Fanfiction || City of Thieves || Leverage/Angel Crossover Fic || Part Eight
Title: City of Thieves
Author: Sapphire Smoke [cuzimastripper]
Fandom: Leverage/Angel
Setting: Post "The Second David Job" in Leverage, Beginning of "Five By Five" in Angel
Rating: NC-17
Genre(s): Crossover/Team!Fic/Het/Femslash (will include slash in later chapters)
Word Count Thus Far: 73,865 words
Summary: A prophecy of the splitting of darkness and light, of strength and intelligence. The Leverage team finds themselves mixed up in a destiny and in a world they never knew existed.
Feedback: Give it to me, baby ;]
Chapter Titles Notes: At first I just had the chapter titles be the character's names who's POV it was in, but because FanFiction.Net apparently won't let you have the same title name twice, I decided to actually name all of them. So it will tell you the characters name, but also have the chapter title.
Story Notes: So this is going to be my 'epic fanfic' for the downtime between seasons. I've decided not to tell you guys the pairings... ever. This is mostly a Team!Fic, and any sex and/or relationships are minor plot points and plus I don't like to spoil anything. Making you go 'OMG' makes me happy lol. Hope you guys enjoy! Suggestions and feedback is always appreciated!
Other Parts: PART ONE | PAT TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX | PART SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY ONE
[ Parker ]
Decisions
She didn’t understand. She didn’t understand any of it. She hated that, not understanding. She always hated it when she didn’t understand, and yet now she seemed to not know about anything at all. Sophie was mad at her, and that made Parker’s chest hurt for some reason. Like something was squeezing her heart. It didn’t feel good. She knew if she told Hardison that she wanted to date Sophie too, he’d be mad. Why is she making everyone mad all the time?
She just wanted to be happy with both of them, why couldn’t that happen? They both made her feel those prickly feelings in the pit of her stomach. The one’s you get when you know you really like someone, and it makes you smile just from the feeling of it. She liked them like that.
But she didn’t think she did like Sophie like that. Sure, she got the pricklys every now and then, but she didn’t ever think anything like that would ever happen. Plus, dating her would just mean nagging and attention hogging. But suddenly that didn’t seem to matter to Parker. Why didn’t that matter anymore? She had a logical reason not to date her, and now it just didn’t seem to matter.
What’s worse, she told Hardison that she never would want to date her. Now he was going to think she was lying to him. But she wasn’t, she just didn’t know.
She hated not knowing.
Parker stormed slightly through the front door with a two million dollar sculpture in her hand. Nate looked up from the newspaper he was reading and his eyes went wide as he saw what was in her hand. “Parker!”
She ignored him, just kept walking.
“Parker stop right now!” Nate demanded. Parker stopped and let out a frustrated sigh. Here it comes. She turned around to face him.
“What is that?” Nate demanded, pointing at the sculpture in her hand.
“I believe it’s a sculpture,” Parker said, being a smart ass.
“I see that, but what is it doing here?” Nate asked, obviously furious with her.
“I stole it,” Parker told him.
“Obviously,” Nate said with a frustrated sigh and rubbed his temples. “What the hell are you doing? We’re trying to lay as low as possible with the stealing, you know that.”
Parker just shook her head in frustration and handed it to him, “You can keep it, give it back. I don’t care. I just needed to steal it.”
She turned to walk away but Nate put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Hold on a second, Parker.”
Parker sighed and tilted her head back. Why wouldn’t he just let her go?
“What’s wrong?” he asked her. “You never steal things for no reason.”
Parker bit her lower lip, she couldn’t tell him. He’d be mad at her for sleeping with Sophie. Everyone was always mad at her.
“Nothing,” she lied.
“Parker,” Nate said, using her name in a way that father’s might use to indicate that they know better.
“Please don’t make me tell you,” she requested, still not turning around.
“Is this about Sophie?” Nate asked her. “Because in case you forgot, at breakfast you already announced to the whole house that you planned to sleep with her, and I was present for that.”
Parker grumbled out something inaudible. She forgot she did that, that probably wasn’t very nice to him, was it? She was always doing things like that, forgetting about other people’s feelings. It was mean, but she just forgets.
“I’m sorry about that,” she told him, but shook her head. “But I don’t really want to talk about it, thank you.” She tried to be polite as she could before she turned to give him a little smile to let him know that she was grateful that he cared enough to ask, but then walked down the hall to her room, leaving Nate with the statue.
But right when she walked in, she noticed Hardison sitting on her bed. “Oh,” she said, startled a little. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he greeted her, smiling. “Thought we could hang out a little before lunch.” But then he noticed Parker’s expression and asked, “Hey, you alright?”
Parker shook her head no.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Hardison asked her.
Parker shook her head yes.
Hardison waited for her to speak, but she didn’t. Instead he asked, “Are you afraid to talk about it?”
Parker shook her head yes again.
“Come here,” he said, and held out his arms to her with a little coaxing head nod. She sat next to him on the bed and leaned her head on his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. She sniffed lightly and snuggled into him. She just wished she knew what she was supposed to do.
“You’ve never been afraid to be honest, Parker. Why are you starting now?” He asked her as he held her in her arms.
“Because I keep hurting people, and I don’t mean to,” Parker mumbled into his chest.
“Hiding things or telling lies hurt people more in the end,” Hardison told her. “So I always thought you had the right idea about things.”
Parker sighed and held onto him a little tighter and said finally, “I had sex with Sophie.”
“You mean before you told me you hadn’t yet? Or as in pretty much just now?” Hardison asked her.
“Just now,” Parker told him. “In the back yard.”
“You had sex in the back yard?” Hardison asked her, laughing a little.
“What’s so funny?” Parker asked, and tilted her head up to look at him.
“Nothing, just never thought Sophie would go for something like that.”
Parker shrugged, then sighed heavily. Hardison ran his fingers through her hair, “So what’s the problem?”
Parker looked down and started picking at her fingernails and said quietly, barely enough for Hardison to even hear her, “I want to be with her too…”
Hardison stopped stroking Parker’s hair, and Parker inwardly cringed, this is what she didn’t want to happen. He was gonna get so mad at her.
“I thought you said you didn’t want to date her,” he said.
“I know, and I didn’t mean to lie, I didn’t think I did,” Parker said, trying to justify herself. “But then I made Sophie mad at me, because she likes me a lot too. And well, I have you. I have you and I have her, but not completely. And I’m really confused, and I don’t know what to do.”
Hardison didn’t say anything for a minute. Parker looked up at him, but he didn’t look angry. Kind of disappointed. Just like she made Sophie disappointed before. Why did she keep making people feel bad things?
“What do you want to do?” He asked her finally.
“I want you both,” Parker said, and her voice was slightly pleading, hoping that someone could see it from her point of view.
Hardison smiled a little at her, but more in amusement to her being so naïve sometimes. “I don’t think that will work,” he told her.
“Why not?” she asked. She really needed to know why she wasn’t allowed.
“Because Sophie would get jealous of the time I spent with you, and I would get jealous of the time you spent with Sophie. There would be arguing, fights, it would mess up the team, it could compromise a job…”
“Alright, alright, I get it,” Parker said, slightly huffing. She got it now, but she didn’t need to get it that good.
“So you’re going to have to make a decision,” Hardison told her.
“But I’m no good at those,” she replied, upset that people keep telling her the same answer she didn’t want to hear.
She felt tears start to well up in her eyes, but she took a deep breath. She didn’t cry. Especially not over something like this. She took another deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She just felt so overwhelmed and so pressured right now, she didn’t know how to handle it.
Hardison looked at her and saw that she was on the verge of breaking down. “Hey, calm down,” he said soothingly. She took another deep breath, trying to. She was silent for a little while, thinking. She hated having to make this decision, she hated having to hurt someone, but she did.
“You,” she said quietly. “I want you. You didn’t yell at me over this. Or throw anything.”
Parker could feel Hardison let out the breath he’d been holding. Parker still felt sad though. Even though she got to keep Hardison, she was possibly about to lose Sophie as a friend too. Parker basically had sex with her and now immediately after was going to break her heart, just like Nate did. Minus the sex… or at least she thought. She felt like a horrible person.
She really liked Sophie, she did. A lot. Damnit, she was probably going to have something bigger than a hair clip thrown at her this time.
Parker looked up and kissed Hardison lightly on the lips. “Just lemme…” she sighed. “Lemme go tell her.” She stood up and told him, “If you hear me scream, please come help.”
She said it in all seriousness too. She was pretty sure Sophie was going to kill her.
CHAPTER FORTY TWO NOTES: -gasps- The angst had a point?! lol. Seriously, I'm even surprised at myself. I seriously just started it cause I was in a bitchy mood and felt the need to fuck with my characters lol.
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
[ Eliot ]
You Don’t Throw Spatulas
All he was fucking trying to do was make lunch.
That was it! Just a simple minestrone soup with some little gourmet sandwiches. Was that so hard? Was it so much to ask that for once he could just be left out of all the drama of the people he worked with?
Apparently it was.
His hand flew out, catching out of the air a freaking spatula before it hit Parker. Really, a spatula. “Sophie!” he yelled, pissed off that she was apparently trying to hurt the girl that already had her ass handed to her five times over within the last couple of days.
“I’m sorry!” Parker told her, instinctively hiding behind Eliot.
Damn it, if Sophie made him burn the soup, so help her God.
“I told you!” Sophie screamed at her, tears running down her face. “I fucking told you I wouldn’t be able to just have you once. I told you and fucked me anyway, telling me you’d ‘figure it out’. And not even two hours later you’re going to do this to me?! God, I see you thought long and hard about that decision, didn’t you?!”
“I didn’t think-” Parker started, but was cut off.
“That’s your problem, Parker! You don’t think! You just do whatever the fuck you want and to hell with everyone else around you!” Sophie picked up a tomato that was lying on the counter and threw it at her in anger. Both Parker and Eliot ducked and it splattered against the wall.
“I fucking hate you!” Sophie screamed. “I got hurt recently and you knew it! I let myself against my better judgment start to actually care for you, and you just used me!”
