I'm Sorry

"Hey, B," Faith said softly as she walked into the all too quiet hospital room.

From the moment she walked into the room there were shivers traveling up and down her spin. She hated hospitals, and for good reason. But that wasn't even what was causing the bulk of the shivers. That was being caused by seeing Buffy lie there helplessly on the hospital bed.

She wasn't used to this. She wasn't used to seeing her girlfriend in this state. Buffy was a hell of a fighter, the best. So seeing her there unmoving was not sitting well with Faith at all, to say the least.

For a few moments she merely stood there, taking in all of her surroundings. She took in the sights of the numerous, beautiful bouquets of flowers left by the blonde slayer's friends and family. She took in the dull color of the walls and of the sheets on the bed, and she took in the sight of the various machines that Buffy was hooked up to.

That last sight was the most frightening and reality shocking of the bunch. She took a moment to glance at the various computers and IV hookups set up intricately around Buffy's bed. Those machines were the only thing preventing the room from being completely silent.

Faith took a moment to listen as the computers made small beeps as differently shaped lines traveled across the screens. It was unnerving, and at the same time comforting because it kept the silence away.

After sizing up the room the nervous younger slayer made her way to Buffy's bedside.

She'd always prided herself on never being the sappy, emotional type but this situation was quickly changing all of that. The closer she got to the sleeping blonde, the more tears began to well up in the once rouge slayer's eyes.

"I uh…I'm sorry it's taken me so long to come see you, B," Faith apologized as she reached Buffy's side. "I really didn't mean to take this long. I guess…I guess I just couldn't bear the thought of seeing you like this."

Faith watched the sleeping slayer very intently as she spoke almost as if she was expecting a reaction of some sort. But there was none.

She looked away with disappointment for a moment. She would never admit it to anyone but she had been half expecting Buffy to wake up just from the sound of her voice. It was an extremely crazy notion but it didn't stop Faith from hoping.

As she continued to try and fight back tears, Faith was able to once again bring herself to look at Buffy. She slowly reached her hand to the other slayer's face and tenderly brushed a stray piece of blonde hair away from her already completely healed face.

"You know, I gotta say B, you pull off the whole coma thing really well," Faith said with a small smile to try and lighten her own mood. "You still look as hot as ever."

Her efforts to keep the mood light weren't working very well though as the smile she had been trying so hard to keep quickly faded.

The younger slayer's hand moved away from Buffy's face and found its way to her hand. She gently laced her fingers with the blonde's and held onto her tightly as if she was afraid that she would lose her if she let go.

She clenched her lips together tightly in one final attempt to stop the tears from flowing. But it was no use. She lowered her head in shame as the tears began to run down her cheeks.

"I'm so sorry, Buffy," she said through her soft sobs. She lifted her head to once again be able to look at the sleeping beauty. "I'm really trying to be strong for you. I'm usually really good at stuff like that…but when it comes to you…everything is different. You turn my world upside-down."

Faith then paused for a moment to try and find the words she was looking for to explain what she'd just said, what she was feeling. It didn't take her long to find them.

"I've never felt this way about anyone else before, B," she explained sincerely as she opened up her heart to the sleeping slayer before her. "It's kind of scary sometimes yah know? Now that we're together…I honestly don't know what I would do without you."

She paused once again as the tears started to flow more fiercely. She tried to get them under control but it wasn't easy. Faith wasn't used to feeling these kinds of emotions and she certainly wasn't used to showing them, even when there weren't any conscious people around to see. It was almost as if now that the flood gates were opening she wasn't sure if she would be able to close them.

"You can't leave me," the taller slayer said softly as she was able to slightly compose herself. "I need you here with me. I love you…and I'm sorry that I caused a fight the other night. I could really care less if the others never know about us. As long as we're together…that's all that matters to me."

Faith tiredly wiped at her eyes as she continued to fight back tears. For a moment she was able to control herself. She was beginning to get back that patented Faith composure.

"Buffy please," the distraught slayer pleaded as she held Buffy's hand tightly. "Please, I know I'm not great with the whole relationship thing yet, but if you come back to me I promise I'll do whatever it takes to make things work. I just need you to come back to me."

