her immediately. There were at least two things I had to take care of before I could do that.

I found Angel ensconced behind his desk. Taking a seat in one of the chairs, I waited for him to acknowledge my presence. It didn't take long.

"You love her?"

"Yes."

"She and I…we were doomed from the start." I didn't have anything to say about that. "But you…you've got to take your shot."

Squirming a little, I said, "I just wanted to make sure you-"

Holding up his hand, I drifted to silence uneasily. I was terrified of getting on the big guy's bad side. "You both deserve to be happy."

"What about you?"

He smirked at me. "Maybe in another couple centuries. In the meantime, you need to go get your just desserts."

We nodded at each other and I left. That was the shortest lengthy conversation I'd ever had. Angel was always intense that way.

I trudged up the stairs and knocked on Cordy's door. She called out permission to enter, so I did. Slowly. Attempting, in my own way, to put off the unpleasantness. I stood just inside the door, letting it swing shut behind me.

"Well, come on, sit down. It's not like I bite." That was uncommonly harsh, even for C, but I let it slide. I shuffled over to the bed and flopped down without any grace at all.

She'd been crying. She's probably the only person who, when indulging in a tear-fest, doesn't lose any of her beauty. I always end up looking all splotchy. I gathered her into my arms, as she'd done for me countless times, and tried to comfort her through touch. It might not have been the best thing considering I was the reason she was crying, but it was all I could think of.

Cordy cuddled into me, resting her face in the crook of my neck. "Don't tell anybody about this – it'll ruin my reputation," I joked softly. She sniffled. "You and me…we gonna be okay?"

It took her so long to respond that I was starting to tense up, getting ready to move away and/or leave completely. She nodded slowly. "You're my best friend, Faith. I can't lose that."

"Me either, Queen C."

We sat there long enough for both of us to get stiff. I tucked her into bed, making sure to leave the box of tissues within easy reach. I wanted to kiss her forehead goodnight, like my mom had for the first ten years of my life, but I didn't. She told me to go to Buffy, that I shouldn't have put it off just to make sure she was okay. I told her that if this thing with Buffy was going to happen, was going to work, then B'd have to understand some things. Like how important my newfound friendships were. I was beginning to realize that Cordy really would be just fine. It wouldn't be instantaneous, and it wouldn't take her as long as it had me, but she'd be fine all the same.

Wandering down to the kitchen, I stood and stared at the bottle of grape juice in the fridge that Cordy had written my name all over in black marker. I wondered what it would have been like if I'd never fallen for B. I wondered what it would have been like if Buffy hadn't shown up. I let the door shut as I backed away and stared at the stairs. My future was waiting. I hoped to all deities present that I was ready for it.

That night, because of course Buffy was still awake, we spoke for hours. Just talked about everything that had happened.

I sat there, on the bed, about two feet away from Buffy because if I got any closer, conversation wouldn't happen. Clearing my throat, I talked to the bedspread. "You know, B, when I came here…I was running away from more than just Kakistos. I was running away from the life I thought I was doomed to."

I drifted off into morbid thoughts and memories. Buffy took my chin softly in her hand and urged me to look at her. When I finally did, she said, "I know, Faith. I know everything. After you left, Willow sat me down and had a very long talk. Well, she talked and I listened." After a long pause, her voice breaking only slightly, she continued, "I had no idea, Faith."

I just smirked at her forlorn look. "Because I didn't let you. I thought maybe that if I found you, then I could start over again. But I didn't ever really escape my past. I don't know if I ever will."

We watched the window together. "I was threatened by you. You come into town, all swaggery and full of crazy stories. Everybody was so excited because you seemed so exotic, so dangerous, so beautiful. You even won my mom over. I felt like it was a competition that I had no chance of winning."

"But, that's the thing, B. I didn't mean for any of that to happen. You've gotta understand that slaying…it wasn't ever something I had to do, you know? All my life I'd never been anything special. And then I get called and all of a sudden it's like I'm a fucking rock star. I went into it with everything I was because I had nothing else."

Speaking through her tears, she whispered, "You were always special, Faith."

And then we were both crying then. We talked about how things spiraled so quickly out of control. About how neither of us ever wanted things to end up like they did. About how we were both so full of anger and hurt and pain that we couldn't see each other.

"If only we could go back and change all of it. Everything. So when you came from Boston, I'd have the right words and the right actions and we'd never end up putting each other in the hospital."

I made her stop talking then. "No, B, that's the thing. It did happen, and it had to have happened for a reason. All the shit wouldn't have gone down the way you said because we weren't ready for it.

"Just like I have to believe that we're both slayers for a reason – that the Powers That Be decided the world needed both of us together…not in spite of each other – I've gotta believe that we went through all that so we'd end up here. Together. Finally truly seeing each other."

We made love for the first time, two slayers treating one another like porcelain.

Three days passed. The joy, the happiness, the sweet tenderness…it's the only thing that kept both of us from going absolutely nuts through all the shit with the knights and the psycho God. Hell, they thought I was nuts? I looked down at the paper in my hand and cursed Lorne and the PTB and whoever the fuck decided to make me promise on my mother's grave that I'd be there at half past six.

"You're going to track down some address when Glory has Dawn?!" Red's voice had been equally full of tears and anger when I left to find the address. How could I explain it to her? There was something that, even as distrusting as I am of prophecies, was pulling me to the unknown warehouse. We had no leads, no Buffy apparently, and no idea where the psychotic Hell-god was keeping poor Dawn.