“Sophie, calm the fuck down!” Eliot yelled at her. The woman was acting insane. But then again, that’s women for you, no wonder Parker chose Hardison. Eliot wished he had enough balls to actually date a man; it’d be a lot less drama, that’s for sure.
“What’s going on?” Nate asked, coming in from all the shouting. He walked in just as Sophie was about to lunge at Eliot, and he grabbed her around the waist, holding her back.
“Stay the fuck out of this, Eliot!” Sophie screamed. She struggled against Nate, “Let me go!”
“You need to calm down,” Nate told her.
“Oh go wank off in a corner with your magazines, Nate, I’m fucking busy!” Sophie screamed at him. Eliot tried hard not to laugh at that, but failed. Nate shot him a look.
What? It was funny.
Parker was clearly getting upset. She looked like she was about to cry, and Eliot didn’t think he had ever seen Parker cry. “I didn’t use you,” she said quietly, in a low voice, obviously hating herself at the moment.
“What else do you call shagging me and then dumping me right after, you bloody slut?!”
“Sophie!” Nate yelled, astonished she would call Parker that.
Parker’s bottom lip was starting to tremble, and Eliot was starting to get mad.
“Nate, get her out of my fucking kitchen,” he said, his eyes flashing. He turned back to the soup. It burned. He was even madder now. He turned to Nate again and said, “For the love of Christ, you should have just fucked her when she was drunk that night, it would’ve prevented all this!”
“Don’t blame this on me!” Nate exclaimed, angry.
“Sophie…” Parker said quietly, looking at her sadly from across the kitchen.
Sophie had seemed to calm down for the most part. She stopped struggling against Nate and just stared back at Parker like her heart was breaking. “I trusted you not to hurt me…” she said barely above a whisper.
“I didn’t want to,” Parker told her sincerely and full of regret. “I really like you Sophie; you make my stomach do those butterfly things.”
Sophie let out a sad laugh at Parker’s description. Parker took a step towards her tentatively, testing the waters. When she noticed Sophie didn’t look in the least bit homicidal anymore, she walked over to her.
“Why are you doing this?” Sophie asked her, tears falling from her face.
Parker wiped her tears away and answered, “Because you belong with Nate, not me. You guys have ten years, we don't even have ten days.”
Sophie just sniffed and wiped her eyes with her sleeves. Nate’s eyes had gone wide; he obviously didn’t want to be brought into this. He needed to though, and he knew that. Eliot gave him a look like if he dicked Sophie around this time he was going to snap his neck in half. This is what happens when people try to fool around with people they don’t belong with.
Hell, that’s why he ended up knocking up Faith with a being of destruction, right?
Parker took Sophie’s face in her hands and kissed her softly on the lips. “You’re always gonna make my tummy have butterflies,” she whispered against her lips before stepping back. She gave her a little smile before turning and leaving the kitchen. Sophie just stood there, staring at the ground, obviously having no idea what to do.
Eliot waved his hands at Nate to do something. Nate made a gesture like he didn’t know what to do. Eliot waved them more forcefully and mimicked hugging. Nate looked at him like he didn’t get it. Eliot rolled his eyes and let out a frustrated sigh before he made some obscene gesture that clearly indicated sex. Nate widened his eyes and started to shake his head, but Eliot pointed his finger at the ground firmly and then indicated intense strangling to imply that if he didn’t do it he was going to kill him.
He was tiered of this crap.
Nate coughed a little awkwardly and put his hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” he asked. Eliot rolled his eyes. Nate was such an idiot.
“Obviously not, Nate,” Sophie said quietly.
“Right,” Nate said and moved so he was facing her. “Look, I… uh…” he paused, and Eliot made another gesture that symbolized strangling and Nate blurted out, “I’ve been stupid.”
“What?” Sophie said, looking up at him.
“I…” Nate sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter. “I saw both of you in the bathroom yesterday. I got jealous. I actually got really jealous; until Eliot pointed out that I had no right to because I had let you go.”
Sophie just stared at him. Eliot wasn’t sure if she even totally believed the words coming out of Nate’s mouth, and was just terrified she was being fucked with again.
“And, well…” he took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have let you go. I’ve been a complete idiot, Sophie. I’ve loved you for awhile now, you know that.”
Sophie was quiet for a minute then said with every ounce of sincerity, “I swear to God, Nathan. If you’re screwing with me I’ll remove your bollocks when you sleep.”
Eliot winced and was sure his own balls just ran and hid for it’s life. That hurt just thinking about it.
Nate didn’t shrink back in fear though like Eliot expected him too. Instead he said, “I’m serious Sophie. I love you. I’m in love with you.”
Eliot knew what was going to happen before it did.
Aaanddd… cue Sophie tears.
“I love you too you fucking moron,” she exclaimed through her tears. She hit him lightly on the chest with her fist. “Why did you make me wait this long?!”
Nate just shrugged. “I’m a moron?”
Sophie laughed before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. Nate lifted her slightly off of her feet as he kissed her back in a way Eliot wished he never saw Nate kiss. Ever.
Well, thank god the soup was burned. Eliot lost his appetite. Apparently he couldn’t be Emrill and Dr. Phil all in one.
Eliot took the pan off the stove and threw it in the sink. Well, everyone was just going to have to fend for themselves for this meal. He heard Sophie slightly moan in approval of whatever it was Nate was doing to her; Eliot was scared to turn around and find out.
“Guys, this is great and all, but you seriously need to get out of my kitchen if you want to be doing all that,” he told them.
He heard the smacking sound as both of them unattached themselves from each other, and Nate said, “Sorry, Eliot. We’ll get out of your way.”
“Appreciate it,” Eliot said, dryly, turning around just in time to see Sophie bite her lower lip softly and make a ‘come hither’ motion with her finger as she backed out of the kitchen.
Yup, Eliot definitely wasn’t hungry anymore.
CHAPTER FORTY THREE NOTES: You damn Nate/Sophie shippers better love me. This paring makes me gag lol. I only enjoy writing angst when it comes to them. But alas, even they must have a little bit of happiness, right? Sooo not looking forward to writing their sex scene later. But I will. Why? Because I try to appease everybody, and I'm a fucking pervert and enjoy writing sex scenes lol.
CHAPTER FORTY THREE
[ Nate ]
Gentlemen Prefer Brunettes
He still didn’t feel ready for this, but he knew he had to be. He was in love with Sophie; he couldn’t deny that even if he tried. But watching her go off in the kitchen, he did realize it was completely and utterly his fault that she went off like that.
Ten years they had these kinds of feelings. Sure, he was married for most of them. But the last year he wasn’t, for the last year he had no excuse what so ever. And yes, he did string her along. He made her wait until she basically went crazy with loneliness and attached herself to the next thing that looked her way - which unfortunately ended up being Parker.
Yeah, she did develop some kind of emotional attachment to Parker, and Parker to her, obviously. But it was so sudden that Nate couldn’t help but think it was because of how lonely Sophie was, how heartbroken he had made her. She threw herself at him… and he said no. She took a risk and got shot down after ten years of feeling things for him.
Parker, well… maybe Parker did have a crush on Sophie on some kind of level for a little while now. Nothing surprised him with Parker anymore. But her and Hardison seemed to have something brewing between them at the moment, and Sophie just happened to be going through some stuff and feeling vulnerable right in the middle of it all.
She broke down, she couldn’t handle it. Nate didn’t blame her.
He blamed himself.
Sophie was coaxing him into her bedroom. Did she really want to have sex with him? She apparently just got through with Parker.
Nate closed the door behind him when they entered it. Sophie wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, backing him up against the door. He kissed her back, enjoying the feeling of her lips against his. He couldn’t count how many times he had imagined what they would feel like. His arms wrapped around her waist, bringing her closer to him. God, her body pressed up against his was pretty damn close to heaven.
Sophie started to kiss him more passionately, more aggressively as she started to undo the buttons on his shirt. She was panting against his lips, and broke the kiss to whisper, “I need to feel you inside me, Nate.”
If that didn’t make him hard, he didn’t know what would. And true to the statement, he got there. But he wanted to do this right, he needed to do things right by Sophie after fucking it all to hell before.
“Sophie,” he whispered against her lips and took her hands in his to slow her down. “I want to do this right.”
“What do you mean?” she replied and moved her head back a little to look at him in the eyes.
He held her hands in his and said, “I mean I want to take you out. I want to treat you like a lady. I want to buy you flowers and hope in the end it earns me a goodnight kiss, and then dare to hope that maybe on the third date I might get lucky, because apparently it’s some unwritten rule. I don’t want to just sleep with you right off - you’re worth more to me than that.”
Sophie looked at him curiously and said, “Nate, you’ve been waiting - we’ve been waiting for ten years, you want to wait another three dates?”
“Yes, I do,” Nate said to her seriously. “I want to do right by you. It’s a gentleman thing, and I haven’t been one of those in a long time. I’d like to try to start again with you.”
Sophie looked at him underneath her eyelashes, looking slightly vulnerable, “Really?”
“Really,” Nate said, looking her in the eyes and meaning it.
She smiled a little, “That’d be nice.” She bit her lower lip and looked up at him. “I’m sorry that I got… well, I went mad, didn’t I?”
“A little,” Nate said with a smirk.
Sophie sighed a little and sat down on the bed and Nate went over to join her. “God, Parker must think I’m some kind of psycho.”
“Parker cares about you, Sophie. Even I can see that, and I try not to pay attention too much. She knows you were just hurt.”
“I threw a freaking spatula at her, Nate. And a tomato. Oh and my hair clip the first time I yelled at her. I’m insane,” she told him.
“You’re not insane,” Nate told her. “You’re quirky.”
Sophie laughed and pushed him lightly, “Shut up.”
Nate laughed, “I’m just saying.”
Sophie rolled her eyes but smiled. She looked at the wall for a minute, but her eyes shifted over to look at him for a moment before asking quietly, “Why did you have to take so long, Nate? You drove me crazy, you know that?”
“So I noticed,” Nate said with a little smirk. But Sophie was being serious, so he took her hand in his and held it before taking a deep breath. “I felt like I lost everything in my life worth having - my child, my wife, my job. I was drinking myself into a hole and was quite content with it. Being with you would have made me happy, and I wasn’t ready to be happy.”