The dark haired slayer closed her eyes tightly and then gently rested her head on the sleeping slayer's stomach with her hand still tightly clenched to Buffy's. Before giving up on speech, Faith softly whispered five more words.

"Please come back to me."

As Faith lay there almost silently now with her head rested on her slayer she was almost about to drift off to sleep. Between the lack of sleep she'd been receiving ever since the accident and the warmth of Buffy's body once again pressed against her own, she felt herself slowly drifting away to sleep.

However, before she was fully taken away by her fatigue she felt something that immediately caused the exhaustion to disappear.

At first she thought it was just a dream, but as she raised her head and looked at Buffy's hand in hers she realized that it was real. She watched with amazement as the blonde slayer's thumb was gently rubbing against the soft skin of Faith's hand.

Without hesitation Faith's eyes quickly moved from her and Buffy's interlocking hands to the older slayer's face. She watched hopefully with tears once again welling up as Buffy's eyes slowly began to flicker open.

The tears began to flow as she watched the weak slayer blink her way back into existence. Her free hand slowly moved to gently caress Buffy's face.

In that moment Faith had more relief, happiness and love in her heart then she had ever felt before in her entire life. It was a crazy notion that just the sound of her voice would bring Buffy back, but it had. It was either that or her touch, but which ever it was didn't matter to Faith. All that mattered was that Buffy was awake.

A bright smile appeared on the dark haired slayer's face as Buffy's tired eyes finally met hers.

She took a deep breath and simply said, "Welcome back, B."

When Buffy first opened her eyes she felt a little disoriented. The last thing that she remembered was being lost in nothingness trying extremely hard to find her way back home, back to Faith.

She could remember hearing her voice and wishing so intensely that she could just see her face and look deeply into those brown pools that she found herself so frequently getting lost in. The next thing she knew she could feel a hand tightly clutching her own. She closed her eyes at the feel of Faith's touch and when she opened them once again the beautiful slayer was standing before her with a smile on her face and tears in her eyes.

"Faith," Buffy whispered softly as she tried to find her voice that hadn't been used in what felt like ages.

At first she was still confused. She wasn't exactly sure where she was or what was going on. "So," she started with a horse, raspy voice, "Are you the real Faith, or the one that's in my head?"

The taller slayer smiled a little brighter and even let out a small laugh as she wondered if the accident had made Buffy a little crazy. "I'm pretty sure I'm the real one, B."

That was when Buffy was beginning to realize what was happening. The guide in her mind had told her to fallow its voice, Faith's voice, home. And that's what she'd done. She was back.

Tears of joy began to well up in the blonde slayer's eyes. She'd been given a second chance at love and as she looked up into the smiling eyes of her girlfriend she vowed to herself that this time she wasn't going to screw it up.

"Baby, I'm so sorry," Buffy managed to say hoarsely as tears began to run down her cheek.

"Shhh," Faith whispered gently. She softly caressed the side of Buffy's face with a bright smile that she found she was unable to remove. "It's ok, Baby. You probably shouldn't try and talk. I should go get the doctor now so they can make sure that everything's five by five."

Faith started to pull her hand away to leave but before she could Buffy weakly raised both her arms and held on to Faith's.

"No, please," the older slayer said with pleading eyes. "I need you to hear this. Please just stay with me."

The taller slayer knew immediately that there was no arguing with those eyes so instead of leaving she gently sat down on Buffy's bed simply enjoying the fact that she was once again able to look deep into those beautiful green eyes.

Buffy smiled as she continued to try and control her tears so that she could get out what she had to say more easily. But it wasn't easy for her to compose herself. She was so happy to be back that she felt like she may never be able to stop crying.

"I am so sorry, Faith," Buffy began sadly. There was so much that needed to be said, but those words were the ones that needed to be said first and the most often. "I know that I made you feel like you were just my dirty little secret and I can't even tell you how sorry I am and how disgusted I am with myself."

Faith shook her head almost as if to just shrug it all off. Buffy was right. She had made Faith feel like a dirty secret but that just didn't seem to matter to her anymore. All that mattered was that her girlfriend was ok.

