Fic: All Night Long (6)
Title: All Night Long - chapter six.
Series: Damned If I Don't, Damned If I Do.
Rating: R
Pairings: Buffy/Faith
Summary: Curses can pass from one generation to the next, even without biology involved.
Chapter six
“So, that was embarrassing,” Buffy muttered as they walked briskly across the street.
“Was it? I didn’t notice.”
Snow fell around them, and on them, and the temperature must have dropped from mild into minus figures since they’d entered the restaurant, but at least the car was only a minute or two’s walk away.
“Oh, shut up.” Buffy pulled her coat tighter around her; she hadn’t been given the time to button it up. “She was rushing towards you with a big knife! What was I supposed to think?”
“I don’t know, B. That she was going to stab me in the back and then sit down and have a nice slice of birthday cake. What did you think the candles were for? So she could aim better? Whatever, it’s no big. Just figured if we were getting kicked out of places it would be down to me. Did you at least enjoy it?”
Just what kind of girl did Faith think she was? “Well, it was a shame the cake was wasted . . . No, Faith, no, I didn’t enjoy breaking an old lady’s hip! If she had been a demon like she was supposed to be, her hip wouldn’t have broken. It’s not my fault she turned out to be human! Oh God, you don’t really think I broke her hip, do you?”
Faith finally caved into a laugh. “I meant the meal, B. Despite only just escaping an assault and battery charge, did you enjoy the food?”
“Oh. I did actually. The company was okay too.” Smiling, Buffy took Faith’s gloved hand in her own and swung it between them. “Thank you for a lovely evening.”
Faith had to lean on the hood of their car with one hand while her other held her stomach until she stopped laughing. She left a print in the snow. “Don’t do that! Kid has a hold on my bladder with both hands tonight.”
Buffy’s nose wrinkled, but she simply said, “I was being sincere.” Nose wrinkling again, she checked, “Do you need to use the bathroom now? It’s a long drive home.”
“No, I’m good. I went. I wasn’t the one who was frog-marched to the door.”
“Okay, okay, do we have to keep talking about it?” Buffy grumbled as she unlocked the car and opened the door for Faith. “I’ve had finer moments.”
“Hell yeah I’m gonna keep talking about it. For instance, I’m gonna talk a lot about it when we get home.”
“Everyone will be asleep,” she said hopefully.
“Then I’ll wake them up. They’ll all think it’s worth it.”
It was a vain hope anyway. What she really hoped was that everyone was not only still up but also trying desperately to reach them. Not that it mattered so much now. Short of Troy mounting a road block on the highway, they were home-free. Just another forty-five minutes or so and Faith would be as safe as she ever could be again. Not that the next forty-five minutes were going to be all that safe. Buffy had never driven in falling snow, and she wasn’t happy that her first time was going to be after dark.
“Can we get some heat in this ice box or what?” Faith asked once she was finally comfortable in the passenger seat. “Before I get frostbite and start losing toes and nipples and shit.”
Buffy hadn’t realized she’d been staring at the white layer on the windshield for so long. “Yes. Sorry. Just a second.” She turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. She twisted it back towards her and tried again. It just clicked again. “Am I doing something wrong?”
“No,” Faith sighed. “Even you can’t do that part wrong.”
“Then what is wrong?” Buffy tried the key again three times in quick succession.
“The battery is dead. Did you leave the lights on?”
“No!” Faith turned to stare her down. “Maybe, I don’t know! How do we fix it?”
“We can’t.”
“Of course we can! We changed your tire once between us, I’m sure we can do this.”
“Unless you have a ball of electricity in your pocket that we can attach the jump leads to, I don’t know how.” Faith took her seatbelt back off and rubbed at her tummy. “Normally I’d suggest we tried pushing it along a little, but I’m not pushing in this weather and there’s no point you pushing when I can’t get behind the damn wheel.”
Buffy’s fists balled around the top of the steering wheel and her head bumped down to rest on her wrists. Why did she always have such bad luck with driving? And why were the lights wired up so stupid? She left lights on all the time at home and the house never stopped working!