“Are you ready to be happy now?” she asked him.
Nate laughed a little, “I don’t have much of a choice, do I? I apparently can’t keep brooding - you start to have random sex with different members of the team and then go psychotic.”
“Hey! It was only one member of the team,” she defended herself. She sighed again, “God, I did though, didn’t I?”
“Have sex with Parker or go psychotic? Because yes to both,” Nate told her.
“I had sex with Parker,” she repeated out loud, like she couldn’t believe she was saying it. “And god, it was good.”
“Okay, didn’t need to know that little bit of information,” Nate said pointedly.
Sophie looked at him and shook her head, snapping herself out it. “I’m sorry. I just… I’m straight, you know? It’s weird.”
“You have a very loose definition of that word if you think that,” Nate told her.
“I am straight, Nate. It was just Parker. It will only ever be Parker,” she said, trying to convince him. “Trust me.”
Nate cocked his eyebrow at the ‘it will only ever be Parker’ part of that little speech. Sophie rolled her eyes and revised, “No, that’s not what I meant. I just mean she’s the only woman I’ll ever have sex with. And we did… and now it’s done.”
“You still have feelings for her though,” Nate said.
“Well yes, but I just like her. I love you, Nate,” Sophie told him. “I know the difference. It was nice, okay? But… you’ve finally come out of your shell. I’ve been waiting for that for years. I want you.”
“So you’re not going to…?” Nate started to ask, still slightly weary about the two of them.
“No,” Sophie said, squeezing his hand a little. “Besides, Parker has Hardison now, it’s not like she’ll get lonely. She asked him to be her boyfriend, you know.”
“Oh lord,” Nate said, rubbing his temples.
“What?” Sophie asked.
“So much romance in the work place. Thank god we don’t have another woman in the group, Eliot would probably be doing her too,” Nate said.
Sophie laughed, “Probably.”
“These relationships all might be bad ideas,” he warned her. “I mean with the jobs and everything… people become irrational when things go down that involve someone their romantically involved with.”
“Like that time in the bank?” Sophie reminded him.
He looked at her pointedly, “Exactly. We weren’t even together and you blew our cover.”
She shrugged, “Maybe you’re right. But they’re bad ideas that feel really good.”
Nate looked at her for a moment, and despite himself he smiled. He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips, “Dinner tonight?”
“Are you asking me on a date, Mr. Ford?” Sophie asked, making fun of him slightly.
“Yes,” Nate said with a smile.
“Well in that case I’d love to, it gets us one date further to that third date rule you were talking about,” Sophie said with a smirk.
Nate just laughed, he had to. He looked at the woman next to him, and for some reason he couldn’t remember why he didn’t tell her he loved her so much sooner.
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR NOTES: The thing with Parker and needles in this chapter is not an inconsistency. I know I said Faith injected those drugs in Parker through a needle, but theres a reason I didn't have Parker go into details about what happened when she was with her and also why she didn't mention her thing with needles then. Also it pertains to why she attached herself to Sophie so quickly. It'll all make more sense... eventually. Parker's better at hiding her broken state than anyone realizes. Hell of a lot better than hiding it than Sophie is, obviously lol.
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
[ Angel ]
Hearing Painful Truths
He heard the shouting. He heard the crashes. He sighed and looked at Buffy from across the room, she could hear them too. Sometimes amplified hearing had its downsides.
“What’s wrong with these people?” Buffy asked him.
“I think there’s just something wrong with Sophie right now,” Angel answered, shrugging. She cocked an eyebrow at him and he went on, “They steal things for a living, Buffy. Something’s gotta be wrong somewhere. Twisted sense of morality.”
“Would’ve pegged Parker to be the psycho,” Buffy said. She took out her stake from her drawer and started flipping it around in her fingers. “Sophie seemed relatively normal.”
“I think she just snapped. Plus, I think they all got their issues. Everybody has their issues,” Angel told her, watching her play with the stake. “And do you mind…?”
“What?” Buffy asked, confused. Then she looked at her stake. “Oh, sorry.” She put it down, then she got this self righteous look on her face. “And everyone doesn’t have issues, Angel. I don’t have any.”
Angel laughed. He couldn’t help it, it just came out.
“I don’t!” she protested.
“What do you call your obsession with Faith, then?”
Buffy got this offended look on her face, “I do not have an obsession with Faith! What are you implying? How could you ever…?”
“Buffy, look me in the eyes and tell me that when Cordelia called you and you heard that Faith was here, that that’s when you decided were going to come to LA,” he raised an eyebrow at her.
“What? No! I came because of… because of this whole stupid… prophecy deal, or whatever. Because you needed my help!”
“You and Faith are obsessed with each other. She’s obsessed with destroying your life; you’re obsessed with stopping her. You two are connected, you’re obsessions balance each other out,” Angel told her.
“I’m not obsessed with Faith,” Buffy repeated, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Buffy, from the minute you met Faith you decided you didn’t like her,” Angel said, looking at her pointedly.
“That’s… Ugh, that’s not true!” Buffy protested.
“She was everything you weren’t; uninhibited, wild, carefree… and you hated that.”
“No! I tried to be her friend, Angel!”
“No you didn’t,” Angel told her, looking at her seriously. “The most you tried to do was be like her, and then when you realized you couldn’t you really didn’t like her.”
“Angel!” Buffy exclaimed, angry that he was telling her all these things that were too close to the truth for her own comfort.
“And the amusing part of this whole thing is that Faith… Faith wanted to be like you,” Angel finished.
Buffy just stared at him for a second; she had lost the ability to speak temporarily due to her shock. She sat there, stuttering for a minute before she formed a sentence: “Faith hates me, she doesn’t want to be me…” Angel could tell though from her voice that even as she said it she didn’t quite know if she believed it.
“She took you’re body, she tried to live your life. She was jealous that you had friends, had people that cared about you. She wanted you to care about her, because you and her had something special in common, but her jealously overpowered that,” Angel told her.
“Why are you telling me this?” Buffy asked him.
“Because you need to hear it,” Angel told her. “You need to realize what drives Faith, what drives you when it comes to Faith if we actually plan to capture her.”
“But we had a plan that-” Buffy started, but was interrupted.
“The plan won’t work unless you disorient her with the truth, and you know it. Faith is strong and she can find a way to get out of anything if she’s driven to do so… you need to make her want to come with us, at least subconsciously.”
Buffy was silent for a minute before speaking. “I don’t… I don’t know if I can do that, Angel.”
“Yes, you can,” he told her. “What Faith still wants more than anything is to be close to you. Which is why, I’m willing to guarantee, she has yet to leave town. Because you’re here. If you didn’t come here, she would have eventually come back to you. Just like how you came to her.”
“She destroyed everything, Angel. Everything. I don’t want her close to me!” Buffy told him.
“Yes you do,” he said. “You both have a connection with each other that no one else can even begin to imagine having. You both can physically feel each other even when you’re not touching.”
Buffy just stared at him, she didn’t know what to say. Angel looked at her and asked, “What does it feel like to you, the connection?”
“It…” Buffy started, then sighed while she thought about it. “It used to just be like this little hum, like something was vibrating slightly against my skin, very softly. But it wasn’t just an actual physical feeling, it was emotional feelings. But not just one emotion, like so many that you can’t just pick out which one it was. It felt… powerful…. strong… but soft in the same way. It’s hard to explain, and I never understood it because I never had it with Kendra.”
“Kendra wasn’t mean to be your counterpart,” Angel told her. “And you said that’s what it used to be like, so what does it feel like now? You said it changed.”
Buffy flushed a little and looked at the ground. “It feels like her hands are on me, everywhere. But not stroking or anything, because it was like a hum before but now it’s kind of like a buzzing feeling… but so much more complicated than that. I don’t know. But the emotions are overpowering. It’s like everything we feel towards each other is multiplied by a hundred, and all of them mix together and it’s too much for our bodies to handle, I suppose.”
“You indicated it was slightly sexual at breakfast,” Angel said, looking at her curiously.
“No!” Buffy protested, but then revised. “I don’t know, kind of. I don’t have any sexual feelings for Faith. At all. But I guess… god, this is embarrassing.” She sighed a minute then finished, “It’s like when you’re about to have an orgasm, and all of those emotional feelings you have inside you get amplified, which of course amplifies your body responses that can give you a better orgasm… you know what I mean? We have this buzzing sensation now… everywhere,” she stressed that word with a meaningful look, “And then with the emotions it gets… stronger.”
“So it’s like sex from a distance?” Angel asked her.
“NO!” Buffy protested loudly. “I’m not having sex with Faith, not up close or at a distance or anywhere in between!”
Angel laughed, “I didn’t mean it literally, I meant metaphorically. Though it still seems to have the same physical result.”
Buffy sighed and put her head in her hands, “Can we stop talking about this now, please?”
Angel smirked at Buffy’s embarrassment and replied, “Sure. It’s almost two anyway, we should get ourselves into the living room so we can all decide how to go about this.”
Buffy didn’t say anything, just got up quickly and left the room. Angel chuckled to himself, Buffy always got so flustered about everything. He got up too and followed her into the livingroom. Nate and Sophie were already there, sitting next to each other. Sophie had her hand on his knee and he had his hand on hers. Angel shook his head, he was confused. Wasn’t she just screaming about Parker?
Oh well, he was just gonna let all of that go. He really didn’t need to know.
Eliot was leaning against the wall, looking angry about something. Angel cocked his head at him and asked, “You alright?”
“The drama burned my fucking soup,” he answered with a scowl.
“Horrible,” Angel said, amusing him, but also kind of mocking him for caring so much about the soup.
“Oh what do you know? You don’t eat,” Eliot shot at him. Angel just chucked and sat down on the couch next to Cordelia, who was filing her nails and pretending not to be looking at Sophie and Nate with a curious expression on her face. Angel knew she was about to burst from not knowing what was going on, since she feels the need to be involved in everything.
Wesley was still nose deep in whatever book he was reading, and almost ran right into Parker and Hardison when they joined the group because he was pacing and mumbling to himself, completely unaware of anything around him.