She gave the weak slayer a kind and gentle smile. "It's ok, B. None of that matters. All that matters is…"

"No!" Buffy interrupted dramatically. "It does matter, Faith. I never should have treated you like that. I made you think that I didn't love you, that I couldn't love you."

The blonde paused for a moment to take a break from talking. Her throat was sore, dry and unused so talking at all was quite painful. But that wasn't about to stop her from saying what she needed to say.

"I do love you, Faith," Buffy continued. She had been somewhat able to keep herself composed before, but the tears were once again threatening to fall. "I love you so much."

Those words just seemed to make the world disappear. Faith had been waiting to here those words coming out of Buffy's mouth in relation to her for what seemed like her whole life. The way that Faith felt at that moment was indescribable because as she looked into the other slayer's eyes she knew that every word was true. Buffy really was in love with her.

Now the tears were falling freely from Buffy's eyes, only this time they weren't tears of joy. This time they were tears of fear, regret, and most of all worry.

"Please don't leave me," she exclaimed in a fit of tears. "I promise I'll be better just please…please don't leave me. I don't know what I'd do without you, Faith. Please…please…please," she continued to say through her sobs.

Faith's heart broke at the site of this. She remembered that she had told Buffy that she might leave her when they had a fight, but after everything that had happened and all the thinking she'd done, leaving Buffy was the farthest thing from her mind.

She immediately scooted herself closer to her slayer and pulled her into a tight embrace placing light, tender kisses on the top of her head.

"I'm not going anywhere, baby," Faith whispered to her softly as Buffy continued to cry in her arms. "I'm not going anywhere. I promise."

For a little while the two slayers simply held each other in silence not saying a word. The only sound that could be heard was the soft sobs of Buffy. But it wasn't long before the silence was broken.

"Buffy," a small nervous, but relieved, voice could be heard. The sound of Dawn's voice broke the slayers from their embrace as they both turned to look at her.

Dawn had heard Buffy's sobs when she was about to walk into the hospital room so she knew that she was awake, but the emotion of that fact didn't fully hit her until Faith was moved out of the way and her fully awake older sister was sat up in the bed with a smile on her tear stained face.

A bright smile immediately appeared on the youngest Scooby's face as she rushed to her sister and wrapped her in the tightest embrace she could muster.

"You're ok," Dawn pointed out happily as tears of joy began to flow from in her eyes.

"I'm ok," Buffy confirmed. "I'm really really ok," she added as she looked up at Faith standing behind Dawn with a loving smile on her face.

The young brunette pulled away from the hug as she realized that Buffy and Faith were having a moment. She smiled with excitement.

"Did you guys make up?" she asked as if she didn't already know the answer to that question. "Because you guys better have made up or I'm locking you both in this hospital room until you do."

Both slayers laughed a little at Dawn's comment. Neither one of them would really have a problem with being locked in a room together. They'd made up verbally but there were other, more fun ways to make up as well. However the hospital room was not the right place and this was not the right time for any of that so Buffy spoke up.

"Yes, Dawn," she assured the young girl with a smile, "I think we have." Faith nodded her head in agreement.

"Yay!" Dawn yelped with a little jump.

When she had first found out about the two slayers being together Dawn was a little unsure and very skeptical, but the more time she spent with the couple the more she realized that they were meant to be. She'd been worried at first because of Faith's reputation but she quickly learned how much the dark slayer had changed. She was finally capable of love.

"So," Buffy started looking a little apprehensive, "How long have I been out?"

She figured that it couldn't have been too long but she was really hoping that she didn't miss a significant amount of her life in a coma trying to find herself.

"About two weeks," Dawn answered reassuringly.

Buffy sighed with relief. "Good, I was worried that it might have been more in the month's category."

"Yeah, I don't recommend coma's for that long," Faith joked. Her joke got a small chuckle and a bright smile out of Buffy. Mission complete.

The two slayers couldn't seem to keep their eyes off of one another's. Dawn looked back and forth at the two girls she was in between. Taking the hint she stood up from Buffy's bed and began to walk to the exit of her room.

"I'd better go get the doctor and tell the others," the tall girl explained. "Everyone's in the waiting room."

