I've been wanting to write an answer to one of your challenges for a while....this is the first time I've actually gotten around to it.

TITLE: Bridges
CHALLENGE: LJ's Letter From Faith Challenge
AUTHOR: Mari
EMAIL: Cyni1@aol.com for the next month, ficangel@ok.ifree.net after that
RATING: PG or so
SUMMARY: Willow finds a discarded letter from Faith and confronts Buffy. Also some hints of W/S. I couldn't help myself
SPOILERS: Season 3, This Year's Girl, Who Are You, Five by Five, Sanctuary, the Yoko Factor, S4 finale just to be safe
DISCLAIMER: Joss owns them. I just confuse them.

It was a simple white envelope, just like any other. Buffy's hand shook very slightly as she stared down at it. Her mind told her that it was incredibly insane, and yet there it was. *Could she really be this audacious?* Apparently so.

Buffy hurled the letter towards the wastebasket without a second look. She immediately gathered up her Slayer bag and left to patrol off the waves of anger, not noticing that her aim was just a bit off. The letter brushed against the rim and fell lightly to the floor of the dorm.

"Bloody Hell! That hurts!"

"I'm not even touching you." Willow opened the door and stepped aside so Spike could enter the dorm. She eyed the rivulets of blood that ran from the dozen or more cuts and bruises that marked his pale skin. "You look awful. Why'd you try to attack that stupid demon by yourself, anyway?"

"Have to get back in your little gang's good graces somehow. I need allies."

"Not plotting against us would have been a good start." Willow knelt to pull the enormous first aid kit out from under Buffy's bed. "Here." She handed it to Spike, who had taken a ginger seat on the edge of her bed. He was wincing and pressing his ribs, trying to see if any were broken.

"Would you have rather dealt with the demon on your own?" Spike growled. He took the first aid kit without looking up and began cleaning the worst of his wounds.

Willow relented a little, smiling. "No," she said and sat down next to the vampire to help. "And thank you." She cleaned a particularly nasty cut that ran the length of Spike's jaw. A bit surprised by the warmth of Willow's hands, Spike stiffened and watched her from the corners of his eyes. Taking his change in posture as an indication of pain, Willow teased, "Come on, to a big, bad vampire this should be nothing."

Spike didn't answer. He was caught up in watching how the light played with the red in Willow's hair, the unguarded sweetness in her face....

"What is that?"

The vampire followed her gaze to the envelope lying on the floor and shrugged. "It's your dorm room."

Willow gave him a look and stood to retrieve the object. "It's to Buffy," she remarked curiously. Her eyes lit upon the return address and widened. "From Faith."

"Faith."

"Yeah." Willow kept staring at the letter, as though through will alone she might make it speak. "Remember her? Switched bodies with Buffy, wreaked all kinds of havoc in the 'Dale, went to LA, tried to kill Angel, got helped by Angel, and ended up turning herself in."

"Sounds like a charming girl." This earned him another look. Spike made a mental note to just shut up. He would probably either forget or decide to ignore it within minutes, but it was the thought that counted.

Willow looked from the envelope in her hands to the wastebasket. "Buffy was just going to toss this without even hearing what Faith had to say."

"Didn't think you and Faith were particularly chummy." Spike said. He was lightly touching the wounds on his face, which were already much improved.

"We're not." Willow said quietly. "I pretty much hated her, but everyone deserves a second chance if they're willing to earn it."

"Then open the letter. Hear her out." Spike stretched out on the bed, folding his hands behind his head. "Comfy."

Willow said, "I can't just go reading Buffy's mail. That would be a complete violation of trust." She absently reached out and shoved Spike's legs back over the side of the bed. "And your boots are muddy."

"All right, then," Spike said, sitting back up. "Be a good little girl. Put the letter in the wastebasket where it was intended to go. Never find out what Faith had to say. Could be important."

Willow arched an eyebrow at him. "You're every bit as curious as I am." In response Spike simply shrugged and gave his very best smart ass grin. Willow's fingers moved of their own accord and slit through the seal on the envelope. She pulled the letter out and moved closer the lamp sitting on her desk, in order to read it better.

"Dear Buffy,

I know I really have no right to call you dear at all, not after the things I've done. You tried so hard to help me last year and I cheerfully tossed it right back in your face, then compounded it this year by trying to destroy your world yet again. All I can say to that is I'm sorry. Those words are nowhere near enough but they're all I have. I'm trying to change, B, I swear to God I am. I'm trying to turn myself into what a Slayer should be or at the very least what a decent human being should be."

There were tear stains on the page now.

"I've burned so many bridges and I don't know how to build them back again, but I need them. I'm sorry, Buffy. Please, please, believe that. I'm so sorry.

-Faith"

Willow continued staring at the paper in her hands even after she was done reading, feeling the sting of a few rebel tears in her own eyes. A cool hand touched her shoulder. "Red?" Willow blinked and looked up towards the owner of the voice.

"I'm okay." Willow said just as the dorm's door opened and the blonde Slayer stepped in.

"Hey, Wills....and Spike." Buffy halted and narrowed her eyes at the vampire. "Why are you here?"

"Just getting patched up after a scuffle." Spike said, spreading his arms wide. He walked to the door. "Hopefully our next meeting will be less...exciting, Red." Spike wiggled his eyebrows wickedly. "Be seeing you."

Buffy waited until the door closed behind him before saying, "I'm thinking I really don't want to analyze that statement too much." She took a closer look at Willow. "Are you all right?"

After chewing her lip for a few seconds Willow made a decision. "Buffy...." She paused to try to form her thoughts. "This cam for you." *No, that doesn't sound at all stupid.* Willow thought.

A sheet of ice seemed to descend over Buffy's pretty face. "You read my mail?" She asked in an overly controlled voice.

"She's trying, Buffy. I know that doesn't excuse any of it, but surely we could extend just a little warmth."

"Right," Buffy snorted, "because Faith just responded so well the last time we tried to help her. I seem to recall her little brunette butt punching you out, conspiring with the mayor to create a massacre, and trying to kill Angel."

"I'm not saying we jump up and become her best friend," Willow argued, "but this time she's willing to help herself. Can't we at least try to let her know we give a damn?"

Buffy's face twisted. "Don't worry, Will, I do give a damn. If I was smart I would have stuck the knife in her throat last year rather than her belly."

"Buffy!"

"You're a sweet, forgiving person, Will," Buffy said soothingly. "It's one of your most endearing traits, but sometimes things are pure evil."

Willow shook her head until her red hair stung her cheeks. "No. No, I don't agree with that. Faith is a person, Buffy, not a thing."

"Being a person requires a soul and I wouldn't be at all surprised if she doesn't have one."

Willow gaped. It was a harsh, biting statement made all the worse by the fact that it came from her best friend. Buffy was supposed to help people. How could those words be spilling past her lips?

"It's my job to stop evil." Buffy continued. "And Faith is. She really is."

"Black and white doesn't exist in human beings. In demons maybe, but people  are full of shades of gray." The letter was being worried through her fingers at such a rate that Willow was afraid she might tear it in half. "I have to believe that."

Buffy stared at her for a long moment. "Then for the first time I might have found a reason to actually pity you." She moved to pull a backpack from under her bed and shoved a few items of clothing into it. "I'm spending the night with Riley, just came back for a few things." She zipped up the pack and left.

Within seconds of the door closing Willow was sitting down at the study desk and pulling out a pad of notebook paper.

"Faith-

You may think you're alone, but not everyone has given up on you...."