“Oh! Terribly sorry!” He said after Parker put her hands out to stop him from running straight into her.
“You should probably sit down when you do that,” she advised him before she herself sat on the other couch with Hardison. Angel saw her and Sophie give each other a fleeting look for a moment before deciding to pretend that they don’t’ exist to each other anymore and simultaneously get closer to their new significant others like they were trying to prove something.
Angel took a deep breath and focused his attention elsewhere. Well, he did the motion… he didn’t actually breathe or anything. That would require being alive.
Nate started the meeting. “Faith is staying at a hotel less than ten minutes away from us. Hardison tracked her GPS again not that long ago and she is currently in her room, which according to the hotel’s blueprints is room six seventeen. Now… I got this,” he said, and pulled out a nasty looking syringe. Angel saw Parker wince at the sight of it. “It’s a pretty heavy duty tranquilizer, should have no problem taking her down… or a good sized horse.”
“Needles,” Parker said, staring at it in horror. “I hate needles. Please make it go away.”
Nate looked over at her and noticed she actually looked ligitamitly scared at the sight of it so he put it away immediately. “Sorry, Parker. Didn’t know you didn’t like needles.”
“Hate needles,” she said quickly and snuggled herself further into Hardison, probably hoping he’s protect her from the needle.
“You actually have a phobia?” Eliot said, looking at her in astonishment.
“I just don’t like needles,” she said quickly.
“Right,” Nate said, then turned from her and looked at Angel. “Plan of action?”
“Me and Eliot let Buffy go in first, we’ll follow when she gives us the signal,” Angel replied.
“What’s the signal?” Buffy asked, not knowing herself.
“Either things breaking or you walking out the front door with her,” Angel told her.
“Expect the things breaking,” Buffy told him and rolled his eyes.
“Wait, you just expect Buffy to go in there by herself and… what, exactly?” Eliot asked Angel.
“Buffy can do this alone, trust me,” Angel said.
“No she can’t.”
“No I can’t.”
“Yes you can,” Angel said to her with a pointed look. “Remember what I said earlier? Just trust me.”
Buffy sighed, annoyed. “Fine,” she said, though clearly not looking forward to it.
“Off you guys go then,” Nate said. “We’ll see you all when you get back.”
CHAPTER FORTY FIVE
[ Buffy ]
Darkness Breaks
Buffy wasn’t sure she was ready for this. She wasn’t ready to go in and sway Faith with her words. Her freaking words, seriously? Faith didn’t respond to words, she responded to violence. Then again, they couldn’t even get close enough to each other for the violence to happen, so what was left? Nothing, that was what was left. Nothing. Buffy and Faith didn’t know how to communicate to each other without throwing punches anymore.
She was standing outside of Faith’s room. Number six seventeen. Angel and Eliot stood on either side of the door, waiting for her to go in. She didn’t move. Her hand was on the door handle, she was ready to turn it and go in but… she didn’t move. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, exactly. Part of her just really wanted to go in there and start beating on her, a large part of her actually, but she couldn’t do that either. She could already faintly feel Faith inside.
Angel looked at her expectantly. Buffy narrowed her eyes at him, making it clear she despised this plan, but opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind her. Of course Faith left the door unlocked; she was a cocky bitch like that.
Faith was standing on the other side of the room, as far away as she could get from her as possible, with her arms crossed and a look of annoyance on her face. “I could feel you coming,” she told her. “So I guess you didn’t fix this little problem, did you?”
Faith’s eyes were red, her makeup slightly smeared. Buffy looked at her and said with a slight laugh with amused disbelief, “Have you been crying?”
Yeah, she definitely couldn’t do this caring thing.
“Go fuck yourself, Buffy. Why the hell are you here? We can’t fight each other, we can’t even go near each other, so I’d curious to know what the fuck the point of this is,” Faith said with a scowl.
“Aww, why are you crying Faithy? Life of crime isn’t working out the way you expected?” Buffy taunted her. She couldn’t help it, it was just… automatic. She told Angel she couldn’t do this. There was just something about Faith that made her try to tear her down before Faith tore her down.
“Actually no, it pays quite well,” Faith said as she cocked her head to the side, and Buffy’s eyes flashed to her big pile of money that was just lying there. “ And also, you call me Faithy one more time and I’m going to break your arm,” Faith finished, her eyes flashing.
“Have to get close enough first,” Buffy said with a smirk.
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” Faith asked her with a leer.
“Apparently not as much as you would. It’s your fault the connection feels the way it does right now,” Buffy told her.
Faith laughed, “Are you kidding me? Sure, please blame another thing on me, fuck knows you’ll find any excuse, huh B?”
“It’s true! The looks, the comments… you’re disgusting, you know! Like I would ever want anyone like you,” Buffy stressed each word, knowing it was going to inflame Faith even further. She knew exactly how to push Faith’s buttons: with the truth.
Well, at least half of it anyway.
“Don’t give me your fucking bullshit, Buffy!” Faith screamed and hit the wall with her hand, cracking it. “I was in those fucking dreams too, you know!”
Buffy stopped for a minute and just stared at her. She knew what significance that meant. But no, Buffy wasn’t going to let her say it. When it’s said outloud it makes it real, and Buffy didn’t want it to be real.
“We make the bed, we speak in riddles…” Faith started.
“Shut up!” Buffy cried.
“We play house well, don’t we B?” Faith said, taunting her now with the truth.
“SHUT UP!” Buffy cried again. She had to stop her somehow, but she couldn’t get near her.
“And I know you know I can feel you, just like I know you can feel me. And what does it feel like Buffy?” Faith asked, her voice growing louder.
“I SAID SHUT UP!” Buffy took a lamp off of a nearby table and threw it at Faith. She ducked.
“What does it feel like?!” Faith screamed, staring at her.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP, FAITH!”
“Tell me what it fucking feels like Buffy!!” Faith shouted at her, advancing on her too much that they both fell to the ground almost immediately from their knees buckling from the intensity of the feeling.
“Fuck! Faith!” Buffy screamed as she fell, half in blame and the other half in pleasure. “Love!” she screamed finally, not being able to move or barely breathe. Her body was going through too many things at once, she couldn’t handle it. She was about to do something she really didn’t want to do right here on this floor in front of Faith. “Okay!? Love! Now MOVE!!”
Faith grabbed onto the bed post that was by her and kind of pulled herself away from the other woman until she was far enough that she could move on her own. Well, kind of. Neither of them could still stand, their legs were shaking.
“Why did you do that?” Buffy asked her, out of breath and angry.
“Because…” Faith said on the floor on the other side of the room, still slightly panting, “I needed to hear you say it.”
“I don’t love you, Faith,” Buffy told her in a low voice, so angry with her and with herself for having said that outloud.
“Yes you do,” Faith said with a laugh, still out of breath. “You just hate me too.”
“We’re obsessed with each other,” Buffy corrected her, repeating what Angel told her. She’d rather have that than love.
Faith laughed a little and said, “Yes… we are. But that’s a symptom, baby. Not the cause.”
“Don’t call me baby,” Buffy said, finally getting enough strength to get herself up off the floor.
“I figured out of all the things I usually call you, you’d prefer that rather than… say, bitch,” Faith told her with a smirk as she herself stood back up.
“You couldn’t abort it, could you?” Buffy asked her, finally picking up on something. “That’s why you were crying.”
Faith looked stunned by Buffy’s perceptiveness and replied defensively, “I don’t cry, B.” She didn’t deny the truth in what Buffy said though.
“You cry at night all the time,” Buffy told her with a meaningful look.
“Do you really wanna play this game with me?!” Faith asked her, raising her voice because she herself didn’t want to play it anymore. “You know I know the same things about you that you do about me. Right when I drift off I hear you too sometimes, reality before the dreams, right? So if you wanna play, let’s go then.”
“I was just saying,” Buffy said. That was as close to caring as she ever could get with Faith; admitting she knew.
“Why are you here?” Faith asked her again, getting mad again. “If you’re here to kill me to get rid of this thing than just fucking get on with it already.”
“Faith…”
“Just do it!” Faith yelled at her. “Just fucking do it, Buffy! I know you want to, you had no problem trying to do it before! So heres your damn open invitation! Go for it if you think you have the balls!”
“I’m not going to kill you, Faith!” Buffy screamed at her.
“WHY?!” Faith screamed back. Almost like she wanted Buffy to do it.
“Because I can’t!” Buffy yelled back.
“Why the fuck not?! I have this fucking thing inside me that nobody wants to exist, right?! So heres your quick solution, just DO IT!”
“Faith!”
“DO IT BUFFY! JUST KILL ME!” Faith screamed. She was crying now, though Buffy didn’t know if she realized it or not.
“No…” Buffy said quietly, watching her in horrified fascination. Faith was breaking.
“Do it!” Faith screamed at her, a little more desperately, but a little quieter than before.
“No,” Buffy repeated again.
“Fuck you! Fuck you, Buffy! Just fucking do it! It has to be you!” Faith screamed at her, tears falling from her eyes more freely now.
“Faith, stop…” Buffy said. The connection wasn’t feeling sexual anymore; it was feeling desperate, painful, sad, and self loathing. Buffy was about to start crying from the feeling of it.
“Just do it…” Faith said in a quiet voice, begging now.
“Angel!” Buffy yelled, not knowing what to do anymore. She didn’t know what was going on; she had never seen Faith like this before. She wasn’t expecting this.
The door opened and Angel and Eliot came in, running towards Faith. Faith tried to fight them, but she was broken so badly that she couldn’t even get in one good hit against the two of them. Buffy just looked at her sadly as Eliot stuck the syringe in her neck and she slumped into Angel’s arms, her cheeks still tear stained.
“God…” Buffy said quietly, just staring at her.
Angel’s eyes met Buffy’s and Buffy could feel a single tear fall down her cheek. She wiped it off quickly and tried to regain herself. “Let’s bring her back,” was all she said before walking out the door, needing to forget everything that just happened.
REACHED LJ'S POST LIMIT!
PART NINE CAN BE FOUND HERE.
