FIC: Girl's Night Out-Too (4B/?) B/W PG

Part Four B

Disclaimers in Part A

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

An insistent sense that someone is in the room wakes me ? it's dark, so I don't know how long I was asleep. I lay still and listen for someone or something, anything. The air has a current to it, an intensity, like before a storm.

I know that someone is in here with me, I know it. But I don?t hear anything, and seeing in the dark ? not without that weird second sight thing Buffy did last night. My heart is racing, and I feel sweat begin to bead on my forehead and still I hear no movement, not even breathing?I should think vampire?I don?t.

I?m safe.

How do I know that?

I just do, the current is familiar and I remember feeling it last night with Buffy.

When I realize that fact I can calm my racing heart enough to feel the tingling in the back of my mind?

"It's me." Answers from the dark. Buffy's voice. No vampire, no Hell God. Just Buffy.

Just Buffy? And more odd behavior; visiting me in the middle of the night ?after, after this morning. I sit up in the middle of my bed trying to see her. My anger from this morning comes rushing back, then the grief from the dream.

?What are ?? My throat is dry so the words croak out. I stop and swallow. ?What are you doing here??

?When Giles couldn?t reach you all day I got worried.? She answers simply with no emotions whatsoever invading her voice. And now that I?m beginning to wake up I smell what could only be bagels and mochas.

?I turned on my answering machine before going out last night and forgot it this morning.? I tell her, glancing at the angry flashing red light of the device. Trying to gather my wits, trying to figure out what?s happening now. If my dream was real or not.

I hear her move and the lamp on the desk flashes on?blinding me. When I?m able to blink my sight clear I see her standing by the desk with the bagel bag in her hand ? and she?s just staring at me. I follow her eyes and realize that I?m still naked, my breasts puckered from the cold air.

I glance back at Buffy: A deep red blush is forming at the base of her neck and the tingling in the back of my mind turns solid between us. I can almost see lightening arcing back and forth. I feel a tension forming in my belly and moving up my spine to my head. And the tension meets or forms right between my eyes, and I feel something expanding, growing, or opening?then the strange energy just flares out through the air answering the same calling from her.

And the duel sight is back all of a sudden, it?s less confusing now that I know what?s happening. But no less awe inspiring as I see two Buffys, one made of golden light with a hint of blue, and one the Buffy I know.

The word aura flows into my fuzzed brain. That?s Buffy?s spirit or soul, I think.

But it?s solid Buffy that I concentrate on to keep grounded because the storm of need and desire has started again. I watch her as the deep blush covers her face, I can see the pulse at the base of her neck pounding between shallow breaths. I see her eyes deepen in color and in longing.

I feel something almost explode out of me and a white cord reaches for her. I look down and see that the strand of light is coming out of my heart. It looks exactly the same as I in the dream. It wraps around the golden Buffy, it?s absorbed into her heart. The bag drops from her nerveless fingers, and I?m mildly happy that the Mocha?s are sitting safely on my desk.

I am so confused and yet at the same time, it feels right. This being connected to her is like coming home after a long journey.

?This was a mistake ? I shouldn?t have come ? I can?t control her.? She says as her eyes briefly flash blue only to fade back into dark green. She wants me, she wants me in her arms so badly I can see the tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

But, I force a stillness inside of me, I?m just barely able to stop my need from arcing back to her. We have to talk about what?s happening to Buffy and if one of us isn?t in control then we will end up back in bed. Not that it?s a bad thing, making love to her?she just can?t handle it right now.

Buffy has a look of complete and utter shock on her face. I sense that she about to bolt and I can?t have that happening, not again. I don?t know how I do it but I pull on the cord between us and she takes a halting step towards me, the lightening show between us flaring up. She?s trying to back up, back away both physically and inside. I feel her as she tries to separate us from the connection?her fear of something burning through it. The storm around us intensifies as she struggles to be free.

But I won?t have it this time. I won?t wait, I won?t be patient, and I won?t let her go. She could have died last night and for just this one time I?m going to be selfish and demand she stay.

I yank harder on the cord and she is nearly knocked off her feet as she?s pulled another step closer to me. The _expression_ on her face changes from desire to terror and her eyes are dilated for an entirely new reason. She?s fighting me, but she?s also fighting herself as her aura flashes with reds and blues.

?I love you Buffy!? I tell her out loud. I want her to hear the words and, just like with magic, the words form a focus point for me. ?I love you, you?re safe, just let go.? I repeat it over and over.

I stop pulling on her, I can see the battle she?s raging within herself and I now have some idea of what?s happening. I don?t yank on our connection or try to control her through it; I just pour all my love into her.

?You don?t understand, she?s not safe!? Buffy yells back at me, desperate. ?She?s all want, take, have, like Faith!?

?I love you, just let go!? I don?t know where those words come from but they seem to be hitting the mark.

?She raped you this morning! I can?t let her hurt you!? Buffy is crying, the hot tears streaking down her cheeks.

?Buffy,? I stand up from the bed, letting the covers fall so my best friend, lover, will see my nudity and know I have nothing to hide. ?Buffy, she loves me and would never do anything to me I didn?t want. You could never do anything I didn?t want to happen.?

I lessen the hold the white cord has on her and allow her to turn away. I watch as she sobs into her hands. I can?t touch her physically right now because our perceptions are too intense. Contact would throw it out of control.

?I wanted to make love to you this morning.? I tell her, and I realize that all my walls are crumbling along with hers. The fear rushes up from inside me but I stomp it down. ?It?s always been you, since the first moment I saw you?.?

Buffy pulls in a deep breath, I sense her fighting to stay calm. After a few moments she turns back around, her face a mask of uncertainly.

?She?s not safe.? Buffy repeats.

?I know.? I answer, and I do know. I remember the pain she was in when she hurt her shoulder, or how Glory was able to easily defeat her, or how she couldn?t hold me up after the fight, was it only last night? If she can?t trust the Slayer then one of these days she's gonna get killed. And what?s worse is that Buffy knows it, too.

?She?s not safe.? Buffy repeats, yet again. The tears flowing freely but no longer with a hysterical edge. I sense a shift within her. She?s always trusted me with the small things. Now she?s fighting to trust me now.

I watch Buffy take a huge breath and as she?s releasing it I feel it catch ? then surrender? and her _expression_ transforms into total love, total acceptance, and the tears stop flowing down her face and the look of innocence washes over it.

The connection changes, it grows darker, more intense, more dangerous. I look at Buffy?s aura and instead of being golden with a blue tint, its now mostly a deep dark navy. Almost black.

The connection between us now calls to something long buried inside me. Something so old that I?d forgotten it was ever there ? and now I know who is standing before me. Who I called to me ?.

The Slayer.

The End of Part Four

TBC