Genesis

Disclaimer : See chapter 1

*********************


She awoke as the mng sng sun shone through the semi-closed curtains, as she became more aware of her surroundings she felt a strong arm holding her close a waa warm naked body pressed up against her. She smiled remembering last night and how the celebration had started and how it had ended. She stretched slightly and felt movement from behind her.

“You awake baby,” she asked in a whisper

“Yeah Will, I’m awake, I have been since dawn, I hope this isn’t something ‘slayery’ cos I need my sleep.” Kennedy said sighing.

“ Well I know Buffy likes her sleep but I suppose you get used to the odd ‘slayer body,’” she said as she turned in her lover’s arms.

“You saying my body is odd” Kennedy asked with a sly grin.

“Oh no, quite the contrary, I think your body is perfect” the red head answered while leaning closer to the brunette.

Kennedy smiled and moved to catch the wonderful lips in front of her with her own, they kissed gently at first, just feeling each others’ lips as they warmed to the sensation. Willow slowly let her tongue pass over Kennedy’s bottom lip, then moved in and gently sucked and nibbled on it eliciting a quiet moan from the younger girl. The kiss became more heated with passion within moments and both were holding each other close. Willow felt Kennedy slowly tracing patterns on her back and could feel her moving higher until Kennedy’s hand was lost in the sea of red hair, pulling Willow closer to her. Willow moved her hand t wat was now resting on Kennedy’s side, she slowly moved her hand around and traced the underside of Kennedy’s left breast, even more slowly she cupped the perfect flesh and gently began to rub the nipple which seemed to be ready for her. Kennedy moaned again and quickly flipped them so she was now on top of Willow.

“I want you,” she stated in a deep voice.

Willow loved the sound of Kennedy’s voice when they were like this, so she looked into Kennedy’s eyes and replied “I need ……” KNOCK, KNOCK, came on the door. Both girls growled as they turned to look at the door.

“Willow, Kennedy are you awake?” came Dawn’s small voice from behind the door.

“NO” Kennedy shouted a little more hoarse than normal.

“Oh come on guys, it’s time for breakfast, no one else is awake yet and I’m starved” Dawn cried into the door.

“Alright Dawn, give us a sec ok” Willow replied from her position under Kennedy.

Kennedy just stared at her dumbfounded, “what are you crazy, you can not leave me like this” she stated almost begging. “All the more fun for later then” Willow said sexily as she slid from under the frustrated brunette.

“Oh come on Ken, its not that bad” Willow said pulling on her pants. Kennedy reluctantly got out of bed but came up behind Willow and placed her hands on the red heads breasts, she quickly pinched each nipple which earned a groan of desire from the woman in front of her, “Ok then, I suppose we can wait” she said laughing and running to the bathroom just in time to see the pillow fly past her head.

Willow quickly got dressed and went to open the door. “About time” Dawn said strutting into the room and noticing the slight disarray, she turned to the red head who was still at the door “Sorry Will, was I interrupting” she asked going a light shade of pink. Willow was stood with her mouth agape when she quickly shook her head “No, no, interrupting, there was nothing happening, just sleep, yep just sleep” Willow quickly said, Kennedy returned from the bathroom, “Hey Dawn, sleep ok” she asked.

“I haven’t slept that well in ages” she smiled “it’s a lot easier when you’re only sharing with one other person”

“Yeah I know how that feels,” Kennedy said winking at Willow who returned with a smile.

“So what’s for breakfast then Dawnie?” Willow asked as she picked up her jacket and led them to the door.

“I was hoping for pancakes” Dawn answered with a huge grin.

“Ok then let’s go.” Kennedy said as she waved the girls through the door.

All three walked down the corridor towards the elevators, once they arrived at the ground floor they exited the hotel and went across the street to a small diner.

“Hey, how we gonna pay?” Kennedy asked realising that they had no money.

“It’s ok, it’s on me.” Dawn answered.

“How? I mean where’d you get the money from?” Kennedy asked.

“Well, you know the bag of clothes Angel gave to all of us?” the other two nodded “well he put a hundred dollars in each bag, so we’d have some money for food and essentials.” Dawn explained to the two who were looking perplexed.