Author: Sapphire Smoke [cuzimastripper]
Fandom: Leverage/Angel
Setting: Post "The Second David Job" in Leverage, Beginning of "Five By Five" in Angel
Rating: NC-17
Genre(s): Crossover/Team!Fic/Het/Femslash (will include slash in later chapters)
Word Count Thus Far: 73,865 words
Summary: A prophecy of the splitting of darkness and light, of strength and intelligence. The Leverage team finds themselves mixed up in a destiny and in a world they never knew existed.
Feedback: Give it to me, baby ;]
Chapter Titles Notes: At first I just had the chapter titles be the character's names who's POV it was in, but because FanFiction.Net apparently won't let you have the same title name twice, I decided to actually name all of them. So it will tell you the characters name, but also have the chapter title.
Story Notes: So this is going to be my 'epic fanfic' for the downtime between seasons. I've decided not to tell you guys the pairings... ever. This is mostly a Team!Fic, and any sex and/or relationships are minor plot points and plus I don't like to spoil anything. Making you go 'OMG' makes me happy lol. Hope you guys enjoy! Suggestions and feedback is always appreciated!
Other Parts: PART ONE | PAT TWO | PART THREE | PART FOUR | PART FIVE | PART SIX | PART SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY ONE
[ Parker ]
Decisions
She didn’t understand. She didn’t understand any of it. She hated that, not understanding. She always hated it when she didn’t understand, and yet now she seemed to not know about anything at all. Sophie was mad at her, and that made Parker’s chest hurt for some reason. Like something was squeezing her heart. It didn’t feel good. She knew if she told Hardison that she wanted to date Sophie too, he’d be mad. Why is she making everyone mad all the time?
She just wanted to be happy with both of them, why couldn’t that happen? They both made her feel those prickly feelings in the pit of her stomach. The one’s you get when you know you really like someone, and it makes you smile just from the feeling of it. She liked them like that.
But she didn’t think she did like Sophie like that. Sure, she got the pricklys every now and then, but she didn’t ever think anything like that would ever happen. Plus, dating her would just mean nagging and attention hogging. But suddenly that didn’t seem to matter to Parker. Why didn’t that matter anymore? She had a logical reason not to date her, and now it just didn’t seem to matter.
What’s worse, she told Hardison that she never would want to date her. Now he was going to think she was lying to him. But she wasn’t, she just didn’t know.
She hated not knowing.
Parker stormed slightly through the front door with a two million dollar sculpture in her hand. Nate looked up from the newspaper he was reading and his eyes went wide as he saw what was in her hand. “Parker!”
She ignored him, just kept walking.
“Parker stop right now!” Nate demanded. Parker stopped and let out a frustrated sigh. Here it comes. She turned around to face him.
“What is that?” Nate demanded, pointing at the sculpture in her hand.
“I believe it’s a sculpture,” Parker said, being a smart ass.
“I see that, but what is it doing here?” Nate asked, obviously furious with her.
“I stole it,” Parker told him.
“Obviously,” Nate said with a frustrated sigh and rubbed his temples. “What the hell are you doing? We’re trying to lay as low as possible with the stealing, you know that.”
Parker just shook her head in frustration and handed it to him, “You can keep it, give it back. I don’t care. I just needed to steal it.”
She turned to walk away but Nate put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. “Hold on a second, Parker.”
Parker sighed and tilted her head back. Why wouldn’t he just let her go?
“What’s wrong?” he asked her. “You never steal things for no reason.”
Parker bit her lower lip, she couldn’t tell him. He’d be mad at her for sleeping with Sophie. Everyone was always mad at her.
“Nothing,” she lied.
“Parker,” Nate said, using her name in a way that father’s might use to indicate that they know better.
“Please don’t make me tell you,” she requested, still not turning around.
“Is this about Sophie?” Nate asked her. “Because in case you forgot, at breakfast you already announced to the whole house that you planned to sleep with her, and I was present for that.”
Parker grumbled out something inaudible. She forgot she did that, that probably wasn’t very nice to him, was it? She was always doing things like that, forgetting about other people’s feelings. It was mean, but she just forgets.
“I’m sorry about that,” she told him, but shook her head. “But I don’t really want to talk about it, thank you.” She tried to be polite as she could before she turned to give him a little smile to let him know that she was grateful that he cared enough to ask, but then walked down the hall to her room, leaving Nate with the statue.
But right when she walked in, she noticed Hardison sitting on her bed. “Oh,” she said, startled a little. “Hi.”
“Hi,” he greeted her, smiling. “Thought we could hang out a little before lunch.” But then he noticed Parker’s expression and asked, “Hey, you alright?”
Parker shook her head no.
“Do you want to talk about it?” Hardison asked her.
Parker shook her head yes.
Hardison waited for her to speak, but she didn’t. Instead he asked, “Are you afraid to talk about it?”
Parker shook her head yes again.
“Come here,” he said, and held out his arms to her with a little coaxing head nod. She sat next to him on the bed and leaned her head on his chest and he wrapped his arms around her. She sniffed lightly and snuggled into him. She just wished she knew what she was supposed to do.
“You’ve never been afraid to be honest, Parker. Why are you starting now?” He asked her as he held her in her arms.
“Because I keep hurting people, and I don’t mean to,” Parker mumbled into his chest.
“Hiding things or telling lies hurt people more in the end,” Hardison told her. “So I always thought you had the right idea about things.”
Parker sighed and held onto him a little tighter and said finally, “I had sex with Sophie.”
“You mean before you told me you hadn’t yet? Or as in pretty much just now?” Hardison asked her.
“Just now,” Parker told him. “In the back yard.”
“You had sex in the back yard?” Hardison asked her, laughing a little.
“What’s so funny?” Parker asked, and tilted her head up to look at him.
“Nothing, just never thought Sophie would go for something like that.”
Parker shrugged, then sighed heavily. Hardison ran his fingers through her hair, “So what’s the problem?”
Parker looked down and started picking at her fingernails and said quietly, barely enough for Hardison to even hear her, “I want to be with her too…”
Hardison stopped stroking Parker’s hair, and Parker inwardly cringed, this is what she didn’t want to happen. He was gonna get so mad at her.
“I thought you said you didn’t want to date her,” he said.
“I know, and I didn’t mean to lie, I didn’t think I did,” Parker said, trying to justify herself. “But then I made Sophie mad at me, because she likes me a lot too. And well, I have you. I have you and I have her, but not completely. And I’m really confused, and I don’t know what to do.”
Hardison didn’t say anything for a minute. Parker looked up at him, but he didn’t look angry. Kind of disappointed. Just like she made Sophie disappointed before. Why did she keep making people feel bad things?
“What do you want to do?” He asked her finally.
“I want you both,” Parker said, and her voice was slightly pleading, hoping that someone could see it from her point of view.
Hardison smiled a little at her, but more in amusement to her being so naïve sometimes. “I don’t think that will work,” he told her.
“Why not?” she asked. She really needed to know why she wasn’t allowed.
“Because Sophie would get jealous of the time I spent with you, and I would get jealous of the time you spent with Sophie. There would be arguing, fights, it would mess up the team, it could compromise a job…”
“Alright, alright, I get it,” Parker said, slightly huffing. She got it now, but she didn’t need to get it that good.
“So you’re going to have to make a decision,” Hardison told her.
“But I’m no good at those,” she replied, upset that people keep telling her the same answer she didn’t want to hear.
She felt tears start to well up in her eyes, but she took a deep breath. She didn’t cry. Especially not over something like this. She took another deep breath, trying to calm herself down. She just felt so overwhelmed and so pressured right now, she didn’t know how to handle it.
Hardison looked at her and saw that she was on the verge of breaking down. “Hey, calm down,” he said soothingly. She took another deep breath, trying to. She was silent for a little while, thinking. She hated having to make this decision, she hated having to hurt someone, but she did.
“You,” she said quietly. “I want you. You didn’t yell at me over this. Or throw anything.”
Parker could feel Hardison let out the breath he’d been holding. Parker still felt sad though. Even though she got to keep Hardison, she was possibly about to lose Sophie as a friend too. Parker basically had sex with her and now immediately after was going to break her heart, just like Nate did. Minus the sex… or at least she thought. She felt like a horrible person.
She really liked Sophie, she did. A lot. Damnit, she was probably going to have something bigger than a hair clip thrown at her this time.
Parker looked up and kissed Hardison lightly on the lips. “Just lemme…” she sighed. “Lemme go tell her.” She stood up and told him, “If you hear me scream, please come help.”
She said it in all seriousness too. She was pretty sure Sophie was going to kill her.
CHAPTER FORTY TWO NOTES: -gasps- The angst had a point?! lol. Seriously, I'm even surprised at myself. I seriously just started it cause I was in a bitchy mood and felt the need to fuck with my characters lol.
CHAPTER FORTY TWO
[ Eliot ]
You Don’t Throw Spatulas
All he was fucking trying to do was make lunch.
That was it! Just a simple minestrone soup with some little gourmet sandwiches. Was that so hard? Was it so much to ask that for once he could just be left out of all the drama of the people he worked with?
Apparently it was.
His hand flew out, catching out of the air a freaking spatula before it hit Parker. Really, a spatula. “Sophie!” he yelled, pissed off that she was apparently trying to hurt the girl that already had her ass handed to her five times over within the last couple of days.
“I’m sorry!” Parker told her, instinctively hiding behind Eliot.
Damn it, if Sophie made him burn the soup, so help her God.
“I told you!” Sophie screamed at her, tears running down her face. “I fucking told you I wouldn’t be able to just have you once. I told you and fucked me anyway, telling me you’d ‘figure it out’. And not even two hours later you’re going to do this to me?! God, I see you thought long and hard about that decision, didn’t you?!”
“I didn’t think-” Parker started, but was cut off.
“That’s your problem, Parker! You don’t think! You just do whatever the fuck you want and to hell with everyone else around you!” Sophie picked up a tomato that was lying on the counter and threw it at her in anger. Both Parker and Eliot ducked and it splattered against the wall.
“I fucking hate you!” Sophie screamed. “I got hurt recently and you knew it! I let myself against my better judgment start to actually care for you, and you just used me!”