Okay, this couldn’t be that bad. The battery was dead, she’d heard of that and while she obviously wasn’t carrying a ball of electricity around with her, she wasn’t useless. She could do things. She was a woman who got things done. It was like her mantra, it should be her mantra . . .
“So?” Faith dragged the word out to pull her attention back.
“Oh, right, so. Um? So! This is what we’re going to do. I have a broadsword in the back seat and I bought cute chunky rubber-grip boots this year.”
“Are you crazy?” Faith laughed. “It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just grab hold of the battery, raise your sword in the air like He-Man and wait for lightning to strike.”
It was Buffy laughing now. “Are you crazy? I’m not getting struck by lightning just to save one of your toes from freezing off.”
“What about if it was a nipple?”
She had to think about it but, “Nah. You have another one and I’m not greedy. Now, do you want to hear my actual non-crazy plan or not?”
“Sure, why not. Hit me.”
“Faith, this is hardly the time or the weather for foreplay. So, I’m going to go to the back and push the car and you’re going to use this-“she leaned through the gap in the seats to grab her favorite long-edged weapon. “-to press down on the gas from where you’re sitting.”
Faith stared at her for the longest time. Why wasn’t she taking the sword? What was she waiting for? Didn’t she hear the full stop at the end of the plan? Buffy gave the hilt a little jiggle in her lovers’ direction, urging her to grasp it.
Instead Faith sat back with her arms crossed and resting on her bump. “I was right. I win. You are the crazy one.”
“I am not!”
“How is that even going to work?”
“I. Just. Told. You.”
“No, you just told me you want me to stab the gas pedal while you push us along. Have you forgotten how you almost died doing that last Christmas, and now you want to bring big, sharp objects in on the act too?” Faith shook her head, sympathetically. “Crazy.”
“Oh yeah? Well, at least I have ideas. What ideas do you have, huh? Sit here all night and become human popsicles? I saw a security guy that happened to one time and, you know what? It didn’t look fun. It looked cold, and uncomfortable, and . . . hard! So what does that leave us? Walking home? I don’t think so in your condition. Oh, I know! Let’s catch a bus! Oh, we can’t because it’s past ten at night and the last bus home is at eight-thirty! Any other ideas?”
She knew it wasn’t Faith’s fault they lived in a backwater without a decent transport network any more than it was Faith’s fault that her birthdays had a habit of ruining what otherwise could be a perfectly good day. It wasn’t even Faith’s fault she was pregnant. Buffy was just irked by life. Her own life, the new life almost ready to explode out of Faith, Faith’s low-life ex, you name it. If it had a name, Buffy was sure she could think of reason this quick for being pissed off with it.
It didn’t soothe her that Faith was still having a Buddha moment, calmly listening to her rant with a serene smile on her face and her fingers clasped, palms resting comfortably on her belly - like some kind of all-knowing Earth Mother.
“Well, I’m waiting? What’s your brilliant idea to get us out of this?”
“We both got cell-phones; we could call somebody. Triple-A? A taxi? Better yet, Red or Kennedy. Get one of ‘em to pick us up and we can deal with the dead battery tomorrow.”
Buffy’s bubble of anger burst in the face of such a simple, sensible solution. You had to hand it to Faith for thinking inside the box; not everyone could make it work for them. If only their phones worked as well as Faith’s lateral thinking.
“A for effort, F for effectiveness . . . Effie. The phones are down.”
“No they’re not, you just don’t like that for once I beat you to the obvious answer.”
“Trust me, baby, I wouldn’t even let that come between me and a hot cup of cocoa right now. I’m telling you I haven’t been able to get a signal all night, but if you think you can magically get through to someone, please . . . prove me wrong.”
“What do you mean, all night? Who have you been trying to call all night?”
Half of her phone book?
“Oh, you know this and that,” she said vaguely.
“Huh?”
“Him and her?” she tried next.
“Him and her who now?”