Faith turned to Dawn with confusion. "Everyone's here?"

Dawn nodded her head with a smile. "We were all hoping that you'd be able to bring her out of this," she admitted. "Well…at least me, Willow and Kennedy were. When we called the others they were kind of confused but they came anyway."

The dark haired slayer smiled at Dawn's faith in her. "Thanks kid." Dawn simply smiled in response and then left the room.

After Dawn left the room Faith proceeded to walk to Buffy and sit down next to her on the bed. The blonde looked slightly confused at the conversation between her girlfriend and her sister, but her confusion was quickly forgotten when Faith slowly leaned in and pressed her lips against Buffy's in a soft, perfect kiss.

They slowly pulled away from each other and smiled brightly. "Hey," Faith said playfully as she looked deep into Buffy's eyes.

"Hey back," Buffy greeted in return. For a moment the two simply sat there lost in each other's eyes just basking in the feel of being together once again.

Buffy was the first to break the silence. "So I'm guessing Willow and Kennedy know about us then?" she asked as she put together what was going on in her head.

"Yeah," Faith confirmed nervously. "Sorry about that. They just kind of figured it out. I guess Ken's known for a while now. She's got some really good gaydar and the girl seems to pay real close attention to like everything. And Willow figured it out after seein how upset I was after what happened to you."

Faith took a moment before continuing to study Buffy's face. She didn't seem upset or anything but just in case the younger slayer felt she needed to add one more thing.

"But don't worry B, they're the only people who found out. So it's just those two and Dawn that know."

The blonde slayer could see how hard Faith was trying and she felt bad. She felt horrible that she'd made her girlfriend this way, worrying about who knows about them at a time like this. The tense slayer almost seemed as if she was afraid that Buffy was going to get mad at her for allowing people to find out. Buffy hated herself for that.

She raised her hand to Faith's cheek and gently cupped it in her palm as she looked deep into her eyes as if she were telling Faith exactly how she felt with a glance.

"I don't care," Buffy said softly. Faith looked slightly confused so just to make sure she had heard Buffy correctly she repeated herself. "I don't care if they know, Faith. I don't care if they all know."

Buffy slowly leaned in towards Faith and planted a soft kiss on her lips. When she pulled away from the kiss she made sure to lock her eyes with Faith's once again to convey just how serious she was about everything that she was telling her.

"I'm sorry for everything that I've put you through," the older slayer continued. "I don't want to hide anymore. I know this isn't going to make much sense but being put into a coma really woke me up. It gave me time to think and realize just how much you mean to me, how much I love you."

She kept her hand on Faith's cheek and gently caressed her soft skin with her thumb. She couldn't wipe the smile off of her face and neither could Faith.

The taller slayer closed her eyes for a moment as she leaned into Buffy's touch. She felt like she was in heaven. She knew in that moment that everything was going to be different between them. Things were going to be better. They were going to work out and for the first time being tied down was completely ok with her. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with Buffy and the look in Buffy's eyes told her that she was feeling the same way.

"And I want them all to know," Buffy continued. "I want them all to know how much you mean to me. I want the whole world to know how happy you make me and how much I love you."

Faith shook her head in disbelief at how lucky she was. "God I love you so much," she said as she pulled Buffy into her arms and swore that she would never let go.

Buffy smiled brightly and tightened the hug just a little bit more so that they could be that much closer. "I love you too, Baby," she whispered. "I love you too."

The two continued to hold on tightly in each other's arms not ever wanting to move. All that mattered was that they were together and they were going to stay that way.

XXXXXX

A/N: Hello all! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter. I know it looks like this is the last chapter but don't worry it's not. I still have quite a few ideas of where I could take this story. However, I am kind of going to put it on pause for a little while. I've got a new story that I'm working on and I kind of want to get a few chapter of this one written before posting for it again so that you guys won't have to wait so long for updates like I always seem to make you do…sorry about that. Plus school has started up again and I'm going to have less time to write, which really sucks but you gotta do what you gotta do right?

Anyway thank you all soooo much for reading and reviewing. I really crave reviews and you guys are all great at giving them to me. Thanks so much!