Portal

"She's not gonna yak or nothin' is she?" the cabbie asked. "'Cause you two ain't riding in my cab, no matter how pretty you are if she's gonna yak."

"No, no yakking of any kind. She may be an alcoholic, but she can hold her liquor," Buffy said flushing when the man shot her an unconvinced look at the unconscious brunette.

"Where to?" he asked finally.

"The nearest motel, I don't care what it is like, just make sure it's the closest," Buffy told him.

He gave her another wary look before nodding and starting the engine. Buffy didn't care where they went; she just needed somewhere with a phone so she could call home and get Willow to zap the two Slayers home — that is, if this was actually Faith and if Buffy could find a phone number that still was working. She wanted to at least assure her friends that she was all right because they must be worried that she hadn't returned home from patrol yet.

The blonde was confused as to how Faith had been pulled through the portal because the last she had seen the Bostonian, she had been trying to get up after the demon had hit her, far away from where the portal had opened. She also wanted to know why the doctors had spoken about Faith being in a church and with gun; as far as she was aware the dark Slayer had a thing against them especially after she had nearly been shot by Angelus.

"They look wicked cool on TV, but they do more damage than they're worth in real life," the brunette had told her counterpart one day at the same time as she had been pulverising someone in one of her video games.

All signs pointed to this being yet another Faith-look-a-like, but Buffy wanted to believe it was really her sister-Slayer. She didn't want to dwell on the very real possibility of portal hopping for all of eternity. Alone.

The dark Slayer had looked pretty crazy strapped to that gurney, but the blonde rationalised that if she had found herself gun in hand in a creepy old church with cops approaching she probably wouldn't have acted all that much like a sane person either.

"Here you are," the cab driver said as he pulled the car to a stop.

The motel looked respectful, with a bright neon sign announcing its vacancy.

"Could you possibly go in and book us a room?" Buffy asked, "Faith and me a room, not you and me a room," she said embarrassed. "It would just be easier," she said shooting a glance to the still unconscious brunette resting against the window. "I'll pay you extra."

The cab driver grumbled but took the cash from her, returning not long after with a room key. He threw it back to her before starting the engine again and driving them up to the door.

"You might wanna get her some help," he said as she hoisted Faith over her shoulder. "My Aunt runs the AA out of the local youth shelter; you should bring her along sometime," he said handing her a business card.

"I'll do that," Buffy said. "Thanks again."

The room was clean but still smelt like it had been shut for a while. After making sure Faith was comfortable on the bed, Buffy opened the window to try and let some air in. The room had a double bed and nightstand as well as a door, which Buffy assumed led to a bathroom. She was excited to see a phone on the nightstand and punched in the familiar number to the Cleveland headquarters. The phone was engaged and she frowned when the answering machine didn't automatically click on. At least the number was still connected, though. It was better than when she'd tried to call Willow earlier in her adventures.

"Andrew better not have plugged his Xbox into the phone line again, Giles will be so mad," the blonde smirked when she remembered how her Watcher had turned purple when he realised he'd missed a phone call from a shaman in Peru he had been waiting for because the blonde nerd had been playing "Halo" against someone in Switzerland.

There wasn't much she could do except wait for the sedative the doctors had given Faith to wear off, so she slid onto the bed next to Faith. She studied the other woman's face, the sprinkling of freckles across her nose, the dark eye lashes splayed across her cheek and the pouty bottom lip that always looked so soft and inviting. She couldn't stop her eyes from travelling down the rest of the prone woman's form; she had always found the younger girl attractive and with their new found `not trying to kill each other' ship, she had felt her feelings towards the brunette beginning to change.

Faith was hot, anyone with eyes could see that; the thing that was strange was that Buffy noticed and wanted to act on that. She had never felt that way about another girl before and truth be told it was scary. She was more scared that it was Faith she was having these feelings for than that Faith was a girl. Faith didn't do relationships and Buffy had never wanted one more. Her fingers grazed over the other girl's cheek, amazed at how soft her skin felt. She almost expected it would be rough because Faith never gave the impression that she was someone who moisturised. Her fingers continued on their journey down Faith's face and down to trace the contours of the tattoo that was on the other woman's bicep.

"Where's her tattoo?" Buffy asked her fingers stopping where the familiar tribal design that should have been, "If the portal got rid of that she is gonna be so mad."

