I never thought this would happen. I mean I'm supposed to be the Dark Slayer. I sided with evil. Nearly killed her and her friends. I wasn't what she deserved. Yet for some reason, I'm what she wants. All thoughts of revenge went out the window when I had broke into her room at her house that night and found her diary. My original intention was to ambush her when she got home. She had to know I was awake from my coma. Since SunnyD was still here, I know that she probably stopped the boss' plans. I found the package from him and watched the tape. That little metal thing now sat forgotten on her dresser. An open book with white pages filled with Buffy's precise but girly writing got my attention.

Come Home To Me

By: LowFlyer1080

Naturally, me bein' me, I picked it up, and wasn't shocked to see it was B's diary. Checking the dates, I flipped back through the pages, careful to keep my hearing focused on the rest of the house. Dates flipped past my sights as I looked for a specific time. Imagine my surprise when the pages showed me that B hadn't written anything on the day we fought. I frowned a little, not finding any evidence that the pages had been ripped out. I turned to the next page, one covered in splotches. It was dated a week after the fight. The ink was blurred as though there had been water splashed on the page. It was then that something in my mind whispered to me.

'It ain't water...those're B's tears.'

Faith clenched her jaw against a stinging in her eyes. Forcing the pain down, she read through the entry in the journal.

' They finally released me from the hospital and I'm back home. The anticipation and fear coupled with the nerves of Graduation Day coming up and the Mayor's Ascension all just seem to fall away...

Because I just can't get her out of my head.

I can't understand it; why I'm feeling this way. I walked in to see her lying in that bed hooked up to those machines that were keeping her alive. She's one of the strongest people I know and to see her looking so weak, so broken, made my heart hurt. And I can't understand why I felt that way because I was the one who put her there. That was when the realization hit me that if she died, then I would be a murderer.

A murderer.

At that moment I felt my blood freeze in my veins. I don't know why, but despite all that she's done, I can't help but feel I'm partially to blame. Like if I had been able to see the signs with that Gwendolyn Post watcher-fake then she might have been more open to me. Then quite possibly the whole massive pile of wrong that was Finch's death wouldn't have happened. Even then, I was right there with her. I didn't even realize he was human until a nanosecond before Faith stabbed him. I all but literally threw him right into her stake. Then, to top it all off, me in my infinite brains went and tried to blame it all on Faith. That was all sorts of bad on my part that I feel mostly responsible for her changing sides.

As I stood there looking at Faith and thinking through all this in my mind, I couldn't stop the tears that fell. What had I done? What had I done to my own sister Slayer? We were supposed to be the Chosen Two. Buffy and Faith the Vampire Slayers, guardians of the Hellmouth. And I nearly killed her!

I don't know why I did it, but that was when I leaned forward and kissed her softly on her forehead, whispering in my heart that I was so sorry. Praying that she would wake up. Praying that we could mend the damage that had been done. Praying that I would get a chance to tell her how I now realized I truly felt about her.

Please Faith, come back to me...

-Buffy '

Come back to her? Truly felt? C'mon B, if I didn't know any better I'd say you were in love with me. Ya ain't like me, B. Miss Stick-Up-The-Ass prim and proper don't fall in love with a girl. Don't fall in love with her once-friend-now-enemy. She thought all those times I flirted with her I was jokin'. She don't know that I was being sincere. Never thought I'd fall in love at first sight. Then again, never figured I'd wind up in the position with her tryin' ta take me out ta feed to her boytoy vamp, Angel.

Memories flashed disjoined in my head of shared dreams, slayer dreams, of the two of us.

Me and the Mayor having a picnic.

Buffy attacking us with a knife; my knife.

B and I making a bed up for her little sister.

Crimson droplets falling onto the sheets and staining the white linen.

B holding the knife in my gut.

B chasing me through a cemetery and us falling into a grave.

Me climbin out of the grave alone and into the rain.

Us standing together talking and my warning to her about the Mayor.

Then she was gone.

I shook my head, trying to rid myself of the nightmares as I turned the next page. This entry was dated a few days after the previous.

' We did it. It only took blowing up our high school with several tons of explosives and people from my graduating class laying down their lives, but we did it. We stopped the Mayor. Angel left too, just like he said he would. And strangely, even though that hurts, it still doesn't hurt me as much as knowing that Faith is still in a coma. I wish she would wake up. I need to tell her thank you. That I knew she would do the right thing in the end. It was because of her tip that we came up with the plan to stop the Mayor in the first place. And that's where I went after all the questions. All the fallout. I slipped quietly away into the dark and I went to her.

To Faith.

The nurse there told me she might never wake up. I refuse to believe that. Faith will wake up; I know she will. She's too stubborn and too headstrong to let something like this permanently take her out of the fight. The slayer healing has got to have started kicking in by now. She'll be fine. Heh, now who am I trying to convince? The nurse or myself? I stayed with her for a good two hours, as long as I dared without making my mom worry. The hardest thing I did that night wasn't fighting the Mayor. It was leaving Faith's hospital room. When I finally left that night, a part of me felt like it was being left behind while the rest of me went forward with my life. I want her to wake up so badly. So that I can tell her that I forgive her.

I forgive her.

I whisper those words to her every night after patrol when I walk into her room and every night before I go home after staying a few hours with her. I tell her about patrol; how many vamps I dusted and demons I killed. Just my day in general. All in hope that I'll get to see those chocolate brown eyes and that dimpled smile again.