“Oh, I haven’t unpacked mine yet” Willow stated still stunned at the revelation.

“Wow, this Angel dude must be rich if he can just give everyone a hundred” Kennedy said in awe.

Dawn looked at Kennedy “He told Buffy something about a new business venture that had come good or something, I’m not sure you’d have to ask them.”

“Yeah I will” Willow spoke from behind.

They sat themselves in one of the booths and ordered large helpings of pancakes Dawn chose chocolate to the horror of Willow. “How can you eat that first thing in the morning” the red head asked in disgust. “Look you lot keep calling me the kid, I just thought I’d be one for a change” Dawn grinned at her. Willow settled for syrup, and Kennedy had both chocolate and syrup. Both Dawn and Willow looked strangely at Kennedy “What? I have slayer metabolism now, I can eat what I want” she said smirking at Willow who tried to hide her blush.

They sat quietly while they tucked in to the pancakes. “Hey you lot, how’d you sleep?” a husky voice asked. “Morning Faith, I imagine the smell of food finally got you to move?” Willow asked with a smile. Faith sat and joined them at the table and ordered her own pancakes, but being Faith had to have fruit as well as the chocolate and syrup pancakes.

“See” Kennedy said pointing at Faith, “I have a long way to go before I get to Faith’s standard” Faith looked quizzically at Kennedy. “Huh!”

“She means the eating habits of a slayer” Dawn explained.

“Oh, does she get the other half of the hungry Red?” Faith turned to the witch.

“Oh you’d better believe it” she replied before she could think.

“Hey, what’s the other half” Kennedy asked in confusion.

“Red’ll explain it to ya” Faith answered winking at the now once again red Willow.

“Hey Faith, where’s Buffy? Is she awake yet?” Dawn asked through a mouthful of pancake.

“Yeah, I told her I was coming over and that I’d take something back for her, she looked tired this morning, so I let her sleep for a bit.” Faith replied looking at Dawn.

“Is she ok, that knife did cut pretty deep” Dawn asked in a worried tone.

“She’s fine kiddo, nothing to worry about, she just hasn’t slept very well the last few nights, and needs rest.” Faith answered placing a calming hand on Dawn’s arm.

They sat quietly talking for the remainder of the meal, nothing more taxing than what Britney Spears had worn on the latest cover of Maxim, or not worn if you’d listened to Dawn.
“How can you say that a top no bigger than a handkerchief is wearing something?” Dawn asked with disgust.

“Well I thought she looked hot” Kennedy stated earning a poke in the ribs from her girlfriend. “What, she did look hot.” She leaned in to whisper in Willow’s ear “not as hot as you though babe” this earned her a slight shiver and the red head to turn once again a wonderful pink.

“Hey, lets go wake you sister up kid, and leave these love birds to it” Faith said standing.

“No need to leave Faith” Willow quickly said.

“It’s ok Red you deserve a little time alone, in any case if I don’t get this food to B soon she’ll start tearing up the place.” Faith giggled.

“Ok see you guys later” Willow called.

“Bye both” Dawn called back as she left the diner with Faith.

Back in the hotel the pair made their way to Buffy and Faith’s room. “So was Buffy ok last night” Dawn asked with concern

“What d’you mean D?” Faith asked.

“Well was she ok, you know, Spike he didn’t make it and she did feel a lot for him. It may not have been love, but she felt something I know she did, even though she tried to hide it” Dawn stated worried about her sister who had lost yet another member of her surrogate family.

“She seemed ok last night D but it probably hasn’t sunk in yet, she’s been through more than any of us, and she pulled us through it. We just have to be there if and when she needs us” Faith replied honestly, placing an arm around the younger girls shoulders.

Dawn smiled at Faith and continued the walk to the hotel room that was going to be their home for the next few days.

“Hey Buffy you awake” Dawn asked quietly as they entered the room.

“Yeah Dawn, morning. Did you see Fai..” she started to ask as the dark slayer came up behind Dawn.

“Yep, and we brought you some pancakes” Dawn answered as she bounced over to sit on the end of Buffy’s bed.