When B first brought me back to Sunnydale, I walked in the Summers house holding her hand. Dawn, the perfect picture of outrage, flew down the stairs and then flew off the handle. I knew that she was stressed – after all, knowing you're the Key to open a portal for one of the worst dimensions EVER to come into this one…well, that's gotta be tough.

We eventually reached an understanding, by which I mean that she stormed up the stairs, slammed her door, and refused to come out whenever I was around.

Despite all the hard feelings, I loved the squirt like she was my own little sister – which was a little weird because I was in an undefined relationship with her real-life older sister. I'll never be able to wrap my head around the fact that none of my memories of Dawn are real up until the point where she punched me.

"It's real to me and it's real to her and it's real to you…isn't that all that matters?" I asked B after Dawn abused the stairs on her way back up. I still don't think any of it lacks in realism because those are some truly happy memories. I'm selfish enough to want to hold onto them.

Standing in front of the warehouse, I thought about how B was gonna fucking skin me alive – while Red held me down – when I got back. So while Spike checked out Glory's stomping grounds, I remembered the paper burning a hole in my pocket.

"You can't leave now, Faith!" Willow had on her best resolve face, but I had to go.

I ran to the warehouse, mostly because I didn't have any hope that it would be useful. Or so I thought…until I ran into a bunch of Glorificus' sniveling minions. After severing their link to this life as gently as I could, I found a tall ugly guy wearing robes. Why do weird religious men always feel the need to wear women's clothing?

My fist bounced off his face a couple times in an effort to convince him to talk to me, but he didn't prove too helpful alive. As soon as I'd dispatched him, I heard a shrill, haughty voice and a more screechy one yelling back.

Dawn.

I was gonna hug the shit outta Lorne when it all got done.

I barged into the room like I was a fucking Texas Ranger with a badge, cowboy hat and bigass gun. Dawn turned to see me, her eyes lit up like Christmas trees. It had taken her not all of ten seconds to convince me that Ben and Glory shared the same body – especially when I noticed that he was wearing a dress. A dress I bet the bitch-God would love.

"You have to kill him, Faith, there's no other way!" Dawn implored. People say that your life is supposed to flash by when you're at death's door – but maybe for slayers, it's when you're about to forcefully see a human through it.

"You're absolutely sure about this, Dawn?"

"Yes, oh my God, you have to do it now before Glory comes back!"

Closing my eyes, taking a deep breath and apologizing like mad, I snapped his neck like a twig. Dawn tackled me crying hysterically, saying she knew she'd be saved. I don't think she thought it'd be me.

I watched Ben's body laying there staring lifelessly at the ceiling. I wouldn't be tried as a juvenile again; there was no chance of leniency this time.

Dawn clung to me like a leech. I hoped that meant I was forgiven.

She and I stumbled back to the Summers' house and then to the Magic Box, trying to find the gang. I wondered why they couldn't just stay in one spot so we could find them.

The little bell tinkled as we practically fell in the door. They were all standing there, staring at Red and Tara. The hacker was bringing her girlfriend some coffee, or so I assumed from the big eyes, gimme-gimme motions, and the blonde chanting "coffee coffee coffee" happily.

Then the bell registered on them and they stared open-mouthed at us. Willow recovered first, saying, "We have to get you to somewhere safe, Dawny!" Tara looked up from her first – and, knowing how much of a caffeine-addict she was, orgasmic – sip of coffee, completely focusing her attention on Dawn.

I cleared my throat, not quite looking at anyone. "That, uh, won't be exactly necessary."

The silence hung thick in the air as everyone figured out what I'd done. Spike broke the quiet. "You offed Ben, eh?"

I couldn't look up. My world was narrowing into the mental equivalent of tunnel vision; all I could see was Ben's lifeless gaze. I was throwing up and sobbing and collapsing until the world went mercifully black.

I opened my eyes and saw Giles sitting on the couch next to me – they moved me while I was on my vacation from consciousness – with his glasses sitting on his knee and his head in his hands. He must have heard me move, because he looked at me with enough compassion to make bile rise in my throat again. I didn't deserve any kindness.

"I'm sorry, Faith." I gaped at him. "I'd have given anything so you wouldn't have had to go through that again."

"So would I," B quietly said from the doorway. She looked over her shoulder and smirked, "Any of us would."

She sat down next to me. I stared at my hands. "The Powers instructed Lorne to give me the responsibility. Probably because they didn't want to get anyone else's hands bloody."

"No, I think they did it so this time, we'd get it right. We'd be here when you needed us."

I scrubbed my face. "Not fucking likely since I'm probably going to jail for life. Wait, does California have the death penalty?"

Uncomfortable silence met my query, so I looked hard at B. She shifted and wrung her hands. "Well, we, um, kinda sent Spike to take care of…that."

Maybe it was selfish and childish and irresponsible, but I was relieved. No one would mourn Ben because he was never really here anyway – with splitting his time with the bitch who really was from hell. Well, no, I would mourn him. I didn't want to know what Spike was going to do.

"How is Tara?"

"She's fine now that she got her coffee-fix." We chuckled together at the oddity of a wicca-witchy-type-girl hopelessly addicted to caffeine. "Evidently when Glory was vanquished or whatever, all the minds she stole were returned. Everyone's asking how you are."

Somehow we'd ended up wrapped around each other. I needed the comfort and I think B needed to give it. Neither of us could really believe it was over. I closed my eyes and breathed in Buffy's scent and remembered everything that had happened.

I opened my eyes, looked over at the man who was about to leave the room, and summoned up my best smirk. "Giles?" He turned and looked at me expectantly. "Tell them…I'm okay."

Fin