“What is this? Twenty questions? Since when am I not allowed to call anyone? I’m not sure if I like this possessive side of you I’m seeing tonight . . .”
“B, out with it.”
“. . . Fine! Xander, Dawn, Giles, Willow, Kennedy, Andrew . . .”
“Buffy! What happened to it being just me and you tonight?” To an outsider Faith probably looked mad, but she was pretty sure there was a laugh hiding in there too.
“. . . and the Wendigo Fire Department.”
“The Fire . . .? If you wanted to escape my company that bad you shoulda called the city department; they’d-a got here faster!”
Okay, so it was hiding really deep inside. “I wasn’t trying to escape. I just don’t know that many people around here and I panicked,” she admitted.
“So you called the Fire Department because you’re in desperate need for more pals, tonight?” Faith really was trying hard to understand so Buffy did the decent thing and came clean.
“I was trying to see if Xander was okay after we left him stranded, only he didn’t answer. So then I tried the other surveillance team.”
“Uh-huh.” Faith shifted in the passenger seat, giving her stomach a quick rub and wiggling her feet around to get some warmth into them. “Kennedy?”
“Yes. She didn’t answer either. So then I tried the house and couldn’t get through there. So then I called, well pretty much everyone else in my contacts. Sorry. It’s only because I care.” She would have batted her eyelashes but she was scared they would shatter like shards of ice and fall off.
Sighing heavily Faith shifted again, this time to reach for her own cell phone.
“I just explained to you there’s no signal. I even tried the Fire Department to make sure it wasn’t just my friends ignoring me!”
“And?”
“Obviously they didn’t answer either!”
“Sure it’s not just that you’ve got a crappy phone?”
“You bought it for me!” she shot back, reminding Faith of the fancy cell phone she’d purchased for her in Greece. Buffy had done the necessary after returning home, making it useable in America and it had never let her down so far. What were the odds tonight would be the first time it failed?
Probably pretty high, actually. It gave her a moment of hope, until Faith swore under her breath.
“Any luck?” she asked anyway.
Taking the cell from her ear, Faith stabbed a couple of buttons with her finger and smacked it to the side of her head again and listened. “For fuck’s sake!”
“Maybe you just have a crappy phone.”
Faith repeated the process again, right down to the expletive. She began it for the fourth time.
“Are you going to go through your whole phone . . .?”
“Shhh!”
Buffy did shut up, assuming the need for hush was a good sign.
It wasn’t and Faith balled her hands in frustration. The plastic casing creaked in her fist until she remembered herself and dropped the phone. It bounced off of her bump and fell into the floor by her feet.
“So there’s no fuckin’ signal,” she said, like she’d been the one to discover it. “Fucking hell!” Faith ran her hands back through her hair, mussing it up. “This is just fuckin’ great.”
“Just a quick question.” Faith eyeballed her but she went on. “You’re only pissed about the phones, right?”
Finally Faith laughed, “And about how freakin’ cold I am, and am apparently gonna stay because your surveillance teams are too shit to be here when we actually coulda used them!”
“You have a point. Hang on.”
It gave her an idea and she stepped out of the car, scanning up and down the road. It wasn’t as busy as it had been earlier, most drivers deterred by the falling snow. There was still plenty of foot traffic heading to and from the restaurants in the area, but the people were buried under deep hoods or umbrellas, taking no notice of anyone or anything outside of their groups. It was the perfect weather for vampires to take advantage, but unless one jumped out right in front of her Buffy wasn’t here to slay.
“Kennedy?” she called out, first one way and then the other. “Kennedy!”
No one honked an answer and no vans pulled discreetly up beside her.
Faith leaned over as far as she could to look up at her with a grin. “Any other bright ideas?”
Buffy looked down at the broadsword still dangling from her grip and then to Faith with an eyebrow raised. Faith’s amusement fell away with a deep groan and then she held a hand out.
In contrast, Buffy suddenly felt chipper as she tilted the long sword to fit it through the door. “This is so going to work!” She was about to run to the back of the car, when something occurred to her. “Um, but how does this work exactly?”