“Oh cool I’m starved” Buffy said the same time her stomach growled making all three laugh.

Faith handed Buffy the pancakes and turned to sit on her bed “So B how’d you sleep?”

“Not bad, I must have been exhausted, I don’t even remember falling asleep and then it was morning” Buffy smiled.

“Yeah I know how you feel” Dawn said looking at her sister.

They sat and chatted for a little while about the money and clothes that Angel had given them and how he had become head of some company. Faith nearly had a heart attack when she heard that the LA crew were basically running Wolfram and Hart. The same people who had hired her to kill Angel, the thought of that made her shudder with remorse. They decided that they would call the first official Scooby meeting later in the day, they had to try to plan what was to happen next, and they couldn’t stay in hotels indefinitely.

It was about three in the afternoon when they finally got everyone together. They had managed to get the use of one of the small function rooms in the hotel and they were all gathered, slayers, the small assortment of humans and one witch.

“Hi everyone, I hope you’re all feeling a little better today.” Buffy started looking at the young faces around the room “There are no immediate plans at the moment, so I just wanted you all to relax and have a little fun, the others” she said pointing at the original Scooby members “and myself are going to be discussing some plans for the future and when we have more information or any good ideas we’ll let you all know.” She paused for a moment “I just want you all to know that I appreciate what you did the other day, you were all fantastic and even though we didn’t all survive we did save the world and allow the people out there to see another sun rise, so you should all feel proud of yourselves.” She finished smiling.

“What are we supposed to do now?” asked Vi.

“Well you could go see the sights, shopping, anything you want we have the hotel for another five days so treat it like a holiday.” Willow smiled enthusiastically.

“Oh, and if anyone has any problems I’m in room 433 if you need me for anything.” Giles reassured them.

“Ok that’s all for now, so go enjoy.” Buffy stated as she opened the door and waved her arm to show the girls they could leave.

Once all the ‘slayers in training’ had left the room Buffy turned to the rest.

“I think we did ok.” She said with a far away look in her eyes.

“We definitely did.” Xander replied as he placed his arm around the petite blond.

“So what’s the plan?” Willow asked from her position by the large window.

“Well we all need to make the decision of where we want to go from here?” Giles stated. He turned to look at each of them before he continued.

“Now is the time for you to choose, the normal life or to continue in the fight and perhaps go to Cleveland and check out the other Hellmouth there.” He said.

“What you mean like going back to regular jobs and pretending all this doesn’t exist.” Xander said with a puzzled look.

“Well I suppose we can all use some time to think about this, I mean I’ve tried to live a normal life and I’ve always known about the things that go bump in the night, I don’t know if I could ever forget.” Wood offered from where he was seated.

“Yes, yes your right Robin,” Giles replied “of course we have time to decide, but we have to decide soon”

“We meet back at my room at ten tomorrow morning,” Buffy stated “well we can’t wait forever and I mean if we do decide Cleveland we’ll only have a few days to organise it.” She finished as a way of explanation to the short time given to them all to make such a big decision, one that could change their lives forever.

“Agreed” replied Giles. The others nodded in assent.

“Ok then lets get some relaxation time” Willow said as she walked towards the door with Kennedy following slowly behind.

Soon they were all drifting back to their rooms, Faith was walking down the hallway towards her room and was already thinking about her decision. ‘I came back to Sunnydale to fight’ she thought to herself but also realising that she could easily say no to that and try and live the normal life ‘my life’s never been normal’ she sighed.

“Hey Faith wait up.” A voice called from behind

“Oh hey Robin, I didn’t hear you.” She replied still lost in thought.

“Ah I was wondering, that is if you weren’t doing anything, you’d take me up on that offer about not all men are worthless.” He said with his head slightly bowed.

“Huh!” Faith replied not knowing what he was talking about.

“I was wondering if you’d like to come out to dinner with me.” He said looking into her eyes. “Nothing fancy” he added quickly.

“I’m not sure Robin, we all have a big decision to make and I was going to just have a quiet night and weigh the options” She replied honestly but also a little flattered that he was asking her out on a date, she hadn’t had many offers like this in the past and felt a little overwhelmed as the usual line would be ‘your place or mine’.