“Sophie, calm the fuck down!” Eliot yelled at her. The woman was acting insane. But then again, that’s women for you, no wonder Parker chose Hardison. Eliot wished he had enough balls to actually date a man; it’d be a lot less drama, that’s for sure.
“What’s going on?” Nate asked, coming in from all the shouting. He walked in just as Sophie was about to lunge at Eliot, and he grabbed her around the waist, holding her back.
“Stay the fuck out of this, Eliot!” Sophie screamed. She struggled against Nate, “Let me go!”
“You need to calm down,” Nate told her.
“Oh go wank off in a corner with your magazines, Nate, I’m fucking busy!” Sophie screamed at him. Eliot tried hard not to laugh at that, but failed. Nate shot him a look.
What? It was funny.
Parker was clearly getting upset. She looked like she was about to cry, and Eliot didn’t think he had ever seen Parker cry. “I didn’t use you,” she said quietly, in a low voice, obviously hating herself at the moment.
“What else do you call shagging me and then dumping me right after, you bloody slut?!”
“Sophie!” Nate yelled, astonished she would call Parker that.
Parker’s bottom lip was starting to tremble, and Eliot was starting to get mad.
“Nate, get her out of my fucking kitchen,” he said, his eyes flashing. He turned back to the soup. It burned. He was even madder now. He turned to Nate again and said, “For the love of Christ, you should have just fucked her when she was drunk that night, it would’ve prevented all this!”
“Don’t blame this on me!” Nate exclaimed, angry.
“Sophie…” Parker said quietly, looking at her sadly from across the kitchen.
Sophie had seemed to calm down for the most part. She stopped struggling against Nate and just stared back at Parker like her heart was breaking. “I trusted you not to hurt me…” she said barely above a whisper.
“I didn’t want to,” Parker told her sincerely and full of regret. “I really like you Sophie; you make my stomach do those butterfly things.”
Sophie let out a sad laugh at Parker’s description. Parker took a step towards her tentatively, testing the waters. When she noticed Sophie didn’t look in the least bit homicidal anymore, she walked over to her.
“Why are you doing this?” Sophie asked her, tears falling from her face.
Parker wiped her tears away and answered, “Because you belong with Nate, not me. You guys have ten years, we don't even have ten days.”
Sophie just sniffed and wiped her eyes with her sleeves. Nate’s eyes had gone wide; he obviously didn’t want to be brought into this. He needed to though, and he knew that. Eliot gave him a look like if he dicked Sophie around this time he was going to snap his neck in half. This is what happens when people try to fool around with people they don’t belong with.
Hell, that’s why he ended up knocking up Faith with a being of destruction, right?
Parker took Sophie’s face in her hands and kissed her softly on the lips. “You’re always gonna make my tummy have butterflies,” she whispered against her lips before stepping back. She gave her a little smile before turning and leaving the kitchen. Sophie just stood there, staring at the ground, obviously having no idea what to do.
Eliot waved his hands at Nate to do something. Nate made a gesture like he didn’t know what to do. Eliot waved them more forcefully and mimicked hugging. Nate looked at him like he didn’t get it. Eliot rolled his eyes and let out a frustrated sigh before he made some obscene gesture that clearly indicated sex. Nate widened his eyes and started to shake his head, but Eliot pointed his finger at the ground firmly and then indicated intense strangling to imply that if he didn’t do it he was going to kill him.
He was tiered of this crap.
Nate coughed a little awkwardly and put his hand on Sophie’s shoulder. “Are you okay?” he asked. Eliot rolled his eyes. Nate was such an idiot.
“Obviously not, Nate,” Sophie said quietly.
“Right,” Nate said and moved so he was facing her. “Look, I… uh…” he paused, and Eliot made another gesture that symbolized strangling and Nate blurted out, “I’ve been stupid.”
“What?” Sophie said, looking up at him.
“I…” Nate sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter. “I saw both of you in the bathroom yesterday. I got jealous. I actually got really jealous; until Eliot pointed out that I had no right to because I had let you go.”
Sophie just stared at him. Eliot wasn’t sure if she even totally believed the words coming out of Nate’s mouth, and was just terrified she was being fucked with again.
“And, well…” he took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have let you go. I’ve been a complete idiot, Sophie. I’ve loved you for awhile now, you know that.”
Sophie was quiet for a minute then said with every ounce of sincerity, “I swear to God, Nathan. If you’re screwing with me I’ll remove your bollocks when you sleep.”
Eliot winced and was sure his own balls just ran and hid for it’s life. That hurt just thinking about it.
Nate didn’t shrink back in fear though like Eliot expected him too. Instead he said, “I’m serious Sophie. I love you. I’m in love with you.”
Eliot knew what was going to happen before it did.
Aaanddd… cue Sophie tears.
“I love you too you fucking moron,” she exclaimed through her tears. She hit him lightly on the chest with her fist. “Why did you make me wait this long?!”
Nate just shrugged. “I’m a moron?”
Sophie laughed before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. Nate lifted her slightly off of her feet as he kissed her back in a way Eliot wished he never saw Nate kiss. Ever.
Well, thank god the soup was burned. Eliot lost his appetite. Apparently he couldn’t be Emrill and Dr. Phil all in one.
Eliot took the pan off the stove and threw it in the sink. Well, everyone was just going to have to fend for themselves for this meal. He heard Sophie slightly moan in approval of whatever it was Nate was doing to her; Eliot was scared to turn around and find out.
“Guys, this is great and all, but you seriously need to get out of my kitchen if you want to be doing all that,” he told them.
He heard the smacking sound as both of them unattached themselves from each other, and Nate said, “Sorry, Eliot. We’ll get out of your way.”
“Appreciate it,” Eliot said, dryly, turning around just in time to see Sophie bite her lower lip softly and make a ‘come hither’ motion with her finger as she backed out of the kitchen.
Yup, Eliot definitely wasn’t hungry anymore.
CHAPTER FORTY THREE NOTES: You damn Nate/Sophie shippers better love me. This paring makes me gag lol. I only enjoy writing angst when it comes to them. But alas, even they must have a little bit of happiness, right? Sooo not looking forward to writing their sex scene later. But I will. Why? Because I try to appease everybody, and I'm a fucking pervert and enjoy writing sex scenes lol.
CHAPTER FORTY THREE
[ Nate ]
Gentlemen Prefer Brunettes
He still didn’t feel ready for this, but he knew he had to be. He was in love with Sophie; he couldn’t deny that even if he tried. But watching her go off in the kitchen, he did realize it was completely and utterly his fault that she went off like that.
Ten years they had these kinds of feelings. Sure, he was married for most of them. But the last year he wasn’t, for the last year he had no excuse what so ever. And yes, he did string her along. He made her wait until she basically went crazy with loneliness and attached herself to the next thing that looked her way - which unfortunately ended up being Parker.
Yeah, she did develop some kind of emotional attachment to Parker, and Parker to her, obviously. But it was so sudden that Nate couldn’t help but think it was because of how lonely Sophie was, how heartbroken he had made her. She threw herself at him… and he said no. She took a risk and got shot down after ten years of feeling things for him.
Parker, well… maybe Parker did have a crush on Sophie on some kind of level for a little while now. Nothing surprised him with Parker anymore. But her and Hardison seemed to have something brewing between them at the moment, and Sophie just happened to be going through some stuff and feeling vulnerable right in the middle of it all.
She broke down, she couldn’t handle it. Nate didn’t blame her.
He blamed himself.
Sophie was coaxing him into her bedroom. Did she really want to have sex with him? She apparently just got through with Parker.
Nate closed the door behind him when they entered it. Sophie wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him again, backing him up against the door. He kissed her back, enjoying the feeling of her lips against his. He couldn’t count how many times he had imagined what they would feel like. His arms wrapped around her waist, bringing her closer to him. God, her body pressed up against his was pretty damn close to heaven.
Sophie started to kiss him more passionately, more aggressively as she started to undo the buttons on his shirt. She was panting against his lips, and broke the kiss to whisper, “I need to feel you inside me, Nate.”
If that didn’t make him hard, he didn’t know what would. And true to the statement, he got there. But he wanted to do this right, he needed to do things right by Sophie after fucking it all to hell before.
“Sophie,” he whispered against her lips and took her hands in his to slow her down. “I want to do this right.”
“What do you mean?” she replied and moved her head back a little to look at him in the eyes.
He held her hands in his and said, “I mean I want to take you out. I want to treat you like a lady. I want to buy you flowers and hope in the end it earns me a goodnight kiss, and then dare to hope that maybe on the third date I might get lucky, because apparently it’s some unwritten rule. I don’t want to just sleep with you right off - you’re worth more to me than that.”
Sophie looked at him curiously and said, “Nate, you’ve been waiting - we’ve been waiting for ten years, you want to wait another three dates?”
“Yes, I do,” Nate said to her seriously. “I want to do right by you. It’s a gentleman thing, and I haven’t been one of those in a long time. I’d like to try to start again with you.”
Sophie looked at him underneath her eyelashes, looking slightly vulnerable, “Really?”
“Really,” Nate said, looking her in the eyes and meaning it.
She smiled a little, “That’d be nice.” She bit her lower lip and looked up at him. “I’m sorry that I got… well, I went mad, didn’t I?”
“A little,” Nate said with a smirk.
Sophie sighed a little and sat down on the bed and Nate went over to join her. “God, Parker must think I’m some kind of psycho.”
“Parker cares about you, Sophie. Even I can see that, and I try not to pay attention too much. She knows you were just hurt.”
“I threw a freaking spatula at her, Nate. And a tomato. Oh and my hair clip the first time I yelled at her. I’m insane,” she told him.
“You’re not insane,” Nate told her. “You’re quirky.”
Sophie laughed and pushed him lightly, “Shut up.”
Nate laughed, “I’m just saying.”
Sophie rolled her eyes but smiled. She looked at the wall for a minute, but her eyes shifted over to look at him for a moment before asking quietly, “Why did you have to take so long, Nate? You drove me crazy, you know that?”
“So I noticed,” Nate said with a little smirk. But Sophie was being serious, so he took her hand in his and held it before taking a deep breath. “I felt like I lost everything in my life worth having - my child, my wife, my job. I was drinking myself into a hole and was quite content with it. Being with you would have made me happy, and I wasn’t ready to be happy.”