Awkwardly Faith took the parking brake off and said, “Turn the keys so the ignition is on, then get around and push. I’ll do the rest.”
She watched as Faith hefted the sword, getting the taste of it in her left hand, before pointing it down and steadying the point over the gas pedal. With her right hand she gripped the steering wheel.”
“That’s not making you too uncomfortable, is it?” she asked, because it was making Faith lean over her bump. At the very least her breasts must have been getting squashed.
“No more uncomfortable than I was already.”
“Okay, good. I’ll just go and . . .”
The snow had settled around the car but it was still too powdery for her boots to slip. Buffy brushed the settled flakes from the edge of the trunk so that she could settle her hands on it without losing her fingers to frostbite too soon and then called out, “I’m ready!”
“Me too,” came the muffled response. “Go for it, B.”
She started to push. It was much easier than the last time. “Hit the gas!” she shouted as soon as they were moving along.
The car scrunched fresh snow beneath its tires as Faith turned the wheel to ease it away from the curb. She must have wound down her window because her voice was loud in the hush of the falling flakes “I am! Push faster!”
Buffy felt like a hockey player as her toes dug in and pushed on, forcing the car before her. If she pushed much faster they’d be in danger of breaking the speed limit!
Just as she was about to give up the engine caught and roared to life. She heard Faith shout and whoop from inside and with one last hard push Buffy let go, raising her arms in victory. She’d known it would work. Her plans generally did and it was about time Faith started trusting that a little more. They could already be halfway across the city with the heat running high if they hadn’t had to have the pointless argument about phones first. Almost as pointless as standing here with her teeth chattering instead of getting back into the car and giving Faith a hearty ‘I told you so’. Except . . . oh no, what was happening? Why . . . how was the car doing that? Cars couldn’t move sideways! Oh no, no, no . . .! “Oh . . .” The resounding crunch of metal on metal rang in Buffy’s ears as she stared at the wreck before her with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.
“BUFFY!”
“. . . Damn.”
Series: Damned If I Don't, Damned If I Do.
Rating: R
Pairings: Buffy/Faith
Summary: Curses can pass from one generation to the next, even without biology involved.
Chapter six
“So, that was embarrassing,” Buffy muttered as they walked briskly across the street.
“Was it? I didn’t notice.”
Snow fell around them, and on them, and the temperature must have dropped from mild into minus figures since they’d entered the restaurant, but at least the car was only a minute or two’s walk away.
“Oh, shut up.” Buffy pulled her coat tighter around her; she hadn’t been given the time to button it up. “She was rushing towards you with a big knife! What was I supposed to think?”
“I don’t know, B. That she was going to stab me in the back and then sit down and have a nice slice of birthday cake. What did you think the candles were for? So she could aim better? Whatever, it’s no big. Just figured if we were getting kicked out of places it would be down to me. Did you at least enjoy it?”
Just what kind of girl did Faith think she was? “Well, it was a shame the cake was wasted . . . No, Faith, no, I didn’t enjoy breaking an old lady’s hip! If she had been a demon like she was supposed to be, her hip wouldn’t have broken. It’s not my fault she turned out to be human! Oh God, you don’t really think I broke her hip, do you?”
Faith finally caved into a laugh. “I meant the meal, B. Despite only just escaping an assault and battery charge, did you enjoy the food?”
“Oh. I did actually. The company was okay too.” Smiling, Buffy took Faith’s gloved hand in her own and swung it between them. “Thank you for a lovely evening.”
Faith had to lean on the hood of their car with one hand while her other held her stomach until she stopped laughing. She left a print in the snow. “Don’t do that! Kid has a hold on my bladder with both hands tonight.”
Buffy’s nose wrinkled, but she simply said, “I was being sincere.” Nose wrinkling again, she checked, “Do you need to use the bathroom now? It’s a long drive home.”
“No, I’m good. I went. I wasn’t the one who was frog-marched to the door.”