Willow knows where I go after patrol. She followed me last night. What shocked me was that she didn't flip out like I thought she would. She even stayed with me while I sat with Faith. I asked her about it when I walked her home. She said that seeing me with Faith made her realize that she too had taken Faith for granted. Hadn't really tried hard enough to be a friend to her when it mattered the most. Hadn't ever really tried to get to know her the way she should have. She told me she'd go visit Faith more often. She said that she read somewhere that people in comas might still be able to hear their surroundings or some such thing. I don't remember, I lost her mid-babble.

I asked her what we were going to tell Xander and Giles. She agreed with me that for now what they don't know won't hurt them. For now, I'll continue to watch over Faith in hopes that she might wake up. I'll watch over her because it's the least I can do after what I did to her.

Please Faith, come back to me...

-Buffy '

Faith frowned at that. This had to be some sort of trick. And what was up with the whole asking her to come back to her? Could she really trust what B wrote about Red? All her life there had only been one person she had trusted other than herself and it wasn't even by her own choice that she trusted them. That person was Buffy. That's why her anger and pain had run so deeply when the blonde had tried pinning Finch's death on her that she had forced down her feelings she had for Buffy, burying everything down inside herself, and slowly but surely turned on them.

As she sat here reading the words, she began to question her reaction to Buffy's apparent betrayal of her trust. And as she turned through the pages, reading the words, the feelings she thought she buried began to surface; pushing back against the hate, the anger, the pain and rage and darkness. The blurry splotches on the pages never completely disappeared. Each page she turned to was stained and crinkled from Buffy's tears. Some pages there were only a few, others were hardly legible. It was those tear stains that kept Faith reading. Days, weeks, months passed in Buffy's written words. And after each entry, the same words were always written.

Please Faith, come back to me.

So wrapped up in what she was reading, Faith failed to notice the quiet closing of the front door downstairs, or the sound of light stealthy footsteps making their way up the stairs. She failed to hear the door open up quietly, and failed to hear the small but quiet intake of breath. She failed to hear the slow steps of someone crossing the room, nor did she notice the dip in the bed that she was perched on as someone sat down beside her.

None of that ever registered to Faith, for the passage she had found was different than the others and held her powerless in its thrall. It was dated not more than three days ago.

' The more times I go into the hospital and see Faith lying there like that, the more and more the pain in my chest grows. Willow was there the other night when I broke down completely; when I finally admitted out loud that I had somehow fallen in love with Faith. I knew that while Willow might've been a little surprised, she was accepting of it. Probably has something to do with the fact she's currently head-over-heels for Tara Maclay. They really look good together. Looking back now on all the flirting, the jealousy, the dancing, the antagonizing, and even the hurt, anger, and hate, the subtle signs were there. I realize now I had been too blinded by Angel and other things that now seem so meaningless to truly see what was right there in front of me the entire time. I looked at Faith last night after the realization hit me and I completely broke down.

I had tried to kill the woman I loved.

I remember looking at my shaking hands, remembering in vivid detail the weight of Faith's knife; the feeling of non-resistant flesh easily giving way to the cold steel blade; the warm sticky sensation of blood covering my hands.

Faith's blood.

The blood of the woman I loved, covering my hands.

Willow caught me as I sank to the floor, a sobbing wreck of emotion and pain. I remember whispering to myself the same thing over and over as she held me close, yet unable to offer the comfort I so desperately needed.

"Oh God what have I done? I love her and I've killed her!" '

Faith had a hard time reading the next paragraph as it was so blotched by tears, the ink writing was illegible. She skipped down to the next one, written with an obviously shaking hand.

' It was almost five in the morning by the time I got back home. I collapsed into my bed not more than ten minutes before I heard mom's alarm clock go off. I don't know how much longer I can keep my nightly visits with faith a secret from Xander, Giles, and Anya. All three of them have commented on how tired I was looking and acting. Willow was worried too and even volunteered to talk to them for me. I may have to take her up on that offer. I just pray that Faith will wake up soon. I swear I'll do everything I can to make up for not being there for her when it really mattered.

When she wakes up, I want to be there and tell her I forgive her. I want to be there and tell her that I will do all I can to help her. I want to be there and tell her that I'm sorry for what I've done. I want to be there and tell her that I love her.

I love you Faith, come home to me...

-Buffy '

Faith, for her part, was sitting there just reading that last line over and over and over again.

'I love you Faith, come home to me.'

She never noticed everything that had gone on while she was entranced by the words on the pages in front of her: the door, the stairs, the gasp, the person next to her. None of that ever registered to her.

What she noticed was the wetness on her cheeks and her own tears falling on the page.

What she noticed was the warm humming sensation filling her body, letting her know that the little blonde was near; right next to her.

What she noticed was trembling arms and shaky hands slowly sliding around her waist and a head coming to rest on her shoulder.

What she noticed was a familiar scent wrapping around her, a scent of shampoo and body wash only ever existing together on one person.

What she noticed as she closed her eyes and the darkness in her was finally pushed completely away by the light in her heart were the words whispered in her ear. Whispered words from the woman who had owned her own heart the moment they first met.

"I love you, Faith. I forgive you." Came the quiet voice, "Please...come home to me."

The reality that the words on the paper were true had been confirmed and that all she had ever wanted was being offered to her. Offered right there on a platter made not of silver, but one of paper and ink, one of tears and pain, one of flesh and blood, one made of Buffy's heart.

'I love you, Faith, come home to me...'

"I'm home, B. For the first time in my life, I'm home."

End

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Buffy. If I did, she would've gotten together with Faith the moment she showed up. And in the one alternate universe shown in the show, Willow would be with Buffy.

A/N – First ever Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfic. Just finished watching the whole series a few weeks ago. One of the best TV shows I've ever seen.