“Are you ready to be happy now?” she asked him.
Nate laughed a little, “I don’t have much of a choice, do I? I apparently can’t keep brooding - you start to have random sex with different members of the team and then go psychotic.”
“Hey! It was only one member of the team,” she defended herself. She sighed again, “God, I did though, didn’t I?”
“Have sex with Parker or go psychotic? Because yes to both,” Nate told her.
“I had sex with Parker,” she repeated out loud, like she couldn’t believe she was saying it. “And god, it was good.”
“Okay, didn’t need to know that little bit of information,” Nate said pointedly.
Sophie looked at him and shook her head, snapping herself out it. “I’m sorry. I just… I’m straight, you know? It’s weird.”
“You have a very loose definition of that word if you think that,” Nate told her.
“I am straight, Nate. It was just Parker. It will only ever be Parker,” she said, trying to convince him. “Trust me.”
Nate cocked his eyebrow at the ‘it will only ever be Parker’ part of that little speech. Sophie rolled her eyes and revised, “No, that’s not what I meant. I just mean she’s the only woman I’ll ever have sex with. And we did… and now it’s done.”
“You still have feelings for her though,” Nate said.
“Well yes, but I just like her. I love you, Nate,” Sophie told him. “I know the difference. It was nice, okay? But… you’ve finally come out of your shell. I’ve been waiting for that for years. I want you.”
“So you’re not going to…?” Nate started to ask, still slightly weary about the two of them.
“No,” Sophie said, squeezing his hand a little. “Besides, Parker has Hardison now, it’s not like she’ll get lonely. She asked him to be her boyfriend, you know.”
“Oh lord,” Nate said, rubbing his temples.
“What?” Sophie asked.
“So much romance in the work place. Thank god we don’t have another woman in the group, Eliot would probably be doing her too,” Nate said.
Sophie laughed, “Probably.”
“These relationships all might be bad ideas,” he warned her. “I mean with the jobs and everything… people become irrational when things go down that involve someone their romantically involved with.”
“Like that time in the bank?” Sophie reminded him.
He looked at her pointedly, “Exactly. We weren’t even together and you blew our cover.”
She shrugged, “Maybe you’re right. But they’re bad ideas that feel really good.”
Nate looked at her for a moment, and despite himself he smiled. He leaned in and kissed her softly on the lips, “Dinner tonight?”
“Are you asking me on a date, Mr. Ford?” Sophie asked, making fun of him slightly.
“Yes,” Nate said with a smile.
“Well in that case I’d love to, it gets us one date further to that third date rule you were talking about,” Sophie said with a smirk.
Nate just laughed, he had to. He looked at the woman next to him, and for some reason he couldn’t remember why he didn’t tell her he loved her so much sooner.
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR NOTES: The thing with Parker and needles in this chapter is not an inconsistency. I know I said Faith injected those drugs in Parker through a needle, but theres a reason I didn't have Parker go into details about what happened when she was with her and also why she didn't mention her thing with needles then. Also it pertains to why she attached herself to Sophie so quickly. It'll all make more sense... eventually. Parker's better at hiding her broken state than anyone realizes. Hell of a lot better than hiding it than Sophie is, obviously lol.
CHAPTER FORTY FOUR
[ Angel ]
Hearing Painful Truths
He heard the shouting. He heard the crashes. He sighed and looked at Buffy from across the room, she could hear them too. Sometimes amplified hearing had its downsides.
“What’s wrong with these people?” Buffy asked him.
“I think there’s just something wrong with Sophie right now,” Angel answered, shrugging. She cocked an eyebrow at him and he went on, “They steal things for a living, Buffy. Something’s gotta be wrong somewhere. Twisted sense of morality.”
“Would’ve pegged Parker to be the psycho,” Buffy said. She took out her stake from her drawer and started flipping it around in her fingers. “Sophie seemed relatively normal.”
“I think she just snapped. Plus, I think they all got their issues. Everybody has their issues,” Angel told her, watching her play with the stake. “And do you mind…?”
“What?” Buffy asked, confused. Then she looked at her stake. “Oh, sorry.” She put it down, then she got this self righteous look on her face. “And everyone doesn’t have issues, Angel. I don’t have any.”
Angel laughed. He couldn’t help it, it just came out.
“I don’t!” she protested.
“What do you call your obsession with Faith, then?”
Buffy got this offended look on her face, “I do not have an obsession with Faith! What are you implying? How could you ever…?”
“Buffy, look me in the eyes and tell me that when Cordelia called you and you heard that Faith was here, that that’s when you decided were going to come to LA,” he raised an eyebrow at her.
“What? No! I came because of… because of this whole stupid… prophecy deal, or whatever. Because you needed my help!”
“You and Faith are obsessed with each other. She’s obsessed with destroying your life; you’re obsessed with stopping her. You two are connected, you’re obsessions balance each other out,” Angel told her.
“I’m not obsessed with Faith,” Buffy repeated, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Buffy, from the minute you met Faith you decided you didn’t like her,” Angel said, looking at her pointedly.
“That’s… Ugh, that’s not true!” Buffy protested.
“She was everything you weren’t; uninhibited, wild, carefree… and you hated that.”
“No! I tried to be her friend, Angel!”
“No you didn’t,” Angel told her, looking at her seriously. “The most you tried to do was be like her, and then when you realized you couldn’t you really didn’t like her.”
“Angel!” Buffy exclaimed, angry that he was telling her all these things that were too close to the truth for her own comfort.
“And the amusing part of this whole thing is that Faith… Faith wanted to be like you,” Angel finished.
Buffy just stared at him for a second; she had lost the ability to speak temporarily due to her shock. She sat there, stuttering for a minute before she formed a sentence: “Faith hates me, she doesn’t want to be me…” Angel could tell though from her voice that even as she said it she didn’t quite know if she believed it.
“She took you’re body, she tried to live your life. She was jealous that you had friends, had people that cared about you. She wanted you to care about her, because you and her had something special in common, but her jealously overpowered that,” Angel told her.
“Why are you telling me this?” Buffy asked him.
“Because you need to hear it,” Angel told her. “You need to realize what drives Faith, what drives you when it comes to Faith if we actually plan to capture her.”
“But we had a plan that-” Buffy started, but was interrupted.
“The plan won’t work unless you disorient her with the truth, and you know it. Faith is strong and she can find a way to get out of anything if she’s driven to do so… you need to make her want to come with us, at least subconsciously.”
Buffy was silent for a minute before speaking. “I don’t… I don’t know if I can do that, Angel.”
“Yes, you can,” he told her. “What Faith still wants more than anything is to be close to you. Which is why, I’m willing to guarantee, she has yet to leave town. Because you’re here. If you didn’t come here, she would have eventually come back to you. Just like how you came to her.”
“She destroyed everything, Angel. Everything. I don’t want her close to me!” Buffy told him.
“Yes you do,” he said. “You both have a connection with each other that no one else can even begin to imagine having. You both can physically feel each other even when you’re not touching.”
Buffy just stared at him, she didn’t know what to say. Angel looked at her and asked, “What does it feel like to you, the connection?”
“It…” Buffy started, then sighed while she thought about it. “It used to just be like this little hum, like something was vibrating slightly against my skin, very softly. But it wasn’t just an actual physical feeling, it was emotional feelings. But not just one emotion, like so many that you can’t just pick out which one it was. It felt… powerful…. strong… but soft in the same way. It’s hard to explain, and I never understood it because I never had it with Kendra.”
“Kendra wasn’t mean to be your counterpart,” Angel told her. “And you said that’s what it used to be like, so what does it feel like now? You said it changed.”
Buffy flushed a little and looked at the ground. “It feels like her hands are on me, everywhere. But not stroking or anything, because it was like a hum before but now it’s kind of like a buzzing feeling… but so much more complicated than that. I don’t know. But the emotions are overpowering. It’s like everything we feel towards each other is multiplied by a hundred, and all of them mix together and it’s too much for our bodies to handle, I suppose.”
“You indicated it was slightly sexual at breakfast,” Angel said, looking at her curiously.
“No!” Buffy protested, but then revised. “I don’t know, kind of. I don’t have any sexual feelings for Faith. At all. But I guess… god, this is embarrassing.” She sighed a minute then finished, “It’s like when you’re about to have an orgasm, and all of those emotional feelings you have inside you get amplified, which of course amplifies your body responses that can give you a better orgasm… you know what I mean? We have this buzzing sensation now… everywhere,” she stressed that word with a meaningful look, “And then with the emotions it gets… stronger.”
“So it’s like sex from a distance?” Angel asked her.
“NO!” Buffy protested loudly. “I’m not having sex with Faith, not up close or at a distance or anywhere in between!”
Angel laughed, “I didn’t mean it literally, I meant metaphorically. Though it still seems to have the same physical result.”
Buffy sighed and put her head in her hands, “Can we stop talking about this now, please?”
Angel smirked at Buffy’s embarrassment and replied, “Sure. It’s almost two anyway, we should get ourselves into the living room so we can all decide how to go about this.”
Buffy didn’t say anything, just got up quickly and left the room. Angel chuckled to himself, Buffy always got so flustered about everything. He got up too and followed her into the livingroom. Nate and Sophie were already there, sitting next to each other. Sophie had her hand on his knee and he had his hand on hers. Angel shook his head, he was confused. Wasn’t she just screaming about Parker?
Oh well, he was just gonna let all of that go. He really didn’t need to know.
Eliot was leaning against the wall, looking angry about something. Angel cocked his head at him and asked, “You alright?”
“The drama burned my fucking soup,” he answered with a scowl.
“Horrible,” Angel said, amusing him, but also kind of mocking him for caring so much about the soup.
“Oh what do you know? You don’t eat,” Eliot shot at him. Angel just chucked and sat down on the couch next to Cordelia, who was filing her nails and pretending not to be looking at Sophie and Nate with a curious expression on her face. Angel knew she was about to burst from not knowing what was going on, since she feels the need to be involved in everything.
Wesley was still nose deep in whatever book he was reading, and almost ran right into Parker and Hardison when they joined the group because he was pacing and mumbling to himself, completely unaware of anything around him.
“Oh! Terribly sorry!” He said after Parker put her hands out to stop him from running straight into her.
“You should probably sit down when you do that,” she advised him before she herself sat on the other couch with Hardison. Angel saw her and Sophie give each other a fleeting look for a moment before deciding to pretend that they don’t’ exist to each other anymore and simultaneously get closer to their new significant others like they were trying to prove something.
Angel took a deep breath and focused his attention elsewhere. Well, he did the motion… he didn’t actually breathe or anything. That would require being alive.
Nate started the meeting. “Faith is staying at a hotel less than ten minutes away from us. Hardison tracked her GPS again not that long ago and she is currently in her room, which according to the hotel’s blueprints is room six seventeen. Now… I got this,” he said, and pulled out a nasty looking syringe. Angel saw Parker wince at the sight of it. “It’s a pretty heavy duty tranquilizer, should have no problem taking her down… or a good sized horse.”
“Needles,” Parker said, staring at it in horror. “I hate needles. Please make it go away.”
Nate looked over at her and noticed she actually looked ligitamitly scared at the sight of it so he put it away immediately. “Sorry, Parker. Didn’t know you didn’t like needles.”
“Hate needles,” she said quickly and snuggled herself further into Hardison, probably hoping he’s protect her from the needle.
“You actually have a phobia?” Eliot said, looking at her in astonishment.
“I just don’t like needles,” she said quickly.
“Right,” Nate said, then turned from her and looked at Angel. “Plan of action?”
“Me and Eliot let Buffy go in first, we’ll follow when she gives us the signal,” Angel replied.
“What’s the signal?” Buffy asked, not knowing herself.
“Either things breaking or you walking out the front door with her,” Angel told her.
“Expect the things breaking,” Buffy told him and rolled his eyes.
“Wait, you just expect Buffy to go in there by herself and… what, exactly?” Eliot asked Angel.
“Buffy can do this alone, trust me,” Angel said.
“No she can’t.”
“No I can’t.”
“Yes you can,” Angel said to her with a pointed look. “Remember what I said earlier? Just trust me.”
Buffy sighed, annoyed. “Fine,” she said, though clearly not looking forward to it.
“Off you guys go then,” Nate said. “We’ll see you all when you get back.”
CHAPTER FORTY FIVE
[ Buffy ]
Darkness Breaks
Buffy wasn’t sure she was ready for this. She wasn’t ready to go in and sway Faith with her words. Her freaking words, seriously? Faith didn’t respond to words, she responded to violence. Then again, they couldn’t even get close enough to each other for the violence to happen, so what was left? Nothing, that was what was left. Nothing. Buffy and Faith didn’t know how to communicate to each other without throwing punches anymore.
She was standing outside of Faith’s room. Number six seventeen. Angel and Eliot stood on either side of the door, waiting for her to go in. She didn’t move. Her hand was on the door handle, she was ready to turn it and go in but… she didn’t move. She had no idea what she was supposed to do, exactly. Part of her just really wanted to go in there and start beating on her, a large part of her actually, but she couldn’t do that either. She could already faintly feel Faith inside.
Angel looked at her expectantly. Buffy narrowed her eyes at him, making it clear she despised this plan, but opened the door and walked in, closing the door behind her. Of course Faith left the door unlocked; she was a cocky bitch like that.
Faith was standing on the other side of the room, as far away as she could get from her as possible, with her arms crossed and a look of annoyance on her face. “I could feel you coming,” she told her. “So I guess you didn’t fix this little problem, did you?”
Faith’s eyes were red, her makeup slightly smeared. Buffy looked at her and said with a slight laugh with amused disbelief, “Have you been crying?”
Yeah, she definitely couldn’t do this caring thing.
“Go fuck yourself, Buffy. Why the hell are you here? We can’t fight each other, we can’t even go near each other, so I’d curious to know what the fuck the point of this is,” Faith said with a scowl.
“Aww, why are you crying Faithy? Life of crime isn’t working out the way you expected?” Buffy taunted her. She couldn’t help it, it was just… automatic. She told Angel she couldn’t do this. There was just something about Faith that made her try to tear her down before Faith tore her down.
“Actually no, it pays quite well,” Faith said as she cocked her head to the side, and Buffy’s eyes flashed to her big pile of money that was just lying there. “ And also, you call me Faithy one more time and I’m going to break your arm,” Faith finished, her eyes flashing.
“Have to get close enough first,” Buffy said with a smirk.
“You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” Faith asked her with a leer.
“Apparently not as much as you would. It’s your fault the connection feels the way it does right now,” Buffy told her.
Faith laughed, “Are you kidding me? Sure, please blame another thing on me, fuck knows you’ll find any excuse, huh B?”
“It’s true! The looks, the comments… you’re disgusting, you know! Like I would ever want anyone like you,” Buffy stressed each word, knowing it was going to inflame Faith even further. She knew exactly how to push Faith’s buttons: with the truth.
Well, at least half of it anyway.
“Don’t give me your fucking bullshit, Buffy!” Faith screamed and hit the wall with her hand, cracking it. “I was in those fucking dreams too, you know!”
Buffy stopped for a minute and just stared at her. She knew what significance that meant. But no, Buffy wasn’t going to let her say it. When it’s said outloud it makes it real, and Buffy didn’t want it to be real.
“We make the bed, we speak in riddles…” Faith started.
“Shut up!” Buffy cried.
“We play house well, don’t we B?” Faith said, taunting her now with the truth.
“SHUT UP!” Buffy cried again. She had to stop her somehow, but she couldn’t get near her.
“And I know you know I can feel you, just like I know you can feel me. And what does it feel like Buffy?” Faith asked, her voice growing louder.
“I SAID SHUT UP!” Buffy took a lamp off of a nearby table and threw it at Faith. She ducked.
“What does it feel like?!” Faith screamed, staring at her.
“SHUT THE FUCK UP, FAITH!”
“Tell me what it fucking feels like Buffy!!” Faith shouted at her, advancing on her too much that they both fell to the ground almost immediately from their knees buckling from the intensity of the feeling.
“Fuck! Faith!” Buffy screamed as she fell, half in blame and the other half in pleasure. “Love!” she screamed finally, not being able to move or barely breathe. Her body was going through too many things at once, she couldn’t handle it. She was about to do something she really didn’t want to do right here on this floor in front of Faith. “Okay!? Love! Now MOVE!!”
Faith grabbed onto the bed post that was by her and kind of pulled herself away from the other woman until she was far enough that she could move on her own. Well, kind of. Neither of them could still stand, their legs were shaking.
“Why did you do that?” Buffy asked her, out of breath and angry.
“Because…” Faith said on the floor on the other side of the room, still slightly panting, “I needed to hear you say it.”
“I don’t love you, Faith,” Buffy told her in a low voice, so angry with her and with herself for having said that outloud.
“Yes you do,” Faith said with a laugh, still out of breath. “You just hate me too.”
“We’re obsessed with each other,” Buffy corrected her, repeating what Angel told her. She’d rather have that than love.
Faith laughed a little and said, “Yes… we are. But that’s a symptom, baby. Not the cause.”
“Don’t call me baby,” Buffy said, finally getting enough strength to get herself up off the floor.
“I figured out of all the things I usually call you, you’d prefer that rather than… say, bitch,” Faith told her with a smirk as she herself stood back up.
“You couldn’t abort it, could you?” Buffy asked her, finally picking up on something. “That’s why you were crying.”
Faith looked stunned by Buffy’s perceptiveness and replied defensively, “I don’t cry, B.” She didn’t deny the truth in what Buffy said though.
“You cry at night all the time,” Buffy told her with a meaningful look.
“Do you really wanna play this game with me?!” Faith asked her, raising her voice because she herself didn’t want to play it anymore. “You know I know the same things about you that you do about me. Right when I drift off I hear you too sometimes, reality before the dreams, right? So if you wanna play, let’s go then.”
“I was just saying,” Buffy said. That was as close to caring as she ever could get with Faith; admitting she knew.
“Why are you here?” Faith asked her again, getting mad again. “If you’re here to kill me to get rid of this thing than just fucking get on with it already.”
“Faith…”
“Just do it!” Faith yelled at her. “Just fucking do it, Buffy! I know you want to, you had no problem trying to do it before! So heres your damn open invitation! Go for it if you think you have the balls!”
“I’m not going to kill you, Faith!” Buffy screamed at her.
“WHY?!” Faith screamed back. Almost like she wanted Buffy to do it.
“Because I can’t!” Buffy yelled back.
“Why the fuck not?! I have this fucking thing inside me that nobody wants to exist, right?! So heres your quick solution, just DO IT!”
“Faith!”
“DO IT BUFFY! JUST KILL ME!” Faith screamed. She was crying now, though Buffy didn’t know if she realized it or not.
“No…” Buffy said quietly, watching her in horrified fascination. Faith was breaking.
“Do it!” Faith screamed at her, a little more desperately, but a little quieter than before.
“No,” Buffy repeated again.
“Fuck you! Fuck you, Buffy! Just fucking do it! It has to be you!” Faith screamed at her, tears falling from her eyes more freely now.
“Faith, stop…” Buffy said. The connection wasn’t feeling sexual anymore; it was feeling desperate, painful, sad, and self loathing. Buffy was about to start crying from the feeling of it.
“Just do it…” Faith said in a quiet voice, begging now.
“Angel!” Buffy yelled, not knowing what to do anymore. She didn’t know what was going on; she had never seen Faith like this before. She wasn’t expecting this.
The door opened and Angel and Eliot came in, running towards Faith. Faith tried to fight them, but she was broken so badly that she couldn’t even get in one good hit against the two of them. Buffy just looked at her sadly as Eliot stuck the syringe in her neck and she slumped into Angel’s arms, her cheeks still tear stained.
“God…” Buffy said quietly, just staring at her.
Angel’s eyes met Buffy’s and Buffy could feel a single tear fall down her cheek. She wiped it off quickly and tried to regain herself. “Let’s bring her back,” was all she said before walking out the door, needing to forget everything that just happened.
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PART NINE CAN BE FOUND HERE.