“Okay, okay, do we have to keep talking about it?” Buffy grumbled as she unlocked the car and opened the door for Faith. “I’ve had finer moments.”
“Hell yeah I’m gonna keep talking about it. For instance, I’m gonna talk a lot about it when we get home.”
“Everyone will be asleep,” she said hopefully.
“Then I’ll wake them up. They’ll all think it’s worth it.”
It was a vain hope anyway. What she really hoped was that everyone was not only still up but also trying desperately to reach them. Not that it mattered so much now. Short of Troy mounting a road block on the highway, they were home-free. Just another forty-five minutes or so and Faith would be as safe as she ever could be again. Not that the next forty-five minutes were going to be all that safe. Buffy had never driven in falling snow, and she wasn’t happy that her first time was going to be after dark.
“Can we get some heat in this ice box or what?” Faith asked once she was finally comfortable in the passenger seat. “Before I get frostbite and start losing toes and nipples and shit.”
Buffy hadn’t realized she’d been staring at the white layer on the windshield for so long. “Yes. Sorry. Just a second.” She turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. She twisted it back towards her and tried again. It just clicked again. “Am I doing something wrong?”
“No,” Faith sighed. “Even you can’t do that part wrong.”
“Then what is wrong?” Buffy tried the key again three times in quick succession.
“The battery is dead. Did you leave the lights on?”
“No!” Faith turned to stare her down. “Maybe, I don’t know! How do we fix it?”
“We can’t.”
“Of course we can! We changed your tire once between us, I’m sure we can do this.”
“Unless you have a ball of electricity in your pocket that we can attach the jump leads to, I don’t know how.” Faith took her seatbelt back off and rubbed at her tummy. “Normally I’d suggest we tried pushing it along a little, but I’m not pushing in this weather and there’s no point you pushing when I can’t get behind the damn wheel.”
Buffy’s fists balled around the top of the steering wheel and her head bumped down to rest on her wrists. Why did she always have such bad luck with driving? And why were the lights wired up so stupid? She left lights on all the time at home and the house never stopped working!
Okay, this couldn’t be that bad. The battery was dead, she’d heard of that and while she obviously wasn’t carrying a ball of electricity around with her, she wasn’t useless. She could do things. She was a woman who got things done. It was like her mantra, it should be her mantra . . .
“So?” Faith dragged the word out to pull her attention back.
“Oh, right, so. Um? So! This is what we’re going to do. I have a broadsword in the back seat and I bought cute chunky rubber-grip boots this year.”
“Are you crazy?” Faith laughed. “It doesn’t work like that. You can’t just grab hold of the battery, raise your sword in the air like He-Man and wait for lightning to strike.”
It was Buffy laughing now. “Are you crazy? I’m not getting struck by lightning just to save one of your toes from freezing off.”
“What about if it was a nipple?”
She had to think about it but, “Nah. You have another one and I’m not greedy. Now, do you want to hear my actual non-crazy plan or not?”
“Sure, why not. Hit me.”
“Faith, this is hardly the time or the weather for foreplay. So, I’m going to go to the back and push the car and you’re going to use this-“she leaned through the gap in the seats to grab her favorite long-edged weapon. “-to press down on the gas from where you’re sitting.”
Faith stared at her for the longest time. Why wasn’t she taking the sword? What was she waiting for? Didn’t she hear the full stop at the end of the plan? Buffy gave the hilt a little jiggle in her lovers’ direction, urging her to grasp it.
Instead Faith sat back with her arms crossed and resting on her bump. “I was right. I win. You are the crazy one.”
“I am not!”
“How is that even going to work?”
“I. Just. Told. You.”
“No, you just told me you want me to stab the gas pedal while you push us along. Have you forgotten how you almost died doing that last Christmas, and now you want to bring big, sharp objects in on the act too?” Faith shook her head, sympathetically. “Crazy.”
“Oh yeah? Well, at least I have ideas. What ideas do you have, huh? Sit here all night and become human popsicles? I saw a security guy that happened to one time and, you know what? It didn’t look fun. It looked cold, and uncomfortable, and . . . hard! So what does that leave us? Walking home? I don’t think so in your condition. Oh, I know! Let’s catch a bus! Oh, we can’t because it’s past ten at night and the last bus home is at eight-thirty! Any other ideas?”
She knew it wasn’t Faith’s fault they lived in a backwater without a decent transport network any more than it was Faith’s fault that her birthdays had a habit of ruining what otherwise could be a perfectly good day. It wasn’t even Faith’s fault she was pregnant. Buffy was just irked by life. Her own life, the new life almost ready to explode out of Faith, Faith’s low-life ex, you name it. If it had a name, Buffy was sure she could think of reason this quick for being pissed off with it.
It didn’t soothe her that Faith was still having a Buddha moment, calmly listening to her rant with a serene smile on her face and her fingers clasped, palms resting comfortably on her belly - like some kind of all-knowing Earth Mother.
“Well, I’m waiting? What’s your brilliant idea to get us out of this?”
“We both got cell-phones; we could call somebody. Triple-A? A taxi? Better yet, Red or Kennedy. Get one of ‘em to pick us up and we can deal with the dead battery tomorrow.”
Buffy’s bubble of anger burst in the face of such a simple, sensible solution. You had to hand it to Faith for thinking inside the box; not everyone could make it work for them. If only their phones worked as well as Faith’s lateral thinking.
“A for effort, F for effectiveness . . . Effie. The phones are down.”
“No they’re not, you just don’t like that for once I beat you to the obvious answer.”
“Trust me, baby, I wouldn’t even let that come between me and a hot cup of cocoa right now. I’m telling you I haven’t been able to get a signal all night, but if you think you can magically get through to someone, please . . . prove me wrong.”
“What do you mean, all night? Who have you been trying to call all night?”
Half of her phone book?
“Oh, you know this and that,” she said vaguely.
“Huh?”
“Him and her?” she tried next.
“Him and her who now?”
“What is this? Twenty questions? Since when am I not allowed to call anyone? I’m not sure if I like this possessive side of you I’m seeing tonight . . .”
“B, out with it.”
“. . . Fine! Xander, Dawn, Giles, Willow, Kennedy, Andrew . . .”
“Buffy! What happened to it being just me and you tonight?” To an outsider Faith probably looked mad, but she was pretty sure there was a laugh hiding in there too.
“. . . and the Wendigo Fire Department.”
“The Fire . . .? If you wanted to escape my company that bad you shoulda called the city department; they’d-a got here faster!”
Okay, so it was hiding really deep inside. “I wasn’t trying to escape. I just don’t know that many people around here and I panicked,” she admitted.
“So you called the Fire Department because you’re in desperate need for more pals, tonight?” Faith really was trying hard to understand so Buffy did the decent thing and came clean.
“I was trying to see if Xander was okay after we left him stranded, only he didn’t answer. So then I tried the other surveillance team.”
“Uh-huh.” Faith shifted in the passenger seat, giving her stomach a quick rub and wiggling her feet around to get some warmth into them. “Kennedy?”
“Yes. She didn’t answer either. So then I tried the house and couldn’t get through there. So then I called, well pretty much everyone else in my contacts. Sorry. It’s only because I care.” She would have batted her eyelashes but she was scared they would shatter like shards of ice and fall off.
Sighing heavily Faith shifted again, this time to reach for her own cell phone.
“I just explained to you there’s no signal. I even tried the Fire Department to make sure it wasn’t just my friends ignoring me!”
“And?”
“Obviously they didn’t answer either!”
“Sure it’s not just that you’ve got a crappy phone?”
“You bought it for me!” she shot back, reminding Faith of the fancy cell phone she’d purchased for her in Greece. Buffy had done the necessary after returning home, making it useable in America and it had never let her down so far. What were the odds tonight would be the first time it failed?
Probably pretty high, actually. It gave her a moment of hope, until Faith swore under her breath.
“Any luck?” she asked anyway.