She was pulled from her thoughts when she felt the bed move and the other woman on the bed shifted, her right hand flinching sporadically.

"Faith," she said hopefully, "Come on, Slayer. Open those eyes."

Faith groaned and her eyes opened lazily, blinking until she was looking at Buffy. Her movements were sluggish as she moved a hand to brush the hair out of her face as she looked at Buffy with confusion in her eyes.

"Hey, how you feeling?" Buffy asked her softly.

"My head hurts," the brunette woman groaned rubbing her eyes.

"Well we did go portal diving and some doctor guy gave you a sedative, so headaches are to be expected I guess," Buffy said.

"Did he give me Thorazine again?" the other woman asked, looking confused as she took in her surroundings.

"I don't know, and Faith, when have you ever had Thorazine before?" Buffy asked, her own confusion now evident.

"My name's not Faith. What the fuck is this? Is this some sort of treatment plan of Parks'?" the brunette asked, struggling to get off the bed.

"Geez, how hard did you hit your head when you fell?" Buffy chuckled, despite the way her stomach dropped at the woman's denial.

"I-I don't know but I really have to go," the younger woman said heading towards the door.

"Faith, wait, we have to try and get a flight home, or at least get a hold of Willow so she can zap us there," Buffy said. "Why are you acting weird? Did you eat some bad sushi while you were in Korea or somethin'?"

"Sushi is Japanese, and why do you keep calling me `Faith'? That's not my name," the brunette woman said.

"Yes it is, you're Faith Lehane and I'm Buffy Summers, you lived in Boston and then you came to Sunnydale and now, well you're kind of a jetsetter right now but most of the time you live in Cleveland with me and the rest of the girls," Buffy said, her voice becoming more frantic. No, this couldn't be happening to her again. Not again. She had been so sure this time.

"No, my name is Megan Paige. I'm a police officer. I've lived here in Rochester my entire life and never travelled further than San Francisco, and I don't live with anyone," the other woman told her.

They were silent, both appraising each other. Buffy looked hard at the woman standing in front of her. The woman was Faith, there was no denying that and it was possible that the portal had injured her enough to make her forget who she was, but to make up an entire other persona, was it possible a portal could do that? The blonde slayer swallowed hard. This was yet another reality. Which meant there probably wasn't a Giles or a Willow or even an Andrew. Not in the way she knew them, at least.

"Look, I don't know who you are or who Faith is, but I really have to get out of here, I-I gotta go, I g-gotta help them," the woman stuttered, grasping a hold of her hand that had begun twitching again. "I-I have to go, I have to get back to that church, h-he's there, I know it, I just," the brunette trailed off her hand grabbing at her head.

"Hey, are you okay?" Buffy asked, noticing the other woman's distress.

"I don't k-know, I-I think it's the Thorazine, but I gotta get to the church," she replied.

"You're not lying are you, you're really not Faith," Buffy said staring at the other woman incredulously.

"No, I'm Megan," the brunette said her eyes widening, "Oh god, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, b-but I've nearly figured it out, I promise, I promise," she said as she backed up against the motel room door, her eyes fixed on something over Buffy's shoulder.

"Well I'm glad you've nearly figured it out because honestly I'm still in the dark here," Buffy said frowning and looking over her shoulder to see what the other woman was staring at.

"I'm so sorry, Carla," Megan whispered her hands going to her head as she sunk to the floor.

"It's Buffy," the blonde Slayer said giving the other woman a quizzical look, "And you have nothing to be sorry for because it's me who broke you out of hospital which I should probably be getting you back to now that we've established you're not Faith."

No!" Megan all but yelled, forcing herself to stand. "I can't go back there, I have to help them."

"Help who?" Buffy asked.

"Them," Megan said pointing over Buffy's shoulder.

The blonde turned again to glance where the woman was pointing, but saw nothing but the insides of the motel room they were in. In her business things weren't always black and white so she supposed it was possible the other woman was seeing things she couldn't.

"Who are they?" she asked stepping closer.

"Girls, ones I couldn't save, they were killed because I couldn't figure it out," Megan said, her voice wavering.

"They were murdered?" Buffy asked.

"They call him the Alphabet Killer, Carla Castile killed in Churchville, Wendy Walsh killed in Webster," Megan said.