“That’s just the point,” he stated looking at her “how can you make a decision when you don’t give the ‘normal’ a try.” He offered.

Faith thought for a moment, ‘it couldn’t hurt’ she decided.

“Ok then what time?” she answered with a lopsided grin

“I’ll pick you up at eight and then you’ll still have time later for your quiet contemplation” he offered smiling widely.

“Ok, I’ll see you then.” She smiled and turned continuing down the hall to her room.

Buffy had returned with Giles to his room. She sat on the chair at the desk while he busied himself trying to make himself a cup of tea. She looked at him and thought about how much she had missed him while he was back in England, he had been a father figure to her for so long it hurt to think of them going their separate ways again.

“So what are you going to do?” She asked.

“I’m not sure yet Buffy, it’s hard to think of a life without the demons, I’ve lived most of my life knowing that one day I’d become a watcher and that I would spend the remaining time helping to fight the evil that walks the earth.” He replied with a look of concern.

“Ya know, I spent the past seven years wanting this ‘slayer’ thing to go away and just give me a chance at being normal, I’ve wanted to be Buffy the girl so lso long and now that I have the opportunity to be her I don’t know if I can.” She looked at him with fear.

“Buffy this is something only you can decide, none of us can give you the answer, you have to work out now what is more important to you, not to the other’s in this world, but to you.” He said as he walked towards her. “You have spent so long only thinking about the safety of this world that it’s now time you think about yourself, what Buffy wants,” he told her as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. “Just remember you will always be my daughter whatever you decide.”

Buffy quickly stood and wrapped her arms around the man in front of her, “Thank you Giles, and you will always be my father” she replied with tears running down her face.

Faith stood and walked towards the open window of the hotel room, she took a cigarette out of the box and brought it to her lips in a slow deliberate movement, she took out her lighter and expertly lit the cigarette, took a long drag on it and slowly exhaled the smoke into the cool evening air. It was a little before eight and Wood was on his way to take her to dinner, she was a little apprehensive at first but once she had showered and was getting ready she relaxed a little ‘it’s just dinner’ she kept telling herself. There was a knock at the door and she threw the remaining cigarette out the window and went to answer it.

“Hey, wow, you look good.” Wood said eyeing her appreciatively, she wore blood red leather pants and a white halter-top, which was showing an ample amount of cleavage.

“Thanks” she replied coyly.

“Ok ready to go?” Wood asked.

“Yep, lets eat.” She replied as she exited the room and closed the door.

They made their way to a small restaurant about half a block from the hotel. There weren’t many people but they were playing soft music in the background, which only added to the ambiance.

They sat quietly while they looked over the menu, Wood had chosen some pasta dish with scallops and Faith settled for the steak with all the trimmings. They talked about the last few days and how they were relieved they had survived, they chatted about sports and the latest blockbuster movies, nothing too heavy, which they were both grateful for.

When they had finished the meal they sat silently finishing their coffees. Wood looked at Faith and took in all her beauty, her bright eyes that had a slight pain in them, her full ruby lips and her dark flowing hair. He could not think of anything to compare her to, she was just Faith.

“So would you like to come back to my room for a night cap?” he asked.

Faith looked at him and all she could see were signs of compassion, he was just asking her back for a drink and not expecting anything else. This surprised her a little, especially with her past experiences, but at that moment she realised something.

“Ah look Robin, I’ve enjoyed this evening and would love to have dinner with you again, but being here just trying to be normal, I’ve realised I don’t want that, I have to continue the fight whether the others go or not, I also have to figure out who I am, and I’m sorry but I have to do that alone” She offered as way of explanation.

“Faith whatever you decide it’s up to you, but you know if you ever change your mind the offer of more than friends still applies” he said resting his hand on hers.

“Thanks Rob I’ll remember that, and thanks for understanding, I had to tell you now, cos I think you deserve more than to be led on, and that’s not who I am anymore I know that much.” She smiled.“Ok “Ok then lets get you home” he said smiling, he was slightly saddened by Faith’s revelation but also knew that she was right, they all had to figure out who they were now.