Taking the cell from her ear, Faith stabbed a couple of buttons with her finger and smacked it to the side of her head again and listened. “For fuck’s sake!”
“Maybe you just have a crappy phone.”
Faith repeated the process again, right down to the expletive. She began it for the fourth time.
“Are you going to go through your whole phone . . .?”
“Shhh!”
Buffy did shut up, assuming the need for hush was a good sign.
It wasn’t and Faith balled her hands in frustration. The plastic casing creaked in her fist until she remembered herself and dropped the phone. It bounced off of her bump and fell into the floor by her feet.
“So there’s no fuckin’ signal,” she said, like she’d been the one to discover it. “Fucking hell!” Faith ran her hands back through her hair, mussing it up. “This is just fuckin’ great.”
“Just a quick question.” Faith eyeballed her but she went on. “You’re only pissed about the phones, right?”
Finally Faith laughed, “And about how freakin’ cold I am, and am apparently gonna stay because your surveillance teams are too shit to be here when we actually coulda used them!”
“You have a point. Hang on.”
It gave her an idea and she stepped out of the car, scanning up and down the road. It wasn’t as busy as it had been earlier, most drivers deterred by the falling snow. There was still plenty of foot traffic heading to and from the restaurants in the area, but the people were buried under deep hoods or umbrellas, taking no notice of anyone or anything outside of their groups. It was the perfect weather for vampires to take advantage, but unless one jumped out right in front of her Buffy wasn’t here to slay.
“Kennedy?” she called out, first one way and then the other. “Kennedy!”
No one honked an answer and no vans pulled discreetly up beside her.
Faith leaned over as far as she could to look up at her with a grin. “Any other bright ideas?”
Buffy looked down at the broadsword still dangling from her grip and then to Faith with an eyebrow raised. Faith’s amusement fell away with a deep groan and then she held a hand out.
In contrast, Buffy suddenly felt chipper as she tilted the long sword to fit it through the door. “This is so going to work!” She was about to run to the back of the car, when something occurred to her. “Um, but how does this work exactly?”
Awkwardly Faith took the parking brake off and said, “Turn the keys so the ignition is on, then get around and push. I’ll do the rest.”
She watched as Faith hefted the sword, getting the taste of it in her left hand, before pointing it down and steadying the point over the gas pedal. With her right hand she gripped the steering wheel.”
“That’s not making you too uncomfortable, is it?” she asked, because it was making Faith lean over her bump. At the very least her breasts must have been getting squashed.
“No more uncomfortable than I was already.”
“Okay, good. I’ll just go and . . .”
The snow had settled around the car but it was still too powdery for her boots to slip. Buffy brushed the settled flakes from the edge of the trunk so that she could settle her hands on it without losing her fingers to frostbite too soon and then called out, “I’m ready!”
“Me too,” came the muffled response. “Go for it, B.”
She started to push. It was much easier than the last time. “Hit the gas!” she shouted as soon as they were moving along.
The car scrunched fresh snow beneath its tires as Faith turned the wheel to ease it away from the curb. She must have wound down her window because her voice was loud in the hush of the falling flakes “I am! Push faster!”
Buffy felt like a hockey player as her toes dug in and pushed on, forcing the car before her. If she pushed much faster they’d be in danger of breaking the speed limit!
Just as she was about to give up the engine caught and roared to life. She heard Faith shout and whoop from inside and with one last hard push Buffy let go, raising her arms in victory. She’d known it would work. Her plans generally did and it was about time Faith started trusting that a little more. They could already be halfway across the city with the heat running high if they hadn’t had to have the pointless argument about phones first. Almost as pointless as standing here with her teeth chattering instead of getting back into the car and giving Faith a hearty ‘I told you so’. Except . . . oh no, what was happening? Why . . . how was the car doing that? Cars couldn’t move sideways! Oh no, no, no . . .! “Oh . . .” The resounding crunch of metal on metal rang in Buffy’s ears as she stared at the wreck before her with wide eyes and a dropped jaw.
“BUFFY!”
“. . . Damn.”