"And you are on the case, trying to catch this guy?" Buffy asked.

Megan nodded, stretching out her hand, "I was on the case, before I-I got sick, fixated on the probabilities that these murders were happening to girls with the same first and last initial and in towns that started with the same letter as well. They say I've got adult onset schizophrenia, so the Captain took me off the case. They thought they got him but then it happened again. We tried to find a connection and I finally got it. It's the church, there's something there, I just gotta get back there," Megan said, the absolute desperation in her voice sending shivers down the blonde Slayer's spine. "Will you help me?"

As Buffy stared at the woman in front of her, she found it difficult to disassociate her from the brunette Slayer she had failed to help all those years ago. The dark brown eyes staring back into her own were the same ones that had, back in Sunnydale, refused the help she had offered, albeit weakly at the time. It was hard to ignore the pleas of this other woman when it was all she had ever wanted to hear Faith ask.

"Please," Megan pleaded.

"Okay, okay," Buffy said, moving back to sit on the bed. "We need to go back to that church if you said that's where the connection is, maybe talk to a few people, play a bit of good cop bad cop on the pastor's ass. Is it pastor? I never know and I don't want to get it wrong because, well I've heard smiting happens in those places," she said trying to lighten the mood.

The brunette standing in front of her didn't smile. Instead she shivered and grabbed at her hand, which had begun to shake and twitch again.

"Hey, are you okay?" Buffy asked, worried now that she knew the truth about the other woman's condition. "If this is going to be too much for you maybe you should rest for a bit, get your head right."

"No, no, I-I need to do this it just is hard to know w-what's real," Megan said shrinking back when her ghosts circled around her.

The blonde Slayer felt a pull to the other woman, she knew her affinity for doing what was right no matter the circumstance would always win out in the end and the distressed woman was clearly in need of some help, she just didn't know if she was qualified to give it.

"This is real," she said moving so she was standing close to the other woman, "This guy killing girls is real, and the connection at the church is real, I can feel it, I have a sort of seventh sense for those sorts of things."

"Y-you just appear out of nowhere and start talking about portals," Megan said.

"You caught that, huh," Buffy cringed thinking she had gotten away with it. "Look, I know I sound kind of like a crazy person," she said and Megan chuckled deprecatingly. "Sorry," the blonde Slayer winced, "but I promise you I'm good at this sort of stuff. Helping people is kind of my destiny."

"How do I even know you are real? I mean you just agree to help me even after I tell you that I see ghosts, that I see these girls. I-I mean it's a little too good to be true. What if you're just part of the delusion?" she asked tapering off, her whole body beginning to shake.

"If I wasn't real would I be able to do this?" Buffy asked grabbing for the other woman's twitching hand and holding it tightly within her own. She could feel how the tense muscles there danced under her grip and then all of a sudden seemed to relax, even giving her own hand a quick squeeze. "Look I know this is hard and you must be confused, I am as well, but I'm a firm believer of things happening for a reason and I wouldn't have been bought here if there wasn't a purpose for my visit. So let me help you catch this guy."

The tension in the air was thick enough to cut with the Slayer scythe if she had brought it with her. The blonde could tell that the other woman was just seconds away from disappearing into her delusions.

"My name is Buffy and I am one hundred percent real," she said bringing the other woman's hand which she still held in her own so it cupped her cheek.

She could feel the other woman's hand trembling against her skin, but as she stared into the dark brown eyes that searched her face, she thought she saw relief sparkling in the depths. She also saw desperation and hurt and was caught completely off-guard when the other woman's lips crashed against her own. She was momentarily stunned, but soon came to her senses and pushed the other woman off of her.

Megan's chest was heaving with each heavy breath she took and her hands were still resting on Buffy's shoulders. The blonde was silent, taking in the woman in front of her who looked so much like her sister-Slayer even down to the small scar next to her left eyebrow. Suddenly it wasn't Megan standing in front of her and all she could picture was the Bostonian Slayer. It was with that image in her head that she closed the gap between them and crushed her lips to the other woman's. The little voice in the back of her head that was reminding her that this woman was not Faith was drowned out by the heat now coursing through her veins at the feeling of the other woman's desperate kisses now moving down her neck and